Fascist Empire Planet (Archive)

Thank you Tim for your intervention on this. And "this" is Simon Heffer in full "man-in-pub" mode, ranting about MPs not needing "research assistants". The problem, opines the great man, "stems from MPs' belief that they deserve an entourage."

He would concede an MP needs a secretary, but why do they need research assistants? MPs never used to have them, he says. They just had their secretaries get information from the House of Commons Library. If MPs need advisers, let their parties pay for them. Taxpayers are put upon enough without having to fund such swindles.

I have already declared an interest on this, and our readers will not be at all surprised at our view that Heffer – as he so often does – is talking utter tosh. The real problem is that he needs a "research assistant", as he so quaintly puts it. Myself, I prefer the term, "researcher".

That much is evident from his equally facile comments on Dan Hannan, where he tells us to, "Forget Hitler, the EU is modelled on the USSR". Daniel Hannan, he says, made only one mistake when he drew comparisons in the European Parliament between the way the European Union does business and how the Nazis were enabled to set up a dictatorship in Germany 75 years ago. He could just as easily have compared it with the way business was transacted in Stalin's Russia, and he should have.

This really is classic "man-in-pub" talk. One brief look at the Soviet Constitution should disabuse anyone of the thesis that there is any similarity between Stalin's regime and the European Union, but such niceties are not for the likes of Heffer.

In fact, Heffer is the classic research-free "journalist". Between prejudice and finger, no brain intervenes, no pause to collect information in a systematic way, no attempt to evaluate it and analyse it. Instead, he writes off-the-cuff, sometimes getting it right, but most often not.

Yet this is the man who rants about the Tories and their lack of policy, a man who clearly cannot join the dots. How does he think a policy is actually formulated? Does he think that Cameron sends his secretary down to the House of Commons Library and asks for one?

The big problem, in fact, is that the Conservative Party does not do enough research and much of that which is done is of such poor quality. That, more often, is due to the low status afforded to the occupation of researcher, the inability to understand the role and value of research, and thus the traditionally low pay in the calling, building a self-reinforcing cycle.

But, against the might of the government with all the might of the civil service and the enormous resources available to it, how does Heffer think that MPs can operate in the task he would have them do - holding the government to account?

The worst of it, though, is that – judging from the comments on his online piece – so many people agree with this rather stupid man. The seductive rant of the man-in-pub has a strong following. But this does not make him right.

COMMENT THREAD

February 02, 2008 03:34 PM

From http://www.truthnews.us/?p=1867

Coulter: Hillary is “Our Girl”
Kurt Nimmo

Truth News

February 2, 2008

Case closed. You don’t need any more evidence there is little substantive difference between “conservatives” (neocons) and “liberals” (neolibs) than the pronouncements of the Queen of Hateful Shrill, Ann Coulter, the “author” who registers to vote in multiple jurisdictions and gets away with it.
Hillary is “more conservative” than John McCain, the Manchurian candidate who hates “gooks,” mostly because the Bilderberg Queen and selectee of preference by the Rothschilds and the elite is more on track with the neocon and neoliberal plan to kill recalcitrant Muslims, break their countries into manageable pieces along tribal and ethnic lines, and impose IMF and World Bank schemes on them and thus steal their natural resources and reduce them to slave labor gulag inmates à la “communist” China.
Coulter “absolutely” believes Queen Hillary will be “stronger on the war on terrorism,” that is to say not only killing people who have the misfortune of living in “rogue nations,” but decimating what remains of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Obviously, for Coulter and the neocons, who will soon enough throw their support behind Clinton, McCain’s crude forever war pronouncements are not enough. But then, of course, McCain is but window dressing for the stampede to “elect” Hillary, an expensive circus sideshow designed to make the American people think there is a “democratic” process in the United States and that they actually have a say in who will be the next decider-commander. Not explained is why the elite feel compelled to continue this transparent charade. Nostalgia, maybe?
In order to pretend there is a difference of opinion in regard to Hillary Clinton’s impending anointment as president, Sean Hannity tells us Hillary will “nationalize health care” and “pull the troops out of Iraq,” never mind Clinton is an unabashed warmonger who voted to kill a million plus Iraqis and has repeatedly stated her desire to do likewise to grandmothers and toddlers in Iran. Coulter disagrees and actually tells the truth: the positions of Republicans and Democrats, she avers, are “about that far apart,” and she makes the point by showing us a very small space between her thumb and forefinger.
Hannity’s role as straight man to Coulter’s snake oil dance is obvious enough on its face and his supposed protestation is entirely theatrical as his boss, Rupert Murdoch, has hosted Clinton fundraisers in the not too distant past. This “interfaith ménage,” opines Forbes, redraws “America’s political lines” and is nothing if not Bismarckian realpolitik.
Oh, please. It should be obvious by now to an astute grade school student of current events that the whole thing is rigged and choreographed — albeit rather shoddily — and Coulter is nothing if not a well-paid shill who is tasked with promoting whatever candidate our rulers want. Hillary Clinton and her VP, Barack Obama, will rule the roost in politically correct fashion — as brainwashed liberals are locked in the gender and race vice and dare not complain, lest they be expelled from the herd — and the so-called conservatives, actually GWB bumper sticker neocons, will be brought into the fold by the likes of Coulter, the Queen of Mean.
Of course, Hannity and Limbaugh will play the part of the disgruntled opposition, as Clinton hatred smolders fiercely at the root of the base, and they will be paid handsomely for their petty and operatic disagreement, which is less than meaningless, to say the least, but necessary to assuage the hurt feelings of the aforementioned GWB neocon followers.
John McCain will be selected as the Republican nominee for one reason above all others — to drive an appreciable number of “conservatives” into Camp Hillary. McCain, the Manchurian candidate and Keating Five associate, is ugly and unpalatable enough to accomplish this and the neocon flag-waving base is stupid enough to buy into it and remain none the wiser for the next eight years.A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 02, 2008 02:50 PM

By: Allan Nairn - News and Comments

At about 8:25 Wednesday morning, US Eastern time, AOL's internet welcome screen juxtaposed two AP news stories: "He (McCain) Jumps Ahead in Republican Race: What Will Rudy Giuliani Do Now?" and "Desperate Haitians Eat Dirt: 'One Day I'll Have Enough Food.'"

One thing Rudy Giuliani did after losing the Florida primary was give a speech with the line "The best way to achieve peace is through overwhelming strength."

That could have been said by the rulers of colonial France as they tore the gold from Haiti's mountains, or by Thomas Jefferson as he warned against tolerating Haiti's slave uprising. Or by the US rulers of the '50s through '80s as they backed the Duvaliers as Haiti's dictators, or of the '90s as they backed the FRAPH death squad and imposed a World Bank/IMF plan on Haiti that -- a decade before Wednesday's dirt-consumption update -- began making Haitians hungrier.

It might be true, in theory, that overwhelming strength could achieve peace, but only if wielded by a figure like, say, God, and the Bible, Torah, and Koran all agree that even that scenario makes massacres.

The US founders may not have followed their own stated principles -- few do -- but they were cynically insightful about people in general, so as rich men, some of them slave holders (like Jefferson), they sought to contain the popular "mob" but also to structurally, constitutionally constrain future rulers like themselves.

In stated principle, at least, the US founders feared overwhelming strength in the hands of humans.

But today, the stated principle has reversed.

Giuliani's statement was not peculiar. McCain says things like that all the time, and it was the Clinton administration, where Hillary worked, that produced the 20-year Pentagon plan for "Full-spectrum Dominance," i.e. the ability "to defeat any adversary and control any situation," anywhere, anytime (Jim Garamore, American Forces Press Service [US Department of Defense], "Joint Vision 2020 Emphasizes Full-spectrum Dominance," June 2, 2000).

But if you fully dominate the world, who's going to stop you if you murder, or if you cause people to hunger because of the way you move and concentrate scarce wealth?

Those are the murder and preventable death problems that Americans are free to raise in politics -- but usually don't, but there's also another, straight-power problem that may eventually have to get discussed.

The problem is that though militarily, in some senses, the US still overwhelms, economically the US is becoming one power-center among several.

In his State of the Union President Bush said he'd "make sure America remains the most dynamic nation on earth."

That was possible to do after World War II with the rest of the rich world ravaged, but with nodes of capitalism now having dispersed worldwide it is no longer possible.

The fastest growth will inevitably happen elsewhere and, before long, a number of others will equal the US as centers of capital, exchange, and even innovation (and, on the latter, sooner than later if the US sustains its anti-immigrant hysteria).

What then? Elected US rulers always talk in supremacist, nationalist terms (though they personally and professionally invest globally). If they truly want the US to have/keep overwhelming dominance, their comparative advantage will have to be in gunpowder.

The sensible answer by non-rulers should be: who cares about attaining/keeping dominance? As a means of achieving peace it is discredited. As a means of feeding people, it hasn't produced.

It's more reasonable to search for other means, means toward good ends like ceasing death squad sponsorship, and shifting enough wealth so that people can sustain their strength by eating real food instead of dirt.

February 02, 2008 02:35 PM

Haiti Action Committee

Cite Soleil, a seaside shantytown of more than 300.000 people residing in homes made of cinder blocks with tin roofs, has been described as poorer than India's infamous slums of Calcutta. On any given day it teems with the life's blood of Haiti's poorest citizens.

Despite the twists and turns of what residents describe as several foreign interventions, members of the community still recount with pride how they served as a launching site for former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's first election campaign in 1990.

Yannick Jean, a frail 70 year-old woman whose longevity itself is a testament to hope, spoke in hushed tones as she washed her clothes in a ditch of dirty water, "We were the ones who presented Aristide to Haiti when he ran for president. He was our greatest hope. I am waiting for him again."

A controversial figure, Jean-Bertrand Aristide is a former Catholic priest who was overthrown twice in Haiti's turbulent political history. His first ouster was at the hands of Haiti's former brutal military with the support of the traditional economic elite who live fabulously wealthy lives as compared to Haiti's average citizens.

Where Yannick Jean washes her clothes probably speaks more to Haiti's current reality and the contradictions of the current United Nation's mission than any expert on development possibly could. Rising above her and creating shadows over her dirty laundry is a huge edifice of new construction that bears the mark GB. It is a new building that covers several acres and is home to the business of Haiti's wealthiest man, Gilbert Bigio.

While the surrounding residents of Cite Soleil are forced to literally eat dirt to stave off hunger, Bigio is a billionaire whose family supported the first coup against Aristide and reportedly helped to back the movement that forced his second ouster in 2004.

One need not look very far to see where Gilbert Bigio's interests lie in relation to Cite Soleil. According to his own company's web site his family maintains controlling interests in sixteen of Haiti's largest companies. They are also the largest Haitian partner in the wireless communications giant Digicel, a mammoth company based in Ireland that has nearly cornered the cellular market in the Caribbean. Bigio's family is not merely wealthy amidst a sea of poverty stricken residents in Haiti, his family represents the Über-wealthy who have benefited most since Aristide's second ouster in 2004.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US government blocked all of the Bigio family's holdings in US banks following the brutal military coup against Aristide in 1991. Since Aristide's second ousting in 2004, the financial wealth of the Bigio family along with those of other well off Haitian clans such as the Mevs, Brandts, Acras and Madsens have nearly doubled according to a confidential source at a private accounting firm.

Not to be forgotten is the fact that Aristide's forced departure in 2004 was legitimized and enforced by a UN authorized mission during the term of former Secretary General Kofi Annan. The fact that a few families of Haiti's traditional elite continue to exact exorbitant profits, while residents of Cite Soleil are forced to eat mud pies and bathe in ditches, has shaken confidence in the non-governmental sector working with the poor in Haiti.

A young woman who began her NGO career to end poverty in Cite Soleil shakes her head in disbelief as she watches throngs wash their clothes and bathe next to Bigio's glistening plant. There are security towers protected by armed guards at every corner of the property while UN forces in large armored personnel vehicles patrol the outer perimeter. She asks not to be identified and comments, "I bought into the development model the UN used to encourage us to come here and invest in Cite Soleil. The US government funds our organization through USAID and I came here to make a difference in these people’s lives. I am now faced with the reality of a humanitarian crisis we cannot be expected to solve. The UN's main thrust seems to be security at any cost. This can only result in the loss of another generation of Haitians in this community being lost to poverty and misery. I am ready to quit unless something changes soon."

Protestors burned tires in front of the Cite Soleil mayor's office earlier this month to protest a Pentagon financed pacification program. The US Department of Defense targeted $20 million in Cite Soleil for the Haiti Stabilization Mission with the stated objective, "to improve access to police and justice, strengthen local governance, provide vocational training and to create jobs through infrastructure and public works projects." Protestors complained that rather than creating jobs and improving living conditions, it represents another heavy-handed attempt by the US to control residents through corrupt local politicos in the mayor's office.

In another corner of this community and trying not to draw attention amidst the children with bloated bellies and the flow of traffic, is a representative of Aristide's Lavalas movement. Mr. Jean- Marie Samedi was brutally beaten and tortured after Aristide's ouster in 2004. He is the leader of a movement called the Base of Lavalas Reflection and gave another view to the already disfigured politics of suffering in this community.

Mr. Samedi commented, "At least the people they called bandits and gangsters shared what they had with the community when they were here. People could eat. They had food and had running water. They didn't have to eat dirt to live or have to wash their clothes and their bodies in ditches of dirty running water."

As if to punctuate Mr. Samedi's point, several children run by with almost blondish hair, a clear sign of malnutrition amongst blacks in this Caribbean nation of 8.5 million people. He continued, "They told us that everything would change after they got rid of the bandits and yet people cannot feed their children. You see them forced to wash in this dirty water. What did the promise of the Bush administration and the UN really mean to the people of Cite Soleil? They have merely continued politics as usual in Haiti. The rich get richer while the majorities are forced to continue to suffer in poverty. I challenge anyone to show me the difference they have made for the majority of the poor in Haiti." Growing visibly angry and bitter Mr. Samedi concluded, "The UN came in here and slaughtered residents who supported Lavalas on July 6, 2005 and again on December 22, 2006. And for what we have to ask? So that Bigio and the Haitian Chamber of Commerce could force us back into accepting this level of poverty? Nothing has changed for the poor in Haiti."

February 02, 2008 02:25 PM

Agence Haitïenne de Presse - Translation by HaitiAnalysis.com

The general director of the Provisional Electoral Council, Jacques Bernard, confirmed on Saturday his resignation after being reassigned last December to this position, in the new CEP.

This decision intervened less than a week after the publication of a presidential ordinance on the general regulations establishing the rules and norms that govern the functioning of CEP, pending the setting up of a permanent electoral institution.

Jacques Bernard had wanted senatorial elections to be organized under the hospices of the internal regulations of 2005-2006 that gave him very much latitude, to the point of having hoisted him under the regime of Gérard Latortue, to the level of head of the former council, to which the actual councilmen opposed themselves.

Indeed, Mr. Bernard explained his resignation by the fact that the government Préval/Alexis did not maintain the internal regulations of 2005-2006, following different encounters during which all the electoral councilmen had declared themselves in favor of the change.

Jacques Bernard made it known that the former formula was one of success, that one should not touch, he said, complaining about the fact that "all decision making powers were transferred". "How could I manage affairs within the current general regulations and without decision making power", he questioned.

Jacques Bernard refused to say if the electoral councilmen can organize good elections without him, and rather asserted that he did not want to speculate.

Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis said that he regretted the resignation of Jacques Bernard and that he hopes it does not have too much negative implication on the realization of the next electoral races.

One-third of the senate that came to term at the beginning of January must be renewed and indirect elections must be achieved.

The government leader deplored that the recent discussions between the members of CEP and the Executive branch to try solve problems, rather ended up with the departure of Mr. Bernard. As for the representative of Pétion-Ville, Steven Benoît, he admitted that Mr. Jacques played an importance role in the former council. But it is not essential, indicated Mr. Benoît, who calls on president René Préval to proceed, in the shortest delays, to the nomination of a new director to support elections within due date.

One will have to undertake everything possible to avoid a new crisis for the country, given the extremely difficult conditions that Haiti is currently facing, declared the representative.

The Spokesperson of the party Fusion of the Social Democrats, professor Micha Gaillard, was allegedly surprised by the resignation of Mr. Bernard, since, he explained, after an encounter between the stakeholders concerned around the internal regulations, the administrative power had been attributed to the latter.

Mr. Gaillard similarly wondered if the elections will be able to happen within foreseen time-frame.

He calls on Jacques Bernard and the members of the CEP to show wisdom in order to help get the country out of this difficult crossroad.

February 02, 2008 02:20 PM

By: Wadner Pierre - HaitiAnalysis.com

For several months there has been a new twist in the history for the poor in Haiti, but the story has been enveloped in silence. The standard of living has been declining, with rising costs of basic goods and a continued lack of social programs. People cannot afford to eat.

Haiti has become a 'republic of NGOs' long dependent on outside aid because of the methodical destruction of its own civil enterprises and popular alternatives.

Around the new-year a huge march against poverty and unemployment took place in the capital of Port-au-Prince. The protestors demanded reparations and that the government represent the interests of the poor.

The most pressing issue for the poor is the most basic commodity of life, food. This week, particularly in the poorest districts, such as Cité-Soleil, people go starving and bathe in muddy streets. In Cité-Soleil, a woman sells small plots of eroded land for a living. She says it "is my life, this is where I earn my daily income."

Haiti's wealthy in the hills of Pétionville, where most foreign journalists spend their time, have profited from the growing gap in wealth.

NGOs more and more fill the abyss, an abyss left by the eroded state. But one must ask: Should NGOs replace the state? Why is this happening? What is the plan of the government? Is the government folding in on itself for the sake of global capitalism?

The Fascists Are Still Capable

A new blow is always being prepared, afraid of what the popular winds might bring. "Resignation", investigation, imprisonment, interpellation of the rich, we must wait for the results. They will tell us what happens. A "democracy" only in rhetoric.

The Catholic church too is following a path of silence when it comes to the life of the poor and the possibility of building an alternative. The homily of the head of Haiti's bishops, at the celebrations of the 65th anniversary of the consecration of the country at Notre Dame du Perpetual Succor and the 165th anniversary of the miraculous cure of people infected with the Vérole (Verrette), was a reminder of where the top religious hierarchy stands. After people had chosen their leaders with dignity, these sons of the Haitian upper and middle classes in the religious hierarchy now appear as an arm of fascism.

They are silent when it comes to unconstitutional governments, jailing, killing, firing, privatization, and coups. This is the structural reality we face in our society.

In the district of Fort-Dimanche one can see the high rising platforms of factories of wealthy Haitian families. Duvalier once used this site to torture his impoverished victims. Next to these sites sit the homes of little children made from piles of garbage. They seek their daily lives in this maze.

A man with a sack over his shoulder who I spoke with in Fort-Dimanche explained that "Life is very difficult, there is no option, we can not stay at home to die, we come here to find life."

We are told over and over that everyone is full, things are improving, the wheels are turning, the United Nations is here, but this is hypocrisy. The living situation is worsening and it is clear to those in the slums. In the public markets one can hear the small merchants analyze the situation.

We are told by the big media that Aristide was an elected dictator, maybe because he cared for the poor? The loads of subsidized rice his government brought into the poor districts hurt the profits of industrialists like Apaid Jr. So today we must eat dirt to let the mansions grow. The cost of food rises by forty percent. Pregnant women eat mud cookies.

Go into the poor neighborhoods, see where the poverty is deep and tell the world what is going on. It is our duty. There is a need for truth. We must tell people the truth.

Visit Wadner's Blog de Port-au-Prince

---

February 02, 2008 02:16 PM

The editorial in The Daily Telegraph today is absolutely right, of course. "There should have been only one story in Parliament this week," it intones: "the ratification of the European Constitution, now called the Lisbon Treaty." It then tells us that the adoption of this text will fundamentally and irrevocably alter the temper of the nation.

But it then moves on to tell us that: "…as far as the country is concerned, by far the bigger story has involved MPs who employ their wives."

To an extent, perhaps, but it is also the case that the leaders of the pack have been the media, and the signs are that the Sunday press will be in full feeding frenzy tomorrow, as they clear their pages in order to "out" those MPs who employ wives and relatives. Yet it is those same newspapers, The Daily Telegraph included, who have given no space at all to the debates in committee on the treaty ratification.

However, the Telegraph editorial develops its theme to suggest that, "the two stories might, oddly, be connected." The constant, low-level anger that voters now feel for their representatives, it says, owes a good deal to the sense that MPs are parasitical. It continues:

The powers they once exercised are now wielded by quangos, judges, Whitehall bureaucrats and EU officials. Ceasing to be authoritative, they have become contemptible. In consequence, voters get much more upset about their salaries and expenses than they did a generation ago.

We are in a vicious circle. The less people respect their parliamentarians, the less prepared those parliamentarians are to defend their privileges. A House that has been demoralised by scandal and contumely is readier to surrender its powers than one that is confident in its supremacy.

Here, the paper does have a point, but it is a very superficial analysis. What it carefully omits is the role of the media which, in its pursuit if the trivia, constantly fails to report the more serious aspects of parliamentary work, itself contributing to the impression that the House of Commons is one long soap opera.

Balancing this, though, the reason why media is giving the Lisbon treaty proceedings so little coverage (like this blog) is that it is simply reflecting the general view that ratification is a done deal. And, in the nature of things, what you cannot alter, you tend not to worry about.

There, the Parliamentarians have only themselves to blame. While they rest on the doctrine of "parliamentary sovereignty", they have been in the forefront in giving it away. As the assiduous Dr D R Cooper recently pointed out (kindly sending us an e-mail), he wrote to The Telegraph on this very theme.

Before MPs resume their debate on the Treaty of Lisbon, he stated, they may care to look at its Declaration 17, which claims that EU treaties and laws have "primacy" over the laws passed by their own Parliament. Then they should look at Parliament's official website, which states that it is "the supreme legal authority in the UK".

From this, writes Dr Cooper, it seems a logical conclusion that the laws it passes must have "supremacy" in the UK - but how can that be so, if EU treaties and laws have "primacy"? Unless there is a subtle distinction between "supremacy", and "primacy", which is perfectly clear to the fine minds in the House of Commons, even if it would elude that of the man on the Clapham omnibus.

Therein lies exactly the point made by The Telegraph editorial. Since MPs have been so keen to divest themselves of their power, it is not surprising that they become increasingly irrelevant until all that is left is the soap opera.

With that, the paper avers, they have lost their self-belief. It concludes: "If they became what they once were - the nation's supreme assembly, a senate of men and women determined to give expression to the aspirations of their electors - voters might mind less about their salaries. Giving those electors the referendum they promised at the last election would be an excellent place to start."

We can only say Amen to that.

COMMENT THREAD

February 02, 2008 12:54 PM

http://gunowners.org/a121307.htmA blog with relevant information for the world.

February 02, 2008 11:43 AM

_________________________


A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 02, 2008 11:40 AM

Mark Morford
San Franciso Chronicle
January 30, 2008

Oh, sweet Jesus, someone actually counted.

Two independent nonprofit journalism groups apparently took enough laudanum and beat down whatever healthy sense of human decency they had in order to plunge straight into that quivering mountain of incompetence that is the official record of the Bush administration, all the false quotes and all the lie-strewn press conferences and all the squinty-eyed fabrications from Dubya, Colin Powell, Condi and Cheney and Rummy et al., that took place in the two years after Sept. 11, 2001, and added them all up.

Is it helpful to know the exact number? Does it make a difference? After all, presidential lying isn't exactly a revelation. Pretty much a national pastime, really. Bill Clinton lied in a harmless civil lawsuit, and was even impeached for it. Of course, his little oral fixation didn't lead us into an unwinnable trillion-dollar war that will scar the nation for multiple generations and has wasted 4,000 American lives and resulted in tens of thousands of wounded, crippled and brain-damaged U.S. soldiers. But that's just splitting hairs, really.

After all, it's common knowledge that, say, George Bush Sr. lied about Iran-Contra and "read my lips" Ronald Reagan lied like a nasty old rug about Iran and aiding the Contras, Lyndon Johnson lied about the Gulf of Tonkin to gain support for the Vietnam War, Harry Truman probably lied about Hiroshima and John F. Kennedy probably lied about the Bay of Pigs, and, well, all presidents lie, really, to some degree or another and with varying degrees of success and historic consequence. Is it not sort of pointless to whine about it?

Fair enough. But there is something truly special about Bush 43. Something so unique, so poisonous and strange that historians are busy right this minute rewriting not only their books, but their entire way of thinking about how we measure and interpret political malfeasance.

It has to do with matters of scale. It has to do with audacity, with sheer recklessness, with BushCo's stunning contempt for all national and international law and historic precedent and human decency. It is the sense that, at bare minimum, the most significant lies told by previous administrations were, by and large, not calculated stabs to the very heart and infrastructure of the entire nation. They were not designed, as Bush's clearly were, specifically to pervert the entire American experiment, to violently shift us from peace-promoting and defense-oriented protector to an arrogant, insular, pre-emptive attacker, widely loathed and mistrusted worldwide.

See, BushCo rewrote the formulas. From WMD to tax cuts, AmeriCorp to Iraq, this administration has officially reset the bar to an all-time low as to what's possible for a truly dreadful, inept president to get away with without some sort of significant repercussion, impeachment or numerous lightning bolts raining down on his soft little monkey skull. Sure, it took leveraging America's most brutal and heartbreaking tragedy in a generation to pull it off, but does the fact the administration exploited 9/11 like a pedophile exploits a child take anything away from the astonishing depth of the abuse?

But maybe you still argue that, even at a whopping 935 calculated lies told specifically to lead us into a bogus war, it makes no difference. Maybe you argue that a lie is a lie, and Bush is no better or worse than Clinton or Reagan and here is a giant cocktail of jaded, raging apathy. Let's all chug it together, shall we?

Fine. If it's a fact that all presidents lie anyway, if there's little we can do to stop them, then let us put forth a new hope. Let us now wish for the next president to lie just as passionately, as powerfully, as strategically as BushCo, and get away with it just as extraordinarily.

But let's make one significant change. Let's urge the new president to lie, well, in the other direction, to lie not in the service of horrific war or in the name of powermongering or to line the pockets of corporate cronies, or even to cover up stupid personal behavior, but rather in the name of sliding through an agenda of - oh my God can you believe I'm going to say it? - peace, nonviolence, international respect, humanitarianism, sex positivism, religious tolerance, progressive education. I know. Crazy.

Yes. Give us now a president who lies, calculatedly and strategically, straight in the face of the hard-right neocons and the evangelicals and the corporate cretins. Let his or her army of lies lull these groups into a false sense of complacency and/or utter soul-deadening fear so they will keep their mouths shut while the rest of us get some real work done.

"As an angry, well-armed God is my witness, I will never push through a national handgun ban," would be a good lie for this new president, thus shutting up the National Rifle Association and assuaging the bogus American cowboy mythology, as his or her army of crazy hippies do the exact opposite and quietly work to make the nation safer and more humane.

The horror! The outcry! Whatever.

Or how about this: "All foreign religions clearly hate and wish harm upon America, and therefore it shall be the policy of this administration to never, under any circumstances, attempt to understand other beliefs, to open our schools and textbooks to include honest religious information, or generally re-educate the absolutist, Christian-drunk American populace." And then begin a quiet, subversive national program to revolutionize the spiritual IQ of forthcoming generations. The terrible lie!

"America must remain aggressive and antagonistic to all questionable nations who do not cower properly to our demands. We shall close our borders and police the Internet and maintain nasty vigilance on all citizens at all times. This is the only way to true national security." What's the direct opposite of such a promise? Do it, prez!

"And finally, I shall never abolish the death penalty, legalize marijuana, approve gay marriage, promote honest sex education for teens, honor habeas corpus and the Geneva Convention, or eliminate the insidious farm subsidy program. We shall never stop lying about ethanol or offer solar subsidies for every household in America. Our direct ties to horribly misogynistic, terrorist-supporting Saudi Arabian power regimes shall remain deeply corruptive and powerful forevermore."

Go ahead, Mr. or Mrs. Next President. Lie your tail off if you must. But this time, let's try to make it a real party.

-- Mark Morford columns with inset links to related material can be found at sfgate.com/columnists/morford.

Mark Morford's column appears Wednesdays and Fridays in Datebook and on sfgate.com. E-mail him at mmorford@sfgate.com.

February 02, 2008 11:31 AM

Campaign is now underway for the election of new VOTF National officers and it is but fair to examine the campaign words of the candidates and see what they really mean in-between-the-lines. After disclosing Fr. Richard McBrien as the Opus Dei-HERALD in the USA when he was the main speaker at the October National Convention of VOTF, I think that I have now just cracked the secret Opus Dei-MOLE in VOTF. (The worst spy-for-Russia in USA history was an Opus Dei member Robert Hanssen).

I originally got a hunch of this Opus Dei-MOLE among the letters of a VOTF Vice-President candidate http://votfelection.com/?p=45 and "Questions for Candidates" in VOTF election website. Drums roll... Here is the Opus Dei-MOLE in her words which have identical parallel with the Opus Dei and Benedict XVI words "for a purer Church" in his inauguration speeches. I highlight in bold - her SECRET Opus Dei words - that are unsuspecting to non-Opus Dei watchers. I will post additional points of PROOFS in the days ahead.

Is Janet Hauter - The Mole, the Opus Dei Mole in VOTF ? by these words of hers:

The OD-Mole clue #1

"We have two years to build an incredible foundation. We need individuals who know that this foundation is the foundation of a newer, healthier Church by being open and healthy ourselves. Much of the change must begin with us. We, ourselves, need to master two arts: fraternal correction where we speak and act in the common good and speak to the voices who demean and criticize..." #2 in
http://votfelection.com/?page_id=32 "Fraternal correction" is an Opus Dei daily mantra and is the main relationship and way of life especially between the numeraries (celibate lay Opus Dei nuns and brothers) who act as weekly "spiritual directors" to all lay members -- the supernumeraries. These words of Janet are almost verbatim words so common in Opus Dei and Benedict XVI writings.

Note that her priorities are not the victims of priest pedophilia but the building of "a newer, healthier Church". Fr. Doyle just reminded us that the church is "delusional" and here is Janet Hauter preaching of "building a newer, healthier church" in a two years term of a national VOTF officer! How unrealistic and deluded can she be! Fr. Doyle said: "The U.S. bishops still live in their delusional world as far as clergy abuse is concerned....In State legislatures throughout the country, State Catholic Conferences and the local bishops spend millions of the faithful's dollars to defeat any legislation that would offer greater protection to child victims. They insult our collective intelligence with a variety of false claims based on erroneous information.... How ironic! The world's largest religious organization which is based on the mission of Christ and it opposes State laws that do what it not only could not do, but would not do…protect children from deranged predators and self-centered institutional enablers."

And Janet Hauter is singing of a "newer, healthier church" -- (the institution GUILTY of all that Fr. Doyle has just mentioned in his letter to VOTF ) -- exactly on what planet is she on?

The OD-Mole clue #2

See #11 http://votfelection.com/?page_id=32

Janet said: "While I personally initially favored the call for George's resignation, the vote of the affiliate through prayer changed minds and hearts and our plan was and remains sequential."

"Through prayers changed minds and hearts" is the strategy of Opus Dei to close down VOTF and SNAP as expounded in The John Paul II Millstone www.jp2m.blogspot.com The Opus Dei and Pope's strategy is for all victims of priest-pedophilia to simply "PRAY, pay and obey" and the whole thing will be "forgiven and FORGOTTEN".

Get real VOTF! Wake up to the giant Fr. Richard McBrien and his cunning snaky infiltration in VOTF. Do not make him the infallible papal envoy in VOTF!

And be-aware and beware of Janet Hauter and her secret Opus Dei agenda in VOTF!

The OD-Mole clue #3

See No. 19 and 20 Questions for Candidates, VOTF elections

Janet Hauter's mild (and protective) stance on Cardinal George, an Opus Dei member and clone of John Paul II:

"Firing a Cardinal is not within our purview but we publicly discredit any actions that do not fall within an accountability framework."

Paul Kendrick said to Ms. Janet Hauter:

It is interesting to note that, on the one hand, you want us to know that you are already a seasoned “leader”; i.e. as an established VOTF leader in Chicago, yet, on the other hand, you blame the group, not yourself, for its failure to engage in an ongoing campaign to remove Cardinal George as archbishop of Chicago.

More OD-MOLE clues in days ahead......stay tuned

------------

February 1, 2008

4 more clues on THE MOLE of VOTF

Because of the recent number 96 reply of Janet Hauter there are more clues "The Mole in VOTF" I was able to extract. First, here are Janet Hauter's replies to my "analysis" of her being The Mole of VOTF:

http://votfelection.com/?page_id=32&cp=7#comments

#93—Marie Tupper Says:

Dear Ms. Hauter,

A certain blogspot (http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2008/01/john-paul-ii-clone-cardinal-george-and.html) is accusing you of being a member of Opus Dei.
Are you a member of Opus Dei, or in any way associated with Opus Dei?

Marie, I find this bizarre/preposterous question a clone of the private correspondence exchange I had with Paul Kendrick recently. Because I believe in total transparency and have no fear of his “Johnny one note” rants, I offer them to you exactly as was discussed.

(Edited out repeat of OD-Mole clues above. Bold emphasis added))


I consulted with Mother Angelica on this and she said that moles can only be identified by people who have their heads in the dirt. She also said “It’s naughty to slander and the accuser needs to do penance!” Janet Hauter

Paul Kendrick writes: Please stop being silly. Just answer the simple question. Are you a member of, or in any way associated with Opus Dei?

Secondly, the Ignatius Group message was distributed only to you and your son, George Bouchey. I wanted to first determine what your reaction would be. However, if you do not respond to the question about whether or not you are an Opus Dei member (or in any way associated with Opus Dei ; i.e., is your spouse a member?), then I will publish the link to the blog and your refusal to answer the question.


Janet Hauter’s post:
SLANDER/LIBEL

A type of defamation. Slander is an untruthful oral (spoken) statement about a person that harms the person’s reputation. Because slander is a tort (a civil wrong), the injured person can bring a lawsuit against the person who made the false statement. If the statement is made via broadcast media — for example, over the radio or on TV — it is considered libel, rather than slander, because the statement has the potential to reach a very wide audience.

Subject: Why are you so upset about a simple question? You need to take a deep breath.
Date: 1/26/2008 3:41:56 P.M. Central Standard Time
From: IgnatiusGroup
Reply To:
To: JMWHauter

Janet Hauter’s post: The question is ludicrous. I am not now, never have been, have no relatives that are or would ever consider membership in Opus Dei. Bizarre question.

Do whatever you need to do. This conversation is closed. J

------------

4 more CLUES why Janet Hauter is "THE MOLE in VOTF"

OD-Mole clue #4 : My question is simple and a valid one to public candidate Janet Hauter and she is already blowing full steam and irritation -- is she capable of handling the VOTF 2 years tough office of Vice-President? VOTF is one of the "last hope" of Catholics and if she cannot handle a valid querry, how tough a cookie is she?

The OD-Mole clue #5 Hauter's immediate response in the form of "libel and slander" is typical of Opus Dei who has tons of lawyer members. Opus Dei cannot carry a decent conversation without pounding legal liabilities even on honest legitimate questions. That is why they want to canonize John Paul II as soon as possible so that he and St? Josemaria Escriba will be the two "WORD OF GOD" in the 21st century. But luckily, Sapienza University in Rome just rejected Benedict XVI from speaking at their opening of school year last January .. yes, Benedict XVI is tasting his own bitter medicine of not giving the Jesuits "freedom of speech" and eventually VOTF whom he wish to shut-up!

The OD-Mole clue #6 Probably the biggest clue that Janet Hauter is the Mole in VOTF is her running to and asking Mother Angelica's advice -- this is sure sign of her Opus Dei affiliation.

I consulted with Mother Angelica on this and she said that moles can only be identified by people who have their heads in the dirt. She also said “It’s naughty to slander and the accuser needs to do penance!” Janet Hauter

So Mother Angelica says that Paris Arrow "can only identify moles because (she) has dirt in her head...that she is naughty to slander and needs to do penance!"

I've got news for you Mother Angelica, YOU are not qualified to be a member of the VOTF because you are under the payroll of Opus Dei and you are a puppet of the papacy that want to shut down VOTF. You are a typical preacher of "PRAY, pay, OBEY" and "ASK NO QUESTION". You would be a disastrous advicer to VOTF. The ONLY advice you will tell us is "Go to confesison and do penance" (like you told Janet Hauter about me).

If "Go to Confessiona and do penance" are all that the lawyers did, Cardinals Mahony et al would still be laughing at the victims of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. Instead $3 Billion has been paid to victims. And I bet you are praying endlessly for John Paul II's canonization - like you did for St? Josemaria Escriba de Opus Dei. Right? Why don't you just gon on chanting in Opus Dei Latin and let us LAITY live our life in the outside world -- apart from your multi-million dollar monastery -- like the pompous Vatican of Benedict XVI and Opus Dei villa in Rome.

FYI Mother Angelica EWTN broadcasted the canonization of St? Josemaria Escriva LIVE in October 2002 and repeats it every year. EWTN gives the lists of BISHOPS and CARDINALS (guilty of cover-up) who celebrate Escriba's feast in June -- which I posted last June 2007 http://jp2m.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html

Janet Hauter running to Mother angelica for advice is the BIGGEST proof that she is THE MOLE in VOTF!


The OD-Mole clue #7 Janet denies being a member of Opus Dei. It is a rule in Opus Dei that their members "NOT tell in public" if one is an OD member so that they can carry on the clandestine agendas of Opus Dei on the group they are spying on. Remember the greatest USA spy (for the Russians) was an Opus Dei member, Hanssen.

So, Janet Hauter, if everytime you receive a simple question like mine and you RUN to Mother Angelica who is an Opus Dei affiliate -- her EWTN is supported by billionaire Opus Dei, what kind of a leader -- or footsoldier of Opus Dei are you? And what a temper for an oficer of VOTF. God forbid there are other moles like you in VOTF.


The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
is for enough good men and women
to do and say nothing.

Cheers VOTF!
Paris
------------

Cardinal George MUST RESIGN!

VOTF Elections

Topic: Cardinal George, Chicago

I want to make it clear my opposition to my opponent, Janet Hauter’s position on Cardinal George of Chicago. She was 100 % wrong!! We can complicate the issue as much as you like with wordage. The bottom line , his actions resulted in abetting a child abuser. No matter what his intent was, that is what happen. And for that he should have been asked to resign, and Janet, and VOTF, should have lead the charge for that action .

Janet, please stop with the lectures and calls uponGod, roll up your sleves, get out on the sidewalk in front of the Chancery ,and protest at every turn your Cardinal when he takes such actions. This is how VOTF was founded. I know my Faith by my ACTIONS..

David Biersmith

Candidate for VOTF Vice-President (Watch David's video)


8 Responses to “Cardinal George, Chicago”

Robert Harrison Says:

Mr. Biersmith’s approach of taking a club to Cardinal George’s head is not the way to attack the problem. Hostile confrontation, as he proposes, accomplishes nothing. He forgets that it was a building crescendo of incidents quickly coming to light within a few months, and a swell of public disdain for Cardinal Law that caused his resignation.

That is not the case in Chicago. Cardinal George is guilty of bad judgment concerning a pedophile within the last year. But he has taken action to publish the names of bad priests and has put in place a program to address the problem in the future. Unfortunately, it is not a perfect plan, and has ignored suggestions for improving it.

He has not acted swiftly as he should have. He has equivocated and dragged his feet. Even though there is discontent with some of his actions, there isn’t a groundswell of ill will against him personally. He is not a bad bishop. His problem is that he cannot adjust—nor the hierarchy in general—to the fact that he is no longer the sole judge when it comes to pedophile priests as it was in the Middle Ages.

He IS THE CARDINAL, and has total control of the Archdioceses. To make personal attacks on him and demand his resignation gains nothing. It makes him more hostile and hurts our cause. He is largely respected and revered by Catholics in the Chicago area. Attacking him personally, as Mr. Biersmith proposes, will only alienate Catholics who are not fully aware of what is happening. To constantly appear on the sidewalk in front of the cathedral to protest—unless a specific incident warrants it—only makes VOTF and others look like a bunch of whacky malcontents to the public. When needed, it is effective; otherwise it is counter-productive.

He has a well paid team of lawyers and a prominent public relations firm doing his bidding. The Cardinal is not the problem. The problem is getting legislation passed that will hold him and all who overseer pedophiles, criminally accountable if such incidents are not immediately reported to Civil Authorities.

Though Mr. Biersmith means well, his tactics will not bear fruit as they did in Boston. The circumstances are greatly different. It is far better to have the Cardinal work WITH us instead of AGAINST us. If we cannot reach that point, hostility to him should not be an option. We need to develop a group in each parish that will support us and lead fellow parishioners into supporting legislation when it is presented in the legislature.

In summery, it would be wise if Mr. Biersmith followed the old adage when it comes to dealing with the church hierarchy: “NEVER TRY TO TEACH A PIG HOW TO SING. YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME—AND YOU ARE AGGITATING THE PIG.”

Dan Burke Says:

Robert Harrison’s views confirm that ostriches can be found not only on the plains of the Serengeti, Kalalhari, Masai Mara and Etosha game reserves but here in the U.S. as well, if only to a lesser degree even without the sand into which to bury one’s head! In the real world lawyer you get indicted for obstruction of justice. In the real world you get sacked for mismanagement….Cardinal George??

• In 1995 Sen. Bob Packwood [Oregon] resigned following mounting evidence of sexual harassment of his office staffers.
• Boeing CEO Phil Condit, resigned in 2003, as a result of the defense contracting scandal that ultimately saw two Boeing executives, ex Air Force procurement official Darleen Druyun and chief financial officer Mike Sears sent prison.
• Again in 2005 Boeing fired its CEO Harry Stonecipher for having an affair with a staffer, the Board seeking honesty and transparency to maintain crediblity with its stockholders and the investment community at large.
• Just 6 weeks ago, Merrill Lynch fired its CEO Stan Lynch for poor performance, mounting losses,
• Just 5 weeks ago Citibank fired its CEO Chuck Prince for poor performance, mounting losses.
• Just this past March 2007, less than a week after visiting the Walter Reed medical Center following allegations of deplorable conditions, newly installed Defense Secretary Robert Gates summoned Army Secretary Francis Harvey to Washington and fired him on the spot. Harvey’s statement to the press?…..I was head of the Army…what can I say…the buck stops with me…I have to take responsibility. This is the real world Robert Harrison. What Planet have you been living on? Biersmith has it right!

Frank Keating, a retired Governor of Oklahoma and former Chairman of the National Review Board, resigned over frustration arising from the refusal of the Bishops to cooperate, citing their preference to deny, hide, obfuscate, suppress names of offenders, resist subpoenas, noting that the Bishops listen too much to their lawyers and not enough to their hearts. Now goofball George heads up the USCCB…and read George’s comments below to the Catholic lay advisors meeting with him.

Former White House Chief of Staff and U.S. Rep. Leon Panetta, a California Democrat who served on the National Review Board and was one of those who met with Francis George commented on the continuing abuse allegations arising out of the Chicago Diocese stating at a news conference, “it confirmed for me what is at the heart of this pedophile priest problem, the Catholic hierarchy’s failure to understand the seriousness of the crisis”.

George’s response? According to three sources contacted by Sun Times reporters, that when the members of the National Review Board met with George, he issued a warning, “you will be the downfall of the church!” The group was dumbstruck. “The bishops and priests have failed to deal with this scandal” Panetta said he told George. “The healing process could not begin, Panetta said, unless the church acknowledged the problem”.

--(Comment on Fr. Richard McBrien edited out)

Think Francis George like Army Secretary Francis Harvey, should step up to the plate and take a little responsibility [ like resign] for the additional boys molested by Father Daniel McCormack after he and his staffers ignored the earlier warnings of the nun principal trying desperately to call it to the attention of the Diocesan office with phone calls and letters? Think Ratzinger should have fired him or demoted him? Why does the Church always protect its own instead of sending the message….business as usual? No where is the truth of the adage more evident, that an organization cannot be counted on to police itself, than in the Church.

It’s about accountability and transparency Harrison, in case you don’t get it….both of which are woefully lacking in the mission of this church….which did nothing to sack its CEOs ie: the transferring Cardinals and Bishops even though the Church knew of the emerging scandal as far back as 1985 after the submittal of the report by Canon Lawyer Thomas Doyle.

Dan Burke

------------

Shame on the City of Angels





It is quite a coincidence that as we reveal for the first time the role of Opus Dei in the cover-up of the JPIIPPA John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army for more than 26 years these giant squids suddenly appear on the shores of southern California.

God is sending the sign (through these giant predators) to confirm that we are speaking the truth and nothing but the truth about the Octopus Dei who is the ultimate cover-upper of the priest pedophilia of the 20th century and is the modern predator in the Catholic church today.

Shame on the City of Angels as NOT ONE Los Angeles theologian raised his voice to denounce Cardinal Mahony and asked for his resignation. Shame on the City of Angels as representatives of SNAP and Catholics did not protest Cardinal Mahony's hypocrisy and demand him to step down and leave town. Shame on the City of Angels that has lost its sense of decency and justice - for the children who are least of the brethren of Christ who suffered the most heinous crime of priest pedophilia in the Catholic church in the 20th century.

We in Boston did our job well for the victims of the JPIIPPA John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army and we got rid of Cardinal Bernard Law (one of the commanders of the Third Reich of the JPIIPPA). Cardinal Law was not a good American citizen and so we did not want to see him walk in our Bostonian soil. We refused to hear his liar-voice preaching everyday in our diocese and churches . It was not a surprise that John Paul II took him to Rome to join his other cohorts-in-crime, JPII clones Benedict XVI and Opus Dei eunuchs, Masters of Deceit at the Vatican (prime Opus Dei real estate)where they continue to rule amidst pompous ceremonies like the Tsars using their OD cunning tentacles.

Shame on the City of Angels so immune to sex that it clasps the 508 pedophile priests and kowtow to Cardinal Mahony, Master of Cunning and Deceit. The City of Angels breaths easy amidst LA landscape stenched with sex. Perhaps this is not a surprise as Hollywood reels with sex films; and the Catholic church seething with the JPIIPPA John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army blends well into the sex scene.

Video of giant squids off California coast http://cbs11tv.com/pets/local_story_093132302.html

February 02, 2008 11:30 AM

From http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/02/hpv-causing-ora.html

HPV causing oral cancers in men; vaccine urged for boys

USA Today
Saturday February 2, 2008

Human papillomavirus, the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer, is also a major cause of oral cancer in men, according to a new study being reported by the Associated Press.

The rise in cancers of the mouth and upper throat is probably the result of an increase in oral sex and a decrease in smoking. HPV now causes as many oral cancers as tobacco and alcohol.

As a result, there's a push to vaccinate boys with the only HPV vaccine on the market, which is targeted at girls and young women. Merck & Co. is planning to seek federal approval this year for cross-use of Gardasil to block infection, AP writes. Every year, nearly 12,000 American women are diagnosed with cervical cancer.

(Article continues below)


"We need to start having a discussion about those cancers other than cervical cancer that may be affected in a positive way by the vaccine," said Dr. Maura Gillison of Johns Hopkins University, a co-author. The study, published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, reviewed more than 30 years of National Cancer Institute data on oral cancers covering 46,000 cases.

In related research, Penn State University scientists report that cigarette smoke may aggravate HPV and raise the risk of cervical cancer.A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 02, 2008 10:37 AM

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2251166,00.htmlA blog with relevant information for the world.

February 02, 2008 10:34 AM

http://www.counterpunch.org/mcgovern02012008.html


Note by Me: I don't agree with all of McGovern's views, but he's right to oppose the Iraq War.

By TimothyA blog with relevant information for the world.

February 02, 2008 10:33 AM

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. Revelation 14:6,7.

This solemn appeal is one of three messages that are contained in the Earth's Final Warning found in Revelation, chapter 14. Yet, what is happening in the world in spite of this warning is similar to what is described in the book of Romans:

18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

19Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

21Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

26For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

29Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

31Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1:18-32.

History, or rather man repeats himself; Because man fails to comprehend that God is longsuffering, yet, righteous.

And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. ... And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:3,5.

The time will soon come when the Lord of Lords; The God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, will finally give His final plea for man's obedience and repentance. He intended the book of Revelation, and specifically the Three Angels' Message to awaken mankind out of its spiritual rebellion. His arm is still outstretched offering salvation and His eternal care. Will you heed His call? Will you place Him before everything else? Will you obey and repent of your sins? He will soon send His Son Jesus Christ to redeem His faithful children. Will you be one of them? Take this moment and ask the Lord to forgive you, and accept you as His Son or Daugther. He will not reject you, if you are honest and faithful. He is coming in the clouds with a host of angels, very soon. Strive to be in that small flock whom will rejoice when He returns. Blessed be His Holy Name. Glory and Honor to Him.

He is still calling, Listen. Can you hear Him? "The hour of His Judgement is come".

Maranatha.

Arsenio.

February 02, 2008 10:21 AM

The First Angels' Message

Revelation 14:7,8
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the EVERLASTING GOSPEL preached unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his JUDGMENT is come: and WORSHIP him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
**************
THE GOSPEL is everlasting. The Gospel is the message of salvation in Christ — there is no salvation anywhere else.
Mark 1:15 "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel."
Romans 1:16,17 "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."

The gospel is the power of God to forgive and cleanse and lift us from sin unto His own righteousness which He works in everyone who surrenders to Him.

To understand the true meaning of the gospel is paramount to all the rest of the message. Without Christ we can do nothing! Without His forgiveness we are doomed. Without His Holy Spirit we are helpless! Without a new heart which only God can give we cannot even love Him as we ought.

Yet how important that we must surrender to Christ and not shrug our shoulders saying "Christ paid it all, I don't have to choose to surrender my sins to Him, they are covered." No, no Paul does not teach that, he says "Romans 8.13 "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."
James tells us 4.8"Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."

FEAR GOD, AND GIVE GLORY TO HIM!

Why does the Gospel Angel shout with a loud voice, "Fear God"?
"Fear" means to respect or reverence God! A recognition of His might and majesty and holiness. When we and others truly see that character, there will be born in us deep reverence for, and adoration of our Maker that will show itself in respect, obedience, service, and the desire to glorify His name by the way we live.

"Glory" --to bring Him honor. The word (kabod) essentially refers to the Lord's character, which reveals its purity — purity so great that evil cannot live in it's presence but is consumed.

Yet how can we give God glory?

Isaiah 62.2-3
And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

What an awesome thought! Those who are transformed by the gospel are as a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord!

Romans 3.23 tells us:
"But all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" Any glory we may give to God is sorely polluted, for even Abraham could not glory before God on account of his own works of righteousness. (Romans 4:2)
So it is not our glory that glorifies God. So how can we be as a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord?

Romans 15:15-17 ...Because of the grace that is given to me of God, ...being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God.

Philippians 1.11
Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Matthew 5.16
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
1 Peter2.12
Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Do you begin to see the picture. When God transforms the live of an individual, that individual brings glory to God by the fruits of righteousness flowing from his life, by the grace of God.

THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGMENT HAS COME

The immediate reason given for this call to glorify God is the arrival of THE HOUR (or Time) OF HIS JUDGMENT! In the days of the apostles, the time of judgment was yet future. When the 1st angel sounds his message, the hour of judgment is come! Yet it is not the end of the world as the other two messages must yet be sounded!
This is not the second coming yet — for the rejection by the major religious groups is still future and the call to come out must still be given.

Acts 17.31
For God has appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.
Romans 2.15
Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness... In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

The call for us to glorify God, comes with the judgment message. The investigative judgment determines who is worshiping the beast and the dragon which thinks to change God's times and laws, and who is worshiping God the Creator and Ruler of all things.

Daniel 7.9-10
I beheld till the thrones set up, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

Daniel 7.25,26,22
And he (the beast/ horn power) shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.(1260 years) But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
And judgment was given in favor of the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.

The Psalms give us a similar message depicting the call to worship, with focus on the sanctuary and the judgment:

Psalm96.6-13
Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Give unto the LORD, O ye people, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts. O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth. Say among the heathen that the LORD reigns: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ...before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.

We see this message "The hour of His judgment is come" proclaimed after the call is made in Revelation 11:18-19 by the 24 elders which sat before God saying, "Thy wrath is come and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that You should give reward to your servants the prophets and to the saints, and them that fear your name, small and great, and destroy them which destroy the earth." But note, this is not the second coming for the next verse tells us that "The temple of God was opened in heaven and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament."

The ark of the testament is the ark which contains the ten commandments and the mercy seat. These holy commandments must be once again brought fully to the attention of the people. The Sabbath must be proclaimed. The call for judgment fixes the gaze upon the temple in heaven and brings to view the Most Holy Place. This took place at the end of the 2300 days, when the sanctuary was to be cleansed. At that time the prophetic periods ended and the seventh angel began to sound. Since 1844, the people of God have seen by faith, the open door in heaven, and the ark of God's testament within. The ark was called the ark of the testament, because it was made for the express purpose of containing God's law.

Worship Him Who Created the Heavens and the Earth

The judgment message comes with an appeal to worship the Creator God!

The antidote to the evolutionist theories, the antidote to Sunday. The chief reason that God deserves worship — because HE CREATED US! We are His by virtue of His having made us. We turned traitor, in rebelling against His governement, but He bought us back, taking the punishment for our treason. Now the angel calls for us to come back!

The gospel opened the way. The judgment determines if we follow in that way. And our whole hearted response is shown by our worship of the CREATOR GOD!

So we see the apocalyptic emphasis on godly fear, giving God glory, and on worship. Yet why is it all in the context of Creation? Is it not enough just to worship?

Psalms 95.6-11 (quoted in Hebrews 3)
O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today if ye will hear his voice,
Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:.. they should not enter into my rest.

Exodus 20:8,11, Genesis 2:3
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy...for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it...and God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.

Come let us worship our Lord and Maker!

In the context of Creation this must undeniably include the worship of the Creator on the day He set aside as a memorial of Creation! When He ended His work which he had made," when He rested and blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.

This is not a call to formal "putting in of time" a ritual list of do's and don'ts to be done on a specific day.

No this is a special day to put all secular business on hold and spend it with Christ.
This is a date with our Creator God.
A day to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
A day to find renewal in Him for the conflicts and responsibilities ahead.
This is a day to remember God our Creator!

To claim the freedom to worship how and when we please — as if we are the one's offering any gift of our choosing to the Lord is to flaunt our own importance in the face of God.

God says — Give me the seventh day — We say, pardon me Lord, we are now free to do it our own way, just count yourself lucky if we give you an hour or so on Sunday. —

That, dear people is what constitutes the mark of rebellion. Rebellion is when we know exactly that the Lord wants a date with us on the 7th day of each week, but we refuse.

As we move into the issues involving the the Sabbath and the three angel's messages it will be seen that in the end rebellion against God's Sabbath will be rebellion against the very authority and Lordship of our Creator and Savior.

Source: dedication.www3.50megs.com/angelmessage.html

February 02, 2008 10:18 AM

Florida Family Campmeeting

Location:	Pine Lake Retreat, Groveland, Central Florida Google map - Camp location
Dates:	Wed-Sun. February 6-10, 2008
Host Family:	Lee & Lynelle Perschino 422 White Tail Lane Wirtz, VA 24184 (540) 721-9628 fl@fcmhost.info

Source: http://www.restoration-international.org/article.php?id=41

February 02, 2008 09:56 AM

How to Keep the Sabbath
by Dr. John J. Grosboll

The Blessings of Sabbath Keeping

I consider myself to be one of the most fortunate people in the world, because before I was born, both my father and my mother had learned, studied and believed, and were keeping the Sabbath. I know from personal experience what the Sabbath can do for a family. I know what it can do for a marriage. I know what it can do for children. I know what it can do for any Christian. And I hope, by the grace of God, that you can see from the Bible, as we study, the marvelous blessings that God wants to give to you through the Sabbath. Great blessings are in store for each one who keeps the Sabbath holy.

To read the whole article please click on link below:

Source: http://www.stepstolife.org/library/jgrosball/howtokeep.htm

February 02, 2008 09:49 AM

 

From http://www.wesleyjsmith.com/blog/2008/02/i-am-asked-about-lauren-richardson-case.html

 

I Am Asked About the Lauren Richardson Case

James asks:

Wesley, What's your take on the Lauren Richardson case in Delaware? Can you get involved to protect the life of this young woman?

Lauren Richardson, for those who may not know, is a young woman diagnosed to be persistently unconscious whose parents are fighting in court over who should be named her guardian. How the court decides that question is literally a matter of life and death. Her mother wants to pull her feeding tube, her father does not. Here's the tragic story.

James. I have received several inquiries such as yours. It is a reasonable question that breaks my heart and deserves a bluntly honest answer: I am at a loss to know what I can do. I haven't been called to help and it is not my way to interpose myself into these gut wrenching situations. A blog entry isn't going to matter, nor sending ten articles to the New York Times--which wouldn't be published anyway. Dehydrating the cognitively devastated is a ubiquitous practice in US hospitals and nursing homes. It isn't even controversial unless, as in this case and a few others such as Terri Schiavo and Robert Wendland, there is a family division and someone kicks up a fuss. Usually, families go along and no one is the wiser.

Let me repeat this sickening fact: The dehydration of people who are elderly stroke or dementia patients, people of all ages with brain injuries, and others with profound cognitive incapacities who require feeding tubes goes on ALL THE TIME in ALL FIFTY STATES to people who are both CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. And society generally applauds.

Like I said: What can I do? But I appreciate very much the love in the hearts of everyone who contacted me about Lauren and my deepest respect to all who care so profoundly about the life of a tragically injured young woman whom they have never met.

Labels: Dehydrating the Cognitively Disabled

A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 02, 2008 09:35 AM

A few days ago, Daniel Hannan was getting worked up – not about the disgusting carry-ons in the EU parliament, but at the deployment of the "EU army" to Chad.

The proximate cause of his concern was an announcement that the much delayed EU peace-keeping force was finally to make its way to that troubled country, having finally found enough helicopters and equipment to keep it going.

Under a heading, "The EU deploys its army," Hannan wrote that the soldiers will answer, "not to any national capital nor combination of national capitals, but to the EU's politico-military structures in Brussels". He then asked: "If 3,500 uniformed soldiers at the command of EU institutions isn't a European army, what is it?"

However, whether it is an EU formation is one thing, but there is another measure of an army. The term is usually taken to mean a force which has the capability to fight and, in this respect, Hannan's worries are somewhat over-stated – the EU Army is not capable of fighting.

Despite the concerns of nascent EU power, we now learn that the deployment has been delayed, the reason being that there has been "heavy fighting" between government troops and Sudanese-backed rebels, who have been marching towards the capital in a bid to topple president Idriss Déby.

The mission's Irish commander, Patrick Nash, says the risk of instability was well-known and now, with Irish and Austrian troops due to arrive, this has "fuelled fears" that the EU could get more than it bargained for. Says John Kotsopoulos of the European Policy Centre, "The EU will have to tread extremely carefully so as not to get caught up" [in the fighting].

The problem is that the French have been supporting the government against rebel incursions. So the EU mission, while supposed to be neutral, could ultimately be seen as benefiting the government in Chad by stabilising the situation.

As result, the rebels have stated that if the EU forces stand in their way then they will be under threat. In fact, they bear the distinction of the first ever force to declare war against the EU. Thus, it seems, the potential for casualties is making the EU states think again about sending their men and women to Chad.

So, the EU has an "army" that cannot fight and will not be deployed anywhere dangerous in case it suffers casualties. On that basis, one could be forgiven for thinking that there is very little to be concerned about. The words "paper tiger" come to mind. We know the Europeans talk about "soft power", but this is ridiculous. "Gone soft power", might be more accurate.

COMMENT THREAD

February 02, 2008 09:31 AM

Frank Joseph Fahrenkopf, Jr. - President and CEO of the American Gaming Association (AGA); New York Stock Exchange Boardmember (6x)

QUOTE

Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. President and CEO Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., is president and CEO of the American Gaming Association (AGA). In his role as the chief executive of the AGA, Fahrenkopf is the national advocate for the commercial casino industry and is responsible for positioning the association to address regulatory, political and educational issues affecting the industry. A lawyer by profession, Fahrenkopf gained national prominence during the 1980s when he served as chairman of the Republican Party for six of President Ronald Reagan's eight years in the White House (1983 to 1989). When Fahrenkopf retired in January 1989, he had served as chairman of the Republican National Committee longer than any person in the 20th century (and second-longest in the history of the party) and led the party through two successful presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988. He has been a frequent commentator on political and gaming issues on such network television programs as Crossfire, Inside Politics, Meet The Press, Hardball, Face the Nation, The Today Show, This Week and Good Morning America. [...] Fahrenkopf also sits on the board of directors of six New York Stock Exchange public companies: First Republic Bank, Gabelli Equity Trust, Inc., Gabelli Utility Trust, Gabelli Global Multimedia Trust, Gabelli Dividend and Income Trust, and Gabelli Gold and Natural Resources. His civic involvement includes service as chairman of the board of governors of the City Club of Washington, a member of the board of trustees of the E.L. Wiegand Foundation, The Economic Club of Washington and the Federal City Council. Fahrenkopf also served as a co-chairman of the Rivlin Commission, which investigated and reported on the government of the District of Columbia. He has been honored for his contributions, receiving the Junior Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Service Award in 1973, the Nevada Lung Association "Man of the Year" Award in 1983 and the National Humanitarian of the Year Award from the National Conference on Christians and Jews in 1985. He is a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. He also serves as a trustee of the Culinary Institute of America and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). Fahrenkopf is a graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno (1962) and the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley (1965).

http://www.americangaming.org/About/bios/bio_fahrenkopf.cfm (Proof Positive)

QUOTE

Frank Fahrenkopf AKA Frank Joseph Fahrenkopf, Jr. Born: 28-Aug-1939 Birthplace: Brooklyn, NY Nationality: United States Executive summary: CEO, American Gaming Association     University: BA, University of Nevada at Reno (1962)     Law School: LLB, University of California at Berkeley (1965)     Teacher: University of Nevada (1967-82)     Professor: Georgetown University     Administrator: Board of Trustees, National Judicial College     Administrator: Board of Trustees, Culinary Institute of America     Administrator: Board of Trustees, University of Nevada (1994-2000)     American Gaming Association (1995-)     Hogan & Hartson Partner     Member of the Board of First Republic Bancorp, Inc.     Republican National Committee Chairman (1983-89)     Republican National Lawyers Association Board of Governors     American Bar Association     American Judicature Society     Burning Tree Country Club     Economic Club of Washington, DC     International Republican Institute     Knights of Malta     National Endowment for Democracy     National Restaurant Association     US-Panama Business Council     Washington Legal Foundation     State Bar of Nevada 1965     District of Columbia Bar 1984

http://www.nndb.com/people/434/000125059/

QUOTE

Fahrenkopf SMOM • CEO, American Gaming Association

http://www.learn-usa.com/relevant_to_et/Se...e_Influence.pdf

Social Network Diagram:

http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb06?_FAHR...PF_FRANK_J%20JR
Sources:

QUOTE

FAHRENKOPF FRANK J JR     * Bellant,R. Old Nazis. 1989 (18, 22-3, 31-2)     * COHA. Resource Center. NED: A Foreign Policy Branch Gone Awry. 1990 (35, 75)     * Choate,P. Agents of Influence. 1991 (122)     * Denton,S. Morris,R. The Money and the Power. 2001 (343, 372)     * Harper's Magazine 1995-05 (52)     * Hawks,J. For a Good Cause? 1997 (135)     * Lewis,C. The Buying of the Congress. 1998 (32)     * Lewis,C. The Buying of the President 2000. 2000 (76, 108)     * Lewis,C. The Buying of the President. 1996 (27)     * Livingstone,N. The Cult of Counterterrorism. 1990 (287)     * Moldea,D. Dark Victory. 1987 (333)     * National Endowment for Democracy. Annual Report. 1985 (iv)     * National Reporter 1986-SU (23)     * New York Times 1986-06-01 (16)     * Parenti,M. Inventing Reality. 1993 (62)     * Pizzo,S. Fricker,M. Muolo,P. Inside Job. 1989 (xi, 264-5)     * Resource Center. AIFLD in Central America. 1986 (52, 74)     * Resource Center. Bulletin 1989-F (4-5)     * Resource Center. GroupWatch 1990-CFD (1-3)     * Resource Center. NED Backgrounder 1992-10 (3)     * Washington City Paper 1993-06-11 (29)     * Washington Post 1984-06-28 (A13)     * Washington Post 1987-02-16 (A16)     * Washington Post 1987-04-08 (C4)     * Wilcox,D.A... The Right Guide. 1993 (156)     * Z Magazine 1989-12 (50, 52, 54, 57) pages cited this search: 42

http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb01?_FAHR...PF_FRANK_J%20JR
 
_____________
 

L. Francis Rooney III - US Ambassador to the Holy See; CEO of Rooney Holdings, Inc.; Corporate Polymath

(Proof Positive)

QUOTE

Francis Rooney was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See on October 13, 2005. Francis Rooney is the former Chief Executive Officer of Rooney Holdings, Inc., an investment and holding company based in Naples, Florida, with administrative offices in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Principal operating subsidiaries are: Manhattan Construction, a building contractor and construction manager founded in 1896, operating in the Southwest, Southeast and Middle Atlantic States, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean; M. J. Lee Construction, a bridge and heavy construction business in the Southwest; Hope Lumber and Supply, a supplier of building materials to professional builders in the Southwest, Southeast and Middle Atlantic States; and OAI Electronics, a contract electronics manufacturer and assembler with plants in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Santiago, Dominican Republic. Mr. Rooney served on the Board of Directors of BOK Financial Corporation and the Bank of Oklahoma, NASDAQ; Helmerich and Payne, Inc., NYSE; and Cimarex Energy Company, NYSE. Mr. Rooney has served as Vice-Chairman of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, appointed by Governor Keating (Oklahoma), and Director of the Oklahoma Capital Investment Board, appointed by Governor Bellmon (Oklahoma), and the 20/20 Committee and Washington Advisory Council for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington, DC. Mr. Rooney has also served as an Officer of the Texas Business Hall of Fame, Houston, Texas, and a Director of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, College Station, Texas. He also served on the transition team for Governor-Elect Brad Henry (Oklahoma), responsible for transportation and taxation issues. Mr. Rooney was a member of the Leadership Task Force, a Tulsa City and County planning group headed jointly by the Mayor and the Chairman of the County Commission, which developed the "Vision 2025" $900 million package of capital improvement and job creation projects approved by the public in September 2003. From 1992 to 1998 he was a Director of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) and served as International President from 1997-1998. Mr. Rooney was a member of the Board and Chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee of the St. Francis Health System, a large Catholic health system in Oklahoma; and as Chairman of the Board of Cascia Hall Preparatory School, an Augustinian middle and high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He remains a member of the School of Architecture Council of The University of Notre Dame and a member of The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (Federal Association). Mr. Rooney was a member of the Board of Advisors of the Panama Canal Authority, Republic of Panama, and a Director of the Newport Shipyard, Newport, Rhode Island. Mr. Rooney was also a Director of the Southwest Florida Chapter, World Presidents Organization (WPO), and a trustee of the Naples Winter Wine Festival and the Naples Children and Education Foundation, Inc. He recently became a member of The Florida Council of 100. Mr. Rooney is a graduate of Georgetown University (A.B. 1975) and Georgetown University Law Center (J.D. 1978). He is a member of the District of Columbia and Texas bars, and holds a U.S. Coast Guard 100-Ton Masters License (Sailing Endorsement). He resides in Naples, Florida, with his wife and three children. Mr. Rooney is conversationally fluent in Spanish.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/55444.htm (Proof Positive II)

<No Social Network Diagram>
 
_____________
 

General Joseph Edward Schmitz - Inspector General o/t Dept. of Defense; COO Blackwater USA; General Counsel o/t Prince Group

QUOTE

Joseph Edward Schmitz is an American lawyer, former Inspector General of the Department of Defense and a former an executive with Blackwater USA, a private contractor providing security services to the U.S. State Department and the U.S. military. Biography Joseph Edward Schmitz is the son of the John G. Schmitz, former California State Senator, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and U.S. Presidential candidate (1972). Schmitz attended Catholic schools as a child and Georgetown Preparatory School while his father served in Congress. He holds a B.S. (1978) from the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and a J.D. (1986) from Stanford University. He was on the wrestling team at the Naval Academy. His siblings include Mary Kay Letourneau and John Patrick Schmitz.[1] Upon graduation from the Naval Academy, Schmitz served in the U.S. Navy for approximately four years, including a stint as an exchange officer with the German Navy. Schmitz left active duty and was in the Naval Reserve until 2001. After leaving active duty, Schmitz attended law school. He clerked with James L. Buckley, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and was a special assistant to Attorney General Edwin Meese III during the Reagan Administration. Schmitz entered the private sector in 1987, eventually joining the Washington, D.C., firm of Patton Boggs LLP.[2] He was an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University in the 1990s. He is a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_E._Schmitz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Knights_of_Malta

QUOTE

Blackwater Worldwide CEO for the Prince Group (2005-)     Patton Boggs     Baker Botts     Federalist Society     Knights of Malta 1999     US English Board of Directors, Counsel of Record     German Ancestry

http://www.nndb.com/people/466/000104154/

QUOTE

Mr. Schmitz graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1978, and received his J.D. degree from Stanford University in 1986. He has served on the Steering Committee of the Washington Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, and is a Young Leader Alumnus of the American Council on Germany. In 1999, he was invested into the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

http://www.worldsecuritynetwork.com/_dsp/d...3.cfm?authID=10 (Proof Positive)

QUOTE

Mr. Schmitz graduated with distinction from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1978 and received his J.D. degree from Stanford University in 1986. He is a Young Leader Alumnus of the American Council on Germany, and a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

http://www.bethesdahosting.com/dsp_comp_board.asp

QUOTE

Senior Blackwater executives such as Joseph Schmitz do not only subscribe to the theocon ideology but are also members of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a Christian militia that had a mission of defending territories the Crusaders captured from Muslims.

http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/1460

QUOTE

In addition to Prince, “A number of Blackwater executives are deeply conservative Christians, including corruption-smeared former Pentagon Inspector General Joseph Schmitz, who is also a member of the Sovereign Order of Malta, which Scahill describes as `a Christian militia formed in the eleventh century [to defend] `territories that the Crusaders had conquered from the Moslems,’” Chris Barsanti wote in a review of the book for In These Times.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/09/blac...raqi-civilians/

QUOTE

Schmitz, Joseph E. SMOM • Inspector General, Pentagon (2002-05)

http://www.learn-usa.com/relevant_to_et/Se...e_Influence.pdf

<No Social Network Diagram> A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 02, 2008 08:45 AM

Some Recent Investigative Journal Radio Shows:

Many thanks to tkra (tkra@honesty.org) for the
initial upload of these shows, and for providing
the topic descriptions and comments for each
show, as shown below:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------


New Radio Interview with Tony Alamo

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Guest is Tony Alamo, Pastor of alamoministries.com.
Tony is probably one of the LEAST boring Pastors in the world.

Tony's Photo Gallery is a classic:

http://alamoministries.com/content/english...otogallery.html

He includes a picture of Bill Clinton receiving Catholic
Eucharist. What we should note about this is that according
to current Canon Law, it is illegal for a [non]-priest or a non-
Catholic to receive the Eucharist cookie. Canon Law stipulates
that if a person is ignorant of this fact, then they are not
to be held accountable. However, the priest in the photo is
in VIOLATION OF CHURCH LAW if Bill Clinton is not a Catholic.

The priest could be excommunicated or worse... thus losing
his income if Bill Clinton was indeed a Baptist or non-
Catholic.
--tkra

Download the Interview:
MP3 format,
2 hours, 20 MB, 24kbps
(left click)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T8MD0K9P


_______________________________________________________________



New Radio Interview with Nury Rivera

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Nury Rivera, wife of murdered ex-Jesuit Alberto Rivera,
is on the show. I think we can expect a feisty first hour.

In hour 2, Greg is taking calls.

Download the Interview:
MP3 format,
2 hours, 20 MB, 24kbps
(left click)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CF6WTC6D


_______________________________________________________________



New Radio Interview with Carl Person

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Thursday, January 17, 2008

NY lawyer Carl Person is the guest. The subject is litigation
regarding a wealthy man who joined the church and donated
all his money, only to end up on the street later. Carl
also discusses some sort of lawsuit he has filed against
Google.com

Hour 2 appears to be listener call in and discussion.


Download the Interview:
MP3 format,
2 hours, 20 MB, 24kbps
(left click)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PRYE3X5I


_______________________________________________________________



Open Lines Friday

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Friday, January 18, 2008

Friday Show - discussion of issues and call-in.

I sent the Stalin seminary picture to GS with an email and
he mentioned it... so his email is working.

As I mentioned earlier, one or more of these guys - Phelps,
Szymanski, or Zagami, have real-time email surveillance.

I suspect Leo Zagami for certain. Anyway, what's new.
--tkra

Download the Interview:
MP3 format,
2 hours, 20 MB, 24kbps
(left click)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LMSLC9N9


_______________________________________________________________



New Radio Interview with Leo Zagami

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Monday, January 21, 2008

Topic: Today's guest is Leo Zagami who is just back from Rome,
reporting on the recent Jesuit Conclave and their election
of Fr. Adolfo Nicolas S.J. as the new Superior General of the
Jesuits.

Website: http://www.illuminaticonfessions.webfriend.it/

Download the Interview:
MP3 format,
2 hours, 20 MB, 24kbps
(left click)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=D1T5HKB3


_______________________________________________________________



Recording: "Who were the Rebels"

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Tuesday, January 22, 2008

I take it that GS may have taken the day off due to the
passing of his Dad over the weekend.
A recorded lecture by some of the other folks on LRL is
being played.
The lecture is called "Who were the rebels"
It's a different style but seems to have some OK info if
you're OK with bible study.
--tkra

Download the Show:
MP3 format,
2 hours, 20 MB, 24kbps
(left click)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EE7FAA59


_______________________________________________________________




New Radio Interview with Eric Jon Phelps

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Topic: Replay of a pre-President JFK Speech detailing his
position towards the Papacy. Then, Eric Jon Phelps is the guest.
Points covered:
The 6 different types of Zionist.
The 20 Maxims of the Jesuits relating to Canon Law and the Papacy.
The destruction of America and coming invasion.
Analysis of the new Jesuit Superior General, and much more.
--tkra

Eric's Website: http://vaticanassassins.org

Download the Interview:
MP3 format,
2 hours, 20 MB, 24kbps
(left click)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KA4JOOT6


_______________________________________________________________




New Radio Interview with Kevin Annett

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Thursday, January 24, 2008

Kevin Annett, ex-Minister of the United Church in Canada
discusses the story of Genocide of Aboriginal Peoples by
Church and State in Canada, and his recent confrontation
with the Catholic hierarchy in Vancouver.

He says it was a Vatican extermination plan, and the
Catholic Church was responsible for about half of the
atrocities.

The story is now in the mainstream news. FINALLY!
--tkra

http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/
http://canadiangenocide.nativeweb.org/

Download the Interview:
MP3 format,
2 hours, 20 MB, 24kbps
(left click)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PA7K06LR


_______________________________________________________________



Variety Show: talk, callers and one guest

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Friday, January 25, 2008

A variety of talk, callers and one guest. History and some
bible stuff.
--tkra
(upload of file pending)


_______________________________________________________________



Sister Charlotte Testimony

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Monday, January 28, 2008

Sister Charlotte talks about torture and child killing in
Carmelite cloistered convent

Most of the show is a recording of Sister Charlotte... an
ex-convent nun who was 'disappeared' 2 years after giving
this testimony.
--tkra

Download the Show:
MP3 format,
2 hours, 20 MB, 24kbps
(left click)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JG6VYOJN


Direct Download of Sister Charlotte's Testimony recording:
http://arcticbeacon.com/sound_tidbits/Sist...s_Testimony.mp3


_______________________________________________________________



Wrap-up of the Sister Charlotte testimony

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Greg reveals locations and names of the 10 Jesuit Provinces
in the U.S. so people can question Jesuits about their
sordid past.

Wrap-up of the Sister Charlotte testimony, then lots of
discussion and calls.
--tkra@honesty.org

Download the Show:
MP3 format,
2 hours, 20 MB, 24kbps
(left click)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DLYXASF2


_______________________________________________________________




New Radio Interview with William Lyne

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Researcher Bill Lyne joins Greg and talks about the alien hoax.

William (Bill) Lyne, author of Space Aliens from the Pentagon
(retitled: Pentagon Aliens) is on the show.

Don't miss it.


Download the Interview:
MP3 format,
2 hours, 20 MB, 24kbps
(left click)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EKNMT7JZ


_______________________________________________________________




New Radio Interview with John Daniel

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Thursday, January 31, 2008

John Daniel, author of The Grand Design Exposed is on the show.
One of Greg's listeners who lost track of him after he was fired
from RBN Radio asked for an update from John. Also more clergy
abuse exposed by a caller ( http://conte2006.com )
--tkra

Download the Interview:
MP3 format,
2 hours, 20 MB, 24kbps
(left click)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C6FG2A2K


_______________________________________________________________




New Radio Interview with Kay Griggs

Show: The Investigative Journal
Host: Greg Szymanski
Date: Friday, February 1, 2008

Guest: Kay Griggs, formerly married to a government hit man.

Kay Griggs, ex-wife of Marine Colonel Raymond Griggs is on
the show in an all new interview to discuss the secrets and
problems inside the military. This is very serious topic
matter for those of you who are new listeners. Don't miss.

Tom Friess joins in for the second hour with his unique
and truthful as always, perspective.
--tkra

Download the Interview:
MP3 format,
2 hours, 20 MB, 24kbps
(left click)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ITVFPQW7
A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 02, 2008 08:40 AM

IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Refrain

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Refrain

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

Refrain

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!

Refrain

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Words:­­­
Ho­ra­tio G. Spaf­ford, 1873.

Music: Ville du Havre,­
Phil­ip P. Bliss, 1876
(MI­DI, score).

The tune is named af­ter the ship on which Spaf­ford’s child­ren per­ished, the S.S. Ville de Havre.

Iron­ic­al­ly, Bliss him­self died in a tra­gic train wreck short­ly af­ter writ­ing this mu­sic.

Source: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/i/itiswell.htm

February 02, 2008 08:24 AM

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=60004A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 02, 2008 08:16 AM

From http://www.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=993

141: Warmonger McCain: “Fine” If We’re In Iraq 100 Years! — And Other Godless, Unconstitutional Views Of This Dangerous Man
Printer friendly
You’ll also hear some of Mitt Romney’s Godless, unConstitutional views. Most importantly, you’ll hear some of what God says in His Word about people and nations that trust in themselves (a VERY bad idea). And, in an exclusive interview, you’ll hear an angry Squiggy Muldoon denounce Mike Huckabee because Huckabee refuses to kneecap the other candidates. Huh? Sorry, but you’ll have to hear this one to not believe it - which you should because — well, just listen, OK?
141: Hear it now (10,743 kb)
Also, please, if you would like to help us keep our program on the air, you may send us a donation of $25, $50, $100 or more. Make your check or money order out to: “The American View” and send it to:

The American View8028 Ritchie HighwaySuite #315Pasadena, MD 21122
And do, please, continue to pray for the success of our program that it might glorify God. Because, as He says in Psalm 127:1: “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”
Discuss this articleA blog with relevant information for the world.

February 02, 2008 08:14 AM

http://www.truthnews.us/?p=1829A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 02, 2008 08:12 AM

The original Wild Geese were those Irish catholics who fled from the island and joined the service of the French King. Now we have a new breed of Irishmen, being put in harms way for French imperial ambitions.

This week the Irish press has been full of two stories, both linked. There has been questions of the fabled neutrality vis-a-vis the Constitutional Referendum. The No campaign believing that Eire's neutrality to be compromised by aspects of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the Yes campaign denying any such thing.

Simultaneous to that has been the great burst of pride as General Nash finally takes command of the EU Force in Chad. A peacekeeping force delayed by many months due to logistical problems.

The problem is that no sooner is the force, which is mostly French but includes Irish and other contingents, off for deployment that it stops.

This all boils down to the fact reported here at the beggining of December and covered extensively in EU Referendum this force is not really a European Force at all but a fig leaf for unreconstructed French foreign policy. France is an ally of the Chadian dictator, and has taken sides. The peacekeepers are supposed to be neutral, so the rebels have declared war on France and by extension its EU allies.

So with the rebel forces closing in on the Chadian capital we discover,

However, a plane-load of 54 Irish special forces did not depart for N'Djamena, Chad's capital, and a cargo aircraft carrying equipment and a dozen Austrian soldiers turned back yesterday.

I was discussing the Irish referendum campaign with a couple of Sinn Fein staffers (politics does make for some strange aquaintances) and the Chad deployment came up,

EH "What would happen if a young Irish soldier came back in a body bag before
the vote"
SF "Can you organise it?"
EH "Sorry"
SFS "It's just that we don't have any active service units in Chad"
EH, "I suppose they are all in Colombia"

The point is of course is that either the sight of dead Irish soldiers returning having died for France, or the sight of Fench soldiers running amok amongst Africans slaughtering left right and centre whilst under the command of an Irish General could have a major impact on the Treaty poll.

War-battered dogs are we,
Fighters in every clime;
Fillers of trench and of grave,
Mockers bemocked by time.
War-dogs hungry and grey,
Gnawing a naked bone,
Fighters in every clime
Every cause but our own

February 02, 2008 08:05 AM

http://www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Vatican_Mortgage_Part_1.htmlA blog with relevant information for the world.

February 02, 2008 07:33 AM

"The Plan" of Opus Dei works......
the world buys the Jesuit Black Pope myth......
the Jesuit Assassins myth...
the Jesuit Oath myth…
the Jesuit Infiltrators myth…...
I rule the world and
I fool the world with Octopus Dei......
with “The Plan”......
HaHaHa

The biggest proof that these are Jesuit myths is that the Jesuits NEVER defend themselves like the Opus Dei did (and still do) against the Da Vinci Code movie and book.

Benedict XVI proves Jesuits myths right -- myths are they and only myths.

1) Jesuit Black Pope myth

Benedict XVI proves that Fr. Kolvenbach was a "Black Pope" myth because he met with the Jesuit Superior General only on their annual traditional Christmas SHORT meetings and on some rare occasions. So how can the Jesuit General be a "Black Pope" when he rarely meets with the real Pope? The fact is the Jesuit General do not have a free access to the Vatican, he has to apply for a papal audience if needed (which he rarely did).

Vatican Bank (proof)

The fact is, the Vatican was literally "seized" by Opus Dei founder St? Josemaria Escriba when he bailed out the Vatican Bank for $1 Billion from the Banco Ambrosiano fallout in the 70's. Then he PLAN_ned and orchestrated that only Opus Dei members will surround the Pope starting with John Paul II, when Opus Dei eunuch (numerary) Joaquin Navarro-Valls became the only secretary of Pope John Paul II for 26+ years. Navarro-Valls and other Opus Dei Cardinals and Bishops wrote most of John Paul II's speeches and homilies – especially evident when the Pope could no longer speak or write with his shaking hands due to debilitating Parkinson disease.

For the $1 Billion Opus Dei bailout of the Vatican, they got in return the $1.6 Trillion (or more) wealth of the Vatican, therefore no Jesuits, Benedictines, Franciscans can ever touch or manage the coffers of the Vatican Treasury again, except the Opus Dei who now owns it SOLELY.

Opus Dei "twin-pope" (proof)

The real twin pope is the Opus Dei Bishop of Rome, Bishop Javier Echevarria who resides in one of the most expensive villas of Rome. The proof that the Opus Dei Bishop is the twin Pope: He is the ONLY Bishop ever allowed to preside Mass at St. Peter's Square other than the Pope himself -- on the occasion of the canonization of Opus Dei founder St? Josemaria Escriba on October 7, 2002 in their Opus Dei Thanksgiving Mass. Bishop of Rome Echevarria holds regular weekly meetings with Pope. His Opus Dei eunuchs - numeraries - surround Benedict XVI as his only staff allowed near him. Benedict XVI's GAY Private Secretary is a secret Opus Dei member. The Jesuit Fr. Lombardi who is the public secretary of the Pope does not enter (nor allowed) the personal quarters of the Pope, he only gets from the GAY secretary what the Pope wishes him to announce in public. He is different from Joaquin Navarro-Valls who controlled the ins and outs of the papacy of John Paul II for 26+ years, hence co-covered-up the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army.

No Jesuit advisors to Pope

There are no Jesuit advisors to the Pope since Pope Paul VI. So how on earth can the Jesuit Superior General be the Black Pope when he himself has no access to the Pope but have to wait for months for a papal appointment from the Opus Dei guards? Father General Kolvenbach was so busy visiting all the Jesuits worldwide and did not sit in a villa in Rome like the Opus Dei Bishop Echevarria. A statistics of his number (handful) of entry and meetings with John Paul II and Benedict XVI will prove that he is no way near the Black Pope Opus Dei and the real pope Benedict XVI.

2. Jesuit Assassins myth

this is one of the most famous Jesuit myth but I don't want to give space in my weblog for this "pack of lies" and therefore will not provide links to them . It is so preposterous that JFK was assassinated by the Jesuits. Promoters of this Jesuit myth should spend more their time investigating the relationship of St? Josemaria Escriba with General Pinochet and General Franco who were proven murderers in history.


3. Jesuit Infiltrators myth

Guys who don't know where east or west is and has only some cartoons and a few anti-Jesuit slogans has posted anti-Jesuit campaigns in some YouTube videos. They cannot prove their myths with substantial facts like I do with current events and historical facts. These anti-Jesuits have only theories of Jesuit involvements in Illuminati and Knight of Malta which are all ceremonial organizations without powers and belong to the artifacts of history's archives.

Anti-Jesuit critics claim that the Illuminati used a Jesuit book to start their order, but Jesuits have written about mathematics, the stars, insects, love, irrigation system, name it, they have studied and written about it. It isn’t the Jesuits' fault if their book is used as a textbook by others. If a Jesuit write about the reality of evil and Satan, it isn't to encourage the occult of Satanism. The Jesuits are merely pointing to the truth and not being part of it. Just like a healthy doctor can write about cancer without having the disease himself.

4. The Jesuit Oath myth



This is the most preposterous statement against the Jesuits especially that they are the forerunners of ecumenism and dialogue with other faiths. One of the biggest proof that this Jesuit Oath is total hogwash fiction is the Jesuits' own Jesuit priest Jacques Dupuis who was "Silenced" by Ratzinger and Pope John Paul II because of his thick book Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism












In this video craftily juxtaposed with the Jesuit Oath, Fr. Kolvenbach speaks to the (Jesuit) Sophia University in Japan. "Sophia" in Latin means "wisdom" and "Sapienza" in Italian means "wisdom". The 21st century is coming of age in wisdom. Isn't that quite a coincidence that the lay secular Sapienza University of Rome that just hit the Benedict 16-Opus Dei Titanic Ship is also named after "wisdom". Sapienza University of Rome however has no relations with the Jesuits and therefore these anti-Jesuit Opus Dei footsoldiers cannot blame the Jesuits for the Galileo Iceberg.

5. Jesuit subversion of governments myth

This is one of the worst myths about the Jesuits because they have many universities and schools worldwide, they are accused of using these Jesuit schools to subvert governments and perpetuate the poverties of the poor. On the contrary, the Jesuits live WITH and work with the poor through Liberation Theology.

The new Jesuit Father General, Fr. Nicolas, lived with poor in the Philippines until his election. The Jesuit Refugee Service helps the plight of the poorest displaced people on the planet. Just look at the list of Jesuit apostolates with the poor.

Opus Dei's "The Plan" (proof)

The Opus Dei’s slogan is “The Plan” and their number one priority is to discredit the Jesuits, first, by depriving them of access and power at the Vatican, meaning no more Jesuit Cardinals to be appointed until the end times, and second, to make hostile takeovers of their Jesuit universities by slowly but surely planting many Opus Dei professors who will qualify to become presidents and school board of trustee members. The Opus Dei campaign to abolish the Jesuits is well planned and followed with vindictive obsession.

6. The newly elected Black Pope myth

Fr. Adolfo Nicolas in his first homily as Father General said: "Newspapers and magazines these past few days have been toying with a number of clichés, namely, the Black Pope, the White Pope, power, gatherings, discussions...But it is all so superficial, so artificial! These are but crumbs for those who love politics, but they are not for us."

Here is a video of Fr. Nicolas released in Spain. There is nothing ostentatious about him, or political, just a humble man from a humble family. He proves all Jesuit myths are fictions of the desperate Opus Dei Third Reich. Fr. Nicolas is not a Bishop of Rome like Opus Dei Bishop Echevarria who lives in the wealthiest Opus Dei villa in pompous style like his counterpart Benedict XVI at the Vatican Palace. Opus Dei has only one goal: WORLD DOMINATION under St? Josemaria Escriba and St? John Paul II.

Video of Father General Nicolas http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x47exm_adolfo-nicolas-sj_news

The irony is the more Opus Dei try to suppress the Jesuits, the more they shoot themselves in the foot and in the mouth -- "The Plan" of Opus Dei in the B16-OD Benedict XVI Titanic Ship has been hit by the Galileo Iceberg at La Sapienza University right in the heart of Rome and Humpty Dumpty Benedict XVI is sinking into his deep Octopus Dei sleep......

February 02, 2008 12:03 AM

GISU is not Gesu, Jesus in Italian
GISU is not the Gesu Church of the Jesuits in Rome
GISU has absolutely nothing to do with the Jesuits
GISU is not Catholic
GISU is not religious
GISU is pure "science needs no fathers nor priests"

GISU Galileo Iceberg of Sapienza University -- hit the B16-OD Benedict XVI-Opus Dei Titanic Ship last January 16, 2008 when 67 professors, the entire physics faculty, wrote and protested and successfully canceled Benedict XVI's speech for the opening of their school year because of his stance on Galileo.

Benedict XVI is the Bishop of Rome
He rules with the Opus Dei Bishop of Rome
Opus Dei Prelate Bishop Javier Echevarria
Twin Popes
Benedict XVI is the White Pope + Bishop Javier Echevarria the Black Pope
Another Da Vinci Code secret being unravelled in this weblog!

Benedict XVI is the Bishop of Rome
His own flock have rejected him
Why? Because he is not their Shepherd
But the God's Rottweiler who mauls them sheep

The Romans at Sapienza University have rejected the Bishop of Rome.
GISU rings loud and the spirit of Galileo etched in history lives on
GISU cannot be muffled by the tentacles of the Octopus Dei

-----------

Zenit responded by "throwing eggs on the faces of the 67 protesters" with this snake's Opus Dei media-spin

University Founded for the Pursuit of Wisdom

ROME, JAN. 24, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Last week's events at Rome's La Sapienza University have been front-page news everywhere in the free world, and the 67 professors who protested Benedict XVI's projected visit last Thursday have been left with egg on their face.

The irresponsible protest has drawn nearly universal condemnation, the hypocritical intolerance of a university named "wisdom" has been rightly chastised, and the absurdity of a place of learning banning a lecture by a world-class professor has brought shame upon the entire Italian educational system.

And happily, the emphatic response from politicians, university professors and students all over Italy, culminating in the 200,000 participants in last Sunday's Angelus to express solidarity with Benedict XVI and the voice of reason, has also been extensively covered.

Typical Opus Dei media spin. They think that their B16-OD Titanic Ship is "unsinkable". We'll see. God's Rottweiler has been muffled by La Sapienza University -- precisely -- because it sees and has the WISDOM in shutting the mouth of Benedict XVI who is "hostile to science"!










Benedict XVI decreed "Notification" on Jesuit Jon Sobrino
The Opus Dei Bishop of El Salvador finished the job by imposing "Silence"
The most severe censor like the Popes did to Galileo
Forbidding Jon Sobrino to teach and write in a Catholic University
A veritable "church house arrest"

Why? Because the Jesus the Liberator of Sobrino is "dangerous"
And "can endanger the faith of Catholics"

The God's Rottweiler Benedict XVI afraid of the little Jesuit-mouse Sobrino!
The Vatican afraid of the tiny poor far flung country of El Salvador!

Benedict XVI and Opus Dei versus Jon Sobrino
Are two bullies beating on a frail old man

But, right in the heart of Rome
Sapienza University does not even want to hear a word of Benedict XVI (that's worse)
GISU say that "Benedict XVI is hostile to science"
GISU say that "Benedict believes more in faith than in reason and science"
The Pope is not fit to speak at the La Sapienza University
Rome's own university (originally founded by a Pope)
The largest university in Western Europe!

This is what Jon Sobrino said about John Paul II
And those Sapienza University student see Benedict the same way
Sobrino refused to recant his statements like Galileo
Galileo KNEW the Earth revolved around the Sun
Sobrino KNEW the John Paul II pomposity in El Salvador was unreal to the poor
Sapienza University KNOW that Benedict XVI is unreal to the university...today

GISU has hit the B16-OD Titanic Ship
No rallying by Opus Dei troops can save the B16-OD Titanic Ship
Benedict XVI Humpty Dumtpy has had a great fall
And all the Swiss Guard Army and Opus Dei
Cannot put Humpty Ratzinger together again.







Page 141. Important ecclesial events, like a papal visit, are often organized in such a way that they too produce a feeling of unreality. In the Pope’s 1996 visit to El Salvador, it is true that most of the people who attended were poor. But all one could see of their reality was their religious enthusiasm, more or less effectively organized. One didn’t see their poverty, their fears, their discouragement and helplessness, not even their true faith and hope; one didn’t see their reality. As the event was organized, the poor served more as a backdrop than as the reality of the country; in the foreground were minorities that do not represent the reality: the government, legislators and politicians, the rich and powerful, and the Church beside them. The Pope’s visit neither reflected reality nor, to judge from the consequences, had any important effect on it.


On page 140. This applies to the allocutions and homilies of the Pope to the Congregation when he was an "adult-pope’. And that is still a serious problem: humanistas without sarx, factuality without reality (in the world of the poor). To give a few examples: one often gets a feeling of unreality from homilies, documents and messages that do not make central - although they may mention it - the poverty of reality, the injustice and corruption that cause it, and the cover-up that accompanies it. The feeling of unreality comes especially from the lack of commitment to get involved in the conflict, to struggle against injustice and to suffer the consequences. Words, words, words, as J. Comblin calls such messages in the article mentioned above. At another level, one gets the same feeling of unreality from a seminary formation that protects the seminarian from reality; or from the spiritualities and pastoral practices promoted or tolerated by movements that lead the human being into an a-historical transcendence with infantilizing consequences. (From Martyrs of El Salvador. By Jon Sobrino)(Bold emphases added)


I believe that the Opus Dei is one of those "movements that lead the human being into an a-historical trancendence with infantalizing consequences." This is why the 2 books of Jon Sobrino have to be "condemned" by God's Rottweiler. Benedict XVI and the papacy is the shield of cowardice of the Opus Dei who as despots will not allow any criticism on Escriva and their posterboy John Paul II.

But GISU has done justice to Galileo and Jon Sobrino and the Jesuits whose Jesuit-run Vatican Observatory was dismantled on the eve of their 35th General Congregation.

The B16-OD Benedict XVI-Opus Dei Titanic Ship shall sink to the bottom of the sea and live with the Octopus Dei where they belong and have their perpetual honeymoon together with MR John Paul II and MRS Josemaria Escriba

Benedict XVI trembles before GISU
Alas! the Pope finally trembles

Mille Grazie, Sapienza University professors and students!
Mille Grazie!

Video of La Sapienza University protest
Benedict XVI and his Octopus Dei eunuch battalion are helpless before these FEW young students and professors!

February 02, 2008 12:03 AM

A student walks past a banner reading "The pope is against the university" at La Sapienza University in Rome on Monday


A student walks past a banner reading: "Against the Papacy" and "No Pope" at La Sapienza University.












Pope Cancels University Jan. 17 Visit After Protests

Rome's own Sapienza University students and professors, including the entire physics faculty, protested Benedict XVI's visit and speech because he believes more in faith than in reason and science -- "Benedict XVI is hostile to modern science". Student groups had put up banners protesting the pope's visit on walls around the campus. Today they occupied the Rector's office in protest. Well, well, well, it's not a surprise that, now, the Opus Dei Pope who is John Paul II clone of doctrine and dogmas is being rejected by the younger generation who will not submit to papal autocracy like Galileo and the Jesuits. Benedict XVI just dismantled the (Jesuit) Vatican Observatory (on the eve of their 35th General Congregation)- because he'd rather spend the time star gazing with his GAY Private Secretary...while the Church rot in the scum of the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army. So THANK YOU, Sapienza University students and professors, YOU have just PROVED ME RIGHT and my weblogs the John Paul II Millstone RIGHT! Halleluya! Molto Grazie ! God's Rottweiler Mille Grazie !

Students' 4 days of protest

Papal visit scuppered by scholars.

Pope Benedict XVI has cancelled a visit to a prestigious university in Rome where lecturers and students have protested against his views on Galileo.

The Pope had been set to make a speech at La Sapienza University on Thursday.

Sixty-seven academics had said the Pope condoned the 1633 trial and conviction of the astronomer Galileo for heresy.

The Vatican insists the Pope is not "anti-science" - but in light of the protests they have decided it would be better for him not to attend.

Galileo had argued that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

The Vatican says the Pope will now send his speech to La Sapienza, instead of delivering it in person.

Landmark controversy

Pope Benedict was in charge of Roman Catholic doctrine in 1990 when, as Cardinal Ratzinger, he commented on the 17th-Century Galileo trial.

In the speech, he quoted Austrian-born philosopher Paul Feyerabend as saying the Church's verdict against Galileo had been "rational and just".

Galileo's inquisitors maintained the scriptures indicated the Earth was stationary.

Galileo, a devout Catholic, was forced to renounce his findings publicly.

In 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret at the way Galileo had been treated.

"The error of the theologians of the time, when they maintained the centrality of the Earth, was to think that our understanding of the physical world's structure was, in some way, imposed by the literal sense of Sacred Scripture," he said.

The academics at La Sapienza signed a letter saying Pope Benedict's views on Galileo "offend and humiliate us".

They said it would be inappropriate for the Pope to open their academic year on Thursday.

"In the name of the secular nature of science we hope this incongruous event can be cancelled," said the letter addressed to the university's rector, Renato Guarini.

In a separate initiative, students at La Sapienza organised four days of protest this week. The first revolved around an anti-clerical meal of bread, pork and wine, the BBC's Christian Fraser reports from Rome.

The banner at their lunch read: "Knowledge needs neither fathers nor priests".

Vatican Radio said the protest at La Sapienza had "a censorious tone".

"It's a good thing that someone in Italy has the courage to say no to the Pope."
Stefano, Cuneo, Italy


An old controversy has come back to haunt the Pope




Upload Video



Video of La Sapienza University anti-Benedict XVI protest

La Sapienza: 'UNACCEPTABLE INTOLERANCE'

From: ROMEreports TV News Agency
Benedict XVI chose not to speak at Rome’s La Sapienza University to avoid risking a pretext for unpleasant confrontations between extremist groups.


Galileo protest halts pope's visit

ROME, Italy (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI has canceled a planned visit to a prestigious Italian university after a protest by academics and students attacked his views on Galileo, the Vatican confirmed Tuesday.

The pope had been due to give a speech at La Sapienza university in Rome Thursday to open its academic year.

However, the visit drew criticism from academics at the university who signed a letter demanding that the trip be called off. Separately, students protested outside the university, carrying banners insisting the university is a lay institution and the pope is not welcome.

"Given the events of the past days regarding the visit of the Holy Father to La Sapienza university upon the rector's invitation, which was scheduled to take place Thursday, January 17, it was decided to postpone the event," the Vatican said in a short written statement.

Father Ciro Benedettini, a spokesman for the Vatican, confirmed to CNN the academic protests had prompted the cancellation.

In the letter, academics -- pointing to a speech the pope gave at the same university as a cardinal in 1990 -- claimed he condones the 1633 trial and conviction of the scientist Galileo for heresy.

The astronomer had argued that the Earth revolved around the Sun, in contradiction to church teachings at the time, and he was forced to renounce his findings publicly.

In comments made 15 years ago when he was still a cardinal, Pope Benedict is reported to have called the trial "reasonable and just."

During his speech, the pope -- then Cardinal Ratzinger -- quoted an Austrian philosopher Paul Feyerabend, saying, "At the time of Galileo, the church remained more loyal (or faithful) to reason than Galileo himself.

Andreas Srova, a physics professor at the university, said it would have been inappropriate for the pope to appear for the inauguration.

Srova, who signed the protest letter and is the author of a book detailing the 1633 trial, said he is "very satisfied" that the Vatican decided to cancel the trip.

"We have no objections to the pope visiting at any other time when there can be exchanges of opinion, but not at the inauguration," he said. "It was a mistake to ask him to come at this time."

CNN's Rome bureau chief Alessio Vinci said it was quite extraordinary for the pope to cancel the visit just because of the objections of the students and professors. It Is especially surprising, he said, given that this is the same pope that made a controversial visit to Turkey last year.

Pope Benedict went to the predominantly Muslim country despite strained relations between the Vatican and the Islamic world following a lecture the pope gave at a German university in which he made unflattering comments about the Islamic faith.

----------

Pope cancels visit to university after protests

Students, professors objected; Rome mayor calls it cultural defeat

MSNBC

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has canceled a planned visit to a Rome university following protests by professors and students, the Vatican said Tuesday.

Benedict had been scheduled to speak Thursday at La Sapienza, a public university founded by Pope Boniface VIII in 1303, as part of ceremonies inaugurating the new academic year.

But more than 60 professors signed a letter to the university rector opposing the pope's visit. Banners decrying the pope were strung from buildings and posters plastered on walls.
Protests against the pontiff, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, are not uncommon, but "it was considered opportune to skip the event," the Vatican said in a brief statement Tuesday.

Instead, Benedict will send his speech to the university, the Vatican said. Rome's mayor and the government's minister for universities still are scheduled to speak at La Sapienza.

Rare cancellation

Such a cancellation of a scheduled papal event is extremely rare, and the few times it has happened in recent decades, the Vatican has cited security concerns. No specific reason was cited Tuesday.

Vatican Radio described the mobilization by students and professors at Europe's largest university as smacking of censorship.

The university rector, Renato Guarini, criticized the protests as "a fundamentalist attitude of great intellectual closure."

He said 63 instructors — out of a total of 4,500 — had signed the letter. He had said students would have been allowed to gather in a designated area Thursday during the pope's visit.

Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni, who was also one of the scheduled speakers, said the cancellation "represents a defeat of liberal culture and that fundamental principle which is the confrontation of ideas and respect for institutions."

Italian Premier Romano Prodi urged the pontiff to change his mind. "No voice must go silent in our country, let alone that of the pope," Prodi said in a statement.

The theme for the school ceremony is efforts to abolish the death penalty worldwide, a theme close to the Vatican's interests, although the topic of the pope's speech was not revealed.

Students react with applause

When news of the cancellation reached the campus, students in a political sciences hall broke into applause.

Guarini said he respected the pope's decision although the academic leader expressed "regret."

"The encounter with the pope could have represented an important moment of reflection for believers and nonbelievers on ethical and civil problems," such as the campaign to abolish the death penalty, the rector said.

Before the cancellation, the rector had said students would have had a designated area where they could protest during the papal visit.

The university has 145,000 students.

------------

Sapienza University of Rome

Sapienza University of Rome (Italian Sapienza Università di Roma) is the largest European university and the most ancient of Rome's three public universities. In Italian, Sapienza means "wisdom" or "knowledge".

La Sapienza was founded in 1303 by Pope Boniface VIII, as a Studium for ecclesiastical studies more under his control than the universities of Bologna and Padua.

In 1431, Pope Eugene IV introduced a new tax on wine, in order to raise funds for the university; the money was used to buy a palace that later hosted the Sant'Ivo church, "La Sapienza."

According to the Catholic Encyclopaedia, the university "remained closed during the entire pontificate of Clement VII". In 1870, La Sapienza stopped being the papal university and became the university of the capital of Italy. In 1935, the new university campus, planned by Marcello Piacentini, was completed.

In the academic year 2006/7, La Sapienza has 21 faculties to its 138,000 students and is the largest university in Western Europe. It has many locations in Rome, but is mainly situated in the Città Universitaria, near Termini Station.

---------


Pope Cancels University of Rome Visit After Protests


VATICAN CITY, JAN. 15, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI canceled his visit to Rome's Sapienza University amid protests from professors and students regarding the Church's role in science.

The visit was planned for Thursday, but a group of professors and students signed a letter protesting the visit by a Pope whom they claimed is "hostile to science."

Today, the protesters occupied the rector's offices in protest.

The Vatican press office reported today that "it has been considered opportune to postpone the event," which had been planned "by invitation of the major rector."

The Holy Father will nevertheless send the discourse he had prepared, the Vatican statement added.

The protesters' letter mentioned a 1990 speech at Sapienza University that then Cardinal Ratzinger gave about the Church's 17th-century condemnation of Galileo. The signatories of the protest letter mentioned that the future Pope quoted an Austrian philosopher who said the trial was "rational and just." The protesters did not mention that Cardinal Ratzinger went on to say that he was not in agreement with the philosopher.

Renato Guarini, rector of the university, said he had awaited Benedict XVI, a theologian and professor and "messenger of peace," to live "a moment of high culture" and an "interchange of ideas that would be fruitful for the entire university community."

Giorgio Israel, a Jewish mathematician and professor at the university, noted in L'Osservatore Romano that the 1990 speech actually defended Galileo.

Cardinal Ratzinger said at that time, "Faith does not grow from a resentment and refusal of rationalism, but from its basic affirmation."

Israel lamented the contradiction of those who have opposed Benedict XVI's visit, who are purportedly defending the secularism of science, but are also negating the freedom of speech. The article in L'Osservatore Romano was published before the Vatican announced today that the Pontiff would postpone the visit.

"It is surprising," the mathematician said, "that those who have chosen as a motto Voltaire's famous phrase, 'I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,' oppose themselves to the Pope pronouncing a discourse at the university of Rome."

(Zenit is owned, written and operated by the Legion of Christ, founded by the pedophile Fr. Marcial Maciel. Therefore, in the subtle ways of Opus Dei, they defend the Pope who is their puppet.)

Fr. Maciel passed away on February 1, 2008 -- at age 87.

February 02, 2008 12:03 AM

http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=6404

http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=7803866A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 11:35 PM

http://www.anomalytv.com/site/A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 11:24 PM

Did you know that the Republicans changed the stars in their official elephant logo to three stars downward in the year 2000, the very year in which Skull & Bones George Bush was "elected" President? This Republican logo is the traditional elephant logo as this book front page cover demonstrates. The book is entitled, "The Pictorial History of the Republican Party", by Beryl Frank, published in 1980. As you can see, the stars on this elephant logo are the same as the traditional stars on an American Flag. On the GOP's official website the stars are facing downward. Click here to see. GOP.com



In witchcraft the pentangle is used with the "head" of the star pointed down, illustrating man worshiping Satan. When pointed down it also becomes the face of the goat. Satanists use a pentagram with two points up, often inscribed in a double circle to emphasize the exclusion of God, and sometimes with the head of a goat inside the pentagram. Why would a nation based on Christian principles install as its leader someone who was a member of a secretive satanic cult called Skull and Bones? After 8 years of leading our country deeper into the squalid sewer of torture and political corruption, it seems a little late to be asking such questions. But for the record, my understanding is that the stars were inverted and turned upside down when Bush was appointed president. They weren’t like that before.

February 01, 2008 10:32 PM

http://www.usasurvival.org/ck11.05.07.html

http://www.withoneaccord.org/store/Biography.htmlA blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 10:29 PM

See Also Council On Foreign Relations Members of 2008. Click Here

The Trilateral Commission was established in 1973. Its founder and primary financial angel was international financier, David Rockefeller, longtime chairman of the Rockefeller family-controlled Chase Manhattan Bank and undisputed overlord of his family's global corporate empire.
Rockefeller's idea for establishing the commission emerged after he had read a book entitled Between Two Ages written by an Establishment scholar, Prof. Zbigniew Brzezinski of Columbia University.
In his book Brzezinski proposed a vast alliance between North America, Western Europe and Japan. According to Brzezinski, changes in the modern world required it.
"Resist as it might," Brzezinski wrote elsewhere, "the American system is compelled gradually to accommodate itself to this emerging international context, with the U.S. government called upon to negotiate, to guarantee, and, to some extent, to protect the various arrangements that have been contrived even by private business."
In other words, it was necessary for the international upper class to band together to protect its interests, and to ensure, in the developed nations, that political leaders were brought to power who would ensure that the global financial interests (of the Rockefellers and the other ruling elites) would be protected over those of the hoi polloi.


The Trilateral Commission 2008 Members:

Chairmen, Deputy Chairmen and Directors

North American Chairman: THOMAS S. FOLEY
Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Washington DC; former U.S. Ambassador to Japan; former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives

European Chairman: PETER SUTHERLAND
Chairman, BP p.l.c., London; Chairman, Goldman Sachs International; Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Migrations; former Director General, GATT/WTO, Geneva; former Member of the European Commission; former Attorney General of Ireland

Pacific Asian Chairman: YOTARO KOBAYASHI
Chief Corporate Advisor, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd., Tokyo

North American Deputy Chairman: ALLAN E. GOTLIEB
Senior Adviser, Bennett Jones LLP, Toronto, ON; Chairman, Sotheby's, Canada; former Canadian Ambassador to the United States

North American Deputy Chairman: LORENZO ZAMBRANO
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, CEMEX, Monterrey, NL, Mexico

European Deputy Chairman: HERVE DE CARMOY
Chairman, Almatis, Frankfurt-am-Main; former Partner, Rhône Group, New York & Paris; Honorary Chairman, Banque Industrielle et Mobilière Privée, Paris; former Chief Executive, Société Générale de Belgique

European Deputy Chairman: ANDRZEJ OLECHOWSKI
Founder, Civic Platform; former Chairman, Bank Handlowy; former Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Finance, Warsaw

Pacific Asian Deputy Chairman: HAN SUNG-JOO
President, Korea University, Seoul; former Korean Minister for Foreign Affairs; former Korean Ambassador to the United States

Pacific Asian Deputy Chairman: SHIJURO OGATA
Former Deputy Governor, Japan Development Bank; former Deputy Governor for International Relations, Bank of Japan
North American Vice Chairman: JOSEPH S. NYE, JR.
Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Dean, John F. Kennedy School of Government; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs

North American Director: MICHAEL J. O’NEIL
European Director: PAUL RÉVAY
Pacific Asia Director: TADASHI YAMAMOTO

Former North American Chairmen:
PAUL A. VOLCKER (1991-2001) Honorary North American Chairman
DAVID ROCKEFELLER (1977-91) Founder and Honorary North American Chairman
GERARD C. SMITH (1973-77)
Former European Chairmen:
OTTO GRAF LAMBSDORFF (1992-2001) Honorary European Chairman
GEORGES BERTHOIN (1976-92) Honorary European Chairman
MAX KOHNSTAMM (1973-76)
Former Japanese Chairmen:
KIICHI MIYAZAWA, Acting Chairman (1993-97)
AKIO MORITA (1992-93)
ISAMU YAMASHITA (1985-92)
TAKESHI WATANABE (1973-85)
North American Deputy Chairman:
ALLAN E. GOTLIEB


European Group

Paul Adams, Chief Executive, British American Tobacco, London
Urban Ahlin, Member of the Swedish Parliament and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Stockholm
Krister Ahlström, Vice Chairman, Stora Enso and Fortum; former Chairman, Finnish Employers Confederation; former Chairman, Ahlström Corp., Helsinki
Edmond Alphandéry, Chairman, Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance, Paris; former Chairman, Electricité de France (EDF); former Minister of the Economy and Finance
Jadréanicques An, Ambassadeur de France, Paris; former Ambassador to the United States
Jerzy Baczynski, Editor-in-Chief, Polityka, Warsaw
Estela Barbot, Director, AGA; Director, Bank Santander Negocios; Member of the General Council, AEP -- Portuguese Business Association, Porto; General Honorary Consul of Guatemala, Lisbon
*Erik Belfrage, Senior Vice President, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken; Director, Investor AB, Stockholm
Marek Belka, Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Geneva; former Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Poland, Warsaw; former Ambassador-at-Large and Chairman, Council for International Coordination, Coalition Provisional Authority, Baghdad
Baron Jean-Pierre Berghmans, Chairman of the Executive Board, Lhoist Group, Limelette, Belgium
*Georges Berthoin, International Honorary Chairman, European Movement; Honorary Chairman, The Jean Monnet Association; Honorary European Chairman, The Trilateral Commission, Paris
Nicolas Beytout, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, D.I. Group; Former Editor of Le Figaro and Les Echos, Paris
Carl Bildt, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden; former Chairman, Kreab Group of public affairs companies; former Chairman, Nordic Venture Network, Stockholm; former Member of the Swedish Parliament, Chairman of the Moderate Party and Prime Minister of Sweden; former European Union High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina & UN Special Envoy to the Balkans
Manfred Bischoff, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, DaimlerChrysler, Munich; former Member of the Board of Management, DaimlerChrysler AG; former Chairman, EADS
Ana Patricia Botin, Executive Chairman, Banesto; Vice Chairman, Urbis; Member of the Management Committee, Santander Group, Madrid
Jean-Louis Bourlanges, Member of the European Parliament (ALDE Group/UDF) and Chairman, Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Brussels; former President of the European Movement in France, Paris
*Jorge Braga de Macedo, President, Tropical Research Institute, Lisbon; Professor of Economics, Nova University at Lisbon; Chairman, Forum Portugal Global; former Minister of Finance
Lord Brittan of Spennithorne, Vice Chairman, UBS Investment Bank, London; former Vice President, European Commission
Jean-Louis Bruguière, Judge; former First Magistrate and First Vice President of the Paris County Court in charge of the anti-terrorist section
Robin Buchanan, Dean, London Business School; former Senior Partner, Bain & Company, London
*François Bujon de l'Estang, Ambassadeur de France; Chairman, Citigroup France, Paris; former Ambassador to the United States
Edelgard Bulmahn, Member of the German Bundestag and Chairwoman of the Committee on Economic Affairs; former Federal Minister, Berlin
Sven Burmester, Writer and Explorer, Denmark; former Representative, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Beijing; former World Bank Deputy Secretary and Representative in Cairo
Richard Burrows, Governor, Bank of Ireland; Director, Pernod Ricard; Chairman, the Scotch Whisky Association; former President, IBEC (The Irish Business and Employers Confederation), Dublin
*Hervé de Carmoy, Chairman, Almatis, Frankfurt-am-Main; former Partner, Rhône Group, New York & Paris; Honorary Chairman, Banque Industrielle et Mobilière Privée, Paris; former Chief Executive, Société Générale de Belgique
Antonio Carrapatoso, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Vodafone Portugal, Lisbon; Member of the Board of Directors, Vodafone Spain & Vodacom
Salvatore Carrubba, Director of Strategies and Columnist, Il Sole 24 Ore, Milan; former Culture Alderman, Municipality of Milan
Carme Chacon Piqueras, Minister of Housing; former First Vice-President of the Spanish Parliament, Madrid
Jürgen Chrobog, Chairman, BMW Herbert Quandt Foundation, Munich; former German Deputy Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the United States
Luc Coene, Minister of State; Deputy Governor, National Bank of Belgium, Brussels
Sir Ronald Cohen, Founding Partner and Executive Chairman, Apax Partners Worldwide, London




Bertrand Collomb, Chairman, Lafarge, Paris; Chairman, World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Iain Conn, Member of the Board of Directors and of the Executive Management Team, BP, London
*R Richard Conroy, Chairman, Conroy Diamonds & Gold, Dublin; Member of Senate, Republic of Ireland
Eckhard Cordes, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board, Franz Haniel & Cie., Duisburg; Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board, Metro; former Member of the Board, DaimlerChrysler, Stuttgart
Alfonso Cortina, Chairman, Colonial; former Chairman, Repsol-YPF Foundation, Madrid
Eduardo Costa, Executive Vice Chairman, Banco Finantia, Lisbon; Member, Forum Portugal Global
Enrico Tomaso Cucchiani, Member of the Board of Management, Allianz SE, Munich; Chief Executive Officer, Allianz S.p.A., Trieste
Michel David-Weill, Former Chairman, Lazard LLC, worldwide; Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Eurazeo, Paris
*Vladimir Dlouhy, Senior Advisor, ABB; International Advisor, Goldman Sachs; former Czechoslovak Minister of Economy; former Czech Minister of Industry & Trade, Prague
*Bill Emmott, Former Editor, The Economist, London
Pedro Miguel Echenique, Professor of Physics, University of the Basque Country; President, Foundation Donostia International Physic Center (DIPC); former Basque Minister of Education, San Sebastian
Laurent Fabius, Member of the French National Assembly and of the Foreign Affairs Committee; former Prime Minister & Minister of the Economy & Finance, Paris
Oscar Fanjul, Vice Chairman, Omega Capital, Madrid
Grete Faremo, Director of Law and Corporate Affairs for Western Europe, Microsoft Norway; former Executive Vice President, Storebrand; former Norwegian Minister of Development Cooperation, Minister of Justice and Minister of Oil and Energy, Oslo
*Nemesio Fernandez-Cuesta, Executive Director of Upstream, Repsol-YPF; former Chairman, Prensa Española, Madrid
Jürgen Fitschen, Member of the Group Executive Committee, Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt-am-Main
Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, Foreign Editor, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt am Main
Louise Fresco, University Professor, University of Amsterdam; Member of the Board of non-executive Directors, RABO Bank, Utrecht; former Assistant Director-General, Head of Agriculture Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome
Hugh Friel, Chief Executive, Kerry Group, Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland
Lykke Friis, Pro-Rector, University of Copenhagen
*Michael Fuchs, Member of the German Bundestag, Berlin; former President, National Federation of German Wholesale & Foreign Trade
Lord Garel-Jones, Managing Director, UBS Investment Bank, London; Member of the House of Lords; former Minister of State at the Foreign Office (European Affairs)
*Antonio Garrigues Walker, Chairman, Garrigues Abogados y Asesores Tributarios, Madrid
Wolfgang Gerhardt, Member of the German Bundestag; Chairman of the Friedrich-Naumann Foundation; former Chairman of the Free Democratic Party, Berlin
Lord Gilbert, Member of the House of Lords; former Minister for Defence, London
Esther Giménez-Salinas, Rector, Ramon Llull University; Professor of Criminal Law, ESADE Law School, Ramon Llull University, Barcelone
General The Lord Guthrie, Director, N M Rothschild & Sons, London; Member of the House of Lords; former Chief of the Defence Staff, London
Antti Herlin, Chairman of the Board, Kone Oyj, Helsinki
Helga Hernes, Senior Advisor, PRIO (International Peace Research Institute Oslo); Chair, Norwegian Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee, Oslo; former Norwegian Ambassador
Nigel Higgins, Senior Partner, N M Rothschild & Sons, London
Anne-Marie Idrac, Chairman, SNCF, Paris; former Member of Parliament and State Secretary for Transport
*Mugur Isarescu, Governor, National Bank of Romania, Bucharest; former Prime Minister
*Baron Daniel Janssen, Honorary Chairman, Solvay, Brussels
Trinidad Jiménez, International Relations Secretary of the Socialist Party (PSOE) & Member of the Federal Executive Committee; Secretary of State for Latin America, Madrid
*Béla Kadar, Member of the Hungarian Academy, Budapest; Member of the Monetary Council of the National Bank; President of the Hungarian Economic Association; Former Ambassador of Hungary to the O.E.C.D., Paris; former Hungarian Minister of International Economic Relations and Member of Parliament
Robert Kassai, General Vice President, The National Association of Craftmen’s Corporations, Budapest
*Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, Deputy Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc; Member of the House of Lords, London; former British Ambassador to the United States; former Secretary General, European Convention
*Sixten Korkman, Managing Director, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) & Finnish Business and Policy Forum (EVA), Helsinki
Arpad Kovacs, President, State Audit Office of Hungary, Budapest
Gabor Kovacs, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bankar Holding; Founder, KOGART (the Kovacs Gabor Art Foundation), Budapest
Ivan Krastev, Chairman of the Board and Programme Director for Political Research, Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia; Editor-in-Chief, Bulgarian Edition, Foreign Policy
Jiri Kunert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Zivnostenska banka; President of the Czech Association of Banks, Prague
Ulysses Kyriacopoulos, Chairman, S&B Group; former Chairman, Federation of Greek Industries, Athens
*Count Otto Lambsdorff, Partner, Wessing Lawyers, Düsseldorf; former Chairman, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Berlin; former Member of German Bundestag; Honorary Chairman, Free Democratic Party; former Federal Minister of Economy; former President of the Liberal International; Honorary European Chairman, The Trilateral Commission, Paris
Kurt Lauk, Member of the European Parliament (EPP Group-CDU); Chairman, Globe Capital Partners, Stuttgart; President, Economic Council of the CDU Party, Berlin; Former Member of the Board, DaimlerChrysler, Stuttgart
Anne Lauvergeon, Chairperson of the Executive Board, Areva; Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Cogema, Paris
Ulrich Lehner, Chairman, Henkel, Düsseldorf
Pierre Lellouche, Member of the French National Assembly and of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Paris; former President, NATO Parliamentary Assembly
Enrico Letta, Under State Secretary, Office of the Prime Minister, Italy; former Minister of European Affairs, Industry, and of Industry and International Trade, Rome
Thomas Leysen, Chief Executive Officer, Umicore, Brussels
*Marianne Lie, Director General, Norwegian Shipowner’s Association, Oslo
Erkki Liikanen, Chairman of the Board, Bank of Finland, Helsinki; former Finnish Minister of Finance; former European Commissioner
Count Maurice Lippens, Chairman, Fortis, Brussels
Peter Löscher, Chief Executive Officer, Siemens, Munich
Helge Lund, Chief Executive Officer of the Norwegian Oil Company, Statoil, Oslo
*Cees Maas, Honorary Vice Chairman of the ING Group and former Chief Financial Officer, Amsterdam; former Treasurer of the Dutch Government
Peter Mandelson, Member of the European Commission (Trade), Brussels; former Member of the British Parliament; former Secretary of State to Northern Ireland and for Trade and Industry
Abel Matutes, Chairman, Empresas Matutes, Ibiza; former Member of the European Commission, Brussels; former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Madrid
Francis Maude, Member of the British Parliament; Chairman of the Conservative Party; Director, Benfield Group; former Shadow Foreign Secretary, London
Joao de Menezes Ferreira, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ECO-SOROS, Lisbon; former Member of the Portuguese Parliament
Friedrich Merz, Member of the German Bundestag; former Member of the European Parliament; former Chairman of the Parliamentary Group of the CDU/CSU in the Bundestag, Berlin
Peter Mitterbauer, Honorary President, The Federation of Austrian Industry, Vienna; President and Chief Executive Officer, Miba, Laakirchen
Pietro Modiano, Managing Director & Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Intesa Sanpaolo, Turin
Dominique Moïsi, Special Advisor to the Director General of the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI), Paris
Mario Monti, President and Professor Emeritus, Bocconi University, Milan; Chairman of BRUEGEL and of ECAS, Brussels; former Member of the European Commission (Competition Policy)
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Chairman, Fiat, Turin; Chairman, Confindustria (Italian Confederation of Industry), Rome
Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Chairman, The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Chairman, Anglo American; former Chairman, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, London
Klaus-Peter Müller, Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors, Commerzbank, Frankfurt-am-Main; President, Association of German Banks (BDB), Berlin
Harald Norvik, Chairman and Partner, ECON Management; former President and Chief Executive, Statoil, Oslo
Ewald Nowotny, Chief Executive Officer, BAWAG P.S.K., Vienna
Arend Oetker, President, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP); Vice Chairman, Federation of German Industries; Managing Director, Dr. Arend Oetker Holding, Berlin
*Andrzej Olechowski, Founder, Civic Platform; Former Chairman, Bank Handlowy; former Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Finance, Warsaw
Richard Olver, Chairman, BAE Systems, London
Janusz Palikot, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Polmos, Lublin; Vice President, Polish Confederation of Private Employers; Co-owner, Publishing House slowo/obraz terytoria; Member of the Board of Directors, Polish Business Council, Warsaw
Dimitry Panitza, Founding Chairman, The Free and Democratic Bulgaria Foundation; Founder and Chairman, The Bulgarian School of Politics, Sofia
Lucas Papademos, Vice President, European Central Bank, Frankfurt-am-Main; former Governor of the Bank of Greece
Lord Patten of Barnes, Chancellor of the University of Oxford; Chairman, International Crisis Group, Brussels; former Member of the European Commission (External Relations), Brussels; former Governor of Hong Kong; former Member of the British Cabinet, London
Volker Perthes, Chairman and Director, German Institute for International and Security Affairs,
Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), Berlin
Carlo Pesenti, Managing Director, Italcementi, Bergamo
Dieter Pfundt, Personally Liable Partner, Sal. Oppenheim Bank, Frankfurt-am-Main
Josep Piqué, Chairman of the Popular Party of Catalunya, Barcelona; Member of the Parliament of Catalunya; Member of the Spanish Senate; former Minister of Foreign Affairs
Benoît Potier, Chairman of the Management Board, L’Air Liquide, Paris
Alessandro Profumo, Chief Executive Officer, UniCredit Group, Milan
Luigi Ramponi, Member of the Italian Senate; former Chairman of the Defence Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Rome; former Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Italian Army)
Juha Rantanen, President and Chief Executive Officer, Outokumpu Group, Espoo, Finland
Wanda Rapaczynska, President of the Management Board, Agora, Warsaw
Gianfelice Rocca, Chairman, Techint Group of Companies, Milan; Vice President, Confindustria, Rome
H. Onno Ruding, Chairman, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Brussels; Former Vice Chairman, Citibank; former Dutch Minister of Finance
Ferdinando Salleo, Vice Chairman, MCC (Mediocredito Centrale), Rome; former Ambassador to the United States
Jacques Santer, Honorary State Minister, Luxembourg; former Member of the European Parliament; former President of the European Commission; former Prime Minister of Luxembourg
*Silvio Scaglia, Chairman, Babelgum, London; Chairman, SMS Finance; former Chairman, Fastweb, Milan
Paolo Scaroni, Chief Executive Officer, ENI, Rome
*Guido Schmidt-Chiari, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Constantia Group; former Chairman, Creditanstalt Bankverein, Vienna
Henning Schulte-Noelle, Chairman of the Supervisory Board and former Chief Executive Officer, Allianz, Munich
Karel Schwarzenberg, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Founder and Director, Nadace Bohemiae, Prague; former Member of the Czech Senate; former Chancellor to President Havel; former President of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
*Carlo Secchi, Professor of European Economic Policy and former Rector, Bocconi University; Vice President, ISPI, Milan; former Member of the Italian Senate and of the European Parliament
*Tøger Seidenfaden, Editor-in-Chief, Politiken, Copenhagen
Maurizio Sella, Chairman, Gruppo Banca Sella, Biella; former Chairman, Association of Italian Banks (A.B.I.), Rome
Slawomir S. Sikora, Chief Executive Officer and Citigroup Country Officer for Poland, Bank Handlowy w Warszawie, Warsaw
Stefano Silvestri, President, Institute for International Affairs (IAI), Rome; Commentator, Il Sole 24 Ore; former Under Secretary of State for Defence, Italy
Lord Simon of Highbury, Member of the House of Lords, Deputy Chairman of Unilever; Non-Executive Director of Suez Group; Senior Adviser of Morgan Stanley Europe; former Minister for Trade & Competitiveness in Europe; former Chairman of BP, London
Nicholas Soames, Member of the British Parliament, London
Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer, WPP Group, London
*Petar Stoyanov, Former President of the Republic of Bulgaria; Member of Bulgarian
Parliament; Chairman of Parliamentary Group of United Democratic Forces; Chairman of Union of Democratic Forces, Sofia
Peter Straarup, Chairman of the Executive Board, Danske Bank, Copenhagen; Chairman, the Danish Bankers Association
*Peter Sutherland, Chairman, BP p.l.c.; Chairman, Goldman Sachs International; Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Migrations; former Director General, GATT/WTO; former Member of the European Commission; former Attorney General of Ireland
Pavel Telicka, Partner, BXL-Consulting, Prague
Jean-Philippe Thierry, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AGF (Assurances Générales de France), Paris
Lady Barbara Thomas Judge, Chairman, UKAEA (United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority); former US Securities Exchange Commissioner
*Harri Tiido, Undersecretary for Political Affairs, Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tallinn; former Ambassador of Estonia and Head of the Estonian Mission to NATO
Marco Tronchetti Provera, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pirelli & C., Milan; Deputy Chairman, Confindustria, Rome; former Chairman, Telecom Italia
Andreas Treichl, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Erste Bank der Oesterreichischen Sparkassen, Vienna
Elsbeth Tronstad, Executive Director, Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO); former Vice President, ABB, Oslo
Loukas Tsoukalis, Special Adviser to the President of the European Commission; Professor at the University of Athens and the College of Europe; President of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), Athens
Mario Vargas Llosa, Writer and Member of the Royal Spanish Academy, Madrid
*George Vassiliou, Former Head of the Negotiating Team for the Accession of Cyprus to the European Union; former President of the Republic of Cyprus; Former Member of Parliament and Leader of United Democrats, Nicosia
Jeroen van der Veer, Chief Executive, Royal Dutch Shell, The Hague
Franco Venturini, Senior Editorial Commentator on Foreign Affairs, Corriere della Sera, Rome
Janne Virkkunen, Senior Editor-in-Chief, Helsingin Sanomat, Helsinki
*Marko Voljc, Chief Executive Officer, K & H Bank, Budapest; former General Manager of Central Europe Directorate, KBC Bank Insurance Holding, Brussels; former Chief Executive Officer, Nova Ljubljanska Banka, Ljubljana
Alexandr Vondra, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs; former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prague
Joris Voorhoeve, Member of the Council of State; former Member of the Dutch Parliament; former Minister of Defence, The Hague
*Panagis Vourloumis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (O.T.E.), Athens
Marcus Wallenberg, Chairman of the Board, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), Stockholm
*Serge Weinberg, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Accor; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Weinberg Capital Partners; former Chairman of the Management Board, Pinault-Printemps-Redoute; former President, Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IRIS), Paris
*Heinrich Weiss, Chairman, SMS, Düsseldorf; former Chairman, Federation of German Industries, Berlin
Nout Wellink, President, Dutch Central Bank, Amsterdam
Hans Wijers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Akzo Nobel, Arnhem
Matthias Wissmann, President, Organization of the German Automobile Industry (Verband Der Automobilindustrie - VDA), Frankfurt am Main; former Member of German Bundestag; former Federal Minister
Emilio Ybarra, former Chairman, Banco Bilbao-Vizcaya, Madrid

Former Members in Public Service

John Bruton, European Union Ambassador & Head, Delegation of the European Commission to the United States
Lene Espersen, Minister of Justice, Denmark
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of the Republic of Estonia, Tallinn


North American Group

Madeleine K. Albright, Principal, The Albright Group LLC, Washington, DC;
former U.S. Secretary of State
Richard L. Armitage, President, Armitage International LLC, Washington, DC;
former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
James L. Balsillie, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Research in Motion, Ltd., Waterloo, ON
Charlene Barshefsky, Senior International Partner, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Washington, DC; former U.S. Trade Representative
Alan R. Batkin, Vice Chairman, Eton Park Capital Management, New York, NY
Nani Becalli-Falco, President and Chief Executive Officer, GE International, Brussels, Belgium
Doug Bereuter, President, The Asia Foundation, San Francisco, CA; former Member, U.S. House of Representatives
*C. Fred Bergsten, Director, Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs
Catherine Bertini, Professor of Public Administration, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY; Senior Fellow, Agricultural Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; former Under-Secretary-General for Management, United Nations
Dennis C. Blair, USN (Ret.), Omar Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership, Army War College and Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA
Robert D. Blackwill, President, Barbour Griffith & Rogers International, Washington, DC; former U.S. Ambassador to India; former U.S. National Security Council Deputy for Iraq;
Herminio Blanco Mendoza, Private Office of Herminio Blanco, Mexico City, NL; former Mexican Secretary of Commerce and Industrial Development
David G. Bradley, Chairman, Atlantic Media Company, Washington, DC
Lael Brainard, Vice President and Founding Director, Global Economy and Development Program,
The Brookings Institution
Harold Brown, Counselor, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC; General Partner, Warburg Pincus & Company, New York, NY; former U.S. Secretary of Defense
*Zbigniew Brzezinski, Counselor, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC; Robert Osgood Professor of American Foreign Affairs, Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; former U.S. Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President, Global Development Programs, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA
Louis C. Camilleri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Altria Group, Inc., New York, NY
Kurt Campbell, Chief Executive Officer, Center for a New American Security (CNAS), Washington, DC; Director of the Aspen Strategy Group; former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asia and the Pacific
Raymond Chrétien, Strategic Advisor, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Montreal, QC; Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Center for International Studies of the University of Montreal; former Associate Under-Secretary of State of External Affairs; former Ambassador of Canada to the Congo, Belgium, Mexico, the United States and France
William T. Coleman III, Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, Cassatt Corporation;
Founder, former Chairman and CEO and Member, Board of Directors, BEA Systems, Inc.,
San Jose, CA
Timothy C. Collins, Senior Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ripplewood Holdings, New York, NY
Richard N. Cooper, Maurits C. Boas Professor of International Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Chairman, U.S. National Intelligence Council; former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs
E. Gerald Corrigan, Managing Director, Goldman, Sachs & Co., New York, NY; former President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Michael J. Critelli, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pitney Bowes Inc., Stamford, CT
Lee Cullum, former regular commentator, "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," and columnist, Dallas, TX
H. Lawrence Culp, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer, Danaher Corporation, Washington, DC
Gerald L. Curtis, Burgess Professor of Political Science, Columbia University, New York, NY; Visiting Professor, Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo
Lynn Davis, Senior Political Scientist, The RAND Corporation, Arlington, VA; former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
Arthur A. DeFehr, President and Chief Executive Officer, Palliser Furniture, Winnipeg, MB
André Desmarais, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Power Corporation of Canada, Montréal, QC; Deputy Chairman, Power Financial Corporation
John M. Deutch, Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA; former Director of Central Intelligence; former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense
Jamie Dimon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, JPMorgan Chase & Co., New York, NY
Peter C. Dobell, Founding Director, Parliamentary Centre, Ottawa, ON
Wendy K. Dobson, Professor and Director, Institute for International Business, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON; former Canadian Associate Deputy Minister of Finance
K Kenneth M. Duberstein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Duberstein Group, Washington, DC; former Chief of Staff to President Ronald Reagan
P Peggy Dulany, Founder and Chair, Synergos Institute , New York, NY
Robert Eckert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mattel, Inc., El Segundo, CA
Jessica P. Einhorn, Dean, Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC; former Managing Director for Finance and Resource Mobilization, World Bank
Dianne Feinstein, Member (D-CA), U.S. Senate
Martin S. Feldstein, George F. Baker Professor of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; President and Chief Executive Officer, National Bureau of Economic Research; former U.S.Chairman, President’s Council of Economic Advisors
Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., Chairman, Swiss Re America Holding Corporation, Washington, DC; former Vice Chairman, Board of Governors, U.S. Federal Reserve System
Stanley Fischer, Governor of the Bank of Israel, Jerusalem; former President, Citigroup International and Vice Chairman, Citgroup, New York, NY; former First Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
Richard W. Fisher, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Dallas, TX; former U.S. Deputy Trade Representative
*Thomas S. Foley, Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Washington, DC; former U.S. Ambassador to Japan; former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; North American Chairman, Trilateral Commission
Kristin J. Forbes, Associate Professor of Economics, MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA; former member of the Council of Economic Advisors
Michael B.G. Froman, Managing Director, Head of Infrastructure and Sustainable Development, Citi Alternative Investments, Citigroup Inc., New York, NY
Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz Professor International Political Economy, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC
Dionisio Garza Medina, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, ALFA, Garza Garcia, NL
Richard A. Gephardt, former Member (D-MO), U.S. House of Representatives
David Gergen, Professor of Public Service, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Editor-at-Large, U.S. News and World Report
Francisco Gil-Díaz, Executive President, Telefónica México and Central América, Mexico City, DF
Peter C. Godsoe, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Scotiabank, Toronto, ON
*Allan E. Gotlieb, Senior Advisor, Bennett Jones LLP, Toronto, ON; Chairman, Sotheby’s, Canada; former Canadian Ambassador to the United States; North American Deputy Chairman, Trilateral Commission
Bill Graham, former Member of Canadian House of Commons; former Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Minister of Defence, Ottawa; Chancellor, Trinity College, University of Toronto
Donald E. Graham, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Washington Post Company,
Washington, DC
Jeffrey W. Greenberg, Managing Principal, Aquiline Capital Partners, LLC, New York, NY; former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Marsh & McLennan Companies
Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, NY; former Director, Policy Planning, U. S. Department of State; former Director of Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution
James T. Hackett, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Anadarko Petroleum Corp.,
The Woodlands, TX
John J. Hamre, President, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC; former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense and Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)
Richard F. Haskayne, Board Chairman Emeritus, University of Calgary, AB; past Chairman of the Board of TransCanada Corporation
Charles B. Heck, Senior Adviser and former North American Director, Trilateral Commission; Associate Professor of History and Global Perspectives, Principia College
Carlos Heredia, Economist, Mexico City, DF; Advisor to the Governor of Michoacán
*Carla A. Hills, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hills & Company, International Consultants, Washington, DC; former U.S. Trade Representative; former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
*Karen Elliott House, writer, Princeton, NJ; Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International
Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Senior Vice President, Dow Jones & Company, and Publisher, The Wall Street Journal
Alejandro Junco de la Vega, President and Director, Grupo Reforma, Monterrey, NL
Robert Kagan, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC
Arnold Kanter, Principal and Founding Member, The Scowcroft Group, Washington, DC; former
U.S. Under Secretary of State
Charles R. Kaye, Co-President, Warburg Pincus LLC, New York, NY
James Kimsey, President and Executive Director, The Kimsey Foundation, Washington, DC
Michael Klein, Co-President, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Chief Executive Officer, Global Banking, Citigroup Inc., New York, NY
Steven E. Koonin, Chief Scientist, BP, London, UK
Enrique Krauze, General Director, Editorial Clio Libros y Videos, S.A. de C.V., Mexico City, DF
Robert Lane, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Deere & Company, Moline, IL
Fred Langhammer, Chairman, Global Affairs, The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., New York, NY
Winston Lord, Co-Chairman of Overseers and former Co-Chairman of the Board, International Rescue Committee, New York, NY; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs; former U.S. Ambassador to China
E. Peter Lougheed, Senior Partner, Bennett Jones, Barristers & Solicitors, Calgary, AB; former Premier of Alberta
*Roy MacLaren, former Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom; former Canadian Minister of International Trade; Toronto, ON
John A. MacNaughton, former President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Toronto, ON
Antonio Madero, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, San Luis Corporacion, S.A. de C.V., Mexico City, DF
John Manley, Senior Counsel, McCarthy Tétrault LLP, Ottawa, ON; former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
*Sir Deryck C. Maughan, Managing Director and Chairman, KKR Asia, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., New York, NY; former Vice Chairman, Citigroup
Jay Mazur, President Emeritus, UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees); Vice Chairman, Amalgamated Bank of New York; and President, ILGWU's 21^st Century Heritage Foundation, New York, NY
James Moore, Member from British Columbia, Canadian Parliament, Ottawa, ON; Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada and the Pacific Gateway and Vancouver 2010 Olympics
Marc H. Morial, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Urban League, New York, NY; former Mayor, New Orleans, LA
Heather Munroe-Blum, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, McGill University, Montreal, QC
*Indra K. Nooyi, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo, Inc., Purchase, NY
Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Dean, John F. Kennedy School of Government; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs;
North American Vice Chairman, Trilateral Commission
David J. O'Reilly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Chevron Corporation, San Ramon, CA
Meghan L. O'Sullivan, Institute of Politics Fellow, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan, National Security Council, The White House
Richard N. Perle, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC; member and former Chairman, Defense Policy Board, U.S. Department of Defense; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy
Thomas R. Pickering, Vice Chairman, Hills & Company, International Consultants, Washington, DC; former Senior Vice President, International Relations, The Boeing Company, Arlington, VA; former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs; former U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and the United Nations
Martha C. Piper, former President and Vice-Chancellor, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
Richard Plepler, Co-president, HBO, New York, NY
Joseph W. Ralston, USAF (Ret.), Vice Chairman, The Cohen Group, Washington, DC; former Commander, U.S. European Command, and Supreme Allied Commander NATO; former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Department of Defense
Charles B. Rangel, Member (D-NY), U.S. House of Representatives
Federico Reyes Heroles, President of the Board, Transparencia Mexicana, Mexico City, DF
*Susan Rice, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies and Global Economy and Development Programs, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC; former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs; former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs, National Security Council
Hartley Richardson, President, James Richardson & Sons, Ltd., Winnipeg, MB
Joseph E. Robert, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Office, J.E. Robert Companies, McLean, VA
John D. Rockefeller IV, Member (D-WV), U.S. Senate
Kenneth Rogoff, Professor of Economics and Director, Center for International Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Chief Economist and Director, Research Department, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC
Charles Rose, Host of the Charlie Rose Show and Charlie Rose Special Edition, PBS, New York, NY
Irene B. Rosenfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kraft Foods, Inc., Northfield, IL
Dennis Ross, Counselor and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow, The Washingon Institute for Near East Policy, Washington, DC; former Special Middle East Coordinator in President Clinton’s Administration
David M. Rubenstein, Co-founder and Managing Director, The Carlyle Group, Washington, DC
*Luis Rubio, President, Center of Research for Development (CIDAC), Mexico City, DF
Arthur F. Ryan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Prudential Financial, Inc., Newark, NJ
Jaime Serra, Chairman, SAI Consulting, Mexico City, DF; former Mexican Minister of Trade and Industry
Dinakar Singh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, TPG-Axon Capital, New York, NY; former Co-head, Principal Strategies Department, Goldman Sachs
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Gordon Smith, Director, Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC; Chairman, Board of Governors, International Development Research Centre; former Canadian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Personal Representative of the Prime Minister to the Economic Summit
Donald R. Sobey, Chairman Emeritus, Empire Company Ltd., Halifax, NS
Ronald D. Southern, Chairman, ATCO Group, Calgary, AB
James B. Steinberg, Dean, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas, Austin, TX; former Vice President and Director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC; former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor
Jessica Stern, Academic Director, Program on Terrorism and the Law, Harvard Law School, and Lecturer in Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Barbara Stymiest, Chief Operating Officer, RBC Financial Group, Toronto, ON
Lawrence H. Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor of Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former President, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
John J. Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO, Washington, DC
Strobe Talbott, President, The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC; former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
George J. Tenet, Distinguished Professor, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, DC; former U.S. Director of Central Intelligence
John Thain, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc, New York, NY; former Chief Executive Officer, New York Stock Exchange, New York, NY; former President and Co-Chief Operating Officer, Goldman Sachs & Co.
*Paul A. Volcker, former Chairman, Wolfensohn & Co., Inc., New York; Frederick H. Schultz Professor Emeritus, International Economic Policy, Princeton University; former Chairman, Board of Governors, U.S. Federal Reserve System; Honorary North American Chairman and former North American Chairman, Trilateral Commission
William H. Webster, Senior Partner, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, Washington, DC; former U.S. Director of Central Intelligence; former Director, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation; former Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Fareed Zakaria, Editor, Newsweek International, New York, NY
*Lorenzo H. Zambrano, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, CEMEX, Monterrey, NL; North American Deputy Chairman, Trilateral Commission
Ernesto Zedillo, Director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, Yale University, New Haven, CT; former President of Mexico
Mortimer B. Zuckerman, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, U.S. News & World Repor,t and Publisher, New York Daily News; Founder and Chairman of Boston Properties, Inc.; New York, NY

William T. Coleman, Jr., Senior Partner and the Senior Counselor, O’Melveny & Myers, Washington, DC; former U.S. Secretary of Transportation; Lifetime Trustee, Trilateral Commission
Henry A. Kissinger, Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc., New York, NY; former U.S. Secretary of State; former U.S. Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; Lifetime Trustee, Trilateral Commission
Robert S. McNamara, former President, World Bank; former U.S. Secretary of Defense; former President, Ford Motor Company; Lifetime Trustee, Trilateral Commission
David Rockefeller, Founder, Honorary Chairman, and Lifetime Trustee, Trilateral Commission,
New York, NY

Former Members In Public Service

Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States
Paula J. Dobriansky, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs
Luis Téllez, Secretary of Communications and Transport of Mexico
Robert B. Zoellick, President, World Bank


Pacific Asian Group

Note: Those without city names are Japanese Members.
Korean names are shown with surname first.

Narongchai Akrasanee, Director and Chairman of Board of Executive Directors, Export Import Bank of Thailand; former Minister of Commerce of Thailand; Bangkok
Ali Alatas, Advisor and Special Envoy of the President of the Republic of Indonesia; former Indonesian Minister for Foreign Affairs; Jakarta
Philip Burdon, Former Chairman, Asia 2000 Foundation; New Zealand Chairman, APEC; former New Zealand Minister of Trade Negotiations; Wellington
Fujio Cho, Chairman, Toyota Motor Corporation
Cho Suck-Rai, Chairman, Hyosung Group, Seoul
Chung Mong-Joon, Member, Korean National Assembly; Vice President, Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA); Seoul
Barry Desker, Dean, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies; Vice Chairman, Singapore Business Federation; Honorary Advisor to the Minister for Trade and Industry, Singapore
Takashi Ejiri, Lawyer, Nishimura Asahi Law Office
Jesus P. Estanislao, President and Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Corporate Directors/Institute of Solidarity in Asia, Manila; former Philippine Minister of Finance
Hugh Fletcher, Chancellor, The University of Auckland; former Chief Executive Officer, Fletcher Challenge
Hiroaki Fujii, Advisor, The Japan Foundation; Chairman, Mori Arts Center; former Japanese Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Shinji Fukukawa, Chairman, TEPIA, The Machine Industry Memorial Foundation
Yoichi Funabashi, Chief Diplomatic Correspondent and Columnist, The Asahi Shimbun
Carrillo Gantner, President, The Myer Foundation; Melbourne
Ross Garnaut, Professor of Economics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra
*Toyoo Gyohten, President, Institute for International Monetary Affairs; Senior Advisor, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.
*Han Sung-Joo, President, Korea University, Seoul; former Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs; former Korean Ambassador to the United States; Pacific Asia Deputy Chairman, Trilateral Commission
*Stuart Harris, Professor of International Relations, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra; former Australian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs
Azman Hashim, Chairman, AmBank Group, Kuala Lumpur
John R. Hewson, Chairman, The John Hewson Group, Sydney; Former Leader of the Federal Opposition, Australia; Special Adviser to the Under Secretary of UNESCAP
Ernest M. Higa, President and CEO, Higa Industries
Hong Seok Hyun, former Chairman and CEO, Joong Ang Ilbo; former Korean Ambassador to the United States; Seoul
Shintaro Hori, Chairman, Bain Capital Japan, Inc.
Murray Horn, Managing Director, Institutional Banking, ANZ (NZ) Ltd., Sydney; Chairman, ANZ Investment Bank; former Parliament Secretary, New Zealand Treasury
Hyun Hong-Choo, Senior Partner, Kim & Chang, Seoul; former Korean Ambassador to the United Nations and to the United States; Seoul
Hyun Jae-Hyun, Chairman, Tong Yang Group, Seoul
Shin’ichi Ichimura, Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University; former Director, International Centre for the Study of East Asian Development, Kitakyushu
Nobuyuki Idei, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Sony Corporation; Board of Directors, Baidu
Noriyuki Inoue, Chairman and CEO, Daikin Industries, Ltd.
Motoo Kaji, Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo
Kasem Kasemsri, Honorary Chairman, Thailand-U.S. Business Council, Bangkok; Chairman, Advisory Board, Chart Thai Party; Chairman, Thai-Malaysian Association; former Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand
Koichi Kato, Member, Japanese House of Representatives; former Secretary-General, Liberal Democratic Party
K. Kesavapany, Director, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
Kim Kihwan, International Advisor, Goldman Sachs, Asia, Seoul; Chair, Seoul Financial Forum; former Korean Ambassador-at-Large for Economic Affairs
Kim Kyung-Won, President Emeritus, Seoul Forum for International Affairs, Seoul; former Korean Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations; Senior Advisor, Kim & Chang Law Office
Kakutaro Kitashiro, Senior Advisor, IBM Japan, Ltd.; Chairman, KEIZAI DOYUKAI (Japan Association of Corporate Executives)
Shoichiro Kobayashi, Advisor, Kansai Electric Power Company, Ltd.
*Yotaro Kobayashi, Chief Corporate Advisor, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.; Pacific Asia Chairman, Trilateral Commission
Akira Kojima, Chairman, Japan Center for Economic Research ( JCER )
Koo John, Chairman, LS Cable Ltd.; Chairman, LS Industrial Systems Co.; Seoul
Kenji Kosaka, Member, Japanese House of Representatives; former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
*Lee Hong-Koo, Chairman, Seoul Forum for International Affairs, Seoul; former Korean Prime Minister; former Korean Ambassador to the United Kingdom and the United States
Lee In-ho, University Professor, Myongji University, Seoul; former President, Korea Foundation; former Korean Ambassador to Finland and Russia
Lee Jay Y., Vice President, Corporate Strategy Office, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Seoul
Lee Kyungsook Choi, President, Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul
Adrianto Machribie, Chairman, PT Freeport Indonesia, Jakarta
*Minoru Makihara, Senior Corporate Advisor, Mitsubishi Corporation
Hiroshi Mikitani, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Rakuten, Inc.
Yoshihiko Miyauchi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ORIX Corporation
Isamu Miyazaki, Honorary Advisor, Daiwa Institute of Research, Ltd.; former Director-General of the Japanese Economic Planning Agency
Yuzaburo Mogi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kikkoman Corporation
Mike Moore, former Director-General, World Trade Organization, Geneva; Member, New Zealand Privy Council, Auckland; former Prime Minister of New Zealand
Hugh Morgan, Principal, First Charnock, Melbourne, Australia
Moriyuki Motono, former President, Foreign Affairs Society; former Japanese Ambassador to France
Jiro Murase, Managing Partner, Bingham McCutchen Murase, New York
*Minoru Murofushi, Counselor, ITOCHU Corporation
Osamu Nagayama, President and CEO, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Masao Nakamura, President and Chief Executive Officer, NTT Docomo Inc.
Masashi Nishihara, President, Research Institute for Peace and Security
Roberto F. de Ocampo, President, Asian Institute of Management; former Secretary of Finance, Manila
Sadako Ogata, President, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
*Shijuro Ogata, former Deputy Governor, Japan Development Bank; former Deputy Governor for International Relations, Bank of Japan; Pacific Asia Deputy Chairman, Trilateral Commission
Sozaburo Okamatsu, President, Industrial Property Cooperation Center; former Chairman, Research Institute of Economy, Trade & Industry (RIETI)
*Yoshio Okawara, President, Institute for International Policy Studies; former Japanese Ambassador to the United States
Yoichi Okita, Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
Ariyoshi Okumura, Chairman, Lotus Corporate Advisory, Inc.
Anand Panyarachun, Chairman, Thai Industrial Federation; Chairman, Saha-Union Public Company, Ltd.; former Prime Minister of Thailand; Bangkok
Ryu Jin Roy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Poongsan Corp., Seoul
Eisuke Sakakibara, Professor, Waseda University; former Japanese Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs
SaKong Il, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Institute for Global Economics, Seoul; former Korean Minister of Finance
Yoshiyasu Sato, Advisor, Tokyo Electric Power Co. Ltd.; former Japanese Ambassador to China
Yukio Satoh, President, The Japan Institute of International Affairs; former Japanese Ambassador to the United Nations
Sachio Semmoto, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, EMOBILE, Ltd.
Masahide Shibusawa, President, Shibusawa Ei’ichi Memorial Foundation
Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Former Chief Cabinet Secretary; former Senior Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs; Member, Japanese House of Representatives; former Parliamentary Vice Minister for Finance
Arifin Siregar, Chairman of the Governing Board, Indonesian Council on World Affairs (ICWA); former International Advisor, Goldman Sachs (Pacific Asia) LLC; former Ambassador of Indonesia to the United States; Jakarta
Jacob Soetoyo, Director and Shareholder of P.T.Gesit Maju Corporation; Jakarta
Shigemitsu Sugisaki, Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd.; former Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Tsuyoshi Takagi, President, JTUC-Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation)
Keizo Takemi, Former Member, Japanese House of Councillors; former State Secretary for Foreign Affairs
Akihiko Tanaka, Professor , University of Tokyo
Hitoshi Tanaka, Senior Fellow, Japan Center for International Exchange; former Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs
Naoki Tanaka, President, Center for International Public Policy Studies
Teh Kok Peng, President, GIC Special Investments Private Ltd., Singapore
Kiyoshi Tsugawa, Executive Adviser & Member of Japan Advisory Board, Lehman Brothers Japan, Inc.; Member of the Board, Aozora Bank; Chairman, ARAMARK ASIA
Junichi Ujiie, Chairman, Nomura Holdings, Inc.
Sarasin Viraphol, Executive Vice President, Charoen Pokphand Co., Ltd., Bangkok; former Deputy Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Thailand
Cesar E. A. Virata, Corporate Vice Chairman and Acting Chief Executive Officer, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), Manila; former Prime Minister of Philippines
*Jusuf Wanandi, Vice Chairman, Board of Trustees, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta
Etsuya Washio, President, The Foundation for Workers Welfare and Cooperative Insurance; former President, Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO)
Koji Watanabe, Senior Fellow, Japan Center for International Exchange; former Japanese Ambassador to Russia
Osamu Watanabe, Executive Vice President, Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd.
Taizo Yakushiji, Member, Council for Science and Technology Policy of the Cabinet Office of Japan; Executive Research Director, Institute for International Policy Studies
Tadashi Yamamoto, President, Japan Center for International Exchange; Pacific Asia Director, Trilateral Commission
Noriyuki Yonemura, Chairman, Japan Small and Medium Enterprise Management Consultants Association

Former Members in Public Service

Hisashi Owada, Judge, International Court of Justice


Participants from Other Areas
“Triennium Participants”

André Azoulay, Adviser to H.M. King Mohammed VI, Rabat, Morocco
Morris Chang, Chairman, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Taipei, Taiwan
Omar Davies, Member of the Jamaican Parliament and Minister of Finance and Planning, Kingston, Jamaica; former Director General, Planning Institute of Jamaica
Hüsnü Dogan, General Coordinator, Nurol Holding; former Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Development Foundation of Turkey; former Minister of Defence, Ankara, Turkey
Alejandro Foxley, Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Valparaiso, Chile
Jacob A. Frenkel, Vice Chairman, American International Group, Inc. (AIG) and Chairman, AIG's Global Economic Strategies Group, New York, NY; Chairman, Group of Thirty; former Chairman, Merrill Lynch International London; former Governor, Bank of Israel
Victor K. Fung, Chairman, Li & Fung; Chairman, Prudential Asia Ltd., Hong Kong
Frene Ginwala, former Speaker of the National Assembly, Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa
H.R.H. Prince El Hassan bin Talal, President, The Club of Rome; Moderator of the World Conference on Religion and Peace; Chairman, Arab Thought Forum, Amman, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Ricardo Hausmann, Professor of the Practice of Economic Development, Center for International Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Chief Economist, Inter-American Development Bank; former Venezuelan Minister of Planning and Member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela
Sergei Karaganov, Dean, State University Higher School of Economics; Deputy Director, Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences; Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Defense and Foreign Policy, Moscow, Russian Federation
Jeffrey L.S. Koo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Chinatrust Investment, Bank, Taipei, Taiwan
Richard Li, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pacific Century Group Holdings Ltd., Hong Kong
Ricardo Lopez Murphy, Visiting Research Fellow, Latin American Economic Research Foundation, Buenos Aires, Argentina; former Argentinian Finance Minister and Defence Minister
Andrónico Luksic Craig, Vice Chairman, Banco de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Qin Yaqing, Vice President, China Foreign Affairs University, Beijing, China; Vice President, China National Association for International Studies
Itamar Rabinovich, Ettinger Chair of Contemporary Middle Eastern History, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Charles and Andrea Bronfman Distinguished Fellow at the Saban Center, The Brookings Institution; Distinguished Global Professor at New York University; Visiting Professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; former Ambassador to the United States
Rüsdü Saracoglu, President of the Finance Group, Koç Holding; Chairman, Makro Consulting, Istanbul, Turkey; former State Minister and Member of the Turkish Parliament; former Governor of the Central Bank of Turkey
Roberto Egydio Setubal, President and Chief Executive Officer, Banco Itaú S.A. and Banco Itaú Holding Financiera S.A., Sao Paulo, Brazil
Stan Shih, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Acer Group, Taipei, Taiwan
Gordon Wu, Chairman and Managing Director, Hopewell Holdings Ltd., Hong Kong
Wu Jianmin, President, China Foreign Affairs University; Executive Vice President, China National Association for International Studies, Beijing, China
Grigory A. Yavlinsky, Chairman and Co-Founder of the Russian Democratic Party “Yabloko” and former Member of the State Duma; Chairman of the Center for Economic and Political Research, Moscow, Russian Federation
Yu Xintian, President, Shanghai Institute for International Studies, Shanghai, China
Yuan Ming, Vice Dean, School of International Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China
Zhang Yunling, Director, Academic Division of International Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing, China
Wang Jisi, Dean, School of International Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China

• 
  

• 
  

February 01, 2008 10:13 PM

It has been one of the most influential books of the last year – and now, "The Late Great USA," Jerome Corsi's riveting exposé of the ongoing and wide-ranging efforts at merging the U.S., Mexico and Canada, has become a powerful video documentary produced by WorldNetDaily.

Corsi, a Harvard Ph.D. and co-author of the No. 1 New York Times best seller "Unfit for Command," is the nation's top reporter on the "North American Union." Despite official scoffing at Corsi's reports of the well-documented merger efforts, "The Late Great USA" became a New York Times best seller. Moreover, Corsi's intrepid reporting has propelled the North American merger into the national presidential debate, and led to more than a dozen state legislatures passing resolutions opposing it.

Corsi traces the merger story back to 2005, when, during a meeting in Waco, Texas, the leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada announced the establishment of the innocuous-sounding "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America," an announcement that was never submitted to Congress.

Why?

In this brand-new video, Corsi, a staff reporter for WND, offers convincing evidence the Security and Prosperity Partnership is laying the groundwork for the unthinkable – a merger of the U.S., Mexico and Canada into a European Union-type "North American Union," complete with a shared judiciary, open borders and a new currency designed to replace the dollar – the amero.

In The Late Great USA: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada," Corsi showed how a bureaucratically entrenched army of "world citizens" is working tirelessly toward this EU-like merger. In the brave new world they envision, the U.S. will no longer be a sovereign nation, but a market designed for maximum economic exploitation by multinational corporations and foreign governments, regardless what American citizens want.

In the video, Corsi explains:

• How globalist business leaders and taxpayer-funded academics are deliberately side-stepping the Constitution – and Congress – in order to submerge the U.S. into a regional government.
• How the state of Texas is seizing millions of acres of privately owned land so that foreign investors can cash in on a NAFTA “superhighway” from Mexico to the Canadian border.
• How China, through its proxies in Mexico, plans to bring the world’s sole superpower to its knees economically – without firing a shot.

The North American Union would not just be the end of America as we know it, explains Corsi, but the beginning of an EU-like nightmare – a bureaucratic coup d'etat foisted upon millions of American citizens without their knowledge or consent.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership is not just unconstitutional, says the best-selling author, but an act of treason committed at the highest levels, one that must be stopped before the U.S.A., as a free and sovereign nation fades into history.

"The Late Great USA" sets out the case in an easy-to-read text documented by nearly 30 pages of footnotes.

In this video, you will see and hear Jerome Corsi as he takes you through this astonishing and meticulously researched story of deceit, the chapters of which are being written in secret by an unaccountable, unelected bureaucracy.

February 01, 2008 10:10 PM

______________________


A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 10:07 PM

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=60010A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 09:56 PM

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/02/01/18476217.php

___________________

John Hankley's words on Obama and the Election of 2008:





 
To: all my friends
From: John Hankey, author JFK II- the Bush Connection
Please forward:
 
Clinton, Obama, JFK, and the next terrorist attack
When I first laid eyes on Barack Obama, giving the keynote nomination speech introducing John Kerry, I was excited to see such an articulate spokesman for the rest of us, the non-billionaires. I rode my bicycle to hear him speak at nearby Jefferson High School and liked what I saw: a handsome, caring, articulate, obviously electable Black man inspiring a multiracial crowd, which had been drawn to an African American neighborhood.
HOWEVER
I recently learned that Obama has taken on Zbigniew Brzezinski as his chief foreign policy advisor. Obama could not have taken on a more brazen spokesman for the super rich if he had hired Henry Kissinger, or even David Rockefeller himself! Brzezinski was the architect of the current situation in the middle east. Brzezinski brags of his role in destroying the socialist government in Afghanistan, by secretly arming and training the Taliban to take power; by secretly recruiting, arming and training Osama Bin Laden; he virtually invented armed Islamic extremism. Brzezinski is the most prominent of Rockefeller servants, not merely a member, but a founder and director of the Rockefeller's Tri-Lateral commission, where the world's elite meet to plot, plan, and conspire against democratic movements and ideals on worldwide basis. Until recently, full pages on Obama's website bragged about the relationship between Obama and Brzezinski. Most of these pages have been recently scrubbed from the website, but this information is still widely available on the web. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/3/vote_for_change_atrocity_linked_us
Obama has also brought on board two individuals, Anthony Lake and Richard Clarke, who I consider war criminals for their roles in enabling the genocide of 800,000 Africans in Rwanda. Lake's activities led directly to the deaths of 4 million more in Congo. (Details below)
 
THE NEXT 9-11 ATTACK
If there is any important difference between the candidates, it rests on which of them will say “yes”, and which will say “no” when they are told that the latest “terrorist” attack is justification for bombing Iran.
The Oklahoma City Bombing was supposed to be a false flag operation:
http://www.jaynadavis.com/fn.html
http://www.jaynadavis.com/wsj.html
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-1678779-details/Iraqis+linked+to+Oklahoma+atrocity+/article.do;jsessionid=qzSmHgwpvLv0q2r5yLQQbXNnKfWB2snL50j2xYnf1ZnjWcn7SGnz!398065288!-1407319225!7001!-1
Evidence was planted, for the purpose of showing that this was an Iraqi attack; that there were Iraqi agents on the scene; that Iraq was behind the bombing. Now stop a moment.
Why didn’t Clinton act on this information and attack Iraq? There can be no doubt that Clinton was confronted with this planted evidence, and asked to approve an invasion. And he refused. Instead of killing a million people in Iraq, he nailed Tim McVeigh. Clinton recognized this as a false flag and refused to act upon it. Doesn’t that tell you something?
Given Obama’s hiring of Brzeziski, it appears that, far from resisting the next false flag attack, that Obama would be involved in planning it.
The Clintons are corrupt. Of course. We have an openly corrupt political system. To have a prayer of being elected to national office, candidates must secure donations of hundreds of million of dollars; they get this money from people who have millions of dollars, and who don't give their money without strings attached. The Clintons have played this game well. But there are levels of corruption. One thief steels a house and a vacation from the taxpayer. Another murders thousands of their own citizens, and uses the murder to start a war against uninvolved parties. There’s a difference. If Clinton’s failure to act on the OKC false flag operation doesn’t prove anything, try this one on for size.
 
CLINTON AND THE FEDERAL RESERVE
The Federal Reserve is a private organization of the largest banks that controls the money supply of the US. Well OK. Someone has to control the money supply, I suppose. But when the US government runs a deficit, instead of just printing the money, the government borrows the money, at interest, from the Federal Reserve Banks. It is the biggest easy money rip off in the history of the world. And Ron Paul, to his credit, has railed against it. It has been suggested that JFK was murdered, in part, because of moves he made to reform the Federal Reserve. But instead of talking about it, Bill Clinton balanced the budget!!! I don’t understand why no one takes in what that means. Clinton denied these thieves the single biggest source of easy money. Because there was no debt, the Federal Reserve thieves couldn’t loan the money to the government. Because there was, in fact, a surplus. Furthermore, Clinton proposed to use the surplus to pay off the existing debt. He was threatening to take away all of the hundreds of billions in interest these men collect on US debt. And he accomplished all this by taxing the billionaires!!! I don’t know why he doesn’t brag about it. I don’t know why YOU don’t acknowledge and give him credit for it. I just plain don’t get it. Newt Gingrich was forced out of politics for his role in it. And Clinton has been scourged by all the press for Monica Lewinski etc. ever since.
More on Obama
Now I’m not saying Obama is a secret member of Skull and Bones, an operative of the Rockefellers, who’s job is to sucker in voters longing for an inspiring leader. But I am saying that he certainly looks like a Rockefeller sockpuppet. Let’s look, for example, at his rise to fame. Obama was nobody before John Kerry “made” him by allowing Obama to give the keynote speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004, introducing Kerry. Kerry, along with George Bush Jr. & Sr., was a member of the CIA dominated Skull and Bones. Kerry was the ranking member of the Senate Committee that investigated George Bush Sr.’s role in the crack trade. While Gary Webb won a Pulitzer prize for uncovering Bush‘s role in the crack cocaine epidemic, Kerry’s committee came up empty handed. On election night 2004, Kerry quietly accepted defeat, although Robert Kennedy Jr. says the evidence of voter fraud was and is overwhelming: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen/printWhen a journalism student in Florida asked Kerry whether his Skull and Bones membership was connected to his concession, despite the evidence of voter fraud, Kerry had him dragged out and electrocuted:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-PcS-s9WtQ
So Kerry’s early sponsorship of Obama is not encouraging. Also discouraging for the idealistic observer was Obama’s attempt to unseat Congressman Bobby Rush, a former Black Panther and the one of the most consistently honest and progressive voices in the congress. Obama lost that race. But then the Republican senator from Illinois was suddenly persuaded that he was through with politics, after one term. Obama was able to win the Democratic nomination for this senate seat; and the winner of the republican nomination was suddenly persuaded that he no longer wanted a political career; and an out of state right wing Black man, Alan Keyes, was brought in as a Republican candidate who was absolutely guaranteed to loose. These may all be coincidences, but they are troublingly consistent with the notion that Obama is a fraud, who’s career has been orchestrated, by Republicans and shady Democrats.
 
False Flag in JFK’s Murder
When JFK was murdered, the plot included the creation of a carefully constructed pile of evidence that Oswald was a Cuban agent. The evidence included film of Oswald passing out pro-Castro leaflets. Oswald claimed to be a member of the Fair Play for Cuba committee. This was a real organization, genuinely subversive, radical, and filled with dedicated individual American communists; and Oswald was passing out their material. That was real. It happened. Of course, recently declassified CIA documents reveal the long suspected fact that Oswald was a CIA operative. But the photographs of Oswald passing out leaflets were not photoshopped; and they were surrounded by other false material: CIA reports that he traveled to Mexico, and visited the Cuban embassy, for example. Johnson was confronted with this evidence and asked to invade Cuba. But he resisted. He let the killers loose on Vietnam, but he wouldn’t give them Cuba. And he demanded and got the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act, and the War on Poverty in exchange. There is a tape of a phone conversation, available on the web, between John Connally and LBJ. Connally was demonstrably involved in JFK’s murder. And he called Johnson and said, “Oswald was a Cuban agent.” Johnson told Connally straight out that his story of Oswald as Cuban agent was a lie. To me, this is the most powerful evidence there is that Johnson was NOT involved in the assassination. He knew he had to go along with Vietnam or die. And he went along. What choice did he have? But he went along at the price of passing important Civil Rights legislation. And he refused to accept the phony evidence of Cuban involvement in the assassination.
 
More Lessons from JFK
Kennedy was corrupt. Of course. And his early policies in Vietnam killed many innocent people.
But he refused to commit troops to Vietnam; in September of ‘63, he announced that he was going to begin withdrawing the US “advisors“, and he paid for it with his life in November. Earlier, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he opposed his general’s advice to launch an invasion. The Russians had fully operative nuclear weapons in Cuba and were authorized to use them to repel an invasion. In opposing his generals, JFK saved us, and the world, from nuclear holocaust; but he paid for it with his own life. What people don’t know is that Kennedy said “No” to the initial invasion of Cuba, by the CIA, at the Bay of Pigs. The fiction, in every book in print, save one, is that Kennedy approved the invasion, but refused to provide air cover, so that the invasion failed. Afterward, Kennedy launched an investigation, a board of inquiry, consisting of his brother Bobby, and General Maxwell Taylor who he pulled out of retirement. JFK wanted Taylor because he outranked every soldier on the planet. They called in all the participants, from cabinet members to CIA officers in the field. The transcripts are printed in a book called “Operation Zapata”. They show that Kennedy was asked to approve the Bay of Pigs invasion and said, clearly, “Hell NO!” The CIA went ahead with the invasion anyway. JFK fired the top 3 leaders of the CIA for insubordination, but publicly, he took the entire blame. He never publicly told what had actually happened, although he was vilified by many good people who were outraged by the attack on Cuba, which included bombing raids on housing projects that killed many civilians, including children.
 
ANTHONY LAKE, RICHARD CLARKE, BILL CLINTON, AND RWANDA
In 1994, the US stood idly by for over 100 days while 800,000 civilians were hacked to death with machetes. Lake and Clarke have claimed they "didn't know about the extent of the killings," or that "it just wasn't on our radar." The facts show that these statements are lies. Most astonishing has been the release of a Defense Department document showing that Henry Kissinger was being briefed by the Defense Department head of African Affairs a mere 5 days into the killing. In this briefing the Pentagon was able to accurately predict the extent of the killing, that the UN would withdraw, and that the US Army would strenuously oppose any action. The US military not only knew what was happening, they knew what was going to happen. But why were they talking to Kissinger??
Anthony Lake and Richard Clarke not only lied, in claiming ignorance of the atrocities taking place in Rwanda, they not only stood idly by, but they actively worked to block any attempts to reduce the killing. As UN peacekeepers in Rwanda were begging for reinforcements, Lake and Clarke not only blocked the requested helped, they tried to force the UN to remove all their forces. Their names are at the top of the NSA documents discussing the importance of getting the UN to let the slaughter run it’s course. The evidence suggests that they did all this behind Clinton’s back. Ridiculous? After observing that Anthony Lake was Kissinger’s protégé, the answer is no.
Clinton flew to Rwanda, looked the survivors in the face, and apologized for not having acted to stop the killing there. Privately, in his office, he threw a copy of the New Yorker magazine at his new National Security Advisor, and asked why he had not been informed of the killing in Rwanda described in those pages. The Atlantic Monthly, telling this story, calls Clinton a liar, for claiming that he didn’t know. But why would he tell such a lie? In private? To his most secure advisor? And then publicly take the blame? Anthony Lake was Clinton’s National Security advisor at the time of the genocide. By the time Clinton the slaughter in The New Yorker magazine, Clarke was gone.
 
Final Notes
Imagine what would have happened to JFK if it had been pouring rain in Dallas, if the top were put on the limousine, and the killers got scared to try again. JFK would have had his Monica Lewinsky. If the Christian Coalition and Fox News had been around, people would have hated him the way they’ve been trained to hate the Clintons.
There is plenty out there on Brzezinski. Just do a google search using the words: Tarpley, Obama, and Brzezinski. Tarpley rates Hillary Clintons advisors as “80% insane”; he rated Brzezinski as 125% insane. I think it’s an important difference.
 
There is NOTHING out there on Anthony Lake and Richard Clarke, so I’ll include my own research:
Obama Chooses War Criminal as Chief Foreign Policy Advisor

… Lake and Richard Clarke arranged for the US representatives at the UN to lead a mainly successful effort to pull all the UN peacekeepers out, to the shock, disbelief and horror of US State Department personnel in Rwanda and Washington. And Lake and Clarke worked throughout the killing to prevent the UN from re-enforcing the desperate remaining UN peacekeepers.
Lake has claimed that he was uninvolved in these efforts, but NSC records show that Clarke kept Lake, an Africa expert, fully informed of the proceedings. These NSC records are a major blow to Lake’s credibility.²
Lake and others have pointed to the “Blackhawk Down” incident in Somalia 6 months earlier that killed 19 Americans, saying that the US was unwilling to take any risks. However, there were many critical actions the US could have taken at virtually no risk. Prudence Bushnell, deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, acting entirely independently of Lake and Clarke, called Augustin Bizimungu, the Rwandan military chief of staff and a key organizer of the killing. “I am calling to tell you President Clinton is going to hold you accountable for the killings,” she said. Though Bushnell that knew she was bluffing, the threat reverberated down to the grass roots tribal meetings in Rwanda. People were watching to see if it was true. The head of UN peacekeeping efforts on the ground in Rwanda, and a witness to much of the slaughter, Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, begged the US to send fighter jets to buzz the rooftops in the capital, Kigali, to make this bluff credible. But, though intimidated at first, the killers saw the UN withdrawing troops, under pressure from the US; and they saw that those few troops remaining were ill-supplied and ill equipped, despite Dallaire’s howling cries for troops, supplies, and equipment to stop the bloodbath.
The most significant, perhaps, of US inactions is in regard to Rwanda’s only radio station. Rwanda was a very backward country at the time, with poor roads, and little telephone service. The one radio station, RTLM, was of critical importance to the killers. Harvard Professor Samantha Power says the radio station broadcast names, addresses, and even license-plate numbers of persons to be killed. “Killers often carried a machete in one hand and a transistor radio in the other.” The UN’s general Dallaire, begged the US to put the station out of commission, as something that could be done with maximum effect and no risk. Lake and Clarke refused, even, to jam the radio station, which continued to broadcast for a month after the killers had been driven from the capital.
What is also clear is Lake’s astonishing willingness to lie about events and his role in them. Indeed, if a lie told by Lake is evidence that Clinton is telling the truth, then the quantity and severity of Lake’s lies weigh very heavily in favor of a finding that Clinton is to be believed on the question of his lack of knowledge regarding the killings in Rwanda. For example:
Despite his scandalous failure to take risk-free critical actions against the radio station, Lake told a PBS interviewer that, in fact, the US began broadcasting, over the radio, in Rwanda, the names of the leaders of the genocide, together with President Clinton’s threat to hold them responsible³.
Certainly, substituting the killers’ radio signal with such a message could have drastically reduced the number of innocent people killed. Lake’s telling of this story shows his inventiveness and creativity at dreaming up possible effective actions he could have taken. But, it didn’t happen.
Lake also told the PBS interviewer that the US took steps to protect the civilians under UN protection at Amohoro Stadium. The opposite was true. To the astonishment of the frantic UN peacekeepers at Amohoro, Lake and company had the US mission to the UN introduce a resolution to remove all UN peacekeepers from Rwanda. They succeeded for the most part. The great majority of peacekeepers, and all the best equipped and trained peacekeepers, were removed.
Lake told PBS that the Non-Governmental Organizations, the so-called NGO’s were against taking action. But Samantha Power says, “By the end of the second week informed nongovernmental groups had already begun to call on the Administration to use the term ‘genocide’”. In internal discussions, Lake’s subordinates discussed the need to avoid using the term “genocide” because, if the US were to acknowledge that a genocide was taking place, they would be required, under the UN Conventions on Genocide, to take action. So in fact, by urging the US to use the term “genocide”, Human Rights Watch and others were urging the US to action. Lake’s statement is a powerful misrepresentation.
In this same PBS interview, Clarke makes other astonishingly self-incriminating statements. After the genocide was over, the killers fled, and were sheltered as “refugees” in camps on the edge of Rwanda, where they reorganized, rearmed, and trained to continue the killing. The Goma camp was one of the most notorious. Lake says, “I took over, which is unusual for a national security adviser, the management of the Goma relief operation …” Lake offers this information as proof of his concern for the victims. But the UN’s General Dallaire has characterized Lake’s personal handiwork thusly:

The refugees were organized by village, commune and prefecture and placed under the same genocidaire leaders who had led the killings in Rwanda. Remy Gatete, the prect of Kibungo, established control of the whole camp, threatening and, if required, killing anyone who testified to journalists or human rights activists about what the genocidaires had done in Rwanda. He also executed anyone who tried to go home. In addition, he began siphoning off humanitarian aid to support his thugs in the camp. The aid agencies … reinforced the abuse.⁴
Lake does not tells us the specific nature of his personal supervision of the developing catastrophe that was brewing at the Goma camp. But that he would offer his involvement at Goma in his own defense is rather startling, and certainly seems far more likely to incriminate, than exonerate, him in the eyes of the knowledgeable observer. By all accounts, Lake’s work organizing the Goma camp led directly to the furtherance and extension of the conflict, that went on to claim 4 million lives in Congo.
Again, in this same PBS interview, Lake claims that he contacted the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s chief intelligence arm, to learn the latest most accurate information on events in Rwanda. He says that Defense Intelligence Agency told him that they didn’t know “who was killing who”. This may be the most astonishing lie of all. Lake is an expert on Africa and African affairs. He would hardly have needed Pentagon intelligence to tell him who was killing who. In any case, by the time he asked, the story, that the Hutu regime was slaughtering its Tutsi citizens, was all over the New York Times and Post⁵. However, the plot gets thicker and sicker. It was mentioned at the beginning of this article that Lake is a Kissinger protégé. A Pentagon memo has surfaced, under the freedom of information act, showing that a mere 5 days after the crisis in Rwanda first began, Henry Kissinger met with the head of the Pentagon’s Africa department, Under Secretary Frank Wisner, who predicted that if the peace process fails, “a massive bloodbath (hundreds of thousands of deaths) will ensue”; the “UN will likely withdraw all forces”; and the US will not get involved.” This document is available on the web at: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB53/rw041194.pdf
This memo shows that the Pentagon was much more than “well informed“. They had a sufficient knowledge base as to be able to accurately predict the future. It is astonishing that they were able to make such accurate predictions, a mere 5 days into an event that took over 90 days. Certainly the memo indicates that Lake is lying about the Pentagon’s ignorance. Most chillingly, this memo indicates that Lake’s “former” mentor, the greatest living war criminal, with warrants outstanding for his arrest for his crimes against the people of Chile, was actively involved in events in Rwanda. Kissinger’s passion for secrecy should, however, alert us to the likelihood that evidence of Kissinger’s current relationship with Lake will not be easy to find.
Again, in this same PBS interview, Lake offers, as a defense of his inaction, that “the phones weren’t ringing” about the killing. It‘s hard to tell what, exactly, this means. The personnel at the State department were astonishingly well informed, and certainly screaming about the events. Human Rights Watch, as mentioned, was calling with eye-witness information about killings. The New York Times and other papers were covering the story. But beyond the apparent falsehood of Lake’s statement is its suggestion that unless several people clamor simultaneously, Lake cannot perceive that genocide is bad. He not only needs to know about it, but, apparently lacking a soul, he needs to know that other people care. Presumably “Soullessness” is not on Barack Obama’s list of qualifications for chief foreign policy advisor.
Finally, just to be thorough, Lake boasted to PBS that he used the word “genocide” in late June of ‘04, even though he “wasn’t supposed to,” insinuating that he spoke out boldly and bravely ahead of the curve (though after the genocide). However, according to Samantha Power, Warren Christopher had OK’d the use of the word on May 21^st.
John Hankey, the author of this article, is a public school teacher, a researcher, and documentary film maker in Los Angeles. xjhankeyx@yahoo.com
End Notes
1) Samantha Power in the Atlantic Monthly writes that Clinton asked his National Security Advisor why he was not informed of the genocide: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200109/power-genocide. This is not unprecedented.
2) Ironically, Lake himself is the source for the presence and content of these memos, in his PBS interview (see note #3)
3) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/ghosts/interviews/lake.html
4) Romeo Dallaire’s book, Shake Hands With the Devil, page 336
5) “On April 10 a New York Times front-page article quoted the Red Cross claim that "tens of thousands" were dead, 8,000 in Kigali alone, and that corpses were "in the houses, in the streets, everywhere." The Post the same day led its front-page story with a description of "a pile of corpses six feet high" outside the main hospital. On April 14 The New York Times reported the shooting and hacking to death of nearly 1,200 men, women, and children in the church where they had sought refuge. On April 19 Human Rights Watch, which had excellent sources on the ground in Rwanda, estimated the number of dead at 100,000 and called for use of the term "genocide." The 100,000 figure (which proved to be a gross underestimate) was picked up immediately by the Western media, endorsed by the Red Cross, and featured on the front page of The Washington Post. On April 24 the Post reported how "the heads and limbs of victims were sorted and piled neatly, a bone-chilling order in the midst of chaos that harked back to the Holocaust." From Samantha Power in the Atlantic Monthly, Bystanders to Genocide http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200109/power-genocide
 
 A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 09:33 PM

January 31, 2008


October 27, 2007

February 01, 2008 09:31 PM

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_bill_dou_080131_was_9_2f11_truth_giuli.htmA blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 07:42 PM

http://lifenews.com/bio2323.html

http://lifenews.com/nat3686.html

http://lifenews.com/nat3687.html

http://lifenews.com/nat3685.htmlA blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 07:40 PM

http://prisonplanet.com/articles/february2008/020108_internet_blackouts.htmA blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 05:58 PM

Today's Downsizer Dispatch . . .

Change the environment. Recruit more Downsizers. Share this message with others.

SPECIAL NOTE: I'll be on two radio shows today -- Jerry Hughes at 3 PM Eastern and Gary Nolan at 5 PM Central. See below my signature for details on how you can listen.

Quote of the Day:

"Congress is continually appointing fact-finding committees, when what we really need are some fact-facing committees."
-- Roger Allen

Subject: Make Congress pay by not paying them

If the government fails, you can't take your business elsewhere, or even get your money back.

If a politicians fails, you can't fire him or her. Of course . . .

February 01, 2008 05:41 PM

 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton debated in California. The vast majority of the topics dealt with domestic issues. Additionally, foreign issues were talked about. On health care, both agreed that all Americans should recieve it, but each disagreed on the basic method on how to get that achieved. Hillary wants a mandate on coverage among Americans, yet she said she would allow choices in her health care plan. Barack Obama said he will mandate children to have health care and give emphasis on preventive care. To really solve the health problems, you must learn on why our economies have problems. Also, you need choices and competition in health care not a government run deal. Many economic problems revolve around the USA ending its submission to constitutional money, the Federal Reserve taking hold of US money supply (the FED is a private banking system that readily spews out low-valued currency. 33rd Degree Freemason Carter Glass, 32nd Degree Freemason William Gibbs McAdoo, and other worked together to allow the FED to exist. The Federal Reserve Act was signed by President Woodrow Wilson), and over spending in government. Each talked about their experience in the Congress. Wolf Bitlzer was the host of the debate and he said this was historic because the Democrats will either nominate a black person or a woman. There is nothing wrong with being a black man or a woman, but most Americans want a person to enact the great solutions to help Americans irrespective of their race or gender. It would be great if a black man or a woman were President, but that shouldn't be the primary criteria on why a person is President. Obama disagreed with Hillary in that he would talk with leaders in Iran and other nations without any preconditions. I his perspective, these acts would decrease tensions among the world and raise the basic chance or more cooperation with nations across the world. Both want a withdraw from Iraq with Obama wanting troops home sooner. Each would have a contignent group of Americans there in an embassy and other capabilities. This debate was much more cordial and peaceful than the previous debate. Celebrites were there like Brandy who focused on Americans to vote. Steven Spielberg, America Ferrera, Angela Basset, Rob Reiner, Diane Keaton, Leonardo Dicapro, and Bronson other celebrites were present at the debate. Some want change, but what kind of change is the real question we should ask ourselves. Obviously, John McCain is dead wrong in advocating American troops as high as 100 years if necessary. We should have a concern about what's going on in Iraq since they are human beings and many folks are dying there (including Americans and Iraqis). Something isn't reported readily. That is that the the Washington Times reported that some of the Iraqi Oil Revenues are being stolen by the Federal Reserve. That revenue belongs to the Iraqi people. Some of the problems there are the US's fault with the country bombed, D.U. everywhere,the civilian infrastructure is decimated, crime issues, etc. There are neo-cons and neo-liberals supporting the Iraq War. Many of the GIs have mental illness and sickness as a result of the Iraq War unfortunately. The reality is that we should leave now and allow the Iraqis to develop their nation. There is no basic authority for President Bush to execute the Iraqi war without a direct threat or without even a Constitutional declaration. Iraq should be prospertous and full of liberty, but ultimately it's the Iraqi people's responsbility primarily to achieve that goal. We should encourage liberty and real freedom, but not force it with the barrel of a gun (like many neo-conservatives subscribe to). There should be a threshold of no permanent bases in Iraq or permanent American occupation of Iraq. It's wild that Bill Clinton said that we must slow down the economy to fight against "greenhouse gases" and that will help our economy in the long term. The reality is that economy now is unstable and our standard of living have decreased for many years. Now, Clinton passed NAFTA which ships many jobs overseas. According to Devvy, In the first few years, over 4,000 factories closed down, small towns became dying towns. The economy regardless of who you are should be talked about openly since the economy is one backbone of ensuring the prosperity and maintenance of stability in American society. Examiner had an article created by Tamara Barak Aparton on January 29, 2008. Tamara wrote of a man individually recycling his own trash into almost nothing. Yet, he's still sued by the city for cancelling his trash service. Eddie House is the man's name. It's kind of wild to see this statist philosophy so rampant in this country of America. The good news is that in this stirring generations more and more human beings are waking. Those that died who spoke the truth laid a foundation for us to keep speaking, writing, and acting in accordance to the truth about the new world order. The PNAC crowd, the Bilderbergers, CFR, he Pilgrim Society, the Trilateral Commission, the Bohemian Grove, Vatican/Jesuits (who wickedness existed way before Vatican I like the murder of William Tyndale, the murder of Waldensians, the Inquistion, etc. Today, the Knights of Malta own huge corporations and banking like super rich Lee Iacocca. He was the ex-CEO of Chrysler; ex-President of Ford Motor Company; Chairman of Lee Iacocca & Associates, Inc. SMOM Admiral James David Watkins was a Chief of Naval Operations was in the US Secretary of Energy as part of Bush 41's administration. SMOM Rick Santorum is a fellow working at FOX News and was an ex-Congressman), and all of these elite groups ought to be exposed. Cory Doctorow from Boingboing at January 29, 2008 reported about something going on in the United Kingdom. Doctorow wrote that Phil from the UK anti-register group NO2ID found a secret government document_ That document reveal an UK government that advanced forms of corecion to make British citizens to be apart of a National ID Register. There should be no National ID card anyway since it centralize too much personal information into the hands of the federal government. Neither do I accept a Real ID with a RFID biochip in it. These microchip obsession is amazingly similar to the Book of Revelations' prophecy of the Mark of the Beast where the Antichrist wants to force people to have a mark inside of their bodies to buy and sell goods plus services.
 


 
I'm still Pro-Life. There are tons of website outlining the dangers of wicked consequences of abortion. The media from CNN to FOX reported to the death of a so-called senior al-Qaeda leader named Abu Laith al-Libi. There is a problem. 3 years ago the media reported on a captured al-Qaeda number three named Al-Libi (which later as discovered many years ago was actually Abu Faraj al-Libi, who was a common man in the streets). This confusions outlines igronance on many media figures about the truth about al-Qaeda. al-Qaeda was a CIA/MI5 funded utilized in the 1980's to battle against the Soviet Union. Even in the 1990's and today in the early 21st century, they are exploitated by intelligence agencies to justify a perpetual war in the Middle East all the while increasing police state policies in Western nations (like militarized VIPER Teams, drones, cameras everything, an epidemic of SWAT Team errors, tasers, etc). United Nations peacekeepers are known to have made many mistakes in their conduct in nations across the world. Now, in late January and early February 2008, UN vandals spray graffiti on Sahara's prehistoric art. This further validates the corruption in the United Nations because the U.N. was blatantly created by pro-new world order internationalists on Rockefeller land in New York City. The United Nations always promoted population control, forced vaccinations, abortion, and anti-life policies. The mainstream media (for obvious reasons) will never report on this. SUE REID wrote an article from UK Daily Mail at Friday at February 1, 2008 wrote that some UK officals are snatching babies without the parent's permission. There is nothing wrong with adoption, but it has to be voluntarily on the parent's accord. Ann Coulter said she's support Hillary Clinton over John McCain. This just shows that Ann is a Neo-Con hypocrite since she criticized the Clintons strongly once before. McCain is even right to oppose torture, but want bombings and killings in this contrived war on terror. Me personally, I don't support either Hillary and McCain since their policies are diamaterally opposed to real freedom plus what most Americans think. Ann Coulter promotes much evil. I wouldn't be suprised if FOX News endorse Hillary more. Rupert Murdoch already funds her. Joe Scraborough sucks up to Hillary Clinton now. Free speech is going down in may places with the United Kingdom trying to plan to tell teaches to ban mum and dad. It isn't just that. A school suspended a student for writing with a pen having a gun logo on it. You couldn't make up this stuff. It's incredibly wild. I haven't wrote about net neutrality recently. I believe in net neutrality, because it allows freedom for people to access the Internet and create real competition. I also disagree with letting telecommunication companies having immunity on investigations if these telecoms knowingly broke the law about FISA courts (and warrantless wiretapping). Net Neutrality also gives the oppurtunity for every website to have the same speed and quality. Some big corporations want to end net neutrality by requiring folks to pay money to even create blogs or go on the proposed Internet 2. Big companies like Time Warner and Comcast also want to create a faster, more restrictive lanes for their own companies (only those who pay them will have access creating a fundamental monopoly of Internet service). The Internet that's truly free is one of the epitomes of the First Amendment. Although, we need to be careful since the Net was invented via DARPA and the Rand Corporation. SavetheInternet.com is a site trying to save the Internet and they legitimately promote net neutrality. In Chicago's O'Hare Airport issued a new system where you must be fingerprinted with 10 digits to enter the country among foreign visitors. Homeland Security will handle it. Homeland Security is a big government, anti-civil liberty organization that readily creates policies that are Big Brother and lowers again and again peoples' cherished liberties. Dennis Fisher from SearchSecurity.com at January 31, 2008 reported on Fisher's criticism of the Patriot Act and the Protect America Act. Fisher says that these laws are a means in which the federal government desires to control fully the Internet at the expense of people's privacy. The Patriot Act has sneak and peak provisions which allows law enforcement to search into homes without you knowing about it. Also, it allows the FBI to have roving wiretaps which not require the FBI to list all of the third parties or communication carriers that will be targeted in the wiretap. The Protect America Act allows the US government to eavesdrop on all communications domestically without a warrant as long as the parties are outside the USA. Fisher says a problem with the PAA is that the government wil undoubtabily collect information that has nothing to do with a foreign nature by default of a warrant search. Various men of Universities cited other criticism of the Protect American Act and called for oversight and other mechanisms to reform the law. Michael McConnell , the director of national intelligence, went further and called the Internet to be monitored totally (as report by the New Yorker). Security in the mode of eliminating liberty equal no security at all. Even Benjamin Franklin explained this concept eloquently. When 70% of Americans want real change in America, something needs to be done to achieve that goal. It's interesting to note the Secret Society influence in America. These Secret Society members (many of whom were Presidents. Jesuits, Rosicrucians, Freemasons in the late 1700's and early 1800's were crucial in the building up of Washington D.C.) were not unintelligent. They followed ancient symbols from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc. to endorse America as a new Atlantis (that is why some construction of D.C. is influenced on the Great Pyramid structure and the stars according to Jim Allison and David Ovason). Leadership is defined by many qualities. One is the grave independence of thinking and going against the grain of your thinking plus actions.
 


 
By Timothy
 A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 05:20 PM

http://www.tomsofmaine.com/toms/dept.asp?dept%5Fid=400A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 04:52 PM

We are used to being told to think of China as an emerging superpower, set to top the league of the world's economies in the not too distant future. But the piece in The Daily Telegraph by Richard Spencer in Beijing should give some pause for thought.

This actually makes more sense if it is read in conjunction with our piece in December, the combination of which suggests that the Chinese economy is much more fragile than is generally reckoned. In fact, as our title indicates, all the signs are there that China is on the brink.

Spencer’s piece is headed, "Chinese snow crisis hits food supplies" and his account is well detailed, citing Chen Xiwen, the government's leading expert on the agricultural economy. He says the long-term effects of the weather were looking "ominous". "The impact of the snow disaster in southern China on winter crop production is extremely serious," he says. "The impact on fresh vegetables and on fruit in some places has been catastrophic."

This is borne out by government figures said that snow had destroyed crops on 3,000 square miles of land. Wholesalers in Beijing have reported that supplies of some foodstuffs have been down to a fifth of normal levels. In areas directly affected by the snow, such as the central industrial cities of Wuhan and Changsha, food prices have reportedly already doubled.

This is on top of the extraordinary scenes at Guangzhou with 800,000 would-be rail travellers stranded in shelters (pictured). We are told that the travel plans of some 105 million people are affected - 45 million more than the total population of Britain. Millions are stranded on roads, stuck on slow-moving trains or in temporary shelters around railway stations. On top of that, a staggering 150,000 homes have collapsed and another 650,000 have been seriously damaged,

Turning to our previous piece, there we recorded the view of the BBC Radio 4's correspondent who warned that there was a risk of "food riots in China" in the coming year - and that was before these current travails.

Then, from Adam Leyland, editor of The Grocer magazine, we get a reminder that, "China is not insulated from world markets." He says that, "Increased demand for certain staples in China has had an effect on global prices," as indeed has been observed many times during the last year.

As you would expect, the Chinese authorities are trying to put a brave face on the troubles but, given you could detect more than a whiff of crisis in Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao whirlwind visits to farms and rural enterprises in the northeast province of Shaanxi last year, the situation must now be even more taut.

From the British (and European) perspective, we have become used to low commodity prices and the flood of cheap consumer goods from China. That, and the availability of cheap migrant labour have underpinned price stability in this country and kept inflation in check.

Problems in China, therefore, will have significant repercussions here, especially if the effects on Chinese food production lead to more imports being sucked in to relieve shortages – as seems likely. If that also leads to political instability – which also seems likely – the knock-on effects could be even more dramatic, if unquantifiable at this stage.

We are, it seems, about to experience the (rather appropriate) Chinese curse of living in "interesting times".

COMMENT THREAD

February 01, 2008 04:45 PM

Almost everybody is now aware of the infamous history of the Knights Templar. But not everybody realizes that there was another Order from the same time and with the same roots. This Order still exists today and has incredible power. This film & audio book reveals the true history of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and in so doing, we discover occult and sinister forces at play. From the days of heroic battles against Ottoman forces, to the alchemical world of the Grand Master himself, this film explores some very difficult questions: Who are these Knights? What was their role? Who gave them authority? The story of the Knights of Malta is filled with mystery, intrigue and excitement. Come with us on a journey into the heart of battle. Featuring cutting-edge computer generated reconstructions and exclusive footage filmed in the Order's Sacra Infirmeria, Church's, Cathedral's, Castle's and grand buildings throughout Europe.

Author: MayfairBookPromotion
Keywords: knights malta order alchemy secret
Added: February 1, 2008

February 01, 2008 04:31 PM

A: No. In July 1997, a Memphis judge found that ballistics tests conducted on the rifle of James Earl Ray forced him to conclude that another gun was used in the murder.

" ... Ray admitted buying a rifle similar to the murder weapon and renting the room at the Memphis flophouse where the shot was fired. But soon after being sentenced, Ray began to recant his guilty plea, saying he had handed over the gun to a man he identified only as 'Raoul.' ... "
http://www.cnn.com/US/9804/23/ray.obit/
(Graphic source: http://impiousdigest.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=12)

Examiners of the rifle didn't bother to CLEAN it, and so results came up 'inconclusive" consistently - yes, the cover-up continues to the present day:

" ... The examiners said the evidence was inconclusive, as were previous tests by the FBI and the House Select Committee on Assassinations. They added, however, that ;appropriate cleaning' and another test firing of the rifle could produce bullets with markings that are suitable for comparison. .
... "
http://www.cnn.com/US/9708/01/briefs.pm/mlk.ray.rifle/index.html

February 01, 2008 04:26 PM

http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2008/02/choose_life_lic_1.php#commentsA blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 04:16 PM

Note by Me: I disagree with their views on Christianity and Moses, but most of this information is interesting. Without real conservative Christians, much of the Truth/Patriot Movement wouldn't exist now. People need to respect that.

By Timothy

_____________________


From http://aftermathnews.wordpress.com/2008/01/28/author-suggests-africa-create-secret-society-power-structures-like-the-us-council-on-foreign-relations/


Former Dircetor of the Council on Foreign Relations, US Vice President Dick Cheney, gives the secret sign (Photo and caption courtesy of We Are Change)

allAfrica.com Jan 10, 2008

Zimbabwe: How Secret Societies Shape Western Politics

by Mabasa Sasa

IN the foreword to his book, Captains and Kings, Taylor Caldwell dedicates his work to those young men and women disillusioned by the way the world is being run but do not know why or how.

Caldwell’s book tries to outline — through fictional characters — how shadowy societies that purport to be concerned with following economic, political and social trends are actually the prime creators of these trends and that they manipulate these for their own benefit.

Of course, it all sounds like a conspiracy theory, but then again the Taylor Caldwells of this world will tell you that it is a manifestation of the power of secret societies that many people dismiss their existence and influence as the stuff of overworked Hollywood imaginations.

Interestingly though, most — if not all — research into the workings of secret societies has tended to focus on these bodies, that have evolved into veritable institutions in their own right, within the context of occidental civilisation with very little explorations into their linkages — historical and contemporary — with Africa.

A Zimbabwean writer using the pseudonym Kufara Gwenzi has, however, tackled this academic and practical deficiency in the study of secret societies by penning his own research into these bodies and unlike Caldwell’s book, Gwenzi’s work is based on a reality buttressed by meticulous research.

The soon to be published manuscript, titled “Seeing Beyond the Cotton Wool: Understanding the Form and Structure of Caucasian Power” is a breathtaking exploration of secret societies, where they came from, their role in today’s politics and the implications of their existence for countries like Zimbabwe.

But the book goes further and makes a daring suggestion; that it is time Africa started creating such power structures designed to protect our national and continental interests in much the same way institutions like the American Council for Foreign Relations do.

For Gwenzi, this is not a staggering idea considering that secret societies have part of their origins in the works of Pythagoras (582-507 BCE) who was himself a student of African Mystery Society teachings in Egypt for over two decades.

The African Mystery Schools in Ancient Egypt, explains Gwenzi, were aimed at educating and passing on esoteric knowledge from one generation to the next.

Gwenzi writes: “Pharaoh Thutmosis III, who ruled ancient Egypt from 1500-1447 BCE, organised the first esoteric brotherhood of initiates founded upon principles and methods familiar to those perpetuated by the Rosicrucian Order today.

“Moses, a son of the tribe of Levi, educated in Egypt and initiated at Heliopolis, became a High Priest of the Brotherhood under the reign of the Pharaoh Amenhotep. He was elected by the Hebrews as their chief and he adapted to the ideas of his people the science and philosophy which he had obtained in the Egyptian mysteries; proofs of this are to be found in the symbols, in the Initiations, and in his precepts and commandments.

“The wonders which Moses narrates as having taken place upon the Mountain of Sinai, are, in part, a veiled account of the Egyptian initiation which he transmitted to his people when he established a branch of the Egyptian Brotherhood in his country, from which descended the Essenes.”

The narrative gets rather interesting here and it is highly unlikely that it will endear Gwenzi to dogmatists and fundamentalists at all.

The author quotes Manetho, a High Priest at Heliopolis in his work, The History of Egypt, saying the “dogma” of an only God was passed onto Moses by the Egyptian Brotherhood as founded by the Pharaoh who established the first monotheistic religion known to man.

Moses himself admits to this training in Exodus 2:10 (also referred to in Acts 7:22) and Gwenzi contends that he then transmitted this esoteric knowledge to 70 elders as outlined in Numbers 11:24.

Enough of that.

Pythagoras, on being equipped with this knowledge subsequently created his Pythagorean Brotherhood and formulated the principles that were later to influence the thoughts and works of Plato and Aristotle, who are in turn credited with being the ideological fathers of occidental civilisation.

Gwenzi contends that all major civilisations have grown on the back of the activities of secret societies as evidenced by Egypt’s own greatness and the power and influence that Greece had following Pythagoras’ education in Africa.

In Japan, the author contends that “the social, political and economic fabric is premised on the Bushido (Way of the Warrior) Code of the Japanese Samurai. It originates from the Samurai moral code and stresses frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery and honour till death”.

Chinese civilisation is oft-credited to Confucius and Confucianism in which the principles of order and filial piety are emphasised.

However, it is the manner in which secret societies have evolved and are currently deployed in America and Britain that is of prime concern for Africa and necessitates the creation — or re-creation — of our own similarly unique structures of power and policy control.

In Britain, the emergence of these societies as serious power brokers is tied closely to the monarchy regardless of whether a man or a woman sits on the throne at any given time and presently Queen Elizabeth II serves as the Grand Patroness of the Freemasons.

The British Freemasonic Order functions with a strong brotherhood and “old boys” basis in the fields of law, security and government.

“According to a BBC report,” writes Gwenzi, “more than 200 judges and over 1 000 magistrates in Britain owned up to being Freemasons,” indicating how far-reaching the tentacles of secret societies are.

Gwenzi further contends that America’s founding fathers sought to “recreate in America the same energies which guided the Africans of the Nile Valley by using African science, architecture and symbols (with no credit to them)”.

Hence, eight signatories to the US Declaration of Independence were Freemasons and nine of those who appended their signatures to the founding constitution came from the same secret society.

Masonic orders and other secret societies such as the Rosicrucians and the Illuminati have been patterned after Egypt’s Ancient Mystery Systems and today they form the crux of Western political, economic and social governance.

Various brotherhoods, and now sororities as well, are the recruiting grounds from which secret societies earmark potential future leaders in diverse fields.

They are consequently mentored and moulded from college age to become the type of political, economic and social leaders they are today and that is why no matter which of America’s two large parties is in power the country’s foreign policy objectives remain largely the same.

These fraternities include Skulls and Bones, Scroll and Key, Wolf’s Head, Elihu and Berzelius.

In recent history, William Taft, Prescott Bush, both George Bushes and John Kerry are among leading American politicians who were nurtured by Skull and Bones.

Those who are “educated” through Skull and Bones are well versed in 12 particular areas that include education, use of media as a tool, control of wealth/banking, foreign policy, psychology, religion and even philanthropy among others.

The idea is to ensure continuity and a development projection that suits the needs of their civilisation and those who control it from behind the scenes, which is essentially what the Ancient Egyptians were doing millennia ago.

Gwenzi says: “The Bilderberg Group is reputed to be the most secretive organisation in the world, comprising presidents, royal families, ministers, top industrialists and financial leaders.

“The Bilderberg strictly consists of ‘Western’ elite, i.e. of the United States of America and Europe. It resolutely excludes Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.”

There is also the insidious Council for Foreign Relations which is a “branch of an international group of a secret group of elite Anglo-Americans that has shaped world events for over 100 years”.

“It operates on the basis that people’s actions are strongly influenced by their knowledge base. People act on their beliefs. You can manipulate a person’s actions by corrupting their knowledge base, warping historical truth, or ignoring it completely.”

Gwenzi says the CFR is the American arm of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, commonly referred to as Chatham House.

Chatham House was created in 1920 by the Rhodes group then known as the Cliveden Set, which was renamed the Round Table Group RTG, named after the British King Arthur, who had a group of political advisors called the Knights of the Round Table.

The eponymous Rothschilds Family — creators of the American Federal Reserve — funded the Round Table Group and its early purpose was to train young political activists and business leaders to be loyal to the British government and do the bidding for the British policy.

They have the monarch as their patron and their “chief financial supporters of Chatham House have been the wealth of South African mining tycoon, Sir Abe Bailey a British (of Jewish origin), and the Astor family (owners of the British Times newspapers). Sir Abe Bailey’s son, James Richard Bailey, was the founder of South African Drum magazine and was married to former British prime minister Winston Churchill’s daughter.”

Apart from the CFR in the US, Chatham House has branches in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, India and Holland and in these countries they are often called Institutes of Pacific Relations.

It is the people behind these societies-cum-institutions that determine policy and then come up with all the studies and reasons why such policies should be pursued.

They then deploy their awesome artillery through the media and other means to convince people that the chosen path is the best way forward.

This perhaps could explain why the developing world accepted structural adjustment when the best development brains in the world, including World Bank and IMF staff, knew these proscriptions could only lead to disaster for poor countries.

Gwenzi also details how the organisations like the IMF and World Bank function. Ultimately his conclusion is simple: either we come up with our own robust and well-defined structures of power or we will forever be vassal states.A blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 04:06 PM

If you read this,

Sir - Britain's patio heaters, which some MEPs want to ban, produce around 22,200 tonnes of CO? a year (report, January 31).This is only 2,000 tonnes more than the European parliament is estimated to emit unnecessarily travelling from Brussels to Strasbourg every month.

Perhaps if the European parliament wants to improve energy efficiency, we should begin by ending this pointless monthly waste.

Richard Ashworth MEP (Con), Brussels

You would no doubt come the conclusion that I did. That is that Mr Ashworth voted against this daft proposal.

However you would be wrong, becuse if you go to the Roll Call Vote results for the Hall report (pg 54) you would find that Mr Ashworth, along with most of his Conservative and all of his Labour and Liberal Democrat colleagues voted in favour of the report, and thus voted in favour of banning patio heaters.

Incidentally the Conservative Whip on this report was at sixes and sevens, Callanan, Deva and Sturdy voted against Syed Kemal abstained and a few failed to register to vote. Most peculiar. My guess is that he wrote the letter to the Telegraph, failed to read his voting list, or at least failed to understand it, went down to the chamber and voted as he was told.

February 01, 2008 03:41 PM

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Olbermann_rails_against_Bush_fascist_telecom_0201.htmlA blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 03:12 PM

http://www.infowars.net/articles/february2008/010208Coulter.htmA blog with relevant information for the world.

February 01, 2008 03:11 PM

In a comment on Dan Hannan's blog, the Tory Chief Whip in the European Parliament Denismore Dover has near accused Dan of lying. Worse still he makes what can only be seen as a vielesd threat to Dan about his being reselected for the Tories for the 2009 European elections.

Referring to Dan's statement,

My own Chief Whip, Den Dover, was kind enough to see me afterwards and reassure me that nothing I had said was against Conservative policy, that our party is strongly in favour of a referendum and that, in any case, we are all pledged to leave the EPP next year. If the EPP excluded me, he added, that was their business. As far as he was concerned, I would sit as a Conservative and a member of the Conservative delegation, in receipt of the Tory Whip and as a re-selected Tory candidate.

Mr Dover has responded thus,

"In his Article on why the EPP wants to expel him my colleague Dan Hannan MEP attributes comments to me that I would never make. What he said was nothing to do with Conservative Party policy. Our Party is indeed strongly in favour of a referendum on the so called Reform Treaty (the Constitution). We will examine all options open to us, as UK Conservative MEPs, from June 2009 but no watertight pledges are in place, or expected in the near future. Finally I reminded him that he has just been re-adopted as a Conservative Candidate for the June 2009 European Elections for the South East. However I am not the only one who decides, in the light of his ill-advised comments in the Chamber and to the Press what his future will be".

Now Den is a good bloke, and is without doubt on the eurosceptic wing of the Tory delegation. But he is also the chief whip and as such is responsible for internal discipline. There will be those, for example Beazley who will be demanding a far more stringent approach to Dan than we have seen so far.

However if the only support he gets is from Nigel Farage and Roger Helmer, and if the badly veiled threat is carried out, then it cannot be beyond the bounds of possibility that UKIP may have two committed MEPs in the South East of England after 2009.

February 01, 2008 02:56 PM

Courier International
2/1/08

Danish TV has reported that the CIA has regularly used a Greenland airport as a stopover in the secret transport of prisoners. Denmark's government is planning to investigate. The paper comments: "This would not be the first time that Greenland has been misused for security purposes that are not officially acknowledged," says the editorial, referring to the Cold War period when Denmark secretly allowed the USA to store nuclear weapons on Greenland. "Whereas back then Denmark's lies about atomic weapons were primarily an expression of political convenience, today the situation involves an American policy that is substantially immoral and also damaging to the long-term war against terror.

http://europe.courrierinternational.com/eurotopics/article.asp?langue=uk&publication=01/02/2008&cat=POLITICSπ=4

February 01, 2008 02:50 PM

The Chinese are subsidizing the American way of life. Are we playing them for suckers—or are they playing us?

Source: The Atlantic

by James Fallows

The $1.4 Trillion Question

Stephen Schwarzman may think he has image problems in America. He is the co-founder and CEO of the Blackstone Group, and he threw himself a $3 million party for his 60th birthday last spring, shortly before making many hundreds of millions of dollars in his company’s IPO and finding clever ways to avoid paying taxes. That’s nothing compared with the way he looks in China. Here, he and his company are surprisingly well known, thanks to blogs, newspapers, and talk-show references. In America, Schwarzman’s perceived offense is greed—a sin we readily forgive and forget. In China, the suspicion is that he has somehow hoodwinked ordinary Chinese people out of their hard-earned cash.



Atlantic senior editor Clive Crook weighs in on the private-equity business—why it's booming, where it's headed, and what it means for American capitalism.


Last June, China’s Blackstone investment was hailed in the American press as a sign of canny sophistication. It seemed just the kind of thing the U.S. government had in mind when it hammered China to use its new wealth as a “responsible stakeholder” among nations. By putting $3 billion of China’s national savings into the initial public offering of America’s best-known private-equity firm, the Chinese government allied itself with a big-time Western firm without raising political fears by trying to buy operating control (it bought only 8 percent of Blackstone’s shares, and nonvoting shares at that). The contrast with the Japanese and Saudis, who in their nouveau-riche phase roused irritation and envy with their showy purchases of Western brand names and landmark properties, was plain.

Six months later, it didn’t look so canny, at least not financially. China’s Blackstone holdings lost, on paper, about $1 billion, during a time when the composite index of the Shanghai Stock Exchange was soaring. At two different universities where I’ve spoken recently, students have pointed out that Schwarzman was a major Republican donor. A student at Fudan University knew a detail I didn’t: that in 2007 President Bush attended a Republican National Committee fund-raiser at Schwarzman’s apartment in Manhattan (think what he would have made of the fact that Schwarzman, who was one year behind Bush at Yale, had been a fellow member of Skull and Bones). Wasn’t the whole scheme a way to take money from the Chinese people and give it to the president’s crony?

The Blackstone case is titillating in its personal detail, but it is also an unusually clear and personalized symptom of a deeper, less publicized, and potentially much more destructive tension in U.S.–China relations. It’s not just Stephen Schwarzman’s company that the laobaixing, the ordinary Chinese masses, have been subsidizing. It’s everyone in the United States.

Through the quarter-century in which China has been opening to world trade, Chinese leaders have deliberately held down living standards for their own people and propped them up in the United States. This is the real meaning of the vast trade surplus—$1.4 trillion and counting, going up by about $1 billion per day—that the Chinese government has mostly parked in U.S. Treasury notes. In effect, every person in the (rich) United States has over the past 10 years or so borrowed about $4,000 from someone in the (poor) People’s Republic of China. Like so many imbalances in economics, this one can’t go on indefinitely, and therefore won’t. But the way it ends—suddenly versus gradually, for predictable reasons versus during a panic—will make an enormous difference to the U.S. and Chinese economies over the next few years, to say nothing of bystanders in Europe and elsewhere.

Any economist will say that Americans have been living better than they should—which is by definition the case when a nation’s total consumption is greater than its total production, as America’s now is. Economists will also point out that, despite the glitter of China’s big cities and the rise of its billionaire class, China’s people have been living far worse than they could. That’s what it means when a nation consumes only half of what it produces, as China does.

Neither government likes to draw attention to this arrangement, because it has been so convenient on both sides. For China, it has helped the regime guide development in the way it would like—and keep the domestic economy’s growth rate from crossing the thin line that separates “unbelievably fast” from “uncontrollably inflationary.” For America, it has meant cheaper iPods, lower interest rates, reduced mortgage payments, a lighter tax burden. But because of political tensions in both countries, and because of the huge and growing size of the imbalance, the arrangement now shows signs of cracking apart.

In an article two and a half years ago (“Countdown to a Meltdown,” July/August 2005), I described an imagined future in which a real-estate crash and shakiness in the U.S. credit markets led to panic by Chinese and other foreign investors, with unpleasant effects for years to come. The real world has recently had inklings of similar concerns. In the past six months, relative nobodies in China’s establishment were able to cause brief panics in the foreign-exchange markets merely by hinting that China might stop supplying so much money to the United States. In August, an economic researcher named He Fan, who works at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and did part of his doctoral research at Harvard, suggested in an op-ed piece in China Daily that if the U.S. dollar kept collapsing in value, China might move some of its holdings into stronger currencies. This was presented not as a threat but as a statement of the obvious, like saying that during a market panic, lots of people sell. The column quickly provoked alarmist stories in Europe and America suggesting that China was considering the “nuclear option”—unloading its dollars.

A few months later, a veteran Communist Party politician named Cheng Siwei suggested essentially the same thing He Fan had. Cheng, in his mid-70s, was trained as a chemical engineer and has no official role in setting Chinese economic policy. But within hours of his speech, a flurry of trading forced the dollar to what was then its lowest level against the euro and other currencies. The headline in the South China Morning Post the next day was: “Officials’ Words Shrivel U.S. Dollar.” Expressing amazement at the markets’ response, Carl Weinberg, chief economist at the High Frequency Economics advisory group, said, “This would be kind of like Congressman Charlie Rangel giving a speech telling the Fed to hike or cut interest rates.” (Cheng, like Rangel, is known for colorful comments—but he is less powerful, since Rangel after all chairs the House Ways and Means Committee.) In the following weeks, phrases like “run on the dollar” and “collapse of confidence” showed up more and more frequently in financial newsletters. The nervousness only increased when someone who does have influence, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, said last November, “We are worried about how to preserve the value” of China’s dollar holdings.

When the dollar is strong, the following (good) things happen: the price of food, fuel, imports, manufactured goods, and just about everything else (vacations in Europe!) goes down. The value of the stock market, real estate, and just about all other American assets goes up. Interest rates go down—for mortgage loans, credit-card debt, and commercial borrowing. Tax rates can be lower, since foreign lenders hold down the cost of financing the national debt. The only problem is that American-made goods become more expensive for foreigners, so the country’s exports are hurt.

When the dollar is weak, the following (bad) things happen: the price of food, fuel, imports, and so on (no more vacations in Europe) goes up. The value of the stock market, real estate, and just about all other American assets goes down. Interest rates are higher. Tax rates can be higher, to cover the increased cost of financing the national debt. The only benefit is that American-made goods become cheaper for foreigners, which helps create new jobs and can raise the value of export-oriented American firms (winemakers in California, producers of medical devices in New England).

The dollar’s value has been high for many years—unnaturally high, in large part because of the implicit bargain with the Chinese. Living standards in China, while rising rapidly, have by the same logic been unnaturally low. To understand why this situation probably can’t go on, and what might replace it—via a dollar crash or some other event—let’s consider how this curious balance of power arose and how it works.


Why a poor country has so much money

By 1996, China amassed its first $100 billion in foreign assets, mainly held in U.S. dollars. (China considers these holdings a state secret, so all numbers come from analyses by outside experts.) By 2001, that sum doubled to about $200 billion, according to Edwin Truman of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. Since then, it has increased more than sixfold, by well over a trillion dollars, and China’s foreign reserves are now the largest in the world. (In second place is Japan, whose economy is, at official exchange rates, nearly twice as large as China’s but which has only two-thirds the foreign assets; the next-largest after that are the United Arab Emirates and Russia.) China’s U.S. dollar assets probably account for about 70 percent of its foreign holdings, according to the latest analyses by Brad Setser, a former Treasury Department economist now with the Council on Foreign Relations; the rest are mainly in euros, plus some yen. Most of China’s U.S. investments are in conservative, low-yield instruments like Treasury notes and federal-agency bonds, rather than showier Blackstone-style bets. Because notes and bonds backed by the U.S. government are considered the safest investments in the world, they pay lower interest than corporate bonds, and for the past two years their annual interest payments of 4 to 5 percent have barely matched the 5-to-6-percent decline in the U.S. dollar’s value versus the RMB.

Americans sometimes debate (though not often) whether in principle it is good to rely so heavily on money controlled by a foreign government. The debate has never been more relevant, because America has never before been so deeply in debt to one country. Meanwhile, the Chinese are having a debate of their own—about whether the deal makes sense for them. Certainly China’s officials are aware that their stock purchases prop up 401(k) values, their money-market holdings keep down American interest rates, and their bond purchases do the same thing—plus allow our government to spend money without raising taxes.

“From a distance, this, to say the least, is strange,” Lawrence Summers, the former treasury secretary and president of Harvard, told me last year in Shanghai. He was referring to the oddity that a country with so many of its own needs still unmet would let “this $1 trillion go to a mature, old, rich place from a young, dynamic place.”

It’s more than strange. Some Chinese people are rich, but China as a whole is unbelievably short on many of the things that qualify countries as fully developed. Shanghai has about the same climate as Washington, D.C.—and its public schools have no heating. (Go to a classroom when it’s cold, and you’ll see 40 children, all in their winter jackets, their breath forming clouds in the air.) Beijing is more like Boston. On winter nights, thousands of people mass along the curbsides of major thoroughfares, enduring long waits and fighting their way onto hopelessly overcrowded public buses that then spend hours stuck on jammed roads. And these are the showcase cities! In rural Gansu province, I have seen schools where 18 junior-high-school girls share a single dormitory room, sleeping shoulder to shoulder, sardine-style.

Better schools, more-abundant parks, better health care, cleaner air and water, better sewers in the cities—you name it, and if it isn’t in some way connected to the factory-export economy, China hasn’t got it, or not enough. This is true at the personal level, too. The average cash income for workers in a big factory is about $160 per month. On the farm, it’s a small fraction of that. Most people in China feel they are moving up, but from a very low starting point.

So why is China shipping its money to America? An economist would describe the oddity by saying that China has by far the highest national savings in the world. This sounds admirable, but when taken to an extreme—as in China—it indicates an economy out of sync with the rest of the world, and one that is deliberately keeping its own people’s living standards lower than they could be. For comparison, India’s savings rate is about 25 percent, which in effect means that India’s people consume 75 percent of what they collectively produce. (Reminder from Ec 101: The savings rate is the net share of national output either exported or saved and invested for consumption in the future. Effectively, it’s what your own people produce but don’t use.) For Korea and Japan, the savings rate is typically from the high 20s to the mid-30s. Recently, America’s has at times been below zero, which means that it consumes, via imports, more than it makes.

China’s savings rate is a staggering 50 percent, which is probably unprecedented in any country in peacetime. This doesn’t mean that the average family is saving half of its earnings—though the personal savings rate in China is also very high. Much of China’s national income is “saved” almost invisibly and kept in the form of foreign assets. Until now, most Chinese have willingly put up with this, because the economy has been growing so fast that even a suppressed level of consumption makes most people richer year by year.

But saying that China has a high savings rate describes the situation without explaining it. Why should the Communist Party of China countenance a policy that takes so much wealth from the world’s poor, in their own country, and gives it to the United States? To add to the mystery, why should China be content to put so many of its holdings into dollars, knowing that the dollar is virtually guaranteed to keep losing value against the RMB? And how long can its people tolerate being denied so much of their earnings, when they and their country need so much? The Chinese government did not explicitly set out to tighten the belt on its population while offering cheap money to American homeowners. But the fact that it does results directly from explicit choices it has made—two in particular. Both arise from crucial controls the government maintains over an economy that in many other ways has become wide open. The situation may be easiest to explain by following a U.S. dollar on its journey from a customer’s hand in America to a factory in China and back again to the T-note auction in the United States.


The voyage of a dollar

Let’s say you buy an Oral-B electric toothbrush for $30 at a CVS in the United States. I choose this example because I’ve seen a factory in China that probably made the toothbrush. Most of that $30 stays in America, with CVS, the distributors, and Oral-B itself. Eventually $3 or so—an average percentage for small consumer goods—makes its way back to southern China.

When the factory originally placed its bid for Oral-B’s business, it stated the price in dollars: X million toothbrushes for Y dollars each. But the Chinese manufacturer can’t use the dollars directly. It needs RMB—to pay the workers their 1,200-RMB ($160) monthly salary, to buy supplies from other factories in China, to pay its taxes. So it takes the dollars to the local commercial bank—let’s say the Shenzhen Development Bank. After showing receipts or waybills to prove that it earned the dollars in genuine trade, not as speculative inflow, the factory trades them for RMB.

This is where the first controls kick in. In other major countries, the counterparts to the Shenzhen Development Bank can decide for themselves what to do with the dollars they take in. Trade them for euros or yen on the foreign-exchange market? Invest them directly in America? Issue dollar loans? Whatever they think will bring the highest return. But under China’s “surrender requirements,” Chinese banks can’t do those things. They must treat the dollars, in effect, as contraband, and turn most or all of them (instructions vary from time to time) over to China’s equivalent of the Federal Reserve Bank, the People’s Bank of China, for RMB at whatever is the official rate of exchange.

With thousands of transactions per day, the dollars pile up like crazy at the PBOC. More precisely, by more than a billion dollars per day. They pile up even faster than the trade surplus with America would indicate, because customers in many other countries settle their accounts in dollars, too.

The PBOC must do something with that money, and current Chinese doctrine allows it only one option: to give the dollars to another arm of the central government, the State Administration for Foreign Exchange. It is then SAFE’s job to figure out where to park the dollars for the best return: so much in U.S. stocks, so much shifted to euros, and the great majority left in the boring safety of U.S. Treasury notes.

And thus our dollar comes back home. Spent at CVS, passed to Oral-B, paid to the factory in southern China, traded for RMB at the Shenzhen bank, “surrendered” to the PBOC, passed to SAFE for investment, and then bid at auction for Treasury notes, it is ready to be reinjected into the U.S. money supply and spent again—ideally on Chinese-made goods.

At no point did an ordinary Chinese person decide to send so much money to America. In fact, at no point was most of this money at his or her disposal at all. These are in effect enforced savings, which are the result of the two huge and fundamental choices made by the central government.

One is to dictate the RMB’s value relative to other currencies, rather than allow it to be set by forces of supply and demand, as are the values of the dollar, euro, pound, etc. The obvious reason for doing this is to keep Chinese-made products cheap, so Chinese factories will stay busy. This is what Americans have in mind when they complain that the Chinese government is rigging the world currency markets. And there are numerous less obvious reasons. The very act of managing a currency’s value may be a more important distorting factor than the exact rate at which it is set. As for the rate—the subject of much U.S. lecturing—given the huge difference in living standards between China and the United States, even a big rise in the RMB’s value would leave China with a price advantage over manufacturers elsewhere. (If the RMB doubled against the dollar, a factory worker might go from earning $160 per month to $320—not enough to send many jobs back to America, though enough to hurt China’s export economy.) Once a government decides to thwart the market-driven exchange rate of its currency, it must control countless other aspects of its financial system, through instruments like surrender requirements and the equally ominous-sounding “sterilization bonds” (a way of keeping foreign-currency swaps from creating inflation, as they otherwise could).

These and similar tools are the way China’s government imposes an unbelievably high savings rate on its people. The result, while very complicated, is to keep the buying power earned through China’s exports out of the hands of Chinese consumers as a whole. Individual Chinese people have certainly gotten their hands on a lot of buying power, notably the billionaire entrepreneurs who have attracted the world’s attention (see “Mr. Zhang Builds His Dream Town,” March 2007). But when it comes to amassing international reserves, what matters is that China as a whole spends so little of what it earns, even as some Chinese people spend a lot.

The other major decision is not to use more money to address China’s needs directly—by building schools and agricultural research labs, cleaning up toxic waste, what have you. Both decisions stem from the central government’s vision of what is necessary to keep China on its unprecedented path of growth. The government doesn’t want to let the market set the value of the RMB, because it thinks that would disrupt the constant growth and the course it has carefully and expensively set for the factory-export economy. In the short run, it worries that the RMB’s value against the dollar and the euro would soar, pricing some factories in “expensive” places such as Shanghai out of business. In the long run, it views an unstable currency as a nuisance in itself, since currency fluctuation makes everything about business with the outside world more complicated. Companies have a harder time predicting overseas revenues, negotiating contracts, luring foreign investors, or predicting the costs of fuel, component parts, and other imported goods.

And the government doesn’t want to increase domestic spending dramatically, because it fears that improving average living conditions could paradoxically intensify the rich-poor tensions that are China’s major social problem. The country is already covered with bulldozers, wrecking balls, and construction cranes, all to keep the manufacturing machine steaming ahead. Trying to build anything more at the moment—sewage-treatment plants, for a start, which would mean a better life for its own people, or smokestack scrubbers and related “clean” technology, which would start to address the world pollution for which China is increasingly held responsible—would likely just drive prices up, intensifying inflation and thus reducing the already minimal purchasing power of most workers. Food prices have been rising so fast that they have led to riots. In November, a large Carre­four grocery in Chong­qing offered a limited-time sale of vegetable oil, at 20 percent (11 RMB, or $1.48) off the normal price per bottle. Three people were killed and 31 injured in a stampede toward the shelves.

This is the bargain China has made—rather, the one its leaders have imposed on its people. They’ll keep creating new factory jobs, and thus reduce China’s own social tensions and create opportunities for its rural poor. The Chinese will live better year by year, though not as well as they could. And they’ll be protected from the risk of potentially catastrophic hyperinflation, which might undo what the nation’s decades of growth have built. In exchange, the government will hold much of the nation’s wealth in paper assets in the United States, thereby preventing a run on the dollar, shoring up relations between China and America, and sluicing enough cash back into Americans’ hands to let the spending go on.


What the Chinese hope will happen

The Chinese public is beginning to be aware that its government is sitting on a lot of money—money not being spent to help China directly, money not doing so well in Blackstone-style foreign investments, money invested in the ever-falling U.S. dollar. Chinese bloggers and press commentators have begun making a connection between the billions of dollars the country is sending away and the domestic needs the country has not addressed. There is more and more pressure to show that the return on foreign investments is worth China’s sacrifice—and more and more potential backlash against bets that don’t pay off. (While the Chinese government need not stand for popular election, it generally tries to reduce sources of popular discontent when it can.) The public is beginning to behave like the demanding client of an investment adviser: it wants better returns, with fewer risks.

This is the challenge facing Lou Jiwei and Gao Xiqing, who will play a larger role in the U.S. economy than Americans are accustomed to from foreigners. Lou, a longtime Communist Party official in his late 50s, is the chairman of the new China Investment Corporation, which is supposed to find creative ways to increase returns on at least $200 billion of China’s foreign assets. He is influential within the party but has little international experience. Thus the financial world’s attention has turned to Gao Xiqing, who is the CIC’s general manager.

Twenty years ago, after graduating from Duke Law School, Gao was the first Chinese citizen to pass the New York State Bar Exam. He returned to China in 1988, after several years as an associate at the New York law firm Mudge, Rose (Richard Nixon’s old firm) to teach securities law and help develop China’s newly established stock markets. By local standards, he is hip. At an economics conference in Beijing in December, other Chinese speakers wore boxy dark suits. Gao, looking fit in his mid-50s, wore a tweed jacket and black turtleneck, an Ironman-style multifunction sports watch on his wrist.

Under Lou and Gao, the CIC started with a bang with Blackstone—the wrong kind of bang. Now, many people suggest, it may be chastened enough to take a more careful approach. Indeed, that was the message it sent late last year, with news that its next round of investments would be in China’s own banks, to shore up some with credit problems. And it looks to be studying aggressive but careful ways to manage huge sums. About the time the CIC was making the Blackstone deal, its leadership and staff undertook a crash course in modern financial markets. They hired the international consulting firm McKinsey to prepare confidential reports about the way they should organize themselves and the investment principles they should apply. They hired Booz Allen Hamilton to prepare similar reports, so they could compare the two. Yet another consulting firm, Towers Perrin, provided advice, especially about staffing and pay. The CIC leaders commissioned studies of other large state-run investment funds—in Norway, Singapore, the Gulf States, Alaska—to see which approaches worked and which didn’t. They were fascinated by the way America’s richest universities managed their endowments, and ordered multiple copies of Pioneering Portfolio Management, by David Swensen, who as Yale’s chief investment officer has guided its endowment to sustained and rapid growth. Last summer, teams from the CIC made long study visits to Yale and Duke universities, among others.

Gao Xiqing and other CIC officials have avoided discussing their plans publicly. “If you tell people ahead of time what you’re going to do—well, you just can’t operate that way in a market system,” he said at his Beijing appearance. “What I can say is, we’ll play by the international rules, and we’ll be responsible investors.” Gao emphasized several times how much the CIC had to learn: “We’re the new kids on the block. Because of media attention, there is huge pressure on us—we’re already under water now.” The words “under water” were in natural-sounding English, and clearly referred to Blackstone.

Others familiar with the CIC say that its officials are coming to appreciate the unusual problems they will face. For instance: any investment group needs to be responsible to outside supervisors, and the trick for the CIC will be to make itself accountable to Communist Party leadership without becoming a mere conduit for favored investment choices by party bosses. How can it attract the best talent? Does it want to staff up quickly, to match its quickly mounting assets, by bidding for financial managers on the world market—where many of the candidates are high-priced, not fluent in Chinese, and reluctant to move to Beijing? Or can it afford to take the time to home-grow its own staff?

While the CIC is figuring out its own future, outsiders are trying to figure out the CIC—and also SAFE, which will continue handling many of China’s assets. As far as anyone can tell, the starting point for both is risk avoidance. No more Blackstones. No more CNOOC-Unocals. (In 2005, the Chinese state oil firm CNOOC attempted to buy U.S.–based Unocal. It withdrew the offer in the face of intense political opposition to the deal in America.) One person involved with the CIC said that its officials had seen recent Lou Dobbs broadcasts criticizing “Communist China” and were “shellshocked” about the political resentment their investments might encounter in the United States. For all these reasons the Chinese leadership, as another person put it, “has a strong preference to follow someone else’s lead, not in an imitative way” but as an unobtrusive minority partner wherever possible. It will follow the lead of others for now, that is, while the CIC takes its first steps as a gigantic international financial investor.

The latest analyses by Brad Setser suggest that despite all the talk about abandoning the dollar, China is still putting about as large a share of its money into dollars as ever, somewhere between 65 and 70 percent of its foreign earnings. “Politically, the last thing they want is to signal a loss of faith in the dollar,” Andy Rothman, of the financial firm CLSA, told me; that would lead to a surge in the RMB, which would hurt Chinese exporters, not to mention the damage it would cause to China’s vast existing dollar assets.

The problem is that these and other foreign observers must guess at China’s aims, rather than knowing for sure. As Rothman put it, “The opaqueness about intentions and goals is always the issue.” The mini-panics last year took hold precisely because no one could be sure that SAFE was not about to change course.

The uncertainty arises in part from the limited track record of China’s new financial leadership. As one American financier pointed out to me: “The man in charge of the whole thing”—Lou Jiwei—“has never bought a share of stock, never bought a car, never bought a house.” Another foreign financier said, after meeting some CIC staffers, “By Chinese terms, these are very sophisticated people.” But, he went on to say, in a professional sense none of them had lived through the financial crises of the last generation: the U.S. market crash of 1987, the “Asian flu” of the late 1990s, the collapse of the Internet bubble soon afterward. The Chinese economy was affected by all these upheavals, but the likes of Gao Xiqing were not fully exposed to their lessons, sheltered as they were within Chinese institutions.

Foreign observers also suggest that, even after exposure to the Lou Dobbs clips, the Chinese financial leadership may not yet fully grasp how suspicious other countries are likely to be of China’s financial intentions, for reasons both fair and unfair. The unfair reason is all-purpose nervousness about any new rising power. “They need to understand, and they don’t, that everything they do will be seen as political,” a financier with extensive experience in both China and America told me. “Whatever they buy, whatever they say, whatever they do will be seen as China Inc.”

The fair reason for concern is, again, the transparency problem. Twice in the past year, China has in nonfinancial ways demonstrated the ripples that a nontransparent policy creates. Last January, its military intentionally shot down one of its own satellites, filling orbital paths with debris. The exercise greatly alarmed the U.S. military, because of what seemed to be an implied threat to America’s crucial space sensors. For several days, the Chinese government said nothing at all about the test, and nearly a year later, foreign analysts still debate whether it was a deliberate provocation, the result of a misunderstanding, or a freelance effort by the military. In November, China denied a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the Kitty Hawk, routine permission to dock in Hong Kong for Thanksgiving, even though many Navy families had gone there for a reunion. In each case, the most ominous aspect is that outsiders could not really be sure what the Chinese leadership had in mind. Were these deliberate taunts or shows of strength? The results of factional feuding within the leadership? Simple miscalculations? In the absence of clear official explanations no one really knew, and many assumed the worst.

So it could be with finance, unless China becomes as transparent as it is rich. Chinese officials say they will move in that direction, but they’re in no hurry. Last fall, Edwin Truman prepared a good-governance scorecard for dozens of “sovereign wealth” funds—government-run investment funds like SAFE and the CIC. He compared funds from Singapore, Korea, Norway, and elsewhere, ranking them on governing structure, openness, and similar qualities. China’s funds ended up in the lower third of his list—better-run than Iran’s, Sudan’s, or Algeria’s, but worse than Mexico’s, Russia’s, or Kuwait’s. China received no points in the “governance” category and half a point out of a possible 12 for “transparency and accountability.”

Foreigners (ordinary Chinese too, for that matter) can’t be sure about the mixture of political and strictly economic motives behind future investment decisions the Chinese might make. When China’s president, Hu Jintao, visited Seattle two years ago, he announced a large purchase of Boeing aircraft. When France’s new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, visited China late last year, Hu announced an even larger purchase of Airbuses. Every Chinese order for an airplane is a political as well as commercial decision. Brad Setser says that the Chinese government probably believed that it would get “credit” for the Blackstone purchase in whatever negotiations came up next with the United States, in the same way it would get credit for choosing Boeing. This is another twist to the Kremlinology of trying to discern China’s investment strategy.

Where the money goes, other kinds of power follow. Just ask Mikhail Gorbachev, as he reflects on the role bankruptcy played in bringing down the Soviet empire. While Japan’s great wealth has not yet made it a major diplomatic actor, and China has so far shied from, rather than seized, opportunities to influence events outside its immediate realm, time and money could change that. China’s military is too weak to challenge the U.S. directly even in the Taiwan Straits, let alone anyplace else. That, too, could change.


A Balance of Terror

Let’s take these fears about a rich, strong China to their logical extreme. The U.S. and Chinese governments are always disagreeing—about trade, foreign policy, the environment. Someday the disagreement could be severe. Taiwan, Tibet, North Korea, Iran—the possibilities are many, though Taiwan always heads the list. Perhaps a crackdown within China. Perhaps another accident, like the U.S. bombing of China’s embassy in Belgrade nine years ago, which everyone in China still believes was intentional and which no prudent American ever mentions here.

Whatever the provocation, China would consider its levers and weapons and find one stronger than all the rest—one no other country in the world can wield. Without China’s billion dollars a day, the United States could not keep its economy stable or spare the dollar from collapse.

Would the Chinese use that weapon? The reasonable answer is no, because they would wound themselves grievously, too. Their years of national savings are held in the same dollars that would be ruined; in a panic, they’d get only a small share out before the value fell. Besides, their factories depend on customers with dollars to spend.

But that “reassuring” answer is actually frightening. Lawrence Summers calls today’s arrangement “the balance of financial terror,” and says that it is flawed in the same way that the “mutually assured destruction” of the Cold War era was. That doctrine held that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union would dare use its nuclear weapons against the other, since it would be destroyed in return. With allowances for hyperbole, something similar applies to the dollar standoff. China can’t afford to stop feeding dollars to Americans, because China’s own dollar holdings would be devastated if it did. As long as that logic holds, the system works. As soon as it doesn’t, we have a big problem.

What might poke a giant hole in that logic? Not necessarily a titanic struggle over the future of Taiwan. A simple mistake, for one thing. Another speech by Cheng Siwei—perhaps in response to a provocation by Lou Dobbs. A rumor that the oil economies are moving out of dollars for good, setting their prices in euros. Leaked suggestions that the Chinese government is hoping to buy Intel, leading to angry denunciations on the Capitol floor, leading to news that the Chinese will sit out the next Treasury auction. As many world tragedies have been caused by miscalculation as by malice.

Or pent-up political tensions, on all sides. China’s lopsided growth—ahead in exports, behind in schooling, the environment, and everything else—makes the country socially less stable as it grows richer. Meanwhile, its expansion disrupts industries and provokes tensions in the rest of the world. The billions of dollars China pumps into the United States each week strangely seem to make it harder rather than easier for Americans to face their own structural problems. One day, something snaps. Suppose the CIC makes another bad bet—not another Blackstone but another WorldCom, with billions of dollars of Chinese people’s assets irretrievably wiped out. They will need someone to blame, and Americans, for their part, are already primed to blame China back.

So, the shock comes. Does it inevitably cause a cataclysm? No one can know until it’s too late. The important question to ask about the U.S.–China relationship, the economist Eswar Prasad, of Cornell, recently wrote in a paper about financial imbalances, is whether it has “enough flexibility to withstand and recover from large shocks, either internal or external.” He suggested that the contained tensions were so great that the answer could be no.

Today’s American system values upheaval; it’s been a while since we’ve seen too much of it. But Americans who lived through the Depression knew the pain real disruption can bring. Today’s Chinese, looking back on their country’s last century, know, too. With a lack of tragic imagination, Americans have drifted into an arrangement that is comfortable while it lasts, and could last for a while more. But not much longer.

Years ago, the Chinese might have averted today’s pressures by choosing a slower and more balanced approach to growth. If they had it to do over again, I suspect they would in fact choose just the same path—they have gained so much, including the assets they can use to do what they have left undone, whenever the government chooses to spend them. The same is not true, I suspect, for the United States, which might have chosen a very different path: less reliance on China’s subsidies, more reliance on paying as we go. But it’s a little late for those thoughts now. What’s left is to prepare for what we find at the end of the path we have taken.


The URL for this page is http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200801/fallows-chinese-dollars.

February 01, 2008 02:27 PM

From http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Book_Director_of_911_commission_secretly_0131.html

9/11 Fairy Tale Commission Stage Managed by Neocons
Nick Juliano
Raw Story
January 31, 2008


Book: Director of 9/11 commission secretly spoke with Rove, White House
A book to be published next month contains an explosive allegation sure to call into question the independence of the 9/11 Commission: Its executive director secretly spoke with President Bush’s close adviser Karl Rove and others within the White House while the ostensibly autonomous commission was completing its report.
Philip Zelikow, a former colleague of then-National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice, was appointed executive director of the 9/11 Commission despite his close ties to the Bush White House, and he remained in regular contact with Rove while overseeing the commission, according to New York Times reporter Philip Shenon’s new book, The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation. Shenon’s book will not be released until Feb. 5, but author Max Holland purchased an audio copy of it at a New York bookstore and published a summary on his blog, Washington DeCoded.

"Shenon delivers a blistering account of Zelikow’s role and leadership, and an implicit criticism of the commissioners for appointing Zelikow in the first place—and then allowing him to stay on after his myriad conflicts-of-interest were revealed under oath," Holland writes.
Shenon, who led the Times coverage of the 9/11 Commission and still writes for the paper, based his book on myriad interviews with staffers and members of the commission, according to Holland. In addition to his ties to Rice and Rove, Zelikow had been the "architect" of a plan to demote Clinton-era counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, who sounded the alarm about Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda months before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks they perpetrated.
Zelikow "had laid the groundwork for much of what went wrong at the White House in the weeks and months before September 11. Would he want people to know that?" Shenon writes, according to Holland’s summary.
Shenon also reports that Zelikow received at least two calls from Rove while serving as 9/11 Commission executive director, and he made numerous calls to the White House, Holland says.
Zelikow has not denied speaking to Rove, but he apparently claimed their conversations involved his old job as director of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs.
RAW STORY left messages at a phone and e-mail listing for Zelikow on the university’s Web site Thursday morning; they were not immediately returned.
Criticism of Zelikow’s ties to the Bush administration hounded him even as the commission was compiling its report, according to news archives.
"[C]ritics privately charge that Zelikow … has deliberately soft-pedaled the inquiry to protect the administration, and in particular his close former colleague, national-security adviser Condoleezza Rice, whom he helped to establish a new, streamlined structure for the Bush National Security Council during the transition," wrote Shaun Waterman in an April 2004 article in the American Prospect. "They accuse him of plotting behind the scenes with Bush political supremo Karl Rove."
Widows of World Trade Center victims demanded Zelikow resign around the same time, when news emerged that Zelikow had participated in Bush administration transition briefings, but the commission’s chairmen defended their executive director.
"Because he was one of the best experts on terrorism in the whole area of intelligence in the entire country, the same–they asked him to help the same reason we asked him to help," 9/11 Commission chairman Thomas Kean said on Meet the Press then. "We haven’t found, I think, either Vice Chairman [Lee] Hamilton or myself, any evidence to indicate in any way that he’s partial to anybody or anything."
Critics scoffed at that justification.

"His academic career focused on Cold War issues, from the Cuban missile crisis to the fall of the Soviet Union…. He is certainly not among the world’s ‘foremost experts’ on al-Qaida, a topic on which he appears to have written nothing," wrote Salon’s Joe Conason, "and he is very unlikely to have briefed the new administration on that threat."
In the book to be published next month, Shenon reports that Zelikow had promised to cease all communicatio