h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Loony

If China want to be the next superpower, they are welcome to it. They can be the world's policeman and get bashed on the head for whatever move they make. Take it from one who has visited China several times they have some major issues to get over. A typical joke is about how two people are in the prisons but 10,000 people are in the graveyard next to it.

Out of all the various superpowers that have popped up over the millenium, Yankeeland is the only one not to have had an empire. Perhaps this is why it appointed itself as world policeman.... or maybe it was that strict WASP upbringing.

Two Bit Trigger Pumping Moron :
Yeah and I think we just found one of those idiots here

Just a few facts concerning our cell phone using caveman.

Bin Laden males attended The Victoria College in Alexandria, with schoolmates such as King Hussein of Jordan, Zaid Al Rifai, the Kashoggi brothers (whose father was one of the king's physicians), Kamal Adham (who ran the Saudi security services under King Faisal), present-day contractors Mohammed Al Attas, Fahd Shobokshi and Ghassan Sakr and actor Omar Sharif. The ties binding bin Laden family members to King Fahd and his brothers make them prime confidantes and advisors. They play an advisory role in Saudi-Yemeni relations.

The bin Laden family's presence in international finance:

Banque Al Saoudi was 75%-owned by the Paris-based Saudi Arab Finance Corporation, which also controlled a number of other companies: 75% of Saudi Finance Corporation (Saudifin), headquartered in Geneva controls the Saudi Arab Finance Corporation and the Arab Finance Corporation International, both in Luxembourg, and its board of directors included Sheik Salem bin Laden. Banque Al Saoudi and Indosuez' special connections in the Middle East were instrumental in financing a portion of the weapons contracts of the `70s and `80s.

In London, the bin Laden group also controls the Abdoulla brothers' Evered Holdings.

Since 1980, the bulk of the bin Laden group's international activities are routed through the Geneva offices of Saudi Investment Company (SICO). The Geneva-based SICO is the parent house for the Group's international financial activities and investments, with branches in London and Curacao. The Curacao branch, established in 1984, manages the bin Laden group's partnership with the American Daniels Realty Corporation (Duspic), part of the Fluor Corporation conglomerate. It is partly through the bin Ladens' influence that the Fluor group was one of the major recipients of reconstruction contracts in Kuwait.

The bin Laden family have long-standing and close ties to the London/Geneva-based Albilad which was the main instrument for negotiation of the Anglo-Saudi Al Yamama agreement. Saudi interests were represented by businessman Wafik Said, while the British side was represented by Jonathan Aitken, currently a minister in the Major government. A major player in these negotiations was Mark Thatcher, son of the former Prime Minister and very close to Wafik Said.

The bin Laden group does not deal directly in armaments, but it has a presence in the big military-related construction contracts.

Do gold taps and a Rolls for every day of the week ring any bells.

Please lead me to the cave. I'll join up.

(Trust me, I'm an ex-banker)

This is also an old report, sorry I should have mentioned. But the facts still stand.

Ossie bin Liner is his dead fathers 51st child. His mother, known as the slave, was his father's's 11th wife. Eventually, after being disowned by the family in Saudi Arabia, our (Super) man retired to the (Bat) cave.

That's funny, his mother is the only Saudi wife, or so I understand.
Ussamah's son is married to the daughter of the Eqyptian group's leader, and he himself has a wife who is a daughter or relative of the Taliban's Omar. Given that Muslims are free to travel within the Muslim world without let or hindrance, and the influence of his family is not dimished by his seeming misdeeds, confinement anywhere is a doubtful theory.

At last some good news...

Queen Visit To NZ Cancelled
The Queen will no longer be coming to New Zealand in October.

Two bit,

I never said it is America's duty to sort out the problems in the Third world. I said nothing about WHO is responsible for these troubles. I am well aware of the fact that it is a difficult task to sort that out and that Europe hasn't been doing anything substantial about it either. I did nothing else than point out the over-reacting taking place for the moment. This just showed again that indeed a Western life seems to be more valuable...


h³

And further good news....

CHOGM has been postponed, so Robert Mugabe can go home, hopefully never to return.

It's way too late to be isolationist. The US Government's foreign policy has, over sucessive years, done it's best to protect America's interests abroad. That's what its for, after all.
No foreign policy is perfect. Yes, America has been a little swift to react with military force in the past but that's true of a dozen other nations as well.
What I think people react to is that when America turns up somewhere and tries to help out there are a whole bunch of people intent on making that somewhere "just like home". That *never* works and it never has any good long term consequences. ALL of the western nations have to accept that they need to butt out of the way other nations handle themselves and their internal politics. Governmental humanitarian missions generally cause suspicion, so why not give increased government financial support to charities already working in an area?
If you know anyone who works with or for aid agencies, you'll know what I mean.

It will be very wrong to say that people hate Americans... Its' not true- they actually hate America, because of their highly self serving policies and self serving justice! There are many blunders which US policy makers made and incidently most of those blunders hurt muslims!

1. Despite of the presence of a lot of UN resolutions against Israel, America supports Israel because of Jew money. Everyone in the world knows that their stance in case of Israel is unfair and unjustified. Israel keeps on killing unarmed and innocent palestinians but America never even lets anyone pass a resolution against her. According to America's own view "People who harbour terrorists are also terrorists"-- America being a supporter of Israel is considered as a killer of thousands of innocent people in Palestine. They even supported Israel's attack on Lebonan in which 17,000 people were mercilessly murdered and they went in history un-mourned!

2. They fired cruse missiles on Afghanistan, killing 19 innocent civiliens and never appologized. No one can justify this action. Even if some terrorist is hiding in America, I have no right to fire missiles at America to kill people indescriminately.

3. They helped Kuwait because they wanted control of Arab oil. Once again economic reason. They never left Saudi Arabia. Why???

They want to become world police and think that their form of justice should be acceptable but fortunately there is a vast majority in this world who can differentiate between good and bad --- thats why they hate America.

It is a pitty for America that she cannot even understand why people hate her.

"because of Jew money" - nasty phrase, that. Are you sure you don't mean that Jewish Americans have some very effective pressure groups and are able to apply a certain amount of influence at congressional level in the US political system?
Your phrase is worryingly close to the kind of knee-jerk reaction that I have seen from anti-semitic groups; while I am not suggesting that this was your intent I would re-think your use of the phrase.

I'd also like to mention that, on seeing the phrase, I was almost expecting you to mention that the US government is acting in accordance with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. I'm glad you didn't; as to America's support of Israel being unfair and unjustified, it strikes me that this is another part of America's foreign policy. Wasn't Israel created by UN resolution?

Here's something else to consider. Why do the Israelis fight so hard to keep Israel a certain way? Why are they so quick to use force? Could it be the same reason that Russia spent the years after the war being so defensive of the Motherland? That reason, of course, being the catastrophic loses suffered at the hands of Nazi Germany?
I have noticed that, when pushed, humans tend to get very right wing in their views and attitudes. People only get liberal when they can divert their attention from survival.

just some things to ponder...

Today I heard the first WTC joke. After 17 days I thought it would never come. I remember Lockerbie jokes were all over the place within 48 hours of the bombing.

The joke itself? Very weak and rather racist, so I won't post it here. Its based upon the traditional English comedic principle that all Irish people are stupid, with the punchline being a misspelling of Bin Laden.

Oh come on! You can't leave it at that, please tell us the joke!!! I promise I won't get offended (and I'm half Irish and half English)

If China ever gets to superpower status, America may become a great deal more sympathetic

Sorry, Loonytunes but America did get itself an empire, at the end of the 19th Century. It managed this by fighting a war with a weak Spain and taking over many of her few remaining colonial possessions, natably the Philipinnes and Cuba. The reason the USA never got itself an empire before was because it had problems at home to deal with (the Civil War) and because it was supposed to be a revolutionary country, not an imperial power. The decision to obtain a (short-lived) colonial empire was probably party the desire to "arrive" on the world stage and partly envy at the vast colonial empires of France and Great Britain (indeed some claim that the USA was instrumental in the breakup of these two empires after WWII).

We were an isolationist country, we had this world policeman thing thrust upon us. We didn't want to get into WWI. There was a lot of debate about which side we should be on. After the war, we withdrew back to our borders. Then WWII, and we were drawn into another European war, and one in Asia to boot.

After that, I still don't think we really wanted to get involved. It was only the threat of communism that really kept us in the game. Our interventions have tended to be slow and sloppy. I think this is because of our reluctance to get involved. I sort of suspect we'd have an easier time of it if we were more proactive.

The Yanks apointed themselves 'world policeman' because they found it was an excellent tool in the fight to maximise Yank profit.

Imagine a new Social Responsibility Amendment to the US Constitution that would make a corporation's ability to operate in the US dependant on its ability to prove a history of social responsibility both in the US and around the world.

Some would say the above would make more sense than killing more women and children in Afghanistan.

The Constitution is about preserving freedom. We only used the amendment process to limit freedom once during our brief experiment with prohibition. I wouldn't care to do it again.

I know those of you who hate the United States don't want to recognize it, but we aren't killing women and children. We're not trying to killing women and children.

Incidentally, we're Americans, we're not yanks, and I'd thank you to stop using that term. I know you're trying to provoke a response. I find your use of the word to be offensive.