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    Greater Israel -- What Does It Really Mean? 2003 - 2005 

Alfred Lilienthal
(NOTE: This web page is very long and filled with photos and maps. Please be patient if it takes extra time for you to view fully.)
Greater Israel -- What Does It Really Mean?

2003 - 2005

(NOTE: This web page was first created in early 2003 at the start of the US-led war on Iraq. A few additions have been made [and are marked as such] that provide new material in 2004 or refer to then 2003-present events as past. Please note that the material as it was first posted in 2003 clearly stated that other nations besides Iraq would soon be on the attack list as shown on our Uncle Sam poster next. And that this wider war instigated by the Neo-Conservatives in the Bush administration was primarily on behalf of the interests of Israel.)

The U.S. led war on Iraq... and eventually many other Muslim nations may be part of an Israeli plan to let others die for the goal of its expansion into Greater Israel. Extremist Zionist sympathizers in Bush's administration are the perpetrators of this scheme to have American military men and women die for Israel. See the arguments below for this claim. 

 Are Arabs and other Muslims really "crazy" 
 to believe  that the War on Iraq may be part of 
 an  Israeli and American "Zionist" plot to 
 dominate the entire Middle East?

KING SAUD INTERVIEW BY LILIENTHAL

ON ARAB-AMERICAN RELATIONS AND ZIONISM

The Federal Herald October 1954

From middle column of second page below:

This 1954 quote from King Saud provides an important insight that Americans and other Westerners rarely hear about  as to why the Arabs, in the early days of Israel in the late 1940s and early 1950s, made fierce statements about the need for "driving the Jews back into the sea."
 
Fifty years later, another (very infamous) Arab professes the same view that Israel intends to rule all the territory from the Nile to the Euphrates.

Do Americans realize that many Arab-Muslims believe they are defending their own lands and existence -- and not just that of the Palestinian Arabs?

Would we see it as only mindless Bin Laden style "terror" --  if there was any basis for their claim to need to defend themselves against American and Israeli plans to conquer the entire Middle East and subdue all Muslims?

See News and Other Commentary Next

NOTE: To read this entire web page without leaving to view other outside resources we link to as confirmation, wait until the end of this entire page and then click to our  Greater Israel "LINKS"   page for all the ones below and many additional articles we recommend at several other websites. 

Also, we do not totally agree with everything in a specific outside article or with controversial material we do not directly link to on those same websites.  Our viewpoint is expressed here and is not always represented in outside sources.

Greater Israel
(the grander view)

The Israel of Theodore Herzl (1904)
and of Rabbi Fischmann (1947)

In his Complete Diaries, Vol. II. p. 711, Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism, says that the area of the Jewish State stretches: "From the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates." 

Rabbi Fischmann, member of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared in his testimony to the U.N. Special Committee of Enquiry on 9 July 1947: "The Promised Land extends from the River of Egypt up to the Euphrates, it includes parts of Syria and Lebanon."

NOTE: Sometimes the term Nile to the Euphrates is used, whereas the Brook of Egypt may be another lesser waterway about 100 miles East of the Nile.  Either way, it adds up to the confiscation of a huge amount of Arab territory.

Selections from

Translated and edited by
Israel Shahak
(Concentration camp survivor and anti-Zionist Jew)

In 1982 Shahak wrote the following commentary on the Israeli policy text he translated into English.  Note that the main schemer then was Ariel Sharon whose invasion of Lebanon was part of this plan for division and conquest of the entire Arab world.  Sharon is now again in power but has used American Zionist sympathizers like Perle and Wolfowitz to have the U.S. military carry out his scheme for the ultimate establishment of Greater Israel. 

These men are not reprehensible because they happen to be Jews.  Many American Jews oppose both the war against Iraq and Israel's cruel occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.  These men may be guilty of questionable loyalties that appear to place the interests of Israel above the security of the United States.  It is not their religious or ethnic group that is being questioned.  It is their political and military influence upon Bush apparently due to a fanatical commitment to Zionism that is at issue.

Zionists who practiced brutal conquest --
See their photos and confessions next.

Here is an example of an ultra-Zionist who preached and practiced this doctrine that King Saud opposed.  Just in case we think such ideas are no longer honored by extremists in Israel, this biography is from a Zionist website that honors Avraham Stern -- a well-known killer whose "Stern Gang" perpetrated massacres and assassinations during the period leading up to the creation of the State of Israel.  Many Arab leaders knew exactly what plans for bloody conquest of their own homelands Zionist fanatics like this intended.

The new coalition government that Sharon recently established contains many open advocates of the "ethnic cleansing" (so-called transfer) of all Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza.  What would the world say if Bush made a coalition government in the U.S. with the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis who would fiercely advocate the deportation of all non-whites from American soil? The ultra-Zionists in the Israeli government right now consider these racist murderers below to be heros.

Also, the settlements Sharon originally encouraged many years ago and Sharansky has more recently promoted are mostly populated by vicious fanatics who believe in the Greater Israel scheme and are prepared to annihilate Palestinians and other Arabs to bring it about.  These too are their great heros.

Do these Zionist fanatics sound any less fanatical than Bin Laden?
Is it only a "crazy Arab" notion that some Zionists then and now 
have intended to eventually conquer most of the Muslim world?

Uri Zvi Greenberg sits on the Temple Mount with liberating Israeli soldiers One Truth and Not Two by Uri Zvi Greenberg (interpreted from Hebrew by Laurence Cramer) Your Rabbis taught: A land is bought with money You buy the land and work it with a hoe. And I say: A land is not bought with money And with a hoe you also dig and bury the dead. And I say: A land is conquered with blood. And only when conquered with blood is hallowed to the people With the holiness of the blood. And only one who follows after the cannon in the field, Thus wins the right to follow after his good plow On this, the field that was conquered. And only such a field gives nourishing and healthy bread And the house which arises on its hill is truly a fortress and a temple, Because in this field there is honorable blood. Your Rabbis taught: The messiah will come in future generations: And Judea will arise without fire and without blood. It will arise with every tree, with every additional house. And I say: If your generation will be slow And will not grasp in its hands and forcibly mold its future And in fire will not come with the Shield of David And in blood will not come with its horses saddled - The Messiah will not come even in a far off generation. Judea will not arise. And you will be living slaves to every foreign ruler. Your houses will be straw for the sparks of every wicked one. And your trees will be cut down with their ripe fruit. And a man will react the same as a babe To the sword of the enemy - And only your ramblings will remain - yours... And your statue, an eternal curse. Your Rabbis taught: There is one truth for the nations: Blood for blood - but it is not a truth for Jews. And I say: There is one truth and not two. As there is one sun and as there are not two Jerusalems. It was written in the Law of Conquest of Moses and Joshua Until the last of my kings and my traitors have consumed. And there will be a day when from the river of Egypt until the Euphrates And from the sea until the mountain passes of Moav my boys will go up And they will call my enemies and my haters to the last battle. And the blood will decide:  Who is the only ruler here.

Here is some information about how Zionist extremists and their American Christian supporters are working together to create chaos and bloodshed and may thus be engaging in a self-fulfilling prophesy of a great Armageddon.  Consider President Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft in on this dangerous and deluded scheme.  The American ultra-Zionists who are influencing them are Richard Perle, William Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, Eliot Abrams, and others who appear to place their loyalty to Israel above the true interests of the United States.  Our men and women in the U.S. military are being sent to fight and die for Israel to be safe from Arab countries that are concerned about Israeli designs upon their own nation's soil.  In the process, many innocents on both sides of this conflict will perish needlessly.  This below is the mentality behind our current events.  The Muslim claim of a Zionist-Christian "crusade" does not sound so absurd if we know the facts often unrevealed by our usual media.  

In the Shadow of Stern: The Inside Story of a LEHI  Intelligence Officer B’tzedek Volume 1, Number 2 Summer/Fall 1997/ 5757 by Arno Hakohen Weinstein DURING THE early days of Israel's formation as an independent nation, there were those who saw the Jewish quest of two thousand years as a diplomatic struggle, and there were those for whom it meant war. It may be that history has yet to judge the more critical of the two, for each position developed followers that continue to struggle with each other, as they did from the earliest years of the Zionist mission. Those elements within the nascent Jewish State that relied on the violent removal of foreign powers from Mandate Palestine included the Fighters for Freedom of Israel (LEHI). The organization was founded by Avraham Stern and sought the liberation of Eretz Israeland the establishment of an autonomous Jewish polity. This is the story of one intelligence officer of the LEHI. His name is Stanley Goldfoot. South African by birth, Mr. Goldfoot today resides in Jerusalem, and remains ever vigilant of Israel's future. The editors of B’tzedek were granted an interview with Mr. Goldfoot in an attempt to better understand one of the more dramatic events in the history of the LEHI and the nation of Israel. That event was the execution of United Nations' mediator Count Folke Bernadotte in the fall of 1948... To read the entire "glorious" confession of how Bernadotte was assassinated, just go to the Zionist site that honors Goldfoot's crime: http://www.saveisrael.com/articles/interestshadow.htm To see how Jerry Falwell also honors this terrorist and assassin, read the selection below and then the entire article by Grace Halsell, an American journalist and former White House speech writer during the Johnson administration. Christian Fundamentalist And Jewish Orthodox Cults Plot Destruction Of Al Aqsa Mosque For three decades, Gershon Solomon, a militant Israeli who heads an organization dedicated to the destruction of Jerusalem's most holy Islamic shrine, has led Zionist zealots in armed assaults on the Muslim grounds of Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, that encloses both the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosque. No Israeli political leader has spoken out against the assaults on the Mosque, holy to a billion Muslims around the world. Moreover, no Israeli rabbi has condemned them. Indeed, beginning in 1967, many of the assaults were led by Jewish rabbis. I first heard about the Israeli militants' intent to destroy the mosque in 1979 when I went to Jerusalem. I talked at length with Bobby Brown, a third-generation American from Brooklyn, flying to the Jewish state and instantly became a new citizen, confiscated land from Palestinians to help build an illegal Jewish settlement. "The mosque," he told me, "has got to go. It is a blot in our land." Militant Jews such as Brown and Solomon want a Jerusalem that is pure Jewish - without evidence of inhabitants of the other monotheistic faiths and their shrines. Surprisingly, millions of U.S. evangelical Christians endorse and financially support this Jewish plan. Although united in the immediate goal of destroying the mosque, the Israeli militants and Christian zealots have different long-range agendas. Secular Jews, such as Stanley Goldfoot, one of the perpetrators of the dynamiting in 1946 of the King David Hotel which killed some 100 Christian, Muslim and Jewish civilians, want the mosque destroyed for political reasons. Other Jews believe that the building of the temple on the Muslim grounds will usher in the Jewish Messiah. A growing number of Christians embrace the idea that in all history, Israel is on the center stage. They say God has planned epochs of time ("dispensations") such as the "in-gathering of the Jews in the ancient land of Canaan. One epoch, they say, includes the present time when Jews are obligated to build a Jewish temple and re-institute animal sacrifice, Such epochs or "dispensations" are necessary, they say before Christ can return. Ironically, while Christian dispensationalists place Israel as the most important nation in all the world, they do not respect or even like Jews- as Jews. Yet, because they believe Christ can only land in a "safe" area near Jerusalem, they make a cult of the land. They thus give total, unquestioned support to Israel.     Goldfoot and Solomon are welcome in countless U.S. pulpits, where Christian Zionists give generous donations of money, as well as their gold wedding rings and gold earrings to finance the mosque's destruction. They know its destruction might well trigger wars culminating in Armageddon, but they welcome this. They push Armageddon along, saying they, as "Born Again Christians," will be spared any suffering, because they will be "Raptured," wafted up into heaven to view the slaughter below.   "I am not worried," Lynchburg, Virginia televangelist Jerry Falwell shouts. "You know why? I ain't gonna be here!" This dispensationalist doctrine, less then 200 years old, pervades Assemblies Of God, Pentecostal and other charismatic churches, as well as the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention and countless so-called Bible churches and mega-churches. It's estimated that at least one out of every 10 Americans is a devotee of this cult. In both Israel and the U.S., a conspiracy of silence reigns as militants lay siege to the Jerusalem mosque. No political leader - or religious leader- in Israel or the U.S. has addressed this issue. In the case of Israeli rabbis, if they themselves have not aided and abetted planned assaults on the mosque, they have kept silent. In the case of all major U.S. Christian church leaders - the voices that are heard throughout the land- if they themselves are not raising money to destroy the mosque, they keep silent about the conspiracy...  http://www.aqsa.org.uk/flyers/plots.html Available at Amazon.com and on order from many bookstores.  Read this! Forcing God's Hand: Why Millions Pray for a Quick Rapture-- And Destruction of Planet Earth Does God want--even demand--that those of us living today destroy Planet Earth? Jim Jones led his followers to death telling them the end is near, so let's get on with it. Today, most TV evangelists say the same. David Koresh of the "Branch Davidians" and leaders of "Heaven's Gate" led followers to death declaring the world was doomed to imminent destruction. The danger to America, however, lies not so much in the so-called "crazies" as with mainstream Christians who have embraced a theology less than 200 years old. It gives them a free Rapture ticket. While they are certain there will be a great Tribulation--of wars ending in a final war--they are brainwashed to believe they won't suffer a moment of agony. As Jerry Falwell puts it, "I'm not worried. You know why? I ain't gonna be here."These cult members look like your average next-door neighbors. They attend a variety of Protestant churches, including those known as charismatic. They are rife among the 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention. They also are members of so-called Bible churches and mega-churches, such as those attended by Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr in McLean, Virginia, and Congressman Tom DeLay in Sugarland, a suburb of Houston. One of every ten Americans is a member of this cult. By praying for their Rapture and the End of Time, might they force the hand of God--to bring it about? Forcing God's Hand was Grace Halsell's last book. Her death occurred in 2000, less than a year after its publication and shortly before now Israel Prime Minister Sharon intently provokes a crisis and new "Intifada" by going to the "Temple Mount" with soldiers. We will soon have a Memorial page for humanitarian Grace Halsell at this website with many  photos and articles. 1923-2000 http://members.aol.com/GraceHalsell Click here above for her own  renewed Home Page.

Not all Zionist warriors had quite so vast a conquest in mind as Egypt to Iraq. This is the "map" the Irgun, headed by later Prime Minister Menachem Begin, saw as representing the territory they were to seize from the Arab inhabitants. Begin took part in "terror" activities such as the bombing of the King David Hotel and massacres of Arab villagers.  Albert Einstein and other Jews who opposed viciousness condemned the behavior of Begin and others like him.  Christian Fundamentalist preacher Jerry Falwell also became a great buddy to Begin and continues to promote other Zionists today who call for "ethnic cleansing" of the West Bank which Falwell refers to as Judea and Samaria.

  
Greater Israel(the lesser views) Rak Kach

Emblem of the Irgun which shows all of Palestine 
and Transjordan as the conquest goal in the late 1940s. This is the Israeli coin that some Arabs seem to seehaving the image of a map of the grander "Greater Israel," although, if it is a map at all, it would appear
to be more like the Irgun emblem.

See below an account of how an American discovered that Palestinians in Gaza do believe in Israeli intentions to conquer from the Nile to the Euphrates. Why would these oppressed people not suspect Zionist plots that might appear to us as "paranoid" unless we realize the very real fears behind them?  Are these Palestinians crazy, or do they know the long history of Zionist schemes which rarely is revealed in our U.S. media?

Below is map of (the pink areas) where current extremist Zionists are telling Jews worldwide to come to live even if it means driving all Arabs out.  This area actually goes well beyond present Palestinian territory (the West Bank and Gaza) into a wider intended Israel that includes areas already returned in peace accords like the Sinai to Egypt after the 1967 war.  Recruiting new Jewish immigrants worldwide to resettle some of these areas would mean a new war to reoccupy them.

QUOTE FROM ZIONIST SITE:
You need this land and it needs you, many of you. Millions of new Jews pouring into Israel will fill up its empty spaces, 
guarantee the retention of all the liberated lands of 
Judea, Samaria, Golan, Gaza, and Sinai;  assure a vast Jewish majority; add Western democratic
 and technical skills to the land.
 Eretz Yisrael will never again be lost to us!
(from the ahavat-israel.com site -- appeal for Jews to come to settle areas above)
NOTE: The Sinai would have to be reoccupied to do this.

This image of the grander "Greater Israel" is the only one presently on a Zionist site in English. The implication is that this may happen not necessary as a political or military objective but perhaps after the Jewish "Messiah." The map, however, is very clear that these Zionists see  themselves as eventual rulers of most Arab lands.

Greater Israel Map In Hebrew Does this image make it clear enough that what the Arabs and other Muslims have claimed,
 about schemes for Israeli expansionism, is actually a valid concern and not baseless craziness

These other "Greater Israel" images are at anti-Zionist sites that make the accusation of Israeli conquest plans.
Israel's Grand Design: Leaders Crave Area from Egypt to Iraq
by John Mitchell Henshaw

NOTE: The late John Henshaw was chief legman for columnist Drew Pearson, who later broke with Pearson. At that time, Henshaw’s expenses were paid by the Anti-Defamation League, a lobby for Israel, which had a "special relationship" with Pearson. Thus Henshaw’s Middle East insights are unique.

A Historical Perspective from 1968
http://www.mediamonitors.net/johnhenshaw1.html

Israel Plans Britzkrieg to Capture Arab Oil Fields
Operation Shekhinah -- February 2002 by Joe Vialls

If there is any validity to Mr. Vialls claim -- it would appear that ultra-Zionist sympathizers in Bush's administration have now seen to it that American men and women military persons will be the ones to fight and die for Israel's need for oil and expansion plans into Greater Israel.

http://geocities.com/operationshekhinah2/two.html

Is there any independent confirmation of King Saud's  and Bin Laden's claim (if the reported tape is actually from him) of this grander Zionist scheme for taking over  the entire Middle East as Greater Israel? Note that Saud claimed this was being taught in Israeli schools back in 1954.

An Honorable American Witness

Photo 1974 -- now deceased

Edwin Wright was born in Iran of missionary parents and knew the area well.  He also studied Hebrew, and when assigned to the Near East issues at the U.S. State Department during the Truman years, he went to Palestine to find out for himself what was really going on.  Here are some of his findings as given in his "Oral History" interview for the Truman Library.

See Edwin Wright's complete interview statement:

http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/wright.htm

Truman listened to Clark Clifford and other ignorant people who never cared to find out the facts as Ed Wright did. Truman later covered up his own blame by calling good men in the State Department like Wright:  Arabist anti-Semites. President Truman could have known the truth and protected the Palestinians and other Arabs if he had listened to Secretary of State George Marshall and other advisors who told him not to sponsor and recognize a "Jewish" state based on racial and religious discrimination toward non-Jews.  Instead, Truman foolishly listened to Zionist American schemers like Abraham Feinberg who raised the initial money for Truman's 1948 re-election campaign.  This disgraceful conduct by an American President has been repeated in one form or another by many American leaders since.  Read about the showdown between Clifford and Marshall at this link to see how a half century of horror in the Middle East could have been prevented.

Remembering General George Marshall’s
 Clash With Clark Clifford
 Over Premature Recognition of Israel

By Dr. Alfred M. Lilienthal

June 1999

http://www.alfredlilienthal.com/marshallclifford.htm

NOTE:  General and now Secretary of State Colin Powell has called George Marshall the greatest Man of War and the greatest Man of Peace that America has ever known.  Let us hope that Powell and others now will find the honor and courage of Marshall and refuse to support any of President Bush's future wars against other Mideast nations.

 Will even more innocent Americans and Arabs
(beyond what is already happening in Iraq)
  -- as well as innocent Jews in Israel and the U.S.
 who oppose extremist Zionism --
 now die because we have been denied
 the facts for over 50 years?


 WHAT IS THE BEST WAY WE CAN OPPOSE 
 THIS WAR AND OTHERS FOR ISRAEL? 

Read now this important article
by former Congressman Paul Findley:

Liberating America From Israel
http://www.alfredlilienthal.com/liberating_america_from_israel.htm

 What Price Israel? 

50th Anniversary Edition 1953 - 2003
With Brand New 16-Page Introduction
(reflecting current events) 
Available Now -- Click Here:
Online Selections From
What Price Israel?

 Greater Israel "LINKS" 
All the references on this web page
and many other articles we recommend.

http://www.alfredlilienthal.com/greaterisrael_links.htm

END OF PRESENT REPORT
as of August 1, 2003

   International Clearing House
      NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN
           A ‘Greater’ US and a ‘Greater’ Israel

How great can you get and is the world big enough? William Bowles Wednesday, April 16, 2003 At first sight, an alliance between right-wing Christian fundamentalists and right-wing Zionist fundamentalists might appear too bizarre to be true. But not if their long-term aims coincide as they do with the Bush and Sharon governments. How the two strands of neo-imperialist thinking connect is instructive and helps explain a lot of the events of today. Oil and land, you gotta have one with the other Sharon’s ‘Greater Israel’ crusade represents the fascist side of Israeli colonialism, masquerading as a ‘defence’ of the ‘Jewish homeland’. And it has suited US imperialist ambitions since the founding of Israel in 1948, to go along with this vision because the creation of Israel acted as a block to Arab nationalism and of course, as long as the Arab nations remain divided, gives free access to the vast oil reserves so crucial to the US economy. Taking out Saddam is clearly the first step in US attempts to redraw the map of the Middle East and take care of the Palestinian ‘problem’ at the same time. But will it work? And whilst the Bush/Blair alliance is happy to bleat about Saddam Hussein’s reign of terror, for decades the USUK was quite happy to turn a blind eye to the US puppet, the Shah of Iran’s reign of terror (and even supported the Ayotollah in the early days when it looked like a left-leaning, anti-western government would replace the Shah), the Feisal’s in Saudi Arabia, and the various and sundry petty potentates of the United Arab Emirates, not to mention USUK’s cynical support of Saddam Hussein, Muburak in Egypt, the right-wing Christian fundamentalist Falangists in Lebanon, King Hussein of Jordan. The list is long but the current onslaught only makes sense when put in the context of western imperialist ambitions following the collapse of the ‘Evil Empire’ in 1989. Who are the players? Whilst I am sure I’ll be accused of being a conspiracy nut, let’s look at who the players are in this latest US adventure starting with William Kristol, editor of the right-wing Weekly Standard, which published an Open Letter to President Bush a few days after 911, which asserted that it was imperative to "remove Saddam Hussein from power" and to "retaliate" against Syria and Iran. Kristol is also head of The Project for the New American Century and a former hack for Enron where he was paid $100,000 to say nice things about Enron in the columns of his publication. The Washington Post critic Howard Kurtz wrote that, "He…[Kristol, has] become part of Washington's circulatory system, this half-pol, half-pundit, full-throated advocate with the nice-guy image," who is "...wired to nearly all the Republican presidential candidates." (Feb 2000.) The Open Letter was published in the Weekly Standard, which was founded by Kristol with a $10 million gift from the ultra-rightwing press baron Rupert Murdoch. 41 leading neo-conservatives are all signatories to the Open Letter, including: Norman Podhoretz, editor of the right-wing Encounter magazine, and his wife, Midge Decter, also a writer with ultra-rightwing credentials Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Studies Robert Kagan, also of the Weekly Standard Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post, and, of course Richard Perle, ‘prince of darkness’ who is also a director of the Jersulem Post which is owned by right-wing Zionists And of course, the other suspects who are by now, well known to us but it’s worth listing them nevertheless: Paul Wolfowitz, father of the invasion of Iraq, is No. 2 in the Defense Dept. Douglas Feith, friend of Perle, heads the Pentagon Planning Board John Bolton is a State Department Undersecretary Eliot Abrams, responsible for the Middle East in the National Security Council, heavily embroiled in the Iran-Contra-Israel scandal. Another Iran-Contra player and convicted felon, Oliver North, is a member of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs Michael Ledeen, also involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, advocates total war not only against Iraq, but also against Israel's other enemies, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority Dov Zakheim who is comptroller for the Defense Department. Along with Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, nearly all are associated with the "Project for the New American Century", the ‘bible’ for US world domination. Other key players include: Meyrav Wurmser, Director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Hudson Institute who also writes for the Jerusalem Post and is co-founder of the Middle East Media Research Institute which according to the Guardian is connected to Israeli Army Inlelligence. Meyrav's husband, Davis Wurmser, is at Perle's American Enterprise Institute, in charge of Middle East Studies. William Safire of the New York Times and an avid supporter of Ariel Sharon And Perle associate, Robert Bartley, who is the editor of the Wall Street Journal. The Christian Fundamentalist connection Extreme right-wing Christian fundamentalists, who now control Bush's Republican Party include: Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority, who got a jet plane as a present from Menachem Begin, former prime minister of Israel. Pat Robertson of the Christian Coalition and the Christian Broadcasting Network, which help to finance the Christian Embassy in Jerusalem of J.W. van der Hoeven, an organisation that supports the settlers and their right-wing allies. Last but not least we have General Jay Garner, an ideological partner of Paul Wolfowitz and the neo-conservatives, who has been appointed head of the occupying forces in Iraq. In 2001, he signed a petition organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, praising the Israeli Army for "remarkable restraint in the face of lethal violence orchestrated by the leadership of the Palestinian Authority," After leaving the army in 1997, he became a defense contractor specializing in missiles. This year he obtained a defense contract for $1.5 billion, as well as a contract for building Patriot systems in Israel. Media complicity It is important to note the role of the mass media in this gallery of rogues as it includes influential writers on the main mouthpieces for US imperialism, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and of course, Murdoch’s Fox News Network. (For more the media’s role in pumping up the war, see http://www.fair.org/) But will it work? On paper, the USUK/Israeli alliance looks fine. Taken together, the military might of the alliance has no opposition. And with Israel’s Weapons of Mass Destruction, a Sword of Damocles hanging over the captive populations of the Arab world, who is to stop them? Yet of course, the world has changed. USUKIsrael can no longer count on the EU and global opposition to the warmongers plans is almost total. Yet is this enough to reign in the ambitions of the imperialists? If it’s simply down to military might, it’s obviously no contest. The question we must ask is whether or not USUK can carry out its plans using only its military dominance? The US economy is in dire straights. Indeed Western capitalism is in the throes of a crisis comparable only to the Crash of 1929. They are moreover, divided along a fault line which hinges along the issue of global warming and the potential environmental catastrophe the planet faces. A catastrophe which in no small part, is the result of unrestrained consumption, primarily by the US. In 1990, when the first climate conference took place in Rio, it is instrumental to note that it was the countries of Europe which first took on board the longer term implications of climate change, led by the then Chancellor Kohl of Germany. And in spite of all the fine words at the time, Clinton and later Bush Snr wouldn’t back them up with deeds. At first sight, it might appear that the issue of the planet’s biosphere and the imperialist ambitions for global domination are unconnected, yet the two are intimately linked through oil. The fault line then is the future of the capitalist economies and it’s the crossroads at which Europe as a whole and the US part company. Where does the UK fit into this game plan? Again, at first sight it’s difficult to determine what the Blair government stands to gain from its involvement. My own inclination is to put it down to tired old white men trying to recreate the empire of their dreams. For whatever the rationale was in the beginning of this disaster, it no longer holds. Are the interests of British capital tied to Europe or to the US? Blair has to decide. As it stands, he risks being caught in the middle of game he’s just not up to playing as he now in the league of the big guys. Current events back up my thesis. As the post-war scenario unravels, it’s clear that the Blair government is increasingly uneasy about the route the US warmongers are taking, though what he’ll be able to do about it is open to question. Not only because the WMDs have failed to materialize (though I’m sure the US will make sure they ‘turn up’ at some point). But crucially the handling by the USUK occupation forces is revealing to the world just how little they actually care about the Iraqi nation, its people and its culture. The trashing of Iraq’s national heritage while the ‘forces of freedom’ stood by and simply watched an act of cultural genocide being committed, and which is a crime against humanity (along with all the other crimes the USUK invasion has committed) under the UN Convention on Human Rights. Already, there is talk of the actual complicity by the USUK occupation forces in this crime. In addition, it’s clear that what actually faced the invading forces, far from being some kind of bloodthirsty army bent on taking over the Middle East and points North, South, East and West was in actuality, the rag tag remains of an army and a country that has been bombed into submission for the past twelve years. History repeating itself? The Balfour declaration of 1917, that promised the Jews a homeland in Palestine, was the brainchild of Lord Palmerston and Lord Shaftesbury. Palestine was selected because of its strategic position in relation to the Suez Canal and Britain’s control of the canal which it ‘stole’ from the French and the sea routes to its colonial possessions in the Far East. Richard Perle’s ‘grand plan’ echoes this vision which sees the occupation of the Arab nations and their oil whilst advancing Sharon’s vision of a ‘Greater Israel’. Indeed, Perle has publicly stated this as an objective. What can we do? First and foremost, inform ourselves. The media onslaught on both sides of the Atlantic is formidable with even the supposedly anti-war London Independent going with the flow. To give you a taste of the kind of double-speak we have to deal with, here are just a few statements from today’s (April 16) edition: Concerning the ‘evidence’ that Colin Powell submitted to the UN in February on intelligence material ‘proving’ that Iraq had acquired uranium (yellowcake) from an African country, the US now admits that it was "forged by a Western intelligence agency, possibly MI6 or Mossad." The Independent incredulously states the following: "The obvious question is: if President Hussein had such weapons, why didn’t he use them?" Duh? Obvious question? Surely the obvious question to ask is why did MI6 or Mossad forge them in the first place and, why did Powell choose to use information that was so obviously a forgery? Could it be because it order to justify the invasion of a sovereign state is was necessary to invent a reason? And if so, why doesn’t the Independent (independent?) ask this question? Or, here’s another classic piece of newspeak: "But what precedent has the Iraq war set for solving the problems of WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] in other countries such as North Korea, Iran or Pakistan?" But why no mention of Israel? And given all the crocodile tears spilt over Hussein’s treatment of Shia and Kurdish minorities, it has this say without breaking its stride: "Any Shia rebellion is likely to be crushed by America and its sponsored Iraqi forces [My emph. WB], just as Saddam and his predecessors did in previous times." Crushed? What like Saddam crushed them? One of the reasons I thought USUK went to war for in the first place was to put a stop to this kind of behaviour! Or finally, the issue of the Iraqi National Congress, headed by convicted felon Ahmed Chalabi (he embezzled $70 million from the Jordanian-based Petra bank and was sentenced to 22 years hard labour in abstentia) about which the Independent says: "…the most visible [in Iraq] exile opposition group before the war…" Visible? Who says? The Pentagon that’s who. Or, if you prefer, let the head of the INC in Washington tell us just how visible he or the INC is to the Iraqis: "They may not know the man. But he represents their views." Oh really? And why no mention of the INC’s connection to US oil interests? "The INC is quietly courting the American oil companies. In mid-October, Chalabi had a series of meetings with three major U.S. oil firms in Washington. "The oil people are naturally nervous," says INC spokesman Zaab Sethna, who took part in the meetings between Chalabi and the oil executives. "We've had discussions with them, but they're not in the habit of going around talking about them." That's true. In interviews, oil company officials speak cautiously and only on background about Iraq, laughing nervously at the idea of being quoted. They are extremely wary of associating themselves with the INC or with U.S. war plans for fear of angering Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries in the Persian Gulf. Asked about talks with the INC, one U.S. oil executive blanched, saying, "I can't discuss that, even on background."" For more on this puppet of US oil interests see http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/21/dreyfuss-r.html from which this extract is taken. If I can find it in about 10 seconds on Google, why can’t the Independent? Perhaps it doesn’t want to? I could go on but it hardly seems worth it. I’d rather you, the reader use this incredibly powerful tool we have, the Internet, to do your own investigating. After all, I’m not paid to do this, I just have an abiding interest and concern about what happens to the planet I live on. Credits I am grateful to Uri Avnery an Israeli journalist for some of the source material for this essay. His essays are included in The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent (http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery04102003.html) 

   From the International Press Centre               
Sharon, Bush and the race for ‘Greater Israel’
 By Patrick Seale 17 October 2003
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his friends in Washington are in a hurry. They are racing to achieve their objectives before anyone stops them. And when they are in a hurry, they are particularly dangerous. Syria and Iran are in their sights, with further down the road Saudi Arabia, and even Egypt. Political and economic pressure, financial penalties, sanctions, intervention, regime change by military force, these are their chosen instruments for bending the Arabs to the will of Israel and its United States patron. Sharon’s main objective is the building of a “Greater Israel” on the ruins of Palestinian nationalism. His latest instrument is the wall or separation barrier which is imprisoning the Palestinians on a fraction of their territory, cutting them off on all sides from contact with their Arab neighbors. The wall is due to be finished in eight months’ time. Sharon is determined that nothing must prevent its completion. At the UN Security Council this week, he won a major victory when the United States vetoed a resolution, proposed by Syria, condemning the wall. Within hours, a radical Palestinian group attacked the motorcade of an American delegation in Gaza, killing three Americans and wounding a fourth. Sharon will no doubt exploit this latest incident to rally American opinion against the beleaguered Palestinian president, Yasser Arafat. Sharon’s main worry, however, and the reason for his haste, is that George W. Bush could be thrown out of office at next year’s US presidential election ­ and with him the whole band of pro-Israeli neoconservatives which have set the administration’s agenda since Sept. 11, 2001. These are the men who pressed for war against Iraq as a first step toward reshaping the geopolitics of the entire Middle East. But the sluggish US economy, the mess in Iraq, and the anti-American anger sweeping the Arab and Muslim world are now making Bush look vulnerable. A Democrat in the White House may not be so tolerant of Israel’s foolhardy ambitions or so ready to endorse the neocons’ aggressive policies. Sharon has other worries closer to home. The political fallout from the current police investigations of his two sons, Omri and Gilad, for alleged sharp practice and bribe-taking could drive Sharon himself from office in 2004. And to compound his fears, the Israeli left which for the past two years has seemed terminally ill and politically irrelevant is showing faint signs of revival. Leading opposition figures such as Yossi Beilin, Amram Mitzna and Avraham Burg have joined with Palestinian moderates, led by Yasser Abed Rabbo, in drafting a detailed peace plan for a two-state solution ­ the so-called Geneva Accords. The plan, the result of two years of secret negotiations funded by the Swiss government, is due to be signed formally in Geneva next month, putting flesh on the bones of the tentative agreements reached at Taba in January 2001. It represents everything that Sharon and his friends detest and which he has spent his life seeking to destroy. It provides for an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders (with some marginal modifications) to allow for the emergence of a viable Palestinian state; some major settlements close to the Green Line to be annexed to Israel but those deep inside Palestinian territory to be evacuated; Jerusalem as a shared capital; Palestinian sovereignty over the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount); Israeli sovereignty over the Wailing Wall and the Jewish quarter of the Old City; and ­ a major Palestinian concession ­ the abandonment of the “right of return” to towns and villages lost in 1948. An international force would monitor implementation of the plan while radical Palestinian groups would be tamed and shut down. These Geneva Accords may, in the present climate, seem hopelessly utopian. They have no chance whatsoever of being implemented while the Sharon government, or anything resembling it, is in power. Their potential importance, however, lies in offering the Israeli public what it lacks and longs for most ­ hope that the nightmare of killing and counter-killing can be brought to an end. In other words, a change in Washington, and a move back to the center by an Israeli public won over by a credible peace plan, could yet pose a threat to Sharon’s ambitions. He has reacted to the Geneva Accords with barely suppressed rage. “By what right,” he snorted, “are left-wing people proposing moves that Israel can never do, nor will ever do!” Sharon has always wanted one 100 percent of Palestine, an ambition which would have involved expelling most, if not all, of the Palestinian population of the West Bank to Jordan, which would then have become a Palestinian state. As the obstacles to such a project are formidable, Sharon has opted for something a shade more modest: the seizure of about 90 percent of historic Palestine, confining the Palestinians to some 10 percent of the overall territory behind the notorious wall. No doubt he calculates that, once the wall is finished, it will in due course come to be accepted by the international community, and by the Palestinians themselves, as defining Israel’s borders. Hence, his determination, and that of his American supporters, to move ahead with all possible speed while the regional and international environment is in their favor. Sharon’s major asset is President Bush himself. Backing off from engagement in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Bush administration appears to have decided to leave Israel to manage the Palestine problem on its own terms. So much is clear from its veto of UN Resolutions condemning the wall and Sharon’s recent strike inside Syrian territory, from its silence over continued settlement expansion and from its failure to react to Israel’s massive destruction of Palestinian property at Rafah, on Gaza’s border with Egypt, which this week left 1,500 Palestinians homeless. As he nervously prepares for his election campaign, his ratings slipping in the polls, Bush’s collapse before Sharon must be judged one of the blackest pages in recent American history. It has provoked incredulity in Europe and, more ominously, bitter hatred of the United States in Muslim communities around the world. Yet, Sharon has much cause for satisfaction: While Israel faces no strategic threat, its enemies tremble. A shattered Iraq is under American occupation; Iran, facing great international pressure over its alleged nuclear weapons program, is wracked by internal conflicts between conservatives and reformers; the Arab Gulf, seemingly indifferent and content, lies under America’s military umbrella; Egypt, neutralized by its peace treaty with Israel and by America’s annual subsidy, hardly dares open its mouth in defense of the Palestinians; while Syria faces harsh and threatening pressure on all sides ­ from Washington, now preparing to vote into law the economic and diplomatic boycotts enshrined in the Syria Accountability Act; and from Israel, which last week sent its planes to strike at Syria and seems ready to do so again. Sharon still thinks he can bludgeon the Palestinians into submission. The attack on the Palestinian camp near Damascus, together with Israel’s repeated incursions at Rafah, are clearly intended as warnings to Syria and Egypt to halt all support for the Palestinians ­ or face the consequences. But Sharon has not yet found an answer to the suicide bombers who have traumatized the Israel public, ruined the economy, killed the tourist trade and cut off foreign investment. They are a profound embarrassment to Sharon, but he may think it a price worth paying. His priority is land, not security. That, he believes, will follow once the wall is built and the Palestinians surrender. The sources (The Daily Star). 

                           
                       Media Monitors Network

Life under Larsen revealed by Antarctic survey
Monday February 26, 05:00 PM By Catherine Brahic
A voyage to explore the marine life beneath a vast sheet of Antarctic sea ice has enjoyed great success, uncovering new species and terrain ranging from barren to teeming with fast-growing life. The barely known ecosystems below Antarctic ice sheets are described as "the last marine frontier" by researchers. The Polarstern expedition found a new species of giant crustacean and sea-cucumbers that had previously only been seen in the deep sea in any number. View a gallery of the incredible (Advertisement) creatures revealed . The investigation was made possible by the collapse of the Larsen ice-sheet in northeast Antarctica, which disintegrated in two stages. First, Larsen A fell apart in 1995. Then, in 2002, a massive chunk of ice, 3250 square kilometres in area and 220 metres thick, broke off. The disintegration of Larsen B made headlines worldwide and was seen as a sign of the dramatic consequences of global warming (see Giant Antarctic ice sheet breaks off ). For biologists, it opened a realm that had been virtually inaccessible. The area under Larsen B has been capped by ice since the last ice age. "The break-up of these ice shelves opened up huge, near pristine portions of the ocean floor, sealed off from above for at least 5000 years, and possibly up to 12,000 years in the case of Larsen B," says Julian Gutt, a marine ecologist at Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and chief scientist on the Polarstern expedition. "Until now, scientists have glimpsed life under Antarctica's ice shelves only through drill holes." As part of a new Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML), Gutt led a 10-week voyage to the area which used to lie under Larsen A and B. The seabed varied in depth, between 100 metres and 850 m beneath the surface. In order to explore, the researchers sent down a remotely-operated submarine which captured video footage and collected samples. The researchers discovered extremely varied environments in their explorations, which concluded on 30 January. In shallower areas, where the several-hundred metre thick ice shelf had scraped along the bottom, the seabed was barren and carved with parallel grooves left by the glaciers as they moved out to sea. In other areas, the seabed teamed with life. Gutt believes some of these animals and plants have moved into the area since the collapse of the ice shelves. He mentions the great number and density of fast-growing sea-squirts - transparent tube-like animals that attach themselves to the seafloor. Under Larsen B, the sea-squirts are about five years old, which corresponds closely with when the shelf collapsed. He was also stunned to find a great number of sea cucumbers, normally found 2000 m beneath the surface. The researchers are uncertain why these species were found in such shallow waters, but note that both the deep sea and the underside of ice shelves have very poor resources in common. "The sea cucumbers belong to that fauna which I believe were found originally under the ice shelf," says Gutt. Small clusters of dead clamshells on the ocean floor suggested the past presence of a very rare "cold seep" - a seabed vent which would have spewed methane and sulphides. Such vents can create temporary habitats for life in otherwise barren environments. But when such seeps run dry, the communities that rely on them starve. Among the potential new species found during the trip were: - 15 new shrimp-like amphipod species, including one that was 10 centimetres long, making it one of largest ever seen in Antarctica - Four new species of cnidarians - organisms related to coral, jelly fish and sea anemones - Two new species of octopus The researchers have brought specimens back and will now compare them to known species to see if they are indeed new. CAML is run by the Census of Marine Life. It has 13 expeditions planned during the International Polar Year, which launches on 1 March 2007. The Polarstern expedition brought together 52 researchers from 14 countries. Check back later for videos from the voyages.
Mysteries of the Deep Sea -The deep sea is one of the harshest habitats on Earth, but is home to many remarkable creatures. Learn more in our comprehensive special report .

     

Family faces talks over obese schoolboy

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An eight-year-old boy who weighs 14 stone is waiting to find out if he is to be taken into care.Connor McCreaddie from Tyneside is so overweight he can hardly walk and social services are deciding whether it amounts to child abuse.His mother Nicola McKeown, 35, has blamed doctors for failing to help the family.Connor weighed 15 stone 8lb - four times the weight of a healthy child of his age - before Christmas but has lost 1 stone 7lb since beginning an intensive exercise regime and swapping junk food for healthy alternatives two months ago.Ms McKeown, 35, sought help from professionals and the family have been getting assistance from health workers and a dietician.The family face a child protection conference with North Tyneside Council to discuss Connor's progress in losing weight.The last resort would be for social workers to place him in care but his mother is hopeful this will not happen.She said she had received little help from doctors and urged social workers to allow the family to look after Connor.She said: "I think it's really terrible. They've tried to say that I've neglected Connor and he should come under the child abuse Act, and I think it's really disgusting."Through Connor's weight gain there's been no-one there to step in. He's been going to doctors and stuff, he's been getting weighed, and no-one's actually stepped in and said `Look, there's a problem here, we have to get it sorted.'"So I asked for help and it's been offered but it hasn't been given yet."She said removing Connor into care would be "disastrous" for him."Taking him away from his family when he needs them to help him would be, I think, disastrous for Connor. I think it would make him worse."

Jade Makes Surprise Visit To India
 Monday February 26, 03:09 PM
Jade Goody has spoken exclusively to Sky News after making a surprise visit to India, following the Celebrity Big Brother race row.
The star made headlines around the world when she allegedly racially bullied Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in the reality TV house.
Correspondent Alex Crawford tracked down Goody in New Delhi. Looking relaxed, she said: "Obviously I've said my apologies.
I'm here on a private visit and I'm having meetings with certain people.
"She arrived in India declaring she was "trying to put the Big Brother stuff behind me".
The star - who chose to travel on the Indian airliner Jet Airways - said she had already spent the first few hours of her trip travelling
around the capital as a tourist. "I am here on a strictly private visit," she told Sky News. "I could have had my entire trip paid for and
 the people travelling with me could have been paid for but I didn't want that."I am paying for the trip and all the expenses myself. I don't want to be seen to be making money out of what happened."Asked whether she was here to do a deal with an Indian television company in an attempt to rehabilitate her floundering career, her agent Sally Andrews said: "No, this is not a business trip. It is strictly private."They also denied they would be meeting Indian politicians during the four-day visit
On being asked whether the row over her treatment of Shetty had "blown over", the former dental nurse said she didn't want to "make light of what had happened" but things were getting better.She said: "'I only got two hate mail (after the show). People are being all right to me." Goody and her agent were returning from visiting a monument in New Delhi and remarked there had been a "good response" from the Indian public to her presence.At the height of the row, the Indian tourist board in London issued an open invitation to her to come to the country to find out for herself about the culture and the people. Goody has been to India before - to do research on her own brand perfume called Ssssh! The bottling factory is in Gujarat - about 100 miles from Mumbai.

Take That plan UK tour

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Take That are planning a huge UK tour of 22 shows starting later this year.The band will be playing in Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, London and Manchester.Mark Owen, Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Jason Orange have named the Beautiful World 2007 Arena tour after their number one album released last November.The band will be travelling to Las Vegas to see a series of shows to get ideas for their tour, which they want to be very hi-tech.Mark said: "We want to put on a huge production - to push it in terms of new technology - to make it really special."The tour will start on November 16 at the NEC in Birmingham and end in Manchester on December 19. Tickets go on sale on Friday.

Rowling sues Ebay 

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Author J.K. Rowling is taking legal action against eBay after unauthorised versions of her Harry Potter books were allegedly being sold on the Indian version of the internet auction website. Rowling is suing eBay for breach of copyright and has obtained a court injunction that bans the site from listing illegal copies of her books.The writer's lawyer Akash Chittranshi says, "This is the first time eBay has been compelled to take measures to prevent e-books being sold." 



     







Mills' Dancing appearance infuriates the disabled
Sir Paul McCartney's estranged wife Heather Mills' forthcoming appearance on US TV show Dancing With The Stars has angered a disabled group in her native Britain, who claim her ability to dance means she is able-bodied. Mills wears prosthetic limb after losing her left leg below the knee following a 1993 road accident in London. After the charity campaigner confirmed she would be a contestant on the show next month, the Federation Of Disabled People claim she has no right to use the blue disabled badge on her Mercedes car, which gives users priority parking in public places and in car parks. The Federation's spokesperson Kathy Gordon says, "Clearly she has mobility so she should refrain from using the badge. It's not fair on other disable people."

Blanchett looking good for the Oscars

Cate Blanchett is on the way to winning her second Academy Award in three years, but Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman have had their Oscar hopes dashed.

DFAT says Australian arrested in Iraq

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has confirmed a 39-year-old Australian citizen has been arrested in Iraq.

The man of Iraqi origin was detained by coalition authorities in Baghdad in mid-October.

"He is being held as a security internee under the authority of The United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1637 for engaging in anti-coalition activity,'' a DFAT spokeswoman told AAP today.

She said Australian consular officials met with the man on November 10 and spoke to him by telephone on December 15.

"He is well," the spokeswoman said.

The Australian embassy in Baghdad had been in contact with US authorities in relation to the detention and officials in Canberra were in touch with the man's family, she said.

However, DFAT could not confirm reports today that the man was Warya Kanie, an Iraqi Kurd refugee who came to Adelaide about three years ago with his young daughter.

The Weekend Australian reported that Mr Kanie left Adelaide about seven months ago after gaining Australian citizenship, telling his family he was going to look for a new wife in Iraq.

Meanwhile, DFAT has advised Australians not to travel to Iraq as consular assistance is limited, particularly outside Baghdad.

Labor calls on government to help

Labor Leader Kevin Rudd said the Australian government should be giving the man as much support as possible.

"Every Australian abroad who finds himself in trouble deserves legitimate consular support from the Australian government,'' Mr Rudd told reporters on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland today.

"That's partly why we pay our taxes, to make sure that when you're overseas at any given time you run into trouble with the law or other sorts of trouble, that there are appropriate levels of Australian government support abroad.

Live Photos and footage of the Eglinton Hostel
                                  
Airlie Beach Witsundays Queensland Australia -80 acres absolute ocean front landsuitable for luxury home and health retreat on each 40 acres or other types of development, surrounded by 10,000 acres of national park -asking price approximately $Aust 100 Million see: www.buytradebid.com for more information on the unreplaceable property.
 
Meteor Threat at the Eglinton
As some of you may have read in the paper, an imminent collision between an approaching meteor and a large mirror in the reception area has forced the closure of this hostel. It is now less than an hour to the end of the final AM shift. The last CD is spinning at the same rate as the meteor - a deliberate ploy. Elizabeth Brown, or LIZ!) has completed her farewell lap of honour round the Crescent in her wee car at roughly one quarter of the speed of rotation of the CD. The freezers are being counted below, the last cash-up has prematurely gone to the bank. Mr Ballantyne was lifted carefully down from the wall. Breakfast was a bit of a Tortilla Special thanks to Xavi, to mark the closure. Blood poured from fake neck woiunds as Hallowe'en was acknowledged, while Durham University law student Ma Yue, from Dailin in NE China, was suitably surprised to have her 23rd biirthday marked by a chocolate cake and singing when she got back from extracting a German tourist visa from next door. The postman left his bag and refuses to contemplate 14 new flats with door entry systems. The afternoon tea arrives on a tray as Ian McInnes(maintenance) maintains the great tradition of hospitality (As long as one of us remains standing, etc,etc). Amaya and Jamie-Lee (this morning's real live Hallowe'en kitchen witch) get back from the Greggs run to keep the dismantling team going. The bedsheet box has seen its last frayed strip of used bedding, the kitchen gas rings have heard their last encouraging spark. The countdown continues. Twenty minutes to three, the witching hour. Marjolaine sits on the tartan carpet with her cats eye lenses still in from the breakfast bloodfest. Nobody ate the sausages. Sandy heads to the Eglinton Account at the bank for the last time. The phone has rung just the once in the last hour, a Newcastle football team hoping to book as they've done every year. They don't believe what they're being told but can't see what we can see. The bedplan is done 0 days ahead, but that will do fine as there's no arrivals list. Anybody want to buy a coloured pencil? But time flies when you're enjoying yourself. A quick glance at the clock tells me it is already three. I don't have time to turn to the window but hear a rustling in the yellowing leaves of the faithful old chestnut tree out the back as something hurtles through at twice the speed of sound; there's only time to duck, and remember the mirror as it was...

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Editors of the USA Weekly News Tom and Chris chat with David Beckham and Michael Moore about their investigation into the sale by the Scottish Youth Hostels Association of the Eglinton and Brunsfield Hostels to friendly developers who are turning these historic heritage Edinburgh hostels that were donated for the benefit of the youth as affordable accomodation to promote Scotland. The developers expect to make over £13 million pounds profit from each building by turning these historic buildings into 30 flats and selling them for £1 million each. The developers have paid about £2 million for each building which should show them a net profit of about £25 million pounds. It is believed is that the directors of the Scottish Youth Hostels Association will receive a large payment from the developers for their help in transfering these valuable properties to the developers at a fraction of their real value as development sites in the most pretigious part of Edinburgh the Capital City of Scotland.
 

 
Walter R B Ballantyre-
 Photo supplied to the USA Weekly News by founding members of the SYHA who were personal friends of the late Walter Ballantyre who were asked to keep an eye on the SYHA to make sure that the SYHA should be true to its basic purpose of giving people of limited means the opportunity of enjoying the Scottish countryside.

Walter R B Ballantyre who donated all the over 70 hostels in Scotland to the Scottish Yourth Hostels Association, who gave more than fifty years of distiguished voluntary service to the Scottish Youth Hostels Association (SYHA) and who between 1935 and 1988, held successively, the offices of Assistant Honorary Sedretary, Honoroary Secretary, Vive Chairman, Chairman and Honorary President. And Chariman from 1958 to 1975 he exerted a wise and moderating influence upon the affairs of the association and was always concerned that it should be true to its basic purpose of giving people of limited means the opportunity of enjoying the Scottish countryside. In recognition of this service to his own Association and to the wider international youth hostel movement, he was elected as Honary President of the Scottish Youth Hostels Association (S.Y.H.A.) in 1975 and was awarded the Richard Schirrmann Medal in 1978 and the Order of the British Empire in 1982.
 
Now Walter Ballantyre has died in 1988, a new breed of directors with completely different aims have emerged. Their names are Victor Hugh Bourne- director appointed 23-10-06; Paul Goldfinch -director appointed 23-10-06; Judith Roxburg director appointed 23-10-06 and Margo Sarah Paterson-secretary appointed 23-10-06. It appears from interviewing staff and members that the aims of these new directors is to turn the original company company known as the Scottish Youth Hostels Association (SYHA) with over 70 vary valuable freehold hostels through Scotland into a private company and form a new company called the SYHA which is effectively a shell comany with no assets for the public image. The original company with hundreds and millions in real estate assets which owns the over 70 Hostels would then be a private company controlled by these greedy people who want to take the use of these assets away from the member sand the wider community and keep them for themselves. It appears that they have moved a long way in carrying out these aims. They have on the 23-10--06 formed a new not for profit company called the Scottish Youth Hostels Association. To do this it appears they lust have changed the name of the old company from the SYHA to another name to make this name available in the United Kingdom. It is impossible to have two companies with the same name in the United Kingdom. So what happened to the original SYHA that Watler Ballantyre formed, donated over 70 freehold hostels to and proudly excerted a moderating influence over for many years to make sure the SYHA would stay true to its basic purpose of giving people of limited means the opportunity of enjoying the Scottish countryside. The directors of the original SYHA, now called another name appear to have tried to sell two of the most valuable properties in the besy part of Edinburgh as cheap as they can to property developers friends who's are planning to turn them into flats with a potential £25 million profit to the developers. It is beleived the Eglinton Hostel and the Brunsfield Hostel have been sold for about £2 million each when there was an offer for about £5 million pounds each. It seems strange that they ywould put these two properties up for tender and accept les that have the price from one buyer than another buyer was prepared to pay. Also it is interesting to note that the other buyer offering £5 million pounds each for these two properties was a genuine not for profit public company who was wanting to keep the two Hostels run in the way they were for the last 50 years to keep their use true to the original basic purpose of giving people of limited means the opportunity of enjoying the Scottish countryside. It apears that hte game plan by the new directors is to sell valuable development properties belonging to the non for profit company as cheap as they can to friendly property developers, and use the cash to purchase other modern properties at the highest price they can from friendly property developers. This would allow the directors of the SYHA to work with these friendly development companies to make millions of pounds in profits for them selves and over a period of time water down the assets of the original SYHA which appears to no longer exist in it's original form. There now is new SYHA formed on the 23-10-06 which has no assets and no income and will be used as a public image that the SYHA is continuing its good work in Scotland. The new company appears the be leaving the assets behind in the old company for the directors and their associates of the SYHA to do what they like with. The USA Weekly News has written to the directors of the newly formed SYHA and Michael Pringle a member of the Scottish Parliament in an attempt to gain some open and frank answers regarding what appears to be a massive fraud on the 30,000 members of the SYHA who have paid their membership money in the belief that they would have continued use the Eglinton and Brunfield Hostels in Edinburgh for many years to come. This appears to have come to a sudden end, unless there is something done to stop Mr Victor Hugh Bourne, Mr Paul Goldfinch, Judith Roxburgh and Sarah Paterson and their associates from carrying out their aims.

At this stage the directors have refused to speak to the USA Weekly News has not even heard from their lawyers to try and stop the media group publishing this information to the world wide community.
Weekly News about these serious allegations against them, which implies to our media group and the general public that these allegations are true. The USA
 
   Michael Moore:Stupid White Men :
Online Chapters"The Sad and Sordid Whereabouts of bin Cheney and bin Bush"
A Free Online Chapter addition to "Stupid White Men" by Michael Moore Part One: "What Does a 99-cent Bic Lighter Tell Us About the Bush War on Terrorism?" On September 22, 2001, just 11 days after the terrorist attacks in New York and Arlington, I had to fly. I had actually wanted to fly on September 11, and in fact had a ticket on the 3:00pm American Airlines flight from LAX to JFK. As we all know, that flight never made it off the ground as hours earlier four California-bound flights, two on American and two on United, were hijacked as part of a coordinated suicide mission to attack the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington, DC. Stranded in Los Angeles, my wife and I (out there for the annual Prime Time Emmy Awards for our series, "The Awful Truth"), were awakened that morning by my wife's mother, calling us from Flint at 6:15 a.m., L.A. time. I answered the phone and heard her say that "New York was under attack, New York is at war." I remember thinking, "So what's new," but she suggested we immediately turn on the TV. I fumbled for the remote and switched on the hotel room TV. And there it was. The twin towers on fire, black smoke billowing upward. "OK," I thought, "a really bad fire." But then they ran the replay from 15 minutes earlier, of the second plane hitting the south tower. This wasn't an accident. We tried to call our daughter in New York. The phone lines weren't allowing any calls. We tried calling our friend, Joanne Doroshow, who works a few blocks from the towers. Again, the lines were jammed. A horrible panic started settling inside me. Finally, I reached Joanne's office. A woman answered, frantic. I asked if Joanne was there. "NO!" she shouted. "She's not here! We have to go! Ohmygod!" She dropped the phone and I heard a loud roar, like a train. My wife said, "Look at the TV." I did, and I saw from L.A. what I was listening to over the phone: the collapse of the south tower. It would be another four hours before we were able to reach our daughter, and seven hours before Joanne calls us, safe inside her apartment (she had ducked into a building just in time as the cloud of debris rained its way down the street). That night, as we watched the images repeated on the TV, a ticker began running the names of some of the dead who had been on the planes. Along the bottom of the screen came the name, "William Weems." A friend of ours the next morning confirmed that this was, in fact, the same Bill Weems, a line producer from Boston with whom we had recently filmed a batch of humorous TV spots targeting the tobacco companies. Bill was on the Boston-to-L.A. plane. He died as the jet, traveling at 586 miles per hour, slammed into the south tower. He left behind a wife and 7-year old daughter. It was all so unbelievably horrific. The airports were closed and all planes were now grounded. I found a Hertz dealer who would rent me a mini-van for $1,700 -- and 43 hours later we pulled out of our hotel on the Pacific Ocean and began our 2,990-mile journey home to our apartment in New York City. Somewhere around Oklahoma City, the airports were all open again, but my wife did not want to ditch the mini-van and get on a plane. So we continued on home for the next few days, the first ever trip each of us had made driving coast to coast. It was, as it turned out, well worth it, as it gave us a chance to gauge the reaction of average citizens, especially as we passed through Bush and Ashcroft country (The internet letters I wrote – and read – from the road can be found on my website). By September 22, I had no choice but to get back on a plane. I had been scheduled to give a talk in San Antonio, and so off I went on an American flight out of Newark. At the airport there was a newly, hastily put-together list of all the items that I could NOT bring aboard the plane. The list was long and bizarre. The list of banned items included: No guns. (Obviously) No knives. (Ditto) No boxcutters. (Certainly now justified) No toenail clippers. (What?) No knitting needles. (Huh?) No crotchet hooks. (Now, wait a minute!) No sewing needles. No mace. No leaf blowers. (OK, now it's personal) No corkscrews. No letter openers. No dry ice. The list went on and on. A lot of the items made good sense. I wasn't quite sure if terrorists also made quilts in their spare time, and I guess I must have missed the terrorist incident where some poor bastards smuggled dry ice aboard a plane (were they trying to keep their Popsicles cold until they ate them and then used the sticks for their attack?). Frankly, I was a little freaked-out about flying so soon after 9-11 and I guess there was just no way I was going to fly without a weapon for my protection. So I took the New York Yankees-signed baseball that Mayor Giuliani had given me on "TV Nation," put it in a sock, and – presto! Whip that baby upside somebody's head, and they're going to take a little nap. Note to budding terrorfuckers: If you try something on a flight I'm on, I'll Clemens ya. That, or the smell from my ratty sock, is going to do you in. 
Though I now felt "safe" with my makeshift weapon, as I continued to fly through the fall and winter, I did NOT feel safe being greeted at airport security by weekend warriors from the National Guard holding empty M-16s and looking like they shop in the same "special needs" department at K-Mart which I visit from time to time. More importantly, though, I kept noticing something strange. The guy in front of me, while emptying his pockets into the little plastic tray to run through the x-ray machine, would take out his butane lighter or matchbook, toss them into the tray, then pick them up on the other side -- in full view of security. At first I thought this was a mistake until I looked at the list of banned items again -- and saw that butane lighters and matchbooks were NOT on the forbidden list. Then came December 22, 2001. Richard Reid, on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami, attempted to light his shoes on fire, using matches. His shoes, the police said, contained a plastic explosive and, had some passengers and flight attendants not taken quick action to restrain him, he would have been able to blow the entire plane out of the sky. But his lighter would not light the shoes fast enough, and everyone survived. I was sure after this freakish incident that the lighters and matches would surely be banned. But, as my book tour began in February, there they were, the passengers with their Bic lighters and their books of matches. I asked one security person after another why these people were allowed to bring devices which could start a fire on board the plane, especially after the Reid incident. No one, not a single person in authority or holding an unloaded automatic weapon, could or would give me answer. My simple question was this: If all smoking is prohibited on all flights, then why does ANYONE need their lighters and matches at 30,000 feet -- while I am up there with them?! And why is the one device that has been used to try and blow up a plane since 9-11 NOT on the banned list? No one has used toenail clippers to kill anyone on Jet Blue, and no one has been blowing away the leaves in the aisle of the Delta Connection flight to Tupelo. BUT SOME FRUITCAKE DID USE A BUTANE LIGHTER TO TRY AND KILL 200 PEOPLE ON AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT #63. And this did nothing to force the Bush Administration to do something about it. I began asking this question in front of audiences on my book tour. And it was on a dark and rainy night in Arlington, Virginia, at the Ollsson's Bookstore a couple miles from the Pentagon that I got my answer. After asking my Bic lighter question in my talk to the audience, I sat down to sign the books for the people in line. A young man walks up to the table, introduces himself, and lowering his voice so no one can hear, tells me the following: "I work on the Hill. The butane lighters were on the original list prepared by the FAA and sent to the White House for approval. The tobacco industry lobbied the Bush administration to have the lighters and matches removed from the banned list. Their customers (addicts) naturally are desperate to light up as soon as they land, and why should they be punished just so the skies can be safe? The lighters and matches were removed from the forbidden list. I was stunned. I knew there had to be some strange reason why this most obvious of items had not been banned. Could the Bush mob be so blatant in their contempt for the public's safety? How could they do this, and at the same time, issue weekly warnings about the "next terrorist threat"? Would they really put Big Tobacco's demands ahead of people's lives? Yes, of course, the answer has always been YES but not now, not in a time of national crisis, not NOW, so soon after the worst domestic mass murder in U.S. history! Unless there was no real threat at all. The hard and difficult questions must be asked: Is the "War on Terrorism" a ruse, a concoction to divert the citizens' attention? Accept, if you will for just a moment, that as truly despicable as George W. Bush is, he would not be so evil as to help out his buddies in tobacco land that that would be worth suffering through another 9-11. Once you give the man that – and for once I am asking you to do just that – once you admit that not even he would allow the murder of hundreds or thousands more just so Marlboro addicts can light up outside the terminal, then a whole other door opens – and that door, my friends, leads to the Pandora's Box of 9-11, a rotten can of worms that many in the media are afraid to open for fear of where it might lead, of just how deep the stench goes. What if there is no "terrorist threat?" What if Bush and Co. need, desperately need, that "terrorist threat" more than anything in order to conduct the systematic destruction they have launched against the U.S. constitution and the good people of this country who believe in the freedoms and liberties it guarantees? Do you want to go there? I do. I have filed a Freedom of Information Act demand to the FAA, asking that they give to me all documents pertaining to the decisions that were made to allow deadly butane lighters and books of matches on board passenger planes. I am not optimistic about what the results of this will be. And let's face it – it's just one small piece of the puzzle. It is, after all, just a 99-cent Bic lighter. But, friends, I have to tell you, over the years I have found that it is PRECISELY the "little stories" and the "minor details" that contain within them the LARGER truths. Perhaps my quest to find out why the freedom to be able to start a fire on board a plane-full of citizens is more important than yours or my life will be in vain. Or maybe, just maybe, it will be the beginning of the end of this corrupt, banal administration of con artists who shamelessly use the dead of that day in September as the cover to get away with anything. 
     
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Death of the crocodile hunter        Live Video Footage of Steve Irwin
 Mike dolan remembers TV naturalist Steve Irwin, killed by a stingray today Crikey, welcome to Crocodile country," was the sort of phrase that made Steve Irwin famous. That and the fact that he could wrestle a 12ft crocodile with great bravado in front of a camera. Today, however, the khaki-clad Australian died after a stingray's barb pierced his chest while filming in Queensland. The creature is not usually considered a killer; Irwin, 44, is only the third Australian known to have died this way. For decades, he had taken calculated risks with all sorts of wildlife, relying on his knowledge of animal behaviour and personal experience to beat the odds. But the man who became known as 'The Crocodile Hunter' – after his US TV  show of the same name– was more than a showman. He was a passionate conservationist and wildlife advocate. It all began in Queensland where he was brought up. While his father Bob was officially a plumber, and his mother Lynn a maternity nurse, the family's consuming passion was rescuing local wildlife. In 1970 the hobby became a full-time job when the Irwins opened a reptile park. Young Steve came to share his parents' obsession with wild creatures, and soon displayed an uncanny rapport with them, able to sense their moods and preferences. Although he eventually claimed the title 'The Crocodile Hunter', Irwin's methods differed drastically to those of earlier hunters. Rather than ending up as handbags, the crocs bagged by Irwin were later released in a new home deeper in the wild, or at the Irwins' reptile park. In 2001, Irwin appeared in a cameo role in the Eddie Murphy film Dr Dolittle 2. This led to a featurefilm, The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, and a string of documentaries, including The Crocodile Hunter Diaries. Within a few years, he was one of the most famous faces on US TV. Irwin was the type of man who would walk out of a Chinese restaurant if he spotted shark fin soup on the menu. He hated the idea of a threatened species being brought to the edge of extinction because it made a tasty appetiser. He recently agreed to appear on the Australian children's TV show The Wiggles, knowing that children's attitudes towards wildlife were essential to its future survival. "My husband has a unique ability to jump through the TV screen and into your lounge," his American wife, Terri, said recently. "He grabs you and drags you into the wild so you share his wonder and excitement.