Brief history
Bilderberg takes its name from the hotel in Holland, where the first meeting took place in May 1954. That pioneering meeting grew out of the concern expressed by leading citizens on both sides of the Atlantic that Western Europe and North America were not working together as closely as they should on common problems of critical importance. It was felt that regular, off-the-record dicussions would help create a better understanding of the complex forces and major trends affecting Western nations in the difficult postwar period.
The Cold War has now ended. But in practically all respects there are more, not fewer, common problems – from trade to jobs, from monetary policy to investment, from ecological challenges to the task of promoting international security. It is hard to think of any major issue in either Europe or North America whose unilateral solution would not have repercussions for the other.
Thus the concept of a European-American forum has not been overtaken by time. The dialogue between these two regions is still – even increasingly – critical.
Character of meetings
What is unique about Bilderberg as a forum is
- the broad cross-section of leading citizens that are assembled for nearly three days of informal and off-the-record discussion about topics of current concern especially in the fields of foreign affairs and the international economy;
- the strong feeling among participants that in view of the differing attitudes and experiences of the Western nations, there remains a clear need to further develop an understanding in which these concerns can be accommodated;
- the privacy of the meetings, which has no purpose other than to allow participants to speak their minds openly and freely.
In short, Bilderberg is a small, flexible, informal and off-the-record international forum in which different viewpoints can be expressed and mutual understanding enhanced. Bilderberg’s only activity is its annual Conference. At the meetings, no resolutions are proposed, no votes taken, and no policy statements issued. Since 1954, fifty-seven conferences have been held. For each meeting, the names of the participants as well as the agenda are made Public and available to the press.
Participants
Invitations to Bilderberg conferences are extended by the Chairman following consultation with the Steering Committee members. Participants are chosen for their experience, their knowledge, their standing and their contribution to the selected agenda.
There usually are about 120 participants of whom about two-thirds come from Europe and the balance from North America. About one-third are from government and politics, and two-thirds from finance, industry, labor, education, communications. Participants attend Bilderberg in a private and not an official capacity.
Governance and Funding
Bilderberg is governed by a Steering Committee which designates a Chairman; members are elected for a term of four years and can be re-elected. There are no other members of the Bilderberg conference.The Chair’s main responsibilities are to chair the Steering Committee and to prepare with the Steering Committee the conference program, the selection of participants. He also makes suggestions to the Steering Committee regarding its composition. The Executive Secretary reports to the Chairman. The expenses of maintaining the small Secretariat of the Bilderberg meetings are covered wholly by private subscription. The hospitality costs of the annual meeting are the responsibility of the Steering Committee member(s) of the host country.
September 22nd, 2010 in
Bilderberg Comments Off AFP: Ahmadinejad says Iran, Africa wants new world order.
TEHRAN — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran and Africa wanted a new world order to replace the existing one which has been created by “slave masters,” as he opened an Iran-Africa conference on Tuesday.
“The mutual feeling is that the world needs a new management system,” the Mehr news agency quoted him as saying in his speech at the start of the two-day forum in Tehran attended by dignitaries from several African countries.
The hardline president, who has often blamed the West for the ongoing economic crisis, said the current world order was created by “former colonisers and slave masters… to continue exploiting the wealth of African nations.”
He offered Iran’s cooperation in helping develop Africa, saying the Islamic republic “has no limit” in aiding the continent, especially when it comes to exporting technology there.
Those attending the conference hosted by Tehran were Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika and his Senegalese counterpart Abdoulaye Wade, and ministers from several other African countries.
Mutharika said he envisioned a speedy development of relations between Iran and Africa over the next five years.
“We will soon witness the installation of many Iranian industries in Africa,” he said in his speech quoted by state television’s website.
The conference aims to discuss how Iran can assist in developing Africa.
September 20th, 2010 in
New World Disorder Comments Off News from The Associated Press.
NEW YORK (AP) — Restaurants are clearing space for world leaders and their entourages, the Waldorf-Astoria is fluffing the pillows in the presidential suite and people who live on Manhattan’s East Side are just hoping to get into their buildings without a police escort.
Representatives from 192 countries will be in town in the upcoming week for a United Nations anti-poverty summit and the opening of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting. For New Yorkers that will mean gridlocked traffic and a chance to spot the leader of Bhutan or Andorra at a local eatery.
Antonio and Mario Cerra, the father-and-son owners of a U.N.-area Italian steakhouse called Padre Figlio, were busy last week booking tables for countries such as East Timor. The Asian nation won independence from Indonesia in 2002 and has a population of about 1 million. It has a reservation for 35 at Padre Figlio, which in the past has hosted events for Nigeria and Grenada.
Antonio Cerra said the diplomats will eat hearty Italian food with luxurious touches like black truffles, now in season.
“They know not to ask for Russian food,” he said. “They know not to ask for kosher. They get pasta, seafood, steak, boom.”
Cerra said high-level delegations typically take a private room with their security details occupying one or more tables at the periphery – not drinking wine. “Soda, water, juice,” he said.
World leaders not in the mood for Italian food have other options.
Then-Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama ate at the well-regarded Swedish restaurant Aquavit during last year’s General Assembly, owner Hakan Swahn said.
Swahn said fellow diners always crane their necks when a prime minister arrives surrounded by men with earpieces. “It’s a bit of a production,” he said.
David Pogrebin, the general manager of the French restaurant Brasserie, said his entire restaurant was booked during the 2009 General Assembly for a luncheon with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“The black cars were literally triple-parked,” Pogrebin said. “They don’t carpool.”
The world leaders begin gathering Monday for the three-day Millennium Development Goals Summit, which will review efforts to implement anti-poverty goals adopted at a summit in 2000. These include cutting extreme poverty by half, ensuring universal primary education, halting and reversing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and cutting child and maternal mortality – all by 2015.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak at the anti-poverty summit on Wednesday, and then address the opening session of the General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting on Thursday, his second appearance before the world body.
World leaders in town for the General Assembly stay at East Side hotels including the Millennium Plaza, the InterContinental and the Waldorf-Astoria.
Because every American president stays at the Waldorf-Astoria, it serves as an unofficial U.N. annex. A look at Obama’s schedule during the 2009 General Assembly shows that in one day he met with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (twice) and presided over a luncheon for African leaders – all at the Waldorf-Astoria.
Matt Zolby, director of sales and marketing for the hotel, was tight-lipped about the habits and preferences of Obama or any current government leader. He offered the tidbit that President Ronald Reagan was “kind of a foodie” in his day and gave detailed instructions about each course when he hosted other world leaders.
Many New Yorkers consider the General Assembly a giant headache. A city Department of Transportation study this year confirmed the obvious: Manhattan traffic slows to a crawl during the General Assembly, with average daytime car speeds around 8 mph. And residents of the Turtle Bay neighborhood where the U.N. is situated sometimes can’t get into their buildings because police have blocked off the street to safeguard a dignitary.
Brenda Levin said her block was frozen last year when Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was at the Libyan Mission during the General Assembly.
“I couldn’t get to my apartment,” said Levin, who prefaced her comments by saying that she loves having the United Nations in New York.
Levin said she told a police officer that she had to get to her apartment to take her medication.
“He said, ‘You don’t mean that. It’s not true, is it?’” Levin said. “And I said yes, it was.”
The police eventually escorted Levin to her building; she hopes things will go more smoothly this year.
Bruce Silberblatt, who heads the Turtle Bay Association, a volunteer neighborhood organization, predicted that the General Assembly will be “a mess as always.”
“It’s noisy,” he said. “Everybody insists on being carried around in an escort with police sirens. Needless to say we can’t park.”
But Charles Sitch, sunning himself on a bench at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, across the street from the U.N. complex, said he didn’t mind the inconvenience to his neighborhood.
“It’s what New York is,” Sitch said. “All these people from all over the world come to our little nabe. So there’s traffic. Big deal.”
September 19th, 2010 in
The Elite Comments Off Russian aircraft buzzed U.S. warship, but no alert: U.S. | Reuters.
(Reuters) -
Russian naval aircraft repeatedly buzzed a U.S. warship last week in a Cold War-style incident that U.S. Navy’s chief of operations has raised with his Russian counterpart.
The USS Taylor did not go on an alert over unusually close encounters on September 10 and September 11 in international waters of the Barents Sea, just off Russia.
“The ship did not take this as hostile,” Col. Dave Lapan said.
The U.S. warship had just completed a port visit to the Russian city of Murmansk to honor World War Two veterans of both countries.
The next day, on September 10, a Russian maritime patrol aircraft flew just 50 yards off the USS Taylor and only 100 feet above sea level — extremely close and low. It also flew directly over the ship but at an altitude of about 2,000 feet.
The next day, a Russian ship in the vicinity had one of its Helix helicopters fly by the USS Taylor, again just 50 yards off the U.S. warship and only 100 feet above sea level.
“Both sides are in discussions now to determine whether the proper protocols were followed,” Lapan said. “This is a fairly rare occurrence.”
The U.S. Navy’s chief of operations, Admiral Gary Roughead, raised the matter with his Russian counterpart, Admiral Vladimir Vysotskiy, during a visit on Wednesday by a top-level Russian defense delegation to the Pentagon.
“Admiral Roughead was satisfied after having this conversation with his counterpart,” Lapan said without elaboration.
A year ago, two nuclear-powered Russian submarines patrolled off the Eastern Seaboard in what U.S. officials speculated was an effort by Moscow to show a greater military presence.
September 17th, 2010 in
Military Comments Off Shooter terrorizes campus during mock drill | WPSD Local 6 – News, Sports, Weather – Paducah KY | Local.
PADUCAH – Wednesday morning was a quiet one on the campus of West Kentucky Community and Technical College. But shortly after 10 a.m., the silence was shattered by gunshots.
“Somebody help him,” a student cried out when her friend collapsed next to her.
Unfazed, the gunman continued on a shooting spree.
Student Jackson Ervin was an eyewitness.
“The first two rounds were louder than the other ones and it scared me.”
That is exactly the reaction Paducah Police Captain Brandon Barnhill was looking for. This was not an isolated incident. It was a mock drill, set up two months in advance at the request of the college.
“We wanted everybody’s attention,” Barhill said. “This can happen at any given time and we want to be prepared for it.”
That attention was not hard to get. The shooter gunned down an officer and the SWAT team arrived.
“We put them in the absolute worst scenario they could be in,” said Rob Estes, the department’s firearms instructor.
Estes served as one of two shooters during the drill. He spent 15 minutes evading the very team he trained and said in the coming days he would offer a critique.
“For once I was on the other side and I’ll be able to tell them what they did right, what they did wrong, who I could shoot, who I did shoot.”
The entire college community had been informed about the day’s drill, but when student Ervin was forced to watch “injured” students go by on stretchers, he said, “It was unreal. This really did get the point across.”
Ervin got the message, “Be ready” and law enforcement did, too.
“They did a great job. By the end of it, I had nowhere to go,” said Estes, who, along with another shooter, was “gunned down” by the SWAT team.
The Paducah Fire Department and Mercy Regional also assisted. During Wednesday’s drill, there was one “fatality” and five “wounded.” Students and several officers volunteered to play parts, along with bloodied make-up, to make the drill more realistic for those participating and watching.
A spokesperson for WKCTC said the college is pleased with the results of the drill and is considering more in the future.
September 17th, 2010 in
FPI Archive Comments Off BBC News – British troops investigated for heroin smuggling.
Military police are investigating claims that British soldiers may have trafficked heroin from Afghanistan.
The Ministry of Defence said they were aware of “unsubstantiated” claims that troops were using military aircraft to ship the drug out of the country.
The inquiry is focusing on British and Canadian service personnel at airports in Camp Bastion and Kandahar.
Security has been tightened, with additional sniffer dogs being used as part of the crackdown at the bases.
An MoD Spokeswoman said: “We are aware of these allegations. Although they are unsubstantiated, we take any such reports very seriously and we have already tightened our existing procedures both in Afghanistan and in the UK, including through increasing the use of trained sniffer dogs.
“We regret any inconvenience this causes to our service personnel. Any of our people found to be engaged in trafficking of illegal narcotics will feel the full weight of the law.”
Afghanistan is the source of 90% of the world’s opium.
September 12th, 2010 in
War on Drugs Comments Off Former US Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK) and Richard Gage, AIA, Founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth Discuss Scientific Findings
National Press Club, Washington DC, 2:00 pm, Thursday, September 9, 2010
WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On Thursday September 9, 2010, Gravel and Gage will host a central press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, presenting hard evidence that all
three WTC skyscrapers on September 11, 2001, in NYC were destroyed by explosive controlled demolition.
Senator Gravel notes, “Critically important evidence has come forward
after the original government building reports were completed.”
This press conference will be webcast at
AE911Truth.org and hosted concurrently in cities throughout the world.* Following the conference, there will be a mock debate during which public statements made by government investigators and other defenders of the official account will be presented and responded to in multimedia format. ”They refuse to debate us in person,” says Gage, “so we will let their public statements represent them.”
Gage will release a media-friendly summary of his organization’s findings, which are based on forensic evidence as well as video and eyewitness testimony that were omitted from official reports. He will show evidence that the WTC Twin Towers were not destroyed by jet plane impacts or fires, but by pre-set explosives and incendiaries. The non-profit organization, Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, will also call for a grand jury investigation of government report lead engineers Shyam Sunder and John Gross of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. “They were in a position to know the evidence we have been presenting,” says Gage.
Also speaking will be Florida State Professor Lance deHaven-Smith, who coined the academic term State Crimes Against Democracy (SCAD). Prof. deHaven-Smith has appeared on Good Morning America, the Today Show, NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, CBS Nightly News with Dan Rather, and other national TV/radio shows.
The DC press conference will be accessible via webcast
AE911Truth.org, 2:00 pm September 9, 2010.
* For information on satellite press conferences in your area, contact
CongressionalOutreachTeam [at] ae911truth.org.
To arrange print/broadcast interviews, with Richard Gage, AIA, contact Tania at 510-292-4710, or via email at
1000 [at] ae911truth.org.
CONTACT: David Slesinger 410-499-5403
SOURCE Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20100907/pl_usnw/DC60870
September 10th, 2010 in
911 Conspiracy Comments Off FOXNews.com – EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Attempts to Block Book on Afghan War.
On the eve of Sept. 11, Fox News has learned the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has attempted to block a book about the tipping point in
Afghanistan and a controversial pre-9/11 data mining project called “Able Danger.”
In a letter obtained by Fox News, the DIA says national security could be breached if “Operation Dark Heart” is published in its current form. The agency also attempted to block key portions of the book that claim “Able Danger” successfully identified hijacker Mohammed Atta as a threat to the United States before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Specifically, the DIA wanted references to a meeting between Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, the book’s author, and the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, Philip Zelikow, removed. In that meeting, which took place in Afghanistan, Shaffer alleges the commission was told about “Able Danger” and the identification of Atta before the attacks. No mention of this was made in the final 9/11 report.
In a highly unusual move, the DIA is now negotiating with the publisher, St. Martin’s Press, to buy all 10,000 copies of the first printing of the book to keep it off shelves — even after the U.S. Army had cleared the book for release.
Atta was the alleged ringleader of the Sept. 11 hijackers and piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center.
Shaffer spoke to Fox News before he was asked by the military not to discuss the book. He confirmed efforts to block the book and other details.
The documents and exclusive interviews, including an Army data collector on the Able Danger Project, are part of an ongoing investigation by the documentary unit “Fox News Reporting” which uncovered new details about American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and efforts by the FBI to track and recruit him for intelligence purposes after 9/11.
September 10th, 2010 in
911 Conspiracy Comments Off Pentagon declined to investigate hundreds of purchases of child pornography | The Upshot Yahoo! News – Yahoo! News.
A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into the purchase of child pornography online turned up more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense Department — including some with the highest available security clearance — who used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. But the Pentagon investigated only a handful of the cases, Defense Department records show.
The cases turned up during a 2006 ICE inquiry, called Project Flicker, which targeted overseas processing of child-porn payments. As part of the probe, ICE investigators gained access to the names and credit card information of more than 5,000 Americans who had subscribed to websites offering images of child pornography. Many of those individuals provided military email addresses or physical addresses with Army or fleet ZIP codes when they purchased the subscriptions.
In a related inquiry, the Pentagon’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) cross-checked the ICE list against military databases to come up with a list of Defense employees and contractors who appeared to be guilty of purchasing child pornography. The names included staffers for the secretary of defense, contractors for the ultra-secretive National Security Agency, and a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. But the DCIS opened investigations into only 20 percent of the individuals identified, and succeeded in prosecuting just a handful.
But new
Project Flicker investigative reports obtained by The Upshot through the Freedom of Information Act,
which you can read here, show that DCIS investigators identified 264 Defense employees or contractors who had purchased child pornography online. Astonishingly, nine of those had “Top Secret Sensitive Compartmentalized Information” security clearances, meaning they had access to the nation’s most sensitive secrets. All told, 76 of the individuals had Secret or higher clearances. But DCIS investigated only 52 of the suspects, and just 10 were ever charged with viewing or purchasing child pornography. Without greater public disclosure of how these cases wound down, it’s impossible to know how or whether any of the names listed in the Project Flicker papers came in for additional scrutiny. It’s conceivable that some of them were picked up by local law enforcement, but it seems likely that most of the people flagged by the investigation did not have their military careers disrupted in the context of the DCIS inquiry.
Among those charged were Gary Douglass Grant, a captain in the Army Reserves and a judge advocate general, or military prosecutor. After investigators executing a search warrant found child pornography on his computer, he pleaded guilty last year to state charges of possession of obscene matter of a minor in a sexual act in California. Others included contractors for the NSA with Top Secret clearances; one of them — a former contractor — fled the country after being indicted and is believed to be in Libya.
But the vast majority of those investigated, including an active-duty lieutenant colonel in the Army and an official in the office of the secretary of defense, were never charged. On top of that, 212 people on ICE’s list were never investigated at all.
According to the records, DCIS prioritized the investigations by focusing on people who had security clearances — since those who have a taste for child pornography can be vulnerable to blackmail and espionage. The documents show that the probe then concentrated on people who had been previously suspected of or convicted of sex crimes, or had access to children as part of their Defense Department duties. But at least some of the people on the Project Flicker list with security clearances were never pursued and could possibly remain on the job: DCIS only investigated 52 people, and 76 of those on the Project Flicker list had clearances.
A DCIS spokesman didn’t return phone calls. But the agency’s own documents obtained via The Upshot’s FOIA request indicate that the decision to press investigations forward hinged largely on questions of the resources available to the investigators. “Due to DCIS headquarters’ direction and other DCIS investigative priorities, this investigation is cancelled” is a common summation in the files.
A source familiar with the Project Flicker investigations — who requested anonymity because public disclosure could jeopardize this person’s job — confirmed that departmental resources, and priorities, were decisive factors in letting inquiries lapse.
DCIS is primarily tasked with rooting out contractor fraud and investigating security breaches; its 400 staffers were already plenty busy before Project Flicker dropped 264 more names onto their caseloads. And child pornography investigations are difficult to prosecute. Many judges wouldn’t issue search warrants based on years-old evidence saying the targets subscribed to a kiddie porn website once.
“We were stuck in a situation where we had some great information, but didn’t have the resources to run with it,” the source told The Upshot. Many of the investigative reports obtained by The Upshot end with a similar citation of scarce resources:
Of course, other federal agencies, including ICE and the FBI, may have prosecuted some of the Project Flicker names the DCIS ignored. But that’s unlikely, given that some of the DCIS investigations were closed due to lack of cooperation from ICE.
In one case, involving an Army Reserve corporal in the Pittsburgh area, a DCIS agent expressed exasperation after repeatedly trying to get ICE to collaborate with him on the investigation: “Based upon the complete non-responsiveness of ICE … it is recommended that [the] matter be closed.”
As for the 212 Project Flicker names that DCIS didn’t investigate, the source familiar with the investigation said there was no systematic effort to inform their superiors or commanding officers of their suspected purchases of child pornography.
September 4th, 2010 in
The Elite Comments Off BBC News – High-profile Portugal child sex abuse ‘proved’.
All seven defendants in a long-running trial in Portugal have been found guilty of sexually abusing children in the care of a state-run home.
The six men and one woman include Carlos Cruz, a former top TV presenter, and Jorge Ritto, a former ambassador.
Between them they faced hundreds of charges relating to the rape and abuse of 32 boys in the 1990s.
The boys, now aged between 16 and 22, were all residents at the Casa Pia children’s home in the capital, Lisbon.
The judges in the case are still reading the full verdict in each of the hundreds of accusations, but the court has ruled that the vast majority of sexual abuse has been proven.
The main suspect was a former driver from Casa Pia, Carlos Silvino, whom the court found had abused boys on hundreds of occasions.
He then began offering them to men, including Cruz, for cash.
Pedro Namora, a former Casa Pia resident now in his forties, hailed the result, saying: “I hope this day will allow us to show the country that the boys have told the truth from the start.”
However, Cruz has dismissed the verdict was built on “lies and manipulation” and the result of “a vendetta” against him.
“This is one of the most monstrous judicial mistakes in Portuguese history,” he said.
The three judges in the case are expected to take turns reading out a summary of the verdict, which is reported to run to several thousand pages.
Chief prosecutor Miguel Matias said he expected the judges would hand down sentences later on Friday.
The penalty in Portugal for the sexual abuse of a child ranges from three to 10 years in prison, although there is an upper limit of 25 years on the total sentence that can be handed down.
The case is one of the longest-running in Portuguese history, lasting more than five years, with testimony from more than 800 witnesses and experts.
During the trial, the 32 victims gave gruesome testimony about being raped by adults in dark cellars, cars and secluded houses.
One of the victims, now in his early 20s, was so seriously abused that he is now incontinent.
Almost all of them identified their abusers by pointing them out in the courtroom.
September 3rd, 2010 in
The Elite Comments Off FT.com / Global Economy – Fears grow over global food supply.
Wheat prices rose further on Friday in the wake of Russia’s decision to extend its grain export ban by 12 months, raising fears about a return to the food shortages and riots of 2007-08.
In Mozambique, where a 30 per cent rise in bread prices triggered riots on Wednesday and Thursday, the government said seven people had been killed and 288 wounded.
Vladimir Putin’s announcement on Thursday extended an export ban first introduced last month until late December 2011, sending wheat and other cereals prices to a near two-year high. It came as the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation called an emergency meeting to discuss the wheat shortage.
In Maputo, trade and industry minister Antonio Fernandes told a national radio station on Friday that the riots had caused 122m meticais ($3.3m) of damage. Police opened fire on demonstrators after thousands turned out to protest against the price hikes, burning tyres and looting food warehouses.
Although agricultural officials and traders insist that wheat and other crop supplies are more abundant than in 2007-08, officials fear the food riots could spread.
Wheat prices remained high on Friday morning. Futures in Chicago were up 1.5 per cent at $6.91 a bushel, while European wheat futures remained at historically high levels above €230 a tonne, just shy of last month’s two-year high of €236. Wheat prices have surged nearly 70 per cent since January, and analysts forecast further rises after Russia’s decision and concerns about weather damage to Australia’s crop.
The crop problems in Russia, which suffered its worst drought on record this summer, and elsewhere, have heaped pressure on US farmers to supply the world’s wheat. The US Department of Agriculture has increased its estimates for US wheat exports to $8bn for the current crop year.
The 2007-08 food shortages, the most severe in 30 years, set off riots in countries from Bangladesh to Mexico, and helped to trigger the collapse of governments in Haiti and Madagascar.
The FAO said that “the concern about a possible repeat of the 2007-08 food crisis” had resulted in “an enormous number” of inquiries from member countries. “The purpose of holding this meeting is for exporting and importing countries to engage.”
Russia is traditionally the world’s fourth-largest wheat exporter, and the export ban has already forced importers in the Middle East and North Africa, the biggest buyers, to seek supplies in Europe and the US.
Mr Putin said Moscow could “only consider lifting the export ban after next year’s crop has been harvested and we have clarity on the grain balances”. He added that the decision to extend the ban was intended to “end unnecessary anxiety and to ensure a stable and predict-able business environment for market participants”.
“This is quite serious,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, of the FAO in Rome. “Two years in a row without Russian exports creates quite a disturbance.” Dan Manternach, chief wheat economist at Doane Agricultural Services in St Louis, added: “This is a wake-up call for importing nations about the reliability of Russia.”
Jakkie Cilliers, director of South Africa’s Institute of Security Studies, said there was concern over a repeat of the protests of 2008: “That certainly strengthened a return of the military in politics in Africa.”
September 3rd, 2010 in
New World Disorder Comments Off China’s Secret Satellite Rendezvous ‘Suggestive of a Military Program’ | Danger Room | Wired.com.
Earlier this month, two Chinese satellites met up in orbit. Depending on who you believe, it’s either a sign of China’s increasingly-sophisticated space program — or a sign of its increasingly-sophisticated space warfare program.
A well-regarded Russian space watcher was the first to note that the two satellites, newly-launched SJ-12 and two-year-old SJ-06F, had performed maneuvers indicating a cutting edge procedure called non-cooperative robotic rendezvous. A loose network of amateur space spectators and astronomers soon
congregated online, and confirmed that the sats had, indeed, converged.
This kind of rendezvous can have extremely useful, and benign, applications: removing space debris, refueling satellites or repairing craft in orbit. But the military apps are massive, and include up-close inspection of foreign satellites, espionage — and the infliction of some serious damage to adversarial space infrastructure. In other words, orbital warfare that, given just how reliant we are on satellite technology, would have widespread consequences on the ground.
“These kinds of rendezvous have been done plenty of times with ground control, but robotically controlled satellites, rendezvousing at higher altitudes, is really quite new,” says Brian Weeden, who offers an in-depth rundown of the incident at
The Space Review. “The perception of how this technology is being developed, and what it is being used for, is extremely important.”
The United States is the only other country known to have performed a similar feat. In 2005, NASA researchers launched
DART (Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology) in an effort to rendezvous with a Navy satellite. Navigational errors led to the two satellites bumping, but the initiative did offer proof-of-concept that American scientists were making major headway towards satellites that can autonomously meet up in space. Since then, the Darpa-funded
Orbital Express program has demonstrated the capacity for satellites to rendezvous for refueling and module swapping.
So, in a sense, it was really only a matter of time before China followed suit. In recent years, they’ve fast-tracked a handful of space exploration and development projects, culminating in a
satellite-killing weapons program and
90-pound mini-sat that some speculated was designed with nefarious intent.
“The Chinese would be absolutely incompetent to not be trying to reduce U.S advantage in space,” James Oberg, a former NASA space engineer specializing in orbital rendezvous, tells Danger Room. “No potential adversary in their right mind would give us permanent advantage in space operations.”
Weeden notes that neither the United States or Chinese governments have been especially forthcoming about their progress on satellite rendezvous capacities, not to mention respective satellite arsenals and specific locations. The dilemma is even more salient because, as this incident illustrates, knowledgeable amateurs with the right equipment can do their own detective work — and then meet online to share the results.
“There’s a continued assumption among governments that if they don’t publish satellite details and locations, nobody is going to figure it out,” Weeden says. “That’s wrong.”
In this instance, China’s government has yet to acknowledge the incident, and their apparent choice of location for the actual rendezvous adds to the troubling puzzle. According to Oberg, the satellite meet-up occurred in an orbit almost exclusively devoted to earth observation — spy and weather satellites, for example — where “a potential adversary would be most interested in rendezvousing.”
“On the other hand, it’s also where a satellite might need refueling,” he adds. “It’s like you could be changing a screwdriver for a hammer, or you could be turning a peaceful ‘bot into a killer one.”
But China’s been eager to boast about their prior space exploration projects, and have already
publicized plans for a major satellite rendezvous trial next year, so silence in this instance seems telling.
“There’s still a vague possibility that this was a matter of computational bias and coincidence,” Oberg says. “But the silence here is suggestive of a military program.”
For now, web-based space watchers will keep working. They’re hoping to figure out whether or not the Chinese satellites touched, which would indicate either an error like that of the DART attempt or some kind of military trial run. Regardless, the rendezvous is a stark reminder that the safety of American deep-space systems is by no means guaranteed.
“For all we know, these could just be mind games. They don’t have to attack U.S space capacities — they just have to make us think they could,” Oberg says. “We’re not playing chess in space, we’re playing Go. This makes chess look like a kindergartner’s pastime.”
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August 31st, 2010 in
Military,
New World Disorder Comments Off Russia must modernize military-industrial complex – Medvedev.
13:27 31/08/2010 MOSCOW, August 31 (RIA Novosti) – Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said the country’s military-industrial complex must be modernized to retain its competitive status on the market.
“To retain our competitive position on the weaponry and special equipment market, we must actively modernize our military-industrial complex, introduce innovative technologies and new management methods, and attract young, talented professionals,” the president said.
In April experts said that Russian weapons were falling behind rival products.
Russian Academy of Science members Vladimir Fortov and Igor Kalyaev said that a reduction in research funds was making it hard for Russian weapons to stay competitive and for the defense industry to make breakthroughs in the market.
In March Russian President Dmitry Medvedev approved a long-term policy for the development of the national defense industry. He stressed that development and production of modern electronic systems would be a priority for the industry in the next three to four years.
However, Fortov and Kalyaev said the military prefers short-term projects, with concrete developments based on well-known principles. This approach makes Russian military equipment lag behind its rivals even at the planning stage.
August 31st, 2010 in
Military,
New World Disorder Comments Off U.S. drones to watch entire Mexico border from September 1 | Reuters.
(Reuters) – The U.S. government will have unmanned surveillance aircraft monitoring the whole southwest border with
Mexico from September 1, as it ramps up border security in this election year, a top official said on Monday.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said U.S. Customs and Border Protection would begin flying a Predator B drone out of Corpus Christi, Texas, on Wednesday, extending the reach of the agency’s unmanned surveillance aircraft across the length of the nearly 2,000 mile border with Mexico.
“With the deployment of the Predator in Texas, we will now be able to cover the southwest border from the El Centro sector in California all the way to the
Gulf of Mexico in Texas, providing critical aerial surveillance assistance to personnel on the ground,” Napolitano said during a conference call.
“This is yet another critical step we have taken in ensuring the safety of the border and is an important tool in our security toolbox,” she added.
Illegal immigration and security along the porous border with Mexico has become a hot topic this year, when the ruling Democrats’ control of Congress is on the line in November 2 elections.
Earlier this month, President Barack Obama signed a $600 million bill that would fund some 1,500 new Border Patrol agents, customs inspectors and other law enforcement officials along the border, as well as paying for two more unmanned drones.
Napolitano said the additional aircraft pledged under the bill, together with the new aircraft soon to begin operations in Texas, would increase the Customs and Border Protection drone fleet to six by the start of next year.
The Predator B drones are made by defense contractor General Atomics. They carry equipment including sophisticated day and night vision cameras that operators use to detect drug and human smugglers, and can stay aloft for up to 30 hours at a time.
August 31st, 2010 in
Govt Watch Comments Off India to test Star War weapons on Kashmiri protesters.
Srinagar, India, Aug 30, IRNA — The Government has now decided to equip its police and paramilitary forces with slew of Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) also called laser dazzlers to tackle Kashmiri protesters.
Latest reports said 64 people have been killed and thousands injured in less than three months, mostly in direct firing by paramilitary CRPF and police forces on the stone throwing protesters.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is understood to have given the go-ahead for the selective use of the gun, which is non-lethal and aimed at disorienting a crowd or even militants in action, news reports said.
The laser dazzler would flash a laser beam causing the protesters to go virtually blind for nearly a minute, good enough time for the troops to nab them, reports added saying that the laser beam is two to three metres wide.
The weapon was produced two years ago by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
Times Of India recently quoted a top official saying that the DRDO has been trying to develop its own set of Star Wars-like weapons including the DEWs like Laser dazzlers.
The weapon has already been successfully tested by the army in “real combat” situations in Kashmir, reports added.
Prime Minister Singh gave a hint about the weapon when he said last week, “We need to revisit standard operating procedures and crowd control measures to deal with public agitations with non-lethal, yet effective and focused measures.”
United Nations conventions however prohibit the use of laser guns that cause permanent blindness.
The gun originally developed by the US in the early 1990s was initially referred as far more terrifying military weapon.
Its development was arrested mostly due to international outcry that use of military dazzlers would be extremely cruel and inhumane, and the weapons were condemned both by the International Red Cross and the United Nations.
Experts said that a major problem that made laser dazzlers a political plutonium before they were ever even been deployed was that the difference in the amount of energy needed to temporarily blind and permanently blind a target was a very thin and not easily defined line.
For a long time, any laser that was capable of temporarily blinding a target in one instance could very easily permanently blind one in another, depending on many variables such as atmospheric conditions, range, orientation of the target, length of exposure, frequency, beam intensity, and more.
These problems could not be easily solved, and laser blinders fell out of favor as a form of personnel neutralization and began to be looked upon more for weapon sensor neutralization.
News reports in India however said that the guns developed by DRDO were fully compliant with the UN conventions
Karzai aide in corruption probe linked to CIA: report | Reuters.
(Reuters) – An aide to Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the center of a corruption probe is on the CIA payroll, The New York Times reported, citing Afghan and U.S. officials.
Mohammed Zia Salehi, an Afghan National Security Council official, appears to have been paid by the U.S. spy agency for many years, officials in Kabul and Washington told the Times.
The Times said it was unclear whether Salehi was being paid for information, or to advance U.S. views inside the Karzai administration, or both.
Salehi was arrested by Afghan police in July but released after Karzai intervened.
Salehi’s relationship with the CIA underscores deep contradictions at the heart of the Obama administration’s policy in Afghanistan, the newspaper said.
Karzai is under pressure from the Obama administration to do more to root out corruption in his government to shore up the legitimacy of his government.
Washington believes a successful counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan hinges on winning Afghan public support for the government in Kabul and sidelining the Taliban.
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