Dale Stehling's Disappearance and the Need to Track People Who Vanish on Federal Land       ~ folks some~thing IS going on & yet "our" gov. ISN'T doing shit !     ...wonder y ?    folks THIS is an NATIONAL ... disgrace !!!    just puff ?  & how many &  4 how Long !!!     we the people used 2 look out fer each other ... not busy body shit or in yer biz shit ,  we used 2 protect each other  WTF !!!

By Michael Roberts

Friday, February 6, 2015 | http://www.westword.com/news/dale-stehlings-disappearance-and-the-need-to-track-people-who-vanish-on-federal-land-6282514

Denean Stehling and her husband, Dale Stehling. He's been missing for more than a year. Family photo via The Mancos Times

The size and scope of federal land holdings in this country — including national parks, monuments and more — is so vast that people can venture into them and literally disappear. Note the case of Dale Stehling, who went for a hike in Mesa Verde circa June 2013 and hasn't been seen since. Yet there's currently no national database for missing persons — and a Regis University instructor would like to change that.
See also: Kelsie Schelling: Renewed Push for Answers About Pregnant Denver Woman Who Vanished

A poster about the disappearance of Dale Stehling. National Park Service via The Mancos Times

According to The Mancos Times, Stehling and his wife, Denean, came to Colorado from their home in Goliad, Texas, to take part in what's described as an "'adult only' 21 day vacation visiting national parks." On June 9, 2013, they were at Mesa Verde for day four of the tour, having traveled there from Four Corners.
That's when Dale told Denean that he was heading off on a hike to the Spruce Tree House ruin, an attraction whose path is reportedly steep but just a quarter-mile long. But he didn't return, and after two hours, Denean raised an alarm, setting off a two-week search that included as many as sixty rescuers, plus helicopters, two dog teams and rope teams that rappelled off cliffs in the vicinity.
These efforts came up empty, and since then, there have been no developments in the case — and no way to track it, since there isn't a federal database that allows access to information about people missing on federal lands.
To Heidi Streetman, who conducts graduate teacher-training courses and classes on research methods at Regis, and also teaches at the University of Colorado Denver's ESL Academy, the need for such a resource is clear. As such, she's created a petition entitled "Make the Department of Interior Accountable for Persons Missing in Our National Parks & Forests."
"I started this petition because there is no legal requirement that federal records be kept of the circumstances surrounding a person's disappearance, whether or not remains or belongings are recovered, or if a person is located alive and well," Streetman writes via e-mail. "This should all be a matter of public record, but it is not. When researchers or family members request records that are sometimes kept, land administrators have stymied requests, claiming it would cost upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce such records, due to manpower issues and costs of copies. This is in spite of Freedom of Information Act guarantees that federal records are open to the public.
"If a searchable public database of those missing on federal land is required to be kept, by our government, I am hoping it will raise awareness of who is missing and where," she adds. "It will encourage those with skills to do so, to continue searching for those missing. It will provide the public with information about areas they may be visiting so they can make intelligent choices about their own safety and well-being. Hot spots where many people are missing can be identified and investigated, and families of the missing can have the solace of knowing that others are aware of and possibly still searching for their loved ones."

The graphic and title on Heidi Streetman's petition. ThePetitionSite.com

Streetman didn't launch the petition because of a personal connection to someone who's missing, although she notes that a former classmate committed suicide in the Arizona desert and his remains have never been found. She became interested in the issue "after reading several books on folks missing in the Smoky Mountains, plus the Bennington Triangle area of Vermont, and David Paulides' Missing 411 series. I was especially touched by cases where families do not get any answers or closure.
"Every summer, my family spent most months camping out in parks, Mexico to Canada, all over the U.S., and sometimes, in very remote places. It astounds me that there is no federal accountability, and that if the missing are not recovered, records are not required to be kept and made available to people who might later search for the missing or want to learn about the cases."
After citing the Dale Stehling disappearance, she adds, "Since so much of this state is about enjoying the great outdoors, I should think keeping track of folks and keeping people safe would be a priority."
At this writing, the petition has more than 3,200 signatures toward a goal of 4,000. To access it, click here. And if you have any information about Dale Stehling, you're encouraged to phone National Park Service dispatch at 970-529-4622.

ARBEIT MACHT FREI: THE VISION OF CAMP AMERICA

• Posted on July 22, 2015
• by Ron Patton
• in Articles

ARBEIT MACHT FREI

THE VISION OF CAMP AMERICA

The idea of despotism is looming like some phantom ideology that many Americans see out of the corner of their eye. Sometimes the phantom is right in front of us and through the blaring media attacks on one candidate like Donald Trump, there are other potential political hopefuls that say scarier things and what is even more frightening is that the mainstream news is afraid to question or otherwise point out that what they are proposing is not in line with what America values.
That is the old America.
It seems that for years that the new America has not been paying attention to the open conspiracy of intimidation that is being waged against the citizenry. The chief reason this is happening is because of pundits and statists that encourage the enabling of officials to intimidate citizens because we are under the impression that government overreach is needed in order to enforce unfair laws.
The idea of a never ending war being waged by our leaders against the enemy of the week has now become so normal for Americans that the predatory option for all people accused of any civil disobedience seems to be the default position by talk show hosts and other pundits that should know better.
Listen to any particular radio show or pay attention to any political pundit on Fox or MSNBC and notice that they hide behind a political party in order to spread their statism or authoritarianism hoping that most Americans have forgotten the lessons learned in civics or social studies classes.
Both the statists and the authoritarians will explain that laws that are passed by governments are for our own good and that any dialogue that entertains a disciplinary approach to corruption in government should be avoided or silenced. Both the statist and authoritarian will seek to silence any and all debate with regard to corruption in government because each needs government in order to justify their existence.
Those who we thought knew better than to court these views in the midst of fascism would remain confident in the idea that sovereignty is now a buzzword of conspiracy theorists and that any dialogue about sovereignty has to include outrageous ideas of rebellion, civil disobedience, and revolt.
On one hand, they claim that government overreach is out of control and then condemn those individuals that wish to rebel against what they see is an oligarchy that uses intimidation to get what they want.
It is then that we hear that sovereignty is not vested in the people but in the nation state and that all citizens and even businesses exist only to enhance the power, prestige and survival of the state. Our government now is already testing the waters to see what the reaction of Americans will be in the face of intimidation. They are taking steps to make sure that you will have no choice but to adapt and be a citizen that will not feel the least bit bothered by the influence and enhancement of power on the state and federal level.
Threat after threat, issue after issue and law after law is announced by your government and the hope is that we all comply. Those that do not comply or disagree with such laws, or expose the so called threats as potential rather than real are told that they are cranks, crackpots or conspiracy theorists.
These terms are being used against Americans in order to shame people into falling in line. Many people realize that governments do not give up power easily, and will use whatever means necessary to make sure they retain their stronghold.
Decades ago, George Orwell demonstrated in the book, 1984, that everyone would be exposed to “programming” provided by the “Ministry of Love.” It was called Newspeak. Anyone who had a thought contrary to the totalitarian state run media was deemed a thought criminal, and being a thought criminal was considered the worst crime you could commit.

The United States Government is now allowing a new “process” to be carried out against its citizens, where the surveillance state is being utilized not only to capture criminals but to also use their medical records as fodder to convince the court of public opinion that their might makes right in all things, thus the constitutional right of due process is circumvented.
Rights to privacy are also circumvented even if you are accused of a crime.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has badly bludgeoned the constitutional right of due process. The US has pursued “domestic terrorism” by practicing pre-emptive prosecution that is, going after individuals who have committed no crime but are alleged to possess an ideology that might dispose them to commit acts of “terrorism.” Maintaining that it can -and should – be in the business of divining intent or literally using whatever they can to pre-cog crime.
Back in February it was reported that Chicago Police were currently operating a secret detention facility that mirrors the CIA’s “Black Sites.” The Black Sites or secret torture facilities gave a black eye to public relations during the Iraq and Afghan wars as human rights groups pointed the finger at Americans that were carrying out torture which was changed to the Orwellian Newspeak of “Enhanced Interrogations.”
Now it is terrifying to hear that there is a facility being operated in the United States for use on American citizens. From violations of due process to torture, the revelations raise serious concerns about the deteriorating state of freedom and justice in the United States.
The so called “Black Site” has been located in Homan Square.
According to the reports, suspects are interrogated without lawyers present and in fact, lawyers are often refused entry. Those who have gained access to clients claim that police still withhold information about the suspects.
The detainees are not read Miranda rights or offered due process.
Just like CIA Black Sites, there have been multiple instances of violence during interrogations. In one case in February of 2013, 44-year-old John Hubbard was pronounced dead after authorities at Homan said he was found “unresponsive” in an interview cell.
Americans so far have not decried this miscarriage of Justice.
Meanwhile, General Wesley Clark appeared on MSNBC to comment on the Chattanooga shooting where four Marines and a Navy petty officer were killed at a military recruitment center.

He told MSNBC: “We’ve got to cut this off at the beginning. …In World War II if someone supported Nazi Germany at the expense of the United States, we didn’t say that was freedom of speech, we put him in a camp, they were prisoners of war. So, if these people are radicalized and they don’t support the United States and they are disloyal to the United States, as a matter of principle fine. It’s their right and it’s our right and obligation to segregate them from the normal community for the duration of the conflict. And I think we’re going to have to increasingly get tough on this.”
He also broadened his statements by further stating:

Wesley Clark reveals on MSNBC : TPTB want to put you in a KZ internment camp    :0 eat shit & die u nazi in sheep dip clothing   ...hey clarky wasn't a mem~ber of the bush clan found "guilty" fer treason during the war ???  (wwii)    yea & ALL the trail trans~cripts was in 1 of the "towers" that came down  & wasn't 'nother of the bush clan's "loan" cum~in due on sep 12 ???  u's dummmycocks & republipubes ..same fuck~in crowd ...rat bast~erds  ah oh yea! somehow a "lone" nut did it, will do it , is gonna do it .. fucking kook ,if we could just lock UP ALL the gov. lone nuts  HUH   did i say go fuck yer~self ...yea u & yer media ...whores ( fuck! did i say that out loud while i's was reading/listening 2 this article ...nawwww but i bet the nsa has some al~go~rime~in that heard my "inner" voice ..... shit ,fucking nother list ??)

“There are always a certain number of young people who are alienated. They don’t get a job, they lost a girlfriend, their family doesn’t feel happy here and we can watch the signs of that. And there are members of the community who can reach out to those people and bring them back in and encourage them to look at their blessings here.”
The terrifying thing is that after Clark made these statements there was no follow up questions as to how General Clark could promote such fascist Orwellian views. What General Clark is advocating is preventive detention. Clark advocates the arrest and detention of anyone that the authorities identify as being insufficiently loyal to the State.
Clark also advocated rounding up Americans and putting them in camps based on what they think or express in public with regard to loyalty or even questioning policies of the U.S. Government.
Once again, without a blink from the reporter who was interviewing him. There was no challenging of the statements, and nothing said about it being unconstitutional.
Back in 2004, General Wesley Clark, the former supreme allied commander of NATO, was harshly critical of what he considered the Bush administration’s excessive response to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. You may remember that Wesley Clark also was a former Democratic Party presidential candidate.
Also in 2004, President Clinton supported Clark and said in a statement “We believe America needs a new president. One who can be a voice for common sense and moderation in these dangerous, uncertain times. One with the unquestionable leadership and foreign policy credentials necessary to win in 2004. We believe that General Wesley Clark might just be – the one. That is why we are trying to convince him to seek the Democratic nomination for president.”
In his book, Waging Modern War, General Clark wrote about his fury upon learning that Russian peacekeepers had entered the airport at Pristina, Kosovo, before British or American forces. In the article “The guy who almost started World War III,” published on Aug. 3, 1999, in The Guardian (U.K.) wrote:
“No sooner are we told by Britain’s top generals that the Russians played a crucial role in ending the West’s war against Yugoslavia than we learn that if NATO’s supreme commander, the American General Wesley Clark, had had his way, British paratroopers would have stormed Pristina Airport, threatening to unleash the most frightening crisis with Moscow since the end of the Cold War.”
“I’m not going to start the third world war for you,” General Sir Mike Jackson, commander of the international KFOR peacekeeping force, is reported to have told General Clark when he refused to accept an order to send assault troops to prevent Russian troops from taking over the airfield of Kosovo’s provincial capital.
The Times of London reported on 23 May 2001 in an article titled, “Kosovo Clash of Allied Generals,” that “General Sir Michael Jackson was told that he would have to resign if he refused to obey an order by the American commander of NATO’s forces during the Kosovo war to stop the Russians from seizing control of Pristina Airport in June 1999.”
Now with regard to putting Americans in concentration camps, we need to point out that the public assumes that Clark is talking about only rounding up Muslim Americans. Truth is that his principle of preventive detention would be applied indiscriminately to suspected ISIS supporters and “right-wing extremists” in the Midwest.
Americans assume that law enforcement in the U.S. have only been focusing on aspiring jihadists who align with the Islamic State. But there is more to the story.
Avowed racists, neo-Nazis and anti-government militias have taken a back seat to anti-government groups and a perceived major resurgence of right-wing extremism.
The Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, says it has counted more than 30 acts or plots of domestic terrorism or hate-driven rampages since 2010, an increase from the five years before that.
Those include the killings in Kansas last year of three people outside a Jewish community center and Jewish retirement home; a 2011 bomb plot that targeted the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane, Washington; an assault-rifle attack on a Mexican consulate and federal courthouse in Austin, Texas; the murders of six at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, and the slaying of two Las Vegas police officers by a couple with anti-government views who left behind a swastika and a yellow flag bearing the words “Don’t Tread on Me.”
The attacks were not carried out by radicalized Muslims but by what are called right-wing extremists.
What General Clark is proposing is people being placed in concentration camps based on the concept of “thought crime” straight out of George Orwell’s classic novel, 1984. In the New World Order world of General Clark, you don’t have to actually break the law in order to come up against the authorities: you just have to think “hate-thoughts,” or use “hate speech” in order to be a target.
This is “terrorism prevention” according to Clark.
You see, the government is now in the business of promoting – and preventing – the predominance of certain ideas.
One can certainly understand arresting, trying, and incarcerating any person conspiring to commit acts of violence inside the United States; however, Clark’s proposal is chilling and is unconstitutional. He is advocating going after those who are not only not involved in a conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, but who have not even yet been radicalized. Once again he asserts “We have got to identify the people who are most likely to be radicalized, we’ve got to cut this off at the beginning.”
What Clark is proposing echoes what happened during World War II?
Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, commanding that Japanese Americans be relocated away from the West Coast and into internment camps — without any due process, proof of disloyalty, or regard to American citizenship. This draconian policy led to the eventual incarceration of over 100,000 people, 62 percent of whom were U.S. citizens.

Some of the interned Japanese chose to join the U.S. Armed Forces, ironically to “fight for liberty,” and were sent to the European theater. The bulk of them fought in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which emerged from the war as the most highly decorated U.S. military unit of its size, earning the nickname “the Purple Heart division.”
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 52, authorizing the mass detention of 400,000 people in the event of “civil unrest” protesting a U.S. invasion of Central America. It was part of a plot, code-named Rex-84 Alpha, created by the National Security Council under the direction of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North. It called for suspending the Constitution, placing the nation under martial law and canceling the 1984 election.
Rex 84 is short for “Readiness Exercise 1984.” It was originally a classified plan by the United States federal government to accommodate the detention of large numbers of American citizens in case of massive civil unrest or national emergency.
FEMA, in association with 34 other federal civil departments and agencies, conducted civil readiness exercises in April of 1984. It was conducted in coordination and simultaneously with a Joint Chiefs exercise, Night Train 84, and Garden Plot a worldwide military command post exercise including Continental U.S. Forces or CONUS.
The drills and operations were based on multi-emergency scenarios operating both abroad and at home. In the combined exercise, Rex-84 Bravo, FEMA and DOD led the other federal agencies and departments, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secret Service, the Treasury, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Veterans Administration through a gaming exercise to test military assistance in civil defense.

The exercise anticipated civil disturbances, major demonstrations and strikes that would affect continuity of government and or resource mobilization. To fight subversive activities, there was authorization for the military to implement government ordered movements of civilian populations at state and regional levels, the arrest of certain unidentified segments of the population, and the overturning of the Posse Comitatus Act, an action which makes the military a police force.
There is a frightening emotional investment that we put into things here in this country. I say that it is frightening because Nationalism never is a substitute for common sense and what we are seeing around us with the increased Military desensitization is what victimization does to logic and what mental torture does to the intellect. How it seems that we are so hopeful that things will change that we ignore that they really haven’t.
There is also a rumor going around that Wesley Clark is thinking about being the VP running mate with Hillary Clinton if she clenches the nomination from her party.
Well, maybe he should reconsider what he is thinking.

"The War is Worth Waging”: Afghanistan’s Vast Reserves of Minerals and Natural Gas

The War on Afghanistan is a Profit driven "Resource War".    ~ hehe fuck me !!!  i thought this was a war on "terror"  HUH ??? ...fucking mins & gas fucking "fly~in " into building's & shit   ...hey amerika when do ya think the "rest" of the World is gonna geet tried of "our" elite cock sucker's  raping ever~thin ..humm ( & lets NOT 4 get Our Service Men/Women )    ... food fer thought

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, July 25, 2015

Global Research 16 June 2010

Region: Asia

Theme: Global Economy, US NATO War Agenda

In-depth Report: AFGHANISTAN

Originally published on GR in June 2010
US and NATO forces invaded Afghanistan more than 13 years ago in October 2001.  
Afghanistan is defined as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The war on Afghanistan continues to be heralded as a war of retribution in response to the 9/11 attacks. 
This article, first published in June 2010, points to the “real economic reasons”  why US-NATO forces invaded Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11.  

The legal argument used by Washington and NATO to invade and occupy Afghanistan under “the doctrine of collective security” was that the September 11 2001 attacks constituted an undeclared “armed attack” “from abroad” by an unnamed foreign power, namely Afghanistan.
Under the proposed Afghan-US security pact,  which is an integral part of Obama’s Asian pivot, Washington and its NATO partners are preparing to ensure a permanent military presence in Afghanistan, with military facilities located in proximity of China’s Western frontier.  The pact would allow the US to maintain their nine permanent military bases, strategically located on the borders of  China, Pakistan and Iran as well as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
In addition to its vast mineral and gas reserves, Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the World’s supply of opium which is used to produce grade 4 heroin.
US military bases in Afghanistan are also intent upon protecting the multibillion narcotics trade.  Narcotics, at present, constitutes the centerpiece of Afghanistan’s export economy.
The heroin trade, instated at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979 and protected by the CIA, generates cash earnings in Western markets in excess of $200 billion dollars a year.

“The highest concentration of NATO servicemen in Afghanistan is being accompanied with the highest concentration of opium poppy, ….  That situation causes doubts about the anti-terrorist mission and leads to the conclusion about catastrophic consequences of the eight-year stay [of coalition forces] in Afghanistan,” (Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service head Viktor Ivanov, January 2010)

Michel Chossudovsky,  July 2015

---

“The War is Worth Waging”: Afghanistan’s Vast Reserves of Minerals and Natural Gas

The War on Afghanistan is a Profit driven “Resource War”.

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

The 2001 bombing and invasion of Afghanistan has been presented to World public opinion as a “Just War”, a war directed against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, a war to eliminate “Islamic terrorism” and instate Western style democracy.
The economic dimensions of  the “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT) are rarely mentioned. The post 9/11 “counter-terrorism campaign” has served to obfuscate the real objectives of the US-NATO war.
The war on Afghanistan is part of a profit driven agenda: a war of economic conquest and plunder,  ”a resource war”.
While Afghanistan is acknowledged as a strategic hub in Central Asia, bordering on the former Soviet Union, China and Iran, at the crossroads of pipeline routes and major oil and gas reserves, its huge mineral wealth as well as its untapped natural gas reserves have remained, until June 2010, totally unknown to the American public.
According to a joint report by the Pentagon, the US Geological Survey (USGS) and USAID, Afghanistan is now said to possess “previously unknown” and untapped mineral reserves, estimated authoritatively to be of the order of one trillion dollars (New York Times, U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan – NYTimes.com, June 14, 2010, See also BBC, 14 June 2010).

“The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.
An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.
The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.
While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.
“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said… “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”
The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.
“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines. (New York Times, op. cit.)

Afghanistan could become, according to The New York Times “the Saudi Arabia of lithium”. “Lithium is an increasingly vital resource, used in batteries for everything from mobile phones to laptops and key to the future of the electric car.” At present Chile, Australia, China and Argentina are the main suppliers of lithium to the world market. Bolivia and Chile are the countries with the largest known reserves of lithium. “The Pentagon has been conducting ground surveys in western Afghanistan. “Pentagon officials said that their initial analysis at one location in Ghazni province showed the potential for lithium deposits as large as those of Bolivia” (U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan – NYTimes.com, June 14, 2010, see also Lithium – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

“Previously Unknown Deposits” of Minerals in Afghanistan

The Pentagon’s near one trillion dollar “estimate” of previously “unknown deposits” is a useful smokescreen. The Pentagon one trillion dollar figure is more a trumped up number rather than an estimate:  “We took a look at what we knew to be there, and asked what would it be worth now in terms of today’s dollars. The trillion dollar figure seemed to be newsworthy.” (The Sunday Times, London, June 15 2010, emphasis added)
Moreover, the results of a US Geological Survey study (quoted in the Pentagon memo) on Afghanistan’s mineral wealth were revealed three years back, at a 2007 Conference organized by the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce. The matter of Afghanistan’s mineral riches, however, was not considered newsworthy at the time.
The US Administration’s acknowledgment that it first took cognizance of Afghanistan’s vast mineral wealth  following the release of the USGS 2007 report is an obvious red herring. Afghanistan’s mineral wealth and energy resources (including natural gas) were known to both America’s business elites and the US government prior to the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-1988).
Geological surveys conducted by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and early 1980s confirm the existence of  vast reserves of copper (among the largest in Eurasia), iron, high grade chrome ore, uranium, beryl, barite, lead, zinc, fluorspar, bauxite, lithium, tantalum, emeralds, gold and silver.(Afghanistan, Mining Annual Review, The Mining Journal,  June, 1984). These surveys suggest that the actual value of these reserves could indeed be substantially larger than the one trillion dollars “estimate” intimated by the Pentagon-USCG-USAID study.
More recently, in a 2002 report, the Kremlin confirmed what was already known: “It’s no secret that Afghanistan possesses rich reserves, in particular of copper at the Aynak deposit, iron ore in Khojagek, uranium, polymetalic ore, oil and gas,” (RIA Novosti, January 6, 2002):

“Afghanistan has never been anyone’s colony – no foreigner had ever “dug” here before the 1950s. The Hindu Kush mountains, stretching, together with their foothills, over a vast area in Afghanistan, are where the minerals lie. Over the past 40 years, several dozen deposits have been discovered in Afghanistan, and most of these discoveries were sensational. They were kept secret, however, but even so certain facts have recently become known.
It turns out that Afghanistan possesses reserves of nonferrous and ferrous metals and precious stones, and, if exploited, they would possibly be able to cover even the earnings from the drug industry. The copper deposit in Aynak in the southern Afghan Helmand Province is said to be the largest in the Eurasian continent, and its location (40 km from Kabul) makes it cheap to develop. The iron ore deposit at Hajigak in the central Bamian Province yields ore of an extraordinarily high quality, the reserves of which are estimated to be 500m tonnes. A coal deposit has also been discovered not far from there.
Afghanistan is spoken of as a transit country for oil and gas. However, only a very few people know that Soviet specialists discovered huge gas reserves there in the 1960s and built the first gas pipeline in the country to supply gas to Uzbekistan. At that time, the Soviet Union used to receive 2.5 bn cubic metres of Afghan gas annually. During the same period, large deposits of gold, fluorite, barytes and marble onyxes that have a very rare pattern were found.
However, the pegmatite fields discovered to the east of Kabul are a real sensation. Rubies, beryllium, emeralds and kunzites and hiddenites that cannot be found anywhere else – the deposits of these precious stones stretch for hundreds of kilometres. Also, the rocks containing the rare metals beryllium, thorium, lithium and tantalum are of strategic importance (they are used in air and spacecraft construction).
The war is worth waging. … (Olga Borisova, “Afghanistan – the Emerald Country”, Karavan, Almaty, original Russian, translated by BBC News Services, Apr 26, 2002. p. 10, emphasis added.)

While public opinion was fed images of a war torn resourceless developing country, the realities are otherwise: Afghanstan is a rich country as confirmed by Soviet era geological surveys.
The issue of “previously unknown deposits” sustains a falsehood. It excludes Afghanstan’s vast mineral wealth as a justifiable casus belli. It says that the Pentagon only recently became aware that Afghanistan was among the World’s most wealthy mineral economies, comparable to The Democratic Republic of the Congo or former Zaire of the Mobutu era. The Soviet geopolitical reports were known. During the Cold War, all this information was known in minute detail:

… Extensive Soviet exploration produced superb geological maps and reports that listed more than 1,400 mineral outcroppings, along with about 70 commercially viable deposits … The Soviet Union subsequently committed more than $650 million for resource exploration and development in Afghanistan, with proposed projects including an oil refinery capable of producing a half-million tons per annum, as well as a smelting complex for the Ainak deposit that was to have produced 1.5 million tons of copper per year. In the wake of the Soviet withdrawal a subsequent World Bank analysis projected that the Ainak copper production alone could eventually capture as much as 2 percent of the annual world market. The country is also blessed with massive coal deposits, one of which, the Hajigak iron deposit, in the Hindu Kush mountain range west of Kabul, is assessed as one of the largest high-grade deposits in the world. (John C. K. Daly,  Analysis: Afghanistan’s untapped energy, UPI Energy, October 24, 2008, emphasis added)

Afghanistan’s Natural Gas

Afghanistan is a land bridge. The 2001 U.S. led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan has been analysed by critics of US foreign policy as a means to securing control  over the strategic trans-Afghan transport corridor which links the Caspian sea basin to the Arabian sea.
Several trans-Afghan oil and gas pipeline projects have been contemplated including the planned $8.0 billion TAPI pipeline project (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) of 1900 km., which would transport Turkmen natural gas across Afghanistan in what is described as a “crucial transit corridor”. (See Gary Olson, Afghanistan has never been the ‘good and necessary’ war; it’s about control of oil, The Morning Call, October 1, 2009). Military escalation under the extended Af-Pak war bears a relationship to TAPI. Turkmenistan possesses third largest natural gas reserves after Russia and Iran. Strategic control over the transport routes out of Turkmenistan have been part of Washington’s agenda since the collapse of the Soviet union in 1991.
What was rarely contemplated in pipeline geopolitics, however, is that Afghanistan is not only adjacent to countries which are rich in oil and natural gas (e.g Turkmenistan), it also possesses within its territory sizeable untapped reserves of natural gas, coal  and oil. Soviet estimates of the 1970s placed “Afghanistan’s ‘explored’ (proved plus probable) gas reserves at about 5  trillion cubic feet. The Hodja-Gugerdag’s initial reserves were placed at slightly more than 2 tcf.” (See, The Soviet Union to retain influence in Afghanistan, Oil & Gas Journal, May 2, 1988).
The US.Energy Information Administration (EIA) acknowledged in 2008 that Afghanistan’s natural gas reserves are “substantial”:

“As northern Afghanistan is a ‘southward extension of Central Asia’s highly prolific, natural gas-prone Amu Darya Basin,’ Afghanistan ‘has proven, probable and possible natural gas reserves of about 5 trillion cubic feet.’ (UPI, John C.K. Daly, Analysis: Afghanistan’s untapped energy, October 24, 2008)

From the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979, Washington’s objective has been to sustain a geopolitical foothold in Central Asia.

The Golden Crescent Drug Trade

America’s covert war, namely its support to the Mujahideen “Freedom fighters” (aka Al Qaeda) was also geared towards the development of the Golden Crescent trade in opiates, which was used by US intelligence to fund the insurgency directed against the Soviets.1
Instated at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war and protected by the CIA, the drug trade developed over the years into a highly lucrative multibillion undertaking. It was the cornerstone of America’s covert war in the 1980s. Today, under US-NATO military occupation, the drug trade generates cash earnings in Western markets in excess of $200 billion dollars a year. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America’s War on Terrorism, Global Research, Montreal, 2005, see also Michel Chossudovsky, Heroin is “Good for Your Health”: Occupation Forces support Afghan Narcotics Trade, Global Research, April 29, 2007)

Towards an Economy of Plunder

The US media, in chorus, has upheld the “recent discovery” of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth as “a solution” to the development of the country’s war torn economy as well as a means to eliminating poverty. The 2001 US-NATO invasion and occupation has set the stage for their appropriation by Western mining and energy conglomerates.
The war on Afghanistan is  a profit driven “resource war”.
Under US and allied occupation, this mineral wealth is slated to be plundered, once the country has been pacified, by a handful of multinational mining conglomerates. According to Olga Borisova, writing in the months following the October 2001 invasion, the US-led “war on terrorism [will be transformed] into a colonial policy of influencing a fabulously wealthy country.” (Borisova, op cit).
Part of the US-NATO agenda is also to eventually take possession of Afghanistan’s reserves of natural gas, as well as prevent the development of competing Russian, Iranian and Chinese energy interests in Afghanistan.

Note

1. The Golden Crescent trade in opiates constitutes, at present, the centerpiece of Afghanistan’s export economy. The heroin trade, instated at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979 and protected by the CIA, generates cash earnings in Western markets in excess of $200 billion dollars a year.
Since the 2001 invasion, narcotics production in Afghanistan  has increased more than 35 times. In 2009, opium production stood at 6900 tons, compared to less than 200 tons in 2001. In this regard, the multibillion dollar earnings resulting from the Afghan opium production largely occur outside Afghanistan. According to United Nations data, the revenues of the drug trade accruing to the local economy are of the order of 2-3 billion annually.
In contrast with the Worldwide sales of heroin resulting from the trade in Afghan opiates, in excess of $200 billion. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America’s War on Terrorism”, Global Research, Montreal, 2005)

U.S. Special Forces Veteran Has Some Advice For Those Considering Joining The Military

July 24, 2015 by Arjun Walia.

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/07/24/u-s-special-forces-veteran-has-some-advice-for-those-considering-joining-the-military/

After US solider Ethan McCord (Iraq veteran) spoke up about his role in “Collateral Murder,” the video released by Wikileaks exposing what really happened (on a daily basis) in Iraq, more people started to entertain the idea that the “war on terror” was a complete sham. Since that video, multiple veterans have come forward sharing the truth about what FBI whistle blower Sibel Edmonds calls the “terror war industry.”

I apologize if you’ve seen these quotes before but they are very impactful.

“The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al-Qaeda, and any informed intelligence officer knows this. But, there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an intensified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive TV watchers to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism.” – Former British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook (source)

Below is a video of Stan Goff, a former U.S. special forces veteran who has been very outspoken about war and the real role of the US military. Hopefully it provides some food for thought, as much of what’s said here and within the links in this article are backed up by evidence and documentation (the well known Al-Qaeda/CIA connections is a great example).

“Most terrorists are false flag terrorists, or are created by our own security services. In the United States, every single terrorist incident we have had has been a false flag, or has been an informant pushed on by the FBI. In fact, we now have citizens taking out restraining orders against FBI informants that are trying to incite terrorism. We’ve become a lunatic asylum.” – David Steele, a 20-year Marine Corps intelligence officer, and the second-highest-ranking civilian in the U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence

Here what Goff has to say about joining the military:

Advice for those considering joining the military

YOU TELL US: MYSTERIOUS WEAPONS CACHE FOUND IN PACIFIC PALISADES, CALIFORNIA       ...~ hummm

Posted on July 25, 2015 by Joseph P. Farrell • http://gizadeathstar.com/2015/07/you-tell-us-mysterious-weapons-cache-found-in-pacific-palisades-california/

This very unusual story was spotted by many of you who promptly sent me the link. In fact, so many did - including, I might add, Catherine Austin Fitts - that emails with the link arrived in "clumps". At first, when I saw the subject header, I simply moved the emails into my "sorting folders" that I use for scheduling blogs, but when the clumps started appearing, I decided to open the link and read the story.  I was dumbfounded, and saw clearly why the story captured everyone's attention, for it raises more questions (most of them disturbing), than answers:
Mystery Deepens Over Weapons Cache in Pacific Palisades
There's so much weirdness here that one doesn't really know where to begin or what to focus on, but these paragraphs were what caught my attention:

The mystery surrounding the death of a man whose decomposing body was found in an SUV near his Pacific Palisades home continued to grow today, while police worked to trace the roughly 1,200 firearms found in his residence along with six tons of ammunition and thousands of dollars in cash.

And then this:

The attorney, well-known local defense lawyer Harland Braun, told the paper the man died in the parking lot of Bristol Farms on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica on July 4. His fiancee -- who believed Lash worked with a secret government agency -- drove the body back to Pacific Palisades, left the body there and fled to Oregon, believing his government handlers would collect his remains, Braun said.
The fiancee, Catherine Nebron, had apparently been with Lash for 17 years and was convinced he worked as some type of undercover government operative, according to Braun, who said the man had cancer.

And finally, this:

Two days after Lash’s death, a woman who worked for Nebron -- 39-year- old Dawn VadBunker -- was reported missing from Oxnard. VadBunker’s mother, Laura VadBunker, told KTLA by telephone that Lash had convinced her daughter and Nebron that he was some type of alien or human/alien hybrid “sent to Earth to protect us.”
Dawn VadBunker had apparently been with Lash and Nebron when the man died in Santa Monica, and she fled to Oregon with Nebron after his death, VadBunker’s mother said. She said her daughter is caught in the middle of the investigation and may be having a mental breakdown.

Add to all that the fact that police are apparently denying that there's any connection to the government. So what do we have?

1. A large cash of guns and ammunition in an unlikely place;
2. The man - tentatively identified as Jeffrey Alan Lash - died in a retail store parking lot;
3. The man was moved from his place of death apparently by his fiance, who was convinced he worked for the government. She then fled to Oregon;
4. Additionally, his fiance was also apparently convinced by the man himself that he was a human/alien hybrid on a mission to Earth to "protect us";
5. The fiance is apprently "having a mental breakdown" and is a focus of the investigation.

Now, while all my instincts say that the fiance is the focus of the investigation because law enforcement may suspect she had something to do with Lash's death - in other words, at first flance there appears to be a suspicion of murder or foul play - there's a lot that does not make sense, not the least of which are why the fiance would suspect government involvement, and why Lash would have accumulated enough weapons to outfit a battalion.  Indeed, that accumulation suggests that his "protection mission" may have been the delusions of someone with too much cable tv swirling in his head, or, it could be that he was actually some sort of covert operative. That would mean that he is unlikely to be connected directly to any government directly, but rather, to a professional "case officer" in an intelligence or military agency, and possibly one not even our own. This raises, in its turn, yet another bizarre "high octane speculative" possibility, namely, that there may be several more such caches of weapons and ammunition, scattered all over.
All these possibilities raises others, not the least of which is that this may somehow be connected to the strikes against internet cables in the San Francisco Bay area, or even to the mysterious attack on a silicon valley electrical substation a couple of years ago. You'll recall that in that incident, the substation was attacked by heavily armed professionals who knew exactly how to take out the equipment, and who were in and out before local law enforcement could respond. Similarly, the attacks on internet connections in the Bay area have also been accompanied by signatures that they were professionally done.
There are, of course, all sorts of possibilities. The bottom line for me is that my intuition tells me that this is not an isolated phenomenon, and that there's a real mystery here, one exceeding simple foul play or possible murder. My intuition also tells me that this may be part of some covert operation, and not even necessarily an American one.
But there are so many possibilities, that this has to be filed under the "You tell us" category.                           ...

Mystery of weapon cache found in dead man's home deepens

Jul 24th 2015 http://www.aol.com/article/2015/07/24/mystery-of-weapon-cache-found-in-dead-mans-home-deepens/21213834/

LOS ANGELES, Ca. (KTLA) -- The mystery around a Los Angeles man whose decomposing body was found in an SUV near a home filled with 1,200 guns, tons of ammunition and $230,000 in cash was only deepening Thursday. Identified by an attorney for his fiancée as Jeffrey Alan Lash, 60, the man apparently acted secretively for years, never explaining to those around him exactly what he did for a living.
When he died in early July after collapsing in a Santa Monica grocery store parking lot, Lash refused to go to a hospital or let anyone call 911, celebrity defense attorney Harlan Braun said in an interview with KTLA Wednesday evening.
Braun represents Lash's fiancée, Catherine Nebron, who fled to Oregon with an employee after leaving Lash's body parked in an SUV outside her home in the Palisades Highlands development of upscale Pacific Palisades. The disappearance of that employee, 39-year-old Dawn VadBunker, in turn prompted a missing person investigation from Oxnard police. VadBunker was found safe in Oregon, but has not contacted her family, her mother said.
VadBunker believes that Lash is an alien-human hybrid who was sent to Earth to protect the world, her mother told KTLA.
"It's worse than a 'Twilight Zone' movie, and we've lived through hell," Laura VadBunker said.
Meanwhile, Nebron returned to her home and was horrified to find the body of a man she had been with for 17 years still in the parked vehicle, Braun said. She contacted Braun with her story, asking him to call police on her behalf.
Lash had told Nebron that the "undercover government agencies" he worked for would take care of his body after he died, according to Braun.
"It's a very strange situation. She still believes it, to her core, that he was working for some government agency," Braun said. "These stories sound so crazy, and every time we turn around, we get corroboration for it."
Braun called police, who found the body. Then, in Nebron's home, they found a weapons cache she had described: more than 1,200 firearms and about 6 1/2 tons of ammunition, according to Braun.
The guns were worth $5 million, Braun said. Some $230,000 in cash was also found in the home, according to the attorney.
The Los Angeles Police Department has confirmed finding the body, weapons and ammunition on July 17. The county coroner's office was still not able to provide the identity of the deceased man as of Thursday.
Lash's father's domestic partner, 93-year-old Shirley Anderson, told KTLA that she and her partner never knew where Lash lived or had any way to get in touch with him. When Lash's father was dying, Anderson said she was unable to contact Lash, who never came to the funeral.
Lash's father and Anderson only saw Lash when he randomly appeared at their home. They last saw him in 2010, Anderson said.
Anderson told the Los Angeles Times that Lash had grown up in a modest neighborhood in Westchester with a pianist mother and microbiologist father who owned a medical laboratory. Lash dropped out of UCLA in the mid-1980s and had was a "loner," Anderson told the newspaper.
Anderson said she was unaware of any independent wealth that would allow Lash to purchase millions of dollars in weaponry.
An attorney who represented Lash in 2009 also called his client's behavior strange. Lash was charged with misdemeanor possession of a concealed weapon after being stopped by Culver City police, according to court documents. Because Lash had the ammunition and firearms in his vehicle properly stowed, the case was dropped, the attorney said.
Lash refused to give any contact information to the law firm, and would call once per day to get an update on the case, according to the lawyer.
A third lawyer, Robert Rentzer, told KTLA he had represented Lash for nearly 20 years, often in connection with his client's firearms. Lash was simply a gun collector and very private man, Rentzer said.
"A lot of people would call him odd because of his overwhelming desire for privacy," Rentzer said at his Tarzana office. "Some people considered him a little weird."
But Rentzer called the belief that Lash was a secret agent or an alien "laughable."
Nonetheless, he said he didn't know what Lash did for a living or how he afforded his extensive gun collection.
"I knew him to have this ... fetish for guns, to an excess. I don't know anybody who would have that inordinate number of weapons," Rentzer said. "And the collection only increased and increased."
Rentzer was surprised by the cash that was found in the home, as well as by the massive amount of ammunition.
"I do not know that he ever, ever, ever fired any of his guns. Never," Rentzer said. "He took pride in how they were maintained."
The attorney showed a note Lash had hand-written listing many of his guns and provided a grainy, black-and-white photo of Lash that he said was from 1998.
Braun said he too didn't know who Lash actually worked for. He said there was no evidence the man was selling guns or drugs.
"He could have been working for anyone," Braun said. "It's hard to imagine, however, that it's a total figment of his imagination because there is so much money involved. There's almost $5 million worth of guns that were taken by the police."
Photos from the scene of the police search show dozens and dozens of boxes of ammunition, a cash counter with thousands of dollars stacked nearby, and many piles of rifles and specialized firearms.
Several storage units remained to be searched, Braun said. He had heard that there were at least four heavily modified Toyota SUVs ready for combat and able to operate in various types of terrain, including in the desert and even underwater.
"If we find a car designed to go underwater, that's really bizarre," Braun said. "The real problem is if he was working for a government agency, American or foreign, they would never corroborate it."