The Slaughterhouse Informer

A Compendiium of Various Official Lies, Business Scandals, Small Murders, Frauds, and Other Gross Defects of Our Current Political, Business and Religious Moral Lepers.

Presenting a new magazine that contains material that is not found elsewhere and is very difficult to post on the Internet. The ‘Voice of the White House’ will appear in each issue containing material not found on TBR News for very obvious reasons.This publication will appear once a week, on Wednesday, every week, will be ten pages in length and is available by subscription only. The price is $5.00 a month and can be paid via PayPal or by check. If you don’t like it, and Bush supporters can read the Drudge Report for free, you can cancel at any time.

Civil insurrection in America and government countermeasures: The official papers

By Bradley Moscrip

An in-depth study of official American plans to construct FEMA detention centers in America and specific recent U.S. Army domestic counterinsurgency plans. Here is a sampling of the ebook contents:

Gun Control by Confiscation

As the American general population is known to be the most heavily armed in the world, immediately upon the declaration of Martial Law and the execution by the military of counterinsurgency programs, it has been determined that the BATF, will begin the process of rounding up all rifles, pistols and so-called assault weaponry from the civil population. Lists of gun collectors obtained from firearms dealers, gun magazine subscription lists and other sources will be the basis for these mass confiscations. Gun owners will be supplied documentation by the BATF showing which pieces have been confiscated so that in the future, they will be told, they can recover their weapons when the state of emergency has passed. In actuality, weapons that do not have a high value or are not suitable for arming loyalist police forces, will be destroyed by order

This study is available from tbrnews at $5.00 by PayPal  

The Voice of the White House

Washington, D.C., January 24, 2020: “ My sister’s daughter and son-in-law bought a nice home in Ohio several years ago and got in over their heads. When, thanks to George Bush and his cronies, the markets surged and then collapsed, they got way behind in mortgage payments and then got foreclosure letters. They were desperate until someone told them about a great system that could save their home so they followed it up and now, own their home without any further payments. Here is the story:

             “Believe it or not,  you can challenge the foreclosure process … and win.  Challenging the foreclosure means just that.  You challenge the bank’s right to foreclose on your house.  This may sound counter intuitive,  but it is true.  In order to understand the process of challenging the foreclosure,  the why’s and wherefore’s  you need deep background information as to the nature of this financial meltdown and how we got to where we are as a country.

            Back in the early 90’s,  the Gramm Leach act passed by Congress was signed into law.  This act erased the financial firewall which stood between investment banks and traditional banks.  This firewall had been put in place during FDR’s administration to separate these two groups as the mixing of the two was determined to have been a prime reason for the Great Depression.  Shortly after this act was signed into law,  you may recall a whole host of consolidations in the financial markets.  Many household names and logos vanished into the consolidation frenzy.   Citigroup is just one example of this consolidation.  Before too long,  they became a bank,  an investment bank,  an insurance company and the source of a whole host of financial services.

             The next thing that happened was Fannie & Freddie,  two quasi governmental agencies focused on affordable home loans, were pressured by the Clinton administration to focus their efforts on heretofore neglected elements of society.  These efforts came to be known as the sub-prime and alt-A mortgage sectors.

            The next piece of the puzzle can be placed at the feet of the Federal Reserve and the reserve requirements they placed on banks.  Money,  like water,  seeks to flow and if profits can be made,  they will be made.  The large banking houses were restricted by their reserve requirements from making more loans,  a source of profits.  In an effort to get around these restrictions,  the large banks (Citigroup,  JP Morgan Chase,  Goldman Sachs,  Bank of New York Mellon,  Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo  to name a few) created “exotic” financial products from bundled mortgage loans such as Collaterized Debt Obligations(CDO’s) and Structured Investment Vehicles (SIV’s).    These financial products were packaged up and they sold like shares of stocks to “sophisticated investors” such as pension funds,  endowment funds,  and foreign banks.   This moved the loans off the books of the large banks meaning  they then had more reserves to lend and the process would start all over.

             As the party progressed,  the investment vehicles became more sophisticated.  The banks would create a structured investment vehicle which would require a certain mix of different types of loans and the order would go out seeking such loans.  It is almost as if they ordered the loans off a menu and the storefront mortgage brokers would be like the cooks back in the kitchen preparing and delivering meals of a certain mix of ingredients.   Once the order was filled,  the large banks would slice and dice the paper into finer and finer pieces assigning those pieces to certain tranches of the structured vehicle.  This created various grades of paper which could be marketed as high grade/low grade with  a commiserate rate of return upon the investment.  Once again,  these would be sold to pension funds,  endowment funds,  foreign banks,  wealthy individuals,  hedge funds, mutual funds,  anyone willing to buy.

            The final piece of the puzzle was the high degree of complicated ownership of any single home loan and trying to find a way to register that complicated ownership with each individual county courthouse as required by law.  Enter the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS).  MERS (http://www.mersinc.org/) offered themselves up as a way to track the ownership & servicing rights.  This is direct from their website:

            MERS is an innovative process that simplifies the way mortgage ownership and servicing rights are originated, sold and tracked. Created by the real estate finance industry, MERS eliminates the need to prepare and record assignments when trading residential and commercial mortgage loans.

             And that very quote,  based upon the need to keep track of the high degree of slicing and dicing of ownership of Cashflows and servicing rights is the reason you can challenge your foreclosure and win.

            Here is what happened.

             In 2007,  Deutches Bank attempted to foreclose on a group of properties in Ohio.  In October of that year,  Judge Boyko of the Eastern Ohio United States District Court dismissed 14 Deutsche Bank-filed foreclosures in a ruling based on lack of standing for not owning/holding the mortgage loan at the time the lawsuits were filed.  Due to all of the slicing and dicing of the cash flows mentioned above,  Deutches bank could not prove they had perfected interest in the title and hence,  had no standing to sue for foreclosure.  In essence,  the issue was not had the homeowners defaulted on their mortgage,  but was Deutches Bank the person they owed the money to?   In essence,  a stranger who was unknown to the homeowner popped up out of nowhere claiming to own the title.  The judge said they didn’t.  The homeowners walked away still in their houses,  Deutches Bank walked away with their hat.

            From that ruling came the entire “produce the note” strategy of successfully challenging foreclosure actions.  The issue has been appealed by the banks through several state court systems and was shot down first by the Kansas State Supreme Court.  That was followed by the  Arkansas State Supreme Court,  Ohio State Supreme Court and the Massachusetts Landbank.  There have been two rulings in Federal Bankruptcy court in Idaho and one in Nevada which also support the premise that the foreclosing party has a duty to prove perfected interest in the title and if unable they are barred from foreclosing.  There have also been numerous state district court rulings in New Jersey,  California and Florida supporting this notion as well.

            The best analysis of this movement is by Ellen Brown and it is excerpted in its entirety here:

Landmark Decision: Massive Relief for Homeowners and Trouble for the Banks

Ellen Brown

Web of Debt

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:24 EDT

A landmark ruling in a recent Kansas Supreme Court case may have given millions of distressed homeowners the legal wedge they need to avoid foreclosure. In Landmark National Bank v. Kesler, 2009 Kan. LEXIS 834, the Kansas Supreme Court held that a nominee company called MERS has no right or standing to bring an action for foreclosure. MERS is an acronym for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, a private company that registers mortgages electronically and tracks changes in ownership. The significance of the holding is that if MERS has no standing to foreclose, then nobody has standing to foreclose – on 60 million mortgages. That is the number of American mortgages currently reported to be held by MERS. Over half of all new U.S. residential mortgage loans are registered with MERS and recorded in its name. Holdings of the Kansas Supreme Court are not binding on the rest of the country, but they are dicta of which other courts take note; and the reasoning behind the decision is sound.

Eliminating the “Straw Man” Shielding Lenders and Investors from Liability

The development of “electronic” mortgages managed by MERS went hand in hand with the “securitization” of mortgage loans – chopping them into pieces and selling them off to investors. In the heyday of mortgage securitizations, before investors got wise to their risks, lenders would slice up loans, bundle them into “financial products” called “collateralized debt obligations” (CDOs), ostensibly insure them against default by wrapping them in derivatives called “credit default swaps,” and sell them to pension funds, municipal funds, foreign investment funds, and so forth. There were many secured parties, and the pieces kept changing hands; but MERS supposedly kept track of all these changes electronically. MERS would register and record mortgage loans in its name, and it would bring foreclosure actions in its name. MERS not only facilitated the rapid turnover of mortgages and mortgage-backed securities, but it has served as a sort of “corporate shield” that protects investors from claims by borrowers concerning predatory lending practices. California attorney Timothy McCandless describes the problem like this:

“[MERS] has reduced transparency in the mortgage market in two ways. First, consumers and their counsel can no longer turn to the public recording systems to learn the identity of the holder of their note. Today, county recording systems are increasingly full of one meaningless name, MERS, repeated over and over again. But more importantly, all across the country, MERS now brings foreclosure proceedings in its own name – even though it is not the financial party in interest. This is problematic because MERS is not prepared for or equipped to provide responses to consumers’ discovery requests with respect to predatory lending claims and defenses. In effect, the securitization conduit attempts to use a faceless and seemingly innocent proxy with no knowledge of predatory origination or servicing behavior to do the dirty work of seizing the consumer’s home. . . . So imposing is this opaque corporate wall, that in a “vast” number of foreclosures, MERS actually succeeds in foreclosing without producing the original note – the legal sine qua non of foreclosure – much less documentation that could support predatory lending defenses.”

The real parties in interest concealed behind MERS have been made so faceless, however, that there is now no party with standing to foreclose. The Kansas Supreme Court stated that MERS’ relationship “is more akin to that of a straw man than to a party possessing all the rights given a buyer.” The court opined:

“By statute, assignment of the mortgage carries with it the assignment of the debt. . . . Indeed, in the event that a mortgage loan somehow separates interests of the note and the deed of trust, with the deed of trust lying with some independent entity, the mortgage may become unenforceable. The practical effect of splitting the deed of trust from the promissory note is to make it impossible for the holder of the note to foreclose, unless the holder of the deed of trust is the agent of the holder of the note. Without the agency relationship, the person holding only the note lacks the power to foreclose in the event of default. The person holding only the deed of trust will never experience default because only the holder of the note is entitled to payment of the underlying obligation. The mortgage loan becomes ineffectual when the note holder did not also hold the deed of trust.” [Citations omitted; emphasis added.]

MERS as straw man lacks standing to foreclose, but so does original lender, although it was a signatory to the deal. The lender lacks standing because title had to pass to the secured parties for the arrangement to legally qualify as a “security.” The lender has been paid in full and has no further legal interest in the claim. Only the securities holders have skin in the game; but they have no standing to foreclose, because they were not signatories to the original agreement. They cannot satisfy the basic requirement of contract law that a plaintiff suing on a written contract must produce a signed contract proving he is entitled to relief.

The Potential Impact of 60 Million Fatally Flawed Mortgages

The banks arranging these mortgage-backed securities have typically served as trustees for the investors. When the trustees could not present timely written proof of ownership entitling them to foreclose, they would in the past file “lost-note affidavits” with the court; and judges usually let these foreclosures proceed without objection. But in October 2007, an intrepid federal judge in Cleveland put a halt to the practice. U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Boyko ruled that Deutsche Bank had not filed the proper paperwork to establish its right to foreclose on fourteen homes it was suing to repossess as trustee. Judges in many other states then came out with similar rulings.

Following the Boyko decision, in December 2007 attorney Sean Olender suggested in an article in The San Francisco Chronicle that the real reason for the bailout schemes being proposed by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was not to keep strapped borrowers in their homes so much as to stave off a spate of lawsuits against the banks. Olender wrote:

“The sole goal of the [bailout schemes] is to prevent owners of mortgage-backed securities, many of them foreigners, from suing U.S. banks and forcing them to buy back worthless mortgage securities at face value – right now almost 10 times their market worth. The ticking time bomb in the U.S. banking system is not resetting subprime mortgage rates. The real problem is the contractual ability of investors in mortgage bonds to require banks to buy back the loans at face value if there was fraud in the origination process.

“. . . The catastrophic consequences of bond investors forcing originators to buy back loans at face value are beyond the current media discussion. The loans at issue dwarf the capital available at the largest U.S. banks combined, and investor lawsuits would raise stunning liability sufficient to cause even the largest U.S. banks to fail, resulting in massive taxpayer-funded bailouts of Fannie and Freddie, and even FDIC . . . .

“What would be prudent and logical is for the banks that sold this toxic waste to buy it back and for a lot of people to go to prison. If they knew about the fraud, they should have to buy the bonds back.”

Needless to say, however, the banks did not buy back their toxic waste, and no bank officials went to jail. As Olender predicted, in the fall of 2008, massive taxpayer-funded bailouts of Fannie and Freddie were pushed through by Henry Paulson, whose former firm Goldman Sachs was an active player in creating CDOs when he was at its helm as CEO. Paulson also hastily engineered the $85 billion bailout of insurer American International Group (AIG), a major counterparty to Goldmans’ massive holdings of CDOs. The insolvency of AIG was a huge crisis for Goldman, a principal beneficiary of the AIG bailout.

In a December 2007 New York Times article titled “The Long and Short of It at Goldman Sachs,” Ben Stein wrote:

“For decades now, . . . I have been receiving letters [warning] me about the dangers of a secret government running the world . . . . [T]he closest I have recently seen to such a world-running body would have to be a certain large investment bank, whose alums are routinely Treasury secretaries, high advisers to presidents, and occasionally a governor or United States senator.”

The pirates seem to have captured the ship, and until now there has been no one to stop them. But 60 million mortgages with fatal defects in title could give aggrieved homeowners and securities holders the crowbar they need to exert some serious leverage on Congress – serious enough perhaps even to pry the legislature loose from the powerful banking lobbies that now hold it in thrall.

Comment: It will be interesting to see how this develops. No doubt lawyers for the banks are looking for a way around this.

But this ruling does reveal just how fragile the system is. In an attempt to build a system where they, the bankers, have no responsibility at the core they have created a system where they have little control.

Wouldn’t it be quite a scene if the whole system collapsed in the banksters faces?

(http://www.sott.net/articles/show/193643-Landmark-Decision-Massive-Relief-for-Homeowners-and-Trouble-for-the-Banks)

So to put it short and sweet,  here is what happened.  In their infinite cleverness of achieving ever new and novel ways to create profit,  the banks managed to separate the mortgage from the deed of trust.  When they did that,  the mortgage holder lost the ability to foreclose because they have no interest in the Deed of Trust and is now holding a worthless piece of paper.  The owner of the Deed of Trust can sue to recover,  but because the investment vehicles are the holder of the deed of trust and ownership of that vehicle has been sold to a wide variety of entities,   it is difficult if not impossible to determine just who the true owner of a given mortgage  is.  It’s a mess,  their mess,  and it is not your responsibility as a homeowner to clean up their mess.

It is appropriate to bring your attention to one more aspect of this mess.  Recall the TARP fund?  It was a $700B bailout to the large banks and particularly  AIG.  AIG was/is an insurance fund which insured all of the mortgages in the structured investment vehicles against default and foreclosure and because these mortgages had been sliced and diced seven ways for Sunday,  each mortgage was actually insured four or five times over.  When the mortgages started to default and foreclose,  the insurance companies ended up paying 100 cents on the dollar on these insurance policies they wrote to companies such as Goldman Sachs,  Wells Fargo,  Bank of America,  JP Morgan Chase and others.  It was the TARP money,  the taxpayer’s money passed through AIG which bailed out the banks.

All of this information goes a long way to answering the question “why is it so difficult to get a loan modification?”  The truth of the matter is,  because it is more profitable to foreclose on the mortgage,  collect the insurance (maybe more than once),  remove a non performing loan from the books and put a tangible asset of certain value back on the books.  This creates a better balance sheet from whence they can then create more loans.  And the process starts all over again.  Why should they accept a measly $4,000 from the Government in exchange for the windfall of foreclosure?  In the parlance of the gangster,  “Fuhgedaboutit”

Can you challenge the right to foreclose in a bankruptcy proceeding?  Absolutely.  As a matter of fact,  your BK attorney has a duty to pursue this line of action.  Do not let him tell you it is only a delaying action of the inevitable.  There are three rulings of the US Bankruptcy court;  two in Idaho, one in Nevada;  which come down quite hard on the side of the homeowner on this issue.

Does this process work in both judicial and non-judicial states?  Absolutely.  In both cases,  you must file suit.  In judicial states,  you file a counter suit.  In a non-judicial state,  you must file suit and additionally seek an injunction and if necessary a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to stop the foreclosure sale on your house.

Can you initiate this action before you are in financial difficulty?  Absolutely.  You can request your loan servicer provide you with the exact ownership of all portions of your note and show conclusively that the money is going to the correct entities.  Will the loan servicer grant your request?  Probably not.  But that’s OK,  because it shows the courts you tried to resolve the dispute before it was ever escalated and you were ignored.”

            See this, and more, at: www.chinkinthearmor.net is “To Successfully Challenge a Foreclosure is to Exploit the Chink in the Armor of the Master Class”

Editor’s Note: We have a huge list of FBI unpaid snitches from their domestic spying units and we will start publishing in one week.

Young Online Newspaper Audience Dropping; Older Consumers Adopting Social Media

January 22, 2010

by Dorian Benkoil   

Poynter Online

Online newspaper consumption has dropped significantly among 18- to 24-year-olds, who are leading changes in media consumption. Meanwhile, use of digital media overall has increased, led by older consumers, who accounted for the largest percentage increases in the use of social media.

            These are some of the findings of a new survey by IBM's Media and Entertainment group, part of the company's Institute for Business Value. The findings are to be released in coming weeks in presentations and a white paper.

            The implications are important for those in the news business and illustrate that newspapers may have less time than they were counting on to figure out how to succeed online.

             Young people, from 18- to 24-year-olds, were "the only segment in which I saw erosion year over year for any digital media category, specifically for online newspapers," from roughly 64 percent in 2008 who said they had viewed a newspaper online within the last year, to 54 percent in 2009, said Karen Feldman, global lead for the media and entertainment group and one of the survey's lead authors.

            But offsetting that drop among young people was a nearly equal increase in online newspaper consumption among people older than 55. That drove a moderate increase in overall consumption of online newspapers, from 54 percent to 58 percent.

            IBM surveyed 3,327 people internationally, 900 of them in the United States, in a random sample constructed to match the digital media consuming population.

            For years, many in the media industry have operated on the understanding that younger generations are changing their habits while an older "embedded base" of consumers sticks with them, providing the eyeballs and cash flow to cushion the blow and help the transition to digital media. The IBM media study, the third annual one (last year's was "Beyond Advertising") calls that thinking into question.

            "We and everyone else has talked about the notion of a digital divide for years now," Feldman said. "What this is suggesting is, 'Look out,' it's not as black and white as that. You can't just keep the status quo for your traditional media, because you're going to see a blending" that incorporates digital media with the traditional.

             Feldman and I reviewed the findings in her Manhattan office and over the phone last week. She had invited me to be one of the industry analysts that her group talks to as they prepare the presentation and white paper, which is to address "value shifts in the digital era."

            The study, not surprisingly, finds consumers moving to what IBM calls "connected experiences," using various Internet-enabled devices to consume, engage with and create media, whether news and information, personal messages, or produced entertainment.

            One finding that may be heartening for news organizations is that a significant number of people, especially older ones, are willing to pay for their media. Of the different payment systems for news, 25 percent said they would prefer subscriptions over piecemeal options like paying per article.

            But that is only for the minority who say they are willing to pay in the first place. For the majority, news organizations will have to find other ways of earning money to produce the news, whether through creative forms of advertising, custom media, events, e-reader deals, selling technologies like smartphone apps, or -- I would advocate -- a mix of these and other revenue streams.

             Newspapers and other news organizations should study the behaviors of their younger consumers to see how to reach the older ones in the coming months and years.

            To reach 18- to 24-year-olds, it may be necessary to use social media like Facebook that news organizations don't control, but where 80 percent of them say they regularly interact. (In an earlier piece for Poynter, I discussed Facebook strategies for news organizations.) As older people increasingly use social media, I wouldn't be surprised to see similar behavior there, as well.

            It seems we have moved into an era in which the younger, earlier adopters not only lead the trends in media consumption, but they are also followed by the older generations. News organizations should be prepared for that trend to accelerate as everyone becomes more comfortable with digital media and devices.

China's latest scandal is counterfeit condoms

Health officials warn that inferior contraceptives can spread the diseases they are supposed to protect against. Some of the brand-name knockoffs have reached the U.S.

January 21, 2010

by John M. Glionna

Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Beijing - Sex shop owner Wang Yunsu wondered how so many competitors could suddenly undercut her low prophylactic prices.

            Now she thinks she knows: The other condoms are counterfeit.

            "Some manufacturers are cutting corners," she said, stocking a shelf with a domestic brand whose name translates as Forever Love. "And it's all about profit."

            It's China's latest knockoff scandal -- inferior contraceptives that health officials say provide little protection and may in fact spread infectious diseases, tarnishing the axiom that condoms mean safe sex.

            In November, investigators in Hunan province provided details about a July raid on an underground workshop where they found laborers lubricating condoms with vegetable oil in unsterile conditions, passing off the counterfeits as high-quality-brand products.

            It wasn't the first such bust. Police in 2008 raided an illicit factory in Zhejiang province, seizing half a million knockoff condoms.

In another case, workers recycled used condoms into hair bands in southern China.

             "People could be infected with AIDS, [genital] warts or other diseases if they hold the rubber bands or strings in their mouths while weaving their hair into plaits or buns," a dermatologist told the state-run China Daily newspaper.

            The practice poses yet another disease threat in the world's most-populous nation, where more than 2 billion condoms are used each year, supporting an estimated $530-million industry.

            China mass-produces countless fake brand-name consumer goods, from shoes and handbags to DVDs and iPods, even beer. But after tainted milk killed six Chinese children and sickened about 300,000 in 2008, the spread of counterfeit condoms further demonstrates that unscrupulous manufacturers will stop at nothing to turn a profit.

             Authorities estimate that up to a third of the contraceptives used in some parts of China are counterfeits, despite improvements in state food and drug oversight. None of the counterfeits are properly sterilized, and others are of such inferior quality that they could rupture during use. Authorities say they're all dangerous.

            "The quality of the knockoff condoms cannot be guaranteed, and they can easily break," said Cheng Feng, director of the group Family Health International, China. "Such condoms definitely cannot play the role of contraception and disease prevention."

            But counterfeit condoms aren't being sold only in China.

            In 2008, officials in the New York area confiscated knockoff Chinese-made goods, including millions of phony Trojan-brand condoms that were sold in small discount stores in New York, Texas and Virginia.

            In the Hunan case, police told state news media that four people were arrested at a back-street factory in the city of Shaoyang, where an estimated 2 million unsterilized condoms carried labels of popular brands such as Durex, Rough Rider and Love Card.

             Authorities have yet to track down more than 1 million condoms they believe have been distributed nationwide, lubricated with vegetable oil and stored in metal drums.

            In China, more than 300 manufacturers produce condoms under 1,000 brand names. Health officials say the spread of the counterfeit condoms is linked to a diverse market in which the products are sold not just in pharmacies and healthcare shops but at roadside stalls and bars.

            Online middlemen also peddle second-quality condoms produced at legitimate Chinese factories.

            "The quality is a little bit better than the counterfeits," said one seller who uses the moniker Feiran Zhicheng, or "Extremely Trustworthy."

             "They're not the best-quality ones, but there's not that big a difference," he said of his product, which sells for a third the price of name brands. "It's just that they didn't meet the standard for export. So they were left behind. It's like those 'slightly imperfect' products from the assembly line."

             Authorities are also pursuing the factories that are recycling condoms into hair bands sold in beauty shops for about 3 cents a package.

             "These cheap and colorful rubber bands and hair ties sell well, threatening the health of local people," said the story in the China Daily.

             Although shoddy and dangerous goods still flood the market, consumer protection here is improving, analysts say.

             "Given the vast size and complexities of the society, it is not surprising that there continue to be problems with product quality," said Zha Daojiong, a professor at Peking University's School of International Studies. "Back in the early 1990s, the Chinese government repeatedly launched 'strike hard' campaigns -- throwing those involved in producing and selling below-quality products to years in jail."

            But, he added, proper monitoring systems cost money, resulting in higher prices.

            "It's impossible to have enhanced surveillance on the cheap," Zha said. "A genuine dialogue [needs] to take place between the government and the populace at large [about] the costs the average consumer is prepared to pay."

             Vendors such as Wang say the government should do more to protect consumers.

            "We need to market better-quality products," she said. "Chinese people deserve them."

john.glionna@latimes.com

Tommy Yang and Nicole Liu of The Times' Beijing Bureau and special correspondent Lily Kuo contributed to this report.

Ten Days of holocaust ‘news’ and Ten Fair Questions

January 23, 2010

by Kev Boyle

            The following question may appear to be nothing other than a reference to the obvious for anyone who has been paying attention to the media and politics over the last 40 years. However, this phenomenon is surely worth close inspection and serious reflection.

            How does 'The Holocaust' manage to remain a major NEWS story, day in day out, 70 years after the event? (see below, at the foot of this article, a selection of holocaust-related stories that have appeared in the news media over the last 10 days)

            Should we not be amazed by this reality?

            I was around in the 1950's and 1960's and I cannot remember it being any kind of news story at all until about 1968/9. It was then that the narrative began to be rolled out.

            Many have said this before, but 'The Holocaust' made no appearance in the autobiographies of Churchill, De Gaulle and Eisenhower.

            ....then suddenly, 1970-ish, we were being faced with the entire horror....including "4 million" Auschwitz dead, industrially exterminated in gas chambers, their skin used for lampshades, their hair for pillows...

            The story has been running ever since, though the "4 million" has become "1.1 million"(I think, it depends who you ask) and the skin/hair allegations have been quietly dropped.

            Some questions arise here but voicing them about such a terrible matter feels, initially at least, offensive and inappropriate.

             However, if we let these questions pass (for now) there are others that it is very fair to ask. Considering the possible consequences for ourselves. It is also surely fair to demand an occasional answer.

            Here we go then:

            1) Why does 'The Holocaust' continue to be a DAILY NEWS EVENT (and such a dominant feature in our culture) 70 years after it happened?

            2) Why is it not used to promote peace and non-violence but rather used as a justification for starting new wars of aggression? Is our governments' support of the extreme Israeli violence in Gaza, for example, connected in any way to 'Holocaust' propaganda?

            3) Has 'The Holocaust' been used as a psychological tool to extort money for Israel from the Americans and other countries, allowing Israel to recycle billions back into these and other western political systems to the point where it is able to control them (i.e. us)?
Looking at the facts, this is a fair question.

            4) Has 'The Holocaust' embedded a 'guilt complex' into white western societies and could such a guilt complex be making us submissive, more generally, to the interests of powerful Jews?

            5) Is it possible that we have put our own lives and societies at risk by falling prey to a cynical and very calculated power-grab by forces,Jewish and non-Jewish alike (using 'The Holocaust' as a primary tool), that are determined to subjugate and control us all? In other words, is it an essential tool in the establishment of a 'New World Order'?

            6) Why is critical discussion of 'The Holocaust' absolutely forbidden (to the point of being illegal in France and Germany)? Should anything present such a great taboo when the consequences of respecting this taboo are so potentially serious (and even catastrophic) for the rest of us? If people like Germar Rudolph are put in jail for presenting what were results of a scientific investigation, should this reality not be, in itself, a very serious cause for concern? What kind of principle is operating here? Scientific facts or falsehoods can surely be dealt with openly via further experimental testing.

            7) If we look around the USA and the UK and notice that Zionist Jews are in control of the arts and almost the entire media, if we look at the banks and large corporations and see Jews (mostly identifiably Zionist) massively over-represented, if we see Zionist Jewish moneymen funding our political leaders and parties, if we notice that our foreign ministries are dominated by Zionist Jews......are we entitled to ask how a single group has acquired such disproportionate wealth and influence over us.?

            8) Are we entitled to ask, "Does this reality not demonstrably indicate a most active and definite racism being practiced by this group? Therefore, has the great societal taboo of 'anti-semitism' given cover for the promoters of the 'anti-racist' and 'diversity' agendas amongst us to disable society via 'holocaust propaganda' and 'multiculturalism' while practising a ferocious racism of their own?

            9) Are we entitled to ask, "Is 'The Holocaust' stuck in our faces every day of our lives so that we might remain afraid to ask such questions or speak openly of Jewish domination over almost every aspect of society?"

            10) ....and last, but not least; is the demise of Christianity an engineered outcome of the rise 'Holocaust' propaganda?.....has Holocaust suffering been promoted to displace the suffering of Christ in western consciousness? Has even the Christianity we are left with been Judaised? One has to wonder when one sees a pope sharing a religious service with the spiritual descendants of the Pharissees. Did Christ not say that these practitioners of the Golden Rule for Jews alone were "sons of those that murdered the prophets" and were "of Satan"?

            The good news is that many ordinary Jews, largely a more brainwashed and deceived group than ourselves, are beginning to ask some of the same questions.

            Please God they will continue to do so.

            Below are just a few of the 'Holocaust' stories that have appeared over the past ten days. They were found by carrying out simple Google searches. Many of these individual stories were told in hundreds, even thousands, of other publications. One story in the following list is heartening.....a review of the Channel 4 film 'Defamation'. This brilliant film by an Israeli, Yaov Shamir, looks at the brainwashing of Jewish youth, 'anti-semitism' and the 'Holocaust' culture with a withering gaze.


 13/01/2010
The courage of Miep Gies:The woman who saved the diary of Anne Frank (front page BBC website)

Bath show marks Holocaust Memorial (BBC Bristol website)

Israel Rabbi Asks Pope to Halt Pius' Beatification (New York Times)

14/01/2010

Edinburgh: centre hosts God on Trial for Holocaust Memorial Day (Independent Catholic News)

Defamation v Anti-Defamation (asks same questions as this post)


Huddersfield students apologise for Holocaust drinks game

15/01/2010

Rabbi to boycott Pope's visit to Rome synagogue (pope insults holocaust survivors)

Holocaust victims demand compensation from German rail company


Anne Frank etc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-joshua-levine-grater/righteous-risk-takers_b_424211.html


Sobibor survivor: 'I polished SS boots as dying people screamed'

Holocaust Museum shooting suspect dies


Chorley reveals Holocaust Memorial Day plans (dozens of such articles in the UK)

16/01/2010

Pope tries to still Jewish fears with synagogue visit (456 news articles on same subject elsewhere)


Mirror reporter who covered the 1961 trial of Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann dies.


Natalie Portman: 'I hate Holocaust films'("I get like 20 Holocaust scripts a month but I hate the genre,")


17/01/2010

Pope Benedict XVI prepares to visit Rome synagogue (BBC website front page +712 other articles)

Pope says Vatican helped Jews during Holocaust (BBC News website)

Jewish leaders confront Pope over Vatican's Holocaust 'silence' (The Telegraph + 1110 similar articles)

Pope Benedict XVI visits Rome synagogue, 23 years after John Paul II (European Jewish Press)

18/01/2010

Israeli premier visits Berlin Holocaust museum (Radio Netherlands Worldwide)

Austrian university recalls diploma for Holocaust gassing denier

Oliver Stone and Holocaust Denial


19/01/2010


Israel in historic meeting to mark Holocaust

Evolution of International Holocaust Day reflects changing times


Holocaust haunts my dreams, survivor tells court

Cramer, German publisher who fled Nazis, dies at 96

Holocaust survivor’s daughter fights ‘anti-Semitism’ for the U.S. Government

PM Netanyahu to Visit Auschwitz on Int’l Holocaust Day

20/01/2010

Holocaust survivor, 82, tells of grim role as 'fireman' in Nazi death camp (215 similar)

AJC Mourns Passing of Holocaust Survivor Ernst Cramer


21/01/2010

Bishop Williamson is back -- doubting Holocaust, bashing Israel

Holocaust Survivor Describes Nazi Death Camp at Demjanjuk Trial

22/01/2010

Brown signs Holocaust memorial book

Blueprint for genocide on display at Yad Vashem Holocaust museum


CPS refuses to reveal details of Nick Griffin's race hate trial

The Revolutionary Holocaust. Glenn Beck! (Fox)

Hendon MP accuses council of 'politicising' Holocaust Memorial Day

Finally, here is one of literally hundreds (if not thousands) of ‘local’ news articles on 'The Holocaust'. This last story shows how competitive the one-upmanship amongst politicians to advertise their Holocaust credentials has become……

HENDON MP Andrew Dismore has said he is “amazed” at not being invited to an event to commemorate the holocaust being run by Barnet Council on Sunday.

HENDON MP Andrew Dismore has said he is “amazed” at not being invited to an event to commemorate the holocaust being run by Barnet Council on Sunday.
Mr Dismore actually helped to establish the day when he introduced a Private Member's Bill to the House of Commons asking for the event on behalf of his constituents in 1999.
However, he and his fellow Labour MP Rudi Vis have not been invited to the memorial event being held on Sunday by Barnet Council at Middlesex University in Hendon.
He said: “I have attended every Holocaust Memorial Day event at Barnet since then, whether organised by the Labour or Conservative administrations.
“This is the first year that I have not been invited, and I find it appalling Barnet Council is so insensitive that they would wish to party politicise an event of such importance.”.......etc.

Blessed Prozac Moments! The Voice of the Loon is Heard throughout the Land!

BRAKING(sic) US weapon test aimed at Iran caused Haiti Quake!

January 24, 2010

by Bulov

A US High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) station, Gakon, Alaska

An unconfirmed report by the Russian Northern Fleets says the Haiti earthquake was caused by a flawed US Navy 'earthquake weapons' test before the weapons could be utilized against Iran.

             United States Navy test of one of its 'earthquake weapons' which was to be used against Iran, went 'horribly wrong' and caused the catastrophic quake in the Caribbean, the website of Venezuela's ViVe TV recently reported, citing the Russian report.

            After the report was released, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also made a similar claim, saying that a US drill, carried out in preparation for a deliberate attempt to cause an earthquake in Iran, had led to the deadly incident in Haiti, claiming more than 110,000 lives.

             Though Russian Northern Fleets' report was not confirmed by official sources, the comments attracted special attention in some US and Russian media outlets including Fox news and Russia Today.

             Russia Today's report said that Moscow has also been accused of possessing and utilizing such weapons.

            In 2002, a Georgian Green Party leader claimed that Moscow had instigated an earthquake on Georgian territory, the TV channel said.

             According to ViVe, the unconfirmed Russian report says earlier this month the US carried out a similar test in the Pacific Ocean, which also caused another 6.5 magnitude earthquake in an area near the town of Eureka, California.

            The California quake resulted in no deaths or serious injury, but left many buildings damaged.

            The Venezuelan news website said that the report also introduced the possibility that the US Navy may have had "full knowledge" of the damage that the test could cause.

            The report also speculated that knowledge of the possible outcome was why the US military had pre-positioned the deputy commander of US Southern Command, General P. K. Keen, on the island so that he could oversee relief efforts if the need arose.

            Based on the alleged report, the ultimate goal of the US weapons tests was to initiate a series of deadly earthquakes in Iran to topple the current Islamic system in the country.

            The tests are believed to be part of the United States' High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), which has been associated with many conspiracy theories.

            Other than being blamed for earthquakes, HAARP has also been associated with weather anomalies that cause floods, droughts and hurricanes.

            Some sources have even linked the 7.8 magnitude quake that shook the Chinese city of Sichuan in May 12, 2008 with the program.

             Allegations have been made that since the late 1970's, the US has 'greatly advanced' the state of its earthquake weapons to the point where it is now utilizing devices that employ a Tesla Electromagnetic Pulse, Plasma and Sonic technology, along with 'shockwave bombs.'

             Russia has accused the US military of employing such devices in Afghanistan to trigger the devastating 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the country back in March, 2002.

            In the mid-1990s the Russian State Duma issued a press release on HAARP, which was signed by 90 deputies. The statement said the US was "creating new integral geophysical weapons that may influence the near-Earth medium with high-frequency radio waves."

            "The significance of this qualitative leap could be compared to the transition from cold steel to firearms, or from conventional weapons to nuclear weapons.”
           
            “This new type of weapons differ from previous types in that the near-Earth medium becomes at once an object of direct influence and its component,” the statement explained.

            In 1997, US Secretary of Defense William Cohen also expressed concern about activities that "can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves."

            The US government, however, has chosen to stick to its position that HAARP is merely a program aimed at analyzing the Earth's ionosphere for the purpose of developing communications and surveillance technology.

Comment: Where is the great “Sorcha Faal,” now that we need “her”?

Calm Before The Storm? A Reply To My Last Post And You Better Read IT

http://thefightofyourlife.blogspot.com/2010/01/calm-before-storm-reply-to-my-last-post.html

by Robert Jones

I usually post all of my blog entries on tree of liberty forum. A lot of the time I get some flak from the usual trolls and debunkers. I threw a line in my last post to quit debunking everything and wake up. I only received one reply and it was quite startling. I am unsure the accuracy of the reply and the info; but I swear you better all read this and pay attention:

Well it seems NORTHCOM agrees with your view.

Below is some of what a former US military Flag officer sent me .

Russian forces have been asked to help in America

" I have some very recent and specific information about Russian (yes I said Russian) forces which have been tapped to "assist" U.S. forces in the near future. My wife is Russian and one of her relatives is a high placed officer who I know very well (by-the-way I speak fairly good Russian).

Several weeks ago (I am not sure of the exact date) Lt. Gen. Steven Blum the Deputy Commander of NORTHCOM requested from the Russian government pursuant to a secret agreement the use of 3 to 4 brigades of military security forces to be deployed in the U.S. presumably to assist local law enforcement in "peace keeping operations". When the request was made this very senior officer which my wife is related to expressed serious concerns about losses because of how well the "Americans" were armed. This officer and relative told me directly that he was assured by Gen. Blum that his forces would not be in the direct line of fire and that they would be free to use "whatever force was necessary to defend themselves and prevent future attacks".

When I spoke to this officer he asked how stiff the resistance would be? I let him know that it would make the fight in Afghanistan and Chechnya look like a Sunday walk in the park (the Soviet losses in Afghanistan unofficially topped 30,000 and in Chechnya the losses were even greater), I told him that the resistance would be unbelievable. He should expect a lot of snipers, men who have hunted big game for years an know how to hide and shoot, he should also not expect any quarter, anyone in uniform will be a target and that he should expect his officers to be targeted first. Roadside bombs and direct attacks on roadblocks and checkpoints will be commonplace. I let him know his troops would not be welcome and that he should oppose this request, I even offered to come to Moscow to give a briefing as to what they could expect should his government agree to provide the troops.

I am sorry I can not give any specifics, this information was given to me directly from the officer in Russia and confirmed by from a high level source at NORTHCOM. Neither could give a specific time frame but my general take was months but less than a year.

Update

This morning I received a call from Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov's office about giving a briefing/presentation in Moscow later this month on "the extent of resistance Russian security forces would face if they were to be stationed on American soil in a Peace Keeping Roll" i. I would of course be responsible for my own expenses (typical cheap ass Russians) but the defense ministry would provide ground transportation and appropriate security should I agree to come to Moscow. Needless to say I accepted and a preliminary date was set for January 28th at 0930. ".

end of quotes.

Remember that it has already been confirmed that the US and Canada have such an agreement for Canadian troops to be used in CONUS if the US requests them.

So can anyone here cite where in the US Constitution where it authorizes foreign military to exercise authority over US Citizens in the US?

While studying Constitutional Law in University I never ever discovered such a cite or even doctrine.
__________________
Information like fertilizer does no good unless you spread it.

Comment: Both of these stories are very much like unto fertilizer, being composed of pure shit. And the Tree of Liberty just died of Dutch Elm Disease.

The US Feds invasion of Haiti was aimed at taking over the Haitian central bank

All from Ben Fulford:  http://benjaminfulford.typepad.com/benjaminfulford/

            The desperate and cornered Federal Reserve Board crime family attacked Haiti with an earthquake weapon and then invaded it in order to seize the Haitian central bank. By seizing the central bank the Feds got access to codes for the new financial system and tried to launder the fraudulently obtained dollars and drug money via the nearby Dominican Republic. This is why the announcement of a new financial system we were promised would take place on January 19th has been delayed. As the end of the Fed approaches desperate battle lines are being drawn by the cornered rats. The Bush Clinton family is planning to replace Obama with Hillary Clinton, forcing Vice President Biden and Nancy Pelosi to step aside (this information was obtained by our own sources independently of Christopher Story. We earlier reported the initial plan called for President Pelosi and VP Hillary).

            The recent earthquake in Haiti was caused by an earthquake machine using technology developed by Nicola Tesla, according to MI6. The earthquake machine is not HAARP as I have previously suggested but rather some sort of nuclear device, according to this source and a CIA source. The CIA source says an expedition sent to the epicenter of the Indonesian earthquake that triggered the tsunami found it to be totally lifeless one year later, something that could only be explained by radiation. “The oil companies won a war and got rights to the oil in that region and nobody even heard about it,” the CIA source said.

            In confirmation of these comments, recently declassified documents show the US government planned to attack Japan with a tsunami towards the end of World War 2 by setting of a large explosion along an underwater fault zone.

            The attack on Haiti was a Bush/Nazi faction response to the ongoing cut off of their financial assets, according to the sources. The attack cut undersea cables and prevented the transfer of large sums of money to South American central banks. In addition, the attack was a warning by the Nazi faction saying: “If you squeeze us too hard we will start killing lots of people.” These criminals need to be punished for these evil acts.

            Multiple sources are also saying a new 911 type incident is becoming increasingly probable as financial deadlines for the Federal Reserve Board approach. One important deadline is expected at the end of this month.

            The sources also say the Federal Reserve Board crime syndicate sold China the anti-missile defense technology recently announced by China. These traitors to the US are almost certainly selling other types of secret technology to China in a desperate bid to keep themselves from going bankrupt.

            Meanwhile, two sources who claim connections to the Pentagon Space Command say there will be major disclosure coming soon. Since there is plenty of evidence the Nazis planned a fake alien invasion, these “announcements” (if they really come) need to be examined very carefully and skeptically.

            In Japan meanwhile, a decision has been made by the secret government to put power broker Ichiro Ozawa in jail in order to prevent him from forming a dictatorship.

            Events are escalating and much turmoil is predicted as the ancient secret government goes through its death throes.

            Kenyan born Obama has to prove his US citizenship to a judge on January 26th .  The judge is an ex-marine who has the backing of the US military and he is not going to submit to pressure. That is why the Bush/Nazi faction was Hillary. Another group wants to set up an emergency government to oversee new elections and return the US to constitutional rule.

            There is a big accounting date on January 30th and it is not clear how the Feds intend to make it past that date. We need to be on extreme alert as we are dealing with desperate, cornered gangsters.

             Meanwhile the Black Dragon Sociey* has decided not to wait for the financial war raging in the Western world to end and has started building factories in Asia to develop heretofore forbidden technology.

            *The Kokuryukai 黒龍会has complained about our use of their name in Japanese. Since there is no point for groups with similar philosophies to quarrel over a name, we will refer to our group was the BDS or Black Dragon Society both in Japanese and English.　There have also been complaints about or referal to the Emperor visiting Washington because many Japanese right wingers refuse to believe such a thing would be allowed. Our source for this information was Casper who claims to have dealt directly with him. There is a lot of disinformation and misinformation out there so, ultimately readers will have to judge the truth for themselves.

Comment: Ben, if you can’t leave your little sister alone, Mommy is going to close the coffin

Pachauri: the real story behind the Glaciergate scandal

January 24, 2010

by Christopher Booker
Telegraph.co.uk

            I can report a further dramatic twist to what has inevitably been dubbed "Glaciergate" - the international row surrounding the “revelation” that the latest report on global warming by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) contained a “wildly alarmist, unfounded claim about the melting of Himalayan glaciers.” Last week, the IPCC, led by its increasingly controversial chairman, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, was forced to issue an unprecedented admission: the statement in its 2007 report that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035 had no scientific basis, and its inclusion in the report reflected a "poor application" of IPCC procedures.

            What has now come to light, however, is that the scientist from whom this claim originated, Dr Syed Hasnain, has for the past two years been working as a senior employee of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the Delhi-based company of which Dr Pachauri is director-general. Furthermore, the claim - now disowned by Dr Pachauri as chairman of the IPCC - has helped TERI to win a substantial share of a $500,000 grant from one of America's leading charities, along with a share in a three million euro research study funded by the EU.

            At the same time, Dr Pachauri has personally been drawn into a major row with the Indian government, previously among his leading supporters, after he described as "voodoo science" an official report by the country's leading glaciologist, Dr Vijay Raina, which dismissed Dr Hasnain's claims as baseless. Now that the IPCC has disowned the prediction made by his employee, Dr Pachauri has been castigated by India's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, and called on by Dr Raina to apologise for his "voodoo science" charge. At a stormy Delhi press conference on Thursday, Dr Pachauri was asked whether he intended to resign as chairman of the IPCC - on whose behalf he collected a Nobel Peace Prize two years ago, alongside Al Gore - but he refused to answer questions on this fast-escalating row.

            To understand why the future of Himalayan glaciers should arouse such peculiar passion, one must recall why they have long been a central icon in global warming campaigners' propaganda. Everything that polar bears have been to the West, the ice of the Himalayas has been - and more - to the East. This is because, as Mr Gore emphasised in his Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth, the vast Himalayan ice sheet feeds seven of the world's major river systems, thus helping to provide water to 40 per cent of the world's population.

            The IPCC's shock prediction in its 2007 report that the likelihood of the glaciers "disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high" thus had huge impact in India and other Asian countries, and it is precisely this statement that the IPCC has now been forced to disown.

            Since this first came to light, many journalists have tried to track down how such an embarrassing error came to be included in the IPCC report, which is still widely touted as the most authoritative single document on global warming. The only researcher who has dug out the full story, however, is my colleague Dr Richard North, who on successive days last week featured prominently on India's leading English-language TV news channel discussing the issue with the two scientists at the heart of the row, Dr Hasnain and Dr Raina.

            Until now it has been generally reported that the IPCC based its offending paragraph on an interview Dr Hasnain gave to the New Scientist in June 1999. This was a time when global warming researchers were busy making ever more extravagant claims in the run-up to the IPCC's 2001 report. It was in that year that Dr Michael Mann in America launched on the world his famous "hockey stick" graph, purporting to show that temperatures had risen faster in the late 20th century than ever before in the Earth's history. The graph was made the centrepiece of the IPCC's 2001 report, though it has since been comprehensively discredited.

            In fact Dr Hasnain had first made his own controversial claim two months earlier, in a much longer interview with an Indian environmental magazine, Down to Earth, in April 1999. It was the wording of this interview which the IPCC was to quote almost exactly in its 2007 report.

            Clearly the IPCC was aware that to cite a little Indian magazine as the reference for such a startling prediction would hardly seem sound scientific practice. But it discovered that Dr Hasnain's slightly later interview with New Scientist had been quoted in a 2005 report by the environmental campaigning group WWF. So it was this, rather oddly, which the IPCC cited as its authority - even though the words it quoted were taken directly from the earlier interview.

            But even before the 2007 report was published, it now emerges, the offending claim was challenged, not least by a leading Austrian glaciologist, Dr Georg Kaser, a lead author on the 2007 report. He described Dr Hasnain's prediction of glaciers disappearing by 2035 as "so wrong that it is not even worth dismissing".

            The year after the IPCC report was published, however, Dr Hasnain was recruited by Dr Pachauri to head a new glaciology unit at TERI. In a matter of months, TERI was given a share in a $500,000 dollar study of melting Himalayan glaciers funded by a US charity, the Carnegie Corporation. It is clear from Carnegie's database that a key part in winning this contract was played by Dr Hasnain's claim that most glaciers in the region "will vanish within 40 years as a result of global warming".

            In May 2009 TERI was also given a share in a three million euro project funded by the EU. Citing the WWF's 2005 report, the EU set up its "High Noon" project to study the impact of melting Himalayan glaciers. It was particularly keen to foster alarm over the Himalayas as a means to win Indian support for action on climate change at last year's Copenhagen conference.

            Last November, however, Dr Raina, the country's most senior glaciologist, published a report for the Indian government showing that the rate of retreat of Himalayan glaciers had not increased in the past 50 years and that the IPCC's predictions were recklessly alarmist. This provoked the furious reaction from Dr Pachauri that tarred Dr Raina's report as "arrogant" and "voodoo science". Only weeks later came the devastating revelation that the IPCC's own prediction had no scientific foundation.

            Dr Pachauri's first response to these revelations was to claim that he had "absolutely no responsibility" for the blunder, that it was "the work of independent authors - they're responsible". But the IPCC's error was so blatant that last week Pachauri and other senior officials had to put out their remarkable statement, admitting that it had been due to a serious system failure.

            Even more damaging now, however, will be the revelation that the source of that offending prediction was the man whom Dr Pachauri himself has been employing for two years as the head of his glaciology unit at TERI - and that TERI has won a share in two major research contracts based on a scare over the melting of Himalayan glaciers prominently promoted by the IPCC, using words drawn directly from Dr Hasnain.

            This is by no means the first time that the procedures used by the IPCC to compile its 2007 report - the most alarmist so far - have been subjected to trenchant questioning. But no one, it seems, is more embarrassed by "Glaciergate" than Dr Pachauri himself, whose expanding worldwide business connections since he became chairman of the IPCC have recently been the subject of articles in these pages by Dr North and myself.

            In view of the IPCC's statement last week, the very evident anger of the Indian government at his dismissal of its expert's report and now the revelation of the part played in this fiasco by a senior member of his own TERI staff, it appears that what we may soon be looking at here is not just "Glaciergate" but "Pachaurigate".

             Comment: This would seem to be one of the main ways in which big government and big corporations buy off scientists. Under the cover of charities, NGOs, think-tanks and research groups, they offer large grants for the 'right type' of research. This naturally selects the 'right scientists and researchers' who are willing to prostitute science in the name of 'man-made global warming.'

            Well, children, here we have more weird stories to munch on. There is absolutely no question that the glaciers, and all others around the world, are melting at a greatly accelerated rate and will all vanish from the face of the earth within ten years at the most. This includes the ones in question, the Greenland icecap and all of the Antarctica ice sheet. There are now groups of greedy people with degrees who cunnintly disguise themselves as scientists and fight fiercely for various grant money. This is an excellent example of the vicious infighting that masks the dismal fact that our ocean levels will rise, at the very least, by three feet in the next five years and once all the ice is gone, by three meters within ten years. The American east and southern coastal areas will be flooded, the infrastructure interdicted and everyone will move to Seattle. Blagladesh will vanish as will parts of the north coasts of Holland, Denmark and Germany. Of course before that happens, legions of “scientists” will line up facing each other and bray like love sick donkeys to entertain the rest of us.

Wal-Mart cuts about 11,200 Sam's Club staffers

January 24, 2010

by Mae Anderson  

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Sunday it is cutting about 11,200 jobs at its Sam's Club warehouse division as it outsources its product-sampling department to marketing company Shopper Events in an effort to win more customers and boost lagging sales.

The terminations represent about 10 percent of the warehouse club operator's 110,000 staffers across its 600 stores. About 10,000 members of the demonstration department, most part-time workers, were let go. Employees were told the news at mandatory meetings on Sunday morning.

"In the club channel, demo sampling events are a very important part of the experience," said Sam's Club CEO Brian Cornell in a phone interview with The Associated Press. "Shopper Events specializes in this area and they can take our sampling program to the next level."

Shopper Events, based in Rogers, Ark., currently works with Wal-Mart's namesake stores on in-store demonstrations.

As consumers eat out less in the shaky economy, Sam's Club has tried to steal customers from grocery chains and rival warehouse stores like Costco Wholesale Corp. by offering more everyday goods like food and health and beauty items and paring its assortment of general merchandise like furniture and clothes.

The move to outsource its food sampling efforts is a way for the company to tout its fresh food offerings in a cost-effective manner, said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consultancy.

"'Fresh' is where the real competitive battles are being fought in the club sector," he said.

Shopper Events will launch a new demo program called "Tastes and Tips" with new carts, signs, uniforms and a trained team, said Cornell. He said the move was not made to save money.

"It's not a cost cutting measure, its really an investment in enhancing our demo program," he said. Cornell said Shopper Events would hire "roughly the same number of people" cut, adding that Sam's Club workers are invited to apply for those positions.

The company also cut its new business membership representative positions, affecting about 2 staffers per store, or about 1,200 staffers in total.

"We have found that we can more effectively drive membership through targeted member acquisition events and by increasing our partner membership programs," Cornell said.

"I feel betrayed," said Sally Grueling, 56, who had worked at Sam's Club for nine years, most recently in Hilliard, Ohio as a new business membership representative.

Sam's Club has performed weaker than Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s namesake stores in the U.S. and abroad. Cornell has been working to improve results since taking the helm in early 2009, introducing new store formats, price cuts and offering more variety and more brands of items from take-home meals to baked goods.

But during the company's most recent quarter, U.S. Walmart stores posted a 1.2 percent sales increase to $61.81 billion while revenue at the Sam's Club division slipped nearly 1 percent to $11.55 billion. Earlier this month, Wal-Mart closed 10 underperforming Sam's Club stores, resulting in about 1,500 jobs being lost.

"Sam's has been the relative laggard, and it has lagged relative to its direct competitors, Costco and the smaller BJ's (Wholesale Club)," said Johnson.

“Bin Laden” endorses failed attempt to bomb US jet

January 24, 2010

by Jason Keyser  

Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — Osama bin Laden endorsed the failed attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day and threatened new attacks against the United States in an audio message released Sunday that appeared aimed at asserting he maintains some direct command over al-Qaida-inspired offshoots.

However, U.S. officials and several researchers who track terrorist groups said there was no indication bin Laden or any of his top lieutenants had anything to do with or even knew in advance of the Christmas plot by a Yemen-based group that is one of several largely independent al-Qaida franchises.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said al-Qaida's core leadership offers such groups strategic guidance but depends on them to carry it out.

"He's trying to continue to appear relevant" by talking up the attempted attack by an affiliate, the spokesman, P.J. Crowley, said.

The one-minute message was explicit in its threat of new attacks. Like the airline plot, bin Laden said they would come in response to America's support for Israel.

"God willing, our raids on you will continue as long as your support for the Israelis continues," bin Laden said in the recording, which was released to the Al-Jazeera news channel.

"The message delivered to you through the plane of the heroic warrior Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a confirmation of the previous messages sent by the heroes of the Sept. 11," he said of the Nigerian suspect in the Dec. 25 botched attack.

"If our messages had been able to reach you through words we wouldn't have been delivering them through planes."

Directing his statements at President Barack Obama — "from Osama to Obama," he said — bin Laden added: "America will never dream of security unless we will have it in reality in Palestine."

The message, which White House officials said could not immediately be authenticated, raised again the question of how much of a link exists between al-Qaida's top leadership along the Afghan-Pakistani border and the handful of loosely affiliated groups operating in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and Iraq.

The al-Qaida leader, who was last heard from in September, seemed intent on showing he remains more than an ideological figurehead, as most analysts have suggested he has become during the terror network's evolution into decentralized offshoots. But some questioned whether al-Qaida's core leadership was involved.

"They weren't putting the final touches on this operation," said Evan Kohlmann, a senior investigator for the New York-based NEFA Foundation, which researches Islamic militants.

Still, the Saudi and Yemeni leaders of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which formed in Yemen a year ago, have a long history of direct personal contact with bin Laden. It is plausible that — if they were able to — they would have informed bin Laden of the airliner plot and sought his approval, Kohlmann said.

The Yemen-based group's leader, Nasir al-Wahishi, was once bin Laden's personal secretary, and its top military commander, Qassim al-Raimi, trained in bin Laden's main camp in Afghanistan, Kohlmann said.

Two of the group's top members were detainees at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. military prison who were released in November 2007.

The Yemen offshoot is largely self-sustaining, with its own theological figures, bomb makers and a network for funneling in recruits.

"The training and the definition of the attack was by the local leaders of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula," said Rohan Gunaratna, author of "Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror."

"So, in many ways you can say bin Laden is exploiting for his benefit this particular attack. Bin Laden still wants to claim leadership for the global jihad movement."

U.S. investigators say the Nigerian suspect in the Dec. 25 attempted bombing told them he had been trained in Yemen and given the explosives there by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Abdulmutallab is accused of attempting to blow up the plane with an explosive powder hidden in his underwear as the aircraft approached Detroit Metro Airport. The device failed to detonate.

Bin Laden's message came four weeks after the Yemen-based group made its own claim of responsibility for the bomb plot with a different justification — linking it to Yemeni military attacks on al-Qaida targets with the help of U.S. intelligence.

There was no way to verify the voice on the audio message was actually bin Laden's, but it resembled previous recordings attributed to him. U.S.-based IntelCenter, which monitors militant messages, said the manner of the recording's release, its content and other factors indicated it was credible.

White House adviser David Axelrod told CNN's "State of the Union" that whatever the source, the message "contains the same hollow justification for the mass slaughter of innocents."

On Friday, Britain raised its terror threat alert to the second-highest level, one of several recent steps the country has taken to increase vigilance after the Christmas Day bombing attempt. The online edition of Britain's The Sunday Times reported that the heightened alert was prompted in part by an Islamic terrorist plot to hijack an Indian passenger jet and crash it into a British city.

Since the Christmas Day attempt, the Yemeni government, at the U.S.'s urging has stepped up its attacks on the group's hide-outs in the rugged country's remote hinterland.

Analysts have long debated how much control bin Laden, who is believed to be somewhere in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, really has over the various organizations using his group's name.

            There's definitely communication, there's definitely a process of seeking approval and swearing allegiance, but I don't think that means they go to bin Laden every time they have a question," Kohlmann said.

The al-Qaida offshoot in Iraq demonstrated such independence, carrying out a frenzy of bombings, beheadings and kidnappings targeting foreigners and Shiite Muslims.

That prompted al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, to write to the group's slain leader, Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, to ask him to avoid "unnecessary bloodshed." The message implied al-Qaida in Iraq's actions threatened to turn away some of al-Qaida's supporters.

Al-Zarqawi was killed in a 2006 U.S. airstrike.

Comment: Children, I have sad news for you. Osama bin Laden is dead. He died in 2003 in a Pakistani military hospital in Peshawar of renal failure (kidneys gave out) But like Jesus, Osama rose from the dead and, with a good deal of assistance from the CIA, why there he is giving out taped “press conferences” which seem to crop up whenever the creeps at Langley feel it necessary. Indeed, a real Second Coming right on your very own television set!

The Afghan/Iraq Death Toll: January 26

January 25, 2010

by Brian Harring

January 4, 2010

  The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

   Spc. Brushaun X. Anderson, 20, of Columbus, Ga., died Jan. 1 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of an airman who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Senior Airman Bradley R. Smith, 24, of Troy, Ill., died Jan. 3 near Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained while supporting combat operations.  He was assigned to the 10th Air Support Operations Squadron, Fort Riley, Kan.

January 5, 2010

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of three soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. They died Jan. 3 in Ashoque, Afghanistan, from wounds suffered when insurgents attacked their unit with multiple improvised explosives devices and small arms fire. They were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

            Killed were:

      Sgt. Joshua A. Lengstorf, 24, of Yoncalla, Ore.

       Spc. Brian R. Bowman, 24, of Crawfordsville, I

             Pvt. John P. Dion, 19, of Shattuck, Okla.

January 7, 2010

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

                Spc. David A. Croft Jr., 22, of Plant City, Fla., died Jan. 5 in Baghdad, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.

January 11. 2010

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

             Sgt. 1st Class Jason O. B. Hickman, 35, of Kingsport, Tenn., died Jan. 7 at Forward Operating Base Salerno, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered earlier that day at Combat Outpost Bowri Tana, when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device and small arms fire. He was assigned to Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. The initial press release had anincorrect name due to a clerical error. However, the correct family was notifiedby Marine Corps officials.

            Lance Cpl. Mark D. Juarez, 23,of San Antonio, Texas, died Jan. 9 while supporting combat operations in Helmandprovince, Afghanistan. He was assignedto 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III MarineExpeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

           Lance Cpl. Jacob A. Meinert, 20, of Fort Atkinson, Wis., died Jan. 10 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

January 12, 2010

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

            Pfc. Michael R. Jarrett, 20, of North Platte, Neb., died Jan. 6 in Balad, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, Illesheim, Germany.

The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

January 13, 2009

The Department of Defense announced today the death of three Marines who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

            The following Marines died Jan. 11 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan:

            Staff Sgt. Matthew N. Ingham, 25, of Altoona, Pa.

            Cpl. Jamie R. Lowe, 21, of Johnsonville, Ill.

            Cpl. Nicholas K. Uzenski, 21, of Tomball, Texas.

            Ingham, Lowe and Uzenski were assigned to 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Okinawa, Japan

January 15, 2010

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

            Spc. Kyle J. Wright, 22, of Romeoville, Ill., died Jan. 13 at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered earlier that day when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device in Kandahar province.  He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

            Sgt. Christopher R. Hrbek, 25, of Westwood, N.J., died Jan. 14 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.  He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

            Sgt. Lucas T. Beachnaw, 23, of Lowell, Mich., died Jan. 13 in Darya Ya, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, Camp Ederle, Italy.

Army Releases December Suicide Data

                The Army released suicide data today for the month of December. Among active-duty soldiers, there were ten potential suicides: one has been confirmed as suicide, and nine remain under investigation. For November, the Army reported 11 potential suicides among active-duty soldiers. Since the release of that report, three have been confirmed as suicides, and eight remain under investigation.

                There were 160 reported active-duty Army suicides during 2009.  Of these, 114 have been confirmed, and 46 are pending determination of manner of death. During 2008, there were 140 suicides among active-duty soldiers.

                During December 2009, among reserve component soldiers who were not on active duty, there were six potential suicides. For the year 2009, among that same group, there were 78 total suicides. Of those, 49 were confirmed as suicides and 29 are pending determination of the manner of death. For 2008, there were 57 suicides among reserve soldiers who were not on active duty.

                “There’s no question that 2009 was a painful year for the Army when it came to suicides. We took wide-ranging measures last year to confront the problem, from the service-wide stand-down and chain-teach program, to enhanced suicide prevention programs and guidance for our Army units, and the suicide prevention research through our partnership with the National Institute of Mental Health,” said Col. Christopher Philbrick, deputy director, Army Suicide Prevention Task Force.

                In 2010, the Army will continue to update and conduct suicide prevention training and improve procedures to ensure soldiers and families receive the support they need when undergoing key transitions, such as moving to another duty station or separating from the Army.

                As part of the ongoing Army Campaign Plan for Health Promotion, Risk Reduction, and Suicide Prevention, the Army Suicide Prevention Task Force will complete a thorough analysis and assessment of each of the Army’s current suicide prevention programs to determine which are most effectively meeting the needs of the Army community.

                “Our assessment will give us the data we need to make decisions about how our programs should be expanded or adjusted, while at the same time maintaining our focus on saving soldiers’ lives,” Philbrick added.

                The Army's comprehensive list of Suicide Prevention Program information is located at http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/suicide/default.asp.

January 16, 2010

            The Department of Defense announced today the deaths of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.  They died Jan. 13 at Combat Outpost McClain, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their vehicle with an improvised explosive device.  The soldiers were assigned to the 118^th Military Police Company (Airborne), 503^rd Military Police Battalion (Airborne), 16^th Military Police Brigade (Airborne), Fort Bragg, N.C.

            Killed were:

            Staff Sgt. Daniel D. Merriweather, 25, of Collierville Tenn.

            Pfc. Geoffrey A. Whitsitt, 21, of Taylors, S.C.

 January 19, 2010

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

            Staff Sgt. Anton R. Phillips, 31, of Inglewood, Calif., died Dec. 31, 2009, at Forward Operating Base Methar Lam, Afghanistan.  He was assigned to G Forward Support Company, 77th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Task Force Wildhorse, Forward Operating Base Methar Lam, Afghanistan.

            The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

January 20, 2010

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

                Spc. Robert Donevski, 19, of Sun City, Ariz., died Jan. 16 in Abad, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of an airman who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Tech. Sgt. Adam K. Ginett, 29, of Knightdale, N.C., died Jan. 19 near Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device.  He was assigned to the 31st Civil Engineer Squadron, Aviano Air Base, Italy.

January 21, 2010

            The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

                Sgt. 1st Class Michael P. Shannon, 52, of Canadensis, Pa., died Jan. 17, in Kabul, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident. He was a mobilized reserve soldier assigned to the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command, Kabul.

                The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

January 22, 2010

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Capt. Paul Pena, 27, of San Marcos, Texas, died Jan. 19 in Arghandab River Valley, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.  He was assigned to the 2^nd Battalion, 508^th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4^th Brigade Combat Team, 82^nd

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Staff Sgt. Thaddeus S. Montgomery II, 29, of West Yellowstone, Mont., died Jan. 20 at Korengal Outpost, Afghanistan.  He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.

The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation.

January 23, 2010

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Pfc. Gifford E. Hurt, 19, of Yonkers, N.Y., died Jan. 20, in Mosul, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related accident.  He was assigned to the 1^st Battalion, 14^th Field Artillery Regiment, 214^th Fires Brigade, 4^th Infantry Division, Fort Sill, Okla.

January 24, 2010

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Xin Qi, 25, of Cordova, Tenn., died Jan. 23, while supporting combat operations in Afghanistan.  Qi was assigned to Fourth Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, Marine Expeditionary Brigade – Afghanistan.