Friday, April 3, 2009

US munitions delivered to Israel

2 April 2009

A massive consignment of US munitions was delivered to Israel in recent weeks, according to information revealed by Amnesty International. The organization received information that the Wehr Elbe, a German cargo ship, chartered and controlled by US Military Sealift Command, docked and unloaded its cargo of reportedly over 300 containers at the Israeli port of Ashdod, just 40km north of Gaza by road on 22 March.

The German ship left the USA for Israel on 20 December, one week before the start of Israeli attacks on Gaza. It was carrying 989 containers of munitions, each of them 20 feet long with a total estimated net weight of 14,000 tons.

Asked about the Wehr Elbe, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to Amnesty International that "the unloading of the entire US munitions shipment was successfully completed at Ashdod [Israel] on 22 March”. The spokesperson said that the shipment was destined for a US pre-positioned ammunition stockpile in Israel. Under a US-Israel agreement, munitions from this stockpile may be transferred for Israeli use if necessary.

Some of the white phosphorus artillery shells that Israeli forces fired into densely populated residential areas in Gaza last January, killing and injuring scores of Palestinian civilians, were from US-made stockpiles – as clearly indicated by the marking (M825 A1). Other white phosphorus artillery shells were also US-made, as were the overwhelming majority of the other munitions used by Israeli forces to commit grave violations of international law in the recent three-week conflict in Gaza.

Another US official told Amnesty International that the US authorities are reviewing Israel's use of US weapons during the Gaza conflict to see if Israel complied with US law, but no conclusion has yet been reached.

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Photos of UNRWA School in Beit Lahia, Gaza, Palestine

Attacked by US-Made Israeli White Phosphorus Bombs,

a Documentary of Israeli War Crimes

ccun.org, February 13, 2009

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Musical Innerlube: Alien Ant Farm - 'Smooth criminal'

Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal
Ανέβηκε από hushhush112

How to stop worrying (about the bank) and start bartering

From How Bartering Works

Trading goods and services without the use of money is called bartering. Early civilizations relied on this kind of exchange. Even cultures in modern society rely on it. Think of people in prison who commonly trade cigarettes for protection or extra food. For the most part, they don't have cash. So, like people in pre-currency economies, they work with what they have.

But, since the advent of money-based systems, bartering is an option that most of us dismiss as soon as we get that first paycheck or allowance. Not so for a guy named Kyle MacDonald. He drew a media frenzy when, in a matter of one year and 14 trades, he bartered his way from a paper clip to a house [source: NPR]. Although he had a lot of help from his local government and some people in show business, his story offers dramatic evidence of today's existing market for bartering. MacDonald is one of many people who have taken advantage of the growing phenomenon of bartering over the Internet. This ancient practice is also alive and well in services that facilitate bartering and companies that swap favors.

In the next few pages, we'll take a look at the process of bartering, including whether it can work as a practical protection against inflation, and whether you can use it to avoid taxes.

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Bartering Lines

music by Ryan Adams

From Millionaire's Crisis Plan: Return to Bartering

After spending four years in a wooden hut in a forest outside Moscow, Sterligov has leased out almost an entire floor atop a skyscraper in the Moskva-City business district to launch a global barter system.

Sterligov, who doesn't watch television and rarely uses the Internet because of his Orthodox religious principles, plans to start facilitating the barter of debt and goods with his company, the Anti-Crisis Settlement and Accounting Center, by early March.

While the global economic crisis didn't sweep into Russia until September, Sterligov said he sensed that trouble was looming in August and got to work.

"I decided that barter trade would be the right choice for the world in times of liquidity problems and payment delays," he said in a recent interview.

So from August to November, computer programmers hired by Sterligov created an interactive database allowing the barter of debt and goods worldwide.

Sterligov illustrated a possible barter deal with a real-life example: Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works' estimated debt of 1 billion rubles ($30.4 million) to Mechel for coal supplies.

"Mechel could put information about MMK's nonpayment in our system and then add which products it needs itself," Sterligov said.

MMK, in turn, would put 1 billion rubles of steel into the system, he said. At some point, a company would surface that wanted steel and had a product needed by Mechel, and the deal would be completed.

"For this to work, you have to have thousands of bids in the system," Sterligov said, adding that debt would probably become the most popular item for barter.

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From Bayer barters to grease wheels of trade in Brazil

SAO PAULO, April 2 (Reuters) - Germany's Bayer AG (BAYG.DE) is accepting coffee, sugar and grains as payment for its agrochemicals and inputs as a way to stave off a slowdown in sales as farmers struggle to obtain bank loans to raise cash.

"It's a good way (of doing business), especially in these times of volatility and uncertainty," said Marc Reichardt, head of Bayer CropScience in Latin America.

Bartering is already a common practice for farmers during the planting season, easing the burden of the many investments they have to make at that time, but it is usually done only with trading houses dealing in the product the farmer grows.

Trading houses which use this system provide farmers with inputs like fertilizer, and farmers repay with physical product later in the season.

Brazilian farmers, particularly those who have some existing debts, have reported problems in accessing credit for planting.

Bayer will offer bartering to soy, corn, cotton and coffee farmers. It will then export the product it receives through a trading house, Reichardt said during a press conference about the company's 2008 earnings.

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From The Great Unraveling: Global Economy Begins to Fracture as Leading Powers Pursue National Agendas

Venezuela is promoting the “Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas” (in opposition to the neoliberal Free Trade Area of the Americas) as a regional economic pact based on “cooperation and solidarity,” and which encompasses related agreements on energy, finance and media. It’s mostly been limited to technical cooperation, subsidized oil supplies and barter agreements, particularly in healthcare, which have proven effective and popular, but are a long way from creating a regional economy.

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Washington may look to Latin America as an outlet for capital expansion, such as with the Plan Puebla Panama, which has been in the works for a decade. Public funds and money from international institutions would be used to create an export-oriented industrial zone from southern Mexico through all of Central America.

These types of projects provide a “spatial fix” for capitalism by reorganizing new spaces that serve as sites where surplus capital (and labor) can be deployed as a way to alleviate crises of overproduction.

More ominously, Washington may seek to renew its imperial project in Latin America. Greg Grandin writes in Empire’s Workshop that the United States used Latin America historically as a “staging ground” for the “early push towards empire,” then as a school to study how to “execute imperial violence through proxies,” and most recently as a site for a resurgent “nationalist militarism” that began with the Central America wars of the Reagan presidency and culminated in the post-Sept. 11 wars.

Thus, given a declining economy and the need for domestic capital to find new markets, the United States may be tempted to use the Pentagon to launch adventurist wars in Latin America as a solution to its economic woes.

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From Short on cash? Bartering making a comeback

Bartering -- the trading of goods or services without using cash -- is making a comeback in a troubled economy. It can be as simple as trading baby-sitting with another family, or as complex as an exchange with strangers facilitated by one of the several Web sites that have sprung up to connect barterers.

Bartering ads on Craigslist have increased about 100 percent since last year, said Susan MacTavish Best, a spokeswoman for the online classified advertising service. Traffic is also up at local organizations like the Midwest Barter Exchange, a Kalamazoo, Mich.-based outfit that acts as a go-between for about 1,000 business clients.

"Before, we were out beating the bushes trying to get people to join, and now they're calling us," said Lance Dorsey, a customer service representative for the exchange.

Boise beautician Heather Wood has traded haircuts and pedicures for years of day care, kids' clothes, a paint job for her car, an oil change, a set of professional portraits for her family and dental cleaning.

"It's fun, and it builds a whole different kind of a relationship," said Wood, who has five children. "They're getting what they want and I'm getting what I want. I would much rather do that than make cash most of the time."

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Smoke Signals - Barter

scene in which Thomas tells a story in exchange for a ride

From North Idaho man may be King of Bartering

Imagine getting anything and everything you want without spending a a single penny. One North Idaho man does just that, Michael Moore has mastered the lost art of the barter.

We did a few stories about bartering a couple of weeks ago...Its becoming a lot more popular in this economy...And we talked to a few people who dabbled in it...They've made a few trades...

But each of them sent us to one coeur d'alene man who has bartered hundreds maybe thousands of times...

Moore, a Coeur d'Alene man has traded for just about anything you can imagine.

"Basically I'm able to obtain anything I want through bartering," he said.

Literally anything from goats, to trees, to cars.

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From Barter deal: Work on apartment, get free funeral

A New York City funeral director is offering a deal to die for.

Peter Dohanich put an ad on Craigslist seeking a reliable contractor to fix up his apartment in exchange for a full service funeral.

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From Tax tip

Reporting: The rules for reporting barter transactions may vary depending on which form of bartering takes place. Generally, you report this type of business income on Form 1040, Schedule C Profit or Loss from Business, or other business returns such as Form 1065 for Partnerships, Form 1120 for Corporations, or Form 1120-S for Small Business Corporations.

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The New Age Of Bartering

An ancient practice has just received a reboot, as many small business owners have turned to bartering with others in the face of a continuing economic crisis. Jeff Glor reports.

From Barter system gaining buzz in Woodstock

Helene Aptekar got clothing rods installed in her closets. Harriet Kazansky got her house painted. Kristine Flones got someone to look after her cats when she went to India, and Gerry Michael got an heirloom sweater mended.

And it didn't cost them a dime. Instead of paying in money, they paid in time.

They're all part of the Woodstock TimeBank, one of a number of such groups that are springing up nationwide.

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From Recession means business for bartering

A local restaurant paid for $50,000 in renovation construction with gift cards. A Kitsilano winemaking business had its floors cleaned and paid with batches of wine.

A North Vancouver dry-cleaning company barters nearly $50,000 in services per year to get staff incentives such as gift certificates and even dining room sets for employees. Small and medium-sized businesses are cashing in at Vancouver's barter exchanges, and business is booming in the barter industry.

Trade Exchange Canada, a bartering consultant firm that pairs businesses wanting to exchange services and charges a monthly fee to join, has doubled membership in the past six months.

"In 14 years [in the industry] I don't know if I've ever been this busy," said Scott Berg, a managing partner at Trade Exchange. "We've become very relevant." Businesses want to reduce spending during the recession, and trading services is one way to do that.

For many companies, such as restaurants bartering with gift certificates, the cost is much less than the cash worth of the trade, according to Berg.

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Barter is Good for Business!

Check out how companies can benefit from barter. IMS CEO Don Mardak Interviewed by Neil Cavuto.

From Barter Helps Businesses Survive Recession

Many businesses are struggling to survive in this economy. One thing that is helping them make it through is an old idea made new again, bartering.

The old bartering was simple. You traded goods or services for something of comparable value. But, modern bartering uses the internet to connect hundreds of businesses.

Sunset Acres is a charming countryside bed and breakfast. But, the stormy economy has hit home.

"It's really hurt us. It really has," said Brenda Ohrem. "I hate to say it. But, I'm glad everyone is in the same boat as me because I was taking it personally thinking what am I doing wrong?"

Empty bedrooms means Brenda Ohrem is relying more and more on the American Exchange Network.

She collects trade credits when people stay with her and spends it at the business network.

"It's definitely helping us make it through these hard times," Ohrem said.

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From Realtors seek to barter houses against bills, find no takers

NEW DELHI: Caught between a credit squeeze and demand crunch, realty players want to barter houses to settle pending supplier bills, but contractors say they can’t forego hard cash and settle for flats in a falling property market.

At least three major realty brands operating in the national capital region have offered apartments in their ongoing projects to contractors and suppliers of building material, industry insiders told ET. “There are several real estate companies
that are falling behind on payments and asking contractors to settle for apartments instead,” says PR Swarup, director general of Construction Industry Development Council. Swarup refuses to name any company, but ET has learnt the firms taking this route include even listed players.

A Delhi-based realty firm, a prominent name in the sector, is developing a major residential project in the city and has offered apartments to its contractors. “We have made an offer but the contractor is asking for a discount. If we reduce apartment prices, we will also expect the contractor to bring down the bill value for the work he has done on our project,” says a company executive corroborating this.

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Reports: Bilderberg to meet in Athens

Greek media outlets state that elite luminaries will convene on luxury resort in mid May

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Reports circling in the Greek media have suggested that the location of this year's secretive Bilderberg meeting will be Athens, Greece.
GR Reporter, a Greek based website that gathers information from different print and electronic media in Greece, reports that the Elef[ther]os Tipos newspaper recently announced the location and date of the meeting as Athens between 14th and 16th of May.

A second report in another Greek newspaper, Tovima, has also suggested that the confab will be held in Athens in the same area that hosted the 1993 conference.

According to the reports, invited guests include the Queen of Netherlands Beatrix, the Spanish Queen Sophia, Lawrence Summers, head of the National Economic Council and James Jones, head of the US National Security Council.

Meanwhile, researchers have also picked up on an article by Andrew Rettman in the EU Observer alleging that the meeting would take place in Europe sometime in June. Rettman has not responded to emails requesting additional information.

If the meeting does take place in Athens, it is likely that the group will use the Nafsika Astir Palace (pictured), the resort that was previously used by the heads of global business, banking and politics.

Situated in Vouliagmeni, a few miles south of Athens, the hotel is built along a cliff side and features a private beach at sea level, with a business center and a large conference room.

It must be stressed however, that such reports may be mere conjecture, or even a disinformation campaign by Bilderberg itself, in an attempt to throw researchers and journalists off their scent.

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PTSD treatment for Tibetan monks

Dr. Michael Grodin discusses his experiences treating Tibetan monks who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. Many of the monks were imprisoned or tortured because of their resistance to the Chinese presence in Tibet, and now some of them experience "flashbacks" while meditating.

Grodin hypothesizes that meditation may reduce the brain's ability to inhibit unpleasant thoughts and memories. His treatment combines elements of Western and Tibetan medicine and therapy. Grodin wrote about his findings in the March issue of Mental Health, Religion, and Culture.

A professor of health law, bioethics and human rights at Boston University School of Public Health, Grodin is the medical ethicist at Boston Medical Center and the co-director of the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights.

~ Listen to NPR broadcast here ~

G20 Low Key - 'Obama Be A Man!' - Stop the War Demonstration 1 April 2009

Riot police attack peaceful protesters at G20 Climate Camp

Riot police use shields and batons in unprovoked attack on peaceful protesters. It took place at the Climate Camp on Bishopsgate in the City of London during the first day of the G20 protests on Wednesday 1st April 2009.

China plans a Karl Marx musical

Michael Bristow reports for the BBC :

A Chinese director is planning to stage a musical based on the founding text of communism, Karl Marx's Das Kapital.

The plot will revolve around a group of office employees who find out they are being exploited by their boss.

China's communist leaders still praise Karl Marx, although they now shy away from his economic theories.

But those involved in the production say that Marx is still relevant today, particularly in a world gripped by an economic crisis.

Good timing

There will be singing and dancing in this stage version of the classic communist treatise, which is due to open in Shanghai next year.

"We will bring [Marx's] economic theories to life in a trendy, interesting and educational play, which will be fun to watch," director He Nian told the state-run China Daily.

Those behind the project say this approach will help people understand what many consider a dry, philosophical text.

But the producers promise they will not trivialise Marx's central message.

To make sure that does not happen, Zhang Jun, an economics professor at Shanghai's Fudan University, will act as an advisor on the production.

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G20 - What happened at the Bank of England

After a peaceful and carnival like protest at the Bank Of England Police Prevented thousands of protesters from leaving the protest many of them wanting to attend the 2pm Stop the War Demonstration. Peaceful protesters agrieved at not being allowed to leave the demonstration became ever more annoyed however remained peaceful. There was no access to food water or toilets. No one was attacking any bank or any person. People had to pee in the streets which the gutters soon filled up. Bankers did attend the protest were inside the cordon and engaged in peceful banter with protesters and no violence insued form this. There was a carnival party atmosphere as promoters had advertised.

A recent government MP's report which condemned Police for interfering with legitimate peaceful protest in three ways. These were 1. Intimidating protesters by photographing and acting agressively towards them. 2. Unlawfully Detaining them in cordons and not allowing them to go about their democratic right to peacefully demonstrate 3. Using laws not meant to be applied to protest such as the Harrasment Act and the Anti Terror Act.

It has been seen by protesters that the police are trying to keep people away from protests and their detention of large crowds of peaceful protesters is not only illegal it is the Poice acting as a political wing of the Government when it should be unbiased and not deliberately frustrate freedom of speech.

After 2 1/2 hours protesters were still not reacting to being cordoned in. Things remained calm until Police allowed the protesters to head down Queen Victoria Road towards mansion house. The protesters thought they were all being allowed to leave. A calm atmosphere continued until almost Mansion House station where at the corner of Queen Victoria Road and Queen Street a small Group of Police Batton Charged protesters and beat several of them trying to form a new cordon and push people back up towards the Bank Of England. The Police were then surrounded and outnumbered for a short while. Nobody was attacking what appeared to be a small group of vulnerable riot police stuck in the middle of a crowd they had just baton charged. The crowd could have easily turned on them and they didnt. It was not clear immediately as to why the police let people leave the demonstration then attacked them shortly afterwards.

It however did become clear that Police were re-enforcing from this end of the city and the Police resouces such as about 10 of the new black anti terror trucks (a resource/ toy not yet used) with the grates over the windows and hundreds of more riot police were stationed at the end of the road where they let people out of the original cordon. It would appear that police let people out of their 2 hour detention and led them straight towards the baton charge.

The police admit one of their tactics is to cordon protesters in a cordon. No police officer could say if they had envoked section 14 legislation for fear of violence. They cited common law however would not explain what part of this they were detaining people under. One officer told us it was because someone let off a firework.

It would appear that protests which have little or no police prescence are largely peaceful. Ones where people are cordoned in and detained for over two hours annoys people and incites what may have otherwise been peaceful. Recent incidents in January included Police Leading thousands of protesters into the Hydepark Corner Underpass telling them it was the way to the protest outside the Israeli Embassy. Before a baton Charge in the Tunnel (and out of site of the camera's)

At no point were people being told why they were being detained and were not given access to water or sanitary facilities. It was however interesting that within about 5 minitues of leaving the protest being one of the few to make it out that I walked past the new riot vehicles heading towards the Bank. I looked down to see the Evening Standards News Flyer outside a News Agent. It said 'Police in Battle with rioters over the City'. It would appear that protesters kept calm for so long that they needed to incite something so that the already printed evening standard would in fact read true.

Hey Ocean! ft. Shad - 'Vagabond'

Attackers shoot and wound two Greek policemen

ATHENS (Reuters) - Unknown attackers shot and seriously wounded two Greek policemen in central Athens late on Thursday, police said.

Police have been targeted by left-wing groups since the fatal police shooting of a teenager in December sparked Greece's worst riots in decades, shaking the conservative government.

"Unknown assailants shot and seriously wounded two policemen," a police statement said.

A police official, who declined to be named, said it was not clear whether the shooting was politically motivated.

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It's not a theory anymore...

Dedicated to the conspiracy prophets...

2012 may bring the "perfect storm" -- solar flares, systems collapse

Alfred Webre reports as Exopolitics Examiner :

Long scorned as “mysticism” and “parascience,” concern about the year 2012 has now surfaced in a mainstream NASA report on the potential impacts on human society of solar flares anticipated to peak in 2012. The Obama administration and other national governments are not aggressively focused on contingency preparations for the 2012 solar flare impacts, or on introducing available anti-gravitic, new energy sources that would transform centralized high-power electrical grid systems into de-centralized, anti-gravitic and quantum process energy sources. These new energy sources are less vulnerable to destructive solar storms, have no negative environmental impact, and could unleash unprecedented economic and social transformation.

Electrical grids & anticipated solar flares of 2012

Mainstream scientific concern about 2012 has grown since a recent National Research Council report funded by NASA and issued by the National Academy of Sciences, entitled “Severe Space Weather Events: Understanding Economic and Societal Impact” which details the potential devastation of 2012 solar storms on the current planetary energy grid and because of the inter-linkages of a cybernetic society, on our entire human civilization.

According to New Scientist, science's concern is a repetition of the 8-day 1859 “Carrington event,” a large solar flare accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME) that flung billions of tons of solar plasma onto the earth's magnetosphere and disrupted Victorian-era magnetometers and the world telegraph system.

The New Scientist states, “The report outlines the worst case scenario for the US. The 'perfect storm' is most likely on a spring or autumn night in a year of heightened solar activity - something like 2012. Around the equinoxes, the orientation of the Earth's field to the sun makes us particularly vulnerable to a plasma strike.”

The next solar maximum is expected to occur in 2012. New Scientist reports that Mike Hapgood, head of the European Space Agency's space weather team states, "We're in the equivalent of an idyllic summer's day. The sun is quiet and benign, the quietest it has been for 100 years," "but it could turn the other way."

The modern electrical high-power grid magnifies the impact of solar flares. Since the grid is linked into major aspects of modern society, the effects of another Carrington event would be devastating. The National Academy of Sciences report states: “A severe space weather event in the US could induce ground currents that would knock out 300 key transformers within about 90 seconds, cutting off the power for more than 130 million people.” The New Scientist states: “According to the NAS report, the impact of what it terms a "severe geomagnetic storm scenario" could be as high as $2 trillion. And that's just the first year after the storm. The NAS puts the recovery time at four to 10 years. It is questionable whether the US would ever bounce back.”

China, which is installing a high-power electrical grid more vulnerable than that of the U.S., Europe and other developed nations will be similarly impacted.

The solar coronal mass ejection from the 1859 Carrington event arrived on earth in less than 15 minutes, which is faster that our early warning system NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) can detect.

European Space Agency space weather head Mike Hapgood states, "I don't think the NAS report is scaremongering. “Scientists are conservative by nature and this group is really thoughtful," he says. "This is a fair and balanced report."

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Witnesses statement: Death at G20

Published: Thursday 02 April 2009 21:10 by Imc London

Tagged as: g20 tomlinson witnesses
Neighbourhoods: bank city_of_london cornhill

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Various participants in the City of London demonstrations on April 1st have come forward as witnesses to the collapse of a man later identified by authorities as Ian Tomlinson. Four different university students witnessed the collapse of Mr. Tomlinson. "He stumbled towards us from the direction of police and protestors and collapsed," said Peter Apps. "I saw a demonstrator who was a first aider attend to the person who had collapsed. The man was late 40s, had tattoos on his hands, and was wearing a Millwall shirt."

While the first aider was helping the man, another demonstrator with a megaphone was calling the police over so that they could help.

Natalie Langford, a student at Queen Mary, said "there was a police charge. A lot of people ran in our direction. The woman giving first aid stood in the path of the crowd." The running people, seeing a guy on the ground, went around them.

Another demonstrator had already called 999 and was getting medical advice from the ambulance dispatcher. "Four police with two police medics came. They told her [the first aider] to 'move along'.", said Peter Apps. "Then they pushed her forcibly away from him. They refused to listen to her [the first aider] when she tried to explain his condition."

The first aider, who did not wish to be named, said "The police surrounded the collapsed man. I was standing with the person who'd called 999. The ambulance dispatcher wanted to talk to the police, the phone was being held out to them, but the police refused."

Another witness, Elias Stoakes, added "we didn't see them [the police] perform CPR."

Other people who had tried to stay with the collapsed man were also pushed away.

All of the witnesses deny the allegation that many missiles were thrown.

According to Peter Apps, "one bottle was thrown, but it didn't come close to the police. Nothing was thrown afterwards as other demonstrators told the person to stop. The person who threw the bottle probably didn't realize that someone was behind the ring of police." All the witnesses said that the demonstrators were concerned for the well-being of the collapsed man once they realized that there was an injured person.

Natalie Langford said "when the ambulance arrived the protestors got straight out of the way."

These witnesses are happy to give media statements.

They can be contacted through this press liasion email: g20witnesses@gmail.com

See video of two of the witnesses giving their statement.

Statement in German

Security jobs: Special Operations (Worldwide)

From greece craigslist :

Reply to: job-83734....@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Date: 2008-09-12, 5:12AM EEST

International company seeks former military personnel with airborne and combat experience for Worlwide "stand-by" special operations. Pay per experience with end of operations bonus. Arabic, Spanish, Russian and French languages a plus

    * Location: Worldwide
    * Compensation: Based on experience
    * Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
    * Please, no phone calls about this job!
    * Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.


PostingID: 83734....

Secret History of the Freemasons

(Part 1 of 9)

Fake faith and epic crimes - by John Pilger

From Information Clearing House :

April 02, 2009 --- These are extraordinary times. With the United States and Britain on the verge of bankruptcy and committing to an endless colonial war, pressure is building for their crimes to be prosecuted at a tribunal similar to that which tried the Nazis at Nuremberg. This defined rapacious invasion as "the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." International law would be mere farce, said the chief US chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, Supreme Court justice Robert Jackson, "if, in future, we do not apply its principles to ourselves."

That is now happening. Spain, Germany, Belgium, France and Britain have long had "universal jurisdiction" statutes, which allow their national courts to pursue and prosecute prima facie war criminals. What has changed is an unspoken rule never to use international law against "ourselves," or "our" allies or clients. In 1998, Spain, supported by France, Switzerland and Belgium, indicted the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, client and executioner of the West, and sought his extradition from Britain, where he happened to be at the time. Had he been sent for trial he almost certainly would have implicated at least one British prime minister and two US presidents in crimes against humanity. Home Secretary Jack Straw let him escape back to Chile.

The Pinochet case was the ignition. On 19 January last, the George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley compared the status of George W. Bush with that of Pinochet. "Outside [the United States] there is not the ambiguity about what to do about a war crime," he said. "So if you try to travel, most people abroad are going to view you not as 'former President George Bush' [but] as a current war criminal." For this reason, Bush's former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who demanded an invasion of Iraq in 2001 and personally approved torture techniques in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay, no longer travels. Rumsfeld has twice been indicted for war crimes in Germany. On 26 January, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, said, "We have clear evidence that Mr. Rumsfeld knew what he was doing but nevertheless he ordered torture."

The Spanish high court is currently investigating a former Israeli defence minister and six other top Israeli officials for their role in the killing of civilians, mostly children, in Gaza. Henry Kissinger, who was largely responsible for bombing to death 600,000 peasants in Cambodia in 1969-73, is wanted for questioning in France, Chile and Argentina. Yet, on 8 February, as if demonstrating the continuity of American power, President Barack Obama's national security adviser, James Jones, said, "I take my daily orders from Dr. Kissinger."

Like them, Tony Blair may soon be a fugitive. The International Criminal Court, to which Britain is a signatory, has received a record number of petitions related to Blair's wars. Spain's celebrated Judge Baltasar Garzon, who indicted Pinochet and the leaders of the Argentinian military junta, has called for George W. Bush, Blair and former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar to be prosecuted for the invasion of Iraq — "one of the most sordid and unjustifiable episodes in recent human history: a devastating attack on the rule of law" that had left the UN "in tatters." He said, "There is enough of an argument in 650,000 deaths for this investigation to start without delay."

This is not to say Blair is about to be collared and marched to The Hague, where Serbs and Sudanese dictators are far more likely to face a political court set up by the West. However, an international agenda is forming and a process has begun which is as much about legitimacy as the letter of the law, and a reminder from history that the powerful lose wars and empires when legitimacy evaporates. This can happen quickly, as in the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of apartheid South Africa — the latter a spectre for apartheid Israel.

Today, the unreported "good news" is that a worldwide movement is challenging the once sacrosanct notion that imperial politicians can destroy countless lives in the cause of an ancient piracy, often at remove in distance and culture, and retain their respectability and immunity from justice. In his masterly Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde R.L. Stevenson writes in the character of Jekyll: "Men have before hired bravos to transact their crimes, while their own person and reputation sat under shelter … I could thus plod in the public eye with a load of genial respectability, and, in a moment, like a schoolboy, strip off these lendings and spring headlong into the sea of liberty. But for me, in my impenetrable mantle, the safety was complete."

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Geographers used to gather intelligence?

From U.S. military funded mapping project in Oaxaca :

War was God's way of teaching Americans geography," once wrote Ambrose Bierce, an American journalist and social critic. Today, a University of Kansas (KU) professor may be using geography to teach Americans war.

Dr. Jerome Dobson, a geography professor and president of the American Geographical Society (AGS), sent out a one-and-a-half page white paper sometime in late 2004-early 2005 to the Department of Defense and civilian agencies looking for funding to promote a $125 million "academic" project that would send geographers to countries all over the globe to conduct fieldwork.

"The greatest shortfall in foreign intelligence facing the nation is precisely the kind of understanding that geographers gain through field experience, and there's no reason that it has to be classified information," wrote Dobson. "The best and cheapest way the government could get most of this intelligence would be to fund AGS to run a foreign fieldwork grant program covering every nation on earth."

This fieldwork program, named the Bowman Expeditions, was enthusiastically received by Dr. Geoffrey Demarest, a former Lieutenant Colonel and current Latin America specialist at the U.S. Army's Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO). The FMSO is a research center housed at Fort Leavenworth, about 50 miles down the road from KU. According to its website, FMSO "conducts analytical programs focused on emerging and asymmetric threats, regional military and security developments, and other issues that define evolving operational environments around the world." Demarest, a School of the Americas graduate who served multiple assignments in Latin America during his 23-year military career, has written extensively about counterinsurgency and believes mapping and property rights are necessary tools to advance U.S. security strategies, such as with Plan Colombia. He helped secure a $500,000 grant to partially fund México Indígena, the first Bowman Expedition, which until recently has been quietly mapping indigenous lands in Oaxaca, Mexico.

In January, a communiqué sent out by the Union of Organizations of the Sierra Juárez of Oaxaca (UNOSJO) alleged that the project was carried out without obtaining free, prior, and informed consent of local communities as mandated by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. UNOSJO also questioned whether the project, which in addition to the involvement of the U.S. military office that runs the controversial Human Terrain System, involves the participation of Radiance Technologies—a weapons development and intelligence company that could in the future use the information collected to the detriment of the local population in terms of counter-insurgency, bio-piracy, or the privatization of land.

The communiqué generated a confined hurricane of criticism on Internet sites and listservs (and a flurry of articles in Oaxaca daily newspapers). But when reports of the conflict starting appearing on international media outlets like Pravda and Seoul Times, project directors Dobson and fellow KU professor Peter Herlihy (lead geographer for México Indígena) were prompted to defend the ethics, purpose, and scope of their projects.

"Because the Foreign Military Studies Office has been one of several sponsors of the first Bowman Expedition México Indígena," they wrote on the México Indígena website to address "misconceptions" on the project, "there has been some understandable confusion regarding the project's aims.... FMSO's goal is to help increase an understanding of the world's cultural terrain, so that the U.S. government may avoid the enormously costly mistakes which it has made due in part to a lack of such understanding."

On the gathering controversy in Mexico, they stated, "The México Indígena team is well aware that some people are suspicious of the fact that FMSO is one of its sponsors. We ask only that such potential critics keep an open mind, that they learn a little about what we really do, and that they reconsider their assumption that any action which involves any part of the U.S. government must necessarily be bad." These words only added fuel to the fire.

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Art Nadel 'ponzi pal' linked to 5.5-ton coke bust

From Mad Cow Morning News :

2 April 2009
by Daniel Hopsicker

"The history of men is reflected in the history of sewers. Crime, intelligence, social protest, freedom of conscience, thought, theft, all that human laws have prosecuted was hidden in this pit." Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

A hedge fund partner of accused Ponzi Fraudster Arthur G. Nadel, the current owner of what used to be terror flight school Huffman Aviation, was well-known in the New York Tri-State area as the “Garbage King of New Jersey,” the MadCowMorningNews has learned.

Louis D. Paolino is also involved in the scandal around the American-registered DC9 from St. Petersburg FL busted on April 11, 2006 in Mexico's Yucatan, carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine.

In 2004, Paolino took a $6 million unpaid loan from Argyll Equity LLC., the major investor in SkyWay Aircraft, the company that owned the DC9.

Terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta probably never met anyone named “Fat Pete” or “Joey Cakes” while learning to fly at Huffman Aviation at the Venice Airport.

But ever-mounting evidence points to the conclusion that the men who owned the flight school—both then and now—have more than a passing acquaintance with organized crime.

Troubling questions about yet another "lone gunman"

Nadel's decade-long fraud was discovered at almost the same time as Bernie Madoff's orders-of-magnitude-larger Ponzi scheme. A half-dozen others have since followed.

There appears to be a sudden epidemic of multi-million (and billion) dollar Ponzi fraud. Did someone yell "Olly olly oxen free!" in a voice that can only be heard by 'elite deviant' members of America's new "Masters of the Universe' class?

While Federal investigators pore over the self-proclaimed "Mini-Madoff's books, there are troubling questions emerging over Federal prosecutors "lone gunman" theory about how the dorky Sarasota socialite managed to steal $350 million from investors.

Art Nadel, an unprepossessing piano player in hotel lounges, was somehow able to maneuver himself into a position where he could reach into other people's pockets—deeply and at will—and relieve them of what was, in too many cases, their life's savings.

Did Art Nadel do it all on his own? Indications so far point in another direction.

“Local philanthropist” was the label often applied to Nadel by the local Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

“Mobbed-up Sarasota businessman" might be a more accurate description.

Hopes for ash dashed.

We learned of Louis Paolino's involvement in Art Nadel's hedge funds in a Sarasota Herald-Tribune story announcing that Paolino has filed suit against two of Nadel fund managers. Paolino, said the Herald-Tribune, (allegedly) lost his entire investment of (allegedly) $5.6 million.

Only the Herald-Tribune didn't put allegedly in front of Paolino's claims, although given the information about his history of lawsuits, which we will take up shortly, they undoubtedly should have.

Nor did the Sarasota Herald-Tribune story bother to trouble their readers with any information, all easily available, about Paolino's highly-colorful background.

A brief description of what the Herald-Tribune omitted:

Without a doubt the one event in Lou Paolino's checkered career for which he will be remembered for his entire life was the infamous Khian Sea garbage barge, which spent almost two years in the news as it sailed around the world looking for someone to take its load of toxic waste.

The man who owned the barge was Louis D. Paolino. He received funding from Argyll Equities LLC, which also invested in the Kovar Crime family of business fraudsters at St. Petersburg FL's SkyWay Aircraft, owners of a DC9 they kept at the Clearwater-St. Pete Airport which would be busted carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine.

"The cursed cargo of the Khian Sea," as it became known, was so toxic that even New Jersey refused to accept it.

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