A Government Shut-down Imperils the Power of Congress

Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars.com
February 28, 2011

Congress should think twice before forcing a government shutdown as the consequences could be the loss of the power of Congress to control spending through authorization and appropriation bills.

Congress permitted President George W. Bush to accumulate new powers in the executive, and these powers have passed to Obama. Bush succeeded in establishing that as a wartime commander-in-chief he had the “inherent power” to disobey the laws against torture, spying on Americans without obtaining warrants, and indefinite detention. In addition, Bush used signing statements in ways inconsistent with his oath and obligation to uphold the laws of the United States, and he took the U.S. to war based on lies, deception, and fabricated “evidence,” an offense that qualifies as treason.


With these precedents, it is a simple matter for President Obama to declare that, with the U.S. at war in a world of growing instability, he has the inherent power to ignore the debt limit and to continue financing the government with the creation of new money by the Federal Reserve.

Congress could try to protect its loss of the power of the purse by impeaching Obama. But how credible would it be to impeach a wartime president who is using the same “inherent power” of his office that Congress permitted the previous president to use?

The powers that Bush asserted not only violated statutory law, but also set aside constitutionally guaranteed rights that are the essence of American liberty. Yet, Congress made no attempt to restrain him with impeachment. How then does Congress impeach a president who is merely using his power to keep a government at war operating?

As President Bush’s acts were not deemed impeachable offenses, it seems likely that Congress has lost its power to impeach through default.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously the editor of the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating.

Libyans: No Thanks to Globalist Intervention

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 28, 2011

Following Secretary of State Clinton’s call for intervention, a rebel leader in Libya has stated his country does not want or need any help from the United States and its globalist partners.



Hafiz Ghoga, the spokesman for the newly formed National Libyan Council in the rebel controlled eastern city of Benghazi, said “foreign intervention” would not be welcome, The Daily Caller reports.

“The rest of Libya will be liberated by the people … and Gaddafi’s security forces will be eliminated by the people of Libya,” Ghoga said during a news conference. 

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, Libya’s former justice minister, said on Saturday he formed a transitional government which would lead the country for three months to prepare for elections. “Our national government has military and civilian personalities. It will lead for no more than three months, and then there will be fair elections and the people will choose their leader,” he told Al-Jazeera television.

Anti-Gaddafi forces are now in control of eastern Libya. Rebels in Benghazi are asking others cities to join the fight against the Gaddafi regime or to provide weapons and ammunition.

On Sunday, it was reported that the opposition had taken control of al-Zawiyah, west of Tripoli. Police stations and government buildings were torched, although private businesses were untouched, according to witnesses.



Clinton is scheduled to meet with EU foreign ministers in Geneva on Monday and urge them to approve tough sanctions on Libya. EU penalties will have a greater impact on Libya than U.S. sanctions earlier imposed because Libya does far more commerce with Europe.

Prior to embarking on her trip, Clinton reached out to the Libyan rebel groups and offered them “any type of assistance” to oust Gadhafi. Ghoga’s response indicates Libya is not interested in foreign intervention.

Obama will meet with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Monday to discuss further action.

Republican Senator John McCain and independent Senator Joe Lieberman have called for Washington to recognize a provisional government being established in eastern Libya and supply it with weapons and humanitarian assistance.

McCain said Washington and its allies should enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. Lieberman said what is needed now is “tangible support, a no-fly zone [and] recognition of the revolutionary government.”

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said last week that the globalist body needs to impose a no-fly zone (NFZ) to protect civilians in Libya.

The UN, the United States, Britain, and initially France supported a NFZ imposed on Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion. It was used to conduct almost daily bombing raids on the country. In one five-month period, according to journalist John Pilger, 41 per cent of casualties in Iraq were civilians – farmers, fishermen, shepherds, their children and their sheep.

Support for a Libyan NFZ comes from both Republicans and Democrats.

Supporters include Bush era neocon Elliott Abrams, Jim McDermott (D.-Wash), Jim McGovern (D.-Mass.) and the diva of the supposedly non-interventionist Tea Party, Sarah Palin.

“NATO and our allies should look at establishing a no-fly zone so Libyan air forces cannot continue slaughtering the Libyan people. We should not be afraid of freedom, especially when it comes to people suffering under a brutal enemy of America,” Palin said last week.


Britain and Germany have used the military in Libya. UK Special Forces used RAF Hercules planes to rescue British nationals. German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said on Sunday that two German military planes landed on a private runway belonging to the Wintershall AG company and evacuated 22 Germans and 112 others and flew them to the island of Crete, according to the Boston Globe.

Obama’s “Humanitarian” Conquest Of Libya

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
February 28, 2011

Before President Barack Obama even took office, we warned that his administration would continue to follow the Bush-era policy of bankrupting America both financially and morally with new wars, but that these conquests would be done in the name of a humanitarian crisis rather than a pre-emptive assault.

The “international crisis” that Vice-President Joe Biden warned Obama would face has now arrived, with the increasingly chaotic situation in Libya forging a pretext for military intervention on behalf of the United States, NATO and the United Nations.

The prevalence of the US military-industrial complex, even under a government that promised peace, was guaranteed all along. Under a Democratic administration, wars remain the health of the state, only the rhetoric behind their justification is different. By citing humanitarian concerns as a pretext, the Obama administration can send US troops into battle safe in the knowledge that they can rely on left cover – the vitriol that accompanied Bush’s foreign adventures will be non-existent.

In an article I wrote with Alex Jones back in November 2008, before Obama had even defeated McCain, we foresaw the fact that new wars would be launched under Obama with a tricked up, contrived, humanitarian veneer that would fool the left into biting their tongue and going along with it.

“Obama may eventually withdraw a portion of troops from Iraq, but mark our words, they won’t be home long before they are sent off to bomb another broken-backed third world country, this time in the name of a United Nations-backed “humanitarian” war, just as Bill Clinton presided over in Somalia and Serbia with the full support of the establishment political left.” we wrote on November 4 2008 in an article entitled, The More Things “Change” The More They Stay The Same.

Influential neo-cons who were central to military interventions in the Balkans and Iraq have now called for the United States and NATO to “immediately” prepare military action to bring down Colonel Gaddafi’s regime.

“The appeal, which came in the form of a letter signed by 40 policy analysts, including more than a dozen former senior officials who served under President George W. Bush, was organised and released by the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), a two-year-old neo-conservative group that is widely seen as the successor to the more-famous – or infamous – Project for the New American Century (PNAC),” reports Al Jazeera.

Oil Rises for Second Day as Middle East Turmoil Spreads to Oman

Ben Sharples
Bloomberg
February 27, 2011

Oil advanced for a second day in New York after turmoil that has cut Libya’s output spread to Oman, raising concern Middle East production may be disrupted further.

Futures posted the biggest weekly gain in two years last week amid estimates that Libya’s crude flow was cut by as much as two-thirds. In Oman, two demonstrators were killed and several were wounded in clashes with police earlier yesterday, according to hospital and government officials.

“When we look around the region we are seeing more visual concerns that unrest is continuing,” said Jonathan Barratt, managing director of Commodity Broking Services Pty in Sydney. “There’s a little bit of fear in the markets.”

Read entire article

Globalist Client Regime in Iraq Massacres Protesters

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
February 27, 2011

Donald Rumsfeld told the Iraqis democracy can be messy. It can also be bloody. In Alhawijah, Iraq, over the weekend the people of Iraq once again learned that American democracy is often murderous. They learned a long time ago that democracy imposed by neocons and the Pentagon at the behest of a gaggle of eugenics-minded globalists can have the effect of shutting down civilization – electricity, water, medical services, and the availability of the amenities of life we here in America take for granted.



Iraq’s government is a military dictatorship installed by the United States. The Pentagon and the CIA specialize in this sort of thing.

Obama has climbed up on his high horse and complained about the brutality of Muammar Gaddafi.

Prior to the latest staged media event, banksters, transnational oil corporations, swanky hotel chains and other industry magnates supported the eccentric dictator. Gaddafi’s son Saif was the the neoliberal frontman for Libya. Gaddafi and crew promised to “privatize” (fork over to the globalists) the Libyan economy and oil refineries and other downstream sectors of the oil industry.

Gaddafi, like Saddam before him, is merely a pawn to be used in a geostrategic chess game. The Middle East is now undergoing a violent transformation engineered by the global elite. It will not result in more freedom and iPhones for the impoverished masses. In the end, the people of the Middle East will be worse off than they now are under the iron-fisted rule of dictators installed by the United States and the former Soviet Union (a creation of Wall Street and the banksters).

Shooting your own citizens and dragging them off to torture chambers is no big deal. In fact, the globalists prefer this sort of gruesome behavior because it usually keeps the serfs – most who make around two dollars a day – in line. It is difficult to organize a resistance when you are closing in on starvation.

Vaccines activate moron genes that cause further belief in vaccines

Mike Adams
Natural News
February 27, 2011

Weekend satire special: New research accidentally conducted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has discovered that vaccines activate the “moron” genes that normally lie dormant in human beings. Once activated, these “moron genes” cause individuals to lose higher brain function and the ability to question false information fed to them by doctors, drug companies and the media. This, in turn, results in even more people pursuing repeated vaccines, further causing expression of the moron genes, over and over again, until their brain function collapses to the level of a raw vegetable… otherwise known as a “voter.”

Because of their disastrous effects on higher brain function, these vaccines are now being called “Moron Vaccines.”

Moron Vaccines contain all the usual ingredients of flu vaccines and MMR vaccines, including methyl mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde and DNA fragments from diseased monkey organs. (This is truly what’s found in other vaccines…)

But Moron Vaccines have one ingredient that’s slightly different. As Dr. All Proffit, a leading vaccine patent holder, explained, “Moron Vaccines are much like regular vaccines, except instead of taking diseased material from infected cows and monkeys, we take brain cell samples from existing morons which are easy to find among our colleagues. We then weaken those brain cells to make them even more moronic, and then we inject them into infants and children, mixed with a bit of mercury to make sure it targets the neurological system for maximum effectiveness.”

The result? As Bill Gates explains, “Billions of children each year are being saved from IBFD.” IBFD is short for “Intelligent Brain Function Disorder. It is an affliction affecting hundreds of millions of people each year, causing them to achieve dangerously high levels of cognitive function that causes them to ask inappropriate questions about vaccines such as, “Why have vaccines never been tested against non-vaccinated children?” Or, “Why do vaccines cause some children and teens to collapse into autism, comas or death?” Or, “Why don’t flu vaccines actually prevent flu symptoms in 99 out of 100 people who receive them?”

Those questions have no place in today’s medical system, where the correct answer to every disease is — as doctors are routinely taught — “More vaccines!”

Read the article

Calls on Facebook to oust Syria’s Assad

AFP
February 27, 2011

A Facebook page has called for mass protests in Syria and in several Western countries against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

The organisers of the page, which had 25,000 fans early on Saturday, said the date for demonstrations to be held “in all Syrian cities” was being carefully studied and “will be determined in a few days.”

It urged “peaceful demonstrations in all Syrian cities, in Canada, in the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany and Australia” to demand Assad’s ouster.

Assad became president in 2000 after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, and was returned for a second seven-year term in a referendum in 2007 in which he was the only candidate.

Read entire article

2 Killed as Protests Spread to Oman

CNN
February 27, 2011

Clashes between protesters and police in the Omani industrial town ofSohar wounded about 10 people Sunday, state media reported Sunday.

At least two protesters were killed, Oman TV editor Asma Rshid told CNN.

“The police shot them because they burned shops and cars in Sohar,” Rshid said. Another source said it was rubber bullets that the police fired. A number of police had also reportedly been injured, but numbers were not confirmed.

Read entire article

Will banksters get away with it?

Danny Schechter
Aljazeera
February 27, 2011

Hats off to Matt Taibbi for staying on the Wall Street crime beat, asking in his most recent report in Rolling Stone: “Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?”

“Financial crooks,” he argues, “brought down the world’s economy — but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them.”

True enough, but that’s only part of the story. The Daily Kos called his investigation a “depressing read” perhaps because it suggests that the Obama Administration is not doing what it should to reign in financial crime. Many of the lawyers he calls on to act come from big corporate law firms and buy into their worldview.

Read entire article

Iraq Rounds Up Intellectuals During “Day of Rage”

Stephanie McCrummen
Infowars.com
February 27, 2011

Editor’s note: Imagine the Obama response if the Iranians had done this.
Iraqi security forces detained about 300 people, including prominent journalists, artists and lawyers who took part in nationwide demonstrations Friday, in what some of them described as an operation to intimidate Baghdad intellectuals who hold sway over popular opinion.

On Saturday, four journalists who had been released described being rounded up well after they had left a protest of thousands at Baghdad’s Tahrir Square. They said they were handcuffed, blindfolded, beaten and threatened with execution by soldiers from an army intelligence unit.

“It was like they were dealing with a bunch of al-Qaeda operatives, not a group of journalists,” said Hussan al-Ssairi, a journalist and poet who described seeing hundreds of protesters in black hoods at the detention facility. “Yesterday was like a test, like a picture of the new democracy in Iraq.”

Read entire article

Homeland Security To Scan DNA

Comment: Immigrants and criminals first, everyone else later

New portable DNA screener to debut this summer

WILLIAM MATTHEWS
Nextgov.com
Feb 27, 2011

The Homeland Security Department this summer plans to begin testing a DNA analyzer that’s small enough to be easily portable and fast enough to return results in less than an hour.

The analyzer, about the size of a laser printer, initially will be used to determine kinship among refugees and asylum seekers. It also could help establish whether foreigners giving children up for adoption are their parents or other relatives, and help combat child smuggling and human trafficking, said Christopher Miles, biometrics program manager in the DHS Office of Science and Technology.

Only DNA can positively determine family relationships, Miles said Wednesday during a conference on biometrics and national security.

Eventually, the analyzer also could be used to positively identify criminals, illegal immigrants, missing persons and mass casualty victims, he said.

The machine, known as a rapid DNA screener, is expected to cut days or weeks and hundreds of dollars off the per-use cost of DNA analysis.

Using a process called digital microfluidics, the analyzer processes a DNA sample and provides results in less than an hour for under $100 per sample, Miles said. By comparison, it takes days or weeks and about $500 per sample to get results when DNA is tested in a laboratory, he said.

“We’re not about advancing the technology so much as integrating and automating it into a fieldable device,” he said.

Full article here

The Real Revolution

Tony Cartalucci
Prisonplanet.com
Feb 27, 2011

Believe it or not, growing your own food or visiting your local farmers market is more revolutionary and constructive
than burning down your own city and killing security forces.


As Washington plunges the Middle East and North Africa into chaos, and city by city collapses into the hands of globalist stooges, many have mistakenly interpreted this “change” as a positive transformation.

On the contrary, the regimes that will replace the embattled nationalistic dictators in each nation the globalists despoil will interface not with the national governments in the service of their people, but will interface with the “civil society” underlay the Western backed NGOs have meticulously built up over decades. This “civil society” will in turn answer to corporate serving globalist institutions, like the IMF, WTO, World Bank and the UN, instituting crushing economic “liberalization.” 

We have been given a prepackaged ideal of what “revolution” is supposed to look like. So when we see people in the streets battling security forces, waving flags, all within the backdrop of their burning society, we are satisfied that “revolution” is taking place. But the reality is, this is not a revolution by any stretch of the imagination. It is a high-tech, high-speed invasion and subjugation, a corruption of the sovereign state similar to what Tacitus described in Roman conquered Britannia.

From HistoryWorld.net:

‘His object was to accustom them to a life of peace and quiet by the provision of amenities. He therefore gave official assistance to the building of temples, public squares and good houses. He educated the sons of the chiefs in the liberal arts, and expressed a preference for British ability as compared to the trained skills of the Gauls. The result was that instead of loathing the Latin language they became eager to speak it effectively. In the same way, our national dress came into favour and the toga was everywhere to be seen. And so the population was gradually led into the demoralizing temptation of arcades, baths and sumptuous banquets. The unsuspecting Britons spoke of such novelties as ‘civilization’, when in fact they were only a feature of their enslavement.’

Tacitus Annals of Imperial Rome, translated Michael Grant, Penguin 1956, 1975, page 72

As we can see, “civil society” is not a new idea, nor is the concept of lulling a population into decadence and complacency while rolling them into a corrupt, exploitative domineering empire.

Obama says Kadhafi must ‘leave now’: White House

AFP
Feb 27, 2011

President Barack Obama said Saturday that Libya’s leader Moamer Kadhafi needs to “leave now,” having lost the legitimacy to rule, a White House statement said.

Obama took the position — his most direct yet — in a telephone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to coordinate efforts in response to the crisis in Libya, the statement said.

“The president stated that when a leader?s only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now,” it said.

Obama’s call for Kadhafi’s departure came as the Libyan leader hunkered down in Tripoli for what many feared would be a bloody showdown with rebels that have taken control of large areas of the oil-rich North African country.

Full article here

Rebel army may be formed as Tripoli fails to oust Gaddafi

Leila Fadel , Liz Sly and Anthony Faiola
Washington Post
Feb 27, 2011

BENGHAZI, LIBYA – Col. Moammar Gaddafi faced fresh setbacks domestically and internationally early Sunday with opposition forces in eastern Libya preparing to dispatch a rebel force to his stronghold in Tripoli and the United Nation’s imposing military and financial sanctions while raising the specter that the isolated leader could face charges for crimes against humanity.

Even as the opposition consolidated its grip on the country’s second city, Benghazi, a top anti-Gaddafi leader, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Gatrani, said a small force comprising army defectors and rebels has already reached the outskirts of the capital. An attempt to oust Gaddafi in Tripoli on Friday was crushed by pro-regime paramilitaries and soldiers firing indiscriminately at protesters on the streets.

It happened as the wave of civil revolts of recent weeks continued to convulse the Middle East, with even Tunisia and Egypt, two nations where protesters succeeded in ousting longtime authoritarian rulers, seeing heated protests on Saturday that led to violent military crackdowns. In Oman on Sunday, two people were killed in protests, Reuters reported, as police fired tear gas and cordoned off protesters demonstrating for a second day in the city of Sohar.

But the focus remained on the upheaval in Libya. “We are trying to organize people who will sacrifice their lives to free Tripoli from the dictator,” said Gatrani, who heads the military committee now in charge of the army in Benghazi, 600 miles east of the capital and the first major city to fall under opposition control. But, he cautioned: “Entering Tripoli is not easy. Anyone trying will be shot.”

Full article here 

Chinese police face down Middle East-style protests

Keith B. Richburg
Washington Post
Feb 27, 2011

BEIJING — Police and security officials displayed a massive show of force here and in other Chinese cities Sunday, trying to snuff out any hint of protests modeled on the uprisings in the Middle East. In Shanghai, several hundred people trying to gather were dispersed with a water truck.

Premier Wen Jiabao, meanwhile, used a morning Internet chat to promise to purge senior officials who are corrupt and to rein in inflation and rising home prices, directly addressing some of the most common grievances of ordinary Chinese.

Since the January uprising in Tunisia spurred similar anti-government protests across the Middle East and North Africa, threatening long-entrenched authoritarian regimes, China’s Communist rulers have reacted nervously, with both defensive and aggressive tactics.

Officials have used state-run media outlets to dismiss any comparisons with China while at the same time stepping up public comments on the need to address “social conflict” and to tackle problems such as the growing income disparity between the rich and poor. They have also detained a number of activists and human rights lawyers, blocked Internet search terms considered sensitive, such as “Egypt,” “Tunisia” and even U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr.’s Chinese name. And they have issued warnings to foreign journalists to be mindful of reporting restrictions.

Full article here

U.S. citizen recalls 'humiliating' post-9/11 arrest

Supreme Court is weighing whether al-Kidd's arrest, detention violated Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures

By MARK SHERMAN

The Associated Press 

 

LOS ANGELES — Handcuffed and marched through Washington's Dulles International Airport in his Muslim clothing, the man with the long, dark beard could only imagine what people were thinking. 

That scene unfolded in March 2003, a year and a half after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. One of the four planes hijacked in 2001 took off from Dulles.

"I could only assume that they thought I was a terrorist," Abdullah al-Kidd recalled in an interview with The Associated Press.

Al-Kidd called his airport arrest "one of the most, if not the most, humiliating experiences of my life."

The humiliation had only just begun.

Never charged 

Over the next 16 days he would be strip-searched repeatedly, left naked in a jail cell and shower for more than 90 minutes in view of other men and women, routinely transported in handcuffs and leg irons, and kept with people who had been convicted of violent crimes. On a long trip between jails, a federal marshal refused to unlock al-Kidd's chains so he could use the bathroom.

In the midst of al-Kidd's detention, FBI Director Robert Mueller testified to Congress about recent major successes against terrorism. No. 1 on Mueller's list was the capture of professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

No. 2 was the arrest of al-Kidd, a Kansas-born convert to Islam who was not charged with a crime — either then or later.

Eight years later, the Supreme Court is weighing whether al-Kidd's arrest and detention violated the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. The court, which will hear argument Wednesday, also is being asked to decide whether former Attorney General John Ashcroft can be held personally liable for his role in setting the policy that led to al-Kidd's arrest at a Dulles ticket counter as he prepared to board a flight to Saudi Arabia.

Read the article

Mass. Company Making Diesel With Sun, Water, CO2

Massachusetts company makes diesel simply with sun, water, carbon dioxide; skeptics leery

By JAY LINDSAY Associated Press

A Massachusetts biotechnology company says it can produce the fuel that runs Jaguars and jet engines using the same ingredients that make grass grow.

Joule Unlimited has invented a genetically-engineered organism that it says simply secretes diesel fuel or ethanol wherever it finds sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based company says it can manipulate the organism to produce the renewable fuels on demand at unprecedented rates, and can do it in facilities large and small at costs comparable to the cheapest fossil fuels.

What can it mean? No less than "energy independence," Joule's web site tells the world, even if the world's not quite convinced.

"We make some lofty claims, all of which we believe, all which we've validated, all of which we've shown to investors," said Joule chief executive Bill Sims.

"If we're half right, this revolutionizes the world's largest industry, which is the oil and gas industry," he said. "And if we're right, there's no reason why this technology can't change the world."

Read the article

Is Barack Obama About To Order The U.S. Military To Invade Libya?

The American Dream
Feb 26, 2011

As insane as it might sound, the United States may soon be getting involved in another war in the Middle East.  According to White House spokesman Jay Carney, “no options” have been taken off the table when it comes to the situation in Libya.  By saying that “all options” are being considered, that is basically a way for the Obama administration to threaten Gadhafi without actually coming right out and threatening him.  In recent days, news reports have been appearing all over the mainstream media hyping the possibility that we may have to take military action in Libya.  This would not be happening if the White House did not want it to happen.  The truth is that Barack Obama is apparently seriously considering U.S. military action in Libya.  At first that would probably consist of air strikes and missile attacks, but if the Obama administration decides that it is going to take ground forces to get the job done then we could eventually see the U.S. military actually invade Libya.  But the truth is that any military intervention in Libya would be a really, really bad idea.  Is it really wise to stick our young men and women into the middle of an incredibly bloody civil war?  Do we want to spill even more American blood in order to protect “U.S. interests”?  Do we really want to spend young American lives to keep the price of oil low?  The truth is that the world hates us enough already.  How much more will they hate us if we decide to start bombing Libya into oblivion?

All kinds of justifications are already being floated for potential military action in Libya.  Barack Obama is publicly declaring that the killing of civilians in Libya has got to stop.  As if the U.S. government cares so much about the deaths of civilians.  Millions upon millions of Africans have been slaughtered in Africa over the last couple of decades in numerous civil wars and we have not intervened.

So why now?

Well, because oil is at stake.

If Libya did not produce about 2 percent of the world’s oil nobody in the U.S. government would really care much about what is going on in Libya.

But because Libya is Africa’s largest oil producer suddenly the death of their civilians becomes a matter of “international concern”.

Another reason being floated for taking military action in Libya is the “weapons of mass destruction” that Gadhafi supposedly has.

Read the article

War Uber Alles

Paul Craig Roberts
Prisonplanet.com
Feb 26, 2011

The United States government cannot get enough of war.  With Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s regime falling to a rebelling population, CNN reports that a Pentagon spokesman said that the U.S. is looking at all options from the military side.

Allegedly, the Pentagon, which is responsible for one million dead Iraqis and an unknown number of dead Afghans and Pakistanis, is concerned about the deaths of 1,000 Libyan protesters.

While the Pentagon tries to figure out how to get involved in the Libyan revolt, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific is developing new battle plans to take on China in her home territory. Four-star Admiral Robert Willard thinks the U.S. should be able to whip China in its own coastal waters. 

The admiral thinks one way to do this is to add U.S. Marines to his force structure so that the U.S. can eject Chinese forces from disputed islands in the East and South China seas.

It is not the U.S. who is disputing the islands, but if there is a chance for war anywhere, the admiral wants to make sure we are not left out.

The admiral also hopes to develop military ties with India and add that country to his clout. India, the admiral says, “is a natural partner of the United States” and “is crucial to America’s 21st-century strategy of balancing China”. The U.S. is going to seduce the Indians by selling them advanced aircraft.

If the plan works out, we will have India in NATO helping us to occupy Pakistan and presenting China with the possibility of a two-front war.

The Pentagon needs some more wars so there can be some more “reconstruction.”

Reconstruction is very lucrative, especially as Washington has privatized so many of the projects, thus turning over to well-placed friends many opportunities to loot.  Considering all the money that has been spent, one searches hard to find completed projects. The just released report from theCommission on Wartime Contracting can’t say exactly how much of the $200,000 million in Afghan“reconstruction” disappeared in criminal behavior and blatant corruption, but $12,000 million alone was lost to “overt fraud.”

War makes money for the politically connected.  While the flag-waving population remains proud of the service of their sons, brothers, husbands, fathers, cousins, wives, mothers and daughters, the smart boys who got the fireworks started are rolling in the mega-millions.

As General Smedley Butler told the jingoistic American population, to no avail, “war is a racket.”As long as the American population remains proud that their relatives serve as cannon fodder for the military/security complex, war will remain a racket.

——————

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously an editor for the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating.

Mob Robbers And Rampant Looting: Is This The Future Of America?

The Economic Collapse
Feb 26, 2011

Have you ever heard of mob robberies?  What happens is that dozens of young people storm a store at the same time, take whatever they want, and then storm out as powerless store clerks watch helplessly.  Most of the time these “mob robbers” end up getting caught, but unfortunately “group crime” is a trend that is rising.  Is it a sign of the times that large groups of people are starting to recklessly invade retail establishments?  Is this the future of America?  As I have written about so frequently, the U.S. middle class is being destroyed by this economy and large numbers of our young people are losing hope.  Frustration and anger are rising from coast to coast and millions of Americans are losing faith in the system.  The thin veneer of civilization which we all take for granted is already starting to disappear.  So what is going to happen when the economy collapses?  As our economic system fails, mob robberies and rampant looting are only going to become more common.  Let us hope that the economy can hold together for at least a couple more years, because once society falls apart things are going to get really, really ugly in our major cities.

Are you prepared for what America is going to look like during the next Great Depression?  It isn’t going to be pretty.  Over the past couple of decades we have gotten hints of what America is going to look like when society breaks down, and those hints have been very frightening.

This first video is a news report about the mob robberies that have taken place in Minnesota recently.  What would you do if you were a store clerk in this situation….



Unfortunately, these mob robberies are not just an anomaly.  The American people really do seem to be losing it.  Over the past couple of years, some almost unbelievable brawls have been breaking out in restaurants and in retail establishments all over the nation.

“If law fails, CIA will assassinate Assange”

RT
Feb 26, 2011

Judge Howard Riddle, the bane of Julian Assange’s existence for the past three months, has granted Sweden’s extradition request. The WikiLeaks founder has already repealed the ruling, but his worst fears have been cemented: the rape charges are going to follow him for the rest of his life, perhaps even after years of repeals. Former Reagan Administration Paul Craig Roberts says there is a concerted effort to shut Assange up. If the legal attempt fails, he’ll be assassinated by a CIA assassination team.

Colonel Qaddafi Secretly Moved $4.8 Billion Of His Own Money To London Last Week

Gus Lubin
Business Insider
Feb 26, 2011

Despite claims that he would fight to the death on Libyan soil, Muammar el-Qaddafi transferred $4.8 billion of his personal holdings to London’s Mayfair private wealth manager last week, according to The Times (via @sultanalqassemi).

The secret transfer was identified by the UK Treasury, which has said it will freeze all Qaddafi family assets in the country — which already equaled around $32 billion.

Switzerland has also said it would freeze Qaddafi assets.
Details of this story were revealed to The Times Of London through another London firm, which has declined to deposit funds for the “murdering tyrant.”

War, Martial Law, and the Economic Crisis

Peter Dale Scott
Global Research
February 26, 2011

Excerpt from “The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century”

The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Bailout

The bailout measures of late 2008 may have consequences at least as grave for an open society as the response to 9/11 in 2001. Many members of Congress felt coerced at the time into voting against their inclinations, and the normal procedures for orderly consideration of a bill were dispensed with.

The excuse for bypassing normal legislative procedures was the existence of an emergency. But one of the most reprehensible features of the legislation, that allowed Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to permit bailed-out institutions to use public money for exorbitant salaries and bonuses, was inserted by Paulson after the immediate crisis had passed.


According to Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vermont) the bailout bill originally called for a cap on executive salaries, but Paulson changed the requirement at the last minute. Welch and other members of Congress were enraged by “news that banks getting taxpayer-funded bailouts are still paying exorbitant salaries, bonuses, and other benefits.”[1] In addition, as the Associated Press reported in October 2008, “Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. questioned allowing banks that accept bailout bucks to continue paying dividends on their common stock.

‘There are far better uses of taxpayer dollars than continuing dividend payments to shareholders,’ he said.”[2]

Even more reprehensible is the fact that after the bailouts, Paulson and the Treasury Department refused to provide details of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) spending of hundreds of billions of dollars, while the New York Federal Reserve refused to provide information about its own bailout (using government-backed loans) that amounted to trillions. This lack of transparency was challenged by Fox TV in a FOIA suit against the Treasury Department, and a suit by Bloomberg News against the Fed.[3]

The financial bailout legislation of September 2008 was only passed after members of both Congressional houses were warned that failure to act would threaten civil unrest and the imposition of martial law.

U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., both said U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson brought up a worst-case scenario as he pushed for the Wall Street bailout in September. Paulson, former Goldman Sachs CEO, said that might even require a declaration of martial law, the two noted.[4]

Here are the original remarks by Senator Inhofe:

Speaking on Tulsa Oklahoma’s 1170 KFAQ, when asked who was behind threats of martial law and civil unrest if the bailout bill failed, Senator James Inhofe named Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson as the source. “Somebody in D.C. was feeding you guys quite a story prior to the bailout, a story that if we didn’t do this we were going to see something on the scale of the depression, there were people talking about martial law being instituted, civil unrest… who was feeding you guys this stuff?,” asked host Pat Campbell. “That’s Henry Paulson,” responded Inhofe. “We had a conference call early on, it was on a Friday I think – a week and half before the vote on Oct. 1. So it would have been the middle… what was it – the 19th of September, we had a conference call. In this conference call – and I guess there’s no reason for me not to repeat what he said, but he said – he painted this picture you just described. He said, ‘This is serious. This is the most serious thing that we faced.’”[5]

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA 27th District) reported the same threat on the Congressional floor:

The only way they can pass this bill is by creating a panic atmosphere… Many of us were told that the sky would fall… A few of us were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no. That’s what I call fear-mongering, unjustified, proven wrong.[6]

Read the article

Obama Signs Executive Order Imposing Sanctions on Libya

VOANews.com
February 26, 2011

U.S. President Barack Obama has signed an executive order that imposes unilateral sanctions on Libya, saying continued violence and unrest there poses an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to America’s national security and foreign policy.

The sanctions freeze all assets held by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, his three sons, a daughter and members of his administration.  The president said the sanctions are designed to target the Gadhafi government, while protecting the assets of the Libyan people.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the U.S. welcomes Friday’s action by the U.N. Human Rights Council condemning human rights violations and violence committed by the Libyan government against its own people.

Read entire article

Libyan Soldiers

Laurence Vance
LRC Blog
February 26, 2011

I see that Libyan soldiers are fighting against their own people. But why should we condemn them? They are just following orders. They must obey their superiors. They didn’t ask for this mission. Killing Libyans was not in their job description. They joined the military because they were patriotic. They are serving their country. All criticism toward the soldiers’ actions should be directed at the Libyan government and politicians.

But, but, but . . . what they are doing is wrong! So what. They are just doing their jobs as loyal Libyan soldiers.

What apologists for the U.S. military really believe is that American soldiers are the grand exception. Foreign soldiers are evil unless they do our bidding. It is only American soldiers who are heroes for obeying orders and killing on command. And don’t think that American soldiers wouldn’t do the same thing to us as the Libyan soldiers are doing to Libyans. We already get it in the neck by the American TSA and police and DEA and ATF. And if American soldiers refused to kill Americans, then they would be disobeying orders, thinking for themselves, and refusing to follow an unjust command—things that they are condemned for now if they refuse to kill on command in Iraq and Afghanistan.

US and Europe step up preparations for intervention in Libya

Patrick O’Connor
WSWS
February 26, 2011

The Obama administration yesterday announced a series of unilateral sanctions against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya, including suspension of US military cooperation and cancellation of military component sales. Washington also closed the US embassy in Tripoli and asked international financial institutions to monitor any money transfers made by senior Libyan officials.

The measures were announced ahead of an anticipated imposition of multilateral sanctions through the United Nations in the next few days. “This is a first step, and obviously we continue to review our options going forward,” White House press secretary Jay Carney declared.

According to the Reuters news agency, a draft UN Security Council resolution prepared by Britain and France states that the Gaddafi regime’s atrocities “may amount to crimes against humanity,” warranting referral to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland is also negotiating a resolution on Libya, following the defection of Libyan diplomats on the body. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to join a council meeting on Monday.

Behind the various diplomatic manoeuvres, the major imperialist powers are accelerating their contingency plans for military intervention in Libya. The Obama administration continues to stress that “all options are on the table.”

Speaking from Bahrain on Thursday, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said, “We are looking at all our capabilities and a range of contingencies, as we always do.” He added that he would provide President Obama with “options as comprehensive and robust and as far-ranging as we can think of.”

The European powers have also mobilised their forces. Italian Defence Minister Ignazio La Russia yesterday told the SkyTG24 news channel that his government was planning a “military operation” to rescue Italian nationals stranded in southeast Libya. Britain is preparing likewise. Elite SAS forces are now in Malta, 360 kilometres off the coast of Tripoli, while two naval frigates have been deployed to the Mediterranean. British media reports have referred to a “range of other assets” in the region, including Chinook helicopters and Hercules and C17 aircraft.

An emergency NATO meeting was held in Brussels yesterday afternoon. A subsequent statement said NATO would “continue to consult in order to be prepared for any eventuality.” Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen previously stressed that the organisation had “assets that can be used in a situation like this.”

Read the article

Government Promises to Cut Social Security

Infowars.com
February 26, 2011

It’s official, national austerity measures are here!  As Wisconsin protesters fill the streets because of lost rights and benefits to workers, the nation is gearing up to face similar losses with social security being cut.  Comedian George Carlin warned us that this day would come (note video contains obscene language):


“Now they’re coming for your social security money … they want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street.” — George Carlin. 
 
The debate has moved from whether or not to cut social security, to how many cuts, how much, and when they’ll start.  Threatened with the prospect of a government shutdown, Democrats are pushing for compromise by agreeing to cut social security to avert a manufactured “shutdown” disaster.

For years the government has had no problem raiding the surplus in the social security fund to pay for wars, bank bailouts, General Motors, and a slew of other unfunded giveaways.  Yet, now, as they claim bankruptcy, they seek to take even more from the program.

The federal government DOES NOT fund Social Security!  Social Security funds the federal government.

Since the Johnson Administration of the ’60s, the S.S. fund has been plundered and the surplus from the fund used to finance wars and the daily operations of the federal government. This came as a result of Johnson declaring that these surplus funds would be added to the general fund.  Once there, the funds could be used for anything and everything.

Now, seniors and future generations that had nothing to do with creating the national debt and massive shortfalls in social security are going to pay the price.  Seniors have already had cost of living increases to their SS checks frozen for the last two years.  This has been especially painful given the double-digit inflation to necessary goods like food and energy, and services like healthcare.

It seems the government is going to take and take until the people push back and say that enough is enough.  Again, the people are not at fault and yet they are being treated like tax slaves to bailout the slave masters.  It doesn’t matter whether you believe in cutting entitlement programs or not.  The overall equation for the average citizen has tipped so far in the favor of the elites who orchestrated this mess, that it’s time to draw the line in the sand.


The perceived debt problems will not be solved by cutting social security while the wars continue and the banks get a blank check from the taxpayer.  If we aren’t ready to fight for their deserved benefits now, then we may deserve the absolute looting that is occurring.

This post first appeared on the Activist Post website. 

“Day of Rage” in Iraq: 23 Killed by Government

Infowars.com
February 26, 2011

Obama has not condemned the Nouri al-Maliki regime in Iraq for killing at least 23 people during the country’s “Day of Rage” on Friday. Tens of thousands of Iraqis went into the streets and stormed provincial buildings, forced the resignation of local officials, and confronted the military. Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and Christians demanded basics taken for granted in other countries – adequate electricity, clean water, a decent hospital, and employment.

“It is noteworthy that the Obama Administration has been entirely mum on the Iraqi crackdown, particularly as the US still has some 50,000 troops in Iraq to back up the Maliki-led regime,” writes Jason Ditz.

Egypt Military Breaks Up Protest Against Mubarak Loyalists in Government

Aljazeera
February 26, 2011

The Egyptian army has used force to disperse activists gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demand the removal of Hosni Mubarak loyalists from the interim cabinet.

Egyptian soldiers fired in the air and used batons in the early hours of Saturday to disperse the crowd, the Reuters news agency reported.

Demonstrators had also gathered in front of the parliament building in Cairo, where police beat protesters and used tasers to suppress the crowds, an Al Jazeera producer in the capital reported.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the ruling military council, later apologised for the military’s response and said the situation “wasn’t intentional”.

Read entire article

UN Scheduled to Draft Move Against Libya on Saturday

CNN
February 26, 2011

International pressure mounted against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi on Saturday, a day after world leaders demanded action to stop a bloody crackdown on protesters in the north African nation.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon called for an effective solution to end the violence against anti-government protesters. A United Nations security panel is scheduled to meet Saturday morning to discuss a draft resolution against Gadhafi, who is clinging to power despite protesters’ call for an end to his 42-year rule.

A Libyan envoy tearfully asked the United Nations Security Council to help end the bloodshed during a special session Friday.

Read entire article

CIA mulls targeting Pak diplomats abroad

PakTribune
February 26, 2011

WASHINGTON: Suffering irreparable loss after blowing up of Raymond Davis’ cover in Lahore, the American premier intelligence apparatus is contemplating a tit-for-tat trapping or targeting Pakistani counterparts serving as diplomats abroad.

Well-placed diplomatic sources told Online on condition of anonymity here on Thursday that they had noticed vibes clearly indicating level of frustration and annoyance, especially at the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) upon Islamabad’s constant denial to release Davis on blanket immunity.

According to the sources, putting Davis on trial in Pakistan on charges of double murder in Lahore is proving to be the loss of not just the cover of an agent but also that of a “key asset” in the intelligence jargon for CIA.

“Therefore, it is unlikely that they (American intelligence apparatus) would let it go without returning it to the Pakistani counterparts one way or the other,” the sources added. “Easy prey of this revenge design of the Americans could be Pakistani intelligence staff serving abroad, chiefly in US, Europe, and Afghanistan,” the sources observed. This is already clear for sure that the so-called intelligence sharing in the war on terror has hit a moratorium due to Raymond Davis case.

The sources also informed Online that White House as well as State Department had already cancelled all official invitations to Pakistan’s Ambassador Hussain Haqqani here. “All the US administration outfits in the capital are also under instructions to seek clearance from the White House before interacting with Haqqani, even for official urgencies,” the sources added.

The sources also recalled that Ambassador Haqqani was summoned twice to White House for making demarche even before Senator John Kerry was dispatched to Pakistan for pleading Davis’ diplomatic immunity. The sources pointed out that envoys are generally summoned at the State Department for making demarche as per the diplomatic norms and practices in vogue. “The White House summoning Haqqani twice had clearly indicated that it was CIA’s pressure on the back,” the sources added.

The row over the diplomatic immunity of Davis is still on between the two countries, bringing the bilateral relations to a historic low. The US is claiming diplomatic immunity to Davis while Pakistan is insisting that its courts would decide his status as well privilege, which has strained the relations. Analysts in US believe that ripples of Davis issue could lead to early elections in Pakistan.

The incumbent term of the ruling PPP ends in February 2013.

New portable DNA screener to debut this summer

William Matthews
NextGov.com
February 26, 2011

The Homeland Security Department this summer plans to begin testing a DNA analyzer that’s small enough to be easily portable and fast enough to return results in less than an hour.

The analyzer, about the size of a laser printer, initially will be used to determine kinship among refugees and asylum seekers. It also could help establish whether foreigners giving children up for adoption are their parents or other relatives, and help combat child smuggling and human trafficking, said Christopher Miles, biometrics program manager in the DHS Office of Science and Technology.

Only DNA can positively determine family relationships, Miles said Wednesday during a conference on biometrics and national security.

Eventually, the analyzer also could be used to positively identify criminals, illegal immigrants, missing persons and mass casualty victims, he said.

Read entire article

Obama Signs Patriot Act Extension

New York Post
February 26, 2011

WASHINGTON – President Obama yesterday signed a three-month extension of the Patriot Act’s surveillance provisions.

One aspect of the 2001 law lets law enforcement set roving wiretaps to monitor multiple communication devices.

Another lets officials ask a special court for access to business and library records deemed relevant to a terrorist threat.

A third grants the FBI the right to keep tabs on non-Americans not known to be tied to specific terrorist groups.

Libyan rebels say control oil fields, honour deals

Tom Pfeiffer
Reuters
Friday, February 25, 2011

BENGHAZI, Libya, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Rebels in eastern Libya said on Friday they now controlled most of the oil fields east of the town of Ras Lanuf, and said they would honour oil deals as long as they were in the interest of the people.

The eastern Libyan town of Brega and its oil terminal are under rebel control, and soldiers who have defected are helping the rebels to secure the port, Reuters witnesses said on Friday.

“This area is controlled by the people,” said Mabrook Maghraby, a lawyer from Benghazi who is now involved with the local committees defending Brega.

If oil contracts were unfair or based on corruption, however, the interim leadership of Libya’s second city Benghazi said they reserved the right to renegotiate them.

Full story here.

Madison Mayor, Police Chief Demand Explanation Over Walker Suggestion To Infiltrate Wisconsin Protests

Wisconsin officials find Governor’s comments about use of  agents provocateurs ”deeply troubling”

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
Friday, Feb 25th, 2011

The Mayor and the police chief of Madison, Wisconsin have both asked Governor Scott Walker to explain comments he made indicating that he had considered employing “troublemakers” to infiltrate and discredit the Wisconsin protests.

Walker made the comments in what he believed was a private telephone conversation with billionaire philanthropist David Koch, a deep-pocketed political ally of Walker. In reality the caller was a reporter from the Buffalo Beast, who recorded the entire conversation.

Though the story made national headlines, the media failed to point out the most shocking of Walker’s comments, that he had considered the use of agents provocateurs in an effort to ultimately bring down the protests.

“But what we were thinking about the crowds was planting some troublemakers,” states the journalist, Ian Murphy, posing as Koch, to which Walker responds, “You know, the problem was, because we thought about that,” before going on to explain that such a move wasn’t necessary becausethe public was already largely in opposition to the union demonstrators.

Clearly Murphy initially intended the call as a prank, however, when Walker actually admitted to having considered infiltrating the protests, a dark reality was revealed.

The alternative media exposed the details and sent the story viral, now officials in Madison are asking questions.

“I spent a good deal of time overnight thinking about Governor Walker’s response, during his news conference yesterday, to the suggestion that his administration ‘thought about’ planting troublemakers among those who are peacefully protesting his bill,” Police chief Noble Wray said in a statement.

“I would like to hear more of an explanation from Governor Walker as to what exactly was being considered, and to what degree it was discussed by his cabinet members.” Wray added.

“I find it very unsettling and troubling that anyone would consider creating safety risks for our citizens and law enforcement officers. Our department works hard dialoging with those who are exercising their First Amendment right, those from both sides of the issue, to make sure we are doing everything we can to ensure they can demonstrate safely,” he said.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz also noted that he found Walker’s comments disturbing. He said Walker’s statement was “deeply troubling” especially because of the way the governor followed up by “brushing it off”, referring to Walker’s refusal to address the issue in press conferences and appearances on Wednesday and Thursday.

“The governor of Wisconsin actually thought about planting people in the crowds who might turn these peaceful protests into something ugly?” Cieslewicz asked in a statement.

“For the governor of our state to suggest that he even considered disrupting these peaceful protests is a serious thing. We need to hear more from him on exactly what he meant. I hope the media will keep after it.” he added, while praising the protesters and the police for “acting so responsibly” and being “incredibly well organized”.

When asked about the comments on Fox News Wednesday night, Walker tentatively suggested that the idea came from legislators and others – but he didn’t name names. Mayor Cieslewicz wants to know who within Walker’s inner circle brought up the idea.

Walker’s admission that his office considered using stooges to infiltrate the protests and stir up trouble is even more alarming given the fact that Jeff Cox, a deputy attorney general at the Office of the Indiana Attorney General, posted a tweet under the Twitter user name JCCentCom on Saturday in which he said that police in Wisconsin should use “live ammunition” and “deadly force” to break the protests.

Lockerbie Bombing: Libya was Framed

Linda S. Heard
Global Research
Feb 25, 2011

On December 21 1988, a Pan Am plane mysteriously exploded over Scotland causing the death of 270 people from 21 countries. The tragedy provoked global outrage. In 1991, two Libyans were charged with the bombing.

In the event, only Abdulbaset Ali Mohammad Al Megrahi, a Libyan agent, was pronounced guilty by a panel of three judges, who based their decision on largely circumstantial evidence. Al Megrahi and the Libyan government have protested their innocence all along.

Nevertheless, after suffering punitive UN sanctions which froze overseas Libyan bank accounts and prevented the import of spare parts needed for the country’s oil industry, Tripoli reluctantly agreed to pay $2.7 billion to victims? families ($10 million per family), on condition the pay-out would not be deemed as admission of guilt.

In February, 2004, the Libyan prime minister told the BBC that his country was innocent but was forced to pay-up as a “price for peace”.

Al Megrahi is currently serving a life sentence but earlier this year the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission ruled there may have been a miscarriage of justice on the basis of lost or destroyed evidence.

Later this month, a Scottish appeals court is due to revisit the case and is expected to overturn Al Megrahi’s conviction as unsafe.

The Libyan leader’s son Saif Al Islam recently said he is confident Al Megrahi will soon be found innocent and will be allowed to return home.

On Sunday, an Observer expose written by Alex Duval Smith reported “a key piece of material evidence used by prosecutors to implicate Libya in the Lockerbie bombing has emerged as a probable fake” with allegations of “international political intrigue and shoddy investigative work” levelled at “the British government, the FBI and the Scottish police”.

The Observer story maintains Ulrich Lumpert a Swiss engineer who was “a crucial witness” has now confessed that he lied about the origins of a timer switch.

Recently, Lumpert gave a sworn declaration to a Swiss court, which read “I stole a prototype MST-13 timing device” and “gave it without permission on June 22, 1989 to a person who was officially investigating the Lockerbie affair”.

New Google Algorithm is Live: News Aggregators Will Be Punished

Eric Blair & Michael Edwards
Infowars.com
February 25, 2011

Just over a month ago, Google announced that they were changing their algorithm in order to weaken the search engine rankings of sites they deem to be “content farmers.”

Whereas most of Google’s algorithm changes are barely noticeable, the current change that they have been working on since last January will affect 12% of U.S. searches.


There has been much debate about what “content farming” is, and Google has done little to offer a clear explanation, simply stating, “low quality” or “shallow” sites would be affected.  This is similar to the vague definition of pornography — you’ll know it when you see it.

The problem with such a vague approach to what is a strictly defined algorithm is that it leaves too much room for a human interpretation.  And as we have seen, Google has been exposed as having connections to U.S. intelligence agencies, which doesn’t bode well for alternative news sites that aggregate anti-establishment stories from around the web.  Given the other censorship threats facing the Internet, it seems those who might be critical of Internet control and real-time surveillance of average Americans are being targeted.

One definition of content farming sites comes from Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land:

- Looks to see what are popular searches in a particular category (news, help topics)
- Generates content specifically tailored to those searches
- Usually spends very little time and or money, even perhaps as little as possible, to generate that content

The first point is particularly troubling for alternative news, since these are the sites who often scour mainstream news to discover which topics are of popular interest so that competing commentary can be offered on a given issue.  Even in the area of “help topics” there are many alternative news sites, such as our own, who focus on tips for survival, protection from economic crisis, advice for privacy protection and personal security, etc.

Again, with the overshadowing definition of “shallow” content, who is deciding this?  Furthermore, point two addresses tailoring content for specific searches, which sounds a lot like the “Google Bombs” introduced by Alex Jones and implemented by others as an effective way to compete with the mainstream media pablum, which focuses heavily on celebrities, sports, and other truly shallow and low quality content.

And, finally, point three seems to penalize blogs and other low-cost means of sharing opinions, as if not having a mainstream media budget automatically implies low quality, when provably the reverse is often true.  Those who research information and present their own opinions as to the significance of what they have studied generally are doing so out of a passion to expose lies and direct their fellow man to the truth.

Google’s punishment of those who re-post material as an essential tool for sharing information appears to now reduce news aggregators to the status of plagiarists within the algorithm.  There are many alternative news sites and blogs which have original material that they freely share, in part or in full, purely to support one another in disseminating the truth. We all know what plagiarism looks like and a link back to the original source should not, for instance, be grounds for labeling a site as shallow.


Google needs to address the vital tool of sharing information, as well as to more clearly define their algorithm in upcoming press releases, or we can only conclude that they have begun to wage war on news sites who aggregate information to present an alternative to establishment media.


Originally posted on the Activist Post website.

Violent Clashes Between Demonstrators and Security Forces in Iraq

Megan Gaffney
The Faster Times
February 25, 2011

The unrest sweeping across the Mideast and the Arab world deepened its grip on Iraq today as tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in 10 cities across the nation and security forces turned violent in attempts to rein in the demonstrations. Protesters burned buildings, stormed government establishments and tore down concrete walls. Security forces fired into crowds, killing at least four and wounding dozens.

The demonstrations spread from north to south and east to west, reaching the northern town of Masul, where two protesters were killed, and stretching to Basra in the south, neither area a stranger to violence. In the western town of Ramadi, the day after a suicide bomber killed 11 people, another eight were wounded and one was killed in clashes between security forces and 250 demonstrators. Just north of Baghdad in Saladhi Province, five people were wounded by gunfire.

The Iraqi government went to the great lengths to limit the demonstrations in Baghdad, issuing a traffic ban that kept many of the 6 million residents from reaching the capital. Yet, a crowd of thousands still managed to tear down a concrete wall securing a bridge leading to Baghdad’s secure “green zone”.

Security forces responded by beating several of the offenders, and successfully blocked entry onto the bridge while protesters threw rocks at them.

Read entire article