Shannon Deery, Stephen McMahon From: Herald Sun October 20, 2010 12:27PM

Source: Herald Sun

UPDATE 7.51pm: JULIA Gillard has dismissed as “stupid and wrong” a senior union official’s belief that the 9/11 attacks were a conspiracy but has refused to discipline him.

Kevin Bracken, the president of the Victorian Trades Hall and secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, sparked anger this morning after claiming the attacks were not the result of terrorist activity.

“I believe the official story is a conspiracy theory that doesn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny,” Mr Bracken told ABC talk-back host Jon Faine.

“In my mind the buildings were imploded.”

Faine initially thought the call was a hoax.

“I challenge you to a public debate,” Mr Bracken said to Faine.

“Aviation fuel doesn’t get hot enough to melt steel and no high rise steel frame building before or after September 11 has ever collapsed due to fire.”

Faine described the claim as a “nutter theory”.

The Federal Opposition seized on the comments in Parliament today, with Victorian MP Josh Frydenberg asking Ms Gillard what action she would take against Mr Bracken “to send a message that such remarks are unacceptable”, The Australian reported.

“Obviously I don’t agree with the remarks, obviously they are stupid and wrong,” Ms Gillard said.

“The Labor Party is a large organisation, people join it as individuals – we don’t dictate what people think.”

After being accused by Liberal frontbencher Christopher Pyne of not answering the question on discipline, Ms Gillard said: “If it is the intention of the Leader of the Opposition to expel every member who says something stupid, I’ll start sending him a weekly list.”

In Victoria, Shadow Attorney General Robert Clarke said Mr Bracken’s comments were a direct insult to Australian soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

“It strikes at the very heart of the West’s struggle against terrorism and it is a disgrace that while Australian soldiers are serving and dying in Afghanistan that Mr Bracken make these wild claims that undermine the very reason for their presence in Afghanistan,” he said.

Mr Clarke called on Premier John Brumby to condemn these comments in the strongest possible terms and for the outspoken union leader to be disciplined.

“The Trades Hall Council needs to consider Mr Bracken’s future as its president and the MUA needs to consider his future as their secretary,” he said.

“These comments can’t stand they need to be condemned in the strongest possible terms.”

Trades Hall secretary Brian Boyd said Mr Bracken did not speak on behalf of the organisation.

“The official Trades Hall position is not to entertain that theory,” Mr Boyd said.

“We had almost 3000 working people killed in that terrorist attack. It was a terrorist attack, and we condemn it.”

Mr Boyd said Mr Bracken’s views had caused many debates behind the walls of Trade Hall.

“He is welcome to his views and we’ve discussed his theories,” he said.

“But I totally disagree.”

Mr Boyd said he stood by his colleague despite his extremist views.

“99 per cent of the time Kevin’s a very good president,” he said.

MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin distanced the union from the comment, releasing a statement saying its position on the attack was “unambiguous”.

“The 9/11 tragedy was a result of a terrorist attack by international terrorists who claimed responsibility,” he said.

“It is the MUA’s position – one that I passionately support as national secretary – that this attack is one of the greatest affronts and abuses of human and civil rights in contemporary history.”

This is not the first time Mr Bracken has voiced his controversial opinions on the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.

In 2006 he told The Australian he believed the attacks only worked because the US Government was in some way involved.

“If they want to stop terrorism they’ve got to look at who was really behind September 11,” Mr Bracken said at the time.

“It couldn’t have happened unless there was participation from key elements of the American military and government and security services. I am not saying the whole lot were involved. But I believe the official story for September 11 doesn’t stack up.”

Mr Bracken said in 2006 his views on the terror laws and September 11 were his own, and he was not speaking on behalf of the union.

Source: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/216517-The-War-On-Terror-is-a-Fraud

Paul Craig Roberts
Sott.net
Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:31 CDT

Does anyone remember the “cakewalk war” that would last six weeks, cost $50-$60 billion, and be paid for out of Iraqi oil revenues?

Does anyone remember that White House economist Lawrence Lindsey was fired by Dubya because Lindsey estimated that the Iraq war could cost as much as $200 billion?

Lindsey was fired for over-estimating the cost of a war that, according to Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, has cost 15 times more than Lindsey estimated. And the US still has 50,000 troops in Iraq.

Does anyone remember that just prior to the US invasion of Iraq, the US government declared victory over the Taliban in Afghanistan?

Does anyone remember that the reason Dubya gave for invading Iraq was Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, weapons that the US government knew did not exist?

Are Americans aware that the same neoconservatives who made these fantastic mistakes, or told these fabulous lies, are still in control of the government in Washington?

The “war on terror” is now in its tenth year. What is it really all about?

The bottom line answer is that the “war on terror” is about creating real terrorists. The US government desperately needs real terrorists in order to justify its expansion of its wars against Muslim countries and to keep the American people sufficiently fearful that they continue to accept the police state that provides “security from terrorists,” but not from the government that has discarded civil liberties.

The US government creates terrorists by invading Muslim countries, wrecking infrastructure and killing vast numbers of civilians. The US also creates terrorists by installing puppet governments to rule over Muslims and by using the puppet governments to murder and persecute citizens as is occurring on a vast scale in Pakistan today.

Neoconservatives used 9/11 to launch their plan for US world hegemony. Their plan fit with the interests of America’s ruling oligarchies. Wars are good for the profits of the military/security complex, about which President Eisenhower warned us in vain a half century ago. American hegemony is good for the oil industry’s control over resources and resource flows. The transformation of the Middle East into a vast American puppet state serves well the Israel Lobby’s Zionist aspirations for Israeli territorial expansion.

Most Americans cannot see what is happening because of their conditioning. Most Americans believe that their government is the best on earth, that it is morally motivated to help others and to do good, that it rushes aid to countries where there is famine and natural catastrophes. Most believe that their presidents tell the truth, except about their sexual affairs.

The persistence of these delusions is extraordinary in the face of daily headlines that report US government bullying of, and interference with, virtually every country on earth. The US policy is to buy off, overthrow, or make war on leaders of other countries who represent their peoples’ interests instead of American interests. A recent victim was the president of Honduras who had the wild idea that the Honduran government should serve the Honduran people.

The American government was able to have the Honduran president discarded, because the Honduran military is trained and supplied by the US military. It is the same case in Pakistan, where the US government has the Pakistani government making war on its own people by invading tribal areas that the Americans consider to be friendly to the Taliban, al Qaeda, “militants” and “terrorists.”

Earlier this year a deputy US Treasury secretary ordered Pakistan to raise taxes so that the Pakistani government could more effectively make war on its own citizens for the Americans. On October 14 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered Pakistan to again raise taxes or the US would withhold flood aid. Clinton pressured America’s European puppet states to do the same, expressing in the same breath that the US government was worried by British cuts in the military budget. God forbid that the hard-pressed British, still reeling from American financial fraud, don’t allocate enough money to fight America’s wars.

On Washington’s orders, the Pakistani government launched a military offensive against Pakistani citizens in the Swat Valley that killed large numbers of Pakistanis and drove millions of civilians from their homes. Last July the US instructed Pakistan to send its troops against the Pakistani residents of North Waziristan. On July 6 Jason Ditz reported on antiwar.com that “at America’s behest, Pakistan has launched offensives against [the Pakistani provinces of] Swat Valley, Bajaur, South Waziristan, Orakzai,and Khyber.”

A week later Israel’s US Senator Carl Levin (D,MI) called for escalating the Obama Administration’s policies of US airstrikes against Pakistan’s tribal areas. On September 30, the Pakistani newspaper, The Frontier Post, wrote that the American air strikes “are, plain and simple, a naked aggression against Pakistan.”

The US claims that its forces in Afghanistan have the right to cross into Pakistan in pursuit of “militants.” Recently US helicopter gunships killed three Pakistani soldiers who they mistook for Taliban. Pakistan closed the main US supply route to Afghanistan until the Americans apologized.

Pakistan warned Washington against future attacks. However, US military officials, under pressure from Obama to show progress in the endless Afghan war, responded to Pakistan’s warning by calling for expanding the Afghan war into Pakistan. On October 5 the Canadian journalist Eric Margolis wrote that “the US edges closer to invading Pakistan.”

In his book, Obama’s Wars, Bob Woodward reports that America’s puppet president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, believes that terrorist bombing attacks inside Pakistan for which the Taliban are blamed are in fact CIA operations designed to destabilize Pakistan and allow Washington to seize Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.

To keep Pakistan in line, the US government changed its position that the “Times Square Bombing” was the work of a “lone wolf.” Attorney General Eric Holder switched the blame to the “Pakistani Taliban,” and Secretary of State Clinton threatened Pakistan with “very serious consequences” for the unsuccessful Times Square bombing, which likely was a false flag operation aimed at Pakistan.

To further heighten tensions, on September 1 the eight members of a high-ranking Pakistani military delegation in route to a meeting in Tampa, Florida, with US Central Command, were rudely treated and detained as terrorist suspects at Washington DC’s Dulles Airport.

For decades the US government has enabled repeated Israeli military aggression against Lebanon and now appears to be getting into gear for another Israeli assault on the former American protectorate of Lebanon. On October 14 the US government expressed its “outrage” that the Lebanese government had permitted a visit by Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who is the focus of Washington’s intense demonization efforts. Israel’s representatives in the US Congress threatened to stop US military aid to Lebanon, forgetting that US Rep. Howard Berman (D,CA) has had aid to Lebanon blocked since last August to punish Lebanon for a border clash with Israel.

Perhaps the most telling headline of all is the October 14 report, “Somalia’s New American Primer Minister.” An American has been installed as the Prime Minister of Somalia, an American puppet government in Mogadishu backed up by thousands of Ugandan troops paid by Washington.

This barely scratches the surface of Washington’s benevolence toward other countries and respect for their rights, borders, and lives of their citizens.

Meanwhile, to silence Wikileaks and to prevent any more revelations of American war crimes, the “freedom and democracy” government in DC has closed down Wikileaks’ donations by placing the organization on its “watch list” and by having the Australian puppet government blacklist Wikileaks.

Wikileaks is now akin to a terrorist organization. The American government’s practice of silencing critics will spread across the Internet.

Remember, they hate us because we have freedom and democracy, First Amendment rights, habeas corpus, respect for human rights, and show justice and mercy to all.

About: Paul Craig Roberts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts

Article by John Bursill

So why should we believe that “9/11 Truth” can stop the war in Afghanistan and bring the “War on Terrorism” to an end?

I will lay out below the non-conspiratorial reasons why it is vitally important that we continue to demand accountability from our governments, on why it is they went to war on our behalf in 2001. I will also argue why I am correct to strongly assert that the pursuit of 9/11 truth and a criminal investigation of those events is the only practical path to peace today. Details of an upcoming Sydney “9/11 Truth for Peace” Protest on September 11th, 2010 are at the bottom of this article.

On the 11th of September 2001 the world entered a very dark chapter of its history! We were promised a 100 years of war in this “New American Century” fighting “the terrorists” wherever the American Empire deemed they were, and at the time of their choosing. We were told that this “New Pear Harbor” event carried out on 9/11 by the CIA born Al-Qaeda was a fair and reasonable reason to carry out a preemptive strike against their supporters the Taliban, by the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.

The vast majority of the world’s population and its governments rallied behind the US determined to fight Islamic terrorism together world wide. Although some more skeptical commentators and governments were cautious with their support for this so called “War on Terrorism”, they found themselves intimidated into silence. For the Bush/Cheney Administration and its powerful media supporters made it abundantly clear “that you are with us or you are with the terrorists” GWB.

The newly elected (?) Bush Administration and its Neo-Con agenda (Rebuilding America’s Defenses) went into full swing in the last few months of 2001 by the use of this powerful new catalyst of fear, 9/11. The American public was so angry and shocked by 9/11 that they were literally cheering for revenge and in full support of military retaliation. Innocently and traumatized they trusted the story they were told about 9/11 without evidence, and also trusted that George W. Bush would lead them to victory against the terrorists and capture Osama Bin Laden “dead or alive”! Still for the Bush Administration to be able to see their new “pre-emptive war doctrine” slide into position with an Afghan War, rather than being seen as a “war crime”, the US Government had to give many assurances to the world and it’s governments. Assurances that evidence would be produced to prove their Bin Laden Al-Qaeda “conspiracy theory” in a White Paper and that they would investigate how it was that the attacks happened. Making that investigation the basis of their policy to stop such terrorism into the future. They would with out a doubt address their massive military and intelligence failures on 9/11 and make changes to prevent any further now expected attacks.

They also made many hollow promises to the American people. Like they would look after the welfare of the 9/11 First Responders, who are still waiting for basic health care as they fall in the thousands to the effects of the toxic dust they were told was safe! They also said they would get to the bottom of the massive and unprecedented structural failures of the three WTC towers 1, 2 and 7. Those towers that fell that day at near or actual free fall speeds led to the death of 343 New York Firefighters and thousands of civilians who never imagined the buildings would collapse at all. Today a growing number of Firefighters, Engineers, Architects, Scientists and building professionals question these collapses as inconsistent with being caused by fire and aircraft damage alone. The collapse of building 7 (not hit by a plane) and the discovery of Nano-Thermite in the collapse dust being the clearest evidence that pre-planted explosives and incendiaries charges within the buildings assisted in their destruction. Who did this and why and how it happened is clearly needed to be investigated in a criminal court immediately.

Unfortunately it is true and un-controversial to state unequivocally that we, the public have received none of what the US Government assured us they would deliver. Rather we have seen in an unprecedented manner the most obvious and ruthless cover up and destruction of evidence and testimony around the events of 9/11. This lack of accountability is most starkly supported by the statement by the chairs of the 9/11 Commission Report, that “they were set up to fail” and that NIST the National Institute of Science and Technology is unable to explain many aspects of the building collapses. Some of the things they can not and will not explain include; the actual collapse sequence of the Twin Towers, the molten iron found at ground zero and the simply unbelievable “absolute” free fall of building 7 for over 100ft of its fall! To this day, we the people of the world have no idea based on official “testable” reports of what really happened on 9/11! Who is responsible for those heinous crimes is a question that simply can not be answered without a criminal investigation. Secrecy is everywhere and truth, transparency and justice are nowhere to be seen?

The 9/11 Truth Movement world wide have been demanding a new investigation of the events of September 11, 2001 for 9 years now and have continuously pointed out that we should withdraw the troops from Afghanistan immediately until we know who is responsible for the 9/11 Attacks. The FBI still have not indicted Bin Laden for 9/11 as the say they have “no hard evidence” connecting him to those events? Disturbingly Khalid Sheikh Mohammed the so called “mastermind” of the 9/11 attacks, whose tortured testimony is the basis of the official 9/11 “conspiracy theory” in the “9/11 Commission Report” remains un-charged to this day for those crimes?

Although much work has been done by citizen researchers to discover who may or may not have been involved with carrying out the 9/11 Attacks, such endeavors are impossible to fulfill without subpoena power in a courtroom.

Recently two more Australians died in Afghanistan fighting a provably illegal war on behalf of the Australian Government’s support for the “War on Terrorism”. This Government support of the war is based on the the understanding that the 9/11 Attacks were a direct result of the Taliban supporting and harboring the terrorists responsible for the crimes committed on 9/11. Remove this justification and their is absolutely no reason for any further support! This 9/11 war in Afghanistan has now taken 20 of Australia’s finest in the field, which is double the number of Australians that where killed on 9/11. How many innocent Afghans have died because of the invasion and occupation is anyone’s guess as the media and the military have little interest in finding out the true figures to date. Estimates put it at approximately 30,000 people, although it’s probably a much greater number?

The Australian 9/11 Truth Movement are determined to expose to the Australian people the facts that dispute the legitimacy of the official story of 9/11! They continue to demand that Australian troops are immediately removed from Afghanistan until 9/11 is properly investigated and evidence is produced to demonstrate Afghanistan is responsible in any way for those attacks!

It is clear from the simple facts that are on the public record that nine years on there is no mandate or excuse for the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and that 9/11 truth is the only practical path to peace today. With out exposing that the pretext to this war is simply not based in reality, the anger and hatred of the people in the west ignorant of the facts will allow the bloodshed to continue.

A protest will be held in Sydney’s Hyde Park in the vicinity of the War Memorial (Map) on the 9th anniversary of the September 11th Attacks. Hereward Fenton the organizer and member of “We Are Change – Sydney” says “this protest will be held in honor of the Australian lives lost on 9/11 and the brave soldiers who have fallen since in Afghanistan in their name. We also will remember the innocent Afghan deaths and hope that we can help bring Afghanistan to peace!”. The protest will be static in nature commencing at 11am on Saturday the 11th of September and continuing to approximately 2pm that day. Hereward can be contacted at hereward@911oz.com or call him on +61415059675

Story by John Bursill
22nd of July, 2010

Australia’s number one talk back Radio Station 2GB, have reported on the Prof. Niels Harritt Lecture on the 17th of July, 2010 at the Sydney Mechanic’s School of Arts during their late evening show with Brian Wilshire. Sydney’s most popular late night show’s regular guest, Prof. Keith Suter who attended the Harritt Lecture, has expressed his fascination with the issue of the World Trade Center 7 collapse on the afternoon of September 11, 2001.

Audio sourced by Hereward Fenton, Editor www.truthnews.com.au and www.911oz.com

Prof. Suter, a highly regarded Australian media personality and internationally recognised academic and expert on foreign affairs, clearly expressed his satisfaction with the event and the evidence supporting an apparent “implosion” of WTC 7. Quote: “I commend the organisers, they kept emphasizing it was a scientific gathering, although it was open to the general public…they were treating it in a scientific way. They were looking simply at the scientific aspects of ‘how’ the building came down not ‘why’ or ‘who’. There were questions from the floor naturally, sort of saying who would be behind this and the scientist they had there…(Harritt et al)…they kept saying no, no, no it’s our job to simply identify the process by which the buildings came down”. Suter while talking to popular host Brian Wilshire who is already on the record as having many doubts about the official “9/11 conspiracy theory” went on to mention that WTC 7′s collapse was missing from the 9/11 Commission Report.

It continues to be evident that the official conspiracy theory is dying the death of one thousand cuts by the tireless efforts of determined citizen activists. It also seems evident that it is by taking a non conspiratorial approach to the events of 9/11 we are having the most success; that is by allowing media people of conscience to report on alternate and controversial evidence of criminal activity with out being called “conspiracy nuts”.

Do not be fooled by the silence of our mainstream media on an alternate 9/11 reality; it is and continues to be the most corrosive background media element holding back the power elite’s agenda world wide. One by one the intelligent media personalities with credibility are getting on the right side of history as the the 9/11 Truth message becomes more reasoned and supported by what the “hard evidence” shows.

Story by John Bursill

On Saturday the 17th of July Prof. Niels Harritt of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark gave a lecture to a capacity crowd of concerned citizens called ” Did Explosives Bring Down the Towers on 9/11″. This Sydney audience was generated purely from fliers handed out by diligent activists and one radio interview.

Although a handful of independent journalists did attend and a small press conference was held, not one Australian main stream media outlet was represented. It is now more clear than ever that a culture of silence surrounds the science of 9/11 which proves beyond any reasonable doubt that the Twin Towers and Building 7 where brought down using explosives and incendiary devices.

The Australian 9/11 Truth Movement would like to thank all that made this event possible and their generous donations which for the first time actually covered the costs! A special thanks must also go to the Sydney WeAreChange Chapter who acted as the arms and legs to get this show on the road!

Besides being a man of great knowledge, Niels Harritt is an absolute gem of a man that works hard for the 9/11 cause. Dr Harritt has given in excess of 100 lectures to the public both in Denmark and abroad. He is a modern day scientific hero in a world of intellectual cowards and self serving academics.

International relationships within the 9/11 Truth Movement continue to build by these events, strengthening all our resolves to pursue truth and justice for the victims of the 9/11 Attacks.

For a history of John Bursill’s Blog activity please see John Bursill’s Blog at 911blogger.com