What does it say about the American political system that someone like George W. Bush was able to ascend to the highest office in the land, despite his meager and ambiguous record?
In pursuit of an answer to that question, investigative journalist Russ Baker has constructed a full-fledged counterhistory of the last half-century as it pertains to the Bush family. He writes in his new book "Family of Secrets" that he discovered a "dimension of power" that conditions and distorts the American political process. It lies at the intersection of corporate oil interests, finance and intelligence, and the Bushes have been at the heart of it.
With a brief apology to the reader, Baker revisits the JFK assassination (and George H.W. Bush's peculiar response to it) and he embraces a radical reinterpretation of Watergate in which President Nixon is the target and victim of the conspiracy rather than its instigator.
The following is a Freedom of Information Act Reply for NTSB records that indicate what percentage of the wreckage of American Airlines flight 77 and United Airlines flight 93 was recovered from each respective crash scene and for the serial number for the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) recovered from United Airlines flight 93. Previous NTSB factual reports have described what percentage of a destroyed aircraft has been recovered from a crash scene. Within its answer, the NTSB indicates that all NTSB records pertaining to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 have been released.
by Reprehensor
Sunday, January 04, 2009
911Blogger.com
(James Bamford has done another great deed for the public by revealing the extent of the NSA's wiretapping on U.S. soil, and how the NSA sub-contracts the vast majority of its work to Israeli high-tech firms bristling with "former" Israeli military intelligence agents, and in the case of Verint, a company with serious corruption issues. It was Bamford who popularized the existence of Operation Northwoods in his 2001 book, Body of Secrets. In The Shadow Factory, he sheds light in the secret rooms of Verizon and AT&T, and shows the NSA to be a very poor custodian of the nation's security.)
Bamford Brings the Goods
On October 14, 2008, James Bamford talked about some of the shocking research in his new book on Democracy Now!, with Amy Goodman ...
WHAT: A long column of figures dressed all in black with white death masks and bearing the names of those killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. The march will be followed by a dramatic nonviolent action intended to awaken Congress to the need to end the wars.
WHEN: March from noon to 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. Additional dramatic action 2:15 p.m.
WHERE: The march will approach the U.S. Capitol on Pennsylvania Ave. SE and turn north on 1st Street to pass between the Capitol and the Supreme Court, turn west on Constitution Ave. to pass the Senate office buildings, turn south to pass the west front of the Capitol, and turn east on Independence Ave. to pass the House office buildings. Members of the media wanting to cover the additional nonviolent action should meet representatives of the March of the Dead in front of the Supreme Court at 2 p.m.
The aerial bombings and the ongoing ground invasion of Gaza by Israeli ground forces must be analysed in a historical context. Operation "Cast Lead" is a carefully planned undertaking, which is part of a broader military-intelligence agenda first formulated by the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001:
"Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas."(Barak Ravid, Operation "Cast Lead": Israeli Air Force strike followed months of planning, Haaretz, December 27, 2008)
It was Israel which broke the truce on the day of the US presidential elections, November 4:
by Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian
Territories
Huffingtonpost.com
January 2, 2009
For eighteen months the entire 1.5 million people of Gaza experienced a punishing
blockade imposed by Israel, and a variety of traumatizing challenges to the
normalcy of daily life. A flicker of hope emerged some six months ago when an
Egyptian arranged truce produced an effective ceasefire that cut Israeli casualties
to zero despite the cross-border periodic firing of homemade rockets that fell
harmlessly on nearby Israeli territory, and undoubtedly caused anxiety in the
border town of Sderot. During the ceasefire the Hamas leadership in Gaza repeatedly
offered to extend the truce, even proposing a ten-year period and claimed a
receptivity to a political solution based on acceptance of Israel's 1967 borders.
Israel ignored these diplomatic initiatives, and failed to carry out its side
of the ceasefire agreement that involved some easing of the blockade that had
been restricting the entry to Gaza of food, medicine, and fuel to a trickle.
Israel also refused exit permits to students with foreign fellowship awards
and to Gazan journalists and respected NGO representatives. At the same time,
it made it increasingly difficult for journalists to enter, and I was myself
expelled from Israel a couple of weeks ago when I tried to enter to carry out
my UN job of monitoring respect for human rights in occupied Palestine, that
is, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as Gaza. Clearly, prior to
the current crisis, Israel used its authority to prevent credible observers
from giving accurate and truthful accounts of the dire humanitarian situation
that had been already documented as producing severe declines in the physical
condition and mental health of the Gazan population, especially noting malnutrition
among children and the absence of treatment facilities for those suffering from
a variety of diseases. The Israeli attacks were directed against a society already
in grave condition after a blockade maintained during the prior 18 months.
(James Bamford has done another great deed for the public by revealing the extent of the NSA's wiretapping on U.S. soil, and how the NSA sub-contracts the vast majority of its work to Israeli high-tech firms bristling with "former" Israeli military intelligence agents, and in the case of Verint, a company with serious corruption issues. It was Bamford who popularized the existence of Operation Northwoods in his 2001 book, Body of Secrets. In The Shadow Factory, he sheds light in the secret rooms of Verizon and AT&T, and shows the NSA to be a very poor custodian of the nation's security.)
Bamford Brings the Goods
On October 14, 2008, James Bamford talked about some of the shocking research in his new book on Democracy Now!, with Amy Goodman;
As internet activists, it's always good to do regular news.google.com searches on "9/11," "9/11 conspiracy" and "9/11 truth" to see if there are any recent articles worth mentioning. Today, I happen to find the following piece, very favorable, written by an obviously well-read Shelton Lankford. While the article is positive, the first 10 or so comments are rather hateful, negative comments telling Mr. Lankford to take his meds. I was the first positive comment. I realize that many of us feel lazy when it comes to registering an account with a paper in order to comment, but it really does only take a minute. Please take the time to not only comment but also e-mail the author and thank him.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ We'll Soon Know if Obama Will Expose 9/11 Truth
The calendar has ticked over and in 16 days, we won't have President Bush to kick around any more.
Jon Gold
9/25/2008
UPDATE 1/1/2009
Thanks to www.historycommons.org, DHS, and simuvac. This is dedicated to the 9/11 Truth Movement.
Before I begin, I would like to say that theorizing about what happened on 9/11, when you're not being given answers to your questions about that day by the people who SHOULD be able to do so, is PERFECTLY normal. As is suspecting that the reason these answers aren't being given is "sinister" in nature. As Ray McGovern said, "for people to dismiss these questioners as "conspiratorial advocates," or "conspiratorial theorists.." . that's completely out of line because the... The questions remain because the President who should be able to answer them, WILL NOT." When you think about everything this Administration has done in almost 8 years, the idea that they might not be giving us the answers we seek because of something "sinister" is not crazy. In fact, it's the most logical conclusion one can come to at this point. After seven plus years of obfuscation, spin, lies, and cover-ups regarding the 9/11 attacks, it is unavoidable to think that criminal complicity is the reason why.
That being said, we have not proven it beyond the shadow of doubt. We do not have documentation that shows they planned it. We do not have a signed confession from someone. We have pieces of the puzzle, and to most of us that have been doing this a long time, those pieces point to more than just Osama Bin Laden, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and 19 hijackers. If we could somehow download all of our knowledge to every person on the planet, this fight would be over tomorrow. However, we can't do that. I wish we could. I wish the media would DO THEIR JOB. But, they're not. Therefore, we have to be smart with how we approach people. This is America, and in America, you are innocent until proven guilty.
The video conference featuring Canadian academics Anthony Hall, Michael Keefer, Graeme MacQueen and John McMurtry has been edited and the audio enhanced significantly. The result is very good, and is here in two parts;
Elizabeth Woodworth
December 30, 2008
In a companion essay (reprinted below), I discussed the response of some articles in the mainstream
press to the claim, made by some defenders of Israel, that Professor Richard
Falk should be removed from his current position of UN rapporteur on human rights
abuses in the Palestinian Territories -- a claim that was reflected in the refusal
of Israel on December 14, 2008, to allow him to enter the country. I included
in this essay a discussion of an article by reporter Joel Brinkley because,
although it was published before Israel's action against Falk1,
it could be read as a defense of that action. Brinkley, who had previously worked
for the New York Times, argued that Falk did not have the right "frame
of mind" for his UN position. In the present essay, I will focus on Brinkley's
argument for this charge, suggesting that it shows that he does not have the
right frame of mind for his own current position as visiting professor of journalism
at Stanford University.
Brinkley's Discussion of 9/11
Brinkley's charge that Falk is unfit for his UN role is quite remarkable,
given Falk's stature. He is Professor Emeritus of International Law and
Practice at Princeton University and currently Distinguished Visiting Professor
at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He has had published (as author
or editor) over 60 books by academic and other mainstream presses. He is also
widely respected and sought after as a speaker and conference participant.
Articles follow:
US gives Israel free reign on whether to invade Gaza
AFP, Friday January 2, 2009
Rights orgs: UN body must act to end Gaza war crimes
Intervention, various undersigned, 30 December 2008
Electronic
Intifada: The Electronic Intifada (EI), found at electronicIntifada.net,
publishes news, commentary, analysis, and reference materials about the Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict from a Palestinian perspective. ...
DO SOMETHING! Links follow.
For eighteen months the entire 1.5 million people of Gaza experienced a punishing blockade imposed by Israel, and a variety of traumatizing challenges to the normalcy of daily life. A flicker of hope emerged some six months ago when an Egyptian arranged truce produced an effective ceasefire that cut Israeli casualties to zero despite the cross-border periodic firing of homemade rockets that fell harmlessly on nearby Israeli territory, and undoubtedly caused anxiety in the border town of Sderot. During the ceasefire the Hamas leadership in Gaza repeatedly offered to extend the truce, even proposing a ten-year period and claimed a receptivity to a political solution based on acceptance of Israel's 1967 borders. Israel ignored these diplomatic initiatives, and failed to carry out its side of the ceasefire agreement that involved some easing of the blockade that had been restricting the entry to Gaza of food, medicine, and fuel to a trickle.
Israel also refused exit permits to students with foreign fellowship awards and to Gazan journalists and respected NGO representatives. At the same time, it made it increasingly difficult for journalists to enter, and I was myself expelled from Israel a couple of weeks ago when I tried to enter to carry out my UN job of monitoring respect for human rights in occupied Palestine, that is, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as Gaza. Clearly, prior to the current crisis, Israel used its authority to prevent credible observers from giving accurate and truthful accounts of the dire humanitarian situation that had been already documented as producing severe declines in the physical condition and mental health of the Gazan population, especially noting malnutrition among children and the absence of treatment facilities for those suffering from a variety of diseases. The Israeli attacks were directed against a society already in grave condition after a blockade maintained during the prior 18 months.
WTC7: NIST Finally Admits Freefall (Part III) is now posted on YouTube. This concluding segment explores the implications of NIST's concession (to easily observed reality) that freefall occurred.
December 29, 2008
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com
Neocon John Bolton claims that "in 100 years," people won't
remember two of the biggest stains on Bush's record, Guantánamo Bay
and Abu Ghraib:
"In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, he was strong and decisive and
that was critical for both the country and for the Western world," believes
John Bolton. "In 100 years people aren't going to remember Guantánamo
or Abu Ghraib, they're going to remember 9/11 and Bush's reaction
to it."
Is he right?
No.
60 years after Hitler, the exact thing which we most remember are his concentration
camps.
Do we remember the false threats he drummed up to scare his people? The fake
threat from Poland, for example, which is the exact parallel to the Neocon's
fake "war on terror"?
By Cernig
Wednesday Dec 24, 2008
CrooksandLiars.com
Via
my Newshoggers colleague Anderson comes
this:
By a vote of 180 in favour to 1 against (United States) and no abstentions, the Committee also approved a resolution on the right to food, by which the Assembly would consider it intolerable that more than 6 million children still died every year from hunger-related illness before their fifth birthday, and that the number of undernourished people had grown to about 923 million worldwide, at the same time that the planet could produce enough food to feed 12 billion people, or twice the worlds present population. (See Annex III.)
The
Bush administration, speaking for the U.S.A., therefore must consider it tolerable
that 6 million children die every day - children who could be fed if we weren't
wasting billions on stealth fighters, littoral combat boondoggles and non-effective
defense against non-existant ballistic missiles from Iran.
(Larnaca, Cyprus, 10:00 am) On Tuesday, December 30, at 5 a.m., several Israeli
gunboats intercepted the Dignity as she was heading on a mission of mercy to
Gaza. One gunboat rammed into the boat on the port bow side, heavily damaging
her. The reports from the passengers and journalists on board is that she is
taking on water and appears to have engine problems. When attacked, the Dignity
was clearly in international waters, 90 miles off the coast of Gaza.
The gunboats also fired their machine guns into the water in an attempt to
stop the mercy ship from getting to Gaza.
As the boat limps toward Lebanon, passengers have been in contact with the
Lebanese government who have said the captain has permission to dock and are
willing lend assistance if needed. Cyprus sea rescue has also been in touch,
and has offered assistance as well. The Dignity clearly flies the flag of Gibraltar,
is piloted by an English captain and has a passenger manifest that includes
Representative Cynthia McKinney from the U.S. The attack was filmed by the journalists,
and the crew and passengers will report on Israel's crime at sea once they arrive
in Lebanon. (emphasis added)
On board the boat are doctors traveling to this impoverished slice of the Mediterranean
to provide badly-needed relief at the hospitals there. The crew and passengers
were also hoping to take wounded out for treatment, since the hospitals are
not coping. In addition, the Dignity was carrying 3 tons of medical supplies
at the request of the doctors in Gaza.
Dec. 29, 2008
Associated Press
MIAMI - U.S. prosecutors want a Miami judge to sentence the son of former Liberian
President Charles Taylor to 147 years in prison for torturing people when he
was chief of a brutal paramilitary unit during his father's reign.
... A recent Justice Department court filing describes torture -- which the
U.S. has been accused of in the war on terror -- as a "flagrant and
pernicious abuse of power and authority" that warrants severe punishment
of Taylor.
"It undermines respect for and trust in authority, government and a rule
of law," wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Caroline Heck Miller in last week's
filing (emphasis added). "The gravity of the offense of torture is beyond dispute."
December 28, 2008
by Harold Saive
911Blogger.com
In November, 2008, Gators911Truth sent a letter to FBI Director, Robert S.
Mueller, III asking the DOJ to consider the forensic evidence of controlled
demolition as presented by Architect, Richard Gage - founder of AE911Truth.org.
The evidence is presented in Gage's 2008 DVD lecture titled: "911: BLUEPRINT
FOR TRUTH. The Architecture of Destruction".
The letter was sent under the provisions of TITLE18 USC § 2382, Misprision
of Treason and/or 18 USC § 4 , Misprision of Felony. We received a response
today from the Asst. Dir. of Counterterrorism, Michael J. Heimbach.
Iraq’s government will “embrace a long-term U.S. troop presence in return for U.S. security guarantees [referred to in another business as a protection racket] as part of a strategic partnership…an enduring relationship in military, economic and political terms.”
The dollar was savaged by the monetary policies of the Federal Reserve. The Fed's policies were designed to coincide with Bush's Middle East Crusade. They were supposed to work like two wheels on the same axle
Hubris and arrogance are too ensconced in Washington for policymakers to be aware of the economic policy trap in which they have placed the US economy.
Everything about America is done to the max—super sized—including ourselves. Americans are fond of excess, fond of glitz and glitter, the bright beads and trinkets of capitalism; the symbols of conspicuous consumption. Millions of us live in McMansions, drive fast cars and hulking tanks and work at high stress glamorous jobs that provide enormous financial reward but leave us spiritually empty.
In new books writers as disparate as Naomi Wolf and Pat Buchanan conclude that America as we know her is disappearing. Both writers hope, but are not confident, that enough Americans will catch on in time to find the leadership to pull America back from the brink
Civil libertarians are worried that a little-known anti-terrorism bill now making its way through the U.S. Congress with virtually no debate could be planting the seeds of another USA Patriot Act, which was hurriedly enacted into law after the al Qaeda attacks of Sep. 11, 2001
It is Pelosi who now represents Cheney-Bush’s most powerful and effective enabler and supporter. Pelosi is now a vital part of the Cheney-Bush crime machine. She is an accessory before, during and after the fact. And she assuredly supports the AIPAC/Cheney-Bush crime machine’s intended and unwarranted, unconstitutional invasion of Iran.
In their frantic drive to pave the way for a military strike against Iran, leading figures in the neoconservative pro-Israel lobby have embarked on a vicious campaign of demonizing that country by comparing it with the early years of Nazi Germany and its President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with Hitler.
On November 26, 2007 the Venezuelan government broadcast and circulated a confidential memo from the US embassy to the CIA which is devastatingly revealing of US clandestine operations and which will influence the referendum this Sunday (December 2, 2007).
Home
