'Deep State' Shadow Government's Establishment Media Launches Campaign for More Surveillance to Fight Terrorism

MUST READ: A Shadow Government, a Hybrid Entity Called the 'Deep State,' Rules the United States of America

The "Deep State" is composed of top-level elements within intelligence services, military, security and judiciary and an ever-expanding circle of non-governmental insiders from banking, industry, and organized crime. It is a hybrid association of elements of government and parts of high-level finance and industry (and their affiliated think tanks and foundations) that is effectively able to govern the United States without reference and oversight. They also control the U.S. education system, mainstream media, and the entertainment industry.

Paris attacks revive U.S. arguments about encryption, surveillance

November 16, 2015

Reuters - The deadly attacks in Paris are reigniting a debate over whether U.S. government spies should have easy access to encrypted messages flowing across the Internet.

Intelligence agencies have long argued for so-called "backdoors" that would enable them to monitor encrypted email messages, chat applications, phone calls and other types of electronic communications. But privacy advocates and technology companies staunchly oppose such backdoors and have successfully beaten back all legislative efforts to require them.

A U.S. security official said there is no evidence yet demonstrating that the Paris attackers used a particular method for communicating, or whether any technology they used was encrypted in a particular way. The Islamic State has publicly claimed responsibility for the killings.

Still, several lawmakers and U.S. intelligence officials seized on the attacks to lobby for backdoors.

"Silicon Valley has to look at its products because if you create a product that allows evil monsters to communicate in this way, to behead children, to strike innocents -- whether it's at a game in a stadium, in a small restaurant in Paris, take down an airliner -- that's a big problem," U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC on Monday.

Michael Morell, former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said discussions about encryption have been largely shaped by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and his privacy-minded allies, but that a new chapter would “be defined by what happened in Paris.”

Snowden leaked top secret information about NSA surveillance activities in 2013 and is now living in Russia, which granted him temporary asylum.

BAD ACTORS

Just last month, the White House appeared to back down from its push for backdoors. A months-long lobbying push by intelligence and law enforcement agencies ultimately withered in the face of opposition from technology companies and privacy advocates, who argue that backdoors weaken the overall security of the Internet and do little to help catch bad actors.

The retreat may be temporary, with even some U.S. intelligence officials privately conceding before the Paris assault that the political environment would be more favorable in the event of a terrorist attack.

An August email from Robert Litt, the top lawyer for the U.S. intelligence community, obtained by the Washington Post, noted that momentum on the issue “could turn in the event of a terrorist attack or criminal event where strong encryption can be shown to have hindered law enforcement.”

And current CIA Director John Brennan said on Monday that unauthorized disclosures and "a lot of hand wringing over the government's role" has made finding terrorists much more challenging.

Brennan also said at a security forum that the enemy has become smarter. "I must say that there has been a significant increase in the operational security of a number of these operatives and terrorist networks as they have gone to school on what it is that they need to do in order to keep their activities concealed from the authorities," he said.

SWEEPING NEW LAW

Nonetheless, legislation requiring encryption backdoors is still considered unlikely to gain traction in Congress.

“Post-Snowden, society has already spoken,” a Republican familiar with congressional deliberations on the matter said on Monday.

Friday’s carnage, which left at least 129 dead and hundreds more wounded, came just months after France passed a sweeping surveillance law in the wake of the assault on the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo and other attacks in January. It also happened as the United Kingdom's government is proposing its own aggressive surveillance bill.

The U.S. is also just weeks away from terminating its spy program that collects domestic phone metadata in bulk.

Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush both argued the Paris attacks show the need for the expiring program. Presidential reviews of the program have found it did not lead to any clear counter-terrorism breakthroughs.

Islamic State Warns in a Video That Countries Taking Part in Air Strikes Against Syria Will Suffer the Same Fate as France, and Threatens More Attacks, Including an Attack on Washington

The attacks in Paris, along with earlier bombings in Lebanon and Turkey, as well as the downing of a Russian airliner in Egypt, indicated that the Islamic State has grown bold enough to strike a variety of targets far away from its base in Syria and Iraq. While U.S. officials said Obama viewed the attacks in France as an act of war, they cautioned he had no plans to overhaul his strategy for dismantling the IS and said he remained staunchly opposed to an American ground war in Syria. Instead, they foreshadowed an expansion of steps the U.S. is already taking, namely airstrikes and train-and-equip missions for rebels inside Syria. [Associated Press]

Islamic State threatens attack on Washington, other countries

November 16, 2015

Reuters - Islamic State warned in a new video on Monday that countries taking part in air strikes against Syria would suffer the same fate as France, and threatened to attack in Washington.The video, which appeared on a website used by Islamic State to post its messages, begins with news footage of the aftermath of Friday's Paris shootings in which at least 129 people were killed.

The message to countries involved in what it called the "crusader campaign" was delivered by a man dressed in fatigues and a turban, and identified in subtitles as Al Ghareeb the Algerian.

"We say to the states that take part in the crusader campaign that, by God, you will have a day, God willing, like France's and by God, as we struck France in the center of its abode in Paris, then we swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington," the man said.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the video, which purports to be the work of Islamic State fighters in the Iraqi province of Salahuddine, north of Baghdad.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security would not comment on the video but said it has not received information indicating a potential attack.

"While we take all threats seriously, we do not have specific credible information of an attack on the U.S. homeland," a DHS official said on condition of anonymity.

The French government has called the Paris attacks an act of war and said it would not end its air strikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

French fighter jets launched their biggest raids in Syria to date on Sunday, targeting the Islamic State's stronghold in the city of Raqqa, in coordination with U.S. forces.

Police raided homes of suspected Islamist militants across France overnight following the Paris attacks.

"Al Ghareeb the Algerian" also warned Europe in the video that more attacks were coming.

"I say to the European countries that we are coming, coming with booby traps and explosives, coming with explosive belts and (gun) silencers and you will be unable to stop us because today we are much stronger than before," he said.

Apparently referring to international talks to end the Syrian war, another man identified in the video as Al Karrar the Iraqi tells French President Francois Hollande "we have decided to negotiate with you in the trenches and not in the hotels."

France Launches 'Massive' Air Strikes on the Islamic State Group's De-facto Capital in Syria; Iraqi Officials Warned France and Other Countries That an Attack by ISIS was Imminent

France bombs Islamic State HQ, hunts attacker who got away

French air strikes bomb Islamic State in Syria as police hunt for attacker they let go 

November 15, 2015

AP - France launched "massive" air strikes on the Islamic State group's de-facto capital in Syria Sunday night, destroying a jihadi training camp and a munitions dump in the city of Raqqa, where Iraqi intelligence officials say the attacks on Paris were planned.

Twelve aircraft including 10 fighter jets dropped a total of 20 bombs in the biggest air strikes since France extended its bombing campaign against the extremist group to Syria in September, a Defense Ministry statement said. The jets launched from sites in Jordan and the Persian Gulf, in coordination with U.S. forces.

Meanwhile, as police announced seven arrests and hunted for more members of the sleeper cell that carried out the Paris attacks that killed 129 people, French officials revealed to The Associated Press that several key suspects had been stopped and released by police after the attack.

The arrest warrant for Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old born in Brussels, calls him very dangerous and warns people not to intervene if they see him.

Yet police already had him in their grasp early Saturday, when they stopped a car carrying three men near the Belgian border. By then, hours had passed since authorities identified Abdeslam as the renter of a Volkswagen Polo that carried hostage takers to the Paris theater where so many died.

Three French police officials and a top French security official confirmed that officers let Abdeslam go after checking his ID. They spoke on condition of anonymity, lacking authorization to publicly disclose such details.

Tantalizing clues about the extent of the plot have emerged from Baghdad, where senior Iraqi officials told the AP that France and other countries had been warned on Thursday of an imminent attack.

An Iraqi intelligence dispatch warned that Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had ordered his followers to immediately launch gun and bomb attacks and take hostages inside the countries of the coalition fighting them in Iraq and Syria.

The Iraqi dispatch, which was obtained by the AP, provided no details on when or where the attack would take place, and a senior French security official told the AP that French intelligence gets these kinds of warnings "all the time" and "every day."

However, Iraqi intelligence officials told the AP that they also warned France about specific details: Among them, that the attackers were trained for this operation and sent back to France from Raqqa, the Islamic State's de-facto capital.

French President to Extend 'State of Emergency' for Three Months: 1,500 Heavily-armed Soldiers in Body Armour Descend on Paris

France Considers Extending State of Emergency Laws, Which Historically Suppress Muslims

November 15, 2015

Mic - Following the gruesome terrorist attacks in Paris, President François Hollande immediately declared a state of emergency, tightened France's borders and ordered 1,500 French troops to descend on Paris — temporary measures for extreme times.

But foreign correspondents and the French press report that Hollande will ask for his country's state of emergency, which he declared on Friday, to be extended for three months. The bill will be presented by the cabinet on Wednesday, Le Figaro reports, and Parliament will have to decide whether to extend the state of emergency — as it does with any state of emergency lasting over 12 days, under French law.

President Hollande will also ask for the law to be amended or altered, likely because the law as it stands gives the state incredibly broad powers to suppress the public.

The state of emergency also allows the government to set up curfews, and in the past it has been used to curfew just certain kinds of people. Notably, those people have been Muslims.

Sudden and extreme power: In many countries, laws governing a state of emergency are used in cases of natural disasters, declarations of war or civil unrest — in that regard, France's state of emergency seems appropriate. But France's laws about what the government can do in that state are specific and severe.

A state of emergency allows police to make home searches without warrants and set up blockades. The government can set up "protection areas" in one space and drive people out of public in another. They can close public events, prevent theaters from opening and exercise control over the press off "all kinds," whether that's print, radio or otherwise.

The only thing more drastic would be to declare a state of "siege," which would hand over power to the military.

The state of emergency also allows the government to set up curfews, and in the past it has been used to curfew only certain kinds of people. Notably, those people have been Muslims.

A history of tension with Muslims: The law was drafted in 1955 to deal with Algerian separatists and has only been used on two notable occasions — both of which had some element of policing Muslims.

The U.S. Helped Create Al Qaeda and ISIS

Iranians are as obsessed as Americans these days with the black-clad gangs roaming Iraq and Syria and killing Shiites and other “infidels” in the name of Sunni Islam. At the supermarket, in a shared taxi or at a family gathering, conversations often turn to the mysterious group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and how it came to be. And for most Iranians, the answer is obvious: the United States. ISIS, Iranian leaders have been saying for a long time, is made-in-the-U.S.A., a tool of terror intended by the world’s superpower to divide and conquer the energy-rich Middle East and to counter the growing influence of Iran in the region. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has often said that he believes ISIS was created by the United States as a way to regain a foothold in Iraq and to fight President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, an ally of Iran. “We have evidence, we know,” he told an audience of clerics last week, without elaborating. Ayatollah Khamenei reminded them that Al Qaeda — a creation of the Central Intelligence Agency, Iran has said — and the Taliban were, in the eyes of Iranian intelligence, devised by the West as a counterweight to Iran. “There is no doubt that these movements are created by Western powers and their regional agents,” Mr. Khamenei has insisted. [The New York Times, For Many Iranians, the ‘Evidence’ Is Clear: ISIS Is an American Invention, September 10, 2014]

Much like Al Qaeda, the Islamic State (ISIS) is made-in-the-USA, an instrument of terror designed to divide and conquer the oil-rich Middle East and to counter Iran’s growing influence in the region. The fact that the United States has a long and torrid history of backing terrorist groups will surprise only those who watch the news and ignore history. The CIA first aligned itself with extremist Islam during the Cold War era. The director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan, General William Odom recently remarked, “by any measure the U.S. has long used terrorism.” America’s relationship with Al Qaeda has always been a love-hate affair. Depending on whether a particular Al Qaeda terrorist group in a given region furthers American interests or not, the U.S. State Department either funds or aggressively targets that terrorist group. Even as American foreign policy makers claim to oppose Muslim extremism, they knowingly foment it as a weapon of foreign policy. The Islamic State is its latest weapon that, much like Al Qaeda, is certainly backfiring. ISIS recently rose to international prominence after its thugs began beheading American journalists. Now the terrorist group controls an area the size of the United Kingdom. In order to understand why the Islamic State has grown and flourished so quickly, one has to take a look at the organization’s American-backed roots. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) used to have a different name: Al Qaeda in Iraq. After 2010 the group rebranded and refocused its efforts on Syria. ISIS is not merely an instrument of terror used by America to topple the Syrian government, it is also used to put pressure on Iran. [Global Research, America Created Al-Qaeda and the ISIS Terror Group, September 19, 2014]

From the first sudden and quite dramatic appearance of the fanatical Islamic group known as ISIS — which on the world's stage was largely unheard of until a year ago and which promptly replaced the worn out and tired al Qaeda as the world's terrorist bogeyman — we suggested that the purpose behind the Saudi Arabia-funded Islamic State "straight to beheading YouTube clip" was a simple one: use the Jihadists as the vehicle of choice to achieve the political goal of deposing Syria's president Assad. CIA-funded al Qaeda had been used as a facade by the US to achieve its own geopolitical and national interests over the past two decades and ISIS was nothing more than al Qaeda 2.0, but there was no actual evidence of just this. That may all have changed now. A declassified secret US government document obtained by the public-interest law firm, Judicial Watch, shows that Western governments deliberately allied with al-Qaeda and other Islamist extremist groups to topple Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad. The leaked document reveals that in coordination with the Gulf states and Turkey, the West intentionally sponsored violent Islamist groups to destabilize Assad, despite anticipating that doing so could lead to the emergence of an ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). [Zero Hedge, Secret Pentagon Report Reveals US "Created" ISIS As A "Tool" To Overthrow Syria's President Assad, May 24, 2015]

Noam Chomsky, “The United States created ISIS,” October 6, 2014

False Flag Terrorism in Paris

If we are reading the book of Habakkuk correctly, not only do we win the Iraq war, it is over rapidly and with few casualties on our side; however, there may be massive casualties of Iraqi civilians and military. We then use this stronghold to further buildup our Middle East military might for the strikes on Iran and Syria, and then eventually every Arab state in the region. This may take some time, and it is difficult to assess that part of it, because Habakkuk does not tell us how long this conquest of the Middle East is. We only know that it happens, and that it sets the stage for the demise of the United States and the rise of the "antichrist" powers in America. It is this war that sets the stage for the removal of Babylon-America by nuclear strike at a later time. [Stewart C. Best, The Strategy for Taking the Middle East, March 2003]

Large amounts of oil have been found on the Golan Heights in Syria. Estimates are that the amount of oil discovered will make Israel self sufficient for very many years to come. Three drilling sites on the Golan have uncovered what is potentially billions of barrels of oil, enough to fulfill the Israeli market’s 270,000-barrel-per-day consumption for a very long time. Israel was never going to give the Golan Heights back to Syria anyway, but now that will clearly never happen. Internationally recognized as Syrian territory, the Golan Heights has been occupied and administered by Israel since 1967. In 2010, Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told Syria to abandon its dreams of recovering the Golan Heights. According to the CIA World Factbook, as of 2010, "there are 41 Israeli settlements and civilian land use sites in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. [NextBigFuture, Major Oil Find on Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in Syria Will Make Israel Self-sufficient for Many Years; U.S. Drilling Company in Golan Linked to Rothschilds, Cheney, Former CIA Director, October 17, 2015]

Whether or not it is a false flag operation, the shootings are being used for a wider purpose or purposes. Among these purposes is: (1) Bringing France back into Washington’s orbit: the French president, Hollande, had recently said that the sanctions against Russia should be terminated — Hollande was allying himself with French economic interests instead of with Washington’s hegemonic foreign policy. (2) Stifling the growing European sympathy for the Palestinians and realigning Europe with Israel. (3) Countering the rising opposition in Europe to more Middle Eastern wars: the American neoconservatives have not completed their agenda — Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, and Saudi Arabia are still standing. My recommendation is that you not believe the print and TV media, but think. The failure of Americans to think is why they are 13 years into war and live in a police state. [Paul Craig Roberts, Suspicions are growing that the French shootings are a false flag operation, January 11, 2015]

World leaders convened for the U.N. General Assembly in late September, a year after the U.S. president declared the formation of an international coalition to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State group. Despite billions of dollars spent and thousands of airstrikes, the campaign appears to have made little impact. The extremist group may control slightly less territory than a year ago, but it continues to launch attacks and maintains key strongholds in Syria and Iraq. There is a growing concern about the Syrian refugee crisis. And reports that IS may be planning attacks against Europe may spur some countries to get more involved in the anti-IS coalition. On September 27, 2015, President Francois Hollande announced that French jet fighters had carried out their first airstrikes against IS targets in Syria. France had previously limited its air campaign to IS targets in Iraq. But short of sending in ground forces — an option Western countries are not willing to entertain [on October 30, 2015, the U.S. pledged the first open deployment of military boots on the ground in Syria] — the stalemate in the war against the Islamic State group is likely to persist. [Associated Press, War on IS a focus of UN General Assembly amid stalemate, September 28, 2015] 

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks on November 13, 2015. In an official statement, the group said France was its 'top target.' It says it carefully studied the locations for the attacks, which were carried out by fighters wearing suicide belts and carrying machine guns. The group says the killings were in response to airstrikes against its militants in Syria, adding that France would remain a 'key target'. [The Guardian, November 14, 2015]

A Syrian passport was found next to the body of one of three suicide bombers who struck near the Stade de France stadium during the game. A Greek minister says the passport belonged to a Syrian refugee who passed through the island of Leros. An Egyptian passport has also been linked to the attacks. Meanwhile, UK official sources have told the BBC they believe a Syrian cell, recently returned to France, was behind the attacks. [BBC, November 14, 2015]

Hassan Nasrallah, chief of Lebanon's powerful Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, strongly condemned Saturday the Islamic State group's attacks in Paris that killed at least 129 people. "We, Hezbollah, express our strong condemnation and denunciation of the terrorist attack by the criminals of Daesh in Paris," he said in a televised address, using the Arabic acronym for the jihadist group. Expressing his solidarity with the French people, he said the Middle East was also suffering "the earthquake" of jihadist groups. IS's extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam considers Shiites to be heretics. Hezbollah is a leading backer of Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad, and its militiamen have fought alongside regime forces in the country's civil war. The movement has said its involvement in Syria will keep Lebanon and the region safe from jihadists, including IS. Nasrallah said those who thought the attack on southern Beirut would discourage Hezbollah from acting in Syria were mistaken. In Syria "we fought against Daesh and others... but after this operation, we will search for fronts with Daesh, so our presence will be larger and stronger," he said."There is no future for Daesh. Not in war and not in peace," he said. Nasrallah said that at least one of the attackers in the Burj al-Barajneh explosions was Syrian, but he urged viewers not to retaliate against the more than one million Syrians who have sought refuge in Lebanon. [AFP, Hezbollah chief denounces Paris attacks, November 14, 2015]

Paris November 2015: ISIS Attack or “False Flag” Operation? (ANALYSIS)

The Paris offices of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo came under an attack on January 7th, 2015, killing 12 people. It was targeted three years ago during controversy over cartoons about Islamic prophet Mohammed. The offices were destroyed by a petrol bomb in November 2011, a day after it named the Prophet Mohammed as its “editor-in-chief” for the week’s issue. The magazine, which had a long-established record of Islam-based jokes, had announced the publication would be renamed “Sharia Hebdo” for their latest edition. [Source]

November 14, 2015

Stephen Lendman, Second Vermont Republic - It’s too soon to know for sure. Given French complicity with ongoing US state terror throughout the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere, odds strongly favor the latter.

Multiple likely well-planned Friday night attacks in Paris had a disturbing aroma to them – including France’s knee-jerk police state reaction. More on this below. Here’s what happened.

At least seven apparently well-coordinated attacks occurred, gunmen with automatic weapons and suicide belts killing over 150 victims. Many others were injured.

U.S. Intelligence Officials are Trying to Foment a Large-scale War Between ISIS and Russia; U.S. Intelligence Official Says “Now Putin Will Really Let ISIS Have It; This Should Be Fun”

A war involving the world’s two largest nuclear powers – Washington and Moscow – would probably spell, if not the end of humanity, the end of any possibility of a comfortable future for humanity. 

U.S. Intelligence Trying To Unleash ISIS-Russia War

November 11, 2015 

ValueWalk - With reports that Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons, U.S. intelligence officials are trying to unleash a large-scale war between ISIS and Russia.

Six U.S. intelligence and military officials told The Daily Beast on Monday they hope that what appears to be an ISIS attack on a Russian airplane, brought down on October 31 in Egypt, will force Russian President Vladimir Putin to finally take serious military action against ISIS.

After a week of investigation of what caused the plane crash, which killed all 224 people on board, high-ranking U.S. and U.K. officials keep mounting evidence that it was ISIS who bombed the plane.

The newspaper noted that U.S. intelligence and security officials are not panicking over ISIS unleashing a new round of bomb attacks on civilian airlines. What U.S. officials are concerned about is how the bombing is going to hurt Putin and potentially help the U.S. to tackle Russia’s military operation in the Middle East.

Ever since Putin started his airstrikes against U.S.-backed rebels and ISIS militants in Syria, U.S. officials have been privately discussing potential threats and opportunities the campaign creates for the United States.

Some of officials agreed that Putin’s military intervention in Syria would eventually weaken his military might and reputation. Moreover, over the past few weeks, U.S. officials warned of a backlash from ISIS militants, who have attacked Russia in the past.

U.S. thinks it will be “fun” to watch Russia respond to ISIS

But now, according to the newspaper, U.S. intelligence and military officials have shifted their focus to the plane crash in the hopes to find evidence of an ISIS bomb. An ISIS bomb on the plane would most likely force Putin to unleash a large-scale war against the Islamists in the Middle East, whom U.S. has been trying to wipe off the face of the earth for over a year with little to no success.

“Now maybe they will start attacking [ISIS],” one senior defense official told The Daily Beast last week. “And stop helping them,” he said, referring to ISIS gains in Aleppo as a result of Russian airstrikes on other rebels and militant outfits.

Ever since the Russian plane was brought down in Egypt, Moscow bombed two ISIS-controlled areas in Syria: Raqqa and Palmyra.

“I suppose now he [Vladimir Putin] will really let ISIS have it. This should be fun,” one senior intelligence official told the newspaper.

U.S. is not concerned over ISIS bringing bombs to civilian airplanes

Ever since 9/11, U.S. intelligence, security and military officials have been actively engaged in stopping and preventing al-Qaeda’s efforts to bring bombs onto civilian airplanes. And now that ISIS has succeeded where America’s main terrorist foe had failed, the Obama administration does not seem to be too alarmed about it.

Flashback: Private Cash and Public Pension Funds Fuel Boom in Takeovers; Rothschild Starts $711 Million Private Equity Fund

Rothschild to Start $711M Private Equity Fund

September 3, 2009

The Deal - One of the most famous names in finance, Rothschild, is planning to raise a $711 million investment fund as it welcomes chairman David de Rothschild’s son to the firm.

Sources tell Bloomberg that the private bank’s investment vehicle will buy minority stakes in closely held companies, valued at €100 million to €500 million ($142 million to $711 million), with fundraising expected to be completed by year’s end. Marc-Olivier Laurent, Emmanuel Roth and Javed Khan, who came over from the Blackstone Group in June, will manage the new fund.

Also coming aboard to help with the fund is Alexandre de Rothschild, David de Rothschild’s son, entering the family business from European leveraged buyout shop Argan Capital.

Rothschild is marketing the new vehicle as fundraising for private equity is once again starting to pick up. Over the past two months, U.S. private equity firms put more than $11 billion under management; while other firms are targeting another $10 billion.

Rothschild Said to Start Fund; Chairman’s Son Joins

September 2, 2009

Bloomberg - Rothschild, the largest family-owned bank, plans to raise a 500 million-euro ($711 million) investment fund as chairman David de Rothschild’s son joins the firm, two people familiar with the plan said.

Alexandre de Rothschild, 29, moved to the family bank from Argan Capital, Bank of America Corp.’s former European private equity division, to work on the project, said the people, who declined to be identified before the fundraising is completed. Rothschild Managing Director Marc-Olivier Laurent, 57, will oversee the fund, the people said.

The two-century-old firm, which is run by 66-year-old David de Rothschild, plans to buy minority stakes in closely held companies after the pace of global mergers and acquisitions dropped 46 percent in the past year. The fund’s backers include Rothschild partners and clients. It will target companies valued at 100 million euros to 500 million euros, the people said.

“It’s normal for them to bring in family members to ensure succession,” said Anis Bouayad, founder of Paris-based advisory firm AB Conseils. “The bank has always found a way to promote its own, while also bringing outside talent to the top jobs.”

Javed Khan, who joined Rothschild from New York-based private equity firm Blackstone Group LP in June, and Emmanuel Roth, a former executive at investment firm Paris-Orleans, will also manage the fund, the people said. Rothschild plans to complete the fundraising before the end of the year, they said.

‘Family is Fine’

“In a business, the key is to have the best people,” David de Rothschild said in a 2005 interview, addressing the subject of succession. “The family is fine as long as they do a good job. If they don’t, it has to be someone else.”

David de Rothschild took managerial control of the U.K. side of the bank after his cousin Evelyn retired in 2004, cementing control of both the Paris and London businesses by a French Rothschild, a first for the family firm.

David’s younger brother, Edouard, stepped down in 2004 after helping to expand the French bank. Today, he oversees France Galop, the country’s horse-racing association. David’s cousin, Eric, is chairman of Rothschild’s asset-management and private-banking units and also runs the family’s Chateau Lafite vineyard.

Mayer Amschel, founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty, started out buying and selling old coins in a Frankfurt Jewish ghetto in the late 1700s and built an embryonic banking business by extending credit to clients.

In the early 1800s, he sent his five sons to establish bases in London, Paris, Naples and Vienna, in addition to Frankfurt.

His great-great-grandson, Guy de Rothschild, rebuilt the French business in the 1950s and 1960s after reclaiming the bank, which had been seized by the pro-Nazi Vichy regime. In 1981, the French bank was nationalized by Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. Two years later, David persuaded the French government to grant the Rothschilds a new banking license.

Private Cash Fuels Boom in Takeovers

Originally Published on November 21, 2006

Los Angeles Times - Elite private investors are buying up major companies at a record pace in a wave of deals that is raining riches on Wall Street, but also may be raising the risk of a financial bust.

Iran's Supreme Leader: "If the U.S. Modifies Their Policies, Correct Errors Committed in These 37 Years and Apologizes to the Iranian People, the Situation Will Change and Good Things Can Happen"

‘Down with US’ slogan does not mean death to the American ‘nation.’ pic.twitter.com/qgKK0GPo8U

— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 3, 2015

Rouhani says U.S.-Iran ties could be restored but U.S. must apologize

November 12, 2015

Reuters - The nuclear deal reached between world powers and Iran could lead to better relations between Tehran and Washington if the United States apologized for past behavior, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was quoted as saying on Thursday.

The pragmatist president, who championed the July 14 deal, has pushed for closer engagement with the West since his 2013 landslide election win.

But Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has continued to rule out normalizing ties with the "Great Satan", as he routinely calls the United States.

In an interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper, Rouhani suggested that the United States and Iran could open embassies in each other's capitals after decades of mutual hostility, but said Washington should apologize, without going into further detail.

"One day these embassies will re-open but what counts is behavior and the Americans hold the key to this," Rouhani told the newspaper ahead of a trip to Italy this weekend, his first to a European capital.

"If they modify their policies, correct errors committed in these 37 years and apologize to the Iranian people, the situation will change and good things can happen."

Iran and Washington severed ties shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution when radical students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage for over a year.

Relations came under further pressure in the last decade over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Under the nuclear deal reached in July, Iran will curb its nuclear program in exchange for an easing of sanctions on its economy. Tehran denied Western suspicions it wanted to develop an atomic bomb.

Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, gave his conditional approval to the deal with six world powers including the United States, but has warned against allowing any U.S. political or economic influence on Iran.

Ben Carson Reflects on Scripture "When So Many in the Media Want to Bring Me Down Because I Represent Something That They Can’t Stand"

On November 11, 2015, retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, who is seeking the GOP presidential nod, painted a picture of a hopeful future to students at the world’s largest Christian university — but only if they stand united for the principles that made America great.

The Yahoo article about Carson's speech at Liberty University (see the end of this post) was re-written by a commenter at Yahoo in the way many Christians, perhaps, would think it should have been written. The following is that rewritten article from a Christian perspective.

* * * * * * *

When Ben Carson took the stage Wednesday morning at Liberty University’s Vine Center, he claimed a role familiar to many of the conservative Christians in his audience — that of a believer persecuted for his faith. And on this Veterans Day, the GOP presidential front runner placed what he sees as a battle for the nation’s soul and values in the context of past military conflicts fought to protect the United States’ freedoms.

Praising the Allied soldiers who took part in the Normandy invasion, Carson asked rhetorically why they would do such a thing. “Not for themselves,” he answered, “but for you and me, so that we could be free.” He then shifted from 1944 France to 2015 America:

“What are we willing to do for those who come behind us?”

“When you look at our founding document,” Carson told the students, faculty and staff gathered for Liberty’s required weekly convocation, “it talks about certain inalienable rights given to us by our creator – also known as God.”

As the crowd applauded, he continued. “And we have so many people now who are trying to push God out of our lives.”

There’s no reason to be afraid, he said, quoting from the Book of Proverbs. 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path.”

After the applause quieted, Carson said he held tight to that scripture in times of adversity. 

“I cling to it now when so many in the media want to bring me down because I represent something that they can’t stand.”

Israeli Planes Again Strike Damascus Airport in Syria

As Russia further entrenches with Iran and the Assad regime in Syria, both of which are enemies of the Israel, it gets more difficult to imagine that future Israeli strikes will not prompt a response from one of the many parties involved in the Syrian conflict.

Report: Israel Strikes Target in Syria ... Again

Media in both countries are reporting that was hit by Israeli planes.

November 11, 2015

The Atlantic - Over the course of Syria’s four-and-a-half-year-old civil war, Israel has quietly been drawn in at times. It occasionally treats wounded Syrians in its hospitals and, according to reports, occasionally bombs weapon conveys or retaliates for cross-border fire.

On Wednesday night, Israel reportedly launched another strike against targets at or near the airport in the Syrian capital, Damascus, which is under the control of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“Opposition media outlets [in Syria] reported that explosions were heard at the airport, followed by a power outage and the temporary grounding of aircraft,” the Israeli paper Ynet reported, noting a Facebook page associated with the Assad regime also claimed an attack has taken place.

Notably, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington, D.C., where he was having a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

As The Times of Israel notes, the Israel Defense Forces declined to comment on Wednesday’s report, which is in line with its policy. In the past, Israel has said it would act to ensure sophisticated weapons don’t reach Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Shiite militant group that has been active in Syria. Less than two weeks ago, Israeli airstrikes were said to hit assets belonging to the Assad regime and Hezbollah, which Israel and the U.S. regard as a terrorist organization.

What is potentially different about recent Israeli attacks has to do with the new involvement of Russian forces, which are now engaging on the ground and in the air in Syria. In a meeting this fall, Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a deconfliction mechanism, which would work to make sure the two parties didn’t attack each other.

However, as Moscow further entrenches with the Assad regime and Iran, both of which are enemies of the Jewish state, it gets more difficult to imagine that future Israeli strikes will not prompt a response from one of the many parties involved in the Syrian conflict.

Division Remains Over the Fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad

There are believed to be as many as 1,000 armed opposition groups in Syria, commanding an estimated 100,000 fighters. Many of the groups are small and operate on a local level, but a number have emerged as powerful forces with affiliates across the country or formed alliances with other groups that share a similar agenda. Since the Syrian Civil War, the enlisted members of the Syrian military have dropped by over half from a pre-civil war figure of 325,000 to 150,000 soldiers in the army in December 2014, due to casualties, desertions and draft dodging. Syria, known as Syrian Arab Republic, was founded on April 17, 1946. The country has a population of more than 22 million, with approximately 5,000 fleeing every day. More than 9 million Syrians have been displaced by the four-year conflict, 6.5 million of whom remain in the country and more than 3 million of whom have fled to immediately neighboring countries, according to the European Migration Policy Center. 

Syrians express opposition to Russian plan to end conflict

November 11, 2015

AP - A Russian proposal to end Syria's conflict that would include early presidential elections faced opposition from both sides on Wednesday, as deep divisions remained over the fate of President Bashar Assad.

Syrian legislator Sharif Shehadeh, a member of the ruling Baath party, told The Associated Press there will be no presidential vote before Assad's latest term ends in 2021. He added that parliamentary elections are an internal Syrian affair and that it was still too early to hold them.

His comments came a day after Russia circulated a document on ending Syria's conflict that calls for drafting a new constitution in up to 18 months. The charter would be put to a popular referendum and followed by an early presidential election.

Shehadeh said the proposal is not official yet.

"Regarding presidential elections there will be no talk about it. The president has a term and when it ends then we can talk about it," Shehadeh said. 

Assad was elected for a third seven-year term last year in an election boycotted by the opposition and panned by its Western supporters.

Prominent Syrian opposition figure [opposing President Assad and the ruling Baath party] Haitham al-Maleh said Russia, which began launching airstrikes in support of Assad's troops on Sept. 30, is an "occupation force" in Syria, adding that the opposition [against the Assad regime] will not accept any role for Assad during the transition.

Al-Maleh, a senior member of the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition, said by telephone from Egypt:

"We will not accept that the regime stays even for 24 hours. Bashar should be detained and put on trial." 

The document, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, makes no mention of Assad stepping down during the transition — a key opposition demand. It only mentions that "the president of Syria will not chair the constitutional commission."

Al-Maleh said Russia wants "the current regime to stay," adding that the Russian air campaign "will be defeated."

The document was circulated ahead of a second round of talks in Vienna on Saturday among key governments on both sides of the Syrian conflict [the civil war between Assad forces and opposition groups].

At the initial talks in Vienna on Oct. 30, the U.S., Russia, Iran and more than a dozen other nations agreed to launch a new peace effort involving Syria's government and opposition groups.

But they carefully avoided the issue of when Assad might leave power, a dispute at the heart of the conflict, which has claimed more than 250,000 lives and generated more than 4 million refugees.

Ted Cruz Wants to Shutdown Five Federal Agencies

At the Fox Business Network presidential debate in Milwaukee on November 10, 2015,  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he would shutdown five federal agencies. He named four: the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Cruz had a minor debate stumble during the debate when he named the same department twice when listing the federal agencies he would eliminate. "Five major agencies that I would eliminate: the IRS, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy, uh, the Department of Commerce, and HUD," Cruz said. Cruz was in good humor when Fox host Megyn Kelly asked the senator about the incident at the end of their interview after the debate. "I just think the Department of Commerce is such a base of cronyism, we need to eliminate it twice," Cruz joked. He added that he meant to say the Department of Education. "I have been campaigning for a long time on repealing Common Core, abolishing the Department of Education, and block-granting that money back to the states so education can be handled on the state and local level," Cruz said.

Ideally, 90 percent of federal departments should be eliminated.

What Federal Departments Should be Eliminated? 90% of Them

March 7, 2012

usa-wethepeople.com - One of the big myths out there believed by both the left and right is that we need the federal government to regulate profit-crazed maniacs who would sell our children morphine and poisoned milk. Little thought goes into this logic peddled on Main Street. It is accepted as gospel that capitalist are crazed lunatics willing to kill grandma to make a profit.

But if a company sold a harmful product wouldn’t they get sued if we had property rights enforced? Hush citizen!

The truth is the federal agencies are there to protect the elites by crushing Main Street. And Main Street supports the theft. We are held hostage by a privileged class and we enjoy it, often referred to as the Stockholm Syndrome.

It is a wonderful thing for the government thugs when they can steal your money and brainwash your children into believing the theft is justified by educating helpless children in government schools. 90% of Americans are brainwashed fools, and we don’t even realize it.

And, to top it off, the thieves get the people to play blue team/red team politics so the theft is concealed from the public. Like a magician the ignorant masses are fooled year after year. Go Red Team/Go Blue Team!!! Ra, ra, ra.

Below is a blog from Ludwig von Mises on 2-29-2012 by http://www.lewrockwell.com/.

The article briefly covers the regulatory history that should be taught in Universities and Colleges across America. Instead we get “government is good and fiscal policy and the Federal Reserve is good monetary policy” propaganda. Complete hogwash economics that is nothing but a smoke screen to hide the elites theft from the public. For every 100 students who take economics maybe one will see the malicious fairy tales for what they really are.

Europe's Move to Label Israeli West Bank Settlement Products Strains Ties and Deepens Israel’s Isolation

EU move to label settlement products strains ties, deepens Israel’s isolation

November 11, 2015

Yahoo! News - The European Union’s decision Wednesday to start labeling Israeli products made in the West Bank delivered a resounding show of international disapproval over Israel’s expansion of Jewish settlements and raised the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to renew peace efforts with the Palestinians.

Israel condemned the measure as unfair and discriminatory, but it appeared helpless to stop its growing isolation over the settlement issue and its treatment of Palestinians. Relations with the EU in particular have deteriorated in recent years due to disputes over the settlements.

The labeling of products of the Jewish state by the European Union brings back dark memories, Europe should be ashamed of itself. It took an immoral decision. … This will not advance peace; it will certainly not advance truth and justice. It’s wrong. - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

The economic impact of the decision is likely to be minimal, but the move is highly symbolic. Once implemented, European consumers will be able to read on the label of most products — including agricultural goods, olive oil, cosmetics and wines — that they were produced on Israeli settlements. Although such products will not be banned, Israel fears the labels will be a political stigma and could lead to a fuller boycott.

The EU decision came amid a two-month wave of violence that reared its head again Wednesday as dozens of Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank on the anniversary of the death of their leader, Yasser Arafat.

I highly appreciate what the EU countries did on the products of the Israeli colonial settlements. - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian meetings with London mayor off after boycott comments

November 11, 2015

AFP - London Mayor Boris Johnson's visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories hit a hitch Wednesday as he was called off meetings with Palestinians after offending supporters of a boycott of the Jewish state.

The mayor earlier this week dismissed those who support the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign, known by its BDS initials, as "corduroy-jacketed lefty academics", comments which caused anger on Palestinian social media.

A number of Palestinian groups then refused to meet him while he was also informed his comments had led to additional security risks if he were to visit the West Bank, Johnson's office said.

Only 12% of Palestinians Agree That Both Jews and Palestinians Have Rights to the Land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea

Israel's new deputy foreign minister delivered a defiant message to the international community, saying that Israel owes no apologies for its policies in the Holy Land and citing religious texts to back her belief that it belongs to the Jewish people. In an inaugural address to Israeli diplomats, Hotovely said Israel has tried too hard to appease the world and must stand up for itself. "We need to return to the basic truth of our rights to this country," she said. "This land is ours. All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologize for that." Hotovely, an Orthodox Jew, laced her speech with biblical commentaries in which God promised the Land of Israel to the Jews. Speaking later in English, she signaled that she would try to rally global recognition for West Bank settlements, which are widely opposed. "We expect as a matter of principle of the international community to recognize Israel's right to build homes for Jews in their homeland, everywhere," she said. Hotovely will manage the ministry's day-to-day functions, but Netanyahu will remain in charge of foreign policy. [AP, May 21, 2015]

What Do Palestinians Want? [Excerpt]

November 2, 2015

Mosaic Magazine - A 2011 Greenberg Quinlan Rosner survey conducted for the Israel Project, Palestinians were asked whether it was morally right or wrong to deny that "Jews have a long history in Jerusalem going back thousands of years." Seventy-two percent said it was right. In parallel, 90% deemed it wrong to deny that Palestinian history in Jerusalem goes back thousands of years. In a 2015 survey by David Pollock of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 83% of Palestinians asserted — regarding the area from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea — that "this is Palestinian land and Jews have no rights to it"; only 12% agreed that "both Jews and Palestinians have rights to the land."

Most Palestinians also believe Israel wants to drive them out entirely, especially from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock stand. Since Israel captured this area in 1967, Muslims have been allowed to visit it and pray at its mosques regularly, while Jews are restricted in their visits, have no place for group worship and are forbidden from praying there. Last year, a few Israeli politicians proposed relaxing these restrictions, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly declared the status quo would not change, and his government has acted accordingly.

Yet when the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, known as PSR, asked on four occasions about Israel's intentions, 20% of Palestinians said Israel would allow Jews to establish a synagogue next to Al-Aqsa mosque, and a stunning 51% declared that Israel would "destroy Al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques and build a synagogue in their place."

The combination, as Palestinians see it, of a lack of a Jewish claim to the land with Israel's imagined diabolical plans to dispossess the Arabs, provides fertile ground for justifying radical actions. This helps explain Palestinian rejection of the pejorative "terrorism" to describe Arab attacks on Israelis.

Pentagon, World Bank, World Meteorological Organization, and U.N. Weather Agency Ramp-up Global Warming Hysteria Prior to U.N. Climate Deal in Paris

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” - Joseph Goebbels

"By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise." - Adolf Hitler

Pentagon Asserts Decisively That Climate Change Poses an Immediate Threat to National Security

October 14, 2014

New York Times News Service - The Pentagon on Monday released a report asserting decisively that climate change poses an immediate threat to national security, with increased risks from terrorism, infectious disease, global poverty and food shortages. It also predicted rising demand for military disaster responses as extreme weather creates more global humanitarian crises.

The report lays out a road map for how the military will adapt to rising sea levels, more violent storms and widespread droughts.

The Defense Department will begin by integrating plans for climate change risks across all of its operations, from war games and strategic military planning situations to rethinking the movement of supplies.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, speaking Monday at a meeting of defense ministers in Peru, highlighted the global security threats of climate change.

“The loss of glaciers will strain water supplies in several areas of our hemisphere,” Hagel said. “Destruction and devastation from hurricanes can sow the seeds for instability. Droughts and crop failures can leave millions of people without any lifeline, and trigger waves of mass migration.”

The report is the latest in a series of studies highlighting the national security risks of climate change. But the Pentagon’s characterization of it as a present-day threat demanding immediate action represents a significant shift for the military, which has in the past focused on climate change as a future risk.

“Climate change and water shortages may have triggered the drought that caused farmers to relocate to Syrian cities and triggered situations where youth were more susceptible to joining extremist groups,” said Marcus King, an expert on climate change and international affairs at George Washington University.

The Islamic State, often referred to as ISIS, has seized scarce water resources to enhance its power and influence.

The new report does not make any specific budget recommendations for how the military will carry out its climate change agenda, but if the Pentagon does request funding from Congress for its initiatives, it will clash directly with congressional Republicans, many of whom question the established scientific evidence that human activities are causing climate change.

“ISIS is still gaining ground and causing havoc in Syria and Iraq, with foreign fighters from over 80 countries coming and going into the fight and then returning to their home country,” Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said of the Pentagon report. “It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the president and his administration would focus on climate change when there are other, legitimate threats in the world.”

World Bank: Global warming will drive 100 million people into poverty

Without swift action, 100 million people could fall into poverty within 15 years because of global warming, a new World Bank report says. 

Google is Building an Army of Advanced Robots

"And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, 'Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.' And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt." - Revelation 9:13-19

Google Buys Scary Military Robot Maker


In December 2013, Google announced that they acquired Boston Dynamics, creators of quad- and bi-pedal robots like Big Dog and PETMAN.

This was Google’s eighth robotics acquisition in 2013. Other robotics companies purchased by Google are based in the US and Japan, and focus on software for advanced robotic arms, grasping technology, and computer vision.

The announcement appeared in the New York Times. Boston Dynamics is known for supplying robotics technology mostly for Pentagon clients, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Boston Dynamics CEO Marc Raibert said they would honor their DARPA military contracts although Google will not officially be a military contractor.

Google may not be planning a defense business, but Google is certainly assembling an impressive array of real-world robots, so we’re going to go ahead and call it an “army,” in the metaphorical sense if not the military one. Add in Google’s self-driving cars and it may be only a matter of time before Google’s robots outnumber humans in the real world, too.

As of now, Boston Dynamics has a $10.8 million contract with DARPA to supply several humanoid Atlas robots. The machines are set to participate in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, which awards the winning maker with a $2 million prize. The contest evaluates robots' ability to function during natural disasters and catastrophes such as an earthquake or a nuclear power meltdown.

Tech giant Google has, so far, refused to reveal what it is planning to produce with the new technology, but the internet giant's robotic efforts will certainly have impressive capability due to the new acquisition. The company also said it will keep the financial aspect of the deal confidential.

Boston Dynamics, founded in 1992 by Marc Raibert, began life as a spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is known for its fascinating robots, which have the ability to walk through terrain that is difficult even for humans. One of its four-legged robots, BigDog, can climb hills, walk through snow, travel through ice, and remain standing even after being kicked by a human, according to a video of the robot released in 2008. One of the company's recent creations is WildCat, a four-legged outdoor runner capable of rising, turning, and reaching running speeds of up to 16 miles per hour (mph) on flat ground. A video recorded the Cheetah robot running 29 mph faster than the fastest human, Usain Bolt. The Jamaican sprinter's top speed is 27.78 mph (44.7km/h).

Somehow, Google acquired seven robotics companies without anyone noticing. Google’s robot vision is as diverse it is ambitious. But the companies all point to Google’s final goal: to create a smart, mobile, dexterous robot that can work alongside — or in place of —  humans. It’s the type of moonshot that companies like Google — and, indeed, Amazon — have gotten particularly good at making,

There are Lethal Consequences of the CO2 Reduction Programs being Demanded by the UN

A Resolution To Defend Billions of Lives: WE SAY NO TO PARIS COP21

November 2, 2015

Schiller Institute - The following resolution was released today by Schiller Institute, with the intention of rapidly collecting signatures from qualified professionals, political leaders, and ordinary citizens internationally.

The conditions of life for billions of people depend upon rejecting the agenda being presented at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Paris this December. The COP21 Paris initiative to adopt a legally binding agreement to reduce CO2 emissions must be rejected on two grounds: the scientific reality that mankind’s activity is not going to cause catastrophic climate change, and the very real, lethal consequences of the CO2 reduction programs being demanded.

There is no legitimate basis for having the COP21 conference. Put an end to this now!

Despite the climate-change narrative being presented by an extremely well-funded, top-down propaganda campaign, there is an immense amount of solid scientific evidence which clearly contradicts and/or refutes the claims of coming catastrophic climate change caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases. For example, satellite measurements have shown that there has been no average rise in global temperatures for over 18 years, despite the fact that human greenhouse gas emissions have been increasing at an accelerating rate. This underscores the reality that the climate simply does not respond to CO2 levels in the way claimed by climate alarmists; said otherwise, the Earth’s climate system is not highly sensitive to changes in atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

Because many climate models are using these false assumptions of high climate sensitivity to CO2, the predictions of these climate models have been consistently wrong, and with each year they are diverging further from reality. The gradual changes in the climate that have occurred over the recent decades, and the gradual changes which will continue to occur in the future, are not and will not be a cause for alarm. Most of these changes are natural, and any impact mankind may have would be relatively minor. A healthy and growing world economy will be able to adapt to these changes.

We must also recognize that CO2 is not a pollutant - it is an essential part of the biosphere. Because the present atmospheric CO2 levels are well below the optimum for plant growth, human-caused increases in CO2 concentrations are already contributing to increases in agricultural productivity and natural plant growth - creating a measurably greener planet.

But the Paris 2015 summit is not only about nations potentially wasting time and resources on a phantom problem existing only inside computer models - the ugly reality is that the CO2 reduction programs being proposed would increase poverty, lower living conditions, and accelerate death rates around the world. The world simply cannot support a growing population with improving conditions of life using only solar, wind, and other forms of so-called “green” energy.

More to the point, this scheme is being intensely promoted by modern followers of the population reduction ideology popularized by Thomas Malthus. Organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund/World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) have repeatedly declared that current human population is billions of individuals beyond the Earth’s “carrying capacity,” and must therefore be reduced by some billions of people. The present push for a CO2 reduction program is deeply rooted in this Malthusian ideological motivation. But Malthus was wrong in the Eighteenth Century, and his followers are wrong today.

U.N. Sponsored Global Poll Rates Climate Change Dead Last

From the U.N.'s MyWorld website: "The UN is working with governments everywhere to define the next global agenda to address extreme poverty and preserve the planet. The data from MY World continues to inform these processes and be used by decision makers around the world. 'I want this to be the most inclusive global development process the world has ever known,' says UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.”

"We need to stop debating the science. We long ago won that debate. That’s why the other side never shows up. What we need to start debating is what the price of gasoline, electricity and food is going to be if stringent mitigation options are committed to." - davidmhoffer, July 17, 2015, Watts Up With That?

Despite the ‘urgency’ of Paris climate talks, a U.N. sponsored global poll rates climate change dead last

July 17, 2015

Watts Up With That? - From the United Nations “MY World” initiative, which has recorded the opinions for All Countries & Country Groups with votes of 7,679,273 at the time of this writing. They describe it as:

MY World is a United Nations global survey for citizens. Working with partners, we aim to capture people’s voices, priorities and views, so world leaders can be informed as they begin the process of defining the next set of global goals to end poverty.

The data collected so far is telling, at least about opinions surrounding global warming aka climate change. It is dead last in the list of concerns queried:


This next graph is even more interesting:

Large Global Enterprises and Governments Interested in Wealth Redistribution Will Profit Immensely from the Global Warming Industry, While the Poor Will be Left to Freeze or Swelter in the Dark

"This 'catastrophic anthropogenic global warming' (or climate change) is a zombie that keeps on walking towards Paris (and beyond) no matter how many times you shot it with the truth and logic. The data has to be bastardized to help support the beast but the raw data and all the satellite data show the beast has no legs. Yet it keeps on walking. There is more chance of the existence of talking unicorns than CO2 warming the surface or adding to the average temperature of the earth. At this time, the best we can hope for is that Paris yields only an empty agreement. There will be one, but hopefully it will not be a civilization killer." - markstoval, July 17, 2015, Watts Up With That?  

Top Scientist Resigns from Post, Admits Global Warming is a Scam
 
ICECAP.us - The following letter to the American Physical Society was released to the public by Professor Emeritus of physics Hal Lewis of the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Sent: Friday, 08 October 2010 17:19 Hal Lewis
From: Hal Lewis, University of California, Santa Barbara
To: Curtis G. Callan, Jr., Princeton University, President of the American Physical Society
6 October 2010

Dear Curt:

When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned a half-century ago).

Indeed, the choice of physics as a profession was then a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence - it was World War II that changed all that. The prospect of worldly gain drove few physicists. As recently as thirty-five years ago, when I chaired the first APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The Reactor Safety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside there was no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We were therefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honest appraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled by the presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky, Vicki Weisskopf, and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyond reproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In the end the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, noted the complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted that the report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tribute could there be?

How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d’etre of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an American Physical Society Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society.

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.

So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it… 

I do feel the need to add one note, and this is conjecture, since it is always risky to discuss other people’s motives. This scheming at APS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it. Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don’t think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. 

Leader of 20-scientist Effort to Prosecute Climate Skeptics Under RICO Revealed as ‘Climate Profiteer’

September 17, 2015

ICECAP.us -  From 2012-2014, the Leader of RICO 20 paid himself and his wife $1.5 million from government climate grants for part-time work.

George Mason University Professor Jagadish Shukla (jshukla@gmu.edu), a Lead Author with the UN IPCC, reportedly made lavish profits off the global warming industry while accusing climate skeptics of deceiving the public. Shukla is leader of 20 scientists who are demanding RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges be used against skeptics for disagreeing with their view on climate change.