news & stories 20
	http://www2.onnachrichten.t-online.de/dyn/c/56/41/36/5641368.html 01. Okt. 2005 Erstschlag-Strategie der USA wird konkreter Die neue Atomwaffen-Strategie der USA nimmt offensichtlich Form an: Der Umweltorganisation Greenpeace liegt nach eigenen Angaben der Entwurf einer "Doktrin für gemeinsame nukleare Operationen" aus dem Pentagon vor. Demnach wollen die USA Atomwaffen nicht länger nur zur Abschreckung, sondern auch zum Erstschlag einsetzen. Der Strategiewechsel war vor drei Wochen erstmals bekannt geworden und hatte weltweit Empörung ausgelöst. Nicht nur zur Verteidigung Für das Pentagon seien Atomwaffen nicht länger Waffen der Abschreckung oder ein letztes Mittel der Verteidigung, sondern Waffen, die eingesetzt werden können und auch sollen, sagte William Peden, Abrüstungsexperte der Umweltorganisation. Das Dokument, das in seiner Endfassung noch im Herbst vorliegen soll, gebe erstmals einen Einblick in die Atomwaffen-Strategie der USA unter Führung von Präsident George W. Bush. In seiner Regierungszeit habe die höchste Befehlsebene im Verteidigungsministerium einen "radikalen Richtungswechsel" vollzogen, so Greenpeace. Das Dokument unterscheide nicht zwischen konventionellen und nuklearen Waffen. Vielmehr sollen Atomwaffen in ein konventionelles Waffenprogramm zur Verteidigung integriert werden. Einige Befehlshaber stellten dies allerdings in Frage. Mit Atombomben gegen Terroristen Vor wenigen Wochen waren die Überlegungen des US-Generalstabs erstmals an die Öffentlichkeit gelangt. Den Plänen zufolge sollen die US-Kommandeure künftig auch für den Eventualfall eines nuklearen Erstschlags planen. Als mögliche Szenarien nennt das Papier den Einsatz gegen einen Gegner, der Massenvernichtungswaffen gegen die USA einsetzen wolle - etwa Terroristen. Auch die rasche Beendigung eines Kriegs oder die Absicherung einer US-Militäroperation würden die Verwendung rechtfertigen. "Kriegstreiberische Pläne" Zahlreiche Parteien und Verbände kritisierten das Vorgehen. Die neue Doktrin heize den Rüstungswettlauf an, so der Tenor. Greenpeace forderte die US-Regierung jetzt erneut auf, sich von den "kriegstreiberischen Plänen" des Verteidigungsministeriums zu distanzieren. Sie sollten eine öffentliche Erklärung abgeben, dass die USA niemals Atomwaffen für einen Erstschlag einsetzen werden.
	http://www.nwz-online.de/nwz/index_3348.php?imgaddi=/nwz-bilder/klein/2005/10/01/&showid=759470&navpoint=6 01. Okt. 2005 Vogelgrippe kann globale Epidemie auslösen NEW YORK/GENF/AFP - Die Vereinten Nationen warnen davor, die weltweite Gefahr durch die Vogelgrippe zu unterschätzen: Ohne ausreichende Vorsichtsmaßnahmen könne das in Asien grassierende Virus zu einer globalen Grippe-Epidemie beim Menschen mit schlimmstenfalls bis zu 150 Millionen Toten führen, sagte der UN-Experte David Nabarro am Donnerstag in New York. Der britische Arzt soll im Auftrag von UN-Generalsekretär Kofi Annan den Kampf gegen die Vogelgrippe weltweit koordinieren. WHO-Sprecher Dick Thompson warnte später jedoch vor „Panikmache“: Vorhersagen zu möglichen Opfern seien derzeit so gut wie unmöglich. „Jeden Moment kann eine neue Grippe-Pandemie ausbrechen“, sagte Nabarro. „Auslöser wird vermutlich eine Mutation des Vogelgrippevirus sein.“
	http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/i-saw-nazis-test-abomb-says-author-rewriting-history/2005/09/30/1127804662891.html I saw Nazis test A-bomb, says author, rewriting history By John Hooper in Rome October 1, 2005 A book published in Italy is set to reignite a smouldering controversy over how close the Nazis came to manufacturing a nuclear device in the closing stages of World War II. The author, Luigi Romersa, 88, is the last known witness to what he and some historians believe was the experimental detonation of a rudimentary weapon on an island in the Baltic in 1944. Hitler's nuclear program has become a subject of intense dispute in recent months, particularly in Germany. An independent historian, Rainer Karlsch, met a barrage of hostility when he published a study containing evidence that the Nazis had got much further than previously believed. On October 12, 1944, Romersa, then a 27-year-old war correspondent, was taken to the island of Rugen, where he watched the detonation of what his hosts called a "disintegration bomb". "They took me to a concrete bunker with an aperture of exceptionally thick glass. There was a slight tremor in the bunker; a sudden, blinding flash, and then a thick cloud of smoke. It took the shape of a column and then that of a big flower. "The officials there told me we had to remain in the bunker for several hours because of the effects of the bomb. When we eventually left, they made us put on a sort of coat and trousers which seemed to me to be made of asbestos and we went to the scene of the explosion. "The effects were tragic. The trees around had been turned to carbon. No leaves. Nothing alive. There were some animals - sheep - in the area and they too had been burnt to cinders." When he wrote of his experiences after the war, "everyone said I was mad". By then, it was universally accepted that Hitler's scientists had been years away from testing a nuclear device. However, documents published recently by Mr Karlsch and a US scholar, Mark Walker, have punctured this consensus. Russian archives have shown one of the German scientists lodged a patent claim for a plutonium bomb as early as 1941 and, in June, the two historians published an article in Physics World that included what they said was the first diagram of one of the bombs Hitler's scientists were trying to build, a device that exploited both fission and fusion.
	Junge Freiheit 40/05 Vom Regen in die Traufe Eine Große Koalition der Verlierer wird Deutschland regieren – und die Verschärfung der Krise beschleunigen Günter Zehm 30. September 2005 W as den Unterhaltungswert betrifft, läßt das Ergebnis der Bundestagswahl kaum etwas zu wünschen übrig. Alle gewählten Kräfte paralysieren sich gegenseitig, es passiert also absehbar nichts, aber wer das Nichts künftig verwalten wird, wer mit wem und wer auf keinen Fall mit irgend jemand – darüber läßt sich trefflich, weil risikolos spekulieren und debattieren. Man schlägt die Zeit tot und amüsiert sich blendend dabei: Das ist die landläufige Definition von Unterhaltung. Weit verbreitet ist freilich der Eindruck, daß die Top-Unterhaltungskanonen ihr Potential ausgereizt haben und die Bühne eigentlich verlassen sollten. Der eine, Joseph Fischer, hat sich bereits freiwillig abgesetzt, die beiden anderen, Gerhard Schröder und Angela Merkel, werden sich noch politisch duellieren, wem nach der Nachwahl in Dresden am Sonntag der Vortritt zu lassen ist. Schröder hat für seinen fälligen Abgang spätestens am Wahlabend mit seinem Auftritt in der Elefantenrunde gewichtige Argumente geliefert. Und Merkel weiß möglicherweise noch gar nichts von dem Damoklesschwert, das über ihr schwebt. Dabei war zweifellos sie der Hauptgrund für die kuriose gegenwärtige Konstellation. Sie in erster Linie hat die CDU/CSU in kürzester Zeit aus Umfragewerten nahe der absoluten Mehrheit auf das klägliche Wahlresultat heruntergefahren, das dem aus der Endzeit von Kohl gleicht. „Sie kann es nicht“ – darüber ist man sich ziemlich einig, selbst wenn ihrem Weg zur Kanzlerschaft machtpolitisch nichts mehr entgegensteht. Die Große Koalition, die jetzt mit ziemlicher Sicherheit kommt, wird wohl von Angela Merkel geführt werden. Ein paritätischer Wechsel ist nach deutscher Politiktradition nicht zu vermitteln. Er wäre der fleischgewordene Beweis dafür, daß die herrschende politische Klasse nicht einmal eine Ahnung hat von dem, was falsch läuft. Denn Merkel und Schröder sind mittlerweile für unzählige Wähler zu Symbolen des reinen Schreckens geworden, mit ihren Namen verbindet sich nur noch die Vorstellung von Lebensminderung, seelenloser Umverteilerei von unten nach oben, drinnen nach draußen, Arbeitslosigkeit und Ausfüllen sinnloser Formulare. An sich ist das Wort „Reform“ eine kräftige, Vertrauen erweckende Bildung, man denkt dabei spontan an gemeinsames Anpacken, nationalen Aufbruch, Solidarität beim Begehen schwieriger, doch aus dem Dickicht herausführender Wege. Die Ägide Schröder/Merkel hat es dahin gebracht, daß faktisch nichts von diesen positiven Bedeutungen übriggeblieben ist. „Reform“ heißt nun lediglich Wegnehmen, Verschlechtern oder, wie der Politologe Alfred Grosser kürzlich formulierte: „daß die Managergehälter auf amerikanische Höhen steigen und die Löhne auf ungarisches oder, noch besser, thailändisches Niveau absinken“. „Bereichert euch!“ für die einen, „Schnallt die Gürtel enger!“ für die anderen. Mit solchen Alternativen zieht man heute in Deutschland in Wahlkämpfe. Dazwischen ist buchstäblich nichts mehr, kein Appell an die Vorbildfunktion von Eliten, keine Beschwörung des Ganzen, nur stumpfsinnigster „Individualismus“. Und serviert wird das, besonders auf der „bürgerlichen“, der Merkel-Seite, mit einem derart gefühllosen, pseudo-wissenschaftlichen Jargon, daß jedem Zuhörer die Haare zu Berge stehen. „Compassion“ (Anteilnahme, Mitleid), jene Kunstvokabel, mit der einst Willy Brandt erfolgreich durch die Wahlarenen zog, gibt es mittlerweile nur noch für Zuwanderer, Drogensüchtige und andere mutwillige Ausflipper; der einheimische Normalwähler hat sich mit Kopfpauschalen, Wegekilometern und Eigenheimzulagen zu begnügen, die zudem noch gekürzt oder gestrichen werden. So kommt man dann, jeder für sich, auf dreißig Prozent und darf sich mit allen zur Verfügung stehenden Mitteln um den Kanzlersessel balgen. Indes, zu einer Reformpolitik, die auch nur einigermaßen ehrlich gemeint ist und wenigstens einen guten Ton für Große Koalitionen stiften will, gehört der Einsatz von neuen, unverbrauchten Führungsgestalten, die glaubhaft um Vertrauen und Neuanfang werben können. Das ist gewissermaßen das mindeste. Insofern wären Arrangements wie etwa Wulf-Kanzler/Gabriel-Vizekanzler oder Merz-Kanzler/Steinbrück-Vizekanzler immerhin Signale, die weithin registriert und auf Interesse stoßen würden. Man sollte nicht gänzlich ignorieren, daß seit der Wahl vom 18. September eine merkwürdige Nemesis im Hintergrund lauert, die – mit massiver Hilfe der etablierten Kräfte – einen beachtlichen Teil des natürlichen Protestpotentials aufgesaugt hat, welchen sie jederzeit in linke Kanäle lenken kann. Gemeint ist die Linkspartei, mit deren Hilfe ja eine recht bequeme rot-rot-grüne Mehrheit hergestellt werden könnte. Ganz aus der Welt ist diese Option keineswegs. Zwar erscheint es höchst unwahrscheinlich, daß der abgrundtiefe Haß des ehemaligen SPD-Vorsitzenden Oskar Lafontaine auf Schröder und dessen Beritt je abkühlt und so eine verabredete Duldung von Rot-Grün durch Linksaußen möglich wird. Doch unter den 54 neuen Bundestagsabgeordneten der Linkspartei gibt es eine hinreichende Anzahl, die genau eine solche Duldung wollen und bei geheimen Abstimmungen, bei denen es Spitz auf Knopf steht, entsprechend votieren würden. Sogar ein Übertritt dissidenter Abgeordneter zu Rot-Grün wäre, entsprechende dramatische Entwicklungen vorausgesetzt, denkbar. Gewisse Vorgänge um die damalige USPD in der Frühzeit der Weimarer Republik liefern Beispiele. Wir hätten dann auch in der Bundespolitik jene „DDR light“, die wir in bestimmten Bereichen des Geisteslebens oder in Brandenburg und Mecklenburg-Vorpommern auch gesamtpolitisch schon erleben, inklusive Ex-IMs und alten Stasi-Kadern, die mit Übersicht und Heimtücke ihre Fäden ziehen. Schneidend wird deutlich, wie bedroht das „bürgerliche“, immer noch auf Rechtsstaat und bewährte BRD-Traditionen bedachte Lager bereits ist. Die Merkel-Truppe in ihrer gegenwärtigen Verfassung vermag nichts daran zu ändern. Eine Verbesserung der Lage wäre nur zu erwarten, wenn endlich auch bei uns, wie bereits in vielen anderen europäischen Ländern, die „Asymmetrie des Parteiensystems“ (Thorsten Hinz) beseitigt würde und eine solide rechte oder popu-listische Fünfzehn-Prozent-Partei zum Zuge käme. Daß das nicht passiert, daran arbeiten natürlich wie verrückt sämtliche etablierten Kräfte. Die Regierungsbildungen nach Wahlen wären dann vielleicht nicht mehr so unterhaltsam wie zur Zeit, doch mit Sicherheit verläßlicher und effektiver. Das Land hätte seinen Nutzen davon.
	http://www.bnr.de/bnraktuell/aktuellemeldungen/vmannvonmarxgedeckt/ V-Mann von Marx gedeckt?  30.09.2005 Völklingen — Der Fraktionsvorsitzende der NPD im Völklinger Stadtrat, Otfried Best, wirft dem stellvertretenden Parteivorsitzenden Peter Marx offenbar vor, einen V-Mann des Verfassungsschutzes in der Partei zu dulden. Dies berichtet jedenfalls der vormalige NPD-Vordenker Jürgen Schwab: Best behaupte, ein Beschwerdeschreiben mit entsprechendem Inhalt bereits vor Wochen an den Parteivorsitzenden Udo Voigt geschickt zu haben. Schwab verlangt nun eine Klärung der Angelegenheit und fordert unabhängig von diesem konkreten Fall: "Wer mit dem VS zusammenarbeitet oder in seiner Vorstandsfunktion Anwerbeversuche ,absegnet’ und Bespitzelung deckt, für den kann es nur den Parteiausschluss geben!" Vor wenigen Tagen hatte sich die Saar-NPD öffentlich von ihrer Völklinger Fraktion distanziert und zwei namentlich genannten Mitgliedern, darunter Best, vorgehalten, sie hätten "dem Ansehen der Partei und des Landesverbandes durch ihr Verhalten schweren Schaden zugefügt". Diese Erklärung des Landesverbandes ist inzwischen wieder von dessen Homepage verschwunden. (ts)
	Wed Sep 28,12:59 PM ET Reynaldo Rios, an elementary school teacher who says he's been communicating with alien visitors to this U.S. territory since he was a child, holds a pyramid while pictured standing in front of a sign reading, 'Extraterrestrial Route,' in Lajas, southwestern Puerto Rico, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2005. Rios wants to build an alien landing strip, equipped with pyramids as control towers, on a nearby hilltop, in an area where many locals believe they have seen UFOs in the past. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050928/481/sjub10109281658
	India votes for reprimand of Iran, at International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Subject: Re: [NEO-ROUNDTABLE] India Ditches Iran and Nonalignment - more diplomatic preparations for War with Iran More of the diplomatic preparations for a War that has already been declared by the the Triumpherant, Israel, U.S. and Britian...sad and tragic that India has not stood its ground against this bullying of a Nation's Rights concerning improvements of its living standard thru abundant energy...only Israel is allowed to be a nuclear power in the Middle East what a threat to security and balance...for how long can this impossible position be maintained with intimidation, force, and foreign policy arm twisting...without wearing out and sucking dry the nations which continue to pander to this unrealistic program of singular monopolism of advance energy generation...though I do not agree with the folly of nuclear power either. Hopefully another form of energy will be developed which can not be used with such political narrowedness in favor of one nation, newly established by blood and violence, and enormous injustice, while denying cruelly and insenstively the needs of others in the region... Asia will eventually turn its back on America, and England...even Israel will say goodbye and go where it can suck the most economic and security nutriment...it is a friendship based on use not honor or cultural respect. What fools these people are who run America and England...for a few trinkets, and toys awarded them for their treasonous , and irresponsible behavior they are selling out their own social Mother...their Nations...whichnurtured them and brought them to their wealth and position in the first place...political folly, which the Iran Issue brings up with more contrast and stark ignorance... September 28, 2005 India Ditches Iran and Nonalignment by Praful Bidwai NEW DELHI - By voting for a Western-sponsored resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meant to reprimand Iran, India has signaled the collapse of its long-standing policy of nonalignment. Capping recent agreements signed with the United States on military and civilian nuclear cooperation within an increasingly closer "strategic partnership" with it, this constitutes the greatest shift in New Delhi's foreign policy since independence from colonial rule in 1947. "By taking this disgraceful step, India is indicating that it has become a camp-follower of Washington," said Gulshan Dietl, a West Asia expert at the School of International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University here. The resolution of the IAEA board of governors came at the end of a week of hectic lobbying and manipulation in Vienna and other major capitals of the world, centered around a draft prepared by Germany, France, and Britain or EU-3, a group that claims to have been playing a mediatory role between the U.S. and Iran. Iran insists that its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and within the rights and obligations defined by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). The IAEA has not held Iran to be in substantive breach of the NPT, only of not disclosing everything about its uranium enrichment history. But the U.S. claims that Iran is bent upon developing nuclear weapons and wants it hauled up before the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions. The final resolution is a modified version of the EU-3's original draft. It falls short of referring Iran to the Security Council. But it prepares the ground for doing so while citing Iran's history of "concealment" of its nuclear activities, and the IAEA director general's report on them. It asks Iran to stop all activity related to uranium enrichment. Further, it says that Iran's "noncompliance" with NPT safeguards and the IAEA's statute "gives rise to questions that are within the competence of the Security Council," given its responsibility for maintaining "international peace and security." The resolution furnishes the basis for the next logical step, of referring Iran to the Security Council and mounting coercive pressure on it to dismantle its nuclear program. The motion was passed 22:1, with 12 countries abstaining. Venezuela was the only state in the 35-strong IAEA board of governors to oppose it. Among those who abstained were Russia, China, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and even Pakistan. The U.S. is triumphant over the passage of the resolution and has expressed its gratitude to India for helping out. Iran is outraged and has condemned the resolution as "illegal and unacceptable." India's decision to vote with the U.S. was taken even before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit in mid-September to France and the U.S., where he met President George W. Bush. The Hindu newspaper disclosed on Sept. 17 that New Delhi had already decided to vote in that manner if it came to the crunch. After the resolution, the crisis over Iran's nuclear activities is likely to worsen. This takes the wind out of the sails of New Delhi's argument that it voted for the resolution because it expands the room for diplomacy to resolve the crisis and because it avoids an immediate reference to the Security Council. Strangely enough, India has entered a number of caveats and reservations about the resolution. India is opposed to "Iran being declared as noncompliant with its safeguards agreements" and does not agreed that the "current situation could constitute a threat to international peace and security." "These objections pertain to the very substance of the motion and warranted at least abstention from, if not opposition to, the vote," says Hamid Ansari, India's former ambassador to Iran and a West Asia expert, who has closely followed the IAEA's debate on Iran. Yet, India went along with the "yes" vote on the plea that it had persuaded the EU-3 to modify its original tough resolution; since its concerns were addressed in the toned-down motion, it would not have been proper to abstain. "But that original resolution was a mere ploy," says Ansari. "The EU-3 knew it wouldn't go through and sprang the already preferred milder draft at the last minute, thus forcing a vote in which India would break ranks with a number of Nonaligned Movement [NAM] countries such as South Africa, Brazil, and Malaysia, the current chair of NAM." Adds Ansari, "The EU-3 was no longer acting independently, but as a surrogate of the U.S. So India ended up as the surrogate of a surrogate, demeaning its policy of independence. This speaks of poor diplomacy with respect to NAM, as well as a confused foreign policy." For decades, NAM acted in unison at the IAEA. Now, it stands split, with countries like Peru, Ghana, and Ecuador joining hands with the U.S.-EU while Malaysia, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, which have been proactive in NAM, abstained. "The Indian vote," says Dietl, "militates against the national interest and will greatly lower India's global stature and credibility. If India could stab a friendly country like Iran in the back, despite its close economic and political relations with it, it won't be trusted by many other developing countries." India's vote is likely to jeopardize a grand project it is currently negotiating: an Iran-India gas pipeline passing through Pakistan. This enjoys wide domestic support and has been seen as the key to promoting peace and prosperity in the South Asia-West Asia region, as well as opening a conduit to energy-rich Central Asia. The Manmohan Singh government's decision has come under spirited attacks domestically both from the left and the right. The Left sees it as "betrayal" of the legacy of solidarity with the "nonaligned and developing countries" and succumbing to U.S. pressure. The Left, a crucial ally of the ruling United Progressive Alliance, led by the Congress party, says the resolution "virtually" converts India into a U.S. ally and camp-follower. The right-wing, pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too has opposed India's decision to vote for the EU-3 resolution in Vienna and accused the government of "surreptitiously" making a major foreign policy shift. Jaswant Singh, who served as foreign minister during the BJP's years in power from 1998-2004 said the government was "spreading confusion on important policy matters impinging directly on national security." Singh said there was now a serious question mark on the proposed gas pipeline from Iran, especially because the government has refused to spell out whether "it stands or not." A former senior official of the National Security Council, under the BJP dispensation, said he feared that "the vote [at the IAEA] will decrease India's bargaining power vis-à-vis the U.S. and generate anti-India suspicions in China." India strenuously denies that the vote in Vienna is linked to its eagerness to get the U.S. Congress' approval for a far-reaching nuclear cooperation deal it signed in July with Washington. However, The New York Times and other newspapers have reported that the U.S. explicitly made such a linkage and told Singh in mid-September that India "must choose" between Iran and the U.S. India's concern to have its nuclear weapons status normalized has become an obsession. "This is driving New Delhi to try to gatecrash into the global nuclear order based on the NPT, although it is not even a signatory to that treaty," argues Dietl. "All in all, the Vienna vote is a remarkably bad bargain, and announces India's capitulation to the U.S.," Dietl said. (Inter Press Service)
	http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_30-9-2005_pg9_12 Friday, September 30, 2005 Puerto Rico town may build UFO site People in this sleepy hamlet are so sure they have been receiving other-worldly visitors, they want to build a UFO landing strip to welcome them. A bright green sign along a lonely country road in southwestern Puerto Rico proudly displays a silhouette of a flying saucer and two words: “Extraterrestrial Route.” Most Puerto Ricans laughed when a horse farmer installed the sign on his property at the request of Reynaldo Rios, a local elementary school teacher who says he’s been communicating with alien visitors to this US territory since he was a child. Rios, a 39-year-old with a goatee and a shock of dark hair, won’t be ignored. With the blessing of a local government desperate for tourist dollars, he’s dedicated himself to building the UFO landing strip. “I can’t say exactly when they will come, but I know it will happen,” Rios said. “I want to keep believing in my dreams.” Lajas Mayor Marcos Irizarry’s support for the idea has provoked outrage among islanders who complained it would be a waste of money at a time when the government is encouraging thousands of employees to shorten their work week to cope with a staggering fiscal deficit. “What nonsense,” said Luis Arocho, 47, sipping coffee with friends in a cafe in historic Old San Juan. “This country is in crisis, and since politicians are incapable of creating jobs, they create fantasies.” Irizarry quickly clarified that his municipal government would not invest in the project. Instead, he has promised to help Rios get the proper building permits. The mayor insists his goal is to attract tourists to his small town. But he is also among Lajans who believe they have seen UFOs in the area. “It’s a very mysterious place,” said Irizarry, who says he once saw red lights zigzagging above the hills. “A lot of people have seen things.” Francisco Negron, the farmer who put up the sign and allows UFO watchers to gather at his ranch, volunteered his property for the landing strip. He and Rios estimate the project could cost up to US$100,000 and are looking for funds from private companies.Negron, a soft-spoken grandfather, has already applied for a permit to build a road to Indian Hill, the chosen site for the strip. Negron and others believe a UFO crashed on the hill in 1997. They claim they heard a boom and saw the hill go up in flames. Rios, who leads a group called “UFO International” that holds nighttime vigils to search for signs of alien life, lets Negron worry about details like investment costs and permits while he envisions the design. The landing strip would be 80 feet long and have pyramids as control towers because aliens are attracted to the shape. The mayor hopes that UFO enthusiasts will flock to Lajas as they have to Roswell, New Mexico, the site of a supposed UFO crash in the 1940s. Hundreds of visitors have already come to check out the Extraterrestrial Route since the sign went up, Irizarry said. Puerto Rico is already known for its Arecibo Observatory and its 1,000-foot (304-meter) parabolic receiver that astronomers really do use to search for extraterrestrial life. The huge dish, in northern Puerto Rico, made a cameo appearance in the 1997 film “Contact,” starring Jodi Foster as an astronomer who picks up a signal from extratraterrestrials. ap
	http://afr.com/articles/2005/09/23/1126982224201.html EU prepares internet laws Aoife White | AP | Brussels 2005/09/24 European Union officials insisted on Thursday that they had no plans to regulate the internet, as the EU prepares to launch new broadcasting rules later this year. "I have no intention to 'regulate the internet'," EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding told a broadcasting conference in Liverpool, in the United Kingdom. However, she said the European Commission had a duty to protect shared European values. "Who in this room is in favour of child pornography on the new media? Who stands for the freedom to spread incitement to racial hatred on the new media?" She said there was a broad consensus that child protection and hate speech rules should also apply to "non-linear" services, such as pay TV or internet broadcasts. Internet firms and some broadcasters have firmly voiced their opposition to an EU-wide law over content. BBC director-general Mark Thompson said on Wednesday that regulators needed to be realistic about how practical and desirable it was to enforce content in an on-demand, online world. He said that self-regulation grounded in continuous research into public attitudes was a better option for new media.
	http://www.20min.ch/news/schweiz/bern/story/14275905 "Alien-Jäger" Von Däniken mit neuem Mega-Projekt «Es tut sich Grosses», orakelt Ufo-Guru Erich von Däniken. 20 Minuten verrät er: Seine neusten Geheimprojekte führen ihn nach Ägypten und Peru. Publiziert am 26. September 2005 22:35 Den Reporter der grossen deutschen Zeitschrift «Stern» liess Erich von Däniken abblitzen: «Ich darf darüber nicht reden, aber es tut sich Grosses», antwortete er auf die Frage nach seinem aktuellen Forschungsprojekt. Doch jetzt lüftet er das Geheimnis für 20 Minuten: «Ich werde in Ägypten unter den Pyramiden unbekannte Schächte erforschen», sagt «Mr. Mystery» Von Däniken. «Wir wissen nicht, was dort unten auf uns wartet.» Danach will der Bestsellerautor auch in Peru eine geheime Expedition starten. Fritz Zemp, Geschäftsführer des Mystery-Parks in Interlaken, hält sich gegenüber dem Projekt ebenfalls stark bedeckt: «Der Code-Name unseres neusten Grossprojektes lautet Nova», verrät er. Das sei eine Abkürzung. «Wir arbeiten mit mehreren Universitäten zusammen», sagt Zemp. «Dies ist eine Riesenchance.» Andrea Abbühl 20 Min. Diashow, weiter lesen...
	http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050925/bs_nm/group_france_greenspan_dc;_ylt=AudfoKXz9RrRa49XedI6RAWyBhIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl By Paul Carrel Sun Sep 25, 4:32 AM ET Greenspan to French finmin: US lost deficit control U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told France's Finance Minister Thierry Breton the United States has "lost control" of its budget deficit, the French minister said on Saturday. "'We have lost control,' that was his expression," Breton told reporters after a bilateral meeting with Greenspan. "The United States has lost control of their budget at a time when racking up deficits has been authorized without any control (from Congress)," Breton said. "We were both disappointed that the management of debt is not a political priority today," he added. Ministers from the Group of Seven rich nations on Friday called for vigorous action around the world to curb rising imbalances in international trade and investment accounts. A decrease in the U.S. budget deficit were cited by the G7 as one way to ease those imbalances. U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said the U.S. administration was still committed to halving its budget deficit by 2009. Breton spoke as International Monetary Fund Managing Director Rodrigo Rato said U.S. plans to cut its government expenditures now looked ambitious in the light of huge reconstruction costs to be borne in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Breton said: "The situation that is creating tension today on the currency market ... is clearly the American deficit." The United States needed to address its budget deficit, he said, adding: "It seems to me that my counterpart John Snow is completely aware of this, he wants to harness the problem, but it seems to me he doesn't have the room for maneuver." Breton added that after hearing Greenspan talk about inflation: "One has the feeling -- though he didn't say so -- that interest rates will probably continue to rise slightly until his departure." Greenspan is due to step down as Fed chairman in January after 18 years in the post. Asked if G7 finance chiefs would meet as usual in February next year as well as gathering for an extraordinary meeting in December this year -- partly to pay tribute to Greenspan before his departure -- the French finance chief said: "Yes, yes. Next February as well." He said France was "not against" the idea of enlarging the Group of Seven, a notion that has gained impetus at these meetings.
	http://www.welt.de/data/2005/09/28/781673.html Artikel erschienen am Mi, 28. September 2005 Studie: Ärztemangel nimmt drastische Ausmaße an Engpässe in der ambulanten Versorgung Berlin - Medizinervereinigungen haben vor einem gravierenden Ärztemangel in Deutschland gewarnt und attraktivere Arbeitsbedingungen angemahnt. Bis zum Jahr 2010 würden rund 40 000 der in Praxen und Krankenhäusern arbeitenden Ärzte in den Ruhestand gehen, bis 2015 sogar rund 74 000 Mediziner, berichteten Bundesärztekammer (BÄK) und Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung (KBV) unter Berufung auf eine gemeinsame Studie. Bei der ambulanten Versorgung in Ostdeutschland und in ländlichen Regionen komme es schon jetzt zu Engpässen. Auch in deutschen Krankenhäusern mache sich der Ärztemangel bereits bemerkbar. Die Gewerkschaft der Krankenhausärzte "Marburger Bund" sieht den Grund für den Mangel in den schlechten Arbeitsbedingungen in den Kliniken. "Wir entfernen uns Tag und Tag mehr von dem Anspruch, eine flächendeckende und wohnortnahe Versorgung für alle Menschen in diesem Land bereitzustellen", sagte BÄK-Präsident Jörg-Dietrich Hoppe. So werde allein bei den niedergelassenen Ärzten bis 2015 fast die Hälfte aus der ambulanten Versorgung aussteigen. Bei Augen- und Frauenärzten mache sich der Mangel schon jetzt bemerkbar. Besonders dramatisch sei die Situation auch im Osten Deutschlands, wo in elf von 99 Planungsbezirken keine ausreichende hausärztliche Versorgung mehr gewährleistet werden könne. Bundesweit stieg auch das Durchschnittsalter niedergelassener Mediziner: Lag es 1993 bei 46,6 Jahren, kletterte es 2004 auf 50,8 Jahre. Nur noch 16,4 Prozent aller Ärzte sind jünger als 35 Jahre alt. Genug Nachwuchs sei nicht in Sicht, weil der Arztberuf an Attraktivität eingebüßt habe, sagte der KBV-Vorstandsvorsitzende Andreas Köhler. Grund seien schlechte Bedingungen in Krankenhäusern und Praxen. Hohe Arbeitsbelastung, ausufernde Bürokratie und geringe Bezahlung schreckten junge Menschen ab. Viele Mediziner wanderten nach ihrer Ausbildung in andere Bereiche oder ins Ausland ab. Einzige Gegenmittel seien eine gezielte Nachwuchsförderung und bessere Rahmenbedingungen, sagte er. So müsse die neue Bundesregierung eine neue Vertragsgebührenordnung etablieren, die die Leistungen der Ärzte nicht in Punkten, sondern in Euro ausdrücke. Auch müßten Mediziner von bürokratischen Pflichten entbunden werden und attraktive Teilzeitmodelle gefördert werden. Der Vorsitzende des Marburger Bundes, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, sieht die Ursache für den Ärztemangel in den schlechten Arbeitsbedingungen in den Kliniken. "Die Arbeitssituation für Ärzte erinnert an preußische Feldlazarette", sagte Montgomery. Dienstzeiten von 30 Stunden Dauer und die geringe Bezahlung machten den Beruf unattraktiv. Es sei volkswirtschaftlich falsch, daß Ärzte eine teure Ausbildung in Deutschland bekämen und anschließend wegen der besseren Arbeitsbedingungen ins Ausland gingen. Der Marburger Bund versucht, mit Bund, Ländern und Kommunen einen eigenen Ärztetarifvertrag aushandeln. Den Tarifvertrag für den öffentlichen Dienst lehnt er ab. AFP/phn
	http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1576613,00.html This is an act of censorship worthy of Joseph Goebbels The plan to draw up a list of historical events that people can be prosecuted for celebrating is a sign of a leader losing his grip Simon Jenkins Friday September 23, 2005 The Guardian At last history hits pay dirt. For years it was pap for television. The nation's rulers needed scientists for guns, linguists for trade and economists for mistakes. History was for nuts and numismatists. Now up pops Charles Clarke jingling bags of gold. The home secretary has promised the prime minister that he will lock away for five years anyone who "glorifies, exalts or celebrates" a terrorist act committed in the past 20 years. He does not care if glorification was not meant. If someone, somewhere takes anything that I say or write as encouraging to terror, even if they do not act on it, I have committed a criminal act. Nor is this all. Lest any crackpot thinks he can dance up and down any old high street praising Hitler, Mao or Uncle Joe as outside the 20-year limit, Clarke is preparing a list of earlier terrorist acts that also render their celebrants criminals. After "listed" historic buildings we have "listed" historic terrorisms. To the glorious chronicles of our island race, Clarke is to append an open-ended catalogue of listed events. They may include any acts of violence against people, property or, bizarrely, electronic systems anywhere in the world if intended to advance a political, religious or ideological cause or to influence a government. I am told that this astonishing bill was cobbled together not by Clarke or the lord chancellor, Charles Falconer, who were both away at the time. The author was a No 10 wonk who was trying to think up "12 points" to put in Blair's holiday press conference pack on August 5. The wording recalls the remit of the old House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington. It is born of Joe McCarthy out of 1066 and All That, with a dash of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. A sure sign of a leader losing his grip on reality is when he starts meddling with history. New Labour was born denying its past. As George Eliot said of women, happy is the one who has no history. Blair's party was not-Labour, not-Liberal, not-Tory, just "we". Hence the significance of Clarke's partial cut-off date in the mid-80s. That was the time when Blairism first oozed like ectoplasm from the guts of Orgreave and Wapping. Terrorism as defined in law more or less covers the story of the human race. Half of Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples must qualify as a listed event. The Crown Prosecution Service must be staffed with experts in William the Conqueror, the Black Prince, the New Model Army, the Gordon rioters, the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Spin doctors must cut their teeth on Alexander the Great, Vlad the Impaler, Innocent III and the Counter-Reformation in Latin America. They must burn midnight oil over the Albigensian crusade. Blair will be heard screaming in his attic: "Beware the Da Vinci Code." This is government by trivia and whim. Already we are told that Clarke's listed events will not include anything Irish. Why? King William's campaign is life and breath to loyalist militants, as is the 1916 Easter Rising to Blair's pet insurrectionists, the IRA. Why should these groups be excused the law? Soon anyone who visits terror on the British people will negotiate a "listed events exclusion clause" as part of their final settlement. Even without the cliche that one man's listed event is another's act of heroism, this is a can of worms. Bomber Harris's flattening of German cities in the second world war was specifically described by Churchill as "simply for the sake of increasing terror". The bombing of Hiroshima was, to put it mildly, a politically motivated assault on people and property. Last month it was not glorified, but it was certainly celebrated. Are Hiroshima or Dresden to be listed events? If not, how can the no less terrorist blitz be listed? Conrad was in this sense right: "The terrorist and the policeman both come from the same basket." I have no faith in Clarke's Stalinist historians. If Whitehall bureaucrats are so otherworldly as to find village ponds, conker trees and rare steaks awash in human hazard, there is no telling what they will find in the bloodstained pages of history. They need only to find a dodgy event and someone to praise it and they will pounce. The issue is not mens rea or intention to glorify. To convict, there need only be someone who confesses to being "encouraged" by the glorification. It is a stooge's charter. This extension of censorship renders any apologist for any liberation struggle vulnerable to prosecution. I find it astounding that people such as Falconer, Clarke and the rest of the cabinet can sit round a cabinet table and pass a measure worthy of Joseph Goebbels. Ministers may yet be hoist with their own petard. I might draw a moral distinction between Blair's crusade against certain Muslim states and, say, publicity for al-Qaida violence against me. I might feel that my war is in a good cause and theirs an evil one. The courts are not free to make that distinction. Any act with terrorist connotations puts not just its perpetrator but any contributory publicity at risk. Operation Shock and Awe against Baghdad in March 2003, in which Britain participated, was intended to terrify the civilian population to the political end of toppling Saddam. The name boasted it. Government lawyers may argue that states cannot be terrorists, yet those same lawyers apply the phrase "state terrorism" to others. Besides, the bill offers no defence of "good cause". The Crown Prosecution Service must surely apply the law impartially. The government's defenders will argue of terror-bombing from the air that there are distinctions in targeting and collateral damage. But any self-respecting terrorist can find similar excuses for horror. At very least Downing Street is vulnerable to hypocrisy. Its crude attempt to stoke war fever in the winter of 2002/3 with briefings of "new smallpox/ricin/anthrax threat to London" was no less political. It was meant to frighten the public into supporting the rush to war. The effect was to disseminate the same fear as did the supposed terrorists. Bluntly, the government was doing the terrorists' job for them. I cannot see how this puts ministers above their own law. Downing Street is not alone in playing this tune. This week Brussels joined in the New Orwellianism. In a document called Terrorist Recruitment: Addressing the Factors Contributing to Violent Radicalisation, the European Commission warns the media not to take a "reductionist and conspiratorial world view where inequity and oppression are dominant". It singles out journalism as offering a "specific risk" in the fight against terrorism - the risk of "oversimplification". Journalists should apparently watch themselves. The edict is the work of the commission's vice-president and ally of Silvio Berlusconi, Franco Frattini. Berlusconi is no friend of the press. What is going on here? Blair, Clarke and Falconer are consorting with strange company. They should remember Montaigne's warning to history: "To make judgments about great and high things, a soul of the same stature is needed." Otherwise, said the great man, we drag history down to the level of our own vices. Just so. simon.jenkins@guardian.co.uk
	http://www.frankfurterrundschau.de/ressorts/wirtschaft_und_boerse/wirtschaft/?cnt=732818 Bauern kritisieren Raiffeisen Futtermittelhändler soll gentechnikfreies Sojaschrot liefern Die Lieferung gentechnikfreien Tierfutters haben Bauern und Umweltschützer bei einer Demonstration in Bonn von den Raiffeisen-Futtermittelwerken verlangt. Sie warfen Raiffeisen vor, die Nachfrage nach gentechnikfreiem Soja klein zu halten. Bonn / Frankfurt a.M. · Nach Darstellung von Bioland-Referent Gerald Wehde werde es durch die Politik des größten Futtermittelhändlers Deutschlands normalen Bauern fast unmöglich gemacht, an Soja-Eiweißfutter aus gentechnikfreiem Anbau zu kommen. Zwar beliefere Raiffeisen Großabnehmer wie den Geflügelmast-Marktführer Wiesenhof. Kleineren Bauern gegenüber aber verschwiegen die Genossenschaften die Existenz des Futters selbst dann noch, wenn sie es eingelagert hätten. Das war, wie die FR im Sommer aufgedeckt hatte, in Hanau bei der Raiffeisen-Warenzentrale Rhein-Main der Fall. Die dort vorhandenen Soja-Mengen waren unter anderem für Bauern bestimmt, die an der Marke "Hessen - aus gutem Grund" teilnehmen, bei der Marke ist gentechnikfreies Futter vorgeschrieben. Dafür hatte Raiffeisen jedoch nie geworben. Sojaschrot ohne Gentechnik gibt es auch bei Raiffeisen in Würzburg, Paderborner Land sowie bei der Zentralgenossenschaft Baden. Nur Baden wirbt dafür. "Handlanger der Industrie" Der Geschäftsführer der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bäuerliche Landwirtschaft, Georg Janßen, warf den Genossenschaften vor, ihre annähernde Monopolstellung auszunutzen. Janßen: "Der Verband will keinen Markt für diese Futtermittel. Damit macht er sich zum Handlanger der Gentechnik-Industrie." Behauptungen des Raiffeisenverbands, der Markt stelle nicht genug gentechnikfreie Ware zur Verfügung, seien falsch, sagte die Gentechnik-Expertin des BUND, Heike Moldenhauer. Allein Brasilien sei in der Lage, rund 80 Prozent des europäischen Bedarfs von jährlich 31 bis 34 Millionen Tonnen Sojaschrot zu liefern. Stephan Börnecke
	A live "ops center" in a country SCL won't identify
	http://slate.msn.com/id/2126479/ You Can't Handle the Truth Psy-ops propaganda goes mainstream. By Sharon Weinberger Posted Monday, Sept. 19, 2005, at 3:31 AM PT LONDON–Over the past 24 hours, seven people have checked into hospitals here with telltale symptoms. Rashes, vomiting, high temperature, and cramps: the classic signs of smallpox. Once thought wiped out, the disease is back and threatening a pandemic of epic proportions. The government faces a dilemma: It needs people to stay home, but if the news breaks, mass panic might ensue as people flee the city, carrying the virus with them. A shadowy media firm steps in to help orchestrate a sophisticated campaign of mass deception. Rather than alert the public to the smallpox threat, the company sets up a high-tech "ops center" to convince the public that an accident at a chemical plant threatens London. As the fictitious toxic cloud approaches the city, TV news outlets are provided graphic visuals charting the path of the invisible toxins. Londoners stay indoors, glued to the telly, convinced that even a short walk into the streets could be fatal. This scenario may sound like a rejected plot twist from a mediocre Bond flick, but one company is dead set on making this fantasy come to life. Strategic Communication Laboratories, a small U.K. firm specializing in "influence operations" made a very public debut this week with a glitzy exhibit occupying prime real estate at Defense Systems & Equipment International, or DSEi, the United Kingdom's largest showcase for military technology. The main attraction was a full-scale mock-up of its ops center, running simulations ranging from natural disasters to political coups. Just to the right of the ops center, a dark-suited man with a wireless microphone paces like a carnival barker, narrating the scenarios. Above him a screen flashes among scenes of disaster, while to his right, behind thick glass, workers sit attentively before banks of computer screens, busily scrolling through data. The play actors pause only to look up at a big board that flashes ominously between "hot spots" like North Korea and Congo. While Londoners fret over fictitious toxins, the government works to contain the smallpox outbreak. The final result, according to SCL's calculations, is that only thousands perish, rather than the 10 million originally projected. Another success. Of course, the idea of deluding an entire city seems, well, a bit like propaganda. "If your definition of propaganda is framing communications to do something that's going to save lives, that's fine," says Mark Broughton, SCL's public affairs director. "That's not a word I would use for that." Then again, it's hard to know exactly what else to call it. (Company literature describes SCL's niche specialties as "psychological warfare," "public diplomacy," and "influence operations.") The smallpox scenario plays out in excruciating detail how reporters would be tapped to receive disinformation, with TV and radio stations dedicated to around-the-clock coverage. Even the eventual disclosure is carefully scripted. In another doomsday scenario, the company assists a newly democratic country in South Asia as it struggles with corrupt politicians and a rising insurgency that threatens to bubble over into bloody revolution. SCL steps in to assist the benevolent king of "Manpurea" to temporarily seize power. Oh, wait, that sounds a lot like Nepal, where the monarchy earlier this year ousted a corrupt government to stave off a rising Maoist movement. The problem is, the SCL scenario also sounds a lot like using a private company to help overthrow a democratically elected government. Another problem, at least in Nepal, is that the king now shows few signs of returning to democracy. The company, which describes itself as the first private-sector provider of psychological operations, has been around since 1993. But its previous work was limited to civil operations, and it now wants to expand to military customers. If SCL weren't so earnest, it might actually seem to be mocking itself, or perhaps George Orwell. As the end of the smallpox scenario, dramatic music fades out to a taped message urging people to "embrace" strategic communications, which it describes as "the most powerful weapon in the world." And the company Web page offers some decidedly creepy asides. "The [ops center] can override all national radio and TV broadcasts in time of crisis," it says, alluding to work the company has done in an unspecified Asian country. The government's use of deception in the service of national security is not new. During World War II, for example, Allied forces conducted a massive misinformation campaign, called Operation Fortitude, designed to hide plans for the Normandy invasion. More recent efforts have met with controversy, however. In 2002, the Pentagon shuttered its brand new Office of Strategic Influence after public outcry over its purported plans to spread deceptive information to the foreign press. Government deception may even be justified in some cases, according to Michael Schrage, a senior adviser to the security-studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "If you tell the population that there's been a bio-warfare attack, hospital emergency rooms will be overwhelmed with people who sincerely believe they have all the symptoms and require immediate attention," Schrage says. The problem, he adds, is that in a democracy, a large-scale ruse would work just once. The U.S. government has generally sought to limit disinformation; some agencies–such as the CIA–are explicitly prohibited by law from misleading domestic press. And while the CIA is fond of concealment, it takes pride in the belief that truth is necessary for an open government, a sentiment chiseled into the agency's lobby. What makes SCL's strategy so unusual is that it proposes to propagate its campaign domestically, at least some of the time, and rather than influence just opinion, it wants people to take a particular course of action. Is SCL simply hawking a flashier version of propaganda? The spokesman's answer: "We save lives." Yes, Broughton acknowledges, the ops center is not exactly giving the truth, but he adds, "Is it not worth giving an untruth for 48 hours to save x million people's lives? Sometimes the means to an end has to be recognized." Who buys this stuff? Broughton declined to mention many specific clients, noting that disclosing SCL's involvement–particularly in countries with a free and open media–could make its campaigns less effective. However, he says that post-apartheid South Africa has employed SCL. So has the United Nations, he says. The company's Web site is even vaguer, mentioning international organizations and foreign governments. A Google search produces only a handful of hits, mostly linked to the company's Web site. The company's work is based on something that even the spokesman admits you "won't find on the Web": the Behavioral Dynamics Institute, a virtual lab led by Professor Phil Taylor of Leeds University. But the company, which is funded by private investors, is now taking on a higher profile, and visitors flocked to the flashy setup here at the show. "Basically, we're launching ourselves this week on the defense market and homeland security market at the same time," Broughton explained. If SCL has its way, its vision of strategic communications–which involves complex psychological and scientific data–could be used to shape public response to tsunamis, epidemics, or even the next Hurricane Katrina. Well aware that the company may face controversy, particularly with its push into the defense market, Broughton emphasizes the company's role in saving lives. "It sounds altruistic," he said. "There is some altruism in it, but we also want to earn money." Sharon Weinberger, a writer based in Washington, is working on a book about the Pentagon and fringe science. Photograph of ops center courtesy Strategic Communication Laboratories. All rights reserved. Photograph of man in front of screen by Sharon Weinberger.
	A successful outcome means thousands, not millions, will die in a catastrophe
	http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/0,1518,376990,00.html 28. September 2005 SPARKURS IN STUTTGART Mercedes will mehr als 8000 Stellen kappen DaimlerChrysler schwenkt in seinen deutschen Stammwerken auf einen strikten Sparkurs ein: Bei Mercedes sollen Zeitungsberichten zufolge bis zu 8600 Stellen gestrichen werden, deutlich mehr als bisher bekannt. Berlin - Bislang war immer von rund 5000 Stellen die Rede gewesen, die in Sindelfingen und Bremen abgebaut werden sollten. Nun heiße es in Unternehmenskreisen, man müsse von 8600 ausgehen, berichtet die "Bild"-Zeitung. Auch laut "Stuttgarter Nachrichten" sind 8000 Stellen bedroht. Der überwiegende Teil davon solle in den Stuttgarter Stammwerken Sindelfingen und Untertürkheim abgebaut werden. DaimlerChrysler wollte zu den Berichten zunächst keine Stellungnahme abgeben. Seit gestern Abend tagt der Aufsichtsrat des Unternehmens in Detroit. Auch eine Vorstandssitzung ist vorgesehen. Kriselnde Nobelmarke Mercedes: "Job-Feuerwehr" geplantDie Sparpläne sollten aber möglicherweise schon heute oder Donnerstag offiziell vorgestellt werden, so die Berichte. Derzeit beschäftigt die Gruppe mit den Marken Mercedes-Pkw, Maybach und Smart weltweit 106.000 Mitarbeiter. "Bild" zufolge will der Konzern auf eine Klausel der im Juli 2004 abgeschlossenen Beschäftigungssicherung zurückgreifen. Diese sehe vor, dass 3600 Mitarbeitern Altersteilzeitverträge angeboten werden können. Darüber hinaus sollten weitere rund 5000 Stellen an den betroffenen Standorten sozialverträglich abgebaut werden, zum Teil über Versetzungen an Standorte, an denen noch zusätzlicher Bedarf an Mitarbeitern bestehe. Kündigungen bis 2012 ausgeschlossen Außerdem müssten 1400 weitere DaimlerChrysler-Mitarbeiter ihren gewohnten Stamm-Arbeitsplatz aufgeben, um künftig als eine Art "Job-Feuerwehr" je nach Auftragslage in anderen Werken eingesetzt zu werden. Die Nachrichtenagentur dpa-AFX berichtet, der Stellenabbau werde zu "erheblichen Restrukturierungskosten" führen. Es sei zu erwarten, dass der Konzern eine Summe im dreistelligen Millionenbereich in der Bilanz zurückstellen müsse, meldet die Agentur unter Berufung auf unterrichtete Kreise. Bereits in den ersten beiden Quartalen hatte DaimlerChrysler für die smart-Sanierung rund 1,1 Milliarden Euro an Sonderkosten verbucht und die ursprüngliche Gewinnerwartung für das laufende Jahr reduziert. Betriebsbedingte Kündigungen bei Mercedes sind bis 2012 ausgeschlossen.
	http://maderatribune.1871dev.com/news/newsview.asp?c=167178 Archeologists make historic discovery Saturday, August 27, 2005 By Thomas Elias - Columnist - The Madera Tribune POROS, Island of Kefalonia, Greece - The tomb of Odysseus has been found, and the location of his legendary capital city of Ithaca discovered here on this large island across a one-mile channel from the bone-dry islet that modern maps call Ithaca. This could be the most important archeological discovery of the last 40 years, a find that may eventually equal the German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann’s 19th Century dig at Troy. But the quirky people and politics involved in this achievement have delayed by several years the process of reporting the find to the world. Yet visitors to Kefalonia, an octopus-shaped island off the west coast of Greece, can see the evidence for themselves at virtually no cost. The discovery of what is almost certainly his tomb reveals that crafty Odysseus, known as Ulysses in many English renditions of Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” was no mere myth, but a real person. Plus, passages in the “Odyssey” itself suggest that modern Ithaca and its main town of Vathi probably were not the city and island of which Homer wrote. Rather, this small village of Poros on the southeast coast of Kefalonia now occupies part of a site that most likely was the much larger city which served as capital of the multi-island kingdom ruled by Odysseus and his father Laertes. Archeologists have long and often times looked for evidence of Odysseus on modern Ithaca, but never found anything significant from the Bronze Age. This led many scholars to dismiss Homer’s version of Ionian island geography as strictly a literary creation. But two pieces of fairly recent evidence suggest archeologists were looking in the wrong place. In 1991, a tomb of the type used to bury ancient Greek royalty was found near the hamlet of Tzannata in the hills outside Poros. It is the largest such tomb in northeastern Greece, with remains of at least 72 persons found in its stone niches. One find there is particularly telling. In Book XIX of the “Odyssey,” the just-returned and still disguised Odysseus tells his wife (who may or may not realize who she’s talking to; Homer is deliberately ambivalent) that he encountered Odysseus many years earlier on the island of Crete. He describes in detail a gold brooch the king wore on that occasion. A gold brooch meeting that precise description lies now in the archeological museum at Argostoli, the main city on Kefalonia, 30 miles across the island from Poros. Other gold jewelry and seals carved in precious stones excavated from the tomb offer further proof the grave outside Poros was used to bury kings. Greek archeologists also found sections of ancient city walls extending for miles through the hills around and well beyond Poros. These surround both the village and a steep adjacent hill which bears evidence it once served as an acropolis, what the Greeks called hilltop forts in most of their major cities. The stones of the walls date to about 1300 B.C., the approximate time of events described in the “Iliad” and “Odyssey.” Most likely, the royal capital at Ithaca was a much larger city than Poros or any other town on either modern Ithaca or Kefalonia. It would have needed a major source of water. There is none on modern Ithaca, but streams abound near Poros, where there is also a small man-made lake. This area had the necessary water. The island now called Ithaca likely did not. Several other ancient settlements found elsewhere on Kefalonia also suggest the island was a major population center at the time of Odysseus. And Homer described two major landmarks near ancient Ithaca: He says it sat beneath an impressive mountain, the “tree-clad Mt. Neriton,” which dominated views from the “wine-dark sea” for many miles around. That description fits Mt. Aenos, just above Poros, the highest peak in the Ionian islands. Homer also describes the legendary Cave of the Nymphs as within a day or two walk from the city of Ithaca. A spacious, dark cave with large stalactites and deep blue water matching Homer’s description is currently a tourist attraction about 15 miles northwest of Poros. Why hasn’t all this been reported before? Because of local politics and economics. The most active promoter of the Poros area as Homeric Ithaca is the current mayor, who at one time was governor of the prefecture (county or small state) including both Ithaca and Kefalonia. Gerasimos Metaxas, an author and amateur archeologist who gladly shows visitors remains of the ancient city call and innards of the tomb, was defeated for reelection as governor when he began promoting the Poros-as-Ithaca idea in Greek publications. Why? If Poros is Ithaca, who would ever go to the barren island now using the name? And if tiny Poros ever gets a huge tourist and cruise ship influx, what happens to Argostoli, now the center for those trades on Kefalonia? As a result, the entire find has never been reported in the non-Greek press. And so far, major world media show little or no interest in the tale. But for lovers of Homer’s sagas, there’s now no place more appealing than Kefalonia.
	http://www.europolitan.de/cms/?s=ep_newstoday&ntid=102&tid=863 Iran benötigt noch ein Jahr für Urananreicherung Wien - Der russische Minister für Atomenergie, Alexander Rumjanzew, glaubt nicht, dass der Iran in der Lage ist, Uran so weit anzureichern, dass damit eine Atomwaffe gebaut werden könnte. „Der Iran benötigt noch ein Jahr, bevor er seine Urananreicherung starten kann“, sagte Rumjanzew in einem Pressegespräch am Rande der Generalkonferenz der Internationalen Atomenergiebehörde (IAEA) gegenüber EUROPOLITAN. Der Gouverneursrat der IAEA hat am Freitag in Wien angekündigt, den Iran bei nächster Gelegenheit dem UN-Sicherheitsrat zu melden, wenn ein entsprechender Bericht von IAEA-Generaldirektor Mohamed El Baradei weitere Verstöße des Iran offenbare. Russland hatte sich bei einer Abstimmung über weiterlesen: UNO Konferenz zum Atomwaffensperrvertrag - Störfall in Teheran
	Die aus einem irakischen Gefängnis mit Einsatz von Panzern und Hubschraubern befreiten "Briten" waren jüdische Agenten und hatten bei sich (im Auto) Sprengsätze, Zünder usw. geführt. Sie gingen als "Iraker" verkleidet. http://judicial-inc.biz/Basra_IDF.htm
	http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=KEE20050925&articleId=994 Were British Special Forces Soldiers Planting Bombs in Basra? Suspicions Strengthened by Earlier Reports by Michael Keefer September 25, 2005 GlobalResearch.ca Does anyone remember the shock with which the British public greeted the revelation four years ago that one of the members of the Real IRA unit whose bombing attack in Omagh on August 15, 1998 killed twenty-nine civilians had been a double agent, a British army soldier? That soldier was not Britain’s only terrorist double agent. A second British soldier planted within the IRA claimed he had given forty-eight hours advance notice of the Omagh car-bomb attack to his handlers within the Royal Ulster Constabulary, including "details of one of the bombing team and the man’s car registration." Although the agent had made an audio tape of his tip-off call, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, chief constable of the RUC, declared that "no such information was received" (http://www.sundayherald.com/17827). This second double agent went public in June 2002 with the claim that from 1981 to 1994, while on full British army pay, he had worked for "the Force Research Unit, an ultra-secret wing of British military intelligence," as an IRA mole. With the full knowledge and consent of his FRU and MI5 handlers, he became a bombing specialist who "mixed explosive and … helped to develop new types of bombs," including "light-sensitive bombs, activated by photographic flashes, to overcome the problem of IRA remote-control devices having their signal jammed by army radio units." He went on to become "a member of the Provisional IRA’s ‘internal security squad’–also known as the ‘torture unit’–which interrogated and executed suspected informers" (http://www.sundayherald.com/print25646). The much-feared commander of that same "torture unit" was likewise a mole, who had previously served in the Royal Marines’ Special Boat Squadron (an elite special forces unit, the Marines’ equivalent to the better-known SAS). A fourth mole, a soldier code-named "Stakeknife" whose military handlers "allowed him to carry out large numbers of terrorist murders in order to protect his cover within the IRA," was still active in December 2002 as "one of Belfast’s leading Provisionals" (http://www.sundayherald.com/29997). Reliable evidence also emerged in late 2002 that the British army had been using its double agents in terrorist organizations "to carry out proxy assassinations for the British state"–most notoriously in the case of Belfast solicitor and human rights activist Pat Finucane, who was murdered in 1989 by the Protestant Ulster Defence Association. It appears that the FRU passed on details about Finucane to a British soldier who had infiltrated the UDA; he in turn "supplied UDA murder teams with the information" (http://www.sundayherald.com/29997). Recent events in Basra have raised suspicions that the British army may have reactivated these same tactics in Iraq. Articles published by Michel Chossudovsky, Larry Chin and Mike Whitney at the Centre for Research on Globalization’s website on September 20, 2005 have offered preliminary assessments of the claims of Iraqi authorities that two British soldiers in civilian clothes who were arrested by Iraqi police in Basra on September 19–and in short order released by a British tank and helicopter assault on the prison where they were being held–had been engaged in planting bombs in the city See: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20050920&articleId=972 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHI20050920&articleId=982 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=WHI20050920&articleId=981 A further article by Kurt Nimmo points to false-flag operations carried out by British special forces troops in Northern Ireland and elsewhere, and to Donald Rumsfeld’s formation of the P2OG, or Proactive Preemptive Operations Group, as directly relevant to Iraqi charges of possible false-flag terror operations by the occupying powers in Iraq (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20050924&articleid=992). These accusations by Iraqi officials echo insistent but unsubstantiated claims, going back at least to the spring of 2004, to the effect that many of the terror bombings carried out against civilian targets in Iraq have actually been perpetrated by U.S. and British forces rather than by Iraqi insurgents. Some such claims can be briskly dismissed. In mid-May 2005, for example, a group calling itself "Al Qaeda in Iraq" accused U.S. troops "of detonating car bombs and falsely accusing militants" (http://siteinstitute.org/bin/articles.cgi?ID=publications45605&Category=publications&Subcategory=0). For even the most credulous, this could at best be a case of the pot calling the kettle soot-stained. But it’s not clear why anyone would want to believe this claim, coming as it does from a group or groupuscule purportedly led by the wholly mythical al-Zarqawi–and one whose very name affiliates it with terror bombers. These people, if they exist, might themselves have good reason to blame their own crimes on others. Other claims, however, are cumulatively more troubling. The American journalist Dahr Jamail wrote in April 20, 2004 that the recent spate of car bombings in Baghdad was widely rumoured to have been the work of the CIA: "The word on the street in Baghdad is that the cessation of suicide car bombings is proof that the CIA was behind them. Why? Because as one man states, ‘[CIA agents are] too busy fighting now, and the unrest they wanted to cause by the bombings is now upon them.’ True or not, it doesn’t bode well for the occupiers’ image in Iraq." (http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-jamail200404.htm) Two days later, on April 22, 2004, Agence France-Presse reported that five car-bombings in Basra–three near-simultaneous attacks outside police stations in Basra that killed sixty-eight people, including twenty children, and two follow-up bombings–were being blamed by supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on the British. While eight hundred supporters demonstrated outside Sadr’s offices, a Sadr spokesman claimed to have "evidence that the British were involved in these attacks" (http://www.inq7.net/wnw/2004/apr/23/wnw_3_1.htm). An anonymous senior military officer said on April 22, 2004 of these Basra attacks that "It looks like Al-Qaeda. It’s got all the hallmarks: it was suicidal, it was spectacular and it was symbolic." Brigadier General Nick Carter, commander of the British garrison in Basra, stated more ambiguously that Al Qaeda was not necessarily to blame for the five bombings, but that those responsible came from outside Basra and "quite possibly" from outside Iraq: "’All that we can be certain of is that this is something that came from outside,’ Carter said" (http://www.inq7.net/wnw/2004/apr/23/wnw_4_1.htm). Moqtada al-Sadr’s supporters of course believed exactly the same thing–differing only in their identification of the criminal outsiders as British agents rather than as Islamist mujaheddin from other Arab countries. In May 2005 ‘Riverbend’, the Baghdad author of the widely-read blog Baghdad Burning, reported that what the international press was reporting as suicide bombings were often in fact "car bombs that are either being remotely detonated or maybe time bombs." After one of the larger recent blasts, which occurred in the middle-class Ma’moun area of west Baghdad, a man living in a house in front of the blast site was reportedly arrested for having sniped an Iraqi National Guardsman. But according to ‘Riverbend’, his neighbours had a different story: "People from the area claim that the man was taken away not because he shot anyone, but because he knew too much about the bomb. Rumor has it that he saw an American patrol passing through the area and pausing at the bomb site minutes before the explosion. Soon after they drove away, the bomb went off and chaos ensued. He ran out of his house screaming to the neighbors and bystanders that the Americans had either planted the bomb or seen the bomb and done nothing about it. He was promptly taken away."  (http://riverbendblog.blogspit.com/2005_05_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#111636281930496496) Also in May 2005, Imad Khadduri, the Iraqi-exile physicist whose writings helped to discredit American and British fabrications about weapons of mass destruction, reported a story that in Baghdad a driver whose license had been confiscated at an American check-point was told "to report to an American military camp near Baghdad airport for interrogation and in order to retrieve his license." After being questioned for half an hour, he was informed that there was nothing against him, but that his license had been forwarded to the Iraqi police at the al-Khadimiya station "for processing"–and that he should get there quickly before the lieutenant whose name he was given went off his shift. "The driver did leave in a hurry, but was soon alarmed with a feeling that his car was driving as if carrying a heavy load, and he also became suspicious of a low flying helicopter that kept hovering overhead, as if trailing him. He stopped the car and inspected it carefully. He found nearly 100 kilograms of explosives hidden in the back seat and along the two back doors. The only feasible explanation for this incident is that the car was indeed booby trapped by the Americans and intended for the al-Khadimiya Shiite district of Baghdad. The helicopter was monitoring his movement and witnessing the anticipated ‘hideous attack by foreign elements’."  (http://www.albasrah.net/maqalat/english/0505/Combat-terrorism_160505.htm) According to Khadduri, "The same scenario was repeated in Mosul, in the north of Iraq." On this occasion, the driver’s life was saved when his car broke down on the way to the police station where he was supposed to reclaim his license, and when the mechanic to whom he had recourse "discovered that the spare tire was fully laden with explosives." Khadduri mentions, as deserving of investigation, a "perhaps unrelated incident" in Baghdad on April 28, 2005 in which a Canadian truck-driver with dual Canadian-Iraqi citizenship was killed. He quotes a CBC report according to which "Some media cited unidentified sources who said he may have died after U.S. forces ‘tracked’ a target, using a helicopter gunship, but Foreign Affairs said it’s still investigating conflicting reports of the death. U. S. officials have denied any involvement." Another incident, also from April 2005, calls more urgently for investigation, since one of its victims remains alive. Abdul Amir Younes, a CBS cameraman, was lightly wounded by U.S. forces on April 5 "while filming the aftermath of a car bombing in Mosul." American military authorities were initially apologetic about his injuries, but three days later arrested him on the grounds that he had been "engaged in anti-coalition activity" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/Kafka-does-iraq-the-dist_b_7796.html). Arianna Huffington, in her detailed account of this case, quite rightly emphasizes its Kafkaesque qualities: Younes has now been detained, in Abu Graib and elsewhere, for more than five months–without charges, without any hint of what evidence the Pentagon may hold against him, and without any indication that he will ever be permitted to stand trial, challenge that evidence, and disprove the charges that might at some future moment be laid. But in addition to confirming, yet again, the Pentagon’s willingness to violate the most fundamental principles of humane and democratic jurisprudence, this case also raises a further question. Was Younes perhaps arrested, like the Iraqi whose rumoured fate was mentioned by ‘Riverbend’, because he had seen–and in Younes’ case photographed–more than was good for him? Agents provocateurs? Spokesmen for the American and British occupation of Iraq, together with newspapers like the Daily Telegraph, have of course rejected with indignation any suggestion that their forces could have been involved in false-flag terrorist operations in Iraq. It may be remembered that during the 1980s spokesmen for the government of Ronald Reagan likewise heaped ridicule on Nicaraguan accusations that the U.S. was illegally supplying weapons to the ‘Contras’–until, that is, a CIA-operated C-123 cargo aircraft full of weaponry was shot down over Nicaragua, and Eugene Hasenfus, a cargo handler who survived the crash, testified that his supervisors (one of whom was Luis Posada Carriles, the CIA agent responsible for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner) were working for then-Vice-President George H. W. Bush. The arrest–and the urgent liberation–of the two undercover British soldiers in Iraq might in a similar manner be interpreted as casting a retrospective light on previously unsubstantiated claims about the involvement of members of the occupying armies in terrorist bombing attacks on civilians. The parallel is far from exact: in this case there has been no dramatic confession like that of Hasenfus, and there are no directly incriminating documents like the pilot’s log of the downed C-123. There is, moreover, a marked lack of consensus as to what actually happened in Basra. Should we therefore, with Juan Cole, dismiss the possibility British soldiers were acting as agents provocateurs as a "theory [that] has almost no facts behind it" (http://www.juancole.com)? Members of Britain's Elite SAS Forces It appears that when on September 19 suspicious Iraqi police stopped the Toyota Cressida the undercover British soldiers were driving, the two men opened fire, killing one policeman and wounding another. But the soldiers, identified by the BBC as "members of the SAS elite special forces" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4264614.stm), were subdued by the police and arrested. A report published by The Guardian on September 24 adds the further detail that the SAS men "are thought to have been on a surveillance mission outside a police station in Basra when they were challenged by an Iraqi police patrol" (http://www.guardian.co.uk/iraq/Story/0,2763,1577575,00.html). As Justin Raimondo has observed in an article published on September 23 at Antiwar.com, nearly every other aspect of this episode is disputed. The Washington Post dismissively remarked, in the eighteenth paragraph of its report on these events, that "Iraqi security officials variously accused the two Britons they detained of shooting at Iraqi forces or trying to plant explosives" (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/09/20/MNGSSEQNGN1.DTL). Iraqi officials in fact accused them not of one or the other act, but of both. Fattah al-Shaykh, a member of the Iraqi National Assembly, told Al-Jazeera TV on September 19 that the soldiers opened fire when the police sought to arrest them, and that their car was booby-trapped "and was meant to explode in the centre of the city of Basra in the popular market" (quoted by Chossudovsky). A deliberately inflammatory press release sent out on the same day by the office of Moqtada al-Sadr (and posted in English translation at Juan Cole’s Informed Comment blog on September 20) states that the soldiers’ arrest was prompted by their having "opened fire on passers-by" near a Basra mosque, and that they were found to have "in their possession explosives and remote-control devices, as well as light and medium weapons and other accessories" (http://www.juancole.com). What credence can be given to the claim about explosives? Justin Raimondo writes that while initial BBC Radio reports acknowledged that the two men indeed had explosives in their car, subsequent reports from the same source indicated that the Iraqi police found nothing beyond "assault rifles, a light machine gun, an anti-tank weapon, radio gear, and medical kit. This is thought to be standard kit for the SAS operating in such a theater of operations" (http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=7366). One might well wonder, with Raimondo, whether an anti-tank weapon is "standard operating equipment"–or what use SAS men on "a surveillance mission outside a police station" intended to make of it. But more importantly, a photograph published by the Iraqi police and distributed by Reuters  shows that–unless the equipment is a plant–the SAS men were carrying a good deal more than just the items acknowledged by the BBC. (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20050923&articleid=989) I would want the opinion of an arms expert before risking a definitive judgment about the objects shown, which could easily have filled the trunk and much of the back seat of a Cressida. But this photograph makes plausible the statement of Sheik Hassan al-Zarqani, a spokesman for Al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia: "What our police found in their car was very disturbing–weapons, explosives, and a remote control detonator. These are the weapons of terrorists. We believe these soldiers were planning an attack on a market or other civilian targets…" (quoted by Raimondo) The fierce determination of the British army to remove these men from any danger of interrogation by their own supposed allies in the government the British are propping up–even when their rescue entailed the destruction of an Iraqi prison and the release of a large number of prisoners, gun-battles with Iraqi police and with Al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia, a large popular mobilization against the British occupying force, and a subsequent withdrawal of any cooperation on the part of the regional government–tends, if anything, to support the view that this episode involved something much darker and more serious than a mere flare-up of bad tempers at a check-point. US-UK Sponsored Civil War There is reason to believe, moreover, that the open civil war which car-bomb attacks on civilians seem intended to produce would not be an unwelcome development in the eyes of the occupation forces. Writers in the English-language corporate media have repeatedly noted that recent terror-bomb attacks which have caused massive casualties among civilians appear to be pushing Iraq towards a civil war of Sunnis against Shiites, and of Kurds against both. For example, on September 18, 2005 Peter Beaumont proposed in The Observer that the slaughter of civilians, which he ascribes to Al Qaeda alone, "has one aim: civil war" (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1572936,00.html). But H. D. S. Greenway had already suggested on June 17, 2005 in the Boston Globe that "Given the large number of Sunni-led attacks against Shia targets, the emerging Shia-led attacks against Sunnis, and the extralegal abductions of Arabs by Kurdish authorities in Kirkut, one has to wonder whether the long-feared Iraqi civil war hasn’t already begun" (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/06/17/facing_factsin_iraq?mode=PF). And on September 21, 2005 Nancy Youssef and Mohammed al Dulaimy of the Knight Ridder Washington Bureau wrote that the ethnic cleansing of Shiites in predominantly Sunni Baghdad neighbourhoods "is proceeding at an alarming and potentially destabilizing pace," and quoted the despairing view of an Iraqi expert: "’Civil war today is closer than any time before,’ said Hazim Abdel Hamid al Nuaimi, a professor of politics at al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad. ‘All of these explosions, the efforts by police and purging of neighbourhoods is a battle to control Baghdad.’" (http://www.realcities.com/mid/krwashington/12704935.htm) Whether or not it has already begun or will occur, the eruption of a full-blown civil war, leading to the fragmentation of the country, would clearly be welcomed in some circles. Israeli strategists and journalists proposed as long ago as 1982 that one of their country’s strategic goals should be the partitioning of Iraq into a Shiite state, a Sunni state, and a separate Kurdish part. (See foreign ministry official Oded Yinon’s "A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s," Kivunim 14 [February 1982]; a similar proposal put forward by Ze’ev Schiff in Ha’aretz in the same month is noted by Noam Chomsky in Fateful Triangle [2nd ed., Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1999], p. 457). A partitioning of Iraq into sections defined by ethnicity and by Sunni-Shia differences would entail, obviously enough, both civil war and ethnic cleansing on a massive scale. But these considerations did not deter Leslie H. Gelb from advocating in the New York Times, on November 25, 2003, what he called "The Three-State Solution".  (http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/iraq/three.htm). Gelb, a former senior State Department and Pentagon official, a former editor and columnist for the New York Times, and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, is an insider’s insider. And if the essays of Yinon and Schiff are nasty stuff, especially in the context of Israel’s 1981 bombing attack on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, there is still some difference between speculatively proposing the dismemberment of a powerful neighbouring country, and actively advocating the dismemberment of a country that one’s own nation has conquered in a war of unprovoked aggression. The former might be described as a diseased imagining of war and criminality; the latter belongs very clearly to the category of war crimes. Gelb’s essay proposes punishing the Sunni-led insurgency by separating the largely Sunni centre of present-day Iraq from the oil-rich Kurdish north and the oil-rich Shia south. It holds out the dismembering of the Yugoslav federation in the 1990s (with the appalling slaughters that ensued) as a "hopeful precedent." Gelb’s essay has been widely interpreted as signaling the intentions of a dominant faction in the U.S. government. It has also, very appropriately, been denounced by Bill Vann as openly promoting "a war crime of world-historic proportions" (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/nov2003/gelb-n26.shtml). Given the increasing desperation of the American and British governments in the face of an insurgency that their tactics of mass arbitrary arrest and torture, Phoenix-Program or "Salvadoran-option" death squads, unrestrained use of overwhelming military force, and murderous collective punishment have failed to suppress, it comes as no surprise that in recent military actions such as the assault on Tal Afar the U.S. army has been deploying Kurdish peshmerga troops and Shiite militias in a manner that seems designed to inflame ethnic hatreds. No one, I should hope, is surprised any longer by the fact that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi–that fictional construct of the Pentagon’s serried ranks of little Tom Clancies, that one-legged Dalek, that Scarlet Pimpernel of terrorism, who manages to be here, there, and everywhere at once–should be so ferociously devoted to the terrorizing and extermination of his Shiite co-religionists. Should we be any more surprised, then, to see evidence emerging in Iraq of false-flag terrorist bombings conducted by the major occupying powers? The secret services and special forces of both the U.S. and Britain have, after all, had some experience in these matters.
	http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/103uqtmz.asp Homegrown Gangstas France faces a wave of domestically produced anti-French rap. by Olivier Guitta 09/23/2005 12:00:00 AM IN THE AFTERMATH of the London bombings perpetrated by homegrown jihadists, Europeans are rethinking their approach to multiculturalism in general and their tolerance for hate speech--especially the sermons of radical imams--in particular. In France, which has long had hate-speech laws, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy moved swiftly in July to announce the expulsion of a dozen radical imams, though only two have actually been deported. But even as public alarm grows about radical sermons another form of incitement common in France has gone largely unnoticed--namely, anti-French rap music. During the mid-1990s, rap entered the mainstream of French popular culture. Since then, some of the most successful groups in French pop music have been rap bands made up mostly of French citizens of Arab or African descent. Among the most popular is NTM (which stands for Nique ta mère, "F--your mother"), a Sony Records group. NTM is famous for lyrics which attack France and especially the police. During a concert in 1995, NTM sang: "I f--the police, I sodomize and pee on the law! Our enemies are the men in blue" (French cops wear blue uniforms). This outburst earned NTM members a three-month prison sentence, later commuted to a fine (though NTM member Joey Starr has been in and out of prison for 15 years for drugs, assault, weapons charges, domestic-abuse, and for spitting on police). By contrast, the popular rap band Sniper was recently handed a victory in a legal action brought against them in 2004 by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy over incitement to violence and hatred in their song "La France." They sing: "We're all hot for a mission to exterminate the government and the fascists. . . . France is a bitch and we've been betrayed. . . . We f--France, we don't care about the Republic and freedom of speech. We should change the laws so we can see Arabs and Blacks in power in the Elysée Palace. Things have to explode." But the kingpin of rapping French Francophobes is Mr. R. In his latest single--entitled "FranSSe," from the March 2005 album "PolitiKment IncorreKt"--he likens France to the Third Reich, singing: "France is a bitch, don't forget to f--her to exhaustion. You have to treat her like a whore, man! . . . France is one of the bitches who gave birth to you. . . . I am not at home and I don't give a damn, and besides the state can go f--itself. . . . I pee on Napoleon and General De Gaulle. . . . My niggers and my Arabs, our playground is the street with the most guns. . . . F--ing cops, sons of whores. . . . France is a lousy mother who abandoned her sons on the sidewalk. . . . My Muslim brothers are hated like my Jewish brothers were during the Reich"--at which point Mr. R's video shows footage of Hitler and of Nazi concentration camps. The video borders on pornography. It shows violent acts supposedly committed by the French Army. France is represented by two naked white women called "Gauloises" (a reference to the ancient inhabitants of France) who perform lewd acts with the French flag while a group of blacks make an obscene gesture. As a disclaimer Mr. R says, "When I speak of France, I don't mean the French people but their leaders. They've been exploiting us for a long time, from slavery to colonization, and they're still jerking us around." Tellingly, in the last words of the song, "France" is replaced by "Europe": "Europe is a bitch, don't forget to f--her to exhaustion. You have to treat her like a whore, man!"--which suggests that the rapper's grievances extend past France to include much of the West. French intellectuals, journalists, and music critics have taken all this in stride. Fnac, the largest French chain of music stores, selected "PolitiKment IncorreKt" as its top featured album. Fnac's fawning review of the CD says: "And what if the subversive spirit of rock had made its way into French rap? . . . Monsieur R: a revelation." On July 16, Mr. R was among the lead performers at the prestigious Francofolies music festival in La Rochelle. Last month, Francois Grosdidier, a member of parliament from President Chirac's party, called on the minister of Justice to ban the broadcast of the video and take up legal action against Mr. R for "incitement to racism and hatred." The press reacted with outrage--against Grosdidier. The left-wing daily Libération denounced this harassment of rappers as futile. Mr. R, responding to the charge of anti-French racism, stuck to his guns: He's only talking about French leaders, he said, not the French people. As he told the newsmagazine Le Point, "I am not anti-French. I am a Belgian citizen." Another outspoken defender of Mr. R is Olivier Besancenot, head of the Communist Revolutionary League and a rising star of the French left. In 2002 at the age of 29, Besancenot ran in the first round of the presidential election and came in eighth out of 16 candidates, with over 4 percent of the votes. He actually performs--raps--on Mr. R's latest album. He told Libération that criticism of the video amounted to an "infringement of the freedom of expression." NTM, Sniper, and Mr. R are viewed as role models by many young French males of Arab and African descent who live in France's depressed ethnic suburbs. In such an environment, the anti-white riots which erupted last March in Paris should have come as no surprise. With luck this new phenomenon might turn out to be a fad which peters out, the way anti-police, anti-white gangsta rap did in America after the early '90s. But in the meantime it will be interesting to see if the French will enforce their laws against racism and anti-Semitism--the toughest in Europe--against this homegrown anti-Western hatred. Olivier Guitta is a freelance writer specializing in the Middle East and Europe. © Copyright 2005, News Corporation, Weekly Standard, All Rights Reserved.
	Wer ist hier die "gescheiterte Nation"? Krieg dem Rauschgift. Im Vergleich der Anstrengungen in der Drogenbekämpfung zwischen Myanmar und Afghanistan schneidet das frühere Burma entschieden besser ab. Drogenbekämpfung: Birma besser als Afghanistan Die Abbildungen aus dem neuesten Drogenbericht der Vereinten Nationen UN Drug Report 2005 belegen eine große Ironie gescheiterter amerikanischer Außenpolitik. Das besetzte Afghanistan, seit 2002 regiert von Gnaden der Regierung Bush/Cheney, ist inzwischen der größte Opiumproduzent der Welt. Das früher größte Anbauland Myanmar, das Bush/Cheney als "gescheiterte Nation" und "Schurkenstaat" schmähen, hat es dagegen geschafft, den Drogenanbau fast völlig auszumerzen - zum ersten Mal überhaupt, seit die Briten ihre Kolonie Burma im 19. Jh. in eine Drogenplantage verwandelten. Obwohl vernünftigere Leute in Amerika in Anbetracht der Fortschritte der letzten 15 Jahre das Verhältnis zu Myanmar verbessern wollen, belegt die offizielle US-Außenpolitik das Land weiter mit harten Sanktionen und versucht es (meist erfolglos) diplomatisch zu isolieren wie einen "Unberührbaren". In Afghanistan wiederum fand es die Regierung Bush/Cheney "opportun", die regionalen Kriegsherren zu unterstützen und deren Privatarmeen zu kaufen: Wenn sie zumindest nach außen hin Treue zum Marionettenregime in Kabul bekunden, erhalten sie im Gegenzug freie Hand bei der Ausweitung ihres Drogengeschäfts. Obwohl die Taliban und Al Qaida sich großenteils durch Besteuerung des afghanischen Drogenhandels finanzierten, waren sie ein Jahr vor der amerikanischen Invasion gegen die Drogenbarone vorgegangen, so daß Afghanistans Anteil an der Weltopiumernte von 73 % im Jahr 2000 auf 6 % im Jahr 2001 zurückging. Heute jedoch nimmt der Opiumanbau in Afghanistan unter den Augen der USA überhand und überflügelt sogar die Rekordernten der 90er Jahre: Heute stammen 92 Prozent der Weltopiumproduktion aus dem "befreiten" Afghanistan. Trotzdem wird dieses Land der Drogenbarone als Vorbild für "Demokratie" hochgehalten. Die Millionen Menschenleben, die durch den tödlichen Mohn - der fast die Hälfte der afghanischen Wirtschaft ausmacht - zerstört werden, zählen nicht. Myanmars Feldzug gegen das Rauschgift In Myanmar war es genau umgekehrt. Seit dem Ende der 80er Jahre, als eine junge Offiziersgarde das 26 Jahre währende marode Regime des Ne Win ablöste, suchte das Land - nach Ne Wins selbstauferlegter Isolation - stetig die diplomatische Öffnung zu den Nachbarn und bekämpfte die zahlreichen Stammesfürsten in den bergigen Grenzregionen, dem Herzen des berüchtigten Goldenen Dreiecks. Als die bewaffneten Zusammenstöße der Armee mit den ethnischen Drogenmilizen weitgehend endeten und sich zum erstenmal seit der Eroberung durch die Briten im 19. Jh. Frieden und nationale Einheit abzeichneten, bot sich auch die Gelegenheit, sich einer anderen britischen Hinterlassenschaft, der Geißel Droge, zu entledigen. Die Verfassung, die im Austausch für die Unabhängigkeit von Großbritannien 1948 angenommen werden mußte, gibt jedem Stamm das Recht, sich von der Zentralregierung in Rangun (heute Yangon) unabhängig zu erklären. Damit wollten die Briten Uneinigkeit und ständigen Konflikt schüren, und so kam es auch. Als in London die Unabhängigkeitsverhandlungen mit dem Nationalisten Aung San liefen, gründete der konservative Politiker Reginald Dorman-Smith, der im Krieg Burmas Gouverneur gewesen war, eine Organisation namens "Freunde der burmesischen Bergbewohner". So sollte permanent Konflikt zwischen der Regierung und den Stammesgebieten herrschen und sichergestellt werden, daß der "freie Handel" mit dem Opium in der Region nicht von der Zentralregierung kontrolliert würde. Auch heute gibt es moderne "Dorman-Smiths", die jede Anstrengung der myanmarischen Regierung gegen die Drogenbarone torpedieren. Die bekanntesten sind George Shultz und George Soros, nicht zufällig zwei der weltweit führenden Propagandisten der Drogenlegalisierung (was auch das Raffinieren des Heroins aus dem Opium einschließt). George Shultz, der Mann, der die erste Regierung George W. Bush aus seinen neokonservativen Kreisen zusammensetzte, gehörte zur Führungsriege des Internationalen Republikanischen Instituts (IRI), das von der US-Regierung finanziert wird und es unter dem Deckmantel der Einführung von "Demokratie" auf politische Subversion Myanmars und vieler anderer Nationen abgesehen hat. Der Megaspekulant George Soros wiederum, der Burmanet, The Burma Projekt und zahlreiche andere Organisationen finanziert, die in Myanmar Regimewechsel anstreben, unterstützt in den Vereinigten Staaten jedes Referendum zur Rauschgiftfreigabe. Es ist kein Zufall, wenn diese "Drogenlobby" der Wall Street führend in der Kampagne für den Sturz des myanmarischen Regimes tätig ist. 1995 handelte die Regierung in Yangon die Aufgabe von Khun Sa und dessen Vereinigter Shan-Armee aus, der größten Rebellenarmee in Myanmar, die auch den ausgedehntesten Drogenhandel betrieb. Regierungstruppen besetzten die Provinz Shan und zerstörten die Strukturen des Drogengeschäfts. Khun Sa nannte auch die Namen einiger seiner ausländischen Gewährsleute. Darunter waren Theodore Shackley, der unter dem CIA-Direktor George Bush senior stellv. CIA-Direktor für verdeckte Operationen war, und Richard Armitage, der Vizeverteidigungsminister unter Präsident Reagan und Vizeaußenminister der ersten Regierung Bush junior. Als immer mehr Drogenbarone unterlagen oder sich der Regierung ergaben, wurden westliche Rauschgiftbekämpfungsbehörden auf Myanmars Bemühungen aufmerksam. Sie forderten die Vereinigten Staaten auf, ihre Politik zu ändern und Myanmar im Krieg gegen das Rauschgift zu unterstützen. Das amerikanische NNICC (National Narcotics Intelligence Consumer's Committee), ein behördenübergreifender Ausschuß, der das Drogenbekämpfungsamt DEA und andere Ermittlungsbehörden vertritt, lobte in seinem Jahresbericht 1996 die Befriedung der Drogenarmee Khun Sas und den dramatischen Anstieg der Drogenbeschlagnahmen in Myanmar. Dabei wurden die gemeinsamen Anstrengungen der USA, Thailands und Myanmars gegen die Drogenhändler betont. Der von Präsident Bill Clinton ernannte "Drogenzar" General a.D. Barry McCaffrey stellte sich hinter die Forderungen in dem Bericht. Als Myanmar im Juni 1997 in die Vereinigung Südostasiatischer Nationen (ASEAN) aufgenommen wurde, war das eine entscheidende Flanke im Antidrogenkrieg, weil damit den Shultz-Soros-Netzwerken, die von Thailand aus gegen Myanmar operierten, ein Riegel vorgeschoben wurde. Die Drogenlobby war außer sich. Soros, der Geldgeber mehrerer grenzübergreifender subversiver Organisationen, drohte der thailändischen Regierung, Thailand für Myanmars Beitritt zur ASEAN "zur Verantwortung zu ziehen". Einen Monat später, im Juli 1997, brach der thailändische Baht unter dem Angriff von Soros' Hedgefonds und anderen Devisenspekulanten zusammen. Dem folgte die verheerende asiatische Finanzkrise. Myanmar setzte unbeirrt den Kampf gegen das Rauschgift fort. Im Februar 1999 hielt Interpol seine Internationale Heroinkonferenz in Yangon ab - trotz der lautstarken Proteste Washingtons und Londons, die das Treffen boykottierten. In seiner Rede sagte Interpols Generalsekretär Raymond Kendall: "Es ist höchste Zeit, daß die internationale Gemeinschaft mit Myanmars ausgezeichneter Arbeit gegen illegale Produktion und Handel mit Heroin vertraut wird." Auf der Interpolkonferenz verkündete Myanmar einen 15-Jahresplan zur restlosen Ausrottung des Opiums. Inzwischen steht es im zweiten Fünfjahresabschnitt, und er läuft planmäßig. Myanmar knüpfte enge Beziehungen zu seinen Grenznachbarn China, Indien und Thailand sowie ganz Südostasien, was eine enge Zusammenarbeit im Krieg gegen das Rauschgift einschließt. Rußland, in dem der Großteil des unwillkommenen Heroins aus Afghanistan landet, will ein neues Abkommen zur Drogenbekämpfung mit Myanmar unterzeichnen. USA müssen ihre Politik ändern! Es gibt Anzeichen dafür, daß Teile der maßgeblichen Institutionen der USA die verfehlte Myanmarpolitik ändern wollen. Aber solange Cheneys Politik des "permanenten Krieges" noch überwiegt, wird es nicht dazu kommen. 1. Die Neokonservativen brauchen das Drogengeld, um das bankrotte Weltfinanzsystem aufrechtzuerhalten. 2. In ihren Augen hilft das Rauschgift, das soziale Gefüge der russischen Gesellschaft und anderer potentiell "feindlicher" Nationen zu zersetzen. 3. Geostrategisch bildet Myanmar eine Schnittstelle zwischen China, Indien und Südostasien, an der man ständiges Chaos schüren möchte, um eine Zusammenarbeit für regionale Entwicklung, die Amerikas Vormachtstellung bedrohen könnte, zu verhindern. Deshalb überrascht es nicht, wenn der Jahresbericht des Präsidenten an den Kongreß über die größten drogenproduzierenden Länder sich ausgerechnet Myanmar als schlechtes Beispiel herauspickt, obwohl die US-Regierung die Fakten natürlich auch kennt. Es heißt dort, Mayanmar sei "in den vergangenen 12 Monaten seinen Verpflichtungen aus internationalen Drogenbekämpfungsabkommen zu Maßnahmen, wie sie im US-Recht niedergelegt sind, nachweislich nicht nachgekommen". Die Wahrheit zählt hier nicht. Amerikas Außenpolitik wird zunehmend mit Krieg, Subversion und Drogen in Verbindung gebracht. In Myanmar ist die Politik der USA auf eine einzige Person fixiert, auf Aung San Suu Kyi, die in England erzogene Tochter von Aung San, dem wichtigsten Vorkämpfer der Unabhängigkeit vom britischen Empire. Aung San Suu Kyi verlangt die Entfernung der Militärs aus der Regierung. Aber gerade dem Militär und nur ihm ist es nach Jahren ständiger Konflikte gelungen, das Land von den üblen Überresten britischer Kolonialherrschaft zu befreien und die anfällige Nation zu einen. Es jetzt abzusetzen, hieße die Nation wieder den Drogenbaronen zum Fraß vorzuwerfen - zur Freude von George Shultz, George Soros und Dick Cheney. Ein politischer Wechsel in den USA ist überfällig. Michael Billington Quelle: /Neue/ /Solidarität/ Jg. 32 Nr. 39-40 (28.9.2005) | ISSN-0949-9989 | http://www.solidaritaet.com/neuesol/index.htm
	http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050928/ap_on_bi_ge/late_loans By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer 28.09.2005 Credit Card Payments Hindered by Gas Prices The percentage of credit card payments that were past due shot up to a record high in the second quarter as surging gasoline prices strained budgets and made it difficult for some people to pay their bills. The American Bankers Association reported Wednesday that the seasonally adjusted percentage of credit card accounts 30 or more days past due rose in the April-to-June quarter to 4.81 percent. That followed a delinquency rate of 4.76 percent in the first quarter and was the highest since the association began collecting this information in 1973. "The rise in gas prices is really stretching budgets to the breaking point for some people," the association's chief economist, Jim Chessen, said in an interview. "Gas prices are taking huge chunks out of wallets, leaving some individuals with little left to meet their financial obligations." While Chessen mostly blamed high gasoline prices for the rise in credit card delinquencies, other factors also played a role, he said. With personal savings rates dismally low, people have less of a cushion to absorb the big jumps in energy prices, Chessen said. The personal savings rate dipped to a record low of negative 0.6 percent in July. Rising borrowing costs also probably contributed to the spike in credit card delinquencies, he said. The Federal Reserve has been tightening credit since June 2004. That has caused commercial banks' prime lending rate to rise to 6.75 percent, the highest in four years. These rates are used for many short-term consumer loans, including some credit cards and popular home equity lines of credit. After Hurricane Katrina, gasoline prices jumped past $3 a gallon before calming down. Although damage to oil facilities was less than feared from Hurricane Rita, economists expect gasoline prices to stay high. The double blow from the two hurricanes is expected to slow overall economic activity and hiring in the months ahead, economists say. Against this backdrop, credit card delinquencies are likely to remain high in the coming quarters, Chessen suggested. The association's survey also showed that the delinquency rate on a composite of other types of consumers loans, including auto loans and home equity loans, climbed to 2.22 percent in the second quarter, up from 2.03 percent in the first quarter.
	http://de.news.yahoo.com/050919/336/4p0rj.html Montag 19. September 2005, 14:26 Uhr Wiesn-Besucher durch fliegende Schweinshaxe verletzt München (ddp-bay). Eine fliegende Schweinshaxe hat am Sonntag einem Wiesn-Besucher eine Kopfplatzwunde eingebracht. Der bereits abgefieselte Knochen war einem Gast auf der Empore des Hackerzelts vom Teller gerutscht, wie die Polizei am Montag mitteilte. Er fiel genau auf den Schädel eines unten sitzenden Mannes. Für den war danach Schluss mit der viel gerühmten Gemütlichkeit. Obwohl der Verursacher sich entschuldigte und anbot, eine Brotzeit mit Bier zu spendieren, bestand der Getroffene auf einer Anzeige wegen fahrlässiger Körperverletzung.
	Bush with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff inside U.S. Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base. White House photo
	http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20050924&articleId=991 US Northern Command and Hurricane Rita by Michel Chossudovsky September 24, 2005 GlobalResearch.ca There are indications that the Bush Administration is preparing to enact far-reaching emergency procedures in response to Hurricane Rita, which could potentially lead the country into a situation of Martial Law.  Following his visit to Texas on September 23,  President Bush traveled together with DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to The Peterson Air Force Base, at the headquarters of US Northern Command in Colorado Springs. He spent the night of September 23 at Colorado Springs and was at US NorthCom headquarters on the morning of the 24th of September, when Hurricane Rita hit the Texas-Louisiana coastline. Headed by Navy Admiral Timothy Keating, US NorthCom is slated to play a central role in emergency operations.  A Joint Task Force Rita has been created under the jurisdiction of NorthCom. Operating out of Austin, Texas, the "standing joint force heaquarters" in Texas is under the command of Army Lt. Gen. Robert Clark, who is in permanent liason with Admiral Keating at NorthCom headquarters. Created in 2002, NorthCom oversees the land, sea and air defense not only of the US but of the entire North American continent, including Mexico and Canada. In the wake of 9/11, its mandate directly responds and relates to the "threat of terrorist attacks": its stated objective is to "defend the Homeland". The presence of the President and Commander in Chief at US Northern Command Headquarters is of crucial significance. The federal emergency procedures are being coordinated out of a military base, rather than from the White House, in liaison with the various departments and agencies of the (civilian) federal government in Washington, D.C.  The purpose of the Commander in Chief's visit to US NorthCom was not revealed. At a press conference prior to his departure for Colorado Springs, Bush told reporters that there was no particular reason for his trip to the Peterson Air Force Base: THE PRESIDENT :  ....Then I'm going to go out to our NORTHCOM headquarters to watch the interface between our United States military, and again the state and local authorities. Our job is to assist -- prepare for and assist the state and local people to save lives and to help these people get back on their feet. Again, I want to thank the people here in Washington who are working with the folks in the -- out in the field to do everything they possibly can to prepare for this second big storm that's coming into the Gulf of Mexico. Thank you all. Q Sir, what good can you do going down to the hurricane zone? Might you get in the way, Mr. President? THE PRESIDENT: One thing I won't do is get in the way. Q But I mean, how -- what good can you actually do? I mean, isn't there a risk of you and your entourage getting in the way? THE PRESIDENT: No, there will be no risk of me getting in the way, I promise you. We're going to make sure that we're not in the way of the operations. What I am going to do is observe the relationship between the state and local government, particularly out in Colorado Springs. That's what I want to see. See, NORTHCOM is the main entity that interfaces, that uses federal assets, federal troops to interface with local and state government. I want to watch that relationship. It's an important relationship, and I need to understand how it works better. Q But critics might say this is overcompensation for the response to Katrina. THE PRESIDENT: We will make sure that my entourage does not get in the way of people doing their job, which will be search and rescue immediately. And rest assured, I understand that we must not and will not interfere with the important work that will be going forward. Media reports, quoting official statements, have failed to address the implications of  President Bush's presence at US NorthCom, where high level meetings are being held: "Bush 'will monitor the storm and initial response Friday night and Saturday morning from the military's Northern Command headquarters in Colorado. He suggested much of the indecisiveness that impeded the Katrina response at all levels of government have been addressed.'" (Frontrunner, 23 Sept 2005) "A spokesman says his Colorado Springs visit will 'give him a better grasp of federal preparations for the storm'". "This will give him a first-hand look at the Northern Command and how the military is assisting in federal government response efforts to Hurricane Rita," The Militarisation of Disaster Relief The response to the national disaster is not being coordinated by the civilian government out of Texas, but from a remote location and in accordance with military criteria.  US Northern Command Headquarters will directly control the movement of military personnel and hardware in the Gulf of Mexico. As in the case of Katrina, it will override the actions of civilian bodies. Yet in this case, the entire operation is under the jurisdiction of the military rather than under that of  FEMA.
	President George W. Bush receives a briefing with personnel from all branches of the military on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita inside NORAD's United States Northern Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2005. White House photo by Eric Draper
	Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had ordered NorthCom and "the myriad forces" under its jurisdiction "to assist the Federal Emergency Management Agency and homeland security".  On the 21st of September, a major deployment of military personnel and hardware was ordered in anticipation of the disaster. Troops have been deployed on the eastern Texas coastline: "Amphibious vessels carrying 1000 Marines and equipment were taking up position in the Gulf of Mexico, ready to move in the moment the storm has passed through. More than 5000 Texas National Guardsmen were also on emergency standby." Until the 24th of September, there was no indication, from official and/or media sources of Secretary Rumsfeld's participation in the NorthCom meetings. According to the DoD, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England  "have no public or media events on their schedules" from the 22nd to the 24th of September.  It is now confirmed that a top level meeting was held under NorthCom auspices, which included the participation of President Bush, Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld (through video call),  DHS secretary Michael Chertoff and FEMA Director Vice Admiral Thad Allen (video call).   This meeting had been planned well in advance. US public opinion was not informed. It was not mentioned by president Bush at his September 23 Press Conference.(see above).   (Bloomberg News, 24 September, 2005, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aILvKBBSP6mU&refer=top_world_news ) The emergency procedures will be closely coordinated by US Northern Command out of the Peterson Air Force Base, together with Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA. What is unfolding is a national rather than a regional emergency scenario, under the control of Northern Command.  Moreover, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a total of 42 states and Washington, D.C. have enacted emergency procedures, even though most of them were not directly affected. Northern Command would, as part of its mandate in the case of a national emergency, oversee a number of civilian functions: In addition to defending the nation, U.S. Northern Command provides defense support of civil authorities in accordance with U.S. laws and as directed by the President or Secretary of Defense. Military assistance is always in support of a lead federal agency, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Military civil support includes domestic disaster relief operations that occur during fires, hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. Support also includes counter-drug operations and consequence management assistance, such as would occur after a terrorist event employing a weapon of mass destruction. Generally, an emergency must exceed the management capabilities of local, state and federal agencies before U.S. Northern Command becomes involved. In providing civil support, the command operates through subordinate Joint Task Forces. (See US Northcom website at http://www.northcom.mil/index.cfm?fuseaction=s.who_civil ). President Bush had stated barely a week ago, that "the Government and the US military needed broader authority to help handle major domestic crises such as hurricanes." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff subsequently classified Hurricane Rita as an "incident of national significance," which justifies the activation of a so-called "National Response Plan"(NRP).  The latter is characterized by a comprehensive framework.  The period of time during which the NRP would be in operation would extend far beyond the emergency period in the disaster area. In all likelihood, the NRP would modify the functions of civilian government: The National Response Plan (NRP) is effective upon issuance with a phased implementation process during the first year. During the first 120 days of this implementation process, the Initial NRP (INRP), Federal Response Plan (FRP), U.S. Government Domestic Terrorism Concept of Operations Plan (CONPLAN), and Federal Radiological Emergency Response Plan (FRERP) remain in effect. (For further details, consult the complete document at http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NRPbaseplan.pdf Homeland Security The entire Homeland Security construct is based on the "Global War on Terrorism" (GWOT). The underlying procedures are not intended to deal with natural disasters. In this context, the national disaster could provide a justification for a greater role of the Military in civilian affairs, exerted through Northern Command. This role would extend beyond the implementation of relief efforts in the Gulf of Mexico.  The NRP involves concrete provisions which describe the role of the Military in the case of a national emergency. Under the Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA),  the Military could assist civilian bodies in law enforcement activities, thereby leading to the derogation of the Posse Comitatus Act. Although the preliminary reports are incomplete, the civilian response capabilities seem to exhibit serious shortcomings, as some 2 million people flee Southern Texas and Louisiana including the Houston Metropolitan area, which has a population of some 4.7 million people. We are not, however, dealing with a situation of political inertia, Quite  the opposite. The military has taken control of the emergency procedures. The scale of military involvement is far greater than that observed in the case of hurricane Katrina. "Northcom had six naval ships and twenty-six helicopters on standby to assist the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with damage assessment, search and rescue and medical evacuation. Military communications teams were ready to assist with satellite telephones and radios. Officials predicted that Hurricane Rita would destroy almost 5,700 homes in Texas and cause $ 8.2 billion of damage." (London Times, 24 September 2005) Northern Command, rather than the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is already slated to play a central role in overseeing the emergency operation, namely the military will intervene directly in civilian affairs under procedures which have already been carefully laid out in a number of official documents. President Bush is the Commander in Chief and what is unfolding at the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs is the planning behind closed doors of a major military operation on US soil. Moreover, this operation is being launched on the same day as major antiwar demonstrations across America. 24 Sept 2005, 02.30 am EST, revised 9.45 am EST, updated 15.45 pm EST,  excerpt from Bush 23 Sept press conference added 25 Sept, 11.50am EST.   Michel Chossudovsky is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), He is the author of a America's "War on Terrorism",  Global Research, 2005.
	aus den emails:   Boykott von Shell und Aral für 6 Monate und dann andere Firmen BITTE LESEN UND WEITERLEITEN !! Kontrolle der Benzinpreise Wie es wirkt, werden die Benzinpreise bis zum Herbst 2005 ein absolutes Rekordhoch erreichen - lt. Experten etwa 150.9 Ct. für einen Liter Superbenzin oder mehr. Ihr wollt, daß die Benzinpreise sinken? Das bedarf einer intelligenten und vor allem gemeinsamen Aktion. Phillip Hollsworth hatte die folgende Idee, welche VIEL MEHR SINN MACHT, als Vorschläge, wie das man an einem bestimmten Tag nicht tanken soll (wie schon mehrfach vorgeschlagen wurde). Die Ölfirmen lachen darüber, weil Sie genau wissen, daß wir uns nicht endlos selber "wehtun", indem wir kein Benzin kaufen. Irgendwann müssen wir wieder tanken. Diese Idee ist mehr eine Unbequemlichkeit für uns, als daß sie den Mineralölfirmen schadet. Aber diese neue Idee kann wirklich helfen den Benzinpreis zu senken - deshalb BITTE LESEN UND MITMACHEN!!! Wir müssen den Mineralölfirmen zeigen, daß wir - die Kunden - die Macht haben, und Nicht umgekehrt. Mit den ständig steigenden Benzinpreisen müssen wir, die Kunden anfangen zu handeln. Die einzige Möglichkeit, die Benzinpreise nach unten zu zwingen ist in dem wir einzelnen Gesellschaften finanziell weh tun in dem wir DEREN Benzin nicht kaufen. Das kann großen Einfluß auf die gesamten Benzinpreise haben und evtl. einen Preiskrieg erzwingen. Hier ist die Idee: Für den Rest des Jahres KEIN BENZIN MEHR BEI DEN BEIDEN GRÖSSTEN ANBIETERN KAUFEN (SHELL UND ARAL)!!!!! WENN SIE KEIN BENZIN MEHR VERKAUFEN SEHEN SIE SICH GEZWUNGEN DIE PREISE ZU SENKEN UM DIE KUNDEN WIEDER ANZULOCKEN. Wenn die beiden Großen die Preise senken, werden die anderen Firmen folgen müssen. Wenn sie dann die Preise wieder erhöhen, geht das Spiel von vorne los. Um mit diesem System erfolgreich zu sein, müssen möglichst viele Leute davon wissen. Also schickt diese eMail an alle die ihr kennt. Ich schicke sie an ca. 50 Leute - wenn ihr sie dann auch wieder an 20 oder mehr versendet und die auch wieder, wird sich die Zahl der Empfänger sehr sehr schnell potenzieren und in Kürzester Zeit mehrere Millionen Menschen erreichen können. Wenn wir zusammenhalten können wir was erreichen - und nur dann! Wir, die Kunden haben die Macht und nicht umgekehrt!!!!! BITTE HALTET ALLE DURCH BIS SIE IHRE PREISE SENKEN UND UNTEN HALTEN. DIESES SYSTEM HAT SCHON IN ANDEREN LÄNDERN FUNKTIONIERT (z.B. KANADA, wo dadurch der Preis um fast 20 Cent pro Liter nach unten gezwungen wurde) Mit freundlichen Grüßen
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