Imposition

Pseudologia Fantastica

"This is the Captain speaking. 

There's an Impostor aboard the ship, a man who looks exactly like me and is pretending to be me. 

This man is dangerous. Utmost caution is to be observed. All crew members are to arm themselves. 

The Impostor may be identified by scratches on his face. Repeat, The Impostor may be identified by scratches on his face."

"The Lower Levels. The Engineering Deck..."

The, er, Impostor had some interesting qualities, wouldn't you say, Yeoman? 

"Especially relevant, when reflecting on the following facts, is the wisdom addressed by the late World Health Organization (WHO) AIDS czar, Dr. Jonathan Mann, whose life ended tragically on Flight 111 enroute to a European AIDS conference.

“More than a medical scientific problem, AIDS is a sociopolitical IMPOSITION.” "

http://www.originofaids.com/articles/early.htm

" In her discussion of the impostor, Phyllis Greenacre also cites the case of Titus Oates (1649-1705), who was the great protagonist of the fictitious “Popish Plot” during the reign of Charles II Stuart of England. This plot was supposedly aiming at a Catholic takeover of England with the help of the Stuarts. Fictitious though this report turned out to be, its political effects were most welcome to the pro-Venetian Whig party of the English aristocracy. 

Without intelligence networks interested in promoting Titus Oates’ story, he might have been relegated to total obscurity. Oates was a mythomaniac, recounting wild inventions he knew his listeners wanted to hear, all in a desperate bid to attract attention. But there were powerful political forces who found his hallucinations advantageous. 

This reminds us once again, as in the case of Joseph Smith, to always look for the interaction between the individual impostor and the organized networks which constitute and assemble the audience which the impostor so urgently desires. Some key excerpts from Greenacre:


“An impostor is not only a liar, but a very special type of liar who imposes on others fabrications of his attainments, position, or worldly possessions. This he may do through misrepresentations of his official (statistical) identity, by presenting himself with a fictitious name, history, and other items of personal identity, either borrowed from some other actual person or fabricated according to some imaginative conception of himself. 

There are similar falsifications on that part of his identity belonging to his accomplishments, a plagiarizing on a grand scale, or making claims which are grossly implausible. Imposture appears to contain the hope of getting something material, or some other worldly advantage. While the reverse certainly exists among the distinguished, wealthy, and competent persons who lose themselves in cloaks of obscurity and assumed mediocrity, these come less frequently into sharp focus in the public eye. One suspects, however, that some “hysterical” amnesia is, and dual or multiple personalities are conditions related to imposturous characters. The contrast between the original and the assumed identities may sometimes be not so great in the matter of worldly position, and consequently does not lend itself so readily to the superficial explanation that it has been achieved for direct and material gain. The investigation of even a few instances of imposture – if one has not become emotionally involved in the deception – is sufficient to show how crude though clever many impostors are, how very faulty any scheming is, and how often, in fact, the element of shrewdness is lacking. Rather a quality of showmanship is involved, with its reliance all on the response of an audience to illusions. 

“In some of the most celebrated instances of imposture, it indeed appears that the fraud was successful only because many others as well as the perpetrator had a hunger to believe in the fraud, and that any success of such fraudulence depended in fact on strong social as well as individual factors and especial receptivity to the trickery. To this extent those on whom the fraudulence is imposed are not only victims but unconscious conspirators. Its success too is partly a matter of timing. Such combinations of imposturous talent and a peculiar susceptibility of the times to believe in the swindler, who presents the deceptive means of salvation, may account for the great impostures of history. There are, however, instances of the repeated perpetration of frauds under circumstances which give evidence of aprecise content that may seem independent of social factors…. 

“It is the extraordinary and continued pressure in the impostor to live out his fantasy that demands explanation, a living out which has the force of a delusion, (and in the psychotic may actually appear in that form), but it is ordinarily associated with the ‘formal’ awareness that the claims are false. The sense of reality is characterized by a peculiarly sharp, quick perceptiveness, extraordinarily immediate keenness and responsiveness, especially in the area of the imposture. The over-all utility of the sense of reality is, however, impaired. What is striking in many impostors is that, although they are quick to pick up details and nuances in the lives and activities of those whom they simulate and can sometimes utilize these with great adroitness, they are frequently so utterly obtuse to many ordinary considerations of fact that they give the impression of mere brazenness or stupidity in many aspects of their life peripheral to their impostures…. 


“The impostor has, then, a specially sharpened sensitivity within the area of his fraud, and identity toward the assumption of which he has a powerful unconscious pressure, beside which his conscious wish, although recognizable, is relatively slight. The unconscious drive heightens his perceptions in a focused area and permits him to ignore or deny other elements of reality which would ordinarily be considered matters of common sense. It is this discrepancy in abilities which makes some impostors such puzzling individuals. Skill and persuasiveness are combined with utter foolishness and stupidity. 

“In well-structured impostures this may be described as a struggle between two dominant identities in the individual: the temporarily focused and strongly assertive imposturous one, and the frequently amazingly crude and poorly knit one from which the impostor has emerged. In some instances, however, it is also probable that the imposture cannot be sustained unless there is emotional support from someone who especially believes in and nourishes it. The need for self-betrayal may then he one part of the tendency to revert to a less demanding, more easily sustainable personality, particularly if support is withdrawn. 

“The impostor seems to flourish on the success of his exhibitionism. Enjoyment of the limelight and inner triumph of ‘putting something over’ seems inherent, and bespeak the closeness of imposture to voyeurism. Both aspects are represented: pleasure in watching while the voyeur himself is invisible; exultation in being admired and observed as a spectacle. It seems as if the impostor becomes temporarily convinced of the rightness of his assumed character in proportion to the amount of attention he is able to gain from it. 

“In the lives of impostors there are circumscribed areas of reaction which approach the delusional. These are clung to when the other elements of the imposture have been relinquished…. 

“Once an imposturous goal has been glimpsed, the individual seems to behave without need for consistency, but to strive rather for the supremacy of the gains from what can be acted out with sufficient immediate gratification to convince others. For the typical impostor, an audience is absolutely essential. It is from the confirming reaction of his audience that the impostor gets a ‘realistic’ sense of self, a value greater than anything he can otherwise achieve. It is the demand for an audience in which the (false) self is reflected that causes impostures often to become of social significance. Both reality and identity seem to the impostor to be strengthened rather than diminished by the success of the fraudulence of his claims…. 

“The impostor seems to be repeatedly seeking confirmation of his assumed identity to overcome his sense of helplessness or incompleteness. It is my impression that this is the secret of his appeal to others, and that often especially conscientious people are ‘taken in’ and other impostors as well attracted because of the longing to return to that happy state of omnipotence which adults have had to relinquish….

Just Too WEIRD: Bishop Romney's Mormon Takeover of America:: Polygamy, Theocracy, Subversion

Tarpley Ph D, Webster Griffin

Progressive Press. Kindle Edition. 

CREWMAN [OC]: 

Mister Spock? 

SPOCK:

Spock here. 

CREWMAN [OC]: 

Transporter Technician Wilson found injured near the Captain's cabin. 

He says The Impostor attacked him, called him by name, took his hand phaser. 

SPOCK: 

Acknowledged. Continue the search. 

KIRK: 

We've got to find him before he, but how? 

SPOCK: 

Apparently, this double, however different in temperament, has your knowledge of the ship, its crew, its devices. 

This being the case, perhaps we can outguess him by determining his next move. 

Knowing how the ship is laid out, where would you go to elude a mass search? 

KIRK: 

The lower levels. The Engineering deck.

FARRELL: 

No word from Mister Sulu, sir. 

SHADOW KIRK:

Prepare to leave orbit, Mister Farrell. Well? 

FARRELL: 

Captain! 

SHADOW KIRK: 

I gave you an order, Mister Farrell. 

FARRELL: 

But what about 

SHADOW KIRK: 

They can't be saved. Prepare to leave orbit. 

FARRELL: 

Yes, sir. 

SPOCK: 

Captain, I thought the plan 

SHADOW KIRK: 

I've changed my mind. Man your station, Mister Spock. (McCoy enters with another Kirk, identically dressed) Grab him. He's The Impostor. 

MCCOY: 

No! 

SHADOW KIRK:

McCoy, he's fooled you. 

MCCOY: 

He (the one in the captain's chair) attacked him. 

SHADOW KIRK: 

Mister Spock, you know who I am. You know what that is. 

FARRELL: 

Mister Spock, which one? What do we do? 

SPOCK: 

We'll let the captain handle this. 

SHADOW KIRK: 

I'm the captain. Isn't that obvious? Look at his face. Remember the scratches? Look how he's tried to hide them. He wants you to think that he's Captain Kirk. You know who I am. 

KIRK: 

Yes, I know. 

SHADOW KIRK: 

You want to kill me, don't you? Farrell, James, grab him. He'll destroy the ship! I'm the Captain. Don't you understand? I'm captain of the ship! (starts attacking the crew) I'm the captain! This is my ship! My ship! It's mine! I'll kill you. 

KIRK: 

Can half a man live? 

SHADOW KIRK: 

Take another step, you'll die. 

KIRK: 

Then we'll both die. 

SHADOW KIRK:

Please, I don't want to. Don't make me. Don't make me. (Kirk takes phaser off him) I don't want to go back. Please! I want to live! 

KIRK: 

You will. Both of us. 

SHADOW KIRK:

I want to live!

[Transporter room]

SPOCK: 

You'll have to hold on to him, Captain. 

KIRK: 

Mister Spock. 

SPOCK: 

Captain? 

KIRK: 

If this doesn't work. 

SPOCK: 

Understood, Captain. 

KIRK: 

Mister Spock. 

SPOCK: 

Ready. (beams them out) 

MCCOY: 

Well, Mister Spock? (one figure is beamed back) Jim? 

KIRK: 

Get those men aboard fast. 

SPOCK: 

Right away, Captain. 

MCCOY: (as the party is wheeled away) 

Severe exposure and frostbite, but I think they'll make it. How do you feel, Jim? 

KIRK: 

How? I've seen a part of myself no man should ever see.

[Bridge]

FARRELL: 

Status report, green. 

SPOCK: 

All sections report ready, sir. 

KIRK: 

Good. Thank you, Mister Spock, from both of us. 

SPOCK: 

Shall I pass that on to the crew, sir? 

KIRK: 

The impostor's back where he belongs. Let's forget him. 

RAND: 

Captain? 

The impostor told me what happened, who he really was, and I'd just like to say that. Well, sir, what I'd like is.... 

KIRK: 

Thank you, Yeoman. 

SPOCK: 

The, er, Impostor had some interesting qualities, wouldn't you say, Yeoman? 

KIRK: 

This is the Captain speaking. 

Navigator, set in course correction. Helmsman, steady as she goes.

Behind the Brexit with Webster Tarpley

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss' Old Lady

Her-Story : Part I

I Yield the Floor to our Esteemed Elder & Teacher, Dr. Webster G. Tarpley :

Fascism Is at the Gates – the Democratic Party Must Rally to Defeat Trump

United Front Against Austerity | Tax Wall Street Party

Morning Briefing | Tuesday, July 26, 2016

The Democratic Party, whatever its many faults, is now the only institutional barrier standing between America’s future and the fascist regime which Trump and the Republicans intend to impose. It is therefore time to set Utopian wish lists and pipe dreams aside and focus with great realism on the tasks of national survival – of defeating the Fascist Billionaire, while speeding the extinction of the Republican Party in the process.

If Trump seizes power, literally everything may be lost. He will attempt to destroy the free speech of the First Amendment, the due process of the Fifth Amendment, the birthright citizenship and due process by the states of the Fourteenth Amendment. He will be a tyrannical and vindictive Nixon, armed with the surveillance and harassment powers of the post 9/11 era. His retainers Manafort and Roger Stone come straight from the CREEP of Watergate infamy. This time the target may be you. If Trump wins, your normal political activity may soon no longer be possible. You may be muzzled. Sued for all you are worth. Jailed on some pretext. Or worse.

All petty squabbles, resentments, and grievances must be subordinated to the urgent task of stopping Trump. Successful resistance against Trump will require a different kind of campaigning, and a different kind of economic program.

So far, the rhetoric and methods deployed by Democrats against Trump by Democrats have been weak and ineffective. Hillary Clinton says “loose cannon.” Bernie Sanders says “bully and demagogue.” Many say he is a racist. Although all of these are true, none of them will work by itself. More than a few House Democrats have been leading the way in attacking Trump and tying their opponents to the fascist billionaire. Trump must be attacked as follows:

TRUMP IS A FASCIST AND NAZI – The only politically adequate and scientifically accurate terms for Trump are FASCIST and NAZI. Of the dozen basic features of fascism, Trump has every one. Countless public figures, many of them famous and/or authoritative, have said so, from Louis CK to Newsweek to ex-GOP Sen. Gordon Humphrey last week. Democratic candidates should take the gloves off and call a spade a spade before Trump hysteria becomes unstoppable. Friends of the Democratic Party should promote an international conference of scholars to discuss this question. Trump’s dictatorial methods and instability could easily lead to a reign of terror, or even civil war.

TRUMP IS A PSYCHOTIC SOCIOPATH – Trump’s cover story is that he suffers from a mild case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, the malady that afflicted Howard Hughes. That means he has been examined by a psychiatrist, making the demand for his mental health records just as important as his the demand for his tax returns. Many have seen Trump as a narcissist or megalomaniac. Others detect the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, which killed his father. Keith Olbermann has produced a humorous and well-documented video showing that Trump could not pass a simple screening test for insanity. Make this go viral, and use it to promote a conference of mental health professionals to pass judgment on Trump’s cognitive impairment. Someone should do for Trump what Dr. Justin Frank’s Bush on the Couch did for the 43rd president more than a decade ago.

Other important themes include Trump as a Mafioso and tax evader with ties to organized crime; Trump as an anti-worker and anti-labor union buster; and Trump as a tool of malevolent foreign interests. Promote aggressive opposition research on these themes.

Trump Is a Threat to Civilization Itself

Putting “fascist” together with “psychotic,” the most effective argument against Trump is the danger that he will get control of the US nuclear codes, start World War III, and put an end to civilization as we have known it. This analysis is being taken onto cable television by Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter of The Art of the Deal. Schwartz says that Trump’s finger on the nuclear button threatens us all with a nuclear catastrophe. Schwartz should be a featured prime time speaker at this DNC. Democrats should go back to the Lyndon B. Johnson campaign’s 1964 attacks on Barry Goldwater as a warmonger and update them for Trump. And remember that Goldwater was bellicose, but not clinically insane.

To Defeat Trump, Crush ISIS this Summer

Trump’s demagogy of fear, defeatism, and pessimism requires a foreign enemy which he can use for his fear-mongering. He has usually cited ISIS (aka Daesh, ISIL, Islamic State, Caliphate). The corrupt US news media have been hiding the fact that ISIS is reeling from attacks on its holdings in Iraq and Syria, and could be finished off soon. A critical way to cut Trump off at the knees politically is on the battlefield, by completing the destruction of ISIS before November. This is perfectly feasible from a military point of view. President Obama must see to it that objectives like Mosul and Raqqa are liberated from ISIS, in part by firing failed and defeatist generals, and by ignoring countries like Great Britain which are pursuing their own imperial agendas. It is time to drop the absurd hostility to Russian and Syria, and join with them to fight actual terrorists. Trump desperately needs the US to be feckless and impotent in the fight against ISIS. The antidote is American victory against this terrorist entity.

Stop Trump’s Strategy of Tension and October Surprise

Democrats have often been terrified to discuss so-called conspiracy theories. This time they have no choice: Trump has frequently made sinister paranoid hints about President Obama being in league with terrorists or harboring sympathy for them. He talks absurd conspiracy theory to hide the obvious fact that Trump himself is the beneficiary of a coordinated Strategy of Tension made up of all kinds of terrorism, financial panics, crime sprees, and related chaotic events. Terrorist attacks like San Bernardino, Orlando, Dallas, Nice, are the fuel the Trump campaign runs on.

Comedian Bill Maher, journalist Thomas L. Friedman, talk show host Charlie Rose, Brian Lehrer of WNYC, and even GOP pollster Frank Luntz have spoken in public about the potential of terror events in September-October to stampede masses of voters into the Trump column and catapult the fascist bully into the White House. This is the infamous Trump October Surprise. Factions of the US intelligence community back Trump and have a vested interest in this scenario. It is hopeless to pretend this is not happening — this issue must be attacked head on. Trump relishes predicting future terrorism. Ask him how come he knows so much.

The new wave of FBI and CIA failures suggests that the pro-Trump faction in the intelligence community may be quite considerable. Because of their incompetence and bungling, these agencies need to be put under special surveillance by the White House, using officials of reliable loyalty and other monitors. In addition, ministerial responsibility must be observed. If more terror attacks occur, top officials of the relevant agencies must be fired, whether this means Clapper, Comey, Brennan, Rogers, or others. Watch Trump surrogate Michael Flynn’s old boys at the NSA. As always, watch Gen. Petraeus, whose October Surprise expertise is unquestioned.

No More Democratic Warmongers and Regime Changers

The Democratic ticket suffers from lack of credibility on national security and the economy. It is time to put together the best initiatives of recent years to create a program capable of exposing Trump as the demagogue he is, and defeating him.

• The American people are sick of war. They regard Ms. Clinton as a potential warmonger. She must rehabilitate herself and offer assurances by repudiating her adventurism of Iraq and Libya. She must abandon her reckless demand for a No-Fly zone in Syria, which means bombing Assad, saving ISIS, and possible confrontation with Russia. She must solemnly declare that any additional US use of military force abroad must be preceded by a formal declaration of war by the Congress, with no substitutes accepted. Sen. Kaine’s work on the War Powers Act should be used to expose Republicans as hypocrites on the ISIS issue. The Democratic ticket must also formally condemn the idea of regime change as applied to Syria, Iran, or any other country. They must reject and abolish the practices known as “color revolutions” and “the Arab spring,” which have brought so much war, chaos, and civilizational breakdown into the world. Samantha Power and her humanitarian bombers, infamous for having weaponized human rights, should be ousted. The same goes for Victoria Nuland, who has brought chaos to Ukraine and much of eastern Europe.

Tax Wall Street, Seize the Fed, 15% Protective Tariff for 40 Million New Jobs and Full Employment, Silencing Trump

• Bernie Sanders, the Progressive Caucus, and other Democrats have rightly demanded a tax on Wall Street speculation, variously called a Robin Hood Tax, Tobin tax, financial transfer tax, or Wall Street Sales Tax. This should be a 1% Wall Street Sales Tax on all financial transfers over $1 million per person per year, paid by the seller, with half of the proceeds going to the US Treasury and half to the states under revenue sharing. It should be collected on stocks, bonds, and the notional value of derivatives both exchange traded and over the counter. Here are hundreds of billion dollars of Treasury revenue to pay for health care, free college education, and a 10-million job Marion Barry Memorial job creation program for the inner cities and rural American designed to bring young people into the work force for the first time, as Congressman Conyers and others have been requesting for years.
• Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2013 advanced a landmark proposal to force the Federal Reserve to go beyond its current role as an institution of the bankers, by the bankers, and for the bankers and finally begin to serve the needs of the entire US economy, not just Wall Street. Warren’s idea was for Congress to direct the Fed to finance student loans at 0.75% through the discount window – far less than the 7% to 12% interest often charged on the $1.5 trillion of crushing student loans debt. It is imperative to apply this approach to the entire economy with 0%, long-term Federal Reserve credit for student loan refinancing. $5 trillion in 0% century bonds should be allocated to rebuild and modernize the entire national infrastructure, creating 30 million new productive jobs at union wages, bring the country to full employment for the first time since 1945. This job program can finally lift the nation out of the post-2008 depression. It can begin to reverse the more than 50% decline in the US standard of living since 1967-1974 which is the single greatest unsung factor helping Trump.
• Clinton and Kaine now say they are opposed to the NAFTA-CAFTA-TPP line of free trade sellouts, which have forced US workers to compete with low-wage foreign sweatshops, bring untold plant closings, runaway shops, de-industrialization, declining wages, and despair. But the public simply does not believe them, and with good reason. The Democratic Party must therefore support a permanent 15% across-the-board protective tariff on all imports. This will give the public confidence that the era of free trade sellouts, dumping, US status as the buyer of last resort, and the giant sucking sound are really at an end. It will also outflank Trump, who has never proposed a permanent protective tariff. Trump regards tariffs as a weapon, and not as a permanent stable featured of a well regulated national economy.

Obama Should Call Congress Back for a Special Session to Enact the $15 Federal Minimum Wage, Indexed to Real Inflation

• A new effort needs to be made to establish the $15 per hour federal minimum wage. In 1948, Harry Truman called the GOP Congress back into session and forced them to take a stand on a number of key issues. President Obama should help bar the door to Trump by calling the Congress back into session to pass emergency legislation, starting with the $15 minimum wage, indexed to the real inflation rate. Free college and Medicare for All can also be brought up. Force the GOP to vote, and force Trump to take a binding position. It will tie them in knots, disrupt their campaigns, flush them out, and expose them to public scorn as the Do-Nothing Trump Congress. It will also commit both members of the Democratic ticket to $15, with no more evasions. It will help break GOP control of both houses of Congress.

Follow Alexander Hamilton and Franklin D. Roosevelt, Not Modern Mush-Heads

In the disputed election of 1800, the great Alexander Hamilton faced a dilemma similar to ours today. In that year, the House of Representatives had to choose between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr for the presidency. As Hamilton wrote, if anybody had earned his hatred, it was Jefferson, who had fought him at every turn. But, Hamilton concluded, the public interest required that the arch-traitor and scoundrel Burr be kept out of the presidency. Jefferson might promote bad laws, but Burr would try to split the country and set himself up as king, which he later did. Hamilton’s Federalist Party flocked to support Burr, but Hamilton wisely threw his influence into the scales to make Jefferson President – an action which later cost him his life.

When the nation is in danger, long-standing hatreds and animosities must be jettisoned.

When fascism is at the gates, as it is today in the form of Trump, a national unity approach is indispensable. After the fall of France to the Nazis in June 1940, the great Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to re-shuffle his cabinet to make it a national unity government. An unprepared nation suddenly was confronted by the specter of a two-front war. Two Republicans – Republicans!! – were brought in. Henry Stimson became Secretary of War and Frank Knox, who had been on the GOP ticket for vice president, were ushered in. Knox especially had slandered FDR on the 1936 campaign trail, but FDR was a wise statesman who refused to nurse petty, stupid grievances at the expense of the American people in a time of grave crisis. Only in this way could FDR get support from the anti-New Deal industrialists and bankers who might otherwise have openly boycotted and sabotaged the war effort. The lesson is that, when fascism threatens, national unity must be achieved. All the more so today, when a fascist movement is already on our soil.

Some word-mongering leftist mush-heads claim that Hillary and Trump are identical. But ask yourself: which candidate is clinically insane? No contest: it’s Trump. Which candidate has a fascist mass movement? Once again, the answer is Trump, whose real running mate has emerged as David Duke of the KKK. The argument is over. #StopTrumpTerror is the order of the day, and everything else takes second place.

Defeat Trump, and the Demise of the GOP Is Within Reach this Year

A severe 2016 defeat for the GOP, with their loss of the White House, the Senate, the House, and thus the Supreme Court, will put this despicable party on the road to much-deserved oblivion. Once the GOP has been crippled as a national political party, the path will be open for the Sanders-Warren anti-Wall Street and pro-labor wing of the Democratic Party to assert its dominance over the various Wall Street Democrats. The potential party re-alignment, the re-orientation of the entire political playing field for decades to come, if far more important than the ephemeral candidates we see in the short term.

We must defeat Trump, send the GOP into the garbage can of history, and open a new perspective human progress for the United States.

Print this page as a pdf (3 pages)

Salt the Earth

"It was an experiment. The Initiative represented the Government's interests in not only controlling the otherworldly menace, but harnessing its power for our own military purposes. 

The considered opinion of this counsel is that this experiment has failed. 

Once the prototype took control of the complex, our soldiers suffered a 40% casualty rate. 

Only through the actions of the deserter and a group of civilian insurrectionists that our losses were not total. I trust the irony of that is not lost on any of us. 

Maggie Walsh's vision was brilliant, but ultimately unsupportable. 

The demons cannot be harnessed. 

The end result cannot be controlled. 

It is therefore our recommendation that this project be terminated and all records concerning it expunged. 

Our soldiers'll be debriefed. 

Standard confidentiality clause. 

We will monitor the civilians and usual measures prepared should they try to go public. 

I don't think they will. 

The Initiative itself will be filled in with concrete. 

Burn it down, gentlemen. 

Burn it down, and salt the Earth."

"Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam."

"Furthermore, Carthage must be destroyed."

- Cato the Elder

"I have run the plough over it, like the ancient Carthage of Africa, and I have had salt sown upon it...."

- Bonniface VIII

"Why are those who emulate Bin Laden called terrorists and the people who kill children, rebels? Where is the logic?

Because certain political circles in the West want to weaken Russia just like the Romans wanted to destroy Carthage.

But we will not allow this scenario to come to pass."

- Vladimir Putin

Address by President Vladimir Putin

PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN: 

Speaking is hard. It is painful. 

A terrible tragedy has taken place in our world. Over these last few days each and every one of us has suffered greatly and taken deeply to heart all that was happening in the Russian town of Beslan. There, we found ourselves confronting not just murderers, but people who turned their weapons against helpless children. 

I would like now, first of all, to address words of support and condolence to those people who have lost what we treasure most in this life – our children, our loved and dear ones.

I ask that we all remember those who lost their lives at the hands of terrorists over these last days.

*      *      *

Russia has lived through many tragic events and terrible ordeals over the course of its history. Today, we live in a time that follows the collapse of a vast and great state, a state that, unfortunately, proved unable to survive in a rapidly changing world. But despite all the difficulties, we were able to preserve the core of what was once the vast Soviet Union, and we named this new country the Russian Federation.  

We all hoped for change, change for the better. But  many of the changes that took place in our lives found us unprepared. Why ? 

We are living at a time of an economy in transition, of a political system  that does not yet correspond to the state and level of our society’s development. 

We are living through a time when internal conflicts and interethnic divisions that were once firmly suppressed by the ruling ideology have now flared up.   

We stopped paying the required attention to defence and security issues and we allowed corruption to undermine our judicial and law enforcement system.

Furthermore, our country, formerly protected by the most powerful defence system along the length of its external frontiers overnight found itself   defenceless both from the east and the west. 

It will take many years and billions of roubles to create new, modern and genuinely protected borders.

But even so, we could have been more effective if we had acted professionally and at the right moment.

In general, we need to admit that we did not fully understand the complexity and the dangers of the processes at work in our own country and in the world. In any case, we proved unable to react adequately. We showed ourselves to be weak. And the weak get beaten.

Some would like to tear from us a “juicy piece of pie”. Others help them. They help, reasoning that Russia still remains one of the world’s major nuclear powers, and as such still represents a threat to them. And so they reason that this threat should be removed.

Terrorism, of course, is just an instrument  to achieve these aims. 

As I have said many times already, we have found ourselves confronting crises, revolts and terrorist acts on more than one occasion. But what has happened now, this crime committed by terrorists, is unprecedented in its inhumanness and cruelty. This is not a challenge to the President, parliament or government. It is a challenge to all of Russia, to our entire people. Our country is under attack.

*         *         *

The terrorists think they are stronger than us. They think they can frighten us with their cruelty, paralyse our will and sow disintegration in our society. It would seem that we have a choice - either to resist them or to agree to their demands. To give in, to let them destroy and plunder Russia in the hope that they will finally leave us in peace.

As the President, the head of the Russian state, as someone who swore an oath to defend this country and its territorial integrity, and simply as a citizen of Russia, I am convinced that in reality we have no choice at all. Because to allow ourselves to be blackmailed and succumb to panic would be to immediately condemn millions of people to an endless series of bloody conflicts like those of Nagorny Karabakh, Trans-Dniester and other similar tragedies. We should not turn away from this obvious fact.  

What we are dealing with are not isolated acts intended to frighten us, not isolated terrorist attacks. What we are facing is direct intervention of international terror directed against Russia. This is a total, cruel and full-scale war that again and again is taking the lives of our fellow citizens.

World experience shows us that, unfortunately, such wars do not end quickly. In this situation we simply cannot and should not live in as carefree a manner as previously. We must create a much more effective security system and we must demand from our law enforcement agencies action that corresponds to the level and scale of the new threats that have emerged.  

But most important is to mobilise the entire nation in the face of this common danger. Events in other countries have shown that terrorists meet the most effective resistance in places where they not only encounter the state’s power but also find themselves facing an organised and united civil society.

*         *         *

Dear fellow citizens,

Those who sent these bandits to carry out this dreadful crime made it their aim to set our peoples against each other, put fear into the hearts of Russian citizens and unleash bloody interethnic strife in the North Caucasus. In this connection I have the following words to say.

First, a series of measures aimed at strengthening our country’s unity will soon be prepared.

Second, I think it is necessary to create a new system of coordinating the forces and means responsible for exercising control over the situation in the North Caucasus. Third, we need to create an effective anti-crisis management system including entirely new approaches to the way the law enforcement agencies work.

I want to stress that all of these measures will be implemented in full accordance with our country’s Constitution.

Dear friends,

We are living through very difficult and painful days. I would like now to thank all those who showed endurance and responsibility as citizens.

We were and always will be stronger than them, stronger through our morals, our courage and our sense of solidarity.

I saw this again last night.

In Beslan, which is literally soaked with grief and pain, people were showing care and support for each other more than ever.

They were not afraid to risk their own lives in the name of the lives and peace of others.

Even in the most inhuman conditions they remained human beings.

It is impossible to accept the pain caused by such loss, but these trials have brought us even closer together and have forced us to re-evaluate a lot of things.

Today we must be together, for it is only together that we will vanquish the enemy.

Russians Blast US-UK
Sponsorship Of Chechen Terror
By Webster Griffin Tarpley
tarpley@radix.net
9-17-4








Washington DC, September 14 -- In the wake of the terrorist atrocity at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, in the Russian Federation, Russian President Vladimir Putin has made remarks to the western press which expose the key role of the US and British governments in backing Chechen terrorism. Whatever Putin's previous role in events regarding Chechnya, his current political posture is one which sharply undercuts the legitimacy of the supposed Anglo-American "war on terror," and which points up the hypocrisy of the Bush regime's pledge that it will make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them -- since Washington and London are currently harboring Chechens implicated in terrorism. All in all, Putin's response to Chechen events has, with the third anniversary of 9/11, brought the collapse of the official 9/11 myth measurably closer. The hypocritical terror demagogy of Bush and Blair has now been undercut by the head of state of another permanent member of the UN Security Council...

On Monday September 6, Putin spoke for three and one half hours with a group of some 30 western correspondents and Russia experts at his dacha near Novo Ogarevo outside Moscow. There is no official transcript so far, but accounts have been published in The Guardian, The Independent, and Le Monde. The Washington Post waited until Friday, September 10 to publish an article, but left out the most significant remarks. There are now signs that the Anglo-American press is beginning a new campaign against Putin as a dictator, stressing the obvious in order to silence his attacks on the US-UK sponsorship of Chechen terror.

Putin, a KGB veteran who knows whereof he speaks, told the gathering that the school massacre showed that "certain western circles would like to weaken Russia, just as the Romans wanted to destroy Carthage." He thus suggested that the US and UK, not content with having bested Russia in the Cold War, now wanted to proceed to the dismemberment and total destruction of Russia a Carthaginian peace like the one the Romans finally imposed at the end of the Punic Wars in 146 BC, when they poured salt into the land of Carthage so nothing would every grow there again. (Le Monde, September 8, 2004)

"There is no link between Russian policy in Chechnya and the hostage-taking in Beslan," said Putin, meaning that the terrorists were using the Chechen situation as a pretext to attack Russia. According to a paraphrase in Le Monde: "The aim of that international terrorism, supported more or less openly by foreign states, whose names the Russian president didn't want to name, is to weaken Russia from the inside, by criminalizing its economy, by provoking its disintegration through propagating separatism in the Caucasus and the transformation of the region into a staging ground for actions directed against the Russian Federation."

"Mr. Putin," continues Le Monde, "reiterated the accusation he had launched in a veiled form against western countries which appear to use double-talk. On the one side, their leaders assure the Russian President of their solidarity in the fight against terrorism. On the other hand, the intelligence services and the military 'who have not abandoned their Cold War prejudices,' in Putin's words -- entertain contacts with those the international press calls the 'rebels.' 'Why are those who emulate Bin Laden called terrorists and the people who kill children, rebels? Where is the logic?' asked Vladimir Putin, and then gave the answer: 'Because certain political circles in the West want to weaken Russia just like the Romans wanted to destroy Carthage.' 'But, continued Putin, "we will not allow this scenario to come to pass.'"

Le Monde continues: "This is, according to [Putin] a bad calculation, because Russia is a factor of stability. By weakening it, the Cold War nostalgics are clearly acting against the interests of their own country." In Putin's words: "We are the sincere champions of this cooperation [against terrorism], we are open and loyal partners. But if foreign services have contacts with the 'rebels,' they cannot be treated as reliable allies, as Russia is for them." (Le Monde, September 8, 2004)

In Guardian correspondent Jonathan Steele's account of the meeting with Putin, this is the Russian President's response to the US and UK on the question of negotiating with the Chechen guerrillas of Aslan Maskhadov: "Why don't you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the White House and engage in talks, ask him what he wants and give it to him so he leaves you in peace? You find it possible to set some limitations in your dealings with these bastards, so why should we talk to people who are child-killers?" (London Guardian, September 7, 2004)

As Michel Chossudovsky pointed out some years back, the Chechen leaders Basayev and Al Khattab were trained in the CIA-run camps for Islamic fighters in Afghanistan. In 1999, Putin rode to power on a backlash against Chechen terror which he had in all probability staged himself thus judoing a long-standing US-UK capability. The key point is that the Russian press is now openly denouncing London and Washington as centers for terrorist control. This can blow the lid off the 9-11 hoax.

On Saturday, September 4, Putin had delivered a national television address to the Russian people on the Beslan tragedy, which had left more than 300 dead, over half of them children. The main thrust was that terrorism constitutes international proxy warfare against Russia. Among other things Putin said: "In general, we need to admit that we did not fully understand the complexity and the dangers of the processes at work in our own country and in the world. In any case, we proved unable to react adequately. We showed ourselves to be weak, and the weak get beaten."

"Some people would like to tear from us a tasty morsel. Others are helping them. They are helping, reasoning that Russia still remains one of the world's major nuclear powers, and as such still represents a threat to them. And so they reason that this threat should be removed. Terrorism, of course, is just an instrument to achieve these gains."

"What we are dealing with, are not isolated acts intended to frighten us, not isolated terrorist attacks. What we are facing is direct intervention of international terror directed against Russia. This is a total, cruel and full-scale war that again and again is taking the lives of our fellow citizens." (Kremlin.ru, September 6, 2004)

Around the time of 9/11, Putin had pointed to open recruitment of Chechen terrorists going on in London, telling a German interviewer: "In London, there is a recruitment station for people wanting to join combat in Chechnya. Today -- not officially, but effectively in the open -- they are talking there about recruiting volunteers to go to Afghanistan." (Focus -- German weekly newsmagazine, September 2001) In addition, it is generally known in well-informed European circles that the leaders of the Chechen rebels were trained by the CIA, and that the Chechens were backed by US-sponsored anti-Russian fighters from Afghanistan. In recent months, US-UK backed Chechens have destroyed two Russian airliners and attacked a Moscow subway station, in addition to the school atrocity.

Some aspects of Putin's thinking were further explained by a press interview given by Aslambek Aslakhanov, the Chechen politician who is one of Putin's official advisors. A dispatch from RIA Novosti reported Aslakhanov's comments as follows: "The terrorists who seized the school in Beslan, North Ossetia, took their orders from abroad. 'They were talking with people not from Russia, but from abroad. They were being directed,' said Aslambek Aslakhanov, advisor to the President of the Russian Federation. 'It is the desire of our "friends" in quotation marks -- who have probably for more than a decade been carrying out enormous, titanic work, aimed at dismembering Russia. These people have worked very hard, and the fact that the financing comes from there and that they are the puppet masters, is also clear." Aslakhanov, who was named by the terrorists as one of the people they were going to hold talks with, also told RIA Novosti that the bid for such "talks" was completely phony. He said that the hostage-takers were not Chechens. When he talked to them, by phone, in Chechen, they demanded that he talk Russian, and the ones he spoke with had the accents of other North Caucasus ethnic groups. (RIA Novosti, September 6, 2004)

On September 7, RIA Novosti reported on the demand of the Russian Foreign Ministry that two leading Chechen figures be extradited from London and Washington to stand trial in Russia. A statement from the Russia Foreign Ministry's Department of Information and Press indicated that Russia will put the United States and Britain on the spot about extraditing two top Chechen separatist officials, who have been given asylum in Washington and London, respectively. They are Akhmad Zakayev, known as a "special representative" of Aslan Maskhadov (currently enjoying asylum in London), and Ilyas Akhmadov, the "Foreign Minister" of the unrecognized "Chechen Republic-Ichkeria" (now residing in the USA). (RIA Novosti, September 7, 2004)

"SCHOOL SEIZURE WAS PLANNED IN WASHINGTON AND LONDON"

This was the headline of an even more explicit unsigned commentary by the Russian news agency KMNews.ru. This analysis blames the Beslan school massacre squarely on the U.S. and British intelligence agencies. The point of departure here is that Shamil Basayev, the brutal Chechen field commander, has been linked to the attack (something that Putin advisor Aslambek Aslakhanov yesterday said was known to the Russian FSB, successor of the KGB). The article highlights the recent rapprochement of London and Washington with key representatives of Aslan Maskhadov: Britain's giving asylum to Akhmad Zakayev (December 2003) and the USA welcoming Ilyas Akhmadov (August 2004).

KMNews: CHECHEN TERROR BOSS ON US STATE DEPARTMENT PAYROLL KMNews writes: "In early August, ... 'Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Chechen Republic-Ichkeria' Ilyas Akhmadov received political asylum in the USA. And for his 'outstanding services,' Akhmadov received a Reagan-Fascell grant," including a monthly stipend, medical insurance, and a well-equipped office with all necessary support services, including the possibility of meetings with political circles and leading U.S. media...."What about our partners in the 'anti-terrorist coalition,' who provided asylum, offices and money to Maskhadov's representatives?" asks the Russian press agency. Citing the official expressions of sympathy and offers of help from President Bush, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, KMNews warns: "But let's not shed tears of gratitude just yet. First we should ask: were 'Special Representative of the President of CRI' Zakayev or 'Minister of Foreign Affairs of the CRI' Akhmadov, located in Great Britain and the USA, aware of the terrorist acts that were in preparation? Beyond a doubt. And let's also find out, how Akhmadov is spending the money provided by the Reagan-Fascell Foundation. We note: this Foundation is financed by the U.S. Congress through the budget of the State Department! "Thus, the conclusion is obvious. Willingly or not, Downing Street and the White House provoked the guerrillas to these latest attacks. Willingly or not, Great Britain and the USA have nurtured the separatists with material, information and diplomatic resources. Willingly or not, the policy of London and Washington fostered the current terrorist acts." "As the ancients said, cui bono? Perhaps we are too hasty with such sweeping accusations against our 'friends' and 'partners'? Is there a motive for the Anglo-American 'anti-terrorist coalition' to fan the fires of terror in the North Caucasus?" "Alas, there is a motive. It is no secret, that the West is vitally interested in maintaining instability in the Caucasus. That makes it easier to pump out the fossil fuels, extracted in the Caspian region, and it makes it easier to control Georgia and Azerbaijan, and to exert influence on Armenia. Finally, it makes it easier to drive Russia out of the Caspian and the Caucasus. Divide et impera! - the leaders of the Roman Empire already introduced this simple formula for subjugation."

KMNews: TERROR SUPPORTERS "ON THE BANKS OF THE THAMES AND THE POTOMAC" KMNews continues: "Alas, it must be recognized that the co-authors of the current tragic events are to be found not in the Arab countries of the Middle East, but on the banks of the Thames and the Potomac. Will the leadership of Russia be able to make decisions, in this situation?" "Yes - if there is the political will. The first thing is that black must be called black, and white, white. It is time to admit that no "antiterrorist coalition" exists, that the West is pursuing its egotistical interests (spreading its political influence, seizing fossil fuels deposits, etc.). Our own coalition needs to be formed, with nations that are genuinely interested in eliminating terror in the North Caucasus. Finally, it is time to change the entire tactics and strategy of counterterrorism measures. It is obvious that catching female suicide bombers on the streets of Moscow or carrying out operations to free children who are taken hostage, are, so to speak, the 'last line of defense.' It is time to learn to make preemptive strikes against the enemy, and it's time to carry combat onto the territory of the enemy. Otherwise, we shall be defeated." (Source: KMNews.ru, September 7, 2004)

Izvestia stresses the probable ethnic composition of the terrorist death squad, and its likely role in exacerbating tensions in the ethnic labyrinth of the Caucasus. Izvestia finds the targeting of North Ossetia in the Beslan incident "not accidental," pointing to the danger of "irreversible consequences" for interethnic relations between Ossetians, Ingushis and Chechens. "Russia is now facing multi-vectored threats along the entire Caucasus," the paper writes. (Izvestia, September 3, 2004)

In the wake of Putin's speech, prominent Russian commentators discussed the recent terror campaign against Russia in terms of a possible "casus belli" for a new East-West conflict. Several commentaries have reaffirmed Putin's key statement, that international terrorism has no independent existence, but functions only as "an instrument," wielded by powerful international circles committed (in part) to the early destruction of Russia as a nuclear-armed power.

A commentary in the widely read Russian business news service RosBusinessConsult (RBC) was entitled "The West is unleashing Jihads against Russia." In language seldom heard since the end of the Cold War, RBC charges that the recent wave of terror attacks against Russia, beginning with the sabotage of two airplanes and a terror bombing at a Moscow subway station, and culminating so far in the Beslan attack, was immediately preceded by what RBC calls "an ultimatum from the West," for Russia to turn over the Caucasus region to "Anglo-Saxon control." height="140"> ANGLO-SAXON TERROR ULTIMATUM TO RUSSIA FROM THE LONDON ECONOMIST "Some days prior to the onset of the series of acts of terrorism in Russia, which has cost hundreds of lives, a number of extremely influential Western mass-media, expressing establishment positions, issued a personal warning to Vladimir Putin, that Russia should get out of the Caucasus, or else his political career would come to an end. Therefore, when the President on Saturday spoke of a declaration of war having been made against Russia, this was not just a matter of so-called 'international terrorism'... One week prior to the first acts of terrorism, the authoritative British magazine, the Economist, which expresses the positions of Great Britain's establishment, formulated the Western position concerning the Caucasus, and above all the policy of the Anglo-Saxon elite, in a very precise manner," RBC writes.

CZECH NGO BLOWS UP RUSSIAN TANK; BRITISH EXPERTS TRAIN CHECHEN GANGS

The RBC commentary goes on to cite the Economist of August 19, which contained what RBC characterizes as a virtual ultimatum to Russia. RBC notes that "the carrying out of such a series of coordinated, highly professional terrorist attacks, would be impossible without the help of qualified 'specialists'." RBC notes that at the end of August one such "specialist," working for an NGO based in the Czech republic, was arrested for blowing up a Russian armed personnel carrier. Also, British "experts" have been found instructing Chechen gangs in how to lay mines. "It cannot be excluded, that also in Beslan, the logistics of the operation were provided by just such 'specialists'," notes RBC.

The RBC editorial concludes: "Apparently, by having recourse to large-scale terrorist actions, the forces behind that terrorism, have now acted directly to force a 'change' in the political situation in the Caucasus, propagating interethnic wars into Russia. "The only way to resist this, would be for Moscow to make it known, that we are ready to fight a new war, according to new rules and new methods -- not with mythical 'international terrorists', who do not and never existed, but with the controllers of the 'insurgents and freedom fighters'; a war against the geopolitical puppet-masters, who are ready to destroy thousands of Russians for the sake of achieving their new division of the world." (RBC, September 7, 2004)

In a related comment, the Chairman of the Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, Dmitri Rogozin, declared in an interview on Sunday September 5: "I think [those behind the terrorism] are those who would like to see Russia totally discredited as a power.... I think that the aim is to destabilize the political situation in the country and plunge Russia into total chaos." (Ekho Moskvy, September 6, 2004)

Western press organs have responded to the school massacre with a campaign to blame, not the terrorists, but the Putin regime and Russian society. This disingenuous policy has further stoked Russian resentment. On September 6, Strana.ru headlined, "Western Press: The Tragedy Is Russia's Own Fault," commenting that "unlike official politicians, journalists do not want to admit that the bombings and hostage-takings in our country are acts of international terrorism." Another example of this Putin-bashing was the article by Masha Lippman in the Washington Post of September 9.

A basic reason for the US-UK surrogate warfare against Russia is the great Anglo-Saxon fear of a continental bloc of the type which emerged during the run up to Bush's Iraq aggression. The centerpiece of the continental bloc is the German-Russian relationship. Washington and London fear that Russia will soon agree to accept euros in payment for its oil deliveries. This would not just prevent the Anglo-Americans from further skimming off oil transactions between Russia and Europe. It would represent the beginning of the end of the dollar as the reserve currency of the world, a role which the battered greenback, weakened by Bush's $500 billion yearly trade deficit and Bush's $750 billion budget deficit, can no longer fulfill. If Russia moves to the euro, it is expected that the Eurasian giant may be quickly followed by Iran, Indonesia, Venezuela, and other countries. This could put an end to the ability of the US to run astronomical foreign trade deficits, and would place the question of a US return to a production-based economy on the agenda. The oil-euro question is expected to be discussed at the upcoming Russian-German economic summit.

RUSSIA TO PAY FOR OIL WITH EUROS? In a half-page article published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and headlined "Realizing the Strategic Partnership," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov predicted key progress in the energy sector. Lavrov said that numerous proposals by Moscow on how to expand cooperation in the sphere of future-shaping high-tech branches of the economy will be put on the agenda of the September 11-12 German-Russian economic summit in Hamburg. Russia calls for the development of "mutually beneficial cooperation in aerospace, information technology, telecom, biotechnology, development of new materials, laser technology, and nanotechnology. Lavrov wrote that Russia expects a breakthrough at the Hamburg talks -- which will also deal with the energy sector. (Frankfurter Allgemeine, September 3, 2004)

 http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/print.php?storyid=793&PHPSESSID=be4cdc6168a069b727d08e1fb8e651e2