New Mars Forums

Well?

It's been a week and a half....

Nope.  I find your posts quite interesting.

hmmm

Bill,

Do you really think 72 pounds of plutonium is the only, or even the best, way to get to Mars?

Terror, Lies And Videotape
WASHINGTON, May 15, 2002

Scene from the video shown on the Internet. (CBS)

AN EDITOR'S NOTE
It was only after great deliberation that CBS News chose to broadcast portions of this video. We believe it is important for Americans to see it and understand the full impact and danger of the propaganda war being waged against the United States and its allies, and also its effect on the young people of the Arab world. We did not show the graphic scenes contained on the videotape, both for reasons of taste and out of respect for Mr. Pearl's family. CBS News brought you this report because, even in highly edited form, the video illustrates how far an enemy will go to spread its message of hate for the United States.
--Dan Rather

(CBS) Enemies of the United States are spreading on the Internet a gruesome piece of propaganda. It is a videotape of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered earlier this year in Pakistan. And it is being used by terrorists to recruit new soldiers for the cause.

The tape is titled "The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl," and it as disturbing a piece of propaganda as you will ever see, reports CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin.

Interspersed with news clips, the video of Pearl's final hours is a cold-blooded recruiting poster for America's enemies, complete with Arabic subtitles.

"The translation is in Arabic because the audience is Arabic," says Ali al-Ahmed, a dissident Saudi Arabian journalist, who found it on the Web a few days ago.

"The audience for this Web site are young Saudis, college students, high school students and unemployed Saudis," he says.

The U.S. government asked the Web site to remove the video, but it has since shown up on at least one other site.

What is perhaps most shocking is that some viewers do not find it repulsive.

"The first place where they had it on most of the people who commented on the tape, they said, 'I wish I was there. I wish I had done it,'" says al-Ahmed.

The U.S. may be winning the war in Afghanistan, but it is losing the propaganda war in parts of the Arab world.

As al-Ahmed sees it, "the United States is out of the game in the PR war in Saudi Arabia. They are disconnected from young Saudis. Young Saudis have nowhere to turn if they want to hear the United States' message."

With the background blacked out to cover up anything that might reveal the location, the tape begins with Pearl giving a brief factually correct description of his roots.

"My father's Jewish. My mother's Jewish. I'm Jewish," says Pearl.

And that seems to be the real reason Pearl was murdered, not because he was a spy but because he was a Jew and an American.

In a production style similar to the most recent video of Osama bin Laden, Pearl's statements are inter-cut with news clips showing scenes of Israel's war against the Palestinians. His jerky movements are a telltale sign some of his statements have been edited for maximum effect. He is under duress and at times appears to be reciting anti-American lines given to him by his captors, no doubt hoping that saying the right thing might save his life.

"We Americans cannot continue to bear the consequences of our government actions such as the unconditional support given to the state of Israel," Pearl says.

The tape ends with Pearl's beheading which no one needs to watch. But everyone needs to understand that this tape is a testament to the depth of the hatred against the United States, not just among terrorists but throughout much of the Arab world.

This tape is a weapon.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/ … 9059.shtml

"Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, honawy@pair.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log."

I'm getting this message several times a day.  Usually all I have to do is hit refresh to get where I want to go.

No big deal.  Just wondering if others had noticed it also.

Well, I think we are getting closer to that idea in a few countries.  Something sticks in the back of my mind regarding that, but I can't quite think of the exact country right now.

Also, have you considered China?  They kill prisoners and sell the organs.  I consider that mandatory organ donation.  Don't you?

LOL

That's the best spin I've ever heard on Mars!

Throw out ALL the evidence and hope nobody notices....

Pretty funny stuff!

1.  That's smart.  Who exactly do you think is in charge?

2.  I highly doubt you are a gullible victim.

3.  Big enough to scare some people?  When exactly do you think you will have hard evidence?  When a man walks on Mars?  That won't be very soon.  The way things are (not) progressing, I doubt it will be within my lifetime.

Btw, just to clarify one point since you seem to be such a cheerful debunker.  I don't recall ever saying that it was "alien construction" on Mars.  It does not seem like a phrase I would use.  You see, I do not believe in aliens.  According to surveys of the American public, I am in the minority.  I believe accepting "aliens" is part of the long-term conditioning we have been put through for roughly the past 50 years.

HTH

That's a very optimistic belief you have.  You could be right, but I prefer to stick with a more realistic view.  Of course, you don't indicate the year when your prediction will be fulfilled.

Global terrorism is more likely to increase.  We are only in round 1 or 2 of a potentially very long struggle.  President Bush has told us to expect this will take years.

.02

I'm with you all the way!

I've volunteered to take the trip, but NASA seems bound and determined to NOT allow any humans on Mars for many years to come....

Well....

I hate to feed your paranoia, but it looks like "they" are doing their best to scare off any manned missions to Mar.

* * * * *
Source:   National Research Council (http://www.nationalacademies.org/nrc/)

Date:   Posted 5/6/2002

Dangers On Mars Require Extensive Evaluation Before Human Exploration Could Proceed

When NASA's Mars Pathfinder landed on the Red Planet in 1997, it released a rover that monitored the landscape, recorded weather conditions, and broadcast pictures of the surface to Earth. Presently, there is no official date or funding for a human mission to Mars, but the knowledge gained from the Pathfinder and other missions would contribute to plans for eventual human exploration of the planet. Before astronauts can take the first steps on Mars, however, much research needs to be done to guide mission planners and hardware designers.

A new report from the National Academies' National Research Council outlines the environmental, chemical, and biological hazards that NASA needs to assess before sending a human mission to Mars.

The agency's robotic engineering and design program should be expanded to develop larger rovers specifically for human use in exploration and surface transport, the report says. To ensure a safe landing and to aid rover and human movement on the planet, NASA should develop an accurate high-resolution, three-dimensional map of the terrain that would be explored, and assess the land's makeup to determine its strength and stability. In addition, when a spacecraft lands on Mars, soil and dust might be brought in through the air lock, which occurred during the Apollo missions to the moon. Potential contamination of the astronaut habitat while on the martian surface could pose a health hazard to the crew. For example, dust could contain high concentrations of sulfur and chlorine, compounds that could degrade human lung tissue if inhaled and corrode equipment.

There is also uncertainty as to the quantity of toxic metals, such as hexavalent chromium, in the soil. While small amounts of these metals may not affect the astronauts immediately, they could have long-term effects, such as cancer. Robotic sampling of soil and airborne dust could determine the presence and extent of any harmful organisms or compounds. If certain experiments, such as testing for chromium, cannot be conducted on the Mars surface, a sample must be returned to the Earth for evaluation.

Although chances are slim that life exists on the planet, NASA must identify zones of minimal biologic risk to humans through unmanned missions, using organic carbon detection techniques or by analyzing a sample returned to Earth. At the same time, NASA needs to implement a series of safeguards to protect the Earth from potential contamination when the missions return from space.

NASA and its international partners plan to send data-gathering robotic missions to Mars every two years until 2011 to study the environment, climate, and geology, and to determine if life ever arose on the planet.

This study was requested and funded by NASA. The National Research Council is the principal operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. It is a private, nonprofit institution that provides science and technology advice under a congressional charter. A committee roster follows.

The report Safe on Mars: Precursor Measurements Necessary to Support Human Operations on the Martian Surface is available on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu.

Editor's Note: The original news release can be found at http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.ns....ocument

Or are others having this problem?

I cannot get to the last post in several of the threads I have tried to read today.  I'm giving up now.  I'll try back again tomorrow.  It could just be my stupid computer, I suppose.