July 3, 2006
July 10, 2006
July 17 & 24, 2006
Whole Body Health
July 31, 2006
Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) was not the only congressman to speak out about a procedural measure (H. Res. 865) that blocked open debate on H.R. 5576, a massive appropriations bill funding multiple federal agencies and the Washington, D.C. government.
Matheson, however, was the sole lawmaker to direct his comments squarely at the automatic 2% cost-of-living pay raise legislators and other agency heads will be getting in fiscal year 2007.
Matheson's comments are provided below.
"I do not think it is appropriate to let this bill go through without an up-or-down vote on whether or not Congress should have an increase in its own pay. The effect of this legislation is that is exactly what is going to happen.
"Here we are in a circumstance where we continue to swim in a lake of red ink, $8 trillion now. Our debt is above that now. We just voted on a $94 billion supplemental earlier today. I don't think it is appropriate to have this cost increase, this increase in salary for members of Congress go through without an up-or-down vote. That is why I encourage my colleagues to oppose the [measure], because a "no" vote on the previous question will give members the opportunity to vote up or down on the automatic cost-of-living pay raise for members of Congress.
"If the previous question is defeated, I will offer an
amendment to this rule. My amendment will block the fiscal year
2007 cost-of-living pay raise for members of Congress. I urge
my colleagues to vote "no" on the previous question
so that we can have a debate and vote on this issue in the light
of day."
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Israel's long history of involvement in political assassinations in Lebanon was exposed when a Lebanese assassin confessed to working for Israeli intelligence and having killed a number of Lebanese and Palestinian resistance leaders.
A levanese man working for Mossad, Israel's military intelligence agency, confessed to having assassinated a number of senior members of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Palestinian resistence groups ove a seven-year period, according to a recent Reuters news report. The confession by the Lebanese assassin that he worked for Mossad is a significant confirmation that Israel has long been involved in carrying out political murders in Lebanon.
"Investigations by military intelligence showed that the terrorist network that was discovered had links to the Israeli Mossad for several years and that its members underwent training both inside Israel and outside," the army statement said.
/"The network was tasked by this agency [Mossad] with carrying out these operations and was given secret communication and monitoring devices for this purpose, along with detailed maps of the target," the army said, including "forged documents and bags with secret pockets."
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
The find included an Israeli camera that can take detailed photographs of streets while concealed within a bag and forged driving and identity documents which Rafah had received from Israel the army said.
The Lebanese army released television footage that showed quipment discovered at Rafah's house in the Lebanese town of Hasbaya, on the border with Israel, and in a chalet that it said had been used in the latest assassinations. The footage also showed an air conditioning unit and a large speaker with built-in secret cabinets that the army said were used to transport explosives used in the Sidon bombing. Other finds included a television cabinet and a table fitted with secret drawers to conceal coded messaging devices.
Numerous Palestinian and Hezhollah resistence leaders have been killed in Lebanon in attacks, which the organizations blamed on Israel.
Rafah admitted to the number of Ali Hasan Dib, a Hexhollah official, in 1999 in the southern town of Arba, the killing of another Hexbollah official in Beirut in 2003 and the killing of Jihad Ahmad Jibril, a Palestinian, in 2002, the army said. Jibril, who was killed in a car bombing in Beirut, was the son of Ahmad Jibril, head of the Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a Palestinian resistance group opposed to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Rafah also confessed to planting bombs that had either been
found and defused or missed their targets, the army statement
said.
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In a development that is raising wide concern and alarm, the United Nations General Assembly has moved to convene a conference scheduled for June 26 to July 6 on the reduction of small arms. Critics charge that the agenda will focus on reducing private ownership of firearms in member countries.
The gathering is identified by the UN as "the conference to review the progress made in the implementation of the program of action to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects." It will be open to any of the UN's member states, along with inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, but ot the U.S. public. The summit is being targeted by many Americans as an effective end run around domestic gun control measures, which have been stalled in Congress for the last few years.
The critics say, is because the conference has the potential of setting the stage for UN-mandated restrictions on firearm ownership, far beyond what is allowable under U.S. constitutional law. Groups involved in the UN arms control movement have long advocated that universal gun registration and strict licensing procedures be made mandatory for all UN member states.
Most prominent among the groups involved in the formation of the conference is the well-financed International Action Network on Small Arms, which is backed by internationalist financier George Soros.
The National Rifle Association has issued a strong warning to its entire membership to watch the event carefully. Speaking from NRA headquarters near Washington, D.C., the spokesman for the group, Andrew Arulanandam, assailed the conference as promoting an agenda that is contrary to the U.S. Constitution. He added that many of the countries involved have "a terrible history on freedom and democracy" and noted that the prospect of UN efforts resulting in mandated gun control policies are a real possibility.
Other groups closer to the scene also raised the issue this week. Bob Derrig, of Manhattan's West Side hun range, noted that gun control was a key part of most dictatorships such as Cambodia's Pol Pot and the Soviet Union's Josef Stalin.
An employee at the Senica Sport Range in nearby Queens, N.Y., agreed. "Why should other countries have say on Americans' rights?" he asked.
Several sources told AFP that the planned conference is a reconvening of a 2001 UN gun control conference, which caused such an uproar that the State Department was force to publicly rebuke the meeting. U.S. officials issued a statement to U.S. gun owners that the United States would not at that time be a party to any restrictions on domestic firearm ownership. The spokesman for State at the time was John Bolton, then the under secretary of state for arms control. Bolton is now the U.S. representative to the United Nations.
The UN Arms Control Agency, which answers public inquires on the upcoming meeting, says that the conference is oriented toward controlling the illegal trade in firearms. However, UN spokeswoman Pamela Maponga refused to disclose what interest groups would be participating or the number of delegates that will be present.
Local patriotic and pro-firearm associations say they are concerned that several major Second Amendment rights groups have yet to take any action on the matter. A survey of gun clubs and firearms-fights organizations revealed that there are no plans for protests, for distribution of literature or for contacting the mainstream media on the issue. A check also found that many local gun organizations did not even know that the UN conference was being held. One major firearm manufacturer in Brooklyn admitted this week that he had never heard of the conference.
Given the severity of the situation, many patriots are calling
for demonstrations to be held at the site of the conference in
New York and an emergency flood of protests to be registered with
lawmakers and the media.
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Let me ask you a question: Do you think you pay enough taxes? Throughout the year you paid federal taxes through withholding, including social Security payroll taxes. You also paid state income taxes, unless you're fortunate enough to live in Texas or another state without an income tax. You paid local property taxes. You paid local sales taxes every time you bought something, and yo paid numerous miscellaneous taxes such as vehicle license fees and federal gas taxes.
Like most people, you probably feel taxed to death by all these city, county, state and federal taxes. Well, hold on to your wallets, because the United Nations now wants to impose a whole new level of global taxes on us.
UN bureaucrats think rich nations like America ought to give more money to poor nations - a lot more - simply because we're rich. Never mind the billions of foreign aid tax dollars we send overseas every year; never mind the billions donated to overseas charities by Americans, the most charitable people on Earth
The UN mindset blames the western world for poverty everywhere, assuming that our relative wealth must have come at the expense of the third world. The poor countries themselves are never deemed responsible for their own predicaments, despite their often corrupt governments, lack of poverty rights and hostility toward wealth-producing capitalism. Somehow, it's always our fault. So the UN holds conferences to talk about how we should pay to make things right, and the idea of a UN tax naturally arises.
Understand that the UN views itself as the emerging global government, and like all governments, it needs money to operate. The goal, which the UN readily adits, is to impose a comprehensive set og global laws on all of us - laws that supersede sovereign national governments. To do this, the UN needs a global military, a global police force, international courts, offices around the globe, and plenty of highly-paid international bureaucrats. All of this costs money.
Rest assured that the UN is absolutely serious about imposing a global tax. In fact, it has been discussing a global currency tax for years. The "Tobin tax," named after the Yale professor who proposed it, would be imposed on all worldwide currency transactions. Such a tax could prove quite lucrative for the UN.
The Tobin tax is not the only idea being considered. Some have suggested taxing all airline travel or carbon emissions. The ultimate goal is an income tax, which will be imposed after we've all swallowed the concept of UN taxing authority.
Fortunately, the House of Representatives last week passed
my language in the 2007 Foreign Operations bill that prohibits
the Treasury from paying UN dues if the organization attempts
to implement or impose any kind of tax on U.S. citizens. But that
only protects us from another year. Given the stated goals of
the UN, it would be foolish to believe the idea of a global tax
will go away.
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Both the European and the Canadian media gave full and extensive coverage to this year's Bilderberg meeting in suburban Ottawa. Sadly, the U.S. media which likes to brag about its constitutionally guaranteed freedom, chose, as it has done for the last 10 years, to black out any news of the important meeting. It was the Canadian media, both print and electronic, that posed tough and obvious questions about the event.
There were advance stories about "reports" a secret meeting would take place while officials at the palatial Brookstreet Resort were still insisting that it was filled oly because of "big wedding parties." That's the same lie Bilderberg has generated for years.
There were lengthy stories and lavish photos gracing front pages and :"jumping" to inside pages, where more "sidebars" and photos appeared. Coverage continued every day with finhal stories appearing on Monday: June 12, the day after Bilderberg boys sneaked out of town.
Newspapermen and broadcasters, both TV and radio, hammered away daily, questioning the secrecy, or "Chatham House Rules," imposed by Bilderberg's global elite of international financiers and political leaders. Reporters and broadcasters constantly patrolled the road in front of Brookstreet, much to Bilderberg's annoyance.
Every effort Bilderberg made to keep its meeting secret backfired, resulting in more ink and airtime. Denying that the meeting would take place whetted the public's appetite for information when layers of guards sealed off Brookstreet on June 7 and long black limos began pulling up as helicopters hovered overhead.
The Ottawa Citizen, one of the oldest dailies in the country, never let up, carrying six long-range photos of Bilderbergers arriving on its front page with a story headlined "World's Elite Slip into Town for Secret Meeting" on June 9. The newspaper confronted Richard Perie on the arrival at the airport who said Bilderberg is a "private organization." The newspaper also quoted Danny Estulin, a journalist, a journalist operating out of Spain and this reporter on the ultimate goals of Bilderberg. Estulin and AFP have collaborated on Bilderberg coverage for years.
On June 8, it carried a detailed story suggesting that Terry Mathews, the millionaire owner of Brookstreet, may be trying to gain entry into the exclusive Bilderberg Group by providing the site for this year's meeting.
The Ottawa Citizen's farewell Bilderberg story on June 12 was entitled "Secretive Group's Departure as Low-Key as Arrival," featuring 21 photos of Bilderberg participants.
The Toronto Star carried a lengthy story June 9, featuring a large photo showing armed guards confronting a car at the gate. It raised less challenging questions but quoted me: "Some people say that I advocate a conspiracy theory That's not true. I recognize a conspiracy fact.
The French-language La Press also carried several stories as did The Post and Mail and several other newspapers.
Estulin and I were interviewed extensively on radio and television. Many questions dealt with the conspicuous absence of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who had attended one meeting in the past. Except in the United States, where every moment of a president's time is accounted for, the host country's head of state traditionally attend Bilderberg. An aide told me personally that Harper "does not like Bilderberg."
Less than a week after Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, warned Bilderberg of a hike in interest rates, finnders began championing the cause. Because inflation rose 0.3% in May, the Federal resrve Board may "feel forced to continue to raise rates," The Financial Times, which is always heavily represented at Bilderber, reported June 15, three days fter the secret meeting ended.
Inflation "does raise the probability of another rate rise in August," said Ian Hatzius, chief U.S. economist at Goldman Sachs, which has hd representatives Bilderberg for years.
The announcement on interest rates at this years bilderberg meeting contradicts statements made by U.S. Treasury secretary John Snow, who was attending a meeting of the Group of eight finance ministers in St. Petersburg, Russia.
"We see no major crises, no major economics in recession; we see strong growth and inflation well-contained," Snow said.
Snow's contradictory statement could set him up for calls for his ouster. President Bush had several close aides at Bilderberg, including Allan Hubbard, his assistant for economic policy.
OIL PRICES
On a happeir note, news reports following the meeting indicate that Bilderbergers, reacting to public outrage, will be implementing plans to keep oil prices at present or even slightly lower levels, which still result in immense profits.
The Financial Times Quoted John Browne, head of British Petroleum and a Bilderberg participant, on June 16: "We have plenty of oil capacity, not just for today but for tomorrow." The Times said "Lord Browne" made the comment "last week." It did not mention that "last week" Browne was attending Bilderberg.
"Oil prices remain close to 470 a barrel even though oil
inventories in the developed world rose to their highest levels
in more than 20 years in April, suggesting there is no shortage
of oil, " the Times reported.
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With an attendance of nearly 700 people, including a news crew from Italy and reporters from The New York Times, the 9/11 Truth Conference in Chicago, held earlier in June had visitors from coast to coast. Executive director of the project, Janice Matthews, of 911truth.org, said that the turnout was double what was expected.
More than 40 speakers explained why they believe the Sept 11 attack had to be an "inside job," and attendees returned home with a whole new perspective on the tragedy than was ever presented on TV or in the newspapers.
One of the featured speakers Jim Marrs of Texas, called it "the dumbest conspiracy theory of all time."
Marrs, the author of multiple books, defined his own description of the government's theory:
They want us to believe that 19 Middle Eastern terrorists using pocket knives hijacked four planes at the same time, without ever being registered on the flights' various manifests, flew under the radar with only minimal flight training , zeroed in on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon without interference from NORAD, the most sophisticated protective system on Earth, and killed themselves because of their love for Allah and their hatred for our freedoms...and the whole operation was directed by a rich guy with a computer hiding in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan. Now there is a conspiracy theory to top all conspiracy theories.
Another, Steven Jones, a physics professor at Brigham Young University, explained to the crowd why he believes the WTC towers were brought down with "pre-positioned cutter charges."
AFP has interviewed Jones on several occasions.
Jesse Richard, founder, editor, researcher and spokesman for TvNewsLies.org provided 90 minutes of fascinating insight into how the news media continues to deceive the public with misinformation and disinformation. Richard coined a new term, "Foxymoron," to describe the neo-conservative slant of the "fair and balanced" reports at Fox "News." Citing his own research and work done by publications such as AFP, Richard said, "We are not the alternative media but the only legitimate media."
Prior to the function's Friday evening kickoff, California congressional candidate Carol Brouillet of Palo Alto organized and led the 200-strong delegation of protesters who marched near the federal courts and other government building at Daley Plaza.
At the same time, Texas radio talk show host Alex Jones admonished the thousands of downtown office workers alone the route to "wake up." Dozens of placards carried by demonstrators, further clarified that "9-11 was an inside job."
Before finishing up the demonstration, the protesters marched up Kinzie Street to the local NBC affiliate and chanted in unison: "Talking heads tell lies," outside the plate glass window where the news was being read on the air..
Near the close of the conference, a refreshing quarter hour
of comedy relief was provided by American-born Muslim comic Azhar
Usman. Usman, 30, who gave up the practice of law to pursue a
career in show business, poked fun at the official story of 9-11
by quipping, "I don't think it was Muslim terrorists at all
but the Hindus who did it - because half of them were reincarnated
the next week."
Conference organizers said that they were planning another show
for Atlanta later in the year.
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Foreclosure figures newly released by the Mortgage Bankers Association show that foreclosure activity has fallen in every category except for the "adjustable rate mortgage," or ARM. Rising interest rates and difficulties for families that have obtained "adjustable rate mortgages" was predicted at the latest secret Bilderberg meeting by Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
"As more ARMs adjust upward and housing prices begin to dip, many Americans...are finding themselves trapped in too-high monthly payments," Associated Press reports. "For those who can't make their payments, foreclosure is the only way out.
"In the last several years, millions of Americans took equity out of their houses and refinanced when interest rates were at historical lows and housing prices were at record highs," AP continued.
"Many of them chose to refinance into hybrid ARMs will readjust for the first time and that number will jump to approximately $1 trillion in 2007, according to the MGA. Monthly payments will leap, too, beyond what many homeowners can afford.
For example, AP cited the case of a woman whose monthly payment jumped from $1,079 to $1,340 June 1 and is scheduled to increase again in December. She faces foreclosure.
"ARMs are a ticking time bomb," said Brad Geisen. President of property tracker Foreclosure.com. "Through 2006 and 2007, I'm pretty sure we'll see a high volume of foreclosures." Foreclosures have more than doubled since last year," he said.
Geithner told Bilderberg that many Americans are likely to lose their homes as rising mortgage rates add hundreds of dollars to their monthly payments.
In the June 26 issue, AFP reported:
Geithner predicted rising interest rates and difficulties for families that have obtained adjustable rate mortgages, or "variable" interest rates. Many are likely to lose their homes as rising home mortgage rates add hundreds of dollars to their monthly payments, he said. While most listened solemnly and some expressed concern, one was heard to say, "stupid Americans deserve their fate."
When home construction peaks and prices start downward many will find they owe more on their home than it is worth in the marketplace. They will also find their mortgage - even "interest-only" payments - are unaffordable. The banks will get the homes back and sell them again.
Again, the term "stupid Americans" was heard among
clucks of sympathy or silent indifference. According to one source,
no concern was expressed by Allan Hubbard, assistant to President
Bush for economic policy.
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Court documents from the 9-11 litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where Judge Alvin K Hellerstein presides over all of the wrongful death, injury and property lawsuits from the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, indicate that the court is determined to prevent any of the cases from ever going to trial in a U.S. court.
While one would think that the court proceedings from the worst terror attack in U.S. history would be front-page news in the mainstream press, mainstream media coverage of the 9-11 litigation can only be described as woefully lacking.
In a biased legal game in which all of the key players have close ties to the state of Israel, the likely outcome appears to be predetermined: delay the process, prevent any significant discovery and settle the outstanding cases through a special mediator.
All of the key players in this prejudiced legal process are known to be major supporters of Israel. Yet, they are managing a case in which an Israeli airport security company is a key defendant. Is this why the judge is doing his utmost to prevent any of these cases from ever being heard in a U.S. court with a trial by jury.
Ray Kohlman, attorney for 9-11 widow and plaintiff Ellen Mariani, said the conflict of interest is "apparent." It would be a "travesty of justice: if none of the 9-11 cases were to go to trial, Kohlman told American Free Press.
Furthermore, claiming that there is a danger that "sensitive security information"(SSI) may be leaked, Hellerstein has strictly limited the number of lawyers who will be cleared by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to attend the upcoming depositions.
The TSA is an agency under the Department of Homeland Security, which is headed by Michael Chertoff. Chertoff's mother, Livia Eisen, was an agent of Israeli intelligence in the late 1940s.
On June 14, Hellerstein ordered that a total of three attorneys, one for each of the three airport security firms involved in 9-11, may apply for clearance and attend the depositions. The three security firms, all foreign, are Glove Aviation Services, Argenbright Security and the Israeli owned Huntleigh USA. Huntleigh is owned by ICTS, which is an Israeli company headed by Menachem Atzmn, a convicted criminal political ally and co-defendant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Hunleigh provided passenger screening and airport security services at Boston's Logan Airport on 9-11. The officialaccount of 9-11 states that both flights that struck the World Trade Center departed from Logan Airport.
The depositions of Huntleigh employees from the Boston airport could reveal a great deal about what happened on 9-11 and exactly who boarded the planes that struck the WTC. The transcripts from the depositions, which are schedualed to begin on Sept.11, 2006, however, will be treated with utmost secrecy and be subjected to redaction by Chertoff's TSA
"It's not the clearance issue that drives this thing," Marc S. Moller, attorney for the plaintiffs, told the court on June 8. "With all due respect, the TSA is a government agency. It has flip-flopped in this case and cost us years for no reason whatsoever. I mean there's a limit, I think, in all due respect, to the amount of deference we have to give to an agency that caused the stall in this litigation for years.
"The House of Representatives passed a piece of legislation two days ago [June 6] which said essentially after three years nothing is SSI. Unless the government can come in and show that the release of the information would really adversely affect the safety of transportation." Moller said. "It also says that in all judicial proceedings where the judge overseeing the proceeding has adjudicated that a party needs to have access to SSI, he gets it unless there is a compelling reason to demonstrate why the specific individual presents a risk of harm to the nation."
Hellerstein, however, said the delays caused by the TSA are "irrelevant."
The June 8 conference also reveals how Hellerstein is putting pressure on the lawyers to settle their cases out of court. In many of the wrongful death cases, such as that of Mrs. Mariani, the first 9-11 lawsuit, the plaintiffs rejected the compensation fund provided by the U.S. government in the hope that they would obtain truth and justice through the courts.
"Why aren't you settling your cases?" Hellerstein asked Donald A. Migliori, attorney for plaintiffs with the law firm Motley Rice.
"You're not working hard enough," Hellerstein said. "Ms. Birnbaum [special mediator] tells me she is getting no response from you."
Sheila Birnbaum is the court-appointed special mediator who is a lawyer from the law firm of Skadden Arps, which is a firm with very close ties to the state of Israel and insurance companies. One of the partners of Skadden Arps is Kenneth Bialkin, a former national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai Brith, a key Zionist organization. Bialkin is also a director or former director of some of the key insurance companies involved in 9-11 litigation.
The Sept. 11 tort litigation court papers and transcripts are
available on the Internet at sept11tortlitigation.com.
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the United Nations is holding a conference beginning this week in New York that ironically coincides with our national July 4 holiday. It's ironic because those attending the conference want to do away with one of our most fundamental constitutional freedoms - the right to bear arms.
The stated goal of the conference is to eliminate trading in small arms, but the real goal is to advance a worldwide gun control movement that ultimately supercedes national laws, including our won Second Amendment. Many UN observers believe the conference will set the stage in coming years for an international gun control treaty.
Fortunately, U.S. gun owners have responded with an avalanche of letters to the American delegation to the conference, asking that none of our tax dollars be used to further UN anti-gun proposals. But we cannot discount the growing power of international law, whether through the UN, the World Trade Organization, or the NAFTA and CAFTA treaties. Gun rights advocates must understand that the forces behind globalism are hostile toward our Constitution and national sovereignty in general. Our Second Amendment means nothing to UN officials.
Domestically, the gun control movement has lost momentum in rec ent years. The Democratic Party has been conspicuously silent on the issue in recent elections because they know it's a political loser. In the midst of declining public support for new gun lows. More and more states have adopted concealed-carry programs. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and last summer's hurricanes only made matters worse for gun control proponents as millions of Americans were starkly reminded that we cannot rely on government to protect us from criminals.
So it makes sense that perhaps the biggest threat to gun rights in America today comes not from domestic lawmakers, but from abroad.
For more than a decade the United Nations has waged a campaign to undermine Second Amendment rights in America. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called on members of the Security Council to address the "easy availability" of small arms and light weapons, by which he means all privately owned firearms. In response, the Security Council released a report calling for a comprehensive program of worldwide gun control, a report that admonishes the United States and praises the restrictive gun laws on communist China and France.
It's no surprise that UN officials dislike what they view as our gun culture. After all, these are the people who placed a huge anti-gun statue on American soil at UN headquarters in New York. The statue depicts a pistol with the barrel tied into a knot, a not-too-subtle message aimed squarely at the United States.
They believe in global government, and armed people could stand in the way of their goals. They certainly don't care about our Constitution or the Second Amendment. But the conflict between the UN position on private ownership of firearms and our Second Amendment cannot be reconciled. How can we as a nation justify our membership in an organization that is actively hostile to one of our most fundamental constitutional rights? What if the UN decided that free speech was too inflammatory and should be restricted? Would we discard the First Amendment to comply with the UN agenda?
The UN claims to serve human freedom and dignity, but gun control
often serves as a gateway to tyranny. Tyrants from Mao to Stalin
have sought to disarm their own citizens, for the simple reason
that unarmed people are easier to control. Our Founders, have
just expelled the British army, knew that the right to bear arms
serves as the guardian of every other right. This is the principle
so often ignored by both sides in the gun control debate. Only
armed citizens can resist tyrannical government.
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Israel Boycott
The Ontario Chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees voted to support a boycott of Israel until it "recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination." The Ontario chapter represents half of the 450,000 union members nationwide. In Chicago, Protesters rallied outside a Caterpillar shareholders' meeting denouncing the company for selling equipment to Israel. They said the vehicles are used to level Palestinian homes and kill people.
Against Illegal Immigration
A national coalition of American blacks, who support enforcement of U.S. immigration laws, are applauding congressmen for standing firm in their opposition to amnesty for illegal aliens. "Mass illegal immigration is not a victimless crime," said Frank Morris, chairman of Choose Black America. "There are real people who lose their jobs or the chance to earn a better living. There are real children who are stuck in schools that cannot educate because they are overwhelmed by the children of illegal aliens."
Thou Shalt Remain Right There
Supreme Court justices will continue to eyeball a monument
containing the Ten Commandments on property across the street
from their chambers because a Christian group prevailed over Washington
bureaucrats. Faith and Action uses the private home as its headquarters.
City officials had warned it to remove the Ten Commandments or
face a fine of $300 daily. The Christians refused, citing the
First Amendment. Three weeks later, city officials said the Ten
Commandments could remain, also citing the First Amendment.
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Although I had been to Malaysia on a previous visit in 2004, this recent trip was special because, for the first time, I met two fellow Americans who have been speaking out on the lies of 9-11: namely William Rodriguez—observed to have been "the last man out" of the World Trade Center's north tower, as it collapsed around him—and Jimmy Walter who has spent millions of dollars of his own money in trying to show Americans (and the world) that we've been lied to (by our own government) about what really happened on 9-11.
Although I had admired their work, having read Christopher Bollyn's accounts of their efforts in AFP, I had never seen Rodriguez or Walter "in action." In Malaysia, I saw both good Americans stand up and speak out.
All real Americans can be proud of them for what they did there: They told the truth. And the Malaysian audiences loved them.
The international audience at the fair—some 1,000 strong—was intrigued by the fact that here were Americans—including a 9-11 survivor—telling them that it was not "the Muslims" who were responsible for 9-11, but that the conspiracy went much higher and much deeper.
In my presentations, I underscored this point: The American people are being terrorized—not by Muslims—but by those pro-Zionist families and financial interests who control the American media and who use their media power to manipulate Americans into fearing and hating Muslims while those same Zionist forces are exploiting American resources and military might to wage war against the Muslim world as part of a grand design to set in place a New World Order.
Reflecting on my own published works, I noted that the assassination of John F. Kennedy, who was standing in the way of Israel's drive to achieve an arsenal of nuclear weapons—the subject of Final Judgment—set the stage for the Iraq war and the potential for further war, even atomic conflict, in the world today; that the preeminence of the Israeli lobby in Washington and the spiraling reality of Zionist power in America—the subject of The New Jerusalem—had been stimulated by JFK's demise, and that the rise of the hard-line "neo-conservatives"—the subject of The High Priests of War—had firmly set in place the Zionist domination of U.S. foreign policy making.
Walter made available free copies of his outstanding video, Confronting the Evidence: A Call to Reopen the 9-11 Investigation.*
In his presentation he emphasized the fact that there is so much scientific evidence conflicting with the "official" findings. He said there is no question that there were other forces at work, rather than simply the impact of two jetliners, that brought down the World Trade Center towers.
Walter pointed out the failure of NORAD in preventing the multiple attacks on 9-11, the destruction of forensic evidence, the media misinformation and mischaracterizations of events surrounding 9-11, and the ties of many key players in the tragedy to elements of U.S. and Israeli intelligence and the global military-industrial-oil-banking complex. Walter has personally financed free distribution of more than 650,000 copies of his own video and encourages others to reproduce it and distribute it. Now copies are circulating, in multiple languages, around the globe.
Rodriguez astounded listeners with his profound description of his own personal experiences on that day. Most notable in his account is the fact that there was at least one explosion in the lower levels of the north tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) seconds before a plane struck the upper floors of the tower. This alone—something that other 9-11 survivors can attest to—puts the lie to the official version of events.
Rodriguez, Walter and I were part of several forums, during which I emphasized the fact that although Rodriguez was hailed by President Bush as a "national hero" and his heroic efforts in saving probably thousands from the WTC (long after he could have fled to safety) were widely reported, the mass media in America censored the specifics of what Rodriguez heard and saw on 9-11, details that prove there has been a massive government lie about what really happened that day.
In addition, I pointed out, although Rodriguez had testified to what he heard and saw before the official 9-11 inquiry, Rodriguez's testimony was heard behind closed doors unlike other witnesses. What he said was never mentioned in the official 9-11 report nor was it reported by the "mainstream" media in America, despite the fact, for example, that ABC interviewed Rodriguez for nine hours promising his "whole story" would be aired to the public. It never was.
Rodriguez could have continued playing his very real public role as a "hero"—which he is—and never bothered telling the whole truth. But when Rodriguez recognized that the American media and the government were censoring his story—even while Spanish-language media were accurately continuing to report what Rodriguez, who is of Puerto Rican heritage, had to say—he realized "something was going on." That's when he began to speak out.
In the meantime, Malaysian media outlets were interviewing us, and excerpts from our various press conferences were broadcast over several days during our visit. One story was widely reported in the Arabic media in the Middle East.
During our week in Malaysia, we also spoke at the Center for Civilizational Dialogue at the University of Malaya and at the International Islamic University where hundreds of students from around the world, including the United States, were a friendly and enthusiastic audience.
All of us, I know, take great satisfaction in knowing that now many people around the world realize that not all Americans support the insane policies of aggressive war being carried out by the Bush administration and its allies, enriching the coffers of those advancing the drive for a New World Order.
More than once, we heard it said: "We don't hate Americans. But we do hate what George Bush and his regime are doing. And we sympathize with Americans because they are being made to fight these needless wars."
All of this is not to suggest that Americans were the only speakers at the conference. No-nonsense Malaysian attorney and author Matthias Chang gave a rousing address titled "The Killing Machine," which was supplemented with a highly effective multimedia presentation. Although not a Muslim—he's a Christian of Chinese descent—Chang strongly told the Muslims of Malaysia that they should stand up to the United States and Israel in the ongoing scheme to wage war against their fellow Muslims in Iran, all of which is part of a broader agenda for world domination. This, of course, is outlined in Chang's book, Future Fastforward, available from AFP.
In a different mode, Muslim religious cleric Fadel Soliman, head of the Bridges Foundation, explained how he has seen the Western media suddenly turn millions against Muslims. Since then, he said he has worked to explain the truth about Islam to non-Muslims and to train other Muslims to do the same.
In fact, the topic of media bias was a constant refrain during the conference. One lecturer, Dr. Amien Rais, one of the most popular political figures in neighboring Indonesia and former speaker of Indonesia's house of representatives, focused on media bias. Rais urged supporting an alternative to the mass media of the West. (Ironically, the Western media has a great deal of influence even in Muslim strongholds such as Malaysia and Indonesia.)
British journalist Yvonne Ridley, now a convert to Islam, reflected on her own experiences in the media and emphasized how the media has promoted bias against Muslims. She also noted that while Bush has advocated "democracy," the very moment the Palestinians elected a government that Bush did not like, the president moved to block aid and effectively starve the Palestinians—that is commit genocide against them.
So it is not only Americans who recognize the big problem of the American media and the pernicious role it plays in global affairs. The whole world knows what American Free Press has said from the beginning: "The Media is the Enemy."
Following this conference, Rodriguez, Walter and I were invited for a private visit with Dr. Mahathir, the former Malaysian prime minister, at his office at the Perdana Global Peace Organization. Joining us were his former political secretary, Matthias Chang, who remains a close advisor to Dr. Mahathir, Mrs. Ridley, and Mrs. Sabariah Abdullah and Miss Abida Anwar from Saba Islamic Media, the publisher of the Malaysian editions of my books.
At that meeting, Dr. Mahathir heard the remarkable story of Rodriguez. He also held in his own hands the former master key to the World Trade Center (one of only five in existence) that Rodriguez used to open up doors to the WTC tower stairwells as part of the rescue effort before the tower collapsed.
Walter and Rodriguez explained to Dr. Mahathir of how —with the support of AFP—they have been advocating an international commission to investigate 9-11 and urged the former prime minister to establishment such a global tribunal.
Although the Western media defames Dr. Mahathir because he dares to criticize Zionism, he is a beloved figure in his own land, which he did so much to build into the powerhouse it is today. He is also an icon throughout Asia and throughout what is known as "The Third World."
All told, the visit to Malaysia was a fantastic experience for all of us and, I am confident, has opened up more eyes to the reality of what's happening to all good people in the world today. We do have a common enemy—our traditional enemy—against whom we have to unite. It's that simple.
* To obtain a copy of the video, Confronting the Evidence:
A Call to
Reopen the 9-11 Investigation, see the web site at reopen911.org or write
Reopen 9-11, PO Box 3871, Santa Barbara, Ca. 93130.
A journalist specializing in media critique, Michael Collins Piper is the author of Final Judgment, the controversial "underground bestseller" documenting the collaboration of Israeli intelligence in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He is also the author of The High Priests of War and The New Jerusalem. all available from FIRST AMENDMENT BOOKS. He has lectured on these topics in places as diverse as Malaysia, Japan, Canada, Moscow and Abu Dhabi.
Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute
- as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645
Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003
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Nearly five years after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, an eyewitness from the Pentagon has ome forth with testimony, which, if accurate, debunks the official version that a hijacked Boeing 757 flew into the five-sided military fortress housing the Department of Defense.
Samuel d. Danner, a civilian pilot and electrical enigeer from Hagerstown, Md., says he was trying to get out of Washington on the morning of 9-11 after hearing of the attacks on the World Trade Center. Having made a wrong turn, Danner would up heading south on Washington Blvd., the highway that passes the western side of the Pentagon, from where he says he observed the approaching aircraft involved in the attack.
Danner's eyewitness account corroborates the theory that a weaponized unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) known as global Hawk, was flown by remote control into the newly renovated section of the Pentagon, built on a low lying area southwest of the nation's capital in an area formerly known as Hell's Bottom.
A multi-billion defense project involving contractors like L3 Communications Titan Group, Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., and Raytheon, the Global Hawk is a 44-foot long jet-powered surveillance UAV with a 116-foot wing span that can fly 12,000 miles at an altitude of 65,000 feet at 400 miles per hour. At the time of the attack, there were only five or six Global Hawks in service. Two of the original UAVs in the Global Hawk fleet reportedly crashed one at China Lake, Calif., another "somewhere overseas," according to a spokesman at Edwards Air Force Base where the aircraft is tested.
The evidence supporting the theory that a Global Hawk was flown into the Pentagon by remote control has been extensively investigated by this writer in American Free Press since 2003. While Danner's testimony corroborates this theory, there is no evidence, physical or photographic, in the public domain to support the government version that a Boeing 757 crashed into the Pentagon.
Danner, who was diagnosed with a form of lymphoma in September 2004, contacted 9-11 researcher Eric Hufschmid, author of Painful Questions, on June 29, 2006. Hufschmid, who works closely with this author, provided Danner's contact information. Danner's initial wide-ranging two-hour conversation with Hufschmid is available on-line at erichufschmid.net.
Asked why he finally decided to come forth with his groundbreaking testimony, Danner told AFP, "It's been bugging me."
Danner said his son had shown him the 9-11 video called Loose Change by Dylan Avery on the Internet. "It made so much sense to me," Danner said. "It got me upset , in a good sense, in a patriotic sense. I asked myself why I didn't come out with this earlier?"
Danner told AFP that being a 53-year-old lymphoma patient going through chemotherapy had motivated him to come forward with his testimony.
Since coming forward with his account, Danner has been the guest on several of Michael Collins Piper's radio program on the Republic Broadcasting Network. The shows have been archived at the web site RBNlive.com. His first show set a record for the number of listeners at RBN.
The government version that a Boeing 757 hijacked by Arabs hit the Pentagon is "a big bogus lie," Danner said. About the five video frames released by the government and the official explanation, Danner says: "That's a lie if I ever saw one. The American people need to know.
"It was not a Boeing 757 that hit the Pentagon, " Danner told AFP, "No way." Danner's description of the aircraft that struck the Pentagon fits precisely with that of a Global Hawk, a relatively unknown UAV, which was stil being tested in 2001.
Danner, a certified pilot who no longer flies due to his illness, hs had a lifelong interest in aircraft, both military and civilian, and has attended military air shows at Andrews Air Force base outside of Washington. "I like airplanes," Danner said, and his ability to identify aircraft quickly and accurately is central to the credibility of his testimony. He was, however, not familiar with the Global Hawk at the time.
As he drove south on the west side of the Pentagon shortly after 9:30 a.m. on 9-11, Danner noticed a strange object in the air. He noticed that other drivers were also distracted by the object, which he described as an unidentified flying object (UFO). Danner pulled over on the right hand shoulder, stopped his car, and got out to observe the approaching aircraft. From this position, with the Pentagon on his left, he recalled his observations of the aircraft he says struck the Pentagon.
Danner described the object as a white aircraft, without any cockpit or fuselage windows, which came at him very fast. It was "bigger than a Gulfstream 300," he said, and had only one engine located on the rear section between a V tail, which reminded him of a Beechcraft Bonanza. The aircraft had a "funny looking front" with the shape of "a humpback whale," he said.
He saw the aircraft finish a tight descending turn to the right as it approached the Pentagon. As it leveled off just off the ground he said he heard "a high pitched whine" as the single engine aircraft "spooled up."
"It was real low," he said as it turned and drove toward the Pentagon over the highway cloverleaf southwest of the Pentagon. Danner said the aircraft had approached from the north and had made a 270-degree turn while descending.
"It looked like it was under perfect control," Danner said, adding that he did not see any windows on the cockpit of the fuselage. Danner estimated that the aircraft was traveling about 200 miles per hour as it made the tight turn, then accelerated and leveled out before aiming itself at the Pentagon.
The engine configuration reminded Danner of an older Boeing 727, which has a turbine jet engine located on the back of the plane above the fuselage. "That was the only engine I saw," Danner said, "there was none affixed to any fore or aft wings.
"It had a V tail," Danner told AFP, "it had a Bonanza V Tail."
Danner, who estimates that he was less than 500 feet from the path of this aircraft, noted that it was very quiet: "There wasn't the roar noise that you get with a jet at full throttle. This thing knew how to fly quietly - I mean I could hear the whine and I knew it was jet powered." Danner's description of the aircraft's small size is confirmed by early eyewitness reports. One witness, Steve Riskus, has previously confirmed to AFP that the plane was very quiet.
"There was a four-engine jet above us," Danner said, which looked to him like a Boeing 707 or a DC-8 at about 15,000 feet. He said this plane may have been controlling the windowless drone, which struck the Pentagon, by "flying it by camera." Danner noticed that people at the pentagon were aware of this plane overhead.
Danner said he had contacted some of the people he met on the lawn of the Pentagon to encourage them to come forward with their testimony
Danner says the aircraft flew with remarkable precision as it leveled off and went right into the southwestern facade of the Pentagon. The impact created a "brilliant white flash" that he described as a "phosphorous kind of flash." This suggests the UAV carried explosives or a depleted uranium (DU) missile. It a DU missile was used, this could explain the source of Danner's lymphoma. If he was contaminated by DU at the Pentagon crash site, the other people in the proximity would also have bee affected.
Wearing his emergency medical technician (EMT) shirt that he carried in his car, Danner went directly to the crash site expecting to find wreckage, debris, wounded and dead. "I didn't find anything," Danner says, "I was there to rescue, but there wire no bodies and no substantial pieces of wreckage."
Rather than finding wreckage of a Boeing 757, passengers and luggage, Danner found "a bunch of sheet metal" and a bent and damaged 3-foot engine that was missing its turbine blades. Danner said he stood two feet away form the three foot engine that this writer investigated in a series of articles in 2003. The engine was found about 25 feet from the exterior wall and appears to have bounded of the two-foot think limestone-clad wall.
At the scene of the crash Danner recalls smelling gun power or cordite. The white flash he saw suggest that the aircraft was weaponized with a missile. A DU missile launched as the aircraft approached the building would explain the brilliant white flash, the hole pierced through three rings of the Pentagon and the huge explosion.
Later, Danner participated in the retrieval of small pieces of the aircraft from the lawn with Pentagon personnel. He said he found small pieces of shredded aluminum and bits of carbon fiber and polymer resins. The Global Hawk has an aluminum fuselage and carbon-fiber wings. "We were told to pickup every piece of debris." Danner said, which they put into trash bags.
Danner said the scene felt more like a crime scene than a crash
scene and he was mystified by the way the evidence was being remove
rather than flagged and documented.
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For years officials at the Federal Reserve Bank, including Chairman Bernanke himself, have assured us that inflation is under control and not a problem - even as the price of housing energy, medical care, school tuition, gold and other commodities skyrockets.
The Treasury Department parrots the Fed line that consumer prices, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), are under control. But even many mainstream economists now admit that CPI grossly understates true inflation.
The most glaring problem is that CPI excludes housing prices, instead tracking rents. Everyone knows the cost of purchasing a home has increased dramatically in the last 10 years; in many regions housing prices have more than doubled in just five years. So price inflation certainly is alive and well when it comes to the largest purchase most Americans make.
When the Federal Reserve increases the supply of dollars in circulation, both paper and electronic, prices must rise eventually. What other result is possible?
The supply of dollars has risen much faster than the supply of goods and services being chased by those dollars. Fed policy makers have more than doubled the money supply in less than 10 years. While Treasury printing presses can print unlimited dollars, there are natural limits to economic growth. This flood of newly minted U.S. currency can only increase consumer prices in the long term.
Bernanke has stated quite candidly that he will use government printing presses to stimulate the economy as necessary. He is famous for joking that he would endorse dropping money from helicopters if needed to prevent an economic slowdown. This is nothing short of an express policy to destroy our money by inflation. Every new dollar erodes the value of existing dollars based on simple supply and demand. Does anyone really believe the Treasury can make us rich simply by printing more money?
The coming dollar crisis is not likely to be "fixed" by politicians who are unwilling to make hard choices, admit mistakes and spend less money. Demographic trends will place even greater demands on Congress to maintain benefits for millions of older Americans who are dependent on the federal government.
Faced with uncomfortable financial realities, congress will seek to avoid the day of reckoning by the most expedient means available - and the Federal reserve undoubtedly will accommodate Washington by printing more dollars to pay the bills. The Fed is the enabler for the spending addicts in Congress, who would rather spend new fiat money than face the political consequences of raising taxes or borrowing more abroad.
The irony is that many of the Fed's biggest cheerleaders are the same supposed capitalists who denounced centralized economic planning when practiced by the former Soviet Union. Large banks and Wall street firms love the Fed's easy money policy, because they profit at the front end from the resulting loan boom and artificially high equity prices. It's the little guy who loses when the inflated dollars finally trickle down to him and erode his buying power.
Someday Americans will understand that Federal Reserve bankers
have no magic ability - and certainly no legal or moral right
- to decide how much money should exist and what the cost of borrowing
money should be.
Ron Paul, a medical doctor, is a Republican member
of the U.S. congress who represents the 14th district of Texas.
Often called "Dr. No" because he bucks his party establishment,
refusing to support policies contrary to traditional constitutional
principles. Paul was the Libertarian Party presidential candidate
in 1984. Call his office toll free at: 1-888-322-1414 or visit
his website at www.ronpaul.org.
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Voters around the country are demanding that Congress "do something" about the estimated 340,000 illegal aliens in the United States who, every year, commit up to one million sex crimes, which include such heinous acts as child molestation and violent rape. While Congress was conducting "field hearings" on border control in Philadelphia, police rounded up nine illegals at a construction site in nearby Northampton County. Pennsylvania police learned that one was wanted in florida on charges of child molestation. The other eight, despite claims by the Bush administration that the "catch and release" policy has ended, were released to appear at hearings later. Most never show up.
Mayor Louis Barletta of Hazleton, Pa., said at the hearing in Philadelphia that illegals have created a crime wave there.
"We've seen a dramatic increase in gang-style graffiti, some of which includes threats to kill police officers," Barletta said "The graffiti has marred an award-winning redevelopment project that replaced vacant factories with family homes. Now, those homes, those families, are threatened by hoodlums who don't respect people or their property."
In that city, four illegals have been charged with the murder of a 29-year-old man. One had been arrested in other jurisdictions and had been released without deportation ("catch and release") eight times. A 14-year-old illegal, the mayor said, was taken into custody a day after the man's murder for firing shots into a crowded city playground. He had 10 bags of crack cocaine on him.
Meanwhile, in San Diego, House members were told by Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca that 27% of his inmates are illegals.
Sheriff Rick Flores of Webb Country, Texas, said that his department "duels with drug cartels and smuggling operations across the border in Nuevo, Laredo, Mexico.
"We need your help, " he said.
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The major industry in the town of Altar, Mexico, is smuggling illegal aliens into the United States. It is the only industry of any visibility or significance. This dusty town, from where aliens can travel 60 miles over back roads to enter the United States, is the last stop to buy supplies: water, food and backpacks already supplied with toilet paper and other items.
"Altar is just like a big Wal-Mart for smugglers," said Sean King, spokesman for the Tucson, Ariz., sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, which seizes many of those crossing into the United States.
"They've got booths set up for backpacks that are pre-packed with toilet paper...shoes that are better to walk in than some of the Sandals they might be wearing - everything you need to come across the border," King told Knight Ridder news service.
There are no holidays in Altar. On any given day 1,600 people show up from all over Mexico. In April, the peak season, 3,000 arrived every day, according to officials who operate a Catholic shelter there.
They are lured there by "Coyotes" who charge them $2,000 to $4,000 for a chance to cross the most difficult stretch of desert along the U.S.-Mexican border. They are stuffed like sardines into $3-a-night flop-houses or, for those who can afford it, into hotels that charge $30 to $40 for 12 hours.
Before heading north, many immigrants kneel in prayer before a statue of Jesus in Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Then they silently march, in groups of 30 to 40, into vans rigged to hold a maximum of human cargo. Metal benches run down the sides and center. Cages at head level secure their backpacks for the bumpy, $15 journey to the outskirts of Sasabe, Mexico, the chosen point of entry and the busiest zone on the border for U.S. authorities.
Some who criminally cross the borders find, for them, a good life of tending manicured lawns or working in farming and construction. Others end up dead or get thrown back across the border.
The smuggling industry is tightly controlled on both sides
of the border. Mountains of marijuana flow through. The Fort Worth
Star Telegram spotted an 18-wheeler off-loading heavy burlap
sacks recently on an isolated dirt road that large trucks would
have little reason to use for legal commerce.
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Backers of House legislation to enact strong border protections before considering amnesty issues played shrewd but commendable politics with "field hearings" that have allowed outraged Americans to vent their anger during a week-long recess. Their voices add new pressure on House members to reject the Senate's amnesty measure, which is supported by President Bush.
Most of the people who illegally enter the country are n o longer in search of honest work but are criminals who belong to gangs and drug cartels, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalwz of Zapata County, Tex. Told the House International Relations subcommittee during testimony in Laredo July 7.
For years we have seen individuals enter the country illegally," Gonzalez said. They try to blend in to look like Mexicans crossing the border looking for honest work.
With more than 165,000 illegal aliens caught in fiscal 2005, Gonzalez said, he can only imagine how many succeeded in crossing the border.
"I dare to say that at any given time, daytime or night time, one can get on a boat and traverse back and forth between Texas and Mexico and not get caught," he said. "If smugglers can bring in tons of marijuana and cocaine at one time and smuggle 20-30 persons at another time, one can just imagine how easy it would be to bring in two to three terrorists or their weapons of mass destruction across the river and not be detected."
The number of violent incidents at points of entry into the United States has increased dramatically in recent years, said Reynaldo Garza, acting chief patrol agent for the Laredo Sector.
Rep. Ted Poe (R-Tex.) Said to cheers that if the United States is protecting the borders of other nations, it should also be protecting its own. "It's a national security issue to protect our borders from those who wish to do us harm," he said.
In San Diego, at another field hearing, Rep. Ed Boyce (R-Calif.)
Told attendees. "It's elementary that to defend ourselves
against our determined and resourceful enemies, our border must
be secure."
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Scientist confirmed what grandmothers have known for centuries - chicken soup is good for colds. Chicken soup - like grandma used to make - contains several ingredients that affect the body's immune system. Dr. Stephen Rennard and a team at the university of Nebraska Medical center found anti-inflammatory properties that help explain why it soothes sore throats and eases the misery of colds and flu.
But its not nice to fool Mother Nature! To make huge profits Tyson pioneered the factory production of chickens, raising them by the thousands in overcrowded conditions, feeding them recycled "rendered" feed processed from cancerous chickens, road kill, chicken manure, offal and a witch's brew of odious chemicals and drugs. It is not surprising these chickens were unhealthy.
Profits went down because chickens raised in such unnatural conditions are so seriously infested with parasites they barely grow. In the 1970s the poultry industry began adding arsenic-based chemicals to chicken feed. Roxarsone, a chemical compound made up of arsenic, is commonly mixed with feed to control intestinal parasites and promote growth in both poultry and hogs.
Dr. Machael Greger, MD, reports researchers from the National Institutes of Health and the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service recently reported "alarmingly high levels of arsenic contamination in the flesh of Broiler chickens." these government researchers found that the amount of arsenic in chicken greatly exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) new upper safety limit of arsenic allowed in drinking water. The amount of arsenic found in chicken was six to none times that allowed by the EPA. A "bucket" of Kentucky Fried Chicken, for example, would be expected to have up to 50 times the amount of arsenic allowed in a glass of water.
Arsenic has long been known to be a deadly poison, but not everyone knows, even in amounts far too small to kell you outright, it is a deadly carcinogen. Arsenic causes at least 20 different types of cancer n kidneys, the prostate and virtually every organ. Some cancers - such as skin, ling and bladder cancer - have been seen at exposures of as little as 10 to 40 micrograms per day.
The National Academies, which advises the federal government of a range of health and science issues, reported to Congress in 2001 "that the data indicate arsenic causes cancer in humans at doses that are close to the drinking water concentrations that occur in the United States."
The chemical and commercial poultry interests claim the arsenic in roxarsone is "harmless." But there was increased incidence of "carcinogenic activity," adenomas of the exocrine pancreas in male rats exposed to rexarsone.
"Arsenic acted as a growth stimulant in chickens - it develops the meat faster - and since then, the poultry industry has gone wild using this ingredient." says Donald Herman, a Mississippi agricultural consultant and former Environmental Protection Agency researcher who has studied this use of arsenic for a decade. "And they've tried every thing to keep it from becoming public knowledge."
While scientists experiment on lab rats, humans are dying. The tiny town of Prairie Grove, Ark. Is suffering from a cancer epidemic far more dangerous and deadly than the hyped, hypothetical bird flu "scarerism." Too many residents in the town of 2,500 have been diagnosed with rare cancers that usually occur at a rate of one in a million. Grieving parents have had to bury at least four children, not just government "statistics" in this cancer cluster, 50 times higher than the national average.
Survivors have filed at least a half dozen lawsuits. At least five children are among the plaintiffs.
Leukemia, testicular and brain cancers are the most common cancers related to environmental factors in children and young adults.
The "smoking gun" is higher than expected levels of arsenic in dust found in the homes of cancer victims, reported The Morning News in Springdale, Neb.
According to ‘Dr. James Dahlgreen, an expert in internal, occupational and evnironmental medicine, the roxarsone in chicken manure, when spread on fields, biodegrades into very toxic poisons: Inorganic Arsenic III and V. The plaintiffs are angry because they say the defendant companies intentionally failed to warn the public of the dangers presented by exposure to chicken litter, deliberately misrepresented the danger and took steps to conceal from the public the harmful effects of exposure. Companies named in the lawsuit include: Alpharma, Alpharma Animal Health, Cal-Maine Farms, Cargill, George's, Peterson, Simmons and Tyson Foods.
Besides cancers, the townspeople complain they suffer from many ailments, ranging from respiratory diseases, gastro-intestinal troubles to autoimmune and neurological disorders. This is not surprising because arsenic has also been linked to many illnesses, for example, diabetes, cardiovascular damage, suppressed immune system and DNA destruction.
While the lawsuits in Prairie Grove and other small farming communities in Kentucky and Mississippi focus on airborne arsenic carried by dust from fields fertilized with chicken litter, other experts are far more concerned with the ling term effects of the arsenic contamination of soils and groundwater.
For example 338,679 tons of letter is produced annually in Maryland. More than 76% (258,081 tons) comes from the four lower Eastern Shore counties. On the Delmarva Peninsula 20 to 50 tons of arsenic are added to the environment annually by chicken farmers.
Cancer rates on the lower Eastern Shore are among the highest in Maryland far exceeding national averages of 206 per 100,000.
Somerset County has one of the highest cancer death rates - 267 cases for every 100,000 people - in America. Wicomico and Worcester counties also exceeded national and state averages - 233 deaths and 229 deaths, respectively, per 100,000 people.
John Vandiver told The Daily Times in Salisbury, Md., the National Academy has determined that enough evidence exist to draw the conclusion that arsenic rates commonly found in the country's water supply were enough to lead to some forms of cancer. The findings came at a time when President Bush was working to repeal a Clinton administration proposal to reduce the allowable amount of arsenic in drinking water from 50 micrograms per liter to 10 micrograms per liter, which is the health standard used by the European Union and World Health Organization. Dr. Ellen Silbergeld, a researcher from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, said "We're trying to do everything we can to get levels lower in drinking water at very great cost, and yet we're deliberately adding it to chicken feed."
The poultry industry's practice of using arsenic compounds is "an issue everybody is trying to pretend doesn't exist. Are they significant amounts? That's the issue."
The food news is no arsenic was found in organically raised
chickens. USDA standards do not allow arseing in orgainic chicken
feed. So find a source for organic chicken, and listen to grandma
and Mother Nature. Bon appétit.
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the use of steroids and other growth-enhancing drugs on cattle today has some scientists concerned about the negative effect these sex hormones are having on humans who consume beef on a regular basis.
The British Veterinary Products Committee (VPC) recently issued a report claiming that imported beef, which contains these hormones, is safe. However, John Verrall, a pharmaceutical chemist specializing in human and veterinary medicines who was involved in the study, recently spoke out to the European press, saying he disagrees with the VPC's findings.
"Over the last two years a number of important studies have shown that the information used by regulators to assess the safety of hormone residues in food has been wildly inaccurate," Verral told The Times of London. "It is now clear that very much smaller amounts of sex hormones in food than previously thought can cause genital abnormalities in baby boys, premature puberty in girls and increase the risk of cancers later in life.
According to the Times, the use of hormones in cattle has been banned in Europe for the last 20 years. However, they are still used regularly in Australis, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Mexico and Chile.
"There is clear evidence of the risk to human health posed by these hormones," Verall said.
Verral also said that children are especially at risk to these hormones. They can cause "sudden growth or breast development, even at levels which are difficult to detect in the laboratory," he said.
Since the VPC first issued its report in June, Verral has published his "minority report" that resented his concerns over the study. "There is clear evidence of risk to human health posed by those hormones, and there is no threshold dose-response for estrogens," his report notes.
More than 30 million beef cattle are slaughtered every year in the United States, the vast majority of which receive some form of steroid to increase growth or manipulate reproductive cycles.
Some health experts have questioned the hypocrisy in laws that
prevent humans from taking these drugs while allowing large-scale
agribusinesses to systematically dose food animals with them.
Christopher J. Petherick, the founding managing
editor of American Free Press, has written many detailed exposes
on government policy, political reform, free trade and American
interventionism. With a strong background in natural foods, he
presently lives in southern Maryland with his wife and two kids.
In his free time, Christopher is an amateur blacksmith, bowhunter,
recreational farmer and avid history buff.
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Across the United States, thousands of consumers are responding to the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) revisions to the National Organic Program. A number of the USDA revisions relate to the "access to pasture" requirement for organic dairies. The Organic Consumers Association and other public interest groups are concerned that the NOP regulations contain loopholes and imprecise language that could continue to allow milk produced at giant intensive confinement dairy feedlots to be labeled as "USDA Organic."
So-called organic dairy "industry leaders," including two of the largest organic dairy companies in the nation, Horizon Organic, a subsidiary of Dean Foods and a supplier to Wal-Mart, the Aurora Organic, a supplier of private brand name organic milk to Costco, Safeway, Giant, Wild Oats and others, are purchasing the majority of their milk from feedlot dairies where the cows have little or no access to pasture, and have routinely been imported from conventional farms, where the animals have been weaned on blood plasma, fed genetically engineered feed, slaughterhouse waste and poultry manure, and injected or treated with antibiotics, according to research carried out by the organic watchdog group, the Cornucopia Institute. Together these corporations control up to 65% if the organic dairy market.
"We call on the USDA to stop allowing these companies to label these sham products as organic," says Ronnie Cummins, exec, director of the Organic consumers Association.
The Organic Consumers Association is encouraging the public to vote with their consumer dollars in the marketplace, and put pressure on Congress and the USDA to safeguard organic standards.
"Of course industrial agribusiness want their products labeled as organic, but they must abide by organic standards. These intensive confinement dairy feedlots are a clear example of putting profit above ethics," says cummins. "Organic consumers will not be satisfied until strict organic standards are implemented, and until Congress allocates sufficient funds to help family-scale American farmers make the transition to organic and meet our growing demand for organic food and other products."
For more information, contact the Organic Consumers Association
at 6771 South Silver Hill Frive, Finland, Minn, 55603, vsll (218)
226-4164, or visit the web site at orgnicconsumers.org
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By Dr. Doug RokkeWhile U.S. and British military personnel continue using illegal uranium munitions—America's and England's own "dirty bombs"—Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Defense (DOD) officials deny that there are any adverse health and environmental effects as a consequence of the manufacture, testing and use of uranium munitions. The reason for the double-talk is obviously to avoid criminal liability for the willful and illegal dispersal of a radioactive and toxic material—depleted uranium (DU).
How do I know this? Fourteen years ago, I was asked by the U.S. military to clean up the initial DU mess from Gulf War I.
Following that, I headed the Depleted Uranium Project for the DOD, which created a series of manuals and training videos to teach soldiers about the hazards associated with handling DU munitions.
Still, DOD officials and others attempt to justify uranium munitions use while ignoring mandatory requirements that are already in place to deal with the contamination.
I am dismayed that DOD and DOE officials and their representatives continue personal attacks aimed to silence or discredit those of us who are demanding that medical care be provided to all DU casualties and that environmental remediation be completed in compliance with government regulations.
The Pentagon arrogantly refuses to comply with its own orders and directives that require the DOD to provide prompt and effective medical care to all exposed individuals, as cited in military reports.
They also refuse to clean up dispersed radioactive contamination as required by Army Regulation AR 700-48, titled Management of Equipment Contaminated With Depleted Uranium or Radioactive Commodities, and U.S. Army Technical Bulletin TB 9-1300-278, which notes the "Guidelines For Safe Response To Handling, Storage, And Transportation Accidents Involving Army Tank Munitions Or Armor Which Contain Depleted Uranium."
Specifically, section 2-4 of Army Regulation AR 700-48, dated Sept. 16, 2002, requires that:
• "Military personnel "identify, segregate, isolate, secure, and label all RCE" (radiologically contaminated equipment).
• "Procedures to minimize the spread of radioactivity will be implemented as soon as possible."
• "Radioactive material and waste will not be locally disposed of through burial, submersion, incineration, destruction in place, or abandonment"; and
• "All equipment, to include captured or combat RCE, will be surveyed, packaged, retrograded, decontaminated and released. . . ."
In addition, medical care must be provided by DOD to all individuals affected by the manufacturing, testing and use of uranium munitions. A thorough environmental cleanup must also be completed without further delay.
The use of uranium weapons, the release of radioactive components in destroyed U.S. and foreign military equipment and releases of industrial, medical and research facility radioactive materials have resulted in unacceptable exposures.
Therefore, decontamination must be completed, as required by Army regulation, and should include releases of all radioactive materials resulting from military operations.
Americans should realize that adverse health and environmental effects of uranium weapons contamination are not limited solely to combat zones. Any facility and site where uranium weapons have been manufactured or tested should be checked, also. These include Vieques, Puerto Rico; Colonie, N.Y.; Concord, Mass.; Jefferson Proving Grounds in Indiana; and the Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
The willful dispersal of tons of solid radioactive and chemically toxic waste in the form of uranium munitions is illegal. Beyond that, it does not even pass the common sense test.
Even the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notes that DU is a dirty bomb. DHS issued "dirty bomb" response guidelines on Jan. 3, 2006, for incidents within the United States.
They specifically state: "A radiological incident is defined as an event or series of events, deliberate or accidental, leading to the release, or potential release, into the environment of radioactive material in sufficient quantity to warrant consideration of protective actions."
The first step in putting this terrible situation right should be for Bush and Blair to set up medical care for all casualties.
They should then demand a thorough environmental assessment of the level of DU contamination around testing facilities, munitions plants and battlegrounds. They should also call for an immediate cessation of retaliation against all of us who demand compliance with medical care provisions. And, finally, the two leaders should order an immediate stop to the already illegal use of DU munitions.
Doug Rokke, Ph.D. (ret.) is a veteran of the first Gulf War and is the former director of the U.S. Army's Depleted Uranium Project, which developed a series of training videos and manuals about DU munitions for the military. The materials were intended to teach servicemen and women about the use of and hazards associated with DU munitions. However, the military never instituted the program. Today, Dr. Rokke has become one of the leading critics of the U.S. government's continued use of DU.
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The eyewitness testimony of Samuel D. Danner on the incident at the Pentagon brings into sharp focus one outrageous lie of 9-11 and reveals who is actually behind it. If his account is correct, it would prove that the controlled press has perpetrated a massive hoax on the public with the support of the FBI.
Danner, a civilian pilot and electrical engineer from Hagerstown, Md., recently came forward to tell American Free Press that he was not sure what he saw hit the Pentagon, but it was not a commercial jetliner. The aircraft Danner described making a tight turn at high speed before leveling off near ground level and smashing into the Pentagon resembled an RQ-4 Global Hawk. The Global Hawk is a very distinctive-looking jet-powered unmanned arial behicle that is used by the U.S. military but was being tested in 2001.
"It was not a Boeing 757 that hit the Pentagon," Danner told AFP, "No way."
As a trained emergency medical technician (EMT) Danner left his car on the side of Washington Blvd. In Arlington near the Pentagon and crossed the 6-lane highway to assist in the initial rescue effort at the Pentagon crash site. Danner, who has been to other crash sites, said he was baffled when he found neither bodies not parts of what is said to have been a Boeing 757. All Danner found was some smashed-up sheet metal and parts of a small jet engine.
Danner told AFP that he recalled seeing a group of men by the Pentagon wearing white shirts and ties who all had binoculars with them. As he looked at the crash site with his own binoculars, he saw them looking at him through theirs. He waved but they did not wave back.
The FBI's Washington field office took charge of the Pentagon crash site immediately after the attack, and agents quickly confiscated video footage from cameras overlooking the area. FBI agents then ordered first responders and Pentagon personnel at the site to scour the lawn to recover tiny fragments of the aircraft before they could be marked and photographed.
At the time, the Washington field office of the FBI was headed by Assistant Director Van A. Harp and Special Agent in Charge Bob Blecksmith.
PICK UP THE PIECES
Danner was part of the line of people who were ordered to walk across the lawn at the crash site and pick up every piece of debris. The person who supervised this collection of evidence was a man named "Erkstine," Danner said.
9-11 researcher and author Eric Hufschmid showed Sam television footage from Fox News that showed the line of people picking up the tiny fragments and putting them into garbage bags. From this video Sam was able to pick himself out. Directly behind Danner is the man he knew only as Mr. Erkstine.
San asked why they were removing the evidence and putting it into trash bags rather than flagging it for the accident investigators.
"Son," Erkstine told the 49-year-old Danner, "just pick up the stuff. It's none of your damn business."
Sam said he found small pieces of shredded aluminum and carbon-fiber material that ws rough with protruding fibers on one side and smooth and polished on the other. The wings and tail of the Global Hawk are made out of this kind of carbon-fiber composite material while the fuselage is made of aluminum. The Global Hawk is powered by a single jet engine about three feet in diameter.
Danner, who said he has been to other cash sites as an EMT, was puzzled by the fact that rather than securing the perimeter, preserving the evidence and putting down orange flags for the forensic specialists and accident investigators, he and the others were treating critical evidence from the crash site like trash.
Pentagon spokesperson Cheryl Irwin told AFP that the FBI had taken control of the crash site ‘almost immediately" and that all questions about how the investigation had been conducted should be directed to the FBI.
AFP then contacted Debra J. Weieman, spokesperson for the FBI's Washington field office, to ask about the collection of debris fragments at the Pentagon and the identity of the agent who supervised it. However, Weieman remained unavailable for comment.
EVIDENCE HANDLING
Bill Carter from the FBI's national headquarters defended the seemingly hasty collection of evidence into trash bags. Asked where this evidence was and why it had not been shown to the press and public, Carter said that it was probably in "a warehouse somewhere" and had been withheld due to the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker who was in jail in Minnesota at the time of the attacks.
Asked if AFP could view this evidence, carter said it would require the approval of chuck Rosenberg, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginal. Rosenberg preciously served as counselor to Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, who was the newly appointed FBI director on 9-11.
At the top of the investigative chain of command was Ashcroft and Michael Chertoff, the Israeli-American assistant attorney general who headed the criminal division of the Department of Justice.
Chertoff reportedly provided the first list of the 19 Arab hijackers and is the co-author of the much-despised USA Patriot Act with another assistant attorney general, the Vietnam-born Viet Dinh.
While the FBI absconded and withheld the most crucial evidence,
the mainstream media quickly promoted, without question, the Chertoff
version of 9-11 that 19 Arab hijackers had perpetrated the attacks
of 9-11.
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In this keynote address to the Perdana Global Peace Forum, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad noted that most people view war as "something that happens somewhere else to other people," when, in fact, "war is about killing people a test of the ability of nations to kill." He pointed out that, today, nations are looking for "new ways of killig," demonstrating that "We are as brutal as ever. We have not really become civilized."
However, he said, "War is not a solution to any conflict between nations. War is a crime. We need to work in the long-term for war to be seen as a crime. People who wage war should be treated as criminals.
Although Dr. Mahathir believes that it is vital for a nation to have a national defense system, having arms doesn't mean that a nation is planning for war. He insists that nations should settle their differences by means other than war.
"In war," he said, "the winner is ‘right.' the loser - even if he is defending his country - is wrong, and he may be hanged."
And in light of the current U.S. claim that it conducted war against Iraq to bring democracy to that country, Dr, Mahathir asked, "What is this "democracy' that the neo-conservatives are promoting?" pointing out that even the new leaders of Iraq are unable to venture out of their protected zones. "Are the people of Iraq free today?" he asked. "It is undemocratic to kill people to make them accept democracy," he said. And now the United States is considering going to war against Iran, a nation that has a democratically elected president.
Of the current United States domination of the United Nations Security Council, Dr. Mahathir said that this is "a very undemocratic way of sponsoring democracy."
Dr. Mahathir asserted that it is time that voters in all countries insist that candidates for high office give a pledge that they are against war.
World War IV is already here, said Dr. Mahathir pointing out that it was not he who coined the term. Instead, it was such leading neo-conservative voices as Norman Podhoretz, the longtime editor of the American Jewish Committee's Commentary magazine and Dr. Earl Filford of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, who declared that World War IV is upon us, echoed by Efraim Halevy, the former chief of Israel's Mossad, and others.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld issued a Quadrennial Defense Review Report, dated March 6, 2006, saying that the war will be a "long war" that will last for "years to come." Even now, 350,000 American forces are deployed in130 countries. Rumsfeld was echoed by President George Bush who declared that the United States was "in the early years of a long struggle" against what he referred to as "a new totalitarian ideology."
The origins of this war, said Dr. Mahathir, can be found in a policy paper drafted by neo-conservative strategist Paul Wolfowitz who, in 1992, called for the projection of U.S. military power with Islam as its target. And now Iran is the latest target. In the same vein as the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, the U.S. Congress has now passed the Iran Freedom Support Act. And the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan warship is now positioning itself for conflict. And it's a very strong possibility that nuclear weapons will be used.
Dr. Mahathir said frankly: "The war criminal Bush has declared that all options are on the table," including nuclear weapons. And yet, ‘Iran's efforts count for nothing," including the fact that Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty.
The warlike rhetoric and threats coming from President Bush, said the former Malaysian prime minister, "are strong words from the president of the most powerful nation in the world. He has already shown us what he is capable of int the war against Iraq. We must put a stop to his plans and stop the killings.
Expressing his sympathy for the American soldiers who must fight the wars being waged by the Bush regime, Dr. Mahathir pointed out that American lives will also be endangered in the war against Iran: "It is the ordinary man who will pay for the price of this folly, but Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair are protected and safe from harm," noted Dr. Mahathir. However, he said, "Peace loving peoples must mete out justice. The international community must summon the political will to bring these war criminals to justice."
Dr. Mahathir directly confronted Bush and Blair. "They should not be addressed by any honorific they should not be called President Bush and Prime Minister Blair. Instead, we should refer to them as ‘War Criminal Bush' and ‘War Criminal Blair.' These are the war criminals. Have a good look at them." Of Bush, Dr. Mahathir said: "This is a man who told lies. The whole nation knows he told lies." And today the United States is surviving on a war economy. It is a bankrupt country and its currency has no backing. But billions of dollars are being spent on weapons for wars that need not be fought.
While the mass media in the United States proclaims former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a man of peace, contrast that, said Dr. Mahathir, with the way the media has treated Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Saddam Hussein.
Ultimately, Dr. Mahathir asked: "Will Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the other war criminals be taken before an international tribunal" to be held responsible for the war crimes that are even now being committed in Iraq? The November 2005 massacre at Haditha - the murder of innocent people - has only recently been exposed. But, said Dr. Mahathir, it was "not a random event." And referring to the so-called "preemptive" war that the United States waged against Saddam Hussein in Iraq (and which is being pondered against Iran), Dr. Mahathir commented, only partially in jest: "Maybe if I were still in office, they might have had a preemptive war against me."
In reference to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute and the U.S. role therein, he said that "No way can you have America as an honest broker - a dishonest broker, maybe." He compared the role of the United States in the world today as akin to a situation "when the police chief is breaking the law."
In the end, Dr. Mahathir urged all food people who oppose war and imperialism to come together and, he said, "God willing - peace will prevail."
On-line video presentations of the complete speeches by
Dr. Mahathir and the others can be found at the Internet website
of the Perdana Global Peace Organization at: perdana4peace.org
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Understand how inflation, borrowing and taxation are used to take your wealth can help you save your savings.
All government spending represents a tax. The inflation tax, while largely ignored, hurts middle middle-class and low income Americans the most. Simply put, printing money to pay for federal spending dilutes the value of the dollar, which causes higher prices for good and services. Inflation may be an indirect tax, but it is very real - the individuals who suffer most from cost of living increases certainly pay a "tax."
Unfortunately no one in Washington, especially those who defend the poor and the middle class, cares about this subject. Instead, all we hear is that tax cuts for the rich are the source of every economic ill in the country.
Anyone truly concerned about the middle class suffering from falling real wages, under-employment, a rising cost of living, and a decreasing standard of living should pay a lot more attention to monetary policy. Federal spending, deficits, and Federal Reserve mischief hurt the poor while transferring wealth to the already rich. This is the real problem, and raising taxes on those who produce wealth will only make conditions worse.
Borrowing money to cut the deficit is only marginally better than raising taxes. It may delay the p\ain for a while, but the cost of government eventually must be paid. Federal borrowing means the cost of interest is added, shifting, the burden to a different group than those who benefitted and possibly even to another generation. Eventually borrowing is always paid for through taxation.
The third option is for the Federal Reserve to create credit to pay the bills Congress runs up. Nobody objects, and most members hope that deficits don't really matter if the Fed accommodates Congress by creating more money. Besides, interest payments to the Fed are lower than they would be if funds were borrowed from the public, and payments can be delayed indefinitely merely by creating more credit out of thin air to buy U.S. treasuries. No need to soak the rich. A good deal, it seems, for everyone. But is it.
The "tax" is paid when prices rise as the result of a depreciating dollar. Savers and those living on fixed or low incomes are hardest hit as the cost of living rises. Low-and middle-income families duffer the most as they struggle to make ends meet while wealth is literally transferred from the middle class to the wealthy. Government officials stick to their claim that no significant inflation exists, even as certain necessary cost are skyrocketing and incomes are stagnating.
The transfer of wealth comes as savers and fixed-income families lose purchasing power, large banks benefit, and corporations receive plush contracts from the government - as is the case with military contractors. These companies use the newly printed money before it circulates, while the middle class is forced to accept it at face value later on.
This becomes a huge hidden tax on the middle class, many of whom never object to government spending in hopes that the political promises will be fulfilled and they will receive some of the goodies. But surprise - it doesn't happen. The result instead is higher prices for prescription drugs, energy and other necessities. The freebies never come.
The moral of the story is that spending is always a tax. The
inflation tax, though hidden, only makes things worse. Taxing,
borrowing and inflating to satisfy wealth transfers from the middle
class to the rich in an effort to pay for profligate government
spending can never make a nation wealthier. But it certainly can
make it poorer.
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The most significant development at the Group of 8 meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, was blacked out in the mainstream media: a global tax remains on the agenda despite U.S. objections. Like three world tax plans that have been pending for years before the United Nations, the media blackout is a "stealth plan" to impose such a levy with the public being largely unaware.
G-8 leaders, as they did a year ago, endorsed some type of world tax. Again they are appealing to mankind's innate kindness, saying such tax revenues would be used to fight the AIDs epidemic in Africa.
Of the three proposals, the favorite of Bilderberg and other world government advocates is a tax on oil at the well head, meaning most citizens would pay a direct tax to the UN every time they buy gas or oil products for any purpose. Others are taxes on international travel and international financial transfers.
Initially, the oil tax would be so small that it would add only a fraction of a penny to a gallon of gas. Americans would pay the tax for years in blissful ignorance. But the power to tax is important to establishing a world government and eroding national sovereignty.
So the global tax effort being played out at the UN and G-8 is a "stealth" campaign with a complete media blackout. It is promoted quietly by Bilderberg and think tanks. In an article distributed by Project Syndicate, a media vehicle supported by Bilderberg billionaire George Soros, World Bank economist Branko Milanovic wrote:
"Global redistribution through taxes that would be levied by an international body may seem far-fetched today, but the logic of development that we are witnessing - particularly the move away from nation-states as the locus of sovereignty - suggests that it may eventually come to pass."
Fortunately, Congress is waking up to the mischief. Sens. James
Inhofe (R-Okla.) And Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) Introduced legislation
July11 to penalize the UN by withholding American funding if it
advocates, promotes or tries to impose global taxes on U.S. citizens.
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Senate voted for southern immigration wall in May; Won't authorize construction money two months later.
The march of madness continues in the Senate. Less than two months ago, an overwhelming majority of senators took bows from adoring voters for approving a 370-mile fence along the southern border where most illegal aliens cross. The vote for the fence was 83-16. On July 13, the Senate quietly voted 71-29 against spending the money to build it.
"We do a lit of talking, we do a lot of legislating," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who sponsored the amendment to fund the fence. "The things we do often sound very good, but we never quite get there."
"If we never appropriate the money needed to construct these miles of fencing and vehicle barriers, these miles of fencing and vehicle barriers will never actually be constructed," Sessions told his colleagues before the no-funding vote. The fence was also opposed by Vicente Fox, President of Mexico, who serves as a volunteer consultant to Congress anf the White House.
But the madness persists. The Senate's amnesty bill would require that foreign construction laborers here under the "guest-worker" program be paid will above the minimum wage, even as American workers at the same work site earn less.
The bill "would guarantee wages to some foreign workers
that could be higher than those paid to American workers at the
same work site," says a new paper released by the Senate
Republican Policy Committee. "This is unfair to U.S. workers,
inappropriate, and unecessary."
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