American Buddhist Net

8 July 2008

In an interview with NPR on his latest New Yorker Article, titled ‘Preparing the battlefield', the renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reveals more striking details of his findings on the aim of the $400 million budgeted US covert operations inside Iran. He provides valuable information on US military preparations to strike the country, on the total expansion of the Bush Administration's executive power, about the US recognition of Iran's overall positive role in Iraq and on the US support for the anti-Iran terrorist organisations Jondollah, PJAK and MEK.

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NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq on Tuesday said it will reject any security pact with the United States unless it sets a date for the pullout of US-led foreign troops, a proposal turned down by US President George W. Bush.

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* Patrick Wintour and Patrick Barkham
* The Guardian,
* Tuesday July 8, 2008

As the food crisis began to bite, the rumblings of discontent grew louder. Finally, after a day of discussing food shortages and soaring prices, the famished stomachs of the G8 leaders could bear it no longer.

The most powerful bellies in the world were last night compelled to stave off the great Hokkaido Hunger by fortifying themselves with an eight-course, 19-dish dinner prepared by 25 chefs. This multi-pronged attack was launched after earlier emergency lunch measures - four courses washed down with Château-Grillet 2005 - had failed to quell appetites enlarged by agonising over feeding the world's poor.

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07/05/2008

Tokyo (AsiaNews) - About 50 visitors and 100 Japanese participated at the "summit of religious leaders for the G8", the meeting that for three years has been gathering representatives of the various faiths in view of the summit of political leaders from the major powers, and has become one of the main assemblies on the calendar of interreligious dialogue. The stated aim is that of giving a spiritual face to a summit that, although it is political, deals with topics fundamentally concerning the human heart.

From June 27-29, representatives and leaders from the main religions of the world met in Osaka and Kyoto, in view of the summit of the Group of Eight, which will be held at Lake Toyako (Hokkaido) from July 7-9, in order to send it a joint declaration.

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Check the paragraph in bold below. Hundreds of millions are suffering, many dying, but the report has been held back to avoid embarrassing Bush? Why does this one person have so much power that such basic information as this is kept from the world? ABN
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# Aditya Chakrabortty
# The Guardian,
# Friday July 4, 2008

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.

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By Manirajan Ramasamy

July 4 (Bloomberg) -- Malaysia's Deputy Premier Najib Razak disputed allegations that he had an affair with a woman before she was killed two years ago, calling them a ``desperate attempt'' by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to divert attention from charges he faces.

``Absolutely not,'' Najib told reporters at a press conference at his parliament office yesterday. ``I never, never met her at all.''

Anwar is being investigated by police for alleged homosexual relations, a crime in Malaysia. He had said earlier yesterday there was a conspiracy to cover up ``shocking'' evidence linking Najib to the slain woman and called for an inquiry.

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Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen: 'A Third Front ... Would Be Extremely Stressful'

By JONATHAN KARL
July 2, 2008

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, who was in Israel over the weekend, issued a strong warning today about the dangers of a military attack on Iran.

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Don't bomb Iran, Bush warns Israel

By James G. Neuger

July 3 (Bloomberg) -- When President George W. Bush went to his first Group of Eight summit in 2001, a dominant issue was the dollar -- the strong dollar, that is. The U.S. currency was on a record-setting streak, and the free-marketeering president wasn't going to stand in the way.

On the eve of Bush's last G-8 appearance, the dollar's gyrations are again in the crossfire. This time, it is a weak currency, upended by slumping growth, a housing recession and record gas prices, that is gnawing away at the world economy.

The dollar's 41 percent drop against the euro during Bush's term writes the economic epitaph of an administration that set out to restore American preeminence. Instead, Bush heads to Japan next week for his final international summit with diminished leverage as Russian and Chinese influence grows.

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Makes good sense, worth reading.

Also, as for this looming conflict, why is there virtually no mention of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction), which in Iran's case would be IAD (Individual or Iranian Assured Destruction)? MAD got us safely through the Cold War. Why does not MAD or IAD serve the same purpose now? ABN
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By Shlomo Ben-Ami and Trita Parsi Wed Jul 2, 4:00 AM ET

Washington and Jerusalem - Is war between Israel and Iran inevitable? To listen to Iran's radical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or Israel's Iranian-born transportation minister Shaul Mofaz, or even recent reports that Israel carried out a major military training mission over the Mediterranean to rehearse an attack on Iran, you might be left with that impression.

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June 28, 2008

Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian opposition leader who once was the country's deputy prime minister, has been accused of sodomising a male aide.

Police are investiagting the complaint, Ku Chin Wah, Kuala Lumpur's police chief for criminal investigations, said on Saturday.

Anwar's lawyer has denied the allegation and Anwar himself called it a "complete fabrication".

The opposition Keadilan party said that Saiful Bahari, one of Anwar's aides, had been arrested on Saturday and "forced" to make a statement saying Anwar had sodomised him.

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June 25, 2008
By KATHARINE HOURELD

BUNGOMA, Kenya (AP) — Dozens of scared children filed silently into the bare room, their eyes on the cracks in the floor. One by one, in low voices, they told of being tortured by the Kenyan army because they were suspected of aiding rebels. They told of being beaten and made to shake hands with corpses. They told of being forced to crawl through barbed wire tunnels and of genitals squeezed by pliers.

Then the children took off their shirts. White scars crisscrossed the dark skin on their backs like grains of rice. Some were still bleeding.

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http://www.infowars.com/?p=2830

McCain Campaign Hopes For Terror Attack To Swing Vote

More dead Americans on U.S. soil would be "big advantage" says top strategist.

Paul Joseph Watson / Prison Planet | June 23, 2008

Top McCain strategist Charlie Black brazenly points out that another 9/11-style attack would give the McCain campaign the boost it needs to claw back Barack Obama’s estimated 7 per cent lead over the Senator.

Top McCain strategist Charlie Black tells Fortune Magazine that a terrorist attack on U.S. soil would aid the Arizona Senator to overturn Barack Obama’s lead and be a "big advantage" in helping him become President.

root.man
http://tinyurl.com/mku2l

For more on this subject, see: Special Report: China In Africa. ABN
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by David Blair, Telegraph, Aug 31, 2007

No one alive at the close of the 19th century could have missed the "scramble for Africa". A motley collection of robber barons, imperialist ideologues, explorers, rogues and adventurers - the likes of Cecil Rhodes and the appalling Leopold II, King of the Belgians - carved up the continent in the name of five European powers.

Today, few appear to have noticed that a second "scramble for Africa" is under way. This time, only one giant country is involved, but its ambitions are every bit as momentous as those of Rhodes and company. With every day that passes, China's economic tentacles extend deeper into Africa. While Europe sought direct political control, China is acquiring a vast and informal economic empire.

Reliable information on Beijing's African adventure is hard to come by. But we do know that trade between China and the world's poorest continent totalled about £30 billion last year - a sixfold increase since 2000.

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How to train death squads and quash revolutions

911 Deniers should see the line about false flag operations..

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/How_to_train_death_squads_and_quash_revolution...
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/US_Special_Forces_counter-insurgency_manual_FM...

Wikileaks has released a sensitive 219 page US military counterinsurgency manual. The manual, Foreign Internal Defense Tactics Techniques and Procedures for Special Forces (1994, 2004), may be critically described as "what we learned about running death squads and propping up corrupt government in Latin America and how to apply it to other places". Its contents are both history defining for Latin America and, given the continued role of US Special Forces in the suppression of insurgencies, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, history making.

The leaked manual, which has been verified with military sources, is the official US Special Forces doctrine for Foreign Internal Defense or FID.

FID operations are designed to prop up a "friendly" government facing a popular revolution or guerilla insurgency. FID interventions are often covert or quasi-covert due to the unpopular nature of the governments being supported ("In formulating a realistic policy for the use of advisors, the commander must carefully gauge the psychological climate of the HN [Host Nation] and the United States.")

The manual directly advocates training paramilitaries, pervasive surveillance, censorship, press control and restrictions on labor unions & political parties. It directly advocates warrantless searches, detainment without charge and (under varying circumstances) the suspension of habeas corpus. It directly advocates employing terrorists or prosecuting individuals for terrorism who are not terrorists, running false flag operations and concealing human rights abuses from journalists. And it repeatedly advocates the use of subterfuge and "psychological operations" (propaganda) to make these and other "population & resource control" measures more palatable.

The High Court in South Africa has ruled that Chinese South Africans are to be reclassified as black people.

It made the order so that ethnic Chinese can benefit from government policies aimed at ending white domination in the private sector.

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What the ISPs seem to be planning (and this is speculation but there are many signs) is to turn the internet into a paid subscription medium that gives them control of content--which sites you can visit.

The internet is the greatest public forum in human history. Keep it free. ABN
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John Timmer | Published: June 17, 2008

This week, Seoul has been playing host to a meeting of ministers from the Organisation For Economic Cooperation And Development (OECD), focused on the expanding Internet economy. The meeting is serving as a chance for many groups to have their say about what they'd like to see that future look like; the Electronic Frontiers Foundation is one of the groups attending, and they've worked with the OECD's Trade Union Advisory Committee to craft a statement of principles (PDF) going by the name of the Seoul Declaration. The statement is wide-ranging, but hits many of the issues that the EFF has promoted in the past: free expression, balanced intellectual property policies, and 'Net neutrality.

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Diet member finds growing support for independent probe into Sept. 11 attacks

By JOHN SPIRI

In a September 2003 article for The Guardian newspaper, Michael Meacher, who served as Tony Blair's environment minister from May 1997 to June 2003, shocked the establishment by calling the global war on terrorism "bogus." Even more controversially, he implied that the U.S. government either allowed 9/11 to happen, or played some role in the destruction wrought that day. Besides Meacher, few politicians have publicly questioned America's official 9/11 narrative — until Diet member Yukihisa Fujita.

In January 2008 Fujita, a member of the Democratic Party of Japan, asked the Japanese Parliament and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to explain gaping holes in the official 9/11 story that various groups — including those who call themselves the "911 Truth Movement" — claim to have exposed.

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Dharamsala, June 16: Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Sunday wrapped up a five-day Australia tour, which was highlighted by his meeting with Australian acting Prime Minister and Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Senator Chris Evans.

Evans described his discussions with the Dalai Lama that took place on Friday as open and instructive. He said he conveyed the Australian Government's enthusiasm for continued talks between Chinese officials and envoys of the Dalai Lama.

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16 June 2008

More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report.

Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.

More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in China, Egypt and Iran, said the report.

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43 minutes

Australian journalist, author, film maker John Pilger speaks about global media consolidation, war by journalism, US military's quest for domination/hegemony in the post 9/11 era, false history in the guise of 'objective' journalism.

It is as if our present rulers have taken the dasarajadhamma and systematically inverted its 10 precepts:

1) Restrict freedom in any way possible and do whatever you want, whenever you want...afterall, you're the king, aren't you? 2) There is no such thing as morality, you have no character to maintain 3) Be prepared to sacrifice the well-being of the subjects for your own pleasure and that of your friends 4) Lie often and unscrupulously 5) Start wars for profit; shoot defenseless birds for fun; implement new and exciting methods to torture your "enemies", your friends, or whoever 6) Amass enormous wealth for yourself but adopt a phony, folksy accent and make sure to be photographed wearing blue jeans at least once or twice a year 7) Cultivate hatred 8) Exercise aggressive violence and kill many, many people...eventually the ones who are left will get used to it 9) This is YOUR war so do it now, before another king takes over 10) Maintain utter contempt for the people over whom you rule to promote feelings of universal confusion and powerlessness. Robyn
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June 13, 2008
Ashin Metacarra

Allow me to discuss with the reader the subject of the Buddha and His views on politics. Being a Buddhist monk, I will try to illuminate you on the right way of life and the best kind of political involvement, according to the Buddha's teaching. These teachings are not only for Buddhists, but also for all non-Buddhists: for everyone.

...In the life of Buddha, we find that the Buddha often discussed politics with the rulers of realms in his time, such as King Mala, King Kosala , King Licchavi and King Ajatasattu . The Buddha always preached the kings that they must rule their kingdoms with dasarajadhamma. The dasarajadamma in Pali is based on ten precepts, in order for the king to best rule the country. They are: (1) be liberal and avoid selfishness, (2) maintain a high moral character, (3) be prepared to sacrifice one's own pleasure for the well-being of the subjects, (4) be honest and maintain absolute integrity, (5) be kind and gentle, (6) lead a simple life for the subjects to emulate, (7) be free from hatred of any kind, (8) exercise non-violence, (9) practice patience, and (10) respect public opinion to promote peace and harmony. Any government who wishes to peacefully rule any nation can effectively apply these 10 precepts even today; they haven’t yet and never will “go out of date.”

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The Associated Press
Published: June 13, 2008

BEIJING: Germany's foreign minister urged China on Friday to hold further talks with envoys of Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, also said they agreed to restart regular meetings on issues including climate change and human rights, a sign of warming relations between the two countries.

Ties between Beijing and Berlin nose-dived after German Chancellor Angela Merkel invited the Dalai Lama to the chancellery in Berlin last year.

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Friday June 13 2008
Ma Jian

When China was bidding to host the 2008 Olympics, the vice-mayor of Beijing, Liu Jinming, promised that the games would "help us establish a more just and harmonious society, a more democratic society and help integrate China into the world". Halfway into China's Olympic year, his promise shows little sign of being honoured. If anything, China is less democratic now than in 2001. Voices of dissent continue to be stifled.

The government's impressive openness in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake is coming to an end as propaganda chiefs instruct domestic media to report only the "positive" aspects of the story. Even in the west, anyone who speaks out of line is eventually compelled to toe the Communist party line.

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"Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will pledge with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government."

?Henry Kissinger (05/27/1923 - ), in an address to the Bilderberger meeting at Evian, France, May 21, 1992