U.S. to Israel: one more week to blast Hezbollah

from guardian: The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources.

The Bush administration, backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to the fighting initiated at the UN security council, the G8 summit in St Petersburg and the European foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.

"It's clear the Americans have given the Israelis the green light. They [the Israeli attacks] will be allowed to go on longer, perhaps for another week," a senior European official said yesterday. Diplomatic sources said there was a clear time limit, partly dictated by fears that a prolonged conflict could spin out of control.

CNN prepares Israeli false flag war provocation

from prison planet: The escalating Israeli assault on Lebanon clearly represents a conscious bid to provoke a general war in the Middle East. The captured Israeli soldiers are only the pretext for the present massive military operations...

False flag scenarios would be entirely more effective from the point of view of the war planners. CNN and MSNBC coverage... has been stressing the situation of the 25,000 Americans now stuck in Lebanon. These Americans are being invited to register with the US consulates for possible evacuation. The State Department and the US military have been remarkably slow to begin such an evacuation.

One possible provocation scenario to bring the US into the war is that a helicopter carrying US citizens being evacuated out of Lebanon is hit by a missile and destroyed, killing all on board. The missile might be fired by the Israelis or by their allies among the fascist Lebanese Phalangists. The Israelis would announce that the helicopter had been destroyed by Hezbollah, opening the way for a hysterical campaign by Fox News and the rest of the neocon mass brainwashing apparatus to secure an early US attack on Syria and Iran.

An alternative: a group of Arabic-speaking Israeli Mossad or Shin Beth special forces, or a group of Phalangist militia round up a few dozen Americans and machine-gun them to death. The controlled media then blame the massacre on Hezbolllah, thus stampeding the US population into war.

The war-clichés dictionary, part 1

from haaretz: Like every important event, the war in Lebanon has already given us a large variety of spin-words and banal political clichés. It comes from Israel, Lebanon and the international community. A leader usually throws an expression into the air that the ordinary citizen will pick up and relay to every passing TV camera.

As long as it takes: Usually means as long as the U.S. administration allows it to happen. In the current crisis the Americans are sensing there's a genuine opportunity to weaken Hezbollah. They will feel obligated to intervene sooner rather than later in one of two cases: Heavier price in human life on the Lebanese side; or growing outcry coming from important allies in the international community.

The right to self defense: No country or leader will deny the right of every man for self defense. Of course Israel has the right to self defense. The question, argued by Israel's critics, is whether the actions in Lebanon can be considered an act of self defense. But hey, who are we kidding here? We all know the real meaning of this expression, don't we? It means "you can keep bombing until we say otherwise."

Restraint: Bombing Beirut.

more bush obscenities

from raw story: Various news agencies are reporting that what US President George W. Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair thought was a private conversation has accidentally been broadcast at the G8 conference.

The exchange illustrates the close relationship between the two leaders. It also catches Bush, at a time when the FCC is reportedly pouring over tapes of live newscasts for profanity, dropping an angry expletive into an open mic...

The much-reported expletive came when conversation turned to the situation in Lebanon and Israel. "You see," said the President. "The ironic thing is what they need to do is to get Syria, to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over."

thanking "outside the box"

if you've never watched alex ansary's "outside the box," you're missing one of portland's best truth-seekers. on his webpage & especially on his weekly portland community media television show, ansary "breaks through the waves of propaganda that's systematically beamed into our minds."

here is the latest episode of "outside the box."

ex-NYPD member on MySpace

here is an excerpt from an ex-NYPD officer's MySpace page:

I'm a former NYC police officer, now retired in my 30's thanks to 9/11.

I honestly believe GOVERNMENT complacency had a hand in ALLOWING 9/11 to happen. Someone also allowed LARRY SILVERSTEIN make a profit of 4 BILLION dollars by demolishing his own buildings.

I am not a conspiracy theorist.

The conspiracy can be found in the story that the media, and our government are trying to sell to us.

I was there that morning on 9/11, I heard it all, and I saw it all, nuff said.

George W Bush thinks he is a king, and should be THROWN out of office.

This is not the America I grew up in under this selfish billionaire.

I just found out I might be dying from Pulmonary Fibrosis, as a result of breathing the air at Ground Zero for over a month.

chavez: US support for Israel to lead to holocaust

from haaretz: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that U.S. backing of Israel is responsible for flaming tensions in the Middle East and putting the world on course toward another "Holocaust."

"The fundamental blame falls again on the U.S. empire. It's the empire that armed and supported the abuses of the Israeli elite, which has invaded, abused and defied the United Nations for a long time," Chavez said in a speech during a military act in Caracas.

"I'll seize this opportunity to condemn categorically and fully the aggression that the Israeli elite is carrying out against innocents over there in the Middle East," he said.

Chavez was referring to a new explosion of Mideast violence this week as Israel Air Force war planes began striking Lebanon after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others Wednesday in a cross-border raid into Israel. In response, Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at northern Israel.

The Venezuelan leader charged that Israel is using excessive force.

"Are we going to bomb cities and tell them that we won't stop bombing until they return the soldier? That's crazy," he said.

"Worse, it's craziness with nuclear bombs. (The Israelis) have their weapons of mass destruction and nobody criticizes them, nobody says anything because the empire is behind them," Chavez said.

Blaming the escalation on Washington's undue influence, Chavez said: "The U.S. empire's desire to dominate has no limits and that could take this world to a real Holocaust. May God save us."

mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be soldiers

from lew rockwell: As of today, the War Department lists 2544 as the number of murdered troops in Iraq. Dozens of innocent Iraqis are being killed due to this war crime every day. More than 80 Iraqis were killed in Baghdad alone on July 9th: dozens of people just in one city on one day who would be alive if not for BushCo...

Between WWI and WWII, Marine Major General Smedley Butler wrote a short dissertation called War Is a Racket... The first two paragraphs succinctly define the entire booklet and the reason not to allow your child to fall into the hands of the military-industrial-war complex:

War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In his treatise Butler goes on to define the "damned" war profiteers of his day: the DuPont family, the steel companies, the leather companies, the t-shirt manufacturers, etc. The profits for these companies increased at a minimum ten-fold in the WWI years and in retrospect even seem like healthy profits in 2006 dollars. He also complains about the 6000 buckboards for the colonels, thousands of saddles for the cavalry, and hundreds of airplane engines that were never used in the war. The waste of money and the waste of life in war are horrendous and inherently immoral – always!

a positive drug story

the late bill hicks always wondered why there weren't positive drug stories on the news, like:

"Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration... that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather."

well bill, here ya go...

from abc news: "Magic mushrooms," used by Native Americans and hippies to alter consciousness, appear to have similar mystical effects on many people, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

More than 60 percent of volunteers given capsules of psilocybin derived from mushrooms said they had a "full mystical experience."

"Many of the volunteers in our study reported, in one way or another, a direct, personal experience of the "beyond," said Roland Griffiths, a professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry and Behavioral Biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who led the study.

A third said the experience was the single most spiritually significant of their lifetimes. Many likened it to the birth of their first child or the death of a parent.

And the effects lingered.

Two months after getting the drug, 79 percent of the volunteers said they felt a moderately or greatly increased well-being or life satisfaction, according to the report published in the journal Psychopharmacology.

but wait! there's more...

from forbes: Volunteers who tried the hallucinogenic ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms during a controlled study funded by the U.S. government had "mystical" experiences, and many of them still felt unusually happy months later.

The aims of the Johns Hopkins researchers were simple: to explore the neurological mechanisms and effects of the compound, as well as its potential as a therapeutic agent.

Although psilocybin -- the hallucinogenic agent in the Psilocybe family of mushrooms -- first gained notoriety more than 40 years ago, it has rarely been studied because of the controversy surrounding its use.

This latest finding, which sprang from a rigorously designed trial, moves the hallucinogen's effect closer to the hazy border separating hard science and religious mysticism.

"More than 60 percent of the volunteers reported effects of their psilocybin session that met the criteria for a 'full mystical experience' as measured by well-established psychological scales," said lead researcher Roland Griffiths, a professor in the departments of neuroscience, psychiatry and behavioral biology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

What's more, most of the 36 adult participants -- none of whom had taken psilocybin before -- counted their experience while under the influence of the drug as "among the most meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives," Griffiths said. Most said they became better, kinder, happier people in the weeks after the psilocybin session -- a fact corroborated by family and friends.

The researchers also noted no permanent brain damage or negative long-term effects stemming from use of psilocybin.

huh? you mean natural things growing from the earth are good for us? that they shouldn't be illegal? well once again, mr. hicks knew the answer to that question:

"Actually, I'm against drugs being legalized, and this is why. Last weekend, my friend and I went into a farm, took some mushrooms, and we sat on a field. I looked up into the sky and saw God. He told me that there is nothing to fear, that he loves every single creature on this planet, and he showered gifts of forgiveness and love onto the Earth, and I realised that there was nothing to fear, and I loved everything ... Now, if that isn't a bad thing for this country, I don't know what is. How can we continue to make weapons if we love everything?"

top 10 signs gov't spying on you

when war criminals retire

from arctic beacon: They probably don't stand a 'snow ball's chance in hell,' but that isn't stopping a group of citizens in Iceland from filing criminal charges against former President George H. W. Bush.

Doing what Americans should have done long ago, Icelandic citizens file charges with the State's Police Chief, accusing former President Bush for participation in war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the peace, and crimes against internationally protected persons.

The charges were filed July 4 on Independence Day and coincide with a visit by Bush on July 7 to Iceland, being an invited guest of the host country's President Olafur R. Grimsson.

Many critics of Bush in America re saying a silent prayer the "charges stick" as the foreign criminal charges filed illustrate just how many abroad hold the Bush family in contempt for their criminal acts and acts of imperialistic aggression, resulting in the death of untold millions.


from counterpunch: George Bush just celebrated his 60th birthday, and in his rare free moments, it would be natural for him to begin to consider how--and where--he'll spend his time after leaving office. He seems to enjoy the ranch in Texas, and will of course be involved in setting up his presidential library, and work on behalf of his favorite charities.

As a former president, there will of course be many invitations to travel and speak on a wide variety of subjectsand that is where my advice comes in. Bush should bag the foreign travel...

... he will not know where and in which of these places charges may have been filed... by family members of people who were flown on un-marked dull, grey-painted planes to remote airports to be tortured or "disappeared"... or family of men, women and children who were summarily executed by soldiers in places like Haditha, Bakuba or Mahmoudia... or relatives of civilians whose bodies were lost in the flattened rubble of downtown Falluja.

Indeed, some of the questions which French judges wanted to ask of Henry Kissinger in Paris in 2001 had involved the secret, high-altitude carpet bombings of Cambodian towns and villages during the Vietnam War.

No, former President Bush would be wise to stay home in Texas in his retirement. It is highly unlikely that he would face imprisonment in his own country, as did General Pinochet. George Bush should enjoy the barbeque, and ride his horses through the mesquite. Maybe invite former Vice-President Cheney down to the ranch for some hunting.

SS sued over anti-bush protest

from all headline news: The American Civil Liberties Union sues the U.S. Secret Service and state and local police for allegedly using discriminatory practices during a 2004 campaign event for President Bush.

The class-action suit claims law enforcement protecting Mr. Bush used unreasonable force to clear about 200 protestors from the area.

The ACLU contents the Secret Service ordered police to move people peacefully protesting against the Iraq war, while permitting pro-Bush demonstrators to remain on the sidewalks.

David Fidanque, executive director of the Oregon ACLU, tells The Associated Press, "Our primary motive is to prevent this kind of activity from happening again in the future."

Shelly Elkovich, a protest organizer, tells the AP the group made sure to inform police the demonstration would be safe. She says they were told everything would be okay if they stayed on the sidewalks.

Instead, about 40 police officers in riot gear removed the protestors from the sidewalks.

The ACLU is asking the court to grant an injunction barring the Secret Service and police from discriminating against protesters in the future.

It also seeks monetary damages for demonstrators who were injured, and as well as punitive damages.

questions about 7/7 the tanweer video doesn't answer

from propaganda matrix: By now we know the drill - pardon the pun. 'Al-Qaeda' only chooses to release its video productions at the most politically expedient times to maximize the benefits enjoyed from them by the Bush and Blair administrations.

The schedule is so scripted, timed and orderly that Brian Ross at ABC News now reports days in advance when a new tape is about to be released.

Therefore it was no surprise to learn of the Shehzad Tanweer video, released to coincide with the anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in London.

Blair has been on the ropes for months fiercely resisting the call for an inquiry into 7/7, even one headed by an establishment shill like Hutton, what better time to have a convenient voice from the grave prop up the government's crumbling version of events and in the process validate the occupation of Iraq?

Is the Tanweer video for real or a mock-up created by 10-year-old special effects that enabled us to see Forrest Gump shake hands with President Kennedy?

In a sense it doesn't matter because even the Metropolitan Police admit that the alleged bombers were dupes set up by someone else and didn't know they were about to die. The videos could have been filmed under the proviso that the role players were just acting out another scene in the script of their MI5 training exercise - after all, the ringleader Mohammed Siddique Khan was on the payroll of British Intelligence.

phone jammer leads to white house

from raw story: The 4th man indicted in a New Hampshire phone-jamming scheme - in which Republican operatives jammed the phone lines of Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts in a 2002 Senate race - will argue at trial that the Bush Administration and the national Republican Party gave their approval to the plan, according to a motion filed by his attorney...

lou dobbs on the north american union

another important lou dobbs clips pulled...
finally, after jerome corsi's articles shed light on the secretive SPP agreement & the forthcoming north american union, lou dobbs gives even more attention to the end of america as we know it...

happy 4th of july!

osama bin forgotten

from nytimes: The CIA has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.

The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the CIA Counterterrorist Center...

The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice "dead or alive."

The realignment reflects a view that Al Qaeda is no longer as hierarchical as it once was, intelligence officials said, and a growing concern about Qaeda-inspired groups that have begun carrying out attacks independent of Mr. bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

NORAD air base on heightened alert

from world net daily: As the U.S. continues to express concern about the possibility of a North Korean missile test directed toward American territory and the rest of the world holds its breath over a close encounter with an asteroid, several U.S. air bases are on heightened alert.

But no one is talking about why.

The Cheyenne Mountain Air Station, which houses NORAD – charged with monitoring the North Korea situation – is now at "Bravo-Plus."

Other air bases in Colorado, California and Florida are also on heightened alert status.

gun owners accuse UN of july 4 conspiracy

from homeland stupidity: The United Nations Small Arms Review Conference began Monday and will go through July 7. The National Rifle Association has said that the UN intends to eliminate private ownership of firearms. But, responding to over 100,000 letters of complaint, secretary-general Kofi Annan said: “Let me also note that this Review Conference is not negotiating a ‘global gun ban,’ nor do we wish to deny law-abiding citizens their right to bear arms in accordance with their national laws.”

What’s really going on?

from cnn/netscape: Americans mistakenly worried the United Nations is plotting to take away their guns on July 4 -- U.S. Independence Day -- are flooding the world body with angry letters and postcards, the chairman of a U.N. conference on the illegal small arms trade said on Wednesday.

"I myself have received over 100,000 letters from the U.S. public, criticizing me personally, saying, 'You are having this conference on the 4th of July, you are not going to get our guns on that day,"' said Prasad Kariyawasam, Sri Lanka's U.N. ambassador.

"That is a total misconception as far as we are concerned," Kariyawasam told reporters ahead of the two-week meeting opening on Monday.

companies offer 'mind reading' technology to govt

from raw story: The American Civil Liberties Union today announced that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the primary American security agencies for information relating to the use of "cutting-edge brain-scanning technologies" on suspected terrorists, Raw Story has learned.

Two private companies have announced that they will begin to offer "lie detection" services using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), as early as this summer. fMRI can produce live, real-time images of people's brains as they answer questions, view images, listen to sounds, and respond to other stimuli.

These companies are marketing their services to federal government agencies, including the Department of Defense, Department of Justice, the National Security Agency and the CIA, and to state and local police departments.

'fahrenheit' marine killed in iraq

from sfgate: A U.S. Marine and one-time recruiter who appeared in Michael Moore's acclaimed documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" has died in a roadside bombing in Iraq.

Although Staff Sgt. Raymond J. Plouhar willingly appeared in a segment of the 2004 film, his father, Raymond, said Tuesday that his son didn't realize that it was for a movie critical of the war.

Raymond Plouhar said that all his 30-year-old son ever wanted to do was serve his country.