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Monday, 15 December 2014

Neuronal circuits filter out distractions in the brain

neural connections

© Bo Li, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientists have identified neural connections between the cortex, thalamus, and TRN (TRN neurons shown in red, left and right panels) that help filter out distractions. Loss of a single protein in the TRN (shown here in green, middle and right panels) dramatically affects the function of the neural circuit and changes how mice focus.



The next time you are in a crowded room, or a meeting, or even at the park with your kids, take a look around. How many people are on their phone? Distractions invade every aspect of our lives. Status updates, text messages, email notifications all threaten to steal our attention away from the moment. While we fight the urge to check the phone, our brains are making constant judgment calls about where to focus attention. The brain must continually filter important information from irrelevant interference.

Scientists have hypothesized for decades about how the brain might accomplish this, but it has been challenging to find evidence to support the theories. Now, researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have identified a neural circuit in the mouse brain that controls attention and sensory processing, providing insight into how the brain filters out distractions. The work has implications for devastating psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia that are characterized at least in part by significant attention deficits.


The cortex is the region of the brain where most cognitive function happens. It is there that information is processed and interpreted, and decisions are made. But sensory information must pass through a neuronal gate, called the thalamus, on its way to the cortex. The thalamus, a ball-shaped bundle of neurons, is coated in a thin neuronal skin called the thalamic reticular nucleus, or TRN. As early as 1984, Nobel laureate Francis Crick hypothesized that the TRN might function like a guardian of the gate, regulating precisely which information is worthy of being passed on through the thalamus to the cortex for further analysis.


Researchers were intrigued by the hypothesis but faced technical struggles to prove that it was correct. Given the unique anatomical structure of the TRN - analogous to the skin on an apple - scientists were unable to target those neurons specifically. Still, evidence began to mount that the theory could be correct. Dysfunction of the TRN has been implicated in schizophrenia, and activity in the TRN correlates with sensory detection and attention.


Now, nearly 30 years after Crick's hypothesis, a team of CSHL scientists led by Associate Professor Bo Li has been able to provide the elusive evidence that the TRN regulates signaling between the cortex and thalamus. Together, the three structures form a circuit that controls attention and sensory processing in the mouse brain.


Using new viral technology combined with mouse models developed by CSHL Professor Josh Huang, Li and his team found a way to precisely target the TRN. They inactivated a single protein, called ErbB4, specifically in the TRN. Mutations in ErbB4 have been associated in prior studies with schizophrenia and other attention deficit disorders. The protein is found in large amounts in the TRN.


The team found that loss of ErbB4 in the TRN greatly affects the animal's ability to focus amid distractions. "When ErbB4 is absent, we saw that the connections between the cortex and the TRN become much stronger," explains Li. "This perturbs the role of the TRN as a guardian of the thalamus 'gate,' and provides a mechanism for the hypothesis that Crick proposed so long ago."


Beyond offering new insights into the neuronal basis of attention, the research suggests possible targets for therapeutics to treat attention deficit disorders as well as attention problems in broader illnesses including schizophrenia. According to Li, the next step is "to understand how loss of ErbB4 enhances the connections between the cortex and the TRN, which will hopefully enable us to pinpoint more drug targets in the future."


More information: "ErbB4 regulation of a thalamic reticular nucleus circuit for sensory selection" appears online in on December 15, 2014: doi


Journal reference: Nature Neuroscience


Provided by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory


Want something else to read? How about 'Grievous Censorship' By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed's Blog


High carb diet associated with lower good cholesterol, obviously


HDL is commonly referred to as "good cholesterol," as clearly higher levels of this carrier protein are associated with a reduced risk for accumulation of atherosclerosis within the walls of arteries, especially the arteries that supply blood to the heart.

While so much attention is focused on total cholesterol, as well as LDL, which unfortunately has been given the name "bad cholesterol," it seems clear that it is fair to explore what can be done to raise HDL since it is so important for vascular health.


As it turns out, diet does in fact playing important role in determining a person's HDL level. In a study appearing in the , Canadian researchers evaluated the diets of 619 Canadians of either Aboriginal, South Asian, Chinese, or European descent who had no previously diagnosed medical conditions.


The researchers were particularly interested in the amount of carbohydrate intake in comparison to HDL, and what they found was really quite profound. In comparing those who diets were highest in carbohydrate consumption with those who favored a lower carbohydrate diet, those who ate the least amount of carbohydrates had an HDL that was, on average, 11% higher.


So this is a very interesting report in that it again validates the importance of a lower carbohydrate, higher fat diet in terms of, in this case, an important cardiovascular risk marker, HDL.


In this day and age, when lipid profiles tend to pave the way for pharmaceutical intervention, it's really nice to know that there is good science that validates the notion that food does and should factor into the equation.


Want something else to read? How about 'Grievous Censorship' By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed's Blog


The U.S. is using Ukraine as a launching-pad against Russia

On Saturday, December 13th, Russian media reported that U.S. President Obama evidently can't wait to sign the congressional authorization for war against Russia (which has already been passed in draft form by 98% of U.S. House members and 100% of U.S. Senate members), and that he is already shipping military supplies into Ukraine for use against Ukraine's ethnic Russians that the Ukrainian Government is trying to eliminate.

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Mikhail Emelyanov, a leading Russian parliamentarian, was quoted as saying on Saturday, Russia "cannot calmly watch as the US arms Ukraine with the most modern lethal weapons. In this regard, we should not appear weak. The situation is very alarming. Judging by US intentions, they want to turn Ukraine into a fighting platform against Russia."

The popular Russian website "Colonel Cassad" reports that the reason why Ukraine's airports in Zaporozyhe, Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk mysteriously shut down for other traffic on Saturday was to unload weapons-shipments from the U.S. Specifically, it said that, at Zaporozyhe,



"one of the airport workers replied that the airport has to be prepared to accept military aircraft with equipment, including Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk. The equipment is expected from the United States."



For the time being, civilian traffic at all three of those airports is being reduced during the next few days, in order to unload that U.S. freight.

Also reported Saturday at fortruss.blogspot was that,



"Right now at Zaporozhye airport they are unloading two transport planes from USA. Cargo is in boxes. According to additional information two more planes are expected to arrive."



Just one day prior, had bannered on Friday, "Who Will Foot the Bill in Ukraine?" and their reporter naively claimed that, "little aid is forthcoming for Ukraine as its government faces a shortfall."

© Unknown

The “aid” is actually already coming, in the form of U.S. military cargo shipments, gratis from U.S. taxpayers



The "aid" is actually already coming, in the form of U.S. military cargo shipments, gratis from U.S. taxpayers (though hardly gratis from the U.S. armaments-makers, whose business is booming from this). And the Ukraine "government faces a shortfall" thing is actually far worse than that: as Forbes's Mark Adomanis headlined on April 15th, "Ukraine's Economy Is Nearing Collapse." He reported, "The central bank was forced to take such desperate measures because the currency has been in free fall, losing more than 35% of its value against the dollar this year. The Hryvnia has been the world's worst performing currency in 2014." And:

"The only reason that things haven't totally imploded is because of the $18 billion package of assistance from the IMF and the $9 billion in additional assistance pledged by the United States and the European Union. This financial assistance is desperately needed and will obviously help the Ukrainian government keep the lights on. The problem is that Ukraine's funding needs aren't a static target but are directly influenced by changes in its economic outlook. Since that economic outlook is darkening, Ukraine's already large funding needs have grown commensurately."



's Kenneth Rapoza then noted on November 12th, "The nation's currency, the hryvnia, has lost 91.5% of its value so far this year."

On December 11th, Ukraine's new Minister of Economic Development admitted, "By and large, the state is bankrupt."



So: U.S. and European taxpayers will be funding all of those 'loans,' which will never be paid back, they're actually donations instead of loans, because Ukraine was already tens of billions of dollars in debt even before the West took over; and none of these additional 'debts' will be able to be paid back one cent unless and until those earlier debts are, which will never be possible in that spiraling-downward country, which is now designing a military graveyard with a capacity for 250,000 fresh corpses of Ukrainian soldiers, and that's not a very productive "investment" for any country to be making. America's 'investment' in Ukraine is an 'investment' in corpses; and far more of those will be of the millions of residents in the targeted region than of the soldiers on either side of the conflict.

One of Russia's loans to Ukraine has a provision saying that if Ukraine's ratio of debt to GDP exceeds 60%, then Russia can demand and Ukraine must pay in cash the full due amount. The ratio has already exceeded that, but the official figure won't be announced until March 2015, and, as Britain's Economist noted, "That could trigger a default on all Ukraine's other international bonds (which are worth about $16 billion up to 2023)." So: all of the money that is being 'loaned' to Ukraine now is purely a donation, since Russia will certainly pull the plug and flush Ukraine down the toilet this coming Spring. Then, all of a sudden, that $16 billion in cash will need to be put up by the Ukrainian Government, and whatever there is to put up, practically all of it will have to be paid to Ukraine's old chief lender: Russia. The West will get little or nothing of it.


Washington isn't out to help the Ukrainian people; it's solely using Ukraine as a launching-pad for WW III against Russia. That's all it's "good for" now. And that's what Obama is using it for: to slaughter, first, the residents in the parts of Ukraine that refuse to be ruled by the regime that Obama put in place; and, then, everybody else .


If this sounds crazy (and of course it does), then please ask your two Senators and your one Representative in the House: "Why did you vote to approve sending weapons to the Ukrainian Government?" (Mine refuses to answer.)


Please then report back here, in the reader-comments below, what the answer to that question is. Everyone who reads this article here will be interested to know what the answer to that question is.


Here is the list of the only 10 members of Congress who voted NO on that bill, and all of them are in the House:


California's George Miller (D)


California's Dana Rohrabacher (R)


Florida's Alan Grayson (D)


Florida's Alcee Hastings (D)


Kentucky's Thomas Massie (R)


Michigan's Justin Amash (R)


North Carolina's Walter Jones (R)


Tennessee's John Duncan (R)


Texas's Beto O'Rourke (D)


Washington's Jim McDermott (D)


If any of those Representatives happens to be yours, then don't ask him why he voted for the bill; he voted it.



Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.



Want something else to read? How about 'Grievous Censorship' By The Guardian: Israel, Gaza And The Termination Of Nafeez Ahmed's Blog


Manufactured terror attack in Sydney: Who benefits?


© Unknown

Serving no purpose besides giving the West increased justification for

executing total war against Syria and then Iran as it has desperately sought for

years, the latest "terror attack" in Australia unfolds amid a community with

infiltrated mosques filled with eager supporters of America's proxy war on Damascus.



Reports indicate that a gunman dressed in Al Qaeda or "Islamic State" (ISIS) attire has taken hostages in a cafe in the Australian city of Sydney. Demands made by the gunman include being allowed to contact Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and bringing him the Al Qaeda/ISIS flag.

The latest incident should be examined in the context of ISIS' genesis and the source of its ability to seemingly menace the entire planet with violence and acts of terrorism with seemingly inexhaustible resources.


The United States, Saudi Arabia, Israel and several other European and Middle Eastern partners openly conspired to use Al Qaeda as a regional mercenary force in a proxy war against Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah in Lebanon as far back as 2007. Having then materialized this force in 2011 and having openly trained, armed, funded, equipped, and harbored this terrorist force since then - up to and including today - the "Sydney Siege" is but the latest, predictable fallout from the West's global state-sponsored terrorism.


The so-called "Islamic State" - neither "Islamic" nor a "state" - is in reality simply a rebrand of Al Qaeda - Al Qaeda itself the terrorist front created by US and Saudi intelligence agencies as part of another covert, proxy war - then, against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.



© Unknown

NATO's proxy forces in Libya in 2011 attempted to cover

their ties to Al Qaeda. Today, they openly fly the "ISIS" flag. The

only constant is the West's continued financial and military sponsorship.



As evidence of this "rebrand," nearly all organizations from North Africa, across the Middle East, and their affiliates in southern Russia, Central Asia, and even China which had previously operated either affiliated to or directly under the banner of Al Qaeda have seamlessly realigned themselves with ISIS. These groups include Libyan terrorist organizations such as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) - both of whom received NATO air cover, weapons, and cash during the West's 2011 bid to reorder the nation of Libya.

In all, from attempting to directly overthrow the Syrian government with a massive, regional armed terrorist front, to using this front as a pretext for direct military intervention, the story of ISIS' rise is also the story of America's hegemonic designs across the greater Middle East. The campaign of destruction across Syria and in neighboring countries is but one Western objective ISIS helps serve - the other is manipulating public perception through staged terror threats worldwide to create a climate of fear across the West and build support for expanding direct military intervention in both Syria and Iraq.


One must ask themselves, who truly possesses the ability - financially, strategically, tactically, and logistically - to conduct a regional war spanning three nations all while planning and carrying out terror attacks globally from the US to Australia? The answer is, the same interests that plotted to destroy US civilian airliners to provoke a war with Cuba in the 1960's and carried out an extensive terrorist campaign across Europe during the Cold War to frame the Soviet Union and its sympathizers while advancing its own political agenda among member nations. The answer is the US, NATO, and their allies.


Sydney is ISIS Heaven - and the Government Knew for Decades

A torrent of fighters in Syria have streamed into the country from Sydney, Australia. Reuters would explain why in an article titled, "Crime and gangs: the path to battle for Australia's Islamist radicals," stating that:



At least half of Australia's Muslims live in Sydney's western suburbs, which were transformed in the mid-1970s from white working-class enclaves into majority-Muslim outposts by a surge of immigration from Lebanon.



And among these "outposts" have come many fighters eagerly seeking to join US-backed violence in Syria. Clearly within Sydney exists networks for indoctrinating and recruiting fighters - a network not only well known to Australian security agencies for literally decades, but most likely run directly by them and their American and British counterparts.

The infiltration of mosques across the West and their use in co-opting and directing operations to advance foreign and domestic policy is a matter of documented fact. British MI5 regularly infiltrates and co-opts Muslim leaders, cultivating and then co-opting radicals. The BBC would report in its article, "Abu Hamza trial: Defence claims radical worked with MI5," that:



Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri acted as a secret intermediary with MI5, his lawyers have claimed.




The Egyptian-born preacher, on trial in New York charged with terror offences, claims he was tasked to "keep the streets of London safe".




It is not the first time he has made the claim, having previously said that MI5 first contacted him in 1997.



Evidence to prove Abu Hamza's defense was predictably ruled "inadmissible."

© Unknown

In 2005, then PM John Howard wanted Australia's mosques infiltrated.

In the US and UK, most "radicals" are approached and manipulated for months or even years by handlers from security agencies.



For Australia, as early as 2005, then Prime Minister John Howard would openly advocate similar infiltrations. In a Bloomberg report titled, "Australia's Howard Says Govt May Infiltrate Mosques, Schools," it stated:

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the government may infiltrate mosques, prayer halls and schools to detect any teaching of the "virtues of terrorism."




"We have a right to know whether there is, within any section of the Islamic community, a preaching of the virtues of terrorism,'' Howard told Radio 6PR in Perth when asked if the government was prepared to "get inside" mosques, prayer halls and schools. Or, "whether any comfort or harbor is given to terrorism within that community."



After extensive police raids netting numerous suspects in September 2014, and with Australia both supportive and complicit in the West's growing surveillance grid, global audiences are expected to believe this latest event was spontaneous, unpredictable, and unpreventable, rather than a product of a radical community first scoured for recruits for the West's proxy war, and now being used to stir up support for direct Western military intervention in that failed war.

Previously Staged "Sting" Operations May Shed Light on "Sydney Siege"


US terror operations literally engineered by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) bear a striking resemblance to the terror event in Sydney and may offer clues as to how it was really planned, by whom, and for what purpose. It was also in September of this year that the FBI "foiled" its own "ISIS" terror attack. The FBI's own official press release stated (emphasis added):



According to court records, Elfgeeh attempted to provide material support to ISIS in the form of personnel, namely three individuals, two of whom were cooperating with the FBI. Elfgeeh attempted to assist all three individuals in traveling to Syria to join and fight on behalf of ISIS. Elfgeeh also plotted to shoot and kill members of the United States military who had returned from Iraq. As part of the plan to kill soldiers, Elfgeeh purchased two handguns equipped with firearm silencers and ammunition from a confidential source. The handguns were made inoperable by the FBI before the confidential source gave them to Elfgeeh.



A recent "ISIS" attack in Canada also included a suspect already known to both US and Canadian security agencies, who by all accounts should have already been arrested. His successful execution of a terror shooting appears to simply have been an entrapment operation where he received a functional weapon and a green light instead of a weapon made inoperable before being arrested.


© Unknown



One must wonder then, if the prospective terrorist who took hostages in Sydney received his weapon from security agents entrapping him as well. Was a functioning weapon given in place of an inoperative one, thus transforming a potentially "foiled" plot to a "live" attack as the FBI did in 1993 during the first World Trade Center bombing?

Indeed, in 1993, terrorists plotting to detonate a bomb in the basement of the World Trade Center were under surveillance by the FBI. An FBI informant had noted in taped phone conversations with FBI agents that for some inexplicable reason, a functioning bomb was allowed by FBI agents to be built instead of an inoperative device. In their article, "Tapes Depict Proposal to Thwart Bomb Used in Trade Center Blast," the New York Times reported (emphasis added):



Law-enforcement officials were told that terrorists were building a bomb that was eventually used to blow up the World Trade Center, and they planned to thwart the plotters by secretly substituting harmless powder for the explosives, an informer said after the blast.




The informer was to have helped the plotters build the bomb and supply the fake powder,but the plan was called off by an F.B.I. supervisor who had other ideas about how the informer, Emad A. Salem, should be used, the informer said.




The account, which is given in the transcript of hundreds of hours of tape recordings Mr. Salem secretly made of his talks with law-enforcement agents, portrays the authorities as in a far better position than previously known to foil the Feb. 26 bombing of New York City's tallest towers. The explosion left six people dead, more than 1,000 injured and damages in excess of half a billion dollars.



While the role of Western security agencies in the recent "Sydney Siege" may never be known - what is known as absolute fact is that ISIS is a premeditated creation of the West to advance its foreign policy abroad, particularly in Syria and against the nation of Iran. It is also known as absolute fact that the use of terrorism by the West against its own people and those it considers its enemies has become a long established aspect of Western foreign and domestic policy. If the so-called "Sydney Siege" is merely a coincidence carried out by a lone gunman inspired by Western state-sponsored terrorism, than it is sensational serendipity standing in where duplicitous Western security agencies are almost always involved.

ISIS' Inception


Revealed in a prophetic 2007 report "The Redirection: Is the Administration's new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" written by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh and published in the New Yorker, it was stated that (emphasis added):



To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia's government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.




© Unknown

Militants the US had claimed were "moderate rebels" fighting Syria's

government have recently been revealed as affiliates of Al Qaeda - armed by the US with anti-tank missiles.



In 2011, under the cover of the US-engineered "Arab Spring," heavily armed groups including Al Qaeda began from the very beginning, carrying out operations nationwide in every major Syrian city - this according to the US State Department's own official designation of Al Nursra as an alias for Al Qaeda in Iraq, and as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The official statement by the US State Department reported that:

Since November 2011, al-Nusrah Front has claimed nearly 600 attacks - ranging from more than 40 suicide attacks to small arms and improvised explosive device operations - in major city centers including Damascus, Aleppo, Hamah, Dara, Homs, Idlib, and Dayr al-Zawr. During these attacks numerous innocent Syrians have been killed.



Yet despite this, the US and its allies, notably Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and Israel, have all intentionally armed, funded, trained, equipped, assisted, harbored, and even have provided air cover for this very terrorist front. Groups armed directly by the United States would then hand over their weapons, equipment, not to mention their allegiance to Al Nusra and other Al Qaeda affiliates.

This goes far in explaining why billions of dollars in aid flooding into Syria supposedly into the arms of "moderate rebels" have instead resulted in a terrorist front spanning multiple nations and is now projecting its campaign of terror into Russia and China while planning and carrying out attacks in the US, Europe, and Australia. In other words, tales of "moderate rebels" were merely tenuous cover for the West's intended plan to arm Al Qaeda in a proxy war, as was reported by Hersh in 2007.


ISIS Terror Serves Only One Purpose - Justifying Western Military Intervention


Taking hostages, waving around an ISIS flag, and making cartoonish demands to speak to Australia's Prime Minister - were ISIS an actual independent military and political organization - serves no strategic, political, or tactical purpose. Instead, it serves only to reignite public outrage and stir up support for further Western military intervention in both Syria and Iraq and possibly beyond. Amid any criminal investigation, the question "cui bono" or "to whose benefit" must be asked and answered. Amid the rash of ISIS plots - including those not openly known to be entrapment operations carried out by Western security agencies themselves - the only winner is the West's foreign policy of increasing hysteria at home and military intervention in Syria and Iraq abroad.

For those that question the ability of Western governments, particularly the US and NATO's leadership, to carry out acts of terrorism against their own people, history provides ample evidence of their means, motivation, and will. Readers may recall Operation Northwoods, reported on in an ABC News article titled, "U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba," which bluntly stated:



In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.




Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.



After Operation Northwoods, which never went beyond conceptualization, was NATO's Operation Glaido. This operation was part of larger "stay behind" networks established after World War II across Europe allegedly for the purpose resisting Soviet occupation had an invasion of Western Europe taken place.

Instead, the operation included multiple grisly assassinations, mass shootings, and terrorist bombings designed to demonize the Soviet Union as well as criminalize and crush support for left-leaning political parties growing in popularity in Western Europe. It would be determined that NATO's own covert militant groups were killing innocent Western Europeans in order to effect a "strategy of tension" used to instill fear, obedience, and control over Western populations.


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The use of ISIS "plots" to instill fear in the US , Canada , and now Australia is simply the next step in a clearly delineated evolutionary process of using terrorism as a means of insidiously advancing the West's agenda - an evolutionary process with decades of trial and error distilling down to a consistent, easily identifiable pattern of "cause and effect" manipulation where struggling agendas are rushed through in the wake of "convenient" events upon a wave of emotionally-charged public sentiment - or sometimes, merely the illusion of such sentiment.

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'Sydney Siege' circus: Who's behind the cartoon character 'Sheik Man Haron Monis'


© Unknown

Sheik Man Haron Monis



As predicted, the suspect amid the "Sydney Siege," has long been on the radar of Australian law enforcement, as well as a frequent visitor to Australia's court system.

Before that, however, he came to Australia as a political refugee, an opponent of what he called the "Iranian regime," and was even interviewed by Australia's ABC network in 2001 as part of an ongoing anti-Iranian propaganda campaign.


It has been revealed that long-time agitator, alias "Man Haron Monis," also known as "Manteghi Boroujerdi," was the suspect amid the so-called "Sydney Siege" hostage crisis. Monis/Boroujerdi claims to be a Shia'a religious leader and is often seen in press photos dressed as one.


Despite this, he was at the center of a hostage crisis requesting the flag of the "Islamic State" terrorist organization be delivered to him while claiming association with other ISIS "brothers."


Neither Islamic nor a state, ISIS is led by US, Israeli, and Saudi-backed Wahabi terrorists, promoting a perversion of Sunni Islam - the bane to both genuine Sunnis and Shia'a worldwide and against which both the nations of Syria and Iran are fighting.


Monis/Boroujerdi rose to infamy amid two notable incidents - one being his involvement in the stabbing death and burning of his ex-wife - the other being his controversial campaign of sending hate-letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers killed during the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. The latter was used extensively to stir up division across the pro and anti-war political divide.


in a September 2013 article titled, "'Cleric' Man Haron Monis punished for offensive letters written to families of dead Diggers," reported that:



Man Haron Monis, also known as Sheik Haron, was also placed on a two-year good behaviour bond.




So too was his co-accused and partner, 34-year-old Amirah Droudis, who pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting him.



In December of 2013, the Australian would report in an article titled, "'Hate' sheik Man Horan Monis and girlfriend Amirzh Droudis granted bail on murder charges," that:

Monis is charged as an accessory before and after the fact to the murder of Noleen Hayson Pal, 30, who was stabbed 18 times and set alight outside a western Sydney unit in April.



Monis/Boroujerdi's Origins Story

But before Monis/Boroujerdi's recent run-ins with the law and his role as chief "Muslim boogeyman" in Australia, he was "Manteghi Boroujerdi," a "victim" of the "Iranian regime" who was in love with Western society.


Australia's ABC in its "Religion Report" dated January 31, 2001, introduced Monis/Boroujerdi as follows:



...while in Sydney we talk to Ayatollah Manteghi Boroujerdi, an Iranian cleric espousing a liberal brand of Islam - dangerously liberal, as his views have led to his wife and two daughters being held hostage in Iran.



The interview itself is used as yet another vehicle to carry along Western propaganda long-aimed at Iran. It claims Monis/Boroujerdi's family is in grave danger and that Monis/Boroujerdi himself would be executed should he ever return to Iran. It quotes Monis/Boroujerdi several times including claims he was formally associated with Iranian intelligence:

In Iran, mostly I have been involved with the Ministry of Intelligence and Security.



And was in contact with the UN regarding security issues in Iran:

...more than four years I have not seen my family, and the Iranian regime doesn't let them come out. In fact I can say they are hostage; as a hostage the Iranian regime wants to make me silent, because I have some secret information about government, and about their terrorist operations in the war. I sent a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and somebody on behalf of Mr Kofi Anan sent the answer, and they want to do something. I have hope and always I pray and ask God to solve my problem.



At one point during the interview Monis/Boroujerdi professes his love of Australia, Canada, the US, and UK claiming:

...we can say Australia, Canada, England, USA, so many western countries, they are religious societies. They don't say 'We are religious', but in fact the spirit of religion, we can see the spirit of religion in these societies. And some other countries in the Middle East, in Asia, they say 'We are Islamic' they have a name of Islamic, but in fact they are not religious societies and religious governments. Whenever I walk in the street, whenever I go out in Australia, I feel I am in a real religious society. I don't want to say it is perfect, we don't have a perfect society on the earth, but when we compare, if we compare Australia with Iran and other countries in the Middle East, we can say it is heaven.



However, later in 2008, Monis/Boroujerdi's activities drew the attention of real Shia'a religious leaders in Australia who asked Australian security agents to investigate him. In an Australian article titled, "Call to probe mystery Shia cleric," it was reported that:

FEDERAL agents have been urged by the nation's senior Shia leader, Kamal Mousselmani, to investigate an Iranian man purporting to be a prominent Islamic cleric.




Sheik Mousselmani told yesterday the mystery cleric - who has been identified as Ayatollah Manteghi Boroujerdi on his website after appearing under the name Sheik Haron - was not a genuine Shia spiritual leader.




He said there were no ayatollahs - supreme Shia scholars - in Australia and none of his fellow spiritual leaders knew who Ayatollah Boroujerdi or Sheik Haron was.




"We don't know him and we have got nothing to do with him," Sheik Mousselmani said. "The federal police should investigate who he is. It should be their responsibility."



But it was the Australian media itself who introduced him publicly as an "Ayatollah" and the Australian government that vetted him and allegedly granted him political asylum. He was allegedly in contact with the UN and was used to stir up anti-Iranian sentiment in Australia. It is then highly suspicious that now both the Australian media and the Australian government appear to have no knowledge of who he is or where he came from.

For someone used as part of the West's anti-Iranian propaganda campaign, and who was granted political asylum into Australia, but who is now supposedly unknown to those who invited him in and used him, there is clearly more to the story of Monis/Boroujerdi - a story that may then offer insight into his latest performance. Perhaps most ironic of all is the fact that the "Iranian regime" he was used to demonize apparently did not kill his wife - instead, he himself is suspected of doing so.


Whatever the case is, Monis/Boroujerdi is certainly no "loan wolf terrorist." He, at best, is yet another Frankenstein of the establishment run amok after an abortive attempt to cultivate and use him to advance Western foreign and domestic policy. At worse, he is directly involved in an intelligence operation to further inflame division in Australian society and promote the long stalled war in Syria aimed at regime change there, before heading to Iran - the scorn of Monis/Boroujerdi.


An omnipresent all-invasive surveillance state that is constantly "blindsided" by terror attacks carried out by criminals and characters possessing extensive criminal records and who are well-acquainted with that state's law enforcement, media, and even government, is testament to the fact that such surveillance hasn't been and never was intended to serve the public's best interests nor to keep them safe - but rather another system of control and manipulation to allow true dangers to human civilization to endure with impunity.


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Heavy snow in Japan causes power blackouts and stranded train passengers

heavy snow japan

Some 1,350 passengers found themselves spending the night on trains stranded in Japan's northern Niigata Prefecture on Sunday, according to The Japan Times.


The trains were stranded by a power outage resulting from heavy snowstorms.


snow japan

© AP Photo/ Eugene Hoshiko

Railway station workers shove snow from the street in Yokohama, Japan, Saturday.



The blackout occurred on Sunday evening and power was resumed only on Monday morning. But as the stations and trains draw power from different sources, the trains' heaters remained working, and passengers were supplied with food and drinks.

The outage also prompted West Japan Railway Co. to call back a train that had departed for Echigo-Yuzawa Station from Kanazawa. Upon the train's return to Kanazawa Station, the 85 passengers were moved to another train in which to spend the night and were given rice balls and blankets.


Heavy snow in the area has disrupted train services along a section connecting Kanazawa and Niigata Prefectures, which remained suspended on Monday morning.


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Residents complain of 'rotten fish' smell in Santa Rosa, Florida


Area residents are complaining on social media about a strange smell that stretches from Pace to Gulf Breeze and the beaches. But local officials can't confirm what the smell is or where it's coming from.


"We haven't had any reports of any issues," said Joy Tsubooka, the public information officer for Santa Rosa County. "It's hard to say what it is because on very clear, very cold days like this, odors can travel very far."


Residents have described the stench as smelling like spoiled milk and dead fish.


"Why does it smell of rotten fish all over #Pensacola this morning?" one resident asked on Twitter.


"Man it smells bad outside," Pensacola beach resident Sean Rogan posted on his Facebook page. "They were talking about a nonhazardous gas that had Pace smelling yesterday. Guess north wind has brought it to us."


After Rogan's post, people from Santa Rosa County and parts of Escambia reported smelling the odor.


Gulf Breeze officials have fielded several calls from residents complaining about the smell and inquiring about the source, City Clerk Stephanie Lucas said.


"It's nothing we're doing ... or from us," she said. "People are smelling it all down the highway (U.S. 98)."


Tsubooka ruled out possible sources such as the Taminco gas supplier plant in Pace, and Tiffany Cowie, press secretary for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said the smell definitely wasn't caused by the oil leak that erupted Wednesday in Jay.


"The smells (residents are describing) are not consistent with the smells coming from the oil leak at the actual site," Cowie said. "The odor isn't coming from there."


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