ٳسرائيل حازت في هذه الاتفاقية على ما يعادل صك ملكية للجولان منحه ٳياها حافظ

دولة العصابة : الضلع الخفي

- د.أحمد الشامي

الثلاثاء, 14 شباط 2012

لقاءات الأسد و كيسنجر المتكررة عام 1974 جعلت حافظ يدرك مدى اتساع اللعبة الدولية والمجالات الكبيرة للربح المادي والمعنوي المتاح لمارق ذكي مثله.

بعدما كان جيشه قد "تبهدل " في محاولته الفاشلة لتحسين وضعه التفاوضي مع إسرائيل ، أدرك الأسد أن أمامه واحداً من خيارين لا ثالث لهما : إما أن يكرس جهده لبناء دولة مؤسسات مستقرة وقادرة على التفاوض مع إسرائيل من أجل الوصول إلى تعايش مع المشروع الإسرائيلي في المنطقة مثلما سيفعل السادات فيما بعد ، أو أن يتوصل لتفاهمات مع الأقوياء في المنطقة ومن بينهم إسرائيل تسمح له بتبادل للخدمات سيكون في صالح الجميع باستثناء شعبه ، دون الاضطرار لإرساء مؤسسات قادرة على طمأنة الدولة العبرية.

الخيار الأول ما كان سيسمح للأسد بالتفرد تماماً بالحكم أو بالتوريث وكان سيفسح المجال يوما لنوع من الديمقراطية على المثال الجزائري أو المصري ، فدولة المؤسسات لا تستطيع أن ترهن مصيرها بمستقبل شخص واحد مهما كان هذا الفرد صاحب سطوة. ربما كان التحول إلى نظام ملكي هو الشكل الأنسب للأسد ، لكن خياراً كهذا ، في تلك الفترة ، ما كان ليمر لا لدى الشعب السوري ولا لدى راعي الأسد السوفييتي .

الأسد اختار كما نعرف جميعاً تجاوز دولة المؤسسات و بناء دولة الفرد في استراتيجية دءوبة بالتفاهم مع كيسنجر الذي أفهمه أن الدولة الأقدر على خلعه هي إسرائيل وأن هذه الأخيرة لديها مطالب لن تتنازل عنها مقابل أن يكون الأسد "مقاولاً " لحسابها على التراب السوري. أول هذه المطالب هي الهدوء على حدود الجولان والخرس في مسألة اللاجئين الفلسطينيين في الشام إضافة إلى نسيان موضوع نازحي الجولان لكي يكون احتلال الهضبة مجدياً لإسرائيل.

إسرائيل وكيسنجر استلهما معاهدة وقف إطلاق النار بين فرنسا بقيادة الماريشال "بيتان" وألمانيا النازية الموقعة في 22 حزيران 1940 . وفق هذه المعاهدة تم تقسيم فرنسا إلى جزأين واحد تحت الاحتلال الألماني المباشر وآخر "حر" لا وجود دائم للجيش النازي فيه ويقع تحت سلطة "بيتان" ونظام "فيشي".

صحيح أن الجيش الألماني لم يكن موجوداً خارج الجزء المحتل من فرنسا ، لكن النفوذ الألماني غير المباشر سيمتد إلى كامل التراب الفرنسي بل وسيقوم الألمان باحتلال الجزء الباقي من فرنسا عام 1942 حين شعر النازيون أنهم قد يخسرون الحرب. نظام "فيشي" سيبقى كما هو دون أي تغيير رغم الاجتياح الألماني لكل الأراضي الفرنسية ! وسيبقى الوضع على ما هو عليه حتى تحرير كامل فرنسا ورحيل النازيين.

الفرق بين ألمانيا النازية وإسرائيل أن الأولى كانت منخرطة في حرب عالمية تدور على عدة جبهات متحركة ومع أعداء أقوياء انتهوا إلى هزيمتها. اﻷسد من جهته تمتع بهامش مناورة واسع أتاحته له حقيقة أن ٳسرائيل لم تواجه حتى اليوم أي تهديد وجودي مما سمح لها "بالتساهل " نوعاً ما مع ممارسات الأسد مادام الأخير يؤدي المهمة الأساسية الموكلة له وهي "لجم " الشعب السوري لحساب سادة المنطقة الأجانب.

علام سيحصل الأسد مقابل كل هذه التنازلات الكبيرة والتي ترقى إلى استسلام كامل لإملاءات العدو الصهيوني ؟

وحدهم الموقعون على اتفاقية الفصل بين القوات يعرفون بالضبط مضمونها وملاحقها العلنية والسرية. اﻷمم المتحدة من جهتها أوكلت لها مهمة مراقبة فك الاشتباك و المرابطة على حدود الجولان وهي مهمة مملة تتجدد تلقائياً كل ستة أشهر منذ 1974!

بعد "المقلب" الساداتي وتوقف الحرب في سيناء وبعدما أدار اﻷسد المعارك على جبهة الجولان بالمهارة التي نعرفها، وجد اﻷسد نفسه في مأزق كارثي سيخرج منه رابحاً بفضل عرابه اﻷمريكي ولكن ليس دون ثمن، هو اتفاق الاستسلام التام للسيد الأمريكي والإسرائيلي مع حفظ حقوق الحليف السوفييتي.

اتفاق فصل القوات هذا يصح فيه قول الشاعر : " يا خوفي يوم النصر ترجع سينا ونخسر مصر...." . في أيار 1974 لم يعد الجولان لسوريا وعادت فقط القنيطرة المدمرة والشعب السوري خسر استقلاله لصالح مثلث جهنمي أضلاعه هي، بحسب نفوذها ومركزيتها بالنسبة لنظام الأسد : ٳسرائيل ثم أمريكا وأخيراً الاتحاد السوفييتي. سيبقى هذا المثلث وفي مركزه "حافظ اﻷسد " متحكما بمصير سوريا حتى قدوم اﻷسد الوريث الذي سيضيف له ضلعاً رابعاً هو ٳيران . اﻷسد الأب كان قد باشر في إدماج إيران في لعبة النفوذ والحماية لنظامه دون أن يسمح لها بلعب دور حاسم في تقرير سياساته. الأسد الابن سوف يغير قواعد اللعبة غير المكتوبة لصالح التقرب من إيران.

في ظل هذه الحماية المثلثة نجح اﻷسد في تركيب نظام معقد وتراتبي تغيب فيه كافة أشكال العمل المؤسساتي ويرتبط حصراً بشخص الرئيس. أهمية هذه الترتيبات هي أنها جعلت من شخص اﻷسد حجر الرحى للاستقرار في المنطقة فلا أحد غيره يقبل أو يقدر على تطبيق التزامات النظام. هكذا أصبحت حماية حياة اﻷسد واستقرار نظامه مهمة أساسية ليس فقط ﻷجهزة أمن الأسد ولكن أيضاً التزاما حياتياً ﻷجهزة مخابرات ٳسرائيل وأمريكا وحتى السوفييت ! هذا قد يفسر العمر المديد للأسد وعدم وقوع أي محاولة جدية لاغتياله في حين "غاب " عبد الناصر وتم اغتيال الملك فيصل والسادات في ظروف مناسبة للقوى الكبرى.

هذا قد يفسر أيضاً صعوبة انتقال السلطة التي أسسها اﻷسد ٳلى غيره لكون كافة التزامات النظام ترتدي طابعاً شخصياً وترتبط حصراً باﻷسد في غياب كامل للمؤسسات وللٳدارات القادرة على تسيير شؤون البلاد والعباد.

لم يكن ٳذا من مصلحة اﻷسد لا ٳقامة دولة مؤسسات قادرة على الاستغناء عن شخصه ولا التورط في عملية سلام قد تزعزع أسس حكمه. لا بل أن اﻷسد قد تنفس الصعداء مع اغتيال "اسحق رابين" الذي كان نجاحه في انتخابات الكنيست قادراً على تهديد استقرار وأبدية نظام اﻷسد وإعادة النظر في اتفاق الفصل الذي انتهى إلى جعل النزاع السوري – الإسرائيلي أبدياً ورسّخ حالة اللا حرب واللا سلم.

في الخلاصة ، يستحيل فهم آليات وتطور نظام الأسد وسلوكياته المقبلة دون وضع اتفاق فصل القوات في المكان الذي يستحقه وهو كونه بمثابة "العقد " المؤسس لنظام الأسد.

ٳسرائيل حازت في هذه الاتفاقية على ما يعادل صك ملكية للجولان منحه ٳياها حافظ و سيبقى يحترمها ما دام هو أو نسله مستمرين في حكم سوريا. اﻷسد الذي يدرك تماماً موازين القوى سوف يحترم هذا الاتفاق ولن يعرضه ﻷي اهتزاز. في المقابل، سوف يستحيل الوصول إلى أي اتفاق سلام نهائي مع إسرائيل في ظل حكم الأسد لأن وجود نظام الأسد مرهون باستمرار النزاع الشكلي.

أمريكا وجدت رجل المهمات الصعبة والذي ستضع العديد من الآمال على استمراريته في حكم بلد ثوري ومتمرد هو سوريا. أمريكا ستكتشف فيما بعد الطبيعة "الزئبقية " للأسد ونظامه والكلفة المرتفعة للتعامل مع هذا النظام المارق والمافيوي حين ستجتاح قواتها العراق و ستصطدم بوعود اﻷسد الوريث الكاذبة و بمراوغاته.

الاتحاد السوفييتي حصل من جهته على زبون ممتاز يشتري أسلحته التي لا تصلح سوى لقمع الشعوب ويعمل كواجهة وكوسيط للمنظومة الاشتراكية.

اﻷسد فاز بالاعتراف الإسرائيلي و الدولي بمركزية دوره و بترخيص يسمح له أن يفعل ما يشاء في سوريا وبشعبها مع غطاء ودعم لم يتوفرا ﻷي رئيس سوري قبله.

سوف تبقى هذه المعادلة تتحكم بكافة مآلات النظام وستتعرض لبعض التغيير مع الغزو اﻷمريكي للعراق حيث سيزداد الدوران اﻹيراني والإسرائيلي على حساب اﻷمريكي.

هكذا تحكم اﻷسد بمستقبل البلد معتمدا دوماً على واحد أو اثنين من اﻷضلاع الثلاثة وأحياناً عليها جميعاً (كما حدث حين واجه اﻷسد اﻷخوان في حماة). مثلاً، سيعتمد اﻷسد على الضلعين اﻹسرائيلي واﻷمريكي في دخوله ٳلى لبنان ثم على الضلعين السوفييتي واﻷمريكي في البقاء هناك ! حين واجه اﻷسد اتفاقية السلام اللبناني اﻹسرائيلي التي كان عرابها وزير الخارجية اﻷمريكي "جورج شولتز" في أيار 1983، استند اﻷسد ٳلى عدم رغبة قطاع واسع من المؤسسة العسكرية في ٳسرائيل في التوصل ٳلى سلام مع جيرانهم العرب وٳلى الضلع السوفييتي الذي وجد نفسه خارج المعادلة اللبنانية بقوة اﻷمر الواقع ولصالح النفوذ اﻷمريكي. كانت النتيجة سقوط هذا الاتفاق.

اﻷسد سيحترم دوماً التزامه المطلق تجاه أمن ٳسرائيل و سيبتعد عن اللعب في مجال ٳمدادات النفط معتبراً بما حصل لآخر الزعماء العرب الكبار، الملك فيصل بن عبد العزيز الذي سيدفع حياته في آذار 1975 ثمناً لالتزامه بقضايا العرب الكبرى وﻷنه قطع ٳمدادات النفط عن أعداء العرب في حرب تشرين. استشهاد الملك فيصل سوف يدخل السياسة السعودية في غيبوبة عميقة وسيزيح آخر العقبات في وجه تفرد "زعران" العروبة من قومجيين و ثوريين بالساحة السياسية العربية.

خارج احترام أمن إسرائيل والابتعاد عن تهديد الأمن النفطي للغرب سيتمتع اﻷسد بهامش واسع من المناورة سيسمح له بٳعادة تشكيل البنية المجتمعية في سوريا وليس فقط نظامها السياسي و سيتيح له الانطلاق، فيما بعد، ٳلى المحيط العربي واﻹقليمي الواسع، مثله مثل صدام، السادات والقذافي وغيرهم.

المجتمع السوري، وليس فقط الدولة والنظام سوف ُيعاد تشكيلهما ليصبحا طوع بنان اﻷسد ورهينة لنزوات عصابته ، في ظل تواطؤ دولي وٳقليمي مطلق ، بدأ السوريون بالكاد في ٳدراك مدى عمقه ومدى فداحة الثمن الذي دفعته وتدفعه سوريا الشعب كي تتخلص من سرطان اﻷسد

The Zioconned US master plan for Myanmar has nothing to do with "Democracy" ....

The Zioconned US master plan for Myanmar has nothing to do with "Democracy" but with containing China....

By Bertil Lintner

BANGKOK - Myanmar is winning more foreign friends while international criticism of the current and previous government's abysmal human rights records has all but ceased. Old adversaries in the United States and European Union have scrapped - or are planning to scrap - economic sanctions against the regime, and big-time multinational companies are preparing to lunge into what many seems to believe is Asia's last investment frontier.

A nearly unanimous Western world has heaped praise on President Thein Sein's supposed moves towards "democratic reform" and "national reconciliation". But what has actually changed and what's behind the hype?

In near unison, the international community condemned the Myanmar regime for its brutal repression of Buddhist monk-led pro-democracy protests in 2007, its initial callous response to the Cyclone Nargis disaster in 2008 - when a widely condemned sham referendum on a new constitution was held in the killer storm's wake - and a blatantly rigged general election swept by military-backed candidates in November 2010.

One theory goes that the administration is locked in a power struggle between military "hardliners" and "reformers", and that the latter, at least for now, have the upper hand. Several Western countries have apparently taken the policy decision that every effort should therefore be made to support the "reformers" and recent reform signals to ensure that Myanmar doesn't return to its old repressive ways.

The EU and US have expressed public views to that effect. On January 31, EU president Herman Van Rompuy said in a statement after a summit in Brussels: "I welcome the important changes taking place in Burma/Myanmar and encourage its government to maintain its determination to continue on the path of reform." The US State Department said the day before that it was "encouraged " by Myanmar's recent reforms, "including its decision to allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to run in upcoming elections".

Others, however, suspect that the signs emerging from Myanmar's leadership reflects a well-orchestrated "good cop, bad-cop" routine to neutralize domestic opposition and win new foreign allies, especially among former critics in the West. Either way, Thein Sein's regime has so far skillfully played its cards in a way that few, probably even among themselves, could have foreseen. "Those in power are military men, not representatives of a democratic government. This is how they work," says a Myanmar national who has followed political developments for decades.

Well laid plans
In order to understand Myanmar's policy shift - and why the West has been so supportive - it is instructive to look back to the early 2000s. Then condemned and pressured by the international community, the ruling military junta announced in August 2003 a seven-step "Roadmap to Discipline-Flourishing Democracy." That plan called for the drafting of a new constitution, general elections, and convention of a new parliament which would "elect state leaders" charged with building "a modern, developed and democratic nation".

The "roadmap" was made public, but at the same time a confidential "master plan" which outlined ways and means to deal with both the international community, especially the US, and domestic opposition was also drawn up. The authors of that plan are not known but an internal military document written by Lt Col Aung Kyaw Hla, who is identified as a researcher at the country's prestigious Defense Services Academy, was completed and circulated in 2004.

The Burmese-language document, received and reviewed by this writer, outlines the thinking and strategy behind the master plan. It is, however, unclear whether "Aung Kyaw Hla" is a particular person, or a codename used by a military think-tank. Anecdotal evidence suggests the latter.

Entitled "A Study of Myanmar-US Relations", the main thesis of the 346-page dossier is that Myanmar's recent reliance on China as a diplomatic ally and economic patron has created a "national emergency" which threatens the country's independence.

According to the dossier, Myanmar must normalize relations with the West after implementing the roadmap and electing a government so that the regime can deal with the outside world on more acceptable terms. Evidently the internal thinking was that normalization with the West would not be possible as long as Myanmar was ruled by military juntas.

Aung Kyaw Hla goes on to argue in the master plan that although human rights are a concern in the West, the US would be willing to modify its policy to suit "strategic interests". Although the author does not specify those interests, it is clear from the thesis that he is thinking of common ground with the US vis-a-vis China. The author cites Vietnam and Indonesia under former dictator Suharto as examples of US foreign policy flexibility in weighing strategic interests against democratization.

If bilateral relations with the US were improved, the master plan suggests, Myanmar would also get access to badly needed funds from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other global financial institutions. The country would then emerge from "regionalism", where it currently depends on the goodwill and trade of its immediate neighbors, including China, and enter a new era of "globalization".

The master plan is acutely aware of the problems that must be addressed before Myanmar can lessen its reliance on China and become a trusted partner with the West. The main issue at the time of writing was the detention of pro-democracy icon Suu Kyi, who Aung Kyaw Hla wrote was a key "focal point": "Whenever she is under detention pressure increases, but when she is not, there is less pressure." While the report implies Suu Kyi's release would improve ties with the West, the plan's ultimate aim - which it spells out clearly - is to "crush" the opposition.

At the same time, the dossier identifies individuals, mostly Western academics, known for their opposition to the West's sanctions policy, and somewhat curiously suggests that "friendly" Indian diplomats could be helpful in providing background information about influential US congressmen.

The dossier concludes that the regime cannot compete with the media and non-governmental organizations run by Myanmar exiles, but if US politicians and lawmakers were invited to visit the country they could help to sway international opinion in the regime's favor. Over the years, many Americans have visited Myanmar and often left less critical of the regime than they were previously. In the end, it seems that Myanmar has successfully managed to engage the US rather than vice versa.

Institutional Sinophobia
Aung Kaw Hla's internal thesis is the first clear sign of dissatisfaction with the regime's close ties with China, which, in part, were forged because the West downgraded its relations with Myanmar after massacres of pro-democracy demonstrators in 1988 and other gross human-rights violations. More signs of a worsening relationship could be discerned in internal reports that began to circulate within the military in 2010.

China, until then praised as a dependable ally, was beginning to be viewed increasingly as the root of Myanmar's many ills, from the rape of the country's forests to rampant drug trafficking. China's close ties with the United Wa State Army, Myanmar's main drug-trafficking militia, has not go unnoticed by the authorities in Naypyidaw. Then, in September 2011, came Thein Sein's decision to suspend the China-backed US$3.6 billion joint-venture Myitsone dam project in the far north of the country.

Seen from a US perspective, encouraging Myanmar to move away from China became a priority when Naypyidaw showed that it was willing to engage with the US. Washington was also eager to undermine Myanmar's disturbing military ties with North Korea. Not surprisingly, North Korea was high on the agenda when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Myanmar last December.
The last of several recorded attempts to ship weaponry from North Korea to Myanmar took place in May and June 2011, several months after the supposedly "reformist" Thein Sein became president and after government officials had claimed that there was no military cooperation with North Korea.

On May 26, the USS McCampbell caught up with M/V Light, a Myanmar-bound North Korean cargo vessel suspected of carrying missile parts and possibly other military equipment. The US destroyer approached the ship and asked to board but the North Koreans refused. The first encounter took place in the sea south of Shanghai and a few days later closer to Singapore. The M/V Light eventually stopped and turned back to its home port in North Korea - all the way tracked by US surveillance planes and satellites.

After that incident - and incentives from the US such as easing restrictions on Naypyidaw's access to multilateral lending institutions - there has been no known attempt by North Korea to ship weapons to Myanmar. And the US is no doubt taking full advantage of Myanmar's drift away from China. "What the US is trying to do is to send every signal of support to the forces pushing for liberalization in Burma," said Robert Fitts, a former US diplomat in the region now attached to Thailand's Chulalongkorn university.

The US will soon send a new ambassador to Myanmar, representing an upgrade of diplomatic relations. On February 7, the New York Times quoted US officials as saying that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), David Petraeus, may visit Myanmar later this year. The CIA is not exactly known for being a leading proponent and promoter of liberal values in the developing world; the agency has other priorities such as Myanmar's strategic importance to the US.

But therein lies a danger, which Aung Kyaw Hla outlined in his thesis of more than seven years ago. If Myanmar does manage to improve bilateral relations with the US, China could counteract in a way that threatens Myanmar's integrity and independence. A balanced approach is therefore needed, Aung Kyaw Hla argued, but it was not set out in the master plan how that balance may be achieved.

Well-worn routine
There are other reasons to doubt that Myanmar's new policies will work over the long term. While the international community appears to fall for the latest incarnation of the regime's well-worn good cop, bad cop routine, local and exiled mainstream opposition groups are less likely to be so gullible.

One of the supposed "good cops" in Myanmar's current nominally civilian leadership is former Maj Gen Aung Min, currently the railway minister, who has been tasked with shuttling back and forth between Myanmar and Thailand to meet with influential exiled dissidents. Some of those who have recently met him are deeply suspicious of his motives and the less conciliatory signals sent from the regime's "bad cops".

They note that Aung Min once served under Tin U, Myanmar's powerful intelligence chief until he was ousted in 1983, ostensibly for corrupt practices but more likely because he had built up a state within a state that threatened the leadership of former junta leader Gen Ne Win.

Writing in the Far Eastern Economic Review in 1983, British journalist Rodney Tasker characterized Tin U and his intelligence colleagues as "men of the world compared with other more short-sighted, dogmatic figures in the Burmese [Myanmar] leadership. They were allowed to travel abroad, talk freely to foreigners and generally look behind the rigid confines of the current regime."

But they were also known to be ruthless and extremely skilled at manipulating their enemies and adversaries. Tin U himself was trained by the CIA on the US-held Pacific island of Saipan in 1957. Aung Min somehow survived the 1983 purge and moved to join Myanmar's Intelligence Battalion 21 in 1992. He was with the 66th Light Infantry Division in 2000, was elevated to Southern Commander of the Myanmar Army in 2001, and became railway minister in 2003 under the previous military junta led by Gen Than Shwe.

In today's context, solving the long-burning ethnic issue will be key to realizing the master plan's ultimate vision of keeping the military in power. One of the supposed "bad cops" in the current power configuration is Aung Thaung, another peace negotiator, who met ethnic Kachin rebel leaders in Ruili in southwestern China earlier this year. A former heavy industry minister, he is believed by many to have been one of the architects behind a 2003 mob attack on Suu Kyi and her colleagues in Depayin that left scores of her supporters dead and wounded. "The good cop" Aung Min did not attend the talks in Ruili but some analysts suggest may later step in to "rescue" the talks with a softer approach.

Whether Myanmar's many rebellious ethnic minorities will accept these well-known personalities and well-worn negotiating tactics remains to be seen. The fact that the government has consistently refused to even consider a federal structure does not bode well for reaching lasting agreements with armed groups. The 2008 constitution lays down the fundamentals for a centralized state structure where the military is a main, if not dominant, player.

Thus the recent euphoria over recent "reforms" in Myanmar may therefore be short-lived. Unless the present constitution is scrapped or widely amended, which is extremely unlikely due to the military's de facto veto power in parliament, Myanmar's ethnic issue will likely remain unsolved. And if the country becomes an arena of competition between the US and China, there will certainly be more trouble ahead - as Aung Kyaw Hla warned in his master plan now being put into practice....

MORMONS MOSSAD AND THE CIA....

Mormons wear special underwear - Website for this image

MORMONS MOSSAD AND THE CIA....

Mitt Romney is the candidate of the rich (Exit poll fun: Catholics, Mormons, and the Rich)

Mitt Romney is a Mormon.

Mitt Romney founded Bain Capital, which allegedly could be a front company for Mossad.

Bain Capital owns CLEAR CHANNEL COMMUNICATIONS, "which owns virtually ALL of those fat bloated Neocon windbags." (Does Mitt Romney work for the Mossad?)

OpEdNews has reported on the Mormon-Mossad-CIA Connection:

"The first public awareness of the nexus between Mossad and Mormon secret agents was published by Norman Mailer in A Harlot High and Low in the 60's when a reconditioned WWII Liberty ship was hijacked on the Thames River in London by Mossad.

"The ship had a cargo of uranium ore that had been originally mined in southern Utah.

"The details of that intrigue were published in an article on OpedNews click here".


According to the OpEdNews article on the Mormon-Mossad-CIA Connection:

Mormons believe that "Zion will be built upon the North American continent at a place specific in Missouri and that Mormon leaders will become vice Regents of Christ ruling earth

The law shall go forth from Zion (in America) and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem!

In 1843 the Mormon Church sent an emissary, Orson Hyde, to Palestine to dedicate the land for the return of Jews.

The establishment of a branch of the Mormon's Brigham Young University in Israel created a front for covert activities of the CIA element of the church....

The Mormon entrance to the Salt Lake City, Utah, Temple (notice the all-seeing eye). Mormon founder, Joseph Smith, was a 33rd degree Freemason. See, Mormonism and Freemasonry. Mormonism EXPOSED! - SodaHead

The Pastor of the First Satanic Church, and the author of the Satanic Bible, is Anton LaVey.

In his Satanic Bible, under "In fernal Names," LaVey refers to "Mormo," the God of the living dead, and the king of the Ghouls.

The followers of Mormo are called Mormons.


Rory, at Rys2Sense.com, has written about Mormons.

http://www.rys2sense.com/anti-neocons/viewtopic.php?f=11& /

Joseph Smith, in the 1800's, supposedly had God and Jesus appear to him in some forest...

Before he started polygamy and stealing other members wives (another "vision" of course), the pre-church history of Joseph involves him being thrown in jail for selling a "gold finding device" but like lots of things these records have been covered up by the church....but I digress.

In the vision, God told Joseph all the religions were wrong and to start his own...

Visions told him where to find some buried gold plates in Illinois ... Of course, the "plates" were never found and there's some BS story where god "took them up"....

OK, I have read this crap cover to cover in my youth....

Bottom Line: The Book of Mormon is a chronicle of how people came from Israel ... on some boat god made them make (noah again) and one of the brothers became "evil" and so god made his skin dark...

So you get Lamanites (evil dark skinned Indians... just like everyone knew Indians were evil in the 1800s).

It then goes on to chronicle CONSTANT wars, condoned by god, between the GOOD GUYS and the BAD GUYS ad nauseum...

As soon as the good guys get a little bit bad....they get their ASSES KICKED by their enemies...

Well after all these constant wars there is only one good guy left, (white of course) and because all his "brethren" (vomit) were bad guys they got wiped by the dark skinned heathen.

Well this one guy of course was instructed to bury the plates which were the diaries of his people...

There is ZERO archaeological or historical evidence for these claims...

Don't mention brainwashing.

Rory continues (http://www.rys2sense.com/anti-neocons/viewtopic.php?f=11& /):

1. Mormons did NOT allow blacks into the church until around the 1970s, when (you guessed it) some church leader had a vision from god telling him to do so.

In fact, there are official writings (hushed up somewhat) that state that god marked Cain (the evil one) by making him black.

2. Yes they practiced polygamy and yes some (not officially condoned) still do today, in fact Joseph made some early followers give them his wife and daughters because "god" told him to do so.

3. I grew up mormon for a short while until I managed to free myself... but bottom line is, if you aint... mormon you ain't going to heaven.

The elite have decided that Obama is to be re-elected and the unpopular Romney is to be the loser?

According to an article at Scoop, ( Scoop: Suzan Mazur: Bush And The Mormons)

1. The Carlyle Group, which has links to the Bush (and bin Laden) families, was reportedly founded by people linked to the Mormons.

2. Mormons have had 'a disproportionate representation in the CIA and FBI through the years, and J. Edgar Hoover started the FBI with Mormon agents'. In the last 2 decades there was a tremendous increase of mormons' presence within CIA, as well as that of the Scientology cult.....

3. Karl Rove, of the infamous White House Murder INC,....although not a Mormon, 'was nurtured in the Salt Lake City Mormon culture and educated at the University of Utah.'

4. Mormon Timothy E. Flanigan helped organise the Bush case in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court legal argument. Flanigan also helped organise the Homeland Security department.

5. Mormon Orrin Hatch has chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversees the Department of Justice and the FBI.

6. Dawin A. John who was managing director of information and communication systems for the Mormon Church, was given the job of reorganising the FBI's computer files.

Romney supported the Vietnam War, but avoided fighting in Vietnam.

SEX

Salt Lake City is one of the top 51 'gay-friendly places to live' in the U.S. [45]

The city has a large gay community. (Salt Lake City, Utah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

In the 2004 election, 63% of the city population voted against banning same-sex marriage. [49]

Salt Lake City was founded in 1847 by a group of Mormons led by their prophet, Brigham Young.

It was Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith who married a 14 year-old. (Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith and Helen Mar Kimball age 14)

According to an article Mormonism For Children? "Many Mormon women (as well as men) suffer terribly from depression."

"Utah residents are among the highest users of anti-depressant medication in the United States, as documented in a CBS news story June 3, 2002,"Unhappy In Utah" and in the article "Mormon Women, Prozac, and Therapy" by Dr. Kent Ponder. -Mormonism For Children?

"The frequency of child abuse and spousal abuse in Utah is also extremely high."

According to : Issue 80 - Salt Lake City Messenger :

"In a highly controversial trial, which took place in 1987, a man by the name of Alan B. Hadfield was convicted on seven counts of "sodomizing and sexually molesting his son and daughter." (Salt Lake Tribune, Jan. 13, 1988)

"In the same newspaper, under the date of Dec. 16, 1987, we find the following: 'PROVO—As many as 40 people in the same Lehi neighborhood were implicated as child sex abusers by their own offspring and other children in the area, a therapist testified Tuesday.

"Dr. Barbara Snow, the principal therapist who broke an alleged widespread pattern of child sexual abuse centered in one ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spent nearly six hours on the stand during the second day of the trial of Alan B. Hadfield."....

Former congressman run out of town after taking on Obama-connected energy firms....

Lesson for congressmen: step out of line and be forced out in a contrived scandal....

January , 2012 -- Former congressman run out of town after taking on Obama-connected energy firms....

Former Representative Eric Massa (D-NY) was subjected to gay sexual harassment charges, all subsequently dismissed by House-appointed attorneys and which were partly-engineered by senior staffers for outgoing openly-gay Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), after Massa took on two energy firms closely connected to the Obama White House.....

Before he resigned from office amid unsubstantiated harassment charges made by his chief of staff Joseph Racalto, the former "driver" for Frank, in March 2010, Massa took on Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy Corporation and its CEO Aubrey McClendon, the natural gas "fracking king" and a proponent of non-coal carbon energy sources, including the Canadian Keystone oil sands pipeline project. McClendon has been a political donor to Democrats and Republican presidential candidates, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain.

Chesapeake Energy is the major exploiter of fractured natural gas from the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio and shale oil from the Utica Shale of New York and its operations have contaminated fresh water supplies and caused earthquakes.

WMR has obtained correspondence documenting Massa's opposition to Chesapeake's environmentally-damaging operations in western New York. In a January 10, 2010 letter to McClendon, Massa asks for a meeting to discuss a proposed Chesapeake disposal facility in the town of Pulteney in the pristine Finger Lakes region. Massa pointed out to McClendon that Keuka Lake was surrounded by several communities that relied on tourism and agriculture, both of which rely on clean water.

Massa demanded that the politically-connected McClendon withdraw plans for the facility, which would store resurfaced fluids from hydraulic fracturing and endanger the fresh water resources of the region. The letter was followed by communications between members of Massa's staff and Frank's staff to bring down Massa in a contrived scandal.

Earlier, on September 11, 2009, Massa took on President Obama on one of his pet energy projects, wind energy. Under Obama's "stimulus" package, designed to create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country, including in wind energy projects, $74.6 million in taxpayers' money was awarded by the Departments of Energy and the Treasury to Canandaigua Power Partners, LLC and Canandaigua Power Partners II for wind projects in Coshocton, New York.

The two firms are shell companies that operate on behalf of First Wind, a firm under investigation by then-New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for bribery, intimidation, and other misconduct involving wind energy projects across the northeastern United States. First Wind was financially backed by Dearborn Partners, a major source of campaign funds for then-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. White House economic adviser Larry Summers was also linked to First Wind.

Alarm bells went off among the Emanuel-Summers cabal after Massa's September 11 letter was received. The letter stated: ". . . the award of $74.6 million dollars to corrupt companies that have changed names time and again forming new LLCs and new Inc.s but maintaining their business model of lie, cheat, and corrupt at the expense of taxpayers has stirred great unrest in New York's 29th Congressional District." Massa pointed out that Canandaigua collected electricity production rewards for non-existent energy.

Eventually, Massa was forced to resign. Republican Tom Reed replaced Massa in the 29th district and WMR's sources in the district report that Racalto and Reed continue to maintain a relationship. Reed is wholly-owned and operated by the natural gas fracking and the wind power industries. Frank has announced he is not running for re-election, citing re-districting. It is highly unlikely that the addition of a few hundred more Republican voters in Frank's heavily-Democratic district is the real reason behind his decision not to run again....

Western Surveillance Technology sold to Despots and Zioconned Oligarchs Worldwide...

Western Surveillance Technology sold to Despots and Zioconned Oligarchs Worldwide...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-12/tunisia-after-revolt-can-alter-e-mails-with-big-brother-software.html?cmpid=yhoo

WESTERN companies play an important role in the market for surveillance technology used by Arab despots to spy on their people. In this industry worth billions, the companies also earn their money using methods that have been outlawed in their home country....

He lives in Bahrain, the small island nation in the Persian Gulf. He is an English teacher, married and the father of a nine-year-old son. And he is also the chairman of a unique club. To become a member, one must have been tortured by the country's government.

Abdul Ghani Al Khanjar says that he has had to endure torture six times in the last 17 years. He has spoken about his ordeals before both the British House of Commons and representatives of the United Nations.

But for the last eight months, Khanjar has been in hiding. The only way he can be contacted is through human rights organizations who know how to reach him via the Internet telephone service Skype.

The screen remains black during the first phone call. All that can be heard is the voice of a reserved, polite man. Once he has built up enough trust, a bare wall comes into view with a window to the left of it, covered with a flowered curtain. Khanjar sits in front of the curtain, wearing a white shirt, headphones and a microphone. He smiles apologetically and says: "Sorry about my haircut. I have to do it myself, and I don't have a mirror."

Khanjar has been living in this room for more than half a year. He can take five steps in one direction and four in the other, which he does regularly for a quarter of an hour at a time. He wants to keep himself fit, not knowing what the future has in store for him, or what new ordeals he might face.

The room belongs to an acquaintance who has made it available to Khanjar as a refuge. Khanjar is considered an enemy of the government and was arrested for planning to overthrow the regime. In February, after the Arab Spring had begun, the king of Bahrain suspended his sentence, probably to placate the protesters in his realm. Khanjar addressed the protesters. Soon afterwards, he learned that he was about to be arrested again and went into hiding. He was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison.

German Technology

Khanjar says that there are dozens like him, people who have disappeared and were tortured to extract information. They were also confronted during interrogation with incriminating material: transcripts of their telephone conversations, copies of their emails and comments made in Internet chat rooms.

Surveillance technology produced in the West, including Germany, plays a key role in the power struggle between Arab despots and their protesting subjects. The Western software helps those in power spy on and persecute members of the opposition. It is a market worth billions, and the methods employed are often illegal in Germany.

Nevertheless, there are about two dozen such surveillance companies in Germany, often specialized service providers with names like Gamma International, Syborg and Utimaco. They keep a low profile and tend to respond to inquiries by pointing out that they are bound by strict confidentiality agreements. The industry, which promises total transparency to its customers in foreign governments and agencies, tries to keep its own activities as shielded from outside scrutiny as possible.

The buyers of digital surveillance technology are often from undemocratic countries, like Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Syria, as well as Bahrain, where a German-Finnish company, Nokia Siemens Networks, sold its products. It was a joint subsidiary of two telecommunications giants, Nokia and Siemens, and is now owned by an investment fund registered in Guernsey, a tax haven in the English Channel. The fund, called Perusa, is managed by secretive businesspeople in Munich.

Nokia Siemens was already the subject of criticism in 2009, because of its dealings with Iran. When the fund took over the company that year, it was given a new name: Trovicor.

This is a special week for companies like Trovicor. The ISS World Asia Pacific conference, a trade show for technically adept intelligence agents, investigators and police detectives, began in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. It is a marketplace for suppliers and buyers of surveillance technology -- and is often visited by officials from authoritarian countries.

Total Surveillance

The Cyber Warfare Europe conference, held in Berlin in September, was another key event for the intelligence and surveillance community. A former officer with the US Marines conducted the event in a windowless conference room at the Marriott Hotel.

A new, alarming attempt to create total surveillance at the expense of freedom was on display in Berlin. Functionality of the products is a priority, but so too is marketability. They are sold to any ruler who can afford it, no matter who he declares to be an enemy of the state and how he treats such so-called enemies. The attendees in Berlin seemed enthusiastic about what they were seeing, which included the latest tools for hacking into the suspects' computers. The providers of the software promise that they can even provide interested third parties with access to encrypted emails and telephone conversations.

Representatives of the Gamma Group, a conglomerate that owns two companies headquartered in a Munich office building, had their own booth at Cyber Warfare Europe. Gamma describes itself as a leader in the field of cyber surveillance. The current brochure on its flagship product, "FinFisher," reads like an investigator's wish list -- and a nightmare for civil rights activists. The 41-page brochure describes spy software for all kinds of devices and electronic eavesdropping situations.

Gamma offers a product, for example, known as an "active password sniffer," which is supposedly capable of hacking into password-protected data transmissions in online banking (SSL), as well as private, encrypted WLANs. A product called "FinSpy" is designed to facilitate live surveillance through webcams and microphones, download files without being detected, and even monitor Skype conversations and chats.

In its marketing videos, Gamma promises "full access to target systems," that is, the computers and mobile phones of those to be spied on. Of course criminals, as well as real or alleged regime opponents, should not be aware that any of this is taking place. The spy programs are installed on their computers through such tools as "fake software updates."

'Positive Feedback'

According to the videos, unsuspecting users download the spyware onto their devices when they update their Apple iTunes program or BlackBerry software. Once a BlackBerry, for example, has been infected, the originators of the "FinSpy Mobile" spyware can not only listen in on conversations and read text messages, but can also view contacts, photos, calendar entries and other files stored on the device -- no matter where in the world the device is being used at any given moment. Apple has just closed the security loophole that was being used for this purpose with a real iTunes update.

One of the presenters at the Berlin security conference was a slender Italian with the Milan firm Hacking Team, one of Gamma's main competitors. He described in detail how to hack into encrypted messages. Representatives from the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Indonesia, all countries with democratic deficits, listened with great interest.

The Italian explained that the encryption is not the place to start, because it is impenetrable, even by a supercomputer. The weak point, he told his audience, are the users. He then showed a video and proudly demonstrated how perfectly the surveillance works as soon the spyware is installed. According to the Italian, all it takes is the push of a button for investigators and other customers to listen in on a Skype conversation being conducted by their targets. The system also allows them to read emails or text messages.

The software is "in use with a few thousand target individuals on five continents," the man from Hacking Team said, noting that his company had achieved "high success rates" and received "a lot of positive feedback." His words were received with warm applause.

The Fine Line between Oppression and Crime Fighting

Abdul Ghani Al Khanjar knows full well the possibilities that the international surveillance industry offers its customers. One day, when he was in prison in Bahrain, he was taken to a room with a table and a chair in it. Both were screwed to the floor and placed so closely together that it was very difficult to sit down. Khanjar was ordered to sit down and then stand up again. But because of the narrow space between the table and chair, he could not stand up completely, and it became painful after only a few minutes. He was forced to stand in that position for a long time.

While Khanjar was standing, his torturer asked him to provide the names and addresses of enemies of the state. Khanjar replied that he did not associate with enemies of the state.

He was then suspended from a ceiling beam, with his wrists and ankles tied together.

A few days later, Khanjar was taken from his cell to an interrogation room once again, where he was made to sit down at a table facing a uniformed man with a few sheets of paper in his hand. They were verbatim transcripts of conversations Khanjar had had on his mobile phone before he was arrested in Bahrain. His torturers were only able to obtain the transcripts because of the Western surveillance technology in use at the time. The Bloomberg news agency was the first to report that during the time period in question, Bahrain was using technology produced by Nokia Siemens Networks, now Trovicor.

People like Khanjar are not completely without allies. As Arab government agencies and intelligence services upgrade their technology, a growing number of Western activists are providing support and assistance to the opposition. One of them is Jacob Appelbaum.

An Advocate for the Opposition

Appelbaum, an American, keeps tabs on the surveillance industry and has been involved in the fight against censorship on the Internet for years. He lives in the US state of Washington, but he is often on the road, helping Internet activists and bloggers worldwide remain anonymous on the Web. Appelbaum is a developer with the Tor project, software that is designed to enable people to surf the Web anonymously in times of growing surveillance. To do this, the software encrypts data and pushes it through various computers that are part of the Tor network.

In October, Appelbaum attended a conference in Tunis organized by Germany's Heinrich Böll Foundation and a Tunisian civil rights organization. Most of the invited attendees were bloggers from the Arab world. Appelbaum and a hacker friend gave a presentation on privacy and security in the use of mobile phones. His conclusion was simple. Privacy and security cannot exist together, Appelbaum said. His listeners glanced uneasily at their smart phones.

Appelbaum compares surveillance companies that sell their products to despots with companies in the Third Reich that supported the Nazis with modern technology. "Surveillance systems are weapons that are used to commit human rights violations," he says. According to Appelbaum, the examples of Egypt, Syria and Tunisia clearly illustrate "that the trade in spyware programs must be uncovered and stopped."

But business for companies like Trovicor, Gamma, Hacking Team and others is booming. TeleStrategies, the organizer of the ISS conferences, estimates annual global sales in the industry at $5 billion (€3.7 billion).

Many suppliers are quick to point out that their products are intended only for legal wire-tapping and skimming, or what they call "lawful interception." But when activists raided an office of the Egyptian intelligence service in Cairo, they discovered a file labeled "FinFisher." It contained a detailed bid that included various FinFisher applications sold by the Gamma Group. According to the documents, the system was priced at about €300,000. In other documents, analysts with Egyptian intelligence noted that they were particularly impressed with the ability to listen in on Skype conversations. Gamma's British subsidiary denied ever having supplied FinFisher products to Egypt.

Denials

The Gamma Group, which had not commented on the matter by Friday evening, isn't the only company that suddenly faces embarrassing questions as a result of the upheavals in the Arab world. According to MDR, a German public broadcasting network, bidding documents compiled by Syborg, a company located in the southwestern German state of Saarland, were found in Libya. Syborg manager Robert Lander explains that because of confidentiality requirements, his company "generally provides no information about customers, potential customers or solutions we offer." But, he added, Syborg has "not done any business with or in Libya to date."

It is thought that German surveillance technology has alsobeen delivered to Syria, as part of a surveillance system made by the Italian firm Area. For years, the Italians have used specialized software by the German firm Utimaco in their systems. But as Utimaco senior executive Malte Pollmann insists, Area only built a test version, and the Italians have just cancelled the entire project. "Our software was not used," says Pollmann.

Blue Coat, a US company, was also quick to issue denials after Internet activists revealed that Syrian authorities were filtering and censoring the Internet with the help of Blue Coat hardware. After initially declaring that it had not delivered anything to Syria, the company soon sheepishly admitted that Blue Coat technology was indeed being used. It must have been a shipment that was in fact bound for Iraq, a Blue Coat spokesman said.

Other industry representatives defend themselves just as adamantly, including Jerry Lucas, the organizer of the ISS conferences. He told the British newspaper The Guardian that it is not the responsibility of vendors to divide governments into good and bad. "we're not politicians … we're a for-profit company," Lucas said.

Trovicor officials were only willing to state that they could not publicly discuss customers and the details of agreements. But Christian Hollenberg of Perusa says that there is plenty of evidence on the effectiveness of surveillance techniques in the prevention of serious and very serious crime. Isn't it desirable, Hollenberg asks, to be able to more effectively fight off the attacks of Somali pirates on German commercial ships? And isn't it desirable that German soldiers in Afghanistan are better protected against attacks by jihadists?

A More Thoughtful Impression

Employees of a company like Trovicor "also go to work with the knowledge that they have played a part in preventing suffering," says Hollenberg. He adds that this has to be weighed against "potential unwanted consequences, especially in semi-democratic or undemocratic countries."

Hollenberg also points out that it's important to know "that electronic communication, especially for government offices, is no longer inaccessible anywhere in the world." For this reason, Hollenberg advises, citizens "in semi-democratic or undemocratic countries should refrain for their own safety from using such forms of communication for activities that could bring them into conflict with a regime in power."

There are some industry representatives who make a more thoughtful impression. After the Syria dealings of his partner Area were exposed, Utimaco executive Pollmann temporarily suspended relations with the company. He is now trying to identify the customers where Utimaco products have ended up in the last 15 years. "Dammit," he says, "I have no interest in our technology being used in Syria." But he also believes that suspending the sale of telecommunications technology to the Middle East is "wrong, because this technology, as the movements there have shown, also contains strong elements that promote freedom."

It is a twisted situation, but at its core it revolves around the question of what is more important, security or freedom, and where exactly the line should be drawn. This question isn't just important when it comes to the export of computer programs that can be used as weapons. It is also important and highly controversial in Germany, as police use of a government Trojan horse made by the firm Digitask has shown. And it isn't easy to answer, because both sides -- the intelligence and the civil rights communities alike -- have valid arguments.

Total monitoring leads to a police state, but total freedom from surveillance makes it more difficult for the government to fight crime effectively. Citizens want their privacy, while victims want to see perpetrators brought to justice.

In Bahrain, Abdul Ghani Al Khanjar acknowledges all of these aspects, including the horrifying technical possibilities and the conflicting arguments. He is sitting in his room, in front of the flowered curtain, trying to form an opinion. For a moment, he seems to be at a loss. But then he says that he is betting on politics and the civilization of power. He has no other option.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

Zioconned Americans and the "West in General" have chosen willful ignorance over thoughtful critical thinking....

Zioconned Americans and the "West in General" have chosen willful ignorance over thoughtful critical thinking....

“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” – Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome

Pink Floyd – Comfortably Numb

As I observe the zombie like reactions of Americans to our catastrophic economic highway to collapse, the continued plundering and pillaging of the national treasury by criminal Wall Street bankers, non-enforcement of existing laws against those who committed the largest crime in history, and reaction to young people across the country getting beaten, bludgeoned, shot with tear gas and pepper sprayed by police, I can’t help but wonder whether there is anyone home. Why are most Americans so passively accepting of these calamitous conditions? How did we become so comfortably numb? I’ve concluded Americans have chosen willful ignorance over thoughtful critical thinking due to their own intellectual laziness and overpowering mind manipulation by the elite through their propaganda emitting media machines. Some people are awaking from their trance, but the vast majority is still slumbering or fuming at erroneous perpetrators.

Both the Tea Party movement and the Occupy Wall Street movement are a reflection of the mood change in the country, which is a result of government overreach, political corruption, dysfunctional economic policies, and a financial system designed to enrich the few while defrauding the many. The common theme is anger, frustration and disillusionment with a system so badly broken it appears unfixable through the existing supposedly democratic methods. The system has been captured by an oligarchy of moneyed interests from the financial industry, mega-corporations, and military industrial complex, protected by their captured puppets in Washington DC and sustained by the propaganda peddling corporate media. The differences in political parties are meaningless as they each advocate big government solutions to all social, economic, foreign relations, and monetary issues.

There is confusion and misunderstanding regarding the culprits in this drama. It was plain to me last week when I read about a small group of concerned citizens in the next town over who decided to support the Occupy movement by holding a nightly peaceful march to protest the criminal syndicate that is Wall Street and a political system designed to protect them. My local paper asked for people’s reaction to this Constitutional exercising of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Here is a sampling of the comments:

“What are those Occupy people thinking?! The whole concept is foreign to me. There are always going to be the haves and the have nots. Get over it. Blame yourself for not paying more attention in school or not working hard enough. Just wish people would take responsibility.”

“If they worked half as hard actually working as they do being a pain in everyone else’s ass, they’d be rich! Being born does not guarantee success or wealth. Only hard work does. Maybe we should let them all occupy a jail cell or two.”

“If the goal is to irritate hardworking suburban commuters on their way home, that sounds like the perfect time and location.”

“Let’s hope they don’t pitch tents and trash Lansdale. They need to look for a job, not occupy the streets.”

“I work, and even if I wasn’t working I wouldn’t (march); I would be out looking for a JOB!”

I was dumbfounded at the rage directed towards mostly young people who haven’t even begun their working careers and have played no part in the destruction of our economic system underway for the last 30 years. The people making these statements are middle aged, middle class suburbanites. They seem to be just as livid as the OWS protestors, but their ire is being directed towards the only people who have taken a stand against Wall Street greed and Washington D.C. malfeasance. I’m left scratching my head trying to understand their animosity towards people drawing attention to the enormous debt based ponzi scheme that is our country, versus their silent acquiescence to the transfer of trillions in taxpayer dollars to the criminal bankers that have destroyed the worldwide financial system. I can only come to the conclusion the average American has become so apathetic, willfully ignorant of facts and reality, distracted by the techno-gadgets that run their lives, uninterested in anything beyond next week’s episode of Dancing with the Stars or Jersey Shore, and willing to let the corporate media moguls form their opinions for them through relentless propaganda, the only thing that will get their attention is an absolute collapse of our economic scheme. Uninformed, unconcerned, intellectually vacant Americans will get exactly that in the not too distant future....

The ZIOCONNED and utterly corrupt Fed of Ben Shalom BERNANKE Threw $7 Trillion at the Big Banks, Without Telling Congress or Shareholders....

The Hill notes:

A top House Democrat is calling for a hearing with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke following a report that the central bank secretly committed more than $7 trillion to save banks during the financial crisis.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking member Elijah Cummings (Md.) sent a letter on Monday to panel Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) requesting the committee look into how banks “benefitted from trillions of dollars in previously undisclosed government loans provided at below-market rates.”

“Many Americans are struggling to understand why banks deserve such preferential treatment while millions of homeowners are being denied assistance and are at increasing risk of foreclosure,” Cummings said.

***

The request comes on the heels of a Bloomberg report that said the Fed secretly committed more than $7 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the nation’s top financial institutions, and that these banks “reaped an estimated $13 billion of income” on the below-market rates.

“Unfortunately, officials from many of these financial institutions declined to comment about these loans, including officials from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley,” Cummings writes.

Information about the loans was withheld from Congress as lawmakers debated and passed the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform bill and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, Cummings said. Banks also failed to disclose the information to their shareholders.

***

This “secret financing helped America’s biggest financial firms get bigger and go on to pay employees as much as they did at the height of the housing bubble,” according to economists cited in the report.

Indeed, as I’ve repeatedly noted, virtually all of the so-called help for homeowners is actually yet another bailout for the banks at the expense of homeowners.

All of this might make sense if throwing money at the banks would help the economy, but it is actually destroying the economy. Also, a large portion of bailout funds went to foreign banks. And we may be getting ready to do it again.

But since the banks have bought and sold Washington D.C., the perpetual, stealth bailouts will continue forever unless We the People stand up and “just say no”.

Greater Depression Hidden from View....

“Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy.” – Aristophanes, Plutus

The anger and vitriol directed at OWS protestors by middle class Americans is a misdirected reaction to a quandary they can’t quite comprehend. They know their lives are getting more difficult but aren’t sure why. They are paying more for energy, food, tuition, and real estate taxes, while the price of their houses decline and their wages stagnate. More than a quarter of all homeowners are underwater on their mortgage and many are drowning in credit card and student loan debt. At the same time, government drones tell them the economy is in its second year of recovery and corporate profits are at all-time highs. Government statistics, false storylines, and entitlement programs are designed to confuse the public and obscure the fact we are in the midst of another Depression. Everyone has seen the pictures of the Great Depression breadlines, farmers forced off their land during the dustbowl, and downtrodden Americans in soup kitchens. The economic conditions today are as bad as or worse than the Great Depression. This Depression is hidden from plain view because there are no unemployment lines, bread lines, or soup lines. We are experiencing an electronic Great Depression, as food stamps, unemployment compensation, Social security payments and welfare benefits are electronically delivered to millions of recipients.

There have been over 12 million foreclosure actions since 2007, with millions of Americans losing their homes. Another 16 million homeowners are underwater on their mortgages as home prices continue to fall and the economy sinks further by the day. The value of household real estate has fallen from $22.7 trillion in 2006 to $16.2 trillion today, a loss of $6.5 trillion concentrated among the middle class. In contrast, mortgage debt has only decreased by $600 billion mostly due to write-offs by the banks that created fraudulent mortgage products to lure Americans into debt.

The unemployment rate in the United States reached 25% during the Great Depression. The government manipulated fictional unemployment rate reported to the public by drones at the BLS is currently 9.0%. They conveniently ignore the millions of people who have given up looking for work and those who have taken jobs as part-time pickle ploppers at McDonalds, when they previously assembled automobiles at GM. The true number of unemployed/underemployed is 23%.

Since 2007, unemployment has officially gone up by 7 million. In reality, the same percentage of the working age population should be employed today as in 2007 (63%). Since only 58.4% of the working age population is employed today (lowest since 1983), another 4 million needs to be added to the official unemployment tally. The fact is there are 240 million working age Americans and only 140 million are employed. This means there are 100 million working age Americans not working, but our government only classifies 14 million of them as unemployed. There is certainly millions of stay at home moms, students, and legitimately disabled among the 86 million people classified as not in the labor force, but you can’t tell me that another 20 to 30 million of these people couldn’t or wouldn’t work if given the opportunity.

The deception in government reported figures is borne out by the most successful government program of the Obama administration, which has been adding participants at an astounding rate. The Food Stamp program has been a smashing success as we’ve added 13.8 million Americans to this fine program since Obama’s inauguration, a mere 43% increase in less than three years. There are now 45.8 million Americans dependent upon food stamps for survival, 14.7% of the U.S. population. This program began in 1969 and enrollment always surges during recessions and declines during recoveries. But a funny thing happened during our current “recovery”. The government reported our recession over in December 2009. It was certainly over for the Wall Street psychopaths as they rewarded themselves with $43 billion of bonuses in 2009/2010. The number of Americans on food stamps has risen by 6.8 million during this government sponsored “recovery”. You’ll be happy to know that Obama’s good buddy – Jamie Dimon – and his well run machine at JP Morgan earns hundreds of millions administering the SNAP program.

Since 2007, Federal government transfer payments have increased from $1.7 trillion annually to $2.3 trillion, a 35% increase in four years. This is surely a sign of a recovering economy. Bernanke’s zero interest rate policy has stolen $400 billion per year from senior citizens and savers and handed it to the very bankers who caused the pain and suffering of millions. Personal interest income has declined from $1.4 trillion to $1.0 trillion, while Wall Street faux profits have soared. The game plan of the oligarchy has been to transfer hundreds of billions from taxpayers to bankers, report profits through accounting entries reducing loan loss reserves, pump up their stock prices and convince clueless lemming investors to buy newly issued shares at inflated valuations. The plan has failed. The zero interest rate policy’s unintended consequences have caused revolutions throughout the Middle East and massive food inflation across the developing world.

The single biggest reason the middle class feel frustrated, angry and like they are falling behind is due to the Federal Reserve and the relentless never ending inflation they produce in order to support their masters on Wall Street and provide cover for the trillions in debt spending by politicians in Washington DC. It is no surprise that beginning in 1980 when government spending began to accelerate much more rapidly than government revenues, the government decided to “tweak” how it measured inflation. The government reports inflation at 3.5% today. The truth is inflation is running in excess of 10% if measured exactly as it was in 1980. That’s right, we have a recession and we have inflation in double digits. No wonder the masses are restless.

The reason middle class Americans are being methodically exterminated and driven into poverty is the monetary policies of the Federal Reserve. Since 1971, when Nixon extinguished the last vestiges of the gold standard and unleashed politicians to spend borrowed money without immediate consequence, the U.S. dollar has lost 82% of its purchasing power using the government manipulated CPI. In reality, it has lost over 90% of its purchasing power. The average American, after decades of being dumbed down by government sanctioned education, is incapable of understanding the impact of inflation on their lives. As their wages rise 2% to 3% per year and inflation rises 5% to 10% per year, they get poorer day by day. The Wall Street banks, who own the Federal Reserve, step in and convince the average American to substitute debt for real wealth in order to keep living the modern techno-lifestyle sold to them by mainstream corporate media.

The oligarchy of moneyed interests have done a spectacular job convincing the working middle class they should be angry at 20 year old OWS protestors, illegal immigrants and the inner city welfare class, rather than the true culprits – the Federal Reserve, Wall Street banks and mega-corporations. This is a testament to the power of propaganda and the intellectual slothfulness of the average American. U.S. based mega-corporations fired 864,000 higher wage American workers between 2000 and 2010, while hiring almost 3 million workers in low wage foreign countries, using their billions in cash to buy back their own stocks, and paying corporate executives shamefully excessive compensation. The corporate mainstream media treats corporate CEO’s like rock stars as if they deserve to be compensated at a level 243 times the average worker. The S&P 500 consists of the 500 biggest companies in America and while the executives of these companies have reaped millions in compensation, the stock index for these companies is at the exact level it was on July 9, 1998. Over the last thirteen years workers were fired by the thousands, shareholders earned 0% (negative 39% on an inflation adjusted basis), and executives got fabulously rich.

Man made inflation has stealthily devastated millions of lives over the last four decades. When the weekly wages of the average worker are adjusted for inflation, they are making 12% less than they did in 1971. Using a real non-manipulated measure of inflation, the average worker is making 30% less than they did in 1971. Sadly, our math challenged populace only comprehend their wages have doubled in the last forty years, without understanding the true impact of inflation. Thankfully, the Wall Street debt dealers with a helping hand from Madison Avenue propaganda peddlers stepped up to the plate and imprisoned the middle class with the shackles of $2.5 trillion in consumer debt. So, while real wages have fallen 30% since 1971, consumer debt has increased by 1,700%.

Americans have been snookered into renouncing their citizenship and converting to being mindless consumers. Citizenship requires a person to be actively engaged in the community with obligations to fellow citizens and future generations. Consumerism requires people to love things, embrace debt, worry about what others have, and become driven by the accumulation of possessions and the appearance of wealth. The disgusting exhibition that Madison Avenue maggots have coined Black Friday is the ultimate display of consumerism. In a nauseating display of senseless spending driven by retail conglomerates, Americans act like Pavlov’s salivating dogs by lining up for hours to stampede over and pepper spray other consumers to get the ultimate deal on that Chinese made toaster oven, Vietnamese made laptop, Korean made HDTV, or Mexican made tortilla maker. They don’t seem to grasp the irony of going deeper into debt buying cheap crap made in foreign countries by the workers who took their jobs. The mainstream media proclaims a hugely successful Black Friday as millions bought crap they didn’t need with money they don’t have, while millions more ate their Thanksgiving meals in food shelters – unreported by the media.This repulsive manifestation of consumerism is applauded and encouraged by our government, as described by George Monbiot:

“Governments are deemed to succeed or fail by how well they make money go round, regardless of whether it serves any useful purpose. They regard it as a sacred duty to encourage the country’s most revolting spectacle: the annual feeding frenzy in which shoppers queue all night, then stampede into the shops, elbow, trample and sometimes fight to be the first to carry off some designer junk which will go into landfill before the sales next year. The madder the orgy, the greater the triumph of economic management.”

The masses have been brainwashed by those in power into thinking consumer spending utilizing debt is essential for a strong economy, when the exact opposite is the truth. Saving and investment are the essential ingredients to a strong economy. Debt based spending only benefits bankers, mega-corporations, and politicians.

Mass Manipulation through ZIOCONNED Propaganda....

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.” – Edward Bernays, Propaganda, 1928

Edward Bernays, the father of propaganda to control the masses, would be so proud of his disciples running our country today. He clearly believed only an elite few were intellectually capable of running the show. Essentially, he hit upon the concept of the 1% telling the 99% what they should think and believe over eighty years ago. The mechanisms for controlling the thoughts, beliefs, and actions of the population are so much more efficient today. The conditioning begins when we are children, as every child will be bombarded with at least 30,000 hours of propaganda broadcast by media corporations by the time they reach adulthood. Their minds are molded and they are instructed what to believe and what to value. Those in control of society want to keep the masses entertained at an infantile level, with instant gratification and satisfying desires as their only considerations. The elite have achieved their Alpha status through intellectual superiority, control of the money system, and control of the political process. Their power emanates from eliminating choices, while giving the illusion of choice to the masses. People think they are free, when in reality they are slaves to a two party political system, a few Wall Street banks, and whatever our TVs tell us to buy.

Our entire system is designed to control the thoughts and actions of the masses. In many ways it is done subtly, while recently it has become more bold and blatant. It is essential for the ruling elite to keep control of our minds through media messages and the educational system. It is not a surprise that our public education system has methodically deteriorated over the last four decades. The government gained control over education and purposely teaches our children selected historical myths, social engineering gibberish and only the bare essentials of math and science. The government creates the standardized tests and approves the textbooks. We are left with millions of functionally illiterate children that grow into non-critical thinking adults. This is the exact result desired by the 1%. If too many of the 99% were able to ignore the media propaganda and think for themselves, revolution would result. This is why the moneyed interests have circled the wagons, invoked police state thug tactics, and used all the powers of their media machine to squash the OWS movement. It threatens their power and control.

“Experience has shown that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” – Thomas Jefferson

A highly educated engaged citizenry would be a danger to the existing social order. The 1%, educated at our finest universities, does not want average Americans to obtain a great education for a reasonable price. They want them to get a worthless diploma at an excessively high price tag and become debt slaves to the Wall Street 1%. They want uneducated, indebted consumers, not educated productive citizens. Our republic has been slowly perverted since the time of its inception. The insidious process had been slow and methodical until 1913. The establishment of the Federal Reserve by an elite group of bankers and their politician friends and the establishment of a personal income tax created the conditions that have allowed a small cabal of powerful men to dictate the course of our economic, political, social, and military policies for the last 98 years. Anyone that chooses to open their eyes and awake from the propaganda induced stupor can see the result of allowing a small group of corrupt authoritarian men using their power to pervert our government into tyranny. The majority remains oppressed, buried under trillions of debt, while the shysters reap obscene profits, poison the worldwide economic system, and walk away unscathed in the aftermath of their crimes.

The ruling oligarchy has become so brazen in the last few years that it has attracted the attention of the critical thinking minority. The advent of the internet has allowed these critical thinking few to analyze the un-sanitized facts, discuss the issues, and provide truth amidst a blizzard of lies. The proliferation of truth telling websites (Zero Hedge, Mish, Financial Sense, Naked Capitalism) has allowed truth seekers to bypass the government sanctioned corporate media. The pillaging of society by the politically powerful, corrupt 1% is plain to see in the graphs below.

The divergence in household income was not the result of hard work, superior intellectual firepower, or the media touted entrepreneurial spirit of the rich. It was the result of the 1% capturing the economic and political system of the United States and using it to ransack the wealth of the formerly working middle class. The fatal flaw which will ultimately result in a fitting end for the powerful elitists is their egos. They are psychopaths, unable to feel empathy for their fellow man. Enough is never enough. They always want more. Life is a game to them. They truly believe they can pull the right strings and continue to accumulate more riches. But they are wrong. They are blinded by their hubris. There are limits to growth based solely on debt and we’ve reached that limit. The world is crumbling under the weight of crippling debt created by these Wall Street psychopaths, while the corrupted bought off politicians try to shift the losses from the bankers who incurred them to the citizens who have already been fleeced. Nomi Prins captures the essence of our current situation:

“Today, the stock prices of the largest US banks are about as low as they were in the early part of 2009, not because of euro-contagion or Super-committee super-incompetence (a useless distraction anyway) but because of the ongoing transparency void surrounding the biggest banks amidst their central-bank-covered risks, and the political hot potato of how many emergency loans are required to keep them afloat at any given moment. Because investors don’t know their true exposures, any more than in early 2009. Because US banks catalyzed the global crisis that is currently manifesting itself in Europe. Because there never was a separate US housing crisis and European debt crisis. Instead, there is a worldwide, systemic, unregulated, uncontained, rapacious need for the most powerful banks and financial institutions to leverage whatever could be leveraged in whatever forms it could be leveraged in. So, now we’re just barely in the second quarter of the game of thrones, where the big banks are the kings, the ECB, IMF and the Fed are the money supply, and the populations are the powerless serfs. Yeah, let’s play the ECB inflation game, while the world crumbles.”

Those in power are beginning to lose control. You can sense their desperation. Their propaganda is losing its impact as the pain for millions of Americans has become acute. The outrage and anger flaring across the country on a daily basis, reflected in the OWS movement, is just the beginning of a revolutionary period descending upon this nation. The existing social order will be swept away, but they will not go without a fight. They will use their control of the police, military and media to try and crush the coming rebellion.

The Dream is Gone....

“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” – Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome

In addition to controlling the monetary system and brainwashing the inhabitants with relentless propaganda, the ruling class has used their control of the political process to impose thousands of laws, statutes, rules, and regulations upon the citizens. Again, an apathetic, distracted, trusting populace has been easily convinced that more laws will make them safe and secure. They have willingly sacrificed liberty, freedom and self reliance for the façade of safety, security and protection. The overwhelming number of government rules and regulations are designed to control you and insure your compliance and obedience to those in power. In a non-corrupt society inhabited by citizens willing to honor their obligations, government’s function is to insure property rights and defend the country from foreign invaders. Citizens don’t need to be herded like sheep with threats of imprisonment to do what is right. We don’t need 90,000 pages of regulations telling us the difference between right and wrong.

There were 400 pages of Federal Tax rules when the 1% personal income tax was implemented in 1913. Did the 18,000% increase in tax rules since 1913 benefit the average American or did they benefit the 1% who hires the lobbyists to write the rules which are passed into law by the politicians who receive their campaign contributions from the 1%? Do you ever wonder why you pay more taxes than a billionaire Wall Street hedge fund manager? Do you think our tax system is designed to benefit billionaires and mega-corporations when corporations with billions of income pay little or no taxes? Complexity and confusion benefits those who can create and take advantage of the complexity and confusion. Corporations and special interests have used their wealth to bribe politicians to design loopholes, credits, and exemptions that benefit their interests. The corruption of the system is terminal.

“The mistake you make, don’t you see, is in thinking one can live in a corrupt society without being corrupt oneself. After all, what do you achieve by refusing to make money? You’re trying to behave as though one could stand right outside our economic system. But one can’t. One’s got to change the system, or one changes nothing. One can’t put things right in a hole-and-corner way, if you take my meaning.” – George Orwell

The American people are paying the price for allowing a few evil men to gain control of our government. The American people cowered in fear as the 342 page Patriot Act was somehow written in a few weeks after 9/11, introduced in Congress on October 23, passed the House on October 24 with no debate, passed the Senate on October 25 with no debate, and signed into law on October 26 by George Bush. A law passed by the ruling elite that stripped Americans of their freedoms and liberties was passed using fear mongering false patriotism propaganda to squelch dissent and the American people had no say in the matter. The government has used fear to keep the American people under control. We now unquestioningly accept being molested in airports. We shrug as our intelligence agencies eavesdrop on our telephone conversations and emails without the need for a court order. It is now taken for granted that we imprison people without charging them with a crime and assassinate suspected terrorists in foreign countries with predator drones. Invading countries and going to war no longer requires a declaration of war by Congress as required by the Constitution. The State grows ever more powerful.

Therefore, it is no surprise that Americans sit idly by, watching their 52 inch HDTVs, as young people across the country are beaten, pepper sprayed, shot with rubber bullets and tear gas, and scorned and ridiculed by corporate media pundits for exercising their free speech rights to peacefully protest our corrupt system. The American tradition of civil disobedience is considered domestic terrorism by those in authority. Our beloved protectors in the Orwellian named Department of Homeland Security write reports classifying Ron Paul supporters and returning Iraq veterans as potential terrorists. If the powers that be get their way, the internet will be locked down and controlled, as it poses a huge threat to their thought control endeavors. Freedom to think, learn, question and organize resistance is unacceptable in the eyes of the elite. The country has reached a tipping point. Will enough right thinking Americans stand up and fight to bring down this corrupt system, or will we be herded silently to slaughter. The truth is there is something terribly wrong in this country. We are facing a myriad of problems that will require courage and common sense to overcome. We need only look in the mirror to find the guilty party. It is time to stop letting fear dictate our actions. Conflict is coming to this country due to the evil sanctioned by our corrupt leaders and the upright men and women who will bear the burden of destroying that evil.

Our civilization has adopted the worst aspects of the two most famous dystopian novels in history – Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World. The question is whether the population of this country is too far gone to recover. The answer to that question will determine whether the country chooses authoritarian dictatorship or a renewal of our founding principles. Aldous Huxley understood the three pillars of Western civilization fifty years ago and that their destruction would result in a collapse of our economic system:

“Armaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence – those are the three pillars of Western prosperity. If war, waste, and moneylenders were abolished, you’d collapse. And while you people are over-consuming the rest of the world sinks more and more deeply into chronic disaster.”

The three pillars sustaining the American empire edifice of never ending war, ever accumulating debt and excessive consumerism are crumbling. The growing corruption and weight of un-payable debt have weakened the very foundation of our grand experiment. The existing structure will surely collapse. My entire adult life has tracked the decline of the American empire. I had become comfortably numb. I came to my senses and began to question all the Federal government/Wall Street/Corporate Media sponsored truths about eight years ago. Many others have also awoken and begun to challenge the false storylines dictated by those in power.

The young people leading the protests across this land are showing tremendous courage and a tenacity of spirit that has been dormant for decades among the lethargic, distracted, over-medicated public. Despite being subjected to government education conditioning, these young people have zeroed in on the enemy. They may not have all the solutions, but they have correctly identified the corrupt banking system as the central nervous system of this vampire squid sucking the life out of our nation. I will support any effort to shine a light on our crooked system. My three young sons deserve a chance at a better life than they will get under the thumb of this oligarchic criminal enterprise. As a child I caught a fleeting glimpse of the American Dream. I turned to look, but it was gone. I choose not to become comfortably numb. I choose to do whatever it will take to renew the opportunity for my sons to achieve the American Dream....

http://youtu.be/R-gitG32P_U

Being Anti-War Is Labeled Terrorism....in ZIOCONNED USA and EUROPE....

According to the Department of Justice’s Inspector General (via AP), the FBI spied on an anti-war rally in Pittsburgh sponsored by a nonviolent anti-war and anti-discrimination group, pretending it was preventing terrorism:

The FBI gave inaccurate information to Congress and the public when it claimed a possible terrorism link to justify surveilling an anti-war rally in Pittsburgh, the Justice Department’s inspector general said Monday in a report on the bureau’s scrutiny of domestic activist groups.

Inspector General Glenn Fine said the FBI had no reason to expect that anyone of interest in a terrorism investigation would be present at the 2002 event sponsored by the Thomas Merton Center, a nonviolent anti-war and anti-discrimination group.

The surveillance was “an ill-conceived project on a slow work day,” the IG stated in a study of several FBI domestic terrorism probes of people affiliated with organizations such as Greenpeace and the Catholic Worker.

Earlier, in statements to Congress and in a press release, the FBI had described the surveillance as related to a terrorism investigation.

***

The FBI has broad definitions that enable it to classify matters as domestic terrorism that actually are trespassing or vandalism, the inspector general said.

Regarding the Pittsburgh rally, controversy erupted in 2006 over whether the FBI had spied on protesters at the event several years earlier because of their anti-war views.

Promoters of peace in Maryland, Minneapolis, Chicago and elsewhere were also considered potential terrorists, as was an individual Quaker peace activist.

The Inspector General’s report confirms that – at least in some instances – anti-war views were specifically targeted:

The report concluded that, while the FBI probes were not generally predicated simply on the views of the targets, at least one FBI field office was focused on a group “as a result of its anti-war views.” It also found that “FBI agents and supervisors sometimes provided the [Office of the Inspector General] with speculative, after-the-fact rationalizations for their prior decisions to open investigations that we did not find persuasive.”

In addition, anti-war websites like AntiWar.com are listed on various terrorist watchlists: see number 16 here, and number 37 here.

AntiWar’s sin? It is (according to the watchlists):

An unusual site, essentially an isolationist right-wing/libertarian site consciously designed to appeal to anti-war activists from the left as well.

The irony, of course, is:

Americans want to put a stop to perpetual warfare:

Ron Paul is [partly] gaining popularity because he is against the never-ending War On Terror, and wants to bring the troops home. Americans are sick of the never-ending, ever-creeping war. See this and this.

As Talking Points Memo reported earlier this month:

“…Only about a quarter say the wars in Iraq (26%) and Afghanistan (25%) have lessened the chances of terrorist attacks in the United States,” the Pew report reads. “In both cases majorities say the wars either have increased the risk of terrorism in this country or made no difference.”

Top American military leaders agree, saying that the war on terror has weakened our national security [and it was planned before 9/11, and has little to do with terrorism.]

And a CBS News poll from November 11th found:

• Three-quarters of Americans support US withdrawal from Iraq.
• Two-thirds of Americans believe the Iraq War was not worth fighting.
• Half of Americans oppose US involvement in Libya.
• More than half of Americans want to end the war in Afghanistan.
• Seventy per cent of Americans do not support military intervention to change dictatorships into democracies.
• 55% of Americans say Iran can be contained via diplomacy.
• Only 15% of Americans support military intervention in Iran.

And Nobel-prize winning economists say war is destroying our economy.

Top American military and intelligence leaders, economists and the majority of Americans, by this logic, must be terrorists.

Nazi leader Hermann Goering’s famous statement is relevant to this issue:

Why of course the people don’t want war … But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship … Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

Is Everyone Who Criticizes the Government a Terrorist?

Of course, anti-war protesters shouldn’t take it too personally, since they are in good company:

According to Department of Defense training manuals, protest is considered “low-level terrorism”. And see this, this and this.

***

The government is also using anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and this.

Claims of “national security” are also used to keep basic financial information – such as who got bailout money – secret. That might not bode for particularly warm and friendly treatment for someone persistently demanding the release of such information.

The state of Missouri tried to label as terrorists current Congressman Ron Paul and his supporters, former Congressman Bob Barr, libertarians in general, anyone who holds gold, and a host of other people.

***

And according to a law school professor, pursuant to the Military Commissions Act:

Anyone who … speaks out against the government’s policies could be declared an “unlawful enemy combatant” and imprisoned indefinitely. That includes American citizens.

***

Government apologists are also eager to label anyone “taking a cynical stance toward politics, mistrusting authority, endorsing democratic practices, … and displaying an inquisitive, imaginative outlook” as worthy of a Stalinist trip to the insane asylum....