Malta raises objections over Arctic Sea handover — investigators

17/09/2009

MOSCOW, September 17 (RIA Novosti) - The Arctic Sea is unable to call at the Spanish port of Las Palmas after Malta refused to take part in the handover of the ship, Russian investigators said on Thursday.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said on Wednesday the transfer of the Arctic Sea, currently anchored 15-17 miles off Spain's Canary Islands, would take place from September 17 through September 18. The investigators did not disclose whom the ship would be handed over to.

"The Maltese decision is making it difficult for the vessel to call at the port of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, which was agreed in advance with Spain," the committee said in a statement.

The decision also makes things difficult both for the crew and for a team of Russian investigators who completed their investigation on Wednesday into the recent incident on board the ship.

The Maltese-flagged and Russian-crewed vessel, officially carrying lumber from Russia to Algeria, was reportedly boarded by a group of eight men on July 24. Officials later said it had disappeared in the Atlantic. It was freed off Cape Verde on August 16 by a Russian warship.

The Committee spokesman, Vladimir Markin, described Malta's refusal as "inconsistent and illogical," and said it ran counter to the international convention on the law of the sea.

Spanish authorities gave permission for the Arctic Sea, the Ladny frigate, which freed the cargo vessel from hijackers, and a Russian tug boat to call at Las Palmas on Tuesday, but cancelled the decision on Wednesday without giving any explanation.

Spain's Foreign Ministry held intensive talks with Russian and Maltese ambassadors on Wednesday and on Thursday morning.

Russian and international media has speculated that the ship could have been involved in a state-sponsored arms trafficking operation, including suggestions that Russia attempted to deliver missiles for S-300 air defense systems to Iran or Syria. The speculation was dismissed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier this month.

A crew member close to the investigation told RIA Novosti on Wednesday that it had been established that the Arctic Sea had over 6,000 metric tons of timber on board, and another 1000 tons in unamed cargo. The Artic Sea is also owned by a subsidiary of the Knights Of St John.

ShareThis USSR's Most Renowned UFO Sighting Linked to Ballistic Missile Launch?

A US researcher found an explanation to the renowned sighting of an unidentified flying object in the USSR, which took place 25 years ago. It was an outstanding event for the Soviet Union. One of the nation's central state-run newspapers published an article under the headline "At 4:10 Sharp." The article described the events, which took place four months before that and published official documents proving that the pilots of two Soviet jets were observing an unusual flying object in the sky

A US researcher found an explanation to the renowned sighting of an unidentified flying object in the USSR, which took place 25 years ago. It was an outstanding event for the Soviet Union. One of the nation’s central state-run newspapers published an article under the headline “At 4:10 Sharp.” The article described the events, which took place four months before that and published official documents proving that the pilots of two Soviet jets were observing an unusual flying object in the sky. The story attracted major attention in the whole nation and abroad; nearly all foreign newspaper reprinted it. Aeroflot’s Tu-134 passenger jetliner was flying en route Tbilisi-Tallinn on September 7, 1984.

[Read More]

Podcast: The Orthodox Medievalist: Panteleimon Kulish (Fr. Johnson)

Fr. Matthew Raphael Johnson gives an excellent discussion on education, statecraft, culture and technology - Marxism, statism, urbanism, Dostoyevsky, etc. It's a little too localistic and anti-eltist for me, but I admit the force of this. Certainly what he speaks of is infinitely better than what we have. Brilliantly insightful. A must-hear for all thinking readers.

[Audio Here]

BELTANE SPRING GODDESS Beltane Fire Festival Edinburgh

Podcast: Episode 29 - Surviving Pagan Festivals

Controlling Variables in Magickal/Psionic Rituals/Experiments

In Science, repeatability is very important in properly designed experiments, but in Magick and Psionics, as many workers have discovered, repeatability is often very difficult to obtain. When you perform magickal rituals or psionic experiments, the work is usually performed in some sort of setting where certain variable conditions may be controlled to some extent, such as in your kitchen, living room, basement, laboratory, oak grove, or within your circle of standing stones at a convergence of ley lines...et cetera. In magick, some variables are known and are somewhat controllable, such as the location, the time of day, the phase of the moon, the positions of certain planets, the room temperature, the size of the Circle cast, the deities/spirits/powers invoked/evoked/invited to participate, the sequence of events, the program of the incantation, the number of times the incantation is chanted, the number of candles, the type of wand/athame/sword, incense, and so on.

[read more]

Movie: Executive Koala

part 2
part 3

Pagans, witches rattle Adamstown village

A festival designed to celebrate the nature-centered spirituality of pagans and witches is getting a mixed reaction from shop owners at Stoudtburg Village in Adamstown, where the event will be held in Sept

While some of the village's shops will be open during the festival, others will close because of the group that is sponsoring the event — Reading Pagans & Witches.

Reading Pagans & Witches president Jen Anderson-Wenger said the festival, called Celebrating Earth Spirituality Festival, is her group's version of the national Pagan Pride Day.

The Reading group is described on its Web site as a nonprofit focused on celebrating pagans and witches as well as other nature-based and alternative faiths.

Anderson-Wenger said that at the festival there will be educational workshops about the harvest celebrations of different spiritual and religious organizations, and there will be explanations of what those organizations believe.

The festival also will feature vendors, food sales to benefit children's groups, tarot readers and reiki practitioners. There will be children's games, storytelling and entertainment.

Jane Lesher, who owns The Soxy Lady but doesn't live in Stoudtburg Village, said her business, which is usually open on Saturdays, will be closed during the festival.

"I try to keep my personal feelings and being a merchant separate," she said.

As a merchant, Lesher said, she believes the Earth Spirituality Festival is "not the image we want to portray for Stoudtburg Village."

Stoudtburg Village is comprised of European-style homes with businesses on the first floor. Currently there are about 19 stores, with several more service-oriented businesses as well.

Lesher said that if the event were held in a "more urban place, it might not have the negative image it would have around here."

Personally, Lesher said, "I am a Christian, and anything that is not worshipping God is something I object to. You can't force it on another, but you don't need to support it in any way, either. I base this on what God says. I'm not just a stick-in-the-mud and can't change my mind, but I base it on what I believe is an absolute."

Lesher said that when she first learned about the festival, "I got the impression that it was to be ecology friendly, healing massages, vegetarian, aromatherapy," she said.

She said that she was "shocked" when she later learned it was sponsored by Reading Pagans & Witches.

Country Pastthymes owner Sharon Shilling said her store will be closed on festival day for several reasons.

One is the "way it was gone about — the politics."

The other reason, Shilling said, is that while she read on the group's Web site that Reading Pagans & Witches does good things such as litter cleanup, she doesn't feel the event will go over well in a very conservative area such as Adamstown.

However, Glenda Poole, owner of the Village Sweet Shoppe and president of the village's property owners association, said she "absolutely plans to be open.

"Any kind of event is good for the village. (The pagans and witches) are not going to be running naked around the fountain. I think this is a big to-do about nothing."

Poole said Reading Pagans & Witches is a constitutionally-protected group, and the village doesn't discriminate.

Blumen Geschaft also will be open. "It's my normal day of business. I don't discriminate," owner Phyllis Cook said.

Carol Kerchner, owner of Stoudtburg Village Coffee Shop, said she will be open for her morning crowd but will shut down at lunchtime. "I'm not against what's going on, but I did not like how it was put out to the rest of us," Kerchner said.

"I'm saddened that the stores would choose to close rather than stay open and get potential new customers," Anderson-Wenger said.

She added that her group does not proselytize, or try to convert people, so shop owners shouldn't worry about that.

"But it's their prerogative (to close). I offered to meet with the shop owners who want to talk to us," Anderson-Wenger said.

deLyn Alumbaugh, president of Stoudtburg's advertising committee, said of the festival arrangement, "Essentially, it's a rental; they're renting the village. We're open to any organization — churches or whatever — that would like to rent the village."

Because Reading Pagans & Witches is a "registered not-for-profit religion, it is mandated that they not be discriminated against, and Stoudtburg Village doesn't discriminate," he said.

Alumbaugh said he's not a pagan or a witch, but he does believe in equality.

Alumbaugh said that some time ago he put an ad on the Reading Pagans & Witches Web site to attract people to his shop, deLyn's Gallery. He sells elves, fairies and mythological art.

After he invited members of the group to come see his shop and showed them around, "they thought it would be a good idea to rent the village for their activity," Alumbaugh said.

Any rental request, Alumbaugh said, first goes before an events committee. With approval by that committee, it is recommended to the advertising committee, he said. "We have a good crew of officers. It's a hard job, and we're all volunteers," he said.

After going through these committees, the group requesting the rental is given a contract to sign.

"For $50, anyone can rent the village," Alumbaugh said. The fee covers trash cleanup and bathroom use.

"We don't advertise. We don't hire a band. The onus of the expense of putting on an event is not on the village," Alumbaugh said.

"The idea is hopefully to bring in foot traffic so that the shopkeepers' sales go up when there is an event."

Beltane Fire Festival 2006

Spectacular Edinburgh event

The Never-Ending War Against Satan

If you thought the “Satanic Panic” years were over, that the global hysteria over “ritual abuse” in the 1980s and 1990s that ruined countless lives and enriched unscrupulous con-artists was nothing more than a fading bad memory, think again. According to Private Eye magazine the core of true believers never stopped believing and they’re mounting a come-back.

“…despite the fact that there has been not a shred of credible, physical, forensic evidence to substantiate the existence of Satanic ritual abuse, anywhere in the world, there is still an international network of zealots hell-bent on reviving and spreading the myth. For a few years in the late 1990s and early 2000s the believers quietly went to ground. There was a backlash here and in the US … Believers stopped talking about Satanic or ritual abuse and instead started using the terms organised or extreme abuse … there is now a growing and dangerous fight back in the form of books and conferences featuring speakers defiantly and proudly proclaiming the existence of “ritual abuse” and how to treat “survivors”.”

A quick look at Amazon reveals that SRA (Satanic Ritual Abuse) “survivors” are still writing memoirs, and two books seemingly aimed at mental health and law enforcement professionals interested in SRA cases (“Ritual Abuse in the Twenty-First Century” and “Forensic Aspects of Dissociative Identity Disorder”) were published in 2008. If the Satanic panics are making a come-back we all know what could happen next, a moral panic that will see innocent men and women jailed, sometimes for decades. Creating a situation where Pagans and occultists will have to watch their backs.

“In the United States, Canada, and Europe, people have reported being ritually abused under the banner of satanism, Christianity, various pagan and pantheistic belief systems, white supremacy movements, nazism, Santeria, voodoo, etc. At the present time, satanism is either the most common ideology under which ritual abuse is practiced or it is receiving the most attention.”

Remember, the last time this exploded into the mainstream even Oprah jumped on the Satanic Panic bandwagon (something I don’t think she ever apologized for). How do these Satan panic peddlers stay afloat when the inevitable backlashes happen and the light of truth and reason shines on their money-making schemes? One has only to look the extensive underground network of conservative evangelicals and Pentecostals who are still convinced that Satan is not only a spiritual adversary, a personification of evil, but has “troops on the ground” as it were.

[Read More]

Do You Believe In magic?

Chupacabra killed in Dickson County, Tennessee?

WHITE BLUFF, Tenn.- A Dickson County man claims the creature he killed near his home over the weekend is not of this world, but from mythical folklore.

John Hunter says he noticed the odd-looking animal a couple of weeks ago when it showed up in the driveway of his White Bluff home.

He and his wife tried to get closer to get a better look, but the creature ran off.

Hunter said, "Then it came back, closer to the house. That's when it took off and came back again. Every time it came closer and closer, like it wasn't afraid of me."

Saturday, Hunter took his rifle and shot the animal.

He says he's kept it on ice ever since, until he could figure out its species.

"I thought, 'what is this?'" Hunter said. "It's hairless. It looks like it came from some other place we'd rather not go when we die. It's got a snout. They have longer canine fangs than normal dogs."

After a little research online, Hunter found similar animals in Texas and Puerto Rico that people there were calling "El Chupacabras", a mythical type creature that is of Mexican folklore.

There's quite a bit of debate on whether these animals exist.

"Actually, to be honest, it looks like a great big rat," Hunter said.

There's barely any hair on the body. It weighs around 15 pounds and has a long skinny tail and long legs. The ears stick up off its head, similar to a mule's ears. The hairless body is a shade of blue.

Hunter hopes someone will help him identify the animal he killed.

Steve Patrick of Tennessee Wildlife and Resources Agency looked at several photographs shot by News 2 and believes the animal may be a red fox with sarcoptic mange.

[WKRN.com]

Do you know where your moon rocks are?

Attention, countries of the world: Do you know where your moon rocks are?

The discovery of a fake moon rock in the Netherlands' national museum should be a wake-up call for more than 130 countries that received gifts of lunar rubble from both the Apollo 11 flight in 1969 and Apollo 17 three years later.

Nearly 270 rocks scooped up by US astronauts were given to foreign countries by the Nixon administration. But according to experts and research by The Associated Press, the whereabouts of some of the small rocks are unknown.

"There is no doubt in my mind that many moon rocks are lost or stolen and now sitting in private collections," said Joseph Gutheinz, a University of Phoenix instructor and former U.S. government investigator who has made a project of tracking down the lunar treasures.

The Rijksmuseum, more noted as a repository for 17th century Dutch paintings, announced last month it had had its plum-sized "moon" rock tested, only to discover it was a piece of petrified wood, possibly from Arizona. The museum said it inherited the rock from the estate of a former prime minister.

The real Dutch moon rocks are in a natural history museum. But the misidentification raised questions about how well countries have safeguarded their presents from Washington.

Genuine moon rocks, while worthless in mineral terms, can fetch six-figure sums from black-market collectors.

Of 135 rocks from the Apollo 17 mission given away to nations or their leaders, only about 25 have been located by CollectSpace.com, a Web site for space history buffs that has long attempted to compile a list.

That should not be taken to mean the others are lost — just that the records kept at the time are far from complete.

[Read More at Independent.co.uk via IO9]

Dan Aykroyd Unplugged on UFOs - 1 of 8

CIA, 9/11, UFOs, and the Extraterrestrial Presence

KNOWING THE FUTURE: UNCONVENTIONAL METHODS (Part 10)

MINNEAPOLIS (STARpod.org) -- To understand the UFO tales of spies, lies, and polygraph tape, one must first become familiar with the key players sitting at the spy game table, and learn why they are important to U.S. National Security.

Dr. Ron Pandolfi, a former CIA analyst recently with the ODNI, has a reputation for using "unconventional methods."

Dr. Pandolfi's prior use of "unconventional methods" (while investigating missile technology transfer to China during the Clinton administration) landed him in front of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and would eventually launch a Justice Department investigation into the actions of his superiors at CIA.

The drama, which was initiated by the explosion of a Chinese rocket leading to technical assistance provided by Hughes, was reported by several mainstream media outlets including the New York Times (for background see the on-line STARpod.org "Pandolfi file" archives from STARstream Research).

A few years before being called to testify in the closed SSCI hearings, Pandolfi received a call from a foreign national using the alias "Dr. Armen Victorian."

During a lengthy phone conversation "Dr. Victorian" grilled Pandolfi on his involvement with the official weirdness that had transpired at the DIA in the mid-1980s.

The DIA had been connecting their ultra-secret psychic spy research, which included plans to track Soviet submarines using "anomalous mental phenomena," to reports of unidentified flying objects.

At one point in the conversation Pandolfi mentions former New York Times journalist Howard Blum and his book OUT THERE.

Blum's narrative was built around his exposure of a secret government "UFO Working Group."

In the recorded conversation obtained by STARstream Research, Pandolfi nonchalantly tells "Dr. Victorian" that "I was a member of that working group."

(An excerpt of Pandolfi discussing the working group is available to download as an MP3 file at the STARpod.org website.)

Pandolfi goes on to discuss numerous points of interest to UFO researchers, noting that his own interest in the UFO subject should not be interpreted as representing official CIA involvement.

[Read More]

Start with Part 1: Visions of 9/11

On the Trail of the Saucer Spies [Book]

On the Trail of the Saucer Spies reveals that Government, Military and Intelligence agencies have been secretly spying on UFO researchers, writers, investigators, and witnesses for decades -- and for countless reasons. In this book Nick Redfern also recounts his own experience of being spied upon by the British Ministry of Defense for his interest in UFOs. It isn't paranoia if you think "they" are watching you: they really are!

In 1992 in a privately published paper titled “Have You Checked
Your File Lately?” Robert Durant, a UFO researcher and pilot,
discussed the theme of an all-encompassing, Government-
sanctioned-and-controlled operation designed to covertly monitor
the activities of the public UFO research community:

“You, the reader, are among the approximately 4,000 Americans
who subscribe to ufological journals or newsletters, buy UFO books
through the mail, attend conferences, or spend time with others who
engage in such activities. Not a large group. We are only 3 percent of
the total number of citizens the government admits to watching with
intense care. A very easy group to track. Building your file is so much
easier than compiling one on a Russian spy or a Mafioso. There is
a file on you at the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security
Administration, the driver’s license bureau of the state in which you
are licensed, the commercial credit card companies that do business
with your bank and your lenders, your doctor’s office, and so forth
and so on. Is it really unreasonable to suspect that a UFO file would
be created?”

The answer to Durant’s question is: it is not at all unreasonable
to suspect that such a scenario exists. Indeed, as On the Trail of the
Saucer Spies demonstrates, such a scenario most assuredly does exist.
This book does not attempt to answer in detail the complex questions
of what UFOs are, where they are from, or why there are here—there are countless titles available that focus upon these controversial issues.
Rather, it resolves the seldom-addressed questions of precisely why
and how the official world is keeping a close watch on those
individuals who engage in UFO research, or who are witnesses to
UFO activity.

The truth-is-weirder-than-fiction examples recounted in these pages
span more than half a century, and include all of the staple
ingredients of the most controversial aspects of the UFO puzzle:
crashed flying saucers, alien bodies held in cryogenic storage, black
helicopters, crop circles, alien abductions (by alleged aliens and by
elements of the military), underground bases, animal mutilations,
Government-sponsored disinformation campaigns, and even the
exploits of the nefarious Men in Black.

As will become apparent, however, the full story also incorporates
issues and organizations that—at first glance, at least—would appear
to be totally unrelated to the UFO mystery. Ultra-fascist political
organizations, the Irish Republican Army, communist-based
groups, animal rights activists, computer hackers, Chinese Military
Intelligence, and the North Korean Government ultimately prove
to be pivotal to both understanding and unravelling the full picture
of why a number of Governments take such a deep interest in the
activities of those who look skyward. Caveat lector: keep a close
watch over your shoulder. “They” may be watching you, too.

[AnomalistBooks.com]

Available at Amazon.

The Russians are Coming! UFO Cloak & Dagger

In the 1950s Soviet espionage was rampant as the Russians had infiltrated every aspect of American society from the White House to the State Department to the military and even the old OSS .

The Russian intelligence agencies battled it out with their western counterparts as the red scare of the 1950s set in to the American mindset. One very intriguing aspect of this spy war is that even though the FBI knew who many of these Soviet agents were, they could not be prosecuted because of how they were unmasked. You see, the Army Security Agency (predecessor to the NSA) was actively breaking the Soviet code under a top secret program knows as the Venona Project. The project decryptions helped the FBI track down and break up a number of Soviet espionage rings, but some of these spies avoided prosecution because the incriminating evidence collected was too classified to reveal in a court of law. It was better to let these spies walk away free then to risk compromising the existence of the Venona Project.

How does this apply to Ufology? Well let's consider the following hypothetical scenario: A foreign intelligence agency approaches a prominent UFO researcher and promises to finance their research in exchange for any information found, knowing that some of the data provided may actually relate to new exotic American military aircraft. Now let's say that American Counter-Intelligence is not very happy and would really like to put this prominent UFO researcher in the same jail cell as Gary McKinnon for compromising national security. How could they possibly prosecute in a court of law without revealing their interest in the UFO researcher and Ufology in general? Such is the dilemna of the intelligence agencies who use the UFO phenomenon for their own purposes. Depending on which end of the information game your side plays on, you either reap the reward or get bit in the ass. Realizing that prosecution is not a possibility, the losing player will probably opt for using the researcher as a conduit for disinformation instead, effectively making the researcher an unwitting pawn on a chess board of rival intelligence agencies.

Silly really, but the game has been played too long and the intelligence agencies are in too deep to stop now. So the game continues with each successive move of a game piece more elaborate than the previous. However there is no check mate in this game, because it has been played for more than 60 years with no winner, although it was put on hold when cold war tensions eased. With the resurgence of tense relations between Russia and the United States, the game is back in play, and Ufology is once again faced with being manipulated as pawns in a game that is not of their choosing. While terrestrial hands exchange game pieces, the phenomenon itself flies overhead untouched and out of reach.

[Follow The Magic Thread]

Bachelor's Grove Cemetery tour

Haunted Bachelor's Grove Cemetery - Tour. - The best bloopers are here

In the Pit Of Ultimate Darkness!