Tuesday, September 13, 2011

09/11 ATTACKS VICTIMS LIST AND DATA

List and detailed data of all victims involved in the 09/11/2001 attacks as posted by The Washington Post
All Victims: Pentagon | World Trade Center | Pennsylvania

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,

Monday, September 12, 2011

WASHINGTON'S POLICY AND THE MAKING OF OSAMA BIN LADEN


Still amazed by the revelations contained in an article of the Washington Post, 1992 which serves as a major part of this post I would not have believed it if it doesn't originated from the proclaimed source please send any contrary opinion if there is I will also continue in my quest. Please, seat back and enjoy this article.
Washington's Backing of Afghan Terrorists: Deliberate Policy
Introductory note
In the 'Times of India' article reprinted on Emperor's Clothes under the title "CIA worked with Pakistan to create Taliban", analyst Selig Harrison is quoted as follows:
"'The CIA made a historic mistake in encouraging Islamic groups from all over the world to come to Afghanistan.' The US provided $3 billion for building up these Islamic groups, and it accepted Pakistan's demand that they should decide how this money should be spent, Harrison said."
I disagree. The creation of Islamist terrorist organizations by the CIA has been a key part of U.S. policy, first in attacking the Soviet Union, and since then in an on-going war against Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union and against Yugoslavia.
As the following article from the 'Washington Post' shows, Washington was no distant financier of the Afghan terrorists, unaware of how its money was being spent. Rather, it controlled the action. Today, Washington publicly condemns Islamist terrorism but this is two-faced for at the same time Washington and its partners continue to create, support and manage Islamist terrorist and related groups (for instance, the 'Kosovo Liberation Army' terrorists). For Washington, organized terror is a weapon of Empire. - Jared Israel.
Anatomy of a Victory: CIA's Covert Afghan War
By: Steve Coll, 'Washington Post', July 19, 1992
A specially equipped C-141 Starlifter transport carrying William Casey touched down at a military air base south of Islamabad in October 1984 for a secret visit by the CIA director to plan strategy for the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Helicopters lifted Casey to three secret training camps near the Afghan border, where he watched mujaheddin rebels fire heavy weapons and learn to make bombs with CIA-supplied plastic explosives and detonators.
During the visit, Casey startled his Pakistani hosts by proposing that they take the Afghan war into enemy territory -- into the Soviet Union itself. Casey wanted to ship subversive propaganda through Afghanistan to the Soviet Union's predominantly Muslim southern republics. The Pakistanis agreed, and the CIA soon supplied thousands of Korans, as well as books on Soviet atrocities in Uzbekistan and tracts on historical heroes of Uzbek nationalism, according to Pakistani and Western officials.
"We can do a lot of damage to the Soviet Union," Casey said, according to Mohammed Yousaf, a Pakistani general who attended the meeting.
Casey's visit was a prelude to a secret Reagan administration decision in March 1985, reflected in National Security Decision Directive 166, to sharply escalate U.S. covert action in Afghanistan, according to Western officials. Abandoning a policy of simple harassment of Soviet occupiers, the Reagan team decided secretly to let loose on the Afghan battlefield an array of U.S. high technology and military expertise in an effort to hit and demoralize Soviet commanders and soldiers. Casey saw it as a prime opportunity to strike at an overextended, potentially vulnerable Soviet empire.
Eight years after Casey's visit to Pakistan, the Soviet Union is no more. Afghanistan has fallen to the heavily armed, fraticidal mujaheddin rebels. The Afghans themselves did the fighting and dying -- and ultimately won their war against the Soviets -- and not all of them laud the CIA's role in their victory. But even some sharp critics of the CIA agree that in military terms, its secret 1985 escalation of covert support to the mujaheddin made a major difference in Afghanistan, the last battlefield of the long Cold War.
How the Reagan administration decided to go for victory in the Afghan war between 1984 and 1988 has been shrouded in secrecy and clouded by the sharply divergent political agendas of those involved. But with the triumph of the mujaheddin rebels over Afghanistan's leftist government in April and the demise of the Soviet Union, some intelligence officials involved have decided to reveal how the covert escalation was carried out.
The most prominent of these former intelligence officers is Yousaf, the Pakistani general who supervised the covert war between 1983 and 1987 and who last month published in Europe and Pakistan a detailed account of his role and that of the CIA, titled "The Bear Trap."
This article and another to follow are based on extensive interviews with Yousaf as well as with more than a dozen senior Western officials who confirmed Yousaf's disclosures and elaborated on them.
U.S. officials worried about what might happen if aspects of their stepped-up covert action were exposed -- or if the program succeeded too well and provoked the Soviets to react in hot anger. The escalation that began in 1985 "was directed at killing Russian military officers," one Western official said. "That caused a lot of nervousness."
One source of jitters was that Pakistani intelligence officers -- partly inspired by Casey -- began independently to train Afghans and funnel CIA supplies for scattered strikes against military installations, factories and storage depots within Soviet territory.
The attacks later alarmed U.S. officials in Washington, who saw military raids on Soviet territory as "an incredible escalation," according to Graham Fuller, then a senior U.S. intelligence official who counseled against any such raids. Fearing a large-scale Soviet response and the fallout of such attacks on U.S.-Soviet diplomacy, the Reagan administration blocked the transfer to Pakistan of detailed satellite photographs of military targets inside the Soviet Union, other U.S. officials said.
To Yousaf, who managed the Koran-smuggling program and the guerrilla raids inside Soviet territory, the United States ultimately "chickened out" on the question of taking the secret Afghan war onto Soviet soil. Nonetheless, Yousaf recalled, Casey was "ruthless in his approach, and he had a built-in hatred for the Soviets."
An intelligence coup in 1984 and 1985 triggered the Reagan administration's decision to escalate the covert progam in Afghanistan, according to Western officials. The United States received highly specific, sensitive information about Kremlin politics and new Soviet war plans in Afghanistan. Already under pressure from Congress and conservative activists to expand its support to the mujaheddin, the Reagan administration moved in response to this intelligence to open up its high-technology arsenal to aid the Afghan rebels.
Beginning in 1985, the CIA supplied mujaheddin rebels with extensive satellite reconnaissance data of Soviet targets on the Afghan battlefield, plans for military operations based on the satellite intelligence, intercepts of Soviet communications, secret communications networks for the rebels, delayed timing devices for tons of C-4 plastic explosives for urban sabotage and sophisticated guerrilla attacks, long-range sniper rifles, a targeting device for mortars that was linked to a U.S. Navy satellite, wire-guided anti-tank missiles, and other equipment.
The move to upgrade aid to the mujaheddin roughly coincided with the well-known decision in 1986 to provide the mujaheddin with sophisticated, U.S.-made Stinger antiaircraft missiles. Before the missiles arrived, however, those involved in the covert war wrestled with a wide-ranging and at times divisive debate over how far they should go in challenging the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
Roots of the Rebellion
In 1980, not long after Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan to prop up a sympathetic leftist government, President Jimmy Carter signed the first -- and for many years the only -- presidential "finding" on Afghanistan, the classified directive required by U.S. law to begin covert operations, according to several Western sources familiar with the Carter document.
The Carter finding sought to aid Afghan rebels in "harassment" of Soviet occupying forces in Afghanistan through secret supplies of light weapons and other assistance. The finding did not talk of driving Soviet forces out of Afghanistan or defeating them militarily, goals few considered possible at the time, these sources said.
The cornerstone of the program was that the United States, through the CIA, would provide funds, some weapons and general supervision of support for the mujaheddin rebels, but day-to-day operations and direct contact with the mujaheddin would be left to the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI. The hands-off U.S. role contrasted with CIA operations in Nicaragua and Angola.
Saudi Arabia agreed to match U.S. financial contributions to the mujaheddin and distributed funds directly to ISI. China sold weapons to the CIA and donated a smaller number directly to Pakistan, but the extent of China's role has been one of the secret war's most closely guarded secrets.
In all, the United States funneled more than $ 2 billion in guns and money to the mujaheddin during the 1980s, according to U.S. officials. It was the largest covert action program since World War II.
In the first years after the Reagan administration inherited the Carter program, the covert Afghan war "tended to be handled out of Casey's back pocket," recalled Ronald Spiers, a former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, the base of the Afghan rebels. Mainly from China's government, the CIA purchased assault rifles, grenade launchers, mines and SA-7 light antiaircraft weapons, and then arranged for shipment to Pakistan. Most of the weapons dated to the Korean War or earlier. The amounts were significant -- 10,000 tons of arms and ammunition in 1983, according to Yousaf -- but a fraction of what they would be in just a few years.
Beginning in 1984, Soviet forces in Afghanistan began to experiment with new and more aggressive tactics against the mujaheddin, based on the use of Soviet special forces, called the Spetsnaz, in helicopter-borne assaults on Afghan rebel supply lines. As these tactics succeeded, Soviet commanders pursued them increasingly, to the point where some U.S. congressmen who traveled with the mujaheddin -- including Rep. Charles Wilson (D-Tex.) and Sen. Gordon Humphrey (R-N.H.) -- believed that the war might turn against the rebels.

The new Soviet tactics reflected a perception in the Kremlin that the Red Army was in danger of becoming bogged down in Afghanistan and needed to take decisive steps to win the war, according to sensitive intelligence that reached the Reagan administration in 1984 and 1985, Western officials said. The intelligence came from the upper reaches of the Soviet Defense Ministry and indicated that Soviet hard-liners were pushing a plan to attempt to win the Afghan war within two years, sources said.
The new war plan was to be implemented by Gen. Mikhail Zaitsev, who was transferred from the prestigious command of Soviet forces in Germany to run the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the spring of 1985, just as Mikhail Gorbachev was battling hard-line rivals to take power in a Kremlin succession struggle.
Cracking the Kremlin's Strategy
The intelligence about Soviet war plans in Afghanistan was highly specific, according to Western sources. The Soviets intended to deploy one-third of their total Spetsnaz forces in Afghanistan -- nearly 2,000 "highly trained and motivated" paratroops, according to Yousaf. In addition, the Soviets intended to dispatch a stronger KGB presence to assist the special forces and regular troops, and they intended to deploy some of the Soviet Union's most sophisticated battlefield communications equipment, referred to by some as the "Omsk vans" -- mobile, integrated communications centers that would permit interception of mujaheddin battlefield communications and rapid, coordinated aerial attacks on rebel targets, such as the kind that were demoralizing the rebels by 1984.
At the Pentagon, U.S. military officers pored over the intelligence, considering plans to thwart the Soviet escalation, officials said. The answers they came up with, said a Western official, were to provide "secure communications [for the Afghan rebels], kill the gunships and the fighter cover, better routes for [mujaheddin] infiltration, and get to work on [Soviet] targets" in Afghanistan, including the Omsk vans, through the use of satellite reconnaissance and increased, specialized guerrilla training.
"There was a demand from my friends [in the CIA] to capture a vehicle intact with this sort of communications," recalled Yousaf, referring to the newly introduced mobile Soviet facilities. Unfortunately, despite much effort, Yousaf said, "we never succeeded in that."
"Spetsnaz was key," said Vincent Cannistraro, a CIA operations officer who was posted at the time as director of intelligence programs at the National Security Council. Not only did communications improve, but the Spetsnaz forces were willing to fight aggressively and at night. The problem, Cannistraro said, was that as the Soviets moved to escalate, the U.S. aid was "just enough to get a very brave people killed" because it encouraged the mujaheddin to fight but did not provide them with the means to win.
Conservatives in the Reagan administration and especially in Congress saw the CIA as part of the problem. Humphrey, the former senator and a leading conservative supporter of the mujaheddin, found the CIA "really, really reluctant" to increase the quality of support for the Afghan rebels to meet Soviet escalation. For their part, CIA officers felt the war was not going as badly as some skeptics thought, and they worried that it might not be possible to preserve secrecy in the midst of a major escalation. A sympathetic U.S. official said the agency's key decision-makers "did not question the wisdom" of the escalation, but were "simply careful."
In March 1985, President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 166, and national security adviser Robert D. McFarlane signed an extensive annex, augmenting the original Carter intelligence finding that focused on "harassment" of Soviet occupying forces, according to several sources. Although it covered diplomatic and humanitarian objectives as well, the new, detailed Reagan directive used bold language to authorize stepped-up covert military aid to the mujaheddin, and it made clear that the secret Afghan war had a new goal: to defeat Soviet troops in Afghanistan through covert action and encourage a Soviet withdrawal.
New Covert U.S. Aid
The new covert U.S. assistance began with a dramatic increase in arms supplies -- a steady rise to 65,000 tons annually by 1987, according to Yousaf -- as well as what he called a "ceaseless stream" of CIA and Pentagon specialists who traveled to the secret headquarters of Pakistan's ISI on the main road near Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
There the CIA specialists met with Pakistani intelligence officers to help plan operations for the Afghan rebels. At any one time during the Afghan fighting season, as many as 11 ISI teams trained and supplied by the CIA accompanied the mujaheddin across the border to supervise attacks, according to Yousaf and Western sources. The teams attacked airports, railroads, fuel depots, electricity pylons, bridges and roads, the sources said.
CIA and Pentagon specialists offered detailed satellite photographs and ink maps of Soviet targets around Afghanistan. The CIA station chief in Islamabad ferried U.S. intercepts of Soviet battlefield communications.
Other CIA specialists and military officers supplied secure communications gear and trained Pakistani instructors on how to use it. Experts on psychological warfare brought propaganda and books. Demolitions experts gave instructions on the explosives needed to destroy key targets such as bridges, tunnels and fuel depots. They also supplied chemical and electronic timing devices and remote control switches for delayed bombs and rockets that could be shot without a mujaheddin rebel present at the firing site.
The new efforts focused on strategic targets such as the Termez Bridge between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. "We got the information like current speed of the water, current depth of the water, the width of the pillars, which would be the best way to demolish," Yousaf said. In Washington, CIA lawyers debated whether it was legal to blow up pylons on the Soviet side of the bridge as opposed to the Afghan side, in keeping with the decision not to support military action across the Soviet border, a Western official said.
Despite several attempts, Afghan rebels trained in the new program never brought the Termez Bridge down, though they did damage and destroy other targets, such as pipelines and depots, in the sensitive border area, Western and Pakistani sources said.
The most valuable intelligence provided by the Americans was the satellite reconnaissance, Yousaf said. Soon the wall of Yousaf's office was covered with detailed maps of Soviet targets in Afghanistan such as airfields, armories and military buildings. The maps came with CIA assessments of how best to approach the target, possible routes of withdrawal, and analysis of how Soviet troops might respond to an attack. "They would say there are the vehicles, and there is the [river bank], and there is the tank," Yousaf said.
CIA operations officers helped Pakistani trainers establish schools for the mujaheddin in secure communications, guerrilla warfare, urban sabotage and heavy weapons, Yousaf and Western officials said.
The first antiaircraft systems used by the mujaheddin were the Swiss-made Oerlikon heavy gun and the British-made Blowpipe missile, according to Yousaf and Western sources. When these proved ineffective, the United States sent the Stinger. Pakistani officers traveled to the United States for training on the Stinger in June 1986 and then set up a secret mujaheddin Stinger training facility in Rawalpindi, complete with an electronic simulator made in the United States. The simulator allowed mujaheddin trainees to aim and fire at a large screen without actually shooting off expensive missiles, Yousaf said. The screen marked the missile's track and calculated whether the trainee would have hit his airborne target.

Ultimately, the effectiveness of such training and battlefield intelligence depended on the mujaheddin themselves; their performance and willingness to employ disciplined tactics varied greatly. Yousaf considered the aid highly valuable, although persistently marred by supplies of weapons such as the Blowpipe that failed miserably on the battlefield.
At the least, the escalation on the U.S. side initiated with Reagan's 1985 National Security Directive helped to change the character of the Afghan war, intensifying the struggle and raising the stakes for both sides. This change led U.S. officials to confront a difficult question that had legal, military, foreign policy and even moral implications: In taking the Afghan covert operation more directly to the Soviet enemy, how far should the United States be prepared to go?
(c) 'Washington Post', 1992. Posted for Fair Use Only
More>>>
Details>>>
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Saturday, September 10, 2011

COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF ALL INEC ELECTORAL OFFICERS RETREAT 11-14TH JULY 2011

FULL TEXT OF THE COMMUNIQUE OF THE RETREAT OF INEC ELECTORAL OFFICERS FROM THE SIX GEO-POLITICAL ZONES HELD AT THE MERIT HOUSE, ABUJA, 11TH TO 14TH JULY, 2011.

PREAMBLE
In its determined effort to sustain the gains of the April 2011 General Elections adjudged by both domestic and international observers as the freest, fairest and most credible in Nigeria’s electoral history and recognizing the need to carry along all its staff in discharging its responsibilities and obligations as an Electoral Management Body; conscious of the value of periodic institutional evaluations of programmes as important components in building strong and responsive institutions; ready to learn from and share the wealth of institutional experience its staff have accumulated over years of managing the electoral system; and desirous of learning from best practices and addressing past errors, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in collaboration with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), organized a retreat for its Electoral Officers from the six geo-political zones in Merit House, Abuja between 11th and 14th July, 2011.
The retreat’s main objective was to critically evaluate and assess the January, 2011 Voter Registration Exercise and the April, 2011 General Elections as part of the overall programme of the Commission to build a professional, world-class Electoral Management Body and to further deepen the gains that have been recorded so far. More specifically, the retreat extensively deliberated on the electoral process and its institutional basis, focusing on issues such as: identification and verification of polling units; voter registration, including the consolidation/printing of voters’ register and display of the register for claims and objections; party primaries and the and the nomination of candidates; political campaigns, including campaign financing; issues related to election or polling day, including counting, collation, announcement and transmission of results; issues related to the postponement of elections; legal and procedural frameworks for electoral activities, voter education and public enlightenment; issues related to the security of elections, election materials and personnel; issues related to elections observation; issues relating to the identification, recruitment and training of ad-hoc staff; as well as logistic and operational issues, including communications, transportation of electoral materials, and the coordination and planning of field operations among others.



OBSERVATIONS
After extensive deliberations, the retreat observed as follows:
1. That the verification of polling units (PUs) conducted just before the registration and elections was a significant and welcome development, for it provided the Commission with first-hand knowledge of the location of PUs thus enabling the Commission to plan, procure, recruit, train, deploy and maintain materials and personnel in, and, for known locations. This has helped not only prevent the diversion of electoral materials and leakages, it also made possible quick interventions to address challenges during both the registration and elections. Similarly, the decision to peg PUs to a maximum of 300 voters is a welcome development. However, new demographic and economic changes in both urban and rural areas have posed new challenges to the existing structure of PUs.
2. That the voter registration exercise for the first time gave the country the most comprehensive and credible Voters’ Roll in its electoral history; it also created a huge biometric database essential for planning purposes not only for the Commission, but also for other institutions and bodies. The consolidation and printing of the voters’ register facilitated effective identification of voters that helped substantially eliminate practices such as multiple registration. Finally, the display of voters’ register enhanced the credibility of the national voters’ roll, as well as created room for detecting fictitious or double registration. It also facilitated the admittance of missing names on the register.
3. That the identification, recruitment and training of ad-hoc staff have been well planned and handled. In particular, the recruitment of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members as ah-hoc staff for both the registration and elections was an excellent move, for it has added value and credibility to the electoral process.
4. That the monitoring of party primaries and nomination of candidates is an essential aspect of the Commissions’ contribution towards deepening internal democracy in political parties and building confidence in the electoral process.
5. That the plans and programmes put in place for election or polling day were a testimony to the extensive preparations by the Commission for the April, 2011 General Elections. The retreat commended plans put in place for the counting, collation, announcement and transmission of results, and observed that such plans conferred an additional mark of credibility on, and, acceptability for the April 2011 General Elections. While not a few were disappointed by the postponement of the April 2nd National Assembly Elections, the plans put in place subsequently vindicated the Commission’s sound judgment.
6. The retreat noted that the legal and procedural frameworks (the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2010 (as Amended) in place have enabled the Commission to discharge its obligations and responsibilities without much constraint. These instruments have given the Commission wide-ranging powers to manage the electoral process although challenges in the area of monitoring party primaries and campaign financing still remain.
7. That voter education and public enlightenment on elections and the electoral process is a key element in any effort towards the deepening of democracy. Both are essential in creating an active civic consciousness and a participatory citizenry. The retreat observed that though the Commission pursued voter education and public enlightenment vigorously, there is room for improvement in voter education.
8. The retreat lauded the establishment of the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), a development which significantly improved the security of the April 2011 General Elections. It commended the role of security agencies in striving to create a different disposition from previous practice in managing election security. However, security agents involved in election duties still required specialized training in tune with civic duties and responsibilities during elections.
9. It also noted that the role and participation of stakeholders such as civil society organisations, political parties, development partners and donor agencies was very helpful to electoral administration and information management. The retreat commended INEC for providing uniform guidelines for both domestic and foreign observers.



 RECOMMENDATIONS
Having made the foregoing observations and being committed to the continual improvement of the electoral process in Nigeria as well as to the transformation of INEC into one of best Electoral Management Bodies in the world, the retreat made the following recommendations:
1. The decision to peg PUs to a maximum of 300 voters should be retained. The possibility of constructing permanent structures for PUs should seriously be considered. Similarly, all PUs that are named after individuals or non-neutral places/buildings or structures should be re-named and re-located to bear neutral names and locations. Congested PUs in single locations should be decentralized. INEC should also re-design the Polling Units Directory to indicate locations and maps of PUs. Finally, there is a need for new PUs given the changing demographic composition of urban and rural areas across the country.
2. Efforts should be made to ensure timely procurement of registration materials before the commencement of such exercises. Registration personnel should be adequately trained. The Commission should also ensure that plans for continuous voter registration, preferably at the Ward level are put in place as soon as possible. The period set aside for display of the preliminary voters’ register should be extended to at least four weeks and the display exercise should be widely publicized. There should be uniformity in the conduct of the exercise while Automatic Finger Identification System (AFIS) should be run at the end of the exercise. Similarly, the plans for the storage and maintenance of the voter registration equipment should be vigorously implemented.
3. The remaining challenges in the recruitment and training of ad-hoc staff should be further looked into. The Commission should explore the use of other credible personnel from the Federal Civil Service and Federal tertiary institutions as ad hoc staff in addition to NYSC. In terms of recruitment, adequate time should be given for the placement of advert(s). Training for regular staff should be continuous, while adequate time should be given for the training of ad-hoc staff. Similarly, in-depth training should be continuously planned for security personnel on election duties.
4. The Commission should be more seriously involved in the monitoring of party primaries and should invoke all relevant powers given it by law. For instance, it should insist on adequate notice and clearly identifiable venues for the primaries from political parties.

5. The Commission should in the future look more closely into the timing of elections taking note of seasonal variations in the economic activities of our people. The transmission of results should be done at all levels of the result chain i.e. from PUs through to the National Collation Centre electronically.
6. The legal and procedural frameworks for the management of the electoral system should be re-examined to identify areas where the Commission’ powers could be strengthened, such as in the monitoring of political parties, political campaigns and campaign financing. Similarly, there is a need to have enabling legal provisions that will provide Nigerians in the Diaspora an opportunity to participate in the electoral process. The Commission should also be firm in prosecuting electoral offenders in order to seriously address and tackle the culture of impunity. Details>>>
7. Voter education should not only be vigorously pursued, it should also be a continuous process at all levels. Local Government Offices of INEC should be more involved in voter education and public enlightenment. Similarly, the capacity of relevant departments in charge of voter education and public enlightenment at all levels of the Commission should strengthened and supported to discharge their responsibilities.
8. Security should be beefed up for electoral personnel during electoral activities; separate vehicular facilities should be provided for security personnel to forestall their having to insist on using vehicles meant for the conveyance of other electoral personnel and materials during elections. Intensive and continuous training should also be provided security personnel involved in electoral duties since election security is specialized and slightly different from normal security considerations.
9. The Commission should sustain its practice of providing uniform guidelines for domestic and foreign observers and print observer reports into booklets for use as reference materials for its field officers to enable corrections or avoidance of mistakes in the future. Lists of accredited observers should be sent to the state offices well ahead of elections to forestall interference from unauthorised ‘observers’ or of observers operating in areas where they have not secured approval to operate.
CONCLUSION
In general, retreat participants thanked the Commission for the opportunity to voice their opinions and share their experiences with the Commission and their colleagues from all parts of the country. The retreat appealed to INEC to critically assess and adopt these observations and recommendations for they hold a lot of promise for meeting the aspirations of Nigerians for freer, fairer and more credible future elections. More>>>
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

THE COMPLETE TRUE STORY OF THE RMS TITANIC

Although, there are various stories about the RMS Titanic but, this will give the full detailed account about the beginning and the end of the famous RMS Titanic, starting from the moment the idea was conceived to it's wreckage and the survivors for sure you will gain and even learn a lot from this great story.
The history of Titanic has enthralled the world quite unlike any other shipwreck ever known to man. A number of books, articles and movies have been made detailed the tragedy of the RMS Titanic. Both the 1950's version of the Titanic's sinking, "A Night to Remember' and the more recent film have been very popular. James Cameron's 1997 box office hit"Titanic" was so popular with viewers that it succeeded in breaking a number of box office sales records. The public seems incapable of forgetting the tragic history of the Titanic. Numerous myths and legends have developed over the years since the ship sank on April 15, 1912. Some of the myths are true, and others have simply been derived from the imagination of the numerous people who have become somewhat obsessed with the history of Titanic.
In part, some of the tales regarding Titanic history can be contributed to the tales spun by the 705 survivors. It has been speculated that more than one of the survivors 'embellished' their personal story. The 'unsinkable' Molly Brown is just one of the surviving passengers who are suspected of having added more than a little flair to their tale.
When the names of the numerous famous first class passengers who were lost were revealed, the world was astounded that so many notable figures could perish in a single day. Conversely, immigrants who survived the sinking of the ship are now known worldwide for their part in the tragic history of Titanic. Poor and confined to the steerage of the ship, these individuals were only seeking a better life for themselves and their families. Instead however they earned an immortal place in Titanic history.
Titanic history buffs are quite staunch in their dedication to preserving the truth regarding the history of the ship Titanic. When 'Titanic' was released in December of 1997 moviegoers flocked to the theaters to see the beauty and the tragedy of the fateful ship revealed on the big screen. A number of individuals who consider themselves experts on the history of Titanic were less than impressed with the number of errors contained within the film. Despite James Cameron's dedication to filming the most accurate version of the Titanic accident history possible, the movie never the less contained mistakes. Some of these mistakes had to be included in the movie to insure the viewer's suspense and enjoyment in the film. Others however were simply matters that had been overlooked during the making of the movie.
The history of Titanic continues to be one of the most popular topics in the world. An insatiable thirst for information about the Titanic prompted researchers to search for the exact location of the wreckage site for a number of years. When the Titanic's wreckage was finally discovered in 1985, the world got its first look at the ship in more than sixty years. The tragic sinking of the Titanic and history of both those who survived and were lost, will forever be remembered with nostalgia and sadness.



No other ship has captured the world's attention, quite like the Titanic ship. Constructed to be unsinkable, this first class ocean liner set sail on April 10, 1912. The world had awaited the maiden voyage of this luxury liner for months. The White Star Line had taken great care to publicize the fantastic engineering of the Titanic and the world waited with baited breath for the ship to make her first voyage. More



Passengers boarding the Titanic
Passengers boarding the Titanic

As the passengers boarded the gangplank at Southampton, England for a trans-Atlantic crossing they were no doubt pleased to be a part of the maiden voyage of the invincible Titanic ship. Little did they know, however; that in just a few short days their names and the Titanic would be forever immortalized.
The Titanic ship disaster began, ironically enough as the ship was heading out to sea. The ship's builders had spared no expense in assuring that the Titanic would not only be the safest ship on the waters, but also the largest. This fact proved to be disastrous from the beginning. The larger ship managed to suck a much smaller vessel, the New York, into her wake as she began plowing through the waters with her massive propellers. The two ships came very close to colliding. This near miss may have set a few nerves on edge, but it was nothing compared to what would come later.
Despite the close call, the first few days of the ship's voyage in no way indicated the tragic history of Titanic ship. Information of Titanic records indicate the ship made two ports of call, both with no incident. After the stop in Queenstown, Ireland to take on more passengers, the RMS Titanic set sail once again, headed for her destination in New York.


For four days the ship's elite passengers reveled in the brand new amenities of the Titanic ship, replete with every modern luxury known at the time. During the early part of the 20th century, it was considered quite sophisticated for wealthy families to spend portions of their time in Europe, which necessitated crossing the Atlantic at least once per year. Even to these jaded travelers, however, the Titanic ship was like no other. Nothing had been spared to insure the comfort of the first class guests. The ship was even equipped with only 20 lifeboats, so that precious deck space for the first class passengers would not be taken up by bulky lifeboats.


Down below, however, it was a different story. While the luxury liner teemed with a significant number of first class passengers, hundreds of second class and third class passengers survived the first few days of the voyage in cramped compartments. Most of these individuals were immigrant families who had scraped together every bit of money they had to travel to America aboard the grandest, and supposedly, safest ship ever built.

When the Titanic ship disaster finally reached its pinnacle on April 14th, each and every passenger on board; wealthy and poor alike; were forced to fight for their very survival. In the end only 705 persons survived the sinking of the ship, out of 2,228 passengers and crew members. 1,523 lives were lost when the Titanic ship beneath the ice cold waters of the Atlantic. More >>>
On the morning of April 15, 1912, the sinking of the Titanic the previous night shocked the world. The year had dawned bright with promise and the maiden voyage of the Titanic was a symbol of the advances mankind had made in the last few years.



The ship was considered to have been so well constructed it was believed she could sustain any amount of damage and still remain afloat. Late on the night of April 14, 1912, the sinking of the Titanic proved this idea wrong in a horribly tragic way.
The causes of Titanic to sink have been the subject of much study and debate. Obviously, the instigating factor was the collision with the iceberg; however the question of 'how did it sink' is frequently the center of most questions regarding the Titanic.

In 1912 the sinking of the Titanic began late on the night of April 14th. Information on the sinking Titanic indicates that the ship approached a massive iceberg, and although efforts were made to steer clear of the large frozen mass, all efforts were to no avail. Sadly, further records of the Titanic accident history indicate that the Titanic disaster may very well have been able to have been completely avoided had officers on ship paid heed to reports received earlier regarding the frozen waters they were approaching.

Even though crew members were desperately trying to turn the ship in the other direction, when the ship collided with the berg a massive rip was torn parallel across the ship's bulk. The Titanic sinking began almost immediately, as the ship began to take on water.

Surprisingly, many of the passengers remained unaware of this fact. Some passengers reported hearing and feeling a strange quivering in the ship; however, they did not attribute this to any potential problem and went on about their business.
Others had seen the iceberg has it passed their window and hurriedly donned dressing gowns and robes, anxious to discover whether or not they had truly hit the berg. At first, passengers were assured that there would only be a slight delay and were given no indication of the true severity of the situation.

Passengers located at strategic points in the ship already knew the devastating truth however: the Titanic was sinking and sinking fast. An SOS was sent out to neighboring ships. The Carpathia picked up the ship's distress call and radioed back to let the ship's crew know they were on their way. It would be too late, however. By the time the Carpathia arrived, all that remained of the Titanic was a handful of lifeboats filled with shocked survivors.

Since the ship sank to her watery grave, almost one hundred years ago, a number of theories have been put forth to explain how in the year of 1912 the sinking of the Titanic could have occurred. Some theories suggest that had the ship's crew not attempted to turn the ship in the opposite direction of the iceberg and instead took the blow head-on, the collision would not have resulted in such catastrophic disaster.
Where did the Titanic sink? The Titanic sank somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, south of Newfoundland, Canada. Here's a map with the exact location of the Titanic's resting place. Use the + and - buttons to zoom, the arrows to move.


Consequently, neighboring ships in the area had reported earlier in the evening that the waters ahead contained numerous masses of solid ice and that approaching ships should proceed with caution. The Titanic, however, thought to be unsinkable, plowed full speed ahead. This proved to be a fatal mistake and is certainly one of the factors that led to the disaster. More>>>
The passengers on the Titanic have become as infamous as the sinking of the ship itself. While the tragic sinking would have no doubt been met with shock, the tragedy was manifested by large number of first class and notable Titanic passengers who perished in the ship's disaster.
There were 2228 people on board of the Titanic, 337 in first class, 285 second class, 721 in third class and 885 crew members.




Captain J. Smith
Captain E. Smith
The infamous ship set sail on April 10, 1912 under the command of Captain Edward Smith. Facts about Captain Edward John Smith, his life and his tragic death aboard the ship are often the subject of much debate and study. Many historians feel that the tragedy could have been avoided in it's entirely had Captain Smith acted differently. Others aren't so sure. Certainly a number of other factors contributed to the heavy loss of life, including the lack of life boats.





Molly Brown
Molly Brown
Famous passengers on the Titanic included Molly Brown, wife of a Colorado silver mine entrepreneur, and John Jacob Astor. Molly Brown became famous in her own right for being the only woman to have rowed a lifeboat to safety.
Titanic survivor stories have given the world a wealth of information regarding what actually happened during the fateful last minutes of the ill fated luxury liner and the people in the Titanic. Diaries of the Titanic passengers have revealed the sinking of the infamous ship was a story rich in tragedy, triumph and despair,
sacrifice and selfishness.


Mr. and Mrs. Straus
Mr. and Mrs. Straus
One of the most touching stories regarding the passengers on the Titanic is the tale of an elderly wealthy couple, the Straus'. When it became apparent that no male passengers on the Titanic could be allowed to board the limited lifeboats, Mrs. Straus chose to stay by the side of her husband; even though it meant certain death. The couple perished with the ship.
While the world is often taken with the stories of the famous passengers on the Titanic, there were also hundreds of second and third class passengers who also perished with the ship. These poor souls were at an unfortunate advantage due to the fact that ship did not
carry enough lifeboats for all the people in the Titanic!



Robert C. Chisholm
Robert C. Chisholm
Crew members and designers who had worked on the Titanic since the idea of the ship was first conceived were also among the many souls who perished when the ship sank. Several members of the ship design team numbered among the passengers on the Titanic, including the Chief Draughtsman responsible for the design of the lifeboats. While Robert C. Chisholm and Titanic designers boarded the ship for her maiden voyage for the specific purpose of being on hand to monitor any problems that might arise during ship's first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, they were unable to save the ship when she crashed into an iceberg and subsequently began to take on huge volumes of water.



How many people survived the Titanic is one of the most frequently asked questions regarding the history of this legendary ship. Of the 2,228 passengers and crew members who set sail, only 705 Titanic passengers survived.
 The first live Titanic pictures were taken on September 1, 1985, the day the wreckage of the ship was finally discovered. For the next several months numerous sketches of the Titanic ship were developed based on the initial Titanic wreck photos taken that day.







Alvin
Alvin
The following year, search crews returned to the area armed with a submersible vehicle named Alvin. It would be Alvin's job, along with an underwater robot, to scout the area thousands of feet below the water and take more photos of the real Titanic. Funding for the development and production of the incredibly expensive equipment had been provided by the US Office for Naval Research, at a price tag of almost $3 million.
For several painstaking hours the search crew waited while Alvin slowly descended to the site of the wreck, some 2 ½ miles below water. The first image to come into view was that of the ship's hull. The excitement among the crew was palpable, however Alvin had to return almost immediately to the surface. The extremely long trip to the ocean floor had nearly depleted the little vehicle's battery store. The crew had no choice but to wait to the following day to once again return to the site.
Titanic pictures have put an end to the question 'what did the Titanic look like after all this years on the bottom of the ocean'. Authentic photographs of the ship's wreckage, submerged almost three miles below water, have enabled the world to finally envision the infamous ship both before and after the tragedy.
The Titanic pictures have also put an end to numerous other questions regarding the tragic sinking. Immediately following the tragedy, a number of survivors reported that just before sinking below the water, the ship broke into two sections. This theory had been hotly debated for a number of years. Also in question was exactly what had occurred to sink the 'unsinkable' Titanic. While there was no doubt regarding the collision with a gigantic iceberg, many wondered how even such an impact could have caused enough damage to result in the rapid sinking of the huge ocean liner.
1986 photographs of Titanic ship revealed that, in all probability, the ship had not sustained one long gash upon impact with the iceberg, as many people has insisted upon for years. Instead, it was much more likely that the ship had sustained several, much smaller, wounds when the iceberg scraped the hull of the ship. Theories now indicate that the rivets intended to hold the hull plates together were unable to withstand the impact and popped upon contact. As a result, the plates buckled and separated. The ship immediately began to take on water and less than three hours later, sank to her final destination on the ocean floor.
Thousands of underwater pictures were taken during the 1986 Titanic expedition. In later trips to the deep, artifacts would be recovered from the wreckage of the Titanic. In total, more than 5,000 pieces would be recovered from the wreckage site. Today, the wreckage of the Titanic is considered by many to be a memorial to the lives of the 1,522 people who died when the ship sank on an early spring morning in 1912.
Today, the world no longer has to wonder what the Titanic looked like. Titanic pictures in 1912 reveal a world class luxury liner, filled with passengers excited to be journeying on the ship's maiden voyage. The final image of the Titanic became complete when Titanic underwater pictures were published sixty years later. More>>>

James Cameron's Titanic movie (released in December 1997) took the world by storm, much as the original ship earned the world's awe before her untimely demise.

How many oscars did the Titanic movie win? The Titanic earned its place as the most nominated movie in film history. In total, the film was nominated for a whopping 14 Oscars and managed to bring home 11 of the coveted awards. No other film in history had won that many awards.
  Movie goers around the world were so taken by the movie's main characters, Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater, that the Titanic earned Oscar nominations for Best Actress and Best Picture. Surprisingly, there was no Oscar nomination for Leonardo DiCaprio, who played the role of the ill fated Jack Dawson. While the movie went on to snag the Oscar for Best Picture, along with a host of others, Kate Winslet failed to take home the Oscar for her portrayal of Rose.

The Titanic's sound effects contributed to much of the film's success and were responsible for two of the Oscar nominations and wins: Sound and Sound Effects Editing. The Titanic movie also won awards for Original dramatic score and Original song.

The Story of The Titanic Movie

For the most part, the production team, script writers and actors of the movie strived very hard to make sure that the film portrayed the tragedy of the original ship's story as accurately as possible.

"Were Rose and Jack Dawson real passengers on the Titanic?" is a question I get a lot from readers. I hate to disappoint you, but there was no one aboard the ship with the same names as the movie's leading characters. However, a number of real characters were portrayed in the movie, including:
  • Thomas Andrews: the builder of the Titanic.
  • Molly Brown: 'The Unsinkable Molly Brown", in real life she took control of her lifeboat and rescued several survivors out of the water.
  • Edward Smith: the captain of the Titanic.
  • John Jacob Astor: a first-class passenger.
  • Wallace Hartley: the Titanic's band leader who's band kept on playing music during the sinking. The last song played is called "Nearer, My God, to Thee". Here's an excerpt of the movie "A Night to Remember", where you can listen to the song:



  • Many others...

The main (fictional) story is of course the love story between Jack and Rose, two passengers from entirely different social classes.
Jack Dawson
Jack Dawson
  • Jack Dawson (played by Leonardo DiCaprio): Jack is a poor man from Wisconsin who has been traveling in Europe (mainly Paris). He wins 2 third class tickets for the Titanic in a poker game and boards the ship with his friend Fabrizio.

  • Rose DeWitt Bukater (played by Kate Winslet): Rose is a 17-year old woman from Philadelphia. Rose boards the ship with her fiance Cal (played by Billy Zane) and her mother Ruth.


Rose Dawson
Rose Dawson
Rose is pushed into a marriage by her mother for financial reasons. Rose is not happy with that and attempts to commit suicide. Jack saves her and there the romance and stories begin...
Of course Cal forbids Rose to see Jack, but of course she doesn't listen and falls in love. The romance goes on until the Titanic collides with the iceberg. They want to warn Cal and Rose's mother, but Jack gets framed by Cal and is imprisoned. While the Titanic is sinking, Rose helps Jack to escape and they return to the top deck.
Cal manages to persuade Rose to get in a lifeboat for a short while until she realizes she can't leave Jack. She leaves the lifeboat and meets Jack in the first-class stairway. Jack and Rose are being chased by Cal, who has a gun. Cal runs out of ammunition and manages to board a lifeboat.
Jack and Rose take refuge on the vertical stern, but eventually they are washed into the freezing Atlantic Ocean. They manage to grab a floating door, which unfortunately has only space for one person. Jack dies from the cold in Rose's arms. Rose is picked up by the RMS Carpathia, where she names herself Rose Dawson. There she sees Cal for the last time, looking for her.

Heart of the Ocean
Rose wearing the Heart of the Ocean
One of the major conflicts in the film centers around the location of an expensive diamond necklace, referred to as the 'Heart of the Ocean'. In the Titanic movie, the gorgeous jewel was presented to Rose by her fiance. The necklace had never been recovered and one of the last scenes in the movie reveals a much older Rose (the older Rose is played by Gloria Stuart), returning the necklace of the depths of the ocean.
In reality, while such a necklace did actually once exist, its location has remained a mystery since the one time owner of the necklace, King Louis XVI, died. There are no reports to indicate that the original Heart of the Ocean necklace wound up on board the Titanic.


The Making of The Titanic Movie

James Cameron started the production of the movie in 1995. He began by making footage of the wreck of the real RMS Titanic. A reconstruction of the Titanic ship was made in Baja California. Computers and scale models were used to create the images of the sinking. All this made that the Titanic was the most expensive movie of its time (about $200 million). Luckily the film was a commercial success and grossed almost $2 billion worldwide in box office sales.

The 1997 box office smash hit, while extremely popular, was not the only movie to have been made about the tragic sinking of the ship that had been labeled 'unsinkable.' In 1959, 'A Night to Remember' was released. The rights to this film were purchased by James Cameron, director of the Titanic movie, in order that he could use details of the older movie without fear of copyright problems.

The Titanic Soundtrack

The Titanic soundtrack was a gigantic success, the best selling US album of 1998. The soundtrack, composed by James Horner, is mainly orchestral with some singing done by Celine Dion and Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø.
The Titanic theme song, called "My Heart Will Go On" is written in secret because James Cameron didn't want vocals in the music. James Horner persuaded Celine Dion to sing and presented the song to James Cameron when he was in a good mood. After hearing it a couple of times, James gave his approval. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Titanic 2

There's a fake trailer of Titanic 2 going round on the internet, called 'Titanic 2: Jack's Back' or 'Titanic 2: The Surface'. It's an excellent made mashup with different clips from different movies. The story goes that Leonardo DiCaprio comes back from his watery grave with the help of modern science. It's hilarious, here's the Titanic 2 trailer:
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

HERE ARE SOM FREE GIFTS FOR MY FANS

Always have been thinking on how to reward everyone who ever visit my blog even for once. You know it takes a lot of time and resources to visit a site/blog but, now i have a package for everyone that will ever visit my blog anytime. You don't have to worry yourself about what kind of gift you get but I assured you that you are going to get whatever you want as a gift here even if its a laptop because I want to satisfy you even if you could not find what you are looking for here I promise it's reward time for us. Now you can view, choose and claim your gifts here. How do you want to get it posted ha!ha!!ha!!! No problem you don't have to pay for any postage or delivery I will personally take care of that just dictate to me how, where and when you want it here. Whow!!! Amazing is it. Wish to know how much you like and enjoy your gift. more gifts here
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

LAGOS HISTORY

On May 27, 1967 Lagos State was created by virtue of state Decree No. 14 of 1967 (creation and Transitional Provisions), restructured Nigeria into 12 states before this period, the Federal Government administered Lagos Municipality through the Federal Ministry of Lagos Affairs as the regional authority, while the city of Lagos was governed b Lagos City Council . the metropolitan areas (Colony Province) of Agege, Badagry, Epe, Ikeja, Ikorodu and Mushin were administered by the Western Region. The state took off as an administrative entity on April 11, 1968 with Lagos Island serving the dual role of being the state and Federal Capital however, in 1976, the state capital was moved to Ikeja and Lagos Island ceased to be the capital. Lagos ceased to be the capital of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on December 12, 1991 as the seat of the Federal Government was relocated to Abuja but, nevertheless Lagos remains the nation’s economic and commercial capital.
The state is located in the South-Western part of Nigeria along the narrow coastal plain of the Bight of Benin. On the globe it lies between longitude 20o 421E and 3o 221E and also between latitude 6o 421 N. It shares boundaries with Ogun state of Nigeria in the North and in the East in the West by the Republic of Benin and stretches over 180 kilometres (km) along the Guinea Coast of the Bight of Benin on the Atlantic Ocean. The state comprises of twenty (20) Local Governments and five (5) administrative divisions of Lagos (Eko), Ikeja, Epe, Badagry, and Ikorodu. It covers an area of 358,861 hectares or 3,577 square kilometres (sq. km.), geographically it is the smallest state in Nigeria. The state accounted for over 9million out of the nation estimated of 150 million according to the last census conducted by the National Population Commission (NPC) in view of this the United Nations (UN) estimated that at its present growth rate, Lagos State will be the third largest mega city in the world by 2015 after Tokyo in Japan and Mumbai in India. The population growth rate is about 600,000 per annum with a population density of about 4,193 persons per sq. km. the average density is 20,000 persons per sq. km. in the built-up areas of the Lagos metropolis. Current demographic reveals that the state population growth rate of 8% has resulted in its capturing of 36.8% of Nigeria’s urban population.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

Monday, July 4, 2011

google-site-verification: google161617a62d88860c.html
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Labels