Am returning to my blog after several months of being away.  It is located at www.IPCRESSBlog.com, if you care to visit.  This is my most recent post.  Hopefully, I will be following-up with more.


On the morning of June 20th, Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, gave a speech to a small crowd in Baghdad.   Maliki's message was for people to prepare for the withdrawal of  American forces from the country's urban areas--a maneuver scheduled to take place by the end of this month.  There was a grave tone to Maliki's words as he warned the group of possible terrorist attacks:

“I and you are sure that many don’t want us to succeed and celebrate this victory,” he said. “They are getting themselves ready to move in the dark to destabilize the situation, but we will be ready for them, God willing.”

The people he was addressing were Turkomen, an ethnic group from northern Iraq.  For years, these people had been petitioning the government to establish an autonomous state, and they have been at odds with the Kurds in that region.  Still, much of the violence in Iraq had been taking place in urban regions to the South of them, so Maliki's warning of imminent danger probably held only limited significance for them. 

Strangely enough, just three hours after Maliki uttered those dire words, the suicide bombers attacked a mosque in the Turkmen town of Taza Khurmatu, 10 miles south of Kirkuk.  It was the most powerful bomb used so far this year.  80 clay buildings were leveled, over 70 people died, and 200 people were injured.  Why "Al Qaeda" decided to attack a town in this rather quiet, rural region of Iraq is a mystery to these people.  The attack received brief coverage here in the States and was quickly explained as the work of "Sunni extremists" attacking a "Shiite mosque."  The bizarre coincidence of the Prime Minister having warned a group of Turkomen of such an attack--just three hours previously--was hardly mentioned.  However, when we place the event in context with all the other suicide bombings and their attendant coincidences, we might want to explore the possibility that perhaps this wasn't coincidence at all.

Recent reports from Washington have echoed Maliki's comments, and the "chatter" is that Al-Qaeda will be increasing operations toward the end of the month, in an effort to "disrupt" the plans for American withdrawal from the urban areas.   Does this make sense to anybody?  If your enemy is making plans on withdrawing, why would you want to disrupt things?  Wouldn't you want to disrupt things AFTER they have gone, rather than giving them an excuse for possibly staying longer?

The US has solidified its position in Iraq and is preparing to redeploy its troops.  The bombings--which are ALL state-sponsored acts of violence--are intended to keep the Iraqi people terrorized and act as a warning of what may happen if insurgent activities against Coalition forces are renewed.  This is the program which has been in effect now for several years.  Whenever insurgents rise up to attack US troops, the "suicide bombers" mysteriously appear and kill scores of Iraqi citizens.  When insurgent activity decreases, the "suicide bombers" disappear.  The same pattern occurs outside of Iraq.  Somali pirates attack US shipping, and shortly afterwards, "Al Qaeda" appears and starts blowing up Somali citizens. 

The Coalition is now planning on moving their forces North, toward the Republic of Georgia and the Russian border.  The recent wave of "suicide bombings" indicates that area populations are being "softened up" and the political structures destabilized prior to the advance.  Two days after the Taza bombing, another "suicide bomb" went off in  the North Caucasus region of Ingushetia.  This is the tiniest of the former Russian states and borders Georgia.  The target was Yunusbek Yevkurov, who was named President of the republic eight months ago by Russian President Medvedev.  The bomb exploded as the presidential motorcade was passing through the town of Nazran.  Reports claim the bomb was "planted in a foreign-made vehicle, where a suicide bomber might have been sitting, which was parked by the side of the road."

Over the last two weeks, four officials from Daghestan and Ingushetia have been targeted for assassination.  Daghestan's interior minister, Lieutenant General Adilgirey Magomedtagirov, and two senior Ingushetian officials were killed in bombings.  Yevkurov was wounded.  In April, a group claiming to be the "Riyadus Salikhiin Suicide Brigade" left a video on the Internet, warning of more suicide bombings.

As the suicide bombers proceed to destabilize the North Caucus area, Coalition forces will be preparing for action in Iraq's northern region.  Eastern Turkey lies in between the Kurdish section of Iraq and the Republic of Georgia.  We can expect more violence to erupt between the Kurds and the Turks in the weeks ahead,

  (Discussion group. Inactive.)


  (Link to my blog.)


MySpace Blog  (No longer maintained.)


Forbidden Library  (No longer maintained.)

Facebook and Bebo risk 'infantilising' the human mind


Greenfield warns social networking sites are changing children's brains, resulting in selfish and attention deficient young people.

Patrick Wintour, political editor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 February 2009 10.52 GMT
LINK to article.

Social network sites risk infantilising the mid-21st century mind, leaving it
characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to
empathise and a shaky sense of identity, according to a leading
neuroscientist.The startling warning from Lady Greenfield,
professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln college, Oxford, and
director of the Royal Institution, has led members of the government to
admit their work on internet regulation has not extended to broader
issues, such as the psychological impact on children.Greenfield believes ministers have not yet looked at the broad cultural and psychological effect of on-screen friendships via Facebook, Bebo and Twitter.She
told the House of Lords that children's experiences on social
networking sites "are devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term
significance. As a consequence, the mid-21st century mind might almost
be infantilised, characterised by short attention spans,
sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity".

Arguing that social network sites are putting attention span
in jeopardy, she said: "If the young brain is exposed from the outset
to a world of fast action and reaction, of instant new screen images
flashing up with the press of a key, such rapid interchange might
accustom the brain to operate over such timescales. Perhaps when in the
real world such responses are not immediately forthcoming, we will see
such behaviours and call them attention-deficit disorder."It
might be helpful to investigate whether the near total submersion of
our culture in screen technologies over the last decade might in some
way be linked to the threefold increase over this period in
prescriptions for methylphenidate, the drug prescribed for
attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder."She also warned
against "a much more marked preference for the here-and-now, where the
immediacy of an experience trumps any regard for the consequences.
After all, whenever you play a computer game, you can always just play
it again; everything you do is reversible. The emphasis is on the
thrill of the moment, the buzz of rescuing the princess in the game. No
care is given for the princess herself, for the content or for any
long-term significance, because there is none. This type of activity, a
disregard for consequence, can be compared with the thrill of
compulsive gambling or compulsive eating."The sheer compulsion
of reliable and almost immediate reward is being linked to similar
chemical systems in the brain that may also play a part in drug
addiction. So we should not underestimate the 'pleasure' of interacting
with a screen when we puzzle over why it seems so appealing to young
people."Greenfield also warned there was a risk of loss of
empathy as children read novels less. "Unlike the game to rescue the
princess, where the goal is to feel rewarded, the aim of reading a book
is, after all, to find out more about the princess herself."She
said she found it strange we are "enthusiastically embracing" the
possible erosion of our identity through social networking sites, since
those that use such sites can lose a sense of where they themselves
"finish and the outside world begins".She claimed that sense of
identity can be eroded by "fast-paced, instant screen reactions,
perhaps the next generation will define themselves by the responses of
others".Social networking sites can provide a "constant
reassurance – that you are listened to, recognised, and important".
Greenfield continued. This was coupled with a distancing from the
stress of face-to-face, real-life conversation, which were "far more
perilous … occur in real time, with no opportunity to think up clever
or witty responses" and "require a sensitivity to voice tone, body
language and perhaps even to pheromones, those sneaky molecules that we
release and which others smell subconsciously".She said she
feared "real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these
sanitised and easier screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing,
skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the
convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf. Perhaps
future generations will recoil with similar horror at the messiness,
unpredictability and immediate personal involvement of a
three-dimensional, real-time interaction."The solutions, however, lay less in regulation as in education, culture and society.Greenfield
argued that the appeal of Facebook lay in the fact that "a child
confined to the home every evening may find at the keyboard the kind of
freedom of interaction and communication that earlier generations took
for granted in the three-dimensional world of the street. But even
given a choice, screen life can still be more appealing."She
quoted one user saying they had 900 friends, another saying the fact
"that you can't see or hear other people makes it easier to reveal
yourself in a way that you might not be comfortable with. You become
less conscious of the individuals involved [including yourself], less
inhibited, less embarrassed and less concerned about how you will be
evaluated."But Greenfield warned: "It is hard to see how living
this way on a daily basis will not result in brains, or rather minds,
different from those of previous generations. We know that the human
brain is exquisitely sensitive to the outside world."

I sell vintage photography and these images are from a collection I am currently selling.  The photographer's name was John C. Stiles and he worked at Boston Airport during the 20s and 30s.  The collection documents the development of the airport during the inter-war years and includes many images of the various planes, pilots, and businessmen who created the airport.  As I am in the process of creating web images for all these negatives, I thought I would include some here on my MySpace page. 
Will try and update this.

Lockheed Electra outside National Airways hangar.  1936.
Amelia Earhart died in an Electra.  Elegant plane.



Sikorsky S-38 "Amphibian" Flying Boat.  1928.



Jimmy Doolittle's Sperry Messenger at Ames Field in North Easton, Massachusetts.  1924.



Lufthansa's Dornier 18 AEOLUS docked in Boston Harbor.  1936.



Stinson Tri-Motor.  1936.



Unknown passengers in front of a Curtiss Condor.  Early 30s.



The photographer, J. C. Stiles (will try and post a better scan.)

Here in my little world, February 14th is Katie Stinson Day. 
Just my humble tribute to one of history's really cool chicks.

From Wikipedia:
Katherine Stinson (February 14, 1891, in Fort Payne, Alabama– July 8, 1977, in Santa Fe, New Mexico) was an early female flier. She was the fourth woman in the United States to obtain a pilot's certificate, which she earned on July 24, 1912, at the age of 21. Initially, she planned to get her certificate and use money she earned from exhibition flying to pay for her music lessons. However, she found she liked flying so much that she gave up her piano career and decided to become an aviatrix. She took her flying lessons from the well-known aviator Max Lille,
who initially refused to teach her because she was female. But she
persuaded him to give her a trial lesson and was so good that she flew
alone after only four hours of instruction. A year after receiving her
certificate, she began exhibition flying. On the exhibition circuit, she was known as the "Flying Schoolgirl."
After she received her certificate, Stinson and her family moved to San Antonio, Texas, an area with an ideal climate for flying. There, she and her sister Marjorie began giving flying instruction at her family's aviation school in Texas. On July 18, 1915, Stinson became the first woman to perform a loop, at Cicero Field in Chicago, Illinois,
and went on to perform this feat some 500 times without a single
accident. She also was one of the first women authorized to carry airmail for the United States. During World War I, Stinson flew a Curtiss JN-4D "Jenny"
and a Curtiss Stinson-Special (a single seat version of the JN aircraft
built to her specifications) for fundraising tours for the American Red Cross. During exhibition flights in Canada, Stinson set a Canadian distance and endurance record, and made the second air mail flight in Canada between Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta.
Of note is the fact that all of her stunt flying was done in
aircraft using the Wright control system which uses two side-mounted
levers for pitch and roll, with top mounted controls for throttle and
yaw.
The Stinson School closed in 1917, and Katherine became an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in Europe. There, she contracted influenza, which turned into tuberculosis in 1920, causing her retirement from aviation. In 1928, she married airman Miguel Antonio Otero, Jr., son of the former territorial governor of New Mexico. Although she could no longer fly, she worked as an architect for many years in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She died in 1977 at the age of 86.
Her flying inspired her brothers to form the Stinson Aircraft Company.
A replica of her 1918 Curtiss Stinson-Special is on display at the Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton.
The second oldest general aviation airport in the United States, Stinson Municipal Airport (KSSF) in San Antonio, Texas, was named in the Stinson family's honor. A middle school in northwest San Antonio, TX, Katherine Stinson Middle School, was named in her honor.

9/11 Truthers really have to get their act together, as it seems they are totally marginalizing themselves from everything else which is going on now.   Yes, the movement has done a fine job of archiving information and organizing various presentations concerning the government's complicity in this crime.  But enough's enough.  Part of the 9/11 Truther Message was to educate the public in preparedness for the "Next 9/11."  Right?  I mean, what's the point?  If the government was behind 9/11, then they'll certainly try something like that again, and I would expect the Truthers would be right there to alert the public to the next "Inside Job."

Well, they HAVE done it again; but the Truthers still seem so obsessed with planes and falling buildings that they haven't noticed at all.  I'm talking, of course, about the evolving "Financial Meltdown." The latest scary puppet show which The Establishment has been putting on for the masses.  If you haven't figured it out already: it's a con job!

Finances can be a very confusing subject, or rather, it's easy for the Establishment to confuse the people on this topic with discussions about derivatives, interest rates, and Federal Reserve loans.  Many Truthers who have developed a high level of skepticism toward Establishment news surprisingly start accepting their explanations as gospel once the subject switches to economics.  Don't be fooled.  First, put the events into their proper historical context.  We know already that ALL of the planet-threatening disasters The Establishment has served up are frauds:  AIDS, The War On Terror, Global Warming, Iraq, Peak Oil, etc.  These are all hoaxed crises.  BUT, when the Establishment starts spooking the people about a "Global Economic Meltdown," many people assume that THIS TIME they MUST be telling the truth.  They're not. 

The subprime scandal was the hijacked plane hitting the World Trade Center.  Confused observers stare up at the burning structure and try to figure out how something like this could happen.  Then, all of a sudden, it all comes crashing down.  Establishment "experts" appear with stories of melting trusses and exploding jet fuel to make the situation more understandable.  Economic leaders try to convince the people that they "never saw it coming" but now we're in a life-or-death struggle, and everone's got to pitch in.  Also, The Establishment needs more MONEY in order to help combat this new crisis.  Things are out of control, and unless drastic measures are taken immediately, we're all going to die in this latest Establishment disaster.

It is true that the study of Economics can be a confusing affair, but this I can guarantee you is true:  when the situation stabilizes, the Rich will be richer and the Poor will be poorer.  Believe it.  All this hand-wringing about massive losses in the stock market only disguise the fact that two years from now some people are going to be very, very rich from all this.  The situation--described in its simplest terms--is the result of key invstors pulling their money out of the system.  This is what defines ALL economic crises.  They all may start differently, but at some point, the monied elite withdraws their financial support and watches the system come crashing down.  While it appears as a "collapse" to many onlookers, it is merely The Establishment's way of consolidating economic forces.  Smaller banks and mortgage companies get wiped out and then are purchased by the big banks.  This sort of thing has been happening since the beginning of the 19th Century. 

If you want to know what's REALLY causing the meltdown, just look at what the Establishment ISN'T talking about, and there's your answer. And what they're not discussing is the fact that "there's a lot of money on the sidelines."  You may even hear this little turn of phrase muttered once in a while on teevee or some panel discussion, but THAT'S really what's going on.  The subprime-thing did NOT cause the crisis.  The "crisis" was caused when the big investors yanked ALL of their money out of mortgage-backed securities.  The following chart shows the Dow Jones REIT Index for the last five years.  REITs are Real Estate Investment Trusts, and very simply, the chart illustrates investors' interest in investing in real estate.



Notice how the market begins to recover in mid 2007, indicating that the subprime mess was beginning to correct itself.  Then, just when it seems that the fires are going out, there are huge explosions in the sub-basement and the whole thing collapses.  This chart indicates a huge flight of capital out of the housing market.  Now, I KNOW what the "Official Story is," so please do NOT reiterate it here in the Comments Column.  The Official Story is that the investors were understandably "skittish" about real estate and decided to put their money somewhere else.  Well... duh.  That's OBVIOUSLY what is going on here.  But the question is: where did the money GO?  Did investors simply take the cash and put it in their mattresses?  Are they saving it in big pickle jars in the attic?  No.  Of course not.  They invested it somewhere else.  Well... WHERE did they invest it?  That's the question Establishment economists don't want to answer.  Perhaps the answer would be too disturbing for the American public.  Perhaps--in this evolving global economy--they shifted the money to Indonesia or China.  Perhaps they're using this economic Pearl Harbor to consolidate global financial forces. 

Please stop with all the hysterical rantings about the "collapse" of the world economy.  I's NOT collapsing.  There's plenty of money out there.  Remember on September 10, 2001 when Rumsfeld gave that big speech?  He makes the announcement that the military had LOST 2.3 TRILLION dollars.  2.3 trillion dollars!  And what ever came of THAT?  Did the heavens open up and the mountains crumble after this huge economic loss was revealed?  Did the Establishment ever even TRY to find out what happened to this money?

Bankers are not stupid people.  They are, by nature, conservative investors and very intelligent when it comes to handing money.  For the last 15 years they have experienced RECORD profits, and much of this was tied to the explosion in real estate values.  Now the market is correcting itself and tey've got to give some of it back.  Yes, durng all of this, some major players are going to fall y the wayside; but their accounts will merely be picked up by another bank--and life will go on.  The stock market has plunged from 14,000 to 8,000.  But, guess what?  If you're on the inside and you know what to buy now, you will become very, very rich.  This is the greatest economic opportunity of our lifetimes.  Thornburg Mortgage, which was trading at $30 not too long ago, can be bought now at 8 cents a share.  Flagstar Bank has gone from $25 to 75 cents.  Naturally, the "little people" are going to be drawn into the wrong stocks and will take another pounding, but that's also part of the game (people ae talking now about the "Obama Stocks"--Wind, Solar, Electric Cars and other feel-good shit--which so far haven't been  doing squat.)  By the end of he summer, the Dow will be over 10,000 and the conspiritors will be jabbering about how Obama the Great helped renew confidence for American investors.  It's all bullshit.

So, if you've been waiting for the next 9/11--wait no more.  Here it is.   Don't forget how artfully the Establishment manufactured this War on Terror and the collossal effort which went into rigging those buildings with explosives.  It's much, MUCH easier to do that sort of thing in the financial world.  It's also much easier to disguise the real dynamic behind the situation.  Don't be fooled.  Stop wasting your time endlessly repeating the 9/11 Truth mantra and move on to the next phony disaster.   The Rich are about to get a LOT richer, and as usual--the people are going to get screwed.

Written by Azmi Bishara in August, 2006 for Al-Ahram Weekly.
LINK

The fighter plane is the quintessence of modern civilisation, the modern goddess. It is the product of the collective input of all the sciences and the neutralisation of all morals and values. In it converge the laser, micro-optics, microelectronics and high-tech aerodynamics, allowing for precision flying, hairline fine guidance, dead-on targeting and surgical destruction. It is hygienic and ultra-precise and its factories, hangars and assembly plants are as tall and spacious cathedrals. These planes are only manufactured in the most industrially developed states, assembled by huge corporations whose employees inhabit equality-oriented societies and receive high salaries. They can only be piloted by highly qualified individuals. They are simultaneously the product of absolute individualism and institutionalised collective labour. The employees who contribute to their manufacture embody societies that have achieved much; they are the elite, a cut above the rest, the chosen ones, the new Aryan race.


An Israeli warplane takes off from an air base in northern Israel on a mission to bomb the villages and towns in South Lebanon on July 16 (Ariel Schalit / AP).

As with any goddess of consumerist society it has a built-in obsolescence; a new plane has to be produced every two or three years in order to keep up with demand, incorporating the latest technological developments and scientific discoveries in order to preserve her superiority over the gods of other people.

The fighter plane makes the immoral moral. It soars above good and evil, a celestial goddess with an insatiable thirst for sacrificial tribute. The pilot does not see the blood; he doesn't see the bayonet or the bullet piercing through the body of the victim. He does not get dirty because he does not have to crawl. Or see the eyes of his victims. Nor does he break the commandment thou shalt not kill. All he does is press a button from a long way away.

All the victims hear is the screech of the oncoming missile. Then the world shakes around them and they topple over, without so much as swaying. Perhaps they feel excruciating pain before passing into nothingness. All people are helpless before the fighter planes; no father or mother can protect their child. Children are torn to pieces, or buried beneath the rubble of buildings that collapse with an echoing groan that blends with the sound of limbs being torn. Stones, planks of wood, shreds of steel crash into human bone and pulverise skulls -- all in the twinkling of an eye.

Meanwhile, from up there in the pilot's seat, all that can be seen are a plume of smoke and a cloud of dust. "Mission accomplished," radios the pilot to the base, as he executes a neat turn overhead in skies beyond the sea of morals. Then he lands, jumps out of the plane and heads to the barracks, helmet tucked under his arm like a motorcyclist. He goes for coffee in the cafeteria, exchanges jokes with his fellow pilots, with the female staff on the base, and with the mechanics who will be getting his plane ready for another sortie of death. Then he heads home. On his way he listens to some music, clowns around with some children and, maybe, engages in a conversation about politics. He might be earnest, or indifferent or incensed. He could be a leftist or a rightist, in support of gay rights or against them, a self- acclaimed dove or a rabid hawk. But these are not the criteria that qualified him to push the button. All such thoughts and criteria fade into meaninglessness in the religion of the fighter bomber.

The peoples of the world are divided into the haves and have-nots of F-15s and F-16s.

The haves are divided into countries that own these planes and countries that are possessed by them. The Arabs are divided not only into the have-nots, but those who don't have and yet have made the planes into golden cows.

These fighter planes are omnipresent. They can be visible or invisible. But there is no escaping their venom, nowhere to hide from their missiles. The planes remain in the air but their missiles will swoop down on the passengers of a fleeing car, a bus, an ambulance, and they will bore through the ceilings of bunkers and shelters until they reach the tender bodies within. Human flesh stands no chance against a missile flying toward it from a fighter plane. The body stands naked before the goddess who roams the heavens as edifices of stone and reinforced cement crumble before her.

The planes wreak massive destruction, but they cannot resolve the battle against those who have right on their side. To do that the goddess's followers have to fight a ground war. But once the inhabitants of that civilisation start fighting on the ground, they start to die and begin to cry. This phenomenon has given rise to a curious belief, which is that while their soldiers have the right to kill, others do not have the right to kill their soldiers, even in war. This is why when one of their soldiers is struck they are overcome by shock and why when their armies suffer a defeat at the hands of the forces of the weak and oppressed they take it as an affront to the prestige of their army and their military superiority. At such a point Israel stealthily withdraws the ground forces and unleashes the F-16s to bomb "terrorist" locations, be they homes or villages. It is a cowardly and vindictive way to behave, open to those who possess an air force which enable them to become arrogant airborne tyrants. On the ground they are human beings like everyone else: fragile and brittle. But in the air, with the protection of their goddess, they can stomp around, invisible to the naked eye but certain to make their thunder heard as they pass overhead, taking full advantage of the fragility of those who are left on the ground without planes, and even those who have taken refuge in the holes in the ground. They avenge themselves not just because they have the will to do so -- they hold no monopoly on will -- but because their goddess makes it possible for them to do so.

And the Lord said unto Joshua:

"See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.

"And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.

"And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns. And the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets..."

...[A]nd it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword...

And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein. Only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.

And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

(Joshua 6)

It is destructive power that fills them with pride... the sort that comes before the fall. The death of a child, two children, three; the death of a woman or two; the destruction of an ambulance -- when does brute force against innocent people become unacceptable? Thirty children? Fifty? In front of the cameras? How many when there are no cameras at hand? At what point do the scales tip? Cameras, incidentally, do not transmit the putrid odor of bodies crushed beneath the rubble.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the cup slips out of the hand of an Arab or western official as he stares at the television screen. Which image of dying children got through to him? Did his mouth drop agape as his cup crashed to the floor? Did he choke on the food he was eating? Does he think that he should have listened to his aides sooner and called for an immediate ceasefire? Does he groan at the horror of the crimes committed by Israel or slump in despair at Israel's folly in forfeiting yet another opportunity?

Israel was built on targeting civilians. In 1948 it targeted them in order to displace them and usurp their land. It targeted entire villages that it alleged were fedayeen -- resistance fighter -- bases. The "strategy" was founded upon two tenets: the need to deter civilians from supporting the resistance, which is to say to repress the expression of any political or social position, and the need to feed and quench the Israeli thirst for revenge. This two- pronged military creed was epitomised by Unit 101, led by Ariel Sharon in the early 1950s. It raided villages, blew up houses and slaughtered the residents. Among the most notorious fruits of this philosophy were the massacres of Qubya, Nahalin and Al-Bureij in the fifties, and the massacres of Jabalya, Beit Hanoun, Al-Shajaiya, Qasba in Nablus and Jenin in more recent times. To perform these deeds Israel needed butchers, though it called them "legendary warriors". It was a hands-on approach. It did not involve F-16s. With these all that are needed are spoiled youths of the appropriate religious affiliation and with their hearts set on an American consumerist lifestyle.

Israel is deliberately targeting civilians in Lebanon, capitalising on an expedient moment. Its aims are to punish anyone who might have supported the resistance, to displace civilians northward in order to aggravate sectarian tensions in the country and to quench its barbaric thirst for revenge. The current attack, in all its ferocity and with its toll of innocent victims, was planned well in advance, with malice aforethought. Israel is a terrorist state. The diabolical logic of this state is actively supported by another terrorist state led by George Bush, a very dangerous, pathologically violent and sadistic man surrounded by a gang of cool and calculating Machiavellians and apologists for state terrorism. They ardently believe that civilians who don't own fighter planes are so far down the rungs of the ladder in the survival of the fittest that if they die well that's their own fault, a result of their own lack of realism.

This logic has one flaw that makes it unpardonable, a curse that will haunt that civilization, a permanent indictment of its control of the skies: how can children be expected to be "realistic"? How can anyone blame them for their own death?

It is wrong to sing the praises of dead children as if they were heroes, a disgrace to put their bodies on display. These children were not warriors. They were not in the resistance. They did not die in order to achieve a victory for others who didn't die and who hadn't put their lives on the line. These children died because they couldn't escape in time or manage to hide from the planes. They are the victims of the criminally barbaric civilization of fighter planes. Their murderers must be brought to account and the resistance against the aggression must be sustained.

An interesting article written by another skeptic of the "Kassam Rockets."

12/26/08

LINK to SABBAHBLOG

by Kawther Salam

I received a message from the photojournalist and peace activist Sameh Habeeb from Gaza while I was looking at the news in the Austrian TV, which pierced my ears with talk about the rockets which Hamas supposedly shoots at the "innocent Israeli occupation" which has jailed one and half million in Gaza since before Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out.

The rockets shown on Austrian TV looked to me like the fancy Bengala Rockets which are shot here while celebrating new year, and the clips shown on TV raise many questions:

- The picture published at the ORF website is credited to "MOHAMED SABER/EPA". Those are two first names and no family name. Who is this person? Why does he not present himself with a family name as any Arab would do? Does he exist at all or is he a fabrication?

- The rockets depicted in that picture (and on the video) look more like the fancy bengalas which can be bought in many shops all over the world before festivities than any known weapon.

- These so-called "rockets" appear to not have place for fuel or an engine, but they are supposed to fly 10-15Km ? How do they accomplish this miracle?

- How did ORF and other western media come into possession of this video which supposedly shows "Hamas fighters" shooting rockets from between fruit trees? Was it distributed by the Israeli embassy? Neither Austrian nor other western journalists are known to go to Gaza, so they can only have received them from the Israeli government, and that is what a link to exactly there from the ORF page suggests.

- If the firing of these rockets from Gaza can be doubted, from where else could they have been fired? From within Israeli territory perhaps? Could it be that the firing of these rockets is a propaganda campaign implemented by the IDF in order to "justify" a long-planned massacre against the people of Gaza?

- Could it be that the IDF is using the inhabitants of Sderot, Asqelon and other places around Gaza in order to construct a justification for genocide against a people who are already half hungered to death?

- Why did nobody ask these questions before showing the clip at several European TV stations? If western media are not sloppy in their research and their checking of sources but still publish material which is obvious propaganda, is it possible to say that this irresponsible and less than professional attitude, the wholesale regurgitation of Israeli propaganda, is tantamount to complicity in the genocide against the Palestinian people?

Even in the unlikely case that these rockets are "real", they would be an understandable yet lamentable reaction to years of illegal siege and murderous mayhem perpetrated by the Israeli regime. In this case they would be "rockets of hunger", wholly justified under international law, which allows an invaded people to defend itself with anything at their disposal.

The Israeli occupational regime is preparing to slaughter the besieged people of Gaza, and it is known that they are currently running a strong propaganda campaign around the world, controlling the international public opinion and turning their own crimes against humanity into "reactions" of the Gaza rockets.

The less than objective international media has adopted the Israeli propaganda wholesale, and continues repeating their falsified stories as a preparation for destroying Gaza over the heads of one and a half million mostly defenseless people, of whom about half are children.

Non of the European media has shown an objective picture about the real situation in Gaza, which is in fact and effect a concentration camp. Even during the previous truce between Israel and Gaza, the criminal state of Israel continued its blockade to hunger out and destroy to the Palestinians in Gaza.

I would ask the well-paid international dispensers of propaganda and the world governments some simple questions:

If somebody jails you in a ghetto for over six years, or even six days, denying you the most basic of human rights, continues blockading the ghetto, killing the sick people, occupying the sky, shelling, and killing people for no discernible reason, will you stay a peaceful people for even a second?
Is there any peace under the continued hunger and blockade?

This is the story of Gaza and of these useless rockets which you are using to justify the Israeli genocide, murdering, and jailing and starving people.

The message from the hungry people of Gaza, a voice lost under western propaganda and which more people should hear, follows. And here are more photos of the hungry Palestinians of Gaza.

Sameh Habeeb writes:

My Misery in Gaza pushed me to report on the Hunger of my people. I stopped by al shanty bakery mid of Gaza City. It is one of the biggest bakeries across Gaza which provides tens of thousands with bread. Hundreds of people crowded outside the bakery in a very long long row waiting for bag of bread. Children, women and men were awaiting the chance to have the bread which is totally running out in Gaza.

Abed Mas’od, 24, is a labour working in Al shanty bakery. I spoke to him whilst he was very busy preparing bread for thousands. I managed to get some information out of him.

Before the deadly crisis of bread which started 2 days ago; this bakery was preparing 30 bags of flour. But with today it makes around 100 each bag weights 60 Kilograms. Abed refers to this rise of bread-making quantity to the unrecorded request of population for bread which came after Israel ban flour into Gaza and closed borders.

"Our bakery is out of bread since days and what we have is only for another 24 hours. In fact, we have stopped our work yesterday as we ran out of flour. Now, we use grain (fodder) used for animals which will finish in hours." Bakery labor said.

Amongst the crowd a woman’s voice arose above all people in the row. She started to scream and appealed for God requesting a salvation and easing for life conditions. I came closer to the woman, then introduced myself and then started to ask her some questions. The woman, Om Ali Shoman,45, with a pale bleak face draws the suffering of entire populations.

She said, "This is our destiny. It’s a conspiracy machinated against us. What’s the fault of my children at home to stay with no bread. Did they fire rockets? Did they kill Israelis? Are they holding guns?

The number of Gaza bakeries is 47 but now the working ones are 14 only.
Normally, Gaza needs 450 tons of flour; 100 goes for bakeries and 300 for house use. Part of the house share flour is being provided by UNRWA which halted its work lately. The remaining flour and wheat quantities would be covering the needs of people except for few days.

Sameh A. Habeeb, B.A.
Gaza Strip, Palestine
Mob: 00972599306096
Tel: 0097282802825
E-mail: Sam_hab@hotmail.com
Sameh.habeeb@gmail.com

I just got finished watching this ridiculous piece of crap and have to comment.

Anyone with ANY history of posting political material to the Internet knows that this place is FILLED with government stooges trying to get people to announce that they're actively planning violent activities against the government.  The fucking clown in this video is waiving guns around and encouraging people to participate in some type of spontaneous guerrilla uprising.  Then, people on this website start flogging it around to get everyone with this program of armed uprising.

What the fuck are you people thinking of?

There have already been several landmark cases where information found on people's MySpace pages has been used against them in a court of law.  It's one thing to talk about your opposition to The New World Order or the phony Obama government, but it is quite something else to be openly supporting violent--re: terrorist--activities.  And on MYSPACE, for Christ's sake!!

You have no idea who these people are.  

The "End Time Watchman?"  Are you kidding me?

This guy seems to be some stooge who is trying to associate Opposition elements with kooky Armageddon Evangelists.  The "End Times?"  Huh?  Who the hell on my Friends List expects me to get behind such nonsense?

I have already deleted most of the "Truthers" from my Friends List and am now getting rid of anyone posting shit about fomenting armed conflict with the government.  These people are either supremely stupid or else they're goons working for the government.

You have people on this site like "OWN-THE-NWO" who claim in their blog that they're "going to a foreign country" and then "returning with a force."  WHATTHEFUCK?  And this guy appears all over MySpace.

Here is an image from the page of "NWO Punisher" (http://profile.myspace.com/411007984)

Brilliant. Just fucking brilliant. I really want to be MySpace friends with some weirdo promoting suicide bombing.

"Erin,"(http://profile.myspace.com/10307413) another popular "Truther" on this site, now has an avatar of herself carrying automatic rifles in preparation for "the revolution."

You have no idea what these people are up to or who they represent.

--DELETE ALL "TRUTHER" PROFILES!

--Do not post material which promotes violence!

--Do not associate yourself with armed nutjobs!

--Disassociate yourself with all so-called "Anarchist" groups!

That's right: the VAST MAJORITY of so-called "Anarchist" groups are government fronts.  Here's a video of "Anarchist Cops" trying to disrupt a demonstration so that the Police can swoop in and arrest everybody:

Notice the "real" anarchists all standing around with their thumbs up their asses, not knowing what the fuck is going on.  Either they're ALL retards or they're ALL cops.  Either way, they're people you do NOT want to be associated with.

These SAME PEOPLE are all over the Internet--and especially THIS SITE--disguised as "revolutionaries" and "Truthers."  Their ONLY activity here is friend-whoring.  They never communicate with people, they don't write anything, they do not participate in discussions.  All they do is send out zillions of Friend Requests and promote other bogus "Truther" profiles.

Yes, the Internet is a great tool for political organization, diseminating information and meeting people; but it is also an effective tool for The Establishment. 

Be smart about things.  

It's now accepted as fact that Israel broke the cease fire in November by conducting a pre-emptive strike against suspected Palestinian tunnelers who supposedly had plans of kidnapping Israeli soldiers. But the interesting part of the story is not about who broke the cease fire first. As stated in this news report:

"Throughout July, August, September, and October there were only fifteen [rocket] attacks; and Israel agrees that none of these rockets were fired by Hamas.

Watch the video here:

Now, this seems rather puzzling.  For one thing, HOW did Israel know that these 15 rockets were NOT fired by Hamas?  Did they simply take Hamas at their word when they denied launching the rockets?  That can't be true.  It had to have been that Israel somehow investigated these attacks, and based on their own intelligence reports determined that elements other than Hamas launched the rockets.  So, the rockets were launched by "Palestinian militants" who were not connected to Hamas?  That Israel would be capable of obtaining such information indicates that their system of intelligence gathering within Gaza is quite sophisticated.  And I am certain that it is. 

Last week, on the 10th, three rockets were launched at Israel from southern Lebanon.  Hezbollah immediately denied making the attacks and just yesterday they arrested 7 suspects in the case.  As of yet, we do not know anything about these people or what organization they belong to; but the Lebanese military/Police acted swiftly to apprehend them and prevent any more rocket attacks by supposedly "independent" militants.

One would think that with the Israeli-Palestinian cease fire hanging in the balance, Hamas would have acted just as quickly to locate and stop THEIR "independent" rocketeers, but it seems these people were able to operate with impunity over a period of FOUR MONTHS.  So, we have two interesting facts to ponder:

1. The Palestinians/Hamas have been unable to apprehend the "Unknown Rocketeers."
2. Israel knows for certain that the Unknown Rocketeers are not part of Hamas.

The first--and easiest-- conclusion is that Israel's intelligence apparatus within Gaza is far superior to anything Hamas has.  And, in the end, this entire affair falls within the domain of Intelligence and Law Enforcement--and not so much military action.  The most puzzling question--besides the Palestinians' ineptness at apprehending these Rogue Rocketeers--is MOSSAD's inability to locate the secret "rocket production facilities" operating somewhere within Gaza.  I mean... we have already heard many stories about the MOSSAD's capabilities.  They have undercover operatives (Yamas) all throughout Gaza posing as Hamas militants.  They have a network of Palestinian collaborators as well as phony front groups posing as Islamic terror organizations.  They also have the entire area under constant photographic surveillance via satellites and flying drones.  Yet, the "rocket factories" remain so successfully hidden, that it required a full-scale military incursion to root them out.  Unless I have missed something, the IDF has yet to uncover even ONE of these "rocket laboratories."  They have destroyed several "launching sites," but this is obvious nonsense.  The rockets are very similar to mortars and can be set up almost anywhere, so there are no official "launching sites" per se.  If the purpose of this whole thing is to "stop the rocket attacks," then blowing up the locations from where the rockets are launched is kind of ridiculous.  The goal would have to be to locate and destroy the rocket labs themselves.

So, what DO we know about these Rocket Labs?

Interestingly, back in January of last year, Der Spiegel actually sent a reporter to Gaza to interview some rocket makers who then took her on a tour of their little rocket facility.  You can find the article by Googling, "A Visit to a Gaza Rocket Factory."  Amazing that these people would be giving interviews, never mind taking journalists on guided tours.  And why Der Spiegel?  This paper is hardly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.    Even more ASTOUNDING is that Der Spiegel reporters seem to have no trouble finding these people, while the MOSSAD keeps missing them.

In my next post I will take a closer look at just what this journalist was able to "uncover" about the rocket factories, but the piece is definitely a hoax.  It reminds me of the interviews other Western journalists have conducted with supposed "suicide bombers." 

There is something about this whole rocket phenomenon which simply doesn't ring true, and it sounds uncomfortably similar to the rocket attacks described in Orwell's 1984, and how the citizens of Oceania secretly suspected that it was actually the work of Big Brother rather than arch villain, Goldstein.