The United States of America stands exposed in the eyes of the entire world as the number-one terrorist threat to the future of humanity. Many have known this fact already, but now it is universally clear.

As the US prepares to launch an overt war on Syria (the covert war has been raging for 30 months), the vast majority of humanity can finally see through all its decades of pretense and conceit as the world’s model of democracy and international law. And what they see is the ugly opposite. The US is a terrorist state that holds international law, democracy and human rights in utter contempt. It is ready, as it always has been, to kill countless civilians for its selfish political ambitions. That is the conventional definition of “terrorism”.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad made a profound point recently when he said that his country has faced aggression for more than two years, but only now is the real enemy revealing itself - the US and its minions. But the US terrorist state is not just being called out over Syria. It is being revealed as the enemy to the entire world.

From past wars in the Caribbean, Central America, Philippines, Vietnam and Indochina, through coups and covert ops in Iran, Iraq, Africa, to recent killing fields in Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia, the historical picture is now complete. All these conflicts and many more - too many to mention here - integrate into one indisputable truth. The US is the world’s biggest terror state. If it is not dealt with definitely, then the future of the world is in peril more than ever.
  In previous crimes of aggression, the US ruling elite could invoke the spurious cover of “a coalition of the willing”, or the abused authority of the United Nations or NATO. It was able to do that through deployment of lies, fabrications and a supine mass media that would lend credibility to the mendacity. Now, thanks to alternative, critical media and instant global communications, the American lies don’t work any longer. In an instant, they are exposed; just like the attempt in the last few hours of US Secretary of State John to frame up Syria over alleged chemical weapons use.



The people of the world have reached a critical mass of intolerance towards the rogue terror states of the US, Britain, France, Israel and a few other accomplices. We have watched their relentless mass murder and exploitation of fellow humans in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. We have witnessed how this tiny group of state terrorists imposes on the vast majority of humanity their vile criminality and in the process then insult us with grotesque lies and justifications. We have seen how these rogue states have stolen land, poisoned people’s water, burnt their crops, dispossessed their homes, assassinated families with aerial drones and ground drones in the form of death squads. They have committed all these shocking crimes with lies and impunity to the point where now these state terrorists are operating in more than one country simultaneously in a permanent state of relentless war, pushing the very future of humanity to the brink.

However, despite this lawlessness and gangsterism, the people of the world are fighting back.

This week the British parliament voted against the London government’s arrogance to provide its usual criminal special relationship to the Americans. In the execution of past war crimes in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya - to mention a few - Washington could rely on the trusty British imperialists to give a veneer of “coalition of the willing”. British premier David Cameron’s plans to repeat the criminality by backing Washington’s plans to bomb Syria were dealt a crushing blow by the British parliament voting against any such military action. Cameron was forced to withdraw. The vote in the British parliament is not so much a sign of ethics among Britain’s political class. It is
more a reflection of the global awakening among ordinary citizens that this insane state terrorism must stop.


The French government has also backed off earlier bellicose bravado, with French President Francois Hollande belatedly calling for a “peaceful, political solution” over the Syrian crisis. Even Washington’s reliable Canadian puppet Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said that his country will not be getting involved military in Syria. It is also reported that 10 members of the NATO alliance - one-third of the total - are not willing to support American strikes. This latter grouping comprises the usual minions of the US. And we haven’t even yet acknowledged the more strident opponents, such as Russia, China, Iran and the majority of nations elsewhere in Asia, Africa and the Americas.

The people of the world have had it with elite Western rulers acting as terrorists who are holding humanity to ransom. The rulers are presiding not only over military terrorism. They are inflicting economic, social and ecological terrorism with their bankrupt capitalist smash-and-grab system. That system has reached the point of meltdown and that is why we are being pushed into relentless wars - in order for the rulers and their politician puppets to corner the remaining resources. The ultimate solution to end the wars is for the people to overthrow the economic system that US and Western elite rulers preside over. The insane criminality of the US rulers over Syria is exposing this historic challenge facing humanity.

After the British parliamentary setback the US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said: “Our approach is to continue to find an international coalition that will act together. It is the goal of President Obama and our government... whatever decision is taken, that it be an international collaboration and effort.”

Can you believe how ridiculous these American puppets sound? What the deluded Americans do not seem to realize is that they are on their own. The only entities willing to support their aggression on Syria is Saudi Arabia and Israel. So, how’s that for credibility? The only support Washington can muster is from a feudal, sword-wielding, head-chopping regime and a criminal pariah genocidal state. Coalition of the Willing? More like Coalition of the Killing.

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 Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism

Senator John McCain cares so much for the war – drum rhetoric that he expounds, which is why he was caught playing a game on his cell phone during a meeting of Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (SCFR).

McCain told mainstream media: “As much as I like to always listen in rapt attention constantly [to] remarks of my colleagues over a three-and-a-half-hour period, occasionally I get a little bored and so I resorted [to poker]. But the worst thing about it is I lost thousands of dollars in this game.”

Chuckling, McCain said losing money was ok because it was “fake” anyway.

Taking the pending war on Syria seriously, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a blanket warning to President Obama and his “coalition of the willing” (COTW) against Syria that any attack without UN approval would be considered an act of “aggression”.

Putin said that Russia may support a UN resolution to act against Syria; however he is in doubt that it was the Syrian government that used chemical weapons on 1,400 Syrian citizens.

Russia Watching Syria Video:


Obama stated that the “red line” comment he made last year still stands. The use of chemical weapons that violates international treaties necessitates that the international community must stand up against Syria. Obama said: “I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line. “A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.” However, Jay Carney, press secretary for the Obama administration, admitted in a media conference that the use of chemical weapons was perpetrated by the “opposition” and not the Syrian government.


White House Admits Assad Not Guilty of Gas Attacks Video:




In a game of dare, Obama claims that the world’s credibility is at stake with regard to acting against Syria. This is why he is busy building a COTW to ensure that his agenda is met.

Indeed, part of this propaganda is just making statements without proof because words are more powerful than evidence.

The Obama administration is now being exposed for doctoring the numbers of the victims at Aleppo to bolster sympathy.

The British government has shown that far fewer people died in the chemical weapons attack, which leaves questions as to the quality of intelligence Obama is basing his pending military strike on Syria.

According to the British government, only 350 people were killed in Aleppo. In agreement, the French intelligence sources are saying that 281 confirmed dead through open-source video have been accounted for.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) states that their account is that only 502 died with 80 being children and 137 being women.

It appears that the Obama administration came up with a number based on word from their proxy terrorists, the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Even the count provided by John Kerry, Secretary of State, to the SCFR did not add up to the 1,400 claimed by Obama.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani commented that Obama’s attack on Syria is in “nobody’s interest”.

Rouhani continued: “As the Islamic republic has already announced any (military) measure against Syria is in the disadvantage of both the region and the U.S.’ friends. We believe that the main problem of Syria is foreign interventions and opening the space for the terrorists.”

Propaganda surrounding Iran’s stake in this matter concludes that it is their national nuclear program that would be negatively affected by a strike on Syria.

In response, it is being reported that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is being put to the ready for any necessary military might requested by Rouhani.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey “is ready to take part in any international coalition against Syria.”

Erdogan explained: “We have said that we are ready to take part in any kind of coalition and we perceive this as a coalition of volunteers.”



Known as the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP), this would export natural gas from the world’s largest reserves in Iran, through Syria and Lebanon, and out to be delivered to the UK.

Egypt is part of this line which explains why they recently had an Arab Spring uprising to over-throw Muhammad Morsi, the choice-Muslim Brotherhood puppet placed into power with the help of the Obama administration.

To stop the AGP, Saudi Arabia has spent $3 billion to support the FSA in Syria through weapons deals, ammunition and expenses.

Once pronounced dead, but still living Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan has been making the rounds from Moscow to Paris and hoping to gain support against Syria.

Secret contracts have been offered by Bandar to Putin and French President Francois Hollande to strategically gain major governmental accord to bring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad down from power and crush the furtherance of the AGP.

Saudi Arabia would like to become a leader in natural gas production and become the main provider to Europe.

In fact, since 2009 “Qatar has proposed a gas pipeline from the Gulf to Turkey in a sign the emirate is considering a further expansion of exports from the world’s biggest gasfield after it finishes an ambitious program to more than double its capacity to produce liquefied natural gas (LNG).”


Part of the scheme, according to Turkey, is to strategically move the Nabucco pipeline project to “transport Central Asian and Middle Eastern gas to Europe, bypassing Russia.”

In this way, Qatar and Turkey would join efforts and share in the spoils.

Europe would rely on Qatar for natural gas instead of Russia.

Syria is the middle man in every way. The Qatar pipeline was rejected by Assad in favor of a deal with Iran and a new pipeline project.

With Assad now turning to Iran, Bandar has been working the circuit with the US in his back pocket as the bully if need be.

Russia has not come to Bandar’s side on this Syrian matter. Bandar threatened that “whatever regime comes after” Assad, it will be “completely” in Saudi Arabia’s hands and will “not sign any agreement allowing any Gulf country to transport its gas across Syria to Europe and compete with Russian gas exports.”

The Nabucco pipeline project was conceived and signed by European nations and Turkey in 2009 which “proposed Arab pipeline from Libya to Egypt to Nabucco”.

Syria is obviously in the way.

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As a third-generation cattle rancher in Colorado, Tom Miller knows a lot about raising cattle.

What he doesn't know is what has periodically been mutilating and killing selected animals in his herd since 1999.

"There's so many things I don't understand about it, and no one seems to be able to explain it either," Miller says on the Sept. 4 episode of the "The Unexplained Files," a Science Channel series airing Wednesdays.



Hundreds of cattle mutilations have been reported in the U.S. since the early 1960s, but Miller was still shocked when it began happening to his herd 14 years ago.

"First, I thought [the cow] had died naturally, and then I got closer to it and I could see it wasn't natural," he said. "The eyes were gone, the tongue was gone. The ears were gone. The sex organs were cut out. It was just kind of weird."

Miller remains perplexed about other aspects of the mutilations as well: The animals are cut with precision, like with a laser, and there has never been a trace of blood around the animals or body parts strung about.

Paranormal journalist Nick Redfern said some UFO theorists believe that extraterrestrials are using cow blood for hybrid fertilization.

"It sounds like science fiction," he concedes on the episode. "But [humans are] doing things like gene splicing, so the theory is that someone far advanced of us is doing something similar."

Chris O'Brien, who has researched cattle mutilations for two decades, disagrees with that theory.

"Why would some non-human intelligence come light years to the pastures of the planet to gather ingredients for lip and testicle stew?" he asked. "It just doesn't make sense."

A more likely answer, he believes, is that the killings are conducted by an unknown agency monitoring the food chain to prevent another outbreak of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy -- commonly known as "Mad Cow Disease" -- that plagued England in 1996.

Although many of the affected animals were destroyed, their bodies were turned into fertilizer, much of which was shipped around the world. O'Brien said it's possible the Mad Cow Disease prions weren't destroyed in the process. He thinks someone is killing and testing selected animals to make sure there isn't another outbreak.


Some animal experts, such as Colorado-based vet Truman Smith, don't believe there is any great mystery behind the mutilations -- just the work of animal predators.

"I can see why people think it's something more than just predators, but it's always amazed me how smooth a job they can do," Smith said on the episode.

However, as Miller points out, "Predators don't drink 11 pounds of blood and leave the carcasses intact."


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Something in the Peruvian Amazon is making weird, intricate structures that resemble white picket fences surrounding an Isengard-like spire.

No one has any idea who the mysterious craftsbug (fungus? spider?) is, or what the structure is even used for, excepting the fence part, which almost makes sense. Nobody, not even the scientists. We asked.

Troy Alexander, a graduate student atGeorgia Tech, spotted the first of these structures on June 7. The little, seemingly woven fence was parked on the underside of a blue tarp near the Tambopata Research Center, in southeastern Peru. He later spotted three more of the bizarre enclosures on tree trunks in the jungle.

“All of them were on the small island used to view the parrot clay lick at Tambopata Research Center,” Alexander said. He described the fences as small – about 2 centimeters across— and posted a second photo of the structure on the subreddit whatsthisbug last week, hoping someone could explain the origin of the fortified mini-Maypoles. No one could.



We noticed the weirdness last Thursday, when Phil Torres, a biologist who also works at Tambopata, posted a link on Twitter. In the intervening days, we’ve tried to find out what on Earth could have made these tiny towers.

But it turns out that even scientists who study such things haven’t a clue.

“I have no idea what made it, or even what it is,” said William Eberhard, an entomologist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

“I’ve seen the photo, but have no idea what animal might be responsible,” echoed Norm Platnick, curator emeritus of spiders at the American Museum of Natural History.

“I don’t know what it is,” said arachnologist Linda Rayor, of Cornell University. “My guess is something like a lacewing, but I don’t really know.”
We have several more inquiries out, and will update this story as responses — mystified or not — come in.

*Here are a few more:

“I do not know what organism made it. Never seen such a structure before,” said Jonathan Coddington, who studies spiders and is associate director for science at the National Museum of Natural History.

We asked WIRED’s incoming bug blogger, entomologist Gwen Pearson, if she had any thoughts on what the strange and beautiful structure could be. “The general consensus amongst people I know isthis group,” she said, referencing moths in the Bucculatricidae family. But, “I would have gone with a relative of this group in Vietnam,” she noted, pointing toward the Urodidae family, known for weaving basket-like cocoons.

“We are all guessing,” Pearson said. “We have no freakin’ clue. And that’s my expert opinion.”

Suspecting that some sort of Lepidopteran (a butterfly or moth) might be responsible for the design, we’ve begun querying entomologists who specialize in these organisms. “I have no idea,” said Todd Gilligan of Colorado State University, and president of The Lepidopterists’ Society. “Some moths construct an ‘egg fence’ around eggs, using scales from the abdomen to protect the eggs,” he said. “So constructing fences around objects isn’t unheard of, but I haven’t seen anything like this before.”

Suggestions from the Interwebs have ranged from an incomplete cocoon, to the work of a moth in the Bucculatricidae family, to a spider from Mars. Alexander’s favorite theory, described on Facebook, is that “there are spider eggs in the base of the pole, and the spiderlings climb the pole and sail away on silken parachutes, protected by the fence the whole time.”

Conclusion: The structure itself, and the organism that made it, are still a mystery.

A woman was reportedly hospitalised after hiding $5,000 worth of stolen cash inside her rectum. She allegedly stole the money from her 46-year-old boyfriend Bobby Gulley.

According to authorities who arrested Ms Black, the 43-year-old woman had been suspected of stealing money from Mr Gulley. Apparently, Mr Gulley had enough and approached the police to set up a trap to catch the woman in the act.

Times News reported that the "trap" consisting of two envelopes filled with hundred-dollar bills will be used to lure Ms Black in the act of stealing. One envelope had $4,000 while the other one contained $1,000. Both envelopes were hidden inside a bag strategically placed on top of a table inside the couple's home in Tennessee, US.


When Mr Gulley woke up around 1am to check on the envelopes, he discovered that the cash inside the bag was gone. Based on an official report by the Hawkins County Sheriff, Mr Gulley confronted Ms Black about the stolen money. The woman became sick and proceeded to throw up a few partially dissolved pills.

The sudden vomiting did not deter Mr Gulley's suspicions. He continued to pressure Ms Black about the missing money until she finally admitted she had wrapped all the cash and stuck the bundle inside her butt.

Mr Gulley was appalled when she said she attempted to get $5,000 out of her rectum using tongs and a toilet brush. She was bleeding severely from the foreign object lodged inside her butt and was rushed to the hospital.

The police said the $5,000 was successfully removed from her butt and was tagged as evidence. Ms Black has been charged with theft.


Filipino Jobert Sucaldito Recovering from Cucumber in Rectum

Cucumber accident

It's apparently harmful to put a foreign object inside a person's rectum as proven by another incident involving a cucumber.

A news report that went viral on Facebook said that Philippine entertainment reporter, Jobert Sucaldito, is currently recovering from an operation that involved removing a cucumber stuck in his butt at the Capitol Medical Center in Quezon City, Philippines.

Doctors who surgically removed the stuck cucumber from Mr Sucaldito's rectum have declined to reveal details as to how it got there in the first place because of doctor-patient confidentiality clause.


The public can only assume that the cucumber might not have been able to withstand the pressure of being pushed inside the reporter's rectum. The stuck cucumber was not a whole one but only a half of the entire vegetable.

Mr Sucaldito was rushed to the emergency after he complained of severe pain in his butt. His X-ray results revealed a broken piece of cucumber was lodged inside his rectum, measuring 5 inches in length. The piece of cucumber was clogging the lower end of his large intestine.

Alleged members of Mr Sucaldito's household, who refused to be named, said they saw the other half of the cucumber on the bed inside Mr Sucaldito's room. They described the cucumber as having bite marks and already in a "soggy "state.

Aside from the cucumber, a bottle of baby oil, sexy photos of men and tissue paper were also found in his room.


When asked about the cucumber incident, Mr. Sucaldito said it was just an accident. He said he was making a salad when he sat on the chair where the cucumber was allegedly in standing position. He also said everything happened so fast.

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A military strike on Syria could lead to a nuclear catastrophe if a missile were to hit a reactor containing radioactive uranium, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman warned. The remark comes as the US continues to push for a military strike on Syria.

"If a warhead, by design or by chance, were to hit the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) near Damascus, the consequences could be catastrophic," Aleksandr Lukashevich said in a Wednesday statement.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry urged the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to complete a risk evaluation as the US continues to seek support for military action. It asked the agency to “react swiftly” and carry out “an analysis of the risks linked to possible American strikes on the MNSR and other facilities in Syria.”

Lukashevich stated that the region could be at risk of “contamination by highly enriched uranium and it would no longer be possible to account for nuclear material, its safety and control.” He added that such material could fall into the wrong hands.


The IAEA said that it is aware of the statement, but it is waiting for a formal request asking the agency to complete a risk evaluation. “We will consider the questions raised if we receive such a request," Reuters quoted an IAEA spokesperson as saying.

The agency said in a report to member states last week that Syria had declared there was a “small amount of nuclear material” at the MNSR, a type of research reactor usually fuelled by highly enriched uranium.

Although this type of a reactor would not contain a lot of nuclear material, it would be enough to cause "a serious local radiation hazard" if the reactor was hit, nuclear expert Mark Hibbs from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told Reuters.

The United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted on Wednesday to approve President Obama's plan to strike Syria in retaliation against the alleged use of chemical weapons by President Bashar Assad’s regime.


Should Congress move to approve the president’s request, the US could soon initiate a limited strike on Syria.

On the other hand, Moscow needs convincing proof– not rumors - from UN experts that chemical weapons were used in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with AP and Channel 1 on Tuesday.

“We believe that at the very least we should wait for the results of the UN inspection commission in Syria,” Putin said. He added that so far there is no information regarding exactly which chemical agent was used in the attack in the Damascus suburb, or who was behind it.

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A large anti-submarine ship named “Admiral Panteleyev” reportedly arrived in the east Mediterranean Sea to join the Russian standing naval force as flagship. It comes shortly before the scheduled rotation of two Russian landing craft carriers in the area.

The Russian Navy destroyer left the Far-Eastern port city of Vladivostok on March 19 and arrived in the designated area of the eastern Mediterranean on Wednesday, according to sources cited by Interfax and RIA Novosti.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said that large landing craft carriers “Novocherkassk” and “Minsk” of Russia’s Black and Baltic Sea Fleets have been dispatched to the area, and will join the permanent Mediterranean naval force on September 5-6 in accordance with the earlier planned schedule.

A General Staff source told Itar-Tass that reconnaissance ship “Priazovye” also headed to the area to aid in monitoring the situation in the region.

A senior Russian Navy Main Staff source also told Interfax that guided missile cruiser “Moskva” will be the next vessel arriving in the Mediterranean to replace “Admiral Panteleyev” as flagship.


“Moskva” will arrive “in 10 days’ time,” the source claimed, adding that Russian Baltic Fleet destroyer “Nastoichivy” and escort ship of the Black Sea Fleet “Smetlivy” will also be joining the Russian naval unit “in the short run.” None of these claims have been officially confirmed.

The Defense Ministry has repeatedly stressed that the maneuvers are part of the “stage-by-stage rotation of warships and support ships of the standing naval force in the Mediterranean” and that the recent deployments are aimed at monitoring the situation in the region.

“This is a normal practice of any fleet in the event of rising tension in any given ocean or sea area,” Itar-Tass’s source said, adding that the Russian Navy will only be increasing its “complex monitoring” of the situation around Syria.

According to a ministry spokesman’s Tuesday statement, the key task of the Russian standing naval force in the Mediterranean is “comprehensive monitoring over the air, underwater, and surface situation in the zone of its deployment.”


Prior to the arrival of destroyer “Admiral Panteleyev,” the naval force consisted of landing craft carriers “Aleksandr Shabalin,” “Admiral Nevelskoy,” and “Peresvet,” RIA Novosti reports. It also included escort vessel “Neustrashimy” as well as a tanker and a tugboat.

As the Russian Navy’s moves sparked speculations in the media claiming that Russia is boosting its naval presence in the region ahead of a possible Western strike against Syria, defense officials said that one should not draw parallels between relocations of warships and the Syrian crisis.

“Our military presence in this region predates the Syrian conflict, and will continue after it, and so it would be wrong to draw any connection between the rotation of our ships in the Mediterranean region and events in Syria,” a senior Russian Navy source told RIA Novosti.

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Squeezing a slice of lime into a refreshing drink on a hot summer day isn’t as harmless as you may think. Fredrikke and Selma, two young Norwegian girls, found that out first hand after they suffered from severe Margarita Dermatitis during their vacation in Spain.

Fredrikke and Selma, both seven years old, were vacationing with their families in the Spanish resort of Marbella. One day, during an outdoor lunch, they spotted a lime tree and thought it would be fun to squeeze juice out of its fruits. They went at it for about an hour, enthusiastically squeezing dozens of limes, before going to the beach for a swim, one of the girls’ parents told Norwegian website, Klikk.


But when Fredrikke woke up the next morning, both her hands were swollen and the skin felt tender to the touch. Thinking it might be a reaction to mosquito bites, her mother, Kathryn, gave the girl an allergy pill. Only when they met up with Selma’s family and noticed she presented the exact same symptoms, it became clear that what ever was affecting them had something to do with the limes they had squeezed the other day. After a few hours, both Fredrikke and Selma started complaining of burning pain and their hands began to blister. On the morning of the third day, Fredrikke’s hands looked even worse and her parents knew they had to seek medical help as soon as possible.

They jumped on the first plane home, gave the girl painkillers so she could sleep during the flight, and rushed her to the emergency room as soon as they landed in Oslo. Selma and her family had another week of vacation left so they went to the hospital in Marbella.


Initially, neither the doctors in the emergency room nor those at Marbella Hospital could place a diagnosis on the two girls, but since the symptoms resembled burns, they treated them accordingly. They applied vaseline compresses on the girls’ hands and wrapped them in bandages to keep the moisture in. Fredrikke and Selma were also given penicillin to prevent infection and blood poisoning, and after two weeks their condition started to improve. Now, almost a month since they squeezed those limes, their hands are still covered with dark dead skin that has to be cut off gradually. They no longer feel any pain, though, and doctors say that due to their young age, the girls are going to make a full recovery. For the moment, Fredrikke and Selma are required to wear mittens to protect their hands until they heal completely, and will have to wear sunscreen with a SPF rating of 50 until next summer, to protect the new sensitive skin.


Hartmut Heisterkamp, the head of the burn unit at Haukeland University Hospital, says Fredrikke and Selma suffered from a severe case of phytophotodermatitis. The condition was first described in 1942 as a reaction between certain plants and sunlight. Its symptoms are very similar to burn injuries and they are actually treated the same way. During the summer months, lime juice is the common cause for this condition, which is why many doctors call it “Margarita Dermatitis“, but it can also be caused by lemons, parsley, celery, carrot and figs. Most cases resemble a mild sunburn or poison ivy rash, but in extreme cases, like the one detailed above, it can cause severe damage to the skin if left untreated.

So the next time you feel the need for a refreshing lemonade or lime cocktail, make sure to squeeze the fruit out of direct sunlight, or at least wear some kind of protection for your skin.

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China has now joined Russia in sending warships to Syria to peacefully monitor the actions of US ships sent there by Barack Obama to commit terrorist attacks against Syria according to this breaking story from Infowars. As the build up to WW3 rapidly escalates, will Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama do the unthinkable and launch ‘love bombs‘ towards the Syrian people based upon a ‘false flag‘ or will he back down and wait for a full investigation from the UN inspectors to be completed? China has also accused the US of lying in Syria and has stated that the US is ignoring international law as shared in the new video below from Sherrie Questioning All.


China has reportedly sent warships to the coast of Syria to “observe” the actions of US and Russian ships as tensions build in preparation for a potential military strike on Syria which could come as soon as next week.
According to the Russian news outlet Telegrafist.org, the People’s Liberation Army dispatched the Jinggangshan amphibious dock landing ship and the vessel was seen passing through the Red Sea towards the Suez Canal, the waterway in Egypt that leads to the Mediterranean Sea and waters off the coast of Israel, Lebanon and Syria.


The Jinggangshan is equipped for combat and was utilized as part of a “show of force” in maneuvers aimed at defending the South China Sea earlier this year.

The report states that additional PLA warships have also been sent to the region but that their identity is unknown.

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They're everywhere: Unusually large swarms of crickets are invading Oklahoma, covering streets, sidewalks, and businesses like this McDonalds
It’s cricket mating season in Oklahoma and unusually massive swarms of the frisky bugs are terrorizing the state’s residents.

Not only does the field cricket have a noxious odor and shrieking chirp, it has a tendency toward cannibalism so killing them only makes things worse.

Residents say the insects tend to congregate and feed on carcasses of their dead brethren, but they’re covering every street, sidewalk, and building so there’s no way to avoid the occasional crunch.

Pile-up: The crickets are difficult to control, noisy, smelly and are pouring into towns across the Sooner State. Instagram user furiousd caught this particularly nasty pile of cricket carcasses


The more they’re stomped, worse infestations around homes and businesses become.

‘I think we are going to see a little more before it gets any better,’ Oklahoma State University’s Brian Jervis told KTUL.

Experts say weather could be the cause of the usually large swarm.

‘These outbreaks seem to occur after periods of prolonged dry weather in spring and early summer followed by rainfall in July and August,’ said Rick Grantham, director of the Plant Disease and Insect Diagnostic Lab in Oklahoma State University. ‘Extensive soil cracking may be an important factor.’

Bad year: The crickets come out every year, but the weather allowed an unusually large number to emerge from their burrows to mate this season. Here, the critters congregate at a gas station.

Cannibals: Experts say the crickets are attracted to the bodies of their dead relatives, so crushing the bugs only makes the problem worse. Here, a pile up can be seen near a shady set of stairs.

'A plague has arrived': According to Rick Grantham of Oklahoma State University's Entymology department. adult crickets can be very difficult to control

The crickets lay their eggs and crawl out en masse once it’s time for mating.

And though the creatures can be tough to get rid of, experts suggest a few tricks that might ease the problem somewhat.

‘Crickets commonly spend the daylight hours hiding in dark, damp areas. Eliminating piles of bricks, stones, wood or other debris around the home will help reduce numbers,’ said Grantham. ‘aerosols applied to baseboards, door thresholds and cracks and crevices where crickets hide will normally control them.’

In addition to incessant chirping that can last deep into the night and early morning, some residents say the crickets even stink.

'After a while they all start dying and it gets to get this rotted meat smell,' one resident told KFOR.

'I will not be sleeping tonight': The crickets stick to walls, crunch underfoot wherever residents walk, and hang from walls and window screens, making just looking outside a little bit creepy


Along with up close and personal photos of their cricket experiences, Instagram users had plenty to say about the '#invasion.'

'When I look out my window, this is what I see. Needless to say I will not be sleeping tonight,' writes c_daaber721 with a photo of her cricket-covered window screen.

'A plague has arrived in OKC,' writes colleendamager.

Gypsyroseb asked, 'Crickets, anyone?'

User xnebulousx may have siad it best: 'Large amounts of crickets are gross!'


VIDEO:


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Washington doesn’t merely lack the legal authority for a military intervention in Syria.

It lacks the moral authority. We’re talking about a government with a history of using chemical weapons against innocent people far more prolific and deadly than the mere accusations Assad faces from a trigger-happy Western military-industrial complex, bent on stifling further investigation before striking.

Here is a list of 10 chemical weapons attacks carried out by the U.S. government or its allies against civilians..


1. The U.S. Military Dumped 20 Million Gallons of Chemicals on Vietnam from 1962 – 1971

Via: AP

During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military sprayed 20 million gallons of chemicals, including the very toxic Agent Orange, on the forests and farmlands of Vietnam and neighboring countries, deliberately destroying food supplies, shattering the jungle ecology, and ravaging the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Vietnam estimates that as a result of the decade-long chemical attack, 400,000 people were killed or maimed, 500,000 babies have been born with birth defects, and 2 million have suffered from cancer or other illnesses. In 2012, the Red Cross estimated that one million people in Vietnam have disabilities or health problems related to Agent Orange.

2. Israel Attacked Palestinian Civilians with White Phosphorus in 2008 – 2009 


Via: AP

White phosphorus is a horrific incendiary chemical weapon that melts human flesh right down to the bone.

In 2009, multiple human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and International Red Cross reported that the Israeli government was attacking civilians in their own country with chemical weapons. An Amnesty International team claimed to find “indisputable evidence of the widespread use of white phosphorus” as a weapon in densely-populated civilian areas. The Israeli military denied the allegations at first, but eventually admitted they were true.

After the string of allegations by these NGOs, the Israeli military even hit a UN headquarters(!) in Gaza with a chemical attack. How do you think all this evidence compares to the case against Syria? Why didn’t Obama try to bomb Israel?

3. Washington Attacked Iraqi Civilians with White Phosphorus in 2004

Via: AP

In 2004, journalists embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq began reporting the use of white phosphorus in Fallujah against Iraqi insurgents. First the military lied and said that it was only using white phosphorus to create smokescreens or illuminate targets. Then it admitted to using the volatile chemical as an incendiary weapon. At the time, Italian television broadcaster RAI aired a documentary entitled, “Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre,” including grim video footage and photographs, as well as eyewitness interviews with Fallujah residents and U.S. soldiers revealing how the U.S. government indiscriminately rained white chemical fire down on the Iraqi city and melted women and children to death.


4. The CIA Helped Saddam Hussein Massacre Iranians and Kurds with Chemical Weapons in 1988


CIA records now prove that Washington knew Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons (including sarin, nerve gas, and mustard gas) in the Iran-Iraq War, yet continued to pour intelligence into the hands of the Iraqi military, informing Hussein of Iranian troop movements while knowing that he would be using the information to launch chemical attacks. At one point in early 1988, Washington warned Hussein of an Iranian troop movement that would have ended the war in a decisive defeat for the Iraqi government. By March an emboldened Hussein with new friends in Washington struck a Kurdish village occupied by Iranian troops with multiple chemical agents, killing as many as 5,000 people and injuring as many as 10,000 more, most of them civilians. Thousands more died in the following years from complications, diseases, and birth defects.


 
5. The Army Tested Chemicals on Residents of Poor, Black St. Louis Neighborhoods in The 1950s


In the early 1950s, the Army set up motorized blowers on top of residential high-rises in low-income, mostly black St. Louis neighborhoods, including areas where as much as 70% of the residents were children under 12. The government told residents that it was experimenting with a smokescreen to protect the city from Russian attacks, but it was actually pumping the air full of hundreds of pounds of finely powdered zinc cadmium sulfide. The government admits that there was a second ingredient in the chemical powder, but whether or not that ingredient was radioactive remains classified. Of course it does. Since the tests, an alarming number of the area’s residents have developed cancer. In 1955, Doris Spates was born in one of the buildings the Army used to fill the air with chemicals from 1953 – 1954. Her father died inexplicably that same year, she has seen four siblings die from cancer, and Doris herself is a survivor of cervical cancer.


6. Police Fired Tear Gas at Occupy Protesters in 2011


The savage violence of the police against Occupy protesters in 2011 was well documented, andincluded the use of tear gas and other chemical irritants. Tear gas is prohibited for use against enemy soldiers in battle by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Can’t police give civilian protesters in Oakland, California the same courtesy and protection that international law requires for enemy soldiers on a battlefield?

 
7. The FBI Attacked Men, Women, and Children With Tear Gas in Waco in 1993 


At the infamous Waco siege of a peaceful community of Seventh Day Adventists, the FBI pumped tear gas into buildings knowing that women, children, and babies were inside. The tear gas was highly flammable and ignited, engulfing the buildings in flames and killing 49 men and women, and 27 children, including babies and toddlers. Remember, attacking an armed enemy soldier on a battlefield with tear gas is a war crime. What kind of crime is attacking a baby with tear gas?


Via: AP

In Iraq, the U.S. military has littered the environment with thousands of tons of munitions made from depleted uranium, a toxic and radioactive nuclear waste product. As a result, more than half of babies born in Fallujah from 2007 – 2010 were born with birth defects. Some of these defects have never been seen before outside of textbooks with photos of babies born near nuclear tests in the Pacific. Cancer and infant mortality have also seen a dramatic rise in Iraq. According to Christopher Busby, the Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, “These are weapons which have absolutely destroyed the genetic integrity of the population of Iraq.” After authoring two of four reports published in 2012 on the health crisis in Iraq, Busby described Fallujah as having, “the highest rate of genetic damage in any population ever studied.”


9. The U.S. Military Killed Hundreds of Thousands of Japanese Civilians with Napalm from 1944 – 1945


Napalm is a sticky and highly flammable gel which has been used as a weapon of terror by the U.S. military. In 1980, the UN declared the use of napalm on swaths of civilian population a war crime. That’s exactly what the U.S. military did in World War II, dropping enough napalm in one bombing raid on Tokyo to burn 100,000 people to death, injure a million more, and leave a million without homes in the single deadliest air raid of World War II.


10. The U.S. Government Dropped Nuclear Bombs on Two Japanese Cities in 1945


Although nuclear bombs may not be considered chemical weapons, I believe we can agree they belong to the same category. They certainly disperse an awful lot of deadly radioactive chemicals. They are every bit as horrifying as chemical weapons if not more, and by their very nature, suitable for only one purpose: wiping out an entire city full of civilians. It seems odd that the only regime to ever use one of these weapons of terror on other human beings has busied itself with the pretense of keeping the world safe from dangerous weapons in the hands of dangerous governments.

SOURCE

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow has its own plans to deal with a possible US military offensive against Syria.

Putin made the remarks on Tuesday night at his country residence outside Moscow during an interview with The Associated Press and Russia's state Channel 1 television published on Wednesday.

"We have our own ideas about what we would do and how we would do it if the situation develops toward the use of force or otherwise," he said. "We have our plans, but it's too early to talk about them."


The war rhetoric against Syria intensified after foreign-backed opposition forces accused the government of President Bashar al-Assad of launching a chemical attack on militant strongholds in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21.

Damascus has vehemently denied the accusations, saying the chemical attack was carried out by the militants themselves as a false-flag operation.

On August 31, US President Barack Obama said he has decided that Washington must take military action against the Syrian government, which would mean a unilateral military strike without a UN mandate.

Obama said that despite having made up his mind, he will take the case to US Congress. But he added that he is prepared to order military action against the Syrian government at any time.


The US president once again held the Syrian government responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus.

On August 29, a meeting of the Security Council's permanent members ended without reaching an agreement on Syria.

The Western members of the council have been pushing for a resolution on the use of force while Russia and China are strongly opposed to any attack on Syria.

Since March 2011, Russia and China have vetoed three UN Security Council resolutions proposed by European states threatening military action and sanctions against Damascus.

The two countries are also opposing the current push by the United States and France to launch a war on Syria, vowing to veto any resolution that paves the way for the military action.

SOURCE

Mounting pressure for a Western strike on Syria has seen naval forces both friendly and hostile to Damascus build up off the embattled country’s coastline.

The potential of a US strike against Syria in response to an August 21 chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb gained steam on Wednesday, when a resolution backing the use of force against President Bashar Assad's government cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on a 10-7 vote.

President Obama has decided to put off military action until at least September 9, when the seemingly recalcitrant US House of Representatives reconvenes to vote on the measure.

Following the August 21 Ghouta Attack, which killed anywhere between 355 to 1,729 people, the diplomatic scramble to launch or stave off a military strike on Syria was mirrored by the movement of naval forces in the Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Syria.

The deployment of US and allied naval warships in the region has been matched by the deployment of Russian naval warships in the region.

While the Western vessels have in many cases been deployed in the event a military strike against Syria gets a green light, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia’s naval presence is needed to protect national security interests and is not a threat to any nation.

Below is a brief summary of the naval hardware currently amassed off Syria’s shores.


USA
The US Navy has five Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers off the coast of Syria, which its top admiral says is “fully ready” for a wide range of possible actions.

The USS Ramage, USS Mahan, USS Gravely and USS Barry are each armed with dozens of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have a range of about 1,000 nautical miles (1,151 miles) and are used for precise targeting.

The ships are also equipped with surface-to-air missiles capable of defending the vessels from air attacks.

On August 29, the USS Stout was sent to relieve the USS Mahan, but a defense official told AFP that both ships might remain in the area for the time being.

Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute on Thursday that the US ships are prepared for what he called a "vast spectrum of operations," including launching Tomahawk cruise missiles at targets in Syria, as was done in Libya in 2011, and protecting themselves in the event of retaliation, AP reports.

In addition to the destroyers, the United States may well have one of its four guided missile submarines off the coast of Syria. At one time these subs were equipped with nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. Nowadays, they are capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles.

It was also announced on Monday that the US had deployed the USS San Antonio, an amphibious transport ship, to the Eastern Mediterranean.

The USS San Antonio, with several helicopters and hundreds of Marines on board, is “on station in the Eastern Mediterranean” but “has received no specific tasking,” a defense official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The deployment of the USS Antonio comes despite promises from President Obama that no amphibious landing is on the agenda, as the US has ostensibly ruled out any “boots on the ground.”

While the wording of the draft resolution set to be put before the House does not permit a ground invasion, the wording of the text could potentially allow troops to carry out non-offensive operations within Syria, including securing chemical weapons stockpiles and production facilities.

On Monday, it was also announced the USS Nimitz super carrier had moved into the Red Sea, though it had not been given orders to be part of the planning for a limited US military strike on Syria, US officials told ABC News.

The other ships in the strike group are the cruiser USS Princeton and the destroyers USS William P. Lawrence, USS Stockdale and USS Shoup.

The official said the carrier strike group has not been assigned a mission, but was shifted in the event its resources are needed to “maximize available options.”

The USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and strike group is also in the northern Arabian Sea.


Russia

Russia, Syria’s longtime ally and primary arms supplier, has its only overseas naval base located in the Syrian port of Tartus, which has reportedly been used to support Russia’s growing number of naval patrols on the Mediterranean. However, Russia insists recent efforts to bolster its naval presence in the region are not in response to Western threats of a military strike.

Reported movements of many Russian ships in the region are coming from anonymous Russian defense ministry sources and have not been confirmed. RT contacted the Russian Navy to ask for confirmation of the reported ship movements, though no comment was forthcoming.

On Friday, for example, the large landing ship, Nikolai Filchenkov, was reportedly dispatched from the Ukrainian port city of Sevastopol for the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, from where it is eventually expected to reach the Syrian coast, a source told Interfax News Agency.

"The ship will make call in Novorossiisk, where it will take on board special cargo and set off for the designated area of its combat duty in the eastern Mediterranean," the source said.

RIA news agency quoted an unnamed senior naval source as saying on Friday that the frigate, Smetlivy, would leave for the Mediterranean on September 12-14, and the corvette Shtil and missile boat Ivanovets would approach Syria at the end of the month.

The Russian destroyer Nastoichivy, which is the flagship of the Baltic fleet, is also expected to join the group in the region.

Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov, who was unable to comment on specific reports, said on Thursday the Russian navy currently had a "pretty strong group" there.

"The Russian navy does not intend to take part directly or indirectly in a possible regional conflict," he told the state Rossiya 24 broadcaster.

"Our navy vessels are a guarantee of stability, guarantee of peace, an attempt to hold back other forces ready to start military action in the region."

Also reportedly in place in the eastern Mediterranean are the frigate Neustrashimy, as well as the landing ships Alexander Shabalin, the Admiral Nevelsky and the Peresvet.

They are expected to be joined by the guided-missile cruiser Moskva.

The Moskva, set to arrive in a little over a week’s time, will take over operations from a naval unit in the region.

"The plans of the naval unit under the command of Rear Admiral Valery Kulikov had to be changed a little. Instead of visiting a Cape Verde port, the cruiser Moskva is heading to the Strait of Gibraltar. In about ten days, it will enter the eastern Mediterranean, where it will replace the destroyer Admiral Panteleyev as the flagship of the operative junction of the Russian Navy," a source told Interfax on Wednesday.

Panteleyev incidentally, only arrived in the east Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday after leaving the Far-Eastern port city of Vladivostok on March 19 to join the Russian standing naval force as its flagship.

The SSV-201 reconnaissance ship, Priazovye, is also reportedly on its way to join the group in the Eastern Mediterranean. Accompanied by the two landing ships, Minsk and Novocherkassk, the intelligence ship passed through the ‘Istanbul Strait’ on Thursday, which helps form the boundary between Europe and Asia.



FRANCE

On August 31, French military officials confirmed the frigate Chevalier Paul, which specializes in anti-missile capabilities, and the transport ship, Dixmude, were in the Mediterranean. French officials denied they are in the region to participate in military action against Syria, but were rather taking part in training and operation preparations.

Despite their presence in the region, France currently has no ship-based missiles, so any offensive action would come from the air in the form of long-range Scalp missiles, similar to those the nation used in Kosovo in 1999 and in Libya in 2011, Time reports.





Italy

Two Italian warships set sail for Lebanon on Wednesday in a bid to protect 1,100 Italian soldiers in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, Syria’s southeastern neighbor, Agence France Presse reported.

The Italian ANSA news agency reported that a frigate and a torpedo destroyer boat departed from Italy's southeastern coast on Wednesday and would provide additional protection to the soldiers in the event the Syrian conflict further deteriorates.






UK

As of August 29, the Royal Navy's Response Force Task Group was deployed in the Mediterranean as part of long-planned exercise Cougar 13. The force includes helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious, type-23 frigates HMS Westminster and HMS Montrose, amphibious warship HMS Bulwark and six Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships.
The Trafalgar-class nuclear submarine HMS Tireless was also believed to be in the area at the time, after it was detected in Gibraltar.

On the same day that British media started touting Britain’s “arsenal of military might” which would be available in the event of intervention, British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a vote endorsing military action against Syria by 13 votes. In light of the shocking parliamentary defeat, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the UK would only be able to offer the US “diplomatic support.” The UK’s Conservative Chancellor, George Osborne, confirmed that the UK would not seek a further vote on action in Syria.
 

CHINA


China has now joined Russia in sending warships to Syria to peacefully monitor the actions of US ships sent there by Barack Obama to commit terrorist attacks against Syria.
The Jinggangshan is equipped for combat and was utilized as part of a “show of force” in maneuvers aimed at defending the South China Sea earlier this year.

SOURCE

A Russian warship carrying "special cargo" will be dispatched toward Syria, a navy source said on Friday, as the Kremlin beefs up its presence in the region ahead of possible US strikes against the Damascus regime.

The large landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov will on Friday leave the Ukrainian port city of Sevastopol for the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, from where it will head to Syria's coast, the Interfax news agency quoted a source from the Saint Petersburg-based central naval command as saying.

"The ship will make call in Novorossiisk, where it will take on board special cargo and set off for the designated area of its combat duty in the eastern Mediterranean," the source said.

The source did not specify the nature of the cargo.

Russia has kept a constant presence in the eastern Mediterranean during the Syrian crisis.

In recent days Russia has made steps to beef up its naval grouping in the region.

The Russian destroyer Smetlivy will soon join the group in the region as well as the destroyer Nastoichivy, Interfax has said.

The anti-submarine ship Admiral Panteleyev has already entered its zone of operation as the flagship of the current rotation of the Mediterranean grouping, a military source has told the news agency.

Already in place in the eastern Mediterranean are the frigate Neustrashimy, as well as the landing ships Alexander Shabalin, the Admiral Nevelsky and the Peresvet.


They are expected to be joined by the large landing ships Novocherkassk and Minsk and the missile cruiser Moskva. The reconnaissance ship Priazovye is also on its way to join the group.

The US already has a strong naval presence in the region and any US military action against Syria is widely expected to be launched from the sea.


Copyright (2013) AFP. All rights reserved.

SOURCE

.In [Joint Chief's chair] Lemnitzer's view, the country would be far better off if the generals could take over. [JFK assassination legend has it some general presided over the fudgy JFK autopsy. --Mk]

For those military officers who were sitting on the fence, the Kennedy administration's botched Bay of Pigs invasion was the last straw. "The Bay of Pigs fiasco broke the dike," said one report at the time. "President Kennedy was pilloried by the super patriots as a 'no-win' chief . . . The Far Right became a fount of proposals born of frustration and put forward in the name of anti-Communism. . . Active-duty commanders played host to anti-Communist seminars on their bases and attended or addressed Right-wing meetings elsewhere."

Although no one in Congress could have known it at the time, Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs had quietly slipped over the edge.

According to secret and long-hidden documents obtained for Body of Secrets, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up and approved plans for what may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government. In the name of antiCommunism, they proposed launching a secret and bloody war of terrorism against their own country in order to trick the American public into supporting an ill-conceived war they intended to launch against Cuba.

Code named Operation Northwoods, the plan, which had the written approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere. People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war.

The idea may actually have originated with President Eisenhower in the last days of his administration. With the Cold War hotter than ever and the recent U-2 scandal fresh in the public's memory, the old general wanted to go out with a win. He wanted desperately to invade Cuba in the weeks leading up to Kennedy's inauguration; indeed, on January 3 he told Lemnitzer and other aides in his Cabinet Room that he would move against Castro before the inauguration if only the Cubans gave him a really good excuse. Then, with time growing short, Eisenhower floated an idea. If Castro failed to provide that excuse, perhaps, he said, the United States "could think of manufacturing something that would be generally acceptable." What he was suggesting was a pretext a bombing, an attack, an act of sabotage carried out secretly against the United States by the United States. Its purpose would be to justify the launching of a war. It was a dangerous suggestion by a desperate president.

Although no such war took place, the idea was not lost on General Lemnitzer But he and his colleagues were frustrated by Kennedy's failure to authorize their plan, and angry that Castro had not provided an excuse to invade.

The final straw may have come during a White House meeting on February 26, 1962. Concerned that General Lansdale's various covert action plans under Operation Mongoose were simply becoming more outrageous and going nowhere, Robert Kennedy told him to drop all anti-Castro efforts. Instead, Lansdale was ordered to concentrate for the next three months strictly on gathering intelligence about Cuba. It was a humiliating defeat for Lansdale, a man more accustomed to praise than to scorn.


As the Kennedy brothers appeared to suddenly "go soft" on Castro, Lemnitzer could see his opportunity to invade Cuba quickly slipping away. The attempts to provoke the Cuban public to revolt seemed dead and Castro, unfortunately, appeared to have no inclination to launch any attacks against Americans or their property Lemnitzer and the other Chiefs knew there was only one option left that would ensure their war. They would have to trick the American public and world opinion into hating Cuba so much that they would not only go along, but would insist that he and his generals launch their war against Castro. "World opinion, and the United Nations forum," said a secret JCS document, "should be favorably affected by developing the international image of the Cuban government as rash and irresponsible, and as an alarming and unpredictable threat to the peace of the Western Hemisphere."

Operation Northwoods called for a war in which many patriotic Americans and innocent Cubans would die senseless deaths, all to satisfy the egos of twisted generals back in Washington, safe in their taxpayer financed homes and limousines.

One idea seriously considered involved the launch of John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth. On February 20,1962, Glenn was to lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on his historic journey. The flight was to carry the banner of America's virtues of truth, freedom, and democracy into orbit high over the planet. But Lemnitzer and his Chiefs had a different idea. They proposed to Lansdale that, should the rocket explode and kill Glenn, "the objective is to provide irrevocable proof that . . . the fault lies with the Communists et al Cuba [sic.]"

This would be accomplished, Lemnitzer continued, "by manufacturing various pieces of evidence which would prove electronic interference on the part of the Cubans." Thus, as NASA prepared to send the first American into space, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were preparing to use John Glenn's possible death as a pretext to launch a war.

Glenn lifted into history without mishap, leaving Lemnitzer and the Chiefs to begin devising new plots which they suggested be carried out "within the time frame of the next few months."

Among the actions recommended was "a series of well coordinated incidents to take place in and around" the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. This included dressing "friendly" Cubans in Cuban military uniforms and then have them "start riots near the main gate of the base. Others would pretend to be saboteurs inside the base. Ammunition would be blown up, fires started, aircraft sabotaged, mortars fired at the base with damage to installations."

The suggested operations grew progressively more outrageous. Another called for an action similar to the infamous incident in February 1898 when an explosion aboard the battleship Maine in Havana harbor killed 266 U.S. sailors. Although the exact cause of the explosion remained undetermined, it sparked the Spanish-American War with Cuba. Incited by the deadly blast, more than one million men volunteered for duty. Lemnitzer and his generals came up with a similar plan. "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," they proposed; "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation."

There seemed no limit to their fanaticism: "We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington," they wrote. "The terror campaign could be pointed at Cuban refugees seeking haven in the United States.

We could sink a boatload of Cubans en route to Florida (real or simulated). . . . We could foster attempts on lives of Cuban refugees in the United States even to the extent of wounding in instances to be widely publicized."




Bombings were proposed, false arrests, hijackings: 

*"Exploding a few plastic bombs in carefully chosen spots, the arrest of Cuban agents and the release of prepared documents substantiating Cuban involvement also would be helpful in projecting the idea of an irresponsible government."

*"Advantage can be taken of the sensitivity of the Dominican [Republic] Air Force to intrusions within their national air space. 'Cuban' B-26 or C-46 type aircraft could make cane burning raids at night. Soviet Bloc incendiaries could be found. This could be coupled with 'Cuban' messages to the Communist underground in the Dominican Republic and 'Cuban' shipments of arms which would be found, or intercepted, on the beach. Use of MiG type aircraft by U.S. pilots could provide additional provocation."

*"Hijacking attempts against civil air and surface craft could appear to continue as harassing measures condoned by the Government of Cuba." 

Among the most elaborate schemes was to "create an incident which will demonstrate convincingly that a Cuban aircraft has attacked and shot down a chartered civil airliner en route from the United States to Jamaica, Guatemala, Panama or Venezuela. The destination would be chosen only to cause the flight plan route to cross Cuba. The passengers could be a group of college students off on a holiday or any grouping of persons with a common interest to support chartering a non-scheduled flight."

Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs worked out a complex deception:

An aircraft at Elgin AFB would be painted and numbered as an exact duplicate for a civil registered aircraft belonging to a CJA proprietary organization in the Miami area. At a designated time the duplicate would be substituted for the actual civil aircraft and would be loaded with the selected passengers, all boarded under carefully prepared aliases. The actual registered aircraft would be converted to a drone [a remotely controlled unmanned aircraft]. Take off times of the drone aircraft and the actual aircraft will be scheduled to allow a rendezvous south of Florida.

From the rendezvous point the passenger-carrying aircraft will descend to minimum altitude and go directly into an auxiliary field at Elgin AFB where arrangements will have been made to evacuate the passengers and return the aircraft to its original status. The drone aircraft meanwhile will continue to fly the filed flight plan. When over Cuba the drone will be transmitting on the international distress frequency a "May Day" message stating he is under attack by Cuban MiG aircraft. The transmission will be interrupted by destruction of the aircraft, which will be triggered by radio signal. This will allow ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organization radio stations in the Western Hemisphere to tell the U.S. what has happened to the aircraft instead of the U.S. trying to "sell" the incident.

Finally, there was a plan to "make it appear that Communist Cuban MiGs have destroyed a USAF aircraft over international waters in an unprovoked attack." It was a particularly believable operation given the decade of shoot downs that had just taken place.

In the final sentence of his letter to Secretary McNamara recommending the operations, Lemnitzer made a grab for even more power asking that the Joint Chiefs be placed in charge of carrying out Operation Northwoods and the invasion. "It is recommended," he wrote, "that this responsibility for both oven and covert military operations be assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

At 2:30 on the afternoon of Tuesday, March 13, 1962, Lemnitzer went over last-minute details of Operation Northwoods with his covert action chief, Brigadier General William H. Craig, and signed the document. He then went to a "special meeting" in McNamara's office. An hour later he met with Kennedy's military representative, General Maxwell Taylor. What happened during those meetings is unknown. But three days later, President Kennedy told Lemnitzer that there was virtually no possibility that the U.S. would ever use overt military force in Cuba.


Undeterred, Lemnitzer and the Chiefs persisted, virtually to the point of demanding that they be given authority to invade and take over Cuba. About a month after submitting Operation Northwoods, they met the "tank," as the JCS conference room was called, and agreed on the wording of a tough memorandum to McNamara. "The Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that the Cuban problem must be solved in the near future," they wrote. "Further, they see no prospect of early success in overthrowing the present communist regime either as a result of internal uprising or external political, economic or psychological pressures. Accordingly they believe that military intervention by the United States will be required to overthrow the present communist regime."

Lemnitzer was virtually rabid in his hatred of Communism in general and Castro in particular "The Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that the United States can undertake military intervention in Cuba without risk of general war" he continued. "They also believe that the intervention can be accomplished rapidly enough to minimize communist opportunities for solicitation of UN action." However; what Lemnitzer was suggesting was not freeing the Cuban people, who were largely in support of Castro, but imprisoning them in a U.S. military-controlled police state. "Forces would assure rapid essential military control of Cuba," he wrote. "Continued police action would be required."

Concluding, Lemnitzer did not mince words: "[T]he Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend that a national policy of early military intervention in Cuba be adopted by the United States. They also recommend that such intervention be undertaken as soon as possible and preferably before the release of National Guard and Reserve forces presently on active duty."

By then McNamara had virtually no confidence in his military chief and was rejecting nearly every proposal the general sent to him. The rejections became so routine, said one of Lemnitzer's former staff officers, that the staffer told the general that the situation was putting the military in an "embarrassing rut." But Lemnitzer replied, "I am the senior military office--it's my job to state what I believe and it's his [McNamara's] job to approve or disapprove." "McNamara's arrogance was astonishing," said Lemnitzer's aide, who knew nothing of Operation Northwoods. "He gave General Lemnitzer very short shrift and treated him like a schoolboy. The general almost stood at attention when he came into the room. Everything was 'Yes, sir' and 'No, sir.'

Within months, Lemnitzer was denied a second term as JCS chairman and transferred to Europe as chief of NATO. Years later President Gerald Ford appointed Lemnitzer, a darling of the Republican right, to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Lemnitzer's Cuba chief, Brigadier General Craig, was also transferred. Promoted to major general, he spent three years as chief of the Army Security Agency, NSA's military arm.

Because of the secrecy and illegality of Operation Northwoods, all details remained hidden for forty years. Lemnitzer may have thought that all copies of the relevant documents had been destroyed; he was not one to leave compromising material lying around. Following the Bay of Pigs debacle, for example, he ordered Brigadier General David W Gray, Craig's predecessor as chief of the Cuba project within the JCS, to destroy all his notes concerning Joint Chiefs actions and discussions during that period. Gray's meticulous notes were the only detailed official records of what happened within the JCS during that time. According to Gray, Lemnitzer feared a congressional investigation and therefore wanted any incriminating evidence destroyed.

With the evidence destroyed, Lemnitzer felt free to lie to Congress. When asked, during secret hearings before a Senate committee, if he knew of any Pentagon plans for a direct invasion of Cuba he said he did not. Yet detailed JCS invasion plans had been drawn up even before Kennedy was inaugurated. And additional plans had been developed since. The consummate planner and man of details also became evasive, suddenly encountering great difficulty in recalling key aspects of the operation, as if he had been out of the country during the period. It was a sorry spectacle. Senator Gore called for Lemnitzer to be fired. "We need a shake up of the Joint Chiefs of Staff" he said. "We direly need a new chairman, as well as new members." No one had any idea of Operation Northwoods.

Because so many documents were destroyed, it is difficult to determine how many senior officials were aware of Operation Northwoods. As has been described, the document was signed and fully approved by Lemnitzer and the rest of the Joint Chiefs and addressed to the Secretary of Defense for his signature. Whether it went beyond McNamara to the president and the attorney general is not known.

Even after Lemnitzer lost his job, the Joint Chiefs kept planning "pretext" operations at least into 1963. Among their proposals was a deliberately create a war between Cuba and any of a number of .n American neighbors. This would give the United States military an excuse to come in on the side of Cuba's adversary and get rid of "A contrived 'Cuban' attack on an OAS [Organization of Americas] member could be set up," said one proposal, "and the attacked state could be urged to 'take measures of self-defense and request ice from the U.S. and OAS; the U.S. could almost certainly obtain necessary two-thirds support among OAS members for collective action against Cuba."

Among the nations they suggested that the United States secretly were Jamaica and Trinidad-Tobago. Both were members of the Commonwealth; thus, by secretly attacking them and then blaming Cuba, the United States could lure England into the war Castro. The report noted, "Any of the contrived situations de above are inherently, extremely risky in our democratic system in which security can be maintained, after the fact, with very great difficulty. If the decision should be made to set up a contrived situation it be one in which participation by U.S. personnel is limited only to the most highly trusted covert personnel. This suggests the infeasibility of the use of military units for any aspect of the contrived situation."

The report even suggested secretly paying someone in the Castro government to attack the United States: "The only area remaining for ration then would be to bribe one of Castro's subordinate commanders to initiate an attack on [the U.S. naval base at] Guantanamo." The act suggested--bribing a foreign nation to launch a violent attack American military installation--was treason.

In May 1963, Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul H. Nitze sent a the White House proposing "a possible scenario whereby an attack on a United States reconnaissance aircraft could be exploited toward the end of effecting the removal of the Castro regime." In the event Cuba attacked a U-2, the plan proposed sending in additional American pilots, this time on dangerous, unnecessary low-level reconnaissance missions with the expectation that they would also be shot down, thus provoking a war "[T]he U.S. could undertake various measures designed to stimulate the Cubans to provoke a new incident," said the plan. Nitze, however, did not volunteer to be one of the pilots.

One idea involved sending fighters across the island on "harassing reconnaissance" and "show-off" missions "flaunting our freedom of action, hoping to stir the Cuban military to action." "Thus," said the plan, "depending above all on whether the Cubans were or could be made to be trigger-happy, the development of the initial downing of a reconnaissance plane could lead at best to the elimination of Castro, perhaps to the removal of Soviet troops and the installation of ground inspection in Cuba, or at the least to our demonstration of firmness on reconnaissance." About a month later, a low-level flight was made across Cuba, but unfortunately for the Pentagon, instead of bullets it produced only a protest.

Lemnitzer was a dangerous-perhaps even unbalanced-right-wing extremist in an extraordinarily sensitive position during a critical period. But Operation Northwoods also had the support of every single member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and even senior Pentagon official Paul Nitze argued in favor of provoking a phony war with Cuba. The fact that the most senior members of all the services and the Pentagon could be so out of touch with reality and the meaning of democracy would be hidden for four decades.

In retrospect, the documents offer new insight into the thinking of the military's star-studded leadership. Although they never succeeded in launching America into a phony war with Cuba, they may have done so with Vietnam. More than 50,000 Americans and more than 2 million Vietnamese were eventually killed in that war.

It has long been suspected that the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident-the spark that led to America's long war in Vietnam-was largely staged or provoked by U.S. officials in order to build up congressional and public support for American involvement. Over the years, serious questions have been raised about the alleged attack by North Vietnamese patrol boats on two American destroyers in the Gulf But defenders of the Pentagon have always denied such charges, arguing that senior officials would never engage in such deceit.

Now, however, in light of the Operation Northwoods documents, it at deceiving the public and trumping up wars for Americans to fight and die in was standard, approved policy at the highest levels of the Pentagon. In fact, the Gulf of Tonkin seems right out of the Operation Northwoods playbook: "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba . . . casualty lists in U.S. newspapers cause a helpful wave of indignation." One need only replace "Guantanamo Bay" with "Tonkin Gulf," and "Cuba" with "North Vietnam" and the Gulf of Tonkin incident may or may not have been stage-managed, but the senior Pentagon leadership at the time was clearly capable of such deceit.



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The 2013 MTV Video Music Awards show featured several acts that are known for giving us the Illuminati symbolism that their handlers enforce.


Next we had Miley Cyrus come out and perform We Can’t Stop and she wore a shirt with a bear that had the one eye thing on it, which I could see past, but her music video is so loaded with it that it’s undeniably linked up to the Illuminati symbolism which references the Aeon of Horus and Aleister Crowley (the Aeon of Horusis the third age of man that we’ve entered which is dominated by child worship which is all around us thanks to MTV and their incessant pushing on young musicians and Disney with their actors):

And then Robin Thicke came out to perform Give it 2 U with 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar, and we see Kendrick wearing a shirt that says ‘CMNY + CMLA 777′. The CMNY stands for ‘Clothes Minds New York,’ and they’ve got a clothing line that features crucifixes and the word ‘Trinity.’ Is it evil? I don’t know. You judge that for yourself. Here’s an image from their clothing website Clothes Minds:


I’m gonna spice it up a bit and say that 777 you see on his shirt is a reference to Aleister Crowley and the occult, which I covered in both my super awesome post about Crowley and the Illuminati magick and also about the Rihanna 777 documentary.



Here’s Aleister Crowley in case you’re not familiar, he’s he one who coined the phrase ‘Do What Thou Wilt’:



After that we got Justin Timberlake’s performance which gave us yet another of the ’666′ hand gesture:


And then the rest of N’Sync came out and J.C. did his best Timberlake impersonation and dropped his own ’666′. If you didn’t see it, don’t worry, they buried it between bright flashes of ‘illuminating’ light:


Not to get off subject, but I couldn’t help but notice how much the cameras panned to the audience only to reveal the same exact row every time. Literally, 90% of the time they took crowd shots of the row with Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, and Lady Gaga. Almost always with Swift in the foreground. Once in awhile they’d show that boy band One Direction (see the Best Song Ever Illuminati symbolism) or maybe Rihanna, but Taylor Swift got a seriously disproportionate amount of camera time. Is the Illuminati making big plans for her in the future?

Drake came on and wore the owl necklace, which is expected since that’s the OVO logo (his little start up). I don’t want to drone on about the owl because I’ve done it so much in the past, so read up on Moloch and the symbolism you find from Drake (see Illuminati symbolism in Started From the Bottom music video).

I didn’t catch anything on the final performance of Katy Perry’s (besides that awful song of hers…). So this year is a wrap, unless someone saw something that I didn’t on that one.

The 2012 MTV VMAs featured Illuminati symbolism as well, so it should be no surprise that we’d get a similar taste of the subtle cues that direct us towards the Illuminati agenda. Check the symbolism from 2012 outHERE. One more oddity worth mentioning is that Neil Armstrong died on August 25th, 2012 (same day of the 2013 MTV VMAs; although they occur at this same time every year so maybe it doesn’t mean anything). The award for the VMAs is the moon man, which Neil Armstrong is literally known as for being the first person to walk on the moon (he performed a Freemasonry ritual along side Buzz Aldrin in 1969 as Apollo 11 approached the moon- discussed on Ancient Aliens’ NASA Connections episode). Is there a link?…


Buzz and Neil took a Masonic flag to the lunar surface and were rumored to have performed a ritual ceremony:


The Apollo 11 mission was executed such that the module would land on the Sea of Tranquility on the moon on July 20th. This date corresponds as the same date of the Batman Dark Knight Rises Aurora Colorado shootings. Is this a link?… The Illuminati are obsessed with rituals and dates, so it’s not all that far-fetched.

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While most of the country is obsessing overMiley Cyrus, the Obama administration is preparing a military attack against Syria which has the potential of starting World War 3. In fact, it is being reported that cruise missile strikes could begin "as early as Thursday". The Obama administration is pledging that the strikes will be "limited", but what happens when the Syrians fight back?

What happens if they sink a U.S. naval vessel or they have agents start hitting targets inside the United States?

 Then we would have a full-blown war on our hands. And what happens if the Syrians decide to retaliate by hitting Israel? If Syrian missiles start raining down on Tel Aviv, Israel will be extremely tempted to absolutely flatten Damascus, and they are more than capable of doing precisely that. And of course Hezbollah and Iran are not likely to just sit idly by as their close ally Syria is battered into oblivion.

We are looking at a scenario where the entire Middle East could be set aflame, and that might only be just the beginning. Russia and China are sternly warning the U.S. government not to get involved in Syria, and by starting a war with Syria we will do an extraordinary amount of damage to our relationships with those two global superpowers.

Could this be the beginning of a chain of events that could eventually lead to a massive global conflict with Russia and China on one side and the United States on the other?

 Of course it will not happen immediately, but I fear that what is happening now is setting the stage for some really bad things. The following are 22 reasons why starting World War 3 in the Middle East is a really bad idea...

#1 The American people are overwhelmingly against going to war with Syria...

Americans strongly oppose U.S. intervention in Syria's civil war and believe Washington should stay out of the conflict even if reports that Syria's government used deadly chemicals to attack civilians are confirmed, a Reuters/Ipsos poll says.

About 60 percent of Americans surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria's civil war, while just 9 percent thought President Barack Obama should act.

#2 At this point, a war in Syria is even more unpopular with the American people than Congress is.

#3 The Obama administration has not gotten approval to go to war with Syria from Congress as the U.S. Constitution requires.

#4 The United States does not have the approval of the United Nations to attack Syria and it is not going to be getting it.

#5 Syria has said that it will use "all means available" to defend itself if the United States attacks. Would that include terror attacks in the United States itself?

#6 Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem made the following statement...

"We have two options: either to surrender, or to defend ourselves with the means at our disposal. The second choice is the best: we will defend ourselves"

#7 Russia has just sent their most advanced anti-ship missiles to Syria. What do you think would happen if images of sinking U.S. naval vessels were to come flashing across our television screens?

#8 When the United States attacks Syria, there is a very good chance that Syria will attack Israel. Just check out what one Syrian official said recently...

A member of the Syrian Ba'ath national council Halef al-Muftah, until recently the Syrian propaganda minister's aide, said on Monday that Damascus views Israel as "behind the aggression and therefore it will come under fire" should Syria be attacked by the United States.

In an interview for the American radio station Sawa in Arabic, President Bashar Assad's fellow party member said: "We have strategic weapons and we can retaliate. Essentially, the strategic weapons are aimed at Israel."

Al-Muftah stressed that the US's threats will not influence the Syrain regime and added that "If the US or Israel err through aggression and exploit the chemical issue, the region will go up in endless flames, affecting not only the area's security, but the world's."

#9 If Syria attacks Israel, the consequences could be absolutely catastrophic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promising that any attack will be responded to "forcefully"...

"We are not a party to this civil war in Syria but if we identify any attempt to attack us we will respond and we will respond forcefully"

#10 Hezbollah will likely do whatever it can to fight for the survival of the Assad regime. That could include striking targets inside both the United States and Israel.

#11 Iran's closest ally is Syria. Will Iran sit idly by as their closest ally is removed from the chessboard?

#12 Starting a war with Syria will cause significant damage to our relationship with Russia. On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that the West is acting like a "monkey with a hand grenade".

#13 Starting a war with Syria will cause significant damage to our relationship with China. And what will happen if the Chinese decide to start dumping the massive amount of U.S. debt that it is holding? Interest rates would absolutely skyrocket and we would rapidly be facinga nightmare scenario.

#14 Dr. Jerome Corsi and Walid Shoebat have compiled some startling evidence that it was actually the Syrian rebels that the U.S. is supporting that were responsible for the chemical weapons attack that is being used as justification to go to war with Syria...

With the assistance of former PLO member and native Arabic-speaker Walid Shoebat, WND has assembled evidence from various Middle Eastern sources that cast doubt on Obama administration claims the Assad government is responsible for last week’s attack.

#15 As Pat Buchanan recently noted, it would have made absolutely no sense for the Assad regime to use chemical weapons on defenseless women and children. The only people who would benefit from such an attack would be the rebels...

The basic question that needs to be asked about this horrific attack on civilians, which appears to be gas related, is: Cui bono?

To whose benefit would the use of nerve gas on Syrian women and children redound? Certainly not Assad’s, as we can see from the furor and threats against him that the use of gas has produced.

The sole beneficiary of this apparent use of poison gas against civilians in rebel-held territory appears to be the rebels, who have long sought to have us come in and fight their war.

#16 If the Saudis really want to topple the Assad regime, they should do it themselves. They should not expect the United States to do their dirty work for them.

#17 A former commander of U.S. Central Command has said that a U.S. attack on Syria would result in "a full-throated, very, very serious war".

#18 A war in the Middle East will be bad for the financial markets. The Dow was down about 170 points today and concern about war with Syria was the primary reason.

#19 A war in the Middle East will cause the price of oil to go up. On Tuesday, the price of U.S. oil rose to about $109 a barrel.

#20 There is no way in the world that the U.S. government should be backing the Syrian rebels. As I discussed a few days ago, the rebels have pledged loyalty to al-Qaeda, they have beheaded numerous Christians and they have massacred entire Christian villages. If the U.S. government helps these lunatics take power in Syria it will be a complete and utter disaster.

#21 A lot of innocent civilians inside Syria will end up getting killed. Already, a lot of Syrians are expressing concern about what "foreign intervention" will mean for them and their families...

"I've always been a supporter of foreign intervention, but now that it seems like a reality, I've been worrying that my family could be hurt or killed," said one woman, Zaina, who opposes Assad. "I'm afraid of a military strike now."

"The big fear is that they'll make the same mistakes they made in Libya and Iraq," said Ziyad, a man in his 50s. "They'll hit civilian targets, and then they'll cry that it was by mistake, but we'll get killed in the thousands."

#22 If the U.S. government insists on going to war with Syria without the approval of the American people, the U.S. Congress or the United Nations, we are going to lose a lot of friends and a lot of credibility around the globe. It truly is a sad day when Russia looks like "the good guys" and we look like "the bad guys".

What good could possibly come out of getting involved in Syria? As I wrote about the other day, the "rebels" that Obama is backing are rabidly anti-Christian, rabidly anti-Israel and rabidly anti-western. If they take control of Syria, that nation will be far more unstable and far more of a hotbed for terrorism than it is now.

And the downside of getting involved in Syria is absolutely enormous. Syria, Iran and Hezbollah all have agents inside this country, and if they decide to start blowing stuff up that will wake up the American people to the horror of war really quick. And by attacking Syria, the United States could cause a major regional war to erupt in the Middle East which could eventually lead to World War 3.

I don't know about you, but I think that starting World War 3 in the Middle East is a really bad idea.

Let us hope that cooler heads prevail before things spin totally out of control.

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The news cycle has been completely hijacked by the one-two punch of Miley Cyrus twerking at the VMAs and the relentless march to war in Syria. Thankfully, the Miley Cyrus non-story has receded.

But if the U.S. Congress votes against striking Syria and the event essentially fades into the background, what then was accomplished by all this uproar?

Has it all been one big distraction from other important stories?

Here are six important stories that have been muffled by the drumbeats of war:

1. NSA Spying on the World.

 The biggest story in the world prior to Syria's chemical weapons attack, a story that the Administration moaned they could not get out in front of, are the relentless leaks exposing how the U.S. is spying on the world. In addition to American citizens being targeted with warrantless spying, it has been revealed that the

Don't forget what whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed to the world:

  NSA is also spying on the EU, the UN, G20 (Russia), Germany, Brazil, and the Olympics just to name a few documented targets of illegal spying by the United States. The recent developments since the Syria conflict blacked out any serious coverage of have been the release of the black budget for spying of $52 billion, and more countries like France (announced yesterday) and Latin American presidents being added to the growing list of NSA's victims. What's more, the NSA conducted 231 offensive cyber-ops in 2011, hailed as 'active defense'. Finally, the vast use of illegal wiretaps by the DEA is also coming to light.



2. Fukushima Radiation Leaks.
 

Over the weekend, Tokyo Electric Power admitted that a spike in radiation levels spewing out of their Fukushima reactor is 18 times higher than previously reported. The radiation measured 1,800 millisieverts an hour – high enough to kill someone in just four hours of exposure. The truth about just how much radiation the Fukushima meltdown is causing is just now being revealed to the public. The situation has finally been upgraded to a "serious incident". Just hours ago CNN reports new, previously unreported leaks are now taking place: "Several tanks and pipes at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant are suspected of leaking toxic water the chairman of the Japanese nuclear watchdog, Shunichi Tanaka, said Monday."

3. Obama's Executive Actions on Guns.

The White House announced last week that Obama has taken two more executive actions on guns without Congressional approval that appear to infringe on the Second Amendment. If you own a gun that Obama vaguely defines as one of the "most dangerous weapons, such as machine guns and short-barreled shotguns", you are now hereby ordered to come forward, register it, and submit to a background check in order to lawfully possess it -- otherwise you'll be deemed to be engaging in criminal behavior. He also banned guns from being owned by corporate entities or legal trusts. Whatever side of the gun control debate you fall on, no one should advocate "executive actions" that override the Constitution.
 

4. Debt Ceiling.
 Reuters points out today that the Syrian conflict will distract Congress from dealing with the fast approaching debt ceiling or "fiscal cliff" that keeps getting steeper as lawmakers continue to put off dealing with budgetary concerns: "A vote in Congress over whether to launch U.S. attacks against Syria is expected to wreak collateral damage - leaving too little time on Capitol Hill to deal with fast-approaching fall deadlines to fund government agencies and raise the debt limit." Congress has not passed a budget in over three years and repeatedly fails to control the purse strings, though it is one of their primary duties under the Constitution.
 



5. Disaster Warnings. 

 


6. Feds Effectively Legalize Marijuana and Gay Marriage.
 

Not all recent developments hidden by the Syria narrative have been negative. The Department of Justice recently announced that they will not be prosecuting the war on weed in states that have legalized its use for medical or recreational purposes. Although the DOJ clearly stated that marijuana will remain illegal at the federal level, this policy shift effectively leaves pot up to the states. Around the same time, the IRS announced that it will recognize same-sex unions for tax purposes regardless of state laws. In times of peace, these would be HUGE stories and they are indeed important events. It's not everyday some liberty is yielded back to the people from a power-hungry government. Remember to take your eye off the bouncing ball once in a while and look around at what else is happening.

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11 Facts About The Ongoing Fukushima Nuclear Holocaust That Are Almost Too Horrifying To Believe

Is Fukushima the greatest environmental disaster of all time? Every single day, 300 tons of radioactive water from Fukushima enters the Pacific Ocean. The radioactive material that is being released will outlive all of us by a very wide margin, and it is constantly building up in the food chain. Nobody knows for sure how many people will eventually develop cancer and other health problems as a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, but some experts are not afraid to use the word “billions”. It has been well over two years since the original disaster, and now they are telling us that it could take up to 40 more years to clean it up. It is a nightmare of unimaginable proportions, and there is nowhere in the northern hemisphere that you will be able to hide from it. The following are 11 facts about the ongoing Fukushima nuclear holocaust that are almost too horrifying to believe…

#1 It is estimated that there are 1,331 used nuclear fuel rods that need to be removed from Fukushima. Because of all of the damage that has taken place, computer-guided removal of the rods will not be possible. Manual removal is much riskier, and it is absolutely essential that the removal of each of the 1,331 rods goes perfectly because a single mistake could potentially lead to a nuclear chain reaction.

#2 According to Reuters, the combined amount of cesium-137 contained in those nuclear fuel rods is 14,000 times greater than what was released when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Other estimates put this number far higher.

#3 Officials in Japan admit that 300 tons of radioactive water from Fukushima is entering the Pacific Ocean every 24 hours.

#4 According to a professor at Tokyo University, 3 gigabecquerels of cesium-137 are flowing into the port at Fukushima Daiichi every single day…

Yoichiro Tateiwa, NHK reporter: [Professor Jota] Kanda argues government statistics don’t add up. He says a daily leakage of 300 tons doesn’t explain the current levels of radiation in the water.

Jota Kanda, Tokyo University professor: According to my research there are now 3 gigabecquerels [3 billion becquerels] of cesium-137 flowing into the port at Fukushima Daiichi every day. But for the 300 tons of groundwater to contain this much cesium-137, one liter of groundwater has to contain 10,000 becquerels of the radioactive isotope.

NHK: Kanda’s research and monitoring by Tepco puts the amount of cesium-137 in the groundwater around the plant at several hundred becquerels per liter at most. He’s concluded that radioactive isotope is finding another way to get into the ocean. He’s calling on the government and Tepco to identify contamination routes other than groundwater.

#5 According to Tepco, a total of somewhere between 20 trillion and 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium have gotten into the Pacific Ocean since the Fukushima disaster first began.

#6 Something is causing fish along the west coast of Canada to bleed from their gills, bellies and eyeballs. Could Fukushima be responsible?

#7 150 former sailors and Marines say that they now have radiation sickness as a result of serving on U.S. Navy ships near Fukushima and they are suing for damages.

#8 The Iodine-131, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 that are constantly coming from Fukushima are going to affect the health of those living the the northern hemisphere for a very, very long time. Just check out what Harvey Wasserman had to say recently…

Iodine-131, for example, can be ingested into the thyroid, where it emits beta particles (electrons) that damage tissue. A plague of damaged thyroids has already been reported among as many as 40 percent of the children in the Fukushima area. That percentage can only go higher. In developing youngsters, it can stunt both physical and mental growth. Among adults it causes a very wide range of ancillary ailments, including cancer.

Cesium-137 from Fukushima has been found in fish caught as far away as California. It spreads throughout the body, but tends to accumulate in the muscles.

Strontium-90’s half-life is around 29 years. It mimics calcium and goes to our bones.

#9 It is believed that the Fukushima nuclear facility originally contained a whopping 1760 tons of nuclear material.

#10 It is being projected that the entire Pacific Ocean will soon “have cesium levels 5 to 10 times higher” than what we witnessed during the era of heavy atomic bomb testing in the Pacific many decades ago.

#11 According to the Wall Street Journal, it is being projected that the cleanup of Fukushima could take up to 40 years to complete.

Sadly, the true horror of this disaster is only starting to be understood, and most people have absolutely no idea how serious all of this is. What fallout researcher Christina Consolo told RT the other day should be very sobering for all of us…

We have endless releases into the Pacific Ocean that will be ongoing for not only our lifetimes, but our children’s’ lifetimes. We have 40 million people living in the Tokyo area nearby. We have continued releases from the underground corium that reminds us it is there occasionally with steam events and huge increases in radiation levels. Across the Pacific, we have at least two peer-reviewed scientific studies so far that have already provided evidence of increased mortality in North America, and thyroid problems in infants on the west coast states from our initial exposures.

We have increasing contamination of the food chain, through bioaccumulation and biomagnification. And a newly stated concern is the proximity of melted fuel in relation to the Tokyo aquifer that extends under the plant. If and when the corium reaches the Tokyo aquifer, serious and expedient discussions will have to take place about evacuating 40 million people from the greater metropolitan area. As impossible as this sounds, you cannot live in an area which does not have access to safe water.

The operation to begin removing fuel from such a severely damaged pool has never been attempted before. The rods are unwieldy and very heavy, each one weighing two-thirds of a ton. But it has to be done, unless there is some way to encase the entire building in concrete with the pool as it is. I don’t know of anyone discussing that option, but it would seem much ‘safer’ than what they are about to attempt…but not without its own set of risks.

And all this collateral damage will continue for decades, if not centuries, even if things stay exactly the way they are now. But that is unlikely, as bad things happen like natural disasters and deterioration with time…earthquakes, subsidence, and corrosion, to name a few. Every day that goes by, the statistical risk increases for this apocalyptic scenario. No one can say or know how this will play out, except that millions of people will probably die even if things stay exactly as they are, and billions could die if things get any worse.

The area immediately around Fukushima is already permanently uninhabitable, and the truth is that a much wider area of northern Japan should probably be declared off limits for human habitation.

But this just isn’t about Japan. The cold, hard reality of the matter is that this is truly a disaster that is planetary in scope. The nuclear material from Fukushima is going to be carried all over the northern hemisphere, and countless numbers of people are going to become seriously ill as a result.

And remember, this is a disaster that is not even close to being contained yet. Hundreds of tons of radioactive water continues to enter the Pacific Ocean every single day making the disaster that we are facing even worse.

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A quaint village in central India has fueled some Facebook discussion on ancient foot prints and an engraved image of a mysterious flying object.

In Piska Nagri village, on the outskirts of Ranchi City in Jharkahnd State, geologist Nitish Priyadarshi has been studying large footprints that, according to local lore, may signify the presence of gods from the sky landing on site.

The footprints are on a rock and look like they were of those wearing wooden sandals commonly worn thousands of years ago in the region. One set of footprints measures 11 inches in length and 5 inches in width, and another set in the same area measures 10 inches by 4.5 inches. God-kings of Indian mythology Lord Rama and Lord Lakshmana are believed to have spent time in the area in search of Rama’s wife, Sita.

Priyadarshi said the imprints are on granite rock, and thus were likely carved there rather than imprinted on the hard substance. “It may have been made by the local people manually at that time in memory of the visitors,” he said.


What Priyadarshi finds interesting is the engraved image of a flying object next to the footprints.

“The footprints and the flying object are on the same piece of rock on each other’s side. Maybe they were engraved to show that the two king gods arrived at the place on a flying object,” Priyadarshi said.

The age of the footprints has still not been ascertained. “Seeing the weathering stage [foot prints found here are weathered] of the foot prints it can be said that the age of the foot prints may be thousands year old,” he said.

There have been many discoveries of ancient footprints around the world. Many of them are thousands of years old and are both natural (left by ancient inhabitants) and carved, denoting some meaning.


The Romans carved footprints before a journey as protective rites. Footprints were carved upon leaving for a journey and as thanksgiving for a safe return. In Ireland and northern Europe, rock footprints were closely associated with kingship or chieftainship.

Priyadarshi said: “We live in a highly advanced, technical world, but there are nevertheless a great many mysteries all around us. Ancient places and mysterious beings, sunken worlds and cultures, landscapes imbued with symbolism, unexplained apparitions, and unbelievable finds from ancient times—all of these remain mysteries for humankind, despite intense investigations.”

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