February 9, 2008

the other site is down.

(you can see it, but there's a whole bunch of errors and I for one can't log in)

for the time being, any urgent news can be posted here.


email me at qrswave@yahoo.com for posting privileges.

peace.

"Get Used to It World"

Warning: graphic footage of people being gunned down on the streets by CIA death squads.



Watch it until the end - you will not believe what John Pilger gets this guy (a CIA employee?) to admit on video.

"Get used to it world - we're not going to put up with nonsense."

The man is delusional - a bloodthirsty psychopath.

If this is the type of person who works at the CIA, God help us.



__________________________
Many thanks, BrasscheckTV

Jury Jeers Peer-to-Peer

A US Jury has penalized music file-sharer Jammie Thomas. Jammie Thomas was said to have shared more than 1,700 songs. The court has ordered the woman to pay $222,000 in damages for illegally file-sharing music. The jury ordered Jammie Thomas, 32, from Minnesota, to pay for offering to share 24 specific songs online - a cost of $9,250 per song.

Record companies said she had illegally shared a total of 1,702 songs. Ms. Thomas was accused of using the program Kazaa to share copyrighted files. Ms Thomas, who denied the charges, was the first person accused of illegal file- sharing who decided to fight the case in court.

Each year, millions of households illegally share music files, and the music industry takes it as a serious threat to its revenue. Online users also share and copy movies in the same peer to peer (P2P), manner. There are programs available however that can maintain anonymity while sharing these copyrighted material. Essentially, it's a numbers' game for the labels they can only go after a fraction of those who share.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs), often disclose information about their customers' Internet use. Recently, Comcast, a cable company and an ISP, as well a phone service provider, installed software that hinder its customers from sharing files - the ability to seed files - whether they are copyrighted or fair use material.

About 26,000 lawsuits have been filed against alleged file-sharers, but most defendants settle privately by paying damages amounting to a few thousand dollars. This case presents more of a deterrent and scare tactic to warn and discourage people from sharing music, movies, pictures, etcetera.

Nevertheless, contesting the charge and losing will cost Jammie Thomas almost a quarter of a million dollars. Her lawyer, Brian Toder, told the Associated Press that Ms Thomas was reduced to tears by the verdict.

"This is a girl that lives from pay cheque to pay cheque, and now all of a sudden she could get a quarter of her pay cheque garnished for the rest of her life," he said.

Left: The Kazaa program, which allows Internet users to share music and other files.

The US record industry said people would understand the verdict. Richard Gabriel, a lawyer for the music companies, said the verdict was important. "This does send a message, I hope, that downloading and distributing our recordings is not okay," he told AP.

Our message is: we don't want to litigate - don't leave yourself exposed to litigation said John Kennedy, chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries. He said no decision had yet been made about what the record companies would do, if anything, to pursue collecting the money from Ms Thomas.

John Kennedy, chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries, which represents record labels, said they were "reluctant litigators." "We do everything possible to persuade people not to leave themselves exposed to litigation. We educate, we warn, we even try and settle before a case gets to court."

He said he hoped the fine would prove a deterrent to others. "Our message is: we don't want to litigate - don't leave yourself exposed to litigation," he added.

If the likes of the MPAA, RIAA and IFPI are to be believed, file-sharing is causing worldwide economic havoc, costing billions of dollars and creating unemployment. It is true that some people are feeling the P2P effect; they’re called ‘physical pirates’ or bootleg[ors] - online file-sharing has ruined their businesses. Pirated products on street corners and at flea markets are rare events in the digital age.

File sharing or downloading music and movie files, are as popular as ever. Despite the record and movie industries' attempts to clamp down on file sharing -- by filing about 30,000 lawsuits against users and initiating education campaigns -- the online activity is alive and well. The ready access to high-speed Internet connections first gave rise to MP3 swapping long before the original Napster burst onto the scene in 1999 and has continued to include more users. File sharing is a routine occurrence almost every Internet user has done some of it.

In MGM v. Grokster, EFF defended StreamCast Networks, the company behind the Morpheus peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing software, in an important case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 23, 2005. Though the Court set aside the Ninth Circuit's ruling in favor of Streamcast, it also declined giving Hollywood what it truly wanted—a veto over technological innovation.

Twenty-eight of the world's largest entertainment companies brought the lawsuit against the makers of the Morpheus, Grokster, and KaZaA software products, aiming to set a precedent to use against other technology companies (P2P and otherwise).The case raised a fundamental question at the border between copyright and innovation: When should the distributor of a multi-purpose tool be held liable for the infringements that may be committed by end-users of the tool?

The Supreme Court's landmark decision in Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. (a.k.a. the "Sony Betamax ruling") found that a distributor cannot be held liable for users' infringement so long as the tool is capable of substantial non-infringing uses. This standard has served innovators, copyright industries, and the public for more than 20 years. Relying on this precedent, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the distributors of Grokster and Morpheus P2P file-sharing software cannot be held liable for users' copyright violations.

The Supreme Court set aside the Ninth Circuit ruling, but it refused to overturn the Betamax doctrine or to force technology companies to redesign multipurpose technologies. Hollywood's main objective thus went unfulfilled.

But rather than clarify the rules for technology innovators, the Supreme Court instead punted on the hard questions by crafting a new doctrine of copyright infringement liability called "inducement." In the wake of the ruling, innovators now have three uncertain copyright doctrines to worry about: inducement, contributory and vicarious infringement.

Industry analysts and various studies say tactics such as lawsuits against individuals and flooding networks with fake or corrupt files have slowed the growth of file sharing. Nevertheless, studies such as one released by UC Riverside researchers concluded that traffic on peer-to-peer networks "has never declined'' and continues to increase. (There are software available for free that can detect these fake files, or spoofs)

Results of another survey released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project said about 65 million people in the United States alone have downloaded music or video files. There are 210,575,287 Internet users in the United States as of May 2007, or 69.7% penetration into the population, Nielsen/NetRatings. There existed some 69,431,802 broadband subscribers as of July 2005 - 7,000 ISP (2002). That number is certain to be higher a couple of years later in 2007.

Executives with the Recording Industry Association of America acknowledge file sharing is still on the rise, but say they believe their campaign of lawsuits and public education has at least contained the problem.

Although the case adjudicated by the Supreme Court revolved around the entertainment industry's suits against the companies that distribute, Grokster, Kazaa and Morpheus, those are no longer the most popular file-sharing programs. They've been surpassed by new peer-to-peer protocols such as BitTorrent, BitLord and eDonkey. And there are new programs like Shareaza and Bearshare that crop up constantly and can quickly gain momentum.

Left: The Morpheus application screen- shot

Even old file-sharing stalwart LimeWire, which was first released on the Internet in November 2000, began a resurgence in May 2004 when it stripped adware and spyware from its program.

File sharers say Kazaa, distributed by Sharman Networks of Australia, fell out favor largely because of those adware and spyware programs, which clogged their computers. The entertainment industries added to that frustration by flooding the underlying FastTrack network with fake or corrupted files called spoofs. As for Grokster, which is distributed by a firm of the same name incorporated in Nevis, West Indies, very few people are using that software.

The third major player in the case, Morpheus, distributed by StreamCast Networks Inc. of Tennessee, has undergone various changes attempting to make a comeback. StreamCast released a new version of Morpheus that taps into several file-sharing platforms, including BitTorrent.

The rise of BitTorrent and eDonkey are particularly troubling for the movie industry because they are more proficient at moving pieces of large files through the Internet, which speeds the downloading of movies, TV programs and software.

Nevertheles, file-sharing has helped boost the number of popular TV programs like "24," Battlestar Galactica" and "Friends" appearing on file-sharing networks. And with digital video recording devices becoming more widespread, TV programs sometimes appear 30 minutes after they air but stripped of all commercials.

Despite the overwhelming number of file sharers -- BigChampagne counted 8.5 million simultaneous users online in February -- there are ways to track down each infringer. There's no way to stop piracy; you can't close it down, but media industries will continue to try and make people think twice before clicking that button. Be as it may, the threat of being sued may cause people to think twice before they download files, but the probability that they will be prosecuted is so low, it really doesn't deter people from doing it.

Some sharers do not use peer-to-peer programs to fill iPods or other hardware, instead they utilize person-to-person sharing. This includes sharing files through a closed computer network not accessible to the general Internet, which makes activity more difficult to monitor. Moreover, closed file-sharing networks that can be found on most college campuses are faster than public peer-to-peer networks. One can download with extreme speeds, even full movies take 10 minutes at most to download,

Sherman, the recording industry association president, said he believes his industry's future may depend on its ability to teach youth as early as possible that file sharing is wrong.

"We're not abandoning any part of any generation, but we understand our opportunity to talk to 12-year-olds is better than it is to talk to anybody already engaged in the practice," he said.

Occupation701 - Violence in Afghanistan

Violence in Afghanistan has spiked to its highest level since the 2001 US-led invasion, with an Asssocioted Press count of insurgency related deaths this year surpassing the 5,000 mark and a U.N. report finding that attacks have risen by 20 percent.

A suicide attack Tuesday on a police bus in western Kabul killed 13 officers and civilians, including a woman and her two children who boarded the vehicle seconds before the explosion.

The bombing, which ripped the roof off the bus, was the second to target a bus in Kabul in four days. It came as insurgents turned up attacks against Afghanistan’s security forces during a year of record violence.

Left: German soldiers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)-led International security Assistance Forces stand near a Tornado jet at an airbase in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.A new U.N. report found that while 76 percent of all suicide bombings in the country have targeted international and Afghan security forces, 143 civilians were killed by those bombs through August. The report, released in New York last week, also found that Afghanistan has averaged 550 violent incidents per month this year, up from 425 last year.

Left: Much of Afghanistan is like a scene from Mad Max or some futurist post-apocalypse movie". This graveyard of Russian tanks will soon feature a new generation of military hardware that too, will rust in the desert.

An AP count of insurgency-related deaths, meanwhile, reached 5,086 so far this year, the most deaths in Afghanistan since the invasion to topple the Taliban. The AP counted some 4,000 deaths in 2006, based on reports from Western and Afghan officials.

The AP tally counts more than 3,500 militants among the dead, but also more than 650 civilians killed either by militant violence or U.S. or NATO attacks. Almost 180 international soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year, including 85 Americans, a record pace. Last year, about 90 U.S. soldiers died in Afghanistan.

Left: Afghan locals and morgue employees check dead bodies lined up at Ghazni hospital, in Ghazni province, 25 September 2007. At least 25 people were killed 24 September, in a head-on collision between two buses on one of Afghanistan's main roads, an Afghan news agency cited police as saying. Another 35 people were wounded in the crash on the main road linking Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar, Ghazni province police chief Alishah Ahmadzai said.

Insurgents have also launched a record number of suicide attacks — more than 100 — including two bus bombings in Kabul since Saturday that killed 43 people between them.

Four children were among the 13 people killed in Tuesday’s suicide attack by a man wearing a pakul — an Afghan hat commonly seen in the country’s north — and a shawl around the upper half of his body called a chador, said Amin Gul, who owns a metalworking shop next to the blast site.

“When the bus came, an old man got on, then a woman with two children, then the guy wearing the chador entered, and then a big boom,” said Gul, who witnessed the attack.

Left: Afghan people look on as a vehicle destoyed in a suicide attack is loaded onto a truck in Kabul, 29 September 2007. A suicide bomb that ripped through an army bus in the Afghan capital killed at least 27 military personnel and wounded 21 more, the ministry of defence said.

The seats in the front of the bus were covered in blood and small body parts, and workers washed blood from nearby trees after the attack. Ten people were wounded in the bombing, Health Minister Mohammad Amin Fatemi said.

Ahmad Saqi, a 20-year-old mechanic, said he helped put seven people in vehicles for runs to the hospital, and that several of the wounded had no legs.

“One woman was holding a baby in her arms, and they were both killed,” Saqi said. “Half of the woman’s face was blown off.”

The blast killed eight police, the mother, her baby and another child, as well as two unaccompanied children who had been heading to a special school for handicapped students, Fatemi said. The children ranged in age from 2 to 8.

“The woman’s husband is working at the Health Ministry. How do we tell the father his wife and two kids are dead?” asked Fatemi. “This attack goes against all of Islam. There is no reason to blow up Muslims, especially during the holy month of Ramadan. My message to these people: Please stop killing Muslims.”

Tuesday’s explosion is the third attack in four months against police or army buses in Kabul.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber wearing an army uniform blew himself up in an army bus, killing 30 people. In June, a bomb ripped through a bus carrying police instructors in Kabul, killing 35 people in the deadliest insurgent attack since the 2001 invasion.

A coalition soldier was killed by gunfire Tuesday morning while conducting combat operations in the northeastern province of Kunar. Three other soldiers were wounded, the coalition said in a statement. The nationalities of the soldiers weren’t provided, but most soldiers in eastern Afghanistan are American.

Left: French soldiers of NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) secure the site of a suicide bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, 02 October 2007. A suicide bomber, apparently targeting a police bus today detonated explosives strapped to his body killing 11 people, six of them police, and wounded seven others in Kabul, the second deadly attack in the capital within a week.

Militants in Kunar attacked a border security post, killing three police, said Zargun Shah Khaliqyar, a spokesman for the provincial governor. It was not clear if the two incidents in Kunar were related.

Canadian troops in Kandahar shot and killed a 35-year-old man and wounded a child in what NATO’s International Security Assistance Force called an “accidental discharge” by a weapons system.

The Afghan Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said Afghan and coalition soldiers battled insurgents in Uruzgan province on Sunday, killing 26 of the militants. There was no way to independently verify the claim.

Rumsfeld Appointed Distinguished Fellow

Right:Iraqi-President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld, then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983.

Left: Mr Rumsfeld is the embodiment of America’s Iraq failure. Ahead of the invasion he was arrogant, telling the world the US did not really need help to implement its war. Mr Rumsfeld’s policy of “war-lite” and "partisan-heavy" left too few boots on the ground and too many cronies in high office to keep the peace. Mr Rumsfeld should have gone after the Abu Ghraib scandal but Mr Bush remained loyal.

Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former U.S. secretary of defense, who also served as White House chief of staff, U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), U.S. member of Congress, and chief executive officer of two Fortune 500 companies, has been appointed as a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

“Don Rumsfeld has been involved with the Hoover Institution during my entire tenure as director, beginning in 1989, as a member of the Hoover Board of Overseers, as a member of the executive committee of the board, and as a significant supporter,” said John Raisian, Hoover director. “Don has had immense experience in public service and has much to contribute to society as a result. I am pleased that he will spend time during the coming year in thinking, writing, and advising on important matters of public policy.”

Left: Tony Snow: It's an interesting thing, because I get e-mails all the time, and people say, "We hear about our death counts. We never hear about theirs. Why?"

Donald Rumsfeld: Well, we don't do body counts on other people. And we have certain rules on people we capture, in terms of exposing them to the public, Geneva Conventions and the like.

The Hoover Institution is embarking on bringing together a task force of scholars and experts to focus on issues pertaining to ideology and terror. The nation’s experience since September 11, 2001, has provoked new ways of thinking about national security and world peace in a new era. “I have asked Don to join the distinguished group of scholars that will pursue new insights on the direction of thinking that the United States might consider going forward,” said Raisian. “I am delighted that he will participate in the deliberations of our task force.”

But nearly 2,000 Stanford faculty, students and community members have signed an online petition calling the decision to bring Rumsfeld, 75, to the conservative think tank "fundamentally incompatible with Stanford's ethical values." Some members of the university's Faculty Senate have called for a resolution in protest.

Rumsfeld, who served as defense secretary twice, from 1975 to 1977 and then again from 2001 to 2006, is a polarizing figure, and debate on the Stanford campus seems polarized, too.

"We think he has distinguished himself for all the wrong things than what the university should stand for and what America should stand for," psychology professor emeritus Philip Zimbardo told The San Jose Mercury News. "We've never protested before but this seems to be egregious."

Hoover Institution Public Affairs Manager Michele Horaney declined to comment but said Stanford faculty are entitled to their opinions.

Rumsfeld is to work on a task force on terrorism and ideology alongside other experts and scholars at the institution. It was not announced when his work at the institution would begin.

"Don has had immense experience in public service and has much to contribute to society as a result," Hoover director John Raisian said in a statement. Rumsfeld previously served on the institution's Board of Overseers.

"It is fair and to have been expected that Rumsfeld's appointment would generate protest," Wilson School visiting professor Daniel Kurtzer said in an email. "[Rumsfeld] presided over policies and military actions that are quite divisive and which have cost our country dearly in terms of human lives and material resources." Kurtzer has previously served as U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt.

The Hoover Institution has given no sign it will reverse its decision. It dismissed Stanford faculty concerns that Rumsfeld lacks the academic background to warrant a position at the Hoover Institution.

"He's not conducting research, and he doesn't have any kind of a tenured post at all, so I don't know that that's ... a huge concern," Horaney said.

"The appointment of someone with his background and experience at a university is something that is often done in academia, notwithstanding the lack of academic experience," Wilson School professor Robert Finn said, citing the example of former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer, who taught in the Wilson School last year. Finn himself is a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.

The strident opposition to Rumsfeld's appointment contrasts with the silence that met other fellows with ties to the Bush administration when they joined the Hoover Institution. General John Abizaid, for example, became a fellow after retiring as commander of U.S. Central Command this year.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice served as provost at Stanford for six years in the 1990s. She is also on leave from her position as senior fellow at Hoover but has said she plans to return, a move that may stir more controversy.

President Bush attempted to visit Hoover last year, but his motorcade was blocked by more than 1,000 protestors. His meeting was relocated to a site off-campus.

Left: Protests Force Bush to Relocate - Students and others face advancing riot police near the Hoover Institute. University students protest President Bush's visit to the campus Friday, April 21, 2006.

The Petition Against Donald Rumsfeld

To: Stanford University Community

We, the undersigned members of the Stanford community, strongly object to the appointment of Donald Rumsfeld as a "distinguished visiting fellow" at Stanford's Hoover Institution. We view the appointment as fundamentally incompatible with the ethical values of truthfulness, tolerance, disinterested enquiry, respect for national and international laws, and care for the opinions, property and lives of others to which Stanford is inalienably committed.

Sincerely,

The "Israeli Lobby" Strikes Again

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has chosen to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 1984 to Bishop Desmond Tutu, General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches.

The Committee has attached importance to Desmond Tutu's role as a unifying leader figure in the campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa. The means by which this campaign is conducted is of vital importance for the whole of the continent of Africa and for the cause of peace in the world. Through the award of this year's Peace Prize, the Committee wishes to direct attention to the non-violent struggle for liberation to which Desmond Tutu belongs, a struggle in which black and white South Africans unite to bring their country out of conflict and crisis.

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has accused Israel of practising apartheid in its policies towards the Palestinians. The Nobel peace laureate said he was "very deeply distressed" by a visit to the Holy Land, adding that "it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa."

Left: Archbishop Desmond Tutu said 'oppression' would not bring security

The Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful. Well, so what?

Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a speech in the United States, carried in the UK's Guardian newspaper, Archbishop Tutu said he saw "the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about."

The archbishop, who was a leading opponent of apartheid in South Africa, said Israel would "never get true security and safety through oppressing another people." Archbishop Tutu said his criticism of the Israeli Government did not mean he was anti-Semitic. "I am not even anti-white, despite the madness of that group," he said.

Left: Israeli checkpoint in the occupied territories

The Jewish lobby

The archbishop attacked the political power of Jewish groups in the United States, saying: "People are scared in this country, to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful. Well, so what? "The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists."

Archbishop Tutu said Israeli checkpoints were humiliating Palestinians. He went on to point out, "Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosevic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust."

Speaking at a conference called Ending the Oppression in Boston, Archbishop Tutu told delegates Jewish people had been at the forefront of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. He asked: "Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? Have they forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions, in their own history so soon? Have they turned their backs on their profound and noble religious traditions? Have they forgotten that God cares deeply about the downtrodden?"

Left: The White government enforced apartheid ruthlessly. Large areas of Cape Town were designated 'white suburbs' and colored and black communities were forced to leave and settle on the Cape Flats.

Black people had to carry a pass giving them permission to stay in Cape Town and were forced to leave if they were not in work. The government closed down mission schools and excluded blacks from advanced education.

The archbishop said that while he condemned suicide bombings by Palestinian militants against Israel, Israeli military action would not bring security to the Jewish state. Israel must "strive for peace based on justice, based on withdrawal from all the occupied territories, and the establishment of a viable Palestinian state on those territories side by side with Israel, both with secure borders," he said.

Put off by his criticism of Israeli policy, the University of St. Thomas snubs Nobel Laureate

Back in April, when University of St. Thomas staffer Mike Klein informed his colleagues in the Justice and Peace Studies program that he'd succeeded in booking Archbishop Desmond Tutu for a campus appearance, the faculty buzzed in anticipation. For a program dedicated to fostering social change and nonviolence, there were few figures who embodied that vision more aptly than the world-renowned civil rights activist and Nobel Laureate.

Tutu's appearance—slated for the spring of '08—was made possible by the university's partnership with PeaceJam International, a youth-centered project that taps Nobel Laureates to teach young adults about peace and justice. For four straight years, the Catholic university's St. Paul campus had played host to PeaceJam festivities featuring Nobel Peace Prize winners such as Rigoberta Menchú Tum and Shirin Ebadi.

But in a move that still has faculty members shaking their heads in disbelief, St. Thomas administrators—concerned that Tutu's appearance might offend local Jews—told organizers that a visit from the archbishop was out of the question.

"We had heard some things he said that some people judged to be anti-Semitic and against Israeli policy," says Doug Hennes, St. Thomas's vice president for university and government relations. "We're not saying he's anti-Semitic. But he's compared the state of Israel to Hitler and our feeling was that making moral equivalencies like that are hurtful to some members of the Jewish community."

St. Thomas officials made this inference after Hennes talked to Julie Swiler, a spokeswoman for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas.

"I told him that I'd run across some statements that were of concern to me," says Swiler. "In a 2002 speech in Boston, he made some comments that were especially hurtful."

During that speech, titled "Occupation Is Oppression," Tutu lambasted the Israeli government for its treatment of Palestinians in occupied territories. While a transcription clearly suggests his criticism was aimed at the Israeli government ("We don't criticize the Jewish people," he said during the speech. "We criticize, we will criticize when they need to be criticized, the government of Israel"), pro-Israeli organizations such as the Zionist Organization of America went on the offensive and protested campus appearances by Tutu, accusing him of anti-Semitism.

Hennes says the input officials received from "the Jewish community" in this case was confined to Swiler and a few rabbis teaching within St. Thomas's Center for Jewish-Christian Learning. "I think there's a consensus in the Jewish community that his words were offensive," Swiler reiterates.

That was news to Marv Davidov, an adjunct professor within the Justice and Peace Studies program.

Left: Is this the face of anti-Semitism? The University of St. Thomas seems to think so

"As a Jew who experienced real anti-Semitism as a child, I'm deeply disturbed that a man like Tutu could be labeled anti-Semitic and silenced like this," he says. "I deeply resent the Israeli lobby trying to silence any criticism of its policy. It does a great disservice to Israel and to all Jews."

The controversy didn't end there. Incensed at the administration's decision, Professor Cris Toffolo—chair of the Justice and Peace Studies program at the time—sent Tutu a letter on May 24 informing him of the administration's decision. She also indicated her disagreement with the move and warned Tutu that he might be in for a smear campaign.

University brass caught wind of the letter, and on August 1, Tom Rochon, executive vice president of academic affairs, sent a letter of his own to Toffolo informing her that St. Thomas administrators had decided to revoke her position as chair of the Justice and Peace Studies program.

Asked about the reasoning behind the demotion, Rochon and Hennes decline to comment. Toffolo herself is hesitant to offer any statements about it due to the sensitivity of her situation, though she did confirm that her letter to Tutu was the catalyst for her demotion.

"This is pure bullshit," says Davidov. "As far as fighting for civil rights, I consider Tutu to be my brother. And I consider Cris Toffolo to be my sister. They're messing with my family here. If Columbia permits a Holocaust denier [Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] to speak at their university, why are St. Thomas officials refusing to let Tutu, an apostle of nonviolence, speak at ours?"

Davidov and other professors maintain that the situation at St. Thomas is emblematic of a larger issue. "What happened at the University of St. Thomas is not an isolated event," says Toffolo. "Until we have an honest debate about U.S. policy related to Israel, and about Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories, the spiral of violence will continue."

India's Indigenous March On Delhi

Thousands of landless farmers and tribal people in India are setting out on a massive protest march to the capital, Delhi.

The march begins on a national holiday marking the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the man who introduced the idea of non-violent protest to the nation.

It is intended to raise awareness about land rights and due to last for nearly four weeks.

The organisers hope 25,000 people will take part in the march.

Thousands of people began gathering in the city of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, chanting and singing. Most of them are low caste and landless labourers or tribal people demanding legal rights over their land.

They are calling for a national authority to oversee land reform and a system of fast track courts to deal with the long delays in resolving land disputes.

Land reform is a huge issue in rural India. The system is often corrupt and unjust.

So over the next few weeks these protestors will walk more than 300km (180 miles) to Delhi, where their leaders hope to meet, among others, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

It is a huge logistical exercise.

Those taking part are being broken down into groups of one thousand, to make sure everyone gets fed.

The march has been dubbed Janadesh - People's Verdict - and it is described as non-violent civil disobedience.

Left: t is stated that the indigenous people of the valley were the Gandharva's mentions in the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Love of art and beauty is inherent in the people of this land from time immemorial.

Indigenous Peoples in India

While the government of India refers to indigenous peoples as "Scheduled Tribes", Adivasi has become the popular term for India's indigenous or tribal peoples. It is a Sanskrit word meaning "original people". Contrary to the official government position, this term reflects the widely recognised fact that the people in question are the earliest known settlers on the Indian subcontinent and North-East India. The indigenous or tribal peoples of India's north-eastern region (the seven states Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura) do not call themselves, nor are they normally referred to in literature, as Adivasi in spite of the fact that the meaning of the term very much applies to the respective people. Representatives of these peoples prefer to use the English term "indigenous peoples".

Population

Left: People: Tangkhul Naga

In the 2001 census, 84.33 million persons were classified as members of Scheduled Tribes, corresponding to 8.2% of the total population. The census lists 461 groups recognised as tribes, while estimates of the number of tribes living in India reach up to 635. While the number of members of the largest tribes, such as the Gonds, Santals, Oraon, Bhils or Nagas go into the millions others, such as the Onge or the Great Andamanese, are on the brink of extinction.

Below: People Mishmi

The majority of the indigenous and tribal peoples live in an almost contiguous belt stretching from Gujarat in the west to the seven states in the north-east, with the highest concentration in the central region, where more than 50% of the tribal people live. The highest ethnic diversity among the indigenous and tribal population is in the north-eastern region, where 220 distinct groups have been identified. They comprise approximately 12% of the total indigenous population of India.

Agrarian encroachment

Most of India's indigenous peoples have been forest dwellers for centuries. Traditionally, forests met most of their fodder, food, medicinal and other needs. A long process of turning forest areas into a source of revenue and timber, and exploitation of the mineral resources, has led to deforestation, loss of livelihood and displacement of indigenous peoples. The vast majority of the labour force among scheduled tribes is engaged in the agricultural sector (the figure for all India is 66.84%). This means that almost nine-tenths of tribal families rely on natural resources for their livelihood. The majority of these are engaged in permanent agriculture but shifting cultivation still forms the mainstay of the domestic economy in many upland areas, particularly in the north-east. A few small groups in Central and South India and on the Andaman Islands live almost entirely from hunting, gathering and fishing.

Left: People: Naga

Since tribal communities have been forced off most of the fertile plains they previously inhabited, the majority of tribal farmers cultivate marginal land, using rather extensive methods. Above all, irrigation is absent from most areas, the extensive rice terraces of some indigenous peoples, for example some Naga tribes in the north-east, being the exception.

There is a unique relationship between indigenous people and the land. Globilization and subsequent national economic policy has not only displaced 30 million tribal communities and Dalits since Indian independence, but these forces are also using the land in an unsustainable manner, stripping natural resources and destroying local habitat.

DALIT: THE BLACK UNTOUCHABLES OF INDIA

Possibly the most substantial percentage of Asia's Blacks can be identified among India's 160 million "Untouchables" or "Dalits." Frequently they are called "Outcastes." Indian nationalist leader and devout Hindu Mohandas K. Gandhi called them "Harijans," meaning "children of god." The official name given them in India's constitution (1951) is "Scheduled Castes." "Dalit," meaning "crushed and broken," is a name that has come into prominence only within the last four decades. "Dalit" reflects a radically different response to oppression.

The Dalit are demonstrating a rapidly expanding awareness of their African ancestry and their relationship to the struggle of Black people throughout the world. They seem particularly enamored of African-Americans.

African-Americans, in general, seem almost idolized by the Dalit, and the Black Panther Party, in particular, is virtually revered. In April 1972, for example, the Dalit Panther Party was formed in Bombay, India. This organization takes its pride and inspiration directly from the Black Panther Party of the United States. This is a highly important development due to the fact that the Untouchables have historically been so systematically terrorized that many of them, even today, live in a perpetual state of extreme fear of their upper caste oppressors. This is especially evident in the villages.

The formation of the Dalit Panthers and the corresponding philosophy that accompanies it signals a fundamental change in the annals of resistance, and Dalit Panther organizations have subsequently spread to other parts of India. In August 1972, the Dalit Panthers announced that the 25th anniversary of Indian independence would be celebrated as a day of mourning. In 1981, in Bangalore, India Dravidian journalist V.T. Rajshekar published the first issue of Dalit Voice - the major English journal of the Black Untouchables. In a 1987 publication entitled the African Presence in Early Asia, Rajshekar stated that:

"The African-Americans also must know that their liberation struggle cannot be complete as long as their own blood-brothers and sisters living in far off Asia are suffering.

Left: Kanikar people of South India

It is true that African-Americans are also suffering, but our people here today are where African-Americans were two hundred years ago.

African-American leaders can give our struggle tremendous support by bringing forth knowledge of the existence of such a huge chunk of Asian Blacks to the notice of both the American Black masses and the Black masses who dwell within the African continent itself."

Between the 1940 and 1970, a number of adverse land laws were passed, and much of indigenous land was mortgaged. In 1948, 2.4 million people were evicted from their land. Over a million indigenous people could not obtain any ownership of land, in the ensuing conditions ofpoverty. Many were refused applications to acquire land. The indigenous people were forced into the labour market in order to save money to buy land.

Even with those who were able to buy land, the laws were circumvented to dispossess them -their ownership were usually not acknowledged. No records were made of the land transactions, and land bought has later been found to be surplus or useless land not capable os sustaining life.

In the 1970`s some laws were amended over a 10 year period, giving ample opportunity for the multinational companies to find loop holes in the land legislation, in regards to allowed acreage of land purchases and land use.

Left: People: Siddi

The law now states that the land should be returned to the indigenous tribes however, only a fraction of cases are being investigated. While many complaints are dropped on technicalities; many have been waiting years to be heard. In one area in Maharashtra, only 375 cases resulted in land return to indigenous people, out of 6060 claims.

AFRICOM, A Free Con or Afree.com?

Left: US troops stationed in the Horn of Africa - the US has increased its military interests in Africa

Discussion of the need for an Africa Command began long before the Bush administration. Bill Clinton’s military people talked about it too. But the question is whether this development will be a good thing for the continent.

The US has launched a new command centre for military operations in Africa, in a sign of a clear increase in forcing American interest in Africa. Known as Africom, the initiative was first announced in February and will be based initially in Stuttgart, Germany. Until now responsibility for Africa has been divided among the US military's European, Central and Pacific commands. The Pentagon says Africom will allow the US to have a more integrated and effective approach to the continent.

This is a significant re-ordering of the US military, and an increased interest that can be explained in the concept of resources including oil, its attenuated terrorism paradigm and the instability it breeds in an obfuscation of security; i.e., resource security.

The US now gets over 10% of its oil from Africa and is concerned about competition from China. Nevertheless, the Pentagon and State department are being careful to stress the aim of the new command is to help struggling states through training and aid, and not to launch new wars.

They point out that over one-third of approximately 400 or so staff will be diplomats and aid specialists rather than uniformed military. The initiative has received mixed reviews in the US.
Though many analysts welcome it as an opportunity for a more intense and unified approach to Africa, others warn of what they see as the danger of the militarization of US policy towards the continent. In Africa itself the response has been guarded.

Left: Proliferation of arms instead of an arm of liberation
The administration is mostly trying to define AFRICOM by what it is not. Theresa Whelan, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs, says:

“Africa Command is not going to reflect a U.S. intent to engage kinetically in Africa. This is about prevention. This is not about fighting wars.” At another point, Whelan also said “This is not about a scramble for the continent.”

Left: The conquest for resources a nation building tradition

“We are not at war in Africa. Nor do we expect to be at war in Africa. Our embassies and AFRICOM will work in concert to keep it that way,” notes Jendayi Frazer, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa.

Despite these reassurances, many African nations view this move with a healthy dose of skepticism. They are expressing this view by shutting their doors. AFRICOM is temporarily based in Germany, but commanders hope to make the move to the region by fall 2008. The military seems to be favoring a “lily pad” approach of small bases across West Africa and the Horn region so as to not commit significant troops or lend credence to African concerns of a U.S. occupation. But where are these lily pads going to go?

Zambia has said no. In early September, President Levy Mwanawasa said that within the Southern African Development Community (a network of fourteen nations) “none of us is interested” in hosting the command. The South Africa Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota has refused to meet with U.S. General William “Kip” Ward, who will command AFRICOM. Lekota said recently, “Africa has to avoid the presence of foreign forces on her soil.”

Left: Boots and Coots

But, some countries are viewing AFRICOM as an opportunity. The United States has already secured access agreements with Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Gabon and Namibia. And the United States’ close ally Liberia has aggressively promoted of the Command. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf penned a widely cited and circulated op-ed for AllAfrica.Com that hyped the Command as an opportunity for African nations. She has lobbied hard for AFRICOM to come to Liberia.

The Africom charter specifies that the new command will focus on conflict prevention, rather than intervention. It will work with African states and regional organizations, such as the African Union and Ecowas, in coordination with other donor countries, to improve security capabilities and promote military professionalism and accountable governance.

Speaking in July 2007, at a reception marking the 231st Independence Anniversary of the United States, President Sirleaf said "Liberia, the U.S. historic ally, has stood resolutely with the United States, through good times and bad, and is offering its territory as it has done in the past, for the establishment of AFRICOM headquarters."

The United States is also looking at Sao Tome and Principe, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Djibouti, and Ethiopia as possible locations.

In case none of these options work out, the Navy has a novel (and very expensive) idea to forgo land completely and house AFRICOM on a high-tech joint command and control ship that would circumnavigate the region.

Left: security for oil security

Although the US has been strengthening its security ties with a number of African nations over the last few years many are cautious about being seen to embrace the Americans too warmly - at least in public. That is one reason, perhaps, why the Pentagon has yet to find an African country to host the headquarters for AFRICOM, despite a considerable amount of shopping around.

Therefore, the U.S. is marketing the renewed impetus in Africa as a benevolent project to civilize and embellish the natives. Of course if one “gives a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he’ll eat forever.” But, what happens when you give a man weapons and military training? Djibouti, Ethiopian, Ugandan and Kenyan armed forces, among others, have been furnished by the U.S. military.

Left: Screening for oil

Africa is viewed as the third front of the war on terrorism. As Rear Admiral Richard Hunt, the Commander of Combined Joint Taskforce-Horn of Africa (or CJT-HOA, explains: “Africa is the new frontier that we need to engage now, or we are going to end up doing it later in a very negative way.”

As part of the CJT-HOA these soldiers are also building schools, digging wells and sanitizing slaughterhouses. Their work is delineated by the four Ps and the three Ds: Prevent conflict, promote regional stability, protect coalition interests and prevail against extremism in East Africa and Yemen through diplomacy, development and defense.

Left: Oil Scheme

Africa, with immense amount of under-tapped oil reserves, vast stretches of ungoverned space, impoverished populations and pandemics of AIDS/HIV and other diseases, is now on Washington’s radar screen. The National Security Strategy for the United States, 2006 says: “Africa holds growing geo-strategic importance and is a high priority of this administration.” But the most significant way that high priority status is being expressed is through commitments of military aid, training, troops and equipment.

The U.S. base in Djibouti is just one component in a new military machine in Africa. There is also the Trans Sahara Counter Terrorism Initiative (TSCTI), which Congress funded at $500 million over six years in 2005. There are also increased naval maneuvers in West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, and establishment of a P3 Orion aerial surveillance station in Algeria.

The AFRICOM command brings together most of the continent (Egypt will remain under CENTCOM. According to President Bush it “will enhance our efforts to bring peace and security to the people of Africa and promote our common goals of development, health, education, democracy, and economic growth in Africa."

Even as these discussions continue, some African nations are receiving significant increases in military aid and weapons sales; most of these increases have gone to oil-rich nations and compliant states where the U.S. military seeks a strategic toehold. The Center for Defense Information recently completed U.S. Arms Exports and Military Assistance in the Global War on Terror, an analysis of increases in military aid since September 11, 2001. The report compares the military aid and weapons sales in the five-year leading up to 2001 and the five years since.

For example: since September 11, Kenya, which the State Department describes as a “frontline state” in the war on terrorism, has received eight times more military aid than in the preceding five years. Djibouti, which has opened its territory to U.S. forces, received forty times more military aid, and an eightfold increase in the value of weapons transfers. Oil-rich Algeria, where the surveillance equipment is based, has received ten times more aid and a warm embrace from Washington. Nigeria, the fifth largest supplier of oil to the United States, is slated to receive $1.35 million in Foreign Military Financing for 2008 despite persistent human rights abuses.

Mali is described as an “active partner in the war against terrorism” by the State Department and is a good example of a little military aid going a long way. The desert nation is slated to receive just $250,000 in International Military Education and Training (IMET funding) and no Foreign Military Financing in 2008. But, Mali participates in both the Regional Defense Counter Terrorism Fellowship Program and the Anti-terrorism Assistance program, receiving additional funding through these programs. Aid comes in other forms too. Just this week, a U.S. C-130 military transport plane dropped food aid to Malian soldiers as they pursued armed members of the Tuareg ethnic group. This sort of assistance is not documented or quantified in any ledger or report but — if repeated regularly — could significantly increase the Malian military’s capabilities.

As with the Arab world secutity becomes an excuse to clamp down on opposition groups and limiting freedom of the press and press as well as other things dictatorial regimes they don’t like.

Left: Ethiopian troops on the march

U.S. arms sales to Ethiopia, which has one of Africa’s largest armies, have roughly doubled and military aid has increased two and a half times. But the nation has not received military Humvees since 2002, when it used them against its own people. During protests following the May 2002 elections, the Ethiopian military fired on crowds from the Humvees, killing 85 people. The U.S. sold the Humvees to Ethiopia for counter-terrorism operations. This new military assistance will certainly not serve to enrich democratic institutions in the recipient states.

Left: Beneficiaries?

The formation of AFRICOM as a separate entity from USEUCOM and USCENTCOM – from the point of view of those who seek to use it as a tool for the war against terror (“TWAT”) ultimately, will be used (is being used) as the pre-text for Chicago-style economic reform (aka, free-market shock-therapy). That is,the military is being used to soften up Africa so that corporation can benifit from exploitation of Africa's resources. Moreover, by an intense military presence in Africa competitors such as India, China and Europe can be kept at bay.

This war on terror is a like a little fairy tale. There’s this place called Darfur in Sudan, and there are Islamicists in control of the North, while the oil is in the south. The World Bank got in bed with Exxon to finance a $4 billion oil Cameroon-Chad pipeline that ends up on the southwest edge of Sudan.

Suddenly, small black African tribes in the south that has been oppressed by the North for centuries began receiving arms shipments and launching attacks on their Northern Arabic opponents. How did they get those weapons? A fairy godmother sent it to them?

The Islamic regime responded by arming Arabic tribes, “Janjaweed”, and sending them on a wipe-out campaign to the south. “Genocide in Darfur” headlines began appearing in the Western corporate press, with no mention of how the militarization of situation arose. The nomadic tribes of Darfur were in conflict and competition with the sedentary people, but why now and how?

Fast forward, 400,000 dead people later, August 1, 2007. Blackwater and Cofer Black step up and offer to move in and pacify the region, and stop the genocide. Somehow, I doubt their humanitarian motivation, but there is no doubt that the Bush administration would prefer Blackwater over a UN peacekeeping contingent. The ongoing war for control of the last of the world’s oil continues.

As a further example of the misdirected war on terror, oil too, is the motivation for US policy in Somalia. Currently, the US obtains about 10 percent of its oil from Africa. However, the Monitor story noted ‘some experts say it may need to rely on the continent for as much as 25 percent by 2010.’ Reportedly, nearly two-thirds of Somalia’s oil fields were allocated to the U.S. oil companies Conoco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips before Somalia’s pro-U.S. President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown.” There is not a single area of Africa where the US military or mercenaries are active that does not have an oil reserve or other natural resources of some kind.

Left: War for oil - blood

African governments have answered the US 911 call. Almost without exception. These African leaders believe in the trickle down economic theory propounded by the neoconservatives - they anxiously, awajit at the feet of their benefactors for arms or dollars to trickle down. The greatest of whom are Gambia and Liberia, who have declared September 11th a national holiday"

Palestine - Dance of Excuses in Meters of Blood - Libel

PALESTINE - Dance of excuses in meters of blood - LIBEL

Children of Israel?
Forestalled forsaken covenant
Thrown down from your false altars,
slain gain each grain
Every meter Eretz Yisrael barometer
Horrendous horde with modern sword

Woe unto you Pharisees, oh hypocrites!
Instead of temples you build tombs
With will never stumble will not succumb
Claim the mantle of the righteous
If we could be in the days of our fathers
You are but prophets who profit from blood

As Rachel mourned for her children
So you butchered Rachel
Six core candles on your false altar
Praying for the next prey to slaughter
Silt Flesh slits and blood of innocents
flows in your flood of guilts
Head bowed at the wailing wall
Dancing steps of death as our tears fall

Babylon reborn house of Satan
From since to senseless to Eden
Manifest destiny
The premise stands
The promised sands
Evil manifests
From the four poles of the earth
Incantations ceremonious rebirth

O' Palestine enthralled
Wail onto Allah
Sing songs of freedom
Chant for liberation
And it shall come to pass
With grace wrest their trespass
from fear and from bondage
To surprise demise and rise
from the yoke of profit prophets
Fret not because of evil doers
The oppressor will cease!
Their golden city deceased!

Holy Murder In Nablus

Unholy, wholly
Murderers

Who debarked boats and planes from overseas
Put us in the camps they came from
They spread like disease
Neighborhoods and villages,
infected then misdirected
There ain't no cure and it's hard to correct
Selective justice de jure uzy elected
Blessed by the Most High claim
Cursed low scheme just the same

Close to comatose brain waves rigamortis[t]
You forget the holocaust skit.
the mortician termination,
terrorist tortoise
Remember they just wanna murder
Know what I mean?

Yeah I know, you probably don't believe me
But be calm, leave it to the coffin spree
Who is going to bless, what man curse?
The prejudgment of children
Indiscriminate indictment
To a free ride in a hearse

Who God bless no man curse
O' Murderers

Here they come, known bloodsuckers of the poor,
Just like before
Rob us for culture, like land vultures
and now they want more

Caution they come in many forms
identities - all faulty and phony
Shame suspects guilt, and detects enemy
While the true enemy is in their soul
Worse than a mosquito or a vampire suckle

Huh, yeah, I know you don't believe me,
Take it easy, the body count is my account and my witness

Let me tell you they are murderers
Dress up in a beard, or fatigues
and then made up in a Yarmulke
Dreams and desires to deprive
Covet to defile and contrive
Murderers

Yes them
Murderers

Blessed by the Yahweh tale skullduggery
Cursed allegory in the bottom tail and horn story
Close to comatose, brain waves rigamortis[t]
You forget the victim skit, the Eminent Omnipotent tortoise
I remember because they always crave to murder
Murderers

Watch them, watch them, watch them march
unfold behold
bombs and bullets
busted heads
blood flows
pain blows
spilled matter
blood batter
all in the name of a borrowed
and gawdy god

Murderers



Israeli forces concluded a four-day operation in the West Bank city of Nablus however, the onslaught prods along in its century-long plot. Israel Attacks Nablus: "Operation Hot Winter" (25 February 2007)

No Says Taleban To Karzai Talks

Taleban shun Karzai talks offer

A spokesman for Taleban militants in Afghanistan has rejected another offer for talks by President Hamid Karzai. Spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said the Taleban would never negotiate with the Afghan authorities while foreign troops remained in the country.

President Karzai repeated on Saturday that he would be willing to offer the Taleban positions in government if it would bring peace.

"Taliban are not interested in government posts - ministries or anything. We want the withdrawal of foreign forces and we stand by our position," Qari Yusuf Ahmadi told news agencies.

"As long as they have not withdrawn, we'll never talk with the Kabul administration."

President Karzai said on Saturday he wished he could contact Taleban leader Mullah Omar and warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to ask why they were trying to destroy Afghanistan. He said he would meet both men personally, and even offer them cabinet posts, if it would help to bring about peace. But he reiterated he would not agree to any troop
withdrawal.
Left: A Taleban suicide bomber killed 30 people on Saturday

The Taleban claimed responsibility for Saturday's suicide bomb attack on a Kabul bus, which was split in two by the blast. The attack, in which a further 21 people were injured, was the second deadliest in the Afghan capital since 2001.

The Afghani people have renewed confidence in the Taleban as civic services wither, security worsens and air strikes carried out by international troops deployed in the country continue to kill civilians. Foreign air forces bombard villages and sometimes Mosques in the hope of killing Taleban militants,

In July, 2007,over 130 dead bodies of civilians including women and children were found in the rubble left by coalition bombardment.

The civilian casualties in that incident became even higher as the search for dead bodies continued. Some estimates put the total loss of life at over 180 persons. But, as US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld said, "we don't do body counts." Moreover, it is difficult to independently, verify the death toll in these incidents as the bombings occur in remote and volatile regions of the country.

About 37,000 soldiers of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and 13,000 US-led coalition troops are operating in Afghanistan to hunt down militants. However, they have frequently caused high civilian casualties in their operations, critically undermining the Afghan people's support for them.

Nevertheless, foreign forces have asserted that Taleban insurgents deliberately mingle themselves with civilians therefore, civilian casualties are caused. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has severely criticized foreign troops this year for their lack of coordination with Afghan forces during their operations and the high loss of life among civilians.

Due to rising Taliban insurgency, over 3,000 persons, most of whom are Taleban militants, have been killed in Afghanistan this year. Scores of Taleban fighters have been killed in the past week. However, there seems to be an endless supply of young Paskiistani and Afghani young men who want to take up arms and are willing to die to liberate Afghanistan from the seven-year occupation.

Political Puppetry: Afghani Act Staged Right

Left:Britain launched a "reconciliation" drive to undermine the Taleban after its strategists concluded military victory cannot be won
Below: Afghan President Hamid Karzai gestures

Is not this the way it usually, works in political puppetry? There are usually such compromises, co-opting or accommodation of the
'revolutionary' forces into an attenuated and austere polity. Historically, these types of pyrrhic imperial clienteles have been amenable to the exertion of force. Albeit, the insurgency must be able to militarily, fight the governing order to at least a standstill. Otherwise, there is no incentive for the sovereign and occupier to dislodge some of their usurped power.

The sycophant must acknowledge the big Taleban elephant in the hinterland. Although, Hamid and his masters shirk and besmirch the Afghani Parliament while dismissing their democratic voices however, they are compelled to listen to the loud laudations of bombs and bullets - they have no pallet for the ballot but will allot for the mallet.

Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistant offers to meet with Mullah Omar for
peace talks and government posts. President Hamid Karzai offered Saturday to meet personally with Taleban leader Mullah Omar for peace talks and give the militants a high position in a government ministry as a way to end the rising insurgency in Afghanistan.

"If I find their address, there is no need for them to come to me, I'll personally go there and get in touch with them," Karzai said. "Esteemed Mullah, sir, and esteemed Hekmatyar, sir, why are you destroying the country?"

"If a group of Taliban or a number of Taliban come to me and say, 'President, we want a department in this or in that ministry or we want a position as deputy minister ... and we don't want to fight anymore ... If there will be a demand and a request like that to me, I will accept it because I want conflicts and fighting to end in Afghanistan," Karzai said.

"I wish there would be a demand as easy as this. I wish that they would want a position in the government. I will give them a position," he said.

Above:Taleban guerillas - Below: NATO commander says Taleban could regain territory.
The Taleban could recapture territory in southern Afghanistan won by British troops in fighting this summer, Nato's commander warned yesterday.

General Dan McNeill, an American, said British soldiers had made "significant progress" in Helmand province but were facing difficulties securing gains and it was "likely" some of the ground would have to be taken again if the Taliban regrouped over the winter.

British soldiers have been fighting the Taliban at close quarters, especially in the fertile river valleys of northern Helmand. So far this year, 35 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. The number of British troops in the area is due to increase next month to 7,700, more than double the initial deployment.

Above: As NATO shifts from a defensive alliance to a responsive organization, it is developing technologies and doctrines that provide commanders greater control over their assets.

Sorry, everyone! 9-23-07

Some of you may have noticed that something very screwy is going on at the other site . . .

There appears to be too much traffic, so the site isn't functioning properly.

Currently, blogs can neither be edited nor added and tags, comments, and other features are not visible.

Unfortunately, that means that there is no indication that this post is satire and now it's getting linked all over the internet by people who assume that it's true.

Oh well. That'll teach israel to stop mooching off of US. Then maybe people wouldn't assume that stuff like this is true.

Thanks, for your patience.

Hopefully, all our great features will be back in order soon.

BTW, now that you guys have some spare time on your hands, why don't you stop by reddit.com and join in the fray.

Zionists are giving me a hard time with this submission, among others. It's a hotly contested discussion - make your vote count.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

[This is essentially the same notice posted Wednesday, November 21, 2007. same comments and all. Don't feel like typing a new one]

Some of you are here because you want to know what's going on at wakeupfromyourslumber.com.

NO, it's not just you - the site is down.

Apparently, the host's servers are down and won't be back up for a while.

Hopefully, it won't be too much longer than that and there won't be any damage to the data.

Until then - anything urgent will be posted here.

If you have an urgent post and need posting privileges to this site, email me at qrswave@yahoo.com

Why Does Counterpunch.org Deny US Government Complicity In The 911 Attacks?

Why does Counterpunch.org so vigorously deny US government foreknowledge and complicity in the 911 attacks?

We stumbled across this plausible explanation here, reposted verbatim below.

1. The Manchurian Can