12/9/11 at 1:51 PM
Comment
DEMON-CRATS preparing MASSIVE MILITARY TROOPS for Occupy Wall Street at DNC
By Joe Coscarelli
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 15: Occupy Wall Street activists march through downtown Manhattan after police removed the protesters early in the morning from Zuccotti Park on November 15, 2011 in New York City. Hundreds of protesters, who rallied against inequality in America, have slept in tents and under tarps since September 17 in Zuccotti Park, which has since become the epicenter of the global Occupy movement. The raid in New York City follows recent similar moves in Oakland, California, and Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
In John Heilemann's cover story "2012=1968?," he wonders whether Occupy Wall Street protesters will do to Charlotte's Democratic National Convention in the summer of 2012 what demonstrators did to the Chicago DNC in 1968. The North Carolina city, sometimes called the "Wall Street of the South," is not taking any chances, and is already working to pass an ordinance that would make occupying downtown spaces with tents a "public nuisance," in addition to banning "noxious substances," padlocks, and other camping equipment. The fact that it would knock out the city's current overnight demonstrators is an added bonus.
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx said dubiously last month that the rule, which could be enacted in January, is not aimed at a specific group. "Unlike many cities that have well-developed regulations governing protest activity, our local regulations contain gaps that need to be filled," he said. But a memo about the ordinance does note, "The recent issues related to camping on city property have further amplified the need to review whether the city wants to regulate this activity during the DNC." A city councilman added of the current Occupy Charlotte faction, "Once those ordinances go into effect, those overnight stays will end."
A local National Lawyers Guild director says that the rule's constitutionality might be challenged and could even spur "increased confrontation between protesters and police." For their part, the protesters say they don't even have a plan for the DNC yet, but acknowledge the opportunity it presents. "Everybody I talked to said the DNC is ground zero for everything," said one organizer. "Everybody wants to be involved. We're estimating several thousands of people coming especially from the Occupy community." The idea of an alternative convention has been floated, while another Occupy organizer called the DNC "a powder keg." Tents or no tents, Charlotte "has got a big target on it," he said.
Related: Will Occupy Wall Street Upend Obama's Presidential Election? [NYM]
Sunday, December 11, 2011
G.I. JOE to KILL US CITIZENS
12/9/11 at 1:51 PM
Comment
DEMON-CRATS preparing MASSIVE MILITARY TROOPS for Occupy Wall Street at DNC
By Joe Coscarelli
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 15: Occupy Wall Street activists march through downtown Manhattan after police removed the protesters early in the morning from Zuccotti Park on November 15, 2011 in New York City. Hundreds of protesters, who rallied against inequality in America, have slept in tents and under tarps since September 17 in Zuccotti Park, which has since become the epicenter of the global Occupy movement. The raid in New York City follows recent similar moves in Oakland, California, and Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
In John Heilemann's cover story "2012=1968?," he wonders whether Occupy Wall Street protesters will do to Charlotte's Democratic National Convention in the summer of 2012 what demonstrators did to the Chicago DNC in 1968. The North Carolina city, sometimes called the "Wall Street of the South," is not taking any chances, and is already working to pass an ordinance that would make occupying downtown spaces with tents a "public nuisance," in addition to banning "noxious substances," padlocks, and other camping equipment. The fact that it would knock out the city's current overnight demonstrators is an added bonus.
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx said dubiously last month that the rule, which could be enacted in January, is not aimed at a specific group. "Unlike many cities that have well-developed regulations governing protest activity, our local regulations contain gaps that need to be filled," he said. But a memo about the ordinance does note, "The recent issues related to camping on city property have further amplified the need to review whether the city wants to regulate this activity during the DNC." A city councilman added of the current Occupy Charlotte faction, "Once those ordinances go into effect, those overnight stays will end."
A local National Lawyers Guild director says that the rule's constitutionality might be challenged and could even spur "increased confrontation between protesters and police." For their part, the protesters say they don't even have a plan for the DNC yet, but acknowledge the opportunity it presents. "Everybody I talked to said the DNC is ground zero for everything," said one organizer. "Everybody wants to be involved. We're estimating several thousands of people coming especially from the Occupy community." The idea of an alternative convention has been floated, while another Occupy organizer called the DNC "a powder keg." Tents or no tents, Charlotte "has got a big target on it," he said.
Related: Will Occupy Wall Street Upend Obama's Presidential Election? [NYM]
Comment
DEMON-CRATS preparing MASSIVE MILITARY TROOPS for Occupy Wall Street at DNC
By Joe Coscarelli
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 15: Occupy Wall Street activists march through downtown Manhattan after police removed the protesters early in the morning from Zuccotti Park on November 15, 2011 in New York City. Hundreds of protesters, who rallied against inequality in America, have slept in tents and under tarps since September 17 in Zuccotti Park, which has since become the epicenter of the global Occupy movement. The raid in New York City follows recent similar moves in Oakland, California, and Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
In John Heilemann's cover story "2012=1968?," he wonders whether Occupy Wall Street protesters will do to Charlotte's Democratic National Convention in the summer of 2012 what demonstrators did to the Chicago DNC in 1968. The North Carolina city, sometimes called the "Wall Street of the South," is not taking any chances, and is already working to pass an ordinance that would make occupying downtown spaces with tents a "public nuisance," in addition to banning "noxious substances," padlocks, and other camping equipment. The fact that it would knock out the city's current overnight demonstrators is an added bonus.
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx said dubiously last month that the rule, which could be enacted in January, is not aimed at a specific group. "Unlike many cities that have well-developed regulations governing protest activity, our local regulations contain gaps that need to be filled," he said. But a memo about the ordinance does note, "The recent issues related to camping on city property have further amplified the need to review whether the city wants to regulate this activity during the DNC." A city councilman added of the current Occupy Charlotte faction, "Once those ordinances go into effect, those overnight stays will end."
A local National Lawyers Guild director says that the rule's constitutionality might be challenged and could even spur "increased confrontation between protesters and police." For their part, the protesters say they don't even have a plan for the DNC yet, but acknowledge the opportunity it presents. "Everybody I talked to said the DNC is ground zero for everything," said one organizer. "Everybody wants to be involved. We're estimating several thousands of people coming especially from the Occupy community." The idea of an alternative convention has been floated, while another Occupy organizer called the DNC "a powder keg." Tents or no tents, Charlotte "has got a big target on it," he said.
Related: Will Occupy Wall Street Upend Obama's Presidential Election? [NYM]
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Wrong! They didn't make synthetic gasoline from coal, I.G. Farben made synthetic rubber. Primo Levi, the chemist and Auschwitz prisoner, worked there and wrote about his experiences. The slogan over the gate, "Arbeit Macht Frei," was I.G. Farben's slogan, not the Nazis'. Get a clue!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://forum.codoh.com/viewtopic.php?t=16
Auschwitz lowered the death toll from 4 to 1.1 million - but the 6 million Jews killed Mythoid never has changed.. so, we all can see that there is no honest attempt at accurately describing the facts of the "holocaust"
google: 6 million jews killed 1919- the same exact number was given out as true facts many times before. impossible coinicidence.
http://thy-weapon-of-war.blogspot.com/2009/02/jews-squealed-about-holocaust-of-6.html
the truth of the holocaust is obviously not what you were taught!
Six Million Jews Perished in 1945, 1938, 1920 and 1919
http://winstonsmithministryoftruth.blogspot.com/2011/02/auschwitz-death-toll-disagreements.html
Auschwitz - Myths & Facts
Nearly everyone has heard of Auschwitz, the German wartime concentration camp where many prisoners -- most of them Jewish -- were reportedly exterminated, especially in gas chambers. Auschwitz is widely regarded as the most terrible Nazi extermination center. The camp's horrific reputation cannot, however, be reconciled with the facts.
Scholars Challenge Holocaust Story
Astonishing as it may seem, more and more historians and engineers have been challenging the widely accepted Auschwitz story. These "revisionist" scholars do not dispute the fact that large numbers of Jews were deported to the camp, or that many died there, particularly of typhus and other diseases. But the compelling evidence they present shows that Auschwitz was not an extermination center and that the story of mass killings in "gas chambers" is a myth.
The Auschwitz Camps
The Auschwitz camp complex was set up in 1940 in what is now south-central Poland. Large numbers of Jews were deported there between 1942 and mid-1944.
The main camp was known as Auschwitz I. Birkenau, or Auschwitz II, was supposedly the main extermination center, and Monowitz, or Auschwitz III, was a large industrial center where gasoline was produced from coal. In addition there were dozens of smaller satellite camps devoted to the war economy.
Four Million Victims?
At the postwar Nuremberg Tribunal, the Allies charged that the Germans exterminated four million people at Auschwitz. This figure, which was invented by the Soviets, was uncritically accepted for many years. It often appeared in major American newspapers and magazines, for example. [1]
Today no reputable historian, not even those who generally accept the extermination story, believes this figure. Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer said in 1989 that it is time to finally acknowledge the familiar four million figure is a deliberate myth. In July 1990 the Auschwitz State Museum in Poland, along with Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Center, suddenly announced that altogether perhaps one million people (both Jews and non-Jews) died there. Neither institution would say how many of these people were killed, nor were any estimates given of the numbers of those supposedly gassed. [2] One prominent Holocaust historian, Gerald Reitlinger, has estimated that perhaps 700,000 or so Jews perished at Auschwitz. More recently, Holocaust historian Jean-Claude Pressac has estimated that about 800,000 persons -- of whom 630,000 were Jewish -- perished at Auschwitz. While even such lower figures are incorrect, they show how the Auschwitz story has changed drastically over the years. [3]
Bizarre Tales
At one time it was seriously claimed that Jews were systematically electrocuted at Auschwitz. American newspapers, citing a Soviet eyewitness report from liberated Auschwitz, told readers in February 1945 that the methodical Germans had killed Jews there using an "electric conveyor belt on which hundreds of persons could be electrocuted simultaneously [and] then moved on into furnaces. They were burned almost instantly, producing fertilizer for nearby cabbage fields." [4]
And at the Nuremberg Tribunal, chief U.S. prosecutor Robert Jackson charged that the Germans used a "newly invented" device to instantaneously "vaporize" 20,000 Jews near Auschwitz "in such a way that there was no trace left of them." [5] No reputable historian now accepts either of these fanciful tales.
The Höss 'Confession'
A key Holocaust document is the "confession" of former Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss of April 5, 1946, which was submitted by the U.S. prosecution at the main Nuremberg trial. [6]
Although it is still widely cited as solid proof for the Auschwitz extermination story, it is actually a false statement that was obtained by torture.
Many years after the war, British military intelligence sergeant Bernard Clarke described how he and five other British soldiers tortured the former commandant to obtain his "confession." Höss himself privately explained his ordeal in these words: "Certainly, I signed a statement that I killed two and half million Jews. I could just as well have said that it was five million Jews. There are certain methods by which any confession can be obtained, whether it is true or not." [7]
Even historians who generally accept the Holocaust extermination story now acknowledge that many of the specific statements made in the Höss "affidavit" are simply not true. For one thing, no serious scholar now claims that anything like two and a half or three million people perished in Auschwitz.
The Höss "affidavit" further alleges that Jews were already being exterminated by gas in the summer of 1941 at three other camps: Belzec, Treblinka and Wolzek. The "Wolzek" camp mentioned by Höss is a total invention. No such camp existed, and the name is no longer mentioned in Holocaust literature. Moreover, the story these days by those who believe in the Holocaust legend is that gassings of Jews did not begin at Auschwitz, Treblinka, or Belzec until sometime in 1942.
No Documentary Evidence
Many thousands of secret German documents dealing with Auschwitz were confiscated after the war by the Allies. Not a single one refers to a policy or program of extermination. In fact, the extermination story cannot be reconciled with the documentary evidence.
Many Jewish Inmates Unable to Work
For example, it is often claimed that all Jews at Auschwitz who were unable to work were immediately killed. Jews who were too old, young, sick, or weak were supposedly gassed on arrival, and only those who could be worked to death were temporarily kept alive.
But the evidence shows that, in fact, a very high percentage of the Jewish inmates were not able to work, and were nevertheless not killed. For example, an internal German telex message dated Sept. 4, 1943, from the chief of the Labor Allocation department of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office (WVHA), reported that of 25,000 Jewish inmates in Auschwitz, only 3,581 were able to work, and that all of the remaining Jewish inmates -- some 21,500, or about 86 percent -- were unable to work. [8]
This is also confirmed in a secret report dated April 5, 1944, on "security measures in Auschwitz" by Oswald Pohl, head of the SS concentration camp system, to SS chief Heinrich Himmler. Pohl reported that there was a total of 67,000 inmates in the entire Auschwitz camp complex, of whom 18,000 were hospitalized or disabled. In the Auschwitz II camp (Birkenau), supposedly the main extermination center, there were 36,000 inmates, mostly female, of whom "approximately 15,000 are unable to work." [9]
These two documents simply cannot be reconciled with the Auschwitz extermination story.
The evidence shows that Auschwitz-Birkenau was established primarily as a camp for Jews who were not able to work, including the sick and elderly, as well as for those who were temporarily awaiting assignment to other camps. That's the considered view of Dr. Arthur Butz of Northwestern University, who also says that this was the reason for the unusually high death rate there. [10]
Princeton University history professor Arno Mayer, who is Jewish, acknowledges in a recent book about the "final solution" that more Jews perished at Auschwitz as a result of typhus and other "natural" causes than were executed. [11]
Anne Frank
Perhaps the best known Auschwitz inmate was Anne Frank, who is known around the world for her famous diary. But few people know that thousands of Jews, including Anne and her father, Otto Frank, "survived" Auschwitz.
The 15-year-old girl and her father were deported from the Netherlands to Auschwitz in September 1944. Several weeks later, in the face of the advancing Soviet army, Anne was evacuated along with many other Jews to the Bergen-Belsen camp, where she died of typhus in March 1945.
Her father came down with typhus in Auschwitz and was sent to the camp hospital to recover. He was one of thousands of sick and feeble Jews who were left behind when the Germans abandoned the camp in January 1945, shortly before it was overrun by the Soviets. He died in Switzerland in 1980.
If the German policy had been to kill Anne Frank and her father, they would not have survived Auschwitz. Their fate, tragic though it was, cannot be reconciled with the extermination story.
Allied Propaganda
The Auschwitz gassing story is based in large part on the hearsay statements of former Jewish inmates who did not personally see any evidence of extermination. Their beliefs are understandable, because rumors about gassings at Auschwitz were widespread.
Allied planes dropped large numbers of leaflets, written in Polish and German, on Auschwitz and the surrounding areas which claimed that people were being gassed in the camp. The Auschwitz gassing story, which was an important part of the Allied wartime propaganda effort, was also broadcast to Europe by Allied radio stations. [12]
Survivor Testimony
Former inmates have confirmed that they saw no evidence of extermination at Auschwitz.
An Austrian woman, Maria Vanherwaarden, testified about her camp experiences in a Toronto District Court in March 1988. She was interned in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942 for having sexual relations with a Polish forced laborer. On the train trip to the camp, a Gypsy woman told her and the others that they would all be gassed at Auschwitz.
Upon arrival, Maria and the other women were ordered to undress and go into a large concrete room without windows to take a shower. The terrified women were sure that they were about to die. But then, instead of gas, water came out of the shower heads.
Auschwitz was no vacation center, Maria confirmed. She witnessed the death of many fellow inmates by disease, particularly typhus, and quite a few committed suicide. But she saw no evidence at all of mass killings, gassings, or of any extermination program. [13]
A Jewish woman named Marika Frank arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau from Hungary in July 1944, when 25,000 Jews were supposedly gassed and cremated daily. She likewise testified after the war that she heard and saw nothing of "gas chambers" during the time she was interned there. She heard the gassing stories only later. [14]
Inmates Released
Auschwitz internees who had served their sentences were released and returned to their home countries. If Auschwitz had actually been a top secret extermination center, the Germans would certainly not have released inmates who "knew" what was happening in the camp. [15]
Himmler Orders Death Rate Reduced
In response to the deaths of many inmates due to disease, especially typhus, the German authorities responsible for the camps ordered firm counter-measures.
The head of the SS camp administration office sent a directive dated Dec. 28, 1942, to Auschwitz and the other concentration camps. It sharply criticized the high death rate of inmates due to disease, and ordered that "camp physicians must use all means at their disposal to significantly reduce the death rate in the various camps." Furthermore, it ordered:
The camp doctors must supervise more often than in the past the nutrition of the prisoners and, in cooperation with the administration, submit improvement recommendations to the camp commandants ... The camp doctors are to see to it that the working conditions at the various labor places are improved as much as possible.
Finally, the directive stressed that "the Reichsfhrer SS [Heinrich Himmler] has ordered that the death rate absolutely must be reduced." [16]
German Camp Regulations
Official German camp regulations make clear that Auschwitz was not an extermination center. They ordered: [17]
New arrivals in the camp are to be given a thorough medical examination, and if there is any doubt [about their health], they must be sent to quarantine for observation.
Prisoners who report sick must be examined that same day by the camp physician. If necessary, the physician must transfer the prisoners to a hospital for professional treatment.
The camp physician must regularly inspect the kitchen regarding the preparation of the food and the quality of the food supply. Any deficiencies that may arise must be reported to the camp commandant.
Special care should be given in the treatment of accidents, in order not to impair the full productivity of the prisoners.
Prisoners who are to be released or transfered must first be brought before the camp physician for medical examination.
Telltale Aerial Photos
Detailed aerial reconnaissance photographs taken of Auschwitz-Birkenau on several random days in 1944 (during the height of the alleged extermination period there) were made public by the CIA in 1979. These photos show no trace of piles of corpses, smoking crematory chimneys or masses of Jews awaiting death, things that have been repeatedly alleged, and all of which would have been clearly visible if Auschwitz had been the extermination center it is said to have been. [18]
Absurd Cremation Claims
Cremation specialists have confirmed that thousands of corpses could not possibly have been cremated every day throughout the spring and summer of 1944 at Auschwitz, as commonly alleged.
For example, Mr. Ivan Lagace, manager of a large crematory in Calgary, Canada, testified in court in April 1988 that the Auschwitz cremation story is technically impossible. The allegation that 10,000 or even 20,000 corpses were burned every day at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944 in crematories and open pits is simply "preposterous" and "beyond the realm of reality," he declared under oath. [19]
Gassing Expert Refutes Extermination Story
America's leading gas chamber expert, Boston engineer Fred A. Leuchter, carefully examined the supposed "gas chambers" in Poland and concluded that the Auschwitz gassing story is absurd and technically impossible.
Leuchter is the foremost specialist on the design and installation of gas chambers used in the United States to execute convicted criminals. For example, he designed a gas chamber facility for the Missouri state penitentiary.
In February 1988 he carried out a detailed onsite examination of the "gas chambers" at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek in Poland, which are either still standing or only partially in ruins. In sworn testimony to a Toronto court and in a technical report, Leuchter described every aspect of his investigation.
He concluded by emphatically declaring that the alleged gassing facilities could not possibly have been used to kill people. Among other things, he pointed out that the so-called "gas chambers" were not properly sealed or vented to kill human beings without also killing German camp personnel. [20]
Dr. William B. Lindsey, a research chemist employed for 33 years by the Dupont Corporation, likewise testified in a 1985 court case that the Auschwitz gassing story is technically impossible. Based on a careful on-site examination of the "gas chambers" at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek, and on his years of experience, he declared: "I have come to the conclusion that no one was willfully or purposefully killed with Zyklon B [hydrocyanic acid gas] in this manner. I consider it absolutely impossible." [21]
Summary
The Auschwitz extermination story originated as wartime propaganda. Now, more than 60 years after the end of the Second World War, it is time to take another, more objective look at this highly polemicized chapter of history. The Auschwitz legend is the core of the Holocaust story. If hundreds of thousands of Jews were not systematically killed there, as alleged, one of the great myths of our time collapses.
Artificially maintaining the hatreds and passions of the past prevents genuine reconciliation and lasting peace. Revisionism promotes historical awareness and international understanding. That is why the work of the Institute for Historical Review is so important and deserves your support.
Notes
1. Nuremberg document 008-USSR. IMT blue series, Vol. 39, pp. 241, 261.; NC
and A red series, vol. 1, p. 35.; C.L. Sulzberger, "Oswiecim Killings Placed
at 4,000,000," New York Times, May 8, 1945, and, New York Times, Jan. 31, 1986,
p. A4.
2. Y. Bauer, "Fighting the Distortions," Jerusalem Post (Israel), Sept. 22,
1989; "Auschwitz Deaths Reduced to a Million," Daily Telegraph (London), July
17, 1990; "Poland Reduces Auschwitz Death Toll Estimate to 1 Million," The
Washington Times, July 17, 1990.
3. G. Reitlinger, The Final Solution (1971); J.-C. Pressac, Le Crématoires
d'Auschwitz: La Machinerie du meurtre de mass (Paris: CNRS, 1993). On Pressac's
estimates, see: L'Express (France), Sept. 30, 1993, p. 33.
4. Washington (DC) Daily News, Feb. 2, 1945, pp. 2, 35. (United Press
dispatch from Moscow).
5. IMT blue series, Vol. 16, p. 529-530. (June 21, 1946).
6. Nuremberg document 3868-PS (USA-819). IMT blue series, Vol. 33, pp.
275-279.
7. Rupert Butler, Legions of Death (England: 1983), pp. 235; R. Faurisson,
The Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1986-87, pp. 389-403.
8. Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute of Warsaw, German document
No. 128, in: H. Eschwege, ed., Kennzeichen J (East Berlin: 1966), p. 264.
9. Nuremberg document NO-021. NMT green series, Vol. 5. pp. 384-385.
10. Arthur Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century (Costa Mesa, Calif.), p.
124.
11. Arno Mayer, Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?: The 'Final Solution' in
History (Pantheon, 1989), p. 365.
12. Nuremberg document NI-11696. NMT green series, Vol. 8, p. 606.
13. Testimony in Toronto District Court, March 28, 1988. Toronto Star, March
29, 1988, p. A2.
14. Sylvia Rothchild, ed., Voices from the Holocaust (New York: 1981), pp.
188-191.
15. Walter Laqueur, The Terrible Secret (Boston: 1981), p. 169.
16. Nuremberg document PS-2171, Annex 2. NC&A red series, Vol. 4, pp.
833-834.
17. "Rules and Regulations for the Concentration Camps." Anthology, Inhuman
Medicine, Vol. 1, Part 1 (Warsaw: International Auschwitz Committee, 1970), pp.
149-151.; S. Paskuly, ed., Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at
Auschwitz (Buffalo: 1992), pp. 216-217.
18. Dino A. Brugioni and Robert C. Poirier, The Holocaust Revisited
(Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 1979).
19. Canadian Jewish News (Toronto), April 14, 1988, p. 6.
20. The Leuchter Report: An Engineering Report on the Alleged Execution Gas
Chambers at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek (Toronto: 1988). Available for
$17.00, postpaid, from the IHR.
21. The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Feb. 12, 1985, p. M3
#2001
About the Author
Mark Weber is director of the Institute for Historical Review. He studied
history at the University of Illinois (Chicago), the University of Munich,
Portland State University and Indiana University (M.A., 1977). For nine years he
served as editor of the IHR's Journal of Historical Review.
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://forum.codoh.com/viewtopic.php?t=16
Auschwitz lowered the death toll from 4 to 1.1 million - but the 6 million Jews killed Mythoid never has changed.. so, we all can see that there is no honest attempt at accurately describing the facts of the "holocaust"
google: 6 million jews killed 1919- the same exact number was given out as true facts many times before. impossible coinicidence.
http://thy-weapon-of-war.blogspot.com/2009/02/jews-squealed-about-holocaust-of-6.html
the truth of the holocaust is obviously not what you were taught!
Six Million Jews Perished in 1945, 1938, 1920 and 1919
http://winstonsmithministryoftruth.blogspot.com/2011/02/auschwitz-death-toll-disagreements.html
Auschwitz - Myths & Facts
Nearly everyone has heard of Auschwitz, the German wartime concentration camp where many prisoners -- most of them Jewish -- were reportedly exterminated, especially in gas chambers. Auschwitz is widely regarded as the most terrible Nazi extermination center. The camp's horrific reputation cannot, however, be reconciled with the facts.
Scholars Challenge Holocaust Story
Astonishing as it may seem, more and more historians and engineers have been challenging the widely accepted Auschwitz story. These "revisionist" scholars do not dispute the fact that large numbers of Jews were deported to the camp, or that many died there, particularly of typhus and other diseases. But the compelling evidence they present shows that Auschwitz was not an extermination center and that the story of mass killings in "gas chambers" is a myth.
The Auschwitz Camps
The Auschwitz camp complex was set up in 1940 in what is now south-central Poland. Large numbers of Jews were deported there between 1942 and mid-1944.
The main camp was known as Auschwitz I. Birkenau, or Auschwitz II, was supposedly the main extermination center, and Monowitz, or Auschwitz III, was a large industrial center where gasoline was produced from coal. In addition there were dozens of smaller satellite camps devoted to the war economy.
Four Million Victims?
At the postwar Nuremberg Tribunal, the Allies charged that the Germans exterminated four million people at Auschwitz. This figure, which was invented by the Soviets, was uncritically accepted for many years. It often appeared in major American newspapers and magazines, for example. [1]
Today no reputable historian, not even those who generally accept the extermination story, believes this figure. Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer said in 1989 that it is time to finally acknowledge the familiar four million figure is a deliberate myth. In July 1990 the Auschwitz State Museum in Poland, along with Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Center, suddenly announced that altogether perhaps one million people (both Jews and non-Jews) died there. Neither institution would say how many of these people were killed, nor were any estimates given of the numbers of those supposedly gassed. [2] One prominent Holocaust historian, Gerald Reitlinger, has estimated that perhaps 700,000 or so Jews perished at Auschwitz. More recently, Holocaust historian Jean-Claude Pressac has estimated that about 800,000 persons -- of whom 630,000 were Jewish -- perished at Auschwitz. While even such lower figures are incorrect, they show how the Auschwitz story has changed drastically over the years. [3]
Bizarre Tales
At one time it was seriously claimed that Jews were systematically electrocuted at Auschwitz. American newspapers, citing a Soviet eyewitness report from liberated Auschwitz, told readers in February 1945 that the methodical Germans had killed Jews there using an "electric conveyor belt on which hundreds of persons could be electrocuted simultaneously [and] then moved on into furnaces. They were burned almost instantly, producing fertilizer for nearby cabbage fields." [4]
And at the Nuremberg Tribunal, chief U.S. prosecutor Robert Jackson charged that the Germans used a "newly invented" device to instantaneously "vaporize" 20,000 Jews near Auschwitz "in such a way that there was no trace left of them." [5] No reputable historian now accepts either of these fanciful tales.
The Höss 'Confession'
A key Holocaust document is the "confession" of former Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss of April 5, 1946, which was submitted by the U.S. prosecution at the main Nuremberg trial. [6]
Although it is still widely cited as solid proof for the Auschwitz extermination story, it is actually a false statement that was obtained by torture.
Many years after the war, British military intelligence sergeant Bernard Clarke described how he and five other British soldiers tortured the former commandant to obtain his "confession." Höss himself privately explained his ordeal in these words: "Certainly, I signed a statement that I killed two and half million Jews. I could just as well have said that it was five million Jews. There are certain methods by which any confession can be obtained, whether it is true or not." [7]
Even historians who generally accept the Holocaust extermination story now acknowledge that many of the specific statements made in the Höss "affidavit" are simply not true. For one thing, no serious scholar now claims that anything like two and a half or three million people perished in Auschwitz.
The Höss "affidavit" further alleges that Jews were already being exterminated by gas in the summer of 1941 at three other camps: Belzec, Treblinka and Wolzek. The "Wolzek" camp mentioned by Höss is a total invention. No such camp existed, and the name is no longer mentioned in Holocaust literature. Moreover, the story these days by those who believe in the Holocaust legend is that gassings of Jews did not begin at Auschwitz, Treblinka, or Belzec until sometime in 1942.
No Documentary Evidence
Many thousands of secret German documents dealing with Auschwitz were confiscated after the war by the Allies. Not a single one refers to a policy or program of extermination. In fact, the extermination story cannot be reconciled with the documentary evidence.
Many Jewish Inmates Unable to Work
For example, it is often claimed that all Jews at Auschwitz who were unable to work were immediately killed. Jews who were too old, young, sick, or weak were supposedly gassed on arrival, and only those who could be worked to death were temporarily kept alive.
But the evidence shows that, in fact, a very high percentage of the Jewish inmates were not able to work, and were nevertheless not killed. For example, an internal German telex message dated Sept. 4, 1943, from the chief of the Labor Allocation department of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office (WVHA), reported that of 25,000 Jewish inmates in Auschwitz, only 3,581 were able to work, and that all of the remaining Jewish inmates -- some 21,500, or about 86 percent -- were unable to work. [8]
This is also confirmed in a secret report dated April 5, 1944, on "security measures in Auschwitz" by Oswald Pohl, head of the SS concentration camp system, to SS chief Heinrich Himmler. Pohl reported that there was a total of 67,000 inmates in the entire Auschwitz camp complex, of whom 18,000 were hospitalized or disabled. In the Auschwitz II camp (Birkenau), supposedly the main extermination center, there were 36,000 inmates, mostly female, of whom "approximately 15,000 are unable to work." [9]
These two documents simply cannot be reconciled with the Auschwitz extermination story.
The evidence shows that Auschwitz-Birkenau was established primarily as a camp for Jews who were not able to work, including the sick and elderly, as well as for those who were temporarily awaiting assignment to other camps. That's the considered view of Dr. Arthur Butz of Northwestern University, who also says that this was the reason for the unusually high death rate there. [10]
Princeton University history professor Arno Mayer, who is Jewish, acknowledges in a recent book about the "final solution" that more Jews perished at Auschwitz as a result of typhus and other "natural" causes than were executed. [11]
Anne Frank
Perhaps the best known Auschwitz inmate was Anne Frank, who is known around the world for her famous diary. But few people know that thousands of Jews, including Anne and her father, Otto Frank, "survived" Auschwitz.
The 15-year-old girl and her father were deported from the Netherlands to Auschwitz in September 1944. Several weeks later, in the face of the advancing Soviet army, Anne was evacuated along with many other Jews to the Bergen-Belsen camp, where she died of typhus in March 1945.
Her father came down with typhus in Auschwitz and was sent to the camp hospital to recover. He was one of thousands of sick and feeble Jews who were left behind when the Germans abandoned the camp in January 1945, shortly before it was overrun by the Soviets. He died in Switzerland in 1980.
If the German policy had been to kill Anne Frank and her father, they would not have survived Auschwitz. Their fate, tragic though it was, cannot be reconciled with the extermination story.
Allied Propaganda
The Auschwitz gassing story is based in large part on the hearsay statements of former Jewish inmates who did not personally see any evidence of extermination. Their beliefs are understandable, because rumors about gassings at Auschwitz were widespread.
Allied planes dropped large numbers of leaflets, written in Polish and German, on Auschwitz and the surrounding areas which claimed that people were being gassed in the camp. The Auschwitz gassing story, which was an important part of the Allied wartime propaganda effort, was also broadcast to Europe by Allied radio stations. [12]
Survivor Testimony
Former inmates have confirmed that they saw no evidence of extermination at Auschwitz.
An Austrian woman, Maria Vanherwaarden, testified about her camp experiences in a Toronto District Court in March 1988. She was interned in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942 for having sexual relations with a Polish forced laborer. On the train trip to the camp, a Gypsy woman told her and the others that they would all be gassed at Auschwitz.
Upon arrival, Maria and the other women were ordered to undress and go into a large concrete room without windows to take a shower. The terrified women were sure that they were about to die. But then, instead of gas, water came out of the shower heads.
Auschwitz was no vacation center, Maria confirmed. She witnessed the death of many fellow inmates by disease, particularly typhus, and quite a few committed suicide. But she saw no evidence at all of mass killings, gassings, or of any extermination program. [13]
A Jewish woman named Marika Frank arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau from Hungary in July 1944, when 25,000 Jews were supposedly gassed and cremated daily. She likewise testified after the war that she heard and saw nothing of "gas chambers" during the time she was interned there. She heard the gassing stories only later. [14]
Inmates Released
Auschwitz internees who had served their sentences were released and returned to their home countries. If Auschwitz had actually been a top secret extermination center, the Germans would certainly not have released inmates who "knew" what was happening in the camp. [15]
Himmler Orders Death Rate Reduced
In response to the deaths of many inmates due to disease, especially typhus, the German authorities responsible for the camps ordered firm counter-measures.
The head of the SS camp administration office sent a directive dated Dec. 28, 1942, to Auschwitz and the other concentration camps. It sharply criticized the high death rate of inmates due to disease, and ordered that "camp physicians must use all means at their disposal to significantly reduce the death rate in the various camps." Furthermore, it ordered:
The camp doctors must supervise more often than in the past the nutrition of the prisoners and, in cooperation with the administration, submit improvement recommendations to the camp commandants ... The camp doctors are to see to it that the working conditions at the various labor places are improved as much as possible.
Finally, the directive stressed that "the Reichsfhrer SS [Heinrich Himmler] has ordered that the death rate absolutely must be reduced." [16]
German Camp Regulations
Official German camp regulations make clear that Auschwitz was not an extermination center. They ordered: [17]
New arrivals in the camp are to be given a thorough medical examination, and if there is any doubt [about their health], they must be sent to quarantine for observation.
Prisoners who report sick must be examined that same day by the camp physician. If necessary, the physician must transfer the prisoners to a hospital for professional treatment.
The camp physician must regularly inspect the kitchen regarding the preparation of the food and the quality of the food supply. Any deficiencies that may arise must be reported to the camp commandant.
Special care should be given in the treatment of accidents, in order not to impair the full productivity of the prisoners.
Prisoners who are to be released or transfered must first be brought before the camp physician for medical examination.
Telltale Aerial Photos
Detailed aerial reconnaissance photographs taken of Auschwitz-Birkenau on several random days in 1944 (during the height of the alleged extermination period there) were made public by the CIA in 1979. These photos show no trace of piles of corpses, smoking crematory chimneys or masses of Jews awaiting death, things that have been repeatedly alleged, and all of which would have been clearly visible if Auschwitz had been the extermination center it is said to have been. [18]
Absurd Cremation Claims
Cremation specialists have confirmed that thousands of corpses could not possibly have been cremated every day throughout the spring and summer of 1944 at Auschwitz, as commonly alleged.
For example, Mr. Ivan Lagace, manager of a large crematory in Calgary, Canada, testified in court in April 1988 that the Auschwitz cremation story is technically impossible. The allegation that 10,000 or even 20,000 corpses were burned every day at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944 in crematories and open pits is simply "preposterous" and "beyond the realm of reality," he declared under oath. [19]
Gassing Expert Refutes Extermination Story
America's leading gas chamber expert, Boston engineer Fred A. Leuchter, carefully examined the supposed "gas chambers" in Poland and concluded that the Auschwitz gassing story is absurd and technically impossible.
Leuchter is the foremost specialist on the design and installation of gas chambers used in the United States to execute convicted criminals. For example, he designed a gas chamber facility for the Missouri state penitentiary.
In February 1988 he carried out a detailed onsite examination of the "gas chambers" at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek in Poland, which are either still standing or only partially in ruins. In sworn testimony to a Toronto court and in a technical report, Leuchter described every aspect of his investigation.
He concluded by emphatically declaring that the alleged gassing facilities could not possibly have been used to kill people. Among other things, he pointed out that the so-called "gas chambers" were not properly sealed or vented to kill human beings without also killing German camp personnel. [20]
Dr. William B. Lindsey, a research chemist employed for 33 years by the Dupont Corporation, likewise testified in a 1985 court case that the Auschwitz gassing story is technically impossible. Based on a careful on-site examination of the "gas chambers" at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek, and on his years of experience, he declared: "I have come to the conclusion that no one was willfully or purposefully killed with Zyklon B [hydrocyanic acid gas] in this manner. I consider it absolutely impossible." [21]
Summary
The Auschwitz extermination story originated as wartime propaganda. Now, more than 60 years after the end of the Second World War, it is time to take another, more objective look at this highly polemicized chapter of history. The Auschwitz legend is the core of the Holocaust story. If hundreds of thousands of Jews were not systematically killed there, as alleged, one of the great myths of our time collapses.
Artificially maintaining the hatreds and passions of the past prevents genuine reconciliation and lasting peace. Revisionism promotes historical awareness and international understanding. That is why the work of the Institute for Historical Review is so important and deserves your support.
Notes
1. Nuremberg document 008-USSR. IMT blue series, Vol. 39, pp. 241, 261.; NC
and A red series, vol. 1, p. 35.; C.L. Sulzberger, "Oswiecim Killings Placed
at 4,000,000," New York Times, May 8, 1945, and, New York Times, Jan. 31, 1986,
p. A4.
2. Y. Bauer, "Fighting the Distortions," Jerusalem Post (Israel), Sept. 22,
1989; "Auschwitz Deaths Reduced to a Million," Daily Telegraph (London), July
17, 1990; "Poland Reduces Auschwitz Death Toll Estimate to 1 Million," The
Washington Times, July 17, 1990.
3. G. Reitlinger, The Final Solution (1971); J.-C. Pressac, Le Crématoires
d'Auschwitz: La Machinerie du meurtre de mass (Paris: CNRS, 1993). On Pressac's
estimates, see: L'Express (France), Sept. 30, 1993, p. 33.
4. Washington (DC) Daily News, Feb. 2, 1945, pp. 2, 35. (United Press
dispatch from Moscow).
5. IMT blue series, Vol. 16, p. 529-530. (June 21, 1946).
6. Nuremberg document 3868-PS (USA-819). IMT blue series, Vol. 33, pp.
275-279.
7. Rupert Butler, Legions of Death (England: 1983), pp. 235; R. Faurisson,
The Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1986-87, pp. 389-403.
8. Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute of Warsaw, German document
No. 128, in: H. Eschwege, ed., Kennzeichen J (East Berlin: 1966), p. 264.
9. Nuremberg document NO-021. NMT green series, Vol. 5. pp. 384-385.
10. Arthur Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century (Costa Mesa, Calif.), p.
124.
11. Arno Mayer, Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?: The 'Final Solution' in
History (Pantheon, 1989), p. 365.
12. Nuremberg document NI-11696. NMT green series, Vol. 8, p. 606.
13. Testimony in Toronto District Court, March 28, 1988. Toronto Star, March
29, 1988, p. A2.
14. Sylvia Rothchild, ed., Voices from the Holocaust (New York: 1981), pp.
188-191.
15. Walter Laqueur, The Terrible Secret (Boston: 1981), p. 169.
16. Nuremberg document PS-2171, Annex 2. NC&A red series, Vol. 4, pp.
833-834.
17. "Rules and Regulations for the Concentration Camps." Anthology, Inhuman
Medicine, Vol. 1, Part 1 (Warsaw: International Auschwitz Committee, 1970), pp.
149-151.; S. Paskuly, ed., Death Dealer: the Memoirs of the SS Kommandant at
Auschwitz (Buffalo: 1992), pp. 216-217.
18. Dino A. Brugioni and Robert C. Poirier, The Holocaust Revisited
(Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 1979).
19. Canadian Jewish News (Toronto), April 14, 1988, p. 6.
20. The Leuchter Report: An Engineering Report on the Alleged Execution Gas
Chambers at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek (Toronto: 1988). Available for
$17.00, postpaid, from the IHR.
21. The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Feb. 12, 1985, p. M3
#2001
About the Author
Mark Weber is director of the Institute for Historical Review. He studied
history at the University of Illinois (Chicago), the University of Munich,
Portland State University and Indiana University (M.A., 1977). For nine years he
served as editor of the IHR's Journal of Historical Review.
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Has The New World Order Taken Over America's Free Will, Leaving People Unable To Think For Themselves?
Alan Watt has been fighting to wake-up America for more than a decade, saying people need to understand history before ever having a grasp on what is happening in America today
9 May 2006
By Greg Szymanski (www.arcticbeacon.com)
Alan Watt knows the New World Order has all the power and resources that money can buy.
He knows the rulers have been perfecting their system of dominance and control for centuries, using mind control and propaganda as a way to deceive the masses.
According to Watt, who has meticulously studied history to find the answers, the Illuminati's main goal is to wipe away freewill and individualism, replacing it with the new socialist man, who is unable to think on his own and easily manipulated and controlled.
And if history be the guide, he understands the picture looks bleak for the America since the controllers of the New World Order have devised a program that usually works when they decide to takeover a country.
But like the ultimate free thinker, he feels the diabolical intentions of the rich and powerful, who have infiltrated all major governments and religions of the world, can be defeated once the American people again learn to think and reason on their own without relying on their government and media to do their thinking for them.
Watt's wit, wisdom and scholarship are well known in a small circle of people who have not fallen victim to the New World Order's propaganda machine, but he still remains a virtual unknown to the masses since the New World Order's clamp down on free speech and free thought has reached epidemic proportions.
"There are always going to be a few people who can't be brainwashed," said Watt this week on Greg Szymanski's radio show, the Investigative Journal. "But for the most part the masses remain in the dark, not having a clue how the New World Order plan works and how they really are.
"Everybody has to realize that this is their system, not ours. People have to realize they are led to believe they are free, but really they are not. Mind control is a big part of the New World Order takeover and they use religion as one of their main tools.
"People have to remember that this elitist system has been passed down for hundreds if not thousands of years. They work through secret societies, infiltrating governments and religions and using Freemasonry around the world as their tool.
"The people at the lower levels, of course, don't understand what's happening at the top and they provide a good cover for the top levels to carry out their plan of one government and one religion through war and genocide. We are put on this planet for a short time and must try to first understand what is happening by understanding history."
Watt is known for his scholarship in ancient religions and secret societies, using his study of history as a way explain the problems facing the world today. But Watt is also quick point out, there are solutions.
Here is one answer he gave to an inquisitive emailer on his web site at www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com
"We've got to eliminate the crocodiles because apparently they're running all over the place. Part of the solution again is to expose the control and the control techniques which includes psychological warfare, which has many people spinning into outer space. The solution is for each individual to decide. If the system is corrupt from top to bottom, how can you save it, and would you want to save it, or like most people do you want time to stop with everything you know intact and simply go no further?
"I've been deluged with New Agers who've swallowed every piece of candy on the bookshelves and their solution is to stare down holes like Mt. Shasta for an answer, try and make piece with the reptiles, or accepting the "fact" that the commoners are a lower slave made DNA type of reptile, therefore there's nothing you can do. Meanwhile all the little unknown people who've been doing all the serious research have it spun into outer space and discredited by psychological warfare techniques.
"The oneness movement was put out there by the top of the establishment for the establishment's sake. People are divided by all religions including the New Age Religion, the Space Age Religion and the Lord Of The Rings Religion. The only ones who have their names on documents regarding the New World Order and its agenda were conceived and born the same way as everybody else. Until the public demand a say in their own destiny and demand the associations to which every public servant belongs be made available, then these agendas will steamroll on.
"Why would anyone give power of law over one-self to someone or hundreds who've sworn allegiance to a secret agenda? Just like with the FTAA, NAFTA, GATT, SOA, the public know by the effects years after the deals have been signed into law. We are only now seeing the effects of the next stage. America is asleep. No one can argue they didn't notice the unification of Europe and the subjugation of once national governments to that of minor provinces. Where were the people of America while all that was going on? And check the most popular books of that era. Yes, counter-intelligence works very well."
Much has written about the origins of the New World Order as well as the culprits, but not much has been said about the stages people go through in waking up to the truth or why the waking up process fails to spread quickly through society.
Although Watt believes most people really do not want to know the truth, he provides a much deeper analysis in one of his three books under the main title of Cutting Through: Volumes I, II and III.
As a preface to understanding, I think it necessary to go through the standard phases of "waking up."
1. An Individual vaguely perceives something is wrong in his/her life. This takes the form of fatigue at trying to "keep up" with real or imaginary crisis, encroachment of government into every aspect of life, increasing taxation and so on. Sometimes it takes the loss of work and the realization that the safety net they contributed to has a gaping hole in the middle.
2. The individual discovers that justice is a joke and that all control mechanisms go up like a pyramid, taking their property, taxes etc. with it. This wealth then is distributed to "help bail-out" or "prop-up" "failing" transnational corporations. Left-overs are channeled via Overseas Developement Corporations to "developing nations," where the loot is pocketed by front-men and their bureaucrats. Crumbs filter down to social services, which, after being guzzled by directors and staff, leave little for the needy except bundles of forms, in triplicate, of course.
3. The individual looks around for others already exposing "the conspiracy." These established champions inform him which "conspiracy" books to read. Having then done so, the individual begins to "expose" the corruption, first to friends, then when friendless, he either publishes what he has gleaned or becomes paranoid and withdraws from society altogether.
Why does the waking-up process fail to spread quickly through society?
1. He is terribly naive. He believes the massive corruption "just happened" to begin in his own lifetime, otherwise mummy or daddy or teacher would have warned him. It does not occur to him that his Parents, teachers etc. were as conditioned as he was.
2. Most people do not wish to know. They, like farm animals, have been domesticated. Wild animals (original) have natural instincts of self-preservation. They sense the evil intentions of predators and they survive by trusting their instincts. Wild herds do not "hang around" when one or more members drops dead. Specially bred sheep do.
3. Pavlovian conditioning/response indoctrination has been fed to every individual, through schooling. The media then takes over. Peoples' opinions are simply sound-bites from news, talk-shows or quotes from glossy magazines.
4. Trust replaces the instinct of self-preservation. It over-rides memory and logic. Controllers and shepherds encourage trust.
5. When threatened with loss of possessions, property, access to health care, etc., people turn to government(predators) for help, or/and organized religion. Should an individual persist in pushing for his "rights," he will be removed from society and placed in a psychiatric hospital or prison on any number of pretexts. The alternative is death by "accident," or shot by police while 'resisting arrest.'
Saying we are truly living in the age of destruction and chaos, Watt added:
"We are truly into the age of chaos, long in the planning and written about openly by the big movers and shakers who lord over us. Some of them, such as Brzezinski have described the coming effects on world-wide societies as akin to the vast population movements which occurred at the beginning of the industrial revolution.
"After the unification of Europe was to follow the unification of the Americas with the resulting clash of cultures and the initial mayhem produced. People slept while the Free Trade Agreement and the subsequent NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) were discussed with deliberate minimum coverage by the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) controlled media. For those who wish to check, the publicly available censored version will see it has to do, in part, with THE FREE FLOW OF GOODS AND LABOR across traditional national boundaries. People are being encouraged to blame the effect (mass influx from south) and to completely forget the cause.
"Out of the mayhem will materialize, as if by magic, a new Constitution of the Americas. This will be presented as the only reasonable and logical direction to go if we are all to live in peace and security. Coupled with this will come the announcement that every citizen of the Americas must accept an INTERNATIONAL Identity Card under the guise that authorities will be able to track criminal elements moving northwards. The problem has been caused, the reaction is underway, and the solution will be presented. This is the standard Hegelian technique which never fails. Read "MILLENNIUM - Winners and Losers in the Coming World Order" by Jacques Attali who helped spearhead the European Union."
This spring, the United Arab Emirates is expected to close a deal for $7 billion dollars’ worth of American arms. Nearly half of the cash will be spent on Patriot missiles, which cost as much as $5.9 million apiece.
The work is done by Unicor, previously known as Federal Prison Industries. It’s a government-owned corporation, established during the Depression, that employs about 20,000 inmates in 70 prisons to make everything from clothing to office furniture to solar panels to military electronics.
One of the company’s high-tech specialties: Patriot missile parts. “UNICOR/FPI supplies numerous electronic components and services for guided missiles, including the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missile,” Unicor’s website explains. “We assemble and distribute the Intermediate Frequency Processor (IFP) for the PAC-3s seeker. The IFP receives and filters radio-frequency signals that guide the missile toward its target.”
The missiles are then marketed worldwide — sometimes by Washington’s top officials. Last year, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pitched the Patriots to the Turkish government last year, a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks reveals: “SecDef stressed that ‘nothing can compete with the PAC-3 when it comes to capabilities.’”
Patriot assemblers Raytheon and Lockheed Martin aren’t the only defense contractors relying on prison help. As Rohrlich notes, Unicor “inmates also make cable assemblies for the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F-15, the General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin F-16, Bell/Textron’s Cobra helicopter, as well as electro-optical equipment for the BAE Systems Bradley Fighting Vehicle’s laser rangefinder.”
Unicor used to make helmets for the military, as well. But that work was suspended when 44,000 helmets were recalled for shoddy quality.
Government agencies — with the exception of the Defense Department and the CIA — are required to buy goods from Unicor, according to a Congressional Research Service report (.pdf). And no wonder: the labor costs are bordering on zero. “Inmates earn from $0.23 per hour up to a maximum of $1.15 per hour, depending on their proficiency and educational level, among other things,” the report notes.
Last year, Unicor grossed $772 million, according to its most recent financial report (.pdf). Traditionally, inmate salaries make up about five percent of that total.
Unicor insists that the deal is a good one for inmates — and for the government. The manufacturing work offers a chance for job training, which “improves the likelihood that inmates will remain crime-free upon their release,” the company says in its report. (Some reports suggest that Unicor prisoners are as much as 24% less likely to return to crime.)
The work also keeps the inmates in check, Unicor insists. “In the face of an escalating inmate population and an increasing percentage of inmates with histories of violence, FPI’s programs have helped ease tension and avert volatile situations, thereby protecting lives and federal property,” the company says. “Prisons without meaningful activities for inmates are dangerous prisons, and dangerous prisons are expensive prisons.”
"Prison labor
Year slavery and involuntary servitude abolished by the 13th Amendment except as punishment for crime: 1865
Year the Virginia Supreme Court declared that prisoners were "slaves of the state": 1871
Year the Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed the United Nations, giving "[e]veryone ... the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests": 1948
Year the Supreme Court upheld a North Carolina warden's ban on prisoners forming a labor union: 1977
Number of prison and jail industries in 1998: 2,500
Minimum estimate of annual value of prison and jail industrial output: $2 billion
Prison labor in the federal prisons
Percent of able-bodied sentenced federal prisoners required to work in the prison: 100%
Number of prisoner workers in UNICOR, the federal prison industries: 22,560
Pay scale for federal prisoners who work outside of UNICOR in prison maintenance, in dollars per hour: $0.12-$0.40
Minimum wage in Haiti in dollars per hour: $0.30
Percent of federal prisoner-workers who work for UNICOR rather than in prison maintenance: 25%
Minimum UNICOR wage, in dollars per hour: $0.23
Maximum UNICOR wage, in dollars per hour: $1.15
Number of prisons where UNICOR makes office furniture: 18
Average hourly earnings of a non-prisoner U.S. worker making office furniture: $13.04
Number of prisons where UNICOR makes clothing and textiles: 22
Average hourly earnings of a non-prisoner U.S. worker in a textile mill: $10.95
UNICOR 2001 sales: $583.5 million
Amount purchased from UNICOR in 2001 by the Department of Defense: $388 million
Amount purchased from UNICOR in 2001 by the U.S. Postal Service: $21 million
Number of prisoners UNICOR projects will be in federal prisons in 2009: 211,516
Number of prisoner-workers UNCOR plans on hiring in 2009: 31,826
Percent of industrial orders delivered late, industry-wide: 6%
Percent of UNICOR orders delivered late: 42%
Percent failure rate of wire sold by UNICOR to the military compared to the military's next-worst supplier: 200%
Prison labor in the states
Minimum wage in the United States, in dollars per hour: $5.15
Average hourly rate paid at a prison camp in Nevada: $0.13
Maximum wage paid to prisoner workers in dollars per day in Georgia and Texas: $0
Most prisons that pay prisoners for work have a range of pay depending on the job. Average of the minimum wages for prisoners paid by the states, in dollars per day for non-industry work: $0.93
Average of the maximum wages paid to prisoners by the states, in dollars per day: $4.73
Lowest wage reported, in dollars per day, for prisoners working in private industry: $0.16
This page is an excerpt from The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry (2003) by Peter Wagner, published by the Western Prison Project and the Prison Policy Initiative."
Alan Watt has been fighting to wake-up America for more than a decade, saying people need to understand history before ever having a grasp on what is happening in America today
9 May 2006
By Greg Szymanski (www.arcticbeacon.com)
Alan Watt knows the New World Order has all the power and resources that money can buy.
He knows the rulers have been perfecting their system of dominance and control for centuries, using mind control and propaganda as a way to deceive the masses.
According to Watt, who has meticulously studied history to find the answers, the Illuminati's main goal is to wipe away freewill and individualism, replacing it with the new socialist man, who is unable to think on his own and easily manipulated and controlled.
And if history be the guide, he understands the picture looks bleak for the America since the controllers of the New World Order have devised a program that usually works when they decide to takeover a country.
But like the ultimate free thinker, he feels the diabolical intentions of the rich and powerful, who have infiltrated all major governments and religions of the world, can be defeated once the American people again learn to think and reason on their own without relying on their government and media to do their thinking for them.
Watt's wit, wisdom and scholarship are well known in a small circle of people who have not fallen victim to the New World Order's propaganda machine, but he still remains a virtual unknown to the masses since the New World Order's clamp down on free speech and free thought has reached epidemic proportions.
"There are always going to be a few people who can't be brainwashed," said Watt this week on Greg Szymanski's radio show, the Investigative Journal. "But for the most part the masses remain in the dark, not having a clue how the New World Order plan works and how they really are.
"Everybody has to realize that this is their system, not ours. People have to realize they are led to believe they are free, but really they are not. Mind control is a big part of the New World Order takeover and they use religion as one of their main tools.
"People have to remember that this elitist system has been passed down for hundreds if not thousands of years. They work through secret societies, infiltrating governments and religions and using Freemasonry around the world as their tool.
"The people at the lower levels, of course, don't understand what's happening at the top and they provide a good cover for the top levels to carry out their plan of one government and one religion through war and genocide. We are put on this planet for a short time and must try to first understand what is happening by understanding history."
Watt is known for his scholarship in ancient religions and secret societies, using his study of history as a way explain the problems facing the world today. But Watt is also quick point out, there are solutions.
Here is one answer he gave to an inquisitive emailer on his web site at www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com
"We've got to eliminate the crocodiles because apparently they're running all over the place. Part of the solution again is to expose the control and the control techniques which includes psychological warfare, which has many people spinning into outer space. The solution is for each individual to decide. If the system is corrupt from top to bottom, how can you save it, and would you want to save it, or like most people do you want time to stop with everything you know intact and simply go no further?
"I've been deluged with New Agers who've swallowed every piece of candy on the bookshelves and their solution is to stare down holes like Mt. Shasta for an answer, try and make piece with the reptiles, or accepting the "fact" that the commoners are a lower slave made DNA type of reptile, therefore there's nothing you can do. Meanwhile all the little unknown people who've been doing all the serious research have it spun into outer space and discredited by psychological warfare techniques.
"The oneness movement was put out there by the top of the establishment for the establishment's sake. People are divided by all religions including the New Age Religion, the Space Age Religion and the Lord Of The Rings Religion. The only ones who have their names on documents regarding the New World Order and its agenda were conceived and born the same way as everybody else. Until the public demand a say in their own destiny and demand the associations to which every public servant belongs be made available, then these agendas will steamroll on.
"Why would anyone give power of law over one-self to someone or hundreds who've sworn allegiance to a secret agenda? Just like with the FTAA, NAFTA, GATT, SOA, the public know by the effects years after the deals have been signed into law. We are only now seeing the effects of the next stage. America is asleep. No one can argue they didn't notice the unification of Europe and the subjugation of once national governments to that of minor provinces. Where were the people of America while all that was going on? And check the most popular books of that era. Yes, counter-intelligence works very well."
Much has written about the origins of the New World Order as well as the culprits, but not much has been said about the stages people go through in waking up to the truth or why the waking up process fails to spread quickly through society.
Although Watt believes most people really do not want to know the truth, he provides a much deeper analysis in one of his three books under the main title of Cutting Through: Volumes I, II and III.
As a preface to understanding, I think it necessary to go through the standard phases of "waking up."
1. An Individual vaguely perceives something is wrong in his/her life. This takes the form of fatigue at trying to "keep up" with real or imaginary crisis, encroachment of government into every aspect of life, increasing taxation and so on. Sometimes it takes the loss of work and the realization that the safety net they contributed to has a gaping hole in the middle.
2. The individual discovers that justice is a joke and that all control mechanisms go up like a pyramid, taking their property, taxes etc. with it. This wealth then is distributed to "help bail-out" or "prop-up" "failing" transnational corporations. Left-overs are channeled via Overseas Developement Corporations to "developing nations," where the loot is pocketed by front-men and their bureaucrats. Crumbs filter down to social services, which, after being guzzled by directors and staff, leave little for the needy except bundles of forms, in triplicate, of course.
3. The individual looks around for others already exposing "the conspiracy." These established champions inform him which "conspiracy" books to read. Having then done so, the individual begins to "expose" the corruption, first to friends, then when friendless, he either publishes what he has gleaned or becomes paranoid and withdraws from society altogether.
Why does the waking-up process fail to spread quickly through society?
1. He is terribly naive. He believes the massive corruption "just happened" to begin in his own lifetime, otherwise mummy or daddy or teacher would have warned him. It does not occur to him that his Parents, teachers etc. were as conditioned as he was.
2. Most people do not wish to know. They, like farm animals, have been domesticated. Wild animals (original) have natural instincts of self-preservation. They sense the evil intentions of predators and they survive by trusting their instincts. Wild herds do not "hang around" when one or more members drops dead. Specially bred sheep do.
3. Pavlovian conditioning/response indoctrination has been fed to every individual, through schooling. The media then takes over. Peoples' opinions are simply sound-bites from news, talk-shows or quotes from glossy magazines.
4. Trust replaces the instinct of self-preservation. It over-rides memory and logic. Controllers and shepherds encourage trust.
5. When threatened with loss of possessions, property, access to health care, etc., people turn to government(predators) for help, or/and organized religion. Should an individual persist in pushing for his "rights," he will be removed from society and placed in a psychiatric hospital or prison on any number of pretexts. The alternative is death by "accident," or shot by police while 'resisting arrest.'
Saying we are truly living in the age of destruction and chaos, Watt added:
"We are truly into the age of chaos, long in the planning and written about openly by the big movers and shakers who lord over us. Some of them, such as Brzezinski have described the coming effects on world-wide societies as akin to the vast population movements which occurred at the beginning of the industrial revolution.
"After the unification of Europe was to follow the unification of the Americas with the resulting clash of cultures and the initial mayhem produced. People slept while the Free Trade Agreement and the subsequent NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) were discussed with deliberate minimum coverage by the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) controlled media. For those who wish to check, the publicly available censored version will see it has to do, in part, with THE FREE FLOW OF GOODS AND LABOR across traditional national boundaries. People are being encouraged to blame the effect (mass influx from south) and to completely forget the cause.
"Out of the mayhem will materialize, as if by magic, a new Constitution of the Americas. This will be presented as the only reasonable and logical direction to go if we are all to live in peace and security. Coupled with this will come the announcement that every citizen of the Americas must accept an INTERNATIONAL Identity Card under the guise that authorities will be able to track criminal elements moving northwards. The problem has been caused, the reaction is underway, and the solution will be presented. This is the standard Hegelian technique which never fails. Read "MILLENNIUM - Winners and Losers in the Coming World Order" by Jacques Attali who helped spearhead the European Union."
This spring, the United Arab Emirates is expected to close a deal for $7 billion dollars’ worth of American arms. Nearly half of the cash will be spent on Patriot missiles, which cost as much as $5.9 million apiece.
The work is done by Unicor, previously known as Federal Prison Industries. It’s a government-owned corporation, established during the Depression, that employs about 20,000 inmates in 70 prisons to make everything from clothing to office furniture to solar panels to military electronics.
One of the company’s high-tech specialties: Patriot missile parts. “UNICOR/FPI supplies numerous electronic components and services for guided missiles, including the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) missile,” Unicor’s website explains. “We assemble and distribute the Intermediate Frequency Processor (IFP) for the PAC-3s seeker. The IFP receives and filters radio-frequency signals that guide the missile toward its target.”
The missiles are then marketed worldwide — sometimes by Washington’s top officials. Last year, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pitched the Patriots to the Turkish government last year, a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks reveals: “SecDef stressed that ‘nothing can compete with the PAC-3 when it comes to capabilities.’”
Patriot assemblers Raytheon and Lockheed Martin aren’t the only defense contractors relying on prison help. As Rohrlich notes, Unicor “inmates also make cable assemblies for the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F-15, the General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin F-16, Bell/Textron’s Cobra helicopter, as well as electro-optical equipment for the BAE Systems Bradley Fighting Vehicle’s laser rangefinder.”
Unicor used to make helmets for the military, as well. But that work was suspended when 44,000 helmets were recalled for shoddy quality.
Government agencies — with the exception of the Defense Department and the CIA — are required to buy goods from Unicor, according to a Congressional Research Service report (.pdf). And no wonder: the labor costs are bordering on zero. “Inmates earn from $0.23 per hour up to a maximum of $1.15 per hour, depending on their proficiency and educational level, among other things,” the report notes.
Last year, Unicor grossed $772 million, according to its most recent financial report (.pdf). Traditionally, inmate salaries make up about five percent of that total.
Unicor insists that the deal is a good one for inmates — and for the government. The manufacturing work offers a chance for job training, which “improves the likelihood that inmates will remain crime-free upon their release,” the company says in its report. (Some reports suggest that Unicor prisoners are as much as 24% less likely to return to crime.)
The work also keeps the inmates in check, Unicor insists. “In the face of an escalating inmate population and an increasing percentage of inmates with histories of violence, FPI’s programs have helped ease tension and avert volatile situations, thereby protecting lives and federal property,” the company says. “Prisons without meaningful activities for inmates are dangerous prisons, and dangerous prisons are expensive prisons.”
"Prison labor
Year slavery and involuntary servitude abolished by the 13th Amendment except as punishment for crime: 1865
Year the Virginia Supreme Court declared that prisoners were "slaves of the state": 1871
Year the Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed the United Nations, giving "[e]veryone ... the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests": 1948
Year the Supreme Court upheld a North Carolina warden's ban on prisoners forming a labor union: 1977
Number of prison and jail industries in 1998: 2,500
Minimum estimate of annual value of prison and jail industrial output: $2 billion
Prison labor in the federal prisons
Percent of able-bodied sentenced federal prisoners required to work in the prison: 100%
Number of prisoner workers in UNICOR, the federal prison industries: 22,560
Pay scale for federal prisoners who work outside of UNICOR in prison maintenance, in dollars per hour: $0.12-$0.40
Minimum wage in Haiti in dollars per hour: $0.30
Percent of federal prisoner-workers who work for UNICOR rather than in prison maintenance: 25%
Minimum UNICOR wage, in dollars per hour: $0.23
Maximum UNICOR wage, in dollars per hour: $1.15
Number of prisons where UNICOR makes office furniture: 18
Average hourly earnings of a non-prisoner U.S. worker making office furniture: $13.04
Number of prisons where UNICOR makes clothing and textiles: 22
Average hourly earnings of a non-prisoner U.S. worker in a textile mill: $10.95
UNICOR 2001 sales: $583.5 million
Amount purchased from UNICOR in 2001 by the Department of Defense: $388 million
Amount purchased from UNICOR in 2001 by the U.S. Postal Service: $21 million
Number of prisoners UNICOR projects will be in federal prisons in 2009: 211,516
Number of prisoner-workers UNCOR plans on hiring in 2009: 31,826
Percent of industrial orders delivered late, industry-wide: 6%
Percent of UNICOR orders delivered late: 42%
Percent failure rate of wire sold by UNICOR to the military compared to the military's next-worst supplier: 200%
Prison labor in the states
Minimum wage in the United States, in dollars per hour: $5.15
Average hourly rate paid at a prison camp in Nevada: $0.13
Maximum wage paid to prisoner workers in dollars per day in Georgia and Texas: $0
Most prisons that pay prisoners for work have a range of pay depending on the job. Average of the minimum wages for prisoners paid by the states, in dollars per day for non-industry work: $0.93
Average of the maximum wages paid to prisoners by the states, in dollars per day: $4.73
Lowest wage reported, in dollars per day, for prisoners working in private industry: $0.16
This page is an excerpt from The Prison Index: Taking the Pulse of the Crime Control Industry (2003) by Peter Wagner, published by the Western Prison Project and the Prison Policy Initiative."
Monday, August 15, 2011
People with mental illnesses could be scattered to the streets, to homeless shelters
http://homelessjazzguitar.blogspot.com/
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- For years, North Carolina has been warned to take better care of its mentally ill residents. This summer, federal officials have declared they're tired of waiting.
Federal agencies that provide substantial funding for services to people with mental illness say that far too many of them are living in adult care homes, and the agencies are threatening to stop paying the bills. Last month, the federal Department of Justice stepped in, saying the state has violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by failing to provide housing for mentally ill people other than institutions such as mental hospitals and adult care homes.
The Justice Department says it will sue the state if it doesn't agree to find alternative housing.
The seemingly sudden standoff is a result of years of failed state mental health policy. And within months, it could force as many as 1,200 mentally ill people out of adult care homes. Those people live in 38 such homes that federal regulators say may be acting as mental institutions because more than half of their residents are there because of mental illnesses.
People with mental illnesses could be scattered to the streets, to homeless shelters and into emergency rooms as social workers and relatives scramble to find scarce beds in mental hospitals or in group homes.
Thousands more could join the exodus in years to come as the federal government forces the state to stop relying on adult care homes to house them.
State leaders are begging the feds for more time to sort through the crisis.
"It's the perfect storm," said Lanier Cansler, state secretary of health and human services. "We're trying to figure out how not to have a catastrophe here."
Cansler said he needs to meet with legislators when they reconvene in September to find money and get changes in the law to allow more flexibility in housing options.
Everyone is worried
Advocates for people with mental illness are worried that counties aren't prepared to care for those who are displaced. Relatives of some residents in adult care homes fear the return of an instability they have battled for years. Adult care facility operators are panicked that their businesses will be forced to close.
And politicians are blaming their counterparts across the aisle for letting down a fragile population.
No one seems to have a solution that can roll out as quickly as it's needed.
"This is the result of a decade of neglect," said Vicki Smith, executive director of Disability Rights North Carolina, which has pushed the federal government to pressure state officials. "It's all coming together right now, and it couldn't be a worse time."
The failure of reform
Federal law requires that states ensure these citizens get the care they need locally, in the least restrictive setting possible. The state must now challenge the federal government's findings or work furiously under federal supervision to create a community-based system of care.
This is a familiar story for North Carolina. In 2001, the state passed a broad reform bill aimed at providing more treatment in the community. But it forced county providers out of the business and turned the work over to for-profit companies, some of which charged far more and provided inferior care.
A News & Observer investigation and a resulting audit showed the state had wasted more than $400 million. And mental-health treatment deteriorated.
Now, the state is being forced to reconsider how it cares for the mentally ill. The most immediate issue involves the percentage of residents in adult care homes who are there because they are mentally ill.
Medicaid threatened
Under federal guidelines, Medicaid can't be used to fund institutions in which a majority of residents are ages 22 to 64 and are there because of mental illness. So far, the state has identified 38 facilities that may be in jeopardy; those homes are housing as many as 1,200 mentally ill residents aged 22 to 64.
The state will be visiting these residents and reviewing case files to determine whether they are there for a mental illness or some other medical issue. The feds will stop paying Medicaid to the residents at facilities found to be in violation, even for prescriptions and doctor visits.
And if the facilities don't get in line, they could lose all Medicaid funding, even for residents who are elderly and have other disabilities.
Ruin seen for some homes
Lou Wilson, a lobbyist for the North Carolina Associations of Long-Term Care Facilities, said this will be the financial ruin of many facilities.
"They don't know where to go and what to do," Wilson said. "They feel like they've taken care of these people when no one else would and that they've been good partners in North Carolina. They don't like the way the state is treating them now."
Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Wake County Republican, blamed Gov. Bev Perdue and other Democrats for letting the problem persist for years.
"It's fair to say these issues have been out there for years, and the Democrats have been in charge," said Dollar, who was chairman of the House appropriations committee that wrote the budget for the state Department of Health and Human Services.
"The governor kicked this can down the road, and the federal government won't let us get away with it much longer."
Perdue, however, had allocated $75 million in the budget she submitted to the Republican-controlled General Assembly this year to boost community based support, including housing, for the mentally ill. Legislators removed it from the budget as they tried to reconcile a $2.7 billion shortfall.
Decades of struggle
As politicians swapped blame, Jim Glenn of Charlotte drove each week to an adult care home in Mooresville to visit his 47-year-old son, oblivious to the brewing problem that could force his son back into the streets.
For more than two decades, Glenn, 73, had watched his son, James, struggle to find his place in the world.
James Glenn had his first break with reality in his mid-20s. Doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia.
Ever since, the Glenns have been on a roller coaster. James spent time in psych wards. He lived on the streets and in jail cells.
A father's long struggle
Years ago, Jim Glenn found a place for his son in a group home near Charlotte, a smaller facility for people who need help but don't require 24-hour supervision. But James vanished.
It took a year before a retired FBI agent hired by Glenn located James in Utah. Police had found him sleeping in an empty classroom on a college campus and locked him up. James Glenn couldn't tell officers who he was and how he came to be there.
When Glenn got his son back home, he found a place for him in an adult care home, where aides are available around the clock. That was 15 years ago.
"These places fill a gap," Glenn said. "My son is a step above being in a mental hospital and a step below being able to be in normal society."
Thought worries were over
Aides give James Glenn his daily medicine and three meals a day. Glenn said he takes his son out to lunch once a week and brings him home for occasional weekend visits. He had stopped worrying about what would happen to his son when he dies.
Then, this summer, Glenn got a call from Amy Hart, administrator at Crown Colony, the adult care home where James lives. She called a meeting with relatives of her residents to warn them of the trouble stirring in Raleigh.
Both Crown Colony and another facility Hart runs, Hunters Village, are among the 38 adult care homes with substantial populations of mentally ill residents.
Hart didn't want the residents and their families to be caught flat-footed. She told them to call their legislators and urged them to get on waiting lists at group homes.
As a girl, more than 30 years ago, when her parents ran an adult care home, Hart remembers talking to residents who had been sent there after being discharged from mental hospitals. Over the years, their numbers grew. Some never left.
"We are their home," Hart said.
The state never asked for a count of residents with mental illnesses at these facilities.
If Hart's mentally ill residents are evicted, she said, she will be forced to cut her staff by half. Even with that she's not sure how long she can keep her doors open.
Not for the mentally ill?
Advocates for the mentally ill say that even though some facilities are well-run and clean, it's not the right place for people with mental illness. They receive no psychiatric care in the facility and no one is working to help them become more independent, said Smith of Disability Rights.
When Smith's group visited facilities across the state last year, it found many residents with mental illnesses desperate to go home. Smith's group said these residents are warehoused and often forgotten.
Now, state officials are being forced to see them, and find a place for them to go.
The state is asking Medicaid officials for more time to make the transition. Officials are coordinating with local mental health organizations and social workers to explore other placements. They know it will be difficult.
Glenn is just hoping it will all blow over and the state and feds will leave him and his son alone.
"They are playing poker with people's lives," he said. "They have no business."
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real2009 said on August 15, 2011 at 7:18 AM
@unbaised....you sure are showing your conservative point of view by blaming the Democratic party for all the ills we're facing in not only our state, but also our country. I guess it was a blessed event to go to war in Iraq during George W. Bush's administration...now, is he a democrat or a republican? What about deregulating our government that kept an watchful eye on big businesses such as ENRON and MCI whose CEOs stole their employees pentions and retirement money...whose bright idea was it to come up with NAFTA...it was under George H. Bush's administrations, sadly, Clinton had to sign it into law. And whose bright idea was it to give tax cuts to the wealthiest businesses and americans, oh yeah, George W Bush. Laisser-fair ideology doesn't work...not during the 1930s Great Depression, nor will it work now. In other words, you can't just blame one party over the other. We have to look at it as a failure to represent "we the people".
real2009 said on August 15, 2011 at 7:04 AM
@tra1999...I agree with you because this issue isn't a democratic nor a republican problem. All politicians need to stop playing the "blame game", and roll up their sleeves, and do something. They've been talking far too long and yes, we the people they're suppose to represent are being ignored. The only thing spending cuts created are not jobs as I've heard since Reagan's administration, it has only created "UNEMPLOYMENT". We can't blame Department of Social Services workers of ignoring the many ills facing our state. With no money coming to support these programs because of "spending cuts" , and the overwhelming case load on their desk, sadly, we the people are being overlooked.
princesspeaches said on August 15, 2011 at 5:46 AM
"Unbiased" we get just as many stupid decisions when Republicans are in office. You are doing no better than the idiot politicians, playing the blame game. They are all looking out for THEM. Not us. And they keep us blinded by making sure we keep playing that same stupid blame game, instead of realizing that AL politicians are failing this country. Failing the people they are supposed to be representing.
jestor said on August 15, 2011 at 4:38 AM
more visitors to the charlotte jail system. they should figure which is cheaper and safer for the public.
tra1999 said on August 15, 2011 at 4:34 AM
I am usually quiet about most situations however this makes me sick. I worked with the mentally ill for 9 years doing what they say we need more of (Community Based Services). Guess what in 2009 My job was no longer needed because there was no funding in medicaid for me to continue. That put me unemployed like the rest of North Carolina. Where are these people suppose to go they have already shut down parts of Broughton and the waiting list for group homes is like waiting on a kidney. I don't care if you are a republican or a democrat who cares this is just wrong. So now we are going to have hundreds of mentally unstable men and women living on the street with no way to get there meds or the ones that can't even remember to take there medication even if they can get it. We are going to have a serious problem on our hands that is going to effect every one not just the mentally ill. This is a crying shame and everyone needs to step up and say something.
colleen1948 said on August 14, 2011 at 9:53 PM
I worked this population for over 16 years
colleen1948 said on August 14, 2011 at 9:40 PM
As a person who worked closely (1.1) with these clients, it makes me angry that they continue to have their funds slowly taken away each year, and that also includes their health insurance. Then the state comes in and puts the blame on the everyone but where it needs to be put, and says they are tired of waiting... It is so difficult to find staff who truly dedicated to working with this population. There are even doctors who turn their back on these people as well. This population may have disabilities, but they can teach a person far more than those who actually work with them. Then you have many in society who constantly make fun of this population It is shameful!
unbiased said on August 14, 2011 at 4:22 PM
steepgap...Do you understand the political system? The party that hold the majority of seats makes the decisions because they have the most votes. That's why we get so many stupid decisions when Democrats are in office.
steepgap said on August 14, 2011 at 3:55 PM
Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Wake County Republican, blamed Gov. Bev Perdue and other Democrats for letting the problem persist for years. Does mean that when the democrats are the majority, that the republicans are just setting back to watch. Don't the republicans have any responsibilities when the democrats are in the majority. If that is the case why do we need to be paying all these republicans since they have no responsibilities. The same could be true if the parties were vice versa. It is everyone's responsibility and the fault lies with all of those who represent the people.
lisadiane said on August 14, 2011 at 2:24 PM
I don't understand how the "reform" passed in 2001 made things worse. THAT IS NOT REFORM!! And now, the bureaucrats are going to harm the people they are pretending to want to help! This is a perfect example of how, when the government takes over, or even gets involved, THINGS GET WORSE. Listen to those who have to deal with this...."leave us alone". This is awful, just awful. The mentally ill need security and consistency. The government is taking all that away. Just what the government does best! WHY are they meddling in something that is working for the people who need it???
allann_704 said on August 14, 2011 at 12:44 PM
Here's the real tragedy. There's a substantially good idea in "least restrictive settings"..but as interpretted and implemented by bureaucrats and under funded by legislators, the 'changes' are more about 'giving the appearance of doing something' - rather than do better for those with mental disabilities. No, adult homes are an especially wonderful idea - just the only one that worked for quite a while. Some are s#$%holes - because the state never invested enough in regulatory visits, and because state payments were cheap at best.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- For years, North Carolina has been warned to take better care of its mentally ill residents. This summer, federal officials have declared they're tired of waiting.
Federal agencies that provide substantial funding for services to people with mental illness say that far too many of them are living in adult care homes, and the agencies are threatening to stop paying the bills. Last month, the federal Department of Justice stepped in, saying the state has violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by failing to provide housing for mentally ill people other than institutions such as mental hospitals and adult care homes.
The Justice Department says it will sue the state if it doesn't agree to find alternative housing.
The seemingly sudden standoff is a result of years of failed state mental health policy. And within months, it could force as many as 1,200 mentally ill people out of adult care homes. Those people live in 38 such homes that federal regulators say may be acting as mental institutions because more than half of their residents are there because of mental illnesses.
People with mental illnesses could be scattered to the streets, to homeless shelters and into emergency rooms as social workers and relatives scramble to find scarce beds in mental hospitals or in group homes.
Thousands more could join the exodus in years to come as the federal government forces the state to stop relying on adult care homes to house them.
State leaders are begging the feds for more time to sort through the crisis.
"It's the perfect storm," said Lanier Cansler, state secretary of health and human services. "We're trying to figure out how not to have a catastrophe here."
Cansler said he needs to meet with legislators when they reconvene in September to find money and get changes in the law to allow more flexibility in housing options.
Everyone is worried
Advocates for people with mental illness are worried that counties aren't prepared to care for those who are displaced. Relatives of some residents in adult care homes fear the return of an instability they have battled for years. Adult care facility operators are panicked that their businesses will be forced to close.
And politicians are blaming their counterparts across the aisle for letting down a fragile population.
No one seems to have a solution that can roll out as quickly as it's needed.
"This is the result of a decade of neglect," said Vicki Smith, executive director of Disability Rights North Carolina, which has pushed the federal government to pressure state officials. "It's all coming together right now, and it couldn't be a worse time."
The failure of reform
Federal law requires that states ensure these citizens get the care they need locally, in the least restrictive setting possible. The state must now challenge the federal government's findings or work furiously under federal supervision to create a community-based system of care.
This is a familiar story for North Carolina. In 2001, the state passed a broad reform bill aimed at providing more treatment in the community. But it forced county providers out of the business and turned the work over to for-profit companies, some of which charged far more and provided inferior care.
A News & Observer investigation and a resulting audit showed the state had wasted more than $400 million. And mental-health treatment deteriorated.
Now, the state is being forced to reconsider how it cares for the mentally ill. The most immediate issue involves the percentage of residents in adult care homes who are there because they are mentally ill.
Medicaid threatened
Under federal guidelines, Medicaid can't be used to fund institutions in which a majority of residents are ages 22 to 64 and are there because of mental illness. So far, the state has identified 38 facilities that may be in jeopardy; those homes are housing as many as 1,200 mentally ill residents aged 22 to 64.
The state will be visiting these residents and reviewing case files to determine whether they are there for a mental illness or some other medical issue. The feds will stop paying Medicaid to the residents at facilities found to be in violation, even for prescriptions and doctor visits.
And if the facilities don't get in line, they could lose all Medicaid funding, even for residents who are elderly and have other disabilities.
Ruin seen for some homes
Lou Wilson, a lobbyist for the North Carolina Associations of Long-Term Care Facilities, said this will be the financial ruin of many facilities.
"They don't know where to go and what to do," Wilson said. "They feel like they've taken care of these people when no one else would and that they've been good partners in North Carolina. They don't like the way the state is treating them now."
Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Wake County Republican, blamed Gov. Bev Perdue and other Democrats for letting the problem persist for years.
"It's fair to say these issues have been out there for years, and the Democrats have been in charge," said Dollar, who was chairman of the House appropriations committee that wrote the budget for the state Department of Health and Human Services.
"The governor kicked this can down the road, and the federal government won't let us get away with it much longer."
Perdue, however, had allocated $75 million in the budget she submitted to the Republican-controlled General Assembly this year to boost community based support, including housing, for the mentally ill. Legislators removed it from the budget as they tried to reconcile a $2.7 billion shortfall.
Decades of struggle
As politicians swapped blame, Jim Glenn of Charlotte drove each week to an adult care home in Mooresville to visit his 47-year-old son, oblivious to the brewing problem that could force his son back into the streets.
For more than two decades, Glenn, 73, had watched his son, James, struggle to find his place in the world.
James Glenn had his first break with reality in his mid-20s. Doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia.
Ever since, the Glenns have been on a roller coaster. James spent time in psych wards. He lived on the streets and in jail cells.
A father's long struggle
Years ago, Jim Glenn found a place for his son in a group home near Charlotte, a smaller facility for people who need help but don't require 24-hour supervision. But James vanished.
It took a year before a retired FBI agent hired by Glenn located James in Utah. Police had found him sleeping in an empty classroom on a college campus and locked him up. James Glenn couldn't tell officers who he was and how he came to be there.
When Glenn got his son back home, he found a place for him in an adult care home, where aides are available around the clock. That was 15 years ago.
"These places fill a gap," Glenn said. "My son is a step above being in a mental hospital and a step below being able to be in normal society."
Thought worries were over
Aides give James Glenn his daily medicine and three meals a day. Glenn said he takes his son out to lunch once a week and brings him home for occasional weekend visits. He had stopped worrying about what would happen to his son when he dies.
Then, this summer, Glenn got a call from Amy Hart, administrator at Crown Colony, the adult care home where James lives. She called a meeting with relatives of her residents to warn them of the trouble stirring in Raleigh.
Both Crown Colony and another facility Hart runs, Hunters Village, are among the 38 adult care homes with substantial populations of mentally ill residents.
Hart didn't want the residents and their families to be caught flat-footed. She told them to call their legislators and urged them to get on waiting lists at group homes.
As a girl, more than 30 years ago, when her parents ran an adult care home, Hart remembers talking to residents who had been sent there after being discharged from mental hospitals. Over the years, their numbers grew. Some never left.
"We are their home," Hart said.
The state never asked for a count of residents with mental illnesses at these facilities.
If Hart's mentally ill residents are evicted, she said, she will be forced to cut her staff by half. Even with that she's not sure how long she can keep her doors open.
Not for the mentally ill?
Advocates for the mentally ill say that even though some facilities are well-run and clean, it's not the right place for people with mental illness. They receive no psychiatric care in the facility and no one is working to help them become more independent, said Smith of Disability Rights.
When Smith's group visited facilities across the state last year, it found many residents with mental illnesses desperate to go home. Smith's group said these residents are warehoused and often forgotten.
Now, state officials are being forced to see them, and find a place for them to go.
The state is asking Medicaid officials for more time to make the transition. Officials are coordinating with local mental health organizations and social workers to explore other placements. They know it will be difficult.
Glenn is just hoping it will all blow over and the state and feds will leave him and his son alone.
"They are playing poker with people's lives," he said. "They have no business."
=================================================================================================
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real2009 said on August 15, 2011 at 7:18 AM
@unbaised....you sure are showing your conservative point of view by blaming the Democratic party for all the ills we're facing in not only our state, but also our country. I guess it was a blessed event to go to war in Iraq during George W. Bush's administration...now, is he a democrat or a republican? What about deregulating our government that kept an watchful eye on big businesses such as ENRON and MCI whose CEOs stole their employees pentions and retirement money...whose bright idea was it to come up with NAFTA...it was under George H. Bush's administrations, sadly, Clinton had to sign it into law. And whose bright idea was it to give tax cuts to the wealthiest businesses and americans, oh yeah, George W Bush. Laisser-fair ideology doesn't work...not during the 1930s Great Depression, nor will it work now. In other words, you can't just blame one party over the other. We have to look at it as a failure to represent "we the people".
real2009 said on August 15, 2011 at 7:04 AM
@tra1999...I agree with you because this issue isn't a democratic nor a republican problem. All politicians need to stop playing the "blame game", and roll up their sleeves, and do something. They've been talking far too long and yes, we the people they're suppose to represent are being ignored. The only thing spending cuts created are not jobs as I've heard since Reagan's administration, it has only created "UNEMPLOYMENT". We can't blame Department of Social Services workers of ignoring the many ills facing our state. With no money coming to support these programs because of "spending cuts" , and the overwhelming case load on their desk, sadly, we the people are being overlooked.
princesspeaches said on August 15, 2011 at 5:46 AM
"Unbiased" we get just as many stupid decisions when Republicans are in office. You are doing no better than the idiot politicians, playing the blame game. They are all looking out for THEM. Not us. And they keep us blinded by making sure we keep playing that same stupid blame game, instead of realizing that AL politicians are failing this country. Failing the people they are supposed to be representing.
jestor said on August 15, 2011 at 4:38 AM
more visitors to the charlotte jail system. they should figure which is cheaper and safer for the public.
tra1999 said on August 15, 2011 at 4:34 AM
I am usually quiet about most situations however this makes me sick. I worked with the mentally ill for 9 years doing what they say we need more of (Community Based Services). Guess what in 2009 My job was no longer needed because there was no funding in medicaid for me to continue. That put me unemployed like the rest of North Carolina. Where are these people suppose to go they have already shut down parts of Broughton and the waiting list for group homes is like waiting on a kidney. I don't care if you are a republican or a democrat who cares this is just wrong. So now we are going to have hundreds of mentally unstable men and women living on the street with no way to get there meds or the ones that can't even remember to take there medication even if they can get it. We are going to have a serious problem on our hands that is going to effect every one not just the mentally ill. This is a crying shame and everyone needs to step up and say something.
colleen1948 said on August 14, 2011 at 9:53 PM
I worked this population for over 16 years
colleen1948 said on August 14, 2011 at 9:40 PM
As a person who worked closely (1.1) with these clients, it makes me angry that they continue to have their funds slowly taken away each year, and that also includes their health insurance. Then the state comes in and puts the blame on the everyone but where it needs to be put, and says they are tired of waiting... It is so difficult to find staff who truly dedicated to working with this population. There are even doctors who turn their back on these people as well. This population may have disabilities, but they can teach a person far more than those who actually work with them. Then you have many in society who constantly make fun of this population It is shameful!
unbiased said on August 14, 2011 at 4:22 PM
steepgap...Do you understand the political system? The party that hold the majority of seats makes the decisions because they have the most votes. That's why we get so many stupid decisions when Democrats are in office.
steepgap said on August 14, 2011 at 3:55 PM
Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Wake County Republican, blamed Gov. Bev Perdue and other Democrats for letting the problem persist for years. Does mean that when the democrats are the majority, that the republicans are just setting back to watch. Don't the republicans have any responsibilities when the democrats are in the majority. If that is the case why do we need to be paying all these republicans since they have no responsibilities. The same could be true if the parties were vice versa. It is everyone's responsibility and the fault lies with all of those who represent the people.
lisadiane said on August 14, 2011 at 2:24 PM
I don't understand how the "reform" passed in 2001 made things worse. THAT IS NOT REFORM!! And now, the bureaucrats are going to harm the people they are pretending to want to help! This is a perfect example of how, when the government takes over, or even gets involved, THINGS GET WORSE. Listen to those who have to deal with this...."leave us alone". This is awful, just awful. The mentally ill need security and consistency. The government is taking all that away. Just what the government does best! WHY are they meddling in something that is working for the people who need it???
allann_704 said on August 14, 2011 at 12:44 PM
Here's the real tragedy. There's a substantially good idea in "least restrictive settings"..but as interpretted and implemented by bureaucrats and under funded by legislators, the 'changes' are more about 'giving the appearance of doing something' - rather than do better for those with mental disabilities. No, adult homes are an especially wonderful idea - just the only one that worked for quite a while. Some are s#$%holes - because the state never invested enough in regulatory visits, and because state payments were cheap at best.
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