GOOGLES GREEN MOVEMENT SCAM

LETS ALL PRAY FOR ISRAELIS THAT THEY GET SAVED BY JESUS.THEY NEED HIM NOW WITH THE PROPHECIES COMING TO PASS QUICKLY.

JOHN 3:16-17
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him (JESUS) should not perish, but have everlasting life.(ON EARTH)
17 For God sent not his Son (JESUS) into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

ACTS 2:21
21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

ZECHARIAH 14:4,9
4 And his (JESUS) feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
9 And the LORD (GOD JESUS) shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

Klaus pledges to be last to sign the Lisbon Treaty
HONOR MAHONY Today JUNE 24,09 @ 09:23 CET

Czech President Vaclav Klaus has pledged to be the last in the EU to sign the Lisbon Treaty, raising fears about the future of the document which has been several painful years in the making.The Czech parliament has approved the treaty, but the president's signature is needed to complete the process, a fact that the eurosceptic Mr Vaclav has dangled over the rest of the member states on several occasions.I will certainly not rush, Mr Klaus told Czech Radio, reports DPA.I will certainly wait until after all those things about which I have talked about, which include a constitutional complaint by our senators ... happen.The Irish have not voted again. Poland has not signed the Lisbon Treaty, and Germany has not signed the Lisbon Treaty. So I am not the last Mohican who is fighting against all,he said.He has always said he would wait until the after the Irish have voted in a second referendum on the treaty, expected in Ireland in the autumn, before signing off. But in recent days, he has increased his anti-treaty rhetoric.The latest opinion polls show that the Irish are likely to vote Yes this time round, with the approval of all 27 member states needed to put the treaty into force.However, the treaty is currently being examined by Germany's constitutional court (a verdict is due at the end of June), the Polish president, also a critic of the document, has not signed it, and it is facing a court ruling in the Czech Republic.

The British question

Mr Klaus' tactics could result in the treaty never being put into action as the longer it takes for the treaty to be fully ratified across the EU, the greater the chances of a conservative government coming into power in Britain.A general election must be held in Britain by June 2010, and the Conservatives, widely expected to win over the governing but damaged Labour Party, has pledged to put the treaty to a referendum if it is not in already in force.Conservative leader David Cameron clashed with Prime Minister Gordon Brown in parliament on Tuesday (23 June) over the treaty, and particularly the guarantees on how it should be interpreted in three areas - tax, neutrality and social issues - secured by Ireland at last week's EU summit.The guarantees, to be formally enshrined into EU law after the treaty is in force, were part of a general package designed to encourage Irish voters say Yes in the autumn poll.Mr Cameron took Mr Brown to task for not having a debate on Ireland's guarantees in parliament now. He also asked why Irish citizens were being forced to give their views twice while British voters had had no referendum themselves. For his part, Irish leader Brian Cowen, fresh from securing war support from Mr Brown at the summit for making the protocols legally binding, has said believes Ireland will vote Yes this time round.I believe the people will say 'yes' on this occasion. I am just not prepared to contemplate defeat,he told Irish radio earlier in the week.However, the exact date for the referendum remains unclear, although Mr Cowen has hinted it will take place on 2 October.He expected to name the day in two week's time when legislation to allow the referendum to take place goes through parliament, reports the Irish Times.

Italy endorses demilitarised Palestine
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today @ 09:33 CET

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has given his backing to Israel's plan for a demilitarised Palestinian state as a solution to the decades-old Middle East conflict.

Speaking to reporters following talks in Rome with Israel's hardline leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, on the Israeli prime minister's first trip to Europe since his election, Mr Berlusconi described as absolutely necessary for peace a future Palestinian state that would be unable to maintain an army.The Italian premier also supported the requirement that the new country recognise Israel as a Jewish state, a move that implicitly renounces claims to any return of refugees to land lost at the founding of Israel in 1948.The twin endorsement is in line with Mr Netanyahu's plan for peace outlined some nine days ago, and represents a decidedly warmer embrace of the Israeli leader's perspective than that accorded by the European Union as a bloc or by the United States.Following a speech by Mr Netanyahu on 14 June in which the premier recognised a two-state solution to the conflict for the first time - a key requirement of Brussels and Washington - EU foreign ministers and their counterpart across the Atlantic cautiously welcomed the words as a small step but not sufficient to move forward with the informally suspended upgrade in relations with Tel Aviv.

Sweden's foreign minister, Carl Bildt, whose country is about to take over the tiller of the bloc for the next six months of the EU's rotating presidency, on Tuesday repeated the European perspective ahead of the Italian meeting, describing again the speech as a small step forward,but adding:significantly more needs to be done.The Israeli leader's flat rejection of an end to settlement construction in the occupied territories as well as a refusal to lift a crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip ruled out any advancement in EU-Israel relations for the time being.Mr Berlusconi, fast becoming Israel's best friend in Europe, did encourage Israel on the question of settlements, but employed far softer language than that of the rest of Europe.After a two-hour meeting between the leaders, the Italian premier said he had:drawn the prime minister's attention to the need to send signals about stopping the establishment of settlements, which would otherwise be a hindrance to peace.Ahead of the meeting, the country's foreign minister and former European commissioner, Franco Frattini, told reporters: We would very much appreciate a gesture on the Israeli side announcing a moratorium on the expansion of existing settlements.Mr Frattini however also said that it is not a problem for Italy if Israeli settlements internally expand, but expanding settlements like wildfire, that is a problem.Mr Netanyahu is due to fly to Paris Wednesday for a meeting with the French president, who is expected to press the Israeli prime minister on the question of settlement expansion.

While in Paris, the premier was also due to hold talks with American Middle-East peace envoy former US senator George Mitchell.However, the meeting has been cancelled and Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak will meet with the US envoy instead, when he visits Washington next week.While in Rome, Messrs Berlusconi and Netanyahu also discussed the situation in Iran and the Italian leader said that he had impressed upon his Israeli counterpart that Italy, like other Western nations, believes Iran should not have nuclear weapons.

Regional policy commissioner resigns
VALENTINA POP Today JUNE 24,09 @ 09:26 CET

EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS - EU regional policy commissioner Danuta Hubner announced she would on Wednesday (24 June) resign from her post, in order to take up her mandate as a member of the European Parliament.I have received during the elections a huge support coming from my fellow citizens and that encourages me now to take up the seat in the European Parliament, so I am resigning from the current post as EU commissioner for regional policy,Ms Hubner told journalists in Brussels on Tuesday. The 61-year old economist and policy-maker, who won by an overwhelming majority in the Warsaw constituency was required by Polish electoral law to step down by Wednesday from any other position that would be in conflict of interest with the MEP function.She is to stay on as commissioner temporarily however giving the Polish government, led by Donald Tusk, a chance to appoint a replacement. Although she ran on the lists of the centre-right Civic Platform led by Mr Tusk, Ms Hubner is not a party member and was initially backed by the centre-left when she was first sent to Brussels as commissioner.The Tusk government has made no secret of the fact that it would favour other candidates for the job, the frontrunner being MEP Janusz Lewandowski, formerly a minister in charge of privatisation.

Officially, however, she is still in the running for a position in the next commission, along with another MEP, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, head of the influential foreign affairs committee.Ms Hubner hinted she would accept a commission job in the fall, when the new team is set to be put together, if asked to do so. I have the knowledge, the experience and the democratic support to work in the European Parliament and in the European Commission. Nothing is excluded,she said. If asked to re-join the commission, Ms Hubner would have to resign her functions as an MEP.Among parliamentary committees she would be interested in, Ms Hubner mentioned regional development, internal market and consumer protection, as well as industry, research and energy.On her accomplishments in the past five years on the regional policy file, Ms Hubner said the greatest success was to integrate the 12 new member states into the EU economy and society and reunite these two parts of Europe.She said the policy was now in good shape, reformed and prepared for the challenges Europe is facing.Last week Poland indicated it would lobby for a key economic post in the next EU commission.

AUDIT THE FED HAS 237 SIGNUPS.

Sen. Jim DeMint Co-Sponsors Audit the Fed Bill
By tmartin • June 23, 2009

Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty today issued high praise for Senator Jim DeMint and his leadership on legislation to bring transparency to the Federal Reserve and our nation’s monetary policy.Last week, Senator DeMint became the first Republican to support S. 604, The Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009. This week he has taken to the airwaves to help build momentum for this bill, including a nationally televised appearance today on Fox News’ Glen Beck Show.S. 604 is the companion to H.R. 1207, legislation introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman Ron Paul, which currently stands with 237 cosponsors, a majority of the House.The Federal Reserve wields tremendous power and is at the center of our current economic storm of deficits, debt and bailouts.Senator Jim DeMint understands that in order to solve our problems, America needs transparency and accountability at our nation’s central bank, said Campaign for Liberty President John Tate.By supporting S. 604, Senator DeMint is standing up for both South Carolina and the American People. The Campaign for Liberty applauds Senator Jim DeMint for strong leadership in the fight to restore our Liberty.
H.R. 1207 has tremendous momentum in the House, and S. 604 is now picking up steam in the Senate,continued Tate.

Senator David Vitter (R-LA) also cosponsored S. 604 shortly after Sen. DeMint signed on and other Senators are soon expected to follow Senator DeMint’s lead.S. 604 and H.R. 1207 would open up the Fed’s funding facilities, such as the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, Term Securities Lending Facility, and Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility to Congressional oversight and an audit by the non-partisan Government Accountability Office. Additionally, audits could include discount window operations, open market operations, and agreements with foreign central banks, such as ongoing dollar swap operations with European central banks.H.R. 1207’s 237 cosponsors includes nearly every House Republican, as well as 71 Democrats and encompasses Representatives from a wide variety of ideological backgrounds, including conservatives, liberals, libertarians, moderates, and Blue Dogs. For example, Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), former head of the Progressive Caucus and Tom Price (R-GA), Chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, are both early supporters.Campaign for Liberty was formed to build on the momentum generated by Ron Paul’s presidential bid that won over 1.3 million votes in the GOP primaries, while setting one day internet fundraising records and pulling in $34.7 million. Campaign for Liberty has attracted over 200,000 members and is conducting grassroots lobbying and educational campaigns to motivate millions of Americans to push for transparency at the Federal Reserve.

RON PAUL OBAMA WANTS ECONOMIC CRASH
http://www.infowars.com/ron-paul-obamas-goal-is-economic-collapse/

H.R. 675: Building Obama’s Civilian National Security Force
Kurt Nimmo Infowars June 23, 2009

In January, without any recognizable corporate media coverage, Rep. Bob Filner, a California Democrat, introduced H.R. 675. The bill would amend title 10 of the United States Code and extend to civilian employees of the Department of Defense the authority to execute warrants, make arrests, and carry firearms. The bill was referred to the Armed Services Committee on January 26, 2009.Rep. Bob Filner Filner’s bill would amend the United States code with the following: Sec. 1585b. Law enforcement officers of the Department of Defense: authority to execute warrants, make arrests, and carry firearms… for any offense against the United States.(Emphasis added.)The Posse Comitatus Act, passed on June 18, 1878 after the end of Reconstruction, limits the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement. The Act prohibits members of the federal uniformed services from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain law and order on non-federal property within the United States.H.R. 675 sidesteps Posse Comitatus by defining law enforcement officer of the Department of Defense as a civilian employee of the Department of Defense, including federal police officers, detectives, criminal investigators, special agents, and game law enforcement officers classified by the Office of Personnel Management Occupational Series 0083 (the United States Office of Personnel Management is described as an independent agency of the U.S. government that manages the civil service of the federal government).In 2005, the Office of Personnel Management partnered with the Department of Homeland Security to create a 21st century human resources management system that fully supports the Department’s vital mission,according to then Office of Personnel Management Associate Director for Strategic Human Resources Policy Ron Sanders.

At approximately the same time, the DoD issued a Defense Directive 1404.10 (read PDF) that establishes a DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce and rescinds a prior Clinton era directive dealing with the emergency use of civilian personnel. The Obama administration describes the Civilian Expeditionary Workforce as follows: Members of the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce shall be organized, trained, cleared, equipped, and ready to deploy in support of combat operations by the military; contingencies; emergency operations; humanitarian missions; disaster relief; restoration of order; drug interdiction; and stability operations of the Department of Defense in accordance with DoDD 3000.05.This new directive is odd, coming as it does after campaign promises by Obama to establish a paramilitary civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded as our military,writes Doug Ross. According to Sec. Def. Robert Gates, defeating terrorism will require the use of more soft power,with civilians contributing more in communication, economic assistance, political development and other non-military areas. Gates called for the creation of new government organizations, including a permanent group of civilian experts with a wide range of expertise who could be sent abroad on short notice as a supplement to U.S. military efforts. And he urged more involvement by university and other private experts,the Associated Press reported in late 2007.It should be noted that the original Civilian Expeditionary Workforce directive mentions the term overseas no fewer than 33 times, while the Obama revision does not mention overseas at all. In other words, the revised directive is designed for emergency operations in the United States. Both H.R. 675 and the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce directive will establish civilian soft power under the direction of the Pentagon. Obama is now actively working to create a paramilitary civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded as the military. In order to skirt Posse Comitatus, Obama’s paramilitary brownshirts will be organized and run out of the Office of Personnel Management with orders coming from the Pentagon.In the recent past, the Pentagon sent operatives to snoop on anti-war and patriot demonstrations — for instance, Alex Jones’ protest at the Federal Reserve was monitored by the Pentagon . In the not too distant future they will likely send civilians with firearms and the power to arrest rightwing extremists who represent, according to the Department of Homeland Security and numerous federalized police agencies,offense against the United States.

Mandatory H1N1 Vaccine May Be in the Works
Kurt Nimmo Infowars June 24, 2009

In a recent article on the unfolding economic collapse, Rep. Ron Paul warns that the hysterically hyped H1N1 flu pandemic may result in the government requiring mandatory flu vaccinations. Nearly $8 billion will be spent to address a potential pandemic flu which could result in mandatory vaccinations for no discernible reason other than to enrich the pharmaceutical companies that make the vaccine,writes Paul.Young victims line up for their toxic vaccines in the 1950s. On May 30, the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche reported a plan by the Sarkozy government to launch an obligatory vaccination campaign for all French of more than 3 months of age.On May 15, Bloomberg reported that France, the UK, Belgium and Finland agreed to buy about 158 million shots from London-based Glaxo and Baxter International Inc.Health and Human Services Secretary (and Bilderberg member) Kathleen Sebelius told the Associated Press on June 16 that she is urging school superintendents around the country to spend the summer preparing for a massive swine flu vaccine this fall and added that schools are being put on notice that they might be turned into factory assembly line shot clinics.If you think about vaccinating kids, schools are the logical place,Sebelius said.On May 6, the Obama administration announced an unprecedented fall vaccination campaign that could entail giving Americans three flu shots — one to combat annual seasonal influenza and two targeted at the new swine flu virus spreading across the globe, the Washington Post reported.

I am old enough to remember the last time the government did this. It was the late 1950s and as an elementary school student I was lined up with my fellows and marched into a classroom to get a polio vaccination. Earlier in the decade Jonas Salk had successfully mass-produced a polio vaccine by growing a form of the virus on the kidneys of rhesus monkeys. In 1960, however, researchers found that the polio vaccine was infected with another virus called Simian Virus 40. It was discovered that this virus causes brain and lung cancers. It took forty years for this cancer to be investigated.Merck and other big pharma corporations told the Surgeon General they were unable remove the contamination from their Salk and Sabin vaccines (the latter an oral version of the polio vaccine) but the government refused.Michele Carbone, Assistant Professor of Pathology at Loyola University in Chicago, has recently isolated fragments of the SV-40 virus in human bone cancers and in a lethal form of lung cancer called mesothelioma. He found SV-40 in 33% of the osteosarcoma bone cancers studied, in 40% of other bone cancers, and in 60% of the mesotheliomas lung cancers, writes Geraldo Fuentes.If you watch television, you may have caught an ad about lawsuits pertaining to mesothelioma. It is said mesothelioma is a result of asbestos exposure, but research reveals that 50% of the current mesotheliomas being treated no longer occurs due to asbestos but rather the SV-40 virus contained in the polio vaccination. In addition, according to researchers from the Institute of Histology and General Embryology of the University of Ferrara, SV-40 has turned up in a variety other tumors. By the end of 1996, dozens of scientists reported finding SV40in a variety of bone cancers and a wide range of brain cancers, which had risen 30 percent over the previous 20 years.The SV-40 virus is now being detected in tumors removed from people never inoculated with the contaminated vaccine, leading some to conclude that those infected by the vaccine might be spreading SV40.The first swine flu vaccine, polio vaccines, smallpox vaccine, anthrax vaccine, hepatitis B vaccine, and most recently Lyme disease vaccine that crippled approximately 750,000 people within months of its release and prior to its recall by the FDA contain vaccine-injury certainty,explains Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz.

Horowitz continues:Most people fail to realize all vaccines carry a list of ingredients that typically increase human disease and death (i.e., morbidity and mortality). These include toxic elements and chemicals such as mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde and formalin (used to preserve corpses), MSG, foreign genetic material, and risky proteins from various species of bacteria, viruses, and animals that have been scientifically associated with triggering autoimmune disorders and certain cancers. A growing body of scientific evidence strongly suggests vaccines are largely responsible for increasing cases of autism and other learning disabilities, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, Lupus, MS, ALS, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, hay fever, allergies, chronic draining ear infections, type 1 autoimmune diabetes, and many, many more pandemics. These chronic ailments are said to require long-term medical care for the patients’ management causing toxic side effects resulting in America’s leading killer — iatrogenic disease. That is, vaccines and other pharmaceutical industry inventions are literally killing or disabling millions with little effort on the part of government officials and their drug industry cohorts to arrest this scourge.Of course, this is not particularly revelatory considering our globalist rulers are a pack of eugenicists determined to reduce world population to 500 million, as brazenly announced on the Georgia Guidestones and published in a pile of globalist white papers and other documentation right out in the open and in our faces.

There is a single theme behind all our work — we must reduce population levels, declared Thomas Ferguson, the Latin American case officer for the State Department’s Office of Population Affairs, an office established in 1975 by the arch-criminal Henry Kissinger. Depopulation policy became the top priority under the agenda of the NSC, Club of Rome and U.S. policymakers like Gen. Alexander Haig, Cyrus Vance, Ed Muskie and Kissinger.It is well known that the Rockefeller Foundation is the prime sponsor of public relations for the United Nations’ drastic depopulation program. Evidence in the possession of a growing number of researchers in America, England, and Germany demonstrates that the Foundation and its corporate, medical, and political associates organized the racial mass murder program of Nazi Germany, writes Anton Chaitkin.These globalists, who function as a conduit for British Empire geopolitics, were not stopped after World War II. This United Nations alliance of the old Nazi right, with the new left, poses an even graver danger to the world today than it did in 1941.The eugenicists are back with their latest program to kill an untold number of people under the cover of the swine flu pandemic. If you line up for a vaccination contaminated with mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde and other toxins — and a possible agent for future cancers designed to decimate world population — you need to have your head examined.However, as Ron Paul indicates, you may not have a choice — the government may force you to choose between a toxic vaccine or be shipped off to a FEMA camp.The H1N1 vaccine now being rushed into production is in essence and experimental drug. According to Nuremberg Code used in the military tribunals against the eugenicist Nazis, medical experiments are expressly forbidden.No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur,the code states,except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.Citing the Nuremberg Code will be of little use when the government shows up and demands you submit to a vaccination.You may have to react in a more proactive manner.

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS WED JUNE 24,2009

09:30 AM +1.25
10:00 AM +67.03
10:30 AM +96.73
11:00 AM +96.66
11:30 AM +96.89
12:00 PM +72.32
12:30 PM +59.63
01:00 PM +55.55
01:30 PM +61.89
02:00 PM +44.81
02:30 PM -2.20
03:00 PM -3.93
03:30 PM -32.92
04:00 PM -23.05 8299.86

S&P 500 900.94 +5.84

NASDAQ 1792.34 +27.42

GOLD 930.50 +6.20

OIL 68.60 -0.64

TSE 300 10,100.93 +204.21

CDNX 1090.66 +16.48

S&P/TSX/60 611.68 +11.89

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -5.17%
S&P -0.90%
Nasdaq +11.91%
TSX Advances 663,declines 882,unchanged 271,Volume 2,332,102,046.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 311,Declines 463,Unchanged 374,Volume 196,590,405.

Dow +43 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow +1 points at low today.
Dow +105 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $938.60.OIL opens at $68.71 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow +1 points at low today so far.
Dow +105 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 2,924,declines 689,unchanged 90,New Highs 13,New Lows 42.
Volume 2,611,303,542.
NASDAQ Advances 1,948,declines 632,unchanged 122,New highs 22,New Lows 10.
Volume 1,045,033,224.
TSX Advances 961,declines 344,unchanged 221,Volume 1,095,114,629.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 319,Declines 242,Unchanged 306,Volume 123,581,693.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -64 points at low today.
Dow +105 points at high today.
Dow -0.28% today Volume 189,397,385.
Nasdaq +1.55% today Volume 2,056,321,488.
S&P 500 +0.65% today Volume N/A

EU mulls IMF solution to gas crisis threat
ANDREW RETTMAN Today JUNE 24,09 @ 17:29 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - An International Monetary Fund-led loan to help Ukraine buy Russian gas is emerging as the favoured option to prevent another European energy crisis this winter.A group of multilateral lenders - the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development - is to meet with EU, Russian and Ukrainian officials in Brussels on Monday (29 June) to discuss anti-crisis measures.Ukraine needs around $4 billion (€3bn) to stockpile Russian gas for winter when demand peaks. It also needs around $600 million by 7 July to pay for its monthly Russian gas consumption.

The option of private banks lending money to EU gas firms to help build stocks in Ukraine is falling by the wayside, EU officials indicated on Wednesday. Brussels ruled out using EU public money more two weeks back.Any IMF-type loan would likely be made to the Ukrainian state, rather than state gas distributor Naftogaz. It might also be attached to the disbursement of the IMF's next tranche of Ukraine's $16.4 billion general economic crisis aid, due in coming weeks.The gas crisis money would probably come with strings attached, such as oversight of and increased transparency in the Ukrainian state-owned firm.Naftogaz is notoriously badly managed and heavily in debt, making it a risky business partner for the EU private banking or energy sector.The January gas crisis, which saw Russia cut off Ukraine - a transit state for gas to the EU - for 10 days, left vast swathes of people in Bulgaria and Slovakia without heating in freezing weather.

But Russia came out the biggest loser in the dispute.

Russia's reputation suffered more than Ukraine's, despite its massive PR campaign. Gazprom lost €2 billion and was forced to flare gas at a time when gas prices were the highest in history,one EU official said.When asked at the EU summit last Friday what the EU can do to help avoid a re-run of the problem, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: We are talking to Ukraine in various co-operation fora, as well as with the IMF, on how to increase transparency.There is a broad consensus in the [EU] that we have to put all our efforts to solve these issues thoroughly, not that they reappear every month.

EU bank bail-outs could dwarf stimulus spending
ANDREW WILLIS Today JUNE 24,09 @ 09:24 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – An annual report on public finances published by the European Commission on Tuesday (23 June) indicates the cost of government stimulus packages could pale into insignificance when compared to the bill for EU bank bail-outs. The lengthy report says the final cost of bank bail-outs is likely to lie anywhere between 2.75 – 16.5 percent of EU GDP depending on the veracity of underlying assumptions and the ability of governments to recover capital injections and loans.

Experience shows that the costs were lower when the banking crisis resolution strategy was implemented swiftly, was transparent and received broad political support,said a commission statement. A final bill closer to the report's upper estimate would dwarf the costs of stimulus spending used by EU governments to tackle the economic crisis. EU governments will provide roughly five percent of GDP, or around €600 billion, to stimulate the bloc's economy and protect its citizens over 2009-10 when the rising cost of unemployment benefits and other automatic support measures are taken into account.This year, the largest fiscal stimulus packages as a percentage of GDP are being implemented in Spain, Austria, Finland, the UK, Germany and Sweden.However the report warns that the heavy toll exacted on public finances as a result of the crisis and the growing burden presented by an aging EU population mean governments increasingly need to claw back spending and put their financial houses in order. An exit strategy strengthening fiscal policy frameworks, reforming age-related spending and spelling out the broad consolidation measures ... is required to address these concerns,said the commission. Germany recently introduced a constitutional change that will make it illegal for the federal government to run a deficit of more than 0.35 percent of GDP from 2016, whereas the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, rejected austerity measures in a speech to parliament on Monday.

Slowdown in EU recovery

Mr Sarkozy's warning that continued spending was necessary because the downturn was far from over was partially confirmed by a new survey on Tuesday that indicates the EU's recovery appears to have slowed in the second quarter of this year. The purchasing managers index published by Markit Economics was largely dragged down by a June contraction in the services sector. The preliminary PMI figures – an important indication of private sector activity - rose only slightly to a nine-month high of 44.4 in June from 44.0 in May, below the expectations of many economists. A score below 50 indicates a contraction in activity, with June's figures indicating activity has fallen for 13 consecutive months, the longest period of contraction in the survey's 11-year history.

EU commits €100m to nuclear and radiological security
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today JUNE 24,09 @ 17:43 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The threat of dirty bombs, biowarfare and nuclear terrorism drew the attention of the European Union's executive on Wednesday (24 June), which proposed a policy package aimed at strengthening chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear security in the bloc.From theoretical worries that militant groups may one day acquire fissile material to launch an attack on civilians in Europe to the very real examples of the polonium poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, the European Commission outlined an action plan to combat such attacks.The €100 million plan contains 133 measures that focus on making unauthorised access to CBRN materials as difficult as possible, as well developing the capability of detecting them instantly should the need arise.The commission also hopes to ensure that the EU and its member states are able to respond to a CBRN attack efficiently and then recover as rapidly as possible.Specifically, the core elements of the plan emphasise boosting the protection of CBRN materials and limiting the potential for them to be lost or stolen.

The action plan also hopes to see a stepping up of detection systems across the EU.

Additional aspects will look at information exchange between member states on security issues in order to react in a more co-ordinated manner to the threat.While such security issues are normally the exclusive realm of national governments, in this case, because such militant extremists care little for borders and because governments have expressed a desire to see minimum levels of security for CBRN material across the bloc, justice ministers have encouraged co-operation at the EU level.In the wake of the attack on Alexander Litvinenko, in December 2007, ministers agreed that development of CBRN risk reduction strategies be further developed, and as far back as 2002, a year after the attacks of 11 September in New York and Washington, then commissioner Loyola de Palacio suggested the creation of common EU standards for underground nuclear waste disposal to reduce the likelihood of attacks involving nuclear waste material, particularly from the then-incoming member states in eastern Europe and from the post-Soviet neighbourhood.

Nuclear power and nuclear safety

Environmental groups, who frequently originate in the anti-nuclear movements of the 1970s and 1980s, welcomed the commitment to greater emphasis on nuclear, radiological, biological and chemical security, but noted a disconnect between the day's announcement and European resistance to increased safety standards at nuclear power plants.They also argued that Europe's embrace of a nuclear renaissance as a low-carbon solution to energy needs runs counter to nuclear security, as more nuclear power plants means more material that can find its ways into the hands of extremists.

It's a step in the right direction,Mils Bohmer, a nuclear physicist and advisor to Bellona, a Norway-based green group.At the moment, there's very little co-ordination and not enough focus on this area, and yet there's a lot of material that potentially can fall relatively easily into the hands of terrorists.But naturally, the more nuclear power plants you have in Europe, the more nuclear material is available.The two questions are linked - a nuclear renaissance will require much more focus on nuclear safety.There are not enough resources on the table to formulate good control over this material at nuclear power plants today.In April, the European Parliament passed a bill on nuclear safety standards, but the deputies rejected binding common safety standards and what was approved will apply to reactors that have yet to be built, but not existing ones.Nuclear waste repositories, nuclear waste transport and reprocessing plants were also not covered by the directive.Commenting on the CBRN package, Rebecca Harms, recently elected co-leader of the Green group in the parliament, told EUobserver that nuclear power plants are by themselves a security concern.Nuclear technology poses a clear terrorist threat. Nuclear power stations are like pre-installed bombs because they are not safe from attack, for example by aircraft,she said.It is a myth that so-called civil nuclear technology can be exported without jeopardising proliferation of nuclear weapons. We should be focusing on exporting renewable technologies, not nuclear know-how that has clear security risks attached to it.The action plan funds will come from already existing national, international and EU programmes from 2010 to 2013.

Obama’s Financial Reform Proposal: A Stealth Scheme for Global Monetary Control Stephen Lendman Global Research June 23, 2009

When politicians plan reform, it’s wise to be skeptical and hold on to your wallets. So fixing the economy by bailing out Wall Street is wrecking it, and Obama’s proposed health care reform taxes more, provides less, places profits above human need, avoids the most vital solutions, and leaves a broken system in place.Instead of Real Financial Reform, Obama’s Plan capitulates to Wall Street. Now there’s Financial Regulatory Reform, A New Foundation: Rebuilding Financial Supervision and Regulation -announced June 17 with Obama saying he’ll send Congress a plan to create new government agencies, give the private banking cartel Federal Reserve more power, and address five major problems needing regulatory and legislative measures to fix.

Addressing business executives in the White House East Room, he said:

A culture of irresponsibility took root from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street with no mention that months of it worsened on his watch.A regulatory regime basically crafted in the wake of a 20th century economic crisis - the Great Depression - was overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy. In fact, 30 years of deregulation since the late 1970s, not technology, caused speculative excesses, market bubbles, and inevitable collapses that always follow.Of course, these problems are endemic under a system that’s crisis-prone, unstable, anarchic, ungovernable, and self-destructive through repeated cycles of booms creating bubbles, then busts, followed by recessions or depressions with today’s collapse grave enough for Michel Chossudovky to call it far more serious than the Great Depression (because all) major sectors of the global economy are affected.

Proposed Financial Reforms

An 89-page Treasury Department pdf is available online for those inclined to read it. Along with an introduction and summary of recommendations, its five major objectives are to:I.Promote Robust Supervision and Regulation of Financial Markets
II.Establish Comprehensive Regulation of Financial Markets
III.Protect Consumers and Investors from Financial Abuse
IV.Provide the Government with the Tools it Needs to Manage Financial Crises (and)
V.Raise International Regulatory Standards and Improve International Cooperation

The introduction cites the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression, admits that its roots….go back decades (and states that) the government could have done more to prevent many of them. Proposed reforms include:– a new regulatory Financial Services Oversight Council;– more power to the Fed over all firms that could pose a threat to financial stability, even those that do not own banks such as insurance companies;– stronger capital standards for all financial firms;– a new National Bank Supervisor over all federally chartered banks;– registering hedge fund advisors;– new regulation of securitization and derivatives markets;– increased market transparency and the effectiveness of credit ratings agencies;– originators of loans packaged into securities to retain some of the credit risk;– broker and loan originator compensation changes away from income up front to spreading it out over time and making it dependent on the performance of loans they make;– a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency to safeguard them from potentially harmful complex financial products, including securities, mortgages and credit cards;– stronger regulations to improve the transparency, fairness, and appropriateness of consumer and investor products and services;– new ways to resolve nonbank financial institutions whose failure could have serious systemic effects;– changing the Fed’s emergency lending authority to improve accountability;– establishing wind down authority to take over large financial firms like AIG, Fannie and Freddie; and– international reforms, including greater oversight of global financial markets and more control through a process whereby G-20 countries cooperate in regulating transnational companies. This looks like the most insidious, outlandish, and dangerous provision. More on it below and its likely importance.

The report suggests other proposals may follow and that More can and should be done in the future.So what to make of it all given that it’s still a plan, congressional and other critics are attacking some of its provisions, whatever emerges is still a ways off, and large banks, insurers and other influential financial firms have final say on new laws and regulations affecting them, so likely changes coming may further taint an already deeply corrupted system.America has a legacy of failed public agencies as well as regulatory and legislative reform - for lack of teeth, oversight, and most important because financial and other industries end up self-regulating, consolidating, and growing more powerful at the expense of the public interest. Giving the Federal Reserve more power lets banking giants make their own rules, decide how and whether to enforce them, and thus mainly operate as they wish because no one in Washington dares challenge them.Michael Hudson agrees in his new article titled: Instead of Real Financial Reform, Obama’s Plan capitulates to Wall Street. He explains that supposed reforms promote Wall Street’s product, debt creation, at the expense of the economy at large, and lets financial chieftains continue to self-regulate the debt industry - and by the way, to keep all their gains from the past decade’s worth of fraudulent lending, scot-free….(He) achieved what no Republican could have: rescuing the Bush administration’s pro-creditor policies that fostered the Bubble Economy in the first place.The plan is laden with a false diagnosis and fatal flaws,so clearly what’s proposed are wrong-headed cures (but hardly) by accident.If it’s largely accepted as is, Wall Street will get precisely what it wants - a veneer of regulatory cover to keep wrecking the economy and stealing the public blind.

Simon Johnson is also critical. He’s a former IMF chief economist, now teaching at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. After reviewing Obama’s plan, he expressed great skepticism. Even though large banks and other financial institutions caused the global crisis, no wrongdoing on their part is cited nor are punitive measures proposed. He states:There appears to be no mention that corporate governance within these large banks failed totally. How on earth can you expect these banks to operate in a responsible manner unless and until you address the reckless manner in which they (a) compensate themselves, (b) destroy shareholder value, and (c) treat boards of directors as toothless wonders? The profound silence on this point from the administration - including some of our finest economic, financial, and legal thinkers - is breathtaking….Based on what we see so far, there is little reason to be encouraged. The reform process appears to have been captured at any early stage - by design the lobbyists were let into the executive branch’s (planning process), so we don’t even get to have a transparent debate or to hear specious arguments about why we really need big banks.Johnson (like Hudson) added that financial giants are pleased with Obama’s plan, and why not. They or their lobbyists wrote it. On June 16, even The New York Times suggested it in Stephen Labaton’s article headlined: Obama Sought a Range of Views on Finance Rules.Over several weeks,executives from an array of industries caught up in the financial crisis came to Washington….to make their case for how the new regulatory landscape should look. They came from big banks and small ones, insurance companies, stock exchanges, hedge funds and mutual funds” as well as consumer groups and labor for appearance sake only.Now lobbyists….will head to Congress to try to influence the final product with no doubt they will so once again consumer interests will be shortchanged - perhaps globally given events reported earlier this year and discussed below.

Steps Toward Global Money and Banking Control

In her April 18, 2009 article titled The Tower of Basel: Do We Really Want the Bank for International Settlements Issuing Our Global Currency,Ellen Brown quoted Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the London Telegraph (April 7) saying:On April 2,A single clause in Point 19 of the communique issued by the G-20 leaders amounts to a revolution in the global financial order.We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250 (billion) into the world economy and increase global liquidity…SDRs are Special Drawing Rights, a synthetic paper currency issued by the International Monetary Fund that has lain dormant for half a century.In effect, the G-20 leaders have activated the IMF’s power to create money and begin global quantitative easing. In doing so, they are putting a de facto world currency into play. It is outside the control of any sovereign body.Brown agrees and highlighted the article’s subtitle: The world is a step closer to a global currency, backed by a global central bank, running monetary policy for all humanity.What might it be, she asked? The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) - the secretive 55-member nation, central bank of central bankers. Based in Basel, Switzerland, it’s run by the monetary authorities of six dominant nations - America, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Japan and Britain.

Objective V in Obama’s financial reform plan addresses Rais(ing) International Standards and Improving International Cooperation by promoting global control in a single paragraph:The United States is playing a strong leadership role in efforts to coordinate international policy through the G-20, the Financial Stability Board, and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. We will use our leadership position in the international community to promote (an) initiative compatible with the domestic regulatory reforms described in this report.Near the end of the plan, it recommends Strengthen(ing) the Financial Stability Board….complet(ing) its restructuring and institutionaliz(ing) its new mandate to promote global financial stability by September 2009.It also urges work(ing) with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and standard setters to develop macroprudential tools with Obama asking other nations to follow America’s lead.

What is the FSB, and why is it important?

The Financial Stability Forum (FSF) Becomes the Financial Stability Board (FSB)

Founded at a Bonn, Germany meeting in 1999 when Bundesbank president, Hans Tietmeyer, recommend it to G-7 finance ministers and central bank governors, the FSF consists of central bankers and finance ministers of about a dozen key nations working together for their mutual self-interest.A decade later at the G-20’s April 2 London Summit, these nations agreed to let a new Financial Stability Board (FSB) regulate their economies henceforth as stated in a concluding communique:In particular we agree:– to establish a new Financial Stability Board (FSB) with a strengthened mandate, as a successor to the Financial Stability Forum (FSF), including all G-20 countries, FSF members, Spain, and the European Commission;– that the FSB should collaborate with the IMF to provide early warning of macroeconomic and financial risks and the actions needed to address them; (and)– to extend regulation and oversight to all systemically important financial institutions, instruments and markets.The G-20’s same day’s press release headlined: Financial Stability Forum re-established as the Financial Stability Board (with an) expanded membership (and) a broadened mandate to promote financial stability.It consists of a Chairperson, a Steering Committee, the Plenary with member countries, SSBs (standard setting bodies) and international financial institutions, and a Secretariat. The Chair oversees the Steering Committee, the Plenary and the Secretariat. The FSB Plenary is the decision making organ of the FSB. It has a full-time Secretary General and an enlarged Secretariat based in Basel (to) support the FSB. Membership also obligates countries to implement international financial standards (including 12 International Standards and Codes)…. with no elaboration about them except in broad terms left for outsiders to imagine what’s meant.Plenary members include G-20 nations, Spain and the European Commission - represented by their central bankers, immediate deputies, heads of their main regulatory agency, deputy finance ministers, SSB chairs, central bank committees, and representatives of the IMF, World Bank, BIS and OECD - together the world’s monetary movers and shakers.The FSB appears to be a step closer toward global monetary control under the direction of the G-7 dominated BIS, IMF and other international lending agencies. Given its inclusion in Obama’s financial reform proposal makes the entire package suspect and perhaps just cover for the above-outlined sinister scheme - as well as letting Wall Street be self-regulating.In her June 21 article titled Big Brother in Basel: Have We Traded Our National Sovereignty for Financial Stability, Ellen Brown cites Internet rumors that the new agency benignly called the Financial Stability Board (FSB) is the latest sinister development in the covert consolidation of global financial power in a few private hands,- namely dominant G-7 central bankers controlling the BIS, IMF, and other international lending agencies.So far, there’s still time to prevent it provided enough concerned people know the danger, spread the word to others, and urge them to pass it on. Otherwise, holding on to your wallets won’t matter because everything in them will be emptied the result of (banker-controlled) regulatory bodies pulling off the greatest ever financial heist - a global coup d’etat. The time to stop it is now and expose Obama as a frontman for grand theft and power.

CARBON TRADING NETWORK
http://www.trayport.com/
CHICAGO CLIMATE EXCHANGE AL GORE,RICHARD SANDOR SCAM
http://www.chicagoclimatex.com/

Deal sends global warming bill to House floor By MARY CLARE JALONICK and DINA CAPPIELLO, Associated Press Writers JUNE 23,09

WASHINGTON – Key Democrats reached a deal Tuesday that its supporters hope will lead to House passage of the biggest environmental bill in decades, one aimed at slowing the gradual, destructive heating of the planet.Farm-state Democrats won concessions that will delay the Environmental Protection Agency from drafting regulations that could hamper the ethanol industry and will hand the Agriculture Department oversight of potentially lucrative projects to reduce greenhouse gases on farms.The House is expected to take up the legislation on Friday, the first time the chamber will vote on a bill that would impose nationwide limits on the gases blamed for global warming emitted from power plants, factories and automobiles.The breakthrough came hours after President Barack Obama at a news conference called on the House to pass the legislation, and a new EPA analysis showed that it would raise household energy costs on average only an extra $80 to $111 a year.It is legislation that will finally spark a clean energy transformation that will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and confront the carbon pollution that threatens our planet, Obama said.And that is why I urge members of the House to come together and pass it.The deal also concludes weeks of closed-door negotiations between the bill's sponsor, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and farm-state Democrats, led by Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., who expressed concern in recent weeks that there was not enough in the bill to alleviate the costs for farmers and said they would vote against it.Peterson said Tuesday the agreement secured his vote.We have reached an agreement that works for agriculture and contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States,he said.

The Obama administration and Congress are under pressure to pass climate and energy legislation prior to an international gathering slated for Copenhagen, Denmark, in December. The U.S. will sit down with other nations to hammer out a new international agreement to curb the emissions linked to global warming.Peterson and Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, announced the agreement late Tuesday. The deal will bar the EPA for five years from including the conversion of forests to crop land when it calculates how ethanol production will contribute to global warming. During that time, the agency will have to conduct a study.The agreement also includes a promise from Waxman that the Agriculture Department, not EPA, will oversee projects that will reduce greenhouse emissions on farms.Waxman said after the meeting that he has the votes to pass the bill and the deal with Peterson shows support from three key groups — environmentalists, farmers and much of the industry involved. Waxman had already struck deals with coal- and oil-state Democrats to ensure their support.

That's a mighty effective combination,he said.

For weeks much of the behind-the-scenes discussions have focused on how much the bill would cost average consumers, who are likely to face rising prices for electricity and fuels as companies make investments to reduce global warming pollution. Republicans have called the bill a national energy tax that would cost households thousands of dollars a year.Minority Leader John Boehner, in a memo to House Republicans sent earlier on Tuesday, called the pending floor vote one of the defining debates of the 2010 cycle and said that Democrats will vote for it at their political peril.Americans know that this bill would have a disastrous impact on our economy and our constituents,Boehner wrote.The American people will remember this debate and will remember who stands up for them.But two separate analyses by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office offered far lower estimates. The studies said low-income families would receive hundreds of dollars in credits or rebates each year through the sale of permits and the average cost per household would be $175. The EPA analysis released Tuesday said the average household cost would be even lower — $80 to $111.The House bill would require factories, refineries and power plants to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the leading compound linked to global warming, and six other greenhouse gases by roughly 80 percent by mid-century and hasten the nation's energy shift away from fossil fuels by putting a price on carbon dioxide releases.The reductions would be made by capping emissions on key polluting sources. The polluters would then be provided emission permits with the cap declining each year. Some 85 percent of the permits would be given away, especially to energy intensive sectors of the economy. But others would be sold by the government, with some of the proceeds used to help people meet higher energy costs.The bill is H.R. 2454. On the Net:
Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/ House Energy and Commerce Committee: http://energycommerce.house.gov

Google's $1,500 coffee makers June 23, 2009 8:10 pm Eastern By Arthur Robinson
2009

Google Inc. spends quite a lot of time burnishing its self-created image as a green company – largely on the basis of the solar array at its corporate headquarters. It is also trying to build support for the administration's cap-and-trade energy bill by pretending that solar energy can substitute for hydrocarbon, nuclear and hydroelectric energy.Google states that its multimillion-dollar solar array has generated sufficient electricity over the past two years to run 5,158 coffee makers for one hour each day. Google does not mention, however, that this solar array supplies insufficient electricity to run Google's search engine computers for even one minute per day and that the coffee makers, if supplied with solar panels to operate them, would cost approximately $1,500 each.Google claims that its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters buildings are paved with 1.6 megawatts (Mw) of solar panels. This installation was completed in June 2007, about the same time as the Nellis Air Force Base 14 Mw, $100 million solar panel installation that energy expert Obama – who is now attempting to seize control of the energy industries of the United States – visited recently and advertised as an example of his administration's plans for America. As of June 21, 2009, Google reports that it has generated 4,592,364 kilowatt (Kw) hours of electricity with this installation, or about 2.29 gigawatt (Gw) hours per year. Nellis reports 30.1 Gw hours per year. So, Nellis is producing 25 percent of its advertised quantity and Google is producing 16 percent. The apparent 75 percent and 84 percent losses arise because the sun does not shine 24 hours per day and because these installations are routinely overrated. In fact, the Google installation actually generates, on average, only 0.26 megawatts – not 1.6 megawatts (1 Gw = 1,000 Mw = 1,000,000 Kw).Is Al Gore being disingenuous? Read the truth about climate change in Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed.

Google brags that the average 24-hour output of its solar array is sufficient to operate 5,158 coffee makers for one hour – based on its daily reports. It does not, however, reveal the cost of this solar equipment. If we assume that the installations at Google and Nellis are similarly cost effective – they are both 2007 technology and our assumption allows for technical differences in the installations (Nellis has solar-tracking arrays), then Google's installation cost an estimated $7.5 million. With current electricity and maintenance costs, this solar installation will not even pay for itself in more than 40 years, so it produces nothing of net value. Without considering depreciation, maintenance such as cleaning the panels, and employees to oversee the equipment, this $7.5 million works out to $1,454 per coffee maker. So, if the coffee maker is priced at $46 and delivered with a share in the Google solar array sufficient to operate it for an average of one hour each day, the price is $1,500 per coffee maker.To be sure, Google is a private company. If its directors want to provide $1,500 coffee makers to their staff, why complain? After all, this is not our money – or is it? Google does not reveal the source of the funds that built its solar array, but virtually all such installations in the United States are being built with federal and state tax funds. These funds come in the form of tax credits, tax deductions, grants from publicly funded organizations, and other tax-supported subsidies. So, these $1,500 coffee makers were probably built at taxpayer expense.

Google has not purchased – or accepted at taxpayer expense – a practical energy-producing solar energy system. It has, instead, purchased $7,500,000 in advertising. It is painting itself as a green company – but just how green is it? Google is in the Internet search engine business. Its primary equipment consists of vast arrays of computers that use so much energy that its new data center, currently being built in Oregon, is sited at The Dalles, Ore., near Columbia River hydroelectric power – not a solar array.As with the cost of its solar advertising project, Google also keeps secret the power usage of its computers. The power consumption of the Oregon installation has been estimated at 100 Mw, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. It is also estimated that Google has 19 such centers in the United States and 17 built or under development in other countries. The Dalles installation is one of the largest. If we assume that The Dalles center is about twice the average size, Google is using an estimated 1,000 Mw in the U.S. – or approximately the output of one Palo Verde nuclear reactor. Even if Google's actual usage is as little as half this much, our analysis is still applicable.If Google generated 1,000 Mw of power with solar panels like those it touts at its corporate headquarters, the construction cost would be approximately $30 billion. Moreover, Google's customers would be unhappy if their Internet search services were only available during midday and in good weather, so a hydrocarbon or nuclear-powered electricity generating station would need to be standing by to provide power most of the time.If built with the more efficient Nellis solar tracking equipment, this 1,000 Mw solar installation would cover 40,000 acres, or 63 square miles. Since Google's earnings are about $4 billion per year, the construction of this system would require the entire earnings of the company for eight years – probably an expenditure that management would prefer not to make.
Alternatively, Google could obtain the $30 billion from American taxpayers via its friends in Washington (Google is very Obama friendly). This would, however, subject Google executives to federal wage controls.

Google's directors have definitely chosen the best option for their computers. They are powering their energy-intensive company with hydrocarbon, nuclear and hydroelectric power. They are at least restricting their green energy to coffee makers and other minor uses at their corporate offices. The energy they are using in their computer installations is helping to produce a very useful product, like many other useful things Americans can do with energy. Neither Google nor the fortunes its founders have earned would exist without the great energy industries that were created by American free enterprise – industries now demonized by green Obama administration anti-technologists.The Google advertising department is, however, involved in blatant hypocrisy. Instead of advertising that the average 24-hour output of their solar array will operate 5,158 coffee makers for one hour, why don't they tell us how long that 24-hour solar output will operate Google itself? – by our calculation from these numbers: 23 seconds per day.Allowing for uncertainties resulting from Google's secrecy, I estimate that the entire 24-hour output of the Google solar array will run Google for between 10 seconds and 1 minute per day. (When asked, Google refused to provide information that would allow a precise estimate.)

Americans currently import 30 percent of their energy – a luxury they can no longer afford. This 30 percent is not made in America because the gradual increase of government taxation, regulation and sponsorship of litigation against American energy industries over the past 40 years has created a business environment in the United States that is very unfavorable for the production of energy. So, even though the United States is awash in plentiful nuclear resources and coal, oil, natural gas and other hydrocarbon resources, most new energy production is instead sited abroad. Now, Congress and the Obama administration are pushing a new energy bill including so-called cap-and-trade that will sharply increase taxation and regulation of the energy industries. To sell this greatly increased suppression of free enterprise, Washington politicians are advertising boutique energy technologies like solar and wind, without mentioning that these methods produce very small amounts of energy at very high costs. These costs are so high that they not only require enormous taxpayer subsidies, but also cannot be financed in sufficient quantity to avoid energy shortages, high energy prices and, ultimately, rationing and diminished prosperity.

Google is supporting this political charade. It is using solar energy to supply minor office needs and to enhance its public image, while simultaneously using large amounts of energy generated by nuclear, hydrocarbon and hydroelectric methods to run its business. It apparently thinks that Americans can be fooled into using its products and supporting the political agenda of its friends through green advertising.This hypocrisy should not be rewarded, and Google should not participate in it.

9/11 FEMA videographer at Ground Zero goes public
Voltairenet June 23, 2009

As official videographer for the U.S. government, Kurt Sonnenfeld was detailed to Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, where he spent one month filming 29 tapes: What I saw at certain moments and in certain places … is very disturbing! He never handed them over to the authorities and has been persecuted ever since. Kurt Sonnenfeld lives in exile in Argentina, where he wrote El Perseguido(the persecuted). His recently-published book tells the story of his unending nightmare and drives another nail into the coffin of the government’s account of the 9/11 events. Below is an exclusive interview by Voltairenet.

Introduction

Kurt Sonnenfeld graduated from the University of Colorado (USA) with studies in International Affairs and Economics, as well as in Literature and Philosophy. He worked for the United States government as official videographer and served as Director of Broadcast Operations for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s National Emergency Response Team. Additionally, Kurt Sonnenfeld was contracted by several other governmental agencies and programs for classified and sensitive operations at military and scientific installations throughout the United States.On September 11, 2001, the area known as Ground Zero was sealed from the public eye. Sonnenfeld, however, was given unrestricted access enabling him to document for the investigation (that never took place) and provide some sanitized pool video to virtually every news network in the world. The tapes that reveal some of the anomalies which he discovered at Ground Zero are still in his possession.

Accused of a crime that did not occur in a manifest frame-up scenario, Kurt Sonnenfeld has been persecuted across continents. After several years of fear, injustice and isolation, he has decided to take a public stand against the Government’s official story and is prepared to submit his material to the close scrutiny of reliable experts.Voltaire Network: Your autobiographical book titled El Perseguido (the persecuted) was recently published in Argentina where you live in exile since 2003. Tell us who is persecuting you.Kurt Sonnenfeld: Although it is autobiographical, it is not my life story. Rather it is a history of the extraordinary events that have happened to me and my family at the hands of U.S. authorities over the course of more than seven years, spanning two hemispheres, after my tour of duty at Ground Zero and becoming an inconvenient witness.Voltaire Network: You explained that your request for refugee status within the terms of the Geneva 1951 Convention is still being considered by the Argentinean Senate, while in 2005 you were granted political asylum, albeit, on a provisional basis. That probably makes you the first U.S. citizen in that situation! And no doubt the first U.S. Government official with direct exposure to the events surrounding September 11, 2001 who has blown the whistle. Is this what drove you into exile? Kurt Sonnenfeld: A refugee is a person who has been forced to leave (or stay away from) his or her country for reasons of persecution. It’s undeniable that many people have been persecuted unfairly as a result of the quasi-fascist laws and policies brought about by the shock of September 11, 2001, and they deserve refugee status. But the fact is, requesting refugee status is a risky and dangerous step to take. America is the world’s only remaining superpower, and dissent has been effectively repressed. Any person who requests refugee status on political grounds is by nature making an extreme statement of dissent. And if your request is denied, what do you do? Once you make the request, there can be no going back.Personally, I wasn’t forced to leave the United States, and I certainly did not flee. At the time I was still fairly oblivious to what was actually brewing against me. I hadn’t connected the dots yet; so that when I left in early 2003 I had every intention of returning. I came to Argentina for a short respite; to try to recuperate after all that had happened to me. I travelled here freely, with my own passport, using my own credit cards. But because of an incredible series of events, I have since been forced into exile, and I haven’t been back.

Voltaire Network: What type of events are you referring to?

Kurt Sonnenfeld: I’ve suffered false accusations for crimes that demonstrably did not happen, abusive imprisonment and torture as a result of those accusations, as well as outrageous calumnies against my reputation, death threats, kidnap attempts and several other violations of civil and human rights as denounced by numerous international accords. My return to the United States would not only be a continuation of those violations, but would be aggregated by the separation - perhaps permanent - from my wife and three-year old twin daughters, the only thing remaining that I have to live for. And then, after the impossibility of receiving a fair trial for a crime that did not happen, I could be subject to the death penalty.Voltaire Network: In 2005, the U.S. Government lodged a request to have you extradited, which was turned down by a Federal Judge. Then, in 2007, the Argentinean Supreme Court – in a show of integrity and independence - turned down the U.S. appeal, but your Government persisted. Can you shed some light on the situation ? Kurt Sonnenfeld: In 2008, the US government appealed again, this time with absolutely no legal foundation, to the Supreme Court, which will surely uphold the two already unassailable rulings made by the Federal Judge.In one of those rulings, it was also noted that there were too many sombras, or shadows, surrounding my case. There were many, many obvious fabrications in the extradition order sent here by US authorities, and, thankfully, we were able prove that. The fact that there were so many fabrications has actually served to support my request for asylum. We were also able to show that we had been subject to a prolonged campaign of harassment and intimidation from US intelligence services. As a result, since my family has been assigned round-the-clock police protection. As one senator has noted about my case: It is their behavior that belies their true motivations.Voltaire Network: They want you pretty badly for a crime that did not happen! How do you account for such doggedness? As a FEMA official, you must have been trusted by your government. At what point did the situation capsize? Kurt Sonnenfeld: In hindsight, I realize now that the situation had capsized some time before I actually became aware that it had capsized. Initially, the false accusation against me was completely irrational, and I was totally destroyed by it. It is incredibly difficult to have suffered the loss of someone you love to suicide, but to then be accused of it is too much to bear. The case was dismissed based on a mountain of evidence that overwhelmingly absolved me (Nancy, my wife, had left behind a suicide note and a journal of suicidal writings ; she had a family history of suicide ; etc.). The prosecution was 100% sure of my innocence before requesting the dismissal of charge.

But the sustained incarceration even AFTER it was indicated that I was to be freed was what proved to me that something was happening under the surface. I was held in jail for FOUR MONTHS after my lawyers were informed that the case was to be dismissed and was finally released in June 2002. During that time, an amazing series of strange events began to occur. While still being held, I had a telephone conversation with FEMA officials in an effort to resolve the issue, but I realized that I was considered compromised. I was told it had been agreed that the agency had to be protected, especially in light of the upheaval that was threatening with the implementation of the Patriot Act and the expected usurpation that would come with the new Department of Homeland Security. After all the dangers I had risked, all hardship and difficulties I had endured for them for almost 10 years, I felt betrayed. It left a void in my soul.Because of their abandonment, I told them I didn’t have the tapes, that I gave them to some bureaucrat in New York, and that they would have to wait until I was released to retrieve any other documents in my possession. Soon after that conversation, my house was seized, the locks were changed, and men were observed by neighbors entering my house, though there is no record in the court of their entry, as would be required. When I was finally released, I discovered that my office had been ransacked, my computer was missing, and that my tape library in my basement had been dug through and several were missing. Men were constantly parked on the street near my house, my security system was hacked more than once, outdoor security lights were unscrewed, etc., to the point that I went to stay with some friends at their condo in the mountains, which was then ALSO broken into.Anyone who looks for the truth recognizes that there has been an amazing series of irregularities in this case and that an appalling injustice is being carried out on me and my loved ones. This intense campaign to return me to American soil is a false pretext for other darker motives.Voltaire Network: You have suggested that you observed things at Ground Zero that did not tally with the official account. Did you do or say anything to arouse suspicion in this respect?

Kurt Sonnenfeld: In that same telephone call I said that I would go public, not only with my suspicions about the events surrounding September 11, 2001, but about several contracts I had worked on in the past.Voltaire Network: What are your suspicions based on? Kurt Sonnenfeld: There were many things, in hindsight, that were disturbing at Ground Zero. It was odd to me that I was dispatched to go to New York even before the second plane hit the South Tower, while the media was still reporting only that a small plane had collided with the North Tower — far too small of a catastrophe at that point to involve FEMA .FEMA was mobilized within minutes, whereas it took ten days for it to deploy to New Orleans to respond to Hurricane Katrina, even with abundant advance warning! It was odd to me that all cameras were so fiercely prohibited within the secured perimeter of Ground Zero, that the entire area was declared a crime scene and yet the evidence within that crime scene was so rapidly removed and destroyed. And then it was very odd to me when I learned that FEMA and several other federal agencies had already moved into position at their command center at Pier 92 on September 10th, one day before the attacks! We are asked to believe that all four of the indestructible black boxes of the two jets that struck the twin towers were never found because they were completely vaporized, yet I have footage of the rubber wheels of the landing gear nearly undamaged, as well as the seats, parts of the fuselage and a jet turbine that were absolutely not vaporized. This being said, I do find it rather odd that such objects could have survived fairly intact the type of destruction that turned most of the Twin Towers into thin dust. And I definitely harbor some doubts about the authenticity of the jet turbine, far too small to have come from one of the Boeings!

What happened with Building 7 is incredibly suspicious. I have video that shows how curiously small the rubble pile was, and how the buildings to either side were untouched by Building Seven when it collapsed. It had not been hit by an airplane; it had suffered only minor injuries when the Twin Towers collapsed, and there were only small fires on a couple of floors. There’s no way that building could have imploded the way it did without controlled demolition. Yet the collapse of Building 7 was hardly mentioned by the mainstream media and suspiciously ignored by the 911 Commission.Voltaire Network: Reportedly, the underground levels of WTC7 contained sensitive and undoubtedly compromising archival material. Did you come across any of it? Kurt Sonnenfeld: The Secret Service, the Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Office of Emergency Management’s Crisis Center occupied huge amounts of space there, spanning several floors of the building. Other federal agencies had offices there as well. After September 11, it was discovered that concealed within Building Seven was the largest clandestine domestic station of the Central Intelligence Agency outside of Washington DC, a base of operations from which to spy on diplomats of the United Nations and to conduct counterterrorism and counterintelligence missions.There was no underground parking level at Seven World Trade Center. And there was no underground vault. Instead, the federal agencies at Building Seven stored their vehicles, documents and evidence in the building of their associates across the street. Beneath the plaza level of US Customs House ( Building 6) was a large underground garage, separated off from the rest of the complex’s underground area and guarded under tight security. This was where the various government services parked their bomb-proofed cars and armored limousines, counterfeit taxi cabs and telephone company trucks used for undercover surveillance and covert operations, specialized vans and other vehicles. Also within that secured parking area was access to the sub-level vault of Building 6.When the North Tower fell, the US Customs House ( Building 6) was crushed and totally incinerated. Much of the underground levels beneath it were also destroyed. But there were voids. And it was into one of those voids, recently uncovered, that I descended with a special Task Force to investigate. It was there we found the security antechamber to the vault, badly damaged. At the far end of the security office was the wide steel door to the vault, a combination code keypad in the cinderblock wall beside it. But the wall was cracked and partially crumbled, and the door was sprung partially open. So we checked inside with our flashlights. Except for several rows of empty shelves, there was nothing in the vault but dust and debris. It had been emptied. Why was it empty? And when could it have been emptied?

Voltaire Network: Is this what set alarm bells ringing for you?

Kurt Sonnenfeld: Yes, but not immediately. With so much chaos, it was difficult to think. It was only after digesting everything that the alarm bells went off.Building Six was evacuated within twelve minutes after the first airplane struck the North Tower.The streets were immediately clogged with fire trucks, police cars and blocked traffic, and the vault was large enough, 15 meters by 15 meters by my estimate, to necessitate at least a big truck to carry out its contents. And after the towers fell and destroyed most of the parking level, a mission to recover the contents of the vault would have been impossible. The vault had to have been emptied before the attack.I’ve described all of this extensively in my book, and it’s apparent that things of importance were taken out of harm’s way before the attacks. For example, the CIA didn’t seem too concerned about their losses. After the existence of their clandestine office in Building Seven was discovered, an agency spokesman told the newspapers that a special team had been dispatched to scour the rubble in search of secret documents and intelligence reports, though there were millions, if not billions of pages floating in the streets. Nevertheless, the spokesman was confident. There shouldn’t be too much paper around,he said.And Customs at first claimed that everything was destroyed. That the heat was so intense that everything in the evidence safe had been baked to ash. But some months later, they announced that they had broken up a huge Colombian narco-trafficking and money-laundering ring after miraculously recovering crucial evidence from the safe, including surveillance photos and heat-sensitive cassette tapes of monitored calls. And when they moved in to their new building at 1 Penn Plaza in Manhattan, they proudly hung on the lobby wall their Commissioner’s Citation Plaque and their big round US Customs Service ensign, also miraculously recovered, in pristine condition, from their crushed and cremated former office building at the World Trade Center.Voltaire Network: You weren’t alone on the Ground Zero assignment. Did the others notice the same anomalies? Do you know whether they have they also been harassed? Kurt Sonnenfeld: Actually there were a few people on two different excursions that I know about. Some of us even discussed it afterwards. They know who they are and I hope that they will come forward, but I’m sure they have strong apprehensions as to what will happen to them if they do. I will leave it to them to decide, but there is strength in numbers.Voltaire Network: With the publication of your book, you have become a whistleblower – yet another step on which there is no going back! There must be many people with inside knowledge about what really happened or did not happen on that fateful day. Yet, hardly any have stepped up to the plate and certainly no one who was directly involved in an official capacity. This is what makes your case so compelling. Judging from your ordeal, it is not difficult to imagine what is holding such people back.

Kurt Sonnenfeld: Actually, there are several other very smart and credible people blowing whistles, too. And they are being discredited and ignored. Some are being harassed and persecuted, as I am.People are gripped by fear. Everybody knows that if you question US authority you will have problems in some way or another. At minimum you will be discredited and dehumanized. Most likely you’ll find yourself indicted for something completely unrelated, like tax evasion — or something even worse, as in my case. Look at what happened to Secret Service whistle-blower Abraham Bolden, for example, or to chess master Bobby Fischer after he showed his disdain for the US. There are countless other examples. In the past I asked friends and associates to speak out for me to counter all the lies being planted in the media, and all of them were terrified as to the ramifications to themselves and their families.Voltaire Network: To what degree would your discoveries at Ground Zero expose the government’s involvement in those events? Are you familiar with the investigations that have been carried out by numerous scientists and qualified professionals which not only corroborate your own findings but, in some instances, far exceed them? Do you regard such people as conspiracy nuts? Kurt Sonnenfeld: At the highest levels in Washington, DC, someone knew what was going to happen. They wanted a war so badly that they at least let it happen and most likely even helped it happen.Sometimes it seems to me that the nuts are those who hold to what they’ve been told with an almost religious fervor despite all of the evidence to the contrary — the ones who won’t even consider that there was a conspiracy. There are so many anomalies to the official investigation that you can’t blame it on oversight or incompetence. I am familiar with the scientists and qualified professionals to whom you refer, and their findings are convincing, credible, and presented according to scientific protocol — in stark contrast to the findings of the official investigation. In addition, numerous intelligence agents and government officials have now come forward with their very informed opinions that the 911 Commission was a farce at best or a cover-up at worst. My experience at Ground Zero is but one more piece of the puzzle.Voltaire Network: Those events are nearly 8 years behind us. Do you consider that uncovering the truth about 9/11 continues to be an important objective? Why? Kurt Sonnenfeld: It is of absolute importance. And it will be equally as important in 10 years, or even 50years if the truth still has not been exposed. It is an important objective because, at this point in history, many people are too credulous to whatever authority tells them and too willing to follow. People in a state of shock seek guidance. People who are afraid are manipulable. And being able to manipulate the masses results in unimaginable benefits to a lot of very rich and very powerful people. War is incredibly expensive, but the money has to go somewhere. War is very profitable for the very few. And somehow their sons always end up in Washington DC, making the decisions and writing the budgets, while the sons of the poor and the poorly-connected always end up on the enemy lines, taking their orders and fighting their battles. The enormous black-budget of the US Department of Defense represents an unlimited money machine for the military-industrial complex, figuring in the multi-trillions of dollars, and it will continue to be so until the masses wake up, recuperate their skepticism and demand accountability. Wars (and false pretexts for war) will not cease until the people realize the true motive of war and stop believing official explanations.

Voltaire Network: What is referred to as the 9/11 Truth Movement, has been asking for a new, independent investigation into those events. Do you think that the Obama Administration holds out some hope in this respect? Kurt Sonnenfeld: I really hope so, but I’m skeptical. Why would the leadership of any established government willingly undertake any action that would result in a serious compromise to their authority? They will prefer to maintain the status quo and leave the things the way they are. The conductor of the train has been changed, but has the train changed its course? I doubt it. The push has to come from the public, not only domestically, but internationally, like your group is doing.Voltaire Network: A number of human rights and activist groups are supporting your plight, not least Peace Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. How have the Argentinean people in general responded to your situation? Kurt Sonnenfeld: With an incredible outpouring of support. The military dictatorship is still fresh in the collective memory of most of the people here, along with the knowledge that the dictatorship (along with the other South American dictatorships at the time) was backed by the CIA, directed at the time by George Bush Senior. They remember well the torture centers, the secret prisons, the thousands of people disappeared for their opinions, the living in daily fear. They know that the United States today will do the same thing if they consider it beneficial, that they will invade a country to achieve their political and economic interests and then manipulate the media with fabricated causus belli to justify their conquests.My family and I are honored to have Adolfo Pérez Esquiveland his advisors at Servicio de Paz y Justicia (SERPAJ) among our dearest friends. We have worked together on many causes, including the rights of refugees, the rights of women, for children without families and children with HIV/AIDS. We are also honored to have the support of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo; Madres de Plaza de Mayo, Línea Fundadora; Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS); Asamblea Permanente de Derechos Humanos (APDH); Familiares de Detenidos y Desaparecidos por Razones Políticas; Asociación de Mujeres, Migrantes y Refugiados Argentina (AMUMRA); Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la Honorable Cámara de Diputados de la Provincia de Buenos Aires; Secretaría de Derechos Humanos de la Nación; and the Programa Nacional Anti-Impunidad. On an international level, Amicus Curiae have been presented in our favor by REPRIEVE of Great Britain, along with the collaboration of NIZKOR of Spain and Belgium. In addition, my wife, Paula, and I have been received in the Congress by La Comisión de Derechos Humanos y Garantías de la Honorable Cámara de Diputados de La Nación.Voltaire Network: As we said, deciding to write this book and to go public was a huge step. What pushed you to do it? Kurt Sonnenfeld: To save my family. And to let the world know that things are not what they seem.Voltaire Network: Last but not least: what will you do with your tapes? Kurt Sonnenfeld: I am convinced that my tapes reveal many more anomalies than I am capable of recognizing given my limited qualifications. I will therefore cooperate in any way that I can with serious and reliable experts in a common endeavour to expose the truth.Voltaire Network: Thank you very much !

FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU,American Jews fund anti-Israel organizations,Groups work with Palestinian Authority, promote Iran nukes June 23, 2009-9:59 pm Eastern By Samuel Sokol and David Bedein 2009 WorldNetDaily

A U.S. organization has been receiving money from perhaps unsuspecting Jewish donors to support blatantly anti-Israel groups. American Jews wishing to donate money to Israeli causes routinely utilize local city Jewish federations as a middleman. Hundreds of millions of dollars per year are sent to Jewish federations across the country with the expectation contributions will be used to aid worthy causes in Israel.Many U.S. Jewish federations as well as individual Jewish donors give to the New Israel Fund, or NIF, a Washington, D.C.-based foundation dedicated to fostering social change and progressive causes in Israel. The NIF budget comes from a combination of donors. These include the Ford Foundation, grant organizations such as the Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation and the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, as well as various Jewish communal federations such as the Jewish Federation in New York, the Durham-Chapel Hill Federation and the Jewish Federation of Grand Rapids.However, while many of the programs run by the NIF are considered laudable in the pro-Israel community, such as work the group does with economically disadvantaged Ethiopian immigrants, the flagship grantees of the NIF are Israeli-Arab nongovernmental organizations that openly and unabashedly dedicate themselves to removing the Jewish character of the state of Israel.The NIF disperses hundreds of thousands of dollars for the core budgets of such groups as Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Arab Rights in Israel, Mossawa: The advocacy center for Arab citizens in Israel and I'lam media center for Arab Palestinians in Israel.

Supporting Iran's nukes

I'lam was founded in the wake of the Palestinian intifada, or terrorist war, initiated in September 2000 after then-PLO Leader Yasser Arafat turned down an Israeli offer of a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and eastern Jerusalem. The first director of I'lam was Hanin Zoabi, recently elected as a member of the Israeli Arab Balad Party in the Knesset. Zoabi's party spawned Azmi Bishara, the Israeli Arab Knesset member who fled Israel after he was threatened with prosecution for allegedly aiding the Hezbollah terrorist organization. Balad officials routinely condemn Israel and at times openly present themselves as representing the state of Palestine.In April, in Zoabi's maiden interview to the Jerusalem Post as a Knesset member, she declared her open support for Iranian nuclear weapons as a counterbalance to Israel.

Zoabi, in her capacity as the director of I'lam, helped draft and sign the Haifa Declaration, which called for the negation of Israel's Jewish identity and for a comprehensive change in Israeli policy, whereby Israel abandons its destructive role towards the peoples of the region.In March, I'lam's so-called empowerment coordinator, Zaher Boulos, issued a cry of solidarity with the Palestinian people who hold strong to the establishment of a Palestinian state that is independent with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of the refugees to their homes at the annual conference of the Forum of Journalists, an I'lam affiliate of which he is also coordinator.The conference expressed support for the Palestinian people in their struggle for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and the return of refugees.Also in March, I'lam issued a press release stating Israel cannot liquidate the fact that Jerusalem is the capital of Arab culture and will be the future capital of a Palestinian state, and tomorrow will be the focal point of the Arab and Islamic world and the progressive forces in the world.
The terminology in I'lam's media publications resounds with terms such as massacre and ethnic cleansing,as well as accusations of war crimes and the targeted murder of journalists.

Last year, the NIF-funded organization held a conference in Ramallah with journalists from the Palestinian Authority which aimed to develop and facilitate working relationships between Palestinians journalists in Israel and in the West Bank, and to discuss the role of the Palestinian media on both sides of the Green Line as well as exploring strategies for Palestinian media practitioners in addressing Israeli, European and U.S.-American media.I'lam's official statements are representative of the rhetoric employed by some of the NIF's grantees. I'lam posted on its website a statement declaring,The (Israeli) soldiers are the grandchildren of the Nazis' victims, the Nazis' survivors. They have come here to consume food quickly and consume life quickly.This is the true image of Israel.The statement was made in the context of accusing Israeli soldiers of a massacre against Palestinian civilians.

The connection of I'lam to the PA is reflected by its current staff.

Sanaa Hammoud, the current director of I'lam, was a senior official of the PA's Negotiations Support Unit in Ramallah and served in Jerusalem as a senior communications adviser for the Palestinian leadership. Wadea Awawdy, who served on the founding board of directors of I'lam, worked as a correspondent for the official PA publication Al-Ayyam, which routinely prints anti-Israel propaganda. I'lam's international relations coordinator, Nasser Victor Rego, has issued numerous statements of support for Hamas, terming the Islamist group The Palestinian resistance,while providing a link on his blog to the website of Hamas' armed wing, the Essedeen Al-Qassam Brigades. Nasser also has called on the international community to boycott Israel.Rego would not return calls to comment on the issue. In addition to receiving funds from the NIF, I'lam is also a grantee of Al-Quds: Capital of Arab Culture, which works under the auspices of both the PA and the Arab League.
Among other charges laid against Israel in materials distributed by I'lam are allegations that the Hebrew media contains, Encouragement for killing and destruction.

Other anti-Israel groups

Also supported by the NIF is Adalah, which defines itself as a non-partisan human rights organization. However, its agenda differs significantly from its self-definition.Jerusalem-based researcher Arlene Kushner, in her study of Adalah published by the Center for Near East Policy Research entitled Inside Adalah, finds that in various venues – including the Durban U.N. conference on racism – Adalah has charged or participating in charging Israel with grave breeches of international humanitarian law, war crimes, willful killing, racism, apartheid [and] ethnic cleansing.Adalah takes the position that the Israeli government is a junta which proves each day that it is the most fascist and racist in history.In 2007, Adalah proposed a constitution for Israel in which immigration of Jews would be banned except for humanitarian reasons. With its demand for the right of return for so-called Palestinian refugees, Adalah sees Israel's future as one with an Arab majority, which would create another predominantly Arab-Muslim state. Another group funded by the NIF is Mossawa. Last month, Mossawa and fellow NIF grantee Coalition of Women for Peace wrote to the Norwegian government and asked the Norwegian people to join us in our efforts and to stop investing in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.Naomi Paiss, director of communications for the NIF, declined to comment for this report.

Intensified crackdown mutes protests in Iran By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer JUNE 23,09

CAIRO – Overwhelmed by police and left with limited alternatives, Iranian demonstrators resorted Tuesday to more subtle ways of challenging the outcome of the presidential election: holding up posters, shouting from rooftops and turning on car headlights.But the restrained expressions of discontent appeared to be scattered as Iran's ruling clerics dealt the opposition new setbacks, making clear they have no intention of holding a new vote and setting up a special court to deal with hundreds of protesters arrested in more than a week of unrest.Iran also expelled two diplomats from Britain — a nation it bitterly accuses of meddling and spying — and Britain in turn sent two Iranian envoys home.The latest moves, and a fresh deployment of riot police and militia to break up any street gatherings, signaled the regime's determination to squelch dissent and mute the voices of those whose protests have been the largest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.People are calmly protesting, more symbolically than with their voices,a Tehran resident said in a telephone interview, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government retribution.No rallies were reported Tuesday. Many in Tehran seemed hesitant to confront the feared Revolutionary Guard and members of the Basij militia, suggesting the harsh response wrought by hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to large and boisterous demonstrations may have weakened the opposition's resolve.In Tehran's sprawling Grand Bazaar market, shopkeepers said customers frightened away by the violent crackdown were venturing back outdoors.These past few days the situation was not good,said a vendor who gave his name only as Ali because he feared retaliation. People were scared because there was not any security and people didn't come out. But thank God, in the past two or three days the situation has gotten much better and business is good.Severe restrictions on reporters have made it almost impossible to independently verify reports on demonstrations, clashes and casualties. Iran has ordered journalists for international news agencies to stay in their offices, barring them from reporting on the streets.President Barack Obama said the world was appalled and outraged at Tehran's use of violence, and other nations expressed grave concerns as the standoff fueled an increasingly acrimonious international dispute on how to engage Iran — a country the U.S. and its allies have accused of covertly trying to build a nuclear weapon.

I have made it clear that the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering in Iran's affairs,Obama said. But we must also bear witness to the courage and dignity of the Iranian people, and to a remarkable opening within Iranian society. And we deplore violence against innocent civilians anywhere that it takes place.Iran's Foreign Ministry said it expelled the two Britons for unconventional behavior, state television reported without elaborating. Tensions between Iran and Britain, which has urged the Islamic regime to respect human rights, have soared in recent days.During Friday prayers at Tehran University, Khamenei lashed out against Western countries he said were displaying their enmity against the Islamic state, and the most evil of them is the British government.Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has accused Britain of sending spies to manipulate the June 12 election.Iran's expulsions came a day after Britain sent home a dozen dependents of diplomatic staff because of the unrest.I am disappointed that Iran has placed us in this position but we will continue to seek good relations with Iran and to call for the regime to respect the human rights and democratic freedoms of the Iranian people,said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

About 100 hard-line students protested outside the British Embassy in Tehran, where they burned U.S., British and Israeli flags, pelted the building with tomatoes, and chanted: Down with Britain! and Down with USA! state TV reported.Iran also accused U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of interfering in its domestic affairs after he demanded an immediate end to arrests, threats and use of force.Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi says he was the true winner of the election. Iran's electoral commission declared Ahmadinejad the winner by a landslide, ignoring Mousavi's claims of widespread and systematic vote fraud. Mousavi has been out of sight in recent days, but a short message posted on his Web site asserted that all the reports of violations in the elections will be published soon.State TV reported that Ahmadinejad would be sworn in sometime between July 26 and Aug. 19. Another opposition figure, reformist presidential candidate Mahdi Karroubi, called for a day of mourning for at least 17 people killed in protests since the election. Some social networking sites suggested that the mourning would take place Thursday. Amid the crackdown, there was one small concession Tuesday from Khamenei, whose word is law in the Islamic Republic. State TV said he agreed to extend by five days a deadline for registering complaints about the election. Yet the regime made it clear that it stood by the results and there would be no rerun of the disputed vote.State-run Press TV quoted Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman for Iran's top electoral body, the Guardian Council, as saying it found no major fraud or breach in the election.Therefore, there is no possibility of an annulment taking place,he was quoted as saying.

On Monday, the council had acknowledged in a rare step that it found voting irregularities in 50 of 170 districts, including ballot counts that exceeded the number of eligible voters. Still, it said the discrepancies, involving some 3 million votes, were not widespread enough to affect the outcome. Iran has 46.2 million eligible voters, one-third of them under 30. The final tally gave 62.6 percent of the vote to Ahmadinejad and 33.75 percent to Mousavi, a landslide victory in a race that was perceived to be much closer. The huge margin went against the expectation that the record 85 percent turnout would help Mousavi. In a boost for the regime, Russia said Tuesday it respects the outcome. Russia, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has longtime political and economic ties with Iran, where it is helping build a nuclear power plan at Bushehr. In his only trip abroad since the vote, Ahmadinejad went to Russia last week for a conference, where he met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.Meanwhile, Ebrahim Raisi, a top judicial official, said a special court has been set up to deal with detained protesters. Elements of riots must be dealt with to set an example. The judiciary will do that,he was quoted as saying by state-run radio. The judiciary is controlled by Iran's ruling clerics.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting Rome, praised the courage of Iranian protesters in facing bullets in the streets.Two prominent Iranian opposition figures took their case to Europe on Tuesday. Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi asked European Union officials in Brussels not to negotiate or hold meetings with Iranian leaders until the crackdown stops.In Rome, Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf said he had been asked by Mousavi aides to spread the word on what is happening in Iran. Makhmalbaf said that even if Ahmadinejad manages to govern for the next four years, he will not have one day of quietness, with protesters resorting to general strikes and civil resistance. A number of journalists have been detained since the protests began, although there have been conflicting accounts. The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders put the figure of reporters detained at 34. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said 13 were in custody, including Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari. State-run TV confirmed the arrest of Iason Athanasiadis, a Greek national reporting for the Washington Times.

NKorean cargo ship could test new UN sanctions By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer JUNE 23,09

SEOUL, South Korea – An American destroyer tailed a North Korean ship Tuesday as it sailed along China's coast, U.S. officials said, amid concerns the vessel is carrying illicit arms destined for Myanmar.The sailing sets up the first test of a new U.N. Security Council resolution that authorizes member states to inspect North Korean vessels suspected of carrying banned weapons or materials. The sanctions are punishment for an underground nuclear test the North carried out last month in defiance of past resolutions.A U.S. official said last week that the American destroyer has no orders to intercept the ship, but experts say the vessel will need to stop to refuel soon. The resolution prohibits member states from providing such services to ships accused of bearing banned goods.Nearby Singapore — the world's largest refueling hub — says it will act appropriately if the ship docks at its port with suspicious goods on board.Meanwhile, U.S. defense and counterproliferation officials said Tuesday that an impending missile test threatened by North Korea is expected to launch short- to medium-range missiles rather than a long-range missile similar to one tested in April. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.Japanese media have reported that the North Koreans appear to be preparing for a long-range test planned sometime around July 4 and to be fired toward Hawaii.The North Korean-flagged Kang Nam left the port of Nampo last Wednesday, with the U.S. destroyer following it. Two Pentagon officials described a relay operation in which the destroyer USS John S. McCain would hand over surveillance of the ship to the destroyer USS McCampbell. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.

The North has said it would consider any interception an act of war,and an editorial Tuesday in its main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said the Korean peninsula was on the brink of a nuclear war.A grave situation is being forged in the Korean peninsula where a nuclear war could happen with any accidental factor due to the sanctions, said the editorial carried on the government-run Uriminzokkiri Web site.But an armed skirmish is unlikely, analysts say, though the North Korean crew may have rifles.A cargo ship can't confront a warship, said Baek Seung-joo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.In the event that the American destroyer does ask to inspect the Kang Nam and North Korea refuses, the U.N. resolution states the ship must be directed to a port of Pyongyang's choosing. It was not clear which port the ship would be taken to, though on Tuesday one of the Pentagon officials said it was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of the Taiwan Strait — close to both the Chinese and Taiwanese coasts.It's not clear exactly what the Kang Nam has on board, but it has transported illicit goods in the past. A South Korean intelligence official said Monday that his agency believes the North Korean ship is carrying small weapons. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing the sensitive nature of the information, said he could provide no further details.In 2007, the ship — now registered to Kumrung Trading Co. Ltd. of Pyongyang — was similarly accused by Western diplomats of transporting weapons illegally to Myanmar. At the time, however, Myanmar authorities said they found no suspicious cargo on board.The Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence, said the chief suspicion is that the ship is headed to Myanmar.The North is believed to have sold guns, artillery and other small weapons to Myanmar in the past. The Southeast Asian nation is the target of U.S. and EU arms embargoes because of its poor human rights record and failure to hand power to a democratically elected government. There are concerns it could use small arms in the counterinsurgency campaigns it conducts against ethnic minorities.The Kang Nam is expected to dock at Myanmar's Thilawa port, some 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of Yangon, in the next few days, said the Irrawaddy, an online magazine operated by independent exiled journalists from Myanmar, citing an unidentified port official.

A shipping expert said a vessel the size of the Kang Nam would need to refuel in Singapore if it wants to travel the 4,100-mile (6,660-kilometer) distance between Nampo and Myanmar. The journey from Nanpo to Singapore should take about nine days, and another four days after refueling to reach Myanmar, the official from Sinokor Merchant Marine Co. in Seoul said Tuesday. He spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he wasn't authorized to discuss shipping routes from North Korea. Singapore, the world's busiest port and a top refueling center, is also North Korea's second-largest trading partner after China, said Hong Hyun-ik, an analyst at the Sejong Institute think tank in South Korea. But the city state insisted its officials would act appropriately if asked to confront a North Korean ship believed to be carrying banned cargo. Yoon Duk-min, a professor at the state-run Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul, predicted North Korea would allow an inspection in Singapore. At most, Singapore may refuse to let the ship refuel, Hong said. He also speculated that the Kang Nam may not have banned cargo on board, knowing the ship could be subject to scrutiny. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China will strictly observe and implement the resolution. He urged other nations to also heed the U.N. guidelines requiring reasonable grounds to request an inspection.

Under the current circumstances, we call upon all parties to refrain from acts that might escalate the tension,he said Tuesday. Meanwhile, the U.S. and North Korea's neighbors were discussing how to deal with the increasingly defiant country. In Beijing, U.S. and Chinese defense officials were holding their first high-level bilateral military talks in 18 months. U.S. Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy was to head later in the week to Tokyo and Seoul. Washington's top military commander in South Korea, meanwhile, warned that the communist regime is bolstering its guerrilla warfare capacity. Gen. Walter Sharp, who commands the 28,500 U.S. troops positioned in South Korea, said the North could employ roadside bombs and other guerrilla tactics if war breaks out again on the Korean peninsula. The two Koreas technically remain at war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.Associated Press writers Jae-soon Chang in Seoul, Pauline Jelinek, Pamela Hess and Lolita Baldor in Washington, Grant Peck in Bangkok, Alex Kennedy in Singapore, Jill Lawless in London and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.