Archive for January 13th, 2010

the record company

Back in the days of vinyl records, record companies released expected hits on 7″ records, 45s. The hit went on the A side, and some misfit song the record company considered to have a commercial handicap went on the B side. Maybe the song didn’t fit in with the album, or maybe it lacked a strong hook. Something. Occasionally one of these B side songs would take off in popularity, but most of them withered in the shadows of the A side hits. B side songs became the purview of music connisseurs, collectors, assorted off-beat characters who ran record stores after everyone else moved on to digital technology. But every 45 had a B side, whether you knew the song or not. And people still collect them.

It reminds me of the news business. The record company sends them records, but the news people are like DJs who only play the A sides. According to the “experts,” people who listen to B sides are assorted off-beat characters otherwise known as “conspiracy theorists,” who, as everybody knows, are all overwrought and paranoid.

Those who believe that major world events result from planning are laughed at for believing in the “conspiracy theory of history.” Of course, no one in this modern day and age really believes in the conspiracy theory of history — except those who have taken the time to study the subject…Politicians and “intellectuals” are attracted to the concept that events are propelled by some mysterious tide of history or happen by accident. By this reasoning they hope to escape the blame when things go wrong.- Gary Allen [1]

The only way a tiny group of people ever came to control the physical world, and continue to control the physical world, is through mental deception and emotional manipulation. Here’s how. They create problems, secretly (the B sides). Then they talk about the problems nonstop using their corporate media, which blankets the whole wide world. They play the A sides over and over and over again. People dance. They tell us to dance faster. We do. We are terrified of these problems. We believe we caused them because experts keep telling us that we did. So we have no choice, we must listen to the experts, and they say dance, or else… Eventually, they tell us we can rest for a few minutes, they think they have a solution. Exhausted, we agree. We have to rest. Of course, they offer the solution they always wanted to the problem they created in the first place, but we don’t know that. That song, the one about how they created the problem, is on the B side, and the DJs don’t play that side. If they did, we wouldn’t dance, and they like to watch us dance. How fun for them. So as soon as we catch our breath, they put another A side hit on.

Greatest Hits: The Financial Crisis

A side: The economy will collapse because Americans are greedy, overzealous consumers who never know when enough is enough. Not everyone should own a home, you know.[2]  OK, maybe some people made a few mistakes in the financial industry.[3] It happens. Like the banks stupidly lent to people they shouldn’t have.[4] But these are smart, talented people and we need to put our noses to the grindstone and get through this.[5] I mean, c’mon, who could have predicted?[6]

Dance step: Buck up, kids. Work harder.[7] Get a third job. Blame immigrants for your problems if you want,[8] but sorry, the banks are too big to fail.[9]

B side: The fiat money system has reached it’s mathematical limits and needs to taken down and replaced, somehow, with a new usurious debt trap run by our favorite families.[10] Hoo boy. Hopefully nobody will notice we ran the whole gig into the ground on purpose.[11] We’ll need to distract them. Big Time. Hey can somebody get the other records ready? We’re definitely gonna need them.

Liner notes:

Our money is an illusion. Except for coins, which compose only one ten-thousandth of the money supply, all of our money today consists of debt to private banks. Banks always take back more money in principal and interest than they put into the money supply as principal, making the system basically a pyramid scheme. After 300 years, this scheme has spread around the world and has now reached its mathematical limits. The whole world has been captured in the debt trap of a private international banking monopoly. - Ellen Brown [12]

We knew this would happen, and roughly when. Alan Greenspan began the process of creating enormous bubbles that will pop, we hope in a controlled-demolition sort of way, during the first decade of the millennium.[13] This will make a giant mess to justify scrapping our used-up jalopy fiat money system and replacing it with a brand new one world currency.[14] This will be our finest accomplishment, should we achieve it. By the way, failure is not an option. We’ll all be killed.[15]

We must relax credit for consumers, encouraging them to borrow and get into a lot of debt, debt beyond imagining, while simultaneously allowing financial institutions to buy and sell credit swaps — insurance that they will be paid in other words — on financial instruments in which they have no financial interest. We will build a giant gambling casino on top of our usurious fiat money scheme. Huge beyond imagining. The entire thing will eventually collapse. The destruction? Beyond imagining. You get the idea.[16]

To this end we will ensure that public and corporate policies encourage the personal misfortunes of ordinary people and small businesses (the disaster lottery slot machines). This will ensure enormous profits for our friends running the casino. When the scale of the problem threatens to finally close the casino, we will pay off and/or bribe the politicians to bail us out by threatening to close the casino.[17] We are too big to fail. This will make everything worse for the citizens. When their currency finally becomes worthless and they face hopelessness and utter despair, we will force them to accept our one world currency.[18]

Since we make our currency out of thin air, we need to back it with a commodity. We have decided to stick with oil for now, since everyone still uses it and we know where most of it is. We’ll have to control all the oil, or at least the vast majority of it, for our plan to work.[19] We will convince them we’re running out and that we’re keeping the fact a secret.[20] The Iranians have been the only people to outwit our diabolical debt trap so far, and they also have a lot of oil, so we have to bomb their oil fields, somehow, and control them lest they wreck our plans.[21] But since they haven’t started a war in several hundred years, this will require a major advertising campaign. They must be thrown under the bus. Big Time.

Greatest Hits: The War on Terror

A side: Lots of dance tunes here, kind of a remix. A little bit people hate us for our freedoms, a little bit Islam is a violent religion. Riffs of Arabs and especially Iranians want to wipe Israel off the map, al Qaeda will never stop trying to kill us, we have to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here. We have a Clash of Civilizations, it’s not that you did anything wrong really these people just can’t be reasoned with, it’s hopeless, just waiting for Armageddon (chorus), etc.[22]

Dance step: Give up your privacy so we can be safe.[23] Expect inconveniences and limitations in your travel so we can be safe.[24] Please mind your neighbors’ business so we can be safe.[25] Support Our Troops so we can be safe. Vote Republican so we can be safe.[26]

B side: OK we need to distract “the folks” with a really bad enemy, a new Pearl Harbor or two, and some never-ending wars fueled by diabolically persistent terrorists who always manage to slip away.[27] Some of our people will definitely die, and a lot of foreigners will definitely die, but you gotta break some eggs to make an omelet. Right? Right.[28] We’ll pay off who we need to pay off. We have the money.

Liner notes: We expect to kick this off in the early millennium, say around 2001. Let’s say a memorable date like 9/11. We expect the financial problems to have metastasized but it won’t be obvious yet. We need to get these people cowering in fear, get them to submit to our authority so that we can plunder them and distract them and keep them busy fighting each other and everyone else. Divide and conquer. We can trust Bush the ass to squander any good will quickly, but we won’t admit it, causing bitter acrimony.[29] Of course we will never deliver the security we promise in exchange for their sacrifices. The fools. We’ll even telegraph this plan years in advance, but it won’t make any difference.[30] The War on Terror will fulfill a primary strategic goal: redrawing the map of the Middle East, which ensures our ultimate goal: Israel’s world hegemony. The United States shall supply all the labor and materiel. It’s true that many Americans will be expended, but there are too many people on the planet, and a lot of them must go, especially the poor brown ones living on top of valuable natural resources like oil and minerals, but not only them. We have to keep it “believable.”[31]

Besides oil, we also need to control other resources in the ground like gold, diamonds, etc. It’s not enough to control the money because the money is just paper.[32] It must be tied to a commodity, and all the good commodities reside in the earth. So geology will determine where the war on terror crops up. Our intelligence operatives will seed conflicts as needed around the world to create pretexts for military force.[33] These conflicts will bring about death, displacement and terror, allowing us to control the natural resources while having the advantage of chipping away at the population.

Greatest Hits: Climate Change

A side: You people are killing the planet! Just ask our scientists.[34]

Dance step: Stop having babies! Stop eating! Stop living! Recycle! Reduce your carbon footprint![35] Haha we can still make fun of Al Gore![36]

B side: Guilt. Guilt guilt guilt.[37] We’ll lie about the science,[38] we’ll mess with the weather using our secret weather modification technologies and chemtrails, we’ll terrify the children with dire predictions of their futures underwater.[39] Green will be the new religion.[40] Hollywood will help us out here, just like in the War on Terror, with tremendous special effects in terrifying movies and on slick websites.[41]

Liner notes: While we focus on things under the ground, we shall consistently direct the world’s attention up in the sky. The climate. It’s…changing! And….it’s all the fault of human beings!! [42]We will start this brainwashing early and run it alongside the bubble economy. That way, by encouraging excessive consumption, we can browbeat them senseless for it later. Their children will despise them. Mwahaha. Our scientists will be sure to find that humans cause global warming, especially fat humans.[43] Our think tanks, always so important, will paint apocalyptic scenarios of the horrific consequences of climate change: fighting over scarce resources, failed states, refugees, and so forth. Of course these scenarios will require military interventions to move people to “safety” (away from the valuable underground resources) while degrading their ability to create sustainable lives and simultaneously imposing and stressing the lives of their new host communities.[44] In fact, dire climate change scenarios will “shift liability for wars and human rights abuses away from oppressive, corrupt governments.” [45] Exactly! Between blaming pollution on humans, and a few “enhanced” natural disasters thrown in, which of course we will call Acts of God (wink wink!), we have the perfect alibi for enslaving humanity. And all the while we will withhold life-saving technological advances.[46]

Greatest Hits: Disease and Global Pandemics

A side: The world is deadly. Cancer might get you. Or AIDS. Or some flesh eating bacteria. Scientists, brilliant as they are, seem to be losing the fight against disease.[47] If we’re not careful, some virus will mutate into a killer and wipe out millions, maybe billions. It could start anywhere, at anytime.[48] There’s nothing you can really do. Well, maybe a few things.

Dance step: You probably already have a disease and you don’t even know it. Get yourself to the doctor and get on some pharmaceuticals. Get your “damn vaccine.”[49]  Make sure your children get thirty shots or so before they turn six.[50] It’s for the good of everybody. Check your BMI and obsess over that number.[51] Get in shape. Spend money at a gym. Enroll in a diet program. Torment yourself. Eat this food. Eat that food. Don’t smoke no matter how addictive we make those wads.[52] Drink alcohol. Take some anxiety meds, you look pretty stressed.[53] Be sure to worry, a lot, about the invisible germs you can’t see coming to get you. Sterilize your family and your household.[54] Block the sun’s rays from touching your skin at all times.[55]

B side: We really need to kill a lot of people quickly without wrecking the environment with nuclear waste, because we do want to send our people in to extract resources and also we’d like to be able to go anywhere we want to when this is over. It’s our planet. We paid for it.[56]

Liner notes: Killing poses no problem, you see. We’ve been doing that for years. But to kill a lot of people efficiently, quickly, and to get away with it, well, that takes a special kind of disaster. We will create a deadly pandemic and release it accidentally.[57] After building anxiety about this over a period of years, we will whip them into hysteria and inject poison into their veins with our vaccines. It will be an unfortunate series of events, very regrettable, but all completely deniable under the rubric of preparedness and good intentions.[58] We will be totally prepared for mass casualties, which we hope to occur, at long last.[59]

We’d like to thank our sponsors:

We fund our secret operations with laundered money from human trafficking, drug trafficking, and weapons trafficking. These business models weaken and debase the populations, embroil them in conflicts, and drain their money into our pockets.[60] We have dossiers on everyone we need to control. We know all their weaknesses, which we have exploited. They can’t open their mouths without getting torpedoed. Ask Eliot Spitzer.[61]

Hegelian Mindfuck Records. All rights reserved.

So I’m one of those off-beat characters who collects B sides. Personally, I got sick of listening to the A sides. The records are all scratched up. They skip. The sound quality is terrible.[62] Have you ever noticed? But you know, the B sides are in pristine condition because hardly anyone plays them. Lots of people collect them and pass them around, usually for free. You just have to know who to ask.

Can you imagine if more people stopped dancing and listened to the B sides? We can take those lousy scratched up A side records and encase them in a museum exhibit, and never listen to them again. We can put this rotten record company out of business forever. And we can live in peace.

Notes:

[1] Some dare call it conspiracy! Are you among them? by Zahir Ebrahim, Atlantic Free Press, April 23, 2009. Also see: None Dare Call It Conspiracy, by Gary Allen. Chapter 1. Both writers reference the work of Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in our Time.

[2] Not Everyone Should Own a Home, WSJ, October 6, 2008.

[3] Fed learning from its mistakes, Rosengren says, MarketWatch, December 3, 2009.

[4] Decade in Review - A Wild Ride in Personal Finance, NYT, December 18, 2009.

[5] Banks ramp up pay packages to top talent, WSJ, July 16, 2009.

[6] Greenspan Admits Errors to Hostile House Panel, WSJ, October 24, 2008.

[7] How to Recession-Proof Your Career, WSJ, January 29, 2008.

[8] Immigrants hit hard by slowdown, subprime crisis, Reuters, January 30, 2008.

[9] Geithner prevailed on Obama bailout plan, NYT, February 10, 2009.

[10] Who owns the Fed?

[11] Extraordinary Times, Intentional Collapse, and Takedown of the USA, Richard C. Cook, Global Research, April 30, 2008.

[12] Interview with Web of Debt author Ellen Brown, The Daily Bell, August 23, 2009.

[13] The Mess Greenspan Leaves, Stefan Karlsson, Ludwig von Mises Institute, December 26, 2005.

[14] Plea to reduce demand for dollar reserves, Financial Times, November 11, 2009.

[15] Bankers might be feeling public’s wrath — literally, The Raw Story, December 10, 2009.

[16] Credit default swaps - the insane problem and the radical but insane solution, The Geronimo Manifesto, September 24, 2008.

[17] Bernanke Says Failure to Pass Plan Threatens Economy, Bloomberg, September 23, 2008.

[18] US Hyperinflation a Real Risk - China Proposes Alternative Reserve Currency, Money Energy, March 29, 2009.

[19] Not Oil, But Dollars vs. Euros, Global Policy Forum, March 2003.

[20] The Peak Oil Scam (pdf)

[21] Behind the drums of war with Iran: Nuclear weapons of compound interest, by Ellen Brown, Global Research, November 13, 2007.

[22] Fox News. CNN News. ABC News. CBS News. MSNBC News.

[23] Democrats Make Dangerous Revisions to Patriot Act, Newsmax, October 5, 2009.

[24] 150 more full-body scanners to go into US airports, CNN, December 31, 2009.

[25] Citizen Corps: Programs and Partnerships, FEMA.

[26] Republicans seek political advantage, Financial Times, December 29, 2009.

[27] The Mega-Lie Called the “War on Terror”: A Masterpiece of Propaganda, Richard W. Behan, Alternet, September 27, 2007.

[28] “A Second 911″: An Integral Part of US Military Doctrine, Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, October 31, 2008.

[29] The Myth of “Squandered Sympathy”, John Rosenthal, WSJ, October 14, 2004.

[30] A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, by Richard Perle, et. al. 1996. Also see: 1996: Neocons deliver report to Israel: Remove Saddam. zFacts.com.

[31] Overpopulation & terrorism: rats in a cage, John Omaha, Culture Change.

[32] One World Currency (with addendum), James Shanahan, Winter Patriot, April 23, 2009.

[33] UN: Act to End Atrocities in Eastern Congo, Human Rights Watch, December 13, 2009.  Also see: Rwandan Genocide Militia has Global Support Network - UN, Philippine Inquirer, November 25, 2009.

[34] Human race is killing planet, says Meacher, Guardian, February 14, 2003.

[35] Reducing Your Carbon Footprint, ABC News, June 7, 2006.

[36] Al Gore’s ‘Inconvenient Truth’? - A $30,000 Utility Bill, ABC News, February 26, 2007.

[37] How reputation could save the Earth, David Rand and Martin Nowak, New Scientist, November 15, 2009.

[38] ClimateGate: The Fix is In, Robert Tracinski, Real Clear Politics, November 24, 2009.

[ 39] Environmental Warfare: Climate Modification Schemes, by Spencer Weart. Global Research, December 5, 2009.

[40] Klaus Says Global Warming “New Religion”, James Heiser, New American, December 22, 2009.

[41] The IHC: Preparing the World for 2012.

[42] Humans Linked to Climate Change: NASA study links earth impacts to human-caused climate change, published as a NASA news release in May 2008, in Geology.com.

[43] Scientists: Humans ‘very likely’ cause global warming, CNN, April 29, 2007. Also see: Thinner is better to curb global warming, study says, CNN, April 20, 2009.

[44] Immigration has ‘deeply unsettled’ Britian, Telegraph, April 18, 2007.

[45] The New Myth About Climate Change, by Idean Salehyan, Foreign Policy, August 2007.

[46] Energy Technology Suppression, Christopher Walter.

[47] Hospitals ‘losing fight against superbugs’, Telegraph, July 9, 2008.

[48] Flu strains circulate for years before becoming a pandemic, USA Today, July 13, 2009.

[49] Dr. Nancy Snyderman on MSNBC

[50] Institute for Vaccine Safety, Recommended Immunization Schedule, Ages 0-6 Years, United States, 2009. John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

[51] Healthy Weight: It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle! CDC

[52] Cigarettes ‘engineered’ for addiction, BBC, date unknown.

[53] Number of Americans taking antidepressants doubles, USA Today, August 4, 2009.

[54] Firms Look to Prevent Swine Flu Pandemic, Turn a Profit, ABC News, April 28, 2009.

[55] Don’t Forget the Suncreen — Every Day, American Cancer Society, May 8, 2003.

[56] Nuclear war would wreck climate say scientists, edie.net (Environmental Data Interactive Exchange), December 13, 2006.

[57] Baxter: Product contained live bird flu virus, The Toronto Sun, February 27, 2009

[58] CDC to mix avian, human flu viruses in pandemic study, CIDRAP, January 14, 2004.

[59] Senator proposes free flu shots for all Americans, Reuters, May 1, 2009. Also see: Governors take steps to safeguard continuity of government during a pandemic outbreak, National Governors’ Association news release, February 19, 2009. Also see: International Swine Flu Conference brochure, August 19-21, 2009, Washington DC.

[60] US forces mounted secret Pakistan raids in hunt for al-Qaida, The Guardian, December 21, 2009.

[61] Spitzer taken down by Mossad? by Jerry Mazza, Online Journal, March 14, 2008.

[62] Goldman Sachs and others investigated for betting against securities they created, AllGov, December 27, 2009. Also see: Evidence mounts for US complicity in terrorism, Gordon Duff, Veterans Today, December 29, 2009. Also see: The lynchpin of the Global Warming movement has broken: The myth of neutral academic peer review, Gary North, December 7, 2009. Also see: Summary of the swine flu criminal case, Jane Burgermeister, The Flu Case, August 27, 2009.

the full monty

Israel displays its petty and sophomoric nature with the Turkish diplomatic incident and subsequent fallout. Behold.

Background: Israel needs Turkey. Turkey doesn’t need Israel. Turkey has been making friends all over the place. Erdogan stood up to Peres last year at Davos over Operation Cast Lead. In typically myopic Israeli style, everything is always about Israel and Israel’s glass feelings. So when a Turkish television drama depicted Israeli security forces kidnapping children and shooting old men — a depiction supported by conspiracy facts on the ground, lest we forget Operation Cast Lead and organ stealing, just two recent examples of genocidal behaviorIsrael’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon could not resist behaving like a seventh grader while meeting Turkish ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol in Jerusalem.

At the beginning of the conversation with the Turkish envoy on Monday, Ayalon told cameramen in Hebrew: “Pay attention that he is sitting in a lower chair … that there is only an Israeli flag on the table and that we are not smiling.”

One Turkish source said that Ayalon “set a trap” for Celikkol, and that the envoy had no idea that he was being humiliated until afterward when Ayalon’s words to the cameramen were broadcast. The source also mentioned that Ayalon did shake his hand, but not in front of the cameras.

And does anyone have the sense to say, you know, maybe that’s not a good idea? NO! In fact they all seem to think this is a splendid smack-down. The Israeli dailies splashed the news all over the front pages. We hazed that fucker, boo-yah! High fives.

TEL AVIV - Israeli newspapers on Tuesday played up what they called the “hazing” of Turkey’s ambassador by Israel, in an incident likely to ratchet up already high tensions between the two allies.

The media highlighted the fact that Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon made Ambassador Ahmet Celikkol sit on a low couch while the Israelis sat on high chairs.

Rather than summoning Celikkol to the ministry as is the norm, Ayalon saw him in his parliamentary office after making him wait in the corridor and telling staff to remove the Turkish flag and refreshments that were on the table. “The important thing is that people see that he’s sitting low down and we’re high and that there is one flag,” Israeli television aired Ayalon as telling invited photographers and camera crews.

Israeli dailies all splashed the story on the front page, with Maariv headlining: “The ambassador gets a hazing” above a picture showing the Turkish envoy sitting much lower than Ayalon and looking uncomfortable.

Some people in Ayalon’s party, sensing the faux pas, say he ruined his career. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1263147877256

“He is finished politically,” an Israel Beiteinu official said. “This ruins his reputation as a diplomat. It is a stain that cannot be erased. He damaged Lieberman and first and foremost himself. It is too soon to say if it will completely disqualify him, but people in the party will no doubt remember this if a decision would be made on who should be acting foreign minister. This erases the notion that he is the obvious front-runner.”

…”We have enough problems with the Muslim world without picking a fight with a country that has 72 million Muslims,” Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio from India, where he is on an official visit. “When I met with the Turks [in November], I told them what needed to be said privately. This is not the way [to do things]; it is the way to get the entire Muslim world against us. Whoever wants the entire Muslim world against us, well, the best of luck to him.” Former deputy foreign minister Majallie Whbee of Kadima called for “the diplomat Ayalon to fix the damage of the politician Ayalon as soon as possible, apologize to the ambassador, and promise to put the agenda of the country ahead of that of his party from now on.”

Labor MK Daniel Ben-Simon called upon Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to summon Ayalon to his office and put him on a low chair, “so he will see how low Israeli diplomacy has stooped.” He said Netanyahu should replace Lieberman before he does even more damage to Israel’s image internationally.


But *those* people make up a small minority! Far MORE people consider Ayalon da bomb!

Ayalon’s associates responded that the messages of praise he had received from inside and outside his party outnumbered the condemnations by a ratio of eight to one. They stressed that everything he did was coordinated with Lieberman. “The party seems to be behind him on this,” an Ayalon associate said. “Our phones and fax were ringing off the hook, he got great support on Facebook, and he was received very warmly on a lunch visit to a humous restaurant in the [capital's] Mahaneh Yehuda market. There has of course been criticism, but the support has been overwhelming.”

Not enough rope? Wait there’s more. There’s the non-apology apology — actually several:

Ayalon, before the statement was released, told Army Radio that he would not apologize. “It’s the Turks who should - for what [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan said and for the television series,” Ayalon said. “We are merely setting boundaries.”

“The prime minister believes that the foreign ministry’s protest to the Turkish ambassador was just in its essence but should have been conveyed in an acceptable diplomatic manner,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.

So there. Neener neener to you too. And the truth of the matter: Israel does not like Turkey’s friends. Israel decided to give Turkey a little spanking.

Netanyahu expressed concern at the deterioration of relations between Israel and Turkey. In talks behind closed doors, he said that during the past two years “Turkey has been steadily and systematically slipping eastward toward Syria and Iran,” instead of westward, toward Europe and the United States. “This is a trend that should really trouble Israel,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying.

Sources in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Bureau said Tuesday the decision to invite the Turkish ambassador for a reprimand by Ayalon was made together with Lieberman. They noted that the Israeli PM was not aware of the way the reprimand would be carried out, “but the minute it happened the prime minister [gave] the foreign minister his full backing.”

Official sources in Tel Aviv said Erdogan had changed his attitude towards Israel since Operation Cast Lead. “This process started when Erdogan abandoned a debate with President Shimon Peres (in Davos), so actually what is being done in Jerusalem is less important than what is happening in Ankara,” one source said.

Aha, still smarting over Erdogan standing up to Peres in Davos. And now Barak has to go to Turkey and make all kiss kiss hug hug. Ha good luck with that.

BEIRUT- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will head to Ankara over the weekend for talks with Turkish leaders including Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul and senior military officials , an official in Barak’s office told AFP on Tuesday, as tension between the longstanding allies again spike.

He added that the visit would take place despite the rising tension, which erupted on Monday after [SPIN:] Israel complained to Ankara over the broadcasting of a television series portraying Mossad agents as baby snatchers.

“We give this visit much importance. The ties between the two countries are important, and they must be maintained even if there are ups and downs,” the official said.

Clarification: The tensions erupted after Israel’s obnoxious leaders could no longer maintain diplomatic protocols and revealed their true petty nature for the world to see.

They dropped the mask.

here lies the crux of the whole matter

1. Hariri in Syria: a new political order?  BEIRUT, By Nayla Chahla | iloubnan.info - December 21, 2009

As it was scheduled several weeks ago, the visit of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to Syria has come amid a true transitional period that Lebanon has been witnessing lately. Prepared by other visits, one of which the recent visit of Lebanese President Michel Sleiman to Syria, this one was considered as “a turning point’ in the Lebanese-Syrian relations which deteriorated since 2005, after the assassination of former Premier Rafic Hariri. What could be the new political order to emerge from that visit? Focus with the political scientist Paul Salem.

3- How do you locate this visit regarding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, especially that Syria is suspected of involvement in Hariri case?

To my opinion, this visit will not have any impact on the work of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. This Tribunal is already established and is moving forward in its procedures. Lebanon is fully committed thereto. So, Hariri’s visit to Syria and the Tribunal issue are two independent questions. The latter will not halt its work, but on the contrary, it will keep up with its procedures until the whole work is done. The only question to be asked in this regard is about the outcome of the ongoing investigations. Would they confirm Syria’s involvement in Rafic Hariri’s assassination? Here lies the crux of the whole matter.

read more here

2. UN pays tribute to outgoing registrar of Special Tribunal for Lebanon

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday said that he regrets that the registrar of the United Nations-backed tribunal set up to try the perpetrators of political killings in Lebanon is stepping down, but congratulated him on his appointment as the head of an organization focusing on transitional justice.   Ban, in a statement issued here by his spokesman, said that the registrar of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, David Tolbert, seeks resignation as he intends to become president of a leading global rights organization in New York….During Tolbert’s tenure, which began in August 2009, the Special Tribunal has made “excellent progress,” Ban said, noting his achievements which include a solid administrative infrastructure that supported future judicial activities with key measures undertaken for witness protection and court management.

more @ chinaview

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAEiuwiOpf0

4. David Tolbert appointed ICTJ President

NEW YORK, January 12, 2010 — David Tolbert, as part of a distinguished career in international justice, will become president of the International Center for Transitional Justice on March 2, 2010. Mr. Tolbert arrives at ICTJ after serving as Registrar for the United Nations’ Special Tribunal for Lebanon, based in The Hague, during a tenure of almost 15 years at the UN as a senior legal advisor, deputy chief prosecutor and assistant secretary-general.

more here

5. watch out for exploding tires.

isn’t that convenient

1. (random) terrorist group (conveniently) claims responsibility for Iranian scientist attack

TEHRAN, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) — A terrorist group named “Iran Royal Association” took responsibility for Tuesday’s fatal bombing attack on an Iranian nuclear physicist, local Iran Daily reported Wednesday.  The Iran Royal Association, a group seeking to reestablish the Pahlavi reign in Iran, announced Tuesday in a statement that its ” Tondar Commandos” were behind the assassination of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, a particle physics professor in Tehran University, according to the report.   The website of the group said it had previously threatened Ali-Mohammadi with death.  The Iran Royal Association, headed by Foroud Fouladvand, was also responsible for a deadly bombing in the tourist city of Shiraz in April 2008, during which 13 people were killed and hundreds wounded.

more @ chinaview

2. Iran: we had information Israel, US intended to attack — US says that’s absurd, Israel has no comment

Iran received information days ago that Israeli and U.S. intelligence intended to carry out terrorist acts in Tehran, the country’s parliament speaker said on Wednesday, one day after the assassination of a university scientist.  Washington has rejected Iran’s allegations of U.S. involvement in Tuesday’s bombing that killed professor Massoud Ali Mohammadi near his home in the Iranian capital as absurd. Israel has not commented on the incident.

Iran’s influential parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, said a U.S.-based pro-monarchy group had claimed responsibility for the attack, adding it was controlled by the CIA. Iran’s Fars News Agency on Tuesday said such an exile group had claimed the bombing in a statement, without saying how it obtained it. “An American-based monarchy group…claimed responsibility for this terrorist act,” Larijani said, the state broadcaster reported. “Maybe the CIA and the Zionist regime [Israel] thought they can mislead us with such an absurd statement.” “We had clear information several days ago that the intelligence apparatus of the Zionist regime and the CIA wanted to implement terrorist acts in Tehran,” he said.  Using such a “rootless group” as a cover was a new “disgrace” for U.S. President Barack Obama, Larijani said. “Why do you host this terrorist group in America?” he asked. Israel refused Tuesday to react to Iranian accusations that it or the United States was behind a mysterious explosion that killed an Iranian nuclear physicist in Tehran Tuesday.

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Ali Mohammadi was involved in a regional research project that also involved Israeli scientists. The project, called Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East, or SESAME, is based in Jordan and operates under United Nations auspices. Iranian and foreign scientists told the Washington Post the project has applications in industry, medicine, nanotechnology and other fields unrelated to nuclear power. Palestinians also participate in the project, whose last meeting was held in November in Jordan. An Israeli scientist present at the meeting told the Washington Post that he talked to Ali Mohammadi during an informal group meeting. “We did not discuss politics or nuclear issues, as our project is not connected to nuclear physics,” Rabinovici told the paper. An Iranian scientist involved in the project denied that there had been any direct meetings between his delegation and the Israelis. “They are present in the same room, but there are no direct meetings,” Javad Rahighi, a nuclear researcher, told the Washington Post. “We are all shocked,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine anybody wanting to kill him. He was a scientist, nothing more.”

haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142366.html

3. now that he’s dead (convenient)…hey didn’t that CIA bomber also have something to do with the Madrid bombs???

MADRID - WESTERN intelligence services are investigating whether a Jordanian who blew himself up in Afghanistan, killing seven CIA agents, had a role in the deadly 2004 Madrid train bombings, a Spanish news report said on Tuesday. ‘Western secret services are investigating whether this terrorist is the author of the claim of responsibility that arrived at the Spanish newspaper ABC a few days after these attacks,’ news radio Cadena Ser reported. In several letters posted on jihadist websites, Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, writing under the pseudonym Abu Dujana Al Khorasani, hailed the Madrid bombings, as well as the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and those on July 7, 2005 in London, it said. A total of 192 people were killed and more than 1,800 injured in the March 11, 2004 bombings of commuter trains in the Spanish capital. Responsibility was claimed by Islamic militants who said they acted on behalf of Al-Qaeda to avenge the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq, sent by then Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar in support of the US invasion. Three days after the attacks, Aznar’s conservative Popular Party was defeated in a general election by Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who made good on a campaign pledge to withdraw the Spanish contingent.

Cadena Ser said ‘various data’ lead Western intelligence services to believe Balawi was behind the letter to ABC. These include the fact that it was signed by Abu Dujana, Balawi’s pseudonym, and that the Al-Qaeda claim of responsibility for his suicide attack had the ’same characteristics’ and was signed by ‘by the same suicide group’. — AFP

source: straits times

4. terrorists seek to enter the US via Canada, conveniently the government is on extended holiday there

OTTAWA - PRIME Minister Stephen Harper held talks with national security advisers after reports surfaced that would-be attackers were seeking to enter the United States via Canada, broadcaster CTV said on Tuesday.  Mr Harper’s office said he was briefed overnight by Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson. According to CTV, the government asked Canadian airlines and airports on Saturday to remain vigilant and adhere to tough new passenger screening rules adopted after a failed Christmas Day attack on a US jet. Transport Minister John Baird said on Tuesday the government had received ‘two or three pieces’ of threat information since a young Nigerian tried to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit last month. CTV said British and US intelligence reports suggested 20 Yemeni-trained ‘terrorists’ were trying to get into Canada and then travel to the United States. Separately, Canadian intelligence officials had evidence that another group was also trying to enter Canada, the broadcaster said. — AFP

source: straits times

also see: PM holds meeting after potential terror threat

and Leaderless Canada, Israeli security services, and the Olympics

The questions many Canadian’s have asked: Why did Prime Minister Harper prorogue the government, until after the 2010 Vancouver Olympics? I had some question myself about this mysterious move on the PM’s part in this post Dec 30/09. One possible concern, and there were so many of them, is the potential for a false flag.

5. up next: al qaeda in Palestine — according to WINEP!! (super convenient) — hey i bet first al qaeda will penetrate the palestinian camps in lebanon…yeah that’s the ticket…those camps are a “time bomb”

Militant Islamist groups in Gaza seeking an alliance with Al Qaeda may be planning to carry out a large-scale attack in order to boost their credentials, warns a report released today by the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP). “Al Qaeda-inspired groups in Gaza ‘think big’ and are regularly plotting large-scale attacks,” says the report, coauthored by a former deputy director of Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence service. It also quotes an anonymous member of one of these groups as saying his operatives are “waiting to carry out a big jihadist operation dedicated to Sheikh Osama Bin Laden.”

read more @ mother jones

6. Iraqi security forces do a sweep of the city, clear out a lot of explosives. will that prevent the next blast however? you have to wonder, if they clean up the place and another blast occurs, well where the fuck do the explosives come from???? those terrorists are always so wily (convenient) it’s like they have an inside track ya know?

BAGHDAD, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) — Iraqi security forces detained 25 insurgent suspects and seized explosives and mortar bombs during massive operations in Baghdad early on Tuesday, a military spokesman said.    Qassim Atta, spokesman for Baghdad Operations Command, said in a statement that his troops confiscated 200 kg of C4 explosives, 200 kg of TNT, 60 mortar rounds and some 250 litre of ammonium nitrate which is used for making bombs during the search operations conducted early Tuesday morning.    The troops also arrested 25 people suspected of plotting terrorist attacks in Baghdad, Atta said….The source could not give the reason behind such sudden and wide-ranging operations, but said they are possibly based on tip-off on bomb attacks in the capital.

more @ chinaview

7. Chavez is crazy, man, i mean come on. nobody listens to that guy he’s a total whack-job. i mean just because they have problems in venezuela (convenient!) that doesn’t mean we would take advantage of the situation, come on… (wink wink wink wink)

WASHINGTON: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is making “baseless” accusations of a US military plot to distract Venezuelans from real troubles at home, such as a currency devaluation, a top Pentagon official told Reuters. Chavez, who on Friday announced a devaluation that could fan inflation, said the same day he had scrambled two F-16 jets to intercept a US military plane that twice entered Venezuelan skies. Frank Mora, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Western Hemisphere Affairs, said the “baseless” and “unfounded” accusations — which the United States had immediately denied — were part of a pattern by Chavez.

“The more that President Chavez is confronted with domestic challenges, the more his rhetoric heats up,” Mora said in an interview from his Pentagon office on Monday. Mora said he found it “interesting that he made this unfounded accusation … at the same time he was announcing a major currency devaluation,” adding repeated devaluations can lead to a potential scarcity of goods. “It is, in my view, a diversion of attention away from a particularly domestic challenge — and trying to scapegoat the issue by once again accusing the United States government.”

read more @ arab news


the full monty

Israel displays its petty and sophomoric nature with the Turkish diplomatic incident and subsequent fallout. Behold.

Background: Israel needs Turkey. Turkey doesn’t need Israel. Turkey has been making friends all over the place. Erdogan stood up to Peres last year at Davos over Operation Cast Lead. In typically myopic Israeli style, everything is always about Israel and Israel’s glass feelings. So when a Turkish television drama depicted Israeli security forces kidnapping children and shooting old men — a depiction supported by conspiracy facts on the ground, lest we forget Operation Cast Lead and organ stealing, just two recent examples of genocidal behaviorIsrael’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon could not resist behaving like a seventh grader while meeting Turkish ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol in Jerusalem.

At the beginning of the conversation with the Turkish envoy on Monday, Ayalon told cameramen in Hebrew: “Pay attention that he is sitting in a lower chair … that there is only an Israeli flag on the table and that we are not smiling.”

One Turkish source said that Ayalon “set a trap” for Celikkol, and that the envoy had no idea that he was being humiliated until afterward when Ayalon’s words to the cameramen were broadcast. The source also mentioned that Ayalon did shake his hand, but not in front of the cameras.

And does anyone have the sense to say, you know, maybe that’s not a good idea? NO! In fact they all seem to think this is a splendid smack-down. The Israeli dailies splashed the news all over the front pages. We hazed that fucker, boo-yah! High fives.

TEL AVIV - Israeli newspapers on Tuesday played up what they called the “hazing” of Turkey’s ambassador by Israel, in an incident likely to ratchet up already high tensions between the two allies.

The media highlighted the fact that Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon made Ambassador Ahmet Celikkol sit on a low couch while the Israelis sat on high chairs.

Rather than summoning Celikkol to the ministry as is the norm, Ayalon saw him in his parliamentary office after making him wait in the corridor and telling staff to remove the Turkish flag and refreshments that were on the table. “The important thing is that people see that he’s sitting low down and we’re high and that there is one flag,” Israeli television aired Ayalon as telling invited photographers and camera crews.

Israeli dailies all splashed the story on the front page, with Maariv headlining: “The ambassador gets a hazing” above a picture showing the Turkish envoy sitting much lower than Ayalon and looking uncomfortable.

Some people in Ayalon’s party, sensing the faux pas, say he ruined his career. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1263147877256

“He is finished politically,” an Israel Beiteinu official said. “This ruins his reputation as a diplomat. It is a stain that cannot be erased. He damaged Lieberman and first and foremost himself. It is too soon to say if it will completely disqualify him, but people in the party will no doubt remember this if a decision would be made on who should be acting foreign minister. This erases the notion that he is the obvious front-runner.”

…”We have enough problems with the Muslim world without picking a fight with a country that has 72 million Muslims,” Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio from India, where he is on an official visit. “When I met with the Turks [in November], I told them what needed to be said privately. This is not the way [to do things]; it is the way to get the entire Muslim world against us. Whoever wants the entire Muslim world against us, well, the best of luck to him.” Former deputy foreign minister Majallie Whbee of Kadima called for “the diplomat Ayalon to fix the damage of the politician Ayalon as soon as possible, apologize to the ambassador, and promise to put the agenda of the country ahead of that of his party from now on.”

Labor MK Daniel Ben-Simon called upon Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to summon Ayalon to his office and put him on a low chair, “so he will see how low Israeli diplomacy has stooped.” He said Netanyahu should replace Lieberman before he does even more damage to Israel’s image internationally.


But *those* people make up a small minority! Far MORE people consider Ayalon da bomb!

Ayalon’s associates responded that the messages of praise he had received from inside and outside his party outnumbered the condemnations by a ratio of eight to one. They stressed that everything he did was coordinated with Lieberman. “The party seems to be behind him on this,” an Ayalon associate said. “Our phones and fax were ringing off the hook, he got great support on Facebook, and he was received very warmly on a lunch visit to a humous restaurant in the [capital's] Mahaneh Yehuda market. There has of course been criticism, but the support has been overwhelming.”

Not enough rope? Wait there’s more. There’s the non-apology apology — actually several:

Ayalon, before the statement was released, told Army Radio that he would not apologize. “It’s the Turks who should - for what [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan said and for the television series,” Ayalon said. “We are merely setting boundaries.”

“The prime minister believes that the foreign ministry’s protest to the Turkish ambassador was just in its essence but should have been conveyed in an acceptable diplomatic manner,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.

So there. Neener neener to you too. And the truth of the matter: Israel does not like Turkey’s friends. Israel decided to give Turkey a little spanking.

Netanyahu expressed concern at the deterioration of relations between Israel and Turkey. In talks behind closed doors, he said that during the past two years “Turkey has been steadily and systematically slipping eastward toward Syria and Iran,” instead of westward, toward Europe and the United States. “This is a trend that should really trouble Israel,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying.

Sources in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Bureau said Tuesday the decision to invite the Turkish ambassador for a reprimand by Ayalon was made together with Lieberman. They noted that the Israeli PM was not aware of the way the reprimand would be carried out, “but the minute it happened the prime minister [gave] the foreign minister his full backing.”

Official sources in Tel Aviv said Erdogan had changed his attitude towards Israel since Operation Cast Lead. “This process started when Erdogan abandoned a debate with President Shimon Peres (in Davos), so actually what is being done in Jerusalem is less important than what is happening in Ankara,” one source said.

Aha, still smarting over Erdogan standing up to Peres in Davos. And now Barak has to go to Turkey and make all kiss kiss hug hug. Ha good luck with that.

BEIRUT- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will head to Ankara over the weekend for talks with Turkish leaders including Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul and senior military officials , an official in Barak’s office told AFP on Tuesday, as tension between the longstanding allies again spike.

He added that the visit would take place despite the rising tension, which erupted on Monday after [SPIN:] Israel complained to Ankara over the broadcasting of a television series portraying Mossad agents as baby snatchers.

“We give this visit much importance. The ties between the two countries are important, and they must be maintained even if there are ups and downs,” the official said.

Clarification: The tensions erupted after Israel’s obnoxious leaders could no longer maintain diplomatic protocols and revealed their true petty nature for the world to see.

They dropped the mask.