Wednesday, February 28, 2007

"NAFTA" COMING TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

Officials Meet To Implement North American Union
Security and Prosperity Partnership meeting in Ottawa draws protests

Infowars.net | February 26, 2007
Steve Watson

Condoleeza Rice met with her Canadian and Mexican counterparts in Ottawa over the weekend to discuss plans for a North American Union at a secretive Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) meeting that has received scant media coverage outside of a few Canadian news outlets .

During a joint press conference with MacKay, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa, two dissenters, who had infiltrated, took to the stage in an effort to protest against the secretive and backhanded manner in which the SPP movement is being conducted. The two were quickly escorted off the premises.

Click here for a short video.

A Canadian report describes the SPP as "an international framework for trilateral and bilateral cooperation in North America" that is "not a formal international treaty" or "an overarching binding legal agreement." But what is an "international framework" that commits U.S. officials from various federal agencies to working with officials of two other countries? Why is such a process not subjected to congressional scrutiny and approval?

Last September we reported that Journalist Jerome Corsi has received the first documents pertaining to a FOIA request asking for full disclosure of the SPP office in its activities towards creating a Pan American Union.

According to a report by World Net Daily , the documents reveal that the Bush administration is running a "shadow government" without congressional oversight in conjunction with Canada and Mexico under the guise of a program "to increase security and to enhance prosperity among the three countries through greater cooperation."

Corsi asserts that a wide range of US administrative law is being re-written in stealth under this program to "integrate" and "harmonize" with administrative law in Mexico and Canada.

The documents contain references to upwards of 13 working groups within an entire organized infrastructure that has drawn from officials within most areas of administrative government including U.S. departments of State, Homeland Security, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, Transportation, Energy, Health and Human Services, and the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Corsi also reported that at a recent high-level confab in Banff, an assistant U.S. secretary of state, Thomas A. Shannon , chaired a panel that featured a presentation by Prof. Robert Pastor, author of a book promoting the development of a North American union as a regional government and the adoption of the amero as a common monetary currency to replace the dollar and the peso.


According to reports , last Friday at the SPP meeting, Pastor declared that a "very small group" of conservatives is unfairly accusing him of being at the center of a "vast conspiracy" to implement the idea of a "North American Union" by "stealth." He called the charges "absurd."

Yet at the same meeting Pastor acknowledged that he is pushing for a "North American Community", that he believes the U.S. Government doesn't want to enforce its immigration laws, and that the solution is not a fence or increased border security except in some isolated high-crime areas along the border, and it's not to punish companies for hiring illegal aliens, since identity documents can be too easily forged. He said the solution is a national biometric and fraud-proof identification card that identifies national origin and legal status.

Cliff Kincaid of The Post Chronicle also reported:

One speaker, Stephen Zamora of the University of Houston Law School, denounced the idea of a wall separating Mexico and the U.S., in order to control illegal immigration, asking, "What does citizenship mean anymore?" He expressed pleasant surprise when a Mexican in the audience said she had dual citizenship in Mexico and the U.S. Later, he said he was just as concerned about people living in Mexico as people living in the U.S.

Another speaker, Tom Farer, Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver, made a point of saying that his representative in Congress, Tom Tancredo (R-Col.), a staunch advocate of U.S. border security, was a backward thinker. Tancredo could be seen "dragging his knuckles along the ground," Farer said, trying to crack a joke.

The open plan to merge the US with Mexico and Canada and create a Pan American Union has long been a Globalist brainchild but its very real and prescient implementation on behalf of the Council on Foreign Relations is now finally being reported on by mainstream news outlets, most notably by Lou Dobbs of CNN who has described the ploy as "utterly mad".

The Union is the globalist cabal's meal ticket towards raping an entire continent of its resources and sovereign capabilities. Strengthening the borders is not on the Agenda here, the American Union is all about DISSOLVING the borders.

The framework on which the American Union is being pegged is the Trans-Texas Corridor Super Highway, a four football-fields-wide leviathan that stretches from southern Mexico through the US up to Montreal Canada. Toll roads are to be placed upon existing roads in Security Prosperity Partnership agreements that bypasses Congress, agreements between the bureaucracies of the US and Mexican governments, to raise capital to build the Super highway that will go South of Texas and into Mexico.

SPP documents reveal that out of 85 interstate highways, 83 of them are slated to go under this agreement and toll roads are going down on them already. The money from this operation with further fund the dismantling of US sovereignty by seizing the infrastructure at it's very heart in a bloodless coup.

They are not just in name merging the agencies and the laws and the regulations, they are physically getting rid of the borders by buying off and lobbying the politicians at the state level, who then hand the roads over to international bodies and their subsidiary companies.

At the end of January we reported on the revelation that one of the foreign toll road conglomerates, Macquarie, has agreed to buy dozens of newspapers in Texas and Oklahoma that have up until now been harsh critics of the Trans Texas Corridor superhighway. This indicates a clear example of influence peddling pointing to racketeering, and a desperate lunge to silence dissent against the sellout of American infrastructure and the North American Union.

The US is now being used as the primary tool of globalist corporate fascism and the world is wrongly blaming the people of America for all the ills that they perceive the US to be responsible for.

Coupled with Bush's blanket amnesty program , the Pan American Union is the final jigsaw piece for the total dismantling of America as we know it.

Last month it was also revealed that the US government has been SECRETLY paving the way for the funneling of billions of Social Security funds to illegal Mexican immigrants. As a result of lawsuits, the U.S. government released the actual U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement , an understanding signed between the Bush administration and the Mexican government in 2004.

Social Security , roads, military, intelligence gathering, regulations, federal agencies - all within the US, Canada and Mexico are being merged into one system at the cost of national sovereignty and the common law. What we were is being replaced with the new - no liberty, no due process, no freedom, no families, forced drugging, no jobs of any significance, no control of your own destiny - in short, total control of our lives.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

MILITARY ARMS SEIZED AT BORDER

More on arms seized at U.S. - Mexican border town

Submitted by admin on Fri, 2007-02-23 13:38.

23 February 2007: On February 11, 2007, a tractor-trailer registered in Texas and containing a large shipment of weapons, ammunition and a Nissan pickup truck fitted with armor and bullet-proof glass was stopped by the Mexican army in Matamoros, just south of the U.S. border at Brownsville, Texas.

The weapons seized included 18 M-16 assault rifles, including at least one equipped with an M-203 40mm grenade launcher, several M-4 carbines, 17 handguns of various calibers, over 200 magazines for different weapons, and more than 8,000 rounds of ammunition, assault vests and other military accessories.


Weapons seized

Although the origin of the shipment is unclear, it is vividly obvious that areas along the U.S.-Mexican border are as much war zones as transshipment points. Matamoros has long been recognized as a vital choke point for the shipment of drugs, weapons and illegal aliens, including Islamic terrorists, into the United States from Mexico. Based on the sophistication of the weapons seized earlier this month, it is apparent that a battle is shaping up just across the border from Brownsville – one that will undoubtedly have ominous implications for those protecting our southern border.


Border town of Matamoros, Tamaulipas across from Brownsville, Texas

T.A. Adams contributed to this report

© Copyright Northeast Intelligence Network

Monday, February 26, 2007

ZECHARIAH - CHAPTER 12

Zechariah - Chapter 12


1. The prophecy of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Says the Lord, Who stretches out the heavens and founds the earth and forms the spirit of man within him:
The prophecy of the word of the Lord This is the completion of the word that he began to speak about the retribution of those who devour Israel - Esau and his ilk.

2. Behold! I am making Jerusalem a cup of weakness for all the peoples around, and also on Judah, [that he] shall be in the siege against Jerusalem.
a cup of weakness a vessel of weakness, as in (Exod. 12:22), “in the blood that is in the cup.”
weakness an expression of bewilderment, [it means] the clogging of the heart and the limbs, for, like man enwrapped in a garment, they have no strength, as in (Nahum 2:4), “And the cypress trees were enwrapped” ; and (Isa. 3:19) “And the bracelets and the veils.” In the language of the Mishnah (Shabbath 6:6) we find, “Arabian women may go out veiled.” It is involopiment in O. F.
and also on Judah the nations that will be in siege against Jerusalem will impose upon Judah, for the house of David will be inside and the gentiles will besiege them. And also, the children of Judah will come, against their will, to besiege Jerusalem. So did Jonathan render it.

3. And it shall come to pass on that day that I will make Jerusalem a stone of burden for all peoples; all who bear it shall be gashed, and all the nations of the earth shall gather about it.
a stone of burden A stone of burden placed upon men by order of the ruler, to carry it and to load it on their shoulders. It is very heavy, to the extent that all who bear it become gashed.

4. On that day, says the Lord, I will smite every horse with bewilderment, and its rider with madness. And upon the house of Judah I will open My eyes, and all the horses of the peoples I will smite with blindness.
I will smite every horse of those gathered there with bewilderment and blindness, and their riders with madness (Shem Ephraim). But upon the [members of the] house of Judah, who are among those gathered against their will, I will open My eyes to protect them from this plague.

5. And the princes of Judah shall say to themselves, "The inhabitants of Jerusalem were my strength through the Lord of Hosts, their God."
And the princes of Judah shall say to themselves when they see that the others who were gathered are plagued with this plague, and they are saved.
The inhabitants of Jerusalem were my strength, etc. The inhabitants of Jerusalem, who know that we came upon them against our will, strengthened my help with their prayer by the Lord, their God.

6. On that day I will make the princes of Judah as a fiery stove among wood, and as a brand of fire among sheaves. And they shall consume on the right and on the left all the nations round about, and Jerusalem shall still stay in its place in Jerusalem.
I will make the princes of Judah They will return and wage war with those who brought them there.
as a fiery stove Like a great bonfire. The word כִּיוֹר is an expression of כִּירָה, a stove. So did Menahem (Machbereth, p. 109) classify it.
in its place lit. under it.

7. And the Lord shall first save the tents of Judah, so that the boasting of the house of David and the boasting of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not increase over Judah.
And the Lord shall first save the tents of Judah Before the inhabitants of Jerusalem come out of the city, they shall have a salvation - to return to their tents and to their homes - and afterwards the salvation shall come to the inhabitants of the city. That is the salvation concerning which it is stated (14:3): “And the Lord shall go forth and wage war.”
so that the boasting of, etc., shall not increase to boast over them and to say, “ You were saved only because of us.”

8. On that day the Lord shall protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the weakest of them shall be, on that day, like David. And the house of David shall be like angels, like the angel of the Lord before them.
and the weakest among them Heb. הַנִּכְשָׁל
like angels Jonathan renders: like great ones, like angels.
like the angel of the Lord before them They will prosper like the angel of the Lord before them.

9. And it shall come to pass on that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come upon Jerusalem.
I will seek to destroy I will seek their destruction, and I will be exact in judging their iniquity. And our Sages (Avodah Zarah 4a) explained this verse as concerning merit. I will search in the books of their deeds; if they have merit, I will spare them; otherwise, I will destroy them.

10. And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplications. And they shall look to me because of those who have been thrust through [with swords], and they shall mourn over it as one mourns over an only son and shall be in bitterness, therefore, as one is embittered over a firstborn son.
a spirit of grace and supplications That it should come into their mind to supplicate Me, and they will be in My good graces.
a spirit Talant in Old French, a desire.
they shall look to Me because of those who have been thrust through Jonathan renders: And they shall supplicate Me because of their wanderings. And they shall look to Me to complain about those of them whom the nations thrust through and slew during their exile.
and they shall mourn over it Over that slaughter.
as one mourns over an only son As a man mourns over his only son. And our Sages expounded this in tractate Sukkah (52a) as referring to the Messiah, son of Joseph, who was slain.

11. On that day there shall be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon.
like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon Hadadrimmon has no connection to the Valley of Megiddon. These are, rather, two cases of mourning. [The first is] like the mourning of Ahab the son of Omri, who was slain by Hadadrimmon the son of Tabrimmon in Ramoth Gilead, as it is stated (I Kings 22:36): “A cry passed through the camp.” That is the mourning [of Ahab. The second case is] like the mourning of Josiah the son of Amon, who was slain by Pharoah the lame in the Valley of Megiddon, as it is stated (II Chron. 35:25): “And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women spoke in their laments, etc.”

12. And the land shall mourn, every family apart: The family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart.
the house of Nathan the prophet. Some say that it refers to Nathan the son of David, as it is said (II Sam. 5:14): “Shammua and Shobab, and Nathan and Solomon.”

13. The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart.
the house of Levi The priests and the Levites.
the family of the Shimeites Shammua the son of David. Scripture first makes a generality about the house of David, and then it specifies each one.

14. All the remaining families-every family apart, and their wives apart.
All the remaining families of the house of David.
and their wives apart because of decency. Now why were the families of the priesthood and the kingdom [mentioned]? In order to restore their crowns to them, as it is stated in the beginning of the Book (4:14): “These are the two anointed ones who stand before the Lord of all the earth.”

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WND
INVASION USA
Congressman: Bush 'doesn't give a damn'
Republican blames White House for failed appeal by Ramos, Compean

Posted: February 24, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., denounced President Bush for his refusal to intervene in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to deny the bond requests of imprisoned former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, pending their appeal.

Rohrabacher, in a statement, spared no words in laying the blame on the White House for not freeing Ramos and Compean on bond:

"Acquiescing to the insistence of the White House, the court has decided to treat Ramos and Compean worse than they would common criminals, which is consistent with the way the Bush administration has handled these two border agents from the beginning," Rohrabacher said. "To suggest that this underscores President Bush's mean-spirited and vindictive nature is an understatement."

Rohrabacher said the "lives of Ramos and Compean are obviously at risk, and the president not only doesn't care about securing our southern border, he doesn't give a damn about those who protect it."

Ramos and Compean entered federal prison last month to begin sentences of 11 and 12 years respectively for their actions in the shooting and wounding of a drug smuggler who was given immunity to testify against them.

A spokesman for Rohrabacher's office told WND the White House "was afraid of a public relations disaster," explaining why the White House refused to back-channel support for releasing the two imprisoned Border Patrol agents pending their appeal.

"The visual of Ramos and Compean free and able to talk to the media is a nightmare for the White House," Tara Setmayer told WND.

An emotional Monica Ramos, the wife of Ignacio Ramos, told WND she and her family and friends "had been so hopeful that Nacho would be home soon."

She expressed hope the appeal of the court decision would be successful or a new trial might yet be ordered.

"I have three small children to raise, now without a husband. I have to be brave and trust in God that my husband will be home soon and that my husband will be safe and protected away from us," she said.

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Vets on the Street

Hundreds of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are ending up homeless. How could this happen?

A homeless veteran lies on a bed at New Directions, a private nonprofit residential and substance-abuse program for homeless veterans in Los Angeles
Charles Ommanney / Getty Images for Newsweek
A homeless veteran lies on a bed at New Directions, a private nonprofit residential and substance-abuse program for homeless veterans in Los Angeles












SEARCH THE SITE



WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Sarah Childress
Newsweek
Updated: 1:41 p.m. CT Feb 24, 2007

Feb. 24, 2007 - Kevin Felty came back from Iraq in 2003 with nowhere to stay, and not enough money to rent an apartment. He and his wife of four years moved in with his sister in Florida, but the couple quickly overstayed their welcome. Jobless and wrestling with what he later learned was posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Felty suddenly found himself scrambling to find a place for himself and his wife, who was six-months pregnant. They found their way to a shelter for homeless veterans, which supported his wife during her pregnancy and helped Felty get counseling and find a job. A year later, he's finally thinking his future. "I don't want to say this is exactly where I want to be—it's really not," he says. "But it's what I can get at the moment."

Story continues below ↓
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Young, alienated and often living on their own for the first time, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans increasingly are coming home to find that they don't have one. Already, nearly 200,000 veterans—many from the Vietnam War—sleep on the streets every night, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. But young warriors just back from the Mideast—estimated around 500 to 1,000—are beginning to struggle with homelessness too. Drinking or using drugs to cope with PTSD, they can lose their job and the support of family and friends, and start a downward spiral to the streets. Their tough military mentality can make them less likely to seek help. Advocates say it can take five to eight years for a veteran to exhaust their financial resources and housing options, so they expect the number to rise exponentially in a few years. "Rather than wait for the tsunami, we should be doing something now," says Cheryl Beversdorf, president of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.

The problem is mainly a lack of resources, advocates say. There are only about 15,000 beds available in VA-funded shelters or hospitals nationwide, and nearly every one is taken. In some smaller cities there simply aren't many places for a homeless veteran to go. And as affordable housing units shrink nationwide, veterans living on a disability check of, say, $700 a month, (which means a 50-percent disability rating from the VA), are hard-pressed to find a place to live. Most shelters require veterans to participate in a rehabilitation program, but a "fair amount" of veterans just go back to the streets once they leave, says Ed Quill, director of external affairs at Volunteers of America, the nonprofit housing group for veterans that helped Felty.

 Two homeless vets share their stories in the dorm at New Directions in L.A.
Charles Ommanney / Getty Images for Newsweek
Two homeless vets share their stories in the dorm at New Directions in L.A.

The VA says it's making a concerted effort to reach out to vets before they hit bottom, says Pete Dougherty, the VA's coordinator for homeless programs. Intake counselors are trained to ask questions, especially of newer veterans, to seek out mental health or other problems that could lead to homelessness. "We're much more sensitive than we were 40 years ago for signs of problems," he says. And they have expanded some services. Last week, the VA approved $24 million to boost aid for the homeless, which will allow them to add about 1,000 more beds and increase the number of grants to help the growing population of homeless women veterans and those with mental illnesses.

Much of the work with new veterans is being done one soldier at a time. At New Directions in Los Angeles, a center that rehabilitates homeless veterans, Anthony Belcher, a formerly homeless Vietnam vet who now works at the center, looks out for one particular Iraq veteran who shows up at the center about once a month, filthy, drugged out and tortured by PTSD. "He's a baby," Belcher says. "You can see it in his eyes." So far, the young vet is too wary to accept more than a night's bed or a hot meal. But as Belcher says, at least he has a place to go. That's more than many of the thousands of vets on America’s streets can say tonight.



Sunday, February 25, 2007

IRANIAN ATTACK COMING ??

US developing plan to bomb Iran, report says

New Yorker reports Pentagon panel has been created to plan bombing attack that could be implemented within 24 hours of getting go-ahead from Bush

Reuters and Ali Waked

Published: 02.25.07, 10:08 / Israel News

Despite the Bush administration's insistence it has no plans to go to war with Iran , a Pentagon panel has been created to plan a bombing attack that could be implemented within 24 hours of getting the go-ahead from President George W. Bush, The New Yorker magazine reported in its latest issue.

The special planning group was established within the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in recent months, according to an unidentified former US intelligence official cited in the article by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh in the March 4 issue.
Iran Strike

Report: Israel asks for ‘air corridor’ to attack Iran / Ynet

Israel requests permission from United States to fly through Iraqi airspace in case Jerusalem should decide to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Israeli defense official tells British newspaper. Deputy Defense Minister Sneh denies report
Full Story

The panel initially focused on destroying Iran's nuclear facilities and on regime change but has more recently been directed to identify targets in Iran that may be involved in supplying or aiding militants in Iraq, according to an Air Force adviser and a Pentagon consultant, who were not identified.

The consultant and a former senior intelligence official both said that US military and special-operations teams had crossed the border from Iraq into Iran in pursuit of Iranian operatives, according to the article.

In response to the report, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said: "The United States is not planning to go to war with Iran. To suggest anything to the contrary is simply wrong, misleading and mischievous.

"The United States has been very clear with respect to its concerns regarding specific Iranian government activities. The president has repeatedly stated publicly that this country is going to work with allies in the region to address those concerns through diplomatic efforts," Whitman said.

Pentagon officials say they maintain contingency plans for literally dozens of potential conflicts around the world and that all plans are subject to regular and ongoing review.

The article, citing unnamed current and former US officials, also said the Bush administration received intelligence from Israel that Iran had developed an intercontinental missile capable of delivering several small warheads that could reach Europe. It added the validity of that intelligence was still being debated.

Gulf states to let Israel use airspace

The article also included an interview conducted in December with Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah , who said that while he had no interest in initiating another war with Israel , he was anticipating and preparing for another Israeli attack sometime this year.

Israel launched an offensive against Hizbullah in Lebanon last July after the Shiite group kidnapped 2 soldiers and killed 8 others in a cross-border attack.

Nasrallah also said he was open to talks with Washington if such discussions "can be useful and influential in determining American policy in the region," but they would be waste of time if the purpose was to impose policy.

Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti daily al-Siyassah reported on Sunday that the Gulf states of Oman and the UAE would allow Israel to use their airspace should the Jewish state decide to launch preemptive strikes against Iran. The report quoted European and Arab diplomats.

The newspaper also quoted a Pentagon official said saying that Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan would assist Israeli raids on Iran.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

WAR IN THE GULF

Gulf stands on brink of all-out war

Saudis say they’ll fight for their fellow Sunnis if the coalition forces quit Iraq, says robert fox

While the Bush administration remains locked in argument with the consiglieri of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group about what to do in Iraq, events on the ground are now moving ahead of them.

There is now every chance that civil war could turn into a major regional war as the Saudis and Jordanians threaten to come in on the side of the Sunni community, and the Shia militias in turn look to Tehran and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard for backing.

"The intervention of Saudi Arabia and Jordan is now the most dangerous possibility facing us," a British commander told me, on condition of anonymity.

"We can't go, and we can't stay in the present posture. We've got to find a way of keeping a presence, but without it becoming the main problem."

‘Since America came into Iraq uninvited, it should not leave Iraq uninvited,’ says the Saudi ambassador to the US

The main proposals of the Baker-Hamilton report are seen as unrealistic by force commanders on the ground in Iraq. The plan is for American forces to pull back next year and assume primarily an oversight and training role with the Iraqi army, national guard and police.

The bulk of US forces would go home by April 2008. The British would move faster, handing back Maysan province to the Iraqis next January and Basra in April. By July 2007, Britain would have only 2,000 service personnel in Iraq, at most.

But US commanders, led by General John Abizaid of US Central Command, do not believe the Iraqi army will be ready to run anything much in terms of security for years to come.

This is what the Saudis realise too. And they have given warning to the US and Britain that if they make a quick exit by April 2008, they and their allies will have no choice but to enter Iraq to help their co-religionists, the Sunni Arabs.

Until now the Saudis have only hinted at

Friday, February 23, 2007

NEXT DISASTER

Flynn: U.S. not prepared for the next 'big one'

POSTED: 11:54 p.m. EST, February 20, 2007
By Stephen Flynn
Special to CNN
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Editor's note: Stephen Flynn is the author of "The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation." A retired U.S. Coast Guard officer, Flynn is a homeland security expert and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Americans have failed to learn the most important lesson of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina: We need to make building resiliency from within our borders as urgent a priority as confronting dangers from without.

There would have been thousands of more victims in New York on September 11 if the city had not made significant new investments in emergency management and if the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owned the World Trade Center, had not conducted regular fire drills, improved the emergency lighting and applied photoluminescent markings on stair treads and handrails in the stairwells of the twin towers. It was New York's investment in resiliency after the 1993 World Trade Center truck bombing that made that tragic day in 2001 far less tragic.

Today, New Orleans would have long ago recovered from Hurricane Katrina had the city's flood control system not been so badly neglected. But throughout the 1990s, the funds that might have been used to repair and strengthen the levees and flood walls were routinely bled off for other projects. In 2004, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asked for $22.5 million to make emergency repairs to the storm protection system in New Orleans, the White House cut that figure to $3.9 million. It was New Orleans' lack of resiliency in the face of a foreseeable natural disaster that produced a catastrophe that has practically destroyed a great American city.

Building resiliency requires three things. First, we must anticipate likely man-made or natural disasters. Second, we must be willing to take prudent actions in advance of these disasters that lower our exposure to their potentially catastrophic consequences. Third, we must be able to mobilize a speedy response and recovery after disasters occur.

An estimated 90 percent of Americans now live along the coast, near flood zones and earthquake fault lines, or in other locations that are at a high or moderate risk of being hit by a major natural disaster. But since 9/11, we have been acting as though the only serious threat we face is terrorism and that the only way to manage that threat is by military efforts abroad. When an aggressive offense against terrorists is our only defense, homeland security and planning for natural disasters end up as lesser priorities.

This is insane. Sure we should be confronting our enemies when we have the intelligence to tell us where they are and what they are up to. But our intelligence apparatus is badly broken and the terrorist threat is a rapidly mutating. We need only look to the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, Spain, and the 2005 attack on the London subways to remind us that the al Qaeda threat is not confined to the Middle East and that all acts of terror cannot be prevented.

More importantly, Americans are far more likely to be caught in the cross hairs of a major natural disaster such as an earthquake, flood, forest fire or a hurricane than an attack by terrorists.

No act of modern warfare, with the possible exception of a nuclear exchange between major world powers, has the potential to threaten as many lives and cause as much disruption to the global economy as the H5N1 avian influenza would if it makes the evolutionary leap that allows it to spread among humans as quickly and as lethally as it has among birds. Of the just over 100 documented human infections between 1997 and 2005, the mortality rate was 54 percent. With a flu outbreak leading to a projected 80 million illnesses in the United States, millions of Americans would be in need of hospital care, but our entire national inventory of staffed hospital beds is just 970,000.

Acts of terror and disasters cannot always be prevented, but they do not have to be catastrophic. The key is being willing to invest in things that are not particularly sexy, such as public health, emergency planning and community preparedness.

It requires that we repair frail levees, pipelines, dams and the electrical grid. And we also need to learn from disasters and near misses. Californians adopted a new construction code after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. New Yorkers took evacuating skyscrapers seriously after the World Trade Center was attacked in 1993. Adequately preparing for foreseeable events is the only way for the United States to step back from the edge of disaster.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

DOOMSDAY CLOCK

Two Minutes Closer to Midnight
By Gerald Flurry
Are we about to annihilate all human life on this planet? Do you and your loved ones have a future? If you look to men for solutions, there is no hope. Even though we are facing mind-numbing perils, our future could not be brighter—after a short span of the worst suffering ever!

On January 17, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (bas) moved the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock up two minutes—so it is now five minutes to midnight, symbolizing human annihilation. The Bulletin Online explained, “Reflecting global failures to solve the problems posed by nuclear weapons and the climate crisis, the decision by the bas board of directors was made in consultation with the Bulletin’s board of sponsors, which includes 18 Nobel laureates.

bas announced the clock change [January 17] at an unprecedented joint news conference held at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., and the Royal Society in London. In a statement supporting the decision to move the hand of the Doomsday Clock, the bas board focused on two major sources of catastrophe: the perils of 27,000 nuclear weapons, 2,000 of them ready to launch within minutes; and the destruction of human habitats from climate change. In articles by 14 leading scientists and security experts writing in the January-February issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (http://www.thebulletin.org), the potential for catastrophic damage from human-made technologies is explored further.

“Created in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock has been adjusted only 17 times prior to today, most recently in February 2002 after the events of 9/11.

“By moving the hand of the clock closer to midnightthe figurative end of civilization—the bas board of directors is drawing attention to the increasing dangers from the spread of nuclear weapons in a world of violent conflict, and to the catastrophic harm from climate change that is unfolding. The bas statement explains: ‘We stand at the brink of a Second Nuclear Age. Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices. North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a renewed emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia are symptomatic of a failure to solve the problems posed by the most destructive technology on Earth’” (January 17, emphasis mine throughout).

Imagine that! These scientists say that you and I have only five more minutes until all human life has been exterminated! Do we really get this message?

With the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel all possessing a military nuclear capability, Iran on the verge of attaining it, and now, even “pacifist” Japan speaking about the need to get nuclear defensive weaponry, plus political voices in Germany seeking the same, the world has never been a more dangerous place. Add to this the missing nuclear weaponry that has been taken out of arsenals of the former ussr, combined with the increasing volatility of global terrorism, and we have a recipe for apocalyptic disaster.

So what are you going to do about it? Is there anything you can do? As a matter of fact, there is a great deal you can do. However, you must act now—while there is time.

These outstanding scientists who operate the Doomsday Clock see little or no hope for mankind. But there is abundant hope. It’s time we all faced the truth and the only hope there is or ever will be!

But first, let’s look more closely at the bad news. There is another dimension that makes it even worse. Iran is about to produce nuclear bombs. But there is much more to this frightening story. The Iranian leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is eager to plunge the world into a nuclear abyss for religious reasons! This is a frightening new dimension to the nuclear equation—a madman who will soon have nuclear power and who wants nuclear warfare!

We are facing dangers that are hard to even imagine. This planet has become a huge cauldron of violent and unparalleled danger. Thankfully, in a short span of time, the danger will be gone forever!

Benjamin Netanyahu, the former Israeli prime minister, may be elected again soon. He is saying we are already in World War iii, and likens Iran to Germany in 1938, one year before World War ii began.

That is how he evaluates world conditions today. Here is what Netanyahu said when Glenn Beck interviewed him on Nov. 17, 2006 (I quoted different parts of this interview last month): “Iran is Germany, and it’s 1938, except that this Nazi regime that is in Iran, that’s a religious kind of fanaticism, but it wants to dominate the world, annihilate the Jews, but also annihilate America. Remember, we’re the small Satan. You’re the big Satan. …

“We’re just the first way station en route to you [the U.S.]. So there is this fundamental fanaticism that is there. It’s a messianic cult. It’s a religious messianic cult that believes in the Apocalypse, and they believe they have to expedite the Apocalypse to bring the collapse of the West.”

As Hitler rose to power in 1938, almost everybody was in a state of denial about Germany and world conditions. Most people are also in a state of denial today. And the danger now is 10,000 times worse!

What could be more deadly than denying reality about the Doomsday Clock today?

Mr. Netanyahu was asked, “What makes you say we should take this nut job at his word?” He responded, “Well, I was getting this question in the 1990s, and I said that the West really doesn’t understand militant Islam. So I wrote a book in 1995, and I said that, if the West doesn’t wake up to the suicidal nature of militant Islam, the next thing you will see is militant Islam … bringing down the World Trade Center.

“Other nut ideologies don’t do that, but militant Muslims do, and they are competing. They have two strains: the Sunni type, led by al Qaeda, who have done the World Trade Center; the Shia types, led by Iran, who want to top that by having nuclear weapons with which they can dominate the world, ultimately bring down America.

“We’re merely the first target. They hate us because we’re you, and we’re the first station in the Middle East. They hate Israel because it represents America. They don’t hate America because of Israel—because we’re part and parcel of that same free, to their minds, hated hedonistic civilization. [We are also in a state of denial about being a hedonistic civilization.] …

“The Soviet Union had enough firepower to destroy the United States, but they realized that you would destroy them, so they were deterred. They were not suicidal.

“But militant Islam is suicidal. They often put their zealotry, their ideology, above their survival. That’s why you didn’t have any Communist suicide bombers, but militant Islam produces hordes of them, battalions, and they smash into buildings in New York.

“Now, do you doubt that if, for example, al Qaeda had nuclear weapons, this city would not exist today? …

“And Seattle could disappear, because they’re not deterrable. That’s the whole point.”

Netanyahu accused Iran’s leaders of subscribing to “this crazy messianic cult of death, the idea that millions have to die in order for their particular Islamic messiah to come. Millions have to die, and the sooner the better, in their view, because they have this cult. That’s what makes them so dangerous, if they acquire nuclear weapons to realize it.”

Iran is the head of the terrorist snake. Netanyahu is discussing New York City and Seattle being obliterated by terrorists. The Bible discusses cities “without inhabitant” in several prophecies. Nuclear annihilation is also discussed. Thankfully God is going to stop it just short of man’s extinction. (our free booklet The Wonderful World Tomorrow.)

Why are these terrorists introducing a threat we have never faced before? Because they are about to get nuclear devices—and you cannot deter suicide bombers! That is the deadly problem we face today. There is no way to fully protect people and places from suicide bombers.

Also, we lack the will to confront Iran. That nation is the supreme problem behind all terrorism.

Then Mr. Netanyahu was asked about cutting and running from Iraq. He answered, “I think you’re going to find it a lot more difficult than you think, because what happens when you run—when you cut and run, from terrorterror has this unfortunate quality of chasing you. This is, however, an American decision you make. …

“[W]hether you leave in phases, you leave with a timetable, you leave with no timetable, you stay in Iraq, okay. Either way, if Iran acquires nuclear weapons next door, you lose Iraq. Not only do you lose Iraq, you lose the entire Middle East, and you lose control of the world oil supply, and your cities come under a nuclear threat of a crazy, fanatic regime.

“So the question is: Why is the American debate exclusively focused on Iraq when you should look next door? … [W]hatever you decide on Iraq, I would give one piece of advice: Do not mortgage that solution to the Iranians. Do not get into a situation where you are giving the Iranians any kind of license to develop their nuclear program in exchange for anything that they do with you, in Iraq, do or not do.

“You should stop the Iranian nuclear program because it is a great threat to the security of the world and the security of the United States.”

So where is the hope? Mr. Netanyahu says that “in the long term, the free peoples always win.” But is that true? No it isn’t, but it’s probably his only hope.

There is no hope in man! There never was and never will be. That is the supreme lesson that God is teaching mankind—the hard way. Every man and woman on Earth must learn that lesson. The sooner we learn it the better!

There is hope that will lift you to a wondrous new level of living. You can learn about this hope in our free booklet, based on the epistles of Peter, called A Living Hope.

There will always be spiritual hope. But you urgently need to take action while there is still physical hope.

You have onlyfive minutes” to act!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

VENEZUELA

Venezuela Preparing for 'Asymmetrical' Showdown With U.S.

Carmen Gentile | Bio | 17 Feb 2007
World Politics Watch Exclusive

MIAMI -- Venezuela is beefing up its military capabilities by land, sea and air in preparation for what one senior official called a possible "asymmetrical conflict" with the United States.

Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States Bernardo Alvarez said that while his country is preparing for possible warfare with the United States -- a notion President Hugo Chavez has repeatedly asserted -- Venezuela is nonetheless in complete compliance with international and regional non-proliferation treaties.

By characterizing a warfare scenario with the United States as "asymmetrical," the ambassador was acknowledging the distinct firepower and personnel advantage of the United States, though he noted his country was preparing itself for defense nonetheless.

"We have simply been trying to upgrade our military equipment and maintain our defense while preserving balance in the hemisphere," said Alvarez, who said that Venezuela's Latin American neighbors need not concern themselves with the country's recent efforts to bolster its armaments.

The ambassador's remarks follow a recent report that Venezuela's latest arms improvement will focus on the country's navy, which is said to be interested in purchasing nine additional submarines.

Having already spent $3.4 billion on Russian arms, including assault rifles and fighter jets, the Venezuelan Navy is planning to spend $3 billion more to create the largest submarine fleet in the region by 2012, according to Venezuelan Navy Vice Adm. Armando Laguna.

Recently added to the defense spending wish list of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez were Russian anti-aircraft missiles, at a total cost of $290 million.

A recent Pentagon report estimated that Venezuela had spent more like $4.3 billion since 2005 alone, more than countries like Iran, Pakistan and even China. Venezuela is also pursuing an estimated $2 billion worth of military transport ships and aircraft from Spain.

However, the deal was delayed last year when the United States objected to the sale, enforcing a policy that foreign companies must seek Washington's approval when selling U.S.-made military technology.

Venezuela is currently trying to work out a deal with Spain to swap out the U.S. parts in the 10 aircraft from Spanish company EADS-CASA and eight boats.

Though Chavez officials maintain the recent efforts to bolster the country's military capabilities are essential, some consider the expenditure a waste of revenue that could be used to alleviate the strain of chronic poverty in Venezuela.

But Chavez is keen on ramping up his country's defenses using a windfall of petroleum dollars that have filled state coffers in recent years. Having already spent a significant portion of that money on education and health programs for Venezuela's impoverished, the leftist leader has set his sights on becoming the continent's military superpower.

The latest effort in procuring new military capabilities involves the acquisition of a fleet of submarines to protect Venezuela's interest in its exclusive economic zone, which Caracas maintains consists of a large portion of the Caribbean.

Protecting an area that large would require far more vessels than the two German submarines -- both over 30 years old -- the Venezuelan military currently employs. The country's navy is reportedly keen on purchasing nine additional submarines, for a total of 11 vessels. The additions would give Venezuela the largest submarine fleet in Latin America, surpassing those maintained by neighboring Brazil and Chile.

The submarines will be the "diesel-electric variety," said Laguna in a recent communiqué, quoted earlier this month by Brazil's leading newspaper, Estado de Sao Paulo, and will weigh in at approximately 1,750 metric tons apiece. The Venezuelan Navy is currently considering bids from German, France and Russia, the odds-on favorite, for the new vessel contracts.

Venezuela has already done billions of dollars in business with Russia, purchasing 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 24 Sukhoi-30 fighters and about 35 helicopters. Now Caracas has its sights set on buying Moscow's air defense missiles, known as the Tor-M1 system, which consists of eight missiles in a battery mounted to a launch vehicle. The system can reportedly target objects up to 2,000 ft and has a range of several miles.

The missiles would be for "air defense" only, said a Venezuelan military official last month in an interview with the Associated Press, a notion that comports with Chavez's warning of a possible U.S. invasion. The Bush administration repeatedly denies it has any such designs on Venezuela.

But Washington has questioned Chavez's motives for ramping up his military and expressed concerns that the Russian assault rifles could wind up in the hands of leftist rebels in neighboring Colombia or be used to further the Venezuelan leader's socialist agenda in the region.

"I can see why Chavez wants to militarize Venezuela. . . . He's a military man just like Bolivar was a military man," said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, referring to the South American Gen. Simon Bolivar, a Chavez hero who fought for and won the independence of several Latin American nations from Spain during the 19th century.

That Chavez sees himself as a modern-day version of Bolivar, readying his country to wage war against U.S. oppressors, is what inspired him to fortify Venezuela's defenses for a battle he claims Washington is already planning, noted Pike.

Waging war with the U.S. however "would be a foolish thing to do," he said, noting Venezuela has too much to lose economically from even a minor skirmish with the United Statres, Venezuela's largest petroleum customer.

"Venezuela's arms build up is totally unnecessary on so many levels," agreed Adam Isacson, director the Center for International Policy, noting that Venezuela still has a poverty rate near 50 percent while the country spends billions of dollars on arms.

"Of course Venezuela can do whatever they want with their money . . . but they just don't need that right now."

Carmen Gentile is a freelance journalist based in Miami.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

IRAN TO BE ATTACKED

Last Updated: Tuesday, 20 February 2007, 10:28 GMT
US 'Iran attack plans' revealed
US aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis (file picture)
USS John C Stennis is being deployed to the Persian Gulf
US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned.

It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres.

The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment.

The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic sanctions.

But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran.

That list includes Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say.

Two triggers

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon - which it denies.

Natanz, Iran
The Natanz plant is buried under concrete, metal and earth
Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces in neighbouring Iraq could also trigger a bombing campaign if it were traced directly back to Tehran.

Long range B2 stealth bombers would drop so-called "bunker-busting" bombs in an effort to penetrate the Natanz site, which is buried some 25m (27 yards) underground.

The BBC's Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison says the news that there are now two possible triggers for an attack is a concern to Iranians.

Authorities insist there is no cause for alarm but ordinary people are now becoming a little worried, she says.

Deadline

Earlier this month US officers in Iraq said they had evidence Iran was providing weapons to Iraqi Shia militias. However the most senior US military officer later cast doubt on this, saying that they only had proof that weapons "made in Iran" were being used in Iraq.

Gen Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said he did not know that the Iranian government "clearly knows or is complicit" in this.

At the time, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the accusations were "excuses to prolong the stay" of US forces in Iraq.

Middle East analysts have recently voiced their fears of catastrophic consequences for any such US attack on Iran.

Britain's previous ambassador to Tehran, Sir Richard Dalton, told the BBC it would backfire badly by probably encouraging the Iranian government to develop a nuclear weapon in the long term.

Last year Iran resumed uranium enrichment - a process that can make fuel for power stations or, if greatly enriched, material for a nuclear bomb.

Tehran insists its programme is for civil use only, but Western countries suspect Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons.

The UN Security Council has called on Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium by 21 February.

If it does not, and if the International Atomic Energy Agency confirms this, the resolution says that further economic sanctions will be considered.


Feb 20, 7:59 AM EST

McCain: Rumsfeld Was One of the Worst


AP Photo
AP Photo/STEPHEN MORTON



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BLUFFTON, S.C. (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered as one of the worst in history.

"We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement - that's the kindest word I can give you - of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war," the Arizona senator told an overflow crowd of more than 800 at a retirement community near Hilton Head Island, S.C. "The price is very, very heavy and I regret it enormously."

McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, complained that Rumsfeld never put enough troops on the ground to succeed in Iraq.

"I think that Donald Rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history," McCain said to applause.

The comments were in sharp contrast to McCain's statement when Rumsfeld resigned in November, and failed to address the reality that President Bush is the commander in chief.

"While Secretary Rumsfeld and I have had our differences, he deserves Americans' respect and gratitude for his many years of public service," McCain said last year when Rumsfeld stepped down.

On a two-day campaign swing in South Carolina, McCain fielded questions from the crowd for more than an hour and said the United States can succeed in Iraq with additional troops and a new strategy. McCain has been a strong proponent of using more troops and favors Bush's increase of some 21,500 U.S. forces in the nearly four-year-old war.

"I have been saying for 3 1/2 years that we would be in this sad situation and this critical situation we are in today," he said.

McCain's bid for president was sidetracked in South Carolina in 2000 after a victory in New Hampshire. George W. Bush won the primary here and went on to win the nomination and White House.

"In life, one of the worst things you can do is hold a grudge," he said. "I felt the important thing for me to do with my life was to move forward after we lost our race. You have seen other people who have lost who mire themselves in bitterness and self pity. That's not what my life is all about."

Some in the crowd were Bush supporters who have not yet decided on a 2008 candidate.

"It's too early to say," said Paul Baker, a retiree from Niagara Falls, N.Y., who has lived in South Carolina about four years. "I'm just going to wait it out and see what happens."

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McCain: Iraq War Mismanaged for Years

Feb 19 3:19 PM US/Eastern






BLUFFTON, S.C. (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered as one of the worst in history.

"We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement _ that's the kindest word I can give you _ of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war," the Arizona senator told an overflow crowd of more than 800 at a retirement community near Hilton Head Island, S.C. "The price is very, very heavy and I regret it enormously."

McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, complained that Rumsfeld never put enough troops on the ground to succeed in Iraq.

"I think that Donald Rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history," McCain said to applause.

The comments were in sharp contrast to McCain's statement when Rumsfeld resigned in November, and failed to address the reality that President Bush is the commander in chief.

"While Secretary Rumsfeld and I have had our differences, he deserves Americans' respect and gratitude for his many years of public service," McCain said last year when Rumfeld stepped down.

On a two-day campaign swing in South Carolina, McCain fielded questions from the crowd for more than an hour and said the United States can succeed in Iraq with additional troops and a new strategy. McCain has been a strong proponent of using more troops and favors Bush's increase of some 21,500 U.S. forces in the nearly four-year-old war.

"I have been saying for 3 1/2 years that we would be in this sad situation and this critical situation we are in today," he said.

McCain's bid for president was sidetracked in South Carolina in 2000 after a victory in New Hampshire. George W. Bush won the primary here and went on to win the nomination and White House.

"In life, one of the worst things you can do is hold a grudge," he said. "I felt the important thing for me to do with my life was to move forward after we lost our race. You have seen other people who have lost who mire themselves in bitterness and self pity. That's not what my life is all about."

Some in the crowd were Bush supporters who have not yet decided on a 2008 candidate.

"It's too early to say," said Paul Baker, a retiree from Niagara Falls, N.Y., who has lived in South Carolina about four years. "I'm just going to wait it out and see what happens."

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