April 7&14, 2008
Whole Body Health
April 21, 2008
April 28, 2008
A Pennsylvania legislative committee's hearing on March 13 about the so-called Real ID Act was packed with people—most of whom oppose this federal legislation to create a national identification system by nationalizing a new form of state-issued drivers licenses and loading them with sensitive personal information.
Only two members of the 29-member Intergovernmental Affairs Committee showed up to hear the public, even though many citizens went to much expense to be there. The regular media also were absent.
Aaron Bollinger, the nation's leading anti-Real ID activist, who chairs the National Veterans Committee for Constitutional Affairs, was on the scene, where public sentiment against Real ID was clearly evident in a state that's considered a key battleground in the sustained effort to defeat the state-by-state implementation of the Real law.
This 2005 law is one of several recommendations of the vaunted 9-11 Commission, whose findings are considered by informed researchers as woefully incomplete and flawed.
"A member of the Lancaster Amish community traveled all the way—about three hours—to Pittsburgh to get out his message," Bollinger told AFP. The Amish man's message regarding existing drivers licenses was:
"How PennDOT [state transportation department] is violating existing state law by refusing to issue drivers licenses to those legitimate American citizens [such as the Amish] who do not have Social Security numbers."
Democratic Committee Chairman W. Curtis Thomas and State Rep. Jim Marshall, a Republican, were the only legislators to show up. Bollinger therefore sees the need for a serious letter-writing/phone-call campaign, to ask the other committee members where they were that day.
"After all, they need to see public sentiment. Guess it wasn't important enough to them," Bollinger commented. Notably, Bollinger on March 11 was the first guest on this AFP writer's new radio show, When Worlds Collide, which runs Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Central Time on the Republic Broadcasting Network (republicbroadcasting.org). Bollinger announced that he holds a teleconference-style "town hall meeting" most Tuesday evenings to discuss the Real ID issue among existing activists and to recruit additional interested citizens to fight Real ID.
Bollinger describes the effort for a seamless national ID system as a Soviet-style "your papers, please" concept that could be a handy tracking tool for would-be tyrants.
"Real ID is not about security," he said during a self-made press conference, filmed the day of the committee's hearing because no media were present. "It's about making money and controlling people."
Revealingly, Bolinger noted that the company selling the lucrative Real ID technology (biometrics etc for the proposed Real ID compatible cards) to several states, including Pennsylvania, is the Visage Corporation, whose parent company, L-1 Identity Solutions, includes on its board of directors former CIA Director George Tenet, as well as James Loy, former deputy director of the Department of Homeland Security. A former L-1 board member is ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh.
There are only three main companies—Digimark, Visage and Identix—that market this sort of thing. And Identix was just bought by L-1. "The ‘biometric trinity' would be a good way to put it," said Bolinger.
This is all very significant, since the creation of the DHS itself, like Real ID, was an outgrowth of the 9-11 Commission's advice for the nation on how to be more secure after the events of 9-11-01; moreover, the DHS is the very agency writing the regulations for the design of the Real ID card—the juiced-up drivers license that likely would make us even more vulnerable to identity theft.
According to retired Navy commander James R. Compton III, who also spoke at the press conference, identity theft is the nation's fastest growing crime, and the Real ID system is fraught with risk.
"Your name, address, gender, signature etc all go into a data base—in addition to your Social Security number," he said. "Your SSN is not on your [Real ID] drivers license, but it is in the database." He postulated a scenario in which someone with access to the data is propositioned into trading a list of possibly thousands of card holders—containing all this personal information—in exchange for money.
"That's a common thing these days," said Bolinger. "About 250 blank Visage cards for drivers licenses actually were stolen from PennDOT."
Stolen blank cards are sold to make counterfeit cards. Bolinger and Compton were accompanied at their conference by Pam Irwin of the American Civil Liberties Union, which shows that concerns over Real ID transcend ideological lines.
"I don't care why they [the ACLU and other unlikely bedfellows] don't like Real ID, as long as it's defeated," Bollinger said on the RBN radio show.
As of March 18, about 81 Pennsylvania House members supported HB 1351 to keep their state out of the Real ID system. There are 203 House members, and the number of opponents there is climbing. And about one-third of the state senators support a similar bill, SB 1220.
The North Carolina Legislature is set to convene, and opponents there are working to influence the process. The most solid "rebel states" so far are Montana, Maine, New Hampshire and South Carolina. They have passed laws firmly against participation, whereas 17 more states have passed softer anti-Real ID resolutions.
West Virginia's Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a bill to ban that state from participating in the federal act. Perhaps the only way Real ID could be implemented nationwide is if it's passed off as "constitutional" because it's "voluntary."
But Bollinger noted, "The only way to win is to prevail upon the states not to volunteer." For more information go to NVCCA.net, restoretherepublic.com, or realnightmare.org.
Conference calls involving Real ID opponents are held most Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. EST. To participate, dial 724-444-4444, then enter the caller ID 14259 followed by the # sign and, finally, enter 1 and the # sign.
Reach Corresponding Editor Mark Anderson at truthhound2@yahoo.com
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Revelations regarding Barack Obama's spiritual advisor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, have been splashed across media outlets far and wide. After Wright called our country "the U.S. KKK of A." and said that blacks should sing "God Damn America" instead of "God Bless America," an entirely new barometer is being used to gauge the Democratic front-runner.
Rev. Wright's race-baiting and America-hating is based on a concept called "black liberation theology," founded by James Cone, author of Black Power and Black Liberation. Cone's extremist views are seen in the following rant: Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill gods who do not belong to the black community. Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy.
Mirroring his mentor, James Cones, Rev. Wright says of his church—the one Barack Obama has attended for 20 years—"We are African people, and remain true to our native land, the mother continent."
Now is it clear why Obama refuses to cover his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance, or wear an American flag pin on his lapel? His loyalties are not to the U.S.A. Rev. Wright, who presented a lifetime achievement award to Louis Farrakhan in 2007, labeled blacks who boycotted the 1995 Million Man March "Oreos, house niggers, Uncle Toms, and a boatload of darkies who think in white supremacist terms."
By the way, Farrakhan has called whites "blue-eyed devils" and the "skunks of the planet."
Wright blamed the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America. "We as a white nation brought 9-11 down on ourselves because of our violent acts."
However, if Wright had any moral courage, he would have disclosed that 9-11 wasn't the fault of innocent Americans, but was orchestrated by a cabal of Israel-first neo-cons within the Bush administration, as well as elements of the Mossad.
Even Obama's wife, Michelle—who recently said, "for the first time in my adult lifetime I am really proud of my country"—sees the world in very stark black versus white terms. In her college thesis, she forwarded the premise that blacks trying to assimilate into white society are sellouts.
"Separationists are more closely associated with the black lower class than are integrationists."
She continued this thought: "Further integration and/or assimilation into a white culture or social structure will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society."
Michelle Obama's misgivings are undeniably misguided, because in 2006 she earned nearly $275,000, while her husband is currently running for president. Evidently they are on the right part of the periphery.
Throughout the primaries, Barack Obama has been a blank slate. But now that his association with radical, extremist black-power racists is being revealed, Americans need to ask themselves if this is the type of man they want sitting in the White House.
In a hypersensitive atmosphere where every instance of white racism is reported (both real and imaginary), Obama refuses to leave his overtly black racist Trinity United Church of Christ, or divorce himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whose sermons inspired the title of his book, The Audacity of Hope.
On a daily basis, Obama calls for unity, change and a color-blind society, yet his hypocrisy is glaringly apparent. Is this divisive, Marxist-oriented theology of black liberation the direction we want our nation to be heading?
If Americans want truth in government, it's time to discard political correctness and start calling a club a club and a spade a spade.
Victor Thorn is a prolific writer and the author of many books including AFP's Phantom Flight 93 ($25) and Hillary (And Bill): The Sex Volume ($30). Order his books by calling AFP toll free at 1-888-699-NEWS. Use Visa/MC. Thorn is also a member of the advisory board of THE BARNES REVIEW magazine.
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TWIN FALLS, Idaho—Ryan Horsley seems confident that he will triumph over a government shakedown that has cost his family business about $200,000 in legal fees, as he fights to keep Red's Trading Post, a fourth-generation firearms store, in operation.
Red's is Idaho's oldest surviving firearms dealership. Sometime this summer, federal judge Ed Lodge, who's best known for presiding over the dramatic Randy Weaver case, will decide if the federal government is right in claiming that Red's "willfully" violated the law by making a relatively small number of clerical mistakes in its firearms sales records.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (BATFE), a relic of the prohibition days whose modern-day legitimacy is an open question, has been poring through the store's sales records since at least 2005, looking for such "willful" clerical violations.
Although Horsley at first thought that the BATFE would not push the matter into court, in order to avoid any bad publicity that may accompany a ruling contrary to the government's position, the matter did go to court on March 3-4, 2008 in Boise—about a year to the day since the battle heated up.
In early March of 2007, the federal agency revoked Red's Federal Firearms License, but a judge granted an injunction against the BATFE to halt that process, thereby allowing Red's to continue operating in Twin Falls, where another firearms dealer, Blue Lake Sporting Goods, was shut down by the BATFE. In that case, the store turned in its FFL and buckled under the weight of legal expenses.
Horsley, a particularly irrepressible man who so far has resisted what could easily have plowed his store under, told AFP on March 26 that he feels good about the court proceedings, believing that the government did not convince Judge Lodge that the store is a menace to public safety and deserves having its FFL revoked.
The FFL allows dealers to buy and sell firearms; revoking it would doom the store. Horsley also recalled that when the BATFE first tried to revoke the FFL, it claimed that Red's was a "threat to public safety" but turned around and said that Red's still could sell the 1,000 or so firearms already in stock—as long as it did not order additional guns to sell.
"You see what I'm up against?" Horsley said. Horsley's attorney, Richard Gardiner, told AFP that Red's largest number of clerical errors on BATFE Form 4473 involved something simple, such as not listing the county of residence of the gun-buyers. But he added that all these forms included zip codes. Many of the purchasers are from Twin Falls County, which has a city of the same name.
Gardiner thinks that Red's practices do not break federal regulations in listing only the city (plus the zip code), even if the county of residence is sometimes not listed.
"We take the position that the regulations do not require both city and county" Gardiner said.
So, why did the BATFE bring what appears to be a weak case to court? Horsley's view is that the agency cannot very well spend $3 million just on its case against Red's—to try to revoke an FFL that cost the store just $300 every three years to maintain—and then drop the matter.
"If they just back off, they would have nothing to show for it," Horsley said, as he struggled to comprehend why $3 million in taxpayer dollars have been spent on a case where no evidence has been found to suggest that Red's has knowingly put guns into the hands of criminals or committed some other serious act.
Horsley feels the BATFE simply is trying to portray Red's as a bad place, which, however, is a little tough, considering that local police officers have worked there.
"Many times we've had part-time law enforcement officers working for us," Horsley said.
The local sheriff, Wayne Tousley, told AFP in a 2007 interview that, as the chief law enforcement officer of Twin Falls County, the BATFE is supposed to come to him first to conduct its investigations. But he said then that the agency typically bypasses him.
Reach AFP Corresponding Editor Mark Anderson at truthhound2@yahoo.com
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With America bogged down in a costly war in Iraq, Russia has been busy rekindling old friendships in the Islamic world and establishing important economic links with some U.S. allies in the Mideast, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.
In January 2008, confirmation that a Russian company was awarded close to $1 billion for constructing a railway across Saudi Arabia did not grab the headlines, yet it was further evidence of how Moscow had successfully wooed the Saudis. Behind the scenes, there was even talk of bigger deals involving the Saudis and major Russian arms exporters.
Under Vladimir Putin's presidency, Russia has cleverly restructured
its outreach to the Islamic world and the Middle East in particular.
When Putin visited Saudi Arabia for the first time in 2007 he
articulated what had already become a new Russian realpolitik
based on economic strategy. He
pointed out that Russia and Saudi Arabia were the world's largest
energy producers and that made them partners rather than rivals.
He stressed that it was easy for the two countries to find what
he called "common ground" and he pointed to the fact
that as far back as 2004 economic cooperation had become the cornerstone
of their relationship.
In that year, the giant Russian oil company, LUKoil, won a 40-year contract to develop a massive gas field in the ar-Rub al-Khali Desert. He told Saudi leaders LUKoil's investment plan amounted to $2 billion but it was possible to forge cooperation on many other fronts, including nuclear energy.
Putin's visit encouraged Saudi companies to invest in Russia, and that led to a proposal for a Saudi-Russian bank. For close observers of the Middle East, the Russian strategy of establishing economic links was at the heart of a policy that was aimed at not just competing with U.S. economic dominance in the region but overtaking it at a time when America's image across the Islamic world was at an all-time low.
Suddenly Russia was seen as having no political agenda in relation to Islam, and that perception was helped by Russia's determined efforts to avoid conflict with most Muslim nations. Putin's advisers constantly stressed that Russia was respectful of Islamic traditions. On issues like Iraq, Russia appealed to religious leaders on both sides to end the killing, so as not to be accused of taking sides.
Meanwhile, Russia's arms exporters and its nuclear energy companies continued to seek new clients. Recently, Moscow, much to the anger of U.S. companies, not only agreed to sell Egypt new air defense systems but to help it build nuclear power plants. And if the U.S. and British oil giants thought they had managed to keep Russian competitors out of Iraq, they were sadly mistaken, because LUKoil, as well as a major Russian engineering firm, may soon sign contracts with the Iraqi government to drill for oil and rebuild a pipeline from Iraq into Syria.
Russia's most startling economic realignment from its Cold War period has been its growing economic relationship with Israel, and while that has been happening, Moscow has been careful to call for a peaceful solution to the Palestinian issue, without siding only with the Palestinians, as it did in the past.
Under Vladimir Putin's leadership, which officially ends next month, Russian trade with Israel has doubled, amounting to over $3 billion, and much of that has been due to the fact that major deals have been done in the fields of medicine, engineering, energy, aviation and weapons.
On a visit to Israel in 2005, Putin was quick to point out that there was everything in place for the two nations to construct a major partnership. At that time, he was aware that Russian-born Jews, who had been allowed to leave Russia after the end of Communism, made up 20 to 25% of the Israeli population. Many of those Jews still had links to Russia and held joint Russian-Israeli passports.
What Putin did not mention was that some of Israel's richest men were of Russian origin and had used their Israeli passports to flee Russia to avoid corruption charges.
Irrespective of outstanding warrants for some billionaires, Putin accepted, as did his Israeli hosts, that the two countries had much to gain, especially in terms of energy. By then, it was clear Israel's dependence on Russian oil and gas had grown annually. Israel appealed successfully to Moscow to persuade Turkey, which received Russian oil and gas supplies, to consider a joint venture with Israel to build a two- or four-tier pipeline that could also carry water and electricity from Turkey to Israel.
In 2007, an agreement in principle was reached with Turkey for the construction of a pipeline from Turkey into Israel. The U.S. was happy about that proposed arrangement, believing the involvement of Turkey created a buffer between Israel and Russian energy giants whereby it would not be easy for Moscow to shut off oil or gas to Israel in the event of a political crisis. Nevertheless, Israel's ties to Russia are bound to remain strong, given the annual trade between the two.
Richard Walker is the nom de plume of a former news producer.
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The kids in Congress have finished hunting for Easter eggs and are back in Washington with much work to do - if they only will. They can start by undoing silly mischief involving light bulbs.
With "global warming" hysteria gripping many law-makers, Congress mandated in the new energy legislation that Americans be allowed to use only "energy-efficient" light bulbs by 2012, with the process being phased in now.
Congress is in too much of a rush to be politically correct, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) pointed out when introducing the Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act which would repeal the mandate until health issues are addressed. The new "high-mercury light bulbs chosen for them by the government received little scrutiny," she said, citing studies linking the green bulbs to a higher incidence of breast cancer.
When such bulbs explode or are otherwise broken, the danger of contact with the mercury is intense. You must hold your breath while intensively cleaning affected areas. Spilled on the carpet? Cut out that part of the carpet and throw it away. Splashed on the floor? Cut out that part of the floor. Trow away a table, chair or any item touched by mercury.
Fix it, kids, and try to develop adult judgement.
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Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) wants to become president so badly she is now delusional. She says she has always been a critic of NAFTA, which has sent many hundreds of thousands of good-paying factory jobs south of the border, where cheap labor and relief from costly federal environmental mandates save bug business big bucks. NAFTA plays poorly in such vote-rich sates as Pennsylvania, where Sen. Clinton says, "I have been a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning." That's a lie.
More than 11,000 Clinton White House documents, which she tried to keep from the public, have been released under the Freedom of Information Act. They show that Sen. Clinton was an ardent advocate for NAFTA. She held at least five meetings to develop strategy to win congressional approval of NAFTA. She fought efforts by farm and labor groups to make NAFTA less evil.
President Clinton, as an obscure governor of Arkansas, was
brought to the secret Bilderberg meeting in Baden Baden, Germany
in June 1991. David rockefeller told Clinton what the proposed
NAFTA treaty was and why he supported it. The following year,
he was elected president. Hillary Clinton attended the 1997 Bilderberg
meeting as first lady, a fact the White House, when confronted,
was forced to acknowledge.
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American
Free Press April 7&14, 2008Someone should tell Sen. Barack Obama (D -Ill.) that when taking
impromptu publicity photos, you need to look like you know what
you are doing. If that call ever comes through on the "presidential
hotline" form a world leader, attempting to avoid a nuclear
holocaust, we sure hope "President" Obama would know
how to use the phone correctly.
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"Every California child deserves a quality education and parents should have the right to decide what is best for their children. Parents should not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's education." (WorldNetDaily, March 12, 2008). These were the prepared remarked of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in response to a California district court's decision to ban parents from homeschooling their children unless the parents are certified.
Schwarzenegger's words are ironic since it was his decision to sign legislation that banned from public schools anything that might be construed as "negative" or "discriminatory" to those of "alternative lifestyles" that prompted many California parents to remove their children from state schools. Previously, Schwarzenegger had vetoed such "gay-friendly initiatives.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal's action has raised a storm of protest from homeschooling parents and associations along with those outside the movement, who contend that it is a basic violation of the rights of parents and children. The widespread negative reaction, no doubt, spurred California's superintendent of education, Jack O'Connell, to publicly counter the ruling saying, "I have reviewed this case, and I want to assure parents who chose to homeschool that California Department of Education policy will not change in any way as a result of this ruling. Parents still have the right to homeschool in our state." (Home School Legal Defense Association, March 12, 2008).
How the ruling will ultimately play out is difficult to predict. However, the organized forces of homeschooling have vowed to undertake legal action if it is not rescinded. It is stands, one outcome will certainly be incidences of civil disobedience from some of the 166,000 homeschooling families throughout the state.
Besides non-compliance, one way the statute can be circumvented is by having those who homeschool their children register as a "private school." Such a strategy, however, would, for many, be a last resort. For homeschooling's long-term viability, efforts should be focused on overturning the courts decision.
Homeschooling or the removal of television from the household are the kinds of activities despised by the Establishment. Elites understand that as homeschooling expands, they lose more and more control and influence on the development of young minds. It threatens their dominance and could potentially lead to their downfall.
Not only does homeschooling protect children from the increasingly dangerous and now "perversity sensitive" public schools, but it keeps children insulated from the liberalistic brainwashing centers which these institutions have largely become.
While superintendent O'Connell opposed the decision, his statement contained a reference to what he considered was the purpose of education: "I admire the dedication of parent to oversee their children's education through homeschooling. But, no matter what educational program a student participates in, it is critical that the program prepares them for future success in the global economy."
What about those who have no intention of participating in the "global economy"? Or, heaven forbid, what if homeschoolers' primary allegiance is to Almighty God and they could care less about the global economy? One can only imagine the superintendent's reaction to such a priority.
Right now, the educational lobby is riding high following the California court decision. They understand that the vast majority of homeschooled children are better educated, more socially adjusted, highly motivated and possess the skills for independent thought - all qualities that are woefully lacking iin their public schooled counterparts. If the decision is upheld, and if other states begin similar crackdowns, the failing, inept and increasingly debauched public school system will be the principal beneficiary.
Just as elated are the ruling elites whose suzerainty relies so heavily on an educational system that promotes their core values and beliefs. A blow to homeschooling would be a great victory for them.
It can be assured that the enemies of homeschooling will closely monitor the developments of the case. If it remains in effect, it will, no doubt, spur other jurisdictions to undertake similar actions.
It is not just parents and children who homeschool who have a stake in this matter. If homeschooling is compromised, it will have a devastating effect on the quality of life for future generations. It will also remove one of the important counterweights to the cultural Marxism that pervades contemporary life.
It is, therefore, in the interests of all those who hope for
a better tomorrow that not only should the ruling that prohibits
homeschooling in California be overturned, but that the individual
or parties responsible for the decision be punished and summarily
removed from office.
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The U.S. Federal government has very quietly acknowledged, for the first time, that mandated vaccinations of Children can cause autism. David Kirby of The Huffington Post reported that the first of about 4,900 cases, claiming that vaccines containing mercury were responsible for causing mormal children to become autistic, had been decided in favor of the plaintiff. The name of the child is unknown because the case has been sealed by the court.
Peter Keisler, U.S. Assistant Attorney General disclosed that the unnamed child's claims that mercury containing vaccines were the cause of her autism were reviewed by medical personnel of the Department of Health and Human Services Division of Vaccine Injury Compensation (DVIC) who concluded that compensation was appropriate.
The record is said to show that the child was healthy and developing normally until her 18-month "well baby" office visit when she received vaccinations against none different diseases all at once, two of them containing thimerosol. Days later she began deterioration in a cascade of illnesses and, within a few months showed symptoms of autism spectrum disease (ASD). Response to verbal directions ceased, she no longer said mom and dad, lost relatedness, developed insomnia, screamed incessantly and arched and watched the fluorescent light during the examination. Dr. Andrew Zimmerman, a leading neurologist at the Kennedy-Kreiger Children's Hospital Neurology Clinic diagnosed "regressive encephalopathy with features consistent with ASD" seven months after her vaccinations.
The written DVIC concession statement said that the child had a preexisting mitochondrial disorder that was aggravated by her shots on July 19, 2000, which predisposed her to deficits in cellular energy metabolism and manifested as regressive encephalopathy with features of ASD. While rare in the general poplation, this disorder shows up frequently in autistic children. An article co-authored by Dr. Zimmerman in The Joural of Child Neurology states that researchers at the Kennedy-Kreiger Hospital found that 38% of autistic patients had been found to have one marker of this disorder and 47% had another one.
Kirby reports that an informal survey of seven families of children with pending cases revealed that all of the autistic children had markers for this disorder.
It should be noted that children who died from topical applications of thimerosol to umbilical cord infections had little mercury in their fingernails and hair. Those who survived had a lot of it in their fingernails and hair. This indicates that those who are not able to eliminate it from their bodies are most affected by mercury. It is said to burrow into cells and require a lot of glutathione to remove it. It is eliminated mainly through the digestive system. The fact that poor food digestion and bowel problems are often associated with this mitochondrial disorder and the disorder with autistic children is not surprising.
What is most interesting about this case is the fact that manufacturers
of vaccines appear to have completely avoided liability for the
damage done by their products while the U.S. taxpayer takes the
fall.
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Not content with the multitude of mandatory vaccinations which have damaged a whole generation of our children, the medical monopoly is repeating their performance with young men and women. Nowadays members of the volunteer armed services also receive mandatory injections of a large number of vaccines. Dr. William Campbell Douglas discusses them in the March 2008 issue of his newsletter. He reports that massive injections of unproven vaccines were not new in 1991, but gained momentum during the first gulf war. No one counted on the risks of severe illness, lifetime disability and death at that time. Now many people would like to forget that they exist.
Gulf War veterans frequently are not only plagued with nightmares as a result of their service, but chronic fatigue. Loss of muscle control, memory problems, muscle and joint pain, skin problems, shortness of breath and diabetes. Many studies implicate multiple vaccinations as the probable cause of these illnesses. Anthrax vaccine, approved by the FDA without large-scale clinical trials, is a prime suspect. It is interesting that French troops involved in the gulf war, who did not receive anthrax shots, had much lower rates of illness than American troops, who did.
Our Department of Defense claims that BioThrax, manufactured by Emergent Biosystems (successor to BioPort), is safe. However a court order suspended its use in 2004 over the process by means of which it had been approved. When the order expired in October 2006, mandatory shots resumed, even though no efforts were made to prove that they were safe and effective. Gary Matsumoto's book Vaccine-A is said to connect anthrax vaccine to the Gulf War Syndrome.
The General Accounting Office (GOA) anticipates that at least 1 to 2% of those who get this shot could experience adverse events. About 2.2 million service men and women have received it. Consequently as many as 44,000 soldiers may develop disabilities or die from the effects of BioTrax. The government admits that this vaccine might have killed 21 soldiers.
When young men develop heart problems, seizures, diabetes, multiple sclerosis arthritis and brain lesions a few years after being certified to be in good health on induction into the armed services, something is very wrong. Note that the rest of us could be subject to mandatory anthrax vaccinations under the anti-terrorist laws. God help us.
BioPort is being sued by its insurer, Evanston Insurance because of alleged material misrepresentations about this product. Tis may indicate that the company and its products are not reliable.
It is almost certain that mandated vaccination programs for children have damaged the brains of a whole generation of our children, particularly boys, the main source of combat personnel. The mandated vaccinations that young soldiers receive undoubtedly exacerbate the damage. What a boon for potential enemies. Are there some within the gates already? What is the impact on our country's ability to defend itself in case of attack?
Our federal and state governments established and empowered the medical monopoly that is causing his mayhem. Our servants and would-be servants are busy squandering $1 trillion on their equivalent of a Roman circus, presidential campaign. Some of the candidates promise to give the medical monopoly even more power with universal health care. Beware of political promises. Some are the equivalent of Trojan Horses.
Multiple vaccinations are not the benign panacea they have
been made out to be. They have been proven to be dangerous. These
programs need to be carefully reevaluated. They are unlikely to
be curtailed without public outrage.
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Did you know that one of the primary causes of disease is the slow accumulation of toxic compounds in the body, coupled with nutrient deficiencies at the cellular level? In layman's terms, when you retain more toxins in your body than you can effectively eliminate through your liver, kidneys, colon, lymphatic system, lungs and skin, they will eventually end up storing in cells, tissues, organs, joints, and bones and werak havoc on your health. Most disease is really nothing more than an attempt on the part of the body to rid itself of these toxins through one of the body's elimination routes.
Toxins always settle where the cells are weakest and where they are unable to discard what they do not need. When cell membraines become coated with accumulated waste matter, cells cannot breathe properly and this can eventually lead to oxygen deprivation, nutrient starvation, cell asphyxiation, and then to cell death.
Proper elimination of all toxins and metabolic waste from the body while supplying your cells the nutrients needed for healthy replication and survival is one of the major solutions to the sick care industry. Most of us are overfed but undernourished. We eat non-food foods, drink lifeless contaminated drinks, consume empty calories and fill our bodies at almost every meal with hydrogenated fats, artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners, pesticides, herbicides, emulsifiers, stabilizers and a list of other poisonous substances. From morning till night people are ingesting whatever they feel like, whenever they feel like having it.
Because no one dies on the firs cigarette, shot of whiskey, french fry, potato chip, soda, cookie, fried chicken dinner or microwave dinner, everyone fails to associate their stomach/digestive problems, headaches, skin rashes, nausea, fatigue, heart disease, high blood pressure, and premature aging to the decades of abuse from what they ate, drank, breathed or smoked. Then we think we can take a pill when we get sick from this routine, totally oblivious to the drug side effects.
Tor many, you may feel a bit overwhelmed when trying to choose a specific detoxification program to follow. There are hundreds of options to choose from and it's impossible to market a one-size-fits-all program, especially since everyone's body is different. Toxins may be stored in different areas of the body, and each one's state of health is varied so greatly. While there are specific sets of protocols everyone should follow, you, yourself, may require other strategies or approaches depending upon how your body responds or how serious your health condition may be.
Some of the organs of your body you will want to cleanse of
toxins include the colon, liver, kidneys, lymphatic system and
gall bladder. Consult a naturopath for effective ways to cleanse
your whole body.
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Some recent studies suggest that over-consumption of fluoride can raise the risks of disorders affecting teeth, bones, the brain and the thyroid gland," report Scientific American editors (January 2008). "Scientific attitudes toward fluoridation may be starting to shift," writes author dan Fagin.
"Fluoride, the most consumed drug in the U.S., is deliberately added to two-thirds of public water supplies - theoretically to reduce tooth decay, but with no scientifically valid evidence proving safety or effectiveness," says lawyer Paul Beeber, president, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation.
Fagin, award-wining environmental reporter and director of New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting program, writes, "There is n universally accepted optimal level for daily intake of fluoride." Some researchers even wonder whether the one milligram per liter added into drinking water is to much, reports Fagin.
After three years scrutinizing hundreds and hundreds of studies, a National Research Council (NRC) committee "concluded that fluoride can subtly alter endocrine function, especially in the thyroid - the gland that produces hormones regulating growth and metabolism," reports Fagin.
Fagin quotes ohn Doull, professor emeritus of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, who chaired the NRC committee thusly, "The thyroid changes do worry me."
Fluoride in foods, beverages, medicines and dental products can result in fluoride over-consumption, visible in young children as dental fluorosis - white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted teeth. [Sodium fluoride is used as rat poison.-ED.]
Reports Fagin, "A series of epidemiological studies in China have associated high fluoride exposures with lower IQ."
Epidemiological studies and test on lab animals suggest that high fluoride exposure increases the risk of bone fracture, especially in vulnerable populations such as the elderly and diabetics," writes Fagin.
Fagin interviewed Steven Levy, director of the Iowa Fluoride Study, which tracked about 700 Iowa children for 16 years. None-year-old "Iowas children who lived in communities where the water was fluoridated were 50% more likely to have mild fluorosis... than nine-year-old children living in nonfluoridated areas of the state," Writes Fagin. Levy will study fluoride's effects on their bones.
Over 1,200 professionals are urging Congress to cease water fluoridation and conduct Congressional hearing because scientific evidence indicates fluoridation is ineffective and has serious health risks. Support them by writing to your representative.
"Genetic, environmental and even cultural factors appear to leave some people much more susceptible to the effects of fluoride," writes Fagin.
"What the NRC committee found is what we've gone with
the status quo regarding fluoride ... for too long ... and now
we need to take a fresh look," Doull says, "In the scientific
community, people tend to think that it's settled ... But when
we looked at the studies that have been done, we found that many
of these questions are unsettled and we have much less information
than we should, considering how long this fluoridation has been
going on. I think that's why fluoridation is still being challenged
so many years after it began. In the face of ignorance, controversy
is rampant.
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While the mainstream media continues to focus on the Democratic presidential horse race between Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), an ongoing court case charging massive campaign finance fraud on the part of Mrs. Clinton's Senate campaign has largely been ignored by the corporate-owned press in the United States.
So far, Mrs. Clinton has been shielded from charges that her Senate campaign in 2000 knowingly falsified Federal Election Commission (FEC) financial statements to hide over $1 million in illegal donations. Instead, Justice Department lawyers have converged on lower-level staff members, dragging them into court to testify regarding the accusations of fraud.
David Rosen, her former finance director, has been the only individual to have been indicted for violations. He was eventually found guilty and fined $35,000.
FBI investigators have focused on an Aug. 12, 2000, fundraiser and concert held by California media mogul Peter Paul who provided more than $1.1 million in "in-kind contributions"—goods and services provided for free or below cost. According to FEC law, goods and services constitute donations and must be declared in quarterly statements.
The FBI said that it had evidence that Mrs. Clinton's campaign willfully understated its fund-raising costs so it would have more money to spend on the campaign.
Paul himself has testified that he donated over a million dollars to the Clinton campaign and that these donations were never reported to the FEC. Also, Mrs. Clinton's treasurer, Andrew Grossman, has admitted under oath that he knowingly filed false FEC statements and may face charges in the future, too.
The case has been ongoing for a number of years now, but the mainstream press has yet to mention it.
The Justice Department stated early on that neither Mrs. Clinton, nor former President Bill Clinton, who played a role in her campaign, will face prosecution or be forced to testify in the case. The U.S. Justice Foundation (USFJ), a non-profit legal group, has filed a civil lawsuit against the Clintons, on behalf of Paul, seeking to compel the Clintons to testify under oath about the role they played in the scandal.
In 2004, the USJF went before the California Supreme Court to argue that it should go to trial. The state's highest court ruled that the case should proceed, and it has been working its way up the courts since then.
The Clintons, who, according to tax returns have amassed a fortune worth $109 million, have fielded a division of high-priced lawyers to keep a tight lid on the case. But court watchers are optimistic that Mrs. Clinton may be forced to state under oath whether she played a role in falsifying official financial statements.
To some Democratic Party insiders, this latest scandal has only solidified the long-held view that the Clintons are vindictive liars, who are willing to sacrifice even longtime supporters in order to keep their hold on power.
Is it fear that has prompted such loyalty among staffers—even to the point of risking fines and prison sentences? The Clintons are well known for maliciously retaliating against those who undermine their "integrity." Even today, her presidential campaign is notorious for pressing media outlets to fire reporters who write critical pieces about the two.
Author Victor Thorn, in his latest book, Hillary (and Bill): The Sex Volume, has produced one of the most exhaustive accounts of the intimidation, the smear jobs and the retribution the Clintons and their powerful machine have engaged in over the years. While Thorn's book is not for the faint of heart, it is the unvarnished truth about this power couple that has so far managed to evade substantial charges levied against them for campaign fraud. [Hillary (And Bill) : The Sex Volume is available from FIRST AMENDMENT BOOKS for $30, #3002.]
Christopher J. Petherick is the former editor of American Free Press owner and publisher of Brandywine House Books & Media. Visit his web site, BrandywineHouse.us, for information on his books.
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MEMBERS OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY Committee have criticized the Department of Homeland Security for pressuring balky states to adopt new federally approved drivers licenses, with one accusing Secretary Michael Chertoff of "bullying" the states into compliance under a threat of blocking citizens' travel.
"We ought to engage in a fairer, more productive negotiated rule-making with the states," Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, said. "Maybe people want to have a national ID card in their state. In my state, they don't."
The hearing dealt with a range of homeland security issues, from the border fence to the backlog in the naturalization process. But the discussion kept returning to the initiative for a uniform drivers license, known as the Real ID program.
"Bullying the states is not the answer, nor is threatening their citizens' rights to travel," Leahy said. "From Maine to Montana, states have said no."
Seventeen states have passed bills or resolutions rejecting Real ID. More need to join the fight.
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TEXANS UNITING FOR REFORM and Freedom (TURF) marched up
Congress Avenue and held a big rally on the capitol steps in Austin
April 5, short circuiting an apparent underhanded effort to suppress
grassroots turnout against the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC).
This is the second straight year that ranchers and various other opponents have converged on Austin to passionately voice their opposition to the TTC, or NAFTA Superhighway, an invasive mega-tollway network that would carve out at least 584,000 acres of Texas land, forcing most landowners to sell their properties at a big loss.
With at least two main arteries (TTC-69 and TTC-35) and numerous offshoots, the overall TTC would have 4,000-plus miles of pavement in Texas alone—with its huge main sections about a quarter-mile wide, including rail and utility lines—and would fan out across the United States, forever changing the face of the nation.
The TTC actually is a transnational highway system for the contemplated North American Union, designed to meld Mexico, the U.S. and Canada together as one big, happy family.
According to a TURF news release provided before the rally, this organization had received calls from panicked TTC opponents who had heard some residents claim that TTC-69 has been stopped.
"Senate Finance Committee Chairman Senator Steve Ogden told Walker County Commissioner, B.J. Gaines, that the Trans Texas Corridor I-69 project is over, scrapped . . ." the news release stated. "The word is spreading like wildfire among elected officials in the path of TTC-69, including the mayor of Kendleton, just in time to tell constituents: ‘There's no need to attend that rally in Austin this weekend since the TTC-69 project is over.'"
But TURF leader Terri Hall, a San Antonio resident who recently appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs national news program to explain the threat the TTC poses to land ownership and national sovereignty, noted that there's no reason to believe the TTC has been scrapped.
"At this juncture, it's naïve to believe word-one from politicians or TxDOT, an agency run amok, that is misusing our taxpayer money to lobby in favor of the TransTexas Corridor and prone to $1 billion in accounting errors. The TTC-69 public comment period isn't even completed yet, and the environmental hearings were completed only weeks ago, and now they're trying to convince taxpayers the project is dead? Who are they kidding?"
Hall told AFP that despite the apparent effort of Kendleton Mayor Carolyn Jones to suppress turnout, a delegation of perhaps a dozen people from that city attended the rally to protest the TTC. If ever completed, the TTC would set the stage for applying tolls to freeways, because freeways provide a non-toll alternative that could doom the TTC mega-tollway plan. The TTC would be operated by a Spanish firm known as Cintra that would reap the profits while partnering with U.S. politicians to ensure that eminent domain and law enforcement powers are wielded.
Hank Gilbert, TURF board member and rally coordinator, wants certifiable proof the TTC is dead, whenever that day may come. He was quoted as saying in the TURF news release: "The claim the TTC-69 project is over is an underhanded, 11th-hour dirty trick to sabotage the people's right to protest this project, and we're asking (that) every state law, every Transportation Commission Minute Order, every local Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and tolling authority plan authorizing the Trans Texas Corridor be immediately revoked in writing. Until that's done, we're pressing ahead. It's clear we can't trust a word that comes out of the mouths of TxDOT or politicians."
The April 5 rally was well-attended. "It was great; it was several thousand people like last year," said Hall, whose other group, the San Antonio Toll Party, held a meeting attended by AFP in January, where various plans were announced, including an ongoing effort to encourage anti-TCC, anti-toll candidates to run for public office at all levels.
The "Don't Mess with Texas TURF, Stop the TTC & Tolls Rally" included various speakers, such as representatives of the Teamsters, Eagle Forum, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, Oklahoma State Sen. Randy Brogdon (who passed legislation to stop the TTC from coming through his state), and local leaders, including Mae Smith, the mayor of Holland, Texas. She heads the state's first-ever sub-regional Planning Commission.
That group seeks to put a roadblock in the way of TTC-35. Such local units, organized under state law, can help form a tighter network against the TTC. Rallies are all good and well, but they may or may not convince TTC-backers in the legislature and elsewhere to back down, said Mayor Smith. Therefore, as she told AFP, she formed the East-Central Regional Planning Commission in August of 2007.
On Jan. 31, 2008, Ms. Smith and the mayors of three other nearby cities in Bell County informed officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the Texas Transportation Department (TxDOT), in their estimation, is skipping steps in the environmental impact study that is being carried out and includes public hearings across Texas.
AFP attended an early-February public hearing in McAllen, Tex., where local officials and others with a vested interest supported the TTC, but most of the citizens spoke against it or were skeptical. Many of the local officials, such as McAllen Mayor Mike Perez, believe that the TTC would help boost local economies. Smith observed that some major cities (McAllen is a large city on the Mexican border) may see some residual benefits, but the bigger picture is what matters, she said.
Smith—whose regional commission includes Holland businessman Ralph Snyder and a school board member from each town—says it's vitally important for many more such commissions to form and band together to halt the TTC. But, to be fair, she added that anti-TTC people need to be ready to explain to TxDOT that there are legitimate alternatives, such as expanding existing freeways, that would be genuine infrastructure improvements.
Helping TxDOT re-focus its efforts would steer it away from pushing the TTC, which—if ever shoved into the "heart of Texas"—will usher in an even bigger invasion of Chinese/Asian goods, hauled via truck and rail into the U.S., starting at Mexican seaports and heading north—flooding the U.S. with even more sub-quality, often hazardous products (and onward to Canada).
The implications for consumer and public safety—with these shoddy products hauled in aboard often-substandard Mexican trucks—are enormous, along with the fact that the ongoing implementation of NAFTA that the TTC signals will continue to unravel the already critically ill American economy that needs its thrifty middle class restored if it's ever to truly prosper.
With people such as Terri Hall, Mae Smith and several others keeping up the pressure, America has a chance. For, as many observers have noted, it is in Texas where the TTC's funeral must be held. It cannot be allowed to take root there, lest the NAFTA network spread like a cancer across the nation, tearing asunder what little remains of U.S. manufacturing with the infusion of imports made by ultra-cheap labor, against which American goods cannot compete—since U.S. goods are saturated with huge tax and regulatory costs that stifle production and must be passed on to the consumer.
Mark Anderson is the author of The Ron Paul Revolution, AFP's special report we are encouraging everyone to distribute. For more on how you can help Ron Paul expand his influence, click here.
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Just what kind of "change" is Barack Obama offering and just how much influence has his wife, Michelle had over him in their married life the past two decades? It appears that Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama does not look into a crowd of Obama supporters and see Americans. She sees black people and white people, eternally conflicted with one another.
In her senior thesis at Princeton University, Michelle LaVaughn, the future wife of the Democratic presidential candidate, stated that America was a nation founded on "crime and hatred." Moreover, she stated that whites in America were "ineradicably racist."
The 1985 thesis, entitled Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community, was written under her maiden name, Michelle LaVaughn. Michelle Obama writes that the path she chose by attending Princeton would likely lead to her "further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society, never becoming a full participant."
Not only does she see separate black and white societies in America, but emphatically elevates black over white in her world. As first lady, would she insist the White House be painted black? That's been a standard joke in this venue since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, but this next ominous quote from her thesis suggests that she would in fact urge her husband toward just such an extreme position.
"There was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the black community, I am obligated to this community and will utilize all of my present and future resources to benefit the black community first and foremost."
She seems to justify those feelings with what she claims to see on the other side of the issue: "Predominantly white universities like Princeton are socially and academically designed to cater to the needs of the white students, comprising the bulk of their enrollments."
Michelle added in her thesis that to "whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, [I] will always be black first." However, it was reported by a fellow black classmate, "if those ‘whites at Princeton ‘ really saw Michelle as one who always would ‘be black first,' it seems that she gave them that impression."
Michelle Obama's poll of black alumni concludes that other black former students at Princeton do not share her obsession with blackness. But rather than celebrate, she is horrified that black alumni identify with our common American culture more than they value the color of their skins.
"I hoped that these findings would help me conclude that despite the high degree of identification with whites as a result of the educational and occupational path that black Princeton alumni follow, the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the black community. However, these findings do not support this possibility," she wrote.
Most black alumni ignored her racist questionnaire. Only 89 students responded, out of 400 who were asked for input.
The thesis provides a trove of Mrs. Obama's thoughts and world view seen through a race-based prism. For a potential first lady, this is a very divisive view that would do untold damage to race relations in this country in a Barack Hussein Obama administration.
During this presidential election year in which the term "transparency" has been frequently bandied about, candidates have buried a number of potentially revealing documents and papers. In Hillary Rodham Clinton's case, there's been a clamoring for tax records, White House memos and other material the candidate's team has chosen to keep from release.
The 96-page, 1985 Princeton thesis, restricted from release by the school's Mudd Library, has also been the subject of recent scrutiny. Commentator Jonah Goldberg remarked on National Review Online, "A reader in the know informs me that Michelle Obama's thesis is unavailable until Nov. 5, 2008, at the Princeton library. I wonder why."
"Why a restricted thesis?" asked Pastor Louis Lapides
on his website,
Thinking Outside the Blog. "Is the concern based on what's
in the thesis? Will Michelle Obama appear to be too black for
white America or not black enough for black America?"
Will an Obama administration really offer constructive "change" or just an intellectually refined racism?
Pat Shannan is the assistant editor of American Free Press. He has been working in the alternative news business for more than 30 years.
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The now-famous cell phone calls from author Barbara Olson to her solicitor general husband, Ted, from the ill-fated Flight 77 on Sept. 11, have been exposed as a "tall tale." Ted Olson has been refuted by at least three separate Official reports.
On the afternoon of Sept. 11, the solicitor general of the United States called CNN to report that his wife had called hi twice via her cell phone from Flight 77 before it allegedly crashed into the Pentagon. This report seemed suspect from the outset, not only because cell phones lacked the range to operate at all from high in the sky in 2001, but also, many wondered, how callous can a "grieving" husband be to volunteer such a report only hours after learning of his wife's untimely death?
The technology to enable cell phone calls from high-altitude airline flights was not created until 2004
Barbara Olson had been an author and well-known commentator on CNN. The report that she died in a plane that had been hijacked by Arab Muslims was an important factor in getting the nation's support for the bush administration's "war on terror." Ted Olson's report was important in still another way, being the sole source of the widely promoted idea that the hijackers used box cutters to take over the plane.
However, although Ted Olson's report of phone calls from his wife has been a central pillar of the official account of 9-11, this report has been debunked.
Olson began this process of undermining by means of self-contradictions. He contradicted his initial claim on September 14, telling Hannity and Colmes that she had reached him by calling the Department of Justice collect. Therefore, she must have been using the "airplane [passenger-seat] phone," he surmised, because "she somehow didn't have access to her credit cards." However, this version of Olson's story, besides contradicting his firs version, was equally impossible because a credit card is needed to activate a passenger-seat phone.
Later that same day, Olson told Larry King Live that the second call from his wife suddenly went dead because "the signals from cell phones coming from airplanes don't work that well." After that return to his first version, he finally settled on the second version, saying that his wife had called collect and hence must have used "the phone in the passengers' seats."
By finally settling on this story, Olson avoided a technological pitfall, given the cell Phone system employed in 2001. (Olson's statement about the signals from cell phones on airplanes "don't work that well" was a considerable understatement).
However, Olson's second story was another self-inflicted shot in the foot.
A 9-11 researcher noticed that AA's website indicated that its 757s do not have passenger-seat phones. After he wrote to ask if that had been the case on Sept.11, 2001, an AA customer service representative replied: "That is correct; we do not have phones on our Boeing 757. The passengers on Flight 77 used their own personal cellular phones to make out-calls during the terrorist attack."
In response to this revelation, defenders of the official story replied that Ted Olson was evidently right the first time: she had used her cell phone. However, the FBI then blew away any hope of that being true with the most serious official contradiction of all.
The evidence presented at the 2006 trial of the so-called "20th hijacker" by the FBI included a report on phone calls from all four 9-11 flights. In its report on American Flight 77, the FBI attributed only one call to Barbara Olson, and it was an"unconnected call," which lasted "0 seconds." according to the FBI, then, Ted Olson did not receive a single call from his wife using either a cell phone or an onboard phone.
Back on 9-11, the FBI itself had interviewed Olson. A report of that interview indicates that Olson told the FBI agents that his wife had called him twice from Flight 77. Isn't that what sent Martha Stewart to jail - lying to FBI agents?
This was an amazing development: The FBI is part of the Department of Justice, and yet its report undermined the well-publicized claim of the DOJ's former solicitor general that he received two calls from his wife on 9-11.
Even the historians who wrote Pentagon 9/11 rejected the Olson tale that the 5'5 and %'7 hijackers could have "herded the 60-odd passengers and personnel to the rear of the plane with only knives and box cutters as weapons," saying that the whole story simply did not make any sense. They wrote that "the attackers either incapacitated or murdered the two pilots."
According to retired university professor and truth seeker David Ray Griffin, this rejection of Ted Olson's story by American Airlines, the Pentagon, and especially the FBI's sworn court testimony, is a development of utmost importance. Without the alleged calls from Barbara Olson, there is no evidence that Flight 77 (which had presumably reached Ohio and almost Kentucky) returned to Washington. Also, if Ted Olson's claim was false, then there are only two possibilities: Either he lied, or he was duped by someone using voice-morphing technology to pretend to be his wife. In either case, the official story about the calls from Barbara Olson was based on deception. And if that part of the official account of 9-11 was based on deception, should not other parts be suspect?
The fact that Ted Olson's report has been contradicted by other defenders of the official line about 9-11 provides ample grounds for demanding a new investigation. This internal contradiction is, moreover, only one of 25 such contradictions discussed in Dr. Griffin's recent DVD 9-11 - The Myth and the Reality.
Barbara Olson's unfavorable book about the Clintons, The Final Days - The Last, Desperate Abuses of Power was about to go to press at the time of her death. Hillary Clinton tried pulling every string she could find to stop the publication but to no avail. Today, the condensed version (165 pages) of the book is available for free reading on the Internet.
Meanwhile, the question is: what happened to Barbara Olson
and the other victims?
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Five former secretaries of state met in Athens, Ga. recently to formulate bipartisan foreign policy suggestions for the next president. All five former secretaries (Powell, Kissinger, Albright, Baker and Christopher) agreed on two important recommendations: The U.S. should open a dialogue with Iran, and the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay should be closed.
The first recommendation is a no-brainer, but it will have to wait for a new president because the only kind of diplomacy the Bush Administration understands is gunboat diplomacy. The second recommendation (closing the prison camp at Gitmo), should begin immediately. Guantanamo prison, and what has transpired there during George Bush's war of terror, is an embarrassment to America.
"It gives us a very, very bad name, not just internationally. I have a great deal of difficulty understanding how we can hold someone, pick someone up, particularly someone who might be an American citizen—even if they were caught somewhere abroad, acting against American interests—and hold them without ever giving them an opportunity to appear before a magistrate," said James Baker, secretary of state under George H.W. Bush.
Other nations have suffered terrorist attacks during the years since Sept. 11, 2001. In many cases, they have caught the terrorists, tried them in criminal court, convicted them and put them in prison. The Bush administration has spent those same years trying to invent new ways to withhold the normal protections of our judicial system from the hundreds of prisoners who have been held at Guantanamo.
Now, the Bush administration is preparing to compound the tragedy by putting on show-trials of six high-profile prisoners during the run-up to the elections in November. These will be nothing like the trials we are accustomed to seeing—where both sides see the evidence and it is possible that the defendant might be found innocent. These trials will be conducted under the rules of the Military Commissions Act, which was foolishly passed by Congress to keep from being labeled "soft on terrorism."
These tribunals will routinely deny the defendants due process. They may proceed without the defendant. The secretary of defense will pick the judges, hearsay evidence and evidence obtained without a warrant are admissible. Defendants are not allowed to see all the evidence against them, and defense attorneys cannot meet with clients without a government monitor and are not even permitted to keep their notes of the meetings.
The Military Commissions Act does not allow evidence obtained by torture, but this is not a problem for the upcoming show-trials because none of the evidence was extracted by torture. Even though our government has admitted that evidence was obtained by waterboarding prisoners, President Bush has plainly stated that "we do not torture"—therefore: waterboarding must not be torture in the Bush world view).
In some of these cases, government prosecutors have had years to prepare for upcoming show-trials. The defense has not been so lucky.
"The military is speeding ahead with plans to try six men at Guantanamo Bay for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks but none of the defendants, who face possible execution if found guilty, has seen a defense lawyer yet," Associated Press reported.
According to Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, who successfully represented Salim Hamdan in the case Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld, the Office of Military Commissions has no attorneys who are qualified to handle death-penalty cases. He says:
"The government seems to almost intentionally ensure that there [are] not sufficient assets to put on a credible defense."
Even though Guantanamo prison is a military installation, and the trials are called military tribunals, it is the Bush administration that is pushing the agenda—not the military. Several honorable officers have voiced concerns about the fairness of the legal proceedings at Guantanamo.
"I expected there would at least be a minimal effort to establish a fair process and diligently prepare cases against significant accused. Instead, I find a halfhearted and disorganized effort by a skeleton group of relatively inexperienced attorneys to prosecute fairly low-level accused in a process that appears to be rigged.. . . You have repeatedly said to the office that the military panel will be handpicked and will not acquit these detainees and that we only needed to worry about building a record for the review panel," said Capt. John Carr (USAF), in an e-mail sent to supervisors in the Office of Military Commissions in March 2004.
Capt. Carr, along with Air force Officers Maj. Robert Preston and Capt. CarrieWolf, requested transfers to other assignments, rather than participate in the charade of justice at Guantanamo.
Prosecutors will have one big advantage: They can't lose. Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Morris Davis, who was the chief U.S. prosecutor for the Guantanamo military commissions, told The Nation that "the trials are rigged from the start" and "the process has been manipulated by administration appointees in an attempt to foreclose the possibility of acquittal."
Col. Davis described what happened when he mentioned the possibility of an acquittal to the Pentagon general counsel William Haynes (a political appointee who was overseeing both the prosecution and the defense for military tribunal commissions):
"[Haynes's] eyes got wide, and he said, ‘Wait a minute, we can't have acquittals. If we've been holding these guys for so long, how can we explain letting them get off? We can't have acquittals; we've got to have convictions.'" Davis resigned a few hours after being informed that he had been placed in a chain of command under Haynes.
In the event that a miracle occurred, and a defendant is found not guilty, the administration reserves the right to hold "enemy combatants" for the duration of hostilities—even if they are acquitted by the military commission. Since most of the prisoners at Guantanamo have been declared "enemy combatants" and there is no end to Bush's "war on terror," you can bet that no defendant is going to be released during the Bush administration—innocent or not.
There probably are terrorists and murderers in Guantanamo prison, but there are also poor slobs who are guilty of nothing except being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or were turned in to American forces for the big rewards that were offered.
Mick Youther is a retired researcher from Southern Illinois Univ.
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Americans should heed the urgings of Mark Sanford (R) a former House member and current governor of Georgia, who is urging Americans to prod their lawmakers into debating REAL ID, pointing out that the revolutionary, Constitution-defying legislation passed as an amendment to a major bill without hearings or debate.
REAL ID "never saw committee debate in the House and Senate, and passed as nothing more than a rider, an attachment to a bill devoted to tsunami relief and military personnel fighting in the Middle East," Sanford wrote in a Washington Times commentary.
"I hope you'll join me in making your voice heard for truly debating this issue," he said.
"REAL ID would surreptitiously require all 50 states to change their drivers licenses to act as de facto national ID cards . . . the cost of REAL ID, and the national ID card system that would come with it, would not be borne by the federal government but handed to the states and individuals," Sanford wrote.
"I find it amazing now that Washington has stacked up $50 trillion in debts, which amount to $450,000 per household, that their idea of keeping those promises rests on handing the bill to others," he said.
"Our greatest homeland security is liberty, and the Founding Fathers believed our greatest threat to liberty was a central government grown too powerful," he said. "Accordingly, they set up checks on federal power by vesting authority at the individual and state levels. REAL ID disrupts this delicate balance of power in two ways. First, it turns the Founders' logic on its head by forcing states to act as agents for the federal government in creating a national ID card for federal purposes. Needing a REAL ID card to board a plane or enter a federal building would also change the balance of power in something as seemingly insignificant as a visit to a member of Congress."
REAL ID "falsely assumes our personal information will be safer in one spot in Washington rather than housed independently across 50 separate states," he wrote. "In the last couple of years, Washington has exposed the personal information of as many as 40 million Americans—-not to mention the presidential candidates—to potential theft."
To err is human, "But if you accept the reality that mistakes do happen and that bad people do hack into spots they aren't suppose to access, does it really make sense to put all this information into a central database?" he asked.
"A host of loopholes would in many ways render this bill
an inconvenience and cost to Americans—not the bad guys it
is intended for," Sanford said. "These range from REAL
ID having no impact in travelers with foreign passports to the
recent affirmation by the federal government that no form of ID
is needed to board a plane. In short, there are many faults in
this bill that could be sorted were there debate in Washington
on REAL ID."
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&
Pat Shannan Ron Paul supporters who swarmed the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol for the April 15 Freedom Rally came from near and far.
One dynamic duo from Maryland, Mike Hargadon and Collins Bailey, are both running for Congress on Paul's platform. In fact, four of the eight people seeking House seats representing Maryland are on board with Paul on at least most issues.
Both won their GOP primaries and are cautiously optimistic that they may prevail in the November general election versus the Democratic incumbents. Bailey takes on U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, who has been in the House since 1980; and Hargadon is challenging Rep. Elijah Cummings.
They are optimistic partly because Congress is suffering from a low approval rating of 14%, according to a poll they cited. Any incumbent in Congress is not altogether popular in the first place, they reason.
Still, Bailey lamented that the American people too often are brainwashed by a corporate media bent on playing favorites and goading the people into voting for the "projected winner." Bailey recalled that he saw a statewide New Hampshire exit poll showing Paul would have won, provided you count the many people who paradoxically said they voted for McCain but would have preferred Paul, a classic case of the media-generated "projected winner" syndrome.
"We've got to get the American people to stand on principle and stop looking at elections like horse races," Bailey said.
Bailey and Hargadon agreed that since some state's primaries are mere preference polls, then Paul supporters at county and state GOP conventions can make some serious inroads (as many have in Washington state and Missouri) to challenge the rules so delegates are not necessarily bound to Sen. John McCain. They also said a number of people in other states are running for office in Paul's spirit—a spirit that was clearly evident among the several hundred at the rally during its peak.
That spirit erupted loudly when the standard bearer, Ron Paul himself, spoke at the rally around 11:30 a.m., earlier than expected. He and his wife, Carol, were swarmed by autograph-seekers as the congressman made his way to the stage, where the patriotic rock band Pokerface later performed.
Paul briefly spoke of the need to eliminate federal income taxes and maximize freedom for the American people, among other issues.
"This is a day of remembrance," Paul said, referring to the infamous April 15 tax day. He said the government needs to realize that "the money we earn is our own." However, about 100 years ago, he said the U.S. government decided to start policing the world and telling others how to live. Soon, heavy taxation came along to underwrite this hegemonic approach.
"That concept is wrong . . . and un-American," he said. He believes America needs "a free market, sound money and to mind our own business. . . ."
He added that there are a lot of Americans are waking up and need to be mindful that the results of the Republican National Convention in September, whatever they may be, are not the be-all and end-all of the national awakening, meaning that everyone must stay the course and do their part over the long haul.
"Great countries and empires come to an end for financial reasons," he said, as the audience, many of whom were younger adults, repeatedly cheered. "What we don't need is more management from the government; what we need is government to get out of the way. The system we have today divides us because everybody is clawing over a shrinking pie."
Wanda Case came from North Carolina, where she has been a Ron Paul Meetup Group member in Asheville since early in Paul's presidential campaign, which has been stymied by near nonexistent mainstream media coverage. Still, Paul has remained in the race because his supporters, such as Case, want him to do so.
"I first saw him in the Aaron Russo film," she said, referring to the late filmmaker's documentary, America: From Freedom to Fascism. The next thing Ms. Case knew, she was supporting Paul vigorously. In fact, she sang the national anthem for the Freedom Rally.
"I sang for the Ron Paul rally in Greenville (N.C.) in July 2007," she recalled. "That's where I met the Granny Warriors, and they contacted me and asked me to come and sing the anthem at this rally."
College student Erica Sapp of West Virginia said she has learned a whole lot in a year's time, going from a political neophyte to a well-informed person who now bears the burden of knowing lots of scary things about our troubled nation.
"I wasn't interested in politics until one of my friends turned me on to him (Ron Paul)," she said, adding that, since then, the questions and facts about the 9-11 attacks, about the risks of government-mandated fluoride in the public water supply and other matters are, taken as a whole, unsettling.
Brent Sams, 25, of North Carolina, admitted that Dr. Paul cured him of his support for Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who dropped out of the GOP race. "I started realizing the views I have fall in line with Paul more than any politician I had ever looked at. I mean no NAFTA, get out of NATO and the U.N., and no North American Union."
Huckabee, he said, revealed himself as a "big-government conservative."
AFP talked to people from numerous states, and all shared the ubiquitous concern that Ron Paul has been blacklisted from coverage by the national media. Almost as many were cognizant of the computer vote fraud going on behind the scenes but frustrated as to what to do about it.
"We still have the fervor but have lost the momentum," said Marci Ann of Michigan, speaking of her home state. "It seems that everyone gave up after the primary was over. And of course, the lack of media coverage hasn't helped either, but we need to keep after those delegates' seats."
There are 66 delegates in Pennsylvania that are "unbound," Andrew from Bucks County said. This means they are free to vote for Ron Paul (or anyone else) and not bound to cast a vote for John McCain at the convention.
"There are several other states that have those same rules," shouted Kathryn over the din, but she wasn't sure which ones they were. "But people from all states should check to see because they may be surprised to learn that their own delegates are not bound to McCain, either."
Michael Moresso pedaled his bicycle 3,500 miles across country from Santa Monica, Calif. in time to campaign for Ron Paul in New Hampshire in January and has been roaming the East Coast attending the various primaries since then.
"Oh, I can tell you that Ron Paul is definitely the people's choice," said Moresso. "His signs dominated every state I went through. Matter of fact, I don't remember seeing a single McCain sign anywhere. There may be a few up by now but not then."
True to form, no news people from The Washington Post or The
(allegedly conservative)Washington Times were visible at the scene
and none from the local TV stations in the surrounding areas.
Both newspapers
and broadcasters ignored the rally. All would have heavily covered
a pro-abortion rally.
Recently, a subscriber wrote that, according to the Book of Revelation: "The anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40s . . . who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a massive Christ-like appeal. The prophecy says that people will flock to him, and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything. Is it Obama?"
Mark Anderson may be reached at truthhound2@yahoo.com.
Pat Shannan may be reached at oceaniainvestigations@hotmail.com.
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When NATO meets in Paris in June for a summit on Afghanistan, there could be a secret deal on the table that will offer a way out of a war in which the U.S. and its allies have become increasingly bogged down.
Much to the dismay of Washington war planners, there has been a growing weariness in Europe with the Afghan conflict and reluctance by NATO members to expand troop commitments. This past year, Pentagon chiefs have consistently complained that European allies have not been pulling their weight at a time when it is vital to throw more troops into the fight against a resurgent Taliban, and a re-formed al Qaeda, whose leadership is based somewhere in the tribal lands between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Talk of a secret deal emerged during the recent NATO summit in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, when member nations were given a classified dossier outlining a German-inspired strategy for a reduction in troop levels leading to a phased withdrawal. The proposal conflicted strongly with the views of Pentagon military chiefs who have long argued that a resolution of the conflict could take decades. They believe that, like Iraq, Afghanistan might require a U.S.-NATO presence without a time limit.
For some observers, the shifting German position on Afghanistan was predictable because the German public has consistently made it clear it is opposed to a long-term military commitment. During a NATO summit in Holland last year, Germany's defense minister, Franz Joseph Jung, hinted at building up the Afghan security forces as a prelude to troop withdrawals, but he was careful not to elaborate or provide a timescale. But, in the wake of this latest summit, reports indicated that the secret German dossier went further, pointing to a need to build, train and equip an Afghan army and police force to take over from NATO.
Some of the proposals were said to fall into line with a British policy advocating intensive training of the Afghan military, the planning for a robust police force to combat organized crime and terrorism and the creation of an independent judiciary.
The British, however, have been reluctant to predicate their proposals on any hint of an exit strategy. Nonetheless, Germany's apparent willingness to set the groundwork for a phased withdrawal could find favor with NATO countries that are reluctant to commit to a long-term engagement in Afghanistan.
Another unusual aspect of the Bucharest summit was the background role played by Russia, which experienced its own Vietnam when it occupied Afghanistan. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent summit members an offer that would allow NATO to ship food and "non-lethal military equipment" for its Afghan forces across Russian territory, thus avoiding treacherous routes through Pakistan.
The Pakistani routes have begun to prove hazardous for NATO food and oil convoys, with 40 oil tankers destroyed in a recent attack.
A curious aspect of the Russian offer was that Russia also made it on behalf of six neighboring countries, including Uzbekistan, through which NATO convoys would have to pass after exiting Russia en route to northern Afghanistan. Those countries come under Russia's NATO alternative, the CSTO—Collective Security Treaty Organization. By making the offer, President Putin was in effect indicating that NATO needed a closer partnership with Russia. Putin and his advisers had carefully studied NATO's logistical difficulties and the fact that the Taliban had identified most of NATO's transit routes through Pakistan, making it easy to hit NATO supply lines.
In particular, the Taliban had been zeroing in on the major Pakistan-Afghanistan crossing point at Torkham, thereby interrupting important supply convoys. When Putin made his offer he was equally aware of a growing concern within NATO about the changing political climate in Pakistan and how, in the longer term, it could have a negative impact on NATO's reliance on Pakistan as a supply route.
If all of that was not enough to make the Bucharest summit a complex affair, there were calls from countries like Uzbekistan for a dialogue between the Afghan Northern Alliance led by Gen. Rashid Dostum and the Taliban. Dostum, with the help of U.S. Special Forces, crushed the Taliban at the outset of the U.S. invasion. His territory shares a border crossing with Uzbekistan, and both he and the Uzbekistani president, Islam Karimov, have benefitted tremendously from the heroin traffic that uses the crossing.
While the Pentagon still maintains good relations with Dostum,
it has no time for Karimov, who ordered the U.S. to leave bases
in his country after Washington diplomats condemned his killing
of hundreds of Muslim protesters in 2005. His regime has been
accused of boiling dissidents alive; yet several years ago he
visited the White House and signed a secret
pact with President George W. Bush. Aside from his proposal to
start talks with the Taliban, he also recommended involving neighboring
countries like China in a dialogue to find a solution to the Afghan
crisis.
While that may appeal to one or two NATO members, it will be dismissed by British and American leaders, who were dismayed to learn in Bucharest that the Northern Alliance was already engaged in a secret dialogue with the Taliban. The source for that information was none other than the Uzbek leader, Islam Karimov.
It now looks like NATO for the foreseeable future will be tied to Russia and countries like Uzbekistan for supply lines, and that could prove problematic, especially if men like Karimov choose to play a greater role in Afghan politics. For example, if NATO has to rely entirely on routes through Russia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tadzhikistan and Kyrgyzstan, it will make it difficult to exclude the leaders of those nations from demanding a role in forging an outcome to the Afghan conflict.
Richard Walker is the nom de plume of a former mainstream news producer who now writes for AFP so he can expose the kinds of subjects that he was forbidden to cover in the controlled press.
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