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4/4/2003



Code Red Would Trigger a Virtual Lockdown :.

Planes could be grounded, trains could stop running, and bridges and tunnels could be closed. U.S. borders might be sealed off, and roadblocks might be set up on interstates and other major highways.

The United States is prepared to go into lockdown mode if the government should raise the nation's terror alert to Code Red, the highest threat level for terrorism. Code Red means there is a severe risk of terrorist attack, or that an attack is imminent or may already be under way.





U.S. Now in Possession of "Superbase" :.

The U.S. now controls a strategic jumping-off point to the rest of the region. I love how they mention how useful the long runways will be for bringing in humanitarian aid. HA. This is the gateway to the rest of what's left to conquer beyond Iraq. All your base Superbase are belong to us U.S.:

For the U.S.-led forces on Baghdad's doorstep, Saddam International Airport is potentially a massive military base for bringing in weapons and troops and channeling aid to the Iraqi people.

It also has a second 8,000-foot runway, once used by Iraqi fighter jets, that could help speed the flying in of supplies.


More: What's Next? U.S. Set Sights on Iran, North Korea :.

Jeeeez! It's coming fast and furious now. I know I've been talking about this for months, but as it starts to actually unfold, I have to admit, I'm afraid that we're witnessing the opening shots of World War III. If this thing spreads beyond Iraq, put a fork in it, ladies and gentlemen, it's done:

The Bush administration has pledged to end the nuclear weapons programs in Iran and North Korea after concluding its campaign against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.

Administration officials said the White House sees the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea as the next imminent threats.

"In the aftermath of Iraq, dealing with the Iranian nuclear weapons program will be of equal importance as dealing with the North Korean nuclear weapons program," Assistant Secretary of State John Bolton said. "This is going to be a substantial challenge."


More: Ex-CIA Director: U.S. Faces 'World War IV :.

Well, it's World War IV, not III. World War III was the Cold War:

Former CIA Director James Woolsey said Wednesday the United States is engaged in World War IV, and that it could continue for years.

In the address to a group of college students, Woolsey described the Cold War as the third world war and said "This fourth world war, I think, will last considerably longer than either World Wars I or II did for us. Hopefully not the full four-plus decades of the Cold War."


Research Credit: AL





Russian Navy Posturing Around Events in Iraq :.

Russia is likely to send its navy to the Arabian Sea near the Gulf region where the United States is leading a war against Iraq, which Moscow had fought to avert, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported Wednesday.


4/3/2003



Watch Syria :.

I hate to say I told you so:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday he believed Syria had ignored U.S. warnings and was still providing supplies to Iraq.

"We have seen that Syria is continuing to conduct itself the way it was prior to the time I said what I said," Rumsfeld told a news conference.





Watch Iran :.

I hate to say I told you so:

Iran's senior leadership decided last month to send irregular paramilitary units across their border with Iraq to harass American soldiers once Saddam Hussein's regime fell, according to U.S. intelligence reports.

On March 24, a U.S. intelligence agency issued a "spot report" to a wide range of senior U.S. officials detailing conversations in a meeting of the Islamic Republic's top leadership in the equivalent of the U.S. National Security Council. The council, which is working on Iran's post-conflict strategy, includes Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei.

"This confirmed all of our suspicions that the Iranians are not our friends and not for peace in the region. They are in fact for a piece of the region," one U.S. intelligence official told United Press International.


I have a couple of questions: Is the U.S. for peace in the region, or a piece of the region? If an unhinged dry drunk like George W Bush said you were a part of n Axis of Evil, and then unleashed an unprovoked invasion of your neighbor, what would you do? Hmmm. If I was running Iran, I'd probably seek nuclear weapons immediately.





Maniacs in Pentagon and Their Conflicts of Interest :.

Former Pentagon assistant secretary Richard Perle has been assailed for possible conflicts between his business interests and chairmanship of a Pentagon advisory board, but other panel members have potential conflicts, too.

Mr. Perle has been criticized in recent days following disclosure that he sought defense-related consulting business while heading the Defense Policy Board, which advises the defense secretary on a range of policy and strategic issues. But business interests of at least nine of his colleagues also overlap with their board service.

Former Central Intelligence Agency chief James Woolsey is a senior executive at consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., which received $688 million in Pentagon contracts in 2002. He also is one of three principals in a venture-capital firm that has been soliciting investment in homeland-security-related firms. Mr. Woolsey insists none of the companies he is affiliated with has ever been discussed at a board meeting, and that he does no lobbying. He said he was unaware of Mr. Perle's personal financial interests and wouldn't comment on them.

Another panel member, retired Adm. David Jeremiah, sits on boards -- one of them advisory -- of five corporations that received more than $10 billion in Pentagon contracts in 2002, according to a forthcoming report from the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington watchdog group. Retired Air Force Gen. Ronald Fogleman sits on the board of five defense firms that received more than a billion dollars in defense contracts in 2002. Adm. Jeremiah and Gen. Fogleman didn't return calls requesting comment.





Welcome to the Ari Fleischer Show

The propaganda is getting shrill. It sounds something like this: Our precious troops. Everyone cares so much about the troops. We love our troops! Look! We undertake high risk missions with combined special forces and diversionary tactics to save our troops! Don't you want to join up!? Come on down to the recruiter's office. Look. It's fun. See! If you get into trouble while you're having all that fun killin' and runnin' around in the Army of One, people who care about you will save your ass and give you some Freedom Fries.

I usually make a point of NOT watching Ari Fleischer's bullshit sessions, but I happened to catch yesterday's. Oh my. Who is more deserving of a public face slapping, Ari Fleischer, or the timid whores who parrot his pap for newspapers, magazines and television?

Take a look at what Chief Propagandist, Ari Fleischer had to say about the rescue of U.S. Army PFC, Jessica Lynch:

It's exactly what the military is so good at. And this is why the President expresses gratitude to the members of the Armed Forces who carried out this rescue raid. Rescuing a POW is the heart and soul of America's military. That shows how much they care about all of those who serve our country, to make certain that no one is left behind.

Well, Ari, if rescuing POWs is the heart and soul of America's military, why is this the first time an organized rescue of a POW has been attempted since World War II?

The raid this week that freed Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch from an Iraqi hospital after 10 days of captivity may be the first successful planned raid by U.S. forces to free an American prisoner of war since World War II, authorities on POWs and military history said.

U.S. commandos who swoop in during the dead of night to pluck an American POW from behind enemy lines and then fly away to safety are a staple of pulp fiction and "Rambo" movies, but it rarely happens like that in real life.


Additionally, Ari, since you assure us that no one is ever left behind, do you have any comments on the fate of Scott Speicher?

Navy flier Scott Speicher, whose plane was shot down on the first night of the first Gulf War, is still alive in Iraq, Sen. Bill Nelson said Monday.

Citing classified intelligence reports, Nelson said an unidentified Iraqi defector has told American investigators that Speicher was driven from his crash site to a point near an Iraqi hospital. Speicher, a captain from Jacksonville, Fla., was first classified as killed in action, then missing, and has lately been reclassified as a prisoner of war, Nelson said.

"It is almost inexcusable, the mistakes that our Defense Department made when he was shot down," Nelson said at a meeting with Democratic state legislators.


Oh yes, Mr. Fleischer, everyone cares so much about our troops. When the beloved troops came home from the first Persian Gulf War, with debilitating and deadly conditions caused by chemical, biological and depleted urnaium weapons, the Department of Defense told them they were imaging things. "Suck it up, soldier! We care so much about you!" Well, as it turns out, 26% of our beloved troops from that war are now officially classified as disabled:

One in four of U.S. service personnel who participated in the nine-month Operation Desert Storm is now officially classified as "disabled," according to Department of Veterans Affairs figures obtained by FedBuzz.

The percentage of Gulf War veterans granted disabled status -- 26 percent -- is now higher than for any modern U.S. combat experience and is two and one half times the disability rate from the 10-year-long Vietnam War, according to VA sources.


How much does the military care about Ronda Wilson, and others who were transformed into invalids from the military's anthrax vaccinations?

Wilson, who four years ago was in superb health and in charge of one of the most potent weapons in the US armoury, can barely drive a car. She has lost a third of her body weight and suffers such agonising cramps every day that she is forced to curl up in a foetal position for hours at a time. She has stiff joints, chronic fatigue, anaemia, difficulty with simple sums, memory loss, blackouts, permanent abdominal pain and, according to her medical report, "loss of cognitive function".

Oh yeah, Wilson and others like her have been kicked out of the Army and left to rot. Can you feel the level of concern for our troops?

Once they're down, kick 'em, but wave flags to show you care:

"Jingoism and flag waving isn't my idea of patriotism. 'Support the Troops' rings hollow when compared to a $14.6 billion budget cut in veterans programs," Curmano said. "Health care, education, disability and, ironically, burial payments are being cut at a time when we are not just producing more vets but are producing more disabled vets."

Now that I've shown how much everyone "cares" about members of the U.S. military, I hope you can see the point of Ari Fleischer's words from yesterday. The men and women of the U.S. military are superfluous cannon fodder; they are totally expendable. Why? Because a new crop of poor and ignorant 18-year-olds is born every day. And in case you haven't noticed: It's harvest time.





Jessica Lynch: A 19-Year-Old Girl in Iraq :.

Take a good long look at what we have become. Jessica Lynch wanted to become a teacher, but the town she's from in West Virginia is so economically depressed, she thought the only way out was with the U.S. military. The Army of One: Yes, where you too can become a killer and a rape and torture victim all at once! Of course, nobody is saying she was raped and tortured, but what kind of treatment do you think the Iraqis would give the female members of the invading military forces? If this is such an American triumph, as the media is trying to spin it, why do I feel sick to my stomach?

Pfc. Jessica Lynch, rescued Tuesday from an Iraqi hospital, fought fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers after Iraqi forces ambushed the Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition, U.S. officials said yesterday.

Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk, continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in fighting March 23, one official said. The ambush took place after a 507th convoy, supporting the advancing 3rd Infantry Division, took a wrong turn near the southern city of Nasiriyah.

"She was fighting to the death," the official said. "She did not want to be taken alive."


More: Parents Deny She was Shot, Stabbed :.

The father of rescued POW Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch said Thursday she was in great spirits following her first surgery and said she had not been shot or stabbed during her ordeal.

"We have heard and seen reports that she had multiple gunshot wounds and a knife stabbing. The doctor has not seen any of this," Gregory Lynch Sr. said. "There's no entry (wounds) whatsoever."





Oregon Law Would Jail War Protesters as Terrorists :.

An Oregon anti-terrorism bill would jail street-blocking protesters for at least 25 years in a thinly veiled effort to discourage anti-war demonstrations, critics say.

The bill has met strong opposition but lawmakers still expect a debate on the definition of terrorism and the value of free speech before a vote by the state senate judiciary committee, whose Chairman, Republican Senator John Minnis, wrote the proposed legislation.

Dubbed Senate Bill 742, it identifies a terrorist as a person who "plans or participates in an act that is intended, by at least one of its participants, to disrupt" business, transportation, schools, government, or free assembly.


4/2/2003



Liberation?















There Were Dozens of Smashed Corpses :.

The U.S. also dropped cluster bombs on the city. The unexploded bomblets resemble the food packets that have been handed out elsewhere:

In the farming town of Hilla south of the capital, the local hospital director said 33 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in a bombing raid on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross described the "horror" at the hospital and said: "There were dozens of smashed corpses."

An AFP reporter saw what appeared to be the mini-weapons from cluster bombs, equipped with small parachutes, covering a large area in the town, which lies 80 kilometres south of Baghdad.





Shorting the Dow

I just tried to short the Dow 30 using the Diamond ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds). I logged into my trading account and quickly pulled the trigger. The machine said, "You cannot short sell DIA today."

"WHAT THE #@*%?"

I immediately called my brokerage and spoke with a trader. He checked it out. Turns out, the firm ran out of shares to lend to people to sell short.

I said, "You're telling me that I can't short this pig because so many other traders have already shorted it!?"

"That is correct, sir."

BAAA HAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Man, that's what I call confidence in this bullcrap, whipsaw, fakeout rally!





Baghdad: Deadly Market Blast Caused by Raytheon Weapon :.

The explosion in a Baghdad market which killed more than 60 people last Friday was indeed caused by a cruise missile and not an Iraqi anti-aircraft rocket as the US has suggested.

A metal fragment found at the scene by British journalist Robert Fisk carried various markings, including "MFR 96214 09". This, our reader pointed out in an email, is a manufacturer's identification number known as a "cage code".

Cage codes can be looked up on the internet (www.gidm.dlis.dla.mil), and keying in the number 96214 traces the fragment back to a plant in McKinney, Texas, owned by the Raytheon Company.


More: Tomahawk Missile Production Speeding Up :.

Make sure you pay your taxes on time:

Defense contractor Raytheon Corp. said it is talking with the Navy about stepping up production of a new Tomahawk cruise missile as the war in Iraq depletes supplies of the current model.

Raytheon could accelerate production of the Tactical Tomahawks from 38 to 50 per month if funding becomes available, spokeswoman Jennifer Allen said Wednesday.

The Navy has said it plans to spend as much as $2 billion for 1,353 of the weapons, which are scheduled to become operational in the summer of 2004. That date could be brought forward.





Straw: UK Will Not Attack Syria or Iran :.

You Brits should have thought twice before making a deal with the devil:

Britain would have "nothing whatever" to do with military action against Syria or Iran, the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, signalled today.

Mr Straw's comments will be seen as an attempt to ensure that speculation about an Anglo-American attack on the two countries is quashed ahead of his meeting with EU foreign ministers tomorrow.

The US president, George Bush, has previously identified Iran as part of the so-called "axis of evil", while America's defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, recently accused Syria of supplying military equipment to Iraq and threatened to hold it to account for its actions.


4/1/2003



Russian Military Intelligence Reports on Iraq War? :.

Over pitchers of beer and a discussion on the world situation, Cryptogon reader and contributor DG told me about a site called www.aeronautics.ru. If the information presented on this site is real, something extremely weird is happening. And if I think it's weird, believe me, it's weird.

The site is run by a Russian guy who goes by the alias Venik. He is posting information about the war in Iraq that he claims is originating from inside Russian Military Intelligence (Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye, or GRU). Before even reading any of the messages, I thought to myself, "Why would the GRU be feeding this guy information that could compromise their sources and methods?" It didn't seem to make much sense to me.

I read a section on Venik's site called Answering Some Questions. Apparently, I wasn't the only reader wondering about the potential motivation of the GRU. Venik writes:

Naturally, most people are wondering where these Russian military intelligence do reports come from and why does the GRU allow such materials to be published. My answer to both questions is: I don't know. [sic]

Ok, fine. I read all of the reports. In my guesstimation, I would have to say that I don't buy it, not all of it, anyway. Why? The materials make constant references to electronic interceptions of U.S. military communications traffic. In the March 22, 2003 update, the story indicates that communications from General Franks himself were intercepted. I am not, by any means, an expert in military communication systems, but a few common sense points should be mentioned.

The U.S. military has access to THE most sophisticated and secure communications systems on the planet. First of all, these systems use several methods to reduce potentially compromising emanations. Spread spectrum, line of site, and satellite links make the task of simply gathering the signals difficult to begin with. Now, take a look at this page, which catalogs many military grade communications systems. Notice how they make a point of mentioning communications security (COMSEC) and encryption capabilities. And this is just some of the stuff that is publicly mentioned. Who knows what the U.S. is actually using out there???

So, if we are to believe Venik's source, we would have to assume that the Russian signals intelligence crews are deployed all over Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar, and in sufficient numbers to be able to gather very elusive communications data. And then we have to assume that they are routinely capable of breaking whatever encryption systems are being employed to secure to the communications.

Forget about trying to get at potential reasons as to why GRU would be releasing this information publicly. I think the question of "Could they even do it?" is simply too much to overcome in this case.

So, if I don't think it's real, why post it? Well, I thought the material was very interesting, regardless of the origin. And I suppose there is a small chance that it could be real.

I know of a particular Cryptogon reader who used to design military communication systems. If that someone (you know who you are) would like to make a few comments on the feasibility of intercepting and decrypting both strategic and tactical U.S. military communications, I'm sure others would be interested in your insights. If doing so violates any of your security obligations, don't even bother mentioning this. I'll get the point by your silence.

In addition to the person I mentioned above, the visitor/s from Harris Corporation might have some interesting information to contribute on this subject.

Update: Feasibility of Intercepting U.S. Military Communications

I just got word from someone I know who has expert knowledge of the systems in question. That person said that I was correct in my analysis. There is no way that the GRU could be doing what is described in Venik's reports.


3/31/2003



Free Trade?

Notice the stock ticker in the background and the cop's ungloved trigger finger resting on the HK MP5 sub machine gun. This picture sums up a great deal of the overt hypocrisy that has become an integral part of life in America since 9/11. Of course, the true ugliness, the system all of us built with our decades of apathy and sloth, is only now beginning to unfurl. Show your national ID card when you supersize the Freedom Fries and receive a free American flag armband! You get the idea:






U.S. Threatens Syria :.

Yawn... If you have been reading this site, you already knew that Iraq was just the beginning:

Secretary of State Colin Powell last night issued a new warning to Syria to end its support for "the dying regime of Saddam Hussein" in next-door Iraq, or face the consequences.

Powell's warning came two days after Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld threatened to hold Syria accountable for "hostile acts" in allowing military gear to be shipped to Iraq.

"Syria can continue direct support for terrorist groups and the dying regime of Saddam Hussein or it can embark on a different and more hopeful course," Powell told the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC. "Syria has the responsibility for its choices and for the consequences."






Peter Arnett Fails to Maintain Appearances :.

NBC fired journalist Peter Arnett on Monday, saying it was wrong for him to give an interview with state-run Iraqi TV in which he said the American-led coalition's initial plan for the war had failed because of Iraq's resistance. Arnett called the interview a "misjudgment" and apologized.

Arnett, on NBC's "Today" show on Monday, said he was sorry for his statement but added "I said over the weekend what we all know about the war."


Remember what I said to the journalist who was writing the story about Chris Albritton:

Mainstream journalists, generally, will not challenge the consensus. Try it, and you'll see what happens....You know that you would be fired/blacklisted if you begin to touch on anything substantive; anything that begins to expose the underlying reasons of why things continue to get worse, who is responsible and what can be done to ameliorate the situation. Corporate media has absolutely no reason to ask the hard questions. To do so would be suicidal---and never mind the political dislocations... Nope, roll tape of 9/11, Support Our Troops and Supersize the Freedom Fries! Panem et circenses �ber alles!

In Other News: Appellate Court Rules Media Can Legally Lie :.

On February 14, a Florida Appeals court ruled there is absolutely nothing illegal about lying, concealing or distorting information by a major press organization. The court reversed the $425,000 jury verdict in favor of journalist Jane Akre who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information. The ruling basically declares it is technically not against any law, rule, or regulation to deliberately lie or distort the news on a television broadcast.

Research Credit: CI




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