Israeli officials have shrugged off a suggestion that the US could withhold loan guarantees to pressure Israel over the Middle East peace process.
The finance minister said Israel did not need the guarantees, while the prime minister accused the Palestinians of holding up peace negotiations.
US envoy George Mitchell said this week the US could withhold loan guarantees to extract concessions from Israel.
The guarantees allow Israel to raise money cheaply overseas.
'Doing fine'
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz reacted by saying the Israeli economy was doing well.
“ Under American law, the United States can withhold support on loan guarantees to Israel ” George Mitchell US Middle East envoy
"We don't need to use these guarantees," he was quoted by Israeli media as saying.
"We are doing just fine. But several months ago we agreed with the American treasury on guarantees for 2010 and 2011, and there were no conditions."
In response to Mr Mitchell's comments, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said: "Everyone knows that the Palestinian Authority is refusing to renew the peace talks, while Israel has taken important and significant steps to kickstart the process."
Palestinian officials say Israel must completely halt settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which it occupied during the 1967 Israeli-Arab war, before negotiations can resume.
Since he came to office in 2009, President Barack Obama has focused closely on trying to get Israeli-Palestinian peace talks moving, but with little success.
Mr Mitchell, who is due to return to the Middle East this month in his latest attempt to restart negotiations, was asked on Wednesday in an interview with America's PBS how the US could bring pressure to bear on Israel.
"Under American law, the United States can withhold support on loan guarantees to Israel," he said.
Precedents
He noted that support for the guarantees had been reduced in 2003, but added that no sanctions were being considered and that he preferred persuasion.
Former US President George W Bush's administration whittled down backing for the guarantees after Israel built part of its West Bank barrier.
In 1991, $10bn of loan guarantees were withheld under former President George H W Bush to pressure Israel over the peace process.
The Israeli comments on the loan guarantees came after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signalled a shift in the US approach by saying that agreeing the borders of a future Palestinian state would deal with Palestinian concerns about settlement building.
Both sides should resume peace talks as soon as possible and without preconditions, she said.
But chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat played down the chances of peace talks, citing settlements.
The Israeli government has refused Palestinian demands for a complete halt to settlement building.
It has limited building work for 10 months in the West Bank, but not in East Jerusalem.
Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8450715.stm
The full body scanners that President Obama last night authorized to be rolled out in airports across the country at a cost of over $1 billion dollars not only produce detailed pictures of your genitals, but once inverted some of those images also display your naked body in full living color.
And you don’t need to be a graphics wizard using a $600 software suite like Photoshop to pull off the trick – inverting a photo is a simple process that takes one click and is an option available even in the most basic image editing software.
We were sent examples of the process by readers and then tested it for ourselves to confirm that simply inverting some of the pictures produced by the body scanners creates a near-perfect replica of a naked body in full color. (SOURCE OF IMAGE).
It is important to stress that this is a low resolution image. Airport screeners will have access to huge high definition images that, once inverted, will allow them to see every minute detail of your body.
The inversion trick doesn’t work for all the sample images produced by body scanners, but with or without its application, every image will still show details of your sexual organs. Even without being inverted, the images already break child porn laws in the UK.
Reassurances that airport screeners won’t be abe to save the images will provide little comfort to parents who know that the crystal clear image of their naked son or daughter being ogled by a TSA thug can merely be snapped with a handheld camera for their enjoyment later.
Apologists for the scanners have routinely described the images they produce as “ghostly” or “skeletal” in an effort to downplay the intrusion of privacy they really represent.
As we reported yesterday, claims that the body scanners did not provide details of genitals were disproven after a London Guardian journalist who was present at a trial for the machines earlier this week reported that the devices produce an image which make “genitals eerily visible.”
German Security advisor Hans-Detlef Dau, a representative for a company that sells the scanners, admits that the machines, “show intimate piercings, catheters and the form of breasts and penises”.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
Indeed, as was admitted when the scanners were first being rolled out over a year ago, they don’t function properly if areas of the body are blurred out.
A report from October 2008, when the naked body scanners were first being introduced at Melbourne Airport in Australia, detailed how the X-ray backscatter devices don’t work properly unless the genitals of people going through them are visible.
“It will show the private parts of people, but what we’ve decided is that we’re not going to blur those out, because it severely limits the detection capabilities,” said Office of Transport Security manager Cheryl Johnson.
“It is possible to see genitals and breasts while they’re going through the machine,” she admitted.
TV news reports have been deliberately misleading viewers by blurring out faces and genitals of people in images produced by the scanners. When it comes to the real thing, your sexual organs and those of your children will be on full display to officials sat alone in back rooms, and with a simple inversion trick, your daughter’s naked body in full living high definition color will be there to be enjoyed by screeners.
Saturday, Jan 09 2010
Passenger forced off Detroit-bound plane after shouting 'I want to kill all the Jews'
By Wil Longbottom Last updated at 9:50 AM on 08th January 2010
Abusive: Mansor Mohammad Asad is alleged to have shouted 'I want to kill all the Jews' on board a flight at Miami airport before he was arrested
An airline passenger has been forced off a Detroit-bound plane and arrested after shouting 'I want to kill all the Jews'.
Miami police said in a statement today that 43-year-old Mansor Mohammad Asad, of Toledo, Ohio, faces several charges including disorderly conduct.
Police say the Northwest Airlines flight was taxiing at Miami International Airport yesterday, but was turned around after Asad became abusive.
Witnesses told authorities he was loud, disruptive and claimed to be Palestinian. They believed he was sometimes speaking Arabic.
The Transportation Security Administration said three of his companions were also taken off the plane and questioned.
The flight later took off after it was searched.
It comes as EU nations remained sharply divided over the need to install full-body scanners at European airports, with some countries playing down the need for increased security measures.
Italy today joined Britain, the U.S. and the Netherlands in announcing plans to install the scanners following the alleged attempt on Christmas Day to blow up an airliner flying from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Washington is seeking enhanced security measures on all transatlantic flights heading to the U.S.
European airports see thousands of passengers on more than 800 flights a day making the trip across the lucrative North Atlantic route.
But Belgium's secretary of state for transport, Etienne Schouppe, described the measures as 'excessive' and said security requirements at European airports were already 'strict enough'.
Spain has also expressed scepticism about the need for body scanners, and the German and French governments remain uncomitted.
Until now, the EU has allowed members states to decide on whether to use body scanners at airport checkpoints.
Divided: EU nations remain undecided on whether it is necessary to install full body scanners at European airports
'Excessive': Some European countries say tight airport security is already strict enough and there are concerns over privacy with full body scanners
In 2008, the EU suspended work regulating the use of body scanners after the European Parliament demanded a more in-depth study of their impact on health and privacy.
Amsterdam's Schipol Airport, where Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded a Detroit-bound plane allegedly carrying explosives sewn into his underwear, has 15 of the scanners and the Dutch have vowed to buy 60 more.
They are also retrofitting the scanners with software that projects a stylised human figure on to the computer rather than the actual body image to address privacy concerns.
Charges: Umar Abdulmutallab, 23, is alleged to have tried to detonate explosives in his underwear on board a Christmas Day flight to Detroit
Gordon Brown is pressing for Britain to add more scanners than the few they have been testing at London's Heathrow Airport, Europe's busiest terminal, Manchester and other sites.
In Italy, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said today that full body scanners will be installed at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport, Milan's Malpensa airport and possibly in Venice within the next three months.
'The right not to be blown up on an airplane is a more important right than privacy,' Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration, which uses 40 scanners throughout the United States, has announced plans to order dozens more.
A report into intelligence failings that led to the failed attack is due to be made public today by the White House. President Barack Obama will also reveal new steps intended to strengthen security.
Since the attempted attack on Christmas Day, the EU has been reevaluating its security regulations. Aviation experts now must assess whether body scanners can fit into EU legislation, officials said.
'We have to reach agreement together with the (European) parliament and member states,' Antonio Tajani, European Commission Vice President, said today.
'It's best to have a European solution than having individual member states deciding on their own.'
Any significant action on the issue would have to be taken by the European Commission, and approved by the EU parliament - a process that could take several months even if all member states agreed on the need.
Mr Schouppe said: 'We must have a common position for all European Union members states so that there is a real transparency between measures taken on the European side and the U.S. side.
'I have the feeling that (the Americans) are exaggerating. I don't know what kinds of controls they were using previously, but here, in Belgium and in the large majority of European airports, security controls were strict enough.'
Abdulmutallab was indicted yesterday on charges including attempted murder and trying to use a weapon of mass destruction to kill nearly 300 people.
The 23-year-old Nigerian was on a database of people with links to terrorists and his father had warned U.S. officials that he may have been radicalised, but that threat was never fully identified by U.S. intelligence officials.
2009 in Review: Top 10 News Stories About 9/11 You Don’t Want to Miss
Important 9/11 news stories were almost daily this year.
The news stories about 9/11 in our top 10 have one thing in common: most of them didn’t make it in the U.S. mainstream news and we cannot start this review without underlining this fact.
We feel like each of these stories should have been covered on prime time TV and become headlines for all major newspapers. They should have been investigated thoroughly by journalists. After all, 9/11 is still used as a pretext for war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and now Yemen which seems to be joining the extended “axis of evil” of the 21st Century. War against the invisible enemy called ‘terrorism’ is expanding and has no end in sight, and the press should lead the way to accountability.
It is a sad realization to know these stories were only covered by alternative medias like us, 911blogger.com, 911truth.org, etc, and we are grateful for the hard working activists who spend countless hours informing the public.
It is our deepest hope that the journalists who will read this review will understand the importance of talking about these stories, especially the two first stories of our top 10. We invite them to report on it. It will never be too late.
“Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it.” —Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States
Apologies to President Barack Obama
Before we start, we would also like to send our sincere apologies to President Barack Obama. He warned us in his historic speech titled A New Beginning this past June in Cairo, Egypt, that the elements of the 9/11 official story “are not opinions to be debated, but facts to be dealt with.”
Sorry M. Obama. We don’t buy that. Millions of us don’t. We hope our 2009 Top 10 News Stories about 9/11 will enlighten what you consider to be factual.
2009 was a great year for the 9/11 truth movement. We are growing by millions, now faster than ever, and we are going nowhere. One day or another, the U.S. administration will realize that our questions and the evidence that was not included in the 9/11 Commission Report are not simply opinions, but the result of a worldwide awaken public demanding more and more answers. Answers to critical questions that will have to be dealt with and debated. Hopefully in the peaceful context of a new independent investigation with subpoena powers. We can and should do this sooner than later.
We invite you to share this article with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Reddit and others (see the buttons on top and bottom of page). Help us make it go viral.
All comments are welcome on our website (bottom of page) and on our official Facebook page.
OK. Time to go get yourself a coffee, sit back and enjoy our 2009 Top 10 News Stories about 9/11.
It is not everyday that the Pentagon, the FBI, the CIA, the Secret Service, FEMA and other agencies are nervous regarding leaks from internal communications.Wikileaks did just that, for a period of 24 hours by releasing over half a million text pager intercepts from official agencies and ordinary citizens.
The messages were broadcast “live” to the global community — synchronized to the time of day they were sent. The first message was from 3AM September 11, 2001, five hours before the first attack, and the last, 24 hours later.
Messages in the archive range from Pentagon, FBI, FEMA and New York Police Department exchanges, to computers reporting faults at investment banks inside the World Trade Center.
The archive is a completely objective record of the defining moment of our time. Wikileaks hopes that its entrance into the historical record will lead to a nuanced understanding of how this event led to death, opportunism and war.
As official videographer for the U.S. government, Kurt Sonnenfeld was detailed to Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, where he spent one month filming 29 tapes: “What I saw at certain moments and in certain places… is very disturbing!” he says.
He never handed the tapes over to the authorities and has been persecuted ever since. Kurt Sonnenfeld lives in exile in Argentina, where he wrote El Perseguido (the persecuted). His recently-published book tells the story of his unending nightmare and drives another nail into the coffin of the government’s account of the 9/11 events.
Our original article features an exclusive interview with Kurt Sonnenfeld by Voltairenet.
“It was very odd to me when I learned that FEMA and several other federal agencies had already moved into position at their command center at Pier 92 on September 10th, one day before the attacks.” — Kurt Sonnenfeld, former Director of Broadcast Operations for FEMA’s National Emergency Response Team
This news story was the most popular story on World911Truth.org this year. It was meant to be a historic debate as it was first announced that Niels Harrit and Éric Laurent would also be part of it. But their presence was judged inconvenient by TV channel France 2 and they both were censored from the debate at the last minute.
This French 9/11 debate turned out to be an orchestrated attack against Kassovitz, Bigard and the 9/11 truth movement by France 2 “L’objet du Scandale” who had obviously no intention to create a fair and open debate in the first place. We deplore this and hope that a true debate will take place on the French scene soon and that experts like Niels Harrit and Éric Laurent will not be censored in the future.
Jean-Marie Bigard also makes it to the 7th place of our Top 10 9/11 News Stories of 2009.
French comedian Jean-Marie Bigard proposed to laugh at the 9/11 official story once a week during the summer… and we loved it.
After being vilified by the French press for his comments on the 9/11 attacks in 2008 on the Europe 1 channel for “denying the 9/11 events” — which is ludicrous and as far from the truth as you can get, and which resulted in an onslaught of hate mail and death threats — Bigard, one of France’s most successful stand-up comedians, came back strong in the 9/11 truth ring to deliver punch lines and punches at the 9/11 official story.
He created a series of 11 short videos viewed by millions (available with English subtitles, thanks to ReOpen911.info), each “laughing” at different disturbing elements of the official 9/11 Commission report.
#6 – AE911Truth at the AIA Conventions in Washington, DC and San Francisco
2009 clearly was a very good year for Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911Truth) founded by Richard Gage, AIA. They almost doubled their numbers of professionals architects and engineers supporting their call for a new investigation based on the evidence of explosive controlled-demolition of the WTC Twin Towers and Building #7 they present. They will very soon reach the 1,000 members mark and 2010 will most probably be one of their most important year, with several members sharing the public lead of this organization, notably Dwain Deets a former NASA engineering executive of 37 years.
But back to 2009. AE911Truth did something almost impossible. They were present at the huge annual AIA Convention in San Francisco in April to meet with hundreds of architects. They had a professional booth, flat screen monitors showing the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7. Banners, DVD’s, fliers, etc. Many A/E present at the convention were curious and ended up signing their petition. Most were exposed to Building 7 for the first time.
The fact that AE911Truth was present at this convention is historic by itself and is one of the reasons why they made it to our #6. Later, in July, they repeated this feat at the AIA convention in Washington, D.C.
During both conventions, local 9/11 truth groups and WeAreChange local members were there to help with many aspects of the organization. It is also important to point out that these successful events were only made possible because of our collective financial support which clearly made a huge difference. We invite you to keep on supporting them in the coming year because the more they progress, the more they will need us.
Watch one of the videos from the AIA convention in San Francisco in which Richard Gage, AIA gives a tour of the AE911Truth booth and talks to several architects. This video is a little bit long but the reaction of the last architect makes it all worth watching.
AE911Truth at the annual AIA convention in San Francisco
FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds was finally allowed to speak about much of what the Bush Administration spent years trying to keep her from discussing publicly on the record. Twice gagged by the Bush Dept. of Justice’s invocation of the so-called “State Secrets Privilege,” Edmonds has been attempting to tell her story, about the crimes she became aware of while working for the FBI, for years.
Thanks to a subpoena issued by the campaign of Ohio’s 2nd District Democratic U.S. Congressional candidate David Krikorian, her remarkable allegations of blackmail, bribery, espionage, infiltration, and criminal conspiracy by current and former members of the U.S. Congress, high-ranking State and Defense Department officials, and agents of the government of Turkey are seen and heard here, in full, for the first time, in her under-oath deposition. Both the complete video tape and transcript of the deposition are available on BradBlog.com.
“I have information about things that our government has lied to us about. I know. For example, to say that since the fall of the Soviet Union we ceased all of our intimate relationship with Bin Laden and the Taliban – those things can be proven as lies, very easily, based on the information they classified in my case, because we did carry very intimate relationship with these people, and it involves Central Asia, all the way up to September 11.” —Sibel Edmons during an interview with blogger Brad Friedman
Richard Gage, AIA of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911Truth) makes it to the #4 of our 2009 Top 10 News Stories about 9/11. AE911Truth’s recent successes are the testimony of the growing audience of the 9/11 truth movement. We believe AE911Truth is the most important organization in the 9/11 truth movement now and they deserve to be in our Top 10 again for their determination, their hard work, and especially for the quality of everything they produce.
Gage’s excellent presentation The Blueprint for Truth hit a high note on Saturday November 21st, 2009 at the Te Papa Museum in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital, home of nearly 400,000 people, when over 650 turned up to hear Richard Gage, AIA as part of The Hard Evidence Tour Down Under 2009.
It was the largest crowd Gage has ever spoken to since he began spreading his lecture about the scientific and forensic evidence of 9/11, evidence that demonstrates that World Trade Center Twin Towers and Building 7 were brought down by controlled demolition with explosives.
Many dedicated 9/11 truth activist would do many things to spend 20 minutes with the President and talk about 9/11. If only to debate the need of a new 9/11 independent investigation. And to present, on record, a series of evidence which cannot be ignored. Actor and activist Charlie Sheen did just that. Well, almost…
Alex Jones from Infowars.com described this news story as one of his most important story the day before its release. For those who know about the man’s work, this was quite an announcement. Jones and Sheen decided to bring 9/11 under the spotlight, nearly one week before the 8th anniversary. Sheen released a letter called 20 minutes with the President on Infowars.com and PrisonPlanet.com. The first hour after its release lead to some confusion as many people thought this was a real interview with Obama by Charlie Sheen. But this fictional interview was meant to get the full attention of a sleeping mainstream media, and of President Obama himself, whom Charlie Sheen has asked to meet with later on.
As one could expect, Sheen was vilified by the US press… for asking questions they should have asked a long time ago. Instead of looking at the carefully crafted letter, self-called pundits look the other way and used their name calling tactics against Sheen. Sheen replied by inviting them to a fair public debate on 9/11, and they all backed away.
Enough said. We will let Alex Jones and Charlie Sheen give you more details on this courageous effort that we salute.
Alex Jones on Charlie Sheen’s 20 minutes with the President
Charlie Sheen Video Message to President Barack Obama
This could have easily been our #1 if our actual top news story of 2009 wasn’t so explosive (pun intended). Despite the fact that the NYC CAN story is so important that it could be produced as a movie, the mainstream media – again – decided to completely ignore it. Shame.
NYC CAN, or New York City Coalition for Accountability Now is a collective of 9/11 victims’ families, of first responders, 9/11 survivors, 9/11 truth activists and volunteers. They have walked the streets of New York City during the spring and summer of 2009 to get petition signatures of New York City voters supporting a referendum on a new 9/11 investigation . They needed 30,000 signatures to make it to the November ballot. They got an impressive 80,000 signatures.
We expected that this democratic exercise would have lead to a referendum this past fall. Well, not in New York City.
The city did everything they could to block them. They rejected NYC CAN’s petition.
The tireless NYC CAN collective, supported by an army of volunteers didn’t stop there. They went to the State Supreme Court to try reverse the city council’s decision and validate the important petition. But Justice Edward Lehner of the State Supreme Court rubberstamped Referee Louis Crespo’s recommendation that the decision to establish a local commission to investigate the events of September 11th not be put before the voters.
It is quite ironical to point out that a 1993 voter initiative established a limit of two consecutive terms for the city mayor, and that in a 1996 referendum, the only successful referendum in NYC, voters rejected a Council-led effort to change the limit to three terms. The very ironical part is this year, while nearly one hundred thousand citizens were denied their right to call for a referendum by a well established bureaucracy, the city council voted to extend this term limit, which nullified the previous referendum.
Billionaire Micheal Bloomberg spent a record $102M to win a third term while denying his citizens right to democracy.
This was a dark day for democracy, the patriotic call for answers by hundreds of 9/11 families, first responders and survivors had been stifled, and the will of the people of New York City once again denied.
Watch a video with actor, 9/11 activist and NYC CAN supporter Daniel Sunjata of the NYC CAN march in New York City in September, 2009
This is by far the most explosive 2009 news story about 9/11. Some call it the loaded gun of 9/11. Most agree to say this probably the final nail in the coffin of the official story.
Imagine yourself turning the TV on and hearing a news anchor say “BREAKING NEWS! Ladies and gentlemen, we have just learned that scientists from 3 different countries released a scientific paper detailing what they have found in many samples of the World Trade Center dust. They claim that they have found unexploded particles of a very high-tech explosive, which would be a military-grade explosive called Nano-thermite. We have contacted earlier today, the lead authors of this paper, Prof. Steven Jones from BYU and Dr. Niels Harrit from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark who will join us later. They have both confirmed that this explosive material was used in the destruction of the Twin Towers, and the 47-story skyscraper known as ‘Building 7′. We never really showed you the collapse of Building 7 before tonight because we didn’t really know about it ourselves. We will show you all of this later, but now, let’s move to Washington where President Barack Obama is just about to give a special address regarding this Nano-thermite.”
Wouldn’t that be great to hear?
But back to reality. No mainstream media except a few in Denmark and Russia, ever seriously covered what will most probably turn out to be the most important news story of the past decade. It will probably be called the Nanothermitegate. You have read it here first!
Scientists have discovered residues of unexploded Nano-Thermite, a high-tech military-grade explosive in all samples of the WTC dust. This stuff is not made in a cave in Afghanistan.
They have released their peer-reviewed paper on April 3rd, 2009 in the Open Chemical Physics Journal of Bentham Open. The paper titled Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe can be downloaded on the Bentham Open Access website.
It is a matter of the utmost importance to point out that members of WeAreChange handed out – on record – copies of this scientific paper to Vice President Joe Biden, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and to several Congresspeople.
We are waiting for them to take serious action in finding out why this explosive high-tech material is present in the WTC dust.
We are also calling on all journalists and other media professionals to forget about the term “conspiracy theories” for a few minutes and to seriously investigate this story.
These findings alone should be reason enough for a new independent investigation with subpoena powers.
This historic Danish interview with Dr. Niels Harrit, lead author of this paper, was the first (and rare) television interview to talk about nano-thermite since April, 2009.
We hope you enjoyed our 2009 Top 10 News Stories about 9/11.
We can already predict that 2010 will be full of important news stories like these and we invite you to follow us via Facebook, Twitter, RSS and others to stay up-to-date with the latest developments regarding 9/11.
Best wishes to all our readers for 2010. May this coming year bring you lots of love and great moments.
And whatever happens, keep on fighting for answers.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Defence Minister John Faulkner will hold the Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in Canberra on Monday, 18 January.
This will be Secretary Clinton’s first visit to Australia as Secretary of State and the second visit by Secretary Gates who attended AUSMIN in February 2008.
This year is the 25th anniversary of AUSMIN, reflecting the enduring importance of the Australia-US Alliance to both countries. The Alliance continues to be an indispensable part of Australia’s security and defence arrangements.
AUSMIN is the premier bilateral forum for Australia-US cooperation on foreign policy, defence and strategic matters.
The 2010 talks will address shared global and regional interests. Following closely President Obama’s recently announced revised strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Australia and the United States will discuss their commitment to both countries.
In the wake of the failed terrorist attack on a US airliner, AUSMIN will also be an opportunity to take stock of joint counter-terrorism efforts.
Recognising the continuing importance of the United States to the security and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific, the talks will address key challenges in the region.
Building on the close relationship between the Australian and US defence forces over many years, AUSMIN will further advance the close defence cooperation under our Alliance.
AUSMIN is scheduled annually, with the venue alternating between Australia and the United States, and was last hosted by the United States in Washington on 9 April 2009.
Did this woman have foreknowledge of the 9/11 inside job?
HILLARY Clinton will visit Melbourne this month in her first trip to Australia as Secretary of State.
One year after US President Barack Obama's inauguration, his top foreign affairs adviser has been dispatched on her first mission to Canberra for the Ausmin defence talks on January 17.-I don't mean to be asinine, yet the Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith's media release said this meeting was scheduled for Monday January 18.
Ms Clinton, who visited Australia as First Lady in 1996 during Bill Clinton's presidency, will move on to Melbourne before returning home.
Lets remind her that there are good people everywhere demanding to know the truth about the 9/11 inside job.
The visit will cap off her eight-day sweep of the Pacific from January 11, the US State Department announced yesterday.
The global fight against terrorism-WE ARE THE TERRORISTS- and Australia's role in the Afghanistan war/INVASION-WE WANT AUSTRALIA OUT OF AFGHANISTAN- will likely dominate the defence talks, to be attended by Ms Clinton, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith and Defence Minister John Faulkner.
The State Department said the leaders would discuss "key global and regional security challenges".
A spokesperson was last night unable to explain-Shouldn't that be; REFUSED to explain- what Ms Clinton would be doing in Melbourne.
Ms Clinton's visit, which has been rumoured in political circles for weeks, comes at a critical time for US relations worldwide.
The Christmas Day airline bomb attempt, during which al-Qaida-CIA Asset tried to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, has injected new urgency into global efforts to improve airline security and to tackle al-Qaida in Afghanistan and on its newest front, Yemen.-In other words, the sheeple were not supporting this deliberately failing invasion so to foster more support the CIA fashioned a false flag op on Christmas Day. DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE.
Australia has about 1500 troops in Afghanistan.-1500 TOO MANY.
Ms Clinton starts her trip in Hawaii before jetting to Papua New Guinea for talks on environmental protection and women's empowerment.
She will spend two days in New Zealand before arriving in Australia.
Her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice-A WAR CRIMINAL, WHO WAS ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN THE 9/11 INSIDE JOB, visited Australia in January 2008 after Kevin Rudd was elected.
Acting PM Julia Gillard and police union condemn cartoon in Indian newspaper comparing Australian police to Ku Klux Klan
Police blast KKK cartoon
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Indians protest death of Indian student
Cartoon published in the Indian newspaper Mail Today after the murder of Nitin Garg / supplied.
UPDATE 2.15pm: ACTING Prime Minister Julia Gillard has condemned a cartoon depicting an Australian police officer as a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
The cartoon, published in Delhi's Mail Today newspaper on Tuesday, depicts an Australian police officer in a klan hood saying: "We are yet to ascertain the nature of the crime."
The cartoon was in response to homicide investigators in Victoria stating they could not yet say if the murder of 21-year-old Indian student Nitin Garg in a park in Melbourne's west last Saturday night was racially motivated.
Ms Gillard told reporters in Brisbane she hadn't seen the cartoon, but believed it would be "deeply offensive''.
"Any suggestion of the kind is deeply offensive and I would condemn the making of such comment,'' she said.
Police were doing an outstanding job in cracking down on crime and increasing Indian students' safety, Ms Gillard said.
"The Victorian police have stepped up and increased policing in difficult hot spots in Victoria where they have seen a number of violent incidences,'' she said.
"They have worked in close collaboration with representatives of the Indian community as they have gone about with this step up in policing."
Greg Davies, secretary of Victoria's Police Association, said the cartoon was "stupid'' and unhelpful.
"Cartoons in Australia are normally done by people who are either clever or witty and this one's neither,'' he told reporters in Melbourne today.
"All it does is stir racial hatred amongst Indians, certainly in India and, one would imagine, some of them here.''
He said the cartoon was "highly offensive'', especially to homicide squad detectives who are working tirelessly to catch Mr Garg's killer and determine a motive for the late-night stabbing.
"To suggest that there's any sort of 'go slow' in an investigation into this tragic murder because of a racial reason is just outrageous," Mr Davies said.
Mr Davies said if he had the chance to speak with the cartoonist he would tell him the artwork should never have been published.
Mr Garg's murder has sparked a renewed debate about the safety of foreign students in Australia.
Some local Indian leaders say racism is a significant issue for Indians who study in Australia.
Victorian Police Minister Bob Cameron dismissed the cartoon as an unnecessary distraction from a major crime investigation.
"We are a tolerant place and Victorian police are very tolerant and this business about racism is just wrong,'' he told 3AW radio today.
"Police go about their business in a normal way.
"They get the evidence, they assess the evidence ... to accuse police of having a closed mind when, in fact, what police have said is 'we have an open mind to all possibilities' just demonstrates that this is totally off the table when it comes to common sense.''
The Indian government has predicted the attack will affect relations between the two countries, and although it has ruled out sanctions, it has once again pressed Australia to ensure the safety of its citizens.
Victoria Police has declined to comment on the cartoon controversy.
Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe yesterday issued a personal assurance to India's high commissioner that "everything possible" was being done to bring the person responsible for Mr Garg's death to justice.
Mr Walshe maintained that police still had no evidence to suggest the murder of Mr Garg was racially motivated. He acknowledged that some crimes against Indians living in Melbourne had been motivated by racism.
He was supported in his comments by the Australian high commissioner to India, Peter Varghese, who said most crimes against Indians living and studying in Melbourne were "opportunistic, urban" crimes.
The Indian high commissioner in Australia, Sujatha Singh, yesterday met the Melbourne consulate-general of India, Acting Premier Rob Hulls and Mr Walshe to express her concerns about violence towards Indians living in Melbourne.
Mr Hulls, who is also Attorney-General, said he and Mr Walshe had made it clear that "everything that can possibly be done to find the perpetrator of this abhorrent crime is being done".
"We have also assured the high commissioner that we are a safe state, that we are a welcoming state," he said.
His comments came as detectives from the homicide squad set up an information caravan across the road from the Yarraville Hungry Jack's restaurant into which Mr Garg stumbled after he was stabbed in Cruickshank Park.
Gillard calls for investigation into anti-whaling ship crash
January 8, 2010 - 8:49AM
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard has ordered the Australian maritime Safety Authority to investigate the high seas crash between an anti-whaling ship and a Japanese vessel in Antarctic waters earlier this week.
However, she has rejected calls to send a Government vessel to Antarctica to monitor the whaling conflicts, saying it would not help.
After seeing footage of the crash, Ms Gillard said it was miraculous no lives were lost.
The Sea Shepherd anti-whaling organisation and the Japanese have released duelling footage of the crash, however both appear to show the Ady Gil protest boat moving slowly when the Japanese vessel switched course and headed for it.
Maritime law specialists say charges are likely to be laid over the collision, but it's too early to say against who.
AAP
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/whale-watch/gillard-calls-for-investigation-into-antiwhaling-ship-crash-20100108-lxak.html
Weapons blitz in wake of Nitin Garg killing yields results
Indian student Nitin Garg was stabbed and killed. Source: HWT Image Library
POLICE have found knives, a machete and knuckledusters in a random search for weapons at a Melbourne railway station, days after Indian student Nitin Garg was stabbed nearby.
In a show of their resolve to stamp out violent street crime, a team of officers patrolled Footscray train station today searching for knives.
The trial search-and-seize blitz, dubbed operation Omni, has been made possible by a beefing up of police powers and is expected to be expanded to other suburbs.
This murder was an excuse to bring in totalitarian undemocratic powers that the public would never otherwise agree to-just like the Martin Bryant cover up & the Bali and 9/11 inside jobs-as well as to offer the Police Corporation more income making opportunities.
Police have the power to search individuals at random for knives and other weapons in designated areas without a search warrant.
Actually, no they do not.
People were scanned with a metal detector wand, then frisked and body searched if required.
In all, 182 people were searched at the station in the three hours to 4pm (AEDT) on Thursday, police said.
Seven people were found carrying 12 weapons in total.
175 INNOCENT PEOPLE HAD THEIR LIBERTIES SMASHED AND THEIR PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE DENIED.
Police also issued four penalty notices for people carrying alcohol on public transport, hindering or obstructing an operation-THIS MEANS POINTING OUT THE ILLEGALITY OF THE POLICE CORPORATIONS ACTIVITIES, disorderly conduct and drunkenness.
One person with outstanding warrants was arrested.
Deputy Police Commissioner Kieran Walshe said the operation was a success.
"Today's operation has enabled us to detect these weapons before they are used in crimes, making the area much safer for train commuters and the broader community," he said in a statement.
"It is our intention to run a number of targeted operations in weapons hot spots this year until we see a reduction in weapon related crimes," he said.
Earlier, Mr Walshe told reporters police were required to give the public seven days notice of planned search operations but other, intelligence based, searches could be carried out without warning.
"I am confident that these laws are going to give us a great opportunity to take weapons out of the community," Mr Walshe said.
Acting Premier Rob Hulls said Nitin Garg's death "confirms absolutely that we have to do everything we can to support police to wipe out street crime, to wipe out knife-related crime, and that's why these powers are so important".
Mr Hulls and the deputy commissioner met with the Indian high commissioner and consul general on Thursday to reassure them that Victoria was doing everything possible to bring Mr Garg's killer to justice.
They also sought to assure the Indian diplomats that Victoria was a safe place to study.
Mr Garg, 21, was stabbed in a park late Saturday night as he walked to his part-time job at a Hungry Jack's restaurant.
He died later in hospital.
More passengers agree to full-body scan in UK airport trial
Helen Carter goes to Manchester to see the scanner that produces a ghostly naked image in action
The full-body scanner on trial at Manchester airport consists of two Tardis-like blue boxes that passengers stand between and produces a ghostly naked image with curves and genitals eerily visible.
Since the Detroit airline bombing incident on Christmas Day the number of passengers agreeing to be body scanned has increased from 72% to 92%, airport authorities say.
Earlier this week privacy campaigners said that the images were so graphic they amounted to "virtual strip-searching" and called for safeguards to protect passengers' privacy.
Staff at Manchester airport pointed out that the images were deleted "within seconds" of being captured and checked and could not be stored.
But Momota Khanom, who is in her 30s, from Leeds, believes Muslim women may be concerned. "I can see why it is being introduced, to improve security, and that is absolutely fine," she said. "But for Muslim women, who dress modestly and choose not to expose themselves, it is going to be a big issue. I think it will prevent many British Muslim women travelling and they may feel imprisoned in the UK.
"I do not have an issue with it myself, but I think it will cause problems for others." She urged the airport to consider having women-only operators viewing the images of Muslim women.
The government is taking steps towards changing EU policy to make airport body scanners compulsory. Gordon Brown has ordered the technology in the wake of the airline bomb plot by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and said the government would do everything in its power to tighten security.
The £80,000 RapiScan machine uses backscatter technology to capture images. Each scan takes around seven seconds and is viewed in a separate, secure room. The passenger, and the security staff standing with them, cannot see the image.
When the trial began at Manchester airport a Sun journalist phoned to ask if they could send some Page 3 girls through the body scanner. The request was firmly refused.
The airport's head of customer experience, Sarah Barrett, says there is nothing pornographic or erotic about the images and they are completely anonymous.
"We have not put children through the scanner, they are not part of the trial," she said. "We have been working closely with CEOP [The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre] and also the government to conform with legalities."
If the scanners become mandatory, Manchester will need up to 19 for its three terminals.
Terry Whittock, of RapiScan Systems, which produced the machine, said the Detroit bomb was "exactly the type of threat we are anticipating with the machine".
A security analyst, Chris Yates, said there was no such thing as the ultimate security device, but the body scanner provided extra capability.
"Nobody can say whether it would have prevented Detroit," he said. "But it is one more tool in the arsenal for airport security staff."
Mr. Machover begins by suggesting that applying the term lawfare is meant to discredit non-violent resistance as politically motivated efforts with no legal merit. What Mr. Machover ignores is that these claims, while indeed non-violent, are politically motivated on their face and they often have no legal merit, as evidenced by them being thrown out of court by judges in reputable, western jurisdictions. Consider, further to this argument, that Palestinian Lawyers for Human Rights has as it's goal the furthering of a political aim, that being achieving Palestinian self determination. Mr. Machover as well has represented the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights who have launched an extensive legal fishing expedition in the hopes of finding just a single case with which they can point to a legal decision branding an Israeli as a war criminal.
More compelling, however, is the fact that courts in the west have been considering and throwing out these lawfare style cases that Mr. Machover suggests are legitimate. Cases in Canada, the Netherlands and Spain, have all been thrown out because the courts determined that there were no legal grounds to pursue them. Mr. Machover, as a person who seems to speak with true conviction, and as a lawyer being paid by a client, naturally disagrees with these courts and may think that the law should be otherwise, but the courts of liberal democracies disagree with him. His response to these legal victories is to suggest that these cases were decided the way they were because "It is arguable that Israeli legal successes abroad have had nothing to do with the core merits of the cases concerned." Mr. Machover, however, does not make this argument.
Machover also suggests that Israeli courts are designed to provide immunity to those who would be prosecuted by the so-called "lawfare" cases in other jurisdictions. He points to situations where he believes that the Israeli courts have not done their job, but ignores he litany of cases where Israeli courts have made decisions that are anything but "subservient to the grinding machine of occupation and repression." Take for example the most recent decision allowing Palestinians access to a highway from which they had been barred for security reasons, decisions against soldiers for abuse of Palestinians, for land rights violations (see video), or for a list of other abuses where Israelis were found to have committed crimes.
Machover then points to this troubling incident, of Jewish groups in the United States supporting the dismissal of charges against a foreigner accused of human rights violations on the grounds that if the complaint is allowed, a flood of such cases may be brought against Israel in the US. Machover's point is that supporters of Israel must ally themselves with the worst violators of rights in the world to advance their positions because Israel's position is just as bad. He proposes that the world's worst most repressive countries would support an Israeli push to have universal jurisdiction laws reformed. What he does not consider, however, is that unlike these most repressive regimes, Israel is the country against which suits are regularly filed. Mr. Machover seems to be defeating his own argument that these cases against Israel are not politically motivated when he highlights how Israel seems to be lobbying to change universal jurisdiction laws because of the concerns it has, but other states do not.
What Mr. Machover ignores and fails to distinguish is that in the example he points to, the victims were punished merely for opposing the government, whereas in the Israeli context, cases are brought for injuries incurred in a war. Indeed, context is lacking from all of Mr. Machover's post. He suggests that terming cases against Israel as lawfare serves those who "want it to become lawful to use disproportionate force against civilians where they are proximate to what state actors identify as legitimate military and quasi-military targets." This is clearly not the case. There is no widely accepted suggestion that civilians should be faced with disproportionate force. Indeed, international law provides that civilian casualties should be minimized, but the law recognizes that mistakes occur in the fog of war and that "collateral damage" occurs and is not a violation of the laws of war.
Mr. Machover wants what everyone wants, a world without wars, or at the very least, a world where in wars, only combatants are hurt. The fact is, that this does not happen. If there were prosecutions in every case in which a civilian died in conflict, than the leaders of a great many countries would be standing in the docket: Canada, the US, UK, Israel, Russia, Georgia, basically every NATO country and many, many more. Mr. Machover seeks a utopia which does not exist in law or in reality and his goals of having the law act as a deterrent for violations should an Israeli be found guilty would not be realized with the pronouncement of a guilty verdict.
Apologies to President Barack Obama
But back to 2009. AE911Truth did something almost impossible. They were present at the huge annual AIA Convention in San Francisco in April to meet with hundreds of architects. They had a professional booth, flat screen monitors showing the destruction of the Twin Towers and Building 7. Banners, DVD’s, fliers, etc. Many A/E present at the convention were curious and ended up signing their petition. Most were exposed to Building 7 for the first time.
bring 9/11 under the spotlight, nearly one week before the 8th anniversary. Sheen released a letter called 20 minutes with the President on 
detailing what they have found in many samples of the World Trade Center dust. They claim that they have found unexploded particles of a very high-tech explosive, which would be a military-grade explosive called Nano-thermite. We have contacted earlier today, the lead authors of this paper, Prof. Steven Jones from BYU and Dr. Niels Harrit from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark who will join us later. They have both confirmed that this explosive material was used in the destruction of the Twin Towers, and the 47-story skyscraper known as ‘Building 7′. We never really showed you the collapse of Building 7 before tonight because we didn’t really know about it ourselves. We will show you all of this later, but now, let’s move to Washington where President Barack Obama is just about to give a special address regarding this Nano-thermite.”
