| April/May News page One The Campaign to Impeach George W. Bush Click here for more information Eden Watch Drought Watch IMF denies telling Malawi to sell food reserves Dust Storm snapshots May 29, 2002, Saskatoon, Sask. Canada's foreign minister tells Arafat to 'stop the violence' Khatami says he will quit post if reforms come to standstill - "He questioned the tough approach towards critics and leniency and silence towards certain others, who insult people and speak whatever they wish in certain places in the name of Islam and the revolution. He said security did not mean safety for the statesmen, rather it meant freedom for all citizens, including authors, entrepreneurs, teachers and other social strata within the framework of the Constitution." After being being branded part of the 'axis of evil' in what one must assume is now World War III (the 'war against terrorism') it seemed that Iran was ready to take a hard swing to the right. In recent weeks there have been signs of a conservative crackdown (reporters arrested, newspapers closed) and a response by Khatami, who was elected with a massive majority, but seems to be hamstrung nonetheless through conservative control of both the courts and the police. Suddenly being blasted as part of the 'axis' (the type of language that suggests a hit list) the polictical situation has been turbulent in Iran. Last August, stories appeared in Indian newspapers which told the tale of Iran's cooperation with the United States in the war on terrorism, and like Syria, another ex-partner (just recently tossed into the axis of evil as well) I am sure that getting stabbed in the back this spring must have come as quite a shock to the Iranians (thanks for the help, now get out). The story from last June told the tale. India and Iran will "facilitate" the planned US-Russia hostilities against the Taliban. By Our Correspondent 26 June 2001: India and Iran will "facilitate" US and Russian plans for "limited military action" against the Taliban if the contemplated tough new economic sanctions don't bend Afghanistan's fundamentalist regime ... Indian officials say that India and Iran will only play the role of "facilitator" while the US and Russia will combat the Taliban from the front with the help of two Central Asian countries, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, to push Taliban lines back to the 1998 position 50 km away from Mazar-e-Sharief city in northern Afghanistan." (Note that this is exactly what happened.) Diplomats say that the anti-Taliban move followed a meeting between US Secretary of State Collin Powel and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and later between Powell and Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh in Washington. Russia, Iran and India have also held a series of discussions and more diplomatic activity is expected ...Such Central Asian countries as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are threatened by the Taliban that is aiming to control their vast oil, gas and other resources by bringing Islamic fundamentalists into power. Now all the CIS nations are seeking assistance of Russia's Federal Border Guard Service to overcome the Taliban threat ... India, Iran and Russia, for example, are working on a broad plan to supply oil and gas to south Asia and southeast Asian nations through India but instability in Afghanistan is posing a great threat to this effort ... India plans to raise the Afghanistan issue in the forthcoming G-8 summit in Geneva in mid-July. Other strange stories have been on Iranian news wires in recent times, for example the head of the police 'announcing', for reasons unclean to me, that 'Iranian police do not arrest people for their personal social activities' and suggesting that people in Iran have private lives (thus one would not expect to be raided by police for ones private sex life and so on, something one might expect in a theocracy.) I found the announcement to be peculiar and I assume that it all ties into the turbulance within Iran stirred up by getting stabbed in the back just recently, with strong forces present, as manifested in the recent votes for reform of the country's system, facing strong conservative opposition from both the judiciary and the police, who are now making what seem to me to be strange sounding announcements. I think that the recent remarks by Noam Chomsky, posted on the ZNET site, have some bearing on what happened to Iran (and now that other helpful country, Syria). "The US is far too powerful to have any need to submit to an international authority. That is why it blithely rejects World Court condemnation, vetoes or ignores Security Council resolutions, and in general disregards international law and treaties when it chooses. As the world's most powerful state, it guards its sovereignty zealously, while ignoring the sovereignty of others as it chooses. Again, there is nothing new or surpris-ing about this. I do not think that Sept. 11 made a great difference in these respects. Apart from temporary effects, earlier tendencies continue without much modification. Japan launches pro-whaling offensive After Peru decides to use open source software, Microsoft launches a counter attack and gets thoroughly dissed by a Peruvian minister. Which is an understatement. Truly one of the most amusing come backs I have read in a long time. The lengthy Peruvian retort can be read at the following link - Microsoft in Peruvian oepn source nightmare Orwellian Doublespeak Prof. Ehud Sprinzak, the so-called "expert on extremist movements," was interviewed on the lunchtime programme [Yoman Hatzohorayim] of Channel 7. The interviewer, Ariel Kahana, presented him as a "person of the left". Sprinzak did not like this description. "I am a person of the centre", he said, "and in general I dislike labels". Then the following dialogue took place: Kahana: "What do you think about the executions in the Palestinian Authority?" Sprinzak: "I have a very positive opinion; I mean, it is a vital instrument, part of the struggle against terrorism and I have no reservation, except for one thing..." Kahana: "Ah, one moment, one moment: I was referring to the executions of collaborators by the Palestinian Authorities, not to the liquidations by our forces". Sprinzak: "Pardon, pardon, I thought you were asking me ... In any case, about the Palestinians: it is disgusting, nauseating, this is how a dictatorial system operates, without any juridical process. Absolutely unacceptable, shocking." How Wal-Mart is Remaking our World The official story of America's denial of involvement in the Venezuelan coup continue to be questioned. "The article quotes an intelligence analyst and former intelligence officer with the U.S. Navy, Wayne Madsen, as claiming that U.S. naval vessels in the area, there on an unrelated mission, helped with communications and intelligence support for rebelling Venezuelan military forces as the coup unfolded, including jamming the communications ... the New York Times has reported on several occasions of meetings stretching back to last summer between U.S. officials and Venezuelan military members involved in the coup." The charges are "widely believed in Latin America. Observers there draw upon a long, rich history of U.S.-backed coups, coup attempts, and interference in elections ... military and business leaders who participated in the coup are now known to have been discussing it for months. And now, we've learned that they also discussed it with the American ... obsession with Iraq; support for (and possible involvement in) the ouster of Hugo Chavez... the Philippines, Indonesia, and former Soviet republics in Central Asia, all are linked by their countries' future abilities to produce and export oil. ... In the past it was argued that "coups, installation of military dictatorships, mass torture and killings, and so forth -- was unfortunate, but necessitated by larger Cold War considerations" which has now been replaced by the 'war on terrorism' as the justification." Argentina Indymedia site (English) provides an alternative take on the current economic disaster in Argentina (where banks are closed and withdrawals banned). Todays headlines : Argentina's goverment at the border of colapse, again ... The situation in Argentina grows more complex, fuelled by the resignation of economy ministwer Remes Lenicov after a law to change the peoples bank deposits from pesos or dollars to 5 or 10 year bonds (treasury notes). Duahldes repeated attempts to calm down argentinas financial crisis, including a unemployment insurance for household bosses of less than 50 USD per month Israel once again refuses to let U.N. inspectors into Jenin refugee camp - after repeated delays the United Nations investigation team were once again refused entrance to Jenin. This reminds one of the situation in Iraq, where U.N. teams were repeatedly stalled and delayed when they wanted to go somewhere Iraq did not want them to go, and needless to say, this type of constant stalling leads to both the unflattering comparison (not to mention brings to mind the double standard, Iraq being repeatedly bombed over a ten year period for violating U.N. resolutions time and time again) and also brings to mind the inevitable suspicions stirred up by such stalling tactics. The Israeli government, however, has a long history of defying U.N. resolutions, with impunity, and so this is just par for the course...Meanwhile reports are coming out that Sharon is now planning similar actions in Gaza. Newsweek reports that Atta probably never met with Iraqi intelligence before 9-11 : NEW YORK, April 28 PRNewswire -- Czechoslovakian government officials have quietly acknowledged that they may have been mistaken about a supposed meeting at the Iraqi Embassy last April in Prague between suspected Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi agent, Newsweek reports in the current issue. U.S. intelligence officials now believe that Atta, the hijackers' ringleader, wasn't even in Prague at the time the Czechs claimed. In spite of this piece of bad news, Newsweek reports that the Pentagon is still searching for evidence to tie Atta and the hijackers t o Iraq, for obvious reasons... Trouble in the religious right April/May News page One |
A Unified Field Theory
The Unified Field Theory
is also available as a zip file -> unified.zip
Introduction :The Pioneer Effect and the New Physics. A brief description of the new physics required to explain the 'Pioneer Effect', which is the constant deceleration of space craft as they fly through space.