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Archive for November, 2011

Rand Paul Aims to Kill “Indefinite Detention” Provision of Controversial Bill

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Paul Joseph Watson
GCN Live.com
Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Head of Japanese American Citizens League warns that bill has echoes of World War II-style internment without charge.

With the bill expected to be up for a vote within 48 hours, Senator Rand Paul has offered an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that will kill a provision allowing the military to detain individuals, including American citizens, without trial or due process.

The “indefinite detention” sections of the NDAA bill would turn the whole of the United States into a “battlefield” and hand the executive branch the power to have the military arrest U.S. citizens and hold them without trial.

The provision is merely an update to the “parallel legal system” had been in place under the auspices of the war on terror for over a decade, “In which terrorism suspects — U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike — may be investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without legal protections guaranteed by the ordinary system,” as the Washington Post reported in December 2002.

In attempt to kill the indefinite detention provision of the legislation, Senator Rand Paul aims to strike Section 1031 from the bill, which reads as follows.

“Congress affirms that the authority of the President to use all necessary and appropriate force…includes the authority for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons…Detention under the law of war without trial”.

The amendment is seen as having more teeth than a change offered by Colorado Senator Mark Udall which the ACLU has urged voters to support. “There are other similar Amendments too, however none of them completely eliminate the Constitutionally offensive section,” reports the Tennessee Campaign for Liberty website.

Writing in the Washington Post today, Udall emphasizes the fact that the bill does affect American citizens.

“The provisions would require the military to dedicate a significant number of personnel to capturing and holding terrorism suspects — in some cases indefinitely — even those apprehended on U.S. soil. And they authorize the military to do so regardless of an accused terrorist’s citizenship, even if he or she is an American captured in a U.S. city,” writes Udall.

Republican Congressman Justin Amash also warned that the bill had been “carefully crafted to mislead the public,” in suggesting that the indefinite detention provision didn’t apply to American citizens when it clearly does.

“Note that it does not preclude U.S. citizens from being detained indefinitely, without charge or trial, it simply makes such detention discretionary,” Amash wrote on his Facebook page.

As we documented yesterday, every single piece of legislation passed in the name of catching terrorists has been used against American citizens on countless occasions.

In an op-ed for the SIlicon Valley Mercury News, S. Floyd Mori, national executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, warns that the legislation would create the legal framework for internment without trial on a similar scale to how Japanese-Americans were held in concentration camps during World War II.

“Indefinite detentions based on fear-driven and unlawfully substantiated national security grounds, where individuals are neither duly charged nor fairly tried, violate the essence of U.S. law and the most fundamental values upon which this country was built,” he writes.

The National Defense Authorization Act is set for a procedural vote at midday on Wednesday.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.

Posted in U.S. News

Financial red alert: Europe stands on verge of ‘apocalyptic’ debt crisis with only days remaining

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Mike Adams
Natural News
Tuesday, November 29, 2011

(NaturalNews) After years of working diligently to raise the alarm on the precariousness of the global financial system, it has become clear to me that most people still do not grasp the reality of where our global financial system really stands.

We are on the verge of a systemic financial implosion that could very nearly wipe out the currency holdings (bank accounts) of hundreds of millions of people, and with each passing day, that long-postponed day of financial reckoning inches ever closer.

“If the European summit could reach a deal on December 9, its next scheduled meeting, the eurozone will survive. If not, it risks a violent collapse,” writes Wolfgang Munchau of the Financial Times (www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d9a299a8-17…). Two years ago, such language would have been spat upon as “doom and gloom fear mongering.” Today it is the mathematical reality across the European Union.

The Polish foreign minister said today that what Europe faces is “a crisis of apocalyptic proportions” (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d29da7fc-…) and urged what is essentially more useless debt bailout tactics to try to delay mathematical reality a little while longer.

I now believe that when the dust settles after the coming debt implosion wreaks economic havoc across the globe, more than a few banksters and money-changers will find themselves indicted, imprisoned, or possibly just hanging from a tall tree at the end of a short rope. That’s how angry the public is going to get when the full realization of the unprecedented theft and criminality of the global banking elite hits them, I fear.

10 days to the economic implosion of the Eurozone?

The EU’s present economic system may not survive the next few weeks. Even if some creative, shifty accounting can be ginned up to keep EU nations solvent, it will only be done so as a temporary delay in the inevitable financial collision that now approaches. Before long, even the denialists and mainstream news minions will have to admit that these global banksters have destroyed the economies of entire nations in much the same way that the Federal Reserve has all but destroyed America’s economic future. The dishonest, debt-mounting schemes which have been pursued by the derivatives-infected global banking industry are nothing less than campaigns offinancial terrorismwaged against the working people of our planet — people who shall, of course, foot the bill for the inevitable damage and destruction that will result.

The criminality of the banksters now seems emboldened by a sense of lawless arrogance:
A large brokerage firm known as MF Global recently collapsed and simply stole the assets of all its customers (http://www.infowars.com/gerald-cele…). Meanwhile, Britain is drawing up emergency plans for the collapse of the Eurozone (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art…). And we now learn that secret Federal Reserve loans pumped $13 billion of profits into the hands of banks which were on the verge of systemic failure (www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d9a299a8-17…).

The banksters are stealing everything from the working class, and governments are going along with the theft, riding shotgun on what is without question the greatest swindle in history. This is what happens when you give up your national sovereignty or turn over control of your money supply to a private, non-government corporation such as the Federal Reserve. This is what happens when you deregulate financial institutions and let the Goldman Sachs controllers influence Congress to get the (corrupt) legislation they want. What we’re dealing with here is runaway criminality…not capitalism.

A FEMA RESCUE camp is ready and waiting for you

Now, in case you’re thinking about taking to the streets and protesting all this when the financial implosion steals whatever might be remaining of your hard-won savings, think again: The U.S. Senate is moving to enact a law that would allow military troops to march on U.S. soil and arrest American citizens with no due process, no trial, no legal representation and no protection under the Bill of Rights. Americans could be thrown in secret military prisons, interrogated, tortured and held indefinitely without ever being charged with a crime!

It’s all part of the new “National Defense Authorization Act” (S.1867) which features a section called the “worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial” provision.

“The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself,” says the ACLU (http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-s…).

Sen. Lindsey Graham even explained in plain language that the bill is being written to detain American citizens anywhere in America! His words on the Senate floor: “…1031, the statement of authority to detain, does apply to American citizens and it designates the world as the battlefield, including the homeland.”

In other words, the total military police state tyranny will soon be overt and official. So let’s dispense with the silly talk that we live in a “free” nation. Enough of the childish accusations that people like Alex Jones are only spouting “conspiracy theories” about the police state. When the U.S. Senate fronts a bill that, in plain language, authorizes the use of the military to conduct secret arrests of American citizens on any “battlefield,” including the “battlefield” right outside your front door, the tyranny is no longer a theory, folks — it’s an historical fact! It’s time we all woke up to the nightmare reality and did something about it for a change.

This legislation, not surprisingly, was drafted by the globalist traitors Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). Sen. McCain, himself a prisoner of war in Vietnam, apparently believes not enough Americans have yet experienced what it’s like to be held under a tyrannical regime with no legal rights. So now he’s making sure the U.S. government acts almost as if it were the North Vietnamese, or North Korea for that matter. Heck, even in North Korea, the police don’t feel your genitals at checkpoints. That’s uniquely a USA form of “sexually perverse tyranny.”

If passed into law, this act would allow the U.S. military to arrest and imprison American citizens for merely being suspected of so-called “terrorist-related activities.”

“This means Americans could be declared domestic terrorists and thrown in a military brig with no recourse whatsoever,” writes Paul Joseph Watson of InfoWars.com. “Given that the Department of Homeland Security has characterized behavior such as buying gold, owning guns, using a watch or binoculars, donating to charity, using the telephone or email to find information, using cash, and all manner of mundane behaviors as potential indicators of domestic terrorism, such a provision would be wide open to abuse.” (http://www.infowars.com/senate-move…)

The police state crackdown is being rushed into “law” before the total financial collapse strikes

It is no coincidence, of course, that the invocation of unconstitutional military powers (and TSA-led highway checkpoints) is happening at precisely the moment in history when the global banking system is on the verge of a systemic collapse. The ramping up of FEMA camps, the armed raids on raw milk farms, the “trickle-down tyranny” now infecting the very fabric of our nation (http://www.naturalnews.com/034221_t…)… these are not chance events. They are all part of an engineered oppression of liberties being thrust upon the American people in anticipation of large-scale social unrest (riots) which will almost certainly follow the financial implosion that’s now at our doorstep.

People, it seems, are not happy when everything they’ve worked for is stolen from them. Gee, I wonder why? As Gerald Celente says, when the people have lost everything, and they have nothing more to lose,they lose it!

For the record, I do not condone rioting in the streets, which is why I work diligently to teach people about all this realitybefore it happensso they are not surprised and shocked by it. Rioters, by definition, are those acting out of emotional anger, and that comes from beingsurprisedby a sudden escalation that was unexpected. People like myself (and hopefully you) who see all this coming won’t be surprised at all, and we share in the realization that violent rioting achieves nothing other than a whole lot of spilled blood — and that blood should be avoided, if at all possible, I believe.

Nevertheless, only a small percentage of people alive today are willing to awaken to reality. Most will subsist in a state of self delusion and irrational denial, all the way to the very day that they lose everything to the global banking elite.

The laws of mathematics cannot be argued with

That day of rage is unfortunately coming in America. I’ve been warning people about this for years, and it now seems closer than ever before.

The gullible sheeple, of course, still chuckle and grunt at the idea that the value of their precious dollars could somehow evaporate virtually overnight. They do not grasp the mathematics of leveraged debt, and they have no real awareness of how global fractional reserve banking really works. These “ignorant masses” will lose everything. And being shocked by the sudden change in their fortunes, they will riot in the streets, at which point they will be rounded up and railroaded into FEMA camps. That’s when the incinerators will be fired up, says Max Keiser (http://www.maxkeiser.com), and the next horrific holocaust will commence under a police state system of eliminating the “useless eaters.”

If that happens, the U.S. government will of course hand-pick the incinerator administrators from the top ranks of the TSA. After all, someone who is willing to openly violate an innocent person’s Fourth Amendment rights andsexually molestair passengers is only one step away from gleefully operating the Zyklon-B gas emitters in the shower chamber full of “terrorist resistance fighters” (i.e. innocent protesters). As the Milgram experiments have long proven, a whopping 70 percent of the population will actively murder innocents if directed to do so by a person in an apparent position of authority (http://www.naturalnews.com/025141.html).

(No tyrannical police state has ever suffered from a lack of willing, power-hungry volunteers who love to wear a uniform and crush the skulls of innocents, by the way. Even today, TSA jobs are strongly sought after by those unqualified to do anything other than act as police state bullies…)

Oh, is this all too much for you? Let’s tone it down, then, and imagine governments never commit acts of evil against the People. Let’s play la-la-land pretend time for a moment and imagine that the U.S. government in particular will always respect your civil rights, your human rights and the Bill of Rights — because, we’ll imagine,the government operates from a philosophical foundation of ethical behavior. (Yes, see if you can swallow that thought for a minute and actually keep it down…)

Ah, but hold on. They’re already violating the Bill of Rights with unreasonable roadside searches and checkpoints. The government has already openly admitted to running inhumane, grotesque human medical experiments that used innocent human beings as guinea pigs to enhance the profits of the drug companies (http://www.naturalnews.com/034221_t…). The FBI has already been caught actually masterminding the “terrorist” campaigns across America that it then takes credit forhalting!(http://www.naturalnews.com/033751_F…). And the ATFadmittedlyoperates a criminal gun-running operation that has put tens of thousands of guns into the hands of Mexican drug gangs (http://www.naturalnews.com/032934_A…).

None of this computes with the bizarre belief that the government is protective of life, compassionate toward the People or even capable of operating within the bounds of limited government under which it was originally created by the People.

And yet, there is one industry the government absolutely loves: The banking industry. Trillions of dollars in magical new money have been created and handed out to the wealthiest criminal banksters in the USA and around the world. These are the golden elite of the world’s wealthiest criminals. They’re so rich and so deeply invested in obscene criminality that when they bet the wrong way and stand to lose a few trillion dollars, the central banks of the world leap to attention and crank up the printing presses to bail them out! (… leaving you and I to foot the bill through the loss of value in the currency we foolishly hold by depositing our money in many of those same banks!)

No government of the world, you see, will bail out its own citizens. But they will gladly bail out the wealthy, elite banksters who, more than anyone, deserve to be publicly prosecuted for committing the most heinous white-collar crimes our world has ever seen.

You won’t be bailed out; you’ll be buried

So don’t expect for one minute that YOU are going to bailed out, or have your rights protected, or valued in any way whatsoever by the global governments or the banksters that pull their strings. You and I are fodder to the globalists. We are already soylent green on the menu. Our cash is already in the process of being stolen, we just haven’t fully added it up yet.

Our rights have already been dismissed and trampled, and now the thuggish grunt-minded minions of the TSA are merely trying to drive that point home in the minds of Americans by groping, molesting and in some cases sodomizing innocent Americans. What Sandusky did to little boys over the last fifteen years at Penn State, the TSA — a bastion of pedophilia and psychopathic criminals — is doing every single day across the airports of America.

Prison is not nearly appropriate enough for the crimes these government psychopaths are committing right now under the guise of “protecting us from terrorism.” These uniform-wearing monsters deserve a special place in Hell that’s reserved for the serial rapists, the mass murderers, the pharmaceutical drug reps and evil genius bioweapons scientists. I predict there will be noreconciliationagainst these tyrants who now believe they are above the law (and above the “little people” like you and me). When the masses are finally awakened to the full extent of the tyranny that has already been unleashed upon them, I pity those who took part in this system of great, unforgiveable evil — a system that may yet give Nazi Germany a run for its money in the degree of evil being unleashed upon our world.

Financial collapse and tyranny go hand in hand

The clock is ticking on both counts: The financial implosion and the total tyrannical crackdown against liberty and freedom. They are strongly correlated events, as the former forces the hand of Big Government to roll out the latter.

Those who are caught sandwiched between these historical trends will find themselves either broke, imprisoned or incinerated (or maybe all three in a row). Only those who have the presence of mind to recognize the reality around them will have any chance at surviving all this and then taking part in the restoration of civil liberties and fundamental freedoms in the next society.

It’s going to be an interesting ride. May God have mercy on the souls of those who have unleashed the destruction we are about to witness, because I do not believe the once-awakened sheeple of the world will have any mercy at all. They’re the ones, after all, that will be surprised by everything that is about to unfold.

Thomas Jefferson famously wrote the following commentary about rebellion:

“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty… And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

It is my great desire that we can find a way to refresh the tree of libertywithoutthe blood of patriots and tyrants. Peaceful revolution — and the rationalrestorationof liberty is always preferable to bloodshed. And yet, as JFK famously said on this very point, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

Posted in Economy

PR: The Principles of Ron Paul

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

By LD Jackson
Political Realities

The more I look at and examine Ron Paul and the principled stance he has taken on any particular issue, the more I wonder why I didn’t support him before now.

Some people call him a crazy old man who doesn’t live in this reality, but the facts are somewhat different than that. What he is, is simple. Ron Paul is a man who has strong beliefs on the size and scope of our government and how it should conduct itself, both here at home and abroad. He has strong beliefs on how our economy works and the role of government in managing said economy. Oh, and one more thing. He has the principles to stand by those beliefs, even when abandoning them would probably result in his gaining more votes in the Republican primary.

Let’s look at some examples, the more obvious of them. We could talk about what Ron Paul believes about abortion. He has been accused of not being pro-life, but the facts do not bear that out. More than once, I have heard him speak about walking in on an abortion in progress and how it troubled him that a hospital would be trying to save premature babies in one ward and killing them in another. He is strongly pro-life, but he also believes it is not the place of the federal government to deal with this issue. He wants to give it back to the states to decide if abortion should be allowed or not, and if so, what kind of restrictions should be placed on the practice.

Moving to another social issue, let us examine Paul’s stance on homosexual marriage. He doesn’t talk about it much, but he has refused to support any and all attempts to define marriage on the federal level. It doesn’t matter if the definition is “one man and one woman” or includes anything else. He is against it on the federal level, believing it should be left up to the states. He has said he is in favor of allowing homosexuals to marry, as long as they do not impose their relationship on anyone else.

As I have been following Paul’s campaign closely, I have learned a couple of things. First, he is running a much better campaign in Iowa than he is being given credit for. Secondly, it is clearly apparent that he would gain the support of many social conservatives in Iowa, if he were to modify his stance on both of the two issues I have mentioned. Bob Vander Plaats social conservative advocacy group, The Family Leader, has removed Ron Paul from consideration for it’s endorsement, citing “sanctity of human life” and “God’s design for marriage” as their reasons for doing so. I am no expert on these matters, but I have to believe Ron Paul knows this. He also has to know how much support he would receive, were he to modify the positions he has taken over the years. Instead, he shows just how principled he is and sticks to his guns.

During the recent Thanksgiving Family Forum in Iowa, he had the chance to change his positions, in front of some 3,000 social conservatives, yet he remained true to his beliefs. Not only did he remain true, he reiterated his belief that the law can not be used to legislate morality. Even in the face of criticism, he stuck to his beliefs.

Moving to another area that causes concern among many Republicans, let’s look at Ron Paul’s stance on foreign policy. Given the fact that he has been preaching how he stands on our foreign involvement for years, Paul has to know how this goes over with some members of the GOP. During the CNN foreign policy debate, he was the lone wolf on the stage. With everyone else spouting off about what we need to do about Iran, Paul again stayed with what he believes. He has even went so far as to suggest we should stop being so supportive, financially speaking, of Israel, saying we are making them to dependent on us. Those two issues alone have cost him the support of many in the GOP. He has been accused of being guilty of antisemitism and of not caring if Iran gains a nuclear weapon. Again, we have two issues that would allow Ron Paul to gain the support of certain groups among the GOP, but instead of modifying his positions, he stays with his core beliefs.

I think this highlights one of the main reasons I support Ron Paul. He has principles and the backbone to stick with those principles, no matter the consequences. There are a lot of politicians who change their position with the wind. What was it we used to accuse Bill Clinton of; taking a poll before he made a decision? With Ron Paul, what you see is what you get. You may not like everything he says and I will be the first to mention that I do not agree with him 100% of the time, but I respect him. It doesn’t matter if it is in 2001 or 2011, he has not strayed from his core conviction that our government has advanced far past it’s constitutional role. Even in the face of big government advocates from both parties, and in the face of those who seem intent on driving us into war with Iran, he has the principles to keep the same positions on the issues that he has held for years. Not a lot of politicians can say that and I believe it speaks well for the Congressman from Texas, Dr. Ron Paul.

Where Is Our Loyalty?

I was faced with something this weekend that I had not seen before. After writing my post about The Principles of Ron Paul, I submitted it to the Huck’s Army Forum. This is a forum that arose out of the candidacy of Mike Huckabee in 2007/2008 and it is a very active community. I have been a member, albeit not a very active member, since shortly after it’s creation. My intention was rather benign in nature. I felt there would be some that would appreciate the principles Ron Paul has stood for over the years. My naivety was quickly shot down and I discovered just how strongly some people dislike Ron Paul.

Some of the comments I received on that thread were legitimate concerns about Paul’s view on social conservative issues and I tried to address them as best I could. The fifth comment is the one that disturbed me the most. I am including it here so my readers can get the full context of the discussion.

Just Google the hypocrisy of Ron Paul. He is one of 4 Republicans that refused to sign the No Earmark petition. He gets millions in earmarks.

Can you tell me what he has done for the party in his 20years in office? He bashed Reagan and quit the party. He still bashes our party more than he does the democrats. Now he says he wont rule out a 3rd party ticket. Sorry but I think that says alot about his party loyalty and his concern for our country. His views on legalizing drugs are insane. Yes,lets just make it legal so everybody can afford to get stoned 24/7.

No one can tell you who to vote for, but I hope you will take a little more time before you decide.

Here is my reply to that comment.

Just because you can get a lot of results by searching on Google doesn’t necessarily make them true. He refuses to sigh the no earmark petition because he believes it is wrong. He believes every dime Congress spends should be earmarked because it keeps the power of the purse in Congress, where it belongs.

As for party loyalty, he is loyal to our country, not to a political party. If we had more politicians that were loyal in that fashion, Congress wouldn’t be in such a mess.

As for legalizing drugs, that isn’t the case. He does think the war on drugs has not worked and I am inclined to believe him. In spite of the millions of dollars that the federal government has spent on fighting drugs, is it any better? Is drug use on the decline? I think we all know the answer to that. What he is in favor of is allowing the states to make the decision about drugs. That is where the Constitution places that burden. Saying Ron Paul wants to make drug use legal so everyone can get stoned is disingenuous, at best.

When you examine Ron Paul and the stances he has taken on the issues, you will find one thing. He has a consistent record of standing up for personal liberty and individual freedom. No other politician I know can say that.

I am more disturbed by the portion of the comment that questions Ron Paul’s loyalty than I am by any of the other claims. It makes me wonder exactly where the loyalty of some people is placed. Are we to blindly follow a political party, no matter what they say or do? Maybe that’s what the parties expect and want, but isn’t that part of what got us into this mess to begin with?

For far too long, the citizens of America have followed along behind their favorite political party, never questioning, just voting for the R or the D. If we had more voters and more members of Congress who refused to blindly follow what their leaders told them, then I contend again that we wouldn’t have a Congress that has been a do nothing Congress for many years. Consequently, we would not be in the fiscal hole that we are in. Instead, here we are, with very few options left to us to salvage our fiscal condition.

If it sounds like I am more than a little put out by the insinuation that voting for Ron Paul is not being loyal to the Republican Party, then so be it. That doesn’t mean I want to see a third political party rise up. That could lead to the Democrats taking completely over. I do think it is high time we stopped playing follow the leader so well that we could win a gold medal. Until we do, we have no chance of winning the fight to save our country.

For news and commentary that strives to recognize the reality of politics, visit Political Realities.

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Posted in Featured News/Exclusives, U.S. Politics

Double Standards: U.S. Condemns Attack on British Embassy in Iran

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Kurt Nimmo
GCN Live.com
November 29, 2011

The United States has condemned the storming of the British embassy in Iran.

Obama’s press secretary issued the following statement:

The United States condemns in the strongest terms the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran. Iran has a responsibility to protect the diplomatic missions present in its country and the personnel stationed at them. We urge Iran to fully respect its international obligations, to condemn the incident, to prosecute the offenders, and to ensure that no further such incidents take place either at the British Embassy or any other mission in Iran. Our State Department is in close contact with the British government and we stand ready to support our allies at this difficult time.

Iran has reportedly reacted to the storming of the embassy in Tehran by arresting a number of protesters. The Iran foreign ministry has issued a statement saying it regrets the attack and that it is committed to the safety of diplomats.

British officials had earlier talked with the Iranian charge in London and urged Iranian authorities to “act with utmost urgency to ensure the situation is brought under control and to protect our diplomatic compound, as they are obliged to do under international law,” according to a report posted on The Telegraph website.

International law, however, is only followed by Britain and the United States when politically advantageous.

For instance, the U.S. violated international law in 2007 when it raided the Iranian Liaison Office in Arbil, Iraq, which was at the time in the process of becoming accredited as an officially recognized consulate.

The U.S. insisted the office was being used by Iranian Revolutionary Guards as a local headquarters. However, both Iranian and Kurdish Autonomous Region officials said it was a diplomatic mission in the city of Arbil located in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Following the raid, the U.S. illegally detained a number of Iranian diplomats for a period of two and a half years. It had kidnapped the officials after failing to grab the deputy head of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, Mohammed Jafari, and chief of intelligence of the IRGC, General Manuchehr Frouzandeh. Both were on an official visit to Iraq in an effort to improve bilateral security. They met the Iraqi president Jalal Talabani.

The raid came hours after George W. Bush delivered an address to the nation claiming Iran provided “material support for attacks on American troops.” Bush issued threats against Iran and Syria. "We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq,” he declared.

The following month, in February of 2007, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted that there was no evidence the Iranian government was supporting insurgents in Iraq.

The Iranian people have been suspicious of U.S. and British diplomats and embassies since Operation Ajax, the successful effort by the CIA in 1953 to overthrow the democratically elected president of Iran, Muhammad Mossadeq, and install the brutal dictator and monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, also known as the Shah of Iran. The leader of Operation Ajax was Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., a senior CIA agent, and grandson of the former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.

The CIA coup and the fact Iranians considered the U.S. embassy in Tehran a “nest of spies” led in part to the takeover of the embassy in 1979 during the Iranian Revolution. In the United States, the hostage-taking was widely regarded as an outrage that violated a centuries-old principle of international law granting diplomats immunity from arrest. Accordingly, diplomatic compounds are considered inviolable.

Of course, as the 2007 incident in Iraq demonstrates, it depends on what country has its embassies violated and who is doing the violating.

Posted in World News

Travelers411: Seven Favorite Wonders of the World

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

By Stephanie Abrams
Travelers411

Stephanie Abrams top seven wonders of the world.

A contest was put in place whose purpose, I have to believe, was to create millions of hits at a website where voting would take place in a popularity contest to determine the Seven Wonders of the Modern World List. I’m told that the list started out with about 400 nominees and, over a period beginning in 2007, the new 7Wonders of Nature contest was in progress. There are interesting rumors about underhanded methods of the organizers putting pressure on the governments where the ‘new wonders’ are located to provide funding but I found out that sort of thing the same way you can by surfing around the web. The contest not only allowed but encouraged governments and individual voters to jump into the “vote as many times as you can” scheme to make their own country a winner which would, inevitably, increase tourism and revenue from incoming travelers. So, in the end, this list is the results of not just a popularity contest but an endurance contest of people determined to vote as often as it took to make their favorite the winner.

I decided it was time I shared with you my own list of Stephanie Abrams’ Favorite Seven Wonders of the World but when I set about to do this I had a tough time limiting it to 7 Wonders! So here is my list, occasionally tied with a similar ‘wonder’ for a total of eleven wonders (and growing) and presented to you in alphabetical order:

1.A and 1.B:

BAY OF FUNDY… TIED WITH MONT ST. MICHEL:

The Bay of Fundy, in New Brunswick, Canada has amazing changes when the tide come in and goes out. The change in the level of the tide between high tide and low tide is forty (40) feet! I haven’t been there yet but a visit is being planned for 2012 because this is one of the natural phenomena of the world that I’ve wanted to go see for a very long time and the time has come!

If you see the excitement value of the Bay of Fundy that would put it in the category of a wonder of the world, I think that ties with Mont St. Michel off of the west coast of France. There, the water envelops the land mass and Mont St. Michel becomes an island until the tide goes out and the road becomes accessible again as the sea recedes and the place becomes surrounded by sand. Travel too and from Mont St. Michel has to be determined by the schedule of the changing of the tides. You certainly wouldn’t want to be in the middle of the road trip to or from Mont St. Michel when the tide comes in! Reminds me of the story of the parting of the Red Sea!

2. A and 2.B:

CLIFFS OF MOHER… TIED WITH SLIEVE LEAGUE:

In this case, the Cliffs of Moher and Slieve League can be seen on the same visit since the first is in County Clare on the west coast of Ireland and Slieve League, in County Donegal, is due north of the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare, both hugging the North Atlantic Ocean. By boat, it wouldn’t take too long to get from one to the other and the view of the cliffs at both places is spectacular from the sea as you get to see an angle you can’t see from land looking down or left and right!

There are exciting aspects to the Cliffs of Moher in the natural form of its ridges providing the most amazing habitat for birds and the spectacular views from the top. Watching the puffins waddle and run to gain momentum and fly is guaranteed to put a smile on your face as the process is hilarious. And seeing the apartment-house layers of the cliffs with varieties of birds nestled in these vertical homes is a very special learning experience in co-existence. Additionally, the Cliffs of Moher’s award-winning visitors center (or Visitors Centre, as they would spell it) created by Mark Leslie’s company, Martello Media, is an intensely educational, instructional, and entertainingly interactive experience for the visitor to learn about the cliffs, their make up, formation, inhabitants, and more presented in a way that children and adults will come away with a better sense of what a visit to the Cliffs of Moher is all about. My favorite part, however, is the very beginning of the exhibit where you walk through a winding, dimly lit, narrow hallway where an image is projected on the floor that looks like the sea. As you begin your walk into the exhibit, you have the overwhelming feeling that you are stepping into the ocean. It’s really quite dramatic and sets the tone for the exhibition that follows.

Slieve League, on the other hand, is twice the height of the Cliffs of Moher and is recognized as the tallest cliffs in Western Europe. You’ll find Slieve League in its natural form with no visitors’ center and a dirt road entry that boasts a swinging gate with a handmade sign reminding you to open it, drive through, and close it in an effort to keep the local sheep off the cliffs.

Unfortunately, the sheep don’t know how to read so when you get to the highest point you can reach by car, you’ll find this ad hoc car park is a tranquil, and often windy, place for you and ewe! If weather permits, consider taking a hike to higher elevations but only if you are wearing proper hiking shoes/boots and appropriate outerwear. Slieve League is as natural as it gets but I’ve heard rumblings of plans to develop the road and entry area to create a tourism experience. While it would be lovely to have a café, restrooms, gift shop, and paved road at Slieve League, in this world of over-built-everything, there is something wonderfully amazing about visiting a place that looks pretty much the same way it looked when Patrick roamed around Ireland.

3. GIANT’S CAUSEWAY:

One of the reasons we drive so many miles on every trip we take to Ireland is that I have at least two pilgrimages I must make on each time. One is to drive from the Cliffs of Moher through the Burren (another amazing natural mystery on Ireland’s west coast) along the coastline through Galway’s Connemara heading through County Mayo to Slieve League in Donegal, and the other is to visit Giant’s Causeway in the most northern part of Northern Ireland.

You can look at these photos in amazement but there is nothing that can impart to you the incredible experience of being there. While a visitors’ center is located near the car park at the top of the entry hillside, the natural experience of visiting Giant’s Causeway has been preserved and protected. You can take a shuttle bus from the visitors center one way or roundtrip for about a British Pound Sterling each way or you can do what I like to do and that’s to walk down and take the bus back up the hillside which you can decided to do depending on how you’re feeling after your experience on the rocks. The scenic walk from the entry area to the place where you’ll probably want to walk out to on the rocks is about a mile. Once you reach the point where the bus stops, you’ll begin your up close and personal experience with the geometric rocks, stones, pillars and columns. You can climb on them, sit on them, bask in sunshine or misty fog, inhale salty air, be embraced by balmy breezes or blasted by forceful winds, run your fingers through the bubbly sea foam that collects along the edges of the rocks and stones, lie down, read a book, think, plan, hear your heart beat, laugh, skip, find yourself or lose yourself in this indescribably delicious and unique experience. You can walk through the narrow pathway with huge stone natural columns called the Giant’s Organ because of its resemblance to the pipes on an organ or you can continue your walk to the formations called the Giant’s Boot. This is guaranteed to be an experience you won’t forget.

And when you can tear yourself away, which will not be easy, visit Duncluce Castle, the Carrick-a-Reed Rope Bridge, Bushmills Distillery, and, for golfers, Royal Portrush Golf Club. This is a Do-Not-Miss-This destination located about 2 hours north of Belfast and about 90 minutes from Derry in Northern Ireland on the Antrim coastline which in itself is blessed with glens and a rocky coastline that is guaranteed to inspire your romantic and creative nature.

4. GRAND CANYON:

You know this is a place you have to visit. It is clearly one of the most amazing natural wonders in the world and it’s right here in the US!

5. GREAT BARRIER REEF:

This living, seemingly endless, reef is said to be endangered. Portions of the reef are so large that they are home to cities, such as Hamilton Island, the leading island resort destination in the Whitsunday Islands, part of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, whose population is about 1500 people and has its own airport. So if you think Great Barrier Reef is just string of coral and sea urchins think again. There are thriving businesses, hotels, resorts, families going about their daily lives living in towns on the Great Barrier Reef and about a million and half visitors drop in yearly! Many tourism businesses in the region are focused on water sports and sea adventures for those who want to get up close and personal with the reef and the sea life that makes this a special place.

6. MAUNA KEA:

Located on the Big Island of Hawaii, you’ll find Mauna Kea, which, if measured from its base beneath the ocean, is the tallest mountain in the world measuring 10203 meters. Atop Mauna Kea, in this region where light pollution does not exist to interfere with the night skies, you’ll find the Palomar Observatory houses the world’s largest observatory for optical, infrared, and submillimeter astronomy.

7. NIAGARA FALLS:

Niagara Falls is amazing to experience! The beauty and power of the falls is something you will never forget. However, there’s a new wrinkle to experiencing Niagara Falls and that is that you now need a passport to enter Canada from the US unless you’ve gotten one of those “driving cards” that allows you to cross the US/Canadian border by car only without having a US passport. If you are from some other country, you may need a visa to enter Canada or to re-enter the US so know what you’re required to have for documentation before you get to the border and have a mini-nightmare on your hands.

The most impressive part of Niagara Falls is on the US side of the border but, like going to New Jersey in order to get a good view of the NYC skyline, you have to go to the Canadian side to view the American Falls. Once on the Canadian side, don’t just stand there and watch the falls and think you’ve experienced it because you may come away feeling you drove a long way for a short-lived moment of exhilaration. You need to partake in all the experiences offered at the falls including going into the caves under the falls where you get dressed in raincoats and boots and stand close to window-like openings in the cave walls where you can stick your arm out and feel the power of the cascading water as you watch tons of water rush past the openings. You’ll appreciate the rain gear you’ve been dressed in once you are splashing about in this unique experience of the falls. Be sure to walk down the ramp systems that are offered on both sides of the falls where you can get unique views and consider taking a boat ride on the Maid of the Mist that takes you as close as it’s safe to get to the falls to experience the cascading water from the bottom looking up! Truly a wonder among wonders!

7 Plus 2 Equals 11! Go figure!

I know you are expecting a list of 7Wonders but, with the ties above, I’m already up to 9! So let’s round it off with what can be viewed as Stephanie Abrams 10 Wonders of the World, plus one tie for good luck in this entry giving a total of 11 Wonders of the World But Who’s Counting:

More than 7 + 1 and a Miniature of that One:

TAROKO NATIONAL PARK:

Taiwan is an incredible destination filled with so much to see and do and some of the world’s most amazing natural wonders. One of these incredible places is Taroko National Park, a Must Visit destination located in Eastern Taiwan covering a wide area that includes parts of Hualien, Taichung, and Nantou Counties. The tallest mountain is the Shei Mountain topping out at 3886 meters in height in this incredibly peaceful region where the marble cliffs, marble gorge and impressive waterfalls are sights you just must see! So when you walk for miles along the gorge and look over the edge into the gorge, you will see the most amazingly gorgeous naturally made sculpture out of marble that looks a lot like an Escher design. Note that, for those who prefer not taking long walks, your driver can drop you at significant points to take a look and then you can continue by car, or, if you’re up to it, walk a block or more along the pathway and expect to see your driving waiting for you at a nearby point to continue your explorations. You’ll find the mountain air is fresh and crisp.

The Changuang Temple in Taroko National Park on the mountainside provides an added sense of tranquility and spirituality to the experience. There’s a lodge in the park where you can overnight, which we did, that will provide you with that extra sense of detachment from the chaotic and frenetic 21st century and its challenges because of the simplicity and uncluttered approach of the lodge. Taroko National Park is one of those places where you sense that peace can be found on this planet, even if it’s only for the moments you are nestled within this incredible Shangri-la setting.

Now here’s the Plus 1:

NATURAL BRIDGE:

Located in North Adams, Berkshire County in the northwest corner of Massachusetts, you’ll find Natural Bridge. Like Taroko National Park in Taiwan, Natural Bridge is the results of erosion which created and Escher-like gorge in which a creek-sized river meanders through a deep marble-lined chasm. You can walk over and around the river and explore the gorge by walking down a series of ramps and stairways and walking over the natural marble overpasses which is the Natural Bridge. And if you think you’ll never get to Taiwan, then a trip to Natural Bridge, in North Adams, Maits miniature cousin, should be in your travel plans.

One more thing:

In Taiwan, a monument built in 1906 at latitude 23°27′4.51″N marks the Tropic of Capricorn with its design that straddles the imaginary line and is built in the shape of a clothes pin that is empty in the middle, leaving a great spot for visitors to stand in to have their photo taken standing on the imaginary line. It’s very cool! Interestingly, on top of Mount Greylock, the tallest point in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts which is partially in North Adams, and partly in Lanesborough, MA, there is a monument to Berkshire County’s WWI Veterans that bears some similarities to the Taiwan Tropic of Capricorn monument. The Mount Greylock monument, however, has a stairway to the top where you have the highest perch from which to see the mountains, lakes, valleys, towns, villages and the City of North Adams, MA. You can see five states from the top of Mount Greylock. I generally tell visitors whom I take to see the spectacular views from the top of Mount Greylock, and for lunch at Bascom’s Lodge at the mountain’s top, that you can see Massachusetts, of course, Vermont, New York, Connecticut and, I usually tell people, Nevada! Of course, that’s not true. Although you can see the White Mountains of New Hampshire, I think it’s much more fun to think that on a clear day you can see Nevada!

My list of 7Wonders that evolves into 11 Must Visit destinations has places near and far for you to choose from. Start with the ones that appeal to you the most but get going!

My prescription for your happy life: Take two trips and call me in the morning!

Gotta Fly Now!

Stephanie Abrams is America’s premier travel expert and host of Travelers411 talk radio show, which airs on GCN Saturdays 9:00am-Noon Central Time. Listen to the show On Demand.

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