Pope Wants New International Order to Keep Peace

Thu January 1, 2004 06:05 AM ET

By Claire Soares

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The world needs a "new international order" to solve its conflicts and ensure peace, Pope John Paul said in his New Year's Day address on Thursday.

The ghosts of 2003 -- when the United States invaded Iraq without United Nations approval -- dominated the pope's first speech of 2004.

"More than ever we need a new international order which draws on the experience and results of the United Nations," the 83-year-old pontiff said at a mass in St Peter's Basilica.

"An order which is capable of finding adequate solutions to today's problems, based on the dignity of human beings, on integrating all society, on solidarity between rich and poor countries, on the sharing of resources and the extraordinary results of scientific and technological progress," he added.

Speaking at Christendom's largest church, the pope urged people not to lose hope of finding peace in the Holy Land, which the Vatican feels is vital to winning the war on terror.

"The land in which Jesus was born sadly continues to live in a dramatic condition. And in other parts of the world sparks of violence and conflict have not been extinguished either. But we need to persevere and not bow to the temptation of losing hope."

Turning to Africa, the pope paid tribute to his Burundi ambassador, Michael Courtney, killed on Monday in an ambush the army has blamed on rebels who have refused to join a peace process to end a 10-year conflict.

"(He) was tragically killed...while he was going about his mission of promoting dialogue and reconciliation. We pray for him and hope his example and sacrifice will bear the fruits of peace in Burundi and the world," the pope said.

The leader of the world's one billion Catholics, who suffers from Parkinson's disease that makes it difficult for him to talk, seemed alert and read all of his homily in a clear voice.

But it is unclear what 2004 holds for him. For the first time since his election in 1978, the pope enters the new year with no firm plans for travel, although there have been some invitations.

He was particularly weak on his last foreign trip, a visit to Slovakia in September, when aides had to read most of his addresses for him.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=AK4LO1QGQJWZKCRBAELCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=4063144

twig: pred tydnem jsem tu daval clanek o tom ze britska policie chce zavest povinne GPS boxy v autech /ktere uz v tech novych tak jako tak jsou/. boxy maji slouzit pro "spravedlive" placeni mytneho, presne podle ujetych kilometru, zamezit kradezim a prekracovani maximalni rychlosti a je tam i funkce na dalkove zastaveni vozidla. nahrad si jen slovo no-fly zone slovem no-drive zone...

PETVAL: No to mi nepripada jako nejakej pokus o ovladani lidi nebo o pronikani do jejich soukromi :/

http://preterhuman.net/texts/

:)

SoftWalls is the name of an aviation project at UC-Berkeley that's developing a system for commercial airliners that establishes and enforces no-fly zones. Basically, through GPS, if a plane begins to enter a no-fly zone (eg, around a mountain, or over Lower Manhattan), an alarm goes off in the cockpit. If ignored, the system actively removes control of the plane away from the pilot and co-pilot to steer the plane out of the no-fly zone. The technology is intended as both an accident prevention technique and a deterrent to terrorists planning to ram a building. ABCNews recently profiled the project (with video) and also rode along with a working prototype built by Honeywell that successfully kept a Beechcraft from hitting a mountain.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/03/1834237

'A barrel of Coca-Cola is worth $78.80, a barrel of milk $150, a barrel of good wine $1,780 -- but what could you all do without oil?'

-- Hugo Chavez
Former President of Venezuela and OPEC

In response to the national terrorism alert, Los Angeles police have made "a number of pre-emptive arrests," a high-ranking LAPD source said Tuesday.

Those arrests were made in the past 48 hours and included people who came to authorities' attention after the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda terror attacks in the United States.

The source stressed that none has been charged with any terrorism-related offense but were rounded up on unrelated charges -- in one case, credit card fraud -- in an effort to get information about possible threats. None of those picked up was identified.

....

http://www.cryptogon.com/docs/prearrests.pdf

*************


This is beyond the pale. Arbitrary, secret arrests. Pure tyranny.

How many people were arrested? Unknown.

What are their names? Unknown.

Can thought crimes get a person on the pre-emptive arrest shitlist? What will happen when this thing goes Red? Is there going to be a knock on my door? Is there going to be a knock on your door? After all, you're a thought criminal if you read information produced by thought criminals. Seriously, when this thing goes Red, and it will, I wouldn't be surprised if I was taken down. The shitlist is probably much longer under Red. Run of the mill thought criminals are probably included on that thing, and who would say or do anything about it? Most of my regular readers won't even throw me a dollar. If Cryptogon suddenly went silent, there would be concerned emails from about ten people, and that would be it. It seems like we're getting close to very bad things, writ large. And it's too late to do anything about it.

Doubleplusungoodthinkers, know this: We are the dead:

New Wi-Fi Tracker Pinpoints User, Device Location
December 24, 2003 (12:23 p.m. EST)
TechWeb News

National Scientific Corporation announced Tuesday that it's wrapped up work on its new WLAN hardware platform -- Wi-Fi Tracker -- which lets IT administrators pinpoint the position of wireless users and devices with accuracy within a few feet.

Hardware developer kits are now available to select early adopting customers, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company said.

First introduced in May, 2003, and touted at the Wi-Fi Planet Conference and Expo earlier in December, Wi-Fi Tracker is a spin-off from National Scientific's DarkStar wireless platform.

When combined with Ekahau, Inc.'s Positioning Engine software, the tracker 'tags' wireless assets accessing a standard 802.11x network to accurately display their location.

http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20031224S0003

...

A CLEAR majority of Australians want a national identity card introduced to help combat terrorism.

This is one of the key findings of a Newspoll conducted exclusively for The Sunday Telegraph.

...

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8268786%5E2,00.html

...

For the first time since the mad cow case came to light on Tuesday, DeHaven and other regulators said they are considering strengthening the nation's testing system for mad cow disease, and installing an electronic tracking system that would follow animals from birth to death.

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33163-2003Dec26.html

...

The US official running Iraq appears to have contradicted Tony Blair's claim Saddam Hussein had laboratories for developing weapons of mass destruction.

The prime minister said in a Christmas message to UK troops that the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) had unearthed "massive evidence" of clandestine labs.

The head of the Coalition Provisional Authority said it was not true.

Paul Bremer said it sounded like a "red herring" made up by someone to upset the rebuilding effort.

...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3351915.stm

Bush's New Year's Wish: Another Attack?

by Michael Arvey

OpEdNews.com

Here we go again, another terrorism "orange alert"--what distraction is it now? I've just unlatched the door to my emergency terrorist shelter that's stocked with 90 days worth of canned and frozen goods, 200 gallons of water, and several pounds of freedom fries.

On the other hand, my personal hooey detector is flashing again. Perhaps it's just my overworked imagination, but it seems to me this Bush administration will do literally anything to retain power. For the last three years they have furtively behaved as thieves and criminals cloaking themselves behind burqas of secrecy--from day one, they've midwived the Big Rush to enact all their dirty and stealthy legislation, and Bush his executive orders. Lies race, truth creeps, and distraction is the name of the game.

Something's amiss in Bush world--the awful noise from a blown piston is emerging from under the hood of our careening government, and it's waking people up in the middle of their darkest night from Bush's spell of mountebankery. Many are now cognizant of the fact that the Bush economy and administration are turning this country into a third-world pen, and we are the pen-ees. Will enough wake up in time? More phony alerts signify the Bushites are scurrying for cover, and they desperately need another big event to galvanize further incursions against democracy and other nations. Please simply note, Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Citizen, the Pavlovian presence of military personnel at airports this Christmas.

Traditionally, New Year's is an opportune time to issue predictions for the coming year. Here's my personal Carnak prescience for 2004, which I hope is a passing whim:

1) Bush needs another attack to distract us from the faltering economy with its stubborn and widespread unemployment, library closures, educational shortfalls, soaring medical costs, illegal immigration, homelessness, lost retirement funds, along with a queue of other civic concerns, and from the debacle in Iraq, regardless of the recent dog-and-pony show concerning Hussein--in short, to distract us from where the blame really lies, which can be deduced from a simple Not methodology: Not liberals, not welfare moms, not AWOL dads, not Osama, not Bill or Hillary Clinton, not Saddam, not Michael Jackson, not le francaise, not university professors, not collectivists, not Marxists and socialists, not the red conspiracy, not Earth Firsters, not environmentalists, and so forth ad infinitum until there's only one place left to go--the White House, or perhaps to the environs bunkered beneath the White House, as it were.

2) Bush needs another attack to stir up more support for further police state measures and for the suspension of what's left of the Constitution.

3) Bush needs another attack to create momentum for the Bush Re-Election Campaign to paint himself as the only one tough enough to lead the counterattack, since the Democratic contender will be cast as weak and as anti-war. If a contender such as Dean becomes a serious threat to the imperium, the Anglo-Saxon presidency might launch its own stealth attack and blame it on the Arabs, thereby enabling it to declare martial law and suspend the 2004 election, and thus seal the fate of the rule of law and democratic jurisprudence in America for a long while.

Fantasies of a madman? In this case, I pray they're mine, and not Bush's
Michael Arvey spiritmed@rocketmail.com Freelance writer, author, poet, teacher Boulder, Co.

http://www.opednews.com/arvey1203_newyear_wish.htm

False alarm? No evidence found of plot on airliners

By VERENA VON DERSCHAU

Dec 25, 2003, 17:32


French investigators questioned seven men pointed out by U.S. intelligence but found no evidence they planned to use a Los Angeles-bound jet to launch terror attacks against the United States, French authorities said Thursday.

John Schults / Reuters
American warnings of a plot had prompted Air France to cancel six flights on Wednesday between Paris and Los Angeles - three in each direction - amid a stepped-up terror alert level in the United States.

U.S. intelligence officials told their French counterparts that members of the al-Qaida terrorist network would try to board the planes over Christmas, said a French judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The seven questioned men, who all had tickets for Air France Flight 68 to Los Angeles, were on a watch list provided by U.S. authorities, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. But all were released after questioning Wednesday night, the spokesman said.

"There are no longer any investigations," he said.

...

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_3785.shtml

USA se bály útoku ze vzduchu

Policista Robert Skwarski se psem Redem kontroluje prostory mezinárodního letiště v Chicagu. (21. prosince 2003)

Autor: Reuters - Frank Polich
26.12.2003 16:30 - Mohlo to být další 11. září. Teroristé z Al-Kajdy podle amerických tajných služeb vypracovali plán unést letadlo mezi Francií a Spojenými státy a poté ho použít jako smrtící bombu proti Las Vegas či jinému městu.

vytisknout




Washington se obrnil proti teroristům

USA se připravují na útok teroristů

PŘÍLOHA:
Hrozba terorismu v USA

Air France zrušila na přímý pokyn francouzské vlády sváteční lety mezi Paříží a Los Angeles. Důvodem byla podle oficiálních informací "velmi vážná" bezpečnostní hrozba.

V pátek přišel vlivný americký list The Washington Post s konkrétnějším vysvětlením: existoval plán únosu a záměrné havárie. Američtí odborníci tvrdili, že na seznamu cestujících je několik podezřelých teroristů.

Francouzští vyšetřovatelé vyslechli třináct mužů, na které je USA upozornily, nezjistili však žádný důkaz, že by měli v úmyslu podniknout atentát. Rovněž zkontrolovali seznamy cestujících všech zrušených letů a ty pasažéry, kteří si objednali letenku, ale k letadlu nepřišli.

"Američané se velmi obávají, že by se mohly opakovat útoky 11. září," řekl agentuře Reuters francouzský vládní zdroj. Podle francouzských médií daly k akci podnět e-maily, podle nichž Al-Kajda plánovala únos právě na této lince.

"Ty informace byly natolik znepokojivé, že jsme museli přijmout bezpečnostní opatření," uvedl Jean-Claude Mallet, vládní bezpečnostní expert.

Washington Post s odvoláním na nejmenovaného amerického představitele napsal, že jeden z cestujících, kteří se nakonec nedostavili k odletu, měl pilotní výcvik. List také poznamenal, že mezi americkými bezpečnostními experty stoupá nervozita a obávají se, že "se stane něco velkého".

Spojené státy požádaly také Mexiko, aby zpřísnilo ostrahu na letištích. Nesdělily však žádnou konkrétní informaci, jako tomu bylo v případě Air France. Francouzská společnost v pátek lety mezi Paříží a Los Angeles obnovila.

V USA platí od neděle čtvrtý stupeň pohotovosti z pětistupňové škály. Důvodem pro zvýšení stupně byla právě hrozba teroristických útoků na území Spojených států o vánočních a novoročních svátcích.

http://zpravy.idnes.cz/zahranicni.asp?r=zahranicni&c=A031226_163041_zahranicni_jkl&t=A031226_163041_zahranicni_jkl&r2=zahranicni

Has Bible translation been twisted to stir up war against Muslims? False Bible Verse Virtually Calls Arabs/Muslims "Wild Ass" Terrorists
Abraham had two sons: Ishmael (father of Arabs) and Isaac (father of Israelites).

When God told the Israelites that He will give the final scripture to an Ishmaelite (Prophet Muhammad), most of the Israelites rebelled against God and started defaming Ishmael, the Arabs, Muhammad, Islam and the Quran, and they never stopped.

Israelites complained: Why choose an Ishmaelite? The final prophet must be an Israelite! Israelites are God's Chosen People!

Some even called Ishmael "a bastard from the slave concubine Hagar." In reality, Hagar, an Egyptian princess, was Abraham's wife and the mother of Ishmael.

Genesis 16:12--correctly translated--states that "(Ishmael) will be a fruitful man: his hand shall be with everyone, and every man's hand shall be with him..." A prophecy that Arabs and Muslims will have good relationships with all humanity. Something that God wants everybody to do.

But Jews and Christians who believe in Israelite supremacy put false words in God's mouth "(Ishmael) shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every man's hand against him..." (Genesis 16:12) In short, they insist, that Arabs and Muslims will become terrorists.

Does this false prophecy create prejudice, even in the minds of otherwise fair Christians and Jews?

Is this why most Americans tolerate the constant defamation of Muslims by Hollywood and the news media?

Is this why Americans supported and didn't mind the Israeli brutalization of Palestinians for decades?

Is this why so many Americans support wars against Muslims?

Could this even lead some Israelites to frame Arabs for terrorism in order to show God that He was wrong in choosing the Ishmaelite Muhammad, instead of an Israelite, for the final covenant?

The Quran should neither be a source of Muslim arrogance nor Jewish envy. It's from God, a mercy for all humanity.

... http://www.libertyforum.org/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=news_members&Number=1145979&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1&t=-1#Post1145979

Okay, forget about the Air France Christmas fiasco. The boys, I mean the 'terrorists' are going to attack in , um, lesse here, April. That's it, April...

;)

to uz je fakt moc... pozor na utok pakistanskych vozickaru !
verite tomu nekdo ?

HOMELAND INSECURITY

Terrorists plan to pose as disabled travelers

Pakistani nationals behind U.S. plot, warns new Homeland Security memo

Posted: December 26, 2003
8:18 p.m. Eastern

By Paul Sperry
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

WASHINGTON – A new U.S. intelligence report obtained by WorldNetDaily describes a plot by "Pakistani Islamic extremists" to pose as aides to disabled travelers to obtain U.S. visas and carry out terrorist attacks once inside the U.S.

They also plan to conduct attacks in Britain using the same scheme, which is designed to "draw less scrutiny from law enforcement," according to the closely held two-page report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The attacks will allegedly take place in April 2004, says the report, which is marked "Law Enforcement Sensitive."

"Pakistani Islamic extremists are allegedly planning to conduct attacks in the U.S. and the United Kingdom in April 2004," according to the report's summary.

From intelligence gathered so far, U.S. intelligence officials believe the Pakistani nationals, all male, plan to obtain U.S. visas in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

"The operatives will accompany a disabled person and act as the disabled person's assistants when obtaining the visa," the report said, adding that the disabled individual may have prosthetic limbs or be confined to a wheelchair.

...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=36334

Leader: Terrorists Planned To Attack Vatican On Christmas

Security Tightened Around Vatican In Recent Weeks

POSTED: 10:05 AM EST December 27, 2003
UPDATED: 10:28 AM EST December 27, 2003

ROME -- Terrorists planned to attack the Vatican with a hijacked plane on Christmas Day, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said in a newspaper interview published Saturday.

Berlusconi told Milan's Libero newspaper of a "precise and verified news of an attack on Rome on Christmas Day."

"A hijacked plane into the Vatican," Berlusconi is quoted as saying. "An attack from the sky, is that clear? The threat of terrorism is very high in this instant. I passed Christmas Eve in Rome to deal with the situation. Now I feel calm. It will pass."

He added, "It isn't fatalism, but the knowledge of having our guard up. If they organized this, they will not pull it off."

Berlusconi gave no further details in the interview about who the intended hijackers were, where the information came from and how the attack was thwarted.

Security has been tightened around the Vatican in recent weeks amid reports that churches could become terrorist targets. During Christmas celebrations, Italian police guarded the perimeter of the vast St. Peter's Square and pilgrims entering the basilica passed through metal detectors.

The Vatican refused Saturday to respond to questions about a possible Christmas threat.

Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement, "As in every case of suspected or valid information regarding security themes, I have no comment to make."

Berlusconi's office issued its own statement Saturday, saying the premier's remarks did not amount to official declarations.

"Premier Silvio Berlusconi gave no interview. One cannot confuse a quick exchange of Christmas greetings with political declarations," it said.

The premier also was quoted by Libero as saying he received information in November of another planned attack, on the subways of Milan and Rome.

"There were those who insisted that the stations be closed," Berlusconi is quoted as saying. "I took on myself the responsibility for avoiding certain measures. They would had the same effect on the minds of people as an attack, they would have killed us inside, with dramatic social and economic consequences.

"Terrorism wants to make us close up. I preferred to double up the safety checks."

Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.