Spot the Sith

"Hooray, ignorant compromise wins the day!".../... "Fools! Muahahahahaha!"

Hyper linked House of Representatives Resolution 362

House Resolution with 265 co-sponsors (last time I checked) to basically start a war with Iran hyper linked with relevant information. The bold font and the numbers are added by me for emphasis, here is the entire text of the bill:

Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the threat posed to international peace, stability in the Middle East, and the vital national security interests of the United States by Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and regional hegemony, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 22, 2008

Mr. ACKERMAN (for himself and Mr. PENCE) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the threat posed to international peace, stability in the Middle East, and the vital national security interests of the United States by Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and regional hegemony, and for other purposes.

Whereas Iran is a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), has foresworn the acquisition of nuclear weapons by ratification of the NPT, and is legally bound to declare and place all its nuclear activity under constant monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA);

Whereas for nearly 20 years, in clear contravention of its explicit obligations under the NPT, Iran operated a covert nuclear program until it was revealed by an Iranian opposition group in 2002;

Whereas the IAEA has confirmed such illicit covert nuclear activities as the importation of uranium hexafluoride, construction of a uranium enrichment facility, experimentation with plutonium, importation of centrifuge technology, construction of centrifuges, and importation of designs to convert highly enriched uranium gas into metal and shape it into the core of a nuclear weapon;

Whereas Iran continues to expand the number of centrifuges at its enrichment facility, as made evident by its announced intention to begin installation of 6,000 advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium, in defiance of binding United Nations Security Council resolutions demanding Iran suspend enrichment activities;

1. Whereas the November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate reported that Iran was secretly working on the design and manufacture of a nuclear warhead until at least 2003, but that Iran could have enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon as soon as late 2009;

2. Whereas an Iranian nuclear weapons capability would pose a grave threat to international peace and security by fundamentally altering and destabilizing the strategic balance in the Middle East, and severely undermining the global nonproliferation regime;

3. Whereas Iran's overt sponsorship of several terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, and its close ties to Syria raise the possibility that Iran would share its nuclear materials and technology with others;

Whereas Iran continues to develop ballistic missile technology and is pursuing the capability to field intercontinental ballistic missiles, a delivery system suited almost exclusively to nuclear weapons payloads;

4. Whereas Iranian leaders have repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel, a major non-North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally, and a member of the United Nations;

Whereas the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany have offered, and continue to offer, to negotiate a significant package of economic, diplomatic, and security incentives if Iran complies with the United Nations Security Council's resolutions demanding that Iran suspend uranium enrichment;*NPT

Whereas Iran has consistently refused such offers;

Whereas as a result of Iran's failure to comply with the mandates of the United Nations Security Council, taken under Chapter VII of the United Nations' Charter, the international community has imposed limited sanctions over the past 2 years that have begun to have an impact on the Iranian economy;

Whereas Iran's rapid development of its nuclear capabilities is outpacing the slow ratcheting up of economic and diplomatic sanctions;

Whereas Iran has used its banking system, including the Central Bank of Iran, to support its proliferation efforts and its assistance to terrorist groups, leading the Department of Treasury to designate 4 large Iranian banks proliferators and supporters of terrorism;

5. Whereas Iran's support for Hezbollah has enabled that group to wage war against the Government and people of Lebanon, leading to its political domination of that country;

Whereas Iran's support for Hamas has enabled it to illegally seize control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority, and to continuously bombard Israeli civilians with rockets and mortars;

6. Whereas Iran continues to provide training, weapons, and financial assistance to Shi'a militants inside of Iraq and antigovernment warlords in Afghanistan;

Whereas those Shi'a militant groups and Afghan warlords use Iranian training, weapons, and financing to attack American and allied forces trying to support the legitimate Governments of Iraq and Afghanistan;

Whereas Iran is further destabilizing the Middle East by underwriting a massive rearmament campaign by Syria;

7. Whereas through these efforts, Iran seeks to establish regional hegemony, threatens longstanding friends and allies of the United States in the Middle East, and endangers vital American national security interests; and

8. Whereas nothing in this resolution shall be construed as an authorization of the use of force against Iran: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress--

(1) declares that preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, through all appropriate economic, political, and diplomatic means, is vital to the national security interests of the United States and must be dealt with urgently;

(2) urges the President, in the strongest of terms, to immediately use his existing authority to impose sanctions on--

(A) the Central Bank of Iran and any other Iranian bank engaged in proliferation activities or the support of terrorist groups;

(B) international banks which continue to conduct financial transactions with proscribed Iranian banks;

(C) energy companies that have invested $20,000,000 or more in the Iranian petroleum or natural gas sector in any given year since the enactment of the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996; and

(D) all companies which continue to do business with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps;

(3) demands that the President initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia, prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran's nuclear program; and

(4) urges the President to lead a sustained, serious, and forceful effort at regional diplomacy to support the legitimate governments in the region against Iranian efforts to destabilize them, to reassure our friends and allies that the United States supports them in their resistance to Iranian efforts at hegemony, and to make clear to the Government of Iran that the United States will protect America's vital national security interests in the Middle East.

Sure the "War on Terror's" Fake but it's not like it's The End of the World...

Code Pink activist tries to rudely shock some sense into Dr. Rice

With the war in Georgia fading from the headlines, it may seem to some that a minor European conflict has flared up and gone away. However, it appears as though the gravity of the situation is far heavier than I and perhaps others thought while it was going on. Since learning a few things about the history of the conflict, it appears that the United States through the Georgia conflict and our interference in the region has resurrected the cold war at a potential intensity that could lead to the use of nuclear weapons.

Back in 2002, the US dispatched troops, arms, and supplies to Georgia as part of the "War on Terror" supposedly to help Georgia fight terrorism in an area called the Pankisi Hills. Sounds perfectly coherent with the aims of the mythic "war on terror," except that there's evidence that the US is not in the region solely to fight Islamic terrorism, but moreover to protect an oil pipeline. From the Observer back in 2002:

Kakha Katcitadze, a senior government adviser, told The Observer that the gorge would not create 'vital dangers for Georgia'. America has other goals. 'There are some problems in Pankisi, but I think it is mostly a social issue. I am not so worried about it. Anti-terrorism is not the only reason for the relationship between the United States and Georgia. Georgia is also the shortest route between the [oil reserves] of the Caspian Sea and Turkey.'

When you consider that Condoleeza Rice's job at Chevron was Central Asian projects, and that the war in Afghanistan was threatened before 9/11 as part of a pipeline deal, to me the conflict in Georgia takes on a different light. It is also the case that Georgia started the war against Russia as something resembling an anti-terrorist operation in South Ossetia to "restore constitutional order."At around the same time, the US outrageously agreed to begin installing a "missile shield" project in Poland and the Czech Republic where 70% of Czechs are against the project that itself uses ballistic missiles to "protect against terrorist missiles from rogue states." In a serious response to just the preliminary plans for this ABM shield-- about year earlier, Russia stopped its compliance with a key treaty to keep its troops and military hardware out of Europe. This demonstrated Russia's total opposition to the US plan that unbelievably went ahead anyway.

Vice President Dick Cheney apparently sent his zombie double to Georgia to meet with Mikheil "Guilty Kid" Saakashvili

Most recently, as a response to the NATO buildup around Georgia, Vladimir Putin has vowed a response though "calm" to the provocation of US/NATO ships in the Black Sea. There are also tiny reports of direct US involvement in coordinating the Georgian military in its assault on South Ossetia, but even if false, moreover, the US arms and trains Georgia's military. Indeed, Dick Cheney visited the region after the war to "bolster western-friendly" countries against Russia. Retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner, who once taught at the US war college describes his opinion of the apparently dire situation in Georgia on Democracy Now:

COL. SAM GARDINER: Let me just say that if you were to rate how serious the strategic situations have been in the past few years, this [the Georgia conflict in August 2008] would be above Iraq, this would be above Afghanistan, and this would be above Iran.

But most worrying is his explanation of the likelihood of nuclear weapons being used in a conflict between US backed forces and Russia:

On little notice to Americans, the Russians learned at the end of the first Gulf War that they couldn’t—they didn’t think they could deal with the United States, given the value and the quality of American precision conventional weapons. The Russians put into their doctrine a statement, and have broadcast it very loudly, that if the United States were to use precision conventional weapons against Russian troops, the Russians would be forced to respond with tactical nuclear weapons. They continue to state this. They practice this in their exercise. They’ve even had exercises that very closely paralleled what went on in Ossetia, where there was an independence movement, they intervene conventionally to put down the independence movement, the United States and NATO responds with conventional air strikes, they then respond with tactical nuclear weapons.

The US has itself climbed on the unbelievable nuclear aggression bandwagon. In 2002 as part of the "War on Terror" the US withdrew from the Nuclear Non-proliferation treaty we said in order to develop this insane missile defense system planned to be deployed in Europe. Also to develop new nuclear weapons. Finally, on August 20th of this year, after the US signed the deal to put the missile defense shield in Poland, Russia's foreign ministry said that Russia's response to this if it goes forward will "go beyond diplomacy."

And in the middle of this is Condoleeza Rice saying at the missile shield deal in Poland that "Freedom can be denied for a while, but it cannot be denied forever." Sounds right from the "War on Terror" playbook, "they hate us 'cause we're free." She was apparently baffled at Vladimir Putin's announcement of ceasing the arms control treaty over fears of the ABM shield saying he reaction was "bizarre." From the prior encounter in 2007 between "Russian expert" Rice and Moscow in Der Spiegel:

"Rice, speaking before Putin's speech, dismissed Russian concerns that the missile shield could pose a threat to Russia, calling the idea 'ludicrous.' She also accused the Russians of being stuck in a Cold War mentality -- even as she herself mistakenly referred to Russia as 'Soviet.'"

It appears that the phantasmagorical zeitgeist of the cold war is still looming over the Earth. And with diplomacy like this, with policy like this, I think it could possibly still mean nuclear war.

WTC 7: WTF^7

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has issued a report that looked at the collapse of the third skyscraper that imploded and fell just below the speed of gravity on 9/11. This skyscraper called the Salomon Brothers Building at the address of Seven World Trade Center fell straight down into its footprint seven hours after the twin towers fell.



The NIST report--almost four years in the making--decided that there were no explosives in the building to explain its collapse. The report is mostly based on "unprecedentedly complex" computer models and makes a number of shocking admissions about the investigation. According to NIST, not only was there no physical evidence examined for the report, the thesis of the report is that this is the first time in history that such a steel-framed skyscraper has collapsed due to a fire that burned sporadically and at temperatures hundreds of degrees below the integrity test strength of the steel. It also admits this in light of mentioning the story of a similar building--One Meridian Plaza in Philadelphia--that was left standing after burning in an inferno for 18 hours.

The One Meridian Plaza Fire of 1991

There were "design differences" between the two buildings that account for this, we're told. The reason they can hold this seemingly improbable explanation is that they "discovered a new principle" that would account for the collapse--thermal expansion. That is, minute but fatal thermal expansion of massive steel girders due to fires of office furnishings at a relatively low temperature and in key places that lead to the total symmetrical failure of the building's structure in a rapid, cascade manner.

But most galling is that the only evidence they provide that the building was not imploded with a compound known as thermite--one of the most fitting theories--is assumptive and in some places simply an uncited and unscientific consensus opinion. NIST writes that they collectively agreed that the thermite theory would not be investigated because "[The chemical building blocks of thermite] compounds also would have been present in the construction materials making up the WTC buildings," so it would be useless to test for any evidence of thermite. They ignore the molten metal pools found under the towers and Professor Stephen Jones' paper which finds evidence that strongly suggests thermite was used to collapse the twin towers--including forensic evidence in the form of tiny iron "spherules" found in the towers' dust. Also, NIST states that thermite was discounted as impossible because it would take 100 lbs. of thermite to melt a foot of steel and this was so improbable that thermite as a theory of the building's demolition was not investigated. This seems to assume certain knowledge of how to use thermite in building demolitions, and really should be cited, though such a citation does not appear in the report for public comment, indeed thermite is not even mentioned in the report.

For those who discount this as "conspiracy theories," I ask: does this report come up with a convincing enough case needed in a "world's first" structural failure? Does it adequately and scientifically examine evidence that strongly suggests thermite was used in the towers? Is it indeed a new and very subtle principle of thermal expansion at office fire temperatures 200 degrees Fahrenheit or more below the test rating for the steel's integrity that caused the building to suddenly implode straight down seven hours after the fires started--many of these office fires having burned out already? Does a totally virtual simulation on a computer with no physical evidence examined constitute an adequate investigation? Moreover, is there anything about 9/11 that doesn't raise ten questions for every one "answered" in favor of the official story?