PNAC, Peak Oil, Think Tanks;

PNAC: Project for a New American Century The blueprint, uncovered by the Sunday Herald, for the creation of a 'global Pax Americana' was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice-president), Donald Rumsfeld (defense secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), George W Bush's younger brother Jeb and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). The document, entitled Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century, was written in September 2000 by the neo-conservative think-tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC). The PNAC document supports a 'blueprint for maintaining global US pre-eminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests'. This 'American grand strategy' must be advanced for 'as far into the future as possible', the report says. It also calls for the US to 'fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theatre wars as a 'core mission'. The report describes American armed forces abroad as 'the cavalry on the new American frontier'. The PNAC blueprint supports an earlier document written by Wolfowitz and Libby that said the US must 'discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role'. The plan represents a blueprint for what any other country would term American hegemony, an effort to control world affairs, and what a hostile country would term an attempt to take over the world. Key to this strategy is the effort to militarize space, to place anti-satellite weapons in orbit to deny other nations satellite capabilities, and to place strategic weapons in space to attack military hardware and personnel on the earth‘s surface. The placing of weapons in space is expressly prohibited by international treaties, and threatens to set off an arms race in space. PNAC identifies four key areas of interest, one of which refers to transforming the military to exploit the Revolution in Military Affairs. ―TRANSFORM U.S. ARMED FORCES. Finally, the Pentagon must begin now to exploit the so called “revolution in military affairs,” sparked by the introduction of advanced technologies into military systems; this must be regarded as a separate and critical mission worthy of a share of force structure and defense budgets.” This language referring to an RMA and advanced technologies is in fact referring to the use of microwave weapons on the battlefield for use against large-scale forces and against individual enemy soldiers. Enron: Less than ten days after he became Vice President--promising that a Bush/Cheney Administration would "restore decency and integrity to the Oval Office"-- Cheney took charge of the Administration's energy policy task force, the National Energy Policy Development Group. No initiative interested Enron more, and Cheney welcomed the company's active participation in its deliberations. Cheney was hardly a stranger to the company. He had chaired Halliburton, a Texas-based oil services and construction conglomerate whose subsidiary, Brown & Root, helped build Houston's Enron Field, and his return to politics--after he selected himself to be Bush's running mate--benefited from Enron-linked contributions that paid for the Bush/Cheney campaign, the Florida recount fight fund and the inauguration. Cheney and his aides met at least six times with Lay and other Enron officials while preparing the group's report, which is the basis for the Administration's energy policy proposals. Additionally, Cheney's staff met with an Enron-sponsored lobbying organization, the "Clean Power Group." When Cheney and Lay met in April 2001, Lay handed Cheney a three-page "wish list" of corporate recommendations. The task force adopted all or significant portions of the recommendations in seven of eight policy areas. Seventeen policies sought by Enron or that clearly benefit the company--including proposals to extend federal control of transmission lines, use federal eminent-domain authority to override state decisions on transmission-line sitting, expedite permitting for new energy facilities and limit the use of price controls--were included. The Enron-Cheney connection so far has received troublingly limited attention from Congressional Democrats. Senator Joseph Lieberman announced that a committee he heads would issue more than two dozen subpoenas that could cast light on Enron-White House contacts, but Lieberman has so far limited the scope of the inquiry. Cheney aided an attempt by Enron to force the Maharashtra State Electricity Board in India to pay it at least $2.3 billion in connection with a failed $2.9 billion effort to develop a power plant. Vice President Dick Cheney cleared his calendar for an April 17 private meeting with Lay regarding what aides described as "energy policy matters" and "the energy crisis in California." At the meeting Lay handed Cheney a memo that read in part: "The administration should reject any attempt to re-regulate wholesale power markets by adopting price caps...." Connections with Enron are not limited to Cheney's office. From Army Secretary Thomas White, a former Enron executive, to Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, formerly on Enron's advisory council, Enron's tentacles have reached throughout the Bush White House, shaping tax, trade, energy and environmental policy. (The Nation John Nichols 4/15/02) Peak Oil: Every producing field follows a bell curve. Dr. M. King Hubbert using his model, (The Hubbert curve) predicted in 1957 that US domestic oil production would peak in 14 years. For this assertion he was ridiculed and laughed at. US production peaked within twelve months of his prediction and people stopped laughing. Dr. Hubbert also developed a bell curve for world oil production that predicts when the world supply will reach maximum output and then begin to decline. Peak oil is due to occur by his calculations in the year 2010. The discovery of new fields peaked in the 1960‘s and in 2003 it was the first year since the 1920‘s when a field in excess of 500 million barrels was not found. The remaining oil will be found in smaller and smaller fields that are more and more expensive to recover. The world now consumes a billion barrels every 11.5 days. The Caspian Sea oil reserves that the major US oil companies and BP-Amoco invested billions of dollars in were found to be a bust by the end of 2000, the giant fields of oil just aren‘t there. Instead of the expected 200 billion barrels there are 9-13 billion barrels. Hubbert‘s Peak is coinciding with an exploding world population, rising literacy rates that indicate increased consumer spending, and an exploding demand for oil and other energy resources in China, Asia, and Africa. Most of the developing world is tied down by an artificially engineered debt to the World Bank and the IMF, but in China auto sales jumped by more than 50%. Policy makers, economists and financial markets are aware of the potential economic train wreck of declining supply and increasing demand, but have not gone public with this knowledge. OPEC nations of the Middle East will peak last, around 2010, when they will be supplying 40% of the world‘s oil demand. The majority of the remaining oil in the world is on the Eurasian continent, which includes the Middle East, the Caspian Basin, and Central Asia. The majority of the world oil supply there is concentrated in Saudi Arabia (25%), Iraq (11%), Iran (13%), Kuwait (11%), and UAE (8%). In order to secure the American way of life, to save us from $10 a gallon gas and a $6 big mac, the strategy of the hour is to militarily secure the remaining large oil fields in Eurasia and the routes for pipelines to bring these essential commodities to market. China will be forced either to buy into existing fields and production technology or it will be forced to use military means to secure an economic future. The nation that controls the allocation of these remaining fields will remain economically robust and able to dole out the oil to reward friends and punish or strangle their enemies. (Rupert pg 28) Trans National Corporations (TNCs): The present economic reality (and that for the foreseeable future) is that the once abundant life-style for large segments of western citizens will continue to erode. This will inevitably lead to dissatisfaction that will increasingly manifest itself in civil disturbance. Economically powerless to change direction, governments may possibly resort to authoritarian remedies, fueling greater unrest and a repetition of the vicious cycle. This model is based on the clear evidence that "nations" no longer possess the economic might to "buck" the markets. The globalization of finance and the internationalization of "free markets", has led to (or perhaps resulted from?) giant "stateless" transnational corporations. Collectively, TNC's far outweigh the economic power of any one sovereign state. Under the combined onslaught of TNC's acting in concert, (referred to as "market trends") even G7 (in the form of combined Central Bank intervention) is often rendered powerless. Under this scenario, the future does not bode well. TNC's will continue to accrue to themselves an increasing proportion of the world's wealth, whereas nation states will grow increasingly reliant upon sovereign indebtedness to finance themselves or gradually assume "Third World" economies. The burden of "servicing" sovereign debt is met by a combination of fiscal measures, primarily increased domestic taxation (direct, indirect and more hidden measures) and decreased expenditure. Both measures impact heavily on the poorer classes and yet generally benefit the TNC's who remain large tax recipients. Effectively powerless, the political structure in sovereign states will have little alternative but to present to its citizens a facade of being in control if it is to remain in power. Bereft of economic muscle, old-fashioned real "muscle" (in the form of soft-kill- technologies) are likely to become more meaningful to the rule of law concept. It is therefore self evident that LTL (less than lethal) weapons will thus be directed at the "rebellious" poorer classes. (David G. Guyatt) Think Tanks: In the mid-1970s, at a historic low point in American conservatism, the CIA began a major campaign to turn corporate fortunes around. They did this in several ways. First, they helped create numerous foundations to finance their domestic operations. Even before 1973, the CIA had co-opted the most famous ones, like the Ford, Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations. But after 1973, they created more. One of their most notorious recruits was billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife. During World War II, Scaife's father served in the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA. By his mid-twenties, both of Scaife's parents had died, and he inherited a fortune under four foundations: the Carthage Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Scaife Family Foundations and the Allegheny Foundation. In the early 1970s, Scaife was encouraged by CIA agent Frank Barnett to begin investing his fortune to fight the "Soviet menace." From 1973 to 1975, Scaife ran Forum World Features, a foreign news service used as a front to disseminate CIA propaganda around the world. Shortly afterwards he began donating millions to fund the New Right. Scaife's CIA roots are typical of those who head the new conservative foundations. By 1994 the most active were:  Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation  Carthage Foundation  Earhart Foundation  Charles G. Koch  David H. Koch  Claude R. Lambe  Philip M. McKenna  J.M. Foundation  John M. Olin Foundation  Henry Salvatori Foundation  Sarah Scaife Foundation  Smith Richardson Foundation Between 1992 and 1994, these foundations gave $210 million to conservative causes. Here is the breakdown of their donations:  $88.9 million for conservative scholarships;  $79.2 million to enhance a national infrastructure of think tanks and advocacy groups;  $16.3 million for alternative media outlets and watchdog groups;  $10.5 million for conservative pro-market law firms;  $9.3 million for regional and state think tanks and advocacy groups;  $5.4 million to "organizations working to transform the nation‘s social views and giving practices of the nation's religious and philanthropic leaders." The political machine they built is broad and comprehensive, covering every aspect of the political fight. It includes right-wing departments and chairs in the nation‘s top universities, think tanks, public relations firms, media companies, fake grassroots organizations that pressure Congress (irreverently known as "Astroturf" movements), "Roll-out-the-vote" machines, pollsters, fax networks, lobbyist organizations, economic seminars for the nation‘s judges, and more. And because corporations are the richest sector of society, their greater financing overwhelms similar efforts by Democrats. Besides creating foundations, the CIA helped organize the business community. There have always been special interest groups representing business, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, and the CIA has long been involved with them. However, after 1973, a spate of powerful new groups would come into existence, like the Business Roundtable and the Trilateral Commission. These organizations quickly became powerhouses in promoting the business agenda. Their efforts clearly succeeded. With the 1975 SUN-PAC decision, corporations persuaded government to legalize corporate Political Action Committees (the lobbyist organizations that bribe our government). By 1992, corporations formed 67 percent of all PACs, and they donated 79 percent of all campaign contributions to political parties. In two landmark elections — 1980 and 1994 — corporations gave heavily and one-sidedly to Republicans, turning one or both houses of Congress over to the GOP. Democratic incumbents were shocked by the threat of being rolled completely out of power, so they quietly shifted to the right on economic issues, even though they continued a public façade of liberalism. Corporations went ahead and donated to Democratic incumbents in all other elections, but only as long as they abandoned the interests of workers, consumers, minorities and the poor. As expected, the new pro-corporate Congress passed laws favoring the rich: between 1975 and 1992, the amount of national household wealth owned by the richest 1 percent soared from 22 to 42 percent. The CIA also helped create the conservative think tank movement. Prior to the 70s, think tanks spanned the political spectrum, with moderate think tanks receiving three times as much funding as conservative ones. At these early think tanks, scholars typically brainstormed for creative solutions to policy problems. This would all change after the rise of conservative foundations in the early 70s. The Heritage Foundation opened its doors in 1973, the recipient of $250,000 in seed money from the Coors Foundation. A flood of conservative think tanks followed shortly thereafter, and by 1980 they overwhelmed the scene. The new think tanks turned out to be little more than propaganda mills, rigging studies to "prove" that their corporate sponsors needed tax breaks, deregulation and other favors from government. Of course, think-tank studies are useless without publicity, and here the CIA proved especially valuable. Using propaganda techniques it had perfected at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, the CIA and its allies turned American AM radio into a haven for conservative talk show hosts. Yes — Rush Limbaugh uses the same propaganda techniques that Muscovites once heard from Voice of America. The CIA has also developed countless other media outlets, like Capital Cities (which eventually bought ABC), major PR firms like Hill & Knowlton, and of course, all the Agency‘s connections in the national news media. The following is a typical example of how the "New Media" operates. As most political observers know, the Republicans suffer from a "gender gap," in which women prefer Democrats by huge majorities. This is, in fact, why Clinton has twice won the presidency. But, curiously enough, as the 90s progressed, conservative female pundits began popping up everywhere in the media. Hard-right pundits like Ann Coulter, Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, Laura Ingraham, Barbara Olson, Melinda Sidak, Anita Blair and Whitney Adams conditioned us to the idea of the conservative woman. This phenomenon was no accident. It turns out that Richard Mellon Scaife donated $450,000 over three years to the Independent Women's Forum, a booking agency that heavily seeds such female conservative pundits into the media. The most obvious criticism of the New Overclass is that their political machine is undemocratic. Using subversive techniques once aimed at communists, and with all the money they ever need to succeed, the Overclass undemocratically controls our government, our media, and even a growing part of academia. These institutions in turn allow the Overclass to control the supposedly "free" market. (Steve Kangas)

Eschelon: Signals Intelligence refers to the ability to eaves drop on cell phones, land lines, radios, and email. Eschelon was the name of the program that was exposed in Australia when it was charged with being used for political purposes. Eschelon‘s surveillance power lies in its ability ―to tap all international and some domestic communications circuits, and sift out messages which sound interesting. Computers automatically analyze every telex message or data signal, and can also identify calls to, say, a target telephone number in London, no matter from which country they originate.‖According to the BBC, ―Every international telephone call, fax, e-mail, or radio transmission can be listened to by powerful computers capable of voice recognition. They home in on a long list of key words, or patterns of messages. They are looking for evidence of international crime, like Terrorism.‖ Building on an original post WWII alliance between the US, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, Eschelon had by the late 1980‘s expanded to include joint operations with Germany, Japan, and China. It was initiated under the legal premise that while it is not permissible for the US government to monitor the conversations of its citizens without a warrant, it is not illegal for British intelligence to monitor American citizens, etc. Once the ―take‖ has been pooled, the respective agencies can have safe access to their own domestic intelligence, because the Britons, Australians, or Germans did it, and not the home government. The primary operating agency for all Eschelon activities worldwide is the US National Security Agency. (Rupert pg 228) When Boeing beat European Airbus in a major sale worth billions of dollars the Europeans accused the US government of conducting industrial espionage on behalf of Boeing using Eschelon or related technologies. PROMIS is a revolutionary computer software program that was developed in the 1970‘s by former NSA programmer and engineer Bill Hamilton. In terms of computer programs it represented the ―universal translator‖ of Star Trek. PROMIS (Prosecutor‘s Management Information System) is able to read and integrate any number of different computer programs or databases simultaneously, regardless of the language in which the original programs had been written or the current operating system. According to Bill Hamilton, Edwin Meese, Reagan‘s Attorney General, along with Dr. Earl Brian and others, stole the amazing software, modified it by installing a ―trap door‖ into that would allow those who knew of it to access the program in other computers, and then sold the software overseas to foreign intelligence agencies. Hamilton knew his software had been stolen when requests for tech support came in from people he hadn‘t sold it to. The Israeli Mossad under Rafi Eitan again modified the software and sold it throughout the Middle East using British publishing magnate Robert Maxwell as a cut out. The revolutionary software allowed anyone with the trap door code to enter every database in every computer in every language at will simultaneously. This ability represents perfect information gathering technology that is undetectable, the ultimate prize of every intelligence agency in the world. The CIA, through GE Aerospace in Herndon, Virginia (GAO contract #82F624620), the FBI, and the NSA modified the back door but more importantly had enhanced the ultimate program with artificial intelligence or AI. The program, which came to be called other names such as SMART, had originally been capable of automatically and secretly drawing any information from any and all computers connected to the web. What new capabilities were now possible with artificial intelligence added to the mix, and what uses were the intelligence agencies putting it to besides stealing each other‘s information perfectly? The contractor that added the AI component, GE Aerospace, was purchased by Martin-Marietta, which merged to become Lockheed-Martin, the largest defense and aerospace contractor in the world. Ed Meese and his partisan Republican crowd were not the only ones who recognized the potential of PROMIS, Democrats had made their moves as well. Jackson Stevens is a presidential kingmaker, a lifelong supporter of George Bush, and the Annapolis roommate of Jimmy Carter. The billionaire Stevens‘ firm Systematics, later Axicom, had mated the illegal software with banking software. In the late 70‘s and 80‘s Systematics handled 60-70% of all electronic banking systems in the US. Steven‘s teamed with Worthen Bank, Lippo Group and BCCI, the drug/intelligence bank to penetrate every banking system in the world. PROMIS could be used to influence and predict financial markets worldwide. When Clinton was completely out of campaign funds it was Stevens that loaned him $3 million to keep his campaign going. Herbert ―Pug‖ Winokur CEO of DynCorp from 1989-97, is a PhD mathematician from Harvard where the mathematical breakthroughs using block-modeling gave rise to artificial intelligence. In the 60‘s Winokur did research for the DOD on the causes of inner city unrest in the wake of the 1967 Detroit riots. DynCorp was heavily involved in the evolution of PROMIS software. Winokur is a member of the board of the Harvard Endowment, which is not a benevolent university fund but an aggressive predatory investor with $19 billion in assets invested in HUD- subsidized housing, high-tech defense operations, and George W. Bush‘s failing oil company Harkin Energy. The Harvard Endowment saw its holdings skyrocket in the last decade, making 33% in 1999. The same year HUD announced a ―manual adjustment‖ to reconcile a $59-billion accounting shortfall between its accounts and the US Treasury account. Geomatics is a company at the heart of the Canadian space program and is closely associated with Lockheed-Martin. Geomatics uses remote sensing from space to locate natural resources such as oil, precious metals, and other commodities. In the commodities markets of the world this kind of perfect information is the ultimate tool to predicting and controlling markets. Remote sensing can closely estimate the size of harvests of agricultural commodities such as coffee or oranges. Perfect information on the size of the orange harvest translates potentially to millions of dollars in the US commodity markets alone. Exploration for oil and gas can be very expensive, but advances in imaging technology, global positioning systems, and remote sensing technologies have advanced light years over the last few decades. This situation is custom-made for enhanced PROMIS software with back-door technology. What better way to map and inventory the world‘s resources by making each client nation pay for it. PROMIS software makes it possible to compile a worldwide database of every marketable natural resource. AI enhanced PROMIS based programs would be the perfect set-up to make billions of dollars in profits by manipulating the futures trade in, for example a rare metal like tungsten, or exploiting a sudden surge in the price of gold and platinum. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were sold PROMIS software to use in their intelligence gathering operations, and began to suspect that their copies may have been altered and possibly all of their files were transparent and had been for some time. The RCMP had been given their version of PROMIS by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS), which was created with the assistance of the CIA. RCMP investigators stated that they and the CSIS had a rivalry similar to the one between the CIA and the FBI, and questioned whether any intelligence agency created by the CIA could be completely loyal to its native country. They further stated that they knew that the NSA had compromised their communications equipment. The Canadians put out a report that friendly nations were stealing sensitive technology, particularly related to aerospace, biotechnology, chemicals, communications, information technology, mining and metallurgy, nuclear energy, oil and gas, and the environment. The doctored versions of PROMIS were acquired from both Robert Maxwell and Dr. Earl Brian. Brian is a medical doctor who founded Hadron, has been involved in shady dealings with firms connected with disease research, cytology, and biotechnology. Hadron is at the heart of the US government operations involving biowarfare and vaccines. Ari Ben-Menashe is Israel‘s top spy who in reports was linked to Iran-Contra scandal and the October Surprise that led to Reagan‘s election in 1980. PROMIS software is described in his book, Profits of War. The inventor of PROMIS software hired army CID investigator Bill McCoy to investigate the theft but the famed investigator who had broken some of the army‘s biggest cases ever was found dead of a heart attack. Within 48 hours of his death McCoy‘s body was cremated and two days later all of his files, furniture, and personal belongings had been removed from his home, which was painted and sanitized. The PROMIS saga leads to more than a dozen deaths, many of which share the same pattern, within 48 hours of death the body is cremated, residences sanitized and all records disappear. (Seymore, The Last Circle) (Rupert pg 169) Total Information Awareness (TIA): The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be given access to all state and local databases, complete access to all banking and stock transactions, and all private data bases on demand (medical records). They will monitor and control all communications at state and local levels, as well as build an ̳intranet‖ for corporations. Local police agencies that receive federal subsidies (all of them), will in effect become intelligence gathering units for the federal government. Under the TIA program created by DARPA the government is now monitoring almost all activity of all Americans, including bank deposits, shopping, web surfing, academic grades, divorce records, spending, phone calls, utility usage, travel, virtually everything. It plans to track everything you do employing face recognition software that can stop you from making a withdrawal at the bank or from boarding a plane. The government has placed all its faith in incredible new technologies such as PROMIS software and exotic weaponry systems that are just beginning to be unveiled. TIA plans to recognize you by your voice, by your unique body odor, it even plans to use ―non-invasive neuroelectric sensors‖ to read your mind. (Washington Times 8/17/02 Frank J. Murray, NASA Plans to Read Terrorist‘s Minds at Airports) Congress voted to ―unfund‖ the TIA office but the AP reported in 2004 that the project was going forward in different offices of the Pentagon in a shell game. Acxiom is the lead company to provide software and pull together to furnish the information to DARPA‘s ―Information Awareness Office‖ headed by John Poindexter. Billionaire Jackson Stevens owns Acxiom, (Alltel, Systematics) and had backed NATO Commander Wesley Clark for president in 2004. His company stole PROMIS software in the 1980‘s, and is using it to create TIA for John Poindexter. PROMIS software under the name Genoa was delivered to DARPA 23 days after Bush signed the Homeland Security bill in Nov. 2002. Admiral Poindexter, the convicted Iran-Contra felon and former Reagan National Security Advisor, said that Genoa provides ―tools for collaborative reasoning, estimating plausible futures, and creating actionable options for the decision maker.‖ Negative public reaction led to Poindexter‘s latest project, Futures Markets Applied to Prediction (FutureMAP). Investors using futures market analysis would predict the likelihood of a future terrorist attack, a correct prediction would yield a profit for the investor. In Washington lawmakers, mostly Democrats, expressed shock and disbelief at a program which was a gross violation of privacy in direct violation of the Constitution. Congress eliminated the TIA office but by 2004 the AP reported Poindexter‘s TIA effort had been transferred to US intelligence offices, Congressional, Federal, and research officials said the Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA) was engaged in similar research using some of the same scientists as Poindexter‘s program.