Thought and Action

Release Gerry Mc Geough!

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:14:00 +0000

It seems Gerry has been taken to hospital again and remains imprisoned. See the blog for updates. Continue in your prayers and support for Gerry and his family.

http://freegerry.com/

Remembering Dresden

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:05:00 +0000

Two recommended books are Forged War Crimes Malign the German Nation and Truth for Germany: The Guilt Question of the Second World War. Both are written by Udo Walendy.

Victims of the Dresden bombings

A House of Sand and Fog

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:00:00 +0000

An interesting article here reflecting the geo-political situation.

A House of Sand and Fog

Lies, Revolutions and Wars

by Nebojsa Malic, February 11, 2012

Last summer, as the Sandstorm mistakenly dubbed the “Arab Spring” swept across North Africa, a cadre of professional revolutionaries the Empire created in Serbia bragged about their role in the revolts to some European videographers. Sure, the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt may have begun spontaneously, but Empire-trained activists soon took control and channeled the rage into “regime change.” It’s what they get paid for.

Staging revolts and coups to replace foreign governments with more pliable ones is nothing new; only the techniques have changed, with “democracy activists” replacing Agency assets as the executors. But with the acceleration of information dispersal in the digital age came the shortening of the blowback window as well. It took twenty-six years for Persian resentment at the 1953 ousting of Mossadegh to manifest itself as Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution. Now mere months are enough.

“The Cairo 19”

Last week, the military government in Cairo – caretakers of the country until the Muslim Brotherhood takes over - arrested some forty-odd “democracy activists,” including 19 Americans. Reactions in Washington ranged from shock to outrage: how dare these foreigners touch the sacred missionaries of Democracy? Sure, these young people get paid big money by the unwitting American taxpayers, to foment unrest and subvert governments the world over, but isn’t that the prerogative of Empire? Isn’t it, like, oppressive and stuff, to prevent Serbian sellouts and sons of American government officials to earn their own private islands?

Even though foreign activism in the electoral process is strictly illegal in America itself, the rest of the world objecting to America interfering in their elections is just, well, “illiberal”! That’s what passes for logic in the Empire these days.

Furthermore, the revolution business is booming, quickly becoming the Empire’s major export. Granted, successful businesses are supposed to bring in profit, and the coups around the world are only sowing anti-American resentment – but what’s logic got to do with the thrill of fame and power?

Julija Belej Bakovic, described by the Washington Post as a “former student activist in Serbia”, now heads a regional office of the International Republican Institute (IRI) for Asia. She still believes what happened in Serbia is a “light at the end of the tunnel” for people everywhere. It certainly worked out well for her: she parlayed her “activism” into a well-paid international career. Most of her colleagues are lucky if they have jobs at all, in the “democratic” Serbia turned into a corrupt hellhole by Julija’s revolution that wasn’t.

It brings to mind a saying from Serbia, “What a wise man is ashamed of, the fool parades with pride.”

By The Numbers

Bolstered by the alleged success of the “Arab Spring,” the Empire set its crosshairs on Moscow. In December last year, “activists” began organizing protest marches and claiming that elections for the Russian federal legislature were stolen. This is a trope right out of the handbook, by the way – and easily disproved by doing actual math and statistics.

While shaken initially, the government of Vladimir Putin has rallied and charged the demonstrators with being foreign mercenaries. Trite but true, the charge resonated in a country stripped to the bone in the 1990s by a quisling regime beholden to the Empire. Nor does it help the Empire’s cause that Russians remember all too well the 2004 “Orange Revolution” in nearby Ukraine.

On February 4, as Empire’s activists rallied in freezing weather at Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square, a much larger crowd gathered to support the government at Poklonnaya Hill. The Western media promptly lied about the size of the demonstrations, but in Russia the difference was clear to anyone with eyes to see: the pro-government demonstrators vastly outnumbered the astroturfers. According to some observers, this may have taken the wind out of the revolutionaries’ sails, at least for now.

The Road to Damascus

Last weekend, Russia and China vetoed a resolution at the UN Security Council that would have backed “regime change” in Syria. Imperial officials predictably denounced this as a “travesty.” But was it?

Back in March 2011, both countries agreed to a resolution (UNSCR 1973) authorizing the no-fly zone over Libya, allegedly to protect innocent civilians. Supposedly, these civilians – or rather, the armed rebellion in Cyrenaica – were threatened by the Libyan air force. Within hours, the resolution became a fig leaf for a massive air campaign and special forces intervention on behalf of an Empire-backed rebellion. The Emperor argued it wasn’t a war but a “kinetic military action.” Is there another kind?

In Libya, the Bosnia scenario played out in fast-forward. Something similar began taking shape in Syria. However, a designated propaganda star of the Syrian revolt was exposed as a hoax early on, while the Libyan expedition took much longer than expected. For a while it seemed the Empire’s next target might be Iran, but currently the war drumline is beating a march to Damascus.

Empire’s moral outrage at Russia and China is hypocrisy at its finest. The warmongers in Washington and London are already bringing up Bosnia and Kosovo - two celebrated “successful” interventions that were nothing of the sort. There is definitely a pattern of aggression at work, but its source is not Assad.

Faced with a belligerent American Empire prone to attacking other countries with flimsy justification (or none at all), conducting drone wars worldwide, and organizing Astroturf revolutions in countries it finds too difficult to invade, it is honestly a miracle that Moscow and Beijing have waited this long.

Trouble in Paradise

Odds are the Chinese and Russian governments hardly think that a UN veto would keep the Empire in check; after all, lack of UN authorization didn’t stop the 1999 Kosovo War, or the 2003 invasion of Iraq. A Russian Navy task force anchored in Syria, however, just might.

Simply put, it is no longer 1999. Actions have consequences, and the Empire has lied, stolen, killed and cheated enough over the past two decades for the rest of the world to take notice and take action. Worst of all, the Imperial officials are actually convinced their actions have created a favorable reality on the ground – where in actuality, they’ve build a house of sand and fog that’s already falling apart.

The Future Of Major Irish Cities?

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000

There is no doubt the political establishment in Ireland has failed with regard crime. The recent murder of a 16 year old girl in a ‘drive by’ shooting in Tallaght (Dublin) highlights how a community is blighted by crime whilst politicians do nothing. Criminal acts being carried out by Irish and immigrant thugs are on the increase. The following article is worth reading and pondering upon.

Take No Prisoners: Self Defense Killings in Detroit Spike to 2200% Above National Average; Justifiable Homicide up 79%

Mac Slavo
February 10th, 2012

As the economic crisis in 2008 took hold and the nation’s spiral into the next Great Depression became more apparent, we opined that crime would sky rocket as a consequence of millions of lost jobs, falling purchasing power and outright desperation.

The city of Detroit, which has been a harbinger for future trends soon to take hold across major metropolitan areas around the country, has no doubt experienced the worst of the depression thus far. Entire city blocks have become unlivable due to foreclosures and rampant crime, the jobless rate in 2009 exceeded 50% and a mass exodus has left the population at levels not seen since 1910.

By all accounts, the Motor City is ground zero for the collapse of America as we know it. Reminiscent of poverty stricken third world countries, it’s gotten so bad in Detroit that there are areas of the city where police and emergency services personnel refuse to go.

This has left law abiding residents of the city no choice but to arm themselves and start taking matters into their own hands.

The people of Detroit are taking no prisoners.

Justifiable homicide in the city shot up 79 percent in 2011 from the previous year, as citizens in the long-suffering city armed themselves and took matters into their own hands. The local rate of self-defense killings now stands 2,200 percent above the national average. Residents, unable to rely on a dwindling police force to keep them safe, are fighting back against the criminal scourge on their own. And they’re offering no apologies.

“We got to have a little Old West up here in Detroit. That’s what it’s gonna take,” Detroit resident Julia Brown told The Daily.

The last time Brown, 73, called the Detroit police, they didn’t show up until the next day. So she applied for a permit to carry a handgun and says she’s prepared to use it against the young thugs who have taken over her neighborhood, burglarizing entire blocks, opening fire at will and terrorizing the elderly with impunity.

“I don’t intend to be one of their victims,” said Brown, who has lived in Detroit since the late 1950s. “I’m planning on taking one out.”

…

Average police response time for priority calls in the city, according to the latest data available, is 24 minutes. In comparable cities across the country, it is well under 10 minutes.

Citizens like Brown feel they have been left with little choice but to take the law into their own hands.

…

Detroiters are arming themselves with shotguns and handguns and buying guard dogs. Anything to take care of their own. And privately, residents say neighborhood watch groups in Detroit are widely armed.

“It’s like the militiamen who stepped up way back when. That’s where the neighborhood folks are,” said James “Jackrabbit” Jackson, a 63-year-old retired Detroit cop who has patrolled the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood for years.

“They’re ready to fight,” Jackson said. “We don’t hardly see police anymore.”

The city’s wealthier enclaves have hired private security firms. Intimidating men in armored trucks patrol streets lined with gracious old homes in a scene more likely seen in Mexico City than the United States.

…

The Detroit Police Department, grappling with deep funding cuts in a city with a spiraling budget crisis, acknowledges that response times are high and says it is working on a plan to lower them. But a spokeswoman for the department insists the rise in justifiable homicides is unrelated.

“It’s not about police response time because often the act has already taken place by the time the police are called,” said Sgt. Eren Stephens. She said citizens have a right to defend themselves.

“Anytime a life is lost, we’re concerned,” she said. “But we can‘t be on every corner in front of every home. And we know that there are citizens who will do what they have to do to protect themselves.”

Source: The Daily

Is it any wonder why recent firearms sales statistics indicate that 2011 was the largest year ever for gun sales in America, with a record 10.8 million guns sold?

All of us should take heed. Budget cuts, economic woes and a rising criminal element throughout our country are leaving the populace more susceptible to violent crime than ever before. Like our fellow Americans in Detroit, it’s only a matter of time before we’re faced with similar paradigm shifts in our own cities, communities and neighborhoods.

Get armed, get trained, and when faced with a life threatening situation, take no prisoners.

Police clash with protesters outside the Greek parliament

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:54:00 +0000

The real enemy are of course the International Financiers who enslave people and Nations. The prime ministers and other politicians are completely in their pocket. The civil strife in Greece is spreading across Europe and around the world.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/226356.html

Riot police have clashed with protesters outside the Greek parliament as lawmakers began debating the latest austerity bill needed to secure a new international bailout and avoid bankruptcy.

Police is scuffling with demonstrators at the Syntagma Square in Athens, while Greek lawmakers debate legislation on severe austerity measures necessary for the country to secure a 130-billion-euro bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
The debate started shortly after 3:30 pm local time on Sunday, and will take at least 10 hours, finishing well past midnight.

Greece’s labor unions have been urging people to join the protests. Protesters are expected to stay outside the building throughout the vote.
More than 6000 thousands police officers have been deployed in central Athens as authorities are afraid the protests might turn violent.
Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos Cabinet approved the draft bill early on Saturday despite massive public protests and resistance by some cabinet members, who resigned over the cuts.
The international lenders have asked Greece to come up with EUR 3.2 billion in spending cuts for 2012, by making cuts to private sector wages and pensions, public sector layoffs and cuts in health, pensions and defense spending.

The new funding is vital for Greece to pay off a big bond redemption payment next month and avoid a default, which could send shockwaves throughout financial markets and the global economy.
Greeks have taken to the streets for anti-government demonstrations on numerous occasions since the austerity cuts began in early 2011. Many of the demonstrations turned violent, leaving scores of protesters injured.
PG/PKH

After 70 years, archeologists start looking for Holocaust evidence

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:24:00 +0000

“"Mass Graves at Nazi Death Camp Treblinka Prove Holocaust Deniers Wrong"

his was the title of an article in the British local newspaper The Huffington Post of Jan 16, 2012. It reported about the forensic research conducted on the territory of the former German wartime camp Treblinka (Poland) under the supervision of Caroline Sturdy Colls, a Forensic Archaeologist at the University of Birmingham, England.

Caroline Sturdy Colls

Two years ago Mrs. Sturdy Colls had announce publicly that she would try to find evidence of the Treblinka mass graves, where the bodies of at least 700,000 murdered Jews are said to have been buried in the second half of 1942. Sturdy Colls stated:

"It's hard to believe that there has been no systematic search for the six million victims who perished in the Holocaust. 800,000 people were murdered here at Treblinka and their bodies were never found. It's time we started looking."

Revisionists do of course agree with the last statement, although they have some qualms with the rest, as revisionist scholar Thomas Kues has pointed out. Already in late 1999, the Australian engineer Richard Krege conducted forensic research by using ground-penetrating radar in an attempt to locate the claimed mass graves. His preliminary paper has only been published in German and French, but as far as we know, Krege never published a final, more thorough report about his findings. (A video clip about his work is available at YouTube, although it doesn't show much.) He did present some of his research results at a revisionist conference held in Tehran in late 2006, but Krege's paper was not published after this event either (see also this radio interview, (part 2)).

J. Graf, C. Mattogno:
Treblinka: Transit Camp
or Extermination Camp?
$30:- from The Barnes Review

Astonishingly, Krege claims to have found no ground disturbances at all on the territory of the former Treblinka camp, although quite a few trenches were dug in this area during a forensic investigation conducted by the Polish authorities right after the war. So if Krege's method had been sound, he should have at least found those disturbances. In addition, those Polish investigators did indeed find traces of mass graves, although the size of their find did not match the gargantuan claims made about Treblinka.

That these claims are technically impossible and unsupported by the available physical eviedence, has been conclusively proven by Carlo Mattogno and Jürgen Graf in their thoroughly researched book on Treblinka (see the cover image at the right). This book also contains a partial translation of the report prepared by the above-mentioned Polish investigators about their 1945 excavations (pp. 83-89).

All things considered, it cannot surprise that Krege's ground-penetrating research might not have been all that penetrating after all and that he has therefore been attacked by the orthodoxy.

Although Mrs. Sturdy Colls did not expressly refer to Krege's research, it may be assumed that it did trigger Sturdy Colls' curiosity and maybe even her ire. Sturdy Colls did present some of her own research results in a paper entitled "Archaeological Approaches to Holocaust Landscapes" during a 2011 conference in Germany, of which at the moment only a nondescript abstract is available.

Let us now look into the few scraps of information which Mrs. Sturdy Colls released to the public in her interview granted to The Huffington Post:

Regarding the mass graves which Mrs. Sturdy Colls claims to have found, she stated:

"These are considerable in size, and very deep, one in particular is 26 by 17 metres [442 sq.m.]"

This probably denotes the surface area of a particularly large area of disturbed soil. Of course, all she can say from ground-penetrating radar data is that this is an area which has been disturbed. Whether it was a grave, or a result of post-war digging activities, would have to be found out by excavations.
If we assume that the soil disturbance found by Mrs. Sturdy Colls was indeed a mass grave in its entirety and had a depth of 6 m (as claimed for instance by witness E. Rosenberg), this would result in a volume of some 2,600 cubic meters. Yet if we follow the orthodox version, a least 700,000 Jews were buried in that camp until the end of 1942 alone. Assuming a realistic density of some six corpses per cubic meter, this would result in the need for a cumulative mass grave volume of some 117,000 cubic meters.
Hence Mrs. Sturdy Colls should not have found one particularly large soil disturbance of some 2,600 cubic meters (and probably many more smaller ones), but at least 45 of such large soil disturbances. After all, revisionists do not challenge the fact that mass graves do exist in the area of that camp. They merely challenge the humongous, technically impossible order of magnitude as claimed by the orthodoxy.

A more thorough critique of what Mrs. Sturdy Colls found and, more importantly, how she interprets it, will have to wait until she will have published the results of her research. We all can rest assured that our revisionist experts will eagerly read and scrutinze her upcoming paper.

So stay tuned!

Santiago Alvarez”

British Radio Reports on Treblinka Research -- An Analysis

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:18:00 +0000

The books mentioned in this article are recommended.

Comments on Treblinka Statements by Caroline Sturdy Colls

By Thomas Kues

Caroline Sturdy Colls

C. Mattogno:
Belzec in Propaganda,
Testimonies, Archeological
Research, and History
$15.- from The Barnes Review

J. Graf, C. Mattogno, T. Kues:
Sobibor. Holocaust
Propaganda and Reality
$25.- from The Barnes Review

In November 2010 I published a blog entry on an online video concerning the research activity of a young British archaeologist from the University of Birmingham, Caroline Sturdy Colls, who had set out to refute "Holocaust Deniers" by locating the mass graves at the Treblinka "extermination camp" using "the most up-to-date scientific techniques."^[1]Recently, a news report was published boldly stating that "mass graves at Nazi death camp Treblinka prove Holocaust deniers wrong." In this we read:^[2]

"A British forensic archaeologist has unearthed fresh evidence to prove the existence of mass graves at the Nazi death camp Treblinka. Some 800,000 Jews were killed at the site, in north east Poland, during the Second World War but a lack of physical evidence at the site has been exploited by Holocaust deniers. Forensic archaeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls has now undertaken the first co-ordinated scientific attempt to locate the graves."

It is worth recalling that the same triumphant claim that the "Holocaust deniers" finally and once and for all had been "refuted" was heard in connection with Kola's surveys at Belzec and Sobibór, which in reality turned out to refute the official version of events relating to these two camps. (For this see the two books of TBR's "Holocaust Handbooks" series on Belzec and Sobibor as shown to the right.)

The above quoted news item was more or less a push for a radio program, "Hidden Graves of the Holocaust," featuring Sturdy Colls as well as Yitzhak Arad and former Treblinka inmate Kalman Taigman, which was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on 23 January 2012, 20:00 GMT.^[3] In anticipation of this radio program, on the same date, a podcast interview was uploaded by the University of Birmingham "Ideas Lab."^[4] In this we can listen to the following description of the methods employed by Sturdy Colls and her team, as well as some vague descriptions of their findings:

"Interviewer: What technology have you used to investigate the site?

Sturdy Colls: I used a number of non-invasive techniques at Treblinka and what this means is, as you quite rightly pointed out, the ground wasn't disturbed due to Jewish burial law so the methods used didn’t involve any form of ground disturbance or excavation and this allowed us to investigate the historic and scientific potential of Treblinka but obviously it was very important that we recognised its religious and commemorative significance as well. So the techniques that were used, there was a process of archival research which involved looking at documentary records, revisiting historical data if you like, looking at known data and assessing it with an archaeological eye, so looking for information about the landscape. Then there was a process of looking for aerial photographs of the site, any ground based photography, accounts by the witnesses, plans that had been created, etc., to build up a database of information so that when I did do the survey all of that could be corroborated against my results. So in the field this involved field walking, so assessing the landscape, topographic survey which used advanced GPS and total station surveying to demarcate features on a plan of the site allowed us to record micro-topographic change which may be indicative of buried features. And also to assess the visibility of other features such as a number of artefacts that were actually identified in quite a remote part of the site. Then moving on from that to look below the ground I used a number of geophysical techniques, so quite often mentioned is ground penetrating radar and this was one of the methods used but this was also corroborated with other methods that detect other physical properties in the soil. So I also used resistance survey and an extension of that which allows 3D imaging of buried remains as well, to ensure that all of the properties of the buried remains could be characterised accurately.

Interviewer: And what have you discovered?

Sturdy Colls: Well the survey results when corroborated with historical information have indicated that there are a number of surviving building foundations at Treblinka just below the surface and also a considerable amount of obviously structural debris which the Nazis would have been simply unable to have removed from the site, and this supports accounts written by post-war investigators which commented upon the visibility of artefactual remains, structural remains, at the camp. We’ve also identified a number of pits at the site. Again, all these pits have been mapped and corroborated with witness plans and this is indicative of a number of probable graves at the site. It is recognised as part of the survey that the history of Treblinka didn’t end with its abandonment by the Nazis. Issues such as post-war looting and the construction of the memorial itself and a number of other forms of landscape change that have taken place at the site, you know, could confuse interpretation so it was essential that all of these were considered when the results from the geophysical survey in particular were being assessed. So then all of this data was married up with historical information so we seem to have a situation here where it’s been commonly believed that all of the victims at Treblinka were cremated, they were destroyed without trace, however, the research has revealed a much more complex picture of the disposal patterns used by the Nazis. Looking at it from an offender profiling perspective, so a slightly more forensic point of view, the Nazis worked on, as do most offenders, this principle of least effort where they would actually have a burial method that very much matched the nature of their victims or their locations within the camp and there are a number of photographs and physical evidence that we observed on the ground at Treblinka that demonstrates that these bodies were not reduced to ash, that some survive as mass graves in the truest sense and that also the ashes of the victims were redeposited into the pits that they were originally exhumed from upon Himmler’s order in 1943. Also with the topographic survey we’ve demonstrated that the camp as it’s marked currently on the ground by the modern memorial was actually much larger, that the boundaries of the camp should have been 50 metres further north and this has a knock-on effect for a number of structures within the camp itself. So we can examine it from a spatial point of view and look at all of these features in relation to each other and hopefully eventually start to build up a more detailed map of the camp as it existed during its operation.

Interviewer: So you’ve now presented your findings to the authorities responsible for the memorial at Treblinka. Does this conclude investigations at the Treblinka site or is it sort of an ongoing project?

Sturdy Colls: It’s absolutely an ongoing project. The survey demonstrated that the site has got huge potential in terms of what we can learn from the application of archaeological method and very much was the tip of the iceberg in terms of being the first survey of what I hope will be many more to come. I hope to return to the site later on this year and there will be subsequent seasons of fieldwork in coming years. As I mentioned, at the moment what we’ve got is a map of what survived at the camp as a result of my findings. However, in order to build up a map of the camp as it existed we need to do more work, we need to survey the site. Only a small proportion of the site has actually been surveyed so there’s huge potential to find out more about the history of this camp in the future."

Somewhat more on the findings of Sturdy Colls could be gleaned from the BBC 4 radio documentary "Hidden Graves of the Holocaust." Starting at the mark 23:20 minutes we hear:

"Caroline Sturdy Colls: All the history books states that Treblinka was destroyed by the Nazis, in summary, the survey demonstrated that this simply isn't the case. I have identified a number of buried [sic] pits using geophysical techniques. These are considerable. One in particular is 26 meters by 17 meters.

Jonathan Charles: That's huge.

Sturdy Colls: It is huge. We are talking about a considerable number of bodies [which] could have been contained within pits of that size.

Charles: That could have contained hundreds, perhaps thousands of bodies, we don't know how deep it is, or do you know how deep it is?

Sturdy Colls: Unfortunately no. The survey technology does not allow us to go to certain depths. I know that it is over 4 meters, that was the extent of this [inaudible]. It's a considerable pit.

Charles: There are quite a few pits that you have discovered?

Sturdy Colls: Absolutely, there were a number of pits, in particular to the rear of what of what is now the current memorial, five that are actually in a row, again of a considerable size, in an area where witnesses state this was the main body disposal area, this is behind the gas chambers, it was where the majority of victims who were sent there were then subsequently buried, and later where the cremative remains of the victims were also placed.

Charles: It's not just pits that you found, there's also what look like buildings.

Sturdy Colls: There are, and again, the Nazis claimed they destroyed Treblinka, they certainly levelled the site, but it's not really possible when buildings have been on a site to actually sterilize the ground, so what I've identified is that solid structural remains, we're talking building foundations, do survive, but in particular two sort of structures that I've identified are likely to be the old and new gas chambers at Treblinka."

While here we learn virtually nothing about the supposed remains of the Treblinka "gas chambers," we are provided with some tantalizing information on the camp's burial pits. Needless to say, a critical assessment of the findings made by Sturdy Colls can only be made after she has published at least a preliminary report or a detailed article on the same, but we may nonetheless with appropriate caution note down some preliminary observations on what has been revealed so far. The most interesting information, however, is not to be found in the radio interviews, but in a short article by Sturdy Colls herself which was published on the website of the BBC on 23 January.^[5] In this we read:

"The existence of mass graves was known about from witness testimony, but the failure to provide persuasive physical evidence led some to question whether it could really be true that hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed here.

Although they lasted only a few days, those post-war investigations [in 1945-1946] remained the most complete studies of the camp until I began my work at Treblinka in 2010.

This revealed the existence of a number of pits across the site.

Some may be the result of post-war looting, prompted by myths of buried Jewish gold, but several larger pits were recorded in areas suggested by witnesses as the locations of mass graves and cremation sites.

One is 26m long, 17m wide and at least four metres deep, with a ramp at the west end and a vertical edge to the east.

Another five pits of varying sizes and also at least this deep are located nearby. Given their size and location, there is a strong case for arguing that they represent burial areas. [...]

As well as the pits, the survey has located features that appear to be structural, and two of these are likely to be the remains of the gas chambers.

According to witnesses, these were the only structures in the death camp made of brick."

Two composite aerial images of Treblinka by Mrs. Sturdy Colls.
(click on the picture to view it in full size)

Even more important is the fact that this article is illustrated with two composite maps on which the outlines of the findings made by Sturdy Colls have been superimposed on a modern-day aerial photograph of the former camp site and a 1944 aerial photograph of the same area respectively. In the figure to the right I have placed these two composite maps side by side, moved the main legend and the scale, and slightly increased the picture size in order to allow for easier comparison of scale. On the map to the left I have also arbitrarily numbered the "probable burial/cremation pits" from 1 to 10. (Click on the picture to view it in full size).

The information furnished by the two interviews, the article and the maps allow us to make the following observations:

The pit which Sturdy Colls mentions "in particular" and which is stated to have a surface area of "26 meters by 17 meters," that is a total of 442 square meters, is, judging by the dimensions, most likely identical with the rather irregular pit #3, located some 25 m south of the large cenotaph. This is clearly the largest in surface of the 10 pits identified.
As far as the surface area is concerned, two of the 33 mass graves identified by Andrzej Kola at Belzec (pits #1 and 27) were larger (with 480 and 540 square meters respectively), whereas two more (#7 and 14) were almost of the same size (364.5 and 370 square meters respectively).^[6] Of the six burial pits identified by Kola at Sobibór, two (pit #2 and 4) were larger or even significantly larger (with surface areas of 500 and 1,575 square meters respectively), whereas two other graves were nearly of the same surface size (pits #1 and 6, with 400 and 375 square meters respectively).^[7] Yet whereas at Belzec some 435,000 and at Sobibór some 80,000 corpses are alleged to have been interred,^[8] the number of uncremated bodies buried at Treblinka is supposed to have amounted to at least some 700,000. Would it then not make sense for the Germans to use mass graves of a larger size at Treblinka than at the other two Reinhardt camps?

For details about the alleged
extermination camp
at Treblinka see:
J. Graf, C. Mattogno:
Treblinka: Transit Camp
or Extermination Camp?
$30.- from The Barnes Review
The eyewitnesses Eliahu Rosenberg and Chil Rajchman, who to the knowledge of this author are the only witnesses to have provided detailed statements on the dimensions of the mass graves in the "death camp proper," claim pits of sizes vastly larger than the largest pit mapped by Sturdy Colls. Eliahu Rosenberg claimed in 1947 that the mass graves measured 120 m × 15 m × 6 m, giving a surface area of 1,800 square meters and a total volume 9,900 cubic meters.^[9] Chil Rajchman, whose 1944 testimony ^[10] is prominently featured in the "Hidden Graves of the Holocaust" radio program – including a particularly bizarre passage from it concerning burning blood – states:^[11]

"The pits were enormous, about 50 metres long, about 30 wide and several storeys deep. I estimate that the pits could contain about four storeys."

The burial pits thus measured 1,500 square meters according to the witness Rajchman and maybe as much as (1,500 × 12 =) 18,000 cubic meters in volume! How come that the largest of the pits discovered by Sturdy Colls corresponds to less than one third of the surface size claimed by Rajchman and to one fourth of the surface area claimed by Rosenberg?
It is indeed unfortunate that the top modern equipment used by Sturdy Colls for some reason or other was not able to detect depths exceeding 4 meters. Perhaps it would have been wise of her to dispense of some of the piety with regards to "Jewish burial laws" and utilize probe drillings to measure the depth of the pits, as was done by Kola at both Belzec and Sobibór. Of the pits identified by Kola in these two camps, the deepest pit (#3 at Sobibór) measured 5.80 m, whereas the depth of the remaining pits averaged some 4 m.

Generously assuming Rosenberg's estimate of 6 meters (Rajchman's estimate of some 12 meters can be safely dismissed as an exaggeration), and even more generously assuming (for the sake of argument) 6 meters to be the effective depth, with the pit walls being vertical instead of sloping (an obviously unrealistic assumption, which is moreover contradicted by Sturdy Colls statement that this pit had a "ramp" at the west end and a "vertical edge to the east," implying that three out of four side walls were oblique – but again, for the sake of argument...) pit #3 would have a volume of (26 × 17 × 6 =) 2,652 cubic meters. Assuming an average capacity of 8 corpses per cubic meters,^[12] this means that the pit in question could have contained in total (2,652 × 8 =) 21,216 corpses. Since the so-called Höfle document from an exterminationist viewpointshows that nearly 713,555 were murdered at Treblinka up until the end of 1942 – in reality this document only proves that this number of Jews was deported to the camp up until that time – and since virtually all sources maintain that non-experimental cremations on a significant scale did not commence at Treblinka until 1943, at least 700,000 corpses would have had to have been interred in the camp, necessitating no less than (700,000/21,216 =) 33 pits of the same size as pit #3, with a total surface area of 14,586 square meter, or nearly 1.5 hectares. Needless to say the mass graves would have had to be separated by soil walls of considerable thickness, thereby increasing the surface area required by the graves.

Above: Montage of the 10 identified pits placed within a square 100 × 100 meters. Relative dimensions have been kept unchanged from the maps produced by Caroline Sturdy Colls.
Pits #1 and 2, which together appear to have a surface area of some 600-700 square meters, are located in the western part of the camp site, near the torn-up railroad sidespur, clearly outside of the "death camp proper." These may be identical with the mass graves mentioned by the witness Abraham Kszepicki, in which the bodies of Jews who had died en route to the camp were buried during the first months of operation.^[13]
The four pits #5-8 are placed in a (not very straight) row. Sturdy Colls states in the radio documentary that there are "five" pits of "considerable size" "in a row" and in the area which witnesses state "was the main body disposal area, [...] behind the gas chambers." Either Sturdy Colls mistakenly said five when she meant four, or maybe she counted one of the other pits, perhaps #6, with its "neck" in the middle, as two separate pits. Regardless of which, it is clear that the pits #5-8 cover a surface area which corresponds to roughly 175-200% that of #3, that is, somewhere in the range of 750-900 square meters.
Altogether, pits #3-10 as mapped by Sturdy Colls cover a surface hardly exceeding 1,800 square meters. If we assume, again for the sake of argument, the no doubt overly generous average effective depth of 6 meters with vertical pit walls – and once more I want to remind my readers that the pits identified at Belzec and Sobibór averaged some 4 m in depth – this would mean that the "probable burial/cremation pits" in the "death camp proper"/"upper camp"/"camp 2" ^[14] had a total volume of some (1,800 × 6 =) 10,800 cubic meters. The pits at Belzec as identified by Kola have a total estimated volume of 21,310 cubic meters,^[15]whereas those at Sobibór have a total estimated volume of 14,718 cubic meters.^[16] The no doubt greatly exaggerated estimate of 10,800 cubic meters could have contained at most some (10,800 × 8 =) 86,400 corpses (assuming instead a more realistic average effective depth of 5 m this figure would change to 72,000 – and this still disregards the likely enlargement of the original grave volumes due to clandestine diggings and other causes). According to Yitzhak Arad, some 312,500 Jews were murdered in Treblinka merely "during the first five weeks of the killing operation."^[17] According to the files of the Jewish Council in Warsaw, 251,545 Jews from the ghetto in that city were deported to Treblinka between 22 July 1942 and 12 September 1942.^[18] And as already mentioned, the Höfle document states that 713,555 were deported to Treblinka up until the end of 1942. Judging by the information revealed, only a small fraction of this enormous number of people could have been buried in the identified "probable burial/cremation pits," even taking into account the two pits in the reception camp, which, given the reported structure of the camp, could not have been used for any hypothetical "gas chamber" victims.
Sturdy Colls's statement that "the failure to provide persuasive physical evidence [of mass graves] led some to question whether it could really be true that hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed here" implies that the presence of mass graves itself would be enough to refute the "deniers." However, it is clear that mass graves of considerable size must have existed at Treblinka, even if it was in fact only a transit camp. Holocaust historian Dieter Pohl estimates that up to 5 % of the deportees to the Reinhardt camps perisheden route due to suffocation, dehydration, crushing caused by panicking deportees etc.^[19] Considering that the reception of transports at Treblinka during the intense initial months of operation is claimed to have been grossly mismanaged by the first camp commandant, Dr. Irmfried Eberl (who, apparently because of this reason, was fired and replaced by Franz Stangl), which led to the delay of transports at way stations ^[20] – and this in the summer heat of July and August – there is little reason to doubt this estimate with regard to Treblinka. Since some 800,000 Jews in total were deported to Treblinka during the camp's period of operation (July 1942 – August 1943), this would mean a total of some 40,000 en route deaths. Moreover, there are reasons to assume that a smaller percentage of the deportees were subjected to "euthanasia" due to contagious or mental diseases, or for being too weak for further transport. To this should be added a smaller number of deaths among the camp inmates caused by epidemics etc., as well as those killed by guards in connection with attempts at escape or uprisings.
The vague mention of a "more complex picture of the disposal patterns used by the Nazis" is interesting. Were uncremated corpses also detected by the survey, and if so, how many?
Sturdy Colls labeled the pits "probable burial/cremation pits," indicating that one or more of the pits may have been used for cremations and not for interment (at Sobibór Kola identified such a pit with an area of 10 × 3 m and a depth of up to 90 cm). In this context the smaller, more rectangular pits #4 and 5 may be the most likely candidates. The dimensions of an identified cremation pit could give important hints about the actual cremation capacity at Treblinka.
It is noteworthy that none of the pits or structural remains are located under the stone/concrete covered memorial areas (cf. the map to the left, where these areas are visible as a bluish gray). Sturdy Colls did not mention whether or not she was able to map these area with her geophysics equipment.^[21] This issue, like many others, will have to await further clarification. The covered area inside the "death camp proper" appears to correspond to roughly 1 hectare.
It may be worth making a quick comparison of the maps furnished by Sturdy Colls with the "reconstruction" of Treblinka proposed by exterminationist air-photo analyst Alex Bay.^[22] Concerning the mass graves Bay writes:

"Unfortunately, the aerial photography does not contain enough information to delineate the boundaries of the graves. The May [1944] coverage is sufficient only for crudely identifying the places where deep disturbances in general are probable, but the exact boundaries cannot be established.

In Figure 42 aerial photography is presented in which nine 50 by 25 meter [164 × 82 feet] pits have been drawn to scale along the east and west sides. The positioning and size of these pits is purely speculative."^[23]

The dimensions of 50 × 25 m for the pits are taken from Bay's number one eyewitness, Yankiel Wiernik, and his 1944 publication A Year in Treblinka. Wiernik writes indeed that "The dimensions of each ditch were 50 by 25 by 10 meters"^[24] but this almost certainly refers to ditches located not in the "death camp proper," but in the reception camp. The scene wherein Wiernik provides the above-mentioned dimensions takes place on the second day after his arrival in the camp, and the following chapters imply that he first visited the "death camp proper" or Camp II, as he calls it, only several days later.

Location of alleged gas chamber building according to Bay and Sturdy Colls.
(click on the picture to view it in full size)

In the figure to the right I have placed Bay's Figure 42 side by side with the Sturdy Colls composite map based on the 1944 air photo. (Click on it to open a full-size version.) The scales of the two maps have been harmonized. To Bay's map I have also added the letters A and B to indicate the solid black outlines drawn by Bay to mark out the two alleged gas chamber buildings. Even considering Bay's admission that the positioning and size of his mass graves "is purely speculative," it is clear that his vision of what the "death camp proper" might have looked like differs considerably from Sturdy Colls' map. As for the locations of the two alleged gas chamber buildings, which Bay goes to painstaking length to identify (based on the aerial photos and witness statements), the four structures marked out by Sturdy Colls (in blue) and designated "probable location of gas chambers" are located some 100 m south of the sites pinpointed by Bay. The alignment of these structures is also rather different from that asserted by Bay. Together with the considerable difference in surface size between the mass graves posited by Bay and the pits identified by Sturdy Colls, this says something of the competence of Bay as well as the reliability of his star witness Wiernik.
As for the "probable location of gas chambers" we learn virtually nothing other than that Sturdy Colls has identified two brick structures. On the composite maps, however, four structures are marked out, of which the largest (near the eastern exit of the "Road to heaven") is likely to be the one identified by Sturdy Colls as the "new gas chamber building." The three other structures, two of which are relatively large, are located close to each other. One must suppose that one of the two larger structures has been identified by Sturdy Colls as the "old gas chamber building." According to the most elaborate exterminationist effort to map Treblinka based on aerial photos and eyewitness testimony – the 2004 map by Peter Laponder (who also refers to ground photos taken inside the "death camp proper" as found in Kurt Franz's photo album "Schöne Zeiten")^[25] – the only structures located adjacent to the "old gas chamber building" were a water pump shelter, a tiny guardhouse, and a watchtower. Yet on the composite map we have two larger structures next to each other. We will have to wait and see if the geophysical survey has revealed anything about the layout of these structures. If that is not the case, we can only hope that Sturdy Colls soon returns to the camp site to excavate the detected structural remains.

All in all, the information revealed by these interviews about the findings of the 2011 geophysical survey at Treblinka provides us with more questions than answers. We can only wait and hope that a preliminary report on the research results is not too long in coming. One thing is sure, however, namely that little indicates that the findings of Caroline Sturdy Colls have actually "proven Holocaust deniers wrong" with regard to Treblinka. On the contrary: the information revealed seems to hint that the findings of Caroline Sturdy Colls may well spell doom for the official historiography on Treblinka.

Endnotes

[1] Thomas Kues, "UK Forensic Archeologist Sets Out To Refute Treblinka 'Deniers'," http://www.revblog.codoh.com/2010/11/uk-forensic-archeologist-sets-out-to-refute-treblinka-deniers/

[2] "Mass graves at Nazi death camp Treblinka prove Holocaust deniers wrong," http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/01/16/mass-graves-at-nazi-death-camp-treblinka-holocaust_n_1208814.html

[3] This radio program is temporarily available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b019rlns/The_Hidden_Graves_of_the_Holocaust/

[4] http://www.ideaslab.bham.ac.uk/MP3s/Caroline_Sturdy_Colls_Treblinka_podcast.mp3 A transcript of this podcast can be found at http://www.ideaslab.bham.ac.uk/MP3s/Transcript_Predictor_Podcast_40.doc

[5] "Treblinka: Revealing the hidden graves of the Holocaust," http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16657363

[6] Cf. Carlo Mattogno, Belzec in Propaganda, Testimonies, Archeological Research, and History, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago 2004, p. 73.

[7] Cf. Jürgen Graf, Thomas Kues, Carlo Mattogno, Sobibór: Holocaust Propaganda and Reality, TBR Books 2010, p. 120.

[8] Cf. ibid., p. 117.

[9] Cf. Jürgen Graf, Carlo Mattogno, Treblinka. Extermination Camp or Transit Camp?, Theses & Dissertations Press, Chicago 2004, p. 138.

[10] Discussed in detail in my article Chil Rajchman’s Treblinka Memoirs, Inconvenient History, vol. 2, nr. 1, online:http://www.inconvenienthistory.com/archive/2010/volume_2/number_1/chil_rajchmans_treblinka_memoirs.php

[11] Chil Rajchman, Treblinka. A Survivor’s Memory 1942–1943, MacLehose Press, London 2011, p. 60.

[12] Cf. Carlo Mattogno, "Belzec or the Holocaust Controversy of Roberto Muehlenkamp," section 4.1.http://www.codoh.com/gcgv/gcgvhcrm.html

[13] Yitzhak Arad, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka. The Operation Reinhard Death Camps, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis 1987, p. 85.

[14] Judging by some of the early maps of the camp, pit #3 would have been located outside of this part of the camp, whereas some later exterminationist efforts to reconstruct the topography of the camp places it within the "death camp proper," cf. Mapping Treblinka, http://www.deathcamps.org/treblinka/maps.html

[15] C. Mattogno, Belzec..., op.cit., p. 73.

[16] J. Graf, T. Kues, C. Mattogno, Sobibór..., op.cit., p. 120.

[17] Y. Arad, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, op.cit., p. 87.

[18] Ibid., pp. 275-276.

[19] Dieter Pohl, "Massentötungen durch Giftgas im Rahmen der 'Aktion Reinhardt': Aufgaben der Forschung" in: Günter Morsch, Betrand Perz (eds.), Neue Studien zu nationalsozialistischen Massentötungen durch Giftgas. Historische Bedeutung, technische Entwicklung, revisionistische Leugnung, Metropol, Berlin 2011, p. 194.

[20] Cf. Y. Arad, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, op.cit., pp. 87-88.

[21] According to the English-language Wikipedia article on Ground Penetrating Radar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-penetrating_radar) "Good penetration is also achieved in dry sandy soils or massive dry materials such as granite, limestone, and concrete where the depth of penetration could be up to 15 m," implying that the concrete slabs of the memorial in themselves should pose little problem for a GPR survey. There may of course be other, unrevealed hindering factors.

[22] The Reconstruction of Treblinka, http://www.holocaust-history.org/Treblinka/

[23] http://www.holocaust-history.org/Treblinka/deathcampinternet/deathcampp7.shtml

[24] Y. Wiernik, A Year in Treblinka, chapter 3, online: http://www.zchor.org/treblink/wiernik.htm

[25] http://www.deathcamps.org/treblinka/pic/bmap9.jpg

Former Irish hunger striker’s message for Palestinian prisoner 55 days on hunger strike

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:00:00 +0000

He speaks here of the Israeli regime.

http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m85571&hd=&size=1&l=e

Tommy McKearney, one of the participants of the legendary 1980-81 Irish hunger strikes has sent a video message of solidarity to Khader Adnan and his family.

Adnan, a Palestinian, has been on hunger strike ever since his 17 December detention without charge or trial by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank.

In the 3-minute video, McKearney begins his comments with these words:

My name is Tommy McKearney. I’m a former member of the IRA. Thirty two years ago I was on hunger strike for 53 days in the H Blocks. Today Khader Adnan will be 54 days on hunger strike. Held by the Israeli government on administrative detention, in other words without charge or conviction, he is battling against atrocious conditions and a very unjust system. His life is ebbing away in a very cruel and harsh regime. His conditions are hard, difficult and awful. The world must intervene to save this man’s life in the name of humanity, in the name of decency, in the name of justice and legality.

Fifty-four days on hunger strike his body is beginning to collapse. We can’t say for sure whether this man will be alive tonight or tomorrow night because at this stage he has passed a critical point in which a human body can survive without food or nourishment. His pain is enormous, but his plight is deplorable…

McKearney was among a group of seven Irish Republican prisoners who went on hunger strike at the notorious British-run Maze Prison in 1980. The following year 23 more prisoners, went on hunger strike. The strikes were sparked by punitive British conditions against political prisoners.

Ten of the men fasted until death, perhaps the best known of whom was Bobby Sands who died on 5 May 1981 after 66 days on hunger strike. Sands was 27 years old. The Irish hunger strikes attracted world-wide sympathy and became a symbol of the Irish struggle

“I have only my words, my heart, my soul and my prayers for Libya”

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:00:00 +0000

We have prayed daily for the Libyan people and Gaddafi has never left Libya. There is heroic resistance and Libyans continue to fight for their country. See this article below.

http://libyanfreepress.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/i-have-only-my-words-my-heart-my-soul-and-my-prayers-for-libya/

“I have only my words, my heart, my soul and my prayers for Libya”

Greetings,

I pray that you are in the best of holistic well-being. My name is Dennis South. Actually, that is a pseudonym that I had used while writing pro-Gaddafi, pro-Jamahiriya articles for www.mathaba.net, during the 9, horrible months that the LDF fought valiantly against the DEMON leaders of my country, the U.S.

I saw the video of Dr. Shakir in Bani Walid. I hope that it is a a video that is a true video.

After 9 months of covering the Libya situation, I became depressed. I could not take it anymore, and discontinued writing.

I feel helpless to do anything. I wish there was something more I can do. But, I have to return to my mundane life.

I have been told, by T-West, that it might be only a matter of months before the Jamahiriya is in power again. I don’t know if his assessment is correct. But I hope so.

The traitors of Libya must be the worst of creation in human history. I pray that a spiritual WIND blow over Libya, and bring the Libyan people–all of them–back together as ONE people, under the Jamahiriya.

I pray that Almighty God give the GOOD Libyan people the strength to fight until the bitter end. I pray that that fight will gain them their country back, for once and for all.

How painful this is to watch. And to think that the Libyan people had to go through this under the Italians!

The U.S.–my country–is now led by DEMONS; people who have no heart; no soul; and no conscience. They are without LIFE.

We all have to pray that some Great Force stops them, even if it comes from OUTER SPACE! I’m not trying to be funny. I wish these demons could be destroyed. I wish they would stop murdering and killing, all over the world, not just in Libya.

The Angels of Allah are going to descend on Libya. And those who are NOT RIGHT; those who are EVIL; those who are TRAITORS, are going to be swept away forever.

There certainly MUST be a reason that Allah is allowing Libya to suffer. And that reason is that Libya (maybe) is destined to lead the WORLD to peace. Or at least set the best example.

The Angels of Allah will SOON remove ALL foreign ships, arms, mercenaries, thugs, bandits, soldiers, from Libya. Libya will have peace for one-thousand years.

The enemies of Libya will soon BURN. And they will KNOW that their burning was caused by their own hands; caused by their assault against Libya and the Libyan people and the Libyan Jamahiriya and Brother Leader.

An invisible shield of protection will soon emerge over Libya, and NO ONE will be able to penetrate that shield. The waters of the Mediterranian, from the surface to the bottom of that Sea, are going to become IMPOSSIBLE for war ships to pass through.

The Mediterranean Sea will SINK any ships or any craft that is crossing it for the purpose of causing war. It will sink any ship that is armed with weapons, unless those ships are LIBYAN ships that are there to protect Libya.

Libya has suffered ENOUGH. It is time for a powerful energy to swirl around and destroy any evil that comes near Libya.

Libyans will now have to pray BIG TIME. They must pray day and night, and CRY in their prayers, as crying in one’s prayers is pleasing to God, or “The Universe” or “The Force” or “The Source,” or however one wishes to describe the Creator and Sustainer of all things.

Every Libyan must be on board! There can no longer be any division. The Tribes have to RE-THINK their identities, and help each other to become ONE PEOPLE, under ONE SYSTEM. They must quickly review what has happened to them, and work out a way to END this BULLSHIT!!!

Libya sits “alone” in the world, for a REASON: Because Allah wants Libyans to rely on HIM ALONE. When Libya gets through this agony, it will emerge the strongest people on earth. After that, God’s purposes for Libya will be revealed. But, until then, work, fighting, deep prayer, and UNITY must be carried out. There must be UNITY. Amen.

Your brother ALWAYS,

Dennis South

February 9, 2012

Belgian Fire Brigade Hose Down Belgian Police

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000

'I'm excited I can now bring my family back to Ireland'

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:37:00 +0000

An interesting article here from the Irish Times.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2012/0210/1224311566746.html?via=mr

MARK BRENNAN

With the continuing fall in property prices, Ireland has a lot to offer us now – and a nice family home in Dublin is much more affordable

IN 2004 I had finished university with a degree and a Masters, and had been saving while working in advertising in Dublin for a year. I wanted to do something constructive with my savings, and had three choices.

I could have used the money to cover half the deposit for a one-bed flat on the outskirts of Dublin. I was lucky enough to have parents who were willing and able to chip in the other half of the deposit, but I would have ended up with a mortgage that was higher than my gross monthly salary.

I also wanted to learn how to drive, but as I was a male under the age of 25, my annual insurance quote was more than €3,000. Added to the price of a small car and lessons, all my money would have been blown on that alone.

The third option was to take a year off work to travel. It was a no-brainer. I knew that if I didn’t take the opportunity to see the world while I was still young, I might not get the chance again, so I bought a round-the-world ticket with a friend and headed off on an adventure.

I travelled by train across America, bussed it through South America, spent six months working in Australia, headed to New Zealand for the Lions tour, before making my way through southeast Asia on the way back to Europe.

A few days before I was due to fly home, I was sitting in an internet cafe in Bangkok and I realised I really wasn’t ready to go back to Ireland.

The advertising industry in Ireland is very compact, and I didn’t see as many opportunities for myself there as there were in London. I also felt the boom in Ireland had passed me by.

My flight was routed through London, so I applied for a few jobs there and went for an interview the morning I landed. They offered me the position and I stayed.

The original plan was to spend a few years there, gain some experience in the industry, jump ahead a little faster in my career than would be possible at home, and then bring that experience back to Ireland.

Like many young Irish coming to London, I started off on a friend’s couch until I got myself sorted. His place was in Dollis Hill, which is an old traditional Irish area in the northwest of the city. I moved from there to Clapham, or County Clapham as we used to call it due to the sheer number of Irish, and lived there for about three years before relocating to Kensal Green, where I became more assimilated into London life and a little more distanced from the Irish community.

I met and married an English girl, Kate, and have since had a son and twin daughters. We didn’t want to bring up our kids in such a big city, so for the past two years we have been living in Bath, near Kate’s family, and I commute back and forth to London every day.

The train has become my mobile office, and it is possible to get work done during the three-hour commute, but it is tiring and it has been hard on my family, because I’m not there as much as I should be or want to be.

I had assumed that the possibility of returning home was closed to me for the moment, and would be for many years until the economy recovered. But luckily, I have been working on an account for Guinness for the last few years, and an opportunity has recently arisen for me to set up a new satellite office for my existing company in Dublin.

Myself and my wife and children are due to move back to Dublin in April, and for the first time in years, I can see opportunities there for us. I am genuinely excited about the chance to come home and make a life for my family in Ireland.

Ireland has a lot to offer us now. The price of property has come way down, and a nice family home in Dublin is much more affordable compared with five years ago. Back then, I was priced out of Ireland.

Living in Dublin, we will be close to the sea and the mountains. I will be able to see my children during the week, because I will be home from work before they go to bed in the evenings. Overall, I know quality of life for my family and my own personal work-life balance will be much better in Ireland than it could be in the UK.

London is a tremendous city, but it is a young person’s city. The prospect of bringing up a family there is a daunting one. Many people, like us, decide to move out and commute.

Although my journey is an extreme one, many people do it. It is not so much the travelling but what you miss out on that makes it unsustainable.

We’re very much looking forward to living in Dublin and having a sense of balance back in our lives.

– In conversation with CIARA KENNY

Abortion Safe and Legal?

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000

Blockade of Dublin

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:41:00 +0000

Hundreds of truckers are expected to converge on Dublin on 22nd February. Let’s stand in solidarity with them.

http://www.facebook.com/events/143182049132116/

“Massive protest coming to Dublin on the 22nd February 2012 with full support of the Road Haulage Association. The capital will be brought to a standstill, and this is an opportunity for everyone to be part of something immense, but the truckers cannot speak for all of us. We want groups across the country to unite and show this government that enough is enough. If you cannot make it to the capital, protest at government offices in your own county, and show your solidarity. Time to get the message through - austerity is only for the poor, enough is enough, we cannot sit back and take this any longer. Please share this event, and invite all of your friends through facebook to attend”

Pitchfork Movement

The Government Is On The Run!

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:59:00 +0000

THE GOVERNMENT IS ON THE RUN!

NO TO €50! NO TO €5! NO TO MONEY FOR FOREIGN AND ZOMBIE BANKS!

GET OFF OUR BACKS YOU TRAITORS, COWARDS AND INCOMPETENTS!

Rural householders are to be offered a reduced septic tank inspection fee of €5 if they register within the first three months of the new scheme.

In an apparent move to quell disquiet over proposed charges, Minister for Environment Phil Hogan today announced what he described as an “incentive for owners to register early”.

Under the proposed regulations, householders who do not avail of the incentive scheme will have to pay a registration charge of €50 to facilitate inspections of their tanks.

Speaking at a public meeting on the new scheme in Dundrum, Co Tipperary this evening, Mr Hogan said: “To act as an incentive for owners to register early, I have decided to set the registration fee at €5 instead of the proposed €50 for the first three months.

He encouraged householders to register before June 30th to avail of the lower fee.

“This legislation has been deliberately framed to minimise the impact on householders who can be assured that if their systems are working properly and are being maintained the impact of the new system will be minor,” he said.

Mr Hogan said he would formally announce the guidelines for the new scheme in two weeks which will be followed by a four-week public consultation period.

The Government has consistently argued that the proposed Water Services (Amendment) Bill 2011 is required to ensure Ireland complied with a 2009 European Court of Justice ruling, and to improve water quality and protection of the environment.

However, the regulations have been criticised by opposition TDs and rural groups who claim many rural householders have already paid large amounts on septic-tank construction and maintenance at personal, rather than taxpayers’ cost.

The 17th Of March Is Our Day

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:08:00 +0000

A Nationalist Education Forum project. Do share the video and support the campaign.

Russia Blocking UNSC Resolution on Syria

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:57:00 +0000

An article from the Activist Post regarding Syria.

Tony Cartlalucci, Contributing Writer
Activist Post
"...the UN is debating how to stop a conflict that it says has killed more than 5,400 people and is evolving into a civil war," reports Businessweek. What Businessweek fails to mention is that the casualty reports continuously cited by both the UN and the corporate-media, come from an overtly compromised UN human rights report made up of "witness testimony" recorded not in Syria, or even in neighboring countries, but in Geneva by witnesses supplied by Syria's foreign-funded opposition movement.

Additionally, the UN report was compiled not by objective third-parties, but by Karen Koning AbuZayd, a director of the US Washington-based corporate think-tank, Middle East Policy Council, that includes Exxon men, CIA agents, US military and government representatives, and even the president of the US-Qatar Business Council, which includes amongst its membership, AlJazeera, Chevron, Exxon, munitions manufacturer Raytheon (who supplied the opening salvos during NATO's operations against Libya), and Boeing.

Clearly then, one can understand why Russia, China, and other nations are hesitant to sign onto what seems to be more of a plot of foreign-destabilization aimed at long planned regime change in Syria, than any legitimate concerns about the government's alleged transgressions against an overtly armed, violent, and foreign-backed insurrection.

Businessweek notes that Russia's hesitation may be well-founded with Libya in hindsight. Of course in Libya, a UN no-fly zone designed to allow NATO forces to "protect" Libyan civilians from government atrocities later determined to be fabricated, immediately turned into close-air support for foreign armed Libyan Islamic Fighting Group terrorists who committed a documented array of atrocities as they starved out and destroyed entire Libyan cities. One such city, Tawarga, saw its entire population of 30,000 purged by NATO-backed rebels, leaving what the London Telegraph described as a "ghost town."

With this in mind, and even literally the same NATO-backed Libyan rebels now operating on Syria's borders, it would be morally abhorrent for Russia, China, Brazil, India, South Africa, and others to allow what is clearly a repeat performance of NATO's genocide in Libya, on behalf of Wall Street and London's corporate-financier elite through the US, UK, EU governments, NATO and the UN.
It should be noted that America's calls for regime change in Syria are not simply the result of spontaneous uprisings inside of Syria and the government's response, but the culmination of decades of policy aimed toward replacing Syria's government with a more pliant proxy regime. The latest unrest was in fact funded by the US, with open admissions coming from the US State Department itself.

Syria has been slated for regime change since as early as 1991. In 2002, then US Under Secretary of State, John Bolton, added Syria to the growing "Axis of Evil." It would be later revealed that Bolton's threats against Syria manifested themselves as covert funding and support for opposition groups inside of Syria spanning both the Bush and Obama administrations.
In an April 2011 CNN article, acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner stated:

We're not working to undermine that [Syrian] government. What we are trying to do in Syria, through our civil society support, is to build the kind of democratic institutions, frankly, that we're trying to do in countries around the globe. What's different, I think, in this situation is that the Syrian government perceives this kind of assistance as a threat to its control over the Syrian people.

Toner's remarks came after the Washington Post released cables indicating the US has been funding Syrian opposition groups since at least 2005 and continued until today.
In an April AFP report, Michael Posner, the assistant US Secretary of State for Human Rights and Labor, stated that the "US government has budgeted $50 million in the last two years to develop new technologies to help activists protect themselves from arrest and prosecution by authoritarian governments." The report went on to explain that the US "organized training sessions for 5,000 activists in different parts of the world. A session held in the Middle East about six weeks ago gathered activists from Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon who returned to their countries with the aim of training their colleagues there." Posner would add, "They went back and there's a ripple effect." That ripple effect of course is the "Arab Spring," and in Syria's case, the impetus for the current unrest threatening to unhinge the nation and invite in foreign intervention."

As the UN debates "how to stop a conflict that it says has killed more than 5,400 people" they may wish to turn toward the regimes bent to the will of Wall Street and London and kindly ask them to stop arming and backing terrorist death squads on Syria's borders. They may consider drafting a resolution against the use of "NGOs" like the

National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the International Republican Institute (IRI), and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to manipulate the political landscape of a foreign, sovereign nation-state.

While this is all wishful thinking, as these "international institutions" are nothing more than functionaries of Wall Street and London's global ambitions, we must recognize that nations are increasingly reluctant to intervene in Syria, not because they are apathetic to the violence, but because it will only embolden the campaign of destabilization and terror demonstratively carried out by the West over the last year, built on similar campaigns carried out since the conclusion of World War II.

Where is the IRA when we need them?

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:41:00 +0000

The Sovereign Independent has picked up on these interesting articles. The alternative to Capitalism and Socialism is Distributism. The original Sinn Fein was neither Capitalist or Socialist and the book What Sinn Fein stands for by Aodh De Blácam is well worth the read. http://thoughtactioneire.blogspot.com/2010/04/sinn-fein-stands-for.html

The early Sinn Fein was clearly Distributist and a movement deserving of support. There is a clear feeling of betrayal and people in Ireland realise the party system is a sham.

http://www.sovereignindependent.com/?p=34516

Posted by Gabriel Donohoe (Fools Crow)

Where is the IRA when we need them? says writer Bob Chapman on Global Research, now that Ireland is pulverized and impoverished by the debts of foreign banksters loaded onto its back by a previous traitorous government. (Of course, the current coalition is equally treasonous as its villainous predecessor.)

The proud Irish people, who valiantly rose up in armed rebellion against a foreign usurper for every generation over hundreds of years, appears to have thrown in the towel. For the first time in history they are beaten and demoralized. There seems to be no fight left in them. No leadership. No ideas. No plan of resistance.

Bob Chapman’s rhetorical question about the IRA might be more practically tossed to Sinn Fein, the largest left wing party in the Dail. “Where is Sinn Fein when we need them?”

In 1918, when the people needed political courage and leadership, Sinn Fein didn’t shrink from their job and swept into power by a massive majority, 73 seats out of 105 in all 32 counties. They could achieve that again today if they took a more proactive role in educating the people about the huge fraud of modern banking and fought for a more equitable system of money creation than Fractional Reserve, a corrupt system that permits private banksters to issue money out of thin air as an interest bearing debt to themselves.

But, let’s not hold our collective breath. Sinn Fein doesn’t seem to have explored any alternatives that would prove more beneficial to the people. Like the other parties they are economically illiterate. In fact, like it or not, they have been co-opted into the system – a system devised by the banksters themselves. All their arguments and bluster are within the box of orthodoxy. We need vibrant young leaders who will free us from that box.

Are there any out there?

Chapman’s article is posted below…

The Euro Zone and the Crisis of Sovereign Debt

by Bob Chapman (From Global Research)

The creation of the euro zone may have given participants one currency, but it created other problems as well. One interest rate was supposed to fit all. Those sovereigns on the financial periphery of the 17 nations found low interest rates too good to be true. As a result, the borrowed funds they shouldn’t have borrowed to finance current debt, was thrown off by the economy.

During the 1990s we wrote that one interest rate for all would destroy the euro, but as usual no one wanted to listen. The reason was simple, each nation was and is at a different stage of development and a nation paying 2% rates could now borrow at 4%, which is a giant difference. As debt grew the credit crisis occurred and the rules changed externally. As rates rose sovereigns got into more and more trouble.

European banks were allowed to purchase sovereign bonds leveraged at 40 to one versus their existing capital. Normal prudent leverage is 9 to one. That means any sort of trouble was mega trouble. The result of this is what you are seeing today.

That is why Greece and others are in such trouble today. The banks created too much money and in their greed buried themselves and the sovereigns who the bankers know should have never had those loans in the first place. The result of the bank lending and political borrowing has led to the current state of affairs, insolvency. The size of debt cannot be sustained.

In the case of Greece, discussions are talking in terms of defaulting on 70% of debt, which we do not believe will solve the problem. Greece will have 50 years of austerity and poverty, all this to remain in the euro zone where hopelessly they cannot compete. If they can’t compete why would they stay in the euro zone? It is all about Greek leadership and its connection to bureaucrats, bankers and others that demand their inclusion into world government.

As of late interest rates have been falling from their lofty heights with the help of a $1 trillion loan from the Federal Reserve. We suppose that will continue over the next year. The rates will depend on internal events as well as external. Pushing against interest rates will be inflation, massive money creation, growing debt, stagnant economies, the threat of Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Belgium, Spain and Italy going into default and a possible lack of credit that will restrict world trade. Lenders already see European banks cutting back in the commercial loan area as the spectra of tariffs, particularly in Europe and England stalk our world. A reflection of the above is that European banks won’t even lend to each other, due to lack of trust.

The EU and the euro zone were bad ideas from the very beginning. It has been one vast orgy of spending, debt, and trade imbalances, showcased in all the profligacy of banking. Germany is in a really difficult spot, austerity reins, losses from bond holdings face them, and the weak countries such as Greece need even more money to survive. If Germany lends and funds losses they can extend the game. If they do not the system comes unglued. If you look at the numbers you will see that Portugal is where Greece was last year and that Italy is where Portugal was last year. Thus, if little changes it could be that along with Spain they could fail one after another year by year and they probably will. That will allow the bankers to greatly string out their problems, which they are very adept at doing.

A country like Greece even with a 70% debt write off, and staying in the euro, as we have said before, will live in poverty for the next 25 to 50 years. A full default and exit from the euro would leave them with a 5 to 10 year depression. At first the latter will be disastrous. The barter system and a rampant black market will flourish. Then austere normality will occur. The next Greek election is two months away and the opposition has been dragging their feet trying to get more bailout support and then put their own touch on to develop the future.

If Greece does a partial default they will be on life support for years within the euro zone. Their partners won’t like it, but their thought process is aid in perpetuity in exchange for economic and financial existence, as a part of the euro zone – EU units. EU members know that if Greece leaves, Portugal and Ireland will follow, perhaps followed by Belgium, Spain and Italy. If that happens the EU could fail and the Illuminists’ dream of world government could end.

Yes, there is no doubt in our minds that the Greeks are stalling until their April election. In the meantime they want Germany to financially carry them. We do not see any option for Germany but to carry them. Otherwise, the euro and EU may blow-up as a result of that default. All these noises that Germany is making are for show. They know what we know. The euro zone position is weak and they know it. Greece fails and the avalanche follows, as Portugal and Ireland follow the same path.

Making things more difficult are the French elections. Can France’s Sarkozy and Merkel’s Germany take the political risk of saving Greece at this late date? Yes, we think they have too. The loss of Greece, Ireland and Portugal would cause chaos and they know it. Thus, there will be a stopgap financing before the end of March. Waiting in the wings are the debt of Spain and Italy of some $4 trillion. Italy has to roll $455 billion in current debt this year. Does one think that is possible?

We think Italy and Spain will use ECB loans to roll their bonds and fund their governments. That means that debt is really being transferred from respective governments to the ECB, which is to the people. The next year, 2013, the same could happen – it’s either the Fed supplies more money or the banks fractionalize. There is no question the sovereigns would choose the ECB because of 1% interest rates and the reluctance of the ECB to call default on the loans. Needless to say, such actions would cause the euro to decline versus all currencies and particularly versus gold and silver. You can see again why you do not want to be in currencies.

We see Portugal wobbling again and Ireland just waiting to pull the plug on its debt laid upon the people by the previous government. They unbelievably assumed all the foreign bank debt they had no part in creating. Where is the IRA when we need them?
We expect that this sovereign debt this year will be bought up by banks, sovereigns of the ECB. Thus, from a funds’ flow point of view the roll over and new debt will be covered. In addition there are the bailout funds under EFSF and perhaps ESM. Due to those backstops Europe is comfortable and the public doesn’t understand what is going on. That gives a relief to French banks that hold almost half of Italian debt. France is losing competitiveness and that doesn’t help one bit. Their taxes already onerous are not high enough and outgoing President Sarkozy wants a financial transaction tax and an increase in the VAT. He will try to get these past the legislature before leaving office after April’s election.

Since last September the banks have been demanding more and more money in Europe. They just received $1 trillion and they want $1 trillion more, which we believe they will get, so they will have received $3.3 trillion since September. What the banks want beyond that is just another $2 trillion. This is a totally nationalized banking system. Money just falls out of the sky via the Fed and the ECB. It is inconceivable that banks would want a total bailout and that is what this is. They have no compunction about demanding the funds and their exhausted position remain in tact. This is the way these people think. They have lost touch with reality.

Olli Rehn, EU Economic & Monetary Affairs Commissioner says EU members will have to make a slightly larger contribution to keep Greece afloat. Greece needs the funds and they will receive them, because their are not getting them could force Greece out of the euro zone and perhaps even the EU is something the one-worlders do not even want to contemplate. The debt is unpayable, but these elitists do not care, as long as the end result is world government. They are not paying for the bill anyway, you are. As far as getting money from Germany for Greece there is no problem. The elitists will end run Germany by getting the funds elsewhere. Maybe the IMF might even pop for the additionally needed funds.

Germany believes the banks should be picking up these bills, but anyone of sound mind knows that cannot happen, because the banks are broke. The burden will be distributed among all the players. That is why Europe’s elitists have a strategy of continuing the policy no matter what the costs.

by Bob Chapman (From Global Research)

Why you don't have to pay the Household Tax?

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:00:00 +0000

A video you might like to share with others.

Delinquent Finance II

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000

Bishop Richard Williamson

Number CCXXXVIII (238)

4 February 2012

DELINQUENT FINANCE II

Delinquent finance has today a religious significance because it is playing a major part in the enslaving of the entire world by the conscious or unconscious enemies of God, the smartest of whom have to be well aware that their ultimate purpose is to send every single soul down to Hell. However, before we present any other piece of their financial machinery, it is necessary to understand the full delinquency of fractional reserve banking, first introduced in the "Eleison Comments" of October 29, last year.

Fractional reserve banking means that a bank need only hold in reserve, ready to be paid out to customers, a small fraction of the money they put into circulation. It arose in Europe in the late Middle Ages when bankers observed that if they took in as deposits, say, 100 ounces of gold and gave out 100 slips of paper certifying that the owner of the certificate could claim so much gold from the bank, then almost never at any one time would more than, say, ten customers ever bring in a certificate to claim back a deposit of gold. And as long as the people had confidence that the bank could and would always have gold to give in return for certificates, then these pieces of paper could happily serve as money, and as such they would circulate amongst the people.

However, the bankers realized meanwhile that in the normal run of business, they needed to hold in reserve only ten ounces of gold for 100 certificates, or, if they held 100 ounces of gold deposited with the bank, then they could issue 1000 paper certificates. Of these, 900 would have nothing at the bank to back them. They would be "funny money", created by the bank out of thin air, but that would not matter so long as not more than a proportion of one customer out of ten wanted to cash in his paper for a piece of gold.

If they did, then the bank would not have the gold for all the certificates, and either it rapidly borrowed some gold from elsewhere to hand out, or the people risked realizing what a confidence trick had been played on them. If their confidence in the bank then vanished, everybody would want their money back at once – bank runs are only made possible by fractional reserve banking – and large numbers of customers would be left holding in their hands nothing but worthless pieces of paper. The bank would of course be bankrupt, and one could hope it would disappear altogether.

Thus wherever there is fractional reserve banking, the bank is intrinsically fragile, and it is, ultimately, playing a confidence trick on its customers. Extrinsically, it may protect itself by having a guarantee of support in case of need from, often, a central bank, but that guarantee is only as sure as the guarantor, and in the meantime it gives a dangerous power to any central bank. Thereby hangs another tale of financial delinquency, but that of compound interest must come first.

Power is at stake, and ultimately souls. Let nobody say these questions have nothing to do with religion. Think of the Golden Calf.

Kyrie eleison.

Polish woman 'shocked' at article

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:29:00 +0000

This recent article in the Gazeta Wyborcza rag has brought about an open discussion on immigration. Having Poles in Ireland is about cheap foreign labour and there is no doubt many have taken advantage of our far too generous social welfare system. The Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper is no friend of Polish Nationalism and is controlled by the same people, who push for mass-immigration and the break up of the European Nations. It is of benefit to Poland for these Poles living in Ireland to return to their Nation. The world of the Capitalist, who wants the cheap labour is falling apart. They want to hold on to their fantasy but reality suggests otherwise. It’s laughable the Socialist/Reds of Ireland are annoyed. Have they forgotten that Socialism Kills and do they remember the victims of Red Terror in Poland and across Europe? These Reds don’t even believe in the Irish Nation or Nationhood. They are the useful idiots of those who support mass-immigration and the break up of the Nation states. Are these Socialists for Irish jobs for Irish workers? Certainly not. These Commie, Internationalists are no friend of the Irish people.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0202/breaking28.html?via=mr

A Polish woman who was the subject of a mistranslated article suggesting she was a "welfare tourist" has said she was “shocked” to learn of it and that it was “completely” untrue.

The woman known as "Magda" - which is not her real name - spoke on radio this morning to discuss the article described as “inflammatory” by Polish ambassador to Ireland Marcin Nawrot.

Mr Nawrot said the original article had been inaccurately translated in a report published in the Irish Independent yesterday, citing potential damage to the reputation of Poles living in Ireland.

“I can assure you that people like Magda constitute a very small minority of Poles in Ireland, and are in no way representative of the entire Irish-based Polish community,” he said in a letter. He pointed out that Magda did not describe Donegal in the article as a “shithole”, as had been reported.

Yesterday’s article had been reportedly translated from one that originally appeared in Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper.

It told of Poles struggling to find work in Ireland and described Magda as saying working for the minimum wage “makes no sense” and that life in Donegal was "a Hawaiian massage".

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s John Murray programme, Magda said things had been “added and changed” in the article and that people who knew her would know straight away that it was “not me”.

If she had read the article believing the words to be those of a Polish girl, she would say “exactly the same thing” as others had said. “If you hate it here and if you think you live in a shithole, go home.”

She was a trained nanny and had been living in Ireland for six years. She said she had worked in the hospitality industry for a couple of years but that jobs were scarce and she had been on the dole for about a year and a half.

Magda said she had done courses, including a Fás course to help her set up a small business. She hoped to have her massage therapy practice up and running by Easter.

“I came for holidays, and I so fell in love with Ireland, with the place,” she said. She had decided to stay because it was “so beautiful” here, even though she had less money than in her previous home and job.

Gazeta Wyborcza features editor Mariusz Szczygiel said the article ran as part of a package presenting both the positive and negative sides of the Polish emigrant experience around Europe. “Since Poles living in Ireland claim all those benefits legally, I see no problem with that,” he told The Irish Times .

The article provoked a storm of critical remarks on Gazeta Wyborcza ’s website.

A Polish woman living in Ireland wrote: “I cannot read the article because I am so mad. . . . We pay high taxes so people like that can have a nice living.”

Separately, Labour Party Senator Jimmy Harte, who yesterday said he would pay for Magda's flight back to Poland, has apologised for remarks he made on Twitter last night following the controversy over the article.

Mr Harte said his Twitter comments were "made in the heat of the moment and went well beyond an acceptable level of online interaction".

"I accept full responsibility for what I said, and fully withdraw my remarks. I unreservedly apologise for any offence they may have caused," he said.

Mr Harte engaged in a number of heated exchanges with other users of the website, telling one person who referred to him a "scumbag senator" that he should "go back up the mountain you came down my friend".

The Senator told Donegal Daily that what he had been quoted as saying in yesterday's article had been a response to what the Polish woman had been reported as saying.

"It is very simple what happened," he said. "A journalist in Poland working for the Irish Independent wrote an article based on an interview given by a Polish lady to a Polish newspaper.

"A local journalist working for the Irish Independent was asked by his editors to get a response from local politicians based on the information that was given to him at the time. I gave my response and I made it clear yesterday that if the translation of the original article was wrong, then I would withdraw my comments and I have done that," he said.

Socialist Party TDs said yesterday's article was "tantamount to incitement to hatred" and that it was "unacceptable" to publish such an inaccurate and "racist" article which would "create a backlash against foreign-national workers".

* A translation of the Gazeta Wyborcza article can be found here.

Updates regarding Syria

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:09:00 +0000

http://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/

http://syrianfreepress.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/5-minutes-in-homs-the-truth-on-february-6-2012-video-with-english-subtitles/

“

Full Translation:

man 1, All the glass is broken in this School
They shot at this school
We can’t send our kids to school, because of this issue
Thank God, we don’t have any injured here
What should i tell you
I ask all people to stay at home
Shooting are coming from all Directions
We wish the Army will control this
man 2, It is enough we are scared the whole time…
We know the Army are suffering like us…
Those Terrorist are not Muslims…
man 3, We want the Army to enterfer
we have no other solution…
we are suffering
Now more than a Kid was shot
We just want the Army to come
man 2, A Kid running the street was shot, what did he wrong to be shoot
It’s Enough
It’s the 3 time they attack these schools
girl, We want from the President to bring the Syrian Army to us and protect us…
An RPG was shoot at our school… We are afraid… We want the Army
…minutes later an armed terrorist groups were attacking again
man 4, Come on
Camera man, look there an RPG
…man 2 who was speaking before was shoot in his face
man 5, This is the 3 Rpg at this School
Is this what the Arab League wants?!
This is what Hamad (Qatari Leader) wants?!
Isn’t this Syrian Blood?!
This is their Freedom
We want the Army to come (They repeat it several times)
look at this school, this is their Freedom
man 5, Please Mr President, may your father Rest in Peace…
We need your help!”

The Spanish Civil War: A Successful Nationalist Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000

Parts I and II of an excellent article by Jonas De Geer on the Spanish Civil War.

http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2012/01/the-spanish-civil-war-a-successful-nationalist-revolution/

http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2012/01/the-spanish-civil-war-a-successful-nationalist-revolution-part-2/

St Brigid's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:19:00 +0000

Today, is of course St Brigid’s Day and the 1st February

20 Signs That Europe Is Plunging Into A Full-Blown Economic Depression

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000

An article worth sharing.

The American Dream
January 30, 2012
An economic nightmare is descending on Europe. With each passing month, the economic numbers across Europe get even worse. At this point it is becoming extremely difficult for anyone to deny that Europe is plunging into a full-blown economic depression. In fact, some parts of Europe are already there. In Spain the overall unemployment rate is over 22 percent, and in Greece one out of every five retail establishments has already been closed down. All over Europe, economic activity is rapidly slowing down, unemployment is skyrocketing and bad debts are unraveling. It isn’t even going to take a default by a nation such as Greece or a collapse of the euro to push Europe into an economic depression. All Europe has to do is to stay on the exact path that it is on right now and it will get there. Normally, European governments would respond to an economic slowdown by increasing government spending.

But this time most of them are already drowning in debt. Instead of increasing government spending, most governments in Europe are actually cutting back. All over Europe, national governments are being encouraged to implement even more tax increases and even more budget cuts. The hope is that all of this austerity will help solve the nightmarish sovereign debt crisis that Europe is facing. But unfortunately, all of these tax increases and budget cuts are also going to involve a tremendous amount of economic pain.

The frightening thing is that we are just at the beginning of the process for most European nations. If you want to see where nations such as Portugal, Italy and Spain are headed, just take a look at Greece. Greece has been going down this road for several years, and there is still no light at the end of the tunnel for them.

The tax increases and budget cuts that are being implemented right now in Europe will be felt for years to come. The tremendous economic prosperity that was fueled by unprecedented amounts of debt will now give way to tremendous economic suffering.

The following are 20 signs that Europe is plunging into a full-blown economic depression….
#1 The unemployment rate for those between the ages of 16 and 24 is 28 percent in Italy, 43 percent in Greece and 51 percent in Spain.

#2 Overall, the unemployment rate for those under the age of 25 in the EU is 22.7 percent.

#3 Citigroup is projecting that the economy of Portugal will shrink by 5.7 percent this year.

#4 The total of all forms of debt in Portugal (government, business and consumer) is equivalent to 360 percent of GDP.

#5 The Greek “recession” is now entering a fifth year.

#6 The Greek economy shrank by 6 percent during 2011.

#7 It is being projected that the Greek economy will shrink by another 5 percent during 2012.

#8 The overall unemployment rate in Greece is now 18.5 percent.

#9 In Greece, 20 percent of all retail stores have been permanently shut down.

#10 The number of suicides in Greece rose by 40 percent in just one recent 12 month time period.

#11 According to the IMF, the amount of debt accumulated by the Greek government is equal to approximately 160 percent of GDP.

#12 In total, there are now more than 5 million unemployed workers in Spain.

#13 Bad loans in Spain recently reached a 17-year high.

#14 The overall unemployment rate in Spain is now a whopping 22.8 percent.

#15 The number of property repossessions in Spain has risen by 32 percentover the past year.

#16 When the maturing debt that the Italian government must roll over in 2012 is added to their projected budget deficit, the total comes to approximately 23.1 percent of Italy’s GDP.

#17 Manufacturing activity in the euro zone has fallen for five months in a row.

#18 The UK economy actually contracted during the 4th quarter of 2011.

#19 The German economy actually contracted during the 4th quarter of 2011.

#20 The Baltic Dry Index, often used as a gauge for the health of the world economy, has fallen a staggering 61 percent since October.

Economic gloom is slowly spreading throughout Europe like a dark cloud. Some of the strongest economies in Europe are only just starting to slow down. Others are already gripped by tremendous economic pain. Trends forecaster Gerald Celente recently explained to ABC Australia that much of the EU is already experiencing an economic depression….

“If you live in Greece, you’re in a depression; if you live in Spain, you’re in a depression; if you live in Portugal or Ireland, you’re in a depression,” Celente said. “If you live in Lithuania, you’re running to the bank to get your money out of the bank as the bank runs go on. It’s a depression. Hungary, there’s a depression, and much of Eastern Europe, Romania, Bulgaria. And there are a lot of depressions going on [already].”
As things fall apart in Europe, the political wrangling is going to become even more intense.
For example, over the past few days a shocking new German proposal has come to light. Germany apparently would like Greece to give a “EU budget commissioner” the power to veto all Greek decisions on taxes and spending.

That would represent an unprecedented loss of sovereignty for Greece, and obviously Greek politicians are not excited about the idea at all.
In fact, Greek education minister Anna Diamantopoulou said that the proposal was “the product of a sick imagination“.
But the sentiment in Germany is that since Greece must be bailed out by them, Greece should be willing to submit to some oversight for a certain amount of time.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Meanwhile, the Greek people continue to become angrier. According to one recent poll, about 90 percent all of Greek citizens are unhappy with the interim government led by Prime Minister Lucas Papademos.

Things are also unraveling very quickly in Portugal. Now there is talk that private investors will be required to take a “haircut” on Portuguese debt as well.
The following is from a recent article in the Telegraph….
A report for the Kiel Institute for the World Economy said Portugal would have to run a primary budget surplus of over 11pc of GDP a year to prevent debt dynamics spiralling out of control, even in a benign scenario of 2pc annual growth.
“Portugal’s debt is unsustainable. That is the only possible conclusion,” said David Bencek, the co-author, warning that no country can achieve a primary budget surplus above 5pc for long.

“We won’t know what the trigger will be but once there is a decision on Greece people are going to start looking closely and realise that Portugal is the same position as Greece was a year ago.”
Sadly, that article is exactly right.

Portugal is marching down the exact same road that Greece went down.
The yield on 5 year Portuguese bonds is now up to an all-time record 19.8 percent.
A year ago, the yield on those bonds was only about 6 percent.
This is the same thing that happened to Greece.
A year ago, the yield on 5 year Greek bonds was about 12 percent.
Now the yield on those bonds is more than 50 percent.

The world is facing a debt crisis unlike anything ever seen before, and Europe is right at the center of it.
Right now, the major industrialized nations of the world are 55 trillion dollars in debt.
Everyone knew that at some point that debt bomb was going to explode.
So what is going to happen next?
Well, Europe appears to be heading for a full-blown economic depression.
Will the rest of the globe be able to escape a similar fate?

Team torn apart as 14 players emigrate

noreply@blogger.com (Liam Lynch) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:07:00 +0000

A reader pointed out that there was a recent meeting in another rural town between the Gardai/Police and the Latvian ‘community’ employed in the area.

There are still people and businesses who continue to hire cheap, foreign labour. These places of business should be boycotted. The message is simple. Irish Jobs for Irish Workers. There is no doubt the political system has betrayed the Irish people.

It’s fair to point our very many of our people are not emigrating. This is their Nation.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/team-torn-apart-as-14-players-emigrate-3002555.html

JOHN Curran has attended many going away parties in the last year but never dreamed he'd be holding one himself.

Yesterday, the 19-year-old emigrated to London to make enough money to head to Australia.

His departure from Valentia Island in Co Kerry, is a devastating blow to his family, but also a major blow to his local football team, the Young Islanders, as he is the 14th member of the senior team to go.

The problem has reached crisis point in ruralIreland and prompted a special meeting on Thursday night of the South Kerry GAA Board that has seen its player numbers depleted.

"It was like a wake at home this morning, but saying goodbye to your family is never nice," John told theIrish Independent before he boarded his flight at Kerry Airport yesterday.

Accompanying him was his friend Kevin Moran (18) from just across the water in Reenard, who's also hoping to make enough cash to go to Australia -- another player lost to his club.

John used to work in construction and already has a job lined up in London. He said he never wanted to leave but it beats "doing nothing at home".

"If things get going again here I'd definitely come back," he said.

The last time Valentia Island had a major success was in 2005 when they were South Kerry Football Champions. Twelve of that panel have since emigrated.

Club chairman John O'Sullivan said the club highlighted the problem over two years ago but nothing was done.

Since then Kerry County Board has commissioned a report on rural depopulation.

"We've lost so many of our senior players that last year we were only barely fielding 15," Mr O'Sullivan said.

Already at under-age and minor levels, the club has had to amalgamate with neighbouring clubs in Portmagee and Sneem/Derrynane who would once have been their rivals.

"It seems that every obstacle is put in the way of businesses that are trying to create employment," Mr O'Sullivan added.

He said a local restaurant was forced to close last year due to health and safety regulations and there was talk that others would follow.

The problems of Valentia are indicative of clubs all over the western seaboard and are not peculiar to Kerry.

Chairman of Dromid Pearse's Micheal O Siochain said he found comments by Finance Minister Michael Noonan that emigration was a lifestyle choice offensive.

His son is living in Australia like many of his teammates.

It's a scene that's all too familiar in rural Ireland and one that incoming GAA president Liam O'Neill wants to tackle.

"We're facing a player crisis that we've never faced before," Mr O'Neill said. "Nobody ever envisaged we'd be in a situation like we are where places like south Kerry are short of players and I'm not sure if the organisation understands the gravity of the situation."

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