183 responses to “Almost Saved But Entirely Lost: “As It Was In The ‘Days’ Of Lot” – Rampant Sexual Perversion, Socio-Material Affluenza Compounded By Moral And Religious Breakdown”

1. 

   maat

   February 21, 2011 at 11:19 pm

   
   

   Oh and a couple more for you to sleep on;

   # “We came here to a country that was populated by Arabs and we are building here a Hebrew, a Jewish state; instead of the Arab villages, Jewish villages were established. You even do not know the names of those villages, and I do not blame you because these villages no longer exist. There is not a single Jewish settlement that was not established in the place of a former Arab Village.”
   —Moshe Dyan, March 19, 1969, speech at the Technion in Haifa, “Israel” quoted in Haaretz, April 4, 1969. (385 villages have been destroyed within pre-1967 Israel…)
   # Ben Gurion, referring to American Jews, called them “Human dust.”
   —cf. Israel: Utopia incorporated, Uri Davis, Zed Press, London, 1977, p. 19.

   Peace

   Loading…
2. 

   David

   February 21, 2011 at 11:38 pm

   
   

   For those who are hooked on Wikileaks here is what is coming:

    

   WikiLeaks books roundup – reviews

   Inside WikiLeaks by Daniel Domscheit-Berg; WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy by David Leigh and Luke Harding

   John Naughton

   The Observer, Sunday 20 February 2011

   WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange: ‘his significance transcends his personality’. Photograph: Antonio Zazueta Olmos/Antonio Olmos

   Of the making of books about WikiLeaks, there is apparently no end. Even as these two dropped on to the doormat, two more turned up on my Kindle. And that’s just at the "popular" end of the market. Already one can hear the grinding of academic presses as scholars and essayists set to work, assessing the Meaning Of It All. Never before in the history of mankind (as Churchill might say) has so much trouble been caused by so few people.

   Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website

   by Daniel Domscheit-Berg

    

   Buy it from the Guardian bookshop

   Search the Guardian bookshop

   The most extraordinary revelation in Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s book is how tiny the WikiLeaks operation has been from the beginning. For most of its brief life, it seems to have had a core of only four full-time people with a variable number of part-time supporters, groupies and hangers-on. All in all it’s a sobering case study in how mastery of software skills and cryptography can create something capable of infuriating – if not exactly humbling – a superpower.

   Domscheit-Berg is a computer scientist who worked in IT security prior to devoting himself to WikiLeaks at the end of 2007. He left in September 2010, exhausted and embittered by the stress of working with the site’s founder, Julian Assange. His is an intensely personal account of what it was like to be at the epicentre of an internet phenomenon. He portrays himself as a relatively straightforward and idealistic hacker who was mesmerised by a flawed genius, and captivated by that genius’s vision of creating a world in which no government or corporation could hide things from the rest of us.

   Most of the mainstream media has had a go at profiling Julian Assange, but Domscheit-Berg’s portrayal of the WikiLeaks founder is the most insightful to date. Many journalists have commented on his brilliant, wilful, erratic, paranoid personae, but none has lived with him on a day-to-day basis, as Domscheit-Berg did. "Julian often behaved," he writes at one point, "as though he had been raised by wolves rather than by other human beings. Whenever I cooked, the food would not, for instance, end up being shared equally between us. What mattered was who was quicker off the mark. If there were four slices of Spam, he would eat three and leave one for me if I was too slow."

   This indifference to the needs of others, together with a maniacal self-centredness and an amazing ability to concentrate on technical problems, is par for the course for computer geniuses. (Think of the portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, in the film The Social Network, or of the early Bill Gates.) It’s what enables them to create things, to conjure up unimaginable constructs by sheer force of intellect and will. But it’s also what makes them incapable of managing things on a day-to-day basis – and that, in a nutshell, is the burden of Domscheit-Berg’s complaint. As he tells it, the task of running and financing a complex operation was difficult enough without having a capricious, secretive and often uncontactable boss who can – and often does – countermand the carefully laid arrangements of subordinates.

   David Leigh and Luke Harding have produced an All the President’s Men for our times. It tells the story of how the Guardian got involved in some of the biggest revelations in recent journalistic history, and chronicles how the Afghan and Iraq war logs and US diplomatic cables came to be published. It’s a rattling page-turner that has Guardian dogs learning lots of new tricks (though they never quite mastered the art of using disposable mobile phones). It also highlights the fact that the paper was probably the best available collaborator for WikiLeaks because it’s one of the few journalistic organisations that has taken data journalism seriously and has formidable in-house technical expertise.

   One of the lessons of the evolution of WikiLeaks is that the facts rarely speak for themselves. Initially the vision was that all that was needed was to publish information that someone wished to keep secret – that the act of publication was sufficient in itself. What that implied was that WikiLeaks merely needed to construct a secure conduit that would enable whistleblowers to upload stuff without betraying their identities.

   Experience showed, however, that often mere revelation was not enough: the world yawned and turned away. Often the leaked material was complex and unintelligible to the lay browser. It needed expert interpretation – and corroboration. So gradually it dawned on Assange and his colleagues that the best way of making an impact on the world might be to collaborate with journalistic organisations, which could provide the interpretation and the checking needed to ensure that people believed what was being leaked. This is the value that the Guardian, the New York Times, Der Spiegel and the other media partners added to the vast troves of documents that Assange brought to them.

   But if it turned out that WikiLeaks needed conventional journalism, it has also become clear that conventional journalism needs what WikiLeaks created, namely a secure technology for enabling people to upload confidential material that they believe should be in the public domain. So it’s important that serious media organisations now build that kind of technology themselves, just in case WikiLeaks is overcome by the fragility of its finances, its managerial problems or the legal vulnerability of its founder. In a world increasingly dominated by secretive, unaccountable corporations and in which authoritarian regimes continue to flourish, we will need robust technologies for ensuring that some secrets cannot be kept.

   The media’s obsession with Assange is understandable, for he is indeed an amazingly complex and fascinating individual. It’s impossible to read either of these books without being alternately moved and revolted by his behaviour – at least as recounted by those who have had to deal with him. But his significance transcends his personality. Assange unleashed a genie that can’t be rebottled. As a result of his work, governments everywhere are faced with a tough choice: to live with a WikiLeakable world or to shut down the net. Not bad for an Australian hacker of no fixed abode.

   Secret society

   By John Lloyd

   Published: February 18 2011 22:11 | Last updated: February 18 2011 22:11

   Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website, by Daniel Domscheit-Berg, Jonathan Cape, RRP£9.99, 304 pages

   WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy, by David Leigh and Luke Harding, Guardian Books, RRP£9.99, 352 pages

   WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency, by Micah L Sifry, OR Books, RRP£9.99, 224 pages

   Julian Assange, the founder, face and spirit of WikiLeaks, marches to the beat of his own drum. That drum summons him to wage war on governments by exposing their vast stores of secret information on the internet. He has, it seems, succeeded beyond even his most elevated hopes: he is now a world figure, maybe even a world-historical one. Yet he’s also a failure.

   EDITOR’S CHOICE

   ‘Osama bin Laden’ by Michael Scheuer – Feb-18

   Rumsfeld’s new memoir ‘Known and Unknown’ reviewed by Andrew J Bacevich – Feb-11

   Day of the debutant – Feb-04

   Caught in the web – Jan-28

   Caste of millions – Jan-21

   John Gray’s ‘The Immortalization Commission’ – Jan-21

   The character of Assange and his organisation, and the material they have released, are fascinating in almost equal measure. Assange’s Australian childhood was one of constant disruption: an unknown father, a kindly stepfather who left, and a mother who fled from city to city with her son to avoid a vengeful former lover. In his teens, Assange immersed himself in the world of computer programming and then hacking and, bit by bit, he gathered together the threads of his view of the conspiratorial nature of governance.

   Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006 with the aim of providing a platform for the reception of as much confidential material from governments and their agencies as possible. Among its early successes, it leaked a report in 2007 on the corrupt practices of Daniel Arap Moi, the Kenyan leader, and in 2008 Rudolf Elmer, a whistleblower within the Zurich-based Julius Baer bank, leaked a cache of documents detailing clients’ tax-dodging. Yet WikiLeaks was struggling to make the impact Assange hoped.

   Then, in 2010, it hit pay dirt through US Private First Class Bradley Manning. In some ways, Manning was Assange’s doppelgänger: he too had a disturbed childhood, and was an idealist and dreamt of a better world. Assigned to a communications base in Iraq, he was horrified by the cynicism and casual brutality. He decided to strive for a better world by leaking the secret cables to which, as a PFC, he had amazing access.

   His first leak was a video filmed in 2007 of US soldiers in a helicopter shooting men on a Baghdad street, two of whom turned out to be Reuters employees. He uploaded it on to a Lady Gaga CD, and sent it to WikiLeaks. Logs – vast hoards of stories – from Iraq and Afghanistan followed, and finally 250,000 US diplomatic cables. The helicopter video created a sensation; the cables turned Assange and his organisation into superstars. Manning, reported to the authorities by a journalist to whom he had confided his theft, is now in solitary confinement at the US Marines’ base at Quantico, Virginia, locked up for 23 out of 24 hours, constantly prodded awake and only two people (a lawyer and a friend) are allowed to visit.

   The publication of several hundred of those cables in November 2010 has been explosive; its effect on journalism, diplomacy and our understanding of the world will take time to fully comprehend. However, the first books about WikiLeaks and its founder, published this month, offer insights into the organisation and the man behind it.

    

   Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s Inside WikiLeaks, a ghosted work from Assange’s closest collaborator and one-time closest friend, is marked by the haste of its composition and his burning resentment of Assange. For years, Domscheit-Berg was editor, proselytiser, organiser and PR man. But his impatience, then anger, then rage over Assange’s increasingly autocratic and capricious behaviour grew too much for him: he confronted Assange and demanded he change; instead, he was fired. His book has an inevitable tone of self-justification but from it we learn how tiny and disorganised WikiLeaks was.

   Above all, though, the book’s aim is to make clear that Assange is a real pain to be around, more so because his aims and his actions clash so fantastically. Although an avatar of collaboration, Assange retreats, most of the time wordlessly, to his computer (even during meals) and repels all who attempt criticism; a visionary for a transparent world, he disguises and shrouds in secrecy movements, dates, locations and facts about his past and about the capacity of WikiLeaks.

   Assange has imagination, energy and brilliance, concedes Domscheit-Berg, but he is “so paranoid, so power hungry, so megalomaniac”. It is a view at least in part shared by others who have worked with him, such as Nick Davies, the well-known Guardian investigative reporter, and Bill Keller, the editor of The New York Times. Davies, who first contacted Assange for The Guardian and came to regard him as a friend, later refused to deal with him, citing betrayal of trust over Assange’s sharing of information with the UK’s Channel Four News. Keller wrote, in a long New York Times magazine essay published in January, of Assange’s “bombast and dark conspiracy theories”, and stressed the distance he put between his paper and WikiLeaks when publishing the diplomatic cables, treating it as far as possible like any other source.

   In a chapter devoted to it, Domscheit-Berg describes Assange’s treatment of women as reactionary, which is telling in the context of the rape charges now outstanding against Assange in Sweden. Assange was never one for obscenities or lad-chat but he would refuse any woman the right to question him. Domscheit-Berg claims that Assange would “never be able to accept a woman who was truly his equal” and he would “boast about how many children he had fathered”.

    

   David Leigh and Luke Harding, the Guardian reporters who wrote WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy, are alive to what Assange can do to those around him but concentrate more on what the leaks do for freedom of information. The Guardian was one of five newspapers (including Le Monde, The New York Times, El Pais and Der Spiegel) that published information from WikiLeaks. Its strongly liberal stance put it in the first rank of publishers of often incendiary revelations but, like Domscheit-Berg, it couldn’t get on with Assange. During a meal in a London restaurant, Leigh told Assange that they wished to disguise the identities of Afghans who had provided information to the US authorities. Assange replied: “Well, they’re informants, so, if they get killed, they’ve got it coming to them. They deserve it.” It was an index of how far apart the paper and the leaker were.

   WikiLeaks is the most workmanlike of this first slew of books, the narrative marshalled into clear lines by Leigh, the paper’s investigations editor, and Harding, its Moscow correspondent. The book concentrates too much on how The Guardian covered the story, with self-serving riffs on the dedication, tirelessness, skill and imagination of the team: such qualities are best discovered, not insisted upon. Still, it’s by far the best in describing the content and, to a degree, the importance of the revelations. It throws out intriguing lines of thought about the future for newspapers and also shows – though it could have done more on this – that Assange is no liberal in the Guardian mould.

   In his 2006 essay “Conspiracy as Governance”, Assange outlined his philosophy that governments use secrecy and exchange of information within a closed network to the detriment of the people. Their disruption is thus a civic duty, and disruption is best effected by prompting leaks. In a blog posted in December 2006, Assange expanded on the idea, writing that: “The more secretive or unjust an organisation is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. This must result in … decreased ability to hold on to power.”

   Assange’s philosophy, much of it adumbrated before WikiLeaks took off, has been subjected to a critical review by the philosopher Peter Ludlow of Northwestern University. Ludlow, who had previously seen Assange as a “prophet of the ‘information wants to be free’ hacker ethic”, now poses sceptical, and useful, questions. Can’t some government “conspiracies”, such as secret manoeuvres aimed to produce a peace settlement, be benign? Is Assange sure there’s no fatal fallout for the informants? Don’t these leaks spur agencies to tighten their protocols on secrecy? Isn’t WikiLeaks – its base constantly shifting, its informants (supposedly) anonymous, its encryption uncrackable – itself a conspiracy? And hasn’t it become a very powerful one, holding the lives of many actors and the fate of many diplomatic and military projects in its hands?

    

   Assange’s aim is not reform but destruction. In WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency, Micah L Sifry writes: “To Assange, the goal of transparency is not to enable better behaviour by governments or corporations but to make it impossible for ‘the conspiracy to think, act and adapt.’” Sifry’s book is not particularly enlightening about WikiLeaks but does considerably expand our understanding of the burgeoning world that has grown so quickly from the internet. Citing a plethora of websites, he argues that much of the most valuable work on the internet is by activists who seek, in one way or another, to open up state and corporate affairs. Some of these activist-scholars, such as Professor Tim Wu, who was appointed adviser to the Federal Trade Commission last week, even work with the Obama administration in the belief that they can add flesh to the bones of the president’s commitment to an open government (something Sifry is grumpily sceptical about).

   Sifry believes that it is in the activities of such reformists that we can glimpse a better relationship between power and the people. Those in power may recognise the necessity of aligning private deeds with public declarations (since both will end up on the internet) and citizens better understand the dilemmas and contradictions of power and seek a fuller partnership in their resolution. That’s a noble, inspiring vision: it isn’t that of Julian Assange.

   We have gained a great deal from these leaks so far. In a book just published in Italy (WikiLeaks dalla A alla Z) a collection of highly entertaining cables on prime minister Silvio Berlusconi are brought together, salted with the harsher view that he increasingly acts as Russia’s cheerleader and speculation that he may be benefiting personally from its oil revenues. It is good that we know about which regimes and individuals are considered corrupt and tyrannous; that the Saudis want the US to “cut off the head of the (Iranian) snake”; that China is losing patience with North Korea, and may acquiesce in a union between north and south; that the US forces and authorities can do little to stop torture in Iraq.

   As the Harvard Law School professor Yochai Benkler writes in his essay “A Free Irresponsible Press”, due to be published shortly in the Harvard Civil Liberties Law Review, WikiLeaks fulfils the criteria of a whistleblower in the public interest. Benkler believes that any attempt at suppression or prosecution of Assange would be batted away by the Supreme Court on the basis that the first amendment to the US constitution forbids any kind of censorship.

   It would seem that the editors of the five newspapers that published the cables, ready to embarrass but not to destroy, have succeeded in forcing the Leninist Assange into their reformist mould: and in doing so, have added value. WikiLeaks has not (as I previously thought, and wrote) dumped all the logs and cables on to the internet: the five publications have been highly selective and the cables have been extensively redacted. However, the question remains: who can decide if and when the thousands of documents that WikiLeaks retains are released? It is an important question, barely touched on by these books.

   Taken together, these books left me thinking less of Assange but more highly of his organisation. In large part because of his own repelling nature, Assange finds himself at once lionised and gutted. He has attracted celebrity supporters – Jemima Khan, John Pilger, Michael Moore (Domscheit-Berg says that Assange has always despised Moore, who contributed $20,000 to his defence fund). But key assistants have left him; WikiLeaks is inactive. Domscheit-Berg and others, including The New York Times, are starting competitor leak sites.

   Assange will be back in court later this month to learn if he is to be deported to Sweden to stand trial for minor rape. It’s been not the least of his unattractive features – and of some of his supporters – that he has painted the charges, and the women bringing them, as inspired by the CIA, or some such agency. Assange has needed to see himself as a solitary iconoclast, grasping the essential nature of the tyrannies that oppress us, possessing the key to our liberation. Instead, very much tamed and contained by his publishing partners, he’s given a substantial heft to our better understanding of the way the world is managed, and maybe, in time, a more sympathetic comprehension of the contradictions, compromises and contrasting goals with which governments must juggle.

   It must make him sick.

   John Lloyd is an FT contributing editor

   Loading…
3. 

   kiki

   February 21, 2011 at 11:58 pm

   
   

   Can anyone clarify which bits of the bible Barbados is referenced in.
   Cornell Campbell & U Roy – I Shall Not Be Moved, I Shall Not Remove
   

   Loading…
4. 

   Hants

   February 22, 2011 at 12:12 am

   
   

   Breaking news.

   There are reports of numerous fatalities after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake rocked the New Zealand city of Christchurch Tuesday (New Zealand time).

   Loading…
5. 

   David

   February 22, 2011 at 12:14 am

   
   

   Thanks Hants, this report is calling it to be a 7.1 quake.

   Loading…
6. 

   Hants

   February 22, 2011 at 12:19 am

   
   

   David this is a big one too. My boy Rawle has a problem.

   http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/no-bail/

   By Maria Bradshaw | Tue, February 22, 2011 – 12:10 AM

   A WOMAN who allegedly launched a post-Valentine’s Day attack on politician Rawle Eastmond was remanded to Her Majesty’s Prisons Dodds, when she appeared in the Holetown Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

   Haniyfa Reza White, a 32-year-old sales associate, of Sion Hill, St James, pleaded not guilty before Magistrate Ian Weekes to charges that on February 15, she unlawfully entered in a wanton or insulting or threatening manner on Eastmond’s premises at Upper Carlton, St James, and that she unlawfully assaulted him.

   Prosecutor Keith Belle, who objected to bail, told the magistrate that White was already on bail on a serious charge and that part of the conditions was that she stay away from the Member of Parliament’s premises and also his family.

   “These charges occurred on the compound of Mr Eastmond’s residence, so the accused has violated part of the conditions of bail,” he stated.

   White’s attorney-at-law, Lesley Cargill, countered that the charges were only allegations.

   Cargill said her client had a clean record until 2007 when a serious charge was brought against her, and that her client had kept out of trouble until last December when a charge was brought against her for using threatening words against Eastmond’s wife.

   The lawyer added that the circumstances surrounding her present predicament were all connected.

   “She stuck to the bail conditions. She has brought in a medical report to the police to have the virtual complainant in this matter also prosecuted,” Cargill submitted.

   She said White had been involved in a relationship with Eastmond.

   Magistrate Weekes, noting the two charges were serious, reminded White that he had specifically given her “strict instructions” in December not to go on Eastmond’s property.

   But Cargill informed the court that White was living at Eastmond’s house and she was in his vehicle when the incident occurred.

   “Unfortunately, for your client,” the magistrate said, “I am not considering her liberation today. These matters were so serious from the last occasion, she should be nowhere down there to get her name called.”

   White, sitting in the prisoner’s dock, asked the court’s permission to say something.

   “I did not go on Mr Eastmond’s property to meet him. I was sitting in his car.”

   Before she could proceed further, the prosecutor told the court that White was giving evidence.

   Magistrate Weekes instructed White, who is also on bail on a charge of murdering Julene Bryan on May 15, 2007, not to say anything more.

   “I will not exercise any discretion in her favour today,” Weekes said. “She is remanded in custody until next Friday. Miss White has to learn to heed good advice.”

   Loading…
7. 

   Hants

   February 22, 2011 at 12:25 am

   
   

   “Magistrate Weekes instructed White, who is also on bail on a charge of murdering Julene Bryan on May 15, 2007, not to say anything more.”

   David this is like a script from Law and Order or CSI.

   Hopefully the truth will out.

   Loading…
8. 

   David

   February 22, 2011 at 12:31 am

   
   

   @Hants

   Many of these politicians are all the same. Don’t know the facts in this case but Rawle ‘Diabolical’ Eastmond has been dealing with his outside thing for years. One can only wonder being the bad diabetic that he is how he is able to do it.

   You live by the sword you die by the sword.

   Loading…
9. 

   Sargeant

   February 22, 2011 at 12:40 am

   
   

   David

   The woman was out on bail on a murder charge? Where does she live? Canada?

   Hey Random Thoughts maybe you are correct and Bajan politicians can die from outside nookie.

   Loading…
10. 

    David

    February 22, 2011 at 12:44 am

    
    

    @Sargeant

    Making a general comment the Barbados Court System is a messy place to deal but it serves the establishment and the lawyers of course to (using your term) paper over the shit.

    Loading…
11. 

    Hants

    February 22, 2011 at 12:46 am

    
    

    David the twist to this story is the murder charge.

    Don’t know the whole story but it seems this is not the kind of woman you he should be dealing with.

    I feel sorry for him and his family.

    He was a good boy back in the day.

    Loading…
12. 

    David

    February 22, 2011 at 12:48 am

    
    

    @Hants

    Understand the point unfortunately it is a stretch to expect the Nation to provide the background.

    He is still a good boy using today’s standards.

    Loading…
13. 

    Hants

    February 22, 2011 at 12:48 am

    
    

    @Sargeant I was thinking the same thing.

    I didn’t know you could get bail on a murder charge in Barbados.

    Loading…
14. 

    David

    February 22, 2011 at 12:51 am

    
    

    Here is a note received from an anonymous person, BU is unable to verify:

    Here is are some questions I extracted from a document that was sent to me with some questions on Mr Darwin Dottin stewardship and his ability to continue as COP. As a former intelligence officer internationally I have no reason to doubt my sources who have forwarded these documents for safekeeping.

    Does the BLP appointed Royal Barbados Police Force commissioner Mr Darwin have dirt on DLP politicians?
    Why are the British frustrated with Mr Dottin?
    Does it have anything to do with the misuse of vehicles and surveillance equipment?
    Can Mr Dottin tell the public why a suspended Sgt Carlos Thompson and his wife are driving a Special Branch vehicles?
    Who are the private citizens illegally wiretapped and spied on by Carlos Thompson and by whose instructions?
    Mr Dottin,is they any truth to the existence of a band of Untouchables headed by you which include such person as Richard Boyce and Jedder Robinson?
    Is the Country`s security at risk with the transfer of 4 Special Branch officers with over 80 years experience.
    When last was an audit done of the finances of the RBPF and who are the Untouchables carrying home over $4000 in overtime monthly.
    Why did the Top COP disrepsect the current AG on the January 5th 2011?
    Did David Thompson,put Superintendent Boyce to watch Mr Dottin?

    Loading…
15. 

    Hants

    February 22, 2011 at 12:58 am

    
    

    This outside woman thing has always been a national pastime in Barbados.
    Unfortunately Rawle seems to have made a very bad choice.

    .

    Loading…
16. 

    kiki

    February 22, 2011 at 8:42 am

    
    

    The Congos – Jah Solid Foundation
    (aka Them No Know Jah)
    

    Loading…
17. 

    Technician

    February 22, 2011 at 10:02 am

    
    

    #
    Hants | February 22, 2011 at 12:12 AM |

    Breaking news.

    There are reports of numerous fatalities after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake rocked the New Zealand city of Christchurch Tuesday (New Zealand time).

    I wonder what (according to Zoe’s logic) did those Kiwis did to deserve this…..

    Can’t wait on Zoe’s take on this….

    Loading…
18. 

    Christopher Halsall

    February 22, 2011 at 10:52 am

    
    

    @Techy… ROFLMFAO….

    Loading…
19. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    
    

    DAVID@BU

    In an interesting twist: “Two IRANIAN* warships have entered the Suez Canal on their way to the Mediterranean Sea, Canal officials said Tuesday. “They entered the canal at 0545 (0345 GMT),” the officials told reporters…”

    Israeli PM Ben. Netanyahu apparently is saying this is a PROVOCATIVE* act of war…

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142457

    What is even more STRANGE* David, on Sunday it was reported that an “earthquake” measuring 5.9 on the Richter Scale shook up residents at the entrance to the Suez Canal early Monday morning (actually just before DAWN*)….

    The thing was Iran was preparing to move warships to Syria but it was denied that same morning and TODAY it’s being reported that the ship have actually passed through the SUEZ CANAL* ( the 1st time since 1979) on route to SYRIA ( stay tuned)…

    Unconfirmed reports suggest that the NZ earthquake could have been have MAN_MADE* on the back of the SUEZ QUAKE* because why not a day before or a day after the IRANIAN* military flotilla…

    Research also suggest that as far back as of Dec. 26th 2004, that the USGS* knew of the undersea earthquake and did not warn the Indonesian government and the end-result was catastrophic lost of life in the 100’s of thousands (ONE-SWOOP MASS DEPOPULATION)…

    The USGS* did provide “REAL_TIME” info the NZ quake….

    SEE:- http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_b0001iet_tz.html

    Surely, the angels which hold the 4 WINDS* are gradually loosing the winds resulting in political strife, earthquakes, unnatural phenomena and wars BLOWING* across the land…

    The endgame approaches!!!

    Loading…
20. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 12:26 pm

    
    

    @ DAVID

    M. Gaddafi is currently doing a theatrical RANT* of Spielberg proportions on all major networks…

    Ya’ gotta’ LUV* this guy…

    He should be a theme park attraction down in Florida’s Disney World!!!

    Loading…
21. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 12:29 pm

    
    

    Loading…
22. 

    Christopher Halsall

    February 22, 2011 at 12:37 pm

    
    

    @TMB: “Unconfirmed reports suggest that the NZ earthquake could have been have MAN_MADE* on the back of the SUEZ QUAKE* because why not a day before or a day after the IRANIAN* military flotilla…

    Could anyone please explain to all of us how humans could possibly create directed earthquakes at particular times?

    Modern physics understanding appreciated….

    Loading…
23. 

    Technician

    February 22, 2011 at 1:04 pm

    
    

    I wonder how many times in the history of mankind, has the phrase “the world is coming to an end” been used.

    They must have worn out that phrase and the accompanying rhetoric with WWI and WWII, Korean War, Seven Day War,Vietnam War, Gulf War I & II….etc.
    Not to mention the ‘Great Flood’…….and all the other stories…….just wondering!

    Loading…
24. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 1:05 pm

    
    

    Loading…
25. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 1:12 pm

    
    

    Foreknowledge of A Natural Disaster: Washington was aware that a deadly Tidal Wave was building up in the Indian Ocean by Michel Chossudovsky…

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO412C.html

    Loading…
26. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 1:13 pm

    
    

    Earthquakes: Natural or Man-Made?

    http://newdawnmagazine.com.au/Articles/Earthquakes_Natural_or_Man_Made.html

    Loading…
27. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 1:15 pm

    
    

    Top 5 Ways to Cause a Man-Made Earthquake….

    http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/top-5-ways-that/

    Loading…
28. 

    Anonus

    February 22, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    
    

    Terence Blackett,

    Excuse my ignorance, but do you not have anything better to do?

    Loading…
29. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    
    

    Loading…
30. 

    Christopher Halsall

    February 22, 2011 at 1:22 pm

    
    

    @TMB: “Earthquakes: Natural or Man-Made? (URL to article provided.)

    Has this “paper” been peer reviewed?

    Loading…
31. 

    Christopher Halsall

    February 22, 2011 at 1:30 pm

    
    

    @TMB: “Top 5 Ways to Cause a Man-Made Earthquake….

    Yes. Wired Magazine makes you think (unfortunatly it isn’t generally available here in Bim…)

    But, this doesn’t explain how to create an earthquake “on demand” or “at a particular distant location”.

    My question stands.

    Can you answer?

    Loading…
32. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 1:30 pm

    
    

    @ DAVID

    Hold on to your hat but is this a FORETASTE* and the making of PHASE 2 of the economic cycle…

    Bank Run In… Korea

    Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/18/2011 16:45 -0500

    When one thinks of South Korea one tends to think of stable government and an even more stable financial system. That may change very soon. According to JoongAng Daily, “more than a thousand customers lined up in front of the Busan II Savings Bank located in Busan yesterday as soon as the nation’s financial regulator announced a six-month business suspension of Busan Savings Bank and its affiliate Daejeon Mutual Savings Bank.” And not helping the mood was a bank employee who told the crowd that “You won’t be allowed to withdraw your money if you are just standing there without a queue ticket number.”

    Needless to say, most promptly got a number. Those that didn’t tried to get their cash at an ATM. Unsuccessfully: “Those without a ticket then headed to the automated teller machines to withdraw their money, but the machines quickly ran out of cash.”

    And while the bank run at Busan was driven by capital inadequacy (shockingly Korea still hasn’t figure out that the best way to mask liabilities surpassing assets is through pervasive fraud and suspension of all common sense accounting rules: they should promptly consult with Tim Geithner and Sheila Bair on the issue), it may promptly spread to the entire banking system. “Analysts expressed concerns that public panic about savings banks could spread. “The fears of depositors are mounting, which could lead to bank runs at a number of savings banks, and it could eventually spread to the entire savings bank industry,” said Jung Sung-tae, a researcher at LG Economic Institute.” But fear not, for the Korean government is one step ahead: “A way to secure capital [for savings banks] is to establish a joint account holding fund amounting to 10 trillion won,” explained Kim Seok-dong, FSC chairman. “This problem will be closely discussed with the National Assembly.” Any day now Korea will end up with its own version of a taxpayer funded capital block hole, a/k/a in the US as the FDIC, and all problems will be promptly brushed under the rug. We can’t wait until this brilliant idea comes to China (advised by Goldman Sachs no doubt). We just wonder if it will be before or after the Chinese bank run hits…

    From JoongAng:

    “I’ve saved 40 million won ($35,810) over my whole life. That money was going to be used for my grandson’s marriage but I cannot trust these people [bank employees] saying that I am guaranteed to get my money back,” said Cho So-young, 79.

    Although operations of three of Busan Savings Bank’s four affiliates were not suspended, there are fears that they could be hit by a bank run on their deposits.

    In the case of Busan II Savings Bank, its capital adequacy ratio stood at 6.0 percent as of the end of 2010, but its liabilities exceeded assets by 12.5 billion won.

    Two other affiliates, Jungang Busan Savings Bank and Jeonju Savings Bank, have capital adequacy ratios of 3.6 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively. But they are unlikely to avoid a suspension of business if a bank run occurs.

    The state-run Korea Finance Corporation and four commercial banks – Woori, Kookmin, Shinhan and Hana – have decided to inject 2 trillion won of emergency liquidity into the savings bank sector.

    In addition, the government has decided to extend the amount of loans that can be borrowed by the Korea Federation of Savings Banks to support savings banks from the current 600 billion won to 3 trillion won.

    Financial authorities are currently working to establish a joint deposit insurance account as a safety net for other financial sectors to curb the spread of possible financial risks from the savings banks. Funds for a joint deposit insurance account would be collected by financial institutions.

    It is refreshing to see that both US banking insolvency, and its means of dealing with problems (insert head firmly and deeply in sand) are spreading across the world. And with that in mind, and a drink in hand, we now await for the daily trickle of press releases from the FDIC describing today’s roster of Failure Friday banks, which have really failed in not realizing that the only way to avoid bankruptcy is to merge with everyone else who is just as insolvent and become a systemic risk.

    Loading…
33. 

    islandgal246

    February 22, 2011 at 1:34 pm

    
    

    @Anonus

    LOLLLLL ROFLMAO you are too funny! This is Terrence’s pulpit. He is probably a regular at Hyde Park. I am sure when he speaks his eyes have this glazed look in them. LOL BU is home to all and many. When I see any post by him I smile because that is another one I won’t read because it is too long and rambling.

    Loading…
34. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 1:39 pm

    
    

    @ CH

    The question you are asking me – seeks what kind of answer???

    My opinion?

    Or seismological research?

    Loading…
35. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 1:39 pm

    
    

    Loading…
36. 

    Christopher Halsall

    February 22, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    
    

    @TMB: “The question you are asking me – seeks what kind of answer???” “My opinion?” “Or seismological research?”

    I (and many) seek the truth; no matter where it leads.

    My questions:

    Do you actually believe that humans can create directed earthquakes?

    If so, do you have evidence supporting this claim?

    Loading…
37. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    
    

    Arkansas cities feel unexplained surge in earthquakes…

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110217/ap_on_re_us/us_arkansas_earthquakes

    Loading…
38. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 2:09 pm

    
    

    @ CH
    “Do you actually believe that humans can create directed earthquakes?”

    Consensus suggest that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE*…

    If we are capable of putting a satellite into outer space that can ZOOM* in on a cockroach in Chinatown NY – go figure!!!

    If Craig Venter can create “ARTIFICIAL LIFE” in a lab (with doomsday repercussions) anything is possible!!!

    If GENETIC MODIFICATION & ENGINEERING can create new hybrid life forms including the possibility of CLONED HUMAN LIFE – what can any of us say?

    Following the evidence would suggest that we have created the technology to create RAINFALL, HURRICANES, EARTHQUAKES etc… The problem is – HOW DO YOU OUT-RIGHTLY COME INTO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN WITH THOSE KIND OF ADMISSIONS?

    Conspiracy theorists are already having a field day with this stuff – can you imagine if someone were to get their hands on documented proof that our governments have been manipulating NATURE* through insidious means?

    Loading…
39. 

    Technician

    February 22, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    
    

    I just love how these ‘educated Christians ‘make BOLD claims but pussyfoot around the direct answers to direct questions…..stuuuuuupse!!

    There is NOTHING wrong with saying I DON”T KNOW!!

    Loading…
40. 

    Christopher Halsall

    February 22, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    
    

    @TMB: “Consensus suggest that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE*…

    Consensus is wrong.

    How do you, for example, take any object with any mass to C (the speed of light) without using infinite energy?

    @TMB: “If Craig Venter can create “ARTIFICIAL LIFE” in a lab (with doomsday repercussions) anything is possible!!!

    Not true. What CV did is what Mother Nature does every day. This does not mean that anything is possible.

    @TMB… Respectfully, you might want to understand the sciences a bit more before making the claims you do….

    Loading…
41. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 2:37 pm

    
    

    @ CH

    In April 1997, key players in Bill Clinton’s administration held a discourse at the University of Georgia in Atlanta…

    Here’s Senator SAM NUNN’s response to a specific question:

    Q: Let me ask you specifically about last week’s scare here in Washington, and what we might have learned from how prepared we are to deal with that (inaudible), at B’nai Brith…

    A: ……. “Alvin Toeffler has written about this in terms of some scientists in their laboratories trying to devise certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic-specific so that they could just eliminate certain ethnic groups and races; and others are designing some sort of engineering, some sort of insects that can destroy specific crops. Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off EARTHQUAKES*, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves….

    SEE:

    http://www.fas.org/news/usa/1997/04/bmd970429d.htm

    Loading…
42. 

    islandgal246

    February 22, 2011 at 2:38 pm

    
    

    These claims have the undertones of a mentally unstable individual obsessed by religion.

    Loading…
43. 

    islandgal246

    February 22, 2011 at 2:40 pm

    
    

    Terrence will you go and take your medication please.

    Loading…
44. 

    Christopher Halsall

    February 22, 2011 at 3:01 pm

    
    

    @TMB… I didn’t ask you to post some URL quoting a politician talking about earthquakes…

    I asked for someone knowledgeable to speak about the question if directed earthquakes were even possible.

    But, let me please quote your quote: “Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off EARTHQUAKES*, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves….

    Who are these “others”? Has their research been peer reviewed? Or is it all “Top Secret”?

    As an aside, “Alvin Toeffler” doesn’t appear to exist….

    Loading…
45. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 3:10 pm

    
    

    @ CH

    Understanding the science is frankly immaterial…

    Science has created technologies which undermine human existence. And although scientific advances have proven beneficial in some ways to human existence – the antithesis has been so much more sinister…

    The reality is that scientists are fallible human beings with weaknesses and shortcomings, biases and prejudices and oftentimes flawed theoretical positions they base in so-called factual, empirical science…

    The ominous nature of science has created a “brave new world”; so-called intelligent design; “The Manhattan Project” and military technology that can incinerate an entire planet; “PHARMACEUTICAL ‘death’ CONCOCTIONS”; gene therapy which can possibly could get out of hand; video game technology that’s damaging the minds of our youth; Frankenstein foods created by Monsanto et al … the LIST* is endless!!! These ramifications of scientific manipulation is all too evident in our world and I personally have very little FAITH* in science!!!

    Loading…
46. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 3:16 pm

    
    

    @ CH

    This is arbitrary conjecture which you would have to take up with those who are clearly know a whole lot more than you or I…

    If powerful political figures make CLAIMS* to a specific effect – we have a choice to either accept or reject their positions…

    Either way, it will not change OUTCOMES*, FACTS or whether the INFO* is qualitatively substantiated by any outside 2nd or 3rd group…

    To keep it REAL* – you and I both know that things do not work like that in the real world anyway….

    Loading…
47. 

    David

    February 22, 2011 at 3:21 pm

    
    

    @Chris

    As a scientist it is understandable that you need to be able to disprove the hypothesis. However we live in a world where there is a place for the circumstantial. We discussed the subject of man made quakes after Haiti when Bush Tea and Micro Mock Engineer enlightened us on some technologies out there. Will have to do a search to see what we can find.

    Loading…
48. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    
    

    @ CH

    You and I have debated the dichotomy which exist between SCIENCE* & FAITH**…

    We have looked at Quantum physics/mechanics/theory as a way of explaining the deeper meaning of LIFE* and the EXPRESSION* of Biblical FAITH* within the debate of time-space distanciation…

    If we are both honest – there are more questions than answers…

    The key is that no human being possess ULTIMATE* knowledge!!!

    That rest with the CREATOR* GOD* in whom I believe…

    But I will leave you with a little something for our next discussion (as it’s time for a late dinner)…

    See video below….

    Loading…
49. 

    Terence M. Blackett

    February 22, 2011 at 3:30 pm

    
    

    Loading…
50. 

    Christopher Halsall

    February 22, 2011 at 3:59 pm

    
    

    @BU.David: “As a scientist it is understandable that you need to be able to disprove the hypothesis.

    Not entirely correct. What I need is for the hypothesis to be proven. A different thing.

    @BUD: “However we live in a world where there is a place for the circumstantial.

    “Circumstantial” simply means observational. However, observations must be truly independent to be taken seriously.

    @BUD: “We discussed the subject of man made quakes after Haiti when Bush Tea and Micro Mock Engineer enlightened us on some technologies out there.

    Which I thought I had debunked at that time.

    @BUD: “Will have to do a search to see what we can find.

    Please do so.

    If I am wrong, I want to know about it.

    If you et al are wrong, I don’t want anyone mislead.

    Loading…