statism watch

Interesting, isn’t it – the Canadian Forces have been doing just fine with on-base or wilderness training so far. But now, suddenly, there’s all these urban warfare drills happening in Canadian and American cities, we’ve inked agreements to share troops with the Americans in case of any ‘domestic emergency’ that may arise, the military is talking about how they’re going to have to patrol the Barrie bar scene (!), and not a single mainstream media reporter can put two and two together. Well, get ready, you’re going to be seeing a lot more of this, armoured columns in the streets, everything – unless you pick up a pen, boot up your email application, and write to your elected member of parliament. They should be wading in outrage over this.

Flashback: Afghan front lines take mental toll on military and RCMP | Military readies reservists for threats to ‘domestic front’ | Military may patrol bar zone in Barrie | British Secret Service, Army Alert on Bank Riots | US Urban Warfare Drills Linked To Coming Economic Rage | Military and police practice integration during Olympic security exercises | Canadian military getting 1,300 new heavily armoured trucks for ‘domestic use’ | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | Troops in the Streets: Army Brigades Standing By to Assist in Disasters, Help Quell Dissent | Canada, U.S. agree to use each other’s troops in civil emergencies

John Cotter, Medicine Hat News
April 14, 2009

MEDICINE HAT, Alta. – Canada’s sunniest city, Medicine Hat, will stand in this spring for dusty, dangerous Kandahar as a new battle group of troops trains for duty in Afghanistan.

The community of 61,000 is going to allow more than 800 soldiers to practise convoys and patrols on its streets as well as how to respond to simulated roadside bomb explosions.

Some troops will act as Taliban insurgents as the units get experience on what it is like to operate in a busy urban setting, Col. Andre Corbould, commander of 1 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, said Tuesday.

“We are going to make it as realistic as we possibly can,” Corbould said. “We want to have them respond to incidents within the city like they will do in Afghanistan.”

Most of the troops involved in the training will be serving with the Provincial Reconstruction Team based in Kandahar City.

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Flashback: FBI documents contradict 9/11 Commission report | 9/11 widows call for new investigation after revelations of White House, commission ties | Director of 9/11 commission “secretly spoke with Rove, White House”

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
April 14, 2009

New book from man tasked by government to help investigate attacks unveils how “official story is almost entirely untrue”

The senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission – John Farmer – says that the government agreed not to tell the truth about 9/11, echoing the assertions of fellow 9/11 Commission members who concluded that the Pentagon were engaged in deliberate deception about their response to the attack.

Farmer served as Senior Counsel to the 9/11 Commission (officially known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States), and is also a former New Jersey Attorney General.

Farmer’s book about his experiences working for the Commission is entitled The Ground Truth: The Story Behind America’s Defense on 9/11, and is set to be released in September.

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In the past, the Canadian Forces were never expected to serve multiple deployments the way they are today, so this should come as no surprise. But, here’s a surprise – the RCMP has been increasing its security and training role in the combat zone. Naturally, this leads to greater ties between the military and the police, which then apply the lessons learned on the home front. But the RCMP is supposed to be a domestic federal police force – they exist, supposedly, to serve and protect Canadians. The military, on the other hand, exists to kill and break stuff. Even if it’s done with good intentions, any move to integrate the military and the police is another step down the road to fascism, which should be of concern regardless of how you voted in the last election.

Flashback: Military readies reservists for threats to ‘domestic front’ | Military may patrol bar zone in Barrie | Military and police practice integration during Olympic security exercises | Canadian military getting 1,300 new heavily armoured trucks for ‘domestic use’ |Canada, U.S. agree to use each other’s troops in civil emergencies | Military, Mounties teaming up to attract new recruits: Both forces aiming to beef up personnel | Harper pledges to boost military presence in cities.

Allan Woods, Toronto Star
April 14, 2009

OTTAWA – More than one in five Canadian soldiers and police officers deployed to Afghanistan leave the force with post-traumatic stress or other psychiatric problems, and that figure is rapidly rising, the Toronto Star has learned.

By the end of last month, the number of soldiers and police officers discharged from the military and RCMP for psychological strain after tours in Afghanistan had reached 1,053, representing an increase of more than 50 per cent from 2008, a spokesperson for Veterans Affairs Canada told the Star.

The increase had been predicted in documents released under the Access to Information Act.

They had revealed that as of April 2008, 700 Canadian soldiers and Mounties who had served on the Afghan front lines – 19 per cent of all forces deployed – had qualified for medical release from the Canadian Forces or RCMP with a “pensionable psychiatric condition,” but warned of a dramatic hike in those numbers.

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They should be doing fine – all of that bailout money is running uphill into the coffers of the largest holders of debt. On the international stage, debt is power.

Flashback: Goldman-Sachs to repay TARP loan, resume private operations, bonuses, at “earliest time” possible | Which Banks Will Rule? | Wall Street’s Big Takeover | Obama appoints architects of economic collapse, financial globalism to economic team | Behind the panic: Financial warfare over the future of global bank power | Goldman-Sachs Alumni Hold Reins of Financial System | What Really Killed Bear Stearns? | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda | Banks face “new world order,” consolidation: report

Julia Kollewe, Andrew Clark, The Guardian
April 14, 2009

Barclays’s shares see the biggest rise among UK banks, ‘Goldman has laid down the gauntlet,’ analysts say

Barclay’s eagle to rise again?

Shares in UK banks rallied today, after better-than-expected profits at Goldman Sachs and its plans to pay back emergency bailout money boosted hopes that the worst of the financial crisis could be over.

Barclays was the second-biggest riser on the FTSE 100 index, jumping 24.25p to 201.75p, an increase of nearly 14%. That took the shares to their highest level since last October.

Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland were also among the biggest gainers. Lloyds shares climbed 7.1p to 86.5p, a rise of nearly 9%, while RBS was up 2p at 31p, a gain of almost 7%. HSBC rallied 23.7p to 497.75p, a rise of 5%. The gains, which came alongside increases in mining shares, helped the FTSE advance nearly 50 points to 4031.84.

Goldman took markets by surprise last night when it brought forward its financial results to reveal a 13% surge in quarterly profits to $1.66bn – a strong result at a time of frozen credit markets.

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That can’t be good.

Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press

April 14, 2009

WASHINGTON — Retail sales fell unexpectedly in March, delivering a setback to hopes that the economy’s steep slide could be bottoming out.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday that retail sales dipped 1.1 per cent in March. It was the biggest decline in three months and a much weaker showing than the 0.3-per-cent increase that analysts expected.

A big drop in auto sales led the overall slump in demand. Sales also plunged at clothing stores, appliance outlets and furniture stores.

Seasonal adjustments could partly explain the unexpectedly weak showing. The March 2008 performance had been boosted by an early Easter, while the holiday did not occur this year until April, delaying some shopping.

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Interesting fact: In a seperate incident, Thyssen was brought up on charges of bid rigging in the EU.

Flashback: Moores linked to Airbus before Mulroney came to power, memo reveals | Schreiber Inquiry: Premier’s wife testifies bank account was to be hers, not Mulroney’s | Mulroney-Schreiber inquiry steers clear of ‘Airbus affair’ on first day | Mulroney-Schreiber probe has no jurisdiction to find liability | Mulroney confidant knew about Airbus commissions: CBC News investigation | The Mulroney Affair: Why politicians seek out the rich | The Fifth Estate: Money, Truth, and Spin

CBC News
April 14, 2009

German-Canadian businessman Karlheinz Schreiber is slated to take the stand in Ottawa on Tuesday for the first time at the inquiry looking into his dealings with former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

The probe, headed by Justice Jeffrey Oliphant, aims to get to the bottom of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash that Schreiber gave to Mulroney between 1993 and 1994, shortly after Mulroney left office.

Schreiber previously testified before a Commons committee that he gave Mulroney $300,000 to lobby on behalf of a light-armoured vehicle plant known as the Bear Head project.

But Schreiber, 75, who faces extradition to Germany on a number of tax, bribery and fraud charges, has said he would save his most controversial testimony for his appearance before the inquiry.

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