*Ø* Ransom Payments Seen to Fuel Hostage Crisis

"BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The release of two Italian aid workers in Iraq has raised hopes other hostages may soon be freed, but reports that a large ransom was paid may only feed the burgeoning hostage crisis...

"Gustavo Selva, an Italian lawmaker, told French radio a ransom of around $1 million -- a sum already mentioned in Arabic media reports in recent days -- had been handed over." Full text

How do you feel about the paying of ransoms? Or giving in to the demands of hostage-takers? Please, feel free to comment below!

*Ø* John Lennon's killer up for parole

"BUFFALO, N.Y. -- John Lennon's killer will go before the parole board for a third time next week to seek release after 24 years in prison" ...

"In advance of next week's hearing, a letter was sent to the parole board on behalf of Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, requesting that Chapman be denied parole, according to a source close to Ono, who spoke only on condition of anonymity ...

"'If he is set free, something will surely happen to him,' wrote a New Yorker. 'This is New York, 'accidents' happen.'" Full text

*Ø* Health fears eat into McDonald's profits

"The fast-food giant McDonald's is used to serving up super- size profits for its shareholders as well as bulging cartons of burgers and fries to a hungry public. But yesterday it was explaining away a significant decline in reported profits as it revealed its restaurants had been hit by a big drop in turnover last year.

"The UK arm of the global chain, which owns two thirds of the 1,235 McDonald's restaurants across Britain, reported operating profits were down £61m on the previous year ...

"Chief among its tormentors is Morgan Spurlock, a film director, whose attempt to exist on a pure diet of McDonald's for a month in the hit documentary Super Size Me saw him pile on 30lbs and suffer a falling sex drive. Meanwhile, the so-called McLibel Two have reopened the scars left by the longest trial in English legal history by taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights. The company is also braced for compensation claims from obese former customers who claim their health suffered by eating too many burgers ...

"Ian Tokelove of the Food Commission said consumers had woken up to the choices available. 'McDonald's have tried to convince us that they are making their food more healthy but their salads have been shown to have more fat than a burger when you take into account the dressing,' he said." [emphasis mine!]

Full text at The Independent

*Ø* Little Johnny

A guy on his way home from work in Canberra traffic came to a dead halt and thought to himself, "This is unusual." He noticed a cop walking between the lines of stopped cars, so rolled down his window and asked, "Officer, what's the hold-up?"

The cop replied, "Prime Minister Howard is depressed, so he stopped his motorcade and is threatening to douse himself with petrol and set himself on fire. He says no one believes his stories about why we went to war in Iraq and the children overboard and Peter Costello taking over the helm in 12 months, so we're taking up a collection for him."

The guy asks, "How much have you got so far?"

The cop replies, "About 200 litres, but a lot of people are still siphoning."

*Ø* Yow!

Just trod on a bee. That's it. I'm through with nature. I'm voting for John Howard.

*Ø* Some reading

Just some gleanings from the Web. Paul Berman's slate.com article on Che Guevara, entitled The Cult of Che, has a rational approach to the adulation of the Stalinist mass murderer, something not easily found in reading anywhere.

Can anything good come out of New Zealand apart from a jet plane? Well, it seems so (not forgetting that Karl Popper taught philosophy there). Arts & Letters Daily is something I wish I had discovered long ago. It gets 100,000 hits a month, so others have already found it. The brains behind it is Dennis Dutton, North Hollywood-raised philosophy professor from Christchurch [NZ] University. Dutton's article, Mythologies of Tribal Art, inter alia, rips to shreds a postmodern analysis of the picture shown here, of a Melanesian girl with a necklace of 1950s flash-camera bulbs. Dutton writes well and wittily, and anyone with a bead lined up on pomos is tops in my book.

Dutton's LA Times review of Lord of the Rings says what I said about the movie, only Dutton says it much better. If I recall correctly, all I said was it's a piece of boring shite that put both my 12-year-old son and me to sleep in the cinema. Wish I could write reviews.

Another Slate article, this time on the late/not late Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. It's called 'Dead like her: How Elisabeth Kubler-Ross went around the bend'. Kubler-Ross's theories have been long discredited, or at least glanced at askance, but Ron Rosenbaum adds some piquant observations and information, such a curious titbit about a shonky 'healer' who hung around the Great Woman's institution, shtooping some of the devotees in darkened rooms while assuring them he was channelling dead relatives. Funny!

What I'm reading offline is Stephen Jay Gould's 1996 book, Life's Grandeur (published as Full House in Gould's native USA). Gould is the only palaeontologist I've read, and he's a very engaging writer. Engaging? Did I say that? Where's my gun? I smell a pomo. Next I'll be saying he 'unpacks' common fallacies about evolution ('the ladder of evolution' is no ladder at all). If I say 'unpack', shoot me now. I think my aporia is showing.

*Ø* China's Sorrow

September 28, 1887 In one of the worst floods in history, ‘China’s Sorrow’, the Huang Ho River (Huang He; Yellow River) in China flooded, killing about 1 million people. The flooding covered about 130,000 square kilometres (50,000 sq. miles) and completely buried many villages under silt. More than two million people probably died from drowning, starvation, or the epidemics that ensued. Ten years before, in 1877, another million had died in the flooded Huang Ho, and two years later, another flood destroyed 1,500 villages.

China’s Huang Ho and Yangtze rivers drowned more than 40 million people from 1851 to 1856. A major course change that took place in 1194 took over the Huai River drainage system throughout the next 700 years. The Huang Ho River has the highest recorded silt load of any major river in the world, with each cubic foot of water carrying more than 0.9 kilograms (two pounds) of silt.

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

*Ø* 108-year-old starts smoking again

The centenarian stopped smoking at the age of 99 because he couldn't afford the cigars.

"GREAT FALLS, Montana (AP) After receiving gifts of cigars from as far away as London, a 108-year-old man started smoking again.

"Retired railroad worker Walter Breuning spoke at his birthday party Tuesday of how he reluctantly quit smoking cigars at the age of 99 because he couldn't afford them.

"The Great Falls man heard from people like the English cigar fan who sent two Havanas after his story was widely distributed.

"'They were $12 cigars and they were good,' Breuning said. 'You can't get good Havana cigars like that out here.'"
Source: CNN

[Thanx Baz le Tuff, who knows a stogie man when he sees one.]

*Ø* Powell lied about WMD inspectors

It is well said in the old proverb, 'a lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on'.
CH Spurgeon, English nonconformist preacher (1834 - 92), Gems from Spurgeon, 1859

September 27, 2003 Colin Powell publicly lied that the Clinton administration "conducted a four-day bombing campaign in late 1998 based on the intelligence that he [UNSCOM director, Richard Butler] had. That resulted in the weapons inspectors being thrown out."

In fact, President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, after having ceased to comply with UN weapons inspectors on October 31, had sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan offering to facilitate the inspections. On December 16, Richard Butler, head of UNSCOM, the UN weapons inspection team withdrew the team from Iraq, to protect his staff from the air strikes that the US and UK governments were threatening. Within hours, Operation Desert Fox began: the US and UK began pre-emptively bombing Iraq – hundreds of cruise missiles raining down on the country, marking the start of strikes to punish the Baghdad government.

An avalanche of US and British propaganda was published by a mostly unsuspecting world media, justifying the aggression and ignoring the destruction of Baghdad’s utilities and the deaths of many innocent civilians and service people.

Since Butler’s forced withdrawal in the face of US-UK threats, many Western media and politicians have usually pretended to the public that Iraq "expelled" the team. The events surrounding the withdrawal are recounted in Butler’s book, Saddam Defiant: (2000):

"I received a telephone call from US Ambassador Peter Burleigh inviting me for a private conversation at the US mission ... Burleigh informed me that on instructions from Washington it would be 'prudent to take measures to ensure the safety and security of UNSCOM staff presently in Iraq.' I told him that I would act on his advice and remove my staff from Iraq."

The lie gets round the world
The 'mistake' has been made not only by pro-war people such as George W Bush in his State of the Union address (‘the axis of evil’ speech), Dick Cheney, Alexander Rose, the Canadian right-wing Washington correspondent of the National Post, and the editorial writers of the Sunday Times. It has also been made by those who have shown concern for the humanitarian situation in Iraq, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, UK Liberal Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Menzies Campbell, and the usually trustworthy Guardian Middle East editor Brian Whitaker. The BBC often makes the same incorrect assertion, although it usually acknowledges its error when it is pointed out to them.

Richard Butler became a fierce critic of the invasion of Iraq, strongly criticising Australian Prime Minister Howard and marching with more than a quarter of a million others in the Sydney pro-peace march on February 16, 2003 (held almost simultaneously with the worldwide February 15 marches due to time differences).

Myths of the ‘War on Terrorism’ and Iraq
Colin Powel’s other big lie, at the UN
Iraq crisis timeline
Chronology from UNSCOM website

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

*Ø* Why Judaized Christians Are Re-electing George W Bush

By Charles E Carlson

"Serial wars’ never-ending blood purges are now the dominant factor in our American culture. Each successive war is paid for by the dilution of our money, which is no more or less than a hidden tax on the consumer. The twin effects are unprecedented price inflation and a dismal decline in morality that has always accompanied militarism everywhere. The sad Soviet Union is the most recent example of this. History warns us that political wars and monetary dilution are the twin scissor blades of tyranny, and that the middle class and the fixed income consumer are always caught between its razor sharp blades.

"We Americans are now embroiled in the so-called 'war on terrorism' which, ignoring the causes and excuses of it for the moment, is in practice a war on Islam."
Source: We Hold These Truths

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

Who are the War Enablers?
"They are your oldest friend, maybe your wife or child, the very respectable church down the street. The war Enablers are made up of people you love, or could love if they would only wake up.

"The force of world Zionism invented a religious philosophy, Judaized Christianity we call it, to support Israel’s statehood at the American grass roots. This author knows. He is a recovering survivor of Judaized Christianity. Many of your neighbors and some of your best friends are Enablers. Maybe you are one, and are wondering if you should not be."
Source: We Hold These Truths

Pharisee Watch

*Ø* The private army in Iraq

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted.
Dwight D Eisenhower, 1961

We've all read it before, but it never hurts to be reminded of the warning with which US President Eisenhower cautioned the American people in his parting speech. We've seen his prophecy come true in our times.

And a relatively new industry has joined the military-industrial complex: private soldiers and militray consultants, of whom there are now 20,000 in Iraq.

The privatization of war

Listen to Prof. Peter W Singer (not the Australian ethicist of the same name, minus the middle initial), the author of Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry. (A transcript will be here by week's end.)

"This is a trend that is growing and Iraq is the high point of the trend," said Singer, a security analyst at Washington's Brookings Institution, in another article. "This is a sea change in the way we prosecute warfare. There are historical parallels, but we haven't seen them for 250 years."

*Ø* Haiti 1,650, Australia 0

One notes a radio discussion about the hurricanes in and around the Caribbean: concern that Australia's export of oranges to the USA will be affected one way or the other. Little or no attention paid to the fact that 1,650 people have died in Haiti, with about 800 missing.

Fortunately, people of colour, especially those who live in the tropics, feel the effects of tragedy less than others, and, of course, place less value on human life. It's incredible how they adjust to adverse circumstances.

*Ø* How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power

The Guardian:

"Rumours of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president

"George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.

"The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

"His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.

"The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy" ...
Continue here [all emphasis mine - N]

*Ø* How Stanislav saved the world

(and nobody knew)

I drank half a litre of vodka as if it were only a glass and slept for 28 hours. In principle, a nuclear war could have broken out. The whole world could have been destroyed.
Stanislav Petrov describes his actions after averting nuclear war on September 26, 1983

1983 On this day, it is likely that more lives were saved than on any other occasion in history, and it was by a man most of us haven’t heard of, and because he refused to obey orders.

Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averted a worldwide nuclear war (because of time-zone differences, the date was September 26 in the Soviet Union, and September 25 in the West). Petrov refused to accept that missiles had been launched against the USSR by the United States despite the indication given by his computerised early warning systems.

For three terrifying minutes, Petrov held firm while alarms around him in his bunker were telling him his country was under attack, with five US missiles launched and headed towards Soviet territory.

The experience nearly ruined his health, and his incredible tale was hushed up. Petrov was even investigated for his conduct during the incident, and he believes that the investigators tried to make him a scapegoat for the false alarm. It was not until 1998 that the story leaked out.

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

*Ø* Cool site, cool singer


Big-voiced Canadian singer/songwriter Serena Ryder, who has just finished an Aussie tour, not only is extremely talented, her website is the funnest I've seen for months. She's only 21 and I bet she has a great carer ahead of her. Her new album will be released in Australia on March 10.

Hear her live in concert in a Sydney pub here.

*Ø* Eat your blackberries before the Devil pisses on them

Holy Rood Eve, OS (Old Style calendar)
Last blackberry-eating day, Scotland

The last day to pick and eat blackberries because the Devil poisons them (urinates on them) on September 26, Old Holy Rood Day (rood = cross).

However, in most parts of England the equivalent day was Michaelmas (now September 29). Because some say that Satan keeps the old calendar, in England blackberries are safe to eat until old Michaelmas Eve (October 10).

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

*Ø* The Face of Iraqi 'Democracy'

"Iraq's appointed leader, Ayad Allawi, put on an impressive performance yesterday in Washington ...

It was everything the Bush re-election campaign could have asked for. Unfortunately, most of it was wrong.

"Until Iraq holds free elections, Mr. Allawi cannot claim to speak for more than the narrow coalition of exile parties that maneuvered his appointment as interim prime minister. Increasingly well-organized and deadly attacks are directed against American troops, foreign relief workers and Iraqi security recruits. Sunni towns like Falluja and Mosul and Shiite areas, including much of Baghdad, are gripped by insurgencies that American military analysts believe are nowhere near being overcome. Oil pipelines are attacked regularly, electricity supplies remain erratic, and foul drinking water breeds disease ... "
Full text at the New York Times

*Ø* The polls are wrong

Excerpt from Michael Moore, 20 Sept:
[Last Monday]

"The polls are wrong. They are all over the map like diarrhea. On Friday, one poll had Bush 13 points ahead -- and another poll had them both tied. There are three reasons why the polls are b.s.: One, they are polling 'likely voters'. 'Likely' means those who have consistently voted in the past few elections. So that cuts out young people who are voting for the first time and a ton of non-voters who are definitely going to vote in THIS election. Second, they are not polling people who use their cell phone as their primary phone. Again, that means they are not talking to young people. Finally, most of the polls are weighted with too many Republicans, as pollster John Zogby revealed last week. You are being snookered if you believe any of these polls."

Full text

*Ø* Dogs can sniff out cancer

"Dogs can be trained to sniff out bladder cancer, the first controlled experiments published claim.

"There have been anecdotal reports of dogs spotting cancer in their owners, but now researchers say they have proved this phenomenon scientifically.

"The scientists at Amersham Hospital, Buckinghamshire, ultimately hope to build a tool that is as good at discerning these smells as dogs' noses.

"Their findings appear in the British Medical Journal."
Full text at the BBC

*Ø* Dobell, Smith and Aussie prejudice, '40s style


September 24, 1899 Sir William Dobell (d. May 13, 1970), Australian artist whose name will forever be linked to that of his friend, Joshua Smith.

In 1943 Dobell won Australia’s most prestigious award for portraiture, the often controversial Archibald Prize, for a painting (right) of fellow artist, Smith.

Amid claims that the painting was a caricature and not a portrait, a highly celebrated and acrimonious court case eventuated, in which lawyers drew attention to Smith's non-movie star visage. How could the portrait be a caricature, it was asked, when Smith really had those odd looks? And that was just from the lawyer's on Dobell's side.

The public curiosity, or, rather, prurience, was heightened by the subtle nuances of the sexuality of Dobell and his friend. Dobell was vindicated, but some scholars say that both Smith and Dobell were ruined in health by the case.

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

*Ø* Holy smoke!

[or, on second thoughts, maybe you shouldn't ...]

"BERLIN (Reuters) - A German telecommunications company said on Tuesday it is developing the first mobile phone that will alert users when their breath is bad or if they are giving off offensive smells.

"The phone will use a tiny chip measuring less than one millimeter to detect unpleasant odors, a spokeswoman for Siemens Mobile said. A research team in the southern city of Munich is developing the device using new sensor technology."
Source

*Ø* Now 'Premeditated Murder' charges

From CentCom, via CLG:

"BAGHDAD, Iraq – First Cavalry Division announced Sept. 21 that charges have been preferred against two Task Force Baghdad Soldiers in the deaths of three Iraqis.

"Sgt. Michael P. Williams and Spc. Brent W. May, members of Company C, 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, Fort Riley, Kansas, have both been charged with premeditated murder. Williams was also charged with obstruction of justice and making a false official statement."
Source

*Ø* "Hussein probably didn't gas Kurds": CIA senior analyst

"The chemical attack on Halabja – just one of 40 targeted at Iraq's own people – provided a glimpse of the crimes Saddam Hussein is willing to commit, and the kind of threat he now presents to the entire world."
President GW Bush, March 15, 2003
Source: American Forces Information Services


We invaded Iraq because of WMDs and because Saddam Hussein was such a crazy mutha that he gassed his own people (the Kurds in Halabja), so he might gas us, do you remember?

Author Dr Stephen C Pelletiere, recently professor at the US Army War College, was the CIA’s senior political analyst during the Iran-Iraq War. In Tuesday's Late Night Live interview with the doyen of Australian broadcasters, Phillip Adams, Pelletier drops the bombshell that he and his colleagues who investigated the gassing did not believe that Saddam Hussein committed the atrocity.

Of the massacre of Kurds in Halabja, Pelletier tells Adams: “Halabja was a battle between the Iraqis and the Iranians and the Kurds were … collateral damage”. “Halabja was a tragedy of war, it was not a war crime”. Pelletier goes on to say that Iraq was not known to have cyanide gas, but Iran was:

“I examined the case very deeply afterwards … those of us who examined the bodies concluded that most of the Kurds who died, or the ones we examined, died of cyanide poisoning” … “it is spin doctoring” … “people who die in a battle are unfortunate victims, but they are not objects of genocide”.

Pelletier says that “the President is effectively lying to us” … “It does appear that the Bush administration lives in an atmosphere that is hermetically sealed … you do get the opinion that these people are out of touch”.

Hear the interview with Pelletier
Listen in Real Media or Windows Media. Kindly note that the interview starts about 15 minutes from the beginning of the one-hour program, and I suggest you make a cup of tea during the first quarter hour, which is rather inconsequential Aussie political banter.

Pelletiere wrote on January 31, 2003 in the NY Times:

"And the story gets murkier: immediately after the battle the United States Defense Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a need-to-know basis. That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds, not Iraqi gas.

"The agency did find that each side used gas against the other in the battle around Halabja. The condition of the dead Kurds' bodies, however, indicated they had been killed with a blood agent -- that is, a cyanide-based gas -- which Iran was known to use. The Iraqis, who are thought to have used mustard gas in the battle, are not known to have possessed blood agents at the time.

"These facts have long been in the public domain but, extraordinarily, as often as the Halabja affair is cited, they are rarely mentioned."
Source

Could ex-CIA man Pelletiere be Saddam's witness?
Pelletiere has been making his claim since going public on January 31, 2003 in The New York Times in an article ('A War Crime or an Act of War?'). Saddam Hussein at the opening of his trial in Baghdad said that he knew of the Halabja massacre only from the newspapers; perhaps he will call the former CIA man as a witness (more at July 4 in the Blogmanac).

Books by Stephen Pelletiere in Cafe Diem!, our store
America's Oil Wars
The Iran Iraq War: Chaos in a Vacuum
Iraq and the International Oil System: Why America Went to War in the Gulf

*Ø* Ganesh's milk miracle

September 21, 1995 The milk miracle of New Delhi, India which spread worldwide and finished in 24 hours as suddenly as it had started. It has been called “The best documented paranormal phenomenon of modern times.”

In this alleged miracle, a statue of the Hindu elephant god, Ganesh, accepted offerings of milk from tens of millions of worshippers in thousands of temples.

There is a similar 'miracle' (though in an opposite direction) recorded of a statuette of ‘Ashtart (a major northwest Semitic goddess cognate of Ishtar) from Tutugi (Galera) near Granada in Spain dating to the 6th or 7th century BCE.

In this miracle, ‘Ashtart sat on a throne flanked by sphinxes holding a bowl beneath her pierced breasts. A hollow in the statue would have been filled with milk through the head and gentle heating would have melted wax plugging the holes, producing an apparent miracle.

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

*Ø* Microwave gun to be used by US troops in Iraq

Telegraph:

"Microwave weapons that cause pain without lasting injury [?? - N] are to be issued to American troops in Iraq for the first time as concern mounts over the growing number of civilians killed in fighting...

"Using technology similar to that found in a conventional microwave oven, the beam rapidly heats water molecules in the skin to cause intolerable pain and a burning sensation. The invisible beam penetrates the skin to a depth of less than a millimetre. As soon as the target moves out of the beam's path, the pain disappears."
Full text

*Ø* Patience with Sudan running out

"Johannesburg -- The world's patience is running out on war-torn Darfur and Sudan has to immediately stop all rights abuses and end a cycle of broken promises, a senior Amnesty International official said on Sunday.

"The warning came a day after the UN Security Council passed a resolution warning that it 'will envisage' sanctions against Sudan's vital oil industry, after consulting with the African Union, unless Khartoum delivers on pledges to protect the people of Darfur."
Full text

Can you afford 10 cents?

If you add the contents of a sachet of Oral Rehydration Salts to clean boilded water and give it to a child who is dying from diarrhoeal dehydration, within a few short hours you'll have saved that child's life. Can you imagine what it must be like when there are no sachets left? A life-saving sachet costs only 10 cents.

Donate here at Unicef.ie

The comb-licking guy (in-joke to those who've seen Fahrenheit 9-11*), courtesy of Baz le Tuff, with thanks. Arrr Arr!! (It's Talk Like a Pirate Day, after all.)

*If you haven't, you can pre-order the DVD through Cafe Diem!.

*Ø* "Bush did 9-11": Former Dole aide

It's unthinkable, unimaginable, that the September 11, 2001 attack on America was anything but what the US Government told us it was. I admit that I have doubts about that (although persuaded of many problems with the government's use of it), but until I see irrefutable evidence to the contrary, I accept the received wisdom.

I do, however, feel that alternative theories should be considered, and those that aren't obviously and irredeemably ludicrous have been and will continue to be presented here for public information. I say this as something of a caveat to my presentation of an interview that is really quite astounding and worthy of consideration.

Stanley Hilton is an attorney, author and former senior advisor to Senator Bob Dole and has personally known Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. He came to public attention a couple of years ago as the attorney representing the families of 9-11 victims in a class action which is filed as Case No. CV-03-03927-SI. He has changed his public statements from accusations that the Administration did too little to prevent the attacks, to one that the Administration actually committed them. He claims to have incriminating evidence and has filed a lawsuit, again on behalf of 400 victim families. In the following interview he says:

"Our case is alleging that Bush and his puppets Rice and Cheney and Mueller and Rumsfeld and so forth, Tenet, were all involved not only in aiding and abetting and allowing 9/11 to happen but in actually ordering it to happen. Bush personally ordered it to happen. We have some very incriminating documents as well as eye-witnesses, that Bush personally ordered this event to happen in order to gain political advantage, to pursue a bogus political agenda on behalf of the neocons and their deluded thinking in the Middle East ...

"Individuals that work in NORAD as well as the Air Force have stated this, off the record, but the point is, yes, this was not just five drills but at least 35 drills over at least two months before September 11th. Everything was planned, the exact location ... "

Read the transcript and listen to the mp3 which I will have available for just a short while.

I can't vouch for Stanley Hilton's credentials, motivations or state of mind. But this court case should be interesting to watch unfold.

*Ø* Bogus 9-11 sites

This site has an interesting expose on bogus 9-11 sites, COINTELPRO, disinfo, agents provocateurs and all that jazz in the movement questioning what really happened. I guess it all adds to the rich fabric of postmodern madness.

This, however, isn't bogus: Pravda on June 26, 2001 with a report that Osama bin Laden was preparing an attack on the USA. I guess Bush, Blair and Howard can't read Russian, even in English.

*Ø* Why US troops were allowed to use Shannon airport ...

... on their way to Iraq, while the Irish Government protested that it was supporting the UN line, i.e. "give the inspections more time, there is as yet no war". We wouldn't like any bad blood that might make these companies pull out and find their labour elsewhere, now would we. Never morals. Always economics.

Ireland is most profitable tax haven for US firms

"Ireland is the most profitable country in the world for US corporations, a detailed analysis of global tax havens has found, writes Sean O'Driscoll in New York

"The analysis, in the influential US tax journal Tax Notes, found that profits made by US companies in Ireland doubled from 1999 to 2002, while profits in most of the rest of Europe plunged. While Luxembourg showed greater profitability rates for US corporations, Ireland has a much larger 'real economy' and produced the greatest profitability.

"The report found a huge shift in the movement of capital towards tax havens.

"'In low-tax Ireland, for instance, profits of subsidiaries of US multinationals have doubled in four years, from $13.4 billion to $26.8 billion. Profits from operations of US multinationals in no-tax Bermuda have tripled, from $8.5 billion to $25.2 billion. Not surprisingly, those two tax havens rank as the number one and number two locations in terms of profitability for US corporations operating abroad - surpassing long-time leading investment partners like the United Kingdom,' the report found."
Continue at the Irish Times

*Ø* Secret papers show Blair was warned of Iraq chaos

The Telegraph:

"Tony Blair was warned a year before invading Iraq that a stable post-war government would be impossible without keeping large numbers of troops there for 'many years', secret government papers reveal.

"The documents, seen by The Telegraph, show more clearly than ever the grave reservations expressed by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, over the consequences of a second Gulf war and how prescient his Foreign Office officials were in predicting the ensuing chaos ...

"The documents further show that the Prime Minister was advised that he would have to 'wrong foot' Saddam Hussein into giving the allies an excuse for war, and that British officials believed that President George W Bush merely wanted to complete his father's 'unfinished business' in a 'grudge match' against Saddam.

"But it is the warning of the likely aftermath -- more than a year in advance, as Mr Blair was deciding to commit Britain to joining a US-led invasion -- that is likely to cause most controversy and embarrassment in both London and Washington ...

"Mr Straw predicted in March 2002 that post-war Iraq would cause major problems, telling Mr Blair in a letter marked 'Secret and personal' that no one had a clear idea of what would happen afterwards. 'There seems to be a larger hole in this than anything.' ...

"Sir David Manning, Mr Blair's foreign policy adviser, returned from talks in Washington in mid-March 2002 warning that Mr Bush 'still has to find answers to the big questions', which included 'what happens on the morning after?'.

"In a letter to the Prime Minister marked 'Secret - strictly personal', he said: 'I think there is a real risk that the administration underestimates the difficulties." Full text [all emphasis mine - N]

*Ø* The flying monk



Feast day of St Joseph of Cupertino

An ecstatic, this St Joseph was born in 1603 at Cupertino (Copertino), a small village between Brindisi and Otranto in the Kingdom of Naples. His father was a carpenter and he was born in a stable. Joseph was a sickly and dull youth, nicknamed ‘Bocca Aperta, ‘the gaper’ because of his appearance when he entered a trance.

Throughout his life he was considered by all to be unworldly, unlearned and not too intelligent, but with great powers of divinity. In March, 1628 he was raised to the priesthood, but this was not the last time he was ‘raised’ ...

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

*Ø* Cheney: The Greed Factor

Sanctions against rogue regimes would have been abandoned if Dick Cheney had had his way.

"As Secretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush, Cheney helped lead a multinational coalition against Iraq and was one of the architects of a post-war economic embargo designed to choke off funds to the country. He insisted the world should 'maintain sanctions, at least of some kind,' so Saddam Hussein could not 'rebuild the military force he’s used against his neighbors.'

"But less than six years later, as a private businessman, Cheney apparently had more important interests than preventing Hussein from rebuilding his army. While he claimed during the 2000 campaign that, as CEO of Halliburton, he had 'imposed a "firm policy" against trading with Iraq,' confidential UN records show that, from the first half of 1997 to the summer of 2000, Halliburton held stakes in two firms that sold more than $73 million in oil production equipment and spare parts to Iraq while Cheney was in charge. Halliburton acquired its interest in both firms while Cheney was at the helm, and continued doing business through them until just months before Cheney was named George W. Bush’s running mate.

"Perhaps even more troubling, at the same time Cheney was doing business with Iraq, he launched a public broadside against sanctions laws designed to cut off funds to regimes like Iran, which the State Department listed as a state sponsor of terrorism. In 1998, Cheney traveled to Kuala Lumpur to attack his own country's terrorism policies for being too strict. Under the headline, 'Former US Defence Secretary Says Iran-Libya Sanctions Act "Wrong,"' the Malaysian News Agency reported that Cheney 'hit out at his government' and said sanctions on terrorist countries were 'ineffective, did not provide the desired results and [were] a bad policy.'"
Source: American Prospect Online

*Ø* Big websites that just don't give a shit

Everypoet.com getting my readers for free

Everypoet.com has a banner exchange that I signed up with two or three years ago and I'm not happy with it. I have the swap banners on about 15 pages, such as here, and each one has its own unique html code so they're quite a hassle to install.

"Join Everypoet Exchange,
the most indescribably fabulous arts and
literature banner exchange program anywhere ever."

For many months all that has been showing on my site is a blank space, with a live link below it that does work and will take my readers to everypoet.com. The banner itself, which should be a swap with the site of some other poetry shmoe like me, just isn't showing. So my banners aren't showing on other banner exchange members' sites either.

For months and months there has been a notice at the banner exchange that says: "THE EVERYPOET BANNER EXCHANGE IS CURRENTLY UNDERGOING AN EXTENSIVE UPGRADE. PLEASE CHECK BACK IN A FEW WEEKS TO APPLY" (in all upper case, just like that, so they're either schizophrenics, Germans or just shouting). Well, I've been doing that all year, and I don't think I'll do it much longer. I've searched everywhere on the site for a Contact link to try and get some answers; I can't find one, can anyone else? If you tell me you can find it, I might eat humble pie (quite happily).

Rule of thumb about web companies
Don't you hate these websites that don't have a contact? Rule of thumb: A website that doesn't have a contact, or which ignores correspondence (such as Yahoo! Groups) is trouble. They don't care. They're like those shopkeepers who smile when you're handing over your money but push you out of the store when you come back with a problem. Another one is AvatarSearch, which has now ignored or bounced at least 15 of my Support queries (using several of their Contact addresses) over a period of two years.

Some of these websites are like the Mary fucking Celeste, ghost ships endlessly sailing the seas of the Internet unmanned. But getting cents-for-clicks channeled into bank accounts.

By contrast, a company like Blogger replies to Support questions very politely and intelligently within hours and continues the correspondence if necessary. Full marks to Blogger.

So I thought I would take everypoet up on their invitation, "join our mailing list", so at least I might get some way to contact these people and find out why they think it's OK for them to have free rent on my WWW real estate for about a year and not reciprocate according to our implied contract. Well here's their mailing list: they have sent out five newsletters since 2000, the last being July 2001. Looks like 1,518 other shmoes are waiting for everypoet.com to do the right thing. I bet that mailing list will get used when they have something to sell, though.

Why am I writing this? Shouldn't I just suffer in silence? No, because it's not just everypoet.com that treats its link partners and banner swappers this way and I think that it's the silence of longsuffering webmasters that allows this sort of thing to continue. I'll give everypoet a few more weeks to come good, and failing that, down come the banners. It will take precious time to remove them, but at least I'll know that this company won't be siphoning off my readers for free any more.

*Ø* P2OG P2OG P2OG P2OG

This comes from a site that looks pretty redneck-Men-in-Black to my untutored eye, but http://www.parapolitics.info/media/aj040819.mp3 is a startling bit of audio so I'm passing it on with that caveat.

A radio interview with an officer in the Texas National Guard who says he and his fellow National Guard members have received training to implement "martial law" in the United States.

Google p2og

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=p2og+

*Ø* US stance on Iraq contrasts with intelligence


"The U.S. National Intelligence Council's assessment of Iraq's future is less optimistic than the scenario drawn by the Bush administration. In a recent National Intelligence Estimate, the agency describes three possible outcomes. The worst is a spiral into civil war. The best is a shaky economic, political and security environment. President Bush's public comments on Iraq are more optimistic than even the best scenario described in the NIE."
Source: NPR (has audio)

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

British Army colonel's Iraq turnaround

"NICK MCKENZIE: British Army Colonel Tim Collins made worldwide headlines with his address to his battalion before they entered Iraq.

"A copy of the speech reportedly hung from a wall in the US president's office.

"'We are entering Iraq to free a people ...' he told his troops ... 'and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own.'

"But if Colonel Collins once symbolised the spirit of the invasion, his interview with the BBC now encapsulates just how far away the coalition remains from reaching its aims.

"TIM COLLINS: ... It's fair to say that the United States and its ally the UK are living the consequences of having removed the Ba-ath's regime without any thought about what would replace it ... Iraqis are dying in their tens and hundreds on a weekly basis and that's regrettable, and regrettably also, young service men from the United States, from the UK and from our allies are dying there too."
Source: PM

*Ø* Iraq: what future now?

U.S. Intelligence Shows Pessimism on Iraq's Future

September 16, New York Times:

"WASHINGTON, -- A classified National Intelligence Estimate prepared for President Bush in late July spells out a dark assessment of prospects for Iraq, government officials said Wednesday.

"The estimate outlines three possibilities for Iraq through the end of 2005, with the worst case being developments that could lead to civil war, the officials said. The most favorable outcome described is an Iraq whose stability would remain tenuous in political, economic and security terms.

"'There's a significant amount of pessimism,' said one government official who has read the document, which runs about 50 pages. The officials declined to discuss the key judgments - concise, carefully written statements of intelligence analysts' conclusions - included in the document.

"The intelligence estimate, the first on Iraq since October 2002, was prepared by the National Intelligence Council and was approved by the National Foreign Intelligence Board under John E. McLaughlin, the acting director of central intelligence. Such estimates can be requested by the White House or Congress, but this one was initiated by the intelligence council under George J. Tenet, who stepped down as director of central intelligence on July 9, the government officials said.

"As described by the officials, the pessimistic tone of the new estimate stands in contrast to recent statements by Bush administration officials, including comments on Wednesday by Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, who asserted that progress was being made."

Continue at Information Clearing House

The "war is lost"

By Sidney Blumenthal, September 16, Salon.com:

Military experts say they see no exit from the Iraq debacle -- and that the war is helping al-Qaida.

"'Bring them on!' President Bush challenged the early Iraqi insurgency in July of last year. Since then 812 American soldiers have been killed and 6,290 wounded, according to the Pentagon. Almost every day in campaign speeches, Bush speaks with bravado about how we are 'winning' in Iraq. 'Our strategy is succeeding,' he boasted to the National Guard convention on Tuesday.

"But according to the U.S. military's leading strategists and prominent retired generals, Bush's war is already lost ..." [my emphasis]

Full text at Information Clearing House

*Ø* Bee Miles, loved and hated Sydney eccentric

September 17, 1902

Bee (or Bea) Miles (d. December 3, 1973), was a famous eccentric in Sydney, Australia, a town known for its eccentrics – individualists such as Webster (the immensely popular soap-box orator, a genius about whom, sadly, nothing appears to have been published); the Flying Pieman; Rosaleen Norton the Witch of Kings Cross; the Bengal Tiger; William Chidley the natural health fanatic; Dulcie Deamer the Queen of Bohemia; and of course, Sydneytown’s favourite Mister Eternity.

Then there was Bee Miles, who must surely be an immortal Sydneysider. According to contemporary newspaper reports, in pre-World War II Sydney Bee was more widely known than the Prime Minister. From a wealthy North Shore family, at only 12 years of age young Beatrice wore a ‘No Conscription’ badge to school during the contentious conscription referendum in World War I. Later, she was severely marked down for an essay about Gallipoli, which she described as a 'strategical blunder' rather than a 'wonderful war effort'. In this, as in many aspects in her later life, she went quite against the norms of her day.

A strong swimmer, it is said she once swam about a mile from suburban Coogee Beach to Wedding Cake Island with a sheath knife strapped to her leg as protection from the sharks. While Bee was on holidays at Palm Beach, and a young boy went missing in the surf, Bee swam out to look for him even after the lifesavers had given up the search.

Mad House Mystery of Beautiful Sydney Girl
Bee had a love-hate relationship with her father, who was pro-Aboriginal and anti-British, but she took on many of his nationalistic ideas and values. At the age of 21, following an illness, she was admitted by her father to Gladesville Mental Hospital. One story says that she escaped the ‘lunatic asylum’, as it was then known, with the help of a Smith’s Weekly tabloid front-page story that campaigned for her release – Mad House Mystery of Beautiful Sydney Girl.

Advocating sexual freedom and rejecting the conservative values of the middle classes, she became one of the bohemians of Sydney, mixing with writers, artists and intellectuals ...

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

*Ø* NI parties holding devolution talks

"Politicians from Northern Ireland's main parties are beginning intensive negotiations aimed at restoring devolution.

"The talks at Leeds Castle, in Kent, are seen as the most important since the negotiations leading up to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

"Amid tight security, the parties are holding talks on Thursday morning with Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy and Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen.

"Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern are due to arrive in the afternoon, having both set aside three days to chair the meetings."
Read on at the BBC

*Ø* Latest on Hicks kangaroo court

"We give more rights to child molesters and mass murderers than this man is getting as a prisoner of war"

Hicks unlikely to get fair trial, lawyer says
"TONY JONES: An independent legal report has concluded that [alleged – PW] Australian Taliban fighter David Hicks will not receive a fair trial in Guantanamo Bay.

"But the Federal Government says it won't intervene apart from questioning minor procedural matters ...

"LEX LASRY, LAW COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA: This military commission is not independent, it is a creation of the executive of the US Government and controlled by it.

"It is not set up under legislation like courts are.

It has no independence from the US Department of Defence ...

JOHN DOWD: Clearly, the Australian Government is not prepared to challenge the government of the United States on this issue.

We give more rights to child molesters and mass murderers than this man is getting as a prisoner of war."
Source: Lateline


Law Council says send Hicks home
"The Law Council of Australia is calling on the Federal Government to remove Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks from the US military commission process that he's now involved in, and if necessary bring him home."
Source: The World Today

Judge orders US to release Guantanamo records
"Manhattan Federal Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein says the Bush administration has responded at a 'glacial pace' to requests for the documents, first made in October 2003.

"'If the documents are more of an embarrassment than a secret, the public should know of our Government's treatment of individuals captured and held abroad,' he said.

"A spokeswoman for the US Attorney General's office could not be contacted by Reuters for comment."
Source: ABC [Oz] News

*Ø* US invasion of Iraq illegal, says Annan

"UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, in an interview today broadcast on BBC World Service radio, said the US decision to invade Iraq in March 2003 was 'illegal'.

"'I'm one of those who believe that there should have been a second resolution' from the UN Security Council to green-light the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime, Annan said.

"He added: 'I've indicated that it was not in conformity with the UN charter from our point of view, and from the charter point of view it was illegal'."
Continue at the Sydney Morning Herald

*Ø* Amnesty: Child executions on the way out

"The US Supreme Court has the opportunity to consign the execution of child offenders to history and bring the USA into line with the vast majority of countries that have already done so, said Amnesty International today as it published a new report on the issue.

"The US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on 13 October. Its decision on the constitutionality of the death penalty against 16 and 17-year-old offenders is expected in the first half of 2005.

"'Such executions violate international law. The international consensus against putting people to death for crimes committed when they were children reflects the widespread recognition of the capacity of young people for growth and change,' said Amnesty International.

"Since 2003, six people were executed in China, Iran and the USA, for crimes committed when they were children. Other convicted child offenders remain under sentence of death in Pakistan, the Philippines and Sudan."

The report: "Stop Child Executions! Ending the death penalty for child offenders" is available here.
For more information on Amnesty International's campaign against child executions, click here.

*Ø* Europe told to 'rethink security'

"A new study commissioned by the European Union has called for a fundamental rethink of Europe's approach to security.

"It has also recommended the creation of a European Human Security Response Force, with 15,000 personnel.

"The report was written by a study group convened last year at the request of EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana ...

"They argue that the security of Europe is indivisible from the security situation in the rest of the world, and conclude that it is in Europe's own interest to tackle the growing global insecurity, within its borders and beyond.

"But there is no call for a war on terror here. [my emphasis]

"The study proposes that human rather than nation-state security should be at the heart of European policy.

"Rather than just defeating enemies, EU missions should focus on protecting civilians through law enforcement and with the occasional use of weapons."
Full text: BBC

*Ø* UK: Pro-Hunting protestors burst into Parliament

These people aren't demonstrating about deaths in Iraq. Or deaths in Darfur. Or deaths from AIDS. They're demanding the right to continue to hunt with hounds -- to chase and corner foxes and then let their dogs tear them to pieces. For sport. I think they're all insane. And they have been overwhelmingly voted against in the British Parliament. The bill to ban fox hunting was passed by a majority of 356 to 166, but the hunting fraternity has vowed to defy the ban.

"LONDON (Reuters) - Six pro-hunting demonstrators have burst onto the floor of parliament in the week's second audacious breach of security at a landmark site.

"The stunt on Wednesday -- which briefly halted debate among astonished legislators -- came two days after a fathers' rights campaigner scaled a balcony at Buckingham Palace ...

"The intrusion came as some 10,000 protesters gathered outside parliament in a rally against the likely vote to ban fox hunting.

"Riot police carrying shields and truncheons skirmished on-and-off with pro-hunt protesters who jeered, threw bottles, set off firecrackers and surged towards police lines.

"Police made seven arrests, and 17 people -- including one officer -- were injured. Some had blood streaming from their heads."
Full text

*Ø* Pravda's not what is used to be

I bet Lenin's rolling in his perspex showcase over this.

*Ø* New York's loudest

NYC cops use sound cannon

Star Light has been sending some great articles and links. This one shows photos of the new sound cannon being used by NYC Police at the peaceful demonstrations earlier this month.

Wander in space; Dubya in drag
And SL sent this great site. Go for a ride through space.

And a 'dress George' site, not the same as the one Nora posted recently.

*Ø* Why did the recess bell go off early?

Oldie but a goodie

President George W Bush goes to a primary school to talk with sixth graders about the war. After his talk he offers question time.

One little boy puts up his hand and George asks him what his name is.

"Billy."

"And what is your question, Billy?"

"I have 3 questions. First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the UN? Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? And third, whatever happened to Osama Bin Laden?"

Just then the bell rings for recess. George Bush informs the kiddies that they will continue after recess.

When they resume George says, "OK, where were we? Oh that's right question time. Who has a question?"

Another little boy puts up his hand. George points him out and asks him what his name is.

"Steve."

"And what is your question, Steve?"

"I have 5 questions. First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the UN? Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? Third, whatever happened to Osama Bin Laden?

"Fourth, why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early? And fifth, what the fuck happened to Billy?"

*Ø* Sudan Appeal

The Sudan emergency is a huge tragedy and the people need support. You can donate online to the Sudan Appeal.

"Some of the work to date includes aid flights delivering relief items by Save the Children, CAFOD, Oxfam and the British Red Cross. Planes have touched down in the West African country carrying aid including plastic sheeting for shelter, water containers and purification tablets, cooking equipment, tarpaulins and even a four-wheel drive vehicle to help get aid workers to hard to reach areas."
Money in action – member aid agencies bring the basics of life to Darfur

10,000 a month die in Sudan

Oil, Sudan and China
[In keeping with my belief that the three main things to watch in the world today are oil, Africa and China, here's an article that's a triple-header:]

"The U.S. push for United Nations sanctions against Sudan's government for failing to halt Arab-militia atrocities in Darfur is being thwarted in part by China's strong economic interest in this African country.

"When the United States cut off most trade with Sudan in 1997 for Khartoum's sponsorship of global terrorism, which included hosting Osama bin Laden, China stepped in to fill the void, nurturing Sudan's oil industry by developing oil fields and building refineries and pipelines.

"Today, China, with veto power in the U.N. Security Council, is Sudan's largest trading partner, according to CIA statistics. Sudan, which pumps 300,000 barrels of oil per day, is China's fourth biggest source of imported oil."
China's ties to Sudan complicate push for UN sanctions

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

Africa's oil boom benefiting all too few
"With more than 4 million barrels of oil produced daily, sub-Saharan Africa's production surpasses that of Iran, Venezuela and Mexico put together, and the region has the potential to become as important a crude-oil resource as Russia or the Caspian Sea. The area has the additional advantage of being more politically stable than the Middle East, at least at this time.

"According to estimates from the National Intelligence Council in the United States, sub-Saharan Africa could fill up to 25 percent of U.S. fossil-fuel needs in 2015, compared to 16 percent now. In addition, the Gulf of Guinea, which extends from Nigeria to Angola, could become the first producer of deep-water offshore oil in the world."
Source: Japan Times

*Ø* Director apologizes for insult to Buddha

"BANGKOK, Sept. 9 (Xinhuanet)-- A group of Thai Buddhists on Wednesday gave the United States Embassy to Bangkok a petition demanding a ban on a Hollywood movie for its controversial poster, local press reported on Thursday.

"The movie named Hollywood Buddha has a poster showing its producer Philippe Caland sitting on the head of a Buddha statue."
Source: Xinhua

"Hollywood Buddha won Best Picture and Best Director at the Taos film festival in New Mexico."
Source: BBC News

Hollywood Director to Pull Offensive Buddha Poster
"The writer and director of U.S. movie 'Hollywood Buddha' has apologized for offending Buddhist Thais by sitting on the head of a Buddha image for a poster advertising the movie and has promised to withdraw it ...

"The poster shows Caland, who also stars in the YBG Productions film, sitting atop a Buddha's head. To Thai Buddhists, the head is the most sacred part of the body and is not to be touched, let alone sat upon."
Source: Buddhist News

The Thai Government is apparently so fed up with this sort of cultural insensitivity (rife in Asia) that it is publishing a book on etiquette for foreigners.

*Ø* Copyright dangers

Today's edition of The Law Report is a very important radio program, especially for Australians. Under the terms of the recently signed, and misnamed, Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Australia and the USA, copyright has changed, to the advantage of the wealthy.

The audio covers such issues as how the estate of James Joyce pressures performers and others who wish even to quote a few of the long-dead Irish writer's words. It shows how Disney's corporate muscle was a main driving force to extend copyright internationally from 50 years to 70 years (because the copyright on Mickey Mouse was due to expire soon). How this matters to artists, writers, people on the Net ... whether in Australia or elsewhere.

Read on

Listen in | Real Media | Windows Media

*Ø* USA using excessive force on civilians, Turkey claims

Turkey threatens withdrawal from Iraq over mistreatment claims

"Turkey's Foreign Minister, Abdullah Gul, has condemned what he has called the excessive use of force against civilian populations [in Tall Afar, Iraq], he says he has asked the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, to end the fighting in the region."
Source

*Ø* Level playing field

Electioneering leader of the Australian Labor Party, Mark Latham, has announced an education funding policy that will take a little of the government funding of the richest private schools and redistribute it to some less-advantaged schools. Labor says it wants a level playing field.

The principals of the wealthy schools say they agree, in principle, with the "level playing field" concept, adding that they also want cushioned seats by the swimming pool, shade cover for the tennis court and cappuccino machines at the rifle range.

*Ø* Superheroes for a super challenge

Activist scales Buck House for fathers' rights

[I heard on the grapevine that the Queen phoned Gotham City and asked Commissioner Gordon to send more firepower, but the 'Commish' was in court trying to win quadrennial visitation rights for his children.]

"A comic book superhero perched in a dangerous location brandishing a banner has become an increasingly common sight in recent months.

"From Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge to London's Tower Bridge, numerous landmarks have been targeted by the costume-clad campaigners of Fathers 4 Justice.

"Britain has ordered an urgent security review at Buckingham Palace after a campaigner dressed as Batman evaded armed police and spent five hours on a ledge at the Queen's London residence.

"Jason Hatch, 32, used a portable ladder in broad daylight on Monday to scale the perimeter fence at the palace, dash across the parade ground and climb 10 metres up the front wall."
Source: New Zealand News

Death to uppity dads
"A companion dressed as his trusty sidekick Robin turned back when police threatened to shoot him as he climbed the ladder."
Source: Reuters

Picture: Batman removed from palace

“I cry silently for these children who, through no fault of their own, are forced to grieve unnecessarily and applaud the heroic fight of Fathers 4 Justice.”
Pierce Brosnan, star of Evelyn

*Ø* New at 'Kill the President'




New verses are regularly being added to the saga of Irving Lumwedder:

"Alright, you speech guys, from today, no more lies.
Listen up and get wise, things have changed.
At 3 o'clock today, I got somethin' to say,
on soil and decay, so what do you say?
What do you think?" They think "So it's true. He's deranged."

More at fishpond the blog.

*Ø* Powell said what about Shrub's neocons?

"Fucking crazies", that's what

"A furious row has broken out over claims in a new book by BBC broadcaster James Naughtie that US Secretary of State Colin Powell described neo-conservatives in the Bush administration as 'fucking crazies' during the build-up to war in Iraq.

"Powell's extraordinary outburst is alleged to have taken place during a telephone conversation with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. The two became close friends during the intense negotiations in the summer of 2002 to build an international coalition for intervention via the United Nations. The 'crazies' are said to be Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz."
Source: Guardian

Tsk, tsk! My, but these conservatives have dirty hippie mouths these days.

Why doesn't Powell just quit, write a book, do lectures? How much money and power can salve that conscience (assuming that, as is widely asserted, he's actually been against Bush & Co from the beginning)? And maybe he'd get something resembling a smile back on that miserable face.

Maybe he's just not the token dove people like to paint him as. Wish he'd speak up next time his boss wants to kill fifty or sixty thousand people. Still, there's the mortgage and all. Isn't there more in lecture tours? Must be the power then. Hmmm

*Ø* Hammer day, Rome; Little Richard

Day of Driving the Nail, Roman Empire
In ancient Rome a nail was driven into the wall of the temple of Jupiter every 13 September. This was originally done to tally the year, but subsequently it became a religious ceremony for warding off calamities and plagues from the city ...

* Ø * Ø * Ø *

Tutti Frutti
September 13, 1955 Los Angeles, USA: Little Richard (Richard, or Ricardo, Wayne Penniman) recorded a bowdlerised version of Tutti Frutti. What the naughty words were that he expunged, your almanackist has not been able to determine, but “all over rootie” is still in the published lyrics.

I always thought it was “I wanna rootie”. The most famous line of the song is when Richard sings “A Wop bop a lu bop ba lop bam boom!” Or something like that.

Following an Australian tour in 1957, during which he looked up into a Sydney sky and saw Sputnik and was troubled by it, he said he saw a vision of the apocalypse and his own damnation in a dream. He said he prayed to God during a fiery plane flight, promising God that if the plane landed safely he would give up his rock ’n’ roll life ...

These are just a couple of snippets of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

*Ø* Free fantasy fonts


If you like fantasy & medieval fonts & runes & wonderful wingdings, and especially if they're free, then check out Lord Kyl's excellent collection. The site appears to have cobwebs on it (not up to date) but there's plenty of goodies left in the pantry.

*Ø* 9-11 revisited



By now, I suppose everyone knows that Bush lied about how he first heard of the tragic attack on America three years ago. This page sets it out.

Here's the biggest list of 9-11 links I've found. Here's another at the Scriptorium, and for some analysis of the event, Myths of the War on Terrorism and Iraq has a wealth of information. Don't forget An Interesting Day, which has a timeline of Bush's actions and movements on that day ...

This is just a snippet of today's stories. Read all about today in folklore, historical oddities, inspiration and alternatives, with many more links, at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days, every day. Click today's date (or your birthday) when you're there.

*Ø* Cheney, 9-11 and oil desperation

The From the Wilderness website frequently has some stimulating articles.

Now available for free download (a PDF file) is a speech given by Michael C Ruppert, which is a teaser to his new book, Crossing the Rubicon. It is a thought-provoking window into the links between the Kean commission that investigated 9-11, and the oil industry.

It's well worth a read for its presentation of facts about the parlous state of oil production in the world, and, startlingly, points a finger at Dick Cheney as responsible for 9-11. I haven't read the book (but hope to) so I have no opinion on the latter, but there is a great deal of essential reading in the speech. For me to recommend a bloody PDF, it's got to be something out of the box.

Thanks, Star Light, for sending the link to the PDF.

From the Wilderness has another article on the subject here. Again, recommended. It's called In Your Face: Connections between Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force, 9/11 and Peak Oil "On the Table". Here's a quote:

60% of the world's recoverable oil is in a “golden” triangle running from Mosul
in northern Iraq, to the Straits of Hormuz, to an oil field in Saudi Arabia 75
miles in from the coast, just west of Qatar, then back up to Mosul. Sixty per
cent of all the recoverable oil on the planet is an in area no larger than the
state of Indiana .

Is it surprising then that the overwhelming majority
of US military deployment since 9/11 is in this region?

Torturing Children, by William Rivers Pitt
Also at From the Wilderness, a disturbing article by William Rivers Pitt, Torturing Children, about 107 Iraqi children abused by American forces at Abu Ghraib prison, with war crimes including sodomizing of some children. Just another one of those Internet stories that, if you're lucky, the media take notice of about two years too late.

*Ø* Ahmed Shah Massoud
I was a bit crook yesterday (I feel well now), so I couldn't post this, which commemorates this September 9 event, harbinger of the world we now inhabit. From our Book of Days for September 9:

Death of the Lion of Panjshir

Ahmed Shah Massoud ('the Lion of Panjshir'; born c. 1953), leader of the Northern Alliance, was assassinated in Afghanistan on September 9, 2001.

Massoud, probably the greatest resistance leader of the 20th century, and probably equal to any of all time, was the victim of an Al Qaeda suicide bomber attack at Khvajeh Baha od Din, two days before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the USA, and as part of that strategy.

It was the event that, in my opinion, ushered in the century and the Age of the New US Imperialism.

The assassination: prelude to 9-11
Two days before 9-11, Ahmad Shah Massoud, warrior-intellectual hero of the resistance to Russian imperialism and Taliban lunocracy, was assassinated by two suicide bombers posing as journalists. It was big news when it happened, and like many I was stunned, but like everyone else except Al Qaeda, I hadn't the slightest idea what big event it was leading up to within 48 hours. In fact, we weren't even sure he was dead because his cadres denied it, saying he was only wounded, as they played for time to regroup and plan. (It is believed that the horribly wounded Massoud died within 15 - 30 minutes, although his death was denied until September 13.)

If the official explanation for the September 11 attack on America is correct, ie, that Al Qaeda was to blame, then it's reasonable to assume that from Osama bin Laden's point of view, it was necessary to eliminate the Lion of Panjshir in order to secure local territory for the expected retaliation from the US when he attacked NYC and the Pentagon. With Massoud gone, so was bin Laden's mortal enemy and a reasonable man who did not despise the West.

Who was Ahmed Shah Massoud?
Massoud was a soccer player and coach, a horse rider, swimmer and karate sportsman, chess player, architect and reader, but he gave it all up for his country and people. "I love Hafiz's poems," he once said, "I always read them. They change and inspire me. Music talks to the innermost feelings of a human being. Poetry and music have influence on every one."

He once told National Geographic journalist Sebastian Junger (author of Fire) he was fighting not only for a free Afghanistan but for a free world. Junger wrote: "There was something about him – the slow nod of his head as he listened to a question, the exhaustion and curiosity engraved on his handsome, haggard face – that made it clear we were in the presence of an extraordinary man. I found it impossible not to listen to Massoud when he spoke, even though I didn't understand a word. I watched everything he did, because I had the sense that somehow – in the way he poured his tea, in the way his hands carved the air as he talked – there was some secret to be learned."

Nine times the Soviet Union tried to defeat the Afghans in the Panjshir Valley, and nine times they were repelled by forces commanded by Massoud. The Soviets killed approximately 1,000 Afghan military personnel and civilians to every one of their own combatants (15,000 Soviets dead compared to 1.5 million Afghans), and forced more than 7 million out of a population of 18 million to flee to squalid refugee camps where millions remain to this day. Despite this overkill, the USSR was forced to give up their war of aggression. Massoud, a brilliant military commander, was largely responsible for the victory of the Afghan people.

For at least two decades, Massoud determinedly resisted first the Soviet invaders, then the Taliban, living in a multitude of wilderness camps in the same rudimentary conditions as the guerrilla fighters under his command.

Robert D Kaplan wrote in his book The Soldiers of God, 1991: "Ahmad Shah Massoud has to be considered one of the greatest leaders of guerrilla movements in the 20th century. He defeated his enemy just like Marshall Tito, Hu Chi Minh and Che Guevara did. Massoud controlled a bigger terrain that was much more difficult to defend militarily and was under constant attack from the enemy. His territory suffered much more attacks from enemy forces than those areas which were under the control of the resistance movements of Tito, Hu Chi Minh, or Guevara."

Massoud was a man of character. In 1980, a young soldier took advantage of the darkness and shot at Massoud's car from only three metres away. Massoud told him: "Friend, your hands are trembling and you are not used to shooting anyone," and let the attacker go. Moscow tried to poison, shoot and blow up Massoud, but was never successful. On one occasion, Dr Najibullah, later President and at that time chief of the puppet Afghan government's intelligence service, sent an agent named Kamran to Panjshir where Massoud gave him the traditional and celebrated Afghan hospitality. Kamran finally came to understand Massoud's reason for resisting the Communists and handed over the muffled firearm he had been given by the Afghan government to carry out the planned assassination. Kamran then took refuge in Germany, asking for political asylum.

Massoud's last plea: "America, help us"
In Massoud's last interview, given to Newsweek two weeks before murder, his plea (couched in diplomatic terms but nonetheless clear), was for the USA to stop aiding the Pakistan/Taliban/bin Laden brutalization of his country and to develop a policy that would support moderate politics in Afghanistan. As we all know now, freedom-loving George W Bush had more important things to do at the country club and had never heard of any of these entities that his government was either supporting or turning a blind eye to.


Nobel Prize for Massoud?
Your almanackist, for one, hopes that Massoud will be awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize for his commitment to freedom and the inspiration he continues to give the world. I believe that there are other ways of national self defence than Stinger missiles and home-made guns forged out of water pipes, as used by the Mujahideen under Massoud's command. However, in the real situation of the defence of a country that has been repeatedly invaded, from Genghiz Khan to the British (three times) the mighty Communist empire to the north, (and of course more recently the 'Coalition of the Willing'), at least Ahmed Shah Massoud was incorruptible, merciful, and almost worshipped by his people. And unlike the generals of the invaders, he fought on the battlefield with his men, resting in dirty caves and tents in boiling hot and sub-freezing temperatures in Afghanistan's parched desert valleys and deep-snow mountains, sleeping in a different bed most nights and eating the meagre rations of the guerrilla fighter.

Shaobakhai, Lion of Panjshir, and tashakoor. Goodnight, and thank you.

More Massoud links at the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days