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Today's
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October
31, 2003
Patrick
Cockburn
Baghdad
Diary: Iraqis are Naming Their New Babies "Saddam"
October
30, 2003
Forrest
Hylton
Popular
Insurrection and National Revolution in Bolivia
Eric Ruder
"We Have to Speak Out!": Marching with the Military
Families
Dave Lindorff
Big
Lies and Little Lies: The Meaning of "Mission Accomplished"
Philip
Adams
"Everyone is Running Scared": Denigrating Critics of
Israel
Sean Donahue
Howard Dean: a Hawk in a Dove's Cloak
Robert
Jensen
Big Houses & Global Justice: A Moral Level of Consumption?
Alexander
Cockburn
Paul
Krugman: Part of the Problem
October
29, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Thieves
Like Us: Cheney's Backdoor to Halliburton
Robert Fisk
Iraq Guerrillas Adopt a New Strategy: Copy the Americans
Rick Giombetti
Let
Them Eat Prozac: an Interview with David Healy
The Intelligence
Squad
Dark
Forces? The Military Steps Up Recruiting of Blacks
Elaine
Cassel
Prosecutors
as Therapists, Phantoms as Terrorists
Marie Trigona
Argentina's War on the Unemployed Workers Movement
Gary Leupp
Every
Day, One KIA: On the Iraq War Casualty Figures
October
28, 2003
Rich Gibson
The
Politics of an Inferno: Notes on Hellfire 2003
Uri Avnery
Incident
in Gaza
Diane
Christian
Wishing
Death
Robert
Fisk
Eyewitness
in Iraq: "They're Getting Better"
Toni Solo
Authentic Americans and John Negroponte
Jason
Leopold
Halliburton in Iran
Shrireen Parsons
When T-shirts are Verboten
Chris
White
9/11
in Context: a Marine Veteran's Perspective
October 27, 2003
William
A. Cook
Ministers
of War: Criminals of the Cloth
David
Lindorff
The
Times, Dupes and the Pulitzer
Elaine
Cassel
Antonin
Scalia's Contemptus Mundi
Robert
Fisk
Occupational Schizophrenia
John Chuckman
Banging Your Head into Walls
Seth Sandronsky
Snoops R Us
Bill Kauffman
George
Bush, the Anti-Family President
October
25 / 26, 2003
Robert
Pollin
The
US Economy: Another Path is Possible
Jeffrey St. Clair
Outsourcing US Guided Missile Technology to China
James
Bunn
Plotting
Pre-emptive Strikes
Saul Landau
Should Limbaugh Do Time?
Ted Honderich
Palestinian Terrorism, Morality & Germany
Thomas Nagy
Saving the Army of Peace
Christopher
Brauchli
Between Bush and a Lobotomy: Killing Endangered Species for Profit
Laura Carlsen
Latin America's Archives of Terror
Diane
Christian
Evil Acts & Evil Actors
Muqtedar Khan
Lessons from the Imperial Adventure in Iraq
John Feffer
The Tug of War on the Korea Peninsula
Brian Cloughley
Iraq War Memories are Made of Lies
Benjamin
Dangl
and Kathryn Ledebur
An Uneasy Peace in Bolivia
Karyn
Strickler
Down
with Big Brother's Spying Eyes
Noah Leavitt
Legal Globalization
John Stanton
Hitler's Ghost Haunts America
Mickey
Z.
War of the Words
Adam Engel
Tractatus Ridiculous
Poets'
Basement
Curtis, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Project Last Stand
October
24, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft's
War on Greenpeace
Lenni Brenner
The Demographics of American Jews
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Rockets,
Napalm, Torpedoes and Lies: the Attack on the USS Liberty Revisited
Sarah Weir
Cover-up of the Israeli Attack on the US Liberty
David
Krieger
WMD Found in DC: Bush is the Button
Mohammed Hakki
It's Palestine, Stupid!: Americans and the Middle East
Harry
Browne
Northern
Ireland: the Agreement that Wasn't
October
23, 2003
Diane
Christian
Ruthlessness
Kurt Nimmo
Criticizing Zionism
David Lindorff
A General Theory of Theology
Alan Maass
The Future of the Anti-War Movement
William
Blum
Imperial
Indifference
Stew Albert
A Memo
October
22, 2003
Wayne
Madsen
Religious
Insanity Runs Rampant
Ray McGovern
Holding
Leaders Accountable for Lies
Christopher
Brauchli
There's
No Civilizing the Death Penalty
Elaine
Cassel
Legislators
and Women's Bodies
Bill Glahn
RIAA
Watch: the New Morality of Capitalism
Anthony Arnove
An Interview with Tariq Ali
October 21, 2003
Uri Avnery
The
Beilin Agreement
Robert Jensen
The Fundamentalist General
David
Lindorff
War Dispatch from the NYT: God is on Our Side!
William S. Lind
Bremer is Deaf to History
Bridget
Gibson
Fatal Vision
Alan Haber
A Human Chain for Peace in Ann Arbor
Peter
Linebaugh
On the Bicentennial of the Hanging of Thomas Russell
October
20, 2003
Standard
Schaefer
Chile's
Failed Economy: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Chris
Floyd
Circus Maximus: Arnie, Enron and Bush Maul California
Mark Hand
Democrats Seek to Disappear Chomsky
& Nader
John &
Elaine Mellencamp
Peaceful
World
Elaine
Cassel
God's
General Unmuzzled
October
18 / 19, 2003
Robert
Pollin
Clintonomics:
the Hollow Boom
Gary Leupp
Israel, Syria and Stage Four in the Terror War
Saul Landau
Day of the Gropenfuhrer
Bruce Anderson
The California Recall
John Gershman
Bush in Asia: What a Difference a Decade Makes
Nelson P. Valdes
Bush, Electoral Politics and Cuba's "Illicit Sex Trade"
Kurt Nimmo
Shock Therapy and the Israeli Scenario
Tom Gorman
Al Franken and Al-Shifa
Brian
Cloughley
Public Propaganda and the Iraq War
Joanne Mariner
A New Way to Kill Tigers
Denise
Low
The Cancer of Sprawl
Mickey Z.
The Reverend of Doom
John Chuckman
US Missiles for Israeli Nukes?
George Naggiar
A Veto of Public Diplomacy
Alison
Weir
Death Threats in Berkeley
Benjamin Dangl
Bolivian Govt. Falling Apart
Ron Jacobs
The Politics of Bob Dylan
Fidel Castro
A Review of Garcia Marquez's Memoir
Adam Engel
I Hope My Corpse Gives You the Plague
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert, Guthrie and Greeder
October
17, 2003
Stan Goff
Piss
On My Leg: Perception Control and the Stage Management of War
Newton
Garver
Bolivia
in Turmoil
Standard
Schaefer
Grocery Unions Under Attack
Ben Terrall
The Ordeal of the Lockheed 52
Ron Jacobs
First Syria, Then Iran
David
Lindorff
Michael
Moore Proclaims Mumia Guilty
October
16, 2003
Marjorie
Cohn
Bush
Gunning for Regime Change in Cuba
Gary Leupp
"Getting Better" in Iraq
Norman
Solomon
The US Press and Israel: Brand Loyalty and the Absence of Remorse
Rush Limbaugh
The 10 Most Overrated Athletes of All Time
Lenni
Brenner
I
Didn't Meet Huey Newton. He Met Me
Website of the Day
Time Tested Books
October
15, 2003
Sunil
Sharma / Josh Frank
The
General and the Governor: Two Measures of American Desperation
Forrest
Hylton
Dispatch
from the Bolivian War: "Like Animals They Kill Us"
Brian
Cloughley
Those
Phony Letters: How Bush Uses GIs to Spread Propaganda About Iraq
Ahmad
Faruqui
Lessons
of the October War
Uri Avnery
Three
Days as a Living Shield
Website
of the Day
Rank and File: the New Unity Partnership Document
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The
New Unity Partnership:
A Manifest Destiny for Labor
October 14, 2003
Eric Ridenour
Qibya
& Sharon: Anniversary of a Massacre
Elaine
Cassel
The
Disgrace That is Guantanamo
Robert
Jensen
What the "Fighting Sioux" Tells Us About White People
David Lindorff
Talking Turkey About Iraq
Patrick
Cockburn
US Troops Bulldoze Crops
VIPS
One Person Can Make a Difference
Toni Solo
The CAFTA Thumbscrews
Peter
Linebaugh
"Remember
Orr!"
Website
of the Day
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Halloween
Edition
October 31, 2003
How Arabs View the
World's Most Powerful Club
Inside
the Masonic Lodge
By LINDA S. HEARD
It was an Egyptian who first aroused my interest
in freemasonry. Adel was a well-educated Copt, whose once wealthy
family had fallen on hard times. Unable to find employment in
his hometown of Alexandria, Adel set off for Lebanon hoping for
better luck. The young man spent months trying to find an opening
which matched his qualifications but when his savings ran out
he had little choice but to accept the job of bawab (doorman)
in a Beirut suburb.
Adel's boss--the owner of a luxury apartment
block--was pleased with his work and quickly upped his salary,
but Adel hungered to improve his social status.
When the family of the Lebanese girl
he wanted to marry turned him down, Adel's ambitions grew: he
was determined to be a 'somebody'. And then a friend lent him
a Masonic book that he had discovered tucked away in a second-hand
shop.
Adel devoured its pages, learning by
heart many of the rituals, signs and handshakes. This forbidden
knowledge gave him a sense of self-worth and he would often use
the Masonic handshake and postures when showing prospective buyers
around the vacant flats.
Within just a few months, an impeccably
dressed stranger knocked at the door of his basement room and
thrust a blue envelope into his hands without saying a word.
To the bawab's amazement, inside it was US$600 in crisp new notes.
Shortly afterwards, he heard from his
employer that important people were asking questions about him.
The day came when a small delegation of men in business suits
asked to speak to him.
They began the dialogue with coded Masonic
greetings and handshakes, and were visibly satisfied when Adel
gave the appropriate responses. But when he was asked the name
of his Masonic lodge, Adel had little choice but to tell his
new 'friends'--and benefactors--the truth: he was not a Mason
at all.
At first, his visitors appeared confused,
but when they learned that it was Adel's greatest wish to be
a member of their exclusive 'club', they asked him to hand over
his precious book and desist in using Masonic greetings until
the lodge could consider his case. They also demanded his silence.
Within days, Adel was fired from his
job and received another blue envelope. This time it held a typed
note, politely suggesting that he return to Egypt. Feeling intimidated,
he did just that.
Adel may have got off lightly. When a
novice is initiated into masonry and becomes an Apprentice, he
must swear ancient oaths related to Masonic secrets, his hand
upon the book of his faith. Even if he breaks from Freemasonry,
he must never reveal what he knows to anyone outside the brotherhood.
If he does so, there are penalties to be paid, penalties he once
accepted, including the tearing out of his tongue.
More exalted Masons accept to have their
bowels turned to ashes and the top of their skulls sliced off.
Some Masons maintain that these penalties have been removed from
the rituals; others say they are merely symbolic, yet others
are not so sure. The most usual penalty, however, is for a Mason
to be ostracized by the fraternity, an act likely to reduce him
to professional and financial ruin.
So what exactly is this organization
with the power to change the course of a life?
Ancient fraternity
A mason might describe the aim of this
worldwide ancient fraternity as 'making good men better, using
the tools of bonds of friendship, compassion and brotherly love'.
Nobody knows for certain its origins
although most Masonic scholars believe it has its roots in the
guilds of stonemasons formed in the Middle Ages with Britain's
first Grand Lodge--established in 1717--symbolic of its growth
into a unified and puissant entity.
There are others who contend the organization
goes back to the days of Masons who built King Solomon's temple,
while some trace its beginnings to the Knights Templar said to
have fought in Jerusalem during the Crusades.
There is no doubt that the various Masonic
orders are philanthropic in nature, with North American Masons
giving up to US$2 million to various charities each day. Freemasons
own children's hospitals, clinics, schools and they offer scholarships
to children of poor families.
Such is the appeal of Masonry in the
U.S., 14 presidents (including George Washington), eight vice
presidents and more than 40 Justices of the Supreme Court have
been Masons.
Indeed, among the designers of the seal
found on both sides of a U.S. dollar bill, four were known Masons:
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, William Churchill Houston
and William Barton.
The pyramid and the eye on a one-dollar
bill are also considered Masonic symbols. The Latin words appearing
on the currency "Novus Ordo Seclorum" interestingly
translate to "Bringing in the New World Order".
Freemasonry's accusers
However, Freemasonry's detractors put
quite another spin on both the origins and the purposes of the
movement.
One such was Stephen Knight who wrote
an expose of Masonry entitled "The Brotherhood--The Secret
World of Freemasons" as long ago as the 1980s. Knight's
book concentrated mainly on Britain.
One of his contentions was that Masons
in the police force; courts, banks, the Post Office, the Civil
Service, the military and in government share personal information
on individuals when required to do by a 'brother'.
He claimed that more than half of all
British police chiefs were Masons and pointed a finger at some
of the most prestigious firms of London solicitors as well as
barristers, accusing them of conflicting loyalties.
Taking up Knight's mantel after his death
was author Martin Short who wrote "Inside the Brotherhood".
He argued that the British police force and its legal system
were so heavily laden with Masons that the course of justice
must be being perverted.
"One must assume that people join
lodges predominantly to feather their own nests, and to form
a loose combination against the interests of everybody who is
not a Mason," he wrote.
Architect of the "New World Order"
One of the best-known founding fathers
of U.S. Freemasonry is Boston-born General Albert Pike, a 19th-century
architect of the 'New World Order'. He was a linguist who rose
to Grand Commander of North American Freemasonry from 1859-1891
and authored a Masonic handbook called The Morals and Dogma of
the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Freemasonry.
In this, Pike explains how the true meaning
behind the symbols of Masonry must be kept from ordinary Masons:
"Their true explication is reserved for the Adepts, the
Princes of Masonry..."
On August 15, 1871, Pike wrote a letter
to his friend Guissepe Mazzini, a third degree Mason, who had
headed the Illuminati (a Masonic offshoot, rooted in Bavaria)
in 1834. The missive--formerly on display in the British Museum--was
a blueprint for three world wars Pike envisioned as necessary
to bring about the One World Order.
According to Pike, the First World War
must be brought about in order to overthrow the power of the
Russian Tsars and of making that country a fortress of Communism...
At the end of the war, Communism will be built and used in order
to destroy the other governments and weaken religions.
The Second War must be brought about
so that Fascism and German (Aryan) Nationalism is destroyed,
strengthening Zionism enough to institute a sovereign state of
Israel in Palestine...
The Third World War would take advantage
of the differences between Zionists and the leaders of the Islamic
World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam and
Zionism destroy each other.
Wrote Pike: "Meanwhile, the other
nations, once more divided on this issue, will be constrained
to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual
and economical exhaustion..."
Sound familiar?
The Arab view
It's little wonder that the Arab world
views Freemasonry with a jaundiced eye. Few Moslems become Masons.
I did, however, speak to one who succumbed to the initiation
ceremony, a Lebanese, whom I shall call Ahmed.
Ahmed was invited to join a secret lodge
by an influential business associate. He told me about his initiation
into the Scottish Rite; how he had been blindfolded, given a
Masonic name, and how religiously conflicted he felt inside having
to swear oaths to a group of people he didn't know and, worse,
didn't know what they really stood for.
As soon as he returned home, he destroyed
his Masonic apron and certificates, never to contact the lodge
again. He hoped they wouldn't get in touch with him.
The Jewish connection
In the minds of many Arabs, Masonry is
inextricably linked to Judaism, mostly due to the Qabbalastic
system of numbers (Gematria) used during the rituals and references
to the Temple of Solomon. In reality, Masons are mostly Christian
(90 per cent in the U.S.) although it must be said that Jewish
Masons tend to be influential, and are said to include several
Israeli politicians, including Benjamin Netanyahu.
In 1996, a new lodge was formed in Israel,
named after Sir Moses Montefiori, a prominent Mason and the brother-in-law
of Nathan Rothschild. Its website reads: "The consecration
(of the new lodge) took place in the quarries of Jerusalem..."
From this choice of location, one can,
perhaps, interpret that members of this lodge believe that the
origins of Masonry are linked to the construction of Solomon's
Temple.
Albert Pike in his Morals and Dogma writes:
"The room of place in which they (Masons) meet, representing
some part of the Temple of Solomon, is also called the lodge".
One must surely, therefore, wonder why
so many Masonic scholars have concluded that Freemasonry has
its roots in European stonecutters guilds... or is this organised
deception?
Masonic Forum magazine, while profiling
Isaac Grassiani, the founder of the Supreme Masonic Council of
Israel, suggests that Israel is "the legendary birthplace
of the Craft." So, perhaps the view of some Arabs that Freemasonry's
ideology is tied to Judaism isn't far wrong.
Although an international movement, Masonry
tends to be different depending on the country. In the U.S.,
for example, lodges often tend to more 'Mom and Pop' holding
family barbecues and parties. Most American lodges allow would-be
members to petition to join.
In Britain, this is not the case. There,
individuals must be invited to become a Mason by someone already
on the inside.
A British Masonic website, suggests that
interested parties should make their interest in joining known
on every possible occasion, when eventually a Mason will hear.
This advice speaks volumes as to just how many there are throughout
every strata of British society.
There is no doubt there are many genuinely
honourable people within the Masonic movement. Some have achieved
true greatness and benefited Mankind. Sir Alexander Fleming,
Neil Armstrong and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart immediately spring
to mind.
Members have varying motives for joining
the organization and they shouldn't all be tarred with the same
negative brush--especially those at the lower levels.
But for those on the outside looking
in, there will always be questions concerning an esoteric, elitist
society with powerful adepts, a murky history, and, a less than
transparent agenda.
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer
on Mid-East affairs and can be contacted at <heardonthegrapevine@yahoo.co.uk>
Weekend
Edition Features for Oct. 25 / 26, 2003
Robert
Pollin
The
US Economy: Another Path is Possible
Jeffrey St. Clair
Outsourcing US Guided Missile Technology to China
James
Bunn
Plotting
Pre-emptive Strikes
Saul Landau
Should Limbaugh Do Time?
Ted Honderich
Palestinian Terrorism, Morality & Germany
Thomas Nagy
Saving the Army of Peace
Christopher
Brauchli
Between Bush and a Lobotomy: Killing Endangered Species for Profit
Laura Carlsen
Latin America's Archives of Terror
Diane
Christian
Evil Acts & Evil Actors
Muqtedar Khan
Lessons from the Imperial Adventure in Iraq
John Feffer
The Tug of War on the Korea Peninsula
Brian Cloughley
Iraq War Memories are Made of Lies
Benjamin
Dangl
and Kathryn Ledebur
An Uneasy Peace in Bolivia
Karyn
Strickler
Down
with Big Brother's Spying Eyes
Noah Leavitt
Legal Globalization
John Stanton
Hitler's Ghost Haunts America
Mickey
Z.
War of the Words
Adam Engel
Tractatus Ridiculous
Poets'
Basement
Curtis, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Project Last Stand
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