US Strategy of Total Energy Control over the European Union and Eurasia

That’s the only way they can keep the dollar as the worlds reserve currency.

One of his first foreign visits as new President took Barack Obama to Ankara for a high-profile meeting with Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and other leading Turkish officials. Obama engaged in classical “horse trading” wheeling and dealing. “I give you support for Turkey’s EU membership; you open the diplomatic door to Armenia,” appears to have been the core of the deal. What other inducements the US President gave in the case of Turkish influence within NATO and such is secondary. Obama’s goal was to break a political deadlock in Turkey to construction of a major gas pipeline to Germany and other EU countries in direct opposition to Russian Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline.

Nabucco is an integral part of a US strategy of total energy control over both the EU and all Eurasia. On July 13 with a Nabucco signing ceremony in Ankara the first fruits of the Obama soft diplomacy appeared to be bearing fruit. The question remains if it will be bitter fruit.

Leading Republican Party foreign policy figure, Senator Richard Lugar, went as the Obama Administration’s representative to Ankara on July 13 for the signing ceremony approving the controversial Nabucco project.  EU Commission President Barosso was also present along with heads of government of Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria.

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9/11 and Cyberterrorism: Did the real “cyber 9/11″ happen on 9/11?

Funny how the cyber attacks occur as the mass media are ramping up for more cyber security and it just so happens that our government is forking out $ 150.000,- to buy cyber screening software to weed out “Child porn” sites. And it turns out that they came from the UK rather than the traditional bad boy North Korea. Do you see the pattern?

Government sources immediately began blaming North Korea for the recent cyberterror attacks on South Korea and the U.S., despite having no evidence to back up those claims.[1] Now, an examination of the evidence by independent computer experts show that the attack seems to have been coordinated from the UK.[2] The hysterical media coverage in the attack’s wake, however, echoing the government line that it was likely the work of North Korea, has served to cement in the minds of many that this was an act of cyberwarfare.

The idea that this surprisingly unsophisticated attack[3] could have come from a well-organized, hostile state or terrorist group comes as a blessing in disguise to those groups, agencies and advisors who have been calling for greater and greater federal snooping powers in the name of stopping a “cyber 9/11″ from happening.

The “cyber 9/11″ meme stretches back almost to 9/11 itself. Back in 2003, Mike McConnell, the ex-director of the National Security Agency (NSA), was fearmongering over the possibility of a cyber attack “equivalent to the attack on the World Trade Center” if a new institution were not created to oversee cyber security.[4] Since then, report[5] after report[6] has continued to use the horror of 9/11 as a way of raising public hysteria over “cyber terrorism,” a subject more often associated with juvenile hackers and lone misfits than radical terrorist organizations.

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Dick Cheney’s “Executive Assassination Ring”: Was British Weapons Expert Dr. David Kelly a Target ?

50 scientists died under mysterious circumstances over the last 15-20 years.

Revelations that the Central Intelligence Agency launched a world-wide assassination program, and then concealed its existence from the U.S. Congress and the American people for eight years, carries an implication that death squads may have been employed against political opponents.

The Wall Street Journal reported July 13 that “A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter.”

Investigative journalist Siobhan Gorman writes, “The precise nature of the highly classified effort isn’t clear, and the CIA won’t comment on its substance.”

The Washington Post however, revealed July 16 that the assassination plan was sanctioned by President Bush. Unnamed “intelligence officials” told the newspaper that “a secret document known as a ‘presidential finding’ was signed by President George W. Bush that same month, granting the agency broad authority to use deadly force against bin Laden as well as other senior members of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.”

According to Post reporter Joby Warrick, Bush’s finding “imposed no geographical limitations on the agency’s actions” and that the CIA was “not obliged to notify Congress of each operation envisaged under the directive.” This implies that targets could be hit anywhere, including on the soil of a NATO ally or inside the United States itself.

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Are we being softened up? Two Blasts in Indonesia Covered with Geopolitical Fingerprints

As I have reported over the last couple of weeks the English mainstream media are ramping up the Propaganda for an increase in troops and military equipment in Afghanistan.

Now a new Zealander and two Australians have been killed in a bomb blast in Jakarta and the mainstream media in both Countries are ramping up their news about how a the “Hydra” of international terrorism has hit again.

We are being set up ladies and gentlemen. We are being softened up to accept us sending more troops to the cesspit war in Afghanistan. The “Taliban” word is splattered all over the newspapers and I predict that we will be told that more troops will be send to support the international efforts to “save” the Afghans from the evil “Taliban” within the month. Remember you read it here first.

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Reuters reports that blasts at the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in Jakarta killed at least 9 people, as well as injuring at least 50. In addition, Reuters has reported that a car bomb has been detonated at a toll road in North Jakarta not long after- although the Dow Jones news wires report this last explosion was not caused by a bomb but by a pick-up truck, catching fire.

According to eyewitness reports, the blast in both hotels took place just minutes apart, and emanating from within the buildings, pointing to either an attack by suicide bombers- or to the possibility that the explosives were planted there beforehand. Reports by the Straits Times indicate the latter option is the most probable, as an unexploded bomb has been found and defused at the Marriott hotel. In any case, all eyewitness accounts say the blasts clearly occurred from the inside out.

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Reinvestigate 911 Breaks into Parliament

This is a truly huge breakthrough. Next, the bloody beehive. With Richard gage’s visit to Wellington in November and senior Politicians supporting a new investigation let’s rock the Capital.

In a breakthrough for campaigners, a meeting has been held in the new Parliamentary extension Portcullis House at which speakers challenged the official story of the 9/11 attacks. This was the first time since the attacks nearly eight years ago that MPs and Peers heard – on their own premises – the widespread view outside it: that 9/11 might have been an inside job.

A followup meeting is pencilled in for November 2. Reinvestigate 911 is calling for members of the public to alert their MPs to this.

A previous meeting was abandoned after the MP who had booked the room cancelled at short notice, after apparently being pressured. One UK based intelligence expert and 9/11 sceptic who frequently addresses academic audiences described the meeting as a breakthrough.

Only a few MPs and Peers attended the meeting in person, but others sent assistants, gave support for future meetings or asked for a report of the meeting. This includes well known and senior figures, but to protect politicians from the predictable attacks and smears from those who support the official 9/11 story, organisers are not releasing names at this stage.

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I’m in good company: Cindy Sheehan Supports A New Investigation Into The 9/11 attacks

Cindy Sheehan, the Anti war Icon who made history when she took up camping in Crawford to force George Bush to meet with her about the death of her son has put her considerable profile behind the CAN effort to force a new investigation. Thank you Cindy for your courage.

9/11 Family Member Manny Badillo and Cindy Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan
7/16/2009

On April 4th, 2004, my son Casey was killed serving the United States Army in Iraq during the illegal occupation started by the Bush Administration.

That illegal occupation was made possible because of the attacks that took place on September 11th, 2001, resulting in the deaths of 2,973 people.

Since that horrid day, victims’ family members have been doing everything within their power to seek justice and accountability for what happened, with little to no success. It is shameful that almost 8 years after the fact, they have been denied this. The official 9/11 commission report was a sham and a mockery of justice, not justice.

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Our wartime propaganda

Finally the progressive mainstream media is beginning to catch on that the middle of the road Mass media is preparing the public for a surge in the war efforts in Afghanistan with massive propaganda and even Prince Charles is joining the fun.

From the way official Britain pontificates about the war in Afghanistan, you’d never know that most British people want troops withdrawn by the end of the year and only a minority have supported the US-led campaign for years.

The BBC in particular seems to have almost entirely abandoned any attempt at neutral reporting of what is actually going on. Instead, its newsreaders and presenters sternly warn that “Britain’s resolve is being put to the test” and speculate, surreally, about what might happen if public “support” for the war “were to weaken” (last Friday’s 10 o’clock TV news and Newsnight programmes).

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“They Dump the Sick to Satisfy Investors”: Insurance Exec Turned Whistleblower Wendell Potter Speaks Out Against Healthcare Industry

Another nice indictment of the privatised healthcare.

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It’s not to late for the truth

This is a group of 911 survivors and family members of those who perished that day who want a new investigation into the events of that day. Over 63.000 New Yorkers have signed the petition to demand a new investigation.

The New York City Coalition for Accountability Now has come together to lead a disciplined and patriotic search for answers about September 11th towards one tangible goal: the creation of an independent and impartial subpoena powered investigation into the September 11th attacks on our great nation.

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NASA admits moon landings taped over

LOL. I never paid much attention to the hole moonlanding thing but the original tapes have been erased and a digital special effects company is hired to “restore” some of the copies? Fucking hell that’s almost asking to be investigated.

The original recordings of the first humans landing on the moon 40 years ago were erased and taped over – NASA has admitted.

But, the space agency says, newly restored copies of the original broadcast look even better.

NASA released the first glimpses of a complete digital make-over of the original landing footage that clarifies the blurry and grainy images of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the moon.

The full set of recordings, being cleaned up by Burbank, California-based Lowry Digital, will be released in September.

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Hillary Clinton: ‘CFR Tells Government What It Should Be Doing’

The Council for Foreign Relations for those of you unfamiliar with this group is a group of ultra rich and powerful individuals with members such as Dick Cheney and Rockefeller to name a few.

And this is what Hillary Clinton has to say about them.

“We get a lot of advice from the Council, so this will mean I won’t have as far to go to be told what we should be doing and how we should think about the future.”

So just in case you think that politicians are elected by us and are serving us the people think again.
By the way our own Federal Reserve groomed prime minister John Key is taking his orders from the same nasty group on that you can count. they want to buy this country just like they bought the US and preferably for cents on the dollar.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s opening remarks during her speech to the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday will have done little to dampen accusations that the elitist CFR pulls the strings of the U.S. government.

Clinton effectively said that she was happy the CFR had created an outpost in Washington DC because it meant she did not have to travel as far to get her orders.

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Blow to recovery

No kidding?

Growing economic confidence has been knocked by New Zealand being placed on negative creditwatch as the Government puts its hat out to international lenders.

International ratings agency Fitch said it was worried about New Zealand’s high debt levels and reliance on overseas borrowing.

The agency confirmed New Zealand’s rating at AA plus, but yesterday’s decision to revise its outlook for New Zealand’s credit rating from stable to negative came out of the blue.

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Report: ‘No geographical limitations’ on CIA assassination program

The Central Intelligence Agency’s secret assassination squad was allowed to operate anywhere in the world, including the United States, according to a Thursday report in The Washington Post.

“The plan to deploy small teams of assassins grew out of the CIA’s early efforts to battle al-Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,” the paper reported. “A secret document known as a ‘presidential finding’ was signed by President George W. Bush that same month, granting the agency broad authority to use deadly force against bin Laden as well as other senior members of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.”

Reporter Joby Warrick added: “The finding imposed no geographical limitations on the agency’s actions, and intelligence officials have said that they were not obliged to notify Congress of each operation envisaged under the directive.”

This revelation, buried in paragraph 12 of the Post’s report, was highlighted by Talking Points Memo’s Zachary Roth later in the afternoon.

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High-tech unmanned aerial system to go wheels up in US

And if this doesn’t scare the shit out of you I don’t know what will.

Following accelerated efforts to develop one of its most advanced unmanned combat planes, the United States military gets set to launch its X-47B fighter jet as early as November.

The X-47B Unmanned Combat Aerial System (UCAS) is set to take to the air at Edwards Air Force Base, California in November.

The tail-less aircraft is designed to operate in multiple long range missions and conduct intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and high-precision strike operations.

The fighter jet manufactured by Northrop Grumman is capable of operating at high speeds at an altitude of around 12,000 meters while carrying an internal load of one ton with a combat radius of over 2,000 kilometers.

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Brown formally backs Blair as candidate for ‘President of Europe’

War criminal Blair as the first president of Europe. If this doesn’t show you that the shadow government and his banking pals are taking over I don’t know what will.

Tony Blair won the formal backing of Gordon Brown yesterday as Britain’s candidate to become the first “President of Europe”.

Downing Street endorsed Baroness (Glenys) Kinnock, the Europe minister, who said in Strasbourg: “The UK Government is supporting Tony Blair’s candidature for President of the [European] Council.” Asked if the prospect had been discussed with Mr Blair, she said: “It is the Government’s position. I am sure they would not do that without asking him.” Mr Brown’s spokesman said: “What the Prime Minister supports is Tony Blair’s candidature for the President of the European Council if Tony Blair decides that that is what he would like to do and as and when such a position exists.”

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Romantic – or just pants? Man proposes to girlfriend by singing in his underwear on cinema screen

OK. Just so you don’t think I’m totally obsessed with bad news here’s a little diddy to laugh about. Awesome.

A man has proposed to his girlfriend by hiring a cinema to play a film of himself singing in his underpants.

Pete Simson proposed by screening a spoof music video of himself singing Daniel Bedingfield’s If You’re Not The One.

The 26-year-old hired the Watershed Cinema in Bristol, complete with audience in on his plan, to make it seem like a normal night out with girlfriend Hannah McDonagh, who was celebrating her 25th birthday.

Proposal: Pete Simson made a spoof music video of himself singing in his underpants as an imaginative way to ask his girlfriend to marry him

She was rendered speechless when the video came on, and burst into tears when her boyfriend went down on one knee at the end of the five-minute film.

Solicitor Miss McDonagh – who thought they were going to see a film called 35 Shots Of Rum – immediately said yes.

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9/11 truth still in a cloud of smoke? | Top Stories from 2009-07-16 | RT

Russia today gets viewed by millions of people. We are breaking through. Ready or not here we come.

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Israeli navy in Suez Canal prepares for potential attack on Iran

Two Israeli missile class warships have sailed through the Suez Canal ten days after a submarine capable of launching a nuclear missile strike, in preparation for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The deployment into the Red Sea, confirmed by Israeli officials, was a clear signal that Israel was able to put its strike force within range of Iran at short notice. It came before long-range exercises by the Israeli air force in America later this month and the test of a missile defence shield at a US missile range in the Pacific Ocean.

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“Sovereign Iraq” welcomes back the Foreign Oil Companies

Obama is an accomplice in one of the greatest thefts in modern history

by Rev. Richard Skaff

Blood and oil are two expensive and valuable commodities. One is essential in maintaining life, and the other is intrinsic to sustain the arteries of the global economy.

In Iraq , blood is cheaper than oil. Over a million Iraqis have died in the last 6 years since the oil tycoon Georges Bush Junior invaded the country in an imperial military exercise designed to balkanize Babylon and to confiscate its natural resources.

On the morning of June 29, 2009, the Iraqi forces allegedly assumed formal control of Baghdad and other cities after American troops handed over security in urban areas in a distinct step toward ending the U.S. combat role in the country. As soon as the contrived celebration of the pull out was completed, the curtain opened and the show for bidding on Iraqi oil began!

This is the time to reap the rewards for a war that was fought on behalf of the global oil industry. It is also the time to open the bidding on Iraqi oil, in order to get the best deal on the black gold while Iraqis remain shattered, tattered, and starved. The puppet Iraqi government will certainly facilitate the selling of Iraq ’s wealthy resources to the oil companies that have patiently waited for the right moment to gobble up the largest reserves of oil in the world outside of Saudi Arabia .

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The Democrats Abandon the Environment

“As a banker, I also welcome the fact that the ‘cap-and-trade’ system is becoming the dominant methodology for [carbon dioxide] control.”Simon Linnett, Executive Vice Chairman of Rothschild Bank.

Can the looming environmental catastrophe be solved by environmentalists working side by side with Wall Street Bankers? Such a question doesn’t deserve a serious answer. The Democrats, however, are attempting to address the issue of global warming by developing a “partnership” between those who love the earth, and those who love only profits.

Such a marriage must surely end in divorce. But the Obama administration is enjoying maximum political gain from the blissful honeymoon period, while in reality the honest environmentalists have already left in disgust, even those previously committed to supporting the Democrats: Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Public Citizen, etc. They rightfully feel betrayed and point to the Democrats’ “Cap-and-Trade” environmental bill as proof the same bill that Obama and the media claim to be a “historic” step forward.

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The privately owned Federal Reserve runs our Country

Our “own” reserve bank is not required to account to us. It is an independent privately owned institute and has no say over how banks operate. Why do we the people who after all generate the real world wealth with our labour allow a small amount of unelected individuals the control over that wealth?

Last week the Dow fell 1.6%; S&P fell 1.9%; the Russell 2000 fell 3.3% and the Nasdaq slipped 1.8%; cyclicals fell 3.6%; transports 1.5%; consumers 1.6%; utilities 1.4%; banks 2.3% and broker/dealers 2.8%. High tech fell 1.8%; semis 1.8%; Internets 2.1% and biotechs 2.7%. Gold bullion fell $19.50 and the HUI gold index fell 8.4%.

Two-year T-bill rates fell 10 bps to 0.82% and the 10’s fell 21 bps to 3.30%. Ten-year German bunds fell 8 bps to 3.26%.

Freddie Mac pegged the 30-year fixed rate mortgage off 12 bps at 5.20%. The 15’s fell 8 bps to 4.6% and the 1-year ARMs fell 12 bps to 4.82%.

Fed credit declined $9.5 billion to $1.977 trillion, off $269 billion ytd and up 123% yoy. Fed foreign holdings of Treasury and Agency debt jumped $20.5 billion to a record $2.787 trillion. Custody holdings for foreign central banks rose 20.7% ytd, and were up 18.6% yoy.

M2 narrow money supply fell $36 billion having expanded 9.1% yoy. Total money market fund assets rose $4.4 billion to $3.668 trillion.

This past week the dollar index, the USDX, was unchanged at 80.26.

During the week of the G-8 meeting the US pushed the dollar up. They attempted the same with the stock market unsuccessfully and successfully drove bond yields down and bond values up. They also smashed commodities, especially oil and pressured gold and silver lower. The problem is they cannot continue. They do not have the power to do so. Those suppressed markets will reverse and rise.

Web filter to focus only on child sex abuse images

Bollocks. I don’t like kiddy porn, I abhor child abusers and think a good place for them to be is in a high security prison but once you start to filter something because everybody hates it the next step is to start filtering stuff because you can make it hated. Mass media manipulation and simpletons galore and a filter system is a recipe for censure and the end of free speech such as it is.

Web filter will focus solely on child sex abuse images

A filtering system to block websites that host child sexual abuse images will be available voluntarily to New Zealand internet service providers (ISPs) within a couple of months, Internal Affairs Deputy Secretary, Keith Manch, said today.

The Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System, funded with $150,000 in this year’s Budget, will be operated by the Department in partnership with ISPs, and will focus solely on websites offering clearly objectionable images of child sexual abuse, which is a serious offence for anyone in New Zealand to access.

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Taliban will let guns do their talking

KARACHI – Amid a growing furor in Britain over the deaths in the past few days of eight British servicemen in Afghanistan, the initiative to seek dialogue with the Taliban at the highest level of their leadership is gaining pace.

Taliban leader Mullah Omar is now the focus of attention, with the Pakistan military reportedly saying that it is prepared to act as a middleman to help the administration of United States President Barack Obama in a “new diplomatic overture to find an end to the long-running conflict” in Afghanistan.

Mullah Omar, however, is not believed to be in any mood to talk. Over the past few months, he has consolidated his grip over the various scattered but powerful resistance groups across

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Private contractors replacing troops in Iraq, Afghanistan

If you thought the end of American intervention in foreign wars was nearing, think again. President Obama has been replacing soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan with private contractors—some 250,000 are currently deployed overseas—including Black Water (operating under another alias.)

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Can The Economy Recover?

And how about new Zealand? Well, we have had a housing bubble, there are more jobs in the service industry than in the actual production industry and more and more production jobs are lost. You figure it out.

By Paul Craig Roberts

There is no economy left to recover. The US manufacturing economy was lost to offshoring and free trade ideology. It was replaced by a mythical “New Economy.”

The “New Economy” was based on services. Its artificial life was fed by the Federal Reserve’s artificially low interest rates, which produced a real estate bubble, and by “free market” financial deregulation, which unleashed financial gangsters to new heights of debt leverage and fraudulent financial products.

The real economy was traded away for a make-believe economy. When the make-believe economy collapsed, Americans’ wealth in their real estate, pensions, and savings collapsed dramatically while their jobs disappeared.

The debt economy caused Americans to leverage their assets. They refinanced their homes and spent the equity. They maxed out numerous credit cards. They worked as many jobs as they could find. Debt expansion and multiple family incomes kept the economy going.

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Shocking suicide toll on combat veterans

Why, if the Afghanistan war is such a righteous war, do young men want to kill themselves after serving their country so heroically? Because they know the truth. The war in Afghanistan is a dirty illegal war serving the oil Moloch and not at all a war to liberate the Afghans from the Taliban. The powers that be are corrupter than ever and the population is often more scared for the police than the Taliban. These kids have seen death and destruction on a monstrous scale and as a result they don’t want to live any more.

Britain faces a “ticking timebomb” of mental illness and suicide among young Army veterans who return from hand-to-hand combat in Afghanistan, the Conservatives will warn today.

A lack of mental health care for veterans, combined with the stress of fighting the Taliban, will mean many survivors of the conflict pay a heavy price in psychological problems and self harm, according to David Cameron and the shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox.

As the bodies of eight soldiers – including three teenagers – killed in a bloody 24 hours in Helmand were repatriated yesterday, mental health experts joined the politicians in warning that not enough was being done to care for returning members of the armed forces.

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President Blair? Former PM in frame to become first head of EU, says Kinnock

War criminal Blair’s reward. A new position created by the ruling elite in the New World Order. Yuk.

Tony Blair is a contender to become the first president of the EU with the full backing of the British government, the new Europe minister said today.

Glenys Kinnock, in Strasbourg for the opening session of the new European parliament, said that although the former prime minister had not formally declared his candidacy, it was “certainly” the government position to support him.

“I am sure they would not do it without asking him,” Lady Kinnock said. “The UK government is supporting Tony Blair’s candidature for president of the council.”

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Arrest of Rio Tinto executive points to deepening economic crisis in China

The arrest of Stern Hu, Rio-Tinto’s China iron ore executive, in Shanghai on July 5 signals a more aggressive policy by the Chinese regime toward its economic rivals, amid an ongoing slump in export orders and rising unemployment. Fearing social explosions—a danger highlighted by the protests that erupted in Xinjiang on the same day—Beijing has elevated the conduct of its commercial affairs to the level of national security.

Stern Hu, a Chinese-born Australian national, was reportedly accused of stealing state secrets, along with three of his Chinese colleagues—a pretext that is usually reserved for targeting domestic political dissidents. The Shanghai State Security agency apparently alleged that he bribed officials of Chinese steel companies in order to obtain information during this year’s iron ore negotiations with global mining giants, including the Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto, the Australian-based BHP Billiton and the Brazilian-based Vale.

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THE BATTLE FOR BELIEF : A SOCIOLOGISTS RESEARCH IN 9/11 ARGUMENTATION

We are at war, and one of the most critical and dangerous frontline is not in Afghanistan, Iraq or Iran. Rather, it is the battleground within the human psyche. Individual and collective minds are waging psychological warfare in what promises to be one of the most intense struggles in American history, if not all of human history. How do we communicate the truth about the events of 9/11 to those who have been deceived by the operation and its cover-up in the media? Are logic, reason, and science enough? In the “battle for belief”, Person A offers truth demonstrating reality while Person B, knowingly or unknowingly, transmits lies and perpetuates myth. At the end of the day, the one with the most credibility wins. This much is supposed by Dr. Mark Jones, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sociology at Colorado College, who is embarking on a research project to study how both sides of a controversial issue communicate their ideas. With a disciplinary specialty in the sociology of science and technology, Dr. Jones states that researchers in his field “frequently conduct studies of scientific controversies, instances in which different groups in the sciences, or in engineering — often competitors — disagree on facts, interpretations and explanations of facts, and legitimate methods of inquiry and evaluation.” He continues, “Sociological studies show that scientific and technical controversies are never settled by facts, because the facts never speak for themselves,” and, “Credibility establishes authority and the power to define what will count as truth or error.” On one side of the technical issue at hand, there exists a growing movement to reveal the truth about 9/11 by a presentation of clear scientific facts.

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Iran Jews in Israel prefer Ahmadinejad

Just in case you wondered.

Despite unrest and violence following last month’s presidential elections in Iran, some Jewish Iranians living in Israel and abroad say life in the Islamic republic is better under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than it would be under challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Ahmadinejad speaks during an election campaign event in Teheran [file].
Photo: AP

At a conference of Iranian Jews in Jerusalem on Monday, leaders of the Mashadi Jewish community said that despite Ahmadinejad’s blustery rhetoric against Israel, Iran is a safe place for Jews to practice their religion.

“Ahmadinejad speaks badly about Jews, but he is preferable to Mousavi,” said Shlomo Zabihi, a Mashadi rabbi. The current government is relatively stable and provides a safe environment for Jews, he said.

Monday’s event marked the first meeting of the Global Mashadi Jewish Federation, an umbrella organization of community and religious groups preserving the historical and cultural identity of Jews from Mashad, Iran’s second largest city, with a population of about 2.5 million.

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During the 1979 Islamic Revolution, many Mashadi Jews fled to the United States, primarily New York City – where some 6,000 Jews with ties to Mashad now live. There are almost no Jews in Mashad today, though an estimated 25,000 still live in Iran, concentrated in Teheran.

“They’ve found it very safe and pleasant, no problems,” said Bahman Kamali, founder of the federation. “Actually, the regime during [the time of reformist president Mohammad] Khatami and the regime now have been very good with Jewish people. There has not been any problem.”

Iranian opposition head Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Photo: AP [file]

Kamali said Ahmadinejad’s calls for the destruction of Israel were not the same as condemnation or encouragement of violence against Jews in the Diaspora. “There’s a distinction between the two because Iranians, they respect the religions that have books, Christianity, Judaism,” Kamali said. “They respect people freely going to the synagogues and praying there without any problems.” He doesn’t think the Jewish community in Iran will face persecution stemming from political unrest following the disputed elections. “I’m not concerned about that,” said Kamali, who downplayed the political involvement of his group. “The purpose of this conference is not political. It’s only our heritage, that we are proud of to be from Mashad, Iran, and we would like to preserve that.”