A dubious centennial

" ... We observed a dubious centennial [last] year. In 1907, Indiana became the first state in America to pass a eugenics law.

Eugenics is the study of the hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled, selective breeding. The word derives from its Latin components — eu meaning “well” or “good” and genics meaning “born” or “birth.” Eugenics, then, seeks the products of “good birth” or being “well born” (better human beings or a better human race) through selective breeding.

From there, two categories emerge: Positive eugenics is the study of “good” outcomes achieved through breeding; negative eugenics is the study of “bad” outcomes, when undesirable characteristics are lessened or eliminated through selective breeding.

Beyond mere study, eugenics typically leads to a set of recommended practices. Beyond mere science, eugenics has always been connected to various worldviews and related to other theories. And beyond what we knew about science a century ago, we now have a greater understanding of the extent to which genetics affect such outcomes. In sum, eugenics is a pseudo-science loaded with philosophical and ethical baggage.

 

[ ... ]

Galton's ideas picked up steam as scientists and physicians lent their credibility and support to his notions. One particularly amazing example: In a medical journal in 1902, Dr. Harry Sharp described the illegal vasectomies he gave inmates in a Jeffersonville, Indiana, reformatory. He argued that it was good for the inmates as well as achieving a greater social good. (Sharp sterilized as many as 456 men over an eight-year period.) Sharp's efforts were well-received and increasingly supported by doctors, agricultural breeders, sociologists and public health officials.

One of the nation's most prominent eugenicists was David Starr Jordan, a past president of Indiana University. Given the intellectual coherence of eugenics with the ideas of that time, plus powerful proponents like Jordan and the extensive lobbying of Sharp, the Indiana Legislature passed its eugenics law on March 9, 1907. It promised to prevent the “procreation of confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles and rapists.” The law was repealed in 1921 but reinstated in 1928 — after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Virginia's similar law in 1927 (Buck v. Bell).

In that case, Carrie Buck was a 17-year old girl who was forcibly sterilized at the Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-Minded in Lynchburg because she had been pregnant and her mother had been mentally ill. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote the decision and penned this now-stunning quote:

“It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind . . . Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

Eventually, 30 states adopted sterilization laws by the early 1930s. The number of involuntary sterilizations peaked in the 1930s and slowed to a trickle by the 1960s, the last being performed in 1981. In all, more than 60,000 people were involuntarily sterilized in the United States (more than half in California).

Such laws were never overturned by the Supreme Court. But forced sterilization became obsolete scientifically, ethically and sometimes legally. For example, the impact of Indiana’s laws ended in 1974, when the second piece of legislation permitting compulsory sterilization was repealed by the Indiana General Assembly. ... "

 

~ From 'Hoosier Eugenics: A Horrible Centennial' ~

 

Schizophrenia - an alternative prevention & curing protocol

This Schizophrenia Prevention and/or Curing Protocol is for people who are ready to take the full responsibility for their own health.

"The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it."
Chinese Proverb.


The protocol incorporates lifestyle change, and implements healthy diet, body cleansing, exercises and different traditional and natural therapies. Protocol contains links to other pages that give detail explanation for each part of this program. Please, follow the links, to fully understand all the words. Remember: There is always something that can be done! The first thing to do is to change your mood. If you are depressed, if you are unhappy, you can not be healthy. Advice: start with the Laughing cure!

Laughing provides us with the natural inner massage, and through change of mood it can account for up to 30% of cure!

~ Read on... ~

Also check out

Complementary Schizophrenia Treatments

Estimate of the Situation

Penrose suggested in his 1989 book The Emperor’s New Mind that Platonic values including mathematical truth, ethical values and beauty were embedded in the fine structure of the universe, specifically in fundamental spacetime geometry at the inifinitesimally tiny (and ubiquitous) Planck scale.

 

~ Link ~

 

Maharishi, the "Giggling Guru", dies

" ... Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who introduced transcendental meditation to the West and gained fame in the 1960s as the spiritual guru to the Beatles, died Tuesday at his home and headquarters in Vlodrop, the Netherlands. He is believed to have been in his 90s. Steven Yellin, a spokesman for the organization, confirmed the Maharishi’s death but did not give a cause.

On Jan. 11, the Maharishi announced that his public work was finished and that he would use his remaining time to complete a long-running series of published commentaries on the Veda, the oldest sacred Hindu text.

The Maharishi was both an entrepreneur and a monk, a spiritual man who sought a world stage from which to espouse the joys of inner happiness. His critics called his organization a cult business enterprise. And in the press, in the 1960s and ’70s, he was often dismissed as a hippie mystic, the “Giggling Guru,” recognizable in the familiar image of him laughing, sitting cross-legged in a lotus position on a deerskin, wearing a white silk dhoti with a garland of flowers around his neck beneath an oily, scraggly beard.

In Hindi, “maha” means great, and “rishi” means seer. “Maharishi” is a title traditionally bestowed on Brahmins. Critics of the yogi say he presented himself with the name, which he was ineligible for because he was from a lower caste. The Maharishi originated the transcendental meditation movement in 1957 and brought it to the United States in 1959. Known as TM, a trademarked name, the technique consists of closing one’s eyes twice a day for 20 minutes while silently repeating a mantra to gain deep relaxation, eliminate stress, promote good health and attain clear thinking and inner fulfillment. Classes today cost $2,500 for a five-day session.

[ ... ]

The Maharishi’s movement began losing followers the late 1970s, as people were put off by the organization’s promotion of a more advanced form of TM called Yogic Flying, in which practitioners try to summon a surge of energy to physically lift themselves off the ground. They have never gone beyond the initial stage of flying, described as “frog hops.”

Mahesh Prasad Varma was born in northern India into a family of scribes. Called Mahesh, he studied physics at Allahabad University and for the next 13 years became a student and secretary to a holy man, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, who the young disciple Mahesh called Guru Dev.

“Right from the beginning the whole purpose was to breathe in his breath,” the Maharishi wrote in his “Thirty Years Around the World: Dawn of the Age of Enlightenment,” published in 1986. “This was my ideal. The whole purpose was just to assume myself with Guru Dev.”

After the death of his master in 1953, Mahesh went into seclusion in the Himalayan foothills. He emerged two years later and began teaching a system of belief, which grew into the worldwide TM movement.

“It would appear that Maharishi cobbled together his teaching after his master died, when he found himself unemployed and out-of-grace with the ashram,” said Paul Mason, a critic of the Maharishi and the author of a biography, “The Maharishi: The Biography of the Man Who Gave Transcendental Meditation to the World.” “He reinvented himself and became a ‘maharishi’ and wanted to be seen as a messiah.”

Since 1990, the Maharishi had lived in Vlodrop with about 50 of his adherents, including his “minister of science and technology,” John Hagelin, a Harvard-educated physicist, who is expected to oversee the organization in the United States.

Late in life, the Maharishi tried to breathe new life into TM, establishing in 2000 his “Global Country of World Peace,” with the goals of preventing war, eradicating poverty and promoting environmental sustainability. One effort tried to reach young people across the United States with the support of celebrities like Donovan and the filmmaker David Lynch, who went on a speaking tour of colleges to promote the cause.

The Maharishi also sought to rebuild the world according to Vedic principals. He called for the demolition of all toxic buildings and unhealthy urban environments, even the demolition of historic landmarks if they were not built according to “Vedic architecture in harmony with Natural Law.” The Maharishi contended that the White House was wrongly situated. He said that a more suitable location for the capital of the United States was the small town of Smith Center, Kan. ... "

~ Read more... ~

 

Gladio - Death Plan For Democracy

by Peter Chamberlin

Global Research, 5 Feb 2008

 

In late January 2008, a secret paramilitary group (formerly?) allied with America was busted in Turkey. Thirteen members of a shadowy right-wing group in Turkey were charged with "forming an armed terrorist group in order to provoke members of the public into armed revolt against the government." 

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373933           

                     
"The detention in Istanbul last week of alleged members of a shadowy Turkish ultranationalist group has revived charges that elements within the Turkish security apparatus have long tried to destabilize the country through a campaign of bombings and assassinations. These allegedly include false flag operations that have been attributed to Kurdish separatists and violent Islamists... The Turkish media have claimed that the latest arrests follow intelligence reports that the gang was planning to carry out a series of high level assassinations...what Turks call... deep state has its origins in what are commonly called Gladio operations "   - Mass Arrests Expose Operations of Turkey's "Deep State" -  By Gareth Jenkins

The use of proxy mercenary forces to terrorize nations into submitting to US political demands has been the cornerstone of American foreign policy since at least the era of the Berlin Wall, and it still is.  

 "Terrorism - the use of violence and threats to intimidate or to coerce, esp. for political purposes."            

According to this definition from Dictionary.com, the government of the United States of  America is the primary source of state terrorism in the world. 

In Europe, the American government actively sought to eliminate political opposition to its fascist world plans through the use of open violent repression and covert terroristic "false flag" attacks upon popular patriotic resistance movements and their leaders.  Using ultra right-wing homegrown fascists, in both Europe and America, secret paramilitary militias were created, called "Stay Behind" forces at the end of World War II.  Since then, the CIA activated these groups to successfully quash anti-American liberal and social democratic popular resistance movements.  The agency denies this, but the series of exposes of their network in Europe since 1990 have proven the professed denials to be false.

The secret American plans to turn dissent into a weapon for destroying democracy were applied equally, yet differently, in America and Europe.  Here, the procedure called for using more subtlety, as opposed to Europe, where everything would happen outside of the controlled environment of the corporate US media.  In Europe, so-called "pro-communist" forces could be fought more aggressively, using secretive groups like Gladio to physically attack the antiwar, Labor-oriented and liberal protest movements.  Behind the scenes, terror attacks were carried-out by anonymous sources to be blamed on the opposition party.  Using the extreme right-wing Gladio forces in this manner, as well as infiltrating and sabotaging leftist groups from within, proved devastating at the polls.  People ran away from the resistance in droves, seeking security in the waiting arms of the fascists and the all-powerful state.  But many people did also see through the BS of the "official story" of events like the bombing of a train stations in Bologna, Italy.

The secret plans for Europe entailed large covert paramilitary units in every NATO nation, that were trained and ready to suppress all anti-American protests by liberals and social democrats.  The official name of the covert programs was "Gladio."  The official cover story (and its original purpose) was that these right-wing paramilitary units were "Stay Behind" forces, which were created as copies of the French "underground" resistance, to be activated upon a Soviet conquest and occupation of Europe.  The Stay Behind/Gladio forces saw a change of mission in the sixties, when the European socialist/liberal alliance began to awaken strong nationalist movements in every NATO country.1     

The Timewatch investigation documents the secret formation of these neo-fascist units throughout Europe, highlighting individual local leaders and their personal testimony about participating in armed attacks upon government armories and supermarkets, as well as terror bombings, like the bomb that was detonated at Bologna's train station, killing 85 and wounded over 200.  Other revelations from the video about the operation include a damning investigation of Gladio by the European Union, interviews with key Gladio players like neocon Michael Ledeen, shadowy Iran/Contra figures Gen. John Singlaub, CIA spokesmen like former Director William Colby and Ray Cline, as well as pivotal controversial documentation on secret Army participation.

In contradiction of CIA denials about the true purpose of Gladio and the scope of its operations and neoconservative lies that there was no Gladio, the following excerpt, from joint resolution (EP 22.11.90) of the European Parliament condemns actions of US and allied intelligence agencies involved.  

 

http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/gladio.htm         

"Whereas in certain Member States military secret services (or uncontrolled branches thereof) were involved in serious cases of terrorism and crime as evidenced by, various judicial inquiries... these organizations operated and continue to operate completely outside the law...      whereas the various `GLADIO' organizations have at their disposal independent arsenals and military resources which give them an unknown strike potential, thereby jeopardizing the democratic structures of the countries in which they are operating or have been operating..." 

This officially condemns the lame official excuses, like that given by former CIA Director William Colby (claiming on the video that these were small contingency plans for providing covert intelligence sources only, in case of Soviet occupation), while exposing the duplicity of stooges like neoconservative Michael Ledeen (who was implicated in the Gladio political action while working for a right-wing Italian news service), who falsely argues that Gladio was merely a Soviet disinformation program that was based:

"on an old forgery, designed to show that there's some kind of... accusing the United States basically of what the Soviet union was doing in Italy, which was creating a secret underground paramilitary organization capable of organizing to subvert Italian democracy." 

This, "there is no spoon" explanation echoes the equally lame counter-story given by alleged Gladio participant, Licio Gelli, Grand Master of super-secretive P2 Masonic lodge, that the dreadful Bologna train station bombing was a "transportation accident," taking place in an open marketplace, where explosives were commonly sold, when "someone threw a cigarette away."    
The "old forgery" that Ledeen referred to was a document known as "US Defense Training Manual 30-31B.  The State Dept. claims that the CIA "debunked" this document as a Soviet forgery, even though it is somehow listed within the classified sections of manual libraries .  

http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2006/Jan/20-127177.html  

The allegedly forged document, signed by Army Chief of Staff Gen. W.C. WESTMORELAND, contained the following admission:

"There may be times when host country governments show passivity or indecision in the face of Communist subversion...US Army Intelligence must have the means of launching special operations which will convince host country governments and public opinion of the reality of the insurgent danger... To this end, U.S. Army intelligence should seek to penetrate the insurgency by means of agents on special assignment, with the task of forming special action groups among the more radical elements of the insurgency. When the kind of situation envisaged above arises, these groups, acting under U.S. Army intelligence control, should be used to launch violent or non-violent actions according to the nature of the case."  

Since this is a very precise description of the known activities of Gladio given by participants in it, we must assume that history has confirmed that 30-31B is real.  In Gladio operations, like those attributed to the "Deep State" group in Turkey, the plans for covert acts of terrorism  (which were theoretically intended to implicate the Communists or other enemies of the US, thus turning the population against them) were supposed to be activated at that moment in the national struggle where the Communist/liberal forces turn away from armed struggle, to embrace non-violent democratic elections, according to the  (CIA-alleged) disinformation known as "Army Field Manual 30-31B."  But, as described so vividly in the BBC documentary, the right-wing terror attacks upon leftist leaders preceded the use of those tactics by the "pro-communist" forces.  In addition to staging false flag attacks meant to be blamed upon the leftists, an intensive effort was made to infiltrate those movements, in order to incite radicals within them into carrying-out their own copycat attacks. 

While Ledeen and the CIA try to claim that Gladio is a "legend," fabricated by the  Soviets in an attempt to blame the US for their actions, the revelation of historical evidence is indicting America and the agency for introducing political terrorism to Western electoral politics.  Gladio is an ongoing operation by our government to savagely kill and wound thousands of our own allies, in order to blackmail them into supporting America's fascist plans for the world.  "Political action" took on a whole new meaning at the hands of the CIA and its hidden allies.

Terrorism, as political action, became the driving force in American foreign policy, and any nation that sought our aid, or to become allied with us, had to accept this reality and the necessity to keep blaming others for our own commissioned attacks.  The historical record of "terrorist" bombings throughout the world is, for the most part, a record of our actions, done under the cover of layers of "plausible deniability," created by the compartmentalization of terrorist strike forces into different secret levels.  

If the mercenary Gladio paramilitary forces could not provide a sufficient level of violence to satisfy the Company's needs, then the agency could rely on its own paramilitary units, or on special troops from Defense Intelligence under the 30-31B provision.  If the work required an extra layer of "plausible deniability" then there were always criminal organizations for hire and the super-secret network of "rogue operators" like Ed Wilson, who were officially alleged to be "former CIA."   In the book, Charlie Wilson's War, former agent Wilson told President Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua that he could raise an army of 1000 "ex" agents to defeat anti-government rebels, for the right price.

In America we have seen that same commitment to the use of political violence play-out within the CIA/corporate/Republican alliance, especially during the Nixon Administration as seen in bloody incidents like the Kent State massacre, where right-wing Republican Ohio Governor James Rhodes strove to impress his Republican masters by having young unsuspecting National Guardsmen fire live ammunition into a crowd of young unsuspecting college students.  Behind the scenes government provocateurs led radical movements like the SDS, the Weathermen and the Black Panthers into violent actions, intended to discredit and slander the antiwar movement.  With the empowerment of Reagan, Bush and agency director Casey, CIA involvement in American politics was out in the open.

Co-opting the highly patriotic party Republican Party and the American right-wing in a subversive program to eliminate democracy by turning it into a weapon in this country was not a simple task.  It took a great deal of foresight, intricate planning and an enormous amount of cash.  In order to gain control over America's right-wing as it had in Europe, the Company had to formulate a program of intricate deception, in order to gain their trust, as a first step to dominating their efforts.  

Since grassroots conservatism in this country is based on a conspiracy theory-based belief system, the agency had to promote the far-reaching conspiracy theories that were common to the movement.  This meant that the CIA had to promote evidence of all-encompassing theories, such as those concerning Jews, the "Illuminati" and international bankers, to win the trust of suspicious Republican bigots.   Undercover agents had to pose as movement leaders and researchers, who were committed to exposing the plots of our would-be "masters."  The agency chose to play both the race card and the religion card, by making the "Zionist" plot to colonize Palestine (a real conspiracy) the cornerstone of the CIA/corporate plot against the world.  The agency promoted joint CIA/MOSSAD actions for the dual purpose of forwarding both US corporate plans for the world and Israeli designs to reclaim the land of "Greater Israel," which were critical to conspiracy plans for the Middle East and creating a state of permanent war there.   

The master manipulators at the agency underwrote secret efforts by Zionist agents, who also served US interests, to undermine American democracy and simultaneously cuddling-up to the American extreme right-wing.  The Gladio-styled plan was to take over the ultra-nationalist right and to infiltrate and corrupt the anti-government left.  They helped to create secretive anti-Semitic organizations, as well as Zionist groups.   The two-pronged attack focused on exposing Zionist subversives, while working to build a popular wave of anti-Semitism as a national counter-reaction to Zionist crimes which they had helped to expose.  

The key to convincing the masses of conservative Republican voters of this vast covert conspiracy was found in the "big lie," where the government agents chose to expose choice tidbits of its own massive brainwashing and social control campaigns, attributing them to agents of "Zion."  The brainwashing science possessed by the government and applied through its foundations and institutes (such as Rand, Ford, Carnegie, Stanford and Tavistock Institute) dwarfs the alleged manipulative powers of any imagined conspiracy.  This proved to be extremely successful, especially when combined with spectacular fear producing terror attacks.  

In truth, mind control science, developed and implemented since World War II (largely by Jewish scientists and psychologists), is all CIA.  With the rise of former CIA director George Bush to the position of "vice president elect," (and their "October surprise" obtained with a purloined speech prep book for the great debate) the agency began to apply those behavioral control techniques of Gladio to the political process.

The political product of that behavioral research, which became known as "neoconservatism,"    http://rense.com/general77/neneo.htm      was a deliberate attempt to duplicate the psychology of pre-WWII Europe  (especially that of Nazi Germany) here in America, based on the scientific research of the Jewish intellectuals, who had fled from there for their lives.  The recreation of a radical anti-Semitic political belief system here would be enhanced by popular resistance and reaction to the fascist neoconservative policies of Zionist dual-citizenship neocons.  Leaders were found who could inspire armies of individuals to believe that there is a powerful dark conspiracy afoot that can mobilize secret armies of millions, to control every aspect of every life, or nearly so.  The success of the brainwashing program can be measured directly by the number and intensity of individuals who believe in theories of "racial superiority," whether they be believers in ideas of either "Jewish superiority" or in counter-theories of white or "Aryan" superiority.

Today's resistance movement of counter-reaction to neoconservative/Zionist fascism is under assault by dueling forces, who either want to silence the movement, or to misdirect and co-opt it.  If the movement is silenced by Zionists or divided by anti-Zionists, it will not be able to disrupt the neoconservative plans to launch nuclear war against Iran and thereby usher in a state of permanent war.
The over-eager Zionist zealots who willingly became part of this conspiracy have unknowingly sealed Israel's fate, as the intended target for the coming wave of anti-Semitism.  Little did they know that their Republican friends planned to drag-up Zionism's historical record of utilizing anti-Semites in their secret plans to force the Jewish "Diaspora" out of Europe to forcefully colonize Palestine, as proof of a global "Jewish conspiracy."  The intensive campaign of lies and subterfuge that have been used to hide fascist Israeli intentions to "ethnically cleanse" Palestine and the surrounding area of its Arab inhabitants, confirm all the negative stereotyping of the "Jewish state," especially in light of "Israel lobby" plans to force America to fight Israel's wars, even the ones started by Israel.
The Gladio-centered US foreign policy, which was so successfully played-out in Europe, effectively countered the Soviet expansion at a high cost to European democracy.  The application of that policy to Islamic countries facing a Soviet threat, such as Afghanistan, helped to roll-back the Soviets, but at a terrible cost.  The training of Islamic paramilitary forces to carry-out terror attacks for political reasons, evolved into the unfolding nightmare known as the war on terror. 

In Afghanistan, the CIA armed, trained and supported Islamic "Gladios" who carried-out Brzezenski's plans for staging terrorist attacks upon popular local Afghan tribal leaders, as a means to instigate the widespread tribal warfare which eventually lured the Soviets to intervene in December 1979.  (July 3, 1979, President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.)  Reagan whole-heartedly supported the new terror politics as a weapon for attacking the Soviet empire, even expanding the Islamic militant form of Gladio to all member states of the Soviet Union and their allies, when he signed National Security Decision Directive 166 in March 1985.   In Central America, his Gladio-like duplication trained paramilitary armies and death squads.  This policy became known as the "El Salvador option," when George W. Bush embraced it in Iraq, making it the centerpiece of his strategy for the "war on terrorism."

Note
1. The following three-part investigation from the BBC, entitled  "Timewatch – Operation Gladio" can be seen at either YouTube (part 1 of 15 is embedded below),
http://youtube.com/watch?v=l2MOpkriXb4  
or at Google Video (in three parts).  You can download the Google videos here. 
http://www.takeoverworld.info/vid.html#gladio <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="
http://www.youtube.com/v/l2MOpkriXb4&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="
http://www.youtube.com/v/l2MOpkriXb4&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>  
 

Peter Chamberlin is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

 

© Copyright Peter Chamberlin, Global Research, 2008

 

~ Link ~

 

 

Did Rumsfeld Authorize War Crimes?

The Secret Rules of Engagement in Iraq

 

Wikileaks has obtained the long kept secret Rules of Engagement (ROE) for U.S. troops in Iraq. This document sets out the rules guiding authorized U.S. troop actions in that occupation. While the Wikileaks document dates from 2005, as these ROEs generally change slowly the rules for today are likely similar, though we can't be sure, of course, to what extent more recent ROE's differ.

Among several interesting nuggets in the ROE, it provides indications that U.S. attacks likely to result in civilian deaths required authorization at the top of the Pentagon, by the SECDEF (Secretary of Defense). Thus, the ROE states repeatedly; "If the target is in a HIGH CD [collateral damage] area, SECDEF approval is required." And what is the definition of a High Collateral Damage area? The ROE contains a set of explicit definitions of its terms. There we find High Collateral Damage Targets defined as:

"Those targets that, if struck, have a ten percent probability of causing collateral damage through blast debris and fragmentation and are estimated to result in significant collateral effects on noncombatant persons and structures, including:

(A) Non-combatant casualties estimated at 30 or greater;

(B) Significant effects on Category I No Strike protected sites in accordance with Ref D; (

C) In the case of dual-use facilities, effects that significantly impact the non-combatant population, including significant effects on the environment/facilities/infrastructure not related to an adversary's war making ability; or

(D) Targets in close proximity to known human shields."

Thus, all attacks, except those in self-defense or active pursuit, with a reasonable possibility of harming 30 or more civilians needed approval from Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. Presumably such approval would need to be in writing. The ROE thus suggest that there may exist an extensive documentary record of requests, and possibly Rumsfeld's approval or rejection, for attacks with the potential for resulting in significant civilian casualties. Congress should demand access to these documents to determine the extent to which attacks resulting in civilian casualties were authorized, potentially providing insight into who was responsible for possible war crimes committed in the course of the occupation.

While much of the rest of the ROE appears rather unsurprising, there are a couple of other interesting aspects to the document. One is that the main "hostile forces," from the U.S. perspective are the Baath remnants, such as the Special Republican Guard and the Baath Party Militia. There is no mention of Iraqi al-Qaida or its predecessors. These predecessors, led by al-Zarqawi, had identified with and pledged allegiance to al-Qaida as early as October, 2004, yet they receive no mention in the ROE. The ROE rather refers to Baath forces that "have transitioned from overt conventional resistance to insurgent methods of resistance." ...

~ Read on... ~

 

A Garbage Tip that Stretches from Hawaii to Japan

A “plastic soup” of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.

The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world’s largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting “soup” stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.

Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” or “trash vortex”, believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region. Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which Mr Moore founded, said yesterday: “The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States.”

Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer and leading authority on flotsam, has tracked the build-up of plastics in the seas for more than 15 years and compares the trash vortex to a living entity: “It moves around like a big animal without a leash.” When that animal comes close to land, as it does at the Hawaiian archipelago, the results are dramatic. “The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic,” he added.

~ Link ~

 

World's Largest Single Government Commitment to "Future Energy"

" ... In an address before delegates of the World Future Energy Summit here today, His Highness, General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the U.A.E. Armed Forces, announced the most ambitious sustainability program ever launched by a government – an initial investment of US$15 billion in projects targeting solar, wind and hydrogen power; carbon reduction and management; sustainable development; education; manufacturing; and research and development.

The investment will be channelled through the Masdar Initiative, a company that aims to explore, develop and commercialize future energy sources. Masdar will leverage the Abu Dhabi government’s initial US$15 billion investment with joint ventures and other investment partners for a grand portfolio many times larger, comprised of projects in Abu Dhabi, the MENA region and globally. ... "

 

~ From 'Abu Dhabi Commits US$15 Billion to Alternative Energy, Clean Technology' ~