Wednesday 14 July 2010
Are there more Raoul Moats out there?
From the amount of Facebook pages that went up. And the people who were on TV saying they understood Moat it would seem the potential for it is very real. Maybe this is something the police should bear in mind in the future.Today the police officer who was shot so cold bloodedly by Moat while he sat in his patrol car was on TV describing the events of the night. How he survived it is a miracle.The cops attitude seemed very sanguine, but I think in the days and weeks to come he will become very depressed. losing his eyesight will have terrible consequences in the weeks to come.
It is now obvious Moat had a grudge against the police, for whatever reasons right or wrong.And it's also clear that so do a lot of other people,ordinary citizens not gangsters like Moat.Some say Moat wasn't a thug and the media are blackening his name. A lot of the population think the mainstream media are the tools of the state. The government is not trusted. The bankers are thieves. So there are many reasons why the public and society are disintegrating. Moat as the anti hero was inevitable and he is not going to go away even though he is dead. Someone sometime will copy him. Maybe not in the same way but the result will be the same.This has always been the way in the past.Opinion is divided.And anyone saying Moat is a killer is classed as a spook working for the state.The government today called for the closing down of Facebook pages hero worshiping Moat. That would only prove beyond a doubt the state are the cops and make Moat more popular than ever,but then it will all go under ground.remember politicians never understand their electorate.
But one thing I would do if I was a cop is be more respectful to the public,regardless of who they are.You never know the next Raoul Moat could be a suicide bomber.
It is now obvious Moat had a grudge against the police, for whatever reasons right or wrong.And it's also clear that so do a lot of other people,ordinary citizens not gangsters like Moat.Some say Moat wasn't a thug and the media are blackening his name. A lot of the population think the mainstream media are the tools of the state. The government is not trusted. The bankers are thieves. So there are many reasons why the public and society are disintegrating. Moat as the anti hero was inevitable and he is not going to go away even though he is dead. Someone sometime will copy him. Maybe not in the same way but the result will be the same.This has always been the way in the past.Opinion is divided.And anyone saying Moat is a killer is classed as a spook working for the state.The government today called for the closing down of Facebook pages hero worshiping Moat. That would only prove beyond a doubt the state are the cops and make Moat more popular than ever,but then it will all go under ground.remember politicians never understand their electorate.
But one thing I would do if I was a cop is be more respectful to the public,regardless of who they are.You never know the next Raoul Moat could be a suicide bomber.
Tuesday 13 July 2010
EDL Team Threatened With Arrest!
As a supporter of the EDL I am re-posting a story from there site here.
So where do we begin in this sorry political saga?
Ok we have a dedicated Police Liaison Team who have worked tirelessly with the Police to ensure we can facilitate a peaceful protest in Dudley. Many peoples of varying race, creeds, colours and religions are voicing their concerns about the growing problems of Islamist influence in the Black Country. Local people have been ignored for far too long, councillors are overruled in the High Court, and once again Islamist intimidation is having a profound effect on local politics and policing.
It was only a couple of days ago that our Police Liaison Team had a meet with West Midlands Police to finalise any outstanding details regarding the Dudley protest. Prior to this we had a meet with them and Kirk Dawes QPM, (Kirk was a very fair man and we appreciated his constructive input) who is the managing director of the “centre for conflict”. At this point we would like to remind our members, the general public and West Midlands Police themselves that we had ALL arrangements dealt with over two weeks before the Newcastle demo date with Northumbria Police, the Newcastle demo passed off peacefully with ZERO arrests as a result of dedicated liaison and co-operation with the local Police Force, we can’t thank Northumbria Police enough for helping us facilitate a wonderful peaceful protest. It just goes to show that even Chief Superintendent Graham Smith recognised this who said, and i quote......
“Thank you also to the organisers of all these events for their co-operation. We have worked closely with them to minimise disruption to the city”
Isn’t that proof that we can, and indeed do protest peacefully with the full co-operation and help of local Police Authorities?
Well not with West Midlands Police it would seem!
Even though previous meets were positive with other members of the Police Force one character seemed doggedly determined to rubbish any suggestions put to him, that man is Chief Supt Tom Coughlan, the man was more concerned with our members holding up broomsticks with banners attached, he wanted us to use bamboo instead, so obviously we pointed out to him that bamboo would not carry the weight of our banners anyway, so we offered to cushion the wood with pipe lagging if needed, his response was that we could take it off therefore it could be used as a weapon. Wait a minute, didn’t “Muslims Against The Crusades” actually have flags and banners with wood attached? So its ok for a fascist organisation (that is another incarnation of Al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK) like theirs to hold banners supported by wooden broomsticks but not the English Defence League?
The duplicity in the application of law can be seen from many angles, one rule for them, and one rule for us. When the Dudley two were arrested Muslims were threatening and calling for violence, one Muslim male was arrested and then a senior member of the Dudley Muslim community actually threatened to have thousands of Muslims take to the streets if he was not released, a vey senior Police Officer admitted this to us in a previous meet! The Muslim inciting violence was released within a few hours; it took the English Defence League over two weeks to have the Dudley two released from remand and they were not advocating or even threatening violent acts! So where was the law being applied equally in that circumstance then eh?
Frankly speaking we are quite literally being discriminated against, we are not a terrorist organisation, we are not fascists, we oppose fascism, yet we are treated very differently to Islamist fascists, in fact it’s fair to say we are being treated worse than Islamist fascists for standing up FOR our country, its culture and even ironically its rule of law!
Every suggestion, every compromise, every chance our Police Liaison Team gave West Midlands Police to help facilitate a peaceful protest was rubbished by this man, it was very apparent that we could no longer discuss matters with him as he so obviously engineered a way to completely disrupt and disengage from common sense and a will to make things go safely and peacefully. This man is in fact actually helping to put people’s lives at risk with his agenda of disengagement; this is something that the English Defence League will not be held responsible for.
We are not making any kind of threat in saying such things but the reality is that peaceful demonstrations are in fact something that must be facilitated as outlined in articles 18, 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is also enshrined in The European Court Of Human Rights however the irony is that they have actually used a section 14 to destroy any hopes to facilitate a peaceful demonstration. Yes this sneering Police incompetent actually enjoyed handing these notices to our Police Liaison Team, that much was apparent. Our team made it perfectly clear we only ever wanted to work with them, we were not going to agree on all issues but for the sake of our member’s safety and that of the general public’s safety we had to co-operate. This unfortunately has fallen on deaf ears, as if West Midlands Police actually want it to go bad?????
West Midlands Police have made their intentions very clear from this article where Chief Supt Tom Coughlan states "We have a duty to allow protesters to do so peacefully, but incitement to hatred or violence or other crimes against people or property will be dealt with firmly.
"Previous experience has allowed us to fine-tune our response and tactics and as a result we are better prepared than ever to ensure the demonstration occurs with the maximum regard to public safety."
West Midlands Police also stated that “intelligence and tactics would help keep order”, how the hell is the denial of our right to peacefully protest against Sharia law and Islamist influence within the West Midlands amount to an “intelligent and tactical” decision??? Something that denies our right to peaceful freedom of assembly and protest is actually only going to cause more frustration within the varied communities who stand with us. The English Defence League give people a voice, and West Midlands police are wholly against it, it would seem.
Is it any surprise that Police have also not ruled out imposing restrictions on any protest as the date gets closer, in the interests of public safety.
Chief Supt Tom Coughlan is obviously a bit of a fantasist, who seems to think that all ills of today's Britain comes down to "social factors“ while at the same time bragging about ending gangrelated crime in Birmingham within the next year. Mr. Coughlan does seem to live in peculiar world of his own, so much so that even Dr Derrick Campbell, a government advisor on gangs and chief executive of Race Equality Sandwell finds him 'Strangely naive'. We can cetainly agree on the part about being "strange“, not so sure about the naive though! Because one cannot help but think that this "strange" analysis of Coughlan is indeed in one way or another influencing his professionalism in these matters. And let us not forget that the West Mdlands Police have a most curious track record when it comes to opposing hate speech in their Muslim communities. In much the same as they now target EDL for opposing the outrageous Muslim hate-preaching going on in every second mosque, Channel 4 got the excact same treatment after exposing the subversive activities of numerous mosques in the West Midlands. So how does that bode for a protest movement like the English Defence League?
In fact would Assistant Chief Constable Anil Patani of West Midlands Police (the man who unjustifiably tried to have the Channel 4 Dispatches team charged on racial and religious hatred laws for “Undercover Mosque”) like to come out with some kind of statement recognising our right to contest Sharia Law and Islamist influence? I find it quite ridiculous that the English Defence League are bashed for “costing the taxpayer” in Policing our events but when Anil Patani costs the taxpayer £100,000 in trumped up racial and religious hatred charges and libel costs for a group of people who have made a FACTUAL documentary, then why should we accept that as another excuse to keep us from demonstrating? You can find all this information and West Midlands grovelling apology to the filmmakers on this link.
In fact is it any surprise that Anil Patani’s Counter Terrorism Unit is one of the units assigned to investigate the English Defence League?
You decide!
So let’s make things perfectly clear on a legal basis for Chief Supt Tom Coughlan and his superior Anil Patani shall we?........
West Midlands Police are discriminating against us but they lack reasonable grounds to do so. They are deliberately singling the EDL and our Police Liaison Team out for no reason; the EDL is not a terrorist group or organisation. On top of this we now have local MPs stepping on eachothers toes eager to sign over our basic freedom of assembly to the whims of local police through new legislation, compromising the right to free assembly within the UK indefinately. Yesterday a certain Margot James, MP for Stourbridge, near Dudley, wrote to the Home Office asking that police powers be extended to enable them to ban all forms of protest on the grounds of public order when they have a case to do so. She says she is keen to maintain freedom of expression but "a loophole that allows the EDL to call their activity a rally not a march, so as to escape a potential ban, should be closed“.
Is it just another "strange“ coincidence, that we never heard a peep about such legislation in the last 50 years of socialist streetprotest dominance? You decide, but it certainly seem as if the hunt is now on for our freedom of association. Soon "hate assemblys“ will be persecuted under a mask of "Human Rights“. Well, the EDL despise the hypocrisy and double standards applied to our organisation, and would like to remind you of the most important last paragraph 30 of the declaration of human rights, which reads
Article 30
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
Truth does not turn into hate, just because leftist revolutionaries hate to hear it!
Certain Muslims are threatening our nation, and as such we call upon our rights under article 15 - derogations (relating to article 14) and we publicly REJECT the notices served against us. Our nation is in danger so we will speak out about this fact.
West Midlands Police are discriminating against the EDL protesting, without giving any reasons for such, but we the EDL reject the article 14 served against us, we believe certain Muslims are threatening our nation, and must be exposed. Our message is not one of hate; our message is one of truth!
Islamic Sharia is a threat to our nation, involves the whole nation and threatens the continuance of the organised life of the BRITISH Community. There can be no doubt about this!
We reject the given section 14, and derogate the conditions stated therein because there is an attack towards our nation, one which threatens the continuance of the organised life of the community. We must stop the Mosque being built or even extended because it threatens the continuance of the organised life of the BRITISH community.
So in a nutshell WE ARE GOING TO DUDLEY!!!!
We will not bow to state sponsored intimidation from West Midlands Police Force. It’s about time West Midlands Police actually facilitated a peaceful protest for the EDL. Admitting that they have made some serious errors in previous protests is just not good enough, they are there to do a job, they should be there to help provide a peaceful outcome to our demonstration.
The notices served against us MUST be rescinded.
More details will follow soon enough fellow patriots.......
WE ARE GOING TO DUDLEY!!!
Sunday 11 July 2010
Raoul Moat the aftermath
The violent death of Raoul Moat ended a week long manhunt that will be seen as one of the most bizarre historical police investigations of all time.The events of the last week will also have changed the lives of a lot of other people for ever. Some changes will be evident immediately but some will not be noticed for years to come.Moats second victim and the mother of his child will one day have to explain to their daughter all the details of what happened.About how her dad was jailed for hitting his son. If it was true or not. About how she left him for another man, a man just as violent if not more so as Raoul Moat.How she goaded him.There is no doubt the lives of Raoul Moats family will be difficult and traumatic for some time to come.In the wider world the information coming out about Moat and the way the police conducted themselves has started a great debate about the rights and wrongs of Moats and the police behavior.
Why Moat is seen as a hero to some people. These heroes only arise in times when people judge the forces of oppression,the law to be of lesser moral value than the criminal they are trying to catch, that's what a folk hero has always been, they are never nice people. Very few people in the country will have met Raoul Moat, but a lot will have met the Police. I get to see the police in two places. One in the countryside were they are still your average British bobby. And the other way in the city were they are seen as corporate enforcers for the mob.Why is that? They have been involved in too many incidents such as the Ian Tomlinson death and Jean De Menese.Were innocent people have died.But were every time someone is killed the investigation results in them getting away with it.What message does that send? We can do what the we want.There is no doubt about it we need to take the police down a peg or two and make them more responsible to us. They work for us they are not our masters. But if we don't do something now they soon will be. Not by design but by natural progression as we will be seen as children unable to take responsibility for ourselves.
Why Moat is seen as a hero to some people. These heroes only arise in times when people judge the forces of oppression,the law to be of lesser moral value than the criminal they are trying to catch, that's what a folk hero has always been, they are never nice people. Very few people in the country will have met Raoul Moat, but a lot will have met the Police. I get to see the police in two places. One in the countryside were they are still your average British bobby. And the other way in the city were they are seen as corporate enforcers for the mob.Why is that? They have been involved in too many incidents such as the Ian Tomlinson death and Jean De Menese.Were innocent people have died.But were every time someone is killed the investigation results in them getting away with it.What message does that send? We can do what the we want.There is no doubt about it we need to take the police down a peg or two and make them more responsible to us. They work for us they are not our masters. But if we don't do something now they soon will be. Not by design but by natural progression as we will be seen as children unable to take responsibility for ourselves.
Saturday 10 July 2010
Raoul Moat Autopsy
The fastest autopsy ever conducted has just released the results that Raoul Moats injuries are consistent with the gun he had.This is now beginning to get farcical. It is also said that a member of the Moat family,unidentified has confirmed there are no taser marks on his body. Opinion? Bizarre
Did Samantha Stobbart's behavior get Chris Brown killed?
In France there is a defense to murder called a crime of passion
We have all read Greek tragedy and tales of jealous lovers. Some women will deliberately provoke a man they are in love with to test them.If what Raoul Moat has said is true then Samantha Stobbart is no doubt considering what she said and did on the night and preceding days to the incident.If it is the case then the silliness of one woman has played a part in the death of a man.
We have all read Greek tragedy and tales of jealous lovers. Some women will deliberately provoke a man they are in love with to test them.If what Raoul Moat has said is true then Samantha Stobbart is no doubt considering what she said and did on the night and preceding days to the incident.If it is the case then the silliness of one woman has played a part in the death of a man.
Raoul Moat Hostage
For some reason the rest of the media seem to be blanking out the face of Karl Ness one of the men held hostage by Raoul Moat.As it is available in other places on the internet I am publishing it here.
PCSO unlawfully deleted photographers images
Branch member photojournalist, James Mackay, represented by Chez Cotton, head of the Police Misconduct Department, at leading civil rights law firm Bindmans LLP, has succeeded in a complaint against the British Transport Police after he was unlawfully ordered by one of their officers to delete photographs he had taken on the basis that he “was not allowed to photograph the police.”
The journalist, who predominantly works on issues in and surrounding Burma and currently is working with exiled organisations on a global campaign to raise awareness on political prisoners in Burma, was passing through Waterloo mainline station on his way to catch a flight on 8 May 2009 and witnessed a number of Police Community Support Officers (PSCOs) apparently detaining a male.
http://londonphotographers.org/2010/07/pcso-unlawfully-deleted-photographers-images/comment-page-1/
The journalist, who predominantly works on issues in and surrounding Burma and currently is working with exiled organisations on a global campaign to raise awareness on political prisoners in Burma, was passing through Waterloo mainline station on his way to catch a flight on 8 May 2009 and witnessed a number of Police Community Support Officers (PSCOs) apparently detaining a male.
http://londonphotographers.org/2010/07/pcso-unlawfully-deleted-photographers-images/comment-page-1/
Raoul Moat went shopping
Raoul Moat with his daughter,now aged 10.It is said they were very close.
It is now coming out that Raoul Moat was avidly following his own manhunt in the news papers. reports circulating around Rothbury are now being confirmed by various sources that Moat was upset by what he had read. In a Dictaphone message he says he is not happy about the way they (The news papers)are reporting his private life. Moat was also said to be very unhappy about the way Acting Chief Constable Sims had made fun of him at a town meeting when she read out a card from a child saying he,Moat was a nutter. It makes you wonder just how competent the police were when hundreds of them are in the immediate vicinity while Moat was able to collect his morning paper.
Raoul Moat the Anti Christ?
In the past week we have heard every thing about Raoul Moat from the police and the media who roll out their story for them,lets face it the main stream media is only believed now by the seriously stupid in society.The rest of us get our news via each other through the internet,the rapidly declining Times pay site is evidence of this.Every thing we have heard so far is negative. Raoul Moat is a bad evil man. But the people of Rothbury don't think so. They have a lot of sympathy for him. Why is this?. Rothbury is fairly near to Moats home town. In fact Moat is well known in the small village. A lot of well known people know Moat too.They have sympathy for him because they know there is a lot of truth in the reasons Moat has given for why he has gone on the rampage after police.How many times in the past have the police killed people in custody? The list is long but try to find it. Even the past historical records of it are difficult to find,like the web has been cleaned..They come in and move everyone out of the area,even this time in the air above,no witness's ,only police.So we have to take their word for what ever happens after that. Why did they want and need a 10 mile air exclusion zone? Did they think Moat had friends in the RAF with the ways and means of coming in a in a gunship? No they did not want the very capable long range cameras of the media filming their actions.
Where are all the people who helped Moat.lets hear what they have to say.The one sided way the media slant it anyone would think Raoul Moat was the anti christ.
Where are all the people who helped Moat.lets hear what they have to say.The one sided way the media slant it anyone would think Raoul Moat was the anti christ.
Rioting in Oakland after Mehserle verdict
78 people was arrested during Thursday night’s protests in downtown Oakland, P0lice said.
The people protested in downtown Oakland over the involuntary manslaughter conviction of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle for the shooting death of train rider Oscar Grant.
The rally degenerated into brutality, during which protesters sprayed anti-police graffiti on storefronts, set trash bins on fire and clashed with Police. The Police forces, from agencies throughout the Bay Area were called in to help Oakland officers. They are wearing gas masks and riot helmets and carrying batons.
Police from agencies throughout the Bay Area were called in to help Oakland officers. Those arrested were booked on suspicion of a variety of crimes, including failure to disperse, resisting arrest, burglary, vandalism and assaulting a police officer, said Officer Jeff Thomason, an Oakland police spokesman.
Many of arrested protesters were agitators who were not from Oakland. Police is still compiling informations on the number of businesses that were vandalized.
Source: http://www.providingnews.com/78-arrested-in-oakland-after-mehserle-verdict.html#ixzz0tHpLJ1Ny
The people protested in downtown Oakland over the involuntary manslaughter conviction of former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle for the shooting death of train rider Oscar Grant.
The rally degenerated into brutality, during which protesters sprayed anti-police graffiti on storefronts, set trash bins on fire and clashed with Police. The Police forces, from agencies throughout the Bay Area were called in to help Oakland officers. They are wearing gas masks and riot helmets and carrying batons.
Police from agencies throughout the Bay Area were called in to help Oakland officers. Those arrested were booked on suspicion of a variety of crimes, including failure to disperse, resisting arrest, burglary, vandalism and assaulting a police officer, said Officer Jeff Thomason, an Oakland police spokesman.
Many of arrested protesters were agitators who were not from Oakland. Police is still compiling informations on the number of businesses that were vandalized.
Source: http://www.providingnews.com/78-arrested-in-oakland-after-mehserle-verdict.html#ixzz0tHpLJ1Ny
Police Shot Moat With Taser
From the snarling face of the cop holding the taser yesterday it comes as no surprise to hear that they shot him. All along it was a shoot to kill operation
It was reported yesterday after Moat was cornered that they would take as long as it takes. But all week the cops have been behaving like trigger happy cowboys waving their guns about and aiming at innocent members of the public.
Moat had made it clear that if police came near him he would pull the trigger of the gun he was holding against his head. During a cold wet miserable night at 1 am this morning someone decided to end it quicker by provoking Moat to carry out his threat.
Today police are calling for the arming of all of their officers.This comes after they failed even with the help of the SAS and the RAF and trackers like Ray Mears helping them. I would rather arm a bunch of schoolboys stranded on a desert island,if you get my drift?
It was reported yesterday after Moat was cornered that they would take as long as it takes. But all week the cops have been behaving like trigger happy cowboys waving their guns about and aiming at innocent members of the public.
Moat had made it clear that if police came near him he would pull the trigger of the gun he was holding against his head. During a cold wet miserable night at 1 am this morning someone decided to end it quicker by provoking Moat to carry out his threat.
Today police are calling for the arming of all of their officers.This comes after they failed even with the help of the SAS and the RAF and trackers like Ray Mears helping them. I would rather arm a bunch of schoolboys stranded on a desert island,if you get my drift?
One law for us one law for them
If you stole a gun and sold it on you would be open to a few different charges the cops could hit you with. One would be the obvious one of theft. Then handling stolen goods . But most of all possession of a firearm.And if you had done this with a number of guns over a period of time then that would put you up with arms dealing and gun running.But if you had done all of this while being the person employed to put a stop to this sort of thing then you would think that would warrant you being hit with all of the above charges plus any thing else they could think up while they were throwing the book at you.
Enter Maurice Allen and Damien Cobain. two enterprising gun runners from no less a place than Raoul Moat's local force of Northumbrbia police.Both served as firearms inquiry officers.it was their job to go and interview anyone who applied for a gun permit. While doing this they would mention they just happened to know of a gun for sale. This would have been a gun previously recovered by police and now due for destruction. that begs the question of How did they get access to them,as one part of the division cannot simply walk into the evidence room and remove things without the complicit help of the officer in charge of that department.And that raises the possibility of corruption on a scale of...well you think about that.
But at the end of the day they were caught because like all criminals who think they are super smart they are only so in their own minds.A farmer burgled when asked for the gun stolen from his farms serial number said."You should know I bought it off your lot".
This finally exposed the scam these two had been running. But the biggest scam of all was the sentence they got. remember the automatic five years for possession of a firearm? No they didn't get five years.Allen was sentenced to 51 weeks, which was suspended for two years, and Cobain to 40 weeks, suspended for 18 months.
take note legal eagles conducting appeals for those sentenced to five years for this.It sort of makes Moats story plausible.
Enter Maurice Allen and Damien Cobain. two enterprising gun runners from no less a place than Raoul Moat's local force of Northumbrbia police.Both served as firearms inquiry officers.it was their job to go and interview anyone who applied for a gun permit. While doing this they would mention they just happened to know of a gun for sale. This would have been a gun previously recovered by police and now due for destruction. that begs the question of How did they get access to them,as one part of the division cannot simply walk into the evidence room and remove things without the complicit help of the officer in charge of that department.And that raises the possibility of corruption on a scale of...well you think about that.
But at the end of the day they were caught because like all criminals who think they are super smart they are only so in their own minds.A farmer burgled when asked for the gun stolen from his farms serial number said."You should know I bought it off your lot".
This finally exposed the scam these two had been running. But the biggest scam of all was the sentence they got. remember the automatic five years for possession of a firearm? No they didn't get five years.Allen was sentenced to 51 weeks, which was suspended for two years, and Cobain to 40 weeks, suspended for 18 months.
take note legal eagles conducting appeals for those sentenced to five years for this.It sort of makes Moats story plausible.
found on order-order.com
Moat .The Old Bill says:
July 10, 2010 at 12:20 pm
The new bill £12,000,000
Thought it deserved a relay.
July 10, 2010 at 12:20 pm
The new bill £12,000,000
Thought it deserved a relay.
Climategate scientists cleared
The scientists whose leaked emails sparked a heated debate and speculation over the quality of research into climate change have been cleared by an independent inquiry in Britain.
The six-month inquiry cleared the climate scientists of accusations that they manipulated their data, but criticised them for being too secretive and defensive about their research.
It was alleged the researchers abused their positions to cover up flaws and distort the process that determines which scientific studies are published in journals and subsequently enter the official records.
But the inquiry panel said it had not found any evidence of behaviour that might undermine the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
So there you go. They are great and good chaps.
The six-month inquiry cleared the climate scientists of accusations that they manipulated their data, but criticised them for being too secretive and defensive about their research.
It was alleged the researchers abused their positions to cover up flaws and distort the process that determines which scientific studies are published in journals and subsequently enter the official records.
But the inquiry panel said it had not found any evidence of behaviour that might undermine the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
So there you go. They are great and good chaps.
Raoul Moat is dead long live Raoul Moat
When I was told this morning Raoul Moat was dead I felt an inexplicable feeling of loss.And if the screams heard after the gunshot was the police negotiator so did he.But now Raoul Moat will go down in folklore for ever in a way he never could have had he lived and gone to trial.In a manhunt that lasted a week Moat evaded police,the SAS and RAF after shooting and injuring his ex partner and then killing her lover,who Moat believed was the police officer that had sent him to prison at a previous time.Police denied this but twice on Sky news it has been reported "Moat killed a police officer".
Had Raoul Moat lived and been arrested it would have made one of the most sensational court cases in UK history as the country was divided about Raoul Moat. But that was sadly not to be, The country will be the worse for it as many good things would have come from airing it.But now there will only be speculation.The first conspiracy theory question asked will be did the police shoot him? I will not have been the first to pose that question this morning.And the snarling photographs of armed police will not help their case,with one clip of film an armed officer orders a cameraman away and then takes aim at him.No doubt in the next days these will turn up on sites like Youtube
Raoul Moat who took on the police,SAS and RAF in his fight for justice is dead but Raoul Moat will never die.
Had Raoul Moat lived and been arrested it would have made one of the most sensational court cases in UK history as the country was divided about Raoul Moat. But that was sadly not to be, The country will be the worse for it as many good things would have come from airing it.But now there will only be speculation.The first conspiracy theory question asked will be did the police shoot him? I will not have been the first to pose that question this morning.And the snarling photographs of armed police will not help their case,with one clip of film an armed officer orders a cameraman away and then takes aim at him.No doubt in the next days these will turn up on sites like Youtube
Raoul Moat who took on the police,SAS and RAF in his fight for justice is dead but Raoul Moat will never die.
Friday 9 July 2010
While we were distracted
Chatter Rises On Iran Strike
The first really clear indication that serious planning was underway to strike at Iran’s rogue nuclear weapons site came a month ago when British news outlets reported that Saudi Arabia had given Israel permission to cross its airspace en route to Iranian targets.
Yesterday, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States said publicly that his country was willing to live with the consequences of a strike against Iran despite the enormous amount of trade between the two countries and the likelihood of riots after a strike.
Today, you have Sen. Joe Lieberman in Israel saying the U.S. would influence Iran, “through diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions if we can, but through military action if we must.”
Now Lieberman is one of Israel’s staunchest backers on Capitol Hill and is not commander in chief, so his comments can be taken with a grain of salt, but they also are a clear indicator that Israeli officials believe a strike is necessary. When the McChrystal fracas broke out, several senior retired and current military officers worried quietly that moving leaders at Central Command at such a sensitive time in Israeli-Iranian relations could leave the U.S. unfocused on a likely Israeli threat. The selection and rapid confirmation of Gen. David Petraeus alleviated some of those concerns but CentCom remains without a leader who has undergone Senate confirmation. While that may seem academic to many, Senate confirmation confers great credibility on a military leader and grants them wider discretion than an acting commander possesses, both in their own minds and in those of Congress and the executive branch.
Cautionary note: we are not predicting a strike, but a large number of public comments combined with the seeming acceleration of their number, can be an accurate indicator of military action.
Read more: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2010/07/07/chatter-rises-on-iran-strike/#ixzz0tDyzdbqZ
The first really clear indication that serious planning was underway to strike at Iran’s rogue nuclear weapons site came a month ago when British news outlets reported that Saudi Arabia had given Israel permission to cross its airspace en route to Iranian targets.
Yesterday, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States said publicly that his country was willing to live with the consequences of a strike against Iran despite the enormous amount of trade between the two countries and the likelihood of riots after a strike.
Today, you have Sen. Joe Lieberman in Israel saying the U.S. would influence Iran, “through diplomatic efforts and economic sanctions if we can, but through military action if we must.”
Now Lieberman is one of Israel’s staunchest backers on Capitol Hill and is not commander in chief, so his comments can be taken with a grain of salt, but they also are a clear indicator that Israeli officials believe a strike is necessary. When the McChrystal fracas broke out, several senior retired and current military officers worried quietly that moving leaders at Central Command at such a sensitive time in Israeli-Iranian relations could leave the U.S. unfocused on a likely Israeli threat. The selection and rapid confirmation of Gen. David Petraeus alleviated some of those concerns but CentCom remains without a leader who has undergone Senate confirmation. While that may seem academic to many, Senate confirmation confers great credibility on a military leader and grants them wider discretion than an acting commander possesses, both in their own minds and in those of Congress and the executive branch.
Cautionary note: we are not predicting a strike, but a large number of public comments combined with the seeming acceleration of their number, can be an accurate indicator of military action.
Read more: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2010/07/07/chatter-rises-on-iran-strike/#ixzz0tDyzdbqZ
Clocked Off
This story is now becoming so bizarre the tree is not going to report any further but take the night off,get a bottle and have a good laugh.
Live Rothbury
The place is swarming with media,more of them than cops. John Sopel of the BBC is fawning like a school girl and making out every leaf in the wind is a major news development. I spoke to Mrs Smith and asked her the same question all the media have been asking. "Are you scared"? "Oh yes I'm very worried all the guns being waved around by the police may go off and hurt someone,you never know do you?. I mean they point them at you when they tell you to do something.It's not right."
I have just seen the drunk Gaza go past.I can only imagine why the cops have him here,Moaty must know him.
#more to follow.
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone
The Gulf of Mexico was Americas toilet before BP came along.
The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is an area of hypoxic (link to USGS definition) (less than 2 ppm dissolved oxygen) waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Its area varies in size, but can cover up to 6,000-7,000 square miles. The zone occurs between the inner and mid-continental shelf in the northern Gulf of Mexico, beginning at the Mississippi River delta and extending westward to the upper Texas coast.
Dead zones can be found worldwide(link to NASA dead zone page). The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is one of the largest in the world. Marine dead zones can be found in the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, off the coast of Oregon, and in the Chesapeake Bay. Dead zones may also be found in lakes, such as Lake Erie.
The dead zone is caused by nutrient enrichment from the Mississippi River, particularly nitrogen and phosphorous. Watersheds within the Mississippi River Basin drain much of the United States, from Montana to Pennsylvania and extending southward along the Mississippi River. Most of the nitrogen input comes from major farming states in the Mississippi River Valley, including Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Nitrogen and phosphorous enter the river through upstream runoff of fertilizers, soil erosion, animal wastes, and sewage. In a natural system, these nutrients aren't significant factors in algae growth because they are depleted in the soil by plants. However, with anthropogenically increased nitrogen and phosphorus input, algae growth is no longer limited. Consequently, algal blooms develop, the food chain is altered, and dissolved oxygen in the area is depleted. The size of the dead zone fluctuates seasonally, as it is exacerbated by farming practices. It is also affected by weather events such as flooding and hurricanes.
Nutrient overloading and algal blooms lead to eutrophication (link to USGS definition), which has been shown to reduce benthic (link to definition) biomass and biodiversity. Hypoxic water supports fewer organisms and has been linked to massive fish kills in the Black Sea and Gulf of Mexico.
The Gulf of Mexico is a major source area for the seafood industry. The Gulf supplies 72% of U.S. harvested shrimp, 66% of harvested oysters, and 16% of commercial fish (Potash and Phosphate Institutes of the U.S. and Canada, 1999). Consequently, if the hypoxic zone continues or worsens, fishermen and coastal state economies will be greatly impacted.
Back to Top
The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is an area of hypoxic (link to USGS definition) (less than 2 ppm dissolved oxygen) waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Its area varies in size, but can cover up to 6,000-7,000 square miles. The zone occurs between the inner and mid-continental shelf in the northern Gulf of Mexico, beginning at the Mississippi River delta and extending westward to the upper Texas coast.
Dead zones can be found worldwide(link to NASA dead zone page). The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is one of the largest in the world. Marine dead zones can be found in the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, off the coast of Oregon, and in the Chesapeake Bay. Dead zones may also be found in lakes, such as Lake Erie.
The dead zone is caused by nutrient enrichment from the Mississippi River, particularly nitrogen and phosphorous. Watersheds within the Mississippi River Basin drain much of the United States, from Montana to Pennsylvania and extending southward along the Mississippi River. Most of the nitrogen input comes from major farming states in the Mississippi River Valley, including Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Nitrogen and phosphorous enter the river through upstream runoff of fertilizers, soil erosion, animal wastes, and sewage. In a natural system, these nutrients aren't significant factors in algae growth because they are depleted in the soil by plants. However, with anthropogenically increased nitrogen and phosphorus input, algae growth is no longer limited. Consequently, algal blooms develop, the food chain is altered, and dissolved oxygen in the area is depleted. The size of the dead zone fluctuates seasonally, as it is exacerbated by farming practices. It is also affected by weather events such as flooding and hurricanes.
Nutrient overloading and algal blooms lead to eutrophication (link to USGS definition), which has been shown to reduce benthic (link to definition) biomass and biodiversity. Hypoxic water supports fewer organisms and has been linked to massive fish kills in the Black Sea and Gulf of Mexico.
The Gulf of Mexico is a major source area for the seafood industry. The Gulf supplies 72% of U.S. harvested shrimp, 66% of harvested oysters, and 16% of commercial fish (Potash and Phosphate Institutes of the U.S. and Canada, 1999). Consequently, if the hypoxic zone continues or worsens, fishermen and coastal state economies will be greatly impacted.
Back to Top
New cap and more ships could contain Gulf oil leak by Monday
NEW ORLEANS -- The federal official leading the Gulf oilspill cleanup says a new containment cap and an additional shipcollecting oil could effectively contain the spill as early as Monday.
NationalIncident Commander Thad Allen said today that the work to replace aleaky containment cap on the well head with a tighter one will beginSaturday.
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At the same time, a ship connecting to a different part of leak is expected to come online Sunday.
If all goes according to plan, the combination could collect all of the oil leaking from the seafloor.
Workcontinues on what officials hope will be the ultimate solution: a pairof relief wells intercepting the leaking well far below the seafloor.
http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2010/07/new_cap_and_more_ships_could_c.html
Federal official says Gulf oil leak could effectively be contained Monday using new cap, ships - AP
NationalIncident Commander Thad Allen said today that the work to replace aleaky containment cap on the well head with a tighter one will beginSaturday.
0
0
0Share
At the same time, a ship connecting to a different part of leak is expected to come online Sunday.
If all goes according to plan, the combination could collect all of the oil leaking from the seafloor.
Workcontinues on what officials hope will be the ultimate solution: a pairof relief wells intercepting the leaking well far below the seafloor.
http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2010/07/new_cap_and_more_ships_could_c.html
Federal official says Gulf oil leak could effectively be contained Monday using new cap, ships - AP
Pie Prevention Police
In case Raoul Moat try's to buy a pie armed police are preventing him going in.
Thursday 8 July 2010
Moats Mum thinks she had problems.
A 29-year-old Villa Rica man apparently expected his mother to iron his clothes for him. And when she wouldn't, he pulled a gun and held her hostage for several hours, police said.
Robert Edward Tyrrell Jr. faces aggravated assault and false imprisonment charges.
Carroll County Sheriff's Office Robert Edward Tyrrell Jr. faces aggravated assault and false imprisonment charges.
Robert Edward Tyrrell Jr. remained in jail Wednesday without bond, Sgt. Marc Griffith with the Carroll County Sheriff's Office told the AJC. Tyrrell faces aggravated assault and false imprisonment following the June 30 incident, Griffith said.
"He wanted her to do some ironing, and when she said ‘no,' they got into an argument," Griffith said. "He told her ‘ironing is woman's work.' "
Tyrrell, who lives with his parents, then pulled out a gun and took his 51-year-old mother's keys and cellphones, Griffith said. The man refused to let the woman leave for at least six hours, investigators said.
“Mama finally said, ‘I’m not ironing your clothes,' and he went cuckoo on her," Griffith said.
The woman was later able to get out of the home and drive to a police station to report the incident, and deputies were dispatched to the home. Eventually, Tyrrell surrendered without incident, Griffith said.
http://www.ajc.com/news/cops-man-holds-mom-566035.html
Sharia here Sharia there
This is relevant to UK as Sharia law has been proposed often here.
Four Christian missionaries arrested at Muslim festival
The arraignment of four Christian missionaries on criminal charges will take place on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. in the 19th Judicial District Court located at 16077 Michigan Avenue in Dearborn, Michigan. This is the next step in what has been described as police enforcement of Sharia law in a city dominated by a large Muslim population.
To the jeers and shouts of “Allah Akbar” by the Muslim crowd, the four Christian missionaries were arrested and thrown in jail on June 18, 2010 by Dearborn Police officers at the Annual Arab International Festival held in Dearborn. One of the arrested missionaries was Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, MD, who was engaged in peaceful dialogue with several Muslim youths. The other three missionaries, who were merely videotaping the conversation, had their cameras and other equipment illegally seized before police arrested them as well.
Police refused requests by the missionaries to view the video at the scene of their arrest, which the missionaries claimed would completely exonerate them of any wrongdoing.
The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan is representing all of the Christian missionaries. Because District Judge Mark W. Somers required that all four defendants personally appear before him for the arraignment, the Law Center assisted with the costs of their travel from different parts of the country.
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, commented, “It’s evident that the Dearborn Police department was more interested in placating Muslims than obeying our Constitution. These Christians were exercising their Constitutional rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion, but apparently in a city where the Muslim population seems to dominate the political apparatus, Sharia law trumps our Constitution.”
Thus far, police and prosecutors have refused to return the illegally seized cameras and video tapes. They have also refused to provide the Law Center with the police reports of the incident despite repeated requests.
Arrested on charges of Breach of the Peace are Negeen Mayel, Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, Paul Rezkalla and David Wood. Mayel, an eighteen-year old female whose parents emigrated from Afghanistan and a recent convert from Islam to Christianity, was also charged with failure to obey a police officer’s orders. She was at least 100 feet away and videotaping Qureshi’s discussion with the Muslim youths when police seized her camera.
Thompson added, “Not all police officers approve of the way their department treated these Christians.”
Robert Muise, Senior Trial Counsel with the Law Center, will represent the Christian missionaries at the arraignment on Monday.
Four Christian missionaries arrested at Muslim festival
The arraignment of four Christian missionaries on criminal charges will take place on Monday, July 12, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. in the 19th Judicial District Court located at 16077 Michigan Avenue in Dearborn, Michigan. This is the next step in what has been described as police enforcement of Sharia law in a city dominated by a large Muslim population.
To the jeers and shouts of “Allah Akbar” by the Muslim crowd, the four Christian missionaries were arrested and thrown in jail on June 18, 2010 by Dearborn Police officers at the Annual Arab International Festival held in Dearborn. One of the arrested missionaries was Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, MD, who was engaged in peaceful dialogue with several Muslim youths. The other three missionaries, who were merely videotaping the conversation, had their cameras and other equipment illegally seized before police arrested them as well.
Police refused requests by the missionaries to view the video at the scene of their arrest, which the missionaries claimed would completely exonerate them of any wrongdoing.
The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan is representing all of the Christian missionaries. Because District Judge Mark W. Somers required that all four defendants personally appear before him for the arraignment, the Law Center assisted with the costs of their travel from different parts of the country.
Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, commented, “It’s evident that the Dearborn Police department was more interested in placating Muslims than obeying our Constitution. These Christians were exercising their Constitutional rights to free speech and the free exercise of religion, but apparently in a city where the Muslim population seems to dominate the political apparatus, Sharia law trumps our Constitution.”
Thus far, police and prosecutors have refused to return the illegally seized cameras and video tapes. They have also refused to provide the Law Center with the police reports of the incident despite repeated requests.
Arrested on charges of Breach of the Peace are Negeen Mayel, Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, Paul Rezkalla and David Wood. Mayel, an eighteen-year old female whose parents emigrated from Afghanistan and a recent convert from Islam to Christianity, was also charged with failure to obey a police officer’s orders. She was at least 100 feet away and videotaping Qureshi’s discussion with the Muslim youths when police seized her camera.
Thompson added, “Not all police officers approve of the way their department treated these Christians.”
Robert Muise, Senior Trial Counsel with the Law Center, will represent the Christian missionaries at the arraignment on Monday.
Not a Moat in hells chance
Police are hunting a 67-year-old man after a fatal shooting at a house in West Yorkshire.
Below are what is being said on the westminster blog order-order.com
So why is this not getting the same publicity and police attention?
here's a sample of what people think.
Anonymous says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:11 pm
the idiot police have managed to take someone who on sunday was a murder and make him into a folk hero.
i live in brixton & we have a lot of shootings, stabbings, gang rapes, gang attacks and so on. the police do fuck all about it, they are too busy in the kebab shop or busting people at the station for not having a ticket. as soon as it is one of their own they go fucking mental, deploying 100s of highly armed police to a village up north and pointing guns at old ladies.
the guy’s message of “the police fucked me up now i’ll fuck them up” resonates with a lot of people nowadays (g20 police, road traffic facism, photographers as terrorists, hate speech and so on). the police i don’t think thought about this , they thought the people are just well up for g-36 toting robocops with better equipment than the forces in afghan and police snipers to catch a single fucking geordie.
well, they miscalculated and they made the geezer into a hero. now we’re supposed to believe from their psychological warfare (sorry, PR) department that the guy “poses a threat to the wider public” in a piss poor attempt to deflate the ever growing myth of raul – the – fucking – ballsy – geordie; #fuckthepolice. they’re worried that all the other people they’ve persecuted over the years are going to copycat and are determined to control the narrative. the idiot media just laps it up and punts it out.
what a fucking farce. tens of millions to turn a murderer into a hero. well in pigs
Reply
*
18
I would be anonymous too if i talked shite says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Ees just one of the Boys inee, ‘avin a larf?
Wanker!
Reply
o
23
Thatcherite says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:26 pm
I love your moniker!
Reply
o
25
Anonymous says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:32 pm
you are anonymous you wanker.
why the fuck have they sent a paramilitary unit up north for one geezer and they do fuck all here in brixton?
we have shootings all the time and they can’t be arsed. gang rapes are the highest in london in lambeth but all they do is send us a fucking leaflet telling us they’re clamping down on cycling on the pavement and graffiti.
he killed one of their own so they’ll do something about it. a young girl gets gang raped and they send you a fucking leaflet. fuck you wanker.
Reply
+
28
Elton John says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Compare and contrast:-
Police are hunting a 67-year-old man after a fatal shooting at a house in West Yorkshire.
A 44-year-old man was killed and a 31-year-old man is in a critical condition after the shooting on Ashbourne Road, Eccleshill, Bradford, on Monday.
Police want to trace Ernest Wright and have urged anyone who sees him not to approach him and dial 999 immediately.
Mr Wright is thought to be driving a black Mitsubishi Shogun vehicle with the registration number J264 RJC.
Earlier detectives said the shooting was thought to have been part of a domestic dispute.
DIAL 999!!!!!!!!
Reply
+
50
The Tree says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:51 pm
I’ll publish it if you don’t mind it copying,
Reply
*
20
Raol Moat says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Totally Agree With You! Well Said!
Reply
o
37
Gordon Brown stole my pension says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Everyone agrees with you. All plod are pigs.
Reply
*
35
Anonymous says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:46 pm
no they haven’t
he’s still a ginger geordie halfwit which makes him a hero to geordie halfwits
Reply
*
38
Small Tool says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Hear, Hear. Spot on. Police forces are venal, corrupt self-serving bastards.
Reply
Below are what is being said on the westminster blog order-order.com
So why is this not getting the same publicity and police attention?
here's a sample of what people think.
Anonymous says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:11 pm
the idiot police have managed to take someone who on sunday was a murder and make him into a folk hero.
i live in brixton & we have a lot of shootings, stabbings, gang rapes, gang attacks and so on. the police do fuck all about it, they are too busy in the kebab shop or busting people at the station for not having a ticket. as soon as it is one of their own they go fucking mental, deploying 100s of highly armed police to a village up north and pointing guns at old ladies.
the guy’s message of “the police fucked me up now i’ll fuck them up” resonates with a lot of people nowadays (g20 police, road traffic facism, photographers as terrorists, hate speech and so on). the police i don’t think thought about this , they thought the people are just well up for g-36 toting robocops with better equipment than the forces in afghan and police snipers to catch a single fucking geordie.
well, they miscalculated and they made the geezer into a hero. now we’re supposed to believe from their psychological warfare (sorry, PR) department that the guy “poses a threat to the wider public” in a piss poor attempt to deflate the ever growing myth of raul – the – fucking – ballsy – geordie; #fuckthepolice. they’re worried that all the other people they’ve persecuted over the years are going to copycat and are determined to control the narrative. the idiot media just laps it up and punts it out.
what a fucking farce. tens of millions to turn a murderer into a hero. well in pigs
Reply
*
18
I would be anonymous too if i talked shite says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Ees just one of the Boys inee, ‘avin a larf?
Wanker!
Reply
o
23
Thatcherite says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:26 pm
I love your moniker!
Reply
o
25
Anonymous says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:32 pm
you are anonymous you wanker.
why the fuck have they sent a paramilitary unit up north for one geezer and they do fuck all here in brixton?
we have shootings all the time and they can’t be arsed. gang rapes are the highest in london in lambeth but all they do is send us a fucking leaflet telling us they’re clamping down on cycling on the pavement and graffiti.
he killed one of their own so they’ll do something about it. a young girl gets gang raped and they send you a fucking leaflet. fuck you wanker.
Reply
+
28
Elton John says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Compare and contrast:-
Police are hunting a 67-year-old man after a fatal shooting at a house in West Yorkshire.
A 44-year-old man was killed and a 31-year-old man is in a critical condition after the shooting on Ashbourne Road, Eccleshill, Bradford, on Monday.
Police want to trace Ernest Wright and have urged anyone who sees him not to approach him and dial 999 immediately.
Mr Wright is thought to be driving a black Mitsubishi Shogun vehicle with the registration number J264 RJC.
Earlier detectives said the shooting was thought to have been part of a domestic dispute.
DIAL 999!!!!!!!!
Reply
+
50
The Tree says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:51 pm
I’ll publish it if you don’t mind it copying,
Reply
*
20
Raol Moat says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Totally Agree With You! Well Said!
Reply
o
37
Gordon Brown stole my pension says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Everyone agrees with you. All plod are pigs.
Reply
*
35
Anonymous says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:46 pm
no they haven’t
he’s still a ginger geordie halfwit which makes him a hero to geordie halfwits
Reply
*
38
Small Tool says:
July 8, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Hear, Hear. Spot on. Police forces are venal, corrupt self-serving bastards.
Reply
So Moat it be
It seems the police read the blogs as they are now saying that if anyone is helping Raoul Moat in any way they will be charged. I'm sure this is aimed at the general public as all of Moats associates will have been visited and warned. The media desperate for information have now resorted to bringing in trackers who are showing how Moat could have moved about. One even went as far to build a shelter that Moat could carry,I noted a comment on one blog describing it as the cover of Led Zeppelin iv.
Conversation with TV licensing
Update from Sky news. Someone may have been there. Not long ago. We will never know.
This was the point I decided to call TV licensing and ask them why I was being charged over and over again for the same product,ie repeats.
"How do you watch TV"?.He interrupted me.
"On the telly". I said "But more lately on my computer".
"You don't need to buy a license if your watching non live TV on your computer".
"WHAT?"
I could not believe my ears. We do not need to buy a telly license if we watch on the computer and it's not live. Watching BBC news 24 I noticed the "Watch Live" was slightly behind my telly. I put this to the chap at licensing but he said he only had my word for that. I then asked if I only watched definite non live could I have a refund. "No".
So there you have it from TV licensing,via me of course that you DO NOT NEED a LICENSE to watch non live telly.
This was the point I decided to call TV licensing and ask them why I was being charged over and over again for the same product,ie repeats.
"How do you watch TV"?.He interrupted me.
"On the telly". I said "But more lately on my computer".
"You don't need to buy a license if your watching non live TV on your computer".
"WHAT?"
I could not believe my ears. We do not need to buy a telly license if we watch on the computer and it's not live. Watching BBC news 24 I noticed the "Watch Live" was slightly behind my telly. I put this to the chap at licensing but he said he only had my word for that. I then asked if I only watched definite non live could I have a refund. "No".
So there you have it from TV licensing,via me of course that you DO NOT NEED a LICENSE to watch non live telly.
Sunburst my leccy
I was reading that New York was having a few blackouts that were being put down to a heatwave. that didn't sound right to me so I went looking for info. Then I remembered there was warnings last year about massive sunspot activity this year that would cause power outages. Sure enough on space weather there they were.
http://www.spaceweather.com/
http://www.spaceweather.com/
Moat being helped by public?
For almost seven days now Raoul Moat has evaded police. With all of the hi tech equipment and air support Northumbria police have not had a single sighting of the man. On a couple of occasions they have come across camp sites were Moat has stayed but nothing of the man himself has been seen. This is starting to cause speculation that Moat is being helped by the public. Facebook pages and sites have sprung up supporting him. This follows the expenses scandal in the UK when most of the members of the government were caught with their hands in the till, The UK population now see a police force dressed like storm troopers and armed better than the military fighting in Afghanistan as more of a tool of the state than the British bobby. This has obviously occurred to the police who are beginning to look more keystone every day that Moat is being helped as they have now issued a warning he intends to harm the public,but no evidence for this has been put forward by them.Elsewhere it's being reported that Moats mother wants him dead.
Errors and mistakes over Raoul Moat
If it wasn't for the over the top way the Police are conducting the Raoul Moat man hunt the main stream media would now be asking the question Why was nothing done to prevent this after the prison service gave a clear warning. If it had a man would be alive and two people,one a policeman would not have been shot. Perhaps in future a drawing should also be sent with the warning graphically showing the probability of events to come.
China’s Strategy for a Post Western World
A number of different visions of China’s future as a leading world power are competing for public attention and influence. Among them are populist ideas that challenge Beijing’s official rhetoric about “building a harmonious world”.
There is growing debate inside the People’s Republic of China about the country’s proper strategic goals. Many intellectuals and policy-makers are asking how China can convert its new economic power into enduring political and cultural influence around the globe. The key question they are seeking to answer is: “How would China order the (post-western) world?”
Beijing’s official view - first outlined by Hu Jintao, China’s president, at the United Nations in September 2005 - is that China is guided by the notion of “building a harmonious world” (????). But two other visions of China’s purpose in the global arena are growing in influence alongside this one: an unofficial view of a Chinese-style utopian world society, and a quasi-official description of how China can compete to become the world’s “number-one power”.
This article examines these different visions of China’s grand strategy in a post-western world, and suggests briefly what kind of response western powers might be best advised to take to them.
Official policy: "building a harmonious world”
The concept of world order embodied in the idea of “harmonious world” (hexie shijie) is an extension into the arena of foreign relations of Hu Jintao’s domestic-policy equivalent, the “harmonious society". Indeed, Chinese officials and scholars regularly proclaim “harmonious society” - whose formal aim is to use state power to “close the wealth divide and ease growing social tensions” - to be “the model for the world”. By this logic, writers in China explain “building a harmonious world” as a new and better route to “lasting peace and common prosperity” that will allow different civilisations to coexist in the global community.
In practice, the official view of hexie shijie lacks detail. The Beijing government tends to describe the policy in terms of vague platitudes, making it hard (for example) to establish whether the strong state thought essential to building a “harmonious society” is also needed to build a “harmonious world”. Other channels are more outspoken; the Hong Kong Wen Wei Po has called on Beijing to be the “‘formulator, participant and defender of world order,’ in order to push the entire world toward harmony.”
http://oilprice.com/Geo-Politics/Asia/Chinas-Strategy-for-a-Post-Western-World.html
There is growing debate inside the People’s Republic of China about the country’s proper strategic goals. Many intellectuals and policy-makers are asking how China can convert its new economic power into enduring political and cultural influence around the globe. The key question they are seeking to answer is: “How would China order the (post-western) world?”
Beijing’s official view - first outlined by Hu Jintao, China’s president, at the United Nations in September 2005 - is that China is guided by the notion of “building a harmonious world” (????). But two other visions of China’s purpose in the global arena are growing in influence alongside this one: an unofficial view of a Chinese-style utopian world society, and a quasi-official description of how China can compete to become the world’s “number-one power”.
This article examines these different visions of China’s grand strategy in a post-western world, and suggests briefly what kind of response western powers might be best advised to take to them.
Official policy: "building a harmonious world”
The concept of world order embodied in the idea of “harmonious world” (hexie shijie) is an extension into the arena of foreign relations of Hu Jintao’s domestic-policy equivalent, the “harmonious society". Indeed, Chinese officials and scholars regularly proclaim “harmonious society” - whose formal aim is to use state power to “close the wealth divide and ease growing social tensions” - to be “the model for the world”. By this logic, writers in China explain “building a harmonious world” as a new and better route to “lasting peace and common prosperity” that will allow different civilisations to coexist in the global community.
In practice, the official view of hexie shijie lacks detail. The Beijing government tends to describe the policy in terms of vague platitudes, making it hard (for example) to establish whether the strong state thought essential to building a “harmonious society” is also needed to build a “harmonious world”. Other channels are more outspoken; the Hong Kong Wen Wei Po has called on Beijing to be the “‘formulator, participant and defender of world order,’ in order to push the entire world toward harmony.”
http://oilprice.com/Geo-Politics/Asia/Chinas-Strategy-for-a-Post-Western-World.html
Raoul Moat Folk Hero
A large Facebook following is growing for wanted man Raoul Moat. Hundreds of people have joined the group on the popular website. below are some extracts from the site
"Big man Raoul certainly showed that loser Chris Brown what happens when you mess with another man's woman! Big hard man karate expert comes out of the house with an iron bar... bang bang! He won't be doing that again will he?"
"As for his slaggy bird Stobbart, better that she doesn't recover, 'cause if she does Big Raoul is gonna be back to finish the job!"
"The coppers will never take him alive. He'll take twenty of them down before going down in a blaze of glory."
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=135966699761019&v=wall&ref=ts
"Big man Raoul certainly showed that loser Chris Brown what happens when you mess with another man's woman! Big hard man karate expert comes out of the house with an iron bar... bang bang! He won't be doing that again will he?"
"As for his slaggy bird Stobbart, better that she doesn't recover, 'cause if she does Big Raoul is gonna be back to finish the job!"
"The coppers will never take him alive. He'll take twenty of them down before going down in a blaze of glory."
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=135966699761019&v=wall&ref=ts
BP Board Game
A rare 1970s BP game – yes, that’s the company badge on the box – promises all the ‘thrills of drilling’ offshore, with the first player to earn $120million being crowned the winner.
This also made it into the huffington post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/06/bp-board-game-from-the-70_n_636145.html
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/834121-rare-1970s-bp-board-game-promises-oil-thrills-comes-back-to-haunt-them
Wednesday 7 July 2010
Barry Prudom and the siege of Malton
The last time the cops got the run around like they are getting now with Raoul Moat was when gunman Barry Prudom went on the rampage in Malton Yorkshire on June 17, 1982. He managed to avoid the cops for 17 days and they gave up and called in an ex SAS tracker.when PC David Haigh was delivering a summons to a poacher in North Yorkshire's Washburn Valley.
When he didn't return, his colleague and friend Mick Clipston went in search of him.
Clipston found the police car with its doors open and David Haigh dead beside it. He had been shot in the forehead. It was the beginning of the biggest armed manhunt in British police history: one that lasted 17 days.
Having cleared the poacher of suspicion, police were left with a murder but no apparent motive - and almost no evidence. Written on a clipboard, found under Haigh's body, was a date of birth, a name and a car registration number.
But the name was false, and the car was found abandoned three days later, 25 miles away. The trail was cold.
Meanwhile, the gunman was on the move. In Lincolnshire he broke into a house. Then, 20 miles away, on the fifth day of the police hunt, he entered the home of Sylvia and George Luckett, shooting both in the head before escaping in their car. George died instantly, but his wife crawled next door for help. She survived, but to this day remembers nothing.
When he didn't return, his colleague and friend Mick Clipston went in search of him.
Clipston found the police car with its doors open and David Haigh dead beside it. He had been shot in the forehead. It was the beginning of the biggest armed manhunt in British police history: one that lasted 17 days.
Having cleared the poacher of suspicion, police were left with a murder but no apparent motive - and almost no evidence. Written on a clipboard, found under Haigh's body, was a date of birth, a name and a car registration number.
But the name was false, and the car was found abandoned three days later, 25 miles away. The trail was cold.
Meanwhile, the gunman was on the move. In Lincolnshire he broke into a house. Then, 20 miles away, on the fifth day of the police hunt, he entered the home of Sylvia and George Luckett, shooting both in the head before escaping in their car. George died instantly, but his wife crawled next door for help. She survived, but to this day remembers nothing.
Russia’s N. Korean Refugee Drill
Russia conducted over the weekend an emergency drill to respond to a massive inflow of North Korean refugees in the settlement of Khasan, Primorsky Krai. Russian soldiers played the role of refugees and others set up camps and provided food and medical supplies. The drill was the second of its kind following one in August 2003. Moscow apparently believes that a contingency could happen at any time due to internal instability in North Korea.
The drill was part of Vostok 2010, a military maneuver conducted by the Russian army, navy and air force, that runs through Thursday. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev reportedly observed the exercise and stressed the importance of deterrence to deal with the rapidly changing situation in Northeast Asia. Russia has presented itself as a guardian of North Korea in international society. After the sinking of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan, however, Moscow has not condemned Pyongyang for the provocation though it secured sufficient evidence of the North’s involvement by sending its inspectors to Seoul. So the drill testifies to growing instability in North Korea.
In August 2008, Russia conducted a joint military drill with China in border areas with the North. American experts said the exercise was to prevent U.S. forces from advancing to the North Korean border with Russia and China in case of a contingency in the North and U.S. forces’ subsequent entry into the North. This indicates that Beijing and Moscow are simultaneously preparing for an influx of North Korean refugees and for U.S. military entry into the North.
The fate of the Stalinist country grew more unclear after leader Kim Jong Il reportedly fell ill in 2008. Pyongyang has apparently stepped up preparation to transfer power to Kim’s youngest son Kim Jong Un. The elder Kim showed anxiety over the succession by having his younger sister Kyong Hui and her husband Jang Sung Taek follow him instead of his close aides at public appearances this year.
Signs are appearing that the North could be in a situation uncontrollable by its government due to severe internal instability. South Korea should also be prepared for an emergency with a sense of urgency and carry out drills like Russia and China are doing. If Seoul fails to make thorough preparation, peace on the Korean Peninsula could be threatened by a sudden turn of events.
Link that with this
http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=53975
The drill was part of Vostok 2010, a military maneuver conducted by the Russian army, navy and air force, that runs through Thursday. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev reportedly observed the exercise and stressed the importance of deterrence to deal with the rapidly changing situation in Northeast Asia. Russia has presented itself as a guardian of North Korea in international society. After the sinking of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan, however, Moscow has not condemned Pyongyang for the provocation though it secured sufficient evidence of the North’s involvement by sending its inspectors to Seoul. So the drill testifies to growing instability in North Korea.
In August 2008, Russia conducted a joint military drill with China in border areas with the North. American experts said the exercise was to prevent U.S. forces from advancing to the North Korean border with Russia and China in case of a contingency in the North and U.S. forces’ subsequent entry into the North. This indicates that Beijing and Moscow are simultaneously preparing for an influx of North Korean refugees and for U.S. military entry into the North.
The fate of the Stalinist country grew more unclear after leader Kim Jong Il reportedly fell ill in 2008. Pyongyang has apparently stepped up preparation to transfer power to Kim’s youngest son Kim Jong Un. The elder Kim showed anxiety over the succession by having his younger sister Kyong Hui and her husband Jang Sung Taek follow him instead of his close aides at public appearances this year.
Signs are appearing that the North could be in a situation uncontrollable by its government due to severe internal instability. South Korea should also be prepared for an emergency with a sense of urgency and carry out drills like Russia and China are doing. If Seoul fails to make thorough preparation, peace on the Korean Peninsula could be threatened by a sudden turn of events.
Link that with this
http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=53975
The Stazi UK Police
Hat tip to Dish on Guido Fawkes
The Unsettling Comparison of the Common Purpose
British Police Force (State Service) with that of
Communist East Germany’s Stasi
N.B: These many comparisons are underlined at each point for
readers to then consider.
At the time of political division within Germany the Communist
East (German Democratic Republic) had a police force of
almost paramilitary purpose. They were called the Stasi. The
Stasi were a secret police who monitored politically incorrect
behaviour amongst all citizens (1) of East Germany,
sometimes venturing into West Germany. They were highly
regarded as one of the most effective intelligence agencies in
the world. Their motto was "Schild und Schwert der Partei"
(Shield and Sword of the Party (2)). It was modelled on the
Soviet MGB.
During the 1989 peaceful revolution, offices of the Stasi were
overrun by enraged citizens. The Stasi promptly burnt a lot of
their files, but those that still remain show that the people who
reported their fellow citizens to the Stasi were more often the
victims’ friends, colleagues, husbands, wives and other family
members. (3) This social division and mutual treachery (4) is
one that, throughout their ‘Thought Police’ tactics of silencing
opposition to them, our very own government aspires to.
Unarguably, this is the ultimate goal of our own state.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall it was revealed that the Stasi
had aided Left-wing terrorists (5) such as Baader-Meinhof
(Red Army Faction). The consequent dissolution of the state of
East Germany spelt and end to the Stasi and subsequently an
end to support of these groups, which obviously led to their
demise.
The Stasi’s influence over almost every aspect of life (6) in the
German Democratic Republic cannot be overestimated. Until
the mid-1980s, a civilian network of informants grew within
East and West Germany. These were called Inoffizielle
Mitarbeiter (IMs), or unofficial collaborator. When East
Germany finally collapsed in 1989, it is estimated that the
Stasi had 91,000 full time employees and 300,000 informants.
This means approximately one in fifty East Germans
collaborated with the Stasi, one of the highest penetrations of
any society by an organisation.
1) As we all know politically incorrect behaviour such as
displaying a cuddy toy in a shop window will result in
prosecution because the state police (Stasi) consider it a ’hate
crime’ and thus takes priority over rapes and murders.
Children as young as 10 calling other children names in the
playground WILL be arrested if they mention another child’s
obvious racial features or supposed sexual persuasion. This
happened to a young boy at a primary school in Irlam, Salford
after he got involved in an argument, as kids do, with a pupil
of ‘mixed-race’ appearance. The police arrested the minor and
the Clown Prosecution Service decided to press charges.
2) The police have, since the neo-Communist Labour Party
seized power with a mandate of only 21 per cent of the
electorate, become more and more politicised to the extent of
being under the due care and Red despotic jackboot of the
Dear Leadership. Once the republicans have got their way, and
the Crown on police uniforms is replaced with something
approximating the hammer and sickle, then the police will
proudly display the “Shield and Sword of the Party”.
3) A lot of the mindless in today’s society have become state
operatives. They use the Marxist tools of political ‘correctness’,
Race Acts and dubious laws to silence free speech and report
the ‘offender’ to a police ‘force’ that is now servile, gutless and
obsequiously obedient to their masters and the targets these
despots have set for their toy foot soldiers.
4) The division of society has been a prerequisite to the state
reigning totalitarian over us. “Strength in Unity” is an adage
that once summarised the both physical and moral strength of
the communities we lived in and once enjoyed the solidarity
of. The dismantling of this strength was a precursor to the
doubt, confusion and distrust of our kith and kin that was soon
to follow. Surrounded by all this disorder and mistrust of
fellow man, who do people turn to; who do they put their trust
in for the hope of being defended against the social anarchy
that has been created? The government - and don’t they just
arrogantly rejoice in the ironic action of the public seeking
support from the very same people who exacted the threat
over them. “Trust no one. Listen not to your hearts but to your
government.” - The Dear Leadership.
5) “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” and
these supposed freedom fighters of the Left are terrorists to
those right-minded citizens still in this country. By being such
slavish operatives of the state and its favouritism shown to the
communistic Nazis of the fascist Left, the police are aiding and
abetting the downfall not only of our people but of our country.
The Left, the mentally deranged opposition to democracy,
constantly riot at demonstrations (anti-globalisation march in
London) and are invariably violent at days of action held by
the Right -but they are seldom prosecuted.
6) We are now living in a very real police state. With the
advent of the disproportionate amount of C.C.T.V. cameras
prying upon our every action, we have become the most
watched nation in the world. Other infringements on our
ancient liberties and private freedoms that have been
proposed are I.D. cards and the reintroduction of house arrest
(internment). This is Indicative of central government trying to
monitor behaviour for the purpose of fulfilling their own their
own self-righteousness. If their personal views lead to actions
are in their minds ‘fair’, ‘socially just’ and for the ‘benefit of the
people’ then how can they be wrong? How can their repressive
stance on society plausibly be impeached?
http://www.stopcp.com/The%20Unsettling%20Comparison%20of%20the%20Common%20Purpose%20British%20Police%20Force.pdf
The Unsettling Comparison of the Common Purpose
British Police Force (State Service) with that of
Communist East Germany’s Stasi
N.B: These many comparisons are underlined at each point for
readers to then consider.
At the time of political division within Germany the Communist
East (German Democratic Republic) had a police force of
almost paramilitary purpose. They were called the Stasi. The
Stasi were a secret police who monitored politically incorrect
behaviour amongst all citizens (1) of East Germany,
sometimes venturing into West Germany. They were highly
regarded as one of the most effective intelligence agencies in
the world. Their motto was "Schild und Schwert der Partei"
(Shield and Sword of the Party (2)). It was modelled on the
Soviet MGB.
During the 1989 peaceful revolution, offices of the Stasi were
overrun by enraged citizens. The Stasi promptly burnt a lot of
their files, but those that still remain show that the people who
reported their fellow citizens to the Stasi were more often the
victims’ friends, colleagues, husbands, wives and other family
members. (3) This social division and mutual treachery (4) is
one that, throughout their ‘Thought Police’ tactics of silencing
opposition to them, our very own government aspires to.
Unarguably, this is the ultimate goal of our own state.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall it was revealed that the Stasi
had aided Left-wing terrorists (5) such as Baader-Meinhof
(Red Army Faction). The consequent dissolution of the state of
East Germany spelt and end to the Stasi and subsequently an
end to support of these groups, which obviously led to their
demise.
The Stasi’s influence over almost every aspect of life (6) in the
German Democratic Republic cannot be overestimated. Until
the mid-1980s, a civilian network of informants grew within
East and West Germany. These were called Inoffizielle
Mitarbeiter (IMs), or unofficial collaborator. When East
Germany finally collapsed in 1989, it is estimated that the
Stasi had 91,000 full time employees and 300,000 informants.
This means approximately one in fifty East Germans
collaborated with the Stasi, one of the highest penetrations of
any society by an organisation.
1) As we all know politically incorrect behaviour such as
displaying a cuddy toy in a shop window will result in
prosecution because the state police (Stasi) consider it a ’hate
crime’ and thus takes priority over rapes and murders.
Children as young as 10 calling other children names in the
playground WILL be arrested if they mention another child’s
obvious racial features or supposed sexual persuasion. This
happened to a young boy at a primary school in Irlam, Salford
after he got involved in an argument, as kids do, with a pupil
of ‘mixed-race’ appearance. The police arrested the minor and
the Clown Prosecution Service decided to press charges.
2) The police have, since the neo-Communist Labour Party
seized power with a mandate of only 21 per cent of the
electorate, become more and more politicised to the extent of
being under the due care and Red despotic jackboot of the
Dear Leadership. Once the republicans have got their way, and
the Crown on police uniforms is replaced with something
approximating the hammer and sickle, then the police will
proudly display the “Shield and Sword of the Party”.
3) A lot of the mindless in today’s society have become state
operatives. They use the Marxist tools of political ‘correctness’,
Race Acts and dubious laws to silence free speech and report
the ‘offender’ to a police ‘force’ that is now servile, gutless and
obsequiously obedient to their masters and the targets these
despots have set for their toy foot soldiers.
4) The division of society has been a prerequisite to the state
reigning totalitarian over us. “Strength in Unity” is an adage
that once summarised the both physical and moral strength of
the communities we lived in and once enjoyed the solidarity
of. The dismantling of this strength was a precursor to the
doubt, confusion and distrust of our kith and kin that was soon
to follow. Surrounded by all this disorder and mistrust of
fellow man, who do people turn to; who do they put their trust
in for the hope of being defended against the social anarchy
that has been created? The government - and don’t they just
arrogantly rejoice in the ironic action of the public seeking
support from the very same people who exacted the threat
over them. “Trust no one. Listen not to your hearts but to your
government.” - The Dear Leadership.
5) “One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” and
these supposed freedom fighters of the Left are terrorists to
those right-minded citizens still in this country. By being such
slavish operatives of the state and its favouritism shown to the
communistic Nazis of the fascist Left, the police are aiding and
abetting the downfall not only of our people but of our country.
The Left, the mentally deranged opposition to democracy,
constantly riot at demonstrations (anti-globalisation march in
London) and are invariably violent at days of action held by
the Right -but they are seldom prosecuted.
6) We are now living in a very real police state. With the
advent of the disproportionate amount of C.C.T.V. cameras
prying upon our every action, we have become the most
watched nation in the world. Other infringements on our
ancient liberties and private freedoms that have been
proposed are I.D. cards and the reintroduction of house arrest
(internment). This is Indicative of central government trying to
monitor behaviour for the purpose of fulfilling their own their
own self-righteousness. If their personal views lead to actions
are in their minds ‘fair’, ‘socially just’ and for the ‘benefit of the
people’ then how can they be wrong? How can their repressive
stance on society plausibly be impeached?
http://www.stopcp.com/The%20Unsettling%20Comparison%20of%20the%20Common%20Purpose%20British%20Police%20Force.pdf
Afghan TV Confirms Mullah Omar in Pakistani Custody
Our reporting was subsequently backed up by The Jawa Report, Oliver North, Millblogger Baba Tim, Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive.net, the Nation, and Iranian Television. Even Newsweek magazine added a dog to the hunt with their story, “Taliban in Turmoil,” chronicling the total disarray the Taliban have been in since Mullah Omar disappeared.
Marking the sixth confirmation of our exclusive story, Afghan Television is now reporting that Mullah Omar has indeed been captured by the Pakistanis.
More as this situation develops.
http://bigpeace.com/bthor/2010/07/06/afghan-tv-confirms-bigs-scoop-mullah-omar-in-pakistani-custody/
Met Snipers.
CO19 is the branch name given to the Specialist Firearm Command branch of the Metropolitan Police Service that provides firearms-related support to our unarmed colleagues. The branch is comprised of a small number of officers who are highly trained and motivated in dealing with all aspects of the criminal use of firearms. Operationally, our branch is here to provide armed support to allow the vast majority of policing activities throughout London to be conducted in the traditional manner by unarmed officers.
Formerly known as SO19, the branch has recently moved into the Central Operations directorate of the organisation but our role within the Service is unchanged. The officer in command of CO19 is Chief Superintendent Bill Tillbrook.
Operational
For example the crews for Armed Response Vehicles, teams of Specialist Firearms Officers who deal with pre-planned firearms operations and the Rifle Section, which provides a counter-sniper capability.
http://www.met.police.uk/co19/
Riots, Rebellion and Revolution,republished here by request.
The Global Economic Crisis: Riots, Rebellion and Revolution
by Andrew Gavin Marshall
As nations of the world are thrown into a debt crisis, the likes of which have never been seen before, harsh fiscal ‘austerity’ measures will be undertaken in a flawed attempt to service the debts. The result will be the elimination of the middle class. When the middle class is absorbed into the labour class – the lower class – and lose their social, political, and economic foundations, they will riot, rebel, and revolt.
Ratings Agency Predicts Civil Unrest
Moody’s is a major ratings agency, which performs financial research and analysis on governments and commercial entities and ranks the credit-worthiness of borrowers. On March 15, Moody’s warned that the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Spain “are all at risk of soaring debt costs and will have to implement austerity plans that threaten ‘social cohesion’.” Further, Moody’s warned that such ‘austerity’ measures increase the potential for ‘social unrest’:
"Growth alone will not resolve an increasingly complicated debt equation. Preserving debt affordability at levels consistent with AAA ratings will invariably require fiscal adjustments of a magnitude that, in some cases, will test social cohesion," said Pierre Cailleteau, the chief author.
"We are not talking about revolution, but the severity of the crisis will force governments to make painful choices that expose weaknesses in society," he said.[1]
In other words, due to the massive debt levels of western nations taken on to save the banks from the crisis they caused, the people must now pay through a reduction of their standards of living. Naturally, social unrest would follow.
This has not been the first or only warning of “social unrest” in the west, and it certainly won’t be the last.
The Economic Crisis and Civil Unrest
At the onset of the economic crisis, these warnings were numerous. While many will claim that since we have moved on since the fall of 2008, these warnings are no longer valid. However, considering that the western world is on the verge of a far greater economic crisis that will spread over the next few years, from Greece to America, a great global debt depression, these warnings should be reviewed with an eye on the near future.
In December of 2008, in the midst of the worst period of the crisis of 2008, the IMF issued a warning to government’s of the west to “step up action to stem the global economic crisis or risk delaying a recovery and sparking violent unrest on the streets.”[2] However, governments did not stem or stop the economic crisis, they simply delayed the eventual and inevitable crisis to come, the debt crisis. In fact, the actions governments took to “stem” the economic crisis, or delay it, more accurately, have, in actuality, exacerbated the compound effects that the crisis will ultimately have. In short, bailing out the banks has created a condition in which an inevitable debt crisis will become far greater in scope and devastation than had they simply allowed the banks to fail.
Even the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the most prestigious financial institution in the world – the central bank to the world’s central banks – has warned that the bailouts have put the global economy in potentially far greater peril. The BIS warned that, “The scope and magnitude of the bank rescue packages also meant that significant risks had been transferred onto government balance sheets.”[3]
The head of the IMF warned that, “violent protests could break out in countries worldwide if the financial system was not restructured to benefit everyone rather than a small elite.”[4] However, he is disingenuous in his statements, as he and the institution he represents are key players in that “small elite” that benefit from the global financial system; this is the very system he serves.
In late December of 2008, “A U.S. Army War College report warn[ed] an economic crisis in the United States could lead to massive civil unrest and the need to call on the military to restore order.” The report stated:
Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities ... to defend basic domestic order and human security.[5]
Further revealed in the news release was the information that, “Pentagon officials said as many as 20,000 Soldiers under the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) will be trained within the next three years to work with civilian law enforcement in homeland security.”[6]
Europe in Social Crisis
In January of 2009, it was reported that Eastern Europe was expected to experience a “dangerous popular backlash on the streets” over the spring in response to the economic crisis:
Hit increasingly hard by the financial crisis, countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and the Baltic states face deep political destabilisation and social strife, as well as an increase in racial tension.
Last week protesters were tear-gassed as they threw rocks at police outside parliament in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, in a protest against an austerity package including tax rises and benefit cuts.[7]
In January of 2009, Latvia experienced the largest protests since the mass rallies against Soviet rule in the late 1980s, with the protests eventually turning into riots. Similar “outbursts of civil unrest” spread across the “periphery of Europe.”[8]
This should be taken as a much larger warning, as the nations of Eastern Europe are forced into fiscal ‘austerity’ measures before they spread through the western world. Just as throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, countries of the ‘global south’, which signed Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) with the IMF and World Bank, were forced to undertake neoliberal reforms and harsh fiscal austerity measures. The people of these nations rioted and rebelled, in what was cynically referred to as “IMF riots”. What our nations have done abroad, in the name of ‘aid’ but in the intent of empire, is now coming home. The west will undergo its very own “IMF riots”.
The fears of civil unrest, however, were not confined simply to the periphery of Europe. In January of 2009, a massive French strike was taking place, as “teachers, television employees, postal workers, students and masses of other public-sector workers” were expressing discontent with the handling of the economic crisis; as “A depression triggered in America is being played out in Europe with increasing violence, and other forms of social unrest are spreading.”[9]
By late January, France was “paralysed by a wave of strike action, the boulevards of Paris resembling a debris-strewn battlefield.” Yet, the ‘credit crunch’ had hit harder in Eastern Europe and the civil unrest was greater, as these countries had abandoned Communism some twenty years prior only to be crushed under the “free market” of Capitalism, leading many to feel betrayed: “Europe's time of troubles is gathering depth and scale. Governments are trembling. Revolt is in the air.”[10]
Olivier Besancenot, the leader of France’s extreme left “is hoping the strike will be the first step towards another French revolution as the recession bites and protests multiply across Europe's second largest economy.” He told the Financial Times that, “We want the established powers to be blown apart,” and that, “We are going to reinvent and re-establish the anticapitalist project.”[11]
In January of 2009, Iceland’s government collapsed due to the pressures from the economic crisis, and amidst a storm of Icelanders protesting in anger against the political class. As the Times reported, “it is a sign of things to come: a new age of rebellion.” An economist at the London School of Economics warned that we could expect large-scale civil unrest beginning in March to May of 2009:
It will be caused by the rise of general awareness throughout Europe, America and Asia that hundreds of millions of people in rich and poor countries are experiencing rapidly falling consumption standards; that the crisis is getting worse not better; and that it has escaped the control of public authorities, national and international.[12]
In February of 2009, the Guardian reported that police in Britain were preparing for a “summer of rage” as “victims of the economic downturn take to the streets to demonstrate against financial institutions.” Police officials warned “that middle-class individuals who would never have considered joining demonstrations may now seek to vent their anger through protests this year.”[13]
In March, it was reported that “top secret contingency plans” had been drawn up to counter the threat posed by a possible “summer of discontent,” which “has led to the extraordinary step of the Army being put on standby.” The report revealed that, “What worries emergency planners most is that the middle classes, now struggling to cope with unemployment and repossessions, may take to the streets with the disenfranchised.”[14]
As the G20 met in London in early April 2009, mass protests took place, resulting in violence, “with a band of demonstrators close to the Bank of England storming a Royal Bank of Scotland branch, and baton-wielding police charging a sit-down protest by students.” While the majority of protests were peaceful, “some bloody skirmishes broke out as police tried to keep thousands of people in containment pens surrounding the Bank of England.”[15] Protests further broke out into riots as a Royal Bank of Scotland office was looted.[16] The following day, a man collapsed and died in central London during the protests shortly after having been assaulted by riot police.[17]
On May 1, 2009, major protests and riots broke out in Germany, Greece, Turkey, France and Austria, fuelled by economic tensions:
Police in Berlin arrested 57 people while around 50 officers were hurt as young demonstrators threw bottles and rocks and set fire to cars and rubbish bins. There were also clashes in Hamburg, where anti-capitalist protesters attacked a bank.
In Turkey, masked protesters threw stones and petrol bombs at police, smashing banks and supermarket windows in its biggest city, Istanbul. Security forces fired tear gas and water cannon at hundreds of rioters and more than a hundred were arrested with dozens more hurt. There were also scattered skirmishes with police in the capital, Ankara, where 150,000 people marched.[18]
There were further protests and riots that broke out in Russia, Italy, Spain, and some politicians were even discussing the threat of revolution.[19]
As a debt crisis began spreading throughout Europe in Greece, Portugal, and Spain, social unrest followed suit. Riots and protests increasingly took place in Greece, showing signs of things to come to all other western nations, which will sooner or later have to face the harsh reality of their odious debts.[20]
Is Civil Unrest Coming to America?
In February of 2009, Obama’s intelligence chief, Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the economic crisis has become the greatest threat to U.S. national security:
I’d like to begin with the global economic crisis, because it already looms as the most serious one in decades, if not in centuries ... Economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they are prolonged for a one- or two-year period... And instability can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have on law and order, which can spill out in dangerous ways into the international community.[21]
What this means, is that economic crises (“if they are prolonged for a one or two year period”) pose a major threat to the established powers – the governing and economic powers – in the form of social unrest and rebellion (“regime-threatening instability”). The colonial possessions – Africa, South America, and Asia – will experience the worst of the economic conditions, which “can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have.” This can then come back to the western nations and imperial powers themselves, as the riots and rebellion will spread home, but also as they may lose control of their colonial possessions – eliminating western elites from a position of power internationally, and acquiescence domestically: The rebellion and discontent in the ‘Third World’ “can spill out in dangerous ways into the international community.”
In the same month, the highest-ranking general in the United States, “Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ranks the financial crisis as a higher priority and greater risk to security than current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” He explained, “It's a global crisis. And as that impacts security issues, or feeds greater instability, I think it will impact on our national security in ways that we quite haven't figured out yet.”[22] Rest assured, they’ve figured it out, but they don’t want to tell you.
Again, in the same month, the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) warned that, “The global economic crisis could trigger political unrest equal to that seen during the 1930s.” He elaborated, “The crisis today is spreading even faster (than the Great Depression) and affects more countries at the same time.”[23]
In February of 2009, renowned economic historian and Harvard professor, Niall Ferguson, predicted a “prolonged financial hardship, even civil war, before the ‘Great Recession' ends,” and that, “The global crisis is far from over, [it] has only just begun, and Canada is no exception,” he said while at a speaking event in Canada. He explained, “Policy makers and forecasters who see a recovery next year are probably lying to boost public confidence,” while, “the crisis will eventually provoke political conflict.” He further explained:
There will be blood, in the sense that a crisis of this magnitude is bound to increase political as well as economic [conflict]. It is bound to destabilize some countries. It will cause civil wars to break out, that have been dormant. It will topple governments that were moderate and bring in governments that are extreme. These things are pretty predictable.[24]
Even in May of 2009, the head of the World Bank warned that, “the global economic crisis could lead to serious social upheaval,” as “there is a risk of a serious human and social crisis with very serious political implications.”[25]
Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Adviser, co-founder of the Trilateral Commission and a key architect of ‘globalization’ warned in February of 2009 that, “There's going to be growing conflict between the classes and if people are unemployed and really hurting, hell, there could be even riots!”[26]
In early May 2009, the New York Times reported on the results of a major poll, suggesting, “A solid majority of people in the major Western democracies expect a rise in political extremism in their countries as a result of the economic crisis.” Of those surveyed, 53% in Italy and the United States said they expected extremism is “certain to happen” or “probable” in the next three years. That percentage increases to 65% in Britain and Germany, and is at 60% in France and Spain.[27]
Over the summer of 2009, the major nations of the west and their corporate media machines promoted and propagandized the notion of an ‘economic recovery’, allowing dissent to quell, spending to increase, stock market speculation to accelerate, and people’s fears and concerns to subside. It was a massive organized propaganda effort, and it had major successes for a while. However, in the New Year, this illusion is largely being derided for what it is, a fantasy. With the slow but steady erosion of this economic illusion, fears of riots, rebellion and revolution return.
On March 1, 2010, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan warned President Obama about civil unrest, saying:
When we can't feed our families what do you tell us? Thou shalt not steal? When survival is the first law of nature? What are you going to do when black people and poor people erupt in the streets of America? It's coming! Will you use the federal troops, Mr. President, against the poor?[28]
A March 8 article in the Wall Street Journal speculated about the discontent among the American people in regards to the economy, suggesting that it is “likely” that the economy has “bottomed” and that it will simply “trudge along” until November. However, the author suggested that given all the growing discontent in a variety of areas, it wouldn’t be surprising to see some civil unrest:
Now, contrary to what you may read in the New York Times or the Huffington Post, the ugliness could come from anywhere – the Left, the Center or the Right. Almost everyone in America thinks they’ve been betrayed.[29]
Clearly, the possibility and inevitability of riots in the United States, and in fact in many western nations becomes increasingly apparent. The middle classes will likely become the most angered and mobilized populace, having their social foundations pulled out from under them, and with that, they are overcome with a ‘failure of expectations’ for their political and economic clout. With no social foundations on which to stand, a class cannot reach high in the political and economic ladder, nationally or internationally.
As documented in Part 2 of this series, the middle class, for the past few decades, has been a class living on debt, consuming on debt, surviving on debt and existing only in theory. As nations collapse into a global debt crisis, the middle classes and the college students will be plunged into a world which they have seldom known: poverty. As documented in Part 1 of this series, the global social systems of poverty, race and war are inextricably interrelated and dependent on one another. As the middle class is absorbed into the global poverty class – the labour class – our nations in the west vastly expand their hegemony over the world’s resources and key strategic points, rapidly accelerating military involvement in every region of the world. As war expands, poverty grows, and racial issues are exacerbated; thus, the government asserts a totalitarian system of control.
Will the Middle Class Become Revolutionary?
In 2007, a British Defence Ministry report was released assessing global trends in the world over the next 30 years. The report stated assuredly that, “During the next 30 years, every aspect of human life will change at an unprecedented rate, throwing up new features, challenges and opportunities.”[30] In regards to ‘globalization,’ the report states:
A key feature of globalization will be the continuing internationalization of markets for goods, services and labour, which will integrate geographically dispersed sets of customers and suppliers. This will be an engine for accelerating economic growth, but will also be a source of risk, as local markets become increasingly exposed to destabilizing fluctuations in the wider global economy... Also, there will continue to be winners and losers in a global economy led by market forces, especially so in the field of labour, which will be subject to particularly ruthless laws of supply and demand.[31]
Another major focus of the report is in the area of “Global Inequality,” of which the report states, over the next 30 years:
[T]he gap between rich and poor will probably increase and absolute poverty will remain a global challenge... Disparities in wealth and advantage will therefore become more obvious, with their associated grievances and resentments, even among the growing numbers of people who are likely to be materially more prosperous than their parents and grandparents. Absolute poverty and comparative disadvantage will fuel perceptions of injustice among those whose expectations are not met, increasing tension and instability, both within and between societies and resulting in expressions of violence such as disorder, criminality, terrorism and insurgency. They may also lead to the resurgence of not only anti-capitalist ideologies, possibly linked to religious, anarchist or nihilist movements, but also to populism and the revival of Marxism.[32]
The report states quite emphatically that there is a great potential for a revolution coming from the middle class:
The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx. The globalization of labour markets and reducing levels of national welfare provision and employment could reduce peoples’ attachment to particular states. The growing gap between themselves and a small number of highly visible super-rich individuals might fuel disillusion with meritocracy, while the growing urban under-classes are likely to pose an increasing threat to social order and stability, as the burden of acquired debt and the failure of pension provision begins to bite. Faced by these twin challenges, the world’s middle-classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest.[33]
Is Revolution the Right Way Forward?
As the world has already experienced the greatest transfer of wealth in human history, the greatest social transformation in world history is soon to follow. The middle classes of the west, long the foundations upon which the consumer capitalist system was based, are about to be radically reorganized and integrated into the global labour class. As this process commences and accelerates, the middle classes will begin to protest, riot, rebel, and possibly revolt.
We must ask ourselves: Is this the right way forward?
History is nothing but an example that when revolution takes place, it can quickly and effectively be hijacked by militant and extremist elements, often resulting in a situation worse than that prior to the revolution. Often, these elements themselves are co-opted by the ruling elite, ensuring that whatever regime rises in the ashes of the old, no matter how militant or radical, it will continue to serve and expand the entrenched interests of elites. This is the worst-case scenario of revolution, and with history as a guide, it is also a common occurrence. To understand the nature of co-opted revolutions and entrenched elites, one need only look at the revolutions in France and Russia.[34]
While the righteous indignation and anger of the western middle class population, and in fact, the global population as a whole, is entirely justified, there is an extreme danger in the possibilities of how such a revolutionary class may act. It is imperative to not take violent action, as it would merely be playing directly into the hands of states and global institutions that have been preparing for this eventuality for some time. Nations are becoming ‘Homeland Security States’, setting up surveillance societies, increasing the role of the military in domestic issues and policing, expanding the police state apparatus and militarizing society in general. Democracy is in decline; it is a dying idea. Nation states are increasingly tossing aside even the remaining vestiges of a democratic façade and preparing for a new totalitarianism to arise, in conjunction with the rise of a ‘new capitalism’.
Violent action and riots by the people of these nations will only result in a harsh and brutal closing of society, as the state clamps down on the people and installs an oppressive form of governance. This is a trend and process of which the people should not help speed along. Violent acts will result in violent oppression. While peaceful opposition may itself be oppressed and even violently repressed by the state apparatus, the notion of a clamp down on peaceful protesters is likely to increase dissatisfaction with the ruling powers, increase support for the protesters, and may ultimately speed up the process of a truly new change in governance. It’s difficult to demonize peaceful action.
While people will surely be in the streets, seeking to expand their social, political, and economic rights, we must undertake as a global society, a rapid and extensive expansion of our mental and intellectual rights and responsibilities. We cannot take to the streets without taking on the challenges of our minds. This cannot alone be a physical change in governance that people seek – not simply a political revolution – this must be coupled and driven by an intellectual revolution. What is required is a new Enlightenment, a new Renaissance. While the Enlightenment and Renaissance were western movements of thinking and social change, the new global Enlightenment must be a truly transnational and worldwide revolution in thinking.
Western Civilization has failed. It will continue to insist upon its own dominance, but it is a failure in regards to addressing the interests of all human civilization. Elites like to think that they are in absolute control and are all-powerful; this is not the case. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Take, for example, the integration of North America into a regional bloc like that of the European Union, an entirely elite-driven project of which the people largely know little or nothing about. Elites seek to force the people of this region to increasingly identify themselves as ‘North American’, just as elites in Europe increasingly push for a ‘European’ identity as opposed to a national identity. While the intended purpose of this social reorganization is to more easily control people, it has the effect of uniting some of these people in opposition to these elite-driven projects. Thus, those they seek to unite in order to control, are then united in opposition to their very control.
As the ‘globalization project’ of constructing a ‘new world order’ expands, built upon the concepts of global governance, elites will inadvertently unite the people of the world in opposition to their power-project. This is the intellectual well that must be tapped as soon as possible. Ideas for a truly new world, a true human ‘civilization’ – a “Humane Civilization” – must be constructed from ideas originating in all regions of the world, from all peoples, of all religions, races, ethnicities, social groups and standings. If we are to make human civilization work, it must work for all of humanity.
This will require a global “revolution in thinking”, which must precede any direct political action. The global social, political, and economic system must be deconstructed and built anew. The people of the world do not want war, it is the leaders – the powerful – who decide to go to war, and they are never the ones to fight them. War is a crime against humanity, a crime of poverty, of discrimination, of hate. The social, political and economic foundations of war must be dismantled. Socially constructed divides between people – such as race and ethnicity – must be dismantled and done away with. All people must be treated as people; racial and gender inequality is a crime against humanity itself.
Poverty is the greatest crime against humanity the world has ever known. Any society that permits such gross inequalities and absolute poverty, which calls itself ‘civilized’, is only an aberration of the word, itself. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated:
I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.[35]
_____
Very important info to use to prepare for the struggle to come. Please spread far and wide. General Joe
PS This would make a great teaching/planning tool and is perfect for “study groups.”
Endnotes
[1] Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Moody's fears social unrest as AAA states implement austerity plans. The Telegraph: March 15, 2010: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7450468/Moodys-fears-social-unrest-as-AAA-states-implement-austerity-plans.html
[2] Angela Balakrishnan, IMF chief issues stark warning on economic crisis. The Guardian: December 18, 2008: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/16/imf-financial-crisis
[3] BIS, International banking and financial market developments. BIS Quarterly Review: December 2008: page 20
[4] Angela Balakrishnan, IMF chief issues stark warning on economic crisis. The Guardian: December 18, 2008: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/16/imf-financial-crisis
[5] Military.com, Study: DoD May Act On US Civil Unrest. McClatchy-Tribune Information Services: December 29, 2008: http://www.military.com/news/article/study-dod-may-act-on-us-civil-unrest.html
[6] Ibid.
[7] Jason Burke, Eastern Europe braced for a violent 'spring of discontent'. The Observer: January 18, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/18/eu-riots-vilinius
[8] Philip P. Pan, Economic Crisis Fuels Unrest in E. Europe. The Washington Post: January 26, 2009: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/25/AR2009012502516.html
[9] Adrian Michaels, Europe's winter of discontent. The Telegraph: January 27, 2009: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/4363750/Europes-winter-of-discontent.html
[10] Ian Traynor, Governments across Europe tremble as angry people take to the streets. The Guardian: January 31, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/31/global-recession-europe-protests
[11] Ben Hall, French workers stage strike in protest at job losses and reforms. The Financial Times: January 29, 2009: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/71c25576-eda6-11dd-bd60-0000779fd2ac.html
[12] Roger Boyes, World Agenda: riots in Iceland, Latvia and Bulgaria are a sign of things to come. The Times: January 21, 2009: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5559773.ece
[13] Paul Lewis, Britain faces summer of rage – police. The Guardian: February 23, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/23/police-civil-unrest-recession
[14] Geraint Jones, MI5 Alert On Bank Riots. The Express: March 1, 2009: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/86981/MI5-alert-on-bank-riots
[15] Sam Jones, Jenny Percival and Paul Lewis, G20 protests: riot police clash with demonstrators. The Guardian: April 1, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/01/g20-summit-protests
[16] Telegraph TV, G20 protests: Rioters loot RBS as demonstrations turn violent. The Telegraph: April 1, 2009: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/g20-summit/5089870/G20-protests-Rioters-loot-RBS-as-demonstrations-turn-violent.html
[17] ITN, Police 'admit contact' with man killed at G20 protest. In The News: April 6, 2009: http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/health/crime/death-at-g20-police-silent-on-assault-reports-$1285968.htm
[18] Henry Samuel, Riots across Europe fuelled by economic crisis. The Telegraph: May 1, 2009: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/5258634/Riots-across-Europe-fuelled-by-economic-crisis.html
[19] Ibid.
[20] David Oakley, et. al., Europe fears rock global markets. The Financial Times: February 4, 2010: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a124518a-11cb-11df-b6e3-00144feab49a.html
[21] Stephen C. Webster, US intel chief: Economic crisis a greater threat than terrorism. Raw Story: February 13, 2009: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/US_intel_chief_Economic_crisis_greater_0213.html
[22] Tom Philpott, MILITARY UPDATE: Official: Financial crisis a bigger security risk than wars. Colorado Springs Gazette: February 1, 2009: http://www.gazette.com/articles/mullen-47273-military-time.html
[23] AFP, WTO chief warns of looming political unrest. AFP: February 7, 2009: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gpC1Q4gXJfp6EwMl1rMGrmA_a7ZA
[24] Heather Scoffield, 'There will be blood'. The Globe and Mail: February 23, 2009: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/article973785.ece
[25] BBC, World Bank warns of social unrest. BBC News: May 24, 2009: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8066037.stm
[26] Press TV, Economic Crisis: Brzezinski warns of riots in US. Global Research: February 21, 2009: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12392
[27] John C. Freed, Economic Crisis Raises Fears of Extremism in Western Countries. The New York Times: May 6, 2009: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/world/europe/07poll.html
[28] WBEZ, Farrakhan Warns Obama of Civil Unrest. Chicago Public Radio: March 1, 2010: http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=40331
[29] Evan Newmark, Mean Street: America’s Coming Civil Unrest? The Wall Street Journal: March 8, 2010: http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/03/08/mean-street-americas-coming-civil-unrest/
[30] DCDC, The DCDC Global Strategic Trends Programme, 2007-2036, 3rd ed. The Ministry of Defence, January 2007: page 1
[31] Ibid, page 3.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Ibid, page 81.
[34] For a look at the co-opting of the French Revolution by elites, see: Andrew Gavin Marshall, Global Power and Global Government: Evolution and Revolution of the Central Banking System. Global Research: July 21, 2009: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14464; For a look at the relationship between the Russian Revolution and powerful banking and corporate interests in America and Europe, see: Andrew Gavin Marshall, Origins of the American Empire: Revolution, World Wars and World Order. Global Research: July 28, 2009: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14552
[35] Rev. Martin Luther King, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. Speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html
Andrew Gavin Marshall is a Research Associate with the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is currently studying Political Economy and History at Simon Fraser University.
Andrew Gavin Marshall is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Andrew Gavin Marshall
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Again very important info to use to prepare for the struggle to come. Please spread far and wide. General Joe
PS This would make a great teaching/planning tool and is perfect for “study groups.”
-----
Notes for publishing:
The Global Economic Crisis: Riots, Rebellion and Revolution
Andrew Gavin Marshall
"In the same month, the highest-ranking general in the United States, “Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ranks the financial crisis as a higher priority and greater risk to security than current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” He explained, “It's a global crisis. And as that impacts security issues, or feeds greater instability, I think it will impact on our national security in ways that we quite haven't figured out yet.”[22] Rest assured, they’ve figured it out, but they don’t want to tell you."
Andrew Gavin Marshall
by Andrew Gavin Marshall
As nations of the world are thrown into a debt crisis, the likes of which have never been seen before, harsh fiscal ‘austerity’ measures will be undertaken in a flawed attempt to service the debts. The result will be the elimination of the middle class. When the middle class is absorbed into the labour class – the lower class – and lose their social, political, and economic foundations, they will riot, rebel, and revolt.
Ratings Agency Predicts Civil Unrest
Moody’s is a major ratings agency, which performs financial research and analysis on governments and commercial entities and ranks the credit-worthiness of borrowers. On March 15, Moody’s warned that the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Spain “are all at risk of soaring debt costs and will have to implement austerity plans that threaten ‘social cohesion’.” Further, Moody’s warned that such ‘austerity’ measures increase the potential for ‘social unrest’:
"Growth alone will not resolve an increasingly complicated debt equation. Preserving debt affordability at levels consistent with AAA ratings will invariably require fiscal adjustments of a magnitude that, in some cases, will test social cohesion," said Pierre Cailleteau, the chief author.
"We are not talking about revolution, but the severity of the crisis will force governments to make painful choices that expose weaknesses in society," he said.[1]
In other words, due to the massive debt levels of western nations taken on to save the banks from the crisis they caused, the people must now pay through a reduction of their standards of living. Naturally, social unrest would follow.
This has not been the first or only warning of “social unrest” in the west, and it certainly won’t be the last.
The Economic Crisis and Civil Unrest
At the onset of the economic crisis, these warnings were numerous. While many will claim that since we have moved on since the fall of 2008, these warnings are no longer valid. However, considering that the western world is on the verge of a far greater economic crisis that will spread over the next few years, from Greece to America, a great global debt depression, these warnings should be reviewed with an eye on the near future.
In December of 2008, in the midst of the worst period of the crisis of 2008, the IMF issued a warning to government’s of the west to “step up action to stem the global economic crisis or risk delaying a recovery and sparking violent unrest on the streets.”[2] However, governments did not stem or stop the economic crisis, they simply delayed the eventual and inevitable crisis to come, the debt crisis. In fact, the actions governments took to “stem” the economic crisis, or delay it, more accurately, have, in actuality, exacerbated the compound effects that the crisis will ultimately have. In short, bailing out the banks has created a condition in which an inevitable debt crisis will become far greater in scope and devastation than had they simply allowed the banks to fail.
Even the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the most prestigious financial institution in the world – the central bank to the world’s central banks – has warned that the bailouts have put the global economy in potentially far greater peril. The BIS warned that, “The scope and magnitude of the bank rescue packages also meant that significant risks had been transferred onto government balance sheets.”[3]
The head of the IMF warned that, “violent protests could break out in countries worldwide if the financial system was not restructured to benefit everyone rather than a small elite.”[4] However, he is disingenuous in his statements, as he and the institution he represents are key players in that “small elite” that benefit from the global financial system; this is the very system he serves.
In late December of 2008, “A U.S. Army War College report warn[ed] an economic crisis in the United States could lead to massive civil unrest and the need to call on the military to restore order.” The report stated:
Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities ... to defend basic domestic order and human security.[5]
Further revealed in the news release was the information that, “Pentagon officials said as many as 20,000 Soldiers under the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) will be trained within the next three years to work with civilian law enforcement in homeland security.”[6]
Europe in Social Crisis
In January of 2009, it was reported that Eastern Europe was expected to experience a “dangerous popular backlash on the streets” over the spring in response to the economic crisis:
Hit increasingly hard by the financial crisis, countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and the Baltic states face deep political destabilisation and social strife, as well as an increase in racial tension.
Last week protesters were tear-gassed as they threw rocks at police outside parliament in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, in a protest against an austerity package including tax rises and benefit cuts.[7]
In January of 2009, Latvia experienced the largest protests since the mass rallies against Soviet rule in the late 1980s, with the protests eventually turning into riots. Similar “outbursts of civil unrest” spread across the “periphery of Europe.”[8]
This should be taken as a much larger warning, as the nations of Eastern Europe are forced into fiscal ‘austerity’ measures before they spread through the western world. Just as throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, countries of the ‘global south’, which signed Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) with the IMF and World Bank, were forced to undertake neoliberal reforms and harsh fiscal austerity measures. The people of these nations rioted and rebelled, in what was cynically referred to as “IMF riots”. What our nations have done abroad, in the name of ‘aid’ but in the intent of empire, is now coming home. The west will undergo its very own “IMF riots”.
The fears of civil unrest, however, were not confined simply to the periphery of Europe. In January of 2009, a massive French strike was taking place, as “teachers, television employees, postal workers, students and masses of other public-sector workers” were expressing discontent with the handling of the economic crisis; as “A depression triggered in America is being played out in Europe with increasing violence, and other forms of social unrest are spreading.”[9]
By late January, France was “paralysed by a wave of strike action, the boulevards of Paris resembling a debris-strewn battlefield.” Yet, the ‘credit crunch’ had hit harder in Eastern Europe and the civil unrest was greater, as these countries had abandoned Communism some twenty years prior only to be crushed under the “free market” of Capitalism, leading many to feel betrayed: “Europe's time of troubles is gathering depth and scale. Governments are trembling. Revolt is in the air.”[10]
Olivier Besancenot, the leader of France’s extreme left “is hoping the strike will be the first step towards another French revolution as the recession bites and protests multiply across Europe's second largest economy.” He told the Financial Times that, “We want the established powers to be blown apart,” and that, “We are going to reinvent and re-establish the anticapitalist project.”[11]
In January of 2009, Iceland’s government collapsed due to the pressures from the economic crisis, and amidst a storm of Icelanders protesting in anger against the political class. As the Times reported, “it is a sign of things to come: a new age of rebellion.” An economist at the London School of Economics warned that we could expect large-scale civil unrest beginning in March to May of 2009:
It will be caused by the rise of general awareness throughout Europe, America and Asia that hundreds of millions of people in rich and poor countries are experiencing rapidly falling consumption standards; that the crisis is getting worse not better; and that it has escaped the control of public authorities, national and international.[12]
In February of 2009, the Guardian reported that police in Britain were preparing for a “summer of rage” as “victims of the economic downturn take to the streets to demonstrate against financial institutions.” Police officials warned “that middle-class individuals who would never have considered joining demonstrations may now seek to vent their anger through protests this year.”[13]
In March, it was reported that “top secret contingency plans” had been drawn up to counter the threat posed by a possible “summer of discontent,” which “has led to the extraordinary step of the Army being put on standby.” The report revealed that, “What worries emergency planners most is that the middle classes, now struggling to cope with unemployment and repossessions, may take to the streets with the disenfranchised.”[14]
As the G20 met in London in early April 2009, mass protests took place, resulting in violence, “with a band of demonstrators close to the Bank of England storming a Royal Bank of Scotland branch, and baton-wielding police charging a sit-down protest by students.” While the majority of protests were peaceful, “some bloody skirmishes broke out as police tried to keep thousands of people in containment pens surrounding the Bank of England.”[15] Protests further broke out into riots as a Royal Bank of Scotland office was looted.[16] The following day, a man collapsed and died in central London during the protests shortly after having been assaulted by riot police.[17]
On May 1, 2009, major protests and riots broke out in Germany, Greece, Turkey, France and Austria, fuelled by economic tensions:
Police in Berlin arrested 57 people while around 50 officers were hurt as young demonstrators threw bottles and rocks and set fire to cars and rubbish bins. There were also clashes in Hamburg, where anti-capitalist protesters attacked a bank.
In Turkey, masked protesters threw stones and petrol bombs at police, smashing banks and supermarket windows in its biggest city, Istanbul. Security forces fired tear gas and water cannon at hundreds of rioters and more than a hundred were arrested with dozens more hurt. There were also scattered skirmishes with police in the capital, Ankara, where 150,000 people marched.[18]
There were further protests and riots that broke out in Russia, Italy, Spain, and some politicians were even discussing the threat of revolution.[19]
As a debt crisis began spreading throughout Europe in Greece, Portugal, and Spain, social unrest followed suit. Riots and protests increasingly took place in Greece, showing signs of things to come to all other western nations, which will sooner or later have to face the harsh reality of their odious debts.[20]
Is Civil Unrest Coming to America?
In February of 2009, Obama’s intelligence chief, Dennis Blair, the Director of National Intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the economic crisis has become the greatest threat to U.S. national security:
I’d like to begin with the global economic crisis, because it already looms as the most serious one in decades, if not in centuries ... Economic crises increase the risk of regime-threatening instability if they are prolonged for a one- or two-year period... And instability can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have on law and order, which can spill out in dangerous ways into the international community.[21]
What this means, is that economic crises (“if they are prolonged for a one or two year period”) pose a major threat to the established powers – the governing and economic powers – in the form of social unrest and rebellion (“regime-threatening instability”). The colonial possessions – Africa, South America, and Asia – will experience the worst of the economic conditions, which “can loosen the fragile hold that many developing countries have.” This can then come back to the western nations and imperial powers themselves, as the riots and rebellion will spread home, but also as they may lose control of their colonial possessions – eliminating western elites from a position of power internationally, and acquiescence domestically: The rebellion and discontent in the ‘Third World’ “can spill out in dangerous ways into the international community.”
In the same month, the highest-ranking general in the United States, “Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ranks the financial crisis as a higher priority and greater risk to security than current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” He explained, “It's a global crisis. And as that impacts security issues, or feeds greater instability, I think it will impact on our national security in ways that we quite haven't figured out yet.”[22] Rest assured, they’ve figured it out, but they don’t want to tell you.
Again, in the same month, the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) warned that, “The global economic crisis could trigger political unrest equal to that seen during the 1930s.” He elaborated, “The crisis today is spreading even faster (than the Great Depression) and affects more countries at the same time.”[23]
In February of 2009, renowned economic historian and Harvard professor, Niall Ferguson, predicted a “prolonged financial hardship, even civil war, before the ‘Great Recession' ends,” and that, “The global crisis is far from over, [it] has only just begun, and Canada is no exception,” he said while at a speaking event in Canada. He explained, “Policy makers and forecasters who see a recovery next year are probably lying to boost public confidence,” while, “the crisis will eventually provoke political conflict.” He further explained:
There will be blood, in the sense that a crisis of this magnitude is bound to increase political as well as economic [conflict]. It is bound to destabilize some countries. It will cause civil wars to break out, that have been dormant. It will topple governments that were moderate and bring in governments that are extreme. These things are pretty predictable.[24]
Even in May of 2009, the head of the World Bank warned that, “the global economic crisis could lead to serious social upheaval,” as “there is a risk of a serious human and social crisis with very serious political implications.”[25]
Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Adviser, co-founder of the Trilateral Commission and a key architect of ‘globalization’ warned in February of 2009 that, “There's going to be growing conflict between the classes and if people are unemployed and really hurting, hell, there could be even riots!”[26]
In early May 2009, the New York Times reported on the results of a major poll, suggesting, “A solid majority of people in the major Western democracies expect a rise in political extremism in their countries as a result of the economic crisis.” Of those surveyed, 53% in Italy and the United States said they expected extremism is “certain to happen” or “probable” in the next three years. That percentage increases to 65% in Britain and Germany, and is at 60% in France and Spain.[27]
Over the summer of 2009, the major nations of the west and their corporate media machines promoted and propagandized the notion of an ‘economic recovery’, allowing dissent to quell, spending to increase, stock market speculation to accelerate, and people’s fears and concerns to subside. It was a massive organized propaganda effort, and it had major successes for a while. However, in the New Year, this illusion is largely being derided for what it is, a fantasy. With the slow but steady erosion of this economic illusion, fears of riots, rebellion and revolution return.
On March 1, 2010, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan warned President Obama about civil unrest, saying:
When we can't feed our families what do you tell us? Thou shalt not steal? When survival is the first law of nature? What are you going to do when black people and poor people erupt in the streets of America? It's coming! Will you use the federal troops, Mr. President, against the poor?[28]
A March 8 article in the Wall Street Journal speculated about the discontent among the American people in regards to the economy, suggesting that it is “likely” that the economy has “bottomed” and that it will simply “trudge along” until November. However, the author suggested that given all the growing discontent in a variety of areas, it wouldn’t be surprising to see some civil unrest:
Now, contrary to what you may read in the New York Times or the Huffington Post, the ugliness could come from anywhere – the Left, the Center or the Right. Almost everyone in America thinks they’ve been betrayed.[29]
Clearly, the possibility and inevitability of riots in the United States, and in fact in many western nations becomes increasingly apparent. The middle classes will likely become the most angered and mobilized populace, having their social foundations pulled out from under them, and with that, they are overcome with a ‘failure of expectations’ for their political and economic clout. With no social foundations on which to stand, a class cannot reach high in the political and economic ladder, nationally or internationally.
As documented in Part 2 of this series, the middle class, for the past few decades, has been a class living on debt, consuming on debt, surviving on debt and existing only in theory. As nations collapse into a global debt crisis, the middle classes and the college students will be plunged into a world which they have seldom known: poverty. As documented in Part 1 of this series, the global social systems of poverty, race and war are inextricably interrelated and dependent on one another. As the middle class is absorbed into the global poverty class – the labour class – our nations in the west vastly expand their hegemony over the world’s resources and key strategic points, rapidly accelerating military involvement in every region of the world. As war expands, poverty grows, and racial issues are exacerbated; thus, the government asserts a totalitarian system of control.
Will the Middle Class Become Revolutionary?
In 2007, a British Defence Ministry report was released assessing global trends in the world over the next 30 years. The report stated assuredly that, “During the next 30 years, every aspect of human life will change at an unprecedented rate, throwing up new features, challenges and opportunities.”[30] In regards to ‘globalization,’ the report states:
A key feature of globalization will be the continuing internationalization of markets for goods, services and labour, which will integrate geographically dispersed sets of customers and suppliers. This will be an engine for accelerating economic growth, but will also be a source of risk, as local markets become increasingly exposed to destabilizing fluctuations in the wider global economy... Also, there will continue to be winners and losers in a global economy led by market forces, especially so in the field of labour, which will be subject to particularly ruthless laws of supply and demand.[31]
Another major focus of the report is in the area of “Global Inequality,” of which the report states, over the next 30 years:
[T]he gap between rich and poor will probably increase and absolute poverty will remain a global challenge... Disparities in wealth and advantage will therefore become more obvious, with their associated grievances and resentments, even among the growing numbers of people who are likely to be materially more prosperous than their parents and grandparents. Absolute poverty and comparative disadvantage will fuel perceptions of injustice among those whose expectations are not met, increasing tension and instability, both within and between societies and resulting in expressions of violence such as disorder, criminality, terrorism and insurgency. They may also lead to the resurgence of not only anti-capitalist ideologies, possibly linked to religious, anarchist or nihilist movements, but also to populism and the revival of Marxism.[32]
The report states quite emphatically that there is a great potential for a revolution coming from the middle class:
The middle classes could become a revolutionary class, taking the role envisaged for the proletariat by Marx. The globalization of labour markets and reducing levels of national welfare provision and employment could reduce peoples’ attachment to particular states. The growing gap between themselves and a small number of highly visible super-rich individuals might fuel disillusion with meritocracy, while the growing urban under-classes are likely to pose an increasing threat to social order and stability, as the burden of acquired debt and the failure of pension provision begins to bite. Faced by these twin challenges, the world’s middle-classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest.[33]
Is Revolution the Right Way Forward?
As the world has already experienced the greatest transfer of wealth in human history, the greatest social transformation in world history is soon to follow. The middle classes of the west, long the foundations upon which the consumer capitalist system was based, are about to be radically reorganized and integrated into the global labour class. As this process commences and accelerates, the middle classes will begin to protest, riot, rebel, and possibly revolt.
We must ask ourselves: Is this the right way forward?
History is nothing but an example that when revolution takes place, it can quickly and effectively be hijacked by militant and extremist elements, often resulting in a situation worse than that prior to the revolution. Often, these elements themselves are co-opted by the ruling elite, ensuring that whatever regime rises in the ashes of the old, no matter how militant or radical, it will continue to serve and expand the entrenched interests of elites. This is the worst-case scenario of revolution, and with history as a guide, it is also a common occurrence. To understand the nature of co-opted revolutions and entrenched elites, one need only look at the revolutions in France and Russia.[34]
While the righteous indignation and anger of the western middle class population, and in fact, the global population as a whole, is entirely justified, there is an extreme danger in the possibilities of how such a revolutionary class may act. It is imperative to not take violent action, as it would merely be playing directly into the hands of states and global institutions that have been preparing for this eventuality for some time. Nations are becoming ‘Homeland Security States’, setting up surveillance societies, increasing the role of the military in domestic issues and policing, expanding the police state apparatus and militarizing society in general. Democracy is in decline; it is a dying idea. Nation states are increasingly tossing aside even the remaining vestiges of a democratic façade and preparing for a new totalitarianism to arise, in conjunction with the rise of a ‘new capitalism’.
Violent action and riots by the people of these nations will only result in a harsh and brutal closing of society, as the state clamps down on the people and installs an oppressive form of governance. This is a trend and process of which the people should not help speed along. Violent acts will result in violent oppression. While peaceful opposition may itself be oppressed and even violently repressed by the state apparatus, the notion of a clamp down on peaceful protesters is likely to increase dissatisfaction with the ruling powers, increase support for the protesters, and may ultimately speed up the process of a truly new change in governance. It’s difficult to demonize peaceful action.
While people will surely be in the streets, seeking to expand their social, political, and economic rights, we must undertake as a global society, a rapid and extensive expansion of our mental and intellectual rights and responsibilities. We cannot take to the streets without taking on the challenges of our minds. This cannot alone be a physical change in governance that people seek – not simply a political revolution – this must be coupled and driven by an intellectual revolution. What is required is a new Enlightenment, a new Renaissance. While the Enlightenment and Renaissance were western movements of thinking and social change, the new global Enlightenment must be a truly transnational and worldwide revolution in thinking.
Western Civilization has failed. It will continue to insist upon its own dominance, but it is a failure in regards to addressing the interests of all human civilization. Elites like to think that they are in absolute control and are all-powerful; this is not the case. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Take, for example, the integration of North America into a regional bloc like that of the European Union, an entirely elite-driven project of which the people largely know little or nothing about. Elites seek to force the people of this region to increasingly identify themselves as ‘North American’, just as elites in Europe increasingly push for a ‘European’ identity as opposed to a national identity. While the intended purpose of this social reorganization is to more easily control people, it has the effect of uniting some of these people in opposition to these elite-driven projects. Thus, those they seek to unite in order to control, are then united in opposition to their very control.
As the ‘globalization project’ of constructing a ‘new world order’ expands, built upon the concepts of global governance, elites will inadvertently unite the people of the world in opposition to their power-project. This is the intellectual well that must be tapped as soon as possible. Ideas for a truly new world, a true human ‘civilization’ – a “Humane Civilization” – must be constructed from ideas originating in all regions of the world, from all peoples, of all religions, races, ethnicities, social groups and standings. If we are to make human civilization work, it must work for all of humanity.
This will require a global “revolution in thinking”, which must precede any direct political action. The global social, political, and economic system must be deconstructed and built anew. The people of the world do not want war, it is the leaders – the powerful – who decide to go to war, and they are never the ones to fight them. War is a crime against humanity, a crime of poverty, of discrimination, of hate. The social, political and economic foundations of war must be dismantled. Socially constructed divides between people – such as race and ethnicity – must be dismantled and done away with. All people must be treated as people; racial and gender inequality is a crime against humanity itself.
Poverty is the greatest crime against humanity the world has ever known. Any society that permits such gross inequalities and absolute poverty, which calls itself ‘civilized’, is only an aberration of the word, itself. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated:
I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.[35]
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Very important info to use to prepare for the struggle to come. Please spread far and wide. General Joe
PS This would make a great teaching/planning tool and is perfect for “study groups.”
Endnotes
[1] Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Moody's fears social unrest as AAA states implement austerity plans. The Telegraph: March 15, 2010: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7450468/Moodys-fears-social-unrest-as-AAA-states-implement-austerity-plans.html
[2] Angela Balakrishnan, IMF chief issues stark warning on economic crisis. The Guardian: December 18, 2008: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/16/imf-financial-crisis
[3] BIS, International banking and financial market developments. BIS Quarterly Review: December 2008: page 20
[4] Angela Balakrishnan, IMF chief issues stark warning on economic crisis. The Guardian: December 18, 2008: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/16/imf-financial-crisis
[5] Military.com, Study: DoD May Act On US Civil Unrest. McClatchy-Tribune Information Services: December 29, 2008: http://www.military.com/news/article/study-dod-may-act-on-us-civil-unrest.html
[6] Ibid.
[7] Jason Burke, Eastern Europe braced for a violent 'spring of discontent'. The Observer: January 18, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/18/eu-riots-vilinius
[8] Philip P. Pan, Economic Crisis Fuels Unrest in E. Europe. The Washington Post: January 26, 2009: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/25/AR2009012502516.html
[9] Adrian Michaels, Europe's winter of discontent. The Telegraph: January 27, 2009: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/4363750/Europes-winter-of-discontent.html
[10] Ian Traynor, Governments across Europe tremble as angry people take to the streets. The Guardian: January 31, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/31/global-recession-europe-protests
[11] Ben Hall, French workers stage strike in protest at job losses and reforms. The Financial Times: January 29, 2009: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/71c25576-eda6-11dd-bd60-0000779fd2ac.html
[12] Roger Boyes, World Agenda: riots in Iceland, Latvia and Bulgaria are a sign of things to come. The Times: January 21, 2009: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5559773.ece
[13] Paul Lewis, Britain faces summer of rage – police. The Guardian: February 23, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/23/police-civil-unrest-recession
[14] Geraint Jones, MI5 Alert On Bank Riots. The Express: March 1, 2009: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/86981/MI5-alert-on-bank-riots
[15] Sam Jones, Jenny Percival and Paul Lewis, G20 protests: riot police clash with demonstrators. The Guardian: April 1, 2009: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/01/g20-summit-protests
[16] Telegraph TV, G20 protests: Rioters loot RBS as demonstrations turn violent. The Telegraph: April 1, 2009: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/g20-summit/5089870/G20-protests-Rioters-loot-RBS-as-demonstrations-turn-violent.html
[17] ITN, Police 'admit contact' with man killed at G20 protest. In The News: April 6, 2009: http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/health/crime/death-at-g20-police-silent-on-assault-reports-$1285968.htm
[18] Henry Samuel, Riots across Europe fuelled by economic crisis. The Telegraph: May 1, 2009: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/5258634/Riots-across-Europe-fuelled-by-economic-crisis.html
[19] Ibid.
[20] David Oakley, et. al., Europe fears rock global markets. The Financial Times: February 4, 2010: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a124518a-11cb-11df-b6e3-00144feab49a.html
[21] Stephen C. Webster, US intel chief: Economic crisis a greater threat than terrorism. Raw Story: February 13, 2009: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/US_intel_chief_Economic_crisis_greater_0213.html
[22] Tom Philpott, MILITARY UPDATE: Official: Financial crisis a bigger security risk than wars. Colorado Springs Gazette: February 1, 2009: http://www.gazette.com/articles/mullen-47273-military-time.html
[23] AFP, WTO chief warns of looming political unrest. AFP: February 7, 2009: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gpC1Q4gXJfp6EwMl1rMGrmA_a7ZA
[24] Heather Scoffield, 'There will be blood'. The Globe and Mail: February 23, 2009: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/article973785.ece
[25] BBC, World Bank warns of social unrest. BBC News: May 24, 2009: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8066037.stm
[26] Press TV, Economic Crisis: Brzezinski warns of riots in US. Global Research: February 21, 2009: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12392
[27] John C. Freed, Economic Crisis Raises Fears of Extremism in Western Countries. The New York Times: May 6, 2009: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/world/europe/07poll.html
[28] WBEZ, Farrakhan Warns Obama of Civil Unrest. Chicago Public Radio: March 1, 2010: http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=40331
[29] Evan Newmark, Mean Street: America’s Coming Civil Unrest? The Wall Street Journal: March 8, 2010: http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/03/08/mean-street-americas-coming-civil-unrest/
[30] DCDC, The DCDC Global Strategic Trends Programme, 2007-2036, 3rd ed. The Ministry of Defence, January 2007: page 1
[31] Ibid, page 3.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Ibid, page 81.
[34] For a look at the co-opting of the French Revolution by elites, see: Andrew Gavin Marshall, Global Power and Global Government: Evolution and Revolution of the Central Banking System. Global Research: July 21, 2009: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14464; For a look at the relationship between the Russian Revolution and powerful banking and corporate interests in America and Europe, see: Andrew Gavin Marshall, Origins of the American Empire: Revolution, World Wars and World Order. Global Research: July 28, 2009: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14552
[35] Rev. Martin Luther King, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. Speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html
Andrew Gavin Marshall is a Research Associate with the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is currently studying Political Economy and History at Simon Fraser University.
Andrew Gavin Marshall is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Andrew Gavin Marshall
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Again very important info to use to prepare for the struggle to come. Please spread far and wide. General Joe
PS This would make a great teaching/planning tool and is perfect for “study groups.”
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Notes for publishing:
The Global Economic Crisis: Riots, Rebellion and Revolution
Andrew Gavin Marshall
"In the same month, the highest-ranking general in the United States, “Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ranks the financial crisis as a higher priority and greater risk to security than current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” He explained, “It's a global crisis. And as that impacts security issues, or feeds greater instability, I think it will impact on our national security in ways that we quite haven't figured out yet.”[22] Rest assured, they’ve figured it out, but they don’t want to tell you."
Andrew Gavin Marshall
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