Saturday, November 21, 2009

Pity a nation that despises a passion in its dream, yet submits in its awakening!

Pity a nation that despises a passion in its dream,
yet submits in its awakening!


India will be among top three economies by 2050: US think tank,Haryana gets SEZ proposals worth Rs.50,000 crore.Chinese period drama to open IFFI 2009.Govt plans rice reserve sale in local markets.Chinese writer Su Tong wins Asia's top literary prize!Himachal Pradesh is keen to learn the irrigation and agricultural practices of Israel to boost fruit and crop productivity in the hill state.

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams, Chapter 425

Palash Biswas



A Must Read. The Great Khalil Jibran saw what WE would be doing in PAKISTAN. Amazing foresight, if I may say so.

Fazal Rahmaan

 



 A poem by Khalil Gibran in1934 ( it seems it was written for our current situation! )

 current situation! )


Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.
Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave,
eats a bread it does not harvest,
and drinks a wine that flows not from its own wine-press.

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero,
and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

Pity a nation that despises a passion in its dream,
yet submits in its awakening.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice
save when it walks in a funeral,
boasts not except among its ruins,
and will rebel not save when its neck is laid
between the sword and the block.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox,
whose philosopher is a juggler,
and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting,
and farewells him with hooting,
only to welcome another with trumpeting again.

Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years
and whose strong men are yet in the cradle.

Pity the nation divided into fragments,
each fragment deeming itself a nation

Media is not god: Bal Thackeray

Mumbai, November 21 (ANI): A day after activists of Shiv Sena vandalised the office of television channel IBN Lokmat in Mumbai, party supremo Bala Saheb Thackeray, wrote in the Saturday edition of party mouthpiece, 'Saamna' that media is not god. Meanwhile denouncing the attack, Sanjay Nirupam, legislature of ruling Congress party and former Shiv Sena legislature said that the assault is attack on the freedom of press.
ANI

Prime Minister of India, dr manmohan singh, the Super Slave has landed in United states of America and expressed his concern with the Recession stand Off in Global zionsit War Economy. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is pretty confident that the US will recover from the global economic crisis, thanks to the skills of the US business class and the US educational system.In India, back home, India's annual food inflation, based on wholesale prices, moved up to 14.55 percent for the week ended Nov 7 from 13.68 percent the week before, official data released Thursday showed.On the other hand,  President Barack Obama on Saturday urged Americans to show patience over the economy and argued that his just-concluded Asia trip was critical for U.S. exports, countering criticism he had returned empty-handed.The Senate Banking Committee said on Friday it will hold a hearing on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's renomination to a second term on Dec. 3, putting the central bank chief under scrutiny at a time when the Fed is facing intense criticism in Congress.

The first substantive bilateral engagement between rime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama on November 24 here is expected to set forth the framework of how the Indo-US relationship would develop in the next few years.

In a terse snub to the BJP and its 'India Shining' campaign, Congress's youth icon Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said his party, unlike the saffron brigade, believes in alleviating poverty and not in eliminating the poor.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati has accused the central government of "deliberately delaying" the decision to withdraw the ordinance on sugarcane pricing in order to gain political mileage.In a statement issued on her behalf, BSP state president Swami Prasad Maurya late on Friday, said the central government deliberately delayed the decision on withdrawing the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP), which was the root of all the trouble that culminated in a sugarcane growers' demonstration in New Delhi Thursday.


The 52-week average prices of onions were higher by 35 percent and potatoes became costlier by 30.7 percent, according to the data on wholesale price index released by the commerce ministry.

Statistics also showed average prices of vegetables had gone up 18 percent, pulses 17 percent, rice 16 percent, wheat 5 percent, fruits 7 percent and milk 8 percent.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Wednesday said here that the government may have to import rice if the kharif crop output was inadequate. Floods and the worst dry spell in nearly four decades in the country have hurt farm output causing rise in food prices.

This was the third week for which data on wholesale price index was issued as per the new guidelines approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs that restricts the disclosure of index numbers to primary articles and fuels.

The full data is now made available on a monthly basis as opposed to the weekly release earlier.

The Reserve Bank of India and the government have warned India's annual inflation rate based on wholesale price index for all commodities will rise to 6-6.5 percent by March, while the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council has pegged the rate at 6 percent.

'I hope the United States will recover from last year's disaster,' he said in an interview with Newsweek-Washington Post in New Delhi ahead of his state visit to the US for a summit with President Barack Obama Nov 24.

'With the entrepreneurial skills of the US business class and the US educational system, I have no doubt that the United States will overcome this temporary setback,' Manmohan Singh said when asked if he believed that the economic crisis has eroded the US' leadership role in Asia.

On how India itself seemed to have escaped the downturn, Manmohan Singh said the Indian banking system is better regulated and didn't allow heavy investment in these types of assets.

Noting that India's export growth rate has sharply declined and the flow of capital has also been affected, he said: 'But more recently, capital has started coming back to our country. Before the crisis, our growth rate was at 8.5 percent to 9 percent per year.

This year it will be about 6.5 percent. In two years, we should go back to 9 percent growth rates.'

Asked what he would like to achieve in the next few years, the Prime Minister said his agenda was for a 'growth rate of about 9 percent per annum and to ensure that this growth is an inclusive growth - that the benefits of development reach out to all sectors of our population.'

Asked if he had made a difference to India as prime minister and what would be his legacy, Manmohan Singh said: 'I hope I've made some difference. That's for posterity to judge.'

India, the world's second biggest rice grower, plans to sell the grain in local markets from reserves to douse fears of shortage caused by the worst monsoon in three decades, Farm Minister Sharad Pawar said on Saturday.Reuter reports.On the other hand,Chinese writer Su Tong has won Asia's top literary prize with a bleak novel about a disgraced Communist Party official's attempts to rebuild his life, trumping a clutch of Indian writers on the shortlist.As Italy arrests Pakistanis suspected of Mumbai links and TV channels got the Screaming News Break  to divert the Agrarian Crisis taking centre stage in the parliament and outside.Italian anti-terrorist police have arrested two Pakistanis suspected of helping to finance the Islamic militant group responsible for the attacks on Mumbai in November 2008, that killed 166 people.Police said in a statement on Saturday the men, identified using leads from Indian authorities and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, sent funds overseas using the money transfer business they owned in the north Italian town of Brescia.Meanwhile, Experts at the ongoing Krishi Mela or agricultural fair here are trying hard to convince farmers of Karnataka about the benefits of switching to organic farming, which is high yielding and eco-friendly.while, Himachal Pradesh is keen to learn the irrigation and agricultural practices of Israel to boost fruit and crop productivity in the hill state.

Meeting in the backdrop of Obama's visit to China, where Indo-Pak ties found its way into the Sino-US joint statement much to the anguish of New Delhi, it would also be an opportunity for the two leaders to set forth their vision of relationship and inform the people of the two countries how they want to take forward this relationship.

After the one-on-one meeting on Tuesday, both Singh and Obama leaders are expected to come out with a joint statement, Indian officials said.

This is likely to set the tone of the 'Phase Three' of the relationship between the two countries, the foundation to which was laid during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to India in July, where the two countries announced the start of a strategic dialogue.

Clinton has termed the start of the relationship with the Obama Presidency as the US-India 3.0 or the third phase.

Besides five pillars of the strategic dialogue, the two leaders are expected to spend considerable amount of time on discussing cooperation between the two countries in the field of counter-terrorism.

Obama is also expected to brief the prime minister on his recent trip to Asia, in particular to China and his impression about China, the sources said.

In the process of searching the right policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Obama is also expected to discuss the issue with Singh and seek his "valuable inputs".

The Obama Administration considers India as a major player in Afghanistan and has been highly appreciative of India's massive developmental works in that country.

While officials from both sides are reluctant to compare the current State visit with that of 2005 when the landmark Indo-US civilian nuclear deal was announced, they do concede that several new initiatives could be announced as a result of the discussion between the two leaders.

Besides counter-terrorism, other prominent areas include green technology, education, health, agriculture and trade and commerce.

The incomplete agenda of the Indo-US nuclear deal too is likely to be taken up by the two sides ?" with both of them reiterating their commitment to the historic agreement and the need for its implementation at the earliest.

Climate change too is expected to be on the agenda of the two leaders.

Farm Minister Sharad Pawar , the Don of the Maharashtra Sugar Lobby, ruled out any plans to import rice from Thailand and Vietnam amid positive response to the government sponsored procurement programme in northern producing states.

India's worst monsoon in 37 years is expected to reduced this year's output of summer sown rice by about 15 million tonnes.

"We are not very eager to import rice as procurement scenario has improved recently," Pawar told reporters.

He said the government run rice purchase programme was getting positive response from growers in the main producing states like Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Fearing the supply shortfall, India floated import tenders last month via three state owned companies to buy 30,000 tonnes of rice, but did not finally buy banking on healthy grain stocks.

"We have sufficient grain stocks, much higher than the buffer stocks," the minister said.

On Oct. 1, rice stocks at government warehouses were 84 percent higher year-on-year at 14.5 million tonnes, while wheat stocks were 23 percent more at 27 million tonnes.

Buffer stock for rice stands at 5.2 million tonnes, while the mandatory stock for wheat stands at 11 million tonnes.

Rice purchases by Indian grain procurement agencies since the start of new marketing year in October were 10 percent higher at 11.2 million tonnes.

The minister also said a contentious clause in a federal government order on sugarcane pricing was dropped as demanded by farmers' lobby.

On Thursday, thousands of Indian farmers protested against low state-set sugarcane price and forced adjournment of the first day of parliament.

he 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), scheduled to kickstart in Goa on November 23, will open with the Chinese historical drama ''Wheat''. The film will open the 10-day long festival, which will have veteran actress Waheeda Rehman as the chief guest and Bollywood star Asin as the special guest at its inaugural ceremony.On the other hand, Discerning a dramatic shift in the world's economic balance of power, a US think tank has projected that by 2050 India would become one of the three largest economies of the world with the US and China.Meanwhile,The CBI today arrested Satyam's internal audit head V S Prabhakar Gupta for allegedly fabricating account books, just days before it is due to file a second chargesheet in the multi-crore fraud at the IT firm.Inflated peripherry Economy is tagged with US war economy and the Ruling Hegemony is in love with Nuclear Super Power Dream!China and japan have their production system Intact and know well how to manage its human Resources. We have NO Indigenous Aboriginal Production set up or Livelihood and surrenedered our Economy to Foreign capital Inflow for false Moon Mission and Mars colonisation. They have opened the Great Walls and Deep Oceans to get markets Abroad and as we Produce Nothing, we have reduced ourselves as marketing and sales Agents and do import Food grains, oil and Onoipns  to survive as we have Destroyed the AGRARIAN economy as well as Society.

'There is a lack of knowledge among farmers about the benefits of organic farming,' R.S. Kulkarni, director of extension, University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Bangalore, told IANS.

'We are trying to promote organic farming among the state's farmers as it is the best eco-friendly method of cultivation,' he said.

The four-day annual event, organised by the UAS-B, along with several allied government departments, started Thursday at the sprawling UAS campus here.

According to Kulkarni, farmers are interested to 'learn organic farming methods, and are participating at the fair from across the state'.

However, they are confused whether their crop yield would go down if they switch to organic farming.

Dispelling such doubts, experts at the UAS cited examples of model organic farms at Hiriyur town, around 160 km from here, where use of cattle urine has enhanced crop production.

Earlier at the inaugural function of the mela, state Agriculture Minister S.A. Ravindra had said the farmers should follow 'healthy and eco-friendly' agriculture methods.

'This can be achieved by adopting organic farming and bio-pesticides,' Ravindra said.

The university has pioneered in research and development on organic farming in tune with the state government's policy.

A premier research institute has been established at the Gandhi Krishi Vikasa Kendra (GKVK) campus here by UAS to promote multidisciplinary research on organic farming.

More than 200 stalls were set up at the agri fair to provide information to farmers on organic farming, hybrid cultivation, integrated cultivation, new modern technologies and equipment, bank loans, animal husbandry, horticulture and fishery.

Farmers have also been briefed about the modern and improved ways of reaping maximum benefit from subsidiary occupations like animal husbandry, dairy farming, sheep rearing, poultry farming and pisciculture at the fair.

An interaction meet between farmers and experts has also been organised as a part of the event.

'It has been a good learning experience for me,' said Bhaagavva, a farmer from Nitturu village in Davangere district, around 260 km from here.

A total of 150,000 people visited the fair in the last three days.

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, who returned here Saturday from Israel after participating in a water management conference, said the state wanted to study technology related to sprinkler and drip irrigation.

'We do not have much scope for flow irrigation in the state. We will send a team to Israel to study sprinkler and drip irrigation technology,' Dhumal told IANS.

Israel's area is less than half that of Himachal Pradesh but its per hectare productivity is higher. The chief minister, who visited some orchards in the Mediterranean country, said farmers were able to take yields in small time gaps.

He said the per hectare density of trees in Israel was between 1,000 and 1,500 and quality norms for fruits were quite stringent.

Dhumal, who was joined by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal at the conference, said 10 companies had made a presentation to the two states.

Punjab has been fast witnessing a depletion of underground water. A report prepared by the Water Resources Ministry based on an assessment of 137 blocks in the state revealed that 103 blocks had over-exploited underground water.

 ''Wheat'' is set in 260 BC when China was mired in a long and bloody war between Qin and Zhao dynasties. The inaugural ceremony, hosted by actors Kabir Bedi and Divya Dutta, will be attended by Governor of Goa S S Sidhu, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni.

The festival is divided into various sections: Film Programmes, Non Film Programmes, Film Bazaar, Short Film Center and Cultural Activities. The festival would conclude on December 3 with presentation of Golden and Silver Peacock Awards for Best Film and Best Director, the Special Jury Awards as also the Vasudha and Golden Lamp Tree Awards for the short films.

Malayalam star Mammootty will be the chief guest at the closing ceremony. The Indian screenings would also feature Golden Jubilee Retros of Asha Parekh, Sharmila Tagore and Saumitra Chatterjee.

Su's novel, "The Boat to Redemption" is about a womanising Party official who castrates himself after being banished to a river barge with his young son just after the tumultuous Cultural Revolution. It won the Man Asian Literary prize, the regional equivalent of the Man Booker prize.

"I feel this prize is independently judged," Su told Reuters.

"So it's important to me because I'm a writer who is not famous for winning prizes. I'm more famous for not winning prizes," added the writer whose dark, provocative works are popular but have sometimes put him at odds with the authorities.

The panel of three judges, including Indian writer Pankaj Mishra and Irish writer Colm Toibin, described Su's novel as a picaresque, political fable as well as "a parable about the journeys we take in our lives, the distance between the boat of our desires and the dry land of our achievement."

Su is perhaps best known for his novella "Wives and Concubines", written in 1989 and which was adapted into the art-house favourite and Oscar-nominated film, "Raise the Red Lantern", by Chinese director Zhang Yimou.

He has written six novels including 2006's "Rice and My Life as Emperor".

The Man Asian Literary Prize aims to recognise the region's top writers and give them a platform to reach a broader, international audience. It is awarded annually to a work not yet published into English, with the inaugural prize in 2007 won by China's Jiang Rong for "Wolf Totem".

This year's shortlist included Indian writers Omair Ahmad for "Jimmy the Terrorist", Siddharth Chowdhury for "The Descartes Highlands" and Nitasha Kaul for "Residue" as well as Filipino author Eric Gamalinda for "Day Scholar".

"The intellectual and literary ferment of contemporary Asia: how its hectically modernising societies are generating some of most interesting art and the most intense reckoning with history in the world today," said Mishra, one of the judges.

Ironically, the Brahaminical Marxists pose as the best defenders of Sovereignity toeing Capitalist ways and copuled with Ruling Bastardised Brahaminical hegemony . Thus, The Left parties are opposed to any third party intervention -- be it by the US or China -- in India and Pakistan issues, a Communist Party of India-Marxist Politburo member said here Saturday.

'We are very clear and have made our stand clear that as far as India-Pakistan issues are concerned, there is no role for any third party. It is a bilateral matter. There is neither scope nor requirement of third party intervention, whether that of the US or China,' Yechury said.

He was speaking to reporters on the second day of the three-day 11th international meeting of communist parties here.

Yechury said some representatives from the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the conclave told him that Beijing won't interfere in any bilateral issue unless asked to do so.

'Unless somebody comes and asks for help, CPC members said China won't interfere,' Yechury said, adding it is known that India won't seek third party mediation.

'Hence China's role doesn't come into the picture as it cannot be envisaged nor is it necessary.'

Yechury's remarks come after the controversial China-US joint statement in which both the countries voiced support for improvement in India-Pakistan ties and their readiness to promote peace and stability in south Asia.

Growing at a projected rate of 6.19 percent between 2009 and 2050, India would grow most rapidly among the G-20 group of world's leading economies the making Indian economy 97 percent as large that of the US in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), two experts at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote.

In an article on 'The G-20 in 2050', in the November 2009 issue of International Economic Bulletin of the think tank they noted that in dollar terms, India's GDP is expected to increase by 16 times from the current $1.1 trillion to $17.8 trillion by 2050.

'The world's economic balance of power is shifting dramatically,' noted experts Uri Dadush, the director of Carnegie's

International Economics Programme and Bennett Stancil a Junior Fellow in the Programme.

By 2050, the United States and Europe, long the traditional leaders of the global economy, will be joined in economic size by emerging markets in Asia and Latin America, they wrote.

China will become the world's largest economy in 2032, and grow to be 20 percent larger than the United States by 2050, the two experts predicted suggesting 'over the next forty years, nearly 60 percent of G20 economic growth will come from Brazil, China, India, Russia, and Mexico alone.'

Over the next 40 years, the G20 GDP is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 3.6 percent, rising from $38.3 trillion in 2009 to $161.5 trillion in 2050, in real US dollar terms.

Nearly 60 percent of this $123 trillion dollar expansion will come from Brazil, Russia, India, China and Mexico (BRIC+M), Dadush and Stancil projected.

'These five economies will grow at an average rate of 6.1 percent per year, raising their share of G20 GDP from 18.7 percent in 2009 to 49.2 percent in 2050.'

China, India, and the United States will emerge as the world's three largest economies in 2050. Their total GDP, in real US dollar terms, will be over 70 percent more than that of the other G20 countries combined, they said.

In China and India alone, GDP is predicted to increase by nearly $60 trillion-the current world GDP-but the wide disparity in per capita GDP among these three will persist.

Of the G20 countries, India is predicted to grow most rapidly, but its current modest size will prevent it from surpassing either China or the United States in real US dollar terms. India's PPP GDP, however, will be 97 percent as large as that of the United States by 2050.

A growing population - India is expected to become the world's most populous nation in 2031 - and an average exchange rate appreciation of 0.9 percent per year will push annual GDP growth to an average of 6.2 percent, the two experts said.

India's US dollar GDP will balloon to $17.8 trillion in 2050, sixteen times its current $1.1 trillion level, Dadush and Stancil predicted.

Despite impressive GDP growth in the developing world, relative per capita GDP (or wealth) will remain low. By 2050, the five largest economies, in both real US dollar and PPP terms, will include three of the G20's poorest-India, China, and Brazil, they said.

In 2009, by contrast, seven of the G20's largest eight members were among its richest, in US dollar terms.

Haryana gets SEZ proposals worth Rs.50,000 crore

 Haryana has received more than 100 proposals for setting up special economic zones (SEZs), which will bring investments worth Rs.50,000 crore and create 1.5 million jobs, a senior government official said Saturday.

'The state has received over 100 proposals for setting up SEZs, out of which about 70 are for setting up IT SEZs,' Financial Commissioner and Principal Industries Secretary Yudhvir Singh Malik told IANS.

'They will bring investments worth Rs.50,000 crore besides providing employment to about 15 lakh people,' Singh said.

Out of the 70 IT SEZ proposals, three SEZs have already become operational, six have been notified by the state government and 35 formally approved by the central government.

'Haryana has also approved 74 cyber or IT parks in the state, out of which 27 have been granted licences. The export of software this year has been of the order of Rs.21,000 crore, against Rs.18,000 crore last year,' Malik said.

The state government has been paying enough attention to the growth of the IT sector, he said.

'To support IT exports, the government has formulated an IT policy, wherein a number of incentives like five-year exemption on payment of electricity duty, rebate on stamp duty for new IT units, priority in loans, relaxation in pollution norms and continuous and uninterrupted power supply have been provided,' Malik said.

During the last four-and-a-half years, the state has been able to attract investments to the tune of Rs.40,000 crore.

During this period, the state has received foreign direct investment (FDI) to the tune of Rs.9,000 crore, as against the total FDI of Rs.12,500 crore received in the state since its inception.

Gold touches another high, silver crosses 29-K level

Gold prices sky-rocketed to yet another historic peak in the bullion market here today, sparked by frantic buying spree from stockists and traders amid supportive overseas cues. Silver too conquered another milestone by crossing over the psychological Rs 29-K level on intense industrial buying.

The white metal achieved the Rs 29,000 mark from Rs 28,000 in short span of just five straight trading session. Standard gold (99.5 purity) strengthened by Rs 160 per 10 grams to close at Rs 17,455 from overnight closing level of Rs 17,295.

Pure gold (99.9 purity) also rose by a similar margin to end at Rs 17,540 per 10 grams as against Rs 17,380 yesterday. Silver ready (.

999 fineness) spurted by Rs 335 per kg to finish at Rs 29,190 from yesterday''s closing level of Rs 28,855. In the International market, gold futures rose on Friday in New York for a sixth straight session to a new record high.

Gold for December delivery firmed up by USD 4.90 to conclude at USD 1,146.80 an ounce. However, December silver fell slightly to USD 18.44 an ounce.

PSU bank consolidation a long-drawn process: PNB chief

 Notwithstanding the government''s intention of bringing about consolidation in the PSU banking space, Punjab National Bank chairman KR Kamath said today that it''s going to be a long-drawn process. Unlike the past, when mergers were a kind of "bailout" and "distress marriage" to protect the interest of depositors, the one being talked about now is "arranged marriage" where suitors can take their time, he said here.

The government had earlier this week kicked off a discussion process towards consolidation in the PSU banking space at a meeting with the chiefs of five large PSU banks, including PNB. "Consolidation has been in talks since the past three years. It''s being talked about today also," Kamath said, adding, "but it''s not happening tomorrow or next month.

It''s a long way. It''s in a very, very nascent stage.

" He pointed out that "there are things to be put in place" in terms of requirements, including amendments. The PNB chairman also opined that mergers and acquisitions going forward would be a kind of "arranged marriage", and not "distressed" or "bailout" ones, forced to protect depositors'' interests, as witnessed earlier.

Reddys' mines flout rules, so freeze work: SC panel

After successfully downsizing Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, the Reddy brothers of Bellary now have run into a problem.

The Central Empowered Committee (Environment and Forests) of the Supreme Court has recommended that all mining activity in Obulapuram in Andhra Pradesh be suspended till an independent body fixes the boundaries of the mining area again.

The panel slammed the Andhra Pradesh government for "trying to cover up illegal mining done by M/s Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) in the unalloted forest areas outside the approved mining leases."

The Committee in its report submitted on Friday concluded that by reshaping borders and boundaries, illegal mining had been done by OMC. Owned by mining baron and Karnataka Toursim Minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, OMC may not be allowed to resume mining going by the recommendations of the Central Empowered Committee.

Coming down heavily on the Andhra Pradesh Government for giving a clean chit to the OMC, the Committee has stated that there are substantial differences and serious discrepancies in the mining lease boundaries determined and fixed now by the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department vis-à-vis the boundaries of the approved mining leases.

Rubbishing the state government's report of April 28, 2009 which dismissed allegations of illegal mining by OMC, the Committee observed: "The objectivity, fairness and impartiality which is expected from a State Government is shockingly lacking here and does not inspire confidence."

The report adds: "The CEC, after examining the matter, is of the considered view that the demarcation of the boundaries of the five mining leases and the conclusion reached by the State of Andhra Pradesh that M/s OMC is not involved in any illegal mining in the forest area outside its mining lease area suffers from serious defects and inconsistencies and is not at all in conformity with the approved mining leases."

The Reddys were given leases of three mines, measuring 25.98, 39.50 and 68.5 hectares at Obulapuram and H. Siddapuram villages in Anantapur district in 2002, 2006 and 2007.

The report said: "The location of the mining lease of M/s OMC (25.98 ha) now fixed by the Andhra Pradesh Forest Department is wrong and unacceptable. Their effort appears to have been to cover up the illegal mining done by M/s OMC in the unalloted forest areas outside the approved mining leases. This is simply not acceptable and vitiates the entire process of fixation of mining lease boundaries by the State of Andhra Pradesh."

The Committee has also recommended that after borders are fixed, only those mining companies that carried out mining within the approved mining leases may be permitted to resume mining operations.
Sreenivas Janyala

Naidu threatens to stop movement of illegally mined iron ore

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Saturday threatened to stop transport of iron ore in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh after a central empowered committee appointed by the Supreme Court slammed illegal mining activity by a firm owned by Karnataka Tourism Minister G. Janardhan Reddy on the Andhra-Karnataka border.

TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu told a news conference Saturday that if the government failed to stop mining activity in Anantapur district by the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) in two days, his party would stop trucks transporting iron ore.

Naidu, who is running a campaign against illegal mining, demanded that the government immediately cancel all mining leases and seize iron ore in the region.

He alleged that Chief Minister K. Rosaiah, like his Karnataka counterpart B.S. Yeddyurappa, had surrendered to the mining 'mafia' and had shut his eyes to the illegal activities of the OMC.

'The Rosaiah government should be ashamed of itself after reading the report of the central empowered committee,' he said.

The committee, in its report submitted to the Supreme Court Friday, also pulled up the Andhra Pradesh government for not being impartial and recommended that all mining activity be suspended until fresh boundaries of the mining leases are carried out.

Andhra Pradesh's minister for Panchayati Raj B. Satyanarayana Saturday said the government would take necessary action after going through the committee's report.

OMC is facing allegations that it is carrying out illegal mining in the lease areas of other mining companies, forest land and also indulging in illegal transport of iron ore between the two states.

Naidu said the committee's report had vindicated his party's stand that OMC looted public wealth with full support from then chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

Naidu has alleged that the illegal mining had caused a loss of Rs.10,000 crore to the state during the last few years.

'They are illegally mining 3,000 tonnes of iron ore, thus looting Rs.10 crore of public wealth every day,' he said.

The TDP chief alleged that Janardhan Reddy, through this ill-gotten money, had become a powerful 'mafia' and even 'bought' 50 legislators in Karnataka to stage a revolt against Yeddyurappa.

'Unfortunately BJP surrendered to this mafia to save its government,' he said.

Naidu reiterated that Janardhan Reddy also pumped in money into Sakshi, the Telugu daily and television channel owned by Rajasekhara Reddy's son and Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.

The Andhra Pradesh government had Nov 10 announced a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the alleged illegal mining.

Janardhan Reddy has denied allegations of illegal mining and offered to surrender his mining business and quit politics if the allegations were proved. He also denied business links with Jaganmohan Reddy.

Janardhana Reddy's elder brother Karunakara Reddy is the Karnataka revenue minister. Their third sibling G. Somasekhara Reddy is also a member of the assembly.

The powerful Reddy brothers hail from Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district but they have made Karnataka's iron ore rich Bellary district bordering Andhra Pradesh their home.

Editors Guild condemns Sena attack on TV channel
The Editors Guild of India Saturday strongly condemned the attacks on offices of the Mumbai-based Marathi channel IBN-Lokmat allegedly by Shiv Sena activists and said it was an assault on journalists' right to expression.

'The attacks on the news channel cannot just be dismissed as an act of mere vandalism. It is an attack on the entire journalistic community, their right to expression and is a vicious and savage assault on all norms of civilized behaviour,' the guild said in a statement.

Shiv Sena activists Friday vandalised the offices of the IBN-Lokmat television channel in north-east Mumbai and in Pune and assaulted journalists to protest the alleged misquoting of party chief Bal Thackeray's remarks on cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. The attack has drawn condemnation from all quarters.

The guild noted that the attacks suggested that the deterrence factor in a law abiding society had completely gone missing.

'Such brutal attacks continue to happen because the state governments have failed to act against the ring-leaders behind such violence,' the statement said.

'The guild demands the government not only ensure harshest possible legal punishment for the mob which attacked the office, but also ensure full justice is done by ensuring the masterminds behind such acts be brought to book as well.'

Govt backs off on sugarcane pricing
TNN 21 November 2009, 05:33am IST
NEW DELHI: Pushed to the backfoot by Opposition protests, the Centre on Thursday blinked and announced it would roll back the controversial
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clause in the sugarcane-related amendments which shifted the financial burden of sugar mills on to state governments.

Leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee told an all-party meeting that the government would drop the recently introduced clause from the Sugarcane (control) Order. This stipulated that the gap between prices announced by state above the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) fixed by the Centre be paid by state governments. The ordinance introducing FRP, however, remains untouched.

This may end the deadlock which has not let the winter session of Parliament get under way beyond customary invocation of the national song and oath-taking by new entrants.

Speaker Meira Kumar told TOI, ''I hope the House will resume normal business from Monday now that the issue had been resolved.'' She regretted that two of 23 days of the session had been lost without any business. It was an unrelenting Opposition joining hands across the ideological divide which forced the UPA's hand.

The government may have received only a brief respite from the powerful sugarcane farmers' stir by agreeing to roll back the order that put the onus on states to pay the difference between the Centre's "fair and remunerative price" and the rates set by state governments.

While the government succumbed before the political might of farmers backed by a combined Opposition, the decision undos its effort to counter a Supreme Court judgment validating SAP. Now the Centre is likely to face fresh legal claims to make good the difference between SAP and levy prices. Sources pointed out that allowing the government to retain its right to levy sugar without being exposed to claims from mills rested on the SAP losing its legal and political sanction. The SC had ruled that SAP would be taken into account in calculating arrears owed to mill owners who had petitioned the court.

It is now being anticipated that the Centre is vulnerable to the argument that FRP had been brought in only to undo the SC ruling on arrears so as to protect the pecuniary interests of the government. Even if the Centre gets out of some Rs 14,000 crore in arrears that it may have been saddled with, there is no clarity on who will foot the bill for the "loss" to mills.

A ministerial source said FRP did not necessarily mean a loss for the mills as the price was calculated on the basis of costs incurred. Officials said FRP was a "low-risk, medium-gain" option for farmers as it might depress prices a bit in a year when sugarcane was in high demand, but it would protect agriculturists in case of a glut.
The agriculture ministry has been at pains to argue that FRP was to be seen as a floor price and
Congress may have lost time in making this point when RLD leader Ajit Singh was whipping up sentiments in western UP. By the time the farmers arrived at the gates of Parliament, government was left with no option but to undo its own ordinance.

The two-day blockade in Parliament, aggravated by farmers' march to the Capital, and the political cost of being seen as ''anti-farmer'' in Uttar Pradesh and elsewhere added to the urgency which saw government shift its stand on the twin amendments of the agriculture ministry.

While the Opposition wasted no time in claiming victory, government has also moved swiftly to remove scope for any future political trouble on this count. The agriculture ministry is urgently drafting a bill to amend the Essential Commodities Act to remove confusion over whose responsibility it is to make payments to sugarcane farmers. The bill will seek to amend Section 3(iii)(c) of the ECA to make it clear that the Centre will announce a fair and remunerative price (FRP) for levy sugar — 20% of the total production that is earmarked for PDS — while payment for the rest of the crop will be done by mills in accordance with the State Advised Price (SAP).

The change eliminates room for any interpretation that it is the state governments, and not the millers, who are responsible for paying the SAP for non-levy sugar. The confusion arose because of the ordinance that was promulgated a month ago to get around a 2008 judgment of the Supreme Court asking the Centre to factor in not just the Statutory Minimum Price but also the SAP for determining the rate of purchase of levy sugar. SMP is lower than SAP and with the court order asking the Centre to undertake the exercise retrospectively, Centre was naturally impelled to devise legal means to avoid a huge financial burden of Rs 14,000 crore.

Its task was complicated because of ambivalence over who would be required to foot the bill if rate of levy sugar was revised retrospectively as per SC order. The provision in ordinance slapping additional support price on sugar on states had made them protest that they did not have the money for this. It had created confusion in minds of sugarcane farmers whether they would at all get the state advised price, over and above FRP, for their produce. The change is a big relief for UPA allies like DMK as well as Congress MPs like Jagadambika Pal who have been raising sugarcane issue in UP. Pal said, "I urged PM to remove the clause which says the difference of SAP higher than FRP be paid by states."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Govt-backs-off-on-sugarcane-pricing/articleshow/5253670.cms

A death-knell for Bangladesh By Ali Sukhanver

Sylhet, the beautiful paradise of Bangladesh, is going to turn into a vast barren wasteland very soon. Located on the banks of the winding pair of rivers Surma River and Jaintia and surrounded by Khasi and Tripura hills, this city is situated in the north-eastern region of Bangladesh. The Sylhet region is well known for its tea gardens and tropical forests. The valley has good number of big natural depressions, called 'haors'. During winter these haors are vast stretches of green land, but in the rainy season they turn into turbulent seas. These haors provide a sanctuary to the millions of migratory birds who fly from Siberia across the Himalayas to avoid the severe cold there. India has started the construction of the Tapaimukh on the Barrak River in Manipur State just 100 km off the Bangladesh border. It is likely to affect two major rivers of Bangladesh; Surma and Kushiarra which are life line for the Sylhet region. The Dam will be 390 meters long and 162.8 meters high. It will be at an altitude of about 180 meter above mean sea level with a maximum reservoir level of 178 meters. The construction of this dam has stirred a lot of fear in Bangladesh because the whole economic prosperity of Bangladesh depends upon the river system.

Since 1975 the sharing of river waters has been a bone of contention between India and Bangladesh. The construction of Farraka and Teesta barrage from India has already added salt to injury...

Read full article at http://www.markthetruth.com/pakistan-a-the-world/201-a-death-knell-for-bangladesh.html

____________
 
When you start, you never stop. If you stop, you may never be able to start again.
 
Sajjad Ahmad
 
Freelance Writer & Researcher
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
 
Emails:
sajjad_pak@hotmail.com
sajjadahmad@markthetruth.com
 
WebSite:
http://www.markthetruth.com

Call For Support

Contract workers of Eastern Coalfields Limited are going to sit in a dharna in front of the gate of ECL Head quarter, Sanctoria, Asansol from 23rd November,2009 for the demand of identity card, Counter Payment, Minimum Wage, PF, Medical facility. A copy of notice for Dharna to management of Eastern Coalfields Limited and a handbill for propaganda at locality are attaching herewith.

 

From

SUDIPTA PAUL,

SECRETARY

ADHIKAR

Organisation For Labour's Right, Movement,Labour Research and Social Welfare

BARTORIA, NEAR NARSAMUDA COLLIERY

MITHANI, ASANSOL

CONTACT NO: 9933097580,9932577235

THE PEACE AND JUSTICE FOUNDATION

11006 Veirs Mill Rd, STE L-15, PMB 298

Silver Spring, MD. 20902

 

November 18, 2009

 

EMERGENCY RALLY FOR LYNNE STEWART

TODAY, 4PM, NYC

 

 Assalaamu Alaikum (Greetings of Peace):

 

As the obvious became official, when President Obama directly acknowledged for the first time that the notorious prison facility at Guantanamo Bay will NOT close by the January deadline he set (thanks in large part to a democratic-controlled congress), we learn that the "people's lawyer" Lynne Stewart and her two Muslim co-defendants, Ahmed Sattar and Mohamed Yusry, had their convictions affirmed by an appeals court. (see report below)

 

It also appears that government prosecutors were successful in their attempt to secure a stiffer sentence for this 70 year old grandmother, warrior of the poor and politically abused. She is scheduled to be back in court this afternoon at 4pm.

 

The Peace And Justice Foundation joins the growing chorus of support for this people's lawyer; we urge our friends and supporters in the New York Tri-state area to attend the RALLY TODAY at Foley Square (across from the federal courthouse at 500 Pearl Street in lower Manhattan).

 

We fully agree with the feeling on the street that the government's original indictment against Stewart was meant to serve as a warning to any attorney courageous enough to provide a vigorous defense to any Muslim charged with "terrorism."

 

El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan

 
 
ALSO: Dr. Aaafia Siddiqui in court tomorrow (see forwarded info below)

 

 

P.S. Also, please be advised that we have secured the Radcliff Room of The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, for The Interfaith Dialogue on War and Peace. The date will be Thursday, December 3, 2009, from 11am – 3pm.

 

(Additional details will soon follow)
 
 
 
 
 
NEW YORK LAW JOURNAL
 


Lynn Stewart walks to her sentencing after a rally in Thomas Paine Park, Foley Square, October 16, 2006.
Image: Rick Kopstein / New York Law Journal
 
 

Breaking News: Circuit Upholds Lynne Stewart's Conviction and Revokes Her Bail
By Mark Hamblett

November 18, 2009

Disbarred defense attorney Lynne Stewart's bail was revoked this morning as a federal appeals court affirmed her conviction and criticized the short prison sentence she was ordered to serve for providing material support to a terror conspiracy.

A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said that Southern District Judge John G. Koeltl must take a second look at the sentence of two years and four months he meted out in 2006, a stretch that Ms. Stewart observed she could do "standing on her head." (NYLJ, Oct. 17, 2006)

Judges Robert D. Sack and Guido Calabresi were in the majority in United States v. Stewart, 06-5015-cr, holding that Judge Koeltl needed to revisit the weight he gave to mitigating factors that led him to give Ms. Stewart the sentence. The government had asked for 30 years.

See a timeline of the Stewart case.

Judge John M. Walker Jr. dissented, saying the majority did not go far enough and that he was "at a loss" for "any rationale that could reasonably justify a sentence of 28 months."

Ms. Stewart, 70, was convicted by a jury of helping imprisoned blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahmen communicate with his followers in the outlawed Islamic Group in Egypt (NYLJ, Feb. 14, 2005). She was tried along with interpreter Mohamed Yousry for a plot to pass messages from Sheikh Rahman, who is serving a life sentence for seditious conspiracy—a violation of Special Administrative Measures put in place to muzzle the sheikh and prevent him from signaling Islamic Group to abandon a cease-fire on terror attacks.

A third defendant, Ahmed Abdel Sattar, was convicted of the more serious crime of conspiracy to kill and kidnap people in another country.

The Second Circuit upheld all three convictions this morning and the sentences of Mr. Yousry and Mr. Sattar, but it was divided on the Stewart sentence.

Judge Robert Sack, who wrote the majority's 125-page opinion, said, "Because the district court declined to find whether Stewart committed perjury at trial, we cannot conclude that the mitigating factors found to support her sentence can reasonably bear the weight assigned to them."

He continued, "This is so particularly in light of the seriousness of her criminal conduct, her responsibilities as a member of the bar, and her role as counsel for Abdel Rahman."

Judge Walker said he would reverse regardless of the almost unlimited deference now given to judges at sentencing.

"Because Stewart's sentence is so out of line with the extreme seriousness of her criminal conduct (and, not surprisingly given the fact, with what the Guidelines recommend), notwithstanding the considerable deference due the district court at sentencing, I conclude that Stewart's sentence is not only procedurally unreasonable, but also substantively unreasonable and an abuse of discretion," Judge Walker said.

Having affirmed their convictions, the circuit directed Judge Koeltl to revoke the bail of Ms. Stewart and Mr. Yousry pending their appeals and to order them to surrender to the U.S. Marshal to begin serving their sentences.

@|Mark Hamblett can be reached at mhamblett@alm.com.

----------------------------
Court Date for Dr Aafia: Tommorrow,
Thursday, Nov. 19!

Please Attend if you are in the NY area and are able to take the time or encourage friends in the area to attend...
 
WHEN: Thursday, November 19 at 2:30 p.m. (Time and date, may change as this has become a routine with Judge Berman)

WHERE:  Federal Court, 500 Pearl Street, Manhattan, New York
 
As in the past, Judge Berman is likely to force Dr Aafia to endure another humiliating strip search and come to court.
 
For those who cannot attend, please say a special prayer.


 DID YOU KNOW THESE FACTS?
 

Here are some men and women
who mocked God

Tancredo Neves (President of Brazil ):

During the Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his party, not even God would remove him from Presidency.

Sure he got the votes, but he got sick a day before being made President, then he died.....SubhanAllah

Cazuza (Bio-sexual Brazilian composer, singer and poet):
 
During A show in Canecio ( Rio de Janeiro ),

while smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some smoke into the air and said:'God, that's for you.'

 
He died at the age of 32 of LUNG CANCER in a horrible manner..SubhanAllah

The man who built the Titanic

 
After the construction of Titanic, a reporter asked him how safe the Titanic would be.

With an ironic tone he said:

'Not even God can sink it'

 
The result: I think you all know what happened to the Titanic..SubhanAllah
 
 Bon Scott (Singer)
 
The ex-vocalist of the AC/DC.
On one of his 1979 songs he sang:

'Don't stop me; I'm going down all the way, down the highway to hell'.

On the 19th of February 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he had been choked by his own vomit..SubhanAllah

In Campinas , Brazil a group of friends, drunk, went to pick up a friend.....
 
The mother accompanied her to the car and was so worried about the drunkenness of her friends and she said to the daughter holding her hand, who was already seated in the car:

'My Daughter, Go With God And May He Protect You.'
 
She responded: 'Only If He (God) Travels In The Trunk, Cause Inside Here.....It's Already Full '
 
Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident, everyone had died,
 
the car could not be recognized what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the trunk was intact.
 
The police said there was no way the trunk could have remained intact. To their surprise, inside the trunk was a crate of eggs, none was broken ....SubhanAllah
 
Pass this message
   
 Hope that you don't ignore and let Allah {God} bless you.
And remember seek Him whilst He may be found!!!
 "Do not walk proudly on the earth; your feet cannot tear apart the earth nor are you as tall as the mountains
(Holy Qur'an, 17:37)."
   
 "He {God} does not love the proud ones
(Holy Qur'an, 16:23)."
 
 "Is not hell the dwelling of the arrogant ones?
(Holy Qur'an, 39:60)"
   
 

    Leave alone those who take their religion to be mere play and amusement, and are deceived by the life of this world. But proclaim (to them) this (truth): that every soul delivers itself to ruin by its own acts: it will find for itself no protector or intercessor except Allah. If it offered every ransom, (or reparation), none will be accepted: such is (the end of) those who deliver themselves to ruin by their own acts: they will have for drink (only) boiling water, and for punishment, one most grievous: for they persisted in rejecting Allah. {Holy Qur'an, 6:70}



Microbiologist nabbed by FBI after warning us that vaccine is a bioweapon deployment
 
http://targetfreedom.typepad.com/targetfreedom/2009/11/microbiologist-kidnapped-by-fbi-warning-vaccine-is-bioweapon.html
 
Joseph Moshe whistle-blower on Baxter releasing outbreak (mutated H1N1?) in Ukraine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzQBiiwo09g
Watch the actual videos as he is surrounded, gassed, and tasered. Joseph Moshe is a microbiologist who called a radio station, and stated that the H1NI vaccine is actually a bio-weapon, and is the DEPLOYMENT OF A PLAGUE. The official propaganda line is  that he had threatened the President, although there is no evidence that this is true.
We are told that he was deported to Israel, but he has yet to arrive in Israel.
DEMAND TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM!
 
DOWN LOAD THESE VIDEOS BEFORE THEY DISAPPEAR!
There are duplicate URLS here to try to avoid censorship.
 
Joseph Moshe Silenced Trying To Expose Obama & Baxter For Releasing Bioweapon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRjY_x08Bj8&NR=1
 
Ukraine Plague Warning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OYVws9uJbk&feature=player_embedded
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgctxLyfpjM&NR=1
 
After the incident that led to the pepper spraying and tazering of Joseph Moshe on Thursday, August 13, 2009, this story appears to have vanished with no follow up by the mainstream media.
 
http://www.unfictional.com/joseph-moshe-mossad-bioweapon-swine-flu-vaccine-westwood
Joseph Moshe (Microbiologist): "Swine flu vaccine is bio-weapon"
Friday, August 21, 2009
Joseph Moshe, MOSSAD

Joseph Moshe, MOSSAD

Today, the MSM are not talking about this case any more. Yesterday, they wanted us to believe that Joseph Moshe was a nutcase and a terrorist, arrested for threatening to bomb the White House. Interesting detail about his arrest (the "Westwood standoff") was that he seemed to be immune to the 5 cans of tear gas and 5 gallons of law-enforcement grade  pepper spray they pumped into his face. He very calmly remained in his car, as the video footage of his arrest shows.

Professor Moshe  had  called into a live radio show by Dr. A. True Ott, (explanation of Joseph Moshe's call at 06:00) broadcast on Republic Broadcasting claiming to be a microbiologist who wanted to supply evidence to a States Attorney regarding tainted H1N1 Swine flu vaccines being produced by Baxter BioPharma Solutions. He said that Baxter's Ukrainian lab was in fact producing a bioweapon disguised as a vaccine. He claimed that the vaccine contained an adjuvant (additive) designed to weaken the immune system, and replicated RNA from the virus responsible for the 1918 pandemic Spanish flu, causing global sickness and mass death.

Sources tell us that Bar-Joseph Moshe made no threat against the President or the White House. He did not mention any bomb or attack. He then proceeded to inform the White House he intended to go public with this information. When he noticed men in suits in front of his house and feared that the FBI was about to detain him, he packed some belongings into his car and, him being a dual Israeli citizen, tried to reach the Israeli consulate located in close proximity to the federal building where the standoff took place. The FBI and the bomb squad prevented him from reaching it. Who is this man? His profile on biomed experts.com says he is a plant disease expert with many publications on his name involving the genetic manipulation of virii. Photographic evidence that Moshe is who he says he is can be found here.

Joseph Moshe was soon after his arrest sent or let go to Israel. Nothing has been heard from him since. The Secret Service was not the agency involved in the surveillance of Moshe at his home in California. This was done by the FBI, who had orders to detain or arrest him. Mounted on top of a large black vehicle used in his arrest was a microwave weapon that possibly damaged the electronics in Moshe's car as well as any communication devices he had which might have been used to contact the media or others who could help him.

Moshe did not suffer the same effects of the gas and pepper spray that others would have because he had built up an immunity to such weapons as a by-product of his Mossad training. Moshe was not handcuffed because he was not placed under arrest.

Does this sound like an insane conspiracy theory? Sure it does. Due to the scarcity and anonymity of the sources we would dismiss it as exactly that, if it weren't for some uncomfortable facts: Baxter Pharmaceutical has been caught, red-handed, in spreading a live, genetically engineered H5N1 Bird flu vaccine as a lethal biological weapon all over the world, destined to be used for human vaccinations. This happened just a few months ago. And only luck prevented a global catastrophe of epic proportions.

Baxter International Inc. had mixed live, genetically engineered avian flue viruses in vaccine material shipped to 18 countries. Only by sheer luck, a Czech laboratory decided to test the vaccine on a dozen ferrets, which all died in days. The World Health Organization was notified and catastrophe was averted. This was clearly a deliberate act on Baxter's part, because they adhere to BS3, bio-safety level three. Baxter admitted a "mistake". Such monumental screw-up are totally impossible at that level. Many safety systems would have needed to be sabotaged, many key personnel would have needed to be bribed. It simply can't be done without direction from the inside. They did not send out the wrong vial – they produced dozens of gallons of biological-weapon agent (genetically engineered live H5N1 / Bird flu virus), then sent it out as a "vaccine".

Baxter knew full well that their vaccine was lethal, because the year before they had tested it on a few hundred homeless Polish people – dozens died as a result.

Where's the meat? Well – Baxter is now being sued for the deliberate, repeated contamination of vaccines with biological weapons designed – by them – to mass-murder people. Here is the complaint (PDF). By some kook nutcase? Not likely – Jane Burgermeister is an experienced, respected journalist. She is not the only one suing Baxter for planning and executing a plan for global genocide: Others are filing complaints as well. Read a well-researched complaint here (PDF).

Qui bono? We think it may be profit-motivated or even sheer incompetence, but for the conspiracy-minded:  The latter complaint alludes to intentional "culling of the herd". Have you heard of the Georgia Guidestones? An enormous monument loaded with Masonic symbolism costing millions of dollars, it has been erected by unknown, powerful elites (multimillionaires with the clout to erect monuments wherever they please, obviously) around 30 years ago. It gives an "alternative ten commandments", of which the first is the extermination of six and a half billion people from the face of the Earth. Half a billion will remain. This is the number of people the planet can sustain indefinitely, so that the descendents of the Rothschilds and Rockefellers can live in peace and affluence indefinitely. Slaves are needed to produce that luxury, but 500 million will do just fine. But how does one go about killing off most of the world?

"Vaccinating" the planet with a bioweapon with near-100% mortality would do the trick. Baxter would provide both the bioweapon as well as the vaccine against it to "civilized" Western peoples. Result: We can plunder Africa, we have no more competition from SE Asia, the oil is for our taking and only Western and perhaps Chinese sheeple remain.

Rockefeller said this in 1994 at a U.N. dinner: "We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis, and the nations will accept the New World Order." PNAC said something similar right before 9/11.

A Spanish Doctor in Internal Medicine largely agrees with the above article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/14/man-suspected-of-making-t_n_259330.html

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/103966

Joseph Moshe whistle-blower on Baxter releasing outbreak (mutated H1N1?) in Ukraine! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzQBiiwo09g

RED ALERT: Baxter's Ukraine Genocide Agenda Exposed by Mossad Microbiologist Joseph Moshe in AUGUST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su4Sl_3ceXs

Mass Media Deceptions Ukraine Bioweapon? 'mutated H1N1' Swineflu No Cure, NO Vaccine, Pneumonic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z084JvXXSkY&NR=1

MILLION HIT BY 'PLAGUE WORSE THAN SWINE FLU'

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/140492/Million-hit-by-plague-worse-than-swine-flu

 Vaccination: The Excuse For Tyranny   Mark Of The Beast IS HERE NOW

http://targetfreedom.typepad.com/targetfreedom/2009/09/vaccination-the-excuse-for-tyranny.html
Swine Flu Conference: Planning to take kids from schools & Mass Vaccinations and Quarantines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyH2jyUhNXY
http://www.new-fields.com/isfc/
 
Soldier, Former State Trooper Speak Out On Forced Vaccinations
Former Kansas state trooper Greg Evensen underscored this claim last week. "Have you been made aware of the massive roadblock plans to stop all travelers for a vaccine bracelet (stainless steel band with a micro-chip on board) that will force you to take the shot?" Evensen wrote on July 29. "Refuse it? You will be placed on a prison bus and taken to a quarantine camp. What will you do when your children are NOT allowed into school without the shot? What will you do when you are not allowed into the workplace without the vaccine paperwork? Buy groceries? Go to the bank? Shop anywhere?? Get on a plane, bus or train? Use the toilet in the mall? Nope. Police officers will become loathed, feared, despised and remembered for their 'official' duties."
 
Mr. Evensen made the following comment at an event in Texas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB7OwPk5Z78&feature=player_embedded#t=242

Revelation 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
Revelation 13:17 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.

THE PLAN ,THAT THEY THINK THEY WILL BE ABLE TO FORCE ON US IS THIS:

EITHER YOU ARE INJECTED AND WEAR AN RFID BRACELET,

OR YOU ARE SENT TO A CONCENTRATION CAMP.
MASS EVACUATION BUS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr5W1Dy07ww&NR=1
Notice that there are no windows

The Microchip Mark Of The Beast (666)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l39XsMcyvgA

Camp FEMA - MIAC Report
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iBcI05t5tA&feature=player_embedded
 
Here is a video that is made by someone inside of the military
who saw the plans first hand:
http://www.infowars.com/soldier-former-state-trooper-speak-out-on-forced-vaccinations/
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qQ4iFI5Np8

Your Right of Defense Against Unlawful Arrest

http://www.constitution.org/uslaw/defunlaw.htm

------------------------
Merck Scientist Admits Cancer & AIDS Came From Vaccines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edikv0zbAlU

--------------------------
QUESTION:
What is the difference between a needle shot in your arm and a bullet shot through your brain?
ANSWER:
With a bullet shot through your brain, your death will be quick and painless.
With a needle shot in your arm, your death will be slow, painful, and very profitable for drug companies. More people have died from the vaccination than from swine flu.
 
Refuse and Resist Mandatory Flu Vaccines
http://targetfreedom.typepad.com/targetfreedom/2009/08/refuse-and-resist-mandatory-flu-vaccines.html
 
Polio vaccine was contaminated with cancer causing SV40 monkey virus
 
Cancer-causing monkey SV40 virus contaminated POLIO vaccine
http://www.vaccinetruth.org/page_13.htm
Eventually, sixty different labs confirmed the results.
 
Polio Vaccine Contaminated With Cancer Given to Millions of Americans
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2004/201004giventomillions.htm
 
http://www.sv40foundation.org/
 
Vaccine scandal revives cancer fear
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6116-vaccine-scandal-revives-cancer-fear.html
 
AIDS was spread by Small Pox vaccination ADMINISTERED BY The United Nations.
Inside the United Nations (Paperback) by Steve Bonta
http://americanistbookstore.com/books/inside-the-united-nations/
 
http://www.wanttoknow.info/870511vaccineaids
Doctor Admits Vaccine is more Deadly Than Swine Flu & Will Not Give It To His Kids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuhzrrp-WFQ&feature=player_embedded
 
Vaccine contains 25000 times the mercury level that would be considered toxic in a food.
 
Aids as a Weapon of War
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/aidsplot.htm
 
Military to administer vaccinations!
Total control of America about to occur!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW8yARUA3CQ&feature=email
 
Military may backup FEMA for pandemic quarantines and Forced vaccinations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqgnoHi3MJs&feature=related
 
You will have to fight your own Army or die from vaccination
 
Be injected, and infected with AIDS or Cancer, or pay outrageous fines.
Quarantine or $1000 a day fine for refusing the vaccine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_oD55WvDmM
 
Will we fight for our lives before we are infected?
Or will we just start objecting when it is too late?
 
The Swine Flu Vaccine song: Don't Inject Me by Michael Adams
http://www.naturalnews.com/Dont_Inject_Me_The_Swine_Flu_Vaccine_Song.html
 
Ten Things You're Not Supposed to Know about the Swine Flu Vaccine
http://www.naturalnews.com/026717_swine_flu_flu_vaccine_swine_flu_vaccine.html
 
The United Nations has published its goal of reducing the world's population:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/8533561/Global-2000-Report-for-Pres-Carter-the-Population-Control-Agenda
 
Here is the Obama Propaganda on the Depopulation Plan:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYRF4kg3EyY&feature=related
Obama Depopulation Policy Exposed! Red Alert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho-0SHFEgGo&NR=1
 
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/16/obamas-mad-science-adviser/print/
 
Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1206807/Swine-flu-jab-link-killer-nerve-disease-Leaked-letter-reveals-concern-neurologists-25-deaths-America.html#ixzz0OLvnJgSH
There are two above ground biological warfare research facilities in the world:
One is at Ft. Dietrich, Maryland. The other is at Sverdlosk, Russia.
Both of these are supervised by the United Nations.
 
United Nations Conspiracy by Robert W. Lee
http://americanistbookstore.com/books/united-nations-conspiracy/
 
 
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/refuse-and-resist-mandatory-flu-vaccine
 
Military Poised to Help FEMA Battle Swine Flu Outbreak
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/29/military-poised-help-fema-battle-swine-flu-outbreak/

Authorities may require the vaccine for school attendance, but you should be able to avoid it like any other vaccine.
Pentagon video on national guard, HS prep for H1N1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wChCItlaTeI

"Physicians Warranty of Vaccine Safety" link for what it's worth

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Physician%E2%80%99s-Warranty-of-Vaccine-Safety.pdf

Tell AARP Socialist Health Care Betrays Seniors

http://targetfreedom.typepad.com/targetfreedom/2009/08/tell-aarp-socialist-health-care-betrays-seniors.html

Global Tyranny...Step by Step: The United Nations and the Emerging New World Order (Paperback) by William F. Jasper
http://americanistbookstore.com/books/global-tyranny-step-by-step-the-united-nations-and-the-emerging-new-world-order/
  Global Tyranny...Step by Step: The United Nations and the Emerging New World Order
United Nations Exposed - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiClGkRqQxw
The United Nations Exposed (Paperback) by William F. Jasper
http://americanistbookstore.com/books/the-united-nations-exposed-paperback/
National Health Care will require a Real ID card
http://www.unrfid.com/ID/
========

Vaccine Form to give to Doctor

Want assurances from your pediatrician about vaccines? Here's a form designed by Ken Anderson you can give them to fill out -- although there is no physician anywhere on earth who will sign it. (American, of course, but could easily be converted to the UK) This does not apply to freeborn children as they are not wards of the state! www.thinkfree.ca

Physician's Warranty of Vaccine Safety

I (Physician's name, degree)_________________________, _____ am a physician licensed to practice medicine in the State of ________________. My State license number is _______________ , and my DEA number is _______________. My medical specialty is ________________________

I have a thorough understanding of the risks and benefits of all the medications that I prescribe for or administer to my patients. In the case of (Patient's name) ___________________________ , age _________ , whom I have examined, I find that certain risk factors exist that justify the recommended vaccinations. The following is a list of said risk factors and the vaccinations that will protect against them:
Risk Factor ____________________________________________
Vaccination ___________________________________________
Risk Factor ____________________________________________
Vaccination ___________________________________________
Risk Factor ____________________________________________
Vaccination ___________________________________________
Risk Factor ____________________________________________
Vaccination ___________________________________________
Risk Factor ____________________________________________
Vaccination ___________________________________________
Risk Factor ____________________________________________
Vaccination ___________________________________________

I am aware that vaccines typically contain many of the following fillers:

* aluminum hydroxide
* aluminum phosphate
* ammonium sulfate
* amphotericin B
* animal tissues: pig blood, horse blood, rabbit brain,
* dog kidney, monkey kidney,
* chick embryo, chicken egg, duck egg
* calf (bovine) serum
* betapropiolactone
* fetal bovine serum
* formaldehyde
* formalin
* gelatin
* glycerol
* human diploid cells (originating from human aborted fetal tissue)
* hydrolized gelatin
* mercury thimerosol (thimerosal, Merthiolate(r))
* monosodium glutamate (MSG)
* neomycin
* neomycin sulfate
* phenol red indicator
* phenoxyethanol (antifreeze)
* potassium diphosphate
* potassium monophosphate
* polymyxin B
* polysorbate 20
* polysorbate 80
* porcine (pig) pancreatic hydrolysate of casein
* residual MRC5 proteins
* sorbitol
* tri(n)butylphosphate,
* VERO cells, a continuous line of monkey kidney cells, and
* washed sheep red blood

and, hereby, warrant that these ingredients are safe for injection into the body of my patient. I have researched reports to the contrary, such as reports that mercury thimerosol causes severe neurological and immunological damage, and find that they are not credible.

I am aware that some vaccines have been found to have been contaminated with Simian Virus 40 (SV 40) and that SV 40 is causally linked by some researchers to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and mesotheliomas in humans as well as in experimental animals. I hereby warrant that the vaccines I employ in my practice do not contain SV 40 or any other live viruses. (Alternately, I hereby warrant that said SV-40 virus or other viruses pose no substantive risk to my patient.)

I hereby warrant that the vaccines I am recommending for the care of (Patient's name) _______________ _______________________ do not contain any tissue from aborted human babies (also known as "fetuses").

In order to protect my patient's well being, I have taken the following steps to guarantee that the vaccines I will use will contain no damaging contaminants.

STEPS TAKEN: ______________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________

I have personally investigated the reports made to the VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) and state that it is my professional opinion that the vaccines I am recommending are safe for administration to a child under the age of 5 years.

The basis for my opinion are itemized on Exhibit A, attached hereto, -- "Physician's Basis for Professional Opinion of Vaccine Safety." (Please itemize each recommended vaccine separately along with the basis for arriving at the conclusion that the vaccine is safe for administration to a child under the age of 5 years.)

The professional journal articles I have relied upon in the issuance of this Physician's Warranty of Vaccine Safety are itemized on Exhibit B , attached hereto, -- "Scientific Articles in Support of Physician's Warranty of Vaccine Safety."

The professional journal articles that I have read which contain opinions adverse to my opinion are itemized on Exhibit C , attached hereto, -- "Scientific Articles Contrary to Physician's Opinion of Vaccine Safety"

The reasons for my determining that the articles in Exhibit C were invalid are delineated in Attachment D , attached hereto, -- "Physician's Reasons for Determining the Invalidity of Adverse Scientific Opinions."

Hepatitis B
Hepatitis B

I understand that 60 percent of patients who are vaccinated for Hepatitis B will lose detectable antibodies to Hepatitis B within 12 years. I understand that in 1996 only 54 cases of Hepatitis B were reported to the CDC in the 0-1 year age group. I understand that in the VAERS, there were 1,080 total reports of adverse reactions from Hepatitis B vaccine in 1996 in the 0-1 year age group, with 47 deaths reported.

I understand that 50 percent of patients who contract Hepatitis B develop no symptoms after exposure. I understand that 30 percent will develop only flu-like symptoms and will have lifetime immunity. I understand that 20 percent will develop the symptoms of the disease, but that 95 percent will fully recover and have lifetime immunity.

I understand that 5 percent of the patients who are exposed to Hepatitis B will become chronic carriers of the disease. I understand that 75 percent of the chronic carriers will live with an asymptomatic infection and that only 25 percent of the chronic carriers will develop chronic liver disease or liver cancer, 10-30 years after the acute infection. The following scientific studies have been performed to demonstrate the safety of the Hepatitis B vaccine in children under the age of 5 years.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________

I am aware of the fact that the Small Pox vaccine that was administered by the United Nations in Africa was later shown to have been contaminated with the HIV virus.
 
In addition to the recommended vaccinations as protections against the above cited risk factors, I have recommended other non-vaccine measures to protect the health of my patient and have enumerated said non-vaccine measures on Exhibit D , attached hereto, "Non-vaccine Measures to Protect Against Risk Factors" I am issuing this Physician's Warranty of Vaccine Safety in my professional capacity as the attending physician to (Patient's name) ________________________________. Regardless of the legal entity under which I normally practice medicine, I am issuing this statement in both my business and individual capacities and hereby waive any statutory, Common Law, Constitutional, UCC, international treaty, and any other legal immunities from liability lawsuits in the instant case. I issue this document of my own free will after consultation with competent legal counsel whose name is _____________________________, an attorney admitted to the Bar in the State of __________________ .
__________________________________ (Name of Attending Physician)
__________________________________ L.S. (Signature of Attending Physician)
Signed on this _______ day of ______________ A.D. ________
Witness: _______________________________ Date: _____________________
Notary Public: ___________________________Date: ______________________

> CIA Assassinations & Depopulation Using Vaccinations:
> A Conspiracy Reality Underlies the Swine Flu Black Op
>
> Los Angeles--CIA assassinations and paramilitary operations secreted from congressional overseers and the American people have extended into the realm of swine flu bioterrorism and vaccinations for profitable depopulation according to medical journalist and CIA analyst, Dr. Leonard Horowitz.
>
> The CIA spent years advancing secret squads to blow things up and kill humans according to U.S. intelligence officials interviewed by Greg Miller of the Los Angeles Times. (July 16, 2009) What the Times failed to report was current connections between drug industrialists and CIA officials that best explain the mysterious emergence of the swine flu virus in Mexico, and the international media's curious response to the planned pandemic, according to Dr. Horowitz--a Harvard-trained investigator and award-winning author of several books on this subject.
>
> [] Current and former U.S. intelligence officials disclosed a broader effort than media coverage has portrayed, including black-ops about which congressional oversight committees and Americans knew nothing, the Times published.
>
> The "broader dimensions" of this program, Miller wrote, "may account for why some lawmakers, particularly Republicans, have been critical of CIA Director Leon E. Panetta's decision last month to kill" funding for the operation that trained America's deadliest assassins.
>
> Some house Democrats are calling for an investigation to help explain why top counter-terrorism officials, with close ties to Bush Administration Vice President, Dick Cheney, "saw a need for the CIA to develop its own elite paramilitary teams, rather than relying on U.S. military special operations troops."
>
> In particular, officials said, ambitions for the program expanded to include creating teams that were made up not only of CIA personnel, but counterparts from other countries, presumably Pakistan; and to be capable not just of killing high-value targets, but also executing raids and other operations to gather evidence and intelligence that might lead to" CIA-trained Holy War assassin, Osama bin Laden.
>
> In 1986, William Casey, CIA chief under Reagan, approved a Pakistani intelligence proposal to recruit Islamic fundamentalists worldwide to conduct covert operations. When the Pakistanis recruited, and the bin Ladens and Saudis financed, the Afghanistan black-operatives at that time, American officials, including previous CIA director, George H.W. Bush, "funneled more than $2 billion in guns and money" during the 1980s in the "largest covert action program since World War II," the Washington Post, reported (7/19/92).
>
> The CIA, often referred to as "the Company," maintained ties to wealthy financiers, including Carlyle Group investors Mohammed bin Laden and George H.W. Bush, co-investors in this mega defense contractor along with James Baker III, who oversaw the Florida vote recount in Bush, Jr's contested 2000 election. In addition, Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Secretary under Gerald Ford and George W. Bush, whose connections to the global drug-cartel include his launching of the Tamiflu-manufacturing company Gilead Sciences, conducted business dealings with Carlyle Group executive, Frank C. Carlucci.(JudicialWatch.org,11-30-2001)
>
> In November 2005, George W. Bush urged Congress to pass $7.1 billion in emergency funding to prepare for the possible bird flu pandemic, of which one billion was solely dedicated to the purchase and distribution of Tamiflu.
> []
> Earlier, in June 1996, Gilead launched its first commercial product, Vistide (cidofovir injection) for the treatment of cytomegalovirus (CMV) in AIDS patients. "If you want to know where the herpes virus pandemic mostly comes from," Dr. Horowitz wrote, "think of contaminated vaccines spread to produce cancer for profit by the Carlyle-CIA-backed cartel."
>
> Cytomegalovirus is one of three herpes type viruses, including herpes B, simian cytomegalo from monkeys used in vaccine development, and Epstein Barr, another vaccination infection.
>
> Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), now known to cause AIDS-like immune deficiency, and one of the three AIDS-linked cancers called lymphomas, was first cultured from a Burkitt's lymphoma cell line in 1964 that Dr. Horowitz traced to CIA-directed vaccine experiments conducted by the American biological weapons lab called Litton Bionetics. Bionetics operated in Maryland, Virginia, Eastern Zaire and Northwest Uganda during the 1960s according to National Cancer Institute documents discovered by Horowitz. The covert African operation was conducted under the supervision of Frank Carlucci.
>
> Carlucci has been a Managing Director of Carlyle since 1989 and its Chairman since 1993. Carlucci became the point man for CIA-directed "health care" programs in various parts of Africa during the early 1960s. He became the deputy director of the CIA in 1978, deputy secretary of defense in 1980, and national security adviser during the Iran-contra scandal. Carlucci also served as chief "political officer" in the African Congo's American Embassy at the time Burkett's lymphoma was allegedly discovered, and obviously distributed in this region of Africa by way of contaminated vaccines, according to substantial evidence compiled by Dr. Horowitz including an interview with one of the doctors engaged in the vaccination operation.
>
> [] All of this is published, and meticulously evidenced using reprinted scientific and government documents in Dr. Horowitz's best of three national bestselling books, Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola--Nature,  Accident or Intentional? (Tetrahedron Press, 1998) Barack Obama's minister, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, recommended reading this book, in defense of harsh criticism he received for his sermon condemning the US Government for creating HIV. For those who do not believe our government would conduct such hideous atrocities, technically called genocide, Barack Obama disavowed his minister.
>
> Under CIA supervision and covert actions by government officials linked to Carlyle on behalf of the global petrochemical-pharmaceutical cartel, new diseases have emerged. Dr. Horowitz evidences these including Burkitt's lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, infectious mononucleosis, AIDS and today, the circulating swine flu, and avian flu threats.
>
> While the Carlyle-Bush-Baker-Carlucci-Rumsfeld connections are troubling enough in their own right, they look even worse when you consider how many different ways Carlyle is profiting from the war on terrorism and bioterrorism. Speaking in particular about Carlucci, and his three main partners at Carlyle, Dan Broidy, author of The Iron Triangle, an illuminating history of the Carlyle Group, wrote, "It's not an exaggeration to say that September 11" made these "Carlyle investors very, very rich men." This is also the case for Dick Cheney, tied to the Halliburton Co. that administers converted military bases to serve as quarantine camps planned by FEMA to be used this fall when the World Health Organization may call for such drastic measures.
>
> Recall also that Donald Rumsfeld was replaced as Defense Secretary because of his administration of the Iraqi war and human rights violations in torturing prisoners, state enemies, and suspected terrorists. "I pray this doesn't foreshadow how quarantined Americans who refuse vaccinations will be treated in these FEMA camps administered by Halliburton," Dr. Horowitz said.
>
> Alleging CIA operations to administer assassinations had been generally disappointing, according [] to the Los Angeles Times interviewed CIA spokesman, George Little, one wonders who was behind the suspicious deaths of John and Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Vince Foster, Democratic Senate candidate Mel Carnahan, who went on to win the race as a dead man against his rival John Ashcroft (whose campaign was largely funded by Enron, and who went on to become appointed the U.S. Attorney General); Democratic Senate incumbent Paul Wellstone, whose reelection would have shifted the entire balance of power in the Senate during pivotal Bush administration projects fundamental to where we are today regarding "national security," "biodefense," and forced vaccinations and quarantines impacting every American.
>
> "Keeping CIA activities like this secret is the biggest challenge," another former U.S. intelligence official told the LA Times.
>
> Most recently, the program's focus had shifted toward intelligence collection, officials said. According to past CIA Director, William Colby, since the end of the cold war, the primary function of The Company has been to act as industrial espionage agents on behalf of multi-national corporations, the largest financially engaged with Carlyle.
>
> In 2001, Dr. Horowitz exposed the anthrax mailings as sourcing from the CIA's "Project Clearvision." The anthrax was mailed to enemies of Carlyle, including democratic drug legislation opponents, Senators Patrick Leahy and Tom Dashle. The hyper-weaponized germ sourced from the Battelle Memorial Institute in West Jefferson, Ohio, under the direction of CIA-anthrax ace, William Patrick, III, who assayed the mailed virus's spreading capacity two years before the attacks. According to Dr. Horowitz, and many other experts, this was done to promote sales of Bayer's CIPRO; and stockpiles of BioPort, LLC's congressionally-certified deadly anthrax vaccine.
>
> US military leaders reported finding a BioPort annual prospectus in a cave allegedly used to shelter Osama bin Laden in 2002, probably because Carlyle clients, including Mohammad bin Laden, had invested in the company. Today, BioPort, renamed BioThrax, is allied with drug cartel giants Acambis, Sanofi Pasteur, and other companies that make money from people sustaining side effects from their drugs and vaccines; especially the ones exclusively stockpiled by our federal officials.
>
> Regarding company assassins carrying out close-range killings, a former CIA official told Greg Miller from the LA Times,  "This is something they don't really have a capacity for."
>
> "But long-range killings through manufactured frights, forced vaccinations, mass quarantines, and compelled druggings," Dr. Horowitz wrote, "is obviously central to their genocidal operations on behalf of Carlyle and Halliburton investors."
>
> On July 16, 2009, it was announced that by fall, government health officials and social service workers will be canvassing every American household, carrying four required flu vaccines, that shall be given to those persuaded to take them. The campaign is mostly "targeting" children and the elderly.
>
> In response, there are now many reasonable, responsible, intelligent, and patriotic Americans, including many health professionals, who have decided to leave the United States before flu season.
>
>                                                                  -end -
>
>
> NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: For interviews with Dr. Horowitz please contact Jackie Lindenbach at 208-265-8065; or by E-mail: tetra@tetrahedron.org
>
>
> 229 Gypsy Bay Road, Sagle, ID 83860 208-265-2575 (FAX) 208-265-2775 Web: http://www.tetrahedron.org
>
>
> CLICK HERE TO READ DR. HOROWITZ'S LATEST ARTICLE:
>
> 57 TRILLION REASONS TO MURDER 100 MILLION AMERICAN
 The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline (Paperback) by James Perloff
http://americanistbookstore.com/books/shadows-of-power-by-james-perloff/
The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline
 
Visit the ultimate resource for defending liberty

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http://addictedsaint.blogspot.com/2007/05/alternative-approaches-to-palestinian.html

Alternative Approaches to Palestinian-Israeli Co-existence
I provide a draft of alternative approaches to Palestinian-Israeli co-existence written by Howard Cort to illustrate how far we are to achieving anything remotely close to co-existence. All the approaches listed below, not ONE is actually being talked about( in a serious way) in Israel - and to some degree many of the proposals here are not even debated in Palestine, although the one state solution has been suggested by some groups. These are exactly the kind of debates we should be having regarding the kind of state or states that should be created to achieve true peace and co-existence but I know for a fact such proposals are dead on arrival in Israel. I believe many of the suggestions below will find support in Palestine. The main obstacle to such a visionary approach to this conflict is and has always been Zionism ideology itself. Jews need to reach a post-Zionist state before we can even begin talking about federations and power-sharing or all the other attributes involved in any state structure that aims to promote co-existence and unity among competing groups of different ethnic or religious make-up. At this point, the fetish with a "Jewish state" takes precedent above and beyond any other consideration--that includes the viability in the long run of a such a narrowly defined and exclusive state based on a religion. It seems suicidal to continue on the Zionist track but then again whoever said Jews were averse to calamity. It's clear to me either some arrangements are made for co-existence or the track of co-annihilation will prove fatal to one party in this conflict. I don't see the Palestinians going anywhere or the 300 million Arabs going anywhere, so you would think sanity would prevail in Zion to come up with some solution that would make co-existence a reality - don't hold your breath!




=====================================================================================

ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI COEXISTENCE
DRAFT – May 11, 2007



Howard Cort

3121 N. Sheridan Rd., #509

Chicago, IL 60657-4913

773-472-7828

howard@empireone.net




ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI COEXISTENCE

By Howard Cort



INTRODUCTION

Several years ago, I came across, on the Internet, a special issue of the Boston Review (December 2001/January 2002) presenting a forum on binationalism in the Israel/Palestine context. As I read the various articles, I realized that I had come across other articles, elsewhere, on the same topic. Then I came upon Ehud Tokatly's HopeWays website, which includes a variety of approaches to Palestinian/Israeli coexistence. These are categorized in a table divided into several sections, including Federal State, One State – Multiple Systems, Bi-National State, Confederation, and Innovative Partition Models (1). Later, I was pleased to obtain a publication of the Palestinian Academic Study for the Study of International Affairs called IMPASSE: Exploring Alternative Solutions to the Palestine-Israel Conflict, as well as a report on a forum on the two-state solution in the Fall/Autumn 2005 Arab World Geographer.

I began to promote the idea of a compilation of a compendium of alternative approaches to Palestinian-Israeli coexistence, including introducing, and seeing passed, a provision to this effect in a larger Israel/Palestine resolution at the 2004 Biennial Convention of the United Nations Association (UNA/USA). Similarly, I requested the opportunity to conduct a workshop on this topic at the first national convention of Jewish Voice for Peace, which was held in April 2007.

It is my conviction, based on a principle I learned from Arthur E. Morgan, first chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), that as wide a range of alternatives as possible should be examined before making decisions, particularly in cases of important public policy. Thus, I hope that the material here presented will be a modest but useful contribution toward carrying out that conviction and principle in the context of one of the world's most difficult problems. There are many omissions that I know about, and I'm sure there are others that I have missed. It is also possible that a comprehensive solution might result from combining elements of two or more proposals.

Please also note that there is considerable overlapping and that some items could fall into more than one category.

1. ONE STATE

A. One Unitary State: Majority rule; single, centralized national tier of government; human rights agenda; ". . . democratic, egalitarian system anchored in a constitution guaranteeing equality" (2 ); "mutual guarantees would have to ensure both Arab and Jewish collective interests, particularly in the transition" (3); "it allows all the people to live in and enjoy the entire country while protecting their distinctive communities and addressing their particular needs" (4).

B. Unitary Decentralized: "The political power of government in [unitary] states may well be transferred to lower levels, to regionally or locally elected assemblies, governors and mayors ('devolved government'), but the central government retains the principal right to recall such delegated power" (5).

C. Consociational State: ". . . a state which has major internal divisions along ethnic, religious, or linguistic lines, yet nonetheless manages to remain stable, due to consultation among the elites of each of its major social groups. Consociational states are often contrasted with states with majority rule. Classical examples of consociational states are Belgium, Switzerland, Israel, and the Netherlands" (6). NOTE: Elsewhere, Belgium, Switzerland, and India are commonly considered to be federations, and the Israel example is controversial. Recent developments in South Africa, Bosnia, and Northern Ireland are in the direction of consociation.

D. Other: Sam Greenlaw has proposed One Country, Two Systems, modeled "on the Chinese experience with Hong Kong and Macao" and borrowing details from Switzerland (7). Noam Chomsky has suggested "parallel national institutions throughout the whole territory with a free option for each individual; and also the option of dissociation from national institutions with retention of full rights for those who prefer" (8). Moammar Gadhafi has proposed a state composed of both Palestinians and Israelis "allowing both to move wherever they will" (9). Daniel Gavron's State of Jerusalem establishes in all of the Holy Land a pluralistic multiethnic democracy "based on the principle of one-person-one-vote" (10). Theodore Patterson's Co-existence through Acceptance calls for "strong international political governance" (11).

2. FEDERATION

A. Central Government: "A federation is a union comprising a number of partially self-governing states or regions united by a central ('federal') government. In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states is constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision of the central government" (12).

B. Symmetric Federalism: Every component state of a federation possesses the same powers (13).

C. Asymmetric Federalism: "Some federations are called assymmetric [sic] because some states have more autonomy than others, although they have the same constitutional status" (14).

D. Horizontal/Vertical Combination: Meron Benvenisti suggests "a combination of horizontal division (sharing in government) and a vertical division (partitioning of the territory). What I see is a federal structure that will include all of historic western Palestine. Different ethnic cantons will exist under that structure. It's clear, for example, that the Palestinian citizens of Israel will have their own cantons. They will have their own autonomy, which will express their collective rights. And it's clear, on the other side, that the settlers will have a canton. The executive of the federal government will strike some sort of balance between the two national groups" (15).

E. Swiss Vertical Division: The basic division of Swiss politics is the "gemeinde" or "commune," whose semi-sovereignty, in relation to the canton, is similar to the canton's semi-sovereignty in relation to the federation (16).

F. Other Proposals: Elon Jarden calls for a federal constitution, with several cantons, as determined by its established assembly, in accordance with demographic patterns of the country's regions (17). Amos Shuveli suggests a federal constitution under which cantons will enjoy a greater or lesser level of autonomy and in which 50 percent of the parliament is elected on a regional/canton basis and 50 percent on a national or party basis (18). Ehud Tokatly's Non-Territorial Federalism grants all national groups "a considerable measure of control over their lives, thus allowing all citizens, Jews and Arabs of all kinds, to enjoy a just, pluralistic society with a stronger, more democratic government" (19).

3. BINATIONAL STATE

A. Federal: "In a bi-national state, Jews and Palestinians would coexist as separate communities in a federal arrangement. Each people would run its own affairs autonomously and be guaranteed the legal right to use its own language, religion and traditions. Both would participate in government in a single parliament, which would be concerned with matters of supra-communal importance, defense, resources, the economy, and so on. Such a state could be modeled on the cantonal structure of Switzerland or the bi-national arrangement of Belgium. In the Palestine/Israel case, the cantonal structure would be based on the present demographic pattern of the country where densely populated areas like the Galilee would become Arab cantons, and Jewish ones like Tel Aviv would be Jewish cantons, and so on. This leaves a number of practical issues to be resolved, as for example, the exact composition and powers of the parliament, the exercise of the right of return for Jews and that for Arabs and so on" (20).

B. Unitary or Federal: "A bi-national state is a state made up two nations whose constitution recognizes both as state-forming nations, irrespective of their size. The constitution of such a state can be unitary or federal, as long as it is based on two nations being legally recognized as state-forming nations" (21).

C. Political Arrangement Unchangeable by Majority Vote: "It is a land of two peoples who live there or should live there by equal national right; any political institution must be based solely on a political arrangement which cannot be changed for the worse by majority vote" (22).

D. Mutual Security: "Viewing themselves as 'pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian', they conceive Jewish/Israeli or Palestinian security as unattainable absent a secure life for the other" (23).

E. Alternative Palestinian Agenda: Nasser Abufarha's detailed "Proposal for an Alternative Configuration in Palestine-Israel" characterizes the configuration as "a Federal Union that guarantees access to the whole space of Palestine-Israel, and at the same time protects the national identity and cultural expression of both societies through sovereignty over designated territories based on the natural landscape and current demographics of this shared space" (24).

F. Zionist Binationalists: Speaking at a roundtable discussion in London in the summer of 1946, Jewish philosopher Martin Buber said, "A solution giving to either side the right of domination would lead to a sudden catastrophe. The only solution that would not lead to a catastrophe, but only to a difficult situation for some time, is the creation of a bi-national state. That is, putting Jews and Arabs together in a kind of condominium and giving them the maximum of common administration possible in a given hour. They would have equal rights, these two nations, as nations, irrespective of numbers" (25).

G. Three-State Confederation: The confederation would consist of a Jewish State of Israel, an Arab State of Palestine, and a Binational State of Israel-Palestine. Israeli citizenship would be open to any current citizen of Israel, and some opportunities for citizenship would be offered to Palestinian refugees. Permanent residency status would be guaranteed to all current Israeli citizens and their descendents, whether or not they opted to become citizens of Israel, Palestine, or Israel/Palestine (26).

4. CONDOMINIUM

"In international law, . . . a condominium is a political territory (state or border area) in or over which two or more sovereign powers formally agree to share equally dominium (in the sense of sovereignty) and exercise their rights jointly, without dividing up into 'national' zones" (27). A possible example is Jerusalem as the capital for both Palestinians and Israelis. Ervin Kedar's USIP – United "State of Israel" and Palestine (Condominium) – is based on joint sovereignty (28).

5. PERSONAL UNION

"A personal union is a relationship of two or more entities that are considered separate, sovereign states, which, through established law, share the same person as their respective head of state. It is not to be confused with a federation, which internationally is considered as a single state. . . . personal unions are almost entirely a product of monarchies" (29). Nonetheless, it is a conceivable arrangement.

6. TWO STATES

A. Growing Western Consensus: (1) no (or extremely limited "right of return" of refugees; (2) a fully shared Jerusalem; (3) reciprocal territorial exchanges; (4) demilitarization of the Palestinian state (30).

B. Arab Peace Initiative Adopted at the March, 2002, Beirut Summit:

Partial contents: ". . . full Israeli withdrawal from all territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights to the lines of June 4, 1967 as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon. . . . Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194. . . . The acceptance of the establishment of a Sovereign Independent Palestinian State on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. . . . Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace. . . . rejection of all Palestinian patriation which conflict with the special circumstances of the Arab host countries" (31).

C. Parity for Peace: Esther Riley's detailed proposal for two states on the same land, with bilateral governance and equal access by all individuals to resources (32).

D. Dual: "One superimposed on the other." Both individuals and geographic units have free choice as to which system to belong. Citizenship would not be bound by territory, but by choice. Geographic units could be like Swiss cantons, with an administrative structure like Switzerland's (33).

E. Sovereignty Shift Lines (S.S.L): Elad Rubin's proposal to uphold the Palestinian "Right of Return" and the "Jewish Right of Inhabitancy" by allowing Palestinian refugees to return to parts of Israel that would be equal in size to the areas occupied by settlements in the territories. Jews and Palestinians would have sovereignty over their own areas (34).

7. CONFEDERATION

A. Weaker Central Government: ". . . an association of sovereign states or communities, usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution. Confederations tend to be established for dealing with critical issues, such as defense, foreign affairs, foreign trade, and a common currency, with the central government being required to provide support for all members" (35). "Currently, a confederation is considered a state or entity similar in pyramidal structure to a federation but with a weaker central government. A confederation may also consist of member states which, while temporarily pooling sovereignty in certain areas, are considered entirely sovereign and retain the right of unilateral secession" (36).

B. Binational Confederation: Jerome Siegel's plan calls for a three-state framework: a Jewish State of Israel, an Arab State of Palestine, and a Binational State of Israel-Palestine. Each state will have veto power. "Any citizen of a member state will automatically be a citizen of the Confederation. . . . All citizenship in the Confederation's member states will require a choice of citizenship by the adult populations," with joint and tri-state citizenship possible. Israeli citizenship "will be open to any current citizen of Israel (Jewish, Palestinian or otherwise)." Palestinian citizenship "will be open to all Palestinians, whether residing in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem or outside, whether refugees or not." Palestine may offer citizenship "to Israelis currently residing within the original territory of Palestine (e.g., settlers)." Binational state citizenship "will be open to anyone eligible for citizenship in either state, but citizenship in one of the two states will not be required for eligibility. Thus some Israelis and Palestinians may be citizens only of the Binational State, whereas others may enjoy dual or even three-way citizenship."

Equal territorial contributions to the Binational State will be made by Israel and Palestine "from their areas of original sovereignty." Palestinian refugees will have a right to citizenship both in Palestine and in the Binational State. Some refugees may become permanent Israeli residents and some opportunities for Israeli citizenship will also be provided (37).

C. The Israeli-Palestinian Confederation: Joseph Avesar's plan calls for a coalition of representatives from Israel or the Palestinian territories (or state) that would act alongside the existing Israeli and Palestinian governments. The confederation would serve as a mechanism for establishing projects of mutual benefit. Israel and Palestine would be divided into 300 districts, each sending one delegate to the confederation legislature. Both Israel and Palestine would have a veto over any confederation legislation (38).

D. The Confederation of the Levant: Fred Foldvary's confederation would have (a) courts to resolve interstate disputes and a police force for law enforcement; (b) a foreign service for defense and foreign affairs (although Israel and Palestine would still be able to maintain diplomatic relations with foreign states, with gradual transference of some military to the confederation "as it gains confidence in its viability"); and (c) a two-house legislature, with one elected on the basis of population and the other with a fixed number of representatives per state (39).

E. Regional Confederation: Various plans have been proposed, including for Palestine/ Israel/Jordan; Palestine/Israel/Jordan/Lebanon (and possibly Syria); and a wider Confederation of Middle Eastern States, such as was promoted for many years by New Outlook Magazine, a now defunct organ of the Israeli Mapam Party.

Early on, Joseph Abileah proposed a Jordan/Palestine/Israel Confederation, with economic integration facilitating a solution to the refugee problem, an immediate irrigation system in the Syrian Desert, a religious council forming a second parliamentary house, and being open to any other country in the Middle East (40).

F. Two-Stage Solution: Under Jeff Halper's proposal, two separate states would have various economic and cultural connections designed to lead to one state in the future, under a wider Middle East Union in which residency is separated from citizenship (41).

8. OTHER

A. The Brazilian Contribution: Claude G. S. Martins has suggested that "the international community can assist in relieving the population pressures on the region's environmental conditions through providing all communities with opportunities to emigrate to other countries. Brazil, for instance, can offer a new base for Jewish and Palestinian communities, in which the national cultural identity of both can remain intact regardless of their physical location of residence and which will not require individuals to give up their current citizenship, nor their national aspirations" (42).

B. Palestinian Academics: The Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs has published a book on alternative solutions to the conflict (43).

C. Forum on the Two-State Solution: The Arab World Geographer, a quarterly journal published by the Department of Geography at the University of Akron, in Akron, Ohio, has an issue devoted to the viability of the two-state solution and possible alternatives (44).

NOTES

1. "HopeWays' Peace Voices Analysis," HopeWays, http://hopeways.org/e_index.htm.

2. Mazin B. Qumsiyeh (professor and author), Sharing the Land of Canaan (London and Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 2004), p. 214; see also http://qumsiyeh.org/.

3. Virginia Tilley (associate professor, Hobart and William Smith College), The One-State Solution (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2005), p. 220.

4. Ali Abunimah (editor, Electronic Intifada), One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (New York: Henry Holt and Company, Metropolitan Books, 2006); see also http/www.electronicintifada.org.

5. Wikipedia, s.v. "Unitary state," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitary_state (accessed April 26, 2007).

6. Wikipedia, s.v. "Consociational state," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consociational_state (accessed April 26, 2007).

7. Sam Greenlaw (database architect and Oracle DBA), "One Country, Two Systems," HopeWays, http://hopeways.org/e_index.htm.

8. Noam Chomsky (professor, linguist), Peace in the Middle East? (New York: Vintage Books, 1974, as quoted in Fred Foldvary, "Peace Through Confederal Democracy and Economic Justice," Peace Through Justice and Self-defense, http://www.foldvary.net/works/globcon.html.

9. Moammar Ghadhafi (Libya's leader), "Isratine: Peace Proposal by Moammar Ghadhafi?" HopeWays, http://hopeways.org/e_index.htm.

10. Daniel Gavron (author, journalist), "The State of Jerusalem: Opportunity and Challenge for Israelis and Palestinians – and Others," HopeWays, http://hopeways.org/e_index.htm.

11. Theodore A. Patterson (author), "Coexistence Through Acceptance – UN Involvement and Citizen Empowerment," HopeWays, http://hopeways.org/e_index.htm.

12. Wikipedia, s.v. "Federation," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation (accessed April 26, 2007).

13. Wikipedia, s.v. "Federation," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation (accessed March 27, 2007).

14. Wikipedia, s.v. "Federation," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation (accessed April 26, 2007).

15. Meron Benvenisti (geographer and academic), "Cry the Beloved Two-State Solution," Ha'aretz, August 6, 2003, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=326313.

16. Jonathan Steinberg (reader in modern European history, University of Cambridge), Why Switzerland? 2nd. ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p.78.

17. Elon Jarden (author), "Federation – Not Separation," HopeWays, http://hopeways.org/e_index.htm.

18. Amos Shuveli (author), "Is There a Hope in This Country?" HopeWays, http://hopeways.org/e_index.htm.

19. Ehud Tokatly (author, media expert, editor of HopeWays), "Community Democracy," HopeWays, http://hopeways.org/e_index.htm.

20. Ghada Karmi (academic and author), "A Secular Democratic State in Historic Palestine," first published in Al-Adab (Lebanon), July 2002, One-State.org, http://web.archive.org/web/20040805065028/http://www.one-state.org/articles/2002/karmi.htm.

21. Susan Hattis (editor of the Knesset website), "Roundtable – Bi-Nationalism," http://www.passia.org/meetings/2000/biNation.html.

22.Yosef Luria (journalist), in Solveig Eggerz, "More Than a Nation: The Cultural Zionism of Martin Buber," Issues of The American Council For Judaism (Fall 1998), http://www.acjna.org/acjna/articles_detail.aspx?id=98.

23. Mark A. LeVine (professor of modern Middle Eastern history, culture, and Islamic studies, University of California, Irvine), "The New Jewish Bi-Nationalism," October 14, 2006, History News Network, http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/30789.html.

24. Nasser Abufarha (anthropologist and entrepreneur), "Proposal for an Alternative Configuration in Palestine-Israel," Alternative Palestinian Agenda, http://www.ap-agenda.org/initiative.htm.

25. Paul Mendes-Flohr, ed., A Land of Two Peoples: Martin Buber on Jews and Arabs, University of Chicago Press edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005), p. 205.

26. See note 37 below.

27. Wikipedia, "Condominium (international law)," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condominium_%28international_law%29 (accessed April 26, 2007).

28. Ervin Y. Kedar (professor), "USIP – The United 'State of Israel' and Palestine (Condominium)," HopeWays, http://hopeways.org/e_index.htm.

29. Wikipedia, s.v. "Personal union," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_union (accessed April 26, 2007).

30. Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski (professor, former US national security adviser), speech at Chicago Council on Global Affairs, April 4, 2007, http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/podcast_details.php?podcast_id=26.

31. "Text of Arab Peace Initiative Adopted at Beirut Summit" ("official translation of the Saudi-proposed Arab peace initiative adopted at the annual Arab summit in Beirut, as published on the Arab League internet site"), Agence France-Presse [AFP], March 28, 2002, http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/AllDocsByUNID/5a7229b652beb9c5c1256b8a0054b62e.

32. Esther Riley (author, editor), "Parity for Peace in Israel/Palestine: Two States on the Same Land, with Bilateral Governance," www.parityforpeace.org.

33. Mathias Mossberg (vice president for programs, East-West Institute), "Instead of Two States Side by Side, Why Not One Superimposed on the Other?" The Guardian, July 4, 2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1812080,00.html.

34. Elad Rubin (author), "S.S.L. – Sovereignty Shift Lines: A Solution for the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," HopeWays, http://hopeways.org/e_index.htm (or http://www.peaceways.net/peacelines.htm).

35.Wikipedia, s.v. "Confederation," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation (accessed April 26, 2007).

36. Ibid.

37. Jerome Siegel (senior research scholar at the University of Maryland's Center for International and Security Studies), "A Binational Confederation," Boston Review (December2001/January 2002), http://bostonreview.net/BR26.6/segal.html.

38. Tom Tugend (contributing editor), "Lawyer Floats Own Peace Plan at UCLA," The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, March 17, 2006, http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/searchview.php?id=15573
.

39. Fred E. Foldvary (lecturer in economics at Santa Clara University), "Peace Through Confederal Democracy and Economic Justice," Peace Through Justice and Self-defense, http://www.foldvary.net/works/globcon.html.

40. Joseph Abileah (professor, author), "Joseph Abileah – Confederation in the Middle East," The Mondcivitan (Spring 1972), The Hugh and Helene Schonfield World Service Trust, http://www.schonfield.org/5536.html.

41. Jeff Halper (anthropologist, coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions [ICAHD]), Obstacles to Peace: A Reframing of Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, 3rd Edition (Bethlehem, West Bank: Palestine Mapping Center, April 4, 2005); also, Jeff Halper, "Towards a Middle East Union," Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, http://icahd.org/eng/articles.asp?menu=6&submenu=2&article=132.

42. Claudia G. S. Martins (Brazilian geographer), "The Brazilian Contribution to Palestinian-Israeli Peace," HopeWays, http://hopeways.org/e_index.htm.

43. Dr. Mahdi Abdul Hadi (head of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs [PASSIA]), ed., Palestinian-Israeli IMPASSE: Exploring Alternative Solutions to the Palestine-Israel Conflict (Jerusalem: PASSIA

Publications, August, 2005).

44. The Arab World Geographer 8, no. 3 (Autumn 2005), http://users.fmg.uva.nl/vmamadouh/awg


by Miguel Martinez
Palestine Think Tank
http://revisionistreview.blogspot.com/2009/10/fascists-and-zionists-in-italy-ban.html
Pacifici and Alemanno – the Zionist and the Neo-Fascist decide who must be silenced in Italy.

Antonio Caracciolo is a scholar of philosophy of law who is a member of the Faculty of Political Sciences of Rome University in Italy. Politically, he is a liberal in the Italian sense of the word: a believer in the separation of Church and state, constitutional democracy, the rule of law and a free market; however he keeps his opinions strictly out of his work, reserving them for his blog Civium Libertas.

Recently, his blog has dedicated much attention to the politics of Israel and the methods used by Zionist organizations in Italy to silence criticism of Israel in the Italian media and political sphere.

The Zionist discourse, in recent years, has focused increasingly on the extermination of the European Judaics during the Second World War, and this has led Antonio Caracciolo to touch another topic. As a liberal and legal scholar, he considers the attempt to introduce prison sentences against "Holocaust deniers" or "revisionists" incompatible with Articles 21 and 33 of the Italian constitution, which protect freedom of expression and of inquiry. In this context, however, Antonio Caracciolo has refused to get involved in historical discussions, or to support any "revisionist" thesis.

His blog – one of hundreds of thousands on the net in Italy – passed unnoticed for over two years, until a few days ago Italy's leading daily, La Repubblica, decided to make its existence front page news, under the more-than-misleading title: 'The extermination of the Jews is a legend,"Holocaust denier professor, Rome University under shock."

Gianni Alemanno, mayor of Rome, immediately demanded that the President of Rome's University, Luigi Frati, take steps against Antonio Caracciolo. It is ironic to recall that Alemanno is not only the first neo-Fascist to become mayor of the Italian capital, he has also been the historic leader of the mystic current in the Alleanza Nazionale (former MSI) party, and is the son-in-law of Pino Rauti, who introduced the occult ideas of Julius Evola into the neo-Fascist movement. [1] In Europe, even in the Middle Ages, mayors had no right to tell universities whom to hire or fire. Yet, the President of the University, Luigi Frati, thanked Gianni Alemmano for his prompt action and promised to "look into taking disciplinary steps against Caracciolo," which could include his being fired from his job.

The right-wing president of the Rome town Council, Marco Pomarici, declared that "one cannot tolerate certain statements circulating freely around Europe's largest university, especially in a course on Philosophy of Law. Such theories can generate a return of anti-Semitism and it is quite clear that Caracciolo is not suited to teach and must be dismissed." Irony again, since Councilor Pomarici, a short time ago, declared publicly that "there were also many positive elements in Fascism."

Riccardo Pacifici, the very Zionist president of the Judaic community elected by a first-time right wing majority (on a ticket explicitly called "For Israel"), and well known in Italy for an "aid to Gaza" hoax, calls directly for imprisoning Antonio Caracciolo: "Such "gentlemen" in some European countries – alas, not in Italy yet – are punished by the law for the ideas they uphold".

The next day, Riccardo Pacifici launched an appeal (directly from Israel) to the academic world, announcing that he would take legal action against Caracciolo's blog, and calling on university professors to take steps to "prevent allowing certain people having contact with students" (La Repubblica, October 23, 2009). Specifically, he calls upon the professors to "help us so that Italy makes laws declaring holocaust denial a crime".

Pacifici claimed the existence of a "true Holocaust denial network" on the Internet, hardly surprising if we consider that the Internet is a network. Pacifici also told the press that he had presented a black list of websites to the police.

"The problem of the net, emphasizes Pacifici, is that it is uncontrolled. The risk is that one can write anything by simply opening a website in Moscow. We also need to intervene in terms of legislation about this."

Statements of indignation about Caracciolo's blog "are not enough," Pacifici goes on. "Unanimous condemnation is not enough. We need to act in terms of criminal law."

The Caracciolo case opens a new frontier. Not only would unpopular opinions be banned, but also the right to criticize this censorship. Pacifici's proposal, if applied in Germany, would put Henryk Broder, candidate-president of the German Judaic Community, in jail, since Broder has promised to fight for the repeal of "Holocaust denial" legislation.

The following day, October 24, Repubblica itself published an article by Christopher Hitchens which called for a military attack on Iran, no less, but this seems not to have sent any shock waves through the media.

Far more than Holocaust revisionism/denial is at stake. Pacifici is calling for legislation that would outlaw a blog like that of Antonio Caracciolo, which criticizes a government of the Middle East, analyzes the action of public figures and organizations in Italy, and defends freedom of speech.

Such legislation would be possible only if laws were passed forbidding opposition to government policies, declaring certain foreign states to be above criticism, and forbidding support for free speech.

This of course is the basic issue behind "Holocaust denial legislation," which is actually only part of the general attempt by governments to control the Internet and to make opposition – outside of very limited channels – a crime: one need only think of the Czech Republic, where legislators slipped a few extra words into the the "Holocaust denial" legislation.

In Prague today, one can go to prison for up to eight years for "supporting class hatred" in "print, film, radio, television." "Hatred" of course is a purely emotional term, and any judge will be free to decide whether the person organizing a strike had such wicked feelings or not.

Note:

[1] The Italian neo-Fascist party, MSI (later Alleanza Nazionale, now dissolved into the governing centre-right party) was a complex coalition, with three main strands: very conservative, largely Catholic anti-Communists; the "left-wing" which saw Mussolini as the "true" Socialist in the progressive and secular nationalist tradition of the 19th century; and a mystic, largely pagan wing with close cultural ties to certain currents of German thought.

The US is still playing fast and loose with its commitments on
Israeli-Palestinian peace

America's old ugly face
Khaled Amayreh in Ramallah
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/971/re2.htm

Speaking during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in West Jerusalem Saturday, 31 October, visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remarked that Israel was making "unprecedented concessions" on the issue of settlements. "What the prime minister has offered in specifics on restraints on a policy on settlements is unprecedented in the context of negotiations."

She also claimed that a freeze on settlement building had not been a precondition for peace talks in the past. Clinton reiterated the same old platitudes about America's commitment to a "comprehensive peace agreement" and the need for the resumption of peace talks as soon as possible. Netanyahu, visibly pleased by Clinton's remarks, said "we think we should sit around that negotiating table right away." He termed Palestinian insistence on a settlement expansion freeze a "new Palestinian policy that doesn't advance peace".

Clinton's remarks sent shockwaves in Ramallah, prompting some Palestinian officials to accuse the Obama administration of "fully and brazenly embracing the Israeli position" and "reneging on erstwhile pledges to commit Israel to freeze all settlement expansion activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem". "There can be no excuse for the continuation of settlements, which is really the main obstacle in the way of any credible peace process," said Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Abu Rudeina added: "A settlement freeze and acknowledging the terms of reference is the only way towards peace negotiations. Settlement expansion is illegitimate and it is not possible to accept any justification for the continuation of settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem."

Other Palestinian officials spoke more angrily of "America's old ugly face", with one key official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying "there is not a chance in hell that Obama will force Israel to end the occupation or even freeze the construction of more settlements. I think we are deceiving ourselves. We must stop being bamboozled like little children. The US is simply Israel's guardian, protector and defender. In many aspects, the US is more Zionist and more inimical to our cause and people than Israel itself."

Earlier in Abu Dhabi, Abbas reasserted his opposition to any resumption of peace talks with Israel without a freeze on Jewish settlement construction. In his uncharacteristically firm stand on this issue, Abbas was unanimously backed by Fatah and all other PLO factions. Even Hamas, Abbas's domestic foe, voiced the hope that Abbas would stick to this position and resist American bullying.

Abbas's firm stand on the issue of settlement expansion may have surprised Clinton, prompting the secretary of state to tone down her pro-Israeli remarks. Clinton was quoted as saying during an Arab foreign ministers meeting in Morocco Monday, 2 November, that although it was true that Israel offered unprecedented concessions on the issue of settlements, it didn't mean that the US was satisfied with the Israeli stance. However, Clinton's statement was largely viewed by Palestinian and Arab observers as "too weak to undo the damage already done".

The PA's fury over Clinton's remarks is understandable. The continued survival and relevance of the PA depends to a large extent on the success of the peace process. Indeed, if the peace process fails to deliver, the PA itself loses its raison d'être. Moreover, the PA as well as many in the Arab world gave President Obama the benefit of the doubt when he pledged in his landmark speech to the Muslim world in Cairo on 4 June that his administration would adopt a fair and balanced approach towards the Arab-Israeli conflict. Hence present disappointment and bitterness.

Still more important is the fact that Abbas himself has no other alternative strategy in case the peace process with Israel meets a dead-end, as most Palestinians and Arabs believe it has. Abbas is also worried that by returning to peace talks with Israel without getting settlement expansion halted, at least for the duration of prospective talks, he would incur the wrath of his people. One PA official intimated that any "serious concession by Abbas to Netanyahu at this time, such agreeing to return to the negotiating table without preconditions, would make him lose face before his people". "I think most Palestinians would view this as a scandalous betrayal and a sort of a selling out. The Goldstone episode would be small in comparison," he added.

There is no doubt that Hamas is keenly watching Abbas's behaviour. Two weeks ago Abbas called for presidential and legislative elections to be organised in the occupied territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. However, with the peace process going nowhere and with the Obama administration cajoling and coercing the Palestinian leader to accommodate Israeli intransigence, Abbas might very well find himself backed into a corner. It is uncertain if Abbas will be able to sustain his current position, namely his refusal to resume peace talks without a freeze on settlements. After all, Abbas stands at the helm of a weak entity whose very financial and political survival depends to a large extent on the goodwill of the US and EU, as well as Israel.

Moreover, even if the Palestinian leader decided to bite the bullet and return to the negotiating table, everyone in the region and beyond knows well that the talks would be more of the same, given past failed efforts to reach a lasting agreement with Israel. The reason is clear. Israel, especially under the current right-wing government, will never voluntarily agree to give up the spoils of the 1967 war and is extremely unlikely to agree to withdraw from East Jerusalem, allow for the repatriation of Palestinian refugees or, indeed, dismantle hundreds of Jewish colonies established by successive Israeli governments on Palestinian land occupied more than 42 years ago.

In fact, many Palestinians, even within Abbas's own Fatah party, are not enthusiastic about resuming talks with Israel under the present "unfavourable" conditions. Jebril Rajoub, a member of Fatah's Executive Committee, pointed out that "for negotiations to succeed, there has to be an agreed-upon endgame. But if talks are to be viewed by the Israelis and the Americans as an occasion for bullying the Palestinians to surrender, then to hell with peace talks."

To be sure, the Palestinians are not the only ones getting disillusioned by the Obama administration's weakness vis-à-vis Israel.

The noted Israeli journalist Gideon Levy accused the US of "sucking up to Israel". Writing in Haaretz newspaper on 1 November, Levy argued that the American approach of begging Israel to offer concessions for peace was counterproductive and would achieve no results. "Israel is the occupier, the stubborn contrarian that continues to mock America and the world by building settlements and abusing the Palestinians. Now is the time to say to the United States: Enough flattery. If you don't change the tone, nothing will change. As long as Israel feels the US is in its pocket, and that America's automatic veto will save it from condemnation and sanctions, that it will receive massive aid unconditionally, and that it can continue waging punitive, lethal campaigns without a word from Washington, killing, destroying and imprisoning without the world's policeman making a sound, it will continue in its ways."

Opium, Rape and the American Way


By Chris Hedges

November 03, 2009 "Truthdig" -- The warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban. The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional. The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Afghanistan are pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality. War cannot be waged to instill any virtue, including democracy or the liberation of women. War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society. And the weapons of war do not separate the innocent and the damned. An aerial drone is our version of an improvised explosive device. An iron fragmentation bomb is our answer to a suicide bomb. A burst from a belt-fed machine gun causes the same terror and bloodshed among civilians no matter who pulls the trigger.

"We need to tear the mask off of the fundamentalist warlords who after the tragedy of 9/11 replaced the Taliban," Malalai Joya, who was expelled from the Afghan parliament two years ago for denouncing government corruption and the Western occupation, told me during her visit to New York last week. "They used the mask of democracy to take power. They continue this deception. These warlords are mentally the same as the Taliban. The only change is physical. These warlords during the civil war in Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996 killed 65,000 innocent people. They have committed human rights violations, like the Taliban, against women and many others."

"In eight years less than 2,000 Talib have been killed and more than 8,000 innocent civilians has been killed," she went on. "We believe that this is not war on terror. This is war on innocent civilians. Look at the massacres carried out by NATO forces in Afghanistan. Look what they did in May in the Farah province, where more than 150 civilians were killed, most of them women and children. They used white phosphorus and cluster bombs. There were 200 civilians on 9th of September killed in the Kunduz province, again most of them women and children. You can see the website[ http://pubpages.unh.edu/~mwherold/] of professor Marc Herold, this democratic man, to know better the war crimes in Afghanistan imposed on our people. The United States and NATO eight years ago occupied my country under the banner of woman's rights and democracy. But they have only pushed us from the frying pan into the fire. They put into power men who are photocopies of the Taliban."

Afghanistan's boom in the trade in opium, used to produce heroin, over the past eight years of occupation has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to the Taliban, al-Qaida, local warlords, criminal gangs, kidnappers, private armies, drug traffickers and many of the senior figures in the government of Hamid Karzai. The New York Times reported that the brother of President Karzai, Ahmed Wali Karzai, has been collecting money from the CIA although he is a major player in the illegal opium business. Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world's opium in a trade that is worth some $65 billion, the United Nations estimates. This opium feeds some 15 million addicts worldwide and kills around 100,000 people annually. These fatalities should be added to the rolls of war dead.

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said that the drug trade has permitted the Taliban to thrive and expand despite the presence of 100,000 NATO troops.

"The Taliban's direct involvement in the opium trade allows them to fund a war machine that is becoming technologically more complex and increasingly widespread," said Costa.

The UNODC estimates the Taliban earned $90 million to $160 million a year from taxing the production and smuggling of opium and heroin between 2005 and 2009, as much as double the amount it earned annually while it was in power nearly a decade ago. And Costa described the Afghan-Pakistani border as "the world's largest free trade zone in anything and everything that is illicit," an area blighted by drugs, weapons and illegal immigration. The "perfect storm of drugs and terrorism" may be on the move along drug trafficking routes through Central Asia, he warned. Profits made from opium are being pumped into militant groups in Central Asia and "a big part of the region could be engulfed in large-scale terrorism, endangering its massive energy resources," Costa said.

"Afghanistan, after eight years of occupation, has become a world center for drugs," Joya told me. "The drug lords are the only ones with power. How can you expect these people to stop the planting of opium and halt the drug trade? How is it that the Taliban when they were in power destroyed the opium production and a superpower not only cannot destroy the opium production but allows it to increase? And while all this goes on, those who support the war talk to you about women's rights. We do not have human rights now in most provinces. It is as easy to kill a woman in my country as it is to kill a bird. In some big cities like Kabul, some women have access to jobs and education, but in most of the country the situation for women is hell. Rape, kidnapping and domestic violence are increasing. These fundamentalists during the so-called free elections made a misogynist law against Shia women in Afghanistan. This law has even been signed by Hamid Karzai. All these crimes are happening under the name of democracy."

Thousands of Afghan civilians have died from insurgent and foreign military violence. And American and NATO forces are responsible for almost half the civilian deaths in Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of Afghan civilians have also died from displacement, starvation, disease, exposure, lack of medical treatment, crime and lawlessness resulting from the war.

Joya argues that Karzai and his rival Abdullah Abdullah, who has withdrawn from the Nov. 7 runoff election, will do nothing to halt the transformation of Afghanistan into a narco-state. She said that NATO, by choosing sides in a battle between two corrupt and brutal opponents, has lost all its legitimacy in the country.

The recent resignation of a high-level U.S. diplomat in Afghanistan, Matthew Hoh, was in part tied to the drug problem. Hoh wrote in his resignation letter that Karzi's government is filled with "glaring corruption and unabashed graft." Karzi, he wrote, is a president "whose confidants and chief advisers comprise drug lords and war crimes villains who mock our own rule of law and counter-narcotics effort."

Joya said, "Where do you think the $36 billion of money poured into country by the international community have gone? This money went into the pockets of the drug lords and the warlords. There are 18 million people in Afghanistan who live on less than $2 a day while these warlords get rich. The Taliban and warlords together contribute to this fascism while the occupation forces are bombing and killing innocent civilians. When we do not have security how can we even talk about human rights or women's rights?"

"This election under the shade of Afghan war-lordism, drug-lordism, corruption and occupation forces has no legitimacy at all," she said. "The result will be like the same donkey but with new saddles. It is not important who is voting. It is important who is counting. And this is our problem. Many of those who go with the Taliban do not support the Taliban, but they are fed up with these warlords and this injustice, and they go with the Taliban to take revenge. I do not agree with them, but I understand them. Most of my people are against the Taliban and the warlords, which is why millions did not take part in this tragic drama of an election."

"The U.S. wastes taxpayers' money and the blood of their soldiers by supporting such a mafia corrupt system of Hamid Karzai," said Joya, who changes houses in Kabul frequently because of the numerous death threats made against her. "Eight years is long enough to learn about Karzai and Abdullah. They chained my country to the center of drugs. If Obama was really honest he would support the democratic-minded people of my country. We have a lot [of those people]. But he does not support the democratic-minded people of my country. He is going to start war in Pakistan by attacking in the border area of Pakistan. More civilians have been killed in the Obama period than even during the criminal Bush."

"My people are sandwiched between two powerful enemies," she lamented. "The occupation forces from the sky bomb and kill innocent civilians. On the ground, Taliban and these warlords deliver fascism. As NATO kills more civilians, the resistance to the foreign troops increases. If the U.S. government and NATO do not leave voluntarily, my people will give to them the same lesson they gave to Russia and to the English who three times tried to occupy Afghanistan. It is easier for us to fight against one enemy rather than two."

Chris Hedges, whose column is published on Truthdig every Monday, spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He has written nine books, including "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle" (2009) and "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" (2003).

Copyright © 2009 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp11162009.html
"I Want to Dance With the Real Hero of My Country"
The Andolan in Kathmandu and the Revolution to Follow

By GARY LEUPP

"So far,¡± notes Peter Lee of the Asia Times, ¡°Western media have reported remotely and somewhat uncomprehendingly on the massive demonstrations in Kathmandu led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), with a marked lack of interest. This perhaps reflects the shared desire of the Indian, Chinese and Western governments not to inflame the situation with excessive attention and rhetoric.¡± He refers to the two-day action in the Nepali capital Thursday and Friday.

But those demonstrations should be of enormous interest.  According to AsiaNews, ¡°The second phase of the so-called ¡®people¡¯s movement-III¡¯ saw more than 150,000 participants, including former Maoist guerrillas and United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPM-M) members of parliament and militants, gathered around the  Singha Durbar, Nepal¡¯s official seat of government.¡±

The Maoists virtually paralyzed the government in a stunning display of power. All the top Maoist leaders marched through the city, some meeting the police at the barricades and breaking through  to assume positions around Singha Durbar where they addressed the huge crowd.

It was overwhelming a peaceful, even festive andolan or mass demonstration, although there were some clashes with police. A senior Maoist leader, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, was among those wounded. He told Agence France-Presse, ¡°We are now giving the government and other parties an opportunity to look into our demands.  The ball is in the government¡¯s court.¡± The most powerful Maoist figure, former prime minister Prachanda, issued a sharper warning to the regime, giving it a seven-day ultimatum (to November 20) to restore ¡°civilian supremacy¡± or face a general strike and other strong protests.
When you watch video of Baburam Bhattarai, the brilliant academic who became the number two figure in the Maoist movement and served as finance minister under the administration of Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Pranchanda), leading the marchers confronting the helmeted police, successfully pressing through, you get a sense of genuine historical momentum gathering here.
Rekha Thapa, one of Nepal¡¯s most popular young actresses, arrived as one of many who sang and danced for the huge crowd. She told those assembled, ¡°I¡¯ve always danced with film heroes. Now I want to dance with the real hero of my country.¡± A rather embarrassed looking Prachanda briefly accommodated her, the images captured on national television and on newspaper covers.

It was brilliant political theater.

According to S.D. Muni, a professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies in Singapore and authority on the Nepali Maoist movement, ¡°The numbers they were able to mobilise and the fact they were able to keep control and maintain the peace indicate the protest was a success. It also showed the government is incapable of dealing with this kind of challenge.¡±

I¡¯ve followed the Maoist movement in Nepal since the inception of the People¡¯s War in 1996. I¡¯m always struck by the creativity of the Nepali Maoists¡¯strategy and tactics. From 1996 to 2006 the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (now the United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist)---originally a parliamentary party, the leadership of which had determined that armed struggle was the only way towards liberation---waged a guerrilla war against the monarchy. Its success was breathtaking. It controlled 80% of the country by 2005 when the very unpopular King Gyandendra seized absolute power sidelining the seven main political parties.

It then, having surrounded Kathmandu Valley with its People¡¯s Liberation Army, agreed to the 2006 Comprehensive Agreement with the political parties whereby they would all jointly work to bring down the king, restoring parliamentary democracy, while the Maoists would lay down their arms under UN supervision, ending the war. A key provision of the Agreement was that the soldiers of the People¡¯s Liberation Army be integrated into the Nepali Army (formerly the Royal Nepali Army).

The Maoists also demanded the convening of a Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution, and the proclamation of a republic. They won these demands, and in the April 2008 elections for the assembly, won 38% of the vote, twice the number of the next party. In August Prachanda became Prime Minister. So much for the ¡°End of History¡± thesis. A Maoist having established his credentials by the barrel of a gun was having them further validated by the ballet box. Jimmy Carter was there to confirm that yes, indeed, it was a fair election.

But this was not yet revolution. This was not state power. This was communists who had control of the countryside, who did not want to bludgeon their way into Kathmandu Valley (or were not sure that they could do it, not necessarily confident that they had enough urban support), savvily working out a strategy to gain a presence in this zone where over a million of Nepal¡¯s 28 million people live so that they could develop their political base here prior to a real seizure of power. The strategy seems to have worked out very well.

First the Maoists, playing by the parliamentary rules, swept the polls. Then they exposed the shamof the system to which they were being asked to conform. So many had praised them, for laying down their arms, for agreeing to participate in normal electoral politics! But they for their part had pointed out that their army needed to be merged with the Nepali Army as part of the Comprehensive Agreement.

And the Nepali Army, still ridden with pro-Royalist sentiment, had refused to implement the provisions in the agreement pertaining to PLA integration and instead sought to recruit new troops. This was really the crux of the problem.
I¡¯m quite sure at least some of the Maoists had anticipated this scenario all along. That is, they had foreseen that the old state power reliant ultimately on armed force would not submit to the terms of the agreement or to the will of the people as expressed in elections.

The real issue is of course state power, and you can¡¯t obtain state power when you don¡¯t control the army. In May Prime Minister Prachanda asked the head of the Army, Gen. Rukmangad Katwal, to step down and appointed a new army chief. The President, Ram Baran Yadav, a member of the Nepal Congress Party, countermanded the order keeping Katwal at his post. It is widely thought that he enjoyed India¡¯s support in this action. At that point Prachanda did something quite unexpected: in a televised address he denounced the president¡¯s move as ¡°illegal and unconstitutional¡± and  resigned.

The Maoists not only quit the government, but pronounced the selection of a new one by the parliament as an unconstitutional process. They boycotted the election of Prachanda¡¯s successor, party leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha declaring, ¡°Without restoring civilian supremacy and correcting the president¡¯s move, the new government will be unconstitutional. This government has wrong political ground as it is being formed as a ploy to sabotage the peace and constitution-making process and restore military supremacy. I want to give you a benefit of doubt, if you are nationalist, you will come back to the path drawn by the people¡¯s movement.¡±

In the six months since the Maoists have made it impossible for the 22-party coalition government to function, accusing it of being unwilling to enforce the Comprehensive Agreement integrating the two armies. They have focused on this issue of ¡°civilian supremacy,¡± which is really a matter of focusing upon the fact that there remain two headquarters of real power in the country.

There¡¯s the status quo in the Singha Durbar complex, where the Maoists have tried to negotiate their way as parliamentary politicians but where power is ultimately guaranteed by the old state¡¯s army backed up by India and U.S., the army that the Maoists confronted and humiliated big-time. And there¡¯s the new order being built elsewhere.

Last week, Maoists in the state of Kirat declared the autonomy of that state. This was in accordance with the ¡°first phase¡± plans for the People¡¯s Movement III prior to the mass show of strength in the capital. But the announcement of ethnic-based states in a federal system had been postponed after some discussion and it¡¯s not clear whether local party leader and politburo member, coordinator of Kirat State Uprising Committee, Gopal Kirati actually had Central Committee permission. The plan to shut down the international airport was cancelled after ambassadors¡¯ protests but the plan to cut off all roads to Kathmandu was executed efficiently after November 1. Ambulances and other essential vehicles were allowed egress and ingress; the Maoists having acquired much valley support are not looking to lose it.

But they are making the point to their political colleagues, with whom they¡¯ve worked through the Comprehensive Agreement but who they see as for the most part only temporary allies at best, that just because they¡¯ve put down their arms doesn¡¯t mean they can¡¯t use their mass organizational skills to scare the hell out of them. The next step is a general strike.

In the meantime, the plan is for a no-confidence vote in the parliament. Meanwhile, the Maoists control access to the valley and it¡¯s quite likely that activists are pouring in for the next round of andolan. The ¡°Prachanda Path¡± as articulated since 2001 has involved a fusion of the Chinese People¡¯s War model and the October Revolution. Which of course means: urban insurrection.

Meanwhile UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, noting the obvious---that the PLA demobilization under UN certification, which was supposed to result in the integration of the two armies under the terms of the Comprehensive Agreement, wasn¡¯t happening---in late October criticized the current Nepali government for proceeding ¡°with a fresh round of recruitment into the Nepal Army¡± and resuming ¡°the import of lethal military equipment.¡±

In the assessment of UNMIN [United Nations Mission in Nepal], either step would violate the terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the Agreement on Monitoring the Management of Arms and Armies. UNMIN has continued to consistently convey this position to the Government and the public. The Minister of Defence, Bidhya Bhandari, has called for the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to be revised, claiming that restrictions it places on recruitment, arms purchases and training had been detrimental to the effective functioning of the Nepal Army. UCPN-M has strongly protested her statement.

Prachanda cited this report at the andolan last week. And I believe he cited this passage in Ban¡¯s report

    In my meeting with the Prime Minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, at Sharm el-Sheikh in July, I conveyed the strong concern of the international community at the lack of progress in the peace process and stressed the need for a time-bound effort to resolve the impediments hampering the process. My Representative in Nepal and other senior officials have consistently encouraged consensus and dialogue between the parties, recommending the establishment of a more formal dialogue mechanism to streamline negotiations and find creative solutions to overcome the current impasse. At the same time, my Representative has also underlined the need to avoid provocative statements or actions in order to maintain a positive climate for dialogue.

That is to say, Ban¡¯s urging the reintegration of the Maoists into government, realizing they¡¯re organizing outside government from a position of strength. And the Maoists naturally use this report to strengthen their case at this time.

The South Korean diplomat has absolutely no personal interest in facilitating the consummation of the twenty-first century¡¯s first revolution led by a self-pronounced Maoist party. But he apparently thinks it¡¯s best to recognize the reality of Maoist political strength and to stick to the 2006 agreement.

Given this statement, the Maoists who now boast they have all Kathmandu behind them can say much of the world as represented by the UN secretary general agrees with their goal of ¡°civilian supremacy,¡± and that the 22-party coalition with the UML and Congress at its head, linked to the Army, India and ultimately U.S. imperialism is the isolated, marginalized force.

There are so many logical and moral arguments to assemble as Nepal¡¯s October approaches. It¡¯s the mix of models, and ever-shifting tactics, and adaptability and revolutionary competence of these communists that never ceases to impress me. I truly think they may pull it off.

Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Religion. He is the author of Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan; Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's merciless chronicle of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, Imperial Crusades.

He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu





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