There are thousands of nuclear weapons at Bush's command, including those of Tony Blair's UK and Sharon's Israel. Bush's new permissive nuclear doctrines, and his enthusiastic neocon administration, have set the stage for nuclear wars. Americans accept that, as easily as Jim Jones loyal followers accepted his leadership (and poisoning) in order to go to a heavenly world. That's the prospect at this time. It is possible, but looks unlikely, that there will be enough sane Americans left with the power to stop Bush before he commits his arsenals to the unthinkable.
If the worst happens, that's the end of our existance. No second chances.

...Whether through self-censorship or junk education, our country's children are paying the price for the political aggression of the far right. Robert Frost once wrote, "Education is the ability listen to almost anything without losing your temper."

Walk Opposes New Nuclear Weapons, Proliferation and War Preparations

These articles, give you a quick summary of the nuclear dangers from new weapons, proliferation, a new nuclear arms race, and more likely usage. It is urgent that people support this walk and associated peace actions as there would be no second chances after a nuclear war. All other important concerns and causes would count for nothing if humanity allows a nuclear war to happen. As we all are potential victims, we all have good reasons to learn more about this threat and do something about it. The preparations for a nuclear war continue and the new Bush pre-emptive war and nuclear doctrines make such a war far more likely.
Denial, unconcern and ignorance about the nuclear threat will not make it go away.

We need people all around the world to organize demonstations at the UN Headquarters in every country !!

...In his 1974 book, "The Permanent War Economy," he composed a long list of military trade-offs. The money spent on one Huey helicopter, he said, could buy 66 low-priced homes, while a recent $69 million reduction in child-nutrition programs represented the cost of two DE-1052 destroyer escorts. He added, "To eliminate hunger in America = $4-5 billion = C-5A aircraft program."
Ralph Nader on Seymour Melman:-
Before he passed away this month, Seymour Melman had completed a concise book manuscript titled, "Wars, Ltd.: The Rise and Fall of America's Permanent War Economy". He was having trouble finding a good publisher, when I spoke with him earlier this summer.
But he will leave a legacy of wisdom, insight, humanity, consistency, and diligence. In a society whose rulers and corporatists seal the people off from such magnificent minds and inundate them with trivia, distraction and the hot air artists daily bellowing their lucrative ignorance, sagacious Americans like Seymour Melman will not receive the attention the citizenry deserves unless we the people, who own the public airwaves, begin to control and use our own media rights
For more information, visit www.citizenworks.org

The Intellectually Damaged Society

Stasi establishes and documents the religious deterioration and subjugation of the American psyche. America is in the hands of a band of dedicated criminal religious nutters. They are daily becoming more powerful and entrenched. They use queer religious doctrines to justify any act, any risk or any crime. It's all done for the lord you see, for his greater glory and to fulfil his heavenly promise. Everything and anything can be justified and excused.
So killing 100,000 innocent Iraqis, imprisoning and torturing thousands more, and destroying their country for no legitimate reason are not crimes. It's heavenly ordained and guided by our ever-loving god. We are God's chosen people. He inspires us to do what we do.

Religious Exploitation, and the New American Creed
Blind faith is not a plan for any society’s future survival; neither is it cognition worthy of the fully developed human mind. Blind faith is just a pretty mask that hides the ugly face of ignorance. Today, America wears that mask, and it does not represent the moral or ethical or religious “values” of its most rational citizens. Neither is it fooling anyone but other Americans.

Iran's relentless pursuit of a nuclear weapon is the biggest danger facing Israel, the Middle East and the world, a senior foreign-policy adviser to the Israeli government said yesterday.
"We have no doubt that Iran is trying to move ahead on building nuclear capability," Zalman Shoval, a former ambassador to the United States, said in a luncheon meeting with reporters and editors at The Washington Times yesterday.
Since January 2002, when President Bush declared that Iran was part of an "axis of evil," Iran — with Russian help — has been pursuing what it describes as a peaceful nuclear program. But the United States and others suspect that the nation's real goal is to develop nuclear weapons.

Bush's various extreme actions and desire for more wars in the Middle East may be one reason why Bush is using such extraordinary cruel tactics. He is waging a war mainly on Iraqi civilians that will make people hate and resist the US . Then Bush again fools the US people by telling them that this proves the people are really terrorists and the US duty is to make war on them - any kind of foul war he chooses and forget international law.

November 9th, 2004 was Fallujah's 9/11 Tuesday. It marked the peak of three days of indiscriminate bombing of Fallujah by US forces.
Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Al-Shaalan promised that the day would be decisive. It wasn't. It was inhumane beyond belief, almost beyond comprehension.
The bomb blitz featured weapons of mass destruction: banned napalm-type munitions, chemical poison gas and super-bombs of up to 2,000-pounds. The ground assault was indiscriminate. The target was a city where at least 60,000 civilians outnumbered rebel fighters by over thirty to one.
The US Prevented Aid Entering the City for Weeks

An exclusive, in-depth interview with journalist Dahr Jamail on what is really going on in Iraq
Newtopia: The US Corporate media consistently characterizes the Iraqi resistance as "foreign terrorists and former Ba’athist insurgents". Is this accurate?
Dahr Jamail: This is propaganda of the worst kind. Most Iraqis refer to the Iraqi Resistance as "patriots." They are people who have had family members killed, detained, tortured and humiliated by the illegal occupiers of their shattered country. Calling them "foreign terrorists" and "Ba’athist insurgents" is simply a lie.

In my research I came across this extraordinary documentation of the laws enacted over the years in the US, that curtail, discourage or punish dissent or protest against the official line. It seems quite clear that America is forfeiting it's reputation as home of the brave and the free, and becoming more of a theocratic dynasty or plutocracy. Or a Fascist state - American style.

"The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance" and "Homeland Security Threatens Civil Liberty" are listed as Project Censored's most underreported stories for 2002-2003. The New York Times runs an editorial on black box voting, drawing widespread attention to the possibility of rigged elections in 2004. Given our recent history, if freedom were to be undermined, how would we know for sure?

"It has never happened in history that a nation that has won a war has been held accountable for atrocities committed in preparing for and waging that war. We intend to make this one different. What took place was the use of technological material to destroy a defenseless country. From 125,000 to 300,000 people were killed... We recognize our role in history is to bring the transgressors to justice." Ramsey Clark

Why are the thousands of disgruntled GIs, their families and Veterans who question Bush's wisdom and veracity in e-mails and letters sent to Michael Moore rarely, if at all, represented in the mainstream media?
That is because the White House pretty much controls what comes through the mainstream media pipeline, particularly on television. Television news portrays the Karl Rove image of Bush surrounded by adoring, supportive troops in carefully choreographed photo-ops. The most notorious of these was the presidential crotch-stuffing appearance of Bush during his "Mission Accomplished" aircraft carrier stunt.       Buzzflash

Bush did not win the election -- HE STOLE IT--
Hello John Kerry supporters!
  You have worked  tirelessly for over a year to elect John Kerry and other Democratic candidates. 
You've donated money, phone banked, registered voters, wrote letters to the editor, put up lawn signs, knocked on doors and monitored polls.
You were there when they needed you.  They still need you, perhaps now more than ever.
  But more, your Democracy needs you.

The worst nightmare scenario has come true. The neo-conservatives claim they have just had a mandate to continue creating a new American version of reality. Kerry won the US Presidential election, but like Gore in 2000, was cheated out of his victory by the machinations of the neo-conservatives and their Republican allies and others in the voting machine industry.
(see: http://www.nuclearfree.org.nz/archives/ohio.htm )

In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world.Now they promise to protect us from nightmares.
The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network.But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares.

In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares. The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares. Go to http://207.44.245.159/video1037.htm and look for Transcript

The Power of Nightmares continues its assessment of whether the threat from a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. Part two, the Phantom Victory looks at how two groups, radical Islamists and neo-conservatives with seemingly opposing ideologies came together to defeat a common enemy. Go to http://207.44.245.159/video1038.htm and look for Transcript

The Power of Nightmares assesses whether the threat from a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. In the concluding part of the series, the programme explains how the illusion was created and who benefits from it.
Go to http://207.44.245.159/video1040.htm and look for Transcript

The cold war is over, but the much heralded "peace dividend" failed to materialise. The US has over 700 overseas military bases. The number is expanding as it's plans for global domination continue to be implemented. Henoko Bay is one more step.
In place of the communist enemy, the US is using the "terrorist" threat, and making more terrorists every day as it devastates Iraq. The so-called "terrorist threat" and 9/11 attack conspiracy did not exist in Iraq. The real Washington conspirators knew this before they created a litany of lies to justify launching their phoney genocidal war against the non-existent threat from Iraq.

-- A number of Okinawan, Japanese and American groups have filed a lawsuit - Dugong v. Rumsfeld - in San Francisco's Federal District Court against the U.S. Department of Defense in order to stop the construction of the new base. For more information on the lawsuit and the environmental issues at stake in the construction of the air base, see: http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/dugong_aa
. . . .Those at the encampment vow to continue their struggle until they halt the base construction. Local women in their 80s say they will give their lives to stop the project.

George Monbiot, in speech to environmental journalists, gave a superlatively good analysis of media suppression of the truth and distortion of the material they do present. It explains why Bush did so well. Monbiot also illuminated the environmental crises and how they increasingly threaten life on earth, and why the media give it such limited or distorted coverage.

......... So let us picture a journalist who is interested in the environment, and who works for a newspaper run by a rich man with rich friends. Let's say she wants to write about climate change, and that she knows that much of it results from the carbon dioxide emissions produced by coal-fired power stations. Straight away she runs into a problem: the power stations are owned and run by members of the rich men's trade union. She has several options.......

As the bloody assault on Fallujah continues, the mainstream media has become a propaganda arm of the beseiging US army and its puppet Iraqi forces. We are fed “news” from “embedded journalists” in the beseiging armies. Green Left Weekly seeks to bring you the stories the ruling elite don't want you to hear. Below are some links to alternative news sources which are operating independently of these armies. If you want to suggest other links please send them here. We are also collating details of Australian protests against the attack on Fallujah.

.....A medical dispensary in the city centre was bombed earlier.
I don't know what has happened to the doctors and patients who were there.
It was last place you could get medical attention because the big hospital on the outskirts of Falluja was captured by the Americans on Monday. ......

MoD still publicly claims DU weapons are safe. However the UK army has issued a card to soldiers saying it can cause ill-health.
“A UN subcommission has ruled that the use of DU breaches the Geneva Convention and the Genocide Convention. DU has also been blamed for the effect of Gulf War syndrome among some 200,000 US troops.” About 29,000 UK troops could also be contaminated.

CLAIMS by the Ministry of Defence that depleted uranium (DU) is not a risk to life have been undermined by a Sunday Herald investigation that found the British army is telling soldiers in Iraq that it can cause ill-health.
The revelation has outraged the military, scientists and politicians. Studies have shown DU leads to cancers, birth defects, memory loss, damage to the immune system and neuro-psychotic disorders. But the MoD has claimed since the first Gulf war that “DU does not pose a risk to health or the environment”.
However, military sources have passed an MoD card to the Sunday Herald which is being handed to troops on active service in Iraq. It reads: “You have been deployed to a theatre where depleted uranium (DU) munitions have been used. DU is a weakly radioactive heavy metal which has the potential to cause ill-health. You may have been exposed to dust containing DU during your deployment.

This DU-PLICITY article shows how the US and UK have lied about the long-lingering killing properties, about 4.5 billion years, of the radioactive Depleted Uranium weapons. Both countries have used them Iraq and in 5 previous conflicts.

.......The Conference called for the abolition of all uranium weapons and confirmed acceptance of the United Nations Sub-commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights finding, that Depleted Uranium weapons are illegal. Accordingly, the Hamburg officially called for the abolition of the use of and halt to the proliferation of these weapons.
The Hamburg Conference concluded: “The evidence from scientists, medical professionals and legal experts at this conference is clear: DU is causing significant health effects worldwide... is illegal under existing International Law and Conventions” The Conference also called for the cessation of the manufacture testing, or use of these weapons. This was the final and unanimous agreement of Conference.

The Weapon That Could Defeat The US In The Gulf
A word to the reader: The following paper is so shocking that, after preparing the initial draft, I didn't want to believe it myself, and resolved to disprove it with more research. However, I only succeeded in turning up more evidence in support of my thesis. And I repeated this cycle of discovery and denial several more times before finally deciding to go with the article. I believe that a serious writer must follow the trail of evidence, no matter where it leads, and report back. So here is my story. Don't be surprised if it causes you to squirm. Its purpose is not to make predictions history makes fools of those who claim to know the future but simply to describe the peril that awaits us in the Persian Gulf. By awakening to the extent of that danger, perhaps we can still find a way to save our nation and the world from disaster. If we are very lucky, we might even create an alternative future that holds some promise of resolving the monumental conflicts of our time.

More than 100,000 Iraqis have been killed - and where is our shame and rage?
The full scale of the human cost already paid for the war o­n Iraq is o­nly now becoming clear. Last week's estimate by investigators, using credible methodology, that more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians - most of them women and children - have died since the US-led invasion is a profound moral indictment of our countries. The US and British governments quickly moved to cast doubt o­n the Lancet medical journal findings, citing other studies. These mainly media-based reports put the number of Iraqi civilian deaths at about 15,000 - although the basis for such an endorsement is unclear, since neither the US nor the UK admits to collecting data o­n Iraqi civilian casualties.

Weapons Dust Worries Iraqis
Despite assurances from the U.S. military that depleted uranium from exploded munitions does not pose a significant health threat, Iraq's provisional government is asking the United Nations for help cleaning up the low-level radioactive, metal dust spread across local battlefields by U.S. and British forces during the Persian Gulf wars.
The request comes as the United States continues to defend depleted uranium weaponry - prized for its tank-piercing and bunker- or cave-smashing ability - against strong opposition by other countries, scientists and veterans organizations.
Great Britain, a major partner in the coalition now fighting in Iraq, has provided the U.N. with the coordinates where its forces used depleted uranium, also known as DU, in southern Iraq, but the United States has not. Britain and Germany are supplying money to train Iraqis in environmental science. The United Nations plans to survey for DU hot spots from both wars in Iraq and says it needs the coordinates for an effective survey.

The worst nightmare scenario has come true. The neo-conservatives claim they have just had a mandate to continue creating a new American version of reality. Kerry won the US Presidential election, but like Gore in 2000, was cheated out of his victory by the machinations of the neo-conservatives and their Republican allies and others in the voting machine industry. (see: http://www.nuclearfree.org.nz/archives/ohio.htm )

In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world.Now they promise to protect us from nightmares.
The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network.But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares.

In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares. The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares.

The Power of Nightmares continues its assessment of whether the threat from a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. Part two, the Phantom Victory looks at how two groups, radical Islamists and neo-conservatives with seemingly opposing ideologies came together to defeat a common enemy.

The Power of Nightmares assesses whether the threat from a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. In the concluding part of the series, the programme explains how the illusion was created and who benefits from it.

If Bush gets a second term, he may launch more and wider wars (Iran, Syria etc), provoke retaliation and 'terrorism' and probable use of nuclear weapons and a potential general disaster from which the world as we know it, may never recover.

Be sure to read this great article from the former dean of the White House Press corps, Helen Thomas.
"It turns out ...that even Arabs will fight for their own land.
They are what we call the insurgents, or terrorists, or even the enemy."

"Press Failed to Hold White House Accountable"
........I believe that if he is reelected, we have doomed ourselves to perpetual war in the 21st century. We will have a repetition of the 20th Century. Two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, and every thing that happened at the turn of the century before. Of course he will re-institute the draft. He has to, they are scraping the bottom of the barrel now for ready reserves. He will dismantle the Social Security system little by little with privatizing. He will continue to erode labor rights. He has already practically wiped out overtime. If he makes you a vice president or a supervisor, you won’t get any overtime. Or he’ll give you comp time, even if you don’t want comp time – even if you want to support and feed your kids… He will continue to move jobs to the Third World where multi-millionaires can fatten their pocketbooks from sweatshops and child labor. And, of course, the richest people in the country will continue to get the biggest tax cuts.
So through Bush policies, we have lost most of our friends and allies in the world. At the least, we have lost their respect. And domestically, the poor, the sick, and the maimed will be forgotten. I believe, like Abraham Lincoln, that government should do for people what people cannot do for themselves.
I will conclude my rant by quoting John F. Kennedy after the Cuban Crisis. In 1962 he went to American University and made a speech where he said “America would never start a war. We want a world where the weak are secure and the strong are just.”
The other quote that I like so much is “The only way for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.”
Finally, from early in our Colonial era, was the observation by Alexis De Tocqueville, who said “America is great because it is good. When it ceases to be good, it will no longer be great.”
We can change all that if we give peace a chance.

British Study Concludes That 100,000 Civilian Deaths Have Been Caused By Iraq War's Violence 
"...it is clear that whatever planning did take place was grievously in error.  The invasion of Iraq, the displacement of a cruel dictator, and the attempt to impose a liberal democracy by force have, by themselves, been insufficient to bring peace and security to the civilian population. ... [I]mperialism has resulted in more deaths, not fewer.  This political failure continues to cause scores of casualties among non-combatants. ... The lives of Iraqis are currently being shaped by the policies of the occupying forces and the military insurgents.  For the occupiers, winning the peace now demands a thorough reappraisal of strategy and tactics to prevent further unnecessary casualties.  -Dr. Richard Horton's commentary, "The War In Iraq: Civilian Casualties, Political Responsibilities," in The Lancet, Vol. 364, No. 9445. [1]

Any Iraqi resistance to US slaughter is called "terrorism" and used by the US to justify even more violence.
The US is prepared to use "shock and awe" tactics in their efforts to annihilate any resistance in Fallujah.

"In August 2004, the United States Congress unanimously adopted a resolution labeling the situation in Darfur as genocide. On September 9, American Secretary of State Colin Powell in turn declared before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, "[that] genocide has taken place and may still be continuing in Darfur". These declarations echoed attempts to compare events in Darfur with Rwanda in 1994. Observers almost immediately claimed that the American "genocide" declaration had more to do with the US elections than the reality of events in Darfur."
Today a report by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland published in the Lancet estimates (conservatively) 100,000 Iraqis have been killed since the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the (primarily) USA and the UK. Most of these are civilians, women and children.

The Pentagon is collecting figures on local casualties in Iraq, contrary to its public claims, but the results are classified, according to one of the authors of an independent study which reported last week that the war has killed at least 100,000 Iraqis.
"Despite the claim of the head of US Central Command at the time, General Tommy Franks, that 'We don't do body counts', the US military does collect casualty figures in Iraq," said Professor Richard Garfield, an expert on the effects of conflict on civilians. "But since 1991, when Colin Powell was head of the joint chiefs of staff, the figures have been kept secret."

The first scientific study of the human cost of the Iraq war suggests that at least 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives since their country was invaded in March 2003.
More than half of those who died were women and children killed in air strikes, researchers say. Previous estimates have put the Iraqi death toll at around 10,000 - ten times the 1,000 members of the British, American and multi-national forces who have died so far. But the study, published in The Lancet, suggested that Iraqi casualties could be as much as 100 times the coalition losses. It was also savagely critical of the failure by coalition forces to count Iraqi casualties.

The staggering research reported in the British journal Lancet shows the magnitude of the Bush administration’s war crimes: 98,000 Iraqi civilians dead, including 40,000 children. And that’s not even counting Fallujah.
I don’t think most Americans care a lot about dead Iraqis. I hope I’m wrong.

About 100,000 Iraqi civilians - half of them women and children - have died in Iraq since the invasion, mostly as a result of airstrikes by coalition forces, according to the first reliable study of the death toll from Iraqi and US public health experts.
They killed almost 3,000 people and it's terrorism. US kill 100,000 and its Democracy?

There is a surreal quality about visiting the United States in the last days of the presidential campaign. If George W Bush wins, according to a scientist I met, who escaped Nazi-dominated Europe, America will surrender many of its democratic trappings and succumb to its totalitarian impulses. If John Kerry wins, according to most Democrat voters, the only mandate he will have is that he is not Bush.

..... These forces are not based on lunatic religious beliefs, but rationally-based on the profits, power and prestige that draw people into the 'military - industrial - political - academic - corporate - media' complex. This is a hugely powerful force. Although it is rationally-based, it is blind to the trends and disastrous consequences of it's own behaviour or how it is used to implement the lunatic religious agenda.

We are moving toward a key fiery moment, and one that carries within it the potential for conflagration. 
As I see them, the key issues are:  Little Men and Power at All Cost
You will add you own realisations here, but the two \'little men\' of the moment are Bush and Putin. 
Small physically and with very different personalities, they have highly significant features in common:
-  They rule using fear

Mike Ruppert, is the author of this article which was delivered to San francisco's prestigious Commonwealth Club on August 31, 2004. He has just published a book "Crossing The Rubicon" in which he presents more details of his 9/11 charges and also on the world's 'Peak Oil' consumption.
Ruppert convincingly establishes that the Bush Administration planned and authorised the 9/11 attacks.

"The 9/11 attacks were the result of deliberate planning and orchestrated efforts by identifiable leaders within the U.S. Government, and the energy and financial sectors, to see a Pearl Harbor-like attack which would provide the American Empire with a pretext for war, invasion and the sequential confiscation of oil and natural gas reserves, or the key transportation routes through which they pass. 9-11 was a premeditated murder and in my book, and here tonight, I will name some of the suspects who committed the crime. In my book I will show you overwhelming evidence of their guilt, which I would be proud and confident to place either before a district attorney or a jury."

By James Glanz, William J. Broad and David E. Sanger.
10/25/04 "New York Times" -- BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 24 - The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, produce missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.
The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no-man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Sunday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished after the American invasion last year.

Noam Chomsky and Professor Francis Boyle, an international lawyer, both agree that "if Bush decides it is necessary to go to war in order to win in November, he will go to war" with Iran, Syria or North Korea. In my writings I have predicted the same thing.

....there is now considerable writing that the US will authorize an Israeli attack on the Iranian nuclear reactor at Bushehr. Also, the US will now be engaging in major naval maneuvers right off the coast of North Korea in late October. So Syria, Iran, and North Korea--the last two  part of the "axis of evil", along with Iraq. I stand by my conclusion, which Chomsky agrees with, that if Bush decides it is necessary to go to war in order to win in November, he will go to war.

To even consider a "pre-emptive nuclear first strike" indicates the flawed thinking of some of the top military and political people in the European Union (EU).

PARIS (Own report) - Military strategists of the European Union define the EU defense strategy initiated by Berlin and are considering a preemptive nuclear first strike. The EU military doctrine initiated by Berlin - the first one in the history of the EU - specifically envisions the possibility of conducting preventive wars. A recently presented "European Defense Paper", written with the participation of a former German minister of state, included nuclear arms in the first strike strategy of the EU. It states that British and French nuclear powers could be included "explicitly or implicitly" in this preventive military option.

As I write this in October, 2004, ton after ton of uranium--depleted uranium, reactor waste, and possibly just uranium--is being burned at high temperature in bullets, missiles and bombs used by the United States military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.  This is generating a global medical crisis the like of which the human race has never seen before.  The breathable uranium oxides created by this massive, ongoing incineration of uranium has radioactive and chemical toxicity for the lifetime of Earth.

This July 13, 2003 article shows that National Party MP's have a long history of opposition to New Zealand's nuclear ship ban. They would repeal NZ's nuclear ship ban if voted to power. That would also mean turning a blind eye to the possibility that visiting US nuclear-powered warships might also carry nuclear weapons under the US's "neither confirm nor deny" policy. As National's defence spokesman, Simon Power recently said (see other articles on this), they want to become an ANZUS partner again, and would send NZ troops to support any US wars. That would mean New Zealand's acceptance of any US use of nuclear weapons under the new US policy of potential use during conventional campaigns - or even pre-emptive use as the new doctrines threaten. It also means that National would accept and parrot US lies to get the public to support future wars, as the US did over both Vietnam war in the 60's and the Iraq war of 2003.

National is continuing to inch towards a policy that would allow nuclear ships back into New Zealand ports and has even raised the prospect of the wider use of nuclear technology.
Leader Bill English told the National party conference in Christchurch that restoring ties with traditional allies such as the United States would be one of his top priorities if he became prime minister.

"It's not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without
understanding the hidden agendas of the message and the myths that surround it."   - John Pilger
See also Older Articles    Journalism & Films    Archives   Sophie Prize

Iraq is probably already lost, says former military-policy planner Mike Turner.
But there are still some smart strategies for Kerry to adopt.
One of the great mysteries of this election is the inability of John Kerry to challenge George W. Bush on his national-security credentials and to hold his administration accountable for its monumental failure in Iraq. These two issues remain the soft underbelly of the Bush campaign. That the Kerry campaign hasn't effectively exploited them is disheartening. That he's allowed Bush to actually spin them into strengths is mind-boggling. Since the American people seem to be buying the GOP's reality-TV version of events in Iraq, let's take a hard look at the military realities.

From Dr. Deagle:
I have a timely story to relay on warnings I received before 9/11.
The events of 911 have forever changed all Americans views of what it is to be a free citizen of a Western democracy. They must be re-evaluated as thousands of inconsistencies and contradictions make this Orwellian tale even more pressing, now that our calendars cross yet another 911 anniversary.

The Threat of Loose Nukes is One of Our Own Making
Nuclear terrorism, thankfully, is still only a specter, not a reality. But the recent wave of bloodshed in Russia underscores the urgency of the need to prevent terrorists capable of indiscriminate slaughter from acquiring nuclear bombs.
To its credit, the Bush administration has finally launched an ambitious initiative to better secure nuclear and radiological materials, particularly in violence-racked Russia. But unless the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, which was introduced in May, becomes part of a far more comprehensive approach to the challenges of nuclear theft and terrorism, it is destined to fall well short of its goal of safeguarding the American people from the threat of nuclear weapons.

(YellowTimes.org) -- The United States went to war against Iraq in 2003 on the basis that Iraq was chock-a-block with '‘weapons of mass destruction’' (WMD). Eventually, the Americans had to admit they were wrong and they just couldn’t find those weapons. Many skeptics suspect the Bush administration lied about the WMDs in Iraq to cover a desire to invade and steal Iraqi oil.

Illegal weapons of mass destruction have not only been found in Iraq but have been used against Iraqis and have even killed US troops.
But Washington and its allies have tried to cover up this outrage because the chief culprit is the US itself, argue American and other experts trying to expose what they say is a war crime.

In the case of World War II the Germans were controlled by a dictatorship and fed hate and fear propaganda, (see Hermann Goering's quotes below) to get them to go to war against what they were told were threatening enemies. They became the real threatening enemies to everyone so it was just and necessary for the West to oppose them with war. I think Twain's quote applies to the Nazis, but not to those defending themselves against the Nazis.

IN LATE JULY more than 600 people showed up in Monterey to speak at a Federal Communications Commission hearing on ownership concentration in the news media. The participants were a diverse group, young and old, activists and workers, but they had a single consistent message: the mainstream news media have been doing a deplorable job of covering the day's most important stories.
Read more on DU:

The Australian decision to arm warplanes with US long-range stealth missiles, highlights a trend since the 9/11 attack and before, for Australia to adopt policies which echo or compliment US policy.
There has been sufficient time since 9/11 for the most backward of countries, to assess the widespread international concerns about the dangers of US policies, particularly the US nuclear policies, and the well-documented thrust of US policy toward global dominion at any cost. The UK and Australia are not backward - they have sophisticated analysts more than capable of determining real US policy and it's dangers.

A death sentence here and abroad
“Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” - Henry Kissinger, quoted in “Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW’s in Vietnam”

WHILE VICE PRESIDENT Dick Cheney is actively promoting nuclear power as a significant plank in his energy plan, he claims that nuclear power is "a safe, clean and very plentiful energy source."
The Nuclear Energy Institute, the policy organization of the nuclear energy and technologies industries, is currently running an energetic campaign for the revivification of nuclear power. Ubiquitous TV and radio ads carry the admonition that "Kids today are part of the most energy-intensive generation in history. They demand lots of clean electricity. And they deserve clean air."

So what's actually happening to Iraq's women? American journalist Lila Rajiva's 7-27-04 OW essay reports that the USA's government-media complex has been steadfastly refusing to investigate beyond the tip of the evidentiary iceberg, or it would have discovered these two barely-submerged facts: (1) that the rape and abduction of Iraqi women has, in fact, skyrocketed in "postwar" Iraq; and (2) that Iraqi women prisoners are, in fact, being raped, abused, and tortured inside the USA's military prisons.

Iran gave free passage to up to 10 of the September 11 hijackers just months before the 2001 attacks and offered to co-operate with al-Qa'eda against the US, an American report will say this week.
The all-party report by the 9/11 Commission, set up by Congress in 2002, will state that Iran, not Iraq, fostered relations with the al-Qa'eda network in the years leading up to the world's most devastating terrorist attack.

Despite promises of over $1 billion in US funding, hospital patients in Iraq continue to suffer ongoing hardship. Problems plaguing Iraqi hospitals fifteen months into what has been a brutal, bloody occupation range from ongoing medicine and equipment shortages to an overall lack of proper medical infrastructure.
"We are getting less medical supplies now than we were during the sanctions," said Dr. Namin Rashid, the Chief Resident Doctor at Yarmouk Hospital. "Paul Bremer came here and talked a lot at the beginning of the occupation, but nothing has changed," Rashid added, referring to the recently departed civilian administrator of the Coalition Provision Authority.

There are four things that currently prevent nuclear power from being feasible in New Zealand for the next 10-15 years: public opinion, time, scale and geography. Public opposition and the lengthy time taken to construct a station are major factors, but so too are the current size of the nuclear power stations. Nuclear power is most economic at 1,200MW (three times larger than any energy-generating unit operating in NZ today) and the smallest available currently is 600MW. It is unlikely that an economically suitable size will be available for another decade or more. And of course New Zealand's unstable geography creates big challenges both for constructing a station to withstand earthquakes as well as a deep storage facility for waste a big challenge.It is always worth acknowledging alternatives. However, with regard t ... read more

- A review of "The New Pearl Harbor" by David Ray Griffin
At the Cannes Film Festival last week, a predominantly American audience gave maverick film director Michael Moore a standing ovation for his controversial film, Fahrenheit 9/11. The movie, which won the coveted Palme D'Or, is a blistering critique of the Bush administration’s motives for the "war on terror," and even goes so far as to suggest that the Twin Tower atrocities provided a convenient mandate for America to invade Iraq.
.........British Cabinet Minister, the MP Michael Meacher, wrote the foreword of the book. In it he says: "Never in modern history has an event of such cataclysmic significance been shrouded in such mystery. So many of the key facts remain unexplained on any plausible basis, and so many of the key actors have put forward contradictory accounts only to be forced to retract or cover up later."

The first mistake, due to accident, miscalculation or poor judgement, madness, or intention, could be the last mistake the human race ever makes.

Shortly before 5pm yesterday the Australian Senate passed a motion put by Democrat Senator Lyn Alison recognising that on 26 September 1983, the world had come frighteningly close to nuclear annihilation. It was saved by the reluctance of duty officer Colonel Stanislav Petrov of the Soviet missile corps to press a flashing red button that would have initiated an automatic sequence that would have sent 15,000 warheads to incinerate the US and its allies.
This would most likely have ended civilisation and most life.

"Instead of leading the world against the real threat of Iran's nuclear program, the president chose to lead America alone into the quicksand to counter the mirage of a threat in Iraq," Kennedy said in the remarks, prepared for a speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He said the administration's efforts to rid Iraq of a nuclear program it didn't have not only has destroyed U.S. credibility around the world, but has made al-Qaida terrorists more determined to launch a nuclear attack on America.

The world's nuclear powers have failed to reduce their reliance on atomic weapons, creating a double standard that plagues international efforts to reduce their spread, the United Nations top nuclear watchdog said yesterday.

George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard for War Crimes against humanity and the planet.
The indictment is to be held in Christchurch Cathedral Square on AUGUST 7, 2004 and around the world

TELL THE SENATE TO SUPPORT THE KENNEDY-FEINSTEIN
AMENDMENT TO THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL
Call, email and fax your Senators today and ask them to support the Kennedy-Feinstein Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Bill.

For some time now, I have been searching for answers to a deeply perplexing question: Why is the United States promoting the spread of atomic bombs worldwide?
By "atomic bombs" I mean the kind that turned Hiroshima and Nagasaki into a fiery hell in 1945 -- A-bombs made from plutonium (Nagasaki) or "enriched" uranium (Hiroshima).

James Lovelock & Why Nuclear Power Is NOT The Solution To Global Warming

". .for nuclear power to offset even 5 percent of global carbon emissions would require that worldwide nuclear capacity be nearly doubled from today's level. That means that nuclear is simply not a medium term option for slowing global warming."
...The authors point out that even with a massive nuclear construction program, the use of fossil fuels will continue to grow.
" Thus, in this scenario, even bringing a new nuclear plant on line every day and a half for nearly four decades does not prevent annual CO2 emissions from steadily increasing to a value 60% greater than they are today."

"This fuel is of great interest to terrorists, so the program is quite significant," said Daniil Kobyakov, a nonproliferation expert at the PIR Center, an independent policy research organization in Moscow.

President George Bush's bid to stop international action to combat global warming faces failure this weekend, as he is left more isolated than ever before both at home and abroad.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin - who will effectively decide whether the Kyoto Protocol stands or falls - announced on Friday that his country would "rapidly move towards ratification" in the wake of a complex deal with the European Union.

Seems to me that unlimited resource extraction is one reason life on earth is cheap and has contributed to global warming in the first place.

We expect around 800 participants to this Congress which aims to discuss the dangers posed by the civilian and military uses of nuclear energy, who is behind the scenes promoting its use and why, as well as offering solutions to the problem and exit ideas.

Should we allow American nuclear vessels to visit New Zealand?
The National Party is proposing to dilute New Zealand's iconic anti-nuclear legislation to improve economic and defence relations with the United States.
A 65-page report on the relationship between the two countries was issued late yesterday afternoon as a huge protest dispersed outside Parliament. The timing prompted Prime Minister Helen Clark, ACT and the Greens to accuse National of slipping it through "under cover of the hikoi". Have Your Say

COMMENT FROM SISTER LAETITIA BORDES: "I'm filled with sadness. I'm filled with fear. I fear for the people of Iraq, because I feel that John Negroponte certainly is not concerned about the democracy of Iraq. I think that John Negroponte is concerned about his reputation. He is an expert in counter insurgency tactics. We see that in his background. And John Negroponte will stop at nothing. At nothing."

“President Bush poses the greatest threat to America that we have seen in modern history,” Ritter told an audience in the University Union's Potomac Lounge.   ~ ~ ~
Ritter, a former intelligence officer for the US Marine Corps who served as the UN's Chief Weapons Inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, said the U.S. government “brought us into this war on false pretenses.”   ~ ~ ~
“Our real policy has been regime change,” Ritter said. “Our plan was to dethrone Saddam, not to find weapons of mass destruction.”

...As resistance attacks continued to increase in the city against the occupiers, so did the retaliation by the military. And so it has grown to bring us to the current siege of Fallujah where hundreds of women, children, elderly and unarmed men have been slain by soldiers, along with some mujahedeen.

On a cold, wet night there's nothing better than coming home to a warm house, making a hot bowl of soup and then, after dinner, curling up under a reading lamp with a good book. But what if there was no gas to make the soup or run the furnace? What if there wasn't any oil to transport the dinner ingredients to you? No sweat, you may be thinking, I'm pretty hardy. If you really believe that, then I challenge you to sit in the dark for 15 minutes. It's no fun.
As that little mind game shows, trying to imagine life after fossil fuels isn't easy. Hydrocarbons are the very lifeblood of modern, industrial society. They are so fundamental to our existence that their role in creating our quality of life often goes unexamined. What our great grandparents would have considered luxuries we think of as necessities. But as even a casual look at history and a quick review of physics reveal, we are living an aberration.

The truth of what's happening in Falluja has to get out.
.......I'm outraged. We're trying to get to a woman who's giving birth without any medical attention, without electricity, in a city under siege, in a clearly marked ambulance, and you're shooting at us. How dare you?
How dare you?