I have heard people say that we went to war only for the oil in Iraq. That isn't the way I remember it.
I remember what happened and how it transpired. I remember watching President Bush go to the 911 twin-towers site and straighten up from examining the debris and get that determined look on his face.. and I remember those in the Congress who said the US wouldn't stand around and wait for another hit but would take the fight to the enemy. And I see today the US is at war, but the homeland remains casualty free, by God's Grace and good leadership since that day. If the US had not gone to war, they would now be blaming the President for the casualties on US soil, instead of blaming him for the few thousand who have sacrificed their lives on foreign soil that we might be safe here at home. Either way, he had a tough choice to make. I think he made the right one.
I will never believe it was all a predetermined plan to go to war against Iraq, nor a conspiracy to get an oil supply.. because I watched, I saw, the people on those days. And they may have removed the coverage of those events and tried to erase it from our minds.. but it is written large on some of our hearts. They are not forgotten, nor the fact it was a wakeup call which has to be faced down or lost. Oil was not the primary consideration then.. no matter what others with questionable motives may say.
Those who would pull out of Iraq before the Iraqis can stand without assistance on their own soil are cowards, plain and simple. And they have forgotten. I pray the US public won't follow in the footsteps of such cowardice when the legacy the country of the United States has is bravery and self sacrifice - not carnality and murder - and all the other underserved accusations the left makes against the military and religious.
This is a clip worth watching..
only a couple months old, but the most excellent presentation I have ever seen of a song etched in many hearts..
mine included:
In the midst of this election cycle.. have we forgotten how we got here?
Are we so foolish as to let those with an ideological agenda dictate to us what to believe - rewriting and distorting the very history we lived through and saw with our own eyes? They cast aspersions with no serious proof, which is nothing else but slander.. well, in politics it may be allowed by men, but I thank God that He will judge it on a moral basis where their political excuses won't count - one day. No matter what they deceived others for, power, fame, the Whitehouse?.. the judgement will be perfectly just and rightly measured on Judgement Day. And for those gullible enough to buy into these incredibly dumb conspiracy theories.. God deliver them from being blind leaders of the blind.
I am still doing the process of getting my rear end over to Iraq, but it will take some time, the companies sending people over there wants to make sure they're not sending a problem, so so far, am heavily into doing aptitude tests, dental exams, x-rays, and a long line of background checks, more stuff to follow.
Yes the original idea when investing in this venture was to make a quick buck on a soon to come RV.
As time went ahead, I think we have educated ourselves quite a bit on Arabian culture, and the viewpoint we had in the beginning is exchanged for a more understanding idea why things are as they are over there.
It is pretty much agreed upon amongst scholars that the population on this continent didn't see ourselves as "Americans" until after the Civil War.
Before that we were Virginians, Carolina's, Texans, and Pennsylvanians.
Iraq as we see it, a county amongst other Arab countries, have the distinction of never having to existed until only about a hundred years back from now.
Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Dubai to take some other examples, they were a functioning societies before the Westerns carving of the territories. Perhaps not with the idea that we have, "Equality, Liberty and Brotherhood", but still, a very old set up of rules and regulation that have been stedfast for thousands of years over there.
Iraq had the misfortune of being carved out by the Brits, and have since experienced British rule, a King set on a throne (runned by the Brits) sheiks running their own sphere of influence in the territory, a short burst of kings again, and then a tyrant that acted beyond belief.
Would we be surprised if the Iraqis don't really see themselves as Iraqis just yet?
For us it was so easy to imagine, we have our system, our taxes, our institutions, we vote them in and we vote them out, we air our grievances in media, and even if we bitch about it, we use the justice system and trust it. The whole system is criss crossed by freeways, both physical and cyber.
If we send something along a freeway, we expect it to be treated in a certain way, and we have the conduct to handle a received particle as well.
From that viewpoint, we went ahead and removed Saddam, and had the idea that everything was going to be just dandy after that. Who would think of anything otherwise, his rule made sure that a couple of buses filled with people of all ages and genders went into the desert into the night, to be returned empty in the morning.
Remove him and we will have it all nice and ducky.
Not to be, the interim minister Malawi stated that even the Iraqis themselves did not forecast the uprising. Evidently there was a lot of old grievances that bubbled up to the surface, the only time in the whole history when they were free, and the emotions from old wrongs, just came up, nothing held them down no more.
In a sense, with all the destruction from the uprising(some say civil war), It maybe was something necessary for the Iraqi nation to happen, in order to evolve, and mature into a true nation.
Some have set aside things like the new flag, as something very unimportant, but it can't be for the Iraqis.
Three different ethnic and cultures are slowly coming together under one flag, and it will not come within a week or so, it will take some time. The Iraqis, still in many aspects are not united, but are Shiite, Sunnis, Kurds first and for all. This in the same manners as we were Virginians, Texans and New Yorkers.
The amount of uprisings and unruly population in the Americas in the early part of our history will reflect pretty much the Iraqis search for identity. If we were dissatisfied with something, we marched on it, made a posse, burned, looted and behaved very much like the Iraqi population.
It would be wrong to count Iraq as a 100 year old country, because the Iraqis themselves have not lived in their "own" country, until now.
About now is the first time they have something they can call their own.
Their loyalties have to be straightened up, as smaller groups and factions, religious and cultural, may it be Mullahs or Sheiks, still have strong historical ties. All this ties have served the Iraqis well in their survival in the past, and have been served with honor and loyalty.
New ways are making inroads, cellphones, TV, Internet, Radio and other media, that are showing the Iraqis that there is a completely different universe outside their own old ways, and here as well as there, change is dangerous as we all know our old ways, but don't know how to control or survive in the new ways.
We see with disbelief when a young Arab boy are waving his AK, doing it his way, and wonder why he doesn't do it our way, get a girl and go to the Drive In instead.
They'll get there, but remember we ourselves were not even Americans until 1865.
There have been a pretty significant fire in the Central Bank of Iraq. What this will mean is hard to say right now, but according to the reports, the staff was back today again, and continued it's work, so it is fair to say that even though it was a significant fire, it didn't stop the CBI from functioning.
Of course, this will as well as the UFO ,Kennedy assassination, and the first moon landing, spawn conspiracies.
The best that possibly could come out of this situation is if the CBI would declare that a big amount of IQD's was destroyed, and there is no intention to replace them.
"Fire sale on Dinars" naaa. don't think that would happen, but I wouldn't mind some being destroyed.
Currency destroyed are routinely just replaced with new ones.
Did read some fire breathing reports from an author lately, that he declared that the US presses are working day and night pressing Dollars in the Trillions. He wrote this statement in a way that he is "uncovering" something.
Hah, bills are not lasting that long, and are routinely replaced, and the prints are in fact making Trillions. The fact that they are making Trillions of Dollar doesn't mean anything.
They HAVE to make Trillions of Dollar to replace the old bills, that are routinely destroyed.
Open up your wallet, I just did, and you will find that most of the bills you have in your wallet are made after the year of 2000, (I actually found ONE bill made in 1999). Scarcely you will find an old bill, and if you do, you will immediately notice it, because they are so rare.
Paper bills don't last long, and have to be reprinted.
The whole currency are reprinted over and over again, but the currency that is destroyed are replaced Dollar by Dollar, and that's the whole story about it, nothing exciting to "disclose, unveil or uncover" about it.
I am a bit unsure however about the Iraqi currency, as they started out with a completely new batch of currency, and probably had a reserve of currency to replace their worn out bills.
The reserve is probably used now, at least for the smaller denominations, that is in daily circulation, that by this time must have started to show wear and tear, and re-prints for replacement would not be impossible or unlikely, it is just a matter of how much new bills they started up with, and how much they kept as reserve in the beginning.
I am just writing this for you to take into account if there are new "theories" on how much IQD's are in or out of the vaults in Iraq. Currency replacements are normal, and there's no mumbo jumbo in it. Swap one Dollar with another one, burn one and issue the other, that's it.
Of course, a very big difference would be if suddenly a LOT of Dinars burned up, ...like in this fire.. and they decide on not replacing it, then they will make IQD's rare, and more valuable, but they don't need to have measures like a fire in the Central Bank in order to manipulate the value of the Dinar, that is completely unnecessary.
I strongly doubt that there will be any statement that uses this fire as an explanation or excuse to change the direction of which the IQD is managed by the CBI, but I am sure that many CBI officials have a lot of their own thoughts and are kicking ideas around.
What an opportunity.
Doubtful, but by all means, watch the CBI statements in the close future, they might come up with something fun.
We have gained so much ground.. I pray to God that it will not be lost.
As Roger pointed out, some of it is growing pains just like the US has gone through.
You just don't walk away from a newly formed young nation before it can stand on its own.
Thank you both for your insights and understanding.
Sara.
===
Hasty pullout could doom Iraq, says Bush
Updated at: 0900 PST, Tuesday, January 29, 2008
WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush, rebuffing election-year pressures on Iraq, warned Monday that a hasty US troop pullout would leave hard-earned political and security progress there in ruins.
"Members of Congress: Having come so far, and achieved so much, we must not allow this to happen," Bush told a skeptical global audience in his annual final State of the Union speech.
Bush, facing pressure from the US public and leading Democratic White House hopefuls to change course, declared: "Any further drawdown of US troops will be based on conditions in Iraq and the recommendations of our commanders."
The president quoted the top US military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, as warning that a premature withdrawal would lead to "disintegration" of Iraq's security force, Al-Qaeda regaining ground, and increased violence.
Al qaeda and other destructive forces in the Middle east,
US have made new requests to the Pakistani leader Musharraf, to extend the US operation in Pakistan, but have been denied sharply that request.
Pakistan have recently been the object of attacks, in the form of bombs and assassinations in Pakistan, taking a pretty big toll on the Pakistanis.
There are pretty much two courses to take here, go ahead without the Pakistanis consent and battle Al qaeda in Pakistan,
or,
Do as what happened in Iraq, let Al qaeda do a lot of bombings and assassinations, until the population get tired of these murderers running around screaming "God is Great".
Right now the Pakistanis have a pretty naive view of the battle with Al qaeda, the majorities of the Pakistanis have the idea that this is not their war, but it is the US war with Al qaeda. (this according to surveys)
This despite the fact that these murderers are running around bombing and shooting the Pakistani population trying to intimidate them to submission.
Perhaps it would be better to try to keep the war on a winning foot in Afghanistan, leaving only Pakistan for Al qaeda to operate in, and as the Pakistanis themselves don't consider that this is their war, let them have it, until they figure out where the actual war is taking place.
When 911 happened, in light of the devastating tragedy unfolding in the news and as the nation was in shock and reeling from the hit.. as casualty reports were coming in and we saw on the news people in the Middle East rejoicing and shouting praise to their god allah over the deaths of good and innocent American civilians, I came before the LORD in prayer and I asked Him what He would do about our safety. And He said, "I will give other men's lives for you."
And there isn't one casualty taken in fighting against the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists - be it male or female, American or coalition - that I don't think of the Lord's words and appreciate that the sacrifice they have made was for ME.. for us, for the public safety here at home. We felt like sitting ducks in a barrel, with madmen standing outside of the barrel with a shotgun in their hands at the ready. And when the President and Congress TOGETHER approved the action in Iraq, it was with the safety of the nation before their mind's eyes, not Iraqi oil wealth. It was a fulfillment of "I will give other men's lives for you." - for our safety and the security of the homeland - and not for self-centered and greed-filled purposes.
These conspiracy theorists malign and defame the best who God has offered up for our safety's sake, and their faulty judgement will not prevail in the final scrutiny of what has happened. History truly is HIS-story, and these conspiracy whackos who do not know Him or consider the operation of His hands over the affairs of men will never be just or justified in that Day of Judgement when He will judge all of mankind. Even if (IF) the majority of Democrats believe the conspiracy theorists, they only show how incredibly deceived they are, not the rightness of their judgement.
Sara.
===
Summary of the Conspiracy Theorist problems and the vast camp of them among the Democrats, using a few articles and INCLUDING one important one implicating IRAN in taking biased polls for its own reasons (CARL and ROGER - do note the Iran connection as it is relevant to our Dinar investment.. any comment? My edits for brevity in the articles, still pretty long):
Democrats Think Bush Knew About 9/11 Attacks in Advance?
James Joyner
Saturday, May 5, 2007
A Rasmussen survey finds that, “Democrats in America are evenly divided on the question of whether George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance. Thirty-five percent (35%) of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know, and 26% are not sure.” Put another way, 61% of Democrats think it possible that the president knew about the attacks and did nothing. He was aware that, at minimum, the hundreds of people aboard those four airliners would die and he went calmly off to read “My Pet Goat” to some children?
Ed Morrissey (who, oddly, has a Rasmussen membership) takes a look at the crosstabs and notes that, “A clear majority of independents had no problem clearing Bush. Only 18% of them believe that Bush had advance knowledge of the attack, and 25% are unsure.”
Pejman Yousefzadeh said that “if you actually buy into the belief that the President knew about the attacks in advance, or that the CIA knew, given the evidence that we have after multiple investigations . . . well . . . I’m really not sure there is anything on Earth I can argue to change your mind.”
John Hawkins has no problem at all believing Democrats are “conspiracy loons” or, indeed, “Crazed, Drooling Nutjobs.” Has has a point, though, when he adds, “if people who know better don’t speak up, they allow the crazies to dominate the conversation by default and the public may not know the difference.”
Liberal Media Matters responds with the leftwing view of the poll...
Several conservative commentators have touted the results of an April 20-May 1 Rasmussen Results poll question -- which was itself ambiguous -- to accuse a substantial percentage of Democrats of believing that President Bush knew about the 9-11 attacks in advance and deliberately did nothing to stop them. According to Rasmussen Reports, respondents were asked, "Did Bush know about the 9/11 attacks in advance?" According to the poll: "Thirty-five percent of Democrats believe he did know, 39% say he did not know, and 26% are not sure. Republicans reject that view and, by a 7-to-1 margin, say the President did not know in advance about the attacks. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 18% believe the President knew and 57% take the opposite view."
In his May 15 nationally syndicated column, titled "Just How Crazy Are the Dems?" National Review Online editor-at-large Jonah Goldberg claimed that the poll found Democrats "are evenly divided on the question of whether George W. Bush knew about the 9/11 terrorist attacks in advance," and declared that "a majority of Democrats in this country are out of their gourds." Yet as Goldberg himself admitted, the poll question was ambiguous. As Goldberg said, "Many Democrats are probably merely saying that Bush is incompetent or that he failed to connect the dots or that they're just answering in a fit of pique." In other words, respondents could have been merely saying that Bush received ample warning of possible attacks.
Others have also touted this poll saying some Democratic voters are delusional conspiracy theorists.
- On the May 7 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly characterized the poll question as having said that "35 percent of American Democratic voters believe President Bush knew about the 9-11 attacks in advance and allowed them to happen." He later claimed that it indicated that "35 percent of Democratic voters believe that President Bush stood by and allowed 3,000 Americans to die on the streets." O'Reilly repeatedly referred to this as "madness," and claimed, "Sane people do not make that kind of leap."
- On the May 7 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh claimed that according to the poll, "35 percent of this country's Democrats think that there was a government conspiracy about this and allowed these attacks to happen." He asserted that due to the poll, that "it's no longer funny to call [Democrats] kooks and freaks and so forth. This is -- they are deranged, dangerously uninformed, misinformed, or what have you." He continued: "The Democrat Party is not mainstream. It is literally a bunch of deranged, delusional radicals." Limbaugh postulated the poll results were due to the influence of the American news media and education system, which had "poison[ed] people's minds" against Bush since the attacks of 9-11.
- In a May 9 post to his blog at townhall.com, nationally syndicated radio host Michael Medved claimed that according to this poll, "a stunning 61% of Democrats believed that the President of the United States may well have collaborated in the murder of 3,000 of his fellow citizens." He cited this poll as proof of "Democratic paranoia and conspiracy mongering," which he asserted "pushes the party to the lunatic fringe and leftwing edge of national opinion."
I had to split the post in two or it would not post.. but this is very interesting and worth considering because IRAN is very much an interested party to Iraq and the Dinar fortunes.. Was it that the "unsure" Democrats from the last poll moved over in this poll to the belief of 911 being an inside job, or are they faked and biased results sponsored by IRAN with the help of the radical 911 "truther" whackos? And if they are faked and biased results.. why? What is the motive of Iran in doing this?
You decide:
“9/11″ Zogby Poll Was Commissioned By Iran
By now you have probably heard of the results of the recent Zogby poll (click for pdf file), which claims that 42% of Americans believe Bush either caused 9/11 or let it happen.
From Press TV:
Poll: US gov’t knew about 9/11 attacks
Tue, 11 Sep 2007
A new poll indicates that some 43 percent of Americans believe that Washington knew about the 9/11 attacks but did nothing to stop them.
According to the Press TV-Zogby International poll, 42.5 percent of the respondents believed that the Bush Administration knew about the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center but did nothing to prevent the attacks.
Only 37.5 percent of the respondents strongly disagreed with the idea and 4.5 percent neither agreed nor disagreed with it.
Among the members of the armed forces who participated in the poll nearly 44 percent said that the US government had known about the plans for 9/11 attacks with 37.2 strongly disagreeing with it.
The poll also indicates that a majority of Americans (56.3 percent), including the members of US armed forces, support the idea that the Bush Administration used the September 11 attacks as an excuse to push ahead with its own agenda, particularly in the Middle East and only 27.1 percent of respondents disagreed with it.
Some 1006 people across the US were questioned by pollsters and the margin of error was +/- 3.2.
===end quote==
But what you may not have realized is that the poll was “commissioned” by Press TV, which is owned and operated by the Iranian government.
From Wikipedia:
Press TV PRESS TV is an English language international television news channel which is funded by the Iranian government, based in Tehran and broadcasts in English on a round-the-clock schedule. With 26 international correspondents and more than 400 staff around the world, its stated mission is to offer a different and unbiased view of the world events…
==end quote==
This work by Zogby on Iran’s behalf may even be illegal, since American businesses have been restricted from dealing with Iran (pdf file) because of its sponsorship of terrorism. Although some of these sanctions have been subsequently relaxed.
But even if the Iranian sponsorship of this poll wasn’t illegal it is highly questionable.
And of course one wonders what was the purpose of Iran commissioning such a poll at this time in the first place?
And how many polls have they commissioned previously?
Related Articles:
"Truther" Fidel Castro Says US Lied About 9/11
Ex Senator: 9/11 Arabs Cooperated With Zionists
9/11 "Truther" Arrested For Deserting The Army
Iranian TV Cartoon: Bush And Jews Milking 9/11
Former DC Islamic Head Says 9/11 Was Inside Job
How The America-Hating Left Remembers 9/11
9/11 Conspiracy Professor Put On Paid Leave
1/3 Of Americans Believe "Bush Knew" About 9/11
25 Responses to ““9/11″ Zogby Poll Was Commissioned By Iran”
1) low profile
I am always skeptical of polls. In this case, the source is known to have an axe to grind. The surprising thing is that the Iranians didn’t blame the usual Zionist suspects, but let stand the fact that the highjackers were mostly Saudi and all Islamic.
By the way, FDR ‘knew’ about Pearl Harbor–using the same criteria.
2) Eva
Of this sample set, nearly 10% say the US Govt actually carried out the attacks and 11% only somewhat disagree with this statement; therefore, 20% of those polled are out of their minds; the remaining 23% were obviously confused by the the question.
For instance, let’s say you believe that there was sufficient evidence to predict an attack and the FBI held in custody one of the 9/11 hijackers before the attack, but because of their ineptitude or inability to correlate all these events they did nothing, you may respond the same. It’s a confusing statement, especially when you’re peppered with all sort of conspiratorial accusations. It’s a classic implicit association trap. The order in which these questions were asked can lead to a statistical bias, and Zogby knows this. Also, they’re only using “listed” telephone numbers. I wonder if cell phones were called? Probably not. I’m not buying these results.
As for Zogby, he did some amazing work on the 2000 national elections, but he is after all a self-professed liberal Democrat of Lebanese descent; his brother is the founder of Arab American Institute. That’s not to say his not a good pollster, but he’s no fan of the Bush administration and he knows how to skew results.
3) texaspsue
I knew something was fishy about the news report. I’ve been a Zogby pollster for quite a few years now and for the life of me, I didn’t recall taking this poll. The MSM is moving from careless reporting to dangerous reporting. I am being to think the U.S. MSM only writes the news for the rest of the World’s benefit, not ours. To promote pure propaganda and lies Worldwide!!!!
4) ATLien
If there is one thing I learned in statistics, it is that you can make them prove any point or show any result that you want them to. This is gross and it disturbs me. When will people wake up and start condemning these conspiracy theorists publically?
5) GetBackJack
In my humble opinion, and I am not wrong about this …. polls exist to gauge the effect of propaganda. The Dominant Paradigm is issued through ‘news outlets’. People read and discuss what they’ve been told. Then a poll is conducted to see how well the miasm is being ingested and taken for Reality. Polls are a feedback loop. Ask anyone what they think of Iraq and let them expound. Then ask, “How do you know all that?” Or, “who told you?” Their response will be from any number of sources, but only one in a million will have Been There and Seen That. Virtually no one you’ll meet has been to Iraq and done the heavy lifting and also has the contextual knowledge of how all this fits together in the World Puzzle. But … they’ll damn sure have an opinion … and their views and opinions are derived from Others. In essence … They Do Not Know. They know only what they are told, wheher it is FoxNews or CNN or the AP.
Polls exist to find out how well a message is taking. Any engineer will tell us that a feedback loop is necessary in order for machinery to operate correctly. Negative feedback produces a more stable response, and positive feedback loops cause a machine to oscillate out of control and tear itself apart. Negative Feedback in terms of ‘news’ would be actual facts, absent spin and agenda. The naked cold truth. Spin, agenda and crafted stylized journalism is Positive Feedback, because it reinforces the propaganda already being pushed down the pipe. The whole thing is a vicious tactic in a larger strategy to get us to tear ourselves apart. No one can defeat America except Americans tearing each other apart. We won’t do it willingly, so we must be manipulated into doing it.
And now you know what Polling is for.
Control. Positive Feedback. Busting the machinery.
6) wardmama4
I lost all interest and respect for polls when we subscribed to USA Today (ages ago) and read a poll - 46% of Americans were scared of AIDS. I thought wow and actually read the whole deal - the poll was done only in SanFrancisco. Well - they got what they wanted.
Same with this one.
Polls are now being used (sorry GetBackJack) not to test whether their propaganda is working - but rather to make sure the masses know exactly what to answer. Read some of them now days - I won’t answer as they are so twisted I can’t answer honestly. Not that any of the msm deals with truth, facts or honesty any more.
7) caambers
I’d like to mention that the founder of Zogby International is John Zogby, also the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (not Arab is listed first in the name) and co-founder and Executive Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. He’s also co-founded an organization which funds health care for Paleosimians. I don’t think I need to say more here.
8) bnelson44
Anyone know if the Iranian Republican Guard owns Press TV? or is it Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps?
9) SG
BTW, it should be noted that the crackpot conspiracy theorists at Truth.org also claim to have “co-sponsored” this Zogby poll.
From 911Truth.org:
Zogby Poll: 51% of Americans Want Congress to Probe Bush/Cheney Regarding 9/11 Attacks; Over 30% Seek Immediate Impeachment
Released: September 06, 2007
Kansas City, MO (Zogby International) September 6, 2007 - As America nears the sixth anniversary of the world-churning events of September 11, 2001, a new Zogby International poll finds a majority of Americans still await a Congressional investigation of President Bush’ and Vice President Cheney’s actions before, during and after the 9/11 attacks. Over 30% also believe Bush and/or Cheney should be immediately impeached by the House of Representatives.
The 911truth.org-sponsored poll also found that over two-thirds of Americans say the 9/11 Commission should have investigated the still unexplained collapse of the 47-story World Trade Center Building 7 at 5:20 p.m. on September 11, 2001…
Poll Sponsor
The Zogby poll was conceived and commissioned by 911truth.org and paid for with generous assistance from individual project donors and Visibility911.com. 911truth.org is a national information clearing house and grassroots resource center for the US 9/11 truth movement. The group is dedicated to investigation, education, organizing, and accountability regarding the recent criminal misuse of government to promote fear, repression and endless war…
I thought it was victory that was supposed to have a thousand fathers. Not “truther” opinion polls.
10) DW
Speaking of the 9/11 conspiracy…from the Toronto Sun:
Conspiracy’s end?
By THANE BURNETT
There’s a radical theory that’s being considered in hushed tones.
That the 9/11 conspiracy chorus, which started to rise before the ashes of that day had completely fallen, has reached a natural and final crescendo.
That despite the tremendous popular success of online videos, forums and books — claiming the U.S. government was behind the deaths of almost 3,000 people, the planes were remote drones and the towers were brought down with military-planted explosives or missiles — the movement has left its most productive days behind.
That — even as it, according to a poll last year, convinced a third of the American population that U.S. officials were somehow complicit in the attacks — it can never really prove its case.
Who is this skeptic to suggest such a thing? The man doubting the doubting is Jimmy Walter; once the 9/11 “Truth Movement’s” most diehard promoter. Over the years, Walter, an American venture capitalist and heir to a $14.3 million fortune from his dad’s home-building business, has spent nearly $8-million to convince his fellow citizens that the attacks of 9/11 were orchestrated by “they” — an “inside job” of government leaders, media and businessmen. He’s run full page ads in papers like The New York Times and, in 2004, funded 30-second messages on major American cable networks, such as CNN and Fox News.
“I mean, it’s been six years — for at least five, the information has been out there,” Walter says. It’s blatantly obvious the truth will never come out and it will all end up like debates over who really shot John F. Kennedy, he’s sure.
“The people know. Nothing is happening,” he says, noting of his own part in the odd debate: “(I’ve) completely walked away … the curtain call is done.”
He is not alone. A column in an online forum popular with 9/11 “Truthers,” by lesser known skeptic Michael Bonanno, recently said: “I think we should give up.”
The "truth" will likely never be found, and the debate stops people from getting on with life to make things better, he argued.
But there are those who aren’t ready to walk away from the rubble — a good amount of which they’ve stirred up.
Phil Jayhan, who takes credit for being one of the early players involved in the first version of Loose Change, one of the most popular 9/11 skeptics’ movies, is preparing his own conspiracy film.
Loose Change even made it into Vanity Fair, and Jayhan is sure there’s still growth in doubt.
“Is it a conspiracy movement when you can prove the conspiracy?” he tries to convince me, on the line from Alaska.
He vows to carry on, saying the movement is no longer fringe, but rather mainstream. Shortly after our conversation, I receive an e-mail about a new poll — done on behalf of a skeptic organization — which found even more people around the world suspect a wider 9/11 conspiracy.
Despite deciding to exile himself from the need to disbelieve, there was no doubt it was sent to me from Austria by Jimmy Walter.
People will believe at the level their intelligence allows…..truthers would be “flat earthers” a couple of centuries ago, and demand that Columbus return the money he used to prove otherwise.
It would be like showing a stone age group a Bic lighter….they would not be able to conceive the idea of instant fire…..
and folks like the ones that insist that for whatever reason, the 9/11 attacks were a product of the Bush administration’s evil plan for world domination just cannot fathom that it was merely Islamic terrorists flying aircraft into infidel buildings to kill as many people as possible
.
They cannot understand metallurgy, physics, reality, the world is indeed round….and they choose to dwell in their ignorance and unfortunately try to foist their ignorance on more intelligent people.
These are the people the democrats adore. These are the myopic issue ridden people who want so desperately to believe anything other than the blatant facts…..because they are incapable of absorbing reality. It hurts their brains. It makes them realize just how small and woefully insignificant they really are.
So, conspiracy theorists they become. It gives them a sense of self worth they couldnt otherwise achieve through normal means….such as a life.
12) wardmama4
You know what this story, DW’s about Jimmy Walter and the Moveon ad, Code Pink et al shows: that when conservatives make/have millions they invest in/start companies, donate to service/aid charities, establish educational scholarships and so on and when liberals have millions they use that money to overthrow free/democratic governments, secretly further progressive agendas and propagandize their positions. It is all about THEM.
What a shame, I thought that those who desire peace, equality and justice would be all about Humanity. . .My bad.
Thanks. I was hoping you would get to it. As for Sadr.. I wonder who is goading him toward this course of action? Didn't Carl say he was an agent of Iran? Perhaps he stood back to let the Americans root out the opposition for him (he was fighting the Al Qaida on one front and the Americans on another??) and now he thinks he can jump back in with an even stronger position with the Al Qaida gone?
And if you have a thought to spare, what do you think of IRAN sponsoring that poll I quoted? Apart from the fact it was probably illegal for a terrorist country to sponsor such a poll.. isn't that kind of strange? What agenda do you see there, if any? Anyone else have an opinion on the topic? Did they do it so the Democrats and Republicans could bicker at one another and IGNORE the Iranians until they have.. done what? Got their nukes in under the wire and delayed til after President Bush has left office and they have less of a hawk in office (and hopefully a pushover who will walk away from a fight rather than pay the cost to save our necks from his "army of suicide bombers")? Just my ponderings.. remember these old posts?
Tehran, Iran, Jul. 22 – A military garrison has been opened in Iran to recruit and train volunteers for “martyrdom-seeking operations”, according to the garrison’s commander, Mohammad-Reza Jaafari.
The weekly’s interview with Jaafari appeared under the title, “Commander of Lovers of Martyrdom Garrison: Let America and Israel know, each of our suicide volunteers equals a nuclear bomb”.
“One of our garrison’s aims is to spot martyrdom-seeking individuals in society and then recruit and organise them, so that, God willing, at the right moment when the Commander-in-Chief of the country’s armed forces [Ayatollah Khamenei] gives the order, they would be able to enter the scene and carry out their missions”, Jaafari said.
“The Imam [Khomeini] said years ago that Israel must be wiped off the face of the Earth, but so far practical steps have not been taken to achieve this”, the garrison commander said. “Our garrison must spot, recruit, organise and train martyrdom-seeking persons to be able to materialise this objective. Any delay in fulfilling the strategy of the Imam and the Supreme Leader in this regard will not be to the advantage of Islam or the revolution”.
According to FOX NEWS, there is a Real Estate RUSH taking place in Baghdad...67k returned last month...and they need housing...prices of homes have doubled and tripled...
The more the economy increases the less chance of leaders like Sadr having the ability to bring violence back into the situation...but make no mistake about it...Sadr is a operating agent for Iran, as long as they have a mutual interest...He hates the USA and Iran does not want Democracy in the region...
Rob...is correct on the assessment of the RV....The RV of the dinar is a process not an event...I have always said 5 -7 years before a increase of such that will show any significant value...history of insurgencies last 10-12 years...I believe we have at least another 3 to 5 years before we can consider cashing in the some of the dinar for a profit...
The following is an article by an ex-minister. I think this should bolster my argument as to the need of all economic sectors coming on line and not relying on oil alone.
____________________________________________________________
Ex-minister warns of Iraq's economic ordeal
Amman, 29 January 2008 (Voices of Iraq)
Iraq's former minister of planning has warned of Iraq's economic "ordeal," stressing the need for sound management of the accumulative cash surplus.
"Iraq has a cash reserve of more than $20 billion, which has boosted the value of the Iraqi dinar and its purchasing power, in addition to a large credit of over $10 billion by the Iraqi Development Fund," Former Minister Mahdi al-Hafiz, who is also a member of the parliamentary economic committee, indicated in a thorough study published by the Jordanian al-Ghad (Tomorrow) newspaper on Monday.
Hafiz highlighted the need to adopt a thoughtful strategic vision and setting up profitable programs with the aim of preserving the country's natural resources and ensuring a reliable source of income.
The study also called to reconsider the budget’s spending structure and rationalize the expenditure.
"Outlining the weaknesses in the current policy and the economic performance is a must to rectify all deficiencies and implement the required structural reforms," the study explained.
The study criticized Iraq's increasing dependence on oil export revenues as a main source of income. According to the 2008 budget, over 85% of Iraq's income is generated by oil exports, which the study said poses great risks to the economy in case of oil price fluctuations.
The minister also described the shortage of direct and indirect tax revenues as an indication of a lagging economy, but said that the mobile phone revenues are quite promising.
The study concluded by outlining some aspects, which Hafiz said must be carefully handled to sustain a healthy economy. Enforcing the rule of law and ending the presence of foreign troops in the country are the first priorities set by the study.
Thanks, Rob N.
I will get to your post in just a minute, but I composed these two first to Carl (and the board) about Iran.. in reply to his post.
Appreciate your post.. will get back to you.
Thanks, Carl. I appreciate your post and insights, as always.
I also appreciate your reiterating your position that "Sadr is a operating agent for Iran" -
which is what I thought you believed.
Iran has influenced and continues to have a big influence, on the Dinar fortunes.
It is also a big player even in the fortunes of the West, as you know and I hope to show in these two posts.
I feel that a bit of review is in order concerning Iran and its intentions in their region and their view toward the world (Western in particular), just so we can see the relevant issues surrounding the Dinar, and our world, too.
Carl has always noted that the Iranians are believers in the hidden Imam and the return of the Mahdi.
A brief review with some very pertinent political commentary from Amir Taheri is necessary first -
(Amir Taheri is a former Executive Editor of Kayhan, Iran's largest daily newspaper, but now lives in Europe.)
Note he says: Iran is now the strongest presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, after the US.
He wrote, QUOTE:
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad And “The Hidden Imam”
From the UK's Telegraph:
The frightening truth of why Iran wants a bomb
By Amir Taheri
(Filed: 16/04/2006)
Last Monday, just before he announced that Iran had gatecrashed "the nuclear club", President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disappeared for several hours. He was having a khalvat (tête-à-tête) with the Hidden Imam, the 12th and last of the imams of Shiism who went into "grand occultation" in 941.
According to Shia lore, the Imam is a messianic figure who, although in hiding, remains the true Sovereign of the World. In every generation, the Imam chooses 36 men, (and, for obvious reasons, no women) naming them the owtad or "nails", whose presence, hammered into mankind's existence, prevents the universe from "falling off". Although the "nails" are not known to common mortals, it is, at times, possible to identify one thanks to his deeds. It is on that basis that some of Ahmad-inejad's more passionate admirers insist that he is a "nail", a claim he has not discouraged. For example, he has claimed that last September, as he addressed the United Nations' General Assembly in New York, the "Hidden Imam drenched the place in a sweet light".
Last year, it was after another khalvat that Ahmadinejad announced his intention to stand for president. Now, he boasts that the Imam gave him the presidency for a single task: provoking a "clash of civilisations" in which the Muslim world, led by Iran, takes on the "infidel" West, led by the United States, and defeats it in a slow but prolonged contest that, in military jargon, sounds like a low intensity, asymmetrical war.
In Ahmadinejad's analysis, the rising Islamic "superpower" has decisive advantages over the infidel. Islam has four times as many young men of fighting age as the West, with its ageing populations. Hundreds of millions of Muslim "ghazis" (holy raiders) are keen to become martyrs while the infidel youths, loving life and fearing death, hate to fight. Islam also has four-fifths of the world's oil reserves, and so controls the lifeblood of the infidel. More importantly, the US, the only infidel power still capable of fighting, is hated by most other nations.
According to this analysis, spelled out in commentaries by Ahmadinejad's strategic guru, Hassan Abassi, known as the "Dr Kissinger of Islam", President George W Bush is an aberration, an exception to a rule under which all American presidents since Truman, when faced with serious setbacks abroad, have "run away". Iran's current strategy, therefore, is to wait Bush out. And that, by "divine coincidence", corresponds to the time Iran needs to develop its nuclear arsenal, thus matching the only advantage that the infidel enjoys.
Moments after Ahmadinejad announced "the atomic miracle", the head of the Iranian nuclear project, Ghulamreza Aghazadeh, unveiled plans for manufacturing 54,000 centrifuges, to enrich enough uranium for hundreds of nuclear warheads. "We are going into mass production," he boasted.
The Iranian plan is simple: playing the diplomatic game for another two years until Bush becomes a "lame-duck", unable to take military action against the mullahs, while continuing to develop nuclear weapons.
While waiting Bush out, the Islamic Republic is intent on doing all it can to consolidate its gains in the region. Regime changes in Kabul and Baghdad have altered the status quo in the Middle East. While Bush is determined to create a Middle East that is democratic and pro-Western, Ahmadinejad is equally determined that the region should remain Islamic but pro-Iranian. Iran is now the strongest presence in Afghanistan and Iraq, after the US. It has turned Syria and Lebanon into its outer defences, which means that, for the first time since the 7th century, Iran is militarily present on the coast of the Mediterranean. In a massive political jamboree in Teheran last week, Ahmadinejad also assumed control of the "Jerusalem Cause", which includes annihilating Israel "in one storm", while launching a take-over bid for the cash-starved Hamas government in the West Bank and Gaza.
Ahmadinejad has also reactivated Iran's network of Shia organisations in Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Yemen, while resuming contact with Sunni fundamentalist groups in Turkey, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. From childhood, Shia boys are told to cultivate two qualities. The first is entezar, the capacity patiently to wait for the Imam to return. The second is taajil, the actions needed to hasten the return. For the Imam's return will coincide with an apocalyptic battle between the forces of evil and righteousness, with evil ultimately routed. If the infidel loses its nuclear advantage, it could be worn down in a long, low-intensity war at the end of which surrender to Islam would appear the least bad of options. And that could be a signal for the Imam to reappear.
At the same time, not to forget the task of hastening the Mahdi's second coming, Ahamdinejad will pursue his provocations. On Monday, he was as candid as ever: "To those who are angry with us, we have one thing to say: be angry until you die of anger!"
His adviser, Hassan Abassi, is rather more eloquent. "The Americans are impatient," he says, "at the first sight of a setback, they run away. We, however, know how to be patient. We have been weaving carpets for thousands of years."
• Amir Taheri is a former Executive Editor of Kayhan, Iran's largest daily newspaper, but now lives in Europe
From the Wikipedia about the belief in the Mahdi:
Muhammad al-Mahdi
Muḥammad al-Mahdī (born 868; year of death unknown) (Arabic: محمد المهدى) is the twelfth and final Shi'a Imam. He is the person believed by Shi'as to be the Mahdi; a figure considered by both Sunnis and Shias to be the ultimate saviour of humankind. Shi'as and Sunnis differ on the identity of the Mahdi, with Shi'as believing that he was born in 868 and has been hidden by God (referred to as occultation) to later emerge to fulfill his mission. Sunnis either believe that he is yet to be born, or that he was born recently and has yet to emerge. Whatever the case, both groups believe that he will bring absolute peace and justice throughout the world by establishing Islam as the global religion.
===end quote==
I don't think it is taken seriously enough.
It's all too real to Ahmadinejad. And it is driving his actions according to many who know him.
Related Articles:
Ahmadinejad: Iran Will Soon Have Nuclear Bomb
Iran's Negotiator Brags About Duping West
Shocker: Iran Behind 'Golden Mosque' Bombiing
Shocker: Iran Resumes Nuke Weapons Program
Hillary Wants The US To Get Tough With Iran
As for the statement that Ahmadinejad will continue his provocations.. remember this one against the United States (and Zionism):
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "We Will Soon Experience A World Without The United States And Zionism."
AHMADINEJAD: "Undoubtedly, I say that this slogan and goal is achievable, and with the support and power of God, we will soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism and will breathe in the brilliant time of Islamic sovereignty over today's world." (Iran's President Warns Muslims Of 'Conspiracies Of World Imperialism,' Available At: www.sharifnews.com, Accessed 10/26/05)
Or this one... threatening "Harm and Pain" to the US?
Iran Threatens US “Harm And Pain” Over Nukes
From the Associated Press: Iran Threatens U.S. With ‘Harm and Pain’
By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer 21 minutes ago
VIENNA, Austria - Iran threatened the United States with "harm and pain" Wednesday for its role in hauling Tehran before the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program.
America’s ambassador to the United Nations — and the chief architect of U.S. policy in the Security Council once it takes up the Iran issue — said Iran’s comments reflected the menace it poses.
"Their threats show why leaving a country like that with a nuclear weapon is so dangerous," he told The Associated Press in a phone call from Washington.
He classified the Iranian comments as "reflecting their determination to acquire weapons."
"The United States has the power to cause harm and pain," said an statement delivered by the Iranian delegation and later repeated to reporters by top nuclear negotiator Javad Vaidi.
"But the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if that is the path that the U.S. wishes to choose, let the ball roll."
The statement did not elaborate on what Iran meant by "harm and pain," and Iranian officials were not immediately available to comment.
- This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Wednesday, March 8th, 2006.
I am sure we all have our own ideas about what that "harm and pain" may mean (or come to mean).
You don't think Iran saying that the US will soon cease to exist and Iran will inflict "Harm and Pain" on the US has anything to do with those 40,000 suicide bombers or with the fact Iran is close to getting nuclear bomb capability, do you?
Did you notice in that previous article link I posted Ali said he was travelling abroad to harm American and British interests?:
Iranian group signing up potential martyrs
U.S. think tank: Iran Reinforcing facilities
Sunday, April 16, 2006
TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) -- Some 200 Iranians have volunteered in the past few days to carry out "martyrdom missions" against U.S. and British interests around the world if Iran is attacked, a hard-line group said Sunday.
The news of potential martyrs came as The Institute for Science and International Security, a U.S. think tank, said Sunday that Iran has expanded its uranium conversion facilities in Isfahan and reinforced its Natanz underground uranium enrichment plant.
Chanting "Death to America" and "Nuclear technology is our right", volunteers registered their names at the former American Embassy in southern Tehran on Sunday.
"We will give a good lesson to those who dare to attack our country," said Ali, a 25-year-old masked volunteer, after filling out registration form.
When asked why he had covered his face, Ali said: "I do not want to be recognized when traveling abroad to harm American and British interests."
The Sunday Times of London, quoting unnamed Iranian officials, reported Iran had 40,000 trained suicide bombers prepared to strike western targets if Iran is attacked.
Of course, the fact the Iranians believe Islam will take over the world and they are preparing these suicide bombers for when they are told to deploy against targets their commander (Khamenei) tells them to attack.. could actually include the US as well as Israel, as I quoted that article in the previous post, QUOTE: "The weekly’s interview with Jaafari appeared under the title, “Commander of Lovers of Martyrdom Garrison: Let America and Israel know, each of our suicide volunteers equals a nuclear bomb”.“One of our garrison’s aims is to spot martyrdom-seeking individuals in society and then recruit and organise them, so that, God willing, at the right moment when the Commander-in-Chief of the country’s armed forces [Ayatollah Khamenei] gives the order, they would be able to enter the scene and carry out their missions”... http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2945
Now, what if the goal is to ready these martyrs to go abroad with suitcase nukes.. ??
Isn't this a warning to America and Israel that the suicide bombers are to be equated with nukes?
Doesn't that make each suicide volunteer truly "equal" to a nuclear bomb?
Think about it for just a minute..
What if it is their plan? Where do the Iranians place nuking America on their "to do" list?
Before or after they nuke Israel? At the same time? (What do you think, Carl, board?)
Even the NIE estimate said that Iran could have nukes by 2009 (that is next year).
(Quote from their pdf file: "We judge with moderate confidence that the earliest possible date Iran would be technically capable of producing enough HEU for a weapon is late 2009...")
I dislike the "moderate" confidence part.. that sure is an uncertain view being stated there.. not absolute certainty, is it?
It might be earlier.. or later. These people are, after all, judging from the outside without any weapons inspector allowed in the country.
It is at best a guesstamate.. I do so dislike leaving our fate in the hands of guesstamators.
But, may I ask.. what about the possibility Iran has an ongoing military strategic plan for the Middle East (Iraq and Israel) and for the West (America and Britain) to help "usher in" their Mahdi? One that includes nuclear suitcase bombs? If you allow the possibility..
How probable it will be in our lifetimes? The next twenty years?? The next ten years.. ?? The next two?
Is it probable in your view, Carl.. board?
In April of 2007 MI5's London Headquarters' Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre said they were hearing chatter about a planned "large-scale" terrorist attack "with the help of Iran" against the West. Quote, "The report says there is “no indication” this attack would specifically target Britain." That made me wonder..
A commenter's statement below piqued my interest when he said, My suspicion is that they will wait for Bush to be out of office too.
It fits with the patiently-waiting-and-weaving-carpets scenerio the Iranian spokesman spoke about.
===
Leaked Report: Al Qaeda Planning Hiroshima
From the UK’s Sunday Times: Al-Qaeda ‘planning big British attack’
April 22, 2007
Dipesh Gadher
AL-QAEDA leaders in Iraq are planning the first “large-scale” terrorist attacks on Britain and other western targets with the help of supporters in Iran, according to a leaked intelligence report.
Spy chiefs warn that one operative had said he was planning an attack on “a par with Hiroshima and Nagasaki” in an attempt to “shake the Roman throne”, a reference to the West.
The report, produced earlier this month and seen by The Sunday Times, appears to provide evidence that Al-Qaeda is active in Iran and has ambitions far beyond the improvised attacks it has been waging against British and American soldiers in Iraq.
The report was compiled by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) - based at MI5’s London headquarters - and provides a quarterly review of the international terror threat to Britain. The report: “Recent reporting has described AQI’s Kurdish network in Iran planning what we believe may be a large-scale attack against a western target.
“A member of this network is reportedly involved in an operation which he believes requires AQ Core authorisation. He claims the operation will be on ‘a par with Hiroshima and Naga-saki’ and will ‘shake the Roman throne’. We assess that this operation is most likely to be a large-scale, mass casualty attack against the West.”
The report says there is “no indication” this attack would specifically target Britain, “although we are aware that AQI . . . networks are active in the UK”.
===
This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Monday, April 23rd, 2007.
Comments:
1) wardmama4
Of course the eurowhinnies don’t want to take this seriously - they just might have to admit that there are bad muslims in the World (not to mention europastan itself). . .
And the morning after they will all call on the despised USofA to help ‘em fight back (i.e. lead the War).
It’s coming - until someone has the backbone and guts to stand up the the imam’s puppet Ahmadinejad and slaps Iran back to the 3rd century that they want the entire world to live in.
Funny how all the islamic righteous use computers, media, cell phones and nuclear weapons and of course American dollars while screeding on how despot and vile the West is. No wonder the libs/dems love ‘em - they are both such amoral hypocrites. Who are going to destroy the World if not stopped.
2) Old Grouch
They spout this stuff often enough without doing anything so the West gets indifferent. “Flying Imams”, Target checkout clerks, etc. They want us to dismiss them as harmless. And drop our guard.
3) pigpaws
My suspicion is that they will wait for Bush to be out of office too.
4) sheehanjihad
If in fact Britain was nuked.. in the event of a nuclear terrorist attack on England, to me, that means that we cant be far behind, and as a matter of fact, I cant believe we arent getting it first…it is so much easier to get a weapon into this country, and set it up unhindered, and set it off without being discovered because there is a PC law against stopping terrorists from doing all three!
Stop them at the border…go to jail like our Border Patrol agents. Deny them a place to live or welfare payments…go to jail like most city managers are fighting to stay out of because they passed laws to keep illegals at bay…point out to anyone that muslim men in a building are acting suspicious, go to jail for a hate crime and profiling….yup, the muzzies have it made here! I think the england thing is a ruse, so they can set it off in a large metropolitain area in this country, and laugh with pelosi and reid for getting it done.
5) Old Grouch
As for nuking us, piece of cake: buy or build one, put it in a cargo ship and sail into NY harbor. Then detonate, long before any inspection. No good way to detect at other than very short range, some lead foil makes that even harder. Or maybe the cargo bay of a charter 747. Gonna happen shortly after they get one. (they have said as much)
6) Phil Byler
Sadly, we are going to be dealing with a nuclear adversary at some point, and they will use the bomb. We could avoid the fate, but it would take people throwing the Democrats out of power now. When the terrible days happen, the left wing Democrats must be driven from public life with unending curses.
And just in case we didn't hear it loud enough, this expert opinion says, "Mutually assured destruction is not a deterrent to Ahmadinejad, but an inducement.” in the following article.. well worth the read:
Islamic Historian Warns West Of Global Jihad
From Israel’s Arutz Sheva:
Experts Warn of Global Jihad at Herzliya Conference
Monday, January 22, 2007
Two Islam experts warned participants at the Herzliya Conference on Monday that global jihad is on the rise — and should be taken seriously.
Islamic expert and historian Bernard Lewis spoke back-to-back with former CIA director James Woolsey at the Herzliya Conference Monday, sounding the alarm on the global Jihad and dismissing the concept of a Palestinian state.
“In the self-perception of the Muslim world, their primary identity is to deliver Islam to the world – to not keep it selflessly to themselves but to give it to mankind,” explained Lewis, adding that the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 signified the first major victory in the global Islamic push toward that goal.
“There are competing leaders to take this fight ahead,” he said. “The Sunni Wahabi cause is represented by bin Laden. Another is the Shi’ite version, which began with the first Iranian revolution, and the second Iranian revolution, taking place at this moment. The whole Arab and Muslim world is experiencing the second stage of the Islamic revolution in Iran.
“I have been told by Iranian friends that Ahmadinejad is indeed crazy, but not stupid,” Lewis warned. “He really believes in the end of days that he is heralding. There is a widespread belief among Shi’ites that that time has come. Mutually assured destruction is not a deterrent to Ahmadinejad, but an inducement.”
James Woolsey, former director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, addressed the conference next. Unlike many of the speakers, Woolsey, a guest of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs had arrived the previous day and attended nearly all of the conference’s sessions.
Woolsey summarized several opinions that were expressed, lauding UN sanctions, negotiations and the state of the world. “I do not represent a majority view – but on all of these points I beg to differ,” he said.
Woolsey proceeded to lament the fate of Europe, which he sees as already having been compromised in what he calls World War IV – the third having been the Cold War. “I wish we had a partnership with Europe, but I am afraid it is deteriorating,” he explained. “Europe is accommodating Sharia (Islamic law) and becoming increasingly affected by the Muslim demographics in their countries.”
Woolsey said he sees no distinction between the Islamic onslaught in Israel, Iraq or elsewhere. He compared the war against Islamism with that against Nazism and Communism.
As a former director of the world’s largest intelligence agency, Woolsey dismissed claims by Iran and its apologists that the Islamic Republic seeks nuclear capability for peaceful means.
“With its huge oil and natural gas reserves, Iran is not the least bit interested in nuclear power,” he said. “And negotiation with a movement that defines itself by its goal of the destruction of Israel and the United States is like trying to persuade Hitler to give up anti-Semitism.”
Woolsey displayed in-depth knowledge of the various theological movements and streams vying for the soul of the Islamic world. “The Ujutiya – end of time – movement represents a major part of Iranian politics today,” he warned. “If we look at it like a chess game, the nuclear bomb is the queen.”
Woolsey, like Lewis, warned that the Iranian Shi’ite sect is not the only threat posed by Islam.
“In 1979, with the seizure of the great mosque in Mecca and the rise to power of a Shi’ite theocracy in Iran, a rise in Wahabi-ism took place as well. This was funded largely by the increase in the price of oil. Today, little boys are taught to want to be suicide bombers both in Pakistani madrassas and in the West Bank with Wahabi oil money.”
Woolsey said that those warning against Islam’s push to establish Islamic law across the globe are accused of being Islamophobic. “We are not Islamaphobes,” he said, “but we are theocraphobic."
“We, Jews, Christian and others are inheritors of the rule of law,” he said. “Democracy without the rule of law is a mob and capitalism without democracy is theft. Jefferson said, and it is printed on his memorial: ‘I have sworn on the altar of Almighty G-d eternal hostility toward every form of tyranny over the mind of man.’ ”
Asked what role he saw the media playing in the current global plight, Woolsey had harsh criticism for most journalists’ inability to classify religious believers as anything but crazy.
“The media on the whole and certainly in the US is not interested in ideology and does not take it seriously. They tend to think anybody who is religiously motivated about his views is crazy – whether religious Christians, Muslims or Jews. And that is a problem, because you can be absolutely crazy about your objectives and extremely shrewd about your implementation. I think our media on the whole is very ostrich-like on this issue.” …
==end of quote==
This is real news insofar as Bernard Lewis is considered by most people to be the foremost historian of Islam in the world.
Some of his books:
* The Origins of Ismailism (1940)
* The Arabs in History (1950)
* The Emergence of Modern Turkey (1961)
* Istanbul and the Civilizations of the Ottoman Empire (1963)
* The Assassins: A Radical Sect in Islam (1967)
* The Cambridge History of Islam (2 vols. 1970, revised 4 vols. 1978, editor with Peter Malcolm Holt and Ann K.S. Lambton)
* Islam: From the Prophet Muhammad to the capture of Constantinople (1974, editor)
* Race and Color in Islam (1979)
* Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The Functioning of a Plural Society (1982, editor with Benjamin Braude)
* The Muslim Discovery of Europe (1982)
* The Jews of Islam (1984)
* Semites and Anti-Semites (1986)
* History — Remembered, Recovered, Invented (1987)
* Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople (1987)
* The Political Language of Islam (1988)
* Race and Slavery in the Middle East: an Historical Enquiry (1990)
* Islam and the West (1993)
* Islam in History (1993)
* The Shaping of the Modern Middle East (1994)
* Cultures in Conflict (1994)
* The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years (1995)
* The Future of the Middle East (1997)
* The Multiple Identities of the Middle East (1998)
* A Middle East Mosaic: Fragments of Life, Letters and History (2000)
* Music of a Distant Drum: Classical Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew Poems (2001)
* The Muslim Discovery of Europe (2001)
* What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East (2002)
* The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror (2003)
* From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East (2004)
When Mr. Lewis warns about a global jihad, the world should listen.
And of course Mr. Woolsey is no slouch either.
Related Articles:
Official Says "Iran Will Slap America Ten Times"
Iran To Conduct Another Round Of Missile Tests
Iran Site: The Mahdi Could Appear This Spring
National Academy Of Science: Iran Needs Nukes
Ahmadinejad: Jews Will One Day Be Wiped Out
Terrorist Grandmother Blows Herself Up In Gaza
Muslim "Feminists" Want To End Islam Myths
Ahmadinejad: Iran Will Have Nukes By March
Iran Fires Cluster Warhead Missiles In War Games
Ahmadinejad Admits Special Connection To God
4,000 Foreign Terrorists Have Been Killed In Iraq
The Left: No Terrorism In Middle East But Ours
What The Terrorists Want - Their Own Words (II)
Muslim Miss UK: Stereotyping Causes Terrorism
This article was posted by Steve Gilbert on Monday, January 22nd, 2007.
Might I ask the board's views on James Woolsey's comments.. ??
(James Woolsey is former director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency)
In particular these comments of his:
“With its huge oil and natural gas reserves, Iran is not the least bit interested in nuclear power,” he said. “And negotiation with a movement that defines itself by its goal of the destruction of Israel and the United States is like trying to persuade Hitler to give up anti-Semitism.”
Woolsey displayed in-depth knowledge of the various theological movements and streams vying for the soul of the Islamic world. “The Ujutiya – end of time – movement represents a major part of Iranian politics today,” he warned. “If we look at it like a chess game, the nuclear bomb is the queen.”
===end quotes==
Exactly... how do we view Iran and its ambitions for oil and gas in the region?
How do we view Iran saying that it only wants nuclear power for fuel?
And how do we see the movement which DEFINES ITSELF by its stated GOAL of the destruction of the US?
And what about that "Queen" in the chess game.. nukes?
Suitcase nukes? Suicide bombers?
Am I connecting the dots well??
What do you think?
In addition to my posted article please consider the following. Riyadh possess an infastructure. The Monarchy of Saudi Arabia invests some of the revenues from oil sales back into the country.
In contrast, Baghdad does not possess an infastructure. They are currently allowing oil revenues to pile up. It does not appear they are reinvesting this money into reconstruction. In fact, they seem to desire the U.S. pay their reconstruction costs.
We know for certian Sadam did not reinvest in his country. He raped and pillaged it. These are valid reasons why Riyadh is modern and prosperous and Baghdad is backwater.
Sara..
A lot of your above post in regards to Iran relates back to about two years ago when you and I discussed Iran having the intentions of reuniteing the PERSIA OF OLD...They are well on their way and like history of yesterday, the Western population and European Nations set back and allow them to get stronger every day...
It is not a matter of are we going to WAR with IRAN...BUT WHEN WE GO TO WAR WITH IRAN...Unfortunately, we in America have become too fond of American Idol, and trivial diversions to pay any attention to what is happening... Too many want to agree with the Ron Pauls of the World...The party of defeat, THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERS will run as fast as they can to save their political butts when the Sh-t hits the fan...We have sit back and waited for the ARABS to stop the Iranian Threat to their region, but they have not done so...the next move will come from US if George is still in power...if a New Leader such as Obama or Clinton gets it...we are in deep mud....
I was sadden the other day at the Coast Guard Station, when I overheard the following conversation between some Coast Guardsmen there at the station...
The conversation came about when a News Reporter was talking about Mr. G of New York...One of the guy's stated, just who is he...wasn't he a senator or something? The other replied...Yep! he was Governor of New York...
Need I say more?
True. And the reason there is no progress like we want in Iraq.. politically AND ECONOMICALLY.. (the Dinar) is also Iran.
They just have to gloat about it today:
Ahmadinejad: ”Occupiers” defeated in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine
Posted: 30-01-2008 , 13:51 GMT
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the occupiers have been defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. Addressing a large group of local residents of this southern provincial capital city, he said, "Despite the big powers' attempts to create discord between Iran and the regional nations, friendship and brotherhood have been further deepened and the enemies have been defeated."
Your first post noted that, quote, "The study criticized Iraq's increasing dependence on oil export revenues as a main source of income. According to the 2008 budget, over 85% of Iraq's income is generated by oil exports, which the study said poses great risks to the economy in case of oil price fluctuations."
This is a concern but should not stop the economy from prospering in the present climate.
Indeed, due to the incredibly good price of oil, today they predict a windfall for Iraq:
Iraq 'set for oil price windfall'
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Increasing oil production and higher oil prices mean Iraq could be set for an influx of extra money towards reconstruction, a report has said. Iraq could get an extra $15bn (£7.5bn) from its oil in 2008, special inspector general Stuart W Bowen Jnr said.
But the report said greater efforts were needed to establish how the money would be used, and to fight the corruption which eats into oil revenue.
Oil revenue makes up about 84% of Iraq's national revenue.
"The possible rise in Iraq's revenue emphasises the need for the government of Iraq to pursue its fight against corruption with renewed vigour," the report added.
But the problem is, as you point out, "Baghdad does not possess an infastructure. They are currently allowing oil revenues to pile up. It does not appear they are reinvesting this money into reconstruction. In fact, they seem to desire the U.S. pay their reconstruction costs."
This corresponds with what Carl and I have been discussing on the board.. the fact Iran has them hornswoggled into seeing this as a war between Islam and the wicked West.. and that means making the "infidels" pay for everything and thwarting the US designs economically and politically. Frankly, Iran has won so long as it can muster enough "friendship and brotherhood" in the region.. and votes in the Iraqi parliament.. to stop the US intentions to make Iraq prosperous and free market.
As Carl has said again and again.. Iran will NOT allow Iraq to become a free democracy on its doorstep. As long as it has the cooperation and good will of its neighbors, as Ahmadinejad said today.. the US has lost the long term war. Quote: "Despite the big powers' attempts to create discord between Iran and the regional nations, friendship and brotherhood have been further deepened and the enemies have been defeated."
They play a good game of chess, allowing the US to take all the expense and get none of the economic benefit.
Wait til they decide to use their queen... (remember what the queen is? nukes.)
"The Iranian nation.. has today ... set up the complete cycle of fuel production."
A historic day this day... for sure.
Sara.
===
Iran sees nuclear power this time next year
Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:29am EST
By Zahra Hosseinian and Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran expects to have its own nuclear-generated electricity by this time next year and will not bow to Western pressure to halt uranium enrichment, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday.
Ahmadinejad told a crowd in the southern city of Bushehr that Iran was approaching the peak of its nuclear programprograme.
Iran's planned first nuclear power plant is sited close to Bushehr. The plant would begin test operations by late October, a senior official said on Wednesday, two days after Russia completed fuel deliveries to the site.
The West suspects Iran's nuclear activities are ultimately aimed at building weapons. Iran, the world's fourth-largest crude oil producer, says it only wants to generate electricity...
Ahmadinejad said Iran would not halt its disputed uranium enrichment work, technology which can have both civilian and military purposes.
"If you (the West) imagine that the Iranian nation will back down you are making a mistake," he said in a televised speech.
Moscow and Washington say the Russian fuel deliveries should convince Tehran to shut down its uranium enrichment program, but Iran has refused to stop.
Iran says it needs to produce nuclear fuel domestically as it wants to build other power plants as part of a planned network with a capacity of 20,000 megawatts by 2020 to satisfy soaring electricity demand.
Enriched uranium can be used for making nuclear fuel and also, if refined much further, provide material for bombs.
Ahmadinejad called on Western powers to take part in building Iranian nuclear power plants.
"If you don't, this nation will build nuclear plants with the hands of its own scientists," he said. "The Iranian nation, without depending on you and without begging you, has today ... set up the complete cycle of fuel production."
It appears we are in a stalemate. A U.S. led attack on Iran may be the only means by which this stalemate is broken.
If I were President and chose to attack Iran. I would probably limit my attack to air strikes. I am not sure we can sustain our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq if we also put ground troops in Iran. There are certain key targets and installations I would strike first.
1. Tehran University
2. Electrical Grid
3. Poison their water
4. Destroy all bridges and roads in order to cut off supplies.
5. All Military installations
6. Government buildings
7. Bunker busting bombs to take out their Nuclear facilities.
Unlike Iraq, an attack on Iran must be with the goal to annihilate them. After their utter destruction, I would send in some ground forces to bury the Iranian dead in hogs blood.
Two things:
(1) I have not seen the buying & selling of Dinar quotes for some time. What have I missed?
(2) I just read a book by Joel Rosenburg entitled "Epicenter". Mr. Rosenburg helped write the Rush Limbaugh newsletter during the early 90's, has worked for the Heritage Foundation, Jack Kemp, Netanyaho, & others. (google his name)In his book, based on his inside info and research, Hamas (funded by Iran) has the ability to launch a scud missle from a container on a container ship. There are hundreds of these container ships chugging around the world on any given day. A nuclear tipped scud would be capable of hitting any U.S. city within 200 miles of the coast. The largest part of our U.S. population lives within 200 miles of the coast. Such a missle could be launched & be on target long before & military could react. As to when would be anybody's guess, & only a guess. Could they try & influence our elections like they did in Spain?
Just food for thought.
They certainly have the WILL to do such a nuclear tipped scud attack. They have the stated goals of destroying Israel and the US. They believe they are ushering in the Mahdi by doing so.. an admirable thing in their religion. Their anti-Semitism and genocidal views have been so blatant lately that Canada pulled out of a UN conference because of it.. this was two days ago. Bet you didn't hear about it from the MSM, though. (Remember the saying that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it? Ever seen Schindler's List?) Here is that deal:
Canada: U.N. Anti-Racism Conference a 'Gong Show' of Hatred, Bigotry
By Terry Trippany
January 28, 2008 - 15:33 ET
The mainstream media turned a deaf ear to Canada's conservative government as they withdrew support for a United Nations led anti-racism conference on charges that the conference itself is a "a systematic promotion of hatred and bigotry". One Canadian official called the U.N. Durban II conference a "gong show" as Ottawa withdrew all support in protest of the escalating rhetoric against Israel. This of course comes as no surprise considering that the United Nations, in all its limited wisdom, elected Libya to chair the conference, Cuba as the vice chair and named Iran to the organizing committee. Quote:
The so-called Durban II conference “has gone completely off the rails” and Canada wants no part of it, said Jason Kenney, secretary of state for multiculturalism and Canadian identity.
“Canada is interested in combatting racism, not promoting it,” Mr. Kenney told The Canadian Press. “We'll attend any conference that is opposed to racism and intolerance, not those that actually promote racism and intolerance.
“Our considered judgment, having participated in the preparatory meetings, was that we were set for a replay of Durban I. And Canada has no intention of lending its good name and resources to such a systematic promotion of hatred and bigotry.”
==end quote==
Not one mainstream media newspaper outlet bothered to cover Canada's walk out with any in depth analysis despite this being an election year where foreign policy in the Middle East, the politics of race and racism and the war against radical Islam are key issues. Instead most outlets deferred to the brief feeds of the AP, Reuters and the AFP to provide scant mention. The New York Times managed to miss the story altogether; feed or otherwise.
Notable events that escaped the scrutiny of the majority of the selectively scrutinizing members of the news media:
- The next two key preparatory meetings have been scheduled on the Jewish holidays of Passover and Yom Kippur. This is a deliberate move by organizers to prevent Israeli officials from participating.
- Iran has been named to the organizing committee despite statements from Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that repeatedly calls for the destruction of Israel.
- The U.N. Human Rights Council was created to reform the United Nations Commission on Human Rights yet 14 of it's 15 resolutions charging human-rights violations were against Israel according to statements by Canada.
- The United Nations held its first World Conference Against Racism in Durban way back in 2001. That conference was marred by anti-Semitic bigotry that eventually led the United States Israel to walk out of the conference. Some non-governmental organizations had been reported to have posted pro-Hitler posters yet each of the non-governmental organizations that were invited to the 2001 conference have been invited back to Durban II.
The most complete accounting I could find came from the Canadian Press as found in the Globe and Mail which said,
The 2001 World Conference Against Racism in Durban turned into “a circus of intolerance,” Mr. Kenney said.
Arab and Muslim countries ganged up in their criticisms of Israel. Israel and the United States walked out in protest; the Liberal government of the day remained in an effort to decry the attacks.
With Libya elected to chair the next gathering, Cuba appointed vice-chair and rapporteur, and anti-Israel rhetoric and actions building, Mr. Kenney said his government was left with no choice but to abandon the preparatory process for the followup meeting.
B'nai Brith Canada applauded the government, saying Durban I “degenerated into a hate-fest directed at Israel and the Jewish delegates attending the conference.”
The group's executive vice-president, Frank Dimant, said Ottawa has acted “clearly and decisively by refusing to participate in a venue that pays lip service to anti-racism but in fact provides a platform for the promotion of hatred and bigotry.”
Mr. Kenney noted important preparatory meetings have been called on Jewish high holidays, preventing Israeli officials from participating.
The UN gave planning oversight for the conference to its Human Rights Council, which has targeted Israel in 14 of its 15 resolutions charging human-rights violations in its first two years of existence.
“We've tried to influence it so that we would not revisit the overt expressions of hatred which came out of the original conference,” said Mr. Kenney. “But we unfortunately ran into a brick wall.
“The process has been hijacked by those who would seek to replay the terrible experience of the first Durban conference.”
Iran was named to the organizing committee, Mr. Kenney noted.
“This is a country whose government has publicly expressed its desire to eliminate the only Jewish country in the world,” he said.
Furthermore, all of the non-governmental organizations invited to the first conference have been invited back to the second, including those that were at the “forefront of the hatred,” some of which posted pro-Hitler posters at the 2001 gathering.
The statements by the Canadian government are damning indeed. They come at a time when liberal Democrats are calling for U.S. law to be diluted by international standards. These standards would no doubt be influenced by the same world wide bodies that allow human rights abusers and state sponsors of racism and terrorism to prop up their anti-Semitic views with the legitimacy of world governments behind them. That news is as important today as it should have been in the not so distant past when such actions were ignored to the detriment of millions who died to prevent this from ever happening again.
Terry Trippany is the editor and publisher of Webloggin.
Comments
1) Got to love those western Canucks by Lame Cherry
People need to be aware that Canada is allot like America in all the crazy liberals are in the east and far left coast, but the rest of the country is Mom and Pop apple pie.
Canada has it's own Rush Limbaugh named Charles Adler and he is hillarious and brilliant. If you ever get a feed out of CJOB Winnipeg give that station a listen as it is all Conservative and the reason Americans love Canada.
Back to the Gong Show lol
2) Hooray for Canada! bigtimer
Hooray for Canada!
When are we going to ever get out of the diabolic thieving dictatorship of the UN...oil for food just one example.
The msm mum on this...NO SURPRISE here...disgusting yes!
Doncha' know the msm or the papers just have more important things to repeat over and over instead of taking a few minutes to report something like this... we pay the majority of the salaries/funding of this filthy organization..we should have a candidate that wants us out of it too....
I know...when pigs fly I guess...
Thanks Mr. Trippany for this great information.
3) Shocka!!! by Mr. Kafir
The world still hates the Jews. Who would have guessed that after 5000 years as a people, we Jews are just like Rodney Dangerfield. No respect, I tells ya. We don't get any respect at all!!!!
4) The only by oregon_jiim
group that the MSM will protect more than the democrat party is the UN/world government types.
After reading this I am going to have to stop flicking Canadians so much $h!t. At least for a week.
Question: If the world hates America so much for electing GWB, why have France, Germany and Canada gotten considerably more conservative in the last 7 years?
"an endorsement of communism is an endorsement of slavery"
5) Finally, a bit of positive by Lancasters Saved Us
Finally, a bit of positive press (at least here) for the Deranged Dominion. IMHO, the Harper government has a bit in common with John Howard's Aussie admininstration in terms of making an effort to do what is right, even when there is a price to pay. Quebec is very un supportive of our mission in Afghanistan, and the Tories have a lot on the line by staying in the thick of Khandahar, with a large (By defanged Cdn standards) Quebec contingent. (The Van Doo's) Anyway, glad to read about a bit of back bone that replaces the last 30 plus years of wishy washyness. The first small step in disengaging from this crooked institution. My fav radio in the North is the John Oakley show 6-10 Am. This guy is as clear thinking a Canuck as our beloved Mark Steyn. (http://www.640toronto.com/
6) Let us not forget that by alamojb
Let us not forget that there are efforts in the UN to set up two "Human Rights" Standards.
One would apply in Muslim countries, where Islam would be recognized as the Dominant religion over all others according to Sharia Law.
The other Standard would apply in non muslim Countries where it would be illegal to defame Islam.
Hence the UN is on the road to elevating Islam to be THE World Religion.
Of course, dhimmis like Truthmonger will try to claim that Sharia Law is not really Islamic, Jizya taxes are not really Islam, etc.
7) par for the course with the UN by UndercoverConservative
whether it's selling it's votes for oil shares, ignoring genocides in Darfur, stripping weapons only from citizens while allowing hostile governments leeway (small arms reduction), or promoting Islamic and Socialist ideals (more oil money talking), the UN is the non-elected, non-representative (of the People) International Organization you can always count on to provide that crushing heel on the back of Freedom's neck.
Death, taxes, UN shafting. Who says there's no consistency in the world today? :P
I am not physically of the Jewish race, Unfortunately.
It would be a great privilege to be a Jew (Israelite) according to the flesh.
The Apostle Paul wrote:
Rom 3:1 What advantage then has the Jew? ...
Rom 3:2 Much in every way: chiefly, because that to them were committed the oracles of God.
It is, therefore, an advantage to be of that chosen race.
What is more, the person I most adore and serve - even worship - is Jesus Christ.
And Jesus (in his man-part of Him) was a Jew.
How a person can claim to be a follower of the person considered God come to earth in physical form..
and hate the race that spawned that fleshly body is beyond me.
I could not consider such a person a true and faithful follower of Jesus Christ.
How could they say they know Him and hate his race.. his entire family, his mother Mary,
His adopted father Joseph, His disciples.. all were Jews.
Jesus lived and died.. a religious, God-fearing Jew.
He is my Lord, Savior, Master and God.
And I am not ashamed of His people.
Paul in the New Testament took up his pen to write that the Jews are His people in this passage:
Rom 11:1 I say then, Has God cast away His people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Rom 11:2 God has not cast away his people which he foreknew.
Rom 11:5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
Believing, therefore, that the Jewish race is still God's people and He has not cast them away..
I do see this anti-Semitism as a direct attack upon the people of God.
And an act of the devil.. of Satan, an act of evil toward God Himself and the people He calls His own. To be in that crowd is to oppose God Himself.
I cannot see that course of action ever being blessed.. even as Hitler was not blessed.
Nor will it prevail (see the outcome of World War II).
If we are now to repeat the mistakes of recent history..
Eventually this evil will be defeated... but at what cost to the Jew?
Or to those who stand for what is right alongside the Jews.
Yet.. would you stand WITH Hitler against the Jews?
Or with these new Hitler endorsers (did you note the Hitler posters they had at the conference?)...
these who stand in the same place Hitler once did - in now wishing the destruction of the Israelite nation?
You have to choose.. America will have to choose.
I know I have decided which side I am on.. to the death if called for.
Have you decided if you will be like those among the German people who let Hitler kill the Jews?
The MSM appears to have sold out like that.. and now opposes the Jews (judging by their silence and words/actions).
Are you with them in their intolerance and where it inevitably must lead to?
The cost could be heavy.. but what is the right thing to do?
As they say.. "What would Jesus do?"
To me, that is a no-brainer question.
1Jo 4:20 If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
1Jo 4:21 And this commandment have we from Him, That he who loves God love his brother also.
(see also Luke 10:30 -37 - the parable of the Good Samaritan and Matt 5:43-48 on loving even enemies.)
God is love. (1 John 4:8)
Sara.
PS My apologies to any of Jewish descent who do not like the term Jew but prefer Israelite.
I know it offends some.. no offense was intended.
You know, Rob N, I thought President Bush would go to war against Iran, too.
Everyone seems to have thought so.
As Carl said, it isn't really a question of IF we go, but when.
I think the President sees the writing on the wall and that it is inevitable.
But I think polls like the one IRAN commissioned helped to breed distrust
(THAT was the whole point of it, I am sure) and so helped secure their freedom from intrusion.
The Iranians get to make nukes in the dark.. and we get to confront them -
AFTER they strike American soil.. and when less of a military man is in power, perhaps.
Your plan is aggressive and would do the job.. for sure.
I am sure the military commanders too, when given a free hand, will do a good job, under God.
The problem has been they are not being given that free hand.
I think Iran's strategy, including using that poll to take down confidence in President Bush..
and supporting the whacko conspiracy theorists and opposition Democrats.. has taken its toll.
People lament as to why Hitler wasn't taken out early.
Now we watch a repeat of history.. and living through it, we know why.
Bush Targets Iraq Fears, Vows to Confront Iran when Threatened
Beirut, 29 Jan 08, 09:46
U.S. President George Bush, in his final State of the Union address, has urged the Americans to stay patient with the long war in Iraq and vowed to "confront" Iran where necessary.
Bush, who used the annual speech in 2003 to lump Saddam Hussein's Iraq with Iran and North Korea in an "axis of evil," urged Tehran to freeze uranium enrichment that Washington fears is a prelude to a nuclear arsenal, and to stop backing extremists abroad.
"America will confront those who threaten our troops, we will stand by our allies, and we will defend our vital interests in the Persian Gulf," he warned.(AP-AFP-Naharnet)
IRANIAN OFFICIAL DOWNPLAYS IMPORTANCE OF UN SANCTIONS...
Deputy Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mohammadi told ISNA on January 30 that a third round of UN sanctions on Iran's nuclear program would probably not have much "depth" and is designed to maintain Western credibility. "America and Britain insist there should be a resolution and also want a consensus, but Russia and China are not in favor of a resolution that has depth and does damage," he said, adding that Iran will wait and see the "depth" of the resolution before deciding on its response. Separately, right-wing parliamentarian Mohammad Hussein Farhangi said in Tehran on January 30 that Iran would have no choice but to leave the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) if "sanctions continue to be issued" against its program, ISNA reported. He said if there are doubts about the International Atomic Energy Agency's "goodwill" and Iran's rights are not protected, "our presence in the agency and the NPT will not benefit our country and...interests." VS
...AS LAWMAKER DENOUNCES U.S. PRESIDENT'S STATEMENTS ON IRAN
A member of the parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Rashid Jalali-Jafari, warned on January 30 that Iran would not be the only country harmed if "America lights another fire in the Persian Gulf," ISNA reported. He told the news agency that U.S. President George W. Bush's recent comments on Iran in his State of the Union address were surprising, but useless and with "no impact in the country." Jalali-Jafari said with reference to any U.S. threat of war: "If Iran is to be harmed in any way, America and its possible allies will also be harmed." Bush told Congress on January 28 that the United States will defend its troops, allies, and interests in the Persian Gulf against Iran, AFP reported. He told "the leaders of Iran" to "stop your oppression at home and your support for terror abroad." VS
There has been an onslaught on our collective health.
And, so you know.. in this post (in all its parts) if read and undersood.. it will be of such help that I believe it will save the physical life of at least one person who reads this.
I am not joking, on the level now.
Just in case it is you, for your own bodily self-preservation, you should read it.
The reason is - this information is certainly not well known.
I have been led to think upon on what is causing the obesity epidemic, and.. I found the answer. It might suprise you. The information might not be liked.. but it could save your life if you know it, too. Or maybe it could save the life of someone you love. Because the "epidemic" of obesity affects so many people - over half the population - and it is a symptom of a much worse onslaught of disease, one we all are vulnerable and exposed to.. we are all at risk.
QUOTE:
"Over half of persons in the U.S. are overweight enough to be defined as obese. This number increased by 50% in the last decade of the 20th century.http://library.med.utah.edu/WebPath/TUTORIAL/OBESITY/OBESITY.html )
If you bear with me you will end up better off than most. Without this knowledge, you are a sitting duck for what likely comes next.. YOUR early (earlier than it would be) disease and death. Armed with this information, I believe you will be equipped to help yourself - to Save Your Own Life, as it were (or those of others you care for - And yes, it is that serious/dire.)
Now, in order to prevent serious backlash from those who are involved, I must cover myself..
by giving you the proper Background information on what is going on here -
I am about to step on toes, but my fight is not with the huge monolith responsible for this problem,
but with the spiritual forces behind this monolith against our health and well being.
Let me explain..
The Background
Although it has gone quite out of style in our culture today to believe in malevolent (sinister) forces.. be it the "dark side" of the force, or demons (which Jesus spent 1/3 of His ministry casting them out of people.. a rather silly thing to do if they really don't exist) - yet the truth of the matter is that there are spiritual forces which are bent on our collective destruction and they are at work in our world.. and they actively seek to recruit to themselves those who will cooperate with them to destroy the lives of men, women and children - often by manipulating humanity's selfish desires to their purposes. In other words, they are not our friends, and they work best under the radar screen - in the dark. The problem is, it is more than "they are not our friends", they are our enemies, and they work actively to attack and destroy us, our lives, and our futures. Then, once the dirty work has been done, they attribute their handiwork to secondary causes - things which were happening at the time and surround the event, but which do not explain or direct us to their activity and the entire scope of their work.
Suicide is one illustration of their work - A recent tragedy in the news shows that even a Hollywood star who seems to have his whole life before him (young, 28 years old) - a person who seems to have "everything" - he didn't have the ability to protect himself against such spiritual attack. The culprit wasn't so much the dispair he fell into as the spiritual forces manipulating that dispair and using his vulnerability to dispair in order to drive him to destroy his own life. Another illustration might be a childhood friend of mine who was asthmatic. He needed that "puffer" thing when he had his attacks. One day in high school the other boys took it from him, causing him to panic. They threw it around a circle to each other and laughed as my friend made a mad dash from person to person (becoming more panic striken at each throw). They thought his desperation funny. Then they threw it in the nearby dumpster and ran away, laughing. He never made it into the garbage bin to retrieve it. He was a dear friend and he is greatly missed. We can attribute this tragedy to the thoughtlessness of youth - or we can see a bit deeper and beyond to the spiritual forces which motivated and manipulated those young men to that cruel and thoughtless behavior.
What has that to do with your health and the health of those you care about?
What does it have to do with your own well being, longevity and the obesity epidemic?
Everything... keep reading.
The reason I must give you this background - give the spiritual part first - is so you don't think I am going after big business as evil (whose motives are always tied to bottom dollar profit taking). They may be complicit in this deception, some corrupt officials, too - just as the boys who kept the medication from my friend were also - but the ultimate responsibility is on the spiritual motivating forces involved who target mankind. And it is them which we are fighting, not the people involved. There were no charges against those young men whose actions led to the death of my friend. Just as now the courts have disallowed people to sue McDonalds or any other fast food place for becoming fat eating their food. McDonald's can't be held accountable for helping the obesity epidemic, the courts say, and neither can those thoughtless youth be held accountable for their unintentionally causing my friend's death. But in my friend's case, this tragedy was only one person - but the problem we are dealing with in this "obesity epidemic" is system wide. Rather than assign culpability to any one person, retailer or element, I think we must not be put off from performing our due diligence and then correcting the problem. We will find many who will profess the most innocent and good intentions (and therefore they have a lack of vulnerability to redress at court). These humans involved will wipe their hands and claim innocency when indicted with the criminality of the results of their actions against the public good. But we cannot be appeased by people - by those who say they are sorry and will reform - that they didn't know, etc.. only to let it lapse into no underlying change for the public good. We must act.. and the first place to act is for your own good, and the good of those you care about.
So, ultimately, I am seeking to empower you personally - to help you take this into your own hands - so you might act to preserve your life long before any big changes pressure industry or manage somehow to force the hand of a court for redress of the underlying problem. Because, you see, the problem is deeper than just "overeating" or supersized meals and little self-control - It is criminal negligence and complicity with the enemy of our souls at the highest levels possible. And even if we cannot affect such a monolith or change their mentality easily, we should act in our own self defense to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the claws and trap of these spirits acting through human negligence (and self-interest) to attack our health, vitality, longevity and strength. I assure you, I do not speak unadvisedly. I have and will present to you the proof.
Most of all, I want you to save your own life and not rely on big brother to do it for you. Because, quite obviously, he fell asleep at the wheel some time ago - or the "epidemic" (and what is behind it) would not be here. The centers for disease control (or other governmental bodies) would have been alerted and full measures implemented - including quarantine - if this were a mere physical disease running unchecked among the populace. And we wouldn't be blaming the participants who fall sick. We'd be looking for the way to get the disease under control, not telling them to get plenty of rest, take a pill and drink more liquids and wash their hands frequently. Which is the response to this current epidemic of obesity - just exercise, do better nutrition, cut back on the empty calories, take a diet pill and join AA (I mean WW - weight watchers). There is a reason this is not working and each decade, dispite diets and exercise rooms, the obesity epidemic gets worse and the public health suffers. And we need to see this trap quickly, before it gets worse. There is something more sinister at work here, sapping the health of the nation from us.. insidiously and ultimately with malicious intent.. slowly, but surely.
See this link:
The link shows that someone fell asleep at the wheel and we are witnessing a slow motion crash of the public health. It takes a few years to happen, but as you watch the gif turn from year to year you can see that things are definitely getting worse. Dispite our best efforts to resolve this crisis, something remains undone. The problem is not solved. No matter the measures implemented to stop this 'epidemic', it has continued on in spite of those best efforts.. be it diet changes, exercise or any other factor. Something more sinister is at work here, and this change is not just due to age as is shown by the fact that the 'epidemic' has now spread to the young in larger numbers than ever before and they are now getting diseases usually attributed only to old age (see also Frontline: Diet Wars and other sources for information on the widespread problem of childhood obesity and resulting diseases which usually afflict only the elderly population).
These creatures (demons) are depicted in the Bible as personalities with intelligence. They are actually MORE intelligent and work in more dimensions of reality than we do. The higher dimensions of space (which String Theory predicts) are inhabited.. and they are one of the beings within the upper realms. Apart from their superior position on the spiritual food chain, (man may prey on animals - being the top of the physical food chain - but they are "higher up" than we are and they prey upon mankind - seeking to end the lives of the people on earth prematurely) the problem is that they also have the accumulated wisdom of time. Demons don't die. They are spirit-beings which have no mortal lifespan, and being around for many years does allow them to accumulate a lot of information. Think how it would be for you. Think of how much more you know now than when you were in elementary, junior high, or even high school - how about five years ago, ten.. think about how much more you learn as you go along. Remember the days without computers? How about the days before texting, cel phones and ipods? You have learned a lot of information and many things have progressed. Suppose you could expand your life experiences and learning time into thousands of years.. would you be wiser than the rest of the human race? Of course you would. You would run circles around the rest of us. We would look like primitive cave dwellers in comparison to your knowledge. Carl Sagan said that any technology, sufficiently developed, will not differ in its appearance from magic. (I often think of that when I step on an escalator, or when automatic doors swing open. :) ) Even so, your powers and ability to do things would look magical because of your superior knowledge and technical capability.
Even if they were not more intelligent creatures of a higher order than we are but only of the average intelligence of a human being, they would outstrip us by their ability to know things about mankind which they have learned over eons of time and which we haven't in our short lifespans figured out. And if you were in their shoes - super intelligent (more than the rest of us) and bent on our destruction - what would your first order of business be? I think it isn't hard to understand that the best military tactic would be to get people not to believe you exist - get them to scoff at the very idea that something you cannot see exists and is working toward thwarting the goals that human beings have - that way these beings can work uninhibited. If people don't believe something malevolent (with sinister intent) exists and is bent on their destruction, then they are kept in the dark about their activities... and those who scoff at the very idea are the ones who are most vulnerable to the manipulation of these superior intelligences. The reason why is because such people discount and are not looking for deception and traps. (I don't think that young man who just completed the newest Batman movie playing the part of the Joker and was a darling of Hollywood expected that he would be vulnerable to utter dispair over his life, do you?)
I find it amazing that most people do not wonder about the origin of the thoughts that come into their brains and uncritically accept that if a thought is in their head, then it is their own thought. When Heath Ledger first had a thought come into his mind that he should kill himself, I doubt he immediately and uncritically accepted it and did what that thought said to do. But over time, as it persisted (and he adopted it as his own), he did give in to it. Such are the traps which are set for the minds of men. If you scrutinize where a thought comes from in the print media and the bias behind the writer.. why accept uncritically any thought which pops into your head as unbiased and in no need of scrutiny? People who are motivated in the spur of the moment to a crime are acting on a thought impulse about how they should act and what they should do. Do people ever give a second to wondering where the thought came from.. ?? - is it possible it did not come from 'you', but from the unseen realm where spirit beings can inject their views into our minds at will? There are lots of "motivational" tapes and books on "positive thinking" which tell you to "reprogram" your mind to think positive thoughts. These are acts of war.. but against who? Is it really against YOUR bad thoughts? When you are sitting quietly alone, like Heath did in his apartment, if a negative thought does come to you.. is it really coming out of YOU? Or do they just "sound" a lot like you.. almost like someone is imitating your own thoughts and injecting negative ones toward you?
If you are not looking for a booby trap when you are at war - well, let us say the good American/coalition and Iraqi lives lost in Iraq were not due to ignoring potential traps of the enemy. Those in the trenches EXPECT the enemy to attack, and they are LOOKING for ways he may be trying to implement his traps. We would do well as a race to expect an enemy and look for his traps, too - even at home. I think the news bears testimony to those who do not look for nor expect traps and as a result, such people fall into the traps these superior intelligences set for them. Just as men set a trap for their prey, be it a slow-moving sloth or a swiftly-moving jaguar... and as men expect that their superior intelligence will win the day, so these set their traps for men and expect a harvest of taking many souls. How they do this is by affecting the minds of those who they can get to.. whether it is through false religion (Islamic fundamental terrorist bombers who daily attempt to blow up men, women and children are not led of God, I think you will agree), or through strange headspaces (Dispair, as I mentioned, or through cruel joking and thoughtlessness), or, as Carl said once, as a homocide investigator, he used to have to "get inside" the criminal minds he worked with in order to see how they viewed and justified the things they did... to solve the crimes they did. And he explained that each person who commits such crimes has "false reasoning" which allows them to justify their actions. Even so, I believe these creatures feed such false reasoning and try to make it as prevalent as possible among mankind to destroy men's souls... (Hitler comes to mind as an example - Nazism or Communism) In the case of our health, they try getting through a breech in our national security - by affecting and appealling to the minds and motives of those who are entrusted with the public health. However it is that they find room to work upon the mentality of mankind, they find ways to set traps for our feet to kill us. And I have found a key to one which they are "springing" on our generation - one symptom of which is the "obesity epidemic" but it does not end there.
Fortunately, there is a God. :)
And He is also active among us short lifespan creatures, to help us (otherwise I think we would stand no chance against the superior intelligence of these forces set upon our destruction and constantly seeking to lay traps for our feet to ensnare and kill us). These are unpleasant thoughts.. as are thoughts of enemy traps to the fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan right now. But those in the Armed Forces are wise enough not to ignore the war or the traps because they know their lives depend on expecting those things to be a part of the landscape - whereas we collectively listen to those who assure us there is no battle to be fought and there are no traps set for our feet - even though there is abundant evidence (check the daily news) that there are traps set and people are falling into them daily - destroying their personal lives, the lives of their families - and in this case, their own (and other people's) physical health and lives.
I wanted first to impress upon you that it is not just the people and agencies involved - it is the plan and spirit behind it all - the "trap" set for mankind's feet - an orchestrated plan to ruin the health of the nation and destroy the best and most godly country in the world in order to bring the world's superpower to its knees and cut off its youth before they can do good things for God. America by and large is a godly nation, and therefore one whose collective health (mentally and physically) is strongly under attack by godless and malevolent forces. But consider.. why WOULDN'T America be target number one when they have so much influence in the world? And this epidemic strikes regardless of race, religion (or belief) or gender.
Charles Spurgeon wrote a daily devotional in the 18th century. By an amazing 'coincidence', as I began composing this set of posts, this day's entry which I read began this way QUOTE:
"Surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler." --Psalm 91:3
God delivers His people from the snare of the fowler in two senses. From, and out of. First, He delivers them from the snare--does not let them enter it; and secondly, if they should be caught therein, He delivers them out of it. The first promise is the most precious to some; the second is the best to others.
This set of posts are aimed at least at the second.. but hopefully if this knowledge becomes known well enough, it may one day cause enough grassroots pressure that the deliverance of our society from this awful scourge may happen so that our precious young ones may never enter into it. It is a terrible shame to have diseases of old age afflicting the young.
And for the record, this does affect the health of the Iraqi people and the good of their nation, too. Because this has to do with the food supply, and unless they also act to deal with the damaging foodstuffs and drink present and pouring into the Middle East, those indulging in them will have the same accumulated disease states happen to them in time.
Next, I will explain the underlying catalyst and try to change your mind if you think the government is the best guardian of your health - no, YOU ARE.
Just as with other freedoms, it is the people who must be empowered to protect themselves.
Please Keep reading..
Part Two - An introduction to a larger problem than just obesity
What is causing "the obesity epidemic" and is obesity the only sign of this "epidemic" of disease?
This is a crash course in what is happening to undermine your health and longevity.. and the health of those you love, and few have the courage to speak about it. Let's look at that url again showing the growing epidemic of obesity which is continuing unchecked regardless of changes in dietary intake or exercise as it is a key to understanding that this is more than meets the eye:
Experts say that no matter what diet people go on to lose weight, the vast majority of them cannot stay on the diet and regain the weight they lost.
QUOTE:
Many magazines and web sites bandy about weight-loss statistics, such as "95% of people who lose weight gain it back." But scientific studies about why people regain weight are contradictory. Some blame genetics, but research shows that heredity is only one small factor in weight gain or loss. http://ask.yahoo.com/20030321.html
WHY do these people have trouble with their weight and keeping the pounds off? Are they really all just without self-control? If so, why is it a rising amount of people in the population according to the graphic above? Surely the number of people would not continue to grow exponentially if the only problem were self-control? Particularly with the proliferation of so many diets which shows their determination (or desperation) to deal with this problem - this should have solved the problem. No - this is more like contracting a disease (hence the term obesity epidemic). Experts just don't know the answer to this question.
QUOTE:
Many people confess that they've "tried every diet in existence", that they've "lost weight only to regain it again and again" and that they've been doing this for long periods of time – in some cases for up to 20 years.
"Why do people tend to regain weight that they have lost and land up in the vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting?"
At the moment, experts don't know the answer to this question. It has been suggested that some individuals have certain built-in factors that make it difficult for them to sustain weight loss.
Now, so you don't think I am prideful, I will admit being uncomfortable at the thought of posting this information. I am not an expert.. and I haven't had years of actually doing everything which I am about to explain to you which the Lord has shown to me. But, He says to tell you as some cannot wait until a double blind test study of twenty years happens. They need to know what I know now, and He absolutely insists that I tell you and says lives are at stake. So I do believe the information to be true and will support it with ample evidence for you for you to judge for yourself. I do care about our health and want you to have long, healthy lives, so I do wish to obey Him and do what He has asked me to do. Let's continue..
What is the cause?
I believe that it is the case that what we are witnessing in this "epidemic" of obesity is the revealing of underlying accumulated damage to their internal organs and the body's ability to continue to protect them from those damaging effects. I propose that is the reason people are becoming fatter and having more problems with obesity has to do with actual damage to the control center of the hunger response which also governs "satiety, sleep and waking cycles, the autonomic system, emotions and our biological clocks." I refer to damage to a tiny gland within the human brain called the hypothalmus gland. If this is correct then it isn't just a "lack of self control" but real organ damage, and it makes sense that some people (and some people groups) would be more susceptible to it than others. Therefore, blanket condemnation of those who have this problem is like having someone who is crippled and you only have a sprained ankle, you can tell that person to get up and walk because it is easy for you. But for them, it is impossible. In the same way, this DAMAGE makes some people incapable on their own of "getting up and walking".. or in this case, maintaining their weight. It isn't a lack of self-control, calorie control or watching carbs, fat and protein intake. It is organ damage which controls their ability to stop eating. And this is shown by the fact that different people groups are affected more.
QUOTE:
"Mexican-Americans were more likely than non-Hispanic whites to regain weight," said the researchers, who cautioned that that this result "has not been previously reported and should be confirmed."
The finding did not surprise Dirk Schroeder, associate professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. "Food choices offered [in diet programs] are not what Hispanics eat," said Schroeder, who co-founded a health information technology company serving the Hispanic population in 1999.
Hispanic dieters are more successful with a culturally attuned program that allows for larger meals midday and incorporates familiar food, Schroeder said.
Additionally, if it really were to do with mere appetite control.. why would it affect each people group differently?
Doesn't this point to the diet being responsible for differences..
and consider my explanation.. what if it dietary differences which have created more or less damage to the hypothalmus gland?
QUOTE:
Which diet works best may depend on your biology
Boston—May 15, 2007 Diets that seek to stabilize blood sugar after eating -- called low-glycemic-load diets -- are effective for long-term weight loss, and much more effective than low-fat diets in people who secrete large amounts of insulin, reports a study in the May 16 issue of JAMA.
The findings, from a careful study of 73 obese young adults, demonstrate that hormonal differences -- specifically, how much insulin the body makes -- help explain whether a diet is successful.
"A major question in the field of obesity is, why can some people do well on conventional weight-loss diets, while others on the very same diets do very poorly?" says David Ludwig, MD, PhD, of Children's Hospital Boston, the study's senior investigator. "The usual answer is motivation and compliance -- that people just don't stick to their diets. But our findings show that biology determines why some people do well on one weight-loss diet and not on another."
"These findings can allow clinicians to individualize the treatment of obesity by first giving patients an oral glucose tolerance test," says Ludwig, director of the Optimal Weight for Life clinic at Children's Hospital Boston and author of the new book Ending the Food Fight: Guide Your Child to a Healthy Weight in a Fast Food/Fake Food World. "People who make a lot of insulin may do especially well on diets that reduce glycemic load. They tend to do very poorly on low-fat diets, which are generally high in carbohydrates and raise insulin levels even further, which in turn causes weight gain."
Regardless of insulin secretion, the low-glycemic-load diet had advantageous effects on components of the metabolic syndrome, a condition closely related to diabetes and heart disease: high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or "good" cholesterol increased and triglycerides decreased. Patients on the low-fat diet did not have these improvements, but they did have reductions in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or "bad" cholesterol.
"A low-glycemic-load diet in which saturated fat -- and thereby LDL cholesterol -- is kept low may be optimal for everyone," Ludwig speculates.
The study, whose first author was Cara Ebbeling, PhD, of Children's Hospital Boston, was funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the Charles H. Hood Foundation, and the National Center for Research Resources. Co-authors were Michael Leidig, RD, Henry Feldman, PhD, and Margaret Lovesky, RD, all of Children's Hospital Boston.
Note that the HORMONAL differences explain whether dieting is successful. Again, damage to a hormonal gland - the hypothalmus gland - could account for differences in insulin secretion. The more damage to the gland, the more malfunction it will show.
Another example: In this brand new "accidental" finding where they were trying to get a man with obesity to stop having appetite by stimulating the hypothalmus gland resulted in their finding out that the hypothalmus gland (and so DAMAGE to it) also controls memory. That could prove that memory diseases are also due to hypothalmus damage.
QUOTE:
Scientists discover way to reverse loss of memory
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Scientists performing experimental brain surgery on a man aged 50 have stumbled across a mechanism that could unlock how memory works.
The accidental breakthrough came during an experiment originally intended to suppress the obese man's appetite, using the increasingly successful technique of deep-brain stimulation. Electrodes were pushed into the man's brain and stimulated with an electric current. Instead of losing appetite, the patient instead had an intense experience of déjà vu. He recalled, in intricate detail, a scene from 30 years earlier. More tests showed his ability to learn was dramatically improved when the current was switched on and his brain stimulated.
Scientists are now applying the technique in the first trial of the treatment in patients with Alzheimer's disease. If successful, it could offer hope to sufferers from the degenerative condition, which affects 450,000 people in Britain alone, by providing a "pacemaker" for the brain.
The discovery had caught him and his team "completely by surprise", Professor Lozano said. They had been operating on the man, who weighed 190kg (30st), to treat his obesity by locating the point in his brain that controls appetite. All other attempts to curb his eating had failed and brain surgery was the last resort.
The treatment for obesity was unsuccessful. But, while the researchers were identifying potential appetite suppressant points in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain associated with hunger, the man suddenly began to say that memory was flooding back.
The discovery surprised the scientists as the hypothalamus has not usually been identified as a seat of memory. The contacts that most readily produced the memories were located close to a structure called the fornix, an arched bundle of fibres that carries signals within the limbic system, which is involved in memory and emotions and is situated next to the hypothalamus.
Professor Lozano is a world authority on deep-brain stimulation who has undertaken 400 operations on Parkinson's disease sufferers and is developing the technique as a treatment for depression, for which he has performed 28 operations. He said the discovery of its role in stimulating memory had wide implications.
"It gives us insight into which brain structures are involved in memory. It gives us a means of intervening in the way we have already done in Parkinson's and for mood disorders such as depression, and it may have therapeutic benefit in people with memory problems," he said.
British researchers welcomed the discovery. Andrea Malizia, a senior lecturer in psychopharmacology at the University of Bristol who is studying deep-brain stimulation as a treatment for depression, said: "If they had said let's stick an electrode in the hypothalamus to modify Alzheimer's disease, I would have said 'Why start there?' But, if they have had a serendipitous finding, then that is as good. Serendipitous findings are how a lot of discoveries in science have been made."
Deep -brain stimulation has been used for more than a decade to treat a range of conditions including depression, chronic pain, Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders.
Different areas of the brain are targeted for different conditions. For Parkinson's disease, they are placed in the subthalamic nucleus; for depression, in area 25 of the cingulate cortex.
Deep-brain stimulation was developed in France and first licensed by the Food and Drug Administration in the US in 1997 as a treatment for tremor. In the UK, the surgery is performed at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, in Bristol, in Oxford and at a handful of other centres.
The name of the procedure is in some ways a misnomer as it often involves inhibiting electrical activity in an area of the brain rather than stimulating it. The technique is as much about restoring balance between competing brain areas which leads to the tremor characteristic of some types of Parkinson's disease.
Note that this is all about "restoring balance" to the brain. The brain lost its balance. HOW? Again.. damage to the hypothalmus gland, resulting in either more or less (unbalanced) hormones. In the case of obesity, it may stimulate too much insulin in response to carbohydrates, so that is why the low-glycemic diet works best. In the case of memory problems, it may be the lessening of the release of hormones responsible for memory mapping, but which can be artificially stimulated into activity by the use of electrical activity. But the common denominator is.. something is damaging the hypothalmus gland. If we stop the damage.. then we stop the resulting states of disease. Prevention is better than cure? Stop the spread of the epidemic by removing the damaging component from the human diet and we won't need to have electrical stimulation of our brains later in life, maybe? We won't need to stick on a low-glycemic diet to deal with our damaged insulin response? We won't need drugs for depression or anger therapy sessions? Because the hypothalmus controls emotional states, too. And as we see a rise in obesity, we see a rise in crimes of anger - from road rage to campus shootings - both things which were not prevalent in the population in the 1950s. Is the hypothalmus also going off its rails in these mental states.. contributing to them in a great measure? I believe so. The cause is small.. the effects, widespread. Just like a disease with sniffles, coughing, headache, chills.. it all relates back to one thing, the disease. So these effects all relate back to one thing.. damage to the hypothalmus gland stemming from our food.
The hypothalmus gland is the.. quote, "control center of the hunger response which also governs satiety, sleep and waking cycles, the autonomic system, emotions and our biological clocks."
Emotional problems due to damage to this gland could account for increased rates of depression, anxiety, anger, crime and even suicide. It is of note that,
QUOTE:
Suicide rates tend to increase with age. In the past twenty years, however, the increase in the number of suicides committed by young people has outraced their numerical increase as a segment of the population.
What could account for an increase in obesity.. and an increase in the number of suicides by the young?
Damage to the hypothalmus gland.
What about the emotional state known as depression in the young.. is it increasing?
QUOTE:
Pre-schoolers are the fastest-growing market for antidepressants. At least four percent of preschoolers -- over a million -- are clinically depressed. The rate of increase of depression among children is an astounding 23%
15% of the population of most developed countries suffers severe depression.
30% of women are depressed. Men's figures were previously thought to be half that of women, but new estimates are higher.
Depressive disorders affect approximately 18.8 million American adults or about 9.5% of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year.
15% of depressed people will commit suicide. Depression will be the second largest killer after heart disease by 2020 -- and studies show depression is a contributory factor to fatal coronary disease. http://www.upliftprogram.com/depression_stats.html
It is not just obesity.. this damage contributes toward coronary disease, affects depression rates, memory problems, suicide rates and also sleep disorders. That is because the hypothalmus is the.. quote, "control center of the hunger response which also governs satiety, sleep and waking cycles, the autonomic system, emotions and our biological clocks." If it gets damaged, so does our sleep cycle.
QUOTE:
Sleep Epidemic
The National Sleep Foundation estimates that most Americans are sleep deprived, suffering from diabetes, heart disease, obesity depression, and other health problems as a result. Sleep costs hundreds of billions in health and productivity losses. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cites sleep deprivation as the cause for over 100,000 crashes, injuries and fatalities each year. A recent study at UCSD confirms that chronic sleep problems can cut more than a decade from your life expectancy.
It didn’t used to be this way.
Just a few decades ago, we took sleep for granted. Insomnia was uncommon, almost unheard of. What changed?
Sleep problems are reaching epidemic proportions, estimated to be the #1 health related problem in America – CNN, May 1997.
Sleep deprivation costs $150 billion each year in higher stress and reduced worker productivity—National Commission on Sleep Disorders, 2003.
Mayo Clinic: Almost all adults don’t get enough sleep and most struggle to get up in the morning. “If we got enough sleep at night we wouldn’t need an alarm clock to wake us.” Lack of sleep leads to health problems; fatigue, obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, shortened lifespan, suppressed immune systems and depression. Recent studies implicate sleep deprivation in diabetes.
We sleep on average 6.9 hours/day, almost an hour less than a few decades ago.
Childhood insomnia is a high risk factor for adolescent alcohol and drug abuse—children with sleep problems are twice as likely to abuse drugs when teenagers. Univ. of Mich. April 2004 sleep study.
43 percent of respondents reported that daytime sleepiness interfered with their normal daytime activities, including work. NSF 2000.
30-40% of heavy truck accidents are due to driver fatigue.
National Sleep Foundation, 2002 Annual Sleep Survey
Almost 74% of all Americans do not get enough sleep each night.
Most will feel sleepy or groggy during the week.
51% of adults say they have problems sleeping at least a few nights each week.
Almost 1/3rd have trouble sleeping every night.
Half of all Americans can not get up without an alarm clock.
Alarm clocks interrupt sleep cycle causing, lack of energy, feeling unrefreshed in the morning.
Those with sleep problems are twice as likely to feel stressed and tired.
The hypothalmus is the.. quote, "control center of the hunger response which also governs satiety, sleep and waking cycles, the autonomic system, emotions and our biological clocks." That biological clock of ours has to do with healthy aging. But it also has to do with puberty, with menopause (and male menopause), and with aging itself. I will explain the aging part a bit more in depth later, but what evidence exists of hormonal damage to the biological mechanisms which have to do with puberty?
Puberty hitting girls as young as 4 years old
Oct. 27, 2006 — Most parents would agree that their kids always seem to grow up too quickly, but now, puberty is hitting young girls earlier than ever.
Nearly half of African-American girls start showing signs of puberty by 8 years old, and some American girls are developing as young as 5, even 4 years old, experts say.
Skyla Jones is an energetic 5-year-old from Georgia who loves to play.
Last year, her mother, Melissa Jones, noticed Skyla was tired all the time, had a body odor, and had blood in her urine.
"I didn't know what was going on," Jones said. "I just went ahead and thought she had a kidney infection. And we went on antibiotics and still it didn't clear it up."
Skyla was eventually sent to Andrew Muir, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Medical College of Georgia, who knew exactly what was going on.
Skyla was menstruating and was experiencing other unmistakable signs of puberty.
"That's what he told me that it was — that she was having a menstrual cycle," Jones said. "I was really freaked out."
Studies have tracked an increasing trend of early sexual development.
By age 8, almost half of African-American girls and 15 percent of Caucasian girls start developing pubic hair or breasts.
"The switch that normally gets turned on for pubertal development gets turned on too early," said Dr. Diane Stafford of Children's Hospital in Boston.
Until recently most doctors didn't expect to see these signs until age 10.
"It can have many causes," Muir said. "Some are related to genetics, environmental factors, and sometimes we just don't know why it happens."
What happens is the SWITCH is regulated by the hypothalmus gland.. and the hypothalmus gland is being damaged.
Briefly, "the pituitary gland is the master gland of the body, controling the adrenal glands, the thyroid and the reproductive organs. Through it the brain controls and regulates growth, metabolism and the onset of puberty. What controls the pituitary gland? The hypothalmus. It regulates the hormone balance in the body. It is the hormonal "thermostat". But the hypothalmus is much more. It also controls hunger and satiety, sleep and waking cycles, the autonomic system, emotions, and even our biological clocks. Even minor injuries to the hypothalmus gland can be fatal. It is extremely delicate both physically and biochemically." - Doctor Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.
See Also:
Men's testosterone levels declined in last 20 years
Tue Oct 31, 2006
By Anne Harding
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study has found a "substantial" drop in U.S. men's testosterone levels since the 1980s, but the reasons for the decline remain unclear. This trend also does not appear to be related to age.
The average levels of the male hormone dropped by 1 percent a year, Dr. Thomas Travison and colleagues from the New England Research Institutes in Watertown, Massachusetts, found. This means that, for example, a 65-year-old man in 2002 would have testosterone levels 15 percent lower than those of a 65-year-old in 1987. This also means that a greater proportion of men in 2002 would have had below-normal testosterone levels than in 1987.
"The entire population is shifting somewhat downward we think," Travison told Reuters Health. "We're counting on other studies to confirm this."
Travison and his team analyzed data from the Massachusetts Male Aging Study, a long-term investigation of aging in about 1,700 Boston-area men. Data from the men were collected for three time intervals: 1987-1989, 1995-1997, and 2002-2004.
While a man's testosterone level will fall steadily as he ages, the researchers observed a speedier decline in average testosterone levels than would have been expected with aging alone.
They hypothesized that the rising prevalence of obesity as well as the sharp decline in cigarette smoking might help explain their findings, given that testosterone levels are lower among overweight people and smoking increases testosterone levels. But these factors accounted for only a small percentage of the observed difference.
It's likely that some sort of environmental exposure is responsible for the testosterone decline, Travison said, although he said attempting to explain what this might be based on the current findings would be "pure conjecture."
SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, January 2007.
For now, summary, the hypothalmus controls..
1) the hunger response which also governs satiety - result of damage - obesity epidemic
2) sleep and waking cycles - result of damage - sleep epidemic
3) emotions - result of damage - depression, disturbed mental states from anger, anxiety, etc. (depression is a contributory factor to fatal coronary disease.)
5) our biological clocks - disturbances in proper maturation/puberty, normal menopause/andropause, normal aging, hormonal levels (ie testosterone).
5) memory - (from the brand new findings yesterday I quoted) - result may be memory loss and contributions to Alzheimer's/Parkinson's disease states
The next part I am working on.. where is this damage coming from and can you avoid it?
(Yes, you can.. but it would be much better if they just took out of our food supply the hypothalmus gland damagers..
they won't without a lot of motivation and pressure from grassroots up, but you can at least save your own life from these disease states if you know what is doing it and how to avoid eating them.. on to the next part in a bit.)
Evil is taught to next man, and he teach his off springs.
Evil, destruction and a need to bring down his fellow man is originally not mans basic instinct.
He is basically a survivor, and anything that aids that activity is good for him.
Some men are terrified when another species are growing, expanding or dominating, they are feeling threatened.
This will come about in any religion, any political camp and any culture.
Man is a great analyzer, it never fails and it always give the right answer, the right computation and the right solution.
Mans downfall is when someone in his mind is serving false data, inaccurate, or misplaced data.
-"Don't play with the Jones, those people are of loose character, evil and a bunch of scoundrels".
-"Islamis't think that one of their Imams will come back, rise from the dead, and take over the world, make the world Islamic, and have forever peace and justice."
-"Christians believe that Jesus will rise up from the dead, take over the world, make the world Christian, and have forever peace and justice."
It is possible to present ANY belief, ANY philosophy, ANY religion, actually ANY intention in a negative way.
The INTENTION of doing so, is abberative, and non rational.
A religion, philosophy or belief in itself, can be irrational , and rationally described as irrational.
However, a blank statement, or teaching to our young, that anything else mankind have dreamed up other than what we believe in is wrong, IS IRRATIONAL.
The source of that intention is our own minds, probably a left over from our times as animals, that will make us animals to the degree that we associate, instead of differentiate.
A dog was whipped by a neighbours child, when no one was watching, and now the dog is shy, angry, reserved and non trusting of humans.
That IS survival for an animal.
That IS NOT survival for a human. That is a reactive, non thinking, fear based, animal instinct thinking, DARN GOOD FOR THE ANIMAL, BUT INSANELY DESTRUCTIVE FOR HUMANS.
A human bitten by a dog, will, with this mechanism be shy, reserved and non trusting of dogs.
A dog catcher, or kennel worker have got a bite, nip or an unruly dog on occasion, but he/she understands dogs, he don't have a feeling of being shy, angry, reserved or ill feelings about dogs.
He/she probably loves dogs. That person can think analytically about dogs, and don't have his mind filled with biases.
The more rational and the more analytically a society acts, the better off the individuals in that society.
Mo matter how much respect you have to give fellow man, when looking at some native societies, you will find pure insanity. I don't want to be cured from a disease by a shaman in a jungle tribe.
A mountain tribe, running around, the hills shooting, robbing, having no schools, having no production, having no infrastructure, having no rights, having no trade, having nothing that offers the rest of the world an exchangeable product that will benefit mankind, is nothing but a band of murderers and robbers.
It takes a very disturbed mind to agree with the action of those thugs, but if the thugs are screaming "God is great", a big portion of the population in the rest of the world will get immediately confused, thinking they are doing some holy cause, are some kind of heroes, and everything have a deeper meaning.
Insanity is not an on/off thing, it is a gradual thing.
Technically, you forgot your car keys in the car, is a very light form of insanity, but with very little consequences for you or the world and there is no need to bolt for the Prozac, but more of an amusement the next day.
To the degree a society is insane, to the same degree, man is not free.
Islamic countries have in their societies very very strong rules, social and religious conduct, dictating any and all steps they must adhere to.
Same as our Cristian societies during the medieval times.
This and that is a sin, this and that is blasphemy, this and that is immoral, this and that will send you to hell, this and that is a must.
When individuals must have a police to guide them, they will get a police guiding them. When they insist on a police watching them, they will get a police watching them.
THAT is the different level of insanity, mankind is experiencing, in different cultures.
What is good and bad, may or may not be guided by a God, but when it is good, sanity prevails, and survival prevails, the all so sought after peace and justice will prevail, and rational human beings can trust each other.
Right now on this earth we have a bunch of dog bitten individuals that is shy, bitter angry, reserved and non trusting.
Group thinking easily takes on a frenzic stupidity, a "cause" and downfall of that society.
Old south, Third Reich, Fascist Italy, Feudal Japan and many more all rallied around the destruction or bondage of another fellow man, and was destroyed, because the victims ultimately didn't agree, and other civilisations groups and nations could see that this was about destruction, nothing else, may it be in the name of God or not.
Just by the fact that it was against survival of man, made it a crime against man, and those societies was defeated....by man.
"Death to America, Death to Israel"....
Insanity still prevails in some corners of the world, and some are still confused, because they claim they have God on their side...oh well.
Yes,.... right,.... it is not a matter of IF, it is a matter of WHEN.
When survival is at stake, the act of surviving will be the moral factor that determines whether this was right or wrong.
How right can you be...survive.
How wrong can you be...dead.
For my own survivals sake, I will stay right in this issue.
Iran is door to door with Iraq, where the beloved Iraqi Dinars are circulating, wouldn't you think that what the Iranians are doing would greatly influence Iraqi Dinars? Especially if they decide upon an extermination war?
Would that perhaps be a bit too much out of topic?
Another two months before ISX will trade electronically.
It was at the beginning of Aug last year that the Iraqi trade and security were going to start trading electronically, and now, we hear another two months.
I will take as one of the examples here, the cement industry. This is one industry only, but it reflects pretty much the state of things in Iraq, and why this is not an overnight get rich quick thing, but once going, a very lucrative investment.
The Iraqi market it's industrial base and it's oil gives the Iraqi nation a bit of a headache, as the main income is oil, but oil in itself doesn't employ the great masses, and the est of the industry is hopelessly out performed in many areas, because the industry base is old and almost beyond repair.
So lets have a closer look at the cement industry, it will reflect pretty much what the rest of the industry is doing and where we're at right now.
Well as everything else, the cement industry seems very promising and nice on paper.
1. Iraq is standing in front of one of the biggest reconstruction project ever.
2. Iraq have high class, high quality limestone in abundance, easily reached in shallow layers.
3. Iraq have an abundance of cheap fuel, to burn their limestone kilns in order to make cement.
Add all that together and insert the fact that in a similar scenario in Kuwait, the cement industry came out as one of the top performers on their stock exchange market, and this seems like a no-brainer where the investment is concerned, get a couple of cement stocks and your luck is made.
Not that easy.
Iraq is importing most of it's cement.
The Iraqi cement industry have for very long time been very neglected, as far as spare parts, modern machines, and high productivity production lines.
There are no big cement giants in Iraq, as in the rest of the industrial world, but most of the operations have been done batch by batch in smaller plants spread all across the Iraq nation. Once the order is filled, the plant is shutting down until another order is coming in.
The size of the plants are very very small, almost a mom and pap operation, and have been struggling to even stay alive in the Saddam Hussein era, where no large scale construction was taking place ( well except for his palaces, but that is small potato compared with "normal" construction in a country).
Cement industry is a very small margin business, and in order to stay alive, and expand it needs to have massive high volume plants, and an army of cement trucks.
This is an investment and business climate that the existing cement plants have never seen in the past, and therefore any past investment have been mostly geared towards repair of the old machinery.
The machinery is old, and spare parts are increasingly hard to get hold of, plus once working it is low volume yielding machinery.
Any chance of getting up to par with the rest of the world must therefore be a complete reconstruction of the whole industry, a consolidation of resources, and coordination of transport and delivery.
The chances of that happening with the existing plants are very slim, as the age, volume yield, and general condition of the equipment will not cost effectively warrant reconstruction, but rather a scrapping of the old machinery, and a total re-investment and rebuild with completely new and modern equipment.
Mining plants, have very little or no second hand value, but have mostly scrap value only.
As construction is picking up, the existing plants will get orders, they will manage in one way or the other to make and sell as much of their products they can, but must for a time also depend on imported cement.
Some cement plants may get a government grant, some might be invested partly by the government, some will not make it, and go bankrupt, some will seek foreign investors, that can haul in straight from the ship, complete plants, ready to start up, once assembled.
So to go back to investments here.
As we speak ISX have very few companies trading, many of them are "off the floor" and you can get stock in them only when they "happen" to be there (very frustrating).
This is however, a ground floor opportunity, it will not be a quickie, as the whole industrial sector needs to get modern stuff, modern investments, modern equipment, get it assembled, get it on line and get it producing day and night.
As we speak, they still are trading with chalkboards, and electronic trading will (as they say anyway) start in another two months.
The start of the electronic trading does in itself not mean anything else other than it will be a better way of trading.
It will however mean that in the eyes of the rest of the world the Iraqi stock exchange will be up to par with other countries when it comes to how to deal with stocks. That might in itself rise the confidence of the investors to invest more in Iraq, and take off some kind of mental barrier needed for the acceptance of Iraq as a serious investment object.
Iraq have a headache, it is blessed with oil, and thus money, but are cursed with very low industrial output, where most of the population needs to work in, in order to have a decent life.
The oil part is growing, and that is badly needed, because that part will finance the slower part of Iraq, the industrial base, that needs to get going preferably yesterday, but as with everything else over there. It will take some time to exchange out all the rusted power plants, rusted phone, and electrical lines, rusted up industry, and exchange it with new high producing modern stuff.
The point is, the ride from where we are now, and up until the whole thing is modern and up and running....THAT is the investment ride, that is the opportunity here.
It is your guess as well as mine what will go boom and what will be so so.
My take is, that (except from the oil industry) anything that has to do with construction will benefit, and go sky high, anything that have to do with new wires, in any fashion, new streets, new dams, new harbors, anything that will require a new pipeline, a new airport, a new modern hotel, new housing complex, anything along those lines will do well.
You need paint, you need drywall, you need building material, you need cement, you need asphalt, you need timber, and so on.
The game is to try to figure out what company are doing what in Iraq, there will be some hoops to jump through.
Most of those hoops are the information hoop, and with good research you will find the right category of investment objects that will fit in your head.
All in all, the country is up and running, but still have to change clothes from it's old days, it needs a new wardrobe.
By definition, you can not go wrong if the two basic elements are there.
Well, it was reported that one of the big AlQaida leaders was hit in the head by a missile in Pakistan.
According the Pakistanis, (that are embarrassed that there are AlQaeda there in the first place) they are reluctant to say that an AlQaeda leader was hit.
"Uh, there was almost nothing left of the bodies so it is pretty hard to say who was killed"
Locals was saying that they heard drones flying in the area just before the hit.
So...either Pakistan have Predator Drones, and don't know if they have killed an AlQaeda leader, or are unsure what blow up the AlQueda safe house, or an accident with explosives happened in the AlQueda safe house..... or we're killing AlQaeda in Pakistan with Predators.
I would go with the last option.
I would say that it is pretty safe to say that:
1. Pakistan agree to the US to fly Predator Drones.
2. Pakistan is well aware that they have AlQueda in their territory.
Therefore it is logic to assume that we are flying over Pakistan killing AlQueda.
Roger,
Sorry my post was delayed. I agree with you. My comment was directed to extended two part post about ?? obesity, early puberty ?? stuff out of left field.
You did make a comment about not wanting to be cured of a disease by a Shaman - in fact I was cured of a disease by a Shaman once.
Back to topic - do you have any take on today's announcement that the food welfare program is over. Also the meeting with EU news from today. And the end of the coins as of today. And the supposed deadline for Maliki ---- Today. Sends me back to the newswire tomorrow for sure.
Iraq's revival boosted as oil production rises to 2.4m barrels a day
Image :1 of 2
Martin Fletcher in Baghdad and Robin Pagnamenta
Oil production in Iraq is at its highest level since the US-led invasion of 2003, reaching 2.4 million barrels a day, thanks largely to improved security measures in the north.
The country’s Oil Ministry will shortly invite international oil companies to bid for contracts to help Iraq to boost output at its investment-starved “super-giant” oilfields. Production is expected to pass the prewar level of 2.6 million barrels by the end of the year, and Hussain al-Shahristani, the Iraqi Oil Minister, told The Times that he expected production to reach six million barrels a day within four years.
The International Monetary Fund predicts that Iraq’s economy, boosted by rising oil revenues, will grow by more than 7 per cent this year, compared with 1.3 per cent last year.
A new report from the US Inspector-General says that the Iraqi Government will receive a $15 billion (£7.5 billion) windfall to help its reconstruction efforts thanks to soaring oil prices.
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Mr al-Shahristani said that the Government would not wait for Iraq’s fractious parliament to approve long-delayed legislation providing a legal framework for foreign investment in the oil industry. The Government is to invite foreign companies to help Iraq to develop new fields.
Jeroen van de Veer, the chief executive of the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell, confirmed yesterday that it was “very interested” in new opportunities in Iraq, which sits on the world’s third largest proven oil reserves. “We have made various proposals to the Government,” he said.
The company is understood to be interested in a gas field called Akkas, in Anbar province near the border with Syria, to produce supplies for export to Europe. Eastern Anbar was until recently one of the most violent parts of the country, although tribal militias have ensured greater security.
Shell, which had worked in Iraq for decades until the 1970s, is also thought to be interested in building an export terminal in Basra for supercooled, liquefied natural gas for export to other parts of the Middle East. A number of other Western oil companies are interested in opportunities in Iraq. They include Total and the Norwegian company DNO, which has a drilling programme in the Kurdish region of Iraq.
Mr al-Shahristani suggested that the competition would be intense. “Everybody in the world, more than 45 companies, have approached us and shown a very keen interest in working with us — the Chinese, Russians, Indians, Brazilians,” he said.
Reliable economic statistics remain almost impossible to collect in Iraq, but US officials said that the Government had cut inflation to 5.5 per cent from 60 per cent a year ago.
The Iraqi dinar has strengthened against the dollar. Property prices are rising in safer parts of Baghdad. But unemployment remains stubbornly high at 18 per cent, and 40 to 60 per cent of the population are employed for less than 15 hours a week.
Foreign investment remains minimal apart from the $3.75 billion paid by three consortiums last year for mobile telephone licences.
The US military is trying to prime the economy by directing contracts worth more than $100 million a month to Iraqi businesses, generating an estimated 42,000 jobs.
On the streets of Baghdad and other cities it is now possible to see new building projects, bustling markets and other signs of economic regeneration for the first time since the war, but confidence remains fragile.
Jalil Khalid, 39, a store manager in central Baghdad, said that business was gradually improving but added: “Every time there’s any stability and people start coming back another bomb goes off and they vanish again.”
(www.timesonline.co.uk)
EU, Iraqi officials agree to pursue closer energy ties, make Iraq major supplier to Europe
Iraqi and European Union officials agreed Thursday to pursue closer energy ties, bringing the EU a step closer to turning Iraq into a major supplier and reducing its dependency on Russia.
(www.noozz.com)
01 February 2008 (Azzaman)
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Members of al-Qaeda group have retaken a strategic town, some 70 kilometers south of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, members of parliament said.
The MPs said Tuz Khormato, a predominantly Shiite town, was now in the hands of ‘al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia’, the group’s official appellation.
The MPs gave no reason for the unexpected withdrawal of U.S. Marines from the town.
But they said the departure of U.S. troops has led to “a dangerous upsurge in insecurity” with bandits and fighters attacking travelers and vehicles on the highway to Kirkuk.
Tuz Khormato has a slight Turkmen majority. Iraqi Turkmen are predominantly Shiites.
Turkmen MPs have sent a statement to Prime Minister Noori al-Maliki’s government urging him to send troop to guard the city and the highway.
The town has been the scene of devastating suicide bombings in the past. In one of them more than 100 people were killed.
Suicide bombers have even targeted the town’s main Shiite Husainiya or mosque.
The statement said kidnappings had increased and the scene of headless bodies dumped on roads and the highway has returned once again.
“The tragic and horrific events in Tuz Khormato only a few days following the withdrawal of the multi-national forces (U.S. troops) is a clear indication of how ill-prepared and weak the army and security forces are,” the statement said.
It said currently some of the kidnappings and crimes occur as Iraqi troops and police look on.
(www.iraqupdates.com)
London, 01 February 2008 (Asharq Alawsat)
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The US policy in Iraq for 2008 will be focused on making the Iraqi government headed by Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki work, rather than opting for a “Plan B”, that is, implementing a new government. Asharq Al-Awsat met with Ambassador David Satterfield, Advisor to the American Secretary of State and Coordinator for Iraq since August 2006, during a stopover in London returning to Washington from Baghdad, to discuss his administration’s assessment of the developments in Iraq.
Q) What is your assessment of the situation in Iraq following your recent visit there?
A) The situation in Iraq over the course of 2007 significantly improved with respect to two critical indicators. Firstly, more Iraqi citizens in more parts of the country are more secure today than at any point since [the war began in] 2003. There are several reasons for this improvement. One is the surge of US forces and the application of those forces in Baghdad and its environs and other areas affected by sectarian violence during 2006.
Secondly, we have more capable Iraqi forces that are able to fight the enemy and forces that are able to operate not just in partnership with the US but independently. This is the product of the training and equipping that the US and the Coalition have been involved in over the last few years. The so-called Anbar Awakening Council, which in fact is now a phenomenon that extends well beyond the Anbar province, has resulted in a diminution in insurgent Sunni attacks on Coalition and Iraqi forces and has led to the constraining of Al-Qaeda’s ability to conduct its terrorist campaign in Anbar and elsewhere.
Finally, another contributing factor is the fragmentation of Jaish al Mahdi, the ceasefire declared by Muqtada Al Sadr and the diminishing role of violence by Shia militias and Shia death squads. These factors combined have led to dramatically improved security and that is security reflected in any metric you care to look at whether attacks on civilians, attacks on Iraqi security forces and most recently a welcome development that is less attacks on US and Coalition forces which had increased earlier last year as the fight was taken to the enemy.
The other significant area of positive progress in 2007 was in the economic field. The Iraqi government has been more able, on the central and provincial levels, to execute its central budget to provide funding and to spend in a better fashion. I will give you an interesting comparison: in 2006, the Iraqi government was able to execute only about 15% of its capital budget whereas in 2007 we estimate that it will be 65% plus budget execution. Now this is a product of significantly enhanced government planning capability and this is something we have worked very hard on. It is a product of the better ability of governance at a provincial level once security has been restored. Anbar is the best example of this; to identify needs and then to deal with the central government in order to help meet those needs. Now our provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) have been part and parcel of the stabilisation process, post-kinetic stabilisation, over the course of last year. As you know, we increased the number of PRTs from 10 to 28. We have sent over 300 new personnel to staff these teams and they work very closely with local government and local citizens in terms of developing programs that have a direct impact on improving the lives of Iraqis on the ground. We have worked at the central government level with all of the service and economic ministries to better enable the central government to plan, execute and assist in the local governance, as well as in the national services. However, we still have a long way to go and we do not understate the challenges here, but it is important to recognise what has been gained over the past period.
Q) So there has been significant improvement in the fields of economics and security; what about politics?
A) The political process is where much more progress must be made, specifically advancing a political dialogue, the concrete results of which advance national reconciliation. That is a critical goal, not just a rhetorical one but a very practical one. It has been the lacking indicator in Iraq over the last year and it is where our and Iraq’s focus needs to be placed over the year to come.
In September 2007, [US Ambassador to Iraq] Ryan Crocker and [Commanding General of the Multi National Forces in Iraq] General Petraeus frankly stated that the true national reconciliation, a vital goal, was a long term objective; however there must be progress towards that objective here and now in the short and medium term.
Therefore, Iraqi leadership, all of the critical leaders, Kurds, Sunnis and Shia, need to move forward to make government and governance work more effectively, to translate the better working of government into specific progress on the building blocks of national reconciliation. There has been some positive progress in the latter part of last year, a pensions law passed which contains many significant elements that amounted to reintegration of those who had been affected by the Debathification law into normal life of the country. That is an encouraging progress.
The Debathification laws themselves were reformed and passed in the Council of Representatives and will soon go to the presidency council; this represents a significant step forward. We have been very clear about this; no law whether in our system or the Iraqi system can be seen as perfect by all parties involved. Legislation in a democratic system needs compromise. We believe that such a compromise is present in the Debathification law, the so called Accountability and Justice Law. What is critical is that such law is implemented in a spirit of reconciliation and unification. Obviously we will be closely engaged with the government as the process is executed and implemented, but we regard it as a very positive step and we look to its full support by all elements of Iraq.
But there are other articles on the legislative reconciliation agenda that need to be worked on. The Iraqi government and the leadership of Iraq’s critical parties, as well as ourselves, see that the provincial powers law which will determine the relationship between the centre and the periphery should be a priority. We see this as a critical step towards passing a local or provincial elections law and towards holding these elections this year. All of this is important for several reasons. Firstly, the nature of federalism in Iraq needs to be better defined in order to provide a stable basis for the country to move forward not just at the centre but at the provincial and regional levels. There is no perfect solution in Iraq or elsewhere to the question of federalism. In the US we have been evolving different answers to that question for over 200 years and the same is true in other countries.
What is needed is the correct striking of balance now with the understanding that as circumstances in Iraq evolve, the answer to federalism will also evolve. But it is a situation that must be addressed now. Local elections are necessary to rectify the imbalance and distortion in local government that was produced by the Sunni boycott. Yet it is not just a Sunni issue; as Iraq stabilises and moves away from conflict, all communities will need to better address the relationship between the elector and the elected officials. This requires an open list electoral law, in which the elector knows who he or she is electing. The bond between the elected and the constituent would be much stronger than in the current closed list system. This is a major challenge.
Finally, there is the issue of hydrocarbons. For quite some time now the Iraqi government and ourselves have identified a hydrocarbon law as a key national priority. The full advantage of Iraq’s extraordinary hydrocarbon resources will never be realised to the benefit of the Iraqi people without a modern hydrocarbon framework law. We understand the debate between Iraqis on the issue of the type of law and the relationship between the centre and regions but a balance must be struck in a way that benefits all Iraqis.
During his recent trip to the Gulf, the [American] President [George Bush] made clear that decisions on the level of US forces in Iraq will be based solely on the developments on the ground and on the recommendations provided by General Petraeus. We see significant progress in security and we want to make sure that the right structures are in place, including the support provided by our forces, to sustain that progress.
Over the course of 2008, we will be negotiating a long term strategic relationship, a security partnership, with the government of Iraq, which will, by the end of this year, supplant the Chapter 7 (of the UN Charter) mandate which now provides the basis for the Multi National Force in Iraq and for our presence in that country. This is a very important step. In late 2007, we and the Iraqi government agreed upon a Declaration of Principles which lays out where we wish our strategic relationship to go not only in security issues but also in economics, social, culture, and scientific matters. We will be moving ahead on all of those different subjects as we speak as a sovereign nation to a sovereign nation as early as possible this year but no later than December. We will make the arrangements for our long term presence in the country after the UN mandate ends.
Q) Have negotiations begun regarding this strategy?
A) No. We are hoping that negotiations will begin in February.
Q) There are concerns in Iraq that these negotiations would be limited to one side and would not reflect the Iraqi nation as a whole. What is your response to these concerns?
A) This is a critical issue for both of our countries, a national, strategic issue. It requires a national decision, not the decision of any one group or any one individual. The Iraqi government told us recently that in a meeting for the 3+1 (Presidency Council and Prime Minister) that there has been a formal agreement that the Iraqi negotiating team, which is still in the process of being formed, would reflect all of Iraq. It will represent the Group of Five (main Iraqi political parties), and would reflect the input of all the concerned ministries of the Iraqi government. We’re very pleased by this.
Q) How will the United States benefit from such an agreement, especially considering that it has other military bases in the region?
A) First of all, it is appropriate for Iraq as a sovereign nation to negotiate as a sovereign country with the United States, or with other members of the Coalition should it choose, to establish a basis for a continued presence and mission in Iraq that can be presented to the Iraqi people and to the world as a sovereign decision and not imposed from outside.
The fact remains that in the long term, a different relationship is necessary based on a different foundation that respects Iraq’s sovereignty. What we gain is that more secure, stable, long term footing for what we believe, what the Iraqi government believes, frankly our partners and allies throughout the region believe an essential central US presence in Iraq is complimentary to the US presence elsewhere in the region.
The region and Iraq both continue to confront many threats. In the case of Iraq, as it moves towards greater stability and security, there is still the need for an assisting presence from US and coalition forces. If one looks at the common threats posed by Iran to the region itself there is a need for a strategic outlook from the part of the Gulf and from the part of Iraq. We want to see Iraq thoroughly integrated into the region with its neighbours. They confront common challenges.
Q) There are fears in Iraq that the country would become a buffer to settle political accounts with Iran. What is your response to these concerns?
A) We do not believe and we certainly do not wish for Iraq to become a “buffer zone” as you called it or a point of conflict or an area of conflict either between Iran and the Arab world or between Sunni and Shia. We do not believe this should be the future of Iraq and we do not believe such an outcome would be of advantage to Iraq, the region as a whole or to the United States and so we are certainly working to see Iraq emerge as a sovereign and secure nation with good relations with all of its neighbours.
Q) With respect to Iraq’s other neighbour, Turkey, is the United States doing enough to protect the Kurds?
A) I was recently in Ankara and I had discussions with the Turkish political leadership. The Turkish government, I believe, is quite appreciative of the support provided by the United States over the course of the past several months in a common challenge against the terrorist threat posed by the PKK [Kurdish Workers Party]. We are determined, working with the government of Iraq, the Kurdish regional government and the government of Turkey to decisively confront the threat posed to all of our interests. Many things are required from each side in order for an ultimate end to the PKK terror threat to be achieved. Certainly from the standpoint of security measures the best possible cooperation and coordination between the United States and the Turkish government is required and we are committed to providing that coordination and cooperation. But the ultimate resolution of this issue will require a comprehensive approach that includes military measures but which also includes other steps that ultimately make it possible or should make it possible to constrain the PKK and then eliminate it as a terrorist force. This has gone on for too many years; too many innocent Turkish citizens have died and indeed Kurdish citizens have died as a consequence of this violence along with those who have suffered as a result of the dislocation that the PKK has compelled and it needs to be brought to a halt.
Q) What about the Kurdish Regional Government?
A) The Kurdish Regional Government has adopted several measures in constraining or containing the ability of the PKK to access support. Those actions need to be continued and they need to be enhanced and there needs to be no ambiguity whatsoever on the part of the Kurdish Regional Government leadership that the PKK is a terrorist organisation that poses a threat to the people of the Kurdish region just as it poses a threat to Turks.
Q) Many questions are being asked about the role to be played by Iraq’s neighbours. Has there been any development in this regard especially during the recent visit by American President George Bush to the region?
A) It is very important that Iraq receives the support of its neighbours as it moves forward towards greater stability, security and peace. Arab neighbours of Iraq have a critical role in helping to support that stable, secure and peaceful Iraq. During the President’s recent visit to the Gulf and to Egypt, he personally reinforced the message that the greater positive involvement of Iraq’s Arab neighbours in this process of stabilisation was important as sovereign state to sovereign state. The President shares the concern of the Gulf regarding the threat posed by Iran. The best way to address this threat in the context of Iraq is by building strong constructive relationships by establishing a diplomatic presence for Iraq’s Arab neighbours in Iraq. Right now, other than the United States, the largest presence of a foreign state in that country is Iranian; that should not be the case.
With respect to Iran, the United States is ready, as we have been for some time, to conduct talks in Baghdad on security issues related to Iraq. We are awaiting an Iranian response to what is a US and Iraqi offer because these talks are trilateral.
We continue to see Iran’s behaviour in Iraq as threatening to Iraq’s security and stability. We continue to see a flow of lethal weapons and lethal training to violent elements within Iraq and this obviously needs to come to a close.
Q) But there have been contradictory reports that state that there has been a decrease in the number of weapons entering Iraq from Iran whilst others claim that there has been an increase. What is your response to this?
A) There has been no change that I’m aware of in our judgment over the past several months that the provision of arms and the provision of training has not significantly diminished. The number of explosively formed projectile (EFP) attacks on US forces has gone up over the course of the last month or so. Whether or not violence by Iranian-backed groups that continue to be supplied and trained has or has not gone down is an issue for debate.
Q) How would you describe your relations with Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki?
A) We support the Prime Minister as the democratically chosen leader of a national government committed to a national reconciliation agenda. We support him in the context of his work with Iraq’s other leaders, the presidency council; [President] Jalal Talabani, [and Vice Presidents] Adel Abdul Mehdi, Tariq al Hashimi and the Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani. Collectively, they work to advance the national agenda to which they agreed upon last August. We have good relations, close relations with all members of the Group of Five but our message to them all is that for Iraq to move forward on the vital political reconciliation track they must work together and they must form a critical mass of consensus on vital issues such as the issue of Debathification, the pension law and upon the provincial powers law, a provincial elections law, holding national elections…
There has to be a national consensus on how reintegration into the life of the state, either civilian or military, of the so-called popular committee, which we call concerned local citizens will take place. How the Iraqi government reaches out to those who in violent conflict with the government and coalition forces but have now turned their sight to Al Qaeda, how does the government bring them in? These are all issues that require a national consensus to be formed and to become operational and time is short, it’s a priority.
Q) There is often talk of a “Plan B” and of changing government; is that a viable option?
A) We have made very clear, at the level of the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, reflecting the strong view of the US president that the focus of Iraq will be the 3+1, the Presidency Council plus Prime Minister Maliki, needs to be about making this government work, not about changing the government.
Q) Will changes be made to US policy in Iraq following the American presidential elections?
A) I don’t have a political crystal ball and I obviously would never speak for the decisions which may be taken by the next president of the next administration; I can however speak about the political direction for the current administration which has another year in office. We are determined to pursue the goal of a more stable, more secure, more peaceful Iraq, better supported and part of its region that is able to contribute to the global fight against terror and the regional fight against terror and violence.
Q) With respect to Kirkuk do you expect a consensus to be reached?
A) The US view of the issue of implementation of Article 140 of the constitution often called the Kirkuk Resolution (but it has a broader potential scope than simply Kirkuk) is that resolution of this issue should reflect a consensus amongst all of the affected parties. A unilateral resolution or attempt at resolution which has the effect of dividing and increasing tension is certainly not desirable or accepted but the ultimate resolution of Article140 should be a resolution that builds unity and that reduces tension and violence not the opposite. That is our position.
With respect to the process to take the resolution to that point, we are very pleased at the significantly more active role that has been played by the United Nations through the agency of UNAMI, the United Nations Assistant Mission for Iraq, and its new special representative Secretary General Staffan De Mistura.
There is an internal date, a working date that has been set for bringing this to conclusion but our view would remain that what is important here is not arbitrary dates; what is important is a process that contains substance for all sides and that over whatever period, there is a resolution which is agreed upon by all of the affected parties.
Q) Is there still a warrant for the arrest of Muqtada al Sadr?
A) It is not a relevant issue in Iraq politically but my understanding is that there has never been a change in the status of that warrant. I cannot speak for Muqtada al Sadr’s motivations or ambitions. What I can say is this; the Coalition, the Iraqi government, the Iraqi security forces have all been working with leaders of Jaish al Mahdi who have been willing to move away from violence towards a peaceful dialogue as we have been discussing national reconciliation throughout this past period with members of the Sadrist movement. Whether Muqtada al Sadr himself chooses to become part of this positive political process, I can’t say. That is for him to decide.
Q) One of the key issues relating to reconciliation is related to the sentences for the guilty parties in the Anfal trial. What is the American position on the sentence of execution for the former Defence Minister Sultan Hashim?
A) Our view is a very simple one; when there is a formal decision communicated to us that reflects a unified decision of the government of Iraq we will abide by that decision. At the present time there is no such unified decision, there are conflicting instructions. It is for the government of Iraq, the office of the Prime Minister and the Presidency Council to reach a single decision on this issue and communicate it to us.
Q) We are approaching the five year anniversary of the Iraq war, what do you feel is the priority for Iraq and did you think Iraq would be where it is now?
A) The highest priority for Iraq especially over the year ahead will certainly be to move forward the process of national dialogue, national reconciliation, to find a way to secure and make permanent, to make irreversible the progress that has taken place over the past period especially regarding security. Only a political process can do that and political dialogue can do that. What it means to be Iraqi needs to be defined and the answer must be an Iraqi national answer, not an answer imposed or dictated by any one group or in conflict with other groups but a national answer.
Q) You spoke about the positive developments that have taken place in Iraq, are you optimistic that Iraq will get through this difficult stage?
A) I am cautiously optimistic based upon what I have seen achieved over the past year. Over the year ahead, progress will continue to be made, not only on national security or economic issues but on the very challenging questions of political dialogue.
(www.iraqupdates.com)
If you were cured by a disease by a shaman, that is good for you.
I hope you got the idea of what I was saying.
I didn't say ALL other cultures have No knowledge. All cultures have knowledge to some degree or the other. A shaman might very well have cured you, and he might have a cure for this or that, as he is mainly working on the spiritual plane, and those things "spirits" have powers.
However for a bona fide sickness, a known virus, with a known antibiotic. A broken bone, that can be x-rayed, and set, a tumour that can be CAT scanned and detected, and radiated, a laser eye operation, and an inflamed appendix, I rather go to the medical field rather than be cured by a song, chant or a dance.
The modern medicine are all knowledge's accumulated, tested and tried, and proven to work.
That is not to say that ALL old or other "alternative" medicine is useless.
Chinese old medicine of all older fields of medicine was probably one of the most successful in it's time, and is at the moment the rage here in the west, but the interesting thing is, that the Chinese themselves are eagerly learning the modern medicine.
When it comes to spiritual healing, a field that touches to medicine, but mainly addresses the spirit and the mind, that have of course a place in itself, and perhaps the modern medicine have forgotten or are denying, or just have no association at all to the spirit.
But that is another story.
As a technology, few parts of the modern medicine can be disputed, and having a choice of a jungle doctor or a hospital,...I prefer the hospital.
Well. put it this way, if the hospital would be the car mechanics place, where my body (the car) would be fixed, I would go to the very best certified mechanic, with all the modern diagnostic tools, where the mechanics floor was shining, and he would have his tools all polished and lined up.
I know that the car would be put back mechanically within the original specifications at that place.
If I would be a lousy driver, hanging on the clutch, pulling out the choke and hang a handbag, leaving the parking brake on, cruise in the passing lane, leaving my left turn signal on, having my belt buckle dangling out side the car, never shift, and have a habit of not closing the fuel cap, and so on, I know I would hurt both the car and myself financially with an endless broken car, that in the end may lead to an inability to feed my young.
However, those issues are not issues of the car mechanic, it is drivers issues, (spiritual)and at that time I could use some guidance so I would consider going to driving school (the Shaman)
All,
Uk troops in Iraq are haveing a hard time getting any dinars, as the yanks are buying them hand over fist at the moment, sounds like something good might be going on
Some sites for good info for those of you that do not know of them http://www.oilvoice.com/open/
www.usembassy.gov/iraq/
www.rebuild-iraq-expo.com
www.usaid.gov/iraq
On wireing my last lot of money to Warka via the Desdner Bank in Germay, did not get there, Mr I at Warka emailed me to say it was not there and I should check at my bank in the UK, so I'm in my branch of HSBC, where all the details are all on my file, so it is just how many £ into $ to wire over, I ask if my Warka account in on the form and am told yes, well it turns out that the Warka account number is taken off after the money is send, and needs to be put on for each transaction sending money over, so with any amount of luck I should not get into this cock up again, touch wood, I have all the main companies that I am after at the moment and am picking up 50,000 shares in all the other comps at this moment in time, 50,000 is the minemun amount of shares you can buy in any comps, this is my blanket bombing on the market, any one not performing well in six months I will sell and dump the money into a better porforming comps, my company pension scheme is going to be worth the thin end of naff all, so my investment in the Iraqi ISX and my cash diner is now my best bet for a good retirement
Stay lucky, Steve.
Thanks for the info, ok so when you are sending cash to Warka, it is like when you are sending a pic list to Warka for the next ISX trading session.
It has to be a new one all the time, and the old one will cancel after last transaction.
Ok fair and square, got it, thanks.
You might want to rearrange the six months stock performance deadline you have set up for yourself.
ISX was in its lowest dip, and started to move up, then came a crash all over the world, US and Asia, all over, and sure enough, the ISX followed suit.
NONE OF THE STOCKS HAVE REALLY TAKEN OFF, AND IF THERE ARE A LOT OF EXTERNAL CURCUMSTANCES, LIKE SOME ARE PREDICTING, A GLOBAL RECESSION, FOR EXAMPLE, SETTING IN, THIS WILL AFFECT THE ISX, AND MAY MASK THE ACTUAL PERFORMANCE OF THE STOCKS.
Perhaps it might be an idea to redo your strategy to something like this:
WHEN the majority of the stocks in ISX are taking off, THEN let it go for some time (of your own choosing) and THEN make up your own mind of what stock to reinvest in, and what stocks to dump.
IF...that is IF a global recession will kick in,...or if, that is IF , Iran is acting up, this might slow the whole regions oil delivery, the prices might skyrocket again, but the oil deliveries might be harder to accomplish, and a long line of external circumstances can and will then influence the value of the ISX stocks.
It seems that, when everything is going financial and economical fine, that is when nothing else of big magnitude is happening, but Iraq and it's neighbours are all a bona fide "happening rich environment".
Wow, gotta trademark that expression "Happening Rich Environment".
***I can see a suit dressed man with sunglasses talking to his microphone in his wrist collar***....-"We've got us an HRE environment...stand by.."
Anyhow, I suggest you change the criteria from a set time deadline, to an expected result level instead.
Funny, just thought of it, the more media is there, and the more day to day coverage you see from an area, the more in recession it is, and the more the area is out of the media lenses, the better the area is doing.
Maybe some kind of truth, or business maxim, can be minted out of that.
OK, one reply to what Roger wrote than back to Dinar..
Roger; You wrote:
-"Islamists think that one of their Imams will come back, rise from the dead, and take over the world, make the world Islamic, and have forever peace and justice."
-"Christians believe that Jesus will rise up from the dead, take over the world, make the world Christian, and have forever peace and justice."
It is possible to present ANY belief, ANY philosophy, ANY religion, actually ANY intention in a negative way.
===end quote===
I agree with you.. any teaching CAN be put in a negative way. However, Christianity differs from the Islamic fundamentalist terrorist view in that Christians do not believe they can "ushering in" the coming of Jesus Christ by killing people and subduing them by the sword to their religious viewpoint. They just preach at them Christian truth.. and hope they accept the truths which are presented to them. Such preaching angers some, but it sure beats the subjugation-by-the-sword way.
I also think the "negative" way of putting some teaching is usually a real teaching only distorted. You noted the paralell to Christianity in the Islamic fundamentalist terrorist mindset. I would say it is a distortion of true teaching. The truth, taken and twisted.. to make it into a lie. One which lies close to the truth.. but is in actuality so very far from it. All cults behave in the same way. They have truth in them.. but 95% truth with 5% poision will still kill.
You said, "No matter how much respect you have to give fellow man, when looking at some native societies, you will find pure insanity. I don't want to be cured from a disease by a shaman in a jungle tribe."
I have to agree with you there. Because even if the cure appears to "work", the medium through which it comes can be tainted, just like the viewpoints which are similar in your illustration above, but are widely divergent in the kind of people it breeds (peaceful preachers or killers with swords and bombs trying to subdue you to their religious opinions). In the same way, a shaman uses what the Bible calls "occult" powers to do the "miracles". In other words, it is those spirit beings from the higher dimensions they are calling upon and yes, they have superior abilities but as Jorde once said in a Star Trek the Next Generation episode when the Q healed his eyes so he could see.. "I don't like who I would have to thank. Make me blind again." The problem is.. who you have to thank for such a healing. It isn't God, quite obviously. No one says, "Praise the Lord!" when a shaman heals someone. And there is a residual effect from a healing which comes from the occult. It brings a bondage with it to the powers which gave the healing. I believe such healings are real.. I just don't like who you have to thank.. or the price which you must pay to those who give it (spiritually).
You said, "It takes a very disturbed mind to agree with the action of those thugs, but if the thugs are screaming "God is great", a big portion of the population in the rest of the world will get immediately confused, thinking they are doing some holy cause, are some kind of heroes, and everything have a deeper meaning." ... To the degree a society is insane, to the same degree, man is not free."
I agree.. which is why Jesus said the Truth alone can make free. To the degree mankind tolerates insane behavior like that, it will not be free.
When you say, "Islamic countries have in their societies very very strong rules, social and religious conduct, dictating any and all steps they must adhere to. Same as our Cristian societies during the medieval times. This and that is a sin, this and that is blasphemy, this and that is immoral, this and that will send you to hell, this and that is a must."
Again, I think you compare apples and oranges. Jesus Christ said that His Truth would set free. During the medieval times people did not have the Bible to read themselves. They went by the words of "holy" men who interpreted it to them instead, much as Islam does for its book. Those who did not adhere to the correct interpretation were burnt at the stake as witches. That was hardly what Jesus wished when He said knowing the Truth would set you free and then explained that His "yoke is easy" and His "burden is light". By knowing the TRUTH in the words He spoke, the people were set free.
The end of the darkness of the medieval times happened with the invention of the printing press. Then the people put off the interpretations of their "holy" men and thought for themselves about what the Scriptures said. It wasn't removing all rules that will set us free (You shall not kill, steal, commit adultery or covet your neighbor's goods are all good commandments and the basis of our laws) but keeping those principles while not adding anything more to what God said nor taking one word away, either. The difference is when you know the laws (like knowing the laws of the country) and can discern what is a law and what is an opinion or added command.
For instance, if someone says you cannot commit murder, it is against the law.. it is. When they say you cannot eat fish on Tuesday, you know that is not the law of the land. You are then free to ignore the command to not eat fish, but are obligated to not commit murder. But if you don't know the laws of the land, (or the laws of God) any idiot can tell you "God says" when He didn't and you may feel obligated to have to obey them (Islamics do, few of them can read, they just believe their preacher). Islamic suicide bombers have been apprehended with Koran verses they believed promised them heaven for committing suicide written on scraps of paper for them, even though they themselves could not read those words. I suggest that those words are taken out of context and that the words could be taken in another way.. they are by other Islamic sects. This morning, Down's syndrome women were strapped with bombs and detonated. They don't use the bright, educated, reading public for their dirty work. They use the mentally defective, gullible.. those who do not know the Truth.. and are therefore not free.
Freedom comes from knowing what is truly required by God.. and what is not. Jesus said His yoke was easy, His burden light and His way would "set you free". If it seems real tough and without any freedom.. (imagine the terror those people feel with the Koran verses in their pockets and just believing their joe-preacher-guy) chances are the person you are listening to has added something God never said in the first place. Usually it is because someone told that person "God says" when He really did not. And the only way they will know what is the truth.. is to look in the law of God (Bible) and see if it says so or not. Even here, when confronted with a false religious teacher, most just say "that seems really foolish, if God said that then God is wrong" and go their way.. thinking they heard from God and rejected foolishness from Him when they only heard the words of a mere man (or woman) and their interpretation of God's words (from the Bible misnomered crowd, think of Fred Phelps and his protests at soldier's funerals, claiming it is from God). Those who do not listen to them walk away from God and are without His direction and true freedom (My Truth will set you free) because they did not enquire as to the truth of those words they heard from a mere person. They didn't check to see if it truly is the law or only "don't eat fish on Tuesday". Only the direct truth will set free from men's commands and lies.
The Islamics are under a yoke of men's ideas, not God's. Christianity got free from that by letting the people read the Bible and interpret it themselves. The Islamic fundamentalist terrorists do not allow persons to interpret the Koran themselves, to the detriment of their followers. Once people think and are free to discuss.. they will see the truth and it will set them free. But maybe that is what they are afraid of all along. Truth is not afraid, obviously. Only error is. I think their interpretation of the Koran is wrong, obviously.. so do a lot of Muslims. But when comparing Islam with Christianity, I think Christianity sets more free.. (has more truth) just look at the civilizations which they spawn.. which one gives more freedom to more people.. American democratic freedoms based on Christianity or Islamic Muslim cultures? Which do you prefer to live in? Hmmmm.. I prefer Jesus' yoke.. it is easier and lighter than theirs.
You said, "What is good and bad, may or may not be guided by a God, but when it is good, sanity prevails, and survival prevails, the all so sought after peace and justice will prevail, and rational human beings can trust each other."
So true. We know that God is good. If it is from Him, it is good and sanity, survival, peace and trust prevail. Jesus said a good tree will bring forth good fruit.. a corrupt tree, bad fruit. You will know them by their fruit, He said. How does Islamic fundamentalist terrorist fruit taste? Like dead bodies and blood on the ground, if you read the news. How does Christianity taste? Well, I think America is the freest nation on earth in spite of all her faults.. and the fruit is good because the tree has the right roots.. in Christianity.
As you said, "Old south, Third Reich, Fascist Italy, Feudal Japan and many more all rallied around the destruction or bondage of another fellow man, and was destroyed.." The fruit was corrupt.. it did not stand. In time, the evil is rooted out of the earth.. because there is a GOOD God who exists and moves to bring it all back to normal. But the freedom of mankind to choose evil is a problem. We like that freedom, but it means for a time such things prevail. We see it daily in Iraq, unfortunately. I do not believe such evil is God's will... do you? Any more than these you listed.
You said, "Just by the fact that it was against survival of man, made it a crime against man, and those societies was defeated....by man." I think God had His hand over those men who prevailed.. as He always does in conflicts. But it was not instant or quick and He "gave many men's lives.. " during World War II for us.. so we may inherit a world without that error. Only mankind keeps repeating that same error in different forms.. maybe someone else (a higher sinister force?) leads them down the garden path again and encourages them to think such false thoughts?
You said, "Insanity still prevails in some corners of the world, and some are still confused, because they claim they have God on their side...oh well."
Absolutely. Jesus said to His disciples:
Joh 16:2 ... yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he does God service.
Obviously this you speak of here is a lie as old as the hills - at least 2,000 years old - this idea that killing is on God's side and in His service. To any rational being, such reasoning toward the murder of innocents is, of course, a lie.
As for your saying talk about attacking Iran of it being not a matter of IF but WHEN, being wrong.. I can only say that confronting the threat of Hitler was necessary to our continued existence and freedom. I wish confronting evil was not necessary because the evil would stop being evil. But just like Hitler, there comes a time when men (by the help of God) must stop an evil force. I believe that the US will be forced into war with Iran eventually. It is only a matter of time. In other words.. the US does not want it, but they will HAVE TO do it.. sometime in the future. I believe the US as a country prefers peace and not war, too - as do you and I. Just as the world did not want war with Hitler in World War II. History repeats itself. The extra stuff Rob N put in there about hog's blood was because he was angry, and I just overlooked that. It doesn't change the unfortunate political dynamic.. the Iranians stand now as a threat we will have to confront sooner or later. Best we do so carefully and with the least civilian casualties.. but thoroughly, as Rob N pointed out. Or it will become another world war, pulling in the entire region.
I thought the subject matter important enough to bring it up, out of Christian charity. What is more important than your health? And so many suffer needlessly (and die prematurely) because they do not have understanding. As was illustrated by what I said in those posts, there is an explosion of health problems suddenly in the population. If you look at the documentation, it proves there is a deliberate and malicous onslaught against the health of the nation - particularly the young, such as a million preschoolers being severely and clinically depressed, enough that they are taking drugs - or those as young as five years of age experiencing puberty/menstrual cycles. Those are not rare exceptions, it is becoming widespread and shows a large segment of the population is showing hormonal damage. By age 8, almost half of African-American girls start pubertal development. As Dr. Diane Stafford of Children's Hospital in Boston said, "The switch that normally gets turned on for pubertal development gets turned on too early."
As I documented, the powers of darkness are using our lack of understanding about our physiology to destroy a tiny gland in our brains called the hypothalmus gland. It is serious and needs to be exposed. The board has the tolerance to take into account such an important but off topic post with grace.. unless they are in bondage to powers of darkness and channelling their sentiments. I note the only objection was from someone who admits to occult healing at the hands of a shaman.. a sure sign of direct demonic interference in their life. (Not many claim that direct a connection to the powers of the upper realms.) The lack of tolerance, therefore, comes from higher up.. where those powerful forces wish my silence that they may continue to murder innocent human beings in the dark, including those most vulnerable, our young. It may not be as large an onslaught as President Bush has had as a result of taking out the powers of darkness' darling.. the Butcher of Baghdad, but I do believe such opposition shows how upset that realm is with their activity being exposed.
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed In Afghanistan
Jan 31, 2008
CAIRO, Egypt (CBS News) ― Abu Laith al-Libi, a top al Qaeda commander in Afghanistan who was blamed for bombing a base while Vice President Cheney was visiting last year, has been killed in Pakistan, CBS News confirms.
The death was first reported by a Web site used by militant groups.
Al-Libi was a key link between the Taliban and al Qaeda and was one of the Americans' 12 most-wanted men with a bounty of $200,000 on his head.
Before the postings, there had been reports of an attack on militants in a Pakistani village. Pakistani intelligence officials and local residents said a missile hit a compound about 2.5 miles outside Mir Ali in North Waziristan late Monday or early Tuesday, destroying the facility.
Residents said they were not allowed to approach the site of the blast and the Pakistan government and military said they did not know who fired the missile. Local officials said foreigners were targeted in the attack.
One intelligence official in the area, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bodies of those killed were badly mangled by the force of the explosion and it was difficult to identify them. The official estimated 12 people were killed, including Arabs, Turkemen from central Asia and local Taliban members.
"It was a major success in taking one of the top terrorists in the world off the street," the official said. He added that the death occurred "within the last few days."
Pakistani counterterrorism officials say he was an al Qaeda spokesman and commander in eastern Afghanistan.
The U.S. says al-Libi - whose name means "the Libyan" in Arabic - was likely behind the February 2007 bombing at the U.S. base at Bagram in Afghanistan during a visit by Cheney. The attack killed 23 people but Cheney was deep inside the sprawling base and was not hurt.
Al-Libi also led an al Qaeda training camp and appeared in a number of al Qaeda Internet videos.
Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, said last year that al-Libi was a guerrilla fighter "knowledgeable about how to conduct suicide bombing missions and how to inflict the most civilian casualties." He had probably directed "one or more terror training camps," Belcher said.
Al-Libi was in charge of operations in Afghanistan's Paktia province, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.
Belcher said al-Libi had been the subject of "especially close focus" by U.S. intelligence since 2005, when U.S. forces destroyed a militant training camp believed set up by al-Libi in the eastern Afghan province of Khost. That was an admission that terror camps continued to operate on Afghan soil since the Taliban regime's ouster more than five years ago.
Belcher described al-Libi as "transient," moving where he thinks he can count on support.
"Terrorists like al-Libi use the rugged terrain of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to conceal themselves while they plan violent insurgent activities. Our sources indicate that Abu Laith al-Libi favors tribal regions, including North Waziristan," Belcher said.
North Waziristan is a lawless enclave in neighboring Pakistan where last year the Pakistani government reached a peace deal with pro-Taliban militants. U.S. officials have since expressed concern that al Qaeda could be regrouping in Pakistan's border zone.
Mir Ali is the second largest town in North Waziristan and has a strong presence of foreign militants, mostly Uzbeks with links to al Qaeda who fled to Pakistan's tribal regions after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001.
A Pakistani intelligence official said that al-Libi had stayed until late 2003 in the North Waziristan village of Norak, about three miles outside Mir Ali, where he had several compounds. Norak is about nine miles from where the missile struck this week.
Al-Libi shifted inside Afghanistan after he took charge of al Qaeda operations on both sides of the border area, but retained links with Norak, the official said.
Al-Qaeda Figure Is Killed in Pakistan
By Craig Whitlock and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 1, 2008; Page A01
BERLIN, Jan. 31 -- A senior al-Qaeda commander was killed this week in Pakistan, according to Western officials and an Islamic radical Web site.
Libi is the first major al-Qaeda leader known to have been killed or captured in Pakistan in more than two years. In December 2005, a senior operational planner, Abu Hamza Rabia, was killed in a Predator attack in North Waziristan, not far from where Libi is believed to have died.
Another senior al-Qaeda commander, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, was captured in late 2006 in Turkey after departing Pakistan in an attempt to reach Iraq. He was held for several months in a secret CIA prison overseas before his transfer to the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in April 2007.
Henry A. Crumpton, formerly the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator and a veteran of the CIA's campaign against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2001, said the death of a senior leader such as Libi can foil or disrupt planned attacks and throw the organization off-balance.
Libi was also an instrumental figure in al-Qaeda's efforts to build an alliance with the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, an organization founded in the early 1990s to overthrow Moammar Gaddafi.
The Libyan network had all but disbanded in recent years after many senior leaders were killed or arrested. In November, however, Libi and al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced a formal partnership with the remnants of the Libyan group, many of whom had sought refuge in Pakistan and Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
Over the last two or three years, Libi "became one of the real leaders for al-Qaeda," Noman Benotman, a former member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who knew Libi, said in a telephone interview from London. If his death is confirmed, "it's a huge blow to their whole plan" to persuade Libyan fighters to pledge allegiance to al-Qaeda, Benotman said.
One Afghan militant leader who worked with Libi, speaking on condition of anonymity, said by telephone late Thursday that the Libyan "was considered to be like the right hand of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Dr. Zawahiri is considered to be the right hand of Osama bin Laden, so you can understand his position."
U.S. military officials have said Libi frequently crossed the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and served as an important conduit among al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other militant groups in the region. He appeared in several propaganda videos distributed on the Internet by al-Qaeda, most recently in April.
His presence in Pakistan became a sore point between the Bush administration and the government of President Pervez Musharraf, especially after the suicide bombing during Cheney's visit to the region a year ago. Musharraf has faced criticism for allowing al-Qaeda's leadership to secure a haven in Pakistan's rugged border areas, while simultaneously resisting U.S. requests to send Americans there to hunt Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants.
Pakistani officials said they suspect Libi ordered two suicide bombings that targeted former Pakistani interior minister Aftab Khan Sherpao in April and December last year. The attacks killed more than 80 people during visits by Sherpao to his home town of Charsadda, near Peshawar. Sherpao survived the blasts with minor injuries.
One Pakistani official based near the Afghan border, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Libi's death would represent "a big victory because he has been very instrumental in the whole tribal unrest and cross-border terrorism."
Tuesday's missile strike targeted a home in Khushali Torikhel, a village in volatile North Waziristan, a tribal area near the Afghan border where Pakistani troops have struggled to subdue pro-Taliban fighters.
The home belonged to Abdul Sattar, a cabdriver suspected of having ties to local and foreign militants, residents and local officials said.
Some villagers said suspicious guests had visited Sattar's home in recent weeks, arriving in four-wheel-drive vehicles that were uncommon in the area. They said local Taliban sympathizers barred access to the collapsed home afterward, though witnesses reported seeing bodies taken from the rubble.
U.S., Iraqi troops kill 4 insurgents, detain al-Qaida local leader in Iraq
www.chinaview.cn
2008-02-02 21:39:52
TIKRIT, Iraq, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. and Iraqi troops killed four suspected insurgents and detained a local leader of the al-Qaida in Iraq network during a raid in Salahudin province in north of Baghdad on Saturday, a provincial police source said.
At dawn, the troops raided the village of Jallam, 25 km east of the city of Samarra, killing four insurgents and detaining Safa Muhammad Abdullah, a top aide for the al-Qaida network leader in Samarra region, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The raid came as the security forces in the province are tightening security measures to prevent al-Qaida members from fleeing their strongholds in neighboring province of Nineveh where the U.S. and Iraqi troops are preparing for a major offensive against insurgents, the source said.
This puts Iraq and the war effort front and center.
Is that the way it should be when the country is at war?
McCain surge puts Iraq war at fore The likelihood that the war hero will be the GOP nominee creates a battle between Democrats over who can best challenge him.
By Peter Wallsten, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
10:34 PM PST, February 1, 2008
WASHINGTON -- The growing likelihood that Sen. John McCain will win the Republican presidential nomination has sparked renewed debate between the Democratic front-runners over the Iraq war -- and over who possesses the strongest credentials to challenge a war hero for the duties of commander in chief.
The issue provoked one of the sharpest moments in Thursday's Democratic debate in Los Angeles, as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York argued that the party's eventual nominee would need sufficient "gravitas" to persuade American voters that he or she can be a strong leader while arguing for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Gen. Merrill A. "Tony" McPeak, said in a telephone interview that Obama has "real gravitas, not artificially created, focus-grouped, poll-directed, rehearsed gravitas."
He also said Obama "doesn't go on television and have crying fits; he isn't discovering his voice at the age of 60" -- references to Clinton's much-publicized show of emotion during the New Hampshire primary campaign and her speech after winning the contest in which she declared that she had "found my voice."
McPeak later retracted his remarks, and the Obama camp disassociated itself from them.
McPeak, who served as Air Force chief of staff under the first President Bush and President Clinton, charged in his initial comments that Clinton's remark about gravitas was "the kind of lie that has one element of truth."
"Yes, gravitas is important, but a lot of the rest [of Clinton's argument] is obfuscation," he said. "It's almost like if you say that you have gravitas, you had it from being Bill Clinton's wife for eight years and Barack Obama had never earned it from his life experience."
Both Clinton and Obama have criticized McCain for his past comments that the United States likely would have to maintain a military presence in Iraq for many years. At Thursday's debate, both offered assurances that they would start troop withdrawals within the first months of their presidencies.
McCain, a vocal supporter of President Bush's surge strategy in Iraq, has charged that the Democrats have been pushing a "false argument" in focusing so much attention on removing troops from Iraq.
Noting that the United States has maintained a lengthy military presence in South Korea, he said during a GOP presidential candidate debate Wednesday near Simi Valley that "we are going to be [in Iraq] for some period of time, but it's American casualties, not American presence" that should be the main concern.
On Iraq, surveys continue to show strong public opposition to the war -- setting up what many Democrats believe is a winning campaign issue.
But, again based on the polls, McCain, a decorated naval aviator who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, appears to pose a challenge for the Democrats: The senator from Arizona scores high marks with voters for candor and his decision to back the troop surge, even when it was unpopular.
If security in Iraq continues to improve over what it once was and the Pentagon moves forward with its planned drawdown of troops, public discontent with the war could recede, strengthening McCain's appeal.
Isn't it always this way?
The HUGE headlines of accusations...
followed by obscure postings on the denial of such allegations.
Convict in the "court of negative news spin" by public opinion..
nevermind there has been no actual charges or even an investigation.
It is all in media spun perception.. whether intentionally done or just aiding and abetting the enemy coincidentally..
Quote:
British Deny Iraq Killings, Torture
Published: Feb 1, 2008
The British Ministry of Defense has denied claims that Iraqi detainees were tortured, killed and mutilated by British soldiers after a 2004 gun battle.
Alleged survivors of the battle said 22 people died and another nine tortured at a British army camp near the town of Majar al Kabir where six Royal Military Police were killed, the Telegraph reported Friday.
Chances are the "alleged survivors" are terrorist operatives - not civilians - stirring up anti-coalition sentiment at the behest of the terrorist leaders. Note the battle was in 2004!! Don't you think someone should have said something FOUR YEARS ago, if there was a problem? Anything to get more terrorist recruits.. after all, they are reduced to having to use women and mental defectives at this point. They need more takers to keep up the suicide bombing business.
U.S. shows photos of Iraq bombers
February 2, 2008
By Garrett Therolf, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
- The American commander is Baghdad says the images depict two women who may have been mentally disabled, and thus unwitting perpetrators in two deadly suicide attacks.
BAGHDAD — Senior American and Iraqi military officials produced photographs today that they said showed two suicide bombers who participated Friday in bombings at two popular pet markets that resulted in Baghdad's deadliest attacks in months.
The two photographs depicted the lifeless faces of two dark-haired women with oblique eye fissures, a wide gap between the eyes and a flat nose bridge -- all characteristics consistent with Down's syndrome.
"There are some indications that these two women were mentally handicapped," said Army Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, the commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad. "From what I see, it appears that the suicide bombers were not willing martyrs -- they were used by Al Qaeda [in Iraq] for these horrific attacks."
Hammond showed the photographs to a reporter for The Times and a handful of other news organizations, but he declined to release the classified photographs "out of respect for the deceased."
"These two women were likely used because they didn't know what was happening and they were less likely to be searched," Hammond said.
Some officials said women carried the bombs at both markets. American and Iraqi officials say such methods are signs that insurgents loyal to the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq are struggling to recruit Iraqi men and are finding it difficult to maneuver large vehicle-borne bombs past checkpoints.
Despite the carnage, Hammond said, "People are returning to their neighborhoods and peace is returning to Baghdad."
Sara,
I've been waiting for part three of your article. I for one am listening. Did I miss it? I'm aware of some of the exitotoxin problems, if that's what your talking about. I'm curious as to the specifics of the revelations you have been shown in this overall conspiracy. Don't forget our discussion about food a long while ago. I'm very concerned about what we consume as it relates to health. We may not even know how we have been effected by those things as well. You argued against me then, until I pointed out that even during the days of Noah (and before that) there was a distinction between the clean & unclean.
You said you are not of the Jewish race. I'm wondering how you are so sure about that? I have only been able to trace my own heritage back to Europe in 1600's. There are differences in the terms Jew, Israeli, and Israelite. An Israeli today is simply a citizen resident of that state, and has no linage requirement, or religious requirements. The term Jew means a few different things when you take it back to the original manuscripts. It can mean that one is a "resident or citizen of the kingdom of Judah". At one time all the 12 tribes of Israel were united under one king of Judah, but later there was a war between them in which 10 of the 12 were unified but didn't prevail to win the war, and were driven out of the kingdom leaving predominately the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and thus the "lost 10 tribes" who migrated over the Caucasus mountains into Europe and eventually the world. This was before the Babylonian captivity of Judah, and why you will not find them represented in those coming out of Babylon to rebuild. The term Jew can also mean more specifically "of the lineal tribe of Judah". The biblical term "Israel" is about a nation of people who are the offspring of Jacob, not a territorial place. There are also those who say they are Jews, but are not and do lie, but are the synagogue of Satan, as written in Revelations (when John was taken to "The Lords Day"). Jesus spoke boldly to them many times saying that they sought to kill him because the truth was not in them, and that their father was a murderer from the beginning.
The notion that only those who practice Judaism as a religion today are the only descendants of Israel is nonsense. Those who have not the Son neither have they the Father.
You don't need to be disappointed, you may very well be a descendant of Jacob, and probably why you are a Christian believer. Those who are of the flock recognize the voice of the shepherd and come to him. Others are drawn in being graphed into the family by adoption thru faith in Jesus.
We have all pretty much come to the conclusion that this is a long term investment.
What talks for an overnight RV have however been there the whole time.
The closest neighbours in the Gulf Region are facing an economic dilemma that eventually have to be handled.
They have a steepening inflation, they are pegged to the Dollar (except Kuwait) and they are all together, the countries in the world that are sitting on most foreign currency reserve (counted together they are bigger than China) and are getting into a scenario where they have something called an "overheated" economy.
The RV talk is much more an open issue in those countries than Iraq, where hardly any official information about the doings of the Iraqi Dinar is discussed, or reported in the media.
The best we will get from CBI, a minister , or someone in those circles a statement by someone saying that this, or this, is under discussion, or under consideration, only to be followed a couple of days later that this is not the case at all, and the original report was a misunderstanding.
The GCC countries have a far more open and frank public discussion about their economical and financial issues.
They have to do something about their currency situation pretty quick, and the discussions about it have been surfacing more and more frequently as the urgency have risen in importance more and more. The discussions we see from those countries are pretty much in the open, and there are no, denials the next day.
Here are the similarities, between the Gulf states and Iraq.
As both Iraq and the Gulf states are pegged to the dollar, all their currencies do not have a nominal value, but an artificial value.
The Gulf states AND Iraq have inflation.
The fun part is, Iraq have stemmed an almost galloping inflation, but still have MORE inflation than the Gulf states, still the Gulf states inflation is of more problem to the Gulf states than the Iraqi inflation is to Iraq, the Iraqis almost seem to be proud of having "only" such and such inflation, and then mention a number that still is pretty high.
A lot of more similarities can be found, but these two major ones decides almost alone the issue at hand.
For the Gulf states to reach a better currency balance, they need to RV their currency into a higher level.
An RV is only a first step into it's "health program " though, as an RV in itself is actually another man made manipulation of a currency value.
It will bring the Gulf states currency up in a higher value though, and from there the currency could be put on the Forex.
If the Gulf states consider the Forex too volatile, unsecured and too flexing in nature, and want to continue to peg the currency, at least they can peg it to a currency basket, consisting of an average value of a number of currencies.
The oddity here is, that Iraq having circumstances that is mirrored pretty much with the Gulf states situation, are even worse off, when it comes to it's situation, and is even more in need to take this steps.
Still the different viewpoints in the region differ quite a bit.
While the Iraqis seem to be satisfied and content with their situation, the Gulf states with a far less severe situation are getting pretty alarmed by their situation.
To me that would indicate that the Iraqi situation is handled by:
1. False data.
2. Wrong assumptions.
3. Non working plan.
4. Wrong lined up priorities.
5. Non applicable policies.
6. Distorted information gathering.
7. Wrong interpretation of existing data.
8. Agreements made with other entities, or authorities, that are not capable of seeing the correct scene.
9. Corruption, and inactivity.
I didn't think anyone wanted to listen to the third part. It took me a week to put together part one and two.. it will be a while, if you wish to read it. I suppose the detractors can skip it and I will post on the top what it is so they know ahead of time. Dinar news is slow, isn't it?
Roger - interesting insights and a good summary of the positions and reasons for it being the way it is, thanks.
Carole - It is interesting, for sure. The way things are happening in both camps. I was reading on another site that Romney and McCain are tied for 30% of the vote, here, let me get that for you:
I think I have your email..
maybe I will just email you part three when I finish it.
I do know those posts were led of the Lord.
I debated with Him about posting it..
and the amount of spiritual fallout I have experienced..
on a scale of 1 to ten.. is off the scale.
I just don't think I can take it anymore.
The human opposition is nothing..
but the spiritual is crushing.
It is really important info.. even if it is ignored..
except by the opposing spiritual forces.
Being sensitive to the spiritual realm..
has definite drawbacks.
Iraqi dinar recovering and it is the base in business dealings
Heads of Iraqi unions of Chambers of Commerce confirmed that 2008 will be a year of quality transition in economic performance and the Government is expected to initiate the implementation of important projects, although that is linked to the adoption of the budget, which is still under parliament examination, scrutiny and amendment for approval.
On the sidelines of the sixth meeting of the Union within its to twelfth session which was held in Baghdad, here are some interviews with a number of heads of unions representing the traders segment.
Head of the Iraqi Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Jaafar Al-Hamadani, is optimistic for achieving a qualitative development in the area of trade relations with the world and for the improvement of security; however, he blamed on some differences in the formation and delay of activating the role of the National Authority for Investment to benefit from the advantages of the new investment law, but he expressed confidence in the promising future of the private sector, especially after the government decided to support it. He pointed out that supporting private banks will facilitate the work of traders, and the partnership launched by the ministries of industry, minerals and oil with international companies will be reflected on private activity in Iraq. He called for speeding up the establishment of the intellectual property rights law to be presented to the Cabinet and then to the Parliament and considered it an important means in the organization of economic life in the country.
Head of Baghdad Chamber of Commerce, Amjad Al-Jibouri, considered the monetary policy followed by the Central Bank to control the exchange rate of the dinar against the dollar a successful policy because it maintained trade from the losses which traders are exposed to due to monetary shocks. He said that The Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance succeeded in supporting the national economy in their monetary and fiscal policy, and raising the value of the Iraqi dinar is one of the results of these policies.
Al-Jibouri called for adopting an import policy that limits the chaos afflicting the commercial market and represented by dumping it with commodity and especially of the bad type, and believes that this is the responsibility of the Ministries of Finance and Trade relying on the representatives of chambers of commerce. About his vision for the future of the Iraqi economy, he said, "the economy is the engine of social and political life and if stability is achieved, the future of the Iraqi economy will be in the ranks of developed countries ... And will leave developing countries."
Head of Najaf Chamber of Commerce, Zuhair Mohammed Radhi, is optimistic of the economic future of Iraq due to the ingredients of success it has both in human and material wealth or its strategic position and border outlets which overlooks the world. He called for the creation of a new structure that suits the potentials of Iraq to start toward the economy of market and reiterated the importance of the supporting laws and legislation.
The last speaker was the Head of Nasiriyah Chamber of Commerce, Abdul Razzaq Al-Zuheiri,, who spoke about the lack of clarity and knowledge of the importance of the role of the private business sector in the formulation of trade policy, pointing out that the merchants segment is the one relied on to provide requirements of daily life and construction requirements. He trusted the government to support the commercial sector in a way that suits the size and role in the development of other economic sectors. He pointed out to understanding of government departments for the importance of Chambers of Commerce; therefore, involving them in all committees is hallmark of the success of proper planning for the economic process and development of the country.
(www.dinartrade.com)
Though there seems to be an anti-american bent in this article. The symbolism of unity among Muslim sects is encouraging.
____________________________________________________________
Iraq's clerics are stepping up to save their country from sectarian conflict
05 February 2008 (The Daily Star)
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One of the most devastating consequences of the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq was that it opened up the Pandora's box of sectarian conflict, posing an enormous threat not only to the future of that country, but to many other states across the Middle East as well. Little was done in the early years after the invasion to prevent the worst-case scenarios of national disintegration and/or regional destabilization. In the aftermath of the invasion, those disturbing scenarios seemed all too frighteningly possible, as festering sectarian tensions pushed the nation to the brink of civil war and threatened to spill over into neighboring countries. Over the last year, however, some Iraqi leaders have begun to make a concerted effort to reverse what once seemed like an irreversible trend. One group of Iraqi leaders in particular deserves to be commended for their recent efforts in this regard: Iraqi clerics.
On Sunday, Shiite and Sunni religious figures from across Iraq met in a hotel in Baghdad, along with other Muslim leaders from across the Arab and Islamic worlds, to address what is arguably the greatest threat to our region today: growing mistrust and animosity between Muslim sects. More than 200 Sunni and Shiite clerics took part in the gathering, which aimed to develop long-term strategies for fostering Iraqi reconciliation, as well as a region-wide sense of unity among the followers of the different sects of the same sacred religion.
The gathering may have seemed to many like a mere symbolic gesture, and indeed it attracted almost no coverage by the Western media. But when it comes to matters of faith, the strength of symbolism cannot be underestimated, and even the mere image of Iraqi Sunni and Shiite Muslims praying side by side at the conference on Sunday sent a powerful message of unity to the people of Iraq and beyond.
It may take many years, perhaps even decades, to undo the damage that was done in Iraq in the first few years following the invasion. Relations among Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites were nearly damaged beyond repair as a result of the multiple attacks on mosques and sacred shrines and the ruthless acts of murderous death squads. But Iraqi Muslim scholars are helping to create a less poisoned atmosphere in which the Iraqi people can begin to feel a sense of common identity and unity of purpose.
The challenges facing the Iraqi nation - from stopping the ongoing violence to rebuilding damaged infrastructure and resuscitating a war-battered economy - are enormous. Iraqis cannot hope to even begin to address these challenges so long as they remain so dangerously divided. It will take the full participation and cooperation of each of the country's diverse communities to overcome the multiple obstacles to a prosperous and stable Iraq. In this context, the efforts of Iraqi clerics to foster a sense of national unity and to repair the rifts that have threatened to tear the country apart are nothing short of heroic.
(www.iraqupdates.com)
I personally agree with everyone else. Our (the United States) main reason for invading Iraq wasn't for pursuit of oil, spread our beliefs, and other unbelievable reasons people have claimed. When NYC, Washington DC, and various other places were attacked on September 11, it affected everyone in the U.S. A kid who had graduated from my high school a few years before me decided to fight for his country and lost his life in the process. We can not let everyone's lives which have been lost be in vain. Although it seems hard at times to stay and it would be easier to pack up in leave, this would cause a disastrous outcome of mass chaos. We must stablize their economy and continue to push for a democracy over in Iraq to protect everyone in the future.
Sara, Perhaps you have not put on your armor? Joshua 1:9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged,for the Lord thy God will be with you wherever you go".
If you are doing stocks in Iraq, as I am doing, the article about the Iraqi state that are doing the privatization of the industry is of a very interesting character.
As the industry is privatized, the industry will stand on its own feet, and no longer receive food parcels for the workers, and a guaranteed paycheck.
It has to earn it's meals, and earn it's paychecks.
Here comes the interesting part.
The industry itself is in a very poor health, rusted, and squeaking wheels.
Foreign companies are eager to get in on the up and coming restoration of the country, but will have very very poor chance of surviving, as a completely independent company.
Any and all companies that are on the way into Iraq, WILL need a mentor in the country, they WILL need a know how, how to act, work and how to bribe, or whatever they need to do to conduct business there.
The very best party to go into bed with will undoubtedly be an already existing company that have been in Iraq for a very long time, runned by Iraqis, manned by Iraqis, controlled by Iraqis and existing as a bona fide Iraqi company with it's own name recognition in the area.
Ok we now have this scenario.
The Iraqi company, just being taken off the feeding bottle, having been government company for a long time, are getting out in the world with nothing, except rusted nails, and squeaky hinges.
The foreign company with the resources, know how, have the investment, have the bacon, the ammunition and the latest tech.
The Iraqi company and the foreign company will do very very good in getting into bed with each other, as this will open up the door for the foreign company, and infuse know how, and tech into the Iraqi company.
The Iraqi company having been a long time state owned company will now come back to the Iraqi State with contract bidding, where the lines are greased since many years back.
This will very likely be the up and coming scenario for many contracts the Iraqi state are giving out for bids.
This, my friend, will put the ISX in a completely different light.
As the state owned companies are letting go from the state, and they must quick get a "rich" foreign partner, they will have but no choice other than register themselves as corporations. If they are to go together with other foreign companies, they must have the ability to buy and sell stocks as a natural part of their existing operation.
So, if the Iraqi company have nothing, are rusted, inactive, and very poor, their stocks will be reflective of their existing status.
However, as the process continues more and more, that foreign companies are getting in, on the previously state owned companies, with contracts, owner sharing or other business contracts, the infusion of investment from foreign companies, will give the existing Iraqi companies a strong shot in the arm of fresh blood, and the value of the Iraqi companies will rise to the degree, that the government are granting contracts.
I read this morning that the tensions are escalating between the U.S. and the Sunnis because of that botched air strike that killed a number of innocent civilians.
As tensions mount, discord between anti-Al-Qaeda fighters and the U.S. military has the potential to dissrupt this fragile union. Lets hope the Pentagon and the military can find resolution with these Sunnis.
BP has been holding meetings with Iraqi oil officials as it speeds up plans to re-enter one of the biggest but politically most controversial oil provinces in the world, five years after the toppling of Saddam Hussein by the British and US military.
The move comes as BP is drawing fire for abandoning any pursuit of green credentials. Environmental groups accuse the new chief executive, Tony Hayward, of "recarbonising" a once enlightened oil group.
BP said it was "possible" some of its executives might meet the Iraqi oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, today at a Royal Institute of International Affairs conference in London, sponsored by BP, Shell and other western oil majors.
A spokesman for BP, which will report annual profits of about $18bn, confirmed managers met Iraqi oil officials last week in Jordan and talked about providing technical assistance.
Iraq has more than 115bn barrels of recoverable reserves, an attraction for oil groups at a time when easily recoverable reserves are becoming more difficult to secure.
BP was last night playing down any likelihood of an imminent move into Iraq. "It is a country of interest to us but we are waiting for political and security stability to return before we will take anything further," a spokesman said.
The group has already undertaken technical studies on the Rumeila oilfield for the new government of Iraq. It is gearing up for further involvement following the drafting of a new oil law in Iraq. The chief executive of Shell, Jeroen van der Veer, also admitted last week that his company was looking closely at re-entering Iraq.
When British and American forces invaded five years ago, Tony Blair and George Bush denied they were waging war to secure oil supplies.
The appearance of Shahristani with British energy minister Malcolm Wicks today will be met with campaigners from the charity War on Want and other groups that have formed a coalition called Hands Off Iraqi Oil. They claim the country will lose "billions of pounds in oil income" under the proposed new law which they say the British and US governments are pressing Baghdad to sign.
"It is a scandal that BP and Shell intend to raid Iraqis' oil wealth for themselves. Not content with record profits, they would deny millions of people the money needed to rebuild their shattered land," said Ruth Tanner, senior campaigns officer at War on Want.
Meanwhile the Platform campaign group accused Hayward of starting BP on a dangerous programme of "recarbonisation" since he took over last April from Lord Browne, who had vowed to take the company "beyond petroleum".
James Marriott, of Platform, said: "Moving into the tar sands of Canada and dropping a carbon capture and storage plan for Peterhead are part of a recarbonisation of BP. It might help the share price in the short term but longer-term Hayward is exposing the company to the dangers of a rising carbon price and falling oil price."
(www.dinartrade.com)
Please do not hold your breath. If (BIG IF) the HCL is passed this year, expect it to be somewhat different from what Washington considers a benchmark.
The Iraqis have a right to have an HCL law that protects them. In the long term, I do believe it is in Iraqs best interest to privatize their oil industry.
____________________________________________________________
LEADING STORY
Iraq hoping to pass oil law in 2008: oil minister
Iraq's oil minister spoke on Tuesday of the government's determination to pass a draft oil law this year, and said he hoped to ramp up production to 2.9 million barrels a day by the end of the year.
(www.noozz.com)
I have not ventured into the ISX because there has not been satisfactory clarification from Al-Warka about the issues with the Al-Bunnai(I am sure have not spelled it correctly)family. From my understanding, they have controlling interest in Al-Warka. At this point, I am uncomfortable using Al-Warka as the proxy because I am not sure of its stability.
Furthermore, the process for transferring of ISX shares into my good name does not seem to be well defined. I do not know of examples where this transfer has occurred. Good luck with your stock purchases, I am holding off for now.
Okidoki. When it comes to transferring the shares to your name, well ...I am very happy with them holding it in proxy, because I need to be completely on top of what companies will do a split, and send back the certificates to the broker when that happens, and if you miss a deadline, you might get into a loss, so for my part, I rather have it all in Iraq.
If you honestly are interesed in getting stocks but your hang up, is that you feel uncomfy with Warka, well another way of doing it, is to check in on the main ISX site, there is a lot of stock brokers listed there, and you can start a correspondence with a couple of them, until you feel that you have good confidence in some of them, and go via them.
BritishKnight,
I fear the corruption more than the violence.
The violence can be stemmed, but the corruption is pretty blatant.
Iraq moves ahead with oil contracts with multinationals
Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Thursday , 07 /02 /2008 Time 5:01:57
Baghdad, Feb 6, (VOI) – The Iraqi government has invited major multinational oil companies to take part in the development of its oil industry, refusing to wait for the passage of the contentious oil and gas law, the Financial Times said in a report.
"In a sign that the oil law the US has been pressing for is unlikely to be agreed by parliament any time soon, Hussain Shahristani, Iraq’s oil minister, said in an interview with the Financial Times that Iraq was now determined to push ahead with plans to raise production from a current 2.5m barrels per day to 6m bpd in five years," read the report."
"Speaking on the sidelines of a conference at Chatham House in London, he said major companies were registering to pre-qualify for oil development licences before the February 18 deadline. The process, he said, should lead next year to the award of the first contracts to develop oil fields across the country," according to the report.
"Oil giants, so far deterred from Iraq by violence and the absence of clear legislation, are showing keen interest in the pre-qualification process. It marks the first opportunity to tap into a country with the world’s third largest proved oil reserves and a largely undeveloped oil industry with low production costs."
"But the companies will no doubt require more legislative clarity and further improvements in security before committing substantial investment," the report indicated.
Quoting Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive officer of Royal Dutch Shell, the newspaper wrote: "We are in the race so to say, we would like to work in Iraq but the petroleum law is not ratified so we don’t know the conditions. We would like to know the rules of the game.”
"While eyeing more long-term relationships with Iraq, major companies are negotiating technical support contracts to get their foot in the door and help raise production of several oil fields by 500,000 bpd this year. These deals do not involve putting teams on the ground and are confined to offering arms-length technical and managerial assistance. The companies include Royal Dutch Shell and BP as well as US giants ExxonMobil and Chevron and France’s Total."
"The exact terms of the longer-term development contracts have not been decided yet, according to Mr Shahristani," the report said.
"The minister said a 'model contract' would be worked out, compensating companies for bringing in technology and financial resources while guaranteeing full government ownership and control of oil," it added.
"Mr Shahristani’s decision to bypass an oil law reflects the government’s frustration with the Kurdish regional government, which has been seeking more independence on oil policy, fuelling a protracted dispute with other parliamentary groups."
"The Iraqi cabinet approved the oil law a year ago but has since been unable to pass it through parliament, partly due to disagreements over the sharing of oil revenues between regions."
"The government in the Kurdish north, meanwhile, has passed its own oil law and has been signing exploration contracts with western companies, causing anger in the central government. Mr Shahristani has warned that these contracts are illegal and companies involved in the contracts could be blacklisted."
The report further quoted the minister as denying that the decision to push ahead with oil contracts "was primarily a tactical move designed to put pressure on the Kurdish bloc..."
(www.aswataliraq.com)
Higher dollar demand, exchange rate down in daily auction
Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Thursday , 07 /02 /2008 Time 5:01:57
Baghdad, Feb 6, (VOI) - Demand for the dollar rose in the Iraqi Central Bank's auction on Wednesday, registering at $90.55 million compared to $68.910 million on Tuesday.
"The demand hit $12.80 million in cash and $77.975 million in money transfers outside the country, all covered by the bank at an exchange rate of 1,210 Iraqi dinars per dollar, one tick lower than yesterday," according to the central bank's daily bulletin which was received by Aswat al-Iraq- Voices of Iraq- (VOI).
The 15 banks participating in the auction offered to sell $100,000, which the bank bought at an exchange rate of 1,208 dinars per dollar.
Speaking to VOI, Ali al-Yasseri, a trader, attributed the higher demand for the dollar in today's session to "the unexpected drop in the exchange rate," which he said encouraged banks to raise the ceiling on remittances and cash bids.
The Iraqi Central Bank runs a daily auction from Sunday to Thursday.
(www.aswataliraq.com)
Plan to Export Oil Via Jordan's Aqaba Port – Al-Zubaidi
The Jordanian and Iraqi governments are looking at possibilities of a joint strategic plan to build an oil pipe from the Haditha area in Iraq to the Red Sea Jordanian port city of Aqaba, about 350 kilo meters south of Amman.
(www.noozz.com)
07 February 2008 (AME Info FZ LLC)
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Misys plc, the global application software and services company, today announces that Rafidain Bank, the largest state bank in Iraq, has selected an integrated turnkey core banking solution from Misys and B-Plan Information Systems.
The agreement between Rafidain and the Misys/B-Plan consortium was endorsed by the Minister of Finance, as part of the modernisation programme of the state-owned banks. The Misys/B-Plan solution was chosen ahead of competing bids including those from Temenos and Systems Access. It will underpin the restructuring programme aimed at improving performance and enabling Rafidain to compete more effectively in an increasingly open and competitive environment.
The solution includes the deployment of electronic clearing systems, the core banking solution from Misys and the supporting hardware and communications network across the bank's 148 domestic and 7 international branches, in Beirut, Cairo, Jordan, Abu-Dhabi, Manama (Bahrain) and Sana' (Yemen). The project, which is one the largest of its kind in the world, will allow the bank to deliver competitive products and an excellent service to Rafidain's domestic and international customers.
In December 2006, a formal memoranda of understanding (MOU) was signed between the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance on the restructuring of the state-owned banks, including Rafidain Bank. This covers the steps and sequencing for operational and financial restructuring of these institutions over the next few years, including the deployment of electronic clearing banking system.
Mr. Bayan Jabr, Iraq's Minister of Finance, states, 'I am determined to modernise the banks. My wish is that every Iraqi citizen has a Visa card and for every Iraqi citizen to have a bank account which he is able to manage through the internet, regardless of whether he is a government employee or not. This is my dream which I am working to make it a reality. I have now signed a contract for such a system for the Rafidain Bank.'
Guy Warren, EVP and General Manager. Misys Banking, comments, 'One of the key deciding factors for the Government of Iraq was Misys' leadership position in the industry and we are honoured to be an integral part of such a crucial restructuring programme for the bank. Our deep knowledge of the market alongside B-Plan's expertise in implementing turnkey ICT solutions in Iraq, will enable Rafidain to maintain its leading position in the region and compete more successfully internationally. This is another example of our proven technology and top class services skills beating Temenos in competitive pitches.'
Shirko Abid, CEO of B-Plan, adds, 'The advanced solution and the broad regional experience Misys has built up over the last two decades, coupled with our strong position as a provider of mission-critical turnkey solutions was crucial to the deal. We are already beginning the first phase of implementation and I look forward to working closely with the bank as we help it deliver enhanced services to its customers.'
(www.iraqupdates.com)
Anyone want to venture offering an analysis of the following article:
____________________________________________________________
Baghdad - Iraq votes 07 / 02 / 2008 at 14:08:59
Demand declined significantly to buy the dollar at the end of meetings this week, on Thursday, auction of the Central Bank of Iraq, the body size of the request was totally 32 million and 870 thousand dollars, compared to 90 million and 55 thousand dollars on Wednesday.
The special bulletin ERA Iraqi Central Bank to sell the dollar, issued (Thursday), that the request be distributed by 18 million and 700 thousand dollars in cash and 13 million and 870 thousand dollars in the form of remittances outside the country, and fully covered the bank exchange rate stable for the second meeting of the ability dinars (1210). While he did not make the ten banks participating in the auction offers to sell the dollar to auction.
He says the Yasiri, one dealing with the auction, the Independent News Agency (Voices of Iraq) that the request "drop largely on remittances only .. at a time when demand cash rose significantly, the fact that today (Thursday) is the day of payment for traders and need .. large amounts of foreign exchange to cover their needs. "
Over Yasiri believed that the demand for remittances "retreat .. that meeting yesterday (Wednesday), which witnessed a decline unexpectedly to the exchange rate futures .. drained remittances and remittances, which was precipitated by the planned dispatch today."
However, the economic expert, Dr. Juma Ani warned that such a step "Introduction to the crisis is artificial, similar to what happened three months ago by a group of speculators and investors, which had caused great losses to small savers."
The Al-Ani (Voices of Iraq) that the Central Bank "to return to normal monetary policy to close the road on speculators is hunting for any additional actions aimed at improving the exchange rates of dinar."
He pointed out that the lack of offers to sell auction "is a supporter of the auction, provided that not be a prelude to offers for sale and a large decline in the demand for dollar buying."
For his part, an economic expert and industrial Abdul Razzaq Abaiji that "fabricating a crisis in the currency market speculators will not serve even at the present time, the fact that the real capacity of the market to Atstoab new crisis, and that it might harm the speculators before anyone else."
He told Abaiji (Voices of Iraq) that currency trading "became aware of the fact that the crisis is artificial, and refrain from selling to speculators at prices lower than the official rate .. which is a strike against them in the event if there was talk of crisis, but if the quarters of decline expected to return to the high levels of applications mid next week for circulation. "
He described Uday Rustum Shabib, the banking office in Baghdad, the dollar exchange rate as "fixed at the end of this week, by (1210) dinars for buying and (1220) for the sale of small transactions."
Shabib said that the movement in the bourses struggle and Kazimiya "was significantly high, while the habitual Exchange Harthiya", a reference broad movement to "high demand by traders on the dollar on Thursday of each week."
(www.aswataliraq.com)
Deal to slash Iraq's debt to Russia to be signed Feb. 11
14:30|07/ 02/ 2008
MOSCOW, February 7 (RIA Novosti) - An agreement to write off most of Iraq's debt to Russia will be signed in Moscow on February 11, the Iraqi Embassy said on Thursday.
The agreement is a follow-up to a decision by the Russian government to clear 80% of Baghdad's Soviet-era debt in line with accords reached through the Paris Club of creditor nations.
"During a visit by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari to Russia on February 11, a memorandum on developing trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation between Russia and Iraq will be signed alongside a bilateral financial agreement to write off the debt in line with Paris Club accords," the embassy said in a news release.
A Russian Finance Ministry source confirmed the plans, saying the total debt was estimated at $13 billion following recalculations.
"The sum was initially lower, but it was later reassessed considering the peculiarities of the original agreements, which include a currency clause," the source said.
The Finance Ministry earlier said the debt was some $10 billion.
The Iraqi government expected the intergovernmental deal to be signed before the end of 2007. Some media said the delay was due to Iraq's cancelation of a 1997 contract with Russian oil company LUKoil on the West Qurna-2 oil field, one of Iraq's richest. But both countries' authorities dismissed the allegations. Hoshyar Zebari said last September that his country could offer Russian oil and gas companies considerable advantages to operate in Iraq, but ruled out that this could be linked to the debt settlement issue.
Iraq’s Sadr tells militia to keep observing freeze
(Reuters)
7 February 2008
BAGHDAD - Anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered his Mehdi Army militia to maintain its six-month ceasefire, Sadr’s spokesman said on Thursday, while his militiamen clashed with Iraqi and U.S. soldiers.
Salah al-Ubaidi said the ceasefire, which expires later this month, should continue to be observed until militia members are told it is over or has been renewed.
Some members of Shia cleric Sadr’s bloc are pressuring him not to extend Aug. 29’s freeze on the feared Mehdi Army’s activities, which has been vital to cutting violence in Iraq.
Attacks across the country have fallen by 60 percent since June 2007 and a return to hostilities could seriously jeopardise those security gains.
“Any member of the Mehdi Army who conducts violent acts during the ceasefire, the Sadr office declares they will no longer be part of the Mehdi Army,” Sadr said in a statement read to Reuters by Ubaidi.
He said Sadr had issued the statement in response to rumours that the ceasefire was about to come to an end.
Ubaidi, one of the cleric’s most senior officials in the southern holy city of Najaf, declined to comment on whether the ceasefire would be extended when its six-month term lapses.
Amid signs of growing restlessness, Iraqi police said Mehdi Army fighters had clashed with Iraqi and U.S. soldiers early on Thursday in Sadr City, the sprawling Shi’ite slum in northeast Baghdad which is one of Sadr’s power bases.
Police said three people, including a woman and a child, were hurt in the clashes and 16 detained.
A U.S. military spokesman said one person was killed and another was injured when U.S. and Iraqi soldiers conducted raids ”targeting criminal elements”.
Sadr, who led two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004, ordered the Mehdi Army to observe the ceasefire so he could reorganise the splintered militia.
Mehdi Army fighters had often been involved in fierce clashes with U.S. troops or Sunni Arab groups, and the Pentagon once described it as the greatest single threat to peace in Iraq-a term now it now uses for Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.
Sadr has been gauging the mood among senior figures about the ceasefire, Ubaidi told Reuters earlier this week.
Recent statements from within Sadr’s camp have indicated growing unease about the truce, with members claiming they are being targeted by Iraqi security forces.
U.S. commanders have said they are confident Sadr, the son of a revered Shi’ite cleric killed under Saddam Hussein, would extend the freeze, although U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to target “rogue” Mehdi Army units.
(http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayAr...on=focusoniraq)
Thursday, February 07, 2008 07:40 GMT
A senior delegation from the Arab League presided by Secretary General assistant Ahmad Ben Jali is expected in Baghdad mid next week to discuss means of promoting the national reconciliation process. Arab League chargé d’affaires in Baghdad Tarek Abdul Salam explained that the delegation’s visit would be primary to be followed by other meetings and visits. He noted that the delegation’s agenda is full of meetings with major Iraqi powers in government and parliament as well as parties outside the political process. Abdul Salam noted that the Arab League delegation will propose to Iraqi leaders a national reconciliation project based on the national consensus initiative adopted by the Arab League in agreement with Iraq leaders in mid 2006. The conference will be convened in Cairo.
It is to be noted that the delegation’s visit has been adjourned more than once for unknown reasons. However, reports say that certain powers in the government and the Unified Coalition Bloc have showed reservation on the delegation’s mission mainly on convening the conference outside Iraq as well as the participation of Baathists. At his point, fears have arisen on the possibility of turning this conference into a campaign against the current political process in Iraq.
(http://www.alsumaria.tv/en/Iraq-News...ciliation.html)
Willie; Thanks for the good word about putting on the armor of God.
And for your care and prayers.. and those of others.
Thank you, too, franko, for the encouragement.
I was able to complete part three.. here it is:
Save Your Own Life..
Part C - The Hypothalmus Gland Damagers and Why Isn't Someone Doing Something About It..
There is evidence that that which is damaging the hypothalmus gland is the addition of excitotoxins to the human diet.
"Excitotoxins are substances added to foods and beverages that literally stimulate neurons to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees. It can be found in such ingredients as monosodium glutamate, aspartame (Nutrasweet), cysteine, hydrolyzed protein, and aspartic acid." (ref 1)
Let us take one of these excitotoxins (there are at least 70 known) and examine it so you can understand what it is and how it damages the hypothalmus gland.
Let us take MSG - what is monosodium glutamate or MSG? It is a food additive which has been added to our prepared foods (you just knew McDonald's had a role to play in this, didn't you?), and it is a substance which documentably has been DOUBLED into the food supply every decade since the late 1940s. (ref 2) I believe it can be demonstrated that this constant rise in the food supply of this excitotoxin (among others) corresponds with the rising rates of obesity and the other problems documented in Part B. That is because it is excitotoxic accumulated damage to the hypothalmus gland which is the actual cause of the increasing rates of obesity (and depression, sleep disorders, memory loss, hormonal imbalances and coronary disease, etc, documented in Part B). It is obvious that the increase of it (and other excitotoxins) into the food supply corresponds exactly with the continually rising obesity rates in spite of the dietary measures taken - from restrictive diets and yo-yo fads to exercise and weight lifting memberships taken. Again, look at that .gif file and see that.. as the damage to the hypothalmus increases with excitotoxin exposure, we have increasing problems with obesity in spite of all measures taken to address the problem. Remember as you watch this that excitotoxins are documentably DOUBLED into the food supply every decade since the late 1940s.. see the correspondence?:
So, what is this excitotoxin - MSG? A bit of history,
QUOTE:
In 1908, Dr. Kikunae Ikeda, a chemist working in a laboratory at the Imperial University of Tokyo, made a most remarkable discovery that would eventually lead to a multibillion dollar industry. He was trying to isolate the chemical that was responsible for the taste enhancing properties of the seaweed known as Kombu or "sea tangle". The Japanese had used this seaweed based flavor-enhancer in their recipes for thousands of years. It had the uncanny ability to greatly enhance the flavor of almost any food to which it was added.
Fortunately, Dr. Ikeda had received training in Germany under the tutelage of a famous chemist, Dr. Wolff, who had perfected the technique for isolating glutamate from proteins. To his suprise, Dr. Ikeda found that the mysterious flavor-enhancing ingredient of the seaweed was glutamate. In 1909 Professor Ikeda joined with his friend, Dr. Saburosuke Suzuki, in forming a company which would manufacture this incredible taste enhancer in the form of monosodium glutamate. They named their company Ajinomoto, which translates to "the essence of taste" in English.
By 1933 Japanese cooks were using over ten million pounds of this taste enhancer every year. They found that it made even the most bland recipes taste scrumptious. During the war, the Japanese government added MSG to their soldier's rations. Unlike American rations, theirs tasted delicious. American soldiers, having obtained some of the rations from their Japanese prisoners, returned with stories of this delicious tasting military food. This then led to an investigation by the American military.
In 1948 a meeting was held by the Quartermasters of the Armed Forces in conjunction with most of the major food manufacturing giants in America. The list of names of those attending this meeting reads like a who's-who of American food manufacturing, including such names as Pillsbury, Oscar Mayer, Libby, Stokley, Campbell Soups, Continental, General Foods, and Bordens. During these discussions it was concluded that this Japanese taste-enhancer did indeed have some remarkable properties. It suppressed undesirable flavors, gave "zest" to food, removed the "tinny" taste of canned foods, and turned bland foods into gourmet meals. In short, it held the possibility of a financial boom for the food industry.
Following this remarkable discovery, the American food industry drastically increased the amount of MSG being added to prepared foods, which has since doubled every decade since the late 1940's. Today MSG is added to most soups, chips, fast foods, frozen foods, ready-made dinners, and canned goods. And it has been a heaven send for the diet food industry since so many of the low-fat foods are practically tasteless.
As Dr. George Schwartz has pointed out in his remarkable book "In Bad Taste: The MSG Syndrome", often MSG and related excitotoxins are added to foods in disguised forms. For example, among the food manufacturers favorite disguises are "hydrolyzed vegetable protein", "vegetable protein", "natural flavorings", and "spices". Each of these may contain (unlabelled) from 12% to 40% MSG by law.
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein is a special case and deserves a closer look. Its manufacturing process is a series of chemical processes; first boiling vegetables in sulfuric acid for several hours, then neutralizing the acid with caustic soda (an alkalizing agent often used to make soap), and then drying the resulting brown sludge. Additional MSG may be added as well to the fine brown powder. The result is marketed as hydrolyzed vegetable protein. When particular amino acids are combined with the basic hydrolyzed vegetable protein they can bring out a "beefy" taste that makes it useful in barbeque sauces and fast foods. Other protein combinations bring out a "creamy" taste that it frequently used in canned and instant soups, salad dressings and sauces.
Analysis of this taste enhancing substance reveals some interesting findings. Not only does it contain three very powerful brain cell toxins - glutamate, aspartate and cysteic acid - but it also contains several known carcinogens (cancer causing substances). Incredibly, the FDA does not regulate the amount of carcinogens allowed in hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or the amount of hydrolyzed vegetable protein allowed to be added to food products. It is a substance that poses and even greater danger than MSG itself.
===end quote===
Now that you know where MSG came from, why it was added to the food supply and who is benefitting financially by putting it into your food supply (everyone who supplies you with nummy tasting food from McDonald's to Campbells Soups... ), I must again remind you that the plan isn't likely to be human alone. And the liklihood of making the accusations stick against these industry giants is also similar to my friend's case - the young man I spoke of who was asthmatic and they took his "puffer" thing and he died. These food giants' excuses would be similar - It all seemed harmless enough, nobody keeled over dead immediately and they just wanted to make money... they had no idea it would turn out to cause so much disease, etc. But there is a far more sinister plan being played out here and we need to address that agenda and stop it even if the human elements are not brought to a full accounting for causing so much misery in people's lives by damaging their hypothalmus glands. We must stop it from progressing to diseased states for ourselves, and we must seek to stop this scenerio from being repeated in the lives of the next generations.
Ours may be a generation which is damaged permanently - as these "epidemics" attest - but future generations can be spared if we are aware and act quickly enough. Heath Ledger was having problems sleeping, serious enough that he took more and more drugs to combat it, and accidentally overdosed. That problem he was experiencing in the sleep/wake cycle is very likely to be a result of accumulated excitotoxic damage. But no one will blame the real underlying culprit which created the problem in the first place, because it was "his problem" with "his health".. just as they will not help you with the underlying cause when it comes time for you to have your health "problem".
Heath Ledger Died of Accidental Overdose of Prescription Drugs, Examiner Says
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
NEW YORK — Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose of painkillers, sleeping pills, anti-anxiety medication and other prescription drugs, the New York City medical examiner said Wednesday.
"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told The New York Times. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." He said he had taken two Ambien pills, which only gave him an hour of sleep.
WHY was this 28 year old man having such a severe problem with getting proper sleep?... an average of only two hours sleep a night? ... but his body was "exhausted"? Could it be that he had hormonal disruption in the sleep-wake cycle? What could have caused that to happen? Any thoughts.. ?? Note his mind was racing.. a sign of excited glutamate receptors (glutamate is used in the brain to carry messages between the neurons.) I will leave it to you to think upon it and decide yourself whether there is a case for the cause being MSG/excitotoxins in his diet... a trap set for the feet of those who see no reason to be cautious.
Now, it is time for me to explain how this boon to the industry (MSG/excitotoxins) harmed and is harming the hypothalmus glands of the American public - not immediately, but with accumulative damage over time as we eat and drink it.
Let's look at some of the probable outcomes of our generation being exposed to the overstimulating effect of excitotoxins both in early development (children are manifesting the effects and we know the mothers eat it in their food) and growth years.
QUOTE (I have inserted my own comments in brackets after quoting the good doctor in order to point out additional points of note):
Some neuroscientists feel that excitotoxins added to foods and fed to newborns and young children can result in overstimulation which can result in devastating effects on development. Sometimes the effects might be subtle, such as a slight case of dyslexia, or more severe such as frequent outbursts of uncontrollable anger. In fact, injection of minute amounts of glutamate into the hypothalmus of animals has been shown to produce sudden rage. (Could this be responsible for shootings at schools and so on.. people who lose it and "go postal" when there were none before?) Even more severe cases could result in conditions such as autism, schizophrenia, seizures, and cerebral palsy. There is a possibility that early exposure to excitotoxins could cause a tendency for episodic violence and criminal behavior in later years.
In one carefully controlled study twenty-two rats were given a daily low dose of MSG by injection beneath their skin. The injections began on the first day after birth and continued for eleven days. When the rats were examined they were found to be shorter and fatter than control animals fed a normal diet. But more importantly, the rats exhibited hyperactive behavior. (Could this be responsible for the explosion in Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)?) Subsequent tests were conducted and they concluded that the "MSG treated rats behaved like animals with lower intelligence." It is important to remember that humans concentrate glutamate in their blood to a much greater degree than rats and they are equally susceptible to its toxic effects once it enters the brain. In one study, scientists gave a rhesus monkey MSG subcutaneously (beneath the skin) by injection and looked for behavioral problems. They found none. The monkey was killed and its brain examined. To their suprise they found significant damage to the hypothalmus gland. This demonstrates that brain cells can be destroyed without there being overt signs of brain damage to an outside observer. However, after the animal matures, this damage manifests itself not only in abnormal behavioral functions, but also in problems with other areas of the brain, including endocrine function. The experiment was repeated on nine other monkeys with identical results.
One of the reasons why it is so difficult to convince the FDA bureaucrats of the connection between MSG and delayed brain damage to humans is because it may take years before clinical signs of neurological damage show up. The damage is slow and cumulative, with each dose damaging a number of important brain areas. It is important to remember that early damage to the frontal lobes of the brain can lead to arrested moral and social development. Our moral development occurs during the early stages of behavior development and allow us the ability to restrain our desires and emotions, otherwise known as self-control. One study of two adults who had suffered damage in early life to both of their frontal lobes, demonstrated arrested development and learning disabilities in the realms of insight, foresight, social judgement, empathy, and complex reasoning. Early, even subtle, damage to the brain of developing babies, while silent at the time, could possibly cause severe changes in their personality several decades later. Because of this delayed effect, proving a direct connection to early exposure to excitotoxins in the food would be very difficult.
In the case of pregnant women eating diets high in excitotoxin taste enhancers, the baby could possibly be exposted to high glutamate levels for many hours, and we know the blood-brain barrier, whose job it is to exclude harmful substances in the blood from entering the brain, is constructed during development. We are not born with a functioning blood-brain barrier system. There is some evidence it does not reach complete maturity until adolescence, making those in the womb and the young who are still developing particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of a multitude of excitotoxic compounds.
In experiments, it was found that MSG could stimulate a wide range of abnormal endocrine responses from the hypothalmus. The release of hormones by the hypothalmus and pituitary controls the release of hormones from the endocrine glands throughout the body - such as the thyroid gland, the adrenal glands, and the gonads. Researchers found decreased levels of growth hormone, prolactin, and luteinizing hormone in animals exposed to MSG. Dr. Shimicu and coworkers demonstrated that when MSG is given to pregnant mice their offspring have similar injuries to their hypothalmus glands. They develop abnormally - consistently, the animals exposed to MSG were found to be shorter, grossly obese, and had difficulty with sexual reproduction. One can only wonder if the large number of people having difficulty with obesity in the United States is related to exposure to food additive excitotoxins since this obesity is one of the most consistent features of this syndrome. One characteristic of the obesity induced by excitotoxins is that it doesn't appear to depend on food intake. This could explain why some people cannot diet away their obesity. It is ironic that so many people drink soft drinks sweetened with excitotoxins like NutraSweet when aspartate can produce the exact same lesions as glutamate, resulting in gross obesity. (Let's say that again.. this says that food sweetened with excitotoxins results in gross obesity - regardless of the food intake consumed. - Please reread this several times so you can see what is causing the obesity epidemic - it is not the food but the accumulated damage from excitotoxins causing gross obesity. As excitotoxins are DOUBLED into the food supply each decade, we have an exponential problem with obesity unchecked by dietary measures to stem its tide. This is because it is the excitotoxins which are damaging the bodies of those who ingest them, resulting in this diseased state - the obesity epidemic.)
It is also possible that many of today's reproductive problems such as infertility and menstrual disorders, are similarly related to excitotoxin exposure in early life. It has been shown experimentally that excitotoxins such as MSG and aspartate can cause early onset of puberty in female rats. (Remember the study I quoted above, about girls as young as FIVE years of age having menstrual periods? And that article says this is an increasing trend with HALF the African Americans having early onset of puberty.. but they didn't know what was causing the "switch" to be turned on prematurely?) Researchers have demonstrated a marked reduction of fertility in male rats treated with MSG as well. This does not appear immediately but is delayed until they develop sexual maturity. Pizzi and coworkers found both male and female mice exposed to MSG early in life developed severe delayed abnormalities of reproduction in adulthood. The females had fewer pregnancies and smaller litters and the males were significantly less fertile than normal mice. Again, they found the mice exposed to MSG were obese and had shrunken pituitaries and gonads (testes and ovaries). Similar findings have been seen in all other species of animals tested. MSG causes the ovaries to become atrophied (shrunken) thus leading to severe problem with the reproductive cycle in females. Also, glutamate can unmask diabetes in mice that are genetically susceptible to the disease. That is, these mice might never develop full blown diabetes unless exposed to glutamate. This might explain the high incidence of diabetes in the elderly and could act as a trigger for early onset diabetes in childhood, which is also hereditary.
Glutamate type-neurons control every neuroendocrine function of the hypothalmus. This neuroendocrine function is designed to control the thyroid gland, adrenal glands, reproductive functions, gonadal function, body growth, and certain aspects of metabolism. But in addition, glutamate controls all the other functions of the hypothalmus, such as the biological clock, the autonomic nervous system, sleep-wake cycles, hunger and satiety, the emotions of anger and rage, and even conciousness itself. So we see that anything that disrupts or impairs normal functioning of the hypothalmus can have devastating effects on the organism as a whole. Early exposure in life to high doses of glutamate, or the other excitotoxins, could produce a whole array of disorders much later in life, such as obesity, impaired growth, endocrine problems, sleep difficulties, emotional problems including episodic anger, and sexual psycho-pathology. (WorldNetDaily recently had a section examining the emerging trend reported in the news of so many teachers becoming involved with their underage students sexually.. that could certainly be seen as a part of what is meant by sexual psycho-pathology.) One reason the FDA has not issued a warning is that babies exposed to MSG and NutraSweet are not born obviously deformed, as were those exposed, for example, to the drug Thalidomide. Many of these hypothalmic-endocrine disorders are subtle and the effects of hypothalmic damage usually does not show up until many years later, even during adulthood. Therefore, a scientifically stringent connection is difficult to make. (ref 3)
==end quote==
It is of note that what Doctor Blaylock and these other neuroscientist researchers saw in their research was that these brain damaging substances added to our food supply can damage the hypothalmus gland, and that CAUSES obesity in mice REGARDLESS of food intake. This is because it messes up the hormonal balance in the body. (The hypothalmus produces hormones.) The mice had this happen much more quickly than humans do, and for a time it was thought that the blood-brain barrier protects adults completely from the damaging effects of these excitotoxic food substances - so it was only exposure when young which could cause the accumulated damage to happen in a human body. But this was proved false by Dr. Blaylock after he did further reseach (done after the research results quoted above - see his subsequent books). Indeed, it was found that over time, there is accumulative damage and toxin induced obesity even in the adult population.... in other words, the additive excitotoxins in fast foods and prepared foods is what is making adult Americans fat and sick - not the calories, fat, protein or carbs.. as well as causing the young to become overweight and sick.
But it does damage the young in a greater measure, and these little ones whose hormonal levels are out of whack have no hope of ever being normal again. These people are damaged. All they can do is treat the symptoms of the disease (more on how to do that in the next section). But for the men, women and children in our culture; don't you think someone should stop the wholesale slaughter of our hypothalmus glands by the food industry? Shouldn't some watchdog organization be doing something to protect our collective health? Doctor Blaylock documents what happened when the attempt was made early on to bring this to the attention of the authorities and I feel it is worth quoting him here at length, so you understand the scope of the deception.
QUOTE:
Bias in Science by Doctor Russell L. Blaylock, MD.
(Quote taken from his book "Excitotoxins, the taste that kills" P 54-56)
Scientists are human, just like the rest of us. Too often we envision them almost as religious figures, dedicated to a quest for truth and wisdom that is pure and logical. But a closer examination reveals that sometimes they have a weakness for short cuts to sucess -- dishonesty, distortion of results, faked data, and other forms of deceit. One only needs to survey William Broad and Nicolas Wade's book, "Betrayers of the Truth: Fraud and Deceit in the Halls of Science", or Dixy Lee Ray's book, "Trashing the Planet", to realize the truth of this statement.
In the case of excitotoxins there is a more pertinent example. When Dr. John Olney discovered the harmful effects of food bourne MSG on the brains of developing animals he attempted to alert the FDA concerning this danger. He assumed that they would welcome his information with open arms and open minds. But he was soon to learn that government protected industries can be formidable foes. Dr. Olney stated that soon after he had published the results of his experimental findings on the toxicity of MSG in 1969 he came under tremendous fire from various directions. A multitude of papers were published attacking his data, claiming that when his experiments were repeated in their labs no toxicity was found.
But he found that all these detractors all his one thing in common, in that "they were all affiliated in one way or another with the Glu (glutamate) and/or food industries." Further, he noted, one group of food industry apologists wrote an indignant letter to the scientific publication "Science" claiming that Dr. Olney's experiments were invalid because he had used baby animals and baby animals were inappropriate subjects for the study because they had immature enzyme systems that made them especially vulnerable to glutamate toxicity. Incredibly, this was at a time when the food industry was adding large amounts of MSG to baby foods. Their logic escapes the rational mind, unless it is motivated by industrial profits.
Dr. Olney, realizing the terrible implications for the health of millions of babies, continued his fight to alert the public and the FDA concerning this danger. The FDA referred this tough issue to a government-sponsored "Food Protection Committee" in an effort to resolve the MSG/baby food controversy. Along with the food and glutamate industry spokesman, Dr. Olney testified before this committee. Incredibly, the members of this committe seemed more interested in what the food industry spokesman had to say than what a highly respected neuroscientist had to contribute.
One spokesman for the food and glutamate industries stated that even if MSG did indeed destroy the arcuate nucleus in the hypothalamus, it didn't matter because it was not known to have any functional significance. Yet it was well known at the time that the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalmus played a vital role in the regulation and release of important hormones from the pituitary. The committee continued to declare MSG safe as a food additive even in baby foods. Dr. Olney states that at this point he began to look into the backgrounds of the members of the "independent" FDA committe and discovered that, "it was founded by, funded by and totally controlled by the food industry and that most of the members of the sub-committee appointed to investigate the Glu (glutamate)/baby food issue had strong financial ties with the glu (glutamate) and/or food industry. The committee chairman was receiving money from both industries at the time of the committee deliberations."
After Dr. Olney described these events to the Senate committee, pressure was exerted upon the FDA to use more objective reviews. But there is little evidence that the FDA has really changed its ways. Dr. George Schwarts discovered that a pamphlet put out by the FDA outlining the consumer "facts" concerning the safety of MSG as a food additive had in truth been compiled and published by The Glutamate Association, which describes itself as an "organization of manufacturers, national marketers, and processed food users of glutamic acid and its salts, including monosodium glutamate." When Dr. Schwartz pointed this out to the FDA authorities they quietly removed the pamphlet from circulation.
But the deception doesn't stop there. Dr. Olney points out that another method used by the industry is to fund numerous studies that purportedly demonstrate the safety of MSG. These studies appear to be carefully designed to avoid finding such neurotoxicity. Interestingly, these studies were published in Toxicology journals that are "editorially controlled by the very authors of the studies (or their cronies)." When challenged in public forums about the safety of MSG in food, Dr. Olney says, these fellow-travellers of the industry merely produce a tall stack of such deceptive studies, and as a result, the more important studies by experienced and highly respected neuroscientists are numerically overwhelmed. Industry spokesmen typically say, "The overwhelming number of studies demonstrate no such toxicity." That is, the evidence is "weighed by the pound: and not by the quality of the work done". Olney notes that over the past years the FDA has accepted such tainted studies uncritically.
It is obvious that the FDA has been captured by the chief MSG manufacturer, The Ajinomoto company of Japan, the food industries and their public relations organization. The Glutamate Association, by producing a multitude of spurious studies proportedly showing that MSG is safe as a food additive they can say with impunity, "The weight of the scientific evidence demonstrates that MSG is safe for human consumption."
The public has the perception that the FDA, being a government organization designed and dedicated to quality assurance and safety, would never allow an unsafe product to be used by the food industry. In fact, most of us assume that the FDA is, if anything, too cautious. This has been the case with their rulings on carcinogenic compounds in the food. They have come under increasing criticism from a number of groups and scientists for using too stringent criteria in such determinations.
But in this instance, we have seen that powerful industrial giants have been able to capture a government agency and use it to promote an unsafe product.
The following story will help give the reader some idea as to the obstacles that are being faced by those who wish to expose the safety issues involved with MSG and other excitotoxin use.
In 1971 Dr. W. A. Reynolds and coworkers reported that they were unable to confirm Dr. Olney's previous findings that MSG fed to infant monkeys consistently resulted in injuries to specific areas of the hypothalmus. That is, they found that large doses of MSG fed to newborn monkeys had no toxic effect on infant monkeys' brains.
Dr. Olney became suspicious of the study when he realized that they were feeding massive doses of MSG to these infant animals. In his experience, such doses almost always caused the animals to vomit. But if the monkeys did indeed vomit, Dr. Reynold's data would be completely invalid since little of the MSG would have actually been absorbed.
Later, at a public hearing, Dr. Olney asked Dr. Reynolds if their monkeys vomited. In front of a large audience she admitted that they had. Yet, a few months later, when the report appeared in "Science" magazine, no mention was made of vomiting, a critical omission.
Dr. Olney wrote "Science" magazine a letter asking why this vital data was omitted. They referred his letter to Dr. Reynolds. This time she denied that the animals had ever vomited.
Four years later Reynolds and others published another paper admitting that the monkeys had vomited after feeding them large doses of MSG. But of even greater importance, for the first time they admitted that their monkeys were under anesthesia throughout the entire experiment, using a drug called phencyclidine. This powerful anesthetic agent is also one of the most potent antagonists of glutamate receptors known. (It is related to MK-801.) This drug is known to totally prevent MSG lesions of the hypothalmus. Therefore, their entire experiment was invalid from the beginning. It is hard to believe that they were unaware of this protective effect of phencyclidine.
Finally, Dr. Olney pointed out that the photomicrographs of the animals' hypothalmus submitted with the articles were taken from the areas of the hypothalmus known not to be affected by MSG. That they knew this was proven by the fact that Dr. Olney invited one of their researchers to observe the MSG damaged area in his laboratory. The researcher admitted that MSG was indeed causing the lesions. Yet, according to Dr. Olney, Dr. Reynolds used this same "negative" photomicrograph in a subsequent article to "prove" that MSG was safe.
Dr. Olney concluded, "How does one defend the fact that instead of investigating this laboriously, FDA has uncritically accepted, cited, promoted, and relied heavily on the Reynolds, et al. monkey data as basis for continuing to classify glutamate as GRAS (generally recognised as safe)?
===end quote==
So if you are asking, But what about the government? Won't they help you? Won't they safeguard your health from anyone committing this "sin of omission"? Dr. Blaylock in his book says no, as I have documented above. The interests of big business are far too entrenched and strong to allow your health to be their first concern if it will affect their bottom line. So the only thing you can do at this time is to try to eat less of the excitotoxins, and take supplements to ward off the effects of the damage (see next section). The point I am making is.. the chances of having a governmental solution is about the same as having the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists become supportive of the Democracy of Iraq. Let's just says their interests differ at this time. YOU must save your own health and life.. hence the name of this series of posts, "Save Your Own Life... " because no one else will do it for you. You can choose to become exposed to these substances and die from them slowly, or protect your brain and body from their effects as best you are able. The choice is up to you.
Lastly, I must mention a terrible trend.. there is research going on within the biotech industry which is geared toward making genetically altered plants which have these excitotoxins encorporated into their cell structures so the food tastes better than the natural. Obviously they think the buying public will buy more of what tastes better so it will be a money maker.. and damn your health (quite literally). This will mean that you cannot avoid the hypothalmus damage and hormonal disruption no matter what you choose to eat because it will be encorporated into the food itself. God help us all. But for now, we have a small amount of choice and ability to protect our bodies and brains from this interference. I suggest we make use of what tools we now have available, for as long as we can. So, in the next section I will give strategies to help protect yourself from excitotoxic damage - beyond the obvious "avoid all foods with these excitotoxic substances in them."
And for the record, this does affect the health of the Iraqi people. As the US exports its hypothalmus-damaging fast food and drink to the Middle East, those indulging in them will have the same accumulated disease states and obesity happen to their populations in time.. as all cultures which embrace the western diet (and its excitotoxins) do.
Sara.
ref 1 - back page of Excitotoxins
ref 2 - P. 14, 34 "Excitotoxins, the taste that kills" by Dr. Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.
ref 3 - Excitotoxins, the taste that kills" by Russell L. Blaylock, M.D. Chapter 4
Will someone please tell me what happens to Presidential Order 13303 (Allows US Citizens to invest in the New Iraq . Under this Order and the Coalition Provisional Government Order 39, a US citizen has the same rights to investments as an Iraqi citizen)after the term of GWB expires?
Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Al Shahritsani affirmed that it’s soon to know whether OPEC will change its oil production in its ministerial meeting on March 5. In an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of London conference, Al Shahristani noted that OPEC decision will be based on market and demand figures. He renewed the government’s determination to accelerate the issuance of Oil Law and increase daily production to about 3 million barrels a day before the end of the current year. Al Shahristani affirmed that Iraq plans to increase its production three times within five years to reaching 6 million barrels a day.
On the other hand, Iraq Kurdistan’s regional government affirmed that it will pursue signing contracts with oil companies despite threats of cutting off exports due to the debate over the validity of these contracts. Kurdistan’s regional government Oil Minister Ashti Hourami said on the sidelines of an oil conference in London that Kurdistan did not stop yet signing new contracts and will pursue talks with oil companies. He warned that Baghdad threats will only draw away investments. He added that if there were differences between the regional and the central governments, they should be solved between he concerned parties as third parties should not be dragged into this debate.
I doubt they can criminalize something that was made legal previously by Presidential order, except using another such order overriding the first one. That seems unlikely. In the event of an overriding Presidential order removing the ability to buy Dinar, I cannot see such a negating act would be retroactive to those of us who obtained Dinar legitimately under the present Presidential order which is in effect.
Iran DIDN'T 'Halt' Nuke Program After all! Where's the NYTimes' Apology?
By Warner Todd Huston
February 7, 2008
Remember how the New York Times went apoplectic over last December's NIE estimate that brashly claimed that Iran had suspended their intent to manufacture nuclear arms? It was a front pager and formed the basis of claims that we had illegitimately targeted Iran for rhetorical attacks by many people who opposed the Bush Administration's entire foreign policy regime. Well, as the New York Sun said on the 7th, "what a difference two months make." It appears that the original NIE report was too hasty in its claims that Iran was innocent as the driven snow. .
On December 3rd, the NYT led its front page, "News Analysis" article with this startling statement:
Rarely, if ever, has a single intelligence report so completely, so suddenly, and so surprisingly altered a foreign policy debate here.
And in their followup report, the first paragraph read as follows:
A new assessment by American intelligence agencies released Monday concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting a judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.
Well, that all sounds as if the Bush Administration badly bungled the claims that Iran was trying to get the bomb, doesn't it?
But, we are now two months in the future from those breathless reports and it seems as if the initial NIE report that the New York Times was so exercised over turns out not to be so sanguine of Iran's eschewing of its nuclear ambitions.
The New York Sun reported on the 7th that maybe "Iran halted its nuclear weapons program" is a claim that is a bit over blown.
Tuesday, as our Eli Lake reported on page one of yesterday's Sun, the director of national intelligence, Mr. McConnell says he now regrets the phrasing of the unclassified estimate that so stirred America's enthusiasts of diplomacy. In testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Mr. McConnell went further. He noted that Iran is developing both the long range ballistic missiles and the nuclear fuel for a potential weapon. What had halted, it turns out, was work to design the actual warhead and secret enrichment activity. The Iranians continued to enrich uranium in the open in Natanz in defiance of two Security Council resolutions.
As for the secret enrichment and weapons design, Mr. McConnell is not even sure as of mid-2007 whether the Iranians have restarted this work. "We assess with moderate confidence that Tehran had not restarted these activities as of mid-2007, but since they comprised an unannounced secret effort which Iran attempted to hide, we do not know if these activities have been restarted," he told the assembled senators. So why then did the opening sentence of the December 3 assessment state with no equivocation, "We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program"? Mr. McConnell said that it was because he had to assemble quickly a declassified estimate in late November and that it did not occur to him that this kind of declarative statement would confuse the issue.
==end quote===
Well, that is a whole different kettle of fish(wrappers) isn't it? This new assessment, this correction to the earlier NIE report that the NYT was so excited to report, really flies in the face of what the Times said before.
Of course they reported on this reassessment of last December's NIE claims. On the 5th the NYT gave us their report on McConnell's latest appearance before the Senate intelligence committee. Curiously, their lead paragraph didn't contain a word to correct their earlier reports, but it did have this to say:
Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence, said on Tuesday that Al Qaeda is improving its ability to attack within the United States by recruiting and training new operatives. At the same time, he said, a terrorist group in Iraq that claims allegiance to Al Qaeda is beginning to send militants to other countries.
Curiously, as you can see, the Times focused on the Al Qaeda threat discussed by McConnell instead of the correction to the Iran Nuke program story. It took half way down the story to finally see the Times address the new nuke assessment. And even there they addressed it in scoffing terms.
The report attempted to calibrate its assessment of the Iranian nuclear threat, following the National Intelligence Estimate last year that concluded that Iran had probably suspended its nuclear weapons work in the fall of 2003. That finding appeared to undercut American diplomatic efforts to press Iran on the nuclear issue.
"We remain concerned about Iran’s intentions and assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons," the report said.
"We assess with high confidence that Iran has the scientific, technical and industrial capacity eventually to produce nuclear weapons,” it said, adding that the only plausible way to prevent Iran from producing such weapons was “an Iranian political decision to abandon a nuclear weapons objective."
And that is all the Times has to say about this news.
No apology.
Nothing.
Last December, the Times yelled from the rooftops about Bush's "failures."
Today, when their premise is shown to be false, they slink away pretending nothing happened.
U.S. accuses Iran of continuing to aid insurgents in Iraq
www.chinaview.cn
2008-02-08
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- A senior U.S. State Department official said Thursday Iran has been continuing to support the insurgents in Iraq to fight against the U.S.-led coalition troops in the country.
"Iran remains lethally engaged in terms of providing training and equipment to the most radical and the most violent forces in Iraq. Attacks by those forces continue," said David Satterfield, the State Department's Iraq coordinator.
Attacks on the U.S.-led forces with armor-piercing munitions suspected from Iran have increased in recent months, Satterfield said.
"Iran remains, we believe, determined to pursue its goal of departure of U.S. forces under as difficult circumstances as possible," he said.
Romney announces end of race
www.chinaview.cn
008-02-08
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced on Thursday that he would suspend his campaign.
"This is not an easy decision ...I hate to lose," Romney told a conservative group in a Washington hotel. "I feel I must now stand aside for our party and for our country."
"Today we are a nation at war. And Barack and Hillary have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war on terror: They would retreat, declare defeat ... I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror," said the former Massachusetts governor, 60.
"Now, I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues ...But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, and finding and executing Osama bin Laden," he told the Conservative Political Action Conference.
"I agree with him on eliminating Al Qaida and terror worldwide," he added.
Sara, Just keep on being Sara as you are well loved by a whole lot of people here. There are so many that are misguided, just keep on loving them and forgive them as they no not what they do. Do not harbor any bitterness in your heart but think on things which are good and pure. Their is such freedom in knowing that we are just in the world but not part of it. Oh such peace!!!!
I am writing what I expect will be the last part, Part Four (or D) about how to combat the effects of excitotoxins. It will take a while because, like the others, it requires a lot of pulling research and putting it all in one place. But as I was researching to find support for my statement that the Western diet, when adopted, brings people ill health (due to excitotoxins), I found this article which states, "There's no doubt heart disease has become a much more serious problem in Western countries over the past century, and that other populations that adopt a "Western" diet see an increase in heart disease."
But it goes on to state they don't know why it does that, since it isn't the fat or the bad carbs.. or even the salt which is responsible. They just don't see WHAT could be causing it. The entire article is interesting because it states so much of what we believe in nutrition research is based on sloppy science, and I agree with that. I am trying to make certain all I state is based on good science and backed by empirical data which you can check out if you use my references.
The article is interesting because it shows how they know something is causing the obesity epidemic and heart disease, etc.. but when the "experts" try looking at fat, then fibre, then bad carbohydrates, then calories, then salt.. they just can't see what is the cause, scientifically, of all the proliferation of health problems. They all miss the excitotoxins. I wonder if they are blinded by the powers of darkness to this, as I have had so much spiritual opposition that I do think they are deeply involved in doing this to destroy our health.
Here is that article, which I found fascinating (My bracketed comments):
===
Good food, bad food Everything we think we know about nutrition research is based on sloppy science
Alex Hutchinson, Citizen Special
December 01, 2007
The main priority of researchers who study nutrition is, laudably, to save lives. But according to science journalist Gary Taubes, that's also their basic failing. "It's honourable," he acknowledges. "But it conflicts with the desire to find the truth."
Taubes' current bestseller Good Calories, Bad Calories is being widely touted as a challenge to the orthodoxy of low-fat diets. But the book's target is much broader than that: The entire edifice of nutritional science and public health advocacy is scrutinized, and found wanting. We may "know" that salt is bad and fibre is good, that saturated fat is bad and exercise is good, and that obesity is simply a matter of ingesting more calories than we use -- but every single one of those beliefs is supported only by sloppy science, Taubes argues, and is routinely contradicted by the very studies that purport to prove it.
This argument flies in the face of overwhelming scientific consensus. But it's clear that research into diet and health faces a number of obstacles that could permit error to creep in. If you put people on a low-fat diet, are you also reducing the calories? How strictly are you controlling the diet? For how long?
Since blind clinical trials are effectively impossible, researchers often compare large populations (comparing diet and heart disease in, say, North America, Japan and some Mediterranean countries). But how do you distinguish between cause and effect? More importantly, how do you choose which countries to compare?
Taubes cut his journalistic teeth in the 1980s writing about bad physics (he wrote the definitive account of the "cold fusion" fiasco). But physics and nutrition science differ in two key respects, he says.
First, there is the constant sense of a ticking clock.
"If your concern is that people are dying out there by the tens of thousands, you don't have time to do the rigorous testing," he says. "So instead you get the hypothesis and you start taking leaps of faith."
Second, since public health policy involves convincing people to accept the advice of experts, there is pressure to suppress any dissenting views once a hypothesis is adopted. This makes it exceptionally difficult to overturn conventional dietary wisdom once it's entrenched.
The five "nutritional dogmas" highlighted here are all culled from Taubes' 600-page tome, which puts more than a century of research under the microscope, and includes 100-plus pages of references.
"What I kept saying to my editor is that we don't need another book that says, 'Don't eat carbs,'" he says. "We need a book that convinces the medical establishment to take this argument seriously."
1. Saturated fat raises cholesterol, which leads to heart disease
There's no doubt heart disease has become a much more serious problem in Western countries over the past century, and that other populations that adopt a "Western" diet see an increase in heart disease. Researchers in the 1950s concluded it was a result of the increased fat content of modern diets, although other components of the diet, such as sugars and refined carbohydrates, had also increased dramatically.
Attempts to pin the blame first on dietary cholesterol, then on dietary fat, then most recently on saturated fat, have met with mixed results. The studies have often been muddied by changing multiple variables, or else they simply rely on comparisons between populations that can't tease out which cause led to which effect. But a review in 2001 by the independent Cochrane Collaboration of the 27 most rigorous trials concluded that low-fat or cholesterol-lowering diets had no significant effect on longevity or cardiovascular events.
Not finding a significant effect doesn't mean the effect doesn't exist, but it does suggest it's neither as pronounced nor as clear-cut as the prevailing wisdom would have us believe. And it raises the question of whether there might be another cause that's been missed.
2. Consuming more calories than you burn leads to obesity
This statement seems almost too obvious to debate -- which is why Taubes views his discussion of it as the most important and most challenging section of his book. The question, he says, is about the "arrow of causality." Do you become obese because you eat more calories than you burn? Or do you eat more calories than you burn because you're predisposed to become obese?
Taubes cites two key research findings: First, most obese people don't eat more, on average, than lean people. And second, the effect of exercise on weight appears to be negligible, which isn't surprising considering that a 250-pound man would have to climb 20 flights of stairs to burn the energy in a single slice of bread. The effect of artificially restricting calories (or, equivalently, increasing exercise without increasing calories) is the same on an obese person as it is on a lean person, Taubes argues: It creates an unsustainable regime of semi-starvation. We get hungry.
Since obesity is a disorder of fat accumulation, Taubes says, we should look at the effect of different nutrients on the hormones that regulate our fat tissue -- insulin, in particular. (I think they are getting warm there, but they missed the hypothalmus and its role completely... ) Refined carbohydrates and sugars elevate insulin levels, which works to deposit calories as fat and keep them there, unavailable for use. The result is a kind of internal starvation, reducing the energy available for physical activity and stimulating hunger even when adequate energy would seem to be available.
3. Dietary fibre reduces the risk of cancer and other maladies
Fibre no longer has the cachet it once had, but it's still widely considered a key part of a healthy diet, and organizations like the Heart and Stroke Foundation continue to recommend it as a means of controlling blood sugar and cholesterol.
But the fibre story gets the facts backward, Taubes argues. In the 1960s, a scientist named Peter Cleave proposed that refined carbohydrates play a key role in the development of heart disease, diabetes, and a host of other chronic diseases, essentially anticipating Taubes' argument. Cleave was ignored, in part because his theory contradicted the dominant theory that fat was the problem.
But another investigator, Denis Burkitt, came up with a way to reconcile the two theories. Rather than blaming the addition of refined carbohydrates, he blamed the subtraction of fibre from unrefined carbohydrates. In other words, white bread was bad not because of its simple carbohydrates, but because it lacked the inert, indigestible fibre of whole-wheat bread. This permitted fat to remain the primary villain, with fibre granted a protective role -- despite the fact that, in the years since then, trials have consistently failed to confirm the benefits of fibre, Taubes says.
4. Salt leads to high blood pressure
High blood pressure is indisputably unhealthy, and it's certainly plausible that salt causes it. Consuming salt makes us retain water, which elevates blood pressure, the argument goes. Surprisingly, though, research has failed to show the clear benefits of salt reduction that would be expected. Even the most rose-coloured interpretation of the data suggests that cutting our average salt intake in half -- a nearly impossible task -- will drop our blood pressure by only a few mm Hg, whereas anyone with hypertension has blood pressure of at least 20 mm Hg above normal healthy levels.
Taubes, on the other hand, points out that carbohydrate-rich diets also cause us to retain water, thus elevating blood pressure, a fact that was reported as early as 1860. That's why low-carb diets stimulate a quick initial loss of water weight. And more recent studies have confirmed that elevated insulin levels cause the water-retaining effect of carbohydrates -- evidence enough to suggest to Taubes that carbohydrates, rather than salt, may be the cause of high blood pressure.
5. Vitamins and minerals are an essential part of a balanced diet
The discovery in 1753 that scurvy in British sailors could be prevented or cured with citrus juice was one of the classic demonstrations that a "disease of deficiency" could be cured with vitamins, in this case vitamin C. Other vitamins proved to have similar capabilities (vitamin B1 for beriberi, for instance), clearly showing the benefits of a balanced diet featuring lots of fruits and vegetables.
But animal foods actually contain large quantities of 12 of the 13 essential vitamins, with vitamin C being the exception. Canadian Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson famously described his years in the early part of the 20th century living with Inuit people and subsisting on a diet consisting almost exclusively of meat and fish with no ill effects -- a feat he later repeated in an experimental setting, living for a year in New York on nothing but meat.
It has since been shown that blood levels of B vitamins and, apparently, vitamin C, are reduced in the presence of carbohydrates. So British sailors consuming a sugar-rich diet did need limes to ward off scurvy, while Stefansson, feasting on seal meat, didn't.
If everything is wrong, what's right?
Taubes has done a meticulous job of demonstrating how little we really know about nutrition. But even his own ideas about the dangers of refined carbohydrates and sugars are still just hypotheses, as he fully admits. That's why he ends his book with a plea to the medical establishment to fund the relevant studies.
In the meantime, though, we have to eat. And if you find Taubes' arguments compelling, he doesn't think you need to worry about any ill effects, since he's simply recommending we revert to a diet from an earlier time.
"It's not about what you do eat, it's about what you don't eat. And what you're not eating is what we didn't eat as a species until at the very least 2,000 years ago, and for foods like refined sugar, 200 years ago," he says. "I can't imagine how that could be unhealthy."
He is looking in the wrong direction, by my view. It is not possible to return to a diet of an earlier time because we have too many excitotoxins in our food. Unless the food giants are forced by government to pull them out, we must mitigate their effects or be doomed to ill health in the future. Working on that (Part Four) now..
U.S. Official: Iran Operating Newer, More Advanced Nuclear Centrifuge
Friday, February 08, 2008
By James Rosen
WASHINGTON — Iran is operating a newer, more advanced centrifuge at the country's Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz, a State Department official who works on arms control and WMD issues has confirmed to FOX News.
U.S. officials were trying to determine the origin of the new centrifuges.
To enrich uranium to the high levels needed for a nuclear weapon, centrifuges are assembled in groups of 164 — known as "cascades."
Mastery of a single cascade is an extremely difficult process, but once that is achieved it is fairly easy for an industrialized country to attain a nuclear weapons capability because it requires only the building of more cascades and enough fissile uranium to feed into them.
Previously, Iran has been known to be operating P-1 centrifuges, a 1970s-era model; however, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made some unverifiable boasts about experimentation with the P-2: The newer, faster model developed by Pakistan and sold on the black market to some rogue nations by the A.Q. Khan network.
"We're not certain that these are P-2s ... or a variant of it," the State Department official said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, was expected to issue its latest report on the status of the Iranian nuclear program around Feb. 20, and will almost certainly provide more information about Iran's work with centrifuges.
Such a report by Director General Mohamed ElBaradei would have the effect, like his past reports, of complicating U.S. efforts to rally the international community to take decisive action to halt Iran's uranium enrichment.
Iraq Welcomes Russian Debt Write-Off
By Associated Press
February 8, 2008
BAGHDAD -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani welcomed Friday an expected Russian decision to write off 91 percent of Iraq's estimated $13 billion debt, calling it a "historic turning point" in relations between the two countries.
A diplomat at the Iraqi Embassy in Moscow said Thursday that the pact would be signed during a visit by Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari that starts Sunday. A Russian Finance Ministry official also said a debt-restructuring deal was planned.
They both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make public statements.
In June, China announced it was forgiving Iraq's debt. It didn't give figures, but the Iraqis said they owed China about $8 million.
But some of Iraq's major creditors, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have refused to do so until they see progress on national reconciliation, economic reform and security.
Part D: Avoidance and How to Overcome Hypothalmus Damage
The first thing for a person of any age is AVOIDANCE..
we should stop ingesting excitotoxins such as MSG.
Easy enough, you say? Not really.
The problem is that so many foods contain MSG.
They have been adding it exponentially into the food supply since 1940 (see part C).
It isn't just the words Monosodium Glutamate or MSG which you have to look for on labels. QUOTE:
Foods always contain MSG when these words are on the label:
MSG
Gelatin
Calcium Caseinate
Monosodium glutamate
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP)
Textured Protein
Monopotassium glutamate
Hydrolyzed Plant Protein (HPP)
Yeast Extract
Glutamate
Autolyzed Plant Protein
Yeast food or nutrient
Glutamic Acid
Sodium Caseinate
Autolyzed Yeast
Foods made with the following products often contain MSG
Malted Barley (flavor)
Flavors, Flavoring
Modified food starch
Barley malt
Reaction Flavors
Rice syrup or brown rice syrup
Malt Extract or Flavoring
Natural Chicken, Beef, or Pork, Flavoring
"Seasonings" (Most assume this means salt, pepper, or spices and herbs, which sometimes it is.)
Lipolyzed butter fat
Maltodextrin
Soy Sauce or Extract
"Low" or "No Fat" items
Caramel Flavoring (coloring)
Soy Protein
Corn syrup and corn syrup solids (some companies use another process to make their product, saying it is MSG free)
Stock
Soy Protein Isolate or Concentrate
Citric Acid (when processed from corn)
Broth
Cornstarch
Milk Powder
Bouillon
Flowing Agents
Dry Milk Solids
Carrageenan
Wheat, rice, or oat protein
Protein Fortified Milk
Whey Protein or Whey
Anything enriched or vitamin enriched
Annatto
Whey Protein Isolate or Concentrate
Protein fortified "anything"
Spice
Pectin
Enzyme modified "anything"
Gums
Protease
Ultra-pasteurized "anything"
Dough Conditioners
Protease enzymes
Fermented "anything"
Yeast Nutrients
European numbers for glutamate containing additives:
These are some of the names of excitotoxins in the food supply which we get from the grocery store everyday, and it is at the grocery store that we choose what to buy and eat, so this is the first place to start.. by using this as a watch list for ingredients to avoid when you shop at your local grocery store. The point is to not ingest these substances - remember, you are trying to protect your HEALTH by doing this, not just go on a diet - though it will help with that, too, if need be. You should be attempting to drastically reduce your exposure to excitotoxins in most of the meals you prepare (or snack on), and this list is a good place to start. Remember, though, that this is just ONE excitotoxin.. as I quoted, there are SEVENTY known. But it is the most used in the food supply so know these code words for it and avoid it like the plague it is to your health.
When you do eat out, you are eating what you cannot see, and they want you to return to their food place so they want their food to be delicious and memorable.. why wouldn't they put a flavor enhancer like MSG in your food? Remember from part C what it does? Quote: "It suppressed undesirable flavors, gave "zest" to food, removed the "tinny" taste of canned foods, and turned bland foods into gourmet meals."
Would the restaurant you go to want you to go to the competition's place because their food "tastes better" - like a "gourmet meal"? And how can they stay competitive if they have cheap quality goods which taste like they are cheap quality? They can't serve you ground up tenderloin steak in their hamburgers to offset the "gourmet" taste of hamburgers prepared by the competition with excitotoxins or they will go out of business. Restaurants feel pressured to add these excitotoxins to their food, just to stay competitive and viable financially. And as a result the eating public ingests excitotoxins every single time they eat out.
So as for how to cope with when you eat out or are unavoidably exposed to excitotoxins (special occasion eating, etc).. I suggest you buy and take before such a meal a very simple spice named turmeric. It is what makes curry that yellow or orange color, and it competes with MSG for the uptake at the neuroreceptors. What that means is, you won't be taking so much MSG into your brain if you eat it. It is preferable you never eat MSG, but if it is unavoidable, at least take the precaution of taking some turmeric with your meal (before it is better) so you won't absorb so much of it from the food you ingest. This will not totally block the MSG completely, but it will lessen it greatly and I have tried many other ways (Alpha Lipoic Acid is ok, but not nearly as good as turmeric) and this is the best of them all that I have found so far.
You also should be aware of other excitotoxins that will crop up along the way, for instance, most of the "diet" drinks taste so good because, you guessed it, they are filled with flavor enhancer excitotoxins (like NutraSweet or Aspartame). So as folks sip on their "diet" drink they are actually killing parts of their hypothalmus glands and causing great hormonal disruption and damage to such a degree that it will cause obesity even without excess caloric intake. Remember, it isn't the calories which are causing people to become obese, it is their lack of caution in taking into their bodies chemical compounds which damage their hypothalmus glands.
If the cause of the obesity epidemic is the excitotoxins, the most affected by excitotoxic damage would logically be the poor who eat "junk" food with lots of MSG and excitotoxins in them (cheap food manufacturers use it the most to make their products taste "gourmet"). I refer you to the previous parts of this series where I documented that African Americans have half their population experiencing early onset of puberty.. HALF. That is double the statistic of the white population, likely because the African American diets contain more MSG.. due to the fact that a larger percentage of the population who are African American are poor and so they tend to eat more of the cheap fast and junk food.
Could there be any tie-in between the sexual disorders we are seeing and hypothalmus damage? Remember the good doctor said that MSG "could produce a whole array of disorders much later in life, such as obesity, impaired growth, endocrine problems, sleep difficulties, emotional problems including episodic anger, and sexual psycho-pathology." Is there evidence of an explosion of sexual deviance and anger/murder in the population, say, from 1910 to now? How prevalent were kidnapping, rapes and murders... or serial killers and sex slayings, in 1910? I think you could argue it has increased exponentially. And what of "road rage" violence, school shootings and other crimes of anger? Were they really prevalent in 1910? What if it isn't just "modern pressures" but organ damage which has raised these statistics through the roof? I have documented that there were no insomnia problems (see part B), nor the same degree of obesity we now see (see that gif file at the beginning of Part C). If these are documentably true, could these sexual psychosis (such as serial killers, etc) and rage problems (such as roadrage murders and school shootings) also be at least due in part to hypothalmus damage?
From today's headline news at FOX:
Teen Charged With Manslaughter After Schoolyard Beating Leaves Classmate Dead
Gunman Who Killed 5 at Missouri Council Meeting Left Suicide Note 'Truth Will Come Out'
23-year-old Woman Kills 2 Students in Louisiana College Classroom, Takes Own Life
Quite obviously, if you live in the West and eat a Western diet, you have some excitotoxic damage to your hypothalmus, even if it has not yet become a full blown "problem" or disease. You are just like the monkeys who were fed MSG and then killed which showed no outward behaviorial evidence of the damage but the evidence was there of the hypothalmic damage when examined after their deaths (From Part C of this series - "In one study, scientists gave a rhesus monkey MSG subcutaneously (beneath the skin) by injection and looked for behavioral problems. They found none. The monkey was killed and its brain examined. To their suprise they found significant damage to the hypothalmus gland. This demonstrates that brain cells can be destroyed without there being overt signs of brain damage to an outside observer. The experiment was repeated on nine other monkeys with identical results.").
When a person is young and healthy, they may not see much of this damage in evidence. Only if their body becomes stressed or injured would the extra load and hypothalmus damage evidence itself, as the body would find it difficult to do massive repair after such harm. They would not be able to bounce back like they would have been able to without this silent and unseen damage to their internal organs.
Since I don't believe it will be easy to remove such a monolith which has embraced that which is ruining the public health as GRAS (safe), I will return to what YOU can do to protect yourself before the damage occurs, and, once damaged, what you can do to return yourself to a more normal and healthy state.
As mentioned before, the hypothalmus gland controls the pituitary gland. "The pituitary is the master gland, the control center for most of the endocrine glands throughout the body including the adrenal glands, the thyroid, and the reproductive organs. Through this control the brain regulates growth, metabolism and the onset of puberty and old age." (ref4) Therefore, aging will happen prematurely.. that is, the signs of old age and its diseases will happen sooner than they otherwise would.. if the hypothalmus is damaged.It isn't aging, it is hypothalmus damage. This is what we see when we see these diseases of "old age" suddenly happening in the young. Children with cancer, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke.. these used to be only for old age, remember? As for organ failure, that certainly was only reserved for those very old and facing death..
17-Year-Old Discovers Her Organs Are Failing By Chance
Friday, February 08, 2008
Fox News
A teenager from the U.K. discovered her organs were failing by chance, after playing with her grandmother's blood pressure machine, the Daily Mail reports.
Amea O'Nion went to the doctor after the machine showed she had high blood pressure. Shortly after, doctors found she was suffering from kidney failure.
"Amea was diagnosed with kidney failure in October 2006 and put on dialysis," her mother Denise Andrews told the Daily Mail. "We really didn't know how close she was to dying. She could have had a heart attack."
Following the diagnosis, the 17-year-old received dialysis each night to clean her blood.
That is kind of disturbing, isn't it? Of course, no cause is given. We are left to thinking this is a sad, isolated event. But as we see what used to be age-related diseases creeping into the young population.. it makes you wonder if it really is such an isolated event, or just another symptom in a system-wide malfunction of the public's health. Diabetes, for instance, has also suddenly had an explosion:
Diabetes explosion expected by 2025
Posted on Dec 5, 2006
New estimates put the number of people with diabetes at 380 million by the year 2025. That's about 7 percent of the world's adults. The staggering projection is based on the continual rise of type 2 diabetes, which is closely linked to obesity. The estimate was published in the newly released Diabetes Atlas, which offers a comprehensive look at the growing problem. Martin Silink, incoming president of the International Diabetes Federation told Reuters: "The enormity of the epidemic has suddenly become apparent to everyone."
Here's more from the Reuters story on the international diabetes meeting that is taking place this week in South Africa:
Experts say diabetes kills as many people as HIV/AIDS and is emerging as one of the chief public health challenges of the 21st Century, especially in developing nations.
The IDF estimates that diabetes -- a chronic condition that occurs when the body either cannot produce or utilize insulin, which is key in processing sugar -- already affects 246 million across the world, up from just 30 million two decades ago.
Diabetes is blamed for the deaths of about 3.8 million people each year, mostly through complications such as strokes and heart attacks.
Every year, 7 million people are afflicted with diabetes, most of them in developing countries where economic progress is bringing with it "lifestyle diseases" such as obesity, once mostly found in rich countries.
Experts say public health messages urging people to watch their diets and exercise more -- something which has not resonated in rich Western countries -- are still the single most important tool to fight the epidemic.
Note that just like the "obesity epidemic" and the "sleep epidemic" this is called by the president of the diabetes federation an "epidemic". And it is!! This statistic is up from just 30 million two decades ago, now 380 million!! And it corresponds with "economic progress" (read, the Western diet) which brings "lifestyle diseases" into developing countries. This is excitotoxin damage.. and the US exports it with its fast food and drinks. Here is yet another indicator of exponential damage to human health.. from insomnia epidemic to obesity epidemic and now a diabetic epidemic.. can the cause not be seen and stopped?
As you can see, diseases of aging are manifesting early in the population as the public's hypothalmus glands become impaired. Knowing this, I began to look into hormonal changes as we age, and I found these words by Doctor William Regelson, M.D. in his book about hormones and aging where he states that hormones "actually determine how we age by controlling what I call the true biomarkers of aging; that is, they are a true reflection of the aging process itself. As the levels of hormones decline, so do we, physically and mentally. The loss of these precious hormones saps us of energy and vitality, and shaves decades off our lives."
All the aging disease indicators go up as hypothalmus damage causes a cutback of the natural levels of these hormones in the body, shaving decades off our lives. You see, the real problem is that the glands CANNOT produce hormones in normal amounts (not due to aging.. but...) due to damage from these substances in our food supply. Therefore, over time, we will all need to supplement into our diets that which the hypothalmus gland can no longer produce in our quest for normal health. We will have to turn to that which cures our symtoms of disease - be it depression, moodiness, heart attacks, insomnia, obesity, diabetes or erectile dysfunction - by taking some form of supplement. Since health food supplements have the least side effects, it is wiser to go with them than with drugs. Heath Ledger did not, and his slight miscalculation in dosage cost him his life. Drugs are dangerous. What I am about to share with you solves the problem and is NOT dangerous to your health in the process.
I was given recently an article from "Vista" magazine (Issue 55, page 10) by a friend of mine in Canada. And I think it is no coincidence that the article states that age-related diseases all are going up along with obesity in that country which follows the Western Diet. It says: "Six out of every ten people in Canada have allowed themselves to become overweight to the point of disease. The evidence is now overwhelming that being even moderately overweight is linked to insulin resistance, adult-onset diabetes, heart disease, stroke, numerous forms of cancer, premature senility and Alzheimer's disease. Body fat is the most serious cause of illness today, yet it is almost ignored by medicine. The field of fat control is left mostly to modern-day carpetbaggers who fleece the public..."
The article goes on to deal with a hormone which is decreased in the body when we suffer age-related (or excitotoxin induced) brain and organ damage. It says, "As we age, almost all of us suffer brain and other organ damage which reduces the efficiency of insulin in controlling blood sugar. Long before that, the body is losing control of sugar and fat. The majority of the population is in pre-diabetes. It is now well-documented that raising DHEA levels with low-dose supplements repairs insulin metabolism, improves insulin's efficiency, reduces insulin requirements and lowers blood sugar levels. Raising DHEA levels also helps to transport body fat from storage in fat cells to the muscles for disposal. DHEA supplements also increase testosterone levels in older men and women whose DHEA level is below that of a 30-year-old. It has no effect on those whose DHEA is already at a normal level. The net result in older people, especially in women, is an increase in lean mass and muscle strength, enabling fat to be used as fuel."
The article makes this pertinent assertion, "Without enough DHEA, numerous scientists now attest it is impossible for the human body to complete essential daily maintenance. Without sufficient DHEA, damage slowly accumulates until degenerative disease can gain a foothold. Remember, no one dies of old age. We age and die from disease or accumulated damage."
What this means is that if the hypothalmus is damaged, the body cannot do its essential repairing of body wear and tear, due to the deficiency of the hormone DHEA which occurs as a result of that damage. That is because the DHEA secretion is overseen by the hypothalmus gland. Once it is damaged, DHEA cannot be produced in normal quantities. In the case of sustaining a life-threatening injury (say in the war theatre in Iraq), the body will have difficulty repairing itself due to a lack of the hormone DHEA due to this damage sustained in the hypothalmus gland. The hormonal imbalance will also cause emotional disturbances, and there is a general decline in health.. causing less resiliency in bouncing back mentally, emotionally and physically. Instead of returning to duty, such persons can become incapacitated, or permanently harmed (Gulf War Syndrome, ongoing Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, etc). The underlying problem, however, is actually the repair mechanism being impaired due to damage to the hypothalmus gland.
This scenerio applies to the stresses of corporate and civilian life too.. say that a middle aged man has a heart attack. Obviously, if he eats the Western diet, he has some hypothalmus gland damage and that means he will have less ability for his body to repair the damage and continue with protective care for his heart. The bouncing back is impaired mentally, emotionally and physically from what it would have been had he not been exposed to these damaging substances in his diet which are decreasing his body's hormonal response to this health challenge (DHEAs which are necessary for the repair response and daily maintenance of the body). If he wishes to remain healthy, he must supplement the right hormones and in the right amounts to counter the hormonal damage which has caused his body to be unable to initiate or complete the repair and protective effects necessary for his heart.
The summary of the article is particularly useful - "To summarize - unless DHEAS levels are kept within the range of an average 30-year-old, all the usual fat loss schemes that manipulate food and exercise can achieve only short-term results. All are doomed to repeated failure. Repeated failure to control body fat has been proven to be the cause of numerous diseases. Daily low-dose DHEA supplementation, in the range of 10 to 50 milligrams will maintain DHEAS within or near the 30-year-old range in the majority of aging men and women. DHEA supplementation, therefore, provides a simple, inexpensive, non-toxic strategy for prevention of disease. In cynical moments, I sometimes think that it being a crime to possess this natural nutritional supplement in Canada without a prescription is because Canadian health policy is more concerned with keeping us powerless and controlled than with empowering us to be proactive in controlling and improving our own health." (end quote) (ref 5)
This shows us that the reason for the short term unsustainability of fat loss within the population is due to a lack of hormones.. which happens as we age, but which can be brought on quickly by damage created by excitotoxins. This is why children are now getting these diseases and are becoming obese - it is not merely from a lack of exercise or improper diet. Going back again and again to tinkering with the diet or exercise regimens will not resolve this problem when it is organ damage and hormonal insufficiency at the root of the problem. Only supplementing with what the body is no longer able to produce naturally will allow for long-term results.
This is also true for the other manifestations of hormonal insufficiency as a result of hypothalmus damage. The hypothalmus oversees the master gland (pituitary) and without the hormones coming off of that in right amounts, the entire body is out of whack and open to disease states. In the same way that manipulation of food and exercise will only achieve short-term results because the DHEAS must be within the normal range to control fat metabolism, so the other hormonal disturbances which lead to the other states of disease will be arrested if we can supplement into our bodies what it is no longer producing in the right quantities. This article documents for us that when DHEA drops (due to the hypothalmus gland being damaged or, in the article, "old age"), normal fat control goes away and those sustaining the resulting decrease in hormonal levels will grow fat. It is that simple. Equally though, the other hormones the hypothalmus gland controls will also be stopped or decreased below normal levels, bringing on the other diseased states I have documented in the other parts of this series of posts, not just obesity. DHEA is only a part of the answer, so don't run out and buy DHEA quite yet.. there are other hormonal depletions and I have more and better answers the Lord has graciously helped me figure out and I am willing to share with you shortly. But that will require another post (sorry to those who thought this would be the last one). Please read to the end of the series first before buying any hormonal supplements... remember, I am not doing this for money.. just trying to safeguard your health. You should understand it all first, I believe. Oh, do have turmeric, though.. it is a great thing to add to your diet to protect you from excitotoxic damage and is completely harmless.
Sara.
ref 4 P.13 Excitotoxins, the taste that kills by Russell L. Blaylock, The superhormone promise by William Regelson, M.D. P. 20.
ref 5 Vista Magazine Issue 55, Page 10-12.
Allawi is in the corner waiting to take over from Malaki, GCC wants to RV, Iraq have said they follow suit, Israel claims they are preparing for an all out war with Iran, the fire in CBI is highly suspected of arson as most of records was destroyed, Sara is doing a health clinic, and the Dollar is still dropping, Gold is swinging pretty good and was at the latest check 930 bucks per Troy Ounce, and the big guys in the oil industry is now licking rear ends in a bidding frenzy in Iraq.
Connect the dots anyone? I can't.
Apart from Iran and Taliban, it's business as usual I would say.
Nothing is as unpredictable as the Middle East.
Somewhere there they just continue with their life as they know it, and we continue to wonder when they will get it straight.
They will continue do what they do, and wonder when we will get it straight.
Whatever works out best.
-"Better one in the forest , than ten in the hand"
Sara, the negative comments I removed were posted from a Canadian IP address in Edmonton, Alberta. The only Canadian I remember posting on here was timbitts, but he was friendly toward you. Is this person bringing some unrelated argument from another board here?
I have no idea who this person is. And I really don't want to go over some old argument from some lackey who lost an argument with me in the past and holds a grudge. Please delete anything else he/she/it posts. It is certainly off topic of this board and its discussions in my view. I believe that Tim Bitts said he was from southern Alberta, not the liberal north (Edmonton).
Bradley Church.. thank you for your comment.
I was going back over the board and reread it during my search.
I appreciate your sentiment very much.
The reason I was going back over the board posts was to "connect the dots", as Roger was speaking of today.
Here, Roger.. are a few dots.. connected together.
Let me know if you see the connection to the Dinar investment as I do.
In Ahmadinejad's analysis, the rising Islamic "superpower" has decisive advantages over the infidel. Islam has four times as many young men of fighting age as the West, with its ageing populations. Hundreds of millions of Muslim "ghazis" (holy raiders) are keen to become martyrs while the infidel youths, loving life and fearing death, hate to fight. Islam also has four-fifths of the world's oil reserves, and so controls the lifeblood of the infidel. More importantly, the US, the only infidel power still capable of fighting, is hated by most other nations.
According to this analysis, spelled out in commentaries by Ahmadinejad's strategic guru, Hassan Abassi, known as the "Dr Kissinger of Islam", President George W Bush is an aberration, an exception to a rule under which all American presidents since Truman, when faced with serious setbacks abroad, have "run away". Iran's current strategy, therefore, is to wait Bush out. And that, by "divine coincidence", corresponds to the time Iran needs to develop its nuclear arsenal, thus matching the only advantage that the infidel enjoys.
Moments after Ahmadinejad announced "the atomic miracle", the head of the Iranian nuclear project, Ghulamreza Aghazadeh, unveiled plans for manufacturing 54,000 centrifuges, to enrich enough uranium for hundreds of nuclear warheads. "We are going into mass production," he boasted.
The Iranian plan is simple: playing the diplomatic game for another two years until Bush becomes a "lame-duck", unable to take military action against the mullahs, while continuing to develop nuclear weapons.
==end quote==
From a leaked MI5 report From the UK’s Sunday Times from ten months ago we learned that Al Qaeda is Planning a "Hiroshima" against a "western target",
QUOTE:
"The report was compiled by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) - based at MI5’s London headquarters - and provides a quarterly review of the international terror threat to Britain. The report: “Recent reporting has described AQI’s Kurdish network in Iran planning what we believe may be a large-scale attack against a western target." http://truckandbarter.com/mt/archives/2008/01/iraqidinardiscu.html#133545
In the article from Feb 7, 2008 called, Iran DIDN'T 'Halt' Nuke Program After all!
QUOTE:
Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence, said on Tuesday Feb 5, 2008 that Al Qaeda is improving its ability to attack within the United States by recruiting and training new operatives. At the same time, he said, a terrorist group in Iraq that claims allegiance to Al Qaeda is beginning to send militants to other countries.
==end quote==
Are you seeing any pieces coming together here?
Further, the article states that this same Mr McConnell was contrite about his last statement with the NIE where he stated, ""We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program"
Indeed, this soft backpedalling statement glares out from the page, quote, "The New York Sun reported on the 7th that maybe "Iran halted its nuclear weapons program" is a claim that is a bit over blown."
The article quoted Mr. McConnell saying, "that it was because he had to assemble quickly a declassified estimate in late November and that it did not occur to him that this kind of declarative statement would confuse the issue."
Did you notice that? He just didn't think saying that Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program would "confuse the issue" so much, hey? What confusion could it possibly have created? Well.. Mr. McConnell went on to say that his statement was not quite true.. and instead he NOW judges, quote:
"We remain concerned about Iran’s intentions and assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons," the report said.
"We assess with high confidence that Iran has the scientific, technical and industrial capacity eventually to produce nuclear weapons,” it said, adding that the only plausible way to prevent Iran from producing such weapons was “an Iranian political decision to abandon a nuclear weapons objective."
Even though we face an uphill fight, I know that many in this room are fully behind my campaign.” You are with me all the way to the convention. Fight on, just like Ronald Reagan did in 1976. But there is an important difference from 1976: today… we are a nation at war.
And Barack and Hillary have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war on terror. They would retreat and declare defeat. And the consequence of that would be devastating. It would mean attacks on America, launched from safe havens that make Afghanistan under the Taliban look like child’s play. About this, I have no doubt.
I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues, as you know. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and on eliminating Al Qaeda and terror. If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.
Romney said he believes that retreating from Iraq would mean attacks on America, "About this, I have no doubt."
What does HE know that we don't know?
What convinced him that retreat would mean attacks on America?
So connect these dots.. the NIE was WRONG as admitted to by the man who made the statement that Tehran has halted its nuke program and they NOW say they have HIGH confidence that Iran is keeping its options open and "Iran has the scientific, technical and industrial capacity eventually to produce nuclear weapons." The MI5 says there is a Hiroshima being planned. Mr. McConnell further states that, quote, "Al Qaeda is improving its ability to attack within the United States by recruiting and training new operatives. At the same time, he said, a terrorist group in Iraq that claims allegiance to Al Qaeda is beginning to send militants to other countries." And Mr. Romney says he has no doubt if we withdraw from Iraq it will mean attacks on American soil.
Connecting these dots, then.. where are we standing?
Could it possibly be true that Ahmadinejad really thinks this statement of his is true when he said:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "We Will Soon Experience A World Without The United States And Zionism."
AHMADINEJAD: "Undoubtedly, I say that this slogan and goal is achievable, and with the support and power of God, we will soon experience a world without the United States and Zionism and will breathe in the brilliant time of Islamic sovereignty over today's world." (Iran's President Warns Muslims Of 'Conspiracies Of World Imperialism,' Available At: www.sharifnews.com, Accessed 10/26/05)
"The weekly’s interview with Jaafari appeared under the title, “Commander of Lovers of Martyrdom Garrison: Let America and Israel know, each of our suicide volunteers equals a nuclear bomb”.“One of our garrison’s aims is to spot martyrdom-seeking individuals in society and then recruit and organise them, so that, God willing, at the right moment when the Commander-in-Chief of the country’s armed forces [Ayatollah Khamenei] gives the order, they would be able to enter the scene and carry out their missions”...
And what about James Woolsey, former director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, in his statements that,
QUOTE:
As a former director of the world’s largest intelligence agency, Woolsey dismissed claims by Iran and its apologists that the Islamic Republic seeks nuclear capability for peaceful means.
“With its huge oil and natural gas reserves, Iran is not the least bit interested in nuclear power,” he said. “And negotiation with a movement that defines itself by its goal of the destruction of Israel and the United States is like trying to persuade Hitler to give up anti-Semitism.”
Woolsey displayed in-depth knowledge of the various theological movements and streams vying for the soul of the Islamic world. “The Ujutiya – end of time – movement represents a major part of Iranian politics today,” he warned. “If we look at it like a chess game, the nuclear bomb is the queen.”
On Feb 8 I quoted a senior U.S. State Department official saying that Iran has been continuing to support the insurgents in Iraq to fight against the U.S.-led coalition troops in the country. Quote: ""Iran remains lethally engaged in terms of providing training and equipment to the most radical and the most violent forces in Iraq." They are fighting the US forces now in Iraq.
Do these "dots" show that in addition to targeting the US forces in Iraq, the Iranians and their allies are aiming at the heartland of America and seeking nuclear weapons to detonate on US soil (MI5 - Hiroshima, etc)?
What about their getting nukes..??
Did you see the post yesterday? What does this mean?
U.S. Official: Iran Operating Newer, More Advanced Nuclear Centrifuge
Friday, February 08, 2008
By James Rosen
WASHINGTON — Iran is operating a newer, more advanced centrifuge at the country's Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz, a State Department official who works on arms control and WMD issues has confirmed to FOX News.
Previously, Iran has been known to be operating P-1 centrifuges, a 1970s-era model; however, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made some unverifiable boasts about experimentation with the P-2: The newer, faster model developed by Pakistan and sold on the black market ..
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, was expected to issue its latest report on the status of the Iranian nuclear program around Feb. 20, and will almost certainly provide more information about Iran's work with centrifuges.
Such a report by Director General Mohamed ElBaradei would have the effect, like his past reports, of complicating U.S. efforts to rally the international community to take decisive action to halt Iran's uranium enrichment.
==end quote==
I have to ask you... how long will the US let its security policies be dictated by Mohamed at the UN - complicating the securing of the homeland of America from attack?
Until the Iranians have attacked and many millions of Americans lie dead?
All so we stay PC in the eyes of the skeptical world, right?
==
Soooo.. to connect these dots for you as it relates to the Iraqi Dinar RV.
I think the RV is not happening because of Iran.
Iran has said they are going to attack and destroy America and Israel, and they are seeking nuclear arms to do so.
I believe that they have also explained to their neighbors that if they are successful in this, they will be looking closely at who is aligned with them next.
This is why the Middle Eastern nations are also arming themselves to the teeth, just in case they get targeted next.
So Iraq is not RVing because that is cooperating with Iran's enemies.. and Iran is definitely not being stopped.
Why align yourself openly with America when Iran is telling you they will go after you next if you do and they are obtaining nuclear arms?
Actually, Iran is feeding the unrest in Iraq, and is a very real threat to Iraqi security.
When they have their meetings face to face.. what do you think they discuss? The weather?
Everyone knows that Iran has nuclear weapon ambitions and what those nukes are going to be used for.
Chances are the USA and Israel top the agenda of their talks together...
along with Iran's nuclear ambitions and what they intend to do to us.
It certainly is on our minds.. why would it not be on theirs? What do you think Iran says to them? Perhaps..
Stand out of the way and see if we can achieve our goal and wipe Israel off the map and destroy the USA with our nukes?
Don't do anything to align yourself with them (and certainly don't RV which would cause them to prosper)?
The Iranians are dead set they are going after the US and Israel, even if the Western media don't tell us much about it..
nor connect the dots.
I saw some very connected dots once, remember? (vision)
I am waiting for that to change, or the timeline to catch up.
So far it has not yet changed.. and that is - at this time - the inevitable future.
Can you see that it is the plan of Iran?
Can you see it is what they are planning if you connect the dots and read between the lines?
Don't be fooled by the now discounted NIE which once upon a time had the fairy tale story that Iran is no nuclear threat to the world.
Remember Mr. Woolsey's admonition that Iran is not seeking fuel but weapons. His statement:
“With its huge oil and natural gas reserves, Iran is not the least bit interested in nuclear power,” he said. “And negotiation with a movement that defines itself by its goal of the destruction of Israel and the United States is like trying to persuade Hitler to give up anti-Semitism.”
should ring in your mind as true rather than the platitudes and falsehoods touted in the MSM.
The fact is, the MSM just retracted its statements with a soft backpedal of, quote:
The New York Sun reported on the 7th that maybe "Iran halted its nuclear weapons program" is a claim that is a bit over blown.
Talk about an understatement!
They got it wrong, you know... and you know whose safety it concerns, don't you? YOURS.
Shouldn't we be a mite concerned?
Have we forgotten?
As I said to Roger, "As for your saying talk about attacking Iran of it being not a matter of IF but WHEN, being wrong.. I can only say that confronting the threat of Hitler was necessary to our continued existence and freedom. I wish confronting evil was not necessary because the evil would stop being evil. But just like Hitler, there comes a time when men (by the help of God) must stop an evil force. I believe that the US will be forced into war with Iran eventually. It is only a matter of time. In other words.. the US does not want it, but they will HAVE TO do it.. sometime in the future. I believe the US as a country prefers peace and not war, too - as do you and I. Just as the world did not want war with Hitler in World War II. History repeats itself. The Iranians stand now as a threat we will have to confront sooner or later. They are not backing down. It is best we confront them carefully and with the least civilian casualties.. but thoroughly. Or it will become another world war, pulling in the entire region, and then the entire world."
Connecting the dots does not necessarily add up in the manner that you have described. I believe it is certain that Iran's President is trying to provoke a war with the U.S. Iran views the USA as weak due to the massive debts the USA has incurred. Our diplomates are very much aware of Iran's calculations.
However, Iran is playing another game. They have calculated that the U.S. may actually win this war. Therefore, they have invested in Iraq to make a profit from money and also to obtain political "that a boys" from the Iraqi's. Doing these items does not cost Iran anything.
Iran knows that the USA has spent itself into massive debts and therefore Iran believes that this debt and lack of manpower will prevent the USA from starting a new war with them. They are betting that they are going to get away with Uranium enrichment due to these factors.
Another factor that Iran is banking on is that Bush is in a very tight spot politically due to the election. If Bush attacks Iran in an election year, the Republican's may lose this election... as this action is probably going to mean the re-institution of the draft and this is probably not going to set very well with many American's.
Leaving the discussion of the Iranians, the Iraq stock market is very vulernable to volence due to the stock market not being on the internet banking/trading as of yet. This is due to members of the stock market needing to be present at the market due to paper trading. Volence as a factor does not help the Iraqi stock market locally. Once, Iraq's stock market is on-line, members of the exchange may not have to be a vulernable to this factor.
We will have to see how volence in Iraq proceeds. However, US military and the Iraqi's themselves are working on keeping this country volence free. Sadr maybe a factor. However, if he breaks his cease fire, the US will take him and his fighters out. His breaking his cease fire would be calculated.
Connecting the dots does not necessarily add up in the manner that you have described. I believe it is certain that Iran's President is trying to provoke a war with the U.S. Iran views the USA as weak due to the massive debts the USA has incurred. Our diplomates are very much aware of Iran's calculations.
However, Iran is playing another game. They have calculated that the U.S. may actually win this war. Therefore, they have invested in Iraq to make a profit from money and also to obtain political "that a boys" from the Iraqi's. Doing these items does not cost Iran anything.
Iran knows that the USA has spent itself into massive debts and therefore Iran believes that this debt and lack of manpower will prevent the USA from starting a new war with them. They are betting that they are going to get away with Uranium enrichment due to these factors.
Another factor that Iran is banking on is that Bush is in a very tight spot politically due to the election. If Bush attacks Iran in an election year, the Republican's may lose this election... as this action is probably going to mean the re-institution of the draft and this is probably not going to set very well with many American's.
Leaving the discussion of the Iranians, the Iraq stock market is very vulernable to volence due to the stock market not being on the internet banking/trading as of yet. This is due to members of the stock market needing to be present at the market due to paper trading. Volence as a factor does not help the Iraqi stock market locally. Once, Iraq's stock market is on-line, members of the exchange may not have to be a vulernable to this factor.
We will have to see how volence in Iraq proceeds. However, US military and the Iraqi's themselves are working on keeping this country volence free. Sadr maybe a factor. However, if he breaks his cease fire, the US will take him and his fighters out. His breaking his cease fire would be calculated.
Sorry I don't like to give out my e-mail over a blog site, and will not do it that way. How have you been doing by the way.
Are still doing the hops before I leave, they give me more and more hops.
Sara,
Funny how life evolves. As as sit here, I did just clean my hands after developing, and installed a hydrogen fuel cell for my vehicle. Yes I run on water, well you have to split the water molecules first. (No need to pay thousands, I did mine for less than $20) And the Iranians on their part also proudly tells about their technological progress, and are getting into more efficient uranium centrifuges.
More U235 and U238 separated, faster and more efficient.
Wow are they getting their main ingredients for their bomb by the load now or what.
Sara, you have got the whole thing down pretty good I must say, there is one nagging thing though that are left on the table, Laura had the in cling.
Assume the Iranians think this is a war that they will lose, then why have the war in the first place.
Well they just may have the war anyway , knowing that they can leave so much damage left behind them, that even if they lose, their objectives of getting rid of the devil or whatever they think, may have a chance of being full filled. If they themselves will die in the process, well so much better, they will be richly rewarded in the heavens.
So in their views, even if the war in itself is a known loser for them, their objectives will be fulfilled and therefore a losing war might very well be feasible for them.
Ok, so what will they do, well, they have two basic enemies, Israel, and the US.
Technologically they are no match for either Israel or the US.
Guidance systems, delivery systems, surveillance systems, communications system, all is so overwhelmingly superior to the Iranians, and it doesn't really matter if they get modernized from Russia, they still will be two or most probably three generations behind.
The Iranian missile system can not be counted on having GPS support, GPS will be shut down, distorted or miss informed, as it is controlled by the US.
So if they send their missiles, the guidance system can be counted on having about the same technology as the famous SCUDS during the first Gulf war, they might have been refined, but they will be far from anything that can be called precision weapons.
The defence against missiles have come pretty far since the Gulf War, and even then the Patriot missiles did a pretty good job. You can bet that every Patriot shot that had been fired during that campaign have been recorded and gone over and over again, any and all possible computer glitch have been looked upon, any slow response from a servo, any slow input to a computer, any program that didn't perform, all if it have been gone over and over and fixed to perfection.
SCUDS were raining over Israel and Saudi Arabia.
THAT was a very very good field lesson, and now, almost 20 years later, it is very very doubtful that ONE SCUD or similar missile will have a chance to even get through.
The Iranians may be influenced by evil characters, but in the same way as many had an idea that the Germans were stupid, they were not, and the Iranians will be the same way, they might be a lot of things, but don't confuse evil with low intelligence.
So if you want to destroy Israel and the US, knowing that conventional warfare will be a loser, would you send missiles, airplanes, subs or similar weapons against them?
Probably they would unleash them in the dying gasp, just to throw out and use what they have, but the initial blow would not be an open campaign.
The enriched Uranium, highly radioactive, and hard worked for, would be wasted in an open missile attack, as well as bombers, or other openly aggressive vehicles.
The only chance Iran is of doing as much damage as possible would be to do ONE damaging blow, secretly set up secretly planted and secretly executed.
The highly radioactive materiel doesn't necessarily have to be in the form of an atomic bomb, with a warhead of a couple of kilos of enriched Uranium in each one of them.
Enough agents, moles, or terrorists, whatever you want to call them, can be given a smaller amount of radioactive materiel, and select a couple of pre selected areas, where they will spread the substance.
This can be done either by a small explosive, as long as they get a dust cloud that will blow over a town, or just a canister with the material, poisoning some key water reservoirs. Set some off in the subway, and a couple of other spots.
Enough cleverness, and it can be days before the event have been detected, and by that time, the radioactive burns are starting to overwhelm hospitals.
Set a couple of ports out of action, the container ports are well known and is a bloodline to the US.
That is how you can do damage with that Uranium they(the Iranians) are enriching, and it would be much more cost effective, if you only have a limited amount, rather than take your chances in a missile and spend perhaps a couple of kilos of hard earned, hard worked for, Uranium.
So, as the Al qaeda are busy seeing what weak spots there are in the airline industry, the Iranians are for sure busy looking for ways to import the Uranium here, smuggled, or sent with false papers, or whatever, it doesn't matter, they are for sure looking at ways.
There are a fleet of sailors going between the Caribbean Islands back and forth every year, small private owned sailboats, litter the sea with their white sails, speed boat smugglers already have established routes, about 1500 Mexicans just walk across the border every day. Drug routes , coyote runs, Colombian or south American drug routes, container traffic is very seldom checked, they just roll through the gates very seldom opened until they reach the destination.
I am absolutely convinced that THAT is what the Iranians are looking for.
They have already sponsored terrorism since the end of the -70's and have a delivery net already established, they dont need a missile.
So, lets say this is the most plausible scenario, well we really don't know, but it's not far from the truth, in my humble opinion.
Assume the terrorists are able to pull off this strike, then what.
Well, from this point on, it is the death throws of the Iranian Regime, and they will try to (as Hitler, as Toyo) do as much damage as possible in the death throws.
With a more pragmatic regime in Germany and Japan, it was pretty clear by 1944 that they could not win, and could have ended the war, but they were not pragmatics, unfortunately, so a lot more millions just have to die because of that. Iranians have never been a pragmatic place since the Ayatollas coup in the -70's.
That whole scenario is highly palusible ....that is.....if we let it play out.
I would not let it go that far, and I am more and more worried the longer it goes, that the Iranians are able to one day set their plan in the works.
I rather be an unpopular nation and survive, then be an "understanding" nation and have kids with three arms.
The point is, when is enough, enough. What and where will start the political breaking point.
As long as the UN is meddling the Iranians will just continue to enrich their atomic fuel.
The very very best solution, is a pre-emptive strike. Not just a couple of cruise missiles to "send a message". But a complete destructive attack, that will take out so much of their infra structure together with all their nuclear ability, that afterwards, the Iranians will need a couple of years of finding firewood to keep warm, and living out of Red Cross parcels.
The effect of the attack will unfortunately involve lives, but the targeted attack should be towards infrastructure, so that a functioning society afterwards is close to an impossibility, and then, leave them alone, and let the IRANIANS SORT IT OUT.
Suddenly, they will find themselves in the backwoods of the earth, while the rest of the Arabian countries around them are flourishing and prospering.
The Iranians themselves doesn't have to figure out more , other than the regime that have been in power for so long, have sent them to the place they are now.
This is an instance when we HAVE to be aggressive.
There is no way around it.
I just wonder where is the point when politicians, intelligence estimates, military estimates, public enlightenments, and awareness of the danger, will reach the point that this will be an "ok lets go" attitude amongst us ( the intended victim)
The make/brake point is wonderfully dulled, set aside as a "topic" , argued, and in most parts a denial attitude.
-"There is a hungry Lion in our room, it's showing it's teeth, and it is coming our way, Herbert, don't you want to use your gun?".
-"Well, what if I shoot the Lion and get sued by the PITA organization, lets wait and see how this develops."
SARA , I can't believe you just asked the admit to delete something that is off topic. KETTLE calling black , come in black.YOu are the OFF TOPIC queen.
Roger, I agree with you about doing a decisive strike then leaving them to sort it out.
Why should any US soldiers have to go onto their soil at all?
I also agree it is better to be unpopular in the world's view than have children with three arms..
and I must admit your joke about the lion coming and worrying about PETA rather than the lion is a very apt/appropriate illustration.
Laura, I agree with you about the Iranians and their allies having put President Bush into a tight spot, hoping he won't do anything this year.. so that by NEXT year they have the enriched uranium they need for their plans. And I agree with what Roger said.. they do have plans. That is all I was pointing out in my "Connect the dots" post.
It does affect the Dinar because Iran is not being stopped. If you have an emerging aggressive nuclear power right next door to you in the Middle East (IRAQ) you don't ally yourself completely with the guys they call their enemies.. it isn't all that prudent, just in case they win or there is a bloody, long, drawn out conflict - you wish to stay as neutral as possible. You simply don't want a nuke to end up detonating on your (Iraqi) soil as a result. This is the real reason the Iraqis are not RVing. Remember Iran is next door and if they choose to take the nukes they produce and send them over the border, they could detonate them on Iraqi soil as well. So the Iraqis are bowing to the Iranians and watching to see how this nuclear arsenal of Iran's will be used.. on WHOM and WHEN.. that is.
It is an ongoing war which will stretch beyond the Presidency of Mr. G.W. Bush. He made some tough choices and kept the country safe under his Administration. Too bad chess games are not as short as checkers.. this one will take longer to complete than the time he had in office.
Sara.
PS Mr. Nuts - you are right that we have discussed off topic discussion from the Dinar here.. everything from physics to a medical clinic.. However, they were from this board's discussion and topic oriented; all I was trying to do was not bring any previous debates/arguments from other boards here, as this is what was the DinarAdmin's concern. Also, DinarAdmin was put in place to stop personal attacks, and this person came on saying they were bringing up some personal grievance against me personally from a previous discussion, so it does violate the terms of service of this board and is within DinarAdmin's jurisdiction, so far as I can see. If it had been a viewpoint, the person could have said they disagree with my view and then told theirs. It is my understanding that differing views are tolerated on this board, but personal attacks are not.
If they can smuggle in rockets and missiles.. they can smuggle in nuclear weapons once they have them.
Note the statement:
".. this latest move by Tehran "can only be interpreted as indicating an aggressive buildup, by an aggressive regime with an aggressive agenda."
The illustration of an aggressive lion which Roger used appears more true than ever.
Sara.
==
Iran Qods Force infiltrates Iraq
Fri. 08 Feb 2008
By CLAUDE SALHANI (Editor, Middle East Times)
New information was brought to light Thursday revealing "an overwhelming amount of intelligence indicating a political-military buildup by Tehran's mullahs, targeting not just the south, but the heart of Iraq."
This information, collected by the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (also known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or the MeK), was made public by Alireza Jafarzadeh, president of Strategic Policy Consulting, Inc., an outfit based in Washington, D.C. with close ties to the MeK.
According to Jafarzadeh this latest move by Tehran "can only be interpreted as indicating an aggressive buildup, by an aggressive regime with an aggressive agenda."
Iran's plan, according to Jafarzadeh, is to expand its terrorist network in Iraq through the deployment of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps' elite units – the Qods Force.
Considered one of the world's most dangerous groups operating in the shadows, the Qods (Jerusalem) Force is reported to have established a regional command headquarters in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah. Located along the Iran-Iraq border, the headquarters is divided into three operational directorates: northern, central and southern.
Each operational sector has been assigned its own border-crossings and arms smuggling networks, and each has been tasked in managing a terror network within its assigned sector in Iraq.
Iranian opposition forces claim the Qods Force command HQ is based in the Kenesht valley in Kermanshah in a base camp known as Velayat-Faqih, and is under the command of a high-ranking Qods Force officer named Haj Amiri. A veteran Qods officer, Amiri was previously assigned to the command of IRGC Brigadier General Reza-Seifollahi, where he managed Badr Corps agents deployed into Iraq during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war.
THE NORTHERN ROUTE FOR WEAPONS SMUGGLING
One of the Qods Force's main tasks is to funnel weapons from Iran to Iraq, according to the resistance opposed to the mullahs in Tehran. Most shipments enter Iraq at the Marivan border crossing. A city in western Iran, Marivan was surrounded with military trenches during the Iran-Iraq war. Mules are used to transport the weapons. In October 2007 about 100 Katyusha rockets were smuggled through this route. On the Iraqi side of the border, individuals belonging to Abu-Jafar al-Boka's network arrive at the location driving tanker trucks filled with water. They load the rockets and transfer them via military roads to Baghdad. To evade inspection at checkpoints, al-Boka uses official papers issued by Iraq's Ministry of Interior.
Weapons transferred through the Marivan passage include Katyusha rockets, explosive packages, TNT, and anti-helicopter surface-to-air missiles.
THE SOUTHERN AXIS
The operational area of the Southern Axis, under the command of Jafar Ansari, extends from Dehloran in Iran to Basra in Iraq.
Dehghan transfers weapons to Iraq via the Hoor-Abdullah passageway. In Iraq, Faez Afshari, based in Basra, receives the weapons and distributes them among the network. The weapons are transported using boats in the afternoon hours, since the border crossing is very idle at that time of day. The smuggling route goes through Hoor-Abdullah to Shalamche and then on to Shatt. Arms shipments also make their way across the Faw passage.
The report goes on to name dozens of individuals whom it accuses of smuggling weapons and carrying out activities against U.S. and other coalition forces in Iraq.
TRAINING CENTERS USED BY QODS COMMAND HQ
Kermanshah's Kenesht Valley
Two bases located about 10 miles from the Kenesht valley and two miles from each other are used for training Iraqis affiliated with the Qods Force, according to the report released by Jafarzadeh. The latest information from the Iranian resistance indicates that nearly 2,000 persons are training in these two bases.
Jalil Abad Base in Varamin near Tehran
The Jalil Abad base is reported to be one of the most active training bases of the Qods Force where recruits undergo training in bomb-making and how to fire rocket propelled grenades, Russian-made Katyusha rockets, as well as surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles. In August 2007, nearly 300 Iraqis from Abu-Mehdi Mohandes' network crossed into Iran along the southern border and were transferred to Jalil Abad Base. They were still there in early October 2007.
According to the same sources, Iran's Qods Force have agents operating from the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad.
The list of accusations and finger-pointing is indeed a long one. Independent confirmation of the individuals named by the Iranian resistance as belonging to Iran's Qods Force has not been possible and therefore many names have been kept out of this report. While it remains impossible to independently confirm this latest report, previous intelligence provided by the MeK has proven accurate. It was the MeK that exposed Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons program by revealing the nuclear sites in Natanz and Arak in 2002.
A sobering news report on Iran's Qoms and their command posts. US military, I am sure are aware of the actions of the Iranians.
However, (unless we are in an all out war in Iraq with the Iranians) we are still left with a wait and see equation of what President Bush will do about the Iranian threat of the nuke situation this year.
Please e-mail me at LLPParker at Aol.Com and I can get your mailing address then.
I also thought you might be interested in Iraq Business News from: Updates at developmentprogram.org site. Another address of interest: (same as before) with /idp/events/ics/index.html for an interesting event.
Your recent medical post were great and took a lot of research on your part. My thanks to you for this valuable information and please don't let the disparaging remarks from some non-contributing doo-doo
dampen your spirit.
Roger: You caught my eye with the short blurb about hydrogen power cells. If this is authentic, please tell us more about this magnificant breakthrough. I was recently approached by a man whom I consider to be a schiester, but he had a plan to generate power with water
and explained it in a way that made it sound feasible but I knew that anyone who could run vehicles with water would be an instant trillianaire so I dismissed his plan as a hoax.
You amaze me with your knowledge of so many subjects so please tell us what you know about the hydrogen cell.
Thank you, Neil, that you found my post encouraging and useful.
Your kind and encouraging words were a blessing to me, I do appreciate it.
Laura - I thought of your post when I read this article today:
McCain a 'True Conservative,' Bush Says
Feb 10 08:36 AP
WASHINGTON (AP) - John McCain is a "true conservative," President Bush says..
McCain "is very strong on national defense," Bush said in an interview taped for airing on "Fox News Sunday." "He is tough fiscally. He believes the tax cuts ought to be permanent. He is pro-life. His principles are sound and solid as far as I'm concerned."
_On Iran: "I feel pretty good about making sure that we keep the pressure on Iran. To pressure them so that they understand they're isolated. To pressure them to affect their economy. To pressure them to the point where we hope somebody rational shows up and says, OK, it's not worth it anymore."
Laura - To me, this says President Bush is looking toward the future and recognises that McCain (if chosen to lead the GOP ticket) will take over the national defense portfolio and manage it well. Others have also said McCain would make a good commander-in-chief. This quality is very important as wrong moves on security could cost a lot of American lives.
About Iran, President Bush appears to feel that diplomatic pressure is enough right now. Obviously, that may change if Iran makes preemptive moves to attack Israel, etc. Certainly, Iran could choose to use a proxy to do that.. and I post here a note from two days ago about Iran helping Syria to arm with missiles which can "strike Israel repeatedly for a sustained period of time"..
QUOTE:
Iran helps Syria improve missiles Upgraded Zelzal can target Israel's international airport
February 08, 2008
By Aaron Klein, WND
JERUSALEM – Iran recently aided Syria in improving a missile capable of better targeting Israeli installations, including military bases and the country's international airport, according to Israeli intelligence briefings this week provided to top Knesset members.
The lawmakers were also told Syria has greatly accelerated its acquisition of missiles and arms, including anti-tank, anti-aircraft and ballistic targeting missiles.
The briefing follows a WND exclusive report yesterday quoting Israeli and Jordanian defense sources stating Syria, aided by Russia and Iran, in recent months has been furiously acquiring rockets and missiles, including projectiles capable of hitting the entire state of Israel. The officials listed anti-tank, anti-aircraft and ballistic missiles as some of the arms procured by Syria.
Knesset members were told Iran worked with Syria to improve the Iranian Zelzal missile, which has a range of about 155 miles and is considered one of the most accurate projectiles in Syria's arsenal.
The move comes amid reports of Syria's stepped-up pace of acquiring arms.
A Jordanian security official said one of the main reasons Damascus did not retaliate after Israel carried out its Sept. 6 air strike inside Syria allegedly targeting a nascent nuclear facility was because Syria's rocket infrastructure was not yet complete.
The official said that after the Israeli air strike, Syria picked up the pace of acquiring rockets and missiles, largely from Russia with Iranian backing, with the goal of completing its missile and rocket arsenal by the end of the year. The Jordanian official said Syria is aiming to possess the capacity to fire more than 100 rockets into Israel per hour for a sustained period of time.
"The Syrians have three main goals: to maximize their anti-tank, anti-aircraft and ballistic missile and rocket capabilities," explained the Jordanian official.
According to Israeli and Jordanian officials, Syria recently quietly struck a deal with Russia that allows Moscow to station submarines and war boats off Syrian ports. In exchange, Russia is supplying Syria with weaponry at lower costs, with some of the missiles and rockets being financed by Iran.
"The Iranians opened an extended credit line with Russia for Syria with the purpose of arming Syria," said one Jordanian security official.
US to seek justice over 9/11 attacks
Tuesday Feb 12 2008
US military prosecutors will file charges today against the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and five other Guantanamo prisoners and will seek to execute them if they are convicted, officials involved in the process said.
The charges against former al-Qaeda operations chief Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other captives will be announced in a news conference at the Pentagon at 0300 (AEDT).
They will be the first charges from the Guantanamo war court alleging direct involvement in the attacks and the first involving the death penalty.
Russia forgives $12 bln Iraq debt: report
11/02/2008
MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia on Monday forgave Iraq's 12.9-billion-dollar debt, which dates back to the Soviet era, and expressed hope for a rise in investment in the war-torn country, ITAR-TASS news agency reported, quoting Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin.
The amount written off came to 93 percent of the total owed by Baghdad to Moscow, Interfax news agency reported.
Russian firms to invest $4 bln in Iraq in debt deal
Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:29 AM GMT
MOSCOW, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Russian oil firms will be allowed to invest $4 billion in Iraq under a new cooperation memorandum, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said on Monday, after his ministry wrote off most of Iraq's debt.
U.S. Military Says Seized Docs Show Al Qaeda in Iraq Is Weakened
Sunday, February 10, 2008
AP
BAGHDAD — A diary and another document seized during U.S. raids show some Al Qaeda in Iraq leaders fear the terror group is crumbling, with many fighters defecting to American-backed neighborhood groups, the U.S. military said Sunday.
In the Anbar document, the author describes an Al Qaeda in crisis, with citizens growing weary of militants' presence and foreign fighters too eager to participate in suicide missions rather than continuing to fight, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman.
"We lost cities and afterward, villages... We find ourselves in a wasteland desert," Smith quoted the document as saying.
The memo — believed to have been written in summer 2007 — cites militants' increasing difficulty in moving around and transporting weapons and suicide belts because of better equipped Iraqi police and more watchful citizens, Smith said.
He said the documents are believed to be authentic, Smith said, because they contain details that only Al Qaeda in Iraq leaders could know about battlefield movements and tactics.
Study: Artificial Sweeteners Increase Weight Gain Odds
Feb. 11, 2008
Calorie-conscious consumers who opt for diet sodas may gain more weight than if they drank sugary drinks because of artificial sweeteners contained in the diet sodas, according to a new study.
A Purdue University study released Sunday in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience reported that rats on diets containing the artificial sweetener saccharin gained more weight than rats given sugary food, casting doubt on the benefits of low-calorie sweeteners.
"There's something about diet foods that changes your metabolic limit, your brain chemistry," said ABC News' medical contributor Dr. Marie Savard.
Though Savard said more research needs to be done to uncover more information, the study does hint at the idea that the sweeteners alter a person's metabolism.
Savard said another recent study, which included more than 18,000 people, found healthy adults who consumed at least one diet drink a day could increase their chance for weight gain.
In the Purdue study, the rats whose diets contained artificial sweeteners appeared to experience a physiological connection between sweet tastes and calories, which drove them to overeat.
"The taste buds taste sweet, but there's no calorie load that comes with it. There's a mismatch here. It seems it changes your brain chemistry in some way," Savard said. "Anything you put in your mouth, your body has a strong reaction to it. It's much more than counting calories. It seems normally with sweet foods that we rev up our metabolism."
The information may come as a surprise to the 59 percent of Americans who consume diet soft drinks, making them the the second-most-popular low-calorie, sugar-free products in the nation, according to a consumer survey from the Calorie Control Council, a nonprofit association that represents the low-calorie and reduced-fat food and beverage industry.
Because so many foods today contain artificial sweeteners, the study results may go beyond diet drinks.
"The truth is, we're putting artificial sweetener in so many different things in water, in yogurt," Savard said. It's unclear if the results only adhere to diet sodas, she said.
"We have to rethink what this artificial stuff does to us. If we put this in water it might not be so good," she added.
NOTE that they are putting this in WATER.. can you believe it?
And they know it causes a METABOLIC change.. a real demonstrated change in the lab with rats.
I think they are getting warm with that "There's something about diet foods that changes your metabolic limit, your brain chemistry,"...
I suggest that it is destroying the hypothalmus gland and doing permanent organ damage.
QUOTE: "rats whose diets contained artificial sweeteners appeared to experience a physiological connection..''
I wish they would kill a few rats and check their hypothalmus glands..
maybe they might try to protect the public health if they were on the right track instead of the wrong one.
I guess by the time they figure that out we will have yet another "epidemic" on our hands, though.
I hope the next one doesn't look like ebola, or massive organ failure..
instead of these rather "ordinary" ones we have now of early onset of puberty at the age of 5, diabetes, sleep deprivation and obesity.
U.S. Army: Al-Qaida fleeing northern Iraq
Published: Feb. 11, 2008
BAQUBAH, Iraq, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- The resolve of local Iraqi citizens and the surge in military operations in northern Iraq drove al-Qaida fighters out of the region, a military official said.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, who commands U.S. military operations in the northern Iraqi provinces, said his forces are turning security operations over to Iraqi forces in "droves" as the security situation improves, the American Forces Press Service said Monday.
Hertling said al-Qaida and other foreign combatants returned to Syria or other neighboring countries, bringing their financial support with them. Others, he said, are trying to restructure their operations along the borders of Iraq, but military forces arrested several of those militants in border raids.
Many militants are hiding out in desert areas for fear of being turned into the U.S.-led forces by local Iraqi citizens, Hertling said.
Hertling said the number of al-Qaida operatives in the region is down and attacks are relatively static.
Diyala province opened several markets amid the increased security, Hertling said.
The increased capability of the Iraqi security forces as well as joint military bases housing U.S. and Iraqi forces made a big impact on the security gains in the region, he said.
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