Louis Charbonneau
Reuters
March 13, 2009

The Obama administration will work with the United Nations to reach a climate change deal acceptable to the world community by the end of 2009, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters after a two-day trip to Washington earlier this week, Ban said he and the new American leader agreed completely on the urgency of tackling the problem of global warming.

“President Obama and I share a fundamental commitment — 2009 must be the year of climate change. That means reaching a comprehensive agreement in Copenhagen by year’s end,” the U.N. chief said at a monthly news conference.

“With U.S. leadership, in partnership with the United Nations, we can and will reach a climate change deal that all nations can embrace,” he added.

The U.N. hopes to have a new global treaty on climate change in place at a conference in Copenhagen in December. Some experts warn that the world will face more droughts, floods and rising seas if global warming is not addressed soon.

Ban will attend the G20 leaders’ summit in London next month amid fears that the issue could be pushed far down the agenda by the global economic crisis and the need to restore faith in shattered financial markets.

The U.N. chief had planned to invite Obama and other leaders to New York this month for what was dubbed a “mini summit” on climate change, hoping that the U.S. president would use the occasion to announce a reversal on the issue.

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EIR
March 13, 2009

Yesterday, Dr. Arthur Robinson, Director of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine and the originator of the petition against Al Gore’s global warming hoax which as of now 32,000 scientists have signed, told the 2nd International Conference on Climate Change, that the people like Al Gore who promote global warming alarmism are committing genocide by the withdrawal of technology from the developing world. Speaking at the conference hosted by the Heartland Institute in New York City, he said, “there is a current example of genocide by the removal of technology, and that is the ban on DDT, and that has resulted in the deaths of 30 to 40 million people and has left half a billion infected with malaria.”

The three-day conference is the second annual event sponsored by The Heartland Institute. The speakers include Lord Christopher Monckton, who prepared the “Global Warming Swindle” video tape, MIT meteorologist Richard Lindzen, and Fred Singer, an atmospheric physicist.

Dr. Lindzen said that “the process of co-opting science on behalf of a political movement has had an extraordinarily corrupting influence on science—especially since the issue has been a major motivation for funding. Most funding for climate would not be there without this issue. And, it should be added, most science funded under the rubric of climate does not actually deal with climate, but rather with the alleged impact of arbitrarily assumed climate change.

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UN Watch
March 13, 2009

Geneva, March 11, 2009 — A new U.N. resolution circulated today by Islamic states would define any questioning of Islamic dogma as a human rights violation, intimidate dissenting voices, and encourage the forced imposition of Sharia law. (See full U.N. text below.)

UN Watch obtained a copy of the Pakistani-authored proposal after it was distributed today among Geneva diplomats attending the current session of the UN Human Rights Council. Entitled “Combating defamation of religions,” it mentions only Islam.

While non-binding, the resolution constitutes a dangerous threat to free speech everywhere. It would ban any perceived offense to Islamic sensitivities as a “serious affront to human dignity” and a violation of religious freedom, and would pressure U.N. member states — at the “local, national, regional and international levels” — to erode free speech guarantees in their “legal and constitutional systems.”

It’s an Orwellian text that distorts the meaning of human rights, free speech, and religious freedom, and marks a giant step backwards for liberty and democracy worldwide.

The first to suffer will be moderate Muslims in the countries that are behind this resolution, like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Pakistan, who seek international legitimacy for state-sanctioned blasphemy laws that stifle religious freedom and outlaw conversions from Islam to other faiths.

Next to suffer from this U.N.-sanctioned McCarthyism will be writers and journalists in the democratic West, with the resolution targeting the media for the “deliberate stereotyping of religions, their adherents and sacred persons.”

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Russia Today
March 12, 2009

America must work on starting a new economy and not restarting the old one or it will resemble the former Soviet Union, says author and blogger Dmitry Orlov.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t
• 

Research related articles:

1. Orlov: the American Dream is about to become a nightmare
2. Getting Prepared for the Great Collapse
3. The War on Terror Debunked, America Tries to Raise a Dead Enemy from the Grave

Eva Golinger
Axis of Logic
March 12, 2009

A secret document of the US Army National Ground Intelligence Center, recently declassified in part, through the application of the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), confirms that the Pentagon’s most powerful team for psychological operations is employing its forces against Venezuela.1 The document, dating from the year 2006, analyses the border situation between Colombia and Venezuela. It was drafted by the US Army’s 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) (4th PSYOP Group (A) or 4th POG) and the US Army National Ground Intelligence Center, a fact that thus reaffirms that the same psychological warfare team operates in the region against Venezuela.

The small part of the text of the secret document which was left uncensored explains how the Plan Patriot (previously known as Plan Colombia) has successfully pushed the activities of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ((FARC), Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) into Venezuelan territory. It is explicitly being emphasized in the secret document that

“…the offensive operations of Plan Patriot and its counterparts of the Colombian military have had an important impact on the activities of the Eastern Bloc [of the FARC]…due to the success achieved against some fronts of the Eastern Bloc in Colombia, several fronts of the Eastern Bloc are conducting more combat and regenerated their activities at the Colombian-Venezuelan border. The Mini-Blocs in the Llanos and the eastern zone… have assumed distinct strategic roles in response to the Plan Patriot 2B…”

The arrival of the US Army’s 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne) in Colombia in the year 2006 and the strategy of pushing the FARC and the Colombian civil conflict into Venezuelan territory cannot be taken as a coincidence for it is exactly the moment when the US State Department and the Pentagon also started to publicly accuse Venezuela of collaborating with terrorism, specifically by referring to alleged dealings with the FARC. In the first semester of 2006 Washington added Venezuela to a list of “countries that do not fully collaborate in the struggle against terrorism”, and then imposed sanctions against the South American country that resulted in the prohibition of the sales of arms from the United States and from any international company that uses US technology. The 2006 report of the US State Department said,

“The Secretary of State certified Venezuela as “not fully cooperating” with U.S. antiterrorism efforts… It remained unclear to what extent the Government of Venezuela provided material support to Colombian terrorists, if it did, and on which level…” (Report of the US State Department of 2006, available at www.state.gov)2

A few months later, in July 2006, the United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation, held a hearing titled “Venezuela: Terrorism Hub of South America?”, in which they declared that

“Venezuela, under President Hugo Chavez, has tolerated terrorists on its soil and has forged close relationships with officially designated state sponsors of terrorism: Cuba, Iran and North Korea. Colombian terrorist groups use Venezuelan territory for safe haven…”.3

At the same time, the international press started to promote a matrix of opinion, associating Venezuela with terrorism. Articles and editorials published by the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal, El País of Spain, El Tiempo of Bogota, and the Miami Herald, amongst others, repeated time and again [affirmations about] the alleged link between the Venezuelan government and the FARC in Colombia, although they never provided any conclusive proof. All the evidences were based on “anonymous” sources, “high-level officials in Washington”, and “analysts”, without giving any concrete names, data or facts.

CARTER DOUGHERTY
The New York Times
March 12, 2009

WAIBLINGEN, Germany — A portrait of a troubled, depressed teenager with easy access to an unsecured pistol began to emerge on Thursday, a day after the youth went on a rampage, killing 15 people before taking his own life.

By Thursday, the police had established that the youth, Tim Kretschmer, 17, last year broke off a round of psychological counseling for depression.

Searching his bedroom, the police found violent computer games — in which, experts say, players digitally clothe and arm themselves for combat — plus brutal videos and play weapons that fire small yellow pellets, said Siegfried Mahler of the Stuttgart prosecutors’ office. And they were seeking to verify the authenticity of a reported posting to a chat room in which someone warned of an attack on a school in Winnenden.

Rather than speak of a specific motive, investigators described Mr. Kretschmer as a classic case of a conflicted young man who wreaked havoc in real life after savoring imaginary violence in the digital world.

“If we had known this in advance, we would have called him a prototype of a rampager,” said Erwin Hetger, the chief of police in Baden-Württemberg, the southeastern German state where the crimes took place.

Joseph Abrams
Fox News
March 12, 2009

The Senate is gearing up to ratify a Nixon-era U.N. treaty meant to create universal laws to govern the seas — a treaty critics say will create a massive U.N. bureaucracy that could even claim powers over American waterways.

LOST — the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, also called the Law of the Sea Treaty — regulates all things oceanic, from fishing rights, navigation lanes and environmental concerns to what lies beneath: the seabed’s oil and mineral wealth that companies hope to explore and exploit in coming years.

But critics say the treaty, which declares the sea and its bounty the “universal heritage of mankind,” would redistribute American profits and have a reach extending into rivers and streams all the way up the mighty Mississippi.

The U.N. began working on LOST in 1973, and 157 nations have signed on to the treaty since it was concluded in 1982. Yet it has been stuck in dry dock for nearly 30 years in the U.S. and never even been brought to a full vote before the Senate.

But swelling approval in the Senate and the combined support of the White House, State Department and U.S. Navy mean LOST may be ready to unfurl its sails again.

Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said during a January confirmation hearing that he intends to push for ratification. “We are now laying the groundwork for and expect to try to take up the Law of the Sea Treaty. So that will be one of the priorities of the committee, and the key here is just timing — how we proceed.”

Jurriaan Maessen
Infowars
March 12, 2009

The fact that William-Alexander — prince of Orange-Nassau and heir to the throne of the Netherlands — accompanied his mother Beatrix to the latest Bilderberg conference in Chantilly, Virginia, is a sure sign that it will not be many years before he follows in his mother’s footsteps.

A Coming Coronation

	Prince William-Alexander and his mother Queen Beatrix.

Already a favourite topic of gossip magazines as well as self-proclaimed ‘serious’ newspapers, speculation reached its climax in the last couple of months with suspicions mounting that the ascendance of William IV (as the prince’s regal name will be) is at hand. It is interesting to note that the last William (III) to head the Dutch monarchy was the most meritorious slave trader of his day. Despite all the fuss, the conclusion thus far is that nothing is certain. The only one having a say about the whole ordeal is the queen and she is notoriously tight-lipped about the coming transition- as she is about her many other dealings. While the Dutch media keeps itself busy with chattering about the possible date of succession, nothing stirs around the royal palace. To join in the never-ending succession-to-the-throne-chorus, I should say it will be sooner rather than later- for a maiden visit to Bilderberg more often than not tends to prelude a future coronation. Different media outlets have meanwhile proven to be busy little bees when it comes to mindless gossip, but strangely silent in regards to the frequent trips by the Oranges to key globalist meetings. Whoever may doubt the mindset and intent of European nobility and the influence she continues to wield in world affairs, it may be necessary to give a short summing up of the most notorious crimes perpetrated by the house of Orange in the last four centuries. Just a few of them, mind you, for listing the entire tale of crime would require a team of writers labouring around the clock.

Rise of the Republic

We descend down into the 16th century. Both as a refuge for political thinkers and a base for liberty, the Republic of the Seven United Provinces seemed to be born under an unlikely yet favourable star sign. In clear defiance of the Holy Roman Empire, Holland worked to free itself from the bonds of slavery it had moaned under for the previous centuries. More or less incapable to do anything about it, the surrounding tyrants looked on as the Low Countries one day proclaimed sovereignty. As would be expected they thought it a deeply disturbing development, not to be tolerated lest other nations follow its shining example. Even more outrageous was the young Republic’s inclination toward recognising basic human liberties and restricting the ancient influence of feudal lords. It was ironical in retrospect that an Orange, William the Silent, turned out being the one realising the independence on which the fragile Republic was beginning to flourish. As the first and only member of that accursed house to actually propagate liberty instead of tyranny, William began an open rebellion against the reigning Philip II and his handlers in Madrid. But any determined young blueblood could have managed to engage the Holy Roman Empire in 1568, which was already in a state of increasing decay. By the time Holland proclaimed to submit to the Spanish throne no more, Tyranny was rampant all across the continent: France was impatiently waiting in the wings, eying supreme power over the Low Countries since Spain had fallen victim to internal dissension. And then there was England breathing down the neck of the young Republic. No longer a vassal of external empires- with the memory of tyranny still freshly imprinted on the Dutch psyche- the Republic aspired not only to resist the chokehold of their former masters, but to build a strong national defence to fight off any of the bloodhounds lurking in the background. A powerful army was created to fight off foes on land, as well as a well-equipped fleet developed for those on sea. Last but not least there was a Jeffersonian-style urban militia forced into being to be assembled in a hurry in case a domestic enemy rose to the surface to threaten the Republic from within. But all this newly acquired liberty did not go down well with the Teutonic royals in the Prussian hinterland. They picked a 16th century Sirhan Sirhan to do their bidding and had the guards look away at just the right moment. After finishing his supper, William of Orange came around the corner a small demonic looking character stepped up and fired two salvos in his chest. As he collapsed to the floor William was heard to remark: ‘My God, have pity on my soul my God, have pity on this poor People.’

Liberty under Attack

The son of William, Maurits of Orange-Nassau, was made of an altogether different material. After the assassination, he took over the reigns and before you can say ‘knife-in-the-back’ dramatically reversed his father’s policies on just about everything. First order of business was a swift getting rid of the urban militia, who were already sprouting up all over the dew-covered Republic and constituted a serious threat to any ambitions the German house of Orange-Nassau might have. Well aware of these ambitions, a former legal counsellor to William of Orange, tried to keep the young prince in check.

At the dawn of the 17th century, the Republic flourished as never before. One of the patriots responsible for the unprecedented rise in prosperity was John of Oldenbarneveldt. Not of royal descent himself, Oldenbarneveldt acquired great power in the young Republic regardless. As one of the key players in the Rebellion, and chief counsellor to the slain William, he had managed to convince a surprising amount of surrounding countries to recognise the Republic’s sovereignty. But he realised that Maurits, other than his father, was not satisfied with merely a military function. John had observed all the earmarks of a tyrant in the young man, which contrasted sharply with his father’s renowned humility. John’s suspicions proved to be tragically correct. It became apparent that the German prince looked for a reason, any reason, to put his house in the driver’s seat of the Republic. He wouldn’t have to wait long.

The Takeover

The existing religious turmoil between two dominant sects of Protestants delivered the perfect pretext to ignite a civil war. As usual a religious quarrel was used by the very secular German elite to create a conflict after which they would present the perfect solution, namely to reinstate the house of Orange-Nassau firmly on Dutch territory. Anticipating a possible coup by the prince of Orange, Oldenbarneveldt pre-empted the royal plans in 1617 by expanding the urban militias in Holland - for he understood well that the best remedy for an emerging tyrant is a well-armed citizenry. Eager to turn the newfound Republic into a tyrannical monarchy with the house of Orange-Nassau installed as supreme ruler, Maurits had to get rid of this man who dared to stand between him and the stated goal of his house. And so it was that one rainy morning in august of the year 1618, several men showed up at the residence of John of Oldenbarneveldt. They took him and slapped him with the charge of high treason, after which he was clapped in chains and thrown into prison. How cynical that the one actually perpetrating the high treason was the German prince propping up the bogus charge.
At dawn on a beautiful spring day the following year, John was presented before a mass of spectators who were eagerly awaiting the execution. Before the sentence was to be carried out, John of Oldenbarneveldt uttered his famous last words: ‘Men, do not believe I am a traitor to this country. I have acted just and pious, like a good patriot, and as such will I die.’ Then he turned toward the hooded henchman and whispered: ‘Make it short, make it short!’

After the execution, many were appalled about the murder of their beloved statesman. Holland’s most prominent artists rose up in protest. No fan of the German rulers, the painter Rembrandt alluded to the beheading of Oldenbarneveldt in a biblical pictorial, comparing the execution to the brutal stoning of Saint Stephen. Vondel, the bard from Amsterdam, lamented the beheaded while condemning the one doing the beheading. When the play was first performed, Maurits had just expired at the age of 48. His half-brother Frederick Hendrick of Orange had taken his place and took revenge on the playwright in his family’s name by ruining him financially. Although he obviously didn’t appreciate the grim satire, he realising he could use a good propagandist for his cause. It wasn’t long before Vondel to his horror found himself writing panegyrics for the very family he had accused not long before.

Meanwhile dark clouds gathered on the Republic. The more influence successive Oranges acquired in the Republic over the course of the 17th century, the more its decay became apparent. The unspoken ideals once held dear were discarded like some old rag. It was only a question of time before England and France were going to smell blood. And that was precisely what the Oranges had in mind, for their house was seeking a blood covenant with the English. There were still a few good men however trying to drive the iron stench of blood out of the Republic and restore the sweet smell of liberty.

The Tale of Two Brothers

The brightest stars on the firmament of the ailing Republic were the brothers Johan and Cornelis de Witt. Working in the spirit of their beheaded predecessor, they worked to save the Dutch from both an outside invasion from England, and inside subverting by German royalty. Not an easy task, as England had already assembled its fleet close to shore and the house of Orange had begun secret negotiations with the British Isles. One of the brothers, Johan de Witt, had also opened a line of communication with the British in which they toasted to each others sovereign status and added an ‘act of seclusion’. This effectively removed the age-old title of stadtholder from the Oranges, degrading them to just one out of many royal bloodlines sneaking about. The latest member of the family, still a child when the act was enforced, grew up to be infinitely ambitious and dead set on regaining his family’s former title. After using the royalist army to place the brothers under arrest (again after some false charge of high treason), the young prince arranged a scene the likes of which the Dutch had never seen. When Johan came to visit his brother in his cell a roused up crowd assembled before the prison walls demanding justice be done onto the ‘traitors’ Johan and Cornelis de Witt. The cavalry in charge with the defence of the prisoners then removed itself from the scene on a rumour that looting farmers were afoot some miles to the north. The crowd then dragged the brothers out of the safety of their cell and began a sinister lynching feast. Johan de Witt was shot in the neck, while his brother was beaten to death by the angry horde. The worst was yet to come. After confirming that both brothers were dead, they hung their body’s upside-down on a pole and ripped their limbs from their bodies. Some were even reported to having indulged themselves on their flesh. Although fully orchestrated by prince William of Orange, later historians have tried to shift the blame away from his royal highness (later to become king of England) by stating it was all just an unfortunate escalation of violence. These historians conveniently forget that the perpetrators were generously rewarded by the prince- even though the nation screamed bloody murder and demanded that the murderers be punished for their crime.

In the case of John of Oldenbarneveldt and the brothers De Witt, the words of Thomas Jefferson ring very true, when he proclaimed that ‘every so often the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants’. It is a sad but undeniable fact that it has usually been the blood of patriots with which the tree of liberty has been watered.

A Trail of Blood

Jumping up at us from the pages of the historical record (thank God for the historical record) is a disturbing palette: beheadings, gruesome torture sessions, unbridled eugenics and the ripping apart of honourable men. The situation is emphatically not unique to the Netherlands. Every single European superpower had its own private family dealing out the cards, whether it is the Oranges in Holland or the Bourbons in France. Out of the ruins of history a pattern emerges: royals covertly overthrow sovereign nations by accumulating power- while they themselves pose as the stabilising element in which to put your trust. Always avoiding open confrontations, they seek to subdue nations quietly from within by assassinating its genuine statesmen and rob its natural resources. It has proven an extraordinary old and successful formula which has now been projected on a global scale. If you are to follow the bloody trail over the winding roads of history, be prepared to finally end up at Bilderberg.

Notoriously ignorant about all things historical, people proclaiming to be journalists are yapping about the royal choice of hats, the annual family skiing trip and other trivialities, giving the ordinary newspaper reader the impression that it’s all just a ceremonial farce, not to be taken seriously. I sometimes imagine them breaking with their tradition of mindless worship and actually printing truth. But it is of little use, this musing on what is not but should be. If the mainstream media insists on silence, then others must insist on filling in the blanks. Although our history books do everything in their power to furbish the battered image of the house of Orange, the truth will unravel the lie, for its role in history is too obvious and blood-spattered to go unnoticed.

Frank James
The Swamp
March 12, 2009

During his three-hour appearance on CNBC today, Warren Buffett, the world’s most famous investor, described the cap-and-trade plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions which President Barack Obama included in its recent budget proposal as a “pretty regressive” tax.

Buffett, an Obama ally, is clearly not synched up with the White House message. He has given opponents of the proposal a powerful bit of ammunition to work with.

And by describing the taxes that would be imposed as eventually regressive since they would be passed along to consumers, Buffett has said, not in so many words, that Obama would hurt the low and middle income Americans the president sees himself championing since a larger share of their incomes would go towards paying higher utility bills than would be true for the more affluent.

But Buffett has long been outspoken, which is one of the reasons the Obama people liked him when he sided with them during the presidential campaign.

Associated Press
March 12, 2009

China’s Defense Ministry has demanded that the U.S. Navy end surveillance missions off the country’s southern coast following a weekend confrontation between an American vessel and Chinese ships.

In its first public comment on the Sunday episode, the ministry repeated earlier statements from the Foreign Ministry that the unarmed U.S. ship was operating illegally inside China’s exclusive economic zone when it was challenged by three Chinese government ships and two Chinese-flagged trawlers.

“The Chinese side’s carrying out of routine enforcement and safeguarding measures within its exclusive economic zone was entirely appropriate and legal,” ministry spokesman Huang Xueping said in a statement faxed overnight to reporters.

“We demand the United States respect our legal interests and security concerns, and take effective measures to prevent a recurrence of such incidents,” Huang said.