Following numerous reports of failures on behalf of police to arrest looters or adequately respond to the riots in London that are now sweeping across the entire UK, curfews and troops on the streets are now being readied as authorities prepare to enforce martial law to quell massive civil unrest.
BBC News twice reported this morning that troops were being readied. The statement was first made by a reporter at 8:30am and then repeated by a Metropolitan Police representative who said “all options were on the table”.
U.K. Home Secretary Theresa May confirms that the government is considering “military support for the police”.
Curfews are also being discussed as authorities prepare to transform Britain into a locked down police state.
“Armoured vehicles have been brought in to clear the streets for the first time by police to tackle what senior officers say is the worst rioting and looting in living memory,” reports the Guardian.
“I have not heard of a curfew on mainland Britain in the past century. [It's] very difficult to impose. I’m not saying that it is definitely the way forward but it is something we have to consider,” Diane Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington told BBC Breakfast.
Former London mayor Ken Livingstone called for police to use water cannons to disperse the rioters.
Having started in poorer areas of London, the riots have now spread to other major cities including Bristol, Nottingham, Liverpool and Manchester.
There can be little doubt that the vast majority of the rioters are products of the country’s broken society, nihilistic youths who care little about political grievances and are primarily focused with exploiting the chaos to steal as much booty as they possibly can while getting off on mindless violence. This behavior ensures the public will overwhelmingly support whatever measures are proposed to deal with them, even to the point of outright martial law.
These youths should not be seen as the vanguard of some kind of genuine revolution against an abusive system. If that were the case they would be rioting outside of Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. Instead they are burning down private homes and businesses while looting high-end electrical goods and clothing.
But what has exacerbated the situation is the lackluster police response, with numerous reports from the public that police stood back and allowed looters to pillage both large department stores and private small businesses for hours on end.
During the initial riots in Tottenham on Sunday night, police were criticized for “standing back and allowing rioters to cause havoc.” This trend has continued throughout the three nights of mayhem, with eyewitnesses bewildered at how the police have obviously been ordered not to arrest looters and rioters in some instances.
We have been predicting the onset of widespread rioting and civil unrest for years, particularly in the UK. Last year we wrote that crippling austerity cuts would force the economically deprived to “take to the streets with a mind set of nothing to lose if the government handouts they have become dependent on are drastically reduced.”
Make no mistake about it, these riots will be hastily exploited by the system to turn Britain into an even more controlled and surveilled police state than it already is. The riots achieve absolutely nothing aside from making the establishment look reasonable in whatever response it takes, measures which will be fully supported by a public bombarded with images of chaos, looting and burning.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
EGYPT: RESISTING!
Egypt , just like Tunesia, is resisting and fed up with not having basic human rights. This is what happens when you raise a voice against dictators and just claim your fundemental rights...
The Obama administration expressed its support for under fire Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak even as footage emerged of a protester being shot dead by Mubarak’s security forces in Cairo, as the government shut down the Internet, land lines and the mobile phone network in a desperate bid to cling on to power amidst widespread rioting.
“Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the PBS NewsHour tonight with the most direct US government comments yet about the gathering Egypt protests against President Hosni Mubarak’s 29-year reign,” reports The Christian Science Monitor.
Speaking to Jim Lehrer, Biden refused to call Mubarek a dictator, and went on to lend his support to a man who presides over $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid each year.
“Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things. And he’s been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interest in the region, the Middle East peace efforts; the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing relationship with – with Israel. … I would not refer to him as a dictator,” said Biden, who went on to imply that some of the protesters’ demands were illegitimate.
The demonstrations are firmly centered around spiraling fuel and food prices, rising unemployment, as well as police brutality and torture of political dissidents. These factors have culminated in protesters turning on Mubarek and his regime.
“Our government is a dictatorship. A total dictatorship,” said Mohamed Fahim, a 29-year-old glass factory worker, as he stood near the charred skeleton of a car.
“It’s our right to choose our government ourselves. We have been living 29 years, my whole life, without being able to choose a president.”
The rage only intensified after authorities moved to shut down Internet access, the mobile phone network and even land lines across large areas of the country, primarily in an attempt to restrict access to the Associated Press footage showing a protester being shot dead in the street, one of at least eight victims who have been killed since the uprising began. Mubarek’s regime is also desperate to stop activists from organizing via Facebook and Twitter.
As Tyler Durden writes, the ludicrous decision to stoke more anger and chaos by shutting down communications gives an insight into what might happen under similar conditions in America.
“Ironically this act of desperation in Egypt which seeks to prevent the ongoing televising of the revolution, would be precisely the match that would set off America on a certain path to revolution: not ongoing banker rape, not Primary Dealers stealing from babies, not Greek president G-Pap robbing your wallet… merely a shutdown of Facebook and Twitter (and possibly cable) and 300 million well-armed American will promptly go apeshit.”
Despite a myriad of justifiable reasons why Egyptians would want to stage a revolution, one wonders why it took them 29 years of Mubarek’s despotic reign to do so. Are we merely witnessing a natural domino effect from what happened in Tunisia, or are there darker forces at work? Namely, the same NGO’s and elitists that were behind previous color revolutions that were artificially contrived in order to make the target country a vassal state for the new world order?
If Egyptians are given the same “freedoms” that Americans enjoy – particularly the right to choose one of two puppet Presidents controlled by the same elite every four years – will its population be equally as angry when their country becomes the next Iraq – a conquered outpost for the new global government empire?
Egyptians are right to revolt against the tyranny they have been subjected to for almost three decades, but the most important aspect of the situation now becomes the aftermath. Should Mubarek be toppled and his regime swept away, will Egypt retain its sovereignty under a popularly elected government that serves the people, or will the country simply be picked off by encircling geopolitical vultures and turned into another frontier, another giant US/NATO military base and another stepping stone towards the invasion of Iran?
The Obama administration expressed its support for under fire Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak even as footage emerged of a protester being shot dead by Mubarak’s security forces in Cairo, as the government shut down the Internet, land lines and the mobile phone network in a desperate bid to cling on to power amidst widespread rioting.
“Vice President Joe Biden spoke to the PBS NewsHour tonight with the most direct US government comments yet about the gathering Egypt protests against President Hosni Mubarak’s 29-year reign,” reports The Christian Science Monitor.
Speaking to Jim Lehrer, Biden refused to call Mubarek a dictator, and went on to lend his support to a man who presides over $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid each year.
“Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things. And he’s been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interest in the region, the Middle East peace efforts; the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing relationship with – with Israel. … I would not refer to him as a dictator,” said Biden, who went on to imply that some of the protesters’ demands were illegitimate.
The demonstrations are firmly centered around spiraling fuel and food prices, rising unemployment, as well as police brutality and torture of political dissidents. These factors have culminated in protesters turning on Mubarek and his regime.
“Our government is a dictatorship. A total dictatorship,” said Mohamed Fahim, a 29-year-old glass factory worker, as he stood near the charred skeleton of a car.
“It’s our right to choose our government ourselves. We have been living 29 years, my whole life, without being able to choose a president.”
The rage only intensified after authorities moved to shut down Internet access, the mobile phone network and even land lines across large areas of the country, primarily in an attempt to restrict access to the Associated Press footage showing a protester being shot dead in the street, one of at least eight victims who have been killed since the uprising began. Mubarek’s regime is also desperate to stop activists from organizing via Facebook and Twitter.
As Tyler Durden writes, the ludicrous decision to stoke more anger and chaos by shutting down communications gives an insight into what might happen under similar conditions in America.
“Ironically this act of desperation in Egypt which seeks to prevent the ongoing televising of the revolution, would be precisely the match that would set off America on a certain path to revolution: not ongoing banker rape, not Primary Dealers stealing from babies, not Greek president G-Pap robbing your wallet… merely a shutdown of Facebook and Twitter (and possibly cable) and 300 million well-armed American will promptly go apeshit.”
Despite a myriad of justifiable reasons why Egyptians would want to stage a revolution, one wonders why it took them 29 years of Mubarek’s despotic reign to do so. Are we merely witnessing a natural domino effect from what happened in Tunisia, or are there darker forces at work? Namely, the same NGO’s and elitists that were behind previous color revolutions that were artificially contrived in order to make the target country a vassal state for the new world order?
If Egyptians are given the same “freedoms” that Americans enjoy – particularly the right to choose one of two puppet Presidents controlled by the same elite every four years – will its population be equally as angry when their country becomes the next Iraq – a conquered outpost for the new global government empire?
Egyptians are right to revolt against the tyranny they have been subjected to for almost three decades, but the most important aspect of the situation now becomes the aftermath. Should Mubarek be toppled and his regime swept away, will Egypt retain its sovereignty under a popularly elected government that serves the people, or will the country simply be picked off by encircling geopolitical vultures and turned into another frontier, another giant US/NATO military base and another stepping stone towards the invasion of Iran?
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
YOU ARE THE RESISTANCE
The historical foundation of the V for Victory symbol is firmly rooted in the stirring spirit of ordinary French people who risked deportation, concentration camps and death in merely expressing their symbolic resistance to being occupied by the Nazis during World War Two.
After the Nazi occupation of France, Victor Auguste de Laveleye, former Belgian minister of Justice and director of the Belgian French-speaking broadcasts on the BBC, picked up on the V’s that were already being scrawled all over Paris by frustrated French citizens demonstrating their opposition to their new slave masters, and devised a massive allied propaganda campaign that would use the V symbol against the Nazis as an act of psychological warfare.
During a radio broadcast, Laveleye explained the power behind the symbol.
“[T]he occupier, by seeing this sign, always the same, infinitely repeated, [would] understand that he is surrounded, encircled by an immense crowd of citizens eagerly awaiting his first moment of weakness, watching for his first failure.”
The V symbol was then adapted by Churchill in his familiar hand salutes, and subsequently broadcast in the form of Morse code to French listeners of Radio Londres, a station broadcast by the Free French forces into occupied France. The audible V was made up of the first four notes of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, which were meant to represent fate knocking at one’s door – another act of psychological warfare against the Nazis given the fact that Beethoven was German.
The radio station’s purpose was to counter the propaganda of the Vichy collaborators and the Nazis, while at the same time passing on messages to the French Resistance and encouraging the spirit of resistance amongst the general population as a whole.
The launch of the Infowars V For victory campaign is partly a tribute to resistance movements throughout the ages who against all odds have stood up against tyranny. It is also about sending a message to Homeland Security and the new world order in general that we will not meekly accept the destruction of America and its replacement with a decaying banana republic in which people are told to inform on each other and a country in which anyone who exercises their constitutional rights or criticizes the state is labeled a terrorist, which is exactly the case in the DHS’ own internal documents.
This is about re-asserting the fact that our lives are led by the pursuit of freedom, prosperity and happiness – the American dream – and not by fear, division and intimidation. This is about sending a message to the American people that we should stand united against the abuses of big government, not become tattle-tales for the state.
CRITICISMS
Criticisms are inevitable with any campaign we launch and indeed the Infowars team had already discussed several of the points that subsequently emerged before we even began the campaign.
- The guy that shot up the school board painted a big V on the wall before threatening people with a gun.
The gunman, 56-year-old Clay Duke, spray-painted a V within a circle, and was clearly influenced to do so by the 2006 movie V For Vendetta. Indeed, Duke’s own Facebook page confirmed he was a fan of the movie. As we have repeatedly stated, our campaign has nothing to do with this movie, it is influenced by the spirit of the French Resistance in their struggle against Nazi occupation during the early 1940′s. This is not V for Vendetta – our inspiration is the V for Victory campaign which was adopted by the allies as a psychological warfare tactic against the Nazis, having been started by members of the frustrated occupied French who wanted to express their symbolic resistance against the Nazis.
Any establishment media mouthpiece that attempts to link our campaign with Clay Duke is insulting the legacy of thousands of French fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, who were sent to Nazi death camps, had their heads chopped off with axes, or were massacred by German troops for standing up against occupation.
- Why are you siding with the French Resistance? They were all communists.
This charge has been leveled by people who spent five minutes doing a cursory google search and clicking on a couple of Wikipedia links. Anyone who reads a proper history book concerning the period, such as the acclaimed The Resistance by Matthew Cobb, will discover that the French Resistance comprised of people from numerous political persuasions, from leftists, to right-wingers, from union workers to business owners, to ordinary citizens. Indeed, the man who later became the ideological figurehead of the French Resistance, General Charles de Gaulle, was an extremely conservative individual.
In modern-day political parlance, the Gaullist label is often attributed to a leading political party or movement in France that is said to “transcend the left/right rift” and is characterized as populist.
- The V is an occult symbol and Infowars/Prison Planet/Alex Jones is part of the illuminati conspiracy.
As a poster on our Facebook page commented, at some stage in history every symbol has been hijacked by one occult or evil group for their own purposes. The inverted Nazi swastika began as far back as 4,000 BC and was later used by numerous Asian religions and traditions before being hijacked by the 3rd Reich. The meaning of the symbol draws on the motivation behind the message. We have also likened the V symbol to a pyramid turned upside down – this doesn’t mean we are working for the illuminati. We are reclaiming the V for Victory symbol and using it in the spirit of the French Resistance of the 1940′s – it has no other connotation for our purposes.
As one of our readers commented, “V For Victory. You couldn’t have come up with a better symbol if you tried. You have subconsciously suggested, ironically, an upturned Illuminati, New world order pyramid symbol? You’ve created an anti Illuminati logo.”
- What’s the point in posting V flyers everywhere? it won’t achieve anything.
Why did the occupied French write V’s everywhere in Paris and other areas of France? Why did the successful allies devise a huge psychological warfare campaign to use the V symbol against the Nazis? This is not just about waking up the general public, it’s about connecting with the people inside the system who do the legwork for the new world order agenda. We are already getting emails (1,2) from people within Homeland Security and the Federal Reserve who are rebelling against their bosses because of our work and others like us.
In addition, if posting messages is completely pointless, why does Homeland Security spend millions placing video messages at Wal-Mart checkouts telling Americans to spy on each other? If it had no effect, why would they bother? The modern day equivalent of the Vichy traitors (the Obama administration) is indoctrinating the sheeple to police each other, they’re coercing obedience to the state. Our campaign uses the exact same tactic but with the opposite message – we are coercing freedom and liberty.
Now that we have expanded on the motivations behind the V For Victory campaign, we look forward to a flood of people participating in this new outreach by printing off the V For Victory flyers or using one of the dozens of excellent alternatives created by fans, and posting them throughout their local community.
Remember – You Are The Resistance
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
THE BIG TAKEOVER
Bankers Destroy Global Economy by Design to Consolidate Power
The unprecedented €750bn EU bailout represents part of an ongoing program of mass centralization of governance in Europe according to the world’s leading bankers and economists.
Under the headline “Towards a United States of Europe” the Financial Times quotes key players who conclude that the bailout is part of an overall consolidation in Europe and represents a giant step toward a fiscal union in the eurozone.
Morgan Stanley’s European Chief Economist, Elga Bartsch notes:
Like the ERM crisis in the early 1990s spurred on political initiatives to bring about the long-planned monetary union in Europe, it seems that the sovereign debt crisis could be acting as a catalyst for an ever closer union of European countries. The decisions taken this weekend first by European leaders and then by finance ministers mark a big leap towards a fiscal union in the euro area, we think.
Not only have countries agreed to stand in for each other in an unprecedented extent, they have also agreed to foregoing some of their fiscal sovereignty and submit to rigorous fiscal consolidation programmes should they require financial assistance.
In other words, European states are literally signing over their independence to a monolithic centralized system under the threat of economic obliteration.
Marco Annunziata, chief economist of Italian megabank UniCredit concurs with this analysis:
The new stabilization fund represents another step towards “passive” fiscal integration, that is member countries explicitly assuming joint responsibility for each other’s obligation. To avoid the risk of violating the no-bailout clause, this is done in the form of a pooling of resources to rescue member countries in stress and not formally shouldering their existing debt obligations; moreover, financial support would be extended only based on tough conditionality on adjustment measures. However, the substance is the same: member countries have to jointly put their resources at stake to support the weaker members.
Annunziata also states that the IMF’s contribution to the bailout fund indicates a “depressing confirmation that at this stage that the EU is unable to design and enforce conditionality on its own.”
“The true decisions needed for the longer-term survival of the Eurozone still need to be taken.” Annunziata adds, echoing German premier Angela Merkel’s call to “address the root of the problem”
“We have to fight the causes of the difficulties, so budget consolidation in all member states is increasingly important,” Merkel said. “The access to the guarantees … will be linked to countries presenting budget consolidation programs to the IMF and the EU, which will then be regularly inspected.”
Financial commentator Gregory White of The Business Insider further explains how the Euro rescue represents a move towards a Federal European setup:
Like the United States prior to revolution and under the Articles of Confederation, the eurozone exists within the context of a weak, decentralized government. Policies of taxation and budgets are primarily controlled at state level. But other key issues, like price stability and inflation, are controlled by the European Central Bank. There is therefore a divergence of interests that needs to be rectified.
Bailing out its fringe repeatedly is not a long-term solution to this problem. Forming a eurozone treasury, which can issue its own debt to support the area and manage the budgets of its member states, is.
In other words, the sovereign nation state as viable economic entity is being jettisoned in favour of a vastly empowered European Central Bank and European Union.
Of course, this has been the idea all along, we were presented with the problem, for the past 3 years we have witnessed a reaction of great destabilization and now we are being presented with the solution – more mass centralization in the name of stability.
Americans should prepare for the same thing to happen to state independence as soon as the crisis really hits on their side of the pond.
The unprecedented €750bn EU bailout represents part of an ongoing program of mass centralization of governance in Europe according to the world’s leading bankers and economists.
Under the headline “Towards a United States of Europe” the Financial Times quotes key players who conclude that the bailout is part of an overall consolidation in Europe and represents a giant step toward a fiscal union in the eurozone.
Morgan Stanley’s European Chief Economist, Elga Bartsch notes:
Like the ERM crisis in the early 1990s spurred on political initiatives to bring about the long-planned monetary union in Europe, it seems that the sovereign debt crisis could be acting as a catalyst for an ever closer union of European countries. The decisions taken this weekend first by European leaders and then by finance ministers mark a big leap towards a fiscal union in the euro area, we think.
Not only have countries agreed to stand in for each other in an unprecedented extent, they have also agreed to foregoing some of their fiscal sovereignty and submit to rigorous fiscal consolidation programmes should they require financial assistance.
In other words, European states are literally signing over their independence to a monolithic centralized system under the threat of economic obliteration.
Marco Annunziata, chief economist of Italian megabank UniCredit concurs with this analysis:
The new stabilization fund represents another step towards “passive” fiscal integration, that is member countries explicitly assuming joint responsibility for each other’s obligation. To avoid the risk of violating the no-bailout clause, this is done in the form of a pooling of resources to rescue member countries in stress and not formally shouldering their existing debt obligations; moreover, financial support would be extended only based on tough conditionality on adjustment measures. However, the substance is the same: member countries have to jointly put their resources at stake to support the weaker members.
Annunziata also states that the IMF’s contribution to the bailout fund indicates a “depressing confirmation that at this stage that the EU is unable to design and enforce conditionality on its own.”
“The true decisions needed for the longer-term survival of the Eurozone still need to be taken.” Annunziata adds, echoing German premier Angela Merkel’s call to “address the root of the problem”
“We have to fight the causes of the difficulties, so budget consolidation in all member states is increasingly important,” Merkel said. “The access to the guarantees … will be linked to countries presenting budget consolidation programs to the IMF and the EU, which will then be regularly inspected.”
Financial commentator Gregory White of The Business Insider further explains how the Euro rescue represents a move towards a Federal European setup:
Like the United States prior to revolution and under the Articles of Confederation, the eurozone exists within the context of a weak, decentralized government. Policies of taxation and budgets are primarily controlled at state level. But other key issues, like price stability and inflation, are controlled by the European Central Bank. There is therefore a divergence of interests that needs to be rectified.
Bailing out its fringe repeatedly is not a long-term solution to this problem. Forming a eurozone treasury, which can issue its own debt to support the area and manage the budgets of its member states, is.
In other words, the sovereign nation state as viable economic entity is being jettisoned in favour of a vastly empowered European Central Bank and European Union.
Of course, this has been the idea all along, we were presented with the problem, for the past 3 years we have witnessed a reaction of great destabilization and now we are being presented with the solution – more mass centralization in the name of stability.
Americans should prepare for the same thing to happen to state independence as soon as the crisis really hits on their side of the pond.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
GREECE IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG
Greece is just the "tip of the iceberg” of a sovereign debt crisis that has the potential to derail a global recovery, Nouriel Roubini has warned.
Nouriel Roubini was one of the few to anticipate the scale of the crisis Photo: Getty Images Professor Roubini, the New York-based academic who was one of the few to anticipate the scale of the financial crisis, told a panel in California that the buildup of debt is likely to lead to countries defaulting or resorting to inflation to ease the burden on their populations.
“While today markets are worried about Greece, Greece is just the tip of the iceberg,” Roubini told the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. "The thing I worry about is the buildup of sovereign debt.”
Although Greece's misreporting of the scale of its own debt has helped shatter investors' faith, the southern European country is not alone in its struggle. The depth of the property bust in both Spain and Portugal has prompted the ratings agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade the creditworthiness of both.
European leaders, led by German chancellor Angela Merkel, the International Monetary Fund and Greece's leaders are scrambling to approve a bail-out for Greece as financial markets drive its borrowing costs higher.
"The ripple effects across the market are now more visible," said Ciaran O'Hagan, an analyst at Societe Generale. "Contagion is amplifying."
Italy's sale of up to €8bn euros of debt today will, according to analysts, provide a good gauge of whether the concerns about Greece and Portugal are spreading to other members of the Eurozone.
Nouriel Roubini was one of the few to anticipate the scale of the crisis Photo: Getty Images Professor Roubini, the New York-based academic who was one of the few to anticipate the scale of the financial crisis, told a panel in California that the buildup of debt is likely to lead to countries defaulting or resorting to inflation to ease the burden on their populations.
“While today markets are worried about Greece, Greece is just the tip of the iceberg,” Roubini told the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California. "The thing I worry about is the buildup of sovereign debt.”
Although Greece's misreporting of the scale of its own debt has helped shatter investors' faith, the southern European country is not alone in its struggle. The depth of the property bust in both Spain and Portugal has prompted the ratings agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade the creditworthiness of both.
European leaders, led by German chancellor Angela Merkel, the International Monetary Fund and Greece's leaders are scrambling to approve a bail-out for Greece as financial markets drive its borrowing costs higher.
"The ripple effects across the market are now more visible," said Ciaran O'Hagan, an analyst at Societe Generale. "Contagion is amplifying."
Italy's sale of up to €8bn euros of debt today will, according to analysts, provide a good gauge of whether the concerns about Greece and Portugal are spreading to other members of the Eurozone.
NO ASH CLOUD SAYS NEW EVIDENCE
Britain's airspace was closed under false pretences, with satellite images revealing there was no doomsday volcanic ash cloud over the entire country.
Skies fell quiet for six days, leaving as many as 500,000 Britons stranded overseas and costing airlines hundreds of millions of pounds.
Estimates put the number of Britons still stuck abroad at 35,000.
However, new evidence shows there was no all-encompassing cloud and, where dust was present, it was often so thin that it posed no risk.
The satellite images demonstrate that the skies were largely clear, which will not surprise the millions who enjoyed the fine, hot weather during the flight ban.
Jim McKenna, the Civil Aviation Authority's head of airworthiness, strategy and policy, admitted: 'It's obvious that at the start of this crisis there was a lack of definitive data.
False alarm? Satellite images have revealed there may never have been a doomsday volcanic ash cloud over the UK (file picture)
'It's also true that for some of the time, the density of ash above the UK was close to undetectable.'
The satellite images will be used by airlines in their battle to win tens of millions of pounds in compensation from governments for their losses.
The National Air Traffic Control Service decision to ban flights was based on Met Office computer models which painted a picture of a cloud of ash being blown south from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano.
These models should have been tested by the Met Office's main research plane, a BAE 146 jet, but it was in a hangar to be repainted and could not be sent up until last Tuesday - the last day of the ban.
Evidence has emerged that the maximum density of the ash was only about one 20th of the limit that scientists, the Government, and aircraft and engine manufacturers have now decided is safe.
British Airways chief Willie Walsh always insisted the total shutdown went too far.
'My personal belief is that we could have safely continued operating for a period,' he said.
Mark Tanzer, chief executive of Britain's ABTA, which represents British travel agents and tour operators, said about 100,000 stranded British travellers should have been returned home by Monday morning.
About 35,000 more will remain marooned until Friday, the group said.
'While most flights are back to normal, and most stranded British passengers will be back by the end of this weekend, there is still quite a high level of disruption in some destinations.
'In some areas of the world, there is a significant lack of air capacity to enable British people to be returned quickly,' Tanzer said.
Many Icelandic airports are closed and though authorities say Eyjafjallajokull is now producing much less ash, they confirmed no signs of the eruption ending
On 15 April 2010, airspace was closed over Britain and most of Europe.
Airspace opened again on 21 April 2010.
NATO was carrying out a large airforce exercise in Europe between 12 April and 22 April 2010.
On 25 April 2010, The Mail on Sunday (The ash cloud that never was.) reports that:
1. During the crisis, the main aircraft used by the UK Meteorological Office to measure ash density was grounded, 'as it was due to be repainted'.
2. Computers at the Met Office produced maps showing the ash would cover an area stretching from Russia to Newfoundland.
But across almost all of this area, there was virtually no ash at all.
There was none visible to satellites.
3. The maximum density of ash over Britain was about one twentieth of the limit that scientists, the Government, and aircraft and engine manufacturers have now decided is safe.
Jim McKenna, the Civil Aviation Authority's head of Airworthiness, Strategy and Policy has admitted: 'It's also true that for some of the time, the density of ash above the UK was close to undetectable.'
Was the Iceland volcano story faked?
On 20 April 2010, at MMnews - Webcam - Vulkan friedlich - [ Translate this page ], we read that:
1. The media manipulated the images of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.
The media used images of the volcano which were a week old.
Imagery of an eruption was shown at a time when the mountain was peaceful.
2. If there was a lot of ash, filming the volcano would be difficult. The lens would be covered in ash?
3. There have always been volcanic eruptions in Iceland. Many were worse than the present eruption. But past eruptions have not caused problems for airlines.
4. There have been very big eruptions from the largest volcano in Europe, Mount Etna in Sicily.
Etna erupted in 2002.
Satellite images showed a many hundred of kilometer long time plume of smoke from Etna.
But neither smoke nor ash stopped air traffic at that time.
"Some wonder whether there is something else going on under the cover of earthquake eruptions, such as a test run to shut down air travel internationally."
From 12 April to 22 April 2010, NATO airforces took part in Exercise BRILLIANT ARDENT 10. (http://www.usafe.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123199666)
This large scale NATO Response Force Air Live Exercise was hosted by Germany. (arthurzbygniew.blogspot/)
So, they cleared the air of civil aircraft?
"NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on 19 April 2010 that the ash cloud was not affecting the alliance's military readiness." (Iceland eruption )
On 20 April 2010, The Mail reported that 40 test flights across Europe found NO evidence of ash in jet engines, windows or lubrication systems. (Iceland volcano eruption: Met Office criticised. )
Matthias Ruete, the European Commission's director general of transport, said air traffic authorities should not have imposed a widespread ban on flights.
Iceland has had fairly frequent volcanic eruptions and sometimes they have gone on for many months.
None of the previous eruptions has affected international air travel in the same way as the April 2010 eruption.
As the Telegraph points out today, "Volcanoes have pumped ash plumes of this size and bigger into the atmosphere many times in the past without turning an entire continent into a no-fly zone."
Volcanic erruptions are fairly frequent in Indonesia.
In 1982, in Indonesia, a British Airways Jumbo flew directly over an erupting volcano and lost power to all its engines.
Large rocks were found in the engines.
The jumbo did regain power and landed safely.
arthurzbygniew.blogspot/ drew our attention to an article at rense, (rense.com) by F. William Engdahl.
Among the points made:
1. After the eruption of the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano in Iceland on April 14 air traffic across Europe was grounded.
2. Joachim Hunold, CEO of Germany's second largest carrier, Air Berlin, stated in Bild am Sonntag, "not one single weather ballon has been put up in Germany to measure if and how much volcanic ash there is in the air. The closing of the airspace is entirely based on the results of a computer simulation at the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) in England."
3. Veteran Air France pilot, Steven Savignol, said: "I can tell you from my own experience that with blue skies, aircrafts can fly perfectly and very safely. They made test flights with Air France, KLM, Lufthansa and of course, all is ok!"
4. The VAAC in England was working from a "computer simulation," and "has not even conducted an actual sky ash measurement."
The agency responsible for Volcanic Ash measurement for the region, including Iceland, is Britain's "Met Office," the UK's National Weather Service, which in turn is a Trading Fund within the Ministry of Defence, operating on a commercial basis under set targets according to their website.
5. The Iceland eruption is a relatively minor one.
6. Modern jet aircraft engines are robust, says Air France's Savignol.
They have to face not only the hazards of bird strikes, but rain, hail and even salt spray on take-off from coastal airports. Furthermore, sand is a common hazard from dust storms and from desert airfields.
7. The blanket ban under clear blue skies and glorious sunshine across Europe made some wonder whether there was something else going on under the cover of earthquake eruptions, such as a test run to shut down air travel internationally.
Since no one has ever been injured from an aircraft disabled by a volcanic eruption, it is a question that lingers.
Skies fell quiet for six days, leaving as many as 500,000 Britons stranded overseas and costing airlines hundreds of millions of pounds.
Estimates put the number of Britons still stuck abroad at 35,000.
However, new evidence shows there was no all-encompassing cloud and, where dust was present, it was often so thin that it posed no risk.
The satellite images demonstrate that the skies were largely clear, which will not surprise the millions who enjoyed the fine, hot weather during the flight ban.
Jim McKenna, the Civil Aviation Authority's head of airworthiness, strategy and policy, admitted: 'It's obvious that at the start of this crisis there was a lack of definitive data.
False alarm? Satellite images have revealed there may never have been a doomsday volcanic ash cloud over the UK (file picture)
'It's also true that for some of the time, the density of ash above the UK was close to undetectable.'
The satellite images will be used by airlines in their battle to win tens of millions of pounds in compensation from governments for their losses.
The National Air Traffic Control Service decision to ban flights was based on Met Office computer models which painted a picture of a cloud of ash being blown south from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano.
These models should have been tested by the Met Office's main research plane, a BAE 146 jet, but it was in a hangar to be repainted and could not be sent up until last Tuesday - the last day of the ban.
Evidence has emerged that the maximum density of the ash was only about one 20th of the limit that scientists, the Government, and aircraft and engine manufacturers have now decided is safe.
British Airways chief Willie Walsh always insisted the total shutdown went too far.
'My personal belief is that we could have safely continued operating for a period,' he said.
Mark Tanzer, chief executive of Britain's ABTA, which represents British travel agents and tour operators, said about 100,000 stranded British travellers should have been returned home by Monday morning.
About 35,000 more will remain marooned until Friday, the group said.
'While most flights are back to normal, and most stranded British passengers will be back by the end of this weekend, there is still quite a high level of disruption in some destinations.
'In some areas of the world, there is a significant lack of air capacity to enable British people to be returned quickly,' Tanzer said.
Many Icelandic airports are closed and though authorities say Eyjafjallajokull is now producing much less ash, they confirmed no signs of the eruption ending
On 15 April 2010, airspace was closed over Britain and most of Europe.
Airspace opened again on 21 April 2010.
NATO was carrying out a large airforce exercise in Europe between 12 April and 22 April 2010.
On 25 April 2010, The Mail on Sunday (The ash cloud that never was.) reports that:
1. During the crisis, the main aircraft used by the UK Meteorological Office to measure ash density was grounded, 'as it was due to be repainted'.
2. Computers at the Met Office produced maps showing the ash would cover an area stretching from Russia to Newfoundland.
But across almost all of this area, there was virtually no ash at all.
There was none visible to satellites.
3. The maximum density of ash over Britain was about one twentieth of the limit that scientists, the Government, and aircraft and engine manufacturers have now decided is safe.
Jim McKenna, the Civil Aviation Authority's head of Airworthiness, Strategy and Policy has admitted: 'It's also true that for some of the time, the density of ash above the UK was close to undetectable.'
Was the Iceland volcano story faked?
On 20 April 2010, at MMnews - Webcam - Vulkan friedlich - [ Translate this page ], we read that:
1. The media manipulated the images of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano.
The media used images of the volcano which were a week old.
Imagery of an eruption was shown at a time when the mountain was peaceful.
2. If there was a lot of ash, filming the volcano would be difficult. The lens would be covered in ash?
3. There have always been volcanic eruptions in Iceland. Many were worse than the present eruption. But past eruptions have not caused problems for airlines.
4. There have been very big eruptions from the largest volcano in Europe, Mount Etna in Sicily.
Etna erupted in 2002.
Satellite images showed a many hundred of kilometer long time plume of smoke from Etna.
But neither smoke nor ash stopped air traffic at that time.
"Some wonder whether there is something else going on under the cover of earthquake eruptions, such as a test run to shut down air travel internationally."
From 12 April to 22 April 2010, NATO airforces took part in Exercise BRILLIANT ARDENT 10. (http://www.usafe.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123199666)
This large scale NATO Response Force Air Live Exercise was hosted by Germany. (arthurzbygniew.blogspot/)
So, they cleared the air of civil aircraft?
"NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on 19 April 2010 that the ash cloud was not affecting the alliance's military readiness." (Iceland eruption )
On 20 April 2010, The Mail reported that 40 test flights across Europe found NO evidence of ash in jet engines, windows or lubrication systems. (Iceland volcano eruption: Met Office criticised. )
Matthias Ruete, the European Commission's director general of transport, said air traffic authorities should not have imposed a widespread ban on flights.
Iceland has had fairly frequent volcanic eruptions and sometimes they have gone on for many months.
None of the previous eruptions has affected international air travel in the same way as the April 2010 eruption.
As the Telegraph points out today, "Volcanoes have pumped ash plumes of this size and bigger into the atmosphere many times in the past without turning an entire continent into a no-fly zone."
Volcanic erruptions are fairly frequent in Indonesia.
In 1982, in Indonesia, a British Airways Jumbo flew directly over an erupting volcano and lost power to all its engines.
Large rocks were found in the engines.
The jumbo did regain power and landed safely.
arthurzbygniew.blogspot/ drew our attention to an article at rense, (rense.com) by F. William Engdahl.
Among the points made:
1. After the eruption of the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano in Iceland on April 14 air traffic across Europe was grounded.
2. Joachim Hunold, CEO of Germany's second largest carrier, Air Berlin, stated in Bild am Sonntag, "not one single weather ballon has been put up in Germany to measure if and how much volcanic ash there is in the air. The closing of the airspace is entirely based on the results of a computer simulation at the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) in England."
3. Veteran Air France pilot, Steven Savignol, said: "I can tell you from my own experience that with blue skies, aircrafts can fly perfectly and very safely. They made test flights with Air France, KLM, Lufthansa and of course, all is ok!"
4. The VAAC in England was working from a "computer simulation," and "has not even conducted an actual sky ash measurement."
The agency responsible for Volcanic Ash measurement for the region, including Iceland, is Britain's "Met Office," the UK's National Weather Service, which in turn is a Trading Fund within the Ministry of Defence, operating on a commercial basis under set targets according to their website.
5. The Iceland eruption is a relatively minor one.
6. Modern jet aircraft engines are robust, says Air France's Savignol.
They have to face not only the hazards of bird strikes, but rain, hail and even salt spray on take-off from coastal airports. Furthermore, sand is a common hazard from dust storms and from desert airfields.
7. The blanket ban under clear blue skies and glorious sunshine across Europe made some wonder whether there was something else going on under the cover of earthquake eruptions, such as a test run to shut down air travel internationally.
Since no one has ever been injured from an aircraft disabled by a volcanic eruption, it is a question that lingers.
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