A US campaign watchdog has accused presumptive Republican president nominee John McCain of violating election laws by accepting campaign contributions from two prominent Londoners.
At issue is a fundraising luncheon held in March at London's Spencer House, during McCain's swing through the United Kingdom. An invitation to the event lists Lord Rothschild and Nathaniel Rothschild as hosts, and indicates the event was made possible with their "kind permission".
Judicial Watch, a Washington organisation instrumental in the March release of Hillary Clinton's White House schedules, has asked US election monitors to investigate whether the Rothschilds improperly sponsored the fundraiser. US political campaigns are forbidden from accepting contributions from foreign nationals.
"The question is whether or not the Rothschilds paid for the event, the venue, the catering, or any other related costs," said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.
Tickets to the event cost $1,000 to $2,300, and the luncheon dress code was "lounge suits," the Washington Post reported in March.
The McCain campaign did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Judicial Watch also complained to the US election authority, the federal election commission, about Elton John's involvement in Clinton's campaign. The group alleged the British rocker broke US campaign laws by performing at a fundraiser for the New York senator. The Clinton campaign argued US law allowed the British musician to volunteer his time and solicit Americans for contributions.
The federal election commission is unlikely to act soon on the group's McCain complaint. It is currently short-handed, a result of a political squabble between the Democratic-led senate and the Bush administration, and lacks a quorum to take action.
The Rothschilds operate in modern politics exactly as their forebearers did in previous wars: they back both sides. Thus ensuring that whoever wins they've backed a winner.
So while on the one hand, Lord Rothschild and Nathaniel Rothschild are reported to have hosted a fundraising event for McCain at London's Spencer House in March; on the other Sir Evelyn Rothschild and his wife are reported to be on good terms with Hilary Clinton
But just to make sure they have the next U.S. election entirely sewn up, the Rothschild's North American allies the Rockefellers are reported to be backing Barack Obama, through their minion and general fixer Zbigniew Brzezinski
Thus ensuring that whoever ends up sitting in the Oval Office will be in the pocket of the Global Oligarchs; ready to do their bidding rather that that of the American people.
Source: Thetruthseeker.co.uk
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
MAYDAY ALERT! -- Terror Drills Could Go Live!
An impressive array of military men join Captain Eric H. May, the Internet intelligence writer, in issuing a false flag alert for May 1-8, when the Bush administration will be conducting nationwide terror exercises.
The name "false flag" comes from the old pirate's ruse of flying another country's flag during an attack, thereby shifting blame for the attack to a party that had nothing to do with it. Governments use false flag attacks to push their nations into dictatorship or war. As military experts, we fear that national terror drills, scheduled for May 1-8, could be used to camouflage a false flag attack in the United States.
Strategic Signals
Yesterday an American-flagged ship fired on the Iranian Navy, and now Pentagon sources say that they have been ordered to prepare attack plans. Admiral "Fox" Fallon, the Centcom commander who opposed war with Iran, has been ousted in favor of Bush loyalist General David Petraeus, who has spent the last month accusing Iran for our increasing problems with the Iraqi resistance.
Saudi Arabia has been preparing for nuclear fallout from an attack on Iran since last month, when Dick Cheney paid a visit. Israel has just finished its largest-ever domestic war drills. Israel and the Bush administration are insisting that Syria and North Korea are nuclear collaborators. Syria is preparing for the contingency of an Israeli attack. Iran is preparing for the contingency of a US attack. US government insiders speculate that Bush has promised Israel an expanded Middle East war before he leaves office.
The Neo-Cons are pounding their war drums again, according to Dr. James H. Fetzer, the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, and he believes that nothing would help them spread their imperial war in the Middle East as much as another 9/11.
He has just published "9/11 and the Neo-Con Agenda." amfirstbooks.com The article is a must-read introduction for anyone wanting to understand the origins and aims of the " global war on terror."
Domestic Discord
Inside the US, Bush approval ratings are well below 30%, and approval ratings for the U.S. Congress and mainstream media are even lower. Over three quarters of the American people believe that the country is on the wrong track, and just as many want to end the quicksand war in the Middle East. The economy is crashing as fuel prices are skyrocketing. The Establishment is losing its grip on power. It would take another 9/11 to make the nation forget its domestic woes and resume its lost zeal for the Neo-Con "new American century" of foreign wars and a domestic police state.
In his much-discussed February article, "False Flag Prospects, 2008," http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/08/02/25/may.htm Captain Eric H. May documented the disturbing fact that military and police exercises were occurring at the same time as the 9/11 US attacks in 2001 and the 7/7 UK bombings in 2005. In that prescient article, he designated the Pacific Northwest as one of the top three target zones for the next US false flag attack, and the Pacific Northwest will be the target of terror drills May 1-8.
Should a major event occur during the drills, the Bush administration is prepared to implement National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) 51, which establishes dictatorship "in the event of a man-made or natural catastrophe." It is an extraordinary measure, and the White House has stonewalled Homeland Security Committee members from the House of Representatives who wanted to read it. One of those members, Oregon's Peter DeFazio summed up the feeling of many Americans about NSPD 51 when he said "Maybe the people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right."
Fears that a false flag attack might result in martial law are nourished by last week's militaristic Operation Sudden Impact, reported by Infowars.net writer Steve Watson: "Three States Subjected to Martial Law Sweeps" http://www.infowars.net/articles/april2008/180408impact.htm
National Level Exercise 8-02
NLE 2-08 will involve the very highest levels of Homeland Security and the US Northern Command. Both "Homesec" and "Northcom" were established by the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11 to take control of the nation in the event of another terrorist attack. They will be joined by FEMA in the May 1-8 exercise, which is one of the two largest terror drills scheduled this year.
On Thursday, May 1, the exercise begins in Washington, when an explosion collapses the Alaska Way viaduct in downtown Seattle and damages surrounding buildings. Twenty minutes later, terrorists explode a highjacked tanker ship filled with highly toxic chemicals at the Seattle Ferry Terminal. Deadly gas soon permeates downtown Seattle.
Emergency responders come in waves. Police and firemen, first to arrive, are quickly overwhelmed. The state deploys its 22-member Civil Support Team, a National Guard unit, to assess the damage and coordinate support. Later, 100 soldiers from a chemical battalion based in Yakima arrive to rescue, decontaminate and treat survivors. Finally, 5,000 troops arrived to handle logistics and security.
On Monday, May 5, the scenario shifts to Oregon where VX, the most toxic nerve agent ever synthesized, erupts from the Umatilla Army Depot.
The next day, terrorists blow up a chemical tanker in Ferndale, Washington. The county sheriff requests national support, and a Marine Corps chemical warfare detachment from Ft. Lewis, Washington responds.
According to sources at Northcom, NLE 2-08 will involve "robust play," with "surprise injects" of unanticipated events in which participants are "stretched to the limit" and have "everything thrown at them except the kitchen sink." All of this makes it easier for the exercise to "go live" by having a real catastrophe occur.
As the Pacific Northwest scenario is playing out, Washington, DC will be simulating a catastrophic hurricane as part of the same exercise. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to suggest that this puts Dick Cheney back in the bunker he occupied during 9/11.
Citizens interested in understanding how local, state and national levels of the military can be manipulated into working against us should read "The Real Drill" by Major William B. Fox, about Portland area terror drills last year. http://www.lonestaricon.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=2006&z=186
Mission of Conscience
Many American citizens are deeply concerned about police militarization, and about government and media preconditioning of our nation for future terror attacks and martial law. We recommend that they monitor NLE 2-08 closely. Armed with cell phones, cameras and the Internet, they are the single greatest deterrent against false flag terror.
If we, the co-authors of this alert, are in error about anything, then we invite reasonable officials to investigate us and our assertions at the very highest levels. In the past we have too often met with hostility, evasion or deception by officials involved in terror drills. We have been stonewalled when we have requested access to an extended schedule of unclassified military and police terror drills.
We believe that there is a pattern of official retaliation against patriotic service members who ask questions about 9/11 and false flags.
In 2006, Sergeant First Class Donald Buswell, an Army military intelligence NCO, suggested that 9/11 might have been a false flag operation. Within a month the decorated 40-year-old Iraq war veteran suffered a freak pulmonary embolism, which nearly killed him. After he was released from the hospital, his command accused him of disloyalty for his remarks, and subjected him to an extensive military investigation. Ultimately, he was fully exonerated, and the now-retired Buswell has become widely known on the Internet as the "9/11 NCO." Stephen Webster, writing for The Lone Star Iconoclast, gained national attention with his story about Buswell, "Under Fire! U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst Targeted for Suggesting New Independent 9/11 Investigation." http://www.lonestaricon.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=426&z=40
The duty to keep the government honest isn't optional for those of us who have taken an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It has always been difficult, and even dangerous, to serve the American people. We call on all active-duty soldiers, police and first responders to obey their oaths by asking questions that need to be asked, and by thinking twice before blindly carrying out orders that may result in an a false flag attack against their country. We urge leaders of those soldiers, police and first responders to explain that diligence is not disloyalty, and that no one ceases to be a free American citizen by putting on a uniform.
Issuing an alert -- as we are doing now -- is not an instance of "crying wolf," as Bush administration apologists often assert. As military-trained experts, we are convinced that the US 9/11 and UK 7/7 attacks were set up under the camouflage of terror drills. The existence of a wolf is not in question. The wolf of false flag terror has killed our fellow citizens and frightened our country into needless wars. It's our mission of conscience to keep it from striking again.
Source: Portland.indymedia.org
The name "false flag" comes from the old pirate's ruse of flying another country's flag during an attack, thereby shifting blame for the attack to a party that had nothing to do with it. Governments use false flag attacks to push their nations into dictatorship or war. As military experts, we fear that national terror drills, scheduled for May 1-8, could be used to camouflage a false flag attack in the United States.
Strategic Signals
Yesterday an American-flagged ship fired on the Iranian Navy, and now Pentagon sources say that they have been ordered to prepare attack plans. Admiral "Fox" Fallon, the Centcom commander who opposed war with Iran, has been ousted in favor of Bush loyalist General David Petraeus, who has spent the last month accusing Iran for our increasing problems with the Iraqi resistance.
Saudi Arabia has been preparing for nuclear fallout from an attack on Iran since last month, when Dick Cheney paid a visit. Israel has just finished its largest-ever domestic war drills. Israel and the Bush administration are insisting that Syria and North Korea are nuclear collaborators. Syria is preparing for the contingency of an Israeli attack. Iran is preparing for the contingency of a US attack. US government insiders speculate that Bush has promised Israel an expanded Middle East war before he leaves office.
The Neo-Cons are pounding their war drums again, according to Dr. James H. Fetzer, the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, and he believes that nothing would help them spread their imperial war in the Middle East as much as another 9/11.
He has just published "9/11 and the Neo-Con Agenda." amfirstbooks.com The article is a must-read introduction for anyone wanting to understand the origins and aims of the " global war on terror."
Domestic Discord
Inside the US, Bush approval ratings are well below 30%, and approval ratings for the U.S. Congress and mainstream media are even lower. Over three quarters of the American people believe that the country is on the wrong track, and just as many want to end the quicksand war in the Middle East. The economy is crashing as fuel prices are skyrocketing. The Establishment is losing its grip on power. It would take another 9/11 to make the nation forget its domestic woes and resume its lost zeal for the Neo-Con "new American century" of foreign wars and a domestic police state.
In his much-discussed February article, "False Flag Prospects, 2008," http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/08/02/25/may.htm Captain Eric H. May documented the disturbing fact that military and police exercises were occurring at the same time as the 9/11 US attacks in 2001 and the 7/7 UK bombings in 2005. In that prescient article, he designated the Pacific Northwest as one of the top three target zones for the next US false flag attack, and the Pacific Northwest will be the target of terror drills May 1-8.
Should a major event occur during the drills, the Bush administration is prepared to implement National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) 51, which establishes dictatorship "in the event of a man-made or natural catastrophe." It is an extraordinary measure, and the White House has stonewalled Homeland Security Committee members from the House of Representatives who wanted to read it. One of those members, Oregon's Peter DeFazio summed up the feeling of many Americans about NSPD 51 when he said "Maybe the people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right."
Fears that a false flag attack might result in martial law are nourished by last week's militaristic Operation Sudden Impact, reported by Infowars.net writer Steve Watson: "Three States Subjected to Martial Law Sweeps" http://www.infowars.net/articles/april2008/180408impact.htm
National Level Exercise 8-02
NLE 2-08 will involve the very highest levels of Homeland Security and the US Northern Command. Both "Homesec" and "Northcom" were established by the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11 to take control of the nation in the event of another terrorist attack. They will be joined by FEMA in the May 1-8 exercise, which is one of the two largest terror drills scheduled this year.
On Thursday, May 1, the exercise begins in Washington, when an explosion collapses the Alaska Way viaduct in downtown Seattle and damages surrounding buildings. Twenty minutes later, terrorists explode a highjacked tanker ship filled with highly toxic chemicals at the Seattle Ferry Terminal. Deadly gas soon permeates downtown Seattle.
Emergency responders come in waves. Police and firemen, first to arrive, are quickly overwhelmed. The state deploys its 22-member Civil Support Team, a National Guard unit, to assess the damage and coordinate support. Later, 100 soldiers from a chemical battalion based in Yakima arrive to rescue, decontaminate and treat survivors. Finally, 5,000 troops arrived to handle logistics and security.
On Monday, May 5, the scenario shifts to Oregon where VX, the most toxic nerve agent ever synthesized, erupts from the Umatilla Army Depot.
The next day, terrorists blow up a chemical tanker in Ferndale, Washington. The county sheriff requests national support, and a Marine Corps chemical warfare detachment from Ft. Lewis, Washington responds.
According to sources at Northcom, NLE 2-08 will involve "robust play," with "surprise injects" of unanticipated events in which participants are "stretched to the limit" and have "everything thrown at them except the kitchen sink." All of this makes it easier for the exercise to "go live" by having a real catastrophe occur.
As the Pacific Northwest scenario is playing out, Washington, DC will be simulating a catastrophic hurricane as part of the same exercise. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to suggest that this puts Dick Cheney back in the bunker he occupied during 9/11.
Citizens interested in understanding how local, state and national levels of the military can be manipulated into working against us should read "The Real Drill" by Major William B. Fox, about Portland area terror drills last year. http://www.lonestaricon.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=2006&z=186
Mission of Conscience
Many American citizens are deeply concerned about police militarization, and about government and media preconditioning of our nation for future terror attacks and martial law. We recommend that they monitor NLE 2-08 closely. Armed with cell phones, cameras and the Internet, they are the single greatest deterrent against false flag terror.
If we, the co-authors of this alert, are in error about anything, then we invite reasonable officials to investigate us and our assertions at the very highest levels. In the past we have too often met with hostility, evasion or deception by officials involved in terror drills. We have been stonewalled when we have requested access to an extended schedule of unclassified military and police terror drills.
We believe that there is a pattern of official retaliation against patriotic service members who ask questions about 9/11 and false flags.
In 2006, Sergeant First Class Donald Buswell, an Army military intelligence NCO, suggested that 9/11 might have been a false flag operation. Within a month the decorated 40-year-old Iraq war veteran suffered a freak pulmonary embolism, which nearly killed him. After he was released from the hospital, his command accused him of disloyalty for his remarks, and subjected him to an extensive military investigation. Ultimately, he was fully exonerated, and the now-retired Buswell has become widely known on the Internet as the "9/11 NCO." Stephen Webster, writing for The Lone Star Iconoclast, gained national attention with his story about Buswell, "Under Fire! U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst Targeted for Suggesting New Independent 9/11 Investigation." http://www.lonestaricon.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=426&z=40
The duty to keep the government honest isn't optional for those of us who have taken an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. It has always been difficult, and even dangerous, to serve the American people. We call on all active-duty soldiers, police and first responders to obey their oaths by asking questions that need to be asked, and by thinking twice before blindly carrying out orders that may result in an a false flag attack against their country. We urge leaders of those soldiers, police and first responders to explain that diligence is not disloyalty, and that no one ceases to be a free American citizen by putting on a uniform.
Issuing an alert -- as we are doing now -- is not an instance of "crying wolf," as Bush administration apologists often assert. As military-trained experts, we are convinced that the US 9/11 and UK 7/7 attacks were set up under the camouflage of terror drills. The existence of a wolf is not in question. The wolf of false flag terror has killed our fellow citizens and frightened our country into needless wars. It's our mission of conscience to keep it from striking again.
Source: Portland.indymedia.org
Monday, 28 April 2008
Why Food Prices Will Go Through the Roof in the Coming Months
A deadly fungus, known as Ug99, which kills wheat, has likely spread to Pakistan from Africa according to reports. If true, that threatens the vital Asian Bread Basket including the Punjab region. The spread of the deadly virus, stem rust, against which an effective fungicide does not exist, comes as world grain stocks reach the lowest in four decades and government subsidized bio-ethanol production, especially in the USA, Brazil and EU are taking land out of food production at alarming rates. The deadly fungus is being used by Monsanto and the US Government to spread patented GMO seeds.
Stem rust is the worst of three rusts that afflict wheat plants. The fungus grows primarily in the stems, plugging the vascular system so carbohydrates can't get from the leaves to the grain, which shrivels. Ug99 is a race of stem rust that blocks the vascular tissues in cereal grains including wheat, oats and barley. Unlike other rusts that may reduce crop yields, Ug99-infected plants may suffer up to 100 percent loss.
In the 1950s, the last major outbreak destroyed 40% of the spring wheat crop in North America. At that time governments started a major effort to breed resistant wheat plants, led by Norman Borlaug of the Rockefeller Foundation. That was the misnamed Green Revolution. The result today is far fewer varieties of wheat that might resist such a new fungus outbreak.
The first strains of Ug99 were detected in 1999 in Uganda. It spread to Kenya by 2001, to Ethiopia by 2003 and to Yemen when the cyclone Gonu spread its spores in 2007. Now the deadly fungus has been found in Iran and according to British scientists may already be as far as Pakistan.
Pakistan and India account for 20 percent of the annual world wheat production. It is possible as the fungus spreads that large movements could take place almost overnight if certain wind conditions prevail at the right time. In 2007 a three-day wind event recorded by Mexico’s CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), had strong wind currents moving from Yemen, where Ug99 is present, across Pakistan and India, going all the way to China. CIMMYT estimates that from two-thirds to three-quarters of the wheat now planted in India and Pakistan are highly susceptible to this new strain of stem rust. One billion people who live in this region and they are highly dependent on wheat for their food supply
These are all areas where the agricultural infrastructure to contain such problems is either extremely weak or non-existent. It threatens to spread into other wheat producing regions of Asia and eventually the entire world if not checked.
FAO World Grain Forecast
The 2007 World Agriculture Forecast of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, projects an alarming trend in world food supply even in the absence of any devastation from Ug99. The report states, “countries in the non-OECD region are expected to continue to experience a much stronger increase in consumption of agricultural products than countries in the OECD area. This trend is driven by population and, above all, income growth – underpinned by rural migration to higher income urban areas...OECD countries as a group are projected to lose production and export shares in many commodities..Growth in the use of agricultural commodities as feedstock to a rapidly increasing biofuel industry is one of the main drivers in the outlook and one of the reasons for international commodity prices to attain a significantly higher plateau over the outlook period than has been reported in the previous reports.”
The FAO warns that the explosive growth in acreage used to grow fuels and not food in the past three years is dramatically changing the outlook for food supply globally and forcing food prices sharply higher for all foods from cereals to sugar to meat and dairy products. The use of cereals, sugar, oilseeds and vegetable oils to satisfy the needs of a rapidly increasing bio-fuel industry, is one of the main drivers, most especially the large volumes of maize in the US, wheat and rapeseed in the EU and sugar in Brazil for ethanol and bio-diesel production. This is already causing dramatically higher crop prices, higher feed costs and sharply higher prices for livestock products.
Ironically, the current bio-ethanol industry is being driven by US government subsidies and a scientifically false argument in the EU and USA that bio-ethanol is less harmful to the environment than petroleum fuels and can reduce CO2 emissions. The arguments have been demonstrated in every respect to be false. The huge expansion of global acreage now planted to produce bio-fuels is creating ecological problems and demanding use of far heavier pesticide spraying while use of bio-fuels in autos releases even deadlier emissions than imagined. The political effect, however, has been a catastrophic shift down in world grain stocks at the same time the EU and USA have enacted policies which drastically cut traditional emergency grain reserves. In short, it is a scenario pre-programmed for catastrophe, one which has been clear to policymakers in the EU and USA for several years. That can only suggest that such a dramatic crisis in global food supply is intentional.
A plan to spread GMO?
One of the consequences of the spread of Ug99 is a campaign by Monsanto Corporation and other major producers of genetically manipulated plant seeds to promote wholesale introduction of GMO wheat varieties said to be resistant to the Ug99 fungus. Biologists at Monsanto and at the various GMO laboratories around the world are working to patent such strains.
Norman Borlaug, the former Rockefeller Foundation head of the Green Revolution is active in funding the research to develop a fungus resistant variety against Ug99 working with his former center in Mexico, the CIMMYT and ICARDA in Kenya, where the pathogen is now endemic. So far, about 90% of the 12,000 lines tested are susceptible to Ug99. That includes all the major wheat cultivars of the Middle East and west Asia. At least 80% of the 200 varieties sent from the United States can't cope with infection. The situation is even more dire for Egypt, Iran, and other countries in immediate peril.
Even if a new resistant variety was ready to be released today it would take two or three years' seed increase in order to have just enough wheat seed for 20 percent of the acres planted to wheat in the world.
Work is also being done by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the same agency which co-developed Monsanto’s Terminator seed technology. In my book, Seeds of Destruction I document the insidious role of Borlaug and the Rockefeller Foundation in promoting the misnamed Green Revolution as well as patents on food seeds to ultimately control food supplies as a potential political lever. The spreading alarm over the Ug99 fungus is being used by Monsanto and other GMO agribusiness companies to demand that the current ban on GMO wheat be lifted to allow spread of GMO patented wheat seeds on the argument they are Ug99 stem rust resistant.
Source: Financialsense.com
Other source: Moneynews.com
Stem rust is the worst of three rusts that afflict wheat plants. The fungus grows primarily in the stems, plugging the vascular system so carbohydrates can't get from the leaves to the grain, which shrivels. Ug99 is a race of stem rust that blocks the vascular tissues in cereal grains including wheat, oats and barley. Unlike other rusts that may reduce crop yields, Ug99-infected plants may suffer up to 100 percent loss.
In the 1950s, the last major outbreak destroyed 40% of the spring wheat crop in North America. At that time governments started a major effort to breed resistant wheat plants, led by Norman Borlaug of the Rockefeller Foundation. That was the misnamed Green Revolution. The result today is far fewer varieties of wheat that might resist such a new fungus outbreak.
The first strains of Ug99 were detected in 1999 in Uganda. It spread to Kenya by 2001, to Ethiopia by 2003 and to Yemen when the cyclone Gonu spread its spores in 2007. Now the deadly fungus has been found in Iran and according to British scientists may already be as far as Pakistan.
Pakistan and India account for 20 percent of the annual world wheat production. It is possible as the fungus spreads that large movements could take place almost overnight if certain wind conditions prevail at the right time. In 2007 a three-day wind event recorded by Mexico’s CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), had strong wind currents moving from Yemen, where Ug99 is present, across Pakistan and India, going all the way to China. CIMMYT estimates that from two-thirds to three-quarters of the wheat now planted in India and Pakistan are highly susceptible to this new strain of stem rust. One billion people who live in this region and they are highly dependent on wheat for their food supply
These are all areas where the agricultural infrastructure to contain such problems is either extremely weak or non-existent. It threatens to spread into other wheat producing regions of Asia and eventually the entire world if not checked.
FAO World Grain Forecast
The 2007 World Agriculture Forecast of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome, projects an alarming trend in world food supply even in the absence of any devastation from Ug99. The report states, “countries in the non-OECD region are expected to continue to experience a much stronger increase in consumption of agricultural products than countries in the OECD area. This trend is driven by population and, above all, income growth – underpinned by rural migration to higher income urban areas...OECD countries as a group are projected to lose production and export shares in many commodities..Growth in the use of agricultural commodities as feedstock to a rapidly increasing biofuel industry is one of the main drivers in the outlook and one of the reasons for international commodity prices to attain a significantly higher plateau over the outlook period than has been reported in the previous reports.”
The FAO warns that the explosive growth in acreage used to grow fuels and not food in the past three years is dramatically changing the outlook for food supply globally and forcing food prices sharply higher for all foods from cereals to sugar to meat and dairy products. The use of cereals, sugar, oilseeds and vegetable oils to satisfy the needs of a rapidly increasing bio-fuel industry, is one of the main drivers, most especially the large volumes of maize in the US, wheat and rapeseed in the EU and sugar in Brazil for ethanol and bio-diesel production. This is already causing dramatically higher crop prices, higher feed costs and sharply higher prices for livestock products.
Ironically, the current bio-ethanol industry is being driven by US government subsidies and a scientifically false argument in the EU and USA that bio-ethanol is less harmful to the environment than petroleum fuels and can reduce CO2 emissions. The arguments have been demonstrated in every respect to be false. The huge expansion of global acreage now planted to produce bio-fuels is creating ecological problems and demanding use of far heavier pesticide spraying while use of bio-fuels in autos releases even deadlier emissions than imagined. The political effect, however, has been a catastrophic shift down in world grain stocks at the same time the EU and USA have enacted policies which drastically cut traditional emergency grain reserves. In short, it is a scenario pre-programmed for catastrophe, one which has been clear to policymakers in the EU and USA for several years. That can only suggest that such a dramatic crisis in global food supply is intentional.
A plan to spread GMO?
One of the consequences of the spread of Ug99 is a campaign by Monsanto Corporation and other major producers of genetically manipulated plant seeds to promote wholesale introduction of GMO wheat varieties said to be resistant to the Ug99 fungus. Biologists at Monsanto and at the various GMO laboratories around the world are working to patent such strains.
Norman Borlaug, the former Rockefeller Foundation head of the Green Revolution is active in funding the research to develop a fungus resistant variety against Ug99 working with his former center in Mexico, the CIMMYT and ICARDA in Kenya, where the pathogen is now endemic. So far, about 90% of the 12,000 lines tested are susceptible to Ug99. That includes all the major wheat cultivars of the Middle East and west Asia. At least 80% of the 200 varieties sent from the United States can't cope with infection. The situation is even more dire for Egypt, Iran, and other countries in immediate peril.
Even if a new resistant variety was ready to be released today it would take two or three years' seed increase in order to have just enough wheat seed for 20 percent of the acres planted to wheat in the world.
Work is also being done by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the same agency which co-developed Monsanto’s Terminator seed technology. In my book, Seeds of Destruction I document the insidious role of Borlaug and the Rockefeller Foundation in promoting the misnamed Green Revolution as well as patents on food seeds to ultimately control food supplies as a potential political lever. The spreading alarm over the Ug99 fungus is being used by Monsanto and other GMO agribusiness companies to demand that the current ban on GMO wheat be lifted to allow spread of GMO patented wheat seeds on the argument they are Ug99 stem rust resistant.
Source: Financialsense.com
Other source: Moneynews.com
Friday, 25 April 2008
When Seeing and Hearing Isn't Believing
Over the years I have heard countless accounts of this technology being developed and even used in the gulf war. Bizarre as it may sound, rumours are circulating that this technology will be used for the up and coming fake ET invasion. At humanity's lowest point the technology will then be used to project a vision of the reincarnation of the great religious leaders of this world. All part of a greater plan for control of humanity. I am also aware of someone who worked on this technology in the UK and has since left to live in a remote part of the world, so great his fear that when the time comes the 'elite' will use this technology with devastating effects.
It makes me wonder how these people can sleep at night!
"Gentlemen! We have called you together to inform you that we are going to overthrow the United States government." So begins a statement being delivered by Gen. Carl W. Steiner, former Commander-in-chief, U.S. Special Operations Command.
At least the voice sounds amazingly like him.
But it is not Steiner. It is the result of voice "morphing" technology developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
By taking just a 10-minute digital recording of Steiner's voice, scientist George Papcun is able, in near real time, to clone speech patterns and develop an accurate facsimile. Steiner was so impressed, he asked for a copy of the tape.
Steiner was hardly the first or last victim to be spoofed by Papcun's team members. To refine their method, they took various high quality recordings of generals and experimented with creating fake statements. One of the most memorable is Colin Powell stating "I am being treated well by my captors."
"They chose to have him say something he would never otherwise have said," chuckled one of Papcun's colleagues.
Most Americans were introduced to the tricks of the digital age in the movie Forrest Gump, when the character played by Tom Hanks appeared to shake hands with President Kennedy.
For Hollywood, it is special effects. For covert operators in the U.S. military and intelligence agencies, it is a weapon of the future.
"Once you can take any kind of information and reduce it into ones and zeros, you can do some pretty interesting things," says Daniel T. Kuehl, chairman of the Information Operations department of the National Defense University in Washington, the military's school for information warfare.
Digital morphing — voice, video, and photo — has come of age, available for use in psychological operations. PSYOPS, as the military calls it, seek to exploit human vulnerabilities in enemy governments, militaries and populations to pursue national and battlefield objectives.
To some, PSYOPS is a backwater military discipline of leaflet dropping and radio propaganda. To a growing group of information war technologists, it is the nexus of fantasy and reality. Being able to manufacture convincing audio or video, they say, might be the difference in a successful military operation or coup.
Allah on the Holodeck
Pentagon planners started to discuss digital morphing after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Covert operators kicked around the idea of creating a computer-faked videotape of Saddam Hussein crying or showing other such manly weaknesses, or in some sexually compromising situation. The nascent plan was for the tapes to be flooded into Iraq and the Arab world.
The tape war never proceeded, killed, participants say, by bureaucratic fights over jurisdiction, skepticism over the technology, and concerns raised by Arab coalition partners.
But the "strategic" PSYOPS scheming didn't die. What if the U.S. projected a holographic image of Allah floating over Baghdad urging the Iraqi people and Army to rise up against Saddam, a senior Air Force officer asked in 1990?
According to a military physicist given the task of looking into the hologram idea, the feasibility had been established of projecting large, three-dimensional objects that appeared to float in the air.
But doing so over the skies of Iraq? To project such a hologram over Baghdad on the order of several hundred feet, they calculated, would take a mirror more than a mile square in space, as well as huge projectors and power sources.
And besides, investigators came back, what does Allah look like?
The Gulf War hologram story might be dismissed were it not the case that washingtonpost.com has learned that a super secret program was established in 1994 to pursue the very technology for PSYOPS application. The "Holographic Projector" is described in a classified Air Force document as a system to "project information power from space ... for special operations deception missions."
War is Like a Box of Chocolates
Voice-morphing? Fake video? Holographic projection? They sound more like Mission Impossible and Star Trek gimmicks than weapons. Yet for each, there are corresponding and growing research efforts as the technologies improve and offensive information warfare expands.
Whereas early voice morphing required cutting and pasting speech to put letters or words together to make a composite, Papcun's software developed at Los Alamos can far more accurately replicate the way one actually speaks. Eliminated are the robotic intonations.
The irony is that after Papcun finished his speech cloning research, there were no takers in the military. Luckily for him, Hollywood is interested: The promise of creating a virtual Clark Gable is mightier than the sword.
Video and photo manipulation has already raised profound questions of authenticity for the journalistic world. With audio joining the mix, it is not only journalists but also privacy advocates and the conspiracy-minded who will no doubt ponder the worrisome mischief that lurks in the not too distant future.
"We already know that seeing isn't necessarily believing," says Dan Kuehl, "now I guess hearing isn't either."
Source: Washingtonpost.com
It makes me wonder how these people can sleep at night!
"Gentlemen! We have called you together to inform you that we are going to overthrow the United States government." So begins a statement being delivered by Gen. Carl W. Steiner, former Commander-in-chief, U.S. Special Operations Command.
At least the voice sounds amazingly like him.
But it is not Steiner. It is the result of voice "morphing" technology developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
By taking just a 10-minute digital recording of Steiner's voice, scientist George Papcun is able, in near real time, to clone speech patterns and develop an accurate facsimile. Steiner was so impressed, he asked for a copy of the tape.
Steiner was hardly the first or last victim to be spoofed by Papcun's team members. To refine their method, they took various high quality recordings of generals and experimented with creating fake statements. One of the most memorable is Colin Powell stating "I am being treated well by my captors."
"They chose to have him say something he would never otherwise have said," chuckled one of Papcun's colleagues.
Most Americans were introduced to the tricks of the digital age in the movie Forrest Gump, when the character played by Tom Hanks appeared to shake hands with President Kennedy.
For Hollywood, it is special effects. For covert operators in the U.S. military and intelligence agencies, it is a weapon of the future.
"Once you can take any kind of information and reduce it into ones and zeros, you can do some pretty interesting things," says Daniel T. Kuehl, chairman of the Information Operations department of the National Defense University in Washington, the military's school for information warfare.
Digital morphing — voice, video, and photo — has come of age, available for use in psychological operations. PSYOPS, as the military calls it, seek to exploit human vulnerabilities in enemy governments, militaries and populations to pursue national and battlefield objectives.
To some, PSYOPS is a backwater military discipline of leaflet dropping and radio propaganda. To a growing group of information war technologists, it is the nexus of fantasy and reality. Being able to manufacture convincing audio or video, they say, might be the difference in a successful military operation or coup.
Allah on the Holodeck
Pentagon planners started to discuss digital morphing after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Covert operators kicked around the idea of creating a computer-faked videotape of Saddam Hussein crying or showing other such manly weaknesses, or in some sexually compromising situation. The nascent plan was for the tapes to be flooded into Iraq and the Arab world.
The tape war never proceeded, killed, participants say, by bureaucratic fights over jurisdiction, skepticism over the technology, and concerns raised by Arab coalition partners.
But the "strategic" PSYOPS scheming didn't die. What if the U.S. projected a holographic image of Allah floating over Baghdad urging the Iraqi people and Army to rise up against Saddam, a senior Air Force officer asked in 1990?
According to a military physicist given the task of looking into the hologram idea, the feasibility had been established of projecting large, three-dimensional objects that appeared to float in the air.
But doing so over the skies of Iraq? To project such a hologram over Baghdad on the order of several hundred feet, they calculated, would take a mirror more than a mile square in space, as well as huge projectors and power sources.
And besides, investigators came back, what does Allah look like?
The Gulf War hologram story might be dismissed were it not the case that washingtonpost.com has learned that a super secret program was established in 1994 to pursue the very technology for PSYOPS application. The "Holographic Projector" is described in a classified Air Force document as a system to "project information power from space ... for special operations deception missions."
War is Like a Box of Chocolates
Voice-morphing? Fake video? Holographic projection? They sound more like Mission Impossible and Star Trek gimmicks than weapons. Yet for each, there are corresponding and growing research efforts as the technologies improve and offensive information warfare expands.
Whereas early voice morphing required cutting and pasting speech to put letters or words together to make a composite, Papcun's software developed at Los Alamos can far more accurately replicate the way one actually speaks. Eliminated are the robotic intonations.
The irony is that after Papcun finished his speech cloning research, there were no takers in the military. Luckily for him, Hollywood is interested: The promise of creating a virtual Clark Gable is mightier than the sword.
Video and photo manipulation has already raised profound questions of authenticity for the journalistic world. With audio joining the mix, it is not only journalists but also privacy advocates and the conspiracy-minded who will no doubt ponder the worrisome mischief that lurks in the not too distant future.
"We already know that seeing isn't necessarily believing," says Dan Kuehl, "now I guess hearing isn't either."
Source: Washingtonpost.com
Billion-dollar babies
WHO rules the world? The most familiar answers to this question are so poisoned by paranoia that it is tempting to dismiss the question itself. If the Jews are so powerful, then why have they had such a dreadful time of things? If the men and women of Davos are so mighty, then why do they keep messing everything up?
Yet the fact that so many people give foolish answers to a question does not discredit the question. The rise of nation states produced national ruling classes. It would be odd if the current integration of the world economy did not produce new global elites—business people and financiers who run global companies and global politicians who steer supra-national organisations such as the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund.
David Rothkopf, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argues that these elites constitute nothing less than a new global “superclass”. They have all the clubby characteristics of the old national ruling classes, but with the vital difference that they operate on the global stage, far from mere national electorates.
They attend the same universities (Mr Rothkopf calculates that Harvard, Stanford and the University of Chicago are now the world's top three superclass producers). They are groomed in a handful of world-spanning institutions such as Goldman Sachs. They belong to the same clubs—the Council on Foreign Relations in New York is a particular favourite—and sit on each other's boards of directors. Many of them shuttle between the public and private sectors. They meet at global events such as the World Economic Forum at Davos and the Trilateral Commission or—for the crème de la crème—the Bilderberg meetings or the Bohemian Grove seminars that take place every July in California.
Mr Rothkopf makes a fascinating tour of the world of the superclass. He opens the door to the office of the head of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, on the top floor of Goldman's tower on New York's Broad Street. He visits the factory that customises Gulfstream jets (every year nearly 10% of Gulfstream's clients attend Davos). He calls on the Carlyle Group where financiers and former presidents get together to make each other richer. And he offers a tour of the weird proceedings of the Bohemian Grove meetings, which Richard Nixon described as “the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine.”
“Superclass” is such a wide-ranging book that it inevitably also raises quibbles. Mr Rothkopf never quite defines the boundaries of his subject. Is he talking about the super-rich? Or about the super-influential? Do the people he talks about really constitute a “class”? Or are they an agglomeration of competing elites with different agendas? Mr Rothkopf adds to the confusion by chasing all manner of hares, including the rise of internet-enabled jihadists.
Mr Rothkopf, whose CV includes a spell working for Kissinger Associates and a period as the deputy under-secretary of commerce for international trade, is much better informed about America than he is about the rest of the world. He is fascinating on the revolving door between the Pentagon and the arms industry, for example, but he says next to nothing about the rise of the EU, one of the great building blocks of the trans-national world. His exposition of the wonders of Davos is more breathless than illuminating.
Still, none of this should put off potential readers: “Superclass” is a pioneering study of a subject that has often been the preserve of conspiracy theorists. Mr Rothkopf is anything but a crank, and he is right when he says that, these days, the most influential people around the world are also the most global people.
He is also admirably ambivalent about his subject. He worries about surging inequality—the richest 1% of humans own 40% of the planet's wealth—and about the rumbling backlash against so much unaccountable power. But he points out that, in a world where most global institutions are lumbering and antiquated, members of the superclass have repeatedly stepped in to put the global system to rights. Let us hope that they have not lost their touch.
He forgot to mention David Rockefeller and Philip Rothschild!
Source: Economist.com
Yet the fact that so many people give foolish answers to a question does not discredit the question. The rise of nation states produced national ruling classes. It would be odd if the current integration of the world economy did not produce new global elites—business people and financiers who run global companies and global politicians who steer supra-national organisations such as the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund.
David Rothkopf, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argues that these elites constitute nothing less than a new global “superclass”. They have all the clubby characteristics of the old national ruling classes, but with the vital difference that they operate on the global stage, far from mere national electorates.
They attend the same universities (Mr Rothkopf calculates that Harvard, Stanford and the University of Chicago are now the world's top three superclass producers). They are groomed in a handful of world-spanning institutions such as Goldman Sachs. They belong to the same clubs—the Council on Foreign Relations in New York is a particular favourite—and sit on each other's boards of directors. Many of them shuttle between the public and private sectors. They meet at global events such as the World Economic Forum at Davos and the Trilateral Commission or—for the crème de la crème—the Bilderberg meetings or the Bohemian Grove seminars that take place every July in California.
Mr Rothkopf makes a fascinating tour of the world of the superclass. He opens the door to the office of the head of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, on the top floor of Goldman's tower on New York's Broad Street. He visits the factory that customises Gulfstream jets (every year nearly 10% of Gulfstream's clients attend Davos). He calls on the Carlyle Group where financiers and former presidents get together to make each other richer. And he offers a tour of the weird proceedings of the Bohemian Grove meetings, which Richard Nixon described as “the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine.”
“Superclass” is such a wide-ranging book that it inevitably also raises quibbles. Mr Rothkopf never quite defines the boundaries of his subject. Is he talking about the super-rich? Or about the super-influential? Do the people he talks about really constitute a “class”? Or are they an agglomeration of competing elites with different agendas? Mr Rothkopf adds to the confusion by chasing all manner of hares, including the rise of internet-enabled jihadists.
Mr Rothkopf, whose CV includes a spell working for Kissinger Associates and a period as the deputy under-secretary of commerce for international trade, is much better informed about America than he is about the rest of the world. He is fascinating on the revolving door between the Pentagon and the arms industry, for example, but he says next to nothing about the rise of the EU, one of the great building blocks of the trans-national world. His exposition of the wonders of Davos is more breathless than illuminating.
Still, none of this should put off potential readers: “Superclass” is a pioneering study of a subject that has often been the preserve of conspiracy theorists. Mr Rothkopf is anything but a crank, and he is right when he says that, these days, the most influential people around the world are also the most global people.
He is also admirably ambivalent about his subject. He worries about surging inequality—the richest 1% of humans own 40% of the planet's wealth—and about the rumbling backlash against so much unaccountable power. But he points out that, in a world where most global institutions are lumbering and antiquated, members of the superclass have repeatedly stepped in to put the global system to rights. Let us hope that they have not lost their touch.
He forgot to mention David Rockefeller and Philip Rothschild!
Source: Economist.com
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Spooky fireballs and UFO sightings in North Dakota
Further to the previous post The Phoenix lights are back again I have been given a link to the following article.
Last night (October 24, 2007) a fireball crashed near Bismarck. In a similar sighting a little over a year ago, three fireballs fell from the sky (read article here).
Maybe it’s just the spooky Halloween atmosphere, but it seems like there is a lot going on in North Dakota skies–including some bizarre UFO sightings. For fun, I’ve made a mini-directory of some of the most freaky things to come across my screen so far:
Has North Dakota become the new Area 51 state? Scroll down the site to get to read this article.
Strange lights in Dickinson (very interesting).
Aliens near Tappen, North Dakota. This video clip left me with a very creepy feeling.
Unexplained mysteries forum: more on the Tappen encounter and some in Minot, too?
One near Grand Forks, North Dakota in September 2005.
1968 UFO sighting near Minot Air Force base
Alien abduction near Dickinson caught on tape? Hmmm. Would be fun to see the footage.
The 1953 Ellsworth Case near Bismarck.
1948 Fargo sighting.
Strange sighting in Amidon, North Dakota.
I’ve never seen a UFO in North Dakota myself. I don’t know if they’re real or not, and if they are real, I would have to ask if they’re military-based or truly full of aliens.
Either way, it’s a fascinating and entertaining subject. I’m glad to share North Dakota’s place in it.
Source: Bismarckndblog.com
Last night (October 24, 2007) a fireball crashed near Bismarck. In a similar sighting a little over a year ago, three fireballs fell from the sky (read article here).
Maybe it’s just the spooky Halloween atmosphere, but it seems like there is a lot going on in North Dakota skies–including some bizarre UFO sightings. For fun, I’ve made a mini-directory of some of the most freaky things to come across my screen so far:
Has North Dakota become the new Area 51 state? Scroll down the site to get to read this article.
Strange lights in Dickinson (very interesting).
Aliens near Tappen, North Dakota. This video clip left me with a very creepy feeling.
Unexplained mysteries forum: more on the Tappen encounter and some in Minot, too?
One near Grand Forks, North Dakota in September 2005.
1968 UFO sighting near Minot Air Force base
Alien abduction near Dickinson caught on tape? Hmmm. Would be fun to see the footage.
The 1953 Ellsworth Case near Bismarck.
1948 Fargo sighting.
Strange sighting in Amidon, North Dakota.
I’ve never seen a UFO in North Dakota myself. I don’t know if they’re real or not, and if they are real, I would have to ask if they’re military-based or truly full of aliens.
Either way, it’s a fascinating and entertaining subject. I’m glad to share North Dakota’s place in it.
Source: Bismarckndblog.com
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
The Phoenix lights are back again
Several people reported seeing four lights forming various formations above the Valley Monday night.Tony Toporek was talking with his neighbours in north Phoenix when the lights appeared at about 8 p.m.
He grabbed his video camera and started taping.
Witnesses reported that the lights formed a vertical line, then formed a diamond-shape, followed by a u-shape.
The lights reportedly moved from side to side and upward before disappearing one by one.
Toporek said the last light vanished and then briefly reappeared before disappearing again.
ABC15 contacted several agencies Monday night, including the FAA, Sky Harbor, Luke Air Force Base, and the Phoenix Police Department. No one could explain what the lights are.
Source: ABC15.com
Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World
Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing.
Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.
At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy.
“Where’s the rice?” an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. “You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.”
The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.
“You can’t eat this every day. It’s too heavy,” a health care executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. “We only need one bag but I’m getting two in case a neighbor or a friend needs it,” the elder man said.
The Patels seemed headed for disappointment, as most Costco members were being allowed to buy only one bag. Moments earlier, a clerk dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap.
“Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history,” a sign above the dwindling supply said.
Shoppers said the limits had been in place for a few days, and that rice supplies had been spotty for a few weeks. A store manager referred questions to officials at Costco headquarters near Seattle, who did not return calls or e-mail messages yesterday.
An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.
The curbs and shortages are being tracked with concern by survivalists who view the phenomenon as a harbinger of more serious trouble to come.
“It’s sporadic. It’s not every store, but it’s becoming more commonplace,” the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, James Rawles, said. “The number of reports I’ve been getting from readers who have seen signs posted with limits has increased almost exponentially, I’d say in the last three to five weeks.”
Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia, and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and Vietnam blocked the signing of a new contract for foreign rice sales.
“I’m surprised the Bush administration hasn’t slapped export controls on wheat,” Mr. Rawles said. “The Asian countries are here buying every kind of wheat.”
Mr. Rawles said it is hard to know how much of the shortages are due to lagging supply and how much is caused by consumers hedging against future price hikes or a total lack of product.
“There have been so many stories about worldwide shortages that it encourages people to stock up. What most people don’t realize is that supply chains have changed, so inventories are very short,” Mr. Rawles, a former Army intelligence officer, said. “Even if people increased their purchasing by 20%, all the store shelves would be wiped out.”
At the moment, large chain retailers seem more prone to shortages and limits than do smaller chains and mom-and-pop stores, perhaps because store managers at the larger companies have less discretion to increase prices locally.
Mr. Rawles said the spot shortages seemed to be most frequent in the Northeast and all the way along the West Coast. He said he had heard reports of buying limits at Sam’s Club warehouses, which are owned by Wal-Mart Stores, but a spokesman for the company, Kory Lundberg, said he was not aware of any shortages or limits.
An anonymous high-tech professional writing on an investment Web site, Seeking Alpha, said he recently bought 10 50-pound bags of rice at Costco. “I am concerned that when the news of rice shortage spreads, there will be panic buying and the shelves will be empty in no time. I do not intend to cause a panic, and I am not speculating on rice to make profit. I am just hoarding some for my own consumption,” he wrote.
For now, rice is available at Asian markets in California, though consumers have fewer choices when buying the largest bags. “At our neighborhood store, it’s very expensive, more than $30” for a 25-pound bag, a housewife from Mountain View, Theresa Esquerra, said. “I’m not going to pay $30. Maybe we’ll just eat bread.”
Source: nysun.com
Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.
At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy.
“Where’s the rice?” an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. “You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.”
The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.
“You can’t eat this every day. It’s too heavy,” a health care executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. “We only need one bag but I’m getting two in case a neighbor or a friend needs it,” the elder man said.
The Patels seemed headed for disappointment, as most Costco members were being allowed to buy only one bag. Moments earlier, a clerk dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap.
“Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history,” a sign above the dwindling supply said.
Shoppers said the limits had been in place for a few days, and that rice supplies had been spotty for a few weeks. A store manager referred questions to officials at Costco headquarters near Seattle, who did not return calls or e-mail messages yesterday.
An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.
The curbs and shortages are being tracked with concern by survivalists who view the phenomenon as a harbinger of more serious trouble to come.
“It’s sporadic. It’s not every store, but it’s becoming more commonplace,” the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, James Rawles, said. “The number of reports I’ve been getting from readers who have seen signs posted with limits has increased almost exponentially, I’d say in the last three to five weeks.”
Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia, and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and Vietnam blocked the signing of a new contract for foreign rice sales.
“I’m surprised the Bush administration hasn’t slapped export controls on wheat,” Mr. Rawles said. “The Asian countries are here buying every kind of wheat.”
Mr. Rawles said it is hard to know how much of the shortages are due to lagging supply and how much is caused by consumers hedging against future price hikes or a total lack of product.
“There have been so many stories about worldwide shortages that it encourages people to stock up. What most people don’t realize is that supply chains have changed, so inventories are very short,” Mr. Rawles, a former Army intelligence officer, said. “Even if people increased their purchasing by 20%, all the store shelves would be wiped out.”
At the moment, large chain retailers seem more prone to shortages and limits than do smaller chains and mom-and-pop stores, perhaps because store managers at the larger companies have less discretion to increase prices locally.
Mr. Rawles said the spot shortages seemed to be most frequent in the Northeast and all the way along the West Coast. He said he had heard reports of buying limits at Sam’s Club warehouses, which are owned by Wal-Mart Stores, but a spokesman for the company, Kory Lundberg, said he was not aware of any shortages or limits.
An anonymous high-tech professional writing on an investment Web site, Seeking Alpha, said he recently bought 10 50-pound bags of rice at Costco. “I am concerned that when the news of rice shortage spreads, there will be panic buying and the shelves will be empty in no time. I do not intend to cause a panic, and I am not speculating on rice to make profit. I am just hoarding some for my own consumption,” he wrote.
For now, rice is available at Asian markets in California, though consumers have fewer choices when buying the largest bags. “At our neighborhood store, it’s very expensive, more than $30” for a 25-pound bag, a housewife from Mountain View, Theresa Esquerra, said. “I’m not going to pay $30. Maybe we’ll just eat bread.”
Source: nysun.com
Monday, 21 April 2008
Who’s That Man?
This is an old story but still very relevant today. If Saddam was not executed and was flown out of Iraq to live a very good lifestyle beyond his own country then the question is, was he working for the 'elite'? Similar accounts have also been told about Hitler and his departure from Germany to Portugal towards the end of 1945. Hence, are all current wars fought on this planet staged?
In June 2005 the BBC broadcast film of what it said was Saddam Hussein facing a tribunal in Iraq. The footage was broadcast without the sound of Hussein speaking and the BBC made no comment other than to say that the film was “mute”. Prompting veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk to ask why we were not allowed to hear what Hussein had to say.
However this writer would suggest that his court appearance was without sound because man in the dock was not Saddam Hussein himself but one of his many doubles. Just think about that for a moment: because previously, the real Saddam had employed the services of a small band of look-a-likes to thwart possible assassination attempts.
And there are many indications that the man, or should that be the men, who faced the Tribunal is one such. From his dental work – see photo below – to stories of the real Saddam flying out of Iraq at the beginning of the invasion, to the fact that his wife could not recognise him when she visited her husband to reports of Saddam being given safe haven in Belarus, there are numerous stories which cast doubt on the official line that the real Saddam Hussein is still in Iraq.
So much so that, although we don’t hear too much about it, many ordinary Iraqis refuse to believe that the Coalition authorities are holding Saddam Hussein captive in Iraq.
Just look at the various individuals pictured here. They certainly look similar but are they all one and the same man, or simply a bunch of look-a-likes? The teeth are an obvious give-away but the eyes, the windows of the soul, also have their own story to tell.
Which may explain why Saddam's first court appearance was broadcast without the sound of him speaking. Because if the man in the dock was not the real Saddam but one of his many doubles, then although he might look like Saddam Hussein, he might not actually sound like him. Or, at least, there might be enough of a difference to make people look again at the man the authorities claim is Saddam.
All of which prompted the Coalition authorities to play it safe with footage of the alleged Saddam Hussein’s first court appearance and omit the sound of him speaking. It's simple enough, a few doubles, some hair dye and careful camera work and you've got Saddam Hussein, as good as new. As a result, few people in the West have asked if the man in the dock was actually Saddam Hussein and those in Iraq who might ask, don't count.
They either obey the Coalition forces or die fighting with the resistance.
It’s voters in the West who still need to be lured into believing this charade. After all, vote fraud aside; it’s Western voters who will pick the next puppet president or prime minister in the US/UK and in this case their choice hinges on the influence of imperceptible changes, broadcast step-by-step, on national TV.
Like Saddam Hussein’s court appearance.
First he appeared without the sound of his voice. Now that Western audiences have bought the first lie – that the man in the dock really is Saddam Hussein and maybe after being coached to speak like him, now even sounds vaguely like him – they are ready for the next lie. Believing that when he speaks they are hearing, in the words of the BBC: “former dictator Saddam Hussein testifying in his defence at his trial in Baghdad…” etc. etc. etc....
References:
In June 2005 the BBC broadcast film of what it said was Saddam Hussein facing a tribunal in Iraq. The footage was broadcast without the sound of Hussein speaking and the BBC made no comment other than to say that the film was “mute”. Prompting veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk to ask why we were not allowed to hear what Hussein had to say.However this writer would suggest that his court appearance was without sound because man in the dock was not Saddam Hussein himself but one of his many doubles. Just think about that for a moment: because previously, the real Saddam had employed the services of a small band of look-a-likes to thwart possible assassination attempts.
And there are many indications that the man, or should that be the men, who faced the Tribunal is one such. From his dental work – see photo below – to stories of the real Saddam flying out of Iraq at the beginning of the invasion, to the fact that his wife could not recognise him when she visited her husband to reports of Saddam being given safe haven in Belarus, there are numerous stories which cast doubt on the official line that the real Saddam Hussein is still in Iraq.
So much so that, although we don’t hear too much about it, many ordinary Iraqis refuse to believe that the Coalition authorities are holding Saddam Hussein captive in Iraq.
Just look at the various individuals pictured here. They certainly look similar but are they all one and the same man, or simply a bunch of look-a-likes? The teeth are an obvious give-away but the eyes, the windows of the soul, also have their own story to tell.
Which may explain why Saddam's first court appearance was broadcast without the sound of him speaking. Because if the man in the dock was not the real Saddam but one of his many doubles, then although he might look like Saddam Hussein, he might not actually sound like him. Or, at least, there might be enough of a difference to make people look again at the man the authorities claim is Saddam.
All of which prompted the Coalition authorities to play it safe with footage of the alleged Saddam Hussein’s first court appearance and omit the sound of him speaking. It's simple enough, a few doubles, some hair dye and careful camera work and you've got Saddam Hussein, as good as new. As a result, few people in the West have asked if the man in the dock was actually Saddam Hussein and those in Iraq who might ask, don't count.
They either obey the Coalition forces or die fighting with the resistance.
It’s voters in the West who still need to be lured into believing this charade. After all, vote fraud aside; it’s Western voters who will pick the next puppet president or prime minister in the US/UK and in this case their choice hinges on the influence of imperceptible changes, broadcast step-by-step, on national TV.
Like Saddam Hussein’s court appearance.
First he appeared without the sound of his voice. Now that Western audiences have bought the first lie – that the man in the dock really is Saddam Hussein and maybe after being coached to speak like him, now even sounds vaguely like him – they are ready for the next lie. Believing that when he speaks they are hearing, in the words of the BBC: “former dictator Saddam Hussein testifying in his defence at his trial in Baghdad…” etc. etc. etc....
References:
Saddam’s wife could not recognise her husband
Mrs Saddam Says Saddam Not Saddam www.vialls.com/subliminalsuggestion/saddamscam.html
Iraqi Commander Swears he saw USAF fly Saddam out of Baghdad www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=1079
Hussein Given Safe Haven in Belarus?
Shaddam Shaddam New Vaudeville Scam! www.vialls.com/subliminalsuggestion/saddamscam.html
Seeing Double In Baghdad: Saddam Uses Look-Alikes To Disguise His Whereabouts www.rferl.org/features/2002/10/09102002155130.asp
Yes, but Where Are the Saddam Look-Alikes?
Friday, 18 April 2008
Carol Rosin warning us on Staged Threats
This is another excellent post from Richard Lalancette's blog. Thank you Richard for drawing attention to this very important issue.
Richardlalancette.blogspot.com
My name is Carol Rosin. I am an educator who became the first woman corporate manager of an Aerospace Company, Fairchild Industries. I am a Space and Missile Defense Consultant and have consulted to a number of companies, organizations, and government departments, even the intelligence community. I was a consultant to TRW working on the MX missile, so I was part of that strategy, which turned out to be a role model for how to sell space-based weapons to the public. The MX missile is yet another weapon system that we didn’t need.
I founded the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space, a Washington DC based think tank. I am an author and have testified before Congress and the President’s Commission on Space.
When I was a Corporate Manager of Fairchild Industries from 1974 through 1977, I met the late Dr. Wernher Von Braun. We first met in early 1974. At that time, Von Braun was dying of cancer but he assured me that he would live a few more years to tell me about the game that was being played- that game being the effort to weaponize space, to control the Earth from space and space itself.
What was most interesting to me was a repetitive sentence that he said to me over and over again during the approximately four years that I had the opportunity to work with him. He said the strategy that was being used to educate the public and decision makers was to use scare tactics that was how we identify an enemy.
The strategy that Wernher Von Braun taught me was that first the Russians are going to be considered to be the enemy. In fact, in 1974, they were the enemy, the identified enemy. We were told that they had "killer satellites". We were told that they were coming to get us and control us - that they were "Commies."
Then terrorists would be identified, and that was soon to follow. We heard a lot about terrorism. Then we were going to identify third-world country "crazies." We now call them Nations of Concern. But he said that would be the third enemy against whom we would build space-based weapons.
The next enemy was asteroids. Now, at this point he kind of chuckled the first time he said it. Asteroids-against asteroids we are going to build space-based weapons.
And the funniest one of all was what he called aliens, extraterrestrials. That would be the final scare. And over and over and over during the four years that I knew him and was giving speeches for him, he would bring up that last card.
think I was too naive at that time to know the seriousness of the nature of the spin that was being put on the system. And now, the pieces are starting to fall into place. We are building a space-based weapons system on a premise that is a lie, a spin. Wernher Von Braun was trying to hint that to me back in the early 70’s and right up until the moment when he died in 1977.
What he told me was that there is an accelerated effort in place. He didn’t mention a timeline but he said that it was going to be speeding up faster than anybody could possibly imagine. That the effort to put weapons into space was not only based on a lie but would accelerate past the point of people even understanding it until it was already up there and too late.
Who would benefit from these space-based weapons? They are the people who work in that arena, people in the military, in industries, in universities and labs, in the intelligence community. This is not just in the United States but it is worldwide. This is a worldwide cooperative system. Wars are cooperative. Just as peace will be when it breaks out. But right now there are a lot of people benefiting. This is what our economy has been based on in this country and spreading around the world - war.
Source: Bibliotecapleyades.net
Richardlalancette.blogspot.com
My name is Carol Rosin. I am an educator who became the first woman corporate manager of an Aerospace Company, Fairchild Industries. I am a Space and Missile Defense Consultant and have consulted to a number of companies, organizations, and government departments, even the intelligence community. I was a consultant to TRW working on the MX missile, so I was part of that strategy, which turned out to be a role model for how to sell space-based weapons to the public. The MX missile is yet another weapon system that we didn’t need.
I founded the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Outer Space, a Washington DC based think tank. I am an author and have testified before Congress and the President’s Commission on Space.
When I was a Corporate Manager of Fairchild Industries from 1974 through 1977, I met the late Dr. Wernher Von Braun. We first met in early 1974. At that time, Von Braun was dying of cancer but he assured me that he would live a few more years to tell me about the game that was being played- that game being the effort to weaponize space, to control the Earth from space and space itself.
What was most interesting to me was a repetitive sentence that he said to me over and over again during the approximately four years that I had the opportunity to work with him. He said the strategy that was being used to educate the public and decision makers was to use scare tactics that was how we identify an enemy.
The strategy that Wernher Von Braun taught me was that first the Russians are going to be considered to be the enemy. In fact, in 1974, they were the enemy, the identified enemy. We were told that they had "killer satellites". We were told that they were coming to get us and control us - that they were "Commies."
Then terrorists would be identified, and that was soon to follow. We heard a lot about terrorism. Then we were going to identify third-world country "crazies." We now call them Nations of Concern. But he said that would be the third enemy against whom we would build space-based weapons.
The next enemy was asteroids. Now, at this point he kind of chuckled the first time he said it. Asteroids-against asteroids we are going to build space-based weapons.
And the funniest one of all was what he called aliens, extraterrestrials. That would be the final scare. And over and over and over during the four years that I knew him and was giving speeches for him, he would bring up that last card.
think I was too naive at that time to know the seriousness of the nature of the spin that was being put on the system. And now, the pieces are starting to fall into place. We are building a space-based weapons system on a premise that is a lie, a spin. Wernher Von Braun was trying to hint that to me back in the early 70’s and right up until the moment when he died in 1977.
What he told me was that there is an accelerated effort in place. He didn’t mention a timeline but he said that it was going to be speeding up faster than anybody could possibly imagine. That the effort to put weapons into space was not only based on a lie but would accelerate past the point of people even understanding it until it was already up there and too late.
Who would benefit from these space-based weapons? They are the people who work in that arena, people in the military, in industries, in universities and labs, in the intelligence community. This is not just in the United States but it is worldwide. This is a worldwide cooperative system. Wars are cooperative. Just as peace will be when it breaks out. But right now there are a lot of people benefiting. This is what our economy has been based on in this country and spreading around the world - war.
Source: Bibliotecapleyades.net
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
Socialite pair “plotted to blackmail” Royal
The proceedings reported below are a sordid affair and normally we would ignore them but for the fact that they echo earlier allegations made by another Royal servant.Those allegation were made by Princess Diana's former servant George Smith, who claimed that homosexuality was rife in the royal household.
This shouldn’t surprise us however, it’s almost par for the course in the dying days of empire. The same held true in the final days of imperial China when Beijing’s Forbidden City was infested with homosexuals.
Although the royal in the report below remains unnamed, earlier allegations made by the former royal valet specifically named a senior royal aide and Prince Charles whom, Smith claimed, he had found in bed together.
Smith even went so far as to claim that he had been subject to a homosexual rape by the royal aide in question.
Smith stood by his claim, despite his being largely ignored or ridiculed by the British media.
What is interesting here however is that Prince Charles private secretary, Sir Michael Peat, subsequently confirmed that the Prince was so troubled by the allegations that he wished Mr Smith could somehow be "made to go away".
Well he got his wish.
Virtually unreported by the media, George Smith died, says wikipedia, of an "unknown illness" on August 24, 2005. So while they largely dismissed his credibility while he was still alive, the mainstream media also completely ignored his untimely death.
Like Princess Diana's "accident", George Smith's death from an "unknown illness" stinks.
Socialite pair “plotted to blackmail” Royal over claims he performed a gay sex act on aide
Daily Mail – April 15, 2008
A married member of the royal family was a victim of a gay sex blackmail plot, the Old Bailey heard today.
Other members of the family were also named in "scandalous and disparaging" allegations.
Two men tried to gain £50,000 "with menaces" from the royal to prevent these allegations appearing in the media, the jury was told.
They were arrested after a meeting at the Hilton hotel in Park Lane with the royal's representative who turned out to be an undercover police officer.
Neither the victim, described as "a member of the extended royal family" and a married family man, nor the man on whose claims the alleged blackmail plot was based can be identified because of court orders made by Mr Justice Cooke.
Ian Strachan, 31, of Chelsea, and Sean McGuigan, 41, of Battersea, have pleaded not guilty to making unwarranted demands with menaces between July and September last year.
Mark Ellison QC, prosecuting, said the defendants made eight hours of video and audio computer files of allegations by a man known as Witness D.
Both Strachan and McGuigan knew D, who was employed by the royal known as Witness A, but strongly disliked him. D was often drunk and was filmed apparently taking drugs using a Harrods card, the court heard.
On the files D "gave his forthright opinions on a range of well-known people and on a wide range of other members of the royal family which included a number of scandalous and disparaging remarks", Mr Ellison said.
"There were three audio files of the man apparently asserting that the member of the royal family who employed him had performed an act of oral sex on him."
If this material was ever published there was "the obvious potential to cause embarrassment and hurt to A and a number of members of the extended royal family".
Strachan made the recordings using McGuigan's mobile phone, the court heard. He approached several newspapers and publicist Max Clifford.
At the meeting, McGuigan was recorded saying there was an offer of "250" for the tapes, Mr Ellison said.
He said what he was doing was "about witness D" who was "not a very nice person".
"He spikes people's drinks when they're asleep or when they're unconscious he fiddles about with them and things life that... he's got to be stopped."
Strachan said the tapes included D snorting cocaine.
D was also recorded saying he had letters the royal gave him.
He said the tapes were four hours of video and four of audio.
Mr Ellison said Strachan claimed money was not his primary objective as he wanted to expose D, but he did ask one newspaper for "a substantial sum".
The newspapers decided there would be legal problems and turned Strachan down, said Mr Ellison. The defendants turned their attention to A.
In July last year A's personal assistant, known as Witness B, received a call from a man claiming to be Kent Logan and demanding to speak to A, said Mr Ellison.
The man added: "If he knows what's good for him he will ring me back" and left a phone number which was registered to Strachan's mother.
Three weeks later McGuigan rang B asking to speak to A. He mentioned "something relating to an act of oral sex", and said D was "slagging off" A's wife and other royals and was going to go to the newspapers.
B rang Witness C, a close associate of A and a lawyer, who contacted McGuigan, Mr Ellison said.
McGuigan told C he did not want money but "wanted A to know how nefarious his employee D was". However he added: "But if A wanted to 'take care of them' it would be nice," said Mr Ellison.
Strachan told C they had been offered up to £100,000 for the tapes and demanded £50,000 from Mr A. In taped phone conversations, C told Strachan: "A would rather avoid a big scandal, but for him £50,000 is a lot of money. He doesn't want to pay that big amount under duress and find there are many copies circulating around."
Strachan replies: "Definitely not. I'm a man of my word."
In September the undercover officer, known as Paul, met Strachan and McGuigan in a bugged meeting at the Hilton.
McGuigan told him they had the potential to earn £250,000 from the media.
Mr Ellison said that after hearing some material Paul asked if he had heard everything that affected A.
Strachan replied that D "kinds of flips in" and says A performed oral sex on him "but he doesn't go into much detail".
The case continues
Source: Dailymail.co.uk
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Bush speaks on the possibility of another 9/11
US President George Bush has said he believes another 9/11 attack on the United States should be considered a strong possibility and warned that such an attack could originate from Pakistan.
In an interview with America’s ABC TV, Mr Bush said: "If another September 11 style attack is being planned, it probably is being plotted in Pakistan, and not Afghanistan."
Bush said if the terrorists were planning such attacks, they would be found out.
During the interview he also said that Washington had no intention of attacking Iran, but added that it was the responsibility of the US to convince the world of Iran's capacity to enrich its uranium capacities for a potentially threatening nuclear weapons program.
It was, therefore, in the interest of Washington to pressurise the Iranians to prevent them from enriching their uranium haul.
He said the US was continually gaining knowledge about Iran's activities in Iraq.
Bush said the United States would bring Iran to justice if it continued to try to use agents or surrogates to infiltrate Iraq and harm US troops and Iraqi citizens.
Asked to clarify "bring to justice," Bush replied: "It means capture or kill, is what that means."
Source: Bignewsnetwork.com
In an interview with America’s ABC TV, Mr Bush said: "If another September 11 style attack is being planned, it probably is being plotted in Pakistan, and not Afghanistan."
Bush said if the terrorists were planning such attacks, they would be found out.
During the interview he also said that Washington had no intention of attacking Iran, but added that it was the responsibility of the US to convince the world of Iran's capacity to enrich its uranium capacities for a potentially threatening nuclear weapons program.
It was, therefore, in the interest of Washington to pressurise the Iranians to prevent them from enriching their uranium haul.
He said the US was continually gaining knowledge about Iran's activities in Iraq.
Bush said the United States would bring Iran to justice if it continued to try to use agents or surrogates to infiltrate Iraq and harm US troops and Iraqi citizens.
Asked to clarify "bring to justice," Bush replied: "It means capture or kill, is what that means."
Source: Bignewsnetwork.com
Monday, 14 April 2008
Hunger. Strikes. Riots. The food crisis bites
Across the world a crisis is unfolding at alarming speed. Climate change, China's increasing consumption and the dash for biofuels are causing food shortages and rocketing prices - sparking riots in cities from the Caribbean to the Far East. Robin McKie and Heather Stewart report on the millions facing starvation - and the growing threat to global security.
Four key factors behind the spreading fear of starvation across the globe
Growing consumption
Six months ago Zhou Jian closed down his car parts business and launched himself as a pork butcher. Since then the 26-year-old businessman's Shanghai shop has been crowded out - despite a 58 per cent rise in the price of pork in the past year - and his income has trebled.
As China's emerging middle classes become richer, their consumption of meat has increased by more than 150 per cent per head since 1980. In those days, meat was scarce, rationed at around 1kg per person per month and used sparingly in rice and noodle dishes, stir fried to preserve cooking oil.
Today, the average Chinese consumer eats more than 50kg of meat a year. To feed the millions of pigs on its farms, China is now importing grain on a huge scale, pushing up its prices worldwide.
Palm oil crisis
The oil palm tree is the most highly efficient producer of vegetable oil, with one acre yielding as much oil as eight acres of soybeans. Unfortunately, it takes eight years to grow to maturity and demand has outstripped supply. Vegetable oils provide an important source of calories in the developing world, and their shortage has contributed to the food crisis.
A drought in Indonesia and flooding in Malaysia has also hit the crop. While farmers and plantation companies hurriedly clear land to replant, it will take time before their efforts bear fruit. Palm oil prices jumped nearly 70 per cent last year, hitting the poorest families. When a store in Chongqing in China announced a cooking-oil promotion in November, a stampede left three dead and 31 injured.
Biofuel demand
The rising demand for ethanol, a biofuel that is mixed with petrol to bring down prices at the pump, has transformed the landscape of Iowa. Today this heartland of the Midwest is America's cornbelt, with the corn crop stretching as far as the eye can see.
Iowa produces almost half of the entire output of ethanol in the US, with 21 ethanol-producing plants as farmers tear down fences, dig out old soya bean crops, buy up land and plant yet more corn. It has been likened to a new gold rush.
But none of it is for food. And as the demand for ethanol increases, yet more farmers will pile in for the great scramble to plant corn - instead of grain. The effect will be to further worsen world grain shortages.
Global warming
The massive grain storage complex outside Tottenham, New South Wales, today lies virtually empty. Normally, it would be half-full. As the second largest exporter of grain after the US, Australia usually expects to harvest around 25 million tonnes a year. But, because of a five-year drought, thought to have been caused by climate change, it managed just 9.8 million tonnes in 2006.
Farmers such as George Grieg, who has farmed here for 50 years, have rarely known it to be so bad. Many have not even recovered the cost of planting and caring for their crops, and are being forced into debt. With global wheat prices at an all-time high, all they can do is cling on in the hope of a bumper crop next time - if they are lucky.
Below is the full story from a women known as Kamla Devi. Kamla lives in New Delhi with her husband, they both exist on just one meal a day:
Guardian.co.uk
A map of where there have been food riots:
Blogs.guardian.co.uk
Four key factors behind the spreading fear of starvation across the globe
Growing consumption
Six months ago Zhou Jian closed down his car parts business and launched himself as a pork butcher. Since then the 26-year-old businessman's Shanghai shop has been crowded out - despite a 58 per cent rise in the price of pork in the past year - and his income has trebled.
As China's emerging middle classes become richer, their consumption of meat has increased by more than 150 per cent per head since 1980. In those days, meat was scarce, rationed at around 1kg per person per month and used sparingly in rice and noodle dishes, stir fried to preserve cooking oil.
Today, the average Chinese consumer eats more than 50kg of meat a year. To feed the millions of pigs on its farms, China is now importing grain on a huge scale, pushing up its prices worldwide.
Palm oil crisis
The oil palm tree is the most highly efficient producer of vegetable oil, with one acre yielding as much oil as eight acres of soybeans. Unfortunately, it takes eight years to grow to maturity and demand has outstripped supply. Vegetable oils provide an important source of calories in the developing world, and their shortage has contributed to the food crisis.
A drought in Indonesia and flooding in Malaysia has also hit the crop. While farmers and plantation companies hurriedly clear land to replant, it will take time before their efforts bear fruit. Palm oil prices jumped nearly 70 per cent last year, hitting the poorest families. When a store in Chongqing in China announced a cooking-oil promotion in November, a stampede left three dead and 31 injured.
Biofuel demand
The rising demand for ethanol, a biofuel that is mixed with petrol to bring down prices at the pump, has transformed the landscape of Iowa. Today this heartland of the Midwest is America's cornbelt, with the corn crop stretching as far as the eye can see.
Iowa produces almost half of the entire output of ethanol in the US, with 21 ethanol-producing plants as farmers tear down fences, dig out old soya bean crops, buy up land and plant yet more corn. It has been likened to a new gold rush.
But none of it is for food. And as the demand for ethanol increases, yet more farmers will pile in for the great scramble to plant corn - instead of grain. The effect will be to further worsen world grain shortages.
Global warming
The massive grain storage complex outside Tottenham, New South Wales, today lies virtually empty. Normally, it would be half-full. As the second largest exporter of grain after the US, Australia usually expects to harvest around 25 million tonnes a year. But, because of a five-year drought, thought to have been caused by climate change, it managed just 9.8 million tonnes in 2006.
Farmers such as George Grieg, who has farmed here for 50 years, have rarely known it to be so bad. Many have not even recovered the cost of planting and caring for their crops, and are being forced into debt. With global wheat prices at an all-time high, all they can do is cling on in the hope of a bumper crop next time - if they are lucky.
Below is the full story from a women known as Kamla Devi. Kamla lives in New Delhi with her husband, they both exist on just one meal a day:
Guardian.co.uk
A map of where there have been food riots:
Blogs.guardian.co.uk
Sunday, 13 April 2008
The Coming War with Iran: It's About the Oil
World civilization is based on oil. The world is running out of oil. The oil companies and governments are not telling the truth about how close we are to the end. Dick Cheney knew about peak oil back in 1999 when he spoke to the London Petroleum Institute as Halliburton CEO. He predicted it would come in 2010. After that it's just a matter of years before it runs out. Whoever controls the remaining oil determines who lives and who dies.Sixty percent of this oil is under a triangular area of the Middle East the size of Kansas. In that speech Cheney said: "The Middle East with two thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies."
This small Middle East triangle encompasses the northeast of Saudi Arabia, all of Iraq and the southwestern part of Iran, along with Kuwait, Qatar and the Emirates. The US controls Iraq. It has friendly governments in the other states.
Iran is the exception. The US now surrounds Iran.
Controlling an area the size of Kansas shouldn't be a problem for the U.S. military, except that it is heavily populated and many people in the triangle don't want the Americans there and are willing to fight.
It's been known for at least thirty years that America needs alternative energy sources. But instead of an alternative energy plan we got the invasion of Iraq by oilmen wedded to a dying business, willing to kill hundreds of thousands to cling to the last drop. The US is never leaving the region or withdrawing from Iraq. McCain is right about staying, but 100 years is too long. The oil won't last that long.
Iran is next. Lieberman set up Petraeus to testify last week that Iranian-backed groups are murdering hundreds of American servicemen in Iraq. On Friday Gates called Iran's influence in Iraq "malign" and Bush said if Iran keeps meddling in Iraq "then we'll deal with them." They are building their case for war with resolutions in the Senate and at the UN. It's only western Iran, from the Iraq border to 150 miles inside the country that the U.S. will have to occupy. That's where Iran's oil is. But the U.S. will have a nasty battle on their hands in Iran even if they restore a Shah-like puppet in Tehran 30 years after the revolution.
The Saudis would not mind seeing the Iranian regime go. But the Saudis may also be on the list. The US may have to destabilize and control Saudi Arabia some day too. The Wall Street Journal a few years ago revealed that in the 1970s under Nixon, Kissinger had plans drawn up for the US invasion and occupation of the Saudi oil fields. Those plans can be dusted off.
The American oil wars are being launched out of weakness, not strength. The American economy is teetering and without control of the remaining oil it will collapse. There will be massive chaos in any case, when only enough oil remains for the American elite and whomever they choose to share it with.
That will leave an oil-starved China and India, both with nuclear weapons, with no alternative but to bow to America or go to war.
It's not about greed any more. It's about survival. Because the leadership of this country was initially too greedy to switch from oil to solar, wind, geothermal and other renewable alternatives, it may now be too late. Had the hundreds of billions of dollars poured into the invasion and occupation of Iraq been put into alternative energy the world might have had a fighting chance. Now that is far from certain.
What is certain is that these wars are not about democracy. They are not about WMD. The coming one will not even be about Iran's nuclear weapons project. It's about the oil, stupid.
Source: Huffingtonpost.com
Saturday, 12 April 2008
Ovni-USA Article - February 2008 - United Nations Meeting
The following is taken from the front page of the Disclosure Project's website.
I was aware at the time that this particular meeting was taking place at the UN but I thought it was just another hoax. It turns out it was not a hoax.
Page 1 is written in the French language, pages 2, 3 & 4 are written in the English language. I shall let you read and digest the contents of this very important meeting.
Ovni-USA Article about February 2008 United Nations Meeting - February 23, 2008: This is a fax of the French article, plus translation into English.
Page 1 [JPG file]
Page 2 [JPG file]
Page 3 [JPG file]
Page 4 [text file]
Source: http://www.disclosureproject.org/
I was aware at the time that this particular meeting was taking place at the UN but I thought it was just another hoax. It turns out it was not a hoax.
Page 1 is written in the French language, pages 2, 3 & 4 are written in the English language. I shall let you read and digest the contents of this very important meeting.
Ovni-USA Article about February 2008 United Nations Meeting - February 23, 2008: This is a fax of the French article, plus translation into English.
Page 1 [JPG file]
Page 2 [JPG file]
Page 3 [JPG file]
Page 4 [text file]
Source: http://www.disclosureproject.org/
On Plans To Micro-Chip London’s Metropolitan Police
A Former Metropolitan Police Officer Comments:
As a former Metropolitan Police Officer, it was with great concern that I read yesterday's announcement by Sir Ian Blair, The Police Commissioner of London, that every one of the 31,000 serving officers will be `Microchipped` so that their `movements` can be monitored more effectively. The new device called the `Automated Personal Location System` or APLS will mean that Officers will `never` be out of range of supervisors. This massive invasion of the `last frontier` of human privacy (a person's self) is being sold as a means by which better protection can be afforded patrol units. What nobody, including the Police Federation seems to understand, is that once `embedded` into a person, the potential of this `chip` goes much further than merely being used as a tracking device.
The `Personal Microchip` is the Illuminati's `icing on the cake` where social control is concerned, and the key to the global control of the planet's population. If this `mandatory` chipping of London Police Officers goes ahead, the precedent will be set, and how long will it be before the `Armed Forces`, and other `Emergency Services` follow suit ? Furthermore, with the Police already `fitted out` with this new `wonder chip`, it won't be too difficult to `sell` the `APLS` to parents already whipped into a state of `terror` by sensationalised reporting by the Mass Media of every new child abduction case. 'If it's alright for the Police, well it must be a good thing then', will be the likely consensus.
It is an accepted fact that the UK is the surveillance capitol of the world, and it's people are sleepwalking headlong into a `Big Brother` Totalitarian State, the monstrous proportions of which even George Orwell could not have imagined.
As mentioned above, the `tracking` ability of the APLS is only a minor aspect of it's sinister potential for human control. Over the past twenty years or so, Credit and Debit cards have largely replaced cash transactions on the high street. The imminent introduction of the national ID card system in both the UK and US would facilitate the `phasing` out of Credit/Charge cards as personal information and financial details are embedded onto the ID card's `chip`. This in due course would accelerate the disappearance of `cash` altogether. The question begs to be asked; If there's no cash alternative, and the chip in your card has been switched off because you wouldn't `conform` to their new World Order, what are you going to do? There you have `their` recipe for the complete economic and social enslavement of mankind.
This is even more the case with personal microchips, and the with speed technology in this field is now advancing, the introduction of the APLS could literally `leapfrog` over the National ID card, and the trickle of public acquiescence would become an avalanche, as more and more employers insist on their workforce accepting `voluntary` chipping as a precondition of employment. Information stored within the `Chip` could be easily accessed via a Central Computer, and sold to private companies by government agencies. So, they'll decide whether you work or not, and whether you will have the capacity to purchase food and everything else needed to live, or not.
The Book of Revelations foretold of these developments long ago, ' And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark on their foreheads, or upon their right hand. That no man might buy or sell, save he had that mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666'.
The chip placed in the back of your hand will be the mark of the beast.
With everyone's complete personal `portfolio` registered on a National database (to be transferred to the Global Computer when the time is right), the dignity of human kind and the concept of the individual will disappear. I recall watching an episode of `Star Trek, The Next Generation` a few years back, and an Alien Race known as the `Borg`. The Borg were part organic, part cyborg, and were all linked to each other via their central computer. Unless we wake up and stop this relentless march towards totalitarianism, there is your picture of the future.
In the words of George Orwell, 'If you want to know what the future looks like. Imagine a boot, stamping down onto a human face forever'.
The British Police Service is a ready made `easy target` for this pernicious and ominous attack on personal liberty, thinly disguised as being a means of safeguarding patrol officers. They have weak representation and no trade union. Unless their members stand firm and refuse this grim proposal, the above scenario becoming a reality is almost inevitable.
As CS Lewis put it, 'When the Round Table is broken. Men must choose galahad or Mordred. Middle things are gone.
Source: Thetruthseeker.co.uk
RFID: Youtube.com
As a former Metropolitan Police Officer, it was with great concern that I read yesterday's announcement by Sir Ian Blair, The Police Commissioner of London, that every one of the 31,000 serving officers will be `Microchipped` so that their `movements` can be monitored more effectively. The new device called the `Automated Personal Location System` or APLS will mean that Officers will `never` be out of range of supervisors. This massive invasion of the `last frontier` of human privacy (a person's self) is being sold as a means by which better protection can be afforded patrol units. What nobody, including the Police Federation seems to understand, is that once `embedded` into a person, the potential of this `chip` goes much further than merely being used as a tracking device.
The `Personal Microchip` is the Illuminati's `icing on the cake` where social control is concerned, and the key to the global control of the planet's population. If this `mandatory` chipping of London Police Officers goes ahead, the precedent will be set, and how long will it be before the `Armed Forces`, and other `Emergency Services` follow suit ? Furthermore, with the Police already `fitted out` with this new `wonder chip`, it won't be too difficult to `sell` the `APLS` to parents already whipped into a state of `terror` by sensationalised reporting by the Mass Media of every new child abduction case. 'If it's alright for the Police, well it must be a good thing then', will be the likely consensus.
It is an accepted fact that the UK is the surveillance capitol of the world, and it's people are sleepwalking headlong into a `Big Brother` Totalitarian State, the monstrous proportions of which even George Orwell could not have imagined.
As mentioned above, the `tracking` ability of the APLS is only a minor aspect of it's sinister potential for human control. Over the past twenty years or so, Credit and Debit cards have largely replaced cash transactions on the high street. The imminent introduction of the national ID card system in both the UK and US would facilitate the `phasing` out of Credit/Charge cards as personal information and financial details are embedded onto the ID card's `chip`. This in due course would accelerate the disappearance of `cash` altogether. The question begs to be asked; If there's no cash alternative, and the chip in your card has been switched off because you wouldn't `conform` to their new World Order, what are you going to do? There you have `their` recipe for the complete economic and social enslavement of mankind.
This is even more the case with personal microchips, and the with speed technology in this field is now advancing, the introduction of the APLS could literally `leapfrog` over the National ID card, and the trickle of public acquiescence would become an avalanche, as more and more employers insist on their workforce accepting `voluntary` chipping as a precondition of employment. Information stored within the `Chip` could be easily accessed via a Central Computer, and sold to private companies by government agencies. So, they'll decide whether you work or not, and whether you will have the capacity to purchase food and everything else needed to live, or not.
The Book of Revelations foretold of these developments long ago, ' And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark on their foreheads, or upon their right hand. That no man might buy or sell, save he had that mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666'.
The chip placed in the back of your hand will be the mark of the beast.
With everyone's complete personal `portfolio` registered on a National database (to be transferred to the Global Computer when the time is right), the dignity of human kind and the concept of the individual will disappear. I recall watching an episode of `Star Trek, The Next Generation` a few years back, and an Alien Race known as the `Borg`. The Borg were part organic, part cyborg, and were all linked to each other via their central computer. Unless we wake up and stop this relentless march towards totalitarianism, there is your picture of the future.
In the words of George Orwell, 'If you want to know what the future looks like. Imagine a boot, stamping down onto a human face forever'.
The British Police Service is a ready made `easy target` for this pernicious and ominous attack on personal liberty, thinly disguised as being a means of safeguarding patrol officers. They have weak representation and no trade union. Unless their members stand firm and refuse this grim proposal, the above scenario becoming a reality is almost inevitable.
As CS Lewis put it, 'When the Round Table is broken. Men must choose galahad or Mordred. Middle things are gone.
Source: Thetruthseeker.co.uk
RFID: Youtube.com
Friday, 11 April 2008
Met Police officers to be 'microchipped'
First the police then every member of the public, this is getting very dangerous indeed!
Every single Metropolitan police officer will be 'microchipped' so top brass can monitor their movements on a Big Brother style tracking scheme, it can be revealed today.
According to respected industry magazine Police Review, the plan - which affects all 31,000 serving officers in the Met, including Sir Ian Blair - is set to replace the unreliable Airwave radio system currently used to help monitor officer's movements.
The new electronic tracking device - called the Automated Personal Location System (APLS) - means that officers will never be out of range of supervising officers.
But many serving officers fear being turned into "Robocops" - controlled by bosses who have not been out on the beat in years.
According to service providers Telent, the new technology 'will enable operators in the Service's operations centres to identify the location of each police officer' at any time they are on duty - whether overground or underground.
Although police chiefs say the new technology is about 'improving officer safety' and reacting to incidents more quickly, many rank and file believe it is just a Big Brother style system to keep tabs on them and make sure they don't 'doze off on duty'.
Some officers are concerned that the system - which will be able to pinpoint any of the 31,000 officers in the Met to within a few feet of their location - will put a complete end to community policing and leave officers purely at the beck and call of control room staff rather than reacting to members of the public on the ground.
Pete Smyth, chairman of the Met Police Federation, said: "This could be very good for officers' safety but it could also involve an element of Big Brother.
"We need to look at it very carefully."
Other officers, however, were more scathing, saying the new system - set to be implemented within the next few weeks - will turn them into 'Robocops' simply obeying instructions from above rather than using their own judgement.
One officer, working in Peckham, south London, said: "They are keeping the exact workings of the system very hush-hush at the moment - although it will be similar to the way criminals are electronically tagged. There will not be any choice about wearing one.
"We depend on our own ability and local knowledge to react to situations accordingly.
"Obviously we need the back up and information from control, but a lot of us feel that we will simply be used as machines, or robots, to do what we are told with little or no chance to put in anything ourselves."
He added: "Most of us joined up so we could apply the law and think for ourselves, but if Sarge knows where we are every second of the day it just makes it difficult."
Another officer, who did not want to be named, said: "A lot of my time is spent speaking to people in cafes, parks or just wherever I'm approached. If I feel I've got my chief breathing down my neck to make another arrest I won't feel I'm doing my job properly."
The system is one of the largest of its kind in the world, according to Telent, the company behind the technology, although neither the Met nor Telent would provide Police Review with any more information about exactly how the system will work or what sort of devices officers will wear.
Nigel Lee, a workstream manager at the Met, said: "Safety is a primary concern for all police forces.
"The area served by our force covers 620 miles and knowing the location of our officers means that not only can we provision resource more quickly, but should an officer need assistance, we can get to them even more quickly."
Forces currently have the facility to track all their officers through GPS devices on their Airwave radio headsets, but this is subject to headsets being up to date and forces buying the back office systems to accompany them, according to Airwave.
Steve Rands, health and safety head for the Met Police Federation, told Police Review: "This is so that we know where officers are. Let us say that when voice distortion or sound quality over the radio is lost, if you cannot hear where that officer telling you where he is, you can still pinpoint his exact position by global positioning system.
"If he needs help but you cannot hear him for whatever reason, APLS will say where he is."
Source: Dailymail.co.uk
Every single Metropolitan police officer will be 'microchipped' so top brass can monitor their movements on a Big Brother style tracking scheme, it can be revealed today.
According to respected industry magazine Police Review, the plan - which affects all 31,000 serving officers in the Met, including Sir Ian Blair - is set to replace the unreliable Airwave radio system currently used to help monitor officer's movements.
The new electronic tracking device - called the Automated Personal Location System (APLS) - means that officers will never be out of range of supervising officers.
But many serving officers fear being turned into "Robocops" - controlled by bosses who have not been out on the beat in years.
According to service providers Telent, the new technology 'will enable operators in the Service's operations centres to identify the location of each police officer' at any time they are on duty - whether overground or underground.
Although police chiefs say the new technology is about 'improving officer safety' and reacting to incidents more quickly, many rank and file believe it is just a Big Brother style system to keep tabs on them and make sure they don't 'doze off on duty'.
Some officers are concerned that the system - which will be able to pinpoint any of the 31,000 officers in the Met to within a few feet of their location - will put a complete end to community policing and leave officers purely at the beck and call of control room staff rather than reacting to members of the public on the ground.
Pete Smyth, chairman of the Met Police Federation, said: "This could be very good for officers' safety but it could also involve an element of Big Brother.
"We need to look at it very carefully."
Other officers, however, were more scathing, saying the new system - set to be implemented within the next few weeks - will turn them into 'Robocops' simply obeying instructions from above rather than using their own judgement.
One officer, working in Peckham, south London, said: "They are keeping the exact workings of the system very hush-hush at the moment - although it will be similar to the way criminals are electronically tagged. There will not be any choice about wearing one.
"We depend on our own ability and local knowledge to react to situations accordingly.
"Obviously we need the back up and information from control, but a lot of us feel that we will simply be used as machines, or robots, to do what we are told with little or no chance to put in anything ourselves."
He added: "Most of us joined up so we could apply the law and think for ourselves, but if Sarge knows where we are every second of the day it just makes it difficult."
Another officer, who did not want to be named, said: "A lot of my time is spent speaking to people in cafes, parks or just wherever I'm approached. If I feel I've got my chief breathing down my neck to make another arrest I won't feel I'm doing my job properly."
The system is one of the largest of its kind in the world, according to Telent, the company behind the technology, although neither the Met nor Telent would provide Police Review with any more information about exactly how the system will work or what sort of devices officers will wear.
Nigel Lee, a workstream manager at the Met, said: "Safety is a primary concern for all police forces.
"The area served by our force covers 620 miles and knowing the location of our officers means that not only can we provision resource more quickly, but should an officer need assistance, we can get to them even more quickly."
Forces currently have the facility to track all their officers through GPS devices on their Airwave radio headsets, but this is subject to headsets being up to date and forces buying the back office systems to accompany them, according to Airwave.
Steve Rands, health and safety head for the Met Police Federation, told Police Review: "This is so that we know where officers are. Let us say that when voice distortion or sound quality over the radio is lost, if you cannot hear where that officer telling you where he is, you can still pinpoint his exact position by global positioning system.
"If he needs help but you cannot hear him for whatever reason, APLS will say where he is."
Source: Dailymail.co.uk
Thursday, 10 April 2008
US Fed prepares to replenish war chest
In one sentence, the reason why the 'elite bankers' have created the "credit crises"
One option is for the Fed to take the unprecedented step of issuing debt, which it would then lend on into the credit markets. Another plan is to ask the US Treasury to issue more debt which the Fed could put to work.
Source: Independent.co.uk
One option is for the Fed to take the unprecedented step of issuing debt, which it would then lend on into the credit markets. Another plan is to ask the US Treasury to issue more debt which the Fed could put to work.
Source: Independent.co.uk
J7 Decline to participate in BBC's Conspiracy Files
Shortly after the second anniversary of 7th July 2005, J7: The July 7th Truth Campaign was contacted by Chris Alcock of the BBC who advised us of plans for a BBC documentary covering the events of 7th July 2005. No detail about the nature of the 'documentary' was provided until five months later, in December 2007, when another BBC employee, Assistant Producer Susan Prichard, advised us by email that the BBC production in question, rather than being a serious documentary effort for which the BBC was once well known, was in fact an episode of BBC2's risible Conspiracy Files series.
For anyone that missed out on the 'privilege' of watching the first four episodes of the Conspiracy Files, previous programmes have covered the events of 11th September 2001, the death of weapons inspector Dr David Kelly, the murder of Dodi Fayed and the Oklahoma bombing.
Upon learning that our assistance was being requested in connection with the production of an episode of the formulaic Conspiracy Files rather than a serious, honest, open-minded and in-depth documentary that examined the official Home Office account of events -- the original 'conspiracy theory' about what happened -- the lack of evidence to support it, the errors exposed by J7's ongoing research and the numerous anomalies and inconsistencies in the story the government has endeavoured to fob the British public off with in place of a full and independent public inquiry outside of the Inquiries Act 2005, J7 issued a response to the BBC declining to participate in the programme and outlining our reasons for reaching this decision. What follows is a full copy of the J7 response to the BBC request to participate in its Conspiracy Files series. Much of what is written below is equally applicable to other broadcast and print media:
A full copy of the letter can be found here:
Julyseventh.co.uk
For anyone that missed out on the 'privilege' of watching the first four episodes of the Conspiracy Files, previous programmes have covered the events of 11th September 2001, the death of weapons inspector Dr David Kelly, the murder of Dodi Fayed and the Oklahoma bombing.
Upon learning that our assistance was being requested in connection with the production of an episode of the formulaic Conspiracy Files rather than a serious, honest, open-minded and in-depth documentary that examined the official Home Office account of events -- the original 'conspiracy theory' about what happened -- the lack of evidence to support it, the errors exposed by J7's ongoing research and the numerous anomalies and inconsistencies in the story the government has endeavoured to fob the British public off with in place of a full and independent public inquiry outside of the Inquiries Act 2005, J7 issued a response to the BBC declining to participate in the programme and outlining our reasons for reaching this decision. What follows is a full copy of the J7 response to the BBC request to participate in its Conspiracy Files series. Much of what is written below is equally applicable to other broadcast and print media:
A full copy of the letter can be found here:
Julyseventh.co.uk
Sunday, 6 April 2008
End of the world as we know it
This is very alarming indeed. Now is THE time to adopt new clean energies, such as Zero Point before it really is too late! We have now reached and past "peak oil", maybe that is why experts are predicting oil at $160 a barrel shortly.
Peak oil spells the end of civilization. And, if it's not already too late, perhaps it will prevent the extinction of our species.
M. King Hubbert, a petroleum geologist employed by Shell Oil Co., described peak oil in 1956. Production of crude oil, like the production of many non-renewable resources, follows a bell-shaped curve. The top of the curve is termed "peak oil," or "Hubbert's peak," and it represents the halfway point for production.
The bell-shaped curve applies at all levels, from field to country to planet. After discovery, production ramps up relatively quickly. But when the light, sweet crude on top of the field runs out, increased energy and expense are required to extract the underlying heavy, sour crude. At some point, the energy required to extract a barrel of oil exceeds the energy contained in barrel of oil, so the pumps shut down.
Most of the world's oil pumps are about to shut down.
We have sufficient supply to keep the world running for 30 years or so, at the current level of demand. But that's irrelevant because the days of inexpensive oil are behind us. And the American Empire absolutely demands cheap oil. Never mind the 3,000-mile Caesar salad to which we've become accustomed. Cheap oil forms the basis for the 12,000-mile supply chain underlying the "just-in-time" delivery of plastic toys from China.
There goes next year's iPod.
In 1956, Hubbert predicted the continental United States would peak in 1970. He was correct, and the 1970s gave us a small, temporary taste of the sociopolitical and economic consequences of expensive oil.
We passed the world oil peak in 2005, and we've been easing down the other side by acquiring oil at the point of a gun - actually, guns are the smallest of the many weapons we're using - paying more for oil and destroying one culture after another as the high price of crude oil forces supply disruptions and power outages in Third World countries.
The world peaked at 74.3 million barrels per day in May 2005. The two-year decline to 73.2 million barrels per day produced a doubling of the price of crude. Later this year, we fall off the oil-supply cliff, with global supply plummeting below 70 million barrels/day. Oil at merely $100 per barrel will seem like the good old days.
Within a decade, we'll be staring down the barrel of a crisis: Oil at $400 per barrel brings down the American Empire, the project of globalization and water coming through the taps. Never mind happy motoring through the never-ending suburbs in the Valley of the Sun. In a decade, unemployment will be approaching 100 percent, inflation will be running at 1,000 percent and central heating will be a pipe dream.
In short, this country will be well on its way to the post-industrial Stone Age.
After all, no alternative energy sources scale up to the level of a few million people, much less the 6.5 billion who currently occupy Earth. Oil is necessary to extract and deliver coal and natural gas. Oil is needed to produce solar panels and wind turbines, and to maintain the electrical grid.
Ninety percent of the oil consumed in this country is burned by airplanes, ships, trains and automobiles. You can kiss goodbye groceries at the local big-box grocery store: Our entire system of food production and delivery depends on cheap oil.
If you're alive in a decade, it will be because you've figured out how to forage locally.
The death and suffering will be unimaginable. We have come to depend on cheap oil for the delivery of food, water, shelter and medicine. Most of us are incapable of supplying these four key elements of personal survival, so trouble lies ahead when we are forced to develop means of acquiring them that don't involve a quick trip to Wal-Mart.
On the other hand, the forthcoming cessation of economic growth is truly good news for the world's species and cultures. In addition, the abrupt halt of fossil-fuel consumption may slow the warming of our planetary home, thereby preventing our extinction at our own hand.
Our individual survival, and our common future, depends on our ability to quickly make other arrangements. We can view this as a personal challenge, or we can take the Hemingway out. The choice is ours.
For individuals interested in making other arrangements, it's time to start acquiring myriad requisite skills. It is far too late to save civilization for 300 million Americans, much less the rest of the planet's citizens, but we can take joy in a purpose-filled, intimate life.
It's time to push away from the shore, to let the winds of change catch the sails of our leaky boat.
It's time to trust in ourselves, our neighbors and the Earth that sustains us all.
Painful though it might be, it's time to abandon the cruise ship of empire in exchange for a lifeboat.
Source: Azcentral.com
Crossingpointoflight.blogspot.com
Peak oil spells the end of civilization. And, if it's not already too late, perhaps it will prevent the extinction of our species.
M. King Hubbert, a petroleum geologist employed by Shell Oil Co., described peak oil in 1956. Production of crude oil, like the production of many non-renewable resources, follows a bell-shaped curve. The top of the curve is termed "peak oil," or "Hubbert's peak," and it represents the halfway point for production.
The bell-shaped curve applies at all levels, from field to country to planet. After discovery, production ramps up relatively quickly. But when the light, sweet crude on top of the field runs out, increased energy and expense are required to extract the underlying heavy, sour crude. At some point, the energy required to extract a barrel of oil exceeds the energy contained in barrel of oil, so the pumps shut down.
Most of the world's oil pumps are about to shut down.
We have sufficient supply to keep the world running for 30 years or so, at the current level of demand. But that's irrelevant because the days of inexpensive oil are behind us. And the American Empire absolutely demands cheap oil. Never mind the 3,000-mile Caesar salad to which we've become accustomed. Cheap oil forms the basis for the 12,000-mile supply chain underlying the "just-in-time" delivery of plastic toys from China.
There goes next year's iPod.
In 1956, Hubbert predicted the continental United States would peak in 1970. He was correct, and the 1970s gave us a small, temporary taste of the sociopolitical and economic consequences of expensive oil.
We passed the world oil peak in 2005, and we've been easing down the other side by acquiring oil at the point of a gun - actually, guns are the smallest of the many weapons we're using - paying more for oil and destroying one culture after another as the high price of crude oil forces supply disruptions and power outages in Third World countries.
The world peaked at 74.3 million barrels per day in May 2005. The two-year decline to 73.2 million barrels per day produced a doubling of the price of crude. Later this year, we fall off the oil-supply cliff, with global supply plummeting below 70 million barrels/day. Oil at merely $100 per barrel will seem like the good old days.
Within a decade, we'll be staring down the barrel of a crisis: Oil at $400 per barrel brings down the American Empire, the project of globalization and water coming through the taps. Never mind happy motoring through the never-ending suburbs in the Valley of the Sun. In a decade, unemployment will be approaching 100 percent, inflation will be running at 1,000 percent and central heating will be a pipe dream.
In short, this country will be well on its way to the post-industrial Stone Age.
After all, no alternative energy sources scale up to the level of a few million people, much less the 6.5 billion who currently occupy Earth. Oil is necessary to extract and deliver coal and natural gas. Oil is needed to produce solar panels and wind turbines, and to maintain the electrical grid.
Ninety percent of the oil consumed in this country is burned by airplanes, ships, trains and automobiles. You can kiss goodbye groceries at the local big-box grocery store: Our entire system of food production and delivery depends on cheap oil.
If you're alive in a decade, it will be because you've figured out how to forage locally.
The death and suffering will be unimaginable. We have come to depend on cheap oil for the delivery of food, water, shelter and medicine. Most of us are incapable of supplying these four key elements of personal survival, so trouble lies ahead when we are forced to develop means of acquiring them that don't involve a quick trip to Wal-Mart.
On the other hand, the forthcoming cessation of economic growth is truly good news for the world's species and cultures. In addition, the abrupt halt of fossil-fuel consumption may slow the warming of our planetary home, thereby preventing our extinction at our own hand.
Our individual survival, and our common future, depends on our ability to quickly make other arrangements. We can view this as a personal challenge, or we can take the Hemingway out. The choice is ours.
For individuals interested in making other arrangements, it's time to start acquiring myriad requisite skills. It is far too late to save civilization for 300 million Americans, much less the rest of the planet's citizens, but we can take joy in a purpose-filled, intimate life.
It's time to push away from the shore, to let the winds of change catch the sails of our leaky boat.
It's time to trust in ourselves, our neighbors and the Earth that sustains us all.
Painful though it might be, it's time to abandon the cruise ship of empire in exchange for a lifeboat.
Source: Azcentral.com
Crossingpointoflight.blogspot.com
Coming soon: superfast internet
THE internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.
At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.
The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.
David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies could “revolutionise” society. “With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.
The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at Cern have termed their “red button” day - the switching-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.
Cern, based near Geneva, started the grid computing project seven years ago when researchers realised the LHC would generate annual data equivalent to 56m CDs - enough to make a stack 40 miles high.
This meant that scientists at Cern - where Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the web in 1989 - would no longer be able to use his creation for fear of causing a global collapse.
This is because the internet has evolved by linking together a hotchpotch of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and therefore lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.
By contrast, the grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years.
Professor Tony Doyle, technical director of the grid project, said: “We need so much processing power, there would even be an issue about getting enough electricity to run the computers if they were all at Cern. The only answer was a new network powerful enough to send the data instantly to research centres in other countries.”
That network, in effect a parallel internet, is now built, using fibre optic cables that run from Cern to 11 centres in the United States, Canada, the Far East, Europe and around the world.
One terminates at the Rutherford Appleton laboratory at Harwell in Oxfordshire.
From each centre, further connections radiate out to a host of other research institutions using existing high-speed academic networks.
It means Britain alone has 8,000 servers on the grid system – so that any student or academic will theoretically be able to hook up to the grid rather than the internet from this autumn.
Ian Bird, project leader for Cern’s high-speed computing project, said grid technology could make the internet so fast that people would stop using desktop computers to store information and entrust it all to the internet.
“It will lead to what’s known as cloud computing, where people keep all their information online and access it from anywhere,” he said.
Computers on the grid can also transmit data at lightning speed. This will allow researchers facing heavy processing tasks to call on the assistance of thousands of other computers around the world. The aim is to eliminate the dreaded “frozen screen” experienced by internet users who ask their machine to handle too much information.
The real goal of the grid is, however, to work with the LHC in tracking down nature’s most elusive particle, the Higgs boson. Predicted in theory but never yet found, the Higgs is supposed to be what gives matter mass.
The LHC has been designed to hunt out this particle - but even at optimum performance it will generate only a few thousand of the particles a year. Analysing the mountain of data will be such a large task that it will keep even the grid’s huge capacity busy for years to come.
Although the grid itself is unlikely to be directly available to domestic internet users, many telecoms providers and businesses are already introducing its pioneering technologies. One of the most potent is so-called dynamic switching, which creates a dedicated channel for internet users trying to download large volumes of data such as films. In theory this would give a standard desktop computer the ability to download a movie in five seconds rather than the current three hours or so.
Additionally, the grid is being made available to dozens of other academic researchers including astronomers and molecular biologists.
It has already been used to help design new drugs against malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that kills 1m people worldwide each year. Researchers used the grid to analyse 140m compounds - a task that would have taken a standard internet-linked PC 420 years.
“Projects like the grid will bring huge changes in business and society as well as science,” Doyle said.
“Holographic video conferencing is not that far away. Online gaming could evolve to include many thousands of people, and social networking could become the main way we communicate.
“The history of the internet shows you cannot predict its real impacts but we know they will be huge.”
Source: Timesonline.co.uk
At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.
The latest spin-off from Cern, the particle physics centre that created the web, the grid could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players; and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.
David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies could “revolutionise” society. “With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.
The power of the grid will become apparent this summer after what scientists at Cern have termed their “red button” day - the switching-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new particle accelerator built to probe the origin of the universe. The grid will be activated at the same time to capture the data it generates.
Cern, based near Geneva, started the grid computing project seven years ago when researchers realised the LHC would generate annual data equivalent to 56m CDs - enough to make a stack 40 miles high.
This meant that scientists at Cern - where Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the web in 1989 - would no longer be able to use his creation for fear of causing a global collapse.
This is because the internet has evolved by linking together a hotchpotch of cables and routing equipment, much of which was originally designed for telephone calls and therefore lacks the capacity for high-speed data transmission.
By contrast, the grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres, meaning there are no outdated components to slow the deluge of data. The 55,000 servers already installed are expected to rise to 200,000 within the next two years.
Professor Tony Doyle, technical director of the grid project, said: “We need so much processing power, there would even be an issue about getting enough electricity to run the computers if they were all at Cern. The only answer was a new network powerful enough to send the data instantly to research centres in other countries.”
That network, in effect a parallel internet, is now built, using fibre optic cables that run from Cern to 11 centres in the United States, Canada, the Far East, Europe and around the world.
One terminates at the Rutherford Appleton laboratory at Harwell in Oxfordshire.
From each centre, further connections radiate out to a host of other research institutions using existing high-speed academic networks.
It means Britain alone has 8,000 servers on the grid system – so that any student or academic will theoretically be able to hook up to the grid rather than the internet from this autumn.
Ian Bird, project leader for Cern’s high-speed computing project, said grid technology could make the internet so fast that people would stop using desktop computers to store information and entrust it all to the internet.
“It will lead to what’s known as cloud computing, where people keep all their information online and access it from anywhere,” he said.
Computers on the grid can also transmit data at lightning speed. This will allow researchers facing heavy processing tasks to call on the assistance of thousands of other computers around the world. The aim is to eliminate the dreaded “frozen screen” experienced by internet users who ask their machine to handle too much information.
The real goal of the grid is, however, to work with the LHC in tracking down nature’s most elusive particle, the Higgs boson. Predicted in theory but never yet found, the Higgs is supposed to be what gives matter mass.
The LHC has been designed to hunt out this particle - but even at optimum performance it will generate only a few thousand of the particles a year. Analysing the mountain of data will be such a large task that it will keep even the grid’s huge capacity busy for years to come.
Although the grid itself is unlikely to be directly available to domestic internet users, many telecoms providers and businesses are already introducing its pioneering technologies. One of the most potent is so-called dynamic switching, which creates a dedicated channel for internet users trying to download large volumes of data such as films. In theory this would give a standard desktop computer the ability to download a movie in five seconds rather than the current three hours or so.
Additionally, the grid is being made available to dozens of other academic researchers including astronomers and molecular biologists.
It has already been used to help design new drugs against malaria, the mosquito-borne disease that kills 1m people worldwide each year. Researchers used the grid to analyse 140m compounds - a task that would have taken a standard internet-linked PC 420 years.
“Projects like the grid will bring huge changes in business and society as well as science,” Doyle said.
“Holographic video conferencing is not that far away. Online gaming could evolve to include many thousands of people, and social networking could become the main way we communicate.
“The history of the internet shows you cannot predict its real impacts but we know they will be huge.”
Source: Timesonline.co.uk
Saturday, 5 April 2008
Experts Predict Imminent Oil Squeeze
The oil price could hit $160 a barrel as soon as next week, says ´Zapata’ George Blake, the Texan oil analyst quoted by the London-based online newsletter Money Morning.
‘Zapata’ George has a habit of making bold calls that often seem to be proved right. He thinks there’s an imminent supply squeeze ahead, which will cause the oil price to spike.
But, first, Money Morning dispels a couple of common myths about oil. Number one, there is a belief that demand for oil will go down in a recession.
In the last 58 years, according to Worldwatch estimates (based on sources such as BP and the International Energy Agency), year-on-year demand for oil has grown every year, except for two brief periods.
Between 1973 and 1975, amidst a global energy crisis, global demand decreased annually by a whopping 0.01 percent. And between 1979 and 1984 consumption growth levelled, the biggest annual decrease being in 79-80 - down a devastating 0.04 percent.
Thus, demand for oil will not fall by any significant amount, even if the US goes into recession.
Oil myth number two is that increased production will meet demand.
Money Morning reminds those who affirm that, where are the discoveries that will lead to new production?
The last major oil frontiers were discovered as long ago as the late 1960s – the North Sea, the North Slopes of Alaska and Western Siberia.
Since then, there has been some reduction in the number of discoveries, but, more significantly, a huge reduction in their size. In the 1960s over 500 fields were discovered; in the 1970s, over 700; in the 1980s, 856; the 1990s, 510.
But in this decade just 65 oil fields have been discovered.
Of the 65 largest oil producing countries in the world, up to 54 have passed their peak of production and are now in decline, including the USA in 1970/1, Indonesia in 1997, Australia in 2000, the North Sea in 2001, and Mexico in 2004.
‘Zapata’ George points out that the extreme cold spell in February in Alberta in Canada meant that the tar sands couldn’t be mined. One refinery in Edmonton had no oil to refine, while the larger Strathcona Refinery was running at significantly reduced rates due to ‘operational problems’.
He then mentions Australia, where there are currently gasoline shortages. BP and Shell have apologized, citing ‘constraints on imports’, leading to ‘unprecedented level of fuel shortages’. The four biggest oil refineries in Australia are not operational.
Meanwhile, Chinese oil demand went up by 6.5 percent in February, and their oil imports have risen by 18.1 percent. In brief, the Chinese are getting the oil, while Canada and Australia are going short.
Readers maybe interested in the 'peak oil' articles located in the side panel on the right, under the heading "March Special Report"
Source: Moneyweek.com
Oil price up $2 as economy slows
News.bbc.co.uk
‘Zapata’ George has a habit of making bold calls that often seem to be proved right. He thinks there’s an imminent supply squeeze ahead, which will cause the oil price to spike.
But, first, Money Morning dispels a couple of common myths about oil. Number one, there is a belief that demand for oil will go down in a recession.
In the last 58 years, according to Worldwatch estimates (based on sources such as BP and the International Energy Agency), year-on-year demand for oil has grown every year, except for two brief periods.
Between 1973 and 1975, amidst a global energy crisis, global demand decreased annually by a whopping 0.01 percent. And between 1979 and 1984 consumption growth levelled, the biggest annual decrease being in 79-80 - down a devastating 0.04 percent.
Thus, demand for oil will not fall by any significant amount, even if the US goes into recession.
Oil myth number two is that increased production will meet demand.
Money Morning reminds those who affirm that, where are the discoveries that will lead to new production?
The last major oil frontiers were discovered as long ago as the late 1960s – the North Sea, the North Slopes of Alaska and Western Siberia.
Since then, there has been some reduction in the number of discoveries, but, more significantly, a huge reduction in their size. In the 1960s over 500 fields were discovered; in the 1970s, over 700; in the 1980s, 856; the 1990s, 510.
But in this decade just 65 oil fields have been discovered.
Of the 65 largest oil producing countries in the world, up to 54 have passed their peak of production and are now in decline, including the USA in 1970/1, Indonesia in 1997, Australia in 2000, the North Sea in 2001, and Mexico in 2004.
‘Zapata’ George points out that the extreme cold spell in February in Alberta in Canada meant that the tar sands couldn’t be mined. One refinery in Edmonton had no oil to refine, while the larger Strathcona Refinery was running at significantly reduced rates due to ‘operational problems’.
He then mentions Australia, where there are currently gasoline shortages. BP and Shell have apologized, citing ‘constraints on imports’, leading to ‘unprecedented level of fuel shortages’. The four biggest oil refineries in Australia are not operational.
Meanwhile, Chinese oil demand went up by 6.5 percent in February, and their oil imports have risen by 18.1 percent. In brief, the Chinese are getting the oil, while Canada and Australia are going short.
Readers maybe interested in the 'peak oil' articles located in the side panel on the right, under the heading "March Special Report"
Source: Moneyweek.com
Oil price up $2 as economy slows
News.bbc.co.uk
Friday, 4 April 2008
Halliburton provided contaminated water to Soldiers
It is worth noting that Richard Cheney owns a large part of Haliburton via share options.
Regardless of your feelings about the wrong or right of this war. Please let this madness end soon and let us all work for lasting peace right across this planet.
Youtube.com
Regardless of your feelings about the wrong or right of this war. Please let this madness end soon and let us all work for lasting peace right across this planet.
Youtube.com
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
The Flagging Pound
The article about the Chinese shunning the flagging dollar is interesting, but are you aware that the pound is also suffering at the moment and not a word is being said about it except in financial circles.
A year ago I was getting around 1.47 euros to the pound. By September this had dropped to around 1.40 to the pound. Checking xe.com today I see that the price for euros is in the region of 1.26. This is a drop of around 20 cents in a year.
This situation is compounded by the dollar rate. There is much talk about the dollar falling against the Euro, but the pound to dollar ratio has not changed anywhere near as dramatically. What this means is that the pound has been falling roughly in line with the dollar.
Recently this has also changed. The pound is now falling against the dollar as well. Last year the pound peaked against the dollar at around 2.04. According to xe.com the rate is now about 1.97. As the dollar is clearly not gaining in value, this must mean that it is the pound that is falling – and falling significantly faster than the dollar.
All this raises a very simple question in my mind – What the hell is going on?
As for the article about gold and silver. If the gold is not at Fort Knox and it is not in the Bank of England, where the hell is it?
A final thought: why do people assume that gold and silver have any more intrinsic value than paper money?
Source: Thetruthseeker.co.uk
A year ago I was getting around 1.47 euros to the pound. By September this had dropped to around 1.40 to the pound. Checking xe.com today I see that the price for euros is in the region of 1.26. This is a drop of around 20 cents in a year.
This situation is compounded by the dollar rate. There is much talk about the dollar falling against the Euro, but the pound to dollar ratio has not changed anywhere near as dramatically. What this means is that the pound has been falling roughly in line with the dollar.
Recently this has also changed. The pound is now falling against the dollar as well. Last year the pound peaked against the dollar at around 2.04. According to xe.com the rate is now about 1.97. As the dollar is clearly not gaining in value, this must mean that it is the pound that is falling – and falling significantly faster than the dollar.
All this raises a very simple question in my mind – What the hell is going on?
As for the article about gold and silver. If the gold is not at Fort Knox and it is not in the Bank of England, where the hell is it?
A final thought: why do people assume that gold and silver have any more intrinsic value than paper money?
Source: Thetruthseeker.co.uk
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