"ANACONDA MANIFESTO"

مع الثورات العربية، مع مشاريع الإصلاح المتعددة ثمة حاجة لفتح ملف الإصلاح الديني

2012-02-18T14:59:00.002+04:30

مع الثورات العربية، مع مشاريع الإصلاح المتعددة ثمة حاجة لفتح ملف الإصلاح الديني

الإسلاميون بين الدعوة والسلطة - سليمان تقي الدين

لا يفاجئنا الإسلاميون في عدم وضوح رؤيتهم لكثير من القضايا السياسية الهامة. هناك مروحة واسعة من الآراء والمواقف والممارسات التي تؤكد الطابع التجريبي في السياسة المعاصرة.

لا يملك الإسلاميون نظرية واحدة للدولة ولعلاقة الدين بالسياسة والاقتصاد والهوية (الإسلام والعروبة) والعلاقة مع الغرب، وليست لديهم استراتيجية معلنة واضحة في المسألة الديموقراطية وقضية فلسطين والوحدة العربية أو الإسلامية والعدالة الاجتماعية. باختصار لا يملك الإسلاميون العرب نموذجاً فكرياً وسياسياً واحداً.

لدى الإسلاميين اجتهادات مختلفة في ميدان العمل السياسي عند الانتقال من «الدعوة» إلى المشاركة في صياغة الدساتير والأنظمة والقوانين والتحالفات وفي نظرتهم للحريات العامة والفردية. كل حركة سياسية تقدمت بآرائها الفقهية في ضوء موازين القوى والتجارب الخاصة وثقافة المجتمع.

هذه الظاهرة إيجابية من حيث المرونة والواقعية حين يتحدث أحد زعمائهم عن «الملاءمة بين الإسلام وقيم العصر والحداثة»، خاصة في مسائل الأحوال الشخصية التي يلحقها الإسلاميون عادة بالأحكام الدينية الملزمة. ولا يمكن تجاهل ردة فعل شخص متحدر من حركة الإخوان المسلمين، كرئيس مجلس الشعب المصري، على شخص آخر سلفي في مسائل تتعلق بالنظام المدني، أو تجاهل شراكة الإسلاميين في صياغة أحكام دستورية مدنية، أو «وثيقة الأزهر» مع آخرين من اتجاهات فكرية ودينية مختلفة تعلن مدنية الدولة وفصل الدين عن السياسة واحترام ثقافة المجتمع التعددية والحريات.

لكن ذلك لا يلغي أن جمهرة الإسلاميين تدفع باتجاه ممارسة التضييق على حرية الفكر والضمير والتعبير، وأن قطاعات واسعة منها تمارس العصبية الدينية والسياسية ولا تقبل الآخر وثقافته.

الإسلاميون جاؤوا إلى السلطة في ركاب موجة تغيير سياسي تغتذي من أزمات متراكمة، سياسية اجتماعية ثقافية، ومن مناخ إقليمي ودولي ساهم وساعد وسهّل إضفاء الشرعية على صعودهم السريع إشغالاً لفراغ يحدثه تهاوي الأنظمة الاستبدادية. يحمل الإسلاميون إرث المجتمع العربي المتديّن، لكنهم لا يشكّلون «صحوة دينية روحانية» بمقدار ما يشكّلون انبعاثاً لهوية ثقافية طائفية. فليس هناك من ملمح تجديدي في الفكر الإسلامي يشكّل «نهضة» أو مشروع تحديث وتوحيد. فحيث ما صعد الإسلاميون أثاروا عاصفة من الاختلافات التقليدية والطقوسية والمذهبية أكثر مما أوجدوا حواراً يسعى إلى بلورة هوية ثقافية تقدمية جامعة.

في خلفية المشهد الإسلاموي صدام مع الليبرالية والقومية واليسارية، مع بعض الاستثناءات والتمايزات. بين الإسلاميين والغرب علاقة تضاد ثقافي وتماهٍ سياسي، وهذا عكس التجربة القومية. يقبل الإسلاميون العالم السياسي والاقتصادي بآلياته وقواعده وأحكامه ويرفضونه في منطق الهوية الثقافية. هم بهذا المعنى تجسيد لفكرة صراع الحضارات والثقافات كما طرحها الغرب المعاصر بدلاً من صراع المصالح الاجتماعية التي تجسدت وتتجسد في بيئات قومية أو بين شمال وجنوب وتقدم وتأخر وإمبريالية وتبعية واستقلال فعلي وعولمة.

منذ صعود الإسلام الشيعي في إيران أخذ المسار بُعداً عصبوياً أعطى شرعية للإسلام السني ليستنهض دوره السياسي ويجدده في مواجهة إرث المرحلة القومية العربية. تحوّل الإسلام السياسي في مصر والجزائر وفلسطين واليمن والسودان وليبيا والمغرب والكويت وسوريا ولبنان إلى ما يشبه «هوية وطنية طائفية».

ينتشر الإسلاميون في بيئات اجتماعية مختلفة. كانوا جزءاً من عصب السلطة الاقتصادية في مصر وفي سوريا منذ الستينيات. ناهضوا التدابير التعاضدية (التأميم وغيره) وقاوموا النخبة الجديدة التي أفادت من السلطة السياسية (الاحتكار ـ الامتيازات ـ الحد من الحريات الاقتصادية).

مع تصفية القطاع العام أو التحول عنه في مصر والجزائر وسوريا آلت الكثير من الثروات إلى كبار الضباط والموظفين والقادة السياسيين وحاشية الحكم والأقرباء والأصهار والأنصار. في وجه من وجوه الصراع أجنحة من الطبقة الوسطى. أما في أوساط المهن الحرة والحرفيين وصغار الكسبة فالإسلام السياسي يعبّر عن شعور بالإقصاء والتهميش وعدم تكافؤ الفرص. وفي أوساط الفقراء هو ثقافة الاحتجاج على غياب العدالة الاجتماعية وعلى الثراء والاستغلال والفساد المرتبط في الخيال الشعبي بثقافة الحداثة الاستهلاكية الغربية المستوردة. وتشكّل الاستهانة بالكرامة الوطنية عنصراً مضافاً لنظرة العداء للخارج القومي والديني والطائفي.

لكن بين الإسلام الشعبوي والإسلام النخبوي القيادي والحزبي دائماً هناك حيز من المسافة كما في كل تجربة. تستثمر النخبة رأس المال الشعوري والخيالي في التحريك والتأطير نحو شعارات وأهداف وقيم، وتمارس المناورة والمفاوضة والمساومة على توازنات القوى والمصالح. ليس من تجربة حتى الآن كانت خالية من ظاهرات الفساد والانحراف واستغلال السلطة. حين يتحوّل المشروع السياسي إلى سلطة و«نموذج دولة» يتصرف انطلاقاً من شبكة علاقاته الاجتماعية. الإسلاميون أصلاً لا يريدون تغيير قواعد الدولة بل النظام، وليس في منظورهم الفكري مسألة قومية أو كيانية سياسية إلا الجماعة و«الأمة» التي يجمعها رباط الدين لا رباط التشكيل الاجتماعي أو التعاقد الوطني. عقد الإسلام السياسي هو عقد ديني لا عقد وضعي. لذا هم يرفضون المرجعية الوضعية حيث السيادة لخيارات الناس ويصادرونها باسم المرجعية الدينية.

لا يفاجئنا الإسلاميون حين يكون الغرب بالنسبة لهم استكباراً في أحسن الأحوال وتحدياً لثقافتهم وليس لعيشهم. الغرب غرب والشرق شرق في عوالم منفصلة. ما هو خارج ديار الإسلام ليس إلا الغريب الذي «نعاهده» أي نعقد صلحاً معه أو نعد له رباط الخيل. هكذا هي النظرة إلى الصراع العربي الإسرائيلي وإلى اتفاقية كامب ديفيد أو وادي عربة وأوسلو ومكاتب الاتصال التجارية وحوار الأديان. لا يقاومون الحاكم الفاسد والجائر بل هم «يصلحون المجتمع» يعظونه ويردعونه عن المفاسد والمعاصي.

بهذا السلوك يقطفون السلطة حين تنهار ولا يواجهون النظام السياسي القائم في الخليج مثلاً كنظام إسلامي فاسد. الثورة على الظلم تحتاج إلى فتوى أو إلى «مسوّغ شرعي ديني» له أحكامه الخاصة. ومن بين عناصر هذه الأحكام أن يكون «آخر» وأن يبدأ بالعدوان أو يفض معاهدة.
لا يملك الإسلام السياسي مشروعاً لنهوض العالم العربي، ولا العالم الإسلامي. العالم الإسلامي هو اليوم في نظرهم ليس مجموعة دول وقوميات بل له بُعد ديني مذهبي أو فقهي. إيران ليست فارس بل هي كيان شيعي وتركيا ليست قومية سلجوقية بل هي كيان سني. الكيان بهويته المذهبية والسياسية لا بعنصره ولا بمصالحه «الدولتية الوضعية».

الرأسمال الأكبر للإسلام السياسي فرضية خلاص العالم من طريق الدين. الدين بما هو وعد ورجاء وبما هو سلوك يوفر راحة العقل والنفس. صعد الإسلام السياسي نتيجة أزمة وجودية احتاجت فيها الناس إلى «مخلص». فكرة المخلص قد تكون زعامة وقيادة فردية يضع الناس آمالهم عندها أو جماعة. الجماعة التي تعد بخلاص العالم عن طريق الالتزام الأخلاقي أو الإيديولوجي هي شكل من الاستبداد الجمعي الذي يسكّن الألم ولا يعالجه. نحن في عالم استيقظت فيه الهويات الفئوية في تعبير ديني أو عرقي أو ثقافي لكنه ليس عالماً دينياً روحانياً. هذه تداعيات العولمة المعاصرة وبعض تجلياتها.

في العولمة يجري استبدال الهويات. العروبة أو الأمة التي ما زالت تسعى إلى بناء دولتها الحرة قد تصير أمماً أثنية، وفلسطين تصبح خط تماس ديني مع دولة اليهود نحاورها ونعاهدها أو نحاربها ولكن لا مسألة حق شعب وإنسان وكيان مستقل لمجتمع مستقل بعناصره ومصالحه.

لا جدال في شرعية الإسلاميين اليوم لأنهم خرجوا من لا شرعية الأوضاع السابقة السائدة ونالوا تأييد جمهرة واسعة من حقها أن تكون شريكة بلونها وثقافتها وطموحاتها. يأتي الإسلاميون بمكتسب الثورة «الديموقراطية» وقد يأتون بمكتسب القوة.

ما هو مهم الآن هل يتكيّفون مع قيم العصر وحاجات المجتمع إلى وسائل التقدم الاجتماعي والإنساني أم ينقلبون على شرعيتهم التي جاءت من خيار الناس!؟ مع الثورات العربية، مع مشاريع الإصلاح المتعددة ثمة حاجة لفتح ملف الإصلاح الديني

هل نصنع الثورة أم ندع الثورة تصنعنا؟

يقول الفيلسوف الفرنسي الشهير "ألكسي دو توكفيل" " الثورة مثلها مثل الرواية أصعب جزء فيها كيفية انهاؤها ".
ولكن الثورة قد تصبح بحد ذاتها مرعبة ونهايتها مأساوية إن كانت منطلقاتها في الأساس عشوائية وغير مدعومة بركائز فكرية وثقافية ثابتة.
وهنا تكمن المعضلة الشائكة بين أن يكون التغيير وليدة الثورة، أو أن تكون الثورة نتيجة التغيير.

هل نصنع الثورة أم ندع الثورة تصنعنا؟
إن الثورة بحد ذاتها كمفهوم شامل أشبه بالعاصفة الهوجاء، تتخطى بدرجات مبدأ الإصلاح وعمليات التجميل التي قد تطال بعض المواد الدستورية والقانونية، لتعيث تهديماً بكل ما هو قائم وتكون بالتالي جسر عبور بين ماض مرفوض ومستقبل منشود. فهل يصلح البناء إن كانت عقلية المهندس رجعية ومعدات البناء صدئة ومهترئة؟

فمن المعلوم أن المضهدين، والمظلومين والجياع هم وقود الثورات، انما نار الثورة قد يلتهمهم إن كان خرير البطون الجائعة هو من يقود الثورة، فيما تتراجع مكانة المثقفين والمفكرين إلى الخطوط الخلفية فيصبح ما قاله الكاتب الألماني جورج بوشنر أن " من يقومون بثورة إلى منتصفها فقط، انما يحفرون قبورهم بأيديهم"، حقيقة حتمية.
فالعقل وحده القادر على إيصال الثورة إلى بر الأمان.
الثورة الفرنسية على سبيل المثال ولدت من رحم ثورة فكرية، فلسفية وعلمية أشعلت فتيلها كتابات "فلاسفة التنوير" التي بذرت بذور التغيير في نفوس المواطنين أولاً قبل أن تطال شظاياها قلاع الإستبداد.

فعلى مر عقود تكونت حالة ثورية في اوروبا ما لبست أن امتدت مفاعيلها قرقعة الزيت مع إنتشار المطابع، ما ساهم بتشكيل رأي عام إستفاد من إنتشار الصالونات الفكرية كال Procope حيث تتم المناقشات المعمقة حول أخر الإبداعات المسرحية والشعرية والسياسية بين فولتير وديدرو ومارمونتل....أو من خلال الأكاديميات ( Academie francaise 1634, Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 1663 ; Académie royale des sciences, 1666 ; Académie royale d'architecture, 1671), l'Académie royale de chirurgie (1731) et la Société royale de médecine (1776), والمكتبات العامة.
يستفاد مما تقدم أن مبادئ ومرتكزات الثورة الفرنسية كانت قد نضجت نظرياً في نفوس وعقل الشعب والمجتمع قبل أن تصبح موضع تطبيق فعلي.
أما ما شهده العالم العربي ولا يزال من ثورات على الأنظمة، وعلى العكس من الثورة الفرنسية ، يمكن وضعه في خانة التغيير الناتج عن الثورة اليتيمة فكرياً. فبدل أن يتحكم الثوار العرب بثوراتهم تحكمت بهم الثورة بكل ما فيها من فوضى وعشوائيات وتقلبات.

وما أشد دلالة عن السطحية التي تخبطت بها هذه الثورات سوى شعار " الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام " فيما غاب عن بالهم التساؤل والتفكير عن شكل النظام المقبل الذي يريدون...فانتصرت في الكثير من المواضع الثورة المضادة التي قطف ثمارها بقايا النظام بشقيه المدني والعسكري والانتهازيون كالإخوان المسلمين الذين حصدوا دون جهد يذكر ما زرعه المنتفضون من قوى شبابية ليبرالية ويسارية كما في تونس ومصر....

دون أن نغفل عن ذكر الأرقام المخيفة حول أعداد الأميين في العالم العربي. فوفق دراسة اعدتها المنظمة العربية للتربية والثقافة والعلوم ( الأليسكو) بداية العام ٢٠١١ فإن أعداد الأميين في العالم العربي قد وصلت إلى ما بين ٦٠ و-٧٠ مليون أمي وأمية. أما تقديرات معهد اليونسكو للأمية بين الكبار لمجموعة مختارة من الدول العربية لعام ٢٠٠٠ فقد اشارت إلى أن معدل الأمية في مصر بين الكبار بلغ نسبة ٤٠% وفي تونس نسبة ٢٩٪ .

فمع هكذا واقع وهكذا أرقام مؤلمة يصبح من المشروع التساؤل إن كانت هاتان الدولتان العربيتان مثلاً قادرتان على إنتاج مجتمع مدني قادر وفعلي؟ وهل فعلاً أن صعود الإسلاميين ونجاحهم الكاسح مستغرب إلى هذه الدرجة وهم المستفيد الأول من إستبداد الأنظمة ومنع التعددية الحزبية مما أتاح لهم التغلغل في عمق المجتمع الذي بعد أن أغلق في وجهه أبواب العمل السياسي الحر لم يبقى له سوى الدين كملجأ؟

ففيما كان فلاسفة التنوير في اوروبا وفي مقدمتهم مونتسكيو يفيضون على الشعوب المقموعة بمفاهيم الحرية ودولة القانون والفصل بين السلطات والفصل بين الدين والدولة لم تجد الشعوب العربية أمامها سوى الفكر الديني الجاهز.

في النهاية، اثبتت لنا الثورات العربية أن الفيسبوك واليو تيوب على أهميتهم قد يشعلون ثورة ولكن لن يساهموا في انتصارها أبداً. فما زال شباب ميدان التحرير في مصر يتلهون بالفيسبوك ويتداعون إلى المظاهرات فيما سواهم تربع على الحكم.كم نحن بحاجة لفلاسفة تنوير.

رضا كميل صوايا - مجاز في العلوم السياسية من جامعة القديس يوسف.

NED, USAID, and Both International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI) Agitate Citizen Activists....

2012-02-09T15:22:00.002+04:30

NED, USAID, and Both International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI) Agitate Citizen Activists....

[The real issue in Egypt and in all Arab Spring countries is the nature of US and Western "aid" coming in--It is being used to agitate an otherwise unmotivated national mass to take anti-government actions? Egyptian press reports even question whether Western NGOs are hiring protesters to lead national rallies. As to whether the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute are exceeding their mandate and actually fomenting revolution in Egypt or not--Well, they are promoting revolutionary democracy. Read the following two excerpts from the organizations' websites:

"NDI and its local partners work to promote openness and accountability in government by building political and civic organizations, safeguarding elections, and promoting citizen participation."

"IRI can help catalyze the efforts of democratic activists in a country -- so long as they want change more than we want it for them."

It sounds like both organizations have the same mission, to alter the electorate of the recipient countries into armies of citizen activists, who agitate their governments to copy Americanized ideas. One by one, governments around the world are becoming aware of the true meaning of American "foreign aid," that we package a little political poison into every dollars worth of aid given, so that we slowly trap those unfortunate souls who think that they are becoming "free." The Western agitators being detained in Egypt will definitely flee the harsh circumstances that await them, if given the chance--explaining why they are not allowed to travel. The legal technicality behind their detainment is the Egyptian government need to know what foreign NGOs are operating in country. It is not unreasonable at all, to ask that all foreign outfits working in-country register with the government. After all, it would be required if they came here, at a very minimum. Any such groups wanting to come here would probably have to petition for work visas a year before the fact.]

”The United States deeply about what happens to the non-governmental organizations in Egypt, and we believe that there is no basis for investigations into the activities of these organizations or raid and the confiscation of their property , be sure that there is no basis for the decision to ban its members from traveling.”

Egypt: Concerns of U.S. foreign activists referred to the judiciary...

Campaign on the non-governmental/CIA organizations in Egypt....

Warned the three members of the U.S. Senate from Egypt that the relations between the two terms thereof passes worst after that the Egyptian judiciary has decided to refer the 19 U.S. activists to trial.These defendants and falls within the list of 43 activists have been referred to the Criminal Court in the case of funding, “illegal” to civil associations active in Egypt.

Said Charles, without director of “Freedom House” The message sent by the authorities in Egypt have come to Washington.

The Egyptian judicial sources announced Sunday that “40 people, including Egyptians, American and other nationalities, were transferred to the Cairo Criminal Court in the case of the financing of NGOs,” adding that the travel ban is still imposed on the people of forty.

The source said that those placed on trial accused of “the establishment and operation of branches of international organizations in Egypt without obtaining the necessary legal permits from the Egyptian government, and also received illegal funding from foreign sources.”

Such a move could increase the tension that marred U.S. relations Egyptian after the storming of the security forces for many of the offices of NGOs, including organizations like the U.S., “International Republican Institute,” and “Democratic Institute National” and “Freedom House”, in December / December the past.

The Egyptian authorities have raided the headquarters of 17 organizations, local and international civil and confiscated computers and documents, said it is evidence for those organizations to external financing are “illegal.”

And alerted the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington might reconsider U.S. aid to Egypt in the event of continuing the crackdown on civil organizations.

Clinton said after meeting Saturday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr, on the sidelines of the Conference on Security in Munich, Germany, “I had the opportunity to express once again the concern of the United States strong in regards to what happens to the non-governmental organizations in Egypt, and we believe that there is no basis for investigations into the activities of those organizations or Dhmha and the confiscation of their property, be sure that there is no basis for the decision to ban its members from traveling. “

Clinton went on, saying: “We have been clear with regard to implications of which could result from such a position on the aspects of relations between Egypt and the United States all, we do not want that to happen.”

And reached Clinton to the peak of warnings when she said “We have worked hard together and over the years to arrange financial assistance and great support to the Egyptian economy and the reforms of democracy taking place in Egypt, and we certainly we will look closely when the time comes to check the feasibility of such assistance, so that we can decide how possibility T_khasns American aid money under the new conditions in Egypt. “

NGO activists working in Egypt

He also held U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta telephoned his Egyptian counterpart Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling military junta in Egypt, to urge him to expedite the abolition of the travel ban imposed on the defendants in the case of American foreign funding.

During the consultations taking place in Congress regarding U.S. military aid to Egypt did not find a senior member of the Senate’s critical that a government led by the military in Egypt that the days of “blank checks” are gone, as is the delegation of Egyptian military tough negotiations with the U.S. State Department about the future of U.S. military aid to Egypt, amounting to $ 1.2 billion annually.

Launched Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Subcommittee is responsible for foreign aid in Congress, an attack Anivia the Macal that Egyptian campaign fierce groups and organizations defending human rights and democracy in Egypt funded by the U.S. government, and warned that Congress could stop all forms of U.S. aid to Egypt , unless you stop this behavior on the part of Cairo.

A clear message

Leahy said “We want to send a clear message to the Egyptian army that time of blank checks is over, yes, we appreciate the relationship between Egypt and the United States to Cairo and we will give a respectable amount of aid, but not unconditionally.”

And Leahy joins a growing number of members of Congress from both parties who have expressed their “outrage because of the Egyptian campaign on non-governmental organizations working in Egypt,” which amounted to prevent a number of active U.S. employees from leaving Cairo.

Leahy warned that the continuation of the Egyptian government in the “offensive” to non-governmental organizations will be unable to provide Cairo papers all entitlement to assistance.

He said that the Cairo to allow those organizations to re-open its doors and return property confiscated by and stop the ongoing investigations in the activities of human rights organizations operating in Egypt and work on the registration of such organizations, without limitation or qualification.

He expressed the hope that the Egyptian authorities estimate the seriousness of its position and the implications of risk, and in reference to U.S. aid to Egypt by $ 1.3 billion a year.

And drew more than forty members of Congress a letter Friday to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, as well as Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling military junta in Egypt, Tihdhirounam where the U.S. aid to Egypt now hangs on a tightrope between grants and prevention.

The rhetoric in the U.S. House of Representatives that the absence of any clear resolution and satisfactory in that case would be to weaken the position of MPs who support the continuation of the strong relations between the United States, Egypt and discredit their argument to claim down U.S. aid to Cairo.

Egyptian military delegation

Field Marshal Tantawi seeks to resume military aid to Egypt

At the same time received a number of senior U.S. State Department over on Thursday and Friday with a delegation from the Egyptian army to discuss the U.S. position on the crisis of non-governmental organizations in Egypt, as well as the new requirements imposed by Congress on the U.S. administration regarding military aid to Egypt.

Under those conditions compel the Secretary of State acknowledge that the ruling military authorities in Egypt are already taking real steps towards the country’s transition to democracy, and that before agreeing to provide any new aid.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department Mark Toner, explaining how to provide aid to Egypt, said that this is done through the process of negotiating a long and continuous with the Congress, as “we make it clear to the Egyptians it clear that Congress put pressure on us to reduce aid and make it more tightly to the conditions.”

The Toner U.S. officials, led by Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary of State, have called Cairo repeatedly to allow U.S. citizens working in the non-governmental organizations in Cairo to leave Egypt and the abolition of travel restrictions all, which imposed on them by the Attorney General of Egypt in the framework of investigations with what is known to foreign funding for NGOs and non-governmental organizations in Egypt.

Egyptian justifications

The campaign was the Egyptian non-governmental organizations in Egypt, among which was the National Democratic Institute of the U.S., has led to more tension in Egyptian-American relations since the overthrow of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last year.

The ruling military junta has been in Egypt on charges he says that “foreign hands masterminding the violence to destabilize Egypt,” after the revolution of the twenty-fifth of January last year.

The Egyptians say that the campaign is part of the extensive investigations in the case of foreign funding for NGOs operating in Egypt, and whether the activity of such associations contribute to the increase in the case of the current tension in the Egyptian society.

But activists in civil society organizations say that the military authorities ordered the implementation of the campaign to terrorize activists who were in the vanguard of the revolution’s anti-Hosni Mubarak, who are now demanding to hand over power in Egypt points to a civilian and as soon as possible.

The judicial authorities in Egypt have issued a ban on travel of a number of U.S. officials working in the civil society organizations that are related to remote major U.S. political parties.

He had a number of these, including the son of the Minister of Transportation Ray LaHood U.S., to take refuge in the U.S. embassy in Cairo....

Santorum and The Israel Project: tied at the hips and lips....

2012-01-09T22:07:00.002+04:30

Santorum and The Israel Project: tied at the hips and lips....Santorum a product of College Republican "traditional" gay values....

January , 2012 -- Santorum's extremist foreign policy team...

The so-called "surging" GOP presidential candidate, former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who was crushed in his 2006 re-election bid as senator by 17 percentage points, has surrounded himself with some of the most pro-Israeli war hawk foreign policy advisers. According to a retired State Department official who spoke to us, Santorum's chief foreign policy advisers are arch-neocons Richard Perle and Michael Ledeen....

Santorum has also been active as a board member for The Israel Project, a pro-Israeli non-profit pressure group, which also counts GOP pollster Frank Luntz among its more active supporters. The Israel Project was founded by Luntz's pal Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, a frequent visitor to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and Israeli ambassador Michael Oren in Washington. Luntz wrote The Israel Project's "Hasbara Handbook," a playbook used by every pro-Israeli supporter in their interactions with the Zioconned mass media....

Santorum's and Luntz's comradeship in The Israel Project may well explain why Santorum has "surged" from last to second and third place in many recent polls. The Israel Lobby's control of the Zioconned U.S. corporate media and Luntz's over-arching influence in organizing GOP "focus groups" used by many Zioconned pollsters calls into question the authenticty and veracity of every poll that has shown Santorum's leap frogging the other Republican candidates, including the current bête noire of the pro-Israeli crowd, Ron Paul.

Santorum has also been close to Ledeen's wife, Barnara Ledeen, another officer of The Israel Project. Santorum and Barbara Ledeen looked after Israel's interests in the Senate when Mrs. Ledeen was director of strategic communications for the Zioconned Senate Republican Conference.

Santorum has also counted Israeli expansionist Natan Sharansky as one of his closest advisers on Middle East issues. In addition, Santorum also relies on the arch-Zionist and Islamophobe Daniel Pipes, head of the Middle East Forum of Philadelphia, as one of his closest foreign policy advisers. Pipes, along with fellow traveler Steven Emerson, has been pushing the false propaganda that Iran has backed "Al-Qaeda" in launching terrorist attacks against the United States. Before the attack was proven to be the work of a right-wing terrorist network, the Pipes-Emerson disinformation duo also pushed the false line that Arab terrorists blew up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

The Israel Project's senior adviser and spokesperson is the ubiquitous defender of foreign dictatorships Lanny Davis, recently named as counsel for Penn State in the pedophile scandal that has surrounded Penn State football and one-time assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. In what is likely not a coincidence, Santorum honored Sandusky in 2002 with the "Angels in Adoption" award.

Much of the Israeli psych is due to the shoah; "a fate unequaled".....

2012-01-02T21:57:00.002+04:30

Much of the Israeli psych is due to the shoah; "a fate unequaled".....

Much of the Israeli psych is due to the shoah. They consider it the greatest tragedy to befall a people, ever. About half the Jewish population in the world was killed, a fate unequaled. Aside from the appropriateness of this conclusion, it is one deeply embedded in Jewish Israelis. What, you might ask, does this have to do with WP? I have relatives in both the IDF and IAF and there is an attitude prevalent that anything we do to the Palestinians is not anywhere near as bad as was done to us. Consequently, bombing the civilian apartment blocks in South Beirut, far from any military action, was acceptable. Killing only 1500 Palestinians in Gaza is a drop in the bucket compared with what was done to us.

Consequently, whatever brutality we visit upon the Palestinians is acceptably minor in comparison. I have a nephew who is a Golani captain and his orders in Gaza City during Cast Lead was under NO CIRCUMSTANCES let one of his men be captured, either dead or alive. Anything else is okay. He ordered tank fire on apartments if he saw any movement in windows with no consideration if that movement was civilian. His men would take over housing to place snipers on the top floor and keep the civilians inside to deter counter fire from Hamas. Its ironic that it was felt that Hamas would be reluctant to fire on civilian buildings, the IDF was not so deterred. Vaclav Linek - my current thinking is that the IDF launched another Cast Lead, Egypt would stay out of any direct action but the flow of weapons through the tunnels would increase. I suspect some Egyptian soldiers would defect and bring themselves and equipment to the fight. Another Cast Lead will cause Egypt to annul the treaty with Israel. JD Ledell

I believe that the ghetto thinking of Israel will be it's downfall. It's becoming more and more insulated from the world. In addition to the wall they are building on the Egyptian border they are going to start building a wall in the Jordanian border. They have already talked about starting a wall on Lebanese border. It won't be long before Israel is surrounded by walls and the sea and this physical manifestation of blocking out the world will continue to change the Israeli culture to it's ultimate detriment.

This review is by Joshua Hammer and is of Gershom Goren's new book "The Unmaking of Israel". In the review, Hammer highlights and explores Goren's thesis that the tension that has marked Israel since its founding, tension that was exemplified in the different visions of Ben-Gurion and Begin, has now reached a point where Ben-Gurion's has lost so much ground that Begin's violent maximalist view, fused with ultra-nationalist and ultra-devout religion among the settlers and cross-pollinated into the IDF, has brought Israel to a breaking point. The review is very well done...:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/november_december_2011/on_political_books/they_shall_reap_the_whirlwind032999.php

What has always struck me about: "Killing only 1500 Palestinians in Gaza, or about 40.000 in Lebanon over the years between 1969 and 2000, and again more than 1400 in 2006, is a drop in the bucket compared with what was done to us."

The Palestinians didn't do that to the Jews. The Nazis did, and their collaborators, and if Palestinians had any part in it all, were really the least among the culprits. I have never understood the logic of this.

It's like a crime victim claiming absolute privilege to harm others because of what was done to him - lest it happens again! - from the time of the crime onwards, and towards anyone, responsible or not.

The holocaust isn't a blank cheque, a license to do whatever Israel sees fit....by stealing land from Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinians with untold wars and miseries over 7 decades.... Without the holocaust looming, much of Israel's conduct would probably be unpalatable to even many of the Israelis themselves....

In the end, the one thing they have achieved is to empower themselves from victim to victimizer. However, they have never 'gotten over it'.

Ironically, getting over having lost is precisely what they expect the Palestinians to do, and to their chagrin, these stubborn people refuse it, even after having been beaten down time and time again. Clearly the only way to make them understand is to beat them some more....

I'm sorry but using the Shoa as a reason, I find as nothing more than 'excuse making', and history shows no matter what culture/religion/race/etc. that has used 'excuse making' for their abhorrent behavior, has never and will never work in the eyes of humanity.

Israel by its actions is a modern day Nazi state complete with Nazi 'sub-human' dealings with others around them. Shoa is no reason, and cannot be used as their psyche reason excuse-making. Israel is a barbaric state run by barbarians who only value their lives and the rest of us humans are dust to be swept under their rugs as far as they are concerned. When and only when the Israelis and their supporters start owning up and calling a spade a spade, that they are acting like blood-thirsty Nazis like what they are doing is on par/identical with what the SS and Gestapo did, then and only then when they become adult and own up for their crimes and stop their criminal behavior, then the rest of us humans will be willing to listen and work with them. Until then, Israel needs to be dealt with for their Nazi-like behavior, smacked down hard for it with no pity afforded them.

Israel wants pity, then they need to start acting like caring humans again, instead of like Nazi SS boots....

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/world/middleeast/holocaust-images-in-ultra-orthodox-protest-anger-israeli-leaders.html?hp

Merry Christmas: "The Swine are the infidels of the communion of Jesus, the Christians"

2011-12-29T16:46:00.000+04:30

"If you want a good laugh, read the holiday card sent out by Saudi Ambassador to the United States and public relations genius Adel al-Jubeir. Citing a Quranic verse, he writes "Behold, the angels said: 'O Mary, God giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honor in this world and hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to God.'"
Christmas greetings from an ambassador whose government ... currently published by the Saudi Education Ministry declares "The Apes are the people of the Sabbath, the Jews; and the Swine are the infidels of the communion of Jesus, the Christians." A ninth-grade textbook echoes "The Jews and the Christians are enemies of the believers, and they cannot approve of Muslims." Six million schoolchildren are indoctrinated with this every year in Saudi Arabia...."

The ICC is a joke and should go the way of the EU and WTO, into the trash heap of history....

2011-12-13T21:13:00.001+04:30

The ICC is a joke and should go the way of the EU and WTO, into the trash heap of history....

She takes place of Luis Moreno-Ocampo, past protector of Zioconned War Crimnals Worldwide.... The ICC is a joke and should go the way of the EU and WTO, into the trash heap of history....

http://empirestrikesblack.com/2011/06/rape-viagra-icc-ups-the-ante-on-propaganda-as-desperate-nato-struggles-to-crush-libyan-resistance/

The government of The Gambia has expressed delight at the unanimous election of Mrs Fatou Bom Bensouda, a Gambian, to the high office of Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague, Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Bensouda was the only name put to the 120 member states in yesterday's election at the United Nations headquarters in New York in which the ICC member states unanimously elected her to replace Luis Moreno-Ocampo next year.

In a media dispatch issued yesterday, the government of The Gambia on behalf of all Gambians and friends of The Gambia expressed profound gratitude and appreciation to all those countries, organizations and individuals whose efforts and sincere support made the election of Mrs Bensouda possible.

The dispatch reads: The government of The Gambia is pleased to announce for the information of the general public the unanimous election of Mrs Fatou Bom Bensouda our Gambian compatriot, to the high office of Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague, Kingdom of the Netherlands.

This is the first time a Gambian is occupying such a high position in a global organization and is therefore a great pride for this country. In the first place, we give thanks to Allah Subhanahu wata'ala for His blessings for this country and for the election of Mrs Bensouda.

Consequently, the Government of the Gambia on behalf of all Gambians an friends of (The Gambia would like to express our profound gratitude and appreciation to all those countries, organizations and individuals whose effort and sincere support made the election of Mrs Bensouda possible.

Our special thanks go to the following: His Excellency, Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya A.J.J Jammeh for being the driving force behind Mrs Bensouda's nomination and election; the 70 countries which co-sponsored with the Government of The Gambia the candidature of Mrs Bensouda, all the ECOWAS Members States for their overwhelming support, the African Union for endorsing Mrs Bensouda as the African Candidate, the European Union, the Asian Countries, CARICOM countries and everyone else including Gambian officials and individuals for their unified support and efforts.

We request the Supreme Islamic Council, the Christian Council and individual Muslims and Christians to offer special prayers in our Mosques and Churches for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to continue to bless The Gambia with more accolades and also to pray for Mrs Fatou Bom Bensouda for Divine guidance in the discharge of her duties as ICC Prosecutor, the dispatch ends.

Meanwhile, Bensouda, currently deputy prosecutor, will take over in June from Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the outspoken Argentine who has issued warrants against the likes of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir and the late Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi.

The appointment of an African comes at a time when the ICC is almost exclusively focused on the continent. African nations frequently complain that the ICC has unfairly targeted them - all seven cases investigated by the court are in Africa - and the African Union pointedly pressed for Bensouda's appointment.

Diplomats who took part in the selection process yesterday praised Bensouda's independence, determination and qualifications. "I am working for the victims of Africa, they are African like me. That's where I get my inspiration and my pride," Bensouda said in a recent interview with the AFP news agency.

Challenging post

Many analysts say the ICC has become increasingly political and more susceptible to pressure which will be a challenge for Bensouda.

Richard Dicker, international justice specialist of the Human Rights Watch's said that in its first decade of existence "the ICC profile has been lifted on the world stage to a new level".

Pressure also comes from major powers, with the US, China and Russia all trying to influence the court to varying degrees, even though they are not members, diplomats said. However, Stephen Lamony, an Africa specialist for the Coalition for the ICC, a group of non-government groups that back the court, said Bensouda's appointment may not increase the court's acceptance within Africa.

"There are issues that different states have," he said. "The fact that the next prosecutor comes from Africa will make it more difficult for her, because she will face different pressures."

لعلَّ في العودة إلى الجذور، بعضاً مما نحتاج إليه لإنتاج نظرة متفائلة إلى المستقبل

2011-12-10T13:21:00.002+04:30

... في خضمِّ "المأساة والإهانة"، لعلَّ في العودة إلى الجذور، بعضاً مما نحتاج إليه لإنتاج نظرة متفائلة إلى المستقبل

"لبنان كياناً ومصيراً"... مقالة للراحل شارل مالك وردت في كتاب "الهجرة: مسألة لبنانية"؟ الصادر عن جامعة الروح القدس- الكسليك عام 1974، يسأل فيها: "ما هي الخصائص التي تحدد لبنان في ذاته، وتميزه تمييزاً حاسماً عن الغير، بحيث إذا قلت لبنان، عنيت هذه الخصائص بالذات، وإذا سقطت هذه الخصائص بالذات، زال لبنان؟ إنها عشر".

الخصائص العشر، وهي: "هذا الجبل الفريد، القرية اللبنانية الفذَّة، مركز لبنان السياحي الممتاز، تجارته العالمية العجيبة، ظاهرة الاغتراب اللبناني بكل ما تعنيه تاريخياً وكيانياً، التواجد المسيحي- الإسلامي السمح الرائع، الحرية الكيانية المسؤولة، الانفتاح على العالم في المكان والزمان، معنى لبنان الفكري المتواضع في الشرق الأوسط وفي العالم، وإسهام لبنان المتواضع في المعترك الدولي".

"الحرية الكيانية المسؤولة"، مشيراً إلى أن "الحرية لا تكون في بلد تعددي كلبنان إلا بالمبادلة، ولذلك فالاحترام هنا بين الطوائف أو البيئات أو الأشخاص متبادل".

"الحرية لا تبقى إلا إذا كانت مسؤولة، ولذلك نعرف تماماً في لبنان أن نميِّز بين الحرية التي تؤول إلى القضاء على الحرية، وبين الحرية التي تطهِّر الحرية وترفعها وتصونها وتعمقها، أعني بين الحرية الزائفة المنافقة التي تنقض نفسها لأنها تجهر بالحرية ولا تؤمن بها، وبين الحرية الأصيلة المنسجمة مع نفسها".

"يساء إلى الحرية بأربع طرق... يساء إليها بالفوضى، وأنا أقر بأن الفوضى شائعة في التفكير والحياة في لبنان، ولذلك فالحرية فيه ناقصة... يساء إليها بالإباحية... يساء إليها بالاستبداد. لكنَّ ثمة طريقاً رابعة للإساءة إلى الحرية، أخطر من هذه جميعاً، أعني طريق الانحطاط. فقد تستطيع أن تعالج الفوضى، وقد تستطيع أن تقوِّم الاستبداد، أما الانحطاط فلا أعرف له علاجاً سوى وقوف غير المنحطين في وجهه، وهم يؤلفون الأكثرية الساحقة من الشعب اللبناني"

Les secrets colombiens du clan Sarkozy 1/3 Le palais caché d'un homme du Président

2011-12-03T13:41:00.002+04:30

Les secrets colombiens du clan Sarkozy 1/3 Le palais caché d'un homme du Président

Par Mediapart.fr,

« Personne ne peut passer ! Depuis l'affaire, on a des consignes... » A Nilo, à cent cinquante kilomètres de Bogota, le gardien posté jour et nuit à l'entrée du domaine de Thierry Gaubert repousse gentiment, mais fermement, les visiteurs. Autour de sa guérite en toit de chaume, on ne voit rien dépasser de la végétation tropicale, ni des montagnes alentour.

Il y a dix ans, l'ancien conseiller et ami de Nicolas Sarkozy, mis en examen en septembre dans l'affaire Takieddine, a fait construire ici, secrètement, à l'abri du fisc français, une majestueuse propriété avec des fonds occultes, dont les juges n'ont pas encore percé tous les mystères.

La guérite qui protège l'entrée de la propriété de T. Gaubert. © Mediapart

Les policiers l'ont découverte, en juillet dernier, en juxtaposant les pièces saisies lors d'une perquisition à son bureau. Un dossier d'abord, des photos ensuite, puis de nombreux mails. En septembre, Thierry Gaubert nie, puis finalement confirme l'existence de ce repaire étrangement niché au cœur de la cordillère colombienne. Une finca, aux allures de monastère, qu'il a baptisée Cactus.

Sur le même domaine interdit aux visiteurs, un autre ami du clan, Jean-Philippe Couzi, une relation de Nicolas Bazire, le n°2 du géant français du luxe LVMH, a construit encore plus grand : c'est Palmera, un palais à colonnades entouré de palmiers. Tout aussi invisible depuis la route. Les deux propriétés ont été louées pour une telenovela colombienne plutôt trash, Las Munequitas de la Mafia. Traduire : Les Petites Poupées de la Mafia. L'architecture post-coloniale des maisons constituait apparemment le décor idéal...

Une partie du clan est venu y goûter l'air de la selva. Le marchand d'armes Ziad Takieddine, Olivier Dassault, héritier de l'avionneur, député UMP et patron de Dassault Communication, Alexandre de Juniac, ancien collaborateur de Nicolas Sarkozy au ministère du budget (1993-95), aujourd'hui patron d'Air France, ont séjourné à Cactus.

De son côté, M. Takieddine a même versé 100.000 dollars sur un compte bancaire servant à la gestion de la propriété de Nilo. Le clan y envoyait des courriers aussi. Une employée de la poste de Nilo se souvient des lettres de la Présidence de la République française adressées à Jean-Philippe Couzi après 2007. Ce dernier se vantait de connaître le président Sarkozy.

Il faut quinze heures d'avion, puis quatre heures de voiture, avant de s'engager sur la petite route qui conduit à Nilo. Alors que s'alignent les maisons de fortune aux toits de tôle ondulée, on entre dans une des vallées les plus riches et sécurisées de Colombie.

Pancarte annonçant la proximité d'une base militaire. © Mediapart

« Derrière cette montagne, vous avez Tolemaida, la plus importante base militaire d'Amérique latine, explique l'un des amis de M. Gaubert, le richissime ophtalmologue Jaïme Luis Vargas. Des forces spéciales du monde entier viennent s'y entraîner. Et avec l'école Espro (escuela de formacion de soldados profesionales) de Nilo, on compte trois autres bases militaires dans les environs. Voilà pourquoi les plus puissants hommes de Colombie ont acheté ou construit des résidences ici ! »

Ceux-là ne sont pas nombreux. A quelques centaines de mètres de Cactus et de Palmera, l'ancien président Andres Pastrana, la famille de l'actuel président Juan Manuel Santos, des généraux, Jorge Enrique Mora, l'ancien chef d'état-major de l'armée, et Teodoro Ocampo, l'ancien directeur de la police, se sont installés dans lecondominio El Lago – un lac où l'on peut faire du ski nautique. Ces prestigieux voisins ont tous fréquenté les « franceses », MM. Gaubert et Couzi.

« Ils ont trouvé qu'on avait une maison en Colombie ! »

En contournant l'interdiction de passer, et en suivant un guide dans la campagne, il est possible de voir de plus près les propriétés cachées des deux hommes, voisines de quelques centaines de mètres l'une de l'autre.

La villa "Cactus" de Thierry Gaubert.© Mediapart

La villa "Palmera" de Jean-Philippe Couzi.© Mediapart

Chez les Gaubert, la découverte de la propriété colombienne par la police française a fait l'effet d'une bombe, comme en témoigne une écoute téléphonique effectuée le 5 juillet au soir. « Ils ont trouvé qu'on avait une maison en Colombie ! », annonce Nastasia Gaubert à sa mère, Hélène Gaubert. « Noooon ! », répond la princesse de Yougoslavie. « Ben, il a qu'à dire que c'est Ziad [Takieddine, ndlr] qui lui a offerte. » La boutade fait rire la mère et la fille.

La première trace de Cactus a été retrouvée quelques heures plus tôt, ce jour-là, dans une petite sacoche sous le bureau de Thierry Gaubert au siège du groupement Banques populaires/Caisses d'épargne (BPCE). C'était une enveloppe remplie de précieux documents sur laquelle figure la mention « Nilo/Cactus ». Face aux enquêteurs qui l'interrogent, Thierry Gaubert déclare sans ciller : « J'ai récupéré ces documents dans le cadre de ma procédure de divorce. Je ne suis pas concerné par ces documents. Je ne connais pas la signification du terme "Nilo"/"Cactus". » Il ne reconnaît même pas les bâtiments sur les photos trouvées lors de la perquisition.

T. Gaubert© Reuters

En plus d'être le nom de son palais colombien, Cactus était aussi le mot de passe de son ordinateur, de son mail et de son I-Pad. Plus gênant, c'est encore le nom d'un trust qu'il a ouvert aux Bahamas au nom de son épouse, à la demande, dit-il, de la banque Pictet de Genève, où il tient déjà des avoirs dissimulés. « Le trust s'appelle Cactus, mais cela n'a rien à voir avec la propriété de Nilo », soutient encore l'ancien conseiller de Nicolas Sarkozy, le 21 septembre.

Mais il se souvient quand même : « Cactus au départ, en 2000, est un terrain d'un hectare situé sur la commune de Nilo en Colombie. Mon ami Jean-Philippe Couzi avait acheté un terrain et j'ai souhaité faire de même pour que l'on devienne voisins. » Il reconnaît avoir construit et financé ses travaux par le compte Cactus.

Son ami de toujours, Jean-Philippe Couzi, avait eu un coup de foudre pour le site, avec son épouse Astrid Betancourt – la sœur d'Ingrid Betancourt, enlevée par les FARC en 2002 – dont il est depuis longtemps séparé. Ancien voyagiste fortuné, M. Couzi s'est installé depuis lors en Colombie.

« Cactus correspond à la maison que nous avons construite en Colombie, témoigne Hélène Gaubert. Il me semble qu'elle fait plus de mille mètres carrés, il y avait environ neuf chambres. C'est une maison gigantesque. Thierry avait la folie des grandeurs, y compris pour la piscine qui est démesurée. Le séjour est également très grand. Thierry a embauché du personnel à l'année, et le gardien a même une maison à l'intérieur de la résidence. »

Le balcon de la maison Gaubert.© dr

Le patio et sa fontaine.© dr

« Un homme très important en France »

L'église du village de Nilo© Mediapart

Le personnel, lui aussi, se souvient. Dans le petit village de Nilo, aux maisons dont les façades sont partout écaillées, les anciens employés des « franceses » témoignent de cette folie des grandeurs. Ils se souviennent amèrement des “gringos” qui n'ont jamais eu un mot pour eux. Ils les revoient, comme si c'était hier, faisant, à cheval, le tour du village, princiers. Plusieurs d'entre eux redoutent d'apparaître.

Mais la première gouvernante, Gladys Martinez, qui vend quelques produits d'épicerie dans sa maison, se rappelle sans crainte du temps où elle préparait la maison de « Thierry et la princesse ». « Ils venaient quand c'était l'hiver chez vous, explique-t-elle, intimidée et souriante. Parfois c'était en limousine. Une seconde voiture apportait leurs valises. Ils amenaient vraiment beaucoup de valises avec eux, je trouvais que c'était très exagéré. Mais c'était une princesse et lui un homme très important en France.»

Gladys et les employés de maison portaient un uniforme blanc, sur lequel était brodé un cactus. Sur cette photo, l'ancien président Andres Pastrana et sa femme prennent la pose avec la gouvernante des Gaubert :

Le président Pastrana, à droite.© dr

En une occasion, les Gaubert avaient d'ailleurs pu rejoindre Nilo dans l'hélicoptère de Pastrana.

« Quand ils venaient, nous étions huit ou dix employés, poursuit Gladys. Quelqu'un s'occupait du jardin. Un autre des chevaux. Il y avait une trentaine de chevaux – certains ont été vendus. Des vaches aussi, elles avaient été marquées d'une couronne. Il y avait une lingère et une équipe pour la cuisine. Il fallait que le repas soit prêt à une heure très précise. » Les Gaubert avaient apporté de la vaisselle française pour les dîners d'invitation. Sur une feuille blanche, Gladys refait le plan des lieux avec nostalgie. « La salle à manger était immense, dit-elle. Il y avait deux tours. La chambre de la princesse qui donnait sur le lac était immense aussi. C'était un lac artificiel.»

Un lac artificiel chez les Gaubert© dr

Un jour qu'elle s'étonnait de la quantité de tenues – une centaine, croit-elle se souvenir –, Hélène Gaubert attendrie lui offre d'en choisir une. Il y a plus d'un mois, l'ancienne gouvernante a appris les ennuis judiciaires de son ancien patron en lisant l'hebdomadaire de Bogota, La Semana. « Je n'ai jamais su ce qu'il faisait, dit-elle.C'est une histoire un peu désagréable. Je trouvais que tous les gens qui venaient étaient très élégants. Je les admirais beaucoup. On disait “voilà une princesse !” C'était la première princesse que je rencontrais...»

« Jean-Philippe, Thierry et la princesse ont inauguré la base militaire voisine de l'Espro, rapporte encore l'ancienne gouvernante. Ils sont devenus les amis du commandant. » « Ils se sont infiltrés», peste Joachim Parga, militaire retraité et «contrôleur de la légalité» à la mairie de Nilo. «Même la police ici les escortait !» Une photo d'ailleurs témoigne de ces faveurs, régulières, des autorités.

La police garde la villa "Cactus".© dr

Gaubert, conseiller caché de Copé

Thierry Gaubert et sa femme ont aussi bénéficié d'une protection rapprochée offerte par l'Etat colombien, en certaines occasions. Selon une lettre à Thierry Gaubert, dont Mediapart a pu prendre connaissance, la ministre colombienne de la défense, Maria Lucia Ramirez, exprimait, en mai 2003, sa satisfaction d'avoir pu lui offrir sa « collaboration en matière de sécurité » lors de son récent séjour en Colombie.

« Dans l'attente de vous recevoir à nouveau en Colombie et vous assurant de pouvoir compter avec toute la collaboration du ministère que je représente », la ministre exprime « sa plus haute considération » à M. Gaubert.

MM. Gaubert et Couzi© dr

Chose surprenante, ce courrier officiel est adressé à M. Gaubert au secrétariat d'Etat aux relations avec le parlement. Un ministère où il n'a jamais officiellement travaillé...« J'ai été à cette époque, et pendant six mois, chargé de mission auprès de M. Jean-François Copé, qui était le secrétaire d'Etat, a confirmé M. Gaubert à Mediapart. Je n'avais aucune activité particulière en direction de la Colombie, mais ils ont dû effectivement me donner une personne pour ma sécurité là-bas...»

De son côté, l'ex-ministre colombienne s'est déclarée dans l'incapacité de vérifier l'origine de ses diligences, faute d'archives. Le cabinet de M. Copé nous a indiqué que les fonctions de M. Gaubert avaient été « bénévoles ».

Plutôt surprise par la mise en cause judiciaire de Thierry Gaubert à Paris, une partie de l'élite locale assure qu'elle ignorait son activité réelle, alors qu'il avait officiellement déjà intégré le groupe des Caisses d'épargne. « Il est sérieux, intelligent, explique Jaïme Luis Vargas, l'ophtalmologue millionnaire. Il ressemblait à un grand responsable, de très haut niveau.»

« J'ai compris que Thierry Gaubert était le mari de la princesse de Yougoslavie, et qu'il était multimillionnaire », explique Juan Carlos Lecompte, le mari d'Ingrid Betancourt, aujourd'hui en instance de divorce avec elle. M. Lecompte avait suivi l'investissement de sa belle-sœur et de Jean-Philippe Couzi à Nilo. Il était venu dans leur palais de la Palmera.

La propriété de Couzi, en 2003, avant qu'une tour ne soit édifiée. © dr

« J'avais demandé à Couzi pourquoi il avait acheté cette finca qui me paraissait tellement grande, se rappelle Juan-Carlos Lecompte.Il m'avait répondu qu'il avait une expérience dans le tourisme et qu'il voulait faire venir des Français. La maison pouvait loger une dizaine de familles. Mais je crois qu'il ne l'a jamais fait. »

Si l'origine des fonds consacrés par les deux amis à leurs propriétés reste obscure, de nombreux mails saisis montrent une mutualisation de la gestion.

« Annuellement, j'estime que mes dépenses sont de l'ordre de 30.000 euros, a assuré M. Gaubert à la police. Cela varie en fonction des travaux à réaliser. A ce jour, ma maison m'a coûté 600.000 dollars. Il faut savoir que la vie en Colombie n'est pas chère du tout. » Thierry Gaubert en veut pour preuve le faible salaire de ses employés sur place : 150 dollars par mois.

http://www.mediapart.fr/journal/france/011211/en-colombie-le-palais-cache-dun-homme-du-president?page_article=4

Censored; There are no poor people in Saudi Arabia...., “Poverty is an open secret in Saudi Arabia”

2011-11-28T23:19:00.001+04:30

Censored! There are no poor people in Saudi Arabia...., “Poverty is an open secret in Saudi Arabia”

Two young Saudi bloggers were sent to jail for fifteen days after uploading a ten-minute documentary on poverty in Riyadh, the capital of one of the richest petro-states in the Gulf.

Firas Buqna and Hussam Al-Darwish posted the video on YouTube on October 10. The fifth episode of their Web TV show “Mal’oub Alen” (“we’re being duped” in Arabic) touched on the living conditions of people in the poor neighbourhood of Al Jaradiya, on the outskirts of Riyadh.

In the report, Buqna is shocked by the relative poverty of the neighbourhood, where he comes across children “who are barefoot and don’t own any shoes.” Of the three neighbourhood residents that Buqna interviews, one “earns only 1,300 dollars (945 euros) to support his two wives and 11 children. Another resident supports 20 people with just 666 dollars (484 euros) a month.

Buqna and Al-Darwish denounce the stereotype of the wealthy, SUV-driving Saudi, explaining that 89% of the country’s citizens live in debt. The bloggers question why residents of such a wealthy country are slipping through the net and living in poverty. They point out that over the past 27 years Saudi Arabia has donated 56 billion euros to developing countries, while 22% the the country’s own citizens were reportedly living in relative poverty in 2009 (local media put the number at 30% in 2008).

poverty in saudi arabia, posted with vodpod

The young bloggers’ video did not go down well with authorities. Six days after they posted the video online, Buqna and Al-Darwish were arrested and interrogated by the police. They were released two weeks later, on October 31. The exact reasons behind their arrest remain unclear.

However, the controversy generated by their arrest has drawn over a million viewers to their online video.

“Poverty is an open secret in Saudi Arabia”

Rachid M. (not his real name) is a blogger; he lives in eastern Saudi Arabia.

There are more and more poor people in Saudi Arabia, and the middle class has all but disappeared. It’s an open secret in the kingdom.

I don’t live in Riyadh and have never visited the neighbourhood of Al Jaradiya, but in the east of the country where I live, there are far poorer neighbourhoods than what Firas Buqna showed in his video. The fact that there are a lot of oil wells in the area changes nothing. Comparing the poorest areas of Saudi Arabia with Somalia, as Buqna does at the beginning of his documentary, makes sense. There are people who live in terrible conditions, on the streets or under makeshift tents.

Poverty was officially recognised for the first time during a visit by Ali Al-Namia, the former minister of social affairs, in the neighbourhood of Al Shamishi in Riyadh in November 2002. He went with King Abdullah, who was still crown prince at the time. The footage was aired on state television. At the time, authorities decided to create a national solidarity fund. But that wasn’t enough to stop poverty from spreading. Wealth is very badly distributed in our country, and corruption is also rife [in 2010, Saudi Arabia ranked 50th in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index list].

Official media outlets have addressed the problem in a very superficial way. They present poverty as if it affected only an isolated few and not entire swaths of the population, in one of the richest oil nations of the world.

Poor families do get government aid, but they receive symbolic amounts which absolutely don’t allow these people to meet all their needs. Not to mention the maze of bureaucratic red tape they have to go through to receive this aid. What’s more, this aid is granted only to people who have no other source of income. Low-income working families aren’t entitled to it.

“We think they were arrested because they caricatured a commonly-used phrase that honours the King”

There are several reasons for which the two bloggers may have been arrested. According to another famous blogger, nicknamed Saudi Jeans, authorities may not have liked the fact that their video was picked up by a foreign-based opposition TV network. Others think authorities were angered by the videos’ direct, defiant tone. But most people think that what got them into trouble was the fact that they caricatured a commonly-used phrase that honours the King (‘We are fine, we hope you are too’ in Arabic). The beginning of the video shows several wealthy Saudis in a large, elegant car saying ‘We are fine ,’ then a small boy from the neighbourhood of Al Jaradiya saying ‘We are not fine’.

Others think the motive of their arrest was to scare young Saudis, who increasingly use social media and new technologies to express themselves and voice criticism of the government and the country, sometimes beyond the limits imposed by authorities.”

Firas Buqna posted this photo of himself on Twitter after he was freed from the ZIOCONNED Wahhabi thuggish prisons of the crypto-Zionist Al-Saud....

“The Taliban can only be defeated by attacking them in Pakistan...”; This is a clear-cut case of the Pentagon sabotaging the White House...

2011-11-28T23:16:00.002+04:30

“The Taliban can only be defeated by attacking them in Pakistan...”; This is a clear-cut case of the Pentagon sabotaging the White House...

Peter Chamberlin

Nangarhar is the secured province that is being turned over to Afghan forces, where the border incident has erupted. The attack upon Pakistan was intended as a demonstration for the world to see the dangers of an early Afghan transition and withdrawal. What else could explain this Afghan unit gaining command over Nangarhar Province on the same day that calls for air support inside Pakistan have become necessary? This is a clear-cut case of the Pentagon sabotaging the White House. It is also the first sign of what post-reconciliation ISAF actions will look like, under a Northern Alliance-dominated Afghan regime. Since the murder of Rabbani, Afghan security officials have been screaming in unison for this day to come–

“The Taliban can only be defeated by attacking them in Pakistan.”

According to former head of Afghanistan’s secret service, Amrullah Saleh, “You poison the soil where that grass is, then you eliminate it forever.” This is what has happened on Pakistan’s side of the Durand Line, the Pakistani Taliban from Mohmand (who have relocated to Afghanistan) have poisoned the Pakistani soil by firing upon Afghan forces from points near outpost Salala’s coordinates, in order to bring the two sides together inside Pakistan. This is not the first time that the Pakistani Taliban have used this tactic to bring the Afghan and Pakistani forces together. They used it preceding the “Battle of Wanat” and once again in the “Gora Prai” border post assault. In the Gora Prai video below you can see the individual militants being killed.

The Gora Prai video is from a single Predator; it pales in comparison to the latest assault which allegedly involved repeated runs of aircraft and helicopters, over a period of several hours.

The following was sent to me by a friend from Peshawar. It is self-explanatory.

“Another pack of Lies By NATO

Today’s papers carry the news that the NATO Chief has said that the attack on Pakistani soldiers was un-intentional. Very generous of him!!

Yesterday, I talked to Lt Col ZZZZZZ from Peshawar. He had just visited CMH Peshawar to meet the wounded in Salah Post by the US/ATO raid on night of 26 November. This is what he told me.

There were 14 wounded lying in the surgical ward suffering a variety of wounds. He talked to every one of them and asked them what had happened. The crux of the account of the soldiers and officers was that at about 11pm on 26^th Nov a light aircraft came from across the border, flew over the post and fired flares and returned. About half an hour later armed helicopters and light aircraft came . They again fired flares and began firing at the men. They remained in the area for about 5 – 6 hours. During this time, the helicopter firing at individual personnel at will. The post had only one 12.7 anti-aircraft gun which opened fire. The gunner was shot. The major on the post took up the gun and began firing at the helicopters. He was fired at again. While changing position he was hit by a rocket or missile. His body was blasted to pieces. Only his name-plate was found.

Every one of the men on the post was killed or wounded. They seemed to be in no hurry and going after each individual separately. Having finished the entire post, they peaceably went back without any casualty on their part.

And the NATO Chief has the effrontery to say that it was un-intentional.

Now my question is, if for 5 to 6 hours this enemy action was taking place and our ground troops were under such deliberate enemy fire, where was the Army’s reaction and where was the PAF during all this time?I cannot believe that the Corps HQ or the PAF Northern Command in Peshawar did not know what was going on,on the front. If so, both should be disbanded for deliberate incompetence.”

The biggest question is–Why did the joint military commands allow the attack to happen, or make no effort to end it?

If the dust was allowed to settle on this confrontation, then it would surely reveal that it was the TTP bringing Afghan and Pakistani forces into conflict, which they would be inclined to do, considering the level of penetration of the Pakistani Taliban by British, Afghan, and American secret services (SEE: Dissecting the Anti-Pakistan Psyop). Through these separate assets, plus those of India and the Mossad, the Pakistani Taliban have always danced to the same tune as the CIA. This does not necessarily mean that Hakeemullah Mehsud (and Baitullah before him), Faqir Mohammed and Fazlullah are conscious American assets, but that they might as well be. If they are so foolish as to be led around by the nose by spook money, doing the Empire’s bidding, then they are nothing more than petty mercenaries, pretending to be revolutionary jihadis.

This attack can be compared to the Mumbai attack, in that Pakistani jihadis have taken actions which were intended to bring Pakistan into conflict with one of its neighbors. The last time it was India’s turn. Indian leaders kept a cool head, at that time, avoiding another major war with Pakistan, to suit American interests. Will Afghan leaders use their heads, to see this blow-up as their own warning to turn back from the pied piper’s road to oblivion, before it is too late for us all?

by Abdul Moeed Hashmi on 28 November, 2011 –

JALALABAD (PAN): Officials and tribal elders on Monday said the eastern province of Nangarhar was ready for security transition, stressing the need for increasing the strength of Afghan security forces.

Afghan forces will take over the security responsibility in 18 more areas in the second phase of transition. The forces will take full control of Balkh, Daikundi, Takhar, Samangan, Kabul and Nimroz provinces.

The cities included in the second phase of transition include Jalalabad, Chaghcharan, Shiberghan, Faizabad, Ghazni, Maidan Shahr and Qala-i-Naw. Helmand districts Nawa, Nad Ali and Marja are also to change hands.

In Nangarhar, Jalalabad, the provincial capital, Kama, Behsud, Khewa and Surkhrod districts would be handed to Afghan forces. Surkhrod district chief, Syed Ali Akbar Sadat, said they were ready for the handover, but the inadequate police strength posed a problem.

Governor Gul Agha Sherzai had discussed the issue with civil and military officials, his spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said, adding the provincial capital is ready for the transfer.

“Foreign soldiers disrespect our traditions and we no longer need them,” Wilayat Khan, a tribal elder from Behsud, told Pajhwok Afghan News. The district had only 50 policemen, he said, asking the government to increase their number....

Is The Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis back again....?

2011-11-16T18:57:00.001+04:30

Is The Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis back again....?

A geopolitical game-changer in Energy and beyond!

by Immanuel Wallerstein

It always amazes me how the world's politicians and media spend most of their energy debating geopolitical prospects that are not going to happen, while ignoring major developments that are happening.

Here is a list of the most important coming non-events that we have been loudly debating and analyzing: Israel is not going to bomb Iran. The euro is not going to disappear. Outside powers are not going to engage in military action inside Syria. The upsurge of worldwide popular unrest is not going to fade away.

Meanwhile, to minimal serious coverage in the media and on the internet, the Nord Stream was inaugurated in Lubmin on Germany's Baltic Coast on Nov. 8 in the presence of Pres. Medvedev of Russia and the prime ministers of Germany, France, and the Netherlands, plus the director of Gazprom, Russia's gas exporter, and the European Union's Energy Commissioner. This is a geopolitical game-changer, unlike all the widely discussed non-events that are not going to happen.

What is Nord Stream? Very simply, it is a gas pipeline that has been laid in the Baltic Sea, going from Vyborg near St. Petersburg in Russia to Lubmin near the Polish border in Germany without passing through any other country. From Germany, it can proceed to France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Great Britain, and other eager buyers of Russia's gas.

Nord Stream is an arrangement between private enterprises with the blessing of their respective governments. Russia's Gazprom owns 51%, two German companies 31%, and 9% each for one French and one Dutch company. The proportional investments (and the potential profits) are all private.

The key element in this arrangement is that the pipeline does not pass through Poland or any Baltic state or Belorussia or Ukraine. So, all these countries not only lose whatever transit fees they could charge but cannot use their intermediary location to hold up supplies of gas to western Europe while they negotiate deals with Russia.

The German press agency, Deutsche Welle, headlined its story "Nord Stream: A commercial project with a political vision." Le Monde headlined its story "Gazprom is established as a global energy actor." Joseph Bauer, energy expert from Deutsche Bank Research in Frankfurt am Main, opined "It's both a political and a commercial project, and it makes sense on both the economic and political level."

Meanwhile the Russians have told the Chinese that they will not sell them their gas at 30% below the European prices, saying they see no need for Russia to subsidize the Chinese economy. And they have made it clear to Turkmenistan, which has enormous natural gas resources, that they will not appreciate its exporting gas other than via Russia. The Nord Stream launching comes within days of the announcement by the new president of Kyrgyzstan that he expects to close down the U.S. military air base at Manas when its lease expires in 2014. This base has been crucial in U.S. supply links to Afghanistan. Clearly, Russia is strengthening its hold on the Soviet Union's former Central Asian republics.

Both East-Central Europe and the United States are discovering that the scheme to prevent the creation of a Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis is not viable. The European Union's central mechanisms are bending before this reality, as are many of the east-central European countries. This is most difficult for Ukraine, which is torn apart by these developments. And the United States? What in fact can they do about it?

Military Threats Against Iran, Cyber Attacks Escalate....

2011-11-10T17:49:00.001+04:30

As evidence mounts that the U.S. secret state is launching cyber weapons against official enemies, while carrying out wide-ranging spy ops against their "friends," Gen. Keith Alexander, the dual-hatted overlord of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, says that the Obama administration is "working on a system" that will "help" ISPs thwart malicious attacks.

Speaking at the Security Innovation Network (SINET) "Showcase 2011" shindig at the National Press Club in Washington, Alexander told security grifters eager to gouge taxpayers for another piece of lucrative "cybersecurity" pie: "What I'm concerned about are the destructive attacks. Those are the things yet to come that cause us a lot of concern."

That's rather rich coming from the head of a secretive Pentagon satrapy suspected of designing and launching the destructive Stuxnet virus which targeted Iran's civilian nuclear program.

According to fresh evidence provided by IT security experts it now appears that the same constellation of shadowy forces which unleashed Stuxnet are at it again with the newly discovered Duqu spy Trojan.

In a follow-up analysis, Kaspersky Lab researcher Alex Gostev wrote that "the highest number of Duqu incidents have been recorded in Iran. This fact brings us back to the Stuxnet story and raises a number of issues."

Not least of which is the continuing demonization of the Islamic Republic by an unholy alliance of U.S. militarists, their Israeli pit bulls and congressional shills hyping the "Iran threat."

War Drums Beating

With the United States and the other capitalist powers incapable of digging the world economy out from under the slow-motion meltdown sparked by 2008's market collapse, and with tens of millions of enraged citizens rejecting austerity measures that will further enrich financial elites at their expense, will the Obama administration "go for broke" and set-off a new conflagration in the Middle East?

Ratcheting up bellicose rhetoric, John Keane, a retired four-star general, former Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army now currently perched on the board of General Dynamics, a major purveyor of cyber attack tools for the government, told the House Homeland Security Committee October 26, "We've got to put our hand around their throat now. Why don't we kill them? We kill other people who are running terrorist operations against the United States."

AFP reported that "Iran made a formal protest" over Keane's remarks which urged "the targeted assassination of members of its elite Quds Force military special operations unit," over a fairy-tale plot allegedly cooked-up by Tehran, which employed a failed used-car salesman, a DEA snitch and members of the Zetas drug gang in a scheme to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.

While the plot lines are as preposterous as allegations prior to the 2003 Iraq invasion that Saddam Hussein's regime was involved in the 9/11 attacks, one cannot so easily dismiss the propaganda value of such reports by administration "information warriors." The same can be said of the series of controlled leaks emanating from London, Tel Aviv and Washington urging immediate air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities.

The Guardian reported that "Britain's armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran's nuclear enrichment programme."

Chillingly, the "Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government."

On the same day that MoD's sanctioned leak appeared in the British press, Haaretz disclosed that "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are trying to muster a majority in the cabinet in favor of military action against Iran, a senior Israeli official has said. According to the official, there is a 'small advantage' in the cabinet for the opponents of such an attack."

"Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon said he preferred an American military attack on Iran to an Israeli one. 'A military move is the last resort,' he said."

The Associated Press reported that as Netanyahu moved to persuade his cabinet to "authorize a military strike against Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program," Israel successfully test-fired "a missile believed capable of carrying a nuclear warhead to Iran."

Adding to the disinformational witch's brew, The Washington Post reported that "a new spike in anti-Iran rhetoric and military threats by Western powers is being fueled by fears that Iran is edging closer to the nuclear 'breakout' point, when it acquires all the skills and parts needed to quickly build an atomic bomb if it chooses to," anonymous "Western diplomats and nuclear experts said Friday."

Post stenographer Joby Warrick informed us that a "Western diplomat who had seen drafts of the report" told him "it will elaborate on secret intelligence collected since 2004 showing Iranian scientists struggling to overcome technical hurdles in designing and building nuclear warheads."

And late last week Reuters disclosed that "a senior U.S. military official said on Friday Iran had become the biggest threat to the United States and Israel's president said the military option to stop the Islamic republic from obtaining nuclear weapons was nearer."

"'The biggest threat to the United States and to our interests and to our friends ... has come into focus and it's Iran,' said the U.S. military official, addressing a forum in Washington." Conveniently, "reporters were allowed to cover the event on condition the official not be identified."

While some critics argue that Israel does not presently have the capacity to launch such an attack, and that "the volume of the war hysteria is being turned up with one purpose in mind: the Israelis want the US to do their dirty work for them," such reasoning is hardly reassuring.

Indeed, as the World Socialist Web Site points out, "the Israeli government has already made advanced preparations for an attack on Iran."

"On the military front," analyst Peter Symonds warned that "Israeli warplanes last week conducted a long-range exercise--of the type required to reach Iran--using a NATO airbase on the Italian island of Sardinia." In other words, the IDF drill was not a "rogue" exercise unilaterally conducted by Israel, but further evidence of Washington's "desperate bid to offset its economic decline by securing its hegemony over the energy-rich regions of the Middle East and Central Asia."

In the context of escalating tensions over Iran's nuclear enrichment program, seeded by manufactured "terror" plots, the imperialist powers may choose the "cyber" route prior to launching devastating missile and bomber strikes against Iranian military installations and civilian infrastructure.

Pentagon planners now believe that attack tools have reached the point where blinding Iran's air defenses while sowing chaos across population centers with power outages and the shutdown of financial services may now be a viable option.

This is not idle speculation. During the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, the National Journal disclosed that Central Command "considered a computerized attack to disable the networks that controlled Iraq's banking system, but they backed off when they realized that those networks were global and connected to banks in France."

Facing growing opposition at home and abroad to endless wars and imperial adventures, would the Obama administration have such qualms today?

Attack Tools Already in Play

As Antifascist Calling previously reported, when the Duqu virus was discovered last month, analysts at Symantec believed that the remote access Trojan (RAT) "is essentially the precursor to a future Stuxnet-like attack."

"The threat was written by the same authors (or those who have access to the Stuxnet source code) and appears to have been created since the last Stuxnet file was recovered," researchers averred.

Since their initial reporting, Symantec, drawing on research from CrySyS lab at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Hungary, the organization which discovered the malware, reported they located an installer file in the form of a Microsoft Word document which exploits a previously unknown zero-day vulnerability.

Like Stuxnet, Duqu's stealthiness is directly proportional to its uncanny ability to capitalize on what are called zero-day exploits hardwired into it's digital DNA; security holes that are unknown to everyone until the instant they're used in an attack.

Similar to other dubious commodities traded on our dystopian "free markets," zero-days are bits of tainted code sought by criminal hackers, financial and industrial spies and enterprising security agencies that can sell for up to $250,000 a pop on the black market.

When Stuxnet appeared in dozens of countries last year, targeting what are called programmable logic controllers (PLCs) on industrial computers manufactured by Siemens that control everything from water purification and food processing to oil refining and potentially deadly chemical processes, researchers found it was designed to harm only one specific target: PLCs processing uranium fuel at a nuclear facility in Iran.

As Wired Magazine reported, when Symantec analysts who had been picking Stuxnet apart convinced internet service providers who controlled "servers in Malaysia and Denmark" where the virus "phoned home" each time it infected a new machine, to reroute the virus to a secure "sinkhole," they were in for a shock.

"Out of the initial 38,000 infections," journalist Kim Zetter wrote, "about 22,000 were in Iran. Indonesia was a distant second, with about 6,700 infections, followed by India with about 3,700 infections. The United States had fewer than 400. Only a small number of machines had Siemens Step 7 software installed--just 217 machines reporting in from Iran and 16 in the United States."

"The sophistication of the code," Wired averred, "plus the fraudulent certificates, and now Iran at the center of the fallout made it look like Stuxnet could be the work of a government cyberarmy--maybe even a United States cyberarmy.

"This made Symantec's sinkhole an audacious move," Zetter wrote. "In intercepting data the attackers were expecting to receive, the researchers risked tampering with a covert U.S. government operation."

Writing in the Journal of Strategic Studies, Thomas Rid, a former RAND Corporation employee and "Reader in War Studies at Kings College in London," who has close ties to the Western military establishment, observed in relation to Stuxnet that network "sabotage, first, is a deliberate attempt to weaken or destroy an economic or military system. All sabotage is predominantly technical in nature, but of course may use social enablers."

"The resources and investment that went into Stuxnet could only be mustered by a 'cyber superpower', argued Ralph Langner, a German control system security consultant who first extracted and decompiled the attack code."

In an interview with National Public Radio, Langer said that the "level of expertise" behind Stuxnet "seemed almost alien. But that would be science fiction, and Stuxnet was a reality."

"Thinking about it for another minute, if it's not aliens, it's got to be the United States."

"For the time being it remains unclear how successful the Stuxnet attack against Iran's nuclear program actually was" Rid noted. "But it is clear that the operation has taken computer sabotage to an entirely new level."

Researcher Vikram Thakur, commenting on the latest Duqu discoveries reported: "The Word document was crafted in such a way as to definitively target the intended receiving organization." And whom, pray tell, was being targeted by Duqu? Why Iran, of course.

"Once Duqu is able to get a foothold in an organization through the zero-day exploit, the attackers can command it to spread to other computers."

Thakur wrote, "the Duqu configuration files on these computers," which did not have the ability to connect to the internet and the author's command and control (C&C) server, "were instead configured not to communicate directly with the C&C server, but to use a file-sharing C&C protocol with another compromised computer that had the ability to connect to the C&C server."

"Consequently," Thakur concluded, "Duqu creates a bridge between the network's internal servers and the C&C server. This allowed the attackers to access Duqu infections in secure zones with the help of computers outside the secure zone being used as proxies."

As Kaspersky Lab researchers pointed out, "in each of the four instances of Duqu infection a unique modification of the driver necessary for infection was used."

"More importantly," analysts averred, "regarding one of the Iranian infections there were also found to have been two network attack attempts exploiting the MS08-067 [MS Word] vulnerability. This vulnerability was used by Stuxnet too."

"If there had been just one such attempt, it could have been written off as typical Kido activity--but there were two consecutive attack attempts: this detail would suggest a targeted attack on an object in Iran." (emphasis added)

Simply put, before the Pentagon decides to "kill them" as Gen. Keane indelicately put it, battlefield preparations via directed cyber attacks and other forms of sabotage may be part of a preemptive strategy to decapitate Iranian defenses prior to more "kinetic" attacks.

'Boutique Arms Dealers'

Despite media hype about future cuts in the so-called "defense" budget, Defense Industry Daily disclosed that "the US military has announced plans to spend billions on technology to secure its networks."

According to the Defense Department's FY 2012 budget proposal, "the Pentagon said it plans to spend $2.3 billion on cybersecurity capabilities."

However, when NextGov "questioned why the Air Force's $4.6 billion 2012 budget request for cybersecurity was $2.3 billion more than Defense's servicewide spending proposal, Pentagon officials upped their total figure from $2.3 billion to $3.2 billion."

Why the discrepancy? A "Pentagon spokesperson explained that the service's estimate differed dramatically because the Air Force included 'things' that are not typically considered information assurance or cybersecurity."

What kind of "things" are we talking about here?

As BusinessWeek reported in July, firms such as Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and General Dynamics, "the stalwarts of the traditional defense industry," are "helping the U.S. government develop a capacity to snoop on or disable other countries' computer networks."

Capitalizing on the Defense Department's desire to develop "hacker tools specifically as a means of conducting warfare," this "shift in defense policy gave rise to a flood of boutique arms dealers that trade in offensive cyber weapons."

Investigative journalists Mike Riley and Ashlee Vance averred that "most of these are 'black' companies that camouflage their government funding and work on classified projects."

As last winter's hack of HBGary Federal by Anonymous revealed, "black" firms, including those like Palantir which received millions of dollars in start-up funding from the CIA's venture capital arm In-Q-Tel, hacker tools, such as sophisticated Trojans and stealthy rootkits, believed to be the route used to introduce the Stuxnet virus, have also been used to target political activists and journalists in the United States at the behest of financial institutions such as the Bank of America and the right-wing U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

As researcher Barrett Brown revealed, "Team Themis was a consortium made up of HBGary, Palantir, and Berico (with Endgame Systems serving as a 'silent partner' and providing assistance from the sidelines) that was set up in order to provide offensive intelligence capabilities to private clients."

Although Endgame Systems "went dark" after Anonymous released thousands of HBGary files, The Register disclosed that the firm "helps US intelligence identify and hack into vulnerable networks, and is targeting a similar role in Britain's nascent national cyber security operations."

The Register noted that the "limited publicly information currently available on the firm hints at its further role assisting clandestine government cyber operations by identifying targets and developing exploits."

As BusinessWeek revealed, the firm is "a major supplier of digital weaponry for the Pentagon. It offers a smorgasbord of wares, from vulnerability assessments to customized attack technology, for a dizzying array of targets in any region of the world."

Unsurprisingly, this was a major draw for venture capital firms "Bessemer Venture Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers," who collectively fronted Endgame some $30 million. According to Riley and Vance, "what really whet the VCs' appetites, though, according to people close to the investors, is Endgame's shot at becoming the premier cyber-arms dealer."

While a client list has yet to emerge, it's safe to assume that secret state agencies on both sides of the Atlantic are lining up to purchase Endgame's toxic products.

Although no definitive answer has emerged as to whom might targeting Iran with Duqu, as BusinessWeek revealed Endgame "deals in zero-day exploits. Some of Endgame’s technology is developed in-house; some of it is acquired from the hacker underground. Either way, these zero days are militarized--they've undergone extensive testing and are nearly fail-safe."

"People who have seen the company pitch its technology--and who asked not to be named because the presentations were private--say Endgame executives will bring up maps of airports, parliament buildings, and corporate offices."

According to Riley and Vance, "the executives then create a list of the computers running inside the facilities, including what software the computers run, and a menu of attacks that could work against those particular systems."

Indeed, "Endgame weaponry comes customized by region--the Middle East, Russia, Latin America, and China--with manuals, testing software, and 'demo instructions.' There are even target packs for democratic countries in Europe and other U.S. allies."

"The quest in Washington, Silicon Valley, and around the globe is to develop digital tools both for spying and destroying," BusinessWeek observed. "The most enticing targets in this war are civilian--electrical grids, food distribution systems, any essential infrastructure that runs on computers."

"This stuff is more kinetic than nuclear weapons," Dave Aitel, the founder of a computer security company in Miami Beach called Immunity told Riley and Vance. "Nothing says you've lost like a starving city."

While Aitel and a host of other "little Eichmanns" who enrich themselves servicing the American secret state refused to discuss his firm's work for the government, a source told the publication that Immunity "makes weaponized 'rootkits': military-grade hacking systems used to bore into other countries' networks," and that Aitel's clients "include the U.S. military and intelligence agencies."

We do not know if, or when, the United States, NATO and Israel will opt for a military "solution" to the so-called "Iranian problem."

We do know however, as the World Socialist Web Site warned, "as global capitalism lurches from one economic and political crisis to the next, rivalry between the major powers for markets, resources and strategic advantage is plunging humanity towards a catastrophic conflict that would devastate the planet." ....

Arnon Milchan - "Mr. Israel" and the Barbaric inside Job of 9/11....

2011-10-05T19:19:00.003+04:30

Arnon Milchan - "Mr. Israel" and the Barbaric inside Job of 9/11....

By Chris Bollyn,

www.bollyn.com

October 4, 2011

In Confidential, a recent biograpy of Arnon Milchan, Israel's LAKAM agent Number One, the authors reveal that Milchan and Peres are "strategic partners" and "holders of some of Israel's most significant secrets." Chief among these secrets would certainly be how Israeli agents carried out 9/11.

Arnon Milchan, born in Israel in 1944, has led the kind of life that Ian Fleming and John le Carre loved to write about... He's a superagent in the real-world sense, and the closest thing to a real-life James Bond that one could imagine.
- Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon - Arnon Milchan (2011)

Beyond the whispers and the movies, few people know of Arnon’s role in supplying Israel with its defense needs, and in creating its ultimate deterrence capabilities… For me, he is ‘Mr. Israel.’
- Sumner Redstone, Chairman of the Board, Viacom Inc.

“Tell us about this Israeli movie producer.”
- William F. Fahey, U.S. District Attorney to Richard Kelly Smyth, Milchan’s U.S. supplier of nuclear triggers smuggled to Israel, January 1985

"MR. ISRAEL" - Israel's senior LAKAM agent Arnon Milchan (center) has long been the man bridging Israel's intelligence establishment with each new government. In this photo from 2005, Milchan sits between his old friends Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a former employee of Milchan's chemical company, Milchan Bros. Milchan was the essential agent in building Israel's nuclear arsenal. So, what does he know about the Israeli-made super-thermite that demolished the World Trade Center?

MAN IN THE MIDDLE

If one considers the known evidence of Israeli prior knowledge of 9/11, the Odigo text messages and the five arrested Mossad agents, for example, as indicative of Israeli state involvement in the crime, the identity of the hidden power behind the cover-up is rather obvious. The "hidden hand" suppressing the information about 9/11 would have to be a high-level person in the Israeli political-military intelligence establishment who has very close relations with media kingpins like Murdoch, Levin, and Eisner. Arnon Milchan (a.k.a. Milchen) is such a person.

- Christopher Bollyn, "Arnon Milchan - Mossad's Man in the Middle" from Chapter VIII of Solving 9/11, "The Mass Media & the 9/11 Cover-Up"

The hypothesis that 9/11 was carried out by Israeli agents requires the presence of a high-level Israeli agent playing the role of "man in the middle" between the architects of false-flag terror and the media moguls who shape public opinion through their control of the largest news and entertainment networks in the United States.

The pilot episode of the The Lone Gunmen television series in which a passenger airliner is remotely hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center was filmed in 2000 and aired on television six months before 9/11, on Fox TV in March 2001. The amazingly uncanny similarity of this television show with the events of 9/11 intrigued me and led to my discovery that a senior Israeli intelligence agent named Arnon Milchan was very closely connected with Fox TV, the company that produced the program.

In 2001 Milchan had long been connected to both Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corp. and its many subsidiaries, and to Gerald Levin, president and CEO of Time Warner and CNN. The success of the Israeli-produced false-flag terror spectacle was critically dependent on the major news media pushing the official, but unproven, explanation and ignoring the many unanswered questions about what really happened. As the highest-level Israeli intelligence agent in the United States, Milchan certainly seemed to be "Mossad's Man in the Middle", co-ordinating the 9/11 cover up with the two largest news media outlets in the United States.

Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent Turned Hollywood Tycoon - Arnon Milchan is a recently published biography of Arnon Milchan (July 2011), the Israeli weapons smuggler/dealer who helped create Israel's nuclear arsenal. Written by the Israeli Meir Doron, a family friend who was raised in Milchan's hometown of Rehovot, and his brother-in-law Joseph Gelman, Confidential is a sympathetic biography written by a couple Zionist Jews, which explains their comparison of Milchan with James Bond in the prologue.

Like most things concerning Israel, how one views Arnon Milchan is all a matter of perspective. A Zionist devoted to the State of Israel may very well see Milchan as a Jewish James Bond while an American like myself is much more likely to view Milchan as one of Ian Fleming's villains, not unlike Ernst Stavro Blofeld (a.k.a. "Number One"), the evil genius with aspirations of world domination as head of the global criminal organization SPECTRE.

LAKAM'S AGENT NUMBER ONE - Arnon Milchan's illegal smuggling of 810 krytron triggers for an off-the-books nuclear arsenal in the hands of a global criminal organization of Zionist terrorists is something that Ian Fleming's criminal masterminds would have tried to pull off...

...like Ernst Stavro Blofeld, "Number One" and head of SPECTRE.

There is, of course, a fundamental difference between the James Bond character and Arnon Milchan. Bond (Agent 007) is an agent of the British secret service who is sent on missions to find and neutralize foreign criminal organizations that pose a grave danger to Britain and the West by stealing their nuclear secrets and technology. Arnon Milchan, on the other hand, has long been a master thief and senior agent in such an organization, LAKAM or Mossad II. LAKAM is the very same "rogue outfit" run by Rafael "Dirty Rafi" Eitan in the 1980s that controlled Jonathan J. Pollard, the American Jew who was caught spying for Israel in 1985. Since the 1960s Milchan has been actively engaged in helping Israel create an off-the-books nuclear arsenal, which is at the center of the current instability in the Middle East - and the world.

The Mossad spymaster Rafi Eitan is a senior member of the Israeli Knesset although he is a wanted criminal in the United States. Here Eitan (top) and Ehud Barak, two of the chief suspects of 9/11, sit together in the Knesset, October 2008.

In reading the Milchan biography I found a number of interesting bits of information, which are included in this article with my comments. One of the most interesting things I learned was that Milchan's first big film, in which he invested two million dollars, involved a key scene in which a passenger airliner is flown into a high rise building. The British/French film, The Medusa Touch, was released in 1978. It is worth noting that the Russian Jewish Lord Lew Grade (born Lev Winogradsky) immediately bought the film's foreign rights for $5 million before it was even produced, putting Milchan ahead by a million dollars.

The climactic scene of The Medusa Touch (1978) is of a passenger plane being remotely controlled (by mind) and flown into a high rise building.

The Israeli agent Arnon Milchan's first big film simulated a plane crashing into a high rise - in 1978. This happens to have been the same year that the former Mossad chief, Isser Harel, predicted that Arab terrorists would strike New York City's tallest tower. This is no coincidence.

Such a scene had never been filmed before and required a great deal of work to make it look real...

and to achieve the desired effect, which can be seen in the short clip from the movie below. (The added comments can be ignored.)

It should be noted that Arnon Milchan is one of Israel's longest serving and most senior intelligence agents, having served the State of Israel since the early 1960s. For Milchan to produce a film that depicts an airliner flying into a high rise in the same year (1978) that the former head of Israeli intelligence predicted an attack by Arab terrorists on the tallest building in New York City is certainly no coincidence. This is when the terrorist Likudniks came to power in Israel and when high level Israeli terrorists began planning 9/11. Milchan's movie was useful in visualizing the false-flag attacks that occurred 23 years later.

The following are a few extracts from Confidential with my comments on the Israeli-written biography of Arnon Milchan.

"Arnon is a special man. It was I who recruited him. Working secretly, from outside the official system, he brought extraordinary ideas and a level of creativity that greatly contributed to our country. When I was at the Ministry of Defense, Arnon was involved in numerous defense-related procurement activities and intelligence operations. His strength is in making connections at the highest levels in countries around the world, including important countries with which Israel does not officially maintain relationships. His activities gave us a huge advantage, strategically, diplomatically and technologically…"

- Israeli President Shimon Peres, 8 February 2010

“Arnon Milchan was the Chuck Norris of LAKAM.”
- Amnon Abromovich, Globes (Israel), 24 April 2008

FUNDING ISRAEL’S COVERT CRIMES

Rules that applied to others did not apply to Milchan; perhaps it was not a “license to kill,” but very close to it. He fronted secret bank accounts for the State of Israel – accounts that would be used to finance his country’s most covert and sometimes deadly intelligence operations around the globe. (p. 18)

Bollyn: Milchan controlled Israeli government-backed accounts and front companies that financed “the special needs of the entirety of Israel’s intelligence operations outside the country.” The “special needs” included buying components to build and maintain Israel’s nuclear arsenal.

“MINISTER OF FINANCE” – AUGUST 1965

[Moshe] Dayan pointed at Milchan and told Peres, “You know what, Shimon? I want Arnon as minister of finance.”

“OK,” Peres replied with a sly smile…

What Milchan did not understand was that Dayan and Peres had in mind a completely different kind of “minister of finance,” unelected, secret, far outside the country, and in service indefinitely. (p. 39)

PERES’S NEED "TO DECEIVE PEOPLE ON A LARGE SCALE"

Immediately upon embarking on the massive, covert Israeli version of the Manhattan Project, Peres (who is today a Nobel Peace laureate) realized that he would have to deceive people on a large scale to avoid discovery… He also realized that the program would need to gain access to material and equipment that was not easily obtainable on the open market, and that few countries would be willing to sell such material to Israel.

To overcome these complex and daunting problems, Peres decided to create a new top-secret agency, a unit so secret that even Israel’s vaunted intelligence agency, the Mossad, would not be aware of its existence for years to come, even though it operated right under its very nose. (p. 44)

MOSSAD II

In the early 1970s, the unit would adopt the name Science Liaison Bureau, or LAKAM, its Hebrew acronym, and was nicknamed “Mossad II.” Its original narrow mission was to secure the materials and the equipment that would make the production of nuclear bombs possible. (p. 44)

LAKAM’S MOST PRODUCTIVE ASSET

The close working relationship between Milchan and [Benjamin] Blumberg was exceedingly productive, and much of it will never be known… When Blumberg needed a thousand tons of ammonium perchlorate, Butarez, carbon-carbon, inertial-grade gyros and accelerometers, precision tracking radars, and other such basic material required by anyone seeking to develop a nuclear deterrent, it was Milchan he would call.

Milchan’s constant movement between countries and continents make him an elusive target for any counterintelligence effort against him, and it made him the most productive asset for LAKAM and for the State of Israel. (p. 54)

MOSSAD’S MAN IN THE MIDDLE

But Milchan took it even a step further. He offered Peres and Dayan the use of his company as a front in order to open subsidiaries wherever LAKAM or the Mossad deemed necessary for their activities.

Milchan would open accounts and front companies for the State of Israel, essentially putting him in charge of the mechanisms and the resources to finance the special needs of the entirety of Israel’s intelligence operations outside of the country. This is how Milchan gradually became the indispensable man in the middle. (p. 60)

The surprise that rocked Israel following the elections to the Ninth Knesset on May 17, 1977, shook the country to its political foundation. The conservative Likud party, under the leadership of Menachem Begin came to power for the first time, ousting the Labor Party, which had controlled all political power in the country in one form or another since its inception…

Milchan quickly adapted to the new political leaders [Likud was comprised of Zionist terrorists from the Irgun] in town; Shimon Peres was a real soul mate, but soon Arnon would develop close friendships with others, including incoming minister of defense Ezer Weizman. His friendships and contacts were deep and spanned the entire political spectrum, which placed him as a bridge between the intelligence establishment and the new government – a role that he has continued to play ever since, with almost every Israeli government.

FINANCING COVERT ACTIVITIES

Using middlemen made it harder for outside observers to follow exactly what Israel was purchasing, since the sales were made not to the Israeli government, but to another entity, sometimes even multiple entities. In fact, this is a common counterintelligence practice. The fact that commissions were extracted along the way and funneled into secret accounts controlled by Milchan to finance Israel’s covert activities was only the icing on the cake. (p. 137)

MILCHAN AND "DIRTY RAFI" EITAN

In 1981, Benjamin Blumberg finally met his match in Ariel “the Bulldozer” Sharon, who was appointed Israel’s new minister of defense. Sharon decided to replace Blumberg with his close friend of many years and former head of the Mossad, Rafi Eitan. He viewed the role of LAKAM chief as one of the most crucial positions in Israel’s vast defense machinery. The infighting continued for a few months, but eventually the transition took place. The fifty-five-year-old Rafi Eitan was a short man with thick glasses and a long career in the Mossad behind him. It was Eitan who personally commanded the squad that captured Adolf Eichmann in Argentina. He was well acquainted with Milchan, and was well aware of his activities on behalf of LAKAM. (p. 145)

As Israel's key operations agent since the mid 1960s, Milchan has been at the top Israel's intelligence establishment since 1965.

MILCHAN’S MONEY TRICK

He understood that Hollywood throws money at those who have money, so from time to time he would flaunt it, but only with a larger strategic purpose in mind. Metaphorically speaking, the trick was to use the million dollars in the bank to project an image of thirty million. It was his modus operandi since day one. (p. 202)

MILCHAN AND NETANYAHU

"I expect that nobody in the Israeli government is interested in the fact that you skimmed off sixty percent of all the profit on things that Milco International, Inc. sent to Milchan Bros. After all, Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel before Sharon [and current], worked for Milchan Bros. Could it be that part of the sixty percent you “skimmed” was for Israeli Government officials? …

"Well, Arnon, if I’m extradited to the U.S. and stand trial for shipping krytrons to your company, Milchan Bros., the world is going to know all the shady dealing you were involved in – I’m sure."
- Richard Kelly Smyth’s letter to Arnon Milchan from prison in Spain, 22 August 2001 (p. 215)

Bollyn: There was no trial, of course, and Smyth was given a deal in which he plead guilty to one charge and received 40 months in the federal prison system in California. Smyth, as president of the company Milco International Inc., was originally indicted for selling 810 krytrons to an Israeli-based firm, Heli Corp. The owner of Heli Corp, Arnon Milchan, denied involvement in the $60,000 krytron deal. Milco ("Milchan Co.") was also established by Milchan. This is a very good example of how Mossad companies are often on both sides of a deal, as seller and buyer, not unlike what happened to the steel evidence from the World Trade Center after 9/11, when it was shipped by Zionist controlled scrap dealers in New Jersey to Zionist controlled steel companies in Asia - to be destroyed.

Smyth, a former scientific adviser to the U.S. Air Force and to NATO, pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Arms Export Control Act and to making a false statement to Customs. Prosecutors dropped 28 other counts. A trial would have shed light on Arnon Milchan and the role of Israel's LAKAM in the illegal smuggling of nuclear triggers. In such sensitive matters, like the false-flag terrorism of 9/11, an open trial is the last thing the Zionist crimocracy wants.

Milchan succeeded in smuggling 810 krytron nuclear triggers to Israel before being discovered in 1985. Israel returned 710, saying that one hundred krytrons had been destroyed. While Richard Kelly Smyth spent 16 years as a fugitive in Spain and then went to prison, the Israeli who masterminded the whole operation, Arnon Milchan, was not even charged and allowed to continue his illegal activities on behalf of Israel in Hollywood and elsewhere.

“UZI FALAFEL”

Oliver Stone didn’t take this very well. He had a contract for another movie with Milchan. He briefly considered the outrageous idea of a film from a script that had been circulating in Hollywood more as a joke than anything else. The working title was Uzi Falafel, and it told the story of an obnoxious Israeli arms dealer who made a lot of money and parlayed it into a new career producing movies. (p. 229)

OLIVER STONE ON MILCHAN

“A top Hollywood executive once warned me to stay clear of Milchan. He told me that Arnon was a Middle Eastern rug dealer. Beware. I should have listened to him, he was right. He is as cheap as they come. He is sick about money, obsessed with losing it. I learned a very hard lesson, and it cost me a lot of my personal money. I don’t want to get into a pissing contest, but Arnon can be very nasty.”
- Oliver Stone, “The Last Tycoon”, Los Angeles Magazine, April 2000 (p. 229)

MURDOCH’S ISRAELI PARTNER

Milchan will not forget that first dinner with the person who became one of his best friends and business partner, Rupert Murdoch, the owner of News Corporation, the parent company of Twentieth Century Fox…

Milchan then asked Murdoch for a favor. He didn’t want to consummate the deal without the blessing of his friend Gerald Levin, president and CEO of Time Warner…

Fifty-five percent of New Regency remained in Milchan’s hands. Kerry Packer kept his twenty-five percent, and Murdoch picked up twenty percent for about $200 million…

Part of the deal between Fox and New Regency was the establishment of a new TV division. Milchan brought in a good friend, ambitious Israeli TV personality Yair Lapid, to head up the new department. (p. 240)

Bollyn: Yair Lapid is the TV personality who interviewed 3 of the 5 Israeli operatives who were arrested on 9/11 in New Jersey. Oded Ellner, one of the three, told Lapid in November 2001 that their "purpose had been to document the event", the event being the 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Center. Having said they are not agents of Mossad, Lapid did not ask the three who had sent them on their mission. It was understood. The other two Israeli terror suspects, the Kurzberg brothers, who sat in Yair Lapid's audience were known to U.S. law enforcement as agents of Mossad. Hence they did not appear on the show, so the denial of belonging to Mossad could be made without being a false statement.

“MEMBERS OF THE TRIBE”

Gradually, after the year 2000, Arnon began to bring his children into key positions at New Regency. Yariv and his sisters, Alexandra and Elinor, had grown up in boarding schools with a heavy dose of French culture, but as they matured they were exposed to a very wide world thanks to regular international travel with their father. Every year they spent at least one month in Israel and were brought up knowing that they were “members of the tribe,” with all of the historical connotations and responsibilities that implied. (p. 246)

MILCHAN – POLITICAL BOSS

From his earliest days, Milchan has had a passion for Israeli politics, and despite his global interests, he has consistently sought to influence the course of historic events in the Middle East from behind the scenes… (p. 247)

Kadima won the elections, Peres was appointed deputy prime minister, and all of his demands were fulfilled. But like his Rafi adventure years earlier, his dream never really materialized. Sharon suffered a series of strokes and became incapacitated. Another close friend of Milchan, the man who named his movie Pretty Woman, Ehud Olmert, became prime minister instead. (p. 249)

Milchan kicked into high gear, maneuvering behind the scenes to replace the president with his longtime friend and mentor, Shimon Peres. By the time Katsav finally resigned, Milchan had already arranged virtual wall-to-wall support for Peres to replace him as the country’s president…

The first official letter written by the new president was to thank his longtime friend Milchan, who had stuck with him through thick and thin, to see him to this day…

He's also the de facto Israeli consul general on the West Coast of the United States… He also serves as the primary host of Hollywood’s elite when they come to Israel, usually at his initiative. An invitiation from Milchan to visit Israel is an indication of having arrived in Hollywood. (p. 250)

YOSSI MAIMAN

In 2008, Milchan sold Milchan Bros. to a former Mossad agent by the name of Yossi Maiman. (p. 257)

Bollyn: Yossi Maiman also happens to be the Mossad agent who obtained a great deal of control over the lucrative gas fields of Turkmenistan. Linking these Israeli-owned gas fields to India and China by a pipeline crossing Afghanistan is one of the strategic goals of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan. Maiman and Milchan are partners in other Israeli ventures.

FOX FOREVER

Milchan relocated New Regency from Warner Bros. to Fox in 1998 after News Corp. agreed to make a $200-million equity investment in the company.

On January 14, 2011, New Regency and Fox signed an agreement to extend their distribution relationship through 2022, while at the same time providing a more active role for New Regency involving Fox releases. (p. 259)

Bollyn: Milchan's partnership with Rupert Murdoch and Fox TV began in 1998. Two years later this partnership produced the pilot episode of The Lone Gunmen in which a passenger airliner was hijacked by remote control and flown into the World Trade Center. The program aired on Fox TV in March 2001.

Murdoch's initial $200 million investment in Milchan's company in 1998 is something of a mystery. Why did Murdoch buy into a dodgy company run by an Israeli nuclear criminal? It is, of course, most likely the result of Murdoch simply doing as he is told by the Zionist financiers, e.g. the Rothschilds, who support his Zionist propaganda empire. As the New York Times wrote in July 2011 about Confidential:

In the late 1990s, the News Corporation, which owns Fox, paid $200 million for a 20 percent stake in Mr. Milchan’s Regency Enterprises. A News Corporation spokeswoman, Teri Everett, had no immediate response to a query about the company’s reason for backing Mr. Milchan, and about any reaction by its chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, to revelations in the new book.

RAFI EITAN

Rafi Eitan went on to a successful political career as the head of Israel’s Gil (Pensioners) Party. He served in the Knesset and as special minister without portfolio, advising the prime minister on national security matters. Since the Pollard affair in 1985, Eitan has not been allowed to travel to the United States, where he could be arrested if he did…

LAKAM was officially disbanded as a result of the Pollard affair in 1985. However, it continues to operate worldwide, except in the United States, under a new name. (p. 261)

THE MOST ESSENTIAL AGENT

Israel gained it modern nuclear deterrence capabilities because of the covert efforts of many people, but Milchan was one of the most essential. (p. 262)

BUGGING IRAN

To counter the growing threat, the renamed LAKAM and the Mossad have kicked into high gear. Every known computer system sent to Iran over the past decade has been bugged with monitoring devices. Every possible high-tech system, such as aircraft electronics and spare parts, has been tampered with. (p. 262)

“MR. ISRAEL”

When legendary media mogul Sumner Redstone told us that he considers Milchan to be “Mr. Israel,” he had little idea how accurate his sentiments actually are. If one could imagine a single, indispensable person in the middle who knows where all of the bodies are buried when it comes to Israel’s secret wars, it would be none other than this heavyweight Hollywood producer, who spends his life seamlessly moving between the world of fame and secrecy, fantasy and reality, war and peace. (p. 264)

Sources and Recommended Reading:

Confidential: The Life of Secret Agent turned Hollywood Tycoon - Arnon Milchan Meir Doron and Joseph Gelman, Gefen Publishing House Ltd., Jerusalem, Israel 2011

Bollyn, Christopher, "The Mass Media & the 9/11 Cover-Up", Chapter VIII, Solving 9/11 http://www.bollyn.com/the-mass-media-the-9-11-cover-up

Bollyn, "America the Target: 9-11 and Israel's History of False Flag Terrorism", Chapter III, Solving 9/11
http://www.bollyn.com/america-the-target-9-11-and-the-history-of-false-flag-terrorism

Bollyn, "Israel's Secret Super Thermite Lab", 26 August 2009 http://www.bollyn.com/israels-secret-super-thermite-lab-2

Cieply, Michael, "New Book Recounts Tale of Israeli Agent at Home in Hollywood", New York Times, 17 July 2011

Clip from The Medusa Touch (1978), YouTube.com, 3 October 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVzY3RSrI3k

There congruence of strategic interests between Washington and Uzbekistan ....

2011-09-20T15:40:00.001+04:30

There congruence of strategic interests between Washington and Uzbekistan ....

Obama prepares to punish Pakistan...LOL
By M K Bhadrakumar

The Barack Obama administration is making an extraordinary bid with the United States Congress to get the seven-year old embargo on military aid to Uzbekistan lifted poste-haste this month.

The restrictions were first introduced in 1974 as a response to Uzbekistan's alleged human-rights abuses, such as summary imprisonment, torture and murder in prison. Following the massacre in Andizhan in 2005, the US further tightened the screw on the Uzbek regime.

Obama, the humanist par excellence, remains nonchalant to the fury of various human-rights groups, including Amnesty International, The Institute on Religion and Public Policy, Freedom House, Open Society Center, Human Rights Watch. Operation Enduring Freedom (which is how the US-led campaign in Afghanistan is labeled) is leading the United States president to strike Faustian deals.

As Salon quipped, more freedom for Afghans could result in less freedom for the Uzbeks.

Plainly put, Washington aims to bribe Tashkent into extending greater cooperation with the US-sponsored Northern Distribution Network (NDN), the overland supply lines from Europe to Afghanistan. Uzbekistan has become the hub through which as much as 80% of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supplies through the NDN reach Afghanistan.

These include rail routes reaching Uzbekistan from the Baltic ports via Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan, an air route from Incirlik in Turkey, and a circuitous truck route from the NATO base of Germersheim in Germany via Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

The NDN is much more circuitous and expensive than the routes through Pakistan - some estimates say anywhere up to two to three times more expensive - but the latest development to remove the restrictions on American arms for Uzbekistan shows that Obama is prepared to pay a heavy price simply for the sake of lessening the US's political dependence on Pakistan.

Obama is cultivating the Uzbek leadership even as he turned down a request from Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani for a meeting this week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.

Coming on the heels of the barely-disguised US threats of a hot-pursuit strategy toward the Pakistan-based Haqqani group that is a key component of the Taliban-led resistance in Afghanistan, Obama's move assumes significance.

The US may be left with no alternative but to have a showdown with Pakistan sometime in a near future and contingency arrangements need to be put in place if the US-Pakistan relationship were to unravel or erupt into a nasty confrontation.

Steve LeVine wrote in Foreign Policy wrote last week that the US had already pared down by half the volume of supplies being transhipped through Afghanistan by jacking up the share of the NDN volume correspondingly. Recent Chinese reports indicate that US and NATO are discussing with Beijing alternate transportation routes via Xinjiang.

So far, the anxiety was about keeping the supplies going for the US and NATO troops in Afghanistan. Now comes the requirements of a "reverse flow" as the US drawdown in Afghanistan picks up. The surge of troops and equipment for Afghanistan has already ended and the challenge ahead will be to get the troops and equipment safely and securely out of that country.

History shows that the pull-out by foreigners from the Hindu Kush always turned out to be infinitely more tricky than the conquest itself. Arguably, the most spectacular operation conducted by the Soviet army in Afghanistan was the manner in which the troops were evacuated in 1989 after 10 years in the country.

In short, the US now has to renegotiate with each of the countries providing transit for the NDN and obtain formal agreements to use the routes in reverse. But the kingpin is going to be Uzbekistan and to be sure, Tashkent knows it, too.

An old trope
The Afghan war has been a highly profitable enterprise for the Uzbek regime. The revenue generated out of providing various goods and services for the US and NATO troops and for Afghan reconstruction runs into hundreds of millions of dollars. The endgame whets the Uzbek elite's appetite for optimal war-profiteering.

Tashkent is making the plea that it is incurring the Taliban's displeasure because of its role in the NDN, which could pose serious security risks, and, therefore, some amount of non-lethal military assistance from Washington is useful at this point. But Tashkent is not pushing the envelope; it presents a modest demand for "non-lethal" items only.

Washington probably knows this is an old trope with the Uzbeks, whereas there have been, curiously enough, no Taliban attacks on any Uzbek interests or assets so far despite the expanding presence of the insurgents in the Amy Darya region.

It is conceivable that Tashkent retains at least some of the communication lines the Uzbek intelligence developed in the 1990s to the Taliban folks in Kabul and Kandahar. The Uzbek intelligence presence is fairly extensive within Afghanistan.

Last Wednesday, several well-known US-based human-rights groups jointly addressed a letter to the US Senate sub-committee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs of the Committee on Appropriations opposing the Obama's administration's move "at a time when Uzbek authorities continue to silence civil society activists, independent journalists, and all political opposition; severely curtail freedom of expression and religion; and organize forced child labor on a massive scale".

Interestingly, the petitioners, who included foot soldiers of US-supported "color" revolutions in the past, invoked the Arab Spring and argued that "recent dramatic developments elsewhere in Central Asia and across the Middle East make clear that Uzbekistan's status as a strategic partner to the United States should not be allowed to eclipse concerns about its appalling human-rights record".

It is highly unlikely, though, that the impassioned plea on human-rights grounds will move the Obama administration into remorse and retraction. The administration is actually pushing the Pentagon's case and Pentagon enjoys big clout with the United States Congress traditionally. In the middle of a hopeless war, on an issue where the safety of US soldiers could be put into jeopardy, congress is not going to be uncooperative.

On the other hand, Obama can also derive some diplomatic leverage by underscoring to Tashkent that it went the extra league to strengthen the US-Uzbekistan strategic partnership. The other authoritarian regimes in the Caspian-Central Asian region will be watching with envy Uzbek President Islam Karimov as he deftly shepherds Obama towards a pragmatic relationship.

They would also like to become "stakeholders" in the long-term American military presence in Afghanistan, which Washington is finalizing with Kabul.

However, beyond the travails of the Afghan war and the perils of the US-Pakistan partnership, Karimov is intrinsically acquiring a high pedestal in the US geostrategy as well. His recent policies have studiously distanced Tashkent from Moscow's orbit. Foremost among them is his stellar role in stymying Moscow's efforts to project the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as the main provider of security in Central Asia.

Karimov failed to show up at the recent CSTO summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, after assuring Moscow he would. Tashkent stubbornly resists any interventionist role by the CSTO in the Central Asian region; consequently the alliance remains a "talking shop" between members Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

On the other hand, so long as the CSTO remains ineffectual, Moscow's reach in Central Asia will incrementally weaken and, in turn, that would fortify Tashkent's ambitions as the region's hegemon.

In sum, there is a congruence of strategic interests between Washington and Tashkent insofar as the CSTO's weakening turns into NATO's advantage at a time when the Western alliance strives to expand influence in Central Asia.

MUSLIMS USED TO BREAK UP MUSLIM COUNTRIES

2011-06-24T14:30:00.004+04:30

Omar Bakri Mohammed, a CIA-MI6-MOSSAD snitch....

Brigadier Ali Khan, who has been arrested in Pakistan, due to his reported links to Hizb ut Tahrir, an organization working for the CIA and MI6....i.e. MOSSAD.

The CIA and its friends reportedly use the organization called Hizb ut Tahrir to break up Moslem countries, such as Libya and Pakistan.

Hizb ut Tahrir has links to the CIA's Operation Gladio and its Ergenekon operation in Turkey (Gladio-style terror in Istanbul, New York, Jakarta ...)

Hizb ut Tahrir has close links to the CIA's Muslim Brotherhood (Israel and the Pentagon.),which is now so powerful in Egypt, Lebanon [ thanks to the skunk Ahmad Fatfat...] and elsewhere....

Working for MI6?

On 22 June 2011 we learn that, in Pakistan, a top military man, Brigadier Ali Khan, has been arrested for having links with CIA-backed militants

A Pakistan military spokesman has said that brigadier Ali Khan is linked to Hizb ut Tahrir.

Talking to a private television channel, the spokesman said that Hizb ut Tahrir is linked to the United Kingdom.

In the Pakistan Observer, on 24 June 2011, an article entitled Hizb ut Tahrir and the MI6 connection tells us more:

Pakistan military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas says Ali Khan, and four others, were detained for questioning on their links with London-based Islamist party Hizb ut Tahrir (HuT).

HuT is an international political organisation which seeks the establishment of a global Islamic Caliphate.

HuT has close ties to MI6, according to certain analysts.

HuT is said to be part of the plot to destabilise Pakistan.

Former President Pervez Musharraf complained to the UK that HuT was involved in a campaign against the Pakistan military.

HuT has been active in the Middle East.

It has been part of the plot to overthrow Arab regimes.

In the Arab countries, it infiltrates the armed forces, and then tries to bring about military coups.

After the Abbottabad raid, HuT has been making use of Facebook, Twitter, posters and processions in order to stir things up in Pakistan.

From 1986 to 1996, under leadership of Syrian born Omar Bakri Muhammad, HuT grew from a very small organization in Britain to become one of the most active Islamic organization in Pakistan.

In 1996 Bakri moved to Al-Mujahajiroun, he now lives in Tripoli, Lebanon where he has his base of operations....

Experts believe that HuT is used by MI6 as part of the Anglo-American strategy to contain the influence of the Russians and Chinese in the Central Asian Republics.

HuT is reportedly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood which has long been a front for the CIA and MI6.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been used by MI6 and CIA to weaken independent governments in the Middle East.

Presently, the HuT has been given the task of destabilizing Pakistan by targeting the armed forces.

Hizb ut Tahrir and the MI6 connection

http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/01/news/international/lebanon_fortune_051506/index.htm

....

(Pakistani military spokesman Major General AtharAbbas confirmed on June 21,2011, that Brigadier Ali Khan, who served in the "regulation directorate" at the army headquarters, had been detained for "unauthorised and illegal activities". Khan's wife said he had been missing since May 5, three days after US special forces killed Osama bin Laden in the garrison city of Abbottabad. The army insisted the arrest was part of routine screening to weed out extremists from its ranks. Khan was not involved in counter-terrorism operations but in "routine work … nothing of significance," Abbas said. Brig Ali's father was a junior commissioned officer, and his younger brother is a colonel serving in the intelligence set-up. His son and son-in-law are both army captains. Subsequent reports indicated that the Brigadier was having contacts with the Hizbut Tehrir (HT) and four serving Majors were also under investigation for links with the HT.)

The HT was formed in 1953 by Sheikh Taqiuddin an-Nabhani al Falastini, a Judge of the Shariat Appeal Court in Jerusalem. After Nakhbani’s death in 1979, Abad al-Qadim Zalum, a Jordanian, took over as its leader. The party’s headquarters were moved to London. Its multilanguage website is also reportedly operated from London. The London headquarters used to be headed by Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, a 42 year-old Syrian, but he is now living in Tripoli Lebanon, snitching for CIA/MOSSAD/MI6 and seemingly....on the surface...no longer associated with it. One does not know who is its present leader....it's probably within Langley's walls.....

2.It has the same objectives as Al-CIAda, namely, introduction of Islamic rule according to the Sharia in Muslim majority countries and the restoration of an Islamic Caliphate, but projects itself as different from Al-CIAda. Al-CIAda is essentially a patsies/CIA/Arab organisation, with Arabs holding senior positions and exercising command and control. As against this, the HT projects itself as a multi-ethnic Islamic organisation in which membership and senior positions are open to any Muslim, irrespective of his or her ethnic background.

3.Its Aims and Objectives say: " The Party accepts Muslim men and women as its members regardless of whether they are Arab or non-Arab, white or coloured, since it is a party for all Muslims. It invites all Muslims to carry Islam and adopt its systems regardless of their nationalities, colours and madhahib (Schools of Thought), as it looks to all of them according to the viewpoint of Islam."

4.Al-CIAda is often accused of working for the Arabisation of Islam in non-Arab countries. The HT seeks to protect itself from such charges. At the same time, it admits that in its work it gave the first priority to the Arab countries and explains it thus: "Although Islam is a universal ideology, its method does not, however, allow one to work for it universally from the beginning. It is necessary, however, to invite to it universally, and make the field of work for it in one country, or a few countries, until it is consolidated there and the Islamic State is established. The whole world is a suitable location for the Islamic da’wah. But since the people in the Muslim countries have already embraced Islam, it is necessary that the da’wah starts there. The Arab countries are the most suitable location to start carrying the da’wah because these countries, which constitute part of the Muslim world, are inhabited by people who speak the Arabic language, which is the language of the Qur’an and hadith, and is an essential part of Islam and a basic element of the Islamic culture. The Hizb began and started to carry the da’wah within some of the Arab countries. It then proceeded to expand the delivery of the da’wah naturally until it began to function in many Arab countries and also in non-Arab Muslim countries as well."

5.It projects itself as a politico-religious movement. It says: "Hizbut-Tahrir is a political party whose ideology is Islam, so politics is its work and Islam is its ideology. It works within the Ummah and together with her, so that she adopts Islam as her cause and is led to restore the Khilafah and the ruling by what Allah revealed. Hizbut-Tahrir is a political group and not a priestly one. Nor is it an academic, educational or a charity group. The Islamic thought is the soul of its body, its core and the secret of its life. Its purpose is to revive the Islamic Ummah from the severe decline that it had reached, and to liberate it from the thoughts, systems and laws of Kufr, as well as the domination and influence of the Kufr states. It also aims to restore the Islamic Khilafah State so that the ruling by what Allah revealed returns. The Party, as well, aims at the correct revival of the Ummah through enlightened thought. It also strives to bring her back to her previous might and glory such that she wrests the reins of initiative away from other states and nations, and returns to her rightful place as the first state in the world, as she was in the past, when she governs the world according to the laws of Islam. It also aims to bring back the Islamic guidance for mankind and to lead the Ummah into a struggle with Kufr, its systems and its thoughts so that Islam encapsulates the world."

6.It projects its struggle as directed against "the disbelieving imperialists, to deliver the Ummah from their domination and to liberate her from their influence by uprooting their intellectual, cultural, political, economic and military roots from all of the Muslim countries. The political struggle also appears in challenging the rulers, revealing their treasons and conspiracies against the Ummah, and by taking them to task and changing them if they denied the rights of the Ummah, or refrained from performing their duties towards her, or ignored any matter of her affairs, or violated the laws of Islam. So all the work of the Party is political, whether it is in office or not. Its work is not educational, as it is not a school, nor is its work concerned with giving sermons and preaching. Rather its work is political."

7.The HT has a three-stage strategy for achieving its objectives. In the first stage, which it claims has already been completed, it concentrated on making individual Muslims all over the world aware of its ideology, message and political programme of action. The goal to be achieved was to create in individual Muslims an Islamic mind-set and Islamic emotions. In the second stage on which it is presently embarked, it concentrates on educating the Ummah as a whole as an entity. In the third stage, it proposes to focus on the achievement of political power in order to pave the way for Islamic rule according to the Sharia all over the Islamic world and the restoration of an Islamic Caliphate.

8.The HT projects itself as an organisation opposed to the use of terrorism or other forms of violence for achieving its objectives. It claims that it wants to achieve its objectives through AGITPROP (agitation-propaganda) techniques. This should not be mistaken to mean that it advises individual Muslims, including its followers, to shun the use of terrorism for promoting the interests of Islam. It sees no contradiction between its opposition to terrorism as an organisation and its followers resorting to jihadi terrorism in countries where such a dichotomy may be required and justified.

9.To quote the HT: "Whenever the disbelieving enemies attack an Islamic country it becomes compulsory on its Muslim citizens to repel the enemy. The members of Hizbut-Tahrir in that country are a part of the Muslims and it is obligatory upon them as it is upon other Muslims, in their capacity as Muslims, to fight the enemy and repel them. Whenever there is a Muslim amir who declares jihad to enhance the Word of Allah and mobilises the people to do that, the members of Hizbut-Tahrir will respond in their capacity as Muslims in the country where the general call to arms was proclaimed."

10.What, in effect, it says is that its members have two obligations. As members of the organisation, they cannot take to violence. As members of the Muslim community, they can take to arms if such a course of action is warranted by circumstances. Thus, it would be quite in order for a Muslim to propagate overtly the non-violent ways of the HT and, at the same time, take to terrorism covertly as a member of Al Qaeda or the International Islamic Front (IIF). The clandestine ways of the HT, about whose leadership not much is known, add to the fears about the real nature of the organisation and its linkages with Al Qaeda and the IIF.

11.Some analysts, particularly in Pakistan, describe the HT as an international Sunni movement, similar to Al-CIAda, but the HT itself says that its message and appeal are addressed to all Muslims, whether Sunnis or Shias. It wants its movement to be seen as a universal Muslim movement and not as a Sunni one.

12.Well-informed sources in Pakistan say that apart from the failure of the intelligence establishment to identify and weed out the pro-jihadi elements in the Armed Forces and the intelligence establishment, another cause for serious concern is the continuing failure of the intelligence establishment to identify all the leaders of the highly secretive Hizbut Tehrir (HT) and its supporters in the Armed Forces and arrest them.

13. The HT made its appearance in Pakistan for the first time in 2000. It had little role to play in the jihad of the 1980s against the Soviet troops in Afghanistan. There is nothing secretive about its ideological propaganda in favour of an Islamic Caliphate, which is open. What is highly secretive are details of its leadership, organisational structure, methods of recruitment, membership and sources of finance.

14.What is equally disturbing is that the HT, while advocating open AGITPROP (Agitation-Propaganda) methods for spreading its ideology, lays equal emphasis on the importance of a clandestine penetration of the security forces since, in its view, it would not succeed in establishing an Islamic Caliphate if the Armed Forces remain opposed to it.

15.The HT ideology and operational methods were imported into Pakistan from the UK by its supporters in the Pakistani community in the UK. It is said that within 11 years it has been able to make considerable progress not only in setting up its organisational infrastructure, but also in recruiting dedicated members in the civil society as well as the Armed Forces. It is said that no other jihadi organisation has been able to attract as many young and educated members and as many supporters in the Armed Forces as the HT despite the fact that it has been present in Pakistan hardly for about 11 years now.

16.Itwas carrying on a campaign -- open as well as secret--against Pervez Musharraf on various issues such as his alleged betrayal of Islam by supporting the US against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, his failure to "liberate" J&K from the control of India, his failure to condemn the US policies in Iraq etc.

17.In the beginning of 2004, the HT had circulated two anti-Musharraf pamphlets among Pakistani military personnel. The first of these pamphlets titled " Musharraf is transforming Pak Army into Colonial American Army" said: " The war, which Musharraf joined under the pretext of Pakistan First, is now being fought inside Pakistan. The people were informed that providing assistance to kill our Afghan brothers will save Pakistan but that lie has been exposed now. Today Pakistani army is killing Pakistani Muslims on Pakistani territory. Musharraf has reduced Pak Army into a Colonial American Army. Their motto has been practically changed from Jihad Fi Sabillillah (Jihad in the way of Allah) to Qital fisabil Amrica (Fighting for the sake of America). The butcher of Afghani Muslims is now busy in massacring the Muslims of Pakistan.These days the government repeatedly announces that killings in the tribal area are only carried out by Pakistani troops and there are no American troops involved in the operation. Most certainly, why would America risk her own troops while through the courtesy of Musharraf, she has Muslim blood at her disposal for free? To stop a civil war, the Ummah should eject Musharraf and establish Khilafah. We strongly advise the Army not to raise arms against their Muslim brothers since according to the Hadith of the Messenger , abusing a fellow Muslim is Fisq (transgression) while hitting him is Kufr (disbelief)."

18.In a statement circulated on April 27, 2005, on Musharraf's visit to New Delhi for talks with the Indian leaders, it said: "Musharraf’s claim that he has not taken a U-turn on Kashmir is an absolute lie. As a matter of fact, in Delhi, his statement that he has come to India with a ‘new heart’ exposes that he has taken a U-turn on Kashmir. In expressing his view on his ‘new heart’ he proposed to make Line of Control a ‘soft border. Not only this, the General also explicitly called for working out arrangements where ‘boundaries become irrelevant.’ During his visit, Musharraf for the very first time claimed that there existed a representative Kashmiri leadership other than All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), a clear shift in policy. In the past Pakistan was calling for solving Kashmir first, but now it maintains that trade, cultural exchange and other CBMs (Confidence-building Measures) should get preference. Hence, the Indian stance i.e. all issues should not be linked to Kashmir, is now being propagated by Musharraf himself. The Ummah should get rid of such rulers and the Muslims be united under a single leadership by establishing Khilafat. Consequently, it will be able to resolve problems such as Kashmir, Chechnya and Palestine with a great ease."

19.The "Daily Times" of Lahore October 4, 2004, carried the following report on HT activities in Pakistan: “They are considered a new breed of Islamic fundamentalists, who study at top British and American schools yet abhor Western values, advocate a pan-Islamic state and favour the removal of Pakistan’s pro-US government.

“Militancy and violence is not part of their agenda and they want to achieve their “lofty goals” through a peaceful and non-violent struggle. But analysts say such men, fired by the passion of an Islamic renaissance, stand on a thin line dividing political and violent struggle.

“Hizbut Tehrir, an international Islamic group with roots from England to Central Asia, is a recent addition to myriad radical organisations striving to enforce “true Islam” in Pakistan. The group was outlawed in Pakistan in November 2003, just three years after it started operations, but its members continue undeterred, distributing party literature and holding small meetings in efforts to expand their base. Pakistan, an ally of the United States in the war on terror, banned several militant Islamic groups, but most re-emerged under new names. Hizbut Tehrir has refused to change its name despite the closure of offices and the arrest of several members.

‘British and US nationals of Pakistani origin comprise the backbone of this secretive group formed in Jerusalem in 1953. It wants to establish a supra-Islamic state on the model of the caliphate that existed in the early days of Islam. The group came to Pakistan through second-generation Pakistanis living in the West, particularly in Britain and the United States. They claim they had supporters in Pakistan for a long time but formal operations took time to establish.

“Many members abandoned what they call the luxuries of the West to come to Pakistan to live among fellow Muslims and work for the country’s transformation into a puritanical Islamic society of their dreams. “In terms of living standards, England is better. You don’t confront problems such as water shortages and power failures there,” said a Hizb member, who works as an executive at a bank.

“But you cannot safeguard the Islamic way of life in Western society. You become alienated,” said the 32-year-old, who migrated from his birthplace, London, to Pakistan two years ago.“We believe a change will come in the Muslim world from places like Pakistan, where an overwhelming number of people are Islamic-minded,” he said in a clipped British accent. Scores of young men like him moved to Pakistan mainly from Britain and the United States to work for the Islamic cause.

“With their trimmed beards and Western clothes, they stand in contrast to the turban and skull cap-wearing traditional followers of local Islamic parties. But their anti-West rhetoric is as radical as that of their more orthodox counterparts.

“Intelligence officials say the shadowy network is taking root among educated Pakistanis and a few of its members are under surveillance. Group members include engineers, chartered accountants, computer experts and doctors. Several of its members, some on the condition of anonymity, said the number of their supporters was increasing.

“We advocate unity amongst Muslims,” said Ismail Sheikh, a frail 34-year-old British national of Pakistani origin who was arrested for distributing pamphlets outside a Karachi mosque in July.

“But an anti-terrorism court acquitted him on lack of evidence last month and he was back to organisational work the same day, saying the arrest only strengthened his resolve. “They questioned me whether I had links to Al-CIAda, or if I had visited Afghanistan,” said Mr Sheikh, a dentist from the University of Wales. He abandoned his medical career in London and moved to Karachi in 1999 to become one of the group’s pioneer members. The government sees Hizbut Tehrir as a threat.

“Its activities were found prejudicial to national interest,” said Abdul Rauf Chaudhry, an Interior Ministry spokesman. “Its members incite people against the government through their writings and leaflets.”

“But Naveed Butt, a spokesman for Hizbut Tehrir, said that to bring about a change one needed political, not militant action. “We are being associated with militancy because we preach an alternative ideology,” said Mr Butt, an engineer from Chicago, where he was first introduced to the group in the mid-1980s.

“The best yardstick for our success is that we were banned within three years of our activities here.”

“Ahmed Rashid, author of a book on the Afghan Taliban, said Hizb was a movement based in Europe.“Young Muslims living in the West get exposure to their culture through religion. I don’t think they have any real popular support. Given the enormous number of Islamic schools and parties, it is difficult for someone like Hizb, which is seen as an import from England, to come in the field and make room for itself,” said Mr Rashid. He said despite its radical ideas, there were no indications Hizb was involved in militancy.

“The membership of Hizbut Tehrir could just be a passing phenomenon for Islamic radicals rather than a permanent one. From here they could move on to militant groups,” Mr Rashid said.

20.The“Sunday Times” of London reported as follows on July 5,2009: “British militants are pushing for the overthrow of the Pakistani state. Followers of the fundamentalist group Hizbut-Tahrir have called for a “bloodless military coup” in Islamabad and the creation of the caliphate in which strict Islamic laws would be rigorously enforced.

“Members of the group, which describes itself as the Liberation party in Britain but is banned in Pakistan, revealed last week that it had targeted the country as a base from which to spread Islamic rule across the world.

“The Sunday Times has obtained the names of a dozen British Hizbut-Tahrir activists based in Lahore and Karachi, or commuting between Britain and Pakistan. There are believed to be many more.

“One of Hizbut-Tahrir’s strategies in Pakistan is to influence military officers.

“Shahzad Sheikh, a Pakistani recruit and the group’s official spokesman in Karachi, talked openly about persuading the army to instigate a “bloodless coup” against the present government who, he said, were “worse than the Taliban”.

“It is the military who hold the power (in Pakistan) and we are asking them to give their allegiance to Hizbut-Tahrir,” he said. “I can’t explain to you in detail how we are trying to influence the military . . . We never disclose our methodology of change. You may say it’s a coup.”

“In 2003 four army officers were arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of being linked to extremist groups, although the groups and men have not been named. A Hizbut-Tahrir insider at the time claims they were recruited by the organisation’s “Pakistan team” while training at Sandhurst.

“And why all of this emphasis on Pakistan?

“The group is believed to have been set up in Pakistan in the early 1990s by Imtiaz Malik, a British-born Pakistani who may still be operating underground as its leader in the country. In 1999 a call was sent to British Hizbut-Tahrir members to move to Pakistan. This prompted the movement of some of the UK’s “top quality” activists to South Asia.

“Pakistan was neglected and ignored until it had a nuclear bomb and then the global leader realised it would be a good strategic base for the caliphate,” said Maajid Nawaz, one of the organisation’s pioneers in Pakistan, who has since renounced the group.”

21.Pakistanis belonging to the HT in the UK held a demonstration outside the Pakistan High Commission in Knightsbridge, London on March 19 2011 to strongly denounce the release of Raymond Davis by Pakistan’s rulers. Hundreds of men and women gathered to condemn what the HT called the treachery of the Zardari-Gilani regime.

22.According to reports carried by the Pakistani media,Rizwan Hussain, from the HT’s Pakistan Committee, said that Pakistan’s rulers had committed the greatest crime that a leadership could ever commit; that of betrayal, treason and collusion with a foreign power. He alleged that there was absolutely no doubt about the guilt of Raymond Davis yet Pakistan’s rulers had fully co-operated and facilitated his handing back to the US. He said that Pakistan’s rulers’ claim that they released Davis under the Shariah law of Diya or ‘blood money’ after the victim’s family pardoned him was worthy of contempt and laughter. Rizwan said Zardari should be asked if the Shariah allowed foreign agents secret entry into Pakistan? Where was the Shariah in allowing America to launch drone attacks and kill Muslims by the hundreds in the tribal areas? And what about the situation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, does the Shariah allow these rulers to do nothing as America illegally kidnaps and jails an innocent Muslim woman for 86 years he asked?

23.Rizwan described President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani and Punjab Chief Minister Shabaz Sharif as hypocritical liars who have sold everything to serve their masters in America.

24.Atif Salahuddin, also from the HT’s Pakistan Committee, said that Pakistan is the only so called American ‘ally’ in the world that is continuously bombed and attacked by America nearly every single day. This was a master to slave relationship in which Zardari, Gilliani and the Sharif brothers were all responsible for releasing Davis he said. Where was the so called ‘independent judiciary’? Where was Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudary in bringing this murderer Davis to account, he asked? Atif said that the military leadership was also responsible for the release of Davis and had failed in its duty to protect the people. Atif demanded that the Pakistan Army move to remove these treacherous rulers whose only aim in life is to slavishly serve America so that they can continue to sit in office and carry on with their corruption. Pakistan’s rulers had brought nothing but humiliation and American sponsored terror to the people, he alleged.

25.Mohammed Salim, another UK-based Pakistani member of the HT, said that the events in the Middle East had proved that the time of corrupt Muslim rulers was coming to an end and the Muslims were entering a new era. Salim said that the events in Tunisia and Egypt had proved that real authority lay in the hands of the people and if the people of Pakistan wanted change it was within their grasp. Pakistan’s people need to move and come out on 17th April to join HT rallies all over Pakistan in Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi and Peshawar to force the Pakistan army to establish the Khilafat – the only way to end the American attacks and bloodshed. (24-6-11)

حلف بكركي بعبدا الرابية: اللّه أكبر

ليست مجرد حركة «رد فعلية» أن يتجه الثلاثي الماروني، البطريرك الراعي والرئيس سليمان والعماد عون، إلى التلاقي، وبالتالي اللقاء. فلفهم الدوافع يكفي عرض المشهد اللبناني في دوائره الثلاث:

أولاً على المستوى الداخلي، قرر الفريق الحريري، نهائياً على ما يبدو، الدخول في الحرب الخارجية القائمة في المنطقة والعالم، وصمّم على ربط مصيره ومصير قسم من اللبنانيين بنتائجها. فهو فتح معركة دولية على جماعة لبنانية أساسية، بواسطة مطرقة ميليس والصدّيق، وحاول تدعيمها بالتطوع كمفرزة سباقة أو كاسحة ألغام في الحرب الوهّابية على إيران، تماماً كما أعلن عشية لقاء 13 آذار الماضي وخلاله. وبين الاثنين، كان ولا يزال متقدماً بطلب انتسابه رأس حربة في هجوم الفرع السياسي لتحالف «القاعدة ـــــ طالبان» على سوريا، مع ما كل ما تحمله هذه الرهانات من مخاطر.

أما على المستوى الإقليمي، فهناك محاولة لفرض «أممية» أصولية لمصلحة أقلية متشددة، وباسم الأكثرية الدينية المخطوفة. بدليل أن الشعار الوحيد المشترك بين كل اضطرابات المنطقة كلمتان اثنتان: الله أكبر. والأخطر أن نتائج هذه المحاولة بدأت تظهر. ففي القاهرة سقط ملايين المتظاهرين بضربة واحدة، لا بل بورقة واحدة، هي وثيقة الأزهر الأخيرة التي أفتت ـــــ بعد مبارك والثورة و«الميدان» والشهداء والبلطجية والنصر والخيبة ـــــ بأن يكون كل النظام متوافقاً «مع المفهوم الإسلامي الصحيح»، وأن «تكون المبادئ الكلية للشريعة الإسلامية هي المصدر الرئيسي للتشريع». أما في محيطات دمشق، فمجلس قيادة الثورة بات واضح الهيكلية، ويمكن اختصاره برابطة مساجد «الإخوان». أما الباقي من مفكرين وليبراليين ويساريين، فمجرد ديكور معدِّ لنهايات سعيدة، كما نهاية تروتسكي... فيما أردوغان ينتظر اللحظة المناسبة ليكمل إنشاد قصيدته التي لم يتسنّ له إنهاؤها سنة 1997: «المآذن خنادقنا والصوامع خوذاتنا والمساجد ثكناتنا والمؤمنون جنودنا، والجيش الإلهي يحرس بلادنا...الله أكبر الله أكبر».

حتى بيروت بدأت تلفحها رياح «ثورة» الرؤوس المقطوعة: حزب التحرير يستعد لربيع «الخلافة». والقانون المدني الذي يمنع ضرب المرأة أو اغتصابها، مرفوض مرفوض مرفوض.

أما الدائرة الدولية، فيمكن اختصارها بخبر الغبطة لدى أهل واشنطن، إزاء التقدم الحاصل في مفاوضاتهم مع حركة طالبان، ما قد يبشر باستقبال الملّا عمر في حديقة ورود البيت الأبيض قريباً، على أن يدخلها مستقلاً دراجته النارية نفسها التي هرب بواسطتها من القصف الأميركي على كابول سنة 2002. وقد تحاول واشنطن كل ذلك على خلفية وهمها بتأجيل موعد انهيار إسرائيل بضعة أعوام، فيما هي نفسها ترى ذلك حتمياً، لا بفعل حرب خارجية ولا بسلاح إيران النووي، ولا حتى قنبلة الفلسطينيين الديموغرافية...بل بفعل صراعات المجتمع الإسرائيلي المتفجر، منذ صار عوفاديا يوسف وريث «علمانية» بن غوريون، وليبرمان وصيّاً على «إنسانية» هرتزل...

في ظل هذا المشهد، يدرك البطريرك والرئيس والزعيم أن الخطر غير مسبوق، لا على جماعة لبنانية معينة، بل على كل إنسان وكل الوطن. هكذا يبدو أن التلاقي قد بدأ. وهو تلاق غير معزول عن اتجاهات مطابقة في كل أنحاء العالم المناهض لمغامرة واشنطن الأخيرة، ومقامرتها بدزينة من الشعوب والدول والهويات والأمم، كرمى لعيون قلة «مختارة» ومحتارة. فليس تفصيلاً أن يعلن البطريرك الراعي دعمه الكامل لنجيب ميقاتي وحكومته، وهو متجه إلى الفاتيكان. وليس ثانوياً أن يعلن غبطته من روما، بعد جولته على معظم «الكوريا» الرومانية، وفي محاضرة أمام مؤسسة فاتيكانية جامعة، مخاوفه «على المواطنين عموماً والمسيحيين خصوصاً (...) وفقاً لما ستؤول إليه التظاهرات والاعتراضات في العالم العربي، مع ما تنطوي عليه من مخاوف إذا انتهت الأمور إلى أنظمة متشدّدة طائفياً».

كل ذلك يفرض «اللقاء» المرتقب، أو «الحلف الثلاثي» الجديد. ويفرض عليه وعلى أركانه «التفاهم» مع كل القوى اللبنانية الأصيلة والديموقراطية، حتى تمر العاصفة، ويكتشف البعض في واشنطن أنهم لم يقتلوا بن لادن، بل يستنسخونه. سنة 1958 جاءنا مندوب أميركي في مناورة شهيرة لخداع بيروت وأهلها، من أجل بغداد وحلفها. بعد جولته على مسؤولينا، كتب مورفي الأول معادلته الشهيرة عن البطريرك المعوشي والرئيس شمعون وقائد الجيش فؤاد شهاب. قال إنه وجد بطريركاً يتصرف كرئيس، ورئيساً يتصرف كقائد جيش، وقائد جيش يتصرف كبطريرك. بعد 43 عاماً، إذا زارنا مورفي آخر، ووجد بطريركاً ورئيساً وزعيماً كل في دوره وموقعه، فقد لا تسقط بيروت مرة ثانية في مناورة بغدادية، وقد يكتب مورفي الجديد عن حلف بكركي ـــــ بعبدا ـــــ الرابية: الله أكبر

If the 1967 borders are dead, it's time to revisit 1947's plan and ALL UNSC resolutions on Israhell...

2011-06-08T21:06:00.003+04:30

A Live picture of the Co-Heads of the Infamous White House Murder INC, in 2001...., a Joint Venture with Asef Shawkat, the assassin in Damascus!

If the 1967 borders are dead, it's time to revisit 1947's plan and ALL UNSC resolutions on Israhell...

Tony Karon

The Palestinians' protesters marching on Israel's northern frontier, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned two weeks ago, were "carrying keys to our homes in Jaffa, Acre, Haifa and Ramle", not to "their" homes in Ramallah or Nablus. Actually, Bibi, Palestinians living in Lebanon and Syria don't have homes in Ramallah or Nablus. But what, one wonders, would Mr Netanyahu tell an Israeli child, raised in a system that fudges the more unpleasant aspects of its own history, who asked in all innocence: "But how did Palestinians in Lebanon and Syria get the keys to our homes?"

Mr Netanyahu's rejection of any discussion of the rights of Palestinian refugees might be viewed as the guilty conscience of one who knows that Israel was built on land and property confiscated from the previous owners - and that it was the descendants of those dispossessed families who have lately begun presenting themselves at the Golan boundary fence. After all, there would be no Jewish-majority state of Israel had it not been for the dispossession in 1948 of the Arab majority that lived within what became its borders.

"This is not a conflict about 1967," Mr Netanyahu told his legislature, referring to the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem that began in that year. "This is a conflict about 1948, about the State of Israel's very existence."

He may be invoking 1948 simply to avoid withdrawing from the territories conquered in 1967, but Mr Netanyahu is not entirely wrong. For the past 23 years, the goal of the Palestinian national movement has been a state based on the 1967 borders, but statehood on less than a quarter of historic Palestine represents a major compromise for a movement founded to reclaim that which was lost in 1948.

Realpolitik prompted the Palestinian leadership to call for a two-state peace based on the 1967 borders - Israel had become an intractable military, political, economic and diplomatic fact, but establishing Palestinian sovereignty over the territories occupied in 1967 remained an attainable goal. While PLO leaders proclaim the rights of refugees, it's long been clear that they've been negotiating a solution that would resettle them in the 1967 territories, not in the 1948 land from which Israel barred their return. Still, it would take a brave PLO leader to arrive at a camp in Lebanon to tell the refugees they won't be going home.

The Palestinian leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas now seeks a partition of Palestine on terms far less favourable than those offered by the UN in 1947. Even then, it's a partition the Israelis are in no hurry to implement.

Partition, of course, was always flawed. It was proposed by the UN as a compromise between the claims of a Zionist movement seeking a Jewish nation-state in all of Palestine - a goal made all the more urgent by the need to find a home for the survivors of the European Holocaust - and the Arabs who comprised two thirds of Palestine's population and owned the bulk of its land. The 1947 version of the two-state solution gave 56 per cent of the territory to a Jewish state, and 44 per cent to an Arab state. Jerusalem, which fell within the Arab state, would be internationally administered. Its camouflage pattern of barely connected parcels of land raised questions about the viability of the two states partition would create, and the Jewish state it envisaged would have had a population of 500,000 Jews and 400,000 Arabs.

Advocates for Israel love to argue that their side accepted the partition, while the Palestinians rejected it. Of the latter, there is little doubt, although it's hard to imagine many nations that had not been defeated in battle (that came later) accepting sovereignty of just 44 per cent of the country where they were the established majority. Nor should Israel's acceptance of the plan be overstated: David Ben Gurion had always adopted the strategy that Israel accept whatever was offered by the international community, but modify it on the ground by other means. But the partition was vociferously opposed by the Irgun and allied right-wing movements that later formed the Likud Party - today's Israeli leaders are the heirs of those who rejected the partition....

Ben Gurion prevailed, but once the war broke out, it became clear that Israel's military strategy was designed to change both the boundaries and the demographics of partition. When the shooting stopped, Israel controlled 78 per cent of British Mandate Palestine, from which it had ejected more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs.

The founding purpose of the Palestinian national movement was to reverse the outcome of the war of 1948, although the occupation of the remaining 22 per cent that began in 1967 added a new dimension. Israel soundly defeated the armed struggle, pushing the PLO all the way to Tunisia by the mid 1980s. But the organisation was saved by the first Intifada, the uprising of the youth of Gaza and the West Bank against the occupation. The shift of the locus of resistance to the territories also enabled Yasser Arafat to redefine the Palestinian national goal as the more achievable one of statehood in the 1967 territories, and set the scene for the Oslo process.

Mr Netanyahu, faithful to his ideological roots, was a fierce opponent of Oslo. And he continues to resist completing the peace process on terms acceptable to the international consensus. Israelis who take a longer view than Mr Netanyahu does, however, see UN recognition as demanded by the Palestinian leadership as a great opportunity for Israel to settle matters while they're ahead, fixing a 78-22 per cent partition as the basis on the which the international community will wash its hands of the conflict.

The grand bargain of the two-state peace process, after all, was always that the Israelis would concede 1967 and the Palestinians would concede 1948. If the process succeeds, it would be left to the Palestinian leadership to explain to the refugees that they would not be going home. But if the Oslo grand bargain is dead, it's little surprise that Mr Netanyahu is suddenly feeling haunted by the ghosts of 1948...., Deir Yasin, Metulla, Shebaa, Sabra & Shatila and all other assassinations by the infamous MOSSAD over decades....

Central planning never works, Creativity is the answer

2011-06-08T13:51:00.001+04:30

Ulrich Mohrhoff

Centralization and top-down control do not work?

According to German physicist Ulrich Mohrhoff:

There is 'an intelligence' that is far superior to human intelligence.

When a 'human being' creates a car, he first makes a design.

Then he manufactures the car using the materials available.

And he works according to the existing laws of science.

The 'superior intelligence' doesn’t work that way.

It doesn't first design and then make.

(Interview with German physicist Ulrich Mohrhoff about materialism, consciousness and quantum physics)

People believe that there is GOD, an 'old man in the sky' who designed the world on his drawing board.

Some people believe that 'God' had to have an element on 'randomness' to make life 'real'.

In The Financial Times, 4 June 2011, in a review of 'Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure' by Tim Harford, Harvard professor Edward Glaser writes (FT.com / Adapt):

"Humanity has done and will do great things... because our randomness generates plenty of gold amid the dross..."

Harford favors decentralized authority, not top-down command and control.

"Perhaps ...many corporations today have the right level of centralization for an era dominated by logistics and scale, but too much for an era dominated by innovation and creativity...

"Decentralized entities prosper by allowing for experimentation."

Think how inefficient the US military has been.

Sri Aurobindo

Sri Aurobindo (1870-1950) was an Indian philosopher.

According to Sri Aurobindo (Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine.):

'The Divine' brought 'division' to creation to enable the greatest multiplicity of forms and possibilities of existence.

For example, night and day are divided from one another, but allow for greater possibilities.

The ultimate purpose of life is to discover the delight of existence.

We reach that delight when we discover our higher nature.

Luke Johnson

In the Financial Times, 5 April 2011, Luke Johnson tells us why big centralized institutions are not a good idea (The biggest groups are ill with inefficiency

Luke Johnson refers to:

"An obsession with governance: increasingly, institutions favor compliance over competence, and box-ticking over practical solutions...

"Institutional capture: the phenomenon whereby management end up running an enterprise for their own benefit...

"Lack of proprietorship: when employees have no effective capital stake in an organization, they tend to be less cost-conscious, and take a more cavalier attitude to waste, personal expenses and the like...

"Anonymous mediocrities: there is nowhere to hide in a small company – if you can’t deliver, you’re out. But in a large outfit, also-rants can get away with poor work for years...

The greatest multiplicity of forms and possibilities of existence.

More from Subversive Thinking : Interview with German physicist Ulrich Mohrhoff about materialism, consciousness and quantum physics

According to Sri Aurobindo, the passive impersonal Brahman (God) has its other side, the active and personal Brahman.

All life... is attempting to realize her perfection in an ever increasing expression of her potentialities.

There can be an "effort towards self-perfection by the expression of the secret potentialities latent in the being."

There can be "a union of the human individual with the universal and transcendent (outside the world) Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the Cosmos."

Central Europe.

The 'divine power' has three main features.

In the first place, it does not act according to a fixed system ... but as determined by the temperament of the individual in whom it operates. Everyone has his or her own method.

Secondly, the process accepts our nature such as it stands organized by our past evolution and without rejecting anything essential compels all to undergo a divine change....

Thirdly, the divine power in us uses all life ... All life, all thought,… all experiences passive or active, become thenceforward so many shocks which disintegrate the outer coverings of the soul and remove the obstacles to the inevitable flowering.

Austria

According to Mohrhoff:

Some materialist scientists argue that a non physical consciousness is impossible.

They argue that psychokinesis (eg. moving objects with your mind) is physically impossible because it violates the law of energy conservation.

For example, in psychokinesis, physical energy would be actually created by a non-physical consciousness in order to affect a purely physical world, and the principle of energy conservation precludes such creation of energy.

Italy

According to Mohrhoff:

Energy is only conserved within a closed physical system.

To assume the universal validity of the law of energy conservation is to assume that the physical universe is 'causally closed'.

The physical universe may not be 'causally closed'.

Austria

According to Mohrhoff:

Neuropsychologists, phenomenologists, mystics, and yogis reject the 'folk psychology' of free will.

The mystic or yogi discovers behind our ordinary consciousness a subliminal consciousness, whose initial attitude is that of a detached witness.

It experiences thoughts, feelings, intentions, actions impersonally and undistorted by any sense of ownership, authorship, or responsibility.

Those who go further become increasingly aware of the true origins and determinants of their thoughts, feelings, intentions, and actions.

And once they are sufficiently aware of these subliminal controlling influences, they are in a position to accept or reject them, to choose, and for the first time to exercise a genuine free will.

Yugoslavia

According to Mohrhoff:

There is good scientific evidence for psi phenomena and survival of consciousness.

There is impressive evidence.

I believe in an intelligence that is far superior to human intelligence. The latter first designs and then executes its designs, utilizing pre-existent materials and pre-existent laws.

The former doesn’t work that way; it doesn’t first design and then execute, and the only material it uses is the substance (Reality) in which it inheres.

It works more like a spontaneously self-realizing vision of what is to be...

Man moves towards the infinity of the Truth by the experience of its variety; so his reason helps him to build, change, destroy what he has built and prepare a new construction, in a word, to progress, grow, enlarge himself in his self-knowledge and world-knowledge and their works....

That firms are more productive and creative when decentralized is not really a surprise and IT IS NOT due to a employees having ownership stakes in smaller firms.

In 1922 when Austrian economist Ludwig Von Mises was studying the rise of socialism/communism he was unable to see how a socialist society could exist due to a lack of decentralized coordination mechanism (aka market prices, see his book 'Socialism').

In 1945 his student Friedrich Hayek writing in an article 'The Use of Knowledge in Society' expanded Mises' rap for decentralization to the level of a firm writing "...it is with respect to this that practically every individual has some advantage over all others because he possesses unique information of which beneficial use might be made"

Around the same time Mises published the book 'Bureaucracy' in which he used similar but much more in depth arguments about economic calculation to critique central planning in the firm.

His conclusion was that a firm will only become large when there exists high barriers to others entry (sometimes reputation but usually government licensing or regulations).

Most of the large firms we see as inefficient today are large due to government protectionism (Wall Street, Boeing, Northrop, Raytheon), licensing/zoning requirements (Wall Street, oil companies, big auto, big utilities, Wal-Mart), regulation that hampers smaller competitors (Wall Street, big auto) or due to IP (Microsoft and the music industry being two of the best known patent trolls and thus two bad share price performers). Clearly DOD is one example too.

I just think it is a little inaccurate (perhaps intentially) for that man to turn a realization about decentralization into a call for more employee owned firms....

Many times we find with Germany, the west in general, some of the more gifted scientists and physicists reach a point where science has no answers.

You will notice the conclusions Mohrhoff reaches could not possibly come from a text book but are direct results of introspection and self analysis.

Germans are heavily programmed toward the material. Much of their news is about the "economy." Their religions are patriarchal, just sing Handel's Messiah and everything will be alright.

He is of course correct, things began with a top heavy spiral when the druids and Celtic nature culture, the herdsman and fishers, were destroyed by Rome. The natural balance of nature was overthrown and the march toward centralization began. We can see the results of it now, repression war and genocide. It began the destruction of the most efficient unit, those who honored nature and knew what God actually consisted of.

There have been those who broke the mold but even then were experiencing the hunted existence of the truth teller.

Matter as such does not exist, there is only the life giving, invisible, eternal spirit as primordial ground of matter, which I do not fight shy, to call God.” Max Planck Nobel Laureate in Physics

“Who lives by the mind alone has not understood life.” Professor Gerd Uhlenbruck Immune Biologist.

The brothers who let themselves by guided by scientific curiosity alone, will stand empty-handed at the day of judgment. I preferred they filled themselves with vital energy. Then God were with them in the hour of need. For in the hour of need and hardship, books are no good for nothing and will remain on the shelf. Vital energy, however, will turn hardship to the better.”

St. Francis of Assisi .....

In fact the real words of Jesus which have been buried by the "solvers of riddles" directly refute the march toward the corporate state.

http://www.thenazareneway.com/essene_gospel_of_peace_book1.htm

The late Michael Polanyi, a Hungarian refugee and professor of Chemistry at Manchester University wrote an essay "The Logic of Liberty" which gives a compelling explanation of why central planning produces bad results.

Polanyi's son, John, won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Mike Smith, a graduate of University of Manchester also won a Nobel Chemistry prize. I haven't been able to figure out whether Smith was taught by Polanyi, senior, but it seems likely.

Michael I believe is correct in pointing out that the success of large corporations is often due to their ability to monopolize markets and to dictate government legislation that promotes their success against competitors.

As we approach the time when there will be global monopolies in virtually everything, we need to explore political means to restore competition to markets. This may mean pulling out of international agreements such as the WTO, something that will likely get a government branded as a rogue regime -- so this will be difficult to do without incurring NATO bombings Galore.....

Despite this assault, WE ARE WAKING UP which proves that there is something to the superior intelligence of our minds--this awareness outside of our egos that holds our true power.....

Patriot Act: US version of democracy, Hmmm hmm...

2011-05-31T20:15:00.001+04:30

Some people call it The Patriot Act Extension, Hmmm hmm....

I call it a two-week old pile of dog shit. The kind that looks benign
but when you poke it with a stick, it stinks up the neighborhood.

Patriot Act: US version of democracy, Hmmm hmm...

http://www.presstv.com/detail/182279.html

Just a few hours before the midnight deadline of May 26, 2011, the US
President Barack Obama signed a 4-year extension of the controversial
USA Patriot Act to prove that his strategic plans are not
significantly different from those of his hawkish predecessor, George
W. Bush, who showed to the international community the real face of
the American democracy with his warmongering policies.

Patriot Act is an Act of the US Congress which allows private security
firms under the supervision of the government to monitor and search
American citizens' phone conversations, email communications, medical,
financial and official records to discover potential terrorism-related
threats and foil the probable plots which can jeopardize the country's
domestic security.

Some certain provisions of the Patriot Act also deal with the foreign
immigrants suspected of terrorism-related activities and facilitate
their deportation or incarceration under the US law.

The renewed extension of the Patriot Act involves three main
stipulations including roving wiretaps, court-ordered searches of
business records and conducting surveillance of the individuals
engaged in terrorism-related activities without being linked to
renowned terrorist organizations.

By signing into law the 4-year extension of the Patriot Act, President
Obama once again confirmed that his appealing slogan of change and
alluring gestures and promises to the American nation were essentially
futile and unfounded.

The US Senate passed the bill with a wide margin of 72-23, permitting
the government to adopt all the necessary measures to ensure the
domestic security of the United States, despite the argumentations of
the opponents of the law who believed the Patriot Act violates the
privacy of the citizens and is contrary to their civil liberties.

The House of Representatives also voted 250-153 and endorsed the
extension, signed into law while President Obama was in France,
attending the summit of the G8 leaders in Paris.

The Republican leader of the US Senate Mitch McConnell jubilantly
hailed the extension, calling the Patriot Act "an invaluable
terror-fighting tool" which helps the US stay ahead of the terrorists
who want to attack Washington.

However, there were also rational and sane people in the US Senate and
House of Representatives who realized the evil nature of the law and
warned their government against the terrible consequences of passing
such a controversial bill. They have come to the conclusion that
passing a bill which allows the government to eavesdrop the telephone
conversations and email communications of its citizens are far beyond
the so-called values of a country which calls itself a "beacon of
freedom" and "cradle of democracy."

The Oregon's democrat senator Ron Wyden was among those who warned
against passing the bill, saying that "I believe that when more of my
colleagues and the American public come to understand how the Patriot
Act has actually been interpreted in secret, they will insist on
significant reforms too."

According to CNET News columnist Declan McCullagh, among the three
sections of the Patriot Act which were renewed on May 26, the
Democratic senators are mainly concerned with Section 215 which
enables FBI agents to obtain any tangible item, "including "books,
records, papers, documents, and other items" from the citizens in
cases which the possibility of a terrorism-related act is felt. This
is in fact a flagrant violation of the personal freedom of the
American citizens and an indelible blot on the reputation of the
United States as a political entity which has always advocated itself
as the number one defender of democracy and democratic values.

As said by McCullagh, the US Justice Department confirmed in March
that Section 215 of the Patriot Act "has been used to obtain driver's
license records, hotel records, car rental records, apartment leasing
records, credit card records, and the like."

Now, the extension of Patriot Act has stirred up widespread
controversy in the United States. Democratic senators and
anti-capitalist activists and journalists who constitute the vocal
critics of the Patriot Act have stepped up pressures on the White
House to abort the law or at least modify parts of it which are in
clear infringement of the individual freedom of the American citizens.

The opponents of the law say that since the 9/11 attacks which some
authentic personalities believe was a false flag operation carried out
with the complicity of Mossad and CIA, the US government waged two
unjustifiable wars in the Middle East and took unreasonable steps to
build up pressure on its own citizens while it knew well that no
terrorist organization had threatened its security.

They say that the United States developed some kind of conspiracy
theory following the 9/11 attacks and turned into the adversary of its
own people and the people of the world by throwing accusations of
terrorism at everybody; however, this is an undeniable fact that the
US government has been constantly the big supporter and sponsor of
terrorism and terrorist organizations all around the world. Some good
examples can be the US government's support for Saddam Hussein during
the 8-year war with Iran and its close links with Osama bin Laden and
backing him during the Afghan-Soviet war.

Lo and behold, the Patriot Act is a clear instance of how the United
States regularly fails to practice what it preaches. Patriot Act
unveils that the United States cannot continue to champion itself as
the number one defender of freedom and democracy, even if its powerful
propaganda machinery continues to advertise this claim. The Patriot
Act demonstrates that the United States cannot even provide its own
citizens with freedom and democratic values, let alone the other
nations of the world to whim the United States wants to export
democracy and freedom through wars and military expeditions.

U.S. taking cues from Israel to pressure UN General Assembly members to vote against Palestine recognition...

2011-05-26T12:51:00.002+04:30

U.S. taking cues from Israel to pressure UN General Assembly members to vote against Palestine recognition...

May , 2011 -- State Dept. US Mission to UN official at AIPAC...

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) may be influential and be chock full of Israeli intelligence agents but when it comes to operational security, AIPAC is bush league.

The sidewalk between the DC Convention Center, the venue for the AIPAC convention, and the main delegate hotel, the Renaissance, served as a virtual breakout room for the AIPAC delegates and invited guests. During a delegate "gaggle" on the sidewalk, next to a group of about 100 anti-AIPAC protesters, one delegate was handed a business card, which he proceeded to drop on the sidewalk as he fumbled putting it into his jacket side pocket.

After being stepped on by a number of delegates and being caught in the wind, this editor retrieved the card from the grassy knoll across from the DC Convention Center. And the foot race to grab the card did not disappoint.

The card is that of Courtney Nemroff, Counselor, Economic and Social Affairs, U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York. It appears that Nemroff likes working for any Rice, Condoleezza and Susan, that is. Nemroff previously worked in the Bush National Security Council for Condoleezza Rice and now works for Obama's UN ambassador, Susan Rice. Nemroff's name comes up in Bush-era news reports along with that of Vice President Dick Cheney's convicted chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

It would appear that Nemroff's main role at AIPAC was to assure delegates and other Israel supporters that the United States will use every pressure point to ensure that the UN General Assembly does not make an end run around a U.S. veto in the UN Security Council of a resolution to grant Palestine UN recognition within 1967 borders. A Cold War-era provision known as "Uniting for Peace," or Resolution 377, can be used to circumvent a U.S. veto in the Security Council to bring the cause of Palestine recognition to the General Assembly, where the vote of the United States is the same as tiny Nauru in the Pacific. If two-thirds of the General Assembly vote for Palestine, the U.S. veto in the Security Council is trumped. The General Assembly can also recommend the imposing of sanctions on Israel for violating the sovereignty of an independent Palestine, a scenario that the Obama administration, Israel, and AIPAC will do everything in their power to prevent.

Uniting for Peace is actually an American contrivance used to trump Soviet vetoes in the Security Council during the Korean War. Uniting for Peace stipulates that when the Security Council cannot resolve an issue because of a veto of one or more permanent members, a special session of the General Assembly can be convened "with a view to making appropriate recommendations for collective measures ... including the use of armed force when necessary." Uniting for Peace resolutions require a two-thirds majority at the emergency session of the General Assembly. Since only the Security Council can recommend Palestine for UN membership, the U.S. will be sure to veto such a move in the Security Council. However, General Assembly recognition for Palestine will boost its cause and mark a step toward full Palestinian statehood and international recognition, placing Palestine in the same legal position as U.S.-supported Kosovo, which, although recognized by the U.S., Britain, and other nations, is still not a UN member. There could even be a deal that would drop the U.S. veto of Palestine membership in the UN in return for Security Council permanent members China and Russia dropping their threatened veto of Kosovo.

Enter the AIPAC stage, Ms. Nemroff. As Economic Counselor under Susan Rice, Nemroff is in a position to threaten small and impoverished General Assembly members with a cut-off of U.S. assistance if they vote for Palestinian recognition. If the U.S. can threaten enough members, two-thirds of 193 (or 194 if South Sudan joins the UN, as expected, upon independence in July) to deny a Uniting for Peace resolution for Palestine, the effort will fail.

We have learned that Netanyahu and his aides, working with State Department officials like Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, Susan Rice, Nemroff, and others, have been coming up with "hit lists" of small and poor nations to be bullied into voting against or abstaining on the Palestine Uniting for Peace resolution. Israeli officials have recently visited small south Pacific nations like Tonga to convince them to vote no on Uniting for Peace for Palestine.

For his part, President Obama, preparing to attend to G8 summit in France, is pressuring European allies not to permit Palestine to seek recognition through the UN. At a joint news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Obama declared: "the United Nations is not going to be able to ... deliver a Palestinian state." U.S. diplomats like Nemroff and her boss, Susan Rice, are busy twisting the arms in every way possible of countries from Albania to Zambia and Nauru to Barbados.

We gave Nemroff an opportunity to explain the presence of her and/or her business card at AIPAC. Three questions were posed:

1. Were you in attendance at AIPAC in either an official or private capacity?
2. If in an official capacity, was this with the approval of Ambassador Rice?
3. Is the Economic and Social Affairs branch of the US Mission to the UN involved, in any way, with pressuring members of the UN General Assembly not to vote for recognition of Palestine after a possible invoking of the Uniting for Peace provision later this summer?

No response was received by publication time....

6 years later, What 60 Minutes left out of its report on NSA....

2011-05-24T10:17:00.002+04:30

6 years later, What 60 Minutes left out of its report on NSA....

May 24, 2011 -- 60 Minutes on NSA corruption and incompetence. Report follows WMR report by six years....

CBS "60 Minutes" reported on May 22 on former National Security Agency (NSA) official Thomas Drake's charges of high-level corruption and incompetence within the eavesdropping agency.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1_b2iRq-A0&feature=player_embedded

We Are re-publishing our report on NSA, which includes a reference to "Thinthread," the first ever report in the media on this system. There is an Israeli espionage angle to the story about Drake, NSA mathematician Bill Binney, NSA analyst J. Kirk Wiebe, NSA computer scientist Ed Loomis, House Intelligence Committee staffer Diane Roark, Justice Department prosecutor Thomas Tamm and NSA espionage against U.S. citizens. "The New Yorker" article by Jane Mayer fails to mention this important element, which may be the real reason for the prosecution of Drake and the prosecution, recently aborted, of Tamm. Because when it comes to Israeli espionage in the United States, it's "see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil."

NSA and selling the nation's prized secrets to contractors...

June 1, 2005

On August 1, 2001, just five and a half weeks before the 911 attacks, NSA awarded Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) a more than $2 billion, ten-year contract known as GROUNDBREAKER. The contract was never popular with NSA's career professionals. Although GROUNDBREAKER was limited to outsourcing NSA's administrative support functions such as telephones, data networks, distributed computing, and enterprise architecture design, the contract soon expanded into the operational areas -- a sphere that had always been carefully restricted to contractors. NSA was once worried about buying commercial-off-the-shelf computer components such as semiconductors because they might contain foreign bugs. NSA manufactured its own computer chips at its own semiconductor factory at Fort Meade. Currently, NSA personnel are concerned that outsourcing mania at Fort Meade will soon involve foreign help desk technical maintenance provided from off-shore locations like India.

CSC had originally gained access to NSA through a "buy in" project called BREAKTHROUGH, a mere $20 million contract awarded in 1998 that permitted CSC to operate and maintain NSA computer systems. When General Michael V. Hayden took over as NSA Director in 1999, the floodgates for outside contractors were opened and a resulting deluge saw most of NSA's support personnel being converted to contractors working for GROUNDBREAKER's Eagle Alliance (nicknamed the "Evil Alliance" by NSA government personnel), a consortium led by CSC. NSA personnel rosters of support personnel, considered protected information, were turned over to Eagle, which then made offers of employment to the affected NSA workers. The Eagle Alliance consists of CSC, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, CACI, Omen, Inc., Keane Federal Systems, ACS Defense, BTG, Compaq, Fiber Plus, Superior Communications, TRW (Raytheon), Verizon, and Windemere.

In October 2002, Hayden, who has now been promoted by Bush to be Deputy Director of National Intelligence under John Negroponte, opened NSA up further to contractors. A Digital Network Enterprise (DNE) team led by SAIC won a $280 million, 26 month contract called TRAILBLAZER to develop a demonstration test bed for a new signals intelligence processing and analysis system. SAIC's team members included Booz Allen Hamilton, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Eagle Alliance team leader CSC. TRAILBLAZER, according to Hayden's own testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is now behind schedule and over budget to the tune of over $600 million.

But that is not the only consequence of these two mega-contracts for NSA's ability to monitor global communications for the next 911, which could be a terrorist nuclear strike on the United States.

NSA insiders report that both contract teams have melded into one and that NSA's operations are being adversely impacted. From simple tasks like phones being fixed to computers being updated with new software, the Eagle Alliance has been a disaster. The Eagle Alliance and DNE team members are rife with former NSA top officials who are reaping handsome bonuses from the contracts -- and that has many NSA career employees crying conflict of interest and contract fraud.

CACI, called "Colonels and Captains, Inc." by critics who cite the revolving door from the Pentagon to its corporate office suites, counts former NSA Deputy Director Barbara McNamara as a member of its board of directors. CACI alumni include Thomas McDermott, a former NSA Deputy Director for Information Systems Security. Former NSA Director Adm. Mike McConnell is a Senior Vice President of Booz Allen. Former NSA Director General Ken Minihan is President of the Security Affairs Support Association (SASA), an intelligence business development association that includes Boeing, Booz Allen, CACI, CSC, the Eagle Alliance, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, SAIC, and Windemere, all GROUNDBREAKER and TRAILBLAZER contractors, among its membership. SASA's board of directors (surprise, surprise) includes CACI's Barbara McNamara. One of SASA's distinguished advisers is none other than General Hayden.

Although contractors are required to have the same high level security clearances as government personnel at NSA, there are close connections between some NSA contractors and countries with hostile intelligence services. For example, CACI's president and CEO visited Israel in early 2004 and received the Albert Einstein Technology Award at ceremony in Jerusalem attended by Likud Party Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz. The special ceremony honoring CACI's president was sponsored by the Aish HaTorah Yeshiva Fund. The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party's Jerusalem Mayor, Uri Lupolianski, was also in attendance. According to Lebanon's Daily Star, CACI's president also met with notorious racist Israeli retired General Effie Eitam who advocates expelling Palestinians from their lands. The U.S. delegation also included a number of homeland security officials, politicians, and businessmen. CACI has also received research grants from U.S.-Israeli bi-national foundations. A few months after the award ceremony for CACI's president, the Taguba Report cited two CACI employees as being involved in the prison torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The U.S. military commander for the Iraqi prisons, General Janis Karpinski, reported that she witnessed Israeli interrogators working alongside those from CACI and another contractor, Titan.

When the Taguba Report was leaked, the office of Deputy Defense Secretary for Policy Douglas Feith issued an order to Pentagon employees not to download the report from the Internet. Feith is a well-known hard line supporter of Israel's Likud Party and, according to U.S. government insiders, his name has come up in FBI wiretaps of individuals involved in the proliferation of nuclear weapons material to Israel via Turkish (including Turkish Jewish) intermediaries. These wiretaps are the subject of a Federal probe of who compromised a sensitive CIA counter-proliferation global operation that used a carve out company called Brewster Jennings & Associates to penetrate nuclear weapons smuggling networks with tentacles extending from Secaucus, New Jersey to South Africa and Pakistan and Turkey to Israel.

According to the Jewish Telegraph Agency, some six months before the Abu Ghraib torture scandal was first uncovered, one of Feith's assistants, Larry Franklin, met with two officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) at the Tivoli Restaurant in Arlington, Virginia. According to FBI surveillance tapes, Franklin relayed top secret information to Steve Rosen, AIPAC's then policy director, and Keith Weissman, a senior Iran analyst with AIPAC. Franklin has been indicted for passing classified information to AIPAC. In addition, three Israeli citizens have been identified as possible participants in the spy scandal. They are Naor Gilon, the political officer at the Israeli embassy in Washington; Uzi Arad, an analyst with the Institute for Policy and Strategy in Herzliya (the northern Tel Aviv suburb where the headquarters of Mossad is located); and Eran Lerman, a former Mossad official who is now with the American Jewish Committee.

What has some NSA officials worried is that with pro-Israeli neocons now engrained within the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), State Department, and National Security Council, NSA is ripe for penetration by Israeli intelligence. NSA has a troubled past with Israel. In 1967, Israeli warplanes launched a premeditated attack on the NSA surveillance ship, the USS Liberty, killing and wounding a number of U.S. sailors and NSA civilian personnel. Convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard compromised a number of NSA sensitive sources and methods when he provided a garage full of classified documents to Israel. But NSA is also aware of an incident where Israelis used a contractor, RCA, to gain access to yet additional NSA sources and methods. In the 1980s, against the wishes of NSA, the Reagan administration forced NSA to permit RCA, one of its major contractors, to develop a tethered aerostat (balloon) signals intelligence and direction finding system for the Israeli Defense Force. According to NSA officials, the Israeli-NSA joint project, codenamed DINDI, was established at a separate facility in Mount Laurel, New Jersey and apart from the main NSA developmental center at RCA's facility in Camden, New Jersey. Although NSA and RCA set up a strict firewall between the contractor's national intelligence contract work and the separate DINDI contract, Israeli engineers, who were working for Mossad, soon broke down the security firewall with the assistance of a few American Jewish engineers assigned to the DINDI project. The security breach resulted in a number of national intelligence developmental systems being compromised to the Israelis, including those code named PIEREX, MAROON ARCHER, and MAROON SHIELD. DINDI was quickly cancelled but due to the sensitivity surrounding the American Jewish engineers, the Reagan Justice Department avoided bringing espionage charges. There were some forced retirements and transfers, but little more. But for NSA, the duplicity of the Israelis added to the enmity between Fort Meade and Israeli intelligence.

With outside contractors now permeating NSA and a major Israeli espionage operation being discovered inside the Pentagon, once again there is a fear within NSA that foreign intelligence services such as the Mossad could make another attempt to penetrate America's virtual "Fort Knox" of intelligence treasures and secrets.

Thanks to some very patriotic and loyal Americans inside NSA, this author is now in possession of an internal NSA contract document from November 2002 that shows how GROUNDBREAKER and TRAILBLAZER have allowed the Eagle Alliance and other contractors to gain access to and even virtual control over some of the most sensitive systems within the U.S. intelligence community. One suspect in this unchecked outsourcing is the person Hayden hired from the outside to act as Special Adviser to his Executive Leadership Team, Beverly Wright, who had been the Chief Financial Officer for Legg Mason Wood Walker in Baltimore. Before that, Wright had been the Chief Financial Officer for Alex Brown, the investment firm at which George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, once served as a board member. As one senior NSA official sarcastically put it, "She's highly qualified to work in intelligence!"

According to the document, the future of some 10,000 Windows NT and UNIX workstations and servers that handle some of NSA's most sensitive signals intelligence (SIGINT) (the Signals Intelligence Directorate workstation upgrade is code named BEANSTALK) and electronics intelligence (ELINT) applications, including databases that contain communications intercepts, are now firmly in the grasp of the Eagle Alliance. Operational workstations are being migrated to a less-than-reliable Windows/Intel or "WINTEL" environment. The document boldly calls for the Eagle Alliance to establish a SIGINT Service Applications Office (SASO) to "provide and maintain Information Technology services, tools, and capabilities for all [emphasis added] SIGINT mission applications at the NSA." This is a far cry from the non-operational administrative support functions originally specified in the GROUNDBREAKER contract.

The document also calls for NSA to provide extremely sensitive information on SIGINT users to the contractors: "Identification of target sets of users in order to successfully coordinate with the Eagle Alliance modernization program." The Eagle Alliance is involved in a number of systems that impact on other members of the U.S. intelligence community, foreign SIGINT partners, and national command authorities. These systems include INTELINK, Common Remoted Systems, National SIGINT Requirements Process, Overhead Tasking Distribution, RSOC (Regional SIGINT Operations Center) Monitoring Tool, RSOC Modeling Tool, Speech Activity Detection, Network Analysis Tools, Network Reconstruction Tools, Advanced Speech Processing Services, Automatic Message Handling System, CRITIC Alert, Cross Agency Multimedia Database Querying, Message Format Converter, Central Strategic Processing and Reporting, Collection Knowledge Base, Language Knowledge Base and Capabilities, K2000 Advanced ELINT Signals, Speech Content Services, Speech Information Extraction, Dominant Facsimile Processing System and DEFSMAC Support, Data Delivery (TINMAN), High Frequency Direction Finding (HFDF) Database, Satellite database, Protocol Analysis Terminal, Global Numbering Database, Intercept Tasking Databases, DEFSMAC Space Systems Utilities, Message Server, Extended Tether Program, Language Knowledge Services, Trend Analysis in Data Streams, Signal Related Database, SANDKEY Support (SIGINT Analysis and Reporting), and the SIGINT interception database ANCHORY and the ELINT database WRANGLER. In fact, the document states that the contractors' plans foresee the inclusion of NSA's intelligence community partners (foreign and domestic) in the contractors' revamping of NSA's operational systems.

The servers include those that support mission-critical National Time Sensitive Systems (NTSS). These National Time Sensitive System servers have been assigned various cover terms:

CANUCKS
DOLLAR
EASTCAKE
HEALYCUFF
MUDDYSWELT
NEEDYWHAT
RIMTITLE
RISKDIME
ROWLOAD
SEAWATER
CURACAO
HALF
HEALYMINK
LEARNGILT
LINEFURL
MOBLOOSE
SPELLBEAK
THOSEHOT.

A number of SIGINT applications are also impacted by the outsourcing mania. They are also assigned cover terms:

ADVERSARY
ADVERSARY GOLD
CHECKMATE
FANBELT
FANBELT II
FIREBLAZE
GALE-LITE (the primary owner of which is DIA)
GALLEYMAN
GALLEYPROOF
JAGUAR
KAFFS
MAGNIFORM
MAINCHANCE
OILSTOCK
PATHSETTER
PINSETTER
SIGDASYS FILE II, III, and KL
TEXTA
SPOT

In fact, the document indicates that literally hundreds of NSA intelligence applications are now subject to the whims of outside contractors. These systems include

ABEYANCE, ACROPOLIS, ADROIT, ADVANTAGE, AGILITY, AIRLINE, AIRMAIL, ALERT, ALCHEMIST, ANTARES, APPLEWOOD II, ARCHIVER, ARCVIEW GIS, ARROWGATE, ARROWWOOD, ARTFUL, ASPEN, ASSOCIATION, ATOMICRAFT, ATTRACTION, AUTOPILOT, AUTOSTAR, AXIOMATIC

BABBLEQUEST, BACKSAW, BANYAN, BARAD, BASERUNNER, BEAMER, BEIKAO, BELLVIEW, BIRDSNEST, BISON, BLACKBIRD, BLACKBOOK, BLACKFIN, BLACKHAWK, BLACKNIGHT/SHIPMASTER, BLACKMAGIC, BLACKONYX, BLACKOPAL, BLACKSEA, BLACKSHACK, BLACKSHIRT, BLACKSMYTH, BLACKSNAKE, BLACKSPIDER, BLACKSTAR, BLACKSTORM, BLACKSTRIKE, BLACKWATCH PULL, BLOODHUNTER, BLACKSWORD, BLOSSOM, BLUEBERRY, BLUESKY, BLUESTREAM, BOTTOM, BOTTOMLINE, BOWHUNT, BRAILLEWRITER, BRICKLOCK, BRIGHTENER, BROADWAY, BRIO INSIGHT, BUCKFEVER, BUILDINGCODE, BULK, BUMPER

CADENCE, CAINOTOPHOBIA, CALLIOPE, CALVIN, CANDID, CANDELIGHTER, CANDLESTICK, CAPRICORN, CARNIVAL, CARRAGEEN, CARTOGRAPHER, CAT, CATCOVE, CELLBLOCK, CELTIC II, CELTIC CROSS, CENTERBOARD, CENTERCOIL, CENTERPOINT, CENTRALIST, CERCIS, CHAGRIN, CHAMELEON, CHAMITE, CHAPELVIEW, CHARIOT, CHARMANDER, CHARTS, CHATEAU, CHECKMATE, CHECKWEAVE, CHERRYLAMBIC, CHEWSTICK, CHICKENOFF, CHILLFLAME, CHIMERA, CHIPBOARD, CHUJING, CIVORG, CHUCKLE, CLEANSLATE, CLIPS, CLOSEREEF I, CLOUDBURST, CLOUDCOVER, CLOUDCOVER II, CLUBMAN, COASTLINE, COASTLINE COMPASSPOINT, CLIENT, CODEFINDER, COMMONVIEW, CONCERTO, CONDENSOR, CONESTOGA, CONFRONT, CONTRIVER, CONUNDRUM, CONVEYANCE, COPPERHEAD, CORESPACE, CORTEZ, COUNTERSINK, COUNTERSPY, CRAZYTRAIN, CRISSCROSS, CRUISESHIP, CRYSTALLIZE, CYBERENGINE, CYGNUS

DAFIF, DANCEHALL, DARKSHROUD, DATATANK, DAYPUL, DAZZLER, DEATHRAY, DECOMA, DELTAWING, DEPTHGAUGE, DESERTFOX, DESOTO, DESPERADO, DIALOG, DIAMONDCHIP, DIFFRACTION, DISPLAYLINE, DITCHDIGGER, DITTO/UNDITTO, DIVINATION, DOITREE, DOLLARFISH, DOUBLEVISION, DRAGONMAKER, DUALIST

EAGERNESS, EAGLESTONE, EASYRIDER, ECTOPLASM, ELATION, ELECTRIFY, ELTON, ELEVATOR, EMPERORFISH, ENCAPSULATE, ENGRAFT, ETCHINGNEEDLE, EXPATRIATE, EXPERTPLAYER, EXTENDER, EXTRACTOR, EUREKA, EYELET

FAIRHILL, FAIRVIEW, FALCONRY, FALLOWHAUNT, FANATIC, FANCINESS, FASCIA II, FATFREE, FENESTRA, FIESTA, FINECOMB, FIREBOLT, FINETUNE, FIREBRAND II, FIRELAKE, FIRERUNG, FIRETOWER, FIRSTVIEW, FISHERMAN, FISHINGBOAT, FISHWAY, FLAGHOIST (OCS), FLASHFORWARD, FLEXAGON, FLEXMUX, FLEXSTART, FLIP, FLOTSAM, FOLKART, FORESITE, FORTITUDE, FOURSCORE, FOXFUR, FPGA GSM ATTACK, FIRSTPOINT, FARMHOUSE, FLODAR, FLOVIEW, FOSSIK, FROZENTUNDRA, FREESTONE, FRENZY/GRANULE, FUSEDPULL

GALAXYDUST, GARDENVIEW, GATCHWORK, GATOR, GAUNTLET, GAYFEATHER, GAZELLE, GEMTRAIL, GENED, GHOSTVIEW, GHOSTWIRE, GIGACOPE, GIGASCOPE B, GISTER, GIVE, GLIDEPLANE, GOLDVEIN, GOLDPOINT, GNATCATCHER-GRADUS, GOKART, GOLDENEYE, GOLDENFLAX, GOLDENPERCH, GOLDMINE, GOMBROON, GOTHAM, GRADIENT, GRANDMASTER, GRAPEANGLE, GRAPEVINE, GRAPHWORK, GREATHALL, GREENHOUSE, GREMLIN, GUARDDOG, GUIDETOWER

HACKER, HABANERO, HAMBURGER, HAMMER, HARPSTRING, HARVESTER, HARVESTTIME, HEARTLAND II, HEARTLAND III, HEDGEHOG, HELMET II, HELMET III, HERONPOND, HIGHPOWER, HIGHTIDE, HILLBILLY BRIDE, HIPPIE, HOBBIN, HOKUSAI, HOMBRE, HOMEBASE, HOODEDVIPER, HOODQUERY, HOPPER, HOST, HORIZON, HOTSPOT, HOTZONE, HOUSELEEK/SPAREROOF, HYPERLITE, HYPERWIDE

ICARUS, ICICLE, IMAGERY, INFOCOMPASS, INNOVATOR, INQUISITOR, INROAD, INSPIRATION, INTEGRA, INTERIM, INTERNIST, INTERSTATE, INTRAHELP, IOWA, ISLANDER, IVORY ROSE, IVORY SNOW

JABSUM, JACAMAR, JADEFALCON, JARGON, JARKMAN, JASPERRED, JAZZ, JEALOUSFLASH, JEWELHEIST, JOVIAL, JOBBER INCOMING, JOSY, JUMBLEDPET, JUPITER

KAHALA, KAINITE, KEBBIE, KEELSON, KEEPTOWER, KEYCARD, KEYMASTER, KEYS, KEYSTONE WEB, KINGCRAFT, KINGLESS, KINSFOLK, KLASHES, KLOPPER, KNOSSOS, KRYPTONITE

LADYSHIP, LAKESIDE, LAKEVIEW, LAMPSHADE, LAMPWICK, LARGO, LASERDOME, LASERSHIP, LASTEFFORT, LATENTHEART, LATENTHEAT, LEGAL REPTILE, LETHALPAN, LIBERTY WALK, LIGHTNING, LIGHTSWITCH, LINKAGE, LIONFEED, LIONHEART, LIONROAR, LIONWATCH, LOAD, LOCKSTOCK, LOGBOOK, LONGROOT, LUMINARY

MACEMAN, MACHISMO, MADONNA, MAESTRO, MAGENTA II, MAGIC BELT, MAGICSKY, MAGISTRAND, MAGYK, MAKAH, MAINWAY, MARINER II, MARKETSQUARE, MARLIN, MARSUPIAL, MARTES, MASTERCLASS, MASTERSHIP, MASTERSHIP II, MASTING, MATCHLITE, MAUI, MAVERICK, MECA, MEDIASTORM, MEDIATOR, MEDIEVAL, MEGAMOUSE, MEGASCOPE, MEGASTAR, MERSHIP (CARILLON), MESSIAH, MICOM, MIGHTYMAIL, MILLANG, MONITOR, MONOCLE, MOONDANCE, MOONFOX, MOORHAWK, MORETOWN, MOSTWANTED, MOVIETONE III, MUSICHALL, MUSTANG, MYTHOLOGY

NABOBS, NATIONHOOD, NAUTILUS, NDAKLEDIT, NEMESIS, NERVETRUNK, NETGRAPH, NEWSBREAK, NEWSHOUND, NEXUS, NIGHTFALL 16, NIGHTFALL 32, NIGHTWATCH, NOBLEQUEST, NOBLESPIRIT, NOBLEVISION, NSOC SHIFTER, NUCLEON, NUMERIC

OAKSMITH, OBLIGATOR, OCEANARIUM, OCEANFRONT, OCTAGON, OCTAVE, OFFSHOOT, OLYMPIAD, ONEROOF, ONEROOF-WORD 2000 TRANSCRIPTION, OPALSCORE, OPENSEARCH, OPERA, ORCHID, ORIANA, OUTERBANKS, OUTFLASH, OUTREACH

PADDOCK, PACESETTER, PALINDROME, PAPERHANGER II, PARTHENON, PARTHENON II, PASSBACK, PASTURE, PATCHING, PATHFINDER, PATRIARCH, PAYMASTER, PAYTON, PEDDLER, PEARLWARE, PERFECTO, PERSEUS, PERSEVERE, PICKET, PINWALE, PIEREX, PILEHAMMER, PINNACLE, PINSTRIPE, PITONS, PIXIEDUST, PIZARRO, PLATINUM PLUS, PLATINUMRING, PLUMMER, PLUS, PLUTO, POLARFRONT, POLYSTYRENE, POPPYBASE, POPTOP, PORCELAIN, PORTCULLIS, POSTCARD, POWDERKEG, POWERPLANT, PRAIRIE DOG, PRANKSTER, PREDATOR, PRELUDE, PROSCAN, PROSPERITY, PRIZEWINNER, PROPELLER, PROTOVIEW, PUFFERFISH, PYTHON II

QUARTERBACK, QUASAR, QUEST, QUICKER, QUICKSILVER

RAGBOLT, RAINGAUGE, RAINMAN, RAKERTOOTH, RAMJET, RAP, RAPPEL, RAUCOVER, REACTANT, RECEPTOR, RECOGNITION, RED ARMY, RED BACK, RED BELLY, RED DAWN, RED DEMON, RED ROOSTER, RED ROVER, REDALERT, REDCAP, REDCENT, REDCOATS, REDMENACE, REDSEA, REDSTORM, REDZONE, RELAYER, RENEGADE, RENOIR, RIGEL LIBRARY, RIKER, RIMA, ROADBED, ROADTURN, ROCKDOVE, ROOFTOP, ROOTBEER, ROSEVINE, RUTLEY

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NATO and French plans to topple Gaddafi have been on track since last November 2010....

2011-03-26T13:31:00.002+04:30

At http://fbechis.blogspot.com/ there is an article entitled "Sarkozy declared war on Italy"

"Ma quale Gheddafi! Sarkò ha dichiarato guerra all'Italia"

According to this article:

For three years French President Nicolas Sarkozy was extremely keen to sell to Libya:

(1) an entire fleet of Dassault fighter aircraft ....and the famous Rafale....

(2) nuclear plants in and around Tripoli.

These sales were discussed by Sarkozy and Gaddafi in December 2007 in Paris.

As it turned out, Gaddafi bought very little from France....

http://www.bollyn.com/index.php#article_12777

Gaddafi bought from Russia and Italy.

Sarkozy frothed with rage.

Now France is bombing Libya.

France is bombing the planes Gaddafi bought from Russia.

On 25 March 2011, at http://www.voltairenet.org/en we learn that French plans to topple Gaddafi have been on track since last November

From this we learn:

According to Italian journalist Franco Bechis, plans to spark the Benghazi rebellion were initiated by the French intelligence services in November 2010.

This revelation has the blessing of the Italian secret services.

Timeline of events

October 6, 2010

Former Gaddafi supporter Nouri Mesmari, working with the French secret service, is to mastermind the revolution against Gaddafi.

Documents on this have been leaked to the Italian newspaper Libero.

Mesmari gives the French much information about the Gaddafi regime.

October 20, 2010

Mesmari, under the protection of French secret services, heads to France.

He has several top secret meetings with secret service agents and other top people close to Nicolas Sarkozy.

November 18, 2010

A French ‘commercial’ delegation leaves for Benghazi.

In the delegation there are officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and representatives from Cam Cereals, France Export Cereals, Cargill, Glencore, France Agrimer, Soufflet, Louis Dreyfus, and Comagra.

Among the delegation, posing as government officials, there are French secret service agents and military staff.

Their 'business' is meeting army officers ready to defect from the Libyan army.

While in Benghazi, contact is made with Libyan air defense colonel, Abdallah Gehani.

USA plane in Libya... Secrecy surrounds pilot and weapons officer in F-15 crash

November 28, 2010

An international warrant of arrest is issued by the Libyan government for Nouri Mesrami.

Foreign Minister Musa Koussa is held responsible for the defection of Mesrami and his passport is withdrawn by the authorities.

December 2, 2010

Muammar Gaddafi sends messages to Nouri Mesrami to win him back saying that he forgives him for what he did and invites him back to Libya.

December 23, 2010

A delegation of Libyans arrives in Paris for meetings with Mesrami and other French officials.

The Libyans are Ali Ounes Mansouri, Farj Charrant and Fathi Boukhris.

These three men will be known later, together with Ali Hajj, as leaders of the revolution, that started from Benghazi.

The Libyan delegation together with Mesrami and French military and secret service personnel dine at an elegant French restaurant at the Champs Elisée.

December 25 – 31, 2010

" The situation in Benghazi is boiling".

January 22, 2011

Protests turn into clashes and army officials desert.

The rebels capture important cities.

The French government is the first European state to recognize the new Libyan National Council and establish diplomatic relations.

~~

Sarkozy and Gaddafi were keen on doing military deals worth billions of Euros, before they fell out, according to the Telegraph

'Libya funded Sarkozy's election campaign'

On 25 March 2011, The Guardian has an article entitled: Libya remembers, we forget: these bombs are not the first

From this we learn:

"The world's first aerial bombing campaign took place in Libya ... in September 1911."

The Italians bombed Libya, hoping to make it part of their empire.

The Italians carried out "the deliberate destruction of villages, wells and herds with force.

"Nearly 100,000 people were interned or deported, and thousands died of disease or malnutrition in labor camps.

"Italian planes ... dropped mustard gas in defiance of the 1925 Geneva protocol...

"The Italians ... devastated the old pastoral economy, and depopulated much of the land..."

After World War II, Libya's new British-backed king, Idris was eventually replaced by Colonel Gaddafi.

"Gaddafi ordered British and American air bases to close and kicked out the 20,000 Italians still living in the country, nationalizing their property...

"Two years after forcing the Italians to leave, the socialist Gaddafi was inviting Italian corporations back in, turning the former colonial oppressor into Libya's chief European business partner...

"The Libyans ... will remember what we have forgotten – that these planes are not the first..."

Not for the first time have the "rats" in Paris done back-stabbing: Laurent Fabius was happy to take Ceausescu's money in 1981 for the Mitterrand campaign then plotted with Ion Ilescu in summer 1989....

Just ahead of two Libyan jets which landed in Malta on Monday February 21 were two large French helicopters which arrived,apparently, from Libya. The two copters carried seven people who told the authorities that they were French but only one had a passport.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/africa/110222/libya-malta-muammar-gaddafi

Pictures of the helicopters here,plus the jets, and fascinating discussion on all pages either side...
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?194497-2-Libyan-Mirage-Fighters-defect-to-Malta/page3

Re the defecting jets and pilots, everything has gone very quiet
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110305/local/fears-over-safety-of-defecting-military-pilots-families-in-libya

"It's very very confidential" according to Mr Friggieri (re asylum applications)
Last news March 10th.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110310/local/granting-libyan-pilots-asylum-would-send-strong-message

http://www.blockreportradio.com/radio-mainmenu-27/1065-an-pan-african-view-on-libya-and-qadafi.html

Dawn of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Tunisia, KSA, "Syria soon enough..."

2011-03-21T16:12:00.002+04:30

Website for this image

....Dawn of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Tunisia, KSA, "Syria soon enough..." and elsewhere....CIA tactics and methods....

"An ex-CIA agent and counter-intelligence expert has revealed in a special report that Barack Obama has quietly appointed individuals who are friendly to radical Islam to key posts within the Administration." (Report - Obama quietly appoints Muslim Brotherhood to key posts.)

On 19 March 2011, Egyptians vote in a referendum on changes to the constitution.

On 17 March 2011, we read that, the constitutional changes will help the Muslim Brotherhood

According to the Financial Times: "The Muslim Brotherhood ... looks poised to emerge as the main beneficiary of new political arrangements to be put in place by Egypt's transitional military authorities."

Egypt's CIA-controlled generals seem to have decided to side with the CIA-controlled Muslim Brotherhood against the 'youth-led secular groups'.

"Some analysts and political activists said the Supreme Military Council ... may have decided that an alliance of conservative forces presents a better option for the future than that offered by the young secular groups." (the constitutional changes will help the Muslim Brotherhood)

Hossam Tammam, an analyst who specializes in Islamist groups, says "There are signs the military may have decided to bet on the Brotherhood as the biggest organized force on the street.

"The others (small parties and secular groups) may be seen by the army as representing an unwanted and radical transition to democracy." (the constitutional changes will help the Muslim Brotherhood)

The Muslim Brotherhood and Mubarak's National Democratic party "look set to dominate the next parliament." (the constitutional changes will help the Muslim Brotherhood)

The Brotherhood "is the only political group to have been represented on the panel of legal experts handpicked by the military that drafted the constitutional changes." (the constitutional changes will help the Muslim Brotherhood)

Eisenhower in the Oval Office with members of Muslim Brotherhood (What Is the Muslim Brotherhood, and Will It Take Over Egypt ...)

Remember Iran, and compare the Shah with Mubarak.

According to this article: "The British, the Middle East and Radical Islam - Red Moon Rising":

"Prior to the British-sponsored massive public relations campaign on behalf of the Ayatollah, the government of the Shah was despised by the vast majority of the Iranian population...

"The Shah began to push forward a number of nationalist policies that increased his megalomania at home and abroad....but, in some cases, worried the Anglo-American Establishment because of the savagery of SAVAK/MOSSAD tactics for decades.....

"First, he signed petroleum agreements with ENI, the Italian oil company.

"Then in 1963 he pushed forward on a series of popular reforms that became known as the White Revolution.

"The Shah evolved into a nationalist whose path paralleled that of Nasser far too much for the Establishment's liking:

"He bought land from the upper classes and, along with the crown's own land, sold it back cheaply to tenant farmers, allowing over one a half million people to become land owners and ending the old feudal system.

"He allowed women the right to vote, and brought an end to the wearing of the veil, which were 'Westernizing' moves unwelcomed by the religious sector.

"He pushed forward on a $90 billion nuclear power program.

"He moved to shut down the lucrative opium industry that had been created during the days of British Empire control that had been running for a hundred years.

"The attack on the Shah's government came through the Muslim Brotherhood and through the mullahs and ayatollahs of Iran, supported and manipulated by CIA and British Intelligence..."

Radio Free Iran reportedly claimed that while at Qom Khomeini received a "monthly stipend from the British, and he is in constant contact with his masters, CIA and MI6...."

Notes http://www.redmoonrising.com/Ikhwan/BritIslam.htm

It would seem that the US and NATO prefer Moslem governments to be fundamentalist because fundamentalists are easier to control....

“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to the God”

2011-03-15T15:17:00.002+04:30

“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to the God”....

With Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in Egypt – widely considered to have one of the region’s most stable regimes until only recently – and Colonel Muammar Qaddafi clinging to power in Libya, there is no clear end in sight to the turmoil sweeping across the Arab world. Protests have already toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt, leaving other Arab countries faced with widespread discontent.

The unrest caught most people by surprise – both inside and outside the region – and has fundamentally upended at least five conventional beliefs about the Arab world.

Arabs don’t go into the street. Before the protests began in Egypt and Tunisia, many people argued that there was no real urgency to political reform, and that those who were calling for change did not understand the public mood – things weren’t as bad as the dissidents made them out to be. This line of thinking led governments to believe that Arabs would not demonstrate in large numbers and demand change. In each country, rapid reform was seen as detrimental to national interests.

This argument clearly is no longer tenable. No one predicted what happened in Egypt and Tunisia, which means that no Arab country is immune. Governments don’t have the luxury of waiting forever, and they can no longer use the myth of popular quiescence to avoid initiating the necessary reforms that will address the public’s underlying grievances.

Economic liberalization should precede political reform. Arab governments – and many Westerners – claimed that privatization and other economic reforms should be given priority over political change. But, while it is easy to argue that citizens want bread before freedom, economic liberalization came without a system of checks and balances, and thus largely resulted in neither bread nor freedom.

Instead, the benefits of privatization and other initiatives went largely to political and business elites. As a result, Arabs have come to view liberalization and globalization negatively. It is clear by now that economic reform must be coupled with political reform, so that institutional mechanisms of accountability are developed to monitor any excesses and ensure that benefits are made available to all. Governments have been quick to believe that the protests are fundamentally about high prices and unemployment, but the issue that unites Arab discontent is inadequate governance.

Closed systems are necessary to prevent Islamists from taking power. The West is often afraid that democracy will give Islamists the opening they need to gain control – a fear that Arab regimes exploit to justify maintaining closed political systems. But Islamists did not play a big role in Egypt or Tunisia, and they are not expected to lead any of the new governments that are formed – though they are an important part of Arab societies and should play a role in their emerging regimes.

So it is untrue that the only viable alternative to unrelenting absolutist rule must be Islamist. The protests are clearly the result of ordinary citizens becoming fed up with corruption, the lack of any semblance of rule of law, and arbitrary treatment. There is an opportunity here to start developing pluralistic systems where not only Islamists, but also other parties and discourses can play a role.

Elections equal democracy. No one is fooled by this claim anymore. In order to maintain their dominance, Arab governments have relied on flawed laws and elections that don’t produce strong parliaments or lead to real change. Indeed, in countries like Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia, government and parliament alike were unpopular. Throughout the region, elections have been used to create a façade of democracy aimed at impressing citizens and the outside world while insulating the regimes from pressure for genuine reform.

The Arab public, however, will no longer accept the status quo. People will not be satisfied with economic handouts or cosmetic changes in governance; they are demanding real change that puts their country on a clear path toward democracy.

The international community has no role to play. While the reform process should certainly be homegrown, the United States and the rest of the international community can encourage democratic development without imposing it from afar. President Barack Obama rejected many of the policies of the George W. Bush administration that were seen as trying to force democracy on Arab countries. But the subsequent silence on democratization aggravated – though it certainly did not cause – the unraveling of the Arab reform process in the last few years.

The US and the West can discuss with Arab countries how political reform should be carried out in a way that would contribute to greater openness and opportunities for power-sharing. The West should not sacrifice these objectives for others; if allies ultimately lose power in popular revolts, such a tradeoff would not have furthered the West’s interests, to say the least.

The unfolding events grabbing headlines around the world have shattered key myths about the Arab world. These countries’ people need to start gradual, sustained, and serious political reform now. At the dawn of a new Arab era, it is up to them to build new, open political systems that can head off the looming threat of escalating crises.

Marwan Muasher.

“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to the God” Thomas Jefferson

Why have uprisings and the revolutions taken place in Arab states? That’s the question most journalists, political scientists, analysts, experts in the Middle East and Northern Africa studies ask, pondering over the reasons that triggered tectonic transformations in that part of the world. But instead of focusing on socio-cultural, political, economic or, above all, socio-economic reasons behind the Arab “spring of peoples” one may offer an alternative, unconventional approach to turbulent developments in the Arab civilization. How could Arabs stand up to their regimes and change power in a matter of days or weeks? That’s an essential question. The social network’s factor (i.e. Facebook, Twitter) was crucial in Tunisian “Jasmine Revolution” and the uprising in Egypt that toppled Hosni Mubarak. But the banal, trivial truth is that there are no simple answers to complex questions. The paramount paradox is that obedient, law-abiding, meek, and fearful of their governments Arabs dared to defy their authorities, took to the streets and squares and ousted the dictators in Tunisia and, subsequently, Egypt. And as the Arab proverb says in such a case, ‘If the wind of change blows, ride it’. The subsequent uprisings in Yemen, Jordan, Oman, Bahrain, KSA, Algeria and the revolution in Libya were caused not only by successes in Tunisia and Egypt, but, above all, by deeper understanding of the dominant religion – Islam. Better education, higher literacy rate and high percentage of young population (about 65 % of Arabs are younger than 35 yrs) played a paramount role in it. And here lies the truth. As a matter of fact, Islam means full and absolute obedience to the God (as translated from Arabic). If we really think that “resistance to tyrants is obedience to the God” (as Thomas Jefferson famously put it in “The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America”), then those Arabs who challenged the incumbent tyrants just showed their obedience to the God. So it was not the Facebook which was a main medium of social communication and key source of information in coordinating protests. Social networks were just catalysts in ‘the chain reaction’ of Arab revolutions, but it was the very combination of many factors (and religious, in my opinion, was the dominant one), which had such a powerful synergetic effect in changing geopolitical status quo in the world’s most conservative region...

Serhiy Blavatsky, Ph.D. in Social Communications.

TURKEY IMMUNE, USA BACKED BROTHERHOOD IN EGYPT AND ALL OVER MENA....

2011-03-12T15:58:00.003+04:30

TURKEY IMMUNE, USA BACKED BROTHERHOOD IN EGYPT AND ALL OVER MENA....

Istanbul by mandalaybus )

Is Turkey already part of the New World Order?

Is it therefore immune to the CIA coups that have hit North Africa?

The key groups in Turkey are:

(1) the generals

(2) the Fethullah Gulen movement.

(CIA CONTROL VIA FETHULLAH? / THE NEW WORLD ORDER AND TURKEY)

Both are said to be tools of the CIA.

Gulen in the USA.

In previous decades the CIA controlled Turkey by getting the Turkish generals to carry out false flag terrorism and coups. (KILLING KIDS ON A FIELD TRIP; ERGENEKON AND 9 11)

Now the CIA may be using the Moslem Gulen movement to control Turkey.

Turkey - © noborders )

On 11 March 2011, at Todays Zaman, we read about Journalism during the time of Ergenekon‎

Ergenekon is the name given to the gang which carried out acts of false flag terrorism in Turkey.

It is said to have been run by Turkish generals, the CIA, NATO, and Mossad; and it is said to have links to the heroin trade.

Nedim Şener and Ahmet Şık are award-winning journalists who helped expose the Ergenekon network and a coup plan.

They have been arrested.

It is claimed by the authorities that they were members of Ergenekon.

Some people think they were arrested because of the book they wrote containing allegations against the Gülen movement.

The Gülen movement has influence in the judiciary and police.

However, it is possible that the Ergenekon gang has got certain people to write books that will 'confuse people and damage the legitimacy of the Ergenekon case.'

TURKEY - © noborders )

Allegedly, Gulen has links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

In Egypt, the U.S. Secretly Backed the Brotherhood.

According to former editor of the Japan Times Weekly, Yochi Shimatsu, writing on 17 February 2011:

1. A leaked diplomatic cable shows the US State Department, over the past three years, had secret talks with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

2. The December 2008 cable is entitled "Meeting and Regime Change in Egypt".

3. Half of the suspected 9/11 hijackers, including Atta, were Egyptians linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

4. At the first major Cairo protest on 25 January 2011, Jared Cohen, a former State Department staffer in charge of planning the Twitter revolution, was physically present with his proteges in the American-sponsored April 6 Youth Movement.

The April 6 Youth Movement is allied with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Cohen has links to Israel and the writings of Gene Sharp.

5. Former Cairo ambassador Frank Wisner Jr, an intelligence expert whose father organized Operation Gladio, landed in Egypt on 31 January.

Libya, CIA, MI6, MOSSAD, and the MSM....

Vietnamese victims of the fascist USA.

On 11 March 2011, the Libyan Ambassador to Ghana, Dr Ali Gadban, disclosed that the CIA and MI6 have been working together to topple Ghaddafi .

(CIA & MI6 scheme to topple Ghaddafi-Libyan ambassador to Ghana)

Gadban, at a press conference in Accra, said that Libya had intercepted recorded phone conversations between Libyan rebels and operatives of the CIA and the MI6.

He said that CNN, the BBC, Al-jazeera and Reuters were all part of the plot to create disaffection in Libya.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&feature=player_embedded&v=mWFftkzNRNI