Post all news stories with similar ARG story themes here!

Great thread Jessica. I'll be pinning it. Use it folks instead of making new threads.

Thursday March 15, 2007
The Guardian

We should be scared stiff

Renowned scientist James Lovelock {author of The Revenge of Gaia: Why the Earth Is Fighting Back and How We Can Still Save Humanity} thinks mainland Europe will soon be desert - and millions of people will start moving north to Britain...

(link here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2035068,00.html)

2 Sense show 3-11-07

France Bans Amature Filming Of Violence

http://www.ranting-gryphon-media.com/2Sense/Shows/2Sense-3-11-07.mp3

Go to 21:38 into the show for the segment.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0316/water.html

ZOMG I'VE BEEN DRINKING BAD PAREPIN!!!11oneone

...water supplies in the county have been contaminated by a parasite that causes serious stomach illnesses

Sounds to me like you need parepin in your water. It does a body good, y'know.

Maybe RTE are liars. Anti-resistance fuckers.

/sarc

I was bored and when I saw this last night I thought about the ARG.

i am posting this here, but hope the mods move it somewhere more prominent. i honestly cannot find the most "suitable spot". mr. and mrs. mods, here is hoping you can and do.

SATURDAY MARCH 17TH, 2007 RALLY IN TORONTO. (come on ontario ninnies, this means YOU)

1pm rally at US Consulate (360 University Avenue) followed by a march through downtown Toronto.

3pm rally at Nathan Phillips Square (100 Queen Street West) followed by the formation of a giant peace symbol.

Organizers:
The Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
The Hiroshima Day Coaltion
The Humanist Movement

www.nowar.ca
stopthewar@sympatico.ca
(416) 795 5863

it would be lovely to see some AIR wearers about (aboot, if you need to pronounce it "properly" ;-)

i have a friend up there
i'll tell him about it
opps
aboot

Anybody who wants a real world preview of the world of Year Zero should read up on what happened in Pakistan today.

I'm pretty sure he means this. Nice job Musharraf, when the U.S. actually stops kissing your ass you know you've fucked up.

i found this on the year zero trailer on myspace. prob old but not mentioned.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i258/Ghost_House/IAMTRYINGTOBELIEVE-1.jpg

"i am trying to believe" is the sign post. sweet

This thread is where you post real life news articles that relate to the fictional world of Year Zero.

Not where you post anything else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID#Human_implants


year zero is already happening

Quoted from Vedic de l'obscurité


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070225/pl_nm/usa_iran_dc_1

U.S. developing contingency plan to bomb Iran

Sat Feb 24, 7:52 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Despite the Bush administration's insistence it has no plans to go to war with
Iran, a Pentagon panel has been created to plan a bombing attack that could be implemented within 24 hours of getting the go-ahead from President George W. Bush, The New Yorker magazine reported in its latest issue.

The special planning group was established within the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in recent months, according to an unidentified former U.S. intelligence official cited in the article by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh in the March 4 issue.

The panel initially focused on destroying Iran's nuclear facilities and on regime change but has more recently been directed to identify targets in Iran that may be involved in supplying or aiding militants in
Iraq, according to an Air Force adviser and a Pentagon consultant, who were not identified.

The consultant and a former senior intelligence official both said that U.S. military and special-operations teams had crossed the border from Iraq into Iran in pursuit of Iranian operatives, according to the article.

In response to the report, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said: "The United States is not planning to go to war with Iran. To suggest anything to the contrary is simply wrong, misleading and mischievous.

"The United States has been very clear with respect to its concerns regarding specific Iranian government activities. The president has repeatedly stated publicly that this country is going to work with allies in the region to address those concerns through diplomatic efforts," Whitman said.

Pentagon officials say they maintain contingency plans for literally dozens of potential conflicts around the world and that all plans are subject to regular and ongoing review.

The article, citing unnamed current and former U.S. officials, also said the Bush administration received intelligence from
Israel that Iran had developed an intercontinental missile capable of delivering several small warheads that could reach Europe. It added the validity of that intelligence was still being debated.

The article also included an interview conducted in December with Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who said that while he had no interest in initiating another war with Israel, he was anticipating and preparing for another Israeli attack sometime this year.

Israel launched a cross-border offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon last July.

Nasrallah also said he was open to talks with Washington if such discussions "can be useful and influential in determining American policy in the region," but they would be waste of time if the purpose was to impose policy.

Spying Too Secret For Your Court: AT&T, Gov Tell Ninth

Monday, 12 March 2007
Spying Too Secret For Your Court: AT&T, Gov Tell Ninth

AT&T told an appeals court in a written brief Monday that the case against it for allegedly helping the government spy on its customers should be thrown out, because it cannot defend itself -- even by showing a signed order from the government -- without endangering national security.

A government brief filed simultaneously backed AT&T's claims and said a lower court judge had exceeded his authority by not dismissing the suit outright.

Because plaintiffs' entire action rests upon alleged secret espionage activities, including an alleged secret espionage relationship between AT&T and the Government concerning the alleged activities, this suit must be dismissed now as a matter of law," the government argued in its brief (.pdf).

The telecom giant and the government are appealing a June ruling in a federal district court that allowed the suit brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against the telecom to proceed, despite the government's invocation of a powerful tool called the "states secrets privilege," which allows it to have civil cases dismissed when national secrets are involved.

California Northern District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker ruled, however, that since the government had admitted it was wiretapping Americans without a warrant and that AT&T had to be involved, the case could go forward tentatively. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the government and AT&Ts' appeal in the coming months.

"This case cannot and should not go forward where AT&T is disabled from responding to
allegations or evidence tendered by the plaintiffs, and is therefore deprived of the
ability to defend itself against potentially massive liability," AT&T's lawyers wrote in a brief (.pdf). "Moreover, as this Court has explained, although a dismissal in contexts like this one may appear 'harsh' for the individual plaintiffs, the 'greater public good,' and "ultimately the less harsh remedy," is the protection of military and intelligence secrets the release of which could harm the public's safety."

The suit, which relies heavily on documents provided to the rights group by former AT&T employee Mark Klein, alleges that AT&T helped the government spy on internet communications, data-mine domestic call records and listen in on phone calls without a warrant as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The government, which says it has inherent constitutional powers to wiretap in the time of war, said in January it would stop the warrantless wiretapping of certain overseas phone calls and get warrants from the court it evaded.

AT&T also argues that all of lawsuit needs to be thrown out because the government has never admitted to spying on internet traffic and getting phone records. It has only admitted to wiretapping overseas communications where one end of the communication belongs to a person suspected of terrorist links. Since the EFF defendants say they aren't terrorists or communicate with terrorists, the only part of the spying that has been admitted -- and thus admissible in court -- doesn't apply to them, AT&T argues. Since the rest of the purported surveillance is thus secret the case has to be thrown out.

As to Plaintiffs' claims of harm from untargeted content surveillance, the government has not acknowledged the existence of any such program, and any information about the methods or targets of alleged government surveillance is unquestionably covered by Director Negroponte's invocation of the state secrets doctrine.

AT&T furthermore argues that the lower court's ruling that AT&t had to be involved due to the width of the surveillance program and the size of AT&T was an uninformed guess:

The district court used a chain of conjecture, hypothesis, and unwarranted inference to suggest that AT&T's alleged participation in these programs was not in fact a secret. The court, for instance, relied on its own unfounded and inexpert speculation that content surveillance requires the cooperation of a telecommunications provider.

EFF will file its response later this month, and will likely argue, as it already has in the district court, that Congressional officials have admitted that some of the nation's largest telecoms did turn over call record databases to the government, so that is not a secret either.

The appeals court has not yet set a date for oral arguments.

Last quote from Vedic de l'obscurité


Wonder why CNN, MSNBC, and Faux aren't telling us about this...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1386812.ece


Giants meet to counter US power
Jeremy Page in Delhi

India, China and Russia account for 40 per cent of the world’s population, a fifth of its economy and more than half of its nuclear warheads. Now they appear to be forming a partnership to challenge the US-dominated world order that has prevailed since the end of the Cold War.

Foreign ministers from the three emerging giants met in Delhi yesterday to discuss ways to build a more democratic “multipolar world”.

It was the second such meeting in the past two years and came after an unprecedented meeting between their respective leaders, Manmohan Singh, Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin, during the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July.

It also came only four days after Mr Putin stunned Western officials by railing against American foreign policy at a security conference in Munich.

The foreign ministers, Pranab Mukherjee, Li Zhao Xing and Sergei Lavrov, emphasised that theirs was not an alliance against the United States. It was, “on the contrary, intended to promote international harmony and understanding”, a joint communiqué stated.

Their formal agenda covered issues ranging from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East and North Korea to energy security, nuclear non-proliferation and trade. The subtext, however, was clear: how to use their growing economic and political muscle to prevent Washington from tackling such issues alone.

“In the long term, they feel that the whole structure of international relations has to shift in their direction,” said Vinod C. Khanna, of the Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi. “What has happened is that quite independently they’ve reacted very similarly to recent international events.”

Mr Mukherjee said: “We agreed that cooperation rather than confrontation should govern approaches to regional and global affairs. We also agreed on the importance of the UN.”

Diplomats say that it is premature to talk of a strategic axis between the world’s largest and two most populous nations because they still have more in common with the West than with each other.

Delhi was close to Moscow in Soviet times, but has forged a new friendship with Washington. Chinese relations were soured by its border wars with India in 1962 and the Soviet Union in 1969, and by its arms sales to Pakistan. Russia appears keener than China or India to challenge American hegemony. But there has been a convergence of interests as each struggles to make the transition from a command economy to free markets. Since 2003 they have found further common ground in opposing the US-led invasion of Iraq.

One area of agreement is opposition to outside interference in separatist conflicts in Chechnya, the northeast of India and the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.

Another is energy. India and China are desperate for Russian oil and gas, and Moscow is worried about its dependence on Western markets. But their most significant common ground is opposition to US military intervention in Iran. The joint statement did not mention Iran, but the three countries have taken a common stance in calling for a negotiated solution through the International Atomic Energy Agency. None of them wants a nuclear-armed Iran, but Russia sells Tehran nuclear technology and India and China need Iranian gas.

--------------------------------------------------------

When I post things like this I may not agree with the perspective of the author. I am simply trying to let people know that these things are taking place.

I have something interesting to show, so bare with me.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/03/15/koinange.africa/index.html

This was on the top page, top story, last night. The orginal title was "Gambia President claims cure for AIDS, experts horrified". It's now in the 'only on CNN' section of the site, with a less alarming/crediting title. This is hardly my only point though.

This very poor muslim country is deep in controversy now. Nobody can prove anything, and anybody trying to disprove anything, gets kicked out of the country. What is so convincing to me is that they invite ANYONE with HIV to come and try the treatment. All the patients claim to have been cured. This is a very frightening thought, considering the President claimed to have been told the cure in his dreams.

What I'm trying to say is, keep track of this article. See if there are any follow ups. If this is real in any way, if there is now a cure for AIDS, this President guy will probably assassinated. Then suddenly, US doctors will have the cure! Wow! Seriously, is it that farfetched? This shit is fucking scary to me. An entire war could be looming if it's real. My point is, keep yourself in the loop. CHECK ON IT, it's the only way we will know anything one way or another. If it disappears from the news completely, be afraid. Be VERY afraid.

IMHO, this should be spreading like wildfire already. It's so difficult to read between the lines with the news today. It's so scary to think that people still watch FOX 'news' everyday, and believe EVERYTHING they say. It is truly frightening to know that all news around the world is censored in some aspect, one way or another. Anyway, I don't want to drone on about my fears.

The plain truth is, the US news is the most censored news in the world. Just ask any foreigner, they will tell you how much of a joke they think the news is. For god's sake, a cure FOR AIDS possibly, and britney spears (does not deserve capitalization) shaving her white trash head is more on Americans' minds. Open your eyes everyone.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/17/petfood.recall.ap/index.html

Pet food. (Don't think I actually believe myself when I say this--at least, any more than abstractly--cause there is no way to know the extent of the shit going on in the world) Just as an example. This could scare some Americans. But this would also have a very small amount of people thinking, *what if the government paid these companies to test out drugs in their pet food?* Yes, I know. It's fucking ridiculous. But it's not impossible. My point is, there is so much fiction in the world, that it blinds us from the actual truth. People have already been arrested for blogging in this world. As we spiral downward towards our next world conflict, we have to be completely aware at all times. Keep your eyes peeled, and don't rule out ANY possibility. We're all in danger, and when it comes down to it, money is the only reason for all the worlds problems. In the vein of Colbert, tip of the hat to you, Karl Marx. At least it's better than the chaotic mess we're living in today, gradually getting worse and worse. No I don't care for communism, but I like the idea that people could find peace through equality. It won't happen though.

This reflects my opinions well, but like I said, I'm open. Feel free to argue, just don't chop my head off.

Don't doomsay too much and remain critic
By all dear respect, Prof. Lovelock sounds like an aging hippy and the president of Gambia is .. well the "president" of Gambia (a cure for AIDS .. a herbal cure for AIDS ... appearing to a dispotic ruler in his dream? Right), people all over Ghana are probably slapping their own foreheads.

To contribute something:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1046388,00.html

My regional newspaper had a long article about it but I can't find it anymore.

Gen. Wesley Clark Says Pentagon Had Plan in 2001 to Attack Seven Countries in Five Years

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/02/1440234

AMY GOODMAN: Today, an exclusive hour with General Wesley Clark, the retired four-star general. He was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO during the Kosovo War. He has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2004, he unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. He recently edited a series of books about famous US generals, including Dwight Eisenhower and Ulysses Grant, both of whom became president after their military careers ended.

On Tuesday, I interviewed Wesley Clark at the 92nd Street Y Cultural Center here in New York City before a live audience and asked him about his presidential ambitions.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think of these generals who run for president?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: I like them. It’s happened before.

AMY GOODMAN: Will it happen again?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: It might.

AMY GOODMAN: Later in the interview, I followed up on that question.

AMY GOODMAN: Will you announce for president?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Well, I haven’t said I won’t.

AMY GOODMAN: What are you waiting for?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: I’m waiting for several different preconditions, which I’m not at liberty to discuss. But I will tell you this: I think about it every single day.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, for the rest of the hour, we’ll hear General Wesley Clark in his own words on the possibility of a US attack on Iran; the impeachment of President Bush; the use of cluster bombs; the bombing of Radio Television Serbia during the Kosovo War under his command; and much more. I interviewed General Clark on Tuesday at the 92nd Street Y in New York.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, let’s talk about Iran. You have a whole website devoted to stopping war.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Www.stopiranwar.com.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you see a replay in what happened in the lead-up to the war with Iraq -- the allegations of the weapons of mass destruction, the media leaping onto the bandwagon?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Well, in a way. But, you know, history doesn’t repeat itself exactly twice. What I did warn about when I testified in front of Congress in 2002, I said if you want to worry about a state, it shouldn’t be Iraq, it should be Iran. But this government, our administration, wanted to worry about Iraq, not Iran.

I knew why, because I had been through the Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, “Sir, you’ve got to come in and talk to me a second.” I said, “Well, you’re too busy.” He said, “No, no.” He says, “We’ve made the decision we’re going to war with Iraq.” This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, “We’re going to war with Iraq? Why?” He said, “I don’t know.” He said, “I guess they don’t know what else to do.” So I said, “Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?” He said, “No, no.” He says, “There’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.” He said, “I guess it’s like we don’t know what to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and we can take down governments.” And he said, “I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.”

So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” -- meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office -- “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Well, don’t show it to me.” And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, “You remember that?” He said, “Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!”

Complete article here

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/02/1440234