Nukes in Space

High-altitude nuclear explosions (HANE) have historically been nuclear explosions which take place above altitudes of 30 km, still inside the Earth atmosphere. Such explosions have been tests of nuclear weapons, used to determine the effects of the blast and radiation in the exoatmospheric environment. The highest was at an altitude of 540 km (335.5 mi).

The only nations to detonate nuclear weapons in outer space are the United States and the Soviet Union. The U.S. program began in 1958 with the Hardtack Teak and Hardtack Orange shots, both 3.8 megatons. These warheads were initially carried on Redstone rockets. Later tests were delivered by Thor missiles for Operation Dominic I tests, and modified Lockheed X-17 missiles for the Argus tests. The purpose of the shots was to determine both feasibility of nuclear weapons as an anti-ballistic missile defense, as well as a means to defeat satellites and manned orbiting vehicles in space. High-altitude nuclear blasts produce significantly different effects. In the lower reaches of vacuous space, the resulting fireball grows much larger and faster than it does near the ground, and the radiation it emits travels much farther.

During the heart of the Cold War, the United States and the former Soviet Union launched and detonated a combined total of over 20 thermo nuclear weapons in the upper atmosphere and near space region of earth in an effort to test the effects of launching an offense as well as countering an offense.

Almost unknown to the public, much of the information on theses tests has been kept secret for over 35 years until recently, when newly declassified test footage and secret government documents obtained from both countries reveals everything from the ICBM to outer space testing to ABM.

Gaza 1

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True story

SYRIA - SIGN OF A GREAT COMING CHANGE

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One by one, the dictactor which a puppet of shadow goverment (Freemason etc) after the colonize era, to make Islamic world stay weak and behind, now falling down.

The wave of Arab unrest that began with the Tunisian revolution reached Syri

a on March 15, 2011, when residents of a small southern city took to the streets to protest the torture of students who had put up anti-government graffiti. The government responded with heavy-handed force, and demonstrations quickly spread across much of the country.

By the late summer of 2012, the country was in a full-blown civil war. More than 21,000 people, mostly civilians, were thought to have died and tens of thousands of others had been arrested. By September 2012, 234,000 Syrian refugees had registered in neighboring countries — about half of whom left during August, while tens of thousands more have not registered. In addition, about 2.5 million Syrians needed aid inside the country, with more than 1.2 million displaced domestically, according to the United Nations.

Control of towns and cities seesawed between rebel forces that were poorly organized but increasingly well armed and confident, and a government that was too weak to stamp out the rebellion but strong enough to prevent it from holding territory.

The danger of the fighting setting off regional conflict seemed to rise with every month, with destabilizing effects seen in Lebanon and Iraq. But it was the possibility of a clash between Syria and its former ally Turkey that drew the most worry, particularly after Turkey shelled targets across the border in October 2012 after a Syrian mortar attack killed five of its civilians. Since Turkey is a Nato member, the fighting there could deepen international involvement.

President Bashar al-Assad, a British-trained doctor who inherited Syria’s harsh dictatorship from his father, Hafez al-Assad, had at first wavered between force and hints of reform. But in April 2011, just days after lifting the country’s decades-old state of emergency, he set off the first of what became a series of withering crackdowns, sending tanks into restive cities as security forces opened fire on demonstrators. In retrospect, the attacks appeared calculated to turn peaceful protests violent, to justify an escalation of force.

The conflict is complicated by Syria’s ethnic divisions. The Assads and much of the nation’s elite, especially the military, belong to the Alawite sect, a minority in a mostly Sunni country. While the Assad government has the advantage of crushing firepower and units of loyal, elite troops, the insurgents should not be underestimated. They are highly motivated and, over time, demographics should tip in their favor. Alawites constitute about 12 percent of the 23 million Syrians. Sunni Muslims, the opposition’s backbone, make up about 75 percent of the population.

Standing up for freedom

Standing up for freedom & peace

Have a heart for Syria

A grim catalogue of torture has emerged from former detainees describing their treatment in Syria’s detention centres since the predominantly peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s government began in March 2011. This report reveals that all the various security forces are routinely torturing and ill-treating detainees held in the context of the protests and unrest, using methods of cruelty mostly used for decades. The torture carried out appears to be part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population as part of Syrian government policy to crush dissent.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE24/016/2012/en/708c3f40-538e-46a9-9798-ebae27f56946/mde240162012en.pdf

Ahmad Shah Massoud - The Man Behind The Legend

Ahmad Shah Massoud : احمد شاه مسعود Aḥmad Šāh Mas'ūd; September 2, 1953 – September 9, 2001, was a military and political leader in Afghanistan known as the "Lion of Panjshir" (شیر پنجشیر). His role as a central leader against the Soviet in

vasion and occupation of Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989 made the Wall Street Journal name Massoud "the Afghan who won the Cold War" following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989

In 1992, as militia leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was placing Afghanistan's capital Kabul under heavy bombardment, Massoud was appointed to the post of Minister of Defense by the peace and power-sharing agreement Peshawar Accord. Following the rise of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in 1996, Massoud served as the main anti-Taliban and anti-Al Qaeda resistance leader providing shelter to over 400,000 internal Afghan refugees. He united the different ethnicities of Afghanistan in the multiethnic United Islamic Front (also known as Northern Alliance) and played a major part in the so-called Rome process which put into effect an even wider alliance against the Taliban and sought to find a peaceful post-Taliban solution for Afghanistan. In 1997, he helped end the civil war in neighboring Tajikistan urging parties to accept a United Nations peace plan

In 2001, Massoud issued several warnings that his intelligence had gathered information about a large-scale terrorist attack against the United States being imminent

Massoud was assassinated in Afghanistan's Takhar Province by two Arab suicide bombers, allegedly belonging to Al-Qaeda, on September 9, 2001, two days before the attacks of September 11 that caused the US and NATO to invade Afghanistan, allying themselves with the United Front. His earlier effort, together with the most senior leaders of Afghanistan's ethnicities, at forging a wide coalition across political and ethnic factions was instrumental in preparing the ground for the ultimate overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 and the establishment of a multiethnic government. His followers call him Āmir Sāhib-e Shahīd ("Our Beloved Martyred Commander"). Massoud was posthumously named "National Hero of Afghanistan" by order of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The date of his death, September 9, is observed as a national holiday known as "Massoud Day" in Afghanistan

In 2002, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

How the CIA created Osama bin Laden

How the CIA created Osama bin Laden - by Norm Dixon

"Throughout the world ... its agents, client states and satellites are on the defensive — on the moral defensive, the intellectual defensive, and the political and economic defensive. Freedom movements arise and assert themselves. They're doing so on almost every continent populated by man — in the hills of Afghanistan, in Angola, in Kampuchea, in Central America ... [They are] freedom fighters."
 
Is this a call to jihad (holy war) taken from one of Islamic fundamentalist Osama bin Laden's notorious fatwas? Or perhaps a communique issued by the repressive Taliban regime in Kabul?
In fact, this glowing praise of the murderous exploits of today's supporters of arch-terrorist bin Laden and his Taliban collaborators, and their holy war against the "evil empire", was issued by US President Ronald Reagan on March 8, 1985. The "evil empire" was the Soviet Union, as well as Third World movements fighting US-backed colonialism, apartheid and dictatorship.

How things change. In the aftermath of a series of terrorist atrocities — the most despicable being the mass murder of more than 6000 working people in New York and Washington on September 11 — bin Laden the "freedom fighter" is now lambasted by US leaders and the Western mass media as a "terrorist mastermind" and an "evil-doer".

Yet the US government refuses to admit its central role in creating the vicious movement that spawned bin Laden, the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalist terrorists that plague Algeria and Egypt — and perhaps the disaster that befell New York.

The mass media has also downplayed the origins of bin Laden and his toxic brand of Islamic fundamentalism.

Mujaheddin

In April 1978, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seized power in Afghanistan in reaction to a crackdown against the party by that country's repressive government.

The PDPA was committed to a radical land reform that favoured the peasants, trade union rights, an expansion of education and social services, equality for women and the separation of church and state. The PDPA also supported strengthening Afghanistan's relationship with the Soviet Union.

Such policies enraged the wealthy semi-feudal landlords, the Muslim religious establishment (many mullahs were also big landlords) and the tribal chiefs. They immediately began organising resistance to the government's progressive policies, under the guise of defending Islam.

Washington, fearing the spread of Soviet influence (and worse the new government's radical example) to its allies in Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf states, immediately offered support to the Afghan mujaheddin, as the "contra" force was known.

Following an internal PDPA power struggle in December 1979 which toppled Afghanistan's leader, thousands of Soviet troops entered the country to prevent the new government's fall. This only galvanised the disparate fundamentalist factions. Their reactionary jihad now gained legitimacy as a "national liberation" struggle in the eyes of many Afghans.

The Soviet Union was eventually to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1989 and the mujaheddin captured the capital, Kabul, in 1992.

Between 1978 and 1992, the US government poured at least US$6 billion (some estimates range as high as $20 billion) worth of arms, training and funds to prop up the mujaheddin factions. Other Western governments, as well as oil-rich Saudi Arabia, kicked in as much again. Wealthy Arab fanatics, like Osama bin Laden, provided millions more.

Washington's policy in Afghanistan was shaped by US President Jimmy Carter's national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and was continued by his successors. His plan went far beyond simply forcing Soviet troops to withdraw; rather it aimed to foster an international movement to spread Islamic fanaticism into the Muslim Central Asian Soviet republics to destabilise the Soviet Union.

Brzezinski's grand plan coincided with Pakistan military dictator General Zia ul-Haq's own ambitions to dominate the region. US-run Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe beamed Islamic fundamentalist tirades across Central Asia (while paradoxically denouncing the "Islamic revolution" that toppled the pro-US Shah of Iran in 1979).

Attack of the drones

CIA Drone Strikes in Pakistan 2004 – 2012

Total US strikes: 343
Obama strikes: 291
Total reported killed: 2,558-3,319
Civilians reported killed: 474-881
Children reported killed: 176
Total reported injured: 1,226-1,359

US Covert Action in Yemen 2002 – 2012

Total confirmed US operations (all): 51-61
Total confirmed US drone strikes: 39-49
Possible additional US operations: 115-130
Possible additional US drone strikes: 59-69
Total reported killed (all): 347-1,005
Total civilians killed (all): 58-165
Children killed (all): 24-31

US Covert Action in Somalia 2007 – 2012

Total US strikes: 10-21
Total US drone strikes: 3-9
Total reported killed: 58-169
Civilians reported killed: 11-57
Children reported killed: 1-3

Rohingya - The Forgotten People

They are branded as one of the most persecuted communities in the world by the UN, yet nobody knows their name. They are the forgotten people.

In recent weeks, the escalating violence has displaced more than 90,000 Rohingya people. Villages are being burnt, people are being abducted, concentration camps are being created, women are being raped and children mercilessly killed. The persecution against the Rohingya can be described in no other terms but that of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Charity

The Prophet Muhamad s.aw said: 'Charity is a necessity for every Muslim. ' He was asked: 'What if a person has nothing?' The Prophet s.a.w replied: 'He should work with his own hands for his benefit and then give something out of such earnings in charity.' The Companions asked: 'What if he is not able to work?' The Prophet s.a.w said: 'He should help poor and needy persons.' The Companions further asked 'What if he cannot do even that?' The Prophet s.a.w said 'He should urge others to do good.' The Companions said 'What if he lacks that also?' The Prophet s.a.w said 'He should check himself from doing evil. That is also charity.'

The dark side of Globalization

- Many people have suffered from globalization but they clearly aren't the only species. Surprisingly, the environments in developing counties have been negatively affected as well. Many companies use toxic chemicals during production, these are later often dumped into nearby rivers as there are as foreign corporations do not apply standard procedures to developing countries. The result of this is polluted water, dead plants and animals.

- Besides from exploiting countries and making health literally worse, globalization is viewed by many as a threat to the world's cultural diversity. It is said to drown out local economies, traditions and languages and re-casting the whole world in the mould of the capitalist North and West.

- Its is clear that globalization clearly operates in the interests of the richest countries which continue to dominate world trade and at the expense of developing countries, whose role in the world market is mostly to provide cheap labor and raw materials. The fact is that globalization will never stop and while people say it is beneficial, it is also being unfair to poor countries. Perhaps it is best that richer countries reconsider many of their selfish actions and instead of just taking for poorer countries, they should try to help out and give.

What Killed Arafat?

It was a scene that riveted the world for weeks: The ailing Yasser Arafat, first besieged by Israeli tanks in his Ramallah compound, then shuttled to Paris, where he spent his final days undergoing a barrage of medical tests in a French military hospital.
Eight years after his death, it remains a mystery exactly what killed the longtime Palestinian leader. Tests conducted in Paris found no obvious traces of poison in Arafat’s system. Rumors abound about what might have killed him – cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, even allegations that he was infected with HIV.
A nine-month investigation by Al Jazeera has revealed that none of those rumors were true: Arafat was in good health until he suddenly fell ill on October 12, 2004.
More importantly, tests reveal that Arafat’s final personal belongings – his clothes, his toothbrush, even his iconic kaffiyeh – contained abnormal levels of polonium, a rare, highly radioactive element. Those personal effects, which were analyzed at the Institut de Radiophysique in Lausanne, Switzerland, were variously stained with Arafat’s blood, sweat, saliva and urine. The tests carried out on those samples suggested that there was a high level of polonium inside his body when he died.
“I can confirm to you that we measured an unexplained, elevated amount of unsupported polonium-210 in the belongings of Mr. Arafat that contained stains of biological fluids,” said Dr. Francois Bochud, the director of the institute.
The findings have led Suha Arafat, his widow, to ask the Palestinian Authority to exhume her late husband’s body from its grave in Ramallah. If tests show that Arafat’s bones contain high levels of polonium, it would be more conclusive proof that he was poisoned, doctors say.
“I know the Palestinian Authority has been trying to discover what Yasser died from,” Suha Arafat said in an interview. “And now we are helping them. We have very substantial, very important results.”

Unsupported polonium

The institute studied Arafat’s personal effects, which his widow provided to Al Jazeera, the first time they had been examined by a laboratory. Doctors did not find any traces of common heavy metals or conventional poisons, so they turned their attention to more obscure elements, including polonium.
 It is a highly radioactive element used, among other things, to power spacecraft. Marie Curie discovered it in 1898, and her daughter Irene was among the first people it killed: She died of leukemia several years after an accidental polonium exposure in her laboratory.
At least two people connected with Israel’s nuclear program also reportedly died after exposure to the element, according to the limited literature on the subject.
But polonium’s most famous victim was Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian spy-turned-dissident who died in London in 2006 after a lingering illness. A British inquiry found that he was poisoned with polonium slipped into his tea at a sushi restaurant.
There is little scientific consensus about the symptoms of polonium poisoning, mostly because there are so few recorded cases. Litvinenko suffered severe diarrhea, weight loss, and vomiting, all of which were symptoms Arafat exhibited in the days and weeks after he initially fell ill.
Animal studies have found similar symptoms, which lingered for weeks - depending on the dosage – until the subject died. “The primary radiation target… is the gastrointestinal tract,” said an American study conducted in 1991, “activating the ‘vomiting centre’ in the brainstem.”
Scientists in Lausanne found elevated levels of the element on Arafat’s belongings - in some cases, they were ten times higher than those on control subjects, random samples which were tested for comparison.
The lab’s results were reported in millibecquerels (mBq), a scientific unit used to measure radioactivity.
Polonium is present in the atmosphere, but the natural levels that accumulate on surfaces barely register, and the element disappears quickly. Polonium-210, the isotope found on Arafat's belongings, has a half-life of 138 days, meaning that half of the substance decays roughly every four-and-a-half months. “Even in case of a poisoning similar to the Litvinenko case, only traces of the order of a few [millibecquerels] were expected to be found in [the] year 2012,” the institute noted in its report to Al Jazeera.
But Arafat’s personal effects, particularly those with bodily fluids on them, registered much higher levels of the element. His toothbrushes had polonium levels of 54mBq; the urine stain on his underwear, 180mBq. (Another man’s pair of underwear, used as a control, measured just 6.7mBq.)
Further tests, conducted over a three-month period from March until June, concluded that most of that polonium – between 60 and 80 per cent, depending on the sample – was “unsupported,” meaning that it did not come from natural sources.

‘It was a crime’

Doctors in Lausanne, and elsewhere, also ruled out a range of other possible causes for Arafat’s death, based on his original medical file, which Ms. Arafat also provided to Al Jazeera. Their examination ruled out many of the other causes of death that have been rumored over the last eight years.
 There was not liver cirrhosis, apparently no traces of cancer, no leukemia,” said Dr. Patrice Mangin, the head of the Institute of Legal Medicine of Lausanne University. “Concerning HIV, AIDS – there was no sign, and the symptomology was not suggesting these things.”
Dr. Tawfik Shaaban, a Tunisian specialist in HIV and one of the doctors who examined Arafat in his Ramallah compound, confirmed that there were no signs of the disease.
Their conclusions, of course, were based on documentation rather than firsthand examination. Doctors in Lausanne had hoped to study the blood and urine samples taken from Arafat while he was at Percy Military Hospital in France. But when she requested access, the hospital told his widow that those samples had been destroyed.
“I was not satisfied with that answer,” Ms. Arafat said. “Usually a very important person, like Yasser, they would keep traces – maybe they don’t want to be involved in it?”
Several of the doctors who treated Arafat said that they were not allowed to discuss his case – even with Ms. Arafat’s permission – because it was considered a “military secret.” And most of his onetime doctors in Cairo and Tunis refused requests for interviews as well.
With those avenues of inquiry closed, Arafat’s body itself would be the last remaining source of conclusive evidence. Exhuming it would require approval from the Palestinian Authority; shipping bone samples outside of the West Bank would require permission from the Israeli government.
Whatever the outcome, Ms. Arafat said she hopes further tests would “remove a lot of doubt” about her husband’s still-mysterious death.
“We got into this very, very painful conclusion, but at least this removes this great burden on me, on my chest,” she said. “At least I’ve done something to explain to the Palestinian people, to the Arab and Muslim generation all over the world, that it was not a natural death, it was a crime.”
A conclusive finding that Arafat was poisoned with polonium would not, of course, explain who killed him. It is a difficult element to produce, though – it requires a nuclear reactor – and the signature of the polonium in Arafat’s bones could provide some insight about its origin.

- Source : Al Jazeera

Killing of ethnic Rohingyas in Myanmar

Myanmar Ethnic Rohinyas Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHROM)

 URGENT : UPDATES FROM RAKHINE STATE OF BURMA

19,  JUNE 2012

Yesterday, 17 June 2012, the military junta allowed ethnic Rakhine Buddhist to open their shops for few hours. However the Muslim shops were not allow to open. The information we received form back home stated that many Rohingyas went to shop to buy food. However the ethnic Rakhine Buddhist refused to sell food to Rohingyas Muslim. Many Rohingyas has been arrested by the military and the security force and there is no news until now. 

For the past 3 days about 500 Rohingyas were arrested by the military and the security force without reason. The military and security force checked Rohingya houses and arrested many people especially aged 12 years above. We do not know where there are taken to and what will happen to them. We received many calls from back home stating that their family members were arrested and missing. 

The military raped many Rohingya women and girls. They committed suicide by drinking poison as they cannot accept what happen to them. 

The situation become worse with the presence of the military as the military is behind all this. The military newspaper report was not correct as they tried to hide the real numbers who had killed and affected. The military newspaper reported 50 were killed however the information we received more than 20 000 Rohingyas has been affected for the past 2 weeks. Thousands of Rohingyas has been killed, thousands were arrested, thousands were missing and thousands of them were suffering without food, shelter and medication.

The foreign media only take information from the military newspaper which is not correct. The media must get the first hand information from the Rohingyas in order to know the real situation. 

We thank you very much for reporting the news from the Arakan State @ Rakhine State. We hope for your continuous support until Myanmar recognized Rohingya as Myanmar Citizen. 

PLEASE SAVE ROHINGYA

 Thank you.

 Yours sincerely,

 Zafar Ahmad bin Abdul Ghani

President

Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHROM)

Tel No:  016-6827287 

E-rights4rohingya@yahoo.co.uk

Blog:http://www.merhrom.wordpress.com

Not seen on TV

By the end you should know about:

-how dangerous white phosphorus & Depleted Uranium dropped on Iraq is.
-the link between BAE systems, Lockhead Martin and Rolls Royce.
-The CIAs involvement on the killing of at least 3 presidents who werent US allies: Mossadegh, Allende and Lumumba.
-Who opposes the US apart from the Muslims?
-Who is Jeremiah Wright and Ali Abunimah
-Who really owns Obama and what is Aipac.
-Barclays the largest investor in Global arms has £7.3 billion in shares and is amonsgst the top 10 largest investor in US arms companies.
-HSBC holds shares worth £450 million and has loaned £27 Billion to the industry.
-Lloyds holds shares worth £717 Million and serves as principle banker to BAE Systems.
-Aviva, AXA, Standard life and many other well known companies invest in the arms trade.
- Rolls Royce is also the 17th Largest Arms Manufacturer in the world. Rolls Royce is the 2nd Largest Manufacturer of Aerospace Engines powering approximately 25% of the world's military aircraft and has its equipment installed on over 2,200 warships including all of the UK's nuclear submarines.

Syrian Revolution Update | تحديث الثورة السورية

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A video describing recent atrocities that are taking place in Syria. Dedicated to all those who sacrificed their lives in the pursuit of liberating Syria.

The Age of Transitions

‘The Age of Transitions’ by Aaron Franz

Converging technology, transhumanism, and our future in the making:
The cutting edge group known as transhumanists see a beautiful future brought about by artificial intelligence, life extension, and cybernetics. What one must realize before getting carried away with such utopian dreams is that transhumanism was born out of the elitist pseudo-science eugenics. This documentary provides vital information on the history of eugenics and its new cutting edge transformation.

Violence continued across Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria defied international calls to halt attacks on rebel enclaves as at least 89 people were killed nationwide Saturday on the eve of a constitutional referendum that the opposition sees as a ploy by President Bashar Assad's regime.

Assad presented the revised charter — which allows for at least a theoretical opening of the country's political system — as an effort to placate critics and quell the 11-month uprising against his rule.

But the vote is unlikely to overshadow a new round of international condemnation and calls that Assad leave power.

The new charter would create a multiparty system in Syria, which has been ruled by the same family dynasty since Assad's father Hafez seized power in a coup in 1963. Such change as unthinkable a year ago.

After 11 months of bloodshed, however, Assad's opponents say the referendum and other promises of reform are not enough and have called for a boycott of the vote.

Assad was roundly criticized Friday at a major international conference on the Syrian crisis in Tunisia, where U.S., European and Arab officials began planning a civilian peacekeeping mission to deploy after the regime falls. President Barack Obama said Friday of Assad's rule: "It is time for that regime to move on."

On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Assad's crackdown belied promised reforms.

"That kind of logic unfortunately renders any kind of reform meaningless," he said. "To fight on the one hand with your people and then to claim that there is reform is contradictory."

Still, Assad enjoys substantial support in many parts of the country. Some have benefited from his policies, others fear chaos or sectarian civil war if he falls.

The insular nature of the regime makes the extent and character of that support hard to measure, and the regime has prevented most media from operating freely in the country during the uprising.
In the capital Damascus, where Assad retains support among religious minorities and the business class, many said they were eager to vote.

"This constitution is not for one faction against the other," said Suhban Elewi, a 55-year-old businessman who trades in antiquities. "It is for the nation and for all the Syrian people." Elewi said he planned to vote yes, and dismissed opposition calls to boycott the vote. "The country is going forward with them or without them," he said. Posters around town urged people to vote. "Don't turn your back on voting," one said.

Another — showing the red, black and white Syrian flag — touted new constitution. "Syria's constitution: Freedom of belief," it said, referring to clauses protecting religious minorities. Syrian Interior Minster Lt. Gen. Mohammed al-Shaar said more than 14,000 voting centers have been set up for more than 14 million eligible voters across the country.

But the suggestion of political reform led by Assad's regime rang hollow in many parts of the country, where government security forces continued their deadly crackdown on rebels seeking to end Assad's rule.
The violence could also prevent the vote taking place nationwide.

An activist in a neighborhood in the central city of Homs that government forces have besieged and shelled daily for one month laughed when asked about the vote.

"How can they ask us to talk about a new constitution when they are shelling our neighborhood?" said Abu Mohammed Ibrahim from the embattled neighborhood of Baba Amr via Skype. "They are hitting us with all types of weapons. What constitution? What referendum?"

The regime's relentless assault on Homs, which has emerged as the heart of the anti-Assad revolt, entered its fourth week with government shelling killing at least 19 people Saturday.

A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross said the group's local chapter was not able to enter the area Saturday to evacuate wounded Syrians, two injured foreign journalists and the bodies of two others killed by government rockets this week.

American correspondent Marie Colvin and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik were killed Wednesday by shelling in Homs. Colvin's mother, Rosemarie Colvin, told the AP that "Absolutely no decision there has been made" on burial or funeral arrangements. "We're still hoping very, very strongly that they'll bring the two of them out," she said.

A team from the Syrian Red Crescent evacuated 27 people from the area Friday, seven of them wounded, but was not able to get out the journalists.

Spokesman Hicham Hassan said the group would continue negotiating with Syrian authorities and activists to get access to the area and that the Syrian Red Crescent carried out evacuations elsewhere in Syria, including in other neighborhoods of Homs.

Violence continued across the country.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 89 people were killed, including 23 from the army and security forces, across the country. Nineteen of the dead were in Homs.

The dead included citizen journalist Anas al-Tarshi, who filmed attacks and people killed in Homs to post on activists websites. He was taking wounded people to a field hospital when a shell struck his car, the group said. Also killed in Homs was Ahmed Swaidan, an ex-player for a local soccer club, who died when a mortar fell on his house.

The Syrian uprising began in March with mostly peaceful protests in a number of the country's impoverished provinces. As security forces violently suppressed them, killing thousands, the protest grew and escalated into an increasingly armed insurrection.

The U.N. said last month that 5,400 people had been killed since the uprising's start. Hundreds more have died since. Activists put the number at more than 7,300, but overall figures are impossible to confirm independently.

___

Hubbard reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Christopher Torchia from Istanbul and Frank Jordans from Geneva contributed to this report.

EXTREME PREJUDICE

 

The Terrifying Story of the Patriot Act and the Cover Ups of 9/11 and Iraq

What if the government decided to invent a great lie to sell a disastrous war and a questionable anti-terrorism policy? What would happen to the Assets who know the truth?

Former CIA Asset, Susan Lindauer, provides an extraordinary first-hand account from behind the intelligence curtain that shatters the government’s lies about 9/11 and Iraq, and casts a harsh spotlight on the workings of the Patriot Act as the ideal weapon to bludgeon whistle blowers and dissidents. A terrifying true story of “black budget” betrayals and the Patriot Act, with its arsenal of secret evidence, indefinite detention and threats of forcible drugging, EXTREME PREJUDICE reveals one Asset’s desperate struggle to survive the brutal cover ups of 9/11 and Iraq. 

EXTREME PREJUDICE delivers a high tension expose of the real facts surrounding the CIA’s advance warnings of 9/11 and Iraq’s contributions to the 9/11 investigation. For the first time, it discloses the existence of a comprehensive peace framework, which would have accomplished all major U.S. objectives in Baghdad without a single casualty. A true life spy thriller that goes inside the Iraqi Embassy and prison on a Texas military base, EXTREME PREJUDICE reveals the depths of deception by leaders in Washington and London to promote a questionable image of their successful anti-terrorism policy, and the shocking brutality used to suppress the truth of their failures from the American people and the world community. 

Above all, EXTREME PREJUDICE  offers a critical examination  of the Patriot Act’s assault on defendant rights in a Court of law, when liberty and freedom to dissent from government policy are the highest stakes.  EXTREME PREJUDICE is a personal narrative accessible to all audiences, not an academic book.
 

“Susan Lindauer deserves unreserved admiration for this brave and moving account of her steadfast refusal to crumble under the shameful abuses to which she was subjected. She has provided us with an overdue exposure of the depths to which governments are all too prepared to descend to prevent disclosure of their dishonesty and malfeasance, her knowledge having been gained through bitter personal experience.” –Robert Black, Q.C., Scottish architect of the Lockerbie Trial at Camp Zeist
 
“Unfolds like a suspense thriller from deep within the struggle for global sanity, at the hands of those perpetrating dark secrecy. Lindauer reveals faces of our national truth few Americans imagine. Chilling, heartbreaking, horrifying and hopeful, EXTREME PREJUDICE offers a depth of historical insight critical to transforming our future. Pay attention.” –Janice Matthews, Director, 911Truth.org