The Plain English site
Wednesday September 8th 2010
Fight World Hunger

Abbas and Gaza

The Palestinian leader, President Mahmoud Abbas has called for an international investigation headed by the United Nations Security Council into the recent Israeli attack on the six ship flotilla carrying aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip.

He said that there should be a united Arab stand to end the siege of Gaza.? He also called for international protection of the Palestinian people wondering how long the Israeli occupation would continue.

"We are waiting for world justice," he said. "We waited for a long time but we will not despair."

Today, Mr. Abbas will meet special US envoy George Mitchell, who is heading a ranking US delegation to the investment conference.

Mr. Abbas said he would also travel to Washington on June 9 for a meeting with US President Barack Obama.

Noriega jailed

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, fresh out of a Miami prison where he spent two decades, was sent back behind bars in France on Tuesday to await a new legal battle -- this time on charges he laundered cocaine profits by buying luxury apartments in Paris.

Hours after Noriega arrived in Paris following his extradition from the United States, a judge deemed him a flight risk and dispatched him to La Sante, a grim brick prison in southern Paris. Famous past La Sante inmates include convicted terrorist Carlos the Jackal and Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon.

Noriega lost his first battle on French territory -- he unsuccessfully pressed a judge to send him home to Panama. If convicted in France, he could face another 10 years in prison, a daunting prospect for the 72-year-old. Noriega's French lawyers said they will appeal the decision putting him behind bars and say his detention and transfer are unlawful.

If Noriega had been released in France, even to house arrest, it would have been a victory after a generation in prison. It could also have been an awkward situation for France, where a string of former dictators from Haiti to Africa have settled or bought second homes in the past.

Officials are to set a trial date on May 12 for Noriega, who was deposed after a 1989 U.S. invasion and imprisoned in Florida for drug trafficking. After finishing his U.S. sentence, he was extradited from Miami and sent on a direct flight to Paris, where he was immediately served with an arrest warrant Tuesday.

France already has convicted Noriega and his wife in absentia of laundering some $7 million in cocaine profits through three major French banks and using drug cash to invest in three posh Paris apartments. But France agreed to give him a new trial if he was extradited. Noriega's wife, Felicidad Sieiro de Noriega, is living in Panama and faces no charges there.

In a hearing before Paris judge Jean-Michel Maton, Noriega pleaded to be sent home to Panama, citing his prisoner of war status. "I don't agree with the action against me," he said through a translator.

Noriega spoke little during the hearing and appeared tired. Wearing a white button-up shirt and black jacket, his black hair thinning, he periodically rested his head in one hand during the proceedings.

After the judge denied Noriega's request, he was escorted out a side door of the court by armed guards. Limping, he used a cane.

Yves Leberquier, a lawyer for Noriega, said the former dictator has been partially paralyzed since suffering a mild stroke four years ago.

Another of Noriega's lawyers said his client had seemed resigned to returning behind bars.

"Having been extradited from the U.S., he was not really expecting to be released tonight, even if he hoped for it," Olivier Metzner said.

Noriega's legal team argued that it was illegal to try a former head of state who should have immunity from prosecution.

Other legal objections are that Noriega is considered a prisoner of war, a status Leberquier said French jails aren't ready to accommodate, and that the charges against him are no longer valid because the acts he is accused of happened too long ago, the lawyer said.

Noriega was declared a POW after his 1992 drug conviction by a Miami federal judge. In Miami, Noriega had separate quarters in prison, the right to wear his military uniform and insignia, access to a television and monitoring by international rights groups.

Panama also has an outstanding request for the former dictator's extradition. He was convicted in Panama in absentia and sentenced to 60 years in prison on charges of embezzlement, corruption and murdering opponents.

Panama's foreign minister, Juan Carlos Varela, said Panama respects the U.S. decision to extradite Noriega to France but will still try to get him back to Panama "to serve the sentences handed down by Panamanian courts."

Noriega was Panama's longtime intelligence chief before he took power in 1982. He had been considered a valued CIA asset for years, but as a ruler he joined forces with drug traffickers and was implicated in the death of a political opponent.

Noriega was ousted as Panama's leader and put on trial following a 1989 U.S. military invasion ordered by President George H.W. Bush. Noriega was brought to Miami and was convicted of drug racketeering and related charges in 1992.

He finished serving his term in federal prison outside Miami in 2007, but stayed in prison while France sought his extradition.

Sandra Noriega, one of his three daughters, called Noriega's extradition to France "a violation of his rights as a citizen, and a failing by the (Panamanian) government, which is supposed to protect its citizens."

The in-absentia French conviction, obtained by The Associated Press, says Noriega "knew that (the money) came directly or indirectly from drug trafficking." It said he helped Colombia's Medellin drug cartel by authorizing the transport of cocaine through Panama en route to the United States.

The French indictment says Noriega was born in 1938, although his French lawyers say he was born four years earlier. As a youth he claimed to be older so he could enter a military academy.

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AP - 28 April 2010 01:03:48 By PIERRE-ANTOINE SOUCHARD
Associated Press writers Katie King and Alfred de Montesquiou in Paris and Juan Zamorano in Panama City contributed to this report.

OLDER ARTICLES

Global Warming – the last word!

 

It is unlikely that President Obama will  be attending the Climate conference in Copenhagen. They say that it is because he has other things on his mind. The U.S economy is faltering, the dollar is about to “tank” and the unemployment rate has just crossed 10%. There could be another reason.

He may be one of the few world leaders who is a heretic to Man-made Global Warming.  NOT Global Warming – just the Man-made bit.

Global warming is man-made. It is man-made in the same sense that Anglicanism, vegetarianism, Political Correctness and all other belief-systems  are.

Yes, Man-made Global Warming is indeed anthropogenic . It only exists in the human mind and its doctrines and rituals have  developed into a battle against  a modern evil.  Governments are gearing up for all-out war against Global Warming – a modern crusade.

Some say that we have started to battle an evil beyond our control – an evil which we have created. In the same way that Christians are born with original sin which resulted from the “Fall of Man” . Man’s industrialisation has produced ”The Fall 2″.

Man-Made Global Warming (MMGW) has all the characteristics of a religion. We have created a modern (but Godless) religion which bases its doctrines in Selective Science.

There are  six  main characteristics of a religion:

(1)  The belief in a power beyond the individual

(2)  A doctrine of salvation

(3) A code of conduct

(4) The use of sacred stories

(5) Religious rituals

(6) Intolerance of other faiths and disbelievers or “deniers”.

The essential qualities of a religion are maintained and passed from person to person by sources, called authority, which the followers accept as sacred.

Our new Global-Warming beliefs are propped up  by the  sharing  and passing-on of superficial “knowledge” and half-truths, supposedly based in science. Selective Science.

The phrase “It is the Word of God” is now  replaced by “It has been proved scientifically”.  

There is a fundamental difference between Science and Religion . Science demands disbelief but Religion demands belief.

Science CHALLENGES, Religion ACCEPTS.

One hears statements about “the clash” between science and religion. There can never be a clash because they do not intersect. That is in spite of the fact that various attempts have been made to explain scientific phenomena using religion  and vice-versa.

There is a very subtle aspect of science which is not always understood and that is the FACT that science does not deal with fact – it deals with observation and measurement. Science does not believe. Occasionally science accepts – but it only accepts THEORIES.

For instance we have the Theory of Evolution, Theory of Relativity, Newtons Theory of Universal Gravitation and many other THEORIES.

Whenever a MMGW Mullah tells you “These are the facts – you can’t deny facts. You have to believe the facts”, be very suspicious because it is only religion that demands “belief”. Science demands disbelief. Science does not accept – it challenges. 

Science has none of the arrogance of Religion and the MMGW worshipers ARE arrogant.

In the Middle Ages, Papal indulgences were sold to absolve individuals of sin. Nowadays, we can purchase Carbon offsets to absolve ourselves. We are not purifying our souls, just the atmosphere.

Many  religions demand a devil figure. The MMGW devil is Carbon Dioxide. That is a strange one  because Carbon and Oxygen are the two basic components of life and there is substantial evidence that increases in atmospheric Carbon Dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments.” - that last statement is in quotes because it forms part of a petition created by Frederick Seitz in response to the 1997 Kyoto protocol. The petition was signed by 31,000 scientists and was revived last year as a counter to Al Gore’s self-serving propaganda  film “An Inconvenient Truth” which was so propaganda-packed that even  Leni Riefenstahl would have been proud. 

( Seitz died on 2nd March 2008, aged 96. Obituary here.  The Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change was signed in New York two days later on 4th March 2008. See it here.)

The Seitz petition denies that Man is responsible for global warming.

Carbon Dioxide sits right at the front of the food chain – yet it is now vilified as “chocking”, “toxic”, “poisonous”, “killer” etc. It is truly the Devil.

A religion spreads through missionaries, evangelists and prophets. All religions have some sort of expansionary mechanism. The new evangelists are the politicians , the Cardinals and Mullahs are the Foreign Ministers and Heads of State.

Only one  – the audacious Al Gore  tried to seize the opportunity to become the New Messiah -but he’s been crucified.

The only thing that discredited Gore was the mistake of attempting to present  scientific opinion as fact. Another user of Selective Science.

The threat of eternal damnation and the fires of hell used to frighten the masses. The long-term threat is no longer spiritual but it still involves high temperatures – it is the threat of uncontrollable Global Warming itself.

The Bible had the flood – we are going to have rising sea levels and guess what – we brought both on ourselves through our collective naughtiness. Noah built the Ark. Just watch - architects will soon be designing floating cities.

Those of you with children will know that indoctrination is now taking place in schools – and the beliefs instilled from the age of 5 or 6 will be very difficult to shift in years to come.

The human race used to be able to absorb a new religion in a matter of years. Worryingly – the same process is now completed in months.

Marxism, the political religion of the early 20th century took a decade as did Nazism. More attractive belief systems such as Scientology and Veganism caught on much faster.

The blind belief in MMGW took a couple of years to take hold and it will possess us for years to come.

Looking back through history, there are many examples of  the so-called heretics who showed dissent and whose thinking did not correspond with the majority’s belief. Yes the earth is at the centre of the Universe!” 

Here is an example of the contempt with which the Global Warming Establishment treats dissenters. Have a look at this Daily Telegraph link. The Telegraph was one of the few journals to publish anything at all about the Manhattan Declaration signed by 500 scientists in March 2008:

CLICK HERE

Worldwide, the winter of 2007/2008 was one of the most coldest and savage since records began. Even that can be explained  by the Global Warming Clergy. Don’t forget : contradiction and irrationality are part of religion – they add to the “mystique”. The “facts” have to fit the belief because the belief does not always fit the facts.

Ten years ago, el Nino warmed the planet but there has been no real increase in the overall global temperature.  We have seen lots of polar bears on small icebergs but no figures.
 
Icebergs have always been around as have hungry polar bears but nowadays, they are PROOF(!) that the planet is off to Hell on a handcart (or should that be a bandwagon?)

So the polar ice caps are melting and the sea is warmer. Some scientists believe that rising sea temperatures are cause by undersea volcanic activity. The Global Warming mullahs just laugh at such preposterous claims – even though there is data. The laugh in the same way that the Vatican laughed at Copernicus  when he suggested that the Earth was not at the centre of the universe.
 
Surely, if any changes in weather patterns are man-made, the last ten years would have produced quite appreciable changes.  India and China, (to name but two) have been burning fossil fuels like the clappers. So where are the mild winters that we were promised?

The combination of man’s overwhelming desire to believe cemented by his unbreakable and ancient herding and congregating instincts means that any counter-arguments will be ignored and mocked because We have the facts which are ….well….FACTS.  The accepted facts belong to the believers and if you don’t agree – you are not part of this congregation.”

At least the control of the masses through taxation has not changed. The Roman Catholic Church told us that if we gave money and goods to the church we would reap the reward in Heaven. 

Now the principle is the same and the fiscal control isstill  there  but the promise is a ” better world for our children”.  One presumes that “better” means cooler. Incidentally, has anyone completed the calculations so that we know exactly how many degrees less the temperature is going to be if we do as we are told? No? I thought not. What exactly did they decide at the Kyoto Synod?

Science used to be the triumph of humanity over superstition but we forgot how powerful superstition is.

Science is now hostage of the Global Warming superstition. The interesting twist is that we (the human race) have been taught that we are an eternal being. That has given us a certain degree of arrogance which in turn has made us believe that 150 years of human industrial activity has affected the 4.5 billion-year-old Earth to such an extent that there will be irreversible changes.

That’s 150 out of 4,500,000,000.

Where’s Big G when you need him?

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