Activists and Ponerology

What is the weakest point of most social activists? What hinders their success in various reform efforts?

It may be their lack of understanding of evil. Their idea that, basically, everyone, at least at some point in their life, was good and wanted to do good. That reason and good will would triumph if people could just be made to see that goodness and compassion are in their own and everyone’s best interest. They tend to blame the fact that some people perversely causing harm even against their own interests on fear and ignorance. Liberal humanism recoils at any conclusion that some people are irredeemable bad. But recent studies of psychopathy or sociopathy call that into question.

If it is true that 4-6% of the population have no conscience whatsoever, then their actions cannot result from error or fear alone, since someone like this may well enjoy causing harm to others. Robert Canup, a man who has spent years studying “why things don’t work,” describes what we’re up against. According to Canup, those who planned large scale horrific disasters like the Vietnam War might actually feel that the fiasco actually achieved their goals, their goals being causing pain and suffering on a mass scale. Making a distinction between evil people of below average, average, above average, and high intelligence, he writes:

Next up the ladder is the evil person of above average intelligence. These people have a similar goal to evil people of average intelligence; the production of human misery. However these people see the opportunity to do something that evil people of normal intelligence don't see how to do; murder someone and get away with it. They understand that the way to murder someone and get away with it is to not care who they kill, how they kill them, or when they kill them. Such people set up conditions where someone will be 'accidentally' killed and wait for the circumstances to occur.

…That leaves us those who are evil and of high intelligence. Most good people are also familiar with these kind of people; we call them leaders - both of industry and of government. It is the goal of such people to get away with mass murder. An example will show how they work their agenda.

If you look at the Viet Nam War none of it makes much sense; not from a political standpoint, not from an economic standpoint, and certainly not from a military standpoint. Let us examine the well known case of 'Hamburger Hill'; a battle location in the Viet Nam war. In this engagement US forces fought their way up a hill against fierce opposition. Once the US forces had taken the hill they were ordered to MARCH BACK DOWN giving the hill back to the opposition. The action was repeated several times. The argument given was that the US forces were exhausting the enemy by forcing them to fight repeatedly. Of course the conventional military strategy is to exhaust the opposition forces by making them attempt to re-take the hill by force of arms - rather than by giving it back to them uncontested. The 'Hamburger Hill' strategy makes no sense whatsoever - unless you assume that very high up in the US government was an evil person of high intelligence whose goal was to murder ten's of thousands of people and get away with it. When thought of this way, the entire War in Viet Nam snaps into focus and makes sense - as far as I know, that is the ONLY explanation of the war that allows it to be understandable.

A frightening topic, to be sure, but one that must be confronted. For those of us trying to oppose what the evil people of high intelligence are doing, wouldn’t our efforts have a greater chance of success the more we know about the tactics that will be used to frustrate those efforts? This is the conclusion Laura Knight-Jadczyk comes to after tying together the work of, Canup, Martha Stout, Andew Lobaczewski and others. In The Cult of the Plausible Lie, for example, she quotes Lobaczewski:

We clearly need to study this problem of macro-social evil in our world in a systematic and scientific way. And we need to get over the idea that thinking only good thoughts, thinking about happy and "nice" things is the way to good psychological health.

If physicians behaved like ethicists and failed to study diseases because they were only interested in studying questions of health, there would be no such thing as modern medicine. […] Physicians were correct in their emphasis on studying disease above all in order to discover the causes and biological properties of illnesses, and then to understand the pathodynamics of their courses. A comprehension of the nature of a disease, and the course it runs, after all, enables the proper curative means to be elaborated and employed.[…]

The question thus arises: could some analogous modus operandi not be used to study the causes and genesis of other kinds of evil scourging human individuals, families, societies? Experience has taught the author that evil is similar to disease in nature, although possibly more complex and elusive to our understanding. [...]

Considerable moral, intellectual, and practical advantages can be gleaned from an understanding of the genesis of Evil thanks to the objectivity required to study it dispassionately. The human heritage of ethics is not destroyed by taking such an approach: it is actually strengthened because the scientific method can be utilized to confirm the basic values of moral teachings.

Understanding the nature of macro-social pathology helps us to find a healthy attitude and thus protects our minds from being controlled or poisoned by the diseased contents and influence of their propaganda.
We can only conquer this huge, contagious social cancer if we comprehend its essence and its etiological causes.

Such an understanding of the nature of the phenomena leads to the logical conclusion that the measures for healing and reordering the world today should be completely different from the ones heretofore used for solving international conflicts. It is also true that, merely having the knowledge and awareness of the phenomena of the genesis of macro-social Evil can begin healing individual humans and help their minds regain harmony. [Andrew Lobaczewski, Ph.D. Political Ponerology: The Science of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes]

Not only are the efforts of the reformer/activist-type frustrated by the consciously evil people in the outside world, but also by those within the groups they work in. COINTELPRO and psyops, in other words. In Bridge Over Troubled Waters Knight-Jadczyk writes,

You can't go into battle without studying the opposition, knowing their strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and so on. Lobaczewski and those other activists and resistance fighters have already been through this. They studied it and mapped it. And the fact is, if you don't study what you are up against, you will make stupid mistakes, you will think you are winning when you are losing, and conversely, you will think you are losing when the opponent is just bluffing.

This information is crucial. A good activist can NOT ignore it. He or she does so only at his or her own peril. Yeah, sure, it seems like a huge burden to have to deal with accusations and counter-accusations in the COINTELPRO world, but if we don't, we are toast.

…Just now, activists are the physicians of society. We can't do a thing if we don't know the nature of the disease and that is what Lobaczewski lays out for us in all its horrible detail. We don't want to give up in despair thinking we have incurable cancer when it is just the measles or something that must run its course and can lead to full recovery if proper nursing is applied.

The questions about COINTELPRO backed groups and individuals MUST be asked, but it must be asked in the proper context. The question is: Are such groups and individuals just "victims" of the social disease, or are they a vectors? Are they innocently manipulated by the special psychological knowledge of those with serious psychological pathologies, or are they carriers?

Either way, COINTELPRO is deliberate and planned at some level, whether the individual or group is privy to that planning or merely it's dupe. The REAL "enemies" are those individuals pulling his strings. The bottom line is, if the individual cannot be cured, if their egos are so big they cannot admit that they have been or are being manipulated, then those who seek "health" need to contain them like Typhoid Mary.

Modern COINTELPRO has been developed to an all new level of complexity and sophistication even if they still use many of the old tried and true methods of defamation and slander. After all, they have had access to some excellent talent to figure out how the human mind works and to know how to get to people and even to "trigger" them at a distance. I'm not talking about mysterious "mind control" experiments here, but simple psychological knowledge, though I won't discount the direct experimentation. After all, if you have some control over what kind of psychological "diet" is being fed to a society, you can pretty well set them up to do what you want right there in front of God and everybody. Education, religion, television, video games, control of the media for "ideological vectoring," etc. It's a pretty formidable array.

But again, most of it is "terror tactics." We need to study it and find the curative means and employ them.

How can this work? In How to Spot COINTELPRO Agents, Laura Knight-Jadczyk reworks an old pamphlet from the 1960s on How to Spot a Spy:

This booklet lists tactics agents use to slow things down, foul things up, destroy the movement and keep tabs on activists.

…In some situations, to get control, the agent will tell the activist: "You're dividing the movement."

[Here, I have added the psychological reasons as to WHY this maneuver works to control people]

This invites guilty feelings. Many people can be controlled by guilt. The agents begin relationships with activists behind a well-developed mask of "dedication to the cause." Because of their often declared dedication, (and actions designed to prove this), when they criticize the activist, he or she - being truly dedicated to the movement - becomes convinced that somehow, any issues are THEIR fault. This is because a truly dedicated person tends to believe that everyone has a conscience and that nobody would dissimulate and lie like that "on purpose." It's amazing how far agents can go in manipulating an activist because the activist will constantly make excuses for the agent who regularly declares their dedication to the cause. Even if they do, occasionally, suspect the agent, they will pull the wool over their own eyes by rationalizing: "they did that unconsciously... they didn't really mean it... I can help them by being forgiving and accepting " and so on and so forth.

The agent will tell the activist:

"You're a leader!"

This is designed to enhance the activist's self-esteem. His or her narcissistic admiration of his/her own activist/altruistic intentions increase as he or she identifies with and consciously admires the altruistic declarations of the agent which are deliberately set up to mirror those of the activist.

This is "malignant pseudoidentification." It is the process by which the agent consciously imitates or simulates a certain behavior to foster the activist's identification with him/her, thus increasing the activist's vulnerability to exploitation. The agent will simulate the more subtle self-concepts of the activist.

Activists and those who have altruistic self-concepts are most vulnerable to malignant pseudoidentification especially during work with the agent when the interaction includes matter relating to their competency, autonomy, or knowledge. The goal of the agent is to increase the activist's general empathy for the agent through pseudo-identification with the activist's self-concepts.

The most common example of this is the agent who will compliment the activist for his competency or knowledge or value to the movement. On a more subtle level, the agent will simulate affects and mannerisms of the activist which promotes identification via mirroring and feelings of "twinship". It is not unheard of for activists, enamored by the perceived helpfulness and competence of a good agent, to find themselves considering ethical violations and perhaps, even illegal behavior, in the service of their agent/handler.

The activist's "felt quality of perfection" [self-concept] is enhanced, and a strong empathic bond is developed with the agent through his/her imitation and simulation of the victim's own narcissistic investments. [self-concepts] That is, if the activist knows, deep inside, their own dedication to the cause, they will project that onto the agent who is "mirroring" them.

The activist will be deluded into thinking that the agent shares this feeling of identification and bonding. In an activist/social movement setting, the adversarial roles that activists naturally play vis a vis the establishment/government, fosters ongoing processes of intrapsychic splitting so that "twinship alliances" between activist and agent may render whole sectors or reality testing unavailable to the activist. They literally "lose touch with reality."

Activists who deny their own narcissistic investments [do not have a good idea of their own self-concepts and that they ARE concepts] and consciously perceive themselves (accurately, as it were) to be "helpers" endowed with a special amount of altruism are exceedingly vulnerable to the affective (emotional) simulation of the accomplished agent.

Empathy is fostered in the activist through the expression of quite visible affects. The presentation of tearfulness, sadness, longing, fear, remorse, and guilt, may induce in the helper-oriented activist a strong sense of compassion, while unconsciously enhancing the activist's narcissistic investment in self as the embodiment of goodness.

The agent's expresssion of such simulated affects may be quite compelling to the observer and difficult to distinguish from deep emotion.

It can usually be identified by two events, however:

First, the activist who has analyzed his/her own narcissistic roots and is aware of his/her own potential for being "emotionally hooked," will be able to remain cool and unaffected by such emotional outpourings by the agent.

As a result of this unaffected, cool, attitude, the Second event will occur: The agent will recompensate much too quickly following such an affective expression leaving the activist with the impression that "the play has ended, the curtain has fallen," and the imposture, for the moment, has finished. The agent will then move quickly to another activist/victim.

The Sides are being Picked for World War III

Earlier this month, Jacques Chirac threatened any “terrorists” with a nuclear response by France if they attack France.

BREST, France (Reuters) - France said on Thursday it would be ready to use nuclear weapons against any state that carried out a terrorist attack against it, reaffirming the need for its nuclear deterrent.

Deflecting criticism of France's costly nuclear arms program, President Jacques Chirac said security came at a price and France must be able to hit back hard at a hostile state's centers of power and its "capacity to act."

Some have speculated that Chirac’s threat was really directed at the United States.

Now we read that Putin has not only boasted of Russia’s missiles being able to penetrate any missile defense system (and how many countries have a missile defense system besides the United States?) but also that he showed it to Chirac when giving the French president a tour:

President Vladimir Putin boasted Tuesday that Russia has missiles capable of penetrating any missile defense system, Russian news reports said.

"Russia ... has tested missile systems that no one in the world has," the ITAR-Tass, Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies quoted him as saying at a news conference. "These missile systems don't represent a response to a missile defense system, but they are immune to that. They are hypersonic and capable of changing their flight path."

Putin said the new missiles were capable of carrying nuclear warheads. He wouldn't say whether the Russian military already had commissioned any such missiles.

He said he had shown the working principles of the missile systems to French President Jacques Chirac during a visit to a Russian military facility.

"He knows what I'm talking about," news agencies quoted Putin as telling reporters after state-run news channels had cut their live broadcast of the news conference.

In April 2004, Chirac became the first Western leader to visit Russia's top-secret Titov space control center, which is also involved in launches of its intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Putin said that the new missiles were capable of changing both the altitude and the direction of their flight, making it impossible for an enemy to intercept them.

"A missile defense system is designed to counter missiles moving along a ballistic trajectory," Putin was quoted as saying.

Putin and other Russian officials have boasted of the new missiles in similar comments in recent years, but they haven't identified them or given any further details other than about their ability to change their flight path on approach to a target.

Most analysts viewed the earlier announcements about "hypersonic" missile systems as Moscow's response to U.S. missile defense plans.

Things are definitely lining up for World War III. This time Germany will be played by the United States.

Let’s see, who will be Japan? Israel? Maybe the United Kingdom will play Italy. They already have their “little Hitler” counterpart with Tony Blair as “little Bush.” Canada can be Austria—get ready for the Anschluss.

All jokes aside, this is very scary. Once the fascist cancer has progressed too far, the only way to get rid of it is by the complete destruction of the host country by the rest of the world, and it looks like the rest of the world is realizing it in the run-up to the attack on Iran.

Bush and Cheney need to be impeached immediately and the Neocons need to be arrested and tried.

One Way Iraq is not Like Vietnam

In the Vietnam era in the United States you used to hear arguments between passionate supporters of the war and opponents of the war. Now I can't recall a single "water-cooler" or family discussion where anyone defended the Iraq War. There is zero real, passionate support for it among the public.

Why, then, do BOTH parties still support it? Why isn't there even a pretense of responding to the public will? Is it that the Diebold voting machines have completely insulated any politician from public backlash? It's really the strangest disconnect.

Television Screens are Multiplying

Have you noticed that television screens are multiplying. At least in the United States they are everywhere now. I was in a branch office of the company where I work and the office building had a large television in the lobby blaring Fox News. Then, in the office itself, the kitchen/break room had a television blaring CNN. Another branch office had a television going all the time in an open waiting room area, near workers’ cubicles.

In airports it takes quite a bit of effort to avoid them. Larger bars and restaurants often have more than a dozen televisions going at all times.

Cars now have one or two screens going, either showing DVD’s or satellite navigation.

Why is this?

It seems like much more than just propaganda, although that’s a big part of it, especially since it’s the news channels that usually are on these screens. Orwell probably should have called his novel 2004.

Could there be more to it? Some sort of trance induction or alpha wave opening or something? Any thoughts?

Neocons Rockin' All Over the World

I am finding it strange that the only place where the will of the public is reflected in their leaders is in Latin America. In Europe and North America, while Bush and the Neocon wars are incredibly unpopular, Bush steals the election, the Neocons are poised to take over Canada, Blair universally hated in Britain is still in office and the Neocons are about to take over France, even, with Sarkozy.

What is going on? Anyone have any ideas?

Here’s the Canadian Jeff Wells’s take:

Last night in an interview on CBC, Stephen Harper said he couldn't promise that a Conservative government wouldn't take Canada into deficit because "we might have a war." Does that sound familiar to American ears? Meanwhile, the Liberals' star candidate and putative leadership hopeful, Harvard's Michael Ignatieff, is an apologist for torture and the Iraq War.

I know it's only politics. And thanks to the education I've given myself since first watching Florida flip to the Bush column, I know that can mean only so much and no more. But I'm not one of those who can say they're all the same. And even if they were, I don't think I could say it.

I expect in politics, virtually everywhere, it takes something like a dissociative act of will to Keep Hope Alive. Especially in the clapped-out, qlipphotic shells of the old democracies. Elections become Logan's Run-like lotteries that never pay off, but that keep the citizenry mollified because there's always next time. (And no matter the tyranny that descends upon America, there will always be a next time. So long as the ceremony of the vote is observed, enough people will mistake it for representative rule.)

"Peak Oil" and Africa

David McGowan has an interesting take on the whole “Peak Oil” thing. He thinks that the scare mongers are right about how the disaster of not enough energy will unfold but he thinks that we are nowhere near a peak in oil production, that oil is abiotic (not made from dead dinosaurs) and that there is more than enough oil. The reason he thinks that the disaster will unfold as the Peak Oil proponents predict, is that the Powers That Be are seizing control of all oil fields and production facilities in order to deliberately keep production low enough to support the illusion of a peak oil disaster.

Here is McGowan:

The fact that 'Peak Oil' is an entirely manufactured construct does not mean that the doomsday scenarios painted by the 'Peak' crowd will therefore not become our new reality. This is not just another scam to further pad the pockets of the oil industry and other financial elites. The stakes are much higher than that. Much higher.

In order to clarify my position on 'Peak Oil,' it would be instructive to briefly review the areas of agreement, and the areas of disagreement, that I have with those who are selling the scam.The Peakers claim that 'Peak Oil' is the single most important issue that we are facing today. I agree with that assessment (but not because 'Peak Oil' is a valid concept).

The Peakers claim that much of America's military might has been directed in recent years at conquering the key oil and gas producing regions of the world. And that is obviously quite true. Central Asia and Iraq have been seized, Venezuela has suffered through constant meddling by the CIA, the Sudan has been targeted for a future assault, and Saudi Arabia and Iran have been subjected to saber rattling.

But the Peakers also claim that these military ventures have been motivated by America's desire to seize what will soon be the last drops of the world's precious reserves of oil -- and that is entirely untrue.

The Peakers claim that we will very soon be facing a world where chaos reigns supreme -- a world of war, famine and death on a scale unknown in recorded human history. And that does, in fact, appear to be the case. And we're not talking about the distant future here, folks; we're talking about the very near future.

But the Peakers also claim that this global "die off" will be a regrettable, but quite natural, and entirely unavoidable, consequence of the world's oil taps running dry. And that is the really big lie. That is the lie that will very soon be used to rationalize the killing off of hundreds of millions, possibly billions, of the world's people. There are, you see, simply too many people in the world who, by merely being alive, are standing in the way of the aspirations of the global elite.

The people that the 'Peak Oil' pitchmen are fronting for are deadly serious about selling 'Peak Oil' to the masses -- and not just in theoretical terms, as a cynical ploy to raise prices and increase profits. No, it has become clear that the real goal is to actually cut off most of the world's oil supplies under the ruse that the oil simply no longer exists. The desired result is massive social unrest, widespread famine, and endless war. The majority of the world's people will not survive. Those that do will find themselves living under the overtly authoritarian form of rule that will quickly be deemed necessary to restore order. And if you think that we here in America are exempt, you are sadly mistaken.

In order to pull off this stunt, all the world's major oil producing regions must be solidly under the control of the U.S. and it's co-conspirators, otherwise known as 'allies.' In other words, the puppet-masters have to control all the major oil taps, so that they have complete control over the flow of oil -- or lack of it. And that, in a nutshell, is the real reason for America's recent military ventures. The goal, you see, is not to steal Iraq's oil, or the oil in the 'Stans, or in the Sudan, or in Venezuela, or anywhere else. We don't want to take their oil, because the truth is that we don't really need it. What we want to do is sit on the taps so no one else can get to the oil.

Remember the run up in gasoline prices in the United States last year. It was due to a lack of refining capacity, and there is much evidence to show that the oil companies deliberately did not build enough refineries so that they could jack up prices and take massive profits.

Keep this in mind when reading recent news out of oil-producing regions of Africa, where in Nigeria, rebels (supported by whom, I wonder) have sabotaged oil pipelines, leading to new increases in the price of oil. Note that in the last five years or so, the United States has taken a much greater strategic interest in Africa than it had before. Of course they talk about “terrorism” in that context but we know what that means.

Impeach Bush and Cheney before Alito Gets Confirmed

Good news and bad news.

The good news is that a majority of the U.S. public now want Bush impeached! See this poll done by Zogby, the most accurate mainstream polling organization.

Also, more and more politicians are using the I-word. Yesterday even Arlen Specter did. In this AP news article about Senator Specter, the Republican Chairman of the Senate Judciary Committee, AP wrote, "Specter, speaking in general terms, noted that impeachment and criminal prosecution are possibilities in the event a president acted unconstitutionally."

The bad news is that there will very soon be a fascist majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, once Alito is confirmed. By fascist I mean simply an executive leader above the law and corporations ruling all aspects of citizens' private lives. See this on the Fuehrerprinzip from Signs of the Times.

Impeachment or World War III?

What will it be: Impeachment or World War III?

Look at these two postings, both based on leaks from supposed insiders, side by side:

First this from Wayne Madsen:

January 2, 2006 -- Intelligence indications and warnings abound as Bush administration finalizes military attack on Iran.

Intelligence and military sources in the United States and abroad are reporting on various factors that indicate a U.S. military hit on Iranian nuclear and military installations, that may involve tactical nuclear weapons, is in the final stages of preparation. Likely targets for saturation bombing are the Bushehr nuclear power plant (where Russian and other foreign national technicians are present), a uranium mining site in Saghand near the city of Yazd, the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, a heavy water plant and radioisotope facility in Arak, the Ardekan Nuclear Fuel Unit, the Uranium Conversion Facility and Nuclear Technology Center in Isfahan, the Tehran Nuclear Research Center, the Tehran Molybdenum, Iodine and Xenon Radioisotope Production Facility, the Tehran Jabr Ibn Hayan Multipurpose Laboratories, the Kalaye Electric Company in the Tehran suburbs, a reportedly dismantled uranium enrichment plant in Lashkar Abad, and the Radioactive Waste Storage Units in Karaj and Anarak.

Primary target: Bushehr nuclear reactor and hundreds of Russian technicians
Other first targets would be Shahab-I, II, and III missile launch sites, air bases (including the large Mehrabad air base/international airport near Tehran), naval installations on the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea, command, control, communications and intelligence facilities. Secondary targets would include civilian airports, radio and TV installations, telecommunications centers, government buildings, conventional power plants, highways and bridges, and rail lines. Oil installations and commercial port facilities would likely be relatively untouched by U.S. forces in order to preserve them for U.S. oil and business interests.

There has been a rapid increase in training and readiness at a number of U.S. military installations involved with the planned primarily aerial attack. These include a Pentagon order to Fort Rucker, Alabama, to be prepared to handle an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 trainees, including civilian contractors, who will be deployed for Iranian combat operations. Rucker is home to the US Army's aviation training command, including the helicopter training school.

In addition, there has been an increase in readiness at nearby Hurlburt Field in Florida, the home of the U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command. The U.S. attack on Iran will primarily involve aviation (Navy, Air Force, Navy-Marine Corps) and special operations assets.

There has also been a noticeable increase in activity at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, California, a primary live fire training activity located in a desert and mountainous environment similar to target areas in Iran.

From European intelligence agencies comes word that the United States has told its NATO allies to be prepared for a military strike on Iranian nuclear development and military installations.

On November 17, 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin spent seven hours in secret discussions with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the the opening ceremonies in Samsun, Turkey for the Russian-Turkish underwater Blue Stream natural gas pipeline, festivities also attended by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

According to sources knowledgeable about the meeting, Erdogan promised Putin, who has become a close friend, that Turkey would not support the use of its bases by the United States in a military attack on Iran. That brought a series of high level visits to Turkey by Bush administration officials, including CIA chief Porter Goss, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Although Erdogan listened to Goss's and Rice's pleas for Turkish logistical, political, and intelligence help for an attack on Iran and Turkish Army Chief Yasar Buyukanit heard much the same from Pentagon officials during his recent trip to Washington, the word is that Putin now has enough clout in Ankara to scuttle any use of Turkey by the U.S. for an attack on Iran. [Mueller delivered Ankara intelligence "proof" of Iranian backing for Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) guerrillas in Turkey. Intelligence agencies and business intelligence units around the world are now discounting any intelligence coming from the Bush administration as neocon propaganda invented by think tanks and discredited intelligence agencies in Washington, Tel Aviv-Herzliya, and Jerusalem].

Funny how Bird Flu hit Turkey just after Goss’s visit.

A U.S. Attack on Iran: The Perfect Storm for wider nuclear conflict

U.S. political and military officials have also approached Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Jordan, Oman, and Azerbaijan seeking their support for a U.S. attack on Iran. Ina replay of the phony pre-war intelligence on Iraq, Washington is trying to convince various countries that a link exists between Iran and "Al Qaeda."

Polish intelligence sources report that Poland's Defense Minister Radek Sikorski assured Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of Poland's support for any U.S. strike against Iran. Sikorski is a former American Enterprise Institute colleague of such neo-cons as Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, and Lynne Cheney, the so-called "Second Lady" of the United States. Sikorski and Polish Foreign Minister Stefan Meller assured Rumsfeld and Rice, respectively, that Poland would stand by the United States during the split in NATO that will occur as a result of the American strike. Polish intelligence sources, who are unhappy with the arrangement of the new right-wing government in Warsaw with the Bush administration, leaked the information about the recent U.S. demarche to NATO in Brussels about preparation for the attack.

Similar intelligence "leaks" about the U.S. attack plans were also leaked to the German magazine Der Spiegel.

...Intelligence and military officials around the world are also bracing for the results of a U.S. attack on Iran. This includes the distinct possibility of a major Shia retaliatory attack in Iraq, the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and Afghanistan against U.S. military, diplomatic, and economic targets in the region. Radioactive fallout from a conventional or tactical nuclear attack on Iran will result in major problems with Pakistan, India, China, Russia, Japan, and other downwind countries in Asia and the Pacific Rim, possibly including the fall of the Pervez Musharraf government in Pakistan and replacement by a radical Islamist regime having possession of nuclear weapons. That would provoke a military response from nuclear power India.

In a counter-attack, Iran would immediately launch its Shahab I and II missiles at the U.S. Green Zone in Baghdad, the Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, the US Navy base in Bahrain, Camp Doha base in Kuwait, Al Seeb airbase in Oman, Baghdad International Airport, the U.S. base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Iran would also launch its long-range Shahab III missiles on the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beersheba, Eilat, and the Israeli nuclear complex at Dimona. Iranian missiles would also be launched at US naval ships in the Persian Gulf and oil installations in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The virtual end of NATO as a viable defense organization may also result from an attack that will drive a final wedge between Washington and Europe. And China may elect to respond financially and militarily against the United States since Iran is China's second largest source of imported Middle East oil after Saudi Arabia and plans to use an Iranian terminal for the export of natural gas from Turkmenistan. [China now imports 60 percent of its oil needs, and Iran represents 17 percent of those imports].

Russia recently participated in, through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a three-way military exercise (code named "Indira 2005") between Russia, China, and India to prepare for any new U.S. power projections in Asia, including an attack on Iran, a prospective SCO member. Last August, Russia and China held their first-ever joint land-sea-air military exercises….

Then this from The Voice of the White House:

December 29, 2005: “The sole topic of conversation inside knowledgeable Washington circles this holiday season is the coming impeachment of Bush and the removal of Cheney from office. And this is not solely restricted to Democrats by any means but also includes a growing majority of Republican lawmakers, the military commands, the senior federal judiciary and those who comprise the so-called Power Elite of this country.

Bush is seen as completely out of control.

It is known that he was put into the White House by powerful Republican, conservative, religious and business entities who were tired of Clinton and the American liberals and wanted to run the country along their own lines.

That their rigged candidate was known to be a useless failure in business, a drunk, a coke-head and of limited intelligence made no difference.

They reasoned that Bush Senior could control him (which, it turned out, he could not) and that the cunning Karl Rove would keep him on track and be able to control public opinion. Another factor was the crazy Dick Cheney, who was determined to be a Vice president That Would Matter and he firmly believed, as did many others, that he could completely control the dimwitted Bush….

It looked like plain sailing in those days.

The Republican plan,
· to strengthen their party in Congress to the point where it was invulnerable to any Democratic challenges,
· to marginalized the Democratic party to the point of being nothing but comic relief and to promulgate social programs that would reduce welfare for the disliked blacks and jobless of all races to nothing,
· to give huge tax benefits to the wealthy Republican cash cows,
· to appease the religious right by allowing creationism to be taught in all public schools, bringing the Ten Commandments of Moses into public buildings,
· to cater to the right wing and pro-Israel Jewish groups by appointing many of their co-religionists to positions of power in the determining of foreign policy (read ‘ Israeli needs both economically and politically in the Middle East’,
· to do everything in their power to assist, by any means, both American and British oil interests in obtaining a secure supply of oil and gas in the same Middle East as well as to secure economic control over Russian oil and gas,
· to secure pipeline rights across central Asia to guarantee more uninterrupted flow of oil to American tanker bottoms for shipment to the oil-starved United States..

All of these things appeared to be well under way until it started to become apparent that Bush himself was not that easily controlled and began to believe the propaganda his staff fed him on a daily basis. As Bush is a very weak man, he constantly needs reinforcement by those around him to assure him of his manliness and ability. He lacks both but his staff has spent years filling him full of sycophantic and dangerous propaganda to the point that Bush now actually believes that he is divinely protected and a great leader in his own right.
Imagine how the religious right, the Republican legislators and American business interests must have felt with each successive faux pas on the part of the President. There was:

· the obviously homosexual Gannon being allowed to roam all over the White House at night (by permission of the President),
· the vicious Plame scandal,
· the growing awareness of the utter corruption of Cheney and others,
· the obvious lies used by Bush and Cheney to trick Congress into permitting a premeditated attack on Iraq to gain their oil fields,
· the uncomprehending stupidity with which this attack was launched and the resulting very successful Iraqi resistance movement,
· the subsequent low morale and rising death tolls among the well-equipped but very badly disciplined American military,
· the destruction of Iraqi oil production and its total loss to the White House schemers,
· the rising and intense international fear and hatred of the Bush policies and worse,
· the growing number of international political and business cartels designed to keep foreign oil from America as a punishment and as a warning to cease and desist irrational and violent activities outside its own borders.

The CIA, under orders from Bush, toppled the pro-Russian governments in Georgia and the Ukraine and have tried, without success, to foment rebellions in many other former Soviet republics…all because of the oil-rich areas. Putin, who is twice the man Bush is and no fool, struck back and took control of the Russian oil and gas industries, costing American and British firms hundreds of millions of dollars they had spent on bribes to the now-powerless Russian Oligarchy that ran all the oil and gas fields.

That all of these oligarchy members were Jewish street thugs who banked their billions in Israeli banks is something not widely known and Putin’s sequestering of their ill-gotten bribes has enraged Israel, prompting them to launch attacks on Putin’s perceived ‘dictatorial ways’ in their many media outlets.

In addition to the Plame scandal, the public watched as the mask slipped during the Katrina disaster. They saw, very clearly and very often, how the current Administration held poor blacks in utter contempt and through a terrible mixture of racism and gross incompetence, permitted the suffering of poor, non-voting blacks to be proclaimed throughout the land (and the entire horrified world) and unto all the inhabitants thereof.

…Now, the cherry on the sundae is the open admission by Bush that he personally ordered unlimited telephone tapping by the NSA, the FBI, DHS and the CIA of mail, email, fax communications and even first class mail of any American, or foreign, citizen that either Bush, Cheney or those having their ear wanted to spy on and, hopefully discredit.

That these actions are very clearly a violation of federal law means nothing to Bush or Cheney. They both feel, and have publicly stated, that they are the law and may do as they wish….

It is all of these factors that have so frightened the American Congress and federal judiciary that the movement in these circles to impeach Bush and remove Cheney has rapidly accelerated in the days following Bush’s foolish and arrogant boast that he not only ordered unlimited surveillance on American and foreign individuals, firms and government entities but flatly refused to cease this completely illegal process.

As I said above, this is not a Democratic Party scheme but one that encompasses all levels and party affiliations. In the Christmas week, in private homes, in the Cosmos and Metropolitan Clubs, in the dining rooms of the Jockey Club and the Hay-Adams hotel, there have been small, private meetings on the subject of how to remove Bush. No one initially wanted a reprise of the Nixon removal but at this point, all of them realize that Bush has three more years of this insanity and that as the forthcoming mid terms would no doubt be a disaster to the Republicans, concrete action is at last being formulated.

As an interesting, if somewhat sinister, side note to this topic, according to a signed memo, Cheney has spoken with Rumsfeld about the attitude of senior military commanders about supporting a declaration by Bush of Martial Law in America.

Fortunately, the military leaders, with two exceptions, would have none of this and after a brief, quiet, internal and certainly very private, polling of their numbers, the subject was permanently shelved. When news of this leaked out, however (there are no secrets in Washington, believe me) it terrified many members of the legislative branch on both sides of the aisle and now the plans for an impeachment proceeding are taking on a new and well-supported life.

Most do not know of currently-discussed plans among certain foreign countries to force Bush and Cheney before the World Court on charges of war crimes to include planned massacres of unarmed civilians, theft of private property, making illegal warfare and lesser charges such as the deliberate killing of foreign journalists. None of this has come to pass…yet… but the very discussion of the idea in the chancelleries and foreign offices of Europe, and the Middle East is only adding fuel to the fires now lit under two of three branches of the American government.

The Executive is dangerously beyond control but the Legislative and Judicial are rising to the call.

These will be interesting times indeed!”

911, COINTELPRO and Cults, Part 2

Laura Knight-Jadczyk followed up her post of last week with some excellent detective work, linking “Simon Gray” of Above Top Secret forum to the Rendon Group-, Pentagon PsyOps-associated Christian Bailey (the person recently outed for coordinating the fake Iraqi journalism). Worth reading in detail to see just how sincere truth-seekers can be “vectored away” from sensitive subject.

Thanks to Laura Knight-Jadczyk, Ark Jadczyk and the editors of Signs of the Times for being such warriors against COINTELPRO.

Psychopaths and “Ponerology”

If it is true as Martha Stout says, that psychopaths may comprise 5% of the population, how can that small a number have such power over people who have consciences. For one thing, as Kurt Vonnegut points out, people without a conscience tend to rise to the top of power hierarchies.

But still, they are only one out of twenty. According to an about to be published book on the scientific study of evil by Andrew M. Lobaczewski, Political Ponerology, the crucial step is the effect that an interaction with a psychopath has on people who have consciences but who may not be strong enough to withstand the negative effects.

Lobaczewski contrasts the group of ruling psychopaths (the Pathocracy) with the society of normal people:

The actions of [pathocracy] affect an entire society, starting with the leaders and infiltrating every town, business, and institution. The pathological social structure gradually covers the entire country creating a “new class” within that nation. This privileged class [of pathocrats] feels permanently threatened by the “others”, i.e. by the majority of normal people. Neither do the pathocrats entertain any illusions about their personal fate should there be a return to the system of normal man. [Andrew M. Lobaczewski, Ph.D. (psychology); Political Ponerology: A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes]

In a nutshell, if the defense mechanisms of normal society are not well enough developed, interactions with ruling psychopaths can create wastelands in the souls of people with consciences, wastelands where conscience no longer functions effectively. In addition, those who are potentially with conscience but very weak, can become effectively psychopathic after interactions with the Pathocracy. Thus, the number of people acting psychopathically can be multiplied, make it much easier for the Pathocracy to retain power.

911, COINTELPRO and Cults

Funny how acrimonious and bitter the disputes in the 911 truth community have become. Have you been following them? Can’t blame you if you don’t. It is becoming nearly impossible to sift through everything.

This is not an accident. This is exactly how COINTELPRO is supposed to work. See Laura Knight-Jadczyk’s recent blog post, “How to Spot COINTELPRO Agents,” as well as this for the details. It is well-worth taking the time to read the lengthy post. There may be no more important topic these days than COINTELPRO.

A sample:

Usually, when we think of COINTELPRO, we think of the most well known and typical activities which include sending anonymous or fictitious letters designed to start rumors, among other things, publishing false defamatory or threatening information, forging signatures on fake documents, introducing disruptive and subversive members into organizations to destroy them from within, blackmailing insiders in any group to force them to spread false rumors, or to foment factionalism, and so on.

What a lot of people don’t keep in mind is the fact that COINTELPRO also concentrated on creating bogus organizations.

These bogus groups could serve many functions which might include attacking and/or disrupting bona fide groups, or even just simply creating a diversion with clever propaganda in order to attract members away so as to involve them with time-wasting activity designed to prevent them from doing anything useful. COINTELPRO was also famous for instigation of hostile actions through third parties so that it looked like just a "disagreement" between two individuals or groups, a "food fight" or something, and there was no way to connect it to any government operation.

It’s a long story, but to make a long story short, be very careful when hearing about some organization being labeled a “cult.”