As many as 200,000 Iraqi Shiites ended up in political exile in Iran over the course of the 1980s and 1990s. Many of these exiles joined the Iran-based al-Da`wa, which tended to accept Khomeini's idea of clerical rule. But the organization was riven by internal fighting over the party's relationship to the Supreme Jurisprudent. Clerical leaders of the al-Da`wa seemed especially attracted by Khomeinism, while the lay leaders insisted on maintaining the party's autonomy from the Supreme Jurisprudent. The question had implications for al-Da`wa's future. Was it to become a mere appendage of Tehran or remain an Iraqi party with a distinctive ideology? Some clerical members of the party's central committee, such as Muhammad Mahdi Asefi and Sayyid Kazim al-Haeri, wanted the party to put itself under the direct authority of Khomeini and then his successor, Ali Khamenei. This step would have entailed dissolving the party into the Iranian Hezbollah. Khomeini himself reportedly showed no enthusiasm for this step, and the lay members of the executive committee were also unwilling to subordinate themselves to the religious institution. The issue festered inside the party throughout the late 1980s and into the 1990s in Iran. In 2000 Asefi was forced to resign as party leader over his continued attempts to put it under the authority of Iranian Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei.

The al-Da`wa branch in London (led by Abo Ali and Ibrahim Jaafari) had a more lay cast. It also had the greatest freedom of movement, and so the center of gravity of the party moved away from Iran. - Julian Cole

The Shi-ites - The Party of Ali

The Shiites (a name derived from the Arabic shiat Ali, "the party of Ali") constitute one of the two major branches of Islam, the other, larger branch being the Sunnites. Following the death of Muhammad, disagreement arose as to the necessary qualifications and exact function of his successors as leaders (Imams) of the Muslim community. The Shiites are those who insisted that only members of the Prophet's clan, specifically, the descendants of Muhammad's daughter Fatima and her husband Ali, could qualify. Although Ali became (655) the fourth caliph, he was murdered in 661, and the majority recognized the Umayyad Muawiya I as caliph. The Shiites, however, supported the claims of Ali's sons: Hasan, who died mysteriously c. 669, and Husayn, who was killed by Umayyad troops at Kerbala in 680 (Kerbala, in Iraq, became the major pilgrimage center for the Shiites).

Shiism has three major subdivisions as well as numerous offshoots. The majority are called Twelvers (Ithna Ashariyya), because they recognize 12 imams, beginning with Ali; the 12th disappeared in 873 but will return as the Mahdi (messiah). Twelver Shiism became the state religion of Persia (Iran) under the Safavid dynasty in the 16th century; it retains that position in the present - day Islamic republic of Iran. The other two major subdivisions are the Seveners (Ismailis) and the Fivers (Zaydites). Shiism emphasizes the spiritual function of the Prophet's successor, the imam, in whom the Prophetic Light is ever present in this world. He is believed to be divinely protected against sin and error and to have an infallible understanding of the Koran, a supernatural knowledge of future events, and intercessory powers. - Willem A Bijlefeld

July 8 - The grim news broke Thursday, just hours after multiple explosions rocked London.

"The insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia" - posting a picture of Egypt's blindfolded ambassador-designate to Iraq on a militant Islamic Web site-announced that it had executed the kidnapped envoy. Ihab al-Sherif had been abducted in a brazen assault in Baghdad last Saturday, pistol-whipped by gunmen who shouted that he was "an American spy," stuffed him into the trunk of a car and sped off. - msnbc.msn.com

The Sumerians...

By 7,000 BCE, in what is called the Fertile Crescent, in West Asia, where hunter-gatherers had roamed, planting had grown into the major source of food. There, true farming had begun, with the growing of wheat and barley, the domestication of animals and people permanently settled. By 4500 BCE a people archaeologists call Ubaidians were living in towns in southern Mesopotamia near where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers emptied into the Persian Gulf. The Ubaidians drained marshes. They grew wheat and barley and irrigated their crops by digging ditches to river waters. They kept farm animals. Some of them manufactured pottery. They did weaving, leather or metal work, and some of them were involved in trade with other societies.

By 4000 BCE in Syria, was a society with regional centers and a complex government. Here, as with the Ubaidians, were huge ovens for baking bread for numerous people, and people manufactured fine pottery. In the year 2000 of modern times, at Tell Hamoukar, archaeologists discovered a protective city wall, and they described the place of their digging as more than a town - they described it as a city. And they found what they call primitive hieroglyphics: markings for record keeping of trade transactions.

It was around 4000 BCE that a people called Sumerians moved into Mesopotamia, perhaps from around the Caspian Sea. By 3800 BCE the Sumerians had supplanted the Ubaidians and Semites in southern Mesopotamia. They built better canals for irrigating crops and for transporting crops by boat to village centers. They improved their roads, over which their donkeys trod, some of their donkeys pulling wheeled carts. And the Sumerians grew in number, the increase in population the key element in creating what we call civilization - a word derived from an ancient word for city.

At least twelve cities arose among the Sumerians. Among them were Ur, Uruk, Kish and Lagash - Ur, for example, becoming a city of about 24,000 people. In the center of each city was a temple that housed the city's gods, and around each city were fields of grain, orchards of date palms, and land for herding. Besides planting and harvesting crops, some Sumerians hunted, fished, or raised livestock. In addition to an increase in population, civilization was also about variety, and enough food was produced to support people who worked at other occupations - such as the priesthood, pottery making, weaving, carpentry and smithing. There were also traders, and the Sumerians developed an extensive commerce by land and sea. They built seaworthy ships, and they imported from afar items made from the wood, stone, tin and copper not found nearby. - world History - fsmitha.com

One of the oldest known civilizations.. and the first to keep historical documents in the form of clay tablets engraved with cuneiform script telling the story of creation and of their culture.

Unfortunately most of the historical records (clay tablets) were too badly damaged over the centuries and some of the scripts lost forever.

Enuma Elish -The Sumerian book of creation found in seven clay tablets telling the tale of "Genesis"

Gilgamesh - The King of Uruk, a Sumerian city. Read the epic of Gilgamesh

Descent of Ishtar - The descent of Ishtar into the underworld.

Nibiru - The home of the Annunaki

Ki-Amum - A revised view on the facts that history presents to us.

source

In brief, the recorded Dragon lineage starts with the Annunaki and descends through the proto-Scythians, the Sumerians in one branch and the early Egyptians in another; the Phoenicians, the Mittani, back to the Scythians again through marital alliance, along to the "Tuatha de Danaan" and the Fir Bolg; down through their Arch-Druidic, Priest-Princely families, to the Royal Picts of Scotland and the high kings of the Horse Lords of Dal Riada; through to the Elven dynasty of Pendragon and Avallon del Acqs, and down to a few pure bred families today.

- Prince Nicholas de Vere von Drakenberg

"... the art of warfare ... will be vastly different than it is today ... "combat" likely will take place in new dimensions ...advanced forms of biological warfare that can "target" specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool." From 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' the leading policy "white paper" of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), which has essentially dictated Bush regime "defense" policies since early 2001

[Dr] Kelly had contacts with two companies in the U.S. bio-defense industry.

One of the men he was in touch with was a former Russian defector, Kamovtjan Alibekov. When he arrived in America, he changed his name to Ken Alibek. He is now president of Hadron Advanced Biosystems -- a company specializing in medicines against biological terrorist attacks. Kelly was himself considering resigning from his senior post at the Ministry of Defense to work in America. Before his death, he had been discreetly 'head-hunted' by two companies. One was Hadron Advanced Biosystems, which has close ties to the Pentagon.

Hadron describes itself as "a company specializing in the development of technical solutions for the U.S. intelligence community". Hadron also has links to William Patrick, who has five classified patents on the process of developing weaponized anthrax. He is a bio-warfare consultant to both the Pentagon and the CIA.

The other company is Regma Biotechnologies -- one that Kelly helped its founder, Vladimir Pasechnik, to set up in Britain, arranging for it to have a laboratory at Porton Down, the country's chem-bio warfare defense establishment.

Regma currently has a contract with the U.S. Navy for "the diagnostic and therapeutic treatment of anthrax".

Kelly had told family friends he wanted to go to America so that he could obtain the specialized treatment his wife, Janice, requires. "He also felt that working in the U.S. private sector would relieve him of the intense pressures which came with his government work", said a colleague in the Ministry of Defense.

The two American scientists he had worked with were Benito Que, 52, and Don Wiley, 57. Both microbiologists had been engaged in DNA sequencing that could provide "a genetic marker based on genetic profiling". The research could play an important role in developing weaponized pathogens to hit selected groups of humans -- identifying them by race. Two years ago, both men were found dead, in circumstances never fully explained.

In November 2001, Que left his laboratory after receiving a telephone call. Shortly afterward he was found comatose in the parking lot of the Miami Medical School. He died without regaining consciousness.

Police said he had suffered a heart attack. His family insisted he had been in perfect health and claimed four men attacked him. But, later, oddly, the family inquest returned a verdict of death by natural causes.

- On Race-Targetable Biological Weaponry

Feb. 6, 2003 - A Hebrew University research team is reeling from the loss of their colleague Ilan Ramon and the stem cell experiment he took with him into space

Before Col. Ilan Ramon donned his space suit and entered the ill-fated Columbia shuttle on Thursday, January 16, he spent years training for his flight, preparing for life in space, and learning about the 79 scientific experiments he and his fellow crewmates would administer during their 16 days in space. When the space shuttle exploded last Saturday, that research was lost along with the astronauts.

The researchers had long been aware that astronauts suffer from osteoporosis after their return from space, suggesting that weightlessness affects bone density. The Columbia mission presented an opportunity for them to study that relationship more closely.

The scientists developed an experiment in which two batches of stem cells would be genetically manipulated concurrently to grow into bone cells: one to go aboard the space shuttle and the other to stay in Jerusalem. At the end of the mission, the two cultures would be analyzed and compared.

Stem cells can be manipulated to develop into any type of cell contained in the body, such as skin, fat, or nerve cells. In their experiments, the Hebrew University researchers are using adult human stem cells, not the controversial embryonic stem cells.

After obtaining the stem cells from bone marrow, the HU team genetically engineers them to grow into bone and other tissues. To date, the matured bone cells have only been implanted into lab rodents that can accept human cells. But the aim is to be able to inject them into humans to replace destroyed bone.

Because the stem cells can be culled from the same person that will eventually receive the regenerated bone, the technique avoids the complications of rejection that often plague recipients of current transplants. - Jarusalem Post

The reported existence of the Israeli ethnic bullet will almost predictably trigger a gene weapons arms race in the Middle East. Worse still the research and development of such weapons can be carried out in amazingly small facilities that are next to impossible to monitor. Perhaps most ominously, the "science" of genetically specific bioweapons is still in its infancy and no one knows if breakthroughs might reduce the cost of their production to the point that small and extremely malevolent groups such as the neo-Nazis may attempt to bring about a new Final Solution.

- Genetic Bullets - Ethnically Specific Bioweapons By R. Roy Blake

After 60 years of inattention and even denial by the U.S. media, newly-uncovered government documents in The National Archives and Library of Congress reveal that Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush, served as a business partner of and U.S. banking operative for the financial architect of the Nazi war machine from 1926 until 1942, when Congress took aggressive action against Bush and his "enemy national" partners.

The documents also show that Bush and his colleagues, according to reports from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and FBI, tried to conceal their financial alliance with German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, a steel and coal baron who, beginning in the mid-1920s, personally funded Adolf Hitler's rise to power by the subversion of democratic principle and German law.

- burningbush.twentythree.us