http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=Writer Thu, 20 Jun 2013 03:37:53 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=Writer Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:12:44 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ba9_1371694136 Detroit Iron By Douglas Main, Staff Writer LiveScience.com On the seafloor just off of the U.S. East Coast lies a barely known world, explorations of which bring continual surprises. As recently as the mid-2000s, practically zero methane seeps - spots on the seafloor where gas leaks from the Earth's crust - were thought to exist off the East Coast; while one had been reported more than a decade ago, it was thought to be one of a kind. But in the past two years, additional studies have revealed a host of new areas of seafloor rich in seeps, said Laura Brothers, a research geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey. And surrounding these seafloor vents, scientists have found a variety of unique life forms, like mussels and crabs, that survive via symbiotic relationships withmethane-eating bacteria, Brothers told LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet. New technologies have allowed scientists to keep locating new seeps, including one that may be the largest in the world. The findings have changed geologists' understanding of the processes taking place beneath the seafloor. "These newly discovered communities show that there is much more seafloor methane venting then we previously thought, and suggests that there are many more seeps out there that we don't know about," Brothers said. A study co-authored by Brothers, published online last month in the journal Geology, found several large communities of mussels and other animals at two spots off of the Carolinas where methane is seeping from the seafloor, Brothers said. Although one of these spots had already been discovered, the amount of life the researchers found covered an area about six times larger than previously thought, Brothers said. And the mussels cover a total area equivalent to about 40 football fields. "We found these in an area we thought we knew well," she said. The largest seep in the Atlantic An even larger, previously unknown vent was found off the coast of Virginia, in research by Steve Ross, a scientist at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and Sandra Brooke, a scientist at Florida State University. Discovered near the Norfolk submarine canyon, the vent is the largest in the Atlantic, and possibly in all of the world's oceans, Ross told LiveScience. North America's continental shelf, the underwater edge of the continent that borders the Atlantic Ocean basin, is littered with underwater canyons etched by rivers thousands of years ago when the region was above sea level. These canyons remain little explored, Ross said. But he is helping to change that through his work aboard the Okeanos Explorer, a ship owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which for the last three years has been working to explore thesesubmarine canyons. Scientists locate the seeps by producing images of methane gas bubbles (and where they originate) using multi-beam sonar, which calculates the amount of time and distance it takes for sound waves to travel from the ship to the bubbles and back. The same technique also produces detailed imagery of the seafloor. Remote-operated vehicles can then be dispatched to bring back photos of the ocean bottom, Ross said. All of these techniques are being used to document the gas seeps, he said. Many more to be discovered Further imaging of the seafloor by the Okeanos Explorer last fall revealed another three gas seeps southeast of Nantucket, Mass., at a maximum depth of 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) below the ocean surface. Along with several new findings that haven't been published yet, these newfound seeps add up to a total of about eight regions venting methane off of the East Coast, Ross said. However, Carolyn Ruppel, a researcher at the USGS, advised against declaring a specific number of seeps found, since this total is constantly increasing and since the determination of what constitutes an individual "seep" can be vague. "We expect many more to be discovered," Ruppel said. Much of this methane appears to be coming from methane gas hydrates, a crystallized form of methane stored in frigid sediment under the relatively high pressures of the deep ocean, Brothers said. Previously it wasn't thought that a significant amount of this methane would be released from these deposits, which only give up their methane when weakened by lower pressures or rising temperatures. It's unclear why some of these hydrates are producing methane gas, but it's not a huge amount and unlikely to be enough to currently attract commercial interest, Brothers said. http://news.yahoo.com/surprising-trove-gas-seeps-found-off-east-coast-140456660.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ba9_1371694136 Detroit Iron Surprising Trove of Gas Seeps Found Off East Coast U.S. East Coast, Laura Brothers, U.S. Geological Survey Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:39:07 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=03c_1371245689 nutsflipped Ben Rhodes, the White House national security advisor behind the claim that President Bashar Al-Assad used chemical weapons in Syria, is a fiction writer with zero educational background in government, diplomacy or national security who also played a key role in covering up the truth behind the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. Ben Rhodes (left). Image: Wikimedia Commons Yesterday, Rhodes announced that the White House had "high confidence" that the Syrian Army had used chemical weapons, providing no evidence, and that the Obama administration would now take steps to arm FSA rebels, who as has been widely documented are being led by Al-Qaeda terrorists who killed U.S. troops in Iraq. The Wall Street Journal also reports that a no fly zone is being prepared that would embroil the United States in yet another war. 35-year-old Rhodes has been a speechwriter for Obama since 2007 and now enjoys the role of deputy national security adviser for strategic communication. He created the infamous term "kinetic military action" to describe the bombardment of Libya which allowed Obama to skirt around the constitutional question of having to declare war. Rhodes' expertise revolves around manufacturing narratives. "He earned a master's degree in fiction-writing from New York University just a few years ago," writes Ed Lansky . "He did not have a degree in government, diplomacy, national security; nor has he served in the CIA, or the military. He was toiling away not that long ago on a novel called 'The Oasis of Love" about a mega church in Houston, a dog track, and a failed romance." As Stephen Hayes documents in a lengthy Weekly Standard piece , Rhodes was instrumental in altering CIA talking points to delete references to Islamic terrorists being involved in the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, setting the foundation for the Obama administration's cover-up of the incident by claiming the siege was a demonstration against an anti-Muslim film. This was an attempt to hide the fact that the White House had supported Al-Qaeda terrorists in the overthrow of Gaddafi, just as they are now doing in Syria. Rhodes can also count on the support of the US corporate media in selling fairytales about chemical weapons, since his brother David is the president of CBS News. The central involvement of a fiction writer in selling yet another war based on dubious claims about the use of weapons of mass destruction is perfectly appropriate for an administration that is clearly beating the war drums in order to distract from domestic scandals. "Just a few weeks ago the US Intelligence Community did not believe claims that the Syrian government used chemicals, then, after scolded by the Israelis they changed their tune to a very qualified "maybe." Now, with no formal investigation at all and no word on the chain of evidence or its source, we are told with absolute certainty that the Assad government has used the weapons. And they can't tell us because it is secret! Just like magic these things happen when needed!" writes Daniel McAdams . In addition, the innumerable examples of Obama-backed Syrian rebels obtaining and using chemical weapons - including the recent discovery by Turkish police of 2kg of sarin nerve gas in the hands of Al-Nusra terrorists - have been conveniently swept aside. The question of why the Syrian Army, which has been achieving battlefield victories via conventional means for months, would use chemical weapons on a limited scale with no appreciable advantage other than to draw international condemnation and a pretext for US involvement, remains unanswered. The White House is now accelerating America's involvement in yet another unconstitutional, unaffordable war despite there being little appetite for it on both sides of the aisle and despite warnings that the conflict could escalate into World War 3 . In pledging to increase military support for Syrian rebels and preparing a no fly zone, the Obama administration is openly aiding terrorists who have sworn allegiance to Al-Qaeda. - Immediately after the State Department declared Jabhat al-Nusra a terrorist organization, 29 different FSA rebel outfits pledged allegiance to the Al-Qaeda group. - FSA rebels have vowed to "fight the U.S." once they finish with Bashar Al-Assad. - FSA rebels have been filmed burning US and Israeli flags on more than one occasion. - FSA rebels have been filmed singing songs that glorify Osama Bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks. - One FSA group even calls its fighting unit the "Osama Bin Laden" brigade . - Another video shows FSA rebels chanting, "We are all with Osama bin Laden!" - FSA rebels have voiced their desire to see the Al-Qaeda flag fly over the White House once the rebels are victorious across the region. - FSA rebels recently massacred an entire village of Christians while this week they slaughtered a 14-year-old boy for supposedly insulting Mohammed. President Barack Obama is preparing to add another bullet point to the growing list of reasons of why he should be impeached, by embroiling the United States in another unconstitutional war which will serve little purpose other than to empower terrorists while pouring gasoline on an already raging inferno. ********************* Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com . He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly New In Saudi Arabia, women are not allowed to drive, in Syria, Women fly planes and bomb Saudi backed terrorists. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=03c_1371245689 nutsflipped Man Behind Syrian 'Chemical Weapons' Claim Is Fiction <span class="highlight">Writer</span> Who Ran Benghazi Cover-Up Syria,Fake,WMD,use,ben,Rhodes,zionist,agitateur, Obama, the, stooge Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:50:28 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=24b_1371516460 Detroit Iron By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC NewsFor a guy who's been dead since 1975, Jimmy Hoffa really gets around. Through the years, tipsters have insisted the Teamsters boss - who vanished from a suburban Detroit restaurant - was laid to rest in the swamps of Florida, under the artificial turf of Giants Stadium and more than a dozen other spots. Monday, the feds were digging up a field in Oakland Township, Mich., with new designs on finding Hoffa's remains and solving the mystery of his disappearance. Here are some of the places where the labor leader has been rumored to be spending eternity: Giants Stadium: A mob informant told the FBI in 1986 that Hoffa was killed by an Irish gangster in a Detroit suburb and buried in an end zone near section 107 of the football field. Stadium officials said they they dug four feet down while replacing artificial turf and didn't find any trace of Hoffa. The stadium was demolished in 2010. General Motors' headquarters: Hoffa's onetime driver, Marvin Elkind, told a Canadian journalist that a Detroit mobster revealed the final resting place in 1985 when he walked past the GM building, known as the Renaissance Center, nodded toward the massive foundation and said, "Say good morning to Jimmy Hoffa, boys." Driveway in Roseville, Mich.: Acting on a tip, authorities used radar last September to inspect the driveway of a private home and saw something that made them want a closer look. Police drilled for soil samples but experts found no sign of human decomposition in the dirt. Sheraton Hotel on Wilmington Island, Ga.: A Teamsters pension fund owned this property near Savannah when Hoffa vanished, so it's been dogged by rumors that he was laid to rest under the helipad. "It's had a colorful past," a developer who converted it into condos once said. A dump in Jersey City, N.J.: Authorities spent several days in 1975 digging up a mob-linked waste facility after a tipster claimed Hoffa could be found there, a 55-gallon drum serving as a his coffin. They didn't find anything but animal bones. Wexler's Tavern in Cleveland: The owner of the watering hole was doing some renovation work last month when he made an intriguing find: bone fragments and a matchbook from the Palm Desert Lodge in California, which had strong ties to Hoffa. But pathologists determined the remains were not human. Florida Everglades: An ex-hitman who said he was Hoffa's bodyguard told a Senate committee in 1982 that Hoffa's body was ground up and stuffed in a steel drum that was then dumped in the Sunshine State's gator-infested wetlands. A Japanese-made car: A 2006 book claimed that a convicted hitman confessed before his death that he knifed Hoffa to death, took the body to New Jersey, burned it in a steel barrel, dumped the remains in a car that was compressed into a hunk of metal and sent to Japan to be used in new vehicles, the Detroit News reported. Incinerator in Hamtramck, Mich.: A Pennsylvania Teamsters official purportedly confessed on his deathbed that he flew to Pontiac, Mich., to collect Hoffa's body from his killers and then had it burned. The same source, Frank Sheeran, supposedly also told an author he shot Hoffa at a Detroit home, but blood found there in 2004 was not a match. Pool in Hampton Township, Mich.: A convicted murderer who had already led cops to one body in his home claimed they could find Hoffa under an above-ground pool there. So in July 2003, a backhoe dug up the yard while the tipster watched in shackles, but nothing was found. Tire-shredding plant in Hamtramck, Mich.: A 1978 book posited that Hoffa's corpse was disposed of at Central Sanitation Services, once owned by organized crime figures. The FBI said at the time they looked into that theory and discounted it. Horse farm in Milford, Mich.: The FBI spent 14 days looking for Hoffa at the 89-acre Hidden Dreams Farm after a 75-year-old prison inmate who once worked there claimed he witnessed the burial. That story, like so many others, turned out to be a pile of manure. http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/17/19006027-jimmy-hoffas-rumored-resting-places-from-the-everglades-to-the-end-zone?lite http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=24b_1371516460 Detroit Iron Jimmy Hoffa's rumored resting places, from the Everglades to the end zone Jimmy Hoffa, FBI Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:04:00 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=dc9_1371502742 john4891 Everyone is wondering (at least I am) who is Ben Rhodes, a 30-something who ascended from literally nowhere to be what seems a main driving force behind Obama's foreign policy. He is credited with convincing the president to embrace the Arab Spring, convincing the president to bomb Libya, and, now, convincing the president to start yet another war, this time against Syria. Who is he? How did a 24-year old aspiring fiction-writer in 2002 suddenly become one of the drafters of not only the 9/11 Commission report but also the Iraq Study Group Report? Then move on to Obama's presidential campaign as a speechwriter and then to Deputy National Security Advisor, from which he announced the beginning of a US war on Syria while the president met with supporters in the East Room of the White House? Those familiar with Washington know that such miraculous ascents rarely happen on their own and are equally rarely the result of pure, raw talent. There might be some clues to his brother David's also improbable rise -- from a lowly production assistant at Fox News at the end of the 1990s to covering presidential elections for Fox News (including the one where his brother was writing Obama's speeches) to the lofty position of president of CBS news by 2011! The excellent Russ Baker was wondering about all this way back in March, when he noticed a typical New York Times gloss-over article on Rhodes. Aside from his quite unbelievable rise, we do know that he was catastrophically wrong on Libya, where a Time Magazine article pointed out at the time that he was the strong counter-weight to those who argued for more caution on the use of force. Here is how Time put it back in 2011, when the interventionists were on the verge of their triumph: Obama and his aides know they are taking a big risk. "It's a huge gamble," says the senior administration official. The administration knows, for example, that al Qaeda, which has active cells in Libya, will try to exploit the power vacuum that will come with a weak or ousted Gaddafi. They also know that the U.S. will have to rely on other countries for the crucial task of rebuilding Libya and that the region may in fact be further destabilized by intervention. Outweighing that, the National Security Council's Ben Rhodes says, are the long-term benefits of saving lives, protecting the possibility of democratic change elsewhere in the region and-tellingly-ensuring "the ability of collective action to be a tool in circumstances like this." Rhodes carried the day on Libya and he was completely incorrect in his assessment, his analysis, his prediction, and his prescription. Anyone who bothers to look at Libya today, which is run by gangs of roving extremist death squads would see what a fool Ben Rhodes is for his promise of "democratic change" in Libya -- and how much more foolish is the president for following the advice of such a person. Rhodes is named as the source of the White House-altered CIA talking points on Benghazi, where references to the Islamist extremist role in the attack on US Ambassador Chris Stevens were erased. It is understandable why the fiction writer Rhodes would want to toss that reference in the circular file: that particular sub-plot did not fit in with the main theme he had already painstakingly written, namely that the US attack on Libya would end the killing, stabilize the country, and bring about a democratic revolution that would continue to spread through the region. Fiction writers understand that a sub-plot could take your readers too far off the main narrative of the story and cause serious structural problems. That is why there are so many rounds of re-writes. The killing of Stevens and the rise of murderous -- and racist -- extremists did not fit the plot, so it had to be deleted. Being wrong on war when you are on the sending end of death and destruction is less obvious to your countrymen than when you are on the receiving end. But anyone living in Libya after Rhodes' "life-saving" mission knows full well the kind of liberation that comes at the tip of a US missile. And neighboring countries know as well what happens when a nation armed to the teeth with weapons, including chemical weapons, completely implodes after its infrastructure is destroyed by foreign attack. In Washington, though, being catastrophically wrong on Libya eminently qualifies Ben Rhodes to take the lead on US Syria policy. http://tinyurl.com/kwf9oq2 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=dc9_1371502742 john4891 Ben Rhodes, the Zionist Behind Obama's Libya and Syria Policies Syria, Libya, Benghazi Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:02:32 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5d9_1371502771 english-patriot33 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10100943/Can-David-Cameron-explain-why-he-has-put-us-on-al-Qaedas-side.html Can David Cameron explain why he has put us on al-Qaeda's side? The longer a prime minister remains in 10 Downing Street, the more likely he or she is to go mad. Something of the sort happened to Gordon Brown and also, from 2003 onwards if not before, to Tony Blair. No prime minister has left office in full possession of his or her mental faculties since Jim Callaghan in early 1979. One of David Cameron's admirable qualities has been his sanity. He is unexcitable. He is not paranoid, does not conspire against his colleagues, sit up to the small hours of the morning brooding, or hurl pieces of crockery around the room when in a violent rage. He is not subject to sudden, irrational mood-swings. None of this can or should be taken for granted, and surely Samantha Cameron can take some of the credit. "My job is to get him out of here sane," she tells friends. But the Prime Minister has been in the job for three years (and Tory leader for nearly eight), and watching him answer questions on the floor of the House on Monday afternoon, for the first time I started to wonder. With Parliament back after the Whitsun recess, Mr Cameron made a statement that dealt principally with the civil war in Syria, and gave the belated parliamentary response to the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby. Many of his remarks were those of a man with only a tenuous grip on reality. What was missing was common sense. We have seen this many times before. Sir Peter Tapsell, father of the Commons, said that Syria was now enduring what is "fundamentally a religious war between the Shia and the Sunni, which has raged within Islam for 1,300 years". Mr Cameron would not accept this point. "When I see the official Syrian opposition," he replied, "I do not see purely a religious grouping; I see a group of people who have declared that they are in favour of democracy, human rights and a future for minorities, including Christians, in Syria. That is the fact of the matter." Then Jack Straw, a former foreign secretary, asked whether the Prime Minister agreed that Iran would have to be part of any peace deal. Mr Cameron failed to deal with this essential question. At the time of the Iraq invasion 10 years ago, something very like this happened to Tony Blair. A moment came when he too entered a virtual world. Like Mr Blair, Mr Cameron has come to advocate policy in a macabre vacuum, devoid of truth or understanding. He too displays a reluctance to accept the irksome realities of the human condition. Like Mr Blair, Mr Cameron had taken no interest in the world outside Britain before he entered No 10. They both learnt about foreign affairs as prime minister, and both are open to the charge that they treat the subject like a grand, theoretical abstraction. From the start, Mr Cameron (just like Mr Blair in Iraq) has been happy to entertain the proposition that this Syrian conflict is in essence a struggle between good and evil - benevolent democrats and liberals fighting a virtuous struggle against the murderous tyrant Assad. In fact, the rebels were not nearly as good (and President Assad not as evil) as Mr Cameron has thought. As a result of this, the Prime Minister has got it wrong from the start. He massively underestimated Assad's support and staying power. He was absurdly contemptuous of the Russians (who have outmanoeuvred us all along). Above all, he has failed to understand the rebels. Very much as Mr Blair and his American allies were duped by the impostor Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress, so Mr Cameron has made the mistake of taking the Syrian National Coalition seriously. They are intelligent, educated, well-intentioned men in suits - hotel guerrillas - and as such irrelevant to what is now happening in Syria. The Prime Minister would do well to read the mea culpa published last week in Al-Monitor, by a pseudonymous writer from Aleppo who calls himself Edward Dark. "So what went wrong?' asks Mr Dark. "Or, to be more accurate, where did we go wrong? How did a once inspirational and noble popular uprising calling for freedom and basic human rights degenerate into an orgy of bloodthirsty sectarian violence, with depravity unfit for even animals?" Mr Dark describes how the revolution has been captured by a collection of gangsters and fanatics. "This wasn't what we revolted for," he says in despair at the dreadful fate that has overcome the country he loves, "to replace one group of criminals with another." Mr Dark now says he has given up on the revolution. He says that he has seen that the only way forward is "through reconciliation and a renunciation of violence". Yet Mr Cameron wants to escalate the fighting by arranging military support to the rebels. He told Parliament on Monday that he hopes this will "tip the balance" in their favour. Iran - in reality an essential part of any solution - will not be welcome at the negotiating table, and in Mr Cameron's mind there is no future for Assad, which probably means that the war will drag on and on. I dare say that the Prime Minister is sincere when he asserts that Syria is in the grip of a civil war, with democrats and human rights activists ranged up on one side against an evil dictator. I have not been to Syria, but it is clear to me that Sir Peter Tapsell is much closer to the truth. Certainly, the liberal elite in which the Prime Minister places such hopes was involved at the beginning of the uprising. But armed elements funded and supplied by interested parties in Saudi Arabia and Qatar were also present from the start. Their fundamental aim was nothing to do with human rights and the protection of minorities. It was to destabilise and destroy President Assad, Iran's closest ally in the region, and therefore assert Saudi dominance. To what extent have Britain and America been complicit? It is hard to judge. What can be said with certainty is that over the past decade the Middle East, and to some extent the Islamic world, has broken down into two armed camps. On the one side are Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, backed by the United States and (quietly) Israel. To everyone's enormous embarrassment, al-Qaeda is very firmly in this camp. On the other side are Iran, Hizbollah and post-bellum Iraq, strongly backed by Russia and China. Viewed from this wider perspective, Mr Cameron's claim to be on the side of democracy and human rights, and against dictatorship, is not merely fraudulent - it is patently ridiculous. We are not on the side of democracy. As Sir Peter Tapsell hinted in the Commons, Britain has wholeheartedly backed the Sunni camp - Saudi, the Gulf States, and al-Qaeda - in its increasingly bloodthirsty and horrifying conflict against Shia Islam. There may be some very good reasons for this, but I do wish that the Prime Minister would re-engage with the real world, come out publicly, and explain what they are. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5d9_1371502771 english-patriot33 Can David Cameron explain why he has put us on al-Qaeda's side? islam, muslims, terrorists, spineless david cameron, Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:42:03 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3c6_1371436518 Detroit Iron The cold facts about the terrible fates of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan lie a world apart from the false, romantic myths that continue to be perpetuated to an uninterested America. Will this pathetic state of affairs ever end? by Mike Campbell July 2 is the 76th anniversary of the loss of Amelia Earhart , America's "First Lady of Flight," Fred Noonan , her navigator, and Earhart's twin-engine Lockheed Electra 10E in the central Pacific during their world-flight attempt in 1937. No missing-persons case in history has been as misreported and misunderstood, and the truth about the lost flyers' cruel fates continues to elude more than 99 percent of the public. In fact, the widely accepted myth that the Earhart disappearance remains among the 20th century's greatest mysteries is absolutely false, and is the result of a decades-long U.S. government disinformation program that continues to this day. The ugly truth is that Earhart and Noonan crash-landed at Mili Atoll in the Japanese-controlled Marshall Islands , were picked up by the Japanese and taken to their military headquarters at Jaluit Atoll , and later to Roi-Namur Island on Kwajalein Atoll . From Roi-Namur, the hapless pair was flown to Saipan in the Northern Marianas , where they eventually suffered wretched deaths at the hands of their barbaric captors - Noonan from beheading, Earhart from dysentery or execution, according to the available evidence. This unpleasant reality has been dismissed, denied and repackaged by our government-media establishment so successfully that it has long been relegated to the dustbin of fringe conspiracy theory, where only wingnuts dare tread. But in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the flyers' Mili Atoll landing and recovery by the Japanese survey ship Koshu are commonly accepted facts. In 1987, the Marshallese government issued four postage stamps to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the events.Soon after the flyers' whereabouts became known or strongly suspected by U.S. intelligence assets, the truth became a sacred cow - but for the public, it became a permanent, irresolvable mystery. If the nation had learned of Amelia's abandonment on Saipan by President Franklin D. Roosevelt , his political future would have turned to ashes. Documents that prove FDR's direct knowledge of the flyers' capture - records of American high-frequency radio direction finding stations' intercepts of Japanese transmissions in the Pacific - have been expunged en masse from national archives, replaced by conspicuous, gaping spaces that attest to the former presence of the forbidden information. Other files are buried so deeply that their existence and locations are known only to a select few and can be released only by presidential order, but several reliable witnesses have verified the existence of these documents. The cozy postwar relationship between the United States and Japan, with her vital Cold War role in containing the encroaching communist threat in the Asia-Pacific region, has further militated against official release of the truth. The TIGHAR-Nikumaroro myth: Recycled propagandaThe only ideas about Amelia Earhart we hear anymore are those advanced by Ric Gillespie, executive director of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery ( TIGHAR ). Gillespie's thirdhand, long-debunked theory that Earhart landed on Nikumaroro Atoll (then Gardner Island, about 400 miles southeast of Howland Island , her intended destination), where she and Noonan eventually perished from thirst or starvation, continues its endless run as the most transparently false and over-hyped solution to the Earhart puzzle ever. Just over a month ago, Discovery News was the first of many media mouthpieces to publish or broadcast Gillespie's latest scheme to raise money from the unwary and return to Nikumaroro for an eleventh time. "Earhart's Plane Revealed in Sonar?" Discovery News asks in its May 29 online edition, doing its level best to make the ridiculous sound plausible. Only the terminally credulous, who must comprise a large segment of its readers, could read this story without recognizing its unmitigated sophism. This writer is not a mind reader, so it cannot be stated with certainty whether Gillespie actually believes his so-called "Nikumaroro hypothesis," an old hag of a theory he's continually dressing up in new clothes to sneak past an inattentive public to dance at yet another fancy Pacific boondoggle. But given his reputed intelligence and acumen as an aircraft accident investigator, it stretches credulity to think that someone of his intellectual caliber could seriously dismiss the mountain of compelling evidence for Earhart's Saipan demise in favor of an idea that was roundly rejected by serious, equally intelligent and ethical researchers decades ago. But whether Gillespie is sincerely misguided or only pretending to believe the Nikumaroro nonsense he proclaims, the effect is the same: The establishment's goal of keeping the masses ignorant about the truth is best achieved whenever our corrupt mainstream media join to sing a new chorus of "Return to Nikumaroro." Ten trips to Nikumaroro since the late 1980s have produced nothing remotely connected to the flyers, yet Gillespie still insists they landed and died there, and that the Electra was washed over a reef by ocean tides. Not one piece of the assorted garbage he has collected from the picked-over island - home to hundreds of Gilbertese settlers and U.S. Coast Guard LORAN personnel since the mid-1940s - and attempted to tie to Earhart or Noonan has stood up to scrutiny. If TIGHAR's serial excursions to Nikumaroro have proven anything, it can only be that Amelia Earhart was never there. The establishment propaganda machine continues to regale the American public with the false claims of Earhart theorists, usually Gillespie's, but also those of "crashed-and-sank" proponents such as Elgen Long, Dave Jourdan and Bob Ballard, while Saipan is assiduously avoided. Regardless of the means, the goal of keeping Americans ignorant about the truth is always the same, and the continuing travesty of official denial shows no signs of abating. A thorough search for any mention of the word "Saipan" in the gamut of media products in recent years about the Earhart matter reveals virtually nothing. Regardless of the overwhelming evidence attesting to the Saipan deaths of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan, TIGHAR's falsehoods, buttressed by the stiff wind of a supportive media eager to disseminate them, are everything average news consumers know about Amelia Earhart - if they know anything at all. In spring 2012, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's public support of Gillespie's latest Nikumaroro jaunt made official what many researchers have long known: the U.S. government has no interest in admitting the truth, but is determined to ignore the facts and promote false solutions in the Earhart case. Last August, in observance of the "diamond anniversary" of Earhart's last flight, the disinformation blitz reached its zenith, as Discovery Channel aired a new program on the same shopworn, false premise , Finding Amelia: The Mystery Solved,chronicling TIGHAR's most recent fruitless search in the depths off Nikumaroro. It was the latest in a long list of documentaries, films, books and articles diverting the public away from the truth. The Saipan evidence: Overwhelming and available to all Nearly 30 years before Gillespie and TIGHAR began making noise, noted San Francisco radio newsman Fred Goerner's early 1960s investigations on Saipan convincingly established, for objective observers, Earhart and Noonan's presence there in the weeks and months following their disappearance. "Amelia Earhart Mystery Is Solved," the July 1, 1960, San Mateo(California) Timestrumpeted in a 100-point headline that announced Goerner's discoveries to the world for the first time. The story's subhead, "Famed Aviatrix Died on Saipan," is as true today as it was in 1960. Goerner's 1966 bestseller , The Search for Amelia Earhart, still a gem of original research, was the first of several works to reveal the truth. Among Goerner's original witnesses on Saipan was Dr. Manual Aldan, a dentist and native Saipanese who understood Japanese. Aldan told Goerner he didn't see the white woman and man who landed there in the summer of 1937, but recalled a statement he overheard from a Japanese officer. "I dealt with high officials on the island and knew what they were saying in Japanese," Aldan said. "This is the name the Japanese officer said: 'Earharto!'" Maverick Air Force officers Joe Gervais and Robert Dinger's 1960 investigations on Guam and Saipan produced more eyewitness recollections, further establishing the fliers' presence on Saipan, and are recorded in Joe Klaas' infamous 1970 book , Amelia Earhart Lives: A Trip Through Intrigue to Find America's First Lady of Mystery. Thomas E. Devine's 1987 classic , Eyewitness:The Amelia Earhart Incident, recounts the author's experiences in the summer of 1944 during the Battle of Saipan that indicated the pre-war presence of Earhart, Noonan and Earhart's plane, NR 16020. In July 1944, the Electra was burned beyond recognition and buried in rubble at Aslito Airfield with hundreds of tons of war refuse, including countless Japanese planes, by American forces at FDR's direction, according to Devine and several eyewitnesses, including one who claimed he was in the Oval Office when Roosevelt uttered his destruct order. Amelia Earhart's Electra will almost certainly never be found. In 1965, retired Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz told Goerner in a phone conversation, "Now that you're going to Washington, Fred, I want to tell you Earhart and her navigator did go down in the Marshalls and were picked up by the Japanese." Not a trace of Nimitz's revelation, known to all serious observers of the Earhart matter, can be found in any major media product in the past several decades. In addition to the famed Navy warrior's statement to Goerner, no less an authority than the late General Alexander A. Vandegrift , commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps from 1943 to 1947, told him in a nearly completely unknown 1971 letter, "Miss Earhart met her death on Saipan." Yet another highly decorated Marine, General Graves B. Erskine , a veteran of the Battle of Saipan, made a similar assertion to two of Goerner's close associates in the KCBS radio waiting room a few months after the publication of Search. All three flag officers died of natural causes within a few years of their disclosures, and while their credibility remains beyond reproach, their disclosures have been completely ignored and remain unknown to the public. The eyewitness accounts of 26 American veterans of the Saipan invasion, whose experiences corroborated Devine's, were presented for the first time in With Our Own Eyes: Eyewitnesses to the Final Days of Amelia Earhart (2002). Ten years later, Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last , this writer's expansive follow-up to With Our Own Eyes, overwhelmingly confirmed the truth with many new findings, witness testimonies and documents. Convicted murderers are sent to their deaths based on the smallest fraction of the evidence Truth at Last offers that puts Earhart and Noonan on Saipan - far exceeding the most stringent reasonable-man standard of proof. Truth at Last, blacked out by an establishment media that refuses to acknowledge its existence, examines the roots of the U.S. government's determination to deny the facts, and how its aversion to the truth is reflected in virtually every public discussion about the Earhart disappearance. Despite the constant refrain that the so-called Earhart mystery will always be an impossible puzzle, the truth is available to any who seek it - in the above referenced sources and several others as well. Unfortunately, in a nation that grows increasingly incurious about its own history, any hope for a long-overdue breakthrough is unrealistic. Perhaps the most distressing and depressing aspect in all this - at least for the few who truly want to see a final resolution of the Earhart matter, i.e., a U.S. government admission of the truth - is that not a single individual in any position to influence public opinion has embraced this worthy cause in recent memory. When Amelia Earhart landed her single-engine Lockheed Vega in a Londonderry, Ireland field on the morning of July 21, 1932, she became the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic and gained fame beyond imagination. The toast of two continents, she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross from the U.S.Congress and the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor from the French Government, and her star was still ascending. Who could have imagined that just five years later, one of the world's most acclaimed women would be held captive in a dismal Saipan jail cell by a deceitful enemy plotting America's destruction, abandoned by her country, facing a miserable, ignominious death? The cold facts about the terrible fates of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan lie a world apart from the false, romantic myths that continue to be perpetuated to an uninterested America. Will this pathetic state of affairs ever end? http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2013/06/13/224428-the-truth-in-the-earhart-mystery-is-a-sacred-cow/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3c6_1371436518 Detroit Iron The truth in the Earhart "mystery" is a sacred cow Amelia Earhart, Fred Noonan, Lockheed Electra 10E Sat, 15 Jun 2013 22:38:07 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=52f_1371350159 Muhammad_ibn_Abdullah One of America's greatest musical and artistic talents, Alicia Keys, has shown the kind of moral and artistic integrity that is so sadly lacking among some of her more excitable contemporaries, (not to say clich'ed windbags unable to break free from fashionable anti-intellectual prejudice against the Jewish state). As the World Jewish Congress (WJC) is highlighting today , Ms Keys has refused to bow to pressure from characters such as Roger Waters, of Pink Floyd fame, and Alice Walker, a Pulitzer prize winning writer. In response to a call to boycott Israel by cancelling a July 4 concert in Tel Aviv, the singer, song-writer, and actress said: "I look forward to my first visit to Israel. Music is a universal language that is meant to unify audiences in peace and love, and that is the spirit of our show." How could one disagree? Well, one could disagree if, instead of "peace and love", one's primary motivation was hatred and lies. If people such as Waters and Walker can provide a better explanation for their calls they are quite welcome to explain them here on The Commentator. Indeed, I'll go one better: why don't Waters and Walker let me interview them about their behaviour? Surely they wouldn't turn down a right to reply so as better to give their own version of events. (Would any reader care to ask them?) Meanwhile, it's Friday, which means people are going to be beheaded today in Saudi Arabia; it's Friday in Syria, which means men, women and children will be slaughtered to protect the Assad despotism; and it's Friday like any other Friday in much of the rest of the world where hundreds of millions live under oppressive regimes. But why not just ignore all that and boycott Israel, one of the most advanced democracies in the world? Alicia Keys has explained why not, and that's a great reason for writing to thank her for her decency, and for going out and buying one of her records today. http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3787/alicia_keys_face_slaps_anti_israel_bigotry http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=52f_1371350159 Muhammad_ibn_Abdullah Alicia Keys Stands Against Anti-Israel Bigotry... alicia keys, facts, truth, exposing lies, exposing islam, goodness, right, light, knowledge, sharing, Sat, 15 Jun 2013 20:34:09 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=680_1371342740 USMC_SRT One week after six MV-22B Ospreys successfully flew the longest and largest transatlantic flight of any Osprey squadron to date, Marine Helicopter Squadron One hosted a MV-22B Introduction Ceremony at the HMX-1 hangar on May 4, 2013. The ceremony marked the beginning of HMX-1's transition from CH-46E Sea Knights to MV-22B Ospreys for green-side and presidential support flights: carrying White House staff members and press, said Col. John Faircloth, HMX-1 commanding officer and a Grady, Ala., native. Though the aircraft will begin supporting the troops of Officer Candidates School and The Basic School immediately, filling the presidential support role is scheduled to begin late this year or early next, he added. "The Marine Corps is transitioning its medium platform helicopters, so it's a natural transition," Faircloth said. "It's a tremendous airframe and a game-changing machine." The game-changing machine adds its own capabilities. "The Osprey is a wonderful addition in speed and range," said Col Kevin Wild, incoming commanding officer, HMX-1. "It takes a CH-46 a couple of hours to fly to New York, it takes an Osprey one hour. That means we can make more trips in one day." "The Osprey can fly higher, making it less vulnerable to weather," Wild said. "It can get over or around bad weather better than the 46." The HMX-1 lead transition officer for the MV-22 agreed with Wild. "The Osprey can fly higher, faster and is a more comfortable ride," said Maj John Sarno, HMX-1 lead transition officer for the MV-22. "It's an additional capability. Not better, different. She has her own capabilities." "It is quiet in airplane-mode, but even in conversion-mode it's quieter than a (CH-53 'Super Stallion')." said Sarno. A HMX-1 Osprey pilot added that its lift capabilities will also help HMX-1 complete its mission. "The Osprey adds flexibility and capability in speed and lift," added Capt Peter D. Benning, operations schedule writer, Operations, HMX-1, and MV-22 pilot. "It can carry more, go faster and fly higher than the 46." "It won't change the mission, but it will change the way it's done,"Benning, a Sonora, Calif., native said. MajGen Andrew W. O'Donnell Jr., deputy commander, United States Forces, Japan, a guest speaker during the ceremony also had much to say about the MV-22B. "The operational record of the MV-22 is above all," said O'Donnell. "We and our colleagues in the U.S. Air Force's Special Operations Command have flown more than 170,000 flight hours. The aircraft is very good and very, very safe." "It's changing how we do business," he added. A second squadron of MV-22Bs is scheduled to arrive in Japan this summer. Currently, the squadron has only one Osprey, which is identical to those used by Marines in the fleet other than its paint job, but it expects to have 12 by next summer, said Sarno. Faircloth is scheduled to relinquish command to Wild during a change of command ceremony, June 20, 2013. * Marine Helicopter Squadron One Marines, past and present, family members and friends line up for a chance to inside the one and only HMX-1 MV-22B after an MV-22B Introduction Ceremony in the HMX-1 hangar on May 4, 2013. HMX-1 is scheduled to receive 11 more MV-22Bs by next summer. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=680_1371342740 USMC_SRT HMX-1 Osprey lands USMC, Marine, HMX, President Sat, 15 Jun 2013 16:55:37 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=26c_1371329489 Detroit Iron The former vice presidential nominee was talking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference on Saturday She rejected calls for an immigration overhaul - including the path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally She warned 'the good old boys' in the GOP leadership that she wouldn't tone down her aggressive conservative rhetoric She said recent scandals involving the IRS and the NSA make the country feel 'so Orwellian around here, you know, "1984'" On Monday she starts on 'Fox and Friends' as a commentator By DAILY MAIL REPORTER PUBLISHED: 14:39 EST, 15 June 2013 UPDATED: 15:35 EST, 15 June 2013 Former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has criticized the Obama administration's decision to supply weapons to the rebels in the civil war in Syria, arguing that the U.S. should 'Let Allah sort it out' until there is a stronger leader in the White House. 'Militarily, where is our commander in chief? We're talking now more new interventions. I say until we know what we're doing, until we have a commander and chief who knows what he's doing, well, let these radical Islamic countries who aren't even respecting basic human rights, where both sides are slaughtering each other as they scream over an arbitrary red line, "Allah Akbar," I say until we have someone who knows what they're doing, I say let Allah sort it out,' Palin said at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference on Saturday. The White House confirmed on Thursday that it had conclusive evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime has used chemical weapons against rebel forces. The use of weapons such as the nerve agent sarin crosses what President Barack Obama has called a 'red line' that would trigger greater American involvement in the crisis. Obama discussed the civil war in Syria with European leaders in a teleconference on Friday, and the issue is expected to dominate much of the conversation at next week's G-8 Summit in Northern Ireland. The White House is now considering arming the opposition fighters and enforcing a no-fly zone that could cost an estimated $50 million a day. The final speaker at the three-day Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference, former Alaska Gov. Palin rejected calls for an immigration overhaul that includes a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. Palin, who is rejoining Fox News Channel as an analyst less than half a year after they decided to part ways, also called Washington, D.C. 'one hot mess,' reports ABC News . She also offered a warning to 'the good old boys' in the GOP leadership who are calling for conservative activists to tone down aggressive rhetoric. 'You do not marginalize, you don't discredit and dismiss, every day average hard-working Americans - those who are part of that grass-roots tea party movement,' she said. 'Just let them tell us to sit down and shut up,' Palin said later, 'which I refuse to do.' She also took a swipe at another speaker at the conservative forum, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who argued Friday that one of the reasons to support the Senate's immigration reform plan is because 'Immigrants are more fertile.' 'I think it's kind of dangerous territory, territory to want to debate this whole one race's fertility rate over another, and I say this from someone who's kind of fertile herself,' Palin said. 'I don't think that's where we want to go in deciding how will we incentivize the hardworking responsible families who want to live in the light, follow the law, become Americans, versus those whose very first act on our soil is to break the law? There are different ways that we can debate this.' As she warned the conservative crowd of 'tyranny' in government, Palin said that the recent scandals involving the Internal Revenue Service and the National Security Agency make the country feel 'so Orwellian around here, you know, "1984.'" Palin's first appearance since returning to Fox is scheduled for Monday on the 'Fox &amp; Friends' morning show - on the same day CNN is premiering a morning show to great fanfare. Fox and Palin parted ways in January after she had worked there for three years as a contributor. They had talked about renewing their contract, but it didn't happen. Money may have been a factor: Palin was signed for a reported $1 million a year when she originally joined Fox less than two years after being John McCain's running mate. Fox News chief Roger Ailes said in a statement: 'I've had several conversations with Governor Palin in the past few weeks about her rejoining FOX News as a contributor. 'I have great confidence in her and am pleased that she will once again add her commentary to our programming. 'I hope she continues to speak her mind.' Palin also hit headlines this week for blasting comedian Bill Maher on Twitter Wednesday, saying she hopes his 'lily white a**' gets flattened, after he reportedly made a joke directed at her 5-year-old special needs son. Palin learned of the alleged joke from a conservative writer for Breitbart News, who attended Maher's stand-up show in The Pearl concert venue at The Palms Hotel in Las Vegas on Saturday. The writer, Ron Futrell, wrote in a blog that he attended the show with friends and became inflamed when Maher made a comment referring to Palin's son Trig, who has Downs Syndrome, as 'retarded.' Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2342307/Sarah-Palin-courts-controversy-claim-Syria-conflict-left-Allah-sort-out.html#ixzz2WJumjakw Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter DailyMail on Facebook http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=26c_1371329489 Detroit Iron Sarah Palin courts controversy with claim that Syria conflict 'should be left for Allah to sort out' Sarah Palin, Obama administration, Allah, Syrian President Bashar Assad Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:13:34 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e4c_1371124641 Detroit Iron By Jason H. Harper - Jun 13, 2013 12:01 AM ET Talk about pricing what the market will bear. How about $280,000 for an old Dodge pickup? Or $190,000 for a 1950s station wagon-cum-jalopy covered in rust? These are the kind of prices Jonathan Ward, owner and head designer of Los Angeles-based custom automobile maker Icon charges -- and he still has a year-long backlog of orders. "My customer is a guy who loves the aesthetic of old vehicles but doesn't want to put up with a lousy ride, the creaks and rattles and breakdowns," Ward says. Icon sources older models such as Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40s, Ford (F) Broncos and Jeep CJs and marries their exteriors to all-modern chassis and powertrains. They look old but drive like new. Ward also adds one-off (and often wacky) details like hidden navigation systems and sun visors taken from private jets. At first glance the $280,000 pickup truck looks like a well-maintained 1965 Dodge D200. Then you notice that the behemoth has four doors and a reworked grill. The lights are LEDs and the tires ludicrously oversized. The double set of side windows have an Art Deco shape and the glass itself has an odd, reflective quality (it's special glass used in skyscrapers). Open a door and a running board slides out from under the vehicle automatically, making it easier to enter. Mega CabWard and his crew spent a year on the Dodge, removing body panels from the original truck and reworking them to fit the chassis of a heavy-duty 2007 Dodge Mega Cab 3500. The suspension was upgraded and a 5.9-liter Cummins (CMI) turbo-diesel six-cylinder installed. The engine was specially tuned to produce 975 pound-feet of torque and 575 horsepower. That incredible power sounds like hyperbole, but as I discover on a test drive along California 's Highway 1, it is not. Ward is riding shotgun as I negotiate the precarious curves and find that I rarely need to shift -- the engine pulls like a locomotive even in fifth gear. The long stick from the six-speed manual transmission pokes up from the footwell and takes a strong hand. As does the oversized, leather-bound steering wheel, which only adds to the impression that you're driving a tractor-sized vehicle. Rolls' RugsThe roof is padded with bison hide and the thick carpets underfoot pilfered from a Rolls-Royce. While the radio looks like an old AM unit, it actually operates a bumping stereo system. A digital information screen slides out of a compartment in the dash. The truck was a special order for a client from Wyoming , but Ward says, "I really don't want to give this one up." I sympathize with him. I feel like I'm driving the king of trucks. Still, good luck reconciling the mind-boggling price, which is partly a result of Ward's near-maniacal obsession with details. Some of the underpinnings (which you'll never see) are aeronautical grade, and though the switches and knobs are the same shape as the originals, Ward mills them out of metal. His business has grown every year, he says, but the level of specificity slows production. Though Icon moved into a larger shop and delivered 30 vehicles in 2012, Ward says it is difficult to keep up with orders. His best-seller is the reworked Land Cruiser, which starts at around $130,000. Stepping out of the Dodge with relief (you don't want to mess up a vehicle before the buyer takes delivery), I move over to one of Ward's personal rides, a literal rust bucket. Addams FamilyNominally, the car is a 1952 Chrysler Town &amp; Country Wagon with the front end of a DeSoto grafted on. With a teeth-like grill, a rusted patina and rubbed-off paint, it looks like it could have belonged to the Addams Family 's Uncle Fester. But no. As one of Ward's "Derelict" series, it goes for $190,000. "It's super fast. You can hammer the curves with it," Ward explains handing me the keys. I have my doubts, but turn it toward the winding canyon roads. The steering wheel and wood flooring are all original, but the guts of the thing certainly aren't. The sound of the modern 6.1-liter V-8 Hemi reverberates through the cabin and the five-speed automatic transmission clicks through gears promptly. The suspension ably handles dips and curves. Yet my subconscious is telling me the car is going to fall apart at any moment. Since this is Ward's daily driver, I turn the wheel over to him. He promptly sends us hurtling down cliff-side roads, tires shrieking and brakes smoking. I look into the abyss on the passenger side and momentarily lose my breath: For $190,000 you don't get airbags or modern safety restraints -- only a simple lap belt. (Jason H. Harper writes about autos for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News . The opinions expressed are his own.) Muse highlights include Rich Jaroslovsky on technology, Lance Esplund on art. To contact the writer of this column: Jason H. Harper at Jason@JasonHharper.com or follow on Twitter @JasonHarperSpin. To contact the editor responsible for this column: Manuela Hoelterhoff in New York at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net . http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-13/custom-280-000-franken-dodge-pickup-pilfers-rolls-rug.html?cmpid=yhoo http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e4c_1371124641 Detroit Iron Custom $280,000 Franken-Dodge Pickup Pilfers Rolls' Rug 1965 Dodge D200, Jonathan Ward, Mega CabWard Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:31:03 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=663_1370456873 Moe90 Saudi Arabia releases lRIYADH - Saudi authorities on Wednesday freed liberal writer Turki al-Hamad who has been held without trial since December over comments posted on Twitter deemed insulting to Islam, a rights activist said.Hamad, a novelist and a political commentator, "returned home this morning," lawyer Walid Abulkhair said. He said the writer "has not been put on trial, and has not faced any charges." Hamad was arrested on the orders of Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, who was tipped off by a religious organisation, for alleged insults to Islam he made on Twitter, his family said on December 24. The comments he posted had attacked radical Islamists he said were twisting the Prophet Mohammed's "message of love," and what he described as "a neo-Nazism which is on the rise in the Arab world -- Islamic extremism".The postings provoked fierce debate on social networking sites in Saudi Arabia between his supporters and detractors. In January, some 500 people, including Saudi intellectuals, signed a petition urging Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, to order the release of Hamad. Hamad is no stranger to Saudi authorities. In a situation similar to one faced by British author Salman Rushdie -- who lived for years under an Iranian fatwa offering a reward for his murder for his 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" - Hamad faced death threats and local fatwas for his trilogy "Phantoms of the Deserted Alley," which centers around a Saudi teenager who comes of age during the late 1960s and early '70s.The books, which are banned in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, address taboo subjects like sexuality, scientific rationalism, religious freedom and underground movements. In one instance in the third novel, the main character, languishing in a Saudi prison, wonders whether God and Satan are interchangeable. The novel elicited three fatwas in 2000 calling for the author's death while al Qaeda called him an apostate, Time magazine reported. At the time the death threats were so intense that then-Crown Prince Abdullah - who ascended to the throne in 2005 - gave the author bodyguards. http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=59253 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=663_1370456873 Moe90 Saudi Arabia releases liberal <span class="highlight">writer</span> without trial, nor charges Saudi, atheist, released Tue, 21 May 2013 14:13:01 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2e6_1369159642 olifaxe A far-right French historian shot himself in the head beside the altar of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris today apparently in protest against the legalisation of gay marriage in France. Dominique Venner, 78, a former member of the nationalist terrorist movement, OAS, placed a pistol in his mouth and shot himself dead in front of scores of tourists inside the most visited building in France.Mr Venner, a presenter on a Catholic-traditionalust radio station and controversial historian and essayist, posted an essay on his website earlier in the day calling for "new, spectacular and symbolic actions to shake us out of our sleep, to jolt anaesthetised minds and to reawaken memory of our origins".His long essay was a tirade against gay marriage but also a warning that the "population of France and Europe" was going to be "replaced" and brought under "Islamist control" and "sharia law".Mr Venner placed a sealed letter on the altar of the cathedral before shooting himself. His choice of the altar - associated with religious marriage ceremonies -appeared to be a symbolic gesture of protest against the law permitting civil gay marriages in France which took effect last weekend.The cathedral, which is celebrating its 850th anniversary this year, was immediately evacuated and closed to the public for four hours. Efforts were made by a cathedral security guard to revive Mr Venner as he lay beside the altar for almost 20 minutes.The rector of Notre Dame, Monsigneur Patrick Jacquin, said that, as far as he was aware, this was the first suicide within the cathedral since it was founded in the 12th century. "We will pray for this man as we pray for so many others who are at their wits' end," he said.Notre Dame is the most visited monument in France with over 13,000,000 visiors a year. The building was, as usual, packed with tourists at the time of Mr Venner's suicide.Legislation permitting same-sex couples to marry in French town halls was approved by the parliament last month and signed into law by President Francois(cedilla on c) Hollande last weekend after approval by France's constitutional watchdog. The "marriage for all" law has provoked a powerful movement of middle class, conservative, religious and right-wing protest in the last four months. Another large demonstration is planned in Paris on Sunday.The leaders of the protest movement, including most but not all leading centre-right politicians, have pilloried the law as politically-motivated attack on family and religious values and the imposition of a "new civilisation". Mr Venner, a prolific author of books and tracts on extreme nationalist themes, has been one of many vociferous critics of the law. Some of his work as a historian has been well-received, incuding a 1981 book on the Red Army which won a prize from the Academie(acute on first e) Francaise(cedilla on c). Much of his work has been steeped in the racist ideology of the far-right, apologising for the pro-Hitler regime in Vichy in the Second World war and warning of conspiracies to destroy European civilisation and to swamp the white race. Mr Venner was also an expert, and the author of several books, on hunting and fire-arms. In the 1960s, he was a member of the Organisation de l'Armee(acute on first e) Secrete(grave on second e) - the extreme nationalist terrorist movement which opposed the French withdrawal from Algeria and attempted several times to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/farright-french-historian-78yearold-dominique-venner-commits-suicide-in-notre-dame-in-protest-against-gay-marriage-8625877.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2e6_1369159642 olifaxe A <span class="highlight">writer</span> and historian kills himself in Notre Dame to protest against &quot;the Great Remplacement&quot; of Islam Right Far Right Islam Islamist Terrorist Immigration Suicide Church Europe