Chocolate aftermath.

Tuesday December 19, 2006
The Guardian (reprinted here, without shame.)


Behind the purple door on the cobbled streets of Alston, Cumbria, the cooking pot was seldom off the boil. In the ordinary kitchen tucked high in the North Pennines, thick brown liquid was poured into moulds imported from Belgian chocolatiers. Luxurious bars of high-cocoa-fat chocolate were wrapped and labelled and placed in jiffy bags, then posted to all corners of the country.
It would have been an uncomplicated and charming cottage industry, but for one special ingredient: each 150g bar contained up to 3.5g of cannabis. For six years, its presence in the chocolate helped ease pain for more than 1,600 people with multiple sclerosis, almost 2% of all British sufferers. It also caused the chocolate's distributors, Mark and Lezley Gibson, to fall victim to village gossip, police raids and legal action that has left them branded as drug dealers.

On Friday, a jury found the Gibsons, and an associate, Marcus Davies, guilty of two counts of conspiracy to supply cannabis between 2004 and 2005. There were tears and gasps of shock in the public gallery at Carlisle crown court when the decision was delivered. For Lezley, who suffers from MS, the decision at least ended the mental and physical agony of a prosecution that has dragged on for nearly two years. But the reverberations of the decision reach far beyond the Gibsons' kitchen in Alston. The verdict is discomforting for those who assumed this country had, in effect, decriminalised cannabis. And it is painful for those MS sufferers who have suddenly found their supply of cannabis chocolate cut off.

The Gibsons' journey to Carlisle crown court began back in the mid-80s. Lezley was a trainee hairdresser, good enough to beat the likes of Andrew Collinge and Nicky Clarke in apprenticeship competitions. While the men went on to become celebrity coiffeurs, however, the worsening pins and needles in Lezley's legs took her to hospital in Carlisle, where she was diagnosed with MS. Treated for 10 weeks, she had two agonising lumbar punctures and was given steroids, which caused her to grow a beard and double her weight to more than 14 stone. The final piece of "medical" advice before she was discharged was, she says, to forgo butter and eat margarine instead. "I was called in-valid," she recalls, emphasising the word. "I was disabled. I was written off, no longer any use to anyone. When I was diagnosed, they said I would be incontinent and in a wheelchair within five years."

Twenty-two years on, Lezley is a slight, attractive woman with a warm smile, and no wheelchair. For three years after her diagnosis, however, she suffered paralysis of her right and left sides and periodically lost the power of speech and sight in her right eye. "This was the normal downward spiral of MS. Then I met Mark and started using cannabis," she says. Like many young men, Mark was a recreational user. Lezley noticed that when she smoked it with him, she felt better.

"I read Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies when I was young and I've always been Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby," she says. "Once I found out that cannabis did this to me, I couldn't keep it quiet. I wanted to help other people." The former MP Robert Kilroy-Silk inadvertently assisted Lezley when she appeared on his show to talk about MS in the mid-90s. There she met other MS sufferers and was inspired to found a support group, Therapeutic Help from Cannabis (THC). Fortified by a growing body of scientific evidence about the medicinal effects of cannabis on MS, Mark got involved and travelled to universities to talk at conferences about the drug.

It was when the Gibsons began talking publicly about cannabis that the police took an interest. The couple were first raided in 1989: Mark spent a week on remand in Durham prison. They were busted again in 1995 and again in 1999. In 2000, Lezley was acquitted of possession on the grounds of medical "necessity".

A friend and fellow MS sufferer, Biz Ivol, began producing "Cannachoc" for a neighbour with MS. She, too, was arrested and prosecuted. When her illness was exacerbated by legal action, the Gibsons offered to take over the production of the chocolate in 2000. When Ivol died in 2004, they named it "Canna-Biz", in her honour. Qualified in food hygiene, Mark began making the chocolate for about half a dozen MS sufferers in the kitchen above his gift shop in Alston, where he sells new age crystals and ethnic ornaments.

"It felt good to be of some use, to help society. It was terrible to be told you're no use at 20," says Lezley. As word spread, people wrote letters addressed to "The lady with MS, Alston" or turned up at their door in wheelchairs. Those who found cannabis helped reduce muscle spasm and increased bladder control were relieved to find an alternative to giving £150 a week to a drug dealer. Soon the couple were posting bars to more than 100 people a week.

As long as he didn't sell it, and only gave it to MS sufferers, Mark believed he had a defence in law. If prosecuted, he thought he could deploy the defence of "necessity", which allowed for an illegal act to avert greater harm (or, in this case, pain). A number of people, including founders of medical marijuana cooperatives and even a GP, Dr Anne Biezanek, who supplied her sick daughter, have been acquitted of possession and supply using this medical "necessity" argument.

Gibson was meticulous about how he produced and supplied Canna-Biz. He obtained the cannabis for free from altruistic growers and bought the chocolate (ideally, organic Green & Black's; otherwise Tesco's or Morrisons' own brands). Lezley helped with the administration and they instructed users to take no more than three squares from the 24-square bar each day to ensure no psychoactive effects. They never distributed it through their shop. Crucially, they never sold it, instead suggesting a donation of between £1.50 and £5 to cover their costs (some MS patients would give more; many chose never to pay anything). And they insisted that any "patient" must send them a doctor's letter, on headed notepaper, confirming they had MS. Lezley says the notes showed that almost all their patients were over 40: "It's not people looking for a cheap thrill; it's middle-aged people who are ill."

Curtains began to twitch as Mark strolled across the street to Alston post office every day with jiffy bags of cannabis chocolate. Small-town gossips reckoned the 4x4-driving couple must be raking it in. Mark was summoned to meet a senior Cumbria police officer in 2002. He was warned: open a cannabis cafe and you'll be shut down. But police advice about their chocolate operation was more ambiguous. Mark told the court it was suggested he should not be "quite so blatant" about it. "He didn't tell me to stop," says Gibson. "To this very day nobody has told us to stop."

Nevertheless, heeding police warnings, the couple reduced their media profile and began using a regional post office instead of their local one. Davies, an associate from Cambridgeshire, built a website for their new not-for-profit scheme, Therapeutic Help from Cannabis for Multiple Sclerosis (THC4MS). He also provided them with a PO box address in Huntingdon; it meant the couple's home address was no longer publicised. When their local bank refused to let them open an account for THC4MS, Davies, who is registered disabled and grew his own cannabis to treat his severe diabetes and epilepsy, agreed to cash donor cheques for the Gibsons.

Internal police documents read out in court showed that Cumbria police decided it would be "oppressive and vindictive" to mount a surveillance operation on the couple after Lezley was acquitted in 2000. Early one morning in February last year, however, the police knocked on the Gibsons' purple door. Bars of Canna-Biz had spilled out of a jiffy bag at the Post Office and the police were called. Along with Davies, they were charged with conspiracy to supply cannabis.

Legal arguments dragged on for nearly two years - destroying Gibson's gift shop business - before their case finally opened in court two weeks ago. Jeremy Grout-Smith, for the prosecution, argued that while the couple were not conventional drug dealers, there was no defence in law. "To supply cannabis, even if you believe it is doing good, is not a defence," he said. Police found details of three bank accounts at Davies' home into which more than £39,000 worth of cheques had been paid between March 2003 and March 2005. "So this seems to be distribution on quite a large scale and, to some extent at least, the defendants may have benefited financially - although the Crown does not claim this was their main motivation," he said.

The Gibsons and Davies claimed that most of the sum was the income from other members of Davies' family. Even if some was money from donations, they said it was all ploughed back into the not-for-profit Canna-Biz operation. In six years they have supplied more than 33,000 bars and calculate they have given away cannabis with a street value of £500,000. The pair are not visibly wealthy. "We're not very good 'drug dealers', are we?" says Lezley. "If I'd sold it, I wouldn't be sitting here. I'd be in Spain with the rest of 'em."

As the arguments were trotted out during nine days in court, little indignities struck home. On one morning proceedings were delayed because the prosecution barrister had a medical complaint. Lezley, who struggled to walk into court and found it painful to sit down for more than 10 minutes, was on time every day. She believes her previous court battle advanced her MS by five years. "At the moment I don't know if I'm able to move when I wake up," she said two days before the verdict. "I'm not sleeping, I'm constantly in pain across my shoulders. I'm not taking as much cannabis as I should because I'm stuck in court."

The couple struggled to retain their composure when faced with legal professionals who required correcting on several basic facts about medicinal cannabis and the law. When Grout-Smith asserted that no one had been acquitted of supplying cannabis on grounds of medical necessity, he was put right by Mark. The judge struggled to understand how a commercial medical cannabis treatment for MS users in Britain, called Sativex, could be unlicensed yet still be legal in the UK. Mark, again, was on hand to explain: in a government fudge, it was denied a licence in Britain but for the past 12 months has been made available on a "named patient" prescription basis. A doctor must get a licence from the Home Office to prescribe it to individuals. A survey by Disability Now found few patients have been able to get it because the process is so bureaucratic and expensive. Lezley is now licensed to carry a Sativex spray but finds smoking cannabis better. The spray is "very, very strong" and, she says, more likely to incapacitate her than smoking.

The Gibsons are not the sort of campaigners who crave courtroom publicity. But their case made public some interesting facts. The couple kept 1,036 letters from doctors confirming patients had MS. Of those, 65 made specific reference to cannabis chocolate, showing that some doctors had full knowledge of what they were writing the letter for. One MS sufferer, Helen Wallace, gave evidence from her wheelchair in court that she had told her doctor precisely why she needed the note. In this way, many of the letters from the medical profession were de facto prescriptions.

Despite such support, the political climate has shifted. The government is determined not to be seen as "soft" on the drug since it was downgraded from class B to C. (Paradoxically, downgrading cannabis has damaged the Gibsons because recreational users who once donated money or campaigned for their medical cause have dropped away, content that they can smoke a spliff in peace.) As well as a growing body of research showing its medicinal applications, there is, equally, more scientific evidence linking cannabis to mental illnesses such as psychosis and schizophrenia. The studies agree on one thing: cannabis affects different people in different ways.

Three months after the Gibsons were arrested, legal opinion also turned against them. While several cannabis suppliers successfully evoked the defence of medical "necessity", the court of appeal ruled in May 2005 that necessity could not be a defence in six test cases of supplying cannabis. Removing this common-law defence has, in effect, recriminalised the medicinal use of cannabis. Lawrence Wood, chief executive of the Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre charity, says the law is "an ass" and society is hypocritical to allow possession for personal use without explaining where it can be obtained safely. "If the government had licensed Sativex, and made it easily available, then these people would not have needed to supply it in this way," he says.

Since the verdict, the couple have received emails from recipients of their chocolate. "I shall miss it very much," says one woman with MS. "I have tried gradually using less each day but was in so much pain I started back on a full dose. Don't know what I shall do when this bar has finished."

Lezley is defiant. "The prosecutor told me what I did was wrong but the law is wrong. It's evil and cruel and totally unfair. As a person who is ill, why am I in court? It can't be a crime to want to be well. If it was paint stripper, I'd take it. It's just unfortunate it's illegal. I'm sorry that cannabis makes me well and I'm sorry I'm going to keep taking it, because I don't want to be in a wheelchair and I don't want to be incontinent."

The maximum penalty for the unauthorised supply of cannabis is 14 years in jail but the pair, who will be sentenced in January, have been told they will not face a prison term. They know, however, they must pour away the last Canna-Biz and pack up their pans. They have no defence in law; MS sufferers will no longer receive cannabis chocolate pain relief through the post. "I want the judge to send a letter to all those people saying why they will no longer receive our medication," says Lezley. "I can't do that".
***************************************
There are several pharmeceutical companies that grow cannabis, for "research". There are even "legal" medications based upon cannabis.
This case is not about protecting the public, it is about protecting the profits of pharmeceutical corporations.

Chocolate and crime.

The case that is being heard currently at Carlisle, could well prove to be a test case for many thousands of people who use cannabis as a medicine.




Court told of cannabis couple's cottage industry (THC4MS) News & Star, Carlisle Monday 04 Dec 2006
---
A COUPLE ran a cottage industry producing bars of chocolate containing cannabis for multiple sclerosis sufferers, a jury heard today.
Mark and Lezley Gibson distributed about 22,000 bars from their home in Alston, Cumbria over a six-year period before their arrest last January.
They were helped by Marcus Davies an old school pal of Mark Gibson who operated a Post Office Box address.
The Gibsons, both 42, and Davies, 36, are on trial at Carlisle Crown Court where all deny two counts of conspiring to supply cannabis in 2004 and 2005.
Davies lives in Cambridgeshire.
Prosecutor Jeremy Grout-Smith told the jury that police took action after receiving a complaint that 33 packets of Canna-biz chocolate had been discovered at the Royal Mail sorting office in Carlisle on January
A few days later officers entered the home of the Gibsons and discovered items including cannabis, chocolate bars, labels, mailing details and a coffee grinder.
A few months later Cambridgeshire police went to the home of Davies and discovered he was cultivating cannabis plants in two sheds. He was also running a PO Box number and had contact with the Gibsons.
Mr Grout-Smith said the Gibsons were in effect running a cottage industry making chocolate bars impregnated with cannabis. It was advertised as being for medical purposes.
They were not conventional drug dealers but believed their actions would be helping people alleviate the pain of a debilitating illness, however that was no defence to these charges.
He said: "To supply cannabis, even if you believe it is doing good, is not a defence."
He said Mark Gibson, during his police interview, had admitted sending about 22,000 bars to addresses around the world. They had always sought proof that the recipients were MS sufferers.
The jury heard this morning that Lezley Gibson was herself an MS sufferer and that the other two defendants had stood in the past as candidates of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance.
A juror made it know to Judge John Phillips this morning that they had a relative who suffered from MS. The judge made it clear that was no bar to them sitting on the case.
The trial continues.

http://www.cannabis-clubs.eu/Default.aspx?tabid=110

22,000 bars of chocolate, you couldn`t make it up, could you, best of luck to these guys, altruism is a rare and precious trait.

How This Old Brit Sees It ...: If They Hadn't Killed Bobby Kennedy, He'd Be 81 Today ...

How This Old Brit Sees It ...: If They Hadn't Killed Bobby Kennedy, He'd Be 81 Today ...

I`m linking in to another blog. An interesting piece about the "Death of the Kennedys"
There now seems to be another fairly well- substantiated allegation that the life and death of american politicians is not always as the mainstream media would have us believe.
Is America about to be purged? Will anyone step forward with a stout-handled broom and sweep clean the land of the inherently crooked and the murderously corrupt?

Or will America fall into another civil war? One thing is certain, its` time of empire is coming to the final act.
As a currency, the dollar is falling, the military is negotiating the terms of withdrawal from the M.E., house prices are falling, industrial output is falling, exports are falling.

I would not like to make any predictions, but the words chickens and roost seem about right.

(updated) Seize The Day Blockade - Faslane 365 Oct 06

I thought I Had better post this. It shows that a few hundred peaceful people can stop the war machine.
The group intends to disrupt or halt all activity at the submarine base where Britain keeps its` nuclear missiles, it`s very own weapons of mass destruction, which an be ready for use in just a few minutes....
One day peace will come. Waging war will not bring peace. Ignoring war will not bring peace. Voting for warmongers will not bring peace.
The media chooses not to tell the world that there is protest.
Well, the protest is growing, and support for the warmongerers is dwindling.
Peace.

A Message From The Iraq Resistance

This video brought tears to my eyes. Watch it. Please watch it. Get hold of all your logic, all your emotional strength, and refute the lying b*st*rd scumbags that currently inhabit the pentagon and the white house. F**k the twots, f**k these robbing lying psychopaths.

Some of the people some of the time.

A while back, I was "tagged", by another blogger, usa#1, who asked me to name, for separate purposes, 5 books.
A book that I propose to be essential reading to anyone concerned about the corporate psychopaths that have led this world to the brink of chaos would be one written by an American, Jack Herer, and entitled "The Emperor has no clothes".

The book lays out in detail the story of the hemp plant. How it used to be, until the 1930`s, practically the most important crop on the planet.
It gave us paper, food, oil, textiles, medicines, and so much more. He tells the story of how the oil cartels realised that crude oil could replae the hemp plant, and set out to fabricate a set of lies to destroy the hemp farmers.

How cannabis was one the major component much of the worlds` medicines, only to be replaced by synthetic versions made from crude oil.
George Washington farmed hemp, and asked every american to plant seeds of this important plant.

A quote, ""If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as trees for paper and construction were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the Greenhouse Effect and stop deforestation; Then there is only one known annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world's paper and textiles; meet all of the world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil, and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time...And that substance is - the same one that did it all before - Cannabis Hemp...Marijuana!!""

And, "In 1850, 80% of all paper, fiber, fuel, and oil was made out of CANNABIS/HEMP in America and the rest of the world. This was before the discovery of coal and petroleum for energy in the late 1850s...before the start of the worst permanent pollution ever experienced on Earth... fossil fuel pollution (coal and petroleum)!!"

Of all the 300,000 species of plants on Earth, no other plant source can compare with the nutritional value of CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA seeds. It is the only plant on Earth that provides us with the NUMBER ONE source, and the perfect balance of essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, globulin edestin protein, and essential oils."



One of the leading opponents of the cultivation of hemp has been the american oil industry, as well as the pharmeceutical industry, and the cotton famers.

Country Joe McDonald - I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die

What are you fighting for?

What the world needs now. Weed sweet weed

QUOTE
Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, NORML, High Times and Omni magazines (September 1982) all indicate that if marijuana were legal it would immediately replace 10-20% of all pharmaceutical prescription medicines (based on research through 1976). And probably, Mechoulam estimates, 40-50% of all medicines, including patent medicines, could contain some extract from the cannabis plant when fully researched.

"The Newtonian God."

William Blake,[1757– 1827].
Heretic or Prophetic?

It has been said that Blake "invented his God", he apparently saw a "Newtonian God", as a process of industrialisation that he disliked, but could not change.
In his paintings, as with his writings, he seems at times, to join the theological visions with the realities of his time.

How would Blake see life now? How would he depict his vision of God? Would his God hold a mono-fuselaged missile, or the would the dual-pointed compass still sit supreme? Or would Blakes` God choose a new instrument with which to measure and shape this world?



Just a few thoughts for a Sunday morning, which incidentally, here in the West of Britain, has started as a fine and sun-filled day, with just a few whispers of a breeze that are sending an early mist inwards from the coast. No doubt, as the sun rises and warms, the heat will sweep them aside, to show the blueness of space.

From Blakes` "Auguries Of Innocence".

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

The laws of men.

Islands.

Across the world, most people believe that the british live on an island near Europe.
Apparently, they are for the most part, English, and are polite and non-confrontational.
Then there are the Irish, who live nearby on another island, and are not completely like the British.

Now, of course, in reality, there are the Scottish, Irish and Welsh and English. Not forgetting that only a minority of the Irish are british, most of the Scots prefer independence, as do most of the Welsh.
The Welsh have no nuclear bombs or plans to build them, neither, as far as I know, do the the Irish , but the Sots do give home to a fleet of submarines. The English are anglo-saxon, the Scots are no... enough already!
Or in other words, even we brits don`t completely understand each other!

The fact that we are all islanders means we share the ocean, and its` ever present perils.

Between Arklow (Ireland), and Aberystwyth (Wales) there lies 90 or so miles of the Irish sea, a fast running and often stormy expanse of water.
So being Celts, the Irish and Welsh decided to have a race. We used to have wars, you know, but that was long ago. Now Ireland and Wales have a long tradition of trade and custom. So instead of a clash of warships, they decided on a row of a different kind.
Rowing boats! Small open craft of about 25 feet in length. Being Celts, the race is open to both men and women, some boats have male crews, and some have female crews. Some boats, and I`m told these are the most fun, carry both men and women.

This year the race was won by an Irish team, from Bantry Bay, in around 16 hours.

16 hours, it must however be said, of sweat, blister and ache. Of faith and wonder, belief, trust, spirit and endeavour.

The prizes are limited to a few bottles of champagne, and it really is just one of those events in which taking part is bigger than winning.

A report...

The report seriously questions whether or not the suspect hijackers, supposedly trained on Cessna light aircraft, could have located a target dead-on 200 miles from take off point. It further throws into doubt their ability to master the intricacies of the instrument flight rules (IFR) in the 45 minutes from take off to the point of impact. Colonel de Grand said that it would be impossible for novices to have taken control of the four aircraft and orchestrated such a terrible act requiring military precision of the highest order.

A member of the inquiry team, a US Air Force officer who flew over 100 sorties during the Vietnam war, told the press conference: “Those birds (commercial airliners) either had a crack fighter pilot in the left seat, or they were being manoeuvred by remote control.” STORY

Further pilot comments: "I seriously question whether these novices could have located a target dead-on 200 miles removed from takeoff point...-- much less controlled the flight and mastered the intricacies of 11FR (instrument flight rules) -- and all accomplished in 45 minutes."

"If there was an AWACS on station over the targeted area, did it have a Global Hawk capability? I mean, could it convert the commercial jets to robotic flying missiles?

"The fact is, all the transponders were turned off on the doomed flights virtually at the same time." Look at their departure times -- two from Logan (Boston), one from Newark, another from Dulles (Washington DC) -- all between 8 am and 8:15."

"We were totally trained on the old type of hijack where you treat the hijacker cordially, punch a 4-digit code into your transponder to alert ground control you're being hijacked, and then get him where he wants to go, set the plane safely on the ground and let them deal with it on the ground. However, this is a totally new situation... Not one of the planes alerted ground control that they were being hijacked." Why?

"I became more convinced that the four commercial jets were choreographed by a "conductor" from a central source, namely an airborne warning and control system (AWACS). They have the electronic capability to engage several aircraft simultaneously, knock out their on-board flight controls by EMP (electro-magnetic pulsing) and assume command and remote control of these targeted aircraft"

Plane truth.

In a detailed press communiqué the inquiry stated: “The so-called terrorist attack was in fact a superbly executed military operation carried out against the USA, requiring the utmost professional military skill in command, communications and control. It was flawless in timing, in the choice of selected aircraft to be used as guided missiles and in the coordinated delivery of those missiles to their pre-selected targets.”

De main.

Thwarting of massive terror plot.

Thwart the terrorist! Arrest the Islamic fundamentalist. Warn the world of the Islamic fascists. Increase border patrols. Profile the non-believers. Sniffer dogs in shools. Phone-tap every citizen. Miro-chip every child. A police officer on every street. A prison in every town. More soldiers. More tanks. More machines. Make being unemployed a crime. Make being poor a crime. Make laughing an offense.



Fearsome New Terrorist Air Bomb Plot
Chilling Terror Recipe circulating on Internet!



Police authorities in Washington and London today announced the arrest of 127 alleged participants in a new threat to air travel. The terror group, with Middle Eastern connections, had been under surveillance for some time and is reported to have been approaching final stages of planning for talking about doing terrorist stuff. One member of the group "was arrested while hailing a taxi, and has been charged with intending to travel to an airport while in possession of possibly explosive bodily fluids" said Peter Cluck, Head of the Metropolitan Police Service Anti-Terrorist Branch. At least one rap martyrdom tape was found during raids across England on Tuesday.

The Guardian newspaper, citing unidentified British government sources, reports monitoring of the group's communications has revealed a chilling scheme to apply high-tech biological techniques to defeat air security, and commit acts of mass terrorism. The plot involves a biologically inert blood substitute fluid, available for some time for use in emergency surgical procedures. The product carries dissolved oxygen much as natural blood does, while avoiding immune system reaction when a needed rare blood type is unavailable. Security sources revealed bad chemists have learnt how to modify the product to also carry explosive chemical groups. Suicide bombers are now able to bomb, without carrying any physical bomb - only the hellish fluid in their own veins.


Paul Staphenson, Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner speaking to AP described the modified fluid as still able to function for some time as blood, although there are a variety of side effects such as progressive peripheral necrosis, and degraded neurological function with wide-spectrum behavioural impairment. Loss of tactile sensation, devolution of metabolic integration, and emphasis of primal thought patterns, grant the subject both persistent focus on their objectives, and a terrifying ability to ignore astonishingly severe physical injuries. Authorities in Pakistan conducting interrogations in the eastern city of Lahore and in Karachi, report nine out of ten aspiring suicide bombers find these side effects of the artificial blood substitute, including ultimately death, not a problem.

Metropolitan Police sources speaking on condition of anonymity because of their sensitive skin conditions describe the suspects arrested in London's eastern suburb of High Wycombe and currently being held indefinitely without charge under anti-terrorism laws as holding similar extremist views.

In its original form the fluid is near colorless, producing a pronounced and unnatural skin pallor when used to replace blood. However the terrorist groups have apparently experimented with artificial dyes, producing blood substitutes with near-normal tints. Slight remaining differences are more difficult to observe in subjects with darker skin coloring.

Detonation of the blood substitute, and thus the subject's corpus, is initiated either by a mobile phone held against the ear, or for a somewhat less effective explosion, simply clapping the hands together sharply. Some other bodily functions may risk premature detonation, such as coughing, and passing wind.

Home Secretary John Roid said the government was "confident" the ringleaders were in custody but it was not complacent. "We are naturally concerned that copycat groups may use this information to attack us while we are distracted" he said.

The plot presents airport security services with a new class of detection challenge, according to Stephen Nulson, chief executive of British Airports Authority.

"This is a serious matter." said Nulson "After all, the average terrorist is composed of 75% fluids - the potential risk is felt to be extremely high."

"We now have to suspect anyone appearing either particularly pale skinned, or of darker skin tone. Airport security personnel will be given special training in color matching and comparison. Travellers whose skin tone appears different from that on their passport photo will be given specially careful screening" a U.S. Transportation Safety Administration official said.

A U.S. congressman briefed by intelligence officials, who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of his AIPAC donations, said U.S. intelligence had intercepted terrorist chatter. "There are recipes for the artificial blood alteration and infusion methods circulating on the internet" he said.

Frances Townsand, White House homeland security adviser, speaking to CNN, described documents found on a computer at an internet cafe during the recent police raids across the US, indicating that elements of the group still at large are working on developing a chemically timed form of spontaneous venous detonation. At present the method has not been perfected, and only results in spontaneous combustion. However development is claimed to be ongoing, and experts suspect the desired effect may be achievable. Allowing suicide bombers to simply explode mid flight, over American cities, without ever using their mobile phones. Authorities hope to stymie such actions by banning mobile phones in carry-on luggage.

A government spokesman who cannot be identified because he is authorised to lie said "It is crucial to maintaining our freedoms that terrorists be prevented from attempting to not use mobile phones on planes. We consider this will hardly inconvenience law abiding airline passengers, since mobile phones never work on planes at cruising altitude anyway. ....oops."

"We are involved in a long wide dark scary and deep struggle against very evil people" John Roid said, speaking to MSN News.

After the discovery last month of a plot to cause mass mayhem in the air using nitrocellulose (gun cotton) woven into normal-seeming apparel and undergarments, and the interception of a container load of designer-label explosive underpants destined for online sale, the Department of Homeland Security imposed a permanent ban of all wear-on clothing on trans-atlantic flights.

"We have zero tolerance for exploding underpants. I'm not prepared to let my guard down, and so these terrorist garments are simply not on." U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Cherkoff said then.

At the time airline executives claimed the ban would adversely affect revenues, however as it turned out passengers quickly accepted the new travel requirements. In addition to the increased passenger safety assurance there have been other positive aspects, such as faster, streamlined airport checkin procedures. Passengers no longer have to queue as they remove their shoes, since they are barefoot. Also, bodily visual scans and pat downs are greatly facilitated, metal detector gates now register fewer false alarms, and travellers selected at whim for cavity searches are processed far more conveniently for all.

"Faced with intended mass murder on an unimaginable and horrific scale, these further security measures are essential and present relatively minor additional inconvenience to the travelling public." said Stephen Nulson.

Passengers wishing to fly are now required to drain their blood into the bins provided. In future as a courtesy alternative, they may elect to demonstrate their bodily non-explosive nature via a controlled test detonation of either hand. No-bid contracts for development and supply of the airport hand-detonation machines have been awarded to DieBold - an industry leader in the fields of secure automated fraud terminals, massively online fantasy election gaming and virtual democracy simulation. The machines are expected to greatly streamline the detection of terrorist intent, due to the integrated suspect-detaining spiked wrist clamp, electroshock module, and high-speed blood pulp component analysis - able to scan for several abnormal blood factors in addition to the explosive blood substitute. Also checked: blood boiling, blood running cold, unAmerican traces down to the parts per million level including Libert-ine, Constituoate, Incredulite, complexes of Fox-MSN-CNN disbelene, Impeachmentic Acid, Cynicrose, PaperBallotics, Anarchate, Interneted Spirits and Vio-revolutex.


The Department of Homeland Security raised the Terror Fear Color Alert Level to Red, shading to Crimson, High Gloss, still a bit tacky but should be dry to touch by tomorrow.

U.S. President George W. Lush, still on holiday at his ranch where his false flag operations centre is located, spoke to AP by phone "You know, when you have resentment and anger, that breeds... to kill for an ideology. If you don't have high standards, you get lousy suiciders — our fellow citizens are now a stark reminder at war with those of us... who love freedom. Just wait."

From Unknown but humourous Iraqui comedians, reprinted with thanks, as willfull and blatant plagiarism.

Tales.

Well, almost all animals have got themselves a tail. Useful things, for animals, keeps them balanced, keeps the wind and water at bay, brushes away insects.

Is it the same with politicians? They do wave some tales about.

The muslims are coming, the muslims are coming!

Ah well, at least it is no longer compulsory to believe what the government tell us. Of course, that may change soon.
After all, in Cromwells` Britain, non-attendance at church was punished by fines, whipping and imprisonment, as it was in early America.

I`m no fan either, of the Islamic sharia , that seems to be another sect of patriarchal tentacles.


Personally, I would rather not hear phrases like "Western democracies, with a Judeo-Christian tradition"
and "Islamic fascists/terrorists".

But let`s try, "Nations who have oil", and "Nations who have no oil, but lots of weapons."

I was going to post a load of links to the "supposed" terror plots, and the "alleged" bomb makers. Even more links to the "Lies of 9/11, But hey, why should anyone want to believe that the government would need to invent tales.

Why would america want to lie, in order to invade Iraq? Why would britain be involved?
Why don`t Bush and Rumsfeld confess?

Human nature I guesss.

Ireland rises.

Just across the water from Wales, Ireland finds a voice. Peace activists have entered the Derry offices of Raytheon, a well known american arms manufacturer.
They trashed the place. Oh yes, TRASHED it.

This item may not make fox news. After all, the american peace movement might decide to emulate this fine and courageous act. In fact, they bloody well ought to.

Full Story.

Anti-War Ireland applauds action at Derry Raytheon factory national anti-war news report

Wednesday August 09, 2006 14:55 by Fintan Lane - Anti-War Ireland info at antiwarireland.org 087 1258325 A justified protest against a vicious war machine Anti-war protesters this morning occupied American arms manufacturer Raytheon's Derry office, with nine people barricading themselves into the building and decommissioning vital equipment including computers. According to the anti-war activists involved, the computer system was "completely disabled".
It is understood that thousands of documents and dozens of computers were burned and thrown from windows by members of a group that entered the building at 8a.m. this morning. Among those in the premises to protest against the world's largest missiles manufacturer was veteran socialist and civil rights campaigner Eamonn McCann. Anti-War Ireland commends the Derry anti-war activists for their action and believes that it was entirely justified.

Dr Fintan Lane, a spokesperson for Anti-War Ireland, said: "Raytheon is an integral part of a war machine that is killing innocent men, women and children daily in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The brutality of war has been brought home to us again in the past few weeks by the vicious onslaught by the Israeli military on the Lebanese and Palestinian people." Lane continued: "Direct action and civil disobedience have always been a part of the anti-war tradition. When human lives are at risk, it is entirely justifiable to take non-violent direct action to protect life. Armed groups in Northern Ireland have been implored to decommission on many occasions and this is a logical extension of that process. Raytheon has been decommissioned and we applaud those who acted in defence of human life."

"Anti-War Ireland believes that mass mobilisations, such as marches, are essential in our efforts to stop the imperial killing machines. However, we also believe in the tactical deployment of direct action and civil disobedience. What happened today was a peaceful act in pursuit of justice." PRESS RELEASE ENDS To contact Anti-War Ireland, phone 087 1258325 http://indymedia.ie/article/77808

End of Israel.

Searching for thoughts, when I saw this article, complete with some insight from Zbigniew Brzezinski, who in all fairness, when it comes to international affairs, knows a lot more than most of us might.

Is this the End of Israel?







08/03/06 "CASMII" --- - - What a difference 3 weeks makes. You know the warmongers are in trouble when the Sunni Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the US-backed prime minister, who until last week would not hesitate to appear in a photo-op 1 with Condoleezza Rice tells her she is not welcome in Beirut unless she demands and sees to an immediate ceasefire before thanking Hezbollah 2, a long political thorn in his side, for its sacrifices to protect Lebanon.

Bush-Blair & Company in their unison support for a barbaric Israeli onslaught on Lebanon have managed to completely turn the proverbial political table around — on themselves that is. Their adoption of the absurd notion of Israel acting in self-defense and continued insistence that there would be no halt to the offensive unless Hezbollah fighters are driven from the border has not only strengthened Hezbollah but will prove a boon to the anti-Zionist resistance movement in Lebanon and beyond.

Nathan Gardels editor-in-chief of the journal of social and political thought published by Blackwell/Oxford, and Global Services of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate/Tribune in a recent interview 3 with Zbigniew Brzezinski posed this question to the former National Security Advisor to President Carter: "Doesn't military superiority as a blunt instrument lead to eternal enmity, not security?" Brzezinski responded: "These neocon prescriptions, of which Israel has its equivalents, are fatal for America and ultimately for Israel. They will totally turn the overwhelming majority of the Middle East's population against the United States. The lessons of Iraq speak for themselves.

Eventually, if neo-con policies continue to be pursued, the United States will be expelled from the region and that will be the beginning of the end for Israel as well". He then asks: "Don't the deaths of so many innocent civilians in Qana in the south of Lebanon — like the massacre in Haditha, Iraq, by American troops — send a message to Arabs and Iranians that the "new Middle East" coming from the U.S. and Israel will amount to occupation, carnage and bloodshed?" to which Brzezinski replies: "This is precisely why neocon policies are recklessly dangerous both to America and Israel". He then continues to explain that "today it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate the Israeli-Palestinian problem, the Iraq problem and Iran from each other.

Neither the United States nor Israel has the capacity to impose a unilateral solution in the Middle East. There may be people who deceive themselves into believing that". "Public opinion around the Arab world has reacted by strongly supporting Hezbollah and Lebanon" Rami Khouri wrote in a recent Beirut's Daily Star article 4.

"Washington is feeling the pain of its own self-inflicted diplomatic castration, as a consequence of siding with Israel". Israel's ongoing and indiscriminate bombing of every village, road, bridge and other infrastructure, which has so far killed over 900 people, many of them children, and displaced another million has forged a remarkable unity among both politicians as well as the entire Lebanese population, whether Christian, Sunni or Shia.
Those who may have rejected Hezbollah at the outset of this crisis, are now unanimously behind it.
The absurd neo-con invented and Bush-Blair adopted policy of waging wars in order to achieve peace will only serve to create more anti-US and anti-Israel sentiment and strengthen the resolve and increase support for those resisting the US-UK-Israel axis of aggression.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14371.htm

Choices.

Sometimes we have a choice, sometimes we are forced to accept what is. We get no choice in the weather, we can choose our friends, but not our family.
We can choose what kind of food to eat, but even that choice is bound by our finances.

As individuals, it would be impossible for one person to bring peace to the world. Who in their right mind would try to physically prevent the president from waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Who would attempt to shut down the factories that never cease in their output of warplanes and munitions?

But unless the war machine is shut down, it will surely continue to consume the blood and money of the common people, until like so many previous empires, war is the only game that is played.

So, why is there war?
Well, it keeps certain factories in business. No coincidence that the president and his men are major stockholders in those companies.
Carlisle, Kellog, Root & Brown. Haliburton. Boeing, the list goes on.

Of course, America always seems to find a need to fight wars with nations that have a lot of oil...The fact that Russia is bursting with oil and gas had nothing to do with America wanting to destroy communism.
Which is another topic altogether.

None of the "big fellows" actually do any work in the factories, nor do they actually go to Iraq to fire the weapons. No, that chore is left to the "patriots".
At the end of each war, there are two lists, of those that died, and those who got rich.

But if being a patriot means killing other people, or getting killed to maintain company profits, then that is one job not worth having.

Do I have an answer? Not as an individual, but perhaps by refusing to serve or supply the war machine, well, that is one less chump for the chimp.