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who are "they"


lord_casek

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this should take some time to complete since there are so many.

be patient and i will introduce them to you.

 

 

ladies and gentlemen, i give you the rulers of the world.

 

who are they?

Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

 

 

The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was formerly the Royal House of several European monarchies, and branches currently reign in Belgium through the descendants of Léopold I, and in the United Kingdom and its associated Commonwealth realms through the descendants of Prince Albert. In the United Kingdom, King George V changed the name from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to the House of Windsor in 1917. The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha is a line of the Saxon House of Wettin.

Other members of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha came to rule in various other European countries. Ernst's younger brother Léopold became King of the Belgians in 1831, and his descendants continue to serve as Belgian Head of State. Ernst's nephew Ferdinand married Queen Maria II of Portugal, and his descendants continued to rule Portugal until that country became a republic in 1910.

Another scion of the family, also named Ferdinand, became Prince, and then Tsar, of Bulgaria, and his descendants continued to rule there until 1946. The current head of the House of Bulgaria, the former King Simeon II, goes by the name Simeon Sakskoburggotski and on 24 July 2001 became Bulgaria's Prime Minister. This marked the first occasion in history where a former monarch returned to a position of power via democratic election.

 

 

 

 

Name(s) of the British Royal House

 

Ernst I's younger son, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, became Prince Consort to Queen Victoria, Ernst's niece through his sister Viktoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. As a consequence of their marriage, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha became the Royal House name of the British Royal Family from the accession of Edward VII in 1901 until changed to Windsor by King George V in 1917 because a German name was deemed unpatriotic during World War I.

Contrary to common belief, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was not the personal surname of either Prince Albert, his wife or their descendants. Neither Albert nor Victoria, in fact, knew their actual surname (royalty had no need of and never used such common labels) until in the late 19th century Queen Victoria launched an inquiry to identify her surname. After an exhaustive search her advisors concluded that Prince Albert (and thus the Queen — by virtue of her marriage) had the surname Wettin.

George V changed both Wettin and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor in 1917. However, an Order-in-Council in 1960 again separated the Royal House name and the personal family surname of the monarch and her family. It decreed that while the Royal House name would remain Windsor, the descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh would use the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. However, Prince Philip belongs to the house of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, and, technically, so will his descendants in the male line.

 

 

 

this is the queen of englands real last name. don't forget it.

 

 

 

 

De Beers

 

 

De Beers was founded on 13 March 1888 by Cecil John Rhodes along with Charles Dunell Rudd. In 1902 the De Beers Association Football Club was established when De Beers commenced construction of a dynamite factory near The Strand and Somerset West. The factory was located on the False Bay coast just west of the mouth of the Lourens River. In the 20th century the Oppenheimer family became the major shareholders. Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, his son Harry Oppenheimer and his grandson Nicky Oppenheimer have been chairmen of the company. Also see Alex Oppenheimer and Taylor Plant, both heirs and relatives.

The company's name comes from Johannes Nicholas de Beer and Diederik Arnoldus de Beer, two Afrikaner farmers on whose farm, called Vooruitzicht, near the confluence of the Orange River and the Vaal River, diamonds were discovered. The brothers were not able to protect the farm from the ensuing diamond rush, and sold it for £6300. Two diamond mines formed on the site, known as the "Big Hole" or Premier Mine. Although the brothers did not become the owners of the mines, one of the mines was named after them. Cecil Rhodes and Charles Rudd gained control of both the De Beers mine and the Kimberley, South Africa mine and merged them, forming De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited.

In the late 19th century, South Africa underwent rapid industrialisation during the "Mineral Revolution", creating an increasingly high demand for labourers to work in the colony's gold and diamond mines. In Kimberley, industrial labour was largely provided by Khoi and Xhosa seasonal migrants - young men who would travel to the diamond mines to work for wages in the summer, but this was unreliable and did not provide a static pool of workers. This, combined with the increasing paranoia that workers were stealing diamonds, led to De Beers introducing closed compounds for their workers. Mine workers signed fixed-term contracts with the company agreeing to remain on-site for the duration. Although white workers were allowed to live in the town, black workers were required to live on the compounds, where their wages were exchanged for accomodation, meals, and vast amounts of cheap sorghum beer provided by the company. Black workers were allowed into town on weekends, but this was curtailed in 1887 to prevent the entire labour force turning up on Monday mornings with hangovers. During the apartheid era, the company was granted state permission to use prisoners for prison labor. By the end of the 19th century, De Beers was using over 10,000 prison laborers daily.(disputed — see talk page) The majority of the prisoners were incarcerated because of strict apartheid laws, similar to the Pass Law which was enacted in 1952.[2]

De Beers is currently building a retail location in the Beverly Hills section of Los Angeles. This is De Beers's second retail location in the U.S. The first one is located in New York City.

 

 

 

Rothschild

 

 

Rothschild (variant: Rothchild) is a German surname.

Rothschild is a habitational name from a house distinguished with a red sign (Middle High German rōt "red" + schilt "sign", "shield"), the earliest recorded example dating from the 13th century.

The most notable family with this surname is the Mayer Amschel Rothschild family. This famous banking (N M Rothschild & Sons in London, de Rothschild Frères in Paris, S M von Rothschild in Vienna) and wine (Château Mouton Rothschild, Château Lafite-Rothschild) family took it from a house so marked in the Jewish quarter of Frankfurt-am-Main, but the name has also been adopted by many Ashkenazi Jews unrelated to the family such as:

Rockefeller (John)

 

 

John Davison Rockefeller, Sr. (July 8, 1839May 23, 1937) was an American industrialist who played a prominent role in the early oil industry with the founding of Standard Oil (ExxonMobil is the largest of its descendants). Over a forty-year period, Rockefeller built Standard Oil into the largest company in the world, and was for a time the richest man in the world. [1] His business career was controversial; he was accused of being a monopolist and was bitterly attacked by investigative journalists. However he spent his last forty years primarily focused on philanthropic pursuits, including education and public health, eventually giving away about half of his wealth and by the time he died his reputation was quite benign. He was a devout Northern Baptist and supported many church activities throughout his life

 

Council on Foreign Relations

 

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American foreign policy think tank based in New York City. It describes itself as being "dedicated to increasing America's understanding of the world and contributing ideas to U.S. foreign policy," and accomplishes this mainly by promoting constructive, closed debates and discussions, clarifying world issues through research and analysis, and publishing the noted journal Foreign Affairs and related content online.

 

History

 

The Council on Foreign Relations, as well as the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, came about as a result of a meeting on May 30, 1919 at the Hotel Majestic in Paris, France. Some of the fifty participants were Edward M. House, Harold Temperley, Lionel Curtis, Lord Eustace Percy, Herbert Hoover, Christian Herter, plus American academic historians James Thomson Shotwell of Columbia University, Archibald Coolidge of Harvard and Charles Seymour of Yale.

Formally established in 1921, it is one of the most powerful private organizations with influence on U.S. foreign policy. It has about 4,000 members, including former national security officers, professors, former CIA members, elected politicians, and media figures. The council is not a formal institution within U.S. policy making.

 

 

 

Trilateral Commission

 

 

The Trilateral Commission is a private organization, founded in 1973 at the initiative of the heads of the Council of Foreign Relations and of the Bilderberg Group, among them David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski. It consists of approximatively 300-350 private citizens from Europe, Pacific Asia (Asia & Oceania), and North America, and exists to promote closer cooperation between these areas.

Membership is divided into amounts apportioned to each of its three areas. Members who gain a position in their respective country's government leave the commission.

The organization has come under much scrutiny and criticism by political activists and academics working in the social and political sciences. The Trilateral Commission has found its way into a number of conspiracy theories, especially relating to the Round table groups.

The North American continent is represented by 107 members (15 Canadians, 7 Mexicans and 85 US citizens). The European group has reached its limit of 150 members, including citizens from Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom.

At first, Asia and Oceania were represented only by Japan. However, in 2000, the Japanese group of 85 members expanded itself, becoming the Pacific Asia group, composed of 117 members: 75 Japanese, 11 South Koreans, 7 Australian and New Zealand citizens, and 15 members from the ASEAN nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand). The Pacific Asia group also includes 9 members from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

 

 

 

Bilderberg group

 

 

The Bilderberg group or Bilderberg conference is an unofficial annual invitation-only conference of around 130 guests, most of whom are persons of influence in business, academic, or political circles. Due to discussions being off-the-record, it is the subject of numerous conspiracy theories. The group meets annually, in secret, at five-star resorts throughout the world, normally in Europe, although sometimes in the United States or Canada. It has an office in Leiden, South Holland, Netherlands.

The "Bilderberg" title comes from what is generally recognized to be the location of its first official meeting in 1954--the Hotel de Bilderberg in Oosterbeek near Arnhem in the Netherlands. Although the conference is not officially regarded as a club of any sort, many members are regular attendees, and guests are often seen as belonging to a secretive Bilderberg Group

 

History

 

The original Bilderberg conference was held at the Hotel de Bilderberg, near Arnhem, from May 29 to May 30 in 1952. The meeting was initiated by Polish emigre and political adviser, Joseph Retinger. Concerned about the growth of anti-Americanism in Western Europe, he proposed an international conference at which opinion leaders from European countries and the United States would be brought together with the aim of promoting understanding between the cultures.

Retinger approached Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who agreed to promote the idea, together with Belgian Prime Minister Paul Van Zeeland. The guest list was to be drawn up by inviting two attendees from each nation, one each to represent conservative and liberal points of view.

The success of the meeting led the organizers to arrange an annual conference. A permanent Steering Committee was established, with Retinger appointed as permanent secretary. As well as organizing the conference, the steering committee also maintained a register of attendee names and contact details, with the aim of creating an informal network of individuals who could call upon one another in a private capacity. The declared purpose of the Bilderberg Group was to make a common political line tie between the USA and Europe in their opposition to Russia and the communist danger.

Dutch economist, Ernst van der Beugel took over as permanent secretary in 1960, upon the death of Retinger. Prince Bernhard continued to serve as the meeting's chairman until 1976, the year of his involvement in the Lockheed scandal. There was no conference that year, but meetings resumed in 1977 under Alec Douglas-Home, the former British prime minister. He was followed in turn by Walter Scheel, ex-President of Germany, Eric Roll, former head of SG Warburg and Lord Carrington, former Secretary-General of NATO.

 

 

 

Declared purpose

 

The original intention of the Bilderberg group was to further the understanding between Western Europe and North America through informal meetings between powerful individuals. Each year, a "steering committee" devises a selected invitation list with a maximum of 100 names. Invitations are only extended to residents of Europe and North America. The location of their annual meeting is not secret, and the agenda and list of participants are openly available to the public, but the topics of the meetings are kept secret and attendees pledge not to divulge what was discussed. The official stance of the Bilderberg Group is that their secrecy prevents the members' discussions from being manipulated by the media

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PNAC

the project for a new american century

 

http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm

 

Core views and beliefs

 

The PNAC Web site states the group's "fundamental propositions", which are

 

* "American leadership is good both for America and for the world"

* "such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle"

* "too few political leaders today are making the case for global leadership."

 

The PNAC also made a statement of principles at their 1997 inception.

 

As the 20th century draws to a close, the United States stands as the world's pre-eminent power. Having led the West to victory in the Cold War, America faces an opportunity and a challenge: Does the United States have the vision to build upon the achievements of past decades? Does the United States have the resolve to shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests?

 

The PNAC advocates "a policy of military strength and moral clarity" which includes

 

* A significant increase of US military spending.

* Strengthening ties with US allies and challenging regimes hostile to US interests and values.

* Promoting the cause of political and economic freedom outside the US.

* Preserving and extending an international order friendly to US security, prosperity and principles.

 

The PNAC and its members had long called for the United States to abandon the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the US and the Soviet Union, from which the US withdrew in 2002. The PNAC also proposes to control the new "international commons" of space and "cyberspace" and pave the way for the creation of a new military service — U.S. Space Forces — with the mission of space control. In 1998, Donald Rumsfeld chaired a bipartisan commission on the US Ballistic Missile Threat toward advancement of these goals. It is unclear how "space control" will affect US adherence to the Outer Space Treaty.

 

*"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor."

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Agency planned exercise on Sept. 11 built around a plane crashing into a building

Wed Aug 21, 7:45 PM ET

 

By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer

 

WASHINGTON - In what the government describes as a bizarre coincidence, one U.S. intelligence agency was planning an exercise last Sept. 11 in which an errant aircraft would crash into one of its buildings. But the cause wasn't terrorism — it was to be a simulated accident.

 

 

 

Officials at the Chantilly, Virginia-based National Reconnaissance Office had scheduled an exercise that morning in which a small corporate jet would crash into one of the four towers at the agency's headquarters building after experiencing a mechanical failure.

 

The agency is about 4 miles (6 kilometers) from the runways of Washington Dulles International Airport.

 

Agency chiefs came up with the scenario to test employees' ability to respond to a disaster, said spokesman Art Haubold. No actual plane was to be involved — to simulate the damage from the crash, some stairwells and exits were to be closed off, forcing employees to find other ways to evacuate the building.

 

"It was just an incredible coincidence that this happened to involve an aircraft crashing into our facility," Haubold said. "As soon as the real world ( news - Y! TV) events began, we canceled the exercise."

 

Terrorism was to play no role in the exercise, which had been planned for several months, he said.

 

Adding to the coincidence, American Airlines Flight 77 — the Boeing 767 that was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon ( news - web sites) — took off from Dulles at 8:10 a.m. on Sept. 11, 50 minutes before the exercise was to begin. It struck the Pentagon around 9:40 a.m., killing 64 aboard the plane and 125 on the ground.

 

The National Reconnaissance Office operates many of the nation's spy satellites. It draws its personnel from the military and the CIA ( news - web sites).

 

After the Sept. 11 attacks, most of the 3,000 people who work at agency headquarters were sent home, save for some essential personnel, Haubold said.

 

An announcement for an upcoming homeland security conference in Chicago first noted the exercise.

 

In a promotion for speaker John Fulton, a CIA officer assigned as chief of NRO's strategic gaming division, the announcement says, "On the morning of September 11th 2001, Mr. Fulton and his team ... were running a pre-planned simulation to explore the emergency response issues that would be created if a plane were to strike a building. Little did they know that the scenario would come true in a dramatic way that day."

 

The conference is being run by the National Law Enforcement and Security Institute.

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on the london bombings.....

 

"Peter Power was a former Scotland Yard official, working at one time with the Anti Terrorist Branch."

 

Power told the host that at the exact same time that the London bombings were taking place, his company was running a 1,000 person strong exercise which drilled the London Underground being bombed at the exact same locations, at the exact same times, as happened in real life.

 

The transcript is as follows.

 

POWER: At half past nine this morning we were actually running an exercise for a company of over a thousand people in London based on simultaneous bombs going off precisely at the railway stations where it happened this morning, so I still have the hairs on the back of my neck standing up right now.

 

HOST: To get this quite straight, you were running an exercise to see how you would cope with this and it happened while you were running the exercise?

 

POWER: Precisely, and it was about half past nine this morning, we planned this for a company and for obvious reasons I don't want to reveal their name but they're listening and they'll know it. And we had a room full of crisis managers for the first time they'd met and so within five minutes we made a pretty rapid decision that this is the real one and so we went through the correct drills of activating crisis management procedures to jump from slow time to quick time thinking and so on.

 

the audio

Click here to watch peter-power-on-npr

 

the company he was working for is called VISOR

http://www.visorconsultants.com/index.html

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well, none of them are dumb people. i enjoy reading what all of them post.

it seems to me that everyone is caught up in thinking i'm a conspiracy theorist whack-job.

fact is, i haven't posted anything about aliens, atlantis, satanic baby rapists, etc.

 

i've gotta find that excerpt from helmt schmidt's autobiography where he admits that bohemian grove is his favorite place to go perform druidic rituals. that's a kicker.

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From page 243 (in 1991) German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt addresses the elite of the world at a lakeside talk. Helmut Schmidt, in his own autobiography, "Men and Powers, a Political Retrospective, says that he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and the Bilberberg group. He also says that he has been an active participant in bringing in world government. Mr. Schmidt also said in his book that leaders from globalist bodies travel to the Grove every summer. He talks about secret groves in Germany where they do druidic rituals, but indicates that Bohemian Grove is his favorite place to participate in these rituals

 

"...In july 1979, during one of these visits to California, George Shultz invited me to be his guest in Bohemian Grove during the traditional yearly summer encampment. This weekend gave me one of the most astounding experiences I ever had in the United States. Later I went to Bohemian Grove a second time and my impressions intensified. The landscape in which the encampment (the term used) takes place is uncommonly beautiful. The valley, a few meters wide and several kilometres long, is protected along both slopes and on the valley floor by venerable sequoias, some of them a thousand years old. Though the sky can be glimpsed through the loosely grouped treetops, the horizon is concealed. It was very quiet with a total absence of traffic noise..."

 

- Helmut Schmidt in his 1991 biography

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awesome. thanks 23.

 

it should be said that these people are absolutely 100% devout

to this type of shit. it's not fun and games. it's not fraternity type

shits and giggles. it's real.

 

there is a bilderburg meeting going on as i type this in ottawa canada.

right now. what they say about oil prices, wars, etc. will happen.

 

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=6ac7a723-323b-497c-970b-70ec36c4bd45

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060608.wbilder0608/BNStory/National/home

 

http://ottsun.canoe.ca/News/OttawaAndRegion/2006/06/09/1621810-sun.html

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i may or may not get into the masonic order.

it's a big bunch of history and it's got to be

written in its fullest to get what is going on

and why they are such an important part of

world history, as well as american history.

 

here are a few books on masonic rituals, etc.

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/dart/index.htm

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/mas/md/index.htm

morals and dogman by albert pike

 

http://www.sacred-texts.com/mas/dun/index.htm

duncans masonic order and rituals

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Welcome to 1984

Are you ready for the third world war?

You too will meet the secret police

They'll draft you and they'll jail your niece

 

You'll go quitely to boot camp

They'll shoot you dead, make you a man

Don't you worry, it's for a cause

Feeding global corporations' claws

 

Die on our brand new poison gas

El Salvador or Afghanistan

Making money for President Reagan

And all the friends of President Reagan

 

California Über alles

Über alles California

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  • 2 weeks later...

http://www.cfr.org/publication.html?id=7454

Council Joins Leading Canadians and Mexicans to Launch Independent Task Force on the Future of North America

 

 

 

ChoicePoint (NYSE: CPS) is a corporation based in Alpharetta, near Atlanta, Georgia, USA, which claims to be the "nation's leading supplier of identification and credential verification services". According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the firm keeps more than 17 billion records of individuals and businesses, which it sells to more than half of America's top 1,000 companies[1]. It also contracts with over 7,500 state and local government agencies, including law enforcement.

 

ChoicePoint maintains a database of names, addresses, Social Security numbers, credit reports, and other sensitive information. Its DNA laboratory aided in the identification of victims of the WTC attacks, and data supplied by ChoicePoint was used in the Beltway Snipers investigation.

 

 

References

 

1.http://www.tsa.gov/public/display?theme=81&content=090005198002d4e5

2.http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Insurance/Insureyourhome/P35345.asp

3.http://www.insurance.wa.gov/factsheets/factsheet_detail.asp?FctShtRcdNum=13

4.http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/02/17/state/n041832S59.DTL

5.http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=11336&hed=The+Choicepoint+incident

6.http://news.com.com/Break-in+costs+ChoicePoint+millions/2100-7350_3-5797213.html?tag=nefd.top

 

7.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7189143/page/2/

8.http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/special_packages/security/11031011.htm

9.http://news.ft.com/cms/s/b02019f4-8ea2-11da-b752-0000779e2340.html

 

10.http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=502&row=0

 

11.The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, p. 18

 

 

http://www.spp.gov/

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) was launched in March of 2005 as a trilateral effort to increase security and enhance prosperity among the United States, Canada and Mexico through greater cooperation and information sharing.

 

This White House-driven initiative is premised on our security and our economic prosperity being mutually reinforcing. The SPP recognizes that our three great nations are bound by a shared belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic institutions.

 

The SPP provides the framework to ensure that North America is the safest and best place to live and do business. It includes ambitious security and prosperity programs to keep our borders closed to terrorism yet open to trade.

 

The SPP builds upon, but is separate from, our long-standing trade and economic relationships. It energizes other aspects of our cooperative relations, such as the protection of our environment, our food supply, and our public health.

 

Looking forward, President Bush, Prime Minister Harper and President Fox have identified emergency management; influenza pandemics, including avian influenza; energy security; and safe and secure gateways (border security and facilitation) as key priorities for the SPP. The Leaders also announced the creation of North American Competitiveness Council to fully incorporate the private sector into the SPP process.

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AT&T has issued an updated privacy policy that takes effect Friday. The changes are significant because they appear to give the telecom giant more latitude when it comes to sharing customers' personal data with government officials.

 

The new policy says that AT&T -- not customers -- owns customers' confidential info and can use it "to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process."

 

The policy also indicates that AT&T will track the viewing habits of customers of its new video service -- something that cable and satellite providers are prohibited from doing.

 

Moreover, AT&T (formerly known as SBC) is requiring customers to agree to its updated privacy policy as a condition for service -- a new move that legal experts say will reduce customers' recourse for any future data sharing with government authorities or others.

 

The company's policy overhaul follows recent reports that AT&T was one of several leading telecom providers that allowed the National Security Agency warrantless access to its voice and data networks as part of the Bush administration's war on terror.

 

"They're obviously trying to avoid a hornet's nest of consumer-protection lawsuits," said Chris Hoofnagle, a San Francisco privacy consultant and former senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

 

"They've written this new policy so broadly that they've given themselves maximum flexibility when it comes to disclosing customers' records," he said.

 

AT&T is being sued by San Francisco's Electronic Frontier Foundation for allegedly allowing the NSA to tap into the company's data network, providing warrantless access to customers' e-mails and Web browsing.

 

AT&T is also believed to have participated in President Bush's acknowledged domestic spying program, in which the NSA was given warrantless access to U.S. citizens' phone calls.

 

AT&T said in a statement last month that it "has a long history of vigorously protecting customer privacy" and that "our customers expect, deserve and receive nothing less than our fullest commitment to their privacy."

 

But the company also asserted that it has "an obligation to assist law enforcement and other government agencies responsible for protecting the public welfare, whether it be an individual or the security interests of the entire nation."

 

Under its former privacy policy, introduced in September 2004, AT&T said it might use customer's data "to respond to subpoenas, court orders or other legal process, to the extent required and/or permitted by law."

 

The new version, which is specifically for Internet and video customers, is much more explicit about the company's right to cooperate with government agencies in any security-related matters -- and AT&T's belief that customers' data belongs to the company, not customers.

 

"While your account information may be personal to you, these records constitute business records that are owned by AT&T," the new policy declares. "As such, AT&T may disclose such records to protect its legitimate business interests, safeguard others, or respond to legal process."

 

It says the company "may disclose your information in response to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal process," omitting the earlier language about such processes being "required and/or permitted by law."

 

The new policy states that AT&T "may also use your information in order to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud (or) situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person" -- conditions that would appear to embrace any terror-related circumstance.

 

Ray Everett-Church, a Silicon Valley privacy consultant, said it seems clear that AT&T has substantially modified its privacy policy in light of revelations about the government's domestic spying program.

 

"It's obvious that they are trying to stretch their blanket pretty tightly to cover as many exposed bits as possible," he said.

 

Gail Hillebrand, a staff attorney at Consumers Union in San Francisco, said the declaration that AT&T owns customers' data represents the most significant departure from the company's previous policy.

 

"It creates the impression that they can do whatever they want," she said. "This is the real heart of AT&T's new policy and is a pretty fundamental difference from how most customers probably see things."

 

John Britton, an AT&T spokesman, denied that the updated privacy policy marks a shift in the company's approach to customers' info.

 

"We don't see this as anything new," he said. "Our goal was to make the policy easier to read and easier for customers to understand."

 

He acknowledged that there was no explicit requirement in the past that customers accept the privacy policy as a condition for service. And he acknowledged that the 2004 policy said nothing about customers' data being owned by AT&T.

 

But Britton insisted that these elements essentially could be found between the lines of the former policy.

 

"There were many things that were implied in the last policy." He said. "We're just clarifying the last policy."

 

AT&T's new privacy policy is the first to include the company's video service. AT&T says it's spending $4.6 billion to roll out TV programming to 19 million homes nationwide.

 

The policy refers to two AT&T video services -- Homezone and U-verse. Homezone is AT&T's satellite TV service, offered in conjunction with Dish Network, and U-verse is the new cablelike video service delivered over phone lines.

 

In a section on "usage information," the privacy policy says AT&T will collect "information about viewing, game, recording and other navigation choices that you and those in your household make when using Homezone or AT&T U-verse TV Services."

 

The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 stipulates that cable and satellite companies can't collect or disclose information about customers' viewing habits.

 

The law is silent on video services offered by phone companies via the Internet, basically because legislators never anticipated such technology would be available.

 

AT&T's Britton said the 1984 law doesn't apply to his company's video service because AT&T isn't a cable provider. "We are not building a cable TV network," he said. "We're building an Internet protocol television network."

 

But Andrew Johnson, a spokesman for cable heavyweight Comcast, disputed this perspective.

 

"Video is video is video," he said. "If you're delivering programming over a telecommunications network to a TV set, all rules need to be the same."

 

AT&T's new and former privacy policies both state that "conducting business ethically and ensuring privacy is critical to maintaining the public's trust and achieving success in a dynamic and competitive business climate."

 

Both also state that "privacy responsibility" extends "to the privacy of conversations and to the flow of information in data form." As such, both say that "the trust of our customers necessitates vigilant, responsible privacy protections."

 

The 2004 policy, though, went one step further. It said AT&T realizes "that privacy is an important issue for our customers and members."

 

The new policy makes no such acknowledgment.

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/21/BUG9VJHB9C1.DTL&hw=at&sn=002&sc=870

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PNAC

the project for a new american century

 

http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm

 

Core views and beliefs

 

The PNAC Web site states the group's "fundamental propositions", which are

 

* "American leadership is good both for America and for the world"

* "such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle"

* "too few political leaders today are making the case for global leadership."

 

The PNAC also made a statement of principles at their 1997 inception.

 

As the 20th century draws to a close, the United States stands as the world's pre-eminent power. Having led the West to victory in the Cold War, America faces an opportunity and a challenge: Does the United States have the vision to build upon the achievements of past decades? Does the United States have the resolve to shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests?

 

The PNAC advocates "a policy of military strength and moral clarity" which includes

 

* A significant increase of US military spending.

* Strengthening ties with US allies and challenging regimes hostile to US interests and values.

* Promoting the cause of political and economic freedom outside the US.

* Preserving and extending an international order friendly to US security, prosperity and principles.

 

The PNAC and its members had long called for the United States to abandon the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the US and the Soviet Union, from which the US withdrew in 2002. The PNAC also proposes to control the new "international commons" of space and "cyberspace" and pave the way for the creation of a new military service — U.S. Space Forces — with the mission of space control. In 1998, Donald Rumsfeld chaired a bipartisan commission on the US Ballistic Missile Threat toward advancement of these goals. It is unclear how "space control" will affect US adherence to the Outer Space Treaty.

 

*"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor."

 

 

i was about to post that.

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became Bulgaria's Prime Minister. This marked the first occasion in history where a former monarch returned to a position of power via democratic election.

 

this is wrong. The King of Cambodia stepped down for the Kher Rouge and was elected PM after Vietnam beat back the KR.

 

Great tie in with Dead Kennedys/Democratic Kampochia

 

but the rest is a nice read

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