According to this article at the BBC, the Taleban warned the United States that Osama bin Laden was planning an attack on the US. Of course, these warnings and others weren’t heeded and the US answered their own failure by raining death on thousands of innocent people and by seizing Afghanistan for their own machiavellian purposes. And now, one year later, we’re about to engage in an orgy of snot-blowing and self-serving, made-for-tv, faux grief-wallowing. Disgusting. Prepare for more mass emotionalism and chest-thumping as we prepare to martyr young American and Iraqi men and women in the streets of Baghdad.
Society
06
Sep 02
Secret police throughout history
A police state needs it secret police to quietly maintain domestic ‘order’ and to hold onto power. Believe it or not, the police state was not invented by the U.S. *chuckle* Power has always been paranoid and obsessive about domestic revolution and disobedience. This obsessiveness is one of the reasons why secret police are so common around the globe and throughout history. Remember the Black Iron Prison? Men in black with iron-shod boots knocking on your door in the dark of morning.
- Oprichnina – Secret police of the Tsars, especially Ivan the Terrible. The oprichniki constituted a security police whose relentless aim was to purge the land of treacherous elements. Ivan’s victims suffered heartless torture. Many were drowned or strangled or flogged to death; some were impaled, others roasted on a spit, still others fried in large skillets. The entire city of Novgorod was put to torture on the charge that its archbishop was planning to hand over the city to the Lithuanians. Sixty thousand of its citizens were butchered in a week-long orgy. But churchmen, boyars, and merchants whom Ivan suspected of treason were not the only ones to suffer. His favorites, the oprichniki leaders, died in an agonizing torture more fiendish than anything they had devised for their victims.
- The Cheka – Secret police of the Bolsheviks. (VChK; Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage) 1917-1922. From this point the Cheka initiated a period of mass executions of people not based only on their specific actions, such as sabotage, but also for their beliefs and class origins. In reprisal for the assassination of the German ambassador, the Cheka executed 350 Social Revolutionaries and 512 hostages were shot by the Secret Police after the assassination attempt on Lenin. It has been estimated that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were executed by the Cheka during the Red Terror.
In addition to mass executions, the Cheka also initiated the infamous slave labor camps to imprison not only those considered undesirable but also people who happened to have the wrong class origins, most particularly the bourgeoisie. By the end of 1920 Soviet Russia had 84 of these concentration camps with about 50,000 prisoners. This prison system grew rapidly immediately following the Russian Civil War so that by 1923 the number grew to a total of 315 camps.
- The Gestapo – Secret police of Nazi Germany – The Geheime Staatspolizei (German for Secret State Police, abbreviated “Gestapo”) was formally organized after the Nazi’s seized power in 1933. Hermann Göring, the Prussian minister of the interior, detached the espionage and political units of the Prussian police. And staffed them with thousands of Nazis. Göring became the commander of this new force on April 26, 1933. At the same time that Goring was organzing the Gestapo, Heinrich Himmler was directing the SS (Schutzstaffel, German for “Protective Echelon”), Hitler’s elite paramilitary corps. In April of 1936 he was given command of the Gestapo as well, integrating all of Germany’s police units under Himmler.
- Savak – The Shah’s brutal secret police force, Savak, formed under the guidance of CIA (the United States Central Intelligence Agency) in 1957 and personnel trained by Mossad (Israel’s secret service), to directly control all facets of political life in Iran. Its main task was to suppress opposition to the Shah’s government and keep the people’s political and social knowledge as minimal as possible. Savak was notorious throughout Iran for its brutal methods.
- Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) – later Committee for State Security (KGB) – Secret police of Stalinist Russia – The NKVD broke prisoners down by intense interrogation. This included the threat to arrest and execute members of the prisoner’s family if they did not confess. The interrogation went on for several days and nights and eventually they became so exhausted and disoriented that they signed confessions agreeing that they had been attempting to overthrow the government.
- The Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit) – Secret police of Communist East Germany – Our own CIA has classified files it stole from the Stasi – The Stasi used a huge network of informants to repress the citizens of East Germany. It was not uncommon for members of families to spy on each other for fear of blackmail, as a result of physical threats and even because of monetary rewards from the secret police force. In the late ‘80s, the Stasi had nearly 175,000 official informants on their books, roughly one informant for every 100 people. (Some estimate the size of the “unofficial” Stasi informant force as nearly 10 times this level.) The Stasi maintained a force of over 90,000 uniformed and plain-clothes agents.
- Shin Bet / Mossad – Israel’s secret police – In 1982, reports of torture became widespread following the Israeli invasion and occupation of Lebanon, especially at the Ansar detention camp. An incident in 1984, however, became the turning point in precise documentation of torture in Israel. Majid and Subhi Abujumaa were beaten to death by the Israeli secret police (the Shin Bet) following a failed bus hijacking in Gaza. The truth that the cousins were murdered during interrogation, and not during the storming of the bus as the Israeli government had reported, only surfaced after an Israeli newspaper printed a photograph of one of the men being led away in handcuffs. This incident led to the Landau Commission investigation into the practices of the Shin Bet. The Israeli Government Commission documented the use of torture to obtain confessions from detained Palestinians, yet none of the convictions based upon such coerced confessions reversed.
- CIA(Central Intelligence Agency)/ FBI(Federal Bureau of Investigation)/ SS (Secret Service)/ NSA (National Security Administration) – America’s secret police – We have more than anyone else. In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been operating as a secret police force. Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal a history of domestic political spying on famous authors such as Ernest Hemingway, on civil-rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and on a wide variety of legitimate organizations. These domestic counterintelligence programs (COINTELPROs) used infiltration, eavesdropping, and disinformation campaigns to harass and destroy such groups as the Black Panthers and the American Indian Movement.
06
Sep 02
Are you a Stepford citizen?
Stepford Citizen Syndrome: Top Ten Signs Your Neighbor is Brainwashed:
9) “The media is liberal.”
Ann Coulter complains about the liberal media through the “liberal media,” where she’s regularly given a forum, yet Michael Moore has appeared on less than a handful of shows, though his book’s been a bestseller for six months. During the election, the corporately-controlled media portrayed Al Gore in a negative light, while touting Bush’s phony ranch-hand charm, and according to a report in F.A.I.R (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), 75 % of the dominant sources of opinion on all three major networks are Republican. Yet the brainwashed continue to believe the media has a liberal bias. Go figure.
06
Sep 02
Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni
Queen Boudicca was the Xena of her day. She led a short-lived uprising against the Romans in ancient England. I’ve always enjoyed the image of her charging into battle with her two daughters at her side.
- Boudicca: Celtic warrior queen:
Prasutagus died suddenly, leaving behind his grieving queen, Boudicca, and their two daughters, Comorra and Tasca. He had also left a written will, stating that half his kingdom and wealth would go to Rome, the other half to his daughters as their rightful inheritance. Roman officials ignored the King’s will, however, and demanded Queen Boudicca hand over all her wealth and territories. When she refused, proclaiming her treatment as unfitting of a Roman ally, soldiers were ordered to arrest and flog her and then brutalise and rape her daughters.
Once she was released and her daughters returned to her side, Boudicca was not content to sit back and allow the atrocities committed against her family to go unanswered. She rallied the support of a neighbouring tribe, the Trinovantes, and also a few other Celtic tribes from the north, who had thus far refused to bow to Roman rule. Within a short time Queen Boudicca had amassed an army of over 100,000. Her first target was Comulodunum, a garrison of retired Roman soldiers and their families. Boudicca and her forces spared no one and she ordered the city and its temples put to the torch. A Roman infantry of 5000 was sent to deal with the upstart Queen but they were also annihilated to the last man. Boudicca’s bloody rebellion moved on, her next targets Londinium and Verulamium and surrounding Roman settlements, which were all systematically sacked and burned.
Queen Boudicca And The Events Leading To The Iceni Rebellion of 60 A.D.:
Boadicea was part of a noble and warlike people, the Keltoi or in Latin, Celtae, an amalgamous group of people which populated the British Isles and western Europe from the late 5th century B.C. onwards. The Romans spent centuries in vicious warfare with these people in Gaul, and had long feared and admired their courage. It was an amassed Celtic force that sacked Rome in 410 A.D., causing the final collapse of the ‘Empire’ proper; afterwards, it was a divided sovereignity, with the greatest wealth and power lying in the Eastern part until a thousand years ago, when Europe was launched into a conquering, migrating turmoil.
The Romans most disliked the terrifying war spirit of the Celts, especially the fact that women fought alongside the men, indistinguished in honor and strength. The Roman Diodorus Siculus wrote of Celtic women, saying, “Among the Gauls the women are nearly as tall as the men, whom they rival in courage.” The historian Plutarch stated this while describing a battle in 102 B.C. between Romans and Celts: “the fight had been no less fierce with the women than with the men themselves… the women charged with swords and axes and fell upon their opponents uttering a hideous outcry.” Because Boudicca — a woman, a Roman subject, and a Britannic royal — led the rebellion, Rome felt even more disgraced and outraged.
05
Sep 02
100 jets join attack on Iraq
US stepping up the corporate takeover of Iraq. Looks like Bush wants to hit Iraq before anyone can say no. He’ll probably get a rubber stamp from our spineless Congress once everything starts.Telegraph:
The raid seemed designed to destroy air defences to allow easy access for special forces helicopters to fly into Iraq via Jordan or Saudi Arabia to hunt down Scud missiles before a possible war within the next few months.
Related:
05
Sep 02
Manipulation of American emotions
Our fearless leader, the mandate of heaven, George Bush II has decreed September 11th to be henceforth known as Patriot Day. I doubt our business-friendly corporate whore will make sure we have the day off to celebrate Patriot Day. This is nothing but crass emotionalism and tackiness. “Happy Patriot Day, my fellow American! United we stand! Let’s roll, under God!” Forgive me if I’m cynical, but this is the kind of crap they used to do in the Soviet Union.
We will not forget the events of that terrible morning nor will we forget how Americans responded in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in the skies over Pennsylvania — with heroism and selflessness; with compassion and courage; and with prayer and hope,” Bush wrote in the proclamation.
“Inspired by the heroic sacrifices of our firefighters, rescue and law enforcement personnel, military service members, and other citizens, our nation found unity, focus, and strength.”
“We found healing in the national outpouring of compassion for those lost, as tens of millions of Americans participated in moments of silence, candlelight vigils, and religious services,” the president said. “From the tragedy of September 11 emerged a stronger nation, renewed by a spirit of national pride and a true love of country.”
He should call it Death of the Freedom Day, or America Went to Hell Day.
05
Sep 02
The Gift of the Alphabet
In Norse mythology, Odin descends to hell and hangs upside down on the world-tree (Yggdrasil) for nine days where he discovers the secret magic of the runes. An ex-Jesuit professor of mine used to describe Odin as a ‘kickass Jesus’. The similarities between this and the crucifixion of Jesus are interesting. The Norse version seems to be a more assertive, powerful story. Like Jesus, Odin is impaled by a spear in his side, but unlike Jesus he hangs himself UPSIDE DOWN for nine days AND in hell no less. Both end in a triumphant fashion with the resurrection and ascent of Jesus into heaven and with Odin learning the secrets of the universe.
From a Unitarian sermon:
The author of 4000 Years of Christmas theorizes that some information about Christianity came to the north in garbled form and got included in stories about Odin, who becomes an all seeing father god. Odin’s story has some amazing parallels to the crucifixion of Jesus. For nine days Odin made a sacrifice of himself and pierced by a spear, he hung on a tree. (Jesus hung on a cross not nine days but for nine hours.) At the end Odin received a drink of mead, and then he cried out the letters of the alphabet. Odin gave humanity the alphabet-runes is what they are called–which is a revelation to whoever will become versed in their mystery. It allows those who can use it the ability to speak silently, to send messages, to make records and to make shopping lists. It is the god’s gift of civilization. It’s the gift of the written word.
From About.com:
According to the Eddas, the poetic saga of the Norse Gods, the Runic alphabet was a gift from Odin. The word ‘rune’ means ‘wisper,’ or ‘secret wisdom.’ A selection from the Eddas tells of their discovery. Odin hangs for nine nights upon the world tree, wounded, without food or water; finally, he sees the reflection of the runes in the water:
“Wounded I hung on a wind-swept gallows
For nine long nights,
Pierced by a spear, pledged to Odhinn,
Offered, myself to myself
The wisest know not from whence spring
The roots of that ancient rood.
They gave me no bread,
They gave me no mead,
I looked down;
with a loud cry
I took up runes;
from that tree I fell.”
05
Sep 02
The Cross as a pagan symbol
From here:
“The Tau was the basis for what is now called the “cross” taken from the Latin “crux”. “The shape of the [two-beamed cross] had its origin in ancient Chaldea, and was used as the symbol of the god Tammuz (being in the shape of the mystic Tau, the initial of his name) in that country and in adjacent lands, including Egypt. By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the cross of Christ.”—An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (London, 1962), W. E. Vine, p. 256.
“It is strange, yet unquestionably a fact, that in ages long before the birth of Christ, and since then in lands untouched by the teaching of the Church, the Cross has been used as a sacred symbol. . . . The Greek Bacchus, the Tyrian Tammuz, the Chaldean Bel, and the Norse Odin, were all symbolized to their votaries by a cruciform device.”—The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art (London, 1900), G. S. Tyack, p. 1.
The people of the ancient lands used the cross in worship, some, like the Egyptians used it in Phallus worship, or, worship of the male sex organ. It was used as a symbol of fertility. “Various figures of crosses are found everywhere on Egyptian monuments and tombs, and are considered by many authorities as symbolical either of the phallus [a representation of the male sex organ] or of coition. . . . In Egyptian tombs the crux ansata [cross with a circle or handle on top] is found side by side with the phallus.”—A Short History of Sex-Worship (London, 1940), H. Cutner, pp. 16, 17; see also The Non-Christian Cross, p. 183.
The Ancient Church by clergyman W. D. Killen says, on page 316: “From the most remote antiquity the cross was venerated in Egypt and Syria; it was held in equal honour by the Buddhists of the East; and, what is still more extraordinary, when the Spaniards first visited America, the well-known sign was found among the objects of worship in the idol temples of Anahuac. It is also remarkable that, about the commencement of our era, the pagans were wont to make the sign of a cross upon the forehead in the celebration of some of their sacred mysteries.” The origin of the cross is indeed very pagan.
“The Greek term signifies an upright stake on which criminal were executed, with no suggestion of a cross-beam. In the Latin versions the term ‘crux’ was used, but according to Livy of the 1st century B.C., the word meant no more than an upright stake; it was only later that crux came to mean a cross. Josephus relates how 2,000 were crucified at one time (‘Antiquities’ book 17; 10:10) hardly practicable if crosses had to be made for each one. There are Greek words which denote a cross, but none of these appear in the in any of the four gospel accounts of Jesus’ execution. At Galatians 3:13 Paul refers to the instrument as ‘a timber’ (A.V. a tree) a reference to the upright stake on which bodies of criminals were hanged under the Mosaic Law (Deut 21:22), and which Jesus fulfilled by his death.
Some have contended that the Romans did use crosses for execution at that time although Livy refutes this. Even if this were so, the Romans were also careful to observe local customs as fas as possible to avoid unnecessarily upsetting the populace, and so likely would have modified their method to conform to the Jewish practice. A rough upright stake would be in any case less trouble to produce than a hewn cross with a joint strong enough to bear the weight of a man.
Christians are sometimes disturbed to learn that the cross, considered for centuries as a Christian symbol, had its origin long before Christ and was actually used in pagan mythology.It was the symbol of the god Tammuz, and Bacchus, and the Egyptian Osiris. It was worshipped by the Celtic druids and worn on necklaces by the Vestal Virgins of Rome…As the Greek text shows, Christ was not executed on a Cross, that symbol can be regarded for what it is, a pagan corruption of Christian worship introduced in the early centuries of our common era. Thus in harmony with 2 Cor 6:15 although long cherished, it is something that Christians should shun.”
03
Sep 02
King George II busy slacking off
Must be real swanky being president Bush. Get a salary of $400,000 a year, fart around all over the country, make deals with your friends that make them millions, go jogging in the morning before you get your orders for the day. The Washington Post had some interesting statistics on our lackluster ‘leader’:
Bush has spent a whopping total of 250 days of his presidency at Camp David (123 days), Kennebunkport (12) and his Texas ranch (115). That means Bush has spent 42 percent of his term so far at one of his three leisure destinations.
To date, the president has devoted far more time to golf (15 rounds) than to solo news conferences (six). The numbers also show that Bush, after holding three news conferences in his first four months, has had only three more in the last 15 months — not counting the 37 Q&A sessions he has had with foreign leaders during his term.
Bush has raised $114.8 million this year at 48 GOP events, surpassing Clinton’s record of $105 million in 2000 from 203 events. The Bush White House has challenged his tally only once, and Knoller countered with voluminous evidence.
If I spent only 42% of my time at work actually working, I would probably be fired, but this guy gets away with murder.