SARAH SKIPS CPAC - GOES TEA PARTY ROOT

MADISON ON GEITHNER - BANK ROBBERS - NWO
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http://www.infowars.com/facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-says-privacy-is-no-longer-a-social-norm/

Obama Expands Federal Power Over the States with Executive Order
Kurt Nimmo Infowars.com January 12, 2010
http://www.infowars.com/obama-expands-federal-power-over-the-states-with-executive-order/

Contrary to his election campaign promises, Obama has issued dozens of signing statements.Obama has issued another executive order, this time establishing a so-called Council of Governors.The order, signed on January 11, further diminishes the sovereignty of the states and builds on a framework for possible martial law. The executive order was completely ignored by the corporate media.By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 1822 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-181), and in order to strengthen further the partnership between the Federal Government and State governments to protect our Nation and its people and property, the order reads.The Council shall meet at the call of the Secretary of Defense or the Co-Chairs of the Council to exchange views, information, or advice with the Secretary of Defense; the Secretary of Homeland Security; the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; the Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement; the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs; the Commander, United States Northern Command; the Chief, National Guard Bureau; the Commandant of the Coast Guard; and other appropriate officials of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, and appropriate officials of other executive departments or agencies as may be designated by the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of Homeland Security.In other words, the Pentagon and Homeland Security will give hand-picked governors their marching orders under the guise of synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States,a direct violation of Posse Comitatus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8MaUSu4isk&feature=player_embedded

Obama’s TSA Nominee Targets Anti-Government Christians
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Tuesday, January 12, 2010

President Obama’s nominee to head the TSA and boss the naked body scanners now being installed at airports across the country says that white Christian anti-government types will be the primary target of suspicion for authorities.Former FBI agent Erroll Southers has been under scrutiny following Republican efforts to block his confirmation after it emerged Southers had abused his power to run a database check on his ex-wife’s new boyfriend.Back in October, Southers told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, both of whom voted on his confirmation, that he carried out the search because he was concerned for his wife and son. However, after the committees had approved him, Southers admitted that he had lied under oath by failing to reveal that he had personally conducted the search and had done so on more than one occasion, as well as sharing the information with the police (so they could harass the target of the search, according to the Ace of Spades blog).Given that the potential future head of the TSA has abused his power in the past and then lied about it to Congress while under oath, how can we have any confidence that he will change the climate of corruption and thuggishness that pervades the TSA, as stories of innocent people being terrorized and harassed continue to appear on an almost daily basis?


In a video interview posted to You Tube yesterday, Southers states the the government and the TSA has to pay attention not to Muslim terrorists but to anti-government, anti-abortion, survivalist types who are christian identity oriented, before he links such individuals with neo-nazi white supremacists and people like Buford Furrow, a former Aryan Nations member who killed one and injured three during a shooting at the Los Angeles Jewish Community Center in August 1999.Southers subsequently throws in Ben Smith, a spree killer who targeted members of racial and ethnic minorities in random drive-by shootings in Illinois and Indiana in July 1999.

Those groups are groups that claim to be extremely anti-government and christian identity oriented, added Southers.As we have exhaustively documented for years, even if there were hordes of Muslim terrorists planning to bomb airliners, the federal government is far more concerned with what politically active conservative and libertarian Americans are up to.An infamous leaked report distributed by the Missouri Information Analysis Center last year listed Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, people who display bumper stickers, people who own gold, or even people who fly a U.S. flag and equated them with radical race hate groups and terrorists.The 2009 Virginia Terrorism Threat Assessment, produced by the Virginia Fusion Center, smeared anyone who is anti-government,anti-abortion, as potential terrorists, equated people who enjoy rifle shooting practice and hunting with terrorists, and demonized the use of the Internet and websites like You Tube, Fark and Slashdot as terrorist tools. The use of e-protests is also talked about in the context of terrorism.The document also discusses special interest groups who incorporate a political message in its section about domestic terrorists, which could be defined as any mildly political organization whatsoever.

These are just two of a plethora of similar police and federal government reports stretching back well over a decade that identify politically active Americans as domestic terrorists and a target of domestic authorities.Unless Southers’ ambitions to head up the TSA are stopped, incidents of TSA thugs harassing libertarians and conservatives at airports, such as the case where a Ron Paul treasurer was interrogated for carrying cash and campaign information, will only become more prevalent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoQN1to3C2U&feature=player_embedded
http://www.infowars.com/h1n1-gate-big-pharma-who-triggered-organized-panic-european-health-head-claims/

H1N1-GATE: Big Pharma, WHO crafted organized panic, European health head claims
- Investigation to follow Council of Europe Health Committee Chairman’s accusations that WHO officials re-defined pandemics to deliberately create demand for the ’swine flu’ vaccine in spite of insufficient testing on its safety or effectiveness
Aaron Dykes Infowars.com January 11, 2010

Wolfgang Wodarg, Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Health Committee. Drug firms collaborated with WHO officials to deliberately create a campaign of panic and a false disaster over swine flu pandemic fears when one was not evident, top European health official Wolfgang Wodarg has indicated.Wolfgang Wodarg, head of health at the Council of Europe, claims that the threshold for alert was deliberately lowered at the WHO, allowing a pandemic to be declared despite the mildness of the swine flu.That designation would force a demand for the vaccine, which was subsequently purchased by governments or health facilities and pushed on the public through a full-scale fear campaign in the media.

Wodarg told Al Jazeera that:The WHO in collaboration with some big pharmaceutical companies and their scientists, re-defined pandemics and lowered the alarm-threshold. Those new standards forced politicians in most states to react immediately and sign marketing commitments for additional and new vaccines against swine-flu and spend billions of dollars to catch up.Never before the search for traces of a virus was carried out so broadly and intensively, besides, many cases of death that happen to coincide with seropositive H1N1 lab-findings were simply attributed to swine-flu and used to foster fear.Wodarg is focusing on the motives for profit, as well as the ties between the World Health Organization (WHO), the pharmaceutical-industrial complex and research scientists, a nexus which Canada Free Press points out is eerily similar to the Climategate revelations that CRU research scientists fudged data to hide the decline in proxy temperatures in order to support global warming claims. Wodarg stated: A group of people in the WHO is associated very closely with the pharmaceutical industry.The great campaign of panic we have seen provided a golden opportunity for representatives from labs who knew they would hit the jackpot in the case of a pandemic being declared.Now, Wodarg has been backed by members in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) who voted unanimously on his resolution to investigate the matter. An emergency debate has been scheduled to begin later this month.

The Council’s resolution states: In order to promote their patented drugs and vaccines against flu, pharmaceutical companies have influenced scientists and official agencies, responsible for public health standards, to alarm governments worldwide. They have made them squander tight healthcare resources for inefficient vaccine strategies and needlessly exposed millions of healthy people to the risk of unknown side-effects of insufficiently tested vaccines.Wodarg also raised concerns about the safety of swine flu vaccines in an interview with France’s L’Humanite. He highlighted the intentional deception, which subjected innocent people to an experimental and untested formula.The vaccines were developed too quickly. Some ingredients were insufficiently tested, he said.But there is worse to come. The vaccine developed by Novartis was produced in a bioreactor from cancerous cells, a technique that had never been used until now.In April when the first alarm came from Mexico I was very surprised at the figures furnished by the World Health Organization (WHO) to justify the declaration of a pandemic. I was immediately suspicious: the numbers were very low and the alarm level very high. There were not even into a thousand patients when there was already talk of the pandemic of the century.In reality there was no reason to sound the alarm at this level. This was only possible because in early May the WHO changed its definition of a pandemic. Before that date there had to be not only a disease which had broke out in several countries at once but also one that had very serious consequences with the number of deaths above the usual average. This aspect was removed from the new definition, to retain the rate of spread of disease as the only criteria.Among the things that aroused my suspicions there was therefore on one side this determination to sound the alarm. And on the other side, some curious facts. Such as, for example, the recommendation by WHO to carry out two injections for vaccines. That had never been done before. There was no scientific justification for this. There was also the recommendation to use only special patented vaccines… that major laboratories had designed and manufactured to be ready in case of a pandemic developing. And by proceeding in this way they did not hesitate to endanger the persons vaccinated.

Wodarg emphasized the need to find the source of corruption and restore trustworthiness on the part of health authorities in nations across the world, most of which helped to fan the flames of panic while neglecting the need for safety among the public it is meant to protect: We want to clarify everything that brought about this massive operation of disinformation. We want to know who made decisions, on the basis of what evidence, and precisely how the influence of the pharmaceutical industry came to bear on the decision-making.Dr. Wodarg suggested that,The Council of Europe and its member-states should ask for immediate investigations and consequences, on their national levels, as well as on the international level.We must make sure people can rely on the analysis and the expertise of national and international public institutions. The latter are now discredited, because millions of people have been vaccinated with products with inherent possible health risks.

Infowars.com and many other alternative news sites have warned since day one that the swine flu scare was hoax. Though media outlets across the country bombarded the airwaves with scary stories meant to sell the public on another inoculation, far fewer deaths have been caused by the virus than by the seasonal flu.Wodarg likewise points out this fact: It’s just a normal kind of flu. It does not cause a tenth of deaths caused by the classic seasonal flu.Many people refused to take the vaccine and governments in the U.S. and U.K. now have stockpiles of unused shots.

FEDERAL RESERVE
http://www.infowars.com/the-ultimate-shell-game-the-federal-reserve-funds-91-of-2009-u-s-deficit/
http://www.infowars.com/federal-reserve-makes-record-52-1bn-profit/

EU's new top diplomat remains cool under fire-Ms Ashton: The EU parliament grilling went on for a solid three hours (Photo: ec.europa.eu)ANDREW RETTMAN 11.01.2010 @ 17:37 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU's new foreign relations chief, Catherine Ashton, was tough on Iran but cautious on Israel and Russia in a lively hearing with MEPs on Monday (11 January).

The three-hour-long event at the European Parliament in Brussels began a series of 26hearings with commission nominees that is to culminate in a plenary vote later this month on the new EU executive as a whole.Around 60 deputies fired questions at Ms Ashton in a meeting marked by intense media attention, heckling on nuclear disarmament and applause for Ms Ashton's promises to work closely with parliament in future. The questions ranged from the big foreign policy topics of the day to the niceties of EU institutional infighting and brain teasers designed to test her knowledge on details such as funding for EU projects in Afghanistan.Ms Ashton highlighted Iran, Israel, Russia, the EU mission in Afghanistan, nation-building in Bosnia and support for human rights abroad as priorities.She hinted she would back further sanctions against Iran if the country continues to ignore international calls to open its nuclear programme to scrutiny.If we don't have the rules kept to, then we have to take action in some form, she said.She reiterated her support for a two-state solution on Israel and Palestine. But she did not criticise Israel's occupation of the West Bank, as in her previous speech to MEPs, and underlined the importance of Israeli security alongside Palestinian rights.On the question of whether Russia uses gas and oil exports to bully neighbouring states, Ms Ashton said she intends to put pressure on Russia to make sure they see these issues in an economic way not a political one.But the EU's top diplomat also said the bloc must have a strategic relationship with Russia, while pointing to an upcoming meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow as an opportunity to start off on a new footing. With a large chunk of MEPs' queries devoted to how Ms Ashton will work with parliament and the EU commission in future, Ms Ashton drew a line in the sand about her independence.

Happy to disappoint

She declined MEPs' requests to submit her senior officials to job interview-type hearings in parliament and envisaged the new EU diplomatic service as a unique institution separate from the EU commission, giving parliament less power over its budget.Occasionally, I will have to disappoint the parliament, she said.I don't want this [her internal appointments] to become a long, protracted process.In a glimpse into how she sees the new body ahead of her formal proposal on its structure to EU states in April, Ms Ashton said she will take care of foreign policy strategy while three commissioners - on aid, development and enlargement-neighbourhood policy - will implement projects on the ground.She added that her proposal may include a special training centre for EU diplomats in order to foster her new institution's own culture.This is a unique body and we will need to have training for our diplomats so that they recognise it is a different service to the one they came from, Ms Ashton said. The commissioner designate failed to answer some of the deputies' brain teasers, such as how much the EU spends yearly on its mission in Afghanistan. She also appeared poorly-informed on the UN security council and on Russia's arrest of one of the laureates of the EU's 2009 human rights award, the Sakharov prize. She showed a command of detail in other areas however, such as the date of the next meeting of the Geneva group on the Georgia conflict and the date of the second round of Ukrainian presidential elections.

Cool under fire

The liveliest part of the hearing saw British Conservative MEPs attack Ms Ashton, who hails from the British centre-left, for her past as an activist in the anti-nuclear pressure group, CND, with one member calling for her to apologise to former Communist states for her bad judgment. Amid bays and heckles reminiscent of the more rowdy lower chamber in London, Ms Ashton smiled and kept her cool. I have never hidden what I did and I am not ashamed of it, she said.When I was a young person I marched because I believed we should get rid of nuclear weapons. You can disagree with how I did it but not with why I did it.

Rehn talks tough on public deficits
ANDREW WILLIS Today JAN 12,10 @ 09:28 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU commissioner-designate for economic and monetary affairs, Olli Rehn, successfully batted off questions from MEPs on Monday evening (11 January), with debate on public finances and the EU's new economic strategy making up much of the exchange. A packed audience attended the session in front of deputies from the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee, although a downbeat atmosphere prevailed, in part as a result of Mr Rehn's apparent comfort in the portfolio and his phlegmatic speaking style. I think he dealt with the issues very well,the commission's director-general for economic affairs, Marco Buti, told EUobserver after the event, conceding that the Finnish politician was clearly a different character to outgoing Spanish economy commissioner, Joaquin Almunia. Hailing from Europe's liberal political family, Mr Rehn identified a strengthening of economic policies, a return to healthy public finances, and more unified EU representation in international fora as the means to set Europe on the right path again. Stimulus packages are still necessary ...but further developments of public debt have become untenable, especially in light of Europe's ageing population,said Mr Rehn, who has held the post of EU enlargement commissioner for the past five years and is also a former MEP with an extensive education in economics. With the vast majority of EU governments breaching one or more of the budgetary limits laid down by the bloc's Stability and Growth Pact, MEPs queried whether Mr Rehn had the backbone to haul national executives back into line.I ensure you that I will use all the tools at my disposal to make sure member states get public finances in order, he said, adding that Greece should not be kicked out of the eurozone but that fines against Athens could not be ruled out.

Greece drew strong criticism last autumn after a change of government resulted in a considerable upward deficit revision, with the country due to present plans to the commission in coming weeks on how it intends to rectify its fiscal problem. The commissioner-designate also indicated that he would use all the provisions under the Treaty of Lisbon to help put greater rigor into the pact and protect the stability of the euro, adding that he was intrinsically inclined to support obligatory budget surpluses during good years. Questioned on the idea of a common bond for eurozone countries, Mr Rehn said the idea merited a fresh look, but added that new instruments to help embattled euro area members risked creating a situation in which governments behave badly because they know they will be bailed out.On a potential fast-tracking of eastern states' entry into the euro area he was insistent on any given candidates' need to comply with all the accession criteria first, adding that Estonia is the closest next entrant, with the commission set to re-examine its application in the spring.

2020 Strategy

MEPs were also keen to know where the Finnish politician stood on the issue of stronger surveillance mechanisms under the EU's new economic growth plan, the 2020 Strategy, following a recent proposal by the Spanish EU presidency that Brussels should sanction capitals which fall out of line.Citing a lack of ownership as a chief cause behind the failure of the bloc's current economic plan, which expires this year, Mr Rehn said the key to achieving the 2020 aims would be the setting of realistic objectives, subsequently broken up into clear targets for individual states.We then need to make sure that we have the necessary surveillance and funding to carry out the plan, he said, prompting the thorny question of whether the EU should have a greater common budget to promote economic co-ordination.We have a chance to discuss this thoroughly at the budgetary mid-term review, said Mr Rehn. In my view the goals of the EU 2020 Strategy will have to be emphasised in light of the review.The commission is set to propose a communication on the 2020 Strategy in the coming weeks that will look at the issue of binding mechanisms, amongst other things, with EU leaders scheduled to examine the document at an informal summit on 11February.

Lobbyists and dinners

With time running down, non-aligned MEP Hans-Peter Martin asked whether the commission-designate would be able to withstand the extensive lobbying he was likely to face, allowing for a rare moment of humour. I prefer a quiet dinner at home with my family rather than an extravagant dinner with a lobbyist in [the famous restaurant] Maison de Cygne,he said, quickly adding although it does provide good cuisine.With three more commissioner-designates scheduled to present themselves before the parliament's economic committee, MEPs were keeping their views on how Mr Rehn performed under their hat on Monday night, although committee chair MEP Sharon Bowles suggested to journalists that post-mortem discussion had focussed more on the hearing process.Possibly he could have said more but maybe he was restrained by the public forum,she said, pointing to sensitive topics such as Greece's deficit.

Spain sets date for next EU-Russia summit
Today JAN 12,10 @ 16:31 CET

Spanish foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos on a visit to Moscow on Tuesday (12 January) said Madrid will in the next six months try to draw up a roadmap for visa-free travel with Russia and that the next bilateral summit should take place on 30 May in the Russian capital.

EU trade nominee attacks yuan and EU carbon border tax idea
ANDREW WILLIS Today JAN 12,10 @ 17:19 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - With MEPs on the lookout for overly vague responses during the ongoing European Parliamentary hearings, trade commissioner-designate Karel De Gucht was crystal clear on two matters on Tuesday (12 January).The Belgian politician candidly told euro deputies that he is not in favour of a EU border carbon tax, adding that he saw an undervalued Chinese currency as a major problem for the European Union. France has led European calls for an EU border tax on products manufactured in external countries with weaker environmental standards, but Mr De Gucht said the measure risked triggering an international trade war. In terms of border adjustments, I'm against it,said the Liberal politician in response to a question. I don't see that as the right approach, it's one that will lead to lots of practical problems,continued the former foreign minister and current European commissioner for development and humanitarian aid. We've seen it in the past. The big risk is that it will also lead to an escalating trade war on a global level, he said. While the blunt statements may disappoint some who favour the proposed border tax, pro-environment MEPs are likely to be buoyed by Mr De Gucht's strong support for an abolishment of tariffs on environmental goods, such as wind turbines and solar panels.

Yuan threat

Turning his attention to China, Mr De Gucht reiterated the European line that the Asian powerhouse should revalue its currency to ease global trade imbalances.Fresh export data for 2009 released by Chinese customs authorities on Sunday suggest the country is set to strip Germany of its leading exporter title in terms of gross volume. With the yuan essentially pegged to the dollar for more than a year, despite the US currency's protracted slide, European manufacturers have increasingly pointed to their diminishing price competitiveness.China has shrugged off repeated calls by European policy makers to allow the yuan to rise, saying the currency's stability is in everybody's best interest.The Chinese administration must show its responsibility by being able to address thorny questions such as currency misalignment, Mr De Gucht told the hearing, adding that European antidumping duties against Chinese firms were only a very partial solution to ongoing problem.

Semeta

In a nearby room to the trade discussion, Lithuanian commissioner-desiginate Algirdas Semeta also fielded questions from MEPs on Tuesday morning.Currently serving as the commission's budgetary chief, the centre-right politician is hoping to take over in a beefed up portfolio responsible for taxation and customs union, audit and anti-fraud.It will be an essentially new economic portfolio of especially high responsibility, Mr Semeta said before the hearing, He stressed to MEPs the importance of pushing through new rules on energy taxation within the EU, amongst other issues.The energy taxation directive will be one of my first priorities in my future job,Semeta said.I think in the future if we would move forward with green taxation it would allow us to decrease taxation on labour.

Europe not ready for EU tax, says incoming budget chief
VALENTINA POP Today JAN 12,10 @ 09:53 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The idea of an EU-wide tax is still politically too controversial to fly, but could not be ruled out in future, budget commissioner designate Janusz Lewandowski said Monday during his parliamentary hearings.Europe is probably not ready yet for a European tax. It could prove detrimental for our links with the citizens, the Polish economist and ex-MEP told his former colleagues dealing with budgetary issues.A proposal for such a scheme, put forward by French centre-right MEP Alain Lamassoure, now chairing the budget committee, had to be taken into account when negotiating EU's new multi-annual budget to start 2014, Mr Lewandowski added.But in his view, the time was not ripe for a purely fiscal revenue. Currently, the bulk of the EU budget is made of national contributions, representing 1.24 percent of the gross national income (GNI). Import taxes and VAT make out the remaining 23 percent of the bloc's revenues.He stressed that any decision to increase EU's own revenues had to be taken unanimously by member states. If we introduce this, it has to be in line with simplicity, fiscal neutrality and the cost of collecting. There are different ways of taxing with an aim of increasing own recourses. I am not against the idea.Mr Lewandowski's cautious line stands in contrast to the bolder wording of EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in his policy guidelines for the next commission, dating back to September last year, before he secured the vote of the parliament for his nomination. The commission president at the time spoke out against shirking the issue of EU's own resources and criticised a system of EU financing that has evolved piecemeal into a confusing and opaque mix of contributions and rebates.

Mr Lamassoure at one point stressed that realism should not lead Mr Lewandowski to give up on all such ambitions.The presumptive commissioner replied that he was personally not against all the proposals put on the table, including a Tobin tax on financial transactions. One the length of EU's next budget framework, Mr Lewandowski said he was in favour of reducing it from seven to five years, to match the mandate of the European Parliament.

Non-existing budget draft

A highly controversial draft proposal from the EU commission's budget services first leaked in October that suggested a radical overhaul of the EU budget to focus more on jobs, climate change and foreign policy rather than agriculture and regional aid was now in fact non-existent, Mr Lewandowski said, when pressed by MEPs dealing with agricultural and regional policy.He said it was unlikely that common agricultural policy (CAP) spending would be reduced further than the agreed 33 percent of the total EU budget, stressing that contrary to popular belief, the agricultural lobby is quite well organised.The Polish politician pointed at the 20-odd agriculture ministers gathered in Paris last month for a pro-CAP showcase meeting. Mr Lewandowski also had a brief crossing of swords with his Polish predecessor in the EU commission, Danuta Hubner, in charge of regional policy. She criticised him for allegedly supposing that the policy needed new spending priorities, stressing that she already had started this reform. This is not quite right, he countered.I said we need to strike a balance between innovation and the traditional approach, keeping what tradition has proved to be wise.The Polish ex-MEP is widely seen as a safe bet in terms of getting the thumbs up to join the commission from his former colleagues in parliament.

Barroso forced to defend Bulgarian nominee ahead of hearing
HONOR MAHONY Today JAN 12,10 @ 09:34 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European commission president Jose Manuel Barroso has sent a letter to MEPs telling them that any accusations levelled against the Bulgarian EU commissioner nominee during what is widely expected to be a tough hearing later today must be backed up by proof.Anyone accusing anyone of any wrongdoing should of course present corresponding evidence, as in our democratic societies the rule of law implies that the accuser should prove accusations, he said in a letter sent out on Monday (11 January).Mr Barroso was replying to the Greens group, which had asked him about allegations in the press concerning Rumiana Jeleva, the Bulgarian foreign minister and a former MEP.Some of the allegations have suggested that her husband has connections with organised crime.German paper Die Welt notably ran an article whose title referred to the gangster bride.Ms Jeleva has long been seen as a weak link in the commission line up, with officials admitting that if one would-be commissioner will be forced to go by the parliament, it is likely to be her, pointing to a lack of policy experience and language skills although her CV says she is fluent in German, English and Russian.

Mr Barroso, who is keen to get his commission up and running after over two months of delay due to institutional problems, has suggested Ms Jeleva be given the entirely new portfolio of International Co-operation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. However, the dossier is seen as one of the least important among the 26 commissioners.With some MEPs keen to delve into the commissioners' declarations of interest, a document each one has already submitted to parliament, Mr Barroso was careful in his letter to underline that Ms Jeleva, and not the commission president, is responsible for her statement: All the commissioner-designates' declarations of interest have been looked at carefully in terms of respect for the terms of the Code of Conduct. Ms Jeleva confirmed to me that her declaration, like those of other commissioners, respects the Code.The code of conduct is an internal set of rules governing how commissioners should present their past and current interests. Speaking ahead of the hearings on Monday, UK liberal MEP Andrew Duff said:We are all conscious of the press speculation, especially in the German press, on the family's business concerns. And I am certain that the hearing of her is to be focussed upon some of those issues.Mr Duff, in charge of overseeing how the hearings are carried out, also suggested MEPs would not hesitate to ask Mr Barroso for more information if they felt that a candidate was not forthcoming enough.I think, if at the end of a hearing the committee responsible discovers that it requires further information from president Barroso as to the competences or probity of a commissioner designate then it can ask him for that and if there is a problem then I think that that is the course that will take place.MEPs cannot veto a single candidate but they can threaten to vote against the entire commission if they do not get their way, with the plenary ballot due on 26 January. In 2004, two candidates were withdrawn and one portfolio swap was made in the face of pressure from deputies.

East European criminals and politicians taking libel tourism trips to UK
LEIGH PHILLIPS Today JAN 12,10 @ 17:42 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Organised criminals, businessmen and politicians, particularly from eastern Europe, are flocking to the UK courts to file libel cases to punish and scare off journalists who ask too many awkward questions, threatening the very existence of publications in the east that engage in investigative journalism.English and Welsh courts, where the burden of proof is borne by the accused rather than the complainant, have become the jurisdiction of choice for oligarchs and mafiosi. Saudi billionaires and even totalitarian governments regularly take advantage of UK laws that say that a journalist is guilty until proven innocent, according to a report by an editor with the Center for Investigative Reporting in Bosnia-Herzegovina (CIN), Drew Sullivan.The report, published last week by the US-based Center for International Media Assistance, says that while the problem of libel tourism is an old one, in recent years as daily newspapers, which to a greater or lesser extent had the funds to stand up for their reporters in court, have abandoned investigative reporting, the baton has been taken up by smaller, non-profit web-publishing outfits that are in a much more precarious situation.By publishing online, a media organisation faces the risk of libel and defamation suits in just about every jurisdiction in the world, the report says.

[The UK's] plaintiff-friendly laws, high defamation awards, strong willingness of British courts to accept jurisdiction, and exorbitant cost of legal fees make the United Kingdom perfect for oligarchs, organised crime figures, and wealthy businessmen.Ireland and France too are increasingly popular stopovers on the libel tourism trail, although Paris is attractive not because of the size of the awards (which are capped at €12,000), but because libel is still considered a criminal case. A journalist branded a criminal sometimes serves a complainant's interests much more than bankrupting him or her.In one example from June, 2008, Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov sued Ukraine's Kyiv Post newspaper and Obozrevatel, a news website, over stories about him. The Kyiv Post only had around 100 subscribers in Britain, but fears were such that the Post rapidly settled and apologised.

Obozrevatel, which had almost no visitors from the United Kingdom and published only in Ukrainian, could not afford to defend itself and so Mr Akhmetov won a a default judgment of £50,000.From press accounts and parliamentary testimony, we know that in the UK, there are even lawyers who will read the newspapers just to identify possible cases, call the people involved and suggest a suit in order to drum up business,Mr Sullivan told EUobserver.It's a sort of libel ambulance chasing.Mr Sullivan's own civil society start-up at the CIN, the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, regularly feels the heat from the subjects of its investigations, requiring the publication to have a British lawyer kept on retainer.For our work, we are investigating organised crime figures, politicians, businessmen of fairly high standing in the community. In the 1990s in Russia, say, they would just send some guys to beat us up, but this is a bit harder to do now, so they are using the legal route to do basically the same thing. It's been very effective in eastern Europe.He said that the OCCRP is considering shutting off access to the UK to put an end to the lawsuits: We have maybe two percent of our readership there, but the UK is causing 97 percent of our risk.Media lawyer Mark Stephens, who specialises in battling the libel tourists, explained to this website how things have accelerated in the last few years. It really started off [in the 1950s], with Liberace suing over accusations that he was a homosexual, which he won. This opened the floodgates to a large number of celebrities doing the same thing for many years. This died away more recently when they began to realise that it was cheaper and more effective to spend a million on a PR man than a team of lawyers, and with much less reputational damage,The claimant lawyers then moved on to Russian oligarchs, Gulf billionaires, multinationals and heads of totalitarian states, making London in recent years the libel capital of the world.

But the problem is not limited to the east. In 2007, the Icelandic investment bank Kaupthing sued Ekstra Bladet, a Danish newspaper, after a reporter wrote articles critical of the bank's handling of tax shelters for the wealthy. While Ekstra Bladet stories were republished in English on a Danish website that gets few or no visitors from the UK, British courts accepted jurisdiction after the bank argued that London was a major banking centre and Kaupthing's chief executive resided in Britain. Fearing the huge costs of the case, the paper sought a settlement from the beginning and eventually paid Kaupthing's legal fees and additional damages, apologising to the bank.One of the institutions at the heart of the collapse of the Icelandic economy, Kaupthing nevertheless in December 2009 became the subject of a investigation into the bank's practices by the UK's Serious Fraud Office.

HOMELAND INSECURITY Judge rules against CAIR-D.C.-based Islamic group trying to quash book exposing terror ties January 09, 2010 12:00 am Eastern
By Art Moore 2010 WorldNetDaily

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly


A federal judge ruled against the Council on American-Islamic Relations today in its lawsuit against a father and son who carried out a six-month undercover investigation of the D.C.-based Muslim group, denying a request to conduct discovery – an examination of its opponent's witnesses, facts and documents – prior to hearing a motion to dismiss the case.CAIR is suing P. David Gaubatz and his son, Chris Gaubatz, for allegedly stealing sensitive internal documents and making recordings of officials without consent. Chris Gaubatz, who posed as a Muslim in an internship with CAIR's national office in Washington, took some 12,000 pages of documents destined for a shredder in an attempt, he said, to expose the group's ties to Islamic jihad and terrorism. His father is a former Air Force special agent with extensive Middle East experience who researches the spread of radical Islam in the U.S. and its threat to national security. Get blockbuster of the year, Muslim Mafia, for just $4.95 – today only – from WND's Superstore!

In her ruling today, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., canceled a court hearing scheduled for Tuesday and gave CAIR until Jan. 15 to reply to the Gaubatz's motion to dismiss the case. The motion filed last month by Gaubatz lawyer Daniel Horowitz asserts CAIR has no claim because it does not legally exist. Horowitz explains that just two weeks after CAIR was named by the Justice Department in May 2007 as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist finance case in U.S. history, the organization changed its name to the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action Network. CAIR is not a valid entity and even if it were, the exposure of its inner workings is part of the price it pays for being a controversial group in a hotly contested arena, Horowitz declares in his reply to CAIR's lawsuit. The FBI produced evidence at the trial of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation in 2008 that CAIR was established as a front for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.The material obtained by the Gaubatzes is featured in the book Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America,published by WND Books, an affiliate of WorldNetDaily.com. The book asserts CAIR is acting as a front for a conspiracy of the Muslim Brotherhood – the parent of al-Qaida and Hamas – to infiltrate the U.S. and help pave the way for Saudi-style Islamic law to rule the nation. Horowitz said CAIR had hoped to draw WND Books into the legal battle so it could pull the book off the shelves. But the federal judge's ruling today prevents the group from any legal investigation of the Gabautzes or WND Books under the court's authority before the motion to dismiss the case is heard. In its lawsuit, CAIR sought to stop the Gaubatzes and their associates from posting, publishing, disclosing, or in any way using any documents, recordings, or other information obtained from CAIR, either directly or indirectly.That means pull the book,Horowitz explained.Since CAIR doesn't even exist, what right do they have to question the publisher of the book or anyone else?

Horowitz asked further, if Kollar-Kotelly throws out the case because CAIR filed under a false name, what is the real name that they can use if they refile?In my opinion, the only real name that they can use, that is not a fraud on the court, is Hamas,he said. Horowitz says if CAIR responds to his brief by filing an amendment to change its registered name back to Council on American Islamic-Relations, he will seek an evidentiary hearing to establish whether there is a genuine corporate entity that is CAIR or whether CAIR is a moniker used to represent the activities of a ruling group that oversees (in some way) the operations of other CAIR related groups.
The reply to CAIR also contends the Gaubatzes' actions to expose the group are protected by the First Amendment. Kollar-Kotelly issued a restraining order Nov. 3 barring the Gaubtazes from further use or publication of the material and demanding that they return it to the Muslim group's lawyers. But the FBI also has shown interest in the material, stepping in with a warrant Nov. 23 to examine the papers and recordings, apparently as part of its concern about CAIR and its terrorist links to Hamas.The FBI cut off ties to CAIR one year ago in response to the group's terrorist ties. Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and other senators have called for a government-wide ban on CAIR.Horowitz, a frequent TV legal analyst based in the San Francisco Bay area, represented talk-radio host Michael Savage in his lawsuit against CAIR. Renowned First Amendment lawyer Martin Garbus, who represented Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers case during the Vietnam War, also is defending the Gaubatzes. A third high-profile advocate, Bernard Grimm of Washington, D.C., also is a member of the legal team.

CAIR claims the Gaubatzes used CAIR property and personal information of CAIR's employees and donors to cast the group in a negative, inaccurate light. The group claims it had an expectation of confidentiality that was breached, causing injury to the organization and causing it and its officials and employees to suffer unwarranted harassment up to and including threats of violence.But Horowitz says CAIR's pleading does not make it clear that the documents taken from CAIR were consigned to the shredder. Muslim Mafia, he points out, describes Chris Gaubatz's internship at CAIR as a six-month counterintelligence operation during which he routinely load[ed] the trunk of his car with boxes of sensitive documents and deliver[ed] them into the custody of investigative project leader P. David Gaubatz who in turn stockpiled them at his office in Richmond, Virginia.Chris Gaubatz says CAIR's office manager had asked interns to destroy whole boxes of documents in the basement with a commercial shredder. The other interns didn't want to take on the mundane task, leaving Gaubatz virtually alone in the basement, where he would sometimes spend hours going through boxes and putting together one box that was good stuff and shredding the rest. And then at the end of the day I would just walk down there (to the basement), pick the good box up, and walk out of the building with it,he said.

The Gaubatzes' legal reply to CAIR argues the damages claimed are not specific and, in any case, are related to conduct protected by the First Amendment. The reply says CAIR, which contends it is simply a civil rights group, is trying to bring a debate into the courtroom that actually belongs in the public arena. In contrast to CAIR's description of itself, Horowitz notes, the authors of Muslim Mafia describe CAIR as a full-service terror support group.CAIR's lawsuit tries to bring the debate into the courtroom by confusing its version of how the material was obtained with a claim for damages due to the effects of publication, the brief states. Horowitz calls CAIR's action an impermissible end run around First Amendment protections. He notes that ironically, in CAIR's case against Savage, the group decried this same tactic, alleging that 'fair use' protected CAIR's right to use six minutes of a radio talk show and post it on CAIR's website to illustrate a point.The fact that CAIR is upset or that members may have been threatened does not weaken the First Amendment protections, Horowitz argues.

IMPORTANT NOTE: WND needs your help in supporting the defense of Muslim Mafia co-author P. David Gaubatz and his son Chris against CAIR's ongoing legal attack. Already, the book's revelations have led to formal congressional demands for three different federal investigations of CAIR. In the meantime, however, someone has to defend these two courageous investigators who have, at great personal risk, revealed so much about this dangerous group. Although WND has procured the best First Amendment attorneys in the country for their defense, we can't do it without your help. Please donate to WND's Legal Defense Fund now. Thank you.

FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN Intel agents: 20 bombers ready to strike
Yemen bases producing Muslims prepared to blow up jets January 11, 2010
8:49 pm Eastern 2010 WorldNetDaily

Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.

LONDON – Suspected Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab reportedly has told authorities there are others like him prepared to strike against the United States, and now agents from the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, have confirmed 20 more young Muslims are in Yemen in the final stages of attack preparations, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. Some are believed to be female students, chosen because al-Qaida believes it is easier for them to avoid detection. Under interrogation in his high-security cell, Abdulmuttalab gave his FBI interrogators sufficient details over the weekend to enable the Secret Intelligence Service to track how the bombers are being trained in the desert east of Yemen's capital, Sana, before heading out to the U.K. and the U.S. In a video, Nasser al-Wahayshi, the leader of al-Qaida's Yemeni and Saudi branches, has urged followers to attack all countries involved in opposing the Islamic faith.We will attack from directions you can't imagine, he says. Around him in the video stood dozens of fighters, cradling rocket launchers and machine guns. Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND. But it is the method the used by the Detroit bomber that has launched the biggest manhunt to catch the other bombers before they can try to replicate the Christmas Day plan to destroy Northwest Flight 253.

The MI6 officers based in Yemen say Sana is a fertile ground for recruiting terrorists. Many people have lost their jobs. … They meet members of al-Qaida and are quickly convinced to join the organization,said one intelligence officer. In the depths of a training camp in the desert that was once a route for trafficking in frankincense and myrrh, recruits are taught new ways to launch deadly weapons. Al-Qaida has claimed the killing of a senior Yemeni official, Bassem Tarboush, the head of the country's intelligence service. Shortly afterwards several senior Yemeni officers were murdered. Meanwhile, domestic terrorist recruits have been joined by recruits from Somalia, just across the Red Sea.

SOMETHING IN THE AIR Sarah Palin skips CPAC, accepts tea-party offer
Going Rogue author marches to her own drumbeat January 11, 2010 9:01 pm Eastern
2010 WorldNetDaily

Sarah Palin

In step with the title of her No. 1 best-seller Going Rogue, former GOP vice-presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin is skipping the traditional summit for conservatives this year, the Conservative Political Action Conference, while planning to speak at a tea party event. Palin was not in attendance at the 2009 CPAC and now is not expected at the 2010 meetings in the nation's capital, Feb. 18-20. She initially was listed on the CPAC website as an invited guest. According to a Politico report, a source said Palin does not want to be affiliated with David Keene, the head of the American Conservative Union, which organizes CPAC. Keene recently was in the news for accepting a sponsorship for the conference from GOProud, a homosexual activist group. Politico explained an additional controversy came up over reports Keene asked FedEx for a donation to get the group's support in a bitter legislative battle with rival UPS.The report said a Palin camp source explained Keene's actions led to her decision to stay away from the coming CPAC event, calling it a forum that will place special interests over core beliefs' and pocketbook over policy.That's not what CPAC should be about, and people are tiring, the source told Politico. Palin is taking a stance against this just as she did in Alaska.Learn the secret to reclaiming the nation. Get Taking America Back, Joseph Farah's manifesto for sovereignty, self-reliance and moral renewal

In the report, Keene said the group's relationship with the Palin staff "has always been very cordial and respectful. Gov. Palin has our admiration and we are disappointed that she will not be able to attend CPAC this year, but hope she will attend in the future.Meanwhile, Palin is planning to speak at an event Feb. 4-6 at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tenn., organized by the Tea Party Nation.
Tea Party Nation President Judson Phillips, named one of Tennessee's top 25 political players in 2009, was one of the original tea-party organizers in last February following CNBC anchor Rick Santelli's now famous outburst from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He has helped organize numerous tea parties and mobilized Tennessee taxpayers in the last year with rallies reaching crowds of more than 10,000.

WND founder Joseph Farah

Palin has been confirmed as a speaker at the events, as has WND founder Joseph Farah. To say we are thrilled Joseph Farah is speaking is an understatement, Phillips told WND. He was a tea partier before there was a tea party movement. We're excited that he will be speaking because a major goal of this convention is to inspire people. Joseph is a tremendously inspirational person and speaker, and he will really fire people up and get them excited about going back to their home states and cities and taking this advocacy to the next level.The event also will feature Rep Michele Bachmann, R- Minn.; Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; WND columnist Judge Roy Moore; Phil Valentine, popular radio talk-show host and author of The Conservative Handbook; and Fox News Political Analyst Angela McGlowan. The Tea Party Express will arrive in Nashville for the convention. Additional sponsors of the conference include American Liberty Alliance, Tea Party Emporium, the Leadership Institute, National Taxpayers Union, American Majority, Surge USA and Eagle Forum.

Phillips outlined three main goals of the national convention:

1. Organizers plan to equip attendees with information, effective tools and techniques they can bring back to their groups.
2. The convention will help tea party leaders from across the nation network and make connections with people in the movement.
3. The event is intended to provide some unity within the tea party movement so leaders may work together toward a common goal.

Tea Party Nation doesn't claim to be the leader of the tea party movement; we're just a part of the movement, Phillips said.We've got to work together in 2010 because if we want to beat Obama, Pelosi and Reid this year, we cannot be divided. That's the biggest thing I want to see come out of this convention – folks getting to know one another and working together, as opposed to some of the regrettable splits we've seen over the last few months.Palin also had a run-in with CPAC last year. She already had been announced as a speaker then when she later said she would not come, explaining her staff never confirmed the appearance. In addition to the tea party event, Palin also has accepted an opportunity to speak to the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans in April. The CPAC website lists other planned speakers, including Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Palin continues to step outside the boundaries to which political personalities normally are bound. The New York Times reported today she has signed a multi-year deal to become a regular contributor to the Fox News Channel. The report said a source familiar with the deal said Palin will not have her own program but will act as hostess for an occasional series.

Doomsday Clock to Change This Week LiveScience.com livescience Staff– Mon Jan 11, 7:40 pm ET

The minute hand of the famous Doomsday Clock is set to move this Thursday, and for the first time, anyone with Internet access can watch. Which way the hand will move and by how much have not been made public. The event will take place at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) on Jan. 14 at the New York Academy of Sciences Building in New York City. While the actual clock is housed at the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences offices in Chicago, Ill., a representation of the clock will be changed at Thursday's news conference. (You can watch the live Web feed at www.TurnBackTheClock.org.) The last time the Doomsday Clock minute hand moved was in January 2007, when it was pushed forward by two minutes, from seven to five minutes before midnight. The change was meant to reflect two major sources of potential catastrophe that could bring us closer to doomsday, according to the board of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a magazine focused on warning the world of the dangers that the invention of the atomic bomb helped to unleash. According to the board, the looming dangers included: the perils of 27,000 nuclear weapons, 2,000 of them ready to launch within minutes; and the destruction of human habitats from climate change. The factors influencing the latest Doomsday Clock change include international negotiations on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, expansion of civilian nuclear power, the possibilities of nuclear terrorism, and climate change.

In December 1945, University of Chicago scientists who had helped to develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project created The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.The Bulletin's board of directors then in 1947 came up with the idea of a Doomsday Clock to symbolize these threats. The message is that humans are a few minutes to midnight,where midnight represents destruction by nuclear weapons, climate change and emerging technologies in the life sciences. The hands of the clock move in response to changing world events, marching forward or back depending on the state of the world and the prospects of nuclear war.When the Doomsday Clock debuted in 1947, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was occurring, with the time showing seven minutes to midnight. The time has since changed 18 times.The closest approach to Doomsday occurred in 1953, when the clock was changed to two minutes to midnight after the United States and the Soviet Union each tested thermonuclear devices within nine months of one another.

Mexico opens 2010 with one of its deadliest days By MARTHA MENDOZA, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jan 12, 9:12 am ET

MEXICO CITY – Mexico opened the new year with what could be its most dubious distinction yet in the 3-year-old battle against drug trafficking — 69 murders in one day.The country resembled a grim, statistical dart board Saturday as law enforcement and media reported the deaths from various regions, including 26 in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, 13 in and around Mexico City and 10 in the northern city of Chihuahua.More than 6,500 drug-related killings made 2009 the bloodiest year since President Felipe Calderon declared war on the cartels in late 2006 and deployed 45,000 soldiers to fight organized crime, according to death tallies by San Diego's Trans-Border Institute.Two weeks into 2010, gang bloodshed is becoming more grotesque as drug lords ramp up their attempts at intimidation. Last week a victim's face was peeled from his skull and sewn onto a soccer ball. On Monday, prosecutors in Culiacan identified the remains of 41-year-old former police officer divided into two separate ice chests.You wonder how this will end, and it seems impossible, said Daniel Vega, an architect in the northern city of Monterrey.I doubt Mexico can override drug use, especially since demand for the drugs, as well as all the money and weapons, come from the United States.Using their so-called Narcobarometer, researchers at the University of San Diego's Trans-Border Institute track and analyze murders in Mexico, hoping to find ways to quell the violence. Their tally? More than 20,000 murders since 2001, more than half in the past two years.It does appear that the violence has grown exponentially, but it's not clear that it's necessarily a slippery downward slope from here, institute director David Shirk said, noting that government operations — including a December raid that killed cartel boss Arturo Beltran Leyva — have hit seven of Mexico's eight significant cartels.

Shirk said the remaining, mostly unscathed Sinaloa cartel headed by billionaire gang boss Joaquin El Chapo Guzman may now become dominant, reducing the deadly power struggles.If that happens, it's quite possible that six months from now things will be much calmer, Shirk said.Though almost all of drug-violence victims are somehow involved with cartels, the impact is felt well beyond law enforcement and organized crime.I'm afraid to take to the streets every day because of the violence, and I no longer want to excel economically because it could make me an easy target for a kidnapping, said Silvana Cervantes, a Monterrey nurse.Tijuana resident Fernando Escobedo said he used to spend his evenings at a vibrant strip of clubs in the border city until a recent massacre at one of his hangouts.Now I prefer socializing at houses or parties, with family or lifetime friends, he said.As Mexico tries to develop both politically and economically, the killings jeopardize its international reputation, said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington.The figures in Mexico are so scary that it has produced a subliminal sense that Mexico is a dangerous place and you'd better keep away, he said.

Calderon said last week he would shift focus to job creation and reducing poverty and move the fight against drug cartels that dominated the first half of his presidency to No. 3.Monterrey police officer Delfino Ramos, who grapples with the violence in his daily work, said economic issues are at the root of the problems.So much unemployment pushes people toward crime,he said. Associated Press writers Mariana Martinez in Tijuana and Mark Walsh in Monterrey contributed to this report.