Archive for May 2010
Brave Israeli Commandos Slaughter Aid Activists At Sea
May 31, 2010 | 
Author - By Stephen Lendman
- Even America’s major media can’t duck a crime this grave – attacking and slaughtering up to 20 Gaza Freedom Flotilla activists and injuring dozens more.
- New York Times writer Isabel Kershner headlined “At Least 10 Killed as Israel Intercepts Aid Flotilla, saying:
- “The Israeli Navy raided a flotilla carrying thousands of tons of supplies for Gaza in international waters on Monday morning….The incident drew widespread international condemnation, with Israeli envoys summoned to explain their country’s actions in several European countries….The killings also coincided with preparations for a planned visit to Washington on Tuesday (June 1) by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”
- Late word is it’s postponed.
- The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Los Angeles Times carried similar reports, trying, but hardly able to downplay a major crime.
- The UK-based Stop the War Coalition called it “Yet another act of Israeli barbarism” in announcing an “emergency demonstration” at 2:00PM near the prime minister’s Downing Street residence, saying spread the word and come.
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Goldman Sachs Reveals it Shorted Gulf of Mexico
NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) – In what is looming as another public relations predicament for Goldman Sachs, the banking giant admitted today that it made “a substantial financial bet against the Gulf of Mexico” one day before the sinking of an oil rig in that body of water.
The new revelations came to light after government investigators turned up new emails from Goldman employee Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Tourre in which he bragged to a girlfriend that the firm was taking a “big short” position on the Gulf.
“One oil rig goes down and we’re going to be rolling in dough,” Mr. Tourre wrote in one email. “Suck it, fishies and birdies!”
The news about Goldman’s bet against the Gulf comes on the heels of embarrassing revelations that the firm had taken a short position on Lindsay Lohan’s acting career.
The Last Secret of the Moai
The impassive monoliths of Easter Island have for many years flummoxed and baffled archaeologists. The theory had for many years gone that out of all these magnificent moai, those inland had simply been abandoned by the tracks.
Some suggested they were possibly too heavy to cart to the perimeter of the island. Thor Heyerdhal (left) the famous adventurer explorer suggested that they had no spiritual meaning whatsoever and were most likely the ones that were simply left to lie at the side of the road because for whatever reason they did not make it to the coast.
Obama administration blocked efforts to stop BP oil drilling before explosion
n 2009, the Obama administration intervened to support the reversal of a court order that would have halted offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Obama’s Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has long had close ties to the industry, specifically cited BP’s Deepwater Horizon operation as one that should be allowed to go forward, according to a group involved in the court case.
A Washington DC Appeals Court ruled in April 2009 that the Bush administration’s five-year plan for offshore oil and gas drilling (covering 2007 to 2012) was not based on a proper review of the environmental impact of the drilling. Only days before the ruling, the Obama administration had granted BP a “categorical exclusion,” exempting it from an environmental impact study for the Deepwater Horizon project.
Death toll from Gaza aid attack hits 20
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Gaza Freedom Flotilla came under fire early on Monday by Israeli navy forces in international waters more than 150km (90 miles) off the coast of Gaza.
The six-ship aid fleet was soon stormed by commandos descending from helicopters.
At least 20 people were killed in the takeover of the Gaza aid convoy, a Press TV correspondent reported, saying that more than 50 people were also wounded in the attack.
The news trickled through the Israeli military censorship which has sought to block the reporting of any information about the casualties.
A report on the radio said the censorship was aimed at covering up the number of casualties brought to Israeli hospitals for treatment.
Meanwhile, Israeli Trade and Industry Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer expressed regret for the deaths aboard the Gaza aid ships.
“The images are certainly not pleasant. I can only voice regret at all the fatalities,” he told Israel’s Army Radio.
The comments come as the first official acknowledgement by Tel Aviv that the attack had turned fatal.
Israel had initially declined to comment on the reports of casualties from the takeover of the aid ships.
Update: Initial reports – 10-16 people killed, 30-60 injured in Israeli attack on freedom flotilla
Follow #flotilla on twitter for the latest updates.
Update (12:45 am 5/31/10): Haaretz is reporting: “At least 10 activists killed as Israel Navy opens fire on Gaza aid flotilla.” Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros just tweeted that Israeli Army Radio is saying “between 10-14 people killed on flotilla.” These reports are all unconfirmed.
We have a number of reports from the Mediterranean in the last few hours that the Israeli government is following through on its self-destructive and brutal determination to stop the freedom flotilla, and doing so at night. Live feed shows people still on deck. Isabel Kershner of the Times says Israeli boats have approached in international waters, intending to intercept. AP says that the Israeli navy is “stalk”-ing the flotilla. (Great for the rebranding campaign, huh?) Emails, rumors, follow:
From Iara Lee: israeli navy is already coming toward us/ we are still in intl waters and they are already here/ women are instructed to go downstairs/ men have gas masks and i am not sure what they are instructed to do….
From a friend of the flotilla: I was just told by Audrey, a spokesperson, that Israel told the captain that they’re expanding Israel’s territorial waters to 68 miles. The boats are at 70 right now with helicopters flying around. I think it’s going to be very difficult to get timely and accurate news at this point. Hope I’m wrong.
From Felice: The White House is directing callers to contact the State Department main switchboard and ask for the duty officer responsible for dealing with imminent threats of abduction of American citizens. Please call the State Department as well. 202-647-4000. You can remind them that American citizens are being attacked with American military aid given to Israel and tell them they have ample influence with Israel to keep the flotilla safe.
From Lubna, on board, to Greta:
Urgent we have threat from israel (check out the HELP button on www.witnessgaza.com)
What is happening?
Lubna: two israeli ships coming toward us me…. they contact the ship asked who we are and disappeared, now they getting close to the ship we can see them stay here 3 boats are coming not two 3 israeli boats we are 78 mile from israel
people here put on their life jackets, every body preparing here
we didnt expect them now, we thought they will arrive at the morning.
Energy expert: Nuking oil leak ‘only thing we can do’
BP ‘totally in charge of the news’ about oil leak, energy expert says
As the latest effort to plug the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico meets with failure, the idea of nuking the immediate area to seal the oil underground is gaining steam among some energy experts and researchers.
One prominent energy expert known for predicting the oil price spike of 2008 says sending a small nuclear bomb down the leaking well is “probably the only thing we can do” to stop the leak.
Matt Simmons, founder of energy investment bank Simmons & Company, also says that there is evidence of a second oil leak about five to seven miles from the initial leak that BP has focused on fixing. That second leak, he says, is so large that the initial one is “minor” in comparison.
Simmons spoke to Bloomberg News on Friday, before BP announced that its latest effort to plug the leak, known as the “top kill” method, had failed.
Toxic Oil Spill Rains Warned Could Destroy North America
A dire report prepared for President Medvedev by Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources is warning today that the British Petroleum (BP) oil and gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico is about to become the worst environmental catastrophe in all of human history threatening the entire eastern half of the North American continent with “total destruction”.
Russian scientists are basing their apocalyptic destruction assessment due to BP’s use of millions of gallons of the chemical dispersal agent known as Corexit 9500 which is being pumped directly into the leak of this wellhead over a mile under the Gulf of Mexico waters and designed, this report says, to keep hidden from the American public the full, and tragic, extent of this leak that is now estimated to be over 2.9 million gallons a day.
The dispersal agent Corexit 9500 is a solvent originally developed by Exxon and now manufactured by the Nalco Holding Company of Naperville, Illinois that is four times more toxic than oil (oil is toxic at 11 ppm (parts per million), Corexit 9500 at only 2.61ppm). In a report written by Anita George-Ares and James R. Clark for Exxon Biomedical Sciences, Inc. titled “Acute Aquatic Toxicity of Three Corexit Products: An Overview” Corexit 9500 was found to be one of the most toxic dispersal agents ever developed. Even worse, according to this report, with higher water temperatures, like those now occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, its toxicity grows.
What was Halliburton’s role in US oil spill?
By David Usborne in New York
reuters
Tim Probert, Halliburton’s president of global business, appears before the Senate
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Shares in Halliburton, the world’s second-largest energy services company once headed by former US vice-president Dick Cheney, slid in trading on Friday, in part because of the new six-month moratorium on offshore drilling projects imposed last week by President Barack Obama.
But investors have had other reasons to feel concern for the fortunes of Halliburton. As the investigation into the BP oil rig explosion accelerates, new information has been surfacing in congressional hearings in Washington pointing to possible problems with the casings that were put around the bore hole in the sea bed and the cementing that is critical to sealing it up.
YOUNGSTERS DYING FROM BLOOD CLOTS
IN PAIN: Billie-Jo, 19, had three clots in her leg
HUNDREDS of young people are dying from blood clots every year, shocking new figures reveal.
Deep vein thrombosis, a condition usually associated with the elderly, overweight and inactive, has claimed more than 1,000 lives among the under-40s in four years.
The Government figures, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, show as many as 3,000 under- 50s have died from clots over the same period.
Politico Bombshell: ‘Obama Biggest Recipient of BP Cash’
Politico Wednesday published a bombshell headline, “Obama Biggest Recipient of BP Cash.”
“While the BP oil geyser pumps millions of gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama and members of Congress may have to answer for the millions in campaign contributions they’ve taken from the oil and gas giant over the years,” Erika Lovley’s piece began.
“BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics,” she continued.
“During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.”
Despite this shocking headline and introduction, the rest of the article mostly focused on Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.):
Experts warn of future volcanic eruptions and possible flight disruption
Since the start of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption there has been much speculation about an eruption of its larger neighbour, Katla.
In a report published today, experts from the newly formed UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction warn that with the high frequency of eruptions of Katla, an eruption in the short term is a strong possibility.
The authors add, however, that an eruption of Katla is likely to be preceded by new earthquake activity. Presently there is no such activity under Katla, but there may only be as little as a few weeks to a few months of anomalous activity before an eruption starts.
In the report, earth scientists, engineers, transport experts, statisticians, atmospheric modellers and ethicists have brought together their most recent data and thinking on Icelandic volcanic activity and its wider consequences. It represents the fruits of the first project of UCL’s new multi-disciplinary Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, which has been established to promote understanding of the complexity of risk and to reduce the impact of disasters through collaborative research, teaching and knowledge exchange.
Entitled ‘Volcanic Hazard from Iceland: Analysis and Implications of the Eyjafjallajökull Eruption’, the report concludes that future moderately to highly explosive Icelandic eruptions combined with appropriate weather conditions are highly likely to cause a repeat of the recent air transport disruption. The authors note, however, that due to unpredictability of volcanic activity and weather conditions it is difficult to say when disruption will occur and at what scale.
The report is also critical of the response to the Eyjafjallajökull eruption, describing it as entirely reactive and therefore less effective than it should have been. This was primarily a function of the failure to recognize in advance the potential threat presented by volcanic ash clouds from Iceland. The situation was made worse by the inflexible nature of existing aviation protocols and by the absence of any pre-existing agreement within the aviation community on safe ash levels.
The report recommends that to avoid chaos, ill-feeling and exploitation, regulation should be considered to control the actions of organisations such as airlines at times of emergency. This might include approval of night operations at airports, insistence that no plane flies with empty seats if passengers with valid tickets are stranded, and no increase in fares during the affected period.
The impact of the eruption on airspace could have been predicted and better prepared for as the growing problem of serious aircraft-ash cloud encounters has been recognised for nearly 30 years. Similarly, the potential for ash clouds, specifically from Icelandic volcanoes, to interfere with air traffic in UK, European and North Atlantic air-space was appreciated by the aviation industry well before the start of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption.
Agenda 21 Alert: Science and Sewage
By Cassandra Anderson – Morph City
Agenda 21 Sustainable Development is the overarching blueprint for depopulation and total control, using the environment as the excuse for that control. The 3 major tools that are used are :
• Global warming
• Water Shortages
• Endangered Species Act
In the case of the California Delta, man made water shortages have been imposed on farmers by way of the ESA (Endangered Species Act) for the last three years. Still, the Delta smelt populations have declined, despite the restrictions. While the federal government refused to acknowledge that the cause for the decline in smelt populations was due to up to 1 BILLION gallons of partially treated sewage being flushed into the Delta per day, they blamed the water pumps for the decline in smelt. Their disastrous solution was to cut the water flow to farmers (who supply our country with 50% of its produce and nuts), thereby increasing the water levels in the Delta to dilute pollution.
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BP’s ‘top kill’ fails to stop Gulf oil leak
NEW ORLEANS – In a demoralizing setback, BP engineers said Saturday that the “top kill” effort to stem the flow of oil gushing from a well a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico had failed and that after consultation with government officials they had decided to move on to another strategy.
BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said the company determined the “top kill” had failed after it spent three days pumping heavy drilling mud into the crippled well 5,000 feet underwater. More than 1.2 million gallons of mud was used, but most of it escaped from the damaged riser.
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Latest climate climbdown: the Royal Society reviews its statements on global warming
The Royal Society is to issue an official guide on climate change to better reflect the uncertainties around the science
The most prestigious group of scientists in the country was forced to act after fellows complained that doubts over man made global warming were not being communicated to the public.
In particular they were unhappy that the long term effects of greenhouse gases were being oversimplified.
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Ankara threatens reprisals if Israel halts flotilla for Gaza
The Turkish government sent a secret message to Jerusalem Monday, May 24, threatening reprisals if the Israeli Navy prevents the “Freedom Flotilla” of nine boats from reaching the Gaza Strip on May 27 for the avowed objects of breaking Israel’s blockade on the Hamas-ruled territory and delivering humanitarian aid. debkafile’s military and intelligence sources report that the Turkish message was an ultimatum to Israel threatening retaliation against Israeli interests. It is backed by the unreported presence of one or more helicopters on one or more of the Turkish vessels for challenging Israeli Air Force support for the naval blockade.
Israel vows to halt flotilla aiming to break blockade
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem
Israeli warships were yesterday on full alert in the Mediterranean to prevent an eight-vessel flotilla carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists and an estimated 10,000 tons of humanitarian supplies reaching the coast of Gaza.
Naval vessels were expected to confront the flotilla of cargo and passenger ships later today with the intention of diverting it to the Israeli port of Ashdod and away from its intended destination of Hamas-controlled Gaza.
The flotilla is the largest attempt yet to circumvent the three-year-old Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.
While the Israeli authorities have indicated they want to minimise the risk of violence, Israeli media reported yesterday that they are prepared to take over the vessels by force if they ignore warnings not to cross from international waters into a 20 mile exclusion zone enforced by Israel along Gaza’s coast.
Group Supremacy P2
Part 2 of the excellant STOPandLOOK series, this peice discusses the concept of Group Supremacy in relation to the individual. Check out G. Edward Griffin’s website freedomforceinternational.org
Dr. Dahlia Wasfi – Life in Iraq Under U.S. Occupation
shortages; lack of electricity; potable water; tanks rolling through the streets night and day; gunfire and explosions. Iraqi health care in shambles. 200 bodies turn up daily in the Baghdad morgue. For Iraqis, it’s 9/11 every day. Socialism 2007 conference Chicago, June 16, 2007 www.socialistworker.org Filmed by Paul Hubbard
Third Giant Underwater Oil Plume Discovered
The New York Times reported on May 15th:
Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given.
“There’s a shocking amount of oil in the deep water, relative to what you see in the surface water,” said Samantha Joye, a researcher at the University of Georgia who is involved in one of the first scientific missions to gather details about what is happening in the gulf. “There’s a tremendous amount of oil in multiple layers, three or four or five layers deep in the water column.”
The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, worrying scientists, who fear that the oxygen level could eventually fall so low as to kill off much of the sea life near the plumes.
AP reported on May 27th that scientists had found a second giant plume deep under the water. The plume is 22 miles long and 6 miles wide.
Today, the Washington Post is reporting that a third giant underwater plume has been discovered:
Big volcanic eruptions in Guatemala, Ecuador
GUATEMALA CITY – Explosive eruptions shook two huge volcanos in Central and South America on Friday, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes and disrupting air traffic as ash drifted over major cities.
Guatemala’s Pacaya volcano started erupting lava and rocks Thursday afternoon, blanketing the country’s capital with ash and forcing the closure of the international airport. A television reporter was killed by a shower of burning rocks when he got too close to the volcano, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of Guatemala City.
In the village of Calderas, close to the eruption, Brenda Castaneda said she and her family hid under beds and tables as marble-sized rocks thundered down on her home.
“We thought we wouldn’t survive. Our houses crumbled and we’ve lost everything,” Castaneda said while waiting for rescue teams to take them to a shelter at a nearby school.
Meanwhile, strong explosions rocked Ecuador’s Tungurahua volcano, prompting evacuations of hundreds of people from nearby villages.
La. scientist locates another vast oil plume in the gulf
By David A. Fahrenthold and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
A day after scientists reported finding a huge “plume” of oil extending miles east of the leaking BP well, on Friday a Louisiana scientist said his crew had located another vast plume of oily globs, miles in the opposite direction.
James H. Cowan Jr., a professor at Louisiana State University, said his crew on Wednesday found a plume of oil in a section of the gulf 75 miles northwest of the source of the leak.
Cowan said that his crew sent a remotely controlled submarine into the water, and found it full of oily globules, from the size of a thumbnail to the size of a golf ball. Unlike the plume found east of the leak — in which the oil was so dissolved that contaminated water appeared clear — Cowan said the oil at this site was so thick that it covered the lights on the submarine.
The Picture Obama and BP Don’t Want You to See
Photo taken from a commercial jet over the Gulf of Mexico. This is what they dont want you to see. The big picture, oil as far as the eye can see… DavidIcke.com
America’s “War On Terror” Morphs into a Diabolical Assault on Civil Rights
And with moves by Barack Obama’s “change” regime to strip Americans of their Miranda rights, “delay” their appearance before a lawful court should they be accused of a national security crime, or even assassinate them if an arm of the secret state fingers them as terrorists (evidence optional), it’s a sure bet that as “ideas about security infect virtually all aspects of public policy,” as Stephen Graham avers in Cities Under Siege, new silver bullets will be needed to “keep us safe.”
Deep Learning: A Nerdy Way to Kill People
Long-time readers of Antifascist Calling are well-aware of the host of bizarre projects hatched in darkness by the Pentagon’s geek squad, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Working on things like Biologically Inspired Platforms and Systems that investigate the natural world, the better to create “significant new defense capabilities,” the Defense Sciences Office (DSO) is focused “on understanding, and then emulating, the unique locomotion and chemical, visual, and aural sensing capabilities of animals,” in order to hand warfighters neat, new tools to kill people.
Think robo-insects that crawl up walls and fire a bullet into the head of an unsuspecting “terrorist”–or more likely these days, some dissident, journalist or whistleblower–peacefully tucked in for the night.
Israel must sign NPT, 189 countries say
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The 28-page document, which was agreed upon on Friday by all 189 NPT signatories after a month-long round of talks at UN Headquarters in New York, called for a conference to be held in 2012 “to be attended by all states of the Middle East, leading to the establishment” of a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East.
Western diplomats said the United States finally agreed to a deal at the UN that would pressure Israel to join the NPT, Al Jazeera.net reported.
Gas build-up threatens North Sea oil rig
Workers evacuated as Norwegian engineers pump cement into offshore well to prevent explosion as Deepwater crisis highlights environmental dangers of drilling
Boats tackle the blaze on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico which exploded on 21 April. Photograph: KPA/Zuma/Rex Features
Ninety oil workers have been evacuated from a North Sea rig as engineers fight to control a huge build up of pressure in a well which critics say has the potential to blow-up the platform and cause a major environmental problem.
The Norwegian company Statoil has been pumping cement into an offshore well on the Gullfaks field in an operation similar to the one being attempted today by BP in the Gulf of Mexico.
The equivalent of around 70,000 barrels of oil a day of production from the Gullfaks C, Tordis and Gimle platforms has been shut down and more than 90 staff evacuated from the area, which lies in Norwegian waters.