Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Terror as a tool of empire

From Information Clearing House :

Darkness Renewed

Terror as a Tool of Empire

By Chris Floyd

April 01, 2009 "EB
" --- Here's a purely hypothetical scenario. Let's say you were a dedicated imperial militarist who believed that your country's security, prestige and financial interests could best be served by war and the ever-present threat of war. Let's say you had some really hot and juicy operations going on, endless deadly conflicts that were pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into your war machine and entrenching national policy even more deeply in the militarist philosophy – the machtpolitik – that you believe in.

But there's a problem. The general public – the cow-like herd out there that doesn't understand grand strategy the way you and your fellow elites do – is growing weary, and wary, of your Long War. The national treasury is bankrupt, the national infrastructure is rotting, the nation's communities are dying; millions of people are out of work, losing their homes, losing their dreams, spiraling down into want, privation and despair. Yet you have big plans to escalate the war, expand your war machine, and maintain the global dominance that you believe is the right and natural role for your special nation – and its elites. What to do? How to galvanize the truculent, self-absorbed herd into enthusiastically supporting your vital agenda once more?

Well, here's one purely hypothetical approach you might try. You goad and provoke violent extremist groups into retaliating against your attacks, your civilian-slaughtering invasions and incursions into their territory. Being unable to confront directly your war machine – the largest, most advanced military force in the history of the world, sustained by a tsunami of public money that each year surpasses the military spending of the rest of the world – they naturally respond with "asymmetrical" operations. At first, these are directed at nearby targets: your supply lines, the forces of your local proxies and allies, and other chaos-inducing depredations in the groups' own regions, designed to foul the lines of your control and drive you out. Just as naturally, you use these attacks to justify an even greater military presence in their regions. The cycle inevitably, inexorably ratchets upwards and outwards, until at last the extremists strike at your homeland – either with your connivance, or your covert acquiescence, or, in any event, with your foreknowledge that such an attack was sure to come. This is the moment you have waited for; this is exactly what you wanted. Now you can whip the herd back into a martial frenzy, keep the Long War going, and push aside the rabble's petty, small-minded desires for a peaceful, prosperous life at home, minding their own business.

~ more... ~


From the same source:

Beware Those Treacherous Afpakis

By Eric Margolis

April 01, 2009 "
Lew Rockwell" -- -President Barack Obama has now taken full ownership of the Afghanistan War. Gone are Washington's pretenses that a western "coalition" was waging this conflict. Gone, too, is the comic book term, "war on terrorism," replaced by the Orwellian sobriquet, "overseas contingency operations."

Obama's announcement last week of deeper US involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan – now officially known in Washington as "Afpak" – was accompanied by a preliminary media bombardment of Pakistan for failing to be sufficiently responsive in advancing US strategic plans.

The New York Times in a front-page story last week that was clearly orchestrated by the Obama administration charged that Pakistan's military intelligence agency, Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), has been secretly aiding Taliban and its allies in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In 2003, the NY Times severely damaged its once stellar reputation by serving as a primary conduit for fake war propaganda put out by the Bush administration over Iraq. The Times has been beating the war drums for more US military operations against Pakistan.

Even so, these latest angry charges being hurled by Washington at Pakistan's spy agency ring true. Having covered ISI for almost 25 years, and been briefed by many of its director generals, I would be very surprised if ISI was not quietly working with Taliban and other Afghan resistance movements.

Protecting Pakistan's interests, not those of the United States, is ISI's main job.


~ more... ~



Koudelka Invasion 68 opens in Mexico

From Exposures - an Aperture.blog


As part of Memorial del 68, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico presents Invasion 68 Prague, an exhibition of Josef Koudelka’s remarkable work made during that one historic week in August 1968. In the midst of the turmoil of the Soviet-led invasion, which ended the short-lived political freedom in Czechoslovakia that came to be known as the Prague Spring, Koudelka took to the streets to document this critical moment. His powerful photographs reached Magnum Photos in New York and earned the still-anonymous photographer the Robert Capa Award. This successful exhibition, coproduced by Aperture and Magnum Photos, has traveled to New York and Washington, D.C., before arriving in Mexico. Many of the images featured in large-scale prints and grids have never been seen before; compelling texts by Czech historians complete the exhibition. All images and texts are taken from Koudelka’s stunning Aperture monograph of the same name, which includes 250 photographs chosen by the artist from his archive.

Exhibition on view:
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 –Friday, July 31, 2009

Invasion 68 Prague

Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico,
Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco, Memorial del 68

Ricardo Flores Magon No.1
Col. Nonoalco Tlatelolco
Mexico City, Mexico
(+52) 55 83 09 60

Greek strikes timed for G-20 protest

Tom Stoukas' AP report appearing in the Taiwan News :

Greece's nationwide general strike, timed to coincide with the G-20 summit in London, will protest spending cuts by the conservative government in response to the international financial crisis, the country's two largest unions said Tuesday.

Thursday's strike is set to disrupt flights as well as other transport and public services. Air traffic controllers will stop work between noon and 3:00 p.m. (0900-1200 GMT), halting all flights to and from Greek airports. The country's largest airline, Olympic Airways, said it was canceling 140 flights.

Journalists will also join the strike, keeping news programs off the air and preventing Friday's newspapers from being published.

The strike is timed for the G-20 summit in London _ a meeting of leaders from the world's largest economies which is expected to draw large protests in the British capital.

Greece's government this month announced a salary freeze for many civil servants and a one-off tax hike on higher-income salary earners.

The move angered unions, which said high-earning businesses should shoulder the burden. They also oppose a government decision to let struggling business relax labor rules.

~ more... ~

Recession turning into 'social crisis', warns OECD

From EurActiv :

As the economy continues to shrink, massive unemployment is expected to spur social and political unrest across the industrialised world, warned the OECD in economic projections presented today (31 March). Meanwhile, the ECB is expected to further slash interest rates at its meeting on Thursday.

Presenting its interim outlook for major world economies, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said the 30-nation bloc's economy will likely contract by 4.3% this year and staying "mostly flat" in 2010.

Weak export markets, falling investment and a continuing credit crunch will hit euro-area activity hard over the coming six months. The recovery will only begin to build momentum by the middle of 2010. GDP is projected to drop 4.1 percent in 2009 and by 0.3 percent next year. Consequently, unemployment will climb continue to climb om the coming months.

According to the OECD, by the end of 2010, the unemployment rate could be approaching double digit figures in all G8 countries with the sole exception of Japan. In the OECD area as a whole, this would compare with a 5.6% low in 2007. About 25 million workers are expected to lose their jobs, pushing entire families into poverty.

"Governments need to take quick and decisive action to avoid the financial crisis becoming a fully-blown social crisis with scarring effects on vulnerable workers and low-income households," OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría told G8 labour and employment ministers over the weekend.

Gurria noted that the fiscal stimulus packages introduced so far include additional funds for the labour market and social policy measures. But "the bad news is that the additional funds are rather limited, accounting for about 8-10% of total expenditure in the United States and France and less in most of the other countries. This may turn into a missed opportunity," he said.

~ more... ~

The war that wasn't: NATO versus Warsaw Pact

From Obroda :

It never happened of course. But what if NATO and Warsaw Pact would collide? Read the comments of few experts.

Questions:

1. In the case of the conventional warfare between NATO and WAPA (or if you like with Soviet bloc armies as WAPA was created in 1955) who would be the winner and why? Does the outcome differ if we look at the various time periods 50's, 60' etc… and how would you describe the strongest and weakest points on both sides?

2. Is it possible to say where would be the main battlefield in the case of the conventional war?

3. NATO was created as the alliance based on the collective defense. Was there during the Cold War any serious discussion in the alliance about the preventive strike against the Eastern countries? If yes (probably it was more about the possibility of nuclear strike) what was the trigger for such discussion?

4. NATO was also involved in the “stay-behind” operations as for example Operation Gladio to counter possible Soviet invasion. Would you say those activities were useful or mainly they were toys of intelligence agencies?

Answers:

Lawrence Kaplan, Adjunct Professor of History at Georgetown University and Director Emeritus of the Lyman L. Lemnitzer Center for NATO and European Union Studies at Kent State University

1. While the Soviets had the advantage of superior ground forces in the 1950's, they were offset by US superiority in nuclear power until the very end of the decade. In the sixties there was a stand-off as both the US and USSR recognized the dangers of mutual destructions. Note Cuban missile crisis, Soviet retreat over Berlin, and a US diverted by Vietnam in the 1960's

2. Main battlefield in 1950's and 60's expected to be Germany, although the Italian military was convinced that the Gorizia gap was as vulnerable as the Fulda gap.

3. I have never found evidence of a preventive strike plans. The McNamara strategy was to have sufficient strength to survive a Soviet ICBM first strike to strike back effectively. Presumably this would inhibit the Soviets.

4. The Gladio scandal in Italy in the 1990's set in motion the notion of a massive conspiracy by Western intelligence agencies working with neofascist groups to take over resistance after Soviet occupation. Swiss historian Daniel Gansler develops this thesis. I found too many holes in it. I like your phrase, "tools of intelligence agencies." I suspect the subject was widely discussed but not acted on. Brussels Norwegian historian Olav Riste did call its absence from the archives a "black hole".

David Isby, political and defense analyst, autor of many books and articles on military and security

1. This, of course, would never have been known. Conventional war was really not feasible until the soviet policy changes post-1967. In the 1979's and 1980's, the Soviet investments in theater forces under Brezhnev – the cause of much of their economic disaster – was aimed to give them a capability to fight and win before the nuclear threshold was reached. While, in the 1980's, the US and to lesser extent Germany and other members improved their conventional capabilities, it was only with Gorbachev that the threat began to fade.

2. The plan was that the battle would be fought near the inner German border. To the extent that the Warsaw Pact could have penetrated and fought a large-scale battle of maneuver further to the west – reminiscent of the great battles of the eastern front of 1943-45 – it would have been an advantage for the Soviets.

3. The Soviets became increasingly concerned with the preemption after the 1967 Middle East war. As a result, NATO became concerned with not taking steps that the Soviets would misinterpret as the preemptive strike. That is one reason why NATO never moved to battle positions along the inner German border.

4. If they could have worked and it there was an outside help – which the Polish civil war of 1944-49 lacked – yes it could have been effective. The Afghans were effective against the Soviets.

~ more... ~

Make NATO History!

Autonomous Mediacollective Freiburg 29 Mar 2009

Documenting Revolution - Against NATO!

On the 3rd and 4th of April - right after the G20-meeting in London - in Strasbourg, France, and Baden-Baden, Germany, a summit meeting of the NATO members is taking place for NATO's 60th anniversary. No less than the very continuance of this military alliance is at stake.

Expect broad resistance from all section of the left from labor unions through to extra-parlimentary radical leftists – as well as heavy state repression.


In Strasbourg a resistance camp is under construction, while the Convergence Center (CC) in Freiburg is already in use by activists getting ready for the summit protests. Another CC will open in Strasbourg on the 31st of March. The Infopoints have published an infosheet to support the campaign.


Some 30,000 police are expected to secure this militarist gathering, while German intelligence services are aggressively aiming to recruit activists (1 | 2 | analysis). The CC Legal Team will provide legal advice and aid to protesters from across the border.


The protests will kick-off on Monday, 30th of March, with an unregistered demonstration in Freiburg. Prior to this demonstration the cops attempted to intimidate activists by harassing the alleged organizers of the latest major leftwing demonstration in December, 2008. Their only achievement was to convince activists and the general public that they have no intention of enforcing the law.

 
The indy deux rives - an Indyprint - keeps offline protesters abreast with 4 editions in three different languages up to date.

~ Independent Media Center ~

Nude hiking gets cold shoulder in Switzerland

From the San Francisco Chronicle :

Appenzell, Switzerland -- The Swiss like their secrecy, particularly in banking. At other times, they are more open. Take hiking.

In recent years, it has become fashionable for a growing number of Swiss and some foreigners to wander in the Alps clad in little more than hiking shoes and sunscreen. Last summer, the number of nude hikers increased to such an extent that the hills often seemed alive with the sound of everything but the swish of trousers.

In September, the police in this mountainous town detained a young hiker, whose friends will identify him only as Peter, wandering with nothing on but hiking boots and a knapsack. But they had to release him, because in Switzerland there is no law against hiking in the nude.

The experience alarmed the city fathers of Appenzell, population 5,600, who worried that the town might become a mecca for the unclad. Suppose families with children were out hiking and encountered a group of nude hikers, officials asked.

"We're not in Canada, where you can hike for hours in vast forests," local government spokesman Markus Doerig said. "Here you meet other hikers every few minutes. It was bothersome."

Hiker Konrad Hepenstrick, 54, counters that he almost never meets people who are bothered.

"You greet them, and they greet you, though in winter, of course, many ask, 'Aren't you cold?' " he said in a nearby restaurant.

In winter, he said, he has hiked for hours in freezing temperatures, though he does concede the need for a hat and gloves. He has hiked in the nude for about 30 years, he said, and has crisscrossed the hills and mountains around Appenzell, as well as in France, Germany, Italy and even the Appalachians.

Why does he take off his clothes? "There's not much to discuss," he said. "It's freedom. First, freedom in your head; then, freedom of the body."

~ more... ~

Seeking justice for the murder of Fabio Di Celmo, innocent victim of terrorism

An open letter from Livio Di Celmo

Montreal, 24 march, 2009

National Lawyers Guild
National Jury Project
Center for Constitutional Rights
American Association of Lawyers
International Association of Democratic Lawyers

Honorable members of Jurists Associations, National Lawyers Guild, ladies and gentlemen,

When governments and institutions fail to defend, protect and obtain justice on behalf of their citizens who are victims of terrorist actions, we, the family members of these innocent victims are driven to take extraordinary steps to seek justice for the loss of our loved ones.

This letter is addressed to you because your associations are comprised of the leading experts on the United States justice system and international law. Among you there are individuals with a proven record of integrity, having been involved in seeking justice in various parts of the world on behalf of those who have been victims of terrorism, genocide, torture, exploitation and other atrocities.

I have recently become aware of the Alien Tort Claims Act which permits civil lawsuits against persons or organizations in the US which sponsor or support terrorism, even when the victim is a foreigner on foreign soil and I believe it is applicable to my brother's case.

March 20, 2009 is the 4th anniversary of Louis Posada Carriles' arrival to US territory. Most of you know the background of this fanatic and his participation in acts of terrorism over the past 5 decades, including the bombing of a Cubana Airliner in mid air in 1976 killing 73 civilians.

In 1997 a series of hotel bombings occurred in Havana and Fabio Di Celmo, my brother, an Italian/Canadian tourist was killed. The bomb was planted on Sep 4, 1997 in the hotel lobby by a mercenary hired by Posada Carriles. The stated goal of the campaign was to disrupt the flow of tourism to Cuba. Logistics and financing for the operation originated in the US.

Plenty of evidence is available. All the pertinent details of those crimes can be found in sources such as the 1999 UN Human Rights Commission report by Special Rapporteur Enrique Bernales Ballesteros and Peter Kornbluh's National Security Archives library of declassified files. It is clear that various actors are ultimately responsible for my brother's death. These include government agencies, as well as Cuban American politicians and organizations that have been directly and indirectly linked to terrorist activities against Cuba.

I have sent an open letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder explaining the facts and pleading for his assistance in helping my family obtain justice by declaring Posada Carriles a terrorist and extraditing him to Venezuela, pursuant to that countries extradition request, to stand trial for the 1976 Cubana Airliner bombing. I am still waiting for a reply.

In addition, Grand Jury investigation in New Jersey, in relation to the financing of the 1997 bombings in Cuba, has been dragging on for several years now. Although there is plenty of evidence available, no charges have been laid. Louis Posada Carriles, his terrorist associates, and the individuals and organizations that make part of his inner circle continue to be allowed to live freely in the US.

With this letter, I am hoping that I'll get your support in my quest for justice.

It is quite a challenge, but if legal action against those responsible is successful, hopefully with your help. justice will be achieved not only for Fabio Di Celmo, but also for the many past victims of terrorism against Cuba.

Most importantly, innocent lives may be saved. In Cuba as in the US, from this kind of violence in the future.

Sincerely,

Livio Di Celmo,

Brother of Fabio di Celmo (1965-1997) victim of a terrorist bombing spree of Cuban tourism installations.


~ National Committee to Free the Cuban Five ~

Musical Innerlube: The Damned - 'Smash It Up'




from 1979

Damned by debt relief




Shot in Ghana, Damned by Debt Relief challenges the Live8-G8 debt relief jamboree. Eloquent and angry Ghanaians cut through the spin and explain; debt relief provided no new money and draconian conditions applied. Damned by donor diktat, Ghanaians are not impressed by the West's supposed largesse.

Vioxx maker Merck and Co drew up a doctor 'hit list'

Milanda Rout reports in The Australian :

An international drug company made a hit list of doctors who had to be "neutralised" or discredited because they criticised the anti-arthritis drug the pharmaceutical giant produced.

Staff at US company Merck & Co emailed each other about the list of doctors - mainly researchers and academics - who had been negative about the drug Vioxx or Merck and a recommended course of action.

The email, which came out in the Federal Court in Melbourne yesterday as part of a class action against the drug company, included the words "neutralise", "neutralised" or "discredit" against some of the doctors' names, The Australian reported.

It is also alleged the company used intimidation tactics against critical researchers, including dropping hints it would stop funding to institutions and claims it interfered with academic appointments.

"We may need to seek them out and destroy them where they live," a Merck employee wrote, according to an email excerpt read to the court by Julian Burnside QC, acting for the plaintiff.

Merck & Co and its Australian subsidiary, Merck, Sharpe and Dohme, are being sued for compensation by more than 1000 Australians, who claim they suffered heart attacks or strokes as a result of Vioxx.

~ more... ~

Geithner’s ‘dirty little secret’: The entire global financial system is at risk

When the Solution to the Financial Crisis becomes the Cause

by F. William Engdahl

Global Research, March 30, 2009


US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has unveiled his long-awaited plan to put the US banking system back in order. In doing so, he has refused to tell the 'dirty little secret' of the present financial crisis. By refusing to do so, he is trying to save de facto bankrupt US banks that threaten to bring the entire global system down in a new more devastating phase of wealth destruction.

 

The Geithner Plan, his so-called Public-Private Partnership Investment Program or PPPIP, as we have noted previously is designed not to restore a healthy lending system which would funnel credit to business and consumers.  Rather it is yet another intricate scheme to pour even more hundreds of billions directly to the leading banks and Wall Street firms responsible for the current mess in world credit markets without demanding they change their business model. Yet, one might say, won't this eventually help the problem by getting the banks back to health?

 

Not the way the Obama Administration is proceeding. In defending his plan on US TV recently, Geithner, a protégé of Henry Kissinger who previously was CEO of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, argued that his intent was 'not to sustain weak banks at the expense of strong.' Yet this is precisely what the PPPIP does. The weak banks are the five largest banks in the system.

 

The 'dirty little secret' which Geithner is going to great degrees to obscure from the public is very simple. There are only at most perhaps five US banks which are the source of the toxic poison that is causing such dislocation in the world financial system. What Geithner is desperately trying to protect is that reality. The heart of the present problem and the reason ordinary loan losses as in prior bank crises are not the problem, is a variety of exotic financial derivatives, most especially so-called Credit Default Swaps.

 

In 2000 the Clinton Administration then-Treasury Secretary was a man named Larry Summers. Summers had just been promoted from No. 2 under Wall Street Goldman Sachs banker Robert Rubin to be No. 1 when Rubin left Washington to take up the post of Vice Chairman of Citigroup. As I describe in detail in my new book, Power of Money: The Rise and Fall of the American Century, to be released this summer, Summers convinced President Bill Clinton to sign several Republican bills into law which opened the floodgates for banks to abuse their powers. The fact that the Wall Street big banks spent some $5 billion in lobbying for these changes after 1998 was likely not lost on Clinton.  

 

One significant law was the repeal of the 1933 Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act that prohibited mergers of commercial banks, insurance companies and brokerage firms like Merrill Lynch or Goldman Sachs. A second law backed by Treasury Secretary Summers in 2000 was an obscure but deadly important Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. That law prevented the responsible US Government regulatory agency, Commodity Futures Trading Corporation (CFTC), from having any oversight over the trading of financial derivatives. The new CFMA law stipulated that so-called Over-the-Counter (OTC) derivatives like Credit Default Swaps, such as those involved in the AIG insurance disaster, (which investor Warren Buffett once called 'weapons of mass financial destruction'), be free from Government regulation.    

 

At the time Summers was busy opening the floodgates of financial abuse for the Wall Street Money Trust, his assistant was none other than Tim Geithner, the man who today is US Treasury Secretary. Today, Geithner's old boss, Larry Summers, is President Obama's chief economic adviser, as head of the White House Economic Council. To have Geithner and Summers responsible for cleaning up the financial mess is tantamount to putting the proverbial fox in to guard the henhouse.

 

The 'Dirty Little Secret'

 

What Geithner does not want the public to understand, his 'dirty little secret' is that the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000 allowed the creation of a tiny handful of banks that would virtually monopolize key parts of the global 'off-balance sheet' or Over-The-Counter derivatives issuance.

 

Today five US banks according to data in the just-released Federal Office of Comptroller of the Currency's Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activity, hold 96% of all US bank derivatives positions in terms of nominal values, and an eye-popping 81% of the total net credit risk exposure in event of default.

 

The five are, in declining order of importance: JPMorgan Chase which holds a staggering $88 trillion in derivatives (€66 trillion!). Morgan Chase is followed by Bank of America with $38 trillion in derivatives, and Citibank with $32 trillion. Number four in the derivatives sweepstakes is Goldman Sachs with a 'mere' $30 trillion in derivatives. Number five, the merged Wells Fargo-Wachovia Bank, drops dramatically in size to $5 trillion. Number six, Britain's HSBC Bank USA has $3.7 trillion.

 

After that the size of US bank exposure to these explosive off-balance-sheet unregulated derivative obligations falls off dramatically. Just to underscore the magnitude, trillion is written 1,000,000,000,000. Continuing to pour taxpayer money into these five banks without changing their operating system, is tantamount to treating an alcoholic with unlimited free booze.

 

The Government bailouts of AIG to over $180 billion to date has primarily gone to pay off AIG's Credit Default Swap obligations to counterparty gamblers Goldman Sachs, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, the banks who believe they are 'too big to fail.' In effect, these five institutions today believe they are so large that they can dictate the policy of the Federal Government. Some have called it a bankers' coup d'etat. It definitely is not healthy.

 

This is Geithner's and Wall Street's Dirty Little Secret that they desperately try to hide because it would focus voter attention on real solutions. The Federal Government has long had laws in place to deal with insolvent banks. The FDIC places the bank into receivership, its assets and liabilities are sorted out by independent audit. The irresponsible management is purged, stockholders lose and the purged bank is eventually split into smaller units and when healthy, sold to the public. The power of the five mega banks to blackmail the entire nation would thereby be cut down to size. Ooohh. Uh Huh?

 

This is what Wall Street and Geithner are frantically trying to prevent. The problem is concentrated in these five large banks. The financial cancer must be isolated and contained by Federal agency in order for the host, the real economy, to return to healthy function.


This is what must be put into bankruptcy receivership, or nationalization. Every hour the Obama Administration delays that, and refuses to demand full independent government audit of the true solvency or insolvency of these five or so banks, inevitably costs to the US and to the world economy will snowball as derivatives losses explode. That is pre-programmed as worsening economic recession mean corporate bankruptcies are rising, home mortgage defaults are exploding, unemployment is shooting up. This is a situation that is deliberately being allowed to run out of (responsible Government) control by Treasury Secretary Geithner, Summers and ultimately the President, whether or not he has taken the time to grasp what is at stake.

 

Once the five problem banks have been put into isolation by the FDIC and the Treasury, the Administration must introduce legislation to immediately repeal the Larry Summers bank deregulation including restore Glass-Steagall and repeal the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 that allowed the present criminal abuse of the banking trust. Then serious financial reform can begin to be discussed, starting with steps to 'federalize' the Federal Reserve and take the power of money out of the hands of private bankers such as JP Morgan Chase, Citibank or Goldman Sachs.      

 

 

F. William Engdahl is author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order; and Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation (www.globalresearch.ca).  His newest book, Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order (Third Millennium Press) is due out at end of April.  He may be reached through his website, www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net.

 


F. William Engdahl is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

~ Centre for Research on Globalization ~

KYMATICA




The sequel to ESOTERIC AGENDA

Ranulph Fiennes - best april fool ever




Sir Ranulph Fiennes talking about being in Antarctica and playing an April Fool on fellow explorers. It all took place at the Savoy hotel and was the longest distance April Fool joke to be played as Sir Ranulph organised it from Antarctica.


Google
 

image from http://www.spitting-image.net

Favorite Links

~325~ ~9-11...Who Really Did It~ ~10:10~ ~10 Zen Monkeys~ ~911 Truth~ ~13 Indigenous Grandmothers~ ~15O~ ~15th October~ ~Activist Post~ ~ACT UP~ ~Adbusters~ ~Aerogaz (greek)~ ~Afinity Project~ ~Aging Hipsters~ ~Alecto's Ophelia~ ~Al-Jazeera~ ~Alex Constantine's Blacklist~ ~Alliance for Human Research Protection~ ~All Things Cynthia McKinney~ ~All Things Pakistan~ ~Alternative Insight~ ~Alternative Press Review~ ~Alternet~ ~American Friends Service Committee~ ~American Street~ ~Anarkismo~ ~Andy Worthington~ ~Anglican Pacifist Fellowship~ ~Anomaly News Syndicate~ ~Another Day In The Empire~ ~AntiWar~ ~Antiwar League~ ~Anxiety Culture~ ~Appeal For Redress From The War In Iraq~ ~A Poetic Justice~ ~Artists Without Frontiers~ ~Art of Europe~ ~Arts And Letters Daily~ ~Attack the System~ ~Athens IMC~ ~Ballardian~ ~Bilderberg.org~ ~Black Box Voting~ ~BlackListed News~ ~Black Vault~ ~Blog Bioethics net~ ~Blog of the Unknown Writer~ ~Blondsense~ ~Boiling Frog~ ~Boiling Frogs Post~ ~BoingBoing~ ~Book Ninja~ ~Bookslut~ ~Bradley Manning Support Network~ ~Brand New Law~ ~Brainsturbator~ ~Bring Them Home Now~ ~Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing~ ~Buckminster Fuller Institute~ ~Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists~ ~Bureau of Public Secrets~ ~Business & Human Rights Resource Centre~ ~Buzzflash~ ~Campaign For Real Farming~ ~Catapult the Propaganda~ ~Campus Antiwar Network~ ~Cargo Culte~ ~Castan Centre for Human Rights Law~ ~Catch of the Day~ ~Censorship Paradise~ ~Center for Media and Democracy~ ~Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies, Afghanistan~ ~Centre for Research and Action for Peace~ ~Center on Law and Security~ ~Chapati Mystery~ ~Choike~ ~Chomsky.info~ ~Chronicle of Higher Education~ ~Church of the FSM~ ~CIA & Drugs~ ~Citizens for Legitimate Government~ ~Citizens for Tax Justice~ ~Clandestina~ ~CODEPINK~ ~Coilhouse mag~ ~Collateral Murder~ ~Common Dreams~ ~Complete 9/11 Timeline~ ~Concerned Africa Scholars~ ~Connexions~ ~Conspiracy Archive~ ~Contra Info~ ~Corrente~ ~COTO Report~ ~Coup d'Etat in America~ ~Countercurrents~ ~Crapaganda~ ~Create Real Democracy~ ~Creative-i~ ~Crimes of the State~ ~CrimethInc~ ~Crisis Group~ ~Critical Legal Thinking~ ~Cronache da Mileto (Italian)~ ~Crooks and Liars~ ~Crowd Modelling~ ~Cryptoforestry~ ~Cryptome~ ~Cyclos~ ~Culture Change~ ~Cutting Through The Matrix~ ~Cyrano's Journal~ ~Daily What~ ~Damn Interesting~ ~Dangerous Minds~ ~Deliberative Democracy Consortium~ ~Democracy Center~ ~Democracy Journal~ ~Democracy Now~ ~Democratic Underground~ ~Detournement~ ~Digital Rights [greek lang.]~ ~Diplomacy Lessons~ ~Direct Power!~ ~Discoveries-Researchings-Visions-Understandings-Enlightenments~ ~Disinformation~ ~DistributorCap NY~ ~Dr Hugo Heyrman-Motions of the Mind~ ~Dylanology~ ~EAGAINST~ ~Earthnocentric~ ~Eco Tort~ ~Ectoplasmosis!~ ~Educate Yourself~ ~E-Flux~ ~Electronic Frontier Foundation~ ~Electronic Intifada~ ~Eliminate War Forever~ ~End Evil~ ~Energy Bulletin~ ~Eradicating Ecocide~ ~EROCx1 Blog~
~Europeanrevolution~ ~European Revolution~ ~Eurozine~ ~Exposing the Truth~ ~Extinction Protocol: 2012 and beyond~ ~Families of the Fallen for Change~ ~Fellowship of Reconciliation~ ~Financial Armageddon~ ~FKN Newz~ ~Food For Your Eyes~ ~Forward the Revolution~ ~Franchot's Band~ ~Free Bloggers in Greece~ ~Free Expression Network~ ~Free Press International~ ~Freethinking for Dummies~ ~Free Thought Manifesto~ ~From the Wilderness~ ~F-t-W's Peak Oil Blog~ ~G1000~ ~Ghostdancing in Venice~ ~GIMP~ ~Gilles Duley~ ~Global Guerillas~ ~Global Integrity~ ~Global Policy Forum~ ~Global Revolution~ ~Global Security Institute~ ~Global Voices Online~ ~Gold Star Families for Peace~ ~Government Dirt~ ~Greek Alert [greek lang.]~ ~Greek Assembly in London~ ~Green Left Weekly~ ~Groklaw~ ~Hack Democracy~ ~Hakim Bey and Ontological Anarchy~ ~Hiroshima Peace Institute~ ~History Is A Weapon Blog~ ~How Appealing~ ~How To Vanish~ ~Human Rights Law Review~ ~I Can't Believe It's Not a Democracy!~ ~Idler~ ~Impropaganda~ ~Independent Media Center~ ~INIREF~ ~Institute for Media Peace and Security~ ~International Action Center~ ~International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism)~ ~In These Times~ ~Information Clearing House~ ~Information Liberation~ ~Infoshop~ ~Institute for Policy Studies~ ~Institute for War and Peace Reporting~ ~Insurgent American~ ~Intel Hub~ ~International Labor Rights Forum~ ~Intrinsic Impact~ ~Invisible History~ ~Iraq Citizens Against the War~ ~Iraq Freedom Congress~ ~Iraq Veterans Against the War~ ~Irish Peace Institute~ ~Issues and Alibis~ ~James Howard Kunstler~ ~Jesus Radicals~ ~John Zerzan~ ~Jorgen Schäfer's Homepage~ ~JUST~ ~Just For The Love Of It~ ~Justice Not Vengeance~ ~Kasama Project~ ~Keep Talking Greece~ ~Kia Mistilis~ ~Kill Me If You Can by Bob Miller~ ~Killer Coke~ ~Labor Rights~ ~Labor Rights Now~ ~Labour Start~ ~Lava Cocktail~ ~Lemon Gloria~ ~Lemony Snicket~ ~L'ennui mélodieux~ ~Lessig~ ~Liberation Theology~ ~Libertarians for Peace~ ~Life After the Oil Crash~ ~Life & Peace Institute~ ~Lunch Street Party~ ~Lycaeum~ ~Links by George~ ~Literary Kicks~ ~Lubinproductions~ ~MacNN~ ~Mad Cow Morning News~ ~Manageable Ants~ ~Mario Profaca's Cyberspace Station~ ~Maro Kouri~ ~Maud Newton~ ~May it Please the Court~ ~McSpotlight~ ~Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture~ ~Metta Center for Nonviolence~ ~Metanoia~ ~Michael Moore - Must Read~ ~Mind Control~ ~Military Families Speak Out~ ~Mind in Peace (greek)~ ~Miss Welby~ ~MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence~ ~Molly's Blog~ ~Mother Jones~ ~MungBeing Magazine~ ~MyAntiwar.org~ ~n +1 mag~ ~National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee~ ~Natural Farming~ ~Neatorama~ ~Neuromarketing~ ~Neurosecurity~ ~New Internationalist~ ~News Dissector~ ~News Frames~ ~News Making News~ ~News Now~ ~New Tactics in Human Rights~ ~New World Dawning~ ~NEXUS~ ~NFAK~ ~Nomadic Academy Of Fools~ ~Non Fides~ ~Noor Images~ ~Not In Our Name~ ~Not Stupid~ ~Nuclear Resister~ ~NUTOPIA2~ ~[Occupy] 2012 Scenario~ ~Occupy America Social Network~ ~OCCUPY Cafe~ ~Occupy Istanbul~ ~Occupy Together~ ~Occupy Together Field Manual~ ~OWS~ ~Occupy Writers~ ~October 2011~ ~Odious Debts~ ~ODYS~ ~Olmaz~ ~On the Path to 2012~ ~Op Ed News~ ~Open Letters to George W. Bush from his ardent admirer,Belacqua Jones~ ~Open Revolt!~ ~Open Source Ecology~ ~Orthodox Peace Fellowship~ ~Orwell Today~ ~Outlaw Journalism~ ~OWNI~ ~Patriots Question 9/11~ ~Peace in Mind (greek)~ ~PeaceJam~ ~Peace Now~ ~Peaceful Tomorrows~ ~Peak Moment~ ~People's Assemblies Network~ ~Peter Frase~ ~Photography is Not a Crime~ ~Picture the Homeless~ ~Pieman~ ~Places the U.S. has bombed~ ~Pogo Was Right - privacy news~ ~Political Reform.ie~ ~Post Carbon Institute~ ~Praxis Peace Institute~ ~Primate Poetics~ ~Prisoner Solidarity~ ~Professors question 9/11~ ~Project Camelot~ ~Project Censored~ ~Project for the Old American Century~ ~Project on Corporations, Law and Democracy~ ~Psyche, Science and Society~ ~Psychogeography~ ~Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility~ ~Radical Anthropology~ ~Rainbow Family~ ~RawStory~ ~Reality Sandwich~ ~Real Democacy GR~ ~Real Democracy Now.net~ ~Rebel Dog~ ~Reflections on a Revolution~ ~Reporters Without Borders~ ~Re-public~ ~Resistance Studies Magazine~ ~Resource Based Economy Foundation~ ~Re-volt Radio~ ~Richard Heinberg's Museletter~ ~Rockefeller's War on Drugs~ ~Ruckus Society~ ~Sacred Texts~ ~Salon~ ~Save Orphan Works~ ~Scholars and Rogues~ ~Scoop~ ~SCOTUS Blog~ ~Secrecy News~ ~Service Academy Graduates Against the War~ ~Shadow Government Statistics~ ~Signs of the Times News~ ~Slovenia Peace Institute~ ~Smirking Chimp~ ~smygo~ ~SNU Project~ ~Soil And Health Library~ ~SourceWatch~ ~Speaking Truth to Power~ ~Spirit Horse Foundation~ ~Spunk~ ~Squattastic~ ~Starhawk~ ~Stockholm International Peace Research Institute~ ~StopCartel TV-GR~ ~Stop The Arms Fair~ ~Stop the Spying.org~ ~Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness~ ~Students Against War~ ~Survival Acres~ ~Survival International~ ~Swan's Commentary~ ~Take The Square~ ~Tangible Information~ ~Tax Justice Network~ ~Tax Research UK~ ~Theatre of the Oppressed~ ~The Black Commentator~ ~The Black Vault~ ~The Borowitz Report~ ~The Carpetbagger Report~ ~The Center for Public Integrity~ ~The Daily Reckoning~ ~The Dark Age Blog~ ~The Digger Archives~ ~The End of Being~ ~The Guardian~ ~The Hidden Evil~ ~The Huffington Post~ ~The Intelligence Daily~ ~The Lazy Man's Guide To Enlightenment~ ~The Mountain Sentinel~ ~The Nation~ ~The National Security Archive~ ~The New Z-Land Project~ ~The Other Israel~ ~The Pathology Guy~ ~The Progress Report~ ~The Progressive Magazine~ ~The Real News~ ~The Situation Room~ ~The Truth Seeker~ ~ The Watcher Files~ ~Think Progress~ ~Third World Traveller~ ~This Land Is Ours~ ~This Modern World~ ~TomDispatch~ ~Total Collapse~ ~Total Dick-Head~ ~Transform!~ ~Transnational Institute~ ~Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research~ ~True Democracy~ ~Troops Out Now~ ~True Democracy Party~ ~Truthdig~ ~Truth News~ ~Truthout~ ~TW3 and fotografia la dolce vita~ ~Uncommon Thought~ ~United for Peace & Justice~ ~United States Institute of Peace~ ~Unknown News~ ~UNPA Campaign~ ~Urbanibalism~ ~US Labor Against the War~ ~VBS TV~ ~Veterans Against the Iraq War~ ~Veterans for Peace and Justice~ ~Video Rebel's Blog~ ~Vietnam Veterans Against the War~ ~Virusmyth - Rethinking AIDS~ ~visionOntv~ ~Voices for Creative Non-Violence~ ~Void Network~ ~Voice Memo~ ~Voters for Peace~ ~Waging Nonviolence~ ~Waking the Midnight Sun~ ~Want To Know~ ~War Costs~ ~War Crimes and Military Improprieties~ ~War Criminals Watch~ ~War on Society~ ~War is Illegal~ ~War Resisters International~ ~War Resisters League~ ~Was Jack Kerouac a Punjabi?~ ~Watergate Exposed~ ~West Point Graduates Against The War~ ~What Really Happened~ ~What’s On My Food?~ ~Why Work? Creating Livable Alternatives to Wage Slavery~ ~Wikileaks~ ~WikiLeaks Central~ ~Wild Wild Left~ ~willyloman~ ~Winning Cancer~ ~Win Without War~ ~Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)~ ~Wonkette~ ~World Prout Assembly~ ~Worldwide Hippies~ ~Yes Lab~ ~Yippie Museum~ ~Young Protester~ ~Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR)~ ~Zapatistas~ ~Zine Library~ ~Zippy Elder-at-Large~ ~ZMag~
~ Thank you for visiting Circle of 13 ~

FAIR USE NOTICE

This blog may contain videos with copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.