The psychedelic secrets of Santa Claus

By Dana Larsen - Thursday, December 18 2003

TAGS: 

• CC46
 
• HISTORICAL
 
• MODERN
 
• SACRAMENT

Modern Christmas traditions are based on ancient mushroom-using shamans.

Although most people see Christmas as a Christian holiday, most of the symbols and icons we associate with Christmas celebrations are actually derived from the shamanistic traditions of the tribal peoples of pre-Christian Northern Europe.

The sacred mushroom of these people was the red and white amanita muscaria mushroom, also known as "fly agaric." These mushrooms are now commonly seen in books of fairy tales, and are usually associated with magic and fairies. This is because they contain potent hallucinogenic compounds, and were used by ancient peoples for insight and transcendental experiences.

Most of the major elements of the modern Christmas celebration, such as Santa Claus, Christmas trees, magical reindeer and the giving of gifts, are originally based upon the traditions surrounding the harvest and consumption of these most sacred mushrooms.

The world tree

These ancient peoples, including the Lapps of modern-day Finland, and the Koyak tribes of the central Russian steppes, believed in the idea of a World Tree. The World Tree was seen as a kind of cosmic axis, onto which the planes of the universe are fixed. The roots of the World Tree stretch down into the underworld, its trunk is the "middle earth" of everyday existence, and its branches reach upwards into the heavenly realm.

The amanita muscaria mushrooms grow only under certain types of trees, mostly firs and evergreens. The mushroom caps are the fruit of the larger mycelium beneath the soil which exists in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of the tree. To ancient people, these mushrooms were literally "the fruit of the tree."

The North Star was also considered sacred, since all other stars in the sky revolved around its fixed point. They associated this "Pole Star" with the World Tree and the central axis of the universe. The top of the World Tree touched the North Star, and the spirit of the shaman would climb the metaphorical tree, thereby passing into the realm of the gods. This is the true meaning of the star on top of the modern Christmas tree, and also the reason that the super-shaman Santa makes his home at the North Pole.

Ancient peoples were amazed at how these magical mushrooms sprang from the earth without any visible seed. They considered this "virgin birth" to have been the result of the morning dew, which was seen as the semen of the deity. The silver tinsel we drape onto our modern Christmas tree represents this divine fluid.

Reindeer games

The active ingredients of the amanita mushrooms are not metabolized by the body, and so they remain active in the urine. In fact, it is safer to drink the urine of one who has consumed the mushrooms than to eat the mushrooms directly, as many of the toxic compounds are processed and eliminated on the first pass through the body.

It was common practice among ancient people to recycle the potent effects of the mushroom by drinking each other's urine. The amanita's ingredients can remain potent even after six passes through the human body. Some scholars argue that this is the origin of the phrase "to get pissed," as this urine-drinking activity preceded alcohol by thousands of years.

Reindeer were the sacred animals of these semi-nomadic people, as the reindeer provided food, shelter, clothing and other necessities. Reindeer are also fond of eating the amanita mushrooms; they will seek them out, then prance about while under their influence. Often the urine of tripped-out reindeer would be consumed for its psychedelic effects.

This effect goes the other way too, as reindeer also enjoy the urine of a human, especially one who has consumed the mushrooms. In fact, reindeer will seek out human urine to drink, and some tribesmen carry sealskin containers of their own collected piss, which they use to attract stray reindeer back into the herd.

The effects of the amanita mushroom usually include sensations of size distortion and flying. The feeling of flying could account for the legends of flying reindeer, and legends of shamanic journeys included stories of winged reindeer, transporting their riders up to the highest branches of the World Tree.

Santa Claus, super shaman

Although the modern image of Santa Claus was created at least in part by the advertising department of Coca-Cola, in truth his appearance, clothing, mannerisms and companions all mark him as the reincarnation of these ancient mushroom-gathering shamans.

One of the side effects of eating amanita mushrooms is that the skin and facial features take on a flushed, ruddy glow. This is why Santa is always shown with glowing red cheeks and nose. Even Santa's jolly "Ho, ho, ho!" is the euphoric laugh of one who has indulged in the magic fungus.

Santa also dresses like a mushroom gatherer. When it was time to go out and harvest the magical mushrooms, the ancient shamans would dress much like Santa, wearing red and white fur-trimmed coats and long black boots.

These peoples lived in dwellings made of birch and reindeer hide, called "yurts." Somewhat similar to a teepee, the yurt's central smokehole is often also used as an entrance. After gathering the mushrooms from under the sacred trees where they appeared, the shamans would fill their sacks and return home. Climbing down the chimney-entrances, they would share out the mushroom's gifts with those within.

The amanita mushroom needs to be dried before being consumed; the drying process reduces the mushroom's toxicity while increasing its potency. The shaman would guide the group in stringing the mushrooms and hanging them around the hearth-fire to dry. This tradition is echoed in the modern stringing of popcorn and other items.

The psychedelic journeys taken under the influence of the amanita were also symbolized by a stick reaching up through the smokehole in the top of the yurt. The smokehole was the portal where the spirit of the shaman exited the physical plane.

Santa's famous magical journey, where his sleigh takes him around the whole planet in a single night, is developed from the "heavenly chariot," used by the gods from whom Santa and other shamanic figures are descended. The chariot of Odin, Thor and even the Egyptian god Osiris is now known as the Big Dipper, which circles around the North Star in a 24-hour period.

In different versions of the ancient story, the chariot was pulled by reindeer or horses. As the animals grow exhausted, their mingled spit and blood falls to the ground, forming the amanita mushrooms.

St Nicholas and Old Nick

Saint Nicholas is a legendary figure who supposedly lived during the fourth Century. His cult spread quickly and Nicholas became the patron saint of many varied groups, including judges, pawnbrokers, criminals, merchants, sailors, bakers, travelers, the poor, and children.

Most religious historians agree that St Nicholas did not actually exist as a real person, and was instead a Christianized version of earlier Pagan gods. Nicholas' legends were mainly created out of stories about the Teutonic god called Hold Nickar, known as Poseidon to the Greeks. This powerful sea god was known to gallop through the sky during the winter solstice, granting boons to his worshippers below.

When the Catholic Church created the character of St Nicholas, they took his name from "Nickar" and gave him Poseidon's title of "the Sailor." There are thousands of churches named in St Nicholas' honor, most of which were converted from temples to Poseidon and Hold Nickar. (As the ancient pagan deities were demonized by the Christian church, Hold Nickar's name also became associated with Satan, known as "Old Nick!")

Local traditions were incorporated into the new Christian holidays to make them more acceptable to the new converts. To these early Christians, Saint Nicholas became a sort of "super-shaman" who was overlaid upon their own shamanic cultural practices. Many images of Saint Nicholas from these early times show him wearing red and white, or standing in front of a red background with white spots, the design of the amanita mushroom.

St Nicholas also adopted some of the qualities of the legendary "Grandmother Befana" from Italy, who filled children's stockings with gifts. Her shrine at Bari, Italy, became a shrine to St Nicholas.

Modern world, ancient traditions

Some psychologists have discussed the "cognitive dissonance" which occurs when children are encouraged to believe in the literal existence of Santa Claus, only to have their parents' lie revealed when they are older. By so deceiving our children we rob them of a richer heritage, for the actual origin of these ancient rituals is rooted deep in our history and our collective unconscious. By better understanding the truths within these popular celebrations, we can better understand the modern world, and our place in it.

Many people in the modern world have rejected Christmas as being too commercial, claiming that this ritual of giving is actually a celebration of materialism and greed. Yet the true spirit of this winter festival lies not in the exchange of plastic toys, but in celebrating a gift from the earth: the fruiting top of a magical mushroom, and the revelatory experiences it can provide.

Instead of perpetuating outdated and confusing holiday myths, it might be more fulfilling to return to the original source of these seasonal celebrations. How about getting back to basics and enjoying some magical mushrooms with your loved ones this solstice? What better gift can a family share than a little piece of love and enlightenment?

FURTHER LINKS AND REFERENCES:

- The Hidden Meanings of Christmas, Mushroms and Mankind, by James Arthur
- Who put the Fly Agaric into Christmas?, Seventh International Mycological Congress, December 1999, Fungus of the Month
- The Real Story of Santa, The Spore Print, Los Angeles Mycological Society, December 1998
- Santa and those Reindeer: The Hallucinogenic Connection, The Physics of Christmas, by Roger Highfield
- Fungi, Fairy Rings and Father Christmas, North West Fungus Group, 1998 Presidential Address, by Dr Sean Edwards
- Fly Agaric, Tom Volk's Fungus of the Month for December 1999
- Father Christmas Flies on Toadstools, New Scientist, December 1986
- Psycho-mycological studies of amanita: From ancient sacrament to modern phobia, by Jonathan Ott, Journal of Psychedelic Drugs; 1976
- Santa is a Wildman, LA Times, Jeffrey Vallance

BOOKS WORTH READING:

- Mushrooms and Mankind, by James Arthur
- Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, by Gordon Wasson
- Mushrooms, Poisons and Panaceas, by Denis R. Benjamin

Mark Steel: Hands off our greedy bankers

It's the right of every Englishman to have his country robbed blind by the banks

You can see why, after 50 years of putting up with Europe, this was finally the issue where we couldn't take any more. Because the bastards were insisting we impose a vague regulation or two on our bankers and speculators, those brave and tireless souls who invest round the clock to keep us safe with not a thought for themselves. Well, the French had the audacity to suggest someone kept an eye on them from time to time. Haven't bankers suffered enough?

So, just like in 1940, we stand alone, and hopefully at every bus stop, you'll hear the plucky British saying: "Blooming Krauts, who do they think they are telling us our bankers aren't allowed to rob us blind? That's the right of every Englishman, to have his country robbed blind by bankers. Now Frau Merkel wants to make them only rob me nine-tenths blind until they get themselves straight. Well, we fought off the Luftwaffe, so we'll see off this lot an' all."

Soon we'll hear heartwarming stories of national pride, with old-age pensioners on the regional news saying: "I had £20 put by for a new hearing aid, but instead I've sent it off to Goldman Sachs to let them know I, for one, am willing to carry on getting fleeced by them, whether the Frogs say I can or not." And charming letters from children will be published, saying: "I wanted to stop those Europeans make nasty rules for our banks, so I sold my rabbit to the butcher and gave the money to Fred Goodwin. It might not be much, but it's all I've got".

There are many reasons to be suspicious of the European Union, but it seems the ones we're supposed to be annoyed about are when they pass rules stopping employers from making people work longer hours than anywhere else, or insisting on extra holidays.

And the City of London wasn't necessarily the most loved institution, so it's taken quite an effort for the Government to present an attempt to tax them slightly as a similar act to Hitler's invasion of Poland. So maybe other unpopular groups ought to try a similar strategy. Paedophiles should issue a statement saying: "Would you believe what they're suggesting in Strasbourg? They want a law regulating our porn sites across the whole European Union." Then the Daily Mail will scream that we simply can't tolerate this unconstitutional bullying.

And anyone caught going berserk in a public building with an axe can spend all week debating whether a European axe law would destroy our sovereignty and what the Hungarians were offering and whether we're isolated outside the Euro-lunatic zone, and, with a bit of luck, they'll have half the country in a state of confusion and the other half screaming, "At last! An axe murderer prepared to defend Britain!", while it's gently forgotten that decapitation shouldn't, on the whole, really be celebrated at all.

France Says NATO Bombing Has Failed

By FRANKLIN LAMB

Tripoli.

One of the jokes heard at this week’s massive pro-government Friday post prayer rally at Green Square (in most of the other Arab countries Fridays are days of rage against the government du jour but in Libya Friday prayers are followed by massive pro-Qadaffi rallies, attended two weeks ago by close to 65% of Tripoli’s population) is about how each morning Libya’s leader, following early morning Fajr prayers dons his formal uniform, complete with those huge epaulets, and salutes the small NATO flag he tapes to his bathroom mirror as he moves from place to place dodging NATO drones and assassins. “Our leader does this”, one young lady informed me first with a wide smile and then growing serious, “because the NATO bombing of Libyan civilians, which the US/NATO axis claims Qaddafi is doing, has caused his popularity to skyrocket among our proud and nationalist tribal people. I am one example of this. Yes, of course we can use some new blood and long overdue reform in our government. Which country cannot? But first we must defeat the NATO invaders and then we can sort out our problems among our tribes including the so-called “NATO Rebels.”

Since the beginning of the NATO operation (3/31/11) the alliance has conducted nearly 15,000 sorties, including close to 6000 bombing missions according to NATO’s media office in Naples, Italy (oup.media@gmail.com). The most recent attacks reported on 7/9/11 included 112 sorties and 48 bomb/missile attacks, and that is about average.

The two most active Embassies’ in Libya these days are the Russian and the Chinese. On 2/25/11, according to the Bulgarian Embassy staff, which was falsely rumored to be currently handling US consular services whereas it appears no one is doing here in Libya), the US Embassy essentially ordered all EU and NATO Embassies to pack up and join their chartered plane and boats. Libyan officials tell visitors that they were shocked by the fast exodus. “They did not even say goodbye. Suddenly they were on their way to the airport,” one Foreign Ministry advised during a meeting last week.

The Russian and Chinese leadership has grown increasingly critical of NATO’s actions in Libya and are now firmly demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Some cynics here are pointing out that these countries, unlike NATO, know exactly what they are doing and it includes the realization that they have an excellent chance to obtain many billions of dollars in lucrative contracts, which every official interviewed here has sworn, not one Libyan Dinar of which will ever again go to any NATO country, when its aggression is finally repelled. It is partly this realization that it’s “all or nothing” that keeps the US and its potent military asset, NATO, focused on assassinating Colonel Qaddafi and breaking his civilian support base. If Qaddafi lives, NATO loses and so do the current major oil industry contractors who are reportedly becoming depressed seeing reports of all the Russian and Chinese businessmen arriving in Libya.

NATO, Diplomatic, and Congressional sources confirm that the Obama Administration erred badly in thinking that Libya’s regime would collapse “in a few days, not weeks” as Obama assured the American public who has to pony up the estimated $ 5 billion thru July 31, 2011 costs. Obama’s egregious miscalculation may cost him his presidency if the economy does not.

As one student at Tripoli’s Al Fatah University commented, “What your American government has done in the region to destroy yourselves since 9/11 is amazing to Libyans. Now you are going to fight us? Why? You already had all our oil you wanted at a bargain prices, we stupidly put our sovereign funds in US banks and we did not even bother Israel much. Every day that NATO bombs it kills more Libyan civilians. We sacrificed nearly 1/3 of our population or more than one million of our brothers and sisters expelling the Italians 70 years ago. Doesn’t anyone in your government study history? We are not Bahrainis or Syrians. We are armed and will use our weapons. Among the errors our leadership has made, one of the worst is that it believed the US agreements we made in 2004. The Iranians and North Koreans laugh at us for trusting you and giving up our nuclear and biological weapons programs. Believe me dear, if Qadaffi leaves power you will miss him because the Libyan people will be tougher against your projects than he has been.”

On Sunday 7/10/11 France seemingly allied itself with Russia and China in calling on NATO to immediately stop its counterproductive and counterintuitive bombing, as more countries witness public demonstrations against NATO’s actions in Libya. French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said in Paris that it was time for Qaddafi loyalists, which France acknowledges have been rapidly increasing in number, and Libyan rebels “to sit around a table to reach a political compromise” because, he said, “there was no solution with force."

NATO and the Obama administration can have no part of a dialogue because they will be the major losers if peace comes to Libya without Qadaffi leaving power.

No sooner had the French Defense Minister spoken on 7/12/11, reflecting also the views of the British and Italian military, than the US State Department issued a statement insisting that “the United States will continue efforts as part of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) coalition to enforce a U.N. Security Council-authorized no-fly zone in Libya designed to protect civilians under threat of attack, the State Department said. The spokesman did not mention that the no-fly zone was achieved back in March in 48 hours and that no Libyan aircraft have flown since. Mission accomplished 100 days ago.

Hilary Clinton repeated her earlier words, "Our efforts in Libya will take time, but let there be no mistake that the political, military, and economic pressure on Qaddafi continues to grow. The allies will continue to increase pressure until the Libyan people are safe, their humanitarian needs met, and a transition of power is fully under way."

And so it goes. On 9 July 2011, NATO claimed its aircraft carried out another “precision strike on a pro-Qaddafi missile firing position near Tawurgha, south of Misrata. According to its media office, “NATO intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance were conducted over a period of time to ascertain the military use of the site. It was confirmed as being used to launch indiscriminate attacks on Libyan civilians in the area and a staging area by pro-Qaddafi villagers, including planning attacks on rebel forces near the port and city of Misrata.” The next morning, 7/10/11, local inhabitants denied that the farm had any military activity on the property and an examination of the farm buildings failed to discover any.

NATO is getting hammered by critics, including during its press conferences, especially by reporters from such groups as Jane’s Defense Weekly who know a thing or two about weapons and war. Last week Jane’s ridiculed the NATO commander who claimed that seeing satellite dishes on roofs were evidence of a particular site being a “Command and Control Center.” Jane’s found that assertion silly.

Congressional sources have been demanding answers from NATO, including the following incidences of civilian deaths caused by NATO’s bombs and rockets (70% of which are US supplied, raising serious legal and political questions under the 1976 US Arms Export Control Act) and which were forwarded by a Congressional NATO liaison staffer for comment. The exact cases sent to NATO from the US Congressional included the following with a demand for an explanation:

1. On May 13, 2011, a peace delegation of Muslim religious leaders having arrived in Brega to seek dialogue with fellow Sheikhs from the east of Libya, was bombed at 1 a.m. in their guesthouse by two US MK 82 bombs. Eleven of the Sheikhs were killed instantly and 14 were seriously injured. NATO claimed the building housed a “Command and Control Center.” All witnesses and the hotel owner have vehemently denied this claim.

2. During the early morning of June 20, 2011, 8 US missiles and bombs supplied to NATO targeted the home of Khaled Al-Hamedi and his parents and family. Fifteen family members and friends were killed, including Khaled’s pregnant wife, his sister and three of his children. NATO said it bombed the home because it was a military installation. Witnesses, neighbors and independent observers deny there was ever any military installation or troop presence on the property.

3. In late June, 2011 on the main road west of Tripoli, a public bus with 12 passengers was hit by a TOW missile killing all the passengers. NATO claimed that public buses are being used to transport military personnel. Foreign observers, including this one, unanimously aver that they have not seen military personnel in Tripoli, including tanks; APC’s or even military equipment.

4. On June 6, 2011, at 2:30 a.m. the central administrative complex of the Higher Committee for Children in central Tripoli, two blocks from this observer’s hotel, was bombed with a total of 12 bombs/rockets. The complex housed the National Downs Syndrome center including its records and vital statistics office, the Crippled Women’s Foundation, the Crippled Children Center, and the National Diabetic Research Center.

5. On June 16, 2011 at 5 a.m. NATO bombed a private hotel in central Tripoli, killing three people and destroying a restaurant and Shisha smoking bar.

NATO responses was to thank the Congressional office for the “interesting” information and then to explain, as NATO has been doing ad nausea recently, that, "By using civilian sites for military purposes, the Qadhafi regime has once again shows complete disregard for the welfare of Libyan civilians.”

NATO’s response continued, “Clearly, the main issue for NATO are allegations of civilian casualties, but it's important that we put those allegations in context of the NATO mission. Each and every civilian death is a tragedy. Obviously, more than we would like to see, sometimes, due to a technical failure, one of our weapons does not strike the intended military target. We deeply regret these tragic accidents and we always convey NATO condolences to the families of all those who may have been involved.”

NATO’S response continued: “When NATO believes we have caused civilian casualties we will say so and we will do it as swiftly as we can establish the facts. If you look at our track record after nearly 15,000 sorties and nearly 5,000 strike sorties you can see we have taken utmost care to avoid civilian casualties and will continue to do so. Finally let me assure your Office that our mission fully complies with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 and our mandate remains to use all necessary means to prevent attacks and the threat of attack against civilians and civilian populated areas.

As international pressure builds on the White House to call off the NATO bombing campaign, several proposals are being discussed within the African Union, the Russian and Chinese Embassy’s, and even between the “NATO rebels” and representatives of the Libya government in Tripoli.

One possible scenario might be for Libya to offer Obama and NATO a fig leaf which would include Colonel Qadaffi “retiring to his tent to write and reflect” while dialogue takes places among the Libyan people, including the tribes and 600 plus Peoples Congresses which of course should have been allowed to take place as Congressman Dennis Kucinich and others insisted back in February, 2011 before NATO invaded.

Franklin Lamb is reachable at fplamb@gmail.com

http://almanar.com.lb/english/catpage.php?frid=41

Greengonk's photostream

Greengonk's photostream on Flickr.

Wool Bwitannia



The Pomp and pageantry that draws the Wool over our eyes ... In a time of mass unemployment, homelessness & poverty you can almost hear our dear Royal Family echo the words, "Let them eat cake"...

Keiser Report on RT

Every week on RT Max Keiser looks at all the scandal behind the financial news headlines. This week Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert report on downgrades, gold bars and third worlds. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Taki Oldham, director of The Billionaires Tea Party, about tea parties, “astroturfing” and Ayn Rand.

Decentralized Global Rebellion against Neoliberal Economic Policies

In this edition of Press TV's On the Edge with Max Keiser, Max discusses the link between the worker's struggle in Wisconsin and the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia with the journalist and blogger, David DeGraw.

DeGraw believes what we are seeing in Wisconsin, Egypt, Tunisia and all over the world is a decentralized global rebellion against neo-liberal global economic policies. He believes the Federal Reserve, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, the IMF and the World Bank are the constituents of this destructive force.



Watch Max Keiser's excellent Keiser Report on Russia Today (available on Web, Youtube and Freeview)

Who they're working for

Shocking new financial manouevres by the British government show who it’s really working for.

[Y]ou must first understand that the government is not managing the economy for the people of this nation. It is managing it for a tiny transnational elite, a kind of global gated community. To the people inside the gates, who fund the Conservative party, who own our politics, the media and the banks, the rest of us are an inconvenience, to be bribed, threatened or fooled.

more...

Orwell's Memory Hole: Blame Britain's foreign policy for the terror thre...: "In her excellent novel, White Teeth, Zadie Smith reminds us that Britain has never been inhabited by one homogeneous tribe with one homogen..."

Egypt on the brink of a bloodbath
by Thierry Meyssan

The mainstream media are enthralled by the demonstrations in Egypt and are heralding the advent of a Western-style democracy throughout the Middle East. Thierry Meyssan refutes this interpretation. According to him, antagonistic forces have been set in motion, the outcome of which will turn against the order imposed by the United States in the region.

more...

The Crisis of Civilization



The Crisis of Civilization is a documentary feature film investigating how global crises like ecological disaster, financial meltdown, dwindling oil reserves, terrorism and food shortages are converging symptoms of a single, failed global system.

Weaving together archival film footage and animations, film-maker Dean Puckett (The Elephant In The Room) and international security analyst Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed – author of A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It - take you on a surreal journey through an alarming tapestry of global systemic failure.

Offering a stunning wake-up call proving that ‘another world’ is not merely possible, but on its way, they warn that the inability to recognize the interconnections between different crises is preventing us, as a civilization, from saving ourselves.

http://crisisofcivilization.com/film/

The Real MLK

Martin Luther King Jr. stood for revolutionary transformation; he is used today to support policies that he fought against.

Flamenco Against the Banksters

Video of one of a spate of anarchist flamenco actions against banks in southern Spain, this one in Seville. For many more similar videos see here

Russia Today: Ex-ambassador claims UK capitalized on Afghan adventure

The UK's former ambassador to Kabul has slammed the British army commanders in Afghanistan, accusing them of sacrificing an effective war strategy to cost-cutting – a revelation that RT’s military analyst Evgeny Khrushchev says outshines WikiLeaks.

Khrushchev says Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles revealed that the British military used their NATO mission in Afghanistan as a “military safari to enhance and to expand their UK military budget.”

“What the ambassador failed to say is that it was the British military presence on the ground in Helmund province that jump-started and exponentially expanded the opium production from southern Afghanistan to all across the country, under the watchful guidance and protection of the brave British soldiers,” Khruschev adds.

UK diplomat admits: 'We went to war to keep the Army busy'.

Now we have it from a member of the corrupt old British establishment why the British army was so keen on going to Afghanistan. It feared cuts in manpower if it couldn't be used somewhere!!

"Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles said he had been told by the former head of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, that if he did not re-deploy battlegroups coming free from Iraq he would lose them in a future defence review."

"In a written memorandum to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, he said the Afghan campaign had seen 'unprecedented' resources diverted to the Army, and that most soldiers appeared to be 'enjoying' it."

Predictably, Dannatt denied the allegation to which Cowper-Coles replied,'He is lying, I am afraid. I can recall him saying it, sitting in his office in the Ministry of Defence.'

Another reason given was that it was a face-saving exercise.

"Sir Sherard said British commanders also saw the mission in Afghanistan as an opportunity to redeem their reputation in the eyes of the Americans after the criticisms of their performance in Basra."

"The war in Afghanistan has given the British Army a raison d'etre it has lacked for many years, and new resources on an unprecedented scale,' he said."

Raison d'etre? Well, if you think about it, if the British army was not in Ulster, Iraq or Afghanistan where else could it go to shoot up the population? The streets of Birmingham, Manchester and London?

Carnival of Resistance

A film made of the student demonstrations against tuition fee increases last year. Tuition fee increases were one of the early austerity measures implemented by a reactionary Coalition government. What will happen when other austerity measures begin to hurt people? Will young and old join together with the trades unions in an organized resistance against the concerted attacks against them being made by the capitalist system and its gangsters-in-charge?

Will the rest of this country now follow the example of our young?

Imperialism & the Crisis of Capitalism

Veteran left-winger, Tariq Ali, links the global struggle against the Evil Empire to the unrest and rebellion now beginning to manifest in Britain as a result of the austerity measures taken by the Coalition's ruling elite in response to the self-induced crisis brought about by the greed and fraud of the banksters.

"Austerity measures are creating a new mood all over Europe, not just in this country with the student rebellion. All over Europe there is a new mood, people wanting answers, people knowing instinctively that there is an alternative, as of course there is an alternative, and the alternative is to challenge the domination of this form of capitalism ... We have to carry on, young and old together, fighting against a system that tries to stop us and that tries to punish us for all its own mistakes."

And on the nature of the struggle Tariq observes, "There has to be a constant fight back. This is nothing new, it's a continuum. And it will carry on being a continuum as long as successive British governments, Labour, Tory or Coalition are linked into the American war-machine. This is a tiny north-European country. It should not have such a large military force, it should not be attached to the American Empire, but it is ... we have to understand the reasons ... the British economy is highly dependent on global capitalism. What happens to that capitalism affects how Britain is governed, affects how capitalism rules in this country and the alternative to the imperialist system requires an alternative form of rule in this country which says very clearly and firmly that the market and profit are not the priorities of any progressive state. Once you've said that then you can move progressively forward."

Seeds of Revolution?

The video below was filmed for the Coalition of Resistance at the Youth, Students and Educational Workshop in Camden, London, UK last November. It highlights a 15-year-old speaker who shares his experiences following the student demonstrations against tuition fee increases.

Listening to him, it is clear that the experience of a mass demonstration has given this youth a sense of political militancy which he otherwise might have missed out on. While demonstrations are largely ignored by our ruling elites and suitably vilified by their media whores they do provide a sense of solidarity and common purpose which the otherwise alienated individual might never experience. And the real, repressive face of the state is seen by all to raise its ugly head in the violent methods of the Police who, after all, are only doing the dirty work of the politicians who rubber-stamp their methods.

Here is a young student who has woken up to the nasty realities of the world we live in. He is one of many others who underwent a similar experience during those recent demos. As the swingeing spending cuts being implemented by Britain's reactionary Coalition government hit its people we must hope that the students' reaction heralded just the beginning of many more similar and greater demonstrations against the state and the capitalist system. For in doing so, the people of Britain would be joining to bring about a far greater revolution, already beginning to take place in other parts of Europe and the World.

For more read Counterfire.org

War on Terror? War IS Terror!

Biden: "We are not leaving in 2014"

Recent utterances by US Vice-President, Joe Biden, confirm that US occupation forces in Afghanistan have no intention of leaving in three years' time.

The release of large amounts of classified documents has shown how eager the administration is to tell the American public the exact opposite of what they are telling one another. It seems that the classification system isn’t even necessary for this, however, as Vice President Biden, fresh off of pledging to the American people that the US would be totally out of Afghanistan “come hell or high water, by 2014” has now told a completely different story to Afghan officials.

Biden was in Kabul last Tuesday when he promised Karzai a lasting American commitment to the country well beyond 2014, when NATO forces are scheduled to turn over security of the nation to Afghan forces.

So despite any pretence to their public by US or UK politicians it looks like the Evil Empire sees its current occupation of Afghanistan (as well as Iraq) as part of its long-term geopolitical strategy of global 'full spectrum dominance'.

We have already seen how NATO, the cat's-paw of US neo-colonialist foreign policy, was pulled into helping police a military occupation thousands of miles away from the north Atlantic, causing that organization to morph into a global military force as NATO International. Some of us remember the empty promise made by NATO, during the days of the Cold War, that when the Warsaw Pact dissolved itself so would NATO. Far from dissolving itself NATO has grown into a global military force.

Currently there are some 150,000 NATO troops, predominantly from the United States, and NATO estimates that there are 25,000 Taliban forces in the country, which is the exact same estimate they made a year ago. Despite claims of “progress” in the war, violence is still on the rise across the nation.

And while Asia is still the primary focus of attention the US is increasingly looking to Africa as the next big source of energy supplies necessary for its interests. More of that anon...

Anonymous, WikiLeaks and The Matrix Generation

Throughout history, each new generation has questioned and rebelled against what had come before. Generations X and Y grew up with the dot-com bubble and ubiquitous digital technology. This group of teens and young adults today has largely been viewed as tamed, apathetic, and glued to their screens. Yet, now the little known underground subculture of hackers that was brought to worldwide attention by WikiLeaks seems to call for a shift in this view. Here arose a pocket of passionate activists united through sharing ideas beyond cultural and geopolitical boundaries in the spirit of the open source principles. This has brought fire to a public contaminated by cynicism. Perhaps this generation is following the age-old tradition of youthful idealism rebelling against the inequities of the established order after all.

Each age has had a literary imagination that guided it. There was the Tolkien masterpiece, Lord of the Rings and then Star Trek. Now, The Matrix has become a central story of this generation. What is emerging now is the Matrix Generation.



In an article called Generation W: WikiLeaks Ignites a New Generation of Hacktivists, Urizenus Sklar (Jan 4, 2011) described how the challenges of this age have ignited a new generation of hacktivists that is indicative of an emerging worldwide culture of dissent among the younger generation. He characterizes this as reacting to the governmental abuses of the George W. Bush era. But, in reality the current malaise goes much deeper than a particular regime, as an ever evolving cancer of corruption and abuse of power has been emanating from Washington for some time and has become pervasive as a corporate and government model all over the world. People are now starting to confront in a more widespread fashion the systemic moral corruption that has been building and WikiLeaks has catalyzed and empowered this backlash ...

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Taliban can fight Forever

Continuing the TRNN discussion between Paul Jay and Rahimullah Yusufzai why the Afghan 'war' is unwinnable ... and an occupation equally fraught with disaster.

Afghanistan: from Occupation to Permanent Occupation?

One has to ask why the US keeps shifting its goal-posts for troops withdrawal. While the spin put out to the public is that US/NATO still hopes to win this so-called war on terror the reality is that the presence of US/NATO in Afghanistan has geopolitical motives and, as such, is an Occupation and not a war. The fake War on Terror, launched after the 911 conspiracy, was simply the ideological rationale fabricated by the warmongers to hide their naked aggression in what is nothing more than 21st Century colonialism or Full Spectrum Dominance.

The US has over 700 military bases across the world.

It was never a question of whether the Evil Empire would 'win' in Afghanistan but simply one of how it could enter that country and establish its bases for a permanent military presence. The fake war on the Al Qaeda bogeyman gave them that excuse. And unless US/NATO is hammered into submission by the Afghan resistance we can expect to see them in that country for a very long time.

Meantime, our ruling elite will continue to shed crocodile tears over the blood sacrifice of countless innocent Afghan lives and those of our young men and women as they become cannon-fodder in the interests of the US Military-Industrial-Political Complex and business corporations. The evil pretence will go on and on and on...

Afghanistan's Untold Story


Blogger Michael Caddell on Radio Free Kansas interviews Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, co-authors of Invisible History, Afghanistan's Untold Story.

Those who want to understand the history of Afghanistan up to and including its occupation by US/NATO forces need to read this book and listen to this interview.

"Invisible History presents a fresh, comprehensive analysis of Afghanistan's political history that begins at the roots of tribal leadership and ultimately emphasizes our current political moment and the impact of ongoing US military intervention. Fitzgerald and Gould tell the real story of how the US came to be in Afghanistan..."

PDF Excerpts

INVISIBLE HISTORY BLOG

Wikileaks and the New Global Gestapo

The US Department of Justice has issued a subpeona against Twitter demanding customer account details of Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, Rop Gongrijp, and Icelandic MP, Birgitta Jonsdottir.

As well as this the subpoena goes onto demand all the IP addresses of the 670,000 people worldwide who connected to the Wikileaks account.

Iceland's Foreign Minister, Oessur Skarphedinsson, said it was not acceptable that US authorities had demanded the information.

"According to the documents that I have seen, an Icelandic parliamentarian is being investigated in a criminal case in the United States for no reason at all," Skarphedinsson
told Icelandic public radio RUV.

"It is intolerable that an elected representative is being treated like that," he said.

Birgitta Jonsdottir said that "(The) USA government wants to know about all my tweets and more since 1 November 2009. Do they realize I am a member of parliament in Iceland?"

Jonsdottir helped release a video that showed the killing of innocent Iraqi civilians. "I think I am being given a message, almost like someone breathing in a phone," she said.

The same could be said by the 670,000 other individuals that the US government is now seeking to terrorize through the obtaining of their IPs. What should we expect next? Targeted hacking by the CIA, mass arrests or a class action?

The Evil Empire, Drugs and Racism

The Anglo-American Empire's 'War on Drugs' is as credible as its 'War on Terror'. Both are a fake of the kind George Orwell warned us about. Once the pretend 'Red Menace' vanished into thin air with the demise of the Soviet Union, the Anglo-American axis was left with no bogeyman with which to frighten and bully its populations into doing as they were told, never mind a huge loss of their civil liberties on both sides of the Atlantic.

The carefully-fabricated 911 was the moment when that spurious 'War on Terror' was launched, the moment when both Bush II and his English sidekick, Tony Blair, steered their ships-of-state into the depths of totalitarianism, war criminality and government-sponsored evil. Just as the 'War on Terror' permitted the Anglo-American axis to perpetrate evil in the form of genocide, the 'War on Drugs' permits its secret services to profit hugely from the black market on drugs. Now we hear that "85% of all drugs produced in Afghanistan are shipped out by US aircraft." Why doesn't this surprise us?

After what the Axis has been responsible for in its respective pasts (including the British-sponsored opium trade in the nineteenth century) it should not surprise us that the behaviour of our rulers has really not changed. All that has changed is the spin and packaging required to convince us proles that we really do live in democracies where governments operate in our interests rather than their own.

The 'War on Terror' was quite cleverly devised, where the enemy was identified as both non-white and an historic enemy of the Christian west, Islam. So not only could the proles identify an historic non-white enemy but exercise a deep-seated racism that anyone who is not white is, by definition, not only inferior but shifty and dangerous. The whole thing was devised on shock and awe with the collapse of the Twin Towers and the emotional hype of Islamic 'terrorism' that followed and which continues to this day.

This writer has consistently argued that the much-vaunted 'special relationship' between Britain and the US is only a special relationship insofar as the interests of Anglo-American capital are concerned and where British governments continue to hang onto Uncle Sam's coat-tails for the military power it allows them to associate with.

Without it, Britain would stand exposed as a post-imperial nation, disunited and in demise. And the price required of us all by our ruling elite to continue the pretence is paid daily in the blood of our young men and women who are sent out to die fighting the Axis' military adventures and others who pay the price in becoming victims of the Empire's drugs black-market.

US & The Deathly Deficit



Another edition of the Keiser Report, probably the only intelligent financial report available on any TV channel which reports the scams on Wall Street and tells it like it is.

The BBC, the Police and Tommy Sheridan

BBC lies, pro-zionist and right-wing anti-union tendencies are highlighted on this blog from time-to-time. Here is a case of outrageous bias by BBC Scotland regarding the recent trial of the ex-leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, Tommy Sheridan.

Which yet again begs the question, in what other country in the world outside of this Disunited Kingdom do the proles have to pay for a television channel which is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the ruling elite?

News from Airstrip One

If there's anyone out there still labouring under the delusion that we enjoy democracy in this little west European enclave of the US Empire, then they would be advised to read this

The unwritten British Constitution is not only unwritten, it is non-existent. Any society whose 'constitutionality' is based on a series of precedents --as is this one's-- remains under the constant danger that a tyrant will come along and do away with those precedents. This was exactly what happened when Tony Blair used his ill-gotten parliamentary majority to do away with the protection of Habeas Corpus, using the excuse of Bush II's fake War on Terror to take us much further down the road to a police state.

Written in the style of black humour this little booklet exposes the big lie behind the 'bread and circuses' of the 'British Constitution'. The corruption exposed in the MPs expenses scandal lies only at the tip of an iceberg of corruption, privilege and dysfunctionality that plagues this Disunited Kingdom. Something that only some kind of root-and-branch revolution could hope to clean out.

The Keiser Report & the Seeds of Evil





After a prolonged vacation from blogging I am back, starting with the excellent Keiser Report from Russia Today (Ch 85 on Freeview). Max Keiser, an ex-Wall Street investor, blows the scams and corruption of Wall Street capitalism. This edition is devoted to the Wikileaks exposé of the way the USG is doing Monsanto's dirty work by attacking European countries for refusing their GM poison, another version of fiat currency slavery as Max points out.