You may not know this, but the CIA has been recruiting in Dearborn for seven years, and the agency has been very successful, so far. But right now, they are looking to recruit more Arab and Muslim-Americans to help keep our country safe from harm.

The CIA is once again using commercials to recruit, but this time it’s a little different.

“This is the most ethnically rich and diverse Middle Eastern community in the United States,” said CIA Recruiter Henry Medina.

The CIA made a special trip to Dearborn, reaching out to the the Arab and Iranian-American communities and inviting and encouraging people to think about careers in the CIA.

There are hundreds of good jobs for good people from translators, nurses, engineers and more.

“To be able to provide the intelligence that our president needs to safe guard our country,” Medina said.

“We thought that it would be best to start here, develop a connection here,” said CIA Program Manager Zahra Roberts.

At this private screening in Dearborn, two new recruitment commercials were played on the big screen, both of them with one goal in mind.

“They’ll convey how much we value the community that we took the effort and the time to really focus on them and recruiting them,” Roberts said.

“I think it’s very important that the CIA does get involved and does do a great effort to reach out to the Middle Eastern and Muslim-American community,” said Suehaila Amen.

The first commercial acknowledged and focused on the love of family.

“That love of family and culture and bringing everybody together in a good way, which is important,” Amen said.

The second commercial was all about this. “It sends a stronger message. It appeals to the professionals in the community,” said Nabby Yono.

“We are people who come with a highly educated community and we’ve contributed greatly to this nation,” said Amen.

For many in the Arab-American communities, it’s refreshing to see the CIA’s focus on diversity and its commitment to making the agency a true representative of this country.

“Whether we are are Arabs, Chaldeans or any other nationality, we are Americans first,” Yono said.

The commercials are expected to start running in a few weeks and the hope is that they will help the CIA generate more qualified applicants from here in metro Detroit.

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By Mark Guarino |

Ever want to own a domed football stadium?

The question was a plausible one Monday when it was announced that the Pontiac Silverdome — once home to the NFL’s Detroit Lions — was sold for $583,000, or about 1 percent of the $55.7 million it took to build in 1975.

The Silverdome, an 80,300-seat stadium located in Pontiac, Mich., is the latest example of how comprehensively the recession has socked southeastern Michigan.

Mass layoffs and automotive plant closures have wreaked havoc on the local economy. Budget deficits are deep, foreclosures are widespread, and the population shrinking – from about 2 million people in the 1960s to about 900,000 today.

“It’s certainly one of the most severe points in [the area’s] history, because of the economic crisis and the falling housing prices,” says Mark Skidmore, professor of economics at Michigan State University in East Lansing. “There’s been a massive exodus and the ones who are left are those who, by and large, are [lower] income.”

The foreclosure crisis started in the communities servicing the auto plants, but is now spreading to more affluent areas, says Jamele Hage, who is currently running a mortgage foreclosure program for Wayne County that counsels residents and works with lenders to renegotiate loans.

“We’re not just talking about blue collar workers anymore, we’re talking about well-paid, white collar professionals,” she says.

This year in Harper Woods, located west of Detroit in Wayne County, property values fell 19 percent. City Assessor Gerald Owczarzak says he expects values to fall another 19 percent in 2010.

“Every city’s been hit,” says Mr. Owczarzak. “In our city we have our share of foreclosures. Fortunately, we have people buying which is good. People are getting great deal on homes. But that is what is causing assessments to drop.”

The depth of the real-estate crisis also led to the collapse of the value of the Silverdome, which was considered to be worth $20 million as recently as last year and at least $3 million now. An Oakland County judge has halted the sale until at least Monday. A rival buyer filed an injunction to block the sale.

The city of Pontiac now owns the stadium and is keen to offload it because of high maintenance costs.

The more poignant indicator of Detroit’s economic slide, however, is the number of foreclosures. Across the four counties of southeast Michigan, there have been 150,000 this year.

The speed of foreclosures is ruining property values, Ms. Hage says. Home prices for resales are dropping on their own, but not precipitously. The average home sale dropped to $84,000 from $94,000 between 2006 and today, according to the Detroit Office of Foreclosure Prevention and Response. But foreclosed properties are worth one-fourth of what they were worth in 2008 – $12,000 today versus $48,000 in 2008. [Editor’s note: This paragraph was adjusted to correct a mathematical error.]

“That’s what’s devastating our community,” she says.

But Hage is hopeful that foreclosures will slow, leading to a turnaround. Already, her program helped 2,100 families stay in their homes this year – a 60 percent retention rate. Her counselors get a warm reception at union halls, churches, and community centers.

“I thought it was going to be failure, but it’s cathartic,” she says. “People love it, they say,… ‘I’m not alone.’ ”

See also:

Detroit’s lessons for industrial America

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Town halls are installing cameras inside suburban homes to spy on the neighbourhood.

The Big Brother tactic – which is allowed under the anti-terrorist Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act – is being used by Croydon council in South London to catch those suspected of ‘anti-social behaviour’.

The CCTV cameras are placed inside the house of a willing resident, but trained on the street.

If deemed successful, the £1,000 cameras could be installed across the country to catch low-level offenders.

Charles Farrier, of the campaign group No-CCTV, said: ‘There is no evidence they act as a deterrent and we should be concentrating on the root problem anyway and working to gel our communities.’

Simon Davies, of Privacy International, said: ‘Unless the public are aware of where these cameras are, I believe this council should be taken to court for a breach of human rights.’

Critics say the scheme has echoes of the East German Stasi secret police, which recruited members of the public as spies.

The cameras cannot be seen from the street, and officials have refused to say in which areas they have been installed. Evidence gleaned from the cameras can be used to take people to court.

Croydon councillor Gavin Barwell said: ‘We’ll be working together with the police to put them to best use.’

But some local residents have backed the idea. Kirenna Chin, 30, said: ‘Louts use my hedge as a bouncy castle and urinate in my front garden. It’s very intimidating.

‘It’s a fantastic idea to fit hidden CCTV. If they offered me one I would definitely take it.’

Croydon has one of London’s most advanced CCTV networks.

The control room is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and there are 77 fixed cameras, a rapid-response mobile unit, and three wireless units.

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http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-27692-LA-County-Libertarian-Examiner~y2009m11d19-Palin-and-Beck-2012-A-match-straight-out-of-hades

Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska who is making the media rounds promoting her book Going Rogue, has said that she would consider TV host Glen Beck as a running mate if she ran for president in two years:
 

• “I can envision a couple of different combinations, if ever I were to be in a position to really even seriously consider running for anything in the future, and I’m not there yet.. But Glenn Beck I have great respect for. He’s a hoot. He gets his message across in such a clever way. And he’s so bold – I have to respect that. He calls it like he sees it, and he’s very, very, very effective.”

Palin, touted as a conservative who might save the faultering Republican party, cemented her standard establishment line on Israeli policy in an interview with Barbara Walters airing this week, saying ‘the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon‘, even if it encroaches into Palestinian areas.

An Israeli flag was seen displayed in her gubernatorial office in a February 2008 interview, 
with Palin making the shocking remark that the ‘only flag in my office’ is Israeli” when she met Israeli President Shmon Peres along with John McCain in September 08 at an event hosted by Bill Clinton. “I wanted to meet you for many years…The only flag at my office is an Israeli flag, and I want you to know and I want Israelis to know that I am a friend.”, Palin said.

Beck meanwhile, an admitted alcoholic and recovering drug addict, is touted by some as a ’staunch libertarian’. Beck is Mormon, otherwise referred to as “the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints”, which is described as “a pseudo-religion designated as a cult by many religious and secular organizations and fitting many, if not most, of the classically designated characteristics which define cult activity”.  Mormon publications have described Beck as  “one of the most influential Mormons in the media today”.

‘Focus on the Family’ pulled a Glenn Beck interview over his Mormon faith  in December 2008, with their spokesman Gary Schneeberger explaining to news outlets that “differences in the Mormon faith and the historical evangelical faith are not inconsequential”… adding that “some from our base” were concerned that the interview aimed to “signal theological compromise.”
 

The Christian ministry group Underground Apologetics had initiated the criticism of Focus on The Family’s promotional interview of Beck, stating:

• “While Glenn’s social views are compatible with many Christian views, his beliefs in Mormonism are not. Clearly, Mormonism is a cult. The CitizenLink story does not mention Beck’s Mormon faith, however, the story makes it look as if Beck is a Christian who believes in the essential doctrines of the faith…..to promote a Mormon as a Christian is not helpful to the cause of Jesus Christ. For Christians to influence society, Christians should be promoting the central issues of the faith properly without opening the door to false religions.
• Some of the false doctrines of Mormonism include polytheism, an attack on the trinity, that Jesus was the spirit-brother of Lucifer, that God the Father is married to Mother God, temple baptisms for the dead, the Bible has missing parts and many errors.”

Politically, Beck touts himself as a conservative and purported libertarian, but doesn’t mind the fact that
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele’s is ‘pro-choice’. This logic fits right in line with neocon Republicans Rudy Giulliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who betray their so-called base with their views while being continuously lauded as Republican heros. In a March 2009 interview, Beck told an interviewer “Yeah, I’m a libertarian, man. I am pro-life, but in my perfect world, we encourage people to make decisions that are pro-life. That’s the way it works”

While claiming to be a libertarian, Beck supports the myriad of undeclared wars launched by George W. Bush, endorses the patriot act, and showed disdain for Ron Paul supporters in November 2007 during the presidential election, with PrisonPlanet.com documenting the fallout:

• Complaints Flood CNN After Beck Smears Ron Paul Supporters As Terrorists
• “Complaints and demands for a retraction and an apology are flooding CNN today after Neo-Con host Glenn Beck and ex-Marxist David Horowitz smeared Ron Paul supporters, libertarians and the anti-war left as terrorist sympathizers and inferred that the U.S. military should be used to silence them, parroting a talking point that traces back to a September 2006 White House directive”

In reality, “Glenn Beck is a Neocon Not a Libertarian” , as this youtube video so brilliantly illustrates [with 300+ comments]
In a candidly honest appraisal, the Libertarian Party Co-Founder David Nolan Calls Sarah Palin A Shill, Glenn Beck A Wanna-Be Libertarian in an October 2009 radio interview.

Palin, meanwhile, in an MTV interview during her vice-presidential bid, referred to Ron Paul as “cool.” adding “He’s a good guy,.. He’s so independent. He’s independent of the party machine. I’m like, ‘Right on, so am I.”

Congressman Paul however, in a Politico interview in July of this year, threw cold water on the Palin hysteria that seems to be sweeping through the GOP:
 

• “As for soon-to-be departing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Paul dismisses her supporters as “more establishment, conventional Country-Club type of Republicans.”  “I wonder whether she’s energizing the 15-20 year olds,” Paul muses. “That would be a question I would have. Because she doesn’t talk about the Federal Reserve and some of these issues. She doesn’t talk too much about personal liberties, civil liberties, getting rid of drug laws, attacking the war on drugs, punishing people who torture.”
  Worse still, he adds, Palinites are partisans: “If Obama was the only one who was guilty, they would be on his case all the time, but there is a lot of partisanship and I am probably less partisan and therefore she is going to appeal to partisan Republicans better.” As Paul sees it, such partisanship is the rough equivalent of an old Onion headline, “”Our local area sports team is superior to your local area sports team,” Or as he puts it, “I think when it comes to foreign policy and monetary policy on big spending and watching out for the big corporations, Republicans are Democrats”

It should be interesting to watch as the circus develops over the next two years, with statists of every stripe fawning over their D or R celebrity puppet candidate. Meanwhile, I wish them well in buying and selling their books, while the people who genuinely care about freedom can continue to expose the phonies, and strive for liberty in our time.

Related:

Total Government convictions for IRS tax crimes: 666

Palin continues standard establishment line on Israeli policy

Ten year old uses marijuana for autism, with positive results

Glenn Beck is clearly a Neocon, Not a Libertarian

Tea Party in Santa Monica in 2007, before the movement was co-opted by neocon shills.
Tea Party 2007

Related Posts:

• The only juice left in the Republican Party is the Ron Paul Revolution
• Secret State Police Report: Ron Paul, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, Libertarians are Terrorists
• Ron Paul: ‘Pretty sad’ that Limbaugh is GOP leader
• 10 false flags operations that shaped our world
• Bailout for the People

We have been conditioned from birth to believe that everything wrong in our society is about Greed: The inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.

However, my research concludes the earth’s environmental damage and pollution was not the result of greed and the unintended consequences of our capitalistic consumer society, but was the goal.

Until the common man became “civilized” he had almost no environmental impact on the earth. Hunters, foragers and gatherers are unable to upset the ecological structures of the planet. [1]

The first civilized societies and their agrarian economies had an environmental impact but the damage was negligible because only 3% of the population, Kings and Lords were consumers.

The earth wasn’t in trouble until the House of Rothschild unleashed the middle class on the planet when they financed and fomented the American and French Revolutions. [2]

Now the Third Estate (97% of the population) was freed to become the consumers of useless and toxic products from the Industrial Revolution.  And thanks to those scoundrels behind the Federal Reserve, former serfs and slaves could now have their own castle with a Sport Utility Pollution Vehicle (SUPV) in the driveway.

The first industrial revolution, the textile industry, based on the one plant that does more damage to the environment than coffee or tobacco…cotton, marked the last time the earth would be in ecological balance. [3]

A Theory of Ecocide Explains the Unexplainable

To support my theory, I point out that the Federal Reserve isn’t evil because they print our money and make us pay interest on the principal.

They are evil because Rockefeller, Kuhn, Loeb and Morgan, all connected to the House of Rothschild’s global financial empire, directed the Federal Reserve (until October of 2008) to create money out of thin air to pay for the American Dream, an environmental nightmare for the planet. [4]

These scoundrels, at the beginning of the 20th century owned or controlled 1/6^th of the world’s real wealth: raw materials, commodities, copper, iron ore, petroleum, lead, silver and gold.

And when I write, “So how do they get rich exchanging real wealth for about $500 trillion of the Monopoly money they printed?”

I assume the answer is intuitive because their real wealth has been used up; they are the losers, not the middle class!

And I remind anyone still listening:

Remember those trees we chopped down and mountains we blew up so we could experience unprecedented prosperity for the last 60 years?

All of those resources (raw materials for the American Dream) “now used up”, were once owned or controlled by the scoundrels of our history books.

Their real wealth, not yours or mine has been “cut, mined and hauled away so consumers could trash the planet with houses, second houses, cars, RVs, TVs and DVDs— the material possessions we associate with the good life that put the planet on the downward spiral to ecocide.

Although this premise first appeared in Dem Bones is Connected To De Debt Bone (published at The Market Oracle and G. Edward Griffins website January 2009 [5]), the Internet is not buzzing about a theory of ecocide, which would explain the failure of public policies, government actions and inactions to protect the environment.

A theory of ecocide would allow hot, flat, and crowded Thomas L. Friedman to know what planet George W. Bush is on. Our last president Bush (we hope) wasn’t “stupid” if his goal was Ecocide.

At the G8 summit, Dubya was deadly serious about Ecocide when, after rejecting the global climate change targets of the July 2008 G8 summit, he said, “Goodbye, from the (then) world’s biggest polluter.”

He proposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, which would trash America’s last arctic wilderness. Sonar testing is about torturing whales and dolphins, and the border fence that keeps everything out but the illegals is disrupting an extraordinary source of biological diversity along a 2,000-mile-long region that includes deserts, mangrove forests, plains, mountains, river valleys and wetlands.

Bush lost the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq, but is winning the war waged on the environment.

A theory of ecocide is also the solution to the enigma of China’s economic policy, which resulted in every person in the (rich) U.S. borrowing about $4,000 from someone in the (poor) People’s Republic of China. China wanted to be the Air Pollution champion of the world and be able to say “Goodbye, from the world’s biggest polluter.” [6]

Cognitive Dissonance could explain why no one is jumping on a theory of ecocide.

After all, the premise that anyone would intentionally damage the planet, which future generations will inherit, contradicts a strongly held belief system that those responsible would have to live with the polluted air, fouled water and a poisoned food chain. [7]

Recently I debated a “critical thinker” trying to convince her the rich aren’t getting wealthy printing their own Monopoly money.  She articulated what we are conditioned to believe from birth:

“When we have more, it is never enough. Everything is about money, it doesn’t matter how much you have you want more, that’s just the way it is and if you are telling me the Federal Reserve isn’t getting rich printing their own money then I can tell you for sure you haven’t looked into this enough.”

And a nearby listener offered up his manly wisdumb, “After all everyone knows, “he who dies with the most toys wins.”

This got me thinking: I should be agreeing with them:

“You guys are right everyone wants more, that’s our nature. But wait, in 1910 they already had 1/6th of the world’s real wealth (some estimate ½): copper, iron ore, petroleum, lead, silver and gold silver, therefore, according to your Greed theory they should have MORE copper, iron ore, petroleum, lead, silver and gold NOT Less.”

Are you saying they didn’t know their real wealth would be “used up” and the planet would be damaged when we went shopping?

Footnotes:

[1] Civilization is a complex society in which many of the people live in cities and get their food from agriculture, as distinguished from tribal societies where people live in small settlements or nomadic groups and make their subsistence by foraging, hunting, or working small horticultural gardens.

[2] Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité – Providence, Miracle or What Really Happened, Robert Singer

[3] By 1850 the United States following the lead of England built their industrial revolution around textiles.  There arose a great demand for the one crop that does more damage to the environment than planting coffee or even tobacco… Cotton. Today, our planet is in desperate trouble. Earth is suffocating as large tracts of rain forests disappear. Pollution, poisons and chemicals are killing the planet. These problems could have been avoided if the British textile industry hadn’t “suddenly” discovered Cotton. What is Cotton doing in The Game?, Robert Singer

[4] During the last 100 years those swindlers were able to distort the structure of relative prices; generate misallocations of labor and capital throughout the economy; rationalize new governmental interventions in the face of the market “instability” manipulate the patterns of and the profits from international trade which resulted in the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, the stagflation of the 1970’s, the dot-com and the housing market bubbles…all of which created unprecedented prosperity for the middle class, $500 trillion of Monopoly money for the House of Rothschild and ecocide for the Planet. “We don’t want your tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to trash the planet” The Federal Reserve, 2009, Robert Singer

[5] Dem Bones is Connected To De Debt Bone, Robert Singer

[6] Meat, Milk and Motors: The New China Syndrome, Robert Singer

[7] Cognitive Dissonance (CD is the discomfort felt at the discrepancy between what you already know or believe, and new information or interpretation that contradicts a strongly held belief system – It’s that queasy feeling that rises in your gut and screams, I Don’t Believe That! Because, if you accepted the new information, you would have to admit you been ”had,” or ”conned,” in this case into shopping for stuff to trash the planet.

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BEIJING — The imperative of greater global currency stability means the world can no longer rely, as it has done since the end of the gold standard, on a currency issued by a single country, the head of the IMF said on Tuesday.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, restated his view that a new global currency might evolve out of the Special Drawing Right, the Fund’s in-house unit of account.

“That probably has to be a basket,” Strauss-Kahn said of the eventual replacement for the dollar. “In a globalised world there is no domestic solution,” he told a forum.

Speaking later at a news conference, Strauss-Kahn reiterated the message that has been a constant refrain during his visit — that China needs a stronger yuan as part of a package of policies to help rebalance its economy by promoting domestic demand.

“For us, because it just is consistent with the new economic policy in China, the sooner the better. How fast? It will take time. It is not something which will change in one step overnight,” Strauss-Kahn said.

China has kept the yuan, also known as the renminbi (RMB), pegged around 6.83 per dollar since July 2008, following a 21% rise over the previous three years, to help its exporters weather the global economic crisis.

“We do believe firmly in the IMF that the RMB is undervalued and that it is not only in the interests of the global economy but also in the interests of China to have a revaluation of the currency,” he said.

An undervalued currency introduces economic distortions, which might confer certain advantages but at a cost to other parts of the economy, Strauss-Kahn said. In China’s case, a cheap currency gives it an edge on trade but scrambles price signals, leading to wrong decisions about investment in the long run.

“It is now time for China, having accumulated a lot of advantages from an undervalued currency, to look more forward to investment and long-term stability, and this long-term stability goes with getting rid of this distortion,” he said.

Washington in particular has been vocal in arguing that an undervalued yuan is exacerbating economic imbalances that were a root cause of the global financial crisis.

But He Yafei, China’s vice foreign minister, defended China’s policy of keeping the yuan on a tight rein.

“In the process of tackling the financial crisis, keeping the RMB stable not only was a contribution to fighting the crisis but also helped stabilise global financial markets,” he said.

He was briefing reporters on talks President Hu Jintao held with visiting U.S. President Barack Obama, who referred only fleetingly to the currency issue.

“I was pleased to note the Chinese commitment made in past statements to move toward a more market-oriented exchange rate over time,” Obama said.

Strauss-kahn expressed concern that political willingness to overhaul the international monetary system will falter if, in a year’s time, the visible signs of the economic crisis have faded.

He said the momentum to cooperate had already eased somewhat, six months after the London summit of the Group of 20 agreed on a need for change to ensure a more stable global financial order.

A former IMF chief, Michel Camdessus, said time was of the essence to embark on reform of the global monetary system.

“This favourable window of opportunity is there. It will not stay open forever,” he told the forum at which Strauss-Kahn spoke.

Camdessus gave broad backing to a recent proposal by Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan that an expanded SDR could eventually replace the dollar as the global reserve currency.

“Our Chinese friends mean business,” he said of Zhou’s plan.

As a corollary of a strengthened role for the SDR, governance changes were needed at the Fund to shift power to big emerging economies, Camdessus said.

To that end, the SDR basket must be modified to include the yuan and perhaps the Indian rupee and Brazilian real as well.

“The RMB must be there. Period,” Camdessus said.

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Open Letter to all Corporate Media Journalists

This is a translated version of a letter that, on the 11th of Ocotober 2009, was sent out to journalists working for the corporate media in Sweden and has since then been widely distributed among a very rapidly growing grassroot anti-vaccine/anti NWO movement in Sweden.
Feel free to use this letter as a template for an open letter that can be sent out to journalists and distributed among people in your country as well. The revolution will be global.
————————————————–
The direct link to this letter is: http://www.wordmworld.net/uncategorized/open-letter-journalists

To all journalists working in Sweden: The truth is out. Your employers have been revealed. Your employers employers have been revealed. Your employers employers employer has been revealed. The truth is out. I repeat: The truth is out.
The biggest crime against humanity in modern time is taking place right in front of our eyes – and you, all swedish journalists, are quiet. I repeat: The biggest crime against humanity in modern time is right now taking place in front of our eyes – and you are quiet.
To all journalists working in Sweden: with this letter I want to tell you that you have a choice. Either you immediately, and I do mean immediately, start reporting what is really going on in this country and all over the world – or else, as of today, you will be regarded as accomplices in this close to unimaginably horrendous criminal act against the people of Sweden and against the people of the entire planet.
I repeat: To all journalists working in Sweden, either you immediately start reporting what is actually going on in the world, or else you are considered enemies to the people of Sweden.
Passivity is no longer an option. Silence is no longer an option. Propaganda is no longer an option. Disinformation is no longer an option. As of today, wednesday, the 11th October 2009, you will start to write, tell and show us the truth.
Your employers, the corporate media in Sweden and around the world, are right now under the control of the most evil international crime syndicate that has ever existed. We know that they have siezed your base of operation.
Aftonbladet, Expressen, Svenska Dagbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Metro, The Swedish Radio, The Swedish Television, TV4, and all you other lackeys of evil – we know that right now, you are all being used as the central unit of propaganda, in Sweden, for the most cynical conspiracy that humanity has ever seen.
We know that this conspiracy stretches all the way from Wall Street, to the White House, to the World “Health” Organization, to the UN, to the European Union, to the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, to the upcoming meeting in Copenhagen, to media moguls, to the world’s leading bankers, to top politicians, to the swedish government, to swedish banking, to the swedish press, to the swedish drug agency, and to corresponding institutions all across the world.
I understand if this sounds unpleasant, but this is nothing compared to how unpleasant things will become if we all don’t take this absolutely seriously. Right now. Today. Absolutely seriously. This is nothing to smile about. Nothing to dismiss. Nothing to ignore. The crime that is right now taking place in front of our eyes is a part of the most hideous, and sophisticated, conspiracy that can – unless you and we take immediate action – bring more pain and suffering to both us and coming generations than we ever could have imagined.
In the case you choose to call this crazy conspiracy theories without even informing yourselves about what is actually going on in the world: stop this nonsense right away.
The truth is out. We know what is going on. The majority of the people in Sweden and around the world are not aware of the things that are taking place, but there are enough people who are aware for me to, once again, repeat this ultimatum: Starting today, the 11th of November 2009, you will start working with conveying the truth about the swine flu, the vaccine and the ongoing mass vaccinations to all people in Sweden.
If you refuse to meet this demand, then I, and all others who are aware of what is going on, and all of those that within a near future will start to understand, will – for the rest of your careers, for the rest of your lives – hold you responsible for just standing on the side and doing nothing but observe, while this disgusting crime was taking place.
All of you swedish journalists, it is your job to scrutinize those in power. It is your job to report to us when they abuse their power. It is your job to inform the swedish people about current events. Right now, you are not doing your job. This will result in fatal consequences, unless you immediately start doing what you are supposed to do and what you have to do.
Even though I do hope that you come to your senses, it is not something that I neither expect nor rely on. For this reason, I’ve started the page “VaccinationNews“. This news reporting is not as fancy as the thug papers for which you work,  but it deals with something that the swedish people need more than anything else right now – the truth about the swine flu, the vaccine and the mass vaccinations. The link to this daily news reporting about the swine flu, the vaccine and the mass vaccinations is: http://www.wordmworld.net/bubble-words/vaccinationsnyheterna (in swedish)

In case you journalists want to write real articles but have them refused by your scoundrel employers, then your very welcome to send them to the “VaccinationNews”, and I will publish them on this site.
The same goes for the Swedish people. The most dangerous thing we can do right now is wait for someone else to take action. We have to start taking matters in our hands. You have to take matters in your own hands.
Right now, we dispose over a fantastic means of communication, the Internet. We have to start take advantage of this. Thanks to the Internet, we can communicate with each other directly, by sending links, video clips, documents and articles. It is very important that we do not take our current communicative freedoms for granted. It is equally important that we spread this information that governments, mainstream media and all those in power want to keep away from us, as much as possible and as quickly as possible.
Communicate with the people around you, both in everyday life and on the Internet. Talk to each other, discuss, ask questions, think critically, exchange ideas, send links, post information on facebook, twitter, blogs, in different forums, and spread the word that our future is right now at stake and do it in every way possible.
For every day that passes, our freedoms are being taken away from us, both on the web and in our communities, without most of us even noticing it. If we want to come out of this fight victoriously, then we need to exercise our rights and use all our means of communication to the fullest. Now, right now, right away.
———————————————————————————
This is a translated version of a letter that, on the 11th of Ocotober 2009, was sent out to journalists working for the corporate media in Sweden and has since then been widely distributed among a very rapidly growing grassroot anti-vaccine/anti NWO movement in Sweden. Feel free to use this letter as a template for an open letter that can be sent out to journalists in your country as well.
Also, if you speak other foreign languages, please feel free to make further translations. Right now, most “real” news about the swine flu conspiracy are in english. This is a great language, but there are still a large number of people in the world that don’t speak english. We need to make all of the information out there available in as many languages as possible.
If you make a translation, you can send this to me and I’ll post it here on this website, where I’ve put together plenty of information regarding all of this.
The direct link to this letter is:  http://www.wordmworld.net/uncategorized/open-letter-journalists
———————————————————————————

Unfortunately, I believe many of you, both journalists and citizens of Sweden, have still not grasped how serious this situation is. Let me speak clearly: Our lives are at stake. Our childrens lives are at stake. Our grandchildrens lives are at stake.
If you have ever wondered how it could happen that Hitler, about seventy years ago, could come to power and terrorize the entire world for a decade without noone stopping him, then you don’t have to study any history books, all you need is take a look around you, right now, in your own life, in the world today. This is how it happened. This is how it happens.
One of the big questions of this century is whether humanity has learned the lesson from the mistakes that were committed back then, in the middle of the last century, or whether this time as well, we will stand paralyzed, blind for the truth, ignorant, obeying authorities, intellectually and emotionally hypnotized, while the most powerful people on the planet will control humanity as they please, steer us into depravity, as were we a herd of stupid, little sheep?
This is what these people think of us, as sheep. As fools. As slaves. It is up to us if want to accept this, because that is what we have been doing for hundreds of years, or whether we finally, once and for all, will realize what a superb creature each and every one of us in fact is, and then take away both the power positions, means of power and resources from these utterly few but incredibly evil people. I believe the time has come for this. I hope so. I know so.
If you journalists only dare to not start reporting what is going on the world, then we, the people of Sweden, will hold you responsible for indirectly having worked against this and thus contributed to an imeasurable amount of suffering for our friends, our sisters and brothers, our families, our children, our grandchildren, and also for yourselves. Don’t be mistaken; right now, when you are reading this, is the time when you have to make a decision.
The truth is out. This whole story will come to daylight. Believe nothing else. If you think you can get away with your silence, then you are wrong. If you think that you will be able to blame someone else, then you are wrong. If you believe that you are powerless, then you are wrong. You have to start doing your job.
Before I continue, I would like to give the following message to some of your employers and executives: Jan Helin (Editor in Chief, Aftonbladet), Raol Grüntahl (CEO, Schibsted), Thomas Mattson (Editor in Chief, Expressen), Jonas Bonnier (CEO, Bonnier), Thorbjörn Larsson (Editor in Chief, Dagens Nyheter), Lena K. Samuelsson (Editor in Chief, Svenska Dagbladet), Mats Svegfors (CEO, the Swedish Radio), Eva Hamilton (CEO, the Swedish Television, Jan Scherman (CEO, the TV4-group): we know that you pitiful, pathetic scumbags are lapdogs for the international crime syndicate that is right now attempting to posion the whole population of Sweden. We know that you run errands for these, the most loathsome crooks that the planet has ever seen, by reporting everything that they want you to report, tell us everything they want you to tell us, show us everything that they want you to show us.
If I say the words “Marie Antoinette”, “Ludwig the XVI”, “1793″, “guillotine” – then what are the images popping up in your tiny, corrupt brains? If anyone of you put up a single more misleading placard about the vaccine against the swine flu, if anyone of you show a single more lying news report about the ongoing mass vaccinations, if anyone of you keep on avoiding to give the swedish people all the information that governments and rulers around the world are intentionally keeping away from the citizens, if anyone one of you keep feeding us with the illusion that everything is okey and there is nothing to worry about, if any of you, starting today, the 11th of October 2009, keep on lying to the swedish people, deceiving the swedish people, give disinformation to the swedish people, spread distraction to the swedish people, then you will have to pay very dearly for this.
To all of us, I want you to answer us the following two questions:
1) Where are your loyalties – with the people of Sweden or with the most insidious criminals on the entire planet?
2) From whom do you take your orders?
Now back to the swedish journalists. I suspect that many of you, since a long time back, have realized that there is something fishy going on. I suspect that many of you, since a long time back, are functioning as tools for the propaganda machines that are called Aftonbladet, Expressen, Svenska Dagbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Swedish Radio, Swedish Televison, and other devices for intense mass indoctrination of the people of Sweden.
I suspect, as well, that many of you have already started digging into this whole thing and possibly even, to a certain extent, have engaged in some sort of journalistic work. But for some reason, all of you are quiet. I suspect that you have been forced to not write about these matters. I suspect that you are afraid of getting sacked if you start doing what you are supposed to do. I even suspect that some of you have been threatened. I regret this. But if you believe that this an acceptable excuse for your silence, then you are wrong.
If you do not break this silence immediately, then you will – when all of this is brought to dayligt, which it soon will be – from the entire population of Sweden, receive such an avalanche of fury that whatever it is that is right now frightening you will appear as a drop in the ocean in comparison.
The fact that you call yourselves journalists is a disgrace without equal. Right now, you are nothing more than servile writing whores, prostituting your pens and intellects to these cynical-beyond-belief people who crashed an entire world economy, who put the puppet Barack Obama in the White House and made sure he received the Nobel Peace Prize while his politics are raping the entire planet, who made sure this con-artist and his criminal cronies performed the greatest robbery of all time by robbing the american tax payers of hundreds of billions of dollars when they handed out the so called “stimulus packages” to the same banking crooks that staged the whole crash of the economy from the beginning, who made sure that all allied governments around the world did the same thing (including the swedish traitors), who – in an austrian laboratory – mutated virus strains from bird flu, swine flu and human flu and by doing this created the virus called A(H1N1), who far in advance had created the vaccine which they then claim “protects” against the genetically manufactured A(H1N1) virus, who released the virus on the planet’s population, who fabricated the lie that the completely new and “unknown” virus had emerged among mexican swines, who fabricated the lie that the so called “swine flu”, which is the result of this virus, is a lethal threat to humanity, who fabricated the lie that we are facing a full scale pandemic, who made sure that the World Health Organization – which is in their control – on completely ridiculous grounds raised the pandemic level to phase 6 so that, in the almost 200 countries that follow the decisions of WHO, mass vaccinations could begin without any safety control of the vaccine whatsoever, which will then be followed – and this is where we are now – by applying martial law in all of the world’s countries so that the entire population of the planet will be facing forced vaccinations, followed by another injection with the purpose of targeting the human being’s immune system and by doing so – a three-step attack with this biological weapon – carry out an international genocide, whereupon the architects of the whole thing would be able to bring in a global, fascist, totalitarian dictatorship using the UN – which is in their control – as a central base of power for a new world government, and since both the mass vaccination murders and the “financial crisis” robbery would to such a great have weakened the people of the world, we would not be able to revolt, and by doing all of this, these criminal masterminds will be able to keep and strengthen their own positions of power and at the same time consolidating the positions of the misled masses as their ignorant slaves.
The truth is out. This is their plan. And you, all swedish journalists, are quiet.
Fortunately, there is still such a thing in this world as real journalists. One of those is called Jane Bürgermeister and she was the one who first presented the evidence of the mindblowingly evil crime that is currently developing both here in Sweden and all over the world. All the information is available for everyone, including you. And yet, you are quiet. The evidence have been confirmed and confirmed again and confirmed yet again.
For every day that passes, this conspiratory plan is progressing, and for every day that passes, the fight to keep it from succeeding is also progressing – and you, all journalists working in Sweden, are quiet.
You should be ashamed of yourselves. How can you look your children in their eyes? How can you look yourselves in the mirror? The level of integrity that all journalists in Sweden have shown for the past year is so terribly low that you, whose job it is to scrutinize those in power, are not worth more than stinking rats.
If you dismiss all of this as conspiratory nonsense without even trying to dig into the case, then you are turning yourselves into the enemies of the swedish people. It is your job to search for this information, look at it, investigate it, question it, but if you’re not even touching it, if you’re not even telling about it, if you don’t even dare facing it, then you are nothing more than rotten henchmen for the incredibly small gang of super criminals that for centuries have tortured humanity and for centuries to come aim to keep on doing so.
In order to take part of the most essential information about all of this, you can read Jane Bürgermeisters summary of this criminal case by clicking on the following link:
http://www.theflucase.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=355&Itemid=56&lang=en
In case you think all of this just sounds to unbelievable to be true, which is understandable (but at the same time, it is not a rational way of confronting the claims) then you can start to look through the evidence.
For example, you can read a two-part memorandum from WHO, which was written in 1972, about how to – in three steps – turn a vaccine into a deadly weapon: first by weakening the immune system, secondly by injecting a large dose of virus into the body which the weakened immune system can’t cope with, and thirdly by injecting an adjuvant that triggers a massive inflammatory reaction and a so called cytokine storm.
This memorandum can be read here:
http://theflucase.com/downloads/WHO_Memo_1_searchable.pdf
and here: http://theflucase.com/downloads/WHO_Memo_2_Searchable.pdf
To continue, you can have a look at patent application for the vaccine against “swine flu” that the pharmaceutical Baxter filed before the “completely unknown” swine flu virus “suddenly” appeared in Mexiko. http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk/documents/vaccines/Baxter%20Vaccine%20Patent%20Application.pdf
Baxter is also the same company that, in an austrian laboratory, created the “swine flu” virus and in february earlier this year sent 72 kg of falsely labeled contaminated vaccine material to laboratories around the world in order to spread the virus. The evidence for this, and much else, can be read in Bürgermeister’s 134 page document where she has put together substantial evidence that the swine flu, the vaccine and the mass vaccinations are part of an extremely complex plan to carry out genocide.
The defendants are (among others): Barack Obama (President, USA), David Nabarro (Coordinator of Influenza, UN), Margaret Chan (Director-General, WHO), Robert Parkinson (CEO, Baxter International), Daniel Vassella (CEO, Novartis International), Andrew Witty (CEO, GlaxoSmithKline), George W. Bush (Former President, USA), Bill Gates (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation),  Kathleen Sibelius (Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services), Janet Napolitano (Secretary of Department of Homeland Security), David de Rothschild (Banker), David Rockefeller (Banker), George Soros (Banker) and Alois Stöger (Health Minister, Austria). This document is found here: http://theflucase.com/downloads/Evidence_of_the_use_of_pandemic_flu_to_depopulate_USA.pdf
Worth reading are also the charges that have been filed with the FBI. The indicted are (among others): WHO, UN and the pharmaceutical companies Baxter och Novartis. You can read this document here: http://theflucase.com/downloads/Criminal_Charges_FBI-US.pdf
If you would like to approach the case from another angle, I’ve put together a list with more than 75 links to various videos, sound recordings, news articles and important documents concerning all of this. All of this information is, in other words, available just with a few clicks on your mouse, and is found here: http://www.wordmworld.net/bubble-words/informationskriget-svininfluensan
On this page you will find, among many other things, the following documentary about a swine flu virus, a vaccine, a corporate media propaganda campaign and a massive coverup. This might perhaps sound familiar to what is now going on – and yes, it is very familiar, except for the fact that it took place in 1976 and was a trial run for what would come later on, and what has now come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_9I1L_P370
You can also, for example, listen to a sound recording from the incredibly influential, and for many people unknown, Council on Foreign Relations – which operates closely to the american government, where they discuss how mainstream media should create a false image of scarcity in order to drive up demand. A tactic that has been applied by corporate media both in Sweden, Germany, the United States and many other parts of the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsKsgHbxuc0
Or, you can listen to something so unusual as an uncorrupted health minister’s opinion on the swine flu and the vaccine, namely Ewa Kopacz from Poland. Where are you social minister Göran Hägglund? Where are you health minister Maria Larsson? Why are you so quiet, you rotten flies who call yourselves leaders of the swedish people? From whom do you take your orders? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlqWFV098xw
Where are you, prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt? We know that you know what is going on. We know that you are a pathetic little puppet for the Bilderberg gang.
Where are you, foreign minister and previous prime minister Carl Bildt? We know that you are one of the most evil people that has ever walked on swedish ground and the puppet master in swedish politics.
Here is a message to all of you, and to all others that this concern – you know who you are (finance minister Anders Borg and education minister Jan Björklund, for example): your days are counted. You are finished. Finito. Farewell.
And to all you other cowards who call yourselves politicians, no matter the party to which you belong – all the way from the social democrats to the lefties to the green party to the liberals to the christian democrats to the conservatives to the center party, you are going down. Not any single one of you has had the courage to stand up and tell the truth to the swedish people, and that is why you are finished. The time has come when the swedish people will realize that you are nothing but morons, wimps, confused little clowns that get a kick out of controlling other people.
Back to you journalists. You can also read an article about a certain Joseph Moshe, a microbiologist at MOSSAD, who in a desperate attempt to convey the truth called a radio show and said that a virus was being created in a Baxter laboratory in the Ukraine, which would be used as biological weapon. Shortly thereafter, the american security service arrested him, saying that he had threatened to bomb the White House. Since then, no one has heard from him. You can read about this here: http://www.unfictional.com/joseph-moshe-mossad-bioweapon-swine-flu-vaccine-westwood
And keeping the situation that is currently evolving in the Ukraine in mind, which the swedish media completely ignores, the Moshe case should be particularly interesting.
http://www.infowars.com/reported-cases-of-mystery-flu-in-ukraine-double-in-two-days/
Jane Bürgermeisters own homepage, which is invaluable, is found here: http://www.theflucase.com

And to understand what the connections is between this and the current financial crisis, as well as understanding who the true Barack Obama is (which is the most dangerous woolf in sheep’s clothing and the most skilled deciever that the world has ever seen) you can watch the film “Fall of the Republic”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU
To understand how the banking complex is involved in the financial crisis, then a startpoint can be this very well written article about how the investment bank Goldman Sachs, which is under the control of the same people that control the White House, WHO, UN, EU, news agencies suchs as Reuters and Associated Press, banks such as JP Morgan and Rothschild Bank, the Federal Reserve, the pharmaceutical companies Baxter, Novartis and many more of the world’s most powerful institutions in everything from politics, business, pharmaceuticals, mainstream media, banking, entertainment and so on, knew in advance about the crashing economy: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/77791.html
If you have a hard time seeing the complete picture of the situation, then you can read a thourough explanation of how the responsible crime syndicate, which is called The Illuminati, operates by reading the article “Flu is not the biggest danger – it’s the vaccine!”, written by David Icke: http://www.davidicke.com/content/view/25191
Surely, all of this might for some of you still seem very confusing, and I understand that. The lies that we have been fed with are so massive and have been going on for so long and are so sophisticated and skillfully covered up, that anyone is at risk of getting lost. But we cannot allow ourselves to get lost. We have been lost for far too long.
Now is the time that the swedish people will start to understand where the real power structures are that have been dictating the evolution of humanity for centuries and to understand the forces that have planned the atrocities currently taking place, and have been taking place for longer than I think most people believe is possible.
But it is possible. We shall always remember how amazingly cynical these people are, how strong their contempt of life is and how – in an evil way – incredibly brilliant they are. Now it is your job, all swedish journalists, to start tell the swedish people about all of this. Immediately. We will not tolerate one more day of propaganda or screaming silence. The choice is yours. You know the deal.
If you want information to work with, if you want a few pieces of the puzzle, if you want to start examining the real rulers of the world, if you want to convey the truth to the swedish people, then I believe you will be able to dig deeper with the help of a collection of key words and links that I have posted here below.
The truth is out. Will you remain silent?
Evil want this information to be kept away from us.
Love demands this information to be brought forward.
/Mikis Mazarakis
The direct link to this letter is: http://www.wordmworld.net/uncategorized/open-letter-journalists

INFORMATION THAT THEY WANT TO KEEP AWAY FROM US:
1. History of World Banking
For example: http://www.fourwinds10.com/resources/uploads/pdf/the_brief.pdf
2. The Rothschilds
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F4IGwuKdUQ
3. The Rothschilds, World Central Banks
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG4y1xg0kSQ&feature=related
4. The Rockefellers
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUNoFodlIOY
5. Rothschild, Rockefeller, Federal Reserve
T ex: http://www.land.netonecom.net/tlp/ref/federal_reserve.shtml
6. Goldman Sachs
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCWN4M5RkQI
7. Goldman Sachs, Federal Reserve, Timothy Geithner, Lawrence Summers
For example: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12953
8. Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, above the law
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol3mEe8TH7w
9. Zbigniew Brezinski, “The Grand Chessboard”
For example: http://sandiego.indymedia.org/media/2006/10/119973.pdf
10. Rockefeller, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Trilateral Comission
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKq_rpFPidw
11. Zbigniew Brezinski, Columbia University, Barack Obama
For example: http://www.davidicke.com/content/view/18281
12. House of Windsor, Battenberg, Queen Elizabeth, Nazi Roots
For example: http://abundanthope.net/pages/article_3812.shtml
13. Rockefeller, The Bilderberg Group
For example: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=7781
14. Cecil Rhodes, Africa, Round Table
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iRHbBiHuuA
15. Rothschild, Cecil Rhodes
For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Rhodes
16. Rothschild, Rockefeller, Round Table
For example: http://www.terrorism-illuminati.com/round-table
17. Bush, Hitler, Nazi
For example: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
18. Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Rockefeller, Al Gore, Warren Buffet, George Soros
For example: http://www.oldthinkernews.com/Articles/oldthinker%20news/elites_launch_global_impact.htm
19. George Soros
For example: http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2001/2832_soros.html
20. George Soros, Sweden, financial crisis, 1992
For example: http://wwwc.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/9806/12/soros.html
21. George Soros, Carl Bildt (Foreign minister, former Prime Minister of Sweden), central bank reserve, 1992
For example: http://www.internetional.se/fischerpolt.htm
22. Carl Bildt, Bilderberg, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Trilateral Comission
For example: http://www.eaec.org/svenska/carl_Bildt_vargen_i_f%C3%A5rhuset.htm
23. Bilderberg, Athens, May 2009, Carl Bildt, Jan Björklund, Timothy Geithner, Rockefeller
For example: http://www.nyapolitiken.biz/bilderberg/bilderberg-agenda-avslojad.html
24. Bilderberg, Ottawa 2006, Carl Bildt, Wallenberg, Fredrik Reinfeldt (Prime Minister of Sweden)
For example: http://www.svd.se/naringsliv/nyheter/artikel_3787597.svd
25. Bilderberg, G20, Timothy Geithner, Ben Bernanke, Anders Borg (Finance Minister of Sweden)
For example: http://www.bilderbergbook.com
26. Bilderberg, Athens, May 2009, Carl Bildt, Jan Björklund (Head of Liberal Party), Jacob Wallenberg, Paul Wolfowitz, Queen Beatrix, Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, Lawrence Summers, Daniel Vasella
For example: http://www.infowars.com/bilderberg-2009-attendee-list/
27. Daniel Vasella, Novartis, Swine Flu, Vaccine
T ex: http://birdflu666.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/novartis-recalls-h1n1-vaccine-two-months-before-h1n1-outbreak-in-mexico/
28. Swine Flu, Vaccine, Daniel Vasella, Novartis, George Soros, Barack Obama, George Bush, Rockefeller, de Rothschild, Bioterrorism evidence, criminal charges
For example: http://theflucase.com/downloads/Evidence_of_the_use_of_pandemic_flu_to_depopulate_USA.pdf
29. Queen Elizabeth, Queen Beatrix, Rothschild, Rockefeller, Bush, Barack Obama, Clinton, Illuminati, New World Order
For example: http://www.wordmworld.net/bubble-words/benjamin-fulford
30. Rothschild, Rockefeller, Illuminati, Freemasonry, New World Order
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLzRlLS4V-w
31. New World Order, George Bush
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a9Syi12RJo
32. New World Order, Barack Obama
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iotc10SGzxY
33. New World Order, Henry Kissinger
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD3BqK-9ZiU
34. New World Order, Gordon Brown
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbFcaQpqqt4
35. Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, New World Order, Al Gore
For example: http://www.truthandliberty.com/New_World_Order.html
36. Al Gore, Global Warming scam, 31000 scientists
For example: http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/al_gore_global_warming/2008/05/19/97307.html
37. Al Gore, Global Warming scam, Barack Obama, Timothy Geithner, Lawrence Summers, Goldman Sachs, New World Order, Copenhagen
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU
38. John F. Kennedy, secret societies, assasination
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnkdfFAqsHA
39. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Trilateral Comission, Council on Foreign Relations, War on Terror
For example: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15686
40. Trilateral Comission, European Council on Foreign Relations, Urban Ahlin (Swedish congressman), Socialdemocratic Party
For example: http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Ahlin
41. Göran Persson (former Prime Minister), Leif Pagrotsky (former Finance Minister), the Wallenberg family, Investor, Bilderberg
For example: http://www.dn.se/nyheter/de-rikas-hemliga-motesplats-1.596647
42. Bilderberg, Henry Kissinger, Queen Beatrix, Carl Bildt
For example: http://www.bilderberg.org/2000pics.htm

43. Zbigniew Brzezinski, Council on Foreign Relations, Al-Qaeda
For example: http://www.takeoverworld.info/brzezinski_note.html
44. Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, Tim Osman, CIA
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-v34Lf0g6U
45. Osama bin Laden, Tim Osman, Zbigniew Brzezinski
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJTv2nFjMBk
46. Al Qaeda, 9/11, inside job
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yx9NRX37SM
47. Osama Bin Laden, Benazir Bhutto, assasination
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1uLdmct8_E
48. Osama Bin Laden, audio tapes, fabricated intelligence
For example: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3009
49. Barack Obama, Zbigniew Brzezinski, New World Order, Goldman Sachs, George Soros
For example: http://www.scribd.com/doc/13607099/Webster-Griffin-Tarpley-Barack-H-Obama-the-Unauthorized-Biography

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November 18, 2009 “Centre for Research on Globalization” — On January 20, a changing of the guard occurred in the United States White House with two-term president George W. Bush being replaced by former freshman senator Barack Obama.

Bush had continued the policies of his predecessor Bill Clinton in relation to the Balkans, Iraq and Latin America – with troops and a massive military base in Kosovo, regular bombings of Iraq and a monumental expansion of military aid to Colombia – and in addition launched two wars of his own, those against Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq two years later.

Obama, so thoroughly does U.S. polity predetermine individual administrations’ policies, entered office by intensifying the deadly drone missile attacks in Pakistan begun by Bush in late 2008 and announced that he was doubling the number of American troops in Afghanistan.

Already presiding over the world’s largest military budget, officially 41.5% of world expenditures in 2008 and far larger with non-Defense Department spending factored in, in April the new president requested from Congress an additional $85 billion in supplemental funding for the war in Afghanistan and the occupation of Iraq.

U.S. lawmakers were more than accommodating and on July 24 Obama signed Iraq and Afghanistan War Supplemental Appropriations amounting to $106 billion.

On October 28, he signed the $680 billion 2010 National Defense Authorization Act which includes another $130 billion to fund what his administration now calls overseas contingency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

With the authorization of $106 billion in July, the last official supplemental appropriation for the wars, and $130 billion last month for Afghanistan and Iraq the combined official spending for both wars will exceed $1 trillion. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) 2009 Year Book, total international military spending for 2008 was not much more than that: $1.464 trillion.

Eight days after the authorization of the $680 billion Pentagon budget for next year, the New York Times reported that the top American military commander, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen, said “he expected the Pentagon to ask Congress in the next few months for emergency financing to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” with the newspaper estimating the size of the demand to be $50 billion. [1]

Despite the Obama administration’s pledge to the contrary, July’s war supplement may not be the last one. It will simply be renamed an emergency appropriation. The first of many more to come.

Not only does one country account for the overwhelming plurality of world military expenditures, but that nation also has troops and bases on all six habitable continents (as well as a 54-year military mission in Antarctica, Operation Deep Freeze) and eleven aircraft carrier strike groups and six navy fleets that roam the world’s oceans and seas at will. It is also expanding a global interceptor missile system on land, on sea, in the air and into space that will leave it invulnerable to retaliation.

Reports from the first twelve days of November indicate the global scope of the first attempt in history by one nation to achieve uncontested worldwide military power.

A survey of that period will trace recent trends across the globe with the alphabet as a compass.

Afghanistan

Any day now Washington may announce plans to add 40,000 or more troops to the 68,000 already there. [2] Plans are underway to accommodate that influx.

The American military compound at and fanning out from the Bagram Air Field has been expanded from 3,993 to 5,198 acres since 2001 and is in the process of further enlargement. It already hosts some 25,000 U.S. troops and contractors and “a new parking ramp supporting the world’s largest aircraft is to be completed this spring….[I]t is continuing to grow to keep up with the requirements of an escalating war and troop increases.” [3]

Regarding non-military personnel at Bagram and elsewhere in the nation, “Contractors in Afghanistan outnumber U.S. troops there” [4] as they do in Iraq.

The Army Times recently reported on the main purpose of the airbase at Bagram. Last month the number of U.S. and NATO air strikes in Afghanistan was the highest since July of 2008, with 647 bombs dropped in October compared to 752 a year ago July. “The airstrike numbers don’t include strafing runs, attacks by special operations AC-130 gunships, launches of small missiles or helicopter attacks.” [5]

Africa

A U.S. Defense Department news source reported on November 5 that Air Forces Africa commanders visited Mali and Senegal in West Africa. Vice commander Michael Callan “visited Mali’s 33d Parachute Regiment, a unit that carries out operations using tactical vehicles and communication equipment provided by the U.S. Defense and State Departments.” The Malian military is involved in a counterinsurgency war in the nation’s north aided by Washington.

A commander of Mali’s armed forces said, “Ninety-five percent of our soldiers were trained by the U.S, and we’ve engaged with you in exercises like Flintlock, Joint Planning and Assessment Teams and special bilateral training.” [6] Flintlock military exercises have been held in different locations on the African continent for years, this year’s being conducted by the new Africa Command (AFRICOM) for the first time. The U.S. also recently led multinational military exercises in Gabon and Uganda on both ends of the continent. [7]

The USS San Juan, “a fast-attack submarine,” arrived in South Africa on November 4, “setting the stage for a series of first-ever, at-sea engagements with the South African Navy submarine force.” [8]

Armenia

Robert Simmons [9], NATO’s special representative to the South Caucasus and Central Asia – former Senior Adviser to the United States Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs on NATO – was in this South Caucasus nation earlier this month and announced that he had recruited an initial contingent of Armenian troops for the war in Afghanistan. This marks the first deployment to that nation of soldiers from the Russian-led seven-nation Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a potential counterbalance to NATO in post-Soviet space.

“Simmons expressed NATO’s ‘appreciation to Armenia for its strong contributions’ to alliance missions, which he said began in Kosovo and will now be repeated in Afghanistan.” [10]

In reference to his mission of pulling yet another Russian ally into the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization orbit, Simmons said, “We are continuing cooperation with the Armenian Defense Ministry. NATO assists the implementation of reforms and the development of strategically important documents.” [11]

Baltic Sea

After participating in NATO war games off the coast of Scotland, the guided-missile destroyer USS Cole paid visits to the capitals of Finland and Estonia in the Baltic Sea. “Cole hosted a reception in Helsinki, which was joined by Adm. Mark Fitzgerald, commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe, U.S. Naval Forces Africa and Allied Joint Forces Command Naples.

“Immediately following the departure from Helsinki, Cole arrived in Tallinn, Estonia, a few hours later.” [12]

The beginning of this month the guided-missile frigate USS John L. Hall with sailors of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 48 “completed a theater security cooperation (TSC) port visit to Klaipeda, Lithuania.”

A U.S. Navy official stated: “We are here as part of the United States Navy’s continuing presence in the Baltic Sea….We are also here to work with the Lithuanian Navy, who has been a valuable partner and our visit here is part of the ongoing relationship between our two countries and our two navies.” [13] [14]

On November 3 Estonian Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo was at the Pentagon to meet with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Associated Press reported on the occasion that he was “discussing with the United States why NATO needs plans in case his region is attacked.” [15]

Bangladesh

In early November three high-ranking American military officials arrived in the country. The three – U.S. Army Lieutenant General Benjamin R. Mixon, Commanding General of U.S. Army, Pacific, Vice-Admiral John M. Bird, Commander of U.S. Navy 7th Fleet, and U.S. Marine Corps Major General Randolph D. Alles, Director for Strategic Planning and Policy at the U.S. Pacific Command – engaged in discussions focusing “on interoperability, readiness in the region, security-force assistance, and bilateral approaches to maintaining regional stability.” [16]

On November 12 the U.S.-led Tiger Shark military exercises to train Bangladeshi naval commandos ended. A press release on the operation stated: “The training demonstrates the United States government’s commitment to Bangladesh and to regional security by promoting military-to-military relationships throughout Asia and the Pacific.” [17]

Black Sea

The Pentagon’s European Command (EUCOM) reported on November 2 that its Joint Task Force-East had completed an almost three-month series of trainings in Bulgaria and Romania which began on August 7 and included Stryker and Airborne units destined for the war in Afghanistan. [18] “Nearly 600 members of the Romanian Land Forces, 500 Bulgarian Land Forces, and more than 1,500 U.S. service members participated in this year’s combined training.” [19]

After U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden’s visit to the country on October 22, a news source in Romania wrote of Washington’s new interceptor missile plans: “A strong and modern surveillance system located in Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey could monitor three hot areas at once: the Black Sea, the Caucasus and the Caspian and relevant zones in the Middle East.” [20]

Colombia

The Obama administration signed a ten-year military treaty with the Alvaro Uribe government on September 30 which “gives American military forces access to seven Colombian army, navy and air force bases, but also to major international civilian airports in the country. In addition, U.S. personnel and defense contractors will enjoy diplomatic immunity under the agreement.” [21]

A copy of the pact surfaced on November 4 and detailed that it “allows Washington access to civilian airports as well as military bases” and as a result “the US will have access to all international airports across the Andean nation including airports in the cities of Barranquilla, San Andres, Cartagena, Bogota, Cali, Medellin and Bucaramanga.” [22]

In the initial phase an estimated 1,400 U.S. personnel will be assigned to the seven bases with the likelihood that the number will be increased as Washington sees fit. [23]

Eva Golinger observed that one of the newly acquired bases, that at Palanquero, was identified by a American Air Force document as providing the Pentagon “an opportunity for conducting full spectrum operations throughout South America….” [24]

Two South American nations bordering or near Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia, were not slow to respond.

Earlier this month Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stated in his weekly radio and television address that “We cannot waste one day to fulfill our mission: to prepare for war and help the people to get ready for war,” [25] warning that an armed conflict with the U.S. client regime in Bogota “could extend throughout the whole continent.” [26]

Days earlier two Venezuelan National Guard troops were killed at a checkpoint near Colombia and Caracas deployed 15,000 troops to the border.

In his November 13 address Chavez added. “Don’t make a mistake, Mr. Obama, by ordering an attack against Venezuela by way of Colombia.” [27]

On the same day his Bolivian counterpart, President Evo Morales, warned “I am convinced that where there are military bases, the social peace, the democracy and the development of the nations as well as their integration are not guaranteed. These facilities are an open provocation against the peace.”

Morales also said that he failed to comprehend how the American head of state could have been awarded the Peace Nobel Price “when his country does everything to promote wars and conflicts.

“Obama must justify that award by withdrawing all the troops of his country from around the world….” [28]

Czech Republic

Following up on his visit to Prague in late October, on November 5 U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden hosted Czech President Vaclav Klaus at the White House and “they mostly discussed the U.S. plan for a new missile defence architecture.”

The two “also talked about the situation in Afghanistan and Iran” and “Klaus said the United States knows that it is necessary to continue with the anti-missile project in Europe.” [29]

The next day U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Alexander Vershbow met with Czech defense officials in their nation to discuss new American missile plans for Eastern Europe, ones intended to be “stronger, smarter, and swifter” than the previous Bush administration version and to incorporate all of Europe under a NATO umbrella.

Vershbow characterized the content of the talks as having presented “some concrete ideas to begin that process of developing the Czech role in the new approach” and said that the Czech contribution could include “potential facilities here on the territory of the Czech Republic.” [30]

On November 4 the local press announced that “A few U.S. delegations will visit the Czech Republic in November, following up on the recent visit by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, including an expert military team that arrives in Prague this Friday.”

One of those delegations will include Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Ellen Tauscher, who “recently said the command for the managing and control of elements of the new version of anti-missile defence could be stationed in the Czech Republic.”

“The USA wants to build the system in cooperation with NATO.” [31]

Georgia

Earlier this week U.S. Marines completed the two-week Immediate Response 2009 military training exercises in the South Caucasus nation of Georgia. The preceding maneuvers of the same name, those of 2008 in which over 1,000 American troops participated, ended one day before Georgia started shelling neighboring South Ossetia and killed several people including a Russian peacekeeper. [32]

Days after that the U.S. client regime launched an all-out invasion of South Ossetia, triggering a five-day war with Russia.

The official purpose of this year’s exercises was to train Georgian troops to serve under NATO command in Afghanistan, but a Russian news source saw matters differently:

“Immediate Response was clearly designed not to fight against the Taliban or al-Qaeda…..Commander of US Army in Europe General Carter Ham visited Georgia to inspect the exercises but no one came from Afghanistan.

“Perhaps, the exercises were aimed at issuing a warning to Russia.” [33]

As the drills were ending Alexander Shliakhturov, chief of Russia’s military intelligence, said “that he did not rule out that Georgia might again use force against breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia.” [34]

A lengthier account of Shliakhturov’s concerns appeared in the Georgian media and included these quotes:

“According to our information, Georgia is still getting military aid from Ukraine, Israel and NATO. NATO countries, especially Eastern European countries, provide Georgia with arms and equipment, Israel provides Georgia with air equipment, the USA trains Georgian troops and Ukraine provides Georgia with heavy equipment, namely, tanks.”

“The Russian Intelligence Service is addressing other dangers too, namely, the efforts being made by the USA and NATO to bring Georgia and Ukraine into the alliance and the new US plan to locate anti-missile systems in Europe.” [35]

Four days later other Russian sources revealed “that the United States plans to supply weapons, including a Patriot-3 air defense system and shoulder-launched Stinger missiles, worth a total of $100 million, to Georgia.” [36]

The next day Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “recalled the situation in the summer of 2008 when many countries ignored Russian warnings that modern arms in Saakashvili’s hands might prompt this man to unleash military aggression.” [37]

The chief of the Russian General Staff, General Nikolai Makarov, said “Georgia is getting large amounts of weapons supplied from abroad” and “Georgian military potential is currently higher than last August [2008].” [38]

India

Shortly after the Pentagon wrapped up the largest joint U.S.-Indian military exercises ever, Yudh Abhyas [Preparation for War] – which featured the first deployment of new American Stryker armored combat vehicles outside of Iraq and Afghanistan – at the end of October [39], it was announced that “India is negotiating with the United States to acquire state of the art Javelin anti-tank missiles worth several million dollars for large-scale induction.” [40]

Days earlier former president George W. Bush was in India and called on his host nation to join in the war in Afghanistan, urging the U.S. and India to “work together to win the war in Afghanistan.” [41]

Iraq

In early November Arabic language news sources revealed that “The US military has finished erecting an advanced radar system in Iraq to monitor the border with Iran, Syria and Turkey” and that “the radar is a preparatory measure aimed at providing the United States and its allies advanced control capabilities in event of a US military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.” [42]

Israel

The largest-ever joint American-Israeli military exercises, the two-week Juniper Cobra 10, ended on November 3. They concentrated on live-fire missile interception exercises described by many observers as a test run for the new continent-wide NATO missile shield planned for Europe. [43]

Over 2,000 troops from the two nations and 17 U.S. warships participated in the war games to create “the infrastructure that would be necessary in the event that the Obama administration decides to deploy US systems here in the event of a conflict.” [44]

The top military commander of United States European Command and of NATO, Admiral James Stavridis, paid a three-day call to Israel for the occasion and met with “Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Gantz and several other commanders.” [45]

On November 1 American arms manufacturer Raytheon Company announced that it had secured contracts worth $100 million for a joint interceptor missile program of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the Israel Missile Defense Organization.

The Pentagon’s European Command has over 100 troops stationed in Israel’s Negev Desert manning an advanced missile radar site there.

Korean Peninsula

The South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported on November 1 that “The US and South Korea have completed joint action plans for responding to a regime collapse and other internal emergency situations in North Korea….” [46]

Citing an unidentified South Korean official, the report contains these details:

“South Korea and the US had long worked on Concept Plan 5029, to prepare for a regime collapse and other internal emergencies in North Korea.

“Since its inauguration last year, the [South Korean President] Lee Myung-bak government has pushed to convert the concept plan into an operational plan and it was recently completed.

“If the South Korea-US combined forces intervene in North Korea’s internal instabilities, the South Korean military will assume the leading role in consideration of neighboring countries, while the US military will be responsible for the removal of the North’s nuclear facilities and weapons.” [47]

On the final day of last month Washington expressed its satisfaction at South Korea redeploying troops to Afghanistan shortly after Pentagon chief Robert Gates’ visit to Seoul and the South Korean defense ministry on October 22.

“Washington supports and welcomes South Korea’s plans to deploy troops to Afghanistan…the U.S. Department of State said.” [48]

Kosovo

This month began with former U.S. president Bill Clinton arriving in the capital of Kosovo for the unveiling of a gaudy 11-foot gold-sprayed bronze statue of himself on November 1. [49]

He was being hailed by the breakaway entity’s nominal prime minister, former Kosovo Liberation Army chieftain Hashim Thaci, for his role in launching the 78-day NATO air war against Yugoslavia in March of 1999. That sustained bombing campaign, Operation Allied Force, inaugurated the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as an active war-making machine and issued in the ten-year war cycle that continues to this day with no indication of it ever abating.

A Russian commentary of the following day put the ceremony in perspective:

“Over the course of the 10-week conflict, NATO aircraft flew over 38,000 combat missions; even the German Luftwaffe had its first taste of combat over the skies of Yugoslavia since having its wings clipped in World War II.

“The ensuing 78-day aerial bombardment campaign, which grew continuously more aggressive and reckless, spared little infrastructure: factories, bridges, roads and power stations were all bombed with deadly accuracy. As a result, thousands of innocent civilians suffered great deprivation on both sides of the battle.

“In perhaps the worst public relations disaster for NATO during the conflict, five US ’smart’ bombs severely damaged the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese journalists. NATO officials, in an effort to cool Chinese outrage, blamed the error on outdated maps. Chinese officials rejected both the apologies and explanations.” [50]

Pakistan

Over the past year the nine-year-long U.S. and NATO war in Afghanistan has been extended into Pakistan, the so-called AfPak theater of operations.

On November 4 the U.S. launched its latest drone missile attack into North Waziristan, killing two Pakistanis.

“According to independent reports, since August 2008 alone, around 70 cross-border predator strikes carried out by American drones have resulted in the death of 687 Pakistani civilians.” [51]

The Nation, a Pakistani daily newspaper, reported on November 12 that the massive increase in NATO convoys crossing the country en route to Afghanistan are overwhelming the country’s highways and that “Pakistani authorities are simply helpless in checking truckloads of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) forces badly damaging the Indus Highway, the repair of which would cost billions of rupees to the national exchequer….NATO trucks and trailers have not been [held accountable] even once for the repair and maintenance work, while cracks are developing on the Indus Highway after every three to four months due to overloading….” [52]

Persian Gulf

A local news sources wrote on November 9 that “The US has deployed a new expeditionary force in the Persian Gulf – the first time a permanent self-sustaining US naval force has been set up in the region.

“The newly established Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 5 will serve in the area of responsibility of the US Navy 5th Fleet Combined Task Force (CTF) 51 in Manama, Bahrain,” where the entire U.S. Fifth Fleet is based. [53]

The Philippines

Two American servicemen were killed in a mine attack in Mindanao in late September, the first official deaths in the U.S.-assisted counterinsurgency war against not only the Abu Sayyaf Group but also the Moro National Liberation Front and the New People’s Army.

Filipino senators “called for the abrogation of the [Visiting Forces Agreement], saying the US Seabees killed in the explosion weren’t supposed to be there, as…the presence of the alleged land mine constitutes the area as a war zone.” [54]

Pentagon chief Robert Gates insisted earlier in the month “that some 600 US counter-terrorism troops will remain in the southern Philippines….” [55]

An opponent of the active American military involvement in the country said that “the US military has established its permanent presence in the Philippines through the auspices of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). Many of the US soldiers are currently deployed in Mindanao under the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines headquartered in Zamboanga City.” [56]

On November 12 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Manila after the Philippine Senate recently passed a nonbinding resolution calling on the government to renegotiate the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement, “which enables U.S. forces to train and assist Philippine troops” and “vowed…to continue American military support.” [57]

Poland

Before departing for the Philippines Clinton hosted Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski in Washington “to discuss the new anti-missile shield plan.” [58]

On the same day, November 2, U.S. Air Force personnel transferred five C-130 Hercules military cargo planes from the Ramstein Air Base in Germany to the Powidz Air Base in Poland.

A U.S. Air Force website offered these details: “Prepping Polish aircrews and maintainers for the transition to the larger Lockheed-Martin built Hercules has been accomplished with a blend of English language and specialty knowledge training at bases in Texas and Arkansas and through a type of work mentorship exchange between U.S. and Polish air force personnel….”

A Polish air force officer revealed the purpose of the U.S. transfer in stating “The main task for the C-130s is to support our contingency operations in Afghanistan, Chad, Africa and everywhere Polish troops and supplies are needed.” [59]

After NATO defense chiefs, including the U.S.’s Gates, met in Slovakia late last month and U.S. Vice President Biden visited Poland at about the same time, Warsaw announced that it was deploying 600 more troops to Afghanistan, bringing the nation’s total toward the 3,000 mark.

Sweden

Sweden’s Chief of Defense Staff General Sverker Goranson was in Washington, D.C. in early November and was interviewed by Defense News.

His nation, which has for decades presented itself as neutral, has 500 troops serving under NATO command in Afghanistan – Sweden and Finland are in charge of four northern provinces for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force – and five Swedish soldiers were injured in a roadside bomb explosion on November 11, two them seriously.

Goranson’s comments demonstrate how far from anything resembling neutrality Sweden has recently strayed:

“The transformation we are conducting is a huge turnaround, and as I told Adm. [Michael] Mullen [U.S. Joint Chiefs chairman], we know where we are going….The major shift is globalization and the fact that most of the things we are dealing with aren’t necessarily about national boundaries.

“What turned Sweden around is not focusing on national defense, but being a part of this globalized world and solving issues together, because wherever conflicts are, whether in the Balkans or Afghanistan….”

When asked about the potential for a showdown in the Arctic Circle with Russia, he spoke about starting “discussions between the United States, Norway, Denmark and Canada [all NATO members] about what are the borders….As part of the Nordic Battle Group, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark are already sharing the operational picture in the air and on the sea, and that can be extended to the High North.”

Lastly, the Swedish visitor, whose meetings included one with the U.S.’s top military commander, acknowledged: “We had a defense resolution in 1996 that said the Swedish armed forces should be completely NATO-interoperable, which is the standard we have worked to accordingly, to make sure that wherever we go, as we did to Afghanistan.” [60]

Yemen

The government of Yemen is waging military operations against Shiite rebels in the north of the country and neighboring Saudi Arabia started launching air strikes against them earlier this month.

On November 10 Yemen’s official news agency, Saba, announced that the U.S. has signed a military cooperation agreement with the nation.

The news agency also quoted Brigadier General Jeffrey Smith, the commander of the U.S. 5th Signal Command, “as renewing Washington’s support for Yemen’s unity, security and stability.” [61]

One account of the agreement was provided under the headline “Yemen, US sign military deal to fight rebels.” [62]

As the rebels are Shiite Muslims, Washington is exploiting the conflict to recruit Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations against Iran.

Yemen, on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, lies directly across from Djibouti where the Pentagon maintains its only permanent base in Africa, Camp Lemonier, and from Somalia, which U.S. warships periodically shell from the Indian Ocean.

Notes:

[1]. New York Times, November 5, 2009

[2]. Afghanistan: West’s 21st Century War Risks Regional Conflagration, Stop NATO, October 12, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/yfh65p7

[3]. Associated Press, November 1, 2009

[4]. Reuters, November 3, 2009

[5]. Army Times, November 11, 2009

[6]. U.S. Department of Defense, American Forces Press Service, November 5, 2009

[7]. AFRICOM Year Two: Seizing The Helm Of The Entire World, Stop NATO, October 22, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/yk4ljbx

[8]. Navy Newsstand, November 5, 2009

[9]. Mr. Simmons’ Mission: NATO Bases From Balkans To Chinese Border, Stop NATO, March 4, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/yh7cqqj

[10]. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, November 9, 2009

[11]. PanArmenian.net, November 6, 2009

[12]. United States European Command, November 3, 2009

[13]. United States European Command, November 2, 2009

[14]. Baltic Sea: Flash Point For NATO-Russia Conflict, Stop NATO, February 27, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/yccrh52

Scandinavia And The Baltic Sea: NATO’s War Plans For The High North, Stop NATO, June 14, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/yfpme5z

[15]. Associated Press, November 2, 2009

[16]. All Headline News, November 2, 2009

[17]. Financial Express, November 13, 2009

[18]. Bulgaria, Romania: U.S., NATO Bases For War In The East, Stop NATO, October 24, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/yf5f3zj

[19]. United States European Command, November 2, 2009

[20]. The Diplomat, November, 2009

[21]. AllGov, November 6, 2009

[22]. Press TV, November 4, 2009

[23]. Twenty Years After End Of The Cold War: Pentagon’s Buildup In Latin America, Stop NATO, November 4, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/ygf9eyk

[24]. VHeadline, November 5, 2009

[25]. Xinhua News Agency, November 9, 2009

[26]. Press TV, November 9, 2009

[27]. Ibid

[28]. Xinhua News Agency, November 10, 2009

[29]. Czech News Agency, November 6, 2009

[30]. Associated Press, November 6, 2009

[31]. Czech News Agency, November 4, 2009

[32]. NATO War Games In Georgia: Threat Of New Caucasus War, Stop NATO, May 8, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/ylfq2r8

[33]. Voice of Russia, November 9, 2009

[34]. Civil Georgia, November 5, 2009

[35]. Interpressnews, November 6, 2009

[36]. RosBusinessConsulting/Komsomolskaya Pravda, November 10, 2009

[37]. Voice of Russia, November 11, 2009

[38]. Voice of Russia, November 10, 2009

[39]. U.S. Expands Asian NATO Against China, Russia, Stop NATO, October 16, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/ye743gv

[40]. Daily Times, November 11, 2009

[41]. Indo-Asian News Service, October 31, 2009

[42]. Press TV, November 2, 2009

[43]. Israel: Forging NATO Missile Shield, Rehearsing War With Iran, Stop NATO, November 5, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/ydq6z57

[44]. Jerusalem Post, October 31, 2009

[45]. Israeli Defense Forces, November 3, 2009

[46]. Press TV, November 1, 2009

[47]. Yonhap News Agency, November 1, 2009

[48]. Russian Information Agency Novosti, October 31, 2009

[49]. Kosovo: Marking Ten Years Of Worldwide Wars, Stop NATO, October 31, 2009
http://tinyurl.com/yzxf3ng

[50]. Russia Today, November 2, 2009

[51]. Press TV, November 4, 2009

[52]. The Nation, November 12, 2009

[53]. Press TV, November 9, 2009

[54]. Business Mirror, September 30, 2009

[55]. Mindanao Examiner, September 13, 2009

[56]. Ibid

[57]. Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2009

[58]. Polish Radio, November 2, 2009

[59]. U.S. Air Forces in Europe, November 12, 2009

[60]. Defense News, November 2, 2009

[61]. Agence France-Presse, November 10, 2009

[62]. Daily Times, November 12, 2009

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November 18, 12:19 PMLA County Libertarian ExaminerMartin Hill

Sarah Palin, Vice-presidential candidate on the GOP ticket in 2008, was interviewed by Barbara Walters of ABC News and cemented her previously stated viewpoint as a staunch supporter of Israel. With the release of her new book ‘GOING ROGUE: An American Life’ and chatter of a possible Palin 2012 presidential run, her view on foreign policy in particular is getting the attention of pundits and politial junkies. Palin’s latest statement on Israel is nothing new, however, since her position on the matter has been clear for some time to anyone paying attention.

In an article entitled Sarah Palin: A Closet Zionist? from September 2008, IsraeliNationalNews reported on an unearthed video interview of Palin from February of the same year in which an Israeli flag was seen displayed in her gubernatorial office. 

Michael Collins Piper of the AmericanFreePress reported during the presidential campaign on Palin’s views regarding Israel and foreign policy, particularly as it related to her religious faith. He noted how “the [Washington] Times’ religion writer, Ralph Z. Hallow, said she is a disciple of the theme that preservation of modern-day Israel is “a biblical imperative.” Hallow said Mrs. Palin’s religious ideology “makes her a favorite with the staunchly pro-Israel neo-conservative elements in the Republican Party.”
 

Starting around the 03:20 mark in the latest interview, Walters questions Palin about the Middle East:
 

• Walters: “Now let’s talk about some issues, the Middle East. The Obama
• administration does not want Israel to build any more settlements on what they consider Palestinian territory; what is your view on this?”
•  
• Palin: “I disagree with the Obama administration on that. I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don’t think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand.”
•  
• Walters: “Even if its Palestinian areas?”
•  
• Palin: “I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to expand.”

Palin is touted by many Republicans as one who may return the party to it’s purported limited government Constitutional platform. Yet as Ron Paul pointed out in his landmark 2003 Congressional address We’ve Been Neo-Conned, supporting an empire along with extensive foreign entanglements will only result in deficits and a loss of liberty. Congressman Paul, who broke fundraising records during his presidential bid and recieved more money from the military than other candidates,  explains neo-con’s philosophy as it relates to israel: “They are not bashful about an American empire; instead they strongly endorse it… They unconditionally support Israel and have a close alliance with the Likud Party”.

True limited government conservatives, libertarians and constitutionalists, particularly if they are still members of the Republican party,  should concede that meddling in foreign entanglements and promoting the ideology of foreign governments will never result in the liberty they claim to restore. Constitution Party presidential candidate Chuck Baldwin addressed this issue during the 2008 campaign.  In his column Ron Paul’s Israel Problem, Balwin wrote: “If the United States continues on its current path of aggressive, preemptive war, incessant nation-building, empire-building, and globalism, our country will collapse”. Balwin, a protestant Christian minister, continued, “The problem is, some Christians seem to give more loyalty and support to the government of Israel than they do their own country’s independence and freedom.”

 During Palin’s ABC interview, she also discussed her daughter’s unwed pregancy with Walters, stating “That’s why I was shocked..Truthfully, we were devastated”.
 

Israeli flag flies in Palin’s office

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By Shamus Cooke

In the ten years since the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests in Seattle, global opposition to free trade and “globalization” has exploded.  The general public now has a basic understanding of how the world economy works … against them: companies scour the globe searching for slave wages, which help push down wages in “developed” countries; any regulation that reduces profits — environmental, financial, labor, etc. — is destroyed or ignored.

The two focal points of the anti-globalization movement have been dismantling of the WTO and free trade agreements; both legitimate targets.  However, what happens if both goals are accomplished? Mission Accomplished?

The obvious answer is no.  Corporations will continue to push for the above anti-worker policies, whether or not the WTO continues to exist or if free trade agreements stop.

Proof of this can be seen in the present condition of the WTO, an organization that, for all intents and purposes, is dead — having collapsed under its own weight. The “Doha” round of the WTO has been eight years in the making, with little sign of a deal emerging.  Powerful corporations in different countries are advocating a more “independent” approach to trade; they view the corporate-run WTO as too democratic, and would rather go it alone on the global market place.

And go alone they have.  Instead of WTO-style international trade agreements, rich nations began developing one-on-one “bi-lateral” agreements, between themselves and poorer nations.  The result is that instead of having an international agreement over trade, we have competing trade blocs.  The European Union and NAFTA are the two largest, although others exist around the world, each dominated by a regional economic powerhouse.

Promoting these bi-lateral agreements or trade blocs are the corporations residing within the boundaries of the richer nations.  To boost their profits, they need guaranteed access to markets, cheap labor, and raw materials.  Once they’ve captured these items via a free trade agreement, their overseas competitors are excluded.  Thus, the international battle for these rare commodities becomes intensified; the threat of war and “regime change” is always considered an option when diplomacy and threats fail.   It becomes clear, then, that free trade is merely a policy of corporations to pursue wider aims within a larger system.

When all the mysteries behind it are removed, free trade is revealed as simply the best fuel for capitalism; it allows money and goods to flow around the world freely (while keeping workers within national boundaries), and thus boosts profits best.  Restrictions to free trade — regulation, protectionism, state ownership, etc. — reduce profits, and are thus fought by most corporations.  But not all anti-free trade measures are equal.

For example, any worker concerned with trade will welcome certain demands of the “fair trade” movement, including the demand for living wage jobs domestically and abroad, and high labor and environmental standards internationally.

However, other demands of the fair trade movement are not so progressive. Quite the opposite.  Some fair traders are demanding that U.S. corporations be allowed to compete on a “level playing field” internationally, while also including demands that help U.S. corporations export abroad more efficiently.  Working people have no interest in helping “their” corporations battle other global corporations for global market dominance.

Unfortunately, the membership of the fair trade movement is polluted by individuals and corporations promoting such ideas.  They advocate workers and corporations uniting for “fair trade,” with a focus on pressuring the U.S. government to help U.S. corporations out-battle — by any means necessary — foreign corporations.

This attempt at worker/corporation “partnerships” has deeply infected not only the fair trade movement, but portions of the U.S. labor movement.  The most heinous example is the Alliance for American Manufacturers (AAM).  The AAM is a group consisting of giant U.S. corporations and the U.S. Steelworkers union; the president of the AAM is also the President of the Steelworkers.  The group argues that the interests of workers and corporations are one and the same — but one of these groups is being badly fooled.

For example, the AAM serves to promote its version of fair trade through media, intellectuals, and most importantly, pressuring the U.S. government to raise trade barriers against China and other countries.   The AAM has been very successful promoting U.S. animosity towards China, having persuaded Obama to act more aggressively than Bush.  Make no mistake, the AAM considers “fair trade” to mean the dominance of U.S. corporations.  In the past, confrontations over trade — i.e., international market dominance — have evolved into trade wars, evolving in some cases into military wars.

The AAM has greatly succeeded in creating a progressive image for U.S. manufacturing corporations.  Their sponsorship of TV and radio personality Ed Schultz — himself closely tied to the Democrats — is one example of how U.S. corporations have bought alleged supporters of the working-class.  The U.S. corporations behind the AAM have solid support in Congress, and use this support to advocate corporate protectionist trade policies.  To please the corporations, the Democrats pass the bills, while some labor leaders scream “victory!”  Of course, workers have no interest in befriending corporations, and for good reason.

The more workers are taught to “cooperate” with the company they work for, the less able are they to put up a fight when “their” company decides to slash jobs, wages and benefits, or destroy pensions, etc.  When attempting to organize a union or bargain a union contract, workers and employers stand opposed to each other; employers are notorious union-busters, and use intimidation, threats, and firings to achieve their aims; workers in response fight back through demonstrations and strikes. There is little room for friendly cooperation during these moments; when the workplace facade of “teamwork” is shattered, its true nature of competing interests is revealed.

This is the necessary place to start when creating worker-friendly political goals.  The fair trade movement needs some deep cleaning, so that the contaminating, corporate influence is neutralized.  Only clear, pro-worker polices should be fought for, leaving the corporations to fend for themselves.  This will require the abandonment of the corporate-bought Democrats, while clearly defining what “fair trade” is.

For many progressive workers, fair trade is an all-encompassing term that includes:  living wages and benefits, international cooperation, the strict regulation of the banks, the environment, and corporations in general.  After hearing the comprehensive aims of fair-traders, it becomes clear that many are referring to an issue wider than merely trade — they desire a complete overhaul of how our economic system works, and who it works for. They want people and the environment to be the political priority, not corporations.  This can only mean a desire to transform our current economic structure — capitalism.

If the battle against free trade is really a battle against capitalism, then it must be clearly stated.  As it stands now, many corporations are benefiting from the confusion that “free trade” creates, and use the bewilderment to help them gain workers’ and union officials’ support in fighting foreign corporations.  For workers, this is a suicidal policy.

The first step in fighting free trade is removing the influence of U.S. corporations, and instead, begin fighting these corporations, with the goal of democratically controlling these privately owned entities, so that the wealth of billionaires may become the wealth of whole communities.  Only then will we have a real voice over our wages, the environment, and over what we choose to produce and trade with other nations.

Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action (www.workerscompass.org).  He can be reached at shamuscook@yahoo.com

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Will Obama cop to the lies he told America before the health care bill passed?
White House Photo

President Obama appeared on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos in September, insisting that the penalty for those who don’t buy health insurance is not a tax. However, with the passage of  H.R. 3962, otherwise known as the “Affordable Health Care for America Act”, the exact opposite has proven to be true.

A letter from Thomas A Barthold, Chief of Staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, specifies clearly and repeatedly that the penalty for the non-insured is indeed a tax, with potential prosecution and jail time for those who do not comply.The 4 page letter, sent to Rep. Dave Camp on Guy Fawkes day, was in response to the Michigan Republican’s questions 

 Barthold explained that the bill contains a “tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage” and added that the goal of the IRS “is consistency, fairness and predicttabilty in administration of penalties”, also pointing out that the total number of convictions the government won in tax evasion cases was 666.

“if the government determined that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply” Barthold explained, adding that there is a religious conscience exemption in the bill as well.

Several media outlets reported on the exchange between Obama and Stephanopoulos in September, with many covering potential jail time for non compliance. The left gatekeepers made a partisan issue out of it, but few addressed the fundamental question of  the constitutionality of universally mandated healthcare.

Following is an excerpt of the exchange between Obama and  the ABC host on THIS WEEK. Now that the facts have come out, will Obama respond?
——————————————

STEPHANOPOULOS: You were against the individual mandate…

OBAMA: Yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: …during the campaign. Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t .. How is that not a tax?

OBAMA: Well, hold on a second, George. Here — here’s what’s happening. You and I are both paying $900, on average — our families — in higher premiums because of uncompensated care. Now what I’ve said is that if you can’t afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn’t be punished for that. That’s just piling on.  If, on the other hand, we’re giving tax credits, we’ve set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we’ve driven down the costs, we’ve done everything we can and you actually can afford health insurance, but you’ve just decided, you know what, I want to take my chances. And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have to pay for the emergency room care, that’s…

STEPHANOPOULOS: That may be, but it’s still a tax increase.

OBAMA: No. That’s not true, George. The — for us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase. What it’s saying is, is that we’re not going to have other people carrying your burdens for you anymore than the fact that right now everybody in America, just about, has to 446 get auto insurance. Nobody considers that a tax increase.
People say to themselves, that is a fair way to make sure that if you hit my car, that I’m not covering all the costs.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But it may be fair, it may be good public policy…

OBAMA: No, but — but, George, you — you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase. Any…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Here’s the…

OBAMA: What — what — if I — if I say that right now your premiums are going to be going up by 5 or 8 or 10 percent next year and you say well, that’s not a tax increase; but, on the other hand, if I say that I don’t want to have to pay for you not carrying coverage even after I give you tax credits that make it affordable, then…

STEPHANOPOULOS: I — I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: Tax — “a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”

OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam’s Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you’re stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition. I mean what…

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, no, but…

OBAMA: …what you’re saying is…

STEPHANOPOULOS: I wanted to check for myself. But your critics say it is a tax increase.

OBAMA: My critics say everything is a tax increase. My critics say that I’m taking over every sector of the economy. You know that.  Look, we can have a legitimate debate about whether or not we’re going to have an individual mandate or not, but…

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you reject that it’s a tax increase?

OBAMA: I absolutely reject that notion.

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http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-27692-LA-County-Libertarian-Examiner~y2009m11d17-10-year-old-uses-marijuana-for-autism-with-positive-results

Sam’s father told reporter Cher Calvin that his son had been hurting other children at school, pulling the television down, destroying furniture, etc.His dad would have to put the boy in a hold for an hour, while he had spasms, until he eventually calmed down.

The parents had consulted the conventional ‘experts’; doctors who put Sam on prescription drugs, which resulted in the boy gaining twenty pounds. “Hes getting more dangerous, bigger, stronger”, recalled Sam’s mom.

“At their wits end and facing the need to institutionalize son”, KTLA reported, the family then opted for an unconventional and controversial treatment: medical marijuana. They report that it has been “very calming”. They had initially made an appointment with a medical canabis doctor.

They now grow Sam’s “new medicine” in their back yard. The father took out his tomato plants to make room to grows the medicine in a concentrated form. His “pent up rage” and  anxiousness went away. they said. They started the treatment when he was 8, and give it as needed, which is not necessarily every day. The father puts it in a piece of melon and gives it to his boy.: “that’s good, yeah”.

Within 20 minutes effects were clear, says the reported who spent some time with the family.
 He was “calm, relaxed and social” after taking his “spec of hash” in front of the news crew.
“The more I tell people the more comfortable I am”, says the mother when asked how sahe exaplins this treatment to others. A Dr. Tolcher, consulted by KTLA, says this is intriguing, but needs more research.

“It was just a medication that gave us results we were hoping for”, says Sam’s dad, who can help his son, “instead of depending on doctors”. Sam is now smiling and laughing again, said his mom.
Calvin notes that the family has “followed the letter of the law”  and grown the canibis as alowed under California Prop 15. those under prop 215. You can watch the KTLA 5 News Report here.

Meanwhile, the feds continue to raid medical pot clinice throughout California. The National Organization for the Reform of marijuana laws is a non-profit, public-interest lobby that opposes marijuana prohibition, and reported today that “health-related costs per user are eight times higher for drinkers than they are for those who use cannabis, and are more than 40 times higher for tobacco smokers, according to a report published in the British Columbia Mental Health and Addictions Journal’.
 

Presenting a comprehensive history of marijuana DrugLibrary.org reports that “Dr. William C. Woodward, legislative counsel of the American Medical Association…was roundly insulted for his audacity in daring to question the wisdom of the ‘MARIHUANA TAX ACT OF 1937″. which they report was “the first assertion of federal authority over marijuana”.

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Extensive Surveillance System Integrates Nonpolice Video, Raises Concerns About Possible Privacy Abuses

IBMWorkers in Chicago’s Office Of Emergency Management

A giant web of video-surveillance cameras has spread across Chicago, aiding police in the pursuit of criminals but raising fears that the City of Big Shoulders is becoming the City of Big Brother.

While many police forces are boosting video monitoring, video-surveillance experts believe Chicago has gone further than any other U.S. city in merging computer and video technology to police the streets. The networked system is also unusual because of its scope and the integration of nonpolice cameras.

The city links the 1,500 cameras that police have placed in trouble spots with thousands more—police won’t say how many—that have been installed by other government agencies and the private sector in city buses, businesses, public schools, subway stations, housing projects and elsewhere. Even home owners can contribute camera feeds.

Rajiv Shah, an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who has studied the issue, estimates that 15,000 cameras have been connected in what the city calls Operation Virtual Shield, its fiber-optic video-network loop.

The system is too vast for real-time monitoring by police staffers. But each time a citizen makes an emergency call, which happens about 15,000 times a day, the system identifies the caller’s location and instantly puts a video feed from the nearest camera up on a screen to the left of the emergency operator’s main terminal. The feeds, including ones that weren’t viewed in real time, can be accessed for possible evidence in criminal cases.

A police spokesman said the system has “aided in thousands of arrests.” Video cameras caught 16-year-old Michael Pace, an alleged Chicago gang member, opening fire with a 40-caliber handgun on a city bus in a 2007 incident that claimed the life of 16-year-old honor student Blair Holt and wounded four others. In July, Mr. Pace pleaded guilty to murder on the eve of his trial, and the video was released during a hearing where a judge sentenced him to 100 years in jail.

The city is “allowing first responders access to real-time visual data,” said Ray Orozco, executive director of the city department responsible for the system. “Chicago understands the importance of networking instead of just hanging cameras,” said Roger Rehayem of International Business Machines Corp., which designed the system. Former U.S. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff has called Chicago’s use of cameras “a model for the country.”

That worries some Chicagoans. Charles Yohnka, director of communications and public policy for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said, “With the unbelievably rapid expansion of these systems, we’d like to know when enough is enough.”

The ACLU has been calling, so far without success, for the city to disclose how many cameras are in the system and what the capabilities of the system are, as well as who is allowed to look at the video feeds and under what circumstances.

View Full Image

IBMVideo feeds at Navy Pier, part of Chicago’s camera-surveillance network

Mr. Yohnka said that he isn’t aware of any abuses in the use of the video but that “political surveillance” of opponents could be tempting for office holders. In other cities there have been reports of male police staffers ogling and tracking women for extensive periods though they aren’t doing anything suspicious.

Mr. Orozco dismisses worries about privacy abuse. The department logs in all users and can monitor what they are doing, he said, assuring accountability. He also said access to the command center is tightly controlled. He declined to discuss specifics of who is allowed inside the center.

Chicago said that it only networks video cameras in public areas where people have an expectation they may be seen. None of the cameras record speech, because that would violate wire-tapping laws, although some can detect the sound of gunfire and breaking glass.

“People want these cameras in their neighborhoods,” said Mayor Richard Daley in a prepared statement. “We can’t afford to have a police officer on every corner, but cameras are the next best thing.”

While video-surveillance cameras are ubiquitous in most of the developed world, they’re primarily used to collect evidence that can be examined after a crime has been committed.

The Chicago system is also designed to deal with emergencies as they happen. Besides turning on when people call 911, some are set to sound alerts at command centers if people enter closed areas after hours, and some also issue spoken warnings at the site.

At the Navy Pier amusement area, cameras monitor an inlet that only official boats are allowed to enter. When the system detects recreational boats in the area, a warning to move away is issued over a loudspeaker.

It’s difficult to tell how much Chicago’s system cuts crime. The city’s crime rates have declined steadily over the last 10 years, like those in many other cities.

Chicago police started installing highly visible cameras topped by flashing blue lights back in 2003. Many were placed at locations where residents had complained about drug-dealing, and the city later said that crime decreased up to 30% in areas with cameras. But some critics complained that the cameras just pushed drug dealers to nearby street corners.

Even if cameras don’t prevent crimes, “prosecution is much quicker,” said Fredrik Nilsson, general manager of Axis North America, a unit of a Swedish company that makes the digital cameras used in Chicago. “When people face recorded videos, they don’t go through court trials.”

Write to William M. Bulkeley at bill.bulkeley@wsj.com

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A bill that would grant the FDA expanded authority to inspect farms has come under fire from ranchers and farmers concerned about increased government interference in their operations.

In response to a recent series of food-borne illness outbreaks, a bill has been approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee that would allocate more money and authority to the FDA to fulfill its current food safety duties. Although technically the bill would not expand the FDA’s authority to foods currently supervised by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) – meat, poultry and some egg products – many farmers and their advocates are concerned that the language of the bill is too vague to ensure against this.

“Live animals are not ‘food’ until the point of processing, which is why this bill needs to clarify that the FDA does not have regulatory authority on our farms, ranches and feedlots,” said Sam Ives of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.

Even though the USDA has been involved in several recent recalls of beef products, its inspection procedures are usually considered stricter than the FDA’s, and the agency’s inspection program is also better funded. This has spared the USDA the criticism the FDA has faced after recent recalls of peanut butter, hot peppers and spinach.

FDA Senior Adviser on Food Safety Mike Taylor said that the agency already inspects some farms as part of its duties to supervise egg, vegetable and animal feed production. He noted that the FDA and the USDA have also cooperated in the past, such as on the issue of mad cow disease, and promised that the law will not change any agency’s jurisdiction. Not everyone was reassured, however.

“We are a little skeptical of FDA,” said Rep. Collin Peterson, Chair of the House Agricultural Committee. “We are very concerned about them getting involved in grain farms, livestock farms.”

Sources for this story include: online.wsj.com.

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