by Jim Traficant, AFP

“We, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it.” (Statement of Ariel Sharon, former prime minister of Israel, Oct. 3, 2001.)

It is so powerfully blatant that an Israeli prime minister (Ariel Sharon) was not even “concerned” when he uttered that statement on an Israeli radio show. Sharon was simply stating a known fact. A fact that never appeared in a U.S. newspaper (except for AFP) nor was it heard on any radio or television shows in America.

Think about it. A foreign leader, proclaiming that his country, Israel, and the Jewish people control America and it didn’t make headline news.

They do. Israel, through its powerful lobby, AIPAC, dictates and manipulates American foreign policy, American commerce and the American media. You see folks, AIPAC needs only to “pull the strings” and the puppets on Capitol Hill dance to their music.

This introduction now takes me back to Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman—Jewish American spies. Spies for Israel. On June 13, 2005, an expanded indictment explicitly named AIPAC, and a “foreign country” (they couldn’t even print “Israel”). The indictment also named an Israeli Mossad agent (Mossad is the Israeli spy agency), Naor Gilon.

That’s June 13, 2005. Got that? Israel is named as an entity that is spying on America.

Despite this fact of AIPAC being actually named in an official indictment by the U.S. Justice Department, the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice gave the keynote address at AIPAC’s convention dated May 22, 2005.

Unbelievable? Not really. Just think about it. (“We, the Jewish people, control America.”) I guess after my series of articles about AIPAC, the “Americans know it.”

Think about it. It was common knowledge that indictments were forthcoming on AIPAC and Israeli operatives working inside our government to betray America, yet this  powerful U.S. official, responsible for foreign policy, still agreed to be AIPAC’s keynote speaker.

What’s even worse and troubling is that leaders from both the Democratic and Republican parties also spoke. Willingly and without reservation whatsoever, they took to the microphone to praise Israel and AIPAC.

Listen carefully to what they said; “We declare our unconditional support for AIPAC, for Israel and for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.” Unconditional. Unconditional, regardless of indictments and without reservation. This group of speakers lavished praise upon praise for an entity that is spying on America. Is it any wonder America is in such deep trouble?

This group of “speakers” included the then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, the then-Senate Republican leader, Bill Frist, and the Democratic Senate leader, Harry Reid. The leaders of both parties rallying to the defense of an entity charged with spying on our own government.

If that’s not enough to roast your private parts, more than one half of the U.S. Senate was in attendance and over 150 members of the House of Representatives as well. All clapping and cheering the words of their leaders and all giving AIPAC assurances of their unwavering and unconditional support and loyalty. (Keep focusing on the word “unconditional.”)

Beam me up!

These aren’t mere “puppets,” these are stone cold jackasses. Now tell me, are they members of Congress? Looks like members of the Israeli Knesset to me.

On August 4, 2005, the U.S. Justice Department formally indicted Rosen and Weissman. The indictment read:

“Rosen and Weissman received and passed documents to Israel via the Israeli Embassy.”

Trial was set for April 25, 2006. Lawrence Franklin’s trial (remember him, the Pentagon insider?) was to begin Jan. 2, 2006. It was postponed.

Surprise, surprise, surprise. AIPAC was alleged to have “pushed America into war with Iraq and had further plans to influence Congress to attack Iran.” (Start thinking about body bags due to all the “unconditional” support AIPAC has.)

In March 2005, Israel “fired” Rosen and Weissman. Israel stated they were “appalled” by the behavior of these two AIPAC officials. Rosen and Weissman became the new “fall guys” for AIPAC. (Appalled my ascot. Israel always denies, remember Pollard and Franklin?)

Rosen and Weissman finally spoke. They said, “We did nothing different than any other AIPAC official. It is common practice for AIPAC operatives to conduct themselves in this manner, and we were simply following the orders of AIPAC.” (Truth is, every AIPAC operative is evidently trained to behave exactly like Rosen and Weissman. And why not? AIPAC has the “unconditional” support of the fools in Washington.)

AIPAC orders spying on America. Think back to the AIPAC convention and the leaders of both parties pledging their “unconditional” support for AIPAC and Israel.

Evidently, even spying by Israel is allowed in the minds of both political parties of the U.S.A. After all, the support is “unconditional.” That means there are no conditions. None. Nada. Nothing. Even spying.

Rosen and Weissman, Weissman and Rosen. Shock waves reverberated through Capitol Hill. The big question (fear) was, would Rosen and Weissman disclose the names of AIPAC contacts? Would they name members of Congress? Washington started to shake.

Still, how far would Rosen and Weissman go to soften the blow of their prosecution and probable conviction? Could this be the salvo that knocks Israel off the special treatment pedestal?

Would Rosen and Weissman “sing”? Would Weissman and Rosen “spill the beans on AIPAC”? On Israel? On U.S. officials? Would the U.S. Justice Department really go after Israel for spying on America?

As you ponder and deliberate these questions and scenarios, keep this one universal thought and concept in the back of your minds: “We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.” (Ariel Sharon, Oct. 3, 2001.)

Next week, my conclusions and recommendations as well as my predictions. Get back at me.

James A. (Jim) Traficant, Jr. was born in Youngstown, Ohio on May 8, 1941. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was a well-known football star. He also received a M.S. degree from Youngstown State University in 1976. For ten years he served as executive director of the Mahoning County (Ohio) Drug Program and from 1981-1985 he served as sheriff of Mahoning County, prior to his election to the U.S. Congress as a Democrat in 1984. He was re-elected by overwhelming margins every year up until 2002 when, following his conviction on trumped up corruption charges, he was expelled from the House of Representatives. Despite his conviction and expulsion and being sent to prison for a seven year term Traficant still won 15% of the vote running for re-election to the House in the 2002 election as an independent. He recently completed a seven-year prison sentence, having refused to seek a pardon or clemency, refusing to admit to or apologize for crimes he did not commit.

(received via email)

from Global Research

China’s completion of an historic natural gas pipeline with Kazakhstan bypassing Russia this week tightens the Asian behemoth’s grip on energy resources needed to fuel a burgeoning economy, a desire also forcing it on a quest for oil and gas wealth in other corners of the globe.

By Fawzia Sheikh

China is not alone in this scramble for energy security. Hungry for oil and gas, world powers like Russia and the United States are also relying on different strategies to grab resource treasures but their efforts have raised questions about conflicts down the road.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration describes China as the second largest energy consumer behind the United States . Taking advantage of the world’s financial crisis, the Asian powerhouse has tapped currency reserves to invest in both Russia and Central Asia , helping to construct power plants and other domestic infrastructure in return for long-term oil and gas supplies, said Ben Montalbano, a senior research analyst at the Washington-based Energy Policy Research Foundation.

Lacking energy reserves, China has been “working hard to lock in” investments in Africa, Central Asia and Venezuela , Montalbano told OilPrice.com. The country has also sought natural gas to satisfy increasing consumption and built many liquefied natural gas receiving terminals over the last year, he added.

“Cut off from African natural resources . . . China ’s growth stops,” warned Peter Pham, director of the Africa Project at the New York-based National Committee on American Foreign Policy and an associate professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg , Virginia .

This intensive bid for energy, however, has caused friction with the world community. Under an investment strategy in Africa, China “wins over very easily governing elites but doesn’t necessarily win over the populace,” Pham charged.

Chinese state-owned companies tend not to invest in exploration but prefer to offer “inducements,” he said. China’s offer of multibillion-dollar credit facilities to Angola was pivotal for the African nation to get “off the hook” from negotiating with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to meet “serious reform and certain conditions” before the organizations granted such facilities, he argued. China then bought stakes from the Angolan state oil company, he said.

China, moreover, has helped the Khartoum government to evade United Nations sanctions by assisting in the building of at least three weapons factories in Sudan , he said.

Not to be outdone, Russia has returned to Africa in “considerable force” pursuing natural resources in part to recover its “great power status,” said Pham. Russian firms are trying to “lock in partnerships” with resource producers to form, for example, the “stream of a natural gas OPEC,” he said.

Russia holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves and the eighth largest oil reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Next year, its federal budget will be nearly 50 percent derived from oil and gas exports, emphasizing a reliance on gas exports to “feed the budget,” Montalbano of the Energy Policy Research Foundation told OilPrice.com. To some extent, China and Russia have worked together in the oil and gas domain. Earlier this year, China announced a $25-billion loan to Russian firms in return for a 20-year supply of crude oil.

Russia is not the “behemoth of financial reserves” it was two years ago and has a “fairly weak” banking system and industry, Montalbano maintained. While the country is discussing certain projects with Iran and potentially with Iraq , it is mainly concerned with opening up huge Arctic gas fields because its existing fields are declining, he noted.

Russia and other northern countries have increasingly turned to the melting Arctic but the region is “still up for delineation,” said Boyko Nitzov, director of the Eurasia Energy Center at the Atlantic Council in Washington . “The Arctic is still fairly off limits for large-scale production of oil and gas” and difficult to access especially during the winter, Nitzov explained.

For American oil companies, an over-reliance on the Middle East for energy needs has shifted its attention to Africa, a major energy supplier over the last several years edging out the Persian Gulf in energy imports to the United States , Pham explained. U.S. firms tend to forge production-sharing agreements or explore resource development, but lack carte blanche in their pursuit of oil riches in places like Africa due to U.S. government sanctions and public pressure, he said. This puts the United States at “a slight disadvantage” relative to Russia and China , he added.

Competition for energy assets will probably not lead to open conflict but rather to increasing political tension, predicted Africa expert Pham. Leading African organizations, Europe and the United States never recognized Guinea ’s military coup last year, which led to a subsequent massacre of opposition members. Yet China signed a deal with the military junta, risking a perception as a “rogue operator in the single-minded pursuit of resources,” he warned.

Although Russia and China, meanwhile, have both benefited from joint oil and gas investments, making conflict doubtful in the forseeable future, “10, 20 years down the road, who knows,” Montalbano added.

Fawzia Sheikh of OilPrice.com who focus on Fossil Fuels, Alternative Energy, Metals, and Geopolitics. To find out more visit their website at: http://www.oilprice.com

Hat Tip to Dprogram

A great little music video from Ron and Kay Rivoli about the sate of the United States.