Some people have started realizing that there are large financial groups that dominate the world. Forget the political intrigues, conflicts, revolutions and wars. It is not pure chance. Everything has been planned for a long time.

Some call it "conspiracy theories" or New World Order. Anyway, the key to understanding the current political and economic events is a restricted core of families who have accumulated more wealth and power.

We are speaking of 6, 8 or maybe 12 families who truly dominate the world. Know that it is a mystery difficult to unravel.

We will not be far from the truth by citing Goldman Sachs, Rockefellers, Loebs Kuh and Lehmans in New York, the Rothschilds of Paris and London, the Warburgs of Hamburg, Paris and Lazards Israel Moses Seifs Rome.

Many people have heard of the Bilderberg Group, Illuminati or the Trilateral Commission. But what are the names of the families who run the world and have control of states and international organizations like the UN, NATO or the IMF?

Among the stupidest platitudes that one all too often hears from U.S. and western hypocrites, the worst is how they portray their own countries as beacons or paragons of freedom and democracy when a quick look, and especially an extended one, will demonstrate otherwise.

When something is built on dishonesty, all else begins to unravel. NATO exposes their evil intentions by their extensive use of lies and trickery. Once again, however, they have overestimated themselves and underestimated the Libyan people. The lies and trickery do not work.

Force and coercion are not considered examples of either freedom or democracy. The term "democracy" has been distorted now to mean only one thing: a democracy does what it is told to do, usually by Washington.

Should the country refuse, then it becomes a "dictatorship" even though the leader may have been elected, such as in the case of Venezuela, or should they have the purest form, such as the Jamahiriya. Next thing you know, the democracy bombs are falling...

This pseudo freedom and democracy they are trying to force down the throats of the Libyan people. What does western style freedom and democracy mean to the Libyan people?

It means thousands of Libyans lying dead in their homes, schools, hospitals, streets...

Two Reuters reporters traveled with George W. Bush on September 11, 2001 on what began as a feel-good trip to Florida to promote education.

Here are some of their memories of that day, and those that followed, as they watched Bush's evolution from the leader of a country enjoying peace and prosperity to a wartime president.

Arshad Mohammed:

"Mr. President, are you aware of the reports of a plane crash in New York?"

I called out that question to Bush in the Florida classroom where, unbeknownst to me, he had just learned the second World Trade Center tower had been hit by an airplane.

Those minutes in the Emma E. Booker Elementary school, where Bush silently came to grips with the attack on the United States illustrate the blessings and the frustrations of being in the media pool that travels everywhere with the president.

The Syrian government may cease to exist. The clouds thickened over Syria, and the storm is about to break out. Arab TV stations from the Gulf countries hostile towards Damascus have already distributed the map of "Syria after Assad." Unified Syrian state no longer exists. Instead there are several state entities: the Kurdish in the north, Druze in the south and Sunni in the center.

It is likely that in the coming months we will witness the culmination of the Syrian drama. The opponents of Damascus regarded the recent statement by the UN Security Council on August 11 as a carte blanche to persecute Assad.

The Security Council condemned the actions of the official Damascus to restore order in the cities engrossed in unrest, demanding an immediate end of the civilian killings and mass arrests of the opposition leaders.

British Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Philip Parham stressed that the document was adopted on the basis of the analysis of the situation in Syria. A week earlier the UN Security Council has given the regime of Bashar Assad seven days to fulfill the requirements of the "international community", after which it was to reach a verdict on what to do with Syria next.

The economic crisis in the United States and the downgrade of the American credit rating has already affected the Russian reserves. The markets of Asia and Israel reacted to the news first. The setback was registered on the stock markets of Australia too. In Moscow, the RTS index lost two percent during the first ten minutes of the tender. The European Union and the United States may remember August 8th as the Black Monday.

According to experts' estimates, the downgrade of the US credit rating may mark the beginning of the new financial era. Global financial markets may wake up in a new world on Monday. Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive of Pacific Investment Management Co., or PIMCO, referred to the current situation as the "Sputnik Moment." He compared the reassessment of US financial positions to the shock, which the Americans experienced when the USSR launched its first satellite in 1957, in the midst of the Cold War.

Many other countries already begin to count the losses. Russia has already lost over 108 billion rubles because of the reduction of the US credit rating. Russia's Reserve Fund and the Fund of National Welfare have the following structure: 45 percent in dollars, 45 percent in euros and 10 percent in British pounds. The loss of a part of reserves is only a start, experts say. The crisis may exacerbate the situation on the world market of oil, which will inevitably strike a serious blow on the Russian economy.