Some awkward questions about the Nashville explosion

We interrupt Walt's yearend review to ask innocent questions re the news out of Nashville. In case you were sleeping off the Christmas cheer and missed it, Metro Nashville police officers responded around the dawn of Christmas Day to a report of shots fired in the downtown Nashville area. 

When they got to the scene, they encountered an RV blaring a recorded warning that a bomb would detonate in 15 minutes, which it did. Fortunately police evacuated nearby buildings before the blast. Law enforcement officials have said since shortly after the explosion occurred that they believe the blast was intentional, but have not talked publicly about a target or motive except to suggest the possibility of a suicide bombing. 

The obvious questions are: (1) Was this a terrorist attack? Suicide bombings are a stock-in-trade of a certain kind of terrorist. 

(2) What sort of terrorist(s) am I talking about? Let's not jump to any conclusions. There are two other questions worth asking.

(3) What was the point of giving the 15-minute warning? Wouldn't your typical Islamic terrorist want the attack to be a surprise, so as to kill as many "infidels" as possible?

(4) How is it that the detonation of a single car bomb somehow damaged 41 (count `em, 41!) buildings, caused power outages, and disrupted communications services not just in Nashville but in Louisville KY, Knoxville TN, Birmingham AL, Atlanta GA, Gallatin TN and South Charleston WV?

The President of Technology at T-mobile tweeted today, "We continue to see service interruptions in these areas following yesterday's explosion. Restoration efforts continue around the clock & we will keep you updated on progress." he said in a tweet Saturday. 

And believe it or not, Governor Bill Lee asked the White House -- yes, the TRUMP White House -- for federal assistance due to the "severity and magnitude" of the impact of the explosion. 

I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but let me just throw out [Watch your language. Ed.] the suggestion that the Nashville explosion, was either a test to see how much damage a sophisticate device could do OR the premature detonation of a number of such devices, linked by the Internet, set to go off a bit later on Christmas morning, when all the good Christians would be in church. Just sayin'....

DISTURBING FOOTNOTE ADDED AT 1945: Dr Suzanne Pearson, who I met some years ago at a conference organized by the late Father Nicholas Gruner, used to talk about electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons, which she (and many others) could be used to damage or destroys the electronic systems in an object by means of damaging current and voltage surges. 

EMPs have been around for a century or so, and you can buy an EMP generator online for under $200. According to a 2013 article on the ExtremeTech website, North Korea has these weapons and could use them to produce a blast like this. 

Even a small EMP could do a lot of damage, and would account for the power outages and disruption of electronic communications observed in Nashville. Makes you think, eh.

How the Kung Flu started

 While we await further developments in the ongoing voter fraud saga, let's consider something else.

You don't really think it was a conspiracy, do you?

I hope Gary Larson won't mind my putting up just one of his hundreds of fine one-panel cartoons. I miss my morning smile (or guffaw), and give him full credit for quitting while he was ahead. He made his money and retired while he was young enough to enjoy it. [Too bad you didn't think of that! Ed.]

Covid-19: Is it really part of the Great Conspiracy?

Agent 6 has sent along what he calls a cringe-worthy article from GlobalResearch: Centre for Research on Globalization. A look at their list of "Latest News & Top Stories" tell me their hearts are in the right place [Geddit? Ed.] but "Coronavirus – The Aftermath. A Coming Mega-Depression…" has me wondering about their heads.

The article is attributed to one Peter Koenig, but I wouldn't have been surprised if the by-line had read "Cassandra". In a story calculated to induce High Anxiety [Hello, Mel Brooks!], Mr Koenig tells us that the world as we know it is pretty much going to fall apart any day now, thanks to Covid-19, the corona virus, which is all part of a global conspiracy to kill us old people, and make the survivors slaves to a socialist world government...and defeat Still-President Trump into the bargain!

I wouldn't say it ain't so, but have serious reservations about whether recent events are really as connected, and our future really as dire, as Mr Koenig suggests when he writes: What the world is experiencing, resembles a well-planned worldwide declaration and implementation of Martial Law with socio-economically disastrous consequences, far worse than the disease itself. Nobody moves. The economy comes to an almost standstill. This begs the question, what is behind it, and what comes next?

Are we in for a second Great Depression?

Mr Koenig quotes a report on Al-Jazeera (!) calling recent heavy job losses "a staggering, sudden blow to American workers never seen before in the U.S. economy. The labor market in the coming weeks could blow past the 15 million jobs lost at the peak of the 18-month Great Recession from 2007 to 2009."

Next comes a quote from (((Goldman Sachs))) which "sees unprecedented stop in economic activity, with 2nd quarter GDP contracting 24% Goldman Sachs economists forecast a historically sharp and swift recession, with second-quarter GDP sinking a stunning 24% after a 6% decline in the first quarter. GS economist predict a further GDP decline of 5% in the second quarter."

Mr Koenig predicts: The picture of a coming mega-depression, that never existed in recent history, may continue as many of the bankrupt small and medium size enterprises – including airlines, tourist industries – et al, will be bought up by huge monopolies, that already exist, (e.g.Google, Amazon, AliBaba and more). Mergers of gigantic proportions may take place. It may be the last shift of capital from the bottom to the top in our era of civilization as we know it.

As anyone heavily invested in the stock market will tell you, the world economy is in turmoil right now. POTUS may wish that America will be open for business again -- business as usual -- as soon as next month, but it's not going to happen as quickly as that. On the other hand, it's not going to take a decade or even half a decade before we can relax our sphincters. Look at how our economy rebounded from the Spanish flu of 1919 and the lending/securities crisis of 2007-9. IMHO, we'll have to keep calm and go long for two years, three years max. Lifetime pct .970.

Killing off the old and unfit in the name of "population reduction"

The President's chief advisor, Dr Anthony Fauci, likened the corona virus to a stronger than usual common flu. "The case fatality rate," he wrote in a peer-reviewed article, "may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968) rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively."

Mr Koenig doesn't consider the fact that a disproportionate number of deaths are occurring in long-term care facilities, with the most at-risk being aged 77 to over 100. [Are you getting nervous, Walt? Ed.] There is also a higher incidence of the disease in the, errr, non-white community. I won't go there for fear of being branded a racist [again. Ed.] But Mr Koeing picks up the ball and runs with it.

He asks: Is population reduction part of this ongoing pandemic exercise which may be followed by a compulsory vaccination program?... In 1974, under the Nixon administration, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was entrusted – under the auspices of the National Security Council– to outline the contours of a "depopulation program" largely targeting Third World countries. A Document entitled NSC Study Memorandum 200 was drafted.

The Depopulation Agenda has remained an integral part of US foreign policy. It was also endorsed by several corporate charities and foundations. In this regard, the Bill and Melinda Gates and the Rockefeller foundations have addressed the relationship between extreme poverty and depopulation.

Then comes the anti-vaxxer, mark-of-the-Beast stuff. "The idea is, in due time (whenever the program is ready) – to use the vaccination program, possibly forced, to inject along with the vaccine also a nano-chip, that can be injected along with the vaccination program. It could be done without the person’s knowledge and later remotely uploaded with personal data, from health records, to criminal records, to bank accounts. In fact, the Gates Foundation, together with GAVI has already developed a tattoo-like chip which would be used for both, vaccination and electronic ID."

Yeah, well... As Dr Fauci points out, the Covid-19 fatality rate is not likely to be nearly as high, in absolute numbers or percentages, than that of the Spanish flu or the lesser epidemics of SARS and MERS. The lamestream media are now preparing us for a "second wave", because this first wave hasn't lived up to all the hype, but even if there is a second and a third wave, a vaccine should be available by the spring of 2022 or earlier. I will be among the first in line for my shot. I've been getting flu shots for over five years now, and have never suffered any side-effects, nor have I contracted the flu in any form. And the UN hasn't yet taken control of my mind or body.

Are we going to be living in a police state?

Every day the meeja brings us stories and pictures of police harrassing civilians for such crimes as playing beach volleyball and standing too close to others in the unemployment line. Fines up into the 1000s of dollars are being levied and people are being threatened with jail. In France, soldiers are patrolling the streets to make sure people aren't escaping from their houses.

Mr Koenig says that "people in fear and panic can easily be manipulated." Too true. Polls in every country show that the majority of those asked support giving "the authorities" more and more power to control our lives, our actions, our speech and even our thoughts. (This is where the 5G conspiracy comes in.) People are scared, and conditioned by a half-century of "liberal democracy" to abandon to the almighty State the responsibility for their own actions.

The truth is that we already live a police state. People stopped pushing back against excesses of state control around November 5th, 1968. (Look it up.) Since then, only a few libertarians (Hello, Dr Paul!) have consistently called for smaller government and the restoration of the basic rights and freedoms which "liberal" (read "statist") politicians have gradually taken away from us.

Can the destruction of our society be avoided?

Nearing the end of his argument, Mr Koenig swings from despair to hope.
We might as well call the corona virus, Virus 'F' – for Fear. And yes, people can die of fear. WHO is dancing to the tune of the powerful, of Bill Gates, the Rockefellers, the pharma giants – and the behind-the-door (invisible) WEF-politicians and bankers. All this, under the pretext of saving the world from the invisible corona virus, from a pandemic that isn't.

As this neoliberal corrupt system comes crashing down, there will be many victims, sadly, many may not survive – a lot of misery, desolation and suffering. We, as a society should act in solidarity and do whatever we can to help the victims, to reduce the damage, to the extend our hands, arms and souls with all our positive spirits and actions. And the will-power of solidarity is enormous, almost endless.

I would add that what Mr Koenig calls "the will-power of solidarity is enormous" only if we exercise it! It's a rare thing, now, for the people to rebel against incompetent and corrupt autocracies and take back their countries. It can be done, as it was in the USA in November of 2016! "Power to the people!" is not just for the lefties!!!

VIDEO: Dana Ashlie exposes media LIES about severity of "corona crisis"

LIES! It's not too strong a word. "Misrepresentation" is not strong enough, when the lamestream media -- who we're supposed to trust -- use video clips shot in Italy to dramatize the supposed corona crisis in New York. This video has proof of the controlled media's part in the conspiracy alluded to [explained! Ed.] in my earlier post today. Watch and have your eyes opened!



Thanks to Agent 6 for sending us the link to this exposé.

"Walk Like a Refugee" a test of endurance for plucky Jewish family

The following is a précis of a story which appeared recently in Niagara This Week -- the newspaper that's worth every cent you pay for it. It had such an emetic effect on Agent 3 that he passed it along to us to share with all those who may be a bit bloated after the holiday weekend.

These folks are the (((Bromstein-Jagers))), (((Elizabewth Bromstein))), her husband (((David Jager))) and their 5-year-old daughter, Kismet. They enjoy life in west Toronto, and are keen to help Muslim refugees come to enjoy life in the Great No-longer-white North. In 2016 they started a campaign which they called "Walk Like a Refugee", to raise funds to help a Syrian family who had moved to Toronto at the invitation of Prime Minister Dressup, and were running out of welfare benefits.

By walking from Toronto to Niagara Falls, the (((Bromstein-Jagers))) raised $12,000 to help the extended family of Amir and Nour Fattal, who now want to sponsor Ms Fattal's sister and her husband, who of course will need help to resettle. So it was back on the trail, earlier this month, for the (((Bromstein-Jagers))), who endured sore feet, tired legs and speeding traffic as they walked, once again, the 85 miles from the Little Apple to the Cataract City.

The family's aim was to recreate, "albeit on a small scale", the experience of millions of people worldwide who flee their homes due to war and disease and must often walk for days or weeks in search of safety. And can you imagine, they had to rely only on the kindness of strangers (who put them up in decent hotels), a stroller to give young Kismet the occasional rest, and — perhaps most importantly — a video recorder to document their journey. One video, which we are sadly unable to embed here, shows the three singing the Sesame Street tune "Ladybug Picnic".

Ms (((Bromstein))) told the newspaper's credulous reporter that she and her family would usually set out for the day at around 9 or 10 AM, wrapping up for the night at around 5 or 6 PM. Along the way, they found accommodation from both friends and strangers. In one of the way-points, Grimsby, they were given a free night's stay at the Casablanca Winery Inn. Farther along, in Saint Catharines, a bed and breakfast owner who was fully booked instead put them up at the Holiday Inn. In Niagara-on-the-Lake, they stayed at the White Oaks Resort and Spa, which is as upscale as the name suggests.

A good part of their efforts went into keeping Kismet occupied, which meant stopping every once in a while to collect shells or pet a dog they encountered along the way. But the trek wasn't all smooth sailing ["walking", shurely! Ed.] From Grimsby to Saint Catharines, they had to walk along the busy North Service Road, where they kept Kismet safely strapped in a stroller.

Deciding that they would get off the road for the final leg to Niagara Falls, the (((Bromstein-Jagers))) set out for the Bruce Trail, where the stroller got a flat and they promptly got lost. "I thought 'We're lost and we're going to die!" said Ms (((Bromstein))), but "then two kids came along on bikes."

Note from Ed.: I am sad to report that Walt was unable to finish this piece. Apparently he suffered the same effects as Agent 3, and was last seen running towards the outhouse. He left some scribbled notes about the Jewish conspiracy to overrun North America and Europe with Muslim "refugees", and something about George Soros, but I will leave it to him to finish up another day.

UPDATED: Québec massacre: whodunnit... and WHY?

Since January 1st, 99% of the news -- not just in the Excited States of America but overseas -- seems to involve President Donald Trump. Since his election, the USA and the world -- the Western world at least -- is more polarized than ever before. The lamestream media and the self-righteous liberals want us to believe that it's all Mr Trump's fault, but the polarization began long BT (Before Trump). It arose out of the consequences of the failed social and foreign policies of the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations.

The American people elected President Trump because they were fed up with seeing the USA going downhill, so they bought into Mr Trump's promise to make America great again. So now, everything that happens, anywhere in the world, good or bad, happens because of something Trump did. Case in point: Sunday night's massacre of six Ahmadiyya Muslims (19 others were wounded or injured) in Québec City, the heart of French-speaking Canada.

When the news broke, we were told there were two shooters, and possibly a third who was the object of a search by a SWAT team. But two shooters for sure. I wrote "Two suspects have been arrested. We have not been told whether they are 'Muslim Canadians' or 'old stock Canadians'..." Turns out it was one of each! Québec city police identified the two men arrested following the deadly shooting as Alexandre Bissonnette and Mohamed Khadir.

"Mohamed Khadir" turned out to be Mohamed Belkhadir, a Canadian resident originally from Morocco. He had been shovelling snow when he heard gunshots; when they stopped he entered the mosque to call 911. "I saw the image of someone with a firearm, I didn't know it was police. I thought it was a shooter who'd returned," M Belkhadir told Radio Canada. Naturally he fled, but was caught and arrested outside the mosque within mere minutes. Yesterday afternoon he was released, after police confirmed he was a witness and not involved in the shooting.

Of course there was no question of racial profiling there, except perhaps on the part of folks like Ezra Levant and (ahem) your obedient servant. As I wrote in yesterday's update, a witness reported hearing shouts of "Allahu akbar!" I admit to jumping to the conclusion that the massacre was yet another episode in the Muslim civil war, an attack by Islamic extremists on moderate Ahmadiyya Muslims. How M Bissonnette fitted in was unclear, but it was possible (I thought) that he was yet another "homegrown terrorist", perhaps a radicalized convert to Muslim. Canada has had a couple of cases like that in the recent past.

Now the police say that there was only the one shooter -- Alexandre Bissonnette -- who they have charged with six counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder. What motivated this man to shoot up a mosque-full of innocent Muslims? The answer, according to the Canuck media this morning, is... wait for it... Donald Trump!

That's right, boys and girls! The official liberal party line is that President's Trump's "anti-Muslim" rhetoric and ban on travellers from seven predominantly Muslim countries has "emboldened" Islamophobes and "haters" like M Bissonnette to step up their "crusade" against the followers of Islam, "the religion of peace".

What we know about Alexandre Bissonnette is that he's a French-speaking "old stock Canadian", born and raised in la Belle Province. According to his Facebook page (since taken down), he is from Cap-Rouge, a suburb of Québec City. He was a student at Université Laval, and worked part-time in a call centre. He and his twin brother were renting an apartment near the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec, where the shooting took place. A neighbour described M Bissonnette as very introverted, "a very closed-off young man."

A neighbour of M Bissonnette's parents called him "a child," adding "You couldn't find one more calm than that. He never did anything, he always kept to himself. We never heard of anything." Another neighbour, Réjean Bussiè​re, described M Bissonnette as "a young man who is extremely withdrawn." The Bissonnette brothers were not the kind to bother others, M Bussiè​re said, "but they were not social people."

Do you see anything there to suggest M Bissonnette is the sort of person who would take it into his head to go out and kill some Muslims? The suggestion that he's an Islamophobic nutbar was, in fact, planted by a group of activists calling themselves "Bienvenue aux réfugiés", whose mission is to welcome refugees -- especially Muslim refugees -- the Great No-longer-white North. On their Facebook page, they expressed "pain and anger" over the news, adding that the suspect "unfortunately known to several activists in Quebec City for his pro-Le Pen and anti-feminist positions at Laval University and on social networks."

Aha! Alexandre Bissonnette likes Marine Le Pen! And he doesn't like feminists! Indeed, according to police, his Facebook page showed M Bissonnette to be a follower of "several profiles that espouse right-wing ideologies". So there you have it. The proper conclusion to which we should now jump is that M Bissonnette is a Trumper -- secretly if not overtly -- and probably a member of a vast right-wing conspiracy to kill every Muslim North America, if not the world. No less an authority on right-wing conspiracies than J.K. Rowling tells us so.

UPDATE ADDED 5/2/17: Gavin McInnes gives his take on what really happened. He thinks the Muslim guy got a plea deal to negate the suggestion that there is a Muslim problem in Canada. Click here to see the video: running time 7:41.

More MH370 debris found? Guess where!

There has been a report of the finding of more debris, possibly from an aircraft -- Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 ??? -- which washed ashore on Baa Atoll Fehendhoo and Fulhahdhoo, both in the Southern Maalhosmadulhu Atoll, which is part of... wait for it... the Maldive Islands. Here's a picture of the large piece of flotsam found nearly a month ago.

So what is it? There's a resemblance to the B-777 flaperon found on Réunion late last month. On the other hand, as the South China Morning Post suggests, it could be just a piece of "an unusual make of surfboard".

Inspector Mohammed of the local police has the debris in custody, and "officials" from Malaysia and Australia are on the way to take a closer look [and maybe catch some waves? Ed.]

While it's much too soon to declare a Told-You-So, Walt can't help but be reminded of the investigation by French author Marc Dugain -- see "MH370 - Just fancy that!" (WWW 18/12/14) -- who theorized that there has been a cover-up in the disappearance of the airliner, which could have been shot down by the American military operating out of their huge base at Diego Garcia!

Take a good look at this map. The blue horizontal line running across the middle of the image is the Equator. The olive-coloured island straddling the Equator at the right edge is one of the islands of Indonesia. The last radar "sighting" of MH370 placed the aircraft just about there -- let's call it Point A -- heading northwest.

The "experts" looking for the missing plane claim that it then turned nearly 300 degrees to head southeast to the area in which the search has been concentrated. See the map in "Current thinking on MH370" (WWW 31/7/15).

In the centre of the map above, just southwest of India, are the Maldives -- Point B. Due south of the Maldives is the British Indian Ocean Territory, which includes Diego Garcia, leased by the Brits to the US military. It's marked separately, the dot to the southeast of the island group.

Now look again at the map in "Current thinking on MH370". You will see that the North Equatorial Current of the Indian Ocean runs from Point A to Point B, almost in a straight line. If a plane came down, by accident or by design, anywhere along that line, any debris would most likely wash up on the Maldives first.

That's exactly what M Dugain thought. But his theory, propounded last year, was dismissed by the "experts" because, errr, that would lend credence to the idea that the US military had something to do with the disappearance of MH370 and, for some reason, didn't want their involvement to be known. Imagine that.

Current thinking on MH370

On Wednesday, in "Wreckage of MH370 (?) surfaces" (updated yesterday), Walt expressed doubt -- great doubt -- as to the probability of a piece of debris from Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 having drifted more than 3000 miles westward across the southern Indian Ocean to the island of Réunion, where a B-777 "flaperon" has washed ashore. (Yes, Walt has now learned that a "flaperon" is a part of the trailing edge of an aircraft's wing.)

Turns out, now, that the party line being put out by the Australian and Malaysian "authorities" responsible for the search doesn't say that. They deny the suggestion made by Walt [and others! Ed.] that they've been looking in the wrong place, off the coast of western Australia. No, they say, the debris (the flaperon and possibly a beat-up suitcase) could have drifted considerably farther, in a counter-clockwise fashion north following the Western Australia current, then west along the South Equatorial current, then southwest with the Moçambique (Mozambique) current to La Réunion. Do I have to draw you a picture? Voilà!

Yes, I've taken a map of the Indian Ocean and drawn on the currents named and a couple of others. No, I didn't make those up. The source for the location and direction of the warm (red), cold (blue), and luke-warm (I guess, in black) currents is "Currents and Tides", on the Marinebio website.

The spokesthingies for the governments involved are certainly correct in saying that the currents of the southern Indian Ocean move counter-clockwise. And yes, it's possible that if a plane fell into the sea -- "made a water landing", as the airlines would say -- in the search area (highlighted in yellow), pieces of debris could have gone all the way around from, say, 4 o'clock, counter-clockwise to 9 o'clock.

What the "authorities" aren't saying is that it's even more possible that the plane came down -- accidentally or on purpose -- closer to 12 o'clock, which I have starred in red because it's the location of Diego Garcia, site of a huge US military (air and naval) base.

From Diego Garcia, the Americans control virtually the entire Indian Ocean and the airspace above it. Suppose for a minute that a paranoid US radar operator and/or a trigger-happy US pilot mistook MH370 for an enemy aircraft and shot it down. Would the Pentagon (and the Prez) admit and say, "Gee, we're really sorry but you have to understand that we're protecting the world from terrorism and there's bound to be a bit of collateral damage, every now and then?" Walt thinks not.

Further reading: In "MH370 - Just fancy that!" (18/12/14), Walt reports on the theory of French author Marc Dugain -- a former CEO of Proteus Airlines -- that there has been a cover-up in the disappearance of the airliner, which could have been hacked and then shot down by the Americans! IMHO, the finding of debris on the shore of La Réunion adds strength to M. Dugain's version of what happened, the "official" version notwithstanding.

UPDATED: Wreckage of MH370 (?) surfaces

Walt found it hard to believe that no trace of the Boeing 777 being flown by Malaysian Airlines as flight MH370, which vanished in March of 2014, would ever be found. Regular readers of WWW will remember that Walt maintained from the get-go that searchers were looking in the wrong place, and that if they really wanted to know where to look, they should ask the US military.

Before saying "I told you so", I'll summarize today's news, as reported by the BBC. Then I'll ask a couple of pertinent questions.

La Réunion is a small island in the Indian Ocean, located just to the east of Madagascar. It is technically a part of France, a relic of the French Empire. So, when something that looked like part of an airplane wing washed up on its shores, it was a matter for the local gendarmerie.

Experts, including at least one American, were called right sharpish, and are conducting tests to ascertain whether the single piece of debris was in fact a wing component from a 777. There have been a number of crashes much closer to the island than the sport west of Malaysia where MH370 was last "seen" on radar.

Malaysia is sending a team to investigate the debris discovered today. Australian investigators, who are leading the hunt, are also reported to be in touch with manufacturers over the find. However, an anonymous US official told Associated Press that investigators had a "high degree of confidence" that the part was a "flaperon" unique to a Boeing 777 wing.

BBC News also quotes an aviation expert, Xavier Tytelman, as saying it presented "incredible similarities" to a Boeing 777 flaperon. [Perhaps Agent 17 could e-mail us an explanation of what a "flaperon" is. "Ailerons" we've heard of, but "flaperons"? Errr, no.]

French experts, however, say it is too early to tell. An anonymous member of the French Air Force told CNN it was "way too soon" to say if it was from the missing flight. BBC News points out that La Réunion is over 3700 miles west of the search area, in the southeastern quadrant of the Indian Ocean, off the western coast of Australia.

That's way off, a long way off indeed. Have a look at this map, which shows the Indian Ocean and its currents.

Madagascar is the large island east of Africa. La Réunion is just to the east of Madagascar, at the tip of the long red arrow extending southwest from the middle of the Indian Ocean. Australia... well, you know which landmass is Australia, right? The area which was being searched for the remains of MH370 is close to the black arrow pointing northeast, next to the number 14. Diego Garcia, site of a huge US military base, is located about at the foot of the "A" in "INDIAN". So let me ask...

* Would debris found on Réunion more likely have floated there from the search area or from somewhere in the centre of the Indian Ocean? Note the direction of the currents represented by the black and red arrows.

* Why were American "experts" called in by the French at the first moment? The search was being carried out mainly by the Australians and Malaysians.

* Who told the searchers to look in the location represented by "14", to the exclusion of the northeast and central parts of the Indian Ocean, in spite of considerable doubt expressed by Walt [and others! Ed.] as to why MH370 would have made a turn of some 270 degrees away from its last observed course?

To whom should these questions be addressed? Walt suggests... again... asking the US military, particularly those authorities responsible for operations at the US base on Diego Garcia. Of course the buck doesn't stop at the Pentagon. If no answers are forthcoming from that quarter, perhaps the Republican presidential candidate [Donald who? Ed.] could ask Hellery Clinton.

Previously on WWW: "MH370 - Just fancy that!" (18/12/14) and "Search for MH370 being quietly scaled down" (3/6/15)

"Fancy that!" Dept: Dawn is breaking to the east of Walt's cabin in the pines. CBC News has an update titled "MH370 search: Indian Ocean currents could have deposited debris on Réunion Island, experts say". Perhaps some of the experts have read this post. Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at Imperial College London, is quoted as saying that, if the debris on Reunion was indeed from MH370, "this westward drift from near Australia all the way across the Indian Ocean can really only happen if the plane went into the water relatively close to the equator."

Or perhaps not. All that Charitha Pattiaratchi, Professor of Coastal Oceanography at the University of Western Australia, could add is that the point of origin of the debris "will definitely be in the Southern Hemisphere." Mind you, "the southern Hemisphere" could include the island of St. Helena and the Andes mountains, so no matter where the decide the "flaperon" came from, the good doctor will be proven right! Brilliant!

Search for MH370 being quietly scaled down

Walt doesn't have much time for conspiracy theories. I'm not a "birther". I don't believe Roosevelt knew about Pearl Harbor in advance. And I do believe the Americans really did land on the moon. (I saw it on TV so it must be so!) However, there are conspiracies to keep us from knowing the truth about certain things, such as the Third Secret of Fatima, which remains hidden deep in the archives of the Vatican. And then there's the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.

If you haven't heard anything about the search for the plane -- or at least pieces of it -- that's because the US military doesn't want you to hear about it, and the Australian government, which is organizing the search in waters to the southwest of that continent is going along with their good friends and allies. Millions of dollars are being spent -- more than Australia could afford on its own -- looking for a needle in a haystack. And they're looking in the wrong haystack! Walt says it's deliberate!

Agence France Presse reports that Australian officials said today that the hunt for MH370 will not be expanded beyond its current search area "unless there are specific new leads". Back in April, 13 months after the plane vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, it was announced that the search zone would double in size, to cover 46,300 square miles in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean. But now the Australian-led Joint Agency Coordination Centere says "In the absence of credible new information that leads to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, governments have agreed that there will be no further expansion of the search area."

What makes the JACC think they're going to find anything way out there, far off Australia's west coast? The zone was supposedly determined by analyzing data from satellite signals which indicated the plane went down in the Indian Ocean after mysteriously diverting. To be in the area being searched, it would have had to be off its planned course by about 140 degrees. It would also have had to turned some 50 or 60 degrees to the southwest from the course it was on when last observed by Malaysian radar!

When last "seen", the plane was near the west coast of Malaysia, heading west-northwest (WNW), not southwest (SW). Seems to me it would make more sense to follow the last observed heading, which would have taken the plane in the general directin of the Bay of Bengal, Sri Lanka and the southern tip of India. That area is watched closely by the US military from its huge base on Diego Garcia, a flyspeck in the middle of the Indian Ocean leased to the US by the Brits.

The conspiracy theory which Walt finds least plausible is that the Americans somehow hijacked MH370 by remote control, and flew it to Diego Garcia to be "repurposed" for use in the Middle East. A similar theory says the hijackers were Chinese -- as were most of the pax on board -- and flew it to somewhere in southeast Asia or western China.

Walt thinks the more likely explanation is that a USAF or US Navy fighter intercepted MH370 when their radar tracked it way off course, and shot it down either deliberately or "by accident". That would be consistent with US military SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) -- shoot first and ask questions (such as identity) later. Covering up such mistakes in hopes that they will be forgotten is also SOP.

Walt is not alone in giving credence to this explanation. See "MH370 - Just fancy that!", posted here just before Christmas 2014, and "MH370 officially 'an accident'; take the money and STFU", a month later.

So... if the JACC wants a lead, there it is. In case they don't understand the message, Walt will put it in three words: Ask the Americans!

MH370 - Just fancy that!

We haven't heard much about the search for the Malaysian Airlines B-777, flight MH370, which went "missing" back in March. Buried on the inside pages of the mainstream papers, some weeks back, was a squib about the search being resumed in the southern part of the Indian Ocean, west of Australia, but when or if this actually happened was unclear.

Regular readers of WWW [and if you're not one, why not?! Ed.] will recall Walt's repeated advice to search near the British territory of Diego Garcia, a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, graciously leased to the US military for use as a strategic air force and intelligence base. See "Latest on MH370: Inmarsat says search was off target; Canadian ex-pilot blames Malaysian authorities for 'bungled inquiry', suggests ulterior motive" and "Aussie officials now say maybe MH370 WAS hijacked", both posted in June.

Well, guess what, boys 'n' girls? There are others who think that there's a lot more to the story than we've been told by "the authorities" in general and the US military in particular. France 24 reports that French author Marc Dugain -- a former CEO of Proteus Airlines -- theorizes, in a six-page article in Paris Match, that there has been a cover-up in the disappearance of the airliner, which could have been hacked and then shot down by the Americans!

M Dugain believes argues that MH370 crashed near... wait for it... Diego Garcia. The Americans have always officially denied that flight MH370 came anywhere near Diego Garcia, but then, what else would they say. After all, the US military does not have a sterling record of truth-telling.

M Dugain's theory into the disappearance has all the ingredients of a spy thriller and, says France 24, has grabbed the French public’s attention. His investigation took him to the neighbouring Maldives -- nice place to go for business purposes if you can manage it! -- where residents told local media on March 9th (the day the plane disappeared) that they had seen an airliner fly in the direction of Diego Garcia.

"I saw a huge plane fly over us at low altitude," a fisherman on Kudahuvadhoo island told Dugain. "I saw red and blue stripes on a white background" –- the colours of Malaysia Airlines. Other witnesses confirmed the sighting, but their claims were promptly dismissed by "the authorities".

So what happened? M Dugain speculates that a modern aircraft such as Malaysia Airlines' Boeing 777 could have been hijacked by a hacker. "In 2006, Boeing patented a remote control system using a computer placed inside or outside the aircraft," he wrote. This technology led him to the idea of a "soft" remote hijacking.

But the writer also suggests that a fire could have led the crew to deactivate electrical devices, including transmission systems.Whatever the initial reasons for leaving its flight path, M Dugain suspects that the plane headed to Diego Garcia, where a number of scenarios may have played out, including the US Air Force shooting it down for fear of a 9/11-style attack.

M Dugain met the mayor of neighbouring Baarah island, who showed him pictures of a strange device found on a beach two weeks after the plane had disappeared. The object was immediately seized by the Maldives military. Two aviation experts and a local military officer concluded that the object was a Boeing fire extinguisher.

For the extinguisher to have floated, the writer says, it must have been empty, having been automatically triggered by a fire. He adds that precedent exists in which fires on board aircraft caused all passengers and crew to die of asphyxiation, while the plane’s automated systems extinguished the blaze and kept it in the air.

The rest of his article draws more conclusions from the information that has remained buried than from new facts. He notes that the search operation in the southern Indian Ocean was based on satellite data from the last organization to receive a signal from the airliner. That would be Inmarsat, a British company which is "very close to intelligence agencies".

For M Dugain, the suppression of testimonies from the Maldives, the unlikely event that Diego Garcia’s US intelligence officers "equipped with the best technology in the world may have 'lost' a 63-metre-long object", and the secrecy surrounding the cargo in the plane’s hold all point towards a large-scale cover-up.

And that, dear readers, is exactly what Walt said, about half a year ago. But why (I hear you asking) would the Americans shoot down a civilian airliner which was, for whatever reason, off-course? Because they're paranoid! That's why!

MH370: Three guesses from Walt

Walt has been waiting for Agent 17, a.k.a. Sky King, to provide a plausible explanation for the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH 370 last weekend. It appears, though, that SK has no ready answer, making him no worse than the "experts" of half a dozen interested countries. Nobody knows. Everybody's guessing. So Walt will indulge in a little speculation. [He speculates every day! Filthy habit... Ed.] Here are three possibilities.

1. MH370 was hijacked. This has been one of the leading theories since the plane vanished. But hijacked by whom? And why? No-one has claimed responsibility or given a motive. It has been reported that the plane flew for hours after it was last heard from, and the US Navy is going to look around the Andabar Islands. For those who weren't paying attention in geography class, the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago belongs to India. There is a large penal colony there. Nothing else. Why hijack a plane and demand to be taken to jail?

How about a hijacking by pirates, looking for a rajah's ransom for wealthy Chinese passengers? Pirates abound in the South China and Sulu Seas, and the Malacca Straits. But the logistics of seafaring pirates attacking an airliner are daunting. Where would you land the aircraft? How do you prove you've got the hostages without giving away your location? And what happens after you make your ransom demand? But who knows. Maybe pirates did pull it off and now realize they scored a lot more trouble than they bargained for. What do they do? Call up the airline and say "Hey, sorry, it was just a piratical prank?" Noooo...

2. Nobody was flying the plane. Walt is not talking about pilot error, just pilot negligence. Remember Eastern Airlines flight 401? EA401 was a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar -- the best jumbo jet ever made, IMHO -- which crashed into the Florida Everglades on 29 December 1972. 99 people were killed; two more died soon afterward. 75 survived. Turned out the entire flight crew had been preoccupied with a burnt-out landing gear indicator light. While crawling around the cockpit trying to deal with it, someone bumped into the autopilot control, turning it off, and no-one noticed. As a result, the plane descended slowly into the inky darkness of the swamp, where pieces of it remain to this day.

MH370 had the usual two pilots. The captain was by all accounts a "pilot's pilot", very experienced and a real straight arrow. However, a report out of South Africa says the first officer was something of a showboat and womanizer, given to inviting comely ladies to inspect the, errr, cockpit and (perhaps) try out for the Mile-High Club. Suppose the pilots were not alone in the cockpit, and that the contortions required to accommodate a guest or two led to some accidental interference with the controls.

3. MH370 was shot down. This may seem the most far-fetched, but it's Walt's current favourite. Before you laugh loudly, cast your mind back to 1 September 1983. Korean Air Lines flight 007 was en route from New York to Seoul via Anchorage. As it neared the Sakhalin Islands, in the Sea of Japan, it was shot down by a Soviet Su-15 interceptor, killing all 269 pax and crew aboard. The Soviets claimed KE007 had flown through prohibited Soviet airspace on a reconnaissance mission for the USA. They said it was a deliberate provocation to test the Soviet Union's military preparedness, or even to provoke a war.

Now suppose you're a pilot of the Chinese Air Force, or the Vietnamese Air Force (they do have one) or even the USAF. (What?! You don't think the Americans have military planes cruising around up there?) You're looking for other planes which are somewhere they shouldn't be doing, errr, something, when suddenly you see a target -- a plane with no ID. (MH 307's transponder was not working or turned off, remember.) So you shoot at it -- a shot across the bow, so to speak. Only you kind of miss the bow and hit the target bang on, causing it to plummet into the drink.

If you were that pilot -- Chinese, American, whatever -- what would you do? Would you radio "Hey, I think I mighta done a bad thing!"? Well OK, maybe you're humanitarian enough to call 9-1-1 (so to speak). Your call is received and recorded at home base. You tell them the plane -- or whatever it was -- was blown into a billion bits and there are no signs of life, or even debris. What would your military bosses, and the government of your country, do? Would they say, "We know where it is...or what's left of it."? Not bloody likely! A war might ensue! And whether you're China or America, you don't want to start a war you might lose. Better to say nothing.

What to do then? Well, you could publish a satellite image -- possibly doctored -- showing some debris in a location far away from the scene of the crime, and say the plane must be down there somewhere. Or you could send a couple of ships off on a wild goose chase, to throw the others off the trail. You get the picture.

All three scenarios are plausible, in my humble opinion. If anyone wants to shoot them down -- pardon the pun -- that's what the "Comments" section is for.

Osama Bin Laden's last ever FB post

Walt doffs his fedora to Agent 17 and Snipping Tool.

Update on the conspiracy: The Toronto Star reports that Thomas Mulcair, the deputy leader of the NDP -- now Canada's Loyal Opposition -- doesn't believe the White House (or anyone) has any pictures of Bin Laden's corpse. During an appearance on CBC-TV's Power and Politics, he said President Obama’s version of the death of the terrorist mastermind is "incomplete, if not untrue".

A spokesthingy for the White House said, "So who's Thomas Mulcair? Some pinko from...where was that again?"

Update on the update: Military intelligence has it that leadership of Al Qaeda has been assumed by a shadowy figure named Hassan bin Seeyun. Rumour has it that the mysterious Hassan has been hiding at 1698 Pennsylvania Avenue.