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Archive for February 15th, 2010

Puello’s amazing but unconfirmed history

Feb 15

Posted by A. Peasant in CIA, Canada, Children, Corruption & Crime, Diplomats, Haiti, Human Trafficking, Identities, Israel, Military | No Comments

Jorge Puello is in trouble. He now admits certain things to CNN — this is all from CNN:

  • international arrest warrant issues on Saturday against him for sex trafficking
  • Salvadoran police raided his home in May and turned up multiple IDs and passports using the names Jorge Torres Puello and an alias, Jorge Torres Orellana — with photos of him
  • they arrested his wife in that raid and her trial is pending
  • in a phone interview with CNN, he acknowledged he is the man wanted by Salvadoran police
  • he denies the charges against him

According to the warrant, Torres Puello is accused of running an international sex trafficking ring that lured women and girls from the Caribbean and Central America into prostitution with offers of modeling jobs. A wanted poster released by Interpol, the international police organization, includes crimes against children as one of the offenses that Torres Puello is being sought for.

“I never did anything,” Torres Puello said Sunday. “I started helping a Dominican pastor helping a lot of people who were stranded to get back to their home countries. We once gave some Nicaraguan and Costa Rican women some money to return home and instead they went to the authorities and put in a complaint against us. I never had anybody against their will.”

Torres Puello also denied Salvadoran allegations that he ran a brothel out of his home with wife Ana Josefa Ramirez Orellana, who remains jailed pending trial, according to Salvadoran police.

“I want to clear the Salvador matter up and I am hiring a lawyer to do that,” he said. “I know I am innocent and I want to clear my past.”

His mother, Soledad Puello, told CNN Sunday that she first heard of the Salvadoran accusations when her son called to tell her of his wife’s arrest. She said her son told her he had known about the sex ring, but wasn’t involved in it.

Soledad Puello led CNN to believe that her son remained in the Dominican Republic, but she would not say where.

So he knew about the sex ring, but he wasn’t involved. Got it.

Much more:

  • he’s wanted in the US for smuggling people between Canada and the US, which he denies
  • he has spent 18 months in Canadian jail pending an extradition request by US authorities
  • he served a year in jail in 1998 for handling drug trafficking money
  • he was jailed again in 2001/2 for violating parole
  • he denies the drug charge

Both his mother and Torres Puello say he served briefly in the U.S. Army in a military intelligence unit, and Torres Puello said he also worked undercover with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

A family photo shows Torres Puello in a military uniform alongside a truck with the words “U.S. Military” printed across the bumper.

CNN was unable to reach government officials to confirm his claims of working with the military, the DEA and Homeland Security.

Wow, he sounds a lot like David Coleman Headley.

Oh so CNN was unable to reach government officials to confirm his claims? Hahahahahah, good one. Yes we all know how hard it must be for CNN to reach government officials. Maybe they should check in CNN’s corporate offices for some government officials.

This whole thing is one big show, for what purpose I’m not sure yet though I have my suspicions.

Torres Puello’s statements regarding the charges against him could not be immediately verified. But on Sunday, four men showed up at his mother’s home while CNN reporters were present. [what a coincidence! - ed.]

The men said they were from the U.S. Embassy and looking for Torres Puello. One of the men told Soledad Puello that her son has three outstanding arrest warrants — two in the United States and one in El Salvador. He did not specify the charges. One of the men was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “U.S. Marshals Service, Fugitive Task Force.”

Yes, it’s all very dramatic. The… um…. the embassy employees from the “fugitive task force” — well one made sure that the camera got his t-shirt badge on camera before he skulked off with brooding drama, waiting to capture Puello.

But if they didn’t want to talk to CNN, did they not notice the CNN truck surely parked outside the house? Or is it even a house? It doesn’t look like a house inside.

One of the ten Americans held, Jim Allen, is distancing himself from Puello.

Hiram Sasser, attorney with Liberty Legal of Plano, Texas, sought to distance his client, Jim Allen, from Torres Puello. He stated in an e-mail to CNN: “No attorney has ever been authorized to represent Jim Allen other than our team, which includes Mr. Lissade. The only spokesperson for the Allen family has been me and our team.”

This legal team, for Jim Allen, has even written to Hillary Clinton:

Another of Allen’s U.S. defense team, Reginald Brown, said he, Sasser and other U.S. attorneys were only hired to represent Allen on Super Bowl Sunday — nine days after the Americans were arrested.

In a February 9 letter from Brown to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Brown stated: “It’s our understanding from press reports … that all 10 Americans were represented by a single Haitian attorney. … We’re not able to confirm if that counsel was independently chosen by Jim [Allen].”

Until February 7, Torres Puello said he had been appointed legal adviser to all 10 Americans and Haitian attorney Edwin Coq said he was handling the case in Port-au-Prince on behalf of all 10. Coq, who was the attorney Brown referred to in his letter to Clinton, says he resigned on February 6 over a dispute about payments. Torres Puello said he had fired Coq.

Torres Puello turned up at court Monday, February 8, saying he was there to organize legal representation for all 10 Americans after Coq left the case.

That’s a bit confusing. Quick timeline based on this info:

  • 1/29 - Americans arrested
  • 2/1 - Puello is quoted in news reports as their attorney
  • 2/6 - Coq resigns or is fired
  • 2/7 - Puello is representing all 10 Americans
  • 2/7 - Allen hires his own lawyers
  • 2/8 - Puello appears in court representing all 10 Americans
  • 2/9 - Allen’s attorney writes to Hillary Clinton

Now this is very interesting. Who sent the $40,000? Puello’s stepfather has the receipt, which is a hand written note on what appears to be an Abraham Lincoln hotel memo pad, and he says the families wired the money, but the families say they did not pay money to Puello. CNN doesn’t tell us who they paid the money to, however.

Torres Puello said he read about the case and decided to offer his services for free. However, Torres Puello’s stepfather, Franco Ceminara, said the arrested Americans’ families had already wired more than $40,000 to his stepson. A receipt provided by Torres Puello’s family to CNN showed the Haitian lawyers are charging $40,000 to represent the Americans. The receipt, for an advance payment of $10,000, was signed by Aviol Fleurant, one of the Americans’ Port-au-Prince-based defense team that also includes Lissade.

Family and church representatives in Idaho, where most of the 10 Americans are from, told CNN earlier in the week that they had not paid money to the man they know as Jorge Puello.

Regarding the American missionaries, Torres Puello said: “Prior to this earthquake I never knew those people [the Americans]. When I read about their case I just decided to help them. I’m in the real estate business and was working with a team of lawyers.”

Hoo boy what a mess. We don’t know who Jorge Puello is, but he is known to the authorities. He may be well-known to the authorities.

^^^^^^^

Some other details have also turned up, including a possible explanation for how Puello came to “offer his services.”

From the WSJ, on Puello’s connection to Jewish concerns:

Isaac Rudman, the president of the Israelite Center of the Dominican Republic, said he once met Mr. Puello two or three years back. At the time, Mr. Puello introduced himself as Jorge Torres, and had a letter of introduction from a synagogue in Canada, Mr. Rudman said. Mr. Rudman said he heard over the years that Mr. Puello had grandiose plans to build a hospital and a Jewish city close to Santo Domingo’s airport, but nothing came from these plans. Mr. Rudman’s impression from his one meeting with Mr. Puello was that he was very “conflictive,” he said. “His attitude was ‘the Messiah has arrived’” said Mr. Rudman.

Meanwhile, the other families continue to back away from Puello just as fast as they can:

Lawyers for five of the jailed Americans say their clients were never represented by Mr. Puello. Jim Allen, a construction worker from Amarillo, Texas, only heard of the “aid trip” 48 hours before departure, according to one of his attorneys in the United States. That attorney, Reginald Brown of the law firm WilmerHale, said that Mr. Allen “was never represented by or associated with” Mr. Puello.

Caleb Stegall, a Kansas-based attorney for another four of the detained Americans, said that Mr. Puello “does not represent them, never has, and is no longer part of the case, if he ever was.” Mr. Stegall said he represents Paul Thompson, his son Silas Thompson, Steve McMullin, and Drew Culberth. The elder Mr. Thompson is a brother-in-law of Mr. Culberth and a cousin of Mr. Allen.

And there are some other connections between Silsby and people in the Dominican Republic:

Ms. Silsby hoped to build an orphanage for as many as 200 children in Magante, on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. To that end, she incorporated New Life in the Dominican Republic in January through Jose Altagracia Ovando.

New Life Children’s Refuge began the process of buying land in Magante. One of Ms. Silsby’s colleagues in the venture – former dentist Rob Chenvert, now a realtor in the Dominican Republic who worked with Ms. Silsby to find land and buildings for the planned orphanage – said on Friday that the group had no contact with Mr. Puello until after the arrest.

It was unclear who originally hired Mr. Puello. Shortly after the group’s arrest, Drew Ham, one of the pastors at Central Valley Baptist Church, said that Mr. Puello had contacted the group’s families after the arrest and offered his services. Mr. Ham said he did a search for Mr. Puello on Google, and that Mr. Puello was later hired.

Let’s review the last paragraph of the CNN story:

Regarding the American missionaries, Torres Puello said: “Prior to this earthquake I never knew those people [the Americans]. When I read about their case I just decided to help them. I’m in the real estate business and was working with a team of lawyers.”

So Silsby’s partner, Rob Chenvert, is in real estate in the Dominican Republic, and Puello is in real estate in the Dominican Republic (we think, but who knows…), and somehow they hooked up.

That seems very plausible actually.

^^^^^^^

Bonus interesting background info on CNN at this old post. The link to the source is defunct, but I had captured the relevant bits of people discussing obviously doctored pictures from the Georgian conflict. The pictures showed various people posing as dead and/or mourning. The trouble was the dead guy kept moving around to different spots, which someone noticed. You know, it’s rude to notice stuff like that….

From the comment thread (of the broken link which had the doctored pics, sorry this is back in September 2008 so it’s long gone):

These are typical US infowar or psyop war techniques. It is important to remember that US Army Psyops Specialists worked for CNN during the Kosovo conflict. CNN is nothing but Government-controlled media. Invariably, CNN parrots the Pentagon, CIA, and US State Department. CNN is actually just an arm of the US government and military.

That’s a little frame for you.

sociopaths at work

Feb 15

Posted by A. Peasant in Afghanistan, Africa, Canada, Corruption & Crime, Germany, Latin America, Military, NWO, Oil, Psychopaths, UK | No Comments

1. R. Canup’s spectrum of evil personalities: excerpt:

Next up the ladder is the evil person of above average intelligence. These people have a similar goal to evil people of average intelligence; the production of human misery. However these people see the opportunity to do something that evil people of normal intelligence don’t see how to do; murder someone and get away with it. They understand that the way to murder someone and get away with it is to not care who they kill, how they kill them, or when they kill them. Such people set up conditions where someone will be ‘accidentally’ killed and wait for the circumstances to occur.

For example, I once worked for an evil person of above average intelligence who built up a company which did about twenty million dollars a year of business. He was only interested in his business as an instrument to his ends. He worked people long hours of overtime (without any extra pay) - he pushed people as hard as he could. What he was doing was setting up an environment as stressful as he could - secure in the knowledge that sooner or later - a death would be the result. Sure enough, a staff accountant driving home after a late night’s work was hit by a drunken driver and killed. The boss was stunned; his life’s goal had been accomplished - the guilt was obvious in his face the next day. He became very cheerful over the next several weeks, and lost interest in the company. Inside of a year and a half it was out of business.

Of course since he was cloaked in plausible deniability no criminal charges could ever be brought against him. But, he could see that the death had come as a direct result of his deliberately malicious behavior; he willed it, and it happened. Most industrial accidental deaths and injuries can be traced back to the malicious behavior of those who are evil and of above average intelligence.

That leaves us those who are evil and of high intelligence. Most good people are also familiar with these kind of people; we call them leaders - both of industry and of government. It is the goal of such people to get away with mass murder. An example will show how they work their agenda.

more here

2. Vancouver’s quick descent from high ground - excerpts:

There is also the problem that while the investigating British Columbia Coroners Service, the Royal Mounted Police and officials of the International Luge Federation agreed that the cause of the tragedy was not the dangers of the track but the errors and inexperience of its victim, it was still swiftly decided to change utterly the conditions of the competition. This included the building up of the wall, and the changing of the “ice profile” at the fatal curve and moving the start line to the women’s mark, nearly 200 yards down the track.

The inconsistency of the ruling screamed at the mourners of the luger who had just 26 practice runs down the course – as opposed to the 200 enjoyed by the Canadians.

…The head of the American luge team, Ron Rossi, has been especially cutting. He says: “The Canadians have to be answerable for their position on training. A track like this demanded the weaker athletes get more time. I’m going to propose some changes, more training for the athletes. It’s a terrible tragedy that has happened here but I hope that maybe in the end we can change some rules and never see anything like this ever happen again.”

Adding to the force of Rossi’s complaints is his belief that a member of his team, Meg Sweeney, could so easily have shared Kumaritashvili’s fate. The day before the Georgian died, Sweeney had a near identical crash after “double-looping” the 16th curve. “It was almost the exact same crash,” said Rossi, “but she didn’t go so high.”

Sweeney says she has tried to wipe away the incident but conceded: “There’s something missing up here, I’m not going to lie to you.”

Her boss says it is a failure to read the gravest warning signs. “They knew they had problems from day one. They had people hitting the wall and going airborne. If you were already concerned about it and you already raised the wall, why didn’t you keep going? And why didn’t you protect the [metal] posts at the chance that maybe something could happen? I’m not the one to answer but that’s the kind of question that needs to be asked.”

why indeed. more @ independent

3. organized crime may have caused Cologne archive collapse — organized crime meaning the people in government who issued permits for construction and the people who planned and carried out the construction — ie: officials and businesspeople

Suspicion that organised crime may have been behind the deadly collapse of Cologne’s city archive grew on Monday as more falsified building protocols emerged.

An additional 28 falsified records for underground metro construction at various sites across the city have been discovered, an investigation insider told daily Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. “We assume that it could be significantly more,” the source said. “For us it looks like systematic falsification.”

Over the weekend the paper reported fresh claims that shoddy work practices caused the collapse of the archive building, including a report that construction firms were skimping on concrete. …The paper reported that too little concrete may have been used on the tunnel under the Waidmarkt area – a possible reason for collapse of the tunnel that led to the destruction of the city’s historical archive in March 2009 and two neighbouring buildings, killing two people and destroying countless historical documents.

more @ the local

4. march in Cuidad Juarez against Mexican army

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Thousands of people belonging to civil organizations and residents of Ciudad Juarez marched peacefully Saturday through this city to commemorate the slaying of 15 youths last Jan. 31 and to repudiate the presence of the Mexican army in the town.
…The legislator Fernandez Noroña asked that the army leave the city, considered the most violent in Mexico, in the belief that the troops treat the people in an “undeserved, violent, arrogant, unconstitutional and abusive” way. “There is now more army in Juarez than ever, there are more federal police than ever…and today there is more crime than ever in Juarez,” the politician said.

more @ latin american herald tribune

5. new ‘ethical’ biofuel crop damages the poor people it was supposed to help

Five years ago jatropha was hailed by investors and scientists as a breakthrough in the battle to find a biofuel alternative to fossil fuels that would not further impoverish developing countries by diverting resources away from food production….

Millions of the plants have been grown in anticipation of rich returns, only for growers to be hit by poor yields, conflict over land and a lack of infrastructure to process the oil-rich seeds.

Oil giant BP, which planned to spend almost £32m on a joint venture to set up jatropha plantations, has now pulled out and the charity ActionAid today warns that jatropha needs to be cultivated on prime food-growing land to produce significant yields….ActionAid said its researchers found repeated cases of farmers being left with jatropha crops they could not sell and land previously used to grow food crops being taken over by sub-contractors who then employed locals on wages that could not compete with rises in the price of foodstuffs partially caused by biofuel production.

…A number of British companies are continuing to market jatropha as a “highly ethical and green” investment. One fund offers investors three packages for prices ranging from £7,500 to £15,600 in a brochure entitled “Money really does grow on trees”. That company says it has funded the planting of 32 million jatropha shrubs worldwide through a London-based provider called Carbon Credited Farming (CCF) Plc. Jeff Reeves, head of global operations for CCF, which estimates it will have 300 million jatropha shrubs planted on 120,000 acres worldwide by the end of 2010, admitted that there had been problems establishing the crop.

He told The Ecologist magazine: “In many cases it is government policy and people that are to blame, rather than jatropha itself. Well-managed, jatropha … can work. But there have been countries where poor management has meant this is not the case.”

more @ independent

6. Afghan civilian deaths a serious setback — first reports said the rockets were 1000 feet off course. seems like a very large error for our high-tech army.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup said the incident had damaged efforts to win the support of local communities, but added that accidents were inevitable during conflict. The civilians died when two rockets from a high mobility artillery rocket system hit a house on the outskirts of the town of Marjah, in an area of Helmand province being targeted by a joint US and Afghan force.

more @ guardian

7. training/dehumanizing/debasing people before you give them deadly weapons: German Army ritual abuse scandal spreads

The hazing scandal in the German army, in which young recruits have reportedly been forced to eat raw animal liver until they vomited, has snowballed with more soldiers blowing the whistle on ugly rites of passage, reports said Sunday….The scandal began when a young soldier who trained at the camp in Mittenwald came forward to describe hazing that included recruits being forced to drink alcohol until they were sick, eat raw pig liver, and conduct climbing exercises in the nude before their fellow soldiers, daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported last week.

more @ the local

8. man takes on corrupt UK police officer

THE brave informant who finally toppled Britain’s most corrupt cop today tells his own incredible story of monster Ali Dizaei’s chilling mafia-style regime. Humble website designer Waad Al Bagdhdadi, 24, refused to be bullied by the bent Scotland Yard commander. Now, with Dizaei jailed for four years, he reveals astonishing details of the shamed officer’s life of luxury funded by his grip on a terrified community.

…”He ate for free, he drank for free. In his world, he didn’t pay for anything. But I wasn’t going to let him get me for free.”

The two men fell out after Waad - who fled Iraq at 17 to escape the tyranny of Saddam Hussein - asked for payment for setting up Dizaei’s personal website. Instead of coughing up the swaggering cop tried to frame Waad for attacking him.

…”I’d heard about Dizaei before I met him. He was famous in the Middle Eastern community. They called him London’s top officer. They said he was f***ing the English, the only one they couldn’t take down, ‘untouchable’.

read more @ news of the world

9. Ivory Coast heads for major upheaval — and World Bank president Zoellick has just been there to visit,..

World Bank President Robert Zoellick (L) meets Ivory Coast’s Prime Minister Guillaume Soro in the capital Abidjan, January 28, 2010. Zoellick continued his visit to Ivory Coast, where progress in securing debt relief will likely top the agenda. (Reuters photo)

IVORYCOAST/

A few days after Ivory Coast President, Laurent Gbagbo, dissolved the country’s government and Independent Electoral Commission (CEI), a coalition of opposition parties is calling for a massive demonstration to ask him to step down. Mr. Gbagbo claims the peace process in Côte d’Ivoire has “stalled” while calling for a new government and CEI. The opposition argues that the decision is an impediment to progress. Meanwhile, reports indicate the PM cannot form a government within the time frame given by the President. Analysts have warned of a possible upheaval.

The Ivorian President, Laurent Gbagbo, announced the dissolution of the country’s government as well as its Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) Friday evening in a televised speech. Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, secretary general of the former rebel group, Forces Nouvelles, will stay on as prime minister. A position he has held since 2007 following the signing of the Ouagadougou accord.

…

The Prime Minister is to “nominate a new government from Monday, February 15, 2010″. Its “mission” will be to conduct “the final actions necessary to get the Ivory Coast out of crisis permanently”. In what concerns the electoral commission, Mr. Laurent Gbagbo wants Guillaume Soro “to put forward, by Monday, the format of a new, credible electoral commission who can organise” free and fair elections.

However, reports Sunday revealed a close aide to the Prime Minister saying that he does not “know when the prime minister will be ready (to form a new government), but it won’t be tomorrow (Monday) or Tuesday… It is too early and too complicated right now to take a quick decision.”…The election, already postponed on numerous occasions since 2005, is expected to end a political quagmire that has crippled the country following the failed September 2002 coup d’état. Laurent Gbagbo’s announcement, many say, seriously undermines presidential elections scheduled to take place in the coming weeks and not later than June, as per the recommendation of a UN calendar.

more @ afrik.com

seriously

Feb 15

Posted by A. Peasant in Israel, Lebanon, Mossad, Palestinians, Syria, Terrorism | No Comments

1. Israel is accused of waging an assassination campaign

Israel is waging a covert assassination campaign across the Middle East in an effort to stop its key enemies co-ordinating their activities.

Israeli agents have been targeting meetings between members of Hamas and the leadership of the militant Hezbollah group, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

They are also suspected of recent killings in Dubai, Damascus and Beirut. While Israel’s Mossad spy agency has been suspected of staging assassinations across the world since the 1970s, it does not officially acknowledge or admit its activities.

The current spate of killings began in December when a “tourist bus” carrying Iranian officials and Hamas members exploded outside Damascus. The official report by Syria claimed that a tyre had exploded but photographs surfaced showing the charred remains of the vehicle — prompting speculation that a much larger explosion had taken place.

Several weeks later a meeting between members of Hamas, which controls Gaza, and their counterparts from Hezbollah in its southern Beirut stronghold in Lebanon was also attacked, resulting in several deaths.

Hamas had sought to cover up the incidents because it was embarrassed, a senior Palestinian official in Ramallah told The Times.

“There has been growing co-operation between Gaza and Iran. Israel can read the writing on the wall and they know that with the help of Iran, the Hamas Government in Gaza will become stronger and will fight better.

“But Israel is overstepping their boundaries. Other countries don’t want to become a killing field for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Most recently, the top Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was killed in Dubai on January 19, 2010. He is believed to have been poisoned by a woman who visited his room at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel in Dubai.

Israeli officials said that Mabhouh had been a key figure in procuring Iranian-made longer-range rockets for Hamas that could be fired at targets in central Israel.

The exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal has vowed revenge for Mabhouh’s death. He has also suggested that the current fighting between Hamas and Israel will become more regional. In an interview with the London-based al-Hayat newspaper, Mr Mashaal said that future wars with Israel would not be fought solely in the Gaza Strip.

Under the current Mossad chief, Meir Dagan, Israel is believed to have renewed efforts to kill high-level opponents. Only months after the former paratrooper assumed leadership of the intelligence service in October 2002, senior Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon began to be targeted. He was credited with ordering the killing of two relatively senior Hezbollah members who were killed in southern Beirut in July 2003 and August 2004.

More recently, Israel has been accused of planting a car bomb in Damascus that killed the top Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyah in February 2008. The Israeli Cabinet minister Daniel Herschkowitz last week praised the Mossad chief as one of the agency’s most successful leaders.

When asked about Mossad’s involvement in the Dubai slaying, Eli Yishai, the Interior Minister, smiled and said: “All the security services make, thank God, great efforts to safeguard the security of the state of Israel.”

While some countries are questioning whether Israel isn’t taking credit to increase the reputation of its defence establishment, other moderate Arab States are now describing the assassinations as a “covert war” between Israel and Hamas.

Diplomats said they were aware that covert Israeli operations had increased. “We watch their comings and goings; we are aware that there is more activity both on our ground and other countries in the region,” said an Egyptian diplomat. “They are trying to embroil us all in their conflict.”

Tensions between Israel and Hamas have remained high, despite the relative quiet that has ensued since the end of Israel’s offensive in Gaza last winter. Israeli troops were placed on alert yesterday after intelligence suggested that Hamas planned to abduct soldiers. Israel said this week that it had foiled a kidnapping in December by arresting the Hamas operative Slaman Abu Atik on the Israeli-Gaza border. He planned to enter Israel via Egypt, said the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.

250+ comments - Times Online

2. all that talk about the plane in the trench, etc. and now it’s 45 meters underwater… now that they squared away the black boxes

This issue, however, would raise a question of how to deal with the main parts of the plane which are still in place about 45 meters deep off the coast of Naameh south of Beirut. As-Safir newspaper on Monday quoted high-ranking official sources as saying that recovery of the main wreckage or moving it requires a decision by the international committee investigating the disaster. It said the committee is likely to take a decision in this regard on Monday or Tuesday after examining the data and pictures of the plane taken underwater.

naharnet

3. Debka file — it was al qaeda that blew the plane up, but everyone’s too shy to say so.

Evidence has reached debkafile’s counter-terror sources that the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 which crashed after takeoff from Beirut on January 25, killing all 92 aboard, was blown up in mid-air. This was an al-Qaeda operation timed for one month to the day after its failed attempt to destroy an American Northwest airliner bound for Detroit.
It is becoming clear that either a bomb was planted on the Ethiopian flight with a timer or a passenger acted as suicide bomber.
Western security agencies in the Middle East involved in combating al Qaeda believe that its planners picked on the Ethiopian flight for more than one reason apart from the date: They had been tipped off that a group of French undercover agents, including Maria Sanchez Pietton, wife of the French ambassador to Beirut, and top Hizballah operatives, including secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, would be aboard.
Mme Pietton lost her life in the crash, while the Hizballah travelers were saved by switching to another flight at the last minute.
The first bodies recovered from the Mediterranean off the Lebanese town of Naama showed all the hallmarks of explosion victims: They were found strapped to their seats with their heads, hands and feet blown off and scattered, typical effects of an explosive blast.
Eye-witnesses at the time heard a loud explosion and saw the plane enveloped in a ball of fire as it gained altitude after takeoff from Beirut international airport.  Both France and Hizballah have denied they were targets.

Lebanese officials, led by prime minister Saad Hariri, have spent two weeks trying to hide the fact that the Ethiopian airline disaster was caused by terror. But Lebanese health minister Jawad Khalifeh gave the game away by a slip of the tongue Tuesday, Feb. 9:  “The plane exploded during flight and the cabin, as well as the bodies of those on board, were dispersed into the sea, in different locations,” he said, trying to explain why some of the corpses were found dismembered. He then tried to correct himself by saying he “didn’t mean a military explosion.”

More confirmation of a terrorist hand behind the attack is found in the deep involvement of US intelligence, including the FBI, in the investigation of the disaster from the first moment. The US survey ship Ocean Alert was dispatched to the area of the crash and dropped a miniature submarine into the depths to retrieve fragments of the airliner from the seabed.
A US intelligence and naval headquarters was set up at Beirut harbor to coordinate the salvage of the plane from the sea. Treating the crash as terror-related, Washington ordered the plane to be reconstructed from recovered fragments to establish the site of the explosion and its cause.

US officials are also shy of discussing the case in public and admitting the crash was caused by an act of terror. It took place on January 25, shortly after President Barack Obama said “Al-Qaeda has been weakened.” In an address to the American people to calm their anxieties after the Nigerian would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had failed to detonate explosives carried in his underwear.
Al Qaeda’s success in blowing a civilian airliner out of the sky over the Middle East proved the opposite. It therefore became the subject of a comprehensive cover-up, joined by France. Before the black box, recovered Tuesday, had even been examined, French sources announced that human error by the pilot was the cause of the Ethiopian airliner crash.
debkafile’s counter-terror sources recall a previous al Qaeda attack on a civilian airliner in the Middle East.

Six years ago, on January 8, 2004, an Egyptian charter blew up after takeoff at Sharm al-Sheikh for Cairo, killing all 148 French citizens aboard on their way back to Paris from a Red Sea vacation.
Neither Cairo nor Paris ever admitted that the disaster was caused by terrorists

http://www.debka.com/article/8599/

4. samson blinded — this guy is very funny. he’s dead serious but he’s very funny.

Debka suggested that the Ethiopian airliner’s crash near Lebanon was a terrorist act. Possible, yes, though the plane could explode for innocuous reasons, too.

But we see no basis for the conclusion of Al Qaeda’s involvement. Al Qaeda had no good reason to bomb a plane which carried Nasrallah and other Hezbollah leaders. They changed their tickets at the last minute.

A possibility that Al Qaeda tipped Hezbollah people to change the plane also does not hold. They would rather call off the bombing rather than risk leaking their plans. Hezbollah would inform the Ethiopians about the plan, since the terrorist group depends on Ethiopia for arms trafficking. Al Qaeda had no incentive to blow an Ethiopian jet at all.

Bombing plot against Nasrallah might suggest Israeli involvement, but it is our long-standing policy to avoid huge collateral damage.

samsonblinded.org

the 11th commandment: thou shalt not make controversial comments about Israel

Feb 15

Posted by A. Peasant in Censorship, Clinton, Iran, Israel, Military, Mr. Bibi N. & Friends, Nuclear Weapons, Organ Trafficking, Russia, The West, UK | No Comments

1. UK lawmaker sacked for suggesting that Israel conduct an investigation to clear the names of their medical teams in Haiti. so to clarify: calling for an investigation to CLEAR NAMES is outrageous. she loses her job and has to apologize profusely. there will be NO INVESTIGATIONS! the very act of calling for an investigation LEGITIMIZES THE CLAIMS, see? which are scandalous. and nevermind that the Israelis have been caught with their hands in the organ jar before. that makes no difference. it is always scandalous to suggest such things even when there’s a criminal track record.

Party leader Nick Clegg removed Lady Tonge as a Lib Dem health spokeswoman in the Lords on Friday, describing her remarks as ”wrong, distasteful and provocative”.

It is the second time she has been fired for making controversial comments about Israel.

The latest row followed accusations in the online Palestine Telegraph - of which Lady Tonge is a patron - that members of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) had been harvesting body parts in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake.

She subsequently told the Jewish Chronicle: ”To prevent allegations such as these - which have already been posted on You Tube - going any further, the IDF and the Israeli Medical Association should establish an independent inquiry immediately to clear the names of the team in Haiti.”

Fellow Lib Dems were said to have complained to Mr Clegg about her comments.

In a statement issued this evening, the leader said the peer ”apologises unreservedly”.

more @ telegraph

2. Ehud Barak to Mike Mullen: friends overcome differences kiss kiss hug hug

Defense Minister Ehud Barak met with the chairman of the US Army’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, at his office at the IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv.

…Mullen met earlier with IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Military Intelligence chief Major-General Amos Yadlin. Before meeting Barak he said the relations between the US and Israel had always been good, and that they would forever be so. The admiral also met members of the Israeli delegation to Haiti during a ceremony held at the Tel Aviv headquarters. He said they “symbolized hope” and the possibility of saving lives whenever possible.

… He also stressed that the Israeli mission to Haiti was extraordinary, and that the quake-stricken country would not soon forget everything that had been done to for them. Ashkenazi said that the delegation showed Israel and the IDF’s true faces. “I am proud to be your commander,” he told the delegation members.

more hagiography @ ynet

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3849390,00.html

3. bibi to visit moscow today-wed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Moscow next week, the Kremlin said Thursday, after Russia toughened its stance on Iran’s nuclear program. Netanyahu will hold talks with President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday, the Kremlin said in a statement, providing no further detail on the Israeli leader’s program for the Monday-Wednesday visit.

Announcement of the visit came after Russia officially questioned the “sincerity” of Iran’s pledges not to develop nuclear weapons and, in a policy shift, said fresh UN sanctions on Tehran were a “realistic” option. It also followed an official visit to Moscow by Khaled Meshaal, leader of the radical Palestinian independence group Hamas that is classified by Israel, the European Union and the United States as a terrorist organization.(AFP)

naharnet

4. Clinton “fears” that Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship. where did this come from? Woolsey suggested it at Herzliya, and so basically after that they just start talking about it, and that makes it “true.” voila. the power of experts - no evidence required, just an echo chamber.

DOHA - US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that she feared Iran is moving ‘toward a military dictatorship,’ with enterprises controlled by the Revolutionary Guard ’supplanting’ the government.

The US chief diplomat told students in Qatar that the United States was not seeking to use military action against Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions but rather seeking to use international pressure through the UN Security Council. Such pressure ‘will be particularly aimed at the those enterprises controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which we believe is in effect supplanting the government of Iran,’ Mrs Clinton said.

more @ straits times

5. the real reason for sanctions against Iran

The U.S.-sponsored drive to impose new economic sanctions on Iran has nothing to do with the noble cause of limiting proliferation of nuclear weapons on the planet. It is directly linked to the U.S. military doctrine of establishing ‘full spectrum dominance’ - i.e., military dominance on land, sea, air, and outer space over all other countries in the world. The logical extension of this doctrine is that only countries firmly allied to the U.S. government should be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons or to even develop the capacity to do so.

Israel , for example, is widely-believed to hold secret Nuclear weapons. Yet there is no call for sanctions or investigations of them. The reason is simple: They are a U.S. ally. India and Pakistan have declined to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and have developed nuclear weapons. Yet there is no call for sanctions or investigations of them. The reason is simple: They are U.S. allies.

…As a signatory of the U.N. Nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Iran must not develop nuclear weapons.

However - and this is a crucial point - the non-proliferation treaty gives every signatory the sovereign right to voluntarily withdraw from the treaty on three months notice. After doing so, that country has the absolute right under international law to develop nuclear weapons on its own territory.

North Korea , which originally signed the treaty and later withdrew, has now the legal right to develop nuclear weapons. India, Pakistan, and Israel never signed the treaty and therefore also have had the legal right to develop nuclear weapons.

Instead of acknowledging these realities, western politicians and media have systematically concealed them from the public. In place of the truth they have repeated vague mantras like ‘defying the international community’ (i.e., not bending to the will of the U.S.).

In a typical example of this deceptive rhetoric, U.S. President Obama said a few days ago: “Despite the posturing that its nuclear power is only for civilian use … they in fact continue to pursue a course that would lead to weaponization, and that is not acceptable to the international community.”

The absence of any legal argument in this statement reflects the fact that there is no legal argument against Iran’s nuclear energy program, and that even development of weapons would be legal if Iraq withdraws from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty. Of course, Obama invoking the ‘non-acceptance by the ‘international community’ does not mean the nations of the world; it’s code for ‘the U.S. and its allies’.

more @ pravda

6. attack on Iran ‘worries’ Mullen

JERUSALEM - THE chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said on Sunday he was concerned about the consequences of any attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

‘The outbreak of a conflict will be a big, big, big problem for all of us, and I worry a great deal about the unintended consequences of a strike,’ Admiral Mullen said.

Apart from saying that ‘it’s pretty hard to be specific about’ the issue, the top-ranking US military official did not expand on his comments.

more @ straits times