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Sir Francis A. Boyle

Professor EDUCATION

University of Chicago, A.B. (1971) in Political Science.  One of seven students in my entering Class of 1972  elected to Phi Beta Kappa as a Junior; winner as a Junior of the Sigma Xi Certificate of Merit and Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Scientific Research in Biology for 1971 for The Differential Effects of Three Simulated Systems of Inbreeding on the Frequency of the t^w Allele in Wild Populations of Mus Musculuson nomination of Richard C. Lewontin; graduated in three years.
 Harvard Law School, J.D. Magna Cum Laude (1976).   Third year paper designated "Honor Paper" by Richard R. Baxter, and deposited in H.L.S. Library.  A+'s in Federal Income Taxation (Stanley Surrey), Soviet Economic Law and Law of Foreign Trade (Harold Berman), United Nations Law (Louis Sohn), Sociology of Law (Lon Fuller), and Jurisprudence (Roberto Unger).
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Government, A.M. (1978) and Ph.D. (1983) in Political Science.  Awarded full Harvard Fellowship for all years of residence.  Offered Russian History (Edward Keenan), Soviet Politics (Adam Ulam), Modern Political Philosophy (Judith Shklar), and International Relations (Stanley Hoffmann) on Ph.D. General Examination.  Dissertation entitledRealism, Positivism, Functionalism and International Law under the supervision of Stanley Hoffmann.
Graduate Student Associate, Harvard University Center for International Affairs (1976-78) (elected to the Executive Committee for 1977-78).
 
TEACHING
Teaching Fellow, Harvard University Department of Government (1976-78) (international organizations, international law, international human rights).
Assistant Professor (1978‑81), Associate Professor with tenure (1981‑84), full Professor (from 1984), University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign; Professor, Unit of Criticism and Interpretive Theory (from 2010).
U.S. State Department, Scholar-Diplomat Program, Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs (1981).
Lecturer, Nuclear Weapons and International Law, 21st Senior Conference on Nuclear Deterrence, U.S. Military Academy at West Point (1983).
Lecture Tour of Libya (1985).
Lecture Tour of the Soviet Union on Nuclear Weapons and International Law for the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy and the Association of Soviet Lawyers (1986).
Professor, U.S.S.R. Summer University for Jurists, Peoples= Friendship University, Moscow (1989).
Parhad Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Canada (2001).
Bertrand Russell Peace Lecturer, McMaster University, Canada (2007).

PRACTICE
Licensed to practice law in Massachusetts (from 1977), before the U.S. Tax Court (from 1977), the U. S. Supreme Court (from 1984), and in several other U.S. Federal Courts.
Attorney, Bingham, Dana, & Gould, in Boston (1977‑78) (primarily in international tax and tax).  See Hart v. U.S., 585 F.2d 1025 (Ct. Cl. 1978) (en banc); Globe v. U.S., 620 F.2d 841 (Ct. Cl. 1980).
Counsel, Concerned Academics for Peace and Justice in the Middle East (1984-86).
Attorney for Plaintiffs, Ali Aidi v. Yaron, 672 F. Supp. 516 (D.D.C. 1987) (Sabra-Shatilla Massacre).
Legal Adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization (from 1987) and the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine (from 1988) on the creation of the State of Palestine, its accession to the Geneva Conventions and Protocols, invocation of the Uniting for Peace Resolution, admission to the United Nations Organization, accepting the I.C.C.’s jurisdiction, etc.
Author, Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, Pub. L. No. 101-298 (1990) (adopted unanimously by both Houses of U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George Bush Sr.).
Counsel to Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez on H. Res. 34, 102d Cong., 1st Sess. (1991) (impeaching President George Bush Sr. for Gulf War I).
Legal Adviser to the Republic of Lithuania under President Vytautas Landsbergis (1991-92).
Legal Adviser to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations (1991-93).
Legal Adviser to the Syrian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations during their First Round in Washington, D.C. (1991).
Counsel to Libya, in Cases Concerning Questions of Interpretation And Application Of The 1971 Montreal Convention Arising From The Aerial Incident At Lockerbie (Libya v. United Kingdom) (Libya v. United States).  See Orders of 14 April 1992, 1992 I.C.J. Rep. at 3 and 114, 31 Int'l L. Mats. 662 (1992).
Special Prosecutor, International Tribunal of Indigenous Peoples and Oppressed Nations in the U.S.A., San Francisco (1992).
Author, Chicago MacBride Principles on Northern Ireland Ordinance (adopted unanimously by Chicago City Council on Feb. 10, 1993).

General Agent for the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina with Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Powers before the International Court of Justice by appointment of President Alija Izetbegovic (March 19, 1993 to January 12, 1994).  I won two World Court Orders overwhelmingly in favor of Bosnia against the rump Yugoslavia to cease and desist from violating the 1948 Genocide Convention.  See Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro)), Order of Provisional Measures of 8 April 1993, 1993 I.C.J. Rep. at 3; and Order of Provisional Measures of 13 September 1993, 1993 I.C.J. Rep. at 325.  President Izetbegovic then instructed me to institute legal proceedings before the International Court of Justice against the United Kingdom for violating the 1948 Genocide Convention and the 1965 Racial Discrimination Convention in order to break the genocidal arms embargo against Bosnia as well as to stop the genocidal carve-up of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the so-called European Union Action Plan.  SeeStatement of Intention by the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Institute Legal Proceedings Against the United Kingdom before the International Court of Justice (15 November 1993), U.N. Doc. A/48/659-S/26806, 47 U.N.Y.B. 465 (1993).  This lawsuit was terminated under duress.
Lawyer for President Alija Izetbegovic, Foreign Minister (later Prime Minister, then President) Haris Silajdzic, and all the Members of the collective Bosnian Presidency, as well as the Leaders of the Bosnian Opposition Parties, during the Owen-Stoltenberg Negotiations in Geneva (1993).  There I disrupted the Owen-Stoltenberg Plan to carve-up the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina into three pieces, destroy Bosnia's Statehood, rob Bosnia of its Membership in the United Nations Organization, and subject 1.5 to 2 million more Bosnians to "ethnic cleansing."  President Izetbegovic then instructed me to draft and negotiate the Bosnian counter-offer to Owen-Stoltenberg.
Consultant on Independence, Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Commission, State of Hawaii (1993).
On 12 May 1997 in a ceremony at the Bosnian Presidency in Sarajevo, President Alija Izetbegovic and Vice President Ejup Ganic awarded me a valid Bosnian Diplomatic Passport and Visa as well as a Decoration for my services to the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Serbian war of extermination against them.
On 17 May 2000 President Aslan Maskhadov appointed me  the Attorney of Record for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria with Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Powers in order to conduct  their legal affairs. Acting pursuant to his instructions, on 1 August 2000 I sued the Russian Federation at the International Court of Justice for violating the 1948 Genocide Convention.  On 14 February 2004 the Chechen Foreign Minister Ilyas Akhmadov appointed me their Ambassador to Norway with instructions to open peace negotiations with the Russian Federation.

http://www.law.illinois.edu/faculty/profile/francisboyle

More videos for sir francis boyle international lawyer »

Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois, proposes that Iran sue the U.S. in the World Court to enjoin it against threats to attack Iran

Francis Boyle: Iran Should Sue to Stop US Attack Pt 1

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=TegRo4lUPDE

Dr. Francis A. Boyle on Alex Jones Tv 1/3:State Sponsored - YouTube
► 10:38► 10:38	www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEcNVz2tB108 Jul 2009 - 11 min - Uploaded by TheAlexJonesChannel Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. http://www.law.uiuc ...

Francis Boyle: Iran Should Sue to Stop US Attack Pt 1 - YouTube

► 6:58► 6:58

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TegRo4lUPDE28 Jul 2008 - 7 min - Uploaded by justforeignpolicy Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois, proposes that Iran sue the U.S. in ... Dr. Francis A. Boyle on Alex Jones Tv 1/3:State Sponsored Terrorsim //www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEcNVz2tB10 Dr. Francis A. Boyle on Alex Jones Tv Dr. Francis A. Boyle on Alex Jones Tv 1/3:State Sponsored Terrorsim

• I was a student of Prof. Boyle in law school back in 1990 and was very inspired by him. Even now, 20 years later and a lot of living behind me, I still think he's absolutely right on politically. Unfortunately, I think his message would be more effective if his delivery were better. ..way to many "ahhs" and "ums" for the youtube world. Before a live audience.. it was not a problem.

nancycombsify 1 year ago

• It's the illiterate nature of all things public that encourage aggressive tax collection, and the welcoming of foreigners to overthrow anything smacking of Constitutional. There are many half-baked, queer recipes of unholy matrimony that have yet to be served up: group, incestuous, inter-species, inter-galactic, etc.

TheWorldFarOff 2 years ago

• Here's another form of false flag terrorism: Go to my channel & see a recent, extremely hard hitting interview on the absolute fraud & danger of vaccines -- & about a simple tool to viralize the truth about vaccines. The more people that know the truth, the harder it will be to force these vaccines on those of us that would rather put our trust in God, eating right, our own immune systems, natural remedies, faith & prayer -- rather than on Big Pharma & their veritable witches brews.

dconrad000 2 years ago

Bush and Blair Wanted for War Crimes

Francis Boyle

Posted on: October 22, 2011

Bush and Blair Wanted for War Crimes

by grtv

What the video of a prominent international lawyer discussion Bush and Blair wanted for War Crimes on this at

http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2012/10/bush-and-blair-wanted-war-crimes

Kualar Lumpa War Crimes Tribunal Convicted George  Bush and Tony Blair and 

Bush,  Ashcroft, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for War Crimes

Bush and Blair Wanted for War Crimes

Francis Boyle

Posted on: October 22, 2012

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Source:PressTV

A prominent international lawyer says former US President George W. Bush, and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair stand guilty of crimes against peace, war crimes and torture, Press TV reports.

In November 2011, the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, in which Francis Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois, led the prosecution team, convicted Bush and Blair of crimes against peace and humanity, and genocide over their roles in the Iraq war.

On May 11, 2012, the tribunal also found Bush, former US Vice President Dick Cheney and former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld guilty of the crime of torture.

"We will keep after Bush and Blair for sure for crimes against peace, war crimes and torture in general," Boyle told Press TV in a recent interview.

"We got them both convicted of a Nuremberg crime against peace," he added while referring to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the principles of international law recognized in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal.

According to Principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances are crimes "punishable" under international law.

In September, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Blair and Bush should be taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague over their roles in the Iraq war.

"We are making efforts now to do this," Boyle stated, adding, "We tried to get Bush in Switzerland, but his lawyers advised him not to go to Switzerland. I tried three times to get Bush in Canada, but unfortunately the Canadian government protected Bush."

"The wheels of justice might turn slowly, but they do turn."

Boyle also criticized the ICC for its failure to bring to justice US, UK and Israeli criminals.

"So far, they are just going after black thugs from Africa and not dealing with this wholesale mass murderers and criminals from the United States, Britain and Israel," he said.

Boyle condemned the Israeli regime for "inflicting outright genocide on the Palestinians in Gaza," adding that there will be hearings in November in Malaysia on the issue of Palestine.

Comments

Rolland Miller says:

I am upset that our Canadian Government would protect Bush and Blair from arrest over War Crimes.

Both of them and their close suppoters should be taken directly to Jail, and be tried for War Crimes over Iraq.

2012 / 10 / 22

Luke says:

Another crazy american with a theory.

2012 / 10 / 22

Mike Corbeil says:

Luke says Francis Boyle is talking theory. What theory? Bush, Blair, et al, are guilty as charged and as described in the article provided with the video, and they're guilty of many other extreme crimes. There's nothing theoretical about that. It's all factual. Getting courts to accept to honestly and thoroughly prosecute these extreme criminals is sort of like theoretical, for it's based on the theory that courts that're corrupt can come to eventually change, improvably; but, it is possible, just that it isn't at the present time.

2012 / 10 / 23

Bea says:

I truly hope that those two, (although not only as I would actually began to investigate also crimes by Obama and Cameron) will be prosecuted and jailed during my life span. This is taking bloody long and I cannot get it as no one (no one) should be beyond the law.

2012 / 10 / 23

susan says:

I hope the day comes when those two smug, pompous, killers, get theirs, as in prison time. It is sickening that they are walking around like normal people after what they have done! This is so wrong!

2012 / 10 / 23

Vuki says:

Herman and Peterson state (major powers) operate in self interest (Victor’s justice.) when honesty and integrity should be the the norms. NATO nations define Genocide and war crimes for others differently than for themselves. When Medline Albright was told by her British allies that invasion of Serbian province of Kosovo was illegal she replied get new lawyers. She also stated that killing 500 000 in Iraq with sanction was worth the price. Lets add the NATO leaders who caused the Yugoslav wars to the list.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/employees-of-romney-familys-secret-bank-tied-to-fraud-money-laundering-drug-cartels-and-the-cia/5309091

Employees of Romney family’s secret bank tied to fraud, money laundering, drug cartels and the CIA

By Gerry Bello and Bob Fitrakis

Global Research, October 21, 2012

Free Press

As previously reported in by the Columbus Free Press, the Romney family, namely Mitt, Ann, G Scott and Tagg Romney, along with Mitt’s “6th son” and campaign finance chair have a secretive private equity firm called Solamere Capital Partners. This firms ties to Romney’s campaign and bundlers is already well documented, along with its connection to the manufacture and distribution of voting machines. What is not as well documented is a subsidiary of that private equity firm hiring employees of a failed firm tied to a Ponzi scheme that has a long history of money laundering for Latin American drug cartels and to the Iran-Contra scandal.

As reported by ThinkProgress, Solamere Capital Partner’s subsidiary Solamere Advisors is a investment advisory group, providing advice to Solamere clients and boosting sales. Would-be corporate pugilist Tagg Romney is a director. According to the New York Times, all but one of its 11 employees came from the Charlotte office of the Stanford Financial Group, the US investment arm of convicted felon R. Allen Stanford’s offshore banking and fraud network that comprised a host of companies including the Stanford International Bank, Stanford Capital Management, The Bank of Antigua, Stanford Trust and Stanford Gold and Bullion. Three of these employees, Tim Bambauer, Deems May, and Brandon Phillips, received incentive compensation related to their direct sales of securities linked to a fraud that brought down this banking network.

Tim Bambauer has left his position as managing partner at Solamere Advisors. May and Phillips remain employed as partner and chief compliance officer respectively.

Allen Stanford is currently serving a 110-year prison sentence for convictions on 13 counts of fraud. His companies were placed in receivership. $8 billion of Stanford’s stolen money has yet to be recovered and the victims are in court to recover those funds and incentive pay bonuses to Stanford employees (including Bambauer, May and Phillips) for fraudulently getting people to invest in an operation that later bilked many of them out of their life’s savings.

Stanford’s shady history and criminality did not begin with the fraudulent investments that lead to his downfall, nor was it unknown at the highest level of United State’s Government. In a 2006 diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks, the US Ambassador to Antigua advised “Embassy officers do not reach out to Stanford because of the allegations of bribery and money laundering. The Ambassador managed to stay out of any one-on-one photos with Stanford during the breakfast. For his part, Stanford said he preferred to conduct his business without contacting the Embassy, resolving any investment disputes directly with local governments. It is whispered in the region that Stanford facilitates resolution with significant cash contributions.”

Similarly investigations by the SEC, FBI and Scotland Yard into Stanford’s empire stalled or failed all the way back to the 1980s. The Independent Newspaper in the UK alleges that Stanford’s network was on the FBI’s radar for more than 20 years. Stanford set up his first offshore bank in 1986, just as Eugene Hausenfaus, shot down while gun running for the CIA in Nicaragua, was being connected to another company named Stanford, in this case the “Stanford Technology Trading Group” owned by Richard Secord, Albert Hakim, and 4 unknown other persons, perhaps including Allen Stanford. According to Iran-Contra Whistleblower Al Martin (Lt. Cmdr. USNR ret.) “Anything with the name Stanford on it belonged to Secord”. When finally brought to trial, Stanford employed the same defense attorney, Dick DeGuerin, as Iran-Contra defendant Oliver North.

As the Iran-Contra explosion crippled the CIA’s Caribbean bank of choice, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), Stanford’s offshore banking empire was using the same techniques and embracing the same moral category of clients. Stanford’s banks were known to have laundered money from the Juarez Cartel and alleged to have done so earlier for the Medellin Cartel, and one of his private planes has been seized by the Mexican government in a drug case.

On top of legal woes in the United States and Mexico, the London Daily Telegraph reported that Stanford’s Venezuelan offices were raided by Venezuela’s military intelligence over claims that its employees were paid by the CIA to spy on the South American country. When asked about this in a CNBC interview which was cited in a story by independent journalist Tom Burghardt, Stanford declined to comment on any involvement with the CIA rather than outright deny it.

All of the these dealings by Stanford, and the complicity of his employees in facilitating them, was public information before January 2010, when Mitt Romney addressed the first full meeting of Solamere’s investors. Yet his son Tagg chose to hire into his family these alleged white collar criminals as soon as Stanford’s criminal empire collapsed. The Romney family stands by the new employees associated with their secret bank, as evidenced by Tagg’s response to interview questions from ThinkProgress regarding Solamere’s ability to reign them in: “Hey guys, We’re done here”.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/a-case-study-in-capitalist-democracy-youve-been-trumped/5309224

A Case Study In Capitalist Democracy: “You’ve been Trumped”

Review of Anthony Baxter's 2012 documentary

By Colin Todhunter

Global Research, October 23, 2012

Region: Europe

Theme: Poverty & Social Inequality

If you have not yet watched the documentary ‘You’ve been Trumped’ (2012) by Anthony Baxter, you should try to. It’s a film about how money and power, with the collusion of politicians, the media and the instruments of state, have complete contempt for and ride roughshod over ordinary people. It’s a lesson in how capitalist ‘democracy’ functions.

Here is the synopsis.

A group of proud Scottish homeowners take on a celebrity tycoon. At stake is one of Britain’s very last stretches of wilderness. US billionaire Donald Trump has bought up hundreds of acres on the northeast coast of Scotland. Trump needs to get some locals to move out of their homes to make the deal come true. He is going to build two golf courses alongside a 450-room hotel and 1,500 luxury homes. The trouble is the land he has purchased occupies one of Europe’s most environmentally sensitive stretches of coast and sand dunes, described by one leading scientist as Scotland’s Amazon rain forest. The handful of local residents who reside there don’t want to move out or have the land destroyed.

Despite the local council rejecting the proposal, the Scottish Government overturns its own environmental laws to give Trump the green light. This causes much consternation as the area is a designated ‘Site of Special Scientific Interest’. As the bulldozers spring into action to demolish the dunes and dig up the land, local residents’ water and power is cut off, land disputes erupt, and some residents have mountains of earth piled up next to their homes to try to force them out. Complaints go ignored by the police, who instead arrest the film’s director, Anthony Baxter. Apparently, filming in public constitutes a ‘breach of the peace’! The police are firmly in Trump’s court.

Adding insult to injury, Trump also gets an honorary doctorate from a local university, even as his tractors turn wild, untouched dunes into fairways.

‘You’ve Been Trumped’ encapsulates the chasm between the powerful, glamorous, jet-setting Donald Trump and a deeply rooted, relatively powerless Scottish community. For Trump, the golf course is just another money-making deal. For the residents, it represents the destruction of a globally unique landscape that has been the backdrop for their lives and an eventual influx of rich foreigners who will jet in and out for a quick round or two on their newly constructed millionaire playground.

The film raises issues that strike at the very heart of democracy. Seduced by Trump’s wealth, it’s the politicians, the media, much of the business community, a local university and the police that cow-tow to the billionaire. The police are his protector. Politicians overturn their own laws in the face of dubious promises of jobs, which are never genuinely investigated by them to see if they actually stand up to scrutiny.

Someone like Trump does not get to where they are without knowing how to play the media, or the politicians for that matter. The film shows his half truths, untruths, tacky PR gloss and ridiculous slurs against local residents who stand in his way are taken as facts by much of the media and many of those in authority. The rich have the knack of talking absolute rubbish, but say it with utter conviction that it becomes accepted as ‘fact’. That much was clear in the film.

‘You’ve been Trumped’ shows what most of us already know: money talks and officialdom – often ‘public servants’ – listens and looks the other way when the ordinary people they are supposed to serve end up paying the price.

The film is a depressing case study of how the ‘one per cent’ is able to control the world for its own benefit. Acting alone, the Trumps of this world exert enormous power.

But when they come together to forward a collective agenda, their influence is even more grotesque. Look no further than the International Crisis Group. Trilateral Commission, Council on Foreign Relations, the Brookings Institute and any other number of bodies populated, funded or controlled by big corporate interests on behalf of supremely wealthy individuals. Forget about the power of one billionaire to exert his influence in Scotland. Forget about one Donald Trump ever becoming US president. We already have a plethora of multi-billionaire interests dictating national and international policies!

Although Trump now has his golf course, something positive can be taken from the film: the spirit of ordinary people and their fortitude in standing up to money, wealth and power and its corrupting influences. They may not have prevented Trump’s scheme, but residents stood firm in the face of intimidation and threats. And they garnered the support of thousands of local people who knew wrong when they saw it.

What happened in Scotland is on one level similar to what is taking place right now in other parts of the world, not least in India: the corruption of democracy by power and wealth.

Thousands of ordinary people have been protesting against the building of nuclear plants in India. Notwithstanding safety concerns, unconstitutional land grabs resulting in people being booted off their lands have acquired headline status. The full force of the state has been brought to bear on protesters via police and paramilitary violence and intimidation.

In South India for example, local people are peacefully protesting against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. More than 56,000 have been falsely charged, including 6,000 for the offence of ‘sedition’. 53 have been imprisoned.

Why? Again, because of the influence of money; because of unaccountable power.

India’s expanding multi-billion dollar nuclear sector represents rich pickings for the key players both within India and abroad. The Indian government has agreed to buy US$150 billion worth of nuclear reactors, equipment and other materials from the US, whose companies will benefit for decades from Indian orders for military equipment. It has also promised various other countries that their companies will receive lucrative contracts in India. The French company Areva, US companies GE Hitachi and Westinghouse and the Russian company Atomstroy export are all building nuclear plants in the country. In return, the US lobbied to allow India to engage in civilian nuclear trade, despite not being a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

What is happening concerning the expansion of nuclear sector is however symptomatic of the wider situation in India. Anti-nuclear activist Neeraj Jain says the Indian elite’s vision for the country is to freely allow Western multinationals to access the Indian market and hand over thousands of hectares of land to them to set up projects like mines, refineries, airports, shopping malls and expressways, while dispossessing people from their mineral-rich lands in rural areas, and demolishing slums in urban areas.

Some like to call this ‘progress’. Others choose to call it ‘development’.

But let’s state it for what it actually is: self-serving, powerful, wealthy elite interests acting in collusion with politicians and demonstrating utter contempt for democracy and ordinary folk.

Whether we live in Scotland, India or elsewhere, it begs the question: Are we  willing to be ‘Trumped’ on a massive scale?

Well, that all depends on us, the 99 per cent, and what we are prepared to do about it.

You’ve been Trumped trailer:  //www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Gq2kj4ryg

http://www.globalresearch.ca/gr-radio-911-and-the-afghan-war-eleven-years-later/5308971

GR Radio: 9/11 and the Afghan War – Eleven Years Later

GR RADIO: The Global Research News Hour

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky and Michael Welch

Global Research, October 22, 2012

Region: Middle East & North Africa

Theme: 9/11 & 'War on Terrorism', US NATO War Agenda

In-depth Report: AFGHANISTAN, SYRIA: NATO'S NEXT WAR?

Global Research announces the launch of the first episode of The Global Research News Hour, broadcast weekly by CKUW News, 95.9 fm  out of Winnipeg, Ma. and on Canadian community radio networks. The weekly programme is available for download on the Global Research website. 

“There’s absolutely no evidence to the effect that Afghanistan actually attacked America on September 11, 2001.”
-Michel Chossudovsky

October 7, 2001, marked the eleventh anniversary of the US/NATO military intervention in Afghanistan. The Bush Administration, within hours of the dreadful 9/11 attacks, declared that Al Qaeda was responsible. Afghanistan had provided a haven for Osama Bin Laden. Having invoked Article 5 of the NATO Charter which declared an attack on one member, in this case the United States, to be an attack on all members, the NATO countries launched attacks on Afghanistan in tandem with the Northern Alliance to overthrow the Taliban government and crush the terrorist network.

Michel Chossodovsky, director of the Centre for Research on Globalization, explains in this feature interview that there is absolutely no basis for the statement that Afghanistan in any way attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, making the NATO alliance attacks on Afghanistan an act of aggression, rather than self-defense under the doctrine of collective security.

Moreover, the enemy known as Al Qaeda is and always has been a US Intelligence asset. These proxies of US Intelligence have likewise been at work in Syria leading to counter-attacks by the governments of those countries. MIchel Chossudovsky concludes this interview with an anticipation of an international intervention in Syria, similar to the one in Libya, in the name of “protecting the people”.

CLICK TO LISTEN TO INTERVIEW (MP3 FORMAT)

Length: 59:13

Interview by Michael A Welch

http://www.globalresearch.ca/a-case-study-in-capitalist-democracy-youve-been-trumped/5309224

http://www.globalresearch.ca/gladio-death-plan-for-democracy/8001

http://www.globalresearch.ca/a-case-study-in-capitalist-democracy-youve-been-trumped/5309224

Gladio – Death Plan For Democracy

By Peter Chamberlin

Global Research, February 05, 2008

5 February 2008

Theme: 9/11 & 'War on Terrorism', Intelligence, Police State & Civil Rights

In late January 2008, a secret paramilitary group (formerly?) allied with America was busted in Turkey.

 Thirteen members of a shadowy right-wing group in Turkey were charged with “forming an armed terrorist group in order to provoke members

 of the public into armed revolt against the government.” 

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373933                                

“The detention in Istanbul last week of alleged members of a shadowy Turkish ultranationalist group has revived charges that elements

 within the Turkish security apparatus have long tried to destabilize the country through a campaign of bombings and assassinations. 

These allegedly include false flag operations that have been attributed to Kurdish separatists and violent Islamists… 

The Turkish media have claimed that the latest arrests follow intelligence reports that the gang was planning to carry out a series of high level assassinations…

what Turks call… deep state has its origins in what are commonly called Gladio operations “  

 – Mass Arrests Expose Operations of Turkey’s “Deep State” -  By Gareth Jenkins 

The use of proxy mercenary forces to terrorize nations into submitting to US political demands

 has been the cornerstone of American foreign policy since at least the era of the Berlin Wall, and it still is.  

 ”Terrorism – the use of violence and threats to intimidate or to coerce, esp. for political purposes.”             

According to this definition from Dictionary.com, the government of the United States of  America is the primary source of state terrorism in the world.  

In Europe, the American government actively sought to eliminate political opposition to its fascist world plans through the use of open violent repression and covert terroristic “false flag” attacks upon popular patriotic resistance movements and their leaders.  Using ultra right-wing homegrown fascists, in both Europe and America, secret paramilitary militias were created, called “Stay Behind” forces at the end of World War II.  Since then, the CIA activated these groups to successfully quash anti-American liberal and social democratic popular resistance movements.  The agency denies this, but the series of exposes of their network in Europe since 1990 have proven the professed denials to be false. 

The secret American plans to turn dissent into a weapon for destroying democracy were applied equally, yet differently, in America and Europe.  Here, the procedure called for using more subtlety, as opposed to Europe, where everything would happen outside of the controlled environment of the corporate US media.  In Europe, so-called “pro-communist” forces could be fought more aggressively, using secretive groups like Gladio to physically attack the antiwar, Labor-oriented and liberal protest movements.  Behind the scenes, terror attacks were carried-out by anonymous sources to be blamed on the opposition party.  Using the extreme right-wing Gladio forces in this manner, as well as infiltrating and sabotaging leftist groups from within, proved devastating at the polls.  People ran away from the resistance in droves, seeking security in the waiting arms of the fascists and the all-powerful state.  But many people did also see through the BS of the “official story” of events like the bombing of a train stations in Bologna, Italy. 

The secret plans for Europe entailed large covert paramilitary units in every NATO nation, that were trained and ready to suppress all anti-American protests by liberals and social democrats.  The official name of the covert programs was “Gladio.”  The official cover story (and its original purpose) was that these right-wing paramilitary units were “Stay Behind” forces, which were created as copies of the French “underground” resistance, to be activated upon a Soviet conquest and occupation of Europe.  The Stay Behind/Gladio forces saw a change of mission in the sixties, when the European socialist/liberal alliance began to awaken strong nationalist movements in every NATO country.1     

The Timewatch investigation documents the secret formation of these neo-fascist units throughout Europe, highlighting individual local leaders and their personal testimony about participating in armed attacks upon government armories and supermarkets, as well as terror bombings, like the bomb that was detonated at Bologna’s train station, killing 85 and wounded over 200.  Other revelations from the video about the operation include a damning investigation of Gladio by the European Union, interviews with key Gladio players like neocon Michael Ledeen, shadowy Iran/Contra figures Gen. John Singlaub, CIA spokesmen like former Director William Colby and Ray Cline, as well as pivotal controversial documentation on secret Army participation.

In contradiction of CIA denials about the true purpose of Gladio and the scope of its operations and neoconservative lies that there was no Gladio, the following excerpt, from joint resolution (EP 22.11.90) of the European Parliament condemns actions of US and allied intelligence agencies involved.   http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/gladio.htm         

“Whereas in certain Member States military secret services (or uncontrolled branches thereof) were involved in serious cases of terrorism and crime as evidenced by, various judicial inquiries… these organizations operated and continue to operate completely outside the law…      whereas the various `GLADIO’ organizations have at their disposal independent arsenals and military resources which give them an unknown strike potential, thereby jeopardizing the democratic structures of the countries in which they are operating or have been operating…”  

This officially condemns the lame official excuses, like that given by former CIA Director William Colby (claiming on the video that these were small contingency plans for providing covert intelligence sources only, in case of Soviet occupation), while exposing the duplicity of stooges like neoconservative Michael Ledeen (who was implicated in the Gladio political action while working for a right-wing Italian news service), who falsely argues that Gladio was merely a Soviet disinformation program that was based:

“on an old forgery, designed to show that there’s some kind of… accusing the United States basically of what the Soviet union was doing in Italy, which was creating a secret underground paramilitary organization capable of organizing to subvert Italian democracy.”  

This, “there is no spoon” explanation echoes the equally lame counter-story given by alleged Gladio participant, Licio Gelli, Grand Master of super-secretive P2 Masonic lodge, that the dreadful Bologna train station bombing was a “transportation accident,” taking place in an open marketplace, where explosives were commonly sold, when “someone threw a cigarette away.”     

The “old forgery” that Ledeen referred to was a document known as “US Defense Training Manual 30-31B.  The State Dept. claims that the CIA “debunked” this document as a Soviet forgery, even though it is somehow listed within the classified sections of manual libraries .  

http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2006/Jan/20-127177.html  

The allegedly forged document, signed by Army Chief of Staff Gen. W.C. WESTMORELAND, contained the following admission: 

“There may be times when host country governments show passivity or indecision in the face of Communist subversion…US Army Intelligence must have the means of launching special operations which will convince host country governments and public opinion of the reality of the insurgent danger… To this end, U.S. Army intelligence should seek to penetrate the insurgency by means of agents on special assignment, with the task of forming special action groups among the more radical elements of the insurgency. When the kind of situation envisaged above arises, these groups, acting under U.S. Army intelligence control, should be used to launch violent or non-violent actions according to the nature of the case.”   

Since this is a very precise description of the known activities of Gladio given by participants in it, we must assume that history has confirmed that 30-31B is real.  In Gladio operations, like those attributed to the “Deep State” group in Turkey, the plans for covert acts of terrorism  (which were theoretically intended to implicate the Communists or other enemies of the US, thus turning the population against them) were supposed to be activated at that moment in the national struggle where the Communist/liberal forces turn away from armed struggle, to embrace non-violent democratic elections, according to the  (CIA-alleged) disinformation known as “Army Field Manual 30-31B.”  But, as described so vividly in the BBC documentary, the right-wing terror attacks upon leftist leaders preceded the use of those tactics by the “pro-communist” forces.  In addition to staging false flag attacks meant to be blamed upon the leftists, an intensive effort was made to infiltrate those movements, in order to incite radicals within them into carrying-out their own copycat attacks. 

While Ledeen and the CIA try to claim that Gladio is a “legend,” fabricated by the  Soviets in an attempt to blame the US for their actions, the revelation of historical evidence is indicting America and the agency for introducing political terrorism to Western electoral politics.  Gladio is an ongoing operation by our government to savagely kill and wound thousands of our own allies, in order to blackmail them into supporting America’s fascist plans for the world.  “Political action” took on a whole new meaning at the hands of the CIA and its hidden allies.

Terrorism, as political action, became the driving force in American foreign policy, and any nation that sought our aid, or to become allied with us, had to accept this reality and the necessity to keep blaming others for our own commissioned attacks.  The historical record of “terrorist” bombings throughout the world is, for the most part, a record of our actions, done under the cover of layers of “plausible deniability,” created by the compartmentalization of terrorist strike forces into different secret levels.   

If the mercenary Gladio paramilitary forces could not provide a sufficient level of violence to satisfy the Company’s needs, then the agency could rely on its own paramilitary units, or on special troops from Defense Intelligence under the 30-31B provision.  If the work required an extra layer of “plausible deniability” then there were always criminal organizations for hire and the super-secret network of “rogue operators” like Ed Wilson, who were officially alleged to be “former CIA.”   In the book, Charlie Wilson’s War, former agent Wilson told President Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua that he could raise an army of 1000 “ex” agents to defeat anti-government rebels, for the right price. 

In America we have seen that same commitment to the use of political violence play-out within the CIA/corporate/Republican alliance, especially during the Nixon Administration as seen in bloody incidents like the Kent State massacre, where right-wing Republican Ohio Governor James Rhodes strove to impress his Republican masters by having young unsuspecting National Guardsmen fire live ammunition into a crowd of young unsuspecting college students.  Behind the scenes government provocateurs led radical movements like the SDS, the Weathermen and the Black Panthers into violent actions, intended to discredit and slander the antiwar movement.  With the empowerment of Reagan, Bush and agency director Casey, CIA involvement in American politics was out in the open. 

Co-opting the highly patriotic party Republican Party and the American right-wing in a subversive program to eliminate democracy by turning it into a weapon in this country was not a simple task.  It took a great deal of foresight, intricate planning and an enormous amount of cash.  In order to gain control over America’s right-wing as it had in Europe, the Company had to formulate a program of intricate deception, in order to gain their trust, as a first step to dominating their efforts.   

Since grassroots conservatism in this country is based on a conspiracy theory-based belief system, the agency had to promote the far-reaching conspiracy theories that were common to the movement.  This meant that the CIA had to promote evidence of all-encompassing theories, such as those concerning Jews, the “Illuminati” and international bankers, to win the trust of suspicious Republican bigots.   Undercover agents had to pose as movement leaders and researchers, who were committed to exposing the plots of our would-be “masters.”  The agency chose to play both the race card and the religion card, by making the “Zionist” plot to colonize Palestine (a real conspiracy) the cornerstone of the CIA/corporate plot against the world.  The agency promoted joint CIA/MOSSAD actions for the dual purpose of forwarding both US corporate plans for the world and Israeli designs to reclaim the land of “Greater Israel,” which were critical to conspiracy plans for the Middle East and creating a state of permanent war there.    

The master manipulators at the agency underwrote secret efforts by Zionist agents, who also served US interests, to undermine American democracy and simultaneously cuddling-up to the American extreme right-wing.  The Gladio-styled plan was to take over the ultra-nationalist right and to infiltrate and corrupt the anti-government left.  They helped to create secretive anti-Semitic organizations, as well as Zionist groups.   The two-pronged attack focused on exposing Zionist subversives, while working to build a popular wave of anti-Semitism as a national counter-reaction to Zionist crimes which they had helped to expose.   

The key to convincing the masses of conservative Republican voters of this vast covert conspiracy was found in the “big lie,” where the government agents chose to expose choice tidbits of its own massive brainwashing and social control campaigns, attributing them to agents of “Zion.”  The brainwashing science possessed by the government and applied through its foundations and institutes (such as Rand, Ford, Carnegie, Stanford and Tavistock Institute) dwarfs the alleged manipulative powers of any imagined conspiracy.  This proved to be extremely successful, especially when combined with spectacular fear producing terror attacks.   

In truth, mind control science, developed and implemented since World War II (largely by Jewish scientists and psychologists), is all CIA.  With the rise of former CIA director George Bush to the position of “vice president elect,” (and their “October surprise” obtained with a purloined speech prep book for the great debate) the agency began to apply those behavioral control techniques of Gladio to the political process. 

The political product of that behavioral research, which became known as “neoconservatism,”   http://rense.com/general77/neneo.htm      was a deliberate attempt to duplicate the psychology of pre-WWII Europe  (especially that of Nazi Germany) here in America, based on the scientific research of the Jewish intellectuals, who had fled from there for their lives.  The recreation of a radical anti-Semitic political belief system here would be enhanced by popular resistance and reaction to the fascist neoconservative policies of Zionist dual-citizenship neocons.  Leaders were found who could inspire armies of individuals to believe that there is a powerful dark conspiracy afoot that can mobilize secret armies of millions, to control every aspect of every life, or nearly so.  The success of the brainwashing program can be measured directly by the number and intensity of individuals who believe in theories of “racial superiority,” whether they be believers in ideas of either “Jewish superiority” or in counter-theories of white or “Aryan” superiority. 

Today’s resistance movement of counter-reaction to neoconservative/Zionist fascism is under assault by dueling forces, who either want to silence the movement, or to misdirect and co-opt it.  If the movement is silenced by Zionists or divided by anti-Zionists, it will not be able to disrupt the neoconservative plans to launch nuclear war against Iran and thereby usher in a state of permanent war. 

The over-eager Zionist zealots who willingly became part of this conspiracy have unknowingly sealed Israel’s fate, as the intended target for the coming wave of anti-Semitism.  Little did they know that their Republican friends planned to drag-up Zionism’s historical record of utilizing anti-Semites in their secret plans to force the Jewish “Diaspora” out of Europe to forcefully colonize Palestine, as proof of a global “Jewish conspiracy.”  The intensive campaign of lies and subterfuge that have been used to hide fascist Israeli intentions to “ethnically cleanse” Palestine and the surrounding area of its Arab inhabitants, confirm all the negative stereotyping of the “Jewish state,” especially in light of “Israel lobby” plans to force America to fight Israel’s wars, even the ones started by Israel. 

The Gladio-centered US foreign policy, which was so successfully played-out in Europe, effectively countered the Soviet expansion at a high cost to European democracy.  The application of that policy to Islamic countries facing a Soviet threat, such as Afghanistan, helped to roll-back the Soviets, but at a terrible cost.  The training of Islamic paramilitary forces to carry-out terror attacks for political reasons, evolved into the unfolding nightmare known as the war on terror.  

In Afghanistan, the CIA armed, trained and supported Islamic “Gladios” who carried-out Brzezenski’s plans for staging terrorist attacks upon popular local Afghan tribal leaders, as a means to instigate the widespread tribal warfare which eventually lured the Soviets to intervene in December 1979.  (July 3, 1979, President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.)  Reagan whole-heartedly supported the new terror politics as a weapon for attacking the Soviet empire, even expanding the Islamic militant form of Gladio to all member states of the Soviet Union and their allies, when he signed National Security Decision Directive 166 in March 1985.   In Central America, his Gladio-like duplication trained paramilitary armies and death squads.  

This policy became known as the “El Salvador option,” when George W. Bush embraced it in Iraq,

 making it the centerpiece of his strategy for the “war on terrorism.” 

Note

1. The following three-part investigation from the BBC, entitled  “Timewatch – Operation Gladio” can be seen at either YouTube (part 1 of 15 is embedded below),

//youtube.com/watch?v=l2MOpkriXb4  

or at Google Video (in three parts).  You can download the Google videos here.  
http://www.takeoverworld.info/vid.html#gladio<object width=”425″ height=”355″><param name=”movie” value=”
//www.youtube.com/v/l2MOpkriXb4&rel=1“></param><param name=”wmode” value=”transparent”></param><embed src=”
//www.youtube.com/v/l2MOpkriXb4&rel=1” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” wmode=”transparent” width=”425″ height=”355″></embed></object>   
  

Poverty, Unemployment, Homelessness in America: “Rage Against Austerity”

http://www.globalresearch.ca/poverty-unemployment-homelessness-in-america-rage-against-austerity/5309119

The criminal class in Washington is bipartisan. Together they planned force-fed pain. They met secretly. They mandated poverty, unemployment, homelessness, and hunger during hard times.

They did it when vital help is needed. Officially it’s called “austerity.” Obama calls it “shared sacrifice.” In other words, ordinary people “sacrifice” to let rich ones “share.” Rape, pillage, loot, steal, or plunder best describes it.

The name of the game is shifting public wealth to bankers, other corporate favorites and wealthy elites already with too much.

It’s gone on for decades. Post-9/11, Bush and Obama took it to a higher level. They represent wealth, power and privilege. Serving them means throwing everyone else under the bus.

Robbing poor Peter to pay rich Paul is policy. Destructive neoliberal harshness defines it. Ordinary people bear extraordinary burdens. They’re oppressed by problems they didn’t cause. The usual IMF prescription is mandated.

Hammer people hard when they’re down. Preserve capital at all costs. Prioritize bankers most of all. Do it the usual way. Cut wages and benefits. Curb social spending.

Shift full-time good jobs abroad. Turn workers into wage slaves. Turn corporate predators lose to do what they please. Privatize, privatize, privatize, and crack down hard on resisters.

In the 1980s, it was called Reaganomics, trickle down, and Thatcherism. Post-Soviet Russia got “shock therapy.” In America and across Europe, it’s “austerity.”

Capital rights are pitted against humanity. Disposable workers are denied so Big Money gains. Moral depravity defines policy measures harming so many so much for so few.

 

How much human suffering is tolerable? Upper limits haven’t been tested. The worst is yet to come. It’s baked in the cake and agreed on. No one asked ordinary people how they feel?

Who cares! Dominant parties in America and across Europe plan trillions of dollars in social benefit cuts as far as the eye can see. Degeneracy has no limit. What’s most needed is eroding en route to being entirely lost.

Policymakers don’t care how many people lack jobs, can’t afford healthcare or college tuition, sleep on streets when homes are lost or rent is unaffordable, go hungry, or die young for lack of basic care.

Ordinary people are fair game. Western societies aren’t fit to live in. They’re being banana republicanized. American writer O. Henry (William Sydney Porter: 1862 – 1910) coined the term. His fictional Republic of Anchuria represented it.

It refers to a politically repressive country. Privileged few in it have inordinately high wealth. Diktat power lets them keep it and get more. Ordinary people are exploited, persecuted, and thrown overboard when no longer needed.

Workers bear enormous debt burdens. Make ‘em pay for corporate crimes and political corruption compounding them.

Kleptocracy is policy. Gangsterism rules. Ordinary people are left high and dry.

It’s happening in plain sight in America and across Europe. Western civilization hasn’t been this bad since 19th century harshness or perhaps the dark ages.

Personal freedoms are denied. Democratic values are illusory. Ideological extremism wages war on humanity. It’s soulless, morally depraved, anti-populist, anti-labor, anti-welfare, anti-government of, by and for everyone, pro-business, and pro-wars on one country after another without end.

What kind of leaders govern this way? What kind of society lets them? They claim democratic credentials. No one checked public opinion. No one took a vote on whether ordinary people are comfortable about shifting public wealth to corporate favorites and rich elites at their expense.

Pain is force-fed. Anti-progressivism is policy. Fascism bites hard. It inflicts suffering the old-fashioned way. Buck the system and feel its harshness.

Imagine daily life this way. Imagine things getting progressively worse. Imagine sacrificing humanity on the alter of privilege for society’s few. Imagine politicians telling people it’s for their own good.

No matter how much pain is inflicted, more follows. Take a stand and fight. Do it nonviolently. Do it because it matters. Do it because austerity is poison. Do it because no one will do it for you.

On October 27, attend United Front Against Austerity’s (UFAA) New York Public Assembly. Fight America’s existential threat. No matter who wins in November, “working families will be thrown over the proverbial ‘fiscal cliff….’ ”

Political bosses plan it “in the name of debt and deficits” reduction. It’s a hoax. It’s about greater wealth transfers. It’s about waging imperial wars without end.

It’s about empowering corporate bosses more than ever. It’s about elevating political corruption to higher levels. It’s about Washington harming ordinary people most.

“Cutting Social Security, Medicare and other threads in our fragile social fabric is not only grossly unjust – it won’t work! The so-called ‘Grand Bargain’ threatens to unleash a death spiral of unemployment and poverty which our nation is not certain to survive.”

UFAA calls on ordinary people to defend their economic rights. Mobilizing effective opposition is urgent. Agitate for change. Make Wall Street crooks pay for the mess they created. Build momentum for “a genuine political revolution of, by and for” everyone.

October 27 isn’t a conference. It’s an assembly. It a gathering of like-minded people. It’s about mobilizing for our common defense.

StopImperialism.com‘s Eric Draitser launched UFAA. November 6 choices offer none at all. No matter who wins, ordinary people lose. It’s vital they “organize NOW” ahead of post-electoral war on working Americans.

Draitser calls October 27 “an organizing tool – one that is primarily focused on proposals (including economic recovery, organizing, leadership, demands, etc.) and floor debate, so that real strategy and mobilization can follow.”

Talking shop conferences accomplish nothing. Battle plans are needed followed by action. Two segments are planned:

(1) “(I)intelligence reports” will outline today’s threats. Domestic and international ones will be covered. Distinguished speakers will explain.

(2) Debate will follow proposals. Speakers and audience members will interact. At issue is reaching consensus. It’s much more than about what’s wrong. It’s about what do we do about it starting now.

Everyone is welcome to come, participate, or just listen, learn, and pass on information to others. Speakers are being scheduled. So far they include:

Everyone is welcome to come, participate, or just listen, learn, and pass on information to others. Speakers are being scheduled. So far they include:

• Peace mom Cindy Sheehan
• Black Agenda Report Executive Editor Glen Ford
• Greek Political economist/SYRIZA founding member Yanis Varoufakis
• African-American Studies Professor Tony Monteiro
• Author/lecturer Webster Tarpley
• Dr. Randy Short
• National Jobs for All Coalition (NJFAC) organizer Eric Lerner
• NJFAC’s public housing advocate Jay Arena
• Community Progressive Radio founder Don DeBar
• This writer will also participate.
• “The time for whining and ‘waking people up’ has passed,” says Draitser. One option alone remains. “Organize to defend our economic rights.”

Doing it now is crucial. Join others cooperatively. Assemble at perhaps the most perilous time in world history:

United Front Against Austerity

Public Assembly

Saturday, October 27th (12-6pm)

56 Walker St.

New York, NY

Stand up. Turn out. Tell others. Build on Wisconsin and OWS. Fight for fundamental rights. Save what’s being attacked and destroyed. Do what’s important because it matters. Do what no one will do for you. There’s no other way.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-colombian-war-on-drugs-a-family-affair/5309195

The Colombian “War on Drugs”, A Family Affair

Colombian War on DrugsFamily Affair

Teflon President? Noose Tightens Around Uribe as Former Death Squad Leaders Spill the Beans

Last month’s capture of Colombian drug lord Daniel “El Loco” Barrera by Venezuelan police was hailed as a “victory” in the “War on Drugs.”

Barrera, accused of smuggling some 900 tons of cocaine into Europe and the U.S. throughout his infamous career, was described by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who announced the arrest on national television, as “the last of the great capos.”

But what of the “capo” who enjoyed high office, is wined and dined by U.S. corporations and conservative think-tanks, owns vast tracks of land, is a “visiting scholar” at a prominent American university (Georgetown) and now sits on the Board of Directors of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation?

When will they be brought to ground?

A Family Affair

To clarify the questions above, one need look no further than the kid-gloves approach taken by the media when it comes to former Colombian President, the U.S. “Presidential Medal of Freedom” recipient Álvaro Uribe.

Accused by human rights organizations over his role in the forced disappearance of thousands of Colombians during two terms in office (2002-2010), Uribe may still land in the dock as a result of ongoing investigations by Colombia’s Supreme Court into official corruption, drug trafficking and mass murder.

Recent arrests by Colombian authorities and revelations by the president’s former allies however, are beginning to draw a circle around Uribe and the U.S. secret state in some of the hemisphere’s worst human rights abuses of previous decades.

As the net tightens, members of the president’s own family are sharply focused in the cross-hairs of investigators. Back in June, Antifascist Calling reported on the arrest of Ana Maria Uribe Cifuentes and her mother, Dolly Cifuentes Villa on drug trafficking and money laundering charges. The U.S Treasury Department froze their assets last year.

Accused by the Justice Department of having trafficked some 30 tons of cocaine into the U.S. as business partners of Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the women, members of the Cifuentes Villa crime family led by Dolly’s brother, Jorge Milton Cifuentes Villa, are prominent members of Colombia’s jet-setting narco-bourgeoisie.

According to the Justice Department, the investigation revealed that “the Cifuentes Villa drug trafficking organization was using sophisticated drug trafficking routes to distribute multi-ton cocaine loads from Colombia through Central America, for ultimate distribution in Mexico and the United States.” In 2009, some 8.3 tons of cocaine which the family were attempting to export to Mexico were seized by law enforcement officials in Ecuador.

Federal prosecutors charged that the Cifuentes Villa family owns or controls 15 companies operating in Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador involved in a variety of ventures that supported their narcotrafficking enterprise.

Among the firms targeted were Linea Aerea Pueblos Amazonicos S.A.S., a newly-created airline operating in eastern Colombia, Red Mundial Inmobiliaria, S.A. de C.V., a real estate company located near Mexico City, along with Gestores del Ecuador Gestorum S.A., a consulting firm located in Quito, Ecuador.

It is also worth noting that the Cifuentes Villa organization, as the Center of Public Integrity reported, have also profited from illegal mining operations that traffic rare-earth minerals destined for the world market.

Accordingly, the Cifuentes Villa clan employed the same smuggling routes that trafficked cocaine to move precious metallic ores such as coltan and tungsten, used by the communications industry and weapons manufacturers, onto the international market. When the Treasury Department placed family members onto its drug kingpin list they identified their mining fronts as “a money-laundering operation in support of a cocaine-smuggling enterprise.”

While U.S. media were mesmerized by the extradition of Sandra Ávila Beltrán, whom the press had dubbed “La Reina del Pacífico” (The Queen of the Pacific), over her lavish lifestyle and family ties to legendary Mexican drug lord Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, onetime godfather of the Guadalajara Cartel, Uribe’s relatives inexplicably “disappeared” from “court records and authorities were unable to pinpoint the pair’s whereabouts,” Colombia Reports informed us.

Imagine that.

For his part, the former president denied allegations leveled against his brother Jaime, who died in 2001, and claimed that unnamed “criminals,” who conducted “business” from his brother’s car phone had cloned it. He also “denied any knowledge of his brother’s relationship with Cifuentes or the existence of his niece, despite a birth certificate that was uncovered proving Jaime Uribe was her father,” Colombia Reports averred.

What Uribe continues to gloss over however, is the inconvenient fact that brother Jaime had been arrested and interrogated by the Colombian Army after investigators recorded calls \made from his phone to none other than Pablo Escobar, the Nuevo Arco Iris political research center in Bogotá disclosed.

Among the unanswered questions surrounding these recent arrests, investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker wondered: “Did Álvaro Uribe okay the loading of 3.6 tons of cocaine at an airport he controlled in Rio Negro Colombia onto a ‘former’ CIA Gulfstream (N987SA) jet from St. Petersburg Florida that crashed in the Yucatan in 2007?”

That fateful crash eventually led to the deferred prosecution agreement between the U.S. federal government and Wachovia Bank, fined $160 million for laundering some $378 billion for Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, “business associates” of the Cifuentes Villa clan.

More pointedly Hopsicker asked: “Why did two successive U.S. Administrations lavish billions of dollars to stop drug trafficking on a President of Colombia who was himself involved in the drug trade?”

As the investigative net is drawn around the family of the former president, another Uribe brother, Santiago, “is facing a criminal investigation for the alleged founding and leading of a paramilitary group,” Colombia Reports disclosed.

Investigations into that group, the notorious death squad the 12 Apostles, again surfaced when The Washington Post revealed that a former police chief, Juan Carlos Meneses, charged that Santiago “led a fearsome paramilitary group in the 1990s … that killed petty thieves, guerrilla sympathizers and suspected subversives.”

Meneses, who fled to Venezuela with his family, disclosed that the “group’s hit men trained at La Carolina, where the Uribe family ran an agro-business in the early 1990s.” For services rendered, Meneses told the Post “he received a monthly payment of about $2,000 delivered by Santiago Uribe.”

The former police official said he came forward “because associates in the security services warned him he would soon be killed for knowing too much.”

“The revelations,” according to the Post, “threaten to renew a criminal investigation against Santiago Uribe and raise new questions about the president’s past in a region where private militias funded with drug-trafficking proceeds and supported by cattlemen wreaked havoc in the 1990s. The disclosures could prove uncomfortable to the United States, which has long seen Uribe as a trusted caretaker of American money in the fight against armed groups and the cocaine trade.”

“Uncomfortable” perhaps, but not surprising given the U.S. track record in support of drug-trafficking death squads, especially those which advanced corporate America’s geopolitical interests throughout Latin America.

“Meneses,” the Post averred, “is the first close collaborator of the 12 Apostles to speak publicly about the group’s inner workings. His declarations are also the most extensive recounting by a security services official of how Colombia’s militarized police and its army worked in tandem with death squads in one community–a model that investigators of the paramilitary movement say was duplicated nationwide.”

For his part, the former president accused human rights’ activists who have leveled charges against his family “of being guerrilla stooges who disseminate false accusations against his government.”

However, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, who was present when Meneses recounted his story during a taped interview in Buenos Aires, told the Post that the former police chief “‘incriminates himself and also the brother of the president who managed the paramilitary group, but also President Uribe’.”

Interestingly enough, Uribe’s appointment to News Corp’s board came while the former president is under investigation for illegally wiretapping human rights activists, journalists, Supreme Court justices and opposition politicians.

His former chief of staff is currently in jail awaiting trial on criminal wiretapping charges and his former secret police chief, Maria Pilar Hurtado, fled Colombia and sought asylum in Panama before similar charges could be filed against her.

And with two more senators now under investigation for suspected ties to paramilitary death squadsColombia Reports averred, Uribe’s teflon armor is slowly being chipped away.

Parapolitical Scandal

If, as Voltaire once said, “the history of the great events of this world are scarcely more than the history of crime,” what of the powerful actors who have looted entire nations and did so while serving the interests of their imperialist overlords?

Dubbed the “parapolitical scandal” by Colombian media, the investigation was set in motion when leftist opposition politician, Clara López Obregón, formally denounced and provided evidence in 2005 to the Supreme Court of links between drug trafficking organizations, the military/intelligence apparatus, right-wing death squads and members of Congress, including prominent officials of Álvaro Uribe’s then-governing coalition.

That investigation gathered steam when a laptop was seized by authorities in 2006 from Rodrigo Tovar Pupo, alias Jorge 40, a leader of the Northern Bloc of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia(United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC).

The origins of the AUC can be traced to the take-down of the Medellín Cartel and murder of “cocaine king” Pablo Escobar by rival drug organizations, principally the Cali Cartel run by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers, who were provided logistical support and firepower by the CIA and U.S. Delta Force commandos to eliminate the competition.

An umbrella group comprised of far-right militants and drug capos aligned with Colombia’s ruling class, the AUC and splinter groups such as the Águilas Negras, or Black Eagles, and the Ejército Revolucionario Popular Antiterrorista Colombiano (Popular Revolutionary Anti-Terrorist Army of Colombia, ERPAC), derive the bulk of their income from drug trafficking as they wage war against the leftist Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC), trade unionists and land reform activists.

Readers will recall that during the 1980s both the Medellín and Cali cartels were given a leg up by the Reagan administration’s CIA as funds derived from the drug trade were diverted to the Nicaraguan Contras as part of the administration’s anti-Communist crusade in Central America.

In fact, as the Agency was forced to admit in the wake of “suicided” journalist Gary Webb’s “Dark Alliance” investigation, the CIA and Reagan’s Justice Department agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding that handed their dope-dealing Contra assets get-out-of-jail-free cards.

As political fallout from the latest “War on Drugs” scandal–the “gun walking” Fast and Furious affair that put thousands of high-powered weapons into the hands of cartel killers in Mexico–hovers like a radioactive cloud over the Justice Department, the old watchword of the 1980s, “drugs in, guns out,” is all the more timely.

And like the Contras, the AUC were more than simply an enforcement arm of Colombia’s narco-elites; they served as an unofficial though deadly instrument, to preserve the status quo. For Washington policy makers, this meant continued access by U.S. petroleum corporations, mining and agro-business interests to Colombia’s vast wealth. If thousands of tons of cocaine entered the United States as the price for stamping out “leftist subversion,” then so be it.

Along with incriminating evidence that linked Tovar’s gang to 550 murders, it later emerged that Tovar was a close political associate of Jorge Noguera, the former head of DAS, the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (Administrative Department of Security), the Colombian equivalent of the CIA.

Noguera’s links to Tovar came to light when his deputy, Rafael García Torres, DAS’s former chief of Information Technologies, was arrested and charged by Supreme Court investigators of accepting bribes from right-wing sicarios (assassins) and drug traffickers in exchange for erasing their criminal histories, along with those of the Cifuentes Villa clan, from the state intelligence database.

In his testimony, García charged that Noguera, a Uribe crony, collaborated with Tovar’s Northern Bloc in a coordinated move by the AUC to support local, regional and national candidates for office who supported their hardline against the left.

More recently, the not-so-hidden hand of the United States emerged.

The Washington Post reported that “American cash, equipment and training, supplied to elite units of the Colombian intelligence service over the past decade to help smash cocaine-trafficking rings, were used to carry out spying operations and smear campaigns against Supreme Court justices, Uribe’s political opponents and civil society groups.”

Post reporters Karen DeYoung and Claudia J. Duque disclosed that despite billions of dollars of aid supplied by U.S. taxpayers under Plan Colombia, “the DAS under Uribe emphasized political targets over insurgents and drug lords.”

In fact, Colombia prosecutors told the Post that the “Uribe government wanted to ‘neutralize’ the Supreme Court because its investigative magistrates were unraveling ties between presidential allies in the Colombian congress and drug-trafficking paramilitary groups.”

Based on “thousands of pages of DAS documents and the testimony of nine top former DAS officials, the prosecutors say the agency was directed by the president’s office to collect the banking records of magistrates, follow their families, bug their offices and analyze their court rulings.”

These black operations however, were not the work of a few proverbial “bad apples” but were a direct result of projects designed by the CIA.

“Some of those charged or under investigation have described the importance of U.S. intelligence resources and guidance,” the Post disclosed, “and say they regularly briefed embassy ‘liaison’ officials on their intelligence-gathering activities.”

“‘We were organized through the American Embassy,’ said William Romero, who ran the DAS’s network of informants and oversaw infiltration of the Supreme Court. Like many of the top DAS officials in jail or facing charges, he received CIA training. Some were given scholarships to complete coursework on intelligence-gathering at American universities.” As with the previous Clinton and Bush regimes, the Obama administration vociferously denies any knowledge of corrupt practices by Colombian officials and in fact, “anti-drug” programs such as Plan Colombia “are viewed as so successful that it has become a model for strategy in Afghanistan,” thePost reported.

By 2012 however, some 139 members of Congress were under investigation; five governors and 32 lawmakers, including President Uribe’s cousin, Mario Uribe Escobar, a former President of Congress, were convicted of paramilitary ties and subsequently jailed. In late August, former Colombian senator Jorge Visbal, a Uribe ally, “was charged with the promoting and financing of paramilitary groups, held responsible for tens of thousands of human rights violations,” Colombia Reports disclosed.

“Former AUC leader Salvatore Mancuso testified before Colombian prosecutors that Visbal had an ‘identical ideology’ to the extreme-right paramilitaries and, on behalf of the cattle ranchers, brought ‘information and suggestions’ to meetings with paramilitary leaders to secure the expansion of paramilitary power in the north of Colombia.”

Mancuso, who took over the AUC when Israeli-trained narcotrafficker and death-squad führer Carlos Castaño “disappeared” in 2004, said during recent court proceedings that Uribe was aware that the organization supported his campaign for president in 2002 “economically and logistically,” according to Colombia Reports.

Prior to his arrest, the human rights organization Equipo Nizkor reported that Mancuso, the son of Italian immigrants, along with being an AUC “godfather,” was also a member of the ‘Ndrangheta, “the powerful Calabrian mafia which according to Italian police, exceeds the Sicilian Cosa Nostra in both strength and size.”

In fact, when Italian anti-Mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri flew to Bogotá to investigate the‘Ndrangheta’s Colombian drugs network, Gratteri was told by Mancuso he had spied on him the entire time.

“I was in the center of Bogotá, with lots of security protecting me. I didn’t know that all the armored cars that I could see around my hotel belonged to Mancuso,” Gratteri told The Daily Beast. “He told me his protection consisted of 600 men! Not even the U.S. President has such an escort. Can you imagine how much money he had?”

Mancuso claimed Uribe was aware of the AUC’s backing. “There were previous meetings with members of Álvaro Uribe’s campaign, including those delegates that asked us to decrease military operations because it was affecting the campaign and image of the candidate,” Mancuso said.

During those same proceedings, another former AUC leader, Jorge Ivan Laverde, alias “El Iguano,” said that “no evidence exists of these financial transactions because the groups burned all of their paramilitary records before they demobilized.”

Rather conveniently, one might say.

“According to El Iguano,” Colombia Reports disclosed, “the support of the ex-president all began when the righthand man of AUC creator Carlos Castaño called all groups to give them the order that they must support the Uribe campaign and spend money where necessary.”

The former president denounced these claims and said he would launch “a criminal complaint against the former paramilitary for libel.”

However, former Congressman Miguel Alfonso de la Espriella, who was part of Uribe’s coalition government and later sentenced for ties to the AUC, told prosecutors in September that Uribe “knew he was receiving support from paramilitary groups during his 2002 election campaign,” Colombia Reports disclosed last month.

The now-disgraced politician said that Uribe “never objected” to meeting with the AUC-backed politicians, but “simply maintained a prudent silence.”

In a recent interview, de la Espriella told El Espectador that the AUC had donated some $134 thousand to Uribe’s 2002 presidential campaign.

The former senator told the paper that Mancuso said “our participation in the self defense forces was to seek a deal with his [Uribe's] government. He [Uribe] did not explicitly reject this possibility or the support. What he did say was that we wait and if he got elected we would talk again.”

More recently, Uribe’s jailed ex-security chief, Mauricio Santoyo Velasco, accused of illegally ordering driftnet surveillance over electronic communications and the forced disappearance of human rights workers in Medellín, “is willing to officially testify against his old boss and other senior officials,” according to Colombia Reports.

Santoyo is presently jailed in the U.S. for collaborating with the AUC and “previously acknowledged accepting bribes from paramilitary members in exchange for giving them information about police operations being carried out against them.”

According to “highly credible sources” cited by Colombia Reports, Santoyo “is willing to implicate the ex-president and other top officials,” in exchange for a “reduced sentence.”

Although U.S. prosecutors previously said that the Santoyo case was the “tip of the iceberg” and an opposition senator accused the former president of bringing “a criminal apparatus” to the presidential palace in 2002, the current director of Colombia’s National Police, General José Roberto León Riaño, denied that the U.S. is investigating anyone other than Santoyo.

“Yesterday I personally interviewed the toughest prosecutor of the United States on the matter of drug trafficking, Neil MacBride, who is running the case against [retired general Mauricio] Santoyo,”Colombia Reports averred. “He indicated: ‘there are bad apples in every institution, Santoyo is an apple that acted on his own, but that can’t affect the whole organization’.”

While evidence has yet to emerge that Uribe met with Mancuso as the former AUC chief testified, ubiquitous “facts on the ground” in the form of thousands of tons of exported dope, forced “disappearances” and the mass murder of peasants and left-wing activists tell a different tale and point to official complicity amongst Colombian elites and their U.S. “drug war” sponsors.

Back to the Future: U.S. Complicity and Cover-Up

The sordid history of collaboration between Colombian elites, drug gangs, the military and right-wing death squads was known for years by U.S. secret state agencies and federal prosecutors but was covered-up in the interest of “national security.”

In declassified documents published by the National Security Archive in 2004, we learned that then Senator “Álvaro Uribe Vélez of Colombia was a ‘close personal friend of Pablo Escobar’ who was ‘dedicated to collaboration with the Medellín [drug] cartel at high government levels,’ according to a 1991 intelligence report from U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials in Colombia.”

Researcher Michael Evans revealed that the “newly-declassified report, dated 23 September 1991, is a numbered list of ‘the more important Colombian narco-traffickers contracted by the Colombian narcotic cartels for security, transportation, distribution, collection and enforcement of narcotics operations’.”

The former president, a “key U.S. partner in the drug war” and a major recipient of billions of dollars of taxpayer-supplied funds for Plan Colombia, “was linked to a business involved in narcotics activities in the United States” and “has worked for the Medellín cartel.”

Evans disclosed that “The document is marked ‘CONFIDENTIAL NOFORN WNINTEL,’ indicating that its disclosure could reasonably be expected to damage national security, that its content was based on intelligence sources and methods, and that it should not be shared with foreign nationals.”

One cannot help but ask: whose “national security” was threatened by the disclosure? Certainly not that of thousands of Colombian citizens murdered by drug-linked paramilitary gangsters or the hundreds of thousands of “drug war” victims incarcerated in American gulags for drug use or low-level sales.

“Uribe,” the Archive informed us, was “the 82nd name on the list,” and appeared “on the same page as Escobar and Fidel Castaño, who went on to form the country’s major paramilitary army, a State Department-designated terrorist group now engaged in peace negotiations with the Uribe government. Written in March 1991 while Escobar was still a fugitive, the report was forwarded to Washington several months after his surrender to Colombian authorities in June 1991.”

“Most of those on the list are well-known drug traffickers or assassins associated with the Medellín cartel,” Evans averred. “Others listed include ex-president of Panama Manuel Noriega [and] Iran-contra arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.”

Four years later in another release of previously classified documents, the Archive revealed that “U.S. espionage operations targeting top Colombian government officials in 1993 provided key evidence linking the U.S.-Colombia task force charged with tracking down fugitive drug lord Pablo Escobar to one of Colombia’s most notorious paramilitary chiefs.”

“The documents,” Evans wrote, “reveal that the U.S.-Colombia Medellín Task Force, known in Spanish as the Bloque de Búsqueda or ‘Search Block,’ was sharing intelligence information with Fidel Castaño, paramilitary leader of Los Pepes (Perseguidos por Pablo Escobar or ‘People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar’), a clandestine terrorist organization that waged a bloody campaign against people and property associated with the reputed narcotics kingpin.”

After Escobar’s take-down, Los Pepes morphed into the AUC and led to a strategic realignment “between Colombian intelligence agencies, rival drug traffickers and disaffected former Escobar associates like Castaño, the godfather of a new generation of narcotics-fueled paramilitary forces that still plagues Colombia today.”

“The collaboration between paramilitaries and government security forces evident in the Pepes episode is a direct precursor of today’s ‘para-political’ scandal,” said Evans. “The Pepes affair is the archetype for the pattern of collaboration between drug cartels, paramilitary warlords and Colombian security forces that developed over the next decade into one of the most dangerous threats to Colombian security and U.S. anti-narcotics programs. Evidence still concealed within secret U.S. intelligence files forms a critical part of that hidden history.”

In this context, as Peter Dale Scott observed in Drugs, Oil, and War, “The true purpose of most of these campaigns has not been the hopeless ideal of eradication. It has been to alter market share: to target specific enemies and thus ensure that the drug traffic remains under the control of those traffickers who are allies of the Colombian state security apparatus and/or the CIA.”

“Allies” like Álvaro Uribe.

Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to publishing in Covert Action Quarterly and Global Research, he is a Contributing Editor with Cyrano’s Journal Today. His articles can be read on Dissident Voice, Pacific Free Press, Uncommon Thought Journal, and the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. He is the editor of Police State America: U.S. Military “Civil Disturbance” Planning, distributed by AK Press and has contributed to the new book from Global Research, The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/earthquake-causing-fracking-to-be-allowed-within-500-feet-of-nuclear-plants/5309229

Earthquake-Causing Fracking to Be Allowed within 500 Feet of Nuclear Plants

Some plants are located in very high earthquake risk zones:

Nuclear Plants Vulnerable to Earthquakes

The American government has officially stated that fracking can cause earthquakes. Some fracking companies now admit this fact The scientific community agrees. See this, this, this, this and this.

Earthquakes can – of course – damage nuclear power plants. For example, even the operator of Fukushima and the Japanese government now admit that the nuclear cores might have started melting down before the tsuanmi ever hit. More here.

Indeed, the fuel pools and rods at Fukushima appear to have “boiled”, caught fire and/or exploded soon after the earthquake knocked out power systems. See this, this, this, this and this. And fuel pools in the United States store an average of ten times more radioactive fuel than stored at Fukushima, have virtually no safety features, and are vulnerable to accidents and terrorist attacks.And see this.

Indeed, American reactors may be even more vulnerable to earthquakes than Fukushima.

But American nuclear “regulators” have allowed numerous nuclear power plants to be built in earthquake zones:

And they have covered up the risks from earthquakes for years … just like the Japanese regulators did. For example:

• The NRC won’t even begin conducting its earthquake study for Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York until after relicensing is complete in 2013, because the NRC doesn’t consider a big earthquake “a serious risk”
• Congressman Markey has said there is a cover up. Specifically, Markey alleges that the head of the NRC told everyone not to write down risks they find from an earthquake greater than 6.0 (the plant was only built to survive a 6.0 earthquake)
• We have 4 reactors in California – 2 at San Onofre 2 at San Luis Obisbo – which are vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis

For example, Diablo Canyon is located on numerous earthquake faults, and a state legislator and seismic expert says it could turn into California’s Fukushima:

 

On July 26th 2011 the California Energy Commission held hearings concerning the state’s nuclear safety. During those hearings, the Chairman of the Commission asked governments experts whether or not they felt the facilities could withstand the maximum credible quake. The response was that they did not know.This is similar to what happened at Fukushima: seismologists dire warnings were ignored (and see this.)

Yet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn’t even take earthquake risk into account when deciding whether or not to relicense plants like Diablo Canyon.

Are They Fracking With Us?

American nuclear regulators are allowing earthquake-inducing fracking to be conducted mere feet from nuclear power plants.

As the Herald Standard reports:

Chesapeake Energy has a permit to frack just one mile from the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport. Whether that is cause for alarm, experts can’t say.

***

“Hydraulic fracturing near a nuclear plant is probably not a concern under normal circumstances,” [Richard Hammack, a scientist at the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory] said. “If there is a pre-stress fault that you happen to lubricate there (with fracking solution), that is the only thing that might result in something that is (seismically) measurable.”

That’s not very reassuring, given that “lubrication” of faults is the main mechanism by which fracking causes earthquakes. (Indeed,  the point is illustrated by the analogous fact that leading Japanese seismologists say that the Fukushima earthquake “lubricated” nearby faults, making a giant earthquake more likely than ever.)

And as Akron Beacon Journal notes, fracking is allowed with 500 feet of nuclear plants:

“We’re not aware of any potential impacts and don’t expect any,” said FirstEnergy spokeswoman Jennifer Young today. “We see no reason to be particularly concerned.”

***

[But] experts can’t say if the proposed well so close to two nuclear power plants is cause for concern.

***

DEP spokesperson John Poister told the Shale Reporter that there are no required setbacks specifically relating to a required distance between such shale wells and nuclear facilities, just a blanket regulation requiring a 500-foot setback from any building to a natural gas well.

Brilliant …

1. Fracking Could Have Caused East Coast Earthquake

   Experts are looking for a reason behind Tuesday afternoon’s unlikely 5.8 magnitude earthquake that shook people up and down the East Coast, and some are saying that a recent rise in fracking could be the culprit.
   Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is the man-made splintering of underground rocks to expedite the exploiting of natural resources.…
2. 

   In the Wake of the Fukushima Disaster: “Problems” at American Nuclear Energy Plants

   Nuclear Regulatory Commission Finally Admits Safety Problems at American Reactors … But Doesn’t Go Far Enough
   As Reuters reported last month, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has publicly been saying American reactors are safe, while privately expressing doubts:

   U.S. regulators privately have expressed doubts that some of the nation’s nuclear power plants are prepared for a Fukushima-scale disaster, undercutting their public confidence since Japan’s nuclear crisis began, documents released by an independent safety watchdog group show.…
3. 

   Fukushima: Massive Radiation. Japan Admits TOTAL Meltdown at 3 Nuclear Reactors Within Hours of Earthquake

   For months, Tepco and Japanese officials refused to admit that there had been any meltdowns at Fukushima.
   Then they said there were meltdowns at reactors 1, 2 and 3 … but they might have only been partial meltdowns.
   Finally, today, they admitted the obvious: there were total meltdowns at all 3 reactors.…
4. Are Most Nuclear Power Plants Vulnerable?

   Whenever there is a disaster, those responsible claim it was “unforeseeable” so as to escape blame.
   For example:

   It happened with 9/11

   It happened with the financial crisis

   It happened with the BP oil spill (see this, this, this, this and this)

   It happened with the Japanese nuclear accident

   The big boys gamble with our lives and our livelihoods, because they make a killing by taking huge risks and cutting costs.…
5. 

   Researchers Determine 23 Plants and 74 Active Nuclear Reactors Vulnerable to Effects of Tsunami

   By Madison Ruppert
   The dangerous reality of nuclear power is becoming increasingly apparent in the wake of the continuing (and “profoundly man-made”) disaster at Fukushima as well as studies which project similarly devastating disasters in the future.
   Yet nations including Japan continue to press forward with nuclear power in spite of the clear dangers and the widespread public opposition to the deadly technology.…

Mossad returned the favourto 'French Intelligence for their  huge role in 

the assassination of President Yitzhak Rabin by murdering  Diana

 The death of Diana: an update [Issue 39 - 2000]

http://www.lobster-magazine. co.uk/amember/plugins/protect/ new_rewrite/login.php?v=-any& url=/online/issue39/lob39-03. htm

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/FBI-investigates-Continental-pilot-s-encounter-1541668.php

• News >
• Houston & Texas

FBI investigates Continental pilot's encounter with 'rocket'

Continental pilot startled by encounter with 'rocket'

CINDY HORSWELL, Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle | Monday, May 26, 2008

A Continental Airlines pilot reported being startled by what he described as a rocket that shot past his cockpit window Monday when the plane was about eight miles north of George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force are investigating the incident, which occurred about 10:30 a.m.

"We don't know for sure what the object was. But we think it might be somebody doing model rocketing," saidRoland Herwig, an FAA spokesman. "The pilot saw the rocket and some people saw the rocket's trail (of smoke)."

Continental Airlines spokeswoman Kelly Cripe said Monday night that she could not discuss what was seen by the crew of Flight 1544. She would only say that the Boeing 737, with 148 passengers. left Bush at 10:17 a.m. and arrived in Cleveland, Ohio at 2:13 p.m.

She said the pilot made no diversionary maneuvers, and she added the plane was not damaged, and nobody was injured.

The FAA does not yet know how close the object came to the plane or what altitude it reached. "We will determine that by establishing a radar history," Herwig said.

FBI spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap stressed that it is "routine" for the FBI to look into suspicious activity involving an aircraft.

"We don't know if it was a rocket or what. We will interview everyone and determine the validity of what was seen," she said.

If it was model rocket, investigators want to know the type and who launched it.

"Building rockets is a legitimate hobby, but hobbyists have to let the FAA know what they're doing," Herwig said.

Robert Morehead, an engineer who is president of the Amateur Spaceflight Association in Houston, said the FAA would only need to be notified if a rocket would be entering controlled airspace.

He said the only danger to a plane might be if the rocket is ingested by a plane's engine.

"But their engines are designed to ingest birds and not come apart," said Morehead, who lives in Clear Lake. "The real question is if the rocket would tear up the engine instead of just shutting it off."

Model rockets can be made of cardboard and glue or have aluminum air frames, he said. Rockets also have no difficulty reaching the 30,000 to 40,000 feet, the altitude at which an airliner may cruise.

"There is a guy who claims his rocket has reached the threshold of space or 75 miles," Morehead said. "But there are lots of models that could fly as high as an airliner. You can do it with a 10- to 15-foot tall rocket and some little ones."

But Flight 1544 had recently taken off and might not have been flying that high, he said.

The models can be fueled with everything from black powder to ammonium percholorate and aluminum, he said.

"It's not rocket science when you use a kit," he said. His organization builds rockets from scratch to teach students the math and science behind it.

"We just built one using liquid fuel that had substantially more thrust than the models," he said.

Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman in Washington D.C., said the Monday incident is not the first time a rocket has crossed paths with an airliner. But so far, no plane has been hit by a launched model rocket.

"There are model rocket clubs operating around the country. This was a holiday weekend that would be good for a launch," she said.

cindy.horswell@chron.com

http://www.ronpaul.com/

Ron Paul: The Internet Revolution Is a Liberty Revolution

129 Responses

by RonPaul.com on  October 22, 2012

Ron Paul: The Internet Revolution Is a Liberty Revolution

129 Responses

by RonPaul.com on  October 22, 2012

by Ron Paul

Until the late 1990s, individuals interested in Austrian economics, U.S. constitutional history, and libertarian philosophy had few sources of information. They had to spend hours scouring used book stores or the back pages of obscure libertarian periodicals to find the great works of Mises, Rothbard, Hayek, and other giants of liberty. Local library and university collections ignored libertarian politics and economics.

Today, however, the greatest classics of libertarian thought, libertarian philosophy, and libertarian economics are available instantly to anyone with internet access. Thanks to the internet, it is easier than ever before for liberty activists to spread news and other information regarding the evils of government power and the benefits of freedom. For the first time in human history, supporters of liberty around the world can share information across borders quickly and cheaply. Without the filter of government censors, this information emboldens millions to question governments and promote liberty.

This is why liberty-minded Americans must do everything possible to oppose– and stop– government attempts to censor or limit the free flow of information online.

One such attempt is known as “CISPA”, or the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. This bill will create a monstrous coalition of big business and big government to rob Americans of their protections under the 4th Amendment of the Constitution.

CISPA permits both the federal government and private companies to view your private online communications with no judicial oversight, provided they merely do so in the name of “cybersecurity.” But America is a constitutional republic, not a surveillance state– and the wildly overhyped need for security does not trump the Constitution.

“Cybersecurity” is the responsibility of companies that operate and make money in cyberspace, not taxpayers. Those companies should develop market-based private solutions to secure their networks, servers, cloud data centers, and user/customer information. The role of the US intelligence community is to protect the United States from military threats, not to provide corporate welfare to the private sector. Much like the TSA at the airport, CISPA would socialize security costs and remove market incentives for private firms to protect their own investments.

Imagine security-cleared agents embedded at private companies to serve as conduits for intelligence information about their customers back to the US intelligence community– while enjoying immunity from any existing civil or criminal laws. Imagine Google or Facebook reporting directly to the National Security Agency about the online activity of US citizens. Imagine US government resources being wasted on a grand scale to “assist” private companies in the global market. All of this would become reality under CISPA.

As of this writing, it appears that the House and Senate will not agree on a final version of CISPA this year. However, the Obama administration seems ready to impose provisions of this bill by executive order if Congress does not act soon.

The past five years have seen an explosion in the liberty movement, fueled in large part by the internet. Preserving that freedom is crucial if the liberty movement is to continue its progress. Therefore, all activists in the liberty movement have a stake in the battle for internet freedom. We must be ready to come together to fight any attempt to increase government’s power over the internet, regardless of the supposed justifications. We must resist voices from both the political right and left which alternatively seek to legislate morality or enforce political correctness with force. Copyright protection, pornography, cyberterrorism, gambling, and “hate speech” are merely excuses for doing what all governments have done throughout human history: increase their size, scope, and power.

Once we understand this, we understand the critical link between internet freedom and human freedom.

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Posted in Ron Paul's Writings, Texas Straight Talk | Tagged CISPA, Internet | 129 Responses

Ron Paul: The Real Bear Market Started in 2000

124 Responses

by RonPaul.com on  October 19, 2012

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Posted in Ron Paul's Interviews | Tagged Bear Market, Crash, Stock Market | 124 Responses

The Real Debate: Obama vs. Ron Paul

142 Responses

by RonPaul.com on  October 16, 2012

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Posted in Ron Paul 2012 | 142 Responses

Poll: Who Should Ron Paul Endorse?

370 Responses

by RonPaul.com on  October 16, 2012

Who should Ron Paul endorse if he doesn't run for President as an Independent or Third Party candidate this year?

•  Barack Obama
•  Mitt Romney
•  Gary Johnson
•  Virgil Goode
•  Jill Stein
•  Someone else
•  Nobody

View Results

Disclaimer: This is a non-binding poll by and for Ron Paul’s supporters to express our opinions and make our voices heard. Obviously, the poll’s outcome has no binding effect on Ron Paul’s eventual decision.

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Posted in Ron Paul 2012 | 370 Responses

Ron Paul: Real Unemployment Is at 22.8%

257 Responses

by RonPaul.com on  October 15, 2012

Ron Paul

Last week, supporters of the current administration rejoiced over job numbers released by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS). For the first time since the administration came to power, the official unemployment number fell below 8%. Keynesian cheerleaders all claimed the numbers meant we are surely on the road to economic recovery, just in time for Christmas, and also, the election. Others saw through this ruse.

The situation on the ground looks nothing like a recovery. 23 million people are still out of work or chronically underemployed. This number is expected to rise dramatically next year.

The situation on the ground looks nothing like a recovery. 23 million people are still out of work or chronically underemployed. This number is expected to rise dramatically next year. The situation in Washington should not give anyone cause for optimism. Politicians refuse to look honestly and intelligently at the cause of our economic malaise, and so real solutions are not taken seriously or acted upon. It is much easier and less painful to simply recalculate the numbers and redefine the terms until a rosier picture is presented. There is only blind hope that at some point, for some reason, things might change. But nothing will change for the better if we only stay the course.

The truth is the long term solutions to our economic quagmire involve some short term pain. Re-evaluating the economic role of an institution as insidious and behemoth as the Federal Reserve will inconvenience some people, and those people happen to have a lot of power. Similarly, the idea of ending government programs and closing down superfluous departments will always upset someone because it means someone will stop getting a government check.

No one wants to upset the apple cart, even if all the apples are rotten.

Not all of the unemployed are counted in the BLS unemployment numbers. This is no secret. In 1994 government statisticians came up with the term “discouraged worker” to remove entire swaths of people from the unemployment statistic. Now all the government has to do to improve the unemployment numbers is discourage people from looking for a job.

Far more unintended consequences are created in Washington than jobs.

Ideally, the business sector should be able to depend on sound numbers from the BLS, but smart business leaders know that trust in these numbers leads to bad decisions and failure. In regards to the recent jobs numbers, investor Jim Rogers recently stated “I have learned not to take advice from the government, especially the US government, which frequently misleads its citizens.” He also noted the election just around the corner, suggesting timing as an extra incentive to keep fudging the statistics.

This is a difficult figure to accept as the actual truth. Perhaps if the politicians did, the people would finally demand real change and real solutions. 

The real drivers of the productive economy can’t afford to take risks based on false numbers. This is why economist John Williams created Shadow Government Statistics, utilizing more traditional methodologies and definitions to show business decision makers the real economic picture, warts and all. He shows the real unemployment rate to be a staggering 22.8%.

This is a difficult figure to accept as the actual truth. Perhaps if the politicians did, the people would finally demand real change and real solutions. Perhaps they would consider that all of the so-called stimulus spending, quantitative easing and mountains of regulation from Washington has only crippled the economy. Perhaps people would come to understand that fewer checks handed out from the public sector would mean more checks available in the private sector, and a return to real prosperity instead of just the appearance of it.

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Posted in Economy, Ron Paul's Writings, Texas Straight Talk | Tagged Statistics, Unemployment | 257 Responses

Ron Paul: A Major Event Could Occur during the Next Administration

687 Responses

by RonPaul.com on  October 13, 2012

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Posted in Ron Paul's Speeches | 687 Responses

Ron Paul: Forget A 3rd Party, We Need A 2nd Party

197 Responses

by RonPaul.com on  October 11, 2012

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Posted in Ron Paul's Interviews | Tagged Fiscal Cliff | 197 Responses

Ron Paul: We Must Fiscally Restrain Our Government

172 Responses

by RonPaul.com on  October 8, 2012

by Ron Paul

The media insists on characterizing statements about dependency on government handouts as controversial, but in truth such statements are absolutely correct.  It’s not that nearly half of Americans are dependent on government; it’s actually more than half.  If one includes not just people on food stamps and welfare, but also seniors on Medicare, Social Security and people employed by the government directly, the number is more like 165 million out of 308 million, which is 53%.

Some argue that Social Security and Medicare benefits are a right because people pay into these programs their whole lives, or that we need a government safety net in place for people who fall on hard times.  However, this all becomes a moot point when the funds people depend on become worthless due to government default or rampantinflation.

This is less an issue of dignity or dependence on government, and more about thedeceitfulness of government promises.

The Fed recently announced that it plans to keep interest rates near zero and keep buying near worthless assets from banks indefinitely.  This enables Congress to spend without having to take deficits or the debt seriously and there is every indication they intend to spend with impunity until the system collapses.  There are no brakes on the runaway train.  The federal debt ceiling law does nothing to limit spending. The ceiling will have to be raised yet again perhaps before the year is out.  What is happening in Greece with austerity measures and riots in the street will happen here within a decade according to some realistic estimates if we do not find some way to fiscally restrain our government.

There is little point in a debate about being entitled to healthcare or food or shelter from fellow taxpayers if the whole system has collapsed.  And, with the way our politicians have taken over and mismanaged vast amounts of resources, collapse seems almost unavoidable.  Yet the number of Americans who have significant dependency on government is dangerously high, and I honestly fear for them.

Worse, corporate welfare is also at an all time high with no signs of diminishing.  Though it is hard to quantify, Tad Dehaven at Cato has estimated that the government spends nearly twice as much on corporate welfare than on social welfare.  Both parties are equally guilty.  More and more, the business sector is learning to rely on taxpayer largesse in one form or another.  They used to be solely concerned with providing a better product to the consumer at a better price.  Now, success on Wall Street depends entirely too much on having the best lobbyists on K Street.  If one includes the employees of “private” businesses who depend on government contracts, grants or bailouts, there are even more people dependent on government in some way.

Government does not create resources when it taxes people and prints money; it merely redistributes the wealth, while supporting a massive, wasteful bureaucracy along the way.  Government is a giant, blood-sucking parasite on our otherwise healthy economy.  For too long we have entrusted too much economic power and influence to irresponsible politicians in Washington.  It’s the chaos that ensues after they run the system into the ground that will be so painful for so many people.  But realigning our economy with the free market and away from government mandates and handouts must happen in order for it to thrive again.

The answer is not to keep asking government to do more.  The answer is to extricate our economy and ourselves from the grasp of Washington DC as much as possible now, before our dependency becomes our downfall.

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Posted in Ron Paul's Writings, Texas Straight Talk | 172 Responses

Ron Paul: The Campaign Continues! We Must Stop the Enemies of Liberty!

289 Responses

by RonPaul.com on  October 4, 2012

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Posted in Ron Paul 2012, Ron Paul's Speeches | Tagged LPAC | 289 Responses

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Memorable Quote

“Inflation, indeed, throws a veil of illusion over every economic process. It confuses and deceives almost everyone, including even those who suffer by it. We are all accustomed to measuring our income and wealth in terms of money. The mental habit is so strong that even professional economists and statisticians cannot consistently break it. It is not easy to see relationships always in terms of real goods and real welfare. [...] Inflation is the autosuggestion, the hypnotism, the anesthetic, that has dulled the pain of the operation for him. Inflation is the opium of the people.”— Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson

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