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CHE GUEVARA: IN ALGIERS, FLANKING THE SAHARAWI STRUGGLE
2007-10-09 15:34

(ANSAmed) - ALGIERS, OCTOBER 9 - It was in Algiers where Ernesto Che Guevara, killed 40 years ago in Bolivia, delivered his last public speech on February 24, 1965 during the Afro-Asian seminar of economic solidarity in which he criticised the imperialism and distanced himself from the Soviet Union, accusing it of "complicity with the imperialist exploitation". It was during his second visit to the North African state after the one in July 1963 when Che stood next to the Saharawi people in the fight against the Spanish colonisation, the Algerian media recall today. "He was happy and proud of being in Algeria, a country that has fought for its freedom and independence," Yacef Saadi, member of the National Liberation Front commander of the "Autonomous zone of Algiers", as well as producer and actor in the role of himself in the mythic film of Gillo Pontecorvo, "The Battle of Algiers", told ANSAmed. "We accompanied him on the streets of the Kasbah; we showed him the places of our revolution. Che spoke a lot, his way of telling stories was magnetic, he was ironic and nice, strength and courage was shining from his eyes." According to the autobiography of a former Cuban agent, Juan Vives, it was then President Ahmed Ben Bella who asked for Che Guevaràs help for the liberation of the Western Sahara population. Rumours have it that it was the Comandante to advise the Saharawi people to organise themselves in a single movement. That is how the Movement for the Liberation of the Sahara was born. Later, in 1972 it became the Movement for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Wadi el Dhahab, today the Polisario Front, the separatist movement that is currently involved in the struggle for self-determination of the population of Western Sahara, which was annexed by Morocco soon after the withdrawal of Spain in 1975. Hundreds of Saharawi people left for Havana to study and receive political education. When in 1963 Morocco attacked Algeria, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara sent a battalion of 22 armoured vehicles and some hundred soldiers ready to intervene in case the "sand war" lasted longer. "We pay homage to the heroic people of Vietnam, Laos, Guinea, South Africa, Palestine; we pay homage to all exploited countries which fight for their emancipation. Our voices must be heard, we must stretch out our hands and offer our help to our brothers in Venezuela, Guatemala, and Colombia who now take their weapons and say a firm no to the imperialist enemy." With these words, Che ended his last speech accusing the Soviet Union of "complicity with the imperialist exploitation". (ANSAmed).
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Airborne Laser Next Phase in Homeland Security
Commentary by Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon
Sunday October 7, 2007

As stated in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution, one of the core missions of Congress is to "promote the common defense" of America and its citizens. This task, however, has become increasingly challenging as technology advances and our borders are more quickly and easily accessed by terrorists and enemies.

Some people have charged that the message of threat upon our country is just political rhetoric, but the grim fact is that ignoring real threats will not make them disappear.

As a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, I regularly receive briefings on the state of our national security, both classified and not, and I can assure you there are active forces that wish to cause Americans harm. Winston Churchill once said that there would not be war if both sides didn't think they could win. It is imperative that we fortify our military and maintain a technological lead over our enemies to discourage future attacks.

In order to achieve maximum effectiveness against the threat from missile attacks, the Missile Defense Agency, or MDA, has developed a research and test program focusing on missile defense as a single-layered defense system that provides multiple shots at any enemy ballistic missile through its three phases of flight: boost, midcourse and terminal.

As part of that layered missile defense structure, the Airborne Laser, or ABL, was created, which is MDA's most mature system against missiles in their boost phase. Mounted on a highly modified Boeing 747, ABL's weapon laser is a fascinating and highly advanced system that would destroy a missile before it has had a chance to deploy any defensive counter measures such as decoys or multiple warheads.

MDA has requested Fiscal Year 2008 funding to bring ABL closer to its in-flight demonstration against a missile in late 2009, and I strongly believe Congress should grant the request.

The benefits of this technology are great and far-reaching. The capability to engage a missile while it is in its boost phase should not be underestimated.

When a missile is first launched, it is over enemy or enemy-friendly territory. The ability to destroy a missile with a chemical, biological or nuclear warhead over enemy territory is a great disincentive for a hostile enemy to launch such an attack. Additionally, while a missile is in its boost phase, it is accompanied by a large heat signature created by the rocket plume, making it relatively easy to locate and identify, and it is at its slowest, which makes it an easier target.

Since ABL uses a laser, it carries additional capability not provided in other defensive systems. The Combined Oxygen Iodine Laser, or COIL, weapon laser fires at the speed of light, and the cost per shot is lower by an order of magnitude over kinetic-kill systems. ABL's ability to engage a target with multiple shots or to identify and shoot at multiple targets gives it a great advantage as well.

Further development in weapon-laser technology will have additional applications that will be beneficial to American national security in the future. A reliable weaponized laser that shoots precisely focused bullets of light traveling at 186,000 miles per second promises to be useful for other missions beyond the scope of missile defense.

I am proud of the work being done in my congressional district at Edwards Air Force Base by the dedicated engineers and employees there, and I want to see that this project is funded to continue building on the successful leaps that have been made so far for national security.

ABL has recently reached a major milestone in its testing by demonstrating its ability to detect, track, target and engage a moving target in flight. This program has not been cheap, and the technical challenges have been great, but the benefits that our national security will reap are well worth the investment.

In fact, as a testament to the value of this project, I am pleased to report that the Senate Committee on Appropriations voted unanimously to report a bill that fully funds MDA's request for ABL. As the House and Senate work to reach an agreement on funding levels, I will remain engaged and will work to ensure that funding will be fully restored in the final bill.

Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, a Republican, represents the 25th District of California in the U.S. Congress. He is a senior Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee, where he sits on the Readiness Subcommittee and the Air and Land Forces Subcommittee. His column reflects his own opinion, not necessarily that of The Signal.
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Gore's climate film has scientific errors - judge
David Adam, environment correspondent
The Guardian
Thursday October 11 2007

· Court rules documentary can be shown in schools
· Presentation is 'broadly accurate' but lacks balance

Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, was yesterday criticised by a high court judge who highlighted what he said were "nine scientific errors" in the film.

Mr Justice Barton yesterday said that while the film was "broadly accurate" in its presentation of climate change, he identified nine significant errors in the film, some of which, he said, had arisen in "the context of alarmism and exaggeration" to support the former US vice-president's views on climate change.

The film was broadly welcomed by environmental campaigners and scientists on its release last year, and while they did point out that it contained mistakes, these were relatively small and did not detract from the film's central message - that global warming was a real problem and humans had the technology to do something about it.

The judge made his remarks when assessing a case brought by Stewart Dimmock, a Kent school governor and a member of a political group, the New party, who is opposed to a government plan to show the film in secondary schools.

The judge ruled that the film can still be shown in schools, as part of a climate change resources pack, but only if it is accompanied by fresh guidance notes to balance Mr Gore's "one-sided" views. The "apocalyptic vision" presented in the film was not an impartial analysis of the science of climate change, he said.

The judge also said it might be necessary for the Department of Children, Schools and Families to make clear to teachers some of Mr Gore's views were not supported or promoted by the government, and there was "a view to the contrary".

He said he had viewed the film and described it as "powerful, dramatically presented and highly professionally produced", built around the "charismatic presence" of Mr Gore, "whose crusade it now is to persuade the world of the dangers of climate change".

The mistakes identified mainly deal with the predicted impacts of climate change, and include Mr Gore's claims that a sea-level rise of up to 20ft would be caused by melting in either west Antarctica or Greenland "in the near future".

The judge said: "This is distinctly alarmist and part of Mr Gore's 'wake-up call'." He accepted that melting of the ice would release this amount of water - "but only after, and over, millennia."

Despite his finding of significant errors, Mr Justice Barton said many of the claims made by the film were supported by the weight of scientific evidence and he identified four main hypotheses, each of which is very well supported "by research published in respected, peer-reviewed journals and accords with the latest conclusions of the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]."

The nine points: fact or fallacy?

· The film claimed that low-lying inhabited Pacific atolls "are being inundated because of anthropogenic global warming" - but there was no evidence of any evacuation occurring

· It spoke of global warming "shutting down the ocean conveyor" - the process by which the gulf stream is carried over the north Atlantic to western Europe. The judge said that, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it was "very unlikely" that the conveyor would shut down in the future, though it might slow down

· Mr Gore had also claimed - by ridiculing the opposite view - that two graphs, one plotting a rise in C02 and the other the rise in temperature over a period of 650,000 years, showed "an exact fit". The judge said although scientists agreed there was a connection, "the two graphs do not establish what Mr Gore asserts"

· Mr Gore said the disappearance of snow on Mt Kilimanjaro was expressly attributable to human-induced climate change. The judge said the consensus was that that could not be established

· The drying up of Lake Chad was used as an example of global warming. The judge said: "It is apparently considered to be more likely to result from ... population increase, over-grazing and regional climate variability"

· Mr Gore ascribed Hurricane Katrina to global warming, but there was "insufficient evidence to show that"

· Mr Gore also referred to a study showing that polar bears were being found that had drowned "swimming long distances to find the ice". The judge said: "The only scientific study that either side before me can find is one which indicates that four polar bears have recently been found drowned because of a storm"

· The film said that coral reefs all over the world were bleaching because of global warming and other factors. The judge said separating the impacts of stresses due to climate change from other stresses, such as over-fishing, and pollution, was difficult.
http://tinyurl.com/26sn2k

Al-Qaeda: Sort of Like the Energizer Bunny
Kurt Nimmo
Another Day in the Empire
Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:46 EDT



For those of you slipping back into normalcy, no longer particularly bothered by "al-Qaeda" or the interminable GWOT, along comes another White House report on national security. "We also must never lose sight of al-Qaeda's persistent desire for weapons of mass destruction, as the group continues to try to acquire and use chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear material," the neocons claim, hardly coincidentally at the same time they have "called anew on the Democratic-led Congress to expand the power of US intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists 'while protecting the civil liberties of Americans," that last part added as an obligatory calmative, as anybody even halfway acquainted with the Bill of Rights understands full well that eavesdropping, especially in high-tech NSA vacuum cleaner fashion, is a full court press against the Constitution.

"During a testy media conference call, White House homeland security advisor Fran Townsend rebuffed suggestions that the Iraq war had served only to revive al-Qaeda in the years since the September 11 attacks of 2001," reports the Herald Sun. "Every time I walk into the press briefing room we go through this, and what I will say to you is there should be no question that there were like-minded Islamic extremists inside Iraq and throughout the region," she said. "And certainly that there is extremism inside Iraq and throughout the region is not a result of the war in Iraq, it is a fundamental front in the continuing war on terror."

Of course, this extremism was kept in check by Saddam Hussein, but all of that had to be chucked in favor of "democracy," a messy process as Donald Rumsfeld was obliged to remind us, and Saddam, or somebody who looked a lot like Saddam, was sent to the gallows, and now "al-Qaeda" is back in spades, or so we are expected to believe, and of course forever in search of suitcase nukes and the like, easily purchased from down-and-out Russian scientists who keep them stockpiled in closets for rainy days.

None of this works, not very well, because people are sick and tired of hearing about "al-Qaeda," the putative terrorist organization akin to the boy who cried wolf, forever barking but never biting because the wolf has no teeth, heck it is not a stretch to say the wolf does not exist, except in the fervid but all too prosaic imagination of think-tank neocons and the like. In fact, the neocons cannot prove "al-Qaeda" exists at all - and thus my habitual insertion of quotation marks - even though, many moons ago, we were promised a full report and damning evidence, never of course to arrive or even intended to arrive.

On the other hand, in Iraq the phony baloney terrorist group certainly has a presence, although not of the sort we are told. "Leading Iraqi Sunni cleric Harith al-Dhari has urged Iraqis not to join U.S. forces in fighting Al-Qaeda, arguing that by doing so they are siding with the occupier," reports the Tehran Times. "U.S. military commander Colonel Robert Menti estimates that around 50,000 Iraqis across the country have joined 150 different initiatives aimed at fighting Al-Qaeda... Initiatives range from powerful tribal chiefs banding together to hunt down extremists to local programs in which volunteers with orange sashes and armed with AK-47s tip off police about suspicious activity or round up suspects." In other words, the U.S. has managed to cobble together a loose coalition against a phantom force, as even the military admits the presence of "al-Qaeda" in-country is niggling. In fact, it is a Pentagon orchestrated black op, as the "al-Qaeda in Iraq" we are daily presented with is far too ludicrous and Brothers Grimm villain-like (with video game intense violence thrown in for good measure) to be taken seriously.

Meanwhile, we are expected to believe the Israeli-intelligence connected SITE Institute "hacked into an Al-Qaeda server and was monitoring it for a year for information on suicide bombers and spy codes," as apparently the "al-Qaeda" IT guys are stumbling buffoons. "When the server turned up a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, SITE told two members of the Bush administration so that they could prepare for the release," writes Nick Farrell for the Inquirer. "Although they told them on the condition that their hack remained secret, within an hour the site had been visited by 16 Intelligence Agencies and two telly channels," obviously catching the "al-Qaeda" geeks by surprise, as usual.

If you believe any of this, I have a bridge for sale.

More likely, the server is owned by Mossad, the CIA, MI-6, or some amalgamation, that is if it existed at all. We are expected to believe SITE, run by the daughter of an executed Israeli spy, is miffed about the betrayal when in fact it was set-up that way, the "al-Qaeda" server doubling as a grab bag for the corporate media, never shy when it comes to propagating thickheaded neocon lies, designed to provide pretext for the "clash of civilizations," that it to say providing an excuse for a "civilization" with no shortage of weapons of mass destruction to invade small defenseless countries, kill thousands people - in the case of Iraq, well over a million - and wreck their stuff, like water treatment plants and hospitals.

Once again, on the loose serial murderers, politely called "neoconservatives," are playing the masses, although the masses, by and large, are not paying too much attention, what with Britney losing her kids to K-Fed, etc. Of course, this lack of attention is dangerous indeed, as it may precipitate another "catastrophic catalyzing event... like a new Pearl Harbor," if only to rally the masses that are, by nature, clueless but most surely allergic to back-to-back two minute hate sessions and much prefer to be left alone to Dance with the Stars and fancy an Extreme Makeover of their own.
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