PHOENIX -Jan 29 2010- As Phoenix struggles with an unprecedented budget crisis, officials say police officers and firefighters will be laid off for the first time in city history.
The announcement came Thursday afternoon as the Phoenix city manager informed city departments how much funding they would lose this year.
The police and fire chiefs detailed the massive cuts their departments will take: $54 million for police and $35 million for fire.
Both departments have faced budget reductions throughout the economic downturn. Now officials said there is no where else to cut but let staff go.
Nothing will be finalized for at least two weeks.
But early estimates are that 350 sworn police officers will be fired and 144 firefighters let go.
It's the first time in city history that layoffs have affected sworn positions.
Phoenix had asked all city departments to reduce their budgets by at least 15 percent.
And at the Phoenix police union, the phone's been ringing off the hook from worried cops.
"You've heard the phrase the thin blue line. It can't get any thinner, it's going to snap," said Mark Spencer, Phoenix Law Enforcement Association resident.
The union represents 2,500 officers.
And Spencer said he's not sure what else can be done or removed before budget cuts entirely sever the city's public safety.
"You've seen that slogan on the side of police cars 'To Serve and Protect,' well these budget cuts are going to morph that from 'Serve and Protect' to 'Wait and See,'" said Spencer.
|
BANGKOK, Jan 29 (Reuters) – General Motors Corp [GM.UL] said on Friday it had secured a 13.5-billion-baht ($400 million) bank credit line from three Thai banks for reviving its earlier suspended diesel engine project and vehicle production expansion in Thailand. Bangkok Bank BBL.BL, Siam Commercial Bank (SCB.BK) and Tisco Bank TISCO.BK signed contracts pledging to provide GM (Thailand) Ltd the credit line, it said in a statement. GM had halted construction of the project in late 2008 after the global financial crisis forced its Detroit head office to seek a U.S. state bailout. ($1 = 33.00 baht)
(Reporting by Manunphattr Dhanananphorn; Editing by Jason Szep)
|
|
California: America’s First Failed State
In the latest Intelligence Squared US debate, the audience agreed that the Golden State has lost its luster. By Jerry Adler NewsWeek.com Sometime last summer—around the time California’s budget crisis led it to begin paying state workers in scrip—a meme took off in the media, that of California as a “failed state.” Of course, it is nothing... »
|
The Precarious State of Our Union In this week's much anticipated State of the Union address, President Obama again demonstrated his poor understanding of the fundamental problems that confront our nation. By following the advice of the same people who helped guide our economy to the precipice of total collapse, Obama now threatens to push it over the edge...
|
|
The Coming Cataclysm
“Last week we interviewed G. Edwin Griffin, author of the Creature from Jekyll Island. Ed explained that the Federal Reserve has been created to preserve the interests of the bankers. Gold is an enemy of the Fed because, when it is demanded as money, it restricts their ability to re-allocate wealth from the people who create it, the miners, manufacturers, farmers and inventors, to themselves as they create fiat money out of thin air.”
“The Federal Reserve Hates Gold and You!”
Jay Taylor, J Taylor's Gold, Energy & Tech Stocks Newsletter, January 24, 2010
“Fiat Federal Reserve Notes are becoming nothing more than sewage decomposing in the vast, toxic septic tank of predatory Washington politics, epic Federal Reserve arrogance and error, blatant Wall Street fraud and outright Master Class plunder…
…the citizens have no idea how disastrous the country’s fiscal, monetary and economic problems truly are. Nor do they perceive the rapidly increasing risk of a totalitarian nightmare descending upon the American Republic.
…the nation’s fiscal year 2009 deficit was roughly $9 trillion, or $24.7 billion per day, as calculated by brilliant and well-respected economist John Williams…
It is estimated that the top 1% of Americans control roughly 40% of the nation’s wealth…
If the government decides to expropriate (steal) or commandeer (e.g., force into Treasuries) America’s private wealth in order to buy survival time, such a measure will be designed to destroy the common citizens, not the elite. Insiders will be given advance warning about any such plan, and will be able to transfer their money offshore or into financial vehicles immune from harm. Assuming that the elite moves its money to safety, there would then be $120 trillion in American debt and liabilities supported by only $32 trillion in private net worth, for a deficit of $88 trillion. In that case, each American would owe $285,714.29 to balance the country’s books…
What these statistics mean is that it is absolutely impossible for the government to fund its debt and deficits, even if it steals all of the nation’s private wealth. Therefore, the government’s only solutions are either formal bankruptcy (outright debt repudiation and the dismantling of bankrupt government programs) or unprecedented American monetary inflation and debt monetization. If the government chooses to inflate its way out of this fiscal catastrophe, the United States dollar will essentially become worthless. You can be absolutely certain that a PhD. in economics, such as Dr. Bernanke, is well aware of these realities...
The people no longer have elected representatives; they have elected traitors.
The enslavement of the American people has been orchestrated by a pernicious Master Class that has taken the United States by the throat. This Master Class is now choking the nation to death as it accelerates its master plan to plunder the people’s dwindling remaining assets. The Master Class comprises politicians, the Wall Street money elite, the Federal Reserve, high-end government (including military) officials, government lobbyists and their paymasters, military suppliers and media oligarchs. The interests and mindset of the Master Class are so totally divorced from those of the average American citizen that it is utterly tone deaf and blind to the justifiable rage sweeping the nation…
Financial Sense Online Editorials
01/29 What’s a Company's Gold Worth? by Louis James & Andrey Dashkov
01/29 The China Controversy and the Stock Market by Clif Droke
01/29 Russia's Conquest of Europe by J. R. Nyquist
01/28 Gold and Other Failed Bancors by Andrew McKillop
01/27 The Other Oil Play You Simply Can't Ignore by Marin Katusa
01/27 Bernanke's Burn Notice -- Why Now? by Robert Prechter
01/27 Where Will US Job Growth Come From? by James Quinn
|
We've Been Neoconned
The modern-day, limited-government movement has been co-opted. The conservatives have failed in their effort to shrink the size of government. There has not been, nor will there soon be, a conservative revolution in Washington. Political party control of the federal government has changed, but the inexorable growth in the size and scope of government has continued unabated. The liberal arguments for limited government in personal affairs and foreign military adventurism were never seriously considered as part of this revolution.
Since the change of the political party in charge has not made a difference, who’s really in charge? If the particular party in power makes little difference, whose policy is it that permits expanded government programs, increased spending, huge deficits, nation building and the pervasive invasion of our privacy, with fewer Fourth Amendment protections than ever before?
Someone is responsible, and it’s important that those of us who love liberty, and resent big-brother government, identify the philosophic supporters who have the most to say about the direction our country is going. If they’re wrong – and I believe they are – we need to show it, alert the American people, and offer a more positive approach to government. However, this depends on whether the American people desire to live in a free society and reject the dangerous notion that we need a strong central government to take care of us from the cradle to the grave. Do the American people really believe it’s the government’s responsibility to make us morally better and economically equal? Do we have a responsibility to police the world, while imposing our vision of good government on everyone else in the world with some form of utopian nation building? If not, and the enemies of liberty are exposed and rejected, then it behooves us to present an alternative philosophy that is morally superior and economically sound and provides a guide to world affairs to enhance peace and commerce.
One thing is certain: conservatives who worked and voted for less government in the Reagan years and welcomed the takeover of the U.S. Congress and the presidency in the 1990s and early 2000s were deceived. Soon they will realize that the goal of limited government has been dashed and that their views no longer matter.
|
|
Russian border guards fire at Japanese fishing vessels: reports 
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Russian border guards shot at two Japanese fishing boats in what Russia considers its territorial waters near four disputed Pacific islands, news agencies reported on Saturday.
The incident happened at 06:20 Moscow time (0320 GMT) on Friday some 1.5 nautical miles off Kunashir Island, after the Japanese boats ignored orders to stop for examination, the Sakhalin coast guard department of Russia's Federal Security Service said in a statement.
After warning shots, Russian coast guards fired at the boats from a helicopter. The boats then stopped and returned to the Japanese port of Rausu.
A joint investigation into the incident had been launched with the Japanese side, the statement said.
The four islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan and the Southern Kurils in Russia, were occupied by Soviet troops in 1945 and are currently under Russian control.
Russia and Japan have long been at odds over ownership of the islands, with the dispute blocking the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries since the end of World War II.
Russian border guard chopper shells Japanese poachers
RT - 1 hour ago
A Russian border patrol helicopter had to shoot with illuminating shells close to two Japanese seining schooners illegally fishing in Russia's territorial waters, reports RIA News agency.
On January 29, the Japanese vessels Taka Maru 58 and Kiyomi Maru 63 were scared off, just a nautical mile and a half from Russia’s Kunashir Island in Southern Kuril Islands.
Due to remoteness of the island, it became the helicopter’s task to deal with the poachers.
Despite being ordered to stop for inspection, the vessels tried to flee. After being warned, they were shot at, and only then did they retreat. Nobody was hurt.
Patrol ships were called to the scene but because of difficult weather conditions they could not arrive in time and Japanese poachers disappeared.
After leaving Russian territorial waters, both vessels went to the Japanese fishing port of Rausu on Hokkaido Island.
The whole incident, including the Japanese vessels refusal to stop for examination, has been video recorded.
Despite this, a representative of the Japanese vessels’ owner insists that ships did not enter Russian territorial waters and therefore broke no laws.
An investigation has been launched together with the Japanese side into the incident.
|
"China will be under a lot of pressure to recognize the destabilizing impact that a nuclear-armed Iran would have in the Gulf, from which they receive a significant percentage of their oil supplies," Clinton said at the end of a speech at Ecole Militaire, France's college for senior officers in Paris.
Iran: China axis strengthens: China opposed to new sanctions Jan 29 2010 - The Chinese foreign minister meets with Hillary Clinton and stresses: "Dialogue with the ayatollahs, we must use diplomacy." On U.S. plans to toughen the sanctions at the UN headquarters, a "niet" from Moscow. Russia also said it was "perplexed" by the idea of tougher sanctions. The Kremlin's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, after meeting with Clinton, sided with China. Specifically, the American idea would be to financially penalize certain industries linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, and especially to hit the financial sector.
Hillary Clinton warns China to stay the course on Iran nuclear sanctions LA Times Jan 29 2010
US Dept of State Background Briefing on Asian Security US Department of State - 2 hours ago I'd like to give you some background information on the announcement today regarding the sale of arms to Taiwan. We have two Senior Administration Officials ...
Transcript of VOA Interview with Secretary of State Clinton Voice of America - January 29, 2010
GOLLUST: Still another issue raised at the forum in Paris, U.S. relations with China, the controversy over the Google website. You mentioned that the president will be meeting the Dalai Lama. The issue of Taiwan arms sales is out there. Do you think we are in for, you might say, a patch of rough sledding in relations with China because of the convergence of such issues?CLINTON: Well I hope not. But there shouldn't be any surprises on either issue. The United States has supplied defensive arms to Taiwan for many years. We do it within the context of our Taiwan Relations Act and the Joint Communiqué and our commitment to a one China policy. We think it is appropriate and in fact we believe that providing defensive equipment has actually enabled Taiwan to feel more comfortable in drawing closer to China in commercial interactions. And the last three, maybe four presidents have met with the Dalai Lama, so again there shouldn't be any surprise. We certainly don't recognize any claim that the Dalai Lama makes to territory inside China. We view him primarily as a religious leader. So again this is something that previous presidents have done and President Obama is committed to doing. FULL STORY
|
|
Stop Shooting the Messengers
By Dean Hartwell
In the days of old, the king would kill someone who told him something he did not want to hear. But few people today would even contemplate that.
And bad news is all around us. We have wars that have dragged on for years, we have an economy that is sputtering at best and we are constantly reminded that many of our leaders have moral shortcomings.
No one shoots the messenger over anything like this.
But when the subject concerns facts about government involvement in criminal activities, the reaction of much of the public and the media is perhaps even worse: the messenger gets ridiculed.
Recently, Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Nation brought 9/11 Commission member John Farmer on his show to discuss his new book. Right away, Colbert asked in a facetious tone whether there are any conspiracy theories in the book, like "Dick Cheney as a flight attendant." Predictably, Farmer assured Colbert that there were no such theories.
Oliver Stone's 1991 movie JFK, which supports conspiracy theory in the John Kennedy assassination, was attacked by media critics before it even came out. This response contrasts sharply with the admiration the media gave the Warren Report and its support of the official lone gunman theory. Many of the critics did not actually read the report.
EGYPT
Muhammad Hosni Mubarak,commonly known as
Hosni Mubarak (born 4 May 1928), is the 4th and current President of the
Arab Republic of Egypt.
Egypt OnlineJanuary 29, 2010Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri said on Thursday 28/01/2010 that President Hosni Mubarak is a great symbol of Arab wisdom, asserting that Egypt staunchly supports all Arab causes.President Mubarak received at Heliopolis Presidential Palace on Thursday 28/01/2010 Hariri, who is on his maiden visit to Egypt after assuming his post at the helm of the Lebanese government.The talks covered the latest Arab and regional developments, the situation in Lebanon, means to enhance bilateral ties and a number of other issues of mutual interest.Mubarak, from his position on top of the Egyptian hierarchy, has made of Cairo "a base for Arab solidarity", Hariri said at a press conference. CIA chief Panetta in Egypt and Israel for secret talks on Yemen
Jan 29 2910 - In Cairo, he met Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, defense minister Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi and intelligence minister Gen. Omar Suleiman. They discussed an Egyptian expeditionary force for Yemen to fight al Qaeda combatants alongside US special forces. Panetta requested for the use of Egyptian military airfields as jumping-off bases for US air strikes against the terrorist strongholds.
China, Egypt seek boosting investment, trade relationsEgypt Online
Jan 29 2010 - Most of Chinese companies operating in Egypt are small and medium-sized enterprises, he said, adding that they are investing in the domains of industry, services, agriculture and telecommunications.
Deputy Head of the Economic Committee at the Chinese Communist Party expressed China's welcome for activating Chinese investments in Egypt as China is seeking balanced relations with the developing countries and not having a surplus in the trade exchange.
Mahmoud Mohieddin witnessed on Thursday 28/01/2010 the signing of a cooperation agreement with China.
The accord was inked between the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCIT) and Egypt's General Authority for Investment and Free Zones.
Full Story 
People's Republic of China (PRC)
|
China retaliates over US arms sales to Taiwan The Guardian - 47 minutes ago Black Hawk helicopters form part of Taiwan's £4bn arms purchase from the US. Photograph: Bruno Domingos/Reuters The Chinese government has announced retaliatory measures over a planned sale of advanced US weaponry to Taiwan.
US arms sales harm cooperation (Agencies/chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-01-30 08:41"This will lead to repercussions that neither side wishes to see."
BEIJING: China has lodged solemn representations with the United States over its announcement of arms sales to Taiwan, warning the move would seriously damage cooperation between the two countries.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said Saturday that the Chinese government was "strongly indignant" about the proposed arms sales.
The Obama administration notified the US Congress on Friday of its first proposed arms sales to Taiwan, a potential $6.4 billion package including Black Hawk helicopters, Patriot "Advanced Capability-3" anti-missile missiles, and command-and-control technology.
The Chinese foreign ministry responded with a warning that the arms sale could jeopardise important bonds of cooperation with the US in a number of areas.
Vice Minister He said the arms sales were "crude interference in China's domestic affairs and seriously harm China's national security," in remarks published on the Foreign Ministry website.
"China expresses its strong indignation."
"The United States' announcement of the planned weapons sales to Taiwan will have a seriously negative impact on many important areas of exchanges and cooperation between the two countries," he said. A copy of his remarks was delivered to the US ambassador to China.
He urged the United States to halt the planned sales, saying that otherwise "This will lead to repercussions that neither side wishes to see."
By Wu Jiao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-01-30 10:42The history is full of ironic repetition.
While January 29, 1979 saw the then Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping visiting the United States, the first time that a Chinese leader paid an official visit to the US after the foundation of the PRC, and Deng's solemn proclaim that "the return of Taiwan is a matter of China's domestic affairs".
31 years later, at the same day, a perverse US, despite repetitious negotiation and the previous lessons of a stalled bilateral relation, advanced with a new round of arms sales to the island of Taiwan which China holds indisputably sovereignty.
The past 30 years seems no reduction of arms sales to Taiwan by the United States, which made its promise of "it intends to reduce gradually its sales of arms to Taiwan, leading over a period of time to a final resolution" in the 1982 Sino-US Joint Communiqué just a political lie.
During years good or bad in bilateral relations, the successive arms sale by the US governments have made the picture never clearer to us that the US will not give up its Taiwan card to contain China's development, never in the near future.
The ploy set by the US side once again proves that the so called partnership that the current US administration proclaims with China is just a partnership based on specific issues, on issues that US consider urgent to its own interest.
Will there be any true partner that kept interfering into its internal affairs of its partners and keep intensifying the relations within a whole family, especially given the fact that the cross-Straits relations have seen unprecedented good momentum of mutual exchange and good will?
If the US keeps its hand on China's internal affairs and try to impair a historic process of reunification that it will eventually fail, it can achieve no more than being a criminal in the solemn peaceful reunification path that the world should help preserve.
“Information Imperialism” and “New Berlin Wall” ChinaDaily.ca Jan 29 2010 Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state criticized China’s cyber policies , calling them the “New Berlin Wall” that she accused of contravening international commitments to free expression.
Front line: From Davos Forum China Daily reporter You Nuo is reporting the latest development at the Davos Forum.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ma Zhaoxu's Regular Press Conference on January 28, 2010
|
|
'NORTH' KOREADemocratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) urges U.S. to conclude peace treatyPYONGYANG, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- The United States should agree with the proposal of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on negotiating a new peace treaty with it, said an official newspaper of the DPRK on Friday.
The treaty, which is expected by the DPRK to replace the Korean War Armistice Agreement signed in 1957, will help build confidence between the DPRK and the U.S. and promote denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, said the Rodong Sinmun daily in a commentary.
Days have passed since the DPRK made the proposal, but some countries still insisted that the DPRK should "dismantle its nukes first", the report said.
"This cannot be interpreted as remarks made by those who truly wish for peace, stability and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
The DPRK's proposal is "a reasonable one" aiming to end the hostility between the country and the U.S., said the article.
On Jan.18, Pyongyang renewed its demands of negotiating a peace treaty and lifting sanctions before it would return to the six-party talks, saying failure of the discussion on concluding a peace treaty would consequently "push back the process of denuclearization."
But the U.S. dismissed the proposal later, reiterating that the first and foremost thing for Pyongyang is to return to the six-party talks.
 |
Obama says cutting deficit as important as job growth
Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling in Brazil GlobalResearch.ca
- 2010-01-30
Obama's 2011 budget will include phantom cap-and-trade revenue "Obama last year proposed in his fiscal 2010 budget that a cap-and-trade program would raise some $650 billion over 10 years via a full auction of emission ... RELATED: Cap And Trade Scam To Be Enforced At State Level ... a zero-growth post-industrial society are bypassing the federal government's stuttering efforts to implement the cap and trade scam and going directly ...
China Leaves Obama's 'High-Speed' Train Talk In The Dust
China's 245mph train service is the world's fastest... and it was completed in just FOUR years
China To Build 50 MORE Like This
Is Obama following the American Communist Party’s blueprint for destroying America? You decide By Kevin “Coach” Collins On January 10, 1963 Congressman Albert S. Herlong ( D. Fla.) read the ACP’s 45 declared goals into the Congressional record: (Appendix, pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963. Here’s some Communist Party goals. Compare them to Obama’s and you decide.
Note: some goals have been omitted to save space Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. Get control of the schools. Use them for socialism and Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
Infiltrate the press. Get control of editorial writing, policy-making positions. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
Continue discrediting American culture. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
Break down cultural standards of morality in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion.
Discredit the American Constitution [as] inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs…
Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
Belittle, discourage the teaching of American history.
Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture–education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
Infiltrate and gain control of big business. Discredit the family as an institution.
Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
Internationalize the Panama Canal.
Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.
Note by Webmaster: The Congressional Record back this far has not be digitized and posted on the Internet.
It will probably be available at your nearest library that is a federal repository. Call them and ask them. Your college library is probably a repository. This is an excellent source of government records. Another source are your Congress Critters. They should be more than happy to help you in this matter. You will find the Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto interesting at this point.
Webmaster Forest Glen Durland found the document in the library. Sources are listed below. Microfilm: California State University at San Jose Clark Library, Government Floor Phone (408)924-2770 Microfilm Call Number: J 11.R5 Congressional Record, Vol. 109 88th Congress, 1st Session Appendix Pages A1-A2842 Jan. 9-May 7, 1963 Reel 12
|
|
HONDURAS
Devastating Impact of Canadian Mining in HondurasGlobalResearch.ca
Interview of Carlos Danilo Amador
- by Todd Gordon, Jeffery R. Webber - 2010-01-30
RW/TG: We’re here in Tegucigalpa, Honduras (January 26). Can you give us your name and position in your organization?
CDA: My name is Carlos Danilo Amador. I am the General Secretary of the Regional Environmental Committee of the Valle de Siria, a region in Honduras.
JRW/TG: For the Canadian audience, can you tell us in general terms, first, the role of the Canadian mining industry in Honduras, and second, the resistance that has emerged in the country in response to the activities of Canadian mining companies?
CDA: In the case of Valle de Siria, where the Canadian mining company Goldcorp is active, the company has essentially come to destroy our natural resources, to divide families in our communities. Valle de Siria is a community in which people lived off of agriculture and raising animals before the arrival of Goldcorp. Once Goldcorp became active in Valle de Siria, through the project of San Martín, all of this [agriculture and farming] went under.
It is in this sense that the presence of Canadian mining companies in Honduras, and specifically in this case of Valle de Siria, has caused massive damage to the population and the natural resources. It’s hardly obvious that Canadian capital has come to develop our communities; instead, they have caused enormous damage.
READ MORE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17285
Relief from drought period for Southern Honduras
The prolonged drought period caused by El Nino is affecting the food and nutritional security of the southern region of Honduras, as well as the provision of water. In the so-called dry corridor, which includes Choluteca, Valle and the southern departments of Francisco Morazan and El Paraiso, 77% of farmers lost more than 50% of their crops and of these, 40% lost their crops entirely.
According to an assessment of food security and nutrition in the 45 municipalities conducted by the World Food Program (WFP), with support from FAO, the Ministry of Health and NGOs, stocks of corn and beans from these communities will be sold out come February.
A LITTLE HISTORY OF GLOBALIST ACTIVITIES IN HONDURAS
Honduras Coup: the US ConnectionGlobal Research, July 25, 2009
-Discussions in George Bush’s team revolved around the timing of the coup. One option under consideration was to synchronize it with Georgia’s aggression against South Ossetia in order to demonstrate US assertiveness over all azimuths, but the idea was found too extreme even by the staunchest hawks given the upcoming elections in the US.-The oil crisis that erupted in Honduras finally convinced Zelaya to change course. US companies, which monopolized the business of importing oil to the country, manipulated prices and created an artificial shortage in the fuel supply. Protests and strikes which left Honduras on the verge of a full-blown crisis made Zelaya temporarily expropriate oil storages owned by US companies. As the next step, he forged closer ties with ALBA leaders and signed several deals with Venezuela to buy oil at discount prices, broaden trade between the two countries, and jointly modernize transit infrastructures. One of Zelaya’s priority projects was to construct with the assistance of the ALBA countries a modern airport on the site occupied by the US Soto Cano Air Base....The threat of losing another strategic airbase in Latin America made Washington hurry up with the coup. -Throughout 2008 Negroponte was building in Central America an intelligence and diplomacy network charged with the mission of regaining the positions lost by the US as well as of neutralizing left regimes and ALBA integration initiative. At present the US ambassadors to Latin American countries – Hugo Llorens to Honduras, Robert I. Blau to El Salvador, Stephen G. McFarland to Guatemala, and Robert J. Callahan to Nicaragua - are Negroponte’s people. All of them have practical experience of destabilizing and subverting political regimes unfriendly to the US, launching propaganda campaigns, and creating fifth columns in the form of various NGOs.-Elections in Honduras are scheduled for November. If they take place as planned, those who organized the coup – and the US more than others – will be trying to ensure Zelaya’s defeat.The topic most widely debated in Latin America at the moment is what Obama’s administration has got to do with the recent coup in Honduras. The answer is straightforward – everything. The coup is aligned with US strategic objectives and is going to be used by Washington to regain positions in the region which it lost during George Bush’s presidency. No problems between Honduras and the US loomed on the horizon over the first months of Manuel Zelaya’s presidency. The relations fit entirely within the traditional colonial pattern: Tegucigalpa fully recognized its inferior status and never did anything that could provoke Washington’s discontent. In Honduras - one of Latin America’s poorest countries where the economy is controlled by US companies and foreign politics is guided by the US State Department - the de facto loss of sovereignty has long ago translated into a political inferiority complex. The Honduran political and military elites competed over US favors while never forgetting to extract material benefits from the humiliating status quo. Honduras always served the US as a foothold for offensives against liberation movements in the region and was even dubbed the “Honduras aircraft carrier” as a result. READ MORE
YEMEN
|
U.S. targets Yemen, expands ‘war on terror’ The U.S. concern in Yemen is not al-Qaida “threats.” It is concern that imperialism remain in control of strategic and oil-rich Yemen and the nearby oil routes. Washington, however, underestimates the determination of the Yemeni people, who are very political, and have a long history of struggle.
By Joyce Chediac
Published Jan 30, 2010 6:34 AM
On Jan. 4, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed “instability” in Yemen posed “a global threat.” Why is Yemen unstable? Where does the “threat” really come from? Why are U.S. cruise missiles killing civilians in Yemen? Brief history of Yemen The Republic of Yemen is strategically located in the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and across from the Horn of Africa. It is bordered in the north by Saudi Arabia and in the east by Oman. In modern times, this country’s struggle for sovereignty has drawn fire from the most powerful imperialist countries and their Middle Eastern clients. Yemen was taken over by the British and made a colony in 1939. When the Suez Canal opened in 1869, the port of Aden — one of Yemen’s natural resources — became British colonialism’s refueling port. When a wave of anti-imperialist struggle gripped the Arab world in the 1950s and 1960s, the Yemeni people threw out the British colonizers and formed the Yemen Arab Republic in 1962. The new state was supported by Egypt, then a leader in the Arab national struggle, which sent in troops to protect it. Yemeni independence and self-determination was opposed by Saudi Arabia, a surrogate for Washington and to this day the oppressor regime in the Arabian Peninsula. The heavily armed Saudi regime has regularly interfered in Yemeni affairs and opposed any progressive measures there. Yemenis in the southern part of the country took the struggle a step further. After a successful armed struggle, they set up a state which aspired to build socialism. In 1967, the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen was born in the south. The new state aligned with the Soviet Union, China and Cuba. The PDRY contained most of Yemen’s natural resources. The port of Aden and Yemen’s oil deposits are in the south. The PDRY controlled the Bab al Mandeb straits — a strategic oil tanker passageway — which the U.S. government now seeks to control. Despite these resources, relentless pressure from world imperialism and repeated attempts by the Saudis to destabilize the progressive government prevented the PDRY from developing its economy. In 1990, after the collapse of the socialist camp, the socialist south and capitalist north reunited in a strained union to form the Republic of Yemen. The new government, headed by Yemen’s current president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, for a short time included a relative balance of representatives between Yemen’s north and south. A year later, when the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq for the first time, the Republic of Yemen opposed this attack on Iraq. The Saudi regime retaliated against Yemen for its progressive and independent stand by expelling a million Yemenis working and living in Saudi Arabia; thereby destabilizing Yemen, which could not absorb them all. A half million desperate people camped outside Sann’a, the capital city. Yemen’s poverty level shot up to 47 percent, and remains in the same range today The message was clear. Imperialism and its surrogates in the region would not tolerate independent positions from Yemen. The Yemeni government became an agent of the Saudis and the U.S. The resource-rich south was virtually annexed, its political leaders forced to flee, and its inhabitants treated like second-class citizens. Since then, the Sann’a regime’s pro-imperialist and corrupt policies have isolated ever growing sectors of the population. Yemen oil money was used not to develop the country but to line the Swiss bank accounts of Yemen’s rulers and those they buy off. The drop in oil prices associated with the 2008 capitalist economic crisis struck a body blow to the Yemeni economy. As Yemen’s economy has become more unstable, its rulers have become more corrupt and more repressive. U.S., Yemeni and Saudi regimes bombing Yemeni people When Clinton raised concern over Yemen’s “instability” she never mentioned the root causes and imperialism’s role. Nor does she mention that right now, under the guise of fighting terror, the U.S., Yemeni and Saudi regimes are bombing and terrorizing the people of Yemen. Today there are three distinct insurgencies in Yemeni. Most significant are the Houthi insurrection in the north and especially the secular Southern Movement. Most recently, at the behest of the U.S., Sann’a has begun attacking the small group called al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, not before seen as a threat. The U.S. media claim that the Houthi fight with Sann’a is a Sunni-Shiite conflict based on religion. However, Edmund J. Jull, U.S. ambassador to Yemen from 2002 to 2004, calls this a “myth” and explains that “the Houthi and President Saleh are followers of the Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam.” The Houthis are fighting for cultural rights against a repressive regime. The Yemeni government has been destroying their villages since 2004, making tens of thousands refugees. Saudi jets regularly bomb Houthi positions. The Southern Movement is a broad-based secular movement whose goal is the secession of the south. Its core is made up of former officials and military officers of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. It also includes Baathists, Nassarites and traditional local leaders. Gary Leupp, writing in the Jan. 15-17 issue of Counterpunch, says the Southern Movement has “little in common with al-Qaida” and views Yemeni President Saleh as “a corrupt, nepotistic dictator using U.S. aid and the exaggerated al-Qaida threat to his own advantage.” Tiny al-Qaida not seen as a Yemeni “problem” As for al-Qaida in the Arabian Gulf, even U.S. intelligence estimates that the group is only loosely affiliated with the Bin Laden group and has no more than 200 people, most of whom do not have weapons. The group, however, is located in the oil-rich and strategic south. Gregory Johnson, a Princeton graduate student specializing in Yemen, said, “The Yemeni government is much more concerned with fighting the Houthis in Saada and with the secessionists in the south. Al-Qaida ranks a distant third. The government doesn’t see it as a Yemeni problem. [It sees it as] a foreign problem.” That was before government instability in this strategic country sounded alarm bells in Washington. Now, said Leupp, Yemeni President Saleh has “smeared” the Southern Movement “as an al-Qaida offshoot” to “strengthen his grip over the country with U.S. support” because “his government is weak and risks losing control over the oil-rich south without outside help.” Washington claims “threats” from Yemen stem from an alleged al-Qaida connection and the aborted attempt to bring down a U.S. airliner on Dec. 25. Yet the Pentagon began air strikes on southern Yemen on Dec. 18, seven days earlier. CBS reports that the 60 victims were mostly civilians, including women and children. Additionally, the Houthis in north Yemen, far from al-Qaida, say that they have been bombed by U.S. drones.
Saudi Arabia's Military Involvement in the Yemen Conflict2010-01-29
GlobalResearch.ca
It has been nearly three months since the Saudi military directly inserted itself in the conflict between Zaidi rebels and the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen’s mountainous northwest governorate of Saada. After two of its border guards were killed last November by the rebels, known as Houthis (named after their erstwhile leader, Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi) and claims made that they had crossed into Saudi territory, a massive aerial assault was unleashed. Using U.S. and Western-supplied weapons unavailable to Saleh’s government, the Saudi military employed Apache helicopters, F-15 and Tornado jets, infrared detection equipment, surveillance drones and quite possibly banned white phosphorus shells, to target Houthi positions in the rugged terrain of the border region and well into Yemen proper. Despite their sophisticated weaponry, Saudi Arabia lost an unusually high number of soldiers; 133 at last count. Although an unknown number of Houthi fighters – and Yemeni civilians – were killed in the attacks, what is known is the great humanitarian toll the Saudi intervention exacted on the population. Already a cauldron of human suffering, malnutrition and overflowing camps for the internally displaced as a result of five years of war, the fresh offensive only added to the misery of Saada and the neighboring provinces. Since the conflict began in 2004, aid agencies place the number of displaced Yemenis at 200,000. The Saudi government’s policy of forcibly returning those fleeing the conflict back into the war zone – a morally reprehensible practice not to mention a violation of international law – was widely condemned. This week, the Houthis announced a unilateral ceasefire and declared their intention to voluntarily withdraw from any Saudi territory occupied. The current Houthi leader, Abdul Malek al-Houthi, stated, “If the Saudi regime maintains its aggression after this initiative, it would be showing that its intention is not to defend its territory, but to invade our borders.” READ MORE
 Yemen has not been out of the news since it was linked to the failed Christmas Day bomb plot. But Hugh Sykes finds that for the country's 10 million children, the growing threat from al-Qaeda is the least of their problems.
Many Yemenis have said the West dissolved into panic after the failed Christmas Day bombing on a Detroit-bound airliner. Panic and cowardice. The political adviser to President Ali Abdullah Saleh told me that the British decision to cancel direct flights from Sanaa to London unless they first landed in Paris for a security check, was an over-reaction.
Not to mention what it revealed about the attitude of the British government towards the safety of the citizens of Paris, if it really thought there was a danger from Yemenia flights. READ MORE
|
Afghanistan
|
Taliban: Meeting with UN envoy "baseless"
KABUL, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants on Saturday denied a reported meeting of the outfit leadership with Kai Eide the special envoy of United Nations Secretary General to Afghanistan, saying the report is "baseless". "Reports appeared in media about the meeting of the Leadership Council of the Islamic Emirate (name of Taliban ousted regime) with UN special envoy Kai Eide is merely rumors and baseless," a statement released by Taliban outfit to media from undisclosed location said. The UN top diplomat in Afghanistan, according to media reports had met with Taliban leaders in Dubai recently. Eide has also rejected the report as groundless. "Taliban believe in Jihad or holy war and wound continue jihad against the foreign invaders till their eviction from Afghanistan, " the outfit said in the statement.
Bribing Taliban
30 January, 2010, 13:07
Russia Today
“One of the things that really bred a lot of hatred amongst Afghans is the practice of the US soldiers of going to people’s homes in the middle of the night and taking away their loved ones, often on the slightest of suspicions,” Gopal told RT. “Often these people are taken to a series of prisons across the country and sometimes are released, sometimes are held indefinitely, and this really turned a lot of people against the Americans. Seven-eight years ago, people greeted Americans as liberators of the country, but now the tide is turning, unfortunately, because of these reactions.”
Plans to convert the Taliban fighters to the peaceful life dominated the minds of those world leaders trying to mend the failing military operation in Afghanistan.
But offering a $140 million trust fund to a country ravaged with corruption brought doubts the money won't end up in Taliban pockets the other way. And the last day of discussions in Davos isn't likely to resolve the concerns.
A new strategy for engagement in Afghanistan, is what leaders are calling a political solution to complement the military surge. And part of that strategy is a controversial decision to give nearly $140 million to buy off moderate members of the Taliban.
Friday in Davos saw key figures involved in the war meet to follow up on Thursday's London conference.
Many delegates come to Davos year after year. It's hard to imagine what would have been the reaction at the World Economic Forum in 2002, just months after 9/11, if you'd said foreign ministers from 60 countries had agreed to pay the Taliban, widely believed to be connected with Al-Qaeda.
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband defends the plan as instrumental in rebuilding the Afghan nation, where nearly ten thousand British troops are currently fighting.
“No one’s talking about bribing our way out of the insurgency.” said Miliband. “What we’re talking about is the Afghan government having the proper resources to create employment, to create infrastructure and to support a redevelopment programme, and for those members of the insurgency that are fighting against their communities, we want them inside their communities.”
Part of the strategy involves buying off low and mid-level Taliban fighters by offering them cash and jobs in return for laying down their arms. But opposition leader Dr Abdullah Abdullah says the fighters aren’t for sale.
“I think they have not put themselves up for sale, so they will not be bought that way. I think it will be rather more sensible to reach out to those people in those areas where the Taliban are operating and not to create circumstances where they are leaving the government and joining the Taliban; so create better circumstances in those areas with good governance, with rule of law, with bringing justice and developmental services.”
It's certainly not a strategy that's guaranteed to work – in fact some experts say it amounts to throwing good money after bad.
"It’s a common practice of all the alliance members in Afghanistan that they hand out weapons of all kinds as gifts, as payment to their Afghan proxies, and that means that these weapons end up in the market,” said Christoph Horstel, government and business consultant. “They’re being sold by the people. Anybody can buy them and that’s how the Taliban get them. Another part is that we know that our American friends, for example, have aided the Taliban and delivered truckloads of all kinds of goods – tents, food and weapons and ammunition to the Taliban. And that’s also again being used against the allied troops in Afghanistan.”
Those on the ground in Afghanistan are unlikely to welcome the move either. US soldiers say millions of dollars are finding their way out of Afghanistan every day, and corruption is rife.
“It’s an independent report, not something that I have personal knowledge of, but the idea that $10 million of donor money is leaving Afghanistan every single day for parts unknown,” said Andy Veres, a US soldier in Afghanistan. “It is certainly very, very possible that the same arms that were intended to arm the Afghan national police or army are landing up in the black market.”
If that’s the case, and the level of corruption remains the same, it will take just 2 weeks for what officials are calling the $140 million “trust fund” for Afghanistan to vanish into the thin, mountain air.
Anand Gopal, author from The Nation magazine, thinks after eight years in Afghanistan it is clear a political solution is the key.
|
|
MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL-BANKING COMPLEX
|
Defying China, U.S. will sell Taiwan $6 billion in weapons
Setting up foreign subsidiaries allows American defense contractors not only to utilize cheaper labor and more favorable regulations, but also avoid paying taxes that fund key government safety net programs. This conclusion was reached by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which examined 29 defense contractors and their reliance on offshore companies for their work overseas from 2003 to 2008. Countries and regions with reputations as tax havens that were most often used by defense contractors to set up subsidiaries included Singapore, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands. The biggest offender studied was Kellogg Brand and Root (KBR), which was registered in the Cayman Islands. -Noel Brinkerhoff
KBR RELATED:
The Region's Leading Conference in Military Logistics for 2010
US food delivery contracts in Middle East worth billions Washington Post The Defense Logistics Agency is preparing to contract out delivery of more than $10 billion worth of food to US troops and other government personnel ...
|
|
BIG PHARMA
|
Physician Exposes: Vaccination Without Doctor Approval In a US HospitalBased on Internet postings, we are able to report on S. Humphries, MDs January 22, 2010 expose of the dangerous hospital policy of automatically vaccinating patients without consulting the patients physician or obtaining truly informed consent for the procedure. Dr. Humpries paints a scary picture of standard hospital procedure that warns us all to be very careful whenever we may have to interact with the health care system (actually, better to call that illness control system).
|
|
More than 179,000 homes and businesses in Oklahoma without power
(Jeff Dixon / Lawton Constitution / January 29, 2010) Ice dangles from power lines and the walkway to the dam at Lake Lawtonka on Friday. Heavy ice brought down electrical lines and trees limbs, leaving more than 179,000 homes and businesses in Oklahoma without power, according to the state Department of Emergency Management.
"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail"
- Benjamin Franklin |
|
|
Webster G. Tarpley
www.tarpley.net
January 28, 2010
Defense Secretary Cohen's 1997 Warning about Scalar EM Geotechnical Terrorism
“Others [terrorists] are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves… So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations…It's real, and that's the reason why we have to intensify our [counterterrorism] efforts.”
- Secretary of Defense William Cohen at an April 1997 counterterrorism conference sponsored by former Senator Sam Nunn. Quoted from DoD News Briefing, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, Q&A at the Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and U.S. Strategy, University of Georgia, Athens, Apr. 28, 1997.
Haiti: The U.S. Created the Earthquake in Haiti? Pravda.ru
 GLOBAL FASCISM NEWS
"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power."
Benito Mussolini |
Climategate: Scientific American's slapdash attempt at rebuttal ... Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist This article seems pretty thin as an attempt to rebut the troubling issues raised in the Climategate e-mails. ...
|
| The United Nations is just a debating society and a 'front' for banks |
"Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government."
—Dr. Henry Kissinger, Bilderberger Conference, Evians, France, 1991 
NEBRASKA NEWS
|
Lincoln Nebraska Live Traffic Cams
Lincoln, Nebraska engineer is ready for worst with robot snowblower
 Jan 30 2010 - Lincoln, Nebraska engineer Jimmy Bui has been thinking about an easier way to deal with snow for years. This winter, thought turned to action.Bui built a obot snowblower. "I created it to test an idea," he said. "Its main purpose is to help people, especially the unhealthy ones, during the bitter wintertime." Bui - who, by the way, has the cleanest driveway in his neighborhood - completed his creation earlier this month after a few weeks of work in his garage. The robot, called JNK, has "WALL-E" proportions. The bottom of an electric wheelchair serves as its base. Bui controls it (the robot's not sentient ... yet) with a remote control originally used for a toy airplane. The robot's antenna is propped up with a chopstick, and the motor is covered by a plastic cake dome purchased at Sam's Club. After a few botched attempts at sticking a shovel on the robot, Bui attached a Honda HS35 snowblower to the front. And it works. It works well, slowing down and speeding up, turning and stopping on a dime. When Bui runs the robot from his living room, his invention obviously gets a few double-takes. His mailman's confused. Soon, he won't even have to look out his window. He's going to put a camera on the robot, which will feed the robot's view to his TV. It'll be like a video game, only with real-world effect, he said. The convenience of the device aside, Bui said, his invention is about a lot more than blowing snow. Twenty-plus years back, Bui almost died on a boat out of Vietnam. He arrived in Malaysia, where the United Nations helped him get to the U.S., he said. "The United States opened their arms to me and gave me a new life in a free country," he said. "I owe some people." The robot, he hopes, is a way of giving something back. If he perfects his invention and gets someone to invest in production, he'll donate money to a handful of charities, he said. In the meantime, though, his robot's just helping him get through the winter. And its use won't end with the season. Come spring, Bui's going to detach the snowblower. His robot will then learn to push a lawnmower.
|
|
TALK AT YOU ALL LATER!!
My News blog: The Cave
Published Version of my News Updates: Surviving the Revolution and Earthchanges 
