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Massive Chrysler Recall

June 7, 2010 by Kevin1657   Comments (0)

government, broken down, crappy cars, chrysler, toyota

It will be funny to see if the US government scrutinizes their own company like they did with toyota...

Toyota must have recalled what seems to be all its cars on the road (well, some 8m to 9m worldwide to be halfway exact.) Now it’s Chrysler’s turn. Last week’s announcement for pedals with sticktion was just the warm-up. The serious recalls are coming now.

 

Chrysler is recalling some 575,000 Jeeps and Dodge and Chrysler minivans, says Bloomberg.

288,968 Jeep Wranglers (MY 2001 through 2010) must go to the shop to repair a defect caused when liners inside the fenders touch right-front and left-rear brake lines, leading to wear that may cause fluid to leak and raising the risk of a crash. “A brake fluid leak can cause partial loss of service brakes at the affected wheel, increasing the risk of a crash,” NHTSA says on the website.

Chrysler also issued a return to base for 284,831 Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country minivans from the 2008 and 2009 model years. A sliding-door hinge can wear through wire insulation, causing a short circuit and possible fire, says the NHTSA.

 

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/massive-chrysler-recall/

 

Neoga’s Pioneer School becomes a strip club

June 7, 2010 by Kevin1657   Comments (1)

school, strip, club, illinois, stripper, boobies, thongs, vip, champagne room

No better time to go to school then now!

A former elementary school in the town of Neoga, Illinois has been renamed Pioneer School Strip Club after the Neoga school district sold the whole school structure in 2002 for $36,800.

The school is now used by pole dancers and strippers, who perform at the very place where teachers used to once upon a time stand and teach.

This radical change of the school, has however attracted protests from the town people and old students of the school.

The name change was done just six months ago, which is more than 7 years after the school was sold. The structure of the school remains almost unchanged and the owners use the teacher’s lounge, as the VIP room where lap dancers entertain patrons.

According to reports, protesters gather each night in front of the establishment and with bonfires and placards that read, “Does your family know you are here?” But the number of protesters has been dwindling each night though.

However the owners of the club denies any sort of wrongdoing. They say they went through the proper channel in acquiring the property, and they claim they follow strictly all the local regulations in the town.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world/neogas-pioneer-school-becomes-a-strip-club_100376470.html

Many Gulf federal judges have oil links

June 7, 2010 by Mind Vine   Comments (0)

oil, spill, gusher, disaster, bp, ties, judges, links, conflict, interest, stock

MIAMI — More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas industry, complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to hear the cases, an Associated Press analysis of judicial financial disclosure reports shows.

Thirty-seven of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have links to oil, gas and related energy industries, including some who own stocks or bonds in BP PLC, Halliburton or Transocean — and others who regularly list receiving royalties from oil and gas production wells, according to the reports judges must file each year. The AP reviewed 2008 disclosure forms, the most recent available.

Those three companies are named as defendants in virtually all of the 150-plus lawsuits seeking damages, mainly for economic losses in the fishing, seafood, tourism and related industries, that have been filed over the growing oil spill since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. Attorneys for the companies and those suing them are pushing for consolidation of the cases in one court, with BP recommending Texas and others advocating for Louisiana and other states.

A Washington-based federal judicial panel is scheduled to meet next month to decide whether to consolidate the cases and, if so, which judge should be assigned the monumental task. The job would include such key pretrial decisions as certifying a large class of plaintiffs to seek damages, a potential multibillion-dollar settlement, whether to dismiss the cases and what documents BP and the other companies might be forced to produce in court.

The AP review of disclosure statements shows the oil and gas industry's roots run as deep in the Gulf Coast's judiciary as they do in the region's economy. For example, one federal judge in Texas is a member of Houston's Petroleum Club, an "exclusive, handsome club of, and for, men of the oil industry."

Federal judicial rules require judges to disqualify themselves from hearing cases involving a company in which they have a direct financial interest, and some Louisiana judges have already done so. For example, U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon in New Orleans, who reported ownership of BP stock, issued an order in early May that the court clerk not allot cases involving BP or related entities to her docket.

Another New Orleans jurist, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, said in court Friday he is selling his oil and gas investments — which included Transocean and Halliburton — to avoid any perception of a conflict. Barbier is presiding over about 20 spill-related lawsuits and some attorneys are recommending that he be chosen to oversee all cases filed nationally.

Still another judge in Louisiana, U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon, recused himself because his attorney son-in-law is representing several people and businesses filing suits against BP and the other companies over the rig explosion.

In many ways, the financial conflict rules are murky. For example, a judge does not have to step aside if the investments are part of a mutual fund over which they have no management control. Mere ties to companies or entities in the same industry, no matter how extensive, also don't require disqualification, according to legal experts.

"The specific rule forbids judges from hearing a case in which they have a financial interest. The more general rule forbids them from hearing cases in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned," said Charles Geyh, an Indiana University law professor who has closely studied judicial ethics.

So a judge like U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval of New Orleans would not have to disqualify himself even though he reported royalties from "mineral interest No. 1 and No. 2" in Terrebonne Parish, La., on his 2008 forms. Likewise for Senior U.S. District Judge William Barbour Jr. of Mississippi, who listed at least 30 oil and gas interests in three states including "McGowan Working Partners" and "Petro-Hunt Bovina Field," both in Mississippi.

Some judges have close ties to the energy industry that aren't for financial gain, but could still raise questions of potential bias.

The judge BP wants to hear all of the spill-related cases, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes of Houston, for the past two years has been a "distinguished lecturer" focusing on ethical issues for the 35,000-member American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Hughes is not paid a fee but does receive reimbursements for travel, food and lodging, said association spokesman Larry Nation. Hughes has appeared at petroleum geologist meetings in several Texas cities, in New Orleans and also in Cape Town, South Africa. He is scheduled to give a lecture later this month in Calgary, Canada, the oil and gas capital of that country.

"Under the circumstances, I can see why the questions are being raised," Nation said. "But one of the reasons Judge Hughes was chosen to be a lecturer is that he is known as a very ethical person. I would think his being an ethics lecturer for our organization would be a positive, not a negative."

Hughes said at a hearing Friday that his work for the geologists poses no conflict and that his other oil and gas investments — which include royalties from several mineral rights interests — are not connected to BP or the other companies involved in the spill lawsuits.

Florida attorney Scott Weinstein, whose firm represents charter captains and other companies suffering economic loss from the spill — including the owners of the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in Key West — said people might think it's unfair for BP to win its wish with a Texas judge rather than one seated in Louisiana or Florida, where the spill's impacts are greater.

"I would never assume that a judge is biased because of the jurisdiction that he or she sits in," Weinstein said. Still, "if this case winds up in Houston, many of the victims will feel very distant from where that justice is being handed out. It will not make sense to them."

Another Florida plaintiffs' attorney, Stuart Smith, was more blunt about the companies' aims.

"They would get much more sympathetic judges and perhaps a more sympathetic jury," Smith said.

In court papers, BP says that Hughes has the "experience and capacity" to handle the lawsuits and that Houston is the ideal location because most of the defendants' companies have headquarters or major operations there. BP spokesman have repeatedly declined to comment on pending lawsuits.

Some attorneys have come up with an unusual assertion: import a New York federal judge with a strong background in environmental lawsuits to Louisiana to preside over the cases.

They are recommending that the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation appoint U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin. Scheindlin presided over settlement of some 200 lawsuits brought against BP and other oil companies over a toxic additive called MTBE that contaminated drinking supplies nationally — and she has no oil and gas investments, according to her financial disclosure forms.

Attorneys with the Weitz & Luxenberg firm in New York said they recommended Scheindlin rather than a Louisiana judge because "most or all of the judges in the (Louisiana) district have a conflict and cannot preside" over the consolidated cases.

Scheindlin's deputy said Friday she was out of town and unavailable to comment on whether she would accept such an appointment.

The judicial panel meets July 29 in Boise, Idaho, to hear arguments on consolidation of the oil spill cases. Recommendations also have been made for sending the cases to Alabama, Mississippi and South Florida.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j8f2c5EMHHyphrI-OoK7rjHYFkbwD9G5SFE01

Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee

June 5, 2010 by Mind Vine   Comments (0)

bees, sydrome, collapse, colony, cell, phone, cellular, honey, die, kill, mobile

The growing use of mobile telephones is behind the disappearance of honey bees and the collapse of their hives, scientists have claimed.

Honey bee

Britain has seen a 15 per cent decline in its bee population in the last two years Photo: ALAMY

Their disappearance has caused alarm throughout Europe and North America where campaigners have blamed agricultural pesticides, climate change and the advent of genetically modified crops for what is now known as 'colony collapse disorder.' Britain has seen a 15 per cent decline in its bee population in the last two years and shrinking numbers has led to a rise in thefts of hives.

Now researchers from Chandigarh's Punjab University claim they have found the cause which could be the first step in reversing the decline: They have established that radiation from mobile telephones is a key factor in the phenomenon and say that it probably interfering with the bee's navigation senses.

They set up a controlled experiment in Punjab earlier this year comparing the behaviour and productivity of bees in two hives – one fitted with two mobile telephones which were powered on for two fifteen minute sessions per day for three months. The other had dummy models installed.

After three months the researchers recorded a dramatic decline in the size of the hive fitted with the mobile phon, a significant reduction in the number of eggs laid by the queen bee. The bees also stopped producing honey.

The queen bee in the "mobile" hive produced fewer than half of those created by her counterpart in the normal hive.

They also found a dramatic decline in the number of worker bees returning to the hive after collecting pollen. Because of this the amount of nectar produced in the hive also shrank.

Ved Prakash Sharma and Neelima Kumar, the authors of the report in the journal Current Science, wrote: "Increase in the usage of electronic gadgets has led to electropollution of the environment. Honeybee behaviour and biology has been affected by electrosmog since these insects have magnetite in their bodies which helps them in navigation.

"There are reports of sudden disappearance of bee populations from honeybee colonies. The reason is still not clear. We have compared the performance of honeybees in cellphone radiation exposed and unexposed colonies.

"A significant decline in colony strength and in the egg laying rate of the queen was observed. The behaviour of exposed foragers was negatively influenced by the exposure, there was neither honey nor pollen in the colony at the end of the experiment."

Tim Lovett, of the British Beekeepers Association, said that hives have been successful in London where there was high mobile phone use.

"Previous work in this area has indicated this [mobile phone use] is not a real factor," he said. "If new data comes along we will look at it."

He said: "At the moment we think is more likely to be a combination of factors including disease, pesticides and habitat loss."

The UK Government has set aside £10 million for research into the decline of pollinators like bees, but the BBKA claim much more money is needed for research into the problem, including studies on pesticides, disease and new technology like mobile phones.

According to the University of Durham, England's bees are vanishing faster than anywhere else in Europe, with more than half of hives

dying out over the last 20 years.

The most recent statistics from last winter show that the decline in honey bees in Britain is slowing, with just one in six hives lost.

This is still above the natural rate of ten per cent losses, but a vast improvement on previous years.

There has been an increase in the number of thefts of hives across the world and in Germany beekeepers have started fitting GPS tracking devices to their hives.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/7778401/Mobile-phones-responsible-for-disappearance-of-honey-bee.html

BP chief Tony Hayward sold shares weeks before oil spill

June 5, 2010 by Mind Vine   Comments (1)

bp, executive, oil, spill, gusher, disaster, tony, hayward, sold, stock, weeks, before, shares

The chief executive of BP sold £1.4 million of his shares in the fuel giant weeks before the Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused its value to collapse.

BP chief executive Tony Hayward has been under intense pressure since the oil well erupted on April 20

BP chief executive Tony Hayward has been under intense pressure since the oil well erupted on April 20

Tony Hayward cashed in about a third of his holding in the company one month before a well on the Deepwater Horizon rig burst, causing an environmental disaster.

Mr Hayward, whose pay package is £4 million a year, then paid off the mortgage on his family’s mansion in Kent, which is estimated to be valued at more than £1.2 million.

There is no suggestion that he acted improperly or had prior knowledge that the company was to face the biggest setback in its history.

His decision, however, means he avoided losing more than £423,000 when BP’s share price plunged after the oil spill began six weeks ago.

Since he disposed of 223,288 shares on March 17, the company’s share price has fallen by 30 per cent. About £40 billion has been wiped off its total value. The fall has caused pain not just for BP shareholders, but also for millions of company pension funds and small investors who have money held in tracker funds.

The spill, which has still not been stemmed, has caused a serious environmental crisis and is estimated to cost BP up to £40 billion to clean up.

There was growing confidence yesterday that a new cap placed over the well was stemming the oil flow. An estimated three million litres a day had been pouring into the sea off the coast of Louisiana since the April 20 explosion, damaging marine life.

The crisis has enraged US politicians, with President Obama yesterday forced to cancel a trip to Indonesia amid a row over the White House’s response.

Mr Hayward, whose position is thought to be under threat, risked further fury by continuing plans to pay out a dividend to investors next month.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7804922/BP-chief-Tony-Hayward-sold-shares-weeks-before-oil-spill.html

UFO spotted similar to Norway spiral spotted over eastern Australia

June 5, 2010 by Mind Vine   Comments (0)

spiral, norway, australia

UFO sighted in NSW sky (User submitted: Baden West )

An astronomer says a bright spiralling light spotted in the sky by people across eastern Australia was probably a satellite, space junk or a rocket.

The UFO was seen moving through the sky just before Saturday's sunrise in New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT.

ABC News Online has received dozens of emails, pictures and videos from those who were awe-stricken by the huge white light.

Some described it as a "lollipop-type swirl". Others say it hovered for a while before gradually moving in an eastern direction until it was out of sight. Those who saw the object say photos do not reflect how large it actually was.

Geoffrey Whyatt from the Sydney Observatory says it was probably a satellite, space junk or a rocket.

"The fact that you've got the rotation, the spiral effect, is very reminiscent of the much widely reported sightings from Norway and Russia last year, which both turned out to be a Bulava missile which was being adjusted in its orbit," he said.

"So possibly a rocket, I would say, having some sort of gyroscopic stability rocket fired on its side."

Mr Whyatt says it is a rare phenomenon.

"The first I saw of the spirals was last year when they were reported in Norway and then a few days later in Russia," he said.

"The Norway one was very spectacular because of its symmetrical appearance.

"But the one this morning and the one in Russia bear a striking similarity of being the same effects from a rocket trying to be controlled or adjusted."

A privately-owned rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on its first test flight is believed to be responsible.

But Doug Moffett from UFO Research NSW says he has a few problems with this theory.

"Firstly, the time of the launch was 18.45 GMT, which translates to 4.45am EST, the duration of the flight was 9 minutes 38 seconds - this is a full hour before the reported sightings," he said.

"Secondly, where was the glow from the boosters or from the friction created by the craft moving through the atmosphere, where was the tail of the rocket?

"Thirdly, why would anyone launch a rocket on a maiden test flight with a trajectory that would take it over the most heavily populated parts of Australia?

"And how big must this rocket have been to be seen so clearly, at the same time, over such a vast distance?"

'Like a bright star'

Canberra resident James Butcher says he was driving home from a night out with his brother when they spotted the "strange spiral light in the sky".

"It had a distinct bright centre, much like a bright star, indicating an object shedding light trails, spiralling and fattening out from it," he said.

"The effect lasted only two or three minutes, moving and descending quickly out of view.

"The colour was yellowish but this may have been blurred and tinted by the morning fog."

Wollongong man Eddie Wise says he also saw the light during his morning walk just before 6:00am.

He says he has never seen anything like it.

"It was like a yellowish, greenish light with a light spiral around it," he said.

"It sort of moved around, bobbed up and down and then it went behind a cloud.

"I'm just amazed. I want to know what it was."

A caller to the ABC, Robyn, says she saw the phenomenon from her home on Sydney's north shore just before 6:00am.

She says it was over within two minutes.

"There was this white light up in the sky like a huge revolving moon," Robyn said.

"At first I thought it was the moon but it was travelling so fast, high up above the eastern horizon and twirling as it went.

"It was just amazing and to be quite frank, I was quite frightened and my heart's still pounding."

'Lollipop-type swirl'

A number of people from Morayfield and Caboolture in Queensland have reported that they too saw a white light in the sky about 5:50am.

"It was just the one light. I just came home from my walk and I happened to look up in the sky, and here it was racing across the sky," Linda told 612 ABC Brisbane.

"I bashed on the window for my husband to have a look and he flew out.

"It was spectacular."

Linda described the light as like a lollipop swirl.

She says the light came from the west and was headed east, out to sea.

"It was just unreal. There was a cloud in the sky - just this light with a swirl in the middle," she said.

Peter, from Balmoral, says he saw the light while he was on a ferry terminal on the Brisbane River.

"It certainly had that lollipop-type swirl ... but it was travelling low and fairly fast, and as it went past me and I looked up, it looked like a row of lights, maybe four lights," he said.

Denise, at Pine Mountain, told ABC radio in Brisbane that she saw the lights shortly before 6:00am.

"I got up at about 5:45 to let my horse out of his stable ... and I saw this coming from a north-west direction towards the south-east," she said.

"There was no noise. It was like bands of ribbon coming out of it and it looked like it was coming through a cloud, yet there were no clouds."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/05/2919095.htm

U.S. Inflation to Approach Zimbabwe Level

June 5, 2010 by Mind Vine   Comments (1)

us, inflation, zimbabwe

By Chen Shiyin and Bernard Lo

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy will enter “hyperinflation” approaching the levels in Zimbabwe because the Federal Reserve will be reluctant to raise interest rates, investor Marc Faber said.

Prices may increase at rates “close to” Zimbabwe’s gains, Faber said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong. Zimbabwe’s inflation rate reached 231 million percent in July, the last annual rate published by the statistics office.

“I am 100 percent sure that the U.S. will go into hyperinflation,” Faber said. “The problem with government debt growing so much is that when the time will come and the Fed should increase interest rates, they will be very reluctant to do so and so inflation will start to accelerate.”

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said on May 21 inflation may rise to 2.5 percent in 2011. That exceeds the central bank officials’ long-run preferred range of 1.7 percent to 2 percent and contrasts with the concerns of some officials and economists that the economic slump may provoke a broad decline in prices.

“There are some concerns of a risk from inflation from all the liquidity injected into the banking system but it’s not an immediate threat right now given all the excess capacity in the U.S. economy,” said David Cohen, head of Asian economic forecasting at Action Economics in Singapore. “I have a little more confidence that the Fed has an exit strategy for draining all the liquidity at the appropriate time.”

Action Economics is predicting inflation of minus 0.4 percent in the U.S. this year, with prices increasing by 1.8 percent and 2 percent in 2010 and 2011, respectively, Cohen said.

Near Zero

The U.S.’s main interest rate may need to stay near zero for several years given the recession’s depth and forecasts that unemployment will reach 9 percent or higher, Glenn Rudebusch, associate director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said yesterday.

Members of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee have held the federal funds rate, the overnight lending rate between banks, in a range of zero to 0.25 percent since December to revive lending and end the worst recession in 50 years.

The global economy won’t return to the “prosperity” of 2006 and 2007 even as it rebounds from a recession, Faber said.

Equities in the U.S. won’t fall to new lows, helped by increased money supply, he said. Still, global stocks are “rather overbought” and are “not cheap,” Faber added.

Faber still favors Asian stocks relative to U.S. government bonds and said Japanese equities may outperform many other markets over a five-year period. “Of all the regions in the world, Asia is still the most attractive by far,” he said.

Gloom, Doom

Faber, the publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report, said on April 7 stocks could fall as much as 10 percent before resuming gains. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has since climbed 9 percent.

Faber, who said he’s adding to his gold investments, advised buying the precious metal at the start of its eight-year rally, when it traded for less than $300 an ounce. The metal topped $1,000 last year and traded at $949.85 an ounce at 12:50 p.m. Hong Kong time. He also told investors to bail out of U.S. stocks a week before the so-called Black Monday crash in 1987, according to his Web site.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=avgZDYM6mTFA

Ohio: You’re Speeding if The Cop Thinks You Are

June 5, 2010 by Mind Vine   Comments (0)

cops, police, speeding

Maybe I need a category called Maniac State Vampirism.

Via: Dayton Daily News / AP:

Ohio’s highest court has ruled that a person may be convicted of speeding purely if it looked to a police officer that the motorist was going too fast.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that an officer’s visual estimation of speed is enough to support a conviction if the officer is trained, certified by a training academy, and experienced in watching for speeders. The court’s 5-1 decision says independent verification of a driver’s speed is not necessary.

The court upheld a lower court’s ruling against a driver who challenged a speeding conviction that had been based on testimony from police officer in Copley, 25 miles south of Cleveland. The officer said it appeared to him that the man was driving too fast.

Research Credit: Matt

http://cryptogon.com/?p=15769

Iran haze contains depleted uranium

June 5, 2010 by Mind Vine   Comments (0)

depleted, uranium

Iran haze contains depleted uranium: MP

TEHRAN (Press TV) -- An Iranian lawmaker says the haze that arrives in Iran from Iraq is polluted with depleted uranium due to the U.S. military's use of the prohibited weapon in the neighboring country.

MP Mohammad-Mehdi Shahriari called for urgent measures to prevent the diffusion of the Iraqi haze over Iran.

“This is not an issue that can be easily neglected,” said Shahriari, who is a member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee.

“Everyone knows that the United States has used depleted uranium during the occupation of Iraq, and this has contaminated the Iraqi soil, which arrives in Iran once in a while and pollutes Iranian soil,” the Iranian MP told the Mehr News Agency on Monday.

“The results of this polluted soil will be seen in the agricultural products in the coming years, it endangers people's health, and its harmful impact could be transferred to the next generation,” he added.

“Silence on this issue could create a humanitarian catastrophe in the country,” the Iranian lawmaker stated.

The aerosol produced during impact and combustion of depleted uranium munitions can potentially contaminate wide areas around the impact sites or can be inhaled by civilians and military personnel.

Experts have calculated that from all sources that between 1,000 to 2,000 tons of depleted uranium munitions were used during a three-week period of conflict in 2003 in Iraq, mostly in cities, The Guardian reported in an article published in 2003.

A masked-pedestrian walks through the hazy Tehran (IRNA/ File photo) -

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=220587

Israel’s Premeditated Murder of Peace Activists Was No Mistake

June 2, 2010 by Mind Vine   Comments (0)

If you think about it, Israel’s calculated murder of peace activists on a mission to break the siege of Gaza makes perfect sense. A lot of observers were baffled that Netanyahu’s government inflated the importance of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla which was delivering vital humanitarian aid to the largest concentration camp in the world but had the secondary mission of publicizing the brutal and illegal siege of Gaza. To casual observers, it seemed like Israel’s belligerent posture was amplifying the international media attention given to the flotilla. It seemed so counter-productive for the Israelis to hand the peace activists what amounted to a nuclear powered bull horn.

The only excuse that Netanyahu and Lieberman could make for their seemingly irrational obsession with the supply ships was that the peace activists on board where delegitimizing Israel. The Israelis couldn’t make the usual ‘security’ arguments about terrorist threats — not with so many unarmed European Parliamentarians and peace activists on board. So they dreamed up a new category of criminals nobody has ever heard of before — de-legitimizers. There are millions of decent people who abhor Zionism and view Israel as a racist Jewish supremacist state. Israel and her supporters can argue with that, but since when has delegitimizing Israel been a capital crime that justified piracy on the high seas?

The flotilla was in international waters when it was assaulted — seventy miles from its destination. It was a pre-dawn raid and, in an operation of this sort, the darkness elevated the risk of inflicting unnecessary casualties. Quite a few journalists were on board and the dark offered the Israelis a veil to ward off any cameras that could clearly document that the violence was premeditated.

The overwhelming evidence suggests that this Israeli raid was planned, perfectly timed and achieved its desired objective: to scuttle a scheduled meeting with Obama. What else would explain the hurry? Was there a clock ticking away? The answer to that question is yes. Only a few precious hours remained for Netanyahu to weasel his way out of an appointment at the White House. That might help explain the smug self-satisfied look on Netanyahu’s face when he announced the cancellation of the visit.

The scheduled meeting at the White House was no ordinary tete-a-tete. It was a carefully orchestrated event. A week earlier, Obama had dispatched Rahm Emanuel to Jerusalem to butter up Netanyahu. According to news reports, Israel’s prime minister was given “unequivocal assurances” from the US President that an accord agreeing to talks on a nuclear weapons-free Mideast would not endanger the Jewish state. The assurances included a significant upgrade of Israel’s strategic and deterrent capabilities and a promise that no UN resolutions would be adopted that would hurt Israel’s ‘vital interests.’ One has to presume that Obama’s promises included blanket amnesty for last year’s war crimes in Gaza. As a bonus, Netanyahu stopped in Europe to pick up membership in the OECD — making Israel the only wealthy country in the world to get lavish American aid.

Of course, Obama and the Europeans expected a little reciprocity and a more flexible Israeli posture in the proximity talks with the Palestinians. It was Netanyahu’s turn to give a little. There was talk in the press of a love fest where a ‘new and improved’ Netanyahu would make an appearance and be willing to make a few hard choices to end the interminable conflict. The Lithuanian-Israeli prime minister who opposed Camp David, the Oslo agreement and the withdrawal from Gaza was under pressure to deliver the goods.

Sabotaging peace initiatives is something the Israelis excel at and Netanyahu is a skilled practitioner of obstructionism. Lest we forget, he secured the position of prime minister by putting together the most right wing coalition in Israeli history. He leads a government that is made up of pro-settler parties and outright expulsionists. Freezing settlements or withdrawing from the West Bank or making any kinds of concessions on East Jerusalem would unravel his government.

Netanyahu didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. There was a strategic imperative to create a crisis to justify canceling the meeting with Obama. Murdering the peace activists on the high seas was a high risk maneuver and it came at a well calibrated cost. Let’s first dispel the rumor that Israel is or has ever been concerned with its international reputation. Notice that it was Netanyahu who canceled the White House appointment. Why the rush to get back to Israel? Was there any better way to do a little damage control than by making a few concessions in Washington in front of the fawning lenses of pro-Israeli CNN cameras? But the White House was the last place the Israeli prime minister wanted to be. And if all it took was piracy and murder on the high seas, it was a price Netanyahu was willing to pay.

Israel’s has a well established record of planning and executing premeditated atrocities. They’ve shot Libyan passenger planes out of the sky and carpet bombed Gaza, South Lebanon and Beirut. One can go down the list of infamous massacres from Sabra and Shatilla to Jenin to Deir El Yassin, Qibya and a hundred other places where they’ve slaughtered innocents. Aside from the attack on the Liberty, the only thing that distinguishes this latest war crime is that the victims were not Palestinians or Arabs. With the assistance of the Jewish Lobby and their well-placed partisans at FOX noise and CNnothing, Israel always manages to wipe the incriminatory blood stains off its garments and make a miraculous recovery as the perpetual victim.

Anybody with half a brain should be able to figure out that this most recent Israeli atrocity was premeditated. Netanyahu will pay a price and there will be a price to pay but it will be paid in short term currency. Obama might or might not figure out that he gave away the store and walked away empty handed but with mid-term elections on the horizon, he’ll still shield Israeli leaders from accountability for their war crimes. The relationship with Turkey will be strained and a few European foreign ministers will fume. The United States had no problem figuring out how to react to piracy with the Achille Lauro, but all they can muster up in response to this latest act of Israeli state terrorism is a benign statement of ‘concern.’ Washington might even work up the courage to ask the Israelis to conduct an inquiry. Israel will be ostracized for a few weeks but Netanyahu will have accomplished his goal by derailing yet another peace initiative and winning additional time to continue building settlements and dispossess the Palestinians of their native soil.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/06/israels-premeditated-murder-of-peace-activists-was-no-mistake/#more-17775

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Help cover some of theoperating costs,
not only is running Expanton very time
consuming, it costs money!