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France offers civilian N-deal modelled on US-India accord

France offers civilian N-deal modelled on US-India accord
PARIS, May 15: France backs a wide-ranging civilian nuclear deal to buy nuclear equipment like the one signed by the US with India, according to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
He said negotiations on the nuclear technology accord would be held in July this year and a new framework agreement and memorandum of understanding were likely to be signed during the visit of French
President Nicolas Sarkozy to Pakistan in September.
Talking to reporters after President Asif Ali Zardari met the French president here on Friday, he said Mr Sarkozy had told Mr Zardari that he wanted Pakistan to be able to buy nuclear equipment.
“France has agreed to transfer civilian nuclear technology to Pakistan ... They have agreed that Pakistan should be treated like India,” Mr Qureshi said.
“President Sarkozy said, and I quote him, ‘What can be done for India can be done for Pakistan as well’. This is a major development,” Mr Qureshi said.
An official of Mr Sarkozy’s office said France wanted Pakistan to improve its nuclear security but he did not comment about the possibility of an India-style deal.
“The president confirmed that we are prepared ... to cooperate with Pakistan in the area of nuclear safety.”
Mr Qureshi rejected concerns about the safety of Pakistans nuclear arsenal and its proliferation history.
“We will assure the world that we are an important and a responsible nuclear power and we can handle these matters without threatening or endangering anyone,” he said.
“Pakistan has no issues with the IAEA. We are willing to give international guarantees. We want the world to feel secure, and Pakistan will give all necessary guarantees,” he said.
DRONE ISSUE: He denied that there was any agreement with the United States for sending surveillance drones to monitor militants’ activities.
“There is no agreement. If there was an agreement why would we be protesting against violations of our sovereignty?” Mr Qureshi said.
“We have an intelligence-sharing arrangement that has been working successfully,” he said. When asked if the agreement included flying drones into Pakistani airspace, he said: “No.”
“We are in the process of the transfer of this (drone) technology to Pakistan,” Mr Qureshi said, adding Pakistan wanted to operate drones itself.
“We feel we are capable of handling this technology. Our armed forces are sophisticated enough to handle this technology,” he said.
France has also agreed to provide 300 million euros in assistance to Pakistan in addition to 12 million euros for people displaced from Swat. —Agencies

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Pak increasing nuclear weapons: US


Pak increasing nuclear weapons: US




Washington: The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has confirmed reports that Pakistan is increasing its nuclear weapons programme, but has provided no details. The confirmation came during a Senate Armed Services committee hearing when Democrat senator Jim Webb, an expert on defence issues, raised fears that Pakistan is adding to the nuclear weapons it traditionally has pointed toward India, and questioned whether US aid could be funding it.
Noting reports that Pakistan "may be actually adding on their weapon systems and warheads" Webb asked: "Do you have any evidence of that?"
"Yes," Mullen answered.
Webb said that is a cause for "enormous concern," because with the militant threat, he said, Pakistan's government is not very stable.
The US has urged Pakistan to focus on the extremist threat instead of India. But Mullen told senators that it's still unclear that Pakistani leaders can shift their focus for a long period even as they slowly acknowledge that militants pose more of a security risk.
"Historically, they haven't done that," Mullen said. "So right now, I'm encouraged by what's happened, but I certainly withhold any judgment about where it goes because of the historic lack of sustainment, and they know they need to do that."
Also at the hearing, Admiral Mullen said it is not only Pakistan's top leaders who need to recognise the militant threat.
He said Pakistan's powerful intelligence service, the ISI, must also change its approach, and one key to that is convincing its leaders there will be a long-term US commitment to helping them defeat the militants.
"The ISI in the long run has to change its strategic thrust and get away from working both sides," he said. "That's how they have been raised, certainly over the last couple of decades, and that's what they [are going to continue to] believe, until they think we're going to be there for a while."
Asked by Senator John McCain, Republican presidential opponent of Barack Obama, whether he still worried "about the ISI cooperating with Taliban?", Mullen simply said: "Yes, sir."
Several senators voiced doubts about sending millions of dollars to Pakistan without assurances it will be spent to fight extremists who threaten security and political stability both there and in Afghanistan.
Next year's Pentagon budget includes $700 million to train and otherwise help Pakistan fight insurgents.

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Manufacturing Consent For Attack On Pakistan


Manufacturing Consent For Attack On Pakistan


Leaked reports even suggested that US has plans to attack and seize Pakistani nukes. US deny it but the fact remains that top secret US units are already practicing the drills. Fox news broke the story.


Pakistan and securing its mobile arsenal of nuclear warheads if it appears the country is about to fall under the control of the Taliban, Al Qaeda or other Islamic extremists.
American intelligence sources say the operation would be conducted by Joint Special Operations Command, the super-secret commando unit headquartered at Fort Bragg, N.C.
JSOC is the military's chief terrorists hunting squad and has units now operating in Afghanistan on Pakistan's western border. But a secondary mission is to secure foreign nuclear arsenals -- a role for which JSOC operatives have trained in Nevada.
The mission has taken on added importance in recent months, as Islamic extremists have taken territory close to the capital of Islamabad and could destabilize Pakistan's shaky democracy.
"We have plans to secure them ourselves if things get out of hand," said a U.S. intelligence source who has deployed to Afghanistan. "That is a big secondary mission for JSOC in Afghanistan."
The source said JSOC has been updating its mission plan for the day President Obama gives the order to infiltrate Pakistan.
"Small units could seize them, disable them and then centralize them in a secure location," the source said.
A secret Defense Intelligence Agency document first disclosed in 2004 said Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal of 35 weapons. The document said it plans to more than double the arsenal by 2020.
A Pakistani official said the U.S. and his country have had an understanding that if either Usama bin Laden, or his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, is located, American troops and air strikes may be used inside borders to capture or kill them.
What makes the Pakistan mission especially difficult is that the military has its missiles on Soviet-style mobile launchers and rail lines. U.S. intelligence agencies, using satellite photos and communication intercepts, is constantly monitoring their whereabouts. Other warheads are kept in storage. U.S. technical experts have visited Pakistan to advise the government on how to maintain and protect its arsenal.
Also, there are rogue elements inside Pakistan's military and intelligence service who could quickly side with the extremists and make JSOC's mission all the more difficult.
"It's relatively easy to track rail-mounted ones with satellites," said the intelligence source. "Truck- mounted are more difficult. However, they are all relatively close to the capital in areas that the government firmly controls so we don't have to look too far."
JSOC is made up of three main elements: Army Delta Force, Navy SEALs and a high-tech special intelligence unit known as Task Force Orange. JSOC was instrumental in Iraq in finding and killing Abu Musab Zarqawi, the deadly and most prominent Al Qaeda leader in the Middle East.
There is speculation in the intelligence community that a secondary reason for Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal being named the next commander in Afghanistan is that he headed JSOC in 2006-08 and is read-in on its contingency missions in Pakistan.
Adm. Michael Mullen, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, this month said that based on the information he has seen Pakistan's nuclear warheads are safe.
"I remain comfortable that the nuclear weapons in Pakistan are secure, that the Pakistani leadership and in particular the military is very focused on this," he said. "We the United States have invested fairly significantly over the last three years, to work with them, to improve that security. And we're satisfied, very satisfied with that progress. We will continue to do that. And we all recognize obviously the worst downside of -- with respect to Pakistan is that those nuclear weapons come under the control of terrorists. "


Rowan Scarborough is the author of "Rumsfeld's War: The Untold Story of America's Anti-Terrorist Commander;" and "Sabotage: America's Enemies Within the CIA."


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US urged to engage Pakistan to protect nukes

US urged to engage Pakistan to protect nukes
WASHINGTON, May 11: Two senior US scholars, one of whom headed a White House review team, have urged the Obama administration to engage Pakistanis to protect their nuclear weapons instead of taking a unilateral action.
“A jihadist state in Pakistan is neither imminent nor inevitable, it may not be likely, but it is a real possibility,” says Bruce Riedel, who heads the White House team for reviewing the US policy for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at Washington’s Brookings Institution, argues that the possibility of a Taliban takeover leads American policy-makers to the inevitable question: “What could we do if Pakistan collapsed and the security of its roughly 100 nuclear weapons could no longer be vouched for?” The answer, says Mr O’Hanlon, “in most scenarios, is that we could only usefully do what the Pakistanis themselves might ask us to do. Unilateral American action would probably be too little, too late”.
Mr Riedel warns that a jihadist Pakistan would be a strategic nightmare for America, South Asia and the world.
According to him, a jihadist Pakistan would provide Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups with the ultimate sanctuary in the worlds’ second largest Muslim state, protected by nuclear weapons, with a global diplomatic presence and Pakistani diaspora that could be used to support terror.
A jihadist takeover would also make the Nato mission in Afghanistan increasingly untenable. It would be a direct threat to both India and Iran, encouraging both to expand and accelerate their own nuclear programmes.”
The Brookings Institution, which arranged this debate, notes that the military offensive in Swat caused American officials and former officials to discuss what the American response should be to the heightened conflict.
Mr Riedel, who has served three US presidents as an adviser, recalls that just before her murder in December 2007 former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said, “I now think Al Qaeda can be marching on Islamabad in two to four years.”
“Today her prophecy seems all too real,” says the US scholar who worked for the CIA for 29 years before joining the Brookings as a senior scholar.
He identifies the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and other extremists as Al Qaeda’s allies in Pakistan, noting that they are becoming increasingly powerful.
“They are no longer confined to the tribal belt along the Afghan border but have built strong bases of support in the nation’s heartland, the Punjab, and in the major cities.”
He says that the mayor of Karachi told him recently the Taliban alliance are now threatening to take over his city, the country’s only major port and Nato’s logistical supply line for the war in Afghanistan.
“Thus it is critical that the United States do what it can now to strengthen the Pakistani moderate centre which is resisting the jihadist Frankenstein,” he argues.
“Congress should pass the Kerry-Lugar legislation that triples economic aid and the Pentagon’s proposals for increasing counter-insurgency assistance to Pakistan with a minimum of conditionality.”
He warns: “Trying to legislate changes in Pakistani behaviour is a recipe for disaster — as the history of US-Pakistan relations demonstrates — now is the time to support Pakistanis who are ready to resist extremism and jihadism.”
Mr O’Hanlon notes that some in America believe Pakistani nuclear weapons are stored in easily identified sites that could be attacked with air power or special forces, and can be destroyed, if necessary.
“Such an option might be worth considering if the alternative were to allow nuclear weapons to fall into the hands of extremists,” he argues. “But the timing and the logistics would be challenging.”
Discussing the US dilemma whether to attack or not to attack the weapons, he points out: “We would not want to bomb sites that remained in government hands, even if Pakistani forces seemed to be gradually losing control of the situation. Yet if we waited even an hour or two after the sites were seized, the weapons could already have been removed.”
Mr O’Hanlon notes that the flight time for American bombers operating from the military base Diego Garcia might be too long, even if the aircraft had been pre-deployed and authorised to strike the sites. There is also the danger that US weapons would not penetrate the hardened facilities, mostly likely underground.
“Moreover, there could be weapons in sites we don’t know about, since the Pakistanis don’t trust us entirely and the locations of all their weapons are unlikely to be fully known.”
Mr O’Hanlon points out that American officials believe at least “some weapons could be in transit at a given moment, especially if the Pakistanis came to believe that the security of their nuclear bunkers was in jeopardy”.
The best possible solution, he says, would be for Pakistan and its leaders to ask for help to create secure perimeters around nuclear sites.
If requested, the United States could do a lot. “Such a joint mission would also be a useful deterrent against possible Indian actions against such sites. I doubt things will get this bad, but if they do, let’s hope Islamabad has the good sense to request our collaboration on the ground,” he concludes.

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US / Israeli / Indian goal

The ultimate US / Israeli / Indian goal is to get control over Pakistan's nuclear program

It is now getting dangerously exposed that US is working on a fats track program to attack, “secure” or destroy Pakistani nuke assets, taking advantage of the weak and corrupt government of Zardari. But انشاءاللہ defeat and humiliation awaits them as Allah plots and plan too and He is the best of the planners! “US stress is to build peacefully relations between Pakistan and India, even at the cost of auctioning Pakistan’s national security interests. Mr. Zardari is the biggest US asset who has now been detailed to serve Indian interests under shadowy secret deals which basically compromise Pakistan’s historic stance towards India. Allowing transit routes to Indian military and diplomatic services to Afghanistan would be a suicide for Pakistan. Mr Zardari has signed the agreement on his latest tour to US. Also, according to Mr. Zardari, troops from Indian border are being moved to fight Taliban in the West. The ultimate objective of US is to get to Pakistani nukes. The support to terrorist groups in Pakistan by the CIA is aimed at creating doubts about Pakistan’s nuke program’s vulnerability.”
The cat finally came out of the bag!!. The entire CIA / Mossad / RAW game plan in the region, their invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, their support to terrorist groups like TTP and BLA, their pressure to bring about a war within Pakistan, and their desire to create an environment of confusion and chaos in Pakistani politics are aimed at proving to the world that Pakistani nukes are about to fall into the hands of terrorists and need US invasion to “secure” them. This is the ultimate prize US is engaged in Pakistan before it can officially launch its “Yugoslavia” option to initiate formal dismemberment of Pakistan. Shameless and audacious plan as it seems, this is exactly what is being discussed in US war planners and diplomatic circles.

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Govt must act on flag, anthem issue: Magsi

Govt must act on flag, anthem issue: Magsi
QUETTA, May 11: Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi said on Monday it was the responsibility of the provincial government to take action against elements who removed national flag from educational institutions and stopped recitation of national anthem by their students.
“Nobody should be allowed to challenge the writ of the government,” the governor said, adding that removing national flag and not allowing recitation of national anthem did not mean that the government had no control over the province.
The governor, who was talking to reporters during a visit to the Frontier Corps Headquarters here, said the provincial government should take notice of the issue. The federal government would intervene if the situation went out of control of the provincial government, Mr Magsi added. He said the government would restore its writ and institutions responsible for maintaining law and order were working effectively.
He said that people raising the slogan of independence of Balochistan were not living in the province. “Only a few people are raising this slogan and they are living abroad and we don’t accept this slogan.”
He expressed the hope that the situation in the province would soon improve and nationalists would be ready for talks and said the federal government should hold talks with nationalist leaders to resolve the Balochistan issue.
“The federal government can resolve the issue by accepting the genuine demands of the people of Balochistan, including provincial autonomy, control over provincial resources and increase in province’s quota in federal services and other institutions,” he added.
The governor held the Musharraf government responsible for the law and order situation in the province.
Earlier, the governor was briefed on responsibilities and performance of the Frontier Corps in Balochistan. A senior FC officer said that the FC was deployed to secure borders, prevent smuggling of arms and narcotics, protect national installations and maintain law and order if asked by the provincial government.
The FC had seized narcotics worth Rs4 billion and a large quantity of arms and ammunition in various parts of the province over the past four years. The FC is also carrying out various health and educational projects. It is running seven primary, seven middle and six high schools and organises free medical camps in remote areas of the province.

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Gwadar likely to become Balochistan’s winter capital

Gwadar likely to become Balochistan’s winter capital
QUETTA, May 14: The Balochistan government is likely to declare Gwadar as the winter capital of the province.
“A decision has been taken in principle and the plan is likely to be approved with the next provincial budget,” sources told Dawn, adding that officials concerned were working on details of the proposal.
“The decision will have a far-reaching impact on the economy of Balochistan, particularly of Makran,” the sources said.
Balochistan Assembly Speaker Mohammad Aslam Bhootani confirmed that the proposal was being actively considered. “If the government takes a final decision to make Gwadar the winter capital of the province, economic activities in the port city will get a big boost,” he said.
The sources said a bench of the Balochistan High Court would also be set up in Gwadar.
They said that Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani, Speaker Aslam Bhootani, the chief secretary and provincial ministers had held several meetings in Islamabad in this regard.

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Baluchistan

Baluchistan
In Baluchistan, however, sub-nationalists and separatist are working on multiple agendas to weaken the federation with the help of elected (CIA planted) provincial government of Raisani and Zardari led suspect government. Situation is easily manageable but perhaps this political setup needs to go asap. The idea to create another capital for Baluchistan is meant to create a Baluch only city near the sea to act as base for future separate Baluchistan State as Quetta is a primarily Pashtun city and army HQ is also located there. This is a sinister move by the provincial and federal government in an environment where Baluchistan is reeling under insurgency and funds are badly needed for security and basic infrastructure developments. In an environment where provincial government is actively allowing secessionist movements to grow and Pakistani flag and anthem is being desecrated, another winter capital near the seaport is highly suspicious move.

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Pakistan army says 1,000 militants killed

Pakistan army says 1,000 militants killed
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 17 (UPI) -- Pakistan's army has killed more 1,000 militants and nearly eliminated Taliban control of the North West Frontier Province, military officials said Sunday.
The Taliban remained in control of just 2 percent of the province after a two-week offensive, the officials told CNN.
The government did not say how many people were displaced or how many civilians were killed, CNN said.
The United Nations Saturday estimated more than a million people have been displaced by the military's operation to rout militants launching attacks from Pakistani tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.
Pakistan's army launched the offensive after Taliban fighters took control of the Buner district just 60 miles from the capital city of Islamabad.

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Operation Rah e Haq Operation Rah – e – Haq

Operation Rah e Haq Operation Rah – e – Haq

الحمد اللہ
Our forces continue to surround, capture or kill the terrorists. BrassTacks have seen exclusive photos clearly confirming that those fighting the army in Swat are NOT Muslims. We are faced with Sikhs, Gorkhas and Uzbek origin non-Muslim men posing as Mujahideen and creating anarchy in the country. The final showdown would be in Mingora city where the city has been evacuated and the militants are digging in for an urban showdown. Right now, the city is being encircled by the army and supply and escapes routes of the militants being blocked. It is going to be a dirty and bloody affair in the coming days but the army does not wish to leave them to fight another day. It is going to finish within Swat, انشاءاللہ. The commando drop in Peochar Mountains is the biggest Special Forces drop in the history of Pakistan army with 3 battalions landing within the den of terrorists surprising them totally. History is being created in the remote valleys are Special Forces hunt and destroy terrorist dens and cadre. Fierce resistance was being offered by the militants but they are being decimated from all sides. Militants are trying to release the pressure from Swat by trying to open multiple fronts in tribal areas and through acts of terrorism. Peshawar was jolted twice in a day causing multiple fatalities. Tribal pockets are seeing some bloody clashes but this time forces are hitting hard, الحمد اللہ.

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President Zardari's visit to France

President Zardari's visit to France

Why President Zardari went to France? Apart from fun and games while the country burnt, he had other sinister plans!
But the real story of the weak is the visit of Mr. Zardari to France for dubious military and nuke deals. France is too keen to sell its Scorpion subs to PN but the SMAP (submarine acquisition project) of Pakistan Navy consisting of dedicated submarine officers opted for German sub-Marines.
France had been able to scuttle this sale in earlier Benazir Bhutto era and was able to sell inferior Agosta 90B subs to Pakistan Navy. This time, the Navy SMAP opted for German Subs. The project is again being attacked by France through all means possible. Now, half Jew Mr. Sarkozy is working on Mr. Zardari to convince him to change the deal and offering some dubious nuke “safety” deal as carrot. In reality, even this nuke safety deal is suspicious as it consists of certain locking systems for the nuke devices to prevent them from use, even if they fall in wrong hands. Basically, these are weapon denial locks which would even cripple Pakistani armed forces capability to use them in times of crisis. Navy is holding its ground for German subs while Mr. Zardari is negotiating it with Mr. Sarkozy.

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A letter to brasstack founder (Mr honourable Zaid Hamid) from wife of a officer serving in Swat.

A letter to brasstacks founder
(Mr honourable Zaid Hamid) from wife of a officer serving in Swat.

This is a fascinating message from one of our sisters whose is also wife of a Ghazi officer serving in Swat and elsewhere to protect the Pak Sarzameen. We want to share it with you all. Those who have never shed their blood for the motherland nor risked any loved one can never understand how it feels to fight and die for a sacred cause, noble mission and romantic dream. Here our sister shares her feelings with us. She is absolutely right that it is India in Swat. We even have proof that there are non-Muslim troops fighting against us perhaps of Gorkha or Uzbek origin. It is time, nation stop doubting the cause and start backing the army big time. May Allah bless this land always and forever, AMEEN.
"Dear Brother Zaid Hamid, May Allah give you more strength, as you have touched our (Pakistanis’) hearts, and have brought us together on this platform. I am a wife, daughter, grandaughter, and daughter in law of army officers. Infact, I’m also the daughter of one of those “chand pagal pakistani’ who are still uncorrupt and working day and night to revive and progress some of our institutions. I have also experienced the tension as a wife, while my husband was serving the nation in Swat. It feels great once people applaud the sacrifices of army personnel. At this time I would like to point out how some people allege that our soldiers do this for the salaries and land allotments – Trust me you cannot PAY someone to put their lives on the line and to emrace shahadat for our country. Our soldiers unlike our enemies do not fear death cause they know that they are serving for the cause of a nation “PAKISTAN’ which was created in the name of Allah. And because of that, no matter how many hurdles India has thrown in its way, ALLAH HI PAKISTAN KA HAFIZ HAI. REST ASSURED THAT IT IS INDIA BEHIND SWAT. Hindus have not come out of the complex that they lost their ‘Indian land’ to the Muslims. Rest assured they can never be our friends. This is a message that we have to pass on to our generations and warn them against India’s brutal mentality. It is time that we quit using any indian products (movies, clothes, toiletries).
PAKISTAN ZINDABAD
INDIA MURDABAD.
sara"

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CDC: Antidepressants most prescribed drugs in U.S.

CDC: Antidepressants most prescribed drugs in U.S.

By Elizabeth Cohen
CNN

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Dr. Ronald Dworkin tells the story of a woman who didn't like the way her husband was handling the family finances. She wanted to start keeping the books herself but didn't want to insult her husband.
The doctor suggested she try an antidepressant to make herself feel better.
She got the antidepressant, and she did feel better, said Dr. Dworkin, a Maryland anesthesiologist and senior fellow at Washington's Hudson Institute, who told the story in his book "Artificial Unhappiness: The Dark Side of the New Happy Class." But in the meantime, Dworkin says, the woman's husband led the family into financial ruin.
"Doctors are now medicating unhappiness," said Dworkin. "Too many people take drugs when they really need to be making changes in their lives."

For Dworkin, the proof is in the statistics. According to a government study, antidepressants have become the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. They're prescribed more than drugs to treat high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, or headaches. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen discusses the CDC study on antidepressants »
In its study, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at 2.4 billion drugs prescribed in visits to doctors and hospitals in 2005. Of those, 118 million were for antidepressants.
High blood pressure drugs were the next most-common with 113 million prescriptions.
The use of antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs -- those that affect brain chemistry -- has skyrocketed over the last decade.
Adult use of antidepressants almost tripled between the periods 1988-1994 and 1999-2000.
Between 1995 and 2002, the most recent year for which statistics are available, the use of these drugs rose 48 percent, the CDC reported.
Many psychiatrists see this statistic as good news -- a sign that finally Americans feel comfortable asking for help with psychiatric problems.
"Depression is a major public health issue," said Dr. Kelly Posner, an assistant professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. "The fact that people are getting the treatments they need is encouraging."
She added that 25 percent of adults will have a major depressive episode sometime in their life, as will 8 percent of adolescents. "Those are remarkably high numbers," Posner said.
While Posner says genuine depression is driving the prescription numbers, Dr. Robert Goodman, an internist in New York City, says the real force behind skyrocketing antidepressant prescription rates is pharmaceutical marketing to doctors and to consumers. "You put those two together and you get a lot of prescriptions for antidepressants," he said.
He questions whether all those prescriptions are necessary. "It's hard to believe that number of people are depressed, or that antidepressants are the answer," he said.
Goodman is the founder of a group called "No Free Lunch," a group that encourages doctors to reject gifts from pharmaceutical companies. He added that patients sometimes see ads for antidepressants on television and ask doctors for the drugs -- and that studies show these requests work.
In a study published two years ago in the Journal of the American Medical Association, actors pretending to be patients went to doctors in the San Francisco area and said they were depressed.
The "patients" who asked for an antidepressant were significantly more likely to get a prescription for one than patients who didn't ask for an antidepressant.

Patients' requests have a profound effect on physician prescribing in major depression and adjustment disorders," concluded the study's authors.
But Posner's concern is about under-prescribing, not over-prescribing.
"Fifty percent of African-Americans who have depression don't seek treatment for it," she said. "Not enough people are getting the treatment they need."


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Russia, India supporting BLA, Malik tells Senate


Russia, India supporting BLA, Malik tells Senate

By Mumtaz Alvi

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday startled the Senate by saying that Russia and India were supporting the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) in its secession bid, saying the same outfit had kidnapped UNHCR official John Solecki. Making a policy statement while winding up the five-day debate that in fact continued for three days, excluding Saturday and Sunday, on the killing of there Baloch leaders and the deteriorating law and order in Balochistan, Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik claimed they had proof of foreign involvement in the province. Rehman Malik, later talking to media persons outside the Parliament House, called on India to stop its interference in Balochistan, dubbing it an open enemy of Pakistan. He noted that the proposal of reviving the ‘Sardari system’ in the province was being considered. He added the FC had been put under the chief minister and all the 36 FC checkposts had been removed. The adviser made a revelation that the BLA chief Brahamdagh Khan Bugti lived close to Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s presidential palace in Kabul and enjoyed local support. He added thousands of Baloch students had got training in Russia and were present in Balochistan. Rehman Malik pointed out that 4,000 to 5,000 Baloch people had got training in several centres there and added he would share more details with the legislators during the in-camera proceedings of the House, slated for Thursday at 12:30 pm. His speech was interrupted several times by Mahabat Khan Marri, Dr Abdul Malik and Mir Hasil Bazenjo, who rejected some of his contentions, particularly about the alleged terrorist role of Sher Muhammad Baloch’, who was one of the three Baloch leaders recently murdered and their mutilated bodies found afterwards. At one stage, they staged a token walkout against the advisor’s remarks. Malik noted that the BLA had kidnapped Solecki in order to highlight what he called their totally unjustified and uncalled for demand of freedom from Pakistan. He said he had the transcription and contact numbers, while intercepting calls during which the BLA chief was asking his people in the province about ‘the red goat’ - a code name for Solecki - and asking for his shifting to some other location, as the government had got clue of the place, where he was being kept. “Solecki was abducted two days before UN Secretary General’s Pakistan visit to project BLA’s bid for freedom. On the basis of evidence, I met Karzai and sought his help for the repatriation of Brahamdagh or stopping him from what he was doing back in Pakistan, but he expressed his government’s ignorance about his presence there,” the adviser said. The adviser said he also asked Karzai to stop the misuse of Afghan soil against Pakistan, as daily 45,000-50,000 people cross over to Pakistan from Bajaur, Chaman and Torkham. This was in addition to the hostile foreign agencies active against Pakistan, he added. Then, Rehman said the government apprised the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the situation and sought his assistance. Then Ban talked to Karzai and this led to the freeing of Solecki. About the BLA, he pointed out it was raised and funded by the then USSR and supported by India, then it went dormant and got active following the martyrdom of ex-governor Nawab Akbar Bugti. He added the BLA and some other outfits enjoyed foreign support. The adviser noted that the BLA chief had recently himself in an interview to a local channel, conceded they were being supported by India and that he had sought UN and some other countries backing also.Out rightly rejecting the BLA demand, Rehman made it clear that the government was ready to accept all the demands of people of Balochistan, barring independence, which did not enjoy the majority support. He talked of conspiracy of destabilising Balochistan, the NWFP and Northern Areas. The adviser, who became a senator in March, said under a well-conceived ploy, the three Baloch leaders were murdered and then systematically 14 settlers were killed in the ensuing violence.He questioned how those who resorted to the killings of innocent settlers managed to possess and then use hand grenades, Kalashnikovs and missiles, whereas the people of the province were peaceful and normal. But the real conspiracy was to breakdown law and order there. He claimed that after the inception of a new government last year, no military operation in any part of Balochistan was under way. After the series of measures and steps the government had taken, the situation in the province was improving and in this connection, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani had played a very crucial role.He proposed formation of a senators’ committee, which would oversee working of the investigations, being carried on with reference to the murder of three Baloch leaders. Rehman noted that Iran, through a letter, had sought repatriation of Sher Muhammad for his indulgence in terrorist activities there. Sher, he said was an Iranian citizen of Chabahar, who later got Pakistani citizenship. This led to massive agitation from some senators from Balochistan, forcing the adviser to leave the topic and offering to give an in-camera briefing. However, he said it was time to act together and make a distinction between what was insurgency and what were Balochistan’s genuine problems. About many senators’ allegations that local spy agencies were involved in Balochistan problems, he said the government was prepared to look into it, if any one had credible evidence. He ruled out the possibility of the agencies’ role in the murder of Baloch leaders.Later, Dr Abdul Malik contended that the problems of Balochistan should not be linked to India and Russia. Lashkari Raisani of PPP said though he belonged to the government side, but would like to say that the agencies also tend to sometime mislead the government on certain matters. He said it were the personnel of agencies, which looted his home and later set it on fire during ex-president Pervez Musharraf’s rule. On a point of order by Mushahidullah Khan, Rehman Malik regretted that India had talked of the possibility of Taliban attack during the Indian elections, but did not respond to Pakistan’s offer of a joint effort to tackle the issue. He complained that India had also failed to respond to 32 questions, Pakistan had forwarded to it regarding the Mumbai attacks. So much, so, the DNA results of both Kasab and Sohail were identical, which could be a possibility only if they were twins. PPI adds: Rehman Malik said that besides the political forces representing the province in the Parliament, the government is also in contact with those who have no representation in the Parliament to seek their input in resolving the present situation. He said the government is considering NFC award keeping in view the backwardness and area of the provinces besides the population. Rehman Malik regretted that the Afghan government did not facilitate him to have a meeting with Baloch leader Barhamdakh Bugti, who is a grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti so that their grievances are taken care of.Reuters adds: Rehman Malik accused Afghanistan and India of supporting ethnic Baloch separatists fighting in the resource-rich province of Balochistan.Pakistan has in the past accused old rival India of meddling in Balochistan but Wednesday’s comments were the most explicit for years and come after a deterioration in ties over a militant attack in Mumbai.

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Separatist Movements on the rise within India: Maoists hijack train, the NEWS kept low profile on media

Separatist Movements on the rise within India: Maoists hijack train, the NEWS kept low profile on media
By Nityanand ShuklaRANCHI, India, April 22 (Reuters) - Maoist rebels, some armed with bows and arrows, briefly hijacked a train with around 500 passengers in eastern India on Wednesday in a show of strength on the eve of the second stage of India's general election.About 300 Maoists boarded the train and forced the driver at gunpoint to take it to Latehar station in a remote area around 160 km (100 miles) west of Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand state, before they fled four hours later."All the passengers have been released and they are safe," Sarvendu Tathagat, a local government official in Jharkhand, said. "They (the rebels) left the train and fled into the jungles."India's Maoist rebels, who say they are fighting for the rights of landless labourers and poor farmers, have stepped up attacks in their strongholds in central and eastern India during the election.Rebels have called a strike in the region to protest the killing of some villagers branded as Maoist supporters by police.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described Maoist violence as India's biggest internal security threat. Some 500 civilians and police were killed in insurgent clashes last year.Maoists have taken over trains in past years in a show of strength, often holding them up for several hours. In 2006, a train was hijacked in Latehar and the 200 people onboard were released unharmed after one night.Maoist rebel violence marred the first stage of India's election last Thursday when five election officials were killed in a landmine blast in Chhattisgarh state. Eleven police were killed across the central and eastern "red belt".Thousands have been killed in the Maoist insurgency which began in the late 1960s and now stretches throughout rural areas of eastern, central and southern India.In separate attacks, Maoist rebels blew up a railway station in Jharkhand on Tuesday, disrupting train services. They also blasted a health centre and a school building.Maoists also carried out scattered attacks on Wednesday, shooting dead a truck driver and torched eight trucks and oil tankers in the eastern state of Bihar.India is holding a staggered general election over April and May in which 714 million people are eligible to vote. (Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Dean Yates)

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US jobless claims hit record 640K

US jobless claims hit record 640K
The number of Americans filing applications for jobless benefits has reached a record high of 640,000, the US Labor Department says. The Labor Department said on Thursday that the number of new claims in the week ending April 18 rose from a revised 613,000 the previous week.
Job losses may continue all year even as the longest recession in the postwar era shows signs of reaching a trough. The figures indicate that employment cuts may come close to topping 650,000 in April. "There is nothing suggesting at this point that payroll declines are going to abate," said Tom Porcelli, a senior economist at Castlestone Management Ltd. in New York, Bloomberg reported. "We could bounce along the bottom here for a while." The jobless rate among people eligible for benefits rose 0.1 percentage point to 4.6 percent -- the highest since January 1983 -- in the week ending April 11. Twenty-five states and territories reported an increase in new claims for the week ending April 11, while 28 reported a decrease. The US economy has lost about 5.1 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007.

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Dajjal's Global Government "The New World Order" Crisis as a Means to Building a Global Totalitarian State

Dajjal's Global Government "The New World Order" Crisis as a Means to Building a Global Totalitarian State.
by Olga Chetverikova

As the world financial and economic crisis comes into its own, the Western political leaders and elites are seeking to impress on mankind the idea that this upheaval will end up ‘turning the world into something different’.
Even though the picture of the 'new world order’ remains vague and fuzzy, the main idea is quite clear: A single global government, goes the argument, has to be established if we don’t want general chaos to prevail.
Every now and again, Western politicians mention the need for a ‘new world order’, a ‘new world financial architecture’, or some kind of ‘supranational control’, calling it a ‘New Deal’ for the world. Nicolas Sarkozy was the first to say so, while addressing the UN General Assembly in September 2007 (that is, before the crisis).
During the February 2009 meeting in Berlin convened to prepare the G20 summit, this was echoed by Gordon Brown, who said that a worldwide New Deal was needed. We are conscious, he added, that where the world financial flows were concerned, we would not be able to emerge from this situation with the help of purely national authorities alone. We need the authorities and world watchdogs to make the activities of financial institutions operating in the world markets totally open to us. Both Sarkozy and Brown are protégés of the Rothschilds. Statements made by certain representatives of ‘the global elite’ indicate that the current crisis is being used as a mechanism for provoking some deepening social upheavals that would make mankind – plunged as it is already into chaos and frightened by the ghost of an all-out violence – urge of its own free will that a ‘supranational’ arbitrator with dictatorial powers intervene into the world affairs.
The events are following the same path as the Great Depression in 1929-1933: a financial crisis, an economic recession, social conflicts, establishing totalitarian dictatorships, inciting a war to concentrate power, and capital in the hands of a narrow circle. This time, however, the case in point is the final stage in the ‘global control’ strategy, where a decisive blow should be dealt to the national state sovereignty institution, followed by a transition to a system of private power of transnational elites.
As early as the late 1990s, David Rockefeller, author of the idea of private power that is due to replace the governments, said that we (the world) were on the threshold of global changes. All we need, he went on, is some large-scale crisis that will make people accept the new world order.
Jacques Attali, Sarkozy’s adviser and former EBRD chief, claimed that the elites had been incapable of dealing with the currency problems of the 1930s. He was afraid, he said, that a similar mistake would be made again. At first we’ll wage wars, he went on, and let 300 million people perish. After that reforms will follow and a world government. Shouldn’t we better think about a world government already at this stage, he asked?
The same was stated by Henry Kissinger: "In the final analysis, the main task is to define and formulate the general concerns of the majority of countries, as well as of all leading states with regard to the economic crisis, considering the collective fear of a terrorist jihad. Next, all of that should be converted to a common action strategy… Thus, America and its potential partners are getting a unique chance for turning the moment of the crisis into a vision of hope."
The world is being led to accept the “new order” idea step by step to avoid provoking events that are likely to make the universal protests against the worsening conditions of human existence take ‘a wrong course’ and become uncontrolled. The main thing that Stage One managed to achieve was to start a wide-ranging discussion on ‘global government’ and the ‘inadmissibility of protectionism’ with an emphasis on the ‘hopelessness’ of the national-state models for emerging from the crisis.
This discussion is proceeding against the background of information pressures that help to build up human anxieties, fear, and uncertainty. Some of those information actions are the following: WTO forecasts to the effect that 1.4 billion people are likely to sink below the poverty line in 2009; a warning by the WTO director general that the biggest world trade slide in postwar history is in the offing; a statement by the IMF’s Dominique Strauss-Kohn (a protégé of Sarkozy’s) that a world economic crash is impending unless a large-scale reform of the financial sector of the world economy is implemented, and a crash that is most likely to bring in its wake not only social unrest but also a war.
Against this background, the idea to introduce a common world currency as a cornerstone of the ‘new world order’ was put forward. The real masterminds of this long-standing project are as yet in the shadow. Let us note that some or other representatives of Russia are pushed to the fore. This is reminiscent of the situation before World War I, where the Anglo-French circles that possessed some well-elaborated plans for a new division of the world instructed the Russian Foreign Minister to draw up a general program for the Entente Cordiale. It went down in history as the ‘Sazonov program’, even though Russia did not play an independent role in that war and was from the start built into the system of interests of the British financial elite.
On March 19, Henry Kissinger came to Moscow as a member of The Wise Men (James Baker, George Schultz, and others), who had meetings with the Russian leaders before the G20 summit. Dmitry Trenin, director of the Moscow Carnegie Center and participant in the latest US meeting of the Bilderbergers, called that meeting a ‘positive signal’. On March 25, Moskovsky Komsomolets published an article ‘The Crisis and the World Problems’, by Gavriil Popov (currently President of the International Union of Economists) that openly voiced what was normally discussed behind closed doors.
The article mentioned World Parliament, World Government, World Armed Forces, World Police Force, World Bank, the necessity of placing under international control the nuclear weapons, nuclear power generating capacities, the entire amount of space rocket technology, and the planet’s minerals, the imposition of birth-rate limits, the cleansing of humanity’s gene pool, the fostering of people intolerant to cultural and religious incompatibility, and the like.
The “countries that will not accept the global prospects,” says Popov, “must be expelled from the world community.”
Of course, the Moskovsky Komsomolets article conveys nothing new that would enable one to understand the strategy of the global elite. Another thing is important. The establishment of a totalitarian police order and the elimination of national states is being suggested as an open program of action, and what both the liberals, and the socialists, and the conservatives always viewed as ‘new fascism’ is being recommended as the only possible salutary path for the whole of mankind. Someone wants the discussing of these projects to become a norm. In this context, some ‘particularly trusted’ representatives of Russia are pushed to the fore, Russia that will become the main victim of the policy of total plunder should the ‘global government’ become a reality.
The G20 did not discuss the common world currency issue, since time had not yet come for that. The summit itself was a step forward on the way to chaos, because its decisions, if followed blindly, will only worsen the world socioeconomic situation and, to quote Lyndon LaRouche, will “finish off the patient.”
In the meantime, the crisis is being exacerbated, and analysts are predicting an era of mass-scale unemployment. The most pessimistic predictions come from LEAP/Europe 20201, which regularly publishes them in its bulletins and even set them out in an open letter sent to the leaders of the Twenty before the London summit.
As early as February 2006, LEAP was surprisingly precise in describing the prospects for the ‘systemic global crisis’ as a consequence of the financial illness caused by the US debt. LEAP analysts are viewing the current events in the context of the general crisis that began in the late 1970s and is now in its fourth, final and most grave stage, the so-called ‘elutriation phase’, where the collapse of real economy begins. According to LEAP’s Frank Biancheri, it is not simply a recession but the end of the system, in which its main pillar, the US economy, collapsed. “We are witnessing the end of an entire epoch before our own eyes.”
The crisis may lead to some most difficult consequences. LEAP forecasts a rise in unemployment to 15-20% in Europe and as much as 30% in the United States. If the key dollar problem fails to be solved, the world events will take a most dramatic turn. The dollar collapse may take place as early as July 2009, and the potentially decades-long crisis will trigger off “a world-wide geopolitical disintegration” with social upheavals and civil conflicts, with the division of the world into separate blocs, with the world coming back to Europe’s1914, with military clashes, etc. The most powerful popular unrest will take place in countries with the least developed social security systems and the biggest concentrations of weapons, primarily in Latin America and the United States, where social violence is already now manifest in the activities of armed gangs. Experts note the beginning of US population fleeing to Europe, where the direct threat to life is for the time being not so great. Aside from armed conflicts, LEAP analysts forecast power, food and water shortages in areas dependent on food imports.
LEAP experts describe behavior demonstrated by the Western elites as absolutely inadequate: "Our leaders have failed to understand what happened, and show the same amount of incomprehension to this day. We are amid a period of protracted recession, and it was necessary to engage in introducing some long-term measures to cushion the blows, whereas our leaders still hope to avoid a prolonged recession… All of them have been formed around the American pillar and cannot see that the pillar is a shambles…"
But this is not seen by the mid-level leaders, while the top-level world managers are, on the contrary, informed quite well; it is they who are implementing the ‘controlled chaos’ and general disintegration policy, including a civil war and the disintegration of the United States planned for the end of 2009, a scenario that is being widely discussed both by American and world media.
On the threshold of conflicts planned in various areas of the planets, a system is being established that will give a supranational center relying on a large-scale punitive machine total political, military, legal, and electronic control over the population. That system uses the network management principle that allows embedding into any society parallel structures of authority that report to external decision-making centers and are legalized through the doctrine of prevalence of international law over national law. The shell remains national, while real power becomes transnational. Jacques Attali calls this a ‘global law-based state’.
The ruling center of the global law-based state is located in the US. While its fundamentals began to emerge in the 1990s, the fight against terrorism after the 9/11 events has lead to radically new phenomena. The passing of the 2001 Patriot Act not only allowed security services to control the American population and suspected foreigners, but also accelerated the passing of state responsibilities into the hands of transnational corporate structures.
Intelligence activities, trade of war, penitentiary system, and information control are passing into private hands. This is done through so-called outsourcing, a relatively new business phenomenon that consists of trusting certain functions to private firms that act as contractors and relying on individuals outside an organization to solve its internal tasks.
In 2007, the American government found out that 70% of its secret intelligence budget is spent on private contracts and that “Cold-War intelligence bureaucracy is transforming into something new, where contractor’s interests dominate.” For American society (Congress included), their activities remain classified, which allows them to gather more and more important functions in their hands.
Former CIA employees say that nearly 60% of their staff are on contracts. Those people analyze most of the information, write reports for those who make decisions in state authorities, maintain communications among various security services, help foreign stations, and analyze data interception. As a result, America’s National Security Agency is becoming more and more dependent on private companies that have access to classified information. No wonder, then, that it is lobbying a bill in the Congress that is supposed to guarantee immunity to corporations that have worked with NSA for the last five years.
The same is happening to private military companies (PMCs), which have been assuming more and more army and police functions. On a significant scale, it started in the nineties in former Yugoslavia, but contract workers were especially widely used in Afghanistan and other conflict zones. They did the ‘dirtiest’ actions, as was the case during the war in South Ossetia, where up to 3000 mercenaries were involved. At the moment, PMCs are real armies, each up to 70,000 strong, that operate in over 60 countries, with annual revenues of up to $180 billion (according to Brookings Institution, USA) For example, over 20,000 employees of American PMCs work in Iraq along with the 160,000 American military contingent.
The system of private prisons is also growing rapidly in the US. The prison industry complex, which uses slave labor and sweatshop practices, is flourishing, and its investors are based on Wall Street. The use of convict labor by private corporations has been legalized in 37 states already, and it is used by major corporations such as IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, Texas Instrument, Intel, Pierre Cardin, and others. In 2008, the number of inmates in US private prisons was about 100,000, and it is growing rapidly, along with the total number of inmates in the country (mostly African-Americans and Latin Americans), which is 2.2 million people, or 25% of all convicts in the world.
After Bush came to power, privatization of the system for transportation and retention of migrants in concentration camps began. In particular, a branch of the notorious firm Halliburton, Kellog Brown and Root (once headed by Dick Cheney), did just that.
The biggest achievements have been made over the last few years in the area of establishing electronic control over people’s identities, carried out under the pretext of counterterrorism. Currently, the FBI is creating the world’s biggest database of biometric indexes (fingerprints, retina scans, face shapes, scar shapes and allocation, speech and gesture patterns, etc.) that now contains 55 million fingerprints. The latest novelties include the introduction of body scanning system in US airports, tracking of literature read by passengers in flight, and so on. A new opportunity to gather detailed information on people’s private lives follow from the NSA Directive N59, passed in summer 2008, ‘Identification and tracking biometry for the purpose of strengthening national security’, and the classified ‘Homeland Terrorism Preparedness Law’.
Evaluating the policy of America’s authorities, ex-Congressman and 2008 presidential candidate Ron Paul said that America is gradually turning into a fascist state, “We are approaching not a Hitler-type fascism, but one of a softer type, which shows in the loss of civil freedoms, when corporations rule everything and… the government lies in the same bed with big business.” May we remind you that Ron Paul is one of the few American politicians speaking for the closing of the Federal Reserve System as a secret unconstitutional organization?
With Obama’s coming to power, the police order in America is getting tighter and tighter in two directions – strengthening internal security and militarization of civilian institutions. Tellingly, having condemned the infringements on individual freedoms done by the Bush administration, Obama has put his own staff under total control by making them fill out a 63-question form that touches upon the most intricate details of their private lives. In January, the US President signed bills that enable the continuation of the illegal practice of abducting people, keeping them secretly in prisons, and moving them to countries where tortures are used. He also proposed a bill called National Emergency Help Center Establishment Act, which stipulates the establishment of six such centers in US military bases to provide help to people who are displaced due to an emergency situation or disaster and thus get into military jurisdiction. Analysts connect this bill with possible disturbances and consider it proof that the US administration is preparing for a military conflict which may follow after the provocation that is being planned.
The American system of police control is actively implemented in other countries, primarily in Europe – through the establishment of American law hegemony on its territory by means of closing various agreements. A big part here was played by US–European talks out of the glare of publicity on creation of the common ‘area of control over the population’ that were held in spring 2008, when the European Parliament adopted resolution that ratified creation of the single transatlantic market abolishing all barriers to trade and investments by 2015. The talks resulted in the classified report prepared by the experts from six participating countries. This report described the project to create the ‘area of cooperation’ in the spheres of ‘freedom, safety and justice’.
The report dwells upon the reorganization of the system of justice and internal affairs of the EU member states in such a manner that it would resemble the American system. It concerns not only the ability to transfer personal data and cooperation of police services (which is already being carried out), but also, for example, extradition of EU immigrants to US authorities in accordance with the new mandate that abolished all the guarantees the European procedure of extradition provided. In the US the Military Commissions Act of 2006 is in force, and it allows persecution or imprisonment of any person who is identified as an ‘illegally fighting enemy’ by the executive authorities and extends to immigrants from any country not at war with the US. They are persecuted like “enemies” not based on some evidence but because they were labeled so by the governmental agencies. No foreign governments have protested against this law which is of international importance.
Soon they will sign the agreement on personal data communication, in accordance with which the American authorities will be able to obtain such personal information as credit card numbers, bank account details, investments, travel routes or communication via Internet, as well as the information concerning race, political and religious beliefs, habits, etc.. It was under the US pressure that the EU countries have introduced biometric passports. The new EU regulation implies the overall switch of EU citizens to electronic passports from the end of June 2009 by 2012. New passports will contain a chip with not only passport info and a photo, but also fingerprints.
We are witnessing the creation of the global electronic concentration camp, and crisis, conflicts and wars are used to justify it. As Douglas Reed wrote “people tend to tremble in the face of an imaginary danger and are too lazy to see the real one.”
Global Research Articles by Olga Chetverikova

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The Financial Barbarians at the Gate

The Financial Barbarians at the Gate
Guns & Butter Interviews financial economist and historian, Dr. Michael Hudson.
"The Financial Barbarians at the Gate" with financial economist and historian, Dr. Michael Hudson. Europe; worsening financial situation and indebtedness; the history of banking and the criminalization of the banking system; tax policy; real estate asset inflation; US imperialism via the monetary system; neoliberal/neofeudal economics; classical political economy; finance capital breaking away from industrial capital; the financial crisis leading to a political crisis; similarities with the Roman Republic; what measures labor should take.

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