Obama Food Czar Is Former Monsanto Exec

Obama Food Czar Is Former Monsanto Exec

Obama Food Czar Is Former Monsanto Exec, One of the Four Horsemen of the Food Apocalypse

It’s not enough that former Monsanto executive Michael Taylor is the Food Czar in Obama`s administration. Monsanto recently purchased Xe Intelligence Services. Xe is the new name for Blackwater, the largest private mercenary military outfit in the world. Within that same time frame, Bill Gates purchased $23 million of Monsanto stock. –

By Paul Fassa at Natural News

Let`s take a look at each of the four horsemen.

Michael Taylor
He was Monsanto`s chief attorney and lobbyist. He knows his way around the FDA and USDA since he`s influenced both agencies. Monsanto Mike was the one who pushed Monsanto`s rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone) to help poison milking cows and consumers` milk. Then he made it illegal for non-cooperating dairy farms to display “no rBGH” on their milk cartons. He made life financially miserable for those dairy farmers who didn`t play ball.

Some suspect a Food Czar link with the current raw milk raids. After all, milk is Monsanto Mike`s familiar turf, and his chief administrative duty is food safety.

Monsanto

In case you`re not sure of Monsanto`s destructive nature, here`s a short list of Monsanto`s toxic products: Agent Orange, PCBs, aspartame, rBGH, and Ready Roundup. Google them.

Monsanto developed terminator seeds, forcing farmers to buy new seeds because they cannot be recycled after first harvest. Monsanto is the world`s leading GMO producer. And they sue farmers for violating patent laws when non-GMO farms` crops are inadvertently infested by neighboring GMO crops.

Monsanto is making sure they own patents on almost all other non-GMO seeds as well. Their stated goal is to own the world`s food production. Think food mafia!

Bill Gates

Under the guise of philanthropy, Gates is constantly funding vaccine development and distribution. This includes GM crops containing vaccines and mosquitoes to deliver vaccines. The targets of these developments are usually developing countries.

Vaccines have been exposed as carriers for sterilization agents in developing countries over the past two decades. Perhaps Bill Gates` comment on reducing the population by ten to fifteen percent with vaccines was not a slip of the tongue or taken out of context.

Gates is also funding the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The Gates Foundation hired Robert Horsh in 2006 when he was a director at Monsanto! The AGRA is a front for stripping African farmers of their traditional seed use and force selling them GM seeds. This type of operation has had tragic results for poor cotton farmers in India.

Xe AKA Blackwater

Blackwater has a history of black ops and secret illegal activities. Their services are available to corporate as well as government operations. They changed their name to Xe because of their soiled reputation for exposed dirty deeds in Iraq. As a private mercenary army, Blackwater has been able to terrorize targets under secret contracts, while enabling their employers to claim deniability.

Through different shell company names, Xe has developed secret contracts with several multi-national corporations. Jeremy Scahill, the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, has recently exposed Monsanto`s relationship with Xe.

According to Scahill, Cofer Black the director of Total Intelligence, one of Blackwater`s shell companies, started pitching Monsanto in 2008. Black is former CIA director with a nasty reputation. Now Total Intelligence is part of Monsanto. That division`s purpose is to covertly infiltrate anti-GMO activists and resisting farmers. This would enable splintering those groups, or even assassinating some key individuals.

We must resist the evil synergy of this alliance. Jeffrey Smith`s anti-GMO campaign with his Institute for Responsible Technology is a starting point.

Sources for more information include:

Michael Taylor

MONSANTO POSITIONS vs. FEDERAL POSITIONS

Telecomix Crypto Munitions Bureau

Telecomix Crypto Munitions Bureau

Telecomix Crypto Munitions Bureau is part of Telecomix. This wiki is used for discussing technology and philosophy. This wiki is also essentially the technical twin to the political WeRebuild.EU wiki. Both share the same fundamental goal: To defend and increase information freedom.

If you find anything here interesting and want to talk about it (we dont bother with e-mails) join us at irc.telecomix.orgOr just press this link.

Telecomix Crypto Munitions Bureau?

A decentralized organization without membership. The bureaus goals are described in this paper issued by Cameron. Beyond that, we also do whatever we want.

News

Scratchpad(s)

Software

  • Encrypted Communication
    • GPG / Mac Encryption for mails, files and more. No forward secrecy!
    • JavaScript GPG for the GMail webinterface
    • OTR Extremely IMPORTANT for Instant Messaging – USE THIS
    • Tomb strong semi-deniable encryption for the desktop and safe transports
    • Tcpcrypt a protocol that attempts to encrypt (almost) all of your network traffic.
    • CurveCP Usable security for the Internet
    • Crayfish Safe IRC shelter server (concept).
    • LUKS LUKS is the standard for Linux hard disk encryption.
    • Truecrypt Disk encryption
    • Silc : Secure Internet Live Conferencing : IRC like but much more safer (to be written) SILCNET Offical Website
  • Anonymous and Alternative Networks
    • Tor (Peer reviewed, understood and very secure anonymity network.)
    • I2P (Likely unsafe in extremely dangerous situations, peer review needed)
      • OnionCat (Anonymous IPv6 tunneling on top of Tor/I2P.)
    • Netsukuku – Internet Protocol based alternative to ICANNnet – currently lacks dedicated anonymization mechanism, mainly based on physical WLAN links
    • CJDNS (this is not Domain Name System!)
    • Do we need something better?
  • General-purpose VPN software
    • curvetun (lightweight multiuser IP tunnel based on elliptic curve cryptography)
    • OpenVPN (Direct p2p VPN.) – Lacking peer review
    • VTun – Lacking peer review
    • PPTP (Knowledge needed to set up a linux computer as an IPREDATOR-router for your entire net.) PPTP is not safe to use
    • tinc
    • quicktun – uses Elliptic Curves, popular in dn42 community
    • SSH
    • IPSec (for example OpenSWAN)
  • Sousveillance/Counter Surveillance

 

The telecomix cluster – Wiki –Communiqués – Cameron –Telecomix News Agency –Organizational overview –irc.telecomix.org (SSL on port 9999, also available through irc.telecomix.i2p)

Adopt a politician. The politicians will soon be voting about the Data Retention Directive.

Needed Software – projects

Software we may need for further projects, still to be found or written

Physical infrastructure

Repository of research articles

Mission: Helping to undermine one authority after the other…

Among the tasks given to TCMB by Cameron is to develop and spread knowledge about cryptography and security. So, here it is:

Cryptography

Cryptography for The Post-Quantum Computing Era

Books, papers and logs

Further Links

Meetings and seminars

TCMB official documents

Interesting papers/pads

Software watch list

Interesting software that is yet to be investigated.

  • CrypTool / JCrypTool: graphical cryptography teaching tool
  • AlpineLinux hardened and lightweight Linux distribution for setting up routers / gateways

Not sure what this is

Over Unity Magnet Motor Demonstration

Over Unity Magnet Motor Demonstration

An inventor from Argentina has posted a video showing a prototype motor that is claimed to produce more power than it consumes. A video he has posted demonstrates the device in action, and seems to show there are no obvious hidden power sources.

by Hank Mills with Sterling Allan
Pure Energy Systems News


Many inventors have built various types of magnet motors over the years. Some have been purely permanent magnet systems, and others have incorporated both permanent magnets and electromagnets. The fascination with these motors seems to be their potential to produce “free energy” from magnetic fields. When you see a magnet on a refrigerator door holding quite a bit of weight, even though no “work” is being done (the definition of “work” requires movement), a lot of force is represented. What if you could harness that force somehow into a rotational system?

Now, another magnet motor claim has came on the scene. Another inventor from Argentina has posted a video of a magnet motor that he claims produces more power than it consumes. This is different from Jose Zapata‘s all-magnet motor, also from Argentina.

This inventor has setup a blog http://torianproyect.blogspot.com/ about his efforts, which he calls the “Torian Project.” His prototype magnet motor is named the “Torian III.” The prototype features three circular, stationary stators with permanent magnets embedded in them. A rotor that is free to spin fits inside each of the circular stators. The first stator appears to have a number of coils attached, which may be used to influence the permanent magnets (the whole device may be some type of pulse motor). The device is started when the inventor manually spins a wheel on the far left side of the device. Apparently, this manual input is enough to start the device, which then seems to self sustain — and produce enough extra power to light some LEDs. Near the end of the video, he lifts up the device off the table it is on, and shows there are no hidden wires attached.

The inventor speaks Spanish in the video. Also, the written comments he provides with the video are a bit confusing. This is obviously due to the language barrier that can hopefully be overcome with the help of PESN’s readership.

[September 13 update: A translation of this video, along with a subsequent video that was made has been posted at PESWiki.]

Here is the video and the comments that he provides.

Description:

In this opportunity, I would like to show you a completely magnetic motor. This kind of motor DOES NOT need to be supply by any kind of battery, or electrical net or solar energy, because it uses his own alimentation by spinning. And, at the same time, can generates extra electric current (as we can see, the led lights connected to the motor are on).

The principle is easy to understand. All the motors have one rotor and one stator, but in this motor, we have three neodymium discs (instead of a rotor) and two neodymium rings (instead of a stator) and one last neodymium ring that functions as a magnetic oscillator, self-excited by a stage of captors. This captors commutes the magnet’s polarities.

This very same principle its now being use in our last prototype: 1 HP (600 W free). We will upload as soon as possible an explication video for the HP.

The prototype that you seeing in this video provides 50 W free (12V CC – 4 Amp).

There is not a lot of additional information about this device or the inventor. So far, his name has not been revealed. Also, the video he posted is the only one that has been uploaded to his YouTube account. Unfortunately, very little information has been added to his blog, which he has only posted to once. The blog only provides a link to the YouTube video, and features almost the exact same text that he posted with the video.

Thankfully, he has provided an email address for those who would like to contact him. torian.proyect@hotmail.com

As time passes, hopefully we can learn more about this device, how it works, and it’s performance. It would be great to have another party test it, to determine if it is really producing more power than it consumes. Of course it is possible such testing has already been done, and we just don’t know about it.

There is an expired Brazilian patent that definitely is relevant here, from which the Perendev all-magnet motor was almost surely pirated.  It was granted in 1989 based on a working motor that was presented to the Brazilian patent office.  Using ceramic magnets, it degaussed rapidly, and because the cost of the magnets and the ridicule heaped on him, the inventor shelved the project.  The inventor does not want to be contacted.

In a year when cold fusion technology, noble gas engines, solid state generators, and other devices are emerging, it is nice to know that the classic overunity magnet motors are still alive and kicking!

# # #

This story is also published at BeforeItsNews.

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Source: http://pesn.com/2011/07/29/9501879_Torian_Project_Overunity_Magnetic_Motor/

US Military Drones targeting Rescue Workers and Funerals in Pakistan

US Military Drones targeting Rescue Workers and Funerals in Pakistan

The CIA’s drone campaign targeting suspected militants in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to rescue victims or were attending funerals. So concludes a new report by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism. It found that since President Obama took office three years ago, as many as 535 civilians have been killed, including more than 60 children. The investigation also revealed that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. We speak to Chris Woods, award-winning reporter with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. “We noted that there were repeated reports at the time, contemporaneous reports in publications like New York Times, news agencies like Reuters, by CNN, that there were these strikes on rescuers, that there were reports that there had been an initial strike and then, some minutes later, as people had come forward to help and pull out the dead and injured, that drones had returned to the scene and had attacked rescuers,” Woods says. “We’ve been able to name just over 50 civilians that we understand have been killed in those attacks. In total, we think that more than 75 civilians have been killed, specifically in these attacks on rescuers and on mourners, on funeral-goers.” [includes rush transcript]

VIDEO

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/6/us_accused_of_using_drones_to

 

The Right to Anonymity is a Matter of Privacy

The Right to Anonymity is a Matter of Privacy

This January 28marks International Privacy Day. Different countries around theworld are celebrating this day with their own events. This year, we are honoring the day by calling attention to recent international privacy threats and interviewing data protection authorities, government officials, and activists to gain insight into various aspects of privacy rights and related legislation in their own respective countries.


Throughout history, there have been a number of reasons why individuals have taken to writing or producing art under a pseudonym. In the 18th century, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay took on the pseudonym Publius to publish The Federalist Papers. In 19th century England, pseudonyms allowed women–like the Brontë sisters, who initially published under Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell–to be taken seriously as writers.

Today, pseudonyms continue to serve a range of individuals, and for a variety of reasons. At EFF, we view anonymity as both a matter of free speech and privacy, but in light of International Privacy Day, January 28, this piece will focus mainly on the latter, looking at the ways in which the right to anonymity–or pseudonymity–is truly a matter of privacy.

Privacy from employers

Human beings are complex creatures with multiple interests. As such, many professionals use pseudonyms online to keep their employment separate from their personal life. One example of this is the Guardian columnist GrrlScientist who, upon discovering her Google+ account had been deleted for violating their “common name” policy, penned a piece explaining her need for privacy. Another example is prominent Moroccan blogger Hisham Khribchi, who has explained his use of a pseudonym, stating:

When I first started blogging I wanted my identity to remain secret because I didn’t want my online activity to interfere with my professional life. I wanted to keep both as separate as possible. I also wanted to use a fake name because I wrote about politics and I was critical of my own government. A pseudonym would shield me and my family from personal attacks. I wanted to have a comfortable space to express myself freely without having to worry about the police when I visit my family back in Morocco.

Though Khribchi’s reasoning is two-fold, his primary concern–even stronger than his need for protection from his government–was keeping his online life separate from his employment.

Even Wael Ghonim–the now-famous Egyptian who helped launch a revolution–conducted his activism under a pseudonym…not to protect himself from the Egyptian government, but rather because he was an employee of Google and wanted to maintain an air of neutrality.

Privacy from the political scene

In 2008, an Alaskan blogger known as “Alaska Muckraker” (or AKM) rose to fame for her vocal criticism of fellow Alaskan and then-McCain-running-mate Sarah Palin. Later, after inveighing against a rude email sent to constituents by Alaska State Representative Mike Doogan, AKM was outed–by Doogan–who wrote that his “own theory about the public process is you can say what you want, as long as you are willing to stand behind it using your real name.”

AKM, a blogger decidedly committing an act of journalism, could have had any number of reasons to remain anonymous. As she later wrote:

I might be a state employee. I might not want my children to get grief at school. I might be fleeing from an ex-partner who was abusive and would rather he not know where I am. My family might not want to talk to me anymore. I might alienate my best friend. Maybe I don’t feel like having a brick thrown through my window. My spouse might work for the Palin administration. Maybe I’d just rather people not know where I live or where I work. Or none of those things may be true. None of my readers, nor Mike Doogan had any idea what my personal circumstances might be.

Though Doogan claimed that AKM gave up her right to anonymity when her blog began influencing public policy, he’s wrong. In the United States, the right to anonymity is protected by the First Amendment and must remain so, to ensure both the free expression and privacy rights of citizens.

Similarly, in 2009, Ed Whelans, a former official with the Department of Justice, outed anonymous blogger John Blevins–a professor at the South Texas College of Law–in the National Review, calling him “irresponsible”, and a “coward.” Blevins took the fall gracefully, later explaining why he had chosen to blog under a pseudonym. Like Khribchi, Blevins’ reasons were numerous: He feared losing tenure and legal clients, but he also feared putting the jobs of family members in the political space at risk.

Privacy from the public eye

A friend of mine–let’s call him Joe–is the sibling of a famous celebrity. But while he’s very proud of his sibling, Joe learned early on that not everyone has his best interests at heart. Therefore, Joe devised a pseudonym to use online in order to protect the privacy of himself and his family.

In Joe’s case, the threat is very real: celebrities are regularly stalked, their houses broken into. His pseudonym keeps him feeling “normal” in his online interactions, while simultaneously protecting his sibling and the rest of his family from invasions of privacy.

Achieving anonymity online

Anonymity and pseudonymity may seem increasingly difficult to achieve online. Not only do companies like Facebook restrict your right to use a pseudonym, but even when you do think you’re anonymous, you might not be–as blogger Rosemary Port found out in 2009 after Google turned over her name in response to a court order.

While we should continue to fight for our privacy under the law, the best thing we can do as users to who value our right to anonymity is to use tools like Tor. Anonymous bloggers can use Global Voices Advocacy’s online guide to blogging anonymously with WordPress and Tor. And all Internet users should educate themselves about what is–and isn’t–private on their online accounts and profiles.

SOURCE: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/right-anonymity-matter-privacy

Anonymous reveals Haditha massacre emails

Anonymous reveals Haditha massacre emails

Anonymous have unveiled their second major release for this week’s installment of FuckFBIFriday. Their target this time around is Frank Wuterich, the US Marine that admitted to killing Iraqi civilians — and received no jail time for his crime.

Early Friday afternoon, members of the loose-knit online collective Anonymous began circulating news that the website for Puckett and Faraj, the high-profile attorneys that represented Sgt. Frank Wuterich in his recent trial, had been hacked. Wuterich admitted to leading Marines into two civilian homes in Haditha, Iraq in 2005, massacring 24 civilians including women, children and an elderly man confined to a wheelchair.

In response, hacktivists with Anonymous have uncovered gigabytes worth of correspondence from Sgt. Wuterich’s attorneys and affiliated parties.

Last month, a military tribunal finally finished their hearing on Sgt. Wuterich, more than six years after the notorious slaughter. Insiders reported before his sentencing that he was expected to receive only 90 days behind bars. When the case ended, he was sentenced to zero.

Anonymous members have hacked into the website for Sgt. Wuterich’s attorneys and have since defaced it with a detailed message explaining how the self-proclaimed “cold-blooded killer” became their latest target.

“As part of our ongoing efforts to expose the corruption of the court systems and the brutality of US imperialism, we want to bring attention to USMC SSgt Frank Wuterich who along with his squad murdered dozens of unarmed civilians during the Iraqi Occupation,” reads a message now on the homepage of his attorney’s website. “Can you believe this scumbag had his charges reduced to involuntary manslaughter and got away with only a pay cut?”

“Meanwhile,” adds the Anonymous-penned message, “Bradley Manning who was brave enough to risk his life and freedom to expose the truth about government corruption is threatened with life imprisonment.”

“When justice cannot be found within the confines of their crooked court systems, we must seek revenge on the streets and on the internet – and dealing out swift retaliation is something we are particularly good at. Worry not comrades, it’s time to deliver some epic ownage.”

In addition to defacing the website of his attorneys, nearly 3 gigabytes of email correspondence belonging to his attorneys have been leaked online.

Anonymous reveals Haditha massacre emails“And to add a few layers of icing to this delicious caek, we got the usual boatloads of embarrassing personal information. How do you think the world will react when they find out Neal Puckett and his marine buddies have been making crude jokes about the incident where marines have been caught on video pissing on dead bodies in Afghanistan? Or that he regularly corresponds with and receives funding from former marine Don Greenlaw who runs the racist blog http://snooper.wordpress.com? We believe it is time to release all of their private information and court evidence to the world and conduct a People’s trial of our own,” writes Anonymous

The announcement this afternoon comes only hours after Anonymous operatives posted a recorded phone message that they intercepted from the FBI and Scotland Yard. Hours later, The Associated Press reports that the FBI confirmed the interception and says it is going after the parties responsible.

 

SOURCE:  http://rt.com/usa/news/anonymous-time-wuterich-attorneys-463/

Doomed Vessels: Olympic and Titanic

Doomed Vessels: Olympic and Titanic

“The perfunctory trials of the Titanic, a pale imitation of the Olympic’s, were followed by an outbreak of fire in bunker number ten. It could have been dealt with at Southampton, with all a great port’s fire-fighting facilities and without affecting sailing time; instead, an extra twelve firemen were specially signed on to deal with it at sea. The blaze, . . . was concealed from [Captain Maurice Harvey] Clarke, the Board of Trade inspector. Why did Smith not have the fire put out as soon as possible? Why did he hide it? Come to that, why did his ship consistently show a slight list to port in a calm sea before the collision, as noted by several aboard? Was there some undeclared damage to account for this—a leak in the weakened stern, for example? Why after the collision did Smith run the engines slow ahead for some minutes, as attested by witnesses, a move which would have exacerbated the flooding the forward compartments? Why was counter- flooding not attempted as a means of keeping the ship on an even keel for longer? Why did Dr. [Robert D.] Ballard find a bulkhead not on his plan of the Titanic when exploring the wreck? . . .

Neither Dr. Ballard nor anyone else who has visited the wreck for pictorial or plundering purposes has produced a single object or photograph of anything showing the name “Titanic”—except on the bow and on one luggage–tag. The name is shown on nothing else both built into the ship and recovered or recorded so far. We found this sufficiently remarkable to invite every likely source to settle the matter once and for all by furnishing proof that the wreck was the Titanic. Reactions ranged from amusement via irritation to ridicule and shock that anyone would raise such a question.

Our difficulty was that a substitution, far-fetched or no, looked like a promising explanation for so many puzzles [the author inferring that White Star’s severely damaged Olympic was marginally repaired and sent to sea as the “Titanic;” that the real Titanic, renamed “Olympic,” went on to be used in World War I; and that J. P. Morgan benefited from the wreck] . . . .

But in terms of interest and importance, J. P. Morgan, the real owner of the ill-fated ship, is the outstanding absentee, topping the unusually lengthy list of fifty-five passengers known to have cancelled their bookings at the eleventh hour [including Morgan’s business partner and the outgoing Ambassador to Paris Robert Bacon, American steel baron Henry C. Frick, railroad and shipping tycoon George W. Vanderbilt; America’s chocolate king Milton Hershey, New York finance magnate Horace J. Harding and Rev. J. Stuart Holden, rector of St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral in London]. He was too ill to sail on the world’s most lavish liner, but well enough to reunite with his mistress in Aix-les-Bains, where he was found ‘in excellent health’ by a reporter ‘just after the ship went down.’ Asked about the disaster, he ‘indicated extreme distress.’ He had arrived at the French resort after a Nile cruise and visits to Rome and Florence [having conferred with his masters in the Vatican and Borgo Santo Spirito]; the news confirming the disaster broke on his seventy-fifth birthday, 17 April [imparting to this murderous, financial tyrant a most enjoyable birthday!]. Fortunately a large part of his art collection, kept in Europe to avoid American import duty (happily eased just as Britain introduced death duties), happened to miss the ship ‘because of last-minute hold-ups in crating.’ The ultimate owner of the lost ship was thus twice blessed: to him that hath shall be given.” {3}

Robin Gardiner & Dan van der Vat, 1995 English Maritime Historians The Titanic Conspiracy

“House Party At the Harcourts’ Nuneham Park, 1907

Seated in the center is King Edward VII (1901-1910), the Black Pope’s most
powerful Freemason over his British Empire. Standing on the stairs, fourth
from the top, is John P. Morgan, the Black Pope’s most powerful Freemason in
his “Holy Roman” Fourteenth Amendment American Empire. Both men were
beholden to the dictation of the Company, English Jesuit Bernard Vaughan being
one of several. The King and Morgan were intimate friends and mutually
ruthless; Edward (while the Prince of Wales), covering for the murders of artist
Walter Sickert (alias “Jack the Ripper”); and Morgan, having caused the four
major US financial crises from 1873 to 1893. In 1907 both men, in ruling their
national banking empires, caused America’s greatest financial panic leading to
the secret drafting of the Federal Reserve Act at Georgia’s Jekyll Island by
Morgan agent Henry P. Davison. Aware of the conspiracy to monopolize the
nation’s credit into the hand of James Cardinal Gibbons’ Morgan-ruled empire,
Jewish Freemason John Jacob Astor and others resisted the plot. The remedy
was to send Astor to his grave on the Titanic (or possibly the damaged Olympic),
the ensuing American and British investigations to serve as mere cover-ups.
Neither Edward VII nor Morgan lived to see the creation of the Order’s Federal
Reserve Bank, which, with the Pope’s Masonic Bank of England, financed WWI.

Morgan: American Financier, Jean Strouse, (New York: Random House, 1999).
“ ‘Why was the true role of J. Pierpont Morgan, the banker and tycoon who was the real owner of the Titanic, covered up at the American inquiry? How did the Attorney-General [Sir Rufus Isaacs], who dominated the British inquiry, get away with insider-trading in shares of the Marconi Company at the very moment its value was boosted by the key role of wireless in the rescue?’ . . . Were two of the surviving crewman who were on watch at or near the bridge of the Titanic when she struck her iceberg bribed by White Star to keep their mouths shut, both at the inquiries and long afterwards? What guilty secret did they share? Did the officer of the watch ignore three earlier warnings of ice from the crow’s nest?’ . . .

‘Why did Captain Smith accelerate into an exceptionally large and southerly ice field of which he had been warned repeatedly, both before and during his last voyage?’

 

See More ….

TITANIC: Sunk To Pave Way For Federal Reserve Approval

One Ruling Bloodline

One Ruling Bloodline

The German Philosopher Johann Von Goethe, once said, there are none more hopelessly enslaved, than those who falsely believe they are free.

But few who hear the words realize that they are the ones to whom Goethe was referring for the reality is that every person in the civilized world is enslaved from childhood. They are enslaved in a prison without walls or bars and so few ever even realize it but all are enslaved none the less. And what the people of the world are enslaved to, is a system of perpetual self generating debt that is created for them wholly by design by private international banking interests, and the people are taught from an early age to just accept this debt, because this is ‘just the way things are’ but the real reality is that it is not just the way things are, but more the way things have been designed and all one has to do is glance around them at the state of the world today to realise that though this is the way things current are, it is most definitely not the way things should be.

The most powerful and useful tool a person can ever gain in their life is knowledge for with knowledge comes wisdom and a deeper understanding and real truth can be exhilarating because real truth will set you free.

Now whether you believe in the Illuminati or not, whether you will take the time to listen to so called conspiracy theories or not, there are some things that should be clearly understood by all and these are not conspiracy theories by any stretch of the imagination, they are well documented, quite traceable and very provable facts and these facts are as follows.

There is one ruling bloodline that exists on this earth. This ruling Bloodline is very old. It is the same bloodline that has always ruled the earth ever since the days of ancient Egypt and it is very pervasive. For example: many people think that anyone can get to be President of the United States, but the reality is, that all US presidents have been freemasons, a large number of them are in fact related, and that their lineage can be traced back to European Monarchy and in particular to the line of William of Orange. This elite Bloodline can actually be traced back a good deal further than of William of Orange and can even back as far as the royalty of ancient Egypt. It is this very same bloodline that has ruled the earth ever since and to which the british Monarchy and the current US president can both be ultimately traced. Many people may surprised to learn That US President George W Bush is in fact the 13th cousin of Queen Elizabeth the second, the current British Monarch.

Reverence for the royal bloodline and worship of Amen Ra is still carried out in the world today though it is veiled and secretive but the symbolism remains true, as always, hidden in plain view. Adherence to such traditions is why each of the 3 city states of London, Vatican and the District of Columbia all have their own obelisks. The London Obelisk is also accompanied by 2 sphinx wrought in the image of Thutmoses indicating that it is in london that the royal bloodline actually resides. The fact that out of all the Pharo’s to choose from, the London sphinx depicts Thustmoses, is actually very telling indeed for a number of reasons but that is another tale.
The British Monarchy is steeped in ancient traditions and symbolisim and they do not attempt to hide these connections, they just dont mention them or answer questions about them, but the signs and symbols are right there for discerning eyes to clearly see, again and as always, hidden in plain view. Just a look at the Royal Coat of Arms, the Royal Regalia and the Coronation Throne clearly demonstrates these connections. The evidence linking that these rulers to the one bloodline is does exist and all the information to verify these claims is available within the public domain. It is up to each of you to connect the dots yourself.

More importantly however is the fact that Over the last 200 odd years there has devoloped behind this ruling bloodline, another elite class, somewhat similar to a priesthood, that remains hidden in the shadows. This shadowy priesthood, is the money changers. The international banking elite, consisting of 13 very influential families and it is this shadowy elite who ultimately controls things from behind the scenes. This control is achieved through covert manipulation of the global money systems, and maintained through an intricate web of interconnected secret societies, through which control over the flow of all money, all resources, all food, and most importantly, all information, through manipulation of the worlds educational institutions and corporate media, is also achieved. Many of these smaller secret societies, are completely oblivious to the existence of the others, but all lead back to a round table of six, and ultimately, to just one at the very top, that is populated by a virtual handful of individuals. It is this handful of very powerful men that controls all the other societies, and through them the heartbeat of the entire world.

The society that sits at the very top, was founded on Knights Templar traditions in Bavaria in 1776 by a man called Adam Weishaupt, and this is the order of the illuminati. The man who commissioned Weishaupt for the task was Mayer Amschel Rothschild, and it was done in order to carry out a plan conceived by Rothschild and the heads of 12 other families at a secret meeting that took place in 1773. These families included the Warburgs, the Schiffs and the Oppenheimers. The Illuminati has since become the most powerful society in the world, and in the last 230 years, it has been instrumental in helping the Rothschild family accumulate over one half of the worlds total wealth, at the cost of quite literally, millions of innocent lives. The horded wealth of this one family alone, could comfortably feed, clothe, and house, every man, woman, and child on earth. And this just one of the 13 illuminati families.

The goal of the illuminati has always been a simple one and that is to achieve, by whatever means possible, total ownership and control, over no less than every resource, every government, every rock, every drop of water, every blade of grass,and every living creature, both human, and non human, in the entire world and since its inception, for over 230 years, the order of the illuminati has been tirelessly, relentlessly, and unfalteringly, steering its members towards the achievement of that one ultimate goal. Through secrecy, they have so far been extremely successful in their endeavors, in fact so much so, that we are, right now, living in the time when they intend to see this long spanned work come to fruition. The situation we are witnessing in our world, right now, is in fact the final endgame of the illuminati. This is their big grab for ultimate power and mass de-population.

Some people claim that the Illuminati is a myth and that what is really to blame are oganizations such as zionism but I assure you that such is not the case. It goes far deeper than Zionism and such people have simply limited the scope of their vision. They have locked to to an anwser that supports their beliefs and have refused to delve any deeper. They are not seeing the Bigger picture. Greek Philosopher Socrates once said that true wisdom is knowing how little we actually know and he was absolutely correct and this is why is important to keep an open mind and allow your beliefs to be flexible enough to change as new knowledge is acquired. And it is important to listen to all the information and not just that which reinforces your beliefs because this conspiracy goes very deep and Zionism and the jewish influence over the money system is merely one layer of it – and it goes still deeper than even the illuminati. Those whom we know as the illuminati are merely the shadowy controllers.

The plan that is unfolding in the world today is indeed an old one, and it is a plan that is very complex, but not so with the system of control that is in place to blind the people to its existence. This system of control just appears to be complex, but in reality, it isn’t. In reality, its very simple, and very fragile, however it is its apparent complexity, that has kept it so well veiled, and it has also been kept very well hidden by constructing a conspiracy culture to breed around it, and by then promoting an air of endless ridicule towards such concepts. Indeed, the creation and proliferation of such a culture, and the promotion of constant ridicule towards it, has been one of the illuminati’s most valuable assets in obscuring the reality of the society’s existence.

The entire Illuminati system is today operated by the crown, and what is the crown exactly? Well contrary to popular belief the crown does not refer to the Royal family or to the british monarchy but to the Inner city of London which, in actual fact, is a privately owned corporation that functions as a completely seperate sovereign state, outside the Jurisdiction of Englnd, the same as its two sister city states of Vatican and Washingtons District of Columbia, all of which combine to form the Empire of the three cities. Most people are completely unaware that when they swear alliegence to the crown they are actually swearing alliegence to this a private Corporate Empire owned by the the 13 Illuminati families. These are the same private individuals who also indirectly own and operate the world bank – and what does the world bank do exactly? Well apart from other things, like control global oil prices, it lends money to whole countries by supplying each countries Federal Reserve Bank and then it collects interest on these loans which is paid by taxing the the labor of the people of each country.

Now let me just run that by you again so you clearly understand how this really works.

If you live in a country that has a federal reserve bank, then the world bank, a privately run company that is able to legally create money from thin air, is who supplies your country with money, at interest, and you the individual is required to pay a tax on your labor to pay off the interest on the governments loan from this private bank. Many people are duped into believing that their taxes pay for infrastructure and without taxes their would be no roads or schools and the country would fall apart, but this is completely untrue. The Government has the legal right to coin its own money and control its value but it does not, it borrows money from a private bank and uses this bank loan to pay for infrastructure and you are taxed in order to pay of the interest on the loan, interest, which from a business perspective, is pure profit for the international banksters.

How ever you choose to look at it one thing must be very clearly understood and that is that each person in the western world who has a job, is forced every year, to give away approximately 3 months worth of wages in taxes and that tax money goes directly into the pockets of the private individuals who own and run the world bank.

Its one big, privately run scam and if you ever allow yourself to be microchipped and cash money is abolished altogether, which is their plan, then all bills and all taxes will be automatically removed from your account when they are due, whether you actually owe the money or not, and if you complain about the system, well they can simply turn off your chip. Since all commerce will center around the chip, you will not be able to buy food, or pay rent or do anything and there will be absolutely nothing whatsover that you can do about it. And that is their goal – to limit the size of the population on earth and microchip those that are left. Then its game set and match and total control of the world and everyone in it will be in the hands of an international cartel of criminal banksters.
This whole scam is being planned and carried out very methodically. It is these people and their minions and puppets who attend such gatherings as bilderberg meetings and the Bohemian Grove summer festival and who still adhere closely to the schools of ancient mystery which many such as the late Bill Cooper have referred to as the Ancient Mystery Religion however it is more a mechanism of control designed to reach an ultimate goal rather than a religion.

Though steeped in ritual and what many would term ‘black magic’, It is simply a system, the illuminati system and though its workings seem complex to the layman, In reality its quite simple, and its also very easy to see, once one has acquired the correct manner of looking at things. And there is definite purpose and reason in the ritualistic nature of this system, in its use of numerology, symbolism and ritual, and all that is needed to realize this is a deeper understanding of the true nature of the Universe and how we are all connected to it however this film directs its focus on the system itself and the key to this system functioning, which is through covert control of the money supply by very few people.

It is crucial that people become aware of this because the methods by which society could free itself from this system of control are also very simple, once a person has gained an understanding of the true realities of this world we live in – and this is not as difficult a task as you may at first think, because due to its complexities, the illusion the elite have created, that most perceive as reality, is a very fragile one.

It is fragile because it is not reality.

The reality is that the world does not have to be this way at all, it does not have to be heading in the direction it is heading, people do not have to live in a never ending sea of self generating debt, wars do not have to be fought and children do not have to starve, and dont think people starve because the world is over populated. Dont believe what the Televisions tells you, the world isnt over populated at all. In fact lets look at it realistically with a simple comparison of population versus land mass, and we can do a rough estimate and formulate a quick hypothetical to demonstrate this very easily.

There are approximately 6 billion people in the world and there is 2.97 million square miles of land in the Island continent of Australia. 2.97 million square miles breaks down to 1 billion, 900 million, 800,000 acres which then converts down to 7,603,200,000 quarter acre blocks of land. So we could hypothetically give every person in the world a quarter acre block of land and they would all fit into an area the size of australia, each would have enough land that they could all have gardens and grow a substantial supply of their own food, and we would still have 1,603,200,000 quarter acre blocks, or an area roughly half the size of queensland left over – plus the entire rest of the world. Now just pause to let that sink in to your brain for a second. ALL the people, thats every man woman and child on earth would comfortably fit inside australia, each individual person could have a quarter acre block of land and we would still have half of queensland and the entire rest of the planet left totally unoccupied.

The world is not over populated at all. Its just very badly managed and and you need have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that this bad management is intentional, and it is methodical. It would however, be very simple to fix things and all that is required is for people to wake up to how much they are being lied to and how much they are being scammed – and this goes for everyone.

People really need to gain an understand of how this system actually works because this bad management is crippling the world and it is crippling the people. The methods that are used to do this become truly transparent once a person has gained a clear enough vision to see it and people really do need to open their eyes to see it right now because now that the world has been made smaller and now that all resources have been discovered and there are no frontiers left to conquer, the criminal elite intend to carry out a mass depoplulation of this world and their plan to do this is well underway. They are doing it in the middle east with war, in countries such as Africa through starvation and now in western countries through water additives, aerial spraying and through the introduction of toxic and nutrient deficient GM foods. This is to very soon be taken to the next level with the Global Implementation of Codex Alimentarius, an insidious set of food guidelines that are due to come into effect world wide on dec 31st 2009. But people are now beginning to wake and realize that all is not right and they are beginning to speak out. The police need to understand this situation and take action to address these matters as well, and this is very important and there is no reason the Police should act against the people who are waking up and speaking out about this corrupt system, for the police are also being scammed, just as badly and in some ways even worse than everyone else. Worse because it is the Police who are being coerced and tricked into defending this elitist corruption by puppet govts put in place by the banksters who coerce these officers into compliance by applying creative names to such public awakenings such as ‘social unrest’ or ‘civil disobedience’ and by instilling a robot like adherence to authority within the minds of police officers rather than a stong set of moral values.

The police in these cases should stand by the people they are sworn to protect, not blindly follow instructions given to them by the criminal elites. The police need to realize that they too are the people and they are being stolen from and used as well and the way to beat this system is for the people, the police and everybody else is to simply stop agreeing with it – and the also the politicians who bow to these corrupt money cartels and enact these ridicluous pieces of legislation. These Politicians, need to think seriously about what they are doing. They need to realise that these money cartels dont care about them or their families, these politicians have children and grandchildren who are also going to have to live in this world that is being created and dont kid yourself that there is a politician in a position of power who isnt a puppet. All are puppets of the money cartels without exception. These people may well have been voted into power but the voting process is simply theater for the masses, to promote the illusion of peoples choice. The people may vote for one particular candidate over another, but they do not get to actually decide who these candidates will be to begin with.
The people of the world need to realize their own potential and wake up from the dream they are living in. Forget what you are told and trained to you by the TV because its a lie. TV is there to train people what to think and how to act. End of list. It is nothing more than a tool of propaganda that has successfully brainwashed 95% of the western world by feeding people manufactured news, disinformation and by giving people an utterly false perception of the the world and of their relationship to each other. Turn your TV off and leave it off, after even a month of no TV, you will be surprised at how much better and healthier you feel.

It needs to be clearly understood by people everywhere that the elite only have the power over the people that the people themselves grant to them, so stop giving it to them. Stop doing what the TV tells you to do and stop complying with the system. Understand that there truly is no division among the people of the world no matter who they are or where they are from. We are all people and we are all one. It is through the constantly promoted illusion of division that the system is able to function but in order for it to do so, it needs public compliance. Stop complying and you will shut the system down. You will shut it down completely because if people stop complying, it will simply implode. It will collapse like a house of cards. And all it would take for this to occur, is global awareness of how it really works.

We have reached a turning point in history and the veil of secrecy that has always surrounded the illuminati system is now at last being lifted. Now is the time for the people of the world to look after each other, and not the system. It really is that simple, and the world is almost on the verge of that happening now, because a new awareness is growing among the people. More and more are waking up every day, and they are spreading the word, as we all should do as often and as loudly as we can, because the masses who are still sleeping really must be woken up to what is occurring, there is quite literally nothing more important than this issue and this plan goes even deeper than the International money Cartels. There truly are deep dark forces at work controlling things here but it is through the maniplulation of the money system that global control is maintained and it is that system that must first be addressed
Its all very well for us to all talk about this stuff and to continue learning and gathering more information about it, but the time for merely gathering information is now passed. What is needed now is action, and it is needed very quickly because the prison door is swinging shut.

Please understand that these people plan on depopulating at least 80% of the world and that most likely includes you. This is not a joke and it is not some wild conspiracy theory. It is the absolute truth and this matter seriously needs to be addressed. All the information on how they intend to do this is available in the public domain though of course you are not hearing it reported by the mainstream media because the money cartels own the mainstream media.

A great deal of information regarding this is posted on my youtube channel and I highy reccommend that you view it and distribute it to as many people as you are able, because the time for talk really is over. What is truly needed at this time is for the good people of the world to act and to act now. The key is in love and unity among all of mankind because it matters not who you are, what country you are in or where you are from, it makes no difference whether you are black or white or christian, or muslim, or jew, it makes no difference at all what your beliefs are, because the prison that is being constructed affects every one of us equally.

The world that we are allowing to be created for our childrn to live in is a world that will not be worth living in. and if we just allow the situation to continue along its current path then we are condemning our decendents to hell on earth, but we are many and they are few and it simply must not be allowed to occur.

It is time for the people of the world to stop and realise that the divisions that supposedly exists amongst us are an illusion. There is no division. Its time for everyone to understand the truth of this. Its time to approach the world and each other in a state of love rather than a state of fear. Its time for you to tap into the source and realize your own potential and its time for us all to collectively stand together and address the root cause of the problem. And all of you need to spread this information, its very important that you do. Burn DVD’s and hand them out to people. Bring the conversation up at every opportunity. This issue is too important to ignore and if your not part of the solution then your part of the problem, theres simply no middle ground.

Bring all the truth factions of the world together under one banner, the banner of human unity. Set aside your differences and work the finer details out later. Regardless of who or what is the ultimate intelligence behind this plan for global control, everyone needs to understand clearly that the Fascist New World Order that is being introduced and the mass depopulation that is occurring across the globe is being implemented by the criminal banking elite.

The money system is the head of the snake.

Cut the head off the snake and the rest of it will whither and die.

The time for talk is over and the time has come for action. It is now time for the people of the world to stop complying with the system.

Everyone.

Stop complying with it and you will shut it down. And the best form of non compliance is love. Approach every issue with love. Rather than obediently following orders given to you by a commanding officer, and rather than doing what is right for you personally. Do what is actually right. And if a leader wants to send you to war, say no sir, I wont murder other peoples children for you any more. You’ll have to go and do it yourself. You will be called coward by the military but such is not the case. It is much easier to fight for principles than to live up to them and it takes a far braver man to stand up for what is right and spit in the face of authority than it does to blindly follow orders due to fear of the consequences. Understand that we are all one and the key to real change and unity in this world lies with love.

There need be no violence, no guns, no banners, no slogans, no group think, just a united act of global non compliance. Non compliance for any thing in conflict with the directives out lined in the universal declaration of human rights would be a good start. Simply stop giving these people the power to control you. Understand that the only power they have is the power the people themselves grant to them. Understand that injustice towards one is injustice towards all. Injustice against him, is injustice against you and there should be no grey area in you mind in regard to that. Everyone needs to stop going along with it and it needs to be done immediately. Its time to cut the head off the snake.

The Revolution is not coming.

The Revolution is now.

 

 

The Heart’s Code: Tapping the Wisdom and Power of Our Heart Energy

The Heart’s Code: Tapping the Wisdom and Power of Our Heart Energy

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 1999

A fascinating synthesis of ancient wisdom, modern medicine, scientific research, and personal experiences that proves that the human heart, not the brain, holds the secrets that link body, mind, and spirit.You know that the heart loves and feels, but did you know that the heart also thinks, remembers, communicates with other hearts, helps regulate immunity, and contains stored information that continually pulses through your body? In The Heart’s Code, Dr. Paul Pearsall explains the theory and science behind energy cardiology, the emerging field that is uncovering one of the most significant medical, social, and spiritual discoveries of our time: The heart is more than just a pump; it conducts the cellular symphony that is the very essence of our being.

Full of amazing anecdotes and data, The Heart’s Code presents the latest research on cellular memory and the power of the heart’s energy and explores what these breakthroughs mean about how we should live our lives. By unlocking the heart’s code we can discover new ways of understanding human healing and consciousness and create a new model for living that leads to better health, happiness, and self-knowledge.

Pearsall states that we have been too brain-focused and have not listened to all the heart has to offer. We should learn to be patient, connected with others, pleasant, humble, and gentle, Pearsall says, and for those who want to find out whether they are cardiosensitive, he presents a personal inventory. Although hardly a work of completely hard science, Pearsall’s effort has much to offer thoughtful readers. William Beatty –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Age of Treason: 1958 Book Exposes Chemical Attack on Humanity

The Age of Treason: 1958 Book Exposes Chemical Attack on Humanity

Dr. R. Swinburne Clymer was in many ways a man ahead of his time, and most certainly controversial. He was attacked by the medical establishment for connecting diet with disease and mental health in his 1917 book Dietetics. Dr. Clymer received his medical degree in 1902 from the College of Medicine and Surgery in Chicago and began practicing Osteopathy. Accusations of fraud surround Dr. Clymer’s career, including this 1923 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association which claims that, “Our records fail to show that this man was ever regularly graduated by any reputable medical college.” What Clymer had to say more than likely had something to do with the denouncement that he received from the medical establishment.

Though Dr. Clymer may be surrounded with controversy, his 1958 book Your Health and Sanity in the Age of Treason exposes toxic food additives and fluoride with documentation – the majority of which are mainstream scientific studies – that can be verified many times over. What makes this book unique is the fact that Dr. Clymer was one of the first to point out that statements by the elite indicated that these toxins were to be deliberately released “…for the mental deterioration and moral debasement of the mass…”

Dr. Clymer introduces readers with a stark warning for the future

The book is appropriately subtitled; “Food and Liquids Used as a Medium in Deliberately and Carefully Planned Methods Developed by the Vicious Element of Humanity, for the Mental Deterioration and Moral Debasement of the Mass, as a Means Toward Their Enslavement.”

Dr. Clymer introduces readers with a stark warning for the future, writing, “Imagine yourself if you can, becoming conscious that you are gradually losing your manhood; that your mind is rapidly deteriorating so that you are no longer capable of thinking clearly; unable to plan your future actions. Your resistance is becoming so weakened that you are no longer master of yourself. In short, you are rapidly developing into a moron, a robot, a zombie, readily subject to the dictates of others…”

Bertrand Russell’s 1953 book The Impact of Science on Society is cited by Clymer as one example of the elite’s desire to dominate the masses. Russell stated that under scientific tyranny, “Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible.”

Diethylstilbestrol – Endocrine Disruption

Dr. Clymer identified the synthetic estrogen Diethylstilbestrol – developed in 1938 – as a means to achieve the aims of the elite. Clymer explains that some of the toxic additives discussed in the book may not have been employed for the express purpose outlined by the elite, but “…they served their purpose admirably…” Dr. Clymer elaborates,

“The employment of Stilbestrol by the laity with absolutely no knowledge of the dangerous agent they are employing, in conditioning chickens and meats, is mass medication without license, with a dangerous toxic drug that may have universal disastrous results on all who eat such adulterated foods. This is especially true as it concerns children, youths, young women and men, resulting as it may, in their sterilization or cancer – something fervently hoped for by the enemies of mankind.”

Because Stilbestrol is a synthetic chemical, “…the natural protective activity of the bodily organs are ineffective in prohibiting harmful results. Natural Estrogen, on the other hand, is decomposed, and any of its possible harmful effects may be more or less made ineffective,” writes Dr. Clymer. Stilbestrol was used as a treatment for various types of cancer and menopausal symptoms, but as Dr. Clymer states, “Physicians versed in the use of Endocrines agree generally that Stilbestrol is a dangerous drug in all except experienced hands.”

Dr. E. Malcolm Stokes, in an article published in the Western Journal of Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, September 1948, wrote: “Single large doses of [natural] estrogen substances are quickly excreted… long continued, repeated administration in relatively small doses [as in daily consumption of meats permeated with stilbestrol] may intensify tissue response to the hormone.”

Dr. Clymer warns that such chemicals are to feminize men,

“Every vigilant human being should be concerned with several important factors involved: The methods or means by which it is possible to change man’s characteristics as easily as the animal’s. Man is a warrior by nature, the protector of his family, and his own rights and privileges; an individual, a free man… A being who has wrought great things and who, if not interfered with, will do even greater things. This being is to be turned into a lesser female; unable, even unwilling, to defend himself, much less his family or country; becoming a slave…”

Dr. Clymer’s concerns over Stilbestrol have been vindicated over time, as the chemical has been phased out of use as a growth hormone in the late 1970′s due to concerns over cancer. Additionally, in 1971 the FDA advised physicians to stop prescribing Stilbestrol to pregnant women due to high cancer risk. The drug is no longer being manufactured as of 1997.

Flashforward – Bisphenol A

Today there are continuing concerns as substantial levels of Bisphenol A (BPA) have been found in a large percentage of the western world’s population. Like Diethylstilbestrol, BPA is a synthetic estrogen with similar to identical effects on the human body. BPA is perhaps a much larger threat due to the fact that unlike Stilbestrol – which was primarily consumed in meats – it is found in many household products, including the food we eat. A recent study from the Canadian Health Measures Survey found that over 90% of Canadians have detectable concentrations of BPA in their urine. Studies conducted by the CDC found Bisphenol A in the urine of 95% of adults sampled in 1988–1994 and in 93% of children and adults tested in 2003–04. Other studies have shown that Bisphenol A causes feminization of males and reduced sperm count.

As Dr. Frederick vom Saal states in this local Fox News report, levels of BPA below a trillionth of a gram have been found to alter cell function and growth. Additionally, BPA was found to feed cancer cell growth and impact the reproductive system of rats.

Fluoride

Yet another danger to human health and well being identified by Dr. Clymer is Sodium Fluoride. Fluoride, we are told, is placed in the water supply to help protect our teeth from decay. Today some are proposing that fluoride and other forms of mass medication will serve as a means of “Cognitive Enhancement.” In his expose of fluoride, Dr. Clymer quotes Rene M. Vale, a former Communist and party worker in her book Red Court, published in 1952. She writes,

“In regions of the country where resistance was most apt to develop we saw to it that virus diseases struck, and when antibiotics threatened our program, we devised other means of vitiating the populace. Fluoridation of drinking water was found to be about the most successful…”

Dr. Charles E. Perkins, who Dr. R. Swinburne Clymer was in personal contact with, was, “… sent by the United States Government to help take charge of the I. G. Farben chemical plants in Germany at the end of the second world war. What follows are quotations from a letter which Mr. Perkins wrote to the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, dated October 2, 1954.”

Mr. Perkins letter states,

“The German chemists worked out a very ingenious and far-reaching plan of mass control which was submitted to and adopted by the German General Staff. This plan was to control the population in any given area through mass medication of drinking water supplies. By this method they could control the population of whole areas, reduce population by water medication that would produce sterility in women and so on. In this scheme of mass control, sodium fluoride occupied a prominent place.

“We are told by the ideologists who are advocating the fluorination of water supplies in this country that their purpose is to reduce the incidence of tooth decay in children, and it is the plausibility of this excuse, plus the prominence of those who are responsible for the present spread of artificial water fluoridation in this country.

“However – and I want to make this very definite and very positive – the real reason behind fluorination is not to benefit children’s teeth. If this were the real reason there are many ways in which it could be done that are much easier, cheaper and far more effective. The real purpose behind water fluoridation is to reduce the resistance of the masses to domination and control and loss of liberty…

“I was told of this entire scheme by a German chemist who was an official of the great Farben chemical industries and was also prominent in the Nazi movement at the time…”

Dr. Clymer additionally cites a 1956 letter written by the then New York Water Commissioner Arthur C. Ford (available in full here). In the letter, Ford speaks out openly against fluorides as “…extremely toxic substances…” Ford writes,

“We are aware that the fluorides are extremely toxic substances, and evidence exists to show that even at the recommended level of one part per million of fluoride in drinking water, people in fluoridated communities have been harmed.

We know of reputable, independent medical authorities throughout the United States and in the local area who have found evidence of fluoride damage to persons living in fluoridated communities. These medical authorities disagree with the fluoride hypothesis, and they have raised grave questions with respect to the safety of the procedure for an entire population which includes the young, the old, the susceptible and the infirm as well as the healthy.

Fluoride, besides being a toxic substance, is not all excreted when taken into the system, a significant percentage remaining cumulatively. Fluoridation of the drinking water at any level of concentration is a very indiscriminate procedure, since children drink widely varying amounts of water…”

Australian television recently reported on fluoride’s harmful impact on human health and efforts to expand water fluoridation on the continent.

As sperm counts continue to fall world-wide and GMO crops escape into the environment, exposure to untold numbers of environmental toxins like BPA is a continuing threat. In the United States, several EPA scientists have denounced fluoridation, calling for a national moratorium on the fluoridation of water supplies. Citizens in Wichita Kansas are becoming active in raising awareness of fluoride, drawing attacks from the local media. Awareness of these issues is essential not just for those living today, but for future generations. Open admissions of the intent to chemically alter humanity should leave us with nothing but a sense of duty to warn others of the grave threat that we face.

http://www.oldthinkernews.com/?p=11

The Holographic Universe

The Holographic Universe

Book Description
Publication Date: May 6, 1992
Today nearly everyone is familiar with holograms, three-dimensional images projected into space with the aid of a laser. Now, two of the world’s most eminent thinkers — University of London physicists David Bohm, a former protege of Einstein’s and one of the world’s most respected quantum physicists, and Stanford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram, one of the architects of our modern understanding of the brain — believe that the universe itself may be a giant hologram, quite literally a kind of image or construct created, at least in part, by the human mind. This remarkable new way of looking at the universe explains now only many of the unsolved puzzles of physics, but also such mysterious occurrences as telepathy, out-of-body and near death experiences, “lucid” dreams, and even religious and mystical experiences such as feelings of cosmic unity and miraculous healings.

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IBM and the Holocaust : The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation

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Book Description
Publication Date: April 20, 2008
Published to extraordinary praise, this provocative international bestseller details the story of IBM’s strategic alliance with Nazi Germany. IBM and the Holocaust provides a chilling investigation into corporate complicity, and the atrocities witnessed raise startling questions that throw IBM’s wartime ethics into serious doubt. Edwin Black’s monumental research exposes how IBM and its subsidiaries helped create enablling technologies for the Nazis, step-by-step, from the identification and cataloging programs of the 1930s to the selections of the 1940s.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Was IBM, “The Solutions Company,” partly responsible for the Final Solution? That’s the question raised by Edwin Black’s IBM and the Holocaust, the most controversial book on the subject since Daniel Jonah Goldhagen’s Hitler’s Willing Executioners. Black, a son of Holocaust survivors, is less tendentiously simplistic than Goldhagen, but his thesis is no less provocative: he argues that IBM founder Thomas Watson deserved the Merit Cross (Germany’s second-highest honor) awarded him by Hitler, his second-biggest customer on earth. “IBM, primarily through its German subsidiary, made Hitler’s program of Jewish destruction a technologic mission the company pursued with chilling success,” writes Black. “IBM had almost single-handedly brought modern warfare into the information age [and] virtually put the ‘blitz’ in the krieg.”

The crucial technology was a precursor to the computer, the IBM Hollerith punch card machine, which Black glimpsed on exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, inspiring his five-year, top-secret book project. The Hollerith was used to tabulate and alphabetize census data. Black says the Hollerith and its punch card data (“hole 3 signified homosexual … hole 8 designated a Jew”) was indispensable in rounding up prisoners, keeping the trains fully packed and on time, tallying the deaths, and organizing the entire war effort. Hitler’s regime was fantastically, suicidally chaotic; could IBM have been the cause of its sole competence: mass-murdering civilians? Better scholars than I must sift through and appraise Black’s mountainous evidence, but clearly the assessment is overdue.

The moral argument turns on one question: How much did IBM New York know about IBM Germany’s work, and when? Black documents a scary game of brinksmanship orchestrated by IBM chief Watson, who walked a fine line between enraging U.S. officials and infuriating Hitler. He shamefully delayed returning the Nazi medal until forced to–and when he did return it, the Nazis almost kicked IBM and its crucial machines out of Germany. (Hitler was prone to self-defeating decisions, as demonstrated in How Hitler Could Have Won World War II.)

Black has created a must-read work of history. But it’s also a fascinating business book examining the colliding influences of personality, morality, and cold strategic calculation. –Tim Appelo –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
The publisher has ordered a print run of 100,000 copies, indicating that they expect high demand for this contentious expose. The author asserts that a collusion existed between IBM Corporation and the government of the Third Reich, wherein IBM supplied the technology enabling Nazi authorities to systematize their persecution of European Jews. Expect much discussion in the press and on the street about this very controversial book. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Product Details

* Paperback: 560 pages
* Publisher: Dialog Press; 1 edition (April 20, 2008)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 0914153102
* ISBN-13: 978-0914153108
* Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.6 inches
* Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
* Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
* Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #129,380 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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143 of 157 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Important Questions Unraised Before Now, March 16, 2001
By
Donald Mitchell “Jesus Loves You!” (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) – See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 100 REVIEWER)
This review is from: IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation (Hardcover)
This book is the most important new work on the Nazi era in the last two decades. The book is even more significant for the questions it raises about what the purpose of a corporation is and should be, what role companies and governments should play in directing cutting edge technology, and the danger that misuses of advanced information technology bring to individuals.

The core of the story is how a key IBM technology, the Hollerith-based card tabulating machines, became available for the Nazi war and Holocaust efforts. Although the details are murky (and may remain so), it is fairly clear that the use of this technology was sustained during the war years in part by shipments of customized (for each end user) tabulating cards from IBM in neutral countries for everything from blitzkriegs to slave camp scheduling to transportation to the death camps. There was not enough paper capacity to make the cards in Europe (that the Nazi and IBM records show were used), and there is no evidence that Nazis created substitutes for these essential supplies.

As Mr. Black warns, “This book will be profoundly uncomfortable to read.” I agree. My sleep will not be the same for some time after experiencing this powerful story.

Mr. Black makes an even stronger statement. “So if you intend to skim, or rely on selected sections, do not read the book at all.” I took him at his word, and did not even read the book quickly. I also arranged to read it in several sittings, so I could think about what I had read in between. I recommend that you do the same.

The reason for my recommendation is that your thinking will change very fundamentally through reading the book. Having read dozens of books by fine historians about the Nazi period, and knowing a great deal about the history of data processing, I assumed that there would be little new to the story here. But the title intrigued me. By the fourth time I saw the book, I could no longer resist it.

What I found inside the book surprised, shocked, and amazed me.

First, many authors claim that it was not clear in the United States that Jews were losing their lives in Europe during the Nazi years until just before the end of the war. This book documents many articles that appeared in the New York Times that certainly seemed to be saying that this systematic killing was going on from very near the time when it began. Anyone who ignored these reports just didn’t want to know.

Second, the book makes many connections between Thomas Watson, Sr. and Nazi Germany. Many things surprised me about this. One, he was there once or twice a year until just before World War II began. The horrible human abuses were probably observed first hand by him then. Two, he had friends who were victimized by the Nazis. Three, he accepted a very prestigious medal from Hitler in 1937 (which he returned in June 1940). Four, he spoke in favor of making U.S. policy pro-German until just before the United States entered World War II. Five, it appeared that he had a lot more concern about IBM’s profits and machines in Europe than about any people there.

Third, although I was very familiar with the improvements in industrial and transportation effectiveness in Germany during the Nazi years, I did not realize that IBM’s design of Hollerith machines for card tabulation was a breakthrough technology that enabled this progress.

Fourth, I had always been amazed that the Nazis had such detailed records of the geneologies of European Jews. What I did not realize was that much of this information was provided by Jewish citizens in government censuses, and was quickly processed into records used by oppressors on Hollerith machines leased from IBM or its subsidiaries.

In France, where the use of these machines was subverted by the Resistance, the percentage rate of Jewish deaths was one-third of what occurred in Holland where this technology was well applied. It is hard to avoid the feeling that millions of people died because these machines were available and kept supplied with parts and punch cards for the Nazis.

One cannot help but draw the comparison between this historical example and the companies and countries (including, apparently, the United States) that have more recently allowed critical nuclear, rocket, and satellite technology to become available to repressive regimes. It seems that by not asking questions about IBM and the Holocaust, we may be continuing to make many of the same mistakes today.

I salute the incredible imagination and back-breaking effort that went into assembling this astonishing set of documents and perspectives. I hope that many people will read the book, that scholars will look for more information to expand our understanding, and that the fundamental questions raised by this book will be debated wherever free people live.

Remember: Your freedom is only as good as that of the least free person, who is most vulnerable.

“Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”
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38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars IBM and the Holocaust, December 7, 2006
By
Nancyrae Kjelgaard (Tallahassee, FL) – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation (Paperback)
I did not want to read this book.

My grandfather worked for International Time Recording (ITR) in Endicott, NY before IBM was formed and Mr. Watson came on board. My father’s first job, at the age of seventeen, was caretaker of the Watson Homestead. My family has had a hand in virtually every product that issued from the IBM manufacturing effort since its inception in 1924. I have deep affection for the company my family labored to build.

I approached “IBM and the Holocaust” with a high degree of skepticism. The book sat on my nightstand for two months before I opened it. Finally picked it up for the sake of completing my 14-book IBM historical reading cycle.

This book is astounding. It is impeccably researched, artfully written, highly detailed, painstakingly documented, remarkably objective and thoroughly engaging.

“IBM and the Holocaust” has finally exposed the undeniable truth: IBM became the world’s most powerful corporation largely because it assisted in identifying, cataloging and exterminating millions of innocent people for Hitler. The evil that lurks in IBM history was not exposed previously only because IBM management was smart enough and powerful enough to “hide its tracks” in Nuremburg. No investigator has ever dug deeper into IBM history than Edwin Black.

A close reading of the book makes it absolutely clear that Mr. Watson (IBM CEO) knew the exact purpose, goal and expected outcome of the IBM solution in Europe. The book details the fact that unlike previous IBM engagements for the Third Reich that were completed by Dehomag (IBM’s German subsidiary), the engagement in Romania (1941) was conducted directly under the management of IBM New York. That engagement resulted in the swift identification, transportation and extermination of hundreds of thousands of innocent Jews. All in the name of “IBM.”

As a result of reading “IBM and the Holocaust”, I no longer view Mr. Watson as the glamorous benevolent industrial icon depicted in hollywoood newsreels. Though the affectionate “shop talk” tossed through the air when I was young still captures my imagination, Mr. Watson is no longer the focus of my unqualified admiration.

Watson, for me, now stands beside Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Mellon, Jeffrey Skilling, Kenneth Lay and all the other American Industrialists throughout history who had many fine qualities yet are outrageously flawed–so good yet so very, very bad.

This book is remarkable. Have since read “Internal Combustion”, Banking on Baghdad” and “War Against the Weak.”

Edwin Black is “the bomb.”

If you have an interest in history, corporations, corruption, good, bad, evil or fine nonfiction; you will appreciate the works of Edwin Black.

NancyRae Kjelgaard
Tallahassee, FL
December 7, 2006

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26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Story from the Past and a Tech Warning for the Future, September 4, 2001
By
Linda Marinus (Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH) – See all my reviews
This review is from: IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America’s Most Powerful Corporation (Hardcover)
I just came upon this book this past week, but I have read research on the Holocaust for over 30 years and always wondered how the Nazis could be so efficient in rounding up people, how they could exactly know so much as they took over Poland and France, etc., etc., Now I think I know and the knowledge is most disturbing.
Reading this book made me stop and think about where technology is going today in our world where all the bits of information about everybody are carefully stored, collated, and applied to “appropriate” use. I think there is a warning from the book about having too much data about individuals. I for one will never answer census questions completely again, certainly not the petty questions that inquire into the specifics of my personal life.
A few months ago, I watched the HBO Movie Conspiracy which was an exact dramatization of the Wannesee Conference in 1942 in Berlin. The script was based on the sole transcript of that meeting found after the war and belonging to one of the attendees. As I was watching the movie and later when I poured over the actual transcript which I found on the net, I wondered, “How did they have such exact figures for each country and group? So exact that the numbers were down to the single digits. How did they find these people?” It puzzled me. In reading IBM and the Holocaust, I found my answer.
History has an ostentatous way of rationalizing what actually happened to fit current viewpoints that are acceptable to people and institutions. We don’t want to think that a company like IBM could be so dreadful for profit or that our Government refused to bomb camps or take in refugees when they knew horror was happening. There was a rationalization that there ” must have been other circumstances”, mitigating circumstances, and today simply bad historical recollection. It is much easier to go forward and forget and rationalize and look for “reasonable” solutions, that is, until it all happens again and we have to say once more, “but that simply couldn’t be possible.”
A n important and courageous book that every young person especially should read as the years pass and the witnesses of that time leave us.
http://www.amazon.com/IBM-Holocaust-Strategic-Alliance-Corporation/dp/0914153102/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290211067&sr=8-1

Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America (Process Self-reliance Series)

Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America (Process Self-reliance Series)

Book Description

Series: Process Self-reliance Series | Publication Date: November 1, 2006

Had enough?Whether you find the government oppressive, the economy spiraling out of control, or if you simply want adventure, you’re not alone. In increasing numbers, the idea is talked about openly: Expatriate.

Over three hundred thousand Americans emigrate each year, and more than a million go to foreign lands for lengthy stays.

But picking up and moving to another country feels like a step into the void. Where to go? How to begin? What to do?

Volume 2 of the Process Self-Reliance Series, this smartly designed two-color guidebook walks you through the world of the expat: the reasons, the rules, the resources, and the tricks of the trade, along with compelling stories and expertise from expatriate Americans on every continent.

Getting Out shows you where you can most easily gain residence, citizenship, or work permits; where can you live for a fraction of the cost of where you’re living now; and what countries would be most compatible with your lifestyle, gender, age, or political beliefs.

So if you’ve had enough of what they’re selling here and want to take your life elsewhere—well, isn’t that the American way? At any rate, it’s not illegal. Not yet, anyway.

Had enough?

Whether you find the government oppressive, the economy spiraling out of control, or if you simply want adventure, you’re not alone. In increasing numbers, the idea is talked about openly: Expatriate.

Over three hundred thousand Americans emigrate each year, and more than a million go to foreign lands for lengthy stays.

But picking up and moving to another country feels like a step into the void. Where to go? How to begin? What to do?

Volume 2 of the Process Self-Reliance Series, this smartly designed two-color guidebook walks you through the world of the expat: the reasons, the rules, the resources, and the tricks of the trade, along with compelling stories and expertise from expatriate Americans on every continent.

Getting Out shows you where you can most easily gain residence, citizenship, or work permits; where can you live for a fraction of the cost of where you’re living now; and what countries would be most compatible with your lifestyle, gender, age, or political beliefs.

So if you’ve had enough of what they’re selling here and want to take your life elsewhere—well, isn’t that the American way? At any rate, it’s not illegal. Not yet, anyway.


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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Taking a decidedly pessimistic view of the current American moment, Ehrman’s well-designed, all-encompassing guidebook provides detailed instructions for fleeing “before America comes crashing down upon you.” Ehrman includes a large number of first-person stories from folks who did just that, starting new lives in China, Australia, Slovakia and Israel, among other destinations. The majority of these voices come from 20 to 30-year-olds, and some of the advice here skews to a younger sensibility, listing, for example, how each country prosecutes pot possession. However, there is valuable and comprehensive information here for a wide range of readers, including a globe-spanning country-by-country guide on how to immigrate-including Old Europe standbys as well as a number of countries in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe-with helpful sections on visa and residency requirements, acclimating to foreign culture and how to earn a living, as well as a handy list of online resources. Though the negative tone of the book might prove off-putting for readers planning an overseas move for reasons unrelated to politics, the wealth of information it carries-as well as its wide range of expatriate perspectives-will prove valuable. Illustrations.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Mark Ehrman is a frequent traveler and freelance writer whose work regularly appears in the Los Angeles Times, Playboy, Travel and Leisure, and numerous travel magazines city guidebooks.


Product Details

    • Paperback: 320 pages
    • Publisher: Process (November 1, 2006)
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 0976082276
    • ISBN-13: 978-0976082279
    • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
    • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
    • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
    • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #374,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Mark Ehrman

Biography

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96 of 97 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A good place to start,January 24, 2007
By
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This review is from: Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America (Process Self-reliance Series) (Paperback)

The strength of this book is that it favors breadth rather than depth.

If you are thinking about leaving the US but don’t really know where you’d like to go, or if you have a destination in mind but don’t really know what you don’t know about emigration, this book is for you. Getting Out covers the top 50 destinations for US expats, with information about the quality of health care, cost and standard of living, and social permissiveness. Also included are brief accounts of the experiences of expats living around the world. There is also good general information about the different pathways available to the potential expat.

Reading it will definately leave you with more questions than answers, since any comprehensive emigration/immigration guide to all the countries in the world would fill a small library. Getting Out will give you the basics and point you in the right direction to find more in-depth information. You won’t find anything here that will help you decide to settle in one country over another, but it will help you either narrow your list or give you reason to consider some place you otherwise would not have.

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82 of 84 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book with no peers,November 30, 2006
By
W. Webber (Austin, Texas United States) – See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America (Process Self-reliance Series) (Paperback)

This is a great book that is a good foundation in researching the how-to’s in leaving the country. In a category where there are very few books to choose from, this book is timely and reasonable well written. If you are interested in leaving the United States and not completely sure of where to go, this is a good resource along with the CIA factbook & other well known websites.

Pros:
1) Great list of helpful websites in the back for each country.
2) Excellent group of countries considered around the globe.
3) Decent foundational info about each country considered (50 countries).
4) Very readable style.
5) Good cross section of short blurbs about various peoples rationales in leaving.
6) Fair price for the book.

Cons:
1) No specific info as to why certain countries were included and other excluded.
2) Many countries mentioned in passing (in a positive light) in various parts of text are not considered as possibilities (i.e.: not profiled).
3) No easy way to see how countries stack up against each other at a glance based on various factors.
4) Poor editing… Many typos.
5) Could have had much more specific info about each country for various factors to consider (e.g. Pet specifics for each, education system, etc…)
6) Would have been nice to have at least one person for each country cited. Although difficult to pull off, this would have been better than people telling their stories for a subset of the countries profiled.

In short, this book has very little dead weight material and is a must have if this topic is relevant to you.

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46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and almost complete,January 14, 2007
By
This review is from: Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America (Process Self-reliance Series) (Paperback)

This book is a fun read with lots of very useful information; it’s just as good for Americans looking to get out as it would be for non-Americans looking for someplace to go, as it profiles many countries and also has a wealth of suggestions for moving and income that are not country-specific.

On the downside, as an American living in Japan, I can say that its section on Japan is woefully incomplete. Jobs here are said to pay “the mighty yen”, but my friends and I always grimace when it’s time to send money home. It doesn’t even mention the astounding bureaucracy or the racism that often goes hand in hand with it. And it only mentions Tokyo, despite that there are foreigners living in beautiful, cheap, and friendly cities and villages all over the country.

This is a fun read but should not be your last source of information!

http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Out-Leaving-America-Self-reliance/dp/0976082276

You are about to see a ‘miracle’ happen to Credo Mutwa – but it is only reality as it really should be

You are about to see a ‘miracle’ happen to Credo Mutwa – but it is only reality as it really should be

Wednesday, 03 August 2011 11:48

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I met a fantastic healer – and I mean fantastic – called Andreas and his friend and associate, Mike, in Germany when I spoke there in April and I immediately thought of my great friend and soul mate, Credo Mutwa, who had lost the use of his left hand and the whole left side of his body after a stroke.

I arranged for Andreas and Mike to visit Credo for a week and for Andreas to perform his magical (the real laws of physics) healing on the great man.

You are about to see Credo regain the use of his left hand for the first time since his stroke several months ago. If you can watch this without crying I will be surprised – I can’t for sure.

After a few days of treatment this stricken man who could hardly walk is back to the Credo Mutwa that I have long known as if no stroke had ever happened. It is extraordinary on one level, but I knew this would happen after seeing Andreas at work in Germany. I told Credo as he was in despair from the effects of the stroke – ‘I have someone coming to see you, mate, and he will fix you, I know he will.’

As you watch this, remember that days earlier Credo had no use of the left side of his body because of the stroke and could hardly move. He said to me on the phone before this: ‘Mr David, I am now a useless wreck’.

Not anymore, mate. Not anymore.

How absolutely wonderful.

This is Credo walking again with Mike.

This is Credo painting again with his left hand.

And this is Credo back to the man I know …

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/51650-you-are-about-to-see-a-miracle-happen-to-credo-mutwa-but-it-is-only-reality-as-it-really-should-be

Short Life Expectancy for BP Whistleblowers?

Short Life Expectancy for BP Whistleblowers?

By Pat Shannan

The investigation, if it can properly be so called, of the unsolved murder of the former high ranking Pentagon official and presidential advisor John P. Wheeler III, who was also an expert on chemical and biological weapons, may be taking a turn in the direction of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Wheeler, 67, a West Point grad, was beaten and thrown into a garbage dumpster. His body was discovered in a Wilmington, Del. landfill last New Year’s weekend. Both police detectives and news commentators described it as “an apparent hit,” but little else was ever learned, and no suspects have surfaced.

There was great speculation by many at the time that Wheeler had begun to blow the whistle on the mysterious bird and fish deaths in Arkansas and Texas, and was about to expose the facts tying this to the chemtrails seen in our skies over the past decade.

Now the speculation may be reverting to British Petroleum and the gulf spill because a number of other BP whistle blowing scientists, before and since the Wheeler murder, have also died mysteriously, been jailed on questionable charges or disappeared without a trace.

Matthew Simmons, 67, a former energy advisor to President George W. Bush and admired among survivalist groups for his dire warnings on the upcoming commodity and fuel shortages about to hit this nation, died in his hot tub in Maine last August. Simmons had been gaining popularity as a whistle blower for blaming BP for its covered-up responsibility in defacing and vandalizing the Gulf of Mexico while hiding the truth from the general public.

Only four days later, Ted Stevens, the 87-year-old defrocked senator from Alaska, said to have received communications regarding BP’s faulty blowout preventer, perished in a plane crash. British Petroleum had donated $1 million to the University of Alaska to catalog the papers from Stevens’s long political career.

Roger Grooters began a cross country bike ride in Oceanside, Calif. on Sept. 10 to draw attention to the Gulf Coast oil disaster. On Oct. 6, in front of the horrified eyes of his wife, who was trailing in a support vehicle, Grooters was struck by a truck and killed instantly in Panama City, Fla.

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Only a month later, Dr. Geoffrey Gardner of Lakeland, Fla. disappeared. He was investigating the unexplained bird deaths near Sarasota that are suspected to have been caused by the BP oil disaster. No one has heard from or spoken with him since.

On Nov. 15, Chitra Chaunhan was found dead of  cyanide poisoning in a Temple Terrace, Fla. hotel. It was officially ruled a suicide. She worked in the Center for Biological Defense and Global Health Infectious Disease Research and left behind a husband and five-year-old child.

The following week, James Patrick Black, director of operations for BP’s restoration organization for the oil spill, died near Destin, Fla. in a small plane crash.

Dr. Thomas B. Manton was one of the first to warn the public that far more oil than what BP had reported was gushing into the gulf every day and that the massive, toxic oil and chemical plumes would travel up the eastern seaboard, contaminating beaches and wildlife all the way.

“Once the winds change, it will come eastward and pollute the beaches of the west coast of Florida, and the ‘loop current’ could carry this oil spill right around Florida, through the Florida Keys and pollute the east coast of Florida as well,” Manton wrote on May 28, 2010.

Dr. Tom Termotto, national coordinator of the Gulf Oil Spill Remediation Conference, says Manton was murdered in prison. Manton had been sentenced to 15 years last August on a phony child pornography charge. Termotto and others say evidence was planted on his computer.

It is not known whether or not Anthony Nicholas Tremonte, 31, posed any threat to BP, but he too was arrested in January and charged with one count of possession of child pornography. Was this charge also faked? As an officer with the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources on the Gulf Coast, he may have known enough to qualify him for membership in this exclusive series of coincidences. He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted.

Pat Shannan is a contributing editor of American Free Press. He is also the author of several videos and books including One in a Million: An IRS Travesty, I Rode With Tupper and  Everything They Ever Told Me Was a Lie. All of Pat’s books are available from FIRST AMENDMENT BOOKS. Call 2025475585 for availability and pricing.

Subscribe to American Free Press. Online subscriptions: One year of weekly editions—$15 plus you get a BONUS ELECTRONIC BOOK – HIGH PRIESTS OF WAR – By Michael Piper.

 

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/whistleblowers_266.html

A plan that will change the world

A plan that will change the world

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” – William Hutchinson Murray

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The Story of James Casbolt & Project Mannequin

The Story of James Casbolt & Project Mannequin

James Casbolt has written one of the most revealing exposes to date on secret government operations and the ultra secret NSA mind control operation called Project Mannequin. While he reviews known specifics of government involvement with aliens, much of his information is new, especially with regards to U.K. underground covert operations. Subjected to mind control programming from earliest childhood, he began to recover his memories about two years ago and continues de-programming therapy to the present day. He first appeared on the Internet in 2007, trying to get out his story, but as is often the case with high level whistle blowers, he was besieged and verbally assaulted by the usual gaggle of conspiracy bloggers and blow hards who are ready to denigrate and dismiss anyone who has new and startling information. I saw the same thing happen to Brice Taylor when she first came out with her book, Thanks for The Memories, in May of 1999. It’s a combination of blogger-idiots and government disinfo/smear artists who always reserve their most vicious attacks for those who come closest to the mark.

Brice put up with the crap from the idiot sector for about a year and then gave up talking at conferences altogether. She hasn’t done any public speaking about her book since late 1999. I don’t blame her at all as the Illuminati makes you-and your family members- suffer when you spill the beans of their dark and dirty secrets. The more you talk, the more they put the screws to you. Today, with psychotronic harassment and torture technology, it’s a wonder that anyone is still talking.

James has published five chapters so far of his on-line book, Agent Buried Alive, The Autobiography of Commander James Casbolt. I’ve read all five chapters and I find his information to be right on target and in agreement with that which I’ve gained over the years from many other sources. I won’t be so arrogant that I’ll say that I’m sure that my perception of the NWO, their mind control operations, and their alien overlords are totally accurate, but I’m reasonably confidant that I have the story straight-and it agrees with James Casbolt’s rendition almost 100%. For my money, this guy is right on the mark and any moron-blogger who tries to tell you otherwise, does not know what he’s talking about.

Books written by high level victims of government mind control operations are not altogether pleasant reading. Much of the information they present is shocking and completely outside of our normal, everyday frame of reference. There are at least 133 Deep Underground Military Bases in America alone and well over 400 worldwide. Hundreds of thousands of men, women and small children are brutalized, tortured, programmed, experimented upon, and killed in many of those underground facilities (and taken by aliens) which often are shared with incredibly malevolent alien beings who literally eat human beings.

People simply don’t understand just how technologically advanced the NWO is compared to the civilian sector. We aren’t talking about fifty years ahead, we’re talking about one thousand years ahead. Cloning, total mind control, invisibility, anti-gravity, free energy, age regression, soul transfers, extended life spans, time travel, space portals, ability to cure any disease, time machines, etc. are already in the hands of the NWO and their military lap dogs. We are living in a make-believe world of pretend democracy while being lied to by pretend representatives, pretend media, and pretend leaders, of which a large percentage are working on behalf of the NWO to destroy this country and usher in the satanic One World government . .

In reading these chapters, you will see that James Casbolt restates many of the same themes that I’ve been reviewing at this web site since its inception:

1. The New World Order is run by alien overlords. Humans aren’t calling the shots, Dracos reptilian aliens are calling the shots. Most “human” representatives of the Illuminati, puppet politicians, and military leaders are human/alien hybrids or 100% reptilian shape-shifters (Chimeras) or CLONES of the original person. The current Secretary of the Treasury, for instance, Henry Paulson, is likely a clone of the original Paulson who was killed last December according to Britain’s Christopher Story.

2. The NWO/alien agenda includes eliminating about 85% of the world’s population (wars, chemtrails, vaccines, engineered diseases, engineered hurricanes and earthquakes, etc) so there won’t be enough humans left on the planet to offer any meaningful resistance when the Dracos invasion is in full swing.

3. The “God” of the NWO and their alien cohorts is Lucifer and they intend to convert this planet into a Hell on Earth- obedient to Lucifer. They are attempting to eliminate all expression of spirituality, morality, honor, integrity, and allegiance to God and the teachings of Jesus Christ. That’s why their Illuminated minions are working so hard to destroy the Christian religion (the Catholic church is the prime target) and try to convince you that Jesus Christ never even existed.

However, they still need the public’s continued ignorance and willful neglect of the warning signs in order to complete their takeover mission. In order to thwart this diabolical agenda, we must KNOW the real story and take appropriate counter action. To that end, you should carefully examine the information being presented by James Casbolt.

Ken Adachi

Chapters Index from Agent Buried Alive, The Autobiography of Commander James Casbolt (2008).

James Casbolt < jamescasbolt@hotmail.co.uk>
www.jamescasbolt.com

Chapter 1, Project Mannequin
http://educate-yourself.org/mc/casboltagent1chap.shtml

Chapter 2 , The Return of The Watchers
http://educate-yourself.org/mc/casboltagent2chap.shtml

Chapter 3, The Modern History of Behaviour Modification
http://educate-yourself.org/mc/casboltagent3chap.shtml

Chapter 4, The River of Love
http://educate-yourself.org/mc/casboltagent4chap.shtml

Chapter 5, Born into the Project
http://educate-yourself.org/mc/casboltagent5chap.shtml

Chapter 6, The Sublime View *
http://educate-yourself.org/mc/casboltagent6chap.shtml

Chapter 7, Convergence of the Star Children **New, added Oct 20, 2008**
http://educate-yourself.org/mc/casboltagent7chap.shtml

Audio and Video Files of James Casbolt

I’ll be posting all of the video and audio interviews available from James Casbolt in formats that will be easy to view, listen to, and download. I’ll start with MP3 audio conversions that I made from a four part video interview that James did in Truro, Cornwall England in October of 2007. I’m just beginning to learn how to use the MP3 encoding software, so for the time being, I’ll post four MP3 downloads, each segment about 9 minutes long-same as the video presentation. Eventually, I’ll figure out how to string the audio together into one single interview of approximately 36 minutes.

James is being interviewed by Miles Johnson of Underground Video, UK in an open area of the conference center where people are milling about and talking, so the background chatter makes the listening less than ideal, although you can hear everything being said. Americans will have a little bit of trouble understanding every word due to James’ British accent, however I’m hoping to find volunteers who will type out a transcript of the interview segments so that it could be easily read in English and other languages (if you’re interested in providing a transcript of any of these audio files, please let me know; they are only 9 minutes each –.Ken Adachireplace the word “(at)” with the symbol and no spaces. Type “volunteer transcriber” in the Subject line) .

The information in these interview is sobering and intended for adult listeners. It’s always shocking for new readers to grasp the depth, depravity, and gravity of the New World Order enslavement agenda. Horrific crimes are being perpetrated upon hundreds of thousands of abducted children and adults in underground bases in the UK, America, Australia, and other locations. In order to stop it, we must first come to grips with the scope of the problem and not shrink from facing the facts because doing so will only ensure the success of the evil forces who are behind it. Ignorance is not bliss and in this case, wilful ignorance will insure catastrophy for 85-90% of the planet’s population. The only thing to fear, is fear itself. We can stop this if enough become aware –in time. We must face this menace squarely for the sake of our children and the future of the human race.

Ken Adachi

James Casbolt Interview at Cornwall UFO Conference October, 2007 Part 1 (MP3) 9 minutes
http://educate-yourself.org/jc/JamesCasbolt2007CornwallConfA.mp3 Transcript of Part 1

James Casbolt Interview at Cornwall UFO Conference October, 2007 Part 2 (MP3) 9 minutes
http://educate-yourself.org/jc/JamesCasbolt2007CornwallConfB.mp3 Transcript of Part 2

James Casbolt Interview at Cornwall UFO Conference October, 2007 Part 3 (MP3) 9 minutes
http://educate-yourself.org/jc/JamesCasbolt2007CornwallConfC.mp3 Transcript of Part 3

James Casbolt Interview at Cornwall UFO Conference October, 2007 Part 4 (MP3) 9 minutes
http://educate-yourself.org/jc/JamesCasbolt2007CornwallConfD.mp3 Transcript of Part 4

***

Audio interview between Daniel Ott and James Casbolt on August 5, 2006

This is an excellent show. James covers a lot of important ground and it should be listened to carefully.

(source: http://www.theedgeam.com/interviews/James_Casbolt_08.05.06_2nd.mp3)

Audio interview between John Kuhles (Netherlands) and David Goth on Oct. 6, 2007

Audio interview between John Kuhles (Netherlands) and James Casbolt on Sep 23, 2007
http://need2know.whynotnews.eu/?p=1863

(click the “play” arrow on the lower left of the video box. The intro takes 4 or 5 minutes, be patient)

Notes by James Casbolt

The interview above gives details regarding the New World Order Program to take control of the UK before 2012. This program is called Project Mannequin which I was directly involved in and is being run by the NSA from various Underground Bases cantered around London and Berkshire such as the AL/499 base 200ft below the town of Peasemore in Berkshire, the CLC-1 base under Westminster in London and connected to the a large base under Parliament, the MONSOON-1 facility under RAF Lakenheath 90 miles north of London and the underground facility below the Porton Down Bio-Warfare Facility in Wiltshire as well as other facilities around the UK. The details about Project Mannequin and connected sub-projects are on the interview but I have just been given new intelligence regarding this agenda from a very reliable source who I trust completely. The information is very disturbing and I make no apologies and pull no punches as you need to know this for your future.

Kidnapped Children and Underground Bases

The huge child trafficking and Satanic ritual murder networks in the UK is heavily connected to Project Mannequin and very evil factions in the intelligence commuuinity centred around the NSA, CIA and British Intelligence. We know have over 25,000 children disseapring without a trace in the UK every year and are never seen or heard of again. This are classified figures and the intelligence commuyinity controlled mainstream media suppresses these facts by not giving a voice to the parents of these children and focusing massively on cases of one or two missing children a year, thereby taking the focus off the larger picture. Just last year I was in Truro college and there posters up off missing youngsters on the walls. These individuals had not even been mentioned on any news channels in the UK.

My contact has revealed to me that children who are now being kidnapped and taken to underground facilities such as the AL/499, are being murdered in horrific ways and their brainwaves are being recorded into computers at the time of death via a digital links through high-tech cranial implants installed into the children’s brains. As brain-waves and radio-waves are basically the same thing, this horrific energy recorded by super-computers is then being broadcast and sent out through televisions, radios, mobile phones and masts across the country and is affecting the whole population through increased levels of crime, sexual and child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse and a general lowering of people’s morals as very human has kind of telepathic receiver which is the pineal gland in the brain. I personally witnessed children being murdered during my time in the AL/499 facility and in recent times children’s throats are being cut and the digital broadcast sent out from the recorded brainwaves at the time of death which is stopping people in this country talking to each and sharing on a intimate level. Children’s hands are being cut off at some of these underground facilities and the frequencies being sent out are stopping people performing day to day tasks as effectively and maintaining discipline in their lives. You may what to recoil from this and deny it is happening but this is a fact and it is time to wake up.

Barry King who is a close freind and was a Wackenhut Security Officer in 1979 at the AL/499 NASH Berkshire base in 1979 told me that the NSA plan to have every person in the UK microchipped with craniel implants during Military Abductions (MILABS) before 2009. Satanic factions in the NSA are working overtime with military in this country with military abductions every night using the black triangle ‘Firefly’ aircrafts which have been seen tested at Area 51 in the US and are discussed in detail in the interview. I have just found out today that the anologue signals in televisions is being switched off in 2009 and televisions will only work with a digital connection. OFF COURSE IT IS!! The NSA want everyone to be in ‘tune’ with their digital pulses and connected up to the their super computers like ‘The Beast’ computer located at Pine Gap in Australia through thier craniel implants by 2009. Last year around 1 in 25 people were implanted through various means discussed in the interview. Now the figure is somewhere between 1 in 17 and increasing. The murder frequncies are being recorded behind popular music, film and televions in a ELF tone that sounds like a buzzing to phychics. When decoded this is actually a screaming sound! Recorded brainwaves can even be stored on a small box like device in a super concentrated form and worn on the belts or held by secret service assassins. The box can be aimed at a person and a radio wave fired out that people can not see. This energy is totally alien to most peoples nervous systems and the target will go into shock as the nervous system shuts down and usaully die.

These groups are using thse desperate tactics to bloack the huge frequencies of of love and enlightement that increases by the day as our planet moves closer to the galactic centre as we appraoch 2012.

We live in dangerous and exciting times and need to come together in groups in compassion and commuinication through such events as the Probe International conference in Blackpool to brake up these frequencies. In the crop circle below that appeared in the UK a few years, the following message was encoded in the circle in digital binary code-

“Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts and their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING ( BELL SOUND )”

The dark factions in the secret socitties are trying to close the close the conduit to this higher frequincy love energy through their digital signals. Are you going to let them by believing the lies we are spoon fed by the mainstream or are you going to wake up through the many alternative quility medias such as those on the internet and organisations such as Probe International?

In truth

James Casbolt, St Ives, Cornwall, 9th October 2007

wikipedia.org/wiki/MI6

The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), colloquially known as MI6[1] is the United Kingdom’s external intelligence agency, part of the country’s intelligence community. Under the direction of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), it works alongside the Security Service (MI5), Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS). Within the civil service community the service is colloquially referred to as ‘Box 850′, which comes from its old post office box number.[2][3][4]

Since 1995, the Secret Intelligence Service has had its headquarters at Vauxhall Cross on the South Bank of the Thames.

http://educate-yourself.org/mc/casboltintro08sep08.shtml

The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention

The inhumane conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention

By Glenn Greenwald
Topics:

(updated below – Update II)

Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old U.S. Army Private accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, has never been convicted of that crime, nor of any other crime.  Despite that, he has been detained at the U.S. Marine brig in Quantico, Virginia for five months — and for two months before that in a military jail in Kuwait — under conditions that constitute cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture.  Interviews with several people directly familiar with the conditions of Manning’s detention, ultimately including a Quantico brig official (Lt. Brian Villiard) who confirmed much of what they conveyed, establishes that the accused leaker is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.

Since his arrest in May, Manning has been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems.  He nonetheless was declared from the start to be a “Maximum Custody Detainee,” the highest and most repressive level of military detention, which then became the basis for the series of inhumane measures imposed on him.

From the beginning of his detention, Manning has been held in intensive solitary confinement.  For 23 out of 24 hours every day — for seven straight months and counting — he sits completely alone in his cell.  Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he’s barred even from exercising and is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions.  For reasons that appear completely punitive, he’s being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he is not and never has been on suicide watch).  For the one hour per day when he is freed from this isolation, he is barred from accessing any news or current events programs.  Lt. Villiard protested that the conditions are not “like jail movies where someone gets thrown into the hole,” but confirmed that he is in solitary confinement, entirely alone in his cell except for the one hour per day he is taken out.

In sum, Manning has been subjected for many months without pause to inhumane, personality-erasing, soul-destroying, insanity-inducing conditions of isolation similar to those perfected at America’s Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado:  all without so much as having been convicted of anything.  And as is true of many prisoners subjected to warped treatment of this sort, the brig’s medical personnel now administer regular doses of anti-depressants to Manning to prevent his brain from snapping from the effects of this isolation.

Just by itself, the type of prolonged solitary confinement to which Manning has been subjected for many months is widely viewed around the world as highly injurious, inhumane, punitive, and arguably even a form of torture.  In his widely praised March, 2009 New Yorker article — entitled “Is Long-Term Solitary Confinement Torture?” — the surgeon and journalist Atul Gawande assembled expert opinion and personal anecdotes to demonstrate that, as he put it, “all human beings experience isolation as torture.”  By itself, prolonged solitary confinement routinely destroys a person’s mind and drives them into insanity.  A March, 2010 article in The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law explains that “solitary confinement is recognized as difficult to withstand; indeed, psychological stressors such as isolation can be as clinically distressing as physical torture.”

For that reason, many Western nations — and even some non-Western nations notorious for human rights abuses — refuse to employ prolonged solitary confinement except in the most extreme cases of prisoner violence.  “It’s an awful thing, solitary,” John McCain wrote of his experience in isolated confinement in Vietnam. “It crushes your spirit.”  As Gawande documented: “A U.S. military study of almost a hundred and fifty naval aviators returned from imprisonment in Vietnam . . . reported that they found social isolation to be as torturous and agonizing as any physical abuse they suffered.”  Gawande explained that America’s application of this form of torture to its own citizens is what spawned the torture regime which President Obama vowed to end:

This past year, both the Republican and the Democratic Presidential candidates came out firmly for banning torture and closing the facility in Guantánamo Bay, where hundreds of prisoners have been held in years-long isolation. Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain, however, addressed the question of whether prolonged solitary confinement is torture. . . .

This is the dark side of American exceptionalism. . . . Our willingness to discard these standards for American prisoners made it easy to discard the Geneva Conventions prohibiting similar treatment of foreign prisoners of war, to the detriment of America’s moral stature in the world.  In much the same way that a previous generation of Americans countenanced legalized segregation, ours has countenanced legalized torture. And there is no clearer manifestation of this than our routine use of solitary confinement . . . .

It’s one thing to impose such punitive, barbaric measures on convicts who have proven to be violent when around other prisoners; at the Supermax in Florence, inmates convicted of the most heinous crimes and who pose a threat to prison order and the safety of others are subjected to worse treatment than what Manning experiences.  But it’s another thing entirely to impose such conditions on individuals, like Manning, who have been convicted of nothing and have never demonstrated an iota of physical threat or disorder.

In 2006, a bipartisan National Commission on America’s Prisons was created and it called for the elimination of prolonged solitary confinement.  Its Report documented that conditions whereby “prisoners end up locked in their cells 23 hours a day, every day. . . is so severe that people end up completely isolated, living in what can only be described as torturous conditions.”  The Report documented numerous psychiatric studies of individuals held in prolonged isolation which demonstrate “a constellation of symptoms that includes overwhelming anxiety, confusion and hallucination, and sudden violent and self-destructive outbursts.”  The above-referenced article from the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law states:  ”Psychological effects can include anxiety, depression, anger, cognitive disturbances, perceptual distortions, obsessive thoughts, paranoia, and psychosis.”

When one exacerbates the harms of prolonged isolation with the other deprivations to which Manning is being subjected, long-term psychiatric and even physical impairment is likely.  Gawande documents that “EEG studies going back to the nineteen-sixties have shown diffuse slowing of brain waves in prisoners after a week or more of solitary confinement.”  Medical tests conducted in 1992 on Yugoslavian prisoners subjected to an average of six months of isolation — roughly the amount to which Manning has now been subjected — “revealed brain abnormalities months afterward; the most severe were found in prisoners who had endured either head trauma sufficient to render them unconscious or, yes, solitary confinement.  Without sustained social interaction, the human brain may become as impaired as one that has incurred a traumatic injury.”  Gawande’s article is filled with horrifying stories of individuals subjected to isolation similar to or even less enduring than Manning’s who have succumbed to extreme long-term psychological breakdown.

Manning is barred from communicating with any reporters, even indirectly, so nothing he has said can be quoted here.  But David House, a 23-year-old MIT researcher who befriended Manning after his detention (and then had his laptops, camera and cellphone seized by Homeland Security when entering the U.S.) is one of the few people to have visited Manning several times at Quantico.  He describes palpable changes in Manning’s physical appearance and behavior just over the course of the several months that he’s been visiting him.  Like most individuals held in severe isolation, Manning sleeps much of the day, is particularly frustrated by the petty, vindictive denial of a pillow or sheets, and suffers from less and less outdoor time as part of his one-hour daily removal from his cage.

This is why the conditions under which Manning is being detained were once recognized in the U.S. — and are still recognized in many Western nations — as not only cruel and inhumane, but torture.  More than a century ago, U.S. courts understood that solitary confinement was a barbaric punishment that severely harmed the mental and physical health of those subjected to it.  The Supreme Court’s 1890 decision in In re Medley noted that as a result of solitary confinement as practiced in the early days of the United States, many “prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition . . . and others became violently insane; others still, committed suicide; while those who stood the ordeal better . . . [often] did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent service to the community.”  And in its 1940 decision in Chambers v. Florida, the Court characterized prolonged solitary confinement as “torture” and compared it to “[t]he rack, the thumbscrew, [and] the wheel.”

The inhumane treatment of Manning may have international implications as well.  There are multiple proceedings now pending in the European Union Human Rights Court, brought by “War on Terror” detainees contesting their extradition to the U.S. on the ground that the conditions under which they likely will be held — particularly prolonged solitary confinement — violate the European Convention on Human Rights, which (along with the Convention Against Torture) bars EU states from extraditing anyone to any nation where there is a real risk of inhumane and degrading treatment.  The European Court of Human Rights has in the past found detention conditions violative of those rights (in Bulgaria) where “the [detainee] spent 23 hours a day alone in his cell; had limited interaction with other prisoners; and was only allowed two visits per month.”  From the Journal article referenced above:

International treaty bodies and human rights experts, including the Human Rights Committee, the Committee against Torture, and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, have concluded that solitary confinement may amount to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment or Punishment.  They have specifically criticized supermax confinement in the United States because of the mental suffering it inflicts.

Subjecting a detainee like Manning to this level of prolonged cruel and inhumane detention can thus jeopardize the ability of the U.S. to secure extradition for other prisoners, as these conditions are viewed in much of the civilized world as barbaric.  Moreover, because Manning holds dual American and U.K. citizenship (his mother is British), it is possible for British agencies and human rights organizations to assert his consular rights against these oppressive conditions.  At least some preliminary efforts are underway in Britain to explore that mechanism as a means of securing more humane treatment for Manning.  Whatever else is true, all of this illustrates what a profound departure from international norms is the treatment to which the U.S. Government is subjecting him.

* * * * *

The plight of Manning has largely been overshadowed by the intense media fixation on WikiLeaks, so it’s worth underscoring what it is that he’s accused of doing and what he said in his own reputed words about these acts.  If one believes the authenticity of the highly edited chat logs of Manning’s online conversations with Adrian Lamo that have been released by Wired (that magazine inexcusably continues to conceal large portions of those logs), Manning clearly believed that he was a whistle-blower acting with the noblest of motives, and probably was exactly that.  If, for instance, he really is the leaker of the Apache helicopter attack video — a video which sparked very rare and much-needed realization about the visceral truth of what American wars actually entail — as well as the war and diplomatic cables revealing substantial government deceit, brutality, illegality and corruption, then he’s quite similar to Daniel Ellsberg.  Indeed, Ellsberg himself said the very same thing about Manning in June on Democracy Now in explaining why he considers the Army Private to be a “hero”:

The fact is that what Lamo reports Manning is saying has a very familiar and persuasive ring to me.  He reports Manning as having said that what he had read and what he was passing on were horrible — evidence of horrible machinations by the US backdoor dealings throughout the Middle East and, in many cases, as he put it, almost crimes. And let me guess that — he’s not a lawyer, but I’ll guess that what looked to him like crimes are crimes, that he was putting out. We know that he put out, or at least it’s very plausible that he put out, the videos that he claimed to Lamo.  And that’s enough to go on to get them interested in pursuing both him and the other.

And so, what it comes down, to me, is — and I say throwing caution to the winds here — is that what I’ve heard so far of Assange and Manning — and I haven’t met either of them — is that they are two new heroes of mine.

To see why that’s so, just recall some of what Manning purportedly said about why he chose to leak, at least as reflected in the edited chat logs published by Wired:

Lamo: what’s your endgame plan, then?. . .

Manning: well, it was forwarded to [WikiLeaks] – and god knows what happens now – hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms – if not, than [sic] we’re doomed – as a species – i will officially give up on the society we have if nothing happens – the reaction to the video gave me immense hope; CNN’s iReport was overwhelmed; Twitter exploded – people who saw, knew there was something wrong . . . Washington Post sat on the video… David Finkel acquired a copy while embedded out here. . . . – i want people to see the truth… regardless of who they are… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.

if i knew then, what i knew now – kind of thing, or maybe im just young, naive, and stupid . . . im hoping for the former – it cant be the latter – because if it is… were fucking screwed (as a society) – and i dont want to believe that we’re screwed.

Manning described the incident which first made him seriously question the U.S. Government: when he was instructed to work on the case of Iraqi “insurgents” who had been detained for distributing so-called “insurgent” literature which, when Manning had it translated, turned out to be nothing more than “a scholarly critique against PM Maliki”:

i had an interpreter read it for me… and when i found out that it was a benign political critique titled “Where did the money go?” and following the corruption trail within the PM’s cabinet… i immediately took that information and *ran* to the officer to explain what was going on… he didn’t want to hear any of it… he told me to shut up and explain how we could assist the FPs in finding *MORE* detainees…

i had always questioned the things worked, and investigated to find the truth… but that was a point where i was a *part* of something… i was actively involved in something that i was completely against…

And Manning explained why he never considered the thought of selling this classified information to a foreign nation for substantial profit or even just secretly transmitting it to foreign powers, as he easily could have done:

Manning: i mean what if i were someone more malicious- i could’ve sold to russia or china, and made bank?

Lamo: why didn’t you?

Manning: because it’s public data

Lamo: i mean, the cables

Manning: it belongs in the public domain -information should be free – it belongs in the public domain – because another state would just take advantage of the information… try and get some edge – if its out in the open… it should be a public good.

That’s a whistleblower in the purest and most noble form:  discovering government secrets of criminal and corrupt acts and then publicizing them to the world not for profit, not to give other nations an edge, but to trigger “worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms.”  Given how much Manning has been demonized — at the same time that he’s been rendered silent by the ban on his communication with any media — it’s worthwhile to keep all of that in mind.

But ultimately, what one thinks of Manning’s alleged acts is irrelevant to the issue here.  The U.S. ought at least to abide by minimal standards of humane treatment in how it detains him.  That’s true for every prisoner, at all times.  But departures from such standards are particularly egregious where, as here, the detainee has merely been accused, but never convicted, of wrongdoing.  These inhumane conditions make a mockery of Barack Obama’s repeated pledge to end detainee abuse and torture, as prolonged isolation — exacerbated by these other deprivations — is at least as damaging, as violative of international legal standards, and almost as reviled around the world, as the waterboard, hypothermia and other Bush-era tactics that caused so much controversy.

What all of this achieves is clear.  Having it known that the U.S. could and would disappear people at will to “black sites,” assassinate them with unseen drones, imprison them for years without a shred of due process even while knowing they were innocent, torture them mercilessly, and in general acts as a lawless and rogue imperial power created a climate of severe intimidation and fear.  Who would want to challenge the U.S. Government in any way — even in legitimate ways — knowing that it could and would engage in such lawless, violent conduct without any restraints or repercussions?

That is plainly what is going on here.  Anyone remotely affiliated with WikiLeaks, including American citizens (and plenty of other government critics), has their property seized and communications stored at the border without so much as a warrant.  Julian Assange — despite never having been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime — has now spent more than a week in solitary confinement with severe restrictions under what his lawyer calls “Dickensian conditions.”  But Bradley Manning has suffered much worse, and not for a week, but for seven months, with no end in sight.  If you became aware of secret information revealing serious wrongdoing, deceit and/or criminality on the part of the U.S. Government, would you — knowing that you could and likely would be imprisoned under these kinds of repressive, torturous conditions for months on end without so much as a trial:  just locked away by yourself 23 hours a day without recourse — be willing to expose it?  That’s the climate of fear and intimidation which these inhumane detention conditions are intended to create.

* * * * *

Those wishing to contribute to Bradley Manning’s defense fund can do so here.  All of those means are reputable, but everyone should carefully read the various options presented in order to decide which one seems best.

 

UPDATE:  I was contacted by Lt. Villiard, who claims there is one factual inaccuracy in what I wrote:  specifically, he claims that Manning is not restricted from accessing news or current events during the prescribed time he is permitted to watch television.  That is squarely inconsistent with reports from those with first-hand knowledge of Manning’s detention, but it’s a fairly minor dispute in the scheme of things.

 

UPDATE II: On MSNBC, Keith Olbermann did a segment on the conditions of Manning’s incarceration, with FBI whistleblower Colleen Rowley.  At least on its website, CBS News also reported on the story.  And I was on Democracy Now Thursday morning elaborating on my Manning article yesterday, as well as discussing Savage’s article this morning and the imminent release of Assange from prison (the transcript is here):

 

 

How Bradley Manning’s fate will be decided

The soldier accused of giving files to WikiLeaks will likely face a court-martial — we explain how it works

By Justin Elliott

Photo: Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted by military police from the courthouse after the sixth day of his Article 32 hearing at Fort Meade, Maryland, December 21, 2011.  (Credit: Benjamin Myers / Reuters)

Topics:

This week, Bradley Manning came one step closer to being tried for allegedly leaking a trove of secret American cables to WikiLeaks when a military officer made the formal recommendation that Manning should face a court-martial on 22 criminal charges.

One of the counts, aiding the enemy, carries the possibility of the death penalty, but prosecutors have already said they will not seek it in Manning’s case.

The recommendation this week was made to Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington, commander of the Military District of Washington, who is what is known as the convening authority in the case. The military justice system has important differences from the civilian system, so I spoke to Eugene R. Fidell, who teaches military justice at Yale Law School, to explain the basics.

We’ve now had the investigating officer as well as another officer this week recommend a court-martial to the Military District of Washington commander. What’s the next step?

A convening authority, which is a general officer, will decide whether to refer the case to a court-martial. There’s no designated time frame for this, but I think it will be in the next couple of weeks. A court-martial is a military criminal court that will have serious punishment powers. There will be a military judge presiding over it, who is a uniformed lawyer. There’s a prosecutor. There’s defense counsel. Unless Manning waives the jury, there will be a jury of at least five people.

Who makes up the jury?

The jury is selected by the convening authority. It’s not random selection. The general will select the members; it’s supposed to be a blue ribbon group. They are supposed to be the best qualified people with respect to education, experience, judicial temperament and so on. Because Manning is an enlisted man, he has a right to enlisted representation on the court. That means that at least one-third of the jury would have to be enlisted men or women.

In the civilian trial setting, there’s usually a lot of argument over who sits on the jury. How does that work in a court-martial?

The same thing happens. There’s an opportunity for the lawyers on both sides to question the jurors — who are actually called “members” in a court-martial — to determine whether they are capable of acting impartially. Each side has a right to challenge a member not only for cause, but also peremptorily, in other words for no reason.

To convict a defendant in a non-capital case requires only a two-thirds vote of the members. How the vote breaks down depends on how many members there are. The minimum is five, but there’s something called the numbers game that the lawyers on both sides are aware of. That is, that you want to use your right to challenge a member in order to manipulate the size of the court to maximize the chances of either conviction or acquittal, depending on your perspective. The number slightly tweaks the percentage. Two-thirds of five members is four, meaning the government would need 80 percent to convict. Two-thirds of six members is also four, which means the government would need only 66 percent to convict.

What about the judge — how is he or she different than a judge in a civilian case?

Once the case is referred to a court-martial, and a judge is assigned, the convening authority’s power becomes subject to review, and a judge sort of takes charge of the case. Until that happens — until the case is referred to trial — the convening authority really rules the roost.

The big difference as compared to a civilian federal judge is that a military judge doesn’t have life tenure. The judge in an Army court-martial is guaranteed tenure for only three years, which in my opinion is inadequate. Individually the judges may be perfectly independent, but in terms of the structural protections, the U.S. system is highly deficient in this area.

So the concern is that these judges might be worried about their later career and that affects how they hear cases?

Yeah, that’s the theory. Three years is shorter than any comparable criminal court in this country.

Turning to the trial itself, are the rules different than in a civilian court?

No, the rules are essentially the same as a federal district court. The rules of evidence are a virtual carbon copy, the rules of how people conduct themselves, and so on. Courts-martial are also open to the public, except to the extent that classified information is involved. Even then, only the bare minimum needed to protect the information is closed to the public.

If Manning is ultimately found guilty, how does the sentencing work? 

If there is a jury, the jury will do sentencing. Remember, he can waive the jury. But he can’t waive only on sentencing; he would have to waive it on guilt-or-innocence and sentencing together. If he waives the jury, the judge will decide both guilt or innocence and determine the sentence. If Manning goes with a jury, the sentence is determined by the jury. And anything in excess of 10 years has to be decided by a three-fourths vote. If it were a capital case — which it’s not — there would have to be 12 members of the jury and they would have to be unanimous.

What about appeals — can he appeal if he is found guilty?

The first level of review after a case is tried and there is a sentence is to the convening authority. He or she can disapprove the conviction, can cut the sentence and so forth. He or she can overturn the result of the trial. After the convening authority acts, it goes automatically to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals, which is made up of military officers who sit in northern Virginia. There are lawyers on both sides, and briefs are filed, and there may be oral argument. Then they will issue a decision. From there, assuming the case is affirmed, Manning would have the right to petition for discretionary review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. That’s a civilian court of five judges who sit in Washington, D.C., with proceedings open to the public. If they granted review, there would be an oral argument, and the case would result in a decision. If that court grants review, then the case becomes eligible for review by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court can refuse to hear it, but at least Manning would have the right to ask the Supreme Court for review.

 

Manning, Washington’s favorite scapegoat

The only civilian casualties D.C.’s warmongers ever talk about are the hypothetical ones “caused” by WikiLeaks

By Chase Madar

Photo: Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted from a security vehicle to a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., Monday, Dec. 19, 2011, for a military hearing  (Credit: AP/Patrick Semansky)
This originally appeared on TomDispatch.

Who in their right mind wants to talk about, think about or read a short essay about… civilian war casualties? What a bummer, this topic, especially since our Afghan Iraq and other ongoing wars were advertised as uplifting acts of philanthropy: wars to spread security, freedom, democracy, human rights, gender equality, the rule of law, etc.

A couple hundred thousand dead civilians have a way of making such noble ideals seem like dollar-store tinsel. And so, throughout our decade-long foreign policy debacle in the Greater Middle East, we in the U.S. have generally agreed that no one shall commit the gaucherie of dwelling on (and “dwelling on” = fleetingly mentioned) civilian casualties. Washington elites may squabble over some things, but as for foreigners killed by our numerous wars, our Beltway crew adheres to a sullen code of omertà.

Club rules do, however, permit one loophole: Washington officials may bemoan the nightmare of civilian casualties — but only if they can be pinned on a 24-year-old Army private first class named Bradley Manning.

Pfc. Manning, you will remember, is the young soldier who is soon to be court-martialed for passing some 750,000 military and diplomatic documents, a large chunk of them classified, to the website WikiLeaks. Among those leaks, there was indeed some serious stuff about how Americans dealt with civilians in invaded countries. For instance, the documents revealed that the U.S. military, then the occupying force in Iraq, did little or nothing to prevent Iraqi authorities from torturing prisoners in a variety of gruesome ways, sometimes to death.

Then there was that gun-sight video — unclassified but buried in classified material — of an American Apache helicopter opening fire on a crowd on a Baghdad street, gunning down a dozen men, including two Reuters employees, and injuring more, including children. There were also those field reports about how jumpy American soldiers repeatedly shot down civilians at roadside checkpoints; about night raids gone wrong both in Iraq and Afghanistan; and a count of thousands of dead Iraqi civilians, a tally whose existence the U.S. military had previously denied possessing.

Together, these leaks and many others offered a composite portrait of military and political debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan whose grinding theme has been civilian casualties, a fact not much noted here in the U.S. A tiny number of low-ranking American soldiers have been held to account for rare instances of premeditated murder of civilians, but most of the troops who kill civilians in the midst of the chaos of war are not tried, much less convicted. We don’t talk about these cases a lot either. On the other hand, officials of all types make free with lusty condemnations of Bradley Manning, whose leaks are luridly credited with potential (though not actual) deaths.

Putting Lives in Danger

“[WikiLeaks] might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family,” said Admiral Mike Mullen, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the release of the Afghan War Logs in July 2010. This was, of course, the same Admiral Mullen who had endorsed a major escalation of the war in Afghanistan, which would lead to a tremendous “surge” in casualties among civilians and soldiers alike.  Here are counts — undoubtedly undercounts, in fact — of real Afghan corpses that, at least in part, resulted from the policy he supported: 2,412 in 2009, 2,777 in 2010, 1,462 in the first half 2011, according to the U.N. Assistance Mission to Afghanistan.  As far as anyone knows, here are the corpses that resulted from the release of those WikiLeaks documents: 0. (And don’t forget, the stalemate war with the Taliban has not budged in the period since that surge.)  Who, then, has blood on his hands, Pfc. Manning — or Admiral Mullen?

Of course the admiral is hardly alone. In fact, whole tabernacle choirs have joined in the condemnation of Manning and WikiLeaks for “causing” carnage, thanks to their disclosures.

Robert Gates, who served as secretary of defense under George W. Bush and then Barack Obama, also spoke sternly of Manning’s leaks, accusing him of “moral culpability.” He added, “And that’s where I think the verdict is ‘guilty’ on WikiLeaks. They have put this out without any regard whatsoever for the consequences.”

This was, of course, the same Robert Gates who pushed for escalation in Afghanistan in 2009 and, in March 2011, flew to the Kingdom of Bahrain to offer his own personal “reassurance of support” to a ruling monarchy already busy shooting and torturing nonviolent civilian protesters. So again, when it comes to blood and indifference to consequences, Bradley Manning — or Robert Gates?

Nor have such attitudes been confined to the military. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Manning’s (alleged) leak of 250,000 diplomatic cables of being “an attack on the international community” that “puts people’s lives in danger, threatens our national security, and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems.”

As a senator, of course, she supported the invasion of Iraq in flagrant contravention of the U.N. Charter. She was subsequently a leading hawk when it came to escalating and expanding the Afghan War, and is now responsible for disbursing an annual $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt’s ruling junta whose forces have repeatedly opened fire on nonviolent civilian protesters.  So who’s been attacking the international community and putting lives in danger, Bradley Manning — or Hillary Clinton?

Harold Koh, former Yale Law School dean, liberal lion and currently the State Department’s top legal adviser, has announced that the same leaked diplomatic cables “could place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals — from journalists to human rights activists and bloggers to soldiers to individuals providing information to further peace and security.”

This is the same Harold Koh who, in March 2010, provided a tortured legal rationale for the Obama administration’s drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemenand Somalia, despite the inevitable and well-documented civilian casualties they cause.  So who is risking the lives of countless innocent individuals, Bradley Manning — or Harold Koh?

Much of the media have clambered aboard the bandwagon, blaming WikiLeaks and Manning for damage done by wars they once energetically cheered on.

In early 2011, to pick just one example from the ranks of journalism, New Yorker writer George Packer professed his horror that WikiLeaks had released a memo marked “secret/noforn” listing spots throughout the world of vital strategic or economic interest to the United States. Asked by radio host Brian Lehrer whether this disclosure had crossed a new line by making a gratuitous gift to terrorists, Packer replied with an appalled yes.

Now, among the “secrets” contained in this document are the facts that the Strait of Gibraltar is a vital shipping lane and that the Democratic Republic of the Congo is rich in minerals. Have we Americans become so infantilized that factoids of basic geography must be considered state secrets? (Maybe best not to answer that question.)  The “threat” of this document’s release has since been roundly debunked by various military intellectuals.

Nevertheless, Packer’s response was instructive.  Here was a typical liberal hawk, who had can-canned to the post-9/11 drumbeat of war as a therapeutic wake-up call from “the bland comforts of peace,” now affronted by WikiLeaks’ supposed recklessness.  Civilian casualties do not seem to have been on Packer’s mind when he supported the invasion of Iraq, nor has he written much about them since.

In an enthusiastic 2006 New Yorker essay on counterinsurgency warfare, for example, the very words “civilian casualties” never come up, despite their centrality to COIN theory, practice and history.  It is a fact that, as Operation Enduring Freedom shifted to counterinsurgency tactics in 2009, civilian casualties in Afghanistan skyrocketed.  So, for that matter, have American military casualties.  (More than half of U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan occurred in the past three years.)

Liberal hawks like Packer may consider WikiLeaks out of bounds, but really, who in these last years has been the most reckless, Bradley Manning — or George Packer and some of his pro-war colleagues at the New Yorker like Jeffrey Goldberg (who has since left for the Atlantic Monthly, where he’s been busily clearing a path for war with Iran) and editor David Remnick?

Centrist and liberal nonprofit think tanks have been no less selectively blind when it comes to civilian carnage. Liza Goitein, a lawyer at the liberal-minded Brennan Center at NYU Law School, has also taken out after Bradley Manning.  In the midst of an otherwise deft diagnosis of Washington’s compulsive urge to over-classify everything — the federal government classifies an amazing 77 million documents a year — she pauses just long enough to accuse Manning of “criminal recklessness” for putting civilians named in the Afghan War logs in peril — “a disclosure,” as she puts it, “that surely endangers their safety.”

It’s worth noting that, until the moment Goitein made this charge, not a single report or press release issued by the Brennan Center has ever so much as uttered a mention of civilian casualties caused by the U.S. military. The absence of civilian casualties is almost palpable in the work of the Brennan Center’s program in  “Liberty and National Security.” For example, this program’s 2011 report “Rethinking Radicalization,” which explored effective, lawful ways to prevent American Muslims from turning terrorist, makes not a single reference to the tens of thousands of well-documented civilian casualties caused by American military force in the Muslim world, which according to many scholars is the prime mover of terrorist blowback.  The report on how to combat the threat of Muslim terrorists, written by Pakistan-born Faiza Patel, does not, in fact, even contain the words “Iraq,” “Afghanistan,” “drone strike,” “Pakistan” or “civilian casualties.”

This is almost incredible, because terrorists themselves have freely confessed that what motivated their acts of wanton violence has been the damage done by foreign military occupation back home or simply in the Muslim world.  Asked by a federal judge why he tried to blow up Times Square with a car bomb in May 2010, Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad answered that he was motivated by the civilian carnage the U.S. had caused in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. How could any report about “rethinking radicalization” fail to mention this?  Although the Brennan Center does much valuable work, Goitein’s selective finger-pointing on civilian casualties is emblematic of a blindness to war’s consequences widespread among American institutions.

American Military Whistleblowers

Knowledge may indeed have its risks, but how many civilian deaths can actually be traced to the WikiLeaks revelations?  How many military deaths?  To the best of anyone’s knowledge, not a single one.  After much huffing and puffing, the Pentagon has quietly denied — and then denied again — that there is any evidence at all of the Taliban targeting the Afghan civilians named in the leaked war logs.

In the end, the “grave risks” involved in the publication of the War Logs and of those State Department documents have been wildly exaggerated.  Embarrassment, yes. A look inside two grim wars and the workings of imperial diplomacy, yes. Blood, no.

On the other hand, the grave risks that were hidden in those leaked documents, as well as in all the other government distortions, cover-ups and lies of the past decade, have been graphically illustrated in aortal red. The civilian carnage caused by our rush to war in Iraq and by our deeply entrenched stalemate of a war in Afghanistan (and the Pakistani tribal borderlands) is not speculative or theoretical but all-too real.

And yet no one anywhere has been held to much account: not in the political class, not in the military, not in the think tanks, not among the scholars, nor the media.  Only one individual, it seems, will pay, even if he actually spilled none of the blood. Our foreign policy elites seem to think Bradley Manning is well-cast for the role of fall guy and scapegoat. This is an injustice.

Someday, it will be clearer to Americans that Pfc. Manning has joined the ranks of great American military whistleblowers like Dan Ellsberg (who was first in his class at Marine officer training school); Vietnam War infantryman Ron Ridenhour, who blew the whistle on the My Lai massacre; and the sailors and marines who, in 1777, reported the torture of British captives by their politically connected commanding officer. These servicemen, too, were vilified in their times. Today, we honor them, as someday Pfc. Manning will be honored.


The Army is reading your Bradley Manning tweets

Military public affairs officials in WikiLeaks case use software that specializes in tracking Twitter

Photo: A sketch of Private Bradley Manning during his Army Article 32 hearing.  (Credit: Reuters)

(UPDATED BELOW)

Politico’s Josh Gerstein reports on the extent to which the Army’s public affairs office is interested in public and media opinion of the Bradley Manning case, noting that P.R. staffers prepared daily summaries of the coverage of the ongoing legal proceedings. This bit jumped out at me:

The Army used a commercial service called VOCUS to track traditional and social media coverage of Manning’s hearing. The Pentagon pays close attention to the volume of tweets about the U.S. military during high-profile incidents, like the Air Force One flyover that distressed New York City residents in 2009 …

Here (.pdf), via Gerstein, is the Public Affairs Office media coverage summary that refers to “1,045 social media conversations about the hearing.” It also notes that “the VOCUS media site listed most of the coverage of Manning as negative, the majority of the coverage about the hearing remains balanced and factual.”

VOCUS, which is based in a Maryland suburb of Washington, offers its customers the ability to “monitor social conversations, mentions and trends,” and:

  • Identify influencers. Rank top tweeters and bloggers by the number of followers, retweets, blog comments, and activity volume, so you can see who you need to be talking to.
  • Cover more blog posts. Vocus monitors more than 20 million of the most influential blogs. Best of all, we filter out aggregator sites, so you don’t get false or duplicated results.
  • Track sentiment and tone. Mentions are analyzed to gauge the feelings of bloggers, tweeters and readers – giving you insight far beyond the lead story.
  • Monitor Twitter in near-real time. Find out what people are saying and analyze all the chatter so you can engage within minutes. Vocus makes it easy to track retweets and identify the originating tweet.

Here are a couple sample screenshots of VOCUS software centering on Twitter. I’ve asked the Army how exactly it uses VOCUS and I will update this post if I hear back.

UPDATE 1/11/12: The Army send along this statement in response to my inquiry, which does not shed much light on how it uses VOCUS:

The Army employs traditional and contemporary public relations methods with which to communicate with its varied publics. Our news-gathering and assessment tools are in keeping with modern practices, and are used to determine the level at which we engage with the public to inform our vast constituencies. The Politico report reflects the Army’s connection with the public, and our transparency in such matters.

 

 

Manning is charged with aiding terrorists

Pre-trial hearing for the WikiLeaks suspect reveals the government’s prosecution strategy

Photo: Army Pfc. Bradley Manning on trial (Credit: AP/Patrick Semansky)

(This piece was originally posted at Firedoglake.)

The pre-trial hearing for Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of releasing classified information to WikiLeaks, concluded with the government revealing in its closing argument for the first time the enemy, which they believe Manning’s actions aided: the terrorists.

Calling what Manning did a “six month-long enterprise of indiscriminately harvesting information,” Capt. Ashden Fein stated in the prosecution’s closing argument that Manning had actual knowledge that what he gave to WikiLeaks would end up in the hands of the enemy and that enemy was Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and similar enemies.

An Al Qaeda propaganda video was shown. The video, with subtitles, featured a figurehead of the organization discussing the released information, like the State Department cables. The figurehead said the cables revealed “foreign dependencies.” He said something about relying on Allah for actions against the United States and then said before taking actions jihadists should rely on the “wide range of resources on the Internet” now.

Fein asserted that AQAP is “urging followers to collect and archive WikiLeaks information.” Manning “knowingly gave intelligence through WikiLeaks to the enemy.” He “wantonly caused the release of this information.” It was “not just good for declared enemies” but also accessible to “all other enemies with Internet access.”

Manning, Fein added, released over 700,000 documents that were on SIPRnet “during a time of war and while deployed.” He was “never authorized to make classification decisions to affect the national security of the United States.” He was given “unfettered access” to the information and “multiple enemies received” this information.

Now, it is clear: the effect of Manning’s prosecution has the potential to criminalize national security journalism. Not only would successfully putting Manning in prison for life without parole make an example for other soldiers to deter any others from responding to their moral conscience if they came across files that contained evidence of possible war crimes, but this would make it possible for the government to go after journalists who cover documents from the military or security industrial-complex.

This also cements the fact that WikiLeaks is viewed as a terrorist organization by the US government (or at least one that aids terrorist organizations through the publication of classified information). Anyone who releases information to WikiLeaks can count on being pursued by the government and, when caught, charged with “aiding the enemy”—terrorists, because they have access to the Internet and could read material that was once-secret.

Unsurprisingly, the defense’s closing argument given by David Coombs sharply contrasted with this rather incendiary condemnation of Manning. Coombs presented Manning as a “young and idealistic” man with a “strong moral compass.”

“Obviously, in your early twenties, you believe you can change the world,” Coombs stated. “In your early twenties, you believe you can make a difference and that’s a good thing. In your early twenties, when your president says, ‘Yes We Can,’ you actually believe that.”

He wholly condemned the government’s overreaction to the release of documents by WikiLeaks and their insistence that the documents have done “extreme harm” and so Manning must pay with his life.

“What was the result of these leaks?” Coombs asked. It would be possible to know if the original classification authorities (OCAs) had been in court to testify. They were not. They instead submitted “unsworn statements” indicating “relevant information could cause harm.”

Coombs said the OCAs were reinforcing the “Chicken Little response of the US government” that began with Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell going around saying, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling,” and continues most recently with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying “the sky is falling, the sky is falling.”

“The sky is not falling and the sky will not fall,” declared Coombs.

Moments before calling out the OCAs, he spoke of the profound suffering Manning had been experiencing as a member of the military who had gender identity disorder. He cited an email to Sgt. Paul Adkins, who escaped testifying during the hearing by invoking his right to not incriminate himself.

All throughout the hearing this email was frequently referenced because it included a photo of Manning dressed up as a woman. For the first time, Coombs read what Manning had written to Adkins.

“This is my problem. I’ve had signs of it for a very long time. I’ve been trying very, very hard to get rid of it.” It is not going away. It is haunting me more and more as I get older. Now the consequences are getting harder. “I am not sure what to do with it. It’s destroying my ties with family. It is preventing me from developing as a person. It’s the cause of my pain and confusion. It makes the most basic things in my life very difficult. He said the only help that seems available is severe punishment. “I have a fear of getting caught” and have gone to “great lengths to conceal my disorder.”

The email continued: “It is difficult to sleep and impossible to have conversations. It makes “my entire life feel like a bad dream that won’t end. “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what will happen to me. But at this point I feel like I am not here anymore. Signed, Bradley Manning.”

Coombs appropriately concluded by paraphrasing a quote many attribute to the late Justice Louis Brandeis, “Sunlight has always been the best disinfectant.”

He quoted Martin Luther King Jr., a flourish that surely pleased supporters of Manning:

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.

“[A] hallmark of our democracy is the ability of our government to be open with its public,” Coombs stated. “History will ultimately judge my client.”

This was the first clear instance during the entire hearing that Coombs conceded that Manning had, in fact, released the information to WikiLeaks, but the government should not get away with prosecuting Manning because he was simply doing what he thought to be just. And there is no justification for persecuting someone, who sought to raise the public’s awareness of gross injustices, and move the government to effectively resolve and end an era of corruption and lawlessness under President George W. Bush’s administration.

 

Manning’s punishment before verdict

Are the proceedings against the Wikileaks suspect designed to send a message to would-be leakers?

Photo: Bradley Manning, suspected Wikileaks source, has endured harsh treatment. (Credit: AP)

(UPDATED BELOW)

Will the harsh treatment of Bradley Manning dissuade would-be leakers in the military from releasing information that may be of public interest?

Supporters of Manning as well as outside observers of the case say the extraordinary conditions of his confinement as well as the length of time that Manning has been held without being convicted of anything could weigh heavily on any person mulling a conscience-driven leak.

“Bradley’s treatment has been extreme. There was no reason for it other than to tell other soldiers, ‘If you do something like this, we’re going to ruin you.’” says Jeff Paterson, co-founder of the Bradley Manning Support Network, which is helping Manning as he fights charges of leaking a trove of classified materials to WikiLeaks.


http://www.salon.com/2010/12/15/manning_3/

News of the World phone-hacking whistleblower found dead

News of the World phone-hacking whistleblower found dead

Death of Sean Hoare – who was first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson knew of hacking – not being treated as suspicious.

Hoare first made his claims in a New York Times investigation into the phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World. Photograph: Hazel Thompson/Eyevine

Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbusiness reporter who was the first named journalist to allege that Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead .

Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, was said to have been found at his Watford home.

Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but said in a statement: “At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for the welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after.

“The death is currently being treated as unexplained but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing.”

There was an unexplained delay in the arrival of forensics officers at the scene.

Neighbours said three police cars and two ambulances arrived at the property shortly before 11am. They left around four hours later, around 3pm, shortly after a man and a woman, believed to be grieving relatives, arrived at the premises. There was no police presence at the scene at all for several hours.

The curtains were drawn at the first-floor apartment in a new-build block of flats.

At about 9.15pm, three hours after the Guardian revealed Hoare had been found dead a police van marked “Scientific Services Unit” pulled up at the address, where a police car was already parked. Two officers emerged carrying evidence bags, clipboards, torches and laptop-style bags and entered the building. Three officers carrying cameras and wearing white forensic suits went into the flat at around 9.30pm.

Hoare was in his mid-40s. He first made his claims in a New York Times investigation into the phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World. He told the newspaper that not only did Coulson know of the hacking, but he also actively encouraged his staff to intercept the calls of celebrities in the pursuit of exclusives.

In a subsequent interview with the BBC he alleged he was personally asked by his editor at the time, Coulson, to tap into phones. In an interview with the PM programme he said Coulson’s insistence he did not know of the practice was “a lie, it is simply a lie”. At the time a Downing Street spokeswoman said Coulson totally and utterly denied the allegations; he had “never condoned the use of phone hacking and nor do I have any recollection of incidences where hacking took place”.

Hoare said he was once a close friend of Coulson’s, and told the New York Times the two first worked together at the Sun, where, Hoare said, he played recordings of hacked messages for Coulson. At the News of the World, Hoare said, he continued to inform Coulson of his activities. He “actively encouraged me to do it”, Hoare said. In September last year he was interviewed under caution by police over his claim the former Tory communications chief asked him to hack into phones when editor of the paper, but declined to make any comment.

Hoare returned to the spotlight last week, after he told the New York Times that reporters at the NoW were able to use police technology to locate people using their mobile phone signals, in exchange for payments to police officers. He said journalists were able to use “pinging”, which measured the distance between a mobile handset and a number of phone masts to pinpoint its location.

Hoare gave further details about “pinging” to the Guardian last week. He described how reporters would ask a news desk executive to obtain the location of a target: “Within 15 to 30 minutes someone on the news desk would come back and say ‘Right, that’s where they are.'”

He said: “You’d just go to the news desk and they’d come back to you. You don’t ask any questions. You’d consider it a job done.

“The chain of command is one of absolute discipline, and that’s why I never bought into it, like with Andy saying he wasn’t aware of it and all that. That’s bollocks.”

He said he stood by everything he told the New York Times of “pinging”. “I don’t know how often it happened. That would be wrong of me. But if I had access, as a humble reporter … ”

He admitted he had had problems with drink and drugs, and had been in rehab. “But that’s irrelevant,” he said. “There’s more to come. This is not going to go away.”

Hoare named a private investigator who he said had links with the News of the World, adding: “He may want to talk now, because I think what you’ll find now is a lot of people are going to want to cover their arse.” Speaking to another Guardian journalist last week, Hoare repeatedly expressed the hope that the hacking scandal would lead to journalism in general being cleaned up, and said he had decided to blow the whistle on the activities of some of his former NoW colleagues with that aim in mind.

He also said he had been injured the previous weekend while taking down a marquee erected for a children’s party. He said he broke his nose and badly injured his foot when a relative accidentally struck him with a pole from the marquee. Hoare also emphasised that he was not making any money from telling his story.

Having been treated for drug and alcohol problems, Hoare reminisced about his partying with former pop stars and said that he missed the days when he was able to go out on the town.

On Monday evening the curtains were drawn at his home, a first-floor apartment in a new-build block of flats.

A neighbour living opposite, Nicky Dormer, said three police cars and two ambulances arrived at the property at 11am; police left at 3pm, shortly after a man and a woman, believed to be grieving relatives, arrived at the premises.

She and another neighbour described Hoare as a jovial man who would often sit on his balcony, overlooking the block entrance, and talk to residents. They said he lived in the block with his partner, a woman called Jo, who they believed had been away on holiday. Neither had seen Hoare for a few days.

Paul Pritchard, 30, another neighbour, said Sean Hoare was “the most sociable” resident, and they would regularly see him watering the communal front lawn.

“It is just such a shock. About a month ago he said he felt unwell and he said he went to the doctors for a checkup. Then I saw him again and he seemed well.”

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/18/news-of-the-world-sean-hoare

Mordechai Vanunu

Mordechai Vanunu

 

Mordechai Vanunu

Mordechai Vanunu in 2009.
Born Mordechai Vanunu
October 14, 1954 (1954-10-14) (age 57)
Marrakesh, Morocco
Nationality Israeli
Other names John Crossman
Ethnicity Sephardi Jew
Known for Nuclear whistleblower
Religion Christianity
Denomination Anglican Church of Australia[1]

Mordechai Vanunu (Hebrew: מרדכי ואנונו‎); (born 14 October 1954) is a former Israeli nuclear technician who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel’s nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986.[2][3] He was subsequently lured to Italy by a Mossad agent, where he was drugged and kidnapped by Israeli intelligence agents.[2] He was transported to Israel and ultimately convicted in a trial that was held behind closed doors.[2]

Vanunu spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 in solitary confinement. Released from prison in 2004, he became subject to a broad array of restrictions on his speech and movement. Since then he has been arrested several times for violations of those restrictions, including giving various interviews to foreign journalists and attempting to leave Israel. He says he suffered “cruel and barbaric treatment” at the hands of Israeli authorities while imprisoned, and suggests that his treatment would have been different if he were Jewish (Vanunu is a Christian convert from Judaism).[4]

In 2007, Vanunu was sentenced to six months in prison for violating terms of his parole. The sentence was considered unusual even by the prosecution who expected a suspended sentence. In response, Amnesty International issued a press release on 2 July 2007, stating that “The organisation considers Mordechai Vanunu to be a prisoner of conscience and calls for his immediate and unconditional release.”[5] In May 2010, Vanunu was arrested and sentenced to three months in jail on suspicion that he met foreigners in violation of conditions of his 2004 release from jail.

Vanunu has been characterized internationally as a whistleblower[6][7] and by Israel as a traitor.[8][9][10][11] Daniel Ellsberg has referred to him as “the preeminent hero of the nuclear era”.[12] In 2010, the British artist Richard Hamilton completed a painting based on the famous press photograph of Vanunu in transit after his kidnapping, with the information concerning his capture in Rome scrawled on his hand for the press outside.

Contents

[edit] Early and educational life

Vanunu was born in Marrakech, Morocco, to a Sephardi Jewish family; his father was a rabbi. In 1963, Vanunu’s family emigrated to Israel under the Law of Return, fleeing widespread antisemitism in Morocco. Vanunu was nine years old at the time, and had four brothers and sisters. His parents had six more children in Israel. The family settled in Beersheba, where Vanunu studied in an Ultra-Orthodox elementary school, and attended but did not finish a Bnei Akiva yeshiva high school.[13][14] Vanunu was conscripted into the Israel Defense Forces in 1971, where he served as a sapper in the Combat Engineering Corps with the rank of First Sergeant. Vanunu was stationed on the Golan Heights, and saw action during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Vanunu was honorably discharged in 1974, and began studying physics at Tel Aviv University. After failing two exams at the end of his first year, he left the university.[15]

[edit] Negev Nuclear Research Center


Vanunu’s photograph of a Negev Nuclear Research Center glove box containing nuclear materials in a model bomb assembly, one of about 60 photographs he later gave to the British press.

In 1976, Vanunu applied for a job at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, an Israeli facility used to develop and manufacture nuclear weapons[13][16] located in the Negev Desert south of Dimona. Most worldwide intelligence agencies estimate that Israel developed nuclear weapons as early as the 1960s, but the country has intentionally maintained a “policy of deliberate ambiguity“, neither acknowledging nor denying that it possesses nuclear weapons. Vanunu was responding to an advertisement for trainee technicians to work at the facility. After a lengthy interview with the facility’s security officer, he was accepted for training, and was put through an intensive course in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and English. He did sufficiently well to be accepted, and was employed as a nuclear plant technician and shift manager in February 1977.[15]

In 1979, he became a part-time geography and philosophy student at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba.[13] At that time he became critical of many policies of the Israeli government, forming a group called “Campus” with five Arab and four Jewish students. Vanunu was also affiliated with a group called “Movement for the Advancement of Peace”. He opposed the 1982 Lebanon War, and campaigned for equal rights for Israeli-Arabs.[17] In his security file at the Negev Nuclear Research Center, it was noted that he had displayed “left-wing and pro-Arab beliefs”.[15] Vanunu graduated from Ben-Gurion University in 1985 with a BA in philosophy and geography.[18]

In early 1985, Vanunu lost his job following a mass layoff of workers due to government cutbacks, but his labor union won him his job back. After getting his job back, Vanunu smuggled a camera into the facility and secretly took 57 photographs. He was subsequently fired after he participated in a pro-Arab rally and called for the creation of a Palestinian state.[17]

[edit] Disclosure, abduction and publication


On 5 October 1986, the British newspaper The Sunday Times ran the story on its front page under the headline: “Revealed: the secrets of Israel’s nuclear arsenal.”

In late 1985, Vanunu took a backpacking trip through the Far East, eventually settling in Australia and becoming a taxi driver in Sydney. He renounced Judaism and converted to Christianity, joining the Anglican Church of Australia.[1][17][19] In June 1985, he met Oscar Guerrero, a freelance journalist from Colombia. Guerrero persuaded Vanunu to sell his story, claiming that his story and photographs were worth up to $1 million. After failing to interest Newsweek, Guerrero approached the British Sunday Times, and within a few days, Vanunu was interviewed by Sunday Times journalist Peter Hounam. In early September 1986, Vanunu flew to London with Hounam, and in violation of his non-disclosure agreement, revealed to the Sunday Times his knowledge of the Israeli nuclear programme, including photographs he had secretly taken at the Dimona site.

The Sunday Times was wary of being duped after having previously been embarrassed by the Hitler Diaries hoax. As a result, the newspaper insisted on verifying Vanunu’s story with leading nuclear weapon experts, including former U.S. nuclear weapons designer Theodore Taylor and former British AWE engineer Frank Barnaby,[20] who agreed that Vanunu’s story was factual and correct. Vanunu gave detailed descriptions of lithium-6 separation required for the production of tritium, an essential ingredient of fusion-boosted fission bombs. While both experts concluded that Israel might be making such single-stage boosted bombs, Vanunu, whose work experience was limited to material (not component) production, gave no specific evidence that Israel was making two-stage thermonuclear bombs, such as neutron bombs. Vanunu described the plutonium processing used, giving a production rate of about 30 kg per year, and stated that Israel used about 4 kg per weapon.[21][22] From this information it was possible to estimate that Israel had sufficient plutonium for about 150 nuclear weapons.[20]

Vanunu states in his letters that he intended to share the money received from the newspaper (for the information) with the Anglican Church of Australia. Apparently, frustrated by the delay while Hounam was completing his research, Vanunu approached a rival newspaper, the tabloid Sunday Mirror, whose owner was Robert Maxwell. In 1991, a self-described former Mossad officer or government translator named Ari Ben-Menashe alleged that Maxwell had tipped off the Mossad, possibly through British secret services, about Vanunu. It is also possible that they were alerted by enquiries made to Israelis or to the Israeli Embassy in London by Sunday Mirror journalists.

The Israeli government decided to capture Vanunu, but determined to avoid harming its good relationship with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and not wanting risk confrontation with British intelligence, determined Vanunu should be persuaded to leave British territory under his own volition. Through constant surveillance, the Mossad found that Vanunu had become lonely and eager for female companionship. Masquerading as an American tourist called “Cindy”, Israeli Mossad agent Cheryl Bentov befriended Vanunu, and on 30 September persuaded him to fly to Rome with her on a holiday.[23] This relation has been perceived as a classic honey trap operation whereby an intelligence agent employs seduction to gain the target’s trust—a practice which has been officially sanctioned in Israel.[24][25][26] On the day Bentov met Vanunu, the Israeli Navy electronic surveillance ship INS Noga was ordered to the Italian coast. The Noga, disguised as a merchant ship, was fitted with electronic surveillance equipment and satellite communications gear in its superstructure, and was primarily used to intercept communications traffic in Arab ports. As the ship was heading from Antalya in Turkey back to Haifa, the captain was instructed to change course for Italy and anchor off the coast in an encrypted message. The Noga arrived off the Italian port city of La Spezia and anchored in international waters, just outside Italian waters.

Once in Rome, the Vanunu and Bentov took a taxi to an apartment in the old quarter of the city, where three waiting Mossad operatives overpowered Vanunu and injected him with a paralyzing drug. Later that night, a white van hired by the Israeli embassy arrived, and Vanunu was carried to it on a stretcher. The ambulance drove out of Rome, down the coast to a pre-arranged point. Vanunu was transferred to a waiting speedboat, which then rendezvoused with the waiting Noga anchored off the coast. Vanunu was brought onto the Noga in total secrecy. The crew were told to assemble in the ship’s common room and lock the door as Vanunu and the Mossad agents were taken aboard. The ship then set sail for Israel. During the journey, Vanunu was kept in a cabin, with Mossad agents taking turns guarding him. None of the Noga’s crew were allowed to look at the prisoner. On 6 October, the ship anchored off the coast of Israel between Tel Aviv and Haifa, where it was met by a smaller vessel which Vanunu was transferred to. The vessel then took Vanunu to Israel.[23][27][28]

On 5 October, the Sunday Times published the information it had revealed, and estimated that Israel had produced more than 100 nuclear warheads.[29]

In July 2004 Vanunu claimed in the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper that the State of Israel was complicit in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He claimed there were “near-certain indications” that Kennedy was assassinated in response to “pressure he exerted on Israel’s then head of government, David Ben-Gurion, to shed light on Dimona’s nuclear reactor”.[30][31][32][33]

[edit] Imprisonment

Vanunu revealed details of his detention by writing on his hand: “Vanunu M was hijacked in Rome. ITL. 30.9.86, 21:00. Came to Rome by fly BA504.”

Vanunu was put on trial in Israel on charges of treason and espionage. The trial, held in secret, took place in the Jerusalem District Court before Chief Justice Eliahu Noam and Judges Zvi Tal and Shalom Brener. Vanunu was represented by Avigdor Feldman, an Israeli civil and human rights lawyer. He was not permitted contact with the media but he wrote the details of his abduction (or “hijacking”, as he put it) on the palm of his hand, and while being transported he held his hand against the van’s window so that waiting journalists could get the information.

On 27 February 1988, the court sentenced him to eighteen years of imprisonment from the date of his capture. The Israeli government refused to release the transcript of the court case until, after the threat of legal action, it agreed to let censored extracts be published in Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli newspaper, in late 1999.

The death penalty in Israel is restricted to special circumstances. In 2004, former Mossad director Shabtai Shavit told Reuters that the option of extrajudicial execution was considered in 1986, but rejected because “Jews don’t do that to other Jews.”[34]

Vanunu served his eighteen-year sentence at Shikma Prison in Ashkelon.[19] He spent more than eleven years of his sentence in solitary confinement, allegedly out of concern that he might reveal more Israeli nuclear secrets and because he was still bound by the contract that swore him to secrecy on the subject. While in prison, Vanunu took part in small acts of non-submission, such as refusing psychiatric treatment, refusing to talk with the guards, reading only English-language newspapers, and watching only BBC television. “He is the most stubborn, principled, and tough person I have ever met,” said his lawyer, Avigdor Feldman.

In 1998, Vanunu appealed to the Supreme Court for his Israeli citizenship to be revoked. The Interior Minister denied Vanunu’s request on grounds that he did not have another citizenship.[35]

Many critics argue that Vanunu had no additional information that would pose a real security threat to Israel, and that the Israeli government’s real motivation is a desire to avoid political embarrassment and financial complications for itself and allies such as the United States. By not acknowledging possession of nuclear weapons, Israel avoids a US legal prohibition on funding countries which proliferate weapons of mass destruction. Such an admission would prevent Israel from receiving over $3 billion each year in military and other aid from Washington.[36]

Ray Kidder, then a senior American nuclear scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has said:

On the basis of this research and my own professional experience, I am ready to challenge any official assertion that Mr. Vanunu possesses any technical nuclear information not already made public.[37]

His last appeal against his conviction, to the Supreme Court of Israel in 1990, failed.

[edit] Release, liberties restrictions and asylum applications

Vanunu was released from prison on 21 April 2004. Surrounded by dozens of journalists and flanked by two of his brothers, he held an impromptu press conference, but refused to answer questions in Hebrew because of the suffering he said he sustained at the hands of the State of Israel. Vanunu said Israel’s Mossad spy agency and the Shin Bet security services tried to rob him of his sanity by keeping him in solitary confinement. “You didn’t succeed to break me, you didn’t succeed to make me crazy,” he said. Vanunu also called for Israel’s nuclear disarmament, and for its dismantlement as a Jewish state. Around 200 supporters and a smaller number of counter-demonstrators attended the conference.[19] He indicated a desire to completely dissociate himself from Israel, initially refusing to speak in Hebrew, and planning to move to Europe or the United States[38] as soon as the Israeli government would permit him to do so. Shortly before his scheduled release, Vanunu remained defiant under interrogation by the security service, Shin Bet. In recordings of the interview made public after his release, he is heard saying “I am neither a traitor nor a spy, I only wanted the world to know what was happening.” He also said, “We don’t need a Jewish state. There needs to be a Palestinian state. Jews can, and have lived anywhere, so a Jewish State is not necessary.”[39] “Vanunu is a difficult and complex person. He remains stubbornly, admirably uncompromisingly true to his principles, is willing to pay the price”, said Ha’aretz newspaper in 2008.[40]

A number of prohibitions were placed upon Vanunu after his release from jail and are still in force, in particular:

  • he shall not be able to have contacts with citizens of other countries but Israel
  • he shall not use phones
  • he shall not own cellullar phones
  • he shall not have access to the Internet
  • he shall not approach or enter embassies and consulates
  • he shall not come within 500 metres of any international border crossing
  • he shall not visit any port of entry and airport
  • he shall not leave the State of Israel

Israeli authorities state that their reason of these forbiddances and liberties restrictions is fear of his spreading further state secrets and that he is still bound by his non-disclosure agreement. These stipulate that he must inform the authorities in advance about his place of residence, his movements between cities, and whom he intends to meet.[41] While a court found in 2005 that he should be free to go to the Gaza Strip and West Bank, a year later further restrictions explicitly forbade him to visit either, reversing the court’s initial decision.

Vanunu says that his knowledge is now outdated and he has nothing more he could possibly reveal that is not already widely known. Despite the stated restrictions Vanunu has given interviews to the foreign press since his release, including a live phone interview to BBC Radio Scotland.

On 22 April 2004, Vanunu asked the government of Norway for a Norwegian passport and asylum in Norway for “humanitarian reasons,” according to Norwegian media. He also sent applications to other countries, and stated that he would accept asylum in any country because he fears for his life. Former conservative Norwegian Prime Minister Kåre Willoch asked the conservative government to give Vanunu asylum, and the University of Tromsø offered him a job. On 9 April 2008, it was revealed that Vanunu’s request for asylum in Norway was rejected in 2004 by Erna Solberg, Minister of Local Government in the liberal coalition government led by then Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. While the Norwegian foreigner directorate (State Department) (UDI) had been prepared to grant Vanunu asylum, it was suddenly decided that the application could not be accepted because Vanunu had applied for it from outside of the borders of Norway. An unclassified document revealed that Solberg and the government considered that extracting Vanunu from Israel might be seen as an action against Israel and thereby unfitting the Norwegian government’s tradition role as a friend of Israel and as a political player in the Middle East. Since the information has been revealed, Solberg has rejected criticism and defended her decision.[42][43][44]

Vanunu’s application for asylum in Sweden has also been rejected on the grounds that Sweden, like Norway does not accept absentee asylum applications. He also unsuccessfully requested asylum in Ireland, which would require him to first be allowed to leave Israel. He has not applied for asylum in his native Morocco.

In 2006, Amnesty International‘s British branch chief, Keith Allen, wrote that Microsoft handed over the details of Vanunu’s Hotmail email account by alluding that he was being investigated for espionage. This happened before a court order had been obtained.[45]

International calls for his freedom of movement and freedom of speech made by organizations supporting Vanunu have been either ignored or rejected by Israel.

On 15 May 2008, the “Norwegian Lawyer’s Petition for Vanunu” was released, signed by 24 Norwegian attorneys. It calls on the Norwegian government to urgently implement a three-point action plan “within the framework of international and Norwegian law” and allow Vanunu to travel to, live and work in Norway.

On 11 October 2010, Vanunu’s appeal to rescind the restrictions and allow him to leave Israel and speak to foreigners was denied by the Israeli Supreme Court.[46]

[edit] Arrests and hearings

Yossi Melman, an Israeli journalist, wrote in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz “Vanunu’s harassment by the Israeli government is unprecedented and represents a distortion of every accepted legal norm.”[40] Vanunu was denied parole at a hearing in May 1998.[47] Five years later, parole was again refused. At this parole hearing, Vanunu’s lawyer Avigdor Feldman maintained that his client had no more secrets and should be freed. But the prosecution argued that the imminent war with Iraq would preclude his release. After the hearing, Feldman said, “The prosecutor said that if Vanunu were released, the Americans would probably leave Iraq and go after Israel and Israel’s nuclear weapons – which I found extremely ridiculous.” The real force blocking Vanunu’s release, who had been known only as “Y”, was exposed in 2001 as Yehiyel Horev, the head of Mossad‘s nuclear and military secrets branch.[48] Following his release in 2004, Vanunu appeared in Israeli courts on numerous occasions on charges of having violated the terms of his release. He was arrested and detained for attempting to go to Bethlehem, on at least one occasion his room in St. George’s Cathedral was raided by policemen and his belongings were confiscated.[49]

Yehiel Horev, the strictest of all the security chiefs in Israel, especially in regard to the protection of institutions such as the Dimona facility and the Biological Institute, is apprehensive that if Vanunu goes abroad, he will continue to be a nuisance by stimulating the public debate over Israel’s nuclear policy and the nuclear weapons he says Israel possesses. This is the secret that has not yet been told in the affair: the story of the security fiasco that made it possible for Vanunu to do what he did, and the story of subsequent attempts to cover-up, whitewash and protect senior figures in the defense establishment, who were bent on divesting themselves of responsibility for the failure.[50]

  • On 11 November 2004, Vanunu was arrested by the International Investigations Unit of the Israel Police at around 9am while eating breakfast. The arrest stemmed from an ongoing probe examining suspicions of leaking national secrets and violating legal rulings since his release from prison. Police officers wearing bulletproof vests and carrying machine guns entered the walled compound of St. George’s Anglican Cathedral, where Vanunu had been living since his release. Police removed papers and a computer from his room. After a few hours’ detention, Vanunu was put under house arrest, which was to last seven days.[51]
  • On 24 December 2004 in a vehicle marked as belonging to the foreign press, Vanunu was arrested by Israeli Police while he was attempting to enter the West Bank in violation of his release restrictions (see above), allegedly to attend mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. After posting bail of 50,000 NIS, he was released into five-day house arrest.[52]
  • On 26 January 2005 the BBC reported that its Jerusalem deputy bureau chief, Simon Wilson, was banned from Israel after he refused to submit interview material made with Vanunu to Israeli censors.[53] Vanunu gave the interview in violation of court orders. Wilson was allowed to return to Israel on 12 March 2005 after signing an apology letter acknowledging that he defied the law.[54]
  • On 17 March 2005 Vanunu was charged with 21 counts of “contravening a lawful direction” (maximum penalty two years’ imprisonment per count) and one count of “attempting to contravene a lawful direction.”
  • On 18 November 2005 Vanunu was arrested at the al-Ram checkpoint north of Jerusalem as he was returning by bus from the West Bank. The Israeli authorities claimed Vanunu’s travel ban includes visits to the Palestinian territories.[55][56]
  • On 13 April 2007 Vanunu was informed that the Israeli government has continued his house arrest in Jerusalem and renewed all the restrictions against him, for the fourth time and third year of detention in east Jerusalem.
  • On 30 April 2007 Vanunu was convicted of violating the order barring foreign contacts and traveling outside Jerusalem.[57]
  • In July 2007, Vanunu was sentenced to a further six months imprisonment for speaking to foreigners and traveling to Bethlehem.[58] The court’s sentence was unexpected, and even the prosecution expected the court to hand down a suspended sentence, meant solely as a deterrent.[59] Following his sentence, Vanunu commented that his conviction proved that Israel was still ruled, in effect, by the British Mandate because the law under which he was convicted is from that era. “Maybe I need to turn to the Queen or to Tony Blair in order to grant me justice,” he said.[60]
  • While having dinner at the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem with a foreigner, Vanunu was arrested for the second time on a Christmas Eve.[61]
  • On 7 January 2008, the day before his appeal against the above sentence was to begin, Vanunu was re-sentenced to six months of community service.[62]
  • On 7 April 2008 Vanunu learned that Israel had renewed the restrictions against him for the fifth time. On 9 April 2008 it was reported that Norway had joined Sweden, Canada and Denmark in refusing asylum to Vanunu.[63]
  • On 9 April 2008 unclassified documents revealed that the former Norwegian coalition government led by former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik denied Vanunu asylum in 2004 as a supportive gesture to Israel.[42]
  • On 13 May 2008 Vanunu wrote that although three judges attempted to convince the Government Lawyer to offer community service in East Jerusalem, it was denied. Vanunu’s appeal against his six months jail sentence was set to resume on 8 July 2008[64]
  • On 15 May 2008 the Norwegian Lawyer’s Petition called upon the Norwegian government to urgently implement a three-point action plan within the framework of international and Norwegian law, to grant Vanunu asylum and permission to work and stay in Norway.
  • On 23 September 2008 the Jerusalem District Court announced: “In light of (Vanunu’s) ailing health and the absence of claims that his actions put the country’s security in jeopardy, we believe his sentence should be reduced.” Vanunu said his health is fine and that, “The issue is about my right to be free, my right to speak and my right to leave the state.”
  • In October 2008, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond called for Vanunu’s release, saying, “The Scottish Government is well aware of the campaign by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and supports the lifting of all restrictions imposed on Mr Mordechai Vanunu.”[65]
  • On 26 November 2008, “Vanunu’s Supreme Court appeal fighting a three month jail sentence [reduced from six] for speaking to foreigners – who happened to be media – in 2004, is scheduled to be heard in the New Year.”[66]
  • On 14 June 2009, Vanunu stated, “The Central Commander of the General Army testified in court that it is OK if I speak in public as long as I do not talk about nuclear weapons… They renewed the restrictions to not speak to foreigners until November. The appeal [against three months in jail for speaking to foreign media in 2004] was scheduled for January, then May 6th and June 18th. Now I am waiting for a new court date.”[67]
  • On 6 July 2009, Vanunu’s “attorney Avigdor Feldman…and the state agreed that after six months, pending a review of his conduct, Vanunu will be able to ask for the restrictions to be lifted and be allowed to travel abroad.”
  • On 28 December 2009, Vanunu was arrested by Jerusalem Police in a hotel following an alleged meeting with his girlfriend.[68]
  • On 29 December 2009, Russian media reported that a search of Vanunu’s belongings uncovered a letter from an American causing Israeli officials to be concerned that “he could be orchestrating something.” On 1 January 2010, it was revealed that Vanunu has known his Norwegian girlfriend, Dr. Kristin Joachimsen, a scholar and an associate professor of Biblical Studies for two years.
  • On 7 January 2010, Vanunu published his video message to the Media regarding his most recent arrest and Israel’s “impotent” nuclear ambiguity.
  • On 14 April 2010, Vanunu reported that the restrictions denying him the right to leave Israel were renewed for another year.
  • On 11 May 2010, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Mordechai Vanunu, will “serve a three-month jail sentence handed to him by Jerusalem District Court and not community service” which will begin on May 23, 2010. Vanunu had been sentenced to community service, but had stated his refusal to perform community service in west Jerusalem, claiming that he would be in danger of being assaulted by a member of the Israeli public, but offered to do community service in east Jerusalem. The Court refused Vanunu’s offer.[69][70] Eleven days earlier, Amnesty International had released a press release following the announcement of this sentence: “If Mordechai Vanunu is imprisoned again, Amnesty International will declare him to be a prisoner of conscience and call for his immediate and unconditional release.”[71]
  • On 24 May 2010, Vanunu began serving his three-month prison sentence.[72] On June 18, it was reported that Vanunu had been placed in solitary confinement.[73]
  • On 8 August 2010, Vanunu was released from prison.[74]
  • On 14 July 2011, Vanunu appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to instruct Interior Minister Eli Yishai to revoke his Israeli citizenship, claiming that “the Israeli street” and media were treating him belligerently, and that he could “no longer find his place in Israeli society”, and that despite his release from prison, “the State of Israel continues to penalize him by imposing various restrictions on his person and travels”. Vanunu’s appeal noted an amendment to the Citizenship Act which allowed the Interior Minister to revoke his citizenship even if he did not hold another one, and claimed that revocation of his Israeli citizenship would allow him to seek citizenship or permanent residency in a European country.[75]
  • On 31 August 2011, Vanunu wrote: “The court hearing about the restrictions, not to speak to foreigners, not to leave Israel will be on Oct’ 3 [it is possible the date can be changed]. About canceling my Israel citizenship, we are waiting to hear from Interior minister or we will have one more court hearing.”[76]

[edit] Awards and honours

Vanunu wrote the poem “I’m Your Spy” early during the first eleven and a half years he was held in strict isolation.[77]

Amnesty International described his treatment as constituting “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment […] such as is prohibited by international law.”[citation needed]

Vanunu received the Right Livelihood Award in 1987. He was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Tromsø in 2001.

Vanunu was nominated by Joseph Rotblat for the Nobel Peace Prize every year from 1988 to 2004.[citation needed]

In March 2009 Vanunu wrote to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Oslo:

I am asking the committee to remove my name from the list for this year’s list of nominations. I cannot be part of a list of laureates that includes Shimon Peres, the President of Israel. He is the man who was behind all the Israeli atomic policy. Peres established and developed the atomic weapon program in Dimona in Israel..Peres was the man who ordered the kidnapping of me in Italy Rome, Sept. 30, 1986, and for the secret trial and sentencing of me as a spy and traitor for 18 years in isolation in prison in Israel. Until now he continues to oppose my freedom and release, in spite of my serving full sentence 18 years. From all these reasons I don’t want be nominated and will not accept this nomination. I say No to any nomination as long as I am not free, that is, as long as I am still forced to be in Israel. What I want is freedom and only freedom.[78]

In September 2004, artist and musician Yoko Ono gave Mordechai Vanunu a peace prize founded in memory of John Lennon, her late husband.

In December 2004, he was elected by the students of the University of Glasgow to serve for three years as Rector.[79] On 22 April 2005 he was formally installed in the post,[80] but could not carry out any of its functions as he was still confined to Israel. The Herald newspaper launched a campaign for his release.

In 2005 he received the Peace Prize of the Norwegian People (Folkets fredspris).[81] Previous recipients of this prize include Vytautas Landsbergis (1991), Alva Myrdal (1982), Mairead Maguire and Betty Williams.

On 24 February 2010, the Nobel Institute Director, Geir Lundestad, announced that for the second year in a row, Mordechai Vanunu had declined the honour of being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Vanunu wrote, “What I want now, I need now, is freedom, passport, [not] awards.”[citation needed]

On 21 September 2010, the Teach Peace Foundation recognized Mordechai Vanunu for his courageous actions to halt the development and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction by the Israeli government.[82]

On 4 October 2010, the International League for Human Rights announced that Vanunu was awarded the Carl-von-Ossietzky-Medal for 2010.[83]

On 16 November 2010, the International League for Human Rights released their letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, seeking Vanunu’s free departure out of Israel to allow him to receive this years Carl-von-Ossietzky-Medal at the Award Ceremony in Berlin on 12 December 2010.[84]

The 12 December 2010, Carl von Ossietzky Medal Ceremony in Berlin was renamed a protest and also for nuclear disarmament. On this occasion a music-composition[85] for Vanunu was released and had the first performance.[86] Pravda reported that Nobel Laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire, called the enforced absence of Vanunu ‘shameful’ and that the International League of Human Rights never received a response from their letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defence Minister Barak and Interior Minister Yishai.[87]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Sarah J. Diehl and James Clay Moltz (2008). Nuclear Weapons and Nonproliferation: A Reference Handbook (ABC-CLIO, ISBN 9781598840711) p. 208.
  2. ^ a b c Myre, Greg (21 April 2004). “Israeli Who Revealed Nuclear Secrets Is Freed”. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/21/international/middleeast/21CND-NUCL.html?scp=1&sq=Vanunu%20drugged&st=cse. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
  3. ^ “Suffered in Israeli jail, says Christian convert”. Christian Century. 2004-05-18. Archived from the original on April 25, 2005. http://web.archive.org/web/20050425180953/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_10_121/ai_n6159160. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
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  5. ^ “Israel: Israel: Mordechai Vanunu sentence clear violation of human rights”. Amnesty International. 2 July 2007. http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGMDE150442007.
  6. ^ “Correspondent: Israel’s Secret Weapon (transcript)”. BBC. 17 March 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/programmes/correspondent/transcripts/17_03_2003.txt.
  7. ^ “Capturing nuclear whistle-blower was ‘a lucky stroke,’ agents recall”. Ha’aretz. 12 November 2006. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=%20417663&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y.
  8. ^ “The meaning of Vanunu”. Jewish World Review. 26 April 2004. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0404/stephens_vanunu.php3.
  9. ^ “Vanunu: traitor or prisoner of conscience?”. The Sydney Morning Herald. 22 April 2004. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/21/1082530235940.html?from=storyrhs.
  10. ^ “Vanunu: Hero or traitor?”. j.. 23 April 2004. http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/22200/edition_id/448/format/html/displaystory.html.
  11. ^ “Vanunu ‘wanted to avert holocaust'”. BBC. 29 May 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3758693.stm.
  12. ^ “Commondreams.org”. Commondreams.org. 2004-04-21. http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0421-06.htm. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
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  40. ^ a b Haaretz “It is time to free Vanunu.” by Yossi Melman. 16 April 2008.
  41. ^ “Israel extends Vanunu travel ban”. BBC. 19 April 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4459371.stm.
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  44. ^ “Vanunu-venner i harnisk – VG Nett”. Vg.no. http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/midtosten/artikkel.php?artid=531497. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
  45. ^ Allen, Kate (28 May 2006). “Today, our chance to fight a new hi-tech tyranny”. London: The Observer. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/amnesty/story/0,,1784718,00.html. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
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  49. ^ Sharrock, David (12 November 2004). “Israelis seize Vanunu inside cathedral”. London: timesonline. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article390133.ece. Retrieved 2008-10-05.
  50. ^ “All Things Nuclear Must Pass: US, Israel and Iran”. Salem-News.Com. http://www.salem-news.com/articles/november052010/all-things-nuclear-ef.php. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
  51. ^ “Bishop angry over Vanunu arrest”. BBC. 11 November 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4003869.stm.
  52. ^ “Police keep Vanunu in Jerusalem”. BBC. 25 December 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4124597.stm.
  53. ^ “Israel bars senior BBC producer”. BBC. 26 January 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4208619.stm.
  54. ^ McGreal, Chris (12 March 2005). “BBC says sorry to Israel”. London: The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1435915,00.html. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
  55. ^ “Vanunu held after West Bank visit”. BBC. 18 November 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4450004.stm.
  56. ^ “Vanunu – update 26-Dec-2005 Mordechai Vanunu – update”. Mfa.gov.il. http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Law/Legal+Issues+and+Rulings/Mordechai. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
  57. ^ Vanunu convicted of violating order barring foreign contacts, Nir Hasson, Haaretz, 30 April 2007 . Retrieved 30 April 2007.
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  59. ^ “Vanunu to return to prison for violating the terms of his parole”. Haaretz. 7 February 2007. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/877367.html.
  60. ^ Vanunu to return to prison for violating the terms of his parole, Nir Hasson, Haaretz, 2 July 2007 . Retrieved 2 July 2007.
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  65. ^ “Scottish government backs call to free Israeli nukes whistleblower”. Mathaba News Network. 3 October 2008. http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=607806. Retrieved 2008-10-05.
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  67. ^ A Sunday with Vanunu The Palestine Telegraph by Eileen Fleming June 16, 2009
  68. ^ December 29, 2009 (2009-12-29). “JTA.org”. JTA.org. http://jta.org/news/article/2009/12/29/1009933/vanunu-arrested-for-meeting-foreigner. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
  69. ^ McCarthy, R. (2010-05-23). “Mordechai Vanunu jailed by Israeli court for unauthorised meetings”. London: guardian.co.uk World news Web. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/23/israeli-nuclear-whistleblower-prison-sentence. “Mordechai Vanunu…was sent back to prison today for a new three-month sentence.”
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  73. ^ “Israeli nuclear whistleblower returned to solitary confinement | Amnesty International”. Amnesty.org. 2010-06-17. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/israeli-nuclear-whistleblower-returned-solitary-confinement-2010-06-18. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
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  75. ^ http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4095539,00.html
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  78. ^ “Vanunu Writes to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee: ‘I cannot be part of a list of laureates that includes Shimon Peres'”. thepeoplesvoice.org. 2 March 2009. http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/03/02/vanunu-writes-to-the-nobel-peace-prize-c.
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  80. ^ “Formal installation of Mr Mordechai Vanunu as the 119th Rector of the University of Glasgow”. University of Glasgow. 22 April 2005. http://www.gla.ac.uk:443/newsdesk/events/details.cfm?Event_Number=2146.
  81. ^ “News – Norwegian Peace Prize for Mordechai Vanunu”. The Peace People. 5 April 2005. http://www.peacepeople.com/2005/norwegian.html. Retrieved 26 February 2011. “Mordechai Vanunu has been awarded the Norwegian People’s Peace Prize for 2005 for his courageous action of protecting the people in Israel, the Middle East and the world against destruction in a nuclear holocaust.”
  82. ^ Teach Peace Foundation. “Mordechai Vanunu wins 2010 Teach Peace Foundation Award”. Teach Peace. http://www.teachpeace.com/awards10.htm. Retrieved 2010-09-21.
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  84. ^ Eileen Fleming. “Open Letter to Israel from International League For Human Rights RE: FREE Vanunu Now”. Arabisto. http://arabisto.com/article/Blogs/Eileen_Fleming/Open_Letter_to_Israel_from_International_League_For_Human_Rights_RE_FREE_Vanunu_Now/89383. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
  85. ^ Online
  86. ^ video online
  87. ^ Arabisto.com

[edit] Further reading

  • Black, Ian. Israel’s Secret Wars: A History of Israel’s Intelligence Services, Grove Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8021-3286-3
  • Cohen, Avner. Israel and the Bomb, New York: Columbia University Press (1999), ISBN 0-231-10483-9
  • Cohen, Yoel. The Whistleblower of Dimona: Israel, Dimona & the Bomb.ISBN 0-8419-1432-X
  • Fleming, Eileen. Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory. [2007], ISBN 1432702548.
  • Fleming, Eileen. “Beyond Nuclear: Mordechai Vanunu’s Freedom of Speech Trial and My Life as a Muckraker”. [2010], ISBN 978-0-615-40282-6.
  • Gaffney, Mark. Dimona: The Third Temple? The Story Behind the Vanunu Revelation.ISBN 0-915597-77-2
  • Gilling, Tom and John McKnight. Trial and Error — Mordechai Vanunu and Israel’s Nuclear Bomb. 1991 Monarch Publications. ISBN 1-85424-129-X
  • Hounam, Peter. The Woman from Mossad: The Torment of Mordechai Vanunu.ISBN 1-58394-005-7 paperback edition title: The Woman from Mossad: The Story of Mordechai Vanunu & the Israeli Nuclear Program
  • Toscano, Louis. Triple Cross. 1990 Birch Lane Press ISBN 1-55972-028-X
  • Spiro, Gideon. Vanunu and the Israeli Bomb.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu

Kenneth O’Keefe: Humanist, Activist, Hero

Kenneth O’Keefe: Humanist, Activist, Hero

Kenneth Nichols

“Ken” O’Keefe (born July 21, 1969) is an Irish-American activist and former United States Marine and Gulf War veteran. He led the human shield action to Iraq and was a passenger on the MV Mavi Marmara during the Gaza flotilla raid. He said that he participated during clashes on the ship and claimed to have disarmed two Israeli commandos.

Human Shield Action to Iraq

In December 2002, O’Keefe started the human shield action to Iraq group. Intended to “make it politically impossible for them to bomb” Iraq by placing western civilians as “shields” at non-military locations, about 75 activists traveled over land from London to Bahgdad in two double-decker buses. Critics of the human shields argued that their mission would only protect Saddam Hussein. O’Keefe argued the “people of Iraq” would suffer the most from a war and publicly acknowledged Hussein as a “violent dictator”. At its height about 300 human shields were in Baghdad, but due to challenges internally, with the Iraqi dictatorship and O’Keefe’s deportation from Iraq, the numbers dwindled.

Citizenship

O’Keefe claims to have renounced his U.S. citizenship, but “… O’Keefe has tried officially to renounce his citizenship twice without success, first in Vancouver [Canada] and then in the Netherlands. His initial bid was rejected after the State Department concluded that he would return to the United States—a credible inference, as O’Keefe in fact had returned immediately. After his second attempt, O’Keefe waited seven months with no response before he tried a more sensational approach. He went back to the consulate at The Hague, retrieved his passport, walked outside, and lit it on fire. Seventeen days later, he received a letter from the State Department informing him that he was still an American, because he had not obtained the right to reside elsewhere. He had succeeded only in breaking the law, since mutilating a passport is illegal. It says so right on the passport”.

Gaza Flotilla involvement

In June 2010, O’Keefe was on board the MV Mavi Marmara. During the Gaza flotilla raid, O’Keefe was among the passengers who clashed with the Israeli military. In the course of the clash, O’Keefe claims to have been involved in providing initial first aid to a seriously wounded passenger and disarming two Israeli commandos. He claims he helped to disarm one commando of his gun and aided in subduing another, personally taking possession of a 9mm pistol from the second commando, removing the “real bullets” or live ammunition from the pistol and giving the bullets to others while hiding the weapon. He explained that it was his hope that the weapon could be used as evidence in any subsequent trial. O’Keefe said of the experience that it was like “combat but without combat weapons” and that “We had in our full possession, three completely disarmed and helpless commandos” who were “surrounded by at least 100 men”; “we could have done anything with them.” He said that “woman provided basic first aid, and ultimately they were released, battered and bruised for sure, but alive. Able to live another day.” O’Keefe was among those arrested and detained in Israel.

O’Keefe and another activist say he was beaten at the Tel Aviv airport when he resisted deportation, while still in Israeli custody. He claims that a policeman hit him on the head with a truncheon and that he was choked until he almost blacked out. He said he spent two more days in a detention facility in the airport after the incident. O’Keefe said the Irish consul general tried to convince him to agree to leave and asked him to wash the blood off his face but he refused.

A video showing his bloodied face was released upon his arrival in Istanbul. On 6 June, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) charged that O’Keefe is an “anti-Israel extremist” and “operative of the Hamas Terror organization”. According to the IDF he was entering the Gaza Strip in order to “form and train a commando unit for the Palestinian terror organization.” He responded: “If they had a supposed terrorist in their possession, why the hell did they let me go?” He acknowledged having had meetings with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and other senior Hamas officials.

Road to Hope

In October 2010, O’Keefe joined the Road to Hope humanitarian aid convoy to Gaza. Organizers were attempting to transport the convoy from the port of Derna, Libya to el-Arish, Egypt on board the private-charter roll-on/roll-off ferry M.V. Strofades IV. The ship left port unexpectedly without any of the aid after the ship’s owners and captain got into an argument with the aid workers — but seven Libyan port officials and ten of the Road to Hope team were on board.

Organisers of the convoy claimed that despite paying a shipping agent for the charter of the ship, O’Keefe and the others were “kidnapped” from the port by the owner and the captain of the ship who “went nuts”. The ship owners claimed that the activists had boarded the ship without any contract or charter. Due to a “tense atmosphere” aboard the ship, and (as he claimed) receiving no response from the Libyan authorities, the captain feared for the safety of the ship and decided to sail out of Libyan waters.

The ship eventually docked at Piraeus, Greece after being boarded by Greek commandos. All the activists were allowed to disembark after they were found to have committed no crime. The captain and owner were subsequently arrested.

Political Views and Conspiracy Theories

On Iran’s Press TV program, “The Agenda”, while speaking on the topic of “America: Is it a Civilized Nation?”, O’Keefe denied the plausibility that the 9/11 Attacks were committed by Osama bin Laden and the 19 hijackers. He claimed it was an “inside job” and that the “US government and intelligence agencies, including Mossad” were responsible. He also alleged that the United States government, including the President, had prior knowledge of the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor during World War II, but allowed the attacks to go ahead in order to have an excuse to enter the war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_O%27Keefe