Dear Mr. Secretary:
I am writing you to submit my resignation from the Foreign Service of the United States and from my position as Political Counselor in U.S. Embassy Athens, effective March 7. I do so with a heavy heart...

The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values but also with American interests. Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America’s most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security.
We should ask ourselves why we have failed to persuade more of the world that a war with Iraq is necessary. We have over the past two years done too much to assert to our world partners that narrow and mercenary U.S. interests override the cherished values of our partners.

We have a coalition still, a good one. The loyalty of many of our friends is impressive, a tribute to American moral capital built up over a century. But our closest allies are persuaded less that war is justified than that it would be perilous to allow the U.S. to drift into complete solipsism. Loyalty should be reciprocal. Why does our President condone the swaggering and contemptuous approach to our friends and allies this Administration is fostering, including among its most senior officials. Has “oderint dum metuant” really become our motto?

For those without the benefit of a Classical education, oderint dum metuant means Let them hate as long as they fear. You can read this letter in full at The New York Times.

BlogThis!

PATRIOTS
& TRAITORS

by Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, Ret. President, Institute for Space and Security Studies, National Advisor, Veterans For Peace, Presiding Archbishop, United Catholic Church.

I'm here representing Veterans For Peace, an organization of thousands of combat veterans. All of us have put our life on the line for this country. And all of us are opposed to a war with Iraq.

As a combat veteran, I will not stand idly by and watch our security destroyed by a president who went AWOL rather than fight in Vietnam. I say, "NO" to war against Iraq. As one who has devoted his life to the security of this country, I will not stand by and watch an appointed president send our sons and daughters around the world to kill Arabs so the oil companies can sell the oil under their sand, making us the target of terrorists.

Peace is patriotic; a preemptive war is immoral, illegal, unconstitutional, and a war crime. I swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States against all enemies -- foreign and domestic. That includes a renegade president.

If this war happens, I will call for the impeachment of George W.Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and the whole oil Mafia. I say "NO" to war against Iraq. We are the people. We are sovereign. The whole world is with us. And we say, "NO!" "NO" to war! "NO" to preemptive war. "NO" to wars of aggression. "NO" to war against Iraq. "NO!" "NO!" "NO!" This war would be treason! PEACE
is patriotic. God bless America! And God save us from George W. Bush!

http://www.veteransforpeace.org

§®¢§®¢§®¢§®¢§®¢§®¢§®¢§®¢§
"It has never happened in history that a nation that has won a war has been held accountable for atrocities committed in preparing for and waging that war. We intend to make this one different. What took place was the use of technological material to destroy a defenseless country. From 125,000 to 300,000 people were killed... We recognize our role in history is to bring the transgressors to justice." --Ramsey Clark

"Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state has become lawless or corrupt. And a citizen who barters with such a state shares in its corruption and lawlessness." -- Mohandas Gandhi

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So, imagine this: You're driving down the road, chatting at a party, witnessing the Police State in overdrive, or whatever. You have a phone. You call your blog on the phone. You leave a message. The message gets instantly posted to your blog as an MP3 file for the world to listen to. Cool?

Anyone wanna try it out?

by Rep. Ron Paul, MD (R-TX)

President Bush Sr. proudly spoke of "The New World Order," a term used by those who promote one-world government under the United Nations. In going to war in 1991, he sought and received UN authority to push Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. He forcefully stated that this UN authority was adequate, and that although a congressional resolution was acceptable, it was entirely unnecessary and he would proceed regardless. At that time there was no discussion regarding a congressional declaration of war.

The first Persian Gulf War therefore was clearly a UN, political war fought within UN guidelines, not for U.S. security – and it was not fought through to victory. The bombings, sanctions, and harassment of the Iraqi people have never stopped. We are now about to resume the active fighting. Although this is referred to as the second Persian Gulf War, it’s merely a continuation of a war started long ago, and is likely to continue for a long time even after Saddam Hussein is removed from power.

by Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph.D.

Recently, cult apologists have attempted to create the impression that the concept of thought reform has been rejected by the scientific community. This is untrue.

Recently, the new Diagnostics and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) published by the American Psychiatric Association cites thought reform as a contributing factor to "Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified" (a diagnosis frequently given to former cult members). Thought reform (notes 1,2,3 below) and its synonyms brainwashing and coercive persuasion (4.5) were also noted in DSM-III (1980) and is DSM-III revised (1987), as well as in widely recognized medical texts (6.7).

Thought reform is not mysterious. It is the systematic application of psychological and social influence techniques in an organized programmatic way within a constructed and managed environments (5,7,8,9,10). The goal is to produce specific attitudinal and behavioral changes. The changes occur incrementally without its being patently visible to those undergoing the process that their attitudes and behavior are being changed a step at a time according to the plan of those directing the program.

Thousands of calls and e-mails protesting the prospect of a war with Iraq flooded Senate offices today, making it impossible to reach Senators or their staffs. Senators were inundated whether they had supported the war or not, as protest organizers urged telephone and internet users to contact Senate offices across the board. NPR's Andrea Seabrook discusses the protest.

Watch it live: http://www.moveon.org/onlinehq/index_04.html

Also see: Anti-war protesters flood Senate, White House offices with calls in 'virtual march'

From the front: As ones who volunteered their Kung Fu to set up and admin Voice/Fax dialing servers, all we can say is, "Jam the Circuits Baybee, Yeah!"
The call volume is estimated at over one million calls. Circuits were jammed, but on the lighter side, those staffers that were forced to field the calls and messages were sent "care packages" of snacks and such. Dissent hax0r stylee.

Has the FBI Cried "Terrorist" Once Too Often?

It would appear these arrests fall within a common pattern the FBI established after 9/11: A highly publicized arrest and then immediately shying away from sharing details or supporting evidence. It's like an episode of Law & Order without the second half-hour: Apprehending a suspect is only part of the story.

The other part involves discovering and proving whether that person actually committed the crime. Without more public trials and without more evidence, the so-called fight against terrorism has become incomplete and increasingly suspect.

by Nick Sandberg, 2001

The purpose of this piece is to introduce the reader to the possibility that much of what we typically believe about our world, notably its history and its political structure, may be some distance from the truth.

In writing it is not my intention to reveal some vast, secret government or destiny, but simply to allow interested readers to indulge themselves in the exercise of re-evaluating just what is going on around us.

Whether or not anyone chooses to believe the scenario portrayed is entirely up to him or her. I make no categorical statements about "how the world is" because our interpretation of our world and the events of our lives is ultimately an entirely subjective experience.

Introduction

Part One - The World Outside

Part Two - The World Inside

Part Three - Building the Prison Planet

Part Four - Escape

VIDEO

Q -- the French press is quoting actually two different diplomats from the United States State Department that -- they're highlighting that the United States is giving some sort of agreements or benefits to Colombia -- and other non-members of the Security Council --

MR. FLEISCHER: I haven't seen the story. And you already have the answer, about what this will be decided on. But think about the implications of what you're saying. You're saying that the leaders of other nations are buyable. And that is not an acceptable proposition. (Laughter.)

transcript

CODENAMED Operation Northwoods, the plan, which had the written approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere. People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving [Lyman L] Lemnitzer* (right) and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war.

Also see:
Operation Northwoods

NORTHWOODS: A PLAN FOR TERROR TO JUSTIFY WAR

Culture and Life: Operation Northwoods and the two towers

U.S. Terror Plan Called Cuba Invasion Pretext

America’s Phoney Wars PART TWO: PROJECT NORTHWOODS

September 11, 2001 - Another Operation Northwoods?

Operation Northwoods - Proof US Government Could Harm Americans

Operation Northwoods In The Moscow Times

What really happened on Sept. 11th? - Part 1

Friendly Fire: Book: U.S. Military Drafted Plans to Terrorize U.S. Cities to Provoke War With Cuba

MUST SEE TV

The comedy trio Bremner Bird and Fortune bring their viewpoint on the Iraqi crisis in their own unique way.

Watch Part 1 (12 min 39s)

Watch Part 2 (13 min 56 s)

Watch Part 3 (9 min 27 s)

Watch Part 4 (14 min 20s)

Those wacky spinmeisters sure have come up with a dumb one, but it has brought up a couple of interesting links, for example, check out This video. Also check out this story on remote control killer toy airplanes. Hmm. Same think tank?

In God He Trusts: How George Bush Infused the White House With A Religious Spirit

Bush's born-again Christianity cannot be questioned. Indeed, it dovetails with his widely attested lack of intellectual curiosity, his seemingly utter certainty of his convictions and with the difficulty of persuading him to change a mind already made up. Few mortals can compete with God for his ear.

Mr Bush's Christian fervour only confirms suspicions that the looming war with Iraq is indeed a "crusade" against Muslims, exactly as Osama bin Laden suggests. For world-weary Europe the presidential language evokes mirth and queasiness in equal measure. A European leader who spoke in such terms would be laughed off the stage. An American one who speaks this way only increases the fear that simplicities of faith, and a habit of seeing a hideously complicated world in a black-and-white, good or evil fashion, are a recipe for disaster. [more] [via]

Crazy fuckin' fundamentalists.

Artichoke Project
Bluebird Project
Pandora Project
Mk-Delta Project
Mk-Naomi Project
Mk-Action Project
Mk-Search Project
Mk-Ultra Project

National Sweep Shuts Down Retailers, Distributors and Internet Sites

Attorney General John Ashcroft and Acting DEA Administrator John B. Brown, III today announced the indictment of 50 individuals on charges of trafficking in illegal drug paraphernalia. The charges are the culmination of two nationwide investigations code-named Operation Pipe Dreams and Operation Headhunter and include indictments against national distributors of drug paraphernalia and businesses nationwide. DEA offices in Boise, Idaho; Des Moines, Iowa; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Dallas and Tyler, Texas were involved in these investigations.

"With the advent of the Internet, the illegal drug paraphernalia industry has exploded," Ashcroft said. "The drug paraphernalia business is now accessible in anyone's home with a computer and Internet access. And in homes across America we know that children and young adults are the fastest growing Internet users. Quite simply, the illegal drug paraphernalia industry has invaded the homes of families across the country without their knowledge. This illegal billion-dollar industry will no longer be ignored by law enforcement. Today, the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, under the leadership of Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson and Associate Deputy Attorney General Karen Tandy, has taken decisive steps to dismantle the illegal drug paraphernalia industry by attacking their physical, financial and Internet infrastructures." >> | Via MeFi

In a brave move by the literary publishers the book 1984 has been re-branded and re-marketed as "totalitarianism for dummies"

Now in a bright yellow cover with a photograph of George Bush emblazoned across it with the slogan "I did it and I can't even pass high school exams" the book explains in easy terms and step by step guides how to control your population with a state of "Permanent War", how to set up your own "Ministry of Truth" and how to control the minds of your minions with Doublethink.

The thought police and ministry of truth have been merged into one by the president as the homeland security department and plans are underway to install a two way screen into the homes of millions of gullible Americans for their own safety.

...George bush has been thought to say "After I created a climate of fear, the oppression of my own citizens was a synch"

Also see: Aldous Huxley: The Ultimate Revolution, March 20, 1962

Aldous Huxley discusses using terrorism to create willing slaves out of the population. Questions / Answers

That most lamentable duct tape suggestion last week by a Homeland Security official -- which drove countless panicked citizens out to buy the product -- has been widely derided as useless and pretty crazy.

But maybe not so crazy. Turns out that nearly half -- 46 percent to be precise -- of the duct tape sold in this country is manufactured by a company in Avon, Ohio. And the founder of that company, that would be Jack Kahl, gave how much to the Republican National Committee and other GOP committees in the 2000 election cycle? Would that be more than $100,000?

Several Remixes by various talents @ ninjatune.net.

Dear Corpse Lovers:

The Great Brown God

is on a hot date with Exquisite Corpse

and invites you to come along

flow with us at www.corpse.org

The Mississippi Corpse

Wears your blues

--Andrei Codrescu

On February 26th, you can join a massive march on Washington without leaving your living room. The Virtual March on Washington is a first-of-its-kind campaign from the Win Without War coalition.

Working together, we will direct a steady stream of phone calls, about one per minute, all day ‹ to every Senate office in the country, while at the same time delivering a constant stream of e-mails and faxes. Our message: Don¹t Attack Iraq.

Please help make the Virtual March a success. To register to send a free fax and make phone calls to Senate offices and the White House, visit: www.moveon.org/winwithoutwar.

Last night on the "Factor," Bill O'Reilly read an email, on the air, from Stephen DeVoy, dissident writer and owner of several dissident websites. The only problem is, Stephen DeVoy did not write the letter. The letter was written by a group of anti-Arab/anti-Muslim Cyber Terrorists waging a death threat campaign against Stephen DeVoy. Apparently, Mr. O'Reilly is so keen to defame the antiwar movement, that he fails to adequately verify any defamatory information sent his way. We have proof that Bill O'Reilly fell for this scam.

Here's the URL of a copy of the post where the Cyber Terrorist organization, KOBE, announced their plot to defame DeVoy.

from The Register

The US military's current armoury of unmanned spyplanes and weapons is to be vastly expanded through the addition of armies of robot soldiers, replacing and/or supplementing the real grunts, reports Billings Gazette.

... The whole concept does however have resonance to anyone who's read DARPA's recently-published Strategic Plan. We hope to have time to bring you more on this amazing document shortly, but for now the particularly relevant section is 3.3. Networked Manned and Unmanned Systems.

DARPA has a vision "of filling the battlespace with unmanned systems that are networked with manned systems. The idea is not simply to replace people with machines, but to team people with robots to create more capable, agile, and cost-effective force that lowers the risk of US casualties." FCS, Future Combat Systems, is a major part of this.

Also see: Pentagon seeks to fiddle with soldier DNA to produce 'super-humans'

...Properly understood, fascism and communism were, as the Soviet and German labels openly declared, actually the same thing:, just two varieties of socialism. The fascist praises the free market, but secretly works to destroy it. The communist condemns the free market and openly works to destroy it. Both tactics are tools of a monopolistic type of parasitism known as socialism. The key goal in either case is the destruction of economic market competition so that certain ruthless individuals can acquire huge wealth and power. The wars between the fascists and the communists in the 20th century have simply been wars fought between competing monopolists.

If the communists had their way, the world would be one giant monopoly government devoid of any troublesome "free market economy." A one-world communist government would control every aspect of a world economy. Nothing would be left to the untidy devices of the free market. Wages and prices would be controlled by government fiat.

If the fascists had their way, the world would be one giant monopoly corporation devoid of any troublesome "free market economy." A one-world fascist government would control every aspect of a world economy. Nothing would be left to the untidy devices of the free market. Wages and prices would be controlled by a central bank, fiat currency, and interest rate manipulations...

Prime Minister Tony Blair is under investigation leading to possible charges for criminal bribery with George W. Bush(43) as a co-conspirator.

Cloak and Dagger has been contacted by reliable bank investigators who have uncovered evidence that British PM Blair was involved in criminal bribery. Blair is now under investigation for accepting large bribes from the Bush oil interests.

The evidence consists of bank transfers from George Bush financial interests to PM Blair's personal accounts via the United Arab Emirates where the investigations into criminal bribery against Blair began.

The bribery purpose is so that the United Kingdom's PM would be sure to go along with Bush's plan to forcibly seize the Iraqi oil fields while also unseating strongman Saddam Hussein. Part of the bribery plan was to use the Oil fields for collateral to support an out of control US deficit.

Osama called Bush Pharaoh while the Pentagon adopted Pharaoh's symbol

In a November communique attributed to "Osama bin Laden," President George W. Bush was referred to as "the Pharaoh of this Age." Of course we have no way of knowing if the communique (in the form of an audio-tape) actually comes from bin Laden, or rather from the stellar nether regions of the Cryptocracy's drawer 13. We content ourselves with analyzing the symbolism of the message itself and its intended effect on its target audience.

The signature symbolism of the western secret society known as Freemasonry is derived from the icons of ancient Egypt, for example, the pyramid and sphinx and the golden funeral mask of Tutankhamen. When Dr. Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard University analyzed the Great Seal of the United States and pronounced it "a dull emblem of a masonic fraternity," he was pointing out that one need not be a Harvard professor to grasp the blatant symbolism of the eye-over-the-pyramid icon most famously reproduced on the U.S. one dollar currency. The image on the dollar bill is of an unfinished monument of the Pharaohs. When the top tier or capstone of the monument is put into place by means of the panoptican surveillance system represented by the disembodied "All-Seeing" Eye at the top of the pyramid, Pharaoh's rule will have been reimposed upon the world.

Among Biblically-literate people, "Pharaoh" has been a synonym for rule characterized by chattel slavery and tyranny. "Osama" bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network are said by the White House, the Establishment press and their papal and Protestant partners in crime, to be Satanic and opposed to God and the Bible. Yet the communique attributed to bin Laden this month makes a Biblical identification of George W. Bush, as "the Pharaoh of the Age."

"Osama" bin Laden's well-publicized identification of Bush with Pharaoh coincided with publicity in November for the Pentagon's "Information Awareness Office" Surveillance System (IAO-SS). This massive, all-seeing eye enterprise is part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), headed by Admiral John Poindexter, the Reagan administration's arms purveyor to the Islamic Republic of Iran. IAO-SS purports to capture a person's "information signature" so that the government can track "potential terrorists" and "criminals" involved in what it terms,"low-intensity/low-density" forms of crime and warfare. [MORE]

I've been browsing some of the declassified documents that record the actual top-secret conversations of the most powerful men in America, then and afterward, in their obsessive and ludicrous attempts to invent a plausible reason to launch a major military attack on Cuba.

In March, 1962, for example, the top officials of the Joint Chiefs of Staff met in Washington to come up with ideas "which would provide justification for U.S. military intervention in Cuba." Operation Mongoose, it was called. (Presumably, Castro was the cobra).

To destroy Castro was a government obsession. "...All else is secondary, no time, money, effort or manpower is to be spared" said a White House memo.

They plotted to destroy Cuba's sugar crop or to contaminate food supplies, in order to provoke the lamentably "apathetic" Cubans to rebel, rise up and call in American troops to help them overthrow Castro. They thought of creating "at least the illusion of a popular [anti-Castro] movement," for want of a real one.

According to these archived documents, the Americans were prepared to do anything: invade Guatemala with soldiers disguised as Cubans, blow up one of their own warships in Guantanamo Bay and stage a fake funeral for the `victims', and even rig up an elaborate phoney attack on a tourist charter flight (complete with airplane debris floating in the ocean) to persuade the United Nations and world public opinion that the U.S. was "suffering justifiable grievances". They went so far as to consider mounting a terrorism campaign against Cuban exiles in Miami, even wounding some people and "widely publicizing" the incidents as caused by Castro. Or — and please listen to the jaunty language — "We could sink a boatload of Cubans en route to Florida (real or simulated)."

Also see: Operation Northwoods

Although completely suppressed in the U.S. media, the answer to the Iraq enigma is simple yet shocking. The upcoming war in Iraq is mostly about how the ruling class at Langley and the Bush administration view hydrocarbons at the geo-strategic level, and the overarching macroeconomic threats to the U.S. dollar from the Euro The Real Reason for this upcoming war is this administration's goal of preventing further OPEC momentum towards the Euro as an oil transaction currency standard. However, in order to pre-empt OPEC, they need to gain geo-strategic control of Iraq along with its 2nd largest proven oil reserves. This essay will discuss the macroeconomics of the "petro-dollar" and the unpublicized but real threat to U.S. economic hegemony from the Euro as an alternative oil transaction currency. The following is how an astute and anonymous friend alluded to the unspoken truth about this upcoming war with Iraq...

Four loyal Americans from Freerepublic.com break the will of 850,000 peacenik protesters with their spirited invective.

As the U.S. continues to inch toward war with Iraq, a jealous and frustrated North Korea is wondering what it has to do to attract American military attention.

"What does it take to get a few F-16s or naval warships deployed to the Yellow Sea?" North Korean president Kim Jong Il asked Monday. "In the past month and a half, we've expelled U.N. nuclear inspectors, withdrawn from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, restarted a mothballed nuclear complex capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium, and threatened to resume missile tests. You'd think that would be enough to get a measly Marine division or two on standby in the Pacific, but apparently not."

Kim said his nation is "way more deserving" of B-52 deployment than Iraq.

ABCNEWS: Researchers Find It's Easy to Plant False Memories in Minds of Some People

Remember that wonderful day when Bugs Bunny hugged you at Disneyland? A study presented Sunday shows just how easy it can be to induce false memories in the minds of some people.

More than a third of subjects in the study recalled that theme-park moment impossible because Bugs is not a Disney character after a researcher planted the false memory.

NOTE: This is a slightly edited version of a special column running in tomorrow's San Jose Mercury News. We're posting it early to get the story out.

Weblogs are going Googling.

Google, which runs the Web's premier search site, has purchased Pyra Labs, a San Francisco company that created some of the earliest technology for writing weblogs, the increasingly popular personal and opinion journals.

The buyout is a huge boost to an enormously diverse genre of online publishing that has begun to change the equations of online news and information. Weblogs are frequently updated, with items appearing in reverse chronological order (the most recent postings appear first). Typically they include links to other pages on the Internet, and the topics range from technology to politics to just about anything you can name. Many weblogs invite feedback through discussion postings, and weblogs often point to other weblogs in an ecosystem of news, opinions and ideas.

ACLU Says New Ashcroft Bill Erodes Checks and Balances on Presidential Power

The American Civil Liberties Union today said that new Department of Justice "anti-terrorism" legislation goes further than the USA PATRIOT Act in eroding checks and balances on Presidential power and contains a number of measures that are of questionable effectiveness, but are sure to infringe on civil liberties.

"The new Ashcroft proposal threatens to fundamentally alter the Constitutional protections that allow us to be both safe and free," said Timothy H. Edgar, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "If it becomes law, it will encourage police spying on political and religious activities, allow the government to wiretap without going to court and dramatically expand the death penalty under an overbroad definition of terrorism." [Full Story]

750 Women Go Nude In Protest

Only the latest in a long string of recent nude protests . . . Needless to say, we like this trend . . . After all, what is more humanist than the human body itself? Unadorned with the corruptive influences of fundamentalist religion (i.e. Ashcroft, Bin Laden, et al.) and clothes gone bad (i.e. Hilfiger, Nike, et al.)?

The White House on Friday released the nation's first cybersecurity strategy, containing about half the recommendations of a wider-ranging earlier draft and largely leaving the task of Internet security to voluntary efforts by corporations and individual Americans.

After kicking off its crafting of the strategy with a high-profile event in the fall in Silicon Valley, the administration quietly posted the final version on its Web site Friday, saying the low-key release was prudent amid a heightened terror alert.

The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace (at whitehouse.gov)

Mercury News Story Here

An equation: 40,000 dead young men = 3,000 tons of bone and flesh, 124,000 pounds of brain matter, 50,000 gallons of blood, 1,840,000 years of life that will never be lived, 100,000 children who will never be born.

web black-out for next day or so... maybe longer

President Bush announced plans on February 14 to launch a new
Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) on May 1 to "better protect
America by strengthening counterterrorism intelligence."

TTIC will play a lead role in overseeing a national counterterrorism tasking and requirements system and in maintaining an up-to-date database of known and suspected terrorists accessible to appropriate officials at all levels of government.

TTIC will be headed by a senior U.S. government official, who will report to the Director of Central Intelligence.

As an important next step in this effort, the President today announced that the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, the Director of Central Intelligence's Counterterrorist Center, and TTIC will relocate, as soon as possible, to a single new facility in order to improve collaboration and enhance the government's ability to thwart terrorist attacks and bring terrorists to justice. | Following is the text of the fact sheet

Note: So you give the ball to Poindexter, who paints a Illuminati like symbol on it, but seemingly gets denied at the hoop. The rebound goes to Junior, who takes a marker and scribbles out the symbol, writes Spaulding on it, and defended by daddy's co-horts goes in for a lay-up, while the ref is watching the new reality TV show, Duct and Cover.

Also see:

U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy Will Enhance National Security

Bush Says Winning War On Terror Requires Perseverance, Coordination:The goal is to develop a comprehensive picture of terrorist activity. When the center is fully operational, it will fully house a database of known and suspected terrorists that officials across the country will be able to access and act upon.

Bush realigns FBI, CIA counterterrorism operations

Websites Shut Down by US Government
Websites Shut Down by Other Governments
Websites Shut Down by Internet Service Provider
Websites Shut Down or Partially Removed by Website Owner
US Government Websites That Shut Down or Removed Information
US Government Requests to Remove Information
Media Professionals Terminated or Suspended
Other Employees Terminated or Suspended
Related Incidents
Related Links

As U.S. military action looms against Iraq, network news divisions are negotiating with the Department of Defense over how many "embeds" - journalists who will travel with troops - they can have filing stories from the front.

Each network and cable news channel is expected to get between eight and 10 teams embedded into fighting units. A team is composed of two journalists.

"If it works, it should be much better than what we had during the [1991] Gulf War and certainly during Afghanistan," CBS News President Andrew Heyward said yesterday during a briefing about his network's plans.

by US Senator Robert Byrd
Senate Floor Speech - Wednesday, February 12, 2003

To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level must be contemplating the horrors of war.

Yet, this Chamber is, for the most part, silent -- ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing.

We stand passively mute in the United States Senate, paralyzed by our own uncertainty, seemingly stunned by the sheer turmoil of events. Only on the editorial pages of our newspapers is there much substantive discussion of the prudence or imprudence of engaging in this particular war.

And this is no small conflagration we contemplate. This is no simple attempt to defang a villain. No. This coming battle, if it materializes, represents a turning point in U.S. foreign policy and possibly a turning point in the recent history of the world.

This nation is about to embark upon the first test of a revolutionary doctrine applied in an extraordinary way at an unfortunate time. The doctrine of preemption -- the idea that the United States or any other nation can legitimately attack a nation that is not imminently threatening but may be threatening in the future -- is a radical new twist on the traditional idea of self defense. It appears to be in contravention of international law and the UN Charter. And it is being tested at a time of world-wide terrorism, making many countries around the globe wonder if they will soon be on our -- or some other nation's -- hit list. High level Administration figures recently refused to take nuclear weapons off of the table when discussing a possible attack against Iraq. What could be more destabilizing and unwise than this type of uncertainty, particularly in a world where globalism has tied the vital economic and security interests of many nations so closely together? There are huge cracks emerging in our time-honored alliances, and U.S. intentions are suddenly subject to damaging worldwide speculation. Anti-Americanism based on mistrust, misinformation, suspicion, and alarming rhetoric from U.S. leaders is fracturing the once solid alliance against global terrorism which existed after September 11. [MORE]

Told to stock up on antidotes, be ready for crisis
Feb.13, 2003

New York City hospitals were placed on high alert yesterday after the government warned of a potential cyanide gas attack by terrorists.
The city Health Department has urged hospitals to increase levels of sodium thiosulfate, the antidote to cyanide, and other pharmaceutical agents in emergency rooms to deal with chemical warfare - or a nuclear attack.

"The hospitals have some stocks," said Susan Waltman, senior vice president with the Greater New York Hospital Association, the group that distributed the seven-page department alert to area emergency rooms. "But over time, we have enhanced our supplies of a lot of antibiotics and these types of antidotes, as well as different kinds of items we may need in a nuclear/radiological event." [Full Story]

Also see:

Rumor of War?

Clearchannel: Preparing for war?

FEMA want's to know: Are you ready?

With 150 million searches per day, most from outside the U.S., Google amounts to a privacy disaster waiting to happen. Those newly-commissioned data-mining bureaucrats in Washington can only dream about the sort of slick efficiency that Google has already achieved. Google deserves your nomination for corporate Big Brother of the Year.

Humanity exists deep within a matrix of deceit. The perceived realities of the world are usually not connected to the real truth. The search for this truth is a constant struggle against the backdrop of lies and distractions. Exposing what lies directly beneath the surface of world events is the key to understanding the true nature of our condition.

National Security Emergencies

In addition to the natural and technological hazards described in this publication, Americans face threats posed by hostile governments or extremist groups. These threats to national security include acts of terrorism and acts of war. The following is general information about national security emergencies. [MORE]

To read the other chapters in this online book, please visit: http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/

Note: Uh, yeah. FEMA, that's who I'm gonna turn to for help...

The Hidden Wars of Desert Storm: Exposes the White House and US State Department's hidden agenda in the Gulf including how the CIA put Saddam Hussein into power. Narrated by John Hurt (1 hour 3 minutes).

Also see:

• Middle Eastern Chessboard Part 1: Arming Iraq
• THE FACTS THAT PUT THIS WHOLE MESS INTO PERSPECTIVE

The logo of the Information Awareness Office does nothing to allay those concerns with its disturbing Orwellian imagery of the all-knowing eye scanning the globe. The Total Information Awareness Gift Shop is a modest comedic attempt to stimulate public awareness and interest in an issue which could detrimentally impact our civil liberties for years to come.

Any proceeds beyond the basic cost of each product will be donated to the American Civil Liberties Union...

The following is a purported internal memo smuggled out of Clearchannel Radio, the nations largest conglomerate of news/talk radio

WAR PLANS
KFBK and KSTE

NEWS

Make certain that we are monitoring CNN and ABC's Sat Que. Sat Que must be turned up loud. We can not just rely on someone occasionally checking the wires. Do NOT turn down the volume on ABC Sat Que. Ross, please consider setting the volume high and removing the volume knob, otherwise someone will turn it down and you'll miss an important bulletin.

Board ops: The second you get a notification that war has begun make sure you are prepared to hit news bulletin sounder and get the information on IMMEDIATELY. As soon as it is offered, cut to network updates or long-form coverage immediately. Then call and page Ken and Cristi.

If War breaks out after 10AM M-F please make sure that we call Joe and Jack to come in and take KSTE into long-form as well.

Our Coverage will be called America's War with Iraq In writing copy please call our coverage, 'LIVE In-Depth Team Coverage of America's War with Iraq.'

After a major terror attack or after the war begins take all presidential addresses and public appearances. [MORE]

"I have gone into debt because of him," he said. "It turned my life inside out."

Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, has returned from exile to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq ahead of a potential U.S.-le