Afghans No. 1 in Opium says THE NEW YORK TIMES, and the rest of the media line up like good little puppies to repeat the accusation verbatim because it MUST be true.

Here's the lead paragraph...

NITED NATIONS, Feb. 4 — Afghanistan was the world's largest source of illicit opium in 2002, according to a United Nations report released on Monday, which estimates that opium revenues amounted to $1.2 billion in that country while the average daily wage was only $2 per day.

The key word here is "illicit." People don't notice it because they assume that all opium is illicit. It's not. Leave out the word "illicit" and the sentence becomes "The United States of America was the largest source of opium in 2002."

Morphine is on the shelves in every hospital in the world. Where do you think morphine comes from? Yep, the exact same opium poppies that heroin comes from. The United States grows its opium poppies in legal government-regulated opium farms in India, Turkey and Tasmania, Australia, where you will find what are, in fact, the largest fields of opium poppies in the world. 

Our opium is turned into morphine, their opium gets turned into heroin. The only difference between morphine and heroin is that heroin goes through an extra refining process making it stronger, so the only thing that makes Afghanistan an "illicit" source of opium is that they make a better product. Similarly, the opium poppy growing areas in Burma (Myanmar), Laos, Thailand, southern China, northwestern Vietnam, Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Guatemala, Colombia and Mexico put their opium through one further refining process than the ones sanctioned by the United States of America. If the United States simply BOUGHT the opium before it became heroin, they could use it legally and put a big dent in illegal heroin. Similarly, if your local hospital ran out of morphine, the heroin produced by all of these countries would do in a pinch. All the hospital would have to do is dilute it to a proper strength. It's a complicated chemical process. You add water to it. 

My mother died on a morphine drip. If you die in an American hospital, YOU'RE going to die on a morphine drip. Do you really give a damn whether the flowers for the opium are grown in India or Afghanistan?

What makes our production of opium products "good" while the rest of the world's production of opium products is "evil" that must be wiped out? Politics, money, and greed. They have to sell their products on the street. It's not regulated and people die from bad product with no labels or instructions for safe use. Who's fault is that?

Rumsfeld helped to arm Kim Jong Il.

Colin Powell's description of a compound in north-eastern Iraq - run by an Islamic terrorist group Ansar al-Islam - as a 'terrorist chemicals and poisons factory,' was total bullshit.

The State Department simultaneously moved to cut its diplomatic presence across the Middle East in countries and territories "within Scud missile range of Iraq." 

I are a graduate student whose research paper were plunderized by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. I seek your help in getting returned to me the intellectual properties that are rightly mine. They cut and pasted whole chunks of my work, which described Iraq in 1991, and used it to describe Iraq in 2003. This am not right, and besides, Napster is illegal.

(The Official UK intelligence report is here and the original student paper by Ibrahim al-Marashi is here. Decide for yourself.)

Why isn't Israel held to the same standards as Iraq concerning compliance with U.N. dictates?

George W. Bush is probably not responsible for the great printer refill ripoff. 

This site is dedicated to our Glorious Imperial Legions, and to their world-wide campaign of slaughter and destruction; and to our beloved and benevolent Masters of the New World Order. Your host is Sgt. Skull, the recruiting sergeant of the Eternal World-Wide Army. Welcome to Fire Base Skull.

"Powell's image of a reluctant warrior masks his take-no-prisoners attitude, which he displayed in the slaughter of retreating Iraqis in the Gulf War. The image he tries to foster among people of color is a more humane figure, but he offers no contradiction to Bush; rather, he helps the administration find methods to better achieve their ends."
- Elombe Brath, producer for the radio program Afrikaleidoscope, Brath went to high school with Colin Powell - 

"The arrogant imperial rhetoric from 'hawks' like Rumsfeld prepares the stage for the diplomatic arm-twisting of Powell; we saw it before the passage of the U.N. resolution in November and we're seeing it again. The dismissal of the need to provide evidence also lowers expectations, making it possible for Powell to offer a cobbled-together pastiche of innuendo, inconclusive claims, and possibly minor violations as a justification for a major war. Powell's 'sudden' shift to a hawkish stance is just as choreographed as the rest of the administration's performance over the past eight months."
- Rahul Mahajan, author of the forthcoming book The U.S. War on Iraq -

"The claims of terrorism links remain hollow: even the State Department report 'Patterns of Global Terrorism' states that Iraq has not been involved in terrorism since 1993. As for a Bin Laden link, that was not proved, but alleged without any substantiation.... Two groups mentioned by Powell have been largely defunct since 1985. Two others, the alleged 'Zakawi network' and Ansar al-Islam, operate in northern Iraq, outside Saddam Hussein's control. The leader of Ansar al-Islam has denied having any links to either Hussein or Bin Laden. The Arab media is reporting that the Zakawi story was provided by Jordanian intelligence, which has a record of torture and inaccuracy. Prince Nayif, the minister of interior and chief of the Saudi effort in the 'war on terrorism,' denied ever hearing about the two al-Qaeda members sneaking from Iraq into Saudi Arabia." 
- As'ad Abukhalil, professor of political science at California State University at Stanislaus, and author of Bin Laden, Islam and America's New 'War on Terrorism' and the forthcoming The House of Bush and the House of Saud -

"Even if Powell's claims were all true, nothing he said makes the case for war. Instead, Powell presented a good argument for continuing inspections -- with serious cooperation on the part of U.S. officials with orders to share all relevant intelligence...."
- Robert Jensen, author of the book Writing Dissent and an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin -

"An analysis of the footnotes for the Al-Marashi essay clearly demonstrates that his work was meant to describe Iraq's intelligence apparatus and military situation in the 1990s. The British dossier was presented as an up-to-date report on the status of Iraq's weapons and terrorist ties.... Between other questionable sources and the unreliable data from the British, it seems all too clear that Powell's presentation was based upon information that is questionable to say the least."
- William Rivers Pitt, author of the book War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know -

"The U.S. has presented information to the Security Council on war and peace issues that later turned out to be false...."
- John Quigley, Professor of international law at Ohio State University -

"These are incredibly dangerous times, made more so because there is no turning back for the Bush administration. This story is incredible proof of the cynicism, dishonesty and callousness of the tyrants pushing the world toward destruction. And Iraq is merely the first stop on a sequential plan for control of the last remaining oil reserves on the planet. I encourage all who read the information contained in these links to spread it far and wide and also, by whatever means at their disposal, to tell the mainstream press, members of congress and the White House itself that we will not follow; we will not obey; and we will not kill on the orders of those who lie to us and who demonstrate the integrity of thieves and intellectual cowards. This might be our last chance before the bombs start falling, before young American men and many innocent Iraqi civilians are reduced to blood and ash."
- Mike Ruppert -

"The current world situation has been deliberately created by these elites who manipulate both the so-called 'right' and the so-called 'left.' By controlling the resulting 'synthesis'- the end result of Hegelian 'thesis' and 'antithesis'- a Globalist New World Order is produced. You can call it techno-fascism or techno-feudalism, but the result is the same- a global consolidation and mega-corporate transnational centralization of power, capital and resources. And how does it work? By using 'managed conflict' or 'crisis management.' A crisis or problem is produced. Then the crisis is 'managed' and the problem is 'solved' with an outcome that is invariably favorable to the goals and agendas of the Global Power Elite." 
- Antony Sutton, America's Secret Establishment -

"Things have gone too far. We're in seriously deep doo doo now. I believe that the reason we're so kerflubbled is that there had never been a coup in this country before, so we were totally unprepared for it. The rest of the world sees it for what it is, but old ideas die hard in the U.S. We've been so indoctrinated into our 'checks and balances' and 'democracy is messy but it works' mentality that we've been outwitted. Best to stare the beast squarely in the face. Yes, this is not politics as usual, we all have to learn the new rules."
- Warren Gammel -

"We were told that Iraqi troops were massing at the Saudi border. And these satellite photographs were shown to the Saudi leadership, to get them to change their mind and allow US troops to enter their country. Well it turned out that those satellite photos were fake. They never existed. The story was broken in the St. Petersburg Times some months later. And it was something that people were convinced of because we were told it was satellite photographs"
- Phyllis Bennis: the Institute for Policy Studies -

"At present the population of the world is increasing at about 58,000 per diem. War, so far, has had no very great effect on this increase, which continued throughout each of the world wars.. War has hitherto been disappointing in this respect, but perhaps bacteriological war may prove effective. If a Black Death could spread throughout the world once in every generation, survivors could procreate freely without making the world too full. The state of affairs might be unpleasant, but what of it?"
- Lord Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science On Society (Routledge Press: New York, 1951) -

"I like a man with faults, especially when he knows it. To err is human - I'm uncomfortable around gods."
- Hugh Prather -

"It is a war of colonial conquest, driven by a series of economic and geo-political aims that center on the seizure of Iraq’s oil resources and the assertion of US global hegemony. Not since the 1930s, when fascist Italy raped Ethiopia, Imperial Japan seized Manchuria and Nazi Germany annexed Austria and the Sudetenland, have imperialist powers so brazenly bullied and attacked weaker countries."
- Powell’s UN speech triggers countdown to war against Iraq -

"The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rape and barbarism. We are always moving forward with a high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims while incidentally capturing their markets, to civilize savage and senile and paranoid peoples while blundering accidentally into their oil wells or metal mines."
- John T. Flynn: As We Go Marching -

"With respect to possible Iraqi use of chemical weapons, it has been the judgment of the US intelligence community for over 12 years that the likelihood of such use would greatly increase during an offensive aimed at getting rid of Saddam Hussein."
- CIA veterans speaking out against the war: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) is a coast-to-coast enterprise, mostly intelligence officers from analysis side of CIA, but Operations side also represented -

"Any disaster - a crime or an earthquake, anything at all - has a lesser or greater impact upon us in proportion to the likelihood that it could have happened to us."
- Lawrence Block: Hope to Die -

"I'm not sure if enough people in America have gotten wind of what's about to happen now — and, if it does happen, whether it's right or wrong. That may be the only difference. But we certainly have criminals in the White House. These are even more successful than the last time. I mean, Nixon and company were kind of petty in their ambitions. These guys are ruthless beyond belief, and boy, are they pocketing a lot of money." 
- Terry Gilliam -

"Why should we let Saddam kill his own people with his weapons of mass destruction when we have perfectly good weapons of mass destruction that we can kill his people with?"
- anonymous -

"I wonder, ...could the United States account for all its WMDs?  I heard the IRS was missing 2,000 computers, and tons of equipment from Los Alamos can't be accounted for. I'll bet the defense department is missing jeeps, planes, boats etc. When Bush 41 stole two entire planeloads of Stinger missiles to give to Iran in the 80s, they weren't reported missing, were they? Nobody knew they were missing until the entire arms-for-terrorists plan was accidentally revealed by Eugene Hossenfus. It's a good thing some huge foreign bully wasn't demanding a full and total accounting for every weapon in the American arsenal - we'd be branded 'uncooperative' and invaded." 
- bartcop -

"As a person acts, so he becomes in life. Those who do good become good; those who do harm become bad. Good deeds make one pure; bad deeds make one impure. So we are said to be what our desire is. As our desire is, so is our will. As our will is, so are our acts. As we act, so we become."
- Bihadaranyaka Upanishad -

"A sage does not speak in terms of being equal, lower or higher. Calmed and without selfishness he neither grasps nor rejects."
- Buddha: Sutta Nipata -

"For the righteous I have prepared that which no eyes have envisioned and no hearts conceived. Search all you want, no living soul shall ever perceive what ultimate bliss is concealed from them."
- The Prophet Muhammad -

"Dissent without resistance is consent."
- Henry David Thoreau -

"This is national cherry month. Remember, without cherries, we'd have to eat 'Garcia' flavored ice cream."
- Ed Helms: The Daily Show -

Peggy Noonan says "Colin Powell has persuaded me."

Once the U.S. takes Iraq, we're going to give a piece of it to Turkey.

MORTICIAN-$6,000 Sign-On Bonus
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We are looking for candidates Nationwide!!!! 

Worldwide. Position will require relocating.

The Navy Mortuary Affairs Program is responsible for the recovery, preparation and final disposition of Navy and Marine Corps deceased personnel and their eligible beneficiaries.

11 European countries agreed to demonstrate against Bush and Blair's war on the same day: 15 February 2003.

United Nations officials covered up a tapestry reproduction of Pablo Picasso’s anti-war mural “Guernica” during US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s February 5 presentation of the American case for war against Iraq.

Raising the terrorism level to orange is being used as an excuse to stop peace rallies.

I am seeking a free three-bedroom house in the San Fernando Valley. All offers will be considered.
 

 HellowDochollywud,my mom reeds you sumtimes and laughs. 
i dont want to be rude mom says thats not the way to talk to grown ups but
today i think you ar meen.
sumeone wants help with homeowrk and yu called them stuped.
maybe yuu need to see a nurse. 
does your nurse have bandaids?
the gud kind with mickey mouse or daffy duck.
maybe you need a pill to help you smile better.
did you go to the bathrum yet? 
mom says sumtimes that's the problem.
maybe if yu can find her your nurse can take your tempartur
in your ear.
maybe you just have a bad fever.
mom says showers help.
well thats all for this time. 
 

maybe your nurse has candy for you, mine does.

sierra
p.s. i drew this for you.

Deer Sierra,

I are pleesed as punch to here from you. You are an arteest. Together, we am going to make the bestest gosh darn movy ever maid. Have your mommy right a check for 8 bazillion dollers and send it to Disinfotainment Today, 0 Fact Street, Hell, CA 96666.

Send your questions to "Ask Dr. Hollywood" at disinfotainment@earthlink.net
 
 

Dr. Hollywood archives are here.

 

WHO’S GOING TO HELL THIS WEEK?

by Helen A. Handbasket

You never know who’s going to trade their soul away or what they’re going to get for it unless you’re Helen A. Handbasket, ex-executive chief in charge of operations for the burning flames of hellfire. Who are her sources? Wouldn’t you like to know? Sorry, all communications are confidential and the property of Helen A. Handbasket, whose opinions do not necessarily reflect those of this or any other publication. 

February 10, 2003

UNDO THE COUP
Satan for President in 2004

VALENTINE FROM HELL

Nothing says "I love you" like a set of 
Psychedelic Republican Trading Cards

HISTORY LESSON FROM HELL

    The man heading the independent investigation of the space shuttle Columbia (of which the official title is, Space Shuttle Mishap Interagency Investigation Board) is Rear Admiral (Ret.) Harold Gehman. Gehman was the first commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command. His last assignment before retiring in 2000 was a dual one. He was Supreme NATO Commander, Atlantic and Commander of all military forces in the continental United States. Gehman also headed the military investigation of the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen, competing with the FBI investigation headed by anti-terrorism chief John O'Neill. The U.S. ambassador to Yemen, Barbara Bodine, felt O'Neill was getting cooperation from Yemeni officials that the military was not and eventually declared O'Neill persona non grata and he was sent back to New York. O'Neill retired from the FBI after clashing with FBI Director Louis Freeh over the bureaus failure to investigate Saudi Arabias support of terrorist activities. Shortly after he took the position of Security Director at the World Trade Center, O'Neill died mysteriously in the 9/11 attacks. He had successfully evacuated the first tower that was hit, where is office was located, but his body was found under a stairwell in the second tower.
    Also on the panel are Rear Admiral Stephen Turcotte, commander of the U.S. Naval Safety Center at Norfolk, Virginia. Major General John L. Barry is director of Plans and Programs, Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio UFO researchers will recognize the base as the home of the notorious top-secret Hangar 18 where relics from the 1947 Roswell, New Mexico. UFO incident occurred. Major General Kenneth W. Hess is U.S. Air Force Chief of Safety, Kirtland AF Base at Kirtland, New Mexico. The base runs the Directed Energy Directorate of the AF Directed Energy Laboratory located 140 miles north of the base at the northern end of the White Sands missile range. The Directorates charter is to improve the Air Forces ability to track missiles and then destroy them with laser energy through the atmosphere. 
    Last, but certainly not least, is Brigadier General Duane W. Deal. You're going to think I'm making this up, so here's the official biography from the Air Force website. "Brig. Gen. Duane W. Deal is Commander, 21st Space Wing, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. The Air Forces largest wing geographically and organizationally, the wing consists of a work force of more than 6,000 officer, enlisted, civilian and contract employees. This work force provides missile warning and space control for combat forces and the governments of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom through its 35 units operating 14 space weapon systems at 20 worldwide locations in six countries spread across 10 time zones."

CARTOON FROM HELL

ENTERTAINMENT FROM HELL

British theatre-goers are flocking to The Madness of George Dubya, a new farce which mocks U.S. President George W. Bush as a pajama-wearing buffoon cuddling a teddy-bear while his crazed military chiefs order nuclear strikes on Iraq.

Mikhail Gorbachev is teaming up with former US president Bill Clinton and actress Sophia Loren to record a new version of the classic children's musical "Peter and the Wolf." Retitled "The Wolf and Peter", the remake of Sergei Prokoviev's tale will tell the story from the point of view of the wolf, faced with the encroachments of urbanization on his dwindling forest habitat.

LAWSUITS FROM HELL

Utah prison inmate Robert Paul Rice, serving 1-15 years on multiple felonies, sued the Utah Department of Corrections claiming the prison was not letting him practice his religion: "Druidic Vampire". Rice claimed that to do that, he must be allowed sexual access to a  "vampress". In addition, the prison isn't supplying his specific "vampiric dietary needs" (yes: blood). 

Hazel Norton of Rolling Fork, Miss., read there was a class action suit against the drug Propulsid, which her doctor had prescribed to her for a digestive disorder. Despite admitting that "I didn't get hurt by Propulsid," Norton thought "I might get a couple of thousand dollars" by joining the lawsuit. When her doctor was named in the suit, he quit his Mississippi practice -- where he was serving the poor. He left with his wife, a pediatrician and internist. That left only two doctors practicing at the local hospital. So while Norton wasn't harmed by the drug, all her neighbors now get to suffer from drastically reduced access to medical care because of her greed.
- The Stella Awards -

DEMOCRACY FROM HELL

Should CBS fire David Clennon because he compared George W. Bush to a Nazi on the Hannity Report?

PRO: On Sean Hannity's radio show, TV star David Clennon derided Bush by likening the current US "moral climate" to Nazi Germany under Hitler. Clennon is irresponsible and out of line! CBS should fire him and teach him a lesson! 

CON: TV stars don't have to agree with political leaders and actors are entitled to their own opinions. We are protected by freedom of speech, if you don't like what he says, don't listen, but he's got the right to say it! Don't Fire him!

OPTION NOT AVAILABLE: David Clennon was absolutely right. The current US "moral climate" is EXACTLY like Nazi Germany under Hitler.

VOTE!

Mr. Conspiracy Says...

Gee, if I were a CIA operative trying to smoke out dissidents, I'd create a site where people supply contact information while voting on hot-button political issues.

SATAN DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW

Congressman Dennis Kucinich is running for President.

SITES FROM HELL

Mandatory reading: Bush's 2003 State of the Union speech translated into reality. Excerpt: "You Congress people serve my kingdom in a time of great consequence to the Bush dynasty. During this session of Congress, we have the duty to reform my approval ratings at home - and we have the opportunity to reeducate millions of lesser peoples abroad - freeing them from the scourge of higher cognition. We will work for a prosperity that is broadly shared by our campaign contributors, and we will manufacture and sensationalize every danger and every enemy that renders Americans paralyzed by fear. In all these days of warmongering and empire-building, we can be confident. In a whirlwind of injustice, poverty, and unemployment, our faith in Jesus Christ is sure, and my re-election prospects remain strong. (Applause.)"

Satan commands you to become a Freemason.

The strongest link between Al Qaeda and Iraq is the lack of the letter U.

And need I mention that Skull and Bones helped foster Russian Communism?

A concise history of the U.S. lies about Iraq.

Broke and against the war? Get some free anti-war posters.

Build your own PC for under $200.

Having trouble organizing your thoughts? Try a little piece of shareware called Brainstorm.

Just as scary as the oil barons are the water barons.

Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Gadhafi has backed U.N. weapons inspectors working in Iraq.

People were selling Columbia debris on eBay.

Oh, by the way, here's how to remove a lightbulb from your rectum.

All of Helen's old columns are here.