Friday, September 04, 2009

CANADA WE HAVE FREE SPEECH AT LAST

AFP/NOAA/File – A satellite image shows Hurricane Bill, on August 21. Assigning names to tropical depressions, storms.


thethkway.blogspot.com CANADA HAS FREE SPEECH GIVEN BACK TO IT.


IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE I'M HATED JUST READ THESE MESSAGES I GET WHEN ON MY FACEBOOK ACCOUNT I WRITE IN THAT LITTLE BOX MY STORIES FOR THE DAY.THEN YOU GET 2 WORDS THAT COME UP TO CONFIRM YOUR WORKS.MUSLIMS MUST OWN FACEBOOK.

INTERESTING STORY HEADLINES
Three Reasons Microsoft Paid so Little For Facebook
Facebook Gets Russian Cash Infusion Valuing Company At $10 Billion


FACEBOOK IS CONNECTED TO MICROSOFT BY THIS INTERVIEW BY OWNER MARK ZUCKERBERG.INTERESTING,MICROSOFT,GOOGLE NOW FACEBOOK ARE ALL AGAINST ME.WE CAN SEE WHEN THE TRUTH GETS PUT OUT FROM THE BIBLE,THE NEW WORLD ORDER NUTCASES CAN GET AWAY WITH THREATS BUT IF WE SAY ANYTHING AGAINST THEM,THEY WANT US AND OUR FAMILIES KILLED.WAKE UP CHRISTIANS WE ARE IN BIG TROUBLE WHEN WE SPEAK TRUTH AS YOU CAN SEE HERE.PRAY FOR ME AND MY FAMILY PLEASE.OH AND WE HAVE A RUSSIA CONNECTION TO FACEBOOK AND THE BIBLE SAYS RUSSIA,MUSLIMS COME AGAINST ISRAEL IN WAVE 1 OF WW3.ITS ALL COMING TOGETHER TO ME NOW.I BROKE THE RUSSIAN NUKE STORY FROM DOUG HAGMANN ON MY SITE ABOUT THE ARTIC SEA MISSING NUKES.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAOOLKQFyoY

HERES ALL THE WORDS IN THE LAST 21 TRYS.

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SEPT 3,09 DEGORGE-SISTER
SEPT 4,09 GUARDED-CLARA
SEPT 4,09 KETCHEL-ELE
SEPT 4,09 SOUDAN-SWINGS
SEPT 4,09 MARIANA-VAGUE
SEPT 4,09 BONGOS-APPEARS
SEPT 4,09 10-CHROMIUM
SEPT 4,09 CREAKED-BE
SEPT 4,09 SUCRE-60
SEPT 4,09 TIPSIER-PARRONA
SEPT 4,09 SIEGE-PHIL
SEPT 4,09 REPHRASE-UNI
SEPT 4,09 1IT-BLEARIER
SEPT 4,09 PAKISTAN-VEALED
SEPT 4,09 YOU'LL-DEALINGS
SEPT 4,09 11:30-MOISTENS
SEPT 4,09 TRAILIAN-RELAXES
SEPT 4,09 FIREMAN-SEA
SEPT 4,09 01-HUMBLEST
SEPT 4,09 WARDERED-177.087
SEPT 4,09 LITTORAL-FAST
SEPT 4,09 SUNDAY-HYBRIDS

LINK WHEN I PUT IN COMPUTER 177.087
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/csp/Raob/Raob_v1/CLASS/ASCII/i4082157.csp
LINK WHEN I PUT IN COMPUTER WARDERED 177.087
http://www.archive.org/stream/chicagodailynews1905chic/chicagodailynews1905chic_djvu.txt HMM CHICAGO COMES UP,OBAMAS HOME INTERESTING.
LINK WHEN I PUT IN COMPUTER 10 CHROMIUM
http://www.softsaurus.org/pages/news/article/208/chromium-linux-build-now-supports-themes
LINK WHEN I PUT IN COMPUTER KETCHEL ELE (LOOK AT BOTTOM L KETCHEL)
http://www.zoominfo.com/people/level3page138633.aspx
THE NEW WORLD ORDER,NEW AGE NUTCASES ALWAYS WRITE WHAT THEIR GONNA DO BEFORE THEY DO IT.LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS BY THEIR WORDS THEY WILL BE JUSTIFIED OR CONDEMNED.

WOW COINCIDENCE ITS NOT DOUG HAS THE UPDATE STORY OF THE ARTIC SEA ON HIS SITE NOW HERE IT IS.

SIBEL EDMONDS VIDEO-TRANSCRIPT
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7374

Is Russia setting the stage for a nuclear apocolypse? [Part II]By Doug Hagmann SEPT 4,09 2:50PM

Preface

Our investigation into the Arctic Sea incident has taken some unexpected and incredibly complex twists and turns, uncovering information far beyond anything reported in the media or by officials speaking publicly about this incident. To be certain, raw clarity of the event is deliberately elusive and layers of secrecy shrouding the Arctic Sea are being constructed faster than they can be removed. Some who have attempted to shed light on this mystery by investigating the official Russian line have been threatened or forced to flee for their lives, such as Mikhail Voitenko, the editor of Sovfracht, an online maritime journal.

Mikhail Voitenko-News regarding the Arctic Sea had been breaking at a rapid pace, although the Western media still had quite a lot of catching up to do when their focus was derailed by the sun setting on Camelot. Nearly all media accounts about the possibility of the Arctic Sea carrying suspicious and potentially dangerous cargo are meager in collective content and barely scratch the surface of this ongoing mystery. The mystery is as truly ongoing as the Arctic Sea vessel remains at sea somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, under tow from Cape Verde as of this writing.

Our ongoing investigation into this incident has been extensive and exhaustive. Despite the comprehensive nature of our report, the final chapters have yet to be written. Nonetheless, during the course of our research and investigation into the incident of the Arctic Sea, we’ve uncovered - and in some instances inadvertently stumbled upon - the existence of government sponsored or sanctioned illegal activities on a global level. In this case, we believe we’ve identified a trail of multi-billion-dollar black-market nuclear sales to terrorists and foreign regimes by those within the Russian government. Most disturbingly, however, is that it appears that such activity not only involves individuals and groups within the Russian government, but appears to exist on a larger scale and involves even some within our own government.During the course of this investigation, we have found what could be characterized as a footprint of an international network of weapons smuggling involving both conventional and non-conventional weaponry that is essentially hidden in plain sight. This network has been in existence for many years and is quite complex in its structure. As is necessary with this type of an operation, a concurrent infrastructure for money laundering is also in place. Much like one aspect of the now infamous Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal, a covert financial network must be in place in order for the weapons smuggling to work, the sellers to be paid, and a method for the buyers to secretly remit payment.

This international infrastructure of weapons smuggling and money laundering has existed for many years, and seems to be constantly evolving into maturity. In fact, our investigative findings suggest that portions of the same network in use by those involved the Arctic Sea could be tied to a network of support and financing of the 9/11 attacks. We realize that such claims are extraordinary, and that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence to be considered legitimate. Although we are not able to supply copies of bills of lading, hidden bank account numbers, or transaction dates, (at least of this writing), we believe that we have uncovered enough evidence to satisfy the requirements of a prima facie case by definition.

Beginning with Part II of this report and henceforth, we will lay out the evidence we have obtained. We ask for patience in return, as this matter is quite complex and admittedly, difficult to follow at times. Nonetheless, we will do our best to connect the dots that include seemingly unconnected, random events, including but not limited to various international banking scandals, sudden deaths of individuals (private and government officials) involved or at the periphery of this network of corruption and conspiracy, corruption within the UN, Iran, Russia, rogue terrorist regimes, globalists and their elected puppets, and even the attacks of September 11, 2001.In order to fully comprehend how the events involving the Arctic Sea vessel could even remotely have any link to 9/11, it is necessary to view the video or read the transcripts of the deposition of Sibel Edmonds, former FBI translator and whistleblower.Interestingly, the deposition of Ms. Edmonds was brought about not by an inquest into the events of 9/11, but as a result of complaints filed by Ohio Second District Congresswoman Jean Schmidt of Cincinnati against independent candidate David Krikorian. In a rather ironic twist, her deposition was a product of a lawsuit filed by Schmidt over allegations made about contributions to her by the Turkish lobby.To the best of her ability while still constrained by her security classification with the U.S. government, Ms. Edmonds provides critical insight into the domestic side of this clandestine network, but admittedly only a very narrow portion during her two-hour deposition. Although her testimony primarily relates to a Turkish group, our research and investigation found the template is the same for similar groups, countries and individuals on a global scale.We have also found that some of those individuals identified by Ms. Edmonds have also appeared on our radar as well. These are the financiers and benefactors of ongoing wars and terrorism, while holding positions of political power either as elected or appointed officials, lobbyists, bankers, or their close associates.

During her deposition, Ms. Edmonds skillfully manages to identify a number of U.S. officials, agencies, and industries who are involved with this network and ultimately dealing with terrorist regimes, either by choice or through compulsion. Such revelations actually stem from her very limited tenure within the FBI - mere months, in fact, yet she was able to identify threats to the U.S. from within. One reason such a feat is possible, aside from the hubris of those involved, stems from a veil of protection that has existed within our government for some time. From the Warren Commission to the 9/11 Commission and lesser investigative bodies in between, appointments of independent investigators and prosecutors were selectively made, often by those targeted by the investigators themselves.Therefore, the video deposition of Sibel Edmonds on 8 August 2009, available at The Brad Blog is required viewing in order to fully understand the network that ties the current events of the Arctic Sea with the attacks against America. If time permits, we recommend viewing the entire deposition. Alternatively, for a crash course in understanding how, for example, individuals within our own government might be compelled to help adverse foreign interests, visit The Brad Blog, scroll to the second panel (continuation of direct questioning) and advance to the six-minute mark. For the next several minutes, Ms. Edmonds describes the methodology used by foreign interests against those who can be easily compromised.Unsurprisingly, Ms. Edmonds refers to the U.S. State Department at key times in her deposition. This is not by accident; her testimony provides a glimpse into the globalist leanings of key diplomats that have infiltrated that agency.

The Arctic Sea: Part of a serial of weapons proliferation?

State Secrets & State Secrets Privilege.Remember those words, as they have been used many times to keep illegal activity of cabals within governments - our and others - hidden in plain sight.It is reasonable to ask how we, as investigators not associated with or having the assets of the U.S. government could possibly uncover an international weapons smuggling operation having ties to a global network of rogue nations, terrorist regimes and even members of our own government when others are more equipped to do so or are given the task to do so have not done so. The simple answer is that in many cases, they have. Such information is routinely and effectively kept from public disclosure by invoking State Secrets Privilege.Just as in the case involving 9/11 and the testimony of Sibel Edmonds’ regarding domestic elements of a global network, an article published on 22 August 2009 by the Telegraph (UK) contains a vital statement that is buried in the next to the last paragraph:Crew members have told Russian news reporters that they have been told not to disclose state secrets,while well-informed Russian marine journalists have said they are now wary of commenting further on the case.That reference has been made on numerous occasions since that article appeared, and has been used to keep the details of an unsavory situation under wraps. It also explains the many discrepancies between the obvious and what is being disclosed by other countries, including Russia.There is an old detective joke that ultimately ends with a suspect caught red handed uttering the statement who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?That statement is certainly applicable to this state-sponsored black op involving the Arctic Sea and its hidden cargo even as this report is being written.

To unlock at least some of the mysteries of the Arctic Sea, one must not be so myopic to confine the investigation to this specific vessel, its recent or present day erratic travels and alleged hijacking, nor to this one event. Doing so is akin to focusing on one piece of evidence at a complex crime scene and attempting to come up with a scenario that fits such a narrow focus. It simply does not tell the entire story, and in some instances, causes one to arrive at the wrong conclusions by an incorrect analysis of the evidence.Further, by keeping one’s focus on the Arctic Sea is also like focusing an entire investigation on one victim and one crime scene of a serial crime spree. The events alone are much too narrow and misleading to provide an accurate picture of the enormity of the crime. This explains why some aspects of the Arctic Sea, when viewed outside of the context of an ongoing, larger and more complex global network do not seem to make sense. It is only when one understands the larger picture does the explanation of events relating to the Arctic Sea begin to conform to reason.Having moved well beyond and discounting many of the scenarios published in the main stream media, our investigation readily determined that this was not an attack by pirates or what one would consider a typical hijacking by pirates, has nothing to do with drug smuggling, smuggling of traditional weapons, the Russian mafia (in its most obvious sense) or a commercial dispute. That the media would even spend any time whatsoever on such explanations clearly illustrates their inept investigative ability, and provides a working example of the deliberate dissemination of misinformation or disinformation emanating from government officials.Careful analysis of all available evidence - direct and indirect, tangible and anecdotal, combined with intelligence sources from three countries - indicates that the Arctic Sea is merely one chess piece in a high-stakes globalist game that continues to be played out on the world stage. This globalist game involves the quest for power and ultimate control by nations and nationalists in the darkest and deepest operational plans that few even realize exist. It exposes raw information that might hold answers to troublesome questions that surround the motives and clandestine activities of countries including but not limited to Russia and Iran, and even cabals structured within such organizations as the United Nations and NATO. Also, unlikely as it would seem, it connects certain agencies of our own government and certain officials - again, either willingly or through compulsion, to this globalist agenda.The scenario played out -and continues to play out - like the plot of a Brad Thor novel. Therefore, unraveling the complex mystery of the Arctic Sea must be done one step at a time in order to understand the gravity of its implications and the potential global ramifications not only involving this ship and shipment, but other shipments as well as those individuals behind it.

First, one must ask what is so special about this ship and its cargo.

Mysterious Cargo

Perhaps the closest to anyone in the media answering the question about the ship’s cargo was detailed on August 26, 2009 in this report in the Asia Times by writer Cristina Batog. In that article, Batog cites a posting from a former Russian military officer identified as Vladimir Filin who operates a Russian language website based in the Ukraine. Filin postulates that the Arctic Sea was carrying four X-55 strategic cruise missiles intended for Iran. According to Filin, writes Batog, the missiles are to be used against Israel in an Iranian counterstrike. Sean Osborne, military affairs expert with the Northeast Intelligence Network, dismisses this theory in the following analysis:Most astute intelligence assets who track the proliferation of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems knew that the Islamic Republic of Iran received 12 Kh-55 Granat (X-55) 200kT nuclear cruise missiles from Russia via the Ukraine in 2001.I originally reported that six Kh-55 were transferred to Iran and six went to the People’s Republic of China, but the fact that all 12 made it to Iran was subsequently confirmed. As I noted in my original article [LINK], Janes Intelligence Digest reported there is … mounting evidence to suggest that the sale of missiles to Iran was undertaken with the assistance of the Russian security services.[This report] would make sense if it reported the MV Arctic Sea was being utilized in the transfer of state-of-the-art the 200kT warheads for the 12 Kh-55s Iran already has.In other words, the cargo most likely consisted of tactical nuclear weapons, just not the type identified by that published report. Mr. Osborne further notes that tactical nuclear weapons are not subject to limits or legitimate monitoring under existing arms control agreements between the U.S. and Russia. Accordingly, they would be the most readily subjected to such black market proliferation. Combining that with the extensive work done on the bulkhead of the vessel, it is reasonable to identify such nuclear devices as the mysterious cargo.

Further substantiation can be found within a March 5, 2009 report issued by the Federation of American Scientists, TNWs are the most easy [for terrorists or proxies] to run away with.Another report from NTI states, Their (TNWs) small size and the absence of electronic locks or Permissive Action Links (PALs) on older versions contribute to their vulnerability to theft and unauthorized use.The yield of TNWs has been estimated by the atomic scientific community to range from a 100 ton high explosive yield to variable yield weapons that range from the tens to several hundreds of kilotons.The high-end of this range is multiple times of that which utterly destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.The analysis provided by Mr. Osborne is the result of extensive intelligence collection based on his military and intelligence experience, and is consistent with the very latest information obtained from our intelligence assets in the United States, Great Britain and Israel. In fact, information obtained by this author during the very early hours of 27 August 2009 further confirms the specific nuclear nature of the cargo.There is, however, one very important element contained within Filin’s postulations as reported by Ms. Batog.That is that the various shipments of nuclear armaments and related material from Russia to Iran have been ongoing for the last several years despite the absence of any substantiating published reports. Our own intelligence sources have confirmed this as fact, which is consistent with our reference to serial weapons proliferation.

It is important not to confuse Iran’s own nuclear program with their black market activities. While there are reports that Iran’s indigenous nuclear program is rapidly progressing, there is little talk about the black market sales of nuclear equipment and technology to Iran and other terrorist regimes. Again, this is not by accident, but by design.The key to understanding the many conflicting reports about the state of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, particularly the reports issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is to understand that the IAEA is an independent entity reporting under charter to the United Nations. A primer of the IAEA and the United Nations is beyond the scope or intent of this report, but information pertaining to each entity is integrated into this article due to the overlapping activities of some members and member states. In other words, the same individuals who are suspected as being involved in the black market of nuclear weapons and technology sales are embedded within the United Nations and its subgroups. The actors and the watchers are inextricably linked.One has to look no further for an example than the global proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear technology since Mohamed ElBaradei assumed the role of Director General of the IAEA role on Dec. 1, 1997. Over the last few years, several experts working within the IAEA have complained about ElBaradei’s own agenda influencing the reports issued by that agency.Under his watch, the A.Q. Khan network of nuclear technology was allowed to flourish, Pakistan, India and North Korea each detonated nuclear bombs, and Iran’s development of a nuclear weapons program was permitted to grow nearly unfettered. Additionally, Libya admitted to a clandestine nuclear program in 2003, and a nuclear site in Syria - undetected by the IAEA, was discovered by - had to be leveled by Israel. More information about ElBaradei appears in this 2008 article published by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. That article references the IAEA’s closing the book on questions about Iran’s work on polonium 210-which nuclear experts suspect Iran experimented with for use as an initiator for nuclear weapons.It is important to remember that exposure to polonium-210 (over 95% of which is manufactured in Russia) is the same rare substance that poisoned Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.Therefore, the supposition that Russia is, and has been supplying Iran with nuclear technology and even arms in the forms of warheads under the noses of so many watchdogs should come as no surprise to anyone. The truth about Russia’s role in assisting Iran’s objectives to usher in the apocalypse will never come from Russia, or any of the lapdog agencies serving the globalists.

It is interesting and relevant to point out a recent assessment by the current Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dennis Blair about Iran’s nuclear program. He states that intelligence suggests that Iran will not have nuclear weapons capabilities until 2013. Meanwhile, we find that Barack Hussein Obama appears to be making nice with Middle Eastern countries like Syria, a tactic that has ominous implications for Middle Eastern politics. These two news reports represent a larger picture - a bigger agenda at play that will put Israel at a severe disadvantage in the short term, and has the potential to forever change the political landscape of the Middle East. Considering the above, the agenda of the current administration in the global political arena is gradually becoming more transparent.

Meanwhile, back at sea…

Now, if one is to accept that the Arctic Sea was carrying nuclear cargo as identified within this report, then numerous other questions arise. The most basic question, of course, is what happened? What went wrong with the delivery of the cargo aboard this ship? Reflecting a more prescient understanding of the situation, our intelligence sources have not only provided information shedding light on those questions, but offered insight into the larger picture. While many are busy seeking answers to a very specific line of inquiry, the larger picture, including one of diversion is going unnoticed to the delight of the architects of the globalist agenda.

Destination and interruption of delivery

What was the destination of the cargo, and what happened at sea?

A natural and logical destination would be the Islamic Republic Iran, based on extensive evidence of Russia’s facilitation of Iran’s nuclear program. Important and relevant background is detailed in an article written by Mr. Osborne on May 12, 2009 titled Iranian Nuclear-Capable Cruise Missile Threat. If that is indeed the case, then what happened, and was the ship actually hijacked? Based on a combination of intelligence sources, open source reports and extensive analysis, it has been concluded that the Arctic Sea was on a state-sanctioned, covert mission originating within Russia by members of the previously referenced international cabal. Substantiating this conclusion is the extensive operational deception that was so obviously integral to the MV Arctic Sea’s mission, involving even deceiving the Russian Navy on the high seas while executing that mission which some members within the Russian government classified a state secret.This suggests that the mission of the MV Arctic Sea was compartmentalized at the highest levels, involving only a very small circle of insiders or globalists who were actually briefed on the ship’s cargo and mission.The events pertaining to the actual hijacking, however, are less clear. According to one European intelligence source providing information to this agency, some members of the crew knew the hijackers, and one is actually related to a hijacker. News of this possible relationship was published by one news agency immediately after the names of the perpetrators were released. This same source stated that the hijacking was arranged from the onset, which appears to be corroborated by the apparent lack of force used at the time of the takeover.

Considering all of the oddities related to this alleged act of piracy, combined with information from our intelligence sources, it is not only reasonable but imperative to ask whether the ship was actually hijacked.One very plausible explanation, especially if the illicit cargo was indeed destined for Iran, is that the shipment was to be offloaded to an Iranian vessel in a more remote area of the Atlantic Ocean. The hijacking would provide the necessary cover for the Arctic Sea to be off its course with the automatic identification system (AIS) and other such equipment disabled.

Who then, were the hijackers?

Again, based on information from intelligence sources in addition to suggestions contained in more recent news articles, it is reasonable to suspect that the hijackers are actually Russian intelligence operatives from the Russian GRU, which is an agency that is directly involved in terrorist operations and operations related to assassination or decapitation of senior US leadership via tactical nuclear weapons,according to Sean Osborne of the Northeast Intelligence Network.Mr. Osborne further states that it is his belief, based on various sources and analysis, that the hijack and the rescue of the MV Arctic Sea was nothing more than a Russian charade or a false flag operation.With the hijackers - i.e. Russian intelligence agents - being on board the entire time, there is no way that Moscow did not know where this ship was or where it was headed with its cargo at any given moment, said Mr. Osborne.Indeed. Based on information provided by our intelligence sources, combined with independent research, it is our collective contention that the hijacking of Arctic Sea was a rouse to provide the ship, crew and the sponsors of the illicit cargo enough time and a level of plausible deniability to offload the cargo at sea. There is, however, one troubling aspect that has yet to be discussed anywhere publicly extends beyond the less complicated hijack scenario.

A nightmare scenario

An article written by Michael Anissimov published on 6 August 2006 titled Six Places to Nuke for Multiplier Effect provides some very disturbing scenarios about the best places to detonate a nuclear weapon for maximum effect.In his article, Anissimov postulates the effects of a detonation at sea. Specifically, he writes Knock off a chunk of Cumbre Viejo at La Palma in the Canary Islands,which just happens to be the general area where the ship was found. Such an explosion would cause a massive tidal wave that would circle the earth three times, taking out coastal cities before dissipating. This tidal wave scenario is discussed in a CNN article at this link.Out of the realm of possibilities? Considering the many odd events witnessed by the world in the last decade, who can honestly dismiss someone attempting this?


An analogy suitable for television

To better understand the actual hijacking and what follows, consider the following analogy. A Colombian drug kingpin, operating an international illegal drug network within a corrupt political government, sends a group of mules, or carriers, to deliver a large shipment of drugs into another country. Through multiple means, including blackmail, payoffs, threats and kickbacks, the drug kingpin has compromised members of the government at the highest levels, and is permitted to operate his illicit operation without fear of arrest. Aside from the nature of the cargo, that situation is analogous to the Arctic Sea.

At this point, we begin to consider divergent scenarios relative to the hijacking itself, such as:

At some level within the otherwise corrupt government, an agency tasked with drug enforcement measures did not get the memo that this kingpin, his mules and the shipment are not to be touched. Members of that agency make an arrest during shipment, and suddenly find themselves facing the wrath of their own government leaders for actually doing their job. Alternatively, a rogue group of criminals aware of the shipment decide to take the shipment of drugs, or divert it for their own personal gain.Another possibility is that the mules themselves arrange for the shipment to be hijacked, knowing that the hijackers would be sophisticated enough to disable the tracking devices on the vehicle. They did not expect someone from within the government to actually enlist the aid of an organization such as NATO, possessing greater electronic surveillance equipment, to assist in the tracking and recovery of the shipment. Yet another possibility is that the hijacking served as a cover story, giving the ship and crew the necessary time and invisibility so that the cargo could be offloaded to the purchaser in a more remote area.The accounts of the hijacking itself remain cloudy and a focus of pure speculation. Nonetheless, one is able to gain better and more accurate insight into the hijacking and hijackers by looking at the Russian response to the event.

A telling event in tracking the Arctic Sea

Open source reports state that the hijackers boarded the ship and disabled some high tech devices, including the automatic identification system and a satellite transponder. This would, of course, suggest a level of knowledge and sophistication surpassing less capable pirates found cruising in the normal dangerous areas of the high seas. It might also suggest collusion by members of the crew members themselves. While that is indeed an important aspect of this event, it is more important to look at the subsequent tracking of the vessel, according to our intelligence sources. It is within this area that one will find clues to the real events involving the allegedly hijacked vessel.As postulated by Roland Oliphant of RussiaProfile.org in an article titled Hidden in Plain Sight, the Russian Navy, via Russian Intelligence, was actively tracking the Arctic Sea through classified means despite the disabling of the automatic identification system (AIS) and other beacon equipment. Russia’s eyes in the sky would explain their silence during the recovery of the ship (for the safety of the crew) and their ability to locate the vessel on open waters as quickly as they did. Although it seems plausible at first blush, one must ask whether that really happened. Our response and the most likely answer is that it probably did not.A report published on 20 August 2009 by RIANOVOSTI titled Russian envoy praises NATO role in search for Arctic Sea discloses that the assets of other countries - under the umbrella of NATO - were employed in that manner. In fact, it was NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen who provided the means to the Russians including the use of an integrated maritime monitoring system which helps the alliance to track the movement of vessels in the sea.Therefore and most importantly, it was not the Russians who initiated the tracking of the Arctic Sea, although they were certainly the beneficiaries.According to Sean Osborne, military affairs specialist with the Northeast Intelligence Network, this move by NATO could well constitute a breach of U.S. and NATO operational security (OPSEC) in that NATO has essentially provided critical classified intelligence to the Russians.If this report is correct as our sources have confirmed , then NATO provided Russia not only the means but critical information about the depth of our capability to precisely track small vessels in the open ocean absent of the AIS or other such tracking devices. Mr. Osborne adds that this specific capability is classified as Top Secret/Specially Compartmented Intelligence (TS/SCI) at least until 2015.

Therefore, the role of NATO within this aspect of the Arctic Sea incident must not be overlooked, nor its importance underestimated. In fact, it is this very aspect of the hunt for the Arctic Sea that should be setting off proverbial alarm bells among NATO member nations. Unfortunately, this matter will likely be overlooked while the focus remains myopically on the cargo and away from the behavior of Russia and those in collusion with such state-sponsored activities.The question now becomes why would NATO provide sensitive information to Russia, the country essentially responsible for its creation? The answers might reside very close to home, within our highly infiltrated and heavily compromised Department of State.In an article dated July 30, 2009 published again by RIANOVOSTI, it is apparent that Washington has sent overtures to Russia about joining the NATO alliance. According to that article, Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon stated that the U.S., under the Obama administration, would consider Russian membership in the military alliance! Although Russia has since dismissed this confusing overture, the fact that it was even made is illustrative of a larger agenda of global governance. This agenda of submission to a global governance, a one world order or New World Order, once fodder for conspiracy theorists, is clearly evident in the NATO (i.e. U.S.) actions relative to the Arctic Sea. This one aspect of the MV Arctic Sea, as previously associated with the serial aspect of weapons proliferation, connects certain agencies of our own government and certain officials - again, either willingly or through compulsion, to a globalist agenda. The tracking of the Arctic Sea provides just one example of this globalist agenda at work.The globalist agenda is certainly not limited to the current administration, and can be traced to both sides of the political aisles. What is of specific importance to their agenda under this administration lies not solely with Obama himself, but what political appointments are being spawned by his past associations and those to whom he is committed through massive investments to his political machine.While news of the overture made by the current U.S. State Department to Russia to join NATO was casually reported by the media, news over the concern regarding the Arctic Sea was conspicuously absent. It would be reasonable to expect that the mere possibility of a vessel suspected of supplying nuclear cargo to Iran, a cargo that ostensibly originated in Russia, would merit at least a mention by the U.S. Department of State or someone within the current administration. Despite the close proximity to the action by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at about the same time this issue was making headlines in Europe, there was silence.
That silence continued during a visit to Russia by Israeli President Shimon Peres immediately after the Arctic Sea was recovered. Peres met with the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the city of Sochi to discuss, among other things, Iran’s nuclear program. That visit appears to have been arranged during the search and recovery of the Arctic Sea. It was a relatively brief visit that took place during Medvedev’s summer vacation at his summer home, and corresponds with the unusual order he gave that dispatched the Baltic fleet of the Russian navy to search for the vessel.It is important to note the confluence of events during the period from 12 through 17 August 2009. The Arctic Sea had been missing and believed hijacked for weeks, yet Russia made no effort to secure its recovery. Suddenly, Russian President Medvedev orders an entire naval fleet consisting of submarines and destroyers to search for a hijacked ship carrying a cargo of timber. At about the same time the ship was found and Medvedev sent three large military cargo planes to transport the crew and hijackers back to Russia, Israeli President pays Medvedev a brief visit at his summer home on the Black Sea.

A transport of large proportions

The retaking of the Arctic Sea and the rescue of the crew is most telling. Reports about how the crew was confined together with the alleged hijackers - something not done in a traditional hostage-rescue situation-have already been published and discussed. Russia also flew the crew and hijackers together from Cape Verde to the Lefortovo remand prison in Moscow. What is not being discussed is much more curious and more telling.In plain sight, Russia deployed three full size military cargo planes to Cape Verde to pick up the ship’s crew and hijackers. Considering that these aircraft are the Russian counterpart of our own C-130 transport planes, the logical question is to ask why. What was the purpose of sending not one but three such aircraft to transport 11 crew members and 8 hijackers back to Russia? During the course of our investigation, that question was posed to our intelligence source in Europe, and the answer received was simple and direct. The less-public recovery operation was directed by the same cabal within the Russian government as the deployment of the ship. While the public’s attention was diverted to the freeing of the crew and the perp walk of the alleged hijackers, Russian assets were busy removing the illicit cargo from the ship onto the unused aircraft. This appears to be substantiated by the abnormally long period of time passing between the retaking of the ship and its release back to Russia. The transfer reportedly took place while the crew and hijackers were under the control of the Russian naval assets sent to the islands.Also according to our intelligence source, the arrest of the alleged hijackers and the rescue of the crew were conducted by Russian Naval assets. The order for deployment of the transport planes came through different channels, specifically from assets inside Russian intelligence. These were two separate and distinctly different operations,stated this intelligence source.To answer the question posed above, our intelligence source in Europe states that at least two of the cargo planes dispatched for this rescue operation broke away from the third and appeared to be on a separate mission.This source stated that the two cargo planes were delayed from departure at Cape Verde, surrounded by Russian forces under heavy security, and ultimately landed at a separate hanger upon their return to Russia.The actions of the two planes would make sense if they were returning nuclear cargo to Russia.

The value of diversion

Of particular value in asymmetrical warfare is diversion,whether it is diversion of assets or attention to a specific event. Just such an event took place with the Arctic Sea. While NATO assets and satellite coverage was focused on locating the Arctic Sea (despite the likelihood that Russia never lost the ship), one has to ask what was taking place elsewhere - from the Caspian Sea to the Atlantic.Particularly troublesome is the commitment of NATO assets to this search. We will be providing more information about the individuals involved in this decision in subsequent reports.

The strange death of Alexander Litvinenko

Remember Alexander Litvinenko? Litvinenko, a former KGB officer, was responsible for exposing false flag operations by members of the Russian FSB, a successor organization to the KGB. In his book Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within, he stated that it was Federal Security Service (FSB) agents in Russia that planned and executed the 1999 apartment block bombings that killed more than 300 people. The attacks served to sway public opinion in favor of Russia’s second war in Chechnya. As a result of that bombing, the Russian military launched a huge military offensive.

During his tenure with the KGB, Litvinenko was privy to numerous Soviet intelligence and military operations. Perhaps the most relevant revelation to the U.S. is that Litvinenko maintained that Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s second in command only to Osama bin Laden, was trained by the FSB in Dagestan in the years running up to the 9/11 attacks. Sean Osborne, military affairs specialist for the Northeast Intelligence Network, reported on the ties between the KGB and Ayman al Zawahiri in this article dated 6 May 2007.After authoring his book and further exposing state sponsored terror, corruption and ties to numerous watershed events, Litvinenko settled in the UK in 2000 after being granted political asylum. In October 2006, he was somehow poisoned with polonium-210. Was it a case of murder or something entirely different? An investigation involving Scotland Yard and the FBI resulted in identifying Andrei Lugovoi as the key suspect in the murder/death of Litvinenko. Who is Lugovoi and where is he now? As noted in this article dated 7 June 2009 by the UK Times online:Andrei Lugovoi has been appointed to the security committee of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.The committee, which oversees antiterrorist legislation and border security, has regular contact with the Federal Security Service (FSB) - the former KGB - and the interior ministry. The case of Alexander Litvinenko and the lead suspect in his murder,Andrei Lugovoi, may be tangentially tied to the case of the Arctic Sea. Polonium-210, the radioactive isotope that caused the death of Litvinenko, was traced to the Avangard plant in Russia. Polonium-210 is used for the trigger in nuclear weapons and when found where it shouldn’t be, is a prime indicator of smuggling nuclear components.Our intelligence sources have confided that the death of Livinenko and the identification of Lugovoi as the prime suspect are much deeper and more complex than a simple state-sanctioned assassination. Stated our source:

I can tell you this much, that his death is directly related to smuggling nuclear materials on the black market to Islamic terrorist regimes. Take that at face value, without reading anything further into it.Understand that the amount of Polonium-210 to which Litvinenko was exposed is one-billionth of an ounce, infinitely smaller than a grain of sand. Despite published reports that his [Litvinenko's] tea was spiked by Polonium-210, you should consider how that was accomplished. You’ve got to understand not only where Polonium-210 comes from and what it is used for, but how it is handled. Spiking someone’s tea with a substance -the amount of which would barely be detected on the sharp end of a needle-would be quite problematic. It would be much useful to look at the movements of both Litvinenko and Lugovoi while Lugovoi was in the UK. Then, look at the traffic of black-market nuclear materials.In other words, according to our intelligence source, whether Litvinenko was murdered with polonium-210 is actually of lesser importance to the fact that he was exposed to the substance - in London. The fact that polonium-210 is in London when nearly all of the intensely radioactive isotope is manufactured at a closely guarded nuclear reactor in Russia is of prime importance.According to investigative results from UK intelligence officials, it is obvious that the UK was not the ultimate destination of the polonium-210. Most importantly, the polonium was further identified as black-market cargo in the nuclear arms trade.Guided by the information provided by our intelligence source, this investigator conducted additional research into individuals and events encompassing the time period from approximately 1997 through the present. This period not only encompasses the activities of Litvinenko, but those of other Russian officials, former Soviet diplomats, UN officials, as well as individuals within the U.S. government and related agencies. This investigative data was compared to the various documents that were published by and for U.S. intelligence officials during that same period of time, and is continuing as of this writing.One specific item that immediately caught my interest was the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran. The conclusion reached in that document was in complete opposition to the numerous NIE documents issued within the previous ten-(10) years. Specifically, the findings were that Iran had halted their nuclear weapons program in 2003 and had not since sought to achieve a position among the community of nuclear armed nations.Immediately after the release of that document, politicians on both side of the political aisle put their personal agendas into overdrive, with truth taking a back seat. As detailed in an assessment by Sean Osborne quoting a Wall Street Journal editorial, the authors of that NIE report include three former State Department officials with previous reputations as hyper-partisan anti-Bush officials.They were identified as Tom Fingar, formerly of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research; Vann Van Diepen, the National Intelligence Officer for WMD; and Kenneth Brill, the former U.S. Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and a career foreign-service officer. An insightful article about Brill was published in an article by Frank Gaffney, Jr. on 1 July 2005, available at this link.

What is readily apparent to even those outside of the intelligence community is the existence of a rift between the Bush administration (at that time) and members of the U.S. State Department. Responding to the 9/11 attacks and based on the 9/11 commission’s advice, the Bush administration created the position of Director of National Intelligence (DNI), a position that evolved from DCI, or Director of Central Intelligence. It is interesting to note that the first DNI was John Negroponte, who, after his tenure as DNI, was sworn in as Deputy Secretary of State in 2007.Referring again to intelligence expert Frank Gaffney, Jr., in an article published in January 2005, Gaffney describes Negroponte:He acted like a typical bureaucrat, building the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) into an empire of some 1,500 employees. What should have been a lean intelligence-coordinating outfit has instead developed and expanded at the expense of line agencies with real responsibilities and at a staggering cost of $100 million a year.

In a withering critique of Negroponte’s organization (and, at least implicitly, his performance) delivered at the CIA last year, District Court Judge Richard Posner - a highly regarded expert on intelligence matters - observed that ODNI was characterized by delay and loss of information from the bottom up, delay and misunderstanding of commands from the top down, [and] turf fights for the attention of the top layer.Negroponte’s failure to streamline the U.S. intelligence apparatus and enhance its capabilities was greatly exacerbated by his poor judgment in staffing key positions at ODNI. Rather than filling the ranks with intelligence professionals, he opted in a number of cases to populate senior positions with fellow Foreign Service Officers. The most notable of these were two individuals whose judgment and conduct had previously been called into serious question: Thomas Fingar, the deputy DNI for analysis, and Kenneth Brill, the director of the DNI’s National Counterproliferation Center.The reason this is so important is twofold. First, it provides critical insight into how the DNI, the result of recommendations by the heavily compromised and infiltrated Keen Commission and created by legislation introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein, Jay Rockefeller and Bob Graham was woefully deficient in terms of streamlining intelligence. What happened instead was that the DNI focused on appointing individuals to key agencies that further impaired an already bloated bureaucracy.The second important aspect involves the individuals selected by the DNI, which is more relevant to this article. Note that the DNI appeared to exploit that position by appointing those with questionable agendas to key positions. One merely has to look at the backgrounds of the individuals within the 16 intelligence agencies who ultimately authored the 2007 NIE to find agendas that include globalist leanings and not-so-subtle pro-Arab, pro-Palestinian, and anti-Semitic leanings.The result should have been predictable, at least in hindsight.

The formation of the DNI at the recommendation of the 9/11 commission, the publication of the 2007 NIE on Iran (including some of the greatest intelligence flip-flops since the Scott Ritter-Burger King-Iraq movie deal), indeed applies to the current case involving the Arctic Sea. First, one must understand that our intelligence apparatus has been compromised from within. Some of the individuals who were involved in the 2007 NIE have been rewarded with positions within the State Department, where they are better able to advance their globalist agenda. The process began long before Barack Hussein Obama became a DC resident, although is being accelerated under his watch due to those who are closely associated with him. The Republicans and Democrats are subjugated by the globalist, one world government and New World Order movements.Ultimately, black market nuclear weapons proliferation is being permitted to exist and flourish, while true intelligence is so heavily politicized that the end product fails to represent a truthful analysis of the raw information collected by our patriotic officers and foot soldiers.
http://homelandsecurityus.com/?p=2994 (PART 1)
http://homelandsecurityus.com/?p=3008 (PART 2)

DOUG WILL BE ON LAURIE ROTH SHOW TONIGHT FROM 6PM TO 9PM LISTEN HERE.
http://therothshow.com/show-archives/
http://www.irnusaradio.com/
http://homelandsecurityus.com/

REVELATION 8:8-9
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3 For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK ATTACK ON AMERICA)

REVELATION 18:9-11,15-21
9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,(NUKE ATTACK I BELIEVE)
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.
11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
15 The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
16 And saying, Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
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,
18 And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!
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.
20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
21 And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

Scientists warn of massive wave August 29, 2001 Posted: 11:35 AM EDT (1535 GMT)Scientists say a wave caused by a volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands would be over 300ft high CNN.

LONDON, England -- While stressing that there is no indication it could happen soon, Atlantic coastlines in Europe, Africa and the Americas are under threat from a monster wave of Hollywood -- even Biblical -- proportions, scientists have warned.

They fear that a massive landslide following a major volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands would send a 300-foot wave across the Atlantic, causing devastation to coastal towns and cities. British and U.S. scientists who have issued the warning predict that, in the worst-case scenario, the tidal wave would destroy the coasts of Florida and Brazil.But the Western Sahara, Portugal, Spain, France and parts of the UK would also be hit.They fear that the mega-wave -- know as a tsunami -- could be generated by part of a mountain twice the size of Britain's Isle of Man crashing into the sea following an eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma, in the Canary Islands -- part of the Spanish island chain off West Africa.Travelling at speeds of up to 500mph, the tsunami would be an unstoppable force and would be the biggest-ever recorded in history.Previous research by Dr Simon Day, of the Benfield Greig Hazard Research Centre at University College London predicted that a future eruption of Cumbre Vieja was likely to cause the western flank of the mountain to slide into the sea.The energy released by the collapse would be equal to the electricity consumption of the entire U.S. in six months.With Dr Steven Ward, from the University of California, Dr Day has produced a new model that predicts more accurately how big the tsunami will be and where it will strike.Immediately after the landslide, a dome of water almost 900 metres (3,000 ft) high and tens of kilometres wide will form, only to collapse and rebound.Its first target was expected to be the West Saharan coast of Morocco, where the wave would measure a devastating 330ft from crest to trough.

Propelled by a series of crests and troughs, the tsunami would travel a distance of almost 155 miles in just 10 minutes, the model predicts.Racing at the speed of a jet aircraft, it would reach Florida and the Caribbean in eight or nine hours. A wall of water 164ft high -- higher than Nelson's column in London's Trafalgar Square -- would smash into the coasts of Florida and the Caribbean islands, the forecast predicts.The northern coast of Brazil would be hit by a wave more than 130ft high. The wave would travel four or five miles inland, flattening everything in its path.
Meanwhile, a weaker, but still hugely destructive, wave was likely to travel along the western coast of the Iberian Peninsular and France and hit Britain's Atlantic coastline.Dr Day said:The collapse will occur during some future eruption after days or weeks of precursory deformation and earthquakes.An effective earthquake monitoring system could provide advanced warning of a likely collapse and allow early emergency management organisations a valuable window of time in which to plan and respond.Eruptions of Cumbre Vieja occur at intervals of decades to a century orso and there may be a number of eruptions before its collapse.Although the year to year probability of a collapse is therefore low, the resulting tsunami would be a major disaster with indirect effects around the world.Cumbre Vieja needs to monitored closely for any signs of impending volcanic activity and for the deformation that would precede collapse.

Like the rest of the Canary islands, the origin of La Palma is volcanic.

La Palma is not only the steepest island in the world but has also been the most volcanically active of the Canary Isles in the past 500 years.There have been two eruptions on the island this century alone -- in 1949 and 1971.Other eruptions in recent history on La Palma occurred in 1470, 1585, 1646, 1677 and 1712.Tidal waves are not common in the Atlantic, although since 1990, 10 major tsunamis in the Pacific have killed more than 4,000 people.Scientists suspect an earthquake-triggered tsunami that killed more than 2,000 people in Papua New Guinea in 1998 was bolstered by an undersea landslide.Hawaii's worst experience in modern times came in 1946 when the April Fool's Day tsunami, generated by an earthquake in the Aleutian Islands, sent a 25-foot-high wall of water ashore, killing 173 people, mostly in Hilo.On May 23, 1960, a tsunami that hit Hilo killed 61 people.One of the most famous, and most devastating, tsunamis occurred after the Krakatoa volcano blew itself to pieces in 1883 -- a wave six metres high killed 30,000 people.

Support for Lisbon Treaty drops in Ireland
HONOR MAHONY Today SEPT 4,09 @ 09:14 CET


With just a month to go until Ireland's second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, a poll has shown that 46 percent support a yes vote, down eight points since May.

Published by the Irish Times, the TNS mrbi poll shows a rise of one point in those saying they plan to vote No to 29 percent with the Don't Knows registering at 25 percent, up seven points in comparison to a pre-summer survey.The newspaper notes that most of the people who have left the Yes side have entered the Don't Know category rather than crossed to the No camp.The drop in support for the treaty is reminiscent of the trend in the weeks ahead of the first referendum which resulted in a No in June last year. It is set to spur the government to place more focus on a strong and coherent campaign.However, prime minister Brian Cowen's Fianna Fail party, grappling with the devastating effects of the economic crisis, has reached an historic low in polls, garnering just 17 percent support in another poll by the Irish Times.The survey indicates that 85 percent are dissatisfied with the government's performance while 11 percent approve it. Dan Boyle, chairman of the Green Party, the junior governing party, said that it will be a challenge for the government to survive until January, with general elections only due in 2012.

For his part, Mr Cowen has met with the main opposition parties to work out how to make the most effective Yes campaign ahead of the 2 October poll.He has also tried to persuade to voters to rise above their feelings for the government and concentrate on the issue at hand in the referendum.I don't believe this is about the future of this government or the future of personalities, it's about the future of the country. This is not politics as usual. It goes beyond any issues of party, organisation or locality. It is about our country's future,said the prime minister on Wednesday (2 September).

Economic crisis

However, Irish citizens have been shocked by the gravity of the economic crisis and the austerity measures proposed by the government to tackle it. In addition, much of the discussion in recent days has concerned the government's controversial plans to set up a 'bad bank', or National Asset Management Agency, to swallow toxic assets but the plan is viewed with scepticism by the public.The Irish vote is hugely anticipated in Brussels, where there is widespread hope that the Lisbon Treaty will be passed and a backlog of decisions and discussions can then take place in light of the result.Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland must also complete ratification of the Treaty, which introduces a powerful EU foreign policy chief, a president of the European Council and gives greater powers to the European Parliament.

Norway frustrated over relationship with EU
VALENTINA POP Today SEPT 4,09 @ 09:30 CET


EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Non-EU member Norway is growing increasingly frustrated over its lack of influence over Brussels' decision making process, an internal document shows.Oslo's interests are getting harder to defend, as the EU is expanding its competences beyond what the initial terms of the agreement regulating Norway's participation to the bloc's internal market covered, an internal note of the Norwegian ambassador in Brussels, obtained by Aftenposten, says.Norwegians rejected EU membership twice – in a first referendum held in 1972 and another one in 1994. Oslo joined the EU internal market and automatically adopts all legislation relating to it. It has a veto right over some areas, which it has never used.Norwegian ambassador Oda Helen Sletnes, who wrote the report complains that her country cannot keep up with the EU's fast and continuous transformation. In July, negotiations between Norway and the European Commission on the renewal of a funding scheme for the bloc's new member states worth over €1 billion failed to be concluded. The EU executive had hoped for a substantial top-up, while Oslo was looking at better conditions for its fisheries exports on the EU market – another file being negotiated with the commission.

A spokeswoman for the permanent representation of Norway in Brussels declined to comment directly on the document published by the Norwegian newspaper. She referred to the statements made by foreign minister Jonas Gahr Store in reaction to the article, who said it was a challenge for Norway to relate to a EU that has grown both in size and in depth.The so-called European Economic Area agreement (EEA) signed in 1994 between the EU and Norway was static, he said, while the EU institutions were in continuous development.Norway has nevertheless shown good capabilities in meeting these challenges,the minister added.

OBAMA STUDENT SPEECH TROUBLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC-q5mnnlyk&feature=player_embedded

Wednesday September 2, 2009 LifeSiteNews.com.Section 13 Hate Message Clause Unconstitutional Rules Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ByPatrick B. Craine

OTTAWA, Ontario, September 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled today that section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, Canada's human rights legislation against hate messages, unreasonably limits the Charter right to freedom of expression.Member Athanasios D. Hadjis issued the ruling in the case of Richard Warman and the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) against Marc Lemire.Popular conservative pundit and human rights commission critic Mark Steyn today said that the end of the hate speech legislation is near, calling today's decision a landmark decision.This is the beginning of the end for Section 13 and its provincial equivalents, and a major defeat for Canada's thought police,he said. It's not just a personal triumph for Marc Lemire, but a critical victory in the campaign by Ezra Levant, Maclean's, yours truly and others to rid the Canadian state of this hideous affront to justice.Lemire, operator of the website FreedomSite.org, was the subject of a complaint brought by serial complainant and former CHRC employee Richard Warman in November 2003. Warman alleged that certain postings to Lemire's website were likely to incite hatred or contempt against homosexuals and blacks, thus violating section 13.Lemire responded to the complaint by bringing a constitutional challenge against the hate messages section, and against section 54, which allows the Tribunal to levy a fine of up to $10,000 against those found guilty of violating section 13, in addition to the other possible penalties.The hate message section of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA) has been the subject of growing criticism, having been accused of placing limits on the Charter right to freedom of expression. High profile cases have been brought against conservative publisher Ezra Levant and columnist Mark Steyn, as well as numerous cases against Christians who have expressed their convictions against the homosexualist agenda.

The CHRC has admitted to using unethical methods within their investigations. Notably, in a hearing during Lemire's case, CHRC employee Dean Steacy testified that he and a number of colleagues regularly used an alias to post racist messages on radical far-right websites.The CHRC was also investigated by the RCMP regarding allegations that they had hacked into a private citizen's internet connection, though that case was dropped when it led the police to the American jurisdiction.
Until today, no respondent had won a human rights case brought to the Tribunal under section 13. Further, about half of the section 13 cases have been brought by Richard Warman, and almost all of them in recent years.Liberal MP Keith Martin proposed a motion last year to remove the controversial section from the CHRA, calling the human rights commissions' recent actions in this area disturbing.In a report commissioned by the CHRC itself on the hate messages section, legal expert Richard Moon, surprisingly, called for its repeal.The CHRC, however, has effectively ignored Moon's report and proposed their own solutions, which have been criticized as superficial.The Conservative Party, further, added its voice to the controversy last fall when members of the party voted almost unanimously at its convention to work to remove the hate messages section.In his decision today, Hadjis first examined whether Lemire had violated section 13, and then took up the constitutionality question.

He dismissed all of Warman's claims against Lemire, except one, for an article he had posted entitled 'AIDS Secrets' by Kevin Alfred Strom. While Strom's article manifests racism, it is principally accused of maligning homosexuals.He speaks frankly about the problems associated with homosexuality, calling it a deviation, and presents well-established facts, such as the high prevalence of AIDS among homosexual men, and the disproportionate effect the virus has had on the black homosexual population. Nevertheless, his comments also manifest disgust for homosexuals, which Hadjis contends is likely to expose homosexuals and blacks to hatred and contempt.Nonetheless, Hadjis opted not penalize Lemire because he determined that section 13 unreasonably limited freedom of expression.While bound by the 1990 Supreme Court decision which upheld section 13, CHRC v. Taylor, Hadjis observed that that decision was made on the belief that the process itself was not only structured, but actually functioned in as conciliatory a manner as possible. According to him, the Supreme Court decision hinged on the absence of any penal provision akin to the one now found at s. 54(1)(c),which is the clause that allows the Tribunal to impose fines of up to $10,000.He notes how Lemire had removed much of the material he was accused of posting even before the complaint was filed, and that he had sought mediation repeatedly, but Warman and the CHRC forged on with the case nevertheless.Further, according to evidence, the tribunal judge says, a disproportionate percentage of section 13 cases were brought to the Tribunal rather than being mediated. Of all human rights cases filed with the CHRC between 2002 and 2006, 11% were brought to the Tribunal, whereas 68% of section 13 cases were brought to the Tribunal from 1997-2007.As I have pointed out several times in this decision, he wrote,Mr. Lemire had not only amended his conduct by removing the impugned material, but sought conciliation and mediation as soon as he learned of the complaint against him.The process understood by the Supreme Court was not what Mr. Lemire experienced.

For these reasons, he said,I have...concluded that s. 13(1) in conjunction with ss. 54(1) and (1.1) are inconsistent with s. 2(b) of the Charter, which guarantees the freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression.The restriction imposed by these provisions is not a reasonable limit within the meaning of s. 1 of the Charter.
Hadjis said that because the Tribunal is not capable of actually repealing section 13, I will simply refuse to apply these provisions for the purposes of the complaint against Mr. Lemire and I will not issue any remedial order against him.Lemire told LifeSiteNews.com that he is pleased with the Tribunal decision, and is looking forward to getting back to normal life after the long case. I want to get back to my life,he said.These people have stolen six years of my life, where I had to dedicate myself to fight these absolutely groundless charges. ... So I want to get back to my life now, and I want to help anybody else that is currently before any of these tribunals.Every Canadian should breathe a great sigh of relief that this kind of kangaroo court and disgusting administration of the human rights commission will come to an end very soon,he said.URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/sep/09090209.html

Ezra Levant: It's a great day for freedom of speech osted: September 03, 2009, 9:00 AM by NP Editor Ezra Levant, Canadian politics

Yesterday, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal did something its never done in its 32-year history. It acquitted somebody of hate speech charges. Until now, the tribunal had a 100% conviction rate.In a 107-page ruling, tribunal member Athanasios Hadjis didn't just throw out the case against Marc Lemire, he threw out the law, too, calling it an infringement of the free speech guarantees of the Charter of Rights.

Hadjis is no wild-eyed civil libertarian. In the recent past, he himself has convicted people under this same law. And, before Jean Chretien appointed him to the tribunal, Hadjis was the boss of one of Montreal's largest multicultural lobby groups, which thrived on ethnic identity politics. But even Hadjis has had enough of the human rights industry and their fetish for political correctness. He ruled that allowing Canadian citizens to express offensive ideas is preferable to living under a government that prosecutes people for expressing those ideas.As of yesterday, it's no longer illegal to write politically incorrect things on the Internet. Now it's illegal to prosecute someone for it.This will have an immediate impact on the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), which maintains a large censorship department and has other cases under investigation. If the CHRC were a real police force, and the tribunal were a real court, all existing censorship cases would be dropped, and anyone who was previously convicted would have their convictions voided. Dozens of lawsuits against the government for wrongful prosecution, and compensation for costs, wouldn't be far behind.But the tribunal isn't a real court, and Hadjis acknowledged that he doesn't have the power to strike down the law, only to declare it unconstitutional and to refuse to apply it. The CHRC has ignored the tribunal before: In this same case, Lemire was routinely denied his procedural rights by the CHRC, including its outrageous tactic of waiting until the trial was over before disclosing all of its documents to him. Even worse, some bizarre CHRC conduct came to light, including confessions by their staff that they joined neo-Nazi organizations and published bigoted comments on the Internet to entrap their targets. A real court would have thrown the case out years ago, and a real police force would have disciplined such rogue conduct.

Still, it's a great day for Charter values like freedom of speech. But how long will it last? The human rights industry knew this was an important case, and over the past six years it spent millions of tax dollars fighting Lemire. The federal government had six lawyers on the case--four from the CHRC and two from the Justice Minister's office. And there were five lawyers intervening on behalf of Canada's tax-subsidized Jewish groups, the B'nai Brith, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC).Yesterday, the CJC issued a bizarre press release in which it states that, despite the tribunal's clear ruling, it believes the censorship law remains constitutional.In the next few weeks, the CJC and the rest of the human rights litigation industry will clamour for the government to appeal this decision.It was one thing for Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to defend the constitutionality of a government law that was under attack -- that's standard operating procedure. But now that the law has been found to be illegal, it would be quite another thing for Nicholson to positively act to revive such an illiberal law. Nicholson must also put a leash on the disgraced CHRC, and order it not to appeal either. They've already done more than enough damage to Canada's civil liberties, at great expense to taxpayers.In fact, just leaving Hadjis's ruling intact isn't enough--his ruling illustrates a deeper rot in the CHRC. Hadjis found that the CHRC has become much more aggressive and confrontational in recent years, and at the same time it started applying punitive sanctions -- such as issuing fines of tens of thousands of dollars. That toxic mix of abusive conduct with criminal-style punishments was specifically forbidden by the Supreme Court when it last reviewed the censorship laws in 1990.It's that bullying corporate culture that Nicholson needs to address. Nicholson should start by ordering Jennifer Lynch, the CHRC's chief commissioner, to stop her expensive campaign of demonization against the commission's critics. And then he should call in a retired judge -- or the auditor-general -- to do a thorough biopsy to find out how Canada's human rights agency became such a threat to our human rights.National Post-zra Levant blogs at ezralevant.com

Hate speech law unconstitutional: rights tribunal
Joseph Brean, National Post SEPT 2,09


The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal on Wednesday ruled that Section 13, Canada's much maligned human rights hate speech law, violates the Charter right to free expression because it carries the threat of punitive fines.The shocking decision by Tribunal member Athanasios Hadjis leaves several hate speech cases in limbo, and appears to strip the Canadian Human Rights Commission of its controversial legal mandate to pursue hate on the Internet, which it has strenuously defended against complaints of censorship.It also marks the first major failure of Section 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act, an anti-hate law that was conceived in the 1960s to target racist telephone hotlines, then expanded in 2001 to the include the entire Internet, and for the last decade used almost exclusively by one complainant, activist Ottawa lawyer Richard Warman.Mr. Warman's first big loss is a victory for the respondent Marc Lemire, webmaster of freeedomsite.org and a prominent figure in the Canadian far right.Typically for the messy state of Canada's perennial hate speech debate, public reaction to the ruling yesterday was polarized, running the spectrum from glowing praise for the bold Mr. Hadjis, to criticism that his outrageous conclusion is vulnerable on judicial review.All sides seem to agree, however, that the stage is set for pitched battle in federal court, where CHRT rulings can be appealed. Another less likely outcome is for Parliament itself to repeal or amend Section 13, a law that even supporters say needs updating in the age of the Internet.

Neither the CHRC nor Mr. Warman would comment.No matter what happens, this decision is going to federal court,Mr. Lemire said.This is the beginning of the end for Section 13 now. This law is 32 years old. Not a single person has ever won until today. But did I really win? I have given up six years of my life. The process is the punishment.Mr. Warman, a former investigator for the CHRC, brought a complaint against Mr. Lemire in 2003, after monitoring his website for almost a year. He alleged that postings on the discussion forum, mostly written by others, contravened Section 13 in that they were likely to expose identifiable groups to hatred or contempt.Mr. Warman later urged the CHRC investigators to expand their investigation to other websites he believed Mr. Lemire was involved with, but to hold off on informing Mr. Lemire until the police take a good look at it.No criminal charges were ever filed.In all but one case, Mr. Hadjis decided that these postings either did not contravene Section 13(1), or that Mr. Lemire cannot be held responsible for what others posted on his website.Mr. Hadjis found Mr. Lemire violated the law in one case, by posting an article called AIDS Secrets, written by an American neo-Nazi, which Mr. Hadjis found was rife with hyperbole and moral condemnation. Homosexuals, and Blacks to a lesser extent, are denigrated as purveyors of a killer that is on the loose, agonizingly destroying the lives of American children and adults alike.

Even with this finding, however, Mr. Hadjis declined to make any order against Mr. Lemire. As a statutory tribunal, Mr. Hadjis does not have the legal authority to officially declare a law unconstitutional. But if he finds it would be unconstitutional to enforce it, he can do as he has done, which is to simply refuse to apply these provisions.Part of his motivation was that virtually all the offending material was removed either before or shortly after Mr. Lemire received word of the complaint against him.Mr. Lemire had not only amended his conduct by removing the impugned material, but sought conciliation and mediation as soon as he learned of the complaint against him,Mr. Hadjis wrote.The problem had thus already been eliminated, yet the complaint continued to be processed.Section 13(1) remains valid Canadian law, despite this ruling. Its constitutionality was last upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in a 1990 split decision, before the Internet age.That decision, about neo-Nazi John Ross Taylor, upheld the law as a justifiable limit on free expression largely because of its remedial, non-punitive purpose. But Mr. Hadjis found that that, today, the law has become more penal in nature, and this renders it an unjustifiable limit on freedom of expression. Ever since a 1998 amendment to allow the Tribunal to levy fines up to $10,000 -- payable to the government -- the pursuit of Section 13(1) cases can no longer be considered exclusively remedial, preventative and conciliatory in nature,he wrote.He cited Mr. Warman's request for a $7500 penalty against Mr. Lemire. Mr. Warman has won over a dozen other Section 13(1) cases, many leading to similar fines, payments to himself, and legal restrictions on Internet activity.This criticism about a punitive law masquerading as a remedial one echoes that of Richard Moon, a law professor hired by the CHRC last year to provide an expert analysis of their online hate speech mandate. In essence, his advice was that it could not be done fairly, and so should not be done at all.Prof. Moon said Wednesday's decision is obviously a significant moment in the history of Section 13, but it seems like it is in some important sense inconclusive.

He said the ruling has no weight as legal precedent, and could theoretically be ignored by future tribunals, but in practice it is impossible to ignore, and it hints at a fundamental problem with the law.As soon as the Supreme Court confirmed that the scope of Section 13 was narrow, and confined to extremely hateful messages, then it was highly unlikely that we were going to have a kind of regular human rights process that involves conciliation between the parties, he said.That was always something that we could have foreseen.We still believe Section 13 is constitutional. There seems to be some major difference of opinion within the Tribunal itself,said Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, referring to previous constitutional challenges of Section 13 that went the other way.Marvin Kurz, legal counsel to B'nai Brith, which was an intervenor in this case along with the CJC and others, echoed Mr. Farber's question about why Mr. Hadjis did not simply read out the penalty section -- that is, ignore it, but allow the actual hate speech section to stand.Not only did he not do it, but he failed to explain why he did not consider the alternative,Mr. Kurz said. It's like if the police act wrongly in a criminal case, you don't throw out the criminal law. That's what he's done here, and that doesn't make sense to me.Ezra Levant, a blogger who has led the campaign against human rights hate speech law, said the ruling shows that the CHRC has been acting illegally for many years, and it forces the Conservative government to make a new kind of decision about whether to appeal.If they launch an appeal, they are casting their lot with the censors, he said.Pearl Eliadis, a human rights lawyer and a defender of Section 13, played down the importance of the ruling, and said Mr. Hadjis just got it wrong. With respect, it's constitutionally not within the normal way that these provisions are dealt with. She said he should have simply ignored the offending penalty section and upheld the law. Bruce Ryder, a constitutional law professor at York University, said Mr. Hadjis was correct to find that the penalty provision exacerbated the chilling effect on freedom of expression. But he said Mr. Hadjis reasoning broke down at the end,and he should have simply rejected the penalty provision.

He also wondered how Mr. Lemire was acquitted over the posting of an article that explicitly denied the Holocaust, which he called outrageous and inconsistent with jurisprudence,and makes the entire ruling vulnerable on judicial review.Mark Steyn, a conservative author who was the target of a prominent hate speech complaint over his writing in Maclean's, said Mr. Hadjis' realized that there is no future for Section 13 because of the damage done to it by the dress-up Nazis of the CHRC and and the sordid racket of Richard Warman.It makes explicit that section 13 has no friends,he said.National PostJbrean@nationalpost.com

Irish farmer loses Lisbon treaty challenge
03.09.2009 @ 17:21 CET


An Irish farmer seeking to challenge the legality of a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has failed in his quest. A high court judge on Thursday ruled that it is up to the people and not the court to state their view on the treaty on 2 October, reports Irish public broadcaster RTE.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS WILL BE USED.

PSALMS 97:3
3 A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.

REVELATION 14:18-20
18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
20 And the winepress was trodden without the city,(JERUSALEM) and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.(200 MILES) (THE SIZE OF ISRAEL)

ISAIAH 66:15-18
15 For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
18 For I know their works and their thoughts: it shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.

ISAIAH 26:21
21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.(WW3,1/2 earths population die).

ISAIAH 13:6-13 KJV
6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:(FROM FRIGHT)
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

ISAIAH 24:17-23 KJV
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

2 TIMOTHY 3:1
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.

JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.

ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

REVELATION 9:18
18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).

MATTHEW 24:37-51
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.
45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Russian expert in Arctic Sea case flees country By DAVID NOWAK, Associated Press Writer – Thu Sep 3, 2:51 pm ET

MOSCOW – The Russian maritime expert who was among the first to raise the alarm about the mysterious disappearance of the Arctic Sea freighter said Thursday he has fled the country after receiving a threatening phone call.Mikhail Voitenko, the editor of the online Maritime Bulletin-Sovfracht, posted an article about the ship's disappearance on Aug. 8. He then speculated that the ship might have been carrying a secret cargo, possibly weapons.There has been mounting speculation that the freighter was intercepted by Israel to prevent the delivery of missiles or nuclear materials to Iran or Syria.The Arctic Sea, which left Finland on July 21 with 15 Russian crew members and a cargo of timber, failed to arrive in Algeria on Aug. 4 as scheduled. The ship's signal had disappeared off France's coast in late July.

Russia sent naval vessels Aug. 12 to search for the ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Days later, the government said it had found the Arctic Sea off West Africa and arrested eight hijackers.But many baffling aspects of the freighter's journey, including a reported attack by masked men in Swedish waters, remain unexplained.Russia took control of the Maltese-flagged freighter, which it says is now sailing toward a Russian port. The crew members were brought to Moscow for questioning and have been barred from speaking publicly.Voitenko said he received an anonymous phone call Tuesday night from someone who said he was fed up with Voitenko.He told me: Mikhail, you made a big mistake when you made your announcement on Aug. 8, Voitenko said, speaking by phone from Istanbul, Turkey.He refused to discuss the Arctic Sea mystery.I know more than I can say, but you know what — I am afraid,Voitenko said.In his article posted Aug. 11, Voitenko said the only explanation for the ship's disappearance was that it was carrying very valuable or dangerous material.He also said it appeared that some third party, having seized the ship, was determined at all costs not to allow the cargo to reach the intended receiver.The Finnish company shipping the timber and Finnish port authorities have confirmed that the Arctic Sea was carrying timber worth euro1.3 million ($1.8 million) when it left.Russian political and military commentators have speculated that the Arctic Sea was also carrying weapons and was intercepted by Israel to prevent their delivery to Iran or Syria.The EU's rapporteur on piracy, Adm. Tarmo Kouts, said in an interview with Time magazine that this is the most likely explanation. There is the idea that there were missiles aboard, and one can't explain this situation in any other way, Kouts, a former commander of the Estonian armed forces, was quoted as saying in a Time article published this week.

Six of the eight suspected hijackers had been living in Estonia.

The Russian commentators point to the two weeks the freighter spent undergoing repairs in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea. They also note that the day after Russia announced it had reached the ship, Israeli President Shimon Peres paid an unexpected visit to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.Peres said Medvedev promised to reconsider Russia's planned delivery of powerful S-300 air-defense missiles to Iran. A Russian official confirmed only that Peres raised the issue.
Associated Press writer Lynn Berry contributed to this report.

NKorea says in final stage of uranium enrichment by Simon Martin – SEPT 3,09

SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea said Friday it had reached the final stages of enriching uranium, a process that would give it a second way to make nuclear bombs, in a defiant response to tougher United Nations sanctions.The hardline communist state also announced it was building more plutonium-based atomic bombs.Experimental uranium enrichment has successfully been conducted to enter into completion phase, the official Korean Central News Agency quoted its permanent representative to the United Nations as saying.Reprocessing of spent fuel rods is at its final phase and extracted plutonium is being weaponised,the representative was quoted as saying in a letter Thursday to the UN Security Council president.The North also said it is prepared for both dialogue and sanctions,apparently echoing a more conciliatory tone it has struck in recent weeks.Pyongyang for years denied it was operating a secret enriched uranium bomb-making programme, in addition to its admitted plutonium-based operation which fuelled two nuclear tests.But on June 13, a day after the UN punished its latest test with tougher sanctions, the North vowed to start an enriched uranium programme and to extract plutonium from spent fuel rods at its Yongbyon reactor.

South Korea denounced the reported actions as intolerable.The government will deal sternly and consistently with North Korea's threats and provocations,the foreign ministry said in a statement.South Korea's then-defence minister said in late June the North did indeed seem to be pushing forward with a uranium enrichment programme, which was easier to hide than a plutonium reprocessing operation.Kim Yeon-Chul of Seoul's Hankyoreh Peace Research Institute said it was difficult to assess how far uranium enrichment technology had progressed, although it was not surprising fuel rods were being processed.Keeping open windows both for dialogue and a further nuclear build-up, North Korea is warning the US that its nuclear activities will only move forward unless negotiations get under way,Kim told AFP.The North's UN representative said he was responding to a letter from the world body's sanctions committee requesting a clarification.The United Arab Emirates has informed the sanctions committee it has seized a ship carrying North Korean weapons to Iran, according to UN diplomats.The North said it would never be bound by Resolution 1874 passed June 12, which authorised members to search ships suspected of carrying banned weapons.It said that if some Security Council members continue to put sanctions before dialogue, it would be forced to take yet stronger self-defensive countermeasures.Pyongyang had shut down Yongbyon under a six-nation nuclear disarmament deal. But it quit the talks after the UN censured its April 5 rocket launch, and vowed to restart its bomb-making programme.

It staged its second nuclear test on May 25.

As the United States presses for tough enforcement of Resolution 1874, the North has made a series of peace overtures.In August it freed two US journalists and five South Koreans, eased border crossings with the South, sent representatives to talks in Seoul and expressed willingness for direct discussions with Washington on the nuclear standoff.The North said it had never objected to denuclearising the Korean peninsula but the six-way talks had been used to violate outrageously its sovereignty.Denuclearisation of the peninsula is closely related with the US nuclear policy toward the DPRK (North Korea),it added.The United States says bilateral talks must be held in the six-party context. Its envoy on North Korea Stephen Bosworth is visiting the region for talks aimed at restarting the six-party process.South Korea's nuclear envoy Wi Sung-Lac, quoted by Yonhap news agency, said the latest statement is not helpful and he would discuss it with Bosworth, who arrives Friday afternoon from Beijing.The North blamed its second nuclear test on the UN's high-handed criticism of its rocket launch. It says this put a peaceful satellite into space, while the United States and others saw a disguised long-range missile test. The North complained that the UN had failed to censure South Korea's rocket launch last month.

Hizballah deploys chemical and biological weapons near Israeli border - Arab, European sources Thursday, 03 September 2009 15:40 News from Jerusalem
Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah


The Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa reported Thursday, Sept. 3, that chemical weapons were stored in the hidden Hizballah arms warehouse which blew up at Hirbet Salim near the Israeli border in mid-July. Of the 11 Hizballah operatives killed in the blast, 3 died of chemical poisoning. Hizballah denied any members had been killed or even that it maintains a weapons store in breach of UN resolutions.DEBKAfile disclosed at the time that the Lebanese terrorists had lost five men and more were missing.On July 21, we reported that the explosion heard on both sides of the border refuted Israeli military claims that the Lebanese border was secure and revealed that the destroyed arms dump was one of 35 Hizballah had lined up within 20 kilometers from the border.European intelligence sources reported on Sept. 1, that Hizballah had recently boosted its military capabilities with a supply of chemical shells and short-range missiles with chemical warheads and was about to receive biological weapons as well. One source said that the Lebanese terrorist group is now one of the most sophisticated and best trained military forces in the Middle East, describing them as bad guys with good strategic vision.The source quoted an Arab official as predicting that Hizballah is gearing up for something big and there is little doubt that Iran and Syria will be helping them to obtain biological and chemical weapons.

You're going to be reporting a lot on Hizballah in the future,he said.They already have people on the ground in Europe and elsewhere. They are just waiting for orders to act - they are not in a hurry.Those WMD have already been delivered, according to al Siyassa. DEBKAfile's military sources add that deliveries began some time ago. In the 2006 war in which Israel fought Hizballah, chemical defense systems were discovered in the Lebanese group's bunkers and observation posts.debka

ISRAELS INHERITED LAND IN THE FUTURE

And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.

Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.

Palestinian TV children's quizzes teach that there is no Israel
Thursday, 03 September 2009 04:35 News from Jerusalem

http://www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com/israelnews/conflict/82-conflict/1753-palestinian-tv-childrens-quizzes-teach-that-there-is-no-israel-.html (2 VIDEOS)

Palestinian children are taught through formal and informal education to see a world in which Palestine exists and replaces all of Israel. Two children's quizzes broadcast last week on Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority television show how the PA routinely teaches its children to identify all Israeli cities as Palestinian cities.In the two quizzes on PA TV, children were asked to identify Palestinian cities. The suggested answers were exclusively Israeli cities: Haifa, Jaffa, Acre and Tiberias.The following are the transcripts of the PA TV quizzes:Quiz 1: Haifa, Jaffa and Acre are Palestine.Host reads clue: Where is Palestine's most important port, in Haifa, Jaffa or Acre? Child: Jaffa.Host: Is it correct? [Checks computer.]
Host: Bravo![PATV (Fatah), Aug. 26, 2009]

Quiz 2: Jaffa, Acre and Tiberias are Palestine.Host reads clue: There's a Palestinian city whose walls are very high and strong, and Napoleon, whom we all know, stopped his battle, because he was unable [to breach] the solid walls.
Which city is it, Jaffa, Acre or Tiberias? Child: Acre.Host: Applause, bravo!
[PATV (Fatah), Aug. 30, 2009]

The following are examples from PA schoolbooks, which also teach Palestinian children to imagine a world without Israel: Coastal states differ in terms of their access to water sources, such as...: states located on sea coasts with accesses to two seas, for example: Palestine and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
[Physical Geography and Human Geography, Grade 12, p. 105]Palestine has a long coast facing the Mediterranean Sea and a short coast on the Gulf of Aqaba.[Health and Environment Studies, Grade 8 (2003), p. 130, the Israeli city of Eilat is on the Gulf of Eilat (Aqaba) - Ed.] The Tiberias Lake [Sea of Galilee], in Palestine
[Physical Geography, Grade 5, p. 25]

The following are examples of previous PA TV quizzes teaching the identical message of a world without Israel:Child host: List three Palestinian ports… we have the Haifa port, Jaffa, Ashkelon, Eilat, Ashdod & Gaza. [Note: All are Israeli cities except Gaza.]Child host: What is the size of the state of Palestine?(On phone) Haidar: 27,000 sq. km.[Note: The size of the West Bank and Gaza is 6,220 sq. km. The figure of 27,000 sq. km. includes all of Israel.]Child host: Name three countries bordering Palestine.(On phone) Muhammad: Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt.[Note: Only Israel borders Lebanon.]Child host:The Palestinian borders overlook two important seas. What are their names?(On phone) Lama: The Mediterranean and the Red Sea.[Note: The Red Sea borders Israel's southern tip.]Child host: What's the name of the only sweet-water lake in Palestine? On phone, Ayyam: The Tiberias Sea [the Sea of Galilee].
[Note: The Sea of Galilee is in Israel.][PATV (Fatah), Sept. 1, 2008]Child host: Where is Ein Harod [Israeli town]? Child: In Palestine.Child host: Good. Which mountain is the tallest in Palestine? And where is it located? Child: Mount Meron [in Israel].Child host: That’s half an answer, where is it located? In Nablus, Hebron or Galilee? Child: In the Galilee [in Israel].Child host: Correct answer. The tallest mountain in Palestine is Mount Meron, in the Upper Galilee, east of the mountain is the city of Safad [Israeli city], the capital of northern Palestine.
[PA TV (Fatah), Sept. 9, 2008]Child host: What is the name of the desert in Palestine? Nahad: The Negev desert [southern Israel]Child host: Correct answer.[PATV (Fatah), Sept. 18, 2008]Child host: Which of the Palestinian cities is named after the Roman ruler, the Emperor Tiberias? Child: Tiberias.[Israeli city]Child host: Your answer is correct.[PATV (Fatah), Sept. 20, 2008]Child host: Yesterday’s riddle: O bride of Palestine, the most beautiful in the garden, O you who sit on the shore waiting for time to return. Don’t cry, my dear, beautiful daughter of Canaan … And the answer is: Jaffa. [Israeli city – part of Tel Aviv]Child host: Which Palestinian city is called ‘the flower of Galilee’? The possibilities are: Tiberias, Nazareth, Acre.[All are Israeli cities]Answer: Nazareth.PA TV (Fatah) Sept. 15, 2008]PalWatch

Norway Supports the Movements of Suicide Bombers as Does the ICJ Friday, 04 September 2009 05:41 News from Jerusalem Norway against a secure Israel

Norway has declared a boycott of the Israeli company Elbit. This company manufactures monitoring devices installed on the separation fence Israel built in order to impede the movements of suicide bombers into Israel.Norwegian authorities claim that they have acted in accordance with the 2004 International Court of Justice (ICJ) Advisory Opinion, stating that the separation fence represents a breach of international law.In contradiction to international law, scholarly judgment, and common sense, the International Court of Justice handed down an Advisory Opinion that is:So sloppy that it wants the reader to believe that the League of Nations document - the 1922 Mandate for Palestine that laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an entitlement unaltered in international law and valid to this day - was the founding document for Palestinian self-determination. It seems that the members of the Court didn't even bother to read the six-page legally-binding Mandate for Palestine document - A document which the Court considers as one of the justifications to take the case.So biased that it found terrorist activities to be irrelevant to its judicial investigation. The ICJ that cites the Secretary-General's Report as a key document and a major source of information for its opinion, skips the part of the same UN Report that labeled the Palestinian actions terror,clearly stating the cause for building a security barrier.So incompetent that it demonstrates a total disregard of the UN's own legal machinery by arbitrarily treating numerous General Assembly Resolutions and Declarations as a source of law, contradicting the UN Charter and the Court's Statute.

So devious that it erases all history of Arab aggression during the British Mandate period (1922-1948), the 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973 wars, as well as Israel's continuing fight of self-defence against Arab Palestinian terrorism.So manipulative that it denied Israel's rights to battle terrorism as directed by Security Council Resolution 1373 that was adopted under Chapter VII of the UN Charter and required all nations to comply with the terms set forth in Resolutions 1373, 1368, and 1269. The ICJ does not have the authority or the power over the Security Council to alter the resolution or wrongly and illegally exclude Israel, a Member State of the UN, from its rights and obligations under such Security Council Resolutions.

The Advisory Opinion constitutes a profound corruption of its mission and one with seismic implications for the future of international law. It threatens the security of America and its allies on three levels: first, in its groundbreaking attack on the right to self-defence,proscribing an almost blanket prohibition of use of lawful force. Second, it erroneously adopts the exclusive powers granted to the Security Council by the United Nations Charter, a move that will render the Security Council ineffective, and third, in the willingness of the Bench to allow its chambers to become a political instrument and to abandon all semblance of fairness or professionalism, all for political gain.The threats to the free and democratic states, consequently demand a far more serious, systematic and frank response, including a willingness to challenge the competence of this Court. Attempts to shield the International Court of Justice from this disgrace out of concern for its perceived reputation and effectiveness are short-sighted. At all too many junctures it appears that the ICJ's conclusions are based solely on gut feelings and unsubstantiated assumptions - almost taking a leap of faith based on a mixture of personal and collective prejudice and popular opinion.The free and democratic world needs to 'rein in' the appetite of the General Assembly and to demand of the International Court of Justice to step beyond its mandate, and respect and obey international laws as set forth in the United Nations Charter.The International Court of Justice ignored not only its own Statute but also the writings of eminent jurists and academic scholars of international law, members of its own Bench, including a past president of the ICJ, all of whom are uniquely qualified and experienced on the subject at hand. Among them: Professor and Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, past president of the ICJ; Sir Gerald Fitzmaurice, former ICJ judge; Judge Sir Hersch Lauterpacht, a former member judge of the International Court; Judge Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, judge ad hoc of the International Court of Justice; former British Ambassador to the UN, Lord Caradon, principal author of draft Resolution 242; Professor Julius Stone, one of the twentieth century's leading authorities on the Law of Nations; Professor Eugene V. Rostow, dean of the Yale Law School, U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, and a key draftee of UN Resolution 242; Professor and Jurist Arthur J. Goldberg, member of the U.S. Supreme Court, and U.S. Ambassador to the UN in 1967 and a key draftee of Resolution 242; and Professor George P. Fletcher, faculty member of th e Columbia University School of Law, who wrote recently that the use of the phrase illegal occupation is a perilous threat to the diplomatic search for peace.To view the entire critique on line, please go to:
http://www.mythsandfacts.org/ReplyOnlineEdition/index.html

LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)

JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS

Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.

DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

France: No more settlements, or no Mideast peace Thu Sep 3, 4:47 pm ET

PARIS – France's foreign minister says an agreement on freezing Jewish settlements must be reached for international Mideast peace efforts to succeed.Bernard Kouchner and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Thursday in Paris.Asked about the possibility of a new American peace initiative through a meeting of Israel, the Palestinians and the United States, Abbas said any such meeting could only happen after a declaration freezing settlements.Kouchner said if there is no agreement on freezing settlements, a larger peace initiative will be much more difficult, or perhaps even impossible.Kouchner said he has discussed with the Obama administration a French-Egyptian proposal for an international meeting to discuss Mideast peace in the coming months.

Abbas sees Israeli settlement freeze by October Thu Sep 3, 4:34 pm ET

PARIS (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Thursday that he hopes for Israel to agree to a settlement freeze on occupied Palestinian land by the end of September.Concerning the peace process, we reaffirmed that we were entirely disposed to go forward with negotiations for the (Palestinian territories') final status if Israel stops settlement building,Abbas said.This is the main concern of the American administration and of all of our European friends with France leading,he told a press conference alongside French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner as he began a visit to France.I think that we can get a result this month,Abbas said.Between now and the UN General Assembly, we to have found a solution to this problem. Then we will be able to resume peace negotiations,frozen since September 2008.

World leaders will attend the UN General Assembly in New York from September 23.

The thorny issue of settlements on occupied Palestinian land -- which house some half a million Israelis and are considered illegal by the international community -- are among the main obstacles in the peace process.Israel has so far refused to agree to a demand from the United States to freeze all new settlement activity.The Palestinians have refused to resume peace talks until Israel freezes all construction in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, which they want to make the capital of their promised state.Abbas is to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday.

Netanyahu accepts part settlement freeze: report Thu Sep 3, 3:44 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted a partial freeze of nine months on Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank after US pressure, Channel 2 television said Thursday.Without citing sources, the private channel reported that the freeze would affect new construction in settlements in the territory that is already home to 300,000 settlers.It said the 2,500 homes already being built, as well as public buildings and settlements in east Jerusalem, home to 200,000 Israelis, would not be affected.Channel 2 said that in exchange for the move Arab states including Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Tunisia would allow Israeli commercial offices to open on their territory.The channel added that there was no Israel-US deal on what would happen after the nine months.Speaking to AFP, Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev would say only that there had been progress in discussions with US officials on the thorny issue of settlements, a key stumbling block in the deadlocked Middle East peace talks.Official government figures released this week said construction of new homes in settlements in the West Bank dropped in the first half of the year by one-third.The Central Bureau of Statistics said there were 672 new housing starts in Jewish settlements in the West Bank in the first half of 2009, down from 1,015 in the same period last year.

The data which does not include annexed east Jerusalem.

But while the 33 percent dip appears significant, it returns construction levels to about the same pace as 2007 when 713 new housing projects were begun.The Palestinians have refused to resume peace talks until Israel freezes all construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, where they want to make the eastern part of the Holy City the capital of their promised state.In a recent report, the Israeli anti-settlement activist group Ir Amim said that during the first six months of 2009, settlement activity in east Jerusalem increased despite Washington's calls for a freeze.Israel calls Jerusalem its eternal, undivided capital and does not consider construction in the east to be settlements.

Five mortar bombs fired at Israel from Gaza: army Thu Sep 3, 1:31 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Five mortar rounds were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel on Thursday without causing damage or casualties, an Israeli military spokesman said.

Two exploded inside Israeli territory, a third landed near the Karni crossing point into the Palestinian enclave and the other two hit near the border fence on the Palestinian side, he said.Militants also shot at Israeli soldiers protecting people working near the security fence, again without causing casualties, the spokesman said.On one occasion, soldiers returned fire without being able to say if they hit anyone, he added.Israel said the primary aim of its three-week onslaught on Gaza in December and January was to stop rocket and mortar fire from the territory.Operation Cast Lead caused the deaths of more than 1,400 Palestinians and devastated the infrastructure of the impoverished enclave where 1.5 million people live.Gaza has been under the control of the Islamist group Hamas since June, 2007.

Israeli warplanes strike southern Gaza Thu Sep 3, 7:36 pm ET

GAZA CITY (AFP) – Israeli warplanes struck the Gaza Strip early on Friday near the southern city of Khan Yunis, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.The air strike targeted a tunnel under Israel's security barrier that was to be used to infiltrate Palestinian militants, an Israeli military spokeswoman said.Palestinian security officials confirmed the air strike, adding that no one was injured.Five mortar rounds were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel on Thursday without causing damage or casualties, according to the Israeli military.Two exploded inside Israeli territory, a third landed near the Karni crossing point into the Palestinian enclave and the other two hit near the border fence on the Palestinian side, a military spokesman said.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned on several occasions that the Israeli army would respond to each rocket or shell fired into Israel.

According to the army more than 200 rockets and shells have been fired from Gaza since Israel's 22-day offensive against the Hamas rulers of the territory in December and January.Operation Cast Lead, which led to more than 1,400 Palestinian deaths including hundreds of civilians and which devastated swathes of the coastal strip, was officially aimed at ending the firing of rockets from Gaza.

PERSECUSSION,BEHEADINGS

JESUS PERSECUTED BIGTIME

PSALMS 14:1
1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

ISAIAH 53:4
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

MATTHEW 9:34
34 But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.

JOHN 8:41
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

JOHN 10:20
20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?

PHILIPPIANS 2:10-11(JESUS GETS REVENGE)
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.(JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST AND FOR SINNERS, THE GREAT WHITE THRONE FINAL JUDGEMENT).

WE ARE CHRISTIANS WE WILL BE TREATED THE SAME.

2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5 (WHY WE ARE PERSECUTED BY THE WORLD)
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous (DANGEROUS) times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

MATTHEW 5:10-12
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

MATTHEW 24:9
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

JOHN 15:18-20
18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me (JESUS) before it hated you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

REVELATION 6:9-11
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain(BEHEADED) for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

REVELATION 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

STEVENS ANDERSONS CHURCH WEBSITE
http://www.faithfulwordbaptist.org/
http://www.kjvprophecy.com/
CNN TAKES STEVEN ANDERSON OUT OF CONTEXT,CALLS HIM A RACIST
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVwfdaYuy1k
POLICE AGAINST INNOCENT CITIZENS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUzd7G875Hc&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCe0zYqBQ3g&feature=channel
SPEAK TRUTH YOU ARE HATED
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo3o4nfiG7A

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Deadly Jimena claims first victim in Mexico by Leticia Pineda – Thu Sep 3, 6:52 pm ET

PUERTO SAN CARLOS, Mexico (AFP) – Tropical Storm Jimena claimed its first life on Thursday as it lashed Mexico's Baja California with torrential rain and ripped the roofs of houses.A man, who was not immediately identified, was found dead after unsuccessfully trying to ride out the storm in his house in the town of Mulege, half-way up the sparsely populated peninsula.He refused to go to a shelter and then Jimena came through,a Baja California Sur state official told AFP by telephone.There was better news for the family of a fisherman reported missing on Tuesday after he was found alive in a shelter.Sadly I can't say the worst is over yet, as Jimena is still in the north of the state,Social Development Minister Ernesto Cordero said on Mexican television as he surveyed scenes of devastation.Puerto San Carlos, a fishing village, was hit by heavy rain and roaring winds that destroyed dozens of houses, caused power outages and floods and felled trees, poles and billboards.Our house collapsed on top of us, so we ran to our neighbors and another family showed up too and then that house lost its roof, so all of us -- eight kids and six adults -- squeezed into a car which is where we spent the worst part of the storm,Leonardo Hernandez told AFP.Streets turned to mud as bowed lamp posts dangled over rain-lashed roads littered with trees uprooted by the huge gusts of wind.

Five fishing boats anchored at the port sank under the heavy ocean swells.

Seventy-five percent of homes have been affected,said Puerto San Carlos official Humberto Arias. Power was out in many parts of the state including the towns of Comondu and Loreto, the authorities said.Jimena was a Category Four hurricane -- the most powerful of 2009 -- shortly before making landfall on Wednesday, weakening to a tropical storm on Thursday, but heavy rains were falling and winds were still gusting above 40 miles per hour (65 kilometers per hour).Jimena is expected to produce additional rain accumulations of four to six inches over portions of western Mexico,said the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).Isolate maximum storm-total amounts of 15 inches (38 centimeters) are possible in association with Jimena. These rains could produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides.Luxury tourist resorts on the southern tip of the peninsula were spared a direct hit and most foreigners departed before Jimena struck.In a sign of a gradual return to normal in southern Baja California, shops began to reopen in the tourist hub of Los Cabos and people could be seen strolling through the streets.Two of the three international airports in Baja California Sur also reopened, state officials said.

More than 15,000 families had been evacuated from high-risk zones and thousands of tourists deserted the resorts as Jimena barreled in from the Pacific.Los Cabos felt the pinch after a major international tax conference organized by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had to be moved to Mexico City because of the storm. The Mariner of the Seas cruise ship -- the second-largest in the world with some 5,000 passengers aboard -- also canceled a scheduled stop in the resort.Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Erika, which formed in the Atlantic Tuesday, weakened to a depression as it headed toward the Antilles, with the National Hurricane Center discontinuing all warnings about the one-time storm. Still, the remnants of Erika were expected to cause gusts of 35 miles (55 kilometers) per hour around as it headed for Puerto Rico and on to the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Tropical storm heads toward Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico AccuWeather Thu Sep 3, 9:46 am ET

MIAMI (AFP) – Tropical Storm Erika was expected to pass over the Lesser Antilles Thursday and bear down on Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with winds of 40 miles (65 kilometers) per hour, the National Hurricane Center said.The center described the storm as disorganized and said gradual weakening is likely during the next couple of days.The weather associated with Erika will continue to move through the Leeward Islands this morning and approach the US and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico later today,the center said.At 1200 GMT, the storm was about 40 miles (60 kilometers) southwest of St Kitts and about 220 miles (350 kilometers) east southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico.It was moving west northwest at a speed of seven miles (11 kilometers) per hour, the center said.Maximum sustained winds are near 40 miles (65 kilometers) per hour with higher gusts,the center said.

Floods spread misery in poor suburb of Sudan's capital by Guillaume Lavallee – Thu Sep 3, 12:39 pm ET

KHARTOUM (AFP) – The rains have completely destroyed my house,said Jaafar Beshir, his feet drenched by a river of mud, just one of thousands of residents of a Khartoum suburb forced out by violent storms.I built this little mud wall to protect us from the floods in the roads,said the young father of five, who comes from the Nuba mountains in central Sudan and today lives in the impoverished neighbourhood of Soba Aradi.Christians, Muslims, southerners, Darfuris, merchants and servicemen from the four corners of the vast African country all live in the suburb dotted with mudbrick houses, without proper sanitation, running water or electricity.The rainy season brought with it a host of problems for the capital, which sits at the junction of the White Nile and the Blue Nile, with poor areas of Khartoum hardest hit.The downpours -- the heaviest in decades -- transformed roads into rivers, gouged craters from the rare stretches of tarmac, severed roads and flattened thousands of homes.The roof of my house caved in after only 30 minutes of rain, said Mustafa, who was forced to put together a makeshift wooden shelter until he can rebuild the parts of his modest home that were destroyed.Some 21,000 families have had their homes totally or partly destroyed,said Khalil Samani, an official with the Sudanese Red Crescent.

But government officials dispute these figures.

There are no more than 4,000 houses destroyed,Hassan Abdallah, minister of infrastructure for Khartoum state, told AFP.Samani fears the sanitary situation will become even worse.There is a lack of drinking water for those families affected, he said.Residents of Khartoum's poor districts who buy their drinking water from sellers who operate using donkey carts complain of the increased cost since the floods, which have made water deliveries more difficult.In several areas of the capital there is no sewerage system, and waste is mixed with rain water, increasing the chances of infection and diarrhoea.Several days since the most recent rains, roads in the Jabal Awliyya, Assalama, Soba, and Soba Aradi neighbourhoods as well as some areas of the capital's twin city of Omdurman are still inundated with swampy water.See the houses that are destroyed over there? People have left. They may come back in two weeks,said Mahmud, pointing to the flooded part of Soba Aradi, an illegal area of Khartoum the authorities sought to redevelop in 2005, sparking violent clashes between police and residents.The government of the State of Khartoum has announced school closures because of the rains and has also promised aid to the victims, but scepticism about help remains high.I can only count on myself to fix the damage,said Insaf, a teacher in a kindergarten which was damaged in the storms.

FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS

REVELATION 8:7
7 The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

FED AT FAULT FOR LA FIRES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0HrDyd4w38&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5V-2Xhz1uo&feature=player_embedded

California wildfire declared arson, homicide Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:40pm EDT
By Dan Whitcomb and Steve Gorman


LOS ANGELES, Sept 3 (Reuters) - A huge wildfire burning in the mountains above Los Angeles, now the largest ever in the county, was started by arson and will be investigated as a homicide, authorities said on Thursday.The so-called Station Fire has killed two firefighters, destroyed 64 homes and torched an area the size of Chicago in the nine days it has roared across the rugged San Gabriel Mountains overlooking Los Angeles.After a forensic examination at the point of origin, arson investigators have concluded that the Station Fire was the result of an act of arson,U.S. Forest Service Commander Rita Wears said.The deaths of Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Ted Hall and firefighter Arnaldo Quinones, who were killed when their vehicle plunged 800 feet (244 metres) from a road, made the case a homicide, Wears said.Authorities did not offer details about how the fire was started but an area near the city of La Canada-Flintridge, north of Los Angeles, has been cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape since Wednesday.

It was not clear if any suspects had been identified.

As of Thursday evening, the Station Fire had blackened 145,000 acres (59,000 hectares), or about 226 square miles (585 sq km), making it the largest wildfire recorded in Los Angeles county. It could ultimately become one of the top 10 in state history, in terms of size.Authorities estimated containment of the massive conflagration at 38 percent, up from 28 percent a day earlier, according to fire commander Mike Dietrich, who said his force of more than 4,700 firefighters was making great progress.By Wednesday night, the all-clear had been given for the last of 6,400 evacuated households to return home.But a flare-up in one canyon early on Thursday led officials to order a small cluster of homes evacuated, and crews were concentrating their attack on the southeastern flank of the blaze to prevent flames from spreading.One town on the fire's southeastern fringe is Pasadena, known for its annual New Year's Day Rose Bowl college football game and Tournament of Roses Parade. Fire commanders planned to brief residents in a meeting Thursday night.Fire commanders said Mount Wilson, an observatory and telecommunications and broadcasting hub, would be spared.The Station Fire has cost $21 million so far to fight, making it the most expensive of several California wildfires in recent weeks that already have depleted the cash-strapped state's emergency firefighting budget by more than half.Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has insisted the state has plenty of resources at its disposal for such emergencies. (Editing by Doina Chiacu)

DISEASES

REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS

REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.

REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries (DRUGS), nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Healthy People Taking Antibiotics May Spread Superbug Infection
S. L. Baker Natural News September 3, 2009


Clostridium difficile, usually known as simply C. difficile, is a bacterium that spreads by bacterial spores. And a new study raises the disturbing possibility that antibiotics taken by people who aren’t even ill from these bacteria can spur the germ into becoming a kind of bacterial spore spewing mega factory. So why is this concerning? It’s true that C. difficile can exist in the human body and never make you sick. But it can also cause serious illness and even be fatal — and incidences are of the infection are increasing. What’s more, strains of the bacteria are showing signs of becoming a serious drug-resistant superbug infection.

C. difficile can cause illness when the germ grows out-of-control after a person takes antibiotics.

C. difficile can cause illness when the germ grows out-of-control after a person takes antibiotics, especially fluoroquinolones, cephalosporins, clindamycin and penicillins. By killing off the normal body flora that should keep C. difficile in check, antibiotics can cause the bacteria to proliferate wildly and, when this happens, the bacteria produce toxins that attack the lining of the intestine. The result can be diarrhea, colitis and even death.Although people who are elderly and already sick may succumb to C. difficile, just stopping antibiotics can help most people recover from the infection and taking probiotics can facilitate healing and restoring the body to normalcy, too. Ironically, however, in hopes of destroying the bacteria doctors often treat C. difficile with even more antibiotics, specifically heavy duty, side-effects heavy metronidazole (Flagyl) and vancomycin.But these super powerful take-no-prisoners kind of antibiotics aren’t always able to zap C. difficile any more. According to the Mayo Clinic, an aggressive strain of the bacteria has emerged that produces far more deadly toxins than ever before. And this new strain has taken on characteristics of a superbug by showing resistance to antibiotics. Now research just published in the journal Infection and Immunity suggests that antibiotic treatment could be asymptomatically causing the transmission of huge numbers of C. difficile spores and contributing to the outbreaks that have recently been widely reported in hospitals and other environments.

Humans shed spores of this bacteria in their feces and these spores can survive dormant in the environment for long periods of time, under harsh conditions and in temperatures up to 70 degrees C. A new human host is infected when he or she happens to touch a surface contaminated with the spores and then touches and eats food or touches their lips.Currently, healthcare professionals attempt to keep the threat of C. difficile under control by hand washing and by isolating patients who exhibit the symptoms of infection such as fever and diarrhea. But the new study suggests infection control in hospitals should include all patients receiving antibiotic treatment because these drugs could be causing even people with no symptoms of C. difficile infection to transmit large numbers of the bacteria’s spores.C. difficile is a highly resistant and highly infectious pathogen and resistant to many front line antibiotics,explained Dr Trevor Lawley, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute researcher and lead author on the study, in a statement to the press. Until now, animal studies have focused on the observable, acute symptoms of C. difficile. But, to understand how this highly infectious pathogen spreads, investigating the entire cycle of transmission is absolutely vital. We looked at mice carrying C. difficile and observed that they shed low levels of spores and, crucially, they did not infect other mice.The scientists treated mice with antibiotics and the balance of the microbial ecosystem inside the animals was thrown out of whack. Because C. difficile is now resistant to many antibiotics, the bacteria thrived, increased and dominated the microbiota of the mice — the same scenario that can happen in people.The research team saw a dramatic rise in the levels of spores shed in the mice treated with antibiotics. The scientists have labeled the phenomenon a supershedder state which causes an increase in the transmission of C. difficile even in the absence of clinical symptoms. And the research raises the possibility that even after stopping antibiotics, the supershedder state could remain for some time.We treated mice with short and longer courses of antibiotics,says Professor Gordon Dougan, Head of Pathogen Genetics at the Sanger Institute and senior author on the study.After a short course most mice had dropped back to normal spore shedding levels around two weeks after cessation of the treatment. But after long term exposure to antibiotics some of the mice remained in their supershedder state for weeks or even longer after treatment was stopped. We should consider that patients still pose a considerable transmission threat some weeks after treatment is terminated even if they have not exhibited signs of C. difficile disease.The scientists also found that there was a considerable threat from environmental contamination from even short-term housing of supershedder mice. That suggests that even a brief environmental contamination with these high levels of spores is a potential infection threat.C. difficile is a high-profile and rapidly emerging pathogen and is responsible for the death of a patient every hour in our hospitals — but its biology and transmission are so far poorly understood, says Brendan Wren, Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases.At last we can monitor the transmission of this major pathogen using a tractable model system. This will be invaluable in determining the role of spore formation in transmission and how and why some C. difficile strains are more virulent and transmissible than others.The scientists also used their study to test disinfectants commonly used in hospitals to see if they really work at controlling C. difficile infection. Alcohol-based disinfectants were found to not work at all in preventing transmission. Instead, it took a 20 minute treatment with a strong spore-killing agent to reduce environmental C. difficile spore contamination enough to eliminate transmission of the germs. Bottom line: the standard methods used in hospitals to supposedly protect patients, visitors and healthcare personal from exposure to C. difficile are probably useless.This research has far reaching implications for treatment and infection control of a pathogen that is increasingly raising alarm among the global healthcare community,Cambridge microbiologist Fiona Cooke stated in the media release. She explained that the research provides a better understanding of the interactions between C. difficile, the intestinal microbiota and the immune system of the host.This opens up numerous opportunities including the development of new probiotic approaches, which could restore the balance of the intestinal microbiota and promote health,she said.

Study: New treatment may combat drug-resistant flu By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer – Thu Sep 3, 7:01 pm ET

LONDON – A new and unlicensed treatment for swine flu could be used in patients who have Tamiflu-resistant viruses, doctors say.In an article published Friday in the medical journal Lancet, British doctors describe how they used an intravenous form of the antiviral Relenza to treat a 22-year-old woman who had a severe case of swine flu. Relenza is usually inhaled via the nose, and is not licensed to be given intravenously.The woman had recently undergone chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease. After catching swine flu, her lungs filled with fluid and she was put on a ventilator to help her breathe. Despite days of being given Tamiflu, inhalable Relenza, and other medicines, the patient deteriorated.So her doctors decided to try a different way of getting the drug into her body, since her lungs weren't able to absorb the antivirals the usual way. After getting permission from her family and a hospital committee, they gave her an unlicensed, intravenous form of the antiviral zanamivir, or Relenza, provided by its maker, GlaxoSmithKline PLC. The patient recovered soon afterward, with no reported side effects.This may provide a third route to treat patients that are not responding to antiviral treatment because the active drug is not getting to the lungs,said Michael Kidd, of University College London, and the lead author of the study.Although we now know our patient did not have Tamiflu-resistant virus, the intravenous zanamivir could potentially be used to treat such a case,Kidd said.

The World Health Organization said the treatment was likely to be used only in rare circumstances, since it is not easily available and is unlicensed. But in patients with weak immune systems — like those who have had chemotherapy or have diseases like HIV — the treatment may be useful since they are at high risk of developing drug-resistant viruses.To change the antiviral being used is therefore a logical option in those cases,said Gregory Hartl, a WHO spokesman. Tamiflu is usually the first treatment for swine flu, though Relenza is occasionally used.Only a handful of Tamiflu-resistant swine flu viruses have been picked up so far, but the virus could mutate into a resistant form the more it spreads. Widespread Tamiflu resistance has been seen in a seasonal strain of H1N1, distantly related to swine flu.Countries which give out Tamiflu liberally, like Britain, might also speed up the emergence of resistant viruses.Contrary to WHO recommendations, which suggests Tamiflu be saved for vulnerable groups like pregnant women and children, Britain gives out Tamiflu to anyone thought to have the virus.Call center workers without any medical training at its national flu hot line gave out tens of thousands of doses of the drugs to otherwise healthy people who had swine flu this summer.Kidd said the intravenous Relenza might also be useful to treat other severely ill patients with flu, and could potentially shorten their stay in the hospital. That might relieve the anticipated crush on hospital beds in the coming winter season, when swine flu is expected to rebound.

A similar case of using Relenza intravenously was reported in Australia in a patient who also survived a serious bout of swine flu.Countries in the northern hemisphere are now making last-minute preparations for the imminent flu season, since a vaccine is not expected to be available before mid-October at the earliest.Even though the swine flu virus is mild, the numbers of people who catch the virus — WHO has estimated 2 billion people worldwide could be infected — could overwhelm health systems.On the Net:http://www.lancet.com

Chile ditches 90K turkey eggs in swine flu measure SEPT 3,09

SANTIAGO, Chile – Chilean authorities say they have destroyed 90,000 turkey eggs since swine flu was detected in the birds two weeks ago.Victor Venegas, director of the Agriculture and Livestock Service, said Thursday the outbreak in turkeys has been contained, but a quarantine will remain in place for two more weeks.Swine flu was detected last month on two private turkey farms. Tests showed it was the same virus that affects humans, rather than a deadlier strain.World health authorities worry a more dangerous and easily transmitted strain could emerge if it combines again with avian flu, which is far more deadly but tougher to pass along.The Health Ministry says swine flu has killed 130 people and infected more than 12,000 in Chile.

CONSPIRACY THEORISTS?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzNJrSGxJtE&feature=player_embedded

Forget Van Jones, The Majority Of Americans Question 9/11
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Friday, September 4, 2009


Controversial Fox News television host Glenn Beck along with a host of other establishment talking heads are again attempting to create the perception that questioning the official story behind 9/11 is a fringe belief, when in fact numerous polls show that the majority of Americans have questions about the attacks as the tragedy approaches its eighth anniversary.Citing the fact that Obama’s green jobs czar Van Jones, who is increasingly and justifiably coming under fire from conservatives in light of his Communist rhetoric and his socialist ideals, signed a petition in 2004 calling for a proper investigation into whether the U.S. government allowed 9/11 to happen, Beck and others have used the 9/11 truther label as a smear with which to further attack Van Jones’ credibility.During his show yesterday, Beck tied Van Jones’ advocacy for 9/11 truth to his radical, progressive and Communist nonsense and implied that questions about 9/11 truth were held only by a small minority of mainly leftist Hollywood personalities.However, despite efforts to portray people with questions about 9/11 as some kind of lunatic fringe minority, numerous polls in the years since the attacks manifestly prove that a majority of Americans share doubts and questions about the 9/11 attacks. Those people include former presidents and respected intelligence veterans, not merely leftist progressives as Beck insinuates.The Parliament of Japan, the former President of Italy, and widely-respected CIA veteran Robert Baer have all questioned the official story behind 9/11.Since the attacks, a top former member of Tony Blair’s cabinet, Germany’s Secretary of Defense and the founder of Reagonomics have all slammed the official story – along with a cacophony of former government, military, intelligence and political professionals.

In addition, the majority of victim’s family members doubt the official story and have been pushing for a new investigation for years – as attested to by Bill Doyle, head of the largest victim’s family support group.An October 2006 New York Times/CBS poll found that a paltry 16% of Americans thought the government was telling the truth about 9/11 and the intelligence prior to the attacks, meaning 84% doubted the accuracy of the official story.A May 2006 Zogby poll found that over 70 million Americans supported a new investigation into 9/11 and less than half of the American public trusted the official 9/11 story or believed the attacks were adequately investigated. The figure supporting a new investigation rose to 51% of Americans in a September 2007 poll.In addition, the same poll found that 67% also faulted the 9/11 Commission for not investigating anomalous collapse of World Trade Center 7.As far back as August 2004, another Zogby poll established the fact that half of New Yorkers believe there was government complicity in 9/11.Van Jones has since recanted and stated that he does not agree with the petition to which he signed his name in an attempt to diffuse the controversy. However, millions of Americans across the country, a majority of people, still have unanswered questions about 9/11 that won’t be buried by the establishment’s attempt to link 9/11 truth with the increasingly discredited figure of Van Jones.

Why Psychologists Are Infinitely More Dangerous Than Conspiracy Theorists
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Thursday, September 3, 2009


According to a Psychology Today hit piece written by psychologist John Gartner, people prone to thinking that powerful men might actually get together and plan to maintain and advance their power are borderline psychotics who are a danger to society. In reality, hundreds of years of history has taught us that psychologists routinely aid authoritarian regimes in enforcing tyrannical and inhumane policies while helping them crush political opposition by defining suspicion of authorities as a mental illness.As we highlighted in our article yesterday, psychologists in the Soviet Union were used to stifle free speech by classifying skepticism and political opposition to the state as a mental illness, which is precisely the implication littered throughout Gartner’s crass hit piece.In the former Soviet Union, psikhushkas — mental hospitals — were used by the state as prisons in order to isolate political prisoners, discredit their ideas, and break them physically and mentally. The Soviet state began using mental hospitals to punish dissidents in 1939 under Stalin.According to official Soviet psychiatry and the Moscow Serbsky Institute at the time, ideas about a struggle for truth and justice are formed by personalities with a paranoid structure.Treatment for this special political schizophrenia included various forms of restraint, electric shocks, electromagnetic torture, radiation torture, lumbar punctures, various drugs — such as narcotics, tranquilizers, and insulin — and beatings. Anne Applebaum, author of Gulag: A History, indicates that at least 365 sane people were treated for politically defined madness,although she surmises there were many more.The profession of psychology blossoms under tyrannical regimes, as is explored in Ulfried Geuter’s The Professionalization of Psychology in Nazi Germany. Under Hitler’s Third Reich, the relationship between the ruling Nazi thugs and psychologists was close and mutually beneficial. People like Nazi psychologist Robert Ritter, Ph. D. (pictured top) were instrumental in persecuting minorities and enforcing eugenicist policies of genocide.

From Nazi Germany, South Africa, Russia and the former Yugoslavia, to Iraq today, psychiatry has been and/or remains a key player. In fact, the marriage between authoritarian government and psychiatry is as old as psychiatry itself,writes Jan Eastgate, International President, Citizens Commission on Human Rights,In the 1800s, Germany’s militaristic Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, utilized psychiatry to influence and control whole populations in order to fulfill his dreams of conquest through war.In his book Dangerous Minds: Political Psychiatry in China Today and Its Origins in the Mao Era, praised as eloquent and convincing in a New York Times Review of Books piece, author Robert Munro exposes how psychiatrists and psychologists continue to be at the forefront of the brutal Communist Chinese system of ascribing mental illnesses to those who express even mildly negative political opinions towards the ruling Party.The book reveals how,From the 1950s onward not only Chinese dissidents but people who submitted petitions to the authorities have been detained by the police, examined by psychiatrists, and found to be criminally insane—or, if found mentally normal,designated as criminals to be cast into the prison system.An official Chinese police designation for those worthy of psychiatric custody cited by Munro lists people who write anti-government letters, make anti-government speeches or those who merely express opinions on important domestic and international affairs that could be considered anti-government.But the use of psychologists in the pursuit of inhumane policies is not just resigned to tyrannical regimes of the first half of the 20th century.Recent revelations surrounding the torture scandal highlight the role of psychologists in what the Physicians for Human Rights organization alleges amounted to unlawful human experimentation and torture on inmates at Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and other U.S. detention sites.

PHR says health professionals participated at every stage in the development, implementation and legal justification of what it calls the CIA’s secret torture programme,reports the London Guardian.Doctors and psychologists actively monitored CIA torture techniques and helped evaluate their effectiveness, a violation of core ethical values according to the American Medical Association and a flagrant abuse of the 1947 Nuremberg Code, which forbids experimentation on humans without their consent.The CIA’s close relationship with psychologists and psychiatrists in conducting illegal torture programs stretches back decades.Historian Alfred W. McCoy has shed light in this area in his recent book A Question of Torture and in numerous articles and interviews,writes Stephen Soldz.He documents the decades-long CIA effort to utilized psychological expertise to develop forms of torture that could break down the personality of detainees, rendering them, it was hoped, incapable of withholding desired information. Many of these technique were utilized during the Vietnam conflict and in the various brutal U.S.-supported counterinsurgency campaigns in Latin American in the 1970s and 1980s.While Psychology Today’s John Gartner cites a single example of a conspiracy theorist who voiced support for Alex Jones entering Bohemian Grove armed with guns, and uses it to make the implication that conspiracy thinking is a major threat to society, documented history stretching back hundreds of years shows that psychologists, and particularly their tactic of classifying suspicion of authorities and conspiracy thinking as a mental illness, have played a key role in preserving the power of dictatorial elites and helping them to carry out inhumane practices while crushing free speech and legitimate political opposition.

8/28/2009 11:45:00 AM Preparing for a riot-Area agencies receive crowd-control training MARCIAL GUAJARDO Managing Editor

Like Star Wars stormtroopers, police officers and sheriff's deputies wielding batons and face-shielded helmets on order march tightly bunched together up the steps to the bleachers at Round Rock ISD Athletic Complex Thursday.With boots, protective vests and shin guards, the group might be viewed by some as an intimidating force, akin to an experienced varsity football squad entering the stadium.But seconds later it is the group in the stands that becomes the intimidator. Wearing only casual clothes, the group - largely consisting of males - whoops, yells, hops and gestures obscenely at the officers. Instead of batons, they carry whatever they can get a hold of - mostly plastic water bottles and even an empty cardboard box - but they seem emboldened by the riot squad's mere attention to them. Minutes later, though, the confrontation ends with a few arrests and injuries, though of the faux kind. Water bottles had bounced off face shields, spraying everywhere, and in retaliation, imitation pepper spray was administered. Some pushing also followed, but only occasionally as the group of sports fans retreated backwards. The event was real but only a training exercise for members of the Round Rock Police Department, Williamson County Sheriff's Office and 23 other public safety agencies in a 10-county Central Texas region.Organized by the Capital Area Council of Governments's Homeland Security training division, the event is believed to have been the largest such regional training exercise of its kind in Central Texas.Other scenarios are planned, but Thursday's exercise focused on a sporting event that got out of control, said Lt. Mike Gleason of the Williamson County Sheriff's Office.and when the order is given to disperse, there's always one or two that want to stay around and see what they can get away with, Gleason explained. We just wanted to see if we in any part of the region would be able to control something like that. Not any one agency is going to be prepared to handle this all by themselves.

The riot squad acting in Thursday's scenario consisted not of a specialized team formed for such action, but of officers from different departments put together on the fly to simulate real-world scenarios. CAPCOG member agencies had been previously instructed to purchase certain gear - largely so team members would be similarly armed and protected - but other than that, officers came in knowing little about the scenario they would be acting on.The officers that are coming in responding to the crowd don't know what is going to happen,said Austin Police Cpl. Scott Perry, They don't know that four people will need to be arrested. So we are trying to make it as real as possible.The message we're trying to send is can anyone in a 10-county region, when your pager goes off, show up to an incident blind, and can you work together? Can you talk together, can you work for a supervisor you never met? And while Thursday's action at times appeared chaotic, officers came in with one purpose: get the rioters to leave. We just want them to go,said Perry, noting situations often call for the removal of a lead agitator or agitators to assist in defusing the situation. And while officers outnumbered rioters Thursday - 50 officers to about 40 rioters - the scenario was similar to situations that might be encountered during run-ins with large-scale crowds, such as those at college football games, said Perry.We've actually dealt with situations where we've had a riotious crowd before,Perry said.What we've known from other cities is there may be 500 people up there, but only a couple hundred causing the ruckus. That's probably about the same amount we would encounter if we came to a football game, soccer match or whatever the event may be.CAPCOG plans to address other situations - natural disasters and civil unrest - in training in the future. Future drills are meant to test the region's ability to respond to incidents such as hurricanes, wild fires, flooding and mass evacuations.

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/
CNBC VIDEOS
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15839263/site/14081545/?tabid=15839796&tabheader=false

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS FRI SEPTEMBER 04,2009

09:30 AM +5.29
10:00 AM -1.29
10:30 AM +22.79
11:00 AM +29.29
11:30 AM +12.84
12:00 PM +38.99
12:30 PM +88.87
01:00 PM +78.14
01:30 PM +97.26
02:00 PM +76.44
02:30 PM +64.01
03:00 PM +88.57
03:30 PM +74.74
04:00 PM +96.66 9441.27

S&P 500 1016.40 +13.16

NASDAQ 2018.78 +35.58

GOLD 996.10 -1.60

OIL 67.79 -0.17

TSE 300 11,017.47 +95.98

CDNX 1229.25 +13.74

S&P/TSX/60 661.73 +5.84

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +6.47%
S&P +11.07%
Nasdaq +25.76%
TSX Advances 963,declines 514,unchanged 243,Volume 546,988,537.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 537,Declines 317,Unchanged 343,Volume 227,338,216.

Dow +7 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -24 points at low today.
Dow +88 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $991.50.OIL opens at $67.58 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -24 points at low today so far.
Dow +88 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 1,595,declines 1,297,unchanged 114,New Highs 73,New Lows 20.
Volume 1,774,730,300.
NASDAQ Advances 1,225,declines 1,251,unchanged 145,New highs 15,New Lows 06.
Volume 594,989,404.
TSX Advances 631,declines 567,unchanged 230,Volume 185,537,355.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 316,Declines 276,Unchanged 256,Volume 80,127,469.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -24 points at low today.
Dow +100 points at high today.
Dow +1.03% today Volume 152,399,156.
Nasdaq +1.79% today Volume 1,657,765,638.
S&P 500 +1.31% today Volume N/A

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow +7.58%
S&P +12.53%
Nasdaq +28.01%
TSX Advances 893,declines 557,unchanged 246,Volume 412,849,134.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 499,Declines 370,Unchanged 318,Volume 176,393,198.

IS PLATINUM HOT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUbiV-47oCg&feature=player_embedded

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009 China Set to Buy $50 Billion in IMF Notes By MEENA THIRUVENGADAM

WASHINGTON -- China is on track to become the first purchaser of notes issued by the International Monetary Fund, a move that would diversify its foreign asset holdings and could give the IMF's quasi-currency more clout.The IMF on Wednesday said China has signed an agreement to purchase approximately $50 billion in notes from the fund. The notes are denominated in Special Drawing Rights, a quasi-currency issued by the fund and promoted by China as a potential replacement for the dollar as the world's reserve currency.The agreement is the first of its kind for the fund and marks China's most visible step toward shifting its investment focus away from the U.S. Treasurys market.The symbolism is very important here. It is no longer the U.S. dollar alone that the Chinese have access to, said Eswar Prasad, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former head of the IMF's China division.Countries including Brazil, Russia and India also have expressed interest in purchasing IMF notes, whose issuance is meant to bolster the fund's lending capacity and help fulfill a Group of 20 pledge to strengthen the Fund's own capital position.

Still, For China this is particularly significant in the context of their strong desire to have an alternative to the dollar for parking their reserves,Mr. Prasad said. Having a large stock of IMF bonds in circulation that are denominated in SDRs is definitely going to give a boost to the Chinese proposal of increasing the importance of the SDR.But with a limited market for IMF notes, Eurasia Group Associate Nicholas Consonery doesn't expect the agreement will spur sharp declines in China's purchases of Treasury securities.At the margin they are trying to make efforts to diversity future asset purchases, but we have no expectation that this, in any immediate sense, will present a real viable alternative for China,he said.

China in June held more than $776 billion worth of U.S. Treasury securities, several times the total amount of notes the IMF is expected to issue. China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury Securities.While Mr. Prasad expects the agreement won't have a significant short-term impact on the U.S. dollar, he notes the situation could change in the longer-term.It is no longer a pipe dream for the SDR to become a serious reserve currency,he said.A Treasury spokesman had no comment.
Write to Meena Thiruvengadam at meena.thiruvengadam@dowjones.com Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page C9

U.S. stocks rise on data, gold gains as hedge
Thu Sep 3, 2009 5:05pm EDT By Herbert Lash


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Thursday after better-than-expected retail sales in August spurred optimism, but gold climbed to almost $1,000 an ounce in a sign of lingering risk aversion and fear of future inflation.Crude oil slipped, settling just under $68 a barrel, as disappointing news from the labor market outweighed upbeat data showing that the U.S. service sector and retail sales improved.The yen fell from a seven-week high against the U.S. dollar and declined versus other major currencies as a bearish tone earlier this week in world stock markets eased and reduced the Japanese currency's safe-haven allure.U.S. government debt prices fell, pulling benchmark yields back from seven-week lows, amid nervousness ahead of a key U.S. employment report on Friday.U.S. stocks ended up, snapping a four-day losing streak in a strong late-day rally. Investors saw signs of recovery in Thursday's data despite an unexpected rise in initial claims for jobless benefits, and survey results showing the U.S. non-manufacturing sector was still contracting in August.U.S. retail sales in August on average fell 2.9 percent from a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters. That was better than the 3.8 percent decline analysts expected and the best performance since April.

It's the belief the economy is in the recovery stage. What's rallying today are things associated with economic growth,said Owen Fitzpatrick, head of U.S. Equity Group, Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management.The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI closed up 63.94 points, or 0.69 percent, at 9,344.61. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX rose 8.49 points, or 0.85 percent, at 1,003.24. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC gained 16.13 points, or 0.82 percent, at 1,983.20.But worries among some investors that the U.S. payrolls data may disappoint also sparked a flight to quality.Spot gold hit a peak of $997.20 an ounce, as shares of gold and silver miners rose as a hedge against uncertainties over the strength of recovery and inflation. The gold bugs index .HUI gained 5.8 percent.U.S. crude prices for October delivery settled at $67.96 a barrel, down 9 cents, after reaching a high of $69.40 on U.S. stock gains and a weaker dollar earlier.London Brent crude settled at $67.12 a barrel, down 54 cents.Shares in Canada's Barrick Gold(ABX.N), the world's largest gold producer, rose 4.3 percent, while Denver-based Newmont Mining's (NEM.N) stock gained 4.5 percent.Widening government deficits across the globe, a weak dollar and rising inflation concerns have made gold a safe-haven, said Tom Sowanick, chief investment officer at Clearbrook Partners in Princeton, New Jersey.A lift to gold prices also has been sparked by commodity trading advisers who are piling on because they are trend followers,Sowanick said.Investors were unsettled by signs of faster inflation. The Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing index for August on Thursday showed the prices component jumped to a reading of 63.1 from 41.3 in July, while ISM's manufacturing activity report on Tuesday showed prices rose to 65 from 55.

Copper rose, helped by a strong rally in the precious metals complex.U.S. Treasuries prices slipped, pulling benchmark yields off seven-week lows, on hints of stock market stability and on nervousness ahead of a key employment report.The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was down 10/32 in price to yield 3.34 percent.European shares ended lower for a fourth consecutive session on Thursday, with weaker energy and pharmaceutical stocks outpacing gains made by financial and mining equities.The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares closed 0.06 percent lower at 949.82 points.The dollar rose 0.5 percent to 92.62 yen, after falling as low as 91.92 yen, according to Reuters data, its lowest since July 13.The euro was little changed at $1.4254, off a session peak of $1.4348. The yen also fell against other major rivals, with the euro up 0.4 percent.Asian shares rose as a surge in the volatile Shanghai market helped underpin indexes around the region, lifting the MSCI index of Asia shares traded outside Japan 0.8 percent .MIAPJ0000PUS. Japan's Nikkei share average .N225 fell 0.6 percent.(Reporting by Angela Moon, Nick Olivari, Rebekah Kebede and Ellen Freilich in New York; Atul Prakash and Jessica Mortimer in London; writing by Herbert Lash, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Trading Day: TSX rises on gold rally By Gregory Thomas, Vancouver SunSeptember 2, 2009

Canadian stock markets closed higher Wednesday as a sudden surge in the price of gold propelled the S&P/TSX global gold index to a 10-per-cent single-day gain, enough of a bump to overcome a slump in energy, financials, utilities and real estate stocks.The December gold contract jumped $22, or 2.3 per cent, to $978.50 US an ounce, its biggest bounce in five months. December silver added 30.5 cents, or two per cent, to $15.365 US, its highest level in nearly three months. Gold stocks shot higher, with Barrick Gold, the world’s largest producer, climbing $3.29, or 8.5 per cent, to 41.93, Vancouver-based Goldcorp rising $3.91, or 9.8 per cent, to $43.86, Agnico Eagle gaining $6.83, or 11 per cent, to $69.15, and Kinross finishing up $2.20, or 11 per cent, at $22.90. Among juniors, New Gold rose 36 cents, or ten per cent, to $3.93, Gammon Gold added 89 cents, or 12.5 per cent, to $8.00, and Evolving Gold jumped 20 cents, or 14 per cent, to $1.60.Vancouver-based Pan American Silver, the biggest silver producer, climbed $2.28, or 12 per cent, to $20.91. Silver Wheaton rose $1.13, or 10 per cent, to $11.98, and Silver Standard Resources finished the day with a gain of $1.54, or eight per cent, to $20.61.The S&P/TSX Composite index finished higher by 11.54 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 10,701.32. Earlier in the session, the senior Canadian benchmark dropped as many as 55 points, bringing the week’s point drop to over 300. Bank stocks continued to weaken. TD Bank shed $1.74, or 2.6 per cent, to $64.30, CIBC fell $1.07, or 1.8 per cent, to $60.22, and Manulife Financial gave up 58 cents, or 2.7 per cent, to $21.12. The S&P/TSX Venture composite climbed 21.65, or 1.9 per cent, to 1,184.89.

Canadian energy stocks dropped 1.1 per cent as crude oil held at $68.05 US a barrel. Natural gas declined by 10.6 cents, or four per cent, to $2.715 US per million Btu, after touching $2.692 US, the lowest price in seven years. British energy giant BP shares rose $2.06, or four per cent, to $52.53 US after the company struck oil ten kilometres beneath the Gulf of Mexico. BP said the Tiber discovery, 400 kilometres southeast of Houston, Texas, could contain as many as three billion barrels of oil, with recoverable reserves ranging from 600 million to 900 million barrels.Shares of MDS shot up $1.94, or 30 per cent to $8.36 after the Canadian medical services provider agreed to sell its Analytical Technologies division to U.S. life sciences giant Danaher for $650 million. The company plans to spend between $400 million and $450 million to buy back its shares. In 2006, MDS sold its medical testing labs to a private equity company controlled by the Ontario municipal employee pension plan for $1.3 billion, triggering an earlier $500-million share buyback. MDS is also looking for a buyer for its contract research divsin, MDS Pharma Services. The company plans to keep is MDS Nordion, division, maker of half the world’s medical isotopes. Nordion has struggled to deal with the extended shutdown of its main supplier, the Chalk River nuclear reactor in Ontario, after a heavy water leak.Shares of TSo3 popped 22 cents, or 36 per cent, to 83 cents. after the company said it is in talks with 3M that would see the U.S. conglomerate’s health-care division take over sales and marketing for TSo3’s advanced sterilization equipment for surgical instruments.

On Wall Street, markets posted their fourth straight losing session, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipping 29.93 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 9,280.68, the S&P 500 giving back 3.29, or 0.3 per cent, to 994.75, and the Nasdaq composite down 1.82, or 0.1 per cent, at 1,967.07.Gregory Thomas is a Financial Advisor and Certified Financial Planner with Raymond James Ltd.Tel. 604-663-4235
gregory.thomas@raymondjames.ca The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Raymond James.

Stocks buoyed by banks and goldSeptember 4, 2009 - 10:23AM

Australian shares are up, with financial stocks gaining ground on improved prospects for the global economy and gold miners extending gains on the back of a rising gold price.Around midday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was up 35.2 points, or 0.8 per cent, at 4464.8, while the broader All Ordinaries rose 36.1 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 4469.All major sectors were up, with financial stocks rising 0.9 per cent, industrials up 1 per cent, materials rising 0.2 per cent and gold stocks jumping another 2 per cent on the back of yesterday's strong gains.Stronger-than-expected retail sales data in the United States on Thursday heartened investors worldwide, while OECD forecast upgrades to the European economy helped to confirm the global recession is ending.This is still the environment for an (earnings) upgrade cycle in equities, the macroeconomic backdrop is supportive, said RBS Australia equity strategist Greg Goodsell.ANZ Banking Group gained 39 cents, or 1.8 per cent, to $21.54, National Australia Bank added 25 cents, or 0.9 per cent, to $27.90, Westpac advanced 17 cents, or 0.7 per cent to $24.41, and Commonwealth Bank added 81 cents, or 1.8 per cent to $45.79.RBS this week joined a number of other brokers in upgrading its forecasts for the big four banks, saying the local economy was faring better than expected and the bad debt cycle would not be as severe as previously thought.

The gold price continued its rally overnight, nearing the $US1000 mark for the first time since February amid caution by financial market players and worries about the gaping US budget deficit.Analysts said gold producers were seeing a greater benefit from the latest price surge in gold than in the past because most were no longer hedged against moves in the gold price.In the past, when the gold price ran they didn't get the benefit of that because they had hedged their gold production, said IG markets analyst Cameron Peacock.Now they have got full exposure and full leverage to the gold price, so that's why you see the outperformance.

BBI hooks up with investor

In news this morning, Babcock & Brown Infrastructure signed an interim agreement with a potential cornerstone investor, who may help reduce the company's over $10 billion of debt. BBI shares were 0.9 cent lower, or 11.5 per cent, at 6.9 cents.
Transport infrastructure group Asciano is to appoint three new non-executive directors to its board, one of them to become the group's new chairman. Its shares climbed 7 cents, or 4.6 per cent, to $1.58.Oil stocks gained despite the price of crude falling overnight. Oil Search added 14 cents, or 2.3 per cent, to $6.24, while Santos gained 12 cents, 0.8 per cent, to $15.47.

ConsMedia in takeover talk-In the media sector, Consolidated Media Holdings jumped 11 cents, or 3.5 per cent, to $3.24 after the Seven Network asked for a copy of its share register, fuelling speculation the Kerry Stokes-chaired broadcaster plans a takeover.

Seven Network shares were down 1 cent at $6.28.

In other news, gas explorer Comet Ridge has been awarded a permit to drill for coal seam gas in Queensland's Galilee Basin. Comet Ridge shares were up 3 cents, or 7.5 per cent, at 43 cents.Agricultural chemicals supplier Nufarm defended the timing of its release of information related to downgrades of its forecast full year operating profit. Its shares rose 2 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $11.34.ASX Ltd added 15 cents to $31.95. Earlier, Credit Suisse raised its rating to neutral, while Macquarie cut its rating to neutral.The most traded stock by volume around midday was Babcock and Brown Infrastructure with 125 million shares worth $9.73 million changing hands. Market turnover was $1.644 billion shares worth $2.418 billion, with 610 stocks up, 333 down and 303 steady.

Darling predicts global economic recovery in 2010 Thu Sep 3, 6:25 pm ET

LONDON (AFP) – The Chancellor of the Exchequer voiced optimism Thursday for a global economic recovery in 2010, but repeated a warning against complacency, ahead of a G20finance ministers' meeting.Alistair Darling said he also expected the British economy to return to growth at the beginning of 2010 following signs that economic confidence across the globe is returning.I believe we can be confident about our prospects for 2010. But there are still uncertainties and risks that we have to confront,Darling told the Scottish branch of the Confederation of British Industry, a lobby group.And the biggest risk is to think that the job's done - that recovery is guaranteed. No country can be complacent - we've got to see this through.Darling said the fact that France, Germany and Japan have already emerged from recession was encouraging but stressed the importance of massive fiscal stimulus packages introduced at the height of the global financial crisis.One thing these three countries - and the UK - have in common is that they have all put in place a fiscal stimulus,he told the group in Glasgow.We all allowed borrowing to rise, so that we could put more money into the economy, to help people, protect jobs and support businesses.To have failed to act would have been indefensible - and the cost would have been far greater.Darling, the host of the G20 meeting starting Friday, also warned in a newspaper interview Thursday against complacency, fearing a push for a rapid decline in government stimulus spending would jeopardise recovery in Britain and around the world.

UN chief: rapid progress needed in climate talks By ELIANE ENGELER, Associated Press Writer – Thu Sep 3, 5:24 pm ET

GENEVA – U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon told a meeting of some 150 governments on Thursday that time is running out for a new climate deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions.The Copenhagen talks in December are looming and little real negotiating time is left to resolve some of the most complex issues, the U.N. secretary general told the World Climate Conference.We need rapid progress.Only limited progress in the talks has been made to hammer out a new accord to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on reducing the gases blamed for global warming.

Meanwhile, climate change is advancing.

Our foot is stuck on the accelerator and we are heading towards an abyss,said Ban, warning that climate change could spell widespread economic disaster.He noted that he had just visited the Arctic and was alarmed by what he saw.I saw the remains of a glacier that just a few years ago was a majestic mass of ice. It has collapsed. Very troubling,he said.The Arctic is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth, Ban said.It may be ice-free by 2030.Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, which creates weather forecasts for the United States, said she was here to confirm that President Obama is unwavering in his commitment to the Copenhagen talks.The United States is working actively towards a successful agreement, through both ambitious domestic actions and international cooperation, she told the conference.Lubchenco said the U.S. has felt the impact of climate change in higher continental-average temperatures, rising sea levels, more frequent heavy rainfalls, longer crop-growing seasons, earlier snowmelt and changes in river volumes.Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said the predicted sea level rise from warming oceans will be increased by the melting of glaciers and other snow and ice on land.If you add the two together, we are certainly going to face a dire crisis if not a catastrophe across the world,he told the conference.

Pachauri, whose scientific panel shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore in 2007, said governments should base their climate-change decisions on science rather than narrow political considerations.We would be making a terrible mistake if we didn't seize the moment and seize this opportunity to bring about stabilization of the Earth's climate,he said, adding that the future of coming generations and all life on Earth depended on it.Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh said her densely populated, low-lying country was among the nations worst affected by climate change, facing somber predictions about rising sea levels and more frequent natural disasters.A major rise of sea level would inundate a third of Bangladesh,Hasina said.The climate conference in Geneva is aimed at providing ways for the world to cope with global warming that will occur because of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, regardless of what the Copenhagen meeting achieves.

On Thursday the delegates in Geneva approved the creation of a Global Framework for Climate Services to improve climate forecasts. Among its aims is to make sure that early warnings for tsunamis and hurricanes reach everybody and that farmers in remote African regions know about upcoming droughts and floods.A meeting of member states of the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization in the next four months is to set up a task force to help implement the framework.Today marks the day that climate services was born,said Lubchenco. She said climate forecasts will be immensely helpful for the world. Imagine coastal communities able to plan for sea level rise and storm intensity,she said.Imagine city planners or water resources managers able to ensure the availability of water for drinking, energy production, agriculture and many other uses.

Trade ministers pledge commitment to Doha by Penny MacRae – SEPT 3,09

NEW DELHI (AFP) – Ministers from over 35 countries pledged swift action to conclude a new global free-trade pact and boost the ailing world economy as they assembled Friday for a final day of talks in New Delhi.A speedy agreement on a deal to liberalise world commerce was the best medicine for the global financial downturn, said a statement issued by host nation India after the first day of informal ministerial talks Thursday.This crisis actually gives all members a stronger sense of urgency to conclude the Doha Round negotiations,China's Commerce Minister Chen Deming said Thursday, calling a trade deal the best bulwark against protectionism.

A new study by Washington think-tank Peterson Institute for International Economics calculated a Doha accord could bolster global gross domestic product by up to 700 billion dollars a year.India's disagreement with the United States over subsidy protection for poor farmers contributed to the 2008 collapse of the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organisation, aimed at fuelling global commerce and lifting millions out of poverty.But in July, top industrial nations and five emerging economies, including India and China, agreed to put the Doha round back on track and conclude a deal in 2010.India took the initiative, seeking to inject momentum into the negotiations by getting ministers to gather in New Delhi to set a roadmap for meeting the deadline.There was a unanimous affirmation (at the meeting) of the need to expeditiously conclude the Doha Round, particularly in the present critical global economic situation,said the statement issued by India.The statement made no mention of a timeframe, but WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said he believed agreement could be achieved next year as long as there was political will.The meeting can be the real beginning of the end-game,said Lamy.The Doha round began in 2001, but deadlock between the major trading blocs dashed numerous bids to forge a pact.While Lamy said 80 percent of the work on a new deal was finished, Indian Trade Minister Anand Sharma cautioned there were still many unresolved issues, especially on farm subsidies and market access for industrial goods.Sharma also told developed nations the development mandate was "the bedrock of the Doha Round" and could not be compromised.Celso Amorim, External Relations Minister of Brazil, one of the other big trade players, said developing countries have no more room for further concessions to rich nations.

Developing countries like India, which has 235 million farmers, are hesitant to open their markets to what they fear will be cheap crops from overseas.As ministers met Thursday, thousands of farmers and social activists blocked a main thoroughfare in New Delhi to demand the government ditch Doha.The rich countries with their subsidies will destroy Indian farmers,Ajmer Singh Gill, a senior leader of Indian farm group Bharat Kisan Union, told AFP.The United States and the European Union are reluctant to abandon large agricultural subsidies that command widespread political popularity.

Japan wonders if new leaders have economic vision By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer – Thu Sep 3, 11:36 am ET

TOKYO – Now that the Japanese have overthrown the old guard, worries are growing the new leaders lack a long-term vision to turn around the hobbled economy.The Democratic Party of Japan swept to power in last weekend's parliamentary elections, largely because of voter disgust with the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party and their inability to address the country's underlying problems.The opposition promised to expand the social safety net with handouts for families with children and farmers, toll-free highways and a higher minimum wage.But critics say such programs were mainly designed to woo voters and fall short of mapping out a road to growth or tackling deeper issues like Japan's aging, shrinking population and its ballooning national debt.In short, what they are going to do is unclear,said Koetsu Aizawa, economics professor at Saitama University.They were out to win an election. And they have barely addressed the issues of structural reforms and economic growth.Adding to the concerns is a widely circulated opinion piece by Democratic leader Yukio Hatoyama — the likely new prime minister — that sharply criticizes the U.S. business model for growth that Japan had emulated during the postwar period.

In the piece — which appeared in domestic and international media, including The New York Times — Hatoyama promises a Japan free of what he calls the unrestrained market fundamentalism and financial capitalism, that are void of morals or moderation to better protect the finances and livelihoods of his people.Talk of decreasing the gap between the haves and have-nots appealed to voters during the campaign, but as the election euphoria wears off, many people are befuddled by exactly what kind of economic policies Hatoyama and his party plan to implement.Aizawa and other free-market advocates worried that the party may step away from deregulating the economy, a process that began under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who governed from 2001 to 2006.The Democrats haven't clearly come out against deregulation, but they have said they want to review Koizumi's program to privatize the huge postal system, which works in Japan as a bank and could potentially funnel money into the private sector.A move away from deregulation, critics argue, would stunt Japan's long-term growth prospects and disengage it from the global economy by discouraging competition and foreign investment. Industries such retailing and selling imported autos are heavily regulated.But many Japanese blamed the reforms for leading to economic woes, such rising joblessness and homelessness, widening income gaps and the fading promise of lifetime employment. Japan's economy is struggling to emerge from its worst-ever recession, with unemployment reaching a record high 5.7 percent.

The Democrats say their proposal to give families $275 a month per child through junior high school is meant to help consumer spending and encourage women to have more babies. But some worry it will be expensive and only bloat the national debt which is nearly 200 percent of the economy.Giving cash to households won't necessarily boost consumption because the money could merely end up as savings, and the Democrats could fuel people's fears about heavier taxes, said Tetsufumi Yamakawa, Goldman Sachs Japan chief economist.It is difficult to gauge the potential effects of the DPJ's economic policies,Yamakawa said in a recent report.The LDP has traditionally used massive public works projects to spur growth, but over the years many Japanese have come to see these projects — which have lined many of Japan's rivers with concrete — as wasteful and destructive to the environment.The Democrats say they plan to pay for their handouts and other measure by cutting back on such spending.While Japan boasts a wealth of skills, including the know-how behind solar-panel technology, nuclear power and hybrid cars, Hatoyama has yet to propose growth plans, said Kenichi Imai, honorary professor at Hitotsubashi University and honorary fellow at Stanford University.Equally skeptical is the business world, which has long thrived on ties to the ruling party. Some have expressed worries that the Democrats' promise to ban the hiring of contract workers in manufacturing — such workers have shouldered most of the job cuts — and to aggressively curb the emissions of gases linked to global-warming.Keidanren, the nation's biggest business lobby, has been guarded about what it says on the Democrats, stressing that it seeks to build a relationship.But business leaders are expressing concern that while Japan has historically grown by nurturing export-dependent manufacturers, that has not been the Democrats' focus.

I am very troubled by the Democrats' policies,Masamitsu Sakurai, chairman of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives.He cited the proposed ban on contract workers, which he said would hamstring corporations from adjusting quickly to changes in markets. Such temporary workers are easy to hire and fire because they aren't tacitly guaranteed lifetime employment, as most salaried workers are. If they prove inept, and the Japanese economy remains weak, the Democrats could even be headed for an equally dramatic loss in upper house elections, which must be called next year.The momentum for change from the election could rapidly dissipate into an illusion otherwise,Imai said.

Liberals say no to tax hikes to cut deficit Wed Sep 2, 4:41 pm ET

SUDBURY, Ontario (Reuters) – Canadian Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, seeking to quell criticism for opening the door to tax hikes, said on Wednesday he would not raise taxes to slay the budget deficit if he became prime minister.Ignatieff says he will soon introduce a motion of non-confidence in the minority Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in part because it has allowed the deficit to grow to more than C$50 billion ($45 billion).We are very concerned about the size of the deficit ... We will not come to the Canadian public with proposals that break the bank,Ignatieff told a news conference after a meeting of Liberal legislators.We've inherited a C$50 billion hole from Mr. Harper. We will clean it up without raising taxes.In April he had said no honest politician faced with a huge deficit would take anything off the table because Canadians were allergic to structural budget deficits -- a remark the governing Conservatives pounced on as pointing to tax hikes.Ignatieff also said Canada should go ahead and introduce a cap-and-trade system to fight climate change without waiting for U.S. President Barack Obama to present his plan.We're not going to wait for Mr. Obama. That's the current excuse of the Canadian government,he said.I have great respect for Mr. Obama but Canadian climate change policy gets made in Canada.However, he also said that was needed was a continental cap-and-trade system -- which would imply working with the Obama administration in coming up with a unified system.A cap-and-trade system would cap carbon emissions that are blamed for global warming and then allow for trading of permits to emit carbon.(Reporting by Randall Palmer in Sudbury and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; editing by Janet Guttsman)

Stocks break 4-day slide ahead of jobs report By Tim Paradis, Ap Business Writer – Thu Sep 3, 5:51 pm ET

NEW YORK – Investors moved back into stocks after a four-day slide on hopes that a key government report on unemployment will confirm that the economy is gaining strength.The Dow Jones industrial average tacked on 64 points Thursday after sliding 300 points since Friday. Stocks held to a tight range for much of the day in light trading as some investors squeezed in late-summer vacations. Those remaining braced for the August jobs report, which is due before the opening bell Friday.The biggest gains came in the final half-hour, with the Dow doubling its advance, as some traders looked to buy ahead of the jobs data. Economists expect the unemployment rate to edge up to 9.5 percent from 9.4 percent, while the number of layoffs is expected to slow to 225,000 from 247,000. Some economists have raised their expectations in recent weeks but the sunnier forecasts leave the market more vulnerable to disappointment.The latest snapshot on employment Thursday offered investors little to go on ahead of Friday's report. The Labor Department said the number of people filing for unemployment claims fell last week by 4,000 to 570,000 while the number of people receiving benefits rose. Economists had been expecting a bigger drop, and the report served as a reminder of how difficult a recovery in employment will be.Reports from retailers offered more insight into consumers' troubles. Many remain focused on necessities, though some are starting to open their wallets. Overall sales were still weak but many companies including Gap Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. posted results that topped investors' expectations.Trading has been jittery in the past two weeks because some investors who have placed big bets on a recovery are worried that unemployment will make it hard for the economy to pull out of the longest recession since World War II. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.By last month, major stock indicators like the Standard & Poor's 500 index had jumped more than 50 percent from 12-year lows in early March. Analysts say the latest slide was a necessary adjustment for the market, even though it erased only about two weeks worth of gains. Traders become nervous if stocks climb too quickly without a break, which is seen as an indicator of indiscriminate buying.We had a bit of reality catching up with expectations,said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Wealth Management.

The Dow rose 63.94, or 0.7 percent, to 9,344.61. The S&P 500 index rose 8.49, or 0.9 percent, to 1,003.24, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 16.13, or 0.8 percent, to 1,983.20.Three stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to a light 4.7 billion shares compared with 6 billion Wednesday.Bond prices fell, pushing the yield on the 10-year note up to 3.35 percent from 3.31 percent.Analysts say the dearth of market participants going in to the long Labor Day weekend has added to the market's choppiness.I wouldn't want to read too much into anything until we get into next week, said Alan Brown, group chief investment officer at Schroders in London, referring to the light trading volume.The dollar was mixed, while gold prices extended their recent climb.
Oil fell 9 cents to settle at $67.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 6.66, or 1.2 percent, to 562.49.

Administration unveils bank capital proposal By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer – Thu Sep 3, 5:23 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Thursday proposed stronger international standards for the capital reserves that banks are required to hold. The goal is to avoid a repeat of last year's severe financial crisis.The administration released a 14-page outline that would require higher capital cushions for firms deemed to be so large and interconnected they pose a threat to the overall stability of the financial system.Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is slated to discuss the U.S. proposals during two days of meetings in London among the Group of 20 nations that begin Friday.Under Geithner's proposal, a comprehensive international agreement should be reached by the end of 2010 with countries agreeing to implement the measure by the end of 2012. The administration is hoping to get broad agreement among major countries on raising capital standards so that financial institutions in the United States wouldn't be put at a disadvantage if capital standards in the U.S. are raised to higher levels than their competitors face in other nations.Many experts believe the crisis occurred at least in part because current bank regulations don't impose strict enough requirements for the reserves a bank must hold to cover potential loan losses.The global regulatory framework failed to prevent the buildup of risk in the financial system in the years leading up to the recent crisis,the Treasury Department said in a statement issued Thursday.Going forward, global banking firms must be made subject to stronger regulatory capital and liquidity standards that are as uniform as possible across countries.

Treasury said the new principles should guide reform of the international regulatory capital and liquidity framework to better protect the safety and soundness of individual banking firms, and the stability of the global financial system and economy.Under the proposed policy, capital requirements for all banks and financial firms would be increased while those for firms deemed to be systemically risky would have higher required capital levels than the others.Banks and financial firms would be subject to conservative, detailed standards for the amount of cash they are required to hold.The rules for measuring risks in banks' portfolios and the capital needed to protect against them would be improved.AP Business Writer Marcy Gordon contributed to this report.

1.3 million to lose jobless benefits by year's end By TAMARA LUSH, Associated Press Writer – Thu Sep 3, 4:10 pm ET

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jobless since January, Donald Money has already moved in with his elderly parents, stopped going to the movies and started using less of his prescription medication so it will last longer.This month, something else will fall by the wayside: Money's unemployment check. The 43-year-old former printing press operator is among the more than 1.3 million Americans whose unemployment insurance benefits will run out by the end of the year, placing extra strain on an economy that is just starting to recover from the worst downturn in a generation.These are the most unfortunate of America's 14.5 million jobless: the ones whose benefits are drying up — in some cases after a record 18 months of government support.With savings depleted and job opportunities scarce, people who've run out of benefits are living with relatives and borrowing cash from friends. They are even skipping meals. Through it all, they are trying to stay positive through exercise and prayer.The government said Thursday that 570,000 laid-off workers filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, while the number of people receiving benefits has risen to 6.23 million.The Labor Department is expected to report Friday that the August unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, up from 9.4 percent in July.Many are scrambling to find work before they have to reach for the next layer of government aid — food stamps or even welfare.

On a recent day in Jacksonville, Money attended a church-run job fair in a half-vacant shopping mall. Most of the vendors were vocational schools trolling for students, or recruiters for the military and fast food joints.Money, who was laid off from a printing business, said he'll do anything for a paycheck.I'm tired of not working,he sighed.I just can't sit at home anymore.People who lost white-collar jobs seem most surprised by the dire circumstances they are finding themselves in as unemployment benefits dry up. Before the recession and financial crisis, it had always been easy for them to find work.Clifford Sheffield, 43, of Fernandina Beach, Fla., used to earn $2,000 a week as an analyst for Merrill Lynch's Jacksonville office.Today, Sheffield lives off of a $1,300 monthly check from the government — and is burning through his savings to keep up with rent. The unemployment benefits run out later this month.At a recent job fair, he perused applications for Valu Pawn and Taco Bell, but did not fill them out.I have family I could fall back on, but it's not very appealing,Sheffield said.People are just barely getting by, said Sue Berkowitz, the director of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, an advocacy group that helps the poor with legal issues surrounding rent and mortgage contracts.When I go down to our food bank, I see a lot of people who never, ever thought that's where they would be.In the past year, nearly 5.5 million people exhausted their 26 weeks of standard benefits without finding work. The government says the exhaustion rate is the highest on records dating from 1972.

Some 3.4 million people now depend upon extended benefits approved by Congress lasting anywhere from 20 weeks to a year — the longest period of extensions ever added.The length of these extensions vary by state, depending on the unemployment rate. More than half of all states have unemployment rates that triggered 53 weeks of extended benefits.The government does not track how many jobless Americans have exhausted both their standard and extended benefits, but experts estimate the figure to be nearly 100,000 — and rising.According to the National Employment Law Project, more than 402,000 Americans will exhaust their unemployment benefits by the end of September. That figure will more than triple by the end of December unless Congress —or individual states — authorizes another extension.Legislation has been introduced to provide an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits in states with high jobless rates; the bill, introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., has 23 co-sponsors, including two Republicans.Unemployment benefits play an important part in stabilizing the economy because recipients tend to spend their weekly checks, rather than saving the money or paying down debt.It's definitely a valuable component of economic stimulus,said Alan Auerbach, a professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley.Rudolf Augustine, a 39-year-old former construction worker from Miami, is one of about 16,000 Floridians who have exhausted all their benefits. Out of work for the past two years, Augustine's last unemployment check came in August.

He's doing handyman-type jobs, living with his brother to save money, and had to borrow just to visit his oldest daughter in New York to see her graduate from high school.Augustine's self-esteem is bruised from the lack of cash.I used to drive a Saab turbo,he said.Now I drive a clunker a friend gave me for free.Still, he says he has something to look forward to: a business degree, which he should receive in about a year. He spends time with his youngest child in the park for fun and occasionally visits Burger King for a treat.Trying to maintain a good attitude is key, said Mike Allen of Riverside County, Calif., who received about 13 weeks of unemployment benefits earlier in the year. He wasn't eligible for more because he owned his own business and didn't pay enough into the state's unemployment fund to qualify him for more assistance.Allen, who is 41, moved his wife and 15-year-old daughter into his parents' home in early August.They've got a small house,Allen said.But it's a roof. We'll help out with food.After their mortgage company refused to work with them on a loan refinancing, the family walked away from their home, which is several hundred thousand dollars underwater. Allen, formerly the owner of a trucking company, owes about $500,000 in business loans. He's traded in his newer cars for a used Jeep that needs $2,400 of repairs. The family sold most of their furniture.His one bright spot: Allen has launched two employment-related Web sites in hopes of generating money through online advertising. We don't dwell on the past, said Allen, who added that his Christian faith is seeing them through.We can't change it. We can only change our future.Sheffield, the former Merrill Lynch analyst, said he has some job leads and is beginning a retraining program to become a radiographer. He's done some odd jobs around his neighborhood for cash, and has cut back on most of his expenses — even his $25 a week comic book hobby.I don't drink or smoke, and I can't go to lunch or anything like I used to with my friends, said Sheffield, who runs on the beach to relieve stress.I eat less. I've lost 20 pounds.AP Business Writer Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.

Oil steady above $68, awaits U.S. jobs data By Jennifer Tan – SEPT 3,09

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil hovered above $68 a barrel on Friday, eyeing a U.S. jobs report due later for some clarity on the economy of the world's top energy user as it struggles to emerge from recession.The U.S. non-farm payrolls report for August is expected to show employers expected cut jobs by the least amount in a year. [nN01485399]By 0225 GMT, U.S. crude for October delivery was up 14 cents at $68.10 a barrel, after settling at $67.96 on Thursday. London Brent crude rose 10 cents to $67.22 a barrel.Even after three days of not much change, oil is set for a 6.3 percent fall this week, its biggest weekly decline in eight weeks.We're seeing directionless trading today ahead of the U.S. employment report,said Tony Nunan, risk manager at Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Corp.The big issue is that a lot of the economic indicators have shown improvement, except for the employment numbers, and high unemployment figures are bad for overall oil demand.

Data on Thursday offered a conflicted picture of the world's largest economy.

The contraction in the U.S. services sector eased last month, with a gauge of activity hitting its highest point in 11 months, but a separate U.S. government report showed initial claims for state jobless benefits fell by 4,000 to 570,000 last week.The Labor Department will release the August employment report at 1230 GMT later. Economists polled by Reuters forecast 225,000 jobs were lost last month, compared with a loss of 247,000 jobs in July.The unemployment rate is expected to be 9.5 percent, compared with a 9.4 percent rate in July.There was little impetus from current or equity markets after Wall Street on Thursday snapped a four-day losing streak, with Japan's Nikkei stock average 0.2 percent lower on Friday in cautious trade.The U.S. dollar was modestly firmer on the yen and euro early on Friday. (Editing by Michael Urquhart)

FACT CHECK: Biden ignores problems with stimulus By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE, Associated Press Writer – SEPT 3,09

WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden proclaimed success beyond expectations Thursday for the $787 billion economic stimulus, but his glowing assessment overlooks many of the program's problems, including delays in releasing money, questionable spending priorities and project picks that are under investigation.In a speech aimed squarely at Republican criticism and public skepticism over the costly program's effectiveness, Biden said accomplishments over the past 100 days provide proof of promises kept when he and President Barack Obama began rolling out the plan earlier this year.The Recovery Act is doing more, faster and more efficiently and more effectively than most people expected, he said.The stimulus program includes tax cuts, billions for Medicaid and unemployment benefits, and a massive federal investment in education, environmental projects, technology and traditional infrastructure work. The administration has struggled to make the case that the huge spending program has delivered real economic recovery at a time when the nation's unemployment rate threatens to top 10 percent.Biden, Obama's chief stimulus cheerleader, proudly pointed to more than 2,200 highway projects Thursday funded by the program, but didn't mention the growing frustration among contractors that infrastructure money is only trickling out and thus far hasn't delivered the needed boost in jobs.It is difficult to understand why more communities aren't moving to put their stimulus funds to work while they are experiencing these kinds of job losses,Stephen E. Sandherr, head of the Associated General Contractors of America, said in a statement this week. Coping with the red tape required by the stimulus ought to be worth it to help put neighbors and friends back to work.The problem is with money for building projects, not roads and highways, Sandherr said.

Biden noted 192 airports targeted for improvements with stimulus money, but made no reference to the investigation launched after a federal watchdog raised concerns about how the projects were selected.Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel said last month he will examine the Federal Aviation Administration's process for selecting programs for the $1.1 billion in grant money. His announcement came after his office discovered that the Obama administration used stimulus money to pay for 50 airport projects that didn't meet the grant criteria and approved projects at four airports with a history of mismanaging federal grants.And Biden praised the more than 2,400 military construction projects paid for with stimulus money, but ignored the millions of dollars in savings the Defense Department lost because it hasn't competitively bid many of the jobs.The Defense Department frequently awards no-bid work to small contractors for repairs at military bases under the stimulus, costing taxpayers millions of dollars more than when businesses compete for the work, an Associated Press analysis of 570 such contracts found.Biden exercised some restraint in his praise for the stimulus' impact. He took a more cautious approach, for example, when asked if his declaration of stimulus success means Americans can now rethink the common view that government is wasteful and inefficient.I think it's too early to make that decision, to be very blunt about it, he said.And Biden didn't attempt to credit the stimulus alone for signs of broad economic recovery, saying it was one of several government actions that are helping.

Had we done just this and not done the incredibly unpopular thing of bailing out the banks, had we had done this and tried to deal with stabilizing the housing market, had we done only this we would not be where we are,he said.But most of Biden's remarks focused on what he argued is evidence of success with the stimulus, even if his examples were questionable.In making the case that the recovery program was not just economically sound but also good policy, Biden noted that transportation money was replacing unsafe bridges.It is worthwhile to take some of those 5,000 bridges out there that are ready to collapse, follow what happened in the upper Midwest, and fix them,he said. But most states are spending stimulus money on bridges that are already in good shape, another AP analysis found. Of the 2,476 bridges scheduled to receive stimulus money so far, nearly half have passed inspections with high marks, according to federal data. Those 1,123 sound bridges received such high inspection ratings that they normally would not qualify for federal bridge money, yet they will share in more than $1.2 billion in stimulus money, the AP analysis published in July found.The vice president's speech is part of a concerted White House push in advance of the 200th day of the stimulus act on Saturday. Five top administration officials also were speaking about the law's benefits on Thursday in appearances in Arkansas, Virginia, Illinois, California and Minnesota.

Asian markets gain cautiously ahead of jobs report SEPT 4,09
By ROD McGUIRK, Associated Press Writer


CANBERRA, Australia – Most Asian markets rose in cautious trading Friday as investors looked ahead to a key U.S. jobs report for clues about the outlook for the world's largest economy — an important export market for Asia.Trading has been jittery the last couple weeks amid worries that the rally in global markets since March may have been overdone. China's stock market, which has been particularly volatile, was little changed by midday.Investors were heartened by the modest advance Thursday on Wall Street, where markets broke a four-day slide.But given the importance of the U.S. market to Asia, many were holding back until the U.S. Labor Department released jobs numbers later Friday. Economists expect the unemployment rate to edge up to 9.5 percent from 9.4 percent, while the number of layoffs is expected to slow to 225,000 from 247,000.The movement seems to be very much sideways because the investors are waiting for more indications such as the U.S. employment data to be released tonight,said Ben Kwong Man Bun, the chief operating officer at KGI Securities.It's stabilizing a bit, but there's too much uncertainty about whether rebound can be sustained,he said.Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 78.96 points, or 0.4 percent, to 19,834.47, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index advanced 11.1 points, or 0.25 percent, to 4,440.8. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite index edged up 2.89 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,847.91, after surging 4.8 percent Thursday.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index, meanwhile, sagged 55.73 points, or 0.6 percent, to 10.158.91, while South Korea's Kospi slid 0.3 percent to 1,609.17.U.S. stock index futures were narrowly mixed, suggesting a tepid open on Wall Street Friday.In New York Thursday, stocks gained in light trading. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 63.94, or 0.7 percent, to 9,344.61, while the S&P 500 index climbed 8.49, or 0.9 percent, to 1,003.24. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 16.13, or 0.8 percent, to 1,983.20.Oil prices rose, with benchmark oil for October delivery gaining 25 cents to $68.21 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.In currencies, the dollar edged up to 92.62 yen from 92.56 yen late Thursday in New York. The euro was little changed at $1.4252.

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