Russia Sends Warships to Syrian Waters to Stem Intervention
via: Global Research, November 20, 2011
Russian warships are on route to Syrian territorial watersin a move that sends a clear message from Moscow that they would not allow any foreign intervention into Syria’s civil unrest.Syria’s President Bashar al Assad, a close ally of Russia’s, has been violently cracking down on mass Syrian protests against his rule. Over 3,000 citizens have been killed by security forces, according to rights groups, and some soldiers have begun to defect, launching small operations against Assad’s forces.Russia claims Syria’s trouble is a civil war and advocates against foreign intervention, despite it’s own interventions in the form of economic aid and diplomatic bolstering of Assad’s regime.
NATO spokespeople have so far denied any intention to intervene in Syria.
On Friday, though, a Syrian official said Damascus has agreed “in principle” to allow an Arab League observer mission into the country after the Arab League proposed sending hundreds of observers to help end the bloodshed, for which they suspended Syria earlier this week. Still, the Assad regime is likely to continue resisting intervention on Syrian soil.
(hat tip: NWO Truth)
Syria: Arab League Provides Pretext For Western Military Intervention
Global Research
November 21, 2011
Xinhua
DAMASCUS, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has accused the Arab League (AL) of trying to internationalize the crisis in his country to find a cover for a foreign military intervention in Syria, as the latter rebuffed Damascus’ proposals regarding regional observers’ monitoring mission to Syria.
During an interview with the British Sunday Times published Sunday, al-Assad said that the AL initiative was aimed at giving the international community an excuse to meddle in his country.
“It’s been done to show that there’s a problem between the Arabs, thus providing western countries with a pretext to conduct a military intervention against Syria,” he was quoted as saying.
He, however, warned that the consequence of any such intervention would be an earthquake that would shake the entire Middle East.
The AL rejected on Sunday Syria’s proposed modifications on the mission of a 500-member delegation to visit the country, saying that the proposals introduced “drastic changes” to the mission of the observers.
The Syrian proposals changed the nature of the mission’s task that aims to solve the Syrian crisis and protect civilians, the AL said in a statement.
But Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem accused shortly after the AL’s rejection that the regional body of being used as a tool to take the Syrian crisis to the UN Security Council.
(hat tip: NWO Truth)
Breakthrough: This metal is almost as light as air (video)
Tim Barribeau
io9
November 17, 2011
Ultra-lightweight materials are an incredibly cool area of materials science, bringing us crazy substances like aerogel. And now, for the first time, scientists have produced a metal that’s so light it can balance on the fluff of a dandelion. Here’s why this material is revolutionary — and how it’s made.
Raw Footage – UC Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed
YouTube
November 18, 2011
Scientists Weaponize Deadly Bird Flu, Consider Releasing Results Necessary to Create Bioweapon
Anthony Gucciardi
Activist Post
November 21, 2011
It sounds like something out of a bizarre science fiction comic book, but scientists have weaponized the H5N1 bird flu virus, and are actually considering releasing the research.
The experiments, which involved mutating the virus a total of 5 times, made the strain highly contagious between ferrets — the very animal model used to study human flu infection.
Of course many scientists are now warning that if such research was made public it could result in the construction of deadly bioweapons.
Making the virus highly contagious could result in widespread infection. The H5N1 virus has been infecting birds and other animals in recent years, though it has also infected around 500 people.
The reason that it has not become an epidemic is due to the fact that affected humans are usually not very contagious. Therefore, altering the virus to become highly contagious is quite possibly the deadliest tweak which could be done.
It seems that these scientists are just asking for the new weaponized bird flu virus to infect the public.
Bioterrorism fears arise as scientists push to release weaponized bird flu research
Dr. Thomas Inglesby, a bioterrorism expert and director of the Center for Biosecurity of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, notes that it is simply a bad idea for scientists to militarize bird flu, let alone publish the results:
‘It’s just a bad idea for scientists to turn a lethal virus into a lethal and highly contagious virus. And it’s a second bad idea for them to publish how they did it so others can copy it,’ says Inglesby.
So far no scientific journal has published the findings, and Inglesby hopes that none of them will. Virologist Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands is responsible for weaponizing the virus and presenting the findings at a flu conference held in Malta. He has recently come under attack by an organization known as the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, a committee of independent experts on biological research.
Ron Fouchier says that mutating the virus to become highly contagious is shocking enough, but the fact that some scientists are now pushing for the release of the research is beyond outlandish.
It seems apparent that these scientists have zero regard for public health.
RELATED ACTIVIST POST ARTICLE:
The Coming Pandemic: Expect All Protective Systems to Fail
Militarization of police exemplified by “virtually unstoppable” APC at Occupy Tampa
Madison Ruppert
End the Lie
November 20, 2011
Editor of End the Lie
The Rescue 2 Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) (Photo: City of Tampa)
One of the many disturbing trends in America in the post-September 11th, 2001 era is the steady militarization of domestic police forces who are supposed to “protect and serve” not “intimidate and attack” the people of the United States.
A glaring example of this steady march toward de-facto martial law in which police are so militarized there is little to no difference between them and the military itself occurred at Occupy Tampa recently.
It is essentially a way for the government to bypass the Posse Comitatus act and 1878 by simply militarizing the police to the point where they are indistinguishable from the actual armed forces, effectively eliminating the need to even declare martial law.
For reasons which remain unclear, the Tampa Police Department in Tampa, Florida’s Tactical Response Team, or TRP, rolled out what some have been calling a “tank” to Curtis Hixon Park in downtown Tampa.
As it turns out, the menacing vehicle isn’t technically a tank; instead it is an “Amphibious Rescue Vehicle” which is designed for transporting personnel in extreme conditions.
The heavily armored vehicle had “Rescue 2” emblazoned on the side, and according to an individual going by the name Tom Servo (which is likely a nom de plume referring to a character from Mystery Science Theater 3000) writing for Yahoo’s so-called “contributor network” it is nicknamed “High-Top Shoe.”
This nickname is likely due to the odd shape of the vehicle which crudely resembles a high-top shoe if one stretches one’s imagination a bit, and Tampa city says it is for the “tall silhouette look.”
The Rescue 2 is a massive “12-ton Armored Personnel Carrier (APC)” according to the official city of Tampa website, but the question remains, why on Earth does a domestic police force need a 12-ton APC at a small-scale peaceful protest?
The behemoth vehicle is bullet resistant and “virtually unstoppable,” can drive through five feet of water, handle winds up to 130 miles per hour, carry 13 passengers, and reach 60 miles per hour.
The Rescue 2 is billed to be used for “search and rescue during a natural disaster or a terrorist attack.”
Yet, there was neither a terrorist attack nor a natural disaster justifying the deployment of the Rescue 2, instead it was done in a clear attempt to intimidate the protesters.
This wholly unnecessary item is a “one of a kind APC” which “was purchased from the military and it was paid for with a Federal security grant,” according to the City of Tampa website.
I find it quite unsettling that our tax dollars are being spent to outfit domestic police forces with such ridiculously superfluous military vehicle.
Yet this isn’t the only absurd purchase made by the City of Tampa, indeed there is a Rescue 1 which is described as “a amphibious (sic) type vehicle that … is designed to float ad the knobs on the tires propel it in the water.”
It carries up to 13 passengers, is bullet proof, and also is equipped with “a raised platform that has a rotatable 360 degree platform” which is likely used to mount weapons.
Before the Tampa Police Department had Rescue 1, it was used by the U.S. Marine Corps in Desert Storm, perfectly exemplifying the fact that our domestic police departments are turning into a military force.
The author of the Yahoo article speculated that the Tampa police might have been expecting a riot and “wanted to have the vehicle present in case people needed to be safely transported away from the scene,” although I think this is giving the police the benefit of the doubt when it is not necessarily justified.
However, he posits a much more likely possibility in saying that, “Another likely reason may be that the police simply wanted to psychologically intimidate protestors,” but then nullifies what would be an insightful comment by saying that it would be, “to deter the possibility of things getting out of hand.”
As we have seen time and time again, it is only the police who get out of hand by attacking peaceful protesters for absolutely no reason whatsoever after being provoked in no way, shape or form.
While I agree with the author that drawing the parallel between the presence of the tank and Tiananmen Square in China is a bit over-the-top, the steady march of police towards total militarization is not something to be minimized.
This is far from an isolated instance of one police department spending tax payer dollars on something that they will likely never use for its intended purpose, indeed it represents just one instance of police across the nation buying tanks and other military vehicles to carry out ordinary activities.
These are deployed for one reason and one reason only: to strike fear into the hearts of peaceful protesters attempting to express the fact that they are fed up with the police who protect the corporations and not the people whom they are sworn to serve.
The author of the Yahoo article uses the ridiculous deployment of the APC to denigrate the protests saying calling it a “lackluster and uneventful protest” and saying that he was “really surprised that so many of the protesters are making such silly conjectures, implying that the tank might be used violently against the protestors, or that the TPD are so afraid of them they need to hide behind a tank.”
He continues to underhandedly insult the Occupy protesters by saying, “Apparently, a large number of the Occupy Tampa’s supporters can’t be bothered to do a little research when they see something they don’t understand.”
The demonstrators understand exactly what is going on, which seems to be flying right over this author’s head: the incremental move toward a total militarization of the police and de-facto marital law is nothing short of dangerous and the threat is not only real just over the horizon if police keep heading in this direction.
Green tea supplements prevent flu better than vaccination
Ethan Evers
Natural News
November 22, 2011
(NaturalNews) Flu season is now in full swing and seasonal vaccinations are being pushed from every corner. Nonetheless, a recent clinical trial showed that green tea-based supplements reduced the risk of flu by 75%. This is far better than the 60% risk reduction recently reported in the Lancet for vaccinations. Given that green tea provides a host of other health benefits and none of the risks of injections, it would appear to be a far superior alternative to vaccination.
