http://www.aina.org/aol/peter/brief.htm
Brief History of Assyrians
Peter BetBasoo
Geography
Racial Type
Language
Religion
History of Assyrians
Emergence: beginnings to 2400 B.C.
First Golden Age: 2400 B.C. to 612 B.C.
First Dark Age: 612 B.C. to 33 A.D.
Second Golden Age: 33 A.D. to 1300 A.D.
Second Dark Age: 1300 A.D. to 1918 A.D.
Diaspora: 1918 A.D. to the present
E-mail comment or questions to Peter BetBasoo
Geography
Assyria is located in north Mesopotamia and spans four countries: In Syria it extends west to the Euphrates river; in Turkey it extends north to Harran, Edessa, Diyarbakir, and Lake Van; in Iran it extends east to Lake Urmi, and in Iraq it extends to about 100 miles south of Kirkuk. This is the Assyrian heartland, from which so much of the ancient Near East came to be controlled.
Two great rivers run through Assyria, the Tigris and the Euhprates, and many lesser ones, the most important of which being the Upper Zab and Lower Zab, both tributaries to the Tigris. Strategically surrounding the Tigris and the two Zabs are the Assyrian cities of Nineveh, Ashur, Arbel, Nimrod and Arrapkha.
To the north and east of Assyria lie the Taurus and Zagros mountains. To the west and south lies a great, low limestone plateau. At the southern end of Assyria the gravel plains give way to alluvium deposited by the Tigris, and farther south there is insufficient rainfall for agriculture without irrigation. These two features create a geogrpahical boundary between Assyria and the neighboring land to the south.
To the south of Baghdad lies Babylon. There is a stark geographical distinction between Babylonia and Assyria. To quote Saggs,
A journey in spring from Baghdad, the capital of modern Iraq and within the Area of Ancient Babylonia, to Mosul [Nineveh], which is near several old Assyrian capitals, takes the traveller into what is manifestly a different country. In the region of Baghdad and southwards the predominant vegetation is palm trees. . .The terrain is flat to the horizon, and for most of the year its sun-parched earth is arid and dead wherever irrigation ditches do not reach. Approaching Mosul [Nineveh] the traveller finds a striking change. The flat terrrain gives way to undulating plains, in spring green with pasturage or cereal crop and gay and scented with flowers and clover. The rolling plains are cut with wadis, aflow after spring rains, with higher ranges of hills on the horizon. The traveller has reached Assyria.[Might that was Assyria, page 5]
The Assyrian land is rich and fertile, with growing fields found in every region. Two large areas comprise the Assyrian breadbasket: the Arbel plain and the Nineveh plain. To this day these areas remain critical crop producers. This is from where Assyria derived her strength, as it could feed a large population of professionals and craftsman, which allowed it to expand and advance the art of civilization.
Racial Type
Assyrians are a Semitic peoples indigenous to Mesopotamia. They are Mediterranean Caucasoids, and are ethnically distinct from Arabs and Jews.
Language
Assyrians have used two languages throughout their history: ancient Assyrian (Akkadian), and Modern Assyrian (neo-syriac). Akkadian was written with the cuneiform writing system, on clay tablets, and was in use from the beginning to about 750 B.C.. By 750 B.C., a new way of writing, on parchment, leather, or papyrus, was developed, and the people who brought this method of writing with them, the Arameans, would eventually see their language, Aramaic, supplant Ancient Assyrian because of the technological breakthrough in writing. Aramaic was made the second official language of the Assyrian empire in 752 B.C. Although Assyrians switched to Aramaic, it was not wholesale transplantation. The brand of Aramaic that Assyrians spoke was, and is, heavily infused with Akkadian words, so much so that scholars refer to it as Assyrian Aramaic.
Religion
Assyrians have practiced two religions throughout their history: Ashurism and Christianity. Ashurism was, of course, the first religion of the Assyrians. The very word Assyrian, in its Latin form, derives from the name of Ashur, the Assyrian god. Assyrians continued to practice Ashurism until 256 A.D, although by that time, most Assyrians had accepted Christianity. Indeed, Assyrians were the first nation to accept Christianity, and the Assyrian Church was founded in 33 A.D. by Thomas, Bortholemew and Thaddeus.
History of Assyrians
It is convenient to divide Assyrian history into six periods:
Emergence: beginnings to 2400 B.C.
First Golden Age: 2400 B.C. to 612 B.C.
First Dark Age: 612 B.C. to 33 A.D.
Second Golden Age: 33 A.D. to 1300 A.D.
Second Dark Age: 1300 A.D. to 1918 A.D.
Diaspora: 1918 A.D. to the present:
Emergence: beginnings to 2400 B.C.
In 1932, Sir Max Mallowan, the eminent British archaeologist, dug a deep sounding which reached virgin soil ninety feet below the top of the mound of Nineveh; this gave a pottery sequence back to prehistoric times and showed that the site was already inhabited by 5000 B.C.. Very soon after that, the two other great Assyrian cities were settled, Ashur and Arbel, although an exact date has yet to be determined. Arbel is the oldest extant city, and remains largely unexcavated, its archaeological treasures waiting to be discovered. The same holds for Ashur. It is clear that by 2500 B.C., these three cities were well established and were thriving metropoli.
This period of history saw the development of the fundamentals of our civilization: animal domestication, agriculture, pottery, controllable fire (kilns), smelting, to name but a few. As regards Assyrians, because of it rich corn fields, Arbel was one of the very earliest permanent agricultural settlements.
Between 4500 and 2400 B.C., complex societies appear in the form of cities, with craft specialization and writing. These features were associated with the Sumerians, but they quickly spread to other parts of Mesopotamia, including Assyria. In Assyria, settlements had become large and guarded by fortifications walls, which implies the risk of attack from outside, and hence the need for defense and warfare.
First Golden Age: 2400 B.C. to 612 B.C.
We enter into an extremely fruitful period in Assyrian History. This period would see 1800 years of Assyrian hegemony over Mesopotamia, beginning with Sargon of Akkad in 2371 B.C. and ending with the tragic fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C.
Sargon of Akkad established his kingdom in 2371 B.C., becoming the first king to assert control outside of his city-state. His model would be followed by all succeeding empires, down to our times. From his base at Akkad, south of Baghdad, Sargon would come to control territories stretching north to Ashur and west to the Mediterranean.
Shamshi-Adad I would establish his kingdom in 1813 B.C. Shamshi-Adad forever united the three cities of Ashur, Nineveh and Arbel into one cohesive unit, and brought Arrapkha firmly into the Assyrian sphere, so that henceforth these four cities, and Nimrod, would constitute the very core of Assyria. Under Shamshi-Adad I, the long established Assyrian merchant colonies of Cappadocia saw renewed activity. Shamshi-Adad accomplished this through his administrative efficiency and political skill.
In 1472 B.C. or there about, a Mittanian king annexed Assyria, and this lasted for about 70 years. Mittanian control was decisively thrown off by about 1365 B.C. by Ashuruballit, who laid the foundation of the first Assyrian empire. Invaders from the Taurus mountains, north of Assyria, posed a significant threat to Assyria, and occupied Arik-den-ili for a number of years, but were successfully repelled, paving the way for Adad-narari (1307 B.C.) to establish the first Assyrian empire, which lasted until approximately 1248 B.C.
A new power from south-west Iran, the Elamites, would assert control over Babylon for 30 years. This affected Assyria slightly. The death of Ashurdan in 1135 B.C. brough instability as his two sons vyed for the crown. Their terms only lasted one year, and Ashur-resh-ishi I ascended to the thrown in 1133 B.C.
The Middle Assyrian empire began in 1307 B.C. with Tiglath-Pileser, who greatly expanded Assyrian territory. It is also during his reign that a significant development occurs, that of the Aramean migrations into Assyria. This would have a profound impact on Assyria and Assyrians, as we shall see. Tiglath-Pileser states "I crossed the Euphrates twenty eight times...in pursuit of the Arameans." This would ultimately prove unsuccessful.
Tiglath-Pileser was not only a military man, but also a sportsman. Upon reaching the Mediterranean, he took the time, he tells us, to go dolphin hunting. He also established several zoos in Assyria, as he had a fascination with foreign animals.
The Aramean problem persisted during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser's successor and son, Ashur-bel-kala 1074-1057), who tells us that the Arameans were penetrating deep into Assyrian territory, including Tur Abdin, Harran and Khabur. For the next century Assyria declined, the Aramean disruptions being the principal cause. It was not until 934 B.C., by which time the Arameans had settled into stable kingdoms in Mesopotamia, that Assyria would reemerge.
Ashur-dan II would concentrate on rebuilding Assyria within its natural borders, from Tur Abdin to the foothills beyond Arbel. He built government offices in all provinces, and as an economic boost, provided ploughs throughout the land, which yielded record grain production. He was followed by four able kings, who used the foundation which he had laid to make Assyria the major world power of its time.
The four Kings that followed Ashur-dan II were Adad-nerari II (his son), Tukulti-Ninurta II, Ashur-nasir-pal II, and Shalmaneser III. Adad-nerari would provide the final solution to the Aramean problem. He defeated the paramount Aramean chief at Nisibin and, marching up and down the Khabur, he obtained formal submissions from a series of Aramean controlled cities.
Ashur-nasir-pal II would bring under Assyrian control the area from south Lebanon to the Zagros mountains, with loose control over the Taurus region. Diyarbekr was under direct Assyrian control.
Skipping ahead to Shamsi-Adad V, and I mention him because his wife was none other than Sammurammat, or Shamiram, whom so many Assyrian woman are named after today. There is a stele about her, it says:
Stele of Sammurammat
Queen of Shamshi-Adad
King of all, king of Ashur
mother of Adad-nerari
King of all, king of Ashur
Daughter-in-law [kalta] of Shalmaneser
King of the four regions
We come now to the beginning of greatest expansion of the Assyian empire with Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727); through a series of able kings, Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Ashurbnaipal, Assyria would extend its rule over a vast area, from Egypt up to cyprus to the west, through Anatolia, to the Caspian in the east.
The Assyrian empires, particularly the third one, had a profound and lasting impact on the Near East. Before Assyrian hegemony would come to an end, the Assyrians would bring the highest civilization to the then known world. From the Caspian to Cyprus, from Anatolia to Egypt, Assyrian imperial expansion would bring into the Assyrian sphere nomadic and barbaric communities, and would bestow the gift of civilization upon them.
And though today we are far removed from that time, some of our most basic and fundamental devices of daily survival, to which we have become so accustomed that we cannot conceive of life without them, originated in Assyria. One cannot imagine leaving his home without locking the door; it is in Assyria where locks and keys were first used. One cannot survive in this world without knowing the time; it is in Assyria that the sexagesimal system of keeping time was developed. One cannot imagine driving without paved roads; it is in Assyria where paved roads were first used. And the list goes on, including the first postal system, the first use of iron, the first magnifying glasses, the first libraries, the first plumbing and flush toilets, the first electric batteries, the first guitars, the first aqueducts, the first arch, and on and on.
But it is not only things that originated in Assyria, it is also ideas, ideas that would shape the world to come. It is the idea, for example, of imperial administration, of dividing the land into territories administered by local governors who report to the central authority, the King of Assyria. This fundamental model of administration has survived to this day, as can be seen in America's federal-state system.
It is in Assyria where the mythological foundation of the old and new testament is found. It is here that the story of the flood originates, 2000 years before the old testament is written. It is here that the first epic is written, the Epic of Gilgamesh, with its universal and timeless theme of the struggle and purpose of humanity. It is here that civilization itself is developed and handed down to future generations. It is here where the first steps in the cultural unification of the Middle East are taken by bringing under Assyrian rule the diverse groups in the area, from Iran to Egypt, breaking down ethnic and national barriers and preparing the way for the cultural unification which facilitated the subsequent spread of Hellenism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
First Dark Age: 612 B.C. to 33 A.D.
The Assyrian empire collapsed in 612 B.C. The Assyrian people survived the loss of their state, and they remained mostly inconspicuous for the next 600 years. The Persians mention employing Assyrians as troops, and there is the failed attempt at reestablishing an Assyrian Kingdom in 350 B.C.; the Persians squelched this attempt and castrated 400 Assyrian leaders as punishment.
Second Golden Age: 33 A.D. to 1300 A.D.
Assyrians continued living in their homeland throughout this dark age, until that momentous moment in human history, when the Lord Son of God gave himself for the salvation of mankind. Very soon after the crucifixion, the bulk of the Assyrian population converted to Christianity, although there remained to be Ashurites, until 256 A.D. It was the Apostle Thomas, with Thaddeus and Bartholomew who came to the Assyrian city of Edessa and founded the Assyrian Church of the East, the first and oldest church in the world.
Armed with the word of God, and after 600 years of dormancy, the Assyrians once again set out to build an empire, not a military empire, but a religious empire founded on divine revelation and Christian brotherhood. So successful was the Assyrian missionary enterprise, by the end of the twelfth century the Assyrian Church was larger than the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches combined, and it spanned the Asian continent, from Syria to Mongolia, Korea, China, Japan and the Philippines.
When Marco Polo visited China in the thirteenth century, he was astonished to find Assyrian priests in the Chinese royal court, and tens of thousands of Chinese Christians. The Assyrian missionaries had reached China in the sixth century. With only the bible, a cross, and a loaf of bread in hand, these messengers had walked thousands of miles along the old silk road to deliver the word of God. So successful were the missionaries, when Genghis Khan swept through Asia, he brought with him an army over half of which belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East. So successful were the missionaries, the first Mongolian system of writing used the Assyrian alphabet.
Armed with the word of God, Assyrians once again transformed the face of the Middle East. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries they began a systematic translation of the Greek body of knowledge into Assyrian. At first they concentrated on the religious works but then quickly moved to science, philosophy and medicine. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Galen, and many others were translated into Assyrian, and from Assyrian into Arabic. It is these Arabic translations which the Moors brought with them into Spain, and which the Spaniards translated into Latin and spread throughout Europe, thus igniting the European renaissance.
By the sixth century A.D., Assyrians had begun exporting back to Byzantia their own works on science, philosophy and medicine. In the field of medicine, the Bakhteesho Assyrian family produced nine generations of physicians, and founded the great medical school at Gundeshapur. Also in the area of medicine, Hunayn ibn-Ishaq*s textbook on ophthalmology, written in 950 A.D., remained the authoritative source on the subject until 1800 A.D.
In the area of philosophy, the Assyrian philosopher Job of Edessa developed a physical theory of the universe, in the Assyrian language, that rivaled Aristotle*s theory, and that sought to replace matter with forces.
One of the greatest Assyrian achievements of the fourth century was the founding of the first university in the world. The School of Nisibis had three departments: theology, philosophy and medicine, and became a magnet and center of intellectual development in the Middle East. The statutes of the School of Nisibis, which have been preserved, later became the model upon which the first Italian university was based.
When Arabs and Islam swept through the Middle East in 630 A.D., they encountered 600 years of Assyrian Christian civilization, with a rich heritage, a highly developed culture, and advanced learning institutions. It is this civilization which became the foundation of the Arab civilization.
But this great Assyrian Christian civilization would come to an end in 1300 A.D. The tax which the Arabs levied on Christians, simply for just being Christian, forced many Assyrians to convert to Islam to avoid the tax; this inexorably drained the community, so that by the time Timurlane the Mongol delivered the final blow in 1300 A.D., by violently destroying most cities in the Middle East, the Assyrian Christian community had dwindled to its core in Assyria, and henceforth the Assyrian Church of the East would not regain its former glory, and the Assyrian language, which had been the lingua franca of the Middle East until 900 A.D., was completely supplanted by Arabic (except amongst the Assyrians). This, from 1300 A.D. until World War One, became the second Assyrian dark age.
Second Dark Age: 1300 A.D. to 1918 A.D.
The Assyrian missionary enterprise, which had been so successful throughout the Asian continent, came to an abrupt end with the coming of Timurlane the Mongol. The indiscriminate destruction leveled by Timurlane against the civilizations he encountered put to a permanent end the Assyrian missionary enterprise. A large segment of the Assyrian population escaped the ravages of Timurlane by fleeing into the Hakkary mountains (present day eastern Turkey); the remaining Assyrians continued to live in their homelands (presently North Iraq and Syria), and Urmi. The four Assyrian communities, over time, begin defining themselves in terms of their church affiliation. The western Assyrians, all of whom belonging to the Syrian Orthodox Church, began identifying themselves as "Jacobites". The remaining communities belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East. After the division of the Church of the East in 1550 A.D., the Chaldean Church of Babylon, a Roman Catholic Uniate, was created, and members of this church began to call themselves Chaldean. By the end of the nineteenth century, these three communities no longer saw themselves as one and the same.
Diaspora: 1918 A.D. to the present:
In this century, Assyrians have suffered massive genocide, have lost control of their ancestral lands, and are in a struggle for survival. The Assyrian nation today stands at a crossroad. One third of is in a diaspora, while the remaining two-thirds lives perilously in its native lands. These are some of the dangers facing the Assyrians:
Denominationalism and fragmentation
Islamic fundamentalism
Arabization
Cultural immersion and absorption into Arab societies
Mass emigration to the West, and absorption into Western societies
World Assyrian Population
Iraq 1,500,000 France 20,000
Syria 700,000 Belgium 15,000
USA 400,000 Georgia 15,000
Sweden 120,000 Armenia 15,000
Lebanon 100,000 Switzerland 10,000
Brazil 80,000 Denmark 10,000
Germany 70,000 Greece 8,000
Russia 70,000 England 8,000
Iran 50,000 Austria 7,000
Jordan 44,000 Italy 3,000
Australia 30,000 New Zealand
3,000
Turkey 24,000 Mexico 2,000
Canada 23,000 Other
100,000
Holland
20,000
Total 3,447,000 Source: AINA
Revised on April 1, 2007
2/08/2009
2/06/2009
The Yedehoth Ahronot story of today pretending to disclose "information"
The Yedehoth Ahronot story of today pretending to disclose "information" about the HIT, murder assassination of Mr. IMAD F. MUGHNIEH last year, February 12th 2008 in downtown Damascus, is a completely fabricated piece of propaganda and utterly crappy Israeli journalism, courtesy of the NID in Israel and its military intelligence thugs, in order to protect their prized asset in Syria, none other than ASSEF SHAWQAT, the quintessential KILLER MURDERER and assassin in chief of the White House Murder Inc, who personally delivered Mr. Dakdouq in Iraq to American Intelligence, and it is Asef Shawkat who personally orchestrated the assassination of Imad Moughniah in Damascus. All the details in that story are pure nonsense and utter garbage, it has no bearing whatsoever on the facts, it is pure unadulterated fiction and complete lies. Asef Shawkat is the assassin of Mr. ELIE HOBEIKA and Mr. IMAD F. MOUGHNIEH, ASSEF SHAWQAT is the officer in charge of the murderers and the chief culprit of the odious White House Murder INC, since January 24th 2002....Asef Shawkat is a thug, a killer, a murderer and an assassin, besides being a pimp of the ASSAD Mafiosi family of thieves and KILLERS.
1/28/2009
Israel hopes for the complete fragmentation of IRAQ in order to colonize parts of Iraq as "Greater Israel"
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-- Israel hopes for the complete fragmentation of IRAQ in order to colonize parts of Iraq as "Greater Israel" --
Israeli expansionists, their intentions are to take full control of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and permanently keep the Golan Heights of Syria and expand into southern Lebanon is already well known, also have their eyes on parts of Iraq considered part of a biblical "Greater Israel."
Israel reportedly has plans to re-locate thousands of Kurdish Jews from Israel, including expatriates from Kurdish Iran, to the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Ninewah under the guise of religious pilgrimages to ancient Jewish religious shrines. According to Kurdish sources, the Israelis are secretly working with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to carry out the integration of Kurdish and other Jews into areas of Iraq under control of the KRG.
Kurdish, Iraqi Sunni Muslim, and Turkmen have noted that Kurdish Israelis began to buy land in Iraqi Kurdistan after the U.S. invasion in 2003 that is considered historical Jewish "property."
The Israelis are particularly interested in the shrine of the Jewish prophet Nahum in al Qush, the prophet Jonah in Mosul, and the tomb of the prophet Daniel in Kirkuk. Israelis are also trying to claim Jewish "properties" outside of the Kurdish region, including the shrine of Ezekiel in the village of al-Kifl in Babel Province near Najaf and the tomb of Ezra in al-Uzayr in Misan Province, near Basra, both in southern Iraq's Shi'a-dominated territory. Israeli expansionists consider these shrines and tombs as much a part of "Greater Israel" as Jerusalem and the West Bank, which they call "Judea and Samaria."
Kurdish and Iraqi sources report that Israel's Mossad is working hand-in-hand with Israeli companies and "tourists" to stake a claim to the Jewish "properties"of Israel in Iraq. The Mossad has already been heavily involved in training the Kurdish Pesh Merga military forces...
Reportedly assisting the Israelis are foreign mercenaries paid for by U.S. Christian evangelical circles that support the concept of "Christian Zionism."
Iraqi nationalists charge that the Israeli expansion into Iraq is supported by both major Kurdish factions, including the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by Iraq's nominal President Jalal Talabani. Talabani's son, Qubad Talabani, serves as the KRG's representative in Washington, where he lives with his wife Sherri Kraham, who is Jewish.
Also supporting the Israeli land acquisition activities is the Kurdistan Democratic Party, headed by Massoud Barzani, the President of the KRG. One of Barzani's five sons, Binjirfan Barzani, is reportedly heavily involved with the Israelis.
The Israelis and their Christian Zionist supporters enter Iraq not through Baghdad, but through Turkey... In order to depopulate residents of lands the Israelis claim, Mossad operatives and Christian Zionist mercenaries are staging terrorist attacks against Chaldean Christians, particularly in Ninewah, Irbil, al-Hamdaniya, Bartalah, Talasqaf, Batnayah, Bashiqah, Elkosheven, Uqrah, and Mosul...
These attacks by the Israelis and their allies are usually reported as being the responsibility of "Al Qaeda" and other Islamic "jihadists."
The ultimate aim of the Israelis is to depopulate the Christian population in and around Mosul and claim the land as biblical Jewish land that is part of "Greater Israel." The Israeli/Christian Zionist operation is a replay of the depopulation of the Palestinians in the British mandate of Palestine after World War II...and their blatant attempt at depopulating Southern Lebanon in the summer of 2006, which utterly failed for now...
In June 2003, a delegation of Israelis visited Mosul and said that it was Israel's intentions, with the assistance of Barzani, to establish Israeli control of the shrine of Jonah in Mosul and the shrine of Nahum in the Mosul plains. The Israelis said Israeli and Iranian Jewish pilgrims would travel via Turkey to the area of Mosul and take over lands where Iraqi Christians lived....
WMR article results in legal proceedings against journalist by two U.S. and Israeli CIA-MOSSAD puppets in Iraqi Kurdistan....
November 22-, 2011 -- Iraq Kurdistani journalist on trial for translating WMR article....
An Iraqi journalist, Hawzheen Omar Kareem, is on trial in Iraqi Kurdistan for translating and publishing into Arabic a WMR article. The article in question is from January 28, 2008, and titled: “Israel Hopes to Colonize parts of Iraq as Greater Israel."
Kareem was taken to court as a result of complaints filed by Kurdistan's two main clan-oriented political parties that dominate politics in Kurdistan, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) party led by Jalal Talabani, who also serves as President of Iraq, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Massoud Barzani. Barzani is believed by many to be a descendant of a 19th century Ottoman Kurdish rabbi named Barzani. This editor has previously written an expose of the crypto-Jewish "Donmeh" or Sabbatean sect of Islam that came to dominate politics and finance in the Ottoman Empire and Kemal Ataturk's secularist Turkey. With the case against Kareem, it appears that suggestions that the "Donmeh" of Kurdistan are in league with the Israelis, are treated in the same manner as the Donmeh are treated in Turkey -- with stony silence or criminal proceedings against journalists.
In support of Kareem, WMR sent the following letter to the court in Kurdistan:
WAYNEMADSENREPORT.COM
c/o National Press Club, 13th Floor
529 14th St, NW
Washington, DC 20045
waynemadsenreporteditor@waynemadsenreport.com
22 November 2011
To the court in case of Hawzheen Kareem
I am the publisher and editor of WayneMadsenReport.com, a Washington, DC “insider” website that reports from individuals in the upper echelons of the U.S. and allied intelligence communities, the U.S. military, U.S. congressional, and Washington and United Nations diplomatic circles.
On January 28, 2008, my site published the report: “Israel Hopes to Colonize parts of Iraq as Greater Israel.” The report was based on information conveyed to me by Washington-based intelligence and diplomatic sources, one of whom attended a diplomatic reception of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Washington, also attended by the representative of the KRG, Qubad Talabani and his Zionist American-Jewish wife Sherri Kraham and passed on the information about Israeli operations to buy up lands in Kurdistan for future Israeli settlers.
The article is as follows:
January 28, 2008 -- Israel hopes to colonize parts of Iraq as "Greater Israel"
Israeli expansionists, their intentions to take full control of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and permanently keep the Golan Heights of Syria and expand into southern Lebanon already well known, also have their eyes on parts of Iraq considered part of a biblical "Greater Israel."
Israel reportedly has plans to re-locate thousands of Kurdish Jews from Israel, including expatriates from Kurdish Iran, to the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Nineveh under the guise of religious pilgrimages to ancient Jewish religious shrines. According to Kurdish sources, the Israelis are secretly working with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to carry out the integration of Kurdish and other Jews into areas of Iraq under control of the KRG.
Kurdish, Iraqi Sunni Muslim, and Turkmen have noted that Kurdish Israelis began to buy land in Iraqi Kurdistan after the U.S. invasion in 2003 that is considered historical Jewish "property."
The Israelis are particularly interested in the shrine of the Jewish prophet Nahum in al Qush, the prophet Jonah in Mosul, and the tomb of the prophet Daniel in Kirkuk. Israelis are also trying to claim Jewish "properties" outside of the Kurdish region, including the shrine of Ezekiel in the village of al-Kifl in Babel Province near Najaf and the tomb of Ezra in al-Uzayr in Misan Province, near Basra, both in southern Iraq's Shi'a-dominated territory. Israeli expansionists consider these shrines and tombs as much a part of "Greater Israel" as Jerusalem and the West Bank, which they call "Judea and Samaria."
Kurdish and Iraqi sources report that Israel's Mossad is working hand-in-hand with Israeli companies and "tourists" to stake a claim to the Jewish "properties" of Israel in Iraq. The Mossad has already been heavily involved in training the Zioconned Kurdish Pesh-Merga military forces....
Reportedly assisting the Israelis are foreign mercenaries paid for by U.S. Christian evangelical circles that support the concept of "Christian Zionism."
Iraqi nationalists charge that the Israeli expansion into Iraq is supported by both major Kurdish factions, including the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by Iraq's nominal President Jalal Talabani. Talabani's son, Qubad Talabani, serves as the KRG's representative in Washington, where he lives with his wife Sherri Kraham, who is Jewish.
Also supporting the Israeli land acquisition activities is the Kurdistan Democratic Party, headed by Massoud Barzani, the President of the KRG. One of Barzani's five sons, Binjirfan Barzani, is reportedly heavily involved with the Israelis.
The Israelis and their Christian Zionist supporters enter Iraq not through Baghdad but through Turkey. In order to depopulate residents of lands the Israelis claim, Mossad operatives and Christian Zionist mercenaries are staging terrorist attacks against Chaldean Christians, particularly in Nineveh, Irbil, al-Hamdaniya, Bartalah, Talasqaf, Batnayah, Bashiqah, Elkosheven, Uqrah, and Mosul.
These attacks by the Israelis and their allies are usually reported as being the responsibility of "Al Qaeda" and other Islamic "jihadists."
The ultimate aim of the Israelis is to depopulate the Christian population in and around Mosul and claim the land as biblical Jewish land that is part of "Greater Israel." The Israeli/Christian Zionist operation is a replay of the depopulation of the Palestinians in the British mandate of Palestine after World War II.
In June 2003, a delegation of Israelis visited Mosul and said that it was Israel's intentions, with the assistance of Barzani, to establish Israeli control of the shrine of Jonah in Mosul and the shrine of Nahum in the Mosul plains. The Israelis said Israeli and Iranian Jewish pilgrims would travel via Turkey to the area of Mosul and take over lands where Iraqi Christians lived.
----------------------
It is certainly not news that the Mossad and Israelis are heavily involved in Iraqi Kurdistan, with major influence inside the two main Kurdish parties, the PUK and KDP. In fact, the KDP/Barzani history with the Israelis goes back to the 1970s when US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger used them to pressure Saddam Hussein.
On June 30, 2003, The Wall Street Journal reported that the British Jewish real estate magnate Naim Dangoor, the grandson of Iraq’s chief rabbi, and a colleague, the American Jew and former US State Department official Abraham Sofaer were demanding the return of Iraqi real estate said to be owned by exiled Iraqi Jews and their descendants.. On December 8, 2007, National Public Radio in the US reported: “Iraqi Kurdish Jews Cautiously Return to Homeland,” with the following: “In the 1960s and 70s, Israel's Mossad intelligence agency provided equipment and training to Kurdish rebels who were battling the government in Baghdad. To this day, locals call a neighborhood of old sagging brick houses in the Kurdish city of Suleymaniyah, Jewlakan.”
Israeli Zionists designs on Kurdistan and Iraq are well-known in the West as are their desire for a Greater Israel “from the Nile to the Euphrates” – depicted by the two blue stripes on the Israeli flag.
I hope this information is of use to the court and I urge the political case against Mr. Kareem to be dismissed with prejudice.
Sincerely yours,
Wayne Madsen
Editor
2008 will be a watershed year in world history. It is probable that the Bilderbergers will provide the water... And the shed.... !
2008 will be a watershed year in world history. It is probable that the Bilderbergers will provide the water... And the shed.... !
Forget the CFR, the Trilateral Commission, the masons/illuminati, and the transnational corporate heads. They all largely answer to the Bilderberg Group.
"In 1954, the most powerful men in the world met for the first time under the auspices of the Dutch royal crown and the Rockefeller family at the luxurious Hotel Bilderberg in the small Dutch town of Oosterbeck. For an entire weekend, the debated the future of the world. When it was over, they decided to meet once every year to exchange ideas and analyze international affairs. They named themselves the Bilderberg Group. Since then, they have gathered yearly in a luxurious hotel somewhere in the world to try to decide the future of humanity. Among the select members of this club are Bill Clinton, Paul Wolfowitz, Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Tony Blair and many other heads of government, businessmen, politicians, bankers and journalists from all over the world," writes journalist Daniel Estulin in the opening paragraph of the introduction to his must-read book, The True Story of the Bilderberg Group.
"Nevertheless, in the more than fifty years of their meetings, the press has never been allowed to attend, no statements have ever been released on the attendees' conclusions, nor has any agenda for a Bilderberg meeting been made public," Estulin notes.
For some 15 years, Estulin has been a thorn in the sides of the Bilderbergers, relentlessly hunting down their secret meeting places, gaining inside sources who divulge what goes on behind closed doors, even photographing attendees and publicly disclosing it all. Now he has put it all in a book that every person who values freedom and democracy should read.
The Bilderbergers are so secretive that they even try to hide, until the last minute, the location of their gathering places. Attendance is by invitation only and if an invitee's name is publicly disclosed beforehand, he or she is disinvited.
Perhaps these three quotes will explain what the secrecy is all about. The Times of London in 1977 called the Bilderbergers "a clique of the richest, economically and politically most powerful and influential men in the Western world, who meet secretly to plan events that later appear just to happen."
Said Bilderberg Group founder Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands, "It is difficult to re-educate people who have been brought up on nationalism to the idea of relinquishing part of their sovereignty to a supranational body." (The late prince has been replaced by his daughter, Queen Beatrix, who regularly attends the Bilderberg meetings.)
Former British Defense Minister Denis Healey, put it this way, "World events do not occur by accident. They are made to happen, whether it is to do with national issues or commerce; and most of them are staged and managed by those who hold the purse strings."
Every US president since Eisenhower has either belonged to the Bilderberg Group or its older parallel group, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), or been approved by them. As Estulin wrote, the race is no contest when you own both horses. That is why no matter which political party is in power nothing really changes other than the packaging. The puppets who drink at the champagne fountains of the powerful do the bidding of their masters. The people are superfluous to the process.
And it's not just in the US. The Bilderberg Group and its parallel groups, among which are the CFR, the Trilateral Commission (founded by David Rockefeller and Brzezinski), the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) based at Chatham House in London, and their interlocking memberships are at work throughout the Western world and are endeavoring to get their hooks into the rest. The European Union is their baby.
When Bilderberger Margaret Thatcher, the high priestess of privatization, balked on adopting the euro as the UK's currency, the Bilderbergers had her dumped as prime minister and replaced by John Major.
Like the CFR, which in the course of its history has embraced and financed the Bolsheviks, Communists, Socialists, Nazis and fascists, the Bilderbergers also play all sides. Thus, in 1980, the Bilderbergers decided François Mitterrand was to be resurrected and restored to power as France's next president. After attending the 1999 Bilderberg meeting, Romano Prodi was sworn in as president of Europe in the fall of that year; when his termed ended in 2005, he was elected prime minister of Italy.
Estulin makes it clear that these people will use any means -- legal or illegal -- in pursuit of their goal of total subjugation to their New World Order or One World Company, as they prefer to call it: wars, coups, assassinations; control of banking, finance, business, the media, education (dumbing down all but an elite needed to run things) and even religion to keep people in check.
He notes that David Rockefeller said in his Memoirs, "Some even believe we are a part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure -- one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty and I am proud of it."
Incorporated in this group are the neoconservatives -- "those who have determined that Israel's security should come at the expense of the safety to the United States and be central to all US foreign policy decisions." Richard Perle is a regular attendee at Bilderberg meetings. Michael Ledeen attended the 2005 meeting.
Media moguls such as Rupert Murdock, the now disgraced Conrad Black, Viacom (parent company of CBS) CEO Sumner Redstone, the Washington Post's Katherine Graham (now deceased), Washington Post columnists Jim Hoagland and Charles Krauthammer, New York Times Editor Arthur Sulzberger and columnist Thomas L. Friedman, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Bill Moyers have all been Bilderberg meeting invitees.
"The ideas and policies that come out of the Bilderberg annual meetings are used to generate the news in the leading periodicals and news groups of the world. The point is to make the prevalent opinions of the Bilderbergers so appealing that they become public policy and to pressure world leaders unto submitting to the 'needs of the Masters of the Universe.' The 'free world press' is completely at the mercy of the Bilderbergers disseminating the agreed upon propaganda," Estulin points out.
This is just a smattering of the information Estulin has managed to pack into his well-written 340-page book, complete with photographs, documents and an index.
If all this seems far-fetched, look around. America has been stripped of its industrial base. The good jobs have been or are being offshored, while Americans are working harder and longer at service sector jobs for less pay and fewer to no benefits. Americans have been dumbed down in public and private schools, universities and colleges. Their only worth now is as consumers of mainly foreign made goods. They are kept in check by religion, sports, idiotic "reality" TV, video games and anything else that turns off thinking.
Democracy, freedom and national sovereignty are anathema to the wannabe masters of the universe. But the Bilderbergers and their parallel groups and allied think tanks have been working to do away with all three. Elections have been rigged. The US, Canada and Great Britain are on the verge of becoming police states, The US, Canada and Great Britain are on the verge of becoming police states, thanks to the bogus "war on terror" used to pump up people's fears. All that remains in their grand plan is to replace the last vestiges of sovereign nations with a series of regional unions that they will control via the United Nations, outlawing all nationalism.
But they may have overplayed their hand, as the grand scheme is fraying around the edges. Not all Europeans are ready to surrender their countries' sovereignty to the EU. Canadians who know more about the plan for a North American Union than Americans are diametrically opposed to it. A revitalized Russia, which has a historical wariness of outsiders, has its own ideas. And despite all the Western investment in China, Beijing is proving to be a problem in its refusal to float the yuan to bail out the financial mess the greedy Bilderberger bankers and financiers have made, which may explain the Carlyle Group's sale of 9.9 percent of itself to the Chinese as a hoped for hook to bring China to their table.
As the old adage says, knowledge is power, and Daniel Estulin is providing every reader of The True Story of the Bilderberg Group with the knowledge they need to aid in destroying the Bilderbergers' grand plan by bringing it to the attention of family, friends and colleagues. It is up to us to get this book into as many hands as possible, because Estulin will get no help promoting it from the corporate media.
Collectively, the people hold the power save themselves and that frightens the Bilderbergers and their cohorts the most. But that power is useless if the people refuse to exercise it or surrender it to those who would enslave us...?
"Nevertheless, in the more than fifty years of their meetings, the press has never been allowed to attend, no statements have ever been released on the attendees' conclusions, nor has any agenda for a Bilderberg meeting been made public," Estulin notes.
For some 15 years, Estulin has been a thorn in the sides of the Bilderbergers, relentlessly hunting down their secret meeting places, gaining inside sources who divulge what goes on behind closed doors, even photographing attendees and publicly disclosing it all. Now he has put it all in a book that every person who values freedom and democracy should read.
The Bilderbergers are so secretive that they even try to hide, until the last minute, the location of their gathering places. Attendance is by invitation only and if an invitee's name is publicly disclosed beforehand, he or she is disinvited.
Perhaps these three quotes will explain what the secrecy is all about. The Times of London in 1977 called the Bilderbergers "a clique of the richest, economically and politically most powerful and influential men in the Western world, who meet secretly to plan events that later appear just to happen."
Said Bilderberg Group founder Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands, "It is difficult to re-educate people who have been brought up on nationalism to the idea of relinquishing part of their sovereignty to a supranational body." (The late prince has been replaced by his daughter, Queen Beatrix, who regularly attends the Bilderberg meetings.)
Former British Defense Minister Denis Healey, put it this way, "World events do not occur by accident. They are made to happen, whether it is to do with national issues or commerce; and most of them are staged and managed by those who hold the purse strings."
Every US president since Eisenhower has either belonged to the Bilderberg Group or its older parallel group, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), or been approved by them. As Estulin wrote, the race is no contest when you own both horses. That is why no matter which political party is in power nothing really changes other than the packaging. The puppets who drink at the champagne fountains of the powerful do the bidding of their masters. The people are superfluous to the process.
And it's not just in the US. The Bilderberg Group and its parallel groups, among which are the CFR, the Trilateral Commission (founded by David Rockefeller and Brzezinski), the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) based at Chatham House in London, and their interlocking memberships are at work throughout the Western world and are endeavoring to get their hooks into the rest. The European Union is their baby.
When Bilderberger Margaret Thatcher, the high priestess of privatization, balked on adopting the euro as the UK's currency, the Bilderbergers had her dumped as prime minister and replaced by John Major.
Like the CFR, which in the course of its history has embraced and financed the Bolsheviks, Communists, Socialists, Nazis and fascists, the Bilderbergers also play all sides. Thus, in 1980, the Bilderbergers decided François Mitterrand was to be resurrected and restored to power as France's next president. After attending the 1999 Bilderberg meeting, Romano Prodi was sworn in as president of Europe in the fall of that year; when his termed ended in 2005, he was elected prime minister of Italy.
Estulin makes it clear that these people will use any means -- legal or illegal -- in pursuit of their goal of total subjugation to their New World Order or One World Company, as they prefer to call it: wars, coups, assassinations; control of banking, finance, business, the media, education (dumbing down all but an elite needed to run things) and even religion to keep people in check.
He notes that David Rockefeller said in his Memoirs, "Some even believe we are a part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure -- one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty and I am proud of it."
Incorporated in this group are the neoconservatives -- "those who have determined that Israel's security should come at the expense of the safety to the United States and be central to all US foreign policy decisions." Richard Perle is a regular attendee at Bilderberg meetings. Michael Ledeen attended the 2005 meeting.
Media moguls such as Rupert Murdock, the now disgraced Conrad Black, Viacom (parent company of CBS) CEO Sumner Redstone, the Washington Post's Katherine Graham (now deceased), Washington Post columnists Jim Hoagland and Charles Krauthammer, New York Times Editor Arthur Sulzberger and columnist Thomas L. Friedman, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Bill Moyers have all been Bilderberg meeting invitees.
"The ideas and policies that come out of the Bilderberg annual meetings are used to generate the news in the leading periodicals and news groups of the world. The point is to make the prevalent opinions of the Bilderbergers so appealing that they become public policy and to pressure world leaders unto submitting to the 'needs of the Masters of the Universe.' The 'free world press' is completely at the mercy of the Bilderbergers disseminating the agreed upon propaganda," Estulin points out.
This is just a smattering of the information Estulin has managed to pack into his well-written 340-page book, complete with photographs, documents and an index.
If all this seems far-fetched, look around. America has been stripped of its industrial base. The good jobs have been or are being offshored, while Americans are working harder and longer at service sector jobs for less pay and fewer to no benefits. Americans have been dumbed down in public and private schools, universities and colleges. Their only worth now is as consumers of mainly foreign made goods. They are kept in check by religion, sports, idiotic "reality" TV, video games and anything else that turns off thinking.
Democracy, freedom and national sovereignty are anathema to the wannabe masters of the universe. But the Bilderbergers and their parallel groups and allied think tanks have been working to do away with all three. Elections have been rigged. The US, Canada and Great Britain are on the verge of becoming police states, The US, Canada and Great Britain are on the verge of becoming police states, thanks to the bogus "war on terror" used to pump up people's fears. All that remains in their grand plan is to replace the last vestiges of sovereign nations with a series of regional unions that they will control via the United Nations, outlawing all nationalism.
But they may have overplayed their hand, as the grand scheme is fraying around the edges. Not all Europeans are ready to surrender their countries' sovereignty to the EU. Canadians who know more about the plan for a North American Union than Americans are diametrically opposed to it. A revitalized Russia, which has a historical wariness of outsiders, has its own ideas. And despite all the Western investment in China, Beijing is proving to be a problem in its refusal to float the yuan to bail out the financial mess the greedy Bilderberger bankers and financiers have made, which may explain the Carlyle Group's sale of 9.9 percent of itself to the Chinese as a hoped for hook to bring China to their table.
As the old adage says, knowledge is power, and Daniel Estulin is providing every reader of The True Story of the Bilderberg Group with the knowledge they need to aid in destroying the Bilderbergers' grand plan by bringing it to the attention of family, friends and colleagues. It is up to us to get this book into as many hands as possible, because Estulin will get no help promoting it from the corporate media.
Collectively, the people hold the power save themselves and that frightens the Bilderbergers and their cohorts the most. But that power is useless if the people refuse to exercise it or surrender it to those who would enslave us...?
Wall Street and the rise of Hitler...
"American" multinational corporations, who entered into cartel agreements with I.G. Farben, German General Electric, and a few other firms allowed the Nazis to greatly increase the ability of Germany to wage war. Without many of the processes developed by American firms being given to the Germans, there is NO WAY that the Nazis could have fought as long as as hard as they did.
Many Wall Street firms floated the loans to the German firms, allowing them to build their cartels which would later cost Americans and their allies many billions of dollars and millions of lives. The fact that there were Americans, some of them Jews like the Warburgs, on the Board of Directors of these same cartels that formed the Nazi war machine is mentioned. Sutton asks the obvious question. Why weren't the American members of these firms brought up on war crime charges like their German colleagues? I guess the obvious answer is that their American counterparts had influence in the conquering governments.
Sutton also shows how ITT(International Telephone and Telegraph), G.E., Ford, and Standard Oil had no problem supplying both sides of the war. International financiers, of course, had no problem floating loans to both sides either. I guess that this should come as no surprise. Businessmen are motivated by profits first and patriotism second, if at all.
This book is yet another demonstration of what Carroll Quigley meant by the close-knit ramifications of international financial capitalism. For critics of foreign aid and other such pracitces, here is another example of how it can come back to haunt the citizens of the lending country, while the elites laugh their way to the bank.
1/26/2009
The final chapter in President Bush's staged aircraft carrier publicity events
The final chapter in President Bush's staged aircraft carrier publicity events
Senior White House correspondent Helen Thomas penned a sad commentary in the waning days of the failed presidency of George W. Bush. She titled her article, "History Cannot Save Him." In her article Thomas makes a prediction regarding the 43rd president's legacy: "They say that journalism is the first draft of history. So I am going to predict that those future historians will not deal kindly with the Bush presidency." But the President begged to differ: "Not to worry, Bush says he isn't concerned about how history will view his militant eight years in the White House."[i]
Not to Worry. This makes one wonder what Dubya and his political handlers have up their sleeves. For his final act, does Bush believe that he is going to rewrite history by using the same "perception management" sleight of hand that got him into the White House in the first place? Does he actually have a plan in the works at this time to salvage the Bush family name?
When presiding over the commissioning ceremony of America's newest aircraft carrier, CNN-77, President George W. Bush characterized the ship as a gift to its namesake, his father and 41st President of the United States of America George H.W. Bush. "What do you give a guy who has been blessed and has just about everything he has ever needed?" asked President Bush from aboard the Navy's newest ship. "Well, an aircraft carrier... It's the perfect gift for an old Navy flier - 1,092 feet of flattop."[ii]
This bothered me. As a concerned former Naval aviator, I had written to the Armed Services Committees of both the House and the Senate before the event encouraging Congress to change the name of the vessel to something other than "Bush," out of concern for the well being of the pilots and crew who will be stationed on the carrier. What I found peculiar was Dubya's use of the word "gift." Since Navy ships are paid for by taxpayer dollars and owned by the country as a whole, how could a warship be considered a "gift" to any one individual? It was only after reflecting on investigative journalist Russ Baker's work in his new book Family of Secrets, The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America that it dawned on me what the President was referring to. In his book, Baker persuasively documents Karl Rove's construct of a "legend" for Dubya Bush[iii]. Although the religious conversion ploy worked well enough to get him into office, Dubya's subsequent missteps created the need for a second round of damage control - one that would manufacture a more flattering legacy for the country's 43rd President. Bush's handlers had obviously taken in the movie "Top Gun" and realized the unprecedented opportunity the aircraft carrier afforded image makers. In the film Tom Cruise, after wasting the "bad guys" in an aerial dogfight, is greeted to a hero's welcome by his shipmates upon landing on the flight deck of his aircraft carrier. The impact of this film on the Country cannot be over emphasized. In the aftermath of the film's release applications to attend my alma mater, the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, increased more than ten fold. According to The Celluloid President: Images of Presidential Leadership in Hollywood Movies "The image Bush conveyed [by impersonating a Navy pilot] was carefully designed to both bolster and capitalize on his newly-assumed role as a wartime president... This...Bush-as-fighter-pilot display" represents...a phenomenon that Bruce Miroff has termed ‘the presidential spectacle'".[iv] But according to the New York Times the spectacle was backfiring on the Navy Carrier Pilot Impersonator as "...criticism (was forthcoming) from Democrats on Capitol Hill who said Mr. Bush had indulged in a political stunt that demeaned the military. Some said Mr. Bush could have arrived by helicopter or small cargo plane without the flight suit (incorporating the rolled up sock bulge so admired by G. Gordon Liddy) and helmet, and that his decision to make a ''Top Gun''-style entrance had turned the carrier into a campaign prop." "I am loath to think of an aircraft carrier being used as an advertising backdrop for a presidential political slogan, and yet that is what I saw," Senator Byrd commented on the Senate floor.[v] Although the contrived "Mission Accomplished" fiasco backfired on him, Dubya's handlers never lost sight of the power of the aircraft carrier to bestow hero image status on an undeserving politician. They were in fact determined to "get it right" the next time they employed this technique.
After reading Russ Baker's conclusions it occurred to me that that "next time" opportunity to employ an aircraft carrier in a PR stunt might be for the purpose of salvaging Dubya's father's reputation. Remember that Poppy Bush had reason for concern about his own legacy as well as Dubya. During his political heyday George H.W. Bush was not known by the "handle" or "call sign" typically assigned to a hero aviator. "Have Half George" was nowhere referred to deferentially as "Maverick," "Iceman," "Flack," or "Ace." This raised the specter of Dubya's "gift" of an aircraft carrier being part and parcel of an effort to reinvent his father George H.W. Bush, "the Wimp," as George H.W. Bush, the "hero Fighter Pilot"? About this time right wing talk radio show hosts began "mistakenly" referring to Poppy Bush as having been a carrier "fighter pilot" in World War II. The timing of the aircraft carrier commissioning event also seems to suggest such a ploy, since it had to be done before W. loses his grip on the reigns of power. It is telling that the commissioning ceremony was held prematurely, just days before Dubya leaves office, even though the ship will not be completed or deployed for several more months. Staging another aircraft carrier PR stunt of this nature seems to indicate that the gift Dubya was giving his father was not the ship itself--it was the gift of a counterfeit legacy, a makeover of his father's less than stellar image.
Contesting the Wimp Factor:
According to George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin:
George H.W. Bush detractor William Loeb (the outspoken publisher of the Manchester Union Leader in New Hampshire), hated Bush and worked doggedly for his defeat in 1980. Loeb had said about him: "hypocrite...double-standard morality, involved up to his neck in Watergate...unfit to be the Republican nominee...incompetent; liberal masquerading as a conservative; a hypocrite...a spoon-fed little rich kid who has been wet-nursed to success," In 1988 Mrs. Loeb called presidential candidate H.W. Bush "a preppy wimp, part of the self-appointed elite," and wrote: "George Bush has been Bush for 63 years. He has been Ronald Reagan's errand boy for just the last seven. Without Ronald Reagan he will surely revert to the original George Bush. Republicans should flee the presidential candidacy of George Bush as if it were the Black Plague itself." A Doonesbury comic strip follow-up asserted that Bush "had placed his manhood in a blind trust."
"Displays of this type began to inspire a more general public contempt for Bush during 1987. Bush was coming across as "deferential almost to the point of obsequiousness," "too weak, too namby-pamby." George Will, anxious to pick a winner, began to ridicule Bush as a "lapdog." The "wimp factor" was beginning to torment Bush. Old Bill Loeb was still making Bush squirm. Two veteran observers pointed out: "Reagan's own physical presence and self-confidence made Bush in contrast seem even weaker, and Bush's penchant for the prissy remark at times cast him as the Little Lord Fauntleroy of the campaign trail..." Bush said he was running a negative campaign so as not to leave the Democrats a monopoly on "the naughty stuff."
All of this culminated in the devastating Newsweek cover story of October 19, 1987, "Fighting the 'Wimp Factor." The article was more analytical than hostile, but did describe the "crippling handicap" of being seen as a "wimp." Bush had been a "vassal to Kissinger" at the United Nations and in Beijing, the article found, and now even Bush's second term Chief of Staff said of Bush, "He's emasculated by the office of vice president." To avoid appearing as a television wimp, Bush had "tried for the past 10 years to master the medium, studying it as if it were a foreign language. He has consulted voice and television coaches. He tried changing his glasses and even wearing contact lenses. [...] Bush's tight, twangy voice is a common problem. Under stress, experts explain, the vocal cords tighten and the voice is higher than normal and lacks power." According to Newsweek, 51% of Americans found that "wimp" was a "serious problem" for Bush. The magazine offered various sophomoric psychological explanations of how Bush got that way, mainly concentrating on his family upbringing. Here Bush was allegedly taught to conceal his sociopathic drives beneath a veneer of propitiation and sharing, as in his childhood nickname of "Have Half" George.
The Newsweek "wimp" cover soon had Bush chewing the carpet at the Naval Observatory. Bush's knuckle-dragging son George W. Bush called the story "a cheap shot" and added menacingly, "...I'd like to take the guy who wrote that headline out on that boat,"( i.e., the Aronow-built Fidelity in which Bush was depicted on the Newsweek cover), which sounded very much like a threat. George W. Bush also called Newsweek Washington bureau chief Evan Thomas to inform him that the Bush campaign had officially cut off all contact with Newsweek and its reporters. The decision to put Newsweek out of business was made by candidate Bush personally, and aborted a plan by Newsweek to publish a book on the 1988 campaign. The press got the message: portray Bush in a favorable light or face vindictive and discriminatory countermeasures."
George H.W. Bush - a fitting namesake?
The party line justification for the naming of our newest carrier is that George H.W. Bush deserves naming rights because he was a popular "War" President who had served as a courageous Navy torpedo bomber pilot during World War II.
But neither of these false premises holds water. Bush was not highly regarded as president - he was turned out of office after only a single term. His reasons for making war against Iraq remain controversial, as the primary beneficiaries were his political sponsors, the Saudi Royal Family and Kuwait's billionaire emir Sheik Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah. His stint as a Navy pilot is also clouded by controversy, particularly as pertains to the event about which he's often referred to as a hero, the downing of his three man crew Avenger aircraft in 1944. Eyewitness Chester Mierzejewski, a crewmember in another squadron plane that was directly in front of and had a clear view of Bush's bailout from his plane, maintained that Bush abandoned his aircrew in order to save himself. Mierzejewski, who is a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, is nonpolitical and only spoke out when he became upset that Bush was making himself out to be a hero during his presidential campaign in 1988. As documented in Russ Baker's book, Bush himself says on tape that he looked back and saw his gunner "slumped over", while on other occasions he claims not to know whether his crewmember got out of the plane or not. [vi] Bush's own contradictory claims only serve to deepen suspicions that he acted in a cowardly manner. Although the facts cannot be established for certain at this late date, it is undisputed that Bush saved himself and that both of his crewmembers perished. So whatever interpretation one chooses to accept, Bush's conduct can hardly be considered laudatory or commendable. He certainly did nothing "heroic" that would recommend him as namesake for a Navy aircraft carrier.
We do know for certain that there is a long tradition in the United States Navy. The Captain is in sole command of his ship and is personally responsible for the safety and wellbeing of its crew. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the old adage that usually comes to mind: "The Captain must go down with the ship." That is utter nonsense. What is expected and in fact required of a Captain is that he be the last living soul to depart the sinking ship. His first and foremost responsibility is to see to it that all crewmembers abandon ship--including the sailors trapped below deck, and the wounded and the infirm to the extent possible--before he even thinks about saving himself.
With the advent of the aircraft carrier, this concept of "command" responsibility carried over from ship captains to Naval pilots. The flyer in the airplane with the stick and throttle in his hands was designated "Pilot in Command" while others manning the guns, bombsights, navigation and communications gear were designated "aircrew"--they had no control over the flight of the plane and were in essence just along for the ride. As Pilot in Command, Naval Aviators are held to the same level of accountability as the Captain of a ship. In the event of damage or malfunction of the plane, the Pilot in Command's first and foremost responsibility is to see to it that his crewmembers evacuate the plane BEFORE he does. The reason for this is self evident: if the pilot bails out first, who will fly the plane during the time it takes the crewmembers to un-strap, open their hatches or canopies, and position themselves for bailout? A pilotless plane can exert g-forces making it impossible for the remaining aircrew members to escape. That is why it is absolutely imperative that the pilot bail out LAST.
When my own Navy fighter jet went out of control, the first thing that I did as Pilot in Command was to order my back-seat radar intercept officer to bail out. He ejected at over 10,000 feet in altitude, giving him ample cushion to allow for his chute deployment, seat separation, life vest and raft inflation, and leisurely descent to a controlled water landing. Struggling to regain control of the aircraft, I rode the fighter down to the very edge of the ejection envelope before bailing out myself. At about 1,200 feet, with the aircraft in a steep nose down dive, I was pushing the envelope. After ejecting I had only a half swing in my chute before hitting the water perilously close to the burning ring of fire that had only seconds before been my F-4 Phantom II fighter jet. Neither my life vest nor raft had been inflated prior to my entry into the choppy water. I relate this incident not to make myself out to be a heroic figure; rather, I am making the point that my conduct was simply SOP - Standard Operating Procedure. This is what honorable Pilots in Command are expected to do and did in fact do in every case that I know of--except that of George H.W. Bush.
A Navy pilot who panics in an emergency and saves himself at the expense of his crew would most likely have been court marshaled and dishonorably discharged from the Armed Services of the United States. But then again, your average Naval Aviator does not have a high profile advocate covering for him (nor a father who is close friends with individuals in the highest levels of government and the intelligence business). At the time of this incident, Bush's brother's father-in-law was Commander of the Pacific Fleet. As a result of this, Bush was given special treatment[vii], notwithstanding the deaths of his aircrew.
Presidential pardon --Pardon me Son
It appears that the intent of plastering George H.W. Bush's name on one of the most awe inspiring, intimidating warships in this country's arsenal and rewriting the story of his Navy service in WW-II is to convert Poppy Bush's history as a run of the mill torpedo bomber pilot into the legend of a highly acclaimed "fighter pilot." Dubya and the right wing spin-meisters have constructed a counterfeit resume that makes Dubya's father look like a cross between John Wayne and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was the same perception management technique used to describe Duby's "Mission Accomplished" performance in college study entitled The Celluloid President: Images of Presidential Leadership in Hollywood Movies. What was needed to complete this hat trick was to stage a high profile, public ceremony to publicize and create a public record of the coronation event. All that remains to be done now is to selectively steer grant funding to obsequious "historians" who agree to memorialize the contrived record by incorporating it in both text books and history books. As soon as these wheels are put in motion; voila - H.W.'s political fixers will have finally succeeded, once and for all, in torpedoing Bush's objectionable call sign - The Wimp. Although the makeover of his Father may be the final insult from a corrupt and inept Administration, it certainly explains Dubya's lack of concern over Helen Thomas' prediction that "History Cannot Save Him." Because the Decider-in-Chief has already put these legacy building subterfuges in motion, he is confident that the history of his Administration, and that of his Father, is being rewritten at this very moment in a manner that will portray the Bush Family in a favorable light.
Conclusion
My objection to the naming of our nation's newest aircraft carrier "Bush" is not intended to bring further disrepute upon George H.W. Bush's conduct as a pilot in WW-II, disparage his service record, or create another "Swift Boat Vets" smear campaign. The point of my letters to Congress is that it is unconscionable to endanger the lives of over 5,000 kids for the sake of a legacy-building exercise intended to embellish what by all available eyewitness accounts appears to have been the less than commendable conduct of Bush '41 when confronted with a pressure situation. The troubling facts make it clear that this is precisely what is at work here - Dubya is giving Daddy an image makeover as a going away present. Removing the wimp label from his Father's legacy is the real "gift" that President Bush is bestowing upon his Father -- a Presidential pardon of sorts.
True to form, the Bush family is using a position of public trust for self-aggrandizement at the expense of others. If George H.W. Bush had one iota of respect for the officers and sailors serving in the United States Navy, he would direct that his name be removed from association with
CVN-77. In fact, if he would do the right and honorable thing, instead of what is self-serving and politically expedient, people might actually stop thinking of him in terms of Wimp - even without the contrived PR schemes.
Bill White is a former Navy fighter pilot who went into business with Dubya's Air National Guard buddy Jim Bath. When White refused to participate in the cover-up of the Bush family's secret business dealings with the Saudi BinLaden family he was threatened with, and endured, personal attacks staged by Bush family lawyers, prosecutors and judges in Harris County, Texas. Concerned former military personnel, organizations and readers concerned about the preservation of our Constitutional Republic....
[i] Helen Thomas, History Cannot Save Him,The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11Jan09
[ii] Deb Riechmann, Gift fit for an ex-president, The Associated Press, 11Jan09
[iii] Russ Baker, Family of Secrets, Dec08, P383
[iv] Voorhees, Matthew, PhD. The Celluloid President: Images of Presidential Leadership in Hollywood Movies, Department of Politics, Whitman College, Mar06, P2
[v] Ken Guggenheim, Byrd Rips Bush's Aircraft Carrier Use, Associated Press, 6May03
[vi] Russ Baker, Family of Secrets, Dec08, P20
[vii] Russ Baker, Family of Secrets, Dec08, background research
1/17/2009
James Jesus ANGELTON must be turning... and churning in his grave....looking at the Nexus CIA2/MOSSAD.
-
"TO SEE WHAT IS IN FRONT OF ONE'S NOSE
REQUIRES A CONSTANT STRUGGLE."
-- George Orwell, 1946
REQUIRES A CONSTANT STRUGGLE."
-- George Orwell, 1946
James Jesus ANGELTON must be turning... and churning in his grave....looking at the Nexus CIA2/MOSSAD.
- Israel "and" America....is a covert paradigm...used by the power behind the power in USA to steamroll US politics into complete submission to the Wyoming boys...the CFR etc.,.the so-called ISRAEL's influential lobby....is a myth propagated by this occult power behind the power....because it is a very handy and a "cheap" way ...of controlling both houses of congress ...without ever disclosing any of the rogue intelligence and covert...extra-judicial operations...and all policies....in USA and the world for that matter... and the so-called Israeli lobby, with all of its spectacular ramifications worldwide is completely and utterly subservient to this power behind the power in USA, they are just a front and a cover...for the real power behind all powers in USA, and its criminal enterprise, the newfound Siamese twins of CIA2/MOSSAD, and the White House Murder Machinations INC, which is globalized in nature since 1994/95....
George Washington must be truning in his grave too....
Observe good faith and justice towards all nations...;
cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and mo
rality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy
does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free,
enlightened, and at no distant period a great nation, to
give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example
of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benev
olence. Who can doubt that in the course of time and
things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any
temporary advantages, which might be lost by a steady
adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not con
nected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue?
The experiment, at least, is recommended by every senti
ment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered
impossible by its vices?
In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essen
tial than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against
particular nations, and passionate attachments for others,
should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and
amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The
nation which indulges towards another an habitual
hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave.
It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of
which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its
interest. Antipathy in one nation against another dis
poses each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay
hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and
intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of dis
pute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, enven
omed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by
ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the gov
ernment, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The
government sometimes participates in the national pro
pensity, and adopts through passion what reason would
reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the na
tion subservient to projects of hostility instigated by
pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives.
The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations
has been the victim.
So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for
another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the
favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary
common interest in cases where no real common interest
exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other,
betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels
and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or
justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite
nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly
to injure the nation making the concessions, by unneces
sarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and
by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate,
in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld.
And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens
(who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility
to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country,
without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding
with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a
commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable
zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of
ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways
such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly
enlightened*and independent patriot. How many oppor
tunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions,
to practise the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion,
to influence or awe the public councils! Such an attach
ment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful
nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I con
jure you to believe me, fellow-citizens), the jealousy of
a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history
and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the
most baneful foes of republican government. But that
jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes
the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, in
stead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for
one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause
those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side,
and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on
the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of
the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious;
while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confi
dence of the people, to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign
nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have
with them as little political connection as possible. So
far as we have already formed engagements, let them be
fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.
Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have
none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be en
gaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are
essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it
must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial
ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordi
nary combinations and collisions of her friendships or
enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables
us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people,
under an efficient government, the period is not far off
when we may defy material injury from external annoy
ance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause
the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, to be
scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under
the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not
lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may
choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice,
shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation?
Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why,
by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of
Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of
European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances
with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean,
as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be under
stood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing en
gagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public
than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best
policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be
observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it
is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable es
tablishments, on a respectable defensive posture, we may
safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary
emergencies.
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are rec
ommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even
our commercial policy should hold an equal and impar
tial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors
or preferences; consulting the natural course of things;
diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of
commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with powers
so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to de
fine the rights of our merchants, and to enable the gov
ernment to support them, conventipnal rules of inter
course, the best that present circumstances and mutual
opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from
time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and cir
cumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view, that
it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors
from another; that it must pay with a portion of its
independence for whatever it may accept under that char
acter; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in
the condition of having given equivalents for nominal
favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for
not giving more. There can be no greater error than to
expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation.
It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a
just pride ought to discard.
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of
an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will
make the strong and lasting impression I could wish;
that they will control the usual current of the passions,
or prevent our nation from running the course which has
hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may
even flatter myself that they may be productive of some
partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now
and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to
warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard
against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope
will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your wel
fare, by which they have been dictated.
How far in the discharge of my official duties I have
been guided by the principles which have been delineated,
the public records and other evidences of my conduct
must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the
assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least
believed myself to be guided by them.
In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my
proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index of
my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that
of your Representatives in both Houses of Congress, the
spirit of that measure has continually governed me, un
influenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.
After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best
lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our coun
try, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right
to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a
neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far
as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with modera
tion, perseverance and firmness.
The considerations which respect the right to hold this
conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail.
I will only observe, that, according to my understanding
of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by
any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted
by all.
The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred,
without anything more, from the obligation which jus
tice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in
which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations
of peace and amity towards other nations.
The inducements of interest for observing that conduct
will best be referred to your own reflections and expe
rience. With me a predominant motive has been to en
deavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature
its yet recent institutions, and to progress without inter
ruption to that degree of strength and consistency which
is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command
of its own fortunes.
Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administra
tion, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am never
theless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable
that, I may have committed many errors. Whatever they
may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or
mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also
carry with me the hope that my country will never cease
to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty-five
years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright
zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned
to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.
Relying on its kindness ir this as in other things, and
actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so nat
ural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself
and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate
with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promise
myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of
partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign
influence of good laws under a free government, the ever
favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I
trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and mo
rality enjoin this conduct; and can it be, that good policy
does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free,
enlightened, and at no distant period a great nation, to
give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example
of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benev
olence. Who can doubt that in the course of time and
things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any
temporary advantages, which might be lost by a steady
adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not con
nected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue?
The experiment, at least, is recommended by every senti
ment which ennobles human nature. Alas! is it rendered
impossible by its vices?
In the execution of such a plan, nothing is more essen
tial than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against
particular nations, and passionate attachments for others,
should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and
amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The
nation which indulges towards another an habitual
hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave.
It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of
which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its
interest. Antipathy in one nation against another dis
poses each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay
hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and
intractable when accidental or trifling occasions of dis
pute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, enven
omed, and bloody contests. The nation, prompted by
ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the gov
ernment, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The
government sometimes participates in the national pro
pensity, and adopts through passion what reason would
reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the na
tion subservient to projects of hostility instigated by
pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives.
The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of nations
has been the victim.
So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for
another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the
favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary
common interest in cases where no real common interest
exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other,
betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels
and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or
justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite
nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly
to injure the nation making the concessions, by unneces
sarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and
by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate,
in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld.
And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens
(who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility
to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country,
without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding
with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a
commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable
zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of
ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways
such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly
enlightened*and independent patriot. How many oppor
tunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions,
to practise the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion,
to influence or awe the public councils! Such an attach
ment of a small or weak, towards a great and powerful
nation, dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I con
jure you to believe me, fellow-citizens), the jealousy of
a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history
and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the
most baneful foes of republican government. But that
jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes
the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, in
stead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for
one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause
those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side,
and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on
the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of
the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious;
while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confi
dence of the people, to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign
nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have
with them as little political connection as possible. So
far as we have already formed engagements, let them be
fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.
Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have
none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be en
gaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are
essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it
must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial
ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordi
nary combinations and collisions of her friendships or
enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables
us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people,
under an efficient government, the period is not far off
when we may defy material injury from external annoy
ance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause
the neutrality, we may at any time resolve upon, to be
scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under
the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not
lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may
choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice,
shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation?
Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why,
by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of
Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of
European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances
with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean,
as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be under
stood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing en
gagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public
than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best
policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be
observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it
is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves, by suitable es
tablishments, on a respectable defensive posture, we may
safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary
emergencies.
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are rec
ommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even
our commercial policy should hold an equal and impar
tial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors
or preferences; consulting the natural course of things;
diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of
commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing with powers
so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to de
fine the rights of our merchants, and to enable the gov
ernment to support them, conventipnal rules of inter
course, the best that present circumstances and mutual
opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from
time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and cir
cumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view, that
it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors
from another; that it must pay with a portion of its
independence for whatever it may accept under that char
acter; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in
the condition of having given equivalents for nominal
favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for
not giving more. There can be no greater error than to
expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation.
It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a
just pride ought to discard.
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of
an old and affectionate friend, I dare not hope they will
make the strong and lasting impression I could wish;
that they will control the usual current of the passions,
or prevent our nation from running the course which has
hitherto marked the destiny of nations. But, if I may
even flatter myself that they may be productive of some
partial benefit, some occasional good; that they may now
and then recur to moderate the fury of party spirit, to
warn against the mischiefs of foreign intrigue, to guard
against the impostures of pretended patriotism; this hope
will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your wel
fare, by which they have been dictated.
How far in the discharge of my official duties I have
been guided by the principles which have been delineated,
the public records and other evidences of my conduct
must witness to you and to the world. To myself, the
assurance of my own conscience is, that I have at least
believed myself to be guided by them.
In relation to the still subsisting war in Europe, my
proclamation of the 22d of April, 1793, is the index of
my plan. Sanctioned by your approving voice, and by that
of your Representatives in both Houses of Congress, the
spirit of that measure has continually governed me, un
influenced by any attempts to deter or divert me from it.
After deliberate examination, with the aid of the best
lights I could obtain, I was well satisfied that our coun
try, under all the circumstances of the case, had a right
to take, and was bound in duty and interest to take, a
neutral position. Having taken it, I determined, as far
as should depend upon me, to maintain it, with modera
tion, perseverance and firmness.
The considerations which respect the right to hold this
conduct, it is not necessary on this occasion to detail.
I will only observe, that, according to my understanding
of the matter, that right, so far from being denied by
any of the belligerent powers, has been virtually admitted
by all.
The duty of holding a neutral conduct may be inferred,
without anything more, from the obligation which jus
tice and humanity impose on every nation, in cases in
which it is free to act, to maintain inviolate the relations
of peace and amity towards other nations.
The inducements of interest for observing that conduct
will best be referred to your own reflections and expe
rience. With me a predominant motive has been to en
deavor to gain time to our country to settle and mature
its yet recent institutions, and to progress without inter
ruption to that degree of strength and consistency which
is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command
of its own fortunes.
Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administra
tion, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am never
theless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable
that, I may have committed many errors. Whatever they
may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or
mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also
carry with me the hope that my country will never cease
to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty-five
years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright
zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned
to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.
Relying on its kindness ir this as in other things, and
actuated by that fervent love towards it, which is so nat
ural to a man who views in it the native soil of himself
and his progenitors for several generations, I anticipate
with pleasing expectation that retreat, in which I promise
myself to realize, without alloy, the sweet enjoyment of
partaking, in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign
influence of good laws under a free government, the ever
favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I
trust, of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
1/04/2009
The Israeli attack on Hamas forces in Gaza on December 27th, hit fifty targets within 220 seconds.
The Israeli attack on Hamas forces in Gaza on December 27th, hit fifty targets within 220 seconds..., and as usual, the Palestinians have only themselves to blame..., because ALL informants among them working for the Israelis are PALESTINIANS, AND THEY ARE LEGIONS...LITERALLY SPEAKING.
Its about time they sent in the troops in the 2nd phase of cast lead. Don't give Hamas the victory of civilian casualties, because I cant stand to see replays of those vintage style ambulances over and over!Its high time they realize the air force can't win every single strategic victory.Get it done...Logic would assume so, unless PETA was in charge of the news media and the future US government....?
If you don't have the guts to kill the animal you've wounded and keep shooting him everywhere except on his head, to "persuade" him to leave you alone, there's something wrong with you, not with the animal.
The Israeli attack on Hamas forces in Gaza on December 27th, hit fifty targets within 220 seconds. The fifty Israeli aircraft assembled off the coast, and delivered a well rehearsed attack designed to take out Hamas targets before key commanders could get away. Israeli intelligence had discovered Hamas plans for such an Israeli attack, which involved key Hamas personnel immediately dispersing to hiding places. These included hospitals, where the Hamas men would dress in staff uniforms and blend in. Other safe havens included nursery schools, and other places where the Hamas officials would be surrounded by lots of civilians at all times. Thus the tight timing for the Israeli attack, intended to catch the key Hamas personnel before they could disperse.
Hamas knew that the Israelis have an informant network in Gaza. The key to Israeli success in dealing with Palestinian terrorists has always been an informant network within the Palestinian community. Many of these Palestinian informants are doing it for the money. Israelis pay for information. They also use other inducements (help with the bureaucracy, medical care, etc). If that fails, they use blackmail and threats. Palestinian terrorist organizations have been unsuccessful in their attempts to shut down the informant networks, and many innocent Palestinians have died simply because they were falsely accused of being informants.
In addition, the Israelis gain a lot of information via electronic intelligence work and UAVs that are constantly in the air over Gaza. Israel seeks to make the terrorists think that it's the gadgets, not informants, gathering the information. To the Israelis, inducing paranoia among the Palestinians is seen as a successful weapon. All this has helped keep the terrorists out of Israel for nearly five years now, something no one thought was possible.
The Israelis also have hundreds of police and military operatives who can pass as Arabs (their families came from Arab countries shortly after Israel was founded in 1947). These Israelis speak fluent Arabic (with a Palestinian accent), in addition to their Arab appearance. These agents dress as Palestinians and enter Palestinian areas to recruit and run Palestinian informants. At least in the West Bank. In Gaza, the Israelis use pro-Fatah Palestinians. At least a third of the Gaza population is still pro-Fatah, and continued Hamas pressure has not changed that.
The Israelis also make use of the phone system to avoid civilian casualties. For example, the bombing campaign after the initial attack was directed mostly at the thousands of rockets Hamas had stockpiled. Most of these were stored in civilian housing. There, some homes would have a basement excavated, to provide more space for rockets. Israeli intelligence is still identifying these storage locations. When one is found, the Israelis will phone the home just before the attack and tell the civilians they have a few minutes to get out before the place blows up. In at least one case, the civilians were defiant, and went to the roof, believing that the Israelis would not bomb with women and children in plain sight. In response, the Israeli fighter came in low and fired some 20mm cannon shells right next to the building. The panicked civilians fled the building and the place blew up shortly thereafter....
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