Musical Innerlube: Pastacas 'Jaanuselle'

http://www.pastacas.com/

Police train for riot scenarios [BBC]

Police officers from forces across the South West are to receive training to prepare them for riots.

Police horses, dogs and a helicopter will be used to add realism during the two-day courses at Moreton-in-Marsh Fire College, Gloucestershire.

Some officers will take on the role of hostile crowds in real-life scenarios such as raves, demonstrations and disorder at football matches.

Missiles and petrol bombs will be thrown as part of the training.

Officers attending the training will come from Gloucestershire; Dorset; Wiltshire; Avon & Somerset; and Devon & Cornwall Constabularies.

Inspector Mac McGarry, of Gloucestershire Constabulary Operational Services, said: "These are very important and impactive sessions because it is essential all officers allocated to the Public Disorder Unit experience the sort of difficulties they will encounter in real-life situations.

"It also gives us the chance to test the command structure we have in place and the inter-operability with other forces."

~ BBC News ~

 

The $40 trillion company and the financial coup d’état

Who has ever heard of the private company Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation? Shouldn't investors be some what familiar with a private company that holds $40 trillion in assets and last year handled "more than $1.86 quadrillion" in stock transactions?

 - Source: Wikipedia
"DTCC retains custody of 3.5 million securities issues, worth about $40 trillion, including securities issued in the US and more than 110 other countries."

"The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), based primarily at 55 Water Street in New York City, is the world's largest post-trade financial services company.

DTCC has been sued with regard to its alleged participation in naked short selling. Further allegations about DTCC's possible involvement have been made by Senator Robert Bennett and discussed by the NASAA and in articles in the Wall Street Journal and Euromoney Magazine."

"In 2007, DTCC settled the vast majority of securities transactions in the United States, more than $1.86 quadrillion in value."

On the current financial meltdown; last week Jim Cramer, former Hedge fund manager, said on his CNBC's financial TV program, "Obviously the financial terrorism thing for me has to be put on the table because the regular short sellers are not doing this, they're not doing this." Watch it here. Short selling is basically making money by placing bets/investing on stocks to go down in value.

A 2003 article (a few years before today's dire financial meltdown) written on DTCC by an author named Flemming Funch brings up the differences of how stock certificates used to be in citizen's names, then it changed over to the stock brokers name and "now, it appears the rules were then changed so the brokers are not allowed any longer to put the stocks in their own name. Instead, what they typically do is to put the stocks into the name of "Cede and Company" or "Cede & Co" or some such variation. And the broker might tell you that it is just a fictitious name, and will explain why it is really more practical to do that than to put it in your name. The problem with that is that it appears that Cede isn't just some dummy name, but an actual corporation that DTCC controls. And, well, if you ask anybody about this, who actually knows about it, they will naturally tell you that it is all a formality. If there's a national U.S. emergency and/or the U.S. government becomes unable to pay its debts, well, they might just not give you your stocks back. Because legally they own them. Something to think about.
It is a private company, owned by the same people [major bankers] who own the Federal Reserve Bank."

Wikipedia: "DTCC is a member of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, and a registered clearing agency with the Securities and Exchange Commission." The European based eqvilent of DTCC is called Euroclear and Wikipedia states, "It was founded in 1968 as part of J.P. Morgan & Co."

[...]

On the 17th of September Reuters published an article titled "China paper urges new currency order after 'financial tsunami'". Western media does not republish "communist" propaganda of how bad the U.S. is but it apparently wants to publicise this idea. In the next few short years when the U.S. almost certainly defaults on it's massive trillions of increasing debt, corporate owned China, the world's leading manufacturer (thanks to corporate western outsourcing), will be left as the biggest world power ready to take over from the United States. A few days after the Reuters report Shanghai Daily announced the elite de Rothschild banking family have linked in with the Bank of China. Shanghai Daily states, "BANK of China said yesterday it will buy a 20 percent stake in La Compagnie Financiere Edmond de Rothschild for 236.3 million euros (US$340 million) and the two will develop private banking and asset-management services. Founded in 1953, LCFR is controlled by the Rothschild family, which has a 250-year history in European banking. 'This partnership forms part of Bank of China's global development strategy,' Bank of China chairman Xiao Gang said in a statement. The deal expands Bank of China's European ties just two months after it bought 30 percent of Swiss-based Heritage Fund Management SA in July for 60 million yuan (US$9 million)." The game is control, control, control, money just facilitates it and the best control holds no liability to public scrutiny.

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Tuberculosis: The next pandemic?

XDR-TB is the abbreviation for extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis, also called extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. One in three people in the world is infected with dormant TB germs. Only when the bacteria become active do people become ill with TB. Bacteria become active as a result of anything that can reduce the person’s immunity, such as HIV, advancing age or some medical conditions.

TB can usually be treated with a course of four standard, or "first-line," anti-TB drugs. If these drugs are misused or mismanaged, multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB) can develop. MDR-TB takes longer to treat, and requires "second-line" drugs that are more expensive and have more side effects. XDR-TB can develop when these second-line drugs are also misused or mismanaged and become ineffective. Treatment options for XDR-TB are seriously limited.

The rapid and accurate diagnosis of symptomatic patients is the cornerstone of global strategies for TB control. Inaccurate diagnosis has spurred the rapid spread of TB and drug resistance, especially in HIV/AIDS patients. The testing method used almost universally in the developing world is more than 115 years old and is largely ineffective in identifying TB in HIV/AIDS patients. False negative tests are very common, leading to inappropriate treatment. This contributes to the continued rapid spread of TB and also expands the incidence of drug resistance.

The ultimate goal of providing a more up-to-date TB diagnostic tool for the 21st century is the focus of ongoing research and development. While no single diagnostic test provides all the information needed for patient care over the disease's progression, several complementary technologies exist today that, when used correctly, can help reduce the spread of TB and its mortality rate.

Many people think of TB as a disease of the past, but in 2007 alone, TB killed 1.7 million people. That’s 4,660 deaths a day, or one death from TB every 20 seconds. TB is the leading killer of people with HIV: Individuals are able to live with HIV but are dying from TB. Without proper treatment, 90% of those living with HIV die within months of contracting TB.

The drugs to treat a standard TB case cost only $20 per patient in the developing world, and are almost always completely effective in curing a person of the disease when taken properly, even among people living with HIV.

XDR-TB and MDR-TB, the drug-resistant strains of TB, are much more difficult, and sometimes impossible, to cure. Cases of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extremely drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) have been found in almost every country of the world. It is not clearly known how far these strains have spread.

Reversing the TB epidemic is a political issue as much as it is a health issue. The World Health Organization estimates that it will cost approximately $6.7 billion annually to reverse the TB epidemic. Currently, only slightly more than half of that is projected to be available at current funding levels. This gap is costing millions of lives.

http://www.xdrtb.org

Documents say detainee near insanity

A U.S. military officer warned Pentagon officials that an American detainee was being driven nearly insane by months of punishing isolation and sensory deprivation in a U.S. military brig, according to documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and provided to The Associated Press.

While the treatment of prisoners at detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in Afghanistan and Iraq have long been the subject of human rights complaints and court scrutiny, the documents shed new light on how two American citizens and a legal U.S. resident were treated in military jails inside the United States.

The Bush administration ordered the men to be held in military jails as "enemy combatants" for years of interrogations without criminal charges, which would not have been allowed in civilian jails.

The men were interrogated by the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency, repeatedly denied access to attorneys and mail from home and contact with anyone other than guards and their interrogators. They were deprived of natural light for months and for years were forbidden even minor distractions such as a soccer ball or a dictionary.

"I will continue to do what I can to help this individual maintain his sanity, but in my opinion we're working with borrowed time," an unidentified Navy brig official wrote of prisoner Yaser Esam Hamdi in 2002. "I would like to have some form of an incentive program in place to reward him for his continued good behavior, but more so, to keep him from whacking out on me."

The ACLU received the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request. The civil liberties group said the papers are evidence that the Bush administration violated the 5th amendment's protections against cruel treatment. The U.S. military was ordered to treat the American prisoners the same way prisoners at Guantanamo were treated, according to the documents.

However, the Guantanamo jail was created by the Bush administration specifically to avoid allowing detainees any constitutional rights. Administration lawyers contended the Constitution did not apply outside the country.

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Conservatives call Obama’s correct pronounciation of Pakistan ‘exotic’ and ‘annoying’

Conservatives are in a tizzy over the way Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) pronounced "Pakistan" during last night's debate:

– "When Obama says Pock-i-stahn I have an uncontrollable urge to read the New Yorker and find some Chardonnay. Fortunately I have an old copy of NR and a Coors Light to snap me back to reality. Seriously though — no one in flyover country says Pock-i-stahn. It's annoying." [E-mail posted by Kathryn Jean Lopez]

– "Re Senator Obama's ostentatiously exotic pronunciation of Pakistan, one thing I like about Sarah Palin is the way she says 'Eye-raq'." [Mark Steyn]

– "Most overwrought pronunciation of the night: The academic way that Obama says 'Pakistan,' with a soft 'a' - reminscent of a 1980s 'Saturday Night Live' sketch in which newscasters over-pronounced 'Managua, Nicaragua.'" [Philadelphia Daily News]

– "Drinking Game: A shot every time the candidates pronounce 'Pakistan' or 'Taliban' in an annoying way?" [Ramesh Ponnuru]

Even the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder liveblogged yesterday, "Noticing that Obama says Pahk-istan and McCain says Pack-istan." However, Gen. David Petraeus also pronounces Pakistan with a soft "a," the same as Obama...

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Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy ships to North America

Defeat the last prophecy of the great philosopher Nostradamus and change the course of history

Encore has announced that Nostradamus - The Last Prophecy has shipped to retailers across the US. Nostradamus - The Last Prophecy is an adventure game set in 16th century Provence in a country ravaged by religious wars and devastated by the plague. Filled with political scheming and ancestral prophecies, players are challenged to solve a series of riddles and puzzles inspired by Nostradamus; a renowned apothecary, medical doctor, and reputed astrologer. Players will delve into the worlds of astrology and medicine to save Queen Catherine de Médici from a terrible curse.

~ gamershell.com ~

The Prophecy of the Fourth Crow

Neweneit Na Ahas
The Prophecy of the Fourth Crow

As told by Robert Red Hawk Ruth
Translated by Shelley DePaul

Lomewe, luwe na okwes xu laxakwihele xkwithakamika.
Long ago it was said that a fox will be loosened on the earth.

Ok nen luwe newa ahasak xu peyok.
Also it was said four crows will come.

Netami ahas kenthu li guttitehewagan wichi Kishelemukonk.
The first crow flew the way of harmony with Creator.

Nisheneit ahas kwechi pilito entalelemukonk, shek palsu ok ankela.
The second crow tried to clean the world, but he became sick and he died.

Nexeneit ahas weneyoo ankelek xansa ok koshiphuwe.
The third crow saw his dead brother and he hid.

Neweneit ahas kenthu li guttitehewagan lapi wichi Kishelemukonk.
The fourth crow flew the way of harmony again with Creator.

Kenahkihechik xu withatuwak xkwithakamika.
Caretakers they will live together on the earth


We have chosen to tell the story of the Lenape in Pennsylvania through “The Prophecy of the Fourth Crow,” an ancient story passed down among the Lenape for generations. This story relates the ways in which Lenape people have struggled to survive and to keep their community and culture intact. Chief Red Hawk summarizes the current interpretation of the Prophecy in the following way:

“We now know that the First Crow was the Lenape before the coming of the Europeans. The Second Crow symbolized the death and destruction of our culture. The Third Crow was our people going underground and hiding. The Fourth Crow was the Lenape becoming caretakers again and working with everybody to restore this land.”

An avalanche of prophecy

Not since the summer of 1989 have I seen such a massive upwelling of dire prophecy in the world. At Unknowncountry.com, we are getting emails every day from people who are having dreams or visions of terrible events in the immediate future.

The Arlington Institute, a respected futurist think tank, has just published a document noting that it is receiving many such prophecies, also.

Most of these dreams and visions involve earthquakes, nuclear terrorism or huge storms. (Hopefully, not all of the above.)

A number of channelers are predicting that a large scale event involving aliens will take place this month.

So, what's it all about? First, let me repeat clearly that I said in a recent journal that this time of political change and financial chaos would be an ideal moment for terrorists to strike, if they are able to do so. But that's a big "if," and I am by no means predicting this or anything else. Let's just hope it doesn't happen.

I've seen other major moments of prediction, most notably the one that took place in 1989. It had some substance, as the visitors, with whom I was in pretty close contact at the time, were experimenting with open contact. They engaged in a spectacular display over Belgium, and I certainly had hope that they would take the next step and make their reality known to all in a way that government could not deny.

Instead, they pulled back and I ended up with the implant I now carry in my left ear, still waiting in the wings to do what I am here to do, which is to make the process of open contact as smooth, and as useful to mankind, as I can. For all I know, I'll wait forever--or it could be that I'll be going to work doing this tomorrow. I have no idea.

However, I do have an idea why there is so much disquiet right now. It is because the mind of man is changing, and we know it, and we see the internal demolition that is taking place in terms of external catastrophe.

The middle Roman Empire, while it was still thriving and things like Christianity were still far below the radar of the average citizen, was full of prophecies of doom. In fact, the apostles were originally expecting the end of the world in a matter of years, which is what they went out to preach. St. John wrote the Book of Revelation in a prophetic trance. Not long after, Rome itself burned to the ground and it was thought that the end had come.

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"We've only been flipped off like twice," he said

From: Atheists read religious texts for charity

Nat Jackson read passages from the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Saturday to crowds walking past the Allen Street Gates.

Before reading verses about how the Spaghetti Monster created the universe, he put on a black eye patch, the required attire for the Spaghetti Monster's believers.

That text was one of more than a dozen religious books -- including the Bible and the Quran -- put on display by the Penn State Atheist and Agnostic Association, of which Jackson (senior-anthropology) is president. Passersby could donate money in return for hearing club members read aloud from the book of their choice.

The "Bible-A-Thon" raised about $503, which will go to Doctors Without Borders, an organization that brings medical care to people worldwide.

Club members manned their table of religious texts from 9 a.m. to about 7:15 p.m. Some of them held up signs that read, "Make atheists read the Bible."

"It's like a social experiment to test how tolerant people are," said David Yanofsky, who had been at the booth since 1 p.m. Though Yanofky graduated in May, he still lives in State College and participates in the group's activities. There was a steady stream of interested people throughout the day, he said.

Chicago's Cook County won't evict in foreclosures

The sheriff here said Wednesday that he's ordering his deputies to stop evicting people from foreclosed properties because many people his office has helped throw out on the street are renters who did nothing wrong.

"We will no longer be a party to something that's so unjust," a visibly angry Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said at a news conference.

"We have to be sure that when we are doing this — and we are destroying some people's lives — we better be darned sure we're talking about the right people," Dart said.

Dart said he believes he's the first sheriff in a major metropolitan area to stop participating in foreclosure evictions, and the publisher of a national foreclosure database said he's probably right.

"I haven't heard of any other sheriff unilaterally deciding to stop foreclosures," said Rick Sharga, senior vice president of the Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, Inc. He said the sheriff in Philadelphia helped push a moratorium on foreclosure sales, but that involved owner-occupied homes and not renters.

Dart said that from now on, banks will have to present his office with a court affidavit that proves the home's occupant is either the owner or has been properly notified of the foreclosure proceedings.

Illinois law requires that renters be notified that their residence is in foreclosure and they will be evicted in 120 days, but Dart indicated that the law has been routinely ignored.

He talked about tenants who dutifully pay their rent, then leave one morning for work only to have authorities evict them and put their belongings on the curb while they are gone.

By the time they get home, "The meager possessions they have are gone," he said. "This is happening too often."

In many cases, he said, tenants aren't even aware that their homes have fallen into foreclosure.

This week, an attorney asked that Dart be held in contempt when his deputies did not evict tenants after determining they were not the owners and did not know about their landlord's financial problems.

A judge denied the attorney's request, Dart's office said, and Dart said that after talking to the Cook County state's attorney's office, he is confident he is on solid legal ground.

"My job as sheriff is to follow court orders, absolutely," he said. "But I'm also in charge of making sure justice is being done here and it is clear that justice is not being done here."

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‘Slowdown may be good for planet’

A slowdown in the world economy may give the planet a breather from the excessively high carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions responsible for climate change, a Nobel Prize winning scientist said on Tuesday.

Atmospheric scientist Paul J. Crutzen, who has floated the possibility of blitzing the stratosphere with sulfur particles to cool the Earth, said clouds gathering over the world economy could ease the planet's environmental burden.

Slower economic growth worldwide could help slow growth of carbon dioxide emissions and trigger more careful use of energy resources, though the global economic turmoil may also divert focus from efforts to counter climate change, said Crutzen, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the depletion of the ozone layer.

"It's a cruel thing to say ... but if we are looking at a slowdown in the economy, there will be less fossil fuels burning, so for the climate it could be an advantage," he told Reuters in an interview.

"We could have a much slower increase of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere ... people will start saving (on energy use) ... but things may get worse if there is less money available for research and that would be serious," Crutzen said.

CO2 emissions, released by the burning of fossil fuels in power stations, factories, homes and vehicles, are growing at almost 3 percent a year.

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U.S. tax agency steps into credit crisis

The U.S. tax agency has taken steps to help ease the credit crisis by allowing corporations to increase their use of tax-free loans from overseas subsidiaries.

The program, quietly announced late Friday by the agency, the Internal Revenue Service, was devised at the behest of the U.S. Treasury Department.

The program is intended to help ease the credit crisis by luring back into the U.S. economy a chunk of the estimated hundreds of billions of dollars kept overseas by U.S. corporations through their subsidiaries in low-tax countries. That money could help combat a core problem of the credit crisis: the reluctance by banks to give companies the short-term loans needed for daily business.

In an unusually explicit step into the world of financial policy, the IRS made it clear that the credit crisis was behind the action. "Recently, circumstances affecting liquidity have made it difficult for taxpayers to fund their operations," the agency said in a notice made public Monday. The IRS said it was undertaking the program "to facilitate liquidity in the near term."

Robert Willens, a tax and accounting analyst, said Monday that the program could result in "a tremendous amount of money to shore up corporations." He added that "this is a substitute for commercial paper, and right now companies are having major difficulties rolling over commercial paper" - that is, issuing short-term debt to finance their operations.

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AIG hits up Fed for more money

The New York Federal Reserve is lending up to $37.8 billion to American International Group to give the troubled insurer access to much-needed cash.

In exchange, AIG is giving the New York Fed investment-grade, fixed-income securities that it had previously lent out to other institutions for a fee. Those institutions are now returning these securities and want their money back.

The new program, announced Wednesday, is on top of the $85 billion the federal government agreed to lend to AIG last month to prevent the global company from collapsing. AIG said last Friday it had drawn down $61 billion.

The lending program is a way for AIG to get funding for its businesses, said a New York Fed spokesman. The system is similar to lending facilities the Fed provides to banks, which can also exchange collateral for cash.

The latest announcement does not jeopardize the government's ability to recoup its loan to AIG, experts said.

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FBI given new rules for investigations

The Bush administration issued new rules Friday designed to allow the FBI to pursue potential national security threats with the same vigor and techniques used against common criminals. Civil libertarians said the guidelines will come at a cost to constitutional protections.

The rules, to take effect Dec. 1, are a roadmap to the FBI's transformation. The bureau made its reputation many decades ago by successfully pursuing bank robbers. The Justice Department says it wants to ensure that the FBI can now meet the biggest threats of the 21st century: national security and terrorism.

The roadmap consolidates once-separate rules for assessing threats and investigating traditional crimes and terrorism. They tell FBI agents what they can and can't do, including when to conduct surveillance, use informants and consider race or ethnicity in determining whether someone is a suspect.

While some changes were made from preliminary rules shown to reporters, lawmakers and public interest organizations, the alterations were not enough to silence critics who say the FBI will now be able to begin investigating people with no indication they did anything wrong.

Anticipating the criticism, Attorney General Michael Mukasey and FBI Director Robert Mueller issued a joint statement saying: "We are confident these guidelines will assist the FBI in carrying out its critical national security and foreign intelligence missions while also protecting privacy and civil liberties."

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was not reassured.

"I am concerned that the guidelines continue the pattern of this administration of expanding authority to gather and use Americans' private information without protections for privacy or checks to prevent abuse and misuse," Leahy said.

Three Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee asked the department to postpone the effective date until a new president takes office in January and has an opportunity to review the procedures.

 

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Rex 84: FEMA's blueprint for martial law in America

By Allen L Roland

We are dangerously close to a situation where ~ if the American people took to the streets in righteous indignation or if there were another 9/11 ~ a mechanism for martial law could be quickly implemented and carried out under REX 84.

The Cheney/Bush administration has a plan which would accommodate the detention of large numbers of American citizens during times of emergency.

The plan is called REX 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984. Through Rex-84 an undisclosed number of concentration camps were set in operation throughout the United States, for internment of dissidents and others potentially harmful to the state.

The Rex 84 Program was originally established on the reasoning that if a "mass exodus" of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA.

Existence of the Rex 84 plan was first revealed during the Iran-Contra Hearings in 1987, and subsequently reported by the Miami Herald on July 5, 1987

"These camps are to be operated by FEMA should martial law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general's signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached."

And there you have it ~ the real purpose of FEMA is to not only protect the government but to be its principal vehicle for martial law.

This is why FEMA could not respond immediately to the Hurricane Katrina disaster ~ humanitarian efforts were no longer part of its job description under the Department of Homeland Security.

It appears Hurricane Katrina also provided FEMA with an excuse to "dry run" its unconstitutional powers in New Orleans, rounding up "refugees" (now called "evacuees") and "relocating" them in various camps. "Some evacuees are being treated as 'internees' by FEMA," writes former NSA employee Wayne Madsen.

"Reports continue to come into WMR that evacuees from New Orleans and Acadiana [the traditional twenty-two parish Cajun homeland] who have been scattered across the United States are being treated as 'internees' and not dislocated American citizens from a catastrophe"

We are dangerously close to a situation where ~ if the American people took to the streets in righteous indignation or if there were another 9/11 ~ a mechanism for martial law could be quickly implemented and carried out under REX 84.

Be forewarned ~ the Cheney/Bush administration will stop at nothing to preserve their power and their ongoing neocon mis-adventure and they have currently proposed having executive control over all the states National Guard troops in a national emergency.

Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa, called the proposal " one step away from a complete takeover of the National Guard, the end of the Guard as a dual-function force that can respond to both state and national needs."

The provision was tucked into the House version of the defense bill without notice to the states, something Vilsack said he resented as much as the proposal itself.

Under the provision, the president would have authority to take control of the Guard in case of " a serious natural or manmade disaster, accident or catastrophe" in the United States.

Do remember, to the Cheney/Bush administration ~ the Mob at the Gates that they truly fear is not terrorists but, instead, the people demanding the truth.

REX 84 and FEMA

MINDFULLY, 2004 - There over 800 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA should martial law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general's signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached. . . The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a "mass exodus" of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA.

Rex 84 allowed many military bases to be closed down and to be turned into prisons.

Operation Cable Splicer and Garden Plot are the two sub programs which will be implemented once the Rex 84 program is initiated for its proper purpose. Garden Plot is the program to control the population. Cable Splicer is the program for an orderly takeover of the state and local governments by the federal government.

FEMA is the executive arm of the coming police state and thus will head up all operations. The Presidential Executive Orders already listed on the Federal Register also are part of the legal framework for this operation.

The camps all have railroad facilities as well as roads leading to and from the detention facilities. Many also have an airport nearby. The majority of the camps can house a population of 20,000 prisoners.

Currently, the largest of these facilities is just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaskan facility is a massive mental health facility and can hold thousands of people.

~ Centre for Research on Globalization ~

The official name of this project is called "Operation Garden Plot"

Under this plan for the deployment of Operation Garden Plot, the use of CIDCON-1 will be mandatory. This direct support of civil disturbance control operations is to be used by the Army, USAF, Navy, and Marine Corp. with an airlift force to be comprised of MAC Organic Airlift Resources, airlift capable aircraft of all other USAF major commands, and all other aerial reconnaissance and Airborne Psychological Operations. This is to include control communications systems, aeromedical evacuation, helicopter and Weather Support Systems.

If any civil disturbance by a resistance group, religious organization, or other persons considered to be non-conformist takes place, under Appendix 3 to Annex B of Plan 55-2 hereby gives all Federal forces total power over the situation if local and state authorities cannot put down said dissenters.

Annex A, section B of Operation Garden Plot defines tax protesters, militia groups, religious cults, and general anti-government dissenters as Disruptive Elements. This calls for the deadly force to be used against any extremist or dissident perpetrating any and all forms of civil disorder.

 

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Songs of death

The ahistorical arrogance of this is breathtaking (or nauseating, take your pick). Obama's hegemonic ambitions are noteworthy in their scale: "the American moment" is to extend for "this new century." This is the undiluted embrace of "American exceptionalism," which I have discussed in detail: see my first Iran/foreign policy series, in particular "Messianic Zealotry as Foreign Policy" and the discussion there of the "Idea of Progress"; and the new "Dominion" series too, especially this installment and this one. Those essays discuss some of the internal inconsistencies and contradictions of the "exceptionalist" doctrine, one for which no one has ever been able to provide a convincing proof. Such a failure is unavoidable, since no such proof exists or is possible.

Let me very briefly mention another insurmountable problem in this view, and that is its assumption of omniscience. Note the famous formulation, which almost every politician robotically repeats: "the last, best hope of Earth." Well, "last" and "best" until another candidate appears better able to fill the generally accepted requirements for world leadership. Consider one instance of what I mean: if we continue on our present path, it is more than likely that "this new century" will see a significant economic weakening in the U.S., perhaps even a financial collapse. It is further likely that at some point in the next 50 or 100 years, our currently unparalleled military strength will be surpassed by China, for example. If China has undergone some not unimportant transformations of its own by that time (which is also far from unimaginable), China might then be able to make claims like Obama's with much more truth and conviction than the United States.

This point is in addition to the fact that every great civilization of the past has, in some form, made claims like those made by "American exceptionalism." Their time came and went, as will ours. But as I recently observed, our ignorance is close to perfect: we have rendered ourselves incapable of grasping the past, the present or the future. Understanding developments over broad historic periods is a task for which we are singularly unsuited, and our sole concern remains today and tomorrow, and at most the next election. In addition, to talk accurately and sensibly about such matters flatters the vanity of neither the political class nor Americans more generally. Even though it is the truth, no one wants to hear: "The United States represented a revolutionary and glorious political development at its founding. But the original principles upon which this nation rested began to be seriously eroded only one hundred years later, and today they are all but vanished. Unless we again radically alter our path, we are headed to the trash heap of history, like every nation of once great achievement before us." Such views need not apply: they will not garner large campaign contributions, they will not lead to speaking engagements, and they will certainly not get you to the White House.

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MTV martial law warnings

Excerpts from Pentagon's plan: 'Prevent the Re-Emergence of a New Rival'

Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power. These regions include Western Europe, East Asia, the territory of the former Soviet Union, and Southwest Asia.

There are three additional aspects to this objective: First, the U.S. must show the leadership necessary to establish and protect a new order that holds the promise of convincing potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests. Second, in the non-defense areas, we must account sufficiently for the interests of the advanced industrial nations to discourage them from challenging our leadership or seeking to overturn the established political and economic order. Finally, we must maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role. An effective reconstitution capability is important here, since it implies that a potential rival could not hope to quickly or easily gain a predominant military position in the world.

The second objective is to address sources of regional conflict and instability in such a way as to promote increasing respect for international law, limit international violence, and encourage the spread of democratic forms of government and open economic systems. These objectives are especially important in deterring conflicts or threats in regions of security importance to the United States because of their proximity (such as Latin America), or where we have treaty obligations or security commitments to other nations. While the U.S. cannot become the world's "policeman," by assuming responsibility for righting every wrong, we will retain the pre-eminent responsibility for addressing selectively those wrongs which threaten not only our interests, but those of our allies or friends, or which could seriously unsettle international relations. Various types of U.S. interests may be involved in such instances: access to vital raw materials, primarily Persian Gulf oil...

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Iceland: the land of cool turns bitter

So how did the Hotel 101 - named after Reykjavik's most exclusive postcode - come to be the watering-hole of a financial elite? For centuries Iceland had a fish-based economy, even fighting a war with Britain to keep its lucrative cod trawling grounds. Then it began exporting aluminium, and then, after free-market reforms introduced by the Thatcherite Prime Minister Davìd Oddsson, it rapidly privatised its banking sector and moved into the business of financial engineering - to such an extent that a handful of Icelandic banks, expanding aggressively, have ended up with liabilities more than eight times the national GDP.

That gold rush, at the beginning of this century, has spun the illusion of wealth. Dorrit Moussaieff, the jet-setting jewellerydesigner wife of President Ólafur Ragnar Grimsson, set the tone, with her coterie of girlfriends - Rannveig Rist, the general manager of Alcan Iceland; Tinna Gunnlaugsdóttir of Iceland's National Theatre; artists and gallery owners - all regulars at the now eerilly silent 101.

But it wasn't just a wealthy elite who surfed the Zeitgeist. Ordinary Icelanders were swiftly freed from the idea that they belonged to an impoverished society where the key question about a future bride was: is she a good housekeeper? In the past five years, people's average wealth has grown by 45 per cent - and the money has gone into houses and cars, financed by 100 per cent loans based on a spread of foreign currencies. Now the krona is plummeting, loans are ballooning and thousands are defaulting. The only good news is for foreign visitors, for whom beer has at last become affordable.

[...]

There are only a few tell-tale signs of trouble - the hole where the foundations for a new Landsbanki headquarters were to be sunk has been quietly filled and tarred over to form part of a car park. And the new Landsbanki-sponsored opera house looks as if it may not be finished.

If there are still Vikings in this Iceland, they are the financial marauders setting out for Britain - not to pillage and plunder, but to snap up a chunk of French Connection.

But now, suddenly, Icelanders have grasped that such activities do not represent the future of the island and, indeed, they could be its downfall. The new Vikings have been thriving on the cronyism and back-scratching culture of Reykjavik. Since the beginning of the 20th century banks and government have worked hand in glove. If a minister slipped into Opposition, he was more or less guaranteed a post as a bank director. The privatisation of the banks was supposed to end all that, but it merely continued by other means.

Professor Thorvaldur Gylfason of Reykjavik University has been predicting disaster for years - on his desk sit wooden blind and deaf monkeys, representing central bank policymakers - and has been shunned for his efforts. "We have Thai-style croneyism that has failed the system," he says. "The Government is not on top of the situation. It is in denial and has not been truthful about the system."

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United States remains on top of competitiveness rankings

The United States tops the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, released today by the World Economic Forum. Switzerland is in second position followed by Denmark, Sweden and Singapore. European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands following suit. The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has dropped by three places and out of the top 10, mainly attributable to a weakening of its financial markets. The People's Republic of China continues to lead the way among large developing economies, improving by four places this year and joining the top 30. All of the BRIC economies figure in the top half of the ranking, with China followed by India, Russia and Brazil. Several Asian economies perform strongly with Japan, Hong Kong SAR, Republic of Korea and Taiwan, China in the top 20. In Latin America, Chile is the highest ranked country, followed by Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico.

 

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