Archive
G20 Toronto "Black Block" get green light to rampage?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5G7aCgXtWg
A photo Journalist describes his experience following the black block as they rampage through the streets of Toronto during the G20 Summit.
20,000 police and security officials and a $1 billion security budget were not enough to stop 75-100 black block anarchists from smashing windows and torching police cars during a 1.5 hour rampage. The Black Block were able to rampage through the street for 24 blocks until they reached the ‘official protest zone’ where they quickly changed clothes dispersed through the crowd of peaceful protesters and then left the site.
The police were fully aware of the rampage and watched the black block from a distance at a number of locations. It wasn’t until they had dispersed into a crowd of peaceful protesters who thought that they were in a sanctioned area that the police took action beating innocent people with batons and spraying them with pepper spray.
Why was this allowed to happen? Police abandoned police cars at Bay and King when they didn’t need to, why? Was this allowed to happen so the Harper government could justify an outrageous security bill when there was no credible terrorist threat (according to CSIS)? Who led this group of vandals? Were they infiltrated by government paid provocateurs as was the case in Montebello where police with masks and rocks attacked their own riot squad?
Related: G20 demo turns violent, police car burns, 27 June 2010
Watts Up with the Climate? Australian Tour
Anthony Watts, David Archibald and David Stockwell are touring Australia 12 June – 1 July 2010.
Details will be updated here as they are finalised: http://www.climatesceptics.com.au/watts.html
Perth, WA: Tuesday 29 June 2010, 6:30pm
Social Sciences Lecture Theatre, University of Western Australia
Anthony Watts, David Archibald, Jo Nova and Bob Carter
$25 per person, $20 if you make a booking or are a pensioner
Contact: Anne-Kit Littler (08) 9487 0404 or alittler55@gmail.com
The Speakers
Anthony Watts:
A former television meteorologist who spent 25 years on the air, Anthony Watts operates a weather technology business and runs one of the most popular science blogs on the internet, wattsupwiththat.com. He will present advance results on his surface stations project to photographically survey every one of the 1221 USHCN weather stations in the USA used as a “high quality network” that has fallen into neglect.
He’ll also tell his story of conversion from alarmist to skeptic in the 1990s, as well as some salient points about what he’s learned from his climate blogging experience.
Listen to Anthony Watts on ABC Radio National's Counterpoint program, 7th of June 2010
David Archibald:
An Australian scientist operating in the fields of climate science and cancer research, and the author of “Solar Cycle 24: Why the world will continue cooling and why carbon dioxide won’t make a detectable difference”.
David Stockwell, Ph.D.:
Former U.S. scientist, living in Emerald, QLD, and author of the book Niche Modeling, David Stockwell presents the “known knowns” of climate change, especially for the Central Highlands environment, mining, pastoral and agricultural industries.
Discuss this event on the WeAreChange WA Forums.
G20 demo turns violent, police car burns
From: NineMSN.com.au
Black-clad demonstrators broke off from a crowd of peaceful protesters at the World Summit, torching a police cruiser in the financial district and smashing windows with baseball bats and hammers.
Police with shields and clubs earlier pushed back another small group of demonstrators who tried to head south toward the security fence surrounding the perimeter of the Group of Twenty global economic summit site. Some demonstrators hurled bottles at police.
…
Ontario’s provincial government quietly passed a regulation earlier this month allowing police to arrest anyone who refuses to show identification or submit to searches if they come within five metres of the security fence.
Toronto’s downtown core resembles a fortress, with a big steel and concrete fence erected along several blocks to protect the summit site.
WeAreChange Western Australia denounces the violence towards Toronto police and the vanadalism of property in the surrounding area near the G20 summit, by individuals clearly separate from the assembled peaceful protestors. This is not the Change we wish to see. Neither is the extremely expensive police state setup for the events for that matter.Related:
Agent Provocatuer – Wikipedia entry
Keep up to date on the G8/G20 Summits at Toronto Media Coop: http://2010.mediacoop.ca
YouTube footage of the protests and police state at the G8/G20 Summits, 25 June
On University Avenue in Toronto
Tense moments during the G20 protest
Police car fire in Toronto
Media Reporting on events at the G8/G20 Summits
“G8/G20 summits have low terrorism risk,” head of Canada’s spy agency
G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people
RussiaToday reports on the G20 Summit protests
Exclusive WeAreChange.org story: Luke Rudkowski & Matt Lepacek denied access into Canada, 25 June 2010
The Alex Jones Radio Show on Charlie Veitch who was arrested and detained by Toronto police, 25 June 2010
Press for Truth presents G20 Toronto – Can I See Your ID?, 26 June 2010
NineMSN.com.au article above, 27 June 2010
John Bursill talks 9/11 Truth Australia wide on 2DAY FM!
From: 911oz.com
John Bursill was interviewed on the 2DAY FM Breakfast radio show today, 25th June 2010. This program goes right across Australia, and is one of the most popular shows in the country. This time slot is normally the Kyle and Jackie-O show, but the show today is hosted by “Chris and Charli”. Call them on +61 2 9375 1041 and give them your support. Let them know that this was an excellent and courageous thing to do!
Visit the website and leave a comment: http://www.2dayfm.com.au
Related: Prof Harritt to present Evidence that Explosives were Used to Bring Down the WTC Towers on 9/11
Media Release – Prof Harritt to present Evidence that Explosives were Used to Bring Down the WTC Towers on 9/11
9/11 Truth Australia will host a public lecture by Danish Professor Niels Harrit from the University of Copenhagen, titled “Did Explosives Bring Down the Towers on 9/11?”
Professor Harrit is the lead author of an expert international team that produced a peer reviewed scientific paper published early last year, titled “Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe”. This paper, which has not been reported in this country to date, has remained unchallenged within the scientific literature and can be found online at the Open Chemical Physics Journal, Bentham Open (www.bentham.org).
The evening lecture will be given in two parts, the first being about the little known 47 story WTC building 7, titled “The Seventh Tower: A Mysterious Building Collapse”. The second part, concentrating on the discovery of nano-thermite, is titled “Scientists Discover Explosive Incendiary Nano-thermite in Dust from Ground Zero”. Harrit will be supported by a expert panel during his presentations, including Australians Dr. David Leifer, a senior Architecture lecturer at Sydney University and Dr Frank Legge, a chemist and 9/11 science expert who is co-editor at “the Journal of 9/11 Studies” and was also an author of the “Thermitic Materials” Paper.
Note: A Press Conference will be held at the venue starting at 6:30pm
Date:
7:00pm, Saturday, 17th July 2010.
Venue:
Mitchell Theatre,
Sydney Mechanics School of Arts
280 Pitt Street, Sydney
Full Lecture Details
Website: http://www.911oz.com
Email: johnbursill@gmail.com
Ph: 1300 153 372 (Free Call)
9/11 Truth Australia are part of the world wide 9/11 Truth Movement who are fighting for justice for the victims and their families of the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, including ten Australians. We continue to demand a new, independent criminal investigation of these events, as the evidence available clearly demonstrates we have not been told the truth about what happened on that dreadful day. We have no political affiliation and are not financed by any organisation.
Study: Scientists Discover Active Thermitic Material in WTC Dust
Afghanistan: Australian troop withdrawal 'could start in two years'
From: PerthNow
AUSTRALIAN troops could be out of Afghanistan as early as 2013 under a timeline which sees training of the Afghan National Army continuing for up to four years, followed by a period of security backup of the fledgling force.
In a week when three Australian soldiers died in a helicopter crash – taking the Australian death toll in the nine-year war to 16 – Defence Minister John Faulkner warned more losses could be ahead.
“But we must stay the course,” he said.
Liberal Democratic Party want tougher rules on war authorisation
From: Liberal Democratic Party
By Mark Walmsley, LDP WA President & Senate Candidate
The Liberal Democrats believe former Army chief Peter Leahy’s calls for Parliament to decide when to send our troops to war do not go far enough.
“In the current system, the Prime Minister and executive can take the country to war. This threshold is too low and does not give the electorate a voice through their elected representatives,” Senate candidate Mark Walmsley said.
“The Liberal Democrats believe any commitment of our military should require a two-thirds majority vote of a joint sitting of Parliament.
“This will require every Senator and House Representative to vote on the war. In doing so citizens can make representations to their local member and will know how their local member and senator voted. This provides for true democratic accountability.
Since the initial Iraq engagement there have been two Federal elections, resulting in two new Parliaments taking office. However there has been no parliamentary review of the initial decision.
“The Liberal Democrats believe that following an election, all ongoing Australian military engagements should be re-affirmed as a priority by the new Parliament.
“Unless two-thirds of Parliamentarians vote to stay the course, plans should be drawn up for a prompt withdrawal,” Mr Walmsley said.
Mark Walmsley is president of the WA branch of the Liberal Democratic Party and the party’s candidate for the Senate.
Media contact: Mark Walmsley 0417 111 433 or mark@wa-ldp.org.au
WeAreChange Western Australia endorses the Australian Liberal Democrats call for a two-thirds majority vote by Parliament to authorise war, in particular the requirement for every new Parliament to vote on Australia’s military engagements.Chinese Government buying up our farms, says Senator Bill Heffernan
From: billheffernan.com.au
By Malcolm Farr, The Daily Telegraph
The Chinese Government is buying Australian farms to directly feed its population, a senior Liberal said on the eve of a visit by a top Bejing official.
The purchases were unmonitored and did not have to be approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board, Senator Bill Heffernan told Parliament.
“And the distortion that has occurred in the Sydney home market because of being off the FIRB’s radar … could happen with agricultural land,” Senator Heffernan said.
He made the claim on Wednesday night, just three days before the arrival in Canberra of Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping for what is considered an important visit.
Senator Heffernan, chairman of the select committee on agriculture, yesterday said farm buy-ups were not referred to the FIRB unless they were worth more than $320 million.
So far there were only anecdotal reports of Chinese agricultural investment but Senator Heffernan quoted research by Professor Zhangyue Zhou of the School of Business at Townsville’s James Cook University.
Mr Zhou has argued there is a move by the Chinese Government to buy land overseas to ensure a secure food supply for the future. He believes the produce would be sent back to China from farms now being purchased.
There are reports of significant Chinese interest in Tasmanian dairy farms and a Tasmanian real estate agent, Betty Kay, this month was at a dairy expo in China to promote sales by cash-troubled farmers.
Last month South Australian state MP Robert Brokenshire called for Government action “as Chinese vultures circle Australian farms”.
“Chinese investment interest in our farms grew 10-fold in the six months to April, according to the Real Estate Institute of Australia,” he said.
There is also anecdotal evidence about farms in the black soil-rich Liverpool Plains being bought by foreign interests at inflated prices.
However, a spokeswoman for the REIA yesterday said there were no figures available.
Senator Heffernan told Parliament there was a system of voluntary reporting of land investments backed by foreign governments.
“It should not be self-reporting; it should be compulsory reporting. A foreign entity could go down the river and buy every property and not trigger the interest of the Foreign Investment Review Board,” he said.
WeAreChange Western Australia endorses Senator Heffernan’s call for compulsory reporting of foreign owned land investments in Australia and applauds him bringing light to this issue. WACWA urges all Australians to read in full Senator Heffernan’s comments to the Senate on the 16th of June, 2010 on the Senate Hansard record: DOWNLOAD PDF.Also see: ‘Foreign owned and grown food on Australian soil,’ ABC News, 25 June 2009.
Discuss this on the WeAreChange WA forums.
Latest Ground Zero deal offers 9/11 First Responders $712.5 million
From: infowars.com
By Jerry Mazza
Lawyers for the city and for 10,000 plus plaintiffs, i.e. the cleanup and rescue men and women who worked Ground zero, announced on June 10, 2010 that they had negotiated a new settlement, providing more compensation for health damages and to lower legal fees for services, down from 33.33 percent to a maximum of 25 percent, as per the New York Times, one quarter of the awards still a healthy handful, about $178.5 million.
Judge Hellerstein, who had rejected payouts between $575 to 657.5 million as settlement in March as too little, is now accepting $712.5 million. Okay, if you have a calculator that comes to $37 million more. Divided by 10,000 workers, that yields $3700 more per person. The average, per capita award comes to $71,250. Of course, each worker’s actual award would be determined by the extent of his or her illness, medical and prescription fees, and I would imagine family size. I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but would each award be better “enough” for each worker? Well, each worker will have to decide that by September 30, 2010. 95 percent agreement is required for benefits to begin.
By comparison, the Victim’s Compensation Fund, whose awards went to family members of 2800 victims, ranged from $400,000 to $2 million for their lost loved one, a total of $7.049 billion dollars. The awards factored in whether the victim was married or not, with children or not, age, number of working years left, salary level, and so on.
It was a cold-hearted way perhaps to evaluate lost ones, but generous in comparison to the awards for lives lost or seriously affected in ‘the second round of slaughter’, those with chronic, life-threatening conditions. This is not to belittle the 9/11 victims’ families for their awards, or the sacrifice made by their loved ones lost, just to point out a disparity.
The man who ran the VCF, “Special Master” Kenneth Feinberg, originally appointed by former Department of Justice chief John Ashcroft, was on NY1 TV a couple days ago, telling the workers that if they accepted the deal, why he’d have checks in the mail in two weeks. By the way, the proviso for receiving any VCT award was promising not to sue the government, making it a kind of hush money.
Feinberg’s colleague Judge Hellerstein has seen to it that in all these years no family (to my knowledge to date) has received a trial, even if they didn’t want to take the money. Instead, victim families were encouraged “to move on” and stow the cash.
Mrs. Ellen Mariani, who wanted a trial for her husband Neil, lost on UA F 175, and who brought two suits against the government, had her suits dismissed because their trials she was told would “endanger national security,” which sounds more like an attempt to cover up any wrong doing on the government’s part. In fact, she’s still waiting a trial or financial reward. Both she and her lawyer are under gag orders not to speak. Remember her if you will in your prayers if nothing else.
Also, the Airline Transportation Safety Act (ATSA) actually paid out a total of $15 billion to the airlines in loans and cash for losses sustained in their businesses, though the airline bigs we know will never go hungry. Not like working people with more bills than they have assets.
Unfortunately, the GZ workers, these men, these women, who worked in the pit, et al, had to sue the city and its contractors six years ago for the grave illnesses they had suffered, including cancers, respiratory and glandular diseases. These were a result, in part, of not having been given respirators to protect them against the deadly chemicals in the air, earth and debris, nor having proper supervision about protecting themselves. They were walking around with or without paper nose-mouth masks.
One major reason for that was that both the EPA and FEMA had said that the Ground Zero site and surrounding environment they were working in was safe, when in fact it was loaded with a cocktail of deadly chemicals, as follows…
“Over 400 tons of asbestos, which once inhaled in any quantity cannot be expelled by the lungs
“90,000 liters of jet fuel containing benzene, a carcinogen that suppresses the immune system and causes leukemia
“Mercury from over 500,000 fluorescent lights that is toxic to the nervous system, and damaging especially to the kidneys
“200,000 pounds of lead and cadmium from personal computers, toxic to the respiratory track, especially damaging to kidneys
“Polycystic aromatic hydrocarbons that cause lung, laryngeal and throat cancers
“130,000 gallons of transformer oil with PCBs, causing serious skin rashes and liver damage
“Crystalline Silica from 420,000 tons of concrete, sheetrock and glass (tiny particulates that lodge in heart, causing ischemic heart disease),” and so on…
The facts and more come from film-maker Heidi Dehncke-Fisher’s landmark documentary Dust to Dust: the health effects of 9/11. I reviewed this affecting, truth-telling film in a piece called 911’s second round of slaughter. And that’s exactly what it was.
To follow the lives of EMS workers, firemen, police, volunteers, as Dehncke does, to see the slow ebbing of strength and will to live in fearless men and women, to see them morph into weary, despairing people, fighting with insurance companies for monies for life-sustaining medications and/or hospital care, is heart-breaking. Consider that for the survivors to this date. They still face on-going, life-threatening conditions, with new symptoms surfacing from time to time.
For instance, the Philadelphia Inquirer recently ran a story, 9/11 responders now suffering loss of smell. Its subhead read, “Chronic condition represents a ‘breakdown in the body’s defense against toxic substances’”
It told about paramedic “Mike Greene, who at first thought it might just be a bad allergy.
“But when his sense of smell didn’t come back for months, the paramedic suspected it was caused by polluted air he’d breathed at the most harrowing job site of his career: the wreckage of the World Trade Center.
“Turns out he is not alone.
“A significant portion of those on duty at the twin towers suffered long-term damage to their sense of smell and their ability to detect harmful irritants through the nose, Philadelphia researchers reported in a new study last week.
“Far from being just an inconvenience, this chronic condition represents a breakdown in the body’s defense against toxic substances, said lead author Pamela Dalton, an experimental psychologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center.
“In a sample of 102 workers in construction, emergency services, and other fields, 22 percent had an impaired sense of smell more than two years after exposure at the twin towers site, and 74 percent had a reduced ability to detect irritants. That ability is separate from the sense of smell, and is illustrated by the burning sensation you get from say, the noxious fumes in a bottle of bleach.”
Now this is going on nine years later. What does tomorrow bring for these men and women who gave selflessly, working under furious pressure from Mayor Rudy Giuliani to work night and day to get what was America’s worst ever crime scene scrubbed clean in eight months, not the two and a half years he had to do it. And to help America’s mayor get his brownie points for destroying the evidence, and in the process helping to destroy the lives and health of these heroes.
Another recent loss: On May 15, 2010, Robert Oswain of the New York Police Department died from cancer, after serving in recovery efforts at the wrecked World Trade Center. If you want a taste of it, read Christopher Bollyn’s powerful article complete with photographs of what Robert and his 10,000 brothers and sisters went through.
The opening paragraphs tell us, “Robert Oswain, a police officer with the New York Police Department (NYPD), died from cancer on May 15, 2010. Oswain, a Bronx cop who served in recovery efforts at the destroyed World Trade Center, died of cancer late Saturday. He was 42 years old.
“Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly commended Oswain, who had recently married, for his ‘valiant struggle’ against the disease. Oswain’s family and NYPD brothers believe Ground Zero’s toxic dust caused the cancer that claimed his life, the Daily News reported.
“Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (NYC PBA) President Patrick Lynch called Oswain ‘one of the forgotten heroes of 9/11’ – and warned that the true cost in lives from the attacks won’t be known for decades. The NYC PBA has a webpage devoted to Oswain in which he described what he did at the World Trade Center in the aftermath…” Check out this story for a bitter taste of what it was really like.
Bottom line, brothers, sisters, you who have suffered and suffer still, I ask you to think clearly if this settlement is what you want, if it truly protects you, and if this is what you and your families can live with? Because once you sign on the dotted line, it’s over.
What’s more, as mentioned earlier, 95 percent of you have to approve this offer by September 30 for it to take effect. I’m not saying do or don’t sign. I’m saying think it out clearly. Don’t be pressured. Stick together. Remember your lawyers are still getting a healthy cut. Search you conscience and make up your own mind what’s best for you. Good luck, bless you all. You are the best of people.
US lobbying to block Genetic Engineering food labelling in Australia
From: True Food Network
US biotech companies are currently lobbying the Australian Government not to label genetica engineering (GE) products, asserting this would be an undue restriction on trade with the US.
Australia is currently in negotiations over a free trade agreement with America that could block efforts to have GE products in food labelled in Australia.
The agreement under consideration is the Trans Pacific Free Trade Agreement (TPPFTA) involving America, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Chile, Brunei Darussalam, Peru and Vietnam. The US biotech industry group’s submission on TPPFTA calls for no GE labelling that could restrict trade of biotech products with the US. The group also calls for countries to do-away with any local safety testing on GE products, as according to the biotech lobby group, they have already been proven safe in the US and local testing requirements create an undue regulatory burden on business.
Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean has said that everything is on the table for these negotiations, even as the Federal Government continues it’s review of food labelling laws. You can take action now to protect Australia’s health and environment against the profit-seeking motives of US biotech firms. Greenpeace is supporting a campaign by the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network which calls on the Australian Government to put the interests of its citizens before the profits of the multnational companies.
You can take action to stop US companies from blocking GE labelling by emailing Australia’s Trade Minister, Simon Crean.
WeAreChange Western Australia and its members have no affliation with the True Food Network or Greenpeace.
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