DEBKAfile Exclusive: Washington loosens restrictions on hi-tech electronic equipment for Syria despite its military applications
December 15, 2007, 10:51 AM (GMT+02:00)
In line with the thaw in Washington-Damascus relations, the state department has permitted Cisco Systems to ship routers, switches and hi-tech equipment to Syria. Israeli military officials told DEBKAfile’s sources that the shipment of items with military uses was approved, although the Bashar regime is far from mending its ways and continues to meddle in Lebanon.
Western and Israeli intelligence sources stress that Syrian fingerprints were all over the car bomb on Dec. 11, which murdered the Lebanese army’s operations chief Gen. Francois El-Hajj and four others. The general, who was not Syria’s pocket, was designated successor to supreme commander Gen. Michel Suleiman who is slated for the presidency.
Eight hours later, Syrian vice president Farouk a-Shara said unrepentantly: Syrian connections to Lebanon “are as strong as ever” and warned off “anyone in and outside Lebanon who threatens those ties.”
In the last two months, Damascus has fully restored its subversive presence in Beirut. Ever since Assad halted al Qaeda and insurgent infiltrations of fighters, arms, explosives and cash into Iraq, US officials turn a deaf ear to complaints of his mischief-making in Lebanon and continued sponsorship of radical Palestinian terrorists.
The State Department has gone even further in instructing its UN mission not to veto a world body’s technological grant to Syria, for use in sophisticated surveillance equipment coming from the American Cisco Systems company. On orders from secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, the US department of commerce issued Cisco with a special export license for the equipment to be sent to Syria, in violation of Washington's owneconomic sanctions on Syria.
The routers, switches and other hi-tech items are usable for missile radar and other weaponry as well as for early warning apparatus and intelligence surveillance.
Israeli officials commented to DEBKAfile that if Washington cannot uphold its own sanctions, it cannot expect to be taken seriously when urging stiff penalties for Iran.
Drug Dealers Pardoned; Border Patrol Agents Remain in Prison
Sher Zieve
My disappointment with our current political and governmental administration reached an all-time high this week. The reason? While U.S. Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean are left to languish in jail for actually doing their jobs, President Bush has opted to pardon eight (count them – eight) drug dealers. (Was this to ensure that the drug dealers’ families and friends would have an even “jollier” time this time of year than they would have without certain “products”? One can only surmise.)
And as continues to be the case, Agents Ramos and Compean were ignored – much the same way the building of a protective southern border security fence is being substantively ignored by our government “leaders”; leaders who are not only going against the wishes of U.S. citizens, but appear to be hoping that “We the People” will – at some point – forget about the border fence entirely.
Hmmm…
It seems drug dealers are allowed, by our government, to infect our society and way of life with their viruses – even encouraged to do so with these latest pardons – while U.S. citizens are punished for fighting them. Could this be the real reason Compean and Ramos were prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton? Were they (and are we) being sent the unambiguous dictate that drug dealers must be allowed to ply their trade – which includes crossing our southern border to do so – without any interference from local and federal law enforcement and any of the U.S. citizenry?Is this a warning “We the People” to “back off” or also face jail time? Sure sounds like it. But apparently, this mandate applies to only a certain class of drugs and their suppliers.
Our government, via a U.S. Senate subcommittee, is on its way to taking over control of Major League Baseball with one of its seemingly endless investigations – this time over steroid use.So, per our government, steroid use by the players in baseball will now carry a prison sentence with the full weight of the U.S. government behind it. Note: No Senate investigations are currently reported to be ongoing with regard to other professional sports. Steroids are already banned.But, apparently, other highly addictive drugs – which impact the general population areas of the country – are allowed and even supported.And again – drug dealers are being pardoned while those attempting to stop them are being jailed under increasingly trumped up charges based upon seemingly false evidence or the suppression of said “evidence’s” lack of substantiation.This is scary, folks.
There are so many things wrong with these actions that it boggles the mind. We now appear to have a government that is overtly fighting against the people who elected its members to fight for them. With an increasingly sickening certainty and inevitability, those whom we elect to political office can’t seem to become elites quickly enough. These “elites” are the ones who have – or will soon have – the means to protect themselves from their own ill-conceived decisions…decisions that will allow this cream-of-the-crop class to remain in their selective and superior positions while the rest of us must now fight for our lives. While these now privileged politicians pass legislation designed to better themselves, their families and supporters, the rest of us are left to fend for ourselves against said politicians who have now seized power away from us. When criminals are let out of jail, those trying to stop criminals are placed into or forced to remain in jail and members of the U.S. Congress use their color of their authority and power to advance their own political and personal agendas, “We the People” are in tremendous peril. And so is our country. Either fight back against them, or prepare yourselves to become a member of the great and unwashed masses.
The time required to save the country may no longer be on our side.
A European Union summit brought out a number of critics complaining about this institution’s threat to democracy. Is it too little, too late?By Ron Fraser
European leaders met in Lisbon, Portugal, on a balmy October day to thrash out differences over the eu Reform Treaty. Outside, 200,000 citizens demonstrated. They were protesting against the idea of eu citizens being denied any say in the process of the Union’s agreeing to a revision of the much-touted European Constitution in its new guise as the eu Reform Treaty.
Yet again, the eu is showing a determination to impose its will and to ride roughshod over public opinion.
Though the Lisbon demonstration was the largest in the Portuguese capital for 20 years, it was ignored by the press. You simply did not hear about it.
That’s a startling demonstration of the power that this European monolith, the eu, already possesses to control media and thus public opinion. As Thomas Rupp, the coordinator of the European Referendum Campaign, observed of the eu leaders gathered in Lisbon, “They boasted that they have managed to get over an institutional crisis, but in fact they just increased the eu’s democratic crisis by completely avoiding the citizens. And obviously you should not count too much on the mainstream media to do anything about it” (eu Observer, Oct. 23, 2007).
This emerging economic and political titan has a record of railroading its treaties and regulations through the institutions of its own creation—institutions designed to impose the eu will over and above the sovereign rights of its member nation states. The list of regulations it now enforces on its 27 member nations, in many cases trumping those nations’ own sovereign laws, currently runs to 90,000 pages!
In the past, Ireland, France and the Netherlands have all, in principle, rejected the eu constitution via public referenda. The British government has been scared out of its wits by the prospect of testing the eu constitution via the same democratic method, knowing full well that polls indicate upward of 70 percent of the British people do not support it.
The term “democracy,” to the bureaucrats of Brussels, simply has the same meaning as it has in Moscow or Beijing. The European Union is the new tyrant of the Continent.
Thankfully, though it be late—far too late, if we were only to know the truth—voices both sides of the Atlantic are increasingly crying out in alarm over what is building in Europe.
Until recently, very few of the voices that have been sounding an alarm at the danger emerging via the undemocratic processes of the eu have been given equal airtime with the Europhiles. We have quoted a number of the most strident of those voices over the years. Most have been British—such keen observers as British political economist Rodney Atkinson, that great British patriot Norris McWhirter, authors Adrian Hilton, John Laughland, Bernard Connolly et al. Yet on the other side of the Atlantic, those analysts who clearly see what is happening in Europe today for what it is have been few and far between.
Brian Connell, who authored A Watcher on the Rhine back in 1957, attempted to warn Americans of the dangers they would face by endorsing the concept of a united Europe. More recently, the Washington Post’s former London bureau chief T.R. Reid has become quite vocal in trying to educate Americans as to the new superpower that threatens U.S. dominance. His most comprehensive effort, the book The United States of Europe, was published in 2004.
But suddenly, a rash of commentary is coming from sources on both sides of the Atlantic decrying the manner in which this imperial European Union is forcing its will upon the European populace and even beyond. In the business world, the cowering of corporate giant Microsoft before the high and mighty European regulator has set alarm bells ringing among corporate moguls, as the prospect of the eu becoming the chief regulator of global business starts to sink in.
The eu Reform Treaty summit in October ran true to form. As the Economist mused, “Eurocrats like to talk about building Europe ‘step by step.’ Critics accuse Brussels of slicing away national sovereignty, treaty by treaty” (Oct. 25, 2007).
What is the real impact of this latest in the series of treaties that has governed the evolution of this European monolith to this point? The Reform Treaty, to be signed on December 13 in Lisbon, is but the clone of the rejected European Constitution, under a different name, with some revolutionary clauses of imperialistic nature strongly endorsed.
The Reform Treaty creates the new post of president of the European Council, who will host four or more EU summits per year. In addition, the treaty allows for the appointment of an eu foreign minister to represent the Union in its international relations with the rest of the global community and to represent the eu within international entities such as the United Nations.
The treaty also allows for nations desiring greater defense cooperation to proceed to pursue just that. Added to these changes is a shrinkage of the upper layer of political leaders within the European Commission, currently headed by José Manuel Barroso.
What does all this mean to citizens of eu member states?
It means that, without being consulted at all, they will become part of an imperial Europe. Their most powerful representation on the international scene will not be from the foreign ministries and diplomatic corps of their national governments, but through a separate eu foreign office, backed by a separate eu corps of diplomats, who may counter any foreign-policy initiatives that any eu member nation may wish to promulgate individually. This reflects a clear policy of imperialism crafted by eu technocrats.
Europe’s past as an imperial power is one of the great blots on the history of man. It is one of bloodletting on a grand scale, consummating in the 20th century in the two most terrible wars of all. How is it then that the world just stands by and lets the prospect of more such horror to evolve before its eyes with barely a whimper of concern?
Last October, the European Council on Foreign Relations divulged results of a survey that ought to alarm every keen watcher of European developments. Commenting on the results of that survey, eu Observer noted, “Citizens worldwide prefer ‘soft power’ in international affairs rather than military might, and the eu appears to be the political actor whose role is most respected, a new survey suggests.
“In the poll, released by new think tank, the European Council on Foreign Relations, more than one third of the respondents (35 percent) said they see an increased eu power as a central element needed to develop a better world” (Oct. 25, 2007).
Yet there is a paradox here, as the think tank’s executive director, Mark Leonard, and board member Ivan Krastev commented: “It is striking that a continent with a military budget second only to the United States, and the biggest number of peace-keeping forces serving in the world, seems to be perceived as a non-military power” (ibid.).
Back when Europe lay largely in ashes at the close of World War ii, there was one lone voice that cried out in warning at the Allied nations’ efforts to promote the construction of a unified Europe. Herbert W. Armstrong declared that imperial Europe would arise out of the ashes to once again stride across the world as a global superpower. He pointed to the dangers that imperial power would pose to the English-speaking peoples in particular.
Few listened.
Now the chickens are coming home to roost, and the hens are clucking in startled fashion.
As Herbert W. Armstrong declared, this time the leading power in Europe, Germany, has learned the lesson that a European empire is best not created by war. It is best created, like the British Empire of the past, by trade. Once that economic empire is consolidated into a political entity, overlaid culturally by a collective spiritual ideology—a state religion—then and only then should a policy of military imperialism be imposed.
Sixty years of documented history attest to the prescience of Herbert W. Armstrong’s observations.
Led by Germany, in tandem with France and influenced by Rome, this European conglomerate has grown from a Common Market, via economic imperialism, into a political European Union about to elect its own president and appoint its own foreign service. Economic imperialism has morphed into political imperialism.
How will the economic and political interests of this new “United States of Europe” be secured and defended? It has the capacity to support a combined military force with a collective defense budget second only to that other United States, the United States of America! And its combined forces are deployed across more theaters of conflict, in “peace-keeping” mode, than any other international entity! Given some attention to organization—a natural gift of our German friends—that combined military force is already capable of defending the interests of the eu empire, more particularly so now that France has a president willing to share that nation’s nuclear capability with its German partner. This situation is, in fact, destined to have far graver consequences upon the U.S. and its allies than Iraq and Afghanistan combined are presently having. In fact, it is destined to soon overtake the U.S. and its English-speaking allies in terms of economic impact, political influence and military might—believe it or not!
Yes, the more astute pundits are now emerging to decry the threats posed by imperialist Europe. But it’s all too late. The barn door has been left open by the victors in the last European-instigated war; the horse has bolted and there’s no stopping it.
The best we can hope for now is—in fact—the greatest of all hopes.
Hope, and pray, for the day to soon come when the final revival of that old Holy Roman Empire will be quashed, never again to raise its bloody fist over mankind. Its global power is about to be replaced by a supreme, universal Power in fulfillment of Isaiah’s great prophecy: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).
FOREIGN Secretary David Miliband has signed the hated EU treaty.
Due to the delayed arrival of Gordon Brown, Mr Miliband was the only foreign minister to attend the televised ceremony alone, amid a stream of prime ministers and presidents from the other 26 EU states.
Mr Brown is due to put his name to the Treaty of Lisbon - which replaces the failed EU Constitution - later today, after he joins the other EU heads of government at a private lunch following the official signing ceremony.
The developments come despite an eleventh-hour bombshell that it means surrendering control of Britain’s immigration policy.
That's it ... signature
The warning was issued to the PM last night as he prepared to wave the white flag over our right to make our own laws.
Just hours before Mr Brown was due to fly to Lisbon to hand over huge chunks of Britain’s power for good, it emerged tens of thousands of foreigners facing the boot from the UK will be winners.
They will get new rights to overturn decisions by Britain’s Immigration and Asylum Tribunal.
It means failed asylum seekers will be free to take their cases to the European Court of Justice in Strasbourg — giving the final say to unelected EU judges.
And it is all thanks to a treaty - now signed by European Union leaders - critics warn is practically the SAME as the ill-fated EU Constitution, which bit the dust two years ago after the French and Dutch rejected it in referendums.
Admission ... Geoff Hoon
Amazingly, Mr Brown — who vetoed a referendum on the treaty here claiming it was different — now admits it IS a “semi-constitution”. Interviewed in The Times today, he vows to get tough with EU leaders — while accepting the treaty mirrors parts of the Constitution.
The PM says: “What I’m going to say to Europe is stop looking inwards, stop looking at constitutions or semi-constitutions or institutions for a long time ahead — and for the foreseeable future concentrate on the big issues ahead of us.”
Last night Neil O’Brien, whose Open Europe organisation has scoured the treaty’s small print, declared: “By signing us up to the rejected Constitution, Gordon Brown is giving EU courts the right to hear asylum cases.
Grilling
“This could mean that decisions made by UK courts to deport failed asylum seekers will be overturned by Brussels.”
The signing today surrendered more than SIXTY of the UK’s prized vetoes on EU decisions — forever.
The treaty puts in place a powerful permanent EU president and foreign minister. Powers will be handed to unelected bureaucrats and judges in Brussels.
Today Tory leader David Cameron blasts Mr Brown’s “betrayal” of Britain in an exclusive article on the facing page.
Mr Cameron says: “He doesn’t even have the guts to put it to the British people.”
This morning the PM was grilled by MPs in Westminster — meaning he would arrive late for the historic signing ceremony.
After finally arriving in Lisbon he will put pen to paper hours after his EU counterparts — leaving many of them furious.
Article 21 of the treaty declares it will be illegal for any EU state to discriminate on “any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or other opinion.”
It bars any member country from “any discrimination on grounds of nationality”.
Other clauses which hand immigrants more powers are included in Articles 4, 19, 7, 15, 16, 18, 45 and 47. The UK Government has confessed in the past it has great concerns about the measures.
Fortune
Former EU minister Geoff Hoon — now chief whip — admitted they should NOT have been applied to the UK.
He said last November: “There is clearly a risk that adding what is in effect an avenue of appeal at a very early stage in the process might be an opportunity of further complicating our existing asylum and immigration processes.”
There are currently 167,000 appeals against deportation heard by the Immigration Tribunal each year.
Hundreds more are then taken to the Court of Appeal until they are exhausted — costing taxpayers a fortune. The new powers handed to migrants threaten to clog up the European Court of Justice.
It takes an average of two years to deal with a case — even though the EU court’s role SHOULD be to focus on helping industry, not sorting out asylum cases.
The changes will also cost UK taxpayers a fortune as failed asylum seekers contest their cases while remaining on full benefits. Government figures show the average bill for supporting a refugee is £129 a week.
Warning ... David Miliband
A two-year court battle would see an applicant costing the taxpayer £13,500 in handouts and around £3,500 in legal aid costs. With more than 150,000 appeals in Britain each year, the bill could run into tens of millions — as a direct result of the EU treaty.
The pact ALSO threatens to destroy Europe’s ability to compete against the tiger economies of India and China — thanks to the French.
Measures outlawing EU countries from propping up their own companies with unfair cash handouts will be diluted. The treaty will effectively destroy competition — and allow failing firms and industries to snuff out any hopes of the EU getting its economy into shape.
Every other EU leader has admitted the treaty is virtually identical to the doomed Constitution. Last night Labour MPs on the powerful Commons Foreign Affairs Committee warned Foreign Secretary David Miliband not to treaty voters as fools.
Andrew MacKinlay said of the Constitution: “A majority of the public feel it and the treaty are one and the same.”
Mr Brown faces a bitter Commons revolt in January when he tries to force the treaty through Parliament.
(AP) Bicycles are covered in ice Tuesday Dec. 11, 2007 at Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo.... Full Image
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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A massive storm that dropped sleet and freezing rain across the nation's midsection, leaving nearly a million utility customers without electricity, finally tapered off, but another wintry blast was forecast to develop Wednesday over the southern Plains.
The new system was expected to bring more sleet and freezing rain to Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas, but not nearly as much as the previous storm, according to the National Weather Service.
Ice ranging from a quarter-inch to an inch thick glazed roads in much of the central Plains and Midwest. At least 24 deaths have been blamed on the storm since it developed last weekend. Most resulted from traffic accidents.
Forecasters said more snow, sleet and freezing rain could develop across the northern Ohio Valley and from Pennsylvania into New England on Wednesday.
(AP) Some snow covered berries are seen on a tree as snow falls Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007, in Brookfield,... Full Image
The power outage was the worst ever in Oklahoma, with more than 618,000 homes and businesses without electricity late Tuesday. Officials said it could be a week to 10 days before power is fully restored.
"We're relying on people to look after each other," Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said. "At the end of the day, this comes down to the strength of your people. ... People who have electricity ought to be sharing it with people who don't."
Elsewhere, nearly 350,000 customers were affected by outages in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Illinois.
Lesley Owczarski, owner of Big Apple Bagels in Ottumwa, Iowa, said the power was on at her shop, but many of her customers weren't so lucky.
"Most of the places don't have power so a lot of people have been coming to the bagel shop," she said. "If they can come in and get warm and have a hot coffee and a latte, why not? I can understand it's boring sitting at home."
(AP) A utility worker repairs power lines, Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007 in Kirksville, Mo. after an overnight... Full Image
Most people decided to stay home and bundle up rather than go to shelters.
"We've got kerosene lamps and a fireplace," said Charita Miller of Oklahoma City. "We're OK. We can't watch TV. Oh well, you can't have everything. It's just me and my husband. My husband said, 'there's food in the freezer.'"
Sonya Kendrick, who spent Monday night at one of several American Red Cross shelters set up in Oklahoma City, said a tree ripped the electrical box off the side of her house, and she needed a warm place to take her three children until repairs could be made.
"When I got in here yesterday, I was totally distraught. I was like, 'Why me? Why me of all people?' I look at it this way, too: I'm not the only one," Kendrick said Tuesday. "There's other people here that I got to know in less than two days, literally. All of them have been through the same thing, and everybody here just understands everybody."
The storm also caused extensive travel problems. More than 550 flights were canceled at Chicago's O'Hare Airport on Tuesday, and hundreds of other flights were delayed up to an hour by nighttime, said Chicago Department of Aviation spokesman Gregg Cunningham.
(AP) Josh Russell of Altoona, Iowa, scrapes snow and ice off his car Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007, in Altoona,... Full Image
Not everyone minded the winter weather.
Lynette Lamblez, an inventory controller from Waukesha, Wis., said her bus ride to work took 30 minutes longer Tuesday but she was grateful for the snowfall.
"Four weeks ago, it was 60 degrees out," she said. "I really think it's beautiful."
Officials in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma had declared states of emergency. President Bush declared a federal emergency in Oklahoma on Tuesday, ordering government aid to supplement state and local efforts.
Tulsa and Oklahoma City each had more than 100 reports of fires since the storm began, mostly from tree limbs crashing into live power lines, authorities said.
(AP) Firefighters pick up hose after extinguishing a fire Tuesday kDec. 11, 2007, in St. Joseph, Mo.... Full Image
Cold rain was forecast to fall over parts of Oklahoma on Wednesday, but temperatures were expected to remain above freezing, said Patrick Burke, a weather service meteorologist in Norman, Okla.
"It will still be cold and nasty outside and may slow efforts to restore power and remove tree limbs and such," he said.
High temperatures should reach the 40s on Thursday with no additional rainfall expected, Burke said. But by late Friday, another storm could bring 2 to 4 inches of snow to areas north of Interstate 44, he said.
The 24 deaths blamed on the weather include 15 in Oklahoma, four in Kansas, three in Missouri and one each in Nebraska and Michigan.
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Associated Press writers Jim Salter in St. Louis, Nafeesa Syeed in Des Moines, Iowa, John Hartzell in Milwaukee and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.
Western companies have the know-how - and the financial incentive - to supply water to poor nations. But, as Richard Wachman reports, their involvement is already provoking unrest
The midday sun beats down on a phalanx of riot police facing thousands of jeering demonstrators, angry at proposals to put up their water bills by more than a third. Moments later a uniformed officer astride a horse shouts an order and the police charge down the street to embark on a club-wielding melee that leaves dozens of bloodied protesters with broken limbs.
A film clip from the latest offering from Hollywood? Unfortunately not. It's a description of a real-life event in Cochabamba, Bolivia's third largest city, where a subsidiary of Bechtel, the US engineering giant, took over the municipal water utility and increased bills to a level that the poorest could not afford.
Welcome to a new world, where war and civil strife loom in the wake of chronic water shortages caused by rising population, drought (exacerbated by global warming) and increased demand from the newly affluent middle classes in the emerging economies of Asia and Latin America.
At a City briefing by an international bank last week, a senior executive said: 'Today everyone is talking about global warming, but my prediction is that in two years water will move to the top of the geopolitical agenda.'
The question for countries as far apart as China and Argentina is whether to unleash market forces by allowing access to private European and American multinationals that have the technological know-how to help bring water to the masses - but at a price that many may be unable, or unwilling, to pay.
As Cochabamba illustrates, water is an explosive issue in developing countries, where people have traditionally received supplies for free from local wells and rivers. But in the past 15 years rapid industrialisation, especially in places such as China, has led to widespread pollution and degradation of the local environment.
A report out today from accountancy giant Deloitte & Touche says humans seem to have a peculiar talent for making previously abundant resources scarce: 'this is especially the case with water,' it observes.
According to the firm's findings, more than 1 billion people will lack access to clean water by next year. Paul Lee, research director at Deloitte, and one of the authors of the report, says: 'Demand for water is expected to be driven by economic growth and population increases. India's demand for water is expected to exceed supply by 2020.'
The World Wildlife Fund has forecast that in the Himalayas, the retreat of glaciers could reduce summer water flows by up to two-thirds. In the Ganges area, this would cause a water shortage for 500 million people. Lee says: 'The lack of the most important form of liquid in the world is therefore a fundamental issue and one that the technology sector can play a major role in addressing.'
He and others, including the World Bank, believe that private industry can - sometimes - solve problems by taking water out of government hands and removing subsidies. If water becomes more expensive, so this argument goes, people are more reluctant to waste it, although Taylor agrees that government needs to make certain that the poorest sections of society are protected, and that there is 'proper [price] regulation'.
By allowing prices to rise to help meet the cost of supply, companies could upgrade infrastructure and, in many cases, build new systems from scratch.
Even in Britain it is recognised that efficiency is vital to avoid leaks. In the developing world, leakage can account for the loss of up to 50 per cent of all clean water supplies in major cities.
But protecting the poor is not always easy. Take the example of desalination. Although it offers a solution for countries where demand exceeds supply, the technological process uses a huge amount of energy, making it 'too expensive for many African and Asian countries', says Lee.
Max Lawson, senior policy adviser for Oxfam, says: 'We are sceptical that private-sector involvement is the solution for very poor countries. In fact, there is an argument that much greater public sector involvement and cash is needed to channel supplies to where they are most needed.' But Abel Mejia at the World Bank in Washington says the organisation does not favour one form of investment over the other: 'We lend to private companies and governments, but we are not ideologically motivated. Solutions may need a mix of private and public money.'
The World Development Movement lobby group has in the past criticised the World Bank's enthusiasm for private firms controlling water projects; it prefers public-private partnerships, run on a not-for-profit basis.
But it is in China - the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gas - that the water problem is most pronounced, as fears grow that the country is turning into an ecological disaster area. The head of the country's national development agency said recently that a quarter of the length of China's seven main rivers was so poisoned that the water was harmful to the skin. Moreover, water-related issues are sparking popular protests after the sanctioning of dams and irrigation projects that have displaced hundreds of thousands of people who have no recourse to compensation. Beijing has passed legislation to punish companies that pollute supplies but, in China, such laws can be difficult to enforce.
So pressing are issues surrounding water that China has invited Western companies to run systems in many towns and cities. One of the biggest is French-owned Veolia, once part of the Vivendi utilities empire. In parts of China, water provided by Veolia no longer has to be boiled, but the cost to consumers has doubled. For the middle class, the price is still relatively low - but most Chinese are not middle class. Many say up to half their income is now being swallowed by water bills. That leaves Beijing between a rock and a hard place because, like many emerging economies, it desperately needs Western know-how and technology to solve its water problems, but it is anxious to avoid the kind of civil unrest that the Bolivian government experienced in Cochabamba.
In the City of London, there is a growing realisation that investing in water technology companies offers opportunities for savvy shareholders, and possibly for ethical investors. 'There is also an appetite from institutions for water-related investments - they know it's going to be big,' says Julian Sevaux, managing partner at Stanhope Capital.
Olivia Bowen, an independent financial adviser at the Gaeia Partnership, says: 'New climate change funds have recently come to market; some are well established, such as Impax's Environmental Markets Fund.'
GE and Dow Chemical are among big US companies diversifying into water services, while the UK-based Thames Water is expanding overseas.
But the crux of the problem remains: according to a report from Credit Suisse, annual world water use has risen sixfold during the past century, more than double the rate of population growth. By 2025, almost two-thirds of the global population will live in countries where water will be a scarce commodity. And that could lead to conflict, as United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon warned last week.
Asia looks vulnerable, with China planning to syphon off Tibet's water supply to make up for shortages in the parched north. Elsewhere, the Israel-Palestine conflict is at least partly about securing supplies from the River Jordan; similarly, water is a major feature of the strife in Sudan that has left Darfur devastated. When it comes to this most basic of commodities, the stakes could hardly be higher.
The Mormon Masshole and his bid for the White House are in serious trouble, due to the fact that Americans are creeped out by Mormons. New polls show 43% of voters will never pick a Mormon for president, because the Church of the Latter Day Saints isn’t crazy in the same exact way as Christianity.
That’s why Mitt Romney has launched a Mormon Charm Offensive by … refusing to to say whether or not he wears the magic Mormon underwear.
But times are changing! The main Mormon church has started allowing colored folk to enter the Temple and no longer allows men to have multiple underage wives. All signs point to a Mormon Presidency in 2008!
(Originally published by JTF.ORG on March 3, 2004)
Israel releases unrepentant Muslim terrorist mass murderers
"He who is merciful to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the merciful," the rabbis teach us in the Talmud. (The Talmud is a vast compilation of Jewish oral law as well as rabbinic commentary on the Bible.)
Israeli Jewish traitor Elchanan Tennenboim
Authentic Torah Judaism considers it to be an immutable law of history: someone who is kind to the evil, will inevitably be evil to the kind.
Hezballah terrorist leader Sheik Hasan Nasrallah greets Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Muslim dictator of terrorist Iran(Khamenei has been called the "world's most dangerous terrorist")
For example, take the case of Elchanan Tennenboim.
We were told that Tennenboim was a retired Israeli military officer who was lured to Beirut, Lebanon by the Hezballah Muslim terrorists. Tennenboim wanted to make a "business deal" with the Muslim terrorists, we are told, but he was abducted upon his arrival in Lebanon.
During Tennenboim's three years of captivity, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told us that he was brutally tortured by his Hezballah captors. Sharon told us that his health had deteriorated and that he was near death, and that Hezballah had ripped his teeth out of his mouth as part of their torture.
An elderly "enemy of the Muslim state" is led off at gunpoint for execution by the Hezballah terrorists
Sharon said that we had to rescue our fellow Jew Tennenboim even if we disapprove of his willingness to make a "business deal" with the Hezballah mass murderers.
So Sharon got his coalition government to approve the release of 500 Muslim terrorists held in Israeli prisons in exchange for one self-hating Jew, Elchanan Tennenboim.
Israel released hundreds of Hezballah Muslim terrorist mass murderers (l.) on the very day (January 29, 2004) that a Jerusalem Muslim suicide bus bombing murdered 11 and wounded 50, many critically, yards from Ariel Sharon's official residence
JTF noted that prior releases of Arab terrorists led directly to the murder of hundreds of innocent Jewish men, women and children. After their release, the Arab terrorists carried out dozens of new attacks on Israeli buses, restaurants, pizza parlors, cafes and shopping centers.
JTF also warned that Tennenboim was a vile Jewish traitor who deserved the ultimate punishment, and that no effort should be made to free him.
But as usual, the warnings of JTF and our Hilltop Youth allies in Israel were ignored.
Arabs march in Gaza praising Hezballah terrorist mass murderer Hasan Nasrallah and PLO terrorist mass murderer Yasser Arafat (January 2004)
After 500 Muslim terrorist mass murderers were released - waving "V" for victory signs and chanting "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!" - Tennenboim was returned to Israel.
Despite the lies told to us by Sharon, the Shabak (the Israeli equivalent of the KGB) and the Bolshevik news media, Tennenboim's health had not deteriorated, and he had not been tortured.
Tennenboim was found to be in perfect health, with all of his teeth - as noted earlier, Sharon claimed that Hezballah ripped his teeth out of his mouth - and it was clear that he had suffered no torture whatsoever.
Since Muslim terrorists always torture their captives, obviously something was wrong here.
We now learn that Tennenboim was not abducted. He faked the kidnapping in cooperation with the Hezballah terrorists.
Tennenboim is a compulsive gambler who has massive debts. He approached Hezballah terrorists in Europe, offering to assist them in smuggling narcotics into Israel if they would pay off his debts.
Tennenboim also gave the Muslim terrorists vital Israeli military secrets, which Hezballah promptly passed on to their sponsors in Muslim terrorist Iran and Muslim terrorist Syria.
Grown and baby Hezballah Muslim terrorists
Hezballah then arranged with Tennenboim his fake kidnapping in order to use him as a bargaining chip to release hundreds of Muslim mass murderers from Israeli prisons.
Now that all of this has been widely reported in Israel, will Sharon, Shabak, the Israeli military and the Bolshevik news media admit that the deal they supported is a disaster? Of course not!
Will the political parties in Sharon's coalition government - the Likud, Shinui, HaIchud HaLeumi (The National Union) and HaMafdal (The National Religious Party) - admit that they have been part of an evil regime that has brought one catastrophe after another on the heads of the Jewish people? Of course not!
The Hezballah terrorist gang finds safe haven and state support in Muslim Nazi Syria (December 2003)(Muslim terrorist gangs like Hezballah and Islamic Jihad have offices in Damascus, enjoy the protection and funding of Muslim terrorist dictator Bashar Assad (l.) and are armed and trained by the Syrian Nazi army)
If anything, Israel's traitorous leadership is trying to cover its tracks by perpetrating even more treasonous and evil deeds.
For instance, Tennenboim is being offered full immunity from criminal prosecution if he "cooperates" with the Shabak and the police.
Cooperates?! What good will that do after Tennenboim already gave Hezballah, Iran and Syria some of Israel's most important military secrets? After his fake kidnapping led to the horrific release of 500 Muslim terrorist mass murderers?
Someone who committed this type of ultimate treason receives full immunity from criminal prosecution?
Hezballah Muslim terrorist leader Nasrallah with his black, Jew-hating supporter, UN head Kofi Annan
Why?
Because the Shabak and the Israeli military want to cover up their own criminal behavior in this case. The Shabak and the Israeli military shared with Tennenboim top military and intelligence secrets even though they knew that he was a compulsive gambler, that he had piled up massive debts in Austrian Nazi casinos and that he was supposedly under treatment for his compulsion in Gamblers Anonymous.
The United Nations works with the Muslim terrorist gang Hezballah in Lebanon(A UN armored personnel carrier is seen driving under a roadside sign praising Nasrallah, the head of Hezballah, and Muslim terrorists firing rockets into Israel; the Arabic reads: "At your orders!")
Yet the Shabak and the Israeli military trusted Tennenboim, and gave him top secret military and intelligence information when he requested it. The Shabak and the Israeli military saw nothing wrong or treasonous in someone who compulsively gambles in Austrian Nazi casinos because they themselves are amoral, self-hating Jews who visit Jew-hating countries as tourists, buy products from Jew-hating companies and even negotiate with Muslim Nazi Jew-killers.
When the Shabak and the Israeli military saw Tennenboim, they saw themselves. And so, of course, they shared top secret military and intelligence information with this former Israeli military officer.
In fact, when Sharon saw Tennenboim, he also saw himself. Sharon's son Omri has made business deals with Austrian Nazi casino owners, and even with the PLO terrorist mass murderers who own the casino in Jericho. Indeed, Sharon's chief of staff, Dov Veisglass, is the attorney for the Arab Hitler Yasser Arafat's Jericho casino.
The only solution is for Israel to have the type of moral, G-d-fearing, Torah-true Jews who will turn the Jewish homeland into what she was destined to be: "a light unto the nations," "a holy nation" and "the apple of My eye."
JTF is raising funds for Baruch Marzel and his new Chayil (Valor) Party, and for the heroic Hilltop Youth. If they win representation in the next Israeli Knesset (Parliament) elections, the Jewish people will finally be exposed to truth, justice, faith, hope, honor and righteousness.
Eitan Kukoi, 30, and his wife Rima Novikov, 27, were murdered by Arab terrorists near Judea and Samaria (February 27, 2004)(The murdered couple is survived by their two-year-old daughter, Michelle)
Then and only then will we have an Israeli Government that is no longer merciful to the cruel, and cruel to the merciful.
Which is why we strongly urge our many loyal readers - both Jews and righteous Gentiles - to immediately do the following four things:
First, if you are a wealthy Jew or a wealthy righteous Gentile, and you have wealthy friends and associates, you can hold a fundraising cocktail party for JTF. Even if you are not wealthy - but have wealthy friends and associates - you can organize a cocktail party. If you wish to hold a cocktail party, please contact JTF.
Second, make out a generous check or money order (which can be anonymous) to "JTF" and send it out right away. If you prefer, you can mail a cash donation.
Third, zealously spread the word about the JTF.ORG web site. Posting portions of JTF.ORG on popular internet message boards is especially effective. We do get many new hits when we are posted.
Fourth, please remember to include the "Jewish Task Force (JTF)" in your will.
4 and I will turn thee about, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed most gorgeously, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords:
ה פָּרַס כּוּשׁ וּפוּט, אִתָּם; כֻּלָּם, מָגֵן וְכוֹבָע.
5 Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet;
ו גֹּמֶר, וְכָל-אֲגַפֶּיהָ--בֵּית תּוֹגַרְמָה, יַרְכְּתֵי צָפוֹן וְאֶת-כָּל-אֲגַפָּיו; עַמִּים רַבִּים, אִתָּךְ.
6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north, and all his bands; even many peoples with thee.
8 After many days thou shalt be mustered for service, in the latter years thou shalt come against the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many peoples, against the mountains of Israel, which have been a continual waste; but it is brought forth out of the peoples, and they dwell safely all of them.
9 And thou shalt ascend, thou shalt come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many peoples with thee. {S}
11 and thou shalt say: I will go up against the land of unwalled villages; I will come upon them that are at quiet, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates;
12 to take the spoil and to take the prey; to turn thy hand against the waste places that are now inhabited, and against the people that are gathered out of the nations, that have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the middle of the earth.
13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the magnates thereof, shall say unto thee: Comest thou to take the spoil? hast thou assembled thy company to take the prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take great spoil? {S}
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say unto Gog: Thus saith the Lord GOD: In that day when My people Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the uttermost parts of the north, thou, and many peoples with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company and a mighty army;
16 and thou shalt come up against My people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the end of days, and I will bring thee against My land, that the nations may know Me, when I shall be sanctified through thee, O Gog, before their eyes. {S}
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD: Art thou he of whom I spoke in old time by My servants the prophets of Israel, that prophesied in those days for many years, that I would bring thee against them? {S}
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that My fury shall arise up in My nostrils.
20 so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep upon the ground, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at My presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will cause to rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many peoples that are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
23 Thus will I magnify Myself, and sanctify Myself, and I will make Myself known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am the LORD. {S}
Extreme Pacific Storm Batters Northwest With 100mph Winds, Major Flooding
December 4, 2007 AP
ORTLAND, Ore. — Downed trees blocked roads and power outages were widespread Tuesday across much of the Northwest, where residents prepared for a massive cleanup effort after being battered by back-to-back storms.
Image: Despite road closure, drivers attempt to pass through a section of the road in Portland, Ore. (AP)
A severe storm smacked the region Monday with hurricane-force winds and several inches of rain, and was blamed for four deaths. It came only a day after another severe system moved through Sunday.
By Tuesday, the second system had moved on to the Upper Midwest, where it was predicted to drop just a few inches of snow. In its path, it left chaos: Roads were closed in Washington and Oregon because of downed trees and landslides, and many schools and government offices were closed for a second day.
The governors of Washington and Oregon declared states of emergency, which could speed relief efforts in flood-hit areas. The National Weather Service said 3 to 6 inches of rain had fallen across much of western Washington. The 24-hour rain total for Bremerton was 10.78 inches.
In Olympia, the rain turned a normally small creek into a roiling, muddy surge of water that tore through a wall at the Ranch House BBQ restaurant. Tables and booths were strewn across the street, and a storage shed was pushed about 300 feet away.
Christy Romo, who lives just up the hill, said she could hear the floodwaters coming and started packing before the first floor of her cabin was inundated.
"I knew I wouldn't have much time," Romo said. "I heard a bang, and then saw the water rising quickly."
Image: Justin Ralph rescues a dog who was trying to reach dry land in Woodinville, Wash. (AP)
Mudslides blocked numerous roads and forced an undetermined number of residents to evacuate condominiums, apartments and houses in Seattle, at least nine houses in suburban Burien and several mobile homes in Shelton.
Mudslides halted Amtrak passenger train service between Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia, for a second day Tuesday. Interstate 5, the principal north-south route along the West Coast, was closed near Centralia because of about 3 feet of water over the road.
The freeway will remain closed at least through Wednesday, and "it could well be longer than that if we've had some road washout," state transportation engineer Peter H. Craig said.
Rescue boats were used to grab flood-stranded residents, and GPS-equipped helicopters were used at night. One helicopter plucked people from the roof of a house, sheriff's Detective Matt Wallace said. Coast Guard helicopters had hoisted more than 100 people from areas surrounded by water in Washington, officials said.
Power companies said electricity may not be restored to some areas for three or four days, and some utilities planned to survey the damage by helicopter Tuesday. More stiff winds were likely, but nothing like the blasts that exceeded 120 miles mph at the height of the storm.
Most of the Olympic Peninsula, Kitsap County and southwest Washington were hit particularly hard by the storm. Gov. Chris Gregoire said some 80,000 people had lost electric power across western Washington. Portland-based Pacific Power said about 23,000 customers still were without power Monday night.
Image: Larissa Arstill waits at a Red Cross aid station for her husband Dana Arstill to return from their trailer in Tillamook, Ore.. The couple were awoken early Monday as their roof lifted off of their home. The state Department of Transportation told drivers to forget trying to get through the Coast Range, where downed trees, rocks and mud slides and high water closed roads. (AP)
At least four people were killed by the storm.
Two Oregon deaths were reported, including that of a 90-year-old woman who suffered what Tillamook County medical examiner Dr. Paul Betlinski called "a weather-related heart attack" as she evacuated. The driver of a truck swept away by floodwaters in the same area also was reported dead.
In Washington, one man in Aberdeen died when a tree fell on him as he was trying to clear another downed tree. Another person died from an undetermined medical problem after power was lost, said Grays Harbor County sheriff's Detective Ed McGowan.
The back-to-back storm fronts Sunday and Monday that were among the Northwest's worst in recent memory. The first storm killed at least 15 people, mostly in traffic accidents, as it marched across the country, dumping snow from the Midwest to the Northeast.
The winter weather spelled success for ski areas in New England that suffered through an abysmal winter last year. In Vermont, 7 inches of snow welcomed skiers and snowboarders Monday.
"It's not snow. It's white gold," said Christopher Francis, innkeeper at Ye Olde England Inne, a 30-room establishment in the shadow of Stowe Mountain Resort.
In 1996, a shocking World War ii intelligence document was made public. The document, detailing an August 1944 meeting between top German industrialists, reveals a secret post-war plan to restore the Nazis to power. Several of Germany’s elite industries were represented, including Messerschmitt and Volkswagenwerks. These companies, the document asserts, were to “prepare themselves to finance the Nazi Party which would be forced to go underground.” When the U.S. declassified this document, it received only sparse news coverage. Yet even more disturbing than the deep stupor of the press is the fact that the U.S. government did not make it public until 1996—over 50 years later!
By 1944, the Germans knew they would lose World War ii and were already planning for the next round! “Existing financial reserves in foreign countries,” the document says, “must be placed at the disposal of the party so that a strong German Empire can be created after the defeat.”
Those at the 1944 meeting understood that the most prominent members of the Nazi Party would be condemned as war criminals. “However,” the document maintains, “in cooperation with the industrialists it is arranging to place its less conspicuous but most important members in positions with various German factories as technical experts or members of its research and designing offices.”
How alarming! Why was so little written about this in 1996? Why did it take so long for it to be declassified? America and Britain have fallen asleep—our people don’t understand what is happening behind the scenes!
That is why we feel compelled to return to these issues again and again. Hardly anyone else will!
Historians have long debated whether or not a secret Nazi plan was made for a post-war, international network. Now that it has been confirmed, as Elan Steinberg of the World Jewish Congress said, “the central question is whether it has been carried out.”
The obvious answer is, it has!
Brian Connell, in his 1957 book A Watcher on the Rhine, offered abundant proof of that plan being carried out. He drew attention to a watershed event in 1947, just two years after the war, when Allied authorities foolishly handed over denazification responsibilities to, of all people, the Germans! After 1947, denazification in Germany, according to Connell, was a farce!
Consider the province of Bavaria for example. “The Bavarian administration,” Connell wrote, “is largely in the hands of those who controlled it under Hitler …. Almost all of the 1,000 teachers who were removed for political reasons have been reappointed, representing roughly 60 percent of the teaching staff employed by the Ministry of Education. Sixty percent of the 15,000 employees in the Finance Ministry are former Nazis, and 81 percent of the 924 judges, magistrates and prosecutors in the Ministry of Justice.”
There was an attempt made by the Allies to liberalize a narrow method of teaching in German education. Connell stated, “New teachers were appointed, and a degree of independence assured to individual instructions, which should have made education for democracy a feasible proposition. But many of the former Nazi teachers have found their way back.”
Later, Connell wrote, “In Western Germany, the newly prosperous Ruhr industrialists, the still impenitent core of former Nazis … represents a challenge to the democratic order.”
Nazism is far from being dead in Germany! Today, right-wing extremism continues to increase dramatically—even in German elections! Should that surprise us?
Let us now look at another important report that never received much press coverage.
The report was given by Herbert W. Armstrong from the United Nations on May 9, 1945, just nine months after the secret meeting between German industrialists. In it Mr. Armstrong said, “The war is over, in Europe—or is it?”
What did he mean by that? Did he know something no one else did? He certainly did!
“We don’t understand German thoroughness,” he said. “From the very start of World War ii, they have considered the possibility of losing this second round, as they did the first—and they have carefully, methodically planned, in such eventuality, the third round—World War iii! Hitler has lost. This round of war, in Europe, is over. And the Nazis have now gone underground.”
Many scoffed at Mr. Armstrong’s warning message in 1945. Yet look at how closely his report mirrors what was said in the secret document that was not made public until 50 years later!
The Mormon Masshole and his bid for the White House are in serious trouble, due to the fact that Americans are creeped out by Mormons. New polls show 43% of voters will never pick a Mormon for president, because the Church of the Latter Day Saints isn’t crazy in the same exact way as Christianity.
Image: Despite road closure, drivers attempt to pass through a section of the road in Portland, Ore. (AP)
Image: Justin Ralph rescues a dog who was trying to reach dry land in Woodinville, Wash. (AP)
Image: Larissa Arstill waits at a Red Cross aid station for her husband Dana Arstill to return from their trailer in Tillamook, Ore.. The couple were awoken early Monday as their roof lifted off of their home. The state Department of Transportation told drivers to forget trying to get through the Coast Range, where downed trees, rocks and mud slides and high water closed roads. (AP)