Psychopaths in the Gulf

... The concept of “corporate psychopaths” is an emerging realization and has been described by Dr. Robert Hare who is a world-renowned psychiatrist and professor at the University of British Columbia. The 2008 Australian documentary, I, Psychopath, points out that the vast majority of psychopaths are not crazed axe murderers: “Most of them function incognito in high-powered professions, all the way to the very top.” These are people who have no conscience. They are described as being manipulative, charming, glib, deceptive, parasitic, irresponsible, selfish, callous, promiscuous, impulsive, antisocial, and aggressive. Their main defect—what psychologists call “severe emotional detachment” or a total lack of empathy and remorse—is concealed and harder to describe than the symptoms of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.”

[ ... ]

It is the choice of our civilization to favor the bad over the good and this is telling in corporate politics. “Traits like being a good listener, a good team builder, an enthusiastic colleague, a great communicator do not seem to be very important when it comes to leading successful companies. In other words, warm, flexible, team-oriented and empathetic people are less likely to thrive as C.E.O.s. Organized, dogged, anal-retentive and slightly boring people are more likely to thrive,” writes David Brooks for the New York Times. What Brooks is saying is that we have created the conditions for the most ruthless humans to populate the top strata of civilization.

Because psychopaths can't feel emotions such as fear,
they are well suited to executive decision-making. They
can eliminate emotion from weighing the upside and downside
of actions; there will be no sleepless nights for them because
they have closed a plant and put thousands out of work.
Stanford Graduate School of Business

Psychopaths, even those who are psychopathic killers, however, are not mad, according to accepted legal and psychiatric standards. Their acts result not from a deranged mind but from a cold, calculating rationality combined with a chilling inability to treat others as thinking, feeling human beings. We really have no idea how cold hearted even the medical profession is and how pediatricians insist on injecting more and more poisons into their young patients.

The medical response to the Gulf disaster is shameful, to say the least, for they are leaving men, women and children throughout the Gulf region vulnerable to severe contamination. They are not telling them anything about basic ways of treating airborne poisons. Several institutions are standing naked in front of the world during this disaster. In Russia they tried to help the people from the radiation and even used spirulina and chlorella but for some ungodly reason there seems to be little to none of that in the States.

Butoxyethanol is a major component (30-60% by weight) of
Corexit 9527, an oil spill dispersant product. In the United
States, the primary manufacturers are Eastman Chemical,
Dow Chemical and Equistar. Corexit 9527 is being used
in conjunction with Corexit 9500 in the oil spill disaster.

Psychopaths often seem completely normal to unsuspecting targets—and they do not always ply their trade by killing. Most people are both repelled and intrigued by the images of cold-blooded, conscienceless murderers that increasingly populate our movies, television programs, and newspaper headlines. But what we do not see is how these people and companies thrive by creating chemicals, foods, and many products, drugs, and dental products that poison and kill people without a trace back to the source, which are the boardrooms of these companies who make these products in the first place.

Psychopaths are fully aware of the consequences of their actions and know the difference between right and wrong, yet they are terrifyingly self-centered, remorseless, and unable to care about the feelings of others. They know their poisons are going to hurt us and our children but they just go ahead and enjoy their lives at our expense. God must see a reason for their existence. Could it be that they are here to teach us about the true nature of evil? Or the true nature of ourselves? ...

~ more... ~

When Will The White House Have Witchcraft Advisors?

From an exclusive at Family Security Matters:

... The Founding Fathers were mostly religious men, but they saw their religion as a private matter, rather than one to inflict upon the society - as had happened in Europe and also in New England. The Puritan settlers to America had been infected with the same religious intolerance that had caused numerous innocents to be executed for the impossible crimes of witchcraft.
 
Increase Mather (1639 – 1723) spent much of his time gathering “evidence” to prove the existence of witchcraft to a growing number of rationalists. His son Cotton Mather (1662 – 1728), would be blamed – perhaps unfairly - for the tragic events at Salem. Cotton Mather wrote in his Diary:
 
“The devils, after a most preternatural manner, by the dreadful judgment of heaven, took a bodily possession of many people in Salem, and the adjacent places…”
 
But he continued in the same passage:
 
“For my own part, I was always afraid of proceeding to commit and condemn any person, as a confederate with affecting demons, upon so feeble an evidence as a spectral representative. Accordingly, I ever testified against it, both publicly and privately.”
 
In 1692, 31 people had been condemned to death for “witchcraft” during the Salem trials. 141 women and 44 men had originally been accused. 52 women and 7 men had been placed on trial. Of those condemned to death, Mary Bradbury escaped, two others pleaded pregnancy, five were reprieved, Ann Foster and Sarah Osborne died in jail, Tituba remained in jail and the remaining 19 were hanged.
 
By October 7, 1711, 22 of the 31 convicted had their sentences reversed following appeals by their relatives that had been initiated in 1709. Other hanged individuals had to wait until 1957, when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts finally reversed their sentences.

[ ... ]

I began this article on the subject of the Constitution, and discussed how witch-hunting was the antithesis of what the Constitution was set up for. There are no civilized countries in the world where witches are officially executed – tribal regions of Nigeria, South Africa and parts of India still have such cases, but the only wealthy nation that officially endorses the capital punishment for witchcraft is Saudi Arabia.
 
There are many people in America and the West who like to call themselves “witches.” Why are these not represented in the White House's Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships? Are there any Buddhists, Yazidi, Druze, Animists, Zoroastrians, Presbyterians, Swedenborgians or Shamans on this panel? ...

~ more... ~

Who is Rajiv Shah, What are Haiti concerns about Shah/USAID

By Ezili Danto [Op-Ed News]

USAID-supported Bio tech firm develop HIV tainted GM corn, HIV Infection Rates Increase with eating US Corn in Sub Sahara Africa

A USAID Press Release indicates that USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah Visits Haiti but, who is Rajiv Shah and what are the issues for Haitians to be concern about in reference to Rajiv Shah, his connections to agribusiness, Monsanto, the spread of GMOs and US foreign policy to depopulate Black nations? (Stolen Womb) Below HLLN examines that question for the Ezili Network and our blog readers.

Rajiv Shah was the agricultural programs director for the explicitly pro-biotech Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is on the board of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). AGRA and the Gates Foundation have been criticized for working closely with Monsanto and its non-profit research arm, the Danforth Center, and promoting GMOs.

Rajiv Shah, Obama's head of USAID, worked for USDA, is connected to Monsanto and the spread of GMOs and has connection with the defunct Prodigene and their pharm-seeds and may be promoting the interests of Monsanto and Prodigene as USAID's head. Monsanto has given corn seeds to Black Haiti under USAD's Rajiv Shah reign, his connections to Monsanto and Prodigene, spermicidal-corn is relevant to know. Also relevant to know, in light of US food aid and US food dumping in Haiti and especially in light of Monsanto's gift of corn and other hybrid seeds to Haiti is the connection of US corn in Black Africa to increased HIV rate. That US corn consumption is now being linked to HIV infection rates in Black Africa.

USAID and USDA's agricultural policies in Haiti has promoted famine. US agribusiness, USAID's sterilize, starve (through use/non-use of food aid and free trade fraud promoting famine), sweatshops, slaughter (through dictatorship, Bush regime change, UN occupation), incarceration (massive "preventive" detention), police/military brutality and contamination programs, all, have been deployed to meet US State Department-Kissinger's depopulation and to weaken Haiti's self-rule, public and social infrastructure initiatives. Population control, sterilize, force-assimilate, poison and starve - that is US foreign policy as carried out, say, since 1975 when President Ford signed off on Kissinger's NSSM 200 as official US foreign policy.

There is massive vaccination in Haiti after the 2004 Bush regime change. And we know that the World Health Organization (WHO) has been known to carry out vaccination programs with tetanus shots laced with an abortion agent and given only to Black and brown women of child bearing age.

Today USAID, World Bank, WHO, IMF and the NGOs - under the rhetoric of eliminating world hunger, disease and poverty are busy committing genocide as per Kissinger's NSSM 200. Depopulate Brown and Black countries, sterilize their masses, criminalize dissent, force assimilate, poison and starve, this US imperative is euphemistically referred to as "American exceptionalism" or more benevolently as a "double standard" and it is carried out by the select use (or, shall I say non-use) of food aid, US agri-business overseas food control, big oil's fuel control, medical technology, biotechnology and the pharmaceutical companies use of Black and Brown population as medical guinea pigs. The eugenics of the elite monopolistic US family businesses are well documented and started way before the founding "charitable foundations" of America like the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, Carnegie Foundation up to today's over 14,000 NGOs in Haiti continuing their legacy. The top echelon amongst these tax-exempt foundations served as vehicles for the advancement and domination of powerful elite families at the expense of the welfare of most American citizens and of most of mankind. Contrary to popular belief, the idea of a blue-eyed Nordic master race was NOT solely a Nazi Germany fantasy. It has its early roots in the United States of America.

This hidden genocide, sometimes referred to as "American exceptionalism," "US national interests" or a "double standard" explains, for instance, why the lives of the people of India are not as important as US lives. This double standard is the foundational precept upon which the US was built and continues to operate. The same eugenics and racists ideology of US elites like the Rockefeller brothers, JP Morgan, Carnegie undergird today's US foreign policy and imperialism, but its veiled under the guise of selfless charity, sustainable development, upholding democracy, ending world hunger, combating disease and population problems. The old talk of racial purity and elimination of inferiors have altered because that's now politically incorrect, it's just been shrewdly repackaged as "population control." That's why the 1984 Bhopal explosion which released tons of toxic chemicals into the air means less than the devastation of the oil spill that affects white lives and US pristine environment. That is why Obama's advisor Larry Summers when he was chief economist at the World Bank could say with IMPUNITY: "Just between you and me, shouldn't the world Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the Less Developed Countries?... I've always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly UNDER-polluted"

It is the US's official, if unstated, policy to depopulate the world of the Black and Brown woman's child in order to conserve the world's raw materials for the use of its monopolistic corporations regardless of the health and environmental impact of their activities. The facade and rhetoric of philanthropy, human rights, spreading democracy, stopping terrorism and "doing the right-thing" continues to veil this genocide and shall continue to work as long as so-called progressives ignore or obfuscate the intentional genocide that animates the double standard. (Bill Clinton's Heavy Hand on Haiti's Vulnerable Agricultural Economy: The American Rice Scandal)

~ more... ~

Slavery in Haiti

By Beverly Bell and Tory Field

"I'm struggling to end slavery because I know how I suffered," said Helia Lajeunesse, a former restavèk, child slave, who is now a children's rights advocate.

Today, there are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world, according to the research of Kevin Bales of Free the Slaves. This is more than at any time in history, even including during the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

In Haiti, the only nation ever to host a successful slave revolution, 225,000 to 300,000 children(1) live in forced and usually violent servitude in a system known as restavèk, literally "to stay with." The numbers are at risk of rising dramatically because of the hundreds of thousands of children who lost their parents or were abandoned after the earthquake. In addition to likely trauma, hunger and health problems, unaccompanied minors are at threat from adults who may take advantage of a source of free labor. Unprotected girls are also at risk of what amounts to sex slavery, as rape of restavèk girls by the men and youth in the household is common.

The system usually works this way: A parent who cannot afford to feed or educate a child may give him or her to a better-off relative, neighbor or stranger who promises to provide care and schooling. The families giving up children are usually from the countryside, where poverty is unrelenting. The children are as young as three, with girls between six and 14 years old comprising 65 percent of the population.

Restavèk children toil long hours and rarely go to school. They are regularly abused. They usually eat table scraps or have to scavenge in the streets for their own food, sleep on the floor and wear cast-off rags.

They are not chained or locked up. One reason the children usually stay is the threat of severe punishment - often including beatings - if they are caught trying to escape and are returned to the family. Another reason is that they have no other source of food and shelter. Survival and safety options for street children in Haiti are not good, though some restavèk do escape to live on the streets.

Alina "Tibebe" Cajuste described her childhood as a restavèk this way: "This is a sad, sad story to the world. A woman who used to come sell in the market told my mother to give me to her. My mother had no support, so she had to.

"What did this woman make me do? I had to get up before 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning to make the food, sweep the floor and wash the car, so that when the family woke up everything would be ready. Then I had to wash dishes, fetch water and go sell merchandise for her in the countryside. When I came back from the marketplace, I would carry two drums of water on my head, so heavy, to wash up for her. Then I'd go buy things to make dinner. And I couldn't even eat the same food as her. If she ate rice, I only got cornmeal. I didn't even wear the same sandals or dresses as her child. My dresses were made out of the scraps of cloth that were left over from what she sold in the marketplace. I couldn't even sleep in a bed."

~ more... ~

New Eugenics and the Rise of the Global Scientific Dictatorship

From The Technological Revolution and the Future of Freedom, Part 3 by Andrew Gavin Marshall:

... In 1932, Aldous Huxley wrote his dystopian novel, “Brave New World,” in which he looked at the emergence of the scientific dictatorships of the future. In his 1958 essay, “Brave New World Revisited,” Huxley examined how far the world had come in that short period since his book was published, and where the world was heading. Huxley wrote that: 

In politics the equivalent of a fully developed scientific theory or philosophical system is a totalitarian dictatorship. In economics, the equivalent of a beautifully composed work of art is the smoothly running factory in which the workers are perfectly adjusted to the machines. The Will to Order can make tyrants out of those who merely aspire to clear up a mess. The beauty of tidiness is used as a justification for despotism.[1]

Huxley explained that, “The future dictator's subjects will be painlessly regimented by a corps of highly trained social engineers,” and he quotes one “advocate of this new science” as saying that, “The challenge of social engineering in our time is like the challenge of technical engineering fifty years ago. If the first half of the twentieth century was the era of technical engineers, the second half may well be the era of social engineers.” Thus, proclaims Huxley, “The twenty-first century, I suppose, will be the era of World Controllers, the scientific caste system and Brave New World.”[2]

In 1952, Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher, historian, mathematician, and social critic wrote the book, “The Impact of Science on Society,” in which he warned and examined how science, and the technological revolution, was changing and would come to change society. In his book, Russell explained that:

I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is mass psychology. Mass psychology is, scientifically speaking, not a very advanced study... This study is immensely useful to practical men, whether they wish to become rich or to acquire the government. It is, of course, as a science, founded upon individual psychology, but hitherto it has employed rule-of-thumb methods which were based upon a kind of intuitive common sense. Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Of these the most influential is what is called 'education'. Religion plays a part, though a diminishing one; the Press, the cinema and the radio play an increasing part.

What is essential in mass psychology is the art of persuasion. If you compare a speech of Hitler's with a speech of (say) Edmund Burke, you will see what strides have been made in the art since the eighteenth century. What went wrong formerly was that people had read in books that man is a rational animal, and framed their arguments on this hypothesis. We now know that limelight and a brass band do more to persuade than can be done by the most elegant train of syllogisms. It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch the patient young and is provided by the State with money and equipment.

This subject will make great strides when it is taken up by scientists under a scientific dictatorship.[3]

Russell went on to analyze the question of whether a 'scientific dictatorship' is more stable than a democracy, on which he postulated:

Apart from the danger of war, I see no reason why such a regime should be unstable. After all, most civilised and semi-civilised countries known to history have had a large class of slaves or serfs completely subordinate to their owners. There is nothing in human nature that makes the persistence of such a system impossible. And the whole development of scientific technique has made it easier than it used to be to maintain a despotic rule of a minority. When the government controls the distribution of food, its power is absolute so long as it can count on the police and the armed forces. And their loyalty can be secured by giving them some of the privileges of the governing class. I do not see how any internal movement of revolt can ever bring freedom to the oppressed in a modern scientific dictatorship.[4]

Drawing on the concept popularized by Aldous Huxley – of people loving their servitude – Bertrand Russell explained that under a scientific dictatorship:

It is to be expected that advances in physiology and psychology will give governments much more control over individual mentality than they now have even in totalitarian countries. Fichte laid it down that education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils have left school, they shall be incapable, throughout the rest of their lives, of thinking or acting otherwise than as their schoolmasters would have wished... Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible. Even if all are miserable, all will believe themselves happy, because the government will tell them that they are so.[5]

Russell explained that, “The completeness of the resulting control over opinion depends in various ways upon scientific technique. Where all children go to school, and all schools are controlled by the government, the authorities can close the minds of the young to everything contrary to official orthodoxy.”[6] Russell later proclaimed in his book that, “a scientific world society cannot be stable unless there is a world government.”[7] He elaborated:

Unless there is a world government which secures universal birth control, there must be from time to time great wars, in which the penalty of defeat is widespread death by starvation. That is exactly the present state of the world, and some may hold that there is no reason why it should not continue for centuries. I do not myself believe that this is possible. The two great wars that we have experienced have lowered the level of civilization in many parts of the world, and the next is pretty sure to achieve much more in this direction. Unless, at some stage, one power or group of powers emerges victorious and proceeds to establish a single government of the world with a monopoly of armed force, it is clear that the level of civilization must continually decline until scientific warfare becomes impossible – that is until science is extinct.[8]

Russell explains that eugenics plays a central feature in the construction of any world government scientific dictatorship, stating that, “Gradually, by selective breeding, the congenital differences between rulers and ruled will increase until they become almost different species. A revolt of the plebs would become as unthinkable as an organized insurrection of sheep against the practice of eating mutton.”[9]

In a 1962 speech at UC Berkeley, Aldous Huxley spoke about the real world becoming the 'Brave New World' nightmare he envisaged. Huxley spoke primarily of the 'Ultimate Revolution' that focuses on 'behavioural controls' of people. Huxley said of the 'Ultimate Revolution':

In the past, we can say, that all revolutions have essentially aimed at changing the environment in order to change the individual. There's been the political revolution, the economic revolution . . . the religious revolution. All these aimed as I say not directly at the human being but at his surroundings, so by modifying his surroundings you did achieve – at one remove – an effect upon the human being.

Today, we are faced, I think, with the approach of what may be called the 'Ultimate Revolution' – the 'Final Revolution' – where man can act directly on the mind-body of his fellows. Well needless to say some kind of direct action on human mind-bodies has been going on since the beginning of time, but this has generally been of a violent nature. The techniques of terrorism have been known from time immemorial, and people have employed them with more-or-less ingenuity, sometimes with utmost crudity, sometimes with a good deal of skill acquired with a process of trial and error – finding out what the best ways of using torture, imprisonments, constraints of various kinds . . .

If you are going to control any population for any length of time, you must have some measure of consent. It's exceedingly difficult to see how pure terrorism can function indefinitely, it can function for a fairly long time; but sooner or later you have to bring in an element of persuasion, an element of getting people to consent to what is happening to them.

Well it seems to me the nature of the Ultimate Revolution with which we are now faced is precisely this: that we are in process of developing a whole series of techniques, which will enable the controlling oligarchy – who have always existed and will presumably always exist – to get people to love their servitude. This is the ultimate in malevolent revolution...

There seems to be a general movement in the direction of this kind of Ultimate Control, this method of control, by which people can be made to enjoy a state of affairs by which any decent standard they ought not to enjoy; the enjoyment of servitude . . .

I am inclined to think that the scientific dictatorships of the future – and I think there are going to be scientific dictatorships in many parts of the world – will be probably a good deal nearer to the Brave New World pattern than to the 1984 pattern. They will be a good deal nearer, not because of any humanitarian qualms in the scientific dictators, but simply because the 'brave new world' pattern is probably a good deal more efficient than the other. That if you can get people to consent to the state of affairs in which they are living – the state of servitude – if you can do this, then you are likely to have a much more stable, a much more lasting society; much more easily controllable society than you would if you were relying wholly on clubs, and firing squads and concentration camps.[10]

In 1961, President Eisenhower delivered his farewell address to the nation in which he warned of the dangers to democracy posed by the military-industrial complex: the interconnected web of industry, the military, and politics creating the conditions for constant war. In that same speech, Eisenhower warned America and the world of another important change in society:

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.[11]

In 1970, Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote about “the gradual appearance of a more controlled and directed society,” in the “technetronic revolution”; explaining:

Such a society would be dominated by an elite whose claim to political power would rest on allegedly superior scientific know-how. Unhindered by the restraints of traditional liberal values, this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society under close surveillance and control. Under such circumstances, the scientific and technological momentum of the country would not be reversed but would actually feed on the situation it exploits.[12]

New Eugenics

Many sciences and large social movements are directed by the same foundations and money that financed the eugenics movement in the early 20th century. The Rockefeller foundations, Ford, Carnegie, Mellon, Harriman, and Morgan money that flowed into eugenics led directly to 'scientific racism,' and ultimately the Holocaust in World War II.[13] Following the Holocaust, Hitler had discredited the eugenics movement he admired so much in America. So the movement branched off into forming several other social engineering projects: population control, genetics, and environmentalism. The same foundations that laid the foundations for eugenic ideology – the belief in a biological superiority and right to rule (justifying their power) – then laid the foundations for these and other new social and scientific movements. ...

~ more... ~

Extracts of Mladic’s wartime diary published on anniversary of massacre

As Bosnia marks the commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre on Sunday, excerpts from Ratko Mladic's secret wartime diary are making the rounds in the press, unveiling the chilling mind of the Bosnian Serb general. 

“Refuse the [peace] plan and pursue war”, reads one entry in the wartime diary of Ratko Mladic, former military leader of Bosnian Serbs. The diary, portions of which were published by Bosnian and Croatian press and French daily “Libération” on Friday, reveals the general's desire to refuse international peace negotiations in 1994, following more than two years of bloody war in Bosnia.

The diary, which was taken from his wife's home in Belgrade, begins in June of 1991, when Serbia and Croatia declared independence from the former Yugoslavia. The writings end in 1996, one year after the Dayton Agreement marked the end of the Bosnian war.

The diary brings to light Mladic's war-hungry nature, as well as that of Radovan Karadzic, the former leader of Bosnian Serbs who was arrested in July 2008 and is on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia. The two men notably shared the same confidence about their prospects for victory in the war and repeatedly opposed Slobodan Milosevic, then the Serbian president, who died in The Hague before his trial.

Years on the run

French daily "Libération" noted that Milosevic appeared to be a “more finessed politician and diplomat” than either Karadzic or Mladic. Milosevic, feeling the winds change and the increasing pressure from the international community in 1994, summoned the two men in attempt to persuade them to accept the peace agreement. The effort was in vain.

Mladic refused to cooperate with the international community, even after being warned of the potential repercussions of such a refusal. In 1995, after NATO's intervention, the peace agreement was enacted without Karadzic and Mladic. For years, Mladic has been a fugitive with an international warrant out for his arrest, charged with genocide and crimes against humanity committed in the Srebrenica massacres of 1995.

The massacres occurred in July of that year, when Bosnian Serb armed forces commanded by Ratko Mladic killed 8,000 Muslims in the little village of Srebrenica. The village is located in the east of the former Bosnia and Herzegovina, and had been designated as a “safe zone” by the UN in 1993. This ethnic cleansing, considered to be the climax of the conflict, was qualified as genocide by the International Court of Justice, the UN's top judicial body.

~ more... ~

The Barbarian in a Suit

By  Lawrence Davidson

The French philosopher Simone Weil once observed that barbarism should be "considered as a permanent and universal human characteristic which becomes more or less pronounced according to the play of circumstances." Historically, there is no doubt of the accuracy of this statement. As the 20th century so aptly demonstrated, civilization is a very fragile state. And with weaponry getting ever more destructive the fragility of our civilization and the potent potential of barbarism increases proportionately. So, in the 20th century we had two world wars, a large number of smaller ones, the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing on a grand scale, and a "cold war" kept from getting hot by the fear of nuclear cataclysm. One can only say that humanity is very lucky there is anything like civilization left and, obviously, we have continued to push our luck, so to speak, in the first decade of the 21st century.

One other way of measuring the precarious nature of our civilization is by observing how many "barbarians in suits" lead our nation states. You can point all the fingers on both hands at those so called "rogue state" leaders, but any objective observer would have to conclude they have nothing on men like George W. Bush, Dick Chaney and Donald Rumsfeld. For sheer body counts these American "leaders" are right up with the worst of them. It is most unfortunate that Barack Obama and a majority of the Democrat party seem determined to slip and slide down a similar bloody road.
 
I mention these American notables so as not to be accused of ignoring my own national breed of "barbarians in suits" as I turn my attention to another particularly ugly example, Avigdor Lieberman of Israel. I suspect that the idea of a Jewish barbarian was unthinkable before the rise of Zionism. But since that ideology has managed to tie Judaism (or what is left of it) to an obsessively ethnocentric nation state all the requirements for modern Jewish barbarians are in place and, sure enough, up they pop. There was Begin, Ben Gurion, Sharon and many more who have indulged in terrorism, ethnic cleansing and assorted massacre. Now we have Avigdor Lieberman.
 
Lieberman is Israel's Foreign Minister, as well as deputy Prime Minister, so he usually is seen wearing a suit. But he is a barbarian nonetheless. His particular style of barbarism is racism. For instance, on June 22, 2010 Lieberman put forth a "blueprint for the resolution of the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict" that demands the ethnic cleansing of Israeli Arabs.

~ more... ~

U.S'. '10-week training' of Pak paramilitary troops facing hurdles

The United States'10-week basic-training course for the Pakistani paramilitary troops is facing hurdles as Pakistani commanders say that they cannot afford to send troops due to the intense situation in its border areas.

The training centre in Warsak, about 20 miles from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, is aimed at providing specialized training required for snipers, platoon and company leaders to fight the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

The initiative, which was started in January 2009, is also designed to help turn the 58,000-member Pakistan's Frontier Corps that patrols the tribal areas from a largely passive border force into skilled and motivated fighters.

However, recently only 250 troops completed the course despite the centre having facilities to train as many as 2,000 soldiers at a time.

Pakistan also restricts the number of American trainers throughout the country to no more than about 120 Special Operations personnel.

"We want to keep a low signature," The New York Times quoted a senior Pakistani officer, as saying.

About a dozen American trainers are assigned to yearlong duty at the training centre, which was built by the US at a cost of 23 million dollars. They have also spent another 30 million dollars for training and equipment requested by the Pakistani military.

The most gifted Frontier Corps marksmen are selected for sniper training, a skill in need against the Taliban.

Much of the training is aimed at building the confidence of the Frontier Corps scouts.

US Colonel Kurt Sonntag believes that the training program is among the first steps to repair the anti-Americanism in Pakistan, which has escalated following the continued campaign of drone strikes in the country's tribal areas. (ANI)

~ SiFy News ~

Spies who came back from the dead

Detail by painful detail, the CIA is coming to grips with one of the most devastating episodes in its history, a botched cloak-and-dagger flight into China that stole two decades of freedom from a pair of fresh-faced American operatives and cost the lives of their two pilots.

In opening up about the 1952 debacle, the CIA is finding ways to use it as a teaching tool. Mistakes of the past can serve as cautionary tales for today's spies and paramilitary officers.

At the centre of the story are two eager CIA paramilitary officers on their first overseas assignment, John T. Downey and Richard G. Fecteau, whose plane was shot from the night sky in a Chinese ambush.

The mission was smothered in US Government denials, sealed in official secrecy and consigned to the darkest corner of the spy agency's vault of unpleasant affairs.

Downey was the youngest of the four. At 22, with one year of CIA service, he was destined to spend the next 20 years, three months and 14 days in Chinese prisons. His CIA partner, Fecteau, was 25. He was behind bars for 19 years and 14 days.

Both survived. Their pilots, Robert C. Snoddy, 31, and 29-year-old Norman A. Schwartz did not.

Bits and pieces of the story surfaced over the years. But the lid was largely intact until a series of disclosures - some required of the CIA, some not - revealed a tale of tragedy, miscalculation, misery and personal triumph, as well as the agency's misplaced confidence it could manipulate events in China.

Three years ago, the CIA declassified an internal history of the affair. Now it's hired a filmmaker to produce an hour-long documentary.

The CIA does not plan to release the film publicly. But the agency premiered it for employees at its Langley, Virginia, headquarters.

Downey and Fecteau declined through CIA officials to be interviewed for this story. They attended the film screening and were flooded with applause.

Their tale forms part of the backdrop to today's uneasy US-China relationship, especially Beijing's anger over American military support for China's anti-communist rivals on Taiwan.

In the early years of the Cold War, the CIA had a rudimentary paramilitary force - those with specialised skills to conduct high-risk, behind-the-lines operations.

Downey and Fecteau were assigned to a covert programme called "Third Force", intended to create a resistance network.

~ more... ~

Peace community denounces threats by paramilitary group

Adriaan Alsema writes for Colombia Reports:

A 200-men paramilitary group is threatening to kill members of the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado, located in the north-west Colombian Urabá region, the community denounces.

According to the community's website, the paramilitary fighters arrived in the region on June 26 and have since threatened to kill anyone who refuses to cooperate with the illegal armed group.

So far, the paramilitaries have obliged locals to register and forced community meetings wherein the paramilitary rules have been explained, the community said.
The Peace Community said that a number of families already have fled out of fear of being killed and asked government forces to prevent the paramilitaries from killing locals and allow the displaced members of the peace community to return to their lands.

The Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado was founded in the 1990s in response to ongoing violence by guerrillas, paramilitary groups and the army against the local population. It has received support from the Inter-American Human Rights Court and several NGOs in its attempt to not be involved in ongoing violence in the strategically important region.

Economic Hitmen

An animated interview of John Perkins, author of 'HoodWinked' and 'Confessions Of An Economic Hitman'.

[ With thanks to Eric and Angeliki ]

White Plume: Keep out! Radioactive sacrifice area

Powertech USA Inc. is embarking on a path of destruction from which there is no return. The company plans to start in situ leach mining in South Dakota's Custer and Fall River counties that will puncture through four aquifers on the Great Plains and endanger a fragile geologic system.

As a result of ISL mining planned at the Dewey-Burdock site – 12 miles northwest of Edgemont – we on the Plains must face the threat of groundwater contamination for generations, while the corporate leaders reside far away in their homelands of Canada and France.

[ ... ]

The opportunity to view the public records of Powertech's 6,000 page application as limited to Internet availability is prejudicial. It assumes that everyone has a computer and Internet access and eliminates untold members of the general public.

Let me be clear, this practice impacts the most vulnerable: The poor and the isolated.

The Dewey-Burdock area is in 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty Territory and in a place sacred to the Lakota People: The Black Hills, the heart of everything that is. The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty was ratified by Congress and was never amended. Under international law it is our land.

Our ancestors fought the United States, and many people died, to protect the Black Hills and our homelands. There are hundreds of places in the proposed mining area that have been identified as archeological, historical and cultural sites.

There are tipi rings, stone cairns, graves; there are eagle nests there which need protection. For a corporation to have more rights than human beings is a violation of our basic human rights.

To keep us away from a sacred place is to kill our people and way of life. What kind of government makes such laws that allow a corporation to turn this into a “National Sacrifice Area?”

The laws of the United States, the NRC regulations, and the individuals who sit behind those desks can honor treaty law, the life way of the Lakota, environmental laws, and demonstrate respect for Mother Earth by denying Powertech USA Inc.'s application to mine uranium.

~ more... ~

The prying game: the psychology of shopping

Integer doesn't represent the most glamorous branch of the marketing game. Where advertising creatives like to see themselves as the poets of the industry, shopper marketers are more like the plumbers, doing the nitty-gritty work of keeping the cash flowing. But there is a kind of longshoreman pride that goes along with this.

“We change attitude into action,” Evans says. “You can have the most beautiful branding in the world, but if people don't pick your product off the shelves, it's a waste of time.”

The foundation of the work Integer does, Evans says, is research, and that research is rooted in psychology. He's interested in exploring how people's values, temperaments and living situations affect their shopping habits. This involves rooting around in their homes, following them as they shop, asking endless streams of whats and whys. Then, using the stuff he learns, he advises clients on things like placement, packaging and logo design. And when he's out shopping for himself, Evans is still watching, paying special attention to what he calls “the hovering hand.”

The hovering hand is a recurrent theme with Evans, enough so that you wonder if the image keeps him up at night. “You'll see a shopper standing in front of a shelf and their hand will hover over a product,” he says. “Then that hand will move somewhere else.” Evans has spent the bulk of his 22-year career trying to pick apart the entanglements of human behaviour – at least as it exists in the point-of-sale environment – so that he might in some way guide it. “What we need to do is understand the processes the mind goes through,” he says, “so we can make the hand not only hover over a product, but pick it up.”

Right now, Evans is conducting research into the lifestyle preferences of a particular brand's target consumer. The idea is to create promotional displays that evoke the social settings in which these people might consume the product – a ploy, he hopes, that will generate an unconscious desire to buy it. If this sounds a little Clockwork Orange-y, Evans insists that he has the consumer's interests at heart. “We're not trying to alter people's behaviour drastically,” he says. “We're trying to make it easier for them to do what they want to do.”

~ more... ~

Namibia Expands Uranium Mines as Diamonds Lose Shine

Namibia's economy contracted 0.8 percent last year, after expanding 4.3 percent a year earlier, as mining output halved. Diamond production plunged to 929,006 carats from 2.22 million carats a year earlier

Namibian output may quadruple by 2015 as new mines are opened by companies including Extract Resources Ltd., more than doubling uranium's contribution to the economy, according to IHN. The industry accounted for 5.6 percent of Namibia's gross domestic product last year.

If the uranium industry increases by four times then it would be equal to 22.4% of the 2009 GDP.

Uranium companies are planning to spend more than $3 billion starting operations in Namibia
Existing operations, generally, are “only just” profitable at current price levels
RBC Capital Markets cut its 2010 uranium forecast by 11 percent to $44.50 a pound from $50 last month as supplies increase, and said the metal may trade at $55 a pound next year and $75 a pound in 2012

Rio Tinto's is expanding the world's third-largest uranium mine, Rossing.

Extract Resources plans to build the world's second- largest uranium mine in South Rossing (6800 tons/year starting in 2013).

~ more... ~


See also:

Iran Vows to Increase Enriched Uranium Stock Sixfold by 2011

Forget Gold, China Will Double Its Uranium Hoarding This Year

The Gates perception

Technology guru Bill Gates of Microsoft fame gave a sparkling presentation on energy back in February, under the title ‘Innovating to Zero’ (i.e. zero emissions). http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates.html

Oddly he repeated the old saw about renewables being expensive and needing a lot of backup. Strange given that ,in California, wind power is the cheapest energy source on the grid and the main issue in the US is not so much the intermittency of wind as there often being too much wind generated electricity for the grid to handle (see my earlier Blog on curtailment issues: http://environmentalresearchweb.org/blog/2010/04/beyond-baseload.html)

And even more oddly, he didn’t mention the smart supergrid idea, which could balance and manage local variations in supply and demand. You might think that would be right up his street, as someone who pioneered internet information grid systems and applications.

However his main thrust was on innovations in nuclear. He said ‘innovation really stopped in this industry quite some ago, so the idea that there’s some good ideas laying around is not all that surprising’. He backed the so called ‘Terrapower’ idea, in which a mix of fresh uranium and depleted uranium is formed into a log type tube, buried deep in the ground and ‘burnt’ progressively, with the fission reaction running through it from one end to the other, like a candle. So it’s sometimes called a ‘travelling wave reactor’. It’s envisaged that it would take 60 years to burn through end to end , and that the waste products could just be left where they were, underground . Using depleted uranium/ spent fuel to breed more plutonium and run reactors essentially from some of the wastes from conventional nuclear plants , is hardly a new idea, but the travelling wave idea is new- and untried...

Iceland's legal protection scheme for journalists is audacious

Regardless of your views about offshore banking havens, they work. The wealthy are able to exploit loopholes in domestic and international law to stash money in places where it is untouchable.

Could the same be possible for information? Could the world's most curious, revelatory and public interest-driven investigators also stash their goods – journalism – on an island out of reach of the authorities?

Iceland thinks so. It is trying to create a legal system that would protect journalists from the full range of restrictions at work in other countries: libel, official secrets, injunctions, superinjunctions and laws compromising the protection of sources.

The project is heralded by freedom of information campaigners as a potential saviour for journalists in countries such as Sri Lanka, where they have faced violence and even death. The fact that the UK's journalists are seen as a possible beneficiary – as a result of the different threat of costly and inimical libel legislation – is an indictment of the state of our media laws.

But there are many questions remaining about the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative. Would Iceland be willing to violate its international obligations to implement a new law? The Lugano convention, for example, to which Iceland is a party, requires the recognition and enforcement of judgments of the English high court. This makes it difficult for Iceland to avoid so-called libel tourism cases affecting people within its jurisdiction.

~ more... ~

How will water stress pose a security challenge?

Today, as in Iraq and to a lesser extent Afghanistan, wars typically invite accusations that the war-fighting nations are interested in oil and gas deposits. Whether this is true, at least in those conflicts, is debatable. In the coming century or so, however, it is certain that there will be at least serious international stress, if not outright armed conflict, over what may become an even more precious scarce resource: fresh water.

The Earth does not suffer from a shortage of water, but most of it comes in the form of saltwater, and can be used only for drinking and irrigation purposes following expensive and time-consuming desalination procedures. Moreover, as the human population increases and poor regions develop, rich sources of fresh water, such as aquifers and large rivers, are being increasingly intensively exploited at the local, regional, and national levels. Particularly in arid and water-poor regions such as the Middle East and parts of Africa, therefore, it becomes quite conceivable that at some future date nations with insufficient water reserves will feel driven into conflict over shared, scarce water sources such as strategically located lakes and rivers.

In relatively large and industrialized Western nations, and particularly in the United States and Canada, water wars seem almost inconceivable. However, even within these nations, it is easy to see the roots of potential conflict - albeit, in these cases, either internal to a nation (and therefore dealt with at the level of state and national governmnet) or resolved through international diplomacy. Important Canadian-American boundary waters, like the Columbia River in the northwest and the Great Lakes in the east, are covered by international treaties. The great Colorado River staggers to the sea in the form of a trickle, but while those downstream in the U.S. do suffer from the actions of those upstream, the resulting stresses can at least theoretically be resolved through internal political compromise rather than open conflict.

This is not necessarily the case where such resources cross multiple international borders, in areas already prone to violent conflict. For example, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and - should it ever become an independent state - Palestine must juggle separate national uses of the Jordan river, while Syria, Turkey and Iraq must divide between themselves the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris. Some of these countries have already fought violent conflicts in the recent past; at the very least, if population levels continue to rise and available water continues to fall, water shortages will add further tension to an already critical situation. Optimistically, negotiation over water might pave the way for broader peace talks; more pessimistically, those countries with temporary strategic advantages in a given situation might decide to take advantage of the opportunity to ensure continued and privileged access to a shared water supply.

In some cases, over-use has already led large water sources, like the Aral Sea in Asia, to shrink measurably - causing increased fears that what water remains might be fought over. Lake Chad, a massive African lake which is shared by Chad, Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroon, has also suffered serious depletion and there may be future conflicts, including violent ones, over how to use the remaining water.

~ more... ~

Gordon Duff: Did the Military Stop Cheney From Destroying the World?

“Remember the one about the B-52 bomber that, according to legend, had six nuclear weapons loaded onto it by accident, which, of course, could not have happened—by accident—for a dozen different reasons, or more.”

In 2007, a bizarre event occurred. Six nuclear weapons showed up on a B-52 out of nowhere. The public was told they were mistakenly loaded onto the bomber and send flying around the United States. After a 6 week investigation, 70 airmen were punished for the “mistake” but the story hardly ends there. Key personnel at Minot Air Force Base, origin of the “loading mistake” began to have accidents. Loaders and pilots from Minot became some of the unluckiest people on earth. Coincidences pile up as the death toll rises. For every news story available for review, two have disappeared, almost as mysteriously as the deaths they reported. Members of our Air Force keep track of things, from one of their blogs:

“Airman 1st Class Todd Blue was assigned to the unit that provides security for that bomber wing at Minot Air Force base. He died while on leave in Virginia. No further details have been released.

Authorities are investigating the death of a Minot Air Force Base airman who died while on leave in Virginia. Base officials say 20-year-old Airman 1st Class Todd Blue died Monday while visiting family members in Wytheville, Virginia. Blue enlisted in the Air Force in March of last year and joined the 5th Security Forces at Minot Air Force Base the following August. Information on how Blue died has not been released.

Caddo Parish sheriff's deputies worked a wreck this morning in which two people from Barksdale Air Force Base were killed. The accident, in the 5100 block of Shreveport-Blanchard Highway at 11:30 a.m., claimed the lives of a married couple. Their names have not been released, but the man was 29 and the woman was 32, according to a release from Caddo Parish sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Chadwick. The two were riding a 2007 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, with the husband driving and the wife the passenger, Chadwick said.

The woman passenger on the motorcycle died at the scene, while the husband was taken to LSU Hospital in Shreveport, where he died, the release said.

Minot, N.D. (AP) Authorities have identified a Minot Air Force Base man killed in a crash on the outskirts of Minot. Base officials say 20-year-old Adam Barrs was a passenger in a vehicle that failed to negotiate a curve, hit an approach, hit a tree and started on fire late Tuesday night. Barrs was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver is identified as 20-year-old Airman Stephen Garrett.

Bomber Pilot Killed in Crash. A Minot Air Force Base bomber pilot was killed in a motorcycle crash in Tennessee, the base says. 1st Lt. Weston Kissel, 28, was a B-52 pilot assigned to the 23rd Bomb Wing at the Minot base, said Lt. Col. Gerald Hounchell, the 23rd Bomb Squadron commander. Kissel died Tuesday in the crash, while on leave, the base said. Kissel, a native of Tennessee, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2004, and arrived at the Minot base in July last year, the base said.

Body of Missing Air Force Captain Found. The body of a missing Air Force captain from Florida has been found near Badger Peak in northeast Skamania County, Wash., Portland police said Sunday.

Acting on a tip from Portland police, Skamania County authorities found Capt. John Frueh's rental car about noon on Saturday. They quickly began a search and rescue mission and, with the help of search dogs, found Frueh's body near the vehicle about 5 p.m., the Skamania County Sheriff's Office said.

U.S. Air Force General, Thomas L. Tinsley, Dead from Gunshot Wound to Chest. The officer who commands an air force wing in Alaska has died of a gunshot wound that likely was self-inflicted, authorities said Monday. Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Tinsley suffered a gunshot wound to his chest late Sunday night and was pronounced dead within a half hour, said Col. Richard Walberg, who assumed command at Elmendorf Air Force Base after Tinsley's death. The weapon was likely a handgun, Walberg said. Medical responders who rushed to Tinsley's home on base were unable to save him. Tinsley's wife and college-age daughter were home at the time. Tinsley was named base commander in May 2007. He had served as an F-15 instructor pilot, F-15C test pilot, wing weapons officer, exchange officer and instructor with the Royal Australian Air Force. His previous 22-month assignment was executive officer to the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. T. Michael “Buzz” Mosely, who resigned in June under pressure in an agency shake-up.

Mosely, the Air Force military chief, and Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne, the agency's civilian head, were held accountable for failing to fully correct an erosion of nuclear-related performance standards. One concern was a cross-country flight in August of a B-52 carrying armed nuclear weapons. Walberg said Tinsley was not under investigation or undue stress. “As far as stress, sir, this job, by nature of being an Air Force officer in a nation at war, is stressful,” he said. “Undue stress, no.”

Captain Jonathan Bayless: Another Minot Air Force Base Death. The 91st Missile Wing is a U.S. Air Force strategic nuclear missile unit. They deal with the Minuteman III ICBMs. The body of a missile combat crew commander from the Minot Air Force was found by police and the cause of his death is under investigation, the Air Force says. A statement issued by the base Sunday said the body of Capt. Jonathan Bayless, 28, was found Friday night. Police did not give details but said it was in an area north of the city soccer complex and they are awaiting autopsy results. Col. Christopher Ayres, the base's 91st Missile Wing commander, said Bayless was a training chief with the 91st Operations Support Squadron. He had been at the Minot Air Force Base since March 2005.”

By 2007, there was tremendous fear in the Bush Administration that the lid couldn't be kept on 9/11, people were coming forward and Commission members were screaming for a Grand Jury.

~ more... ~

For some apocalyptic humor: George W. Bush — the 13th Shi'a Imam