All of the tribes experienced a Trail of Tears due to the forced relocations; some were more or less severe. However, regardless of their differing severity, the forced relocations were all part of the U.S. extermination policy, or genocide, to solve their "Indian Problem." The "problem" in Indian Territory was that the tribes who were forced to relocate under conditions that significantly reduced their population through extermination or starvation, some in harsh winter conditions, was that they survived the forced relocations at all. Hence, a "solution" was needed to insure white domination in Indian Territory. Henry Dawes and his Dawes Act fueled by racism, denial of joint statehood, and a cruel "wedding" fusing Indian Territory with the State of Oklahoma all contributed to Oklahoma's Statehood through the elimination of many tribal lands and the great diminishment or total elimination of tribal political influence.

The white supremist attitudes of Henry Dawes, author of the Dawes Act and which led to the Allotment Era, was paramount in shifting land ownership from whole tribes to the sole individual.

Kill the Indian, Save the Man

Massachusetts Senator Henry Dawes, convinced that the white man's ways were superior, pooh-poohed the idea of communal property, although he did express sympathy for the Natives. "The common field is the seat of barbarism, while the separate farm is the door to civilization," he said. Dawes explained that selfishness was the root of advanced civilization, and he could not understand why the Indians were not motivated to possess and achieve more than their neighbors.

The white supremist attitudes of Dawes was reflected in whites prior to the Allotment Era that Dawes formally initiated.

The Indians Are

Getting Uppity

Berthrong describes the attitudes of the whites who overwhelmed the Cheyenne and Arapahoe reservation subsequent to allotment:

White-Indian relations after the opening of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Reservation were tragic. Deep prejudice often bordering on racism marked whites' attitudes toward their Indian neighbors...If the Indians had possessed more economic potential, skills, and incentives to acquire additional or replacement property, the losses they suffered through fraud and theft would not have been so severe or irremediable. As it was, the discrimination, the loss of property, and the contempt in which the Indian was held by farmers and ranchers made it impossible for many of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes to follow the 'white man's road.' (Berthrong, p.207)

Guy Dull Knife Jr. recalls his boyhood impression of whites outside the reservation borders: "He remembered the dirty looks, the waiting for whites to enter first, the standing in line, others cutting in front of them, the occasional cursing, clerks tailing him up and down the aisles and the signs that said 'No Dogs or Indians Allowed'." (Starita, p.326)

Dawes's anti Indian sentiment bled over into the legislation he created, the notorious Dawes Act. The facts that it authorized the president, Roosevelt at the time, to twist tribal land ownership into individual land ownership if the land was deemed "advantageous for agricultural and grazing purposes" when Oklahoma's primary assets were farming and agriculture prior to its statehood, were by no means innocent and coincidental. To the contrary, it was divide and conquer in retrospect. 

Divide -

(Underline mine)

Source

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all cases where any tribe or band of Indians has been, or shall hereafter be, located upon any reservation created for their use, either by treaty stipulation or by virtue of an act of Congress or executive order setting apart the same for their use, the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, authorized, whenever in his opinion any reservation or any part thereof of such Indians is advantageous for agricultural and grazing purposes, to cause said reservation, or any part thereof, to be surveyed, or resurveyed if necessary, and to allot the lands in said reservation in severalty to any Indian located thereon in quantities as follows:

Source

In addition, the law severely reduced Indian holdings; after all individual allocations had been made, the extensive lands remaining were declared surplus and opened for sale to non-Indians. In 1887, the tribes had owned about 138 million acres; by 1900 the total acreage in Indian hands had fallen to 78 million.

- and conquer.

As Oklahoma sought statehood the U.S. government again divided reservation lands to sell to white settlers, leaving just a small parcel for reservation land.

The Merriam Report: A Look At "Real" Life

The report found many contributing factors, one of the major ones being the Allotment Policy.  In the Merriam Report, it was also said that

Not accompanied by adequate instruction in the use of property, it has largely failed in the accomplishment of what was expected of it.  It has resulted in much loss of land and an enormous increase in the details of administration without a compensating advance in the economic ability of the Indians...it almost seeded as if the government assumed that some magic in individual ownership of property would in itself prove an educational civilizing factor, but unfortunately this policy had for the most part operated in the opposite direction.  Individual ownership in many instances permitted Indians to sell their allotment and to live for a time on the unearned income resulting from the sale.(2)

100 Years in the Land of the Red Man

"When the Allotment Era came into being, it changed every perspective we had on land--it went from the control of the tribe to the control of the individual," he explained.

Those individuals, Jones recounted, were illegally taxed and many lost their land by their failure to pay those taxes, largely because their grasp of the new and foreign concept of individual private land ownership didn't quite match the speed of the government's enforcement of its imposed tax policy.

Continuing, as the Iroquois Confederacy helped to shape American Democracy on a national level, the Sequoyah Constitution helped to shape the Oklahoma Constitution on a state level.

Source

No historian can properly review the provisions of the Oklahoma Constitution without considering the Sequoyah Convention which convened at Muskogee in 1905; for some of the most important provisions of the Constitution derived their inspiration from the Sequoyah Constitution, notably: Article nine on Corporations, the method of Legislative apportionment, the Great Seal, less than a unanimous verdict of Jurors in trials of civil causes, compulsory teaching of Agriculture and Domestic Arts in the public schools, the names of many Counties in old Indian Territory, et cetera.

As Vice-President of the Sequoyah Convention of 1905 and as President of the Guthrie Constitutional Convention of 1906, I witnessed some facts of historical value, hitherto not given publication.

-huge snip -

"You know many people in Oklahoma Territory and I wish you would remember this, 'The politicians of Oklahoma City and Guthrie will try to dominate the convention and shut out the Indian Territory along with western Oklahoma. When statehood comes, remember to keep "tab" on the delegates elected and for some good man over there, not allied with the machine, for president of the Convention'." To which I agreed.

But that wasn't part of the "solution," Roosevelt squelched Indian Territory's attempts at having joint statehood with Oklahoma. As the result, there is no Centennial for Indian Territory.

ENABLING ACT (1906)

After the introduction of a bill for admitting Indian Territory as the State of Sequoyah sank in Congress in December 1905-January 1906, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt recommended joint statehood.

What was part of the "solution" was a cruel "wedding" between Indian Territory and the State of Oklahoma simultaneously with Oklahoma's admittance into statehood.

Source

Rev. Dodson:

Representing the Indian Territory is Mrs. Anna Bennett of Muskogee. 

(Durant presents Mrs. Bennett to Jones, bows, and steps back.)

Mrs. Bennett:

I will.  And to you I present my hand and my fortunes, convinced that  your love is genuine and sincere.

Dodson:

Do you, Mr. Oklahoma Territory, take this woman to be your lawfully  wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forth, in union as the  State of Oklahoma?
 

To bring this to a close, all of the tribes experienced a Trail of Tears due to the forced relocations; some were more or less severe. However, the tears did not end with the forced relocations. The cruel mock wedding ceremony caused tears; being shut out of the democratic process caused more tears after the denial of duel joint statehood, as did the Dawes Act and all the racism that accompanied it. Simultaneously, the Indian Boarding Schools were working their "solution," which would continue until approximately 1970, while the forced sterilizations would work their "solution" and end in the mid 1970's. No Indian, no "problem" for the whites who cut the Indians out of life, democracy, or both.

Labels: winter rabbit

August 26th through the 29th was the SYMPOSIUM ON THE SETTLEMENT OF INDIAN RESERVED WATER RIGHTS CLAIMS (a good overview is here).

I am speculating, but I think that one reason for the Symposium on the Settlement of Indian Reserved Water Rights Claims was because of this:

Red Shirt Village -- Residents of Red Shirt village on the northwest corner of the Pine Ridge Reservation have put up signs warning people of the high nuclear radiation levels found in the Cheyenne River.

Defenders of the Black Hills: a group of volunteers without racial or tribal boundaries working to ensure that the United States government upholds the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,
the GPTCA affirms that any person, agency or entity including federal, state, and county governments, or corporations, businesses or companies who shall cause any nuclear pollution, or contamination to enter the confines of the Indian Reservation Homelands should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and

NOW, BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED,
the Great Plains Tribal Chairman's Association calls upon all other Tribes and Indian Nations to join with us to protect our Reservation Homelands, to ensure that no damage will come to the people, the culture, the environment including the air and water and economy of the Tribes of the Great Plains because of uranium mining or other processing of contaminants in the region of the Great Plains Region.

The Tribal Supreme Court Project is part of the Tribal Sovereignty Protection Initiative and is staffed by the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). The Project was formed in 2001 in response to a series of U.S. Supreme Court cases that negatively affected tribal sovereignty.

This information at the international level, beginning with the Cobo Report, is crucial to understand in conjunction with all the above.

Chapter 6: International developments in the recognition of the rights of Indigenous peoples

The Cobo report, as it is commonly known, was prepared over the next decade. It was submitted to the Sub-Commission in 24 instalments between 1981 and 1984 with its conclusions and final recommendations compiled in a consolidated volume in 1987. Underpinning the report's detailed conclusions and recommendations is the recognition that, despite the great diversity of their cultures and systems, Indigenous peoples throughout the world have common experiences of discrimination, oppression and exploitation.

- snip -

- recognition that Indigenous peoples and nations are subjects of international law and must be included within international law processes;

- recognition of Indigenous peoples' special relationship to land and its integral link to their beliefs, customs, traditions and cultures and for efforts to be taken to maintain or restore that relationship;

- the ratification and implementation by States of international human rights treaties such as those on genocide, anti-slavery, racial discrimination, civil and political, and economic, social and cultural rights; and

- the establishment of a working group on Indigenous peoples at the United Nations under the Sub-Commission.[12]

The chairperson altered this, yet some were still against it (emphasis & underline mine).

SPEAKERS CALL FOR INCREASED INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF INDIGENOUS RIGHTS,

Recognizing that most of the world's remaining natural resources -- minerals, freshwater, potential energy sources and more -- are found within indigenous peoples' territories, the sixth annual session of the Permanent Forum has brought indigenous groups together with representatives of Governments, intergovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies to state their views, voice concerns and suggest solutions regarding their lands, territories and natural resources.

We know how that went, don't we?

It falied in the U.S.

Here is more information about it.

Since we're talking about a web of land theft and

http://indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id="1096415997

"a new kind of Indian war, I'm going to make this ending short and sweet about something more well known. I don't agree with the Chief of the Cherokee Nation in regards to the freedman, but I really don't agree with Diane Watson. Let me say why by posing a question which I believe reveals Watson's intent in light of the fact that her "proposal" has so much support, while vital issues as Indian Health Care have failed. My question is based completely upon my own speculation.

Who gets the casinos after the Cherokee lose the right to use them?
Maybe it will be the Cheyenne State of Oklahoma and the U.S. Government. Should the world end their entire relationship with the U.S. based solely on the current sitting president? Right, please sign the pledge below.

Click on: Take A Stand! Click Here!

We "will accept nothing less than the U.S. government keeping the promises made to Native Americans."

Call for Papers
The Paul Lucas Conference in History at Indiana University
“Public Spheres of History: Writing the Past and Representing the Profession”
Hosted by Indiana University History Graduate Student Association
Friday and Saturday, February 29 and March 1, 2008


Keynote Speaker: Michael Adas, Abraham E. Voorhees Professor of History

Rutgers University, New Brunswick

Saturday, March 1, Time: TBA



This year's conference explores the different spheres that historians study, while also emphasizing the multitude of publics in which history is crafted. Expanding on Jürgen Habermas's original definition of the "public sphere" as a category of analysis, historians increasingly highlight the valuable flexibility of the concept. Embracing this trend, our conference will investigate the different political, social, and cultural spheres studied and inhabited by historians. Conference participants might address wide-ranging subjects and traverse broad thematic, geographic and temporal boundaries, but some questions we hope to address include:



*What is the relationship between the private sphere and political or other larger publics?

*How does the political sphere affect or impinge on the individual? How is the personal of public significance and how does the individual affect or participate in a larger public?

*Does the changing scale of studying history affect ideas about the public? Can we speak of a transnational or global public?

*How do new technology and media impact and transform the way publics are created?

*How is history created or represented within a variety of public settings (museums, for instance), levels of education, or in the wider community?



Submissions of pre-organized panels are strongly encouraged. Individual paper submissions are also welcome and those selected will be assigned by the conference committee to a suitable panel. The panels will include three paper presentations that are each twenty minutes in length. Presentations will be followed by a brief commentary offered by a discussant. Please submit the items and information below no later than Saturday, 1 December 2007. The HGSA Conference Committee will evaluate proposals and inform participants by Saturday, 15 December 2007.



Submission Instructions:

1. names of all authors for panels (also note name of person presenting paper)

2. institutional affiliation and title/position

3. contact information: email address, postal address, telephone/fax numbers

4. title and an abstract of the paper, which is no more than 250 words - requests for any audio-visual equipment (overhead, projector, PowerPoint, etc.) must be cited in the abstract



If you would like to serve as a commentator, please submit a CV and a brief statement detailing your areas of expertise.

While the panels and keynote address will be take place on Saturday, 1 March 2008, participants are encouraged to attend organized events on Friday, 29 February 2008. These will include an additional lecture given by Michael Adas organized by the American Studies Department, a dissertation workshop for advanced IU graduate students, and a conference welcome reception held on Friday evening. This information will be provided to participants.



Submit this information *via email* as an attachment (.doc or .pdf formats preferred) to:

hgsaconf@indiana.edu, or submit a hard copy to:



The Paul Lucas Conference in History
History Department Indiana University
742 Ballantine Hall
Bloomington, IN 47405-7103
Fax: 812-855-3378

The conference is *free* to IU graduate students in any field. Non-IU students will submit a registration fee of $30 (checks payable to HGSA)

Cross-border operations became a method that Turkey often applied in the 1990s, but it is hard to tell if they were successful in general...So far, the number of major Turkish cross-border operations in the region amounts to 24. In practice, the Turkish military [has been] inside Iraqi borders since 1992. Especially in the rectangular area of Zaho, Haftanin, Duhok and Amediye, there is a heavy Turkish military presence. Turkish troops from time to time hold operations from a few kilometers to 60 kilometers deep inside the border.

The number of outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists in northern Iraq varies between 3,000 and 5,000. Number of active PKK terrorists along the border is estimated around 2,000, 1,000 of whom are relatively better trained. The number of terrorists inside Turkey is estimated as 1,500.

After 2003 in particular, over 10 relatively large-scale armed PKK camps were formed in northern Iraq. The total number of camps is estimated at over 20. Weapons and ideological training are also provided here.

The PKK sheltered heavily in the Kandil mountain range away from the Turkish border. The closest point of these mountains is 80-90 kilometers by air, more than 100 kilometers surface distance. Considering terror camps, the distance exceeds 150 kilometers. The nearest airborne support is provided from Diyarbakır or Malatya. Which means that air support is about 456 kilometers away from the operation region. It is very difficult to lay siege on the mountain range entirely. Such an attempt requires a siege varying between 235 kilometers and 317 kilometers at distance, an area over 3,000 kilometer square meters that should be kept under control.

The valley PKK has nested in is at the height of 1,300-1,500 meters. Mountains around the valley are about 2,900 meter high. The summit peak is at 3,500 meters. [In other words], the PKK is in a way placed in a natural fortress. The dimension of this area is estimated as 13.4 X 4.6 kilometers. Zigzag passages should be taken to reach the mountain.

Presumably, the number of terrorists around the Kandil Mountain and surroundings decreased [after] discussions [of] a possible cross-border operation. However, a few hundred terrorists are deployed in well-maintained shelters in the mountain. Some experts believe this figure is about 600. The Mountain is mostly used for training purposes. Newcomers are brought here and trained for bombings and attacks. The “Mahsun Korkmaz Military Academy” and the “Haki Karer Ideological Training Academy” are situated here on the mountain.

When it comes to our “strategists” though, we see a bunch of people whose understanding of what is going on is heavily distorted by their mindset. They are nationalists, they see things through emotionally clouded lenses, their assessment of Turkey's role and power is fundamentally wrong (because they do not understand that Turkey's power comes from its being a bridge, being a democracy, from its potential to become an EU member, and its being an ally of the West and so forth) and they take it for granted, not considering that this power may increase and decrease according to the steps that Turkey takes. Their understanding of the root causes of some problems, like the Kurdish question, is far from reality.

Oswald approached the DRE's delegation in New Orleans and offered to train guerrillas to fight the Castro government. He was rebuffed. When DRE members saw Oswald handing out pro-Castro leaflets a few days later an altercation ensued that ended with the arrest of all the participants. A week after that, the DRE's spokesman in New Orleans debated the Cuba issue with Oswald on a radio program. After these encounters, the DRE issued a press release calling for a congressional investigation of the pro-Castro activities of the then-obscure Oswald.

The CIA was passing money to the DRE leaders at the time, according to an agency memo dated April 1963, found in the JFK Library in Boston. The document shows that the Agency gave the Miami-based group $250,000 a year -- the equivalent of about $1.5 million annually in 2007 dollars.

The secret CIA files on Joannides may shed new light on what, if anything, Joannides and other CIA officers in anti-Castro operations knew about Oswald's activities and contacts before Kennedy was killed.

In my admittedly subjective view, the JFK Records Act is being slowly repealed by CIA fiat. In defiance of the law and common sense, the Agency continues to spend taxpayers' money for the suppression of history around JFK's assassination. In the post-9/11 era, you would think U.S. intelligence budget could be better spent.

There, without any commander, in a regularly entrenched camp, taking nothing with them but the necessaries of life, they quietly maintained themselves for some days, neither receiving nor giving any provocation.
A great panic seized the City, mutual distrust led to a state of universal suspense.

A general strike was called in protest, and on 23 April 1918, work was stopped in railways, docks, factories, mills, theatres, cinemas, trams, public services, shipyards, newspapers, shops, and even Government munitions factories. The strike was described as "complete and entire, an unprecedented event outside the continental countries".

Work stopped quickly at the big railway shops and yards across the city, while and all factory production ceased. Winnipeg had no mail, streetcars, taxis, newspapers, telegrams, telephones, gasoline, or milk delivery. Most restaurants, retail stores, and even barber shops closed. Police, fire fighters, and employees of the water works shocked and frightened many in Winnipeg by joining the strike.

The Mayor called on the North West Mounted Police to disperse the crowds. In the ensuing confrontation, two strikers were killed and at least 30 injured. As the crowd scattered onto nearby streets and alleyways it was met by several hundred "special police" deputized by the city during the strike. Armed with baseball bats and wagon spokes supplied by local retailers, the "specials" beat the protesters.

The Workers' and Soldiers' Councils were almost entirely made up of SPD and USPD members. Their programme was democracy, pacifism and anti-militarism. Apart from the royals they only deprived the hitherto almighty military commands of power. The imperial civilian administration and office bearers –police, municipal administrations, courts- remained unscathed. There were also hardly any confiscations of property or occupations of factories because such measures were expected from the new government.

Its leaders were determined to resist dissolution and appealed to General Lüttwitz, commander of the Berlin Reichswehr, for support. Lüttwitz, an organiser of Freikorps units in 1918-19 and a fervent monarchist, responded by calling on President Ebert and Defence Minister Noske to stop the disbandment. When Ebert refused, Lüttwitz ordered the Brigade to march on Berlin.

The township board also considered charity cases even before a welfare program was systematically organized at the state level. There was a very limited welfare program, but welfare nevertheless. Lack of funds prevented the township from doing much, but even when they did nothing, they gave the requests serious consideration.

The next time that you are tempted to subscribe a dollar to a charity, I do not tell you not to do it, because after you have fairly considered the matter, you may think it right to do it, but I do ask you to stop and remember the Forgotten Man and understand that if you put your dollar in the savings bank it will go to swell the capital of the country which is available for division amongst those who, while they earn it, will reproduce it with increase.

Give tax breaks to large corporations, so that money can trickle down to the general public, in the form of extra jobs.

Mary Yoder appeared before the Lincoln County commissioners. Recently widowed with three children, “she asked the county commissioners for help. For the next two years and eight months, commissioners provided Yoder and her children with assistance in the form of supplies, coal and medicine.”

So when you have dark nights as we all do and wonder whether this election will truly mean anything, then comfort yourself with the thought that history is on your side. Yes, eventually good people can win--it sometimes just takes awhile. While the Republicans view the American people with skepticism if not fear, most people do have an innate goodness and sense of justice.

Those people on the high plains did harbor an explosive idea whose power comes from helping their neighbors instead of pursuing "survival or the fittest" competition. If more grain elevators, attics and cellars harbor similar revelations it promises to create a chain reaction that will redefine the most sacred myth of the American past.

This view of the American people echoes what Ma Joad said in her memorable speech at the end of John Ford's Grapes of Wrath:

Rich fellas come up an’ they die, an’ their kids ain’t no good, an’ they die out. But we keep a-comin’. We’re the people that live. Can’t nobody wipe us out. Can’t nobody lick us. We’l go on forever, Pa.

We’re the people.

it is impossible for a man who continually endeavoureth to secure himself against the evil he fears, and procure the good he desireth, not to be in a perpetual solicitude of the time to come…so that man which looks too far before him, in the care of future time, hath his heart all the day long gnawed on by fear of death, poverty, or other calamity, and has no repose, nor pause of his anxiety, but in sleep. (Chapter xii, section 5)

So that in the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death. And the cause of this is not always that a man hopes for a more intensive delight than he has already attained to, or that he cannot be content with a moderate power, but because he cannot assure the power and means to live well, which he hath present, without the acquisition of more. (xi, 2)

Modern warfare particularly depends on oil, because virtually all weapons systems rely on oil-based fuel – tanks, trucks, armored vehicles, self-propelled artillery pieces, airplanes, and naval ships. For this reason, the governments and general staffs of powerful nations seek to ensure a steady supply of oil during wartime, to fuel oil-hungry military forces in far-flung operational theaters.

I can understand Dutch's wry remark that his fellow citizens would have looked askance at him had he ever confessed the full extent of his youthful fantasies. [p. 51]

The saddle he used was a Perianni forward seat jumping saddle, which was made in Italy. He bought it as a young man, and by the time he was president, it was more than thirty years old...President Reagan had other saddles, as well. The Queen of England gave him a beautiful Steuben saddle made in Germany...The King of Morocco gave him a saddle as a gift. (pp. 75-76)

Our four-eyed friend is getting increasingly rah-rah. After freezing his bum on the squad bench last summer, he's now leading the yells at basketball! [p.76]

Reagan owned the affection of the American people because he seemed like a regular guy. [p. 9]

Any intelligent examination of Reagan must begin with the recognition that he was a mystery both personally and politically...Even Reagan's family found him enigmatic and impenetrable...Nancy Reagan also felt there was a part Reagan that was inaccessible to her. [pp. 1-2]

For all that, there was of course his famous detachment. I never understood it, and neither, from what I've seen, did anyone else. It is true that when you worked for him, whether for two years or 20, he didn't care that much about your feelings. His saving grace — and it is a big one, a key one to his nature — is that he didn't care much about his feelings either. The cause was all, the effort to make the world calmer and the country freer was all.

So much of our profession is taken up with pretending, with the interpretation of never-never roles, that an actor must spend half his waking hours in fantasy, in rehearsal or shooting. If he is only an actor, I feel, he is much like I was in Kings Row, only half a man--no matter how great his talents. [Dallek, p. 11]

His concern for Israel could be traced to World War II when he photographed the Nazi death camps. [p. 401]

You know a person yesterday, a young man, went into a grocery store and he had an orange in one hand and a bottle in the other and he paid for the orange with food stamps and he took the change and paid for the vodka. That's what's wrong.[p. 72]

Often there is the attitude that a movie hero or heroine can do no wrong, when they appear to indulge their instinctual life more than is customary. [p. 250]

Global warming theory has been in political and scientific trouble for some time.

Rescuing and rewarding the obscure and the absurd has been a Nobel sideline for some years. The award has gone to half a dozen fringe movements and futile causes (the Gameen bank, Mother Teresa, nuclear disarmament, land mine activists, peace negotiators), ineffectual United Nations agencies and personalities (including KofiAnnan and the UN itself ), occasional warmongers (Yasser Arafat), plus an international assortment of minor and woolly-headed players on the world stage (Wangari Masthai, Jimmy Carter).

Onto this heap of forgotten causes and marginalia the Nobel has just tossed Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN's official climate science group. What a blow the award must be to the IPCC, self-proclaimed home of scientific rigour, to now be lumped in with Reverend Al and his Travelling Snake Oil Road Show and Climate Terror Machine.

If history is any guide here, the IPCC is now doomed to slide into obscurity, joining the list of similarly feted UN agencies that beaver away in relative obscurity and ineffectiveness, their Nobels rotting on shelves: The International Atomic Energy Agency (2005), United Nations peacekeeping forces (1988), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (1981), the International Labour Organization (1969) and the UN Children's Fund (1965).

The first task of the IPCC now, one would think, is to craft a statement disavowing any link with Gore, whose film and book, both titled An Inconvenient Truth, deserved a Nobel for science fiction rather than peace. Not that the IPCC is squeaky clean on the science of climate accuracy. Even the Nobel committee's statement on the IPCC captured the agency's primary role as political shaper of opinion and builder of consensus. IPCC scientific reports have "created an ever-broader informed consensus" about man-made global warming. The Nobel committee said it wanted to "contribute to a sharper focus" on climate change around the world.

Just hours before the Nobel announcement, Gore was busy spinning his way out of a devastating United Kingdom court case that found nine substantial science errors in the film version of An Inconvenient Truth.

The nine errors, listed on Page A19 of this newspaper, are truly major. But Gore's office, in true political form, tried to turn the science disaster into victory, claiming he was "gratified" that the U.K. court had not totally banned distribution of his film in British schools. Instead, it would have to circulate like a package of cigarettes, with a warning label: Children watch this movie at peril of being politically manipulated by Al Gore into thinking what they are watching is true.

In the event I was persuaded that only some of them were sufficiently persuasive to be relevant for the purposes of his argument, and it was those matters - 9 in all - upon which I invited Mr Chamberlain to concentrate. It was essential to appreciate that the hearing before me did not relate to an analysis of the scientific questions, but to an assessment of whether the 'errors' in question, set out in the context of a political film, informed the argument on ss406 and 407. All these 9 'errors' that I now address are not put in the context of the evidence of Professor Carter and the Claimant's case, but by reference to the IPCC report and the evidence of Dr Stott.

Given his science gaffes, and his political liabilities, the Nobel may be more of a liability, not just to Gore but to the entire global warming community. The prize has elevated junk science, gross exaggeration and outright misrepresentation to high international stature, the most prestigious award in the world, discrediting all who work honestly to find the facts and do the right thing.

Despite all this, however, nobody could deny that Gore has done much to spread the word about climate change, a problem with the potential to create resource conflicts in many parts of the world.

Gore's co-winner of the Peace Prize, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was lauded by the Nobel committee for scientific reports that have "created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming."

Gore's crusade has helped the world understand those reports. The challenge now, for all of us, is to find sensible ways to slow down emissions and cope with those effects that are already inevitable.

Gore has long been thinking about running, but the main calculation is whether he, or anyone else, can defeat Hillary Clinton. If he grows convinced that no one can beat Clinton for the nomination, then he won't run. If he is convinced that either Edwards or Obama can defeat Clinton, then he won't run. However, if he is convinced that he can defeat Clinton, but that Edwards and Obama cannot, then he will run.