| 08.Nov.2004 Quartalsbilanz: Deutsche Börse mit solidem Quartal 08.Nov.2004 Wall-Street-Schluss: Wall Street in der Verschnaufpause 08.Nov.2004 US-Außenminister: Powell erwartet von Deutschen mehr Engagement für Irak 08.Nov.2004 Palästinenserführung: Delegation zu Arafat-Besuch in Paris angekommen 08.Nov.2004 Castor-Transport: Widerstand für Sebastian 08.Nov.2004 Ärger um Arafats Ehefrau: Suha düpiert die Abus 08.Nov.2004 MyDD :: Holy Fucking Jim Crow -... Voters-rights advocates are criticizing two recent decisions by Ohio Secretary of State J . Kenneth Blackwell that they say will unfairly limit some people's ... www.mydd.com/story/2004/9/27/125755/309 - 08.Nov.2004 Re-Elect Ken Blackwell : Ohio Secretary of State 2002 - truthout - Ohio Secretary of State Blocks New Voter Registrationse
J . Kenneth Blackwell brings a ... as an educator, diplomat + finance executive to his current position as the 51st Secretary of State of Ohio . ... www.kenblackwell.com/ - 13k - 06.Nov.2004 Dayton - Voters-rights advocates are criticizing two recent decisions by Ohio Secretary of State J . Kenneth Blackwell that they say will unfairly limit some ... www.truthout.org/docs_04/092904W.shtml 08.Nov.2004 The Congress Members, John Conyers, Jerrold Nadler + Robert Wexler, cited a few of the problems that have already arisen, including a machine in a single Ohio precinct awarding Bush an extra 3,893 votes, machines in North Carolina losing 4,500 votes, machines in Florida miscounting absentee ballots + voters in both Florida + Ohio reporting machines registering votes for Bush that were intended for Kerry. Y'know what's really unnerving? The "errors" always work to Bush's favor. That pattern tells you that these "errors" didn't happen by mistake. URL: http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/
URL: https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-326629,00.html
08.Nov.2004 Black, Cofer s Name in die Schlagzeilen geraten, nachdem das US-Außenministerium einen unter seiner Leitung erstellten Anti-Terror-Bericht korrigieren musste. In einer Bilanz der von Extremisten im Jahr 2003 weltweit getöteten oder verletzten Menschen musste die Gesamtzahl im Nachhinein um mehr als das Doppelte nach oben korrigiert werden URL: https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-326629,00.html
08.Nov.2004 Wie das US-Außenministerium am Freitag in Washington mitteilte, wird der Koordinator für die internationale Terrorbekämpfung, Black, Cofer seinen Posten in wenigen Wochen aufgeben. Black habe seinen Vorgesetzten seine Rücktrittsabsicht bereits vor der US-Wahl mitgeteilt, sagte ein Ministeriumssprecher. URL: https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,druck-327001,00.html
08.Nov.2004 Ein Maschinenschaden mit großer Wirkung: Südlich von Port Said sitzt ein liberianischer Öltanker mit 85.000 Tonnen Ladung im Suez-Kanal fest. Der Havarist blockiert die Durchfahrt für die anderen Schiffe - eine der wichtigsten Pulsadern des Welthandels ist verstopft. URL: https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,druck-327001,00.html
08.Nov.2004 Derweil arbeiten die Techniker fieberhaft daran, den Havaristen wieder flott zu machen. Doch ganz so einfach scheint die Sache nicht zu sein. Der Suez-Kanal wird wohl für rund eine Woche gesperrt bleiben, kündigte Fadels Behörde heute an.
URL: https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,druck-327001,00.html
08.Nov.2004 Möglicherweise werde die Sperrung auch viel schneller wieder aufgehoben als zunächst angekündigt.
Das hoffen womöglich auch die Logistiker der US-Armee. Diese nämlich wickeln den Löwenteil ihrer Nachschubtransporte über den Suez-Kanal ab. Während des Aufmarschs am Persischen Golf nahmen sie geschätzte sechs % der gesamten Kapazität des Kanals in Anspruch. "Die Versorgungsstäbe werden mit Sicherheit umdisponieren müssen, wenn die Route längere Zeit verstopft ist", schätzt Thomas Papenroth, Militärexperte bei der Berliner Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik. "Für eine Woche oder zwei lässt sich stockender Nachschub aber weitestgehend problemlos überbrücken", zur Not lasse sich vieles auch per Luftfracht transportieren."
Schwierigkeiten könnten allerdings entstehen, wenn die Großoffensive der US-Streitkräfte gegen die Rebellenhochburg Falludscha ins Stocken gerate. Denn dafür bräuchten die Amerikaner schweres Gerät. "Dann müssten die Amerikaner Panzer + Munition aus anderen Landesteilen dort zusammenziehen, was ebendort zu Versorgungslücken führen könnte", schätzt Papenroth.
URL: https://www.dangerouscitizen.com/Articles/1090.aspx
29.Feb.2004 From Genesis To Dominion Posted by admin on- Reconstructionists believe conservative Christians should take "dominion" over American society. by Steve Benen
Anti-evolution crusader Phillip Johnson, dedicated his 1997 book, Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds , to "Roberta and Howard, who understood 'the wedge' because they love the Truth."
The mysterious reference is apparently a note of thanks to Ahmanson, Howard F. Jr. + his wife Roberta, a wealthy + secretive Orange County, Calif., couple who have generously funded the anti-evolution movement + other right-wing causes that advance their fundamentalist Christian outlook.
Howard Ahmanson, however, is no ordinary fat-cat. The savings and loan heir has maintained a long-time relationship with Christian Reconstructionism, an extreme faction of the Religious Right that seeks to replace USA democracy with a harsh fundamentalist theocracy.
Reconstructionists believe conservative Christians should take "dominion" over USA society. Under their version of "biblical law," the death penalty would be required for over a dozen categories of offenders, including adulterers, homosexuals, witches, incorrigible children + those who spread "false" religions. They regard the teaching of evolution as part of a "war against Genesis." URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/
08.Nov.2004 There are only a few large providers of voting equipment + the ownership of these companies is incestuous. Perhaps the largest of these firms is ES&S, previously known as American Information Systems, which was owned by Ahmanson, Howard F. Jr., heir to a savings and loan fortune. Ahmanson is not just a right-wing Christian, not just a fundamentalist -- he is a believer in Dominionism, or Christian Reconstruction.
These are fancy ways of saying he believes in theocracy. As Howard himself once put it: "My purpose is total integration of Biblical law into our lives."
Those unconvinced of Biblical inerrancy may not want a man who thinks this way counting our votes.
The Ahmanson family (who all apparently buy into the let-Jesus-run-everything theory of governance) has a sneaky habit of hiding their ownership. Some years back, Howard sold his shares to an investment firm called the McCarthy group + the World Herald Co. (Both those names carry interesting connotations, if you mull them over.) One of the listed owners + directors of the McCarthy Group was Nebraskan Chuck Hagel, who just happened to win an upset victory in the 00.000.1996 Senate race. I need not tell you which firm counted the votes.
But did the theocratic Ahmanson family truly leave the ES&S picture?
Nope. The majority of stock is owned by Ahmanson, Robert nephew to paterfamilias Ahmanson, Howard Sr., to whom Ahmanson, Robert was closer than most nephews.
He lived in Hancock Park with his Uncle Howard, who, he says, "became like a brother to me." 00.000.1947 Howard began Home Savings of America which would grow into a leading lending institution; 00.000.1952 the Ahmanson Foundation was born.
Ahmanson was a part of the family business from the beginning + later served as director + officer of the company for many years. 00.000.1974 Carrying on the family commitment, Ahmanson, Robert took leadership of the Ahmanson Foundation . I think it is fair to suspect that Ahmanson, Robert shares the Ahmanson family preference for a Christian theocracy.
And now you see why private firms should not provide election equipment 08.Nov.2004 We discovered an even more bizarre Wyle Laboratories report. In it, the Wyle Laboratories admits the Sequoia voting system has problems, but says that since they were not corrected earlier, Sequoia could continue with the same flaws. At one point the Wyle Laboratories report omits its testing altogether, hoping the vendor will do the test. URL: https://www.blackboxvoting.org/
08.Nov.2004 The ITA reports are considered so secret that even the California Secretary of State’s office had trouble getting its hands on one. The ITA refused to answer any questions about what it does. Imagine our surprise when, due to Freedom of Information requests, a couple of them showed up in our mailbox. The most important test on the ITA report is called the “penetration analysis.” This test is supposed to tell us whether anyone can break into the system to tamper with the votes. “Not applicable,” wrote Shawn Southworth, of Ciber Labs, the ITA that tested the Diebold GEMS central tabulator software. “Did not test.” URL: https://www.blackboxvoting.org/
07.Nov.2004 We’re awaiting independent analysis on some pretty crooked-looking elections. In the mean time, here’s something to chew on. Your local elections officials trusted a group called NASED -- the National Association of State Election Directors -- to certify that your voting system is safe. This trust was breached. NASED certified the systems based on the recommendation of an “Independent Testing Authority” (ITA). URL: https://www.blackboxvoting.org/
08.Nov.2004 If you are concerned about what happened 02.Nov.2004 you have found a home with our organization. Help America Audit. 07.Nov.2004 -BREAKING- Freedom of Information requests at https://www.blackboxvoting.org have unearthed two Ciber certification reports indicating that security + tamperability was NOT TESTED + that several state elections directors, a secretary of state, + computer consultant Dr. Britain Williams signed off on the report anyway, certifying it. Black Box Voting has taken the position that fraud took place in the 02.Nov.2004 election through electronic voting machines. We base this on hard evidence, documents obtained in public records requests, inside information + other data indicative of manipulation of electronic voting systems. What we do not know is the specific scope of the fraud. We are working now to compile the proof, based not on soft evidence - red flags, exit polls - but core documents obtained by Black Box Voting in the most massive Freedom of Information action in history. URL: https://www.blackboxvoting.org/ URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2004/11/fraud-links.html
07.Nov.2004 Fraud links I should have more on vote fraud fairly soon. Until then, Bob Parry's latest, on the links between vote fraud and CIA "cyber-war," is required reading. This page gives a good overview and many helpful links. (Thanks for the tip, BG!) This site is devoted to the vote suppression in Ohio. Here is a good general discussion of the Florida vote. This letter provides a useful model. CommonDreams offers mandatory reading on the mechanics of computer fraud. Ohio residents march en masse against the fraudulent vote. And global monitors of our election don't like the way it was conducted. (International inspectors are okay for Iraq, but not for us, it seems...) URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/politics/campaign/08letter.html?ei=1&en=f34ee83f8936bd27&ex=1100908123&pagewanted=print&position=
08.Nov.2004 Well, I feel bad, but I cannot do anything," Mr. de Paris said in an interview on Friday in his shop on 14th and G Streets, just three blocks from the White House. Mr. de Paris, 70, had been visited a few weeks earlier by The Hill, a weekly newspaper that covers Congress + had told the reporter seeking to solve the bulge mystery that the protuberance was nothing more than a natural pucker that occurs when a man's jacket is pulled taut against his back. The Internet quickly deemed Mr. de Paris's assertion nonsense, and by last Thursday, so had The Hill. Citing sources in the Secret Service, The Hill reported that the bulge was the outline of a bulletproof vest. The White House had earlier denied that it was + stuck to that statement on Friday. A spokesman for the Secret Service, Tom Mazur, shed no further light. "I can't comment on our protective measures," he said. But Mr. de Paris, for one, now believes the bulge was a bulletproof vest. At the least, a bulletproof vest would get him and his supposedly bad work off the hook. Of course, so would a signed letter on the wall of Mr. de Paris's shop from none other than Mr. Card, thanking him for "the great job you did getting me ready for white tie." 08.Nov.2004 Fraud links I should have more on vote fraud fairly soon. Until then, Bob Parry's latest, on the links between vote fraud and CIA "cyber-war," is required reading. This page gives a good overview and many helpful links. (Thanks for the tip, BG!) This site is devoted to the vote suppression in Ohio. Here is a good general discussion of the Florida vote. This letter provides a useful model. CommonDreams offers mandatory reading on the mechanics of computer fraud. Ohio residents march en masse against the fraudulent vote. And global monitors of our election don't like the way it was conducted. (International inspectors are okay for Iraq, but not for us, it seems...) URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/
08.Nov.2004 Congressman says the vote was hacked Florida, effing Florida...
CommonDreams.org publishes a remarkable story by Thom Hartmann on vote fraud in that troubled state:
When I spoke with Jeff Fisher this morning (Saturday, November 06, 2004), the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 16th District said he was waiting for the FBI to show up. Fisher has evidence, he says, not only that the Florida election was hacked, but of who hacked it and how. And not just this year, he said, but that these same people had previously hacked the Democratic primary race in 2002 so that Jeb Bush would not have to run against Janet Reno, who presented a real threat to Jeb, but instead against Bill McBride, who Jeb beat.
"It was practice for a national effort," Fisher told me. This is the key news. URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/
08.Nov.2004 Vote fraud and the Hunt family In my post below on the Ahmanson family, I've noted that people who dislike the very idea of democracy (at least secular democracy) have a strange tendency to buy into companies that provide voting machines. The Ahmansons, who tend toward the "Dominionist" version of fundamentalism, made their pile via Home Savings (an institution in California) + one wonders why experts in that field suddenly decided to invest heavily in a company such as ES&S, which provides much of our electronic voting infrastructure.
Think about it. If you hated ice cream, would you buy a controlling interest in Ben and Jerrys?
Another big investor in ES&S is Carolyn Hunt + I'd like to know more about her. This site (among others) informs us that she is a product of the Hunt oil dynasty, but I am not so sure how she relates to dynasty founder H.L. Hunt.
You've surely heard about the flamboyant paterfamilias, one of the inspirations for Larry Hagman's character on Dallas. He won his start-up capital with a lucky poker hand and soon thereafter became convinced of his innate moral and intellectual superiority.
Like the Ahmansons, old man Hunt thought he could improve upon American-style democracy. He wrote a utopian novel called Alpaca which outlined his scheme of the way things ought to be. In an ideal state (Hunt felt), the rich would get four votes, while a young person of modest means would get but one.
Hunt believed in his book, which received wide distribution and advertisement. Did he convince Carolyn that his ideas had merit? And could that indoctrination have had any bearing on her later investment in ES&S?
The Hunt family tends to assoicate with people who are even less fond of democracy. William Herbert and Nelson Bunker Hunt provided start-up money for the Council on National Policy, a far-right power group devoted to such lovely causes as eugenics. Their associates included prominent post-WWII fascist Karol Sitko as well as various associates of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, who has made no secret of his theocratic ambitions. I have no knowledge that Carolyn ever had any link to this unsavory organization.
Still..one wonders... URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/
08.Nov.2004 Perfect numbers From the Daily Kos: The votes are still being counted in Ohio. If the provisional ballots narrow the gap to a point where fraud could've cost us the election, the Democrats and Kerry will fight. Fraud did not cost us 120,000 votes. However, if that narrows to 30-40,000 votes, then that changes things significantly. I cannot agree. From the point of view of a compu-vote fraudster, a 120,000 vote margin is perfect for Ohio. A much higher number would not have been believable, while a significantly lower number might have triggered calls for a recount.
We can apply the same principle to the nationwide popular vote margin. It's wide enough to spur talk of a mandate, but not so wide as to seem impossible. If I were tinkering with the tallies, these are the margins I would pick. URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/
08.Nov.2004 Oh...and remember Robert Nelson, the satellite imaging expert from JPL whose photo analyses did much to legitimize this story? Reliable word has it that forces "on high" have pressured him to keep his mouth shut. Something about a cut-off of funding. Gosh. Now why would that happen, if the bulge was just a bullet-proof vest? URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/
08.Nov.2004 And perhaps you could find out why Bush would wear a bullet-proof vest while debating Kerry, testifying before the 11.Sep.2004 commission + lighting a menorah in the White House - even though he wore just a shirt (with rolled-up sleeves) to address large crowds at an outdoor rally? Did W really fear that one of those Jewish kids visiting the White House might pull a Jack Ruby? URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/
08.Nov.2004 Bulge-gate: This story never dies -- it just becomes odder URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/ URL: https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-326975,00.html
08.Nov.2004 Die Forscher wollen die aktuellen Ergebnisse mit Magnetresonanzbildern vergleichen, die 00.000.1988 von Peeks Neuropsychiater Dan Christensen an der University of Utah angefertigt wurden. "Peeks Gehirn und seine Fähigkeiten sind nicht nur einzigartig, sondern er scheint auf seinen Spezialgebieten mit zunehmendem Alter auch immer besser zu werden", erklärt Richard Boyle, der am Ames Research Center der Nasa die aktuelle Untersuchung leitet.
Peek hat als "Mega-Savant" nicht nur auf einem, sondern gleich auf 15 Gebieten außergewöhnliche Fähigkeiten - von Geschichte über Literatur + Geografie bis hin zu Musik + Mathematik. Auf anderen Gebieten hat er dagegen Schwächen. So gilt er etwa als unfähig, zu Hause die Besteckschublade zu finden oder sich ohne Hilfe anzukleiden.
08.Nov.2004 40-Stunden-Woche: Wirtschaftsforscher für Ausdehnung der Arbeitszeit 08.Nov.2004 Krebsoperation: Eierstock in den Oberarm verpflanzt 08.Nov.2004 Iran: Ajatollahs planen Abschreckungsmanöver 08.Nov.2004 Havarie: Tanker blockiert Suez-Kanal 08.Nov.2004 Sarkawi-Aufruf: "Oh, Volk, der Krieg hat begonnen" 08.Nov.2004 Geniales Gehirn: Nasa durchleuchtet den "Rain Man" 08.Nov.2004 Bush-Messer: Verlorene Wetten (Politik, 12:21)
Neue Theorie: Kohlefeuer soll "Titanic"-Katastrophe ausgelöst haben 08.Nov.2004 Irak: Großangriff auf Falludscha hat begonnen URL: https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-326924,00.html
08.Nov.2004 What the Democratic Party needs above all is a clear message and a bold and compelling candidate. The message has to convince Americans that they would be better off following a progressive Democratic vision of the future. The candidate has to be a person of integrity capable of earning the respect and the affection of the American people.
This is doable. Al Gore and John Kerry were less than sparkling candidates + both came within a hair of defeating Mr. Bush.
What the Democrats don't need is a candidate who is willing to shape his or her values to fit the pundits' probably incorrect analysis of the last election. Values that pivot on a dime were not really values to begin with.
URL: https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-326924,00.html
08.Nov.2004 I haven't heard any of the postelection commentators talk about ignorance and its effect on the outcome. URL: https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-326924,00.html
08.Nov.2004 I think a case could be made that ignorance played at least as big a role in the election's outcome as values. A recent survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found that nearly 70 percent of President Bush's supporters believe the U.S. has come up with "clear evidence" that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda. A third of the president's supporters believe weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. And more than a third believe that a substantial majority of world opinion supported the U.S.-led invasion.
This is scary. How do you make a rational political pitch to people who have put that part of their brain on hold? No wonder Bush won.
The survey + an accompanying report, showed that there's a fair amount of cluelessness in the ranks of the values crowd. The report said, "It is clear that supporters of the president are more likely to have misperceptions than those who oppose him." URL: https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-326924,00.html
08.Nov.2004 Opinion- Voting Without the Facts
Ignorance might have played as big a role in the election's outcome as values. By BOB HERBERT The so-called values issue, at least as it's being popularly tossed around, is overrated.
Last week's election was extremely close and a modest shift in any number of factors might have changed the outcome. If the weather had been better in Ohio. ... If the wait to get into the voting booth hadn't been so ungodly long in certain Democratic precincts. ... Or maybe if those younger voters had actually voted. ... 08.Nov.2004 Interview mit palästinensischem Abgeordneten: "Arafats Abwesenheit bringt Israel in Bedrängnis" 08.Nov.2004 Niederlande: Bombe explodiert vor muslimischer Schule 08.Nov.2004 Opinion: Voting Without the Facts 08.Nov.2004 Neonazi-Demos: Polizeigewerkschaft warnt vor tödlicher Gewalt 08.Nov.2004 Palästinenser: "Sie versuchen, Arafat lebendig zu begraben" URL: https://www.unknownnews.net/040716a-te.html
16.Jul.2004 Country for sale, slightly used, inquire within -by Tess Ellis , Unknown News
URL: https://www.unknownnews.net/040716a-te.html
00.000.2002 the Carlyle group was looking for alternatives sources for oil, as Saudi money grew scarce. They began discussions with the Russians, who made promises of $50 million in investment money + were willing to negotiate. Not for oil. Norlisk nickel wanted to purchase controlling interest in Stillwater mining.
As negotiations moved forward, stock in Stillwater mining plummeted because investors thought the selling price was too low. 00.000.2003 -in spring-to wrap things up- President Bush paid a visit to Putin to discuss the transaction+ the parties involved met again with Dick Cheney Potanin was appointed to the Carlyle group's energy board, gained access to the New York Stock exchange + now controls more than 51% of the world's Palladium.
Enter James Baker III (who's strangely listed on the White House payroll as making $0), long time Bush family associate, from the lobbying firm Baker/Bott. Thanks to his expert reptilian skills, the sale of our only in country source of what could turn out to be a valuable national treasure sailed through three different regulatory commissions + skated past the "Defense Production act", becoming final in record time. URL: https://www.unknownnews.net/Fiyouzat1103.htm
08.Nov.2004 In view of the fact that the genocidal and omnicidal (killing of all living things) impact of the US and the UK's military tactics in using uranium munitions are denied daily, while the clinical and the criminal evidence piles higher and higher + while other more 'mundane' atrocities are becoming normalized, we must think of what lies ahead for those exposed to uranium munitions. As a result of the unprecedented proliferation of uranium munitions by the US and the UK military forces in the Gulf region between 1991 and August 2004, Terry Jemison of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs has reported that 518,739 soldiers returning from the Gulf region in that 13-year period are currently on medical disability. In that same time period only 7,039 were injured on the battlefield. Sixty five percent of the post-war babies born to a group of 400 returning soldiers were born with severe deformities - missing brains, missing eyes, arms and legs and other organs (from, "Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets : A death sentence here and abroad , " by Leuren Moret , San Francisco Bay View, August 18, 2004). That is not counting the human cost of soldiers who will never return, nor the tortured souls who will return to shattered lives. The families of the military personnel being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan must be told this. It is everybody's duty to inform them of this atrocity being committed against them by their own government, which qualifies as a war crime. Just as much an atrocity as being sent into harm's way to secure no-bid contracts for Halliburton, Bechtel, the Carlyle Group, and assorted oil, banking + construction cartels.
And the reports are clear that the bad boys in the big business of war are aware of the growing opposition to uranium weapons from US citizens + are therefore currently outsourcing the manufacturing of uranium into munitions to Belgium and South Africa.
URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2004/10/good-conspiracies-bad-conspiracies.html
08.Nov.2004 conspiracy theories offered by left-wingers:
1. The CIA aids -- or at least overlooks the activities of -- drug kingpins useful to the Agency . The CIA had always denied this claim until a few years ago, when the Inspector General released a report which (in its unheralded second half) confirmed some of our worst fears. For further reading: The Politics of Heroin by Alfred McCoy, Cocaine Politics by Peter Dale Scott + Acid Dreams by Martin A. Lee.
2. Watergate. Would Dick Nixon use spooks and Cuban operatives to spy on rivals? At one time, only the most paranoid Democrats would have answered yes.
3. Were hard rightists within the intel community behind the assassinations of the 1960s (JFK, RFK, MLK)? There’s no way I can summarize here the many arguments that have gone back and forth on this topic.
4. The CIA’s mind control experiments. In the 1960s, this was a rumor few dared to credit. In the 1970s, a small flood of documents on Project MKULTRA proved the point.
5. October Surprise. Did key members of the Reagan campaign make a secret deal to keep the American hostages in Iranian hands until Carter lost the election? Establishment pundits cackled at this notion. We haven’t heard much cackling since the allegation was confirmed by French intelligence chieftain Alexandre de Marenches, Russian prime minister Sergei V. Stepashin, Israeli secret agent Ari Ben-Menashe, former Iranian president Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat + former Israeli prime minister Yitshak Shamir.
6. Was the Soviet military threat inflated? In the 1970s, left-wingers who made this suggestion were mocked. We now know that when the CIA’s main analysts provided data the hawks found insufficiently useful, George H.W. Bush assembled a “Team B” which churned out hyperbolic assessments of the USSR’s armaments.
7. Yamashita’s gold. Did the Japanese hide an astonishing cache of loot during World War II? And has that loot funded right-wing activities in more recent times? Don’t answer until you’ve read the books of Sterling Seagrave.
8. The CIA and the Nazis. Did the Agency rely on such unsavory characters as Hitler’s spy Reinhard Gehlen? Did Gehlen and company manipulate our view of the cold war? A number of books, including Christopher Simpson’s Blowback, have substantiated an idea once considered mere fable.
9. Did the Bush family do business with Nazis before, during and after the war? Yes – and the scandal goes far beyond what you will read in Kitty Kelley’s bestseller. John Buchanan has the documentation.
10. Did George W. Bush invade Iraq under false premises in order to grab dwindling oil resources? Most Americans deride this notion. Most Iraqis don’t.
I emphasize once again that the above lists represent nothing more than the first ten “right-wing” and “left-wing” theories that popped into my noggin.
Even so, I think most people would agree that list numero uno contains a greater number of outrageous and untrue notions than you’ll find on list number two. The left-wing theorists have a far from perfect batting average, but they often hit at least a double, while their reactionary counterparts rarely manage to get on base. More importantly, the left-wing theorists usually try to construct an argument based on evidence, while their rightist analogs tend to eschew footnotes in favor of high decibel levels and appeals to emotion.
Black helicopters? Post-mortum Elvis sightings? Those are red-state beliefs.
Theorists on both sides, alas, tend toward name-calling whenever any scoffer assails a much-beloved thesis. I would argue that the right-wingers are a little quicker to calumniate + much nastier in their opprobrium. I will also admit that on both sides of the aisle, the conspiratorial viewpoint tends to transform adherents into creatures who are obsessed, insular, anti-social and just plain unpleasant.
Bottom line: Whenever someone decries “mystery bulge” allegations (or similar claims) as the stuff of conspiracy theory, you can counter by pointing out that not all theories are created equal. Many have proven risible; some have contained a measure of truth. Although the left-leaning theorists have proven all too capable of wild leaps and foolish presumptions (my own fallibilities remain on humiliating display in previous postings to this column), they have nevertheless amassed the better track record. They don’t ask for immediate credence – just a hearing.
/good-conspiracies-bad-conspiracies.html # posted by Joseph : 3:14 PM Comments: Really thoughtful post, nicely done.
/good-conspiracies-bad-conspiracies.html#109823531725080566 # URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2004/10/good-conspiracies-bad-conspiracies.html
08.Nov.2004 8. The China/Soviet split was a fraud! So, at least, ran a theory popular within certain CIA circles throughout the 1960s. The prime mover behind this idea was counterintelligence chieftain James Jesus Angleton, a patriotic paranoid who nearly destroyed the agency he had hoped to serve.
URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2004/10/good-conspiracies-bad-conspiracies.html
08.Nov.2004 5. The Illuminati controls the world! Actually, the Illuminati was an anti-royalist society in Bavaria, squelched by the same Emperor played by Jeffrey Jones in Amadeus.
6. Was the Holocaust a hoax? In a word: No.
URL: https://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan04/Nimmo0103.htm
08.Nov.2004 In an apparently ludicrous turn of events, the FBI warned local law enforcement across the country to be on the lookout for the latest al-Qaeda manual -- the Farmer's Almanac. "The FBI is warning police nationwide to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books covering everything from abbreviations to weather trends could be used for terrorist planning," reports the Bush Ministry of Disinformation, Fox News Division. "It urged officers to watch during searches, traffic stops and other investigations for anyone carrying almanacs, especially if the books are annotated in suspicious ways." "The practice of researching potential targets is consistent with known methods of Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations that seek to maximize the likelihood of operational success through careful planning," added the FBI. If the police discover anything "suspicious," they are to report it immediately to their local Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), according to the FBI bulletin released on Christmas Eve. JTTFs are new and relatively unknown. They are essentially the FBI's vanguard -- a crucial and emerging link between the FBI, various federal agencies, state law enforcement + local police departments. The JTTF concept originally "began with 11 members from the NYPD and 11 FBI investigators," explains the Law Enforcement Agency Resource Network. "Today's task force, 1 of 16 nationwide, includes more than 140 members representing numerous federal and local agencies, such as the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the New York State Police, the NewYork/New Jersey Port Authority Police Department, and the U.S. Secret Service." In other words, the connecting tissue of the evolving surveillance state. "All agencies participating in the JTTF sign a formal memorandum of understanding that clearly states the task force's two objectives... reactive: to respond to and investigate terrorist incidents or terrorist-related criminal activity and... proactive: to investigate domestic and foreign terrorist groups and individuals targeting or operating within the New York metropolitan area for the purpose of detecting, preventing, and prosecuting their criminal activity." JTTFs soon sprouted up all over the country. "The joint terrorism tasks forces are chaired in 56 regions of the country by the FBI + those task forces include members of other federal agencies, such as INS, Customs, AFT + CIA, as well as state and local law enforcement. Homeland security would be included as well," noted FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III last month. "The importance of these task forces is that they have transformed a federal counter-terrorism effort into a national effort, creating a force multiplier effect, and indeed providing effective real time information sharing among the participants." In other words, a federally coordinated police force integrating elements of the military, the CIA, numerous federal agencies, and nearly every police department in the nation. On March 4, Mueller told the Senate's Committee on the Judiciary that eventually 27,000 federal, state + local law enforcement personnel would receive "specialized counterterrorism training," presumably with the help of the CIA. A few weeks after Mueller was talking up JTTFs before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, a bill (HR 3439) was introduced in Congress designed to "promote the sharing of personnel between Federal law enforcement agencies and other public law enforcement agencies + for other purposes." Section 4 of this legislation will "detail any employee within the Central Intelligence Agency" to state and local law enforcement. In other words, your local police department may not only be working in tandem with the CIA, individual officers will also be "deputized" and answerable directly to the CIA. In order to do this, the bill will amend the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 and its long regretted (and often violated) restriction on domestic activities. "We have increased the operational integration between the CIA and FBI since 9/11," noted Mueller in an FBI press release. "From my daily morning briefings with CIA officers and George Tenet to the widespread assignment of executives, Agents, and analysts between the two agencies since 9/11, the FBI and the CIA have become integrated at virtually every level of our operations." All of this follows the CIA's installation of analysts and covert action operatives in "each of the 56 FBI field offices in the United States" last year, according to the AP. The CIA claimed their agents would only serve only as "conduits of information," providing law enforcement with "distilled intelligence" from the CIA. But a spokesman also indicated members of the CIA's "operational branch" were among those being assigned to the domestic FBI offices -- in other words, "operatives responsible for carrying out dirty tricks ranging from election rigging to assassinations," as the AP characterized it. HR 3439 is so important it was immediately referred to the House committees on intelligence and the judiciary. One of the two sponsors of the bill is Rep. Martin Frost (D-TX). Frost represents a district in Dallas-Forth Worth and is the ranking Democrat on the House Rules Committee. He served previously on the House Select Committee on Homeland Security and is tight with major defense contractors such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. In Portland, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon was so concerned about the COINTELPRO-like aspects of JTTF operations they urged the Portland city council to enact "safeguards and insist that they apply to FBI agents, Portland Police and other members of the Task Force," according to the ACLU's Oregon web page. In essence, "Portland police officers are under the sole control and instruction of federal agents," apparently now including the CIA's operational branch. Meanwhile, on October 15, the ACLU filed suit against Denver, Colorado, seeking disclosure of a document that sets out the terms of the Denver Police Department's participation in the FBI's JTTF. Back in May the FBI admitted tapping into the Denver Police Department's surveillance files and also confirmed it had sought information on activists attending a protest rally in Colorado Springs. "None of the files contained reports of violence, disruptiveness or lawlessness," reported Mike McPhee of the Denver Post. "In some cases, names were recorded of people who merely testified in support of legislation, or of African-American citizens who gathered to demand that more black professional athletes, particularly Denver Broncos, get more involved in community issues... In other cases, police recorded license plate numbers of people outside a mosque during a worship ceremony." "An FBI anti-terrorism agent asked Springs police to provide him with the vehicle license-plate numbers of environmentalists who were picketing a timber-industry gathering at The Broadmoor hotel," reports the Colorado Springs Independent. "For civil libertarians, the incident and other recently surfaced evidence conjure up memories of the days when the FBI routinely spied on political dissidents [COINTELPRO] -- a practice that was condemned and officially ended following congressional hearings in 1976." The Denver police also provided the FBI with files from the Multi-Agency Group Intelligence Conferences, or MAGIC, a confab of federal and state agencies as well as approximately 20 law enforcement agencies from four states. According to the Denver Post, the MAGIC agenda list includes discussions of "extremist groups," such as the American Indian Movement, environmentalists, animal rights groups + other organizations presumptuous enough to actually exercise their rights as guaranteed by the Constitution. "Last Spring, Denver settled the Spy Files lawsuit and agreed it would stop collecting information about peaceful protesters who have no connection to criminal activity," said ACLU Legal Director Mark Silverstein. "The FBI, however, is not bound by the same restrictions, especially now that recently-relaxed FBI guidelines make it even easier for the agency to gather information on peaceful political activity. This raises the question whether Denver intelligence officers assigned to work full time for the JTTF must abide by Denver's new intelligence policy, or whether they are permitted to operate under the FBI rules that are much less protective of civil liberties." The FBI and its associated JTTFs are in the process of analyzing the information they receive from local law enforcement -- and much of it has nothing to do with al-Qaeda or Muslim miscreants. In fact, the FBI ignored leads and stymied investigations of al-Qaeda. Case in point: Zacarias Moussaoui. Even though French intelligence warned the FBI that Moussaoui was possibly connected to al-Qaeda, the agency did not take action or bother to question him. After the WTC and Pentagon lay in smoldering ruins, FBI agent Coleen Rowley wrote a thirteen page letter to Robert Mueller chastising the agency for not arresting Moussaoui prior to 9/11. John O'Neill, director of counterterrorism at the FBI office in New York, was so frustrated by the FBI's obstructing any serious al-Qaeda investigation that he consented to several interviews with Jean-Charles Brisardand and Guillaume Dasquié, authors of the controversial book "Ben Laden: La Vérité interdite" ( Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth ). O'Neill accuses the Bushites and the FBI of implementing a high-level intelligence block in order to protect business relationships between the Saudi royal family, the Taliban + the Bush family. And then there's FBI agent Robert Wright. According to an LA Weekly story published in August 2002, Wright informed his superiors of the existence of alleged terrorist training camps in Chicago and Kansas City connected to the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. Instead of taking action, the FBI silenced Wright. The FBI is attempting to squelch the publication of a book manuscript authored by Wright. "The FBI continues to illegally refuse the release of ... Wright’s 500 page manuscript, 'Fatal Betrayals of the Intelligence Mission,' that... Wright submitted for prepublication review in October 2001," writes Judicial Watch in a press release. "In fact, the FBI refused to turn the manuscript over to Sen. Richard C. Shelby, Vice Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, charged with investigating the FBI’s intelligence failures." No such hesitation exists when the FBI investigates progressives. "The FBI puts far more resources and energy into neutralizing political opponents, activists and whistle blowers than it does into stopping real terrorism," writes Charles Amsellem for LA's IndyMedia. On November 23, Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times revealed a classified FBI memo advising "local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads," in other words the JTTFs. The FBI collected information on the tactics, training, and organization of antiwar demonstrators, ostensibly to control "extremist elements" plotting violence. It stressed the snooping was not for the purpose of monitoring the political speech of lawful protesters. "Routine spying on dissidents is a sign of a police state + unless we stop this administration's cavalier attitude towards fundamental rights we face a serious threat to our democracy," warned Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Routine spying on political enemies is the FBI's raison d'être. In fact, the FBI's predecessor, the Department of Investigation, spent much of its time rounding up draft resisters during World War I and conducting illegal dragnet arrests of tens of thousands of anarchists, socialists + labor activists. Nothing much has changed over the years, even though Hollywood likes to portray the FBI as an agency concerned with protecting Americans from the likes Al Capone, John Dillinger + John Gotti. "Even before September 11, the government was running COINTELPRO-style operations against a coalition of radical labor, environmental, and human rights organizations opposed to corporate control of the global economy," writes Jim Redden, author of Snitch Culture: How Citizens Are Turned into the Eyes and Ears of the State. "The truth is, there's a long and sordid history of government operatives committing the very crimes they are supposed to prevent and setting up dissidents with phony charges." 30.May 2002 AG Ashcroft effectively abolished restrictions on FBI surveillance, gutting guidelines created by the Ford Administration after the Church Committee, led by Idaho senator Frank Church, discovered widespread constitutional abuses under COINTELPRO. 30.May 2002 -at the time- Sen. Church declared "The American people need to be reassured that never again will an agency of the government be permitted to conduct a secret war against those citizens it considers a threat to the established order,". Ashcroft + the Bushites have effectively trashed the idea that people exercising First Amendment rights of freedom of speech, press, religion, + assembly should not investigated without probable cause. Indeed, the Bushites are conducting "a secret war against those citizens [the Bushites consider] a threat to the established order." David Cohen, a former chief of the CIA's covert operations division, was hired in the wake of 11.Sep.2001 to run New York City's intelligence unit. He immediately set out to eviscerate the Handschu agreement, a set of guidelines established in 1985 as a result of a 1971 class-action lawsuit filed by political activists who accused NYC's notorious Red Squad and BOSS -- the NYPD's Bureau of Strategic Services -- of using dossiers + undercover cops against constitutionally protected dissent. 13.Feb.2003 a federal judge overturned the agreement. Cohen went after Handschu in the wake of an earlier ruling by a federal court that had weakened similar guidelines in Chicago. Guidelines were put in place after revelations detailing more than 500 FBI black bag jobs + aggressive police surveillance + harassment of political opponents of the mayor. "Police went to our fundraisers + recorded license plate numbers," Harvey Grossman, director of the ACLU's Illinois office, told the Washington Post last year. "They kept voluminous files on the NAACP + the League of Women Voters. This is a history we ought not to forget." Resurgent Red Squads + police intelligence units all across the country are now working directly with the FBI + the JTTFs + the Ministry of Homeland Security+ the neighborly folks over at the CIA. in the 1960s -As author Jonathan Vankin notes,-the CIA infiltrated police departments around USA country + trained officers in clandestine methods. According to Verne Lyon, a former CIA undercover operative, the CIA "used its contacts with local police departments + their intelligence units to pick up its 'police skills' + began in earnest to pull off burglaries + illegal entries, use of explosives, criminal frame-ups, shared interrogations + disinformation [against domestic political groups]. CIA teams purchased sophisticated equipment for many starved police departments + in return got to see arrest records + suspect lists + intelligence reports. Many large police departments, in conjunction with the CIA, carried out illegal, warrantless searches of private properties." The FBI, on the other hand, worked mostly above board with police departments to neutralize political enemies. "A striking feature of Hoover's approach to political spying was the close coordination between the FBI + local police departments," explains Earl Ofari Hutchinson of Pacific News Service. "This was apparent when the FBI launched deadly search + destroy missions jointly with local police in several cities in 1969 against the Black Panther Party." 11.Sep.2001 -Since- the CIA + FBI + Justice Department + Internal Revenue Service + postal + customs + immigration inspectors, + the Ministry of Homeland Security work together as an integrated national police force. As well, the Pentagon's Northern Command + the Ministry of Homeland Security have created domestic intelligence departments. Look no further than COINTELPRO and Operation CHAOS to understand the preferred modus operandi. Particularly worrisome is the unchecked participation of the CIA, notorious for its organizational élan in regard to coups, death squads + studious compilation of "subversive" hit + disappearance lists for use by sadistic thugs + dictators in such far-flung places as Chile, Turkey, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, El Salvador + elsewhere. 00.000.1983 USA CIA published the "Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual," Orwellian doublespeak for a torture how-to book spelling out methods used in Honduras against labor organizers + indigenous rights activists. Like the Geheime Staatspolizei, or Gestapo, in Nazi Germany, the Bush organized national police and military force will eventually predominate all aspects of law enforcement and federal regulation. It will not answer to the people and will not be subject to public oversight. Its abuses and constitutional violations may never again face the light of day before a Church Committee. As absurd as the latest FBI mandate sent to 18,000 police organizations to be on the lookout for "terrorists" bearing copies of the Farmer's Almanac may seem, it is an example how the Bushites are working hand-in-glove with local law enforcement (and state and federal agencies) in a coordinated effort to manufacture a police state of truly monumental and technologically sophisticated proportions. The Bush police state target is nominally al-Qaeda, a largely mythical organization created by the CIA now serving as a convenient bogeyman for both domestic and international purposes. It is mostly an Emmanuel Goldstein scheme designed to anger and spook the public and allow the Bushites to push agenda of military expansion abroad and police state repression at home. It's not a cardboard and stage managed al-Qaeda the Bushites have in their sights trained on, but rather the progressive movements of America, traditional adversaries of the reactionary police state and the ruling elite it represents. 07.Nov.2004 But even if Saddam is tracked down and cornered, the US will make sure he never faces justice. For as foreign affairs analyst Eric Margolis has noted, "Dead dictators tell no tales." Considering Saddam was in bed with the CIA and several US presidents -- including Dubya's daddy -- the mission to kill him is an especially urgent piece of unfinished business. URL: https://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles7/Nimmo_Saddam-CIA.htm
07.Nov.2004 The disingenuous Colin Powell is free to stand before the American people and use picturesque (if inappropriately childish) nouns to describe Saddam Hussein -- who was, not long ago, that is before he outlived his usefulness and fell from grace, our man in Baghdad -- and questions that should be obvious, especially for supposedly educated journalists, are never asked: is it possible that a large number of our current problems in the Middle East and elsewhere stem directly from US support of repressive and murderous regimes? Is it also possible there will not be peace in the Middle East so long as the United States unconditionally supports Israel and pays for the unconscionable theft of Palestinian land? Do you think providing the CIA with new powers -- both abroad and at home -- will make the world a more secure and less violent place? URL: https://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles7/Nimmo_Saddam-CIA.htm
07.Nov.2004 In April of this year, however, as Bush was knee-deep into his invasion of Iraq, the UPI ran a story about Saddam's connection to the CIA. The story came and went. It was buried beneath a tidal wave of anti-Saddam propaganda and hysterical distortion unleashed by the Bushites and parroted by an obedient corporate media. Prior to the UPI story, Roger Morris, a former National Security Council staffer in the 1970s, confirmed that the Ba'ath Party now so reviled by average Americans was essentially installed by the CIA in 1963 in response to the Iraqi leader General Abd al-Karim Qasim, a bloody dictator who backed out of the anti-Soviet Baghdad Pact and talked about nationalizing Iraq's oil industry. "We came to power on a CIA train," admitted Ali Saleh Sa'adi, Ba'ath Party secretary general at the time. As James Critchfield, then head of the CIA in the Middle East, told Andrew and Patrick Cockburn ("Out of the Ashes, The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein," 2000), the CIA regarded the Ba'athist coup against Qasim "a great victory" and also considered it their favorite coup. URL: https://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles7/Nimmo_Saddam-CIA.htm
07.Nov.2004 In fact, Saddam is no better or worse than any number of dictators past or present. General Augusto Pinochet, Ferdinand Marcos, General Suharto, Anastasio Somoza, Pol Pot -- these are a few of the bloody dictators responsible for the death of literally millions of people (Pol Pot was responsible for the slaughter of 1.5 million people, Suharto 500,000 or more). These are dictators the United States either supported directly or indirectly over the years. In general, the American people know nothing about these sadists and murderous thugs or how their government supported them. If Saddam is indeed "a piece of trash," as Powell claims, it is an indisputable fact that he is trash created by the United States. Saddam was almost entirely a Frankenstein creation of the CIA. This is a fact backed up by more than one US government official and documented in several books. And yet, if you were to ask the average American if he or she finds it possible Saddam Hussein was groomed, financed + supported by the CIA beginning with president John F. Kennedy -- who signed off on plan to overthrow the government of Iraq in 1963 -- chances are they wouldn't believe it. After all, we're the good guys, we do good in the world -- and that's why we're now attempting to track down Hussein and bring him to justice. It's all about liberating the Iraqi people and throwing off this sadistic butcher -- or so the Bushites want us to believe. The Saddam-CIA story is out there, easy enough to find. In order to find it, simply point your browser at Google and enter the following search criteria: "Saddam CIA coup." Most of the results returned link to articles and news items reporting how the CIA attempted to overthrow Hussein several times since the first Gulf invasion. ABC, Time, MSNBC, USA Today + other mainstream publications carry many of these stories. URL: https://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles7/Nimmo_Saddam-CIA.htm URL: https://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan04/Nimmo0131.htm
07.Nov.2004 22:4 In November, in an effort to head off a move toward an independent investigation, Senate Republicans accused the Democrats of attempting to damage Bush politically in an election year and derail a Senate bi-partisan investigation currently underway. "Some Democrat leaders are flirting with treason while the Republicans are acting like a bunch of sissies," complained an unnamed "top figure" from the so-called national-security community. In other words, merely calling for an independent investigation is a form of treason, an effort to "destroy the nation's wartime Republican president," as J. Michael Waller characterized it last December in Insight magazine. How best to deal with seditious Democrats? "Lincoln’s policy was to have treasonous federal lawmakers arrested and tried before military tribunals + exiled or hanged if convicted," Waller explained. No doubt it is a solution Bush and the neocons can live with. If Bush is not called to answer for his lies before the election, then he will never be called to answer. If he wins re-election, the neocons will continue their plans to invade in piecemeal fashion the whole of the Arab Middles East. OSP will become a permanent fixture. So will murderous lies. 31.Jan.2004 https://www.dissidentvoice.org/ URL: https://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan04/Nimmo0131.htm
URL: https://www.dissidentvoice.org/Jan04/Nimmo0131.htm
07.Nov.2004 Other Articles by Kurt Nimmo * The Sharon-Rumsfeld Plan: Going after Hezbollah
* Bush and the Supreme Court: Going After the Bill of Rights
* Saddam's Defense: Call Bush Senior to the Stand
* Bush's Police State: Going After the Left, Not al-Qaeda * Bogus Terror Threats and Bush's Police State
* No More Mr. Nice Guy: Bush Gets Serious About Killing Iraqis
* Newt Gingrich: Growing the Dictatorship in Iraq
* Bush Ministry of Disinformation Editor Gets "Freedom" Medal * Zionism's Useful Idiots
* No Apologies for Wolfowitz the Microbe
* Sailor-Mongering Civil Disobedience: The Justice Dept.’s War Against Greenpeace * Criticizing Zionism: Naked Anti-Semitism?
* Shock Therapy and the Israel Scenario * Cuba and the "Necessary Viciousness" of the Bushites * Imperial Sociopaths * Bush's Speech: Internationalizing the Whirlwind
* The Imam Ali Mosque Bombing: Round Up the Usual Suspects * Iraq's WMD: The Lie that Will Never Die * UN Bombing: Terrorism or National Liberation? * Saddam Hussein: Taking Out the CIA's Trash * The Bug Exterminator Goes to Jerusalem * Bread, Circuses, Uday and Qusay 07.Nov.2004 Irak: US-Streitkräfte kesseln Falludscha ein URL: https://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=9844
07.Nov.2004 »Osama bin Laden and the 'October surprise' 07.Nov.2004 Elfenbeinküste: Hetzjagd auf französische Bürger (Politik, 19:17) Reaktionen: Blankes Entsetzen bei Atomkraftgegnern URL: https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,druck-326859,00.html
07.Nov.2004 Der so genannte Sturm auf den Winterpalast in St. Petersburg, der 1917 den Sieg der Bolschewiki über die bürgerliche Regierung besiegelte, fand nach dem damals in Russland gültigen Julianischen Kalender in der Nacht vom 24.-25. Oktober statt. Nach dem später eingeführten Gregorianischen Kalender fällt dieses Datum auf den 07.+08.Nov. URL: https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,druck-326859,00.html
07.Nov.2004 "Der Tag der Oktoberrevolution war und ist ein herausragendes Ereignis und kann nicht abgeschafft werden", sagte Gennadi Sjuganow, Vorsitzender der Kommunistischen Partei. "Die Menschen haben für diesen Feiertag gelitten. Niemand hat das Recht, auf unserer Geschichte herumzutrampeln", zitierte ihn die Nachrichtenagentur ITAR-Tass. Laut einer Umfrage des Romir-Instituts sind 77 Prozent der Russen für die Beibehaltung des Revolutionstages.
URL: https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/0,1518,druck-326859,00.html
07.Nov.2004 Moskau - Mit Demonstrationen und Kundgebungen haben tausende Menschen in Russland und den ehemaligen Sowjetrepubliken den 87. Jahrestag der Oktoberrevolution begangen. In Moskau zogen mehr als 8000 Menschen mit sowjetischen Flaggen und einem riesigen Porträt des Revolutionsführers Wladimir Lenin durch die Stadt. Der kommunistischen Partei nahe Quellen sprechen gar von 40.000 Demonstrationsteilnehmern. Weltkriegsveteranen marschierten über den Roten Platz, gedachten der Belagerung Moskaus 1941 und legten Blumen am Grab des Unbekannten Soldaten nieder.
07.Nov.2004 Ostalgie: Russen feiern Oktoberrevolution 07.Nov.2004 Atomtransport: Castor-Zug verletzt Demonstranten tödlich 07.Nov.2004 SpaceShipOne: Kalifornier streicht zehn Millionen Dollar ein 07.Nov.2004 The Psychopaths and Fallujah Resistance: The worlds “only” superpower is posed to flatten the city of 300,000 people in order to pacify (kill) its citizens because of their opposition to US Occupation. This new massacre is sold by the Bush Administration and mainstream Western media as a “necessary step to hold election” in Iraq. Iraqi rebels invite media to "embed" in Falluja: "We will protect and transport them to the location of the events. There will be a special building for the journalists." Fallujah and the Reality of War: Will the Anti-War Movement Stand Up This Time?: The assault on Fallujah has started. It is being sold as liberation of the people of Fallujah; it is being sold as a necessary step to implementing "democracy" in Iraq. These are lies. Coalition, Iraq reject Annan's warning letter: The United States, Britain and Iraq angrily dismissed on Friday a warning from U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan that a military offensive in the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah could jeopardize the credibility of upcoming elections in Iraq. Scholars Defend Iraqi Resistance, Prohibit Collaboration More pre-emptive strikes on the table : STRESSING the US President had a "duty to lead", George W. Bush made clear yesterday he was prepared to launch more pre-emptive strikes to protect the US even if other countries continued to disagree with his policy. 07.Nov.2004 US strikes destroys Falluja hospital : A hospital has been razed to the ground in one of the heaviest US air raids in the Iraqi city of Falluja. 07.Nov.2004 Evidence Mounts That The Vote Was Hacked : 07.Nov.2004 Nations do go crazy sometimes: The progression of symptoms we've been exhibiting here in the Good Ol' USA has entered rubber room territory” 07.Nov.2004 Mark Twain: The War Prayer: O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire Patrick Seale: And now ... 4 more years of war? : By putting George W. Bush back in the White House for four more years, the American electorate has voted for war. Motion to impeach Blair accuses him of "gross misconduct": newspaper: The Independent on Sunday said it had obtained the text of the motion from a cross-party group of MPs, adding it would be offered for debate soon after the new parliamentary session begins later this month. In case you missed it: Call it What It Is: Nazi-Style Propaganda: It is not surprising the Bush administration uses Nazi-style propaganda to resurrect long-discredited and evil Nazi doctrines like preventive war. The Fourth Reich will come to the U.S. in the name of fighting terrorism and protecting “homeland security.” 07.Nov.2004 Fallujah: Marines turn to God : Men with buzzcuts and clad in their camouflage waved their hands in the air, M-16 assault rifles beside them + chanted heavy metal-flavoured lyrics in praise of Christ late on Friday in a yellow-brick chapel. 07.Nov.2004 Arma-geddon Sick of You
Daniel Patrick Welch Bush's Sword of Damocles is poised above the people + city of Fallujah, ready to wreak the pent-up wrath his addled brain thinks his tainted election victory permits. This is the bizarre world-in-a-bubble in which most Americans reside. With a chorus of Onward, Christian Soldiers and a vapid, cheerleading press, the crusade continues unabated, as the world's revulsion continues to grow. Continued URL: https://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
07.Nov.2004 So far, the only national "mainstream" media to come close to this story was Keith Olbermann on his show Friday night, 05.Nov.2004 when he noted that it was curious that all the voting machine irregularities so far uncovered seem to favor Bush. In the meantime, the Washington Post and other media are now going through single-bullet-theory-like contortions to explain how the exit polls had failed. But I agree with Fox's Dick Morris on this one, at least in large part. Wrapping up his story for The Hill, Morris wrote in his final paragraph, "This was no mere mistake. Exit polls cannot be as wrong across the board as they were on election night. I suspect foul play." URL: https://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
07.Nov.2004 Published on Saturday, November 6, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked by Thom Hartmann When I spoke with Jeff Fisher this morning (Saturday, November 06, 2004), the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 16th District said he was waiting for the FBI to show up. Fisher has evidence, he says, not only that the Florida election was hacked, but of who hacked it and how. And not just this year, he said, but that these same people had previously hacked the Democratic primary race in 2002 so that Jeb Bush would not have to run against Janet Reno, who presented a real threat to Jeb, but instead against Bill McBride, who Jeb beat. "It was practice for a national effort," Fisher told me. And some believe evidence is accumulating that the national effort happened on November 2, 2004. The State of Florida, for example, publishes a county-by-county record of votes cast and people registered to vote by party affiliation. Net denizen Kathy Dopp compiled the official state information into a table, available at https://ustogether.org/Florida_Election.htm, and noticed something startling URL: https://michiganimc.org/feature/display/7644/index.php
07.Nov.2004 Please, fellow americans, do not surrender. I'm a spaniard + I know the feeling, that your only option is to abandon your country because a fascist government has taken control; we were almost there, before we kicked out Aznar. If things had been different, all of us that illegaly marched the day before the elections, after the Madrid bombings, would now be in jail.
Riot, riot, riot + never stop. Do not listen to the "we have to unite" lies, they just speak "you have to surrender to us".
Just to share a bit of our history...
00.Apr.1937 in the spanish civil war, there was the first bombardment over a city which had no military at all. It was the first bombardment in history over civilians. No one considered before bombing a city, but some willed to do the experiment. Guernica was selected for such accomplishment by the nazi Germany air force, a bombardment which general Franco allowed. One thousand six hundred civilians were killed + the city burnt for three days. It was supposed to be an example on what could happen if you resisted.
Nowadays, a very similar event is happening in the city called Fallujah, in Iraq. With the excuse of this phantasmal Al-Zarqawi to whom the US government grants superpowers -he kidnaps people in Baghdag, then takes them inside Fallujah *which is surrounded by US troops*, then brings the corpse back to Baghdag streets-, this city's civilians are attacked by bombers and artillery almost every day.
To bring that closer to my personal experience, when I remember the bombings in Madrid half a year ago which killed 200 people, I can't but ask me: how would it feel if I saw twenty, thirty, forty of those bombs exploding, almost every day? How would a new-yorker feel if a Twin Tower fell every single day?
There's been weeks since the last time US foot soldiers were inside Fallujah. The subversive city is to be made a blood-written example on what happens if you resist the occupation. Just the same the nazis did with Guernica.
Riot, riot, riot...
And if -I hope not- it gets to the point of no return, many of us will join you, just like the Lincoln Brigade helped us fight the fascists in 1936-1939.
But please, do not surrender to them...
Re: Outrage in Ohio: Angry residents storm State House in response to massive voter suppression + corruption URL: https://michiganimc.org/feature/display/7644/index.php
07.Nov.2004 November 3 - Toledo, Ohio Hundreds of angry Ohio residents marched through the streets of Columbus—Ohio’s Capital—this evening and stormed the Ohio State House, defying orders and arrest threats from Ohio State Troopers. "O-H-I-O ! suppressed democracy has got to go,"they chanted. After troopers pushed and scuffled with people, nearly a hundred people took over the steps and entrance to the State’s giant white column capital building and refused repeated orders to disperse or face arrest. People prepared for arrests, ready to face jail—writing lawyers phone numbers on their arms, signing jail support lists and discussing non-cooperation and active resistance (linking arms, but not fighting back). also: Photos URL: https://michiganimc.org/feature/display/7644/index.php
07.Nov.2004 Outrage in Ohio: Angry residents storm State House in response to massive voter suppression and corruption URL: https://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won.php
07.Nov.2004 Your Kerry Victory Party So we can call Ohio and New Mexico for John Kerry—if we count all the votes. But that won't happen. Despite the Democratic Party's pledge, the leadership this time gave in to racial disenfranchisement once again. Why? No doubt, the Democrats know darn well that counting all the spoiled and provisional ballots will require the cooperation of Ohio's Secretary of State, Blackwell. He will ultimately decide which spoiled and provisional ballots get tallied. Blackwell, hankering to step into Kate Harris' political pumps, is unlikely to permit anything close to a full count. Also, Democratic leadership knows darn well the media would punish the party for demanding a full count. What now? Kerry won, so hold your victory party. But make sure the shades are down: it may be become illegal to demand a full vote count under PATRIOT Act III. 07.Nov.2004 The narrative is this: >>What they learned for last time is that simply spoiling ballots won't get the job done. That can be detected and remedied. They need a more comprehensive plan of attack. Their plan was to reduce the number of Dems who were able to vote: long lines, faulty machines, late absentee ballot delivery, dumping college registrations, etc.. But in ways that defy quantification. What they added this time was also a false "turnout" on their own side. This involved pumping an extra 10-15K "votes" in counties where they could get away with it. Part of the scam was to file large numbers of false registrations. Recall they spent weeks calling this a "crime" by Dems. Why would they think is such a bad crime? It's not as if Dick Tracy was going to show up to vote. They considered this a crime because they were doing it with criminal intent. So their false turnout would not be detected. --> URL: https://blog.democrats.com/florida URL: https://bellaciao.org/en/
07.Nov.2004 The War of Error URL: https://bellaciao.org/en/
07.Nov.2004 “We control political forces, we control moral forces we control economic forces, therefore we are a full-blown Corporative state.” – Benito Mussolini [1] By William Bowles
The database state
Six million video surveillance cameras, bioemetric ID cards, transnational data interception laws + 'joined up' government. Add to this the privatisation of key state functions, all mediated by global IT corporations that are also the indispensable link in the weapons, media, pharmaceuticals + global financial networks + you have the corporate, security state 21st century style.
URL: https://bellaciao.org/en/
07.Nov.2004 Everybody in Israel is talking about the Next War. The most popular TV channel is running a whole series about it. Not another war with the Arabs. Not the nuclear threat from Iran. Not the ongoing bloody confrontation with the Palestinians... by URI AVNERY
Not another war with the Arabs. Not the nuclear threat from Iran. Not the ongoing bloody confrontation with the Palestinians. The talk is about the coming civil war.
More...If you want to answer..
01.Nov.2004 Bellaciao Collective URL: https://bellaciao.org/en/
07.Nov.2004 by Naomi Klein Less than twenty-four hours after The Nation disclosed that former Secretary of State James Baker and the Carlyle Group were involved in a secret deal to profit from Iraq's debt to Kuwait, NBC was reporting that the deal was "dead." At The Nation, we started to get calls congratulating us on costing the Carlyle Group $1 billion, the sum the company would have received in an investment from the government of Kuwait in exchange for helping to extract $27 billion of unpaid debts from Iraq.
URL: https://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won.php
07.Nov.2004 Kerry Won 04.Nov.2004 Democrats: Quo Vadis? 04.Nov.2004 The Moral Agenda 04.Nov.2004 The Day The Enlightenment Went Out 04.Nov.2004 After We Rest, We Resist 03.Nov.2004 URL: https://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4194
07.Nov.2004 Growing Collection of Vote Fraud links: ATTN Global Media. 1 comment(s). The list of evidence is growing that the US election was anything but a fair vote. Who could possibly think that all of these voting problems are just a minor aberation? The long lines are always in Democratic counties, that the computer ’glitches’ always favor Bush, and the new e-machines were made by a Bush ’Pioneer’ (top donor) that pledged to deliver for Bush. Funny how Diebold makes bank machines which print paper receipts millions of times daily, but they couldn’t get the printer to work in the voting machines.
All Europeans must recognize that this vote fraud is no laughing matter- Bush might be coming after ’old Europe’ in the future. Climate Change, senseless killing worldwide, more death and destruction in the name of profits will continue if Bush remains idiot emperor in chief. Since the US press is burying this vote fraud evidence, the world needs the reporters in Europe to help us bring this mountain of proof to light and make this an international scandal that the US media can no longer ignore.
Evidence Mounts the Vote was Hacked https://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
USA today- Machine error gives Bush 3,893 extra votes in Ohio https://tinyurl.com/65dgz
Damschroder said the malfunction occurred when one machine’s cartridge was plugged into a laptop computer + generated faulty numbers in several races.
Why is a vote cartridge being plugged into anyone’s laptop? from above story- Franklin county pdf file: https://tinyurl.com/4kq35
screenshot of page 23- cropped for bandwidth/ease, numbers remain the same <emb247|center>
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Statistically impossible coinidence of many more repub votes than registered repubs ONLY in Florida optical scan counties https://ustogether.org/Florida_Election.htm
Graph highilighting absurdity of Florida counties in above story- it looks like they just reversed the results! https://www.rubberbug.com/temp/FloridaChartsMed.jpg
Florida county anomalies discussed here https://blog.democrats.com/florida
*************************** Palm Beach Post- Broward machines count backward https://tinyurl.com/674mj
Computer Loses More Than 4,000 Early Votes https://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/11/302304.shtml
Too Many Irregularities to be coincidence https://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4175
Washington Dispatch- Palm Beach County Logs 88,000 More Votes Than Voters https://tinyurl.com/6w758
Florida Sun-Sentinel- 58,000 votes lost in heavily democratic Broward County, Florida https://tinyurl.com/4z27r
Group Finds Voting Irregularities in South https://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1105-25.htm
3 members of Congress call for an investigation https://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4188
Democracy Now- Voting Problems Widespread in Florida, Pennsylvania https://tinyurl.com/44ct9
Scrub voter rolls in NY https://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/129692/index.php
Philly voter suppression https://www.phillyimc.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/04/1613256
Ohio-not enough machines-flyer says vote wed https://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/11/301710.shtml
Links about the potential for vote fraud before the election- Where were Kerry and Edwards on this issue- NOWHERE! Consider the first article at CommonDreams above with Bev Harris demonstrating on CNBC how to fix a vote in 90 seconds... Why wasn’t the Kerry/Edwards team challenging this ridiculous system long before the election? And why did Kerry give up when he was only down by 136,000 votes in Ohio with 250,000 still to count?!
How they can fix the election via modem link to central tabulators https://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/11/301589.shtml
Global monitors find faults https://tinyurl.com/4tgva
Reasonable Doubt that the primary vote has been tampered https://www.benfrank.net/nuke/dk/primary_vote.html
imagicke.blogspot.com- huge collection of background info https://tinyurl.com/4dgpw
Take Action!
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Black Box Voting has taken the position that fraud took place in the 2004 election through electronic voting machines. We base this on hard evidence, documents obtained in public records requests, inside information + other data indicative of manipulation of electronic voting systems. What we do not know is the specific scope of the fraud. We are working now to compile the proof, based not on soft evidence -- red flags, exit polls -- but core documents obtained by Black Box Voting in the most massive Freedom of Information action in history.
We need: Lawyers to enforce public records laws. Some counties have already notified us that they plan to stonewall by delaying delivery of the records. We need citizen volunteers for a number of specific actions. We need computer security professionals willing to GO PUBLIC with formal opinions on the evidence we provide, whether or not it involves DMCA complications. We need funds to pay for copies of the evidence. https://blackboxvoting.org/ ************************ 07.Nov.2004 Shouldn’t most Republicans want a real victory, or would they be happy if their guy stole it- anything to win + stop those evil gay people from getting health care. Are they really that shallow?
I think all honest Americans know there is something fishy about both political parties backing electronic voting machines that are so open to hacking. Why should the Great USA have million dollar voting machines that don’t produce a paper trail? If the new Bush ’mandate’ is truly the will of the people, they really won the popular vote, then they shouldn’t be afraid of a little transparent auditing and hand recounts.
So many were disenfranchised by waiting in long lines, 58,000 votes LOST, name taken off voter list, etc.... I think it would be worthwhile to have a nationwide re-vote, all paper ballot and hand count. Millions of dollars to produce new ballots? Hardly- just create one ballot put it on a website and computers across the country can print the simple Bush/Kerry/Nader. Sure, Nader too, this will get the Bushies to sign on to this re-vote... but we need to also toss in a quick 50% majority to win rule- Why not Mr. Bush and fellow boner Kerry? Why wouldn’t you support a 50% or runoff rule... do you think this might give Nader a fighting chance?
It doesn’t have to take that long, just hire more counters. Imagine that we could hire millions of jobless, even if it’s temporary it’d sure be a boost to them and the economy + we could hand count every single ballot in the nation.
It is unacceptable to have longer lines in the city than in rural (republican) areas- the cities need more polling places- period.
ps- to all the name calling Republicans calling "sore loser" and "get over it"- are you afraid of a recount?
URL: https://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4194
07.Nov.2004 Bush Vs. Bin Laden: The propaganda war
07.Nov.2004 Growing Collection of Vote Fraud links: ATTN Global Media
07.Nov.2004 6 comment(s). If Republicans Want An End To Questioning The Legitemacy of Their Elected Candidates...
06.Nov.2004 8 comment(s). Quoting Molly Ivins: 06.Nov.2004 2 comment(s). Falluja & Those Mass Graves 06.Nov.2004 URGENT ACTION TO FORCE RECOUNT IN 34 STATES, GAO INVESTIGATES
06.Nov.2004 16 comment(s). ACTION TO FORCE RECOUNT IN 34 STATES -- PLEASE FAX
06.Nov.2004 1 comment(s). Republicans, ever wonder why half the country vehemently disagrees with you?
06.Nov.2004 8 comment(s). From February 2003: A Lesson Democrats Got A solid "F" On...
05.Nov.2004 Another comment of American elections
05.Nov.2004 13 comment(s). USA: the Republican island in the Democrat ocean
05.Nov.2004 8 comment(s). Palestine or Money ?
05.Nov.2004 Margaret Hassan to be Turned Over to Mythical al-Zarqawi
05.Nov.2004 World Wide Petition against the Escalation in Iraq: An initiative of the BRussells tribunal endorsed
05.Nov.2004 22 comment(s). Election 2004: Americans Endorse War, Religious Fanaticism And State Terrorism
05.Nov.2004 1 comment(s). Too many voting ’irregularities’ to be coincidence
05.Nov.2004 88 comment(s). Palestine: the assault on health and other war crimes
05.Nov.2004 4 comment(s). Tucson Police use violence against marchers
05.Nov.2004 Bush/Cheney ’04: "More votes than voters: Now THAT’S a mandate!"
05.Nov.2004 Kerry Won. Here are the Facts.
05.Nov.2004 59 comment(s). Outrage in Ohio:Angry residents storm State House in response 2 massive voter suppression & corrupt
05.Nov.2004 1 comment(s). Presidential Votes Miscast on E-Voting Machines Across the Country
05.Nov.2004 18 comment(s). The Puzzling Origins of AIDS
05.Nov.2004 1 comment(s). Interchangeable Figureheads. Selling the War on Terror
04.Nov.2004 3 comment(s). Study predicts Arctic ice melt by 2100
04.Nov.2004 1 comment(s). Election Reactions from Germany : "Our Values Systems are Separating"
04.Nov.2004 5 comment(s). Drumbeat Windows:
04.Nov.2004 Swallowing Lump Coal:
04.Nov.2004 So what happenned to everything written today?
04.Nov.2004 George Bush won the popular vote- and pigs are flying
04.Nov.2004 124 comment(s). Question For The Legalites:
04.Nov.2004 Some Thoughts For Braggarts...
04.Nov.2004 1 comment(s). Thinking of Emigration...
03.Nov.2004 7 comment(s). Kerry ’concedes defeat’
03.Nov.2004 43 comment(s). American Board of Rabbis blasts France over Arafat
03.Nov.2004 2 comment(s). Election Unresolved As Ohio Residents Fight Disenfranchisement
03.Nov.2004 12 comment(s). Converge on Columbus
03.Nov.2004 Voting irregularities in Michigan and Ohio
03.Nov.2004 1 comment(s). Osama endorses Bush
03.Nov.2004 1 comment(s). Carlyle Covers Up
03.Nov.2004 comment(s). URL: https://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4194
07.Nov.2004 To rebel is right, to disobey is a duty, to act is necessary !
URL: https://www.consortiumnews.com/index.html
07.Nov.2004 Mysterious Republican Money
House Speaker Dennis Hastert implied, without evidence, that liberal funder George Soros funnels drug money into the U.S. political process. But Republican administrations have looked the other way when facing evidence that conservative benefactor Sun Myung Moon has ties to overseas drug lords and has engaged in a long-running conspiracy to launder money. September 7, 2004 URL: https://www.consortiumnews.com/index.html
07.Nov.2004 Bush: Deceptive or Delusional?
In the presidential debate, George W. Bush resumed his practice of misrepresenting the facts about the Iraq War. It was like he flashed back to the good ol' days before his WMD allegations were disproved, raising anew the question of whether he can't separate fact from fiction or just cynically knows he can lie to the American people without consequence. October 2, 2004 URL: https://www.consortiumnews.com/index.html
07.Nov.2004 Evidence of a Second Bush Coup?
Election experts are struggling to explain why exit polls showed John Kerry winning by three percentage points when George W. Bush ended up on top by about that same margin. Some Democrats suspect that the Bush campaign may have employed CIA-style "cyber-war" techniques to manipulate the ballot results, a theoretical possibility but one that so far lacks evidentiary support. November 6, 2004 URL: https://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110604.html
02.Feb.1999 -for instance, then-CIA director George Tenet said "several countries have or are developing the capability to attack an adversary's computer systems." He added that "developing a computer attack capability can be quite inexpensive and easily concealable." Left unsaid in Tenet's statement was that the U.S. government, with the world's most powerful computers and the most sophisticated software designs, has led the way both in offensive “cyber-war” strategies and defensive countermeasures. With questions lingering about discrepancies between the Nov. 2 exit polls and Bush's final tallies, some Democrats are wondering whether the intelligence community's cyber-war capabilities may have come home to roost. URL: https://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110604.html
07.Nov.2004 Despite the Pentagon's nervousness, the booklet said the cyber-war tactics do have advantages over other military operations. "The intrusions can be carried out remotely, transcending the boundaries of time and space," the manual said. "They also offer the prospect of 'plausible deniability' or repudiation." The booklet indicated that U.S. intelligence has found it relatively easy to cover its tracks. "Due to the difficulty of tracing a network penetration to its source, it's difficult for the adversary to prove that you are the one responsible for corrupting their system," the primer said. "In fact, viral infections can be so subtle and insidious that the adversary may not even know that their systems have been attacked." Drug Scam U.S. intelligence sources described one case study of a CIA high-tech "dirty trick" that worked in the mid-1990s. After learning of a drug lord's plans to bribe a South American government official, the spy agency waited for the money to be transferred and then accessed the bank records to remotely delete the bribe. Besides stopping the bribe, the money's disappearance spread confusion within the cartel. The recriminations that followed – with the corrupt official and the drug lord complaining about the lost money – led eventually to the execution of a hapless bookkeeper, according to the story. URL: https://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110604.html
07.Nov.2004 Dirty Tricks - Another reason for suspicion about manipulation of the Nov. 2 vote is the Republican Party’s long history of electoral dirty tricks, which I detail in my book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq . 00.000.1968 Richard Nixon’s campaign reportedly sabotaged Vietnam War peace talks to help ensure his victory. 00.000.1972 Burglars working for Nixon’s reelection campaign broke into Democratic offices at Watergate. 00.000.1980 Bush [BGHW948] + other Republicans allegedly interfered with President Jimmy Carter’s negotiations to free 52 hostages held in Iran. 00.000.1992 Bush [BGHW948] ’s administration was implicated in an illegal search of Bill Clinton’s passport file. 00.000.2000 Bush [BGW968] sent a team of thugs to disrupt recounts in Florida + eventually got the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent a full counting of disputed ballots. 02.Nov.2004 -Now- the question is whether Republicans have engaged in some high-tech dirty tricks to alter the outcome of a U.S. presidential election. URL: https://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110604.html
07.Nov.2004 Much of the suspicion about Bush possibly manipulating the vote totals has centered on touch-screen electronic voting machines made by Ohio-based Diebold, which has more than 75,000 electronic voting stations operating across the United States. Diebold’s chief executive is Walden O’Dell, a major Bush fundraiser. In an invitation to one Bush fundraising event at his mansion in Columbus, O’Dell wrote that he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes for the president.” He later expressed regret at his choice of language. [16.Sep.2003 The Plain Dealer, posted at Diebold’s Web site.] One Kerry insider told me that Democratic suspicions also were raised by Republican resistance to implementing any meaningful backup system for checking the results on Diebold and other electronic-voting machines. For its part, Diebold denies that its systems are vulnerable to computer hacking, calling such allegations “fantasy.” [See Diebold’s statement.] URL: https://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110604.html
07.Nov.2004 Though there's still no proof of such a cyber-attack, suspicions are growing that the U.S. presidential election results were manipulated to some degree. Voting analyses of some precincts in Florida and Ohio have found surprisingly high percentages for Bush. Others have noted that the large turnout among young voters and the obvious enthusiasm of John Kerry’s voters would have suggested a better showing for the Democrat. Exit Polls But the most perplexing fact is that exit polls into the evening of 02.Nov.2004 showed Kerry rolling to a clear victory nationally and carrying most of the battleground states, including Florida and Ohio, whose totals would have ensured Kerry’s victory in the Electoral College. Significantly, polls also showed Republicans carrying the bulk of the tight Senate races. However, when the official results were tallied, the presidential exit polls proved wrong while the Senate polls proved right. Explanations from the architects of the exit-poll sampling system also sound specious. Their report said Kerry voters were simply more willing than Bush voters to answer the exit pollsters’ questions. But this “chattiness thesis” seems more like a post-facto excuse than a serious argument. Another explanation from some pundits was that the exit polls were adjusted by late in the day to rectify pro-Kerry exaggerations from the earlier samples. But that is not what happened. As the New York Times reported, “The presumption of a Kerry victory built a head of steam late in the day, when the national survey showed the senator with a statistically significant lead, one falling outside the survey’s margin of error.” Washington Post managing editor Steve Coll wrote in an online chat on Nov. 3 that “the last wave of national exit polls we received … showed Kerry winning the popular vote by 51 percent to 48 percent – if true, surely enough to carry the Electoral College.” [05.Nov.2004 NYT ] Through the late afternoon, exit polls did show Kerry’s lead in some swing states shrinking, For instance, his lead in Ohio slipped from four points to one point. In Florida, his lead dropped from three points to one point. However, his edge in the popular vote seems to have held fairly steady at about three percent. During the day, even Bush’s aides informed the president that he was losing the election by about three percentage points, according to a source with access to information inside the White House. But Bush’s political adviser Karl Rove reportedly voiced confidence that the vote would turn around. By evening, Bush was displaying a cool confidence that he would prevail. Irregularities Since Election Day, some computer irregularities have surfaced in Ohio and elsewhere. Ohio elections officials said an error with an electronic voting system in Franklin County gave Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, more than a 1,000 percent more than he actually got. Records indicated that only 638 voters cast ballots in the precinct and that Bush's total should have been recorded as 365. The Associated Press reported that Franklin County is the only Ohio county to use Danaher Controls Inc.'s ELECTronic 1242, an older-style touch-screen voting system. Much of the suspicion about Bush possibly manipulating the vote totals has centered on touch-screen electronic voting machines made by Ohio-based Diebold, which has more than 75,000 electronic voting stations operating across the United States. URL: https://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110604.html
06.Nov.2004 Evidence of a Second Bush Coup? Theoretically at least, it is conceivable that sophisticated CIA-style computer hacking – known as “cyber-warfare” – could have let George W. Bush’s campaign transform a three-percentage-point defeat, as measured by exit polls, into an official victory of about the same margin. URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/
07.Nov.2004 Fraud links I should have more on vote fraud fairly soon. Until then, Bob Parry's latest, on the links between vote fraud and CIA "cyber-war," is required reading. This page gives a good overview and many helpful links. (Thanks for the tip, BG!) This site is devoted to the vote suppression in Ohio. Here is a good general discussion of the Florida vote. This letter provides a useful model. CommonDreams offers mandatory reading on the mechanics of computer fraud. Ohio residents march en masse against the fraudulent vote. And global monitors of our election don't like the way it was conducted. (International inspectors are okay for Iraq, but not for us, it seems...)URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/
07.Nov.2004 (Now that the official story has changed -- the bulge, we are told, is real; it is caused by the straps of a bullet-proof vest -- no-one in the media points out the flaws in this idea. The straps for bullet-proof vests are located on the sides. Why would Bush use such a vest when debating Kerry or meeting visitors at the White House, but not when reciting his stump speech before large crowds?)
The mainstream news outlets protected Bush. In the run-up to the election, the ugly pattern kept repeating itself.
CBS killed an important story about the faked Niger documents -- in fact, the network specifically promised not to run the piece until after the election.
CNN executives quashed a story on Bush's Saudi Arabian friends until after the election.
Few mainstream outlets reported on the G.O.P.'s flagrant voter suppression efforts.
When it came to stories that might have embarrassed Bush before the election, the "liberal" press went on a killing spree comparable to Ted Bundy's. URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/
07.Nov.2004 Standards of evidence Today, the Daily Kos drew our attention to someone calling himself "kid oakland," who argues against pursuing the allegations of fraud: "...in the absence of clear evidence of deliberate fraud, claims that the election was rigged are irresponsible and really bad politics." k.o. goes on to make some good points about touch screen voting. URL: https://cannonfire.blogspot.com/
07.Nov.2004 "We stand on guard for thee...!" This story describes the growing number of people interested in moving to Canada. Consider Vancouver Island. Only about three-quarters of a million people live there. Lots of trees, little crime, few religious nuts, amazing sunsets (you'll think you just dropped acid) -- and the national anthem is a lot easier to sing. 07.Nov.2004 Doch egal, woher der Ekel rührt, schlecht fürs Immunsystem ist er allemal.URL: https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-326591,00.html
07.Nov.2004 Im Gehirn werde durch die Ekelwahrnehmung eine Reaktion im Hypothalamus ausgelöst, erläutert Kropiunigg. Der Hypothalamus ist die Zentrale der Stressreaktion. Hier wird die Ausschüttung wichtiger Hormone gesteuert. Nach einem Ekelgefühl werden auf Regieanweisung des Hypothalamus eine Reihe von Botenstoffen und Hormonen aktiviert. Wenn der Ekel länger im Gedächtnis haftet, wird am Ende der Kaskade immer wieder das Stresshormon Cortisol in der Nebennierenrinde gebildet, was auf Dauer das Immunsystem schwächt. "Wenn das Immunsystem nicht mehr ausreichend arbeitet, werden auch keine Antikörper gebildet + so können sich die bis dahin in Schach gehaltenen Viren vermehren", fasst Kropiunigg zusammen. URL: https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-326591,00.html
07.Nov.2004 "Die Studie der Universität Trier hat jedoch keinen Ekel erfasst, wie er in 'freier Natur' aufkommt. Das schränkt die Ergebnisse insofern ein, als sie gewissermaßen künstlich sind", gibt Ulrich Kropiunigg, Professor der Medizinischen Psychologie an der Universität Wien, zu bedenken. Zugleich stellt er klar: "Die Studie ist ein eleganter Nachweis, dass Stress erzeugender Ekel vermutlich nicht anders wirkt als Stress, der von anderen psychischen Belastungen kommt. Unlustgefühle können zum Beispiel ebenso zum Auftreten der Herpesblässchen führen." URL: https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-326591,00.html
07.Nov.2004 Allerdings kann es passieren, dass sich das Ekelgefühl einen Tag später am eigenen Körper rächt: Herpesbläschen sprießen rund um den Mund. "Seit vielen Jahren ist der Zusammenhang zwischen Herpes + Ekel aus Patientenberichten bekannt", sagt Gieler. Menschen, die häufig von den roten Fieberbläschen an den Lippen heimgesucht werden, beobachten, dass diese gerne ein bis zwei Tage nach einem Ekel erregenden Ereignis auftauchen.
Forscher der Universität Trier haben diese Beobachtung nun in einer Studie bestätigt: Über Zeitungsanzeigen suchten die Wissenschaftler Menschen aus, die besonders intensiv auf Ekel ansprechen. Diese wurden in zwei Gruppen eingeteilt. Der einen Gruppe wurden unästhetische Bilder gezeigt, beispielsweise verschmutzte Gläser oder besudelte Wäsche. Die anderen Personen sahen dagegen angenehme Darstellungen. "Während Letztere gesund blieben, entwickelten die vom Ekel Geplagten nach der Präsentation alle Herpesbläschen", berichtet Gieler.URL: https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-326591,00.html
07.Nov.2004 Ekel lässt Herpes gedeihen -
Stress und Ekel verpassen dem Immunsystem einen Dämpfer. Trierer Forscher haben herausgefunden, dass sich Herpesviren dadurch leichter vermehren und am Mund Bläschen entstehen. Neurodermitis und Schuppenflechte sollen auf ähnliche Weise ausgelöst werden. URL: https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,druck-326591,00.html 07.Nov.2004 Coats: "Man sagt nie nie zum US-Präsidenten" URL: https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,326842,00.html 07.Nov.2004 Atommüll: Französische Demonstranten stoppen den Castor-Transport 07.Nov.2004 Transatlantische Beziehungen: US-Botschafter Coats fordert Entgegenkommen Europas 07.Nov.2004 Vergeltung: Frankreich zerstört komplette Luftwaffe der Elfenbeinküste 07.Nov.2004 "Sorry Everybody" im Interview: "Man hat mir Saddam aufs Gesicht gesetzt" 07.Nov.2004 Immunabwehr: Ekel lässt Herpes gedeihen 07.Nov.2004 Irak: Alawi verhängt landesweit den Notstand 07.Nov.2004 Arafats Nachfolge: Palästinenser misstrauen den Anti-Helden | 