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[tomt]

The year 2014 will mark the beginning of a fundamental change in how this planet is managed according to sources including the Pentagon, the Japanese imperial family and the P2 freemason lodge. NATO and other European groups promise to start the New Year with a $15 billion project to help the Philippines and show Europeans were fundamentally changing their international modus operandi, according to the P2 lodge.

There is also an avalanche of disclosure appearing in corporate mass media outlets about long taboo topics like 911, the Lockerbie bombing, the Kennedy assassination etc. indicating some sort of attempt at starting a truth and reconciliation process has begun.

We are also once again being told of mass arrests of cabalists that have begun in the US. This time US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew was named as one of those arrested for refusing to sign on to the new financial system, according to one Pentagon and one CIA source. A google image search shows the last time he appeared in public was 3 days ago. However, both myself and Christopher Story among others, have been told repeatedly that some top cabalist had been arrested only to have them appear in public the day after we wrote about the arrest. This could be that same old trick all over again.
The same sources say that President Barack Obama

will not return from his Hawaiian holiday this year. However, we were told the same thing last year but he did return.

Nonetheless, it is becoming increasingly obvious on multiple fronts that cabal rule is collapsing at an accelerating pace in the West.

In the US, there is a growing move within the establishment to start exposing the truth about 911. When Congress members start asking questions in Congress about it, for example, they are showing that they know it is safe to start talking about it in public now. The move to blame the Saudis being given wide publicity is a precursor to taking down the Bush/Nazi/Zionist faction.

The truth about the Kennedy assassination is also now coming out, again as a part of that same trend. The sealed public documents relating to the assassination are due to be released to the public soon, according to sources close to Kennedy daughter US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy. The sealed files are almost all held by the CIA, especially its’ Nazi/Bush faction the Directorate of Operations.

There is also a move to start disclosing the CIA’s secret Iranian connection, according to MI5. One of the most damning things to come out last week concerned the Lockerbie Bombing of 1988 in which a bomb blew up an airliner over Scotland, killing 243 people.

The official story is that it was done by Libya but now it turns out the operation was carried out to cover up the Iranian/Bush/Nazi drug connection, according to MI5 sources.

First let us review what the connection was in a bigger context. The Iranian revolution that replaced the Shah of Iran with Ayatollah Khomeini was a cabal run operation aimed at grabbing Persian imperial gold supplies (the gold was evacuated to Thailand), according to a cousin of the Shah. Later, George Bush Sr. got Ronald Reagan elected as President and himself as Vice President in large part because of the “October surprise;” the sabotaged rescue attempt by President Carter of the US Embassy officials being held hostage in Tehran. That operation was run by Bush agent Osama Bin Laden (aka Tim Osman) and his flunky Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The attempt by agency and government white hats to counter the Bush faction with the Iran/Contra hearings during the Reagan Presidency failed to remove the Bush faction. One reason was because the Lockerbie bombing killed US military intelligence and CIA officers who were on that flight on their way back to report that the Frankfurt (Bush/Nazi) branch of the CIA was running drugs out of the Beqaa valley in Lebanon for the Iranians. The plane was blown up to prevent them from reporting this to the Pentagon. Also, it happens that the commander of the Qods or Iranian special forces in the Bekaa valley became the Iranian Defense Minister a couple of years ago.

All this is coming out now because Bush and his faction have been defeated at a high level and arrests of Nazis have been proceeding at a fast clip. Incidents like Lockerbie are important to Pentagon types because they represent high treason. That is why we are hearing from CIA and Pentagon sources that nobody is in the mood for a touchy feely peace and reconciliation process.

Remember, this Nazi faction has been responsible for killing tens of millions of people since the end of World War 2. They were also planning to kill 90% of humanity with disease, nuclear war and starvation in order to start their 1000 year fourth Reich.

Now, they have lost control of most of the men with guns in the Pentagon and the agencies. Pentagon sources are now saying, for example, that they found a network of Nazi run laboratories in some of the former Soviet Republics that were producing and spreading biological warfare agents as a part of these plans. These laboratories are now being shut down.

The consensus is that these people will have to be taught a lesson that will never be forgotten by future generations in order to make sure such a monstrous entity never again arises within humanity’s power structure.

However, as we enter the solar new year on December 25th we need to remember the ancient tradition is to not only clean out the rot but to give birth to the new. In that vein, we would like to suggest that it is time to review and renew many of our ancient traditions.

Starting with Christmas could be one way. The Catholic Church and other Christian groups now admit they do not know when Christ was born and that Christmas is really a celebration of the Solar New Year that has been going on for untold millennia. Sites like Stonehenge in England and the Ise Shrine in Japan, for example, have been set up for celebration of the Solar New Year many thousands of years before Jesus Christ and the start of Christianity.

That is why it makes sense to change December 25th, the date the sun starts to move South again in the Northern Hemisphere, into January 1st. The celebrations of the birth of Christ could be moved to the spring, the most likely time of his birth. This could be set in line with the Lunar New Year and thus give countries in the West a celebration in harmony with Chinese and Muslim celebrations of the Lunar New Year.

Anyway, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years.

[tomt]

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http://www.yelp.com/biz/vapor-bar-los-angeles-4


i want to begin this review with a story. If you don't have time to read it, just know this vape bar deserves a 5-star review.

I had lost my $450 build by letting it slip through the crack on the elevator entrance at my apartment from the third floor. I was so sad, I visited this shop to estimate once again how much I would have to spend for a build similar to my previous one as I was on my way to eat next door at Thai BBQ (another amazing place). This specific night was raining and I had been out with sandals. When I walked in, the door scraped my ankle and made a 3 inch cut. It continued to bleed for 2 full days. The whole staff was showing concern, though, (sure, they weren't equipped like an emergency room--they are a vape bar) and did all they could to care for my cut. This showed me caring customer service that really meant something.

George, one of the owners is amazing and he even gave me a couch service while I was caring for my injury. He brought me in trays their cool ass mods. It was then that I learned they offer some of the most amazing models. The complete customizable build would cost me only around $150. That is a 300 dollar difference which is incredible. Anyway, due to the accident all I wanted to do was go home and clean up so I left without any purchases.

A couple weeks later, after days and days of effort, I was so surprised to get a call that my vape had been found! I returned from work and immediately polished the entire build piece by piece as if it was brand new (Bagua serial 0101). My mod had fallen three stories, but the titanium build on my Bagua was left unscathed. I went back to this store and asked George if he remembered me. He remembered me, alright. So did the entire staff. They are so attentive and caring people. I have no doubt they would cherish my builds and juices. I picked up 4 flavors (MSG, Chai, Banana Milk, Sour Apple), a SICK 850 battery, a bullet mouthpiece $10. I learned that all their juices are original concoctions tailored to what they like and what their friends enjoy. What SOLID and absolutely amazing shop. I highly recommend this gem of a place.

The parking is bad during lunch and dinner hours due to limited parking in Los Angeles and the fact that it's next to a popular restaurant. So, I recommend going here avoiding those rushes. Speak with George, the man will take care of you. Say hi to Roger, this guy can build your RBA like nobody's business. They have a huge ass projectored TV that plays basketball all day. WHAT?! Vape heaven.

What are you waiting for? Go get your amazing build now. Check out the huge list of oneofakind flavors and walk out happy. Thanks Vape Bar! Remember to check-in and give a review for 10% off.

Sidenote: I bet these guys had no idea I would give a review after they had genuinely helped me. These guys are seriously there to help you save money and enjoy flawless quality vaping. Paying it forward.

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[tomt]

spychips.com - how RFID will compromise privacy, security, freedom

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http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/09/3-time-emmy-award-winning-cnn-journalist-mainstream-media-takes-money-from-foreign-dictators-to-run-flattering-propaganda.html

If you've been paying attention, you know that the American media act as presstitutes for rich and powerful Americans.
But it turns out that the American media will turn "tricks" for foreign johns as well ...
Specifically, three time Emmy award winning reporter Amber Lyon was until very recently a respected CNN reporter:
Lyon was fired from CNN after she refused to stop reporting on her first-hand experience of the systematic torture and murder of peaceful protesters by the government of Bahrain.
Lyon's special report on Bahrain was scheduled to run on both CNN's U.S. and international networks, but was pulled after only a limited showing due to pressure from the Bahrainis and their lobbyists.
At the same time that Lyon was risking her life to do on-the-ground reporting in Bahrain, another CNN journalist was filming a paid propaganda piece on how the Bahraini leaders are a bunch of friendly pro-democracy reformers.
That's right ... the Bahraini government paid CNN to do what was literally an infomercial for that brutal regime and pretend it was real journalism.
Lyon says that China and many other foreign, authoritarian regimes also pay CNN and other mainstream networks to run flattering propaganda pieces.
We are grateful for Ms. Lyon's expos? of this revolting practice ... especially because real reporting is treated as terrorism by the American government.

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U.S AMBASSADOR TO NIGERIA‏

U.S AMBASSADOR TO NIGERIA ([email protected])
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U.S AMBASSADOR TO NIGERIA
PLOT 1075 DIPLOMATIC DRIVE
u. CENTRAL DISTRICT AREA, ABUJA
EMAIL----{[email protected]}
PHONE: +234-8185097788

DEAR: SIR/ MADAM,

AFTER AN OFFICIAL MEETING HELD WITH THE PRESIDENT OF NIGERIA AND MINISTER OF FINANCE CONCERNING UNPAID AND UNCLAIMED FUNDS TO FOREIGN BENEFICIARIES, JUST LIKE YOU.I WAS VERY MUCH ANNOYED WHEN I FOUND OUT THAT YOU PAID MUCH MONEY YET YOU NEVER RECEIVE YOUR FUNDS.THAT IS WHY I DECIDED TO HELP YOU.

I SHALL BE COMING TO YOUR COUNTRY FOR AN OFFICIAL MEETING AND I WILL BE BRINGING YOUR ATM CARD WORTH THE $15.8 MILLION ALONG WITH ME THROUGH UNITED STATES DIPLOMATIC MISSION TO YOUR COUNTRY.BUT THIS TIME I WILL NOT GO THROUGH CUSTOMS BECAUSE AS AN USA AMBASSADOR TO NIGERIA, I AM A USA GOVERNMENT AGENT AND I HAVE THE VETO POWER TO GO THROUGH CUSTOMS.JUST LIKE I HELPED FOUR PERSONS TO RECEIVED THEIR FUNDS THIS YEAR 2013 THROUGH FEDEX COURIER SERVICE AND TNT COURIER SERVICE.TO PROVE YOU THE TRUTH,YOU SHOULD TRACK THE BELOW TRACKING
NUMBERS AND SEE IT YOURSELF:

1.) WWW.FEDEX.COM
TRACKING NO: 509265861199

2.) WWW.FEDEX.COM
TRACKING NO: 537053444807

3.) WWW.FEDEX.COM
TRACKING NO: 898891698600


MAKE SURE YOU TRACK IT FIRST AND SEE IT YOURSELF.AND AS SOON AS I AM THROUGH WITH THE MEETING I SHALL THEN PROCEED TO YOUR HOME..(SEND YOUR INFORMATION:

1. YOUR FULL NAME
2. CELL PHONE NUMBER
3. ADDRESS WHERE YOU WANT ME TO BRING THE PACKAGE).
4. OCCUPATION
5. COUNTRY


YOU HAVE REALLY PAID SO MUCH IN THIS DELIVERY THAT MAKES ME WONDER. YOU ARE A VERY LUCKY PERSON BECAUSE I SHALL BE BRINGING IT MYSELF AND THERE IS NOTHING ANYONE CAN DO ABOUT IT.YOUR ATM VISA CARD WORTH THE SUM OF ($15.8M) AND MUST BE REGISTERED AS AN AMBASSADORIAL PACKAGE FOR ME TO DEFEAT ALL ODDS AND THE COST OF REGISTERING IS $105.THE FEE MUST BE PAID IN THE NEXT 50 HOURS VIA WESTERN UNION OR MONEY GRAM SO THAT ALL NECESSARY ARRANGEMENT CAN BE MADE BEFORE TIME WILL BE AGAINST US.
THE $105 REGISTRATION FEE IS NOT FOR ME AND I HAVE NOTHING TO YOU WITH YOUR MONEY AM AN AMBASSADOR AND ALSO A MAN OF GOD. IF YOU ARE NOT PAYING THE $105 FEE PLEASE IN THE NAME OF GOD ALMIGHTHY DONT BOTHER TO SEND ME A MAIL.

SEND THE FEE VIA MONEY GRAM OR WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER:

RECEIVER'S NAME: OKORO CHENEDU
ADDRESS: LAGOS, NIGERIA
TEXT QUESTION: IN GOD?
ANSWER: WE TRUST
AMOUNT: $105
MTCN NUMBER:

AS SOON AS YOU SEND THE FEE MAKE SURE YOU SEND ME THE PAYMENT INFORMATION.I SHALL SEND MY FLIGHT SCHEDULE TO YOU.PLEASE GO THROUGH MY WEBSITE AND READ BIOGRAPHY:

http://nigeria.usembassy.gov/biography.html

MY FLIGHT IS THURSDAY AND I EXPECT YOU TO COMPLY BEFORE THEN SO THAT THE DELIVERY CAN BE COMPLETED. IF YOU DO NOT COMPLY, THEN IT WILL NOT BE MY FAULT IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE YOUR PACKAGE EMAIL ME AT U.S AMBASSADOR TO NIGERIA

AMBASSADOR TERRENCE MCCULEY

EMAAIL----{[email protected]}

PHONE: +234-81850-97788

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[tomt]

Betty Blowtorch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



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[tomt]

Your Eminence,

As you know, the United States government and agriculture giant Monsanto have been seeking the support of the Holy See for genetic modification of food for years.

During my last visit to the U.S. Ambassador Miguel Diaz, just before he resigned, Diaz sung to me the praises of Bishop Marcelo S?nchez Sorondo, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, because he supported GMOs. I wonder what you will say, particularly given your leadership of the synod on Africa and the strong advocacy that Monsanto and the U.S. government have for transforming African agriculture through the G-8?s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.

As you know, the U.S. has repeatedly advocated that the Holy See promote genetic modification of seeds as a moral obligation. The policy of the Pontificial Council for Justice and Peace has been to resist officially adopting GMOs. While the Academy of Sciences has recurrently hosted one-sided conferences on GMOs in 2004 and 2008, the Holy See formerly has not done so. Cardinal Renato Martino, your predecessor at the justice and peace office, came close but backed off, and you yourself have been quite careful.

There?s more to NCR than what you read online. Preview our Spirituality special section from the July 19 edition.

At the conference on the rural world you co-hosted last year with the International Catholic Rural Association, there was some strong criticism of industrialized agriculture, including a critique by his Eminence Cardinal Raymond Burke in his homily. Burke, who heads the Apostolic Signatura, comes from a farm family background and is an expert on contemporary agriculture. It would be well to seek his counsel on what to say at the World Food Prize ceremony in October.

The typical U.S. line on the world?s food needs and on African food production is that it needs to produce more food, with genetic modification the path to do so. But African farmers overwhelmingly disagree, believing instead that agro-ecology is the better way to go: through methods of production more in harmony with their own cultures and traditions, and more realizable by small-scale farmers and women producers.

In my meetings with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the State and Agriculture Departments and congressional staff, this method of production ? agroecology, which was endorsed by the United Nations through the 2008 International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology in Development ? is referred to as eco-topian thinking, theology or faith-based reasoning. Yet more than 50 countries endorse that study, conducted by hundreds of scientists and agriculturalists.

As the North American focal point for the civil society mechanism of the Food and Agriculture Organization?s Committee on World Food Security, I have been meeting at length with peasant farmers for three years. I know that civil society groups from around the world have very different ideas about food production than those posed by Monsanto and the United States. It will be important that the Holy See maintains its solidarity with small farmers.

While the U.S.?s official policy framework, ?Feed the Future,? rightfully places an emphasis on gender, small-holder farmers and climate change in its policy, in practice its most recent assessment shows bias toward males, export crop production and a focus on large farms.

Many U.S. farmers complain that Monsanto has bought upwards of 60 percent of seeds in the country, so to limit those available. That track record is not helpful or positive, and the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition fails to provide adequate guidelines for responsible agricultural investment.

I had asked David Lane, U.S. ambassador to Food and Agriculture Organization, to meet with me on these issues the last time I was in Rome. He met with the members of the New Alliance, with the private sector, but not with civil society!

I hope you will speak to the U.S. public about the important issue of GMOs in your World Food Prize address in Des Moines.

Sincerely in Christ,
Br. David Andrews, CSC
Senior Representative
Food & Water Watch
Focal Point, North America Civil Society
Committee on World Food Security
Civil Society Mechanism
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2.Argentina's GM Tragedy

Dear David Andrews,

Following your open letter to Cardinal Peter Turkson, we want to share with you the open letter that some members of Grupo de Reflexion Rural Argentina sent to Pope Francisco a few months ago. We know that the letter was received by his office, but do not know if Francisco read it. Please feel free to circulate our letter and contact us if you think that will be useful for the purpose of stopping the endorsement by the Vatican of Genetically Modified seeds.
With best wishes,
Stella Semino

Buenos Aires, Rep. Argentina, April 2013

Your Holiness,

Firstly, we offer our affectionate greetings and congratulations on your election as Bishop of Rome by the College of Cardinals. We believe that you will lead God's people charitably, and hope that your term of office is a rewarding one. As always, we pray that you will be able to carry out the enormous task that you have ahead of you.

We would like to remind you of a meeting we had with you at the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, where we were accompanied by Mario Cafiero and his wife Amalia. On that occasion, we presented you with the conclusions of a long-standing campaign we were conducting against the use of agricultural toxins for crop spraying. The campaign was referred to as STOP THE SPRAYING and was being coordinated by the Grupo de Reflexi?n Rural. During our meeting, we told you about the painful consequences of this spraying. We described what we had recorded throughout several years of information-gathering and campaigning against this monoculture and its chemical agriculture model, the forced expulsion of populations, and environmental contamination. The evidence we have gathered has affected us deeply, as we have uncovered the serious and widespread effects and consequences of chemical spraying on entire populations, particularly on the children.

It was not appropriate to expand upon this issue at our meeting, as we did not wish to overburden you. However, it has now become pertinent to bring this matter to your attention, given the responsibilities you bear at a global level in your new role as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church. At our meeting we spoke of the implementation in Argentina of the production model and way of life introduced during this phase of so-called Economic Globalisation. We refer to something that, from a rural perspective, is known as Agribusiness, and is part of the extractive model which destroys the livelihoods, peace and the happiness of rural communities. This model was implemented in Argentina during the 1990s on the back of the ruins left by State Terrorism, and it implied the creation of an agro-export economy for commodities and primary goods to satisfy the needs of global markets. In our country, the model was based on the political decision that Argentina, which had once been the grain basket of the world and a producer of healthy and high-quality foods, would be transformed into a producer of animal forage, firstly, to provide fodder for European livestock, and then for livestock in China. These decisions were taken without the knowledge of the Argentine people. In the same way, similar measures are taken all over the world, behind the back of public opinion, without allowing the population their sovereign right and freedom to choose the methods of production and ways of life that would guarantee them a dignified existence and which respect and care for Creation. It implies subjugation to the multinational corporations, a subjugation which, we have no doubt, will mean new and more terrible forms of colonisation.

In Argentina, monocultures of soya and other genetically-modified seeds have been advancing at a tremendous pace. Although imperceptible to those living in towns, the tragedy is that they have decimated rural populations. The area covered by these monocultures has now reached the terrifying figure of 24 million hectares, and they occupy a large proportion of our agricultural land. What is at risk here is not Food Sovereignty, which was lost years ago, but the food security of the population. These unfamiliar green deserts are governed by biotechnology and the patenting rights applied to life by the multinational corporations. Nothing is sacred to them, and they have displaced millions of people who are now uprooted and deterritorialised. These rural populations are now crowded together around the urban peripheries of the new super-cities. The consequences of the compulsive urbanisation which confuses urban living with supposed progress is responsible for marginalisation, social fragmentation, extreme insecurity, poor nutrition, rising levels of disease, people trafficking, aid programmes, and narco-power in the shanty towns. Additionally, recurring environmental disasters attributable to climate change are made worse by the destructive development practices of this new agriculture and the political disinterest of the supposed leaders. These are the natural consequences of compulsive urbanisation which confuses urban living with supposed progress. Millions of human beings have been condemned to a life in which each day is full of adversity.They live within a consumer society that lacks any trace of spiritual direction, and their future prospects seem to consist of successive catastrophes.

On a global level, the imposition of these models driven by the corporations and the global markets has increased the figures for the world's hungry to well over a billion human beings. The great majority of those affected have also suffered from expatriation, the desertification of their land, the pollution of their water. Many have been forced to abandon their roots and memories and find work as servants in distant metropolis. This situation is not just appalling, it is also global. The statement made by Monsignor Turkson on 5 January 2011 is evidence of this: */"If African farmers had greater access to fertile arable land, safe from armed conflicts and pollutants, they would not need genetically-modified crops in order to produce food"/*.Forcing farmers to buy patented seeds */"reproduces the classic game of economic dependence"/* which in some way is like */"a new form of slavery". /*Despite this, numerous Third World governments have been won over by the promises of assumed prosperity that this so-called progress will bring. They are giving away their most fertile lands to agro-industry and to investment funds which guarantee food for the rich and powerful, although this implies social and ecological costs of monstrous proportions. This situation is occuring in our country, as much as in Africa and in Asia. Rural populations seem to be surplus to requirements for this plundering and genocidal model.

The fact that over a billion human beings are suffering from hunger is a shocking statistic. It is understandable that, as an institution acting as a moral compass for justice and social harmony, the Church will be affected by this and, more recently, will have attempted to find solutions to this terrible tragedy through its Pontifical Academies. There is the risk that, instead of addressing these crucial issues and reflecting on the events that have brought us to this dreadful situation, we accept deceptive proposals telling us that we need to continue down the path which will certainly lead us towards the abyss of global catastrophe and the loss of our own humanity. Unfortunately, we fear that some members of the Church have taken this path. In May 2009, when Your Holiness was in Rome, we sent you a document containing information on this issue. Sadly, we were unable to confirm that you had actually received it. We sent the document with our Ambassador at the Holy See. In it we spoke out against a meeting taking place at that time, the *Study Week on Transgenic Plants for Food Security in the Context of Development*, which was also sub-titled *Constraints to Biotech Introduction for Poverty Alleviation*. This presumably scientific gathering was taking place at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and included broad representation from the Monsanto Corporation and the biotechnologist Mois?s Burachik, who was representing the Argentine Government. For weeks we attempted, unsuccessfully, to make our disagreement heard, or to be allowed to take part so that other points of view could be heard, but we received no response. The issue in question is not insignificant. We are convinced that certain global corporations need the moral support of religious leaders in order to drive biotech policies which are even more audacious than the policies they have implemented to date. The alleged scientific successes that are promoted through propaganda obscure the devastating consequences of corporate policies. They also overlook the fact that, each day, there is increasing evidence showing that theories on transgenic modification are not just obsolete but completely mistaken, as they are based on assumptions which have now been proved to be false, for example, the mechanical identification of specific characteristics of a gene. However, the current problem is the immense global power of the biotech industry and its enormous capacity to influence thought and to win contracts.

Aside from potential GMO risks to humanity, we wish to emphasise our conviction regarding the growing problem of *"world hunger"*. The solution will not come from an increasing number of agri-businesses. On the contrary, there is a need to increase the numbers of rural workers and small and medium-sized producers who have long-established links to the land and to growing food. As a community and as a Church, we cannot sidestep this issue. We believe that the strategy of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences within this field should undergo a radical reorganisation. Additionally, it should be re-focused so that it incorporates other scientific points of reference whose priority is a love for life, humanity and for Creation, and who are not motivated by corporate profit, technological efficiency or scientific gain.

This may require some effort from Your Holiness, and we ask that you count on us and keep us in mind to provide any necessary support. In recent years, we have disseminated the concept of Ecotheology through ecumenical meetings and the internet to encourage Catholics to recover their values of caring for Creation and to seek spiritual inspiration in Nature and the environment.We respectfully ask our Holy Father to hear our words and trust that they will be of service. We ask for Your Holiness' blessing.

Very respectfully,
Adolfo Boy
Stella Semino
Lilian Joensen
Fernando Rovelli
Federico Aliaga
Jorge E. Rulli
GRR Grupo de Reflexi?n Rural

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Siouxsie




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Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke

By Matt Taibbi
POSTED: December 13, 3:25 PM ET

63
Comment
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Lanny Breuer
Assistant US Attorney General Lanny Breuer
Ramin Talaie/Getty Images

If you've ever been arrested on a drug charge, if you've ever spent even a day in jail for having a stem of marijuana in your pocket or "drug paraphernalia" in your gym bag, Assistant Attorney General and longtime Bill Clinton pal Lanny Breuer has a message for you: Bite me.

Breuer this week signed off on a settlement deal with the British banking giant HSBC that is the ultimate insult to every ordinary person who's ever had his life altered by a narcotics charge. Despite the fact that HSBC admitted to laundering billions of dollars for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels (among others) and violating a host of important banking laws (from the Bank Secrecy Act to the Trading With the Enemy Act), Breuer and his Justice Department elected not to pursue criminal prosecutions of the bank, opting instead for a "record" financial settlement of $1.9 billion, which as one analyst noted is about five weeks of income for the bank.

The banks' laundering transactions were so brazen that the NSA probably could have spotted them from space. Breuer admitted that drug dealers would sometimes come to HSBC's Mexican branches and "deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in a single day, into a single account, using boxes designed to fit the precise dimensions of the teller windows."

This bears repeating: in order to more efficiently move as much illegal money as possible into the "legitimate" banking institution HSBC, drug dealers specifically designed boxes to fit through the bank's teller windows. Tony Montana's henchmen marching dufflebags of cash into the fictional "American City Bank" in Miami was actually more subtle than what the cartels were doing when they washed their cash through one of Britain's most storied financial institutions.

Though this was not stated explicitly, the government's rationale in not pursuing criminal prosecutions against the bank was apparently rooted in concerns that putting executives from a "systemically important institution" in jail for drug laundering would threaten the stability of the financial system. The New York Times put it this way:

Federal and state authorities have chosen not to indict HSBC, the London-based bank, on charges of vast and prolonged money laundering, for fear that criminal prosecution would topple the bank and, in the process, endanger the financial system.

It doesn't take a genius to see that the reasoning here is beyond flawed. When you decide not to prosecute bankers for billion-dollar crimes connected to drug-dealing and terrorism (some of HSBC's Saudi and Bangladeshi clients had terrorist ties, according to a Senate investigation), it doesn't protect the banking system, it does exactly the opposite. It terrifies investors and depositors everywhere, leaving them with the clear impression that even the most "reputable" banks may in fact be captured institutions whose senior executives are in the employ of (this can't be repeated often enough) murderers and terrorists. Even more shocking, the Justice Department's response to learning about all of this was to do exactly the same thing that the HSBC executives did in the first place to get themselves in trouble ? they took money to look the other way.

And not only did they sell out to drug dealers, they sold out cheap. You'll hear bragging this week by the Obama administration that they wrested a record penalty from HSBC, but it's a joke. Some of the penalties involved will literally make you laugh out loud. This is from Breuer's announcement:

As a result of the government's investigation, HSBC has . . . "clawed back" deferred compensation bonuses given to some of its most senior U.S. anti-money laundering and compliance officers, and agreed to partially defer bonus compensation for its most senior officials during the five-year period of the deferred prosecution agreement.

Wow. So the executives who spent a decade laundering billions of dollars will have to partially defer their bonuses during the five-year deferred prosecution agreement? Are you fucking kidding me? That's the punishment? The government's negotiators couldn't hold firm on forcing HSBC officials to completely wait to receive their ill-gotten bonuses? They had to settle on making them "partially" wait? Every honest prosecutor in America has to be puking his guts out at such bargaining tactics. What was the Justice Department's opening offer ? asking executives to restrict their Caribbean vacation time to nine weeks a year?

So you might ask, what's the appropriate financial penalty for a bank in HSBC's position? Exactly how much money should one extract from a firm that has been shamelessly profiting from business with criminals for years and years? Remember, we're talking about a company that has admitted to a smorgasbord of serious banking crimes. If you're the prosecutor, you've got this bank by the balls. So how much money should you take?

How about all of it? How about every last dollar the bank has made since it started its illegal activity? How about you dive into every bank account of every single executive involved in this mess and take every last bonus dollar they've ever earned? Then take their houses, their cars, the paintings they bought at Sotheby's auctions, the clothes in their closets, the loose change in the jars on their kitchen counters, every last freaking thing. Take it all and don't think twice. And then throw them in jail.

Sound harsh? It does, doesn't it? The only problem is, that's exactly what the government does just about every day to ordinary people involved in ordinary drug cases.

It'd be interesting, for instance, to ask the residents of Tenaha, Texas what they think about the HSBC settlement. That's the town where local police routinely pulled over (mostly black) motorists and, whenever they found cash, offered motorists a choice: They could either allow police to seize the money, or face drug and money laundering charges.

Or we could ask Anthony Smelley, the Indiana resident who won $50,000 in a car accident settlement and was carrying about $17K of that in cash in his car when he got pulled over. Cops searched his car and had drug dogs sniff around: The dogs alerted twice. No drugs were found, but police took the money anyway. Even after Smelley produced documentation proving where he got the money from, Putnam County officials tried to keep the money on the grounds that he could have used the cash to buy drugs in the future.

Seriously, that happened. It happens all the time, and even Lanny Breuer's own Justice Deparment gets into the act. In 2010 alone, U.S. Attorneys' offices deposited nearly $1.8 billion into government accounts as a result of forfeiture cases, most of them drug cases. You can see the Justice Department's own statistics right here:
Justice Department?s own statistics
Justice Department
If you get pulled over in America with cash and the government even thinks it's drug money, that cash is going to be buying your local sheriff or police chief a new Ford Expedition tomorrow afternoon.

And that's just the icing on the cake. The real prize you get for interacting with a law enforcement officer, if you happen to be connected in any way with drugs, is a preposterous, outsized criminal penalty. Right here in New York, one out of every seven cases that ends up in court is a marijuana case.

Just the other day, while Breuer was announcing his slap on the wrist for the world's most prolific drug-launderers, I was in arraignment court in Brooklyn watching how they deal with actual people. A public defender explained the absurdity of drug arrests in this city. New York actually has fairly liberal laws about pot ? police aren't supposed to bust you if you possess the drug in private. So how do police work around that to make 50,377 pot-related arrests in a single year, just in this city? Tthat was 2010; the 2009 number was 46,492.)

"What they do is, they stop you on the street and tell you to empty your pockets," the public defender explained. "Then the instant a pipe or a seed is out of the pocket ? boom, it's 'public use.' And you get arrested."

People spend nights in jail, or worse. In New York, even if they let you off with a misdemeanor and time served, you have to pay $200 and have your DNA extracted ? a process that you have to pay for (it costs 50 bucks). But even beyond that, you won't have search very far for stories of draconian, idiotic sentences for nonviolent drug crimes.

Just ask Cameron Douglas, the son of Michael Douglas, who got five years in jail for simple possession. His jailers kept him in solitary for 23 hours a day for 11 months and denied him visits with family and friends. Although your typical non-violent drug inmate isn't the white child of a celebrity, he's usually a minority user who gets far stiffer sentences than rich white kids would for committing the same crimes ? we all remember the crack-versus-coke controversy in which federal and state sentencing guidelines left (predominantly minority) crack users serving sentences up to 100 times harsher than those meted out to the predominantly white users of powdered coke.

The institutional bias in the crack sentencing guidelines was a racist outrage, but this HSBC settlement blows even that away. By eschewing criminal prosecutions of major drug launderers on the grounds (the patently absurd grounds, incidentally) that their prosecution might imperil the world financial system, the government has now formalized the double standard.

They're now saying that if you're not an important cog in the global financial system, you can't get away with anything, not even simple possession. You will be jailed and whatever cash they find on you they'll seize on the spot, and convert into new cruisers or toys for your local SWAT team, which will be deployed to kick in the doors of houses where more such inessential economic cogs as you live. If you don't have a systemically important job, in other words, the government's position is that your assets may be used to finance your own political disenfranchisement.

On the other hand, if you are an important person, and you work for a big international bank, you won't be prosecuted even if you launder nine billion dollars. Even if you actively collude with the people at the very top of the international narcotics trade, your punishment will be far smaller than that of the person at the very bottom of the world drug pyramid. You will be treated with more deference and sympathy than a junkie passing out on a subway car in Manhattan (using two seats of a subway car is a common prosecutable offense in this city). An international drug trafficker is a criminal and usually a murderer; the drug addict walking the street is one of his victims. But thanks to Breuer, we're now in the business, officially, of jailing the victims and enabling the criminals.

This is the disgrace to end all disgraces. It doesn't even make any sense. There is no reason why the Justice Department couldn't have snatched up everybody at HSBC involved with the trafficking, prosecuted them criminally, and worked with banking regulators to make sure that the bank survived the transition to new management. As it is, HSBC has had to replace virtually all of its senior management. The guilty parties were apparently not so important to the stability of the world economy that they all had to be left at their desks.

So there is absolutely no reason they couldn't all face criminal penalties. That they are not being prosecuted is cowardice and pure corruption, nothing else. And by approving this settlement, Breuer removed the government's moral authority to prosecute anyone for any other drug offense. Not that most people didn't already know that the drug war is a joke, but this makes it official.

Read more: Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke | | Rolling Stone
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