Well, are you?Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Law Enforcement Trying to Scare and Mind-Control U.S. Citizens
PLEASE PLEASE do not buy or be sold into this bullshit! This is mind manipulation activity! The U.S. is not infiltrated by terrorists and they are not out to kill you! D.H.S. and U.S. government agencies are trying to mind manipulate you! THIS IS BULLSHIT!
AGAIN, THIS IS BULLSHIT! If law enforcement agencies pull this on you in your town, city or state DO NOT FALL FOR THIS! Please!
Communicate this information to your friends and neighbors! Do not let law enforcement agencies scare or intimidate you into believing that the "war on terror" or terrorists are REAL. IT IS BULLSHIT.
Notice how they are changing talking about our country to the "homeland" - everything is now the "homeland". This is all mind manipulation.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Melvin (Mel) Sembler
Marvin (Mel) Sembler - latest addition to the neo-con power structure working to change your world to one in which there are two classes: the elite and the poor
Mel Sembler, Romney Money Man/A Mel Sembler Timeline from Alex Constantine's blogsite
Sembler's complete neo-con profile information here.
Affiliations
Government Service
Private Sector
Education
EPW M.I.A. IN BIOFUELS INCREASE DEBATE: New Studies Raise More Concern over Dramatic RFS Increase Passed by Congress in 2007
From Senator Inhofe's blogsite:
February 8, 2008
Posted by Matthew_Dempsey@epw.senate.gov (3:56pm ET)Barely a month after Congress passed the most onerous fuels mandates in history, two new studies have found that an increased use of biofuels may have a significant impact on the environment. But of course this isn’t surprising to those who actually applied a critical eye to the legislation before Congress imposed a nearly five-fold expansion of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) mandate. The studies released this week are the latest to raise mounting questions surrounding ethanol’s effect on livestock feed prices, its economic sustainability, its transportation and infrastructure needs, its water usage and numerous other issues.
As the Wall Street Journal’s Environmental Capital blog reports, “Ethanol loses more glitter after a new study shows it is worse for the environment than fossil fuels, reports the WSJ. Planting biofuel crops in grasslands or forests wipes out natural carbon sinks, prompting Grist to argue that the U.S. Congress 'blew it' with its recent biofuel mandate. The NYT reports that prominent scientists wrote the White House and Congress urging a rethink.”
Background
In 2005, Senator Inhofe, as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee worked successfully with his colleagues to create a comprehensive program to promote the use of renewable fuels in the United States in an achievable, measured and economic manner. The Reliable Fuels Act, ultimately incorporated into the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT), encouraged the production and use of bio-fuels.
Last year, while the Senate Energy Committee was the prime mover of the hastily increased RFS mandate, Senator Inhofe called for increased oversight by the EPW Committee and warned of the unintended consequences of such a drastic increase. Before 2007, the EPW Committee had held at least 13 hearings on the RFS program, most recently an oversight hearing in September 2006 which highlighted the implementation of this new federal RFS program. In 2007, the EPW Committee failed to hold one.
As the ranking member of the EPW Committee, Senator Inhofe was active in calling for the EPW Committee to continue oversight of the RFS program:
- In his opening statement at the EPW Committee’s Organizational meeting on January 17, 2007, Senator Inhofe expressed his desire for the EPW Committee to keep a watchful eye on the RFS program. He stated: “The renewable fuels program is a very popular issue within our jurisdiction. It’s so popular that it’s being discussed in terms of other Committees and other pieces of legislation such as the Farm Bill. I hope that whatever happens on this issue in this Congress, that it happens here in this Committee. Although I am committed to reducing U.S. consumption of Middle East oil, I am deeply concerned of the unintended consequences of sharp increases to the renewable fuels mandate. I have already heard from a variety of livestock producers across the country that the current mandate has hurt their businesses due to higher feed costs. And I am far from alone in my concern – even the Renewable Fuels Association – big ethanol’s lobbying group – has expressed concern with premature increases.”
-In an April 10, 2007, statement Senator Inhofe again expressed the need for the EPW Committee to conduct oversight, saying "I am hopeful that the EPA, as the sole regulatory agency over renewable fuels, considers the impacts of increased corn prices on affected industries like hog and cattle producers as well as consumers. As the current Ranking Member of the EPW Committee, which has principle jurisdiction over motor fuels policy including renewable fuels, I will continue to work with Senator Boxer to provide committee oversight of the RFS program to ensure consistent, flexible, and efficient national policy."
-In May 2007, Senator Inhofe and Senator George Voinovich (R-OH), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, sent EPW chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) a letter urging her to exercise the EPW Committee’s oversight of the EPA’s renewable fuels program. The letter also asked Chairman Boxer to convene a legislative business meeting to consider related legislation as soon as possible. "As you know, the Committee on Environment and Public Works has exclusive jurisdiction over the existing Renewable Fuels Program and primary jurisdiction over biofuels legislation in general," Senators Inhofe and Voinovich wrote in the May 1 letter to Chairman Boxer. "Further, the Committee has a strong history of considering fuels legislation, whether related to water quality issues or more recently concerning the relationship between air quality and energy security, in a bipartisan manner. We hope that tradition continues under your leadership." Read More
-On Tuesday, December 4, 2007, Senator Inhofe joined Senators Jack Reed (D-RI), Benjamin L. Cardin (D - MD), Bernard Sanders (I-VT) and Susan M. Collins (R - ME) in writing a letter to the President to “urge your Administration to carefully evaluate and respond to unintended public health and safety risks that could result from the increased use of ethanol as a ‘general purpose’ transportation fuel.” The letter notes that the President has called for a national effort to reduce consumers’ demand for gasoline by 20 percent in ten years, in part through increased use of renewable transportation fuels such as ethanol. In addition, the Senate, as part of its pending energy legislation, has adopted language that would significantly increase renewable fuel use – particularly the use of ethanol – over the next two decades.
Senator Inhofe’s concern over the rapid increase of the RFS was one of his primary reasons for voting against the energy bill that was passed by Congress last December. In a press release following the vote, he stated:
“Further, I am disappointed that this bill significantly increases the renewable fuels mandate in an irresponsible manner. Through my leadership position on the EPW Committee in 2005, I successfully worked with my colleagues to create a comprehensive program to increase the use of renewable fuels in a measured way that makes economic sense. This bill, however, contains a nearly five-fold expansion in the bio-fuels mandate. The fact is there are a growing number of questions surrounding ethanol’s effect on feed prices and our agricultural community, its economic sustainability, its transportation and infrastructure needs, and its water usage. As a result, I believe it’s just too early to significantly increase the mandate. The fuels industry needs more time to adapt and catch-up with the many developing challenges facing corn-based ethanol.”
Read More:
Bi-Partisan Letter Urges President To Consider Health And Safety Issues That Could Result From Increased Use Of Ethanol As “General Purpose” Transportation Fuel (Blog From Friday, December 7, 2007)
In Case You Missed It: "Ethanol's Water Shortage," The Wall Street Journal (October 17, 2007)
Top Ten Democrat Energy Bill Failures (Press Release From Thursday, June 28, 2007)
America’s Energy Future Needs To Be Stable, Diverse And Affordable (Senator Inhofe, The Hill, June 27, 2007) Inhofe: Senate Passed Energy Bill Will Increase Costs To Consumers (Press Release From Friday, June 22, 2007)
Daily Oklahoman: Lacking Energy: Democrats' Bill Doesn't Address Needs (Editorial, June 19, 2007)
Inhofe Statement On President’s Executive Order On Cafe And Alternative Fuels (Press Release From Monday, May 14, 2007)
Sphere: Related Content
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Pioneering Blackwater Protesters Given Secret Trial and Criminal Conviction
And Jeremy's article is so timely, coming out right on the heels of Mr. Adame's incident with Blackwater... In Mr. Adame's case, Blackwater demonstrated what a great company they aren't - be sure to check out that EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT! Such LEADERSHIP qualities and skills!
Please read Jeremy's article of the incident here. Sphere: Related Content
Blackwater: Harassing American Citizens
It seems that Blackwater Worldwide - Bush's praetorian guards - don't like to be picked on or told the truth; it hurts their feelings. And when their feelings are hurt they lash out and harass those that say things that they don't want to hear. Typical bully behavior...
Marshall Adame, a Democrat running for Congress in North Carolina's 3rd District, wrote exactly how he felt about Blackwater during a Q&A on the blog site BlueNC and Blackwater responded in spite. Basically Mr. Adame wrote that,
"There is no place in the American force structure, or in American culture for mercenaries. They are guns for hire; No more, no less… Private Armies represent the very things we despise as a people. Servants to the highest bidder with true allegiance to no-one."Mr. Adame based his comments on EXPERIENCE as he had the 'privilege' of being 'protected' by Blackwater mercs while in Iraq serving as a State Department official. And what Mr. Adame found was that Blackwater typically used excessive force and shot people for "absolutely no reason, no provocation whatsoever."
Well, executive vice president Bill Mathews was none too happy about Mr. Adame's comments regarding Blackwater. No, he wasn't happy at all. So Bill Mathews (reminder: EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT) sent out an email stating,
"[H]e wants this company and all of us to cease to exist. Do you like your jobs? Are you sick and tired of the slanderous bullshit going on in DC? If so, would you all mind joining me in reminding Mr. Adame that he is running for office in our backyard…. Let's run this goof out of Dodge...!"Of course, after that, the goons came out and started harassing Mr. Adame, using some very unkind words and language - downright vulgar stuff - in expressing how they felt about Mr. Adame's comments. Well, well... I guess those shit heads don't read the blogs...
Anyways, Mr. Adame has stated that he will persevere and that he feels "very strongly about how extensively organized Blackwater has become." And that he "will do everything I can as a congressman to look into that, to find out whether or not the things they're doing are even legal." YOU GO, MR. ADAME!
AND FOR THE RECORD:
I strongly agree with Mr. Adame on Blackwater - on all aspects. And I'm positive many other people strongly agree with him too. I've had many conversations with people about Blackwater (and merc armies like them) and NO ONE likes, wants or supports them. Merc armies are viewed as a bad thing that can only lead to worse stuff. DISBAND THEM. Let them get regular jobs just like the rest of us. Sphere: Related Content
Did Giant Reptiles Share the Earth with Giant Humans?
by Brad Steiger
The notion that early humans might have been contemporaneous with the giant reptiles has stoked the creative fires of many a fantasy and science fiction novelist. In Worlds Before Our Own (Anomalist Books, 2007), I pose a two-pronged question: Did a race of early humans exist during the Age of Reptiles, something like 70 million years ago; or did a certain number of the giant reptiles survive until a few thousand years ago?
Early in January, 1970, the London Express Service carried an item relating the discovery of a set of cave paintings which had been found in the Gorozamzi Hills, twenty-five miles from Salisbury in Rhodesia. According to the news story, the paintings included an accurate representation of a brontosaurus, the 67-foot, 30-ton behemoth that scientists insist became extinct millions of years before man achieved his earthly advent.
Experts agree that the paintings were done by bushmen who ruled Rhodesia from about 1500 B.C.E. until a few hundred years ago. The experts also agree that the bushmen only painted from life. This belief is borne out by the other Gorozamzi Hills cave paintings, which represent elephants, hippos, deer, and giraffe.
The November, 1968, issue of Science Digest carried the startling thoughts of Mexican archaeologist-journalist Jose Diaz-Bolio concerning his discovery of an ancient Mayan relief sculpture of a peculiar serpent-bird found in the ruins of Tajin, located in Totonacapan in the northeastern section of Veracruz, Mexico. Diaz- Bolio suggested that the serpent-bird was not merely the product of Mayan flights of fancy, but a realistic representation of an animal that lived during the period of the ancient Mayans -- 1,000 to 5,000 years ago.
A startling evolutionary oddity would have been manifested if such serpent-birds were contemporary with the ancient Mayan culture, for creatures with such characteristics are believed to have disappeared 130 million years ago. The archaeornis and archaeopteryx, to which the sculpture bears a resemblance, were flying reptiles that became extinct during the Mesozoic age.
William Meister, an amateur rockhound, found what appears to be a fossilized human sandal print with a trilobite, an extinct marine animal, imbedded in the impression made by the heel. Meister discovered the print in July, 1968, while searching for fossils at Antelope Springs, near Delta, Utah. Since the impression was made on what once may have been a sandy beach of the Cambrian period of the Paelozoic Era, the sandal print would have to be an incredible 500 million years old.
Dr. Clifford Burdick personally investigated William Meister's find, and while digging in the same area where the rockhound had found the remarkable sandal print, he himself found a human track similar to the first one Meister discovered, evidently made by shoes or moccasins. Professors of the geological department of a leading university conceded that the tracks definitely looked human, but they could not accept their biological origins.
Continue reading the rest of the story here. Sphere: Related Content
Monday, January 28, 2008
The Power Elite's Use of Wars and Crises
By Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D.
January 28, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
When Congressional Reece Committee research director Norman Dodd's legal assistant Kathryn Casey looked at the planning documents for the founding the Carnegie Endowment, she found something quite revealing. She found that they determined war would be helpful in furthering their objectives. Relevant to this, Rene Wormser in FOUNDATIONS: THEIR POWER AND INFLUENCE (1958) wrote that the head of the endowment, Nicholas Murray Butler used the endowment's funds to get the U.S. into World War I.
The year after the endowment was founded in 1910, Robert Minor's cartoon in the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH in 1911 depicted members of the power elites (John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J.P Morgan, etc.) welcoming Karl Marx and his "socialism" to Wall Street. The next year Woodrow Wilson ran for president, and his "handler" for the power elite, Colonel Edward M. House, assured his bosses that Wilson would support the Federal Reserve's establishment in 1913.
The year after that (1914), the power elite arranged the first World War long before the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28 by members of the Narodna Odbrana (Black Hand) secret society. On May 29, Colonel House in Berlin wrote to President Wilson: "Whenever England consents, France and Russia will close in on Germany and Austria." The trick would be to make Germany think England would not enter the war. This was done by British Secretary of State Sir Edward Grey misleading German Ambassador to England Prince Karl Max Lichnowsky. Grey was close to the (Lord Alfred) Milner Group which was executing power elite member Cecil Rhodes' plan for world government.
Milner was the power behind the scenes in British government. He, not Prime Minister David Lloyd George, actually ran British foreign affairs. Milner was favorably disposed to Marxian socialism, and pro-Bolshevist Sir Basil Zaharoff (an armaments dealer who had sold arms to both sides in several wars) was consulted by President Wilson and Prime Minister George before any major military operation. This is according to author Donald McCormick, who said Zaharoff sought to divert munitions away from anti-Bolshevists.
When World War I began, Helmuth Johannes Ludwig von Moltke was head of the German General Staff. Interestingly, he was married to Dorothy Rose-Innes, the daughter of Sir James Rose-Innes, a member of Rhodes' Association of Helpers, as was their son Helmuth James von Moltke.
It was important for the power elite to drag the U.S. into the War, and so Lord Esher (executive committee member of Rhodes' secret Society of the Elect) wrote in his diary on August 3, 1917: "Can there be any doubt that the war has made for progress?" He followed this on August 11 with "Mr. Henry Morgenthau asked me to call on him.... He was one of the principal supporters of President Wilson.... They are ready to sacrifice the lives of American citizens.... Mr. Morgenthau realizes the importance... (of) shedding American blood at the earliest possible moment." Morgenthau would be a founding member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which was largely funded and staffed by J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller interests.
Continue with the story here.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The 9-11 Blacklist
The following link is for 9-11 Blacklist.org - items and products that have been blacklisted by 9-11 organizations demanding truth about September 11, 2001. 911-Truth.org and Scholars for 9-11 Truth and Justice are two of the organizations that research the information and support the website. You are encouraged to not purchase or use products from the manufacturers or distributors on the list.
9-11 Blacklist
Go to the website to learn more... 9-11 Blacklist
Sphere: Related Content
Some of the items listed:
American Express
Bosch
Ford
Geico
Hearst Corporation
Lexmark
Mr. Goodwrench
Popular Mechanics (but of course!)
The Yellow Book
Vytorin
American Express
Bosch
Ford
Geico
Hearst Corporation
Lexmark
Mr. Goodwrench
Popular Mechanics (but of course!)
The Yellow Book
Vytorin
Go to the website to learn more... 9-11 Blacklist
Sunday, January 20, 2008
DHS, Motor Vehicles and You
Will this be a growing trend?
Homeland Security's watch list and DMV put Debbie Arthur through a nightmare
Cathy Benson
From Freedom's Phoenix
Sphere: Related Content
Cathy Benson
From Freedom's Phoenix
What happened to Blue Ridge resident Debbie Williams Arthur is one of those events you have nightmares over.
A couple of days before schools went on Christmas break, Williams—who teaches German at William Byrd High School—tried to get her vehicle decals online through the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
She said she was rejected and told she had to go to a DMV office. She sent her husband Jimmy the next day, but he was informed she had to come in personally and was given a toll-free telephone number for her to call.
Arthur said her husband called her and gave her the number.
What happened next scared her very much, and many would think rightly so.
She was in a classroom with students she tutors after school when she made the call. The woman on the other end of the line called her a convicted felon and a fugitive.
Arthur tried to explain herself but the lady on the other end kept telling her she was a fugitive from Decatur, Ga. and she had to come into the DMV in Roanoke with identification.
Williams said the woman she spoke with was very aggressive towards her, but she learned her identification had been connected through Homeland Security to a Debra K. Williams, who apparently is a felon and fugitive from the law.
The next day was the first day out of school for Christmas break so Arthur took her birth certificate, marriage license, Social Security card and passport and, with a former student who rode with her, went to the Crossroads Mall DMV site in Roanoke.
The girl with Arthur attends the University of Southern California and had her driver’s license stolen in California.
Now, the plot thickens.
When Arthur arrived at the DMV she was told to wait and it would take 15 minutes to separate her information from the other person with the similar name, she said. Arthur waited one hour and was told there were problems.
The DMV had faxed her documents to Richmond and the computer override from Homeland Security would not allow the DMV to separate the two identities. Her 15 minutes turned into three and half hours.
In the course of those hours she spent at DMV, she learned the DMV system said she did not exist when her Social Security number was keyed into the agency’s system.
Arthur said her stress level increased with each piece of information DMV delivered.
Unbelievably, she said, they told her not to drive home because should she be stopped that the police would arrest her for being a fugitive.
She finally got a handwritten note from a DMV worker to give a policeman in case she got stopped.
“Imagine that,” said Arthur, “a handwritten note to convince a police officer that you were not a fugitive from the law. I left at 5:20 p.m. and the DMV closes at 4:30 p.m. and I was nervous on the drive home.”
She said she was told the DMV had an expert on her case in Richmond and she would get a call at 10 a.m. the next day. She waited and waited and no call came, so she called. “Still no progress,” she said she was told.
Finally, she went back to the DMV and eventually her identity was returned to her.
In the meantime she called Del. Lacey Putney, her representative in the Virginia House of Delegates, and he delivered some astounding news.
She said he told her of a glitch in the state computer system and that 1 out of 30 Virginians are either keyed in wrong or there is some other flaw in the system, and so problems can arise when the computers search for a match.
That is how Arthur was attached to the fugitive in Georgia—by the computer—and how she was connected to Homeland Security.
Being a teacher, she said she is well aware what the mistake could have done to her career.
While it is a state problem, the federal aspect made her call Congressman Bob Goodlatte’s office as well. Arthur said the congressman told his secretary it was not in his area of governance.
There’s more.
The former student who rode with Arthur to DMV hit a roadblock trying to get a duplicate driver’s license.
When her Social Security number was keyed into the system, she came up as a 40-year-old male Hispanic.
She had to call her mother to get all of her documents to prove who she was. That meant a return trip to the DMV after her mother faxed her those documents. She did get her identity straightened out in 15 minutes on her return to DMV, but Arthur said it sure felt like more than 1 in 30 was having difficulties that day.
“Something needs to be done. I could have been carted away by Homeland Security and the Patriotic Act,” said Arthur. “Del. Putney told me several horror stories about the situation that he is familiar with, and, well, I would not have gotten a complimentary phone call to tell my family where I was had I been stopped for a traffic infraction.”
A couple of days before schools went on Christmas break, Williams—who teaches German at William Byrd High School—tried to get her vehicle decals online through the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
She said she was rejected and told she had to go to a DMV office. She sent her husband Jimmy the next day, but he was informed she had to come in personally and was given a toll-free telephone number for her to call.
Arthur said her husband called her and gave her the number.
What happened next scared her very much, and many would think rightly so.
She was in a classroom with students she tutors after school when she made the call. The woman on the other end of the line called her a convicted felon and a fugitive.
Arthur tried to explain herself but the lady on the other end kept telling her she was a fugitive from Decatur, Ga. and she had to come into the DMV in Roanoke with identification.
Williams said the woman she spoke with was very aggressive towards her, but she learned her identification had been connected through Homeland Security to a Debra K. Williams, who apparently is a felon and fugitive from the law.
The next day was the first day out of school for Christmas break so Arthur took her birth certificate, marriage license, Social Security card and passport and, with a former student who rode with her, went to the Crossroads Mall DMV site in Roanoke.
The girl with Arthur attends the University of Southern California and had her driver’s license stolen in California.
Now, the plot thickens.
When Arthur arrived at the DMV she was told to wait and it would take 15 minutes to separate her information from the other person with the similar name, she said. Arthur waited one hour and was told there were problems.
The DMV had faxed her documents to Richmond and the computer override from Homeland Security would not allow the DMV to separate the two identities. Her 15 minutes turned into three and half hours.
In the course of those hours she spent at DMV, she learned the DMV system said she did not exist when her Social Security number was keyed into the agency’s system.
Arthur said her stress level increased with each piece of information DMV delivered.
Unbelievably, she said, they told her not to drive home because should she be stopped that the police would arrest her for being a fugitive.
She finally got a handwritten note from a DMV worker to give a policeman in case she got stopped.
“Imagine that,” said Arthur, “a handwritten note to convince a police officer that you were not a fugitive from the law. I left at 5:20 p.m. and the DMV closes at 4:30 p.m. and I was nervous on the drive home.”
She said she was told the DMV had an expert on her case in Richmond and she would get a call at 10 a.m. the next day. She waited and waited and no call came, so she called. “Still no progress,” she said she was told.
Finally, she went back to the DMV and eventually her identity was returned to her.
In the meantime she called Del. Lacey Putney, her representative in the Virginia House of Delegates, and he delivered some astounding news.
She said he told her of a glitch in the state computer system and that 1 out of 30 Virginians are either keyed in wrong or there is some other flaw in the system, and so problems can arise when the computers search for a match.
That is how Arthur was attached to the fugitive in Georgia—by the computer—and how she was connected to Homeland Security.
Being a teacher, she said she is well aware what the mistake could have done to her career.
While it is a state problem, the federal aspect made her call Congressman Bob Goodlatte’s office as well. Arthur said the congressman told his secretary it was not in his area of governance.
There’s more.
The former student who rode with Arthur to DMV hit a roadblock trying to get a duplicate driver’s license.
When her Social Security number was keyed into the system, she came up as a 40-year-old male Hispanic.
She had to call her mother to get all of her documents to prove who she was. That meant a return trip to the DMV after her mother faxed her those documents. She did get her identity straightened out in 15 minutes on her return to DMV, but Arthur said it sure felt like more than 1 in 30 was having difficulties that day.
“Something needs to be done. I could have been carted away by Homeland Security and the Patriotic Act,” said Arthur. “Del. Putney told me several horror stories about the situation that he is familiar with, and, well, I would not have gotten a complimentary phone call to tell my family where I was had I been stopped for a traffic infraction.”
FBI denies file exposing nuclear secrets theft
January 20, 2008
Sunday Times Online
THE FBI has been accused of covering up a key case file detailing evidence against corrupt government officials and their dealings with a network stealing nuclear secrets.
The assertion follows allegations made in The Sunday Times two weeks ago by Sibel Edmonds, an FBI whistleblower, who worked on the agency’s investigation of the network.
Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency’s Washington field office.
She says the FBI was investigating a Turkish and Israeli-run network that paid high-ranking American officials to steal nuclear weapons secrets. These were then sold on the international black market to countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
One of the documents relating to the case was marked 203A-WF-210023 (the link is an opinion piece but worth reading). Last week, however, the FBI responded to a freedom of information request for a file of exactly the same number by claiming that it did not exist. But The Sunday Times has obtained a document signed by an FBI official showing the existence of the file.
Edmonds believes the crucial file is being deliberately covered up by the FBI because its contents are explosive. She accuses the agency of an “outright lie”.
“I can tell you that that file and the operations it refers to did exist from 1996 to February 2002. The file refers to the counterintelligence programme that the Department of Justice has declared to be a state secret to protect sensitive diplomatic relations,” she said.
The freedom of information request had not been initiated by Edmonds. It was made quite separately by an American human rights group called the Liberty Coalition, acting on a tip-off it received from an anonymous correspondent.The letter says: “You may wish to request pertinent audio tapes and documents under FOIA from the Department of Justice, FBI-HQ and the FBI Washington field office.”
It then makes a series of allegations about the contents of the file – many of which corroborate the information that Edmonds later made public.
Edmonds had told this newspaper that members of the Turkish political and diplomatic community in the US had been actively acquiring nuclear secrets. They often acted as a conduit, she said, for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s spy agency, because they attracted less suspicion.
She claimed corrupt government officials helped the network, and venues such as the American-Turkish Council (ATC) in Washington were used as drop-off points.
The anonymous letter names a high-level government official who was allegedly secretly recorded speaking to an official at the Turkish embassy between August and December 2001.
It claims the government official warned a Turkish member of the network that they should not deal with a company called Brewster Jennings because it was a CIA front company investigating the nuclear black market. The official’s warning came two years before Brewster Jennings was publicly outed when one of its staff, Valerie Plame, was revealed to be a CIA agent in a case that became a cause c�lèbre in the US.
The letter also makes reference to wiretaps of Turkish “targets” talking to ISI intelligence agents at the Pakistani embassy in Washington and recordings of “operatives” at the ATC.
Edmonds is the subject of a number of state secret gags preventing her from talking further about the investigation she witnessed.
“This gag was invoked not to protect sensitive diplomatic relations but criminal activities involving US officials who were endangering US national security.”
Insight: Chris Gourlay, Jonathan Calvert and Joe Lauria
Sphere: Related ContentWho are the Terrorists??
There are many, many good writers on the Internet and I enjoy cruising around and reading different pieces. With how busy my days can become I don't always have the time to spend the hours that it takes to pull together good written pieces with sources so I've been getting lazy and posting others written work. I don't think this is a bad thing as maybe you haven't read their articles so it is worth giving their articles more exposure. Plus it opens up your eyes to other websites that you may not have explored yourself.
That having been said, here is a good piece from the Winter Patriot blogspot. I encourage you to check all the links and read all the material offered to get a good and thorough understanding of all the issues. It's the only way to really understand everything..
"Who Is The Real Terrorist?" Reports From Pakistan And Afghanistan Differ
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
A couple of days ago I lost the only draft of a piece that was half-finished and already so complicated it made my head hurt. In that piece I had quoted Chris Floyd quoting Scott Horton quoting Carlotta Gall and David Rohde and Barnett Rubin. Are you with me so far?
The subject was Pakistan and Afghanistan: The piece by Gall and Rhode talked about Pakistan having lost control of the extremists that had been nurtured by the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, before Pakistan joined the War on Terror. The Rubin piece linked this loss of control to the bombing of the Serena Hotel [photo], Kabul's luxury spot for foreign visitors.
I don't have the heart to reproduce the post as I originally intended it, especially since reading it might make your head hurt, too. So I will try to give you more or the less the same information in a very different way.
I once read that the best blog entries consist of links, quotes, and comments. Maybe that's the secret.
Carlotta Gall and David Rohde in the New York Times: Militants Escape Control of Pakistan, Officials Say
Pakistan’s premier military intelligence agency has lost control of some of the networks of Pakistani militants it has nurtured since the 1980s, and is now suffering the violent blowback of that policy, two former senior intelligence officials and other officials close to the agency say.
As the military has moved against them, the militants have turned on their former handlers, the officials said. Joining with other extremist groups, they have battled Pakistani security forces and helped militants carry out a record number of suicide attacks last year, including some aimed directly at army and intelligence units as well as prominent political figures, possibly even Benazir Bhutto.
The growing strength of the militants, many of whom now express support for Al Qaeda’s global jihad, presents a grave threat to Pakistan’s security, as well as NATO efforts to push back the Taliban in Afghanistan. American officials have begun to weigh more robust covert operations to go after Al Qaeda in the lawless border areas because they are so concerned that the Pakistani government is unable to do so.
...
One former senior Pakistani intelligence official, as well as other people close to the agency, acknowledged that the ISI led the effort to manipulate Pakistan’s last national election in 2002, and offered to drop corruption cases against candidates who would back President Pervez Musharraf.
A person close to the ISI said Mr. Musharraf had now ordered the agency to ensure that the coming elections were free and fair, and denied that the agency was working to rig the vote. But the acknowledgment of past rigging is certain to fuel opposition fears of new meddling.
...
The two former high-ranking intelligence officials acknowledged that after Sept. 11, 2001, when President Musharraf publicly allied Pakistan with the Bush administration, the ISI could not rein in the militants it had nurtured for decades as a proxy force to exert pressure on India and Afghanistan. After the agency unleashed hard-line Islamist beliefs, the officials said, it struggled to stop the ideology from spreading.
Another former senior intelligence official said dozens of ISI officers who trained militants had come to sympathize with their cause and had had to be expelled from the agency. He said three purges had taken place since the late 1980s and included the removal of three ISI directors suspected of being sympathetic to the militants.
...
After 9/11, the Bush administration pressed Mr. Musharraf to choose a side in fighting Islamist extremism and to abandon Pakistan’s longtime support for the Taliban and other Islamist militants.
In the 1990s, the ISI supported the militants as a proxy force to contest Indian-controlled Kashmir, the border territory that India and Pakistan both claim, and to gain a controlling influence in neighboring Afghanistan. In the 1980s, the United States supported militants, too, funneling billions of dollars to Islamic fighters battling Soviet forces in Afghanistan through the ISI, vastly increasing the agency’s size and power.
Publicly, Mr. Musharraf agreed to reverse course in 2001, and he has received $10 billion in aid for Pakistan since then in return. In an interview in November, he vehemently defended the conduct of the ISI, an agency that, according to American officials, was under his firm control for the last eight years while he served as both president and army chief.
Mr. Musharraf dismissed criticism of the ISI’s relationship with the militants. He cited the deaths of 1,000 Pakistani soldiers and police officers in battles with the militants in recent years — as well as several assassination attempts against himself — as proof of the seriousness of Pakistan’s counterterrorism effort.
...
One militant leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, typifies how extremists once trained by the ISI have broken free of the agency’s control, turned against the government and joined with other militants to create powerful new networks.
In 2000, Mr. Azhar received support from the ISI when he founded Jaish-e-Muhammad, or Army of Muhammad, a Pakistani militant group fighting Indian forces in Kashmir, according to Robert Grenier, who served as the Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Islamabad from 1999 to 2002. The ISI intermittently provided training and operational coordination to such groups, he said, but struggled to fully control them.
Mr. Musharraf banned Jaish-e-Muhammad and detained Mr. Azhar after militants carried out an attack on the Indian Parliament building in December 2001. Indian officials accused Jaish-e-Muhammad and another Pakistani militant group of masterminding the attack. After India massed hundreds of thousands of troops on Pakistan’s border, Mr. Musharraf vowed in a nationally televised speech that January to crack down on all militants in Pakistan.
“We will take strict action against any Pakistani who is involved in terrorism inside the country or abroad,” he said. Two weeks later, a British-born member of Mr. Azhar’s group, Ahmed Omar Sheikh, kidnapped Daniel Pearl, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who was beheaded by his captors. Mr. Sheikh surrendered to the ISI, the agency that had supported Jaish-e-Muhammad, and was sentenced to death for the kidnapping.
After Mr. Pearl’s killing, Pakistani officials arrested more than 2,000 people in a crackdown. But within a year, Mr. Azhar and most of the 2,000 militants who had been arrested were freed. “I never believed that government ties with these groups was being irrevocably cut,” said Mr. Grenier, now a managing director at Kroll, a risk consulting firm.
At the same time, Pakistan seemingly went “through the motions” when it came to hunting Taliban leaders who fled into Pakistan after the 2001 American invasion of Afghanistan, he said.
Encouraged by the United States, the Pakistanis focused their resources on arresting senior Qaeda members, he said, which they successfully did from 2002 to 2005. Since then, arrests have slowed as Al Qaeda and other militant groups have become more entrenched in the tribal areas.
Asked in 2006 why the Pakistani government did not move against the leading Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, and his son Sirajuddin, who are based in the tribal areas and have long had links with Al Qaeda, one senior ISI official said it was because Pakistan needed to retain some assets of its own.
...
“Pakistan would certainly be better off if the ISI were never used for domestic political purposes,” said Mr. Grenier, the former C.I.A. Islamabad station chief. “That goes without saying.”
Continue with reading the story here. Sphere: Related Content
Friday, January 18, 2008
H.R. 1955 and The Generalization of Terrorism
Good article on H.R. 1955 and it's dastardly ramifications from a fellow blogger. Many of us have the same thoughts on this subject but just say it a bit differently. Also, there are good articles that should be circulated and this is one of them. And sometimes it's just easier to let other people take the podium...
Indentity Check
Anok
1.17.08
Yesterday I wrote a rather dismal bit about our country’s downward spiral into regulated actions and thoughts and an overwhelming Orwellian State. I also said I would comment on the actual bill that inspired the doomsday post, and so, I am delivering.
According to Thomas H.R. 1955, and its related bill, S. 1959 outlines the problems of "homegrown terrorism, and radical violence". There are, and have been serious discussions among us "lefty" and even not-so-lefty bloggers and ordinary citizens. There has been an amazing amount of silence about the subject from our government, and mainstream media sources.
I touched on this bill, by reposting someone else’s post about it after the bill passed the house. I want to remind everyone, that the house passed the bill, without debate on it, 404-6 with only 22 not voting. No debate! At that time, the discussion was mainly about who the bill would affect. The argument is that it only addresses violent acts , thus peaceful protesters, conscientious objectors, and ordinary bloggers like you and me would be perfectly exempt from anything having to do with the piece of crap legislation. But I would like for everyone to stop for a moment, and take a closer look at the bill. Last time, I posted someone else’s words. This time, it is my own, with careful consideration, research, and of course - the overtone of my Anarchist sensibilities. I’m trying to keep this light hearted, if you can tell, because every time I read this bill, I get a little nauseous.
Let us take a look at what the government defines as "Violent Radicalization";`(2) VIOLENT RADICALIZATION- The term `violent radicalization’ means the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change.
Ok, so it consists of people using "ideological based violence" to promote their agenda. Got it. But wait! What is ideological based violence? Well, it goes on to say;
`(4) IDEOLOGICALLY BASED VIOLENCE- The term `ideologically based violence’ means the use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual’s political, religious, or social beliefs.
Aha! Herein lies a great deal of the vague language that has caused such a brouhaha amongst us "lefties". "Planned use" what exactly does planning entail? How deep into planning would something have to be, in order for it to go from thought, to an act of Violent Radical Behavior? Would they need maps, weapons, and well trained militia style radicals at the ready? Or would it simply entail people gathered together to discuss what kind of actions they might want to take before actually committing to anything? And how would one prove that they have, or haven’t committed to any such action? Would that thinking it through qualify as "planning" or "threatening"? Or would it fall under the category of common sense, that says you can’t be guilty of a crime if you only thought about it, but never committed it?
It doesn’t just address the use of violence, though. It also says "force". Who defines force? Would peaceful protesters who happen to be blocking a building or sidewalk or who refuse to vacate be considered "forceful"?
Many would say yes - and in a way, I agree that they are. However, and here is the real problem, how does a group of other wise ordinary citizens exercising their first amendment rights - albeit in a civil disobedient manner - go from protester, to terrorist?
Haven’t we begun to throw "terrorist" around a little too much lately? If you listen to right-wing pundits, you might believe that anyone who opposes (a sort of "ideological force" if you will) the government on any base, is a terrorist at home. From the Department of Homeland Security’s "National Strategy for Homeland Security", addresses violent radicalization, if only briefly as;
The terrorist threat to the Homeland is not restricted to violent Islamic extremist groups. We also confront an ongoing threat posed by domestic terrorists based and operating strictly within the United States. Often referred to as “single-issue” groups, they include white supremacist groups, animal rights extremists, and eco-terrorist groups, among others.
Now, I think we all agree that white supremacists are a bad lot, the antics of hard hitting animal rights groups such as PETA flirt with the line between legal and illegal actions…and…eco-terrorists? What is an eco-terrorist? From Wikipedia;
For example, a bill proposed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Texas called the "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act", begins with the description, "An act relating to criminal offenses involving acts against certain activities involving animals or involving natural resources and to civil consequences arising from convictions of those offenses." The bill defines an "animal rights or ecological terrorist organization" as "two or more persons organized for the purpose of supporting any politically motivated activity intended to obstruct or deter any person from participating in an activity involving animals or an activity involving natural resources."[5]
If the state of Texas can define terrorist actions on behalf of the environment or animals as "two or more persons organized for the purpose of supporting any politically motivated activity intended to obstruct or deter any person from participating in an activity involving […]"
Any activity? There is no standard there for violence… Legally protected protests, sit ins, and otherwise peaceful forms of civil disobedience are activities by two or more people intended to deter (any) people from engaging in certain acts. Boycotts are a time tested form of financial obstruction or determent - aimed at companies (legally considered individual citizens) who engage in or support actions that we often oppose. Furthermore, it takes far more than two people to make it successful.
Are we to now understand that these forms of redress - a consistent form of grievance airing, social motivation, and change initiation - are acts of terrorism?!
If Texas can make it a law, our government can do the same. That legislation sets the precedent for labeling time honored traditions as acts of terrorism.
I seriously recommend that anyone concerned about our loss of rights take a look - not just at the bill on the senate’s plate - but also the Homeland Security documents, and start looking into laws and bills that have the kind of language that support "ideological warfare" on "Ideological, home grown, or radical terrorists".
The language is vague enough to allow room for further restrictions, some of what I have read is downright scary in the sense that it already eradicates the need for actual violence to occur, or even for "planned violence" to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The worst part about all of this is the end game. If person has been labeled a "terrorist", American citizen or otherwise, they can be locked up indefinitely because their right to Habeas Corpus no longer exists. In fact, if I am not mistaken, our country is prepared to take away all constitutional rights for suspected terrorists. Suspected terrorists.
Still yet, if our country were to initiate Martial Law because of some disaster, then this bill, H.R. 1955/S. 1959 would only be strengthened - and our country to lock up anybody who starts gathering in groups, for any purpose if they so decide.
Make no mistake, the Homeland Security department has this bill now, is reviewing it, revising it, and it will probably end up with some different language in it when it finally gets back to the senate. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was more inclusive, like the bill from Texas. Many people will still say "It could never happen here." or "They would never…" or proclaim that they trust the government to act in an appropriate manner with this sort of power. I am revisiting this issue because it is of the utmost importance that we not ignore the potential here. Take a look around, there has been no country, no citizen throughout history who hasn’t be deceived, enslaved, or outright betrayed by their government in the cruelest manner. Governments have a nasty habit of turning on it’s people.
Humans have not progressed to the point of eradicating this type of power hungry behavior - look at world events, it is still occurring today! Are we so naive to think that it would never happen to us? The only way to prevent it from happening here, is to actively fight to prevent it. To blindly trust in a government with our freedoms, liberties and personal safety is to make a grave mistake. Isn’t it time we learned to see the slippery slope before we are pushed down it?
Think I am an alarmist? Read it for yourselves, then take a look through your history books, and pay close attention to other countries who have gone through a similar metamorphosis. Read the end of their chapter, to see what our future could hold.
{For your consideration: The links provided to the Thomas page will ask you to resubmit your query. It is time sensitive, so search for the bill by it’s number H.R. 1955 and reference it with (110th) to make sure you have the right bill. Or you can just google it. The Department of Homeland security link is a PDF for those of you who hate PDF’s, this is your warning! The Wikipedia link is for eco-terrorism, but the texts are sourced on that page.}
Sphere: Related ContentThursday, January 17, 2008
UFO Sightings
What are these craft that John Lenard Walson is photographing in our atmosphere? Why are they here?
More pictures and videos from John: Strange Things Above: Mystery Machines of John Walson
What is the craft that Texans have been seeing over Stephenville and surrounding areas in the last few weeks? And why is it flying low enough for people to see it?
UFO fever sweeps Texan town
Why has Texas been the latest 'hotspot' for UFO sightings? Four New Sighting Reports from Texas
Are there more area's where sightings are happening and the news isn't getting out or people aren't reporting them?
If you see one you can report it here: The National UFO Reporting Center
For researching information check out this site: UFO Evidence
Don't keep your heads down to the ground - look up! Not all the stars are stars! Sphere: Related Content
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Statement from Ron Paul On New Hampshire Recount
Ron Paul
Prisonplanet.com
Sunday January 13, 2008
After a careful investigation, I have decided against seeking a recount in New Hampshire. I am confident that not asking for a recount is the right decision.
I carefully considered the arguments for and against a recount before instructing my campaign staff not to pursue it. Without a firm belief that vote fraud had taken place, and without the possibility that a recount would have increased the chances for success of our campaign, a recount would have diverted campaign resources, time, and energy away from crucial battles elsewhere.
We have taken concerns about vote fraud seriously. In Iowa, campaign volunteers carefully monitored the caucuses. Campaign staff placed Paul supporters in every precinct to watch and verify the voting and count. We had supporters phone in results from their precincts to a campaign hotline while others ensured that those numbers were reflected on the official display board at the Polk County Convention Center. The numbers our caucus watchers reported agreed with the official tally, and both results also aligned with the campaign’s internal polling. In relatively pro-Paul counties, our sampling pegged support at 11.5%. This is consistent with an overall 10% finish for the entire state.
In New Hampshire, while I would have hoped for a better result than eight percent, I am convinced that vote fraud played no role in this result. Rumors of vote fraud were investigated, and in the end they proved to be the result of errors in early media reports that were not reflected in the official numbers. In one notable case, when a campaign staff member contacted an individual who had on the evening of January 8 claimed that his vote had not been counted, the person said that he had made a mistake and that the next morning the error in reporting on a newspaper website had been corrected both in the media and -- most importantly -- in the official tally.
Many have expressed concerns that those ballots counted by machine yielded a 2% lower total than those counted by hand. However, machine counted vote totals were more than 2% lower for both John McCain and Mike Huckabee. Hand counted votes were more likely to be cast in rural areas. Results almost always vary between urban and rural areas.
My campaign staff and I have analyzed the numbers in New Hampshire and I have reached the conclusion that it was the high turnout -- not vote fraud or counting errors -- that left us with eight percent of the vote. Our total vote count of over 18,000 votes was well within what we projected given the efforts of our extensive statewide get-out-the-vote program, giving me no reason to believe that vote fraud played any role in the results of the Granite State’s primary.
In both Iowa and New Hampshire there is much to be proud of. Taking both states together, I am honored that over 30,000 people cast their vote for me -- more than either Rudy Giuliani or Fred Thompson. Unlike many other candidates’ efforts, our campaign for freedom is growing and our message is spreading.
Now is the time to redouble our efforts. Our resources must be spent on the upcoming primaries and caucuses, and on ensuring that, with your help, we organize every state yet to vote with our Precinct Leaders program.
We can't win primaries and caucuses that have already happened -- but we can win those yet to come. To become the Republican presidential nominee, a candidate must have 1,191 delegates. Iowa, Wyoming and New Hampshire determined only 32 delegates, so we have much opportunity remaining.
Today, I ask you to join me in focusing on the battles ahead as we continue our fight for liberty and our Constitution.
Sincerely,
Ron PaulWritten like the TRUE leader that Ron Paul is... Vote for Ron Paul. He is the only HONEST candidate running for President.
Seattle: This is What A Police State Looks Like
What really happened August 22, 2002 in Seattle when protesters were protesting Bush in the city?
Description: This is a breakdown of what happened in Seattle when the Police attacked the crowd with chemical weapons without provocation or reason. They use video footage from the Police cameras themselves to demonstrate the point that the Police indeed incite riots and ATTACK crowds for no reason.
Description: This is a breakdown of what happened in Seattle when the Police attacked the crowd with chemical weapons without provocation or reason. They use video footage from the Police cameras themselves to demonstrate the point that the Police indeed incite riots and ATTACK crowds for no reason.
This is What A Police State Looks Like
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=24883005
Learn About Chemtrails
Chemtrails... There is lots of discussion as to whether or not they are 'real'. However, I've seen them myself and I KNOW what a contrail looks like and what I saw was NOT a contrail. In fact, the first time I saw them I was amazed and nearly pulled over on the the highway to watch. I also wondered who I should call to report them because I knew it was NOT normal sky or plane activity. After a time I learned about chemtrails and BINGO it was what I saw that day on the highway. So I believe they are very real and that something of a very suspicious nature is happening in our skies. Look up, pay attention!
If you are not familiar with chemtrails you should get familiar with them and then let other people know about them too. I've included a handful of sites here to begin your education process plus a debunker's site (it is only fair to present both sides of the story).
Here are just a few videos - one from Austin, TX, one from New Orleans, LA and one from England showing chemtrail activity. In the one from England he even shows you how the chemtrail activity looks from satellite:
Chemtrail Information Sites:
Chemtrail Central
Educate Yourself: Chemtrails
Chemtrails Data Page
Aerosol Operation Crimes and Cover-up
Conspiracy Planet: Chemtrails
Chemtrails: Hall of Shame
Chemtrails: What They Are and What We Know About Them
Chemtrails 911
Debunker Site:
New Mexicans for Science and Reason Sphere: Related Content
Food Crisis Worsening in Gaza
GENEVA (AFP) — Food is running short for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the impoverished Gaza Strip and more aid is urgently needed to prevent a humanitarian crisis, the World Food Programme said on Friday. Some 302,000 people need food aid in Gaza, equivalent to nearly two-thirds of the population not including refugees, WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume told journalists. "The situation is getting worse by the day," she said. Nearly 70 percent of the 1.5 million people in Gaza live on less than 250 dollars (169 euros) a month, while food accounts for 60 percent of household expenditure. Gaza has been under strict economic sanctions since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June, with Israel cutting off food and fuel supplies. Anaemia rates have risen to 77.5 percent as Gaza's isolation has deepened, Berthiaume said. The WFP said it has raised its Gaza appeal budget to 141 million dollars due to higher logistical costs and the rising price of foodstuffs. The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees warned on Thursday that the isolation of Gaza was causing untold misery and fostering extremism. "I would like the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza to be acknowledged and there to be some recognition that only a third of the people in Gaza support Hamas," said Karen Koning AbuZayd, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency. "We are seeing evidence of stunting of the children, their growth is slowing, because our ration is only 61 percent of what people should have and that has to be supplemented," she said. Article here.
Dead Souls: The Pentagon Plan to Create Remorseless "Warfighters"
Chris Floyd , Empire Burlesque
January 12, 2008
Penny Coleman at Alternet.com gives us a look at a new program designed to dull the moral sensibilities of American soldiers in combat on the imperial frontiers: Pentagon, Big Pharma: Drug Troops to Numb Them to Horrors of War.
But as we'll see below, this attempt to peddle magic pills to chase away the horrors of war is just one front in a long-term, wide-ranging "warfighter enhancement program" -- including the neurological and genetic re-engineering of soldiers' minds and bodies to create what the Pentagon calls "iron bodied and iron willed personnel": tireless, relentless, remorseless, unstoppable.
I.
Coleman takes specific aim at the "Psychological Kevlar Act," aimed at reducing the alarming spread of soldier suicides and post-traumatic stress disorder spawned by the illegal invasion of Iraq. The program relies heavily on dosing soldiers with Propranalol, which, "if taken immediately following a traumatic event, can subdue a victim's stress response and so soften his or her perception of the memory," as Coleman notes. "That does not mean the memory has been erased, but proponents claim that the drug can render it emotionally toothless." She continues:
But is it moral to weaken memories of horrendous acts a person has committed? Some would say that there is no difference between offering injured soldiers penicillin to prevent an infection and giving a drug that prevents them from suffering from a posttraumatic stress injury for the rest of their lives. Others, like Leon Kass, former chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, object to propranolol's use on the grounds that it medicates away one's conscience...Barry Romo, a national coordinator for Vietnam Veterans Against the War, is even more blunt. "That's the devil pill," he says. "That's the monster pill, the anti-morality pill. That's the pill that can make men and women do anything and think they can get away with it. Even if it doesn't work, what's scary is that a young soldier could believe it will."
It is "a kind of moral lobotomy," says Coleman, whose husband killed himself after coming home from the Vietnam War. She puts the bill -- which is being sponsored by Robert Kennedy Jr., among others -- in the historical context of military training:
Since World War II, our military has sought and found any number of ways to override the values and belief systems recruits have absorbed from their families, schools, communities and religions. Using the principles of operant conditioning, the military has found ways to reprogram their human software, overriding those characteristics that are inconvenient in a military context, most particularly the inherent resistance human beings have to killing others of their own species. "Modern combat training conditions soldiers to act reflexively to stimuli," says Lt. Col. Peter Kilner, a professor of philosophy and ethics at West Point, "and this maximizes soldiers' lethality, but it does so by bypassing their moral autonomy. Soldiers are conditioned to act without considering the moral repercussions of their actions; they are enabled to kill without making the conscious decision to do so. If they are unable to justify to themselves the fact that they killed another human being, they will likely -- and understandably -- suffer enormous guilt. This guilt manifests itself as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and it has damaged the lives of thousands of men who performed their duty in combat."
Rest of the story here. Sphere: Related Content
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