PROJECT FOR THE OLD AMERICAN CENTURY

I'm surprised it has taken me so long to find this revealing site, not that I'm unfamiliar with the Bush family-Nazi connection. Just as strong these days, incidentally, is the Bush family-Bin Laden connection. No doubt, before too long, some researcher will reveal the Bush family-Genghis Khan connection.

The photo above is of Prescott Bush, Dubya's grandpappy, sitting chatting comfortably with Nazi officials.

The text accompanying the photo says:

"According to classified documents from Dutch intelligence and US government archives, President George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush made considerable profits off Auschwitz slave labor. In fact, President Bush himself is an heir to these profits from the holocaust which were placed in a blind trust in 1980 by his father, former president George Herbert Walker Bush. On the 20th of October, the government commenced action against the company under the trading with the enemy act. After the seizures in late 1942 of five U.S. enterprises he managed on behalf of Nazi industrialist Fritz Thyssen failed to divest himself of more than a dozen "enemy national" relationships that continued until as late as 1951, newly-discovered U.S. government documents reveal. In 1952, Prescott Bush was elected to the U.S. Senate, with no press accounts about his well-concealed Nazi past."

Of Dubya's great grandpappy, the site says:

"George Walker set up the takeover of the Hamburg-America Line, a cover for I.G. Farben's Nazi espionage unit in the United States. In Germany, I.G. Farben was most famous for putting the gas in gas chambers; it was the producer of Zyklon B and other gasses used on victims of the Holocaust. The Bush family was not unaware of the nature of their investment partners. They hired Allen Dulles, the future head of the CIA, to hide the funds they were making from Nazi investments and the funds they were sending to Nazi Germany, rather than divest. It was only in 1942, when the government seized Union Banking Company assets under the Trading With The Enemy Act, that George Walker and Prescott Bush stopped pumping money into Hitler's regime."

As Kitty Kelly might have said, looking into the Bush family history is like navigating the New York sewer system in a glass mini submarine.

Lies, lies and more lies

Remember the bullshit spouted by Blair and Bush in the run up to the invasion of Iraq? The spoof dossiers and documents, the photos and false testimony from exiles? Remember Colin Powell’s speech to the UN, in which he outlined the case for military action against Saddam? Yeah, that’s right, the lies about WMDs, Iraq’s mobile labs, the Niger connection, the aluminium tubes, Iraqs link to Al Qaeda.

U.N. inspectors have now complained to Washington and a Congressional committee about a report on Iran's nuclear programme. The inspectors have labelled parts of the report "outrageous and dishonest”.

When there are profits to be had - in this case from oil – truth is not only the first casualty in war, truth is in fact stamped into the ground long before the first salvo is fired and trodden further into the dirt when the last shell casing hits the ground.

As the US makes the case for sanctions against Iran, as a prelude to widening Middle East war, expect the bullshit machine to go into overdrive.

The Labour Party Leadership Battle

Countless column inches and seemingly endless hours of news reports have been given over to the leadership crisis the Labour Party is currently engulfed in. Speaking up for Prime Minister Tony Blair, Home Secretary Charles Clark said Blair would stand down when he was good and ready to do so and he accused Chancellor Gordon Brown of “absolutely stupid” behaviour in challenging Blair, commenting that Brown needed first to prove his fitness to lead.

Fitness to lead? Now there’s a thing. It assumes leaders have some special qualification acquired over years of study and self-sacrifice when the only real qualification is the ability to hoodwink others into thinking you possess knowledge and qualities they do not. Unlike other professions – doctors, surgeons, architects, physicists – whose skills come via many years of hard slog – politicians require none whatsoever. The only requisite credentials needed when standing for election are that you are over 21 years of age, not insane and with no recent prison record.

Despite this, many workers think we cannot function without leaders. This is a fallacy and one perpetuated by the master class to help them maintain their rule over our lives. Indeed, so prevalent is this philosophy, that from the cradle to the grave we are taught to mistrust our own intelligence and to feel somewhat inadequate, to look up to our ‘betters and superiors’ (schools, church, politicians, parents etc) for their expert guidance and to accept without question the plans they draw up for our future.

Moreover, the whole concept of leadership and the need to choose the candidate most fitted for the post of leader is keenly promoted by aspiring leaders. In truth, history confirms them to be pitiable exemplars of honesty, integrity and compassion, forever paying lip service to truth and justice and other grand notions equated with leadership.

Blair has proved to be just as deceitful, dishonest and corrupt as every British prime minister that preceded him, ready always to defend power and privilege over the real needs of the people who elected him. From the moment he won a fourteen minute standing ovation from a CBI Conference just prior to the 1997 Labour victory, through the myriad scandals his Party has been caught up in, and right through to his perfidious reasoning to invade and occupy an immiserated but oil rich country, he has constantly lied to the electorate, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and bullied anyone bold enough to stand up to him.

Nothing Brown has said or done inclines us to consider he will act any differently. As Prime Minister he will lead the executive of the capitalist class – what else are governments but the national administrative arm of capital? - and as leader he had better be seen to be “batting for Britain”, defending the interests of big business at home and abroad. This is the real remit of the leader in capitalist society.

It is assumed by many that leaders run the world. Well, I rather think it is we, the workers, who run the world. Politicians might make government policy, which becomes law, but it is we who build and work the hospitals and schools. It is we who build the bridges, roads and railways, ports and airports; all the products that humans need to survive. It is we who produce everything from a pin to an oil-rig and provide humanity with all the services it requires – we the working class! We don’t depend on leaders for these skills or for their guidance. They have no monopoly on our knowledge and intelligence or on the inventions we dream up to enhance the quality of life. If all the worlds’ leaders died tomorrow, few would really miss them and society would function just as before.

The concept of leadership has emerged with class society and will end when we abolish class society, when we abolish the capitalist mode of production and all that goes with it. The master class have been allowed to lead because of their control over the means of living and by virtue of their control of the education system and their monopoly of the media and other and information processes.

It doesn’t have to be this way. The greatest weapons we posses are our class unity, our intelligence, and our ability to question the status quo and to imagine a world fashioned in our own interests. Leaders perceive all of this to be a threat and so will do anything to keep us in a state of oblivion, dejection and dependency. Our apathy is the victory they celebrate each day. Our unwillingness to unite as a globally exploited majority and to confront them on the battlefield of ideas is the subject of their champagne toasts.

Remember this as the battle for leadership of the Labour Party hots up.

OFFICIAL! George Bush: Iraq had sod all to do with 9/11

President Bush in the midst of explaining how the attacks of 9/11 inspired his “freedom agenda” and the attacks on Iraq until a reporter, Ken Herman of Cox News, interrupted to ask what Iraq had to do with 9/11. “Nothing,” Bush defiantly answered. Watch the video.

Full transcript:

BUSH: The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East.
QUESTION: What did Iraq have to do with it?
BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with what?
QUESTION: The attack on the World Trade Center.
BUSH: Nothing. Except it’s part of — and nobody has suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a — Iraq — the lesson of September 11th is take threats before they fully materialize, Ken. Nobody’s ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq.

AIRPORT PARANOIA

From what I’m reading lately I can only assume there is some covert state plot to prepare the public mind for an all out Middle East war. It’s as if people are being psyched up to be distrustful of anyone of Middle Eastern origin.

Not a day goes by when I’m not reading, in the press, stories about suspected Arab terrorists being arrested or about the growing fear of terrorists. I well remember, shortly after 7/7 last year, sitting on Platform 4 of Newcastle’s Central Station waiting for a train to London. A Moslem family walked up the platform just yards in front of me – husband and wife and two sons, and dragging those cases with the elongated handles and awkward little wheels. You could literally feel the suspicious looks they were getting - the unease on passengers’ faces was quite visible. Undoubtedly the same has happened a million times around Britain in the past year.

Yesterday, this growing anti-Arab phenomenon took a new twist. Two Arab gentlemen were kicked off a flight from Malaga to Manchester airport, quite literally because their faces did not fit. Seemingly, fellow passengers feared they were terrorists. Apparently they were heard communicating in Arabic and were observed to be repeatedly checking their watches. So cabin crew called the Spanish police and had the poor sods carted away for interrogation. Thankfully, they were later released.

The Independent reported: “Similar incidents in which people of Asian or Middle Eastern appearances have been targeted by fellow passengers have been reported on pilots' and cabin crews' websites, including one in which two British women with young children on a flight from Spain apparently complained about a bearded Muslim man - even though he was security checked twice before boarding the plane.”

The Sunday Times yesterday reported: “Elite teams of security officers are to be trained to monitor passenger behaviour at airports in a new attempt to combat terrorism. The ‘behaviour detection squads’ will patrol terminals to monitor the gestures, conversations and facial expressions of passengers. One of their aims will be to spot those who may be concealing fear or anxiety…. The Spot teams, who are in uniform and work in pairs at US airports, use a list of more than 30 unusual behaviours against which to check passengers.”

Well, that’s me fucked. My bracket attracts the attention of cops like a steaming turd attracts flies. And I’m a bastard for looking at me watch. And when I'm anxious or pissed off I go through about 187 facial expressons.

So cops will be watching for people who look anxious? In a friggin’ airport where 5000 hungry and thirsty passengers have had flights delayed for hours, holding the hands of their children who are tired and fretty and crying to go to the toilet. And many of these will have deep tans, it being holiday time and looking non-white.

Training the officers in spotting the downright guilty is Paul Ekman, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of California.

Said The Independent: “In particular, officers are trained to recognise concealed emotion, such as fear or anxiety. These so-called ‘micro-facial expressions’ appear on a person’s face for 1/25th of a second. ‘They are so fast, that unless you’ve been trained you don’t see them,’” said Ekman.

So now they can train dip-shits in uniform to recognise 1/25th of a second of anxiety? There are more than 30 ‘unusual behaviours’ to look out for? Thirty? They want to stick one of these ‘behaviour detection squads’ outside of the House of Commons. There’s some right shifty looking bastards entering that building. Maybe even on the London Underground during the morning rush hour, when everyone looks stressed and anxious and irritable; where everyone avoids eye contact and regularly look at their watches and where many people carry bags.

Expect a wave of paranoia in the coming weeks. There’s a big war coming and the public must be psyched up for one.

ISRAELI TROOPS SHOOT AT UNARMED ANTI-WAR ISRAELI PROTESTORS

The video clearly shows the Border Police unit firing on the demonstrators from close range. There is no evidence that the soldiers were in danger. Typically, the military spokesperson has claimed that “activists threw stones” and Haaretz’s article reiterated the same false information. The video also clearly shows the commander of the unit saying, “This is Lebanon!” as he orders his force to fire on retreating demonstrators, and “I will not allow a demonstration during wartime!”

The commander, Majdei, made this decision despite a military court decision in August 2005 that people in Bil’in have the right to protest on their land on the village-side of the apartheid wall. Every week since the wall was finished in March 2006, the Israeli military has also denied them the right to protest on their farmland on the other side of the wall. The wall separates villagers from 60% of their farmland, half of which has already been annexed and developed by Jewish settlements.

AFTER HEZBULLAH, WAR WITH IRAN?

Was Israel’s attack on Hezbullah part of preparations for a coming US attack on Iran?

As I write, it with no great belief that the coming month will be one of peace in the Middle East. I personally anticipate a serious and threatening crisis will commence the instant the Iranian government - at the moment under a UN deadline to stop uranium enrichment (actually Iran's legitimate rights under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) by August 31st - tells the UN what it can do with that resolution.

Sanctions will no doubt be immediately announced, but to what effect and with what response from Iran remains to be seen. Iran has already intimated it would spark a global oil price crisis in response to UN sanctions, and it is unclear whether China and Russia – each with vested oil interests in Iran, will go along with any sanctions. The worse case and perhaps more likely scenario is that the US will express feigned frustration at Iran’s unwillingness to cooperate and use the rejected resolution as a chequered flag to attack Iran militarily.

Make no mistake about it. Syria and Iran – part of the “axis of evil” have been in the US’ cross hairs for some time - the evidence for this is well documented – and lined up for a military bombardment, the likes of which will make the war in Iraq look like a street fight.

It is against this backdrop that we can begin to set the present Middle East crisis in context, particularly the recent Israeli attack upon Lebanon. This latest act of Israeli aggression had nothing to do with capturing back two kidnapped Israeli soldiers on 14th July and everything to do, it would seem, with oil and the securing of other resources and preparing for a wider conflict against Syria and Iran.

There are numerous reports that the war in Lebanon had been planned in advance by Israel. Reporting from Tel Aviv for the San Francisco Chronicle on 21st July, Matthew Kalman wrote: "More than a year ago, a senior Israeli army officer began giving PowerPoint presentations, on an off-the-record basis, to U.S. and other diplomats, journalists and think tanks, setting out the plan for the current operation in revealing detail."

Speaking to CNN, veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersch said: “July was a pretext for a major offensive that had been in the works for a long time. Israel's attack was going to be a model for the attack they really want to do. They really want to go after Iran.” (The Guardian, August 14th, 2006).

In bombarding Lebanon and the Gaza strip - Gaza is still being bombed - there can be no other objective than to neutralise two opponents of Israel and indeed the US, and softening the backlash from Hezbullah and Hamas when Iran is eventually bombed.

Hezbullah’s fire power and missile capabilities needed to be tested in advance of any attack on Syria and Iran. For one thing, Israel is unsure of the number of rockets in the hands of Hezbulah (some say 20,000) or indeed their range. Now they know. The Israeli bombardment of key roads and bridges and passage to Syria can serve no other function than to cut of the weapons supply route to Hezbullah. By striking pre-emptively Israel seems to have planned to destroy as many Hezbullah weapons as possible in advance of any Hezbullah rocket attack on Israel resulting from a US-allied bombardment of Iran.

Now, widely unreported in the western popular media and brought to a wider audience by Michel Chossudovsky, a Canadian economics professor, on the Global Research website, was the inauguration of the Ceyhan-Tblisi-Baku (BTC) oil pipeline linking the Caspian sea to the Eastern Mediterranean, and one day before Hezbullah’s kidnapping of the two Israeli soldiers that ostensibly started the recent ware in Lebanon. The BTC pipeline is anticipated to carry a million dollars of oil a day to Western markets.

In attendance at this inauguration ceremony were BP’s CEO Lord Browne and senior officials from the UK and USA, along with Israel's Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, accompanied by a delegation of top Israeli oil officials.

The British Petroleum dominated pipeline skirts the Russian Federation, cutting through new pro-US states Georgia and Azerbaijan, countries allied with NATO and with a standing military pact with Israel. Israel already gets 20% of its oil from Azeri oil fields and this new pipeline is set to increase Israeli imports from the Caspian basin. Israel is now tipped to be a key player in the East Mediterranean oil transport protection racket.

Israel’s military programme is increasingly looking to be tailored to the region’s strategic oil pipelines and by the Western oil companies commanding the pipeline passages. The war against Lebanon can perhaps be best seen as Israel’s first overt move for territorial control over the East Mediterranean coastline.

Officially, the BTC pipeline will be channelling oil to Western markets. What is not admitted, however, is that some of this oil will be redirected towards Israel via a proposed underwater pipeline from Ceyhan in Turkey to the Israeli port of Ashkelon, and from there via a pipeline system to the Red Sea.

The plan seems to serve not only Israeli oil consumption needs, but plays a part in the US’ wider game of global-politics. Oil channelled from Ashkelon to the Red Sea will then be re-exported from the Red Sea port of Eilat to Asian markets. This will help undermine the inter-Asian energy market eventually weakening the position of Russia in Central Asia and cutting off China from Central Asia’s oil reserves.

In April of this year Ankara and Tel Aviv publicised their intention to create four pipelines which would bypass Syrian and Lebanese territory. As the Jerusalem Post reported on 11th May:

"Turkey and Israel are negotiating the construction of a multi-million-dollar energy and water project that will transport water, electricity, natural gas and oil by pipelines to Israel, with the oil to be sent onward from Israel to the Far East.”

The scheme further envisages a pipeline to carry water to Israel from upstream Anatolian rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Not only is this plan catered for in the recently announced military pact between Israel and Ankara, its implementation will be devastating for Syria and Iraq. The execution of this joint Israeli-Turkish venture requires that land and sea routes between the Ceyhan border, through Syria and Lebanon, and to the Lebanese-Israeli border, be militarised. Michel Chossudovsky asks in his article The war on Lebanon and the battle for oil:“Is this not one of the hidden objectives of the war on Lebanon? Open up a space which enables Israel to control a vast territory extending from the Lebanese border through Syria to Turkey.” (http://www.globalresearch.ca/)

Israel is keen to play a more dominant role in the Middle East and seeks to achieve a degree of economic autonomy by becoming a key player in oil politics. Of course to punch above its weight it needs outside help, hence alliances with the US and more recently with Turkey and NATO.
Chossudovsky’s well cited piece Triple Alliance: The US, Turkey, Israel and the War on Lebanon details the alliances and agreements which apparently underpin the war with Hezbullah:

“We are not dealing with a limited conflict between the Israeli Armed Forces and Hezbullah as conveyed by the Western media. The Lebanese War Theatre is part of a broader US military agenda, which encompasses a region extending from the Eastern Mediterranean into the heartland of Central Asia. The war on Lebanon must be viewed as ‘a stage’ in this broader ‘military road map’.” (ibid.)

Significant for Chossudovsky is the Turkey-Israel alliance which involves military and intelligence sharing on Iraq, Iran and Syria, as well as joint military exercises and trainingFurthermore, in early July, just one week before Israeli forces commenced the bombing of Lebanon, Turkey and the US jointly signed a "Shared Vision" contract, validating a new Turkey-US alliance. In attendance for the signing was US Secretary of State Condi Rice and Abdullah Gul, the Turkish Foreign Minister.

This "Shared Vision" contract depicts the Turkish-US alliance as being "characterized by strong bond of friendship, alliance, mutual trust and unity of vision. We share the same set of values and ideals in our regional and global objectives: the promotion of peace, democracy, freedom and prosperity."

More importantly, the document commits Turkey to lend its full support to the “war on terrorism” and to approve US foreign policy with regards the defence of Israel.

Off the coast of Israel, preliminary drilling and seismographic results suggest that the Eastern Mediterranean is also rich in gas reserves. One recent report states that:"… Palestinian and Israeli waters in the Mediterranean appear to contain at least 100bn cu metres of gas reserves, divided about 60:40 in the Palestinians ' favour. Almost all of this gas is expected to go to the Israeli market which, by 2015, will probably be consuming at least 12bn cu metres/yr. A small portion (about 0.5bn cu metres/yr) might also be reserved for a new power plant in the Gaza Strip."(See http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=19835&t=e&cat_id=)

Seeking greater independence and an enhanced role in the Middle East, the smell of profits all around, Israeli aggression now becomes more understandable.

Pepe Escobar, writing for Asia Times, stresses Israel’s water needs as partly behind the recent war in Lebanon. :

“There's also the all-important matter of the waters of the Litani River in southern Lebanon. Israel might as well prepare the terrain now for the eventual annexation of the Litani. ”Beyond Lebanon, Israel is mostly interested also in Syria. The motive: the all-important pipeline route from Kirkuk, in Iraqi Kurdistan, to Haifa. Enter Israel as a major player in Pipelineistan.

”So Israel wants to grab water (and territory) from Palestine, water (and territory) from Lebanon and oil from Iraq. This all has to do with the inevitable - the 21st-century energy wars.” (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG26Ak02.html)

Tel Aviv recently announced it was in for a “long war” – clearly not with Hezbullah. It has been stockpiling weapons for several years and was re-supplied throughout the war with Hezbullah by the US. On top of its arsenal of 200 nuclear warheads it has in excess of 500 bunker-busting bombs, only a few, by all accounts, used recently in Lebanon. Clearly Israel is preparing for a widening and intense conflict.

With its military alliances, its stockpiling of WMD, its hankering after control of vital resources, its regional hegemonic ambitions, and ultra-strong links to belligerent US Neocons who have already intimated they can hit Iranian targets with 30 minutes notice and that they reserve their right to use nuclear weapons, are we being unrealistic in prophesising Israel’s desire to get involved in a more serious conflict.

Just how do we interpret Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s promise that he will officially proclaim Israel's "new" and in theory "final" borders before 2010, as anything other than a veiled hint at region-wide conflict?

Speaking of the Israeli-Hezbullah conflict, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said: “We need to make clear to Syria and Iran that there is a choice: come into the international community and play by the same rules as the rest of us, or be confronted.” Can this hypocritical statement be interpreted as anything other than a serious threat of violence to those Middle Eastern countries that would stand in the way of profit hungry masters of war and their ambitions for global domination of the planet’s vital resources?

Seymour Hersch repeatedly asserts that President Bush ordered all out war against Iran shortly after his re-election in 2004. Pat Buchanan's American Conservative amongst other sources, sides with Hersh in arguing that vice-president Dick Cheney has drawn up a war plan for Iran inclusive of the possible use of nuclear weapons.

US Defence Secretary Don Rumsfeld has placed US forces on alert and Lieutenant-Colonel Bruce Carlson, commander of the 8th Air Force acknowledges: "We're now at the point where we are essentially on alert. We have the capacity to plan and execute global strikes in half a day or less."
Dan Plesch (The Guardian, 8th August) suggests President Bush has at his disposal:

“200 strategic bombers (B52-B1-B2-F117A) and US Navy Tomahawk cruise missiles. One B2 bomber dropped 80,500lb bombs on separate targets in 22 seconds in a test flight. Using just half the available force, 10,000 targets could be attacked almost simultaneously. This strike power alone is sufficient to destroy all major Iranian political, military, economic and transport capabilities.”

We live at a dangerous stage of human history, in which the greatest crime a country can commit is to have more than its fair share of resources in a world in which the leading superpower is seeking full spectrum dominance. Iran’s real and unforgivable crime – leaving aside its refusal to halt its legitimate uranium enrichment programme - is to have enviable oil and gas reserves, to control access to the Persian Gulf - a vital oil and gas transhipment route to Europe, Japan, and the rest of the world - and to have contemplated oil deals with a series rival for US supremacy, China. With China expected to have oil demands similar to US levels within 20 years, already consuming vast resources of coal, iron and steel, not to mention almost 70% of the world’s cement supplies on one dam project - the panic button has clearly been pressed.

As a Socialist I’m naturally fearful as I watch events unfold; fearful for my class, my fellows throughout the world and for whom I hold no ill feelings. As always, Socialists refuse to take sides in conflict, seeing all war as rooted in the desire to make profit, and viewing workers, wherever they are, united as one class with the same basic needs and common interest, diametrically opposed to the interests of those who would urge them to kill each other.

Before the slaughter once again commences, myself and fellow Socialists once more take the opportunity to declare our heartfelt solidarity with the workers of all nations, and their true common cause. We appeal to workers to organise consciously and politically and to use the power at their disposal to head off the threatening bloodshed, and secure the space we need in order to build a world of peace and stability. As ever, we appeal to the workers of al lands to join with us in campaigning for a system of society where there are no leaders, no classes, no states or governments, no borders, no force or coercion; a world where the earth’s natural and industrial resources are commonly owned and democratically controlled and where production is freed from the artificial constraints of profit and used for the benefit of all; a world of free access to the necessaries of life. A world without waste, or want, or war.

The coming BNP earthquake

Despite recent claims to the contrary, the vast majority of British voters find the policies of the BNP nauseating. In the run up to the 2004 local and European elections and again during the 2005 general election, all manner of people, organised in their respective groupings, mobilised against them, from the Labour and Conservative Party activists and the myriad left-wing groups, to student bodies, church groups and unions like the CWU who informed members that their “conscience clause” gave postal workers the choice not to deliver BNP material if they found it objectionable. Back in 2004, the anti-Nazi organisation Searchlight even produced 28 versions of a newspaper targeting the BNP election campaign and distributed 1.5 million of them in areas where the BNP were most active.

This time round, by all accounts, the panic is just as big. The BNP is allegedly as strong now than at any time since 1982, when it displaced the National Front as Britain’s favourite bone-head magnet, and is standing 364 candidates in this year’s local elections. A YouGov poll conducted by the Daily Telegraph last week suggests the BNP is set to make “significant gains” in the coming elections. The poll shows that 7 per cent of voters are ready to back the BNP and that some 24 per cent have considered voting BNP in the past or are thinking of doing so now.

In the wake of a huge election push by the BNP, The anti-racist group Searchlight now identiiesy 18 key “battlegrounds” where the neo-Nazis must be confronted. The BNP, capitalising on anti-Muslim feelings, believe they can increase their councillors by a third – they already have 20 councillors across the country. Ever the pessimists, anti-racist organisations believe BNP claims could be an underestimate and suggest that a 5% swing to the BNP could actually see them increase their tally of councillors to 70.

Back in 2004, the mainstream parties, as well as many on the left, panicked at the thought of widespread BNP victories and this clearly afforded the BNP media coverage which was out of all proportion to the size of their organisation. An eve of poll message from Nick Griffin, fuehrer of the BNP, on the BNP website of 9th June 2004, stated that they “were on course for a political earthquake”, that the BNP would be “breaking through with three or four Euro MPs” Yorkshire, the BNP claimed, was to be their "jewel in the crown.”

And so it came to pass that the BNP managed to gain four new councillors in Bradford in four wards. This ‘jewel’ was out of a record 101 candidates they fielded across Yorkshire.
Elsewhere, the BNP made a wee breakthrough in the south of England, taking three seats in Epping Forest in the local elections and gained its first foothold in Bradford. And in Burnley, the BNP gained one seat but managed to lose the other seven in which its candidates were standing. In the North East, where the party stood a full slate of 25 candidates in Sunderland, they failed to make any promised gains. The real winner this time round were the postal workers who, exercising their rights under the conscience clause, were able to take bags full of BNP leaflets home to use as toilet paper for years to come.

Leader Nick Griffin, who in April of that year had invited over the French Nazi Le Pen to plan how they could work as a team (or rather comedy duo) when Griffin became MEP for the north west of England, failed to take the seat he hankered after. No BNP candidate succeeded in getting elected to the European parliament and in the London mayoral elections the BNP ended up in sixth place and failed to secure the votes required to get representation on the London Assembly.

Regardless of how much these smiley-faced fascists claim to have changed their image, supposedly booting out the boneheaded troublemakers of yesteryear, they still represent the politics of hate - and their writings and statements still contradict the respectable shirt-and-tie image they try so hard to project.

Since late 2005, BNP’ literature has been portraying the coming local elections as a “Referendum on Islam”, linking the threat of Islamist terrorism in Britain to the Labour Government’s asylum and immigration policies and the war in Iraq. One BNP leaflet, handed out in the wake of the 7/7 bombings in London, declared: “If only they had listened to the BNP.”

Moreover, The BNP’s anti-Islam position has gained in prominence since Nick Griffin was acquitted of racial hatred charges at Leeds Crown Court back in February. It did not help that the judgment came at the same time as the hullabaloo over the anti-Muslim Danish cartoons and the consequent display by a handful of young Muslims dressed as suicide bombers and demonstrating in London - a coincidence that allowed the BNP to pass itself off as the champion of freedom of speech and all things British.

Overnight, the BNP moved further to the right in its anti-Moslem line of attack. Heartened by what they perceive as a lowering of tolerance for Islam, the BNP has become more obsessive.

Speaking to the Observer, 24th April, Simon Darby, the man BNP leader Nick Griffin has appointed to take over should an appeal to re-convict him go ahead, Said: 'We are giving voice to the concerns of ordinary people, Yes, part of it is still about race.' But particularly after 9/11 and 7/7, he says, 'things have changed: the new issue is Islam'

Two years ago the BNP were fortunate to ride a wave of patriotism—a tool they can use to great effect when it suits—in the run up to the election, with voters going to the polls as the 60th anniversary of D-Day was being commemorated and rammed down our throats every night on TV, and the English football team were gearing up to compete in Euro 2004 and when manufacturers were reporting sales of 4 million St George flags. This time round they can count on the nationalism whipped up by the World Cup taking place in Germany shortly as well as the patriotism created by the Queen’s 80th birthday celebrations. And neither is their raw branch of nationalism that unique in today’s climate where the UKIP and the Conservative Party can make huge gains in the European elections on a “say no to Europe” platform, proclaiming the merits of British sovereignty, and where the Labour Party is all to ready to send British troops off to far away lands to protect the interests of Britain’s ruling elite.

Furthermore, we can only wonder at the mainstream parties’ fears of a surge in support for the BNP. Considering the views of the Labour and Conservative parties on asylum (Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech springs to mind) and the former’s part in upsetting the Islamic world so much recently, their objections to the BNP do seem a little hypocritical. They may genuinely abhor the racists of the BNP but have been unsuccessful in confronting them where they have made political gains because to do so would mean acknowledging the shortcomings of a system they champion and which gives rise to the politics of race.

If anything the BNP are the product of the total failure of all the reformist parties to make capitalism a fit society to live in. And this is not the fault of the mainstream parties, for they are controlled by the system and not vice versa despite their claims and promises. When capitalism fails to deliver, when despondency and shattered hopes arise from the stench of the failed promises and expectations that litter the political landscape, is it any wonder that workers fall for the scapegoating bullshit of fascists and the quick fix they offer?

The hundreds of thousands of misinformed workers who fall for the BNP spiel are the products of the demoralising system we know as capitalism, deluded into thinking that one main issue - a total halt on asylum – would suddenly improve their miserable lives. In truth, a shortage of council housing and poorly maintained housing estates, low wages and pittance benefits are no more the fault of asylum seekers than is the hole in the ozone layer. At the end of the day the BNP promise voters little more than extra space at the trough of poverty and tens of thousands, their minds numbed by the politics of reform, want it.

The Labour Party pulls a fast one in Hebburn

Since October of last year, myself and a handful of fellow residents from the Lukes Lane Estate, Hebburn (South Tyneside) have organised as the Lukes Lane Community Action Group (our motto: “putting the unity back in the community”). We have undergone ‘participatory appraisal’ training with others involved in community work through the PEANuT Project at the University of Northumbria and with a view to sorting out some of the myriad problems on the estate.

For months, we have been out and about on the estate interviewing residents about the issues on the estate they feel most strongly about. During this period we spoken to about 160 people of all ages, and received close on 600 responses during 15 interview sessions. The group recently came together to assemble all the information and group it under themes in preparation for the next stage.

Having collated the information from the interview sessions with the residents of the esate, the Community Action Group identified 11 improvements that residents feel most strongly about: i.e. improved shopping facilities, better public transport, improved social and leisure facilities, safer streets etc. Plans were made for future group sessions and the next stage of interviews.

From the outset, the residents involved in the PA work made it clear that our work was non-party political, our sole concern being to help improve facilities and services on the estate and create an environment beneficial to everyone.

Tonight all of this work and good intentions have been undermined by the local Labour Party. Tonight we received through our letter boxes Labour News, this being an A4 double-sided newsletter. The first page is a rant about how hard Labour have been working locally, though minus recent press reports about the closure of schools, community centres and 200 redundancies at the local town hall.

Page two had the headline “LABOUR LISTENING TO LUKE’S LANE” above a photo of Monkton Ward’s three Labour Party councillors, with an ensuing paragraph about the work of the Community Action Group. Another paragraph is given over to two community houses that will be created on the estate and this is followed by a two line statement referring to the hard work carried out by our “listening local Labour councillors.” (You cannot beat a bit of alliteration). Cleverly worded, this account of developments on the estate gives the reader the impression that it is the local Labour Party who are to be thanked.

Tonight I spoke with other members of the group and they were as livid as I was; angry that our work was now part of Labour Party propaganda and in the run-up to the local elections in three-months. Needless to say we feel betrayed, conned and used. Our work has been credited to the bloody Labour Party. Hoping to work on behalf of the residents of the estate, we have, it seems, been unwittingly recruited as Labour Party election workers. I spoke with other residents on the estate tonight and they agreed that this is an attempt by the Labour Party to claim praise for work done by others.

I’m pulling out of the PA work. Though useful for the future and no doubt a basis for real improvements, it is tarnished, sullied and undermined by the political aspirations of Blair’s local henchmen.

You have to credit the opportunists in the local Labour Party for this stunt, though – capitalising on the well-meaning work of others. They’re not as daft as they look, are they? They’ll argue that I am mistaken and that they are not aiming to make political capital here, but I’ve watched how Labour operate on South Tyneside for many years and am more than familiar with their underhand shenanigans.

Those 7/7 bombings revisited

I always said that if there was an “Islamic” terrorist attack in Britain it would take place on a date that would stick in your mind and that it would provide a welcome diversion from other front page stories. It would have to be a date like 9/11 – which just so happens to be the one number every one in the US knows, it being the number of the emergency services there and drummed into the heads of kids as soon as they are old enough to use a phone.

I learned of the London bombings of 7/7 when arriving back home after a week at Gleneagles with a fellow comrade. The story was on the TV when we sat down and we looked at one another in disbelief and the first thing that come into my mind was that this was state-sanctioned, and I thought “you bastards!!”

And my reasons for thinking this? Firstly, the talks at Gleneagles were kicking off proper on 7/7; talks at which no great humanity-benefiting decisions would be made. Indeed, most of the decisions had been made before the G8 meeting. With a over million having protested at the events surrounding the G8 gathering and the press and TV news keen as hell to get hold of any story coming from Gleneagles, there just had to be some big bloody diversion. The G8 were making no major concessions and the press were going to have a field day so they needed to be distracted.

So we have the leaders of the G8 together on that first full day of talks, supposedly united in concern for the world’s poorest and the major problems facing the planet; supposedly having brainstorming sessions about how to make this planet a nicer place to live in. And KABOOM!!! Bombs start exploding across London. Suddenly, global warming is no longer an issue. African aid, fair trade and debt cancellation are no longer issues. The G8 leaders can now make a joint statement on the biggest threat facing humanity - Islamic terrorism. Together they issue a promise of victory for democracy. The heinous acts of the morning of 7/7 sticks terrorism and the war on terror, right up on the front page where it was on 9/11. The G8 talks are buried away in the inside pages. Overnight, the political climate has changed. The manufacture of consent has begun - that response for action from an angry public and which the UK and US governments seek as a popular mandate for their continuing crusade.

Secondly, this plays straight into the hands of a government desperate to have more control over all of us, a government mistrustful of us and intent in intruding into every aspect of our lives.

In the wake of 7/7, British Home Secretary Charles Clarke said millions of personal email and mobile phone records could be stored and shared with Europe-wide police and intelligence services to help prevent future attacks. Maybe someone forgot to tell him that the NSA spy base at Menwith Hill had been monitoring our email and phone calls for years.

Clark argued that access to such communications could "quite possibly" have helped prevent such attacks by identifying in advance suspicious patterns of behaviour by possible terrorists. The National Crime Squad contacted internet service providers in the UK, asking them to preserve email messages as they might prove useful in the search for those behind the bombings.

Thirdly, these attacks came one day after Britain secured the bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Had the bombings have happened any time before 7/7 the IOC would have said “Sod off. London is too much of a terrorist risk.” But no, this attack came within 24 hours of Britain securing the bid and the profits the Olympic shenanigans will bring. News of the coming decision by the IOC had been big news for weeks – it meant so much to the government, big business and national pride. But out of their love for sport, the terrorists presumably decided to hold off until after the decision was announced.

Fourthly, like 9/11, it was a date that had to stick in your mind, and 7/7 does just that. Sure, the “terrorists” could have used that date for just such a reason, but it is the government who can use it most to their advantage, as a point of reference.

So someone somewhere, with state blessing, had the idea of blowing up a few trains and a bus that day and diverting world attention. Any terrorist worth their salt would have done a bit research before carrying out so monstrous a crime as blowing up trains full of innocents. They would have pulled that stunt well before 7/7 and fucked the Olympic bid to boot. And when Blair and Bush were at Gleneagles? No way! They would have known media attention would have been diverted from that capitalist cabal meeting up in Scotland and which had attracted the attention of well-meaning activists for a week, and sidelined the protests of hundreds of thousands of anti-globalisation activists more than likely to back your case for a withdrawal of imperialist forces from the Middle East.

Considering the high level of anti-war, anti-Blair sentiment in Britain, as well as strong anti-war sentiments in the USA, why would al-Qaeda want to announce itself as responsible and alienate millions of Westerners? This actually happened, until the web pages on which this Al-Qaeda claim was made mysteriously disappeared when people observed that the inclusive quote from the Koran had a few errors.

No doubt many share the same view as me – I’ve spoken to several who think this way - yet are afraid to say anything in case they get labelled a nutter, a conspiracy theorist and their beliefs dismissed with a wave of the hand and a “you’re fucking insane. The government wouldn’t do that.” But hey, we’re speaking mega profits here! We’re talking about US world domination here and British imperialism plc is definitely after some of the spoils of this global conquest. False flags are nothing new (more about this later) – desperate governments have been putting them up for years – so what was to stop US lickspittles in the UK pulling off a similar stunt? Believe me – I shit you not - the bastards would do it too! There is nothing Blair’s lackeys would not sink to in the interests of Britain’s corporate elite and their cronies across the pond.

Do you like coincidences? How about this one: The three tube stations that were the target of “terrorists” on 7-7 just happened to be the three stations at which Visor Consultants were carrying out simulated terrorist attack exercises that morning. The company’s managing director, Peter Powell, also a former Scotland Yard official and who had worked with the anti-terrorist branch, said in a BBC radio 5 interview:

“At half past nine this morning we were actually running an exercise for a company of over a thousand people in London based on simultaneous bombs going off precisely at the railway stations where it happened this morning, so I still have the hairs on the back of my neck standing up right now.”

There are 275 stations serviced by London Underground, so just what the hell are the chances of terrorists attacking the very three Tube stations at which anti-terrorist exercises were taken place? Millions to one?

A quick flashback here: NORAD was actually conducting drills of hijacked planes flying into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon at 8:30 in the morning of September 11, 2001. A CIA planned exercise on September 11 was also built around a plane crashing into a building.

Some have suggested that the bombs were actually planted beneath the trains. Dancer Bruce Lait, a survivor of one of the blasts told the Cambridge Evening News (25th July):

"The policeman said 'mind that hole, that's where the bomb was'. The metal was pushed upwards as if the bomb was underneath the train. They seem to think the bomb was left in a bag, but I don't remember anybody being where the bomb was, or any bag."

Another trustworthy source, Guardian journalist Mark Honigsbaum, talked to eyewitnesses at the Edgware Road bombing, who essentially described the same thing. Eyewitnesses told Honigsbaum that "tiles, the covers on the floor of the train, suddenly flew up, raised up. Click here to hear the audio.

Consider also that on the 3rd July, four days before the bombings, the MOD had announced plans for a pull out of British troops from Iraq within 18 months. Surely this was what recent terrorist attacks have all been about – the removal of western infidel armies from Islamic soil? Would not a terrorist attack on London just intensify the crusade against militant Islam and prolong the occupation of Iraq and, indeed spread the “war on terror” further afield?

Also, Arutz Sheva, the Israeli National news, reported that the Israeli Embassy was warned in advance of those underground bomb blasts. The tip-off resulted in Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu staying in his hotel room rather than make his way to the hotel adjacent to the site of the first explosion, a Liverpool Street train station, where he was to address an economic summit.

And look at the behaviour of these alleged dedicated Islamic terrorists. Suicide bomber Hasib Hussain ate a last meal at McDonald's before blowing up the No. 30 bus on 7 July, killing 13 people. (Independent, 25th August 2005). An Islamic fundamentalist, so fervent in his beliefs, so loathing of western values and icons, has a final meal of a big mac? Yeah, and Osama Bin laden endorses Coca Cola! Hussain was also captured on surveillance cameras wandering around the streets of London, "bumping into people", before detonating his rucksack bomb?

The Independent of 31st October 2005 reported that one of the suicide bombers who attacked London on 7 July was filmed arguing with a cashier about being short-changed hours before he blew himself up. A young man who will soon have a hoard of virgins waiting for him in paradise is bothered about being short-changed a few pennies?
A third bomber that day, Shehzad TanweerTanweer, played a game of cricket the night before he travelled down to London.

And what of ex-youth leader Mohammad Sidique Khan? When a video tape of Mohammad Sidique Khan was released showing him in Arab attire and talking about bomb attacks, close friends and locals who knew him were adamant that the tape was fake. "A lot of people loved him round here. I have known him all my life, he was a friend to everyone," said one man. "I know people can change in a second, but I can't say he is one of them. He taught my son, he was a very good teacher. He was never hard-line - no one could say he was an extremist - he was peaceful and dedicated to the children. They all loved him."

Do these four young men really fit the image of the vengeful, dedicated suicide bombers the state would have us believe they were?

The Independent of 17th July, 2005 had this to say:

“Suicide bombers do not buy return tickets. Theirs is a one-way trip. When four young men met at Luton railway station a week ago last Thursday, however, they gave every impression of going to London and coming back. They paid and displayed, leaving valid tickets on the windows of a Nissan Micra and a Fiat Bravo in the station car park. They boarded the 7.48am to London carrying return tickets.

“Why would they do that, if they knew they would be dying very soon? The car park can be explained: perhaps they did not want to attract attention or get stopped. But the question of the train tickets has no obvious answer, unless the bombers were not aware that they would be among the casualties at Aldgate, Edgware Road, King's Cross and on the No 30 bus. They may have thought that they could leave their deadly bags on the train or the bus and walk away, merging safely into the crowd by the time a detonator set off the plastic explosive they called Mother of Satan to kill and maim in those enclosed spaces. Or were they told the bombs would go off later than they did?”

So, the bombers purchased round-trip train tickets and paid for long-term (7-day) parking? It gets crazier! These bombers overspend on return tickets they will never return with, yet are so frugal that one will argue over pennies with a cashier?

Allegedly, they also left bombs behind in the car. What the hell for? You’re taking with you all the bombs you need, you’re not coming back and the police will just find the bombs in the boot of the rental car and possibly suss out where the explosives came from.

A few more observations:

It would later be revealed that the bombs were of “military origin”. So how did the four bombers get hold of such high grade explosives? Are military explosives not heavily guarded?
And where were the suicide notes and videotaped messages for the families of the bombers which have been a characteristic of terrorist attacks elsewhere? Were these bombers really intent on coming home to their families and friends?

The Independent of July 17th 2005, said: "Filmed by the closed-circuit cameras at the station, the four men looked, the police said, like ‘happy hikers’, laughing and joking and carrying heavy bags.”

Fox News Channel's Day Side programme revealed that the so called mastermind of the 7/7 London Bombings, Haroon Rashid Aswat, is a British Intelligence asset. Former Justice Dept. prosecutor and Terror expert John Loftus revealed that the so called Al-Muhajiroun group, based in London had formed during the Kosovo crisis, during which Fundamentalist Muslim Leaders (or what is now referred to as Al Qaeda) were recruited by MI6 to fight in Kosovo.

Check out this for video and story.

The Sunday Times of January 22nd this year ran a headline “MI5 knew of bomber’s plan for holy war”:

“BRITAIN’S top spies knew that the ringleader of the London bombers was planning to fight for Al-Qaeda more than a year before the July 7 suicide attacks, security sources have revealed.
“MI5 bugged Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, a second bomber, for two months as they talked about Khan’s desire to fight in what he saw as the Islamic holy war”. The story is continued here.

That lot got you thinking? There's more I could have added. I’m not going to argue here how “they” pulled it off. The attacks for one thing have all the hallmarks of an MI5 operation. Use your own imagination. I think it more important to look at the larger picture, asking what is to be gained by a London bombing.

In addition to the reasons cited at the beginning of this posting, it is important to realise that the US is clearly out to make the 21st Century the "American Century”. The US sees real competitors flexing their muscles in the future and who must be hamstrung now. So they seek global domination of all major resources. They go about setting up military bases all over the world (in 130 countries so far). And in on the act is the British government who wants a piece of the action. Britain never did get used to losing its world power status to the US and the SU after WW II and has been desperate to get right back up their with the big boys ever since. The coming rewards are well worth any losses now. The end justifies the means and all that.

In the meantime, world public opinion has to be manipulated, consent manufactured, militant Islam portrayed as the villain of the piece and the one obstacle to global harmony. This secured, Iran and Syria can be bombed, Middle Eastern oil resources controlled, more military bases established and the imperialist crosshairs levelled at Russia and China.

So, in the words of Hitler in Mein Kampf : the bigger the lie the more people will believe it.”
And has the precedent for 7/7-type attacks already been set? Have false flags been raised before? You betcha! Just going back to Hitler, didn't he pull of the Reichstag fire and blame the commuists?

“Operation Northwoods. The idea was to blow up a passenger plane or ship and blame it on Cuba. Check out the actual Joint Chiefs of Staff declassified document here in PDF format.

Israel had it's Lavon Affair. In 1954, Israeli agents working in Egypt planted bombs in several buildings, including a United States diplomatic facility, and left evidence behind implicating Arabs as the culprits. The deception would have worked, had not one of the bombs detonated prematurely, allowing the Egyptians to capture and identify one of the bombers, which in turn led to the round up of an Israeli spy ring.

USS Liberty. When Israel attacked a US warship in the hope the US would think it was an Egyptian attack

The Bay of Tonkin incident which provided the US with the pretext for the invasion of Vietnam.

Pearl Harbour. The US new in advance that Pearl Harbour would be attacked, but they needed such an incident to enter WW2. Hundreds of links to this, but try this one.

911 – Again, countless links to what really happened this day. For instance.

Even delving back into the annals of history, it is likely that Nero burnt Rome to blame it on the Christians.

Our leaders declare a "War on Terror" and now we have more terrorism in the world than we had in 2001!

And people wonder why Blair refuses to open an inquiry into what really happened on 7/7!!

Iran - Condi takes a leaf from Powell's book

As I have previously mentioned elsewhere on this blog, any US attack on Iran will be preceded by a campaign for the minds of the US people. It started long before now, but here is Condi Rice yesterday speaking to the Senate Budget Committee:

"It's not just Iran's nuclear programme but also their support for terrorism around the world. They are, in effect, the central banker for terrorism." She added that Tehran was bent on "political subversion, terrorism, and support for violent Islamist extremism….It is Iran's regional policies that really are concerning as we watch them, with their sidekick Syria, destabilizing places like Lebanon and the Palestinian territories and, indeed, even in southern Iraq."

Rice is shortly off to the Middle East to hold talks with regional allies about containing Iran. And what’s the betting mention will be made of that Oil Bourse Iran intends to forge ahead with in march and how it would be bad news all round. No doubt this will later be followed by a speech to the UN that will reminiscent of Colin Powell’s scare mongering performance in February of 2003 when he begged the international community to give their blessing for the invasion of Iraq.

On Wednesday, Rice’s State Department asked Congress for $75m this year to support opponents of Tehran and to finance the first 24-hour official US television station broadcast in Farsi.

Meanwhile, her fellow war pimp, Dubya, is asking congress for another $65 billion for his war kitty. The request would raise war-related spending to nearly 400 billion dollars since September 1th 2001.

Interestingly, today it was revealed that China and Iran are close to finalising plans to develop Iran's Yadavaran oil field in a deal estimated to be worth $100 billion. A Chinese government delegation is expected to travel to Iran as early as March to formally sign an agreement allowing China Petrochemical Corp to develop Yadavaran. The thought of China controlling one of the bihggest oil fields in the Middle East must be causing a lot of sleepless nights for some in the US.
March? Hmmm….why does that month keep popping into my head?

Abu Ghraib photos

Those photos that Washington didn't want us to see! Or did they? I mean, with the US intent on bombing the shit of Iran (see "Real men want to go to Iran", below) and seizing control of its oil fields, what better way to start off than to prod once again at the sensitivities of militant Islam, showing their fellows being beaten, tortured and sexually assaulted in a US prison, and in so doing prompting that anti-US backlash that will then give the US the pretext to carry its War on Terror to Tehran? And these coming at a time when the Islamic world is still riotiong over the offensive Danish cartoons and the British press and TV are showing film and photos of Iraqi teenagers getting a beating at the hands of British troops!

Update on 17th February

Abu Ghraib leaked report reveals full extent of abuse

1,325 images of suspected detainee abuse· 93 video files of suspected detainee abuse· 660 images of adult pornography· 546 images of suspected dead Iraqi detainees· 29 images of soldiers in simulated sexual acts. And this is just the stuff they bothered to film. If this is what is happening in Abu Ghraib, then just what the fuck is going on in Guantanamo Bay?

And of the response in Britain? Well, Tony Blair refers to conditions at Guantanamo Bay an "anomaly." I'll give you 'anomaly', you gormless bastard!!