Paranotes 2005
by Al Hidell

Russian School Siege Conspiracy
The tragic September 2004 school siege in Beslan, Russia provided fertile ground for conspiracy theorists. Among them: Russian President Vladimir Putin. The deadly siege - which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of schoolchildren - was carried out by terrorists seeking independence for the Russian republic of Chechnya. However, unlike American leaders after 9/11, Putin didn't claim it was the work of a rogue band of terrorists. "Certain political circles in the West want to weaken Russia just like the Romans wanted to destroy Carthage," he charged, and accused "foreign intelligence services" of complicity in the attack.

His adviser Aslanbek Aslakhanov echoed Putin. "The men had their conversations not within Russia but with other countries. They were led on a leash. Our self-styled friends have been working for several decades to dismember Russia. … [they are the] puppeteers and are financing terror," he said to Russia's Channel Two. Russian news service KMNews.ru went so far as to declare, "School Seizure Was Planned in Washington and London."

Similarly, commentator Artem Ivanovich Bashilov charged that the U.S. and U.K. have launched a "new Cold War" against Russia, using terrorist proxies. "The war will be characterized by acts of terrorism on the enemy's territory, which the attacking party will mask as the acts of independent terrorists." He added dryly, "The diplomats of the attacking side will send to their adversary notes of condolences and assurances about the strength of the union of the civilized states against the terrorist barbarians."

Indeed, America and Britain have recently given political asylum and financial support to key Chechen separatists. In fact, the neocons who ostensibly support the War on Terror (and who led us into Iraq) are also providing political and financial assistance to the Chechen cause! According to John Laughland of the Guardian (U.K.), "The Washington neocons' commitment to the war on terror evaporates in Chechnya, whose cause they have made their own." In light of this, President Bush's oft-repeated assertion that countries that aid terrorists are just as guilty as the terrorists themselves rings hollow.

The Western response to the Beslan killings is telling. The BBC referred to the terrorist child-killers as "attackers" and "radicals," the New York Times as "captors" and "fighters," and the Associated Press as "militants." Clearly, the masters of the media did not want the word "terrorist" to be used. In fact, many news reports went so far as to place the blame on Putin, suggesting that the action was the result of Russia's brutal suppression of Chechen independence.

Meanwhile, despite the Beslan bloodbath, the U.S. State Department urged Russian leaders to negotiate with Chechen rebel leaders. One can only imagine President Bush's response if, after 9/11, the media placed the blame on America's policies toward Arab Muslims, and a foreign government urged him to negotiate with Osama bin Laden. Clearly, a double standard is at work.

The reason? Perhaps because Chechnya is in a region with major oil and natural gas reserves, a region the West would like to control. As a 1997 National Security document admitted, U.S. policy is "to promote the independence of these oil-rich countries, to in essence break Russia's monopoly control over the transportation of oil from that region, and frankly, to promote Western energy security through diversification of supply." (www.commondreams.org/views01/1208-04.htm)

If America Was Like Iraq
University of Michigan history professor Juan Cole has provided a unique perspective on the war in Iraq. Imagine that China has invaded America. Reflecting the larger U.S. population, Cole imagines that 3,300 Americans are dying in car bombings, rocket attacks, and aerial bombardments, per week. Meanwhile, most reporters are trapped in Washington, DC hotels, dependent on Chinese troops to protect them. Nearly 300,000 rebels, armed with machine guns, assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortar launchers, control Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Denver and Omaha. In the past year, the Secretary of State, the President, the Attorney General, and various Governors have been assassinated. There is almost no commercial air traffic, and many roads are dangerous. To travel on I-95, for example, you risk being carjacked, kidnapped, or killed. Electricity goes off throughout the day, if you are lucky enough to have it. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is 40%. Despite all this, Chinese leaders assure you that you are better off now, and that they are bringing democracy and freedom to your country. (www.juancole.com)

War Game Drills Confused NORAD on 9/11
NORAD was confused, delayed and distracted by many War Game drills on the morning of 9/11. On that morning, NORAD radar screens reportedly showed up to 22 hijacked planes, and NORAD had been briefed to expect these radar blips as part of the exercise drills. In fact, this would explain why the press originally reported up to eight hijacked planes. It would also explain why one air traffic controller reportedly asked, "Is this real world or an exercise?", and why NORAD officer Dawne Deskins, who received a hijack report at 8:40 a.m. from Boston, responded, "It must be part of the exercise."

The following information has come to light regarding these drills: Operation Northern Vigilance, planned months in advance, removed jet fighters from patrols on the east coast and sent them to Alaska and Canada; Operation Vigilant Guardian simulated hijacked planes in the northeast coinciding with 9/11; Operation Northern Guardian simulated hijacked planes in the northeast; and Operation Vigilant Warrior is thought to have been the "attack" component of Vigilant Guardian.

Note that standard operating procedure of both the FAA and NORAD requires that once an aircraft is off course and/or its transponder is not responding, within 10 minutes Air Force jets are scrambled to establish contact with the wayward plane. In the year before 9/11 this automatic procedure was triggered 67 times (AP, 8/13/02). On the morning of 9/11, it was not successfully applied even once in the hour-plus period in which the four hijackings occurred.

Adding to the confusion, since 9/11 various government representatives have promoted contradictory narratives of how the nation's air defenses responded that day. One thing that is known is that on May 8, 2001, President Bush assigned Dick Cheney to the Office for Domestic Preparedness. As part of the Office for Domestic Preparedness, Cheney was in charge of all NORAD drills on the morning of 9/11, drills that confused and delayed standard operating procedure for hijacked planes in American airspace.

On the other hand, the drills don't explain everything that happened that day. Michael C. Ruppert, author of Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, believes, "decisions were made and multiple delays and inexplicable actions were taken to delay fighter response" which "cannot be explained by the exercise distraction theory." He says, "From the moment the first plane hit the World Trade Center all suggested confusion caused by a reported drill became a moot and dead issue." In other words, the drills may have set the stage, but actors were still required to complete the job.

More Killed by U.S. Than By Terrorists
When the U.S. death toll in Iraq crossed 1,000 in September 2004, it was widely reported, and rightly so. However, that figure pales against the nearly 30,000 Afghans and Iraqis estimated to have died in George Bush's War on Terror. Iraq Body Count, an independent website that keeps track of media-reported civilian deaths, reports at least 11,798 Iraqi civilians have died in the war so far. Independent estimates of Iraqi combatant deaths put that toll close to 5,000. In Afghanistan, at least 3,800 civilians died, and independent estimates suggest that military deaths could approach 10,000. The total figure is more than the number of people killed in every terrorist act of the last 35 years, estimated to be 22,000. Even if only civilian deaths are considered, which is perhaps a fairer comparison, the number of civilians killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11 far exceeds the number of civilians killed by terrorists during the same period. (Times of India)

Behind High Gas Prices
When it comes to rising gas prices, the media generally blame problems such as oil sabotage in Iraq and increasing demand from China. Certainly, the amount of oil imported into America is a factor in determining the price you pay at the pump. A less-widely discussed factor, though, is how much Big Oil chooses to process at its refineries. If it processes less, the supply goes down, and prices tend to rise.

In March 2001, the Federal Trade Commission concluded that oil companies intentionally withheld supplies of gasoline from the market as a tactic to drive up prices. In addition, in early 2004, The Consumer Federation of America reported that more than 70 U.S. refineries have closed in the last 15 years. According to Mark Cooper, the organization's research director, "The problem is not crude oil. It's inadequate refinery capacity and inadequate stockpiles, all of which are the result of decisions made by the oil companies to tighten the market."

Indeed, on July 8, 2004 the Los Angeles Times reported that Shell Oil had "reduced crude oil processing at [its Bakersfield, CA] refinery to levels 19% below capacity." According to Shell documents and a company whistleblower, there were no equipment problems that would explain the cut. Has Shell decided it can make more money by artificially tightening gasoline supplies? Perhaps, since it plans to close the refinery, even though demand for oil is extremely high and the refinery is profitable. (http://davesweb.cnchost.com)

The Real "Dirty Bombs"
In 2003, the U.S. deployed four million pounds of radioactive uranium in Iraq, and these munitions have contaminated Iraqi civilians as well as our own troops. In fact, in April 2004, the New York Daily News reported the amount of radiation the U.S. has released in Iraq is 250,000 times the amount released by the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. Most of the nation's news media have been silent about this shocking estimate.

Most American weapons (missiles, bombs, bullets, shells) contain so-called "depleted uranium" (DU) that releases radioactive dust upon detonation. DU is used due to its extreme hardness. The use of DU also saves the Department of Energy the cost of having to dispose of it. This twisted "recycling" program is killing two birds with one stone, if you will. Unfortunately, with a half-life of 4.5 billion years, DU will be a permanent fixture of the environment, and a danger to anyone who breathes it in or absorbs it through their skin.

In countries where uranium munitions have been used, doctors have reported a significant increase in birth deformities and cancers. Nevertheless, the Pentagon denies the danger of DU munitions, which the American Free Press has called "The Real 'Dirty Bombs.'" In support of this, in September 2004 the newspaper reported that eight out of twenty soldiers who served in one unit in Iraq now have cancer. (www.americanfreepress.net)

9/11 Pollution Could Cause More Deaths Than Attacks
On 9/11, up to 400,000 New Yorkers breathed in the most toxic cloud of pollution ever recorded. However, there has been no significant effort to find out how their health has been affected, according to an official report. Critics viewed the September 2004 Government Accountability Office report as the latest evidence of a systematic cover-up of the health toll from the 9/11 pollution.

According to the British newspaper the Independent, the government's own figures indicate "the cloud of pulverized debris contained the highest levels of deadly dioxins ever recorded - about 1,500 times normal levels. Unprecedented levels of acids, sulphur, fine particles, heavy metals and other dangerous materials were also measured." In addition, "Asbestos was found at 27 times acceptable levels, and scientists found about 400 organic alkanes, phthalates and polyaromatic hydrocarbons - many suspected of causing cancer and other long-term diseases."

The Independent article charges, "The Bush administration suppressed evidence of increasing danger, and officially announced that the air around the felled buildings was 'safe to breathe.' It has since failed at least a dozen times to correct its assurances, even when it became clear that people were becoming sick." The article concludes that doctors fear the 9/11 pollution "will cause more deaths than the attacks themselves."

The U.S. Debt Bomb
America’s national debt represents its accumulated year-to-year budget deficits. Currently, it has swelled to an all-time high of $7 trillion, and it is increasing by $1.71 billion per day. "Looking into the future, in particular at the pending retirement of the baby boomers," an April 2004 Dallas Morning News report stated, "some estimates put the country's obligations in the stratosphere." For example, Laurence Kotlikoff of the National Bureau of Economic Research predicts a shortfall of $45 trillion.

Given the cost of the Iraq war, the Bush tax cuts, and new big-ticket programs such as the Medicare prescription drug benefit, "The problem is that fiscal policy right now is not preparing the country for the decade of the [2010s] and thereafter," said Steven Hess, lead U.S. analyst at Moody's Investors Service. "To prepare for these astronomical outlays, it would be desirable that the government had a balanced budget. In fact, they're moving in the opposite direction." Indeed, under President Bush, the U.S. government has added more to the national debt than every president from George Washington to Ronald Reagan combined.

A fact not mentioned in the News article is that interest payments on the national debt are the third-largest component of the U.S. budget. In 2003, these payments totaled $318 billion. In a vicious circle, as the budget deficit goes up, the government issues more bonds and the interest it must pay increases. While some of this interest goes to average people who have purchased U.S. Savings Bonds, most of it goes to investors such as corporations, state or local governments, foreign governments, and other entities outside of the United States government.

While your eyes may glaze over at these facts and figures, they translate into a simple message: Unless you are rich, you are going to be screwed. Soon, there will be a day of reckoning that will affect all of us. "We still believe that people in Washington will realize that something has to happen," Hess said. That "something," Hess suggested, could be a lowering of Social Security and Medicare benefits and an increase in the retirement age. Another likely option will be to raise payroll and income taxes to unprecedented levels. One option you can be sure won’t be on the table: A reduction of the interest paid to investors in the government debt.

So, today’s workers can look forward to working well into their 70s, for smaller and smaller paychecks. Upon retirement, if they make it that far, they can look forward to reduced Social Security and Medicare benefits, and a smaller government safety net. Why? Essentially, the government will have decided that its commitment to investors is more important than the welfare of the American people. (Dallas Morning News and www.brillig.com/debt_clock/)

Supreme Court Justice Promotes Orgies, Belongs to S&M Cult
Ultra conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia shocked a Harvard audience in October 2004 by declaring, "Sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged." He offered no evidence for the claim, which seemed contrary to his position against the Court's June 2003 decision legalizing sodomy. According to the Associated Press, Scalia made the comment jokingly, to make the point that it is not a judge's role to impose their personal moral views on citizens. At least, that's the official spin.

From orgies, we now move to S&M. As reported by CounterPunch in January 2004, Justice Scalia is a member of the Catholic secret society Opus Dei, "a self-flagellation religious cult whose members believe they get closer to God by beating themselves" until bloody. The clandestine organization has only 3,000 members in the U.S., but they are among the most powerful and wealthy people in the country. Recently, the group gained notoriety for its role in the popular mystery novel, The DaVinci Code.

The CounterPunch article quoted former member Sharon Clasen, "After I joined they gave me a barbed wire chain to wear on my leg for two hours a day and a whip to hit my buttocks with," and Opus Dei founder Josemarie Escriva: "Blessed be pain. Loved be pain. Glorified be pain." Indeed, several of the priests who advised Mel Gibson during the filming of The Passion of the Christ, an exceptionally violent depiction of Christ's last days, are powerful members of Opus Dei. (www.counterpunch.org)