Spinning the radio dial the other night I stopped briefly to listen to Michael Savage where he made a very compelling argument..... creating fear in a population allows it to be controlled by those who say they have all the an$$$wers.  Follow the money trail whether it's higher taxes or industries set to be spawned by those agendas. 

---

"The Sun is More Active Now than Over the Last 8000 Years

Source Max Planck Institute

Quoted from SpaceRef.com

"An international team of scientists has reconstructed the Sun's activity over the last 11 millennia and forecasts decreased activity within a few decades.

The activity of the Sun over the last 11,400 years, i.e., back to the end of the last ice age on Earth, has now for the first time been reconstructed quantitatively by an international group of researchers led by Sami K. Solanki from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany). The scientists have analyzed the radioactive isotopes in trees that lived thousands of years ago. As the scientists from Germany, Finland, and Switzerland report in the current issue of the science journal "Nature" from October 28, one needs to go back over 8,000 years in order to find a time when the Sun was, on average, as active as in the last 60 years. Based on a statistical study of earlier periods of increased solar activity, the researchers predict that the current level of high solar activity will probably continue only for a few more decades.

The research team had already in 2003 found evidence that the Sun is more active now than in the previous 1000 years. A new data set has allowed them to extend the length of the studied period of time to 11,400 years, so that the whole length of time since the last ice age could be covered. This study showed that the current episode of high solar activity since about the year 1940 is unique within the last 8000 years. This means that the Sun has produced more sunspots, but also more flares and eruptions, which eject huge gas clouds into space, than in the past. The origin and energy source of all these phenomena is the Sun's magnetic field.

Since the invention of the telescope in the early 17th century, astronomers have observed sunspots on a regular basis. These are regions on the solar surface where the energy supply from the solar interior is reduced owing to the strong magnetic fields that they harbour. As a consequence, sunspots are cooler by about 1,500 degrees and appear dark in comparison to their non-magnetic surroundings at an average temperature of 5,800 degrees. The number of sunspots visible on the solar surface varies with the 11-year activity cycle of the Sun, which is modulated by long-term variations. For example, there were almost no sunspots seen during the second half of the 17th century.

For many studies concerning the origin of solar activity and its potential effect on long-term variations of Earth's climate, the interval of time since the year 1610, for which systematic records of sunspots exist, is much too short. For earlier times the level of solar activity must be derived from other data. Such information is stored on Earth in the form of "cosmogenic" isotopes. These are radioactive nuclei resulting from collisions of energetic cosmic ray particles with air molecules in the upper atmosphere. One of these isotopes is C-14, radioactive carbon with a half life of 5730 years, which is well known from the C-14 method to determine the age of wooden objects. The amount of C-14 produced depends strongly on the number of cosmic ray particles that reach the atmosphere. This number, in turn, varies with the level of solar activity: during times of high activity, the solar magnetic field provides an effective shield against these energetic particles, while the intensity of the cosmic rays increases when the activity is low. Therefore, higher solar activity leads to a lower production rate of C-14, and vice versa.

By mixing processes in the atmosphere, the C-14 produced by cosmic rays reaches the biosphere and part of it is incorporated in the biomass of trees. Some tree trunks can be recovered from below the ground thousands of years after their death and the content of C-14 stored in their tree rings can be measured. The year in which the C-14 had been incorporated is determined by comparing different trees with overlapping life spans. In this way, one can measure the production rate of C-14 backward in time over 11,400 years, right to the end of the last ice age. The research group have used these data to calculate the variation of the number of sunspots over these 11,400 years. The number of sunspots is a good measure also for the strength of the various other phenomena of solar activity.

The method of reconstructing solar activity in the past, which describes each link in the complex chain connecting the isotope abundances with the sunspot number with consistent quantitative physical models, has been tested and gauged by comparing the historical record of directly measured sunspot numbers with earlier shorter reconstructions on the basis of the cosmogenic isotope Be-10 in the polar ice shields. The models concern the production of the isotopes by cosmic rays, the modulation of the cosmic ray flux by the interplanetary magnetic field (the open solar magnetic flux), as well as the relation between the large-scale solar magnetic field and the sunspot number. In this way, for the first time a quantitatively reliable reconstruction of the sunspot number for the whole time since the end of the last ice age could be obtained.

Because the brightness of the Sun varies slightly with solar activity, the new reconstruction indicates also that the Sun shines somewhat brighter today than in the 8,000 years before. Whether this effect could have provided a significant contribution to the global warming of the Earth during the last century is an open question. The researchers around Sami K. Solanki stress the fact that solar activity has remained on a roughly constant (high) level since about 1980 - apart from the variations due to the 11-year cycle - while the global temperature has experienced a strong further increase during that time. On the other hand, the rather similar trends of solar activity and terrestrial temperature during the last centuries (with the notable exception of the last 20 years) indicates that the relation between the Sun and climate remains a challenge for further research. "

Original work:

Sami K. Solanki, Ilya G. Usoskin, Bernd Kromer, Manfred Schüssler, Jürg Beer
Unusual activity of the Sun during recent decades compared to the previous 11,000 years
Nature, 28 October 2004

Ilya G. Usoskin, Sami K. Solanki, Manfred Schüssler, Kalevi Mursula, Katja Alanko
A Millenium Scale Sunspot Reconstruction: Evidence For an Unusually Active Sun Since the 1940s
Physical Review Letters, 91, 211101 (1993)

Sami K. Solanki, Natalie A. Krivova
Can solar variability explain solar warming since 1970?
Journal of Geophysical Research,108, doi 10.1029/2002JA009753 (2003) "
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=15385

Linked from my Silva Newsletter....... a bit of inspiration for today. 

---

"Thoughts Become Things!
a Speech by Mike Dooley

http://www.mindhacks.org/2007/01/10/thoughts-become-things/

 

Another "do as I say, not as I do."

---

Believe I read we have an increased presence in the Gulf.  China takes care of Kim Jong, we took care of Saddam, Israel takes care of Iran.  Works for me.

---

 

Powerlineblog.com comments:

"..................The Times' article purports to be based on information from Israeli and American sources. So the obvious question is, what lies behind the apparent leaks? Are they sanctioned by the Israeli government, perhaps with a view toward deterring Iran's further weapons development? Do they come from renegade sources who want pressure brought to bear on the Israelis not to carry out a military mission? Or are the leaks some other kind of misdirection intended to confuse Iran?

I have absolutely no idea. But the Israeli sources quoted by the Times say that the Mossad believes Iran may have nuclear weapons within two years. So events may be moving toward a crisis. "

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016418.php

---

"Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran
Uzi Mahnaimi, New York and Sarah Baxter, Washington

Source TimesOnLine.co.uk

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran's uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.
Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear "bunker-busters", according to several Israeli military sources.

The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open "tunnels" into the targets. "Mini-nukes" would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout.

"As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished," said one of the sources.

The plans, disclosed to The Sunday Times last week, have been prompted in part by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad's assessment that Iran is on the verge of producing enough enriched uranium to make nuclear weapons within two years.

Israeli military commanders believe conventional strikes may no longer be enough to annihilate increasingly well-defended enrichment facilities. Several have been built beneath at least 70ft of concrete and rock. However, the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would be used only if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the United States declined to intervene, senior sources said.

Israeli and American officials have met several times to consider military action. Military analysts said the disclosure of the plans could be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an Israeli attack.

Some analysts warned that Iranian retaliation for such a strike could range from disruption of oil supplies to the West to terrorist attacks against Jewish targets around the world.

Israel has identified three prime targets south of Tehran which are believed to be involved in Iran's nuclear programme:

Natanz, where thousands of centrifuges are being installed for uranium enrichment

A uranium conversion facility near Isfahan where, according to a statement by an Iranian vice-president last week, 250 tons of gas for the enrichment process have been stored in tunnels

A heavy water reactor at Arak, which may in future produce enough plutonium for a bomb
Israeli officials believe that destroying all three sites would delay Iran's nuclear programme indefinitely and prevent them from having to live in fear of a "second Holocaust".

The Israeli government has warned repeatedly that it will never allow nuclear weapons to be made in Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has declared that "Israel must be wiped off the map". ............."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2535310,00.html 

If Dick Morris doesn't know her, who does??

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"IS HILLARY SHOWING HER AGE?

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

January 5, 2006 -- The smartest thing George W. Bush did as he pursued the presidency in 2000 was to jettison his father's former campaign team and start his own bid for the White House from scratch. He realized that times had changed in the 12 years that had elapsed since his Dad was elected, and that the old guard would be set in the old ways. So, he reached out for new people with new ideas — people Dad hadn't known well back in 1988, like Karl Rove and Karen Hughes — to pilot him to victory in 2000.

But that's not the model that the next heir apparent has chosen.

Hillary Clinton now seems wed not just to the 1992 candidate himself, but to his staff, advisors, supporters, tactics, strategy, and timing as well. As this nearly 60 year old candidate faces younger and savvy challengers in Barak Obama, 45, and John Edwards, 53, she seems to be showing her age rather than grasping just how much the political world has changed since she last trod the presidential campaign trail.

According to recent news articles, she apparently seemed genuinely surprised that the 2008 presidential race has heated up so early. (Wake up Hillary!) Evidently, she's been grousing to potential supporters that she doesn't understand why she can't follow the more leisurely schedule her husband first pursued, when he waited to announce his candidacy until the fall of 1991. Her plan was to do the same thing. Now, with the increasing strength of Edwards and Obama, she's being forced to get into the race and compete. This was something that she hadn't planned on; not at all.

With Hillary's coy insistence for the past year that she hadn't made up her mind about whether to run for president, she could hardly start publicly campaigning. But while she was playing dumb about her candidacy, Edwards was cleverly and effectively building the support of Democrats in Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire — the early primary states. Now Edwards is in first place in Iowa and Hillary is in fourth. He's tirelessly crisscrossing the state. She hasn't been there in years. There's a lesson there.

Hillary appears to have been completely taken by surprise by the boomlet for Obama. He's now tied with her in New Hampshire and ahead of her in Iowa. The Obama phenomenon quickly knocked her out of her complacency. Suddenly, just days after the New York Senate election, she began to frantically invite prominent Democratic Party types from Iowa and New Hampshire to her home for dinner to discuss her 'potential' presidential race. Using her BlackBerry — or more likely the old Clinton Rolodex, — she contacted the party hacks from 10 years ago…the people who supported Bill back then. It's been a long time since she last visited New Hampshire, and she hasn't kept up with the changes in the Party. She's relying on the outdated Clinton contacts, even ignoring the first female Speaker of the House, who was also the first Democrat elected Speaker in 70 years. That's someone to pay attention to.

Everything about the Hillary operation looks a bit out of date. Most of her advisors are the same retreads the Clintons have always used. They resemble nothing so much as the aging Camelot crowd that surrounded JFK and Bobby, and reassembled tiredly to help Teddy mess up his race in 1980.

The top echelon of Hillary's brain trust is the same old White House gang that advised them many years ago. As part of her offense after the election, Hillary even had a highly publicized dinner with former advisers James Carville and Paul Begala (wonder how the press ever learned of that rendezvous). Their last presidential campaign was Bill Clinton's 1992 race 14 years ago — hardly the place to go for cutting edge political advice. Even the Clintons declined to hire that undynamic duo for the 1996 race or for either of Hillary's Senate race. Gore ignored them in 2000 and Kerry refused to hire them in 2004. Hillary won't hire them either, but she still looks backward. Maybe the nostalgia is comforting to her.

It's déjà vu all over again.

Hillary's tactics are also old. She spent much of her $40 million campaign war chest in her 2006 run for a second term in New York building her direct mail list. Direct mail? Hello?? Ever heard of the Internet? No up-front costs, no turnaround time, rapid contacting, etc.

And last year, Hillary quaintly called for a post card writing campaign to lobby for maintaining Homeland Security funding levels in New York. Again, ever heard of the Internet, Hillary? Post card campaigns went out with the mimeograph machine.

Sen. Clinton reportedly hopes that her meetings and the discussions about her candidacy will remain secret, drawing around herself the same veil of privacy she used to shroud the operations of the White House Health Care Task Force from public view in 1993. Hey, wake up! Those days are over. Nothing in a presidential race is kept secret.

Today's politics is a whole new world. Money is raised by the bushel and, as a result, is no longer as decisive. Events happen faster. People seek out candidates before they have the time to reveal themselves to the voters. A candidate herself, actually, controls only about a quarter to a third of her own campaign. Bloggers, Internet e-mailers, independent expenditures, party committees, eager contributors and special interests run the rest for her. She can't keep track of her own campaign, let alone control it.

Unless Mrs. Clinton takes a crash course in the new politics, she's not going anywhere. These old days are over, Hillary. "

-----------------------------------------------------
PLEASE FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHO MAY BE INTERESTED IN DICKMORRISREPORTS!

TO SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE TO DICKMORRISREPORTS:  http://www.dickmorris.com/

Reuter's "Green Helmet Guy made it to Wilkipedia.      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Helmet_Guy

 

Found that via this  .............

"Carroll: How Dare You Question Our Reporting Source

Well, the Iraqi Ministry has a rule about police talking to the press, not bloggers in America (and he never spoke with any of us or any other news organization - just the AP.) And since it was the AP that revealed his name (three different versions of it, actually) in their reporting, Carroll's ire is hilariously misplaced here. His full name is provided in an AP article here, as is the evidence that the AP has repeatedly published this guy's name - in their own ink.

In the meantime, there is still the little matter of sorting through and nailing the AP for changing its stories by Hussein constantly, quietly and significantly until those new stories on the wires barely resemble the original stories. Still no comment from the Carroll regarding this. You can read 40 of those stories here, with some questions about each one.   ..........."

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/185941.php

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/ 

"The AP's Jamil Hussein Scandal
Controversy Will Haunt the AP Until It Does What is Right
By EASON JORDAN Posted 18 hr. 12 min. ago
Source IraqSlogger.com

"If an Iraqi police captain by the name of Jamil Hussein exists, there is no convincing evidence of it - and that means the Associated Press has a journalistic scandal on its hands that will fester until the AP deals with it properly.
This controversy and the AP's handling of it call into question the credibility, integrity, and smarts of one of the world's biggest, most influential, most respected news organizations, the New York-based Associated Press.

The back story: On November 24, the AP quoted Iraqi Police Captain Jamil Hussein as the source of a sensational AP story that began this way:

"Militiamen grabbed six Sunnis as they left Friday worship services, doused them with kerosene and burned them alive as Iraqi soldiers stood by."
It was a horrific report that was an AP exclusive - a story picked up and reported by news outlets across the U.S. and the world.

The U.S. military and Iraqi officials were quick to call the story baseless, saying there was no evidence that six Sunnis were burned to death in Hurriya and that there was no record of an Iraqi police captain named Jamil Hussein. The U.S. military and the Iraqi government demanded the AP retract the story and explain itself.

The AP fired back with at least three strong statements defending the initial AP report and provided a follow-up report from Baghdad quoting anonymous witnesses as confirming the original immolation story.

In the absence of irrefutable evidence that Captain Hussein exists and that the original AP report was accurate, bloggers and a few mainstream media journalists kept plugging away in an effort to get to the truth about whether there is a Captain Hussein and whether six Sunnis were burned alive that day.

Five weeks after the disputed episode, key questions remain unanswered, but what is clear is the AP has botched its handling of this controversy - and it's not going away until the AP deals with it forthrightly and transparently.

IraqSlogger's probe into the case is inconclusive, with conflicting and unconfirmed information regarding whether there's a Captain Hussein and whether the reported immolation happened.

Inquiries by others point to there being no Captain Jamil Hussein, although there is no proof of that.

While proof might yet surface to substantiate the AP's story - there is circumstantial but unreliable evidence in that regard - conclusive evidence has not yet materialized.

The AP has steadfastly refused to answer questions about this episode from IraqSlogger and other news outlets and bloggers.

In statements, the AP insists Captain Hussein is real, insists he has been known to the AP and others for years, and insists the immolation episode occurred based on multiple eyewitnesses.

But efforts by two governments, several news organizations, and bloggers have failed to produce such evidence or proof that there is a Captain Jamil Hussein. The AP cannot or will not produce him or convincing evidence of his existence.

It is striking that no one has been able to find a family member, friend, or colleague of Captain Hussein. Nor has the AP told us who in the AP's ranks has actually spoken with Captain Hussein. Nor has the AP quoted Captain Hussein once since the story of the disputed episode.

Therefore, in the absence of clear and compelling evidence to corroborate the AP's exclusive story and Captain Hussein's existence, we must conclude for now that the AP's reporting in this case was flawed.

To make matters worse, Captain Jamil Hussein was a key named source in more than 60 AP stories on at least 25 supposed violent incidents over eight months.

Until this controversy is resolved, every one of those AP reports is tainted.

When two governments challenge the veracity of your reporting, when there are reasonable doubts about whether your prime named source for a sensational exclusive story exists, when there's no proof a reported horrific incident occurred, when the news outlet responsible for the disputed report stonewalls and is stridently defensive, when the validity of dozens of other of your reports has been called into question as a result, then that news organization has a scandal on its hands, and that is where the AP finds itself.

Having learned from my own successes and failures and those of others, I know that a journalistic scandal can be handled effectively only when the news organization's management deals with it proactively, constructively, and transparently, with a readiness to admit any mistake, to apologize for it, and to take appropriate corrective action.

The AP has failed to do so in this case.

I, therefore, urge the AP to appoint an independent panel to determine the facts about the disputed report, to determine whether Iraqi Police Captain Jamil Hussein exists, and to share the panel's full findings and recommendations with the public.

Until this matter is resolved, the AP's credibility will suffer.

Meantime, IraqSlogger and others will doggedly pursue the truth in this case."

http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/486/The_APs_Jamil_Hussein_Scandal

 "Conservatives Push for Counter-Terror Divestment
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
January 02, 2007

"(CNSNews.com) - The United Nations Security Council has voted to impose sanctions on Iranian nuclear and missile programs, but some American conservatives argue that U.S. state governments can have a greater impact on Tehran's nuclear activities by pulling money out of companies that do business with the terror-sponsoring nation.

"Security Council sanctions on Iran are virtually useless, they're so watered down," Christopher Holton told Cybercast News Service on Friday.

"Iran's revenue stream from various economic activities, especially oil and gas, enables it to have those programs and there's been nothing done to put any pressure on Iran to ... in terms of economic sanctions, which is really what needs to be done."

Holton is the Director of DivestTerror.org, a project of the conservative Center for Security Policy that urges U.S. public pension systems to divest from companies that do business in terrorist-sponsoring nations.

"What the effect of the Divest Terror initiative would be would be far more comprehensive than anything that the U.N. Security Council came up with," Holton said.

Holton said many pensioners do not realize that their money is invested in companies that do business in nations recognized by the U.S. State Department as state sponsors of terror.

"U.S. investors in general are heavily invested in foreign companies that do business with our enemies," he said. "Iran is the world's foremost sponsor of jihadist terrorism."

According to a 2004 Divest Terror report, the top 100 public pension systems in the United States invest more than $188 billion in countries listed as state sponsors of terrorism.

The average top pension systems invests in 73 companies doing business in Iran, 26 companies doing business in Sudan, 31 doing business in Syria, nine doing business in North Korea, and 24 doing business in Libya, which was removed the state sponsors of terror list in May 2006.

Divest Terror says public pension systems should require companies that operate in terror-sponsoring nations to make a choice "between doing business with the American people and capital markets on the one hand or, alternatively, doing business with terrorists' friends and this country's enemies."

Among the 12 companies that do the most business in terrorist-sponsoring countries - dubbed "the dirty dozen" by DivestTerror.org - are German telecommunications giant Siemens AG and South Korean automaker Hyundai.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia are listed on the report has having pension systems invested in companies that do business with terror-sponsoring nations. But since the report's release in 2004, at least a few states have taken steps to divest.

Efforts to Divest

In 2005, Missouri Treasurer Sarah Steelman began efforts to divest that state's money from companies doing business with terror-sponsoring nations, including the New York Branch of Arab Bank, which in August was fined $24 million by the U.S. Treasury after an investigation into money laundering and financial support of terrorist groups.

In July 2005, Steelman successfully changed Missouri investment policy to prohibit investments in such companies.

The policy now says that the state "seeks to promote and support the objectives of U.S. foreign policy regarding terrorism. Accordingly, investments in companies ... that are known to sponsor terrorism or aid the government in countries that are known to sponsor terrorism are prohibited."

In July 2005, the Swiss America Trading Corporation launched "Operation Divest Terror," a program that allows investors to check their holdings against a list of companies known to do business with terrorists or state sponsors of terrorism.

The corporation checks clients' investments against a list of companies connected to terrorism provided by the Conflict Securities Advisory Group, which says there are "about 400 U.S. and foreign publicly traded companies that have business activities in or with terrorist-sponsoring states."

Investment in terrorism-sponsored companies or governments was even an issue in the 2006 midterm election campaign. In his unsuccessful bid to keep his Senate seat, Pennsylvania Republican Rick Santorum accused his Democratic challenger, then-State Treasurer Bob Casey, of allowing Pennsylvania pension funds to invest in companies linked to terrorism.

Santorum accused Casey of "aiding and abetting terrorism and genocide," a charge Casey said reflected "a really desperate campaign." "

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200701/POL20070102a.html

---

http://divestterror.org/dirtydozen.html

Downloaded this via Kim Komando newsletter.  Works on blog comments, also when posting with Firefox or other browser that LP spell checker doesn't work with.

This version totally FREE.  Haven't had any spyware or spam problems since downloading it about a month ago.

---

tinySpell 1.5 - a tiny spell checker for Windows

http://www.tinyspell.m6.net/

Link via Powerline.  First page below, 3 more after that giving Saddam's historical climb to power with well researched background.  Worth the read .... shows he was a common thug not much different from a mafia king.

Also keep in mind that relatives of UN members, France and Germany were receiving payola from "Oil For Food" covered in previous blog entries so were against the US invasion if Iraq. 

Believe when Iran is brought into line then Syria will be also ..... then we can go in to where caches of Saddam's weapons which were trucked and flown out during UN dithering prior to our invasion are in fact buried.  WMD's were also followed by satellite into the Bekka Valley, Lebanon.  

---

 

"Obituary - Saddam Hussein
April 28, 1937 - December 30, 2006

Source TimesOnLine.co.uk

"Former Iraqi dictator who ruled his country without mercy and struck fear into the heart of millions
Saddam Hussein was a tyrant whose actions brought down unimaginable catastrophe on Iraq and its peoples. From an early age, he had enjoyed inflicted suffering on those around him and, when he came to positions of political power, those whom he could not force or corrupt into submitting to his will, he maimed, murdered or made to flee.

He started two major international wars - one against Iran, the second as a result of aggression against Kuwait - which cost an estimated one million lives. He instituted genocidal campaigns against the Kurds in the north of Iraq and the Marsh Arabs in the south. Ruling through the Sunni minority of which he was a member, he ignored the claims of the country's majority Shia population.

The third war in the region - which brought him and his regime down - was not directly begun by him, but by apparent American - and British - fears of a perceived threat his arsenal of weapons posed to international security. This time Saddam misjudged the event - and certainly the American mood.

Having been let off the hook after his defeat over his Kuwait adventure, he clearly felt that the international community did not have the stomach for a fight. He may have been right in that. But a new American President, George W Bush, determined to find a scapegoat for the Muslim terrorist attacks on the US in September 2001, was in no mood to abide by the niceties of international law. In the determination of President Bush and his cabinet of advisers, Saddam at length met his match, though the internecine aftermath of the campaign that overthrew him gave his conquerors little enough satisfaction.

Saddam appeared to have psychopathic tendencies which, combined with the exacerbating circumstances of his absolute power, resulted in the killing of more fellow Muslims, possibly, than Genghis Khan and Tamberlaine had caused between them in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Yet, until he invaded the oil-rich state of Kuwait, he enjoyed the collaboration of many governments abroad - including those in the West - who had given him backing in his unprovoked assault on Iran.

His invasion of the important Kuwait oilfields in 1990, however, resulted in the formation of an international military coalition against him, which was given sanction by United Nations resolutions. US-led, it inflicted a severe defeat on his forces and administered a check to his territorial ambitions - though it made him a hero to many Muslim militants and Arab nationalists. Even with defeat staring him in the face he continued to proclaim victory to his people.

And after his expulsion from Kuwait and the massive casualties inflicted on his army, Saddam continued defiant, thwarting the efforts of UN inspectors to check on his weapons stocks and refusing to let himself be cowed by the overflying of his country by armed British and American aircraft. Meanwhile he continued with projects to develop new weapons to threaten territories outside his borders, apparently secure in his power, in spite of the sufferings of his people, which were in such painful contrast to the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by himself and his family.

A fervent admirer of Hitler on account of the latter's boldness and hatred of Jews, he told his official biographer in 1980 that he wanted Iraqis to think of Nebuchadnezzar every day. "We could march into Palestine and bring all those Jews here in Babylon with their hands tied behind their backs once more", he said.

Saddam bin Hussein was born an orphan in the small village of Auja near the town of Tikrit some 100 miles north of Baghdad when Iraq was still a young state under King Ghazi and his British advisers. His was the traditional childhood of the poor peasantry, struggling to subsist in a hot, dusty, disease-ridden land.

In addition, as a hyperactive child who seemed constantly to provoke fights with other children, he endured ill treatment at the hands of a violent stepfather, a man known as Hassan the Liar. His circumstances were somewhat softened, however, by the interventions of his maternal uncle, Khairallah Tulfah, known as Khairallah the Thief, who would one day be rewarded by his nephew with the governorship of the capital and become known as the Thief of Baghdad.

Saddam's schooling began at the age of seven in Tikrit. Such was the lawless environment around him that, on his first day at school, he carried a steel bar in his hand and a loaded revolver in his pocket, the latter bought for him by his relatives. A year later, his uncle, who had fought on the side of a pro-Nazi coup in 1941 and who had started a bus service in Tikrit, took him to Baghdad for the rest of his primary and secondary education, and Saddam acquired a surname, Tikriti.

In 1958, after the overthrow of the monarchy, he was briefly imprisoned for the murder of a teacher, his uncle's Communist opponent in parliamentary elections in Tikrit, and began to develop a reputation as an assassin. For this reason, the leaders of the Socialist Arab Renaissance (Baath) Party, apparently in collusion with Egypt's Colonel Nasser, chose him to lead an attempt on the life of the country's military dictator, General Abdul-Karim Qasim.

Yet, the five-man gang bungled the ambush, even though Qasim travelled with hardly any protection, and Saddam fled to Syria, nursing a wounded leg, which was probably caused by a comrade's bullet. In Syria he stayed for six months before going on to Cairo "to study law", but in fact to work for Egyptian intelligence - and to marry his cousin Sajidah, Khairallah's daughter.

Saddam returned to Iraq after the overthrow of Qasim in a military-Baathist coup less than three years later, in February 1963, and was immediately engaged in plots against the Baathists' partners in the new regime. He also enrolled at Baghdad university's law faculty and turned up for final examinations in military uniform and carrying a pistol. He was promptly granted a degree. ............................"

(Click link to be taken to pages 2 and 3 and 4 ..... worth the time to read)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2523974,00.html#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=World

Quoted exactly and in full from Powerlingblog.com ..... Link to NY Times article inserted.  Well worth the read.

---

"Post Mortem

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/016355.php

Yahoo moves their stories frequently so apologies if it has been when you click the link.

---

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061228/od_nm/china_snakes_dc_3

Ever consider it may not be US politics "forming world opinion" but careful engineering by leftist brainwashing media used in a concerted effort to drive the US dollar down in value so that the Euro will dominate the world currency market???? 

Crystal clear to me, makes perfect sense, leaves a crumb money trail right back to world money market manipulation/engineering. 

Feel 'had'..?????? ....... Aanyone believing the media doesn't have an agenda should because US$ value impacts every aspect of our lives.

---

 

"Euro notes cash in to overtake dollar
By Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt

Source FT.com

Published: December 27 2006 22:07 | Last updated: December 27 2006 22:07

"The US dollar bill's standing as the world's favourite form of cash is being usurped by the five-year-old euro.

The value of euro notes in circulation is this month likely to exceed the value of circulating dollar notes, according to calculations by the Financial Times. Converted at Wednesday's exchange rates, the euro took the lead in October.

The figures highlight the remarkable growth in euro notes since their launch on January 1 2002, three years after the start of Europe's monetary union, which in January welcomes its 13th member - Slovenia, the former Yugoslav republic.

"After the launch, we expected growth to stabilise - but it has continued over five years," Antti Heinonen, head of the European Central Bank's bank notes directorate, told the Financial Times.

Although the ECB does not deliberately promote the international use of the euro, it has become popular in official foreign exchange reserves - even if it is far from challenging the dollar's lead as the most popular reserve currency.

News that euro notes are challenging the dollar may cheer eurozone politicians - even if it partly reflects the currency's strength - but it may have a dark side too. Fast growth in the highest denomination notes, especially the €500 note, has raised suspicions that they are popular among criminals, although the ECB plays down this factor.

By the end of October the $759bn-worth of US dollar notes in circulation was only a fraction ahead of the value of euro notes, converted at exchange rates at that time.

But since October the euro has risen strongly against the dollar and this month the value of euro notes has risen to more than €610bn, or in excess of $800bn at the latest exchange rates. That level is unlikely to have been beaten by the greenback. "

 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/18338034-95ec-11db-9976-0000779e2340.html  

"HIT IRAN WHERE IT HURTS

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

"December 27, 2006 -- The sanctions adopted by the United Nations are too weak, too puny and too late to have any deterrent effect on Iran's drive to build a nuclear bomb. But there is something the U.S. government, state governments, labor unions, pension funds and each of us as individuals can do: We can stop investing in companies that help Iran exploit the oil and gas resources on which its economy depends.

Investment funds - including pension funds - all over America are helping Iran develop the nuclear weapons that will eventually threaten us by investing in companies that directly subsidize Iran. We must all band together to stop these self-defeating investments.

Frank Gaffney, a Reagan-era Pentagon official, is pioneering the way via his group, disinvestterror.org. Sarah Steelman, Missouri's state treasurer, has followed his lead - the billion-dollar state pension funds have pulled investments in any company that abets terrorism.

Among Steelman's first targets were the Swiss giant UBS Finance and the French firm BNP Paribas Finance Inc. Both got kicked off the Missouri funds' list of approved brokers. UBS got the message and pulled out of Iran; it's now seeking readmission to Missouri's list. But BNP Paribus still works there.

Indeed, it's an old friend of the Iranian regime. It headed a consortium that lent $1 billion to Iran Petrochemical Commercial Co. in September 2005. In 2002, it was central to Iran's sale of $1.1 billion in bonds - the first foreign Iranian bonds for sale since 1979.

Gaffney's targets include Royal Dutch Shell, the multinational oil conglomerate. It has extensive holdings in the key Iranian offshore oil fields Soroush and Nowruz, where its investments have been pivotal in raising oil output by 190,000 barrels per day - about an 8 percent increase in total Iranian output. (In October, Shell diversified its terror portfolio - winning contracts to search for and pump oil in Syria.)

In an ideal world, of course, there'd be real U.N. sanctions against Tehran, as well as strong action by the federal government. But vested interests make either near-impossible to achieve.

Back in the '90s, for example, then-Sen. Alfonse D'Amato pushed through sanctions against foreign firms that do business in two terror-sponsoring nations, Libya and Iran. But the Europeans protested vigorously that the law was an extraterritorial infringement of their sovereignty. So, while President Clinton signed the bill, he took the advice of National Security Adviser Sandy Berger and waived any application of the law.

But there's an alternative to shutting down Iran's economy in one fell swoop - the death of a thousand cuts, via smaller-scale actions. The Gaffney approach aims at the same goals as D'Amato's, but by private means.

And Steelman has added an important state component to the drive. Other public fund managers should pay heed. Here in New York, that means city Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. and the successor to Alan Hevesi as state comptroller.

Companies in the New York area should join in - and focus on persuading their banks to join the disinvestment project. Unions should direct their pension funds to do the same.

Even more than the rest of America, the town that is Terror Target No. 1 has good reason to end Iran's nuclear ambitions. "

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