Benghazi Bimbo Susan Rice Has Ties To Iran

When Obama rails against the 99% with Warren Buffett at his side crying that the wealthy should “pay their fair share,” oddly the name Susan Rice doesn’t come up. It’s odd because Rice is the wealthiest staff member in the Executive Department, amassing in the neighborhood of forty million dollars.

Where do these millions of dollars pour in from?

You should take a look at her financial disclosure form. It’s like reading War and Peace. She has an endless number of investments in companies throughout the world. But one of her soft spots is companies that do investments with Iranian companies, especially those that buy Iran’s billions of barrels in crude oil.

So the next time Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vows to annihilate Israel with a nuclear bomb, you can thank Susan Rice.

Islam is the religion of peace. Mosques are places where peaceful worshipers gather. And no one should ever be concerned about a mosque going up near their home. Never. A Jewish woman in Isfahan, Iran, was murdered and cut in half by Muslim extremists who wanted to take over her home, Israel Radio reported on Thursday. Relatives of the woman said she had lived next to a newly built mosque, and worshippers had demanded that she and her family leave their home so the mosque could be expanded. The woman submitted a complaint to authorities about the efforts to take over her home. On Monday, a group of thugs came to her house, murdered her, and, according to reports, cut her body in half. The event left the Jewish community in Iran, estimated to be around 25,000 people, worried and fearing escalating violence against it. But remember, Jews and Christians in the Muslim are “protected”. They pay protection money in the form of Jizya. And they’re not persecuted too much, unless they don’t make way for a mosque or unless Islamists take over. This is your life. This is your life under Islam.

Islam is the religion of peace. Mosques are places where peaceful worshipers gather. And no one should ever be concerned about a mosque going up near their home. Never.

A Jewish woman in Isfahan, Iran, was murdered and cut in half by Muslim extremists who wanted to take over her home, Israel Radio reported on Thursday.

Relatives of the woman said she had lived next to a newly built mosque, and worshipers had demanded that she and her family leave their home so the mosque could be expanded.

The woman submitted a complaint to authorities about the efforts to take over her home. On Monday, a group of thugs came to her house, murdered her, and, according to reports, cut her body in half.

The event left the Jewish community in Iran, estimated to be around 25,000 people, worried and fearing escalating violence against it.

But remember, Jews and Christians in Iran are “protected”. They pay protection money in the form of Jizya. And they’re not persecuted too much, unless they don’t make way for a mosque or unless Islamists take over.

This is your life. This is your life under Islam.

Mississippi River could become impassable in two weeks

The Mississippi River could be too shallow for barge traffic between St. Louis and Cairo in two weeks due to decreasing water levels.

According to the American Waterways Operators and Waterways Council, the country's busiest inland waterway is nearly too low already for barges loaded with coal, steel and other commerce.

And it is expected to dry up considerably in the next couple of week due to the summer drought and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's move to hold back water from the Missouri River.

"Of particular concern are hazardous rock formations near Thebes and Grand Tower which threaten navigation when water levels drop to anticipated, near historic lows," the agencies said in a joint release. "The rock formations, combined with the reduced flows from the Missouri River, will prohibit the transport of essential goods along this critical point in the river, effectively stopping barge transportation on the middle Mississippi River around Dec. 10."

U.S Coast Guard Lt. Colin Fogarty said the river is about two feet below normal water levels. He expects it to threaten the all-time low of 6.2 feet below normal in December. The previous low water mark was set in 1940.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in a controversial move, last week started to reduce to flow of water from the Missouri River into the Mississippi to make sure areas to the north have adequate water. "Congress and the Administration need to understand the immediate severity of this situation," American Waterways Operators President and CEO Tom Allegrett said. "The Mississippi River is an economic superhighway that efficiently carries hundreds of millions of tons of essential goods for domestic use as well as national export.

"We need to address this situation swiftly, cut through bureaucratic red tape, and prevent the closure of the Mississippi."Fogarty said the Coast Guard and Corps of Engineers are already working to try to keep the Mississippi River traffic flowing."At this point in time the Missouri River has been cut off as we have been expecting since early July," Fogarty said. "The Army Corps of Engineers has begun heavy dredging and the Coast Guard has been moving assets to St. Louis to help in any way it can."

Fogarty said he is not resigned to the idea that the Mississippi will be shut down by low water."We will not speculate when or if the river will be closed," Fogarty said. "We're doing everything we can to ensure river traffic will continue to flow. Despite the fact that we have these low water conditions, we're hopeful to keep traffic moving."

Corps of Engineers spokesperson Sue Casseau said the restrictions on the Missouri are something that happen every year to prevent it from becoming too low over the winter and spring. She said usually it isn't a problem because the Mississippi doesn't often suffer from too little water.

"There are long-term consequences to letting the Missouri get too low" Casseau said. "There are several states involved in this situation and the Corps of Engineers is responsible for serving the nation as a whole.

"Despite the Corps of Engineer's dredging efforts, there is little that can be done to deepen the channel at Thebes, where the bottom of the Mississippi is rock, not clay like it in most of the channel. The river is nine feet deep at Thebes, a town on the Illinois side of the river south of Cape Girardeau.

"Most barges need at least a 9 foot draft," Fogarty said. But oil barges and ones that carry things like anhydrous ammonia don't need as deep of a draft to get through."Fogarty said while some old wrecks have been exposed by the low water, none of them are in the channel or otherwise a threat to navigation. He predicted the low water mark record will be broken about Dec. 15.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/11/28/175790/mississippi-river-could-become.html#emlnl=Daily_News_Update#storylink=cpy

Explosive device rocks Social Security office in Casa Grande

CASA GRANDE, AZ (CBS5) -

An explosion violently shook the Social Security Administration building in Casa Grande but didn't injure anyone Friday morning.

The blast was caused by a device that detonated at the rear of the building, according to Agustin Avalos of the city of Casa Grande.

The explosion happened around 8:15 a.m. in a building that houses several other downtown businesses. All business were evacuated, Avalos said.

No injuries were reported and the type of device had not been determined, Avalos said.

Witnesses inside the building said the explosion shook the building violently.

"I was afraid to go into the back because it was so close," said Alicia Perez.

Officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI and Casa Grande Police Department are investigating, Avalos said.

Aerial news footage showed extensive damage to a doorway in the back of the building and to the side of an car near the doorway.

Casa Grande is about 50 miles south of Phoenix.

U.N. chief "horrified" by Syrian violence

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The 20-month conflict in Syria has reached "new and appalling heights of brutality and violence" as the government steps up its shelling and air strikes and rebels boost their attacks, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday.

Ban and international Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi addressed the 193-member U.N. General Assembly on the revolt against Syrian President Bashir al-Assad, which began as peaceful rallies calling for democracy but grew to an armed struggle after the military cracked down on protesters.

The fighting has killed about 40,000 people, making it the bloodiest of Arab uprisings that have ousted entrenched leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen since early last year.

"The government has intensified its campaigns to root out opposition strongholds and has increased shelling and air strikes," Ban said. "Opposition elements also have stepped up their attacks. I am horrified and saddened and condemn the seemingly daily massacres of civilians."

Syrian air force jets bombarded rebel targets on Friday close to the Damascus airport road and a regional airline said the violence had halted international flights. The Internet and most telephone lines also were down for a second day in the worst communications outage of the conflict.

Ban said with the onset of winter, up to 4 million people in Syria would be in need and that he expected to number of refugees - currently about 480,000 - to hit 700,000 by early next year. He appealed for more humanitarian aid and said he would soon visit refugee camps in Jordan and Turkey to assess the situation.

Brahimi said rebel forces had made gains on the ground in the past few weeks, but the government remained confident that it has the upper hand.

STRATEGIC GAINS

"The areas of territory that they (the rebels) control are expanding, and with strategic value in some cases," Brahimi said. "In Syria itself, there is no trust between the parties. They do not even define the problem in the same terms."

Brahimi told the General Assembly that Syria was in danger of becoming a failed state and stepped up his pressure on the Security Council, which is deadlocked over taking stronger action on Assad, to adopt a resolution backing his peace bid.

The United States and European council members blame Russia, a staunch ally and key arms supplier for Assad's government, and China for the council's inaction on the conflict. Moscow and Beijing have vetoed three resolutions condemning Assad and reject the idea of sanctions. Diplomats say nothing has changed.

"Any peace process must include ... a binding agreement on the cessation of all forms of violence," Brahimi said.

"For the fighting to stop, a strong, well planned observation system must be put in place," he said. "Such observation can best be organized through a large, robust peacekeeping force - and, naturally, that cannot be envisaged without a Security Council resolution."

If there were a more sustained ceasefire, the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations has told Brahimi it could put together a force of up to 3,000 monitors to keep fighters separated and maintain the truce, diplomats say.

"Difficult as it has been for the council to reach a consensus on an implementable roadmap for Syria, I nevertheless feel that it is here, and only here, that a credible, implementable process can be put together," Brahimi said.

Derailment sends chemical tank cars into NJ creek

PAULSBORO, N.J. (AP) — Authorities say only one of the derailed train cars in southern New Jersey has leaked hazardous material.

The Department of Environmental Protection says the car leaked vinyl chloride as a gas and all of it has since dissipated.

The chemical can cause nausea and breathing problems.

Several tanker cars derailed in the accident Friday morning on a rail bridge in Paulsboro and toppled into a creek. Part of the bridge has buckled but the full extent of the damage is not yet known.

Officials at Underwood-Memorial Hospital say 11 people have been transported with complaints related to the derailment and five more arrived on their own. The hospital's communication's office says all are believed to have complained of having respiratory problems.

Residents in three towns were told to stay inside after the derailment.

The cause of the accident hasn't been determined.

North Korea pushing ahead with new nuclear reactor: IAEA

VIENNA (Reuters) - North Korea has made further progress in the construction of a new atomic reactor, the U.N. nuclear chief reported on Thursday, a facility that may extend the country's capacity to produce material for nuclear bombs.

Pyongyang "has continued construction of the light water reactor and largely completed work on the exterior of the main buildings," Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said.

But, he told the IAEA's 35-nation governing board that the U.N. agency "remains unable to determine the reactor's design features or the likely date for its commissioning."

North Korea says it needs nuclear power to provide electricity, but has also boasted of its nuclear deterrence capability and has traded nuclear technology with Syria, Libya and probably Pakistan.

The light-water reactor is being built at the North's main Yongbyon nuclear facility, which consists of a five-megawatt reactor, a fuel fabrication facility and a plutonium reprocessing plant where weapons-grade material has been extracted from spent fuel rods.

North Korea was the first country to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 and has denied IAEA access to its atomic sites, reneging on a February deal to do so after it announced plans to launch a long-range rocket, in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

It was believed earlier this year to be pushing ahead with plans for a third nuclear test.

Amano said he remained "seriously concerned" about the North's nuclear program, which his inspectors can only monitor via satellite images.

IAEA MONITORING

In May, website 38North said North Korea had resumed construction work on the experimental light water reactor (ELWR) after stopping in December.

38North - run by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University and former U.S. State Department official Joel Wit - said the ELWR, when operational, could produce enough material for an additional nuclear bomb each year.

U.S. expert David Albright has estimated a higher potential production of about 20 kg of weapon-grade plutonium a year, enough material for four nuclear weapons or more. But he said it could also produce electricity.

A highly enriched uranium program running alongside this could allow North Korea to increase significantly the number of nuclear devices it could produce, giving it a dual track to nuclear weapons as it has big reserves of uranium.

Amano said: "While the agency continues to monitor the reported uranium enrichment facility, using satellite imagery, its configuration and operational status cannot be established."

North Korea carried out nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 and is under heavy U.N. sanctions for its atomic weapons program.

The IAEA said in August that "significant progress" had been made in the light water reactor's construction since a year earlier, including placing a dome on the containment building.

Also in August, the Institute for Science and International Security - founded by Albright - said satellite imagery from May and June showed construction "progressing apace". It said the reactor could be completed in the second half of 2013.

Creepy ‘isolation booth’ used in public elementary school to lock up disabled students

Apparently the school to prison pipeline is much more significant than I previously thought. Not only are schools forcing children to be tracked and withdrawing them when they refuse to accept such tracking or putting six-year-old kids in handcuffs for alleged temper tantrums, in one school system they are placing special needs students in a kind of solitary confinement they call an “isolation booth.”

One such room, eerily reminiscent of the infamous “padded rooms” of psychiatric hospitals in times past, exists in Mint Valley Elementary School, part of the Longview Public School system in Longview, Washington.

According to KATU, a local news station out of Longview, Washington, the room has been used for the past four years.

“That’s because the school hosts a special education program for disabled students with behavioral issues,” reports KATU. “The booth is used to calm down some of the students when they’re at risk of hurting themselves or others.”

While KATU regularly refers to it as an “isolation box” the Longview Public School administrators prefer calling it an “isolation booth.”

The picture of the booth, shown above (with additional images below), quickly spread around Facebook and other social networks with many viewers responding with apparent horror.

The original poster of the image on Facebook, identified by KATU as Ana Bate, a Longview mother, called its use “abusive, arguing children are locked in for crying or tapping on their desks.”

Darren Pirtle, responding to the photo asked, “seriously … have the police been notified that this is being used?”

Bate is the mother of a 10-year-old son who is not in the special education program at Mint Valley Elementary School but she told KATU that her son witnessed the placing of several children in the box.

According to Bate, in one case a female aide approached a boy from behind, picked him up off the floor and put him in the so-called isolation booth.

Bate also related another instance when a boy was put in the box for lifting up a desk and after he was in the booth itself he became violent, a somewhat understandable reaction to being forced into solitary confinement.

“My question for the school district is how is that therapeutic if not directly opposite from this supposed reinforcement they’d like everybody to believe it to be?” asked Bate.

“If they are being paid to lock people up, get extra education and work in mental health or psychiatric units, not with children that have minds that need to be explored, need to be expanded, that need to feel safe,” Bate said, according to KATU. (Note: the odd phrasing of the statement was printed by KATU and copied verbatim by End the Lie to maintain accuracy.)

The Longview Public Schools see it in a completely different light.

“People have their own opinions without having a lot of the information about it,” said Sandy Catt, director of communications for Longview Public Schools. “I would not classify it as abusive.”

Catt claimed that the isolation booth is designed as therapy for students who need to calm down. One must wonder why they are using a technique abandoned by the psychiatric field decades ago while continuing to claim it is “therapy.”

According to Catt, only eight or nine students are allowed to be placed in the box because they have permission from the parents of the children.

“It is concerning to us that there may not be a complete understanding of the situation,” said Catt.

Catt claimed that some of the eight or nine children voluntarily go inside the isolation booth for a break from stimulation.

Catt also said that when the door is locked with the child inside, a staff member remains outside the booth monitoring what happens.

According to Catt, the school district had never received a complaint about the isolation booth until Tuesday and “none of those complaints has come from parents whose students went inside,” according to KATU.

KATU added that the children of parents who object to the troubling practice would never be forced into the box since the district requires permission from parents.

However, Bate made a quite valid point, at least in my humble opinion, in telling KATU that she questions the parents who agree to allow their children to be placed in the isolation box.

“I have a 20-year-old daughter who’s actually been institutionalized, medicated heavily, ADD, ADHD, RAD, OCD, among other things,” Bate said. “I never had to have anybody put her in a box. I didn’t have any problems dealing with the situation, so I do know both sides.”

“If you feel like you have to lock a child up, they shouldn’t be in public school,” said Bate, according to KATU. “I don’t think it gets any clearer than that.”

UPDATE: KATU is now reporting that one parent, Candace Dawson, says that the school put her child in the booth without her permission when he attended Mint Valley Elementary three years ago.

“He said that’s the naughty room,” Dawson told KATU. “That’s what he called it. He said when kids are naughty they get put in there.”

Dawson said that she had no idea that the school had anything like the isolation room in place until she went online and saw that Mint Valley Elementary was making headlines.

Dawson said that when she asked her son about it, he became very uncomfortable and informed her that he not only recognized the pictures plastered across the Internet but also said that his teacher forced him to spend time in the so-called “isolation booth.”

Dawson said that while her soon indeed does have some behavioral problems, she “would never OK the school to send her son to this room.”

This statement is in stark contrast with the official line coming from the administrators who claim that parents give permission before any child is placed in the box.

Dawson said that she would file a complaint Wednesday afternoon and the district stated late Wednesday that “it does have new information that brings to light something like Dawson’s complaint but it would not confirm that Dawson did in fact make a complaint Wednesday afternoon,” according to KATU.

UPDATE 2:More images of the “isolation booth” have been posted online by KATU. View them below:

MOSCOW RECORDS HEAVIEST NOVEMBER SNOW FOR 50 YEARS

Moscow has recorded its heaviest November snowfall for half a century with a 24-hour snowstorm that has blanketed the city in more than four inches of cover.

snowstorm that has blanketed the city in more than four inches of cover.

Officials in the Russian capital have called in 12,000 snow-removal vehicles to help combat the effects of the snow on the city's transport system but, in spite of lengthy efforts to minimise disruption, traffic jams have been reported to stretch back several kilometres on Moscow's roads.

"I was speaking with the forecasters, and it's been more than 50 years since Moscow's seen something like this," said Deputy Mayor Pyotr Biryukov on a television interview.

Further to gridlock in the city, flights from Moscow's airports have also faced major delays overnight. The capital's largest airport, Domodedovo, experienced over 70 flight delays, but was back to regular service by 5 a.m.

Earlier this year, Moscow recorded near-record conditions when temperatures reached -19.3F (-28.5C) on February 13. The cold Siberian air struck large parts of Eastern Europe and regions were on the verge of a gas shortage when Gazprom struggled to meet the surge in demand.

Weather reports suggest that the levels of snowfall for the last 24-hours would normally be expected over a third of a typical November month.

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GAZA ERECTS BILLBOARDS GIVING ‘THANKS AND GRATITUDE’ TO IRAN FOR HELP IN RECENT ISRAEL CONFLICT

A Palestinian looks at a billboard thanking Iran in Gaza City on November 27, 2012. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

(TheBlaze/AP) — Residents of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday plastered large billboards in key locations thanking Iran for its help during the recent eight-day battle against Israel.

The posters reflected the strong ties between Iran and the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups in Gaza. Israel considers Iran to be its most dangerous enemy, citing Iran’s support for the militants and its suspect nuclear program.

During the fighting, Gaza militants groups fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, including Iranian-made “Fajr” missiles reaching as far as Tel Aviv and the outskirts of Jerusalem.

Israel has long accused Iran of funneling weapons into the Gaza Strip, but only recently have the militant groups openly acknowledged the origins of their arsenal.

The posters, displayed at busy intersections throughout Gaza, show the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, surrounded by Iranian and Palestinian flags, two hands in a handshake with the words, “Thanks and Gratitude to Iran” in Arabic, Hebrew and Farsi.

The posters were not signed, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad representatives said their groups had nothing to do with them. But their prominent location, at busy intersections and next to a destroyed Hamas security compound, as well as the fact that they were not removed, indicates that the militants were involved in the effort. Hamas has ruled Gaza with a firm hand since overrunning the territory in 2007.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders have also publicly thanked Iran, and at least one member of the Iranian Parliament returned the sentiment.

Discussing the recent conflict, he said: “We are proud that our assistance was material and military in nature.”

“The Palestinian people do not need speeches and meetings, rather they are in need of a serious support. If countries want to be proud, they should provide military assistance to the Palestinian people,” he added.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev accused the Hamas leadership of putting its interests above those of the people of the Gaza Strip.

“I don’t think anyone should be surprised by the connection between Hamas and Iran, because they share the same extremists and hateful ideology,” he explained.

Israel launched the offensive in Gaza on Nov. 14 in response to months of intensifying Palestinian rocket fire.  Israel launched roughly 1,500 airstrikes at Palestinian rocket launchers and storage sites, and militants continued to fire rockets until a cease-fire was declared on Nov. 21.

In eight days of fighting, more than 160 Palestinians were killed, according to Palestinian medical officials. Six Israelis were killed.

U.S. GIVES IRAN UNTIL MARCH TO COOPERATE WITH IAEA

(Reuters) - The United States set a March deadline on Thursday for Iran to start cooperating in substance with a U.N. nuclear agency investigation, warning Tehran the issue may otherwise be referred to the U.N. Security Council.

The comments by U.S. diplomat Robert Wood to the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency signaled Washington's growing frustration at a lack of progress in the IAEA's inquiry into possible military dimensions to Tehran's nuclear program.

Iran - which was first reported to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program by the IAEA's 35-nation board in 2006 and then was hit by U.N. sanctions - rejects suspicions it is on a covert quest for atomic bomb capability.

But its refusal to curb nuclear work with both civilian and military applications, and its lack of openness with the IAEA, have drawn tough Western punitive measures and a threat of pre-emptive military strikes by Israel.

A year ago, the IAEA published a report with a trove of intelligence indicating past, and some possibly continuing, research in Iran that could be relevant for nuclear weapons.

The IAEA has since tried to gain access to Iranian sites, officials and documents it says it needs for the inquiry, but so far without any concrete results in a series of meetings with Iran since January. The two sides will meet again in December.

In his statement, Wood requested IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano to say in his next quarterly report on Iran, likely due in late February, whether Tehran has taken "any substantive steps" to address the agency's concerns.

"If by March Iran has not begun substantive cooperation with the IAEA, the United States will work with other board members to pursue appropriate board action, and would urge the board to consider reporting this lack of progress to the U.N. Security Council," Wood said, according to a copy of his statement.

"Iran cannot be allowed to indefinitely ignore its obligations ... Iran must act now, in substance," Wood said.

Amano earlier told the board that there had been no progress in his agency's year-long push to clarify concerns about suspected atom bomb research in Iran, but said he would continue his efforts.

EU SEES IRANIAN "PROCRASTINATION"

A simple majority in the IAEA board would be required to refer an issue to the U.N. Security Council, which has imposed four sanctions resolutions on Iran since 2006.

It is unclear whether Russia and China - which have criticized unilateral Western sanctions on Iran - would back any U.S. initiative to report Iran again to the Security Council.

Wood later told reporters he hoped the December talks between the IAEA and Iran would be fruitful. But, he added, "I have my doubts about the sincerity of Iran."

The 27-nation European Union told the board that Iran's "procrastination" was unacceptable. "Iran must act now, in a substantive way, to address the serious and continuing international concerns on its nuclear program," it said.

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, criticised what he called "political noise" and "pressure" from the United States and the EU.

Diplomacy between Iran and the powers - the United States, China, Russia, France, Germany, and Britain - has been deadlocked since a June meeting that ended without success.

Both sides now say they want to resume talks soon, after the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama, and diplomats expect a new meeting in Istanbul in December or January.

Iran is ready for a "face-saving" negotiated solution to the nuclear dispute, but the West must accept the reality that Tehran would never suspend uranium enrichment, Soltanieh said.

Refined uranium can be used to fuel nuclear energy plants, Iran's stated aim, and also provide bomb material if processed further, which the West suspects is Iran's ultimate aim.

The West wants Iran to suspend enrichment, but Iran is showing no sign of backing down.

Iran "has provocatively snubbed the international community by expanding its enrichment capacity in defiance of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions," Wood said.

UK DOCTOR’S HORRIFYING ADMISSION REVEALS HOW SICK & DISABLED BABIES ARE PUT ON ‘DEATH PATHWAYS’, DEPRIVED OF FOOD & FLUID FOR 10 DAYS

Sick children and even disabled newborn babies, are reportedly being discharged from NHS hospitals in England only to die  slowly at home or in hospices in an unfathomable manner. The innocent children are being put on controversial “death pathways,” once only thought to have involved elderly and terminally ill adult patients.

The Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), an organization that facilitates end-of-life treatment, is behind the inhumane program. The Daily Mail has learned the process of “withdrawing food and fluid by tube is being used on young patients as well as severely disabled newborn babies.” In other words, patients — young and old — are slowly starved and dehydrated to death.

(Photo credit: Getty)

One doctor, acting as a whistle blower, admitted to starving and dehydrating ten babies to death in the neonatal unit of one hospital in a leading medical journal. The doctor describes it as a 10-day process, during which the baby becomes “smaller and shrunken.”

Roughly 130,000 elderly and terminally ill patients reportedly die on the Liverpool Care Pathway, or “death pathways.” LCP is now being independently investigated at the orders of ministers in England.

The Daily Mail has more details on this tragic story:

The investigation, which will include child patients, will look at whether cash payments to hospitals to hit death pathway targets have influenced doctors’ decisions.

Medical critics of the LCP insist it is impossible to say when a patient will die and as a result the LCP death becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They say it is a form of euthanasia, used to clear hospital beds and save the NHS money.

The use of end of life care methods on disabled newborn babies was revealed in the doctors’ bible, the British Medical Journal.

The previously mentioned doctor wrote of the pain of watching the slow, forced deaths of newborn babies. One baby’s parents decided to put their infant on the “pathway” because of a “lengthy list of unexpected congenital anomalies,” according to the doctor.

(Photo credit: Shutterstock.com)

(Photo credit: Shutterstock.com)

Here’s some of what the doctor wrote in the medical journal [emphasis added]:

The voice on the other end of the phone describes a newborn baby and a lengthy list of unexpected congenital anomalies. I have a growing sense of dread as I listen.

The parents want ‘nothing done’ because they feel that these anomalies are not consistent with a basic human experience. I know that once decisions are made, life support will be withdrawn.

Assuming this baby survives, we will be unable to give feed, and the parents will not want us to use artificial means to do so.

Regrettably, my predictions are correct. I realise as I go to meet the parents that this will be the tenth child for whom I have cared after a decision has been made to forgo medically provided feeding.

[…]

Like other parents in this predicament, they are now plagued with a terrible type of wishful thinking that they could never have imagined. They wish for their child to die quickly once the feeding and fluids are stopped.

They wish for pneumonia. They wish for no suffering. They wish for no visible changes to their precious baby.

Their wishes, however, are not consistent with my experience. Survival is often much longer than most physicians think; reflecting on my previous patients, the median time from withdrawal of hydration to death was ten days.

After reading the article in the British Medical Journal, Dr. Laura de Rooy, a consultant neonatologist at St. George’s Hospital NHS Trust in London, wrote on the BMJ website: “It is a huge supposition to think they do not feel hunger or thirst.”

(Photo credit: Shutterstock.com)

“The LCP was devised by the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute in Liverpool for care of dying adult patients more than a decade ago. It has since been developed, with [pediatric] staff at Alder Hey Hospital, to cover children. Parents have to agree to their child going on the death pathway, often being told by doctors it is in the child’s ‘best interests’ because their survival is ‘futile’,” The Daily Mail reports.

Obviously, not everyone agrees. Bernadette Lloyd, a hospice pediatric nurse, wrote to the Cabinet Office and the Department of Health and blasted the use of death pathways for young children.

“The parents feel coerced, at a very traumatic time, into agreeing that this is correct for their child whom they are told by doctors has only has a few days to live,” she wrote. “It is very difficult to predict death. I have seen a reasonable number of children recover after being taken off the pathway.”

She went on: “I have also seen children die in terrible thirst because fluids are withdrawn from them until they die…I witnessed a 14 year-old boy with cancer die with his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth when doctors refused to give him liquids by tube. His death was agonising for him, and for us nurses to watch. This is euthanasia by the backdoor.”

For now the inquiry into the death pathways is ongoing. A Department of Health spokesman said that “End of life care for children must meet the highest professional and clinical standards, and the specific needs of children at the end of their life.”

But as Teresa Lynch, a spokeswoman for the Medical Ethics Alliance, points out: “There are big questions to be answered about how our sick children are dying.”