Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad has once again stated that the September 11 attacks were a staged event, rejecting claims that his comments are a publicity stunt.
“What do I gain from a publicity stunt? I am merely going by a public statement. I am not going to be a Prime Minister anymore unless you (pointing to a journalist) want me to ...” the former Malaysian prime minister told reporters on Friday.
After watching a three-hour video of the attack on the World Trade Center buildings, Mohamad, had suggested earlier in his blog that the twin towers had collapsed “demolition style.”
Later on Friday, Mahathir also called on local television stations to show the three-hour video.
"It sounds logical to me. Until today, you cannot even find scraps of the plane that crashed into the World Trade Centre and there is no picture of the other plane, which was supposed to crash.”
"The way the tower came crashing down was also funny. People who saw it were also not ordinary people. They were professional engineers and what they say is quite credible.”
"I wish some television stations would consent to show the video as it is not long and only three hours. You can then see what I saw."
Mahathir also said some people were afraid of saying anything critical about the governments of powerful countries or accusing them of doing something wrong.
"But the government of powerful countries said lies to go to war,” he added
"I have great respect for the Arabs but for them to hijack four planes is not very Arab. Just imagine the amount of planning that would be involved."
Rejecting claims that he was being insensitive to the victims, Mahathir stressed that he was "being more sensitive to the victims" as he was saying the attacks were carried out "deliberately.”
The former Malaysian prime minister also said that his views about how 9/11/2001 attacks were carried out would not affect Malaysia's chances of attracting foreign investment.
"I have said this many times even when I was the prime minister. But we still have the foreign direct investment. However, we cannot rely on foreign direct investments alone. We must build on our own system," he said.
Mahathir made the comments at a debut held for a book titled Civilizations, Nomadic Migrations, Empires and The Trail of Islam, at the Islamic Arts Museum in Kuala Lumpur.
The book which entails the history of mankind, origin and commonality of major religions, is authored by Syed Salem Albukhary.
Source
Monday, July 26, 2010
"Nobody Likes A Liar" - by Mike Rivero
The corporate media would still be in business, and the blog-o-sphere not even exist, if the media had remembered that their self-appointed task was to be a watchdog on the abuses of government.
The corporate media wants to blame the blogs, but in truth the reason thy have lost their audience is that the corporate media lied to the world about Saddam's nukes.
The corporate media lied to the world about TWA 800.
The corporate media lied to the world about John F. Kennedy
The corporate media lied to the world about global warming
The corporate media lied to the world about 9-11
The corporate media lied to the world about theOklahoma City Bombing
The corporate media lied to the world about Waco
The corporate media lied to the world about Robert Kennedy
The corporate media lied to the world about Vincent Foster
The corporate media lied to the world about Pearl Harbor
The corporate media lied to the world about Martin Luther King
The corporate media lied to the world about John F. Kennedy Jr.
As I said above, nobody likes a liar, and if the purveyors of propaganda truly wish to know the authors of their downfall they need only look in a mirror. The transition from mono-broadcast media to interactive media was sparked the moment the commercial media decided that their job was not to inform the public, but to herd them alonmg in the desired direction.
The blogs would not be here were it not for the corporate media's untrustworthiness. I have no sympathy for them.
Iraq war whistleblower was probably assassinated
Dr David Kelly’s postmortem report must be released
By Christopher King
26 July 2010
Christopher King calls on Britain’s coalition government to release the postmortem report – so far kept secret – on the death of Iraq war whistleblower and UN weapons inspector David Kelly, who allegedly committed suicide but is suspected of having been murdered by US or Israeli agents.
Ken Clarke and Dominic Grieve, respectively Britain’s new secretary of state for justice and attorney-general, have had time to settle into their chairs and start looking for things that need repairing after the disastrous Blair-Brown government.
One of the first things to settle is the death of the UN weapons inspector in Iraq, Dr David Kelly, who was hounded by the Blair government for correctly saying that its propaganda in selling the Iraq war was “sexed up”. He was then found dead near his home, having allegedly committed suicide. The circumstances are suspicious and his postmortem report is secret.
At the present time I and a lot of other people are disposed to believe that he was assassinated, probably by the Americans or Israelis. If there’s no coverup, why did the Blair-Brown government seal the details of his death for 70 years? I wrote about this two months ago and there have been many calls for openness since Dr Kelly’s death. Suspicion of an assassination coverup is not going away. In January this year, Lord Hutton claimed that the postmortem report on Dr Kelly was available but no independent person has seen it yet. Doctors who have asked for it have been refused.
It’s worth reading the piece in the Independent by Tom Mangold who says that anyone who believes that Dr Kelly was murdered must also believe in the tooth fairy. This gentleman claims some sort of acquaintanceship with Dr Kelly, although not friendship, despite the Independent’s sub-title to this story. Mai Pederson, a lady who was a friend, believes that he was murdered. Until about a year ago I believed the suicide story. That is no longer possible however, either for me or Mr Mangold.
As Tom Mangold is an investigative journalist he will be familiar with the material about the Kelly affair. It is therefore incomprehensible that he does not give weight to the first of two critical factors that cast doubt on the government’s story and does not mention the second:
* The government’s refusal to make Dr Kelly’s postmortem report public
* A group of seven medical practitioners has publicly stated that it was “highly improbable” that Dr Kelly died from the severed ulnar artery that Lord Hutton gave as the cause of his death.
Mr Mangold tells us what he “believes” about this case. Belief has no objective value. Anthony Blair, for example, believes to this day that he was right in getting rid of Saddam Hussein, although to do so he played a leading role in killing a million Iraqis, created four or five million refugees and devastated the country in the invasion that Dr Kelly opposed. Men have an infinite capacity to deceive themselves in their beliefs – and then attempt to deceive others. We need facts.
The facts of Dr Kelly’s death are contained in his post-mortem report. I, along with many other people, want to know what is in it. Nor is Mr Mangold a medical practitioner. If seven medical doctors state that it is extremely unlikely that anyone can die from a severed ulnar artery, it is very close to a fact that Dr Kelly’s death was not from this cause and is good enough to justify their request for release of his postmortem report – which should not be secret in any case. The government constantly reduces our privacy on the basis that if we are innocent of wrong-doing we have nothing to hide. So will our new government continue to hide the facts?
Let us not complicate matters at this point with yet another public inquiry. The situation is very simple. Seven well qualified doctors have formally asked the attorney-general to make the postmortem report available to them. The government should let them see it. No good reason has ever been given for its secrecy and none can be envisaged.
Delay means that conspiracy theories proliferate. There has recently been a report that Dr Kelly’s dental records were stolen and then replaced around the time of his death. Dental records are important in matters of identification. Does this mean that there might be doubt about the identity of the body that is described in the postmortem report under Dr Kelly’s name? Of course, delay assists a coverup by making investigations more difficult.
This matter is a straightforward test of the Cameron-Clegg government’s honesty which needs to be established following the lies and deceit of the Brown-Blair government. On the record of our politicians’ vote for the illegal Iraq war, it is no longer possible to accept any government as honest until proven deceitful.
Having been elected on a platform of support for the Afghanistan-Pakistan war, the successor to the Iraq war and with as little legitimacy, this government’s credentials have been poor from the beginning. Unhappily they are unlikely to improve. Judging by our “unapologetic pro-American” prime minister’s recent acceptance of the UK’s “junior parnership” to the United States, by his statement in the Wall Street Journal, we may expect the Cameron-Clegg government to continue to support US aggressive warfare, kidnapping, torture and assassination world-wide as well as the misuse of the UK’s armed forces in war crimes. To what end? Whatever our politicians’ reasons they have nothing to do with the best interests of the UK and its citizens. Particularly if the assassination of a UK citizen on UK territory might be part of this “special relationship” of fawning subservience.
Its abandonment of international law and unashamed, open practice of assassination is good reason to make the United States the prime suspect in the death of Dr Kelly.
Source
By Christopher King
26 July 2010
Christopher King calls on Britain’s coalition government to release the postmortem report – so far kept secret – on the death of Iraq war whistleblower and UN weapons inspector David Kelly, who allegedly committed suicide but is suspected of having been murdered by US or Israeli agents.
Ken Clarke and Dominic Grieve, respectively Britain’s new secretary of state for justice and attorney-general, have had time to settle into their chairs and start looking for things that need repairing after the disastrous Blair-Brown government.
One of the first things to settle is the death of the UN weapons inspector in Iraq, Dr David Kelly, who was hounded by the Blair government for correctly saying that its propaganda in selling the Iraq war was “sexed up”. He was then found dead near his home, having allegedly committed suicide. The circumstances are suspicious and his postmortem report is secret.
At the present time I and a lot of other people are disposed to believe that he was assassinated, probably by the Americans or Israelis. If there’s no coverup, why did the Blair-Brown government seal the details of his death for 70 years? I wrote about this two months ago and there have been many calls for openness since Dr Kelly’s death. Suspicion of an assassination coverup is not going away. In January this year, Lord Hutton claimed that the postmortem report on Dr Kelly was available but no independent person has seen it yet. Doctors who have asked for it have been refused.
It’s worth reading the piece in the Independent by Tom Mangold who says that anyone who believes that Dr Kelly was murdered must also believe in the tooth fairy. This gentleman claims some sort of acquaintanceship with Dr Kelly, although not friendship, despite the Independent’s sub-title to this story. Mai Pederson, a lady who was a friend, believes that he was murdered. Until about a year ago I believed the suicide story. That is no longer possible however, either for me or Mr Mangold.
As Tom Mangold is an investigative journalist he will be familiar with the material about the Kelly affair. It is therefore incomprehensible that he does not give weight to the first of two critical factors that cast doubt on the government’s story and does not mention the second:
* The government’s refusal to make Dr Kelly’s postmortem report public
* A group of seven medical practitioners has publicly stated that it was “highly improbable” that Dr Kelly died from the severed ulnar artery that Lord Hutton gave as the cause of his death.
Mr Mangold tells us what he “believes” about this case. Belief has no objective value. Anthony Blair, for example, believes to this day that he was right in getting rid of Saddam Hussein, although to do so he played a leading role in killing a million Iraqis, created four or five million refugees and devastated the country in the invasion that Dr Kelly opposed. Men have an infinite capacity to deceive themselves in their beliefs – and then attempt to deceive others. We need facts.
The facts of Dr Kelly’s death are contained in his post-mortem report. I, along with many other people, want to know what is in it. Nor is Mr Mangold a medical practitioner. If seven medical doctors state that it is extremely unlikely that anyone can die from a severed ulnar artery, it is very close to a fact that Dr Kelly’s death was not from this cause and is good enough to justify their request for release of his postmortem report – which should not be secret in any case. The government constantly reduces our privacy on the basis that if we are innocent of wrong-doing we have nothing to hide. So will our new government continue to hide the facts?
Let us not complicate matters at this point with yet another public inquiry. The situation is very simple. Seven well qualified doctors have formally asked the attorney-general to make the postmortem report available to them. The government should let them see it. No good reason has ever been given for its secrecy and none can be envisaged.
Delay means that conspiracy theories proliferate. There has recently been a report that Dr Kelly’s dental records were stolen and then replaced around the time of his death. Dental records are important in matters of identification. Does this mean that there might be doubt about the identity of the body that is described in the postmortem report under Dr Kelly’s name? Of course, delay assists a coverup by making investigations more difficult.
This matter is a straightforward test of the Cameron-Clegg government’s honesty which needs to be established following the lies and deceit of the Brown-Blair government. On the record of our politicians’ vote for the illegal Iraq war, it is no longer possible to accept any government as honest until proven deceitful.
Having been elected on a platform of support for the Afghanistan-Pakistan war, the successor to the Iraq war and with as little legitimacy, this government’s credentials have been poor from the beginning. Unhappily they are unlikely to improve. Judging by our “unapologetic pro-American” prime minister’s recent acceptance of the UK’s “junior parnership” to the United States, by his statement in the Wall Street Journal, we may expect the Cameron-Clegg government to continue to support US aggressive warfare, kidnapping, torture and assassination world-wide as well as the misuse of the UK’s armed forces in war crimes. To what end? Whatever our politicians’ reasons they have nothing to do with the best interests of the UK and its citizens. Particularly if the assassination of a UK citizen on UK territory might be part of this “special relationship” of fawning subservience.
Its abandonment of international law and unashamed, open practice of assassination is good reason to make the United States the prime suspect in the death of Dr Kelly.
Source
TIM KING: Wikileaks Releases ‘The Afghan War Diary’
We hope the impact will lead to a comprehensive understanding of the war in Afghanistan and modern warfare in general. - Wikileaks
(SALEM, Ore.) — WikiLeaks has done it again; over 90,000 documents from the war in Afghanistan have been released to the public. Wikileaks called, The Afghan War Diary (AWD), “An extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.
“The reports, while written by soldiers and intelligence officers mainly describing lethal military actions involving the United States military, also include intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures, and related detail.”
Wikileaks released footage of an Apache helicopter attack on a group of unarmed Iraqi civilian journalists in April, that showed the U.S. Army absolutely decimating a group of eight, with apparent enthusiasm, and a desire to lay waste to the people on the ground. The helicopter crew continually asked for permission to attack the people, who were in no way acting a like a military force.
The journalists had no reason to suspect that an American helicopter would actually attack and leave them all dead. The Apache crew fired at the wounded and chuckled over the results, while insulting the dead as they lay on the ground[1].
That was followed by the helicopter attacking a mini van with two small children in the front seat, positioned in what appears to be in clear view of the attacking helicopter crew.
The van had arrived to evacuate the injured journalists. The attack on the van left several more Iraqi citizens dead in the road and scattered in the area.
After the attack, a U.S. Army HUMVEE arriving on the scene drove over the body of at least one journalist.
The American voices seem to find that aspect humorous, over the radio.
The children somehow were not killed in the initial attack, and an American soldier is seen running a child to a medical crew, only to be told they will not treat the children injured in the U.S. gunship attack, and they would have to wait for the Iraqi Army to arrive and transport them.
The Afghan document collection will shortly be available on a dedicated webpage.
Continue Reading
(SALEM, Ore.) — WikiLeaks has done it again; over 90,000 documents from the war in Afghanistan have been released to the public. Wikileaks called, The Afghan War Diary (AWD), “An extraordinary compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.
“The reports, while written by soldiers and intelligence officers mainly describing lethal military actions involving the United States military, also include intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures, and related detail.”
Wikileaks released footage of an Apache helicopter attack on a group of unarmed Iraqi civilian journalists in April, that showed the U.S. Army absolutely decimating a group of eight, with apparent enthusiasm, and a desire to lay waste to the people on the ground. The helicopter crew continually asked for permission to attack the people, who were in no way acting a like a military force.
The journalists had no reason to suspect that an American helicopter would actually attack and leave them all dead. The Apache crew fired at the wounded and chuckled over the results, while insulting the dead as they lay on the ground[1].
That was followed by the helicopter attacking a mini van with two small children in the front seat, positioned in what appears to be in clear view of the attacking helicopter crew.
The van had arrived to evacuate the injured journalists. The attack on the van left several more Iraqi citizens dead in the road and scattered in the area.
After the attack, a U.S. Army HUMVEE arriving on the scene drove over the body of at least one journalist.
The American voices seem to find that aspect humorous, over the radio.
The children somehow were not killed in the initial attack, and an American soldier is seen running a child to a medical crew, only to be told they will not treat the children injured in the U.S. gunship attack, and they would have to wait for the Iraqi Army to arrive and transport them.
The Afghan document collection will shortly be available on a dedicated webpage.
Continue Reading
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Six Facts No War Supporter Knows: Largest Source of Revenue for the Taliban has Been U.S. Taxpayers.
by David Swanson
This coming week, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on $33 billion for war. A majority of Americans opposes this, but a sizable minority of Americans supports it. No one who supports it can be aware of any of the following six facts.
1. For many months, probably years, at least the second largest and probably the largest source of revenue for the Taliban has been U.S. taxpayers. We are giving the Taliban our money instead of investing it in useful things at home or abroad. "WARLORD, INC.: Extortion and Corruption Along the U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan," is a report from the Majority Staff of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs in the U.S. House of Representatives. The report documents payoffs to the Taliban for safe passage of U.S. goods, payoffs very likely greater than the Taliban's profits from opium, its other big money maker. And this is neither new nor unknown to top U.S. officials. But it must be unknown to Americans supporting the war. You can't support a war where you're funding both sides unless you want both sides to lose. We lock people away for giving a pair of socks to the enemy, while our own government serves as chief financial sponsor.
2. Our top consumer of oil is the U.S. military. We don't just fight wars in areas of the globe that are coincidentally rich in oil, but fighting those wars is the single biggest way in which we burn oil. We pollute the air in the process of poisoning the earth with all variety of weaponry. According to the 2007 CIA World Fact Book, when oil consumption is broken down per capita, the U.S. military ranks fourth in the world, behind just three actual nations. There's no way to care about the environment while allowing the money that could create renewable energy to be spent instead on an operation whose destructiveness is rivaled only by BP. We could have 20 green energy jobs at $50 K each for what it costs to send one soldier to Afghanistan. We're fighting wars for the fuel to fight wars, even though the process is eating up the funds we could use to try to survive its side-effects.
3. Over half of every U.S. tax dollar is spent on wars, the military, and payments on debt for past wars and military spending. Here's a pie chart that breaks it down for you. If you're concerned about government spending, you can't just be concerned with the minority of it that is carefully funded with taxes and off-setting cuts elsewhere. You have to also consider the single biggest item, the one that takes up a majority of the budget, large chunks of which are routinely funded off the books, borrowed from China, and passed with so-called "emergency supplemental" bills of the sort now before the House of Representatives, the sole purpose of which is to keep the money outside the budget. Numerouseconomic studies have shown that investing in the military, even at home, does less for the economy than tax cuts, which do less for the economy than investing in education, energy, infrastructure, and other areas. Its wars or jobs, we can't have both. The labor movement has mostly (with some good exceptions) been silent on war spending, in part because jobs spending has been packaged into the same bill. Now it's not. Now the House is confronted with a bill that spends on war the money that is needed for jobs, for housing, for schools, for green energy, for retirement. Will advocates of these raise their voices this week?
4. A leading, and probably the leading, cause of death in the U.S. military is suicide. U.S. troops are killing themselves in record numbers. One central reason for this is likely that these troops have no idea what it is they are risking their lives, and taking others' lives, for. Can we expect them to know, when top officials in Washington don't? When the President's special representative to Afghanistan testified in the Senate recently, senators from both parties asked him repeatedly what the goal was, what success would look like, for what purpose the war went on. Richard Holbrooke had no answers. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told the Los Angeles Times: "A lot of folks on both sides of the aisle think this effort is adrift. A lot of folks you'd consider the strongest hawks in the country are scratching their heads in concern." Corker complained that after listening for 90 minutes to Holbrooke he had "no earthly idea what our objectives are on the civilian front. So far, this has been an incredible waste of time."
5. The $33 billion about to be voted on cannot possibly be needed to continue the war in Afghanistan, because it is exclusively to be used for escalating that war. The President was publicly pressured by his generals several months ago to begin an escalation, but Congress has yet to fund it. To the extent that it has been begun unfunded, it can be undone. CNN reports: "Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned senators in June that military operations will need to be reduced for the rest of the year unless Congress approves additional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." This is nonsense. If this escalation funding were blocked, the war would remain at the level it was at before. And that's if the Pentagon respects the authority of the Congress. The other alternative, openly indicated by Gates, is that the Pentagon will fund the escalation out of its standard budget. Congressman Alan Grayson has a bill called "The War Is Making You Poor Act" which would require that wars be funded out of the military budget, which would eliminate federal taxes on the first $35,000 anyone earned and reduce the national debt. How horrible would that be?
6. War would be the greatest evil on earth even if it were free. Watch this new video of a man whose father was shot and killed while sleeping in bed. More of our tax dollars at work. How many of these stories of what our military does can we write off? Our drones kill both civilians and "insurgents," as do our night raids and check points. Or, maybe not the check points. General Stanley McChrystal said that of the amazing number of people we've killed at check points, none of them have been any threat. And the damage lasts in the places we destroy. Look at this new report on the damage done to the children of Fallujah. This is not because U.S. soldiers aren't brave or their parents didn't raise them well. It's because these wars don't involve pairs of armies on battlefields. We're occupying countries where the enemies look like everyone except us.
Well, maybe our representatives know all of this and still fund wars because people who fund them tell them to. But what can we do about it? We vote whenever there's an election, or at least some of us do. Isn't that our role? What does this have to do with elections? It should have everything to do with them. When we call our congress members this week we should not just ask them to vote No on war money, we should demand it, and we should let them know that we will work to unelect them, even replacing them with someone worse (since you can't get much worse), if they vote for this money. And we should spend August rewarding and punishing accordingly. Here are 88 candidates for Congress this year who have committed to not voting a dime for these wars. They are from every party and political inclination. They should be supported.
If this war funding can be blocked for another week it will be blocked until mid-September and perhaps for good. If we can get closer to doing that than we have before, we will have something to build on. Just holding a straightforward vote in which war opponents vote No and war supporters vote Yes, no matter how close or far we are from winning, will identify who needs to keep their job and who doesn't. If most of the Yes votes are Republican, we will be able to confront the President with the opposition of his own party. We're moving toward peace.
Get resources from http://defundwar.org
FCNL has a toll-free number to call your representative: 1-888-493-5443. Use it.
Global Research
This coming week, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on $33 billion for war. A majority of Americans opposes this, but a sizable minority of Americans supports it. No one who supports it can be aware of any of the following six facts.
1. For many months, probably years, at least the second largest and probably the largest source of revenue for the Taliban has been U.S. taxpayers. We are giving the Taliban our money instead of investing it in useful things at home or abroad. "WARLORD, INC.: Extortion and Corruption Along the U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan," is a report from the Majority Staff of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs in the U.S. House of Representatives. The report documents payoffs to the Taliban for safe passage of U.S. goods, payoffs very likely greater than the Taliban's profits from opium, its other big money maker. And this is neither new nor unknown to top U.S. officials. But it must be unknown to Americans supporting the war. You can't support a war where you're funding both sides unless you want both sides to lose. We lock people away for giving a pair of socks to the enemy, while our own government serves as chief financial sponsor.
2. Our top consumer of oil is the U.S. military. We don't just fight wars in areas of the globe that are coincidentally rich in oil, but fighting those wars is the single biggest way in which we burn oil. We pollute the air in the process of poisoning the earth with all variety of weaponry. According to the 2007 CIA World Fact Book, when oil consumption is broken down per capita, the U.S. military ranks fourth in the world, behind just three actual nations. There's no way to care about the environment while allowing the money that could create renewable energy to be spent instead on an operation whose destructiveness is rivaled only by BP. We could have 20 green energy jobs at $50 K each for what it costs to send one soldier to Afghanistan. We're fighting wars for the fuel to fight wars, even though the process is eating up the funds we could use to try to survive its side-effects.
3. Over half of every U.S. tax dollar is spent on wars, the military, and payments on debt for past wars and military spending. Here's a pie chart that breaks it down for you. If you're concerned about government spending, you can't just be concerned with the minority of it that is carefully funded with taxes and off-setting cuts elsewhere. You have to also consider the single biggest item, the one that takes up a majority of the budget, large chunks of which are routinely funded off the books, borrowed from China, and passed with so-called "emergency supplemental" bills of the sort now before the House of Representatives, the sole purpose of which is to keep the money outside the budget. Numerouseconomic studies have shown that investing in the military, even at home, does less for the economy than tax cuts, which do less for the economy than investing in education, energy, infrastructure, and other areas. Its wars or jobs, we can't have both. The labor movement has mostly (with some good exceptions) been silent on war spending, in part because jobs spending has been packaged into the same bill. Now it's not. Now the House is confronted with a bill that spends on war the money that is needed for jobs, for housing, for schools, for green energy, for retirement. Will advocates of these raise their voices this week?
4. A leading, and probably the leading, cause of death in the U.S. military is suicide. U.S. troops are killing themselves in record numbers. One central reason for this is likely that these troops have no idea what it is they are risking their lives, and taking others' lives, for. Can we expect them to know, when top officials in Washington don't? When the President's special representative to Afghanistan testified in the Senate recently, senators from both parties asked him repeatedly what the goal was, what success would look like, for what purpose the war went on. Richard Holbrooke had no answers. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told the Los Angeles Times: "A lot of folks on both sides of the aisle think this effort is adrift. A lot of folks you'd consider the strongest hawks in the country are scratching their heads in concern." Corker complained that after listening for 90 minutes to Holbrooke he had "no earthly idea what our objectives are on the civilian front. So far, this has been an incredible waste of time."
5. The $33 billion about to be voted on cannot possibly be needed to continue the war in Afghanistan, because it is exclusively to be used for escalating that war. The President was publicly pressured by his generals several months ago to begin an escalation, but Congress has yet to fund it. To the extent that it has been begun unfunded, it can be undone. CNN reports: "Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned senators in June that military operations will need to be reduced for the rest of the year unless Congress approves additional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." This is nonsense. If this escalation funding were blocked, the war would remain at the level it was at before. And that's if the Pentagon respects the authority of the Congress. The other alternative, openly indicated by Gates, is that the Pentagon will fund the escalation out of its standard budget. Congressman Alan Grayson has a bill called "The War Is Making You Poor Act" which would require that wars be funded out of the military budget, which would eliminate federal taxes on the first $35,000 anyone earned and reduce the national debt. How horrible would that be?
6. War would be the greatest evil on earth even if it were free. Watch this new video of a man whose father was shot and killed while sleeping in bed. More of our tax dollars at work. How many of these stories of what our military does can we write off? Our drones kill both civilians and "insurgents," as do our night raids and check points. Or, maybe not the check points. General Stanley McChrystal said that of the amazing number of people we've killed at check points, none of them have been any threat. And the damage lasts in the places we destroy. Look at this new report on the damage done to the children of Fallujah. This is not because U.S. soldiers aren't brave or their parents didn't raise them well. It's because these wars don't involve pairs of armies on battlefields. We're occupying countries where the enemies look like everyone except us.
Well, maybe our representatives know all of this and still fund wars because people who fund them tell them to. But what can we do about it? We vote whenever there's an election, or at least some of us do. Isn't that our role? What does this have to do with elections? It should have everything to do with them. When we call our congress members this week we should not just ask them to vote No on war money, we should demand it, and we should let them know that we will work to unelect them, even replacing them with someone worse (since you can't get much worse), if they vote for this money. And we should spend August rewarding and punishing accordingly. Here are 88 candidates for Congress this year who have committed to not voting a dime for these wars. They are from every party and political inclination. They should be supported.
If this war funding can be blocked for another week it will be blocked until mid-September and perhaps for good. If we can get closer to doing that than we have before, we will have something to build on. Just holding a straightforward vote in which war opponents vote No and war supporters vote Yes, no matter how close or far we are from winning, will identify who needs to keep their job and who doesn't. If most of the Yes votes are Republican, we will be able to confront the President with the opposition of his own party. We're moving toward peace.
Get resources from http://defundwar.org
FCNL has a toll-free number to call your representative: 1-888-493-5443. Use it.
Global Research
Dumbing-Down Society Part 3: How to Reverse its Effects
The first two parts of this series describes the negative effects that some commonly consumed chemicals have on the body and brain. This third and final part looks at some natural ways to keep the brain healthy and provides tips to rid the body of dangerous substances. In other words, how to fight back against the dumbing down of society!
Dumbing-Down Society Part 3: How to Reverse its Effects
Jul 24th, 2010 | By Vigilant | Category: Vigilant Reports
Parts I and II of this series of articles identified some toxic substances found in common foods and medicines and described some of their effects on the human brain. The main culprits discussed were aspartame, mercury, fluoride and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Whether these substances disturb the nervous system, decrease cognitive function, impair judgment, or affect the memory, the net result is the general dumbing down of society.
All is not doom and gloom, however. Nature, with its wonderful tendency to restore equilibrium, provides us humans the cure to almost any affliction we might develop. Ancient healers even believed that nature helped humans discover the cure to their illnesses in subtle and mysterious ways:
So, after dwelling in the awful world of poisonous chemicals and corrupted officials, the only fitting way to conclude this series of articles is to explore the all-natural ways to restore health.
Stop the Toxicification
Warning: This article provides tips to naturally detoxify the body. If you are in need of a serious detox program, please consult a professional.
The first step in ridding your body from poisons is, quite logically, to stop ingesting poisons. It sounds simple enough, but this step is probably the most difficult, as many toxins are found in everyday foods and even tap water. An increased vigilance is necessary in everyday life and, sometimes, some annoying actions must be taken to keep the toxins out of your body. Nevertheless, once you actually feel your body and mind healing, you’ll be proud of your efforts.
Before we look at the ways to avoid specific toxins, here are some general guidelines any health-conscious person should apply at all times: Avoid processed foods and artificial drinks. Instead, look for organic and locally grown produce or, even better, grow your own fruits, vegetables and herbs. By doing so, you automatically avoid many harmful substances, including MSG, HFCS, pesticides, sodium fluoride and mercury. You also save money, which is always nice. When buying groceries, always read the labels and, as they say, if you can’t read it, don’t eat it.
Here are specific ways to avoid particular toxins:
There are two types of fluoride: calcium fluoride and sodium fluoride. Calcium fluoride is naturally found in water sources, while sodium fluoride is a synthetic waste product of the nuclear, aluminum, and phosphate fertilizer industries. Guess which type is found in our water? Right, the nasty one. Regular water filters such as Brita do a good job in reducing the taste of metals and chemicals in the water but they do not filter out the fluoride. Purifying the water through reverse osmosis is the most effective way to remove sodium fluoride from water.
Some processed foods also contain high concentrations of sodium fluoride, including instant tea, grape juice products, and soy milk for babies, so once again, avoid processed foods. Also, switch to a fluoride-free toothpaste (or at least try not to swallow the $0.93 Colgate you bought at Walmart).
Consuming foods rich in calcium and magnesium help prevent fluoride intoxication, as they prevent the poison from attaching to the body.
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Dumbing-Down Society Part 3: How to Reverse its Effects
Jul 24th, 2010 | By Vigilant | Category: Vigilant Reports
Parts I and II of this series of articles identified some toxic substances found in common foods and medicines and described some of their effects on the human brain. The main culprits discussed were aspartame, mercury, fluoride and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Whether these substances disturb the nervous system, decrease cognitive function, impair judgment, or affect the memory, the net result is the general dumbing down of society.
All is not doom and gloom, however. Nature, with its wonderful tendency to restore equilibrium, provides us humans the cure to almost any affliction we might develop. Ancient healers even believed that nature helped humans discover the cure to their illnesses in subtle and mysterious ways:
“The plant might also be considered worthy of veneration because from its crushed leaves, petals, stalks, or roots could be extracted healing unctions, essences, or drugs affecting the nature and intelligence of human beings – such as the poppy and the ancient herbs of prophecy. The plant might also be regarded as efficacious in the cure of many diseases because its fruit, leaves, petals, or roots bore a resemblance in shape or color to parts or organs of the human body. For example, the distilled juices of certain species of ferns, also the hairy moss growing upon oaks, and the thistledown were said to have the power of growing hair; the dentaria, which resembles a tooth in shape, was said to cure the toothache; and the palma Christi plant, because of its shape, cured all afflictions of the hands.”
- Manly P. Hall, Secret Teachings of All Ages
So, after dwelling in the awful world of poisonous chemicals and corrupted officials, the only fitting way to conclude this series of articles is to explore the all-natural ways to restore health.
Stop the Toxicification
Warning: This article provides tips to naturally detoxify the body. If you are in need of a serious detox program, please consult a professional.
The first step in ridding your body from poisons is, quite logically, to stop ingesting poisons. It sounds simple enough, but this step is probably the most difficult, as many toxins are found in everyday foods and even tap water. An increased vigilance is necessary in everyday life and, sometimes, some annoying actions must be taken to keep the toxins out of your body. Nevertheless, once you actually feel your body and mind healing, you’ll be proud of your efforts.
Before we look at the ways to avoid specific toxins, here are some general guidelines any health-conscious person should apply at all times: Avoid processed foods and artificial drinks. Instead, look for organic and locally grown produce or, even better, grow your own fruits, vegetables and herbs. By doing so, you automatically avoid many harmful substances, including MSG, HFCS, pesticides, sodium fluoride and mercury. You also save money, which is always nice. When buying groceries, always read the labels and, as they say, if you can’t read it, don’t eat it.
Here are specific ways to avoid particular toxins:
Avoiding Fluoride
There are two types of fluoride: calcium fluoride and sodium fluoride. Calcium fluoride is naturally found in water sources, while sodium fluoride is a synthetic waste product of the nuclear, aluminum, and phosphate fertilizer industries. Guess which type is found in our water? Right, the nasty one. Regular water filters such as Brita do a good job in reducing the taste of metals and chemicals in the water but they do not filter out the fluoride. Purifying the water through reverse osmosis is the most effective way to remove sodium fluoride from water.
Some processed foods also contain high concentrations of sodium fluoride, including instant tea, grape juice products, and soy milk for babies, so once again, avoid processed foods. Also, switch to a fluoride-free toothpaste (or at least try not to swallow the $0.93 Colgate you bought at Walmart).
Consuming foods rich in calcium and magnesium help prevent fluoride intoxication, as they prevent the poison from attaching to the body.
“Magnesium is a very important mineral that many are lacking. Besides being so important in the metabolism and synthesis of nutrients within your cells, it also inhibits the absorption of fluoride into your cells! Along with magnesium, calcium seems to help attract the fluorides away from your bones and teeth, allowing your body to eliminate those toxins. So during any detox efforts with fluoride, it is essential that you include a healthy supplemental dose of absorbable calcium/magnesium as part of the protocol.”
- Paul Fassa, How to Detox Fluoride from Your Body
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