statism watch

Who knows if this is true or not? Who knows if Hakimullah Mehsud is (or was) a puppet of the occupying forces, as has been reported of his predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud? This must be what is referred to as the ‘fog of war’. One thing is for certain – it is extremely difficult to trust the media, which in wartime especially operates on a set of principles Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman proposed in the 1980s – the propaganda model of the media. The truth, when it can be discerned, must be arrived at by a close reading and comparison of multiple stories in the attempt to abstract out bias.

Flashback: Killer of CIA agents in Afghanistan called for revenge for Baitullah Mehsud | Pakistani militant leader dead: Taliban | Whistleblower Who Linked “Taliban” Leader To US Intelligence Is Assassinated | Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups | Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries | The Main Result of the “War on Terror”: The Destabilization of Pakistan | Report: CIA runs secret bases in Pakistan | Key Benazir Bhutto assassination witness shot dead | CIA, Pakistani ISI have long, complicated relationship | US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation

CBC News
January 31, 2010

The Pakistani army said Sunday it is investigating reports that Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud died from injuries sustained in a U.S. drone missile strike in mid-January.

The militant leader’s death would be an important success for both Pakistan, which has been battling the Pakistani Taliban, and the U.S., which blames Mehsud for a recent deadly bombing against the CIA in Afghanistan.

The army’s disclosure came shortly after Pakistani state television, citing unnamed “official sources,” reported that Mehsud died in Orakzai, an area in Pakistan’s northwest tribal region where he was reportedly being treated for his injuries.

“We have these reports coming to us,” army spokesman Gen. Athar Abbas told The Associated Press. “We are investigating whether it is true or wrong.”

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These people are desperate to find some way to implement an international tax to fund an inflated mandate for the IMF – the ‘New Bretton Woods‘ Brown is fond of invoking. In this case, the idea being floated is a sort of international FDIC. The form and the means of the tax is simple pretext, a question of pragmatism in service of globalist ideology. StatismWatch has been compiling this unfolding narrative in as faithfully objective a manner as possible since before the economic crisis swept world markets. A centralization of banking power has been the plan from the beginning. Look:

Flashback: Harper urges G20 to follow economic accords | Bankers unite against Barack Obama and Gordon Brown in call for world regulation | IMF warns against retreat from stimulus spending | Banks find gaping loophole in Obama financial reforms | Obama talking tough with banks | EU urged to adopt bank supertax | Obama ponders bank transaction levy to recoup bailout shortfalls | Explosive Leaked Emails Expose Treasury Secretary Geithner’s Deception in ‘Backdoor Bailout’ | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | EU calls for tax on bank transactions | UK: Brown takes campaign for Tobin tax to Commonwealth | UK: Brown proposes global fund to kick-start Copenhagen climate change process | Flaherty, USA say no to global financial tax, yes to continued ’stimulus’ at G20 | Bernanke continues pressing for sweeping new powers for Fed | IMF chief wants global bank tax | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | IMF approves $13bn gold sale to boost lending fund | China Set to Buy $50 Billion in IMF Notes | China calls anew for super-sovereign currency | No one talking about dumping dollar: China minister | China explores buying $50bn in IMF bonds | Chinese economists deem huge holding of US bonds “risky” as Geithner visits | A Bigger, Bolder Role Is Imagined For the IMF | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | UN & IMF Back Agenda For Global Financial Dictatorship | IMF poised to print billions of dollars in ‘global quantitative easing’ | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | IMF may need to “print money”, act as “world’s central bank” as crisis spreads | Globalists Exploit Financial Meltdown In Move Towards One World Currency | World needs new Bretton Woods, says Brown | IMF prescribes state regulation of ‘global financial order’ | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda | Banks face “new world order,” consolidation: report

Larry Elliot, Heather Stewart, The Observer
January 31, 2010

The prospects of a global tax on financial transactions were receding fast this weekend amid signs that countries were swinging behind an alternative plan to impose an insurance levy on banks.

Both David Cameron and Alistair Darling expressed support for Barack Obama’s proposals to force banks to pay into a fund that would provide compensation in the event of the failure of a financial institution.

Cameron said at the World Economic Forum summit at Davos that he thought a so-called Tobin tax was unworkable because of a lack of international support, but said he would back an insurance levy if he became prime minister in this spring’s election. “We would work for a new international levy on banks — one of the ideas being considered by the IMF — to protect the taxpayer from footing the bill for banking crises,” the Conservative leader said.

The chancellor said he was working with the US on a permanent insurance levy, an idea the Treasury believes will win more support than a Tobin tax. “We are keen to work on a plan on this with other countries,” Darling added.

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Flashback: ‘Significant chance’ of second financial crisis, warns World Economic Forum | Idle job market hurting recovery, Flaherty warns | No new stimulus, economy ’stabilized’: Harper | America slides deeper into depression as Wall Street revels | U.S. jobless claims drop again | US Bankers Get $4 Trillion Gift From Barney Frank | Taibbi: Obama’s sellout to Wall Street creates ‘permanent bailout’ | Economic picture still not very bright, and more layoffs are in store, manufacturers say | How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash | Goldman Sachs breaks record with $16.7bn bonus pot | U.S. unemployment claims spike | Credit card debt balloons | Unemployed to reach postwar high: OECD | Canada’s $1-trillion debt baby | More US Bank Failures and The Coming Deposit Insurance Bailout | Credit delinquencies up 24% in June | Bank of Canada declares recession over | Record quarterly profits and bonuses: Goldman Sachs makes out like a bandit on taxpayer’s dime | Budget officer ‘can’t tell’ if stimulus plan working | Taibbi: NYSE ends transparency to protect Goldman Sachs | Goldman Sachs: The Great American Bubble Machine | More Canadians in arrears on credit payments | Canadian households $1.3-trillion in debt | Credit card changes benefit families, Flaherty says | Credit companies seek to avoid regulation, create global debit system | Canadian credit card delinquencies rising | All maxed out? Budget measures would improve credit access | Now the consumer crunch: falling credit limits, rising interest rates | Bank of Canada adds $8B to credit markets | $25B credit backstop for banks ‘not a bailout’: Harper

Tara Perkins, The Globe and Mail
January 31, 2010

As rate hikes loom, the optimism consumers felt heading into this year is proving short lived

The optimism that consumers felt heading into this year was short-lived, and has been overcome by nagging concerns over their debt loads.

The economy is recovering its footing, thanks to consumers who provided it with a shoulder to lean on by taking advantage of exceptionally low interest rates to buy homes and other big-ticket items.

But the tables are set to turn. Policy makers are hoping that new strength in the economy will give consumers the support they need to straighten out their finances, even as interest rates inevitably begin to rise.

It’s an untested hypothesis. This is the first recession in which real credit, the amount of debt that people are taking on adjusted for inflation, has risen.

And growing anxiety about paying down debt suggests that the central bank’s ability to fuel the economy with ultra-low rates could lose steam if consumers retract from their borrowing binge.

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Flashback: Pentagon to Send More Special Forces Troops to Yemen | Yemen forces ‘kill Al-Qaeda chief’ | ‘No intention’ to invade Yemen: Obama | American cash gives Yemen a reason to join the hunt for al-Qaeda | Britain, U.S. to fund Yemen anti-terror unit | Underwear Bomber’s Visa Had Expired, Say Yemeni Authorities | US plots retaliatory strikes against al-Qaida in Yemen over plane bomber | Officials Admit Second Man Detained As More Witnesses Emerge in ‘Underwear Bomb’ Case | Detroit bombing: US had received intelligence suggesting Nigerian was planning an attack | US jet plot suspect ‘was in Yemen in December’ | Obama vows to step up terror fight | U.S. quietly takes terror war to Yemen | ‘Al-Qaeda’ in Yemen claims responsibility for attack on plane | Britain ‘barred US air terror suspect’ | Flight 253 passenger: Sharp-dressed man aided terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab onto plane without passport | Father of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, Nigerian terror suspect in Flight 253 attack, warned U.S. | British student held over alleged airline bomb attempt

Mohamed Ghobari and Ulf Laessing, Reuters
January 31, 2010

Northern rebels won’t accept all terms of truce, leaders of strife-torn country say

Yemen rejected a ceasefire offer from Shia rebels on Sunday and said fighting was continuing, as neighbouring Saudi Arabia accused the insurgents of mounting sniper attacks inside its territory.

The conflict with the northern rebels, who complain of social, religious and economic discrimination in the southern Arabian state, has rumbled on since 2004; but it intensified last year and drew in oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

Yemen is also struggling against al-Qaeda and southern secessionists, and Western powers fear it could become a failed state.

The U.S. State Department’s counter-terrorism chief was visiting Yemen on Sunday, state media reported, a week after Britain hosted a conference on how to stabilize the Arab world’s poorest country.

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Flashback: Chomsky says Israel, ‘US military base’ | Israel rules out Gaza probe | UN body endorses Gaza war crimes report | UN body debates Gaza war crimes report | UN condemns ‘war crimes’ in Gaza | Israeli soldiers allege abuses against Palestinians | Israeli troops kill apartheid wall protester | Israeli military whistleblowers: troops fired on children | Israel pulls land forces from Gaza, gunboats continue shelling coast | Israel admits troops used phosphorus shells in Gaza | Israel steps up Gaza withdrawal after ceasefire | Hamas joins fragile Israeli ceasefire | Israel declares ceasefire | Unusually Large U.S. Weapons Shipment to Israel | Video shows proof of phosphorous bombs in Gaza | Aid destroyed as UN’s Gaza HQ hit by Israeli fire | Protests over Israel’s Gaza offensive held in Canadian, world cities | Israel ignores ceasefire plea, pounds Gaza | UN relief agency halts aid to Gaza, citing Israeli attacks on staff | Rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel | Israel is on its way to reoccupying all of the Gaza Strip | Israeli shelling kills dozens at UN school in Gaza | Tanks, rockets, death and terror: Gazan civilian catastrophe unfolding | They hate us for our bombs | Israeli army set for invasion | Food, medicine, fuel needed in Gaza, agencies warn | Gaza relief boat carrying former Congresswoman rammed by Israelis | Worldwide protests urge end to attacks on Gaza

Rory McCarthy, The Guardian
Janauary 31, 2010

Israel insists troops did not violate international law despite ‘operational lapses and errors’

Israel has delivered a report to the UN defending its actions in last year’s Gaza war and insisting its troops did not violate international law, but has not agreed to hold an independent investigation as demanded.

In the 46-page report, submitted on Friday and released late that night, Israeli authorities admitted some “operational lapses and errors in the exercise of discretion”. But they strongly denied allegations of war crimes raised by international human rights groups and by two separate UN investigations.

The report reveals there has so far been only one criminal conviction in relation to the war — one soldier was jailed for seven and a half months for stealing a credit card from a Palestinian home and using it to withdraw £250 in cash.

Last September, the South African judge Richard Goldstone published a highly critical 575-page report commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council which accused both Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas of “grave breaches” of the fourth Geneva convention, war crimes and possible crimes against humanity. It called on both sides to start their own credible, independent investigations or risk international prosecutions. Neither Israel nor Hamas has done so and the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, will report on this to the UN general assembly in the coming days. The three-week war left nearly 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.

Last week Hamas officials in Gaza claimed their forces had not committed war crimes because their rockets only hit civilians by mistake because they were crudely built and unguided. Human Rights Watch dismissed that as a “whitewash” and said it was “factually and legally wrong”.

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Flashback: Hands off: Cellphone driving ban approved | Ban-happy Ontario accused of ‘Big Brotherism’ | Ontario limits car phone use | Turning Toronto into a nanny state | McGuinty considers banning use of cellphones while driving

CBC News
January 31, 2010

A three-month grace period for Ontario drivers violating the province’s new law against driving while using a cellphone is ending, meaning offending motorists are now subject to fines of up to $500.

Bill 118, commonly known as the distracted-driving law, came into effect on Oct. 26.

The provincial government asked enforcement officials to hold off fining drivers for three months as they adjusted to the new rules. Instead, police issued hundreds of warnings across the province during what they called an “educational period.”

But starting Monday, authorities will start handing out fines – ranging from a minimum of $155 to a maximum of $500 – to drivers who talk on their handheld cellphones. The ban also covers texting or emailing while behind the wheel, or using portable video games or DVD players.

Talking on a hands-free device is permitted.

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Flashback: Canada sends 5 million doses of H1N1 vaccine to WHO | WHO to examine its H1N1 response | Flu Inc.: How vaccines became big business | H1N1 ‘not done yet’: Canada’s top doctor | Swine flu pandemic ‘less lethal than expected’ | Only 30% of Ontario residents have H1N1 shot | Santa Claus vaccinated in Montreal | UK: Millions more than thought have already had swine flu, Government scientists say | Batch of H1N1 vaccine recalled for severe reactions | Dr. Richard Schabas — How they larded H1N1 facts with fear | Push is on to inoculate everyone against H1N1, Ontarians stay away in droves | UK Doctors say most Britons reject swine flu vaccine | Elderly Quebec man dies after H1N1 shot | French Woman Gets Crippling Illness After H1N1 Vaccine | Teen Diagnosed With Guillain-Barre Syndrome After Swine Flu Shot | Swine flu cases drop in England | H1N1 overplayed by media, public health: MDs | Elite Council Recording Suggests Creating False Scarcity To Drive Up Demand For H1N1 Vaccine | WHO pandemic definition too broad, doctor contends | Vaccine scarcity claims don’t add up | ‘No reason’ to delay seasonal flu shots, global health panel says | Flu Season Has Already Peaked in US, Little Benefit to H1N1 Jab: Study | Flu vaccine shortage expected to last a week | Washington Man Paralyzed After Routine Flu Vaccination | Mass Rejection Of Swine Flu Vaccine Continues Throughout Europe | GlaxoSmithKline profit rises on flu drug | Swine Flu Scam Reaches New Heights With Obama’s Emergency Declaration | Deaths Associated With Swine Flu Vaccine Reported In Europe | US Government Hijacks Kids TV To Propagandize For Swine Flu Shots | UK: National Health Service frontline staff shun H1N1 vaccine | Canadian taxpayers on hook for any H1N1 vaccine damages | Swine flu death rate similar to seasonal flu: expert | Swine flu unlikely to become superbug | UK: Half of all pregnant women will refuse swine flu jab, poll reveals | Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America | UK Government Swine Flu Advisor On Vaccine Maker Payroll | Swine flu: How scared should we be? | Top Epidemiologist Slams Swine Flu Fearmongering | Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions

Michele Mandel, Toronto Sun
January 30, 2010

Downstairs in the rehab wing of Markham Stouffville hospital, in a private room with a sunny window, lies Donna Hartlen, a young mother who is now partially paralyzed.

The Whitby woman can’t stand without leaning on a walker and her legs are too numb to allow her to walk for more than a few steps. The right side of her face is paralyzed, she can’t properly chew solid food and her right eye is bandaged because she can no longer blink to protect it.

Until five weeks ago, she was a perfectly healthy woman spending Christmas with her family in Nova Scotia. And then on Dec. 29 she was rushed to an emergency room in Halifax, suddenly unable to stand on feet.

The doctors diagnosed her with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological condition characterized by sudden weakness or paralysis. And while no one seems willing to discuss the likely cause, the 39-year-old knows exactly where the fault lies.

She blames the H1N1 flu shot she received on Dec. 13 – two weeks before her symptoms suddenly appeared.

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Flashback: Death Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block “Undesirable” Websites | Australia introduces web filters | Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned | UK Internet surveillance plan to go ahead | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | Case for Internet spying not closed | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | Cybersecurity Is Framework For Total Government Regulation & Control Of Our Lives | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Do We Need a New Internet? | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck

AFP
January 30, 2010

The world needs a treaty to prevent cyber attacks becoming an all-out war, the head of the main UN communications and technology agency warned Saturday.

International Telcommunications Union secretary general Hamadoun Toure gave his warning at a World Economic Forum debate where experts said nations must now consider when a cyber attack becomes a declaration of war.

With attacks on Google from China a major talking point in Davos, Toure said the risk of a cyber conflict between two nations grows every year.

He proposed a treaty in which countries would engage not to make the first cyber strike against another nation.

“A cyber war would be worse than a tsunami — a catastrophe,” the UN official said, highlighting examples such as attacks on Estonia last year.

He proposed an international accord, adding: “The framework would look like a peace treaty before a war.”

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Flashback: Blair defends decision to join U.S. in Iraq | Iran admits jailed protesters were beaten to death | Blair lied and lied again: Mandarins reveal that 10 days before Iraq invasion PM knew Saddam couldn’t use WMDs | Iranian commanders assassinated, Iran fingers Western intelligence | IAEA members question Iran nuclear intel authenticity | US military could strike Iran, but at what cost? | Another War in the Works | Iran to allow nuclear site inspection | Iran plays into Obama’s hands with disclosure of nuclear facility | UN approves nuclear ‘disarmament’ resolution | Tens of thousands march in Iran | Obama scales back missile defence shield in Europe | Israel ‘will attack Iran this year’ if West does not cripple Tehran with sanctions | Brookings Publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to Trigger Iran Invasion | Blast at Iranian mosque raises tensions in run-up to presidential election | Netanyahu: We may be forced to attack Iran | Proposed Missile Shield seen as Provocation by Russia | Neo-cons still preparing for Iran attack | Russia threatens to ’strike’ Poland in wake of U.S. missile plan | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’ | Israeli official says attack on Iran ‘unavoidable’ | Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’ | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | U.S. sending third aircraft carrier to the Middle East | US aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | Former CIA Officer — US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

David Batty, The Guardian
January 30, 2010

Former prime minister slammed for trying to shift focus onto threat from Tehran during appearance at Chilcot inquiry

Tony Blair has been accused of warmongering spin for claiming that western powers might be forced to invade Iran because it poses as serious a threat as Saddam Hussein.

Sir Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Iran, accused Blair of trying to make confrontation with Iran an electoral issue after the former prime minister repeatedly singled out its Islamic regime as a global threat in his evidence to the Iraq war inquiry yesterday.

Blair said many of the arguments that led him to confront the “profoundly wicked, almost psychopathic” Saddam Hussein seven years ago now applied to the regime in Tehran.

“We face the same problem about Iran today,” he told the Chilcot inquiry.

Dalton, the UK ambassador to Iran from 2002 until 2006, said it was essential that all the political parties made clear in the run-up to the general election that there would be no repeat of Blair’s actions in respect of Iran.

“One result of Tony Blair’s intervention on Iran — he mentioned Iran 58 times — is to put the question of confronting Iran into play in the election,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

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Prentice: “”We’re also moving forward on harmonization … on a concerted continental basis.”

Flashback: Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | UN drops deadline for countries to state climate change targets | Taxpayers’ millions paid to Indian institute run by UN IPCC climate chief | The next big scam: Fraud endemic to carbon market | Climate summit showcases new world order | Copenhagen climate summit: plan for EU to police countries’ emissions | Questions over business deals of UN climate change guru Dr Rajendra Pachauri | Copenhagen Accord Establishes Global Government Framework | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | Climategate: Al Gore lies | World leaders push for climate deal | UN Chief: We Will Impose Global Governance | If Climategate Is No Big Deal, Why Are Questions About It Met With An Armed Response? | IMF could fund climate adaptation: Soros | Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Bombshell UN Climate Documents Reveal Planned “End Run” Around National Sovereignty | Czech President: Copenhagen to be ‘Largest tax increase in world history’ | Friends of the Earth attacks carbon trading as banker scam | Al Gore Set To Become First “Carbon Billionaire” | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate, downgrades CO2 threat | Copenhagen’s Plans for a New ‘Government’ are Scary | Copenhagen, carbon, and the global corporate agenda | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change | CEOs call for ‘aggressive’ action on climate change

CBC News
January 30, 2010

Canada has aligned itself with U.S. policy as it gave the United Nations its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the Copenhagen Accord.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice on Saturday said that by 2020 Canada would reduce emissions by 17 per cent from 2005 levels, the same target the U.S. announced to the UN on Thursday.

Prentice made the announcement in Calgary, a day before the deadline stipulated in the agreement reached in the Danish capital last month.

“This is in keeping with our commitment, as I indicated in the days leading up to Copenhagen and afterwards, to align our policies with those of our continental partner,” the minister said.

Other countries are also expected to submit targets in the coming weeks after UN climate change chief Yvo De Boer said the Jan. 31 deadline was flexible.

The European Union has reiterated a pledge to cut emissions 20 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020 and says it will raise the reduction target to 30 per cent if other large emitters make similar commitments.

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