Monday, January 28, 2008

War Resisters: Pan-Canadian Day of Action

The rally was the first Pan-Canadian Day of Action called Let Them Stay Day. Events were held in other cities across the country.
“It’s a day of action to try to help these characters stay in the country,” said Daryl Shandro, a member of Sudbury’s War Resisters Support Campaign.
Shandro said the group also wanted to update people on the campaign and show the “breadth of support” for it in the community.
Last December, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration passed a resolution recommending that the government immediately implement a program to allow war resisters and their families to stay in Canada. It also called for an immediate halt to deportation proceedings in these cases.
The rally participants were asked to sign letters to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, encouraging them to act on the resolution.
Some of the rally participants marched the letters to the post office.
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"He looks at me and says, 'Why?' I had no answer about why this guy died."
Randall has found safe harbour in London and he's applying for permanent residency in Canada.
"We're going to protect you," a woman at the back of the room promised when Randall had finished his speech.
Randall could face as much as 15 years in prison for desertion.
He said he feels confident he won't be hounded by the U.S. military as it doesn't have the time to track down him or others.
Yesterday was the National Day of Action in support of U.S. war resisters and about 50 American veterans of the Iraq War and others gathered at the Canadian Embassy in Washington to demand that the Canadian government allow hundreds of resisters to remain in Canada.
Locally, the War Resisters Support Group of London organized the library event, wrote letters to MPs and sold T-shirts and buttons to help support Randall, Mull and another U.S. resister living here.
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While on patrol, Burmeister was struck by shrapnel from a roadside bomb and was sent to Germany to recover. He was told that he would have to return to Iraq, even though he said he wasn't fully healed from the bomb blast injury.
"I just couldn't take it any more, so I left the day before I was supposed to go back," he said.
On May 4, 2007, Burmeister arrived in Toronto. Deserting the army was not a decision he took lightly, but a necessary choice, he said.
"The way I saw it was that I wouldn't be killing people any more," he said. "I wouldn't die over there for a useless reason."
There are about 50 known Iraq war deserters in Canada. There are about four living in Ottawa, said Joel Harden, a volunteer with the War Resister Support Campaign.
These soldiers have followed the same path of tens of thousands of Vietnam draft dodgers who crossed the border in the 1960s and '70s to avoid service in that war.
The greatest difference between the two groups is that those fleeing Iraq were not conscripted into service and willingly signed up.
The Ottawa brunch, followed by a downtown march, held to support war resisters was one of several organized events being held yesterday across the country.
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"We'd like to reach 98pc of the world, that is our goal"

" ... Her husband is one of the world's richest men who has built up an internet empire that delivers and classifies digital information at the click of a mouse.

Now Anne Wojcicki is planning to tap into the rise of online global networking to help people make sense of their own genetic information.

And if her business expectations are anything to go by, she shares much of the ambition and drive of her husband, the billionaire co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin.

Co-founder of biotech company 23andme, Wojcicki has been at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week to drum up interest in the European launch of the web-based DNA service.
"We'd like to reach 98pc of the world, that is our goal," says Wojcicki from beside her fledgling company's booth on the first floor of the Belvedere Hotel. "You have to have high standards to get anywhere in life, and if genealogy continues at its current rate, what we're offering will soon become a standard part of people's lives." ... "

From: 'Google wife targets world DNA domination'

Unimaginable Intentional Human Suffering

" ... Perhaps one day we shall know the truth about being, and being alive on planet earth, whether life on every living planet is as messed-up as it is here. Earth’s problems must be unique, as they are of man’s own creation, man-made disasters caused by ambitious men who are allowed to rise to the top, where they dominate us for self-gain. We allow our leaders to take the positions of power that they desire, instead of actually choosing who shall lead us. Humans tend to submit to those who claim authority, since it is easier to believe in symbols of power, than it is to personally submit to the tedium of the reasoning process. As a people, we tend to follow the natural order of things along the path of least resistance. By taking the easy way out, we give our blessing to the law of the jungle.

It is natural for societies to become dominated by powerful elites, who gain control of the inner workings of government and commerce, in order to bend them both to their will. “Meritocracy” and other forms of “social Darwinism,” describe the belief that “success” by this definition justifies the survival of the fittest capitalism (globalism) that has decimated the world. The brutal belief system widely promoted as “neoconservatism” is behind the fascist agenda that emerged from the bowels of corporate-owned “think tanks.” These elitist thinkers believe that it is necessary for our government to “cull” the “useless eaters” from the face of the earth, through forced population reduction and perpetual war. They are the true radicals, possessed by “extremist belief systems.” Their plans for us are the end program of a centuries-old class war between the elitist self-proclaimed neo-aristocrats, who would be masters of mankind and the rest of the human race. The neocons are nothing new, just the latest, most-concentrated form of this egotistical brand of pure evil. ... "
 
 

Greek experts look out for lost honey bees

Greek experts have expressed concern for the unexplained disappearance of large quantities of honey bees.

Greek scientists are watching out for Colony Collapse Disorder, which refers to the mysteriously abrupt departure of worker bees from their hives, Kathimerini reported Saturday.

"We are on the alert. If CCD appears in Greece, the consequences could be massive," Agricultural University of Athens Professor, Paschalis Harizanis said.

The European Union relies on Greece, one of the world's biggest bee settlements, to produce 14,000 tons of honey each year. The country is the European Union's third-top producer of honey.
 
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The Myth/Reality of Antichrist - and the danger to America!

" ... Interesting as it may sound, the Antichrist is not confined to references in the Bible, but predates the few Biblical references found in the 1st and 2nd Book of John. The Antichrist was first referred to in the Hebrew Book of Daniel - and to this day, some scholars are questioning whether the Antichrist was a man, Antiochus IV, who actually lived and was viewed by many Jews as the actual Antichrist; whether the reference is to a person who already existed or is to come in the future, is still fiercely debated by Biblical scholars.

Nevertheless, the history of the Antichrist deserves to be closely examined; throughout history, there have been several people, governments, and even technologies which have been labeled as the “Antichrist”, and to ignore history, and the consistency of adversaries being labeled as the Antichrist as it affects world politics, and the undeniable harm to innocents who are caught in the crossfire to the detriment of the world population, and now as it concerns the United States must be closely examined. It has been proven that history repeats itself, and a close examination of Antichrist’s history and subsequent results could help to stave off what could turn into a worldwide catastrophe by merely understanding the cyclic nature of the Antichrist myth and in that analysis, lies the key to qualm and perhaps mitigate the growing religiosity that is manifesting itself throughout the world. ... "

~ Read on... ~

 

'And a Dangerous Trip'

23 Jan 2008

JINSA Report #739

President Bush's trip to the Middle East was not only rhetorically disappointing, the announcement of a major arms sale to Saudi Arabia made it dangerous as well.

They'll tell you the reason for selling 900 precision-guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) to the Saudis as part of a $123 million package plus earlier sales of Patriots and support for an airborne early warning system to Kuwait and the UAE, and "targeting pods" and AWACs upgrades to Saudi Arabia is that these are our allies in containing Iran. They'll tell you the Arab states have to be able to defend themselves. They'll tell you we have to ensure that our Arab allies see us as reliable and trustworthy. They might even (quietly) suggest that we are pre-positioning in the Gulf in case WE have to deal with Tehran.

They'll also point out - loudly and often - that the Government of Israel doesn't object. The State Department's Sean McCormack said, "We've spent a lot of time ensuring that we abide by our commitments to a qualitative military edge for Israel. We are committed to maintaining that qualitative military edge for Israel."

We, on the other hand, will tell you that the real threats to Sunni state interests are insurrection and terrorism - the Shi'ite corollary to Sunni radicalism and terrorism - and JDAMS and AWACs won't help. If Tehran is so foolish as to mount a full-scale war on Saudi Arabia, the Saudis will expect us to respond - and we will and we should.

We will tell you that with oil nearing $100/bbl, the United States wants the dollars back. We are peddlers, they pay cash and can purchase elsewhere. Our government has become so fixed on proving ourselves "worthy" that we don't remember what an honest relationship would look like, or why we need one. Shouldn't they have be "worthy" just once?

And about Israel. We will remind Mr. McCormack that the "qualitative edge" is comprised of a) better weapons; b) better tactics and training; and c) better soldiers. Only the first is in American hands, and the sheer quantity we sell to the Arabs impacts the quantity Israel can afford to buy, even with U.S. aid.

Furthermore, The Government of Israel (GOI) may not object to the Saudis undermining American policy in Iraq at both the diplomatic and security levels. The GOI may not object to Saudi sponsorship abroad of the intolerant, misogynistic Wahhabi religious philosophy that has settled across Europe and resides in schools and mosques in our own country. The GOI may not object to the Saudis looking at relations with the United States as a series of, "What will you do for me, while I undermine you by holding a Hamas/Fatah summit to which you object?" The GOI may not object to treating a country that shoves little girls back into a burning school building because they left without their headscarves, doesn't want female American soldiers to drive and asks them to cover their uniforms with formless tent-like clothing, won't permit Christian American soldiers to worship - not to mention JEWISH American soldiers - as if it is a normal, moral country.

BUT WE DO.
 
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