Archive for October, 2005
October 6th, 2005 | 
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WASHINGTON (CNN) – President Bush, in a high-profile address on Thursday, said the global fight against terrorism must continue in Iraq because it is where terrorists are centering their movement to “intimidate the whole world.”
“If U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq, Bush said, insurgents would “use the vacuum created by an American retreat to gain control of a country, a base from which to launch attacks and conduct their war against nonradical Muslim governments.”
Bush made his remarks at a National Endowment for Democracy event in Washington, and emphasized that the worldwide terror movement should not be appeased.
“We’re not facing a set of grievances” that can be negotiated, Bush said.
“We’re facing a radical ideology with an unalterable objective, to enslave whole nations and intimidate the whole world,” he said.
Bush indicated that the public is unaware of many anti-terrorism victories. He said the United States and its allies have disrupted 10 al Qaeda terrorism plots since September 11, 2001, including three inside the United States.
Critics have charged that war in Iraq has become a breeding ground for terror and opinion polls have found U.S. public support for the war waning since spring.
But Bush argued the war in Iraq did not cause hatred of the United States among radical Muslims or global terror attacks, but rather is an “excuse” to further the goal of creating an Islamic state across the Mideast.
“The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia,” Bush said.
“The hatred of the radicals existed before Iraq was an issue,” Bush said. “And it will exist after Iraq is no longer an excuse.”
“No act of ours invited the rage of the killers, and no conscience, bribe or act of appeasement will change or limit their plans for murder.”
On Wednesday, Bush met with top military advisers at the White House, telling reporters afterward that U.S. and Iraqi troops are on the offensive against insurgents who want to disrupt Iraq’s October 15 vote on a new constitution.
He said about 3,000 Iraqi troops had done “a fine job” in recent combat alongside American units in western Iraq.
“Over 30 percent of the Iraqi troops are in the lead on these offensive operations. We’ve got troops embedded with them, and that’s an important part of the training mission,” he said.
Bush has tried repeatedly to link Iraq to the anti-terror campaign launched after al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.
Though the 9/11 commission found no operational relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq before the 2003 invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, critics say the insurgency against U.S. troops that followed Saddam’s overthrow has drawn terrorists into Iraq to fight Americans.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have carried out operations in western Iraq in recent weeks aimed at disrupting insurgent control in the region and targeting al Qaeda in Iraq, the group led by wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
One recent raid resulted in the terror group’s No. 2 operative being killed, U.S. officials have said.
Polls show support waning
Polls have found U.S. public support for the Iraq war waning since spring, despite speeches by the president in June and September that White House aides hoped would reverse the trend.
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll in late September found that 59 percent of people surveyed considered the 2003 invasion a mistake, 63 percent said they wanted to see some or all U.S. troops withdrawn, and only 32 percent approved of Bush’s handling of the conflict.
But Democrats in the Senate said Wednesday that Bush needs to outline a plan for winning the now two-year-old war.
“It’s time the president tells us how he plans on getting us out of the hole he’s dug us so deeply into. And just to stop digging, as the old saying goes, is not enough,” said Sen. Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The senator from Delaware urged Bush to convene a summit of Iraq’s neighbors to hammer out a broader peace for the region, as the United States did in Afghanistan and during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Elections for permanent government
Registered Iraqi voters will head to the polls on October 15 to vote on whether to accept a new constitution.
Sunni Arabs, who are the minority in Iraq but who dominated during Saddam Hussein’s regime, could defeat the charter if they get a two-thirds “no” vote in any three provinces — a possibility that could occur in four of Iraq’s 18 provinces.
The majority of Shiites and Kurds appear to favor the constitution.
The document’s approval would lead to elections for a permanent government. But if rejected, elections for a new transitional government would be held and the process of drafting a national charter would start over.
Washington hopes approval of the constitution would deal a blow to the bloody insurgency.
Bush met Wednesday with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace and Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, former commander of the effort to train and equip Iraqi soldiers.
Petraeus said later that only one Iraqi battalion — about 750 troops — is capable of operating independent of coalition support.
But he said about 35 battalions are capable of taking the lead in operations with U.S. troops, and many of those second-tier units have assumed control over cities in southern Iraq and parts of Baghdad.
Even third-tier troops are capable of “thickening” the capabilities of coalition forces by manning checkpoints and serving as guides or interpreters for U.S. troops, Petraeus told reporters at the Pentagon after his meeting with Bush.
“The Iraqis are in this fight. They are fighting and dying for their country, and they are fighting incredibly well,” Petraeus said.
Asked whether a significant number of U.S. troops could be withdrawn from Iraq in 2006, as some top officers have suggested, he said, “I wouldn’t venture that.”
“This is going to be very conditions-based,” he said, adding that the political development of Iraq’s government is “very, very important” to supporting the fledgling Iraqi army.
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As part of my career while attending college, I am doing various websites for local and other groups, and just finished a major one this morning in the wee hours. It’s for one of our local high power FM stations…one I worked at for a year and a half as a DJ.
Check it out at http://www.myktrz.com. It’s a very custom installation of Wordpress, and the management tools for their use are second to none.
Rich
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US Mormons prepare for worst by storing supplies
By Laura Zuckerman
REXBURG, Idaho (Reuters) – On a mild October day, disaster seems unlikely to strike this Mormon outpost in Idaho but that does not stop residents from preparing for the worst.
In the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, many Americans have begun to ponder how they would cope with major disaster. But for many of Rexburg, Idaho’s 22,000 residents — roughly 90 percent of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the question of who will provide if calamity strikes has long been settled.
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Look no further than the events of Hurricane Katrina, to know that in all-out catastrophe, the need, and want, for food will be the all-consuming thought for every survivor in the midst of the destruction. The story below tells it like it is, like it was, and most likely what it will be…the NEXT time…and maybe sooner than we want.
Rich
The Coming Starvation In America
By James P. Wickstrom
Antechamber.net
10-3-5
The government of the United States, by Law was to always maintain a three year mixed- grain survival storage for every man, woman, and child in the United States.
Like most Laws of the land, the politicians never took heed as to why our wise ancestors had this reserve requirement established. It was to make sure, that, in the time of a National Emergency, the people had the most important mainstay needed for survival individually and as a Nation.
Remember, the people make the Nation, the Nation does not make the people.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s the different political administrations of Washington, D.C. walked away from sanity and started to give the surplus grains which where in elevator storage all over the country, to other nations, such as the Soviet Union, India, etc.. This continued over two decades, until the elevators were empty and the reserve of grains that were in reserve as per a national crisis….were gone. Of course this was done as to inhance international “friendship” with other nations, even if those other nations were self-admitted enemies of the United States.
Remember, there was enough grain in storage, paid for by the American tax-payer, to last the masses inside the United States for three full years, if need be. But now it all is but gone!
By 1996, the United States Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) claimed that there was enough food in ware-house storage to last every man, woman and child in the cities a 3 day supply and a 5 day supply for every man, woman, and child in the countryside, should a great national emergency occur. In other words, if food trucks stopped running, the food supplies for the masses would be 3 days in the cities and 5 days in the countryside.
In 2003, the U.S.D.A. stopped measuring for “days in reserve” of food for every man, woman, and child in the United States because the amount of food in storage in the United States dropped under a 1 day food supply for every man, woman, and child in the United States. Thus, the U.S.D.A. started to measure in individual pounds as to how much food was in the food-chain per person in the United States as per 300 million people.
In 2003, there was 77 pounds of food per person in the warehouse food-chain in the United States. What this means, is that during a national emergency, only 77 pounds of food per person is available before all food is TOTALLY GONE in the United States.
By September of 2005, there is now only 15.7 pounds of reserved foodstuffs in the food-chain for every man, woman, and child in the United States. This means that there has been an 80% decrease in the past two years. That decrease is becoming greater with every passing day in the United States. Of the 15.7 pounds of warehoused reserved food-stuffs, 11.0 pounds of the 15.7 pounds consists of unprocessed wheat. The rest of the 15.7 pounds of survival foods in storage for every man, woman, and child, totaling 4.7 pounds, consists of the following foods:
1. Non-fat dry milk 2. Cheese 3. Corn by the bushel 4. Peanuts by the pound 5. Lentils by the pound
That’s it folks ! . . . This is what the District of Columbia has set aside representing the 15.7 pounds in the survival food-chain for every man, woman, and child to stay alive on. This is not a daily supply, this amount represents the total food everyone will get for ….how long, who knows!
The U.S.D.A. Crop Production Report per September 12, 2005, contained said information, and this information was brought forth by Alan Guebert of the Farm & Food Report.
Collective communist farming failed in the Soviet Union and communist China, and the present form of Collective Farming (paying the farmers not to grow food) has totally failed in the United States.
Mr. Guebert also stated, that one more disaster as the likes of the hurricanes Katrina or Rita against the United States, or anything to compare to such in whatever way, would create such a food panic, it would make the New Orleans rioting look like the Mardi Gras.
The United States Government for the past 75 years has been driving the United States deeper and deeper into the realm of communism. The United States is financially broke, the farms are broken down, the Nation has been de-industrialized, and the outsourcing of jobs continues to this day. Both corrupt federal administrations, the Democrat and Republican eat off the same plate. They have labeled that plate; “Screw the taxpayer, each and every one of them.”
Our European ancestors were very wise, honest and full of common sense. They had food cellars where they had food canned, that could last themwell over a year, insuring them that they would be able to plant a crop the following summer, and still be able to survive waiting for crops to mature and harvest. They did not rely on the corrupt politicans who are liars and thieves.
But as I said, time passed by and the people put a false trust in their elected and appointed public servants thinking that these same people were looking out for their personal interests. How sadly wrong the people were then, and still are.
In conclusion, I highly suggest that you pull your head out of the sand, check your food supplies, and if you do not have 6 months to a years food in reserve, then you had best sell something or do whatever you have to do, to immediately prepare yourself and your loved ones for safety. If you can store two years at this time: DO IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
Remember, the 15.7 pounds of food in reserve is becoming less by the day, and at the present rate of speed, the United States is heading to what is called…. meal to meal. One more major disaster will drive the United States to its knees.
The federal government, for itself, has millions of tons of preserved foods stashed away in underground storages, but this food is not for the masses, unless they surrender their firearms, and then they will get a food coupon from the *feds* to buy out of the federal government food warehouse wherever it is set up in your area.
…………. has always subjected and controlled the masses using FOOD. Remember, FOOD CONTROL IS PEOPLE CONTROL, and this same plan is being laid out laid out against the masses in the United States by COMMUNISTS in both the Republican and Democratic parties of the United States. New Orleans was your cue: Now prepare! You have been warned.
Your blood is off my hands!
James P. Wickstrom
http://www.theantechamber.net
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NYC Unveils Hurricane Evacuation Plan
By LARRY McSHANE, AP
NEW YORK (Oct. 4) – It’s coming, with skyscraper-rattling winds and a 30-foot storm surge that threatens to submerge Wall Street, flood the subways and turn Coney Island into a water park. And when it arrives, more than 3 million New Yorkers – more than six times the population of New Orleans – could be forced to evacuate by the first major hurricane to hit the city since 1938.
A killer storm in the nation’s largest city, with flooding in all five boroughs, inaccessible highways and airports, and enormous traffic jams, would require an unprecedented response. After the summer of Katrina and Rita, New Yorkers are wondering if the city can handle the challenge.
“The plan now is full of technical and other management flaws,” said state Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who chairs a committee investigating the city’s planned response. “There’s a basic bottom line: We are incredibly vulnerable, and our leaders are patting us on the head saying, `There, there. Trust us.”‘
A recent WNBC-TV/Marist Poll indicated that 62 percent of New Yorkers felt it was not possible to evacuate their neighborhoods.
Not true, city emergency officials say. New York is ready to respond to the hurricane risks, and the city dispatched staffers to New Orleans and Texas in hopes of learning from Katrina and Rita.
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Hurricanes destroyed 109 oil platforms: US government
Oct 04 3:30 PM US/Eastern
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed 109 oil platforms and five drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, but only a small portion of production will be lost for good, the US government said.
Rita accounted for most of the damage in a region that ordinarily produces nearly one-third of US crude oil imports, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in presenting a preliminary assessment report.
Rita destroyed 63 platforms and one drilling rig when it tore through the region on September 24, she said. Katrina destroyed 46 platforms and four drilling rigs when it hit the Gulf at the end of August.
Katrina also caused extensive damage to another 20 platforms and nine drilling rigs. Rita seriously damaged 30 platforms and 10 drilling rigs.
“The two hurricanes coming so close together really illustrate how much of our offshore production was affected,” Norton told the CNBC network.
“We had altogether, with both of the hurricanes, about 2,900 platforms that were in the path of the hurricanes,” she said.
“We have no official estimate of the dollar value of the damage and the amount that it will cost to repair those facilities, but it will clearly be in the billions of dollars.”
In advance of the hurricanes, crude oil production ground to a halt as Gulf sites were evacuated.
A total of 342 platforms remain evacuated, roughly 40 percent of the manned sites in the Gulf, Norton said.
As a result, 90 percent of crude production and 72 percent of natural gas output is paralysed, she said.
But Norton also stressed that only one of the damaged platforms was built after federal construction standards were tightened in 1988.
The ones that were destroyed were nearing the end of their lives. “As a result, only a very small percentage of production is expected to be permanently lost,” she said in a statement.
“Despite such intense winds and powerful waves offshore, we experienced no loss of life or significant spills from any offshore well on the outer continental shelf,” Norton added.
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A good compendium of what the DOOMERS are thinking about, worried about, and planning for…
Rich
WHAT’S ABOUT TO HAPPEN?
J. Adams
October 2nd, 2005
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“If a nuclear weapon is detonated on American soil and they say it is Arab terrorists, don’t believe it.”
- Col. Stanislav Lunev, a Russian military defector (source)
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According to an alarming teaser-of-an-article posted on WorldNetDaily last Friday, Al Qaeda may be set to deliver an “American Hiroshima” this month during the Islamic holy time of Ramadan. If you want to find out about this unprecedented threat to U.S. national security and the lives of millions of Americans, you need only pay Joe Farah $9.95 per month or $99 for a full year subscription to his G2 Intelligence Bulletin. Personally I think that if intelligence regarding such a threat does indeed exist, one should freely make the details available rather than seek to make a buck off it. But I guess this is where I and Joe Farah differ.
Unfortunately, there is reason to give some credence to the notion that a threat of nuclear terrorism, or at least the most unprecedented wave of al Qaeda terror since 9/11, looms for October 2005. Here’s why.
