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. The Freemasons
This is the granddaddy of all not-so-secret secret societies. Freemasonry, or “The Craft” as its members call it, most likely has its roots in 17th-century stoneworkers’ guilds. Mason lore, however, extends its origins back to biblical times, linking the society to the building of the Temple of Solomon. Freemasonry is split into numerous subgroups and orders, all of which consider God the Grand Geometrician, or Grand Architect of the Universe. At their hearts, these groups are all means of exploring ethical and philosophical issues, and their rituals and symbols are famous (or infamous). Take, for instance, the square-and-compass logo often seen on the backs of Cadillacs. Or the use of secret handshakes, passwords, and greeting postures/gestures called “due guards,” all collectively known as the Modes of Recognition. The list of famous Masons is massive, a virtual Who’s Who of modern history, explaining the many conspiracy theories regarding the Masons’ influence and intentions. Mozart, FDR, Harry S. Truman, George Washington, Mark Twain, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, John Wayne, W. C. Fields, and Douglas MacArthur were all Masons. But perhaps the Masons’ greatest strides have been made in fast food: KFC’s Colonel Sanders and Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas knew how to secret-shake with the best of ’em.
2. The Illuminati
Over the centuries, lots of groups have called themselves the Illuminati (“Enlightened Ones”), but the one we’re talking about here began as the Bavarian Illuminati. A radical product of the Enlightenment and offshoot of the religion-based Freemasons, the Illuminati espoused secular freethinking and intellectualism and proved a threat to Europe’s old order. Although they were officially banned by the Bavarian government in 1784, some claim that they live on to this day in other guises. So, what’s the Illuminati’s goal? To establish a new world order of capitalism and authoritarianism, of course! They’ve been accused of manipulating currencies, world stock markets, elections, assassinations, and even of being aliens. One common myth is that the eye-and-pyramid image on the dollar bill is a symbol of the Illuminati watching over us. Nope. It’s a symbol of strength and durability (though unfinished, symbolizing growth and change), and the all-seeing eye represents the divine guidance of the American cause. Or so the government says.
3. Opus Dei
This organization has a $42 million, 17-story headquarters building on Lexington Avenue in New York City, claims 85,000 members in 60 countries, and was featured in Dan Brown’s bestseller The Da Vinci Code. Now that its existence has been significantly unsecretized, this ultraorthodox Catholic sect has definitely raised its share of eyebrows. Founded in 1928 by Saint Josemaría Escrivá (a Spanish priest who bore an uncanny resemblance to Karl Malden), Opus Dei is the short name for the Prelature for the Holy Cross and the Work of God. The sect (some would say cult) stresses a return to traditional Catholic orthodoxy and behavior, especially celibacy, with members falling into one of three levels. Numeraries live in Opus Dei facilities, devote their time and money to the prelature, attend mass daily, and engage in mortification of the flesh (wearing a spiked chain around the thigh called a cilice, taking cold showers, or flagellating themselves with a knotted rope called “the discipline”). Next come Associates (kind of like Numeraries, but living “off campus”), then Supernumeraries (the rank-and-file members). The group did gain the praise of Pope John Paul II, and has engaged in a lot of charity work. Yet, critics accuse the group of being linked to fascist organizations like Franco’s government in Spain, and of anti-Semitism and intolerance, even of other Catholics. [Photo courtesy of DanBrown.com.]
4. Skull and Bones
Top dog among all the collegiate secret societies, Yale’s Skull and Bones dates to 1832 and goes by other spooky names like Chapter 322 and the Brotherhood of Death. With a large number of Bonesmen who have attained positions of power, including the president and the head of the CIA, it’s no wonder that rumors abound that the society is hell-bent on obtaining power and influencing U.S. foreign policy. The fact that they meet in an imposing templelike building on the Yale campus called (what else?) the Tomb doesn’t really help. Bonesmen are selected, or “tapped,” during their junior year and can reveal their membership only after they’ve graduated. But they can never talk about it. The Bones have been accused of all sorts of crazy rituals and conspiracies, including drug smuggling and the assassination of JFK (a hated Hahvahd man, after all). It’s even rumored that the skull of Geronimo resides in the Tomb, stolen from its resting place by Prescott Bush, Dubya’s granddad. In one of the more commonly known rituals, the initiate spends all night naked in an open coffin, confessing all his sexual experiences to the group. So, who’s lucky enough to have made such a confession? George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, John Kerry, William Howard Taft, McGeorge Bundy, William F. Buckley, and Henry Luce are just a few.
5. The Bohemian Club
This is a weird one. In the majestic forests of Sonoma County north of San Francisco lies the Bohemian Grove, the 2,700-acre wooded retreat of the Bohemian Club, the nation’s most exclusive men’s club. Every July since 1879, the “Bohos” have gathered at the Grove for a two-week encampment, where they’re divided into more than 100 residential camps with names like Owl’s Nest, Cave Man, and Lost Angels. Membership has included, well, just about everybody important: Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon (who once called it “faggy”), Gerald Ford, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, and many CEOs and wealthy business leaders like Malcolm Forbes. Each encampment opens with a robed-and-hooded ceremony called the Cremation of Care, in which an effigy called “Dull Care” (symbolizing worldly concerns) is burned before a 40- foot concrete statue of an owl, symbol of wisdom and the club’s mascot. Throughout the week, plays are staged (called High Jinx and Low Jinx), there’s lots of eating and drinking (and, reportedly, urinating on trees), and members are treated to speeches called Lakeside Talks. Some opponents go so far as to accuse the group of Satanism, witchcraft, homosexuality, and prostitution, while more reasonable observers object to the Lakeside Talks as national policy discussions to which the public is not privy. But above all, it’s seen as a way that some of the elite meet others of the elite, thereby ensuring that they’ll all stay elite. All this makes the club’s seemingly anticonspiratorial slogan—“Weaving spiders, come not here”—that much more ironic. [Photo of Reagan & Nixon at the Bohemian Club courtesy of Wikipedia.]
6. The Trilateral Commission
While not, on its face, as juicily sinister as some of the other societies on this list, the Trilateral Commission has been accused of all sorts of underhanded shenanigans by its critics. Formed in 1973 by David Rockefeller, the Commission includes over 300 prominent citizens from Europe, Asia, and North America in a forum for discussing the regions’ common interests. But conspiracy theorists hold that the Trilateral Commission, along with the Council on Foreign Relations and others, is really just a front for a larger, more sinister order called the Round Table Groups, founded in London over 100 years ago and bent on the creation of a new world order, a global capitalist police state. Yikes! (For the record, some say
the Round Table Groups are themselves just fronts for another society, the Illuminati, so who knows?) American members of the Trilateral Commission have included Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter, Dick Cheney, and Dianne Feinstein.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/11539
The tradition of the Jihad dates back to the medieval crusades when the Muslims rallied against the Christian West. Abd el-Kader , declared a Jihad against the French colonial occupiers of Algeria in 1832, while in the aftermath of the Indian mutiny of 1857 Sir Sayid Ahmad argued that Jihad was valid only in “defensive war” and could not be justify further resistance to British rule so long as the British did not interfere with the practice of Islam. Abdul Ala Maurdudi ( 1903-79( the Indian born Pakistani ideologue, was the first to instrumentalize the concept of Jihad to a political context. For him its purpose was to establish the rule of the just, religious freedom - even for non-Muslims- and an Islamist government. His writing inspired others suchas Hasan al-Banna ( 1906-49) and Sayyid Qutb ( 1906-56) the leading ideologue of Egyptian fundamentalists , who was executed by Nasser) to develop the idea further in the Middle East , pimarily against Israel and the Jews. Middle Eastern Islamist ideologues argued that Jihad was mandatory, presenting it as individual duty rather than a communal one. For neglecting his duty jihad, the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was branded an apostate and assisinated by the Egyptian Islamists. Jihad as a political concept returned to Asia with the influx of Arab mujahadin to Afganistan from 1979 onwards.
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Quoting the Sunam, Ibn Taymiyah states that when a woman was killed the “Messenger of Allah” halted and said ” She was not one who had faught… tell him not to kill women, children and serfs” In effect contemporary Islamists such as al-Zuhari and Osama are engaged in an unprecendented exercise of corrupting and misinterpreting the word of God to generate support for their political mission. Or, as Mary and Appelby have described the roles of Islamist ideologues : By selecting elements of tradition and modernity fundamentalists seek to remake the world in the service of a dual commitment to the unfolding escatological drama ( by returning all things to the divine) and to self preservation ( by neutralizing the threatening Other)
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New Technologies for Biofuels and Alternative Energies to Wean American Dependence on Imported Costly Fuels
0A biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon, and it wouldn’t interfere with food supplies, company officials said.
Coskata, which is backed by General Motors and other investors, uses bacteria to convert almost any organic material, from corn husks (but not the corn itself) to municipal trash, into ethanol.
“It’s not five years away, it’s not 10 years away. It’s affordable, and it’s now,” said Wes Bolsen, the company’s vice president of business development.
The discovery underscores the rapid innovation under way in the race to make cellulosic ethanol cheaply. With the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requiring an almost five-fold increase in ethanol production to 36 billion gallons annually by 2022, scientists are working quickly to reach that breakthrough.
“It signals just how hot the competition is right now,” said David Friedman, research director of the clean vehicles program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “There are a lot of people diving into this right now, trying to figure out how to crack the nut. This increases my confidence that someone will do it.”
Besides cutting production costs to fire sale prices, the process avoids some key drawbacks of making ethanol from corn, company officials said. It wouldn’t impact the food supply, and its net energy balance is high because the technique works almost anywhere using almost anything with great efficiency. The end result will be E85 sold at the pump for about a dollar cheaper per gallon than gasoline, according to the company.
Coskata won’t have a pilot plant running until this time next year, and it will produce just 40,000 gallons a year. Still, several experts said Coskata shows enough promise to leave them cautiously optimistic.
“The question will come down to ‘Can they deliver?’” said Nathanael Greene, a senior energy-policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The approach is interesting and promising in the problems it addresses.”
Coskata uses existing gasification technology to convert almost any organic material into synthesis gas, which is a mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Rather than fermenting that gas or using thermo-chemical catalysts to produce ethanol, Coskata pumps it into a reactor containing bacteria that consume the gas and excrete ethanol. Richard Tobey, Coskata’s vice president of engineering, says the process yields 99.7 percent pure ethanol.
Gasification and bacterial conversion are common methods of producing ethanol, but biofuel experts said Coskata is the first to combine them. Doing so, they said, merges the feedstock flexibility of gasification with the relatively low cost of bacterial conversion.
Tobey said Coskata’s method generates more ethanol per ton of feedstock than corn-based ethanol and requires far less water, heat and pressure. Those cost savings allow it to turn, say, two bales of hay into five gallons of ethanol for less than $1 a gallon, the company said. Corn-based ethanol costs $1.40 a gallon to produce, according to the Renewable Fuels Association.
The company plans to have its first commercial-scale plant producing up to 100 million gallons of ethanol a year by 2011. Friedman and Greene said the timeline is realistic.
May Wu, an environmental scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, says Coskata’s ethanol produces 84 percent less greenhouse gas than fossil fuel even after accounting for the energy needed to produce and transport the feedstock. It also generates 7.7 times more energy than is required to produce it. Corn ethanol typically generates 1.3 times more energy than is used producing it.
Making ethanol is one thing, but there’s almost no infrastructure in place for distributing it. But the company’s method solves that problem because ethanol could be made locally from whatever feedstock is available, Tobey said.
“You’re not bound by location,” he said. “If you’re in Orange County, you can use municipal waste. If you’re in the Pacific Northwest, you can use wood waste. Florida has sugar. The Midwest has corn. Each region has been blessed with the ability to grow its own biomass.”
Still, consumers will need some way of getting that fuel into their vehicle. Less than 1 percent of the nation’s 170,000 gas stations sell E85, said Mike Omotoso, senior manager of the global power train group at J.D. Power & Associates.
“Even if you produce it county by county, you still need an infrastructure,” he said. “People aren’t going to go to some remote location for fuel.”
But with production set to ramp up quickly to meet the 36 billion gallon mandate, ethanol advocates believe it won’t be long before E85 is widely available.
http://www.wired.com/cars/energy/news/2008/01/ethanol23
Sphere: Related ContentIn a military context Jihad can have two roles - either offensive or defensive. The former is performed when the enemy is attacked in his own territory , the latter when an enemy is expelled from the jihadist’s homeland. Unlike offensive jihad, defensive jihad is a compulsory duty. Nevertheless the Koran declares ” Let there be no cumpulsion for coersion in the religion (Islam). The right direction is distinctly clear from the error.
The six rules of Jihad are :
1) Jihad is for the sake of Allah, not for the sake of wealth , goods ,fame , glory or power
2) Obedience is to the iman
3) Avoid misappropriating booty
4) Respect pledges of protection
5) Manifest endurance under attack
6) Avoid Corruption
Terrorism , the deliberate killing of non combatants is forbidden in the Koran, unless they fall under the category of conspirators. “And fight in the path of Allah, those who fight you , and do not transgress limits. “Ironivally , the religious scholar most quoted by Osama Ibn Tammiyyah states:
As for those who cannot offer resistance or cannot fight, such as women, children , monks , old people, the blind, handicapped and the like, they shall not be killed, unless they actually fight with words and acts.
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Since the early 1960’s it became apparent that the divisions within the communist world , already apparent by then , had deepened and widened. Indeed , there were by then two centers of Communism even several : Havana Cuba showed little inclination to follow the lead of either Moscow or Peking , and in itself was trying to lead the splintered Communist movements of the developing world. In Moscow, we saw a desire to even undermine the institutions of many nations and the influence of the United States. This desire was tempered by a prudence , powerfully reinforced by a justly held mutual respect and deterent fear of all out or even limited nuclear war.
These new relationships had opened avenues that were previously closed. and also created new found risks as well. On the other hand, the Indochinese - North Vietnamese conflict emerged , grew and erupted between North Vietnam and the supporters of U.S. action found in the South Vietnamese allies , in order to preserve the principal that political change not be brought about by externally directed violence and military force and forces. However at the same time there was also a peaceful engagement existing with the Communist states in terms of many varied forms of peaceful competition.
During the 1940’s and 1950’s the very concept of the Communist enemy seemed to be vis a vis a monolithic force. It became increasingly apparent that a peaceful accomodation of the Soviet Union and the European free states could be accomplished.
The circumstances around which the military polices of the day were formulated changed again and again over time. However the goals always remained similar and indeed the same. Fundamentally what was at issue was the kind of world that all parties wished to live in. America made its own decision at the end of World War II to base its security on the principle and principles of collective defense. It was done with the hope of helping to create - in keeping with the principles of the United Nations Charter. a world in which even the smallest state could look forward to an independent existence. free to develop in its own way. unmolested by neighbors and free of fear of an armed attack or political domination by the more powerful nations.
Some years later in a world already familiar with the gap between Communist promise and Communist reality, and with Communist aggression as well , it was tried with American leadership to achieve the same high level of purpose by joining others like minded nations in a series of mutual defense treaties. By the end of 1955 this system of interlocking alliances had grown to include - the Rio Treaty in the Western Hemisphere, Nato in the European theatre, SEATO and ANZUS in the Far East , and the bilateral mutual defense agreements with Japan , Korea, the Republic of China and the Philipines. Al in all , and all together more than forty sovereign nations bound themselves together to defend their freedoms and prevent further extension of Communist influence and hegemony through subversion and aggression.
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To understand the mindset of Al Qaeda’s volunteers more one must appreciate their belief system and the group’s ideology , which is founded on Islamism and the pursuit of Jihad. Various Islamists , including Al Qaeda have misinterpreted - or at other times reinterpreted - Jihad as "holy war". Lexically Jihad is the exertion of one’s utmost efforts to attain a goal or to repel something "detestable". According to the Habban "The ( mujahidid) is teh one who strives against his self. In the Sharia , jihad comprises the supreme personal sacrifice in order to raise the world of Allah to aid his fight. As Abud Dawud said " Perform jihad against the pagans with their wealth , yourselves and your tongues". The principal aims of Jihad are to remove , oppression and injustice, to establish justice, well being and prosperity: and to eliminate barriers to the spread of truth.
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Several precepts concerning the security of the United States include
1) That the security of the United States must continue to rest on a firm commitment to the policy of collective security , not retreat - no matter what the provocation or what the allurement - into the futile illusion of Isolatism“. 2) That although the strategic nuclear capability of the U.S.A. is absolutely vital to our security and that of our allies, its only realistic deterrent role is deterrence of all-out nuclear or non-nuclear attacks . Up to now it has been impossible for either of the two major nuclear powers - The U.S. and the U.S.S.R./Russia to achieve a meaningful victory over the other in a strategic nuclear exchange 3) That the doctrine of massive retaliation is therefore useless as a guarantee of our security , and must therefore continue to give way to both the theory and practice of flexible response 4) That the doctrine of massive retaliation is therefore useless as a guarantee of American security , and must continue to give way to both the theory and the practice of flexible response. 5) That the direction of the Department of Defense demands not only a strong , responsible civilian control, but a Secretary’s role that consists of active, imaginative and decisive leadership at large , and not the passive practice of simply referring disputes of traditional and partisan factions 6) That the dynamics of efficient management is so complex an institution as the Defense Department necessarily require the use of modern managerial tools and increasing efforts to determine whether the “cost” of each major program and each new project is justified by the ” benefit” or strength if it adds to our security. 7 ) That the department’s primary role of combat readiness is fully consistent with innovative programs designed to utilize at minimal cost its potential for significantly contributing to the solution of the nation’s social programs And that finally the security of the Republic of the United States lies not solely or even primarily in military force , but equally in developing stable patterns of economic and political growth both at home and in developing nations throughout the globe.
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The role of the Fatwa and Islamic Study Committee is to justify Al Qaeda’s actions. When a recruit is inducted , he agrees to pursue Al Qaeda’s agenda and execute any and all orders providing a Fatwa justifying the actions are cited, and Al Qaeda’s religious scholars on the Fatwa committee issue these Islamic rulings. They also preach and propogate Al Qaeda’s model of Islam and ensure periodic indoctrination of the rank and file. According to U.S. court records, the pioneering members of the committee were Abu Saad al-Sharif , Abu Muhammed Saudi Abu Faraj , Abu Qatada, Abu Ibrahim al Iraqui Hajer, Dr. Fadhl el Masry and Dr. Abdel Omez. In addition to heading the shura council al-Zawahiri ran the fatwa committee.
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Sphere: Related ContentWhen Robert S. McNammara gave up his job as President of the Ford Motor Company in 1961- just a few months after he had promoted to that position - to become President Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense , he also gave up one of the most lucrative jobs in industry. A newspaper reporter asked him at the time how much the job had cost him. “More than I would like to say” Mr. MacNammara replied . “There will be profits foregone of approximately 3,000,000 during the next three or four years.” The “profits foregone” turned out to be even greater, since his tour of Cabinet duty continued for more than seven years. During that time he not only completely reorganized the Department of Defense - making it in the opinion of many, the most efficiently run department in the government - but also became the trusted advisor to two presidents under which he served on many problems which fell outside the strict purview of his office.
His well known ability and abilities to store a myriad of facts and figures in his brain and to extract them on demand is awesome. According to Henry Ford II . ” things that most men have to turn to in books and reports for , Bob carries around right in his head”. This computer like ability tends to obscure the public’s mind a contrasting deeply humanistic quality which his close associates have long been aware of.
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