PAN ALERT: Meditation Focus # 92 : Re-Creating the World A new

[Guest guest]

What follows is the 92nd Meditation Focus suggested for the TWO consecutiveweeks beginning Sunday, August 10, 2003.RE-CREATING THE WORLD ANEW1. Summary2. Meditation times3. More information on this Meditation Focus-------1. SUMMARYAs we are heading towards an uncertain future in which global warming,massive species extinction and human hunger on a global scale are currentlyset to be the main factors shaping the lives of the billions of soulsinhabiting this planet - unless we change course as a result of globalawakening and individual empowerment to be All That We Are - the time hasfinally come to turn our attention and co-creative forces, as One UnifyingHumanity, towards co-creating the conditions that will ensure the radicalsolutions necessary to face the radical challenges to our common survival wehave created for ourselves over the last few generations. And one of themain causes of the derelict status of our world, from an environmental andglobal standpoint, has been the cunning and continuous manipulations of oureconomic systems by a wealthy elite to further enhance its own control anddominance over the resources and riches of this planet to the detriment ofthe vast majority of human beings and for hidden purposes serving deeplyconcealed, negatively-inclined beings as part of a much larger battleencompassing the entire physical and non-physical universes.One of the key strategic control centers of this elite is rooted in themilitary and high level governmental structure of the United States ofAmerica, although several other centers of lesser prominence do also existin Europe and Asia. Because of the considerable military might and economicpower at its disposal, the U.S. government has been for many decades at theforefront of the concerted efforts of this discreet cabal which neverthelessuse all possible channels and centers of power around the world to furtherits various aims, and which has successfully come to so dominate throughdirect ownership or otherwise the means of communication and news media asto maintain a tight stranglehold on what is broadcast and known so as topreserve its stealthy nature. Yet, despite all their efforts and resourcesdedicated to establish and impose their global dominance, they have not beenable to prevent nor stop the gradual awakening of hundreds of millions ofpeople who, thanks in part to their interconnection through the Internet,now see with ever greater clarity that the growing chasm between the fewmegarich and the destitute billions human beings is becoming intolerable andthat the wars initiated without proven provocation by the American oligarchyare simply unacceptable and are vigorously opposing them through a growinganti-globalization movement and through significantly large demonstrationssuch as those organized to oppose the war in Iraq.Prompted by the sheer magnitude of our global predicaments and nudged awakenby the globally awakening Unity Consciousness of All That Is in all of us,countless souls have now been alerted as to the need to change course andre-create the world anew, and in the process are gradually parting with theobsolete values and beliefs of a dying paradigm of self-centered blindnessresponsible for so much of our planet's ills. This co-creation process istwo-fold. We firmly oppose what is directly causing the destruction andimbalance in our world and we courageously dedicate ourselves to creatinghere and now, as well as supporting, the initiatives and seeds of changethat will soon blossom into a new Era of permanent enlightenment and peace,both innerly and globally.Please dedicate your prayers and meditations, as guided by Spirit, in thecoming four weeks, and especially in synchronous attunement at the usualtime this Sunday and the following one, to contribute in fostering withineach of us the sense that a positive future awaits us and that we canempower ourselves, individually and globally, to meet the challenges of ourtime and ensure to all the material and environmental conditions conduciveto the spiritual fulfillment of all the divine potential for goodness,kindness and oneness we each can manifest, for the Highest Good of All.This whole Meditation Focus is also available athttp://www.aei.ca/~cep/MeditationFocus92.htm-------2. MEDITATION TIMESi) Global Meditation Day: Sunday at 16:00 Universal Time (GMT) or at noonlocal time. Suggested duration: 30 minutes.ii) Golden Moment of At-Onement: Daily, at the top of any hour, or wheneverit better suits you.These times below are currently corresponding to 16:00 Universal Time/GMT:Honolulu 6:00 AM -- Anchorage * 8:00 AM -- Los Angeles * 9:00 AM -- MexicoCity, San Salvador & Denver * 10:00 AM -- Houston * & Chicago * 11:00 AM -- Santo Domingo, La Paz, Caracas, New York *, Toronto *. Montreal *, Asuncion & Santiago 12:00 AM -- Halifax *, Rio de Janeiro & Montevideo 1:00 PM -- Reykjavik & Casablanca 4 PM -- Lagos, Algiers, London *, Dublin * & Lisbon *5:00 PM -- Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Geneva *, Rome *, Berlin *, Paris * & Madrid * 6:00 PM -- Ankara *, Athens *, Helsinki * & Istanbul * & Nairobi7:00 PM -- Baghdad *, Moscow * 8:00 PM -- Tehran * 8:30 PM -- Islamabad 9:00PM -- Calcutta & New Delhi 9:30 PM -- Dhaka 10:00 PM -- Rangoon 10:30 PM -- Hanoi, Bangkok & Jakarta 11:00 PM -- Hong Kong, Perth, Beijing & KualaLumpur +12:00 PM -- Seoul & Tokyo +1:00 AM -- Brisbane, Canberra & Melbourne+2:00 AM -- Wellington +4:00 AM+ means the place is one day ahead of Universal Time/Greenwich Mean Time.* means the place is observing daylight saving time (DST) at the moment.You may also check at http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/full.html tofind your current corresponding local time if a closeby city is not listedabove.-------3. More information on this Meditation FocusThis complement of information may help you to better understand the variousaspects pertaining to the summary description of the subject of thisMeditation Focus. It is recommended to view this information from a positiveperspective, and not allow the details to tinge the positive vision we wishto hold in meditation. Since what we focus on grows, the more positive ourmind-set, the more successful we will be in manifesting a vision of peaceand healing. This complementary information is provided so that a greaterknowledge of what needs healing and peace-nurturing vibrations may assist usto have an in-depth understanding of what is at stake and thus achieve agreater collective effectiveness.First you may want to review Matthew Ward's recent (August 7) message insupport of Nesara (see excerpt below) athttp://www.EarthRainbowNetwork.com/MatthewAugust72003.htm(...) Some consider NESARA to be political and economic in nature whileothers view it as spiritual because of the high level light beingsaffiliated with it. NESARA is both. When people are severely oppressed bypolitical and economic conditions that foster impoverished livingcircumstances, lack of health care and education, monopoly of naturalresources, slave labor, unjust laws and courts, starvation, and tyrannicalregimes, offering "soul food" isn't enough. When people are preoccupied withmere survival requirements, giving them only spiritual messages is not goingto bring about the global reforms they need to rise out of their misery.That is why the provisions of NESARA are monumental in scope, embodyingsweeping reforms for Earth that will begin as soon as the legislation isofficially announced. When people become aware of the reforms, they will bemotivated to participate according to their capabilities.---http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0308/S00011.htmHomeless And Starving In The Land Of The FreeUS Homelessness and Poverty Rates Skyrocket While Billions are SpentOverseas on OccupationBy Jay Shaft - Coalition For Free Thought In Media7/31/03As I watch far away images of body bags being filled, I see much closerimages of bodies. I went by a local park the other day and it looked like aconcentration camp crossed with a mass murder scene.There were people in rags and covered with filth lying scattered all overthe place. At least twenty people were on crutches, had parts bandaged, orwith open wounds not even covered. They were all hungry and a large majoritywere sick.All around this city I live in, and nation-wide, the level of homelessnessand poverty is growing alarmingly. From the last counts and estimatesnation-wide, there has been at least a 35-45% increase in homelessness andpoverty. The increases have come over the last two years with the biggestincreases being in 2002 and especially in the first six months of 2003.Add to that the barely subsisting or borderline homeless/poor, and we startto see a very alarming trend that shows no sign of going away. Over 30% ofAmericans are on the borderline of poverty. A lot just do not quite make thecut to receive food stamps or some kind of benefits and live on a razor edgeof desperation and starvation.I have talked to people that run food banks, soup kitchens, and homelessshelters. Places like Day Star, Catholic Charities, St, Vincent De Paul, andmany other major support agencies. They all tell me they have seen a vastincrease in people that would starve or be without clothes if not for theirservices.The most shocking sight to see is homeless and starving children, livingright near some of the richest neighborhoods!!!!! Right here in"humanitarian" America, home of the worlds largest "humanitarian" and"liberating" force (or is it FARCE?).This country is putting more and more of our citizens on the brink ofhomelessness and desperate poverty. In addition, it seems that we havepushed countless others over the brink and into the bottomless pit ofdespair and need. All you have to do is look around, open your eyes, and youwill see the vast sea of hungry and destitute.I have seen more and more children and families out on the street or infeeding centers and at food handouts. To think that the world's richestcountry allows this to happen is sickening! To think that we turn a blindeye to starving children because it is easier to tolerate than do somethingabout it!We cannot afford to hire teachers, build new schools, or even maintain theones we have. Our children slip farther into the void of illiteracy andneglect. We are the lowest among the industrialized "first" world nations inliteracy scores! Many "third" world countries now have higher literacy ratesthan the U.S.We are setting ourselves up to turn the world's richest country into a thirdworld quagmire. This country is sinking into a swamp of drowning poor andso-called "Economically Challenged!" The rich meanwhile buy bigger S.U.Vs(self indulgent ubiquitous vulture mobiles), and bigger gated houses to keepout the flotsam and detritus of the cast aways.Homelessness Reaches New Levels3.5 million people, 39% of them children, currently experience homelessnessevery year. 60% of all new homeless cases are single mothers with children.Recent studies suggest that the United States generates homelessness at amuch higher rate than previously thought. By its very nature, homelessnessis impossible to measure with 100% accuracy. More important than actuallyknowing the precise number of people who experience homelessness is how togo about ending it.A growing number of cities, including Los Angeles, Seattle, and Atlanta, arecriminalizing activities of the homeless, according to the NationalCoalition for the Homeless. More than 60 cities are introducing measures tomake it illegal to beg or sleep on the streets, to sit in a bus shelter formore than an hour, or to walk across a parking lot if the person doesn'thave a car parked there.In 2002 the US Conference of Mayors reported a 19% increase in shelterrequests due to homelessness in 25 surveyed cities. Requests for shelter byfamilies increased by 20%.On average 30% of all requests for shelter went unmet in 2002, with 38% ofrequests by families going unmet. In 60% of the reporting cities, emergencyshelters had to turn away families due to lack of resources, with 56%reporting they had to turn away other homeless people.People are remaining homeless for at least 6 months on average with 82% ofcities reporting an increase in the length of time people are homeless.CLIPPresident Bush claimed that his FY2004 budget "helps America meet its goalsboth at home and overseas." Yet, upon examination of the budget numbers, thegoals of many Americans appear not to have been included.At a time when unprecedented numbers of families and individuals arehomeless or at risk of becoming homeless, the President proposed no newresources to meet their needs. His budget maintains funding levels for mosthomeless assistance programs; levels so woefully inadequate that each yearrecord numbers of people are turned away from life-sustaining services.In releasing his FY2004 budget, President Bush claimed "human compassioncannot be summarized in dollars and cents." Neither, can the untoldsuffering of the 1.35 million children whose lives will be disrupted by lossof housing and health care this year, or the sorrow of their parents, whostruggle against the odds to provide stability and hope, or the frustrationand pain of those who work but cannot afford housing, or the fear of thosewhose health conditions, coupled with lack of housing, threaten their verysurvival.In particular, the President's Medicaid proposal threatens to leave manymore families and children uninsured, dramatically increasing their risk ofbecoming homeless due to illness or injury. Children are especiallyvulnerable to losing coverage under the proposed merging of Medicaid and theChildren's Health Insurance Program.Hunger and Starvation Increasing, Especially For ChildrenIn 2001, the USDA reported that the number of Americans who were foodinsecure or hungry or at risk of hunger was 33.6 million. In the last yearit is estimated that there has been an additional 5-10 million additionalpeople who areCLIP4 Billion a month to occupy Iraq, 1.9 billion to occupy AfghanistanAmerica is bleeding money into foreign occupation, while cutting back on theprograms that provide a safety net for America's poorest citizens. Themilitary budget is expected to top $450 million for the fiscal year 2004.The costs of occupying and improving conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan arenot even factored into the latest military expenditure proposals. The US ispledged to rebuilding Iraq's electrical and water infrastructure atestimated costs of $10 Billion for the electrical grid and $500 Million torebuild the water system and supply clean water to the population of Iraq.While the US is committed to at least two years of occupation in Iraq andpossibly up to ten years, our own people slip into further poverty andstarvation.If the US spent just three months occupation costs, they could wipe outhunger and homelessness completely for ten years. However, it does not seemlike feeding and sheltering our own citizens has a very high priority.If the US took just 25% of their annual military budget, it could go a longway to wiping out hunger and homelessness around the world. Just 10% of ourmilitary budget spent yearly on America could give every high schoolgraduate a college education for four years.It seems like it is not a priority to protect our children from starvationand living on the streets. Our education system is crumbling and the schoolbreakfast and lunch programs are being slashed mercilessly.Increasingly in America, private foundations and organizations are steppingin to take up the slack that the government fails to adjust for. Mostcharities are reporting budget shortfalls due to the government cuttingtheir funding and resources.If this crisis continues, we are in danger of actually having worse hungerand homelessness than some third world countries. The military expansion andoccupation must stop so that we can salvage our future before it is too lateto stop the landslide of poor and starving.We must put our priorities in line with the welfare of all our citizens. Wecannot afford to neglect the children or any citizen any longer. There mustbe a call of reckoning to stop this depriving of anyone their basic needs toexist.---See also:Rebuilding Iraq May Cost Up to $100 Billion, Bremer Says (July 31)http://story.news./news?tmpl=story & u=/nm/20030801/ts_nm/iraq_reconstruction_dcWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iraq's U.S. administrator said on Thursday thatrebuilding the country could require anywhere from $50 billion to $100billion of outside money over the next couple of years.---http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/081003A.shtmlWilliam Rivers Pitt delivered the following comments as the keynote speakerat the Veterans for Peace National Convention in San Francisco.We Stand Our Ground10 August 2003CLIPThey call it Pax Americana, a plan to invade Iraq, take it over, create apermanent military presence there, and use the oil revenues to fund furtherwars against virtually every nation in that region. This we call bringingour "values" over there. Norman Podhoretz, one of the ideological fathers ofthis group of neoconservatives who now control the foreign policy of thisnation, described the process as "The reformation and modernization ofIslam." That's a pretty fancy phrase. I am a Catholic, and can thereforecall it by its simpler name: Crusade. We know all about those.This is the Project for a New American Century, the product of a right-wingthink tank that, in 1997, was considered so far out there that no one everthought its members would ever come within ten miles of setting Americanpolicy. One broken election, however, vaulted these men into positions ofunspeakable power. Their white papers, their dreams of empire at the pointof the sword, have become our national nightmare, and the nightmare of theworld. I speak of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, RichardPerle, John Bolton, Lewis Libby, and the rest of these New American Centurymen who have taken our beloved country and all it stands for it and thrownit down into the mud.You will note that I did not name George W. Bush, for blaming Bush for thegross misadministration of this government is like blaming Mickey Mouse whenDisney screws up. He is not in charge. Truman said "The buck stops here,"and so we point to Bush as a symbol of all that has gone wrong. But he isnot in charge. These other men, these New American Century men, havedelivered us to this wretched estate, and by God in Heaven, there will be areckoning for it.But is it all ideology for these men? Of course not. There is the payout.Have you ever heard of a company called United Defense, out of Arlington,Virginia? Let me introduce you. United Defense provides Combat VehicleSystems, Fire Support, Combat Support Vehicle Systems, Weapons DeliverySystems, Amphibious Assault Vehicles, and Combat Support Services. Some ofUnited Defense's current programs include:The Bradley Family of Fighting Vehicles, the M113 Family of FightingVehicles, the M88A2 Recovery Vehicle, the Grizzly, the M9 ACE, the CompositeArmored Vehicle, the M6 Linebacker, the M4 Command and Control Vehicle, theBattle Command Vehicle, the Paladin, the Future Scout and Cavalry System,the Crusader, Electric Gun Technology/Pulse Power, Advanced Simulations andTraining Systems, and Fleet Management. This list goes on and on, andincludes virtually everything an eternal war might need.Who owns United Defense? Why, the Carlyle Group, which bought United Defensein October of 1997. For those not in the know, the Carlyle Group is aprivate global investment firm. Carlyle is the eleventh largest defensecontractor in the US because of its ownership of companies making tanks,aircraft wings and other equipment. Carlyle has ownership stakes in 164companies which generated $16 billion in revenues in the year 2000 alone.The Carlyle Group does not provide investment or other services to thegeneral public.Who works for the Carlyle Group? George Herbert Walker Bush works for theCarlyle Group, has been a senior consultant for Carlyle for some years now,and sits on the Board of Directors. This company is profiting wildly fromthis war in Iraq, a tidy gift from son to father.And then, of course, there is Dick Cheney's Halliburton, profiting in themillions from the oil in Iraq. Halliburton subsidiary, Brown & Root, is alsoin Iraq. Their stock in trade is the building of permanent military bases.Here is your permanent military presence in Iraq, and all for an incrediblefee. Cheney still draws a one million dollar annual check from Halliburton,what they call a 'deferred retirement benefit.' In Boston, we call that apaycheck.Pax Americana. That which President Kennedy spoke so eloquently andspecifically against when he said, "What kind of a peace do we seek? Not aPax Americana enforced upon the world by our weapons of war." This is nowthe rule of law for this nation. It must be stopped, and we must be the onesto stop it.---HTTP://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030806.ukore0807/BNStory/International/?query=north+koreaAlso from: http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/081003F.shtmlNorth Korea Next to Hear - U.S. War DrumBy Geofrey YorkToronto Globe and Mail07 August 2003Beijing - A senior Pentagon adviser has given details of a war strategy forinvading North Korea and toppling its regime within 30 to 60 days, addingmuscle to a lobbying campaign by U.S. hawks urging a pre-emptive militarystrike against Pyongyang's nuclear facilities.Less than four months after the end of the Iraq war, the war drums inWashington have begun pounding again. A growing number of influential U.S.leaders are talking openly of military action against North Korea to destroyits nuclear-weapons program, and even those who prefer negotiations arewarning of the mounting danger of war.Some analysts predict that North Korea could test a nuclear warhead by theend of this year - an event that could cross the "red line" that wouldprovoke a U.S. attack.The tensions were heightened by a recent exchange of gunfire across theborder between North Korean and South Korean soldiers. Talks between U.S.and North Korean officials are expected to be held in Beijing soon, butnobody is predicting an imminent diplomatic agreement, especially afterNorth Korea denounced a U.S. negotiator as a "bloodsucker" and "human scum."Military conflict in the Korean peninsula could trigger a catastrophe, notonly because of the suspected presence of nuclear bombs in North Korea, butalso because of the 11,000 North Korean artillery weapons along the borderthat could inflict death and destruction on millions of people in the SouthKorean capital, Seoul, which is within artillery range of the North's guns.Former CIA director James Woolsey, a Pentagon adviser and close ally ofDefence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, gave the most explicit glimpse into thethinking of U.S. military planners this week when he revealed the details ofa possible plan of attack against North Korea.The plan would include 4,000 daily air strikes against North Korean targets,the deployment of cruise missiles and stealth aircraft to destroy theYongbyon nuclear plant and other nuclear facilities, the stationing of U.S.Marine forces off the coasts of North Korea to threaten a land attack onPyongyang, the deployment of two additional U.S. Army divisions to bolsterSouth Korean troops in a land offensive against North Korea, and the call-upof National Guard and Reserve units to replace U.S. combat forces that arecurrently bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan."Massive air power is the key to being able both to destroy Yongbyon and toprotect South Korea from attack by missile or artillery," Mr. Woolsey wrotethis week in the Wall Street Journal in an article co-written by retiredU.S. Air Force Lieutenant-General Thomas McInerney."We believe the use of air power in such a war would be swifter and moredevastating than it was in Iraq," the article said. "We judge that the U.S.and South Korea could defeat North Korea decisively in 30 to 60 days withsuch a strategy."Mr. Woolsey and Lt.-Gen. McInerney said the U.S. should already be preparing"to assess realistically what it would take to conduct a successful militaryoperation to change the North Korean regime."They acknowledged the risk that U.S. military strikes could trigger anexplosion of radiation from North Korean nuclear plants, along with massiveartillery attacks against Seoul by the North Korean heavy guns that arehidden in hardened underground bunkers on the border.But U.S. cruise missiles and stealth aircraft could launch precision bombingattacks that would "minimize radiation leakage" at Yongbyon, while alsosealing shut the underground bunkers where the artillery pieces are hidden,they said.They warned that a war could soon become necessary to prevent North Koreafrom selling weapons-grade plutonium to "rogue states" and terroristorganizations. "The world has weeks to months, at most, to deal with thisissue, not months to years," Mr. Woolsey and Lt.-Gen. McInerney wrote.Similar warnings were issued recently by William Perry, the former U.S.defence secretary, who said North Korea and the United States were driftingtoward war - perhaps as early as this year.Mr. Perry said the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush is"losing control" of the North Korean nuclear crisis, making it possible forPyongyang to begin selling nuclear weapons to terrorists soon. "The nuclearprogram now under way in North Korea poses an imminent danger of nuclearweapons being detonated in American cities," he told The Washington Post.He said North Korea seems to have begun reprocessing some of the 8,000 spentfuel rods from a closed nuclear plant. This could allow Pyongyang to buildup to six nuclear bombs in the next six months. "I have thought for somemonths that if the North Koreans moved toward processing," he said, "then weare on a path toward war."---See also:Emergency in Korea (July 24)http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/072503I.shtmlIn the dream world of American neo-conservatives, crossing North Korea offthe planet would be a technically easy operation-the country is an economicruin-and morally tempting-there is nothing sympathetic about the regime.After having taken part in all kinds of international terrorist and banditoperations over the years, now Pyongyang offers itself the ultimate luxury:trying to guarantee its perpetuity by threatening to proclaim itself anuclear power soon. This unheard of blackmail legitimately gives theshudders not only to South Korea, a prosperous democracy, but also to theJapanese and Chinese neighbors of the peninsula. Beyond that, it shouldsound alarm bells for all powers responsible for global security. CLIPAl Gore | The Direction of Our Nation Troubles Mehttp://www.truthout.org/docs_03/080803A.shtml(...) The 2001 winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, George Akerlof, wenteven further last week in Germany when he told Der Spiegel, "This is theworst government the US has ever had in its more than 200 years ofhistory...This is not normal government policy." In describing the impact ofthe Bush policies on America's future, Akerloff added, "What we have here isa form of looting." (...) First, powerful and wealthy groups and individualswho work their way into the inner circle -- with political support or largecampaign contributions -- are able to add their own narrow special intereststo the list of favored goals without having them weighed against the publicinterest or subjected to the rule of reason. And the greater the conflictbetween what they want and what's good for the rest of us, the greaterincentive they have to bypass the normal procedures and keep it secret.That's what happened, for example, when Vice President Cheney invited all ofthose oil and gas industry executives to meet in secret sessions with himand his staff to put their wish lists into the administration's legislativepackage in early 2001. That group wanted to get rid of the Kyoto Treaty onGlobal Warming, of course, and the Administration pulled out of it firstthing. The list of people who helped write our nation's new environmentaland energy policies is still secret, and the Vice President won't saywhether or not his former company, Halliburton, was included. But of course,as practically everybody in the world knows, Halliburton was given a hugeopen-ended contract to take over and run the Iraqi oil fields-- withouthaving to bid against any other companies.US Nobel Laureate Slams Bush Gov't as "Worst" in American History (July 29)http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/080303D.shtmlRivals Say Halliburton Dominates Iraq Oil Work (August 8)http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/080903A.shtmlThe Bechtel Group, one of the world's biggest engineering and constructioncompanies, has dropped out of the running for a contract to rebuild theIraqi oil industry, as other competitors have begun to conclude that thebidding process favors the one company already working in Iraq, Halliburton.(...) Working in Iraq has helped turn around Halliburton's financialperformance, its second-quarter results showed. The company made a profit of$26 million, in contrast to a loss of $498 million in the period a yearearlier. The company stated that 9 percent, or $324 million, of itssecond-quarter revenue of $3.6 billion came from its work in Iraq.Dick Cheney Has Long Planned To Loot Iraqi Oilhttp://www.larouchepub.com/other/2003/3030cheney_oil.htmlAs this week's Feature highlights, Vice President Dick Cheney has beenplotting the conquest of Iraq since he was Secretary of Defense in PresidentGeorge H.W. Bush's Administration-a plan then considered insane aggression.Moreover, on July 17, 2003, Judicial Watch announced that Cheney's EnergyTask Force had developed a map of Iraq dated March 2001, as well as maps ofthe neighboring United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and Saudi Arabia, which showthat Cheney knew precisely how much the conquest of Iraq would be worth. Themap, which shows oilfields, pipelines, tanker terminals, and refineries,includes eight "blocks" for exploration near the border with Saudi Arabia.Iraq has been proven to have the second-highest amount of oil reserves ofany nation in the world, next to Saudi Arabia. And, this is withoutexploration of the eight blocks near the Saudi border-a vast area that is atleast one-third of the country-which could make Iraq number one in terms ofproven reserves. CLIPExposed: The Carlyle Grouphttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3995.htmA Shocking Documentary That Uncovers The Subversion Of Americas Democracy.Watching this 48 minute documentary will outrage you about the depth ofcorruption and deceit within the highest ranks of our government and thefirst family.A Piece of the Amazon Pie (August 6)http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2003/32/we_522_03c.htmlThe Bush Administration is, yet again, lending a helping hand to its chumsin the natural gas industry. Now Bush and Co. are throwing their weightbehind the Camisea Gas and Pipeline Project and are pushing for theExport-Import Bank of the United States and the Inter-American DevelopmentBank to approve funding for a project that could line the pockets of some ofthe administration's closest pals. This week, both banks may front theCamisea Project nearly $300 million in loans and loan guarantees. Criticscharge that the funding could pave the way for even more financing for the$1.6 billion project, and that the project itself will continue to have adevastating effect on both the rainforest and its inhabitants. The CamiseaProject is described by one corporate watch-dog as one of the mostdestructive projects around. The project, argues Corpwatch, single-handedlyharms the indigenous communities there while doing major damage to apristine tropical rainforest in the Amazon: "It extracts gas from thepristine Amazon rainforest, an area of extreme biodiversity where indigenouspeople have lived for centuries. Some of them live in voluntary isolationfrom the rest of the society, which makes them much more vulnerable tooutside interference. They have no immunity to diseases like the commoncold, and are extremely susceptible to gastrointestinal illnesses, for whichimmunization is not adequate. Although a reserve was established for theirprotection, three-quarters of the project is located inside this reserve.Over its 40-year life, the Camisea project will have irreparable impacts onthe lives of those who live in and around the reserve. In addition to itssocial impacts, the Camisea project has already caused irreversible damageto the environment. Massive erosion, sedimentation, and biodiversity losshave already occurred. Long-term impacts also include open access to aregion previously protected by natural barriers and the project threatensone of Latin Americas most important marine reserves on the Ramsar protectedBay of Paracas." So, who stands to profit from the Camisea project? Noneother than familiar Bush and Cheney darlings: Hunt Oil (whose chairman RayHunt raised nearly $100,000 for the 2000 Bush campaign), and Kellogg, Brownand Root (a subsidiary of Halliburton). According to the Washington Post'sJames V. Grimaldi, KBR's parent company, Halliburton, has a $1 billion stakein the venture: Halliburton's KBR unit is a top candidate to build a $1billion seaside liquefied-natural-gas plant on the Peruvian coast if Huntgoes ahead with plans to export Camisea gas to the United States by 2006.The separation plant and pipelines slice through a forest renowned as one ofthe most biologically diverse places on the planet. Its inaccessibility haskept it largely untrammeled, except for an indigenous population of a fewthousand. Near the coast, another processing plant is planned for the bufferzone around the Paracas reserve, home to such rare species as Humboldtpenguins and green sea turtles." Grimaldi writes that the location of theParacas plant was selected for purely economic reasons. Should a spilloccur, the rare species in the reserve would be exterminated. Grimaldiquotes a 161-page assessment by the Export-Import Bank saying that it is"ill-prepared for a spill of any magnitude." CLIPRainforests Biodiversity Scale Of Destructionhttp://Rainforests.netThe Number One Issue Facing Humanity - The most important piece ofRainforests Destruction information to understand is this: If no action istaken, between 2012 and 2016 the land area of virgin Rainforests will gobelow the critical built-in natural safeguard threshold providence of 10%virgin Rainforests area with its 50% species remaining.Amazon destruction speeds uphttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3024636.stmNew satellite information from Brazil has revealed a sharp increase in therate of destruction of the Amazonian rainforest. The information shows thespeed of deforestation increased by 40% between 2001 and 2002 to reach itshighest rate since 1995.One in Ten Tree Species at Risk of Extinctionhttp://story.news./news?tmpl=story & cid=655 & ncid=655 & e=1 & u=/oneworld/20030805/wl_oneworld/4536649781060087189CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom, August 4, 2003 -- More than 8,000 tree species,10 percent of the world's total, are threatened with extinction, and thesituation has grown worse over the past five years, according to a newreport sponsored by the UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs(DEFRA).Global Warming May be Speeding Up, Fears Scientist Alarm at 'unusual'heatwaves across northern hemisphere (August 6)http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1012989,00.htmlOne of Europe's leading scientists yesterday raised the possibility that theextreme heatwave now settled over at least 30 countries in the northernhemisphere could signal that man-made climate change is accelerating. "Thepresent heatwave across the northern hemisphere is worrying. There is thesmall probability that man-made climate change is proceeding much faster andstronger than expected," said Professor John Schellnhuber, former chiefscientific adviser to the German government and now head of the UK's leadinggroup of climate scientists at the Tyndall centre. Prof Schellnhuber said"the parching heat experienced now" could be consistent "with a worst-casescenario [of global warming] that nobody wants to come true". He warned thatseveral months' research would be needed to analyse data from around theworld before scientists could say why the heatwaves are so intense thisyear. "What we are seeing is absolutely unusual," said Prof Schellnhuber."We know that global warming is proceeding apace, but most of us werethinking that in 20-30 years time we would be seeing hot spells [like this].But it's happening now. Clearly extreme weather events will increase." Otherclimate scientists across Europe suggested the present heatwave was perhapsthe most intense experienced and linked to global warming.Full coverage: Environment and Naturehttp://story.news./fc?cid=34 & tmpl=fc & in=Science & cat=Environment_and_Nature'Dr Strangeloves' Meet to Plan New Nuclear Era (August 7)http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1013652,00.htmlUS government scientists and Pentagon officials will gather today behindtight security at a Nebraska air force base to discuss the development of amodernized arsenal of small, specialized nuclear weapons which criticsbelieve could mark the dawn of a new era in proliferation. This is a confabof Dr Strangeloves. The fact that the Pentagon is barring the public andcongressional staff from this key meeting on US nuclear weapons policysuggests that the administration seeks to discuss and deliberate on itspolicies largely in secret. (...) The place and time of the Offutt meetingis infused with apparently unintended historical irony. The visitors arrivedon the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing and the last will be leaving onSaturday, the anniversary of the attack on Nagasaki. The B-29 planes whichdropped those nuclear bombs, Enola Gay and Bock's Car, were both built atOffutt. The use of those weapons marked the beginning of the cold war andthe first nuclear age. Today's meeting, many observers believe, could markthe start of a second. "This is a confab of Dr Strangeloves," said DarylKimball, head of the Arms Control Association, a national non-partisanmembership organization dedicated to working for arms control. "The factthat the Pentagon is barring the public and congressional staff from thiskey meeting on US nuclear weapons policy suggests that the administrationseeks to discuss and deliberate on its policies largely in secret." Theuncanny echoes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not go unnoticed by a handfulof Catholic protesters from Iowa who have gathered at Offutt to mark theanniversaries for the past 25 years. Father Frank Cordaro, the leader of theprotest group, said: "This is an American blasphemy to life and to God. Theyare going to violate another treaty by developing small nuclear weapons. Wehad made the promise not to do these weapons, but this sole superpower isjust ignoring the non-proliferation treaty. That's madness." CLIPU.S. Marks Hiroshima Anniversary By Holding Top Secret Summit to DiscussExpanding Nation's Nuclear Arsenal - Listen to: Segment || Show (August 5)http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/05/1455235Facing A Second Nuclear Agehttp://www.truthout.org/docs_03/080303E.shtmlHiroshima Mayor Lashes Out at Bush on Atomic Bombing Anniversary (August 6)http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0806-10.htmHIROSHIMA, Japan - Hiroshima's mayor lashed out at the United States'nuclear weapons policy during ceremonies marking the 58th anniversary of thecity's atomic bombing, which caused the deaths of over 230,000 people. MayorTadatoshi Akiba said the United States worshipped nuclear weapons as "God"and blamed it for jeopardizing the global nuclear non-proliferation regime."The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the central international agreementguiding the elimination of nuclear weapons, is on the verge of collapse,"Akiba said Wednesday in an address to some 40,000 people. "The chief causeis US nuclear policy that, by openly declaring the possibility of apre-emptive nuclear first strike and calling for resumed research intomini-nukes and other so-called 'useable nuclear weapons,' appears to worshipnuclear weapons as God," he said. CLIPWashington Pushes the Nuclear Taboo (August 7)http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/080903I.shtmlExperts work hard on new anti-bunker weapons.Liberals Form Fund To Defeat President Aim Is to Spend $75 Million for 2004(August 8)http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31042-2003Aug7.htmlLabor, environmental and women's organizations, with strong backing frominternational financier George Soros, have joined forces behind a newpolitical group that plans to spend an unprecedented $75 million to mobilizevoters to defeat President Bush in 2004. The organization, Americans ComingTogether (ACT), will conduct "a massive get-out-the-vote operation that wethink will defeat George W. Bush in 2004," said Ellen Malcolm, the presidentof EMILY's List, who will become ACT's president. ACT already hascommitments for more than $30 million, Malcolm and others said, including$10 million from Soros, $12 million from six other philanthropists, andabout $8 million from unions, including the Service Employees InternationalUnion. The formation of ACT reflects growing fears in liberal and Democraticcircles that with Republicans likely to retain control of Congress, a secondBush term could mean passage of legislation, adoption of regulations and theappointment of judges that together could devastate left-supported policiesand institutions. (...) In a statement describing his reasons for giving $10million, Soros said, "I believe deeply in the values of an open society. Forthe past 15 years I have focused my energies on fighting for these valuesabroad. Now I am doing it in the United States. The fate of the worlddepends on the United States and President Bush is leading us in the wrongdirection."Number of U.S.-caused deaths around the world since 1945http://nottheenemy.com/index_files/Death%20Counts/Death%20Counts.htmData from William Blum book, "Rogue State" supplemented by casualty datafrom various sources - Last Revised: 20-Jul-03Total number of deaths: Between 10,778,727 and 16,861,695...Now We Pay the Warlords to Tyrannise the Afghan People (July 31)http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1009416,00.html(...) A Human Rights Watch report published on Tuesday documents crimes ofkidnapping, rape, intimidation, robbery, extortion and murder, committed notin spite of the government but by its forces - by the warlords and theirpolice and soldiers, who are paid, directly and indirectly, by US andBritish taxpayers. CLIPHomeless And Starving In The Land Of The Free (August 1)http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0308/S00011.htmUS Homelessness and Poverty Rates Skyrocket While Billions are SpentOverseas on Occupation.The Bush administration's top 40 lies about war and terrorismhttp://www.citypages.com/databank/24/1182/article11417.aspVoting Systems 'Can't be Trusted' (July 30)http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~1540873,00.htmlMachines at risk for fraud, hacking. (...) A team at Johns HopkinsUniversity's Information Security Institute examined software from theOhio-based Diebold Election Systems, which has about 33,000 voting machinesin use throughout the nation. The software could be manipulated and theoutcome changed by anyone with $100 worth of computer equipment, researcherssaid. CLIPU.S. Media Are Too Soft on the White House By Norman Solomon (August 1)http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpsol013397322aug01,0,4311499.storyBush's High Crimes Against the Nation (August 1)http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/080303I.shtmlGeorge W. Bush has knowingly deceived the American people on the twooverriding policy issues of his presidency - the invasion of Iraq and thedeep tax cuts. Other presidents have lied. Only Bush has repeatedly dupedCongress and the public to thwart their exercise of informed consent. He isthe first president to use propaganda as the main weapon in selling hispolicies. Bush's unprecedented pattern of deception may constitute animpeachable offense. CLIP-------If this e-mail has been forwarded to you and you wish to , send ablank email to focus-group- (English)For more information, please review the material posted by the GlobalMeditation Focus Group at http://www.aei.ca/~cep/focusgroup.htmTHANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE IN PASSING THIS ON TO OTHERS