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10:50 AM - 14.11.04
Rewire
Fifteen years ago the Germans were celebrating their first weekend without the Berlin Wall, which had come down on Thursday November 09, 1989. The reconstruction of that nation began and with it tolled the death knell of the alliance of Soviet Republics. That memory was triggered when I watched the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 last night - the reason there was no diary entry yesterday. Why? Well as I watched the documentary a lot of material and information that I had been working on through Amnesty International, the Survivors of Torture program for the International Red Cross and some local events that tied in to that were tugging for attention at the back of my thoughts. There were parentheses being created around the commentary by Mr Moore by the thoughts and memories cycling through my brain. Tugging away for attention, demanding time for addressing some of the blanks left in the story provided by the movie.

Does that mean that the movie was inaccurate? No. If anything it is incomplete and understated if what I can recall of terrorist activity in the 1980's and 1990's is correct. For example, when the SSR amalgamation collapsed in on itself there was great dismay in the peace community. Why? Well all those weapons of mass destruction stockpiled all over the SSR were disappearing from all tracking systems made to ensure some level of accountability for any little "mishap" that occurred. Peace groups were and are leery of any thing nuclear, because of the potential destruction one misstep can bring.

Where were those components and armaments disappearing to and who was buying them? Not sovereign nations. They were limited by a multitude of treaties both between nations and internationally. Nor would their citizenry support such astronomical expenditures by their governments. Instead quasi national and de facto regimes were snapping them up through willing brokers as were the terrorist organizations who had the funds because of the massive illegal arms, drugs trade as well as the prostitution/gangs they ran as fronts for their shadier activities. The money gotten through these transactions which couldn't be revealed, was being laundered through large global corporations and financial institutions. If one reads between the lines in some of the trials going on these days and looks at the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the US, one might be able to figure out some of the players as well as the methods. The things one learns when one does volunteer work, eh?

What most people don't understand but which became painfully bvious the more I worked with various peace groups is that the ideological fronts used by terror groups are just window dressing for the population whose support or sympathy they need or want. The truth is they are all interwoven and will, as it suits their purpose work together with each other even when those "ideologies" are completely opposed to each other. Think about the safe harbour that developed in Greece during that time. Any terrorist group in the world could be found to have members there horse trading and cutting all sorts of joint venture deals. For a time Greece was considered pariah among nations for allowing that activity to occur but they were poor and there was a fiar amount of money to be made "hosting" those "free enterprise conferences". The other terroist playground was Turkey. Why else would the UN/Canada keep such a strong presence in Cyprus.

Unholy alliances between groups such as the German Bader Meinhof and the Hezbollah were well known though not well publicized - except among peace groups. Why? Well I guess it was deemed by the mainstream media that their readers were too simple to comprehend how complex the interactions were. Simple buzzwords and catch phrases attached to pre-existing stereotypes such as the demented Muslim/Christian/Sikh whatever was easier to stir up strong emotional responses of fear rather than to shed any light on the real power brokers. Given that those were often fine upstanding global businesses that were partly fronts for the money laundering it is even possible that the media was coerced or shut down if they did report the real activity. That included little upstart papers in North America. So dear diary - you can se why a bit of contemplation was necessary before I said anything at all. I think I'll be researching some of that old data in the next while before I say any more - just to be certain I can provide proof of what I recall from my volunteer days, y'all.

Good news on the music front - the band Cream is talking about reuniting to do some concerts. Yeah! Layla was playing through my head most of yesterday in response to the news. Sort of edged out the Smokey Robinson tune Cruising which has been mobius stripping (see Escher paintings) for the past few days. What is that about anyway - distracted it made me and I've discussed that in earlier posts. The Tea Party is playing at the University of Calgary tonight. Wish I could go said Cinderella. Until the job scene re-emerges for me I can't justify any expenses other than essentials. Ok so I bought a dark chocolate truffle to go with the movie but those were medicinal aids for my mental health. Maybe next time I'm this depressed I should pick up a Harlequin instead eh? Not with Cruising playing in my head, thank you very much.

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