"Words do never work on the U.S. imperialists. I am eager to shower a fire on them at once" (Korean News)

Note the use of the word "annihilate":

The National Defence Commission (NDC) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Jan. 24 issued a statement declaring an all-out action against the United States after the adoption of the UNSC's recent "resolution".

The statement has enjoyed full support from all people of the country, including servicepersons. It also shows their will to turn out in the showdown with the U.S. imperialists.

Kim Yong Jin, an officer of the Korean People's Army, told KCNA:

"I am satisfied with the statement stressing that settling accounts with the U.S. needs to be done with force, not with words as it regards jungle law as the rule of its survival. This fully reflects the KPA's will to annihilate the enemies.

Words do never work on the U.S. imperialists. I am eager to shower a fire on them at once."

Ko Kyu U, a teacher of University of National Economy, said:

"I can not but deride the meaningless UN 'resolution', which was adopted at the initiative of the U.S.

Such anti-DPRK campaign at the UN reminds me of 'rats' gathering in a fable. As rats can not hang a bell on the neck of a cat though they may play the whole gamut of tricks, any attempt can never block the advance of the DPRK.

We will rise up in the all-out action to punish the U.S. and its followers now that they employ every conceivable means to stifle our country."

"Settling accounts with the U.S. needs to be done with force, not with words as it regards jungle law as the rule of its survival." (Korean News)

This statement has been getting a fair amount of coverage. Here it is from the Songun horse's mouth:

The National Defence Commission (NDC) of the DPRK in a statement Thursday solemnly declared its stand as follows as regards the unreasonable resolution that was adopted by the UN Security Council taking issue with the DPRK over its successful launch of satellite Kwangmyongsong 3-2:

1. We flatly reject all the illegal resolutions on the DPRK adopted by the UN Security Council.

Along with the nationwide efforts to defend the sovereignty, the DPRK will continue launching peaceful satellites to outer space one after another.

2. As the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK has entered more dangerous phase, overall efforts should be directed to denuclearizing big powers including the U.S. rather than the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The U.S. is taking the lead in encroaching upon the sovereignty of the DPRK, its allies are siding with it and the UN Security Council has been reduced into an organization bereft of impartiality and balance. Under this situation the DPRK can not but declare that there will no longer exist the six-party talks and the September 19 joint statement.

No dialogue on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will be possible in the future even though there may be dialogues and negotiations on ensuring peace and security in the region including the Korean Peninsula.

3. We will launch an all-out action to foil the hostile policy toward the DPRK being pursued by the U.S. and those dishonest forces following the U.S., and safeguard the sovereignty of the country and the nation.

The UN Security Council resolution on expanding sanctions against the DPRK, which was adopted on the initiative of the U.S., represents the most dangerous phase of the hostile policy toward the DPRK.

The drive for building an economic power being pushed forward by the army and people of the DPRK, the effort to conquer space that has entered a new phase and the endeavors to bolster the deterrence for safeguarding the country and defending its security will all orientate toward the purpose of winning in the all-out action for foiling the U.S. and all other hostile forces' maneuvers.

We do not hide that a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the DPRK one after another and a nuclear test of higher level which will be carried out by it in the upcoming all-out action, a new phase of the anti-U.S. struggle that has lasted century after century, will target against the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people.

Settling accounts with the U.S. needs to be done with force, not with words as it regards jungle law as the rule of its survival.

Korean News: "This is the party lifestyle for loyalty which regards the devotedly defence of the headquarters of the revolution as the main mission and life and soul, steel-strong party lifestyle to work as required by the party rules and voluntary party lifestyle to carry out any work unfailingly any time and in any place, without being known to anyone."

I sometimes describe this kind of writing using the phrase "totalitarian sentence structure." What do I mean by that? Read on:

The party cells serve as cornerstones upholding the Workers' Party of Korea and its might represents the fighting capability of the party cells, says Rodong Sinmun Monday in a bylined article.

It goes on:

The party cells are the grassroots fortress to cement the organizational and ideological unity and cohesion of the whole party centered on the leader, the main combat unit of the party which organizes and mobilizes party members and other people for implementing the party's line and policies and the main unit linking the party and the masses with blood ties.

The revolutionary and well-regulated party lifestyle is established in our party. This is the party lifestyle for loyalty which regards the devotedly defence of the headquarters of the revolution as the main mission and life and soul, steel-strong party lifestyle to work as required by the party rules and voluntary party lifestyle to carry out any work unfailingly any time and in any place, without being known to anyone.

As such party lifestyle is prevailing in any party cell, the WPK is demonstrating its might as an invincible party that gives steady continuity to the tradition of the single-minded unity.

There are many party cells which share weal and woe with masses after going deep among them, take care of frame of their minds out of mother's feelings and let the party's loving care reach masses.

As long as all party cells successfully carry out their functions and roles, no force on earth can break the single-minded unity of Songun Korea where the party and the people are linked with the same blood ties.

Invariable are the aspiration and will of the party cells which take the lead in carrying out the revolutionary cause of the party and that of Juche as the fortress and shield devotedly defending the party, concludes the article.

Fetzer is back at PressTV and Netanyahu was "behind 9/11"

When we last met James Fetzer at PressTV, he was blaming Israel for Sandy Hook. He isn't exactly striking a blow for sanity here:

A political analyst says that we are seeing play out of a Machiavellian plot to continue the American presence in the Middle East as part of the neo-con agenda that has warped American foreign policy for over a decade.

The comments came after US Senator John McCain said Washington should do more to help militants fighting government forces in Syria. McCain made the remarks in a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres in al-Quds (Jerusalem) on Saturday.

Press TV has conducted an interview with James Fetzer, Veterans Today, to further discuss the issue. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: It seems the US is pushing for regime change in Syria. Why not give dialogue a chance?

Fetzer: Well that is a very good question. John McCain is notorious for doing his little rendition of the Beach Boys song bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, it is disgusting. Iran is a peace loving country and has not attacked any other country for more than three hundred years that John McCain should say such outrageous things is disgusting and corrupt and immoral.

While the administration recognized the Syrian opposition council last month as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people, it provided no new legal basis to give weapons to Syrian rebels or to intervene.

The UN Charter prohibits member states from using force against or any intervening in the internal affairs of other states unless authorized by the UN Security Council or justified by self defense. Neither of those applies here.

Washington is in a hard way trying to figure out a way to do something it should have been doing in the first place.

Press TV: NATO is becoming physically involved in the crisis - with troops and equipment on the ground there near the Turkish border. How much are we are going to see a Libya-style invasion of Syria by NATO?

Fetzer: Well I think that is a very good question because as Wesley Clark reported when he returned to Washington from NATO Headquarters where he had been superior commander after 9/11 he was presented with a program to destabilize seven countries in the Middle East in the next five years beginning with Iraq, Afghanistan and of course Libya and indeed Syria and Iran.

I am afraid we are seeing play out of a Machiavellian plot to continue this American presence in the Middle East as part of the neo-con agenda that has warped American foreign policy for nearly, well actually over a decade now.

Press TV: Some observers say that Israel might be involved in this crisis. How much do you see this held true?

Fetzer: Well very powerfully Benjamin Netanyahu is all for. He was behind 9/11, the MOSSAD made a major contribution. The whole idea was to destabilize the modern sophisticated Arab states so that Israel could have an unchallenged hegemony over the Middle East.

That is still his agenda although many more seen through it. It is very, very unfortunate but in a recent article by John Belanger the third, in the Washington Post he suggested that there might not be a legal justification for entering the fray it could be done on moral grounds, that is preposterous with respect between nations is essence of moral relations internationally and the United States is doing nothing but violate legal and moral maxims worldwide in becoming the most despised and aggressive state in the world, sad to say.

Angry Arab's latest rant about Israel

A link on the word "funny" points to a NY times article on Israeli elections. AA's post is entitled "How Israel is viewed in the US":

Israeli comedians are always funny, its poets are always talented, its writers are always brilliant, its politicians are always gifted, its people are always wonderful, its army is always humane even when butchering children, its courts are always fair even when ruling for apartheid, its women are always beautiful, its children are always cute, its culture is always vibrant, its diplomats are always skilled. There is no sense in talking about Israel in the US.

Is the NY Times article supposed to illustrate what AA is talking about? Read it and see what you think.

"US planned 9/11 attacks to invade Middle East: Iran cmdr." (PressTV-Iran)

Considering much of their recent output, this is one of their relatively sane moments:

A senior Iranian commander says the United States planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks to use them as pretext to invade the energy-rich Middle East.

“The US, looking for a pretext to invade the Middle East, masterminded the 9/11 incident and pointed an accusing finger at Muslim countries,” Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Forces Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan said on Saturday.

Pourdastan added that following the fall of the Soviet Union, the US introduced itself as the world’s sole superpower and moved to instill the new world order to prove its supremacy.

The Iranian commander noted that the US later found its geopolitical policies a failure and decided to follow a geo-economic policy and control the world’s energy resources, 60 percent of which was located in the Middle East.

“To achieve that goal, they launched preemptive attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, and Iran was their next target, but wise policies adopted by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei along with the unity of the Iranian nation prevented them from achieving their objective,” Pourdastan said.

On September 11, 2001, a series of coordinated attacks were carried out in the United States leaving almost 3,000 people dead.

The US, under the administration of former President George W. Bush, invaded Afghanistan in 2001 after claiming that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by members of al-Qaeda harbored by the then Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

The US also attacked Iraq in 2003 claiming that the Middle Eastern country was in possession of weapons of mass destruction. Washington’s wars on Iraq and Afghanistan have claimed the lives of more than a million people.

PressTV: "British royal family propagates Islamophobic sentiments"

Iranian news articles are often vague, but this one must set some sort of record. What, for instance, are "British scientific bodies affiliated to the country’s royal apparatus"?

The history of Islam has gone through sensitive ears in the British Isles, the largest island in Europe, during the reign of rulers such as George Orwell and Elizabeth II, marked with a rise in Islamophobic sentiments.

The UK’s royal system has adopted the same discriminatory approach vis-à-vis Muslims, it used to exercise against the black population or other minorities of the country.

This means that the British monarchy has always been treating Muslims with some degree of discrimination and bigotry as compared to the white society of the nation.

To this end, the British scientific bodies affiliated to the country’s royal apparatus have always been threatening sociologists and historians not to refer to the royal family’s discriminatory approach towards Muslims.

In 1583 A.D., the British ruler at the time ordered his agents to employ as salves many Muslims from countries such as India, Morocco, and some nations affiliated to the Ottoman empire. The monarchs even used to force Muslims to convert to Christianity against their will.

In 1725, many Muslims were brought to Britain from North Africa to be employed as slaves by the country’s royal family.

Throughout history, the British rulers have been pursuing Islamophobic policies to prevent the spread of Islam across Europe.

Such sentiments are so strong in the West, Britain in particular, that the term 'Islamophobia' does not adequately express the full range and depth of antipathy towards Islam and Muslims.

Attitudes and policies towards Muslims in Britain and Europe have a mixture of dread (phobia) and outright racism.

PressTV (Iran): "Zionists massacred Jews across the globe "

A link to this article uses the shorter title: "Zionists carried out Holocaust":

Zionists are not only blamed by many Jewish rabbis and the Jews themselves for the atrocities carried out against Jews in Europe in the Holocaust.

Zionist in Israel are also blamed for what is called a Holocaust that took place in what we know now as Israel, after the supposedly “Jewish” state and homeland for the Jews was established. [...]

This other "Holocaust" turns out to be Operation Magic Carpet (!), the rescue of the Jews of Yemen. The rest of the article is largely filled out with Neturei Karta material. "Dr. Anisa Abd el Fattah," the one who cobbled the article together, concludes:

These testimonies show clearly that there was never an intent to establish a religious “Jewish” homeland in Palestine for all Jews. There are also other facts that completely negate the false premises upon which Zionists have been allowed to illegally occupy and colonize Palestine, The world has likely been subjected to a very sophisticated, yet very sinister Zionist hoax.

When we count the cost of this hoax in lives, money, time and resources we get an idea of how serious the problem we are faced with really is. We should also ascertain from these facts that the present situation is no longer sustainable and that we are urgently in need of a solution that will result in the dismantlement of the Zionist political entity in Palestine. The UN must demand an investigation into the issue of persecution and Zionist Israeli Holocaust against the Jews of Yemen and Israel must be held accountable for this horrible and reprehensible crime. Many Yemeni children were kidnapped, adopted out to European families and even perhaps murdered, yet Israel has never been made to answer the charge of genocide against Yemen's Jews or to account for the missing children.

Another day, another dose of crazy propaganda.

PressTV (Iran): "Zionist- controlled media spread violence across US: Mark Glenn"

Yet another PressTV article blaming "Zionists" for Sandy Hook. The Iranian press has been this sort of cesspool for years, but has there been a slight uptick lately?

An analyst says for generations Americans have been deliberately fed, through Zionist media, violence as a virtue to diminish resistance against war for Israel.

In the background of this we have over the past month seen renewed debate about guns in America and gun control laws after 20 small children were shot dead at an elementary school in Connecticut by one mentally unstable individual. Psychological drugs may also have been involved. The intensity of debate over guns, however, has virtually sidelined the issue of devastating side effects from pharmaceutical drugs pushed for profit throughout the US. And of course America’s violent culture has not been raised as an issue to be addressed.

Press TV has interviewed Mr. Mark Glenn, Crescent & Cross Solidarity Movement, Idaho about this issue. The following is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: With the rise in gun violence in the US in shooting incidence it still seems there’s a rise in the purchase of guns, too.

Should people be defending themselves or is it the police who should be doing something about it?

Glenn: Well, the police cannot be everywhere at all times to protect people.

The problem here is human nature and particularly in the United States you’re dealing with a society that has been deliberately - deliberately - bred to embrace violence and to see violence as something of a religion.

My personal theory is that this has been done over the course of not just years or decades, but generations as a result of the Zionist control of our media in order to create a nation of people who would be willing to go to war against a billion and a half Muslims for a century if need be. And so this is the problem.

It’s not just the access to deadly weapons, after all, this is the same argument that Israel uses in order to demonize Iran. They say that if Iran has a nuclear weapons program then that means Iran is going to come and wipe Israel off the map and this is just simply not the case.

It comes from embracing violence; seeing violence as something of a virtue and if you take the guns out of the equation they will use some other method for inflicting violence whether it’s knives or baseball bats or even cars.

So the problem here is that we have a society that has lost its moral compass; deliberately so, we’ve been psychologically conditioned in order to be a very violent and militaristic society and I think the persons responsible for doing this conditioning did this with the sole purpose of bringing about this clash of civilizations so that Americans will not have a problem with going and murdering millions and millions of people in the Middle East.

Press TV: How much of a change can we expect to see in America’s gun laws and gun culture?

Glenn: I don’t think there is going to be much change at all. There will be some feel-good sound-good legislation that’s passed; but principally things will remain the same here.

There are just as many guns in America as there are cars. And Americans understand that they live in a violent society and they’re not going to be wiling to give up that one means of self protection that they have any time soon.

PressTV (Iran):"For decades, the Jewish Mafia has been reengineering the nation’s institutional infrastructure in order to wage a political and economic war exclusively against Americans of White, Christian, European ancestry."

It is funny to think that the Iranian regime sometimes pretends to be progressive. This article, entitled "Jewish Mafia tied to death of America," laments that "White Americans are discouraged from developing a sense of pride and self-worth." Completely orthodox neo-Nazi propaganda:

[...]Today, multiculturalism, feminism, gay and lesbianism, affirmative action and political correctness have overwhelmed America. The result of this war on US society has been socioeconomic decay, gender confusion and the breakdown of the family unit. The Jewish Mafia’s media-entertainment complex has been the primary weapon utilized in this socioeconomic war against America.

The masses have been coerced by various means to accept dangerous ideals which threaten the nation. For decades, the Jewish Mafia has been reengineering the nation’s institutional infrastructure in order to wage a political and economic war exclusively against Americans of White, Christian, European ancestry. Black pride, Mexican pride and Asian pride are emphasized and encouraged in the school system. In contrast, White Americans are discouraged from developing a sense of pride and self-worth. Under the rule of the Jewish Mafia, America’s educational establishment is now teaching students that race does not exist. [...]

There is a lot more in the same vein if you have the stomach for it.

"Al-Qaeda, Israel’s Trojan horse in Middle East" (PressTV-Iran)

I think they are getting close to a comprehensive theory explaining the entire universe:

An Iranian lawmaker says the Taliban and Al-Qaeda militant groups are playing the role of Trojan horse for the Zionist regime in the Middle East.

“The Zionist regime has become the largest training base for active terrorists in the Middle East region and the footprint of this sinister regime can be easily traced in recent terrorist operations,” Mohammad-Hassan Asafari, member of Iran Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on Tuesday.

Referring to the al-Qaeda’s presence in Syria, the lawmaker said the group’s terrorist activities in the Arab country are apparent evidence to their close relationship with the US government.

Asafari emphasized that thousands of al-Qaeda-linked terrorists from Saudi Arabia, Libya, Jordan and other countries have entered Syria in recent months to fight against the Syrian government and have been provided with intelligence support by the Israeli regime.

Syria has been the scene of unrest since early 2011 and has witnessed the deaths of many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel in the violence.

Damascus blames Western countries and some of their regional allies for fueling the crisis in the country, and reports indicate that a large number of militants fighting the Syrian government are foreign nationals.

A recent UN report revealed that militants, mostly extremist Salafists, have infiltrated Syria from 29 countries to fight against the Damascus government.

Angry Arab pretends to be stupid

He quotes from an article about the HRW statement about Gaza rockets, ending with the following:

HRW's Sarah Leah Whitson said in the group's report on Monday that "The rocket attacks killed three Israeli civilians and wounded dozens. Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim."

Then he comments:

I don't know which statements Sarah is referring to, but is she implying that threats are more deadly than actual harming of civilians, or does she mean that Israel should be forgiven for killing and injuring Arab civilians because it did not make clear statements that harming civilians was their aim?

How difficult is it to understand what the HRW statement is saying? The "threats" were simply offered as support for the assertion that Gazan terrorist groups are actually targeting civilians. As for his statement "I don't know which statements Sarah is referring to," I think I know of a resource that can help him out. The Love of the Land blog has screenshots of some tweets from @AlqassamBrigade quoting Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida. Always glad to help out a fellow blogger. Speaking of AA, he had an interesting and very telling angle on the business about the Mayan date for the the end of the world:

I was looking forward to the end of the world as it would have permitted me--even for a second--to witness the end of the Zionist entity over Palestine.

To use one of his favorite words, the man thinks hatred is cute.

Juan Cole on "the flowering of Christianity" in the Middle East

Juan Cole, who is certainly interesting most of the time, argues that "arguments you see for Christian decline in the region are mostly wrong." (He is perhaps answering this.) Here is a paragraph about Lebanon:

The argument for decline is usually made from Lebanon, where Christians were a bare majority in 1931, but are now something like 22%. But Lebanon’s population was about 800,000 in 1931, so Christians were 408,000. Lebanon’s population is now 5 million, and Christians inside the country are about 1.1 million. So with all the vast Christian Lebanese emigration abroad, to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, the United States, Mexico, etc. (with perhaps 6 million Lebanese-descended people in the New World), there are still twice as many Christians in Lebanon in absolute terms now as there were in 1931. And although it is consequential politically that Lebanese Christians are now less than a third of the adult electorate, they are hardly powerless. They dominate the presidency, the officer corps, and the business world, and they are split between allying with the Sunni Muslims and allying with the Shiites, which gives them influence as a swing vote.

Yes, I guess if the total population increases six-fold in 80 years, you can lose a lot of ground percentage-wise and still have larger absolute numbers. I didn't say it was convincing, just interesting. Here is a sentence about Egypt, making a similar argument: "So in absolute terms, Egypt alone now has more than 11 times as many Christians as lived in the central lands of the Middle East 162 years ago. How is that a decline?" Don't know about that, Juan. 162 years sure is an awful long time. Aren't we talking about whether there has been a recent decline?

Juan also includes South Sudan and Eritrea in the Middle East. He also admits the decline in the Christian population in the West Bank in Israel because, I assume, he can blame Israel for it, while neglecting the fact that the Christian population has increased in not only absolute but percentage terms inside green-line Israel. He may be desperate to depict Christians as "flowering" in the "Middle East," but he isn't going to violate any of his Israel-bashing imperatives. There's more, of course. Reading it is the only way to see if I'm being fair here.

Update: Somehow I'm reminded of this:

Future bright for projectiles

You may have seen one of a number of headlines, such as the following from the Guardian: "US west coast may be within North Korean missile range, says Seoul." (North) Korean News, not surprisingly, has a number of stories about the "satellite" launch, including not-too-subtle hints as to the military significance. For instance, "Title of DPRK Hero Awarded to Contributors to Successful Launch of Satellite":

The title of DPRK Hero, gold star medals and Orders of National Flag (First Class) were awarded to Choe Chun Sik and 100 other scientists, technicians, workers and officials.

By successfully launching satellite Kwangmyongsong 3-2 they instilled great national self-esteem and conviction of sure victory into the service personnel and people of the DPRK and dealt a sledge-hammer blow at the hostile forces' desperate moves to check the advance of the DPRK. They also made a great contribution to remarkably raising the international prestige and influence of the DPRK.

A decree was promulgated by the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK in this regard on Saturday.

Iran is denying that if had anything to do with recent North Korean missile advances:

Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics has denied that Iran cooperates with North Korea on missiles and expert exchange.

Brigadier General Ahmed Vahidi, Minister of Defense described the claims as ‘only speculations’ and said that Islamic Republic of Iran has not sent experts on missiles to North Korea.

In providing a response to the question on sending expert on missiles to North Korea, Vahidi said that no expert had been sent.

Iran admitted most of its role in supplying missile technology to Hamas (and got thanked publically for the rest) and it loves to take credit for things. We are bound to see more interesting statements from Iranian officials. Stay tuned.

"Pakistan: Shiites react to blasphemous graffiti against Imam-e-Zaman (AS) and Imam Khomeini" (ABNA-Iran)

Graffiti against Ayatollah Khomeini is "blasphemous"? They don't quite have the hang of monotheism, do they? The English a bit fragmented here--I guess the "movie" the third paragraph starts talking about is "The Innocence of Muslims":

Blasphemous graffiti against Imam-e-Zaman (AS) and Imam Khomeini appeared on the walls of Bhakkar district.

The graffiti against the 12th infallible Imam and his deputy during the time of occultation, Imam Khomeini, has sparked off anger and dismay among Shiites.

Blasphemous movie has evoked stiff protest from all Shiites irrespective of their affiliations to different organizations. They termed it a provocative act of terrorism and fanaticism by the stooges of Zionist and global imperialism. They said that notorious takfiri nasbi terrorists Malik Ishaq

Latest reports say that all Shia parties have joined hands against the sacrilegious graffiti. Wizarat Hussain Naqvi, a known Shia leader has summoned a meeting in which all Shiites are participating. District Police Officer Bhakkar and two DSPs are also present at the meeting. Shiites are chalking out their course of action against the graffiti.

"Pot farms wreaking havoc on Northern California environment" (LA Times)

Oh the irony, oh the humanity, oh the bears:

State scientists, grappling with an explosion of marijuana growing on the North Coast, recently studied aerial imagery of a small tributary of the Eel River, spawning grounds for endangered coho salmon and other threatened fish.

In the remote, 37-square-mile patch of forest, they counted 281 outdoor pot farms and 286 greenhouses, containing an estimated 20,000 plants — mostly fed by water diverted from creeks or a fork of the Eel. The scientists determined the farms were siphoning roughly 18 million gallons from the watershed every year, largely at the time when the salmon most need it.

"That is just one small watershed," said Scott Bauer, the state scientist in charge of the coho recovery on the North Coast for the Department of Fish and Game. "You extrapolate that for all the other tributaries, just of the Eel, and you get a lot of marijuana sucking up a lot of water.… This threatens species we are spending millions of dollars to recover."

The marijuana boom that came with the sudden rise of medical cannabis in California has wreaked havoc on the fragile habitats of the North Coast and other parts of California. With little or no oversight, farmers have illegally mowed down timber, graded mountaintops flat for sprawling greenhouses, dispersed poisons and pesticides, drained streams and polluted watersheds.

Because marijuana is unregulated in California and illegal under federal law, most growers still operate in the shadows, and scientists have little hard data on their collective effect. But they are getting ever more ugly snapshots.

A study led by researchers at UC Davis found that a rare forest carnivore called a fisher was being poisoned in Humboldt County and near Yosemite in the Sierra Nevada.

The team concluded in its July report that the weasel-like animals were probably eating rodenticides that marijuana growers employ to keep animals from gnawing on their plants, or they were preying on smaller rodents that had consumed the deadly bait. Forty-six of 58 fisher carcasses the team analyzed had rat poison in their systems.

Mark Higley, a wildlife biologist on the Hoopa Indian Reservation in eastern Humboldt who worked on the study, is incredulous over the poisons that growers are bringing in.

"Carbofuran," he said. "It seems like they're using that to kill bears and things like that that raid their camps. So they mix it up with tuna or sardine, and the bears eat that and die."

The insecticide is lethal to humans in small doses, requires a special permit from the EPA and is banned in other countries. Authorities are now regularly finding it at large-scale operations in some of California's most sensitive ecosystems.

It is just one in a litany of pollutants seeping into the watershed from pot farms: fertilizers, soil amendments, miticides, rodenticides, fungicides, plant hormones, diesel fuel, human waste. [...]

Don't you like the way the article refers to "the sudden rise of medical cannabis"? Even when it is a total disaster environmentally, evidently involving criminal activity, the LA Times can't bring itself to write something accurate like "psuedo-medical cannabis." I only posted about half of the article. Tsk tsk.

"Ban on PressTV, HispanTV: Zionist octopus at work" (PressTV-Iran)

Iran reacts to the removal of PressTV from Spanish television by demonstrating why it got removed. Great graphic:

It seems that the West is sloughing over its established definition of freedom of expression when the Iranian channels HispanTV and Press TV come under brutal censorship by the Israel-friendly satellite companies in Europe.

Evidently spearheaded by the Zionists, Spain’s satellite provider Hispasat has ordered Overon to take Press TV and Hispan TV off the air. No wonder, the illegal move created extreme joy in the Zionist organizations such as the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

“This is an important development in the worldwide effort to contain the defiant regime in Tehran, one we have been watching carefully for months and discussing with our friends in Spain,” said AJC Executive Director David Harris.

“Hispasat did the right thing,” Harris continued. “No satellite company in the Western world should enable the dissemination of propaganda from an Iranian government that denies human rights, supports terror organizations and is determined to achieve nuclear weapons capability. That Hispasat’s action triggered such an angry response in Tehran tells us all we need to know about its significance.”

Overon says as the EU has blacklisted the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, Hispan TV and Press TV must be taken off the air. It should be noted that Hispan TV is officially registered in Spain and operates under the country’s media laws. Besides, the EU has confirmed to Press TV that its anti-Iran sanctions do not apply to the country's media.

From a legal point of view, this move runs counter to the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). Article ten of the ACHR says, “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.”

Hispasat is partly owned by Eutelsat whose French-Israeli CEO is widely believed to be the architect of attacks on Iranian media in Europe.

Without even Michel de Rosen being the Zionist CEO of Eutelsat, the European media is so pathetically caught up in the claws of the Zionists that they would readily give in to their demands especially when they are directly aimed at dispelling the political sway of the Islamic Republic.

On the one hand, the Zionists keep depicting themselves in the light of a nation so viciously persecuted in the course of history at the hands of the Europeans, an excuse which they use as a way of emotional blackmail. This, the Europeans sadly buy and seek to make up for the ‘holocaust’, an inflated issue, a political ace in the hole for the Zionists.

On the other hand, Europe is infernally prone to smother any voice coming from Iran and that which is in defense of the Islamic Republic as the Europeans are fearful of alternative channels such as Press TV, Hispan TV and RT which deliver a truthful report of the public discontent in the European community. The fact is that Europe is crumbling from within and there is no economic salvation in sight and Europe prefers media blackout. Further to that, the Zionist lobby is so powerful in Europe that they prefer to cave to their wanton demands, ignore the very basis principles upon which the European Convention of Human Rights is built, and avoid withering criticism or political isolation from Washington.

In point of fact, Europe is plunging into financial abysm largely on account of its reliance on US imperialism and its support of the Zionist regime. The role these alternative channels play in raising intellectual awareness and political insight is an irrefutable reality which serves as a resounding slap in the face of Europe. To put it in better terms, these channels hold a mirror to the European audience wherein the reality is reflected as it should. And this is exactly what harrows Europe with fear and wonder.

What is currently happening to the Iranian media is not just limited to Iran or to the Iranian community. These channels and like news outlets are the inalienable rights of the world citizens who are entitled to have an alternative voice different from theirs and choose to hear.

In fact, depriving the international community from these channels is stripping the people across the globe of the choice to hear. It is not ‘kosher’ and amounts to an act of intellectual abacination.

I actually had to look up the word "abacinate." It means to "blind by holding a red-hot metal plate before someone's eyes." (Hat tip: Isreallycool)

PressTV-Iran: "Mossad death squads slaughtered American children at Sandy Hook"

This article repeats some of the claims from the PressTV interview with Neo-Nazi Mike Harris that a number of bloggers noted. The earlier title was "The Zionist-controlled Western media fueling culture of violence," although the "death squad" claim is there also. Notice the inclusion here of the Iran's attack on the AMIA building in Argentina among supposed Mossad crimes and also the mention of Lenin.(Neo-Nazis commonly assert he was Jewish). Even the name "Sandy Hook" is part of the conspiracy:

While liberals and some conservatives believe the time has come to ban assault weapons, the graver threat to our nation’s security has been swept under the rug.

The Sandy Hook massacre appears to have been a psy op intended to strike fear in the hearts of Americans by the sheer brutality of the massacre, where the killing of children is a signature of terror ops conducted by agents of Israel.

This is being used as powerful incentive for banning assault rifles, where most of the public is unaware of the fact that the Department of Homeland Security has acquired 1.5 billion rounds of .40 caliber, hollow-point ammunition, which is not ever permissible in warfare under the Geneva Conventions.

A Senate Subcommittee has issued a report (3 October 2012) based upon its review of 680 “fusion center” reports (from 2009-2001) and found not a single indication of any domestic terrorist threat-not one! None! Since the only domestic “terrorist threats” are ones contrived by the government, especially the FBI, the public needs to know.

This information-as well as the existence of more than 300 FEMA camps and special boxcars to carry dissidents to them-has been deliberately withheld from the American people, because if they were aware of the facts of the matter, it would become obvious that those camps and ammunition are intended to be used against them.

When DHS is gearing up to conduct a massive civil war against the American people, what better excuse could there be for banning assault weapons than the massacre of 20 innocent children at Sandy Hook Elementary School?

The choice appears to be covertly revealing, where “Sandy” means guardian of men (as an allusion to guns) and “Hook” as a euphemism for hooking, gathering or confiscating the only weapons that DHS fears. And who better to slaughter American children than Israelis, who deliberately murder Palestinian children?

Mike Harris of Veterans Today has exposed the pattern relating what happened there to earlier assaults: “This is exactly what Israel did in Norway; the political party that voted sanctions against Israel was retaliated against by a ‘lone gunman’ who killed 77 children. This is what Israel always does, they go after the children.

“It is what they do in Gaza every day. It is what was done in Norway. It is what happened at Sandy Hook. Nobody buys the ‘one gunman’ story anymore, not with the Gabby Giffords’ shooting, not with the Aurora “Batman” shooting, certainly not with Breveik, and certainly not in Connecticut.”

The most likely scenario, given what we know now, is that Adam Lanza and his mother killed the day before. Adam's body picked up by local police. He was attired in a SWAT outfit, including body armor, and stored in the school.

A three-man team entered the school, one was arrested in the school--cuffed and put on the lawn--two went out the back door, one was arrested, the third appears to have escaped. You can find this on helicopter videos.

Those arrested are currently not in police custody; their names were never released. That is a telling sign that we are being sold a story that is based on fiction, not on fact. What else are the local police concealing?

A parallel situation in Aurora, where there appear to have been multiple participants, but the police concealed information about them. The DC Sniper, John Allen Muhammad, was even a active member of Delta Force, but the public was not informed.

His assistant in this killing spree, Lee Boyd Malvo, had been detained in Seattle but was released, even though he was an illegal alien, where INS has refused to explain how that happened. Did “higher authority” intervene?

Nidal Malik Hasan, the US Army Major who killed 13 and wounded 29 during a rampage at Ft. Hood, Kansas, even sat next to the Director of Homeland Security during an event at George Washington University. Can that be coincidental?

When the "long gunman" cover story falls apart, then the national press, which William Colby told us was infiltrated by agents of the CIA-“The agency owns everyone of significance in the major media”-resorts to stories of Mind Control and use of drugs.

We have to see through the smoke and mirrors. These attacks typically involve three-man shooting teams, where, once the story is tainted with bogus MK/Ultra conspiracy disinformation, crucial data, like the assault rifle the Sandy Hook having been left in his car, swiftly disappears.

Lenin and Trotsky were terrorists. Lenin was an outspoken proponent of terrorism. The founder of the Lukid Party and sixth Prime Minister of Israel was an Irgun terrorist. Study its history. No nation in the world cares more about its own interests and less about those of the United State than Israel.

The bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946, was a stunning example. The attack on the USS Liberty and Israel’s bombing of its own Embassy and Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1992 and 1994 are other illustration.

Those who study 9/11 are all too aware of the role of the Neo-Cons and the Mossad. But the American press covers it up-and Congress is controlled by AIPAC. As Bill Casey, former CIA Director, observed, “Our disinformation program will be complete when everything the American public believes is false.” Sandy Hook is the latest example.

Not surprisingly, current PressTV headlines include one about PressTV's banning by satellite network Hispasat. Update: Two more headlines in this vein from PressTV: "Israeli death squads involved in Sandy Hook bloodbath: Intelligence analyst" and "School killings, first shock, then blame and conspiracy." That last one is cute since it suggests the article is going to be about conspiracist reactions to the tragedy instead of promoting conspiracy theories.

"Commander Urges Int'l Community to Rescue US Oppressed People" (Fars News-Iran)

Such touching concern, Commander! In the course of this little item, we learn, among other things, that "the US regime . . . is supported by only 1% of the Americans."

Commander of Iran's Basij (volunteer) force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi said that the international community does not pay enough attention to the sufferings of the American nation who have been victimized by their rulers.

Speaking in Iran's Northwestern province of Zanjan today, Naqdi pointed to the reactions shown by the world and the international community to the terrorist crimes committed by the US backed terrorist groups in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Gaza or Syria, and lamented that the world has unfortunately neglected the sufferings of the American people inside the US.

"What has been neglected is the United States' oppressed people, specially the oppressed and innocent American children who are the main victims of the US regime which is supported by only 1% of the Americans, and no one in the world cares for them," he said.

"It is true that saving the Palestinian people is a top necessity of the Islamic Awakening movement, but liberation of the US people shouldn't be neglected and the international community should rise to save and free oppressed people of the US, specially its youngsters and kids," Naqdi underscored.

His remarks came a day after protesters marched on the headquarters of the US gun lobby as the clamor for tighter firearm controls grows in the wake of the Newtown school massacre.

Twenty school children were slaughtered by a heavily armed gunman who opened fire at a suburban elementary school in Connecticut last Friday, killing at least 28 people including himself in the one of the worst mass shootings in US history.

The 20-year-old gunman, identified as Adam Lanza, fired what witnesses described as dozens of shots at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, which serves children from ages 5 to 10.

The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School appeared to be the US' second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, in which 32 people, including two Indians, were killed and 17 others wounded.

"Intelligence Minister Stresses Iran's Full Control over Enemy Moves" (Fars News-Iran)

An interesting example of Iranian rheotoric. All enemy plots are "under control." I suppose that means that the threats posed by enemy "moves, plots and security threats" are under control, but somehow the phasing they used makes it sound more, well, Iranian:

Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi underlined Iran's power, and said all enemies' moves, plots and security threats are under control.

"The measures adopted by conspirators and the plots targeting security of the nation and the ruling system could have economic implications for us," Moslehi said, addressing Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission in Tehran on Tuesday.

But, enemy's plots have been thwarted and the country's intelligence and security organizations are in full control over enemies' moves.

Moslehi had earlier warned that the US and its allies continue plots against Iran to harm its security and stability, although to no avail.

[He] said that foreign intelligence services recruit and revive terrorist groups like Jundollah - a CIA backed organization notorious for its terrorist operations in Southeastern Iran.

"The foreign (intelligence) services form certain groups to stir sectarian war and create rift between the Shiites and Sunnis as their main agenda, and it is clear that when the ringleader of a group is arrested in a big operation, they move to reconstruct the group," Moslehi said, referring to the February 2011 arrest of Abdolmalek Rigi, the ringleader of Jundollah.

Meantime, he underlined the failure of the western intelligence services in their attempts to create insecurity in Iran, and said, "Due to the vigilance of the (Iranian) security bodies, they have always failed to attain their goals." [...]

I wouldn't like being invincible. It would take all the mystery out of life.