december clearinghouse

top economist says america could plunge into recession *

ohio guard call-up said to be largest since wwii *

how to lose your job on your own time *

mexico to microchip central american migrants *

eli lilly knew prozac had 1200% higher suicide rate than other antidepressants *

wtc7: a tale of three broadcasters *

creeping fascism: from nazi germany to post 9/11 america *

underreported attack on a south african nuclear facility *

former bush home burned by arsonist *

police abandoned security posts before bhutto assassination *

giuliani helped sell oxycontin safety *

50 most loathsome people in america 2007 *

vermont town seeks bush arrest *

bhutto conspiracy theories fill the air *

'enhanced' rfid driver’s license soon available in washington *

US & britain: endemic surveillance societies *

'the shell game' aims at 9/11 coverup with both barrels blazing *

video: the great hpv vaccine hoax exposed *

west virginia cop says woman wiped nose on him *

buffett to pay $4.5b for marmon stake *

scientology buying up downtown detroit *

jeb bush in israel for private visit *

white house tour omits rare 1963 jfk christmas card *

ibm building metaverse *

irate shopper tasered in florida best buy *

jerry mazza: 9/11's history of tragic events *

video: ron paul on mad money with jim cramer *

cia torture jet wrecks with 4 tons of cocaine *

video: the truth about the bali bombings *

video: proof that huckabee is bought & paid for *

botched raid terrorizes minnesota family *

'98 defense doc confirms osama's plans to penetrate US biodefense *

un finds fraud & mismanagement in peacekeeping *

blackwater guards shoot new york times' dog *

video: ex-alabama gov says '02 election stolen by white house *

la times: precious metals are for survivalists, conspiracy theorists and flakes *

shrub's secret shredding soars *

the ten best movie destructions of new york city *

did morgan spurlock find osama bin laden? *

muslim man helps jews attacked on new york subway *

why has the US forest service purchased $600k worth of tasers? *

did gunman warn of 2nd attack? *

fbi may have been warned about rampage *

american jews 'oppose war on iran' *

poll: US jews turning against israel *

central banks join forces to avert next credit crunch *

how to control the american population *

elite depopulation agenda gains ground *

hitchens: it's time to abolish the cia *

proof of the war between the establishments *

israeli reactor under toxic fumes *

the fort dix conspiracy *

israel considering attack on iran *

psychotropic drug prescriptions to children skyrocket 400% in ten years *

more than 100 websites blocked in growing wave of online censorship *

invite big brother into your house *

omaha gunman came from treatment centers, group homes & foster care *

travelers love being scanned by the ministry of homeland security *

fbi: gitmo detainee was with bin laden *

iris scans let law enforcement keep eye on criminals *

google trends: ron paul wins presidential election *

chinese dissidents establish transitional mainland government *

now you can get your mercury & formaldehyde flu shot at the airport *

dirty bomb exercise in mobile, alabama *

video: good morning america learns that bin laden is a dead cia agent *

are you !@#$ing kidding me?: US seeks probe after putin's poll victory *

video: we are change colorado confronts john ashcroft *

top ten signs your country may be going fascist

record highs for 2007: death & food prices

2007 deadliest for US troops in iraq
from ap: The second half of 2007 saw violence drop dramatically in Iraq, but the progress came at a high price: The year was the deadliest for the U.S. military since the 2003 invasion, with 899 troops killed. American commanders and diplomats, however, say the battlefield gains against insurgents such as al-Qaida in Iraq offer only a partial picture of where the country stands as the war moves toward its five-year mark in March.

US casualties in afghanistan hit record high
from huffington post: U.S. military deaths, suicide bombings and opium production hit record highs in 2007. Taliban militants killed more than 925 Afghan police, and large swaths of the country remain outside government control. But U.S. officials here insist things are looking up: The Afghan army is assuming a larger combat role, and militants appear unlikely to mount a major spring offensive, as had been feared a year ago. Training for Afghan police is increasing.

world food prices are at record high
from press tv: After the first wave of rise in global food prices last summer, the second wave is about to result in record high prices in many years. In Chicago, wheat and rice prices for delivery in March have reportedly jumped to an all-time high, while the rise in the prices of soybean and corn has also been very steep, the prestigious business daily, Financial Times, reported... Some analysts are of the view that the rise in food prices experienced throughout 2007 will continue in the next year. High demand, poor harvests and low stockpiles of food have been mentioned as reasons for higher food prices.

terronoia douses brussels new year's party

from bbc: Traditional New year's Eve fireworks in the Belgian capital Brussels have been cancelled because of a security alert.

The Christmas market will close at 1800 instead of staying open all night, and even the ice rink will close early.

"We are still facing a potential threat," a spokesman for the Belgian capital said.

The alert follows police saying they had discovered a plot to free a jailed al-Qaeda suspect, Nizar Trabelsi. He has denied any such plot.

Last week police detained 14 people suspected of taking part in the alleged plot. But a judge said there was not enough evidence to hold any of them.

un propaganda comic designed to brainwash kids

from truthnews: It’s a super - as in superhero - way to inculcate the younger generation:

“Marvel Comics and the United Nations are teaming up to create comic books to show superheroes working with the agency to rid the world of conflict and disease,” reports United Press International. “The United Nations and Marvel Comics are working together to develop a comic book set in a fictional war-torn country with superheroes working alongside UNICEF aid workers and U.N peacekeepers.”

No mention of the “war-torn country” this will be based upon, but allow me to offer and example: Yugoslavia. In this example, the United States secretly supported a terrorist group, the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, and filled their ranks with “al-Qaeda fighters,” delivered by NATO with a bit of help from Germany’s BND.

As engineered, this project helped fuel Yugoslavia’s social and ethnic divisions and create a situation rife for a “peacekeeping” operation. It also helped to have the IMF and bankers working on the destruction of the Yugoslavian economy, ushering in third worldization and blueprinted misery.

Slobodan Milosevic, like Saddam Hussein after him, became a “new Hitler,” with plenty of help from a script-reading corporate media accusing him of directing his army to rape between 25,000 to 100,000 Muslim women...

“United Nations peacekeeping troops have been involved in a catalogue of crimes and scandals across the globe,” the Scotsman reported in 2002. "During the UN peacekeeping mission to Somalia, it was claimed Canadian, Belgian and Italian soldiers were involved in torture and murder." ...

Don’t expect any of this to find its way into a Marvel comic book.

outside the box #133

here is the latest episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on december 20, 2007.

from alex ansary: Walking out of one year and into the next, Alex wraps up some of his latest thoughts on the challenges we face and the way out. Renee Kimball joined Alex in the first 20 minutes to showcase the items she carries in her emergency preparedness backpack. The show concludes with a special focus on working together in a crisis and that includes real grassroots community policing to keep our neighborhoods safe in the event of a full blown economic meltdown.

and here is the latest episode of "outside the box" on we the people radio network from december 29, 2007. stream: m3u & ram or download: hour1 & hour2

pilot complains about worthless tsa procedures

from boing boing: Patrick Smith, the airline pilot who co-writes the NY Times’s Jetlagged Blog has written a corker of an editorial railing against the bullshit "security" procedures that the TSA has put into place. Smith is hopping mad and stops just short of calling for a revolution. Man, I’d be with him at the barricades.

"No matter that a deadly sharp can be fashioned from virtually anything found on a plane, be it a broken wine bottle or a snapped-off length of plastic, we are content wasting billions of taxpayer dollars and untold hours of labor in a delusional attempt to thwart an attack that has already happened, asked to queue for absurd lengths of time, subject to embarrassing pat-downs and loss of our belongings.

The folly is much the same with respect to the liquids and gels restrictions, introduced two summers ago following the breakup of a London-based cabal that was planning to blow up jetliners using liquid explosives. Allegations surrounding the conspiracy were revealed to substantially embellished. In an August, 2006 article in the New York Times, British officials admitted that public statements made following the arrests were overcooked, inaccurate and "unfortunate." The plot’s leaders were still in the process of recruiting and radicalizing would-be bombers. They lacked passports, airline tickets and, most critical of all, they had been unsuccessful in actually producing liquid explosives. Investigators later described the widely parroted report that up to ten U.S airliners had been targeted as "speculative" and "exaggerated."

flashbacks: alleged liquid bomb plot credibility crumbles & the nuzzling terror cell

pope's exorcist squads will wage war on satan

from daily mail: The Pope has ordered his bishops to set up exorcism squads to tackle the rise of Satanism. Vatican chiefs are concerned at what they see as an increased interest in the occult. They have introduced courses for priests to combat what they call the most extreme form of "Godlessness." Each bishop is to be told to have in his diocese a number of priests trained to fight demonic possession.

The initiative was revealed by 82-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican "exorcist-in-chief," to the online Catholic news service Petrus. "Thanks be to God, we have a Pope who has decided to fight the Devil head-on," he said.

update: vatican denies exorcist expansion
from upi: The Vatican is denying reports it plans to install more exorcists around the world so possessed people can get help quickly.

"Pope Benedict XVI has no intention of ordering local bishops to bring in garrisons of exorcists to fight demonic possession," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters in Rome Friday...

Paolo Scarafoni, a priest at Vatican University who teaches how to recognize and expel Satan, said exorcists increasingly are in demand because devil worship has become so common, reported ANSA, the Italian news agency. "Priests are being bombarded," Scarafoni told ANSA.

'osama' issues warning on iraq & israel

from ap: Osama bin Laden warned Iraq's Sunni Arabs against fighting al-Qaida and promised to expand the terror group's holy war to Israel in a new audiotape Saturday, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction."

Most of the 56-minute tape dealt with Iraq, apparently al-Qaida's latest attempt to keep supporters in Iraq unified at a time when the U.S. military claims to have al-Qaida's Iraq branch on the run.

The tape did not mention Pakistan or the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, though Pakistan's government has blamed al-Qaida and the Taliban for her death on Thursday.

But bin Laden's comments offered an unusually direct attack on Israel, which has warned of growing al-Qaida activity in Palestinian territory. The terror network is not believed to have taken a strong role there so far.

"We intend to liberate Palestine, the whole of Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the sea," he said, threatening "blood for blood, destruction for destruction."

related: bhutto said omar sheikh murdered osama
from al-jazeera: Sir David speaks to former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto... Bhutto said Omar Sheikh murdered Osama bin Laden. In 2006, Musharraf wrote a book in which he stated that Omar Sheikh, one of the primary financers of the 9/11 attacks, may have worked for British intelligence during the 1990s.

recruiting, russia, nuke site, ptsd, budget & 'condor'

US military recruiting illegal aliens
from press tv: Mexican citizen groups claim the US army is recruiting illegal immigrants from Mexico to send them to the war in Iraq. According to Prensa Latina on Friday in Culiacan, the capital of the northern state Sinaloa, civil activist Ildefonso Ortiz Cabrera told reporters that US military officers use young men of Latin American origin to recruit for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

russia successfully tests new icbm
from ap: Russia's military on Tuesday successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads - a weapon intended to replace aging Soviet-era missiles... President Vladimir Putin has used windfall oil revenues to modernize Russia's military arsenals amid increasing tensions with the West. The Kremlin has fiercely opposed U.S. plans to deploy missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying they threaten Russia's security.

army eyes south carolina nuke site for training
from military.com: The military is looking for a few good acres - very, very dark ones. The Army apparently has its night-vision goggles focused on the huge tract of federal land that comprises the Savannah River nuclear complex in the southwestern portion of the state. It wants to train light infantry units in battle exercises there that may include Army, Navy and Air Force Special Operations Forces. The plan was announced last month by the National Environmental Protection Act compliance officer at the Savannah River site... The exercises could involve anywhere from a handful of troops to 4,000 Soldiers from combat teams, the announcement said.

idaho police academy slogan: go out and cause ptsd
from ap: A state police academy leader has disavowed the slogan of the most recent graduating class urging one another to "go out and cause" post-traumatic stress disorder. Each class at the Idaho Police Officer Standards and Training Academy is allowed to choose a slogan that is printed on its graduation programs, and the class of 43 graduates came up with "Don't suffer from PTSD, go out and cause it."

bush signs controversial budget bill
from press tv: The US President signs a $555 billion bill to fund government operations, including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the White House says. The $555 billion bill for 2008 includes 70 billion dollars for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars without any timeline for troop withdrawal. The President's signature on the massive spending bill on Wednesday capped a long-running battle with the Democratic-run Congress. "The omnibus (bill) funds the government at responsible levels that the President proposed without raising taxes," White House Spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters. "It provides a down-payment for our troops who are in harm's way without arbitrary withdrawal timelines," he added.

italy seeks 'operation condor' plot suspects
from bbc: Prosecutors in Italy have issued arrest warrants for 140 people over a decades-old plot by South American dictatorships called Operation Condor. One man - 60-year-old Uruguayan former naval intelligence officer Nestor Jorge Fernandez Troccoli - has already been arrested in Salerno, south Italy. Under Operation Condor, six governments worked together from the 1970s to hunt down and kill left-wing opponents... Among the other names on the list are the former Argentine military leader Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentine former naval chief admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera, and ex-Uruguayan junta leader Jorge Maria Bordaberry. Those named face charges ranging from lesser crimes to kidnappings and multiple murders.

media monarchy episode056

episode056 of media monarchy features the bhutto assassination & police state technocracy, lockerbie & lakota, argenbright, operation falcon, hoover & habeas corpus, chemtrails, drones & biometrics, music by bing crosby and tons more...

episode056 - december 28, 2007 download/stream/subscribe

media monarchy is originally broadcast on the portland radio authority every friday at 10am pacific/1pm eastern and can also be heard on the revere radio network every monday at 2pm pacific/5pm eastern...

plus, you can always get podcasts of previous episodes thanks to radio4all.net & archive.org

bank predicts ron paul win & US slump

from press tv: Denmark-based Saxo Bank predicts Ron Paul presidency in 2008, saying US economy will plunge into a depression prior to the election...

Saxo Bank says the US economy will shrink by 25% and the Chinese economy will decrease by 40%. The economic downturn will come about as a result of the housing crash.

Ron Paul has been critical of the Federal Reserve and has blamed the Federal Reserve for causing the real estate bubble and crash. Paul has said that the loose monetary policy of the Fed had artificially inflated real estate prices which lead to the collapse.

Paul supports 'Sound Money' and opposes the Federal Reserve's 'Inflation Tax' and says that he wants to prevent a dollar collapse.

Saxo Bank also predicts $175 a barrel for oil and the price of grain will double. Some have predicted that oil will climb to $250 a barrel if the US attacks Iran. The bank also predicts that 30% of large building companies will go bankrupt.

update: ron paul on bhutto assassination
from raw replay: The Situation Room’s Wolf Blitzer is joined by Congressman Ron Paul to discuss the latest world events and how things are going on the campaign trail. The following video is from CNN’s The Situation Room, broadcast on December 27, 2007.

update: nytimes issues retraction on paul hit piece
from new york times: A post in The Medium that appeared on Monday about the Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and his purported adoption by white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups contained several errors. Stormfront, which describes itself as a “white nationalist” Internet community, did not give money to Ron Paul’s presidential campaign; according to Jesse Benton, a spokesman for Paul’s campaign, it was Don Black, the founder of Stormfront, who donated $500 to Paul. The original post also repeated a string of assertions by Bill White, the commander of the American National Socialist Workers Party, including the allegation that Paul meets regularly “with members of the Stormfront set, American Renaissance, the Institute for Historic Review and others” at a restaurant in Arlington, Va. Paul never attended these dinners, according to Benton, who also says that Paul has never knowingly met Bill White. Norman Singleton, a congressional aide in Paul’s office, says that he met Bill White at a dinner gathering of conservatives several years ago, after which Singleton expressed his indignation at the views espoused by White to the organizer of the dinner. The original post should not have been published with these unverified assertions and without any response from Paul.

former pakistan pm benazir bhutto killed in attack

from bbc: Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated in a suicide attack.

Ms Bhutto - the first woman PM in an Islamic state - was leaving an election rally in Rawalpindi when a gunman shot her in the neck and set off a bomb.

At least 16 other people died in the attack and several more were injured.

President Pervez Musharraf condemned the killing and urged people to remain calm but angry protests have gripped cities across the country.

Security forces have been placed on a state of "red alert" nationwide.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack. Analysts believe Islamist militants to be the most likely group behind it.


update: bhutto said to 'hold musharraf responsible' if she died
from raw story: In an e-mail sent to a confidant in the US two months ago, assassinated Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto said she would hold the country's current leader Pervez Musharraf "responsible" because his government did not do enough to provide for her security.

"I wld (sic) hold Musharraf responsible," Bhutto wrote to her US spokesman, Mark Siegel, in the October e-mail, which was reported Thursday afternoon by CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "I have been made to feel insecure by his minions, and there is no way what is happening in terms of stopping me from taking private cars or using tinted windows or giving jammers or four police mobiles to cover all sides cld (sic) happen without him."


update: washington post reported the day before bhutto assassination that 'US troops to head to pakistan'
from washington post: Beginning early next year, U.S. Special Forces are expected to vastly expand their presence in Pakistan, as part of an effort to train and support indigenous counter-insurgency forces and clandestine counterterrorism units, according to defense officials involved with the planning.

mi6 in secret talks with the taliban

from telegraph: Agents from MI6 entered secret talks with Taliban leaders despite Gordon Brown's pledge that Britain would not negotiate with terrorists, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Officers from the Secret Intelligence Service staged discussions, known as "jirgas", with senior insurgents on several occasions over the summer.

An intelligence source said: "The SIS officers were understood to have sought peace directly with the Taliban with them coming across as some sort of armed militia. The British would also provide 'mentoring' for the Taliban."

The disclosure comes only a fortnight after the Prime Minister told the House of Commons: "We will not enter into any negotiations with these people."

un admits to talks with anti-gov't forces in afghanistan
from raw replay: BBC reports that the United Nations has admited to talks with anti-government forces in Afghanistan. The following video is from BBC’s BBC World, broadcast on December 26, 2007.

the butcher's apron

from mike whitney: Every four years the country is swept up in the pomp and pageantry of presidential elections. And every four years loyal Americans flock to the voting booths to select the candidate of their choice. Elections, we are told, are the true expression of democratic government. But they aren't. They're a sham and most people know it. The balloting creates the illusion of choice where there is none. It's a meaningless ritual that has nothing to do with representative government.

operation falcon, profiling, fingerprinting & vandalism

operation falcon: police state america in real time
from pan-african news: Mike Whitney won a 2008 Project Censored Award for his February, 2007 article titled "Operation FALCON and the Looming Police State." In it, he reported that the Bush administration "carried out three massive sweeps in the last two years, rolling up more than 30,000 minor crooks and criminals" that he calls a "blueprint for removing dissidents and political rivals" reminiscent of Nazi Germany or any other repressive police state... Operation FALCON stands for "Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally" and came out of the Bush Justice Department and right-wing think tanks "where fantasies of autocratic government have a long history" and are now playing out in real time. The scheme centralizes power in Washington and uses resources of local authorities for its own purposes.

airport profilers: they're watching your expressions
from seattle post-intelligencer: If a pair of Transportation Security Administration officers strolling by a Sea-Tac Airport ticket counter wish you happy holidays and ask where you're traveling, it might be more than just Christmas spirit. Travelers at Sea-Tac and dozens of other major airports across America are being scrutinized by teams of TSA behavior-detection officers specially trained to discern the subtlest suspicious behaviors. TSA officials will not reveal specific behaviors identified by the program - called SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Technique) - that are considered indicators of possible terrorist intent.

police begin fingerprinting on traffic stops
from wbay: If you're ticketed by Green Bay police, you'll get more than a fine. You'll get fingerprinted, too. It's a new way police are cracking down on crime. If you're caught speeding or playing your music too loud, or other crimes for which you might receive a citation, Green Bay police officers will ask for your drivers license and your finger. You'll be fingerprinted right there on the spot. The fingerprint appears right next to the amount of the fine. Police say it's meant to protect you - in case the person they're citing isn't who they claim to be. But not everyone is sold on that explanation.

angry populace burning british surveillance cameras
from beyond the beyond: MAD is the UK’s only direct action anti-speed camera group and it’s been going since summer 2000... "The group says it has perfected a new and quick way of destroying speed cameras which will enable them to destroy a roadside camera in just a few seconds..."

outside the box #132

here is the latest episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on december 13, 2007.

from alex ansary: Alex covered some recent news updates followed by a special appearance by Derrick Jensen who discussed his writings and lectures on the problem of modern civilization.

and here is the latest episode of "outside the box" on we the people radio network from december 22, 2007. stream: m3u & ram or download: hour1 & hour2

cia man 'can take white house down'

from press tv: Former head of the CIA's clandestine service Jose Rodriguez claims he can take the White House down over a torture cover-up scandal.

Rodriguez said he may testify before the House Intelligence Committee if he is granted immunity from prosecution, The Sunday Times reported.

Intelligence sources believe Rodriguez is now quite determined not to become the fall guy in the controversy over the destruction of CIA videotapes showing the torture of terrorist suspects.

The hundreds of hours of videotapes reportedly showed the interrogation of two al-Qaeda leaders, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, while they were held in a secret military prison.

A former CIA officer has testified that the videotapes showed Zubaydah being subjected to water-boarding, a form of torture that simulates drowning.

Despite the Bush administration's denial of any involvement in the destruction of the tapes, the CIA and White House have been accused of torturing detainees in the so-called war on terror launched in the aftermath of the 9/11.

ten most wanted corrupt politicians of 2007

from judicial watch: Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2007 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list, in alphabetical order, includes:

1. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY): In addition to her long and sordid ethics record, Senator Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat in 2007 – and rightly so – for blocking the release her official White House records...

2. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI): Conyers reportedly repeatedly violated the law and House ethics rules, forcing his staff to serve as his personal servants, babysitters, valets and campaign workers while on the government payroll...

3. Senator Larry Craig (R-ID): In one of the most shocking scandals of 2007, Senator Craig was caught by police attempting to solicit sex in a Minneapolis International Airport men’s bathroom during the summer...

4. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA): As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on military construction, Feinstein reviewed military construction government contracts, some of which were ultimately awarded to URS Corporation and Perini, companies then owned by Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum...

5. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY): Giuliani came under fire in late 2007 after it was discovered the former New York mayor’s office “billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons”...

6. Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR): Governor Huckabee enjoyed a meteoric rise in the polls in December 2007, which prompted a more thorough review of his ethics record...

7. I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby: Libby, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000 for lying and obstructing the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation...

8. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL): A “Dishonorable Mention” last year, Senator Obama moves onto the “ten most wanted” list in 2007. In 2006, it was discovered that Obama was involved in a suspicious real estate deal with an indicted political fundraiser, Antoin “Tony” Rezko. In 2007, more reports surfaced of deeper and suspicious business and political connections...

9. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who promised a new era of ethics enforcement in the House of Representatives, snuck a $25 million gift to her husband, Paul Pelosi, in a $15 billion Water Resources Development Act recently passed by Congress...

10. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV): Over the last few years, Reid has been embroiled in a series of scandals that cast serious doubt on his credibility as a self-professed champion of government ethics, and 2007 was no different...

a look back at some of the major stories of 2007

from raw replay: Gwen Eiffel looks back in a year’s end review of 2007. The following video is from PBS’s Washington Week, broadcast on November 21, 2007.

final midnight mass at ground zero

from monsters & critics: The first midnight Mass at ground zero was celebrated as workers were still clearing debris from the World Trade Center after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Increased construction is picking up at the World Trade Center site in New York.

The last Mass was held Monday night, giving police, firefighters, recovery workers and victims' families a final chance to pray on Christmas Eve at the site, where construction is increasingly taking up open space.

"A lot of us felt sad this was the last official midnight Mass on-site, but at the same time, there was a sense of relief. This brought closure for us," the Rev. Brian Jordan said early Tuesday after the service ended. A chaplain who spent 10 months at ground zero after September 11, he has since presided over every midnight Mass there.

CNN reports that 75 people attended the Mass.

all we want for christmas is peace

kristol & russert: msm attack dogs are all bark

neo-con mass murder facilitator kristol slams paul on faux news

from lew rockwell: This YouTube clip is a great demonstration of what neo-conservatives believe: in the warfare, welfare, corporate, police state–and global hegemony. Other countries better like it, or we’ll destroy them. And no one better question the shifting rationales, since we have always been at war with Islamic East Asia.

Kristol is horrified that Ron Paul wants to question some of the past and current practices of the biggest government in the history of the world, to call us away from empire and the corporate state, and to our constitutional republican origins. And note Kristol’s identification of the American nation with the central government. To be “anti-American” is to disagree with social welfare spending, corporate welfare spending, and Pentagon spending.

nbc’s russert attempts to portray ron paul as a hypocrite & spendthrift

from truthnews: In an attempt to make Ron Paul appear a hypocrite, NBC’s Tim Russert badgered the Republican presidential candidate on Meet the Press over the weekend about so-called "earmarks," money set aside for special projects within congressional districts.

“Paul, the libertarian-leaning GOP lawmaker from Lake Jackson, said on NBC’s Meet the Press that he has requested earmarks ‘because I represent people who are asking for some of their money back,’” reports the Houston Chronicle. “‘They steal our money,’ said Paul, during a heated exchange with the show’s host, Tim Russert, who questioned whether he was being true to his convictions.”

police state technocracy run amok

the pentagon's electronic warfare program
from global research: In 2003, then Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld signed a document called the Information Operation Roadmap which outlined, among other things, the Pentagon's desire to dominate the entire electromagnetic spectrum. If you are unfamiliar with this document, more detail can be found in a previous article here... How exactly do you create a real time electronic battlespace picture? And where exactly is the battlespace? A very similar statement was made in the Project for a New American Century document 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' published in September of 2000 (more about this document here and here.)

pentagon report: high-flying spy drones hobbled
from danger room: The Pentagon's highest-flying spy drone isn't able to "consistently" perform, even on a "limited schedule," according to a draft Defense Department report... That is, when they can fly. According to a draft report , from the Defense Department's Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), the current Global Hawk models - so-called "Block 10s" - aren't able to get into the air nearly as often as they ought to. The document was obtained by the Project on Government Oversight and provided to DANGER ROOM.

army expansion plans outlined
from ap: The Pentagon will send six new combat brigades to bases in Texas, Georgia, and Colorado in the coming years as part of an extensive plan to increase the size of the Army. As the Army moves to grow by 74,000 soldiers by 2010, officials mapped out decisions to add the combat brigades and eight support units around the country, as well an agreement to delay moving two brigades out of Germany until 2012-2013. The overall effort would cost $66.4 billion in 743 military construction projects through 2013.

nbc4 report on 'chemtrail weather control'

from truthnews: Sure, the government is simply attempting to “mitigate” global warming by way of “geo-engineering.” As noted in the above video, a lab analysis reported high levels of barium contained in California "contrails."

argenbright, pentapower, indoctrination & uk ufo's

9/11 airport security pariah tries a comeback
from atlanta journal-constitution: Six years ago, Argenbright was a pariah. Two of the four hijacking teams passed through screening stations manned by Argenbright Security. U.S. Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft later called a press conference to condemn the company for "an astonishing pattern of crimes that could have directly jeopardized public safety."

dod eyes 'space-based' energy source
from ap: While great nations fretted over coal, oil and global warming, one of the smallest at the U.N. climate conference was looking toward the heavens for its energy... Unlike other ideas, however, one this year had an influential backer, the Pentagon, which is investigating whether space-based solar power - beaming energy down from satellites - will provide "affordable, clean, safe, reliable, sustainable and expandable energy for mankind."

ministry of homeland security program indoctrinates the '9/11 generation'
from usa today: Call it vocational education for the 9/11 generation. The nation's first comprehensive high school homeland security program, a three-year course to help kids land jobs in the growing anti-terrorism industry, is in its infancy... The program, started at Maryland's Joppatowne High School with 61 sophomores, provides "an opportunity for kids to see relevance to being in school," says Frank Mezzanotte of the Harford (Md.) County Public Schools. "It gives kids additional options."

britain set to release secret ufo files
from upi: The British government will soon release previously classified details regarding hundreds of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects. The Sunday Telegraph said Sunday that this coming spring, the Defense Ministry will release to the general public 160 files about alleged UFO sightings. Since the British government department began keeping records about the unusual reports in 1950, more than 10,000 sightings have been recorded.

national archives, national treasure

from washington times: Government institutions hardly every get starring roles in family movies. However, the National Archives found popularity when "National Treasure" was released three years ago.

With the sequel "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," in theaters, the archives is jumping on the movie's premise that documents and history go hand in hand with mystery and adventure.

"We don't have special effects, but we have real treasures here," says Katie Wilmes, coordinator of public programs at the National Archives. "Those treasures belong to the people."

The "Book of Secrets" opens with Benjamin Franklin Gates (played by Nicolas Cage) learning about a page missing from the diary of John Wilkes Booth. Gates' great-great-grandfather is implicated suddenly as a key conspirator in Abraham Lincoln's death. Determined to prove his ancestor's innocence, Gates follows a chain of clues to Europe.

hollywood to frame iran for lockerbie

from press tv: Hollywood and Israel join hands to blame Iran for masterminding the Lockerbie disaster in a new cinematic adaptation of the event.

The film will be based on a book by Juval Aviv, the former Israeli secret agent and a top investigator for Pan American during the Lockerbie inquiry.

According to the Scotland on Sunday website, Flight 103 which will hit the market on Jan. 24th, 2008, accuses the Iranian and American secret services of involvement in the incident.

The former Mossad agent has negotiated the film rights with a number of high-profile Hollywood directors including the acclaimed Steven Spielberg, who had hired him as a consultant in 2005 for his award-winning film Munich.

Lockerbie is a town located in south-western Scotland, which is internationally known as the wreckage site of the Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed on Dec. 21, 1988 as a result of a terrorist bombing.

In 1991 Libyan intelligence agent, Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was charged with planting the bomb and was sentenced to life imprisonment in Jan. 2001.

Steven Spielberg is a prize-winning American filmmaker, who is famous for international box office hits such as Jaws, E.T, and Jurassic Park.

'the maltese double cross'

from hemar enterprises: Investigation into the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Produced back in 1994, this film raises serious questions about what really happened.

do you know the truth about lockerbie?
from robert fisk: After writing about the "ravers" who regularly turn up at lectures to claim that President Bush/the CIA/the Pentagon/Mossad etc perpetrated the crimes against humanity of 11 September, I received a letter this week from Marion Irvine, who feared that members of her family run the risk of being just such "ravers" and "voices heard in the wilderness". Far from it.

For Mrs Irvine was writing about Lockerbie, and, like her, I believe there are many dark and sinister corners to this atrocity. I'm not at all certain that the CIA did not have a scam drugs heist on board and I am not at all sure that the diminutive Libyan agent Megrahi – ultimately convicted on the evidence of the memory of a Maltese tailor – really arranged to plant the bomb on board Pan Am Flight 103 in December 1988.

lockerbie lawyers demand secret foreign evidence
from reuters: Lawyers for a Libyan man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie airline bombing demanded access on Thursday to evidence from an unnamed foreign state which they believe could undermine the case against him...

Media reports had suggested the missing document, which has never been shown to the defense, was supplied to the prosecution by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and its disclosure could help clear Megrahi, serving a life sentence in a Scottish jail.