Well, we did say we’d try to promote alternative viewpoints. I’m more than a little incredulous towards this one, but it did at least make me consider where my incredulity was coming from.

Anatoly Fomenko’s series of books History: Fiction or Science proposes that all pre-16th century history, as we’re taught it, is completely false. He argues that no methods of dating (such as carbon-14) are accurate enough to reliably date items in the timeframe of human history; instead he relies upon statistical and astronomical methods. His conclusions? That all human civilisation, all buildings and artefacts, date back only as far as 800 AD. Ancient history is a mixture of lies, fiction and misinterpretations of primary sources. Oh, and Jesus was a Byzantine emperor who lived in the eleventh century (his name was Andronikos).

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Alright, so in the papers this morning - the Home Office fancies granting extra powers and privileges to private security staff and council wardens, including dog wardens, housing wardens, football stewards, traffic wardens, bin men, security staff and shopping center staff.

So, what powers will they get? Speaking generally, they’ll be dealing with ‘anti-social behaviour’ when police involvement could be seen as excessive’.

• Ability to issue fines
• The right to obtain personal details
• The right to confiscate alcohol and cigarrettes from those who are either underage, or drinking / smoking in a public place.

It is perhaps a little telling that ‘The Wright Stuff‘ is covering this story (and most papers, infact) from an angle of cheap policing. i.e. Our government is cutting corners - again! They want us to do all the work - again! Why can’t we just have more policemen?

So what’s wrong with this idea? Saves taxpayer money and cuts crime… it’s a win/win situation. Right?

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Diego Garcia is a tropical island in the Indian Ocean. These days, it is known as a ‘British Overseas Territory’, though before this it was less euphemistically called a colony. The island has been under British control for over 200 years, having being conceded by France at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. French-owned slaves from West Africa first inhabited the island in the 18th century, developing their own idiosyncratic language and culture, and calling themselves the Ilois (‘islanders’).

But, only a few decades ago, the islanders’ way of life came to an end, following a clandestine political agreement which still influences events today.

In the early 1960s, American officials decided they needed a military base (‘communications facility’) in this strategically important area. Originally they had planned on using the uninhabited Aldabra Atoll, but environmental groups successfully lobbied for the protection of the rare tortoises living there. Plan B was Diego Garcia, which they intended to lease from Harold Wilson’s Labour government as part of a joint military venture.

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I don’t know what ‘liberal’ is supposed to mean these days, but I always understood it as having something to do with the prioritisation of individual liberty (hence the etymology of the word). So when I heard Barack Obama’s new running mate summed up as ‘a liberal’ by the BBC last night, I did have to wonder.

Joe Biden supported the PATRIOT act, of all things. Now, admittedly he does want to restore the habeas corpus rights of detainees, but really - is that a specifically *liberal* position these days? It’s a central tenet of the US constitution, from which all US government officials, republican or democrat, (supposedly) derive their power. The constitution says: ‘The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.’  And let’s be clear, the USA have neither been invaded, nor have they revolted.

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Yesterday - Friday, August 22nd - a coaliton airstrike took place in the Herat province of Afghanistan. That is what we do know. And then the fun guessing game begins. You see, once again depending on who you ask, something wildly different actually happened.

Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry is claiming that 76 civilians were killed when the airstrike took place yesterday afternoon (19 women, 7 men, 50 children). Conversely, US forces claim that they took out roughly 25-30 terrorists and Taliban members that had been planning to attack US bases. It’s good to see them really going for this pre-emptive strike thing, isn’t it? (Remember when they did that and managed to wipe out everybody at an entire wedding reception?). Yeah, fighting the good fight for freedom. But I digress - the military is also claiming that the strike occurred in the early hours of the morning and that there were no further attacks that day. Oh yeah, and there were no civilian casualties. Reuters must be full of bullshit, right?

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Allegedly. We haven’t really touched upon the 9/11 truth movement as yet, primarily due to the fact that it’s being covered so extensively elsewhere.

But this needs posting. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (an agency of the US Department of Commerce) has concluded that yes, WTC 7 is the first tall building ever to have collapsed because of fire damage. Their claim is one of ‘fire-induced progressive collapse’, which they admit is ‘a new kind of progressive collapse’. They claim their research (which consisted of analysing video footage, select eyewitness testimony and structural plans of the building) proves for the first time ever that fires can cause tall, 47 storey buildings to collapse. All from fires on 10 floors. And apparently, falling debris from the other towers wasn’t even necessary.

My favourite part from the Q&A page:

Why didn’t the investigators look at actual steel samples from WTC 7?
Steel samples were removed from the site before the NIST investigation began. In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, debris was removed rapidly from the site to aid in recovery efforts and facilitate emergency responders’ efforts to work around the site. Once it was removed from the scene, the steel from WTC 7 could not be clearly identified. Read more

Today I stumbled across several news stories which sound more like science fiction than fact. (Now there’s an interesting subject - why do we keep fulfilling sci-fi prophecies?) Anyway, onwards with the dystopian scaremongering….

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A study of US governmental data, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that even ‘low-level’ arsenic exposure is a high risk factor in Type-2 diabetes. A median arsenic concentration of 7.1 micrograms per litre was found in the urine of 788 American adults. This adds to past evidence that arsenic is a potent carcinogen (as if we needed convincing that arsenic might not be good for you). The current World Health Organisation and EPA safety standard for arsenic concentration in water is 10 ppb (parts per billion), although the current Bush administration originally attempted to delay the EPA regulations from coming into effect.

Why is there arsenic in the water you might ask? Well, it does occur naturally in groundwater, and if not efficiently removed, it’ll stay there. It is however also an industrial waste product of coal burning and copper smelting. So, there’s a point of political activism, eh? Maybe developed nations should be able to have drinking water free from poison?

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Hat tip: JBalzer.

Now there has always been a minority of people who retain suspicion of the BBC and the organisation’s claim to impartiality. Being an institution essentially entirely reliant on the British government, the potential vested interests there were often cited as a reason for establishing commercial television in the 1950s. What a barrel of laughs and shining paragon of virtue that idea turned out to be. But the link between BBC content and governmental influence rarely seems to be explicitly stated. I’ve no doubt that some of you must have heard the general echoes that the BBC is a government propaganda instrument - however, it is often anecdotal. And so here is my modest attempt to connect the dots, a little bit.

So is there more to the concept of the BBC and the security services in collusion with one another? Does the BBC feel a conflict of interests; their duty to the public on one hand, their duty to uphold the image of our country and government on the other?

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On 14 August, this World Health Organisation draft on pandemic flu preparedness was leaked on Wikileaks.

This passage is perhaps most striking:

‘global influenza vaccine manufacturing capacity is insufficient to meet demand in a pandemic and […] in the absence of a multilateral system of benefit sharing, some Member States, particularly developing countries, can neither afford nor access the vaccines’

In other words, ‘there isn’t enough vaccine to go around, poorer countries will be priced out of the market, and millions will die in the event of a pandemic’. Basically, this passage amounts to the blackmailing of developing countries into accepting the WHO’s particular ‘virus sharing’ system. Indonesia has felt the need to withhold virus samples from the WHO in protest of the current system, so what does this system entail?

Click ‘Read more’ to read the rest of this article…

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(Left: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev)

So it seems that the French have brokered a deal between the two countries. For a while there it was looking like it might fall flat on it’s face; Medvedev claimed he would only sign once Saakashvili had. Russian troops are remaining in S.Ossetia for the time being.

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• Russia could strike Poland over U.S. shield (Reuters). See yesterday’s post for more on the missile-hosting agreement Poland signed up to on Thursday.

From what I gather, Col-General Anatoliy Nogovitsyn (who is Russian deputy-chief general of staff), gave an interview in which he stated that under current Russian military doctrine, an attack on Poland would be possible. This doctrine was re-worked in 2000, apparently to allow for a broader spectrum in which nuclear attacks would be acceptable. I will allow Nogovitsyn to further clarify the rationale:

“The USA is engaged in an anti-missile defense for its own government, and not for Poland. And Poland, in deploying (elements of the system) opens itself to a military strike. That is 100 percent[…] It is written clearly: We will use it in instances against governments that have nuclear weapons; against allies of countries with nuclear weapons, if they somehow enable them.”

Sounds a whole lot familiar to me. The US, and even our own country have used this rhetoric again and again - you just need to switch some of the words out for ‘those who harbour terrorists’ / ‘those who hinder freedom’ / ‘those who hate our great country and our allies’.  But of course, when the shoe is on the other foot, Russians are “evil […] 21st century barbarians.” (Saakashvili)

Well, not really. But how’s this for a case of life imitating art?

The man in FBI custody is now believed to be a German con-man named Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter. He’d earlier passed himself off as a member of the Rockefeller oil dynasty.

Acquaintances described him as a ‘charming intellectual with rarefied interests, a distinguished pedigree and a privileged air’.

He’s arrested on suspicion of kidnapping his daughter, which clearly isn’t funny. But damnit, all the rest of it is. And, just in case the FBI haven’t worked this one out yet: Clark Rockefeller = Christian Gerhartsreiter = Keyser Söze = Verbal Kint = Kevin Spacey. So, y’know, watch out Kev.

George Soros, for the uninitiated, is a Hungarian-American financial speculator worth approximately $9 billion. Why is he the topic of this post? Well, he’s been pouring his personal wealth (over $6 billion of it so far) into his ‘Open Society Institute‘ and its various branches.

As a result, he’s been subject to some pretty significant allegations about his role in international politics. In short, he’s supposed to have orchestrated the Rose Revolution in Georgia that took Mikhail Saakashvili to power. And he’s supposedly ‘the financial and political godfather’ of Barack Obama. (click read more…)

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Above: Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski.

Reuters:

“The United States has shown that Russia is the true target of its planned missile defense shield by signing a deal with Poland during an international crisis over Georgia, Russia’s NATO envoy told Reuters on Friday.

Poland agreed on Thursday to host elements of a U.S. global anti-missile system after Washington agreed to boost Poland’s own air defenses.

“The fact that this was signed in a period of very difficult crisis in the relations between Russia and the United States over the situation in Georgia shows that, of course, the missile defense system will be deployed not against Iran but against the strategic potential of Russia,” Dmitry Rogozin said in a telephone interview.”

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“Before I say anything else, I just want to say that I was running from Georgian troops bombing our city. Not Russian troops. I want to say thank you to the Russian troops that were helping us out.” - Amanda Kokoeva

Just stumbled across this gem from Fox News, broadcast yesterday. It’s reminiscent of so many other occasions on which Fox has deliberately cut footage to guests in order to prevent alternate discourses from receiving airtime.

A girl who happened to be visiting relatives in S.Ossetia at the time violence broke out along with her aunt, whose house was burnt down as a result of the fighting, talk openly on Fox News about placing the blame at the feet of the Georgian government.

Incidentally, if you would like to learn more about how Fox manipulates its’ audience please watch the excellent documentary, Outfoxed (available online at that link) and visit Brave New Films or subscribe to their YouTube channel.

This is a bit of a mammoth post.

I’m hoping here to provide a bit of context on current world affairs. The conflict between Russia and its pro-Western, American-funded neighbour Georgia, seems to have something to do with a nearby oil pipeline which supplies the West. At the same time, Peak Oil scaremongering attaches itself to the environmental movement, fuel prices continue to rise, and oil companies make record profits. What to make of it? Let’s see… (click ‘read more’).

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