Ningen's Blog

What about NIST's World Trade Center reports?

2009-10-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/10600-scientists-condemn.html

10,600 Scientists Condemn Political Interference in Science

New Guide Documents Ongoing Federal Abuse of Science; 110th Congress Must Act

SAN FRANCISCO—A statement by Nobel laureates and other leading scientists calling for the restoration of scientific integrity to federal policy making has now been signed by 10,600 scientists from all 50 states, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) announced today at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The announcement came as the scientists group released an "A to Z" guide that documents dozens of recent allegations involving censorship and political interference in federal science.

Lack of 9/11 identifiable aircraft parts

2009-10-26T17:39:00.000-07:00

Impossible to Prove a Falsehood True:
Aircraft Parts as a Clue to their Identity

by George Nelson
Colonel, USAF (ret.)

The precautionary principle is based on the fact it is impossible to prove a false claim. Failure to prove a claim does not automatically make it false, but caution is called for, especially in the case of a world-changing event like the alleged terror attacks of September 11, 2001. The Bush administration has provided no public evidence to support its claim that the terror attacks were the work of Muslim extremists or even that the aircraft that struck their respective targets on September 11 were as advertised. As I will show below, it would be a simple matter to confirm that they were - if they were. Until such proof is forthcoming, the opposite claim must be kept in mind as a precaution against rushing to judgment: the 911 hijackings were part of a black operation carried out with the cooperation of elements in our government.

http://www.physics911.net/georgenelson

Post-2001 U.S. Debt to GDP

2009-09-16T17:44:00.001-07:00

Did Al-Qaeda put this country in the red zone after 2001?

Another article on infowar

2009-08-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

INFORMATION WARFARE
Prof George J. Stein, Air War College, USAF
Airpower Journal - Spring 1995

http://www.iwar.org.uk/iwar/resources/airchronicles/stein.htm

Is there a way we could use information, like current theories of airpower, to create an "information campaign" that engages an opponent simultaneously in time, space, and depth across the full range of his strategic structures so that the result is strategic paralysis (he is deaf, dumb, and blind to anything except that which we permit him to hear, say, or see)?19 Not that we just blind him, but that he sees what we wish him to see without realizing that it's "our" reality, not his. Can we envision that kind of strategic information warfare? And, as was the case with airpower, technology will follow strategic vision. It's OK if we can't insert computer viruses by direct satellite broadcast-today; fry every air defense radar with an electromagnetic burst from a remote unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-today; transfer all the dictator's Swiss bank accounts to the internal revenue service (IRS)-today; project holographic images, complete with proper electronic signatures, of 15 squadrons coming in from the north when we're coming in the back door-today; or beam the Forrest Gump interview with "El Supremo" into every radio and television in banditland-today. Develop the strategic theory of information warfare, and the technology will come.

Thanks to Killtown, who posted this article here:

http://killtown.blogspot.com/2007/05/why-they-didnt-use-planes-to-hit-wtc.html

Here's what Killtown excerpted, which is also interesting, and talks about technologies the author already considered available in 1995:

Let us take just one example of how current technologies could be used for strategic-level information warfare. If, say, the capabilities of already well-known Hollywood technologies to simulate reality were added to our arsenal, a genuinely revolutionary new form of warfare would become possible. Today, the techniques of combining live actors with computer-generated video graphics can easily create a "virtual" news conference, summit meeting, or perhaps even a battle that would exist in "effect" though not in physical fact. Stored video images can be recombined or "morphed" endlessly to produce any effect chosen. This moves well beyond traditional military deception, and now, perhaps, "pictures" will be worth a thousand tanks. Imagine the effect of a nationwide broadcast in banditland of the meeting between the "digitized" maximum leader and a "digitized" Jimmy Carter in which all loyal soldiers are told to cease fighting and return to their homes. The targets of information warfare, remember, are the decisions in the opponent's mind, and the battlespace of the human mind is also the zone of illusion.

Du bist Terrorist

2009-05-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

Du bist Terrorist (You are a Terrorist) english subtitles from lexela on Vimeo.

Spinning torture

2009-05-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

Notice that MSNBC's coverage of the story on torture seeking a confession of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda is based on alleged torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is not reported to have confessed to such a link, and not on the alleged torture of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, who is reported to have revealed such a link.

This supports the argument that what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said about 9/11 was true, while avoiding the difficult problem of the death of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, and the fact that a tortured confession was in fact offered to the United Nations as justification for the Iraq invasion.

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/05/13/two-experts-cast-doubt-on-ibn-al-shaykh-al-libis-suicide/

The alleged link given by Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi was actually used in Colin Powell's February 2003 address to the United Nations, and the alleged attempts to torture KSM to establish a link occurred after this. So why the focus on KSM, when it is the al-Libi confession that was actually used at the United Nations?

http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2009/04/29/even-in-cheneys-bleak-world-the-al-qaeda-iraq-torture-story-is-a-new-low/

Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi: the tortured lie that underpinned the Iraq war

In case anyone has forgotten, when Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, the head of the Khaldan military training camp in Afghanistan, was captured at the end of 2001 and sent to Egypt to be tortured, he made a false confession that Saddam Hussein had offered to train two al-Qaeda operatives in the use of chemical and biological weapons. Al-Libi later recanted his confession, but not until Secretary of State Colin Powell — to his eternal shame — had used the story in February 2003 in an attempt to persuade the UN to support the invasion of Iraq.

Weidlinger Associates and President Bush seem to disagree on what killed most of the people on 9/11

2009-04-08T21:56:00.000-07:00

Lead structural engineer for investigation that determined that the collapse of one WTC tower did not cause or contribute to the collapse of the other.

http://www.weidlinger.com/projectslist.aspx?cat=450&type=400&print=true

An investigation of the collapses of the World Trade Center towers was performed by a pre-eminent group of engineering firms led by Weidlinger Associates. The study, conducted on behalf of the attorneys for Silverstein Properties, Inc., is the most comprehensive study to date of why the Twin Towers stood for as long as they did and why they ultimately collapsed. The results of the study were released to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal agency charged with conducting an in-depth investigation of the causes of the collapses. The study established that the strength and redundancy of the superstructure of the towers initially allowed them to withstand the high-speed impact of the Boeing 767s and that the subsequent collapses were initiated separately by a combination of immediate damage from the impact of the airliners and the resulting fires on the floors that were struck.

http://www.weidlinger.com/project.aspx?id=1817&type=400&cat=450

According to Levy, little could be done to prevent the buildings' destruction, considering the damage the planes had caused. However, he feels that a more effective rescue-plan could have saved more people.

"A critical aspect of the event was the location of the fire stairs," he noted. "They were clustered around the centers of the buildings and were made unusable when the explosions occurred. That is why almost everyone on the lower floors managed to get out and almost no one from the upper floors escaped."

This destruction of the fire escapes and the fact that it took firefighters almost an hour to reach the upper floors accounted for most of the lives lost. Though the New York Fire Department was using the most sophisticated technology available, Weidlinger determined that a more efficient system for putting out high-rise fires needs to be developed.

. . .

Weidlinger's study was done on behalf of Larry Silverstein for the purpose of his insurance claim. In its investigation the firm used advanced computer modeling, photo and video analyses, and original engineering plans for the World Trade Center.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3601/is_39_49/ai_101679160/

Various analyses of the buildings' destruction, including those of Weidlinger Associates and NIST, are discussed by Jeff King here:

http://www.plaguepuppy.net/public_html/Confronting%20the%20Evidence/what_failed_and_how.htm

King points out that Matthys P. Levy, chairman of Weidlinger Associates Inc., stated that for the "collapses" to appear as they did, all of the core columns must have failed simultaneously.

Weidlinger Associate's report is summarized here:

http://enr.construction.com/news/buildings/archives/021025.asp

I am most interested in the assertion, based on this report that was commissioned by attorneys and presumably submitted in the insurance case in federal court, that most of the people died as a result of the plane impacts blocking the fire stairs, and firemen not being able to get up to the fires.

I am still waiting for the "9/11 Truth and Justice" physicist Steven Jones, and for the "Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth," to make a serious critique of NIST's crash physics claims in NIST NCSTAR 1-2.

http://wtc.nist.gov/NCSTAR1/NCSTAR1-2index.htm

Let me repeat a quote from the Real Estate Weekly, which is accurate:

This destruction of the fire escapes and the fact that it took firefighters almost an hour to reach the upper floors accounted for most of the lives lost.

What really happened to the stairs, and what really happened to the elevators?

President Bush, channeling "Khalid Sheikh Mohammed," told a much more plausible version of events:

"For example, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed described the design of planned attacks of buildings inside the U.S. and how operatives were directed to carry them out. That is valuable information for those of us who have the responsibility to protect the American people. He told us the operatives had been instructed to ensure that the explosives went off at a high -- a point that was high enough to prevent people trapped above from escaping."

Joseph Stiglitz on an easy and cheap fix

2009-03-25T14:49:00.000-07:00

Create new banks.

Stiglitz was able to elaborate more on this at Davos, without stupid questions from CNBC talking heads:

http://dailybail.com/home/2009/2/15/bank-bailout-news-video-from-the-world-economic-forum-at-dav.html

Instead, investment banks are allowed to stash billions offshore and have their bad bets covered by the taxpayer. This is so outrageous - looting on a monumental scale.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/03/23/big_clawback/

Receivership, now.

http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc090323.htm

Though I believe that the consequences (via credit default swaps and the like) are overstated of letting bondholders take a haircut, and will ultimately be no worse than having the public take the losses, the fact is that we don't even need the bonds of major financial institutions to go into default. What we do need to do is offer those bondholders a choice:

1) The U.S. government takes receivership of the financial institution, changes the management, wipes out the stockholders and a chunk of the bondholders claims entirely, continues the operation of the institution in receivership, eventually reissues the company to private ownership, and leaves the bondholders with the residual. This is not “nationalization,” but receivership – a form of “pre-packaged bankruptcy” that protects the customers and allows the institution to continue to operate, followed by re-privatization. As I've previously noted, this would fully protect all of the customers and depositors at no probable expense to the public. Alternatively;

2) The bondholders voluntarily agree to move a portion of their claims lower down in the capital structure, swapping debt for equity (preferred or common), allowing the bank to have a larger cushion of Tier-1 capital, avoiding insolvency, and hopefully allowing the bank to recover by its own bootstraps, preferably assisted by debt restructuring on the borrower side (via property appreciation rights and the like). Similar debt/equity swaps would be an appropriate strategy toward failing U.S. automakers as well.

Good Bank, not Bad Bank:

http://blogs.ft.com/maverecon/2009/03/dont-touch-the-unsecured-creditors-clobber-the-tax-payer-instead/

And finally, an excellent blogpost pointing out that nationalization is happening now, but of the downside only:

http://www.interfluidity.com/posts/1235210036.shtml

We are all tired of the lies, Mr. Geithner. By all means, let nationalization be a last resort, and do all you can to offer liquidity to private parties willing to take both the upside and downside of speculating in questionable paper. But if you keep nationalizing the downside and privatizing the upside, it will not be very long at all before the public concludes that stress tests and market prices are just a sleight-of-hand for Davos man while he picks our pockets, again. Act fairly, and you may end up nationalizing the worst few of the larger banks. Keep up the games, and we will insist that you nationalize them all. It is getting hard to believe that there is a banker in the land who has not already robbed us. Eventually we will tire of drawing fine distinctions.

Ya think?

2009-03-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=227162

The bandwagon of authorities has a new seat

2009-02-24T21:58:00.000-08:00

Medical Professionals for 9/11 Truth

http://mp911truth.org/

Make that two new seats:

Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth

http://pl911truth.com/

joining these:

Patriots Question 9/11

http://patriotsquestion911.com/

Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth

http://www.ae911truth.org/

Firefighters for 9/11 Truth

http://firefightersfor911truth.org/

Pilots for 9/11 Truth

http://pilotsfor911truth.org/

Lawyers for 9/11 Truth

http://www.l911t.com/

Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth

http://rl911truth.org/index.php

Coming: Cerebral Cortexed for 9/11 Common Sense

I am happy to see these people speaking out. But please remember, the bandwagon effect and appeals to authority are why so many Americans believed the patently absurd official lies in the first place.

Representative Kanjorski: Dupe or Shill?

2009-02-12T21:55:00.000-08:00

In the video linked below, we see Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-PA, 11th District) on CSPAN, responding to a citizen's criticism of the September 2008 bailout by claiming as follows:

"On Thursday Sept 15, 2008 at roughly 11 AM The Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw down of money market accounts in the USA to the tune of $550 Billion dollars in a matter of an hour or two.

Money was being removed electronically.

The treasury tried to help with $150 Billion.

But could not stem the tide.

It was an electronic run on the banks

The treasury intervened but had they not closed down the accounts they estimated that by 2 PM that afternoon. Within 3 hours. $5.5 Trillion would have been withdrawled and collapsed and within 24 hours the world economy."

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ca2_1234032281

And here we have a strong showing that this was false:

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2009/02/11/kanjorski-and-the-money-market-funds-the-facts

With the Kanjorski Meme still spreading (see Ben Smith, Andrew Leonard, Moldbug, and more), I think I'm finally able to squash it with some hard figures: there never was a $500 billion outflow from any asset class in the space of a couple of hours or even weeks, and the Fed never shut down or froze any money-market accounts.

Icelanders petition their government

2009-01-22T12:57:00.000-08:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/21/iceland-globalrecession

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLL97664

"Protest" is not the right word, because (according to the Guardian article), the petitioners are making "a clear demand for early election."

Video (the international standard: two obligatory young hooligans to discredit the peaceful many)

http://mbl.is/mm/frettir/sjonvarp/22325/

Failure of German bond sale - bad sign

2009-01-07T17:32:00.000-08:00

German bond sale’s fate signals trouble ahead

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/16c7ceba-dcbe-11dd-a2a9-000077b07658.html

This is a bad sign, according to Illargi at Automatic Earth:

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2009/01/january-7-2009-name-is-bonds-obama.html

Obama warns of a $1 trillion US deficit this year. It’s obvious the deficit will be nearer $2 trillion, but you have to feed it to them bite-size. It'll easily be more than ten times the 2007 deficit of $162 billion, in an economy with a rapidly shrinking GDP. Obama expects the deficit to remain over $1 trillion (read: way over) for many years to come. But in a stark warning to Obama and the US, the Financial Times reports that the first German (10-year) bond issue of the year failed. Yes that's the country with the far more favorable job numbers. There are far less questions about German solvency than there are about the US, and you can bet that Washington pays attention to news like that.

Treasonous intellectuals

2008-12-27T19:08:00.000-08:00

From Glenn Greenwald:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/12/24/torture/index.html

Here are Tufts University Political Science Professor Dan Drezner and Stanford Philosophy Professor Joshua Cohen demonstrating how good-hearted, profoundly reasonable, oh-so-intellectually sophisticated Americans diligently struggle with -- torture themselves over -- what they have convinced themselves is the vexing question of whether our leaders should be considered "war criminals" by virtue of . . . . having committed unambiguous war crimes:

Here's a 2004 critique of similar apologies for torture by "human rights expert" Michael Ignatieff:

http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/fascism_and_war/Treason.htm

The moral and intellectual decay of American and Western European intellectuals over the past couple of decades will deserve scrutiny by scholars of future generations. Just as we try to understand what made Martin Heidegger an obedient stooge of the Hitler regime, others will try to figure out what makes a Harvard "liberal" pimp for torture.

The Onion got scooped

2008-11-19T23:19:00.000-08:00

http://adage.com/moy2008/article?article_id=131810

Obama Wins! ... Ad Age's Marketer of the Year

At ANA Gathering, Marketing Pros and Agency Bigs Tap Barack Over Apple, Zappos

ORLANDO, Fla. (AdAge.com) -- Just weeks before he demonstrates whether his campaign's blend of grass-roots appeal and big media-budget know-how has converted the American electorate, Sen. Barack Obama has shown he's already won over the nation's brand builders. He's been named Advertising Age's marketer of the year for 2008.

Mr. Obama won the vote of hundreds of marketers, agency heads and marketing-services vendors gathered here at the Association of National Advertisers' annual conference. He edged out runners-up Apple and Zappos.com. The rest of the shortlist, selected by Ad Age's editorial staff, was rounded out by megabrand Nike, turnaround story Coors and Mr. Obama's rival, Sen. John McCain.

One of my heroes started a blog

2008-11-19T15:30:00.001-08:00

http://gerryspence.wordpress.com/

Truth about ACORN

2008-10-29T20:47:00.000-07:00

ACORN LED FINANCIAL SECTOR
WITH WARNINGS ON LENDING

The national advocacy group appears to deserve recognition for its prudent -- and ignored -- early advice about home loan practices. > By Eileen Markey

http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/viewarticle.cfm?article_id=3641

Penny Auctions

2008-10-21T23:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/money_10.html

My favorite finance blogs:

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/

http://suddendebt.blogspot.com/

http://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/

False confessions in Central Park Jogger case

2008-10-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

Lawyer Elaine Cassel discusses the coerced confessions that sent 5 teenagers to prison for 12 years before the real killer came forward, and the problems of false confessions in general.

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/cassel/20021217.html

Here, law professor Anthony D'Amato discusses problems with the "confessions" of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khlaid Shaikh Mohammed:

http://works.bepress.com/anthony_damato/13/

"The hedge fund of the people."

2008-10-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

http://strategerycapital.com/

Representative Kaptur does her job

2008-10-01T15:52:00.000-07:00

Rep. Marcy Kaptur(D-Ohio): “The normal legislative process that should accompany a monumental proposal to bail out Wall Street has been shelved. Yes, shelved! Only a few insiders are doing the dealing. These criminals have so much power they can shut down the normal legislative process of the highest lawmaking body in this land. All the committees that should be scanning every word that is being negotiated have been benched. And that means the American people have been benched. We are constitutionally sworn to protect this country against all enemies foreign and domestic, and yes, my friends, there are enemies . . . The people who are pushing this bill are the very same ones who are responsible for the implosion on Wall Street. They were fraudulent then; and they are fraudulent now. We should say No to this deal.”

January 2000: CBS News chief on video fakery

2008-09-22T18:15:00.000-07:00

http://forum.911movement.org/index.php?showtopic=5232

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE7DF153AF930A25752C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print

"He noted that advances in computer-generated techniques had made things like missiles hitting Baghdad and airplanes crashing look so real that it was incumbent on networks to underscore that these were not real images."

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E7DB173AF931A25752C0A9669C8B63&scp=1&sq=%22the%20early%20show%22%20january%202000&st=csehttp://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E7DB173AF931A25752C0A9669C8B63&scp=1&sq=%22the%20early%20show%22%20january%202000&st=cse

Naked short selling

2008-09-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

"Deep Capture is a work of investigative journalism examining the growing threat to our financial system posed by illegal naked short selling."

http://www.deepcapture.com/

The Week the World Said “Naked Short Selling”
September 19th, 2008 by Mark Mitchell

Make no mistake: what you witnessed this week was not some natural process – an economy “souring,” a bubble “bursting.” This was not the “invisible hand” at work. This was not even capitalism.

This was the premeditated, systematic destruction of market value by an elite crowd of Wall Street cronies who no doubt cackled with delight in the cleverness of their mischief-making. This was criminal behavior on an ungodly scale – the unprecedented looting of America.

continued here:

http://www.deepcapture.com/the-week-the-world-said-naked-short-selling/

Paul Richmond - running for Congress against Norm Dicks

2008-08-19T00:10:00.001-07:00

6th District, Washington State.

James Quinn: The Great Consumer Crash of 2009

2008-08-18T14:01:00.000-07:00

http://seekingalpha.com/article/90892-the-great-consumer-crash-of-2009

Recommended by the great bloggers Stoneleigh and Ilargi, who "present a daily overview of Debt, Diesel and Dämmerung."

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/

Passive Nation

2008-08-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=american-passivity-wright-bros-coal-tar-dye

Scientific American, June 1958

PASSIVE NATION— “Poll after poll among our youngsters has given statistical confirmation of the phenomenon of American life which David Riesman, in his book The Lonely Crowd, named ‘other-direction’—extreme sensitivity to the opinions of others, with a concomitant conformity. As a nation we seem to have a syndrome characterized by atrophy of the will, hypertrophy of the ego and dystrophy of the intellectual musculature. This rather unpleasant portrait is an inescapable conclu-ion from the mass of data on the attitudes of the younger generation. More than half believe that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the local police should be allowed to use wiretapping at will, that the police should be permitted to use the ‘third degree,’ that people who refuse to testify against themselves should be forced to do so.”

Good questions re anthrax scientist restraining order

2008-08-03T20:59:00.000-07:00

This was a comment at Glenn Greenwald's blog.

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/03/journalism/permalink/f3b8649a915e17da975901888a4ed753.html

Retired Military Patriot

Although given the forensic situation, technically there may have been no violation of confidentiality, Ms. Duley's behavior from a clinical and ethical perspective is certainly open to question. One of the reasons that confidence is so zealously protected is that patients in treatment frequently say things that could prove harmful or, at least, embarrassing if they were to became public. Furthermore, statements made in treatment reflect the patients perceptions, emotional status, and environmental pressures. They don't necessary reflect reality as others might see it. One of the tasks of the therapist is to help the patient sort out facts from often distorted perceptions. Thus, one tries to avoid damage to a patient by sharing the contents of sessions. This case raises some serious questions about the actions that Ms. Duley took and why they were even necessary. To some extent, her actions may have been the result of inexperience or lack of training. Although you refer to Ms. Duley as a "social worker" and she has been called that in some reports, as I mentioned in a prior post http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/01/anthrax/permalink/a2a0481d5358c6907de2af42aa6e5594.html, I have found no documentation that she is, indeed, a social worker and she may have only undergraduate and some chemical dependency training.

These are some of the questions that I have:

1. Why was a restraining order/peace order on Dr. Ivins required? According to numerous reports, Dr. Ivins was under heavy surveillance and Ms. Duley was working closely and cooperatively with the FBI according to her own report. Given that level of federal protection, what was the purpose of seeking a PO with local police? Certainly they could have been alerted (and I hope were) but what was the specific need satisfied by a PO?

2. Given that she did go that route and her testimony contained substantial information that could be prejudicial in a trial, why did the judge not seal her testimony and associated documents? Why were copies of her request and audio recording given (or leaked) to the press? I won't even ask why the press released this information.

3. If she was working closely with the FBI, and supervised by an independent professional, why did they not warn her or the judge about the risks inherent in filing a PO. Note that although there are references to Ivins' "psychiatrist" lurking in the background, no such person has come forth with an independent professional evaluation.

Unfortunately, this disrespect for patient rights (whether inadvertent of deliberate) has left us with the press and cable channels spewing her complaints without caution or explanation and giving her credibility as his "therapist." This is trial in the Court of Public Opinion. The government has not yet made a convincing case for Dr. Ivins' guilt and Ms. Delay's testimony has not been challenged on cross examination. Dr. Ivins' suicide (if that is what it was) conveniently avoids the accountability of a court trail. That provides a compelling argument for a congressional hearing to determine the facts in this case and, if he was innocent as many people believe, to provide a means to clear his name and give some comfort to his family.
-- lcr
[Read lcr's other letters]

I would add that I question why live testimony was necessary to get a temporary restraining order. It seems like overkill and smacks of orchestration.

I agree that the first hearing could have been sealed, and the public interest in open courts could have been met by opening the hearing on a permanent restraining order when Ivins was expected to be present.

Another good comment from the same person:

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/03/journalism/permalink/6503d1b6e1da4315bb4617f4be5940c7.html

Mona

I'm not sure about the reason for your comment but suspect you've not read my prior posts or you wouldn't have made assumptions about the quote that you use. As a psychologist, I'm well aware of confidentiality issues -- and the limits on confidentiality. As Annie W discovered, clients are (or should be) routinely informed on the limits of confidentiality. We do have a duty to report and, if subpoenaed, must provide requested records. That is not the issue here. If Duley honestly believed that Dr. Ivins was a threat to himself or others, she had a duty to report and apparently did -- leading to his brief hospitalization. That's appropriate and, except for whatever additional stress was imposed on the patient by the hospitalization, would have been the end of that story. What was not required was for her to to initiate a restraining order or for it to be handled in the way it was. What that filing accomplished was not only an egregious violation of patient privacy but has provided the media with talking points that they are gleefully repeating, that smear Dr. Ivins' record and name and that provide cover for the FBI's desire to close the case -- nothing here, the guy was crazy, move on.

If you're interested in my concerns about the restraining/peace order (as opposed to the duty to warn), please see here:

http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/03/journalism/permalink/f3b8649a915e17da975901888a4ed753.html
-- lcr

[Read lcr's other letters]
Permalink Sunday, August 3, 2008 05:30 PM

Boardroom terrorists

2008-07-24T11:33:00.000-07:00

I would say there are many more people in this country worried about losing their homes than about Islamofascists blowing them up. Terrorized, if you will.

Catherine Austin Fitts explains the conspiracy at the top of the food chain:

http://www.solari.com/blog/?p=1232

She concludes:

"Think of it. The housing bubble has reached it’s logical conclusion. If you can get enough people to buy a home for no money down, you can buy their country for no money down."

Her prior article, "Predatory Gentrification," describes real terrorism by developers against HUD affordable housing tenants and homeowners to get them to leave their homes.

http://www.solari.com/blog/?p=1293#more-1293

She says: "you need to understand that predatory practices whereby powerful corporate and banking interests use illegal and unethical tactics to expropriate wealth from the middle class and poor are common and that the law may or may not be relevant."

9/11, a predatory practice, preying on fears to expropriate wealth for the military-industrial complex?

Inverted Totalitarianism, by Sheldon Wolin

2008-05-21T05:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030519/wolin

and a review by Chalmers Johnson

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9031

The Al Qaeda Myth

2008-05-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

"There's no such thing as al-Qaeda. It's a fraud perpetrated on the British and American people by the governments to scare us into submission. This is a clip from the excellent three-part BBC documentary 'The Power of Nightmares'."

Fascist Capitalism

2008-04-23T15:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.hermes-press.com/fascist_capitalism.htm

The End of Money

2008-04-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

Seems like a good crash course in economic realities.

http://theendofmoney.com/

Father Pfleger on Jeremiah Wright

2008-04-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

Fox News calls it "'Factor'" producer Porter Berry confronting Father Michael Pfleger for defending Rev. Wright and Farakkhan," but it is really Father Pfleger forcefully speaking to Berry's false claims of bigotry, hatred, and anti-Americanism.

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?videoId=1fd1c0cf-5c80-4d75-996f-bd53b2461ae0&sMPlaylistID

Now on YouTube:

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiSutcBArDU

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBKeCIDGvwY

Rev. Wright served in the Marines and Navy during Vietnam:

http://www.counterpunch.com/korb04052008.html

Martin Luther King's last speech, 40 years ago, the day before he was assassinated

2008-04-04T18:11:00.000-07:00

Here are clips from his "Beyond Vietnam" speech at Riverside Church, one year to the day before he was murdered.

If I Were A Terrorist

2008-03-31T09:25:00.000-07:00

by James Pence

Thoughts From Within - Woody Harrelson

2008-03-14T10:38:00.001-07:00

Ningen's Music Collection

2008-03-07T07:45:00.000-08:00

Here is a collection of You Tube music you might like. Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, ELP, Traffic, Johnny Cash, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Joan Osborne, Talking Heads, B-52s, etc.

http://ningens-music.blogspot.com/

Cramer: "It's all fiction!"

2008-01-23T21:31:00.000-08:00

http://www.cnbc.com/id/22706231

ITS ALL ABOUT THE COMMISSION

(We used to say) “The commissions on structured products are so huge let's JAM IT.” (note “jam it” means foist it on the customer) It's all about the 'commish'. The commission on structured product is GIGANTIC. I could make a fortune 'JAMMING THAT CRUMMY PAPER' but I had a degree of conscience---what a shocker!--We used to regulate people but they decided during the Reagan revolution that that was bad. So we don't regulate anyone anymore. But listen, the commission in structured product is so gigantic. (pause) First of all the customer has no idea what the product really is because it is invented. Second, you assume the customer is really stupid; like we used to say about the German bankers, 'The German banks are just Bozos. Throw them anything.' Or the Australians 'M O R O N S' Or the Florida Fund (ha ha ) “They're so stupid let's give them Triple B (junk grade) Then we'd just laugh and laugh at the customers and Jam them with the commission...That's what happened; that's what happened....Remember, this is about commissions, about how much money you can make by jamming stupid customers. I've seen it all my life; you jam stupid customers.

Transcription of portion near end of the video by Mike Whitney, in "Financial Meltdown: Is This The Big One?" Whitney asks whether this is "smart" or criminal.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7880

At one point, Cramer says we are in "late-stage rapacious capitalism."

He also talks about social pressure not to talk about false financials among the Wall Street crowd who golf together and send their kids to the same private schools.

9/11 FAQ by Ran Prieur

2008-01-23T21:11:00.000-08:00

http://www.ranprieur.com/essays/911FAQ.html

Nosed Out by Simon Shack

2008-01-23T00:02:00.000-08:00

Video analysis of the WNYW FOX5 "Nose-Out" shot aired live on 9/11, by maker of September Clues.

The world press has quoted Yukisa Fujita dozens of times

2008-01-19T12:04:00.000-08:00

http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=%22yukihisa+fujita%22&btnG=Search+Archives&hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8

Just not this time, when he talked about 9/11 as the unproven premise for the government's refueling bill and the war on terror in general.

Japanese opposition party questions Prime Minister on 9/11 facts

2008-01-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

On January 10, during debate on whether Japan should renew its law allowing the Marine Self-Defense Forces to provide refueling support to U.S. military vessels in the Indian Ocean, a member of Japan's largest opposition party questioned whether the Japanese government has sufficiently examined 9/11 as a premise for this law and for the 'war on terrorism." He repeatedly states that this was a crime and as such must be investigated properly.

Full speech, Japanese only:

http://www.webtv.sangiin.go.jp/generator/meta_generator_wmv.php?ssp=8478&on=1199958156&si=e1a1b6e76ae25e72c5877dfb56d49f143&ch=y&mode=LIBRARY&pars=0.23871368956457012

Here are videos with subtitles that are generally accurate but still need work, mainly for completeness.

http://www.911video.de/ex/jap111.htm

I'm hoping that in a week or so a full and accurate translation will be available.

Even if you don't speak Japanese, you will recognize some of the arguments being made when the Japanese Diet member uses visual aids.

The Foggy Dew - Frances Black

2008-01-18T09:07:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAriag97l18

Legal-Illegal:

http://www.blackfamilyresources.com/frances/audio/Legal_Illegal.mp3

A Woman's Heart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m03aJR1avcY&NR=1

"Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media"

2008-01-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

Today, the media is in crisis, and a free and open society is at risk. Fiction substitutes for fact, news is carefully filtered, dissent is marginalized, and supporting the powerful substitutes for full and accurate reporting. As a result, wars of aggression are called liberating ones, civil liberties are suppressed for our own good, and patriotism means going along with governments that are lawless.

"Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media"
Reviewing David Cromwell and David Edwards' book
by Stephen Lendman
Global Research, January 9, 2008

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7754

Case studies and ideas discussed:

Iraq - The Sanctions of Mass Destruction
Iraq Disarmed - Burying the 1991-98 Weapons Inspections
Iraq - Gunning for War and Burying the Dead
Afghanistan - Let Them Eat Grass
Kosovo - Real Bombs, Fictional Genocide
East Timor - The Practical Limits of Crusading Humanitarianism
Haiti - The Hidden Logic of Exploitation
Idolatry Ink - Reagan, the 'Cheerful Conservative' and 'Chubby Bubba' Clinton
Ultimate [Climate] Change - The Ultimate Media Betrayal
Disciplined Media - Professional Conformity to Power
Toward a Compassionate Media

and the conclusion of the book review:

Full Human Dissent

Corporations today manipulate society and our lives by harming the greater good for profits. Consider the cost: "individual depression, global environmental collapse, wars for control of natural resources" and global dominion. It happens because we're saturated in a "mass consumer culture" that ignores "our needs as human beings." To counteract this, we need "to find more humanly productive answers" mainstream culture calls "dissident" or "absurd," but the authors believe are possible and vital.

Approaches to "individual and social well-being (are) practiced in many traditional cultures (but have been) filtered out" of ours because they conflict with corporate goals already explained. The authors once worked for corporate employers and described their condition as "unrelieved boredom and stress....work....of no intrinsic interest (and) simply a means to the end of material acquisition." They concluded that life centered around money and status "becomes a depressing dead end, a kind of emotional wasteland."

They contrast that experience to their involvement today in "unpaid human rights and environmental work" that includes their Media Lens efforts. Compassionate dissent holds promise as a motivating force - "for media activism, peace activism, human and animal rights activism, and environmental activism." It's also "profoundly conducive to our own well-being." The authors end by stating political dissent must be combined with human dissent. The combination can be powerfully self-liberating and "all the motivation we need to act for the welfare of the world." Isn't that a goal worth working for? Isn't it what what we want for ourselves?

One of the authors, David Edwards, discussed the effects of our corporate society on our own well-being in his 1996 book "Burning All Illusions: A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom," where he argued that we should not change the actions and societal structures that lead to climate change for the benefit of people in developing countries or the future, but because these actions and structures are not making us happy.

http://books.google.com/books?id=AIe3Emh6rPcC&dq=%22burning+all+illusions%22&pg=PP1&ots=L9A84bWiHZ&sig=NpltF6bSs0Iqi6_hRwJxe4JdyuI&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22burning+all+illusions%22&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail#PPR6,M1

A Tribute to Fresh Kills (a poem)

2008-01-03T23:24:00.000-08:00

Lyrics here:

http://www.codeorange.us/article.php?story=20070910103236196

Bonus March on Washington, DC: 1932

2007-12-31T21:59:00.000-08:00

Scenes from the 1933 film, Heroes for Sale:

1963 article describing the marchers' flirtation with fascism:

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1963/4/1963_4_18.shtml

General Smedley Butler, who supported the marchers demands and opposed fascism:

http://chancelucky.blogspot.com/2006/12/war-is-racket-smedley-butler-book.html

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=883

The Plot to Seize the White House, by Jules Archer:

http://www.chris-floyd.com/plot/

John Conyers - cowardly or complicit?

2007-12-30T22:34:00.000-08:00

http://peacecandidates.com/news/john_conyers_illustrates_why_he_must_be_removed_congress

Wounded Knee - December 29, 1890

2007-12-30T22:06:00.000-08:00

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/31/0022/7971/40/428127

Power to the People, Give Peace a Chance

2007-12-30T21:50:00.000-08:00

Mike Gravel, Democratic candidate for President.

http://www.gravel2008.us/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Gravel

Nico Haupt questions NIST's Sunder

2007-12-30T21:09:00.000-08:00

In June 2005, Nico Haupt asked eight questions to NIST's Dr. S. Shyam Sunder:

http://www.iian.ibeam.com/events/thom001/13858/eFrame.jsp

He begins his questions at the point indicated in the screenshot below:

Sunder's answer to Haupt's questions about the building "collapses" is that they are "beyond our statutory mandate." Bullshit.

More US Hispanics drawn to Islam

2007-12-30T19:39:00.000-08:00

I didn't know this and think it is interesting. That's all.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0928/p03s02-ussc.html

The population of Hispanic Muslims has increased 30 percent to some 200,000 since 1999, estimates Ali Khan, national director of the American Muslim Council in Chicago. Many attribute the trend to a growing interest in Islam since the 2001 terrorist attacks and also to a collision between two burgeoning minority groups. They note that Muslims ruled Spain centuries ago, leaving an imprint on Spanish food, music, and language.

"Many Hispanics ... who are becoming Muslim, would say they are embracing their heritage, a heritage that was denied to them in a sense," says Ihsan Bagby, professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky.

Surviving America's Depression Epidemic, by Bruce Levine

2007-12-30T00:32:00.000-08:00

http://www.brucelevine.net/

Seymour Hersh on planted 9/11 "evidence"

2007-12-26T21:57:00.000-08:00

"Many of the investigators believe that some of the initial clues that were uncovered about the terrorists' identities and preparations, such as flight manuals, were meant to be found. A former high-level intelligence official told me, 'Whatever trail was left was left deliberately -- for the F.B.I. to chase'".

Seymour M. Hersh, Annals of National Security, "What Went Wrong," The New Yorker, October 8, 2001

Seymour Hersh is the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter who uncovered the Iraq prison torture scandal and the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh

Why would evidence be planted? Obviously, to create a false impression that someone else committed the crime.

Bibliography of conspiracy theory theory

2007-12-22T18:37:00.000-08:00

Conspiracy, Conspiracy Theory and 9/11

A comprehensive bibliography of the leading mainstream and dissident literature
Compiled by John A. McCurdy

www.globalresearch.ca 11 October 2004

http://globalresearch.ca/articles/MCC410A.html

Many interesting links -- here's one, a good response to the ZMag crowd:

9/11 "Conspiracies" and the Defactualisation of Analysis: How Ideologues on the Left and Right Theorise Vacuously to Support Baseless Supposition, by Nafeez Ahmed

http://www.mediamonitors.net/mosaddeq37.html

Another good one that addresses the "structure is everything" arguments of the ZMag crowd:

The Ontological Status of Conspiracy Theory, by Hakim Bey

http://www.hermetic.com/bey/conspire.html

As Carl Oglesby points out, sophisticated conspiracy theory posits no single, all-powerful, over-riding cabal in charge of "History". That would indeed be a form of stupid paranoia, whether of the Left or the Right. Conspiracies rise and fall, spring up and decay, migrate from one group to another, compete, collude, collide, implode, explode, fail, succeed, erase, forge, forget, vanish. Conspiracies are symptoms of the great "blind forces" (and hence useful as metaphors if nothing else), but they also feed back into those forces and sometimes even affect or effect or infect them. Conspiracies, in effect, are not THE way history is made, but are rather parts of the vast complex of myriads of ways in which our multiple stories are constructed. Conspiracy Theory cannot explain everything but it can explain something. If it has no ontological status, nevertheless it does have its epistemological uses.

Torture: magic force multiplier

2007-12-22T11:48:00.000-08:00

"Bin Laden does not have the capabilities for an operation of this magnitude. When I hear Bush talking about al-Qaida as if it was Nazi Germany or the communist party of the Soviet Union, I laugh because I know what is there. Bin Laden has been under surveillance for years: every telephone call was monitored and al-Qaida has been penetrated by American intelligence, Pakistani intelligence, Saudi intelligence, Egyptian intelligence. They could not have kept secret an operation that required such a degree of organisation and sophistication."

From: 'There isn't a target in Afghanistan worth a $1m missile'

Mohamed Heikal, the Arab world's foremost political commentator, talks to Stephen Moss

Guardian, October 10, 2001

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4273924,00.html

But Mr. Heikal does not realize that torture, even in the future, has the amazing ability to increases the powers of terrorists.

This is the stuff of magic, not to be dismissed as mundane false confessions. Professor D'Amato is so boring.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2007/03/true-confessions-tale-of-khalid-shaikh.php

Lying Scum

2007-12-20T01:28:00.000-08:00

If you don't impeach, you are complicit.

Constitutional scholar: "At least six identifiable crimes" possible in CIA tape affair

2007-12-19T17:04:00.000-08:00

Constitutional scholar: 'At least six identifiable crimes' possible in CIA tape affair

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Turley_At_least_six_crimes_in_1219.html

The crimes named:

• obstruction of justice.
• obstruction of Congress.
• perjury.
• conspiracy.
• false statements.
• the crime of torturing suspects.

This scholar, Jonathan Turley, was a strong supporter of impeaching Clinton. It appears he is consistent.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/19/184716/04/622/424502

Don't forget the biggest crime, 9/11. Obstruction of justice and obstruction of Congress relate not just to torture, but to the crime that was used to justify the torture.

In other news:

Fire damages Cheney offices near White House

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22325791/

Dana Perino covers her ass, as the intelligence apparatus prepares to throw Bush and Cheney under the bus:

Of course

2007-12-18T13:30:00.000-08:00

Move on folks, nothing here.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/17/AR2007121702151.html

But former FBI officials privy to details of the case continue to dispute the CIA's account of the effectiveness of the harsh measures, making the record of Abu Zubaida's interrogation hard for outsiders to assess.

There is little dispute, according to officials from both agencies, that Abu Zubaida provided some valuable intelligence before CIA interrogators began to rough him up, including information that helped identify Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and al-Qaeda operative Jose Padilla. Footnotes in the 9/11 Commission report attribute information about a variety of al-Qaeda personnel and activities to interrogations of Abu Zubaida beginning in April 2002 and lasting through February 2004.

and

During his first month of captivity, Abu Zubaida described an al-Qaeda associate whose physical description matched that of Padilla, leading to Padilla's arrest at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago in May 2002. A former CIA officer said in an interview that Abu Zubaida's "disclosure of Padilla was accidental." The officer added that Abu Zubaida "was talking about minor things and provided a small amount of information and a description of a person, just enough to identify him because he had just visited the U.S. Embassy" in Pakistan.

Other officials, including Bush, have said that during those early weeks -- before the interrogation turned harsh -- Abu Zubaida confirmed that Mohammed's role as the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

And we should believe this, why?

Evidence destruction raises presumption of guilt

Terrorism must be stopped, but the methods used by Bush and his henchman, Cheney, were based upon violence against the American people, murder of innocent Middle Eastern civilians, cover-up of the truth, lies, torture ...

Monday, December 17, 2007

By William Sumner Scott, J.D.

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=13061

At least, destruction or "spoliation" of evidence gives rise to an inference that the evidence would have been unfavorable to the person who destroyed the evidence.

The theory of the spoliation inference is that when a party destroys evidence, it may be reasonable to infer that the party had consciousness of guilt or other motivation to avoid the evidence. Therefore, the factfinder may conclude that the evidence would have been unfavorable to the spoliator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoliation_of_evidence

http://library.findlaw.com/products-liability/evidence/spoliation/sanction-for-spoliation/index.html

9/11 Commissioner Jamie Gorelick knows this, having written a book on the subject:

http://books.google.com/books?id=SJbzNaHY43QC&dq=%22destruction+of+evidence+is+a+crime%22

Thanks to George Washington for pointing this out:

http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/12/911-commissioner-expert-on-destruction.html

Special expertise

2007-12-18T13:28:00.000-08:00

The same experts were used at the Oklahoma Murrah Building and at the WTC.

http://www.911blogger.com/node/6765

http://911blogger.com/node/13043

Ghost Town

2007-12-17T23:04:00.000-08:00

http://www.growingchicago.com/images/othercities/mypicsVI/

Naomi Wolf on the deep significance of destroying interrogation tapes

2007-12-17T18:40:00.000-08:00

Reopen EVERYTHING. She's right, and I commend her for speaking out.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/70676/

What we are likely to see if the tapes documenting the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah and Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri are ever recovered is that the "confessions" of the prisoners upon which the White House has built its entire case for subverting the Constitution and suspending civil liberties in this country was obtained through methods such as electrocution, beating to the point of organ failure, hanging prisoners from the wrists from a ceiling, suffocation, and threats against family members ("I am going to find your mother and I am going to fuck her" is one direct quote from a US interrogator). On the missing tapes, we would likely see responses from the prisoners that would be obvious to us as confessions to anything at all in order to end the violence. In other words, if we could witness the drama of manufacturing by torture the many violently coerced "confessions" upon which the whole house of cards of this White House and its hyped "war on terror" rests, it would likely cause us to reopen every investigation, including the most serious ones (remember, even the 9/11 committee did not receive copies of the tapes); shut down the corrupt, Stalinesque Military Commissions System; turn over prisoners, the guilty and the innocent, into a working, accountable justice system operating in accordance with American values; and direct our legal scrutiny to the torturers themselves -- right up to the office of the Vice President and the President if that is where the investigations would lead.

Professor D'Amato called this even before tapes were destroyed.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2007/03/true-confessions-tale-of-khalid-shaikh.php

(I'm assuming interrogations took place, were recorded, and all recordings were destroyed. None of this can really be assumed---what's important is that the interrogations, if they occurred, were likely tainted by torture.)

Justice of Obstruction

2007-12-15T02:19:00.000-08:00

Justice Dept. Seeks Delay on C.I.A. Inquiry

By DAVID JOHNSTON and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: December 15, 2007

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department asked the House Intelligence Committee on Friday to postpone its investigation into the destruction of videotapes by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2005, saying the Congressional inquiry presented “significant risks” to its own preliminary investigation into the matter.

The department is taking an even harder line with other Congressional committees looking into the matter, and is refusing to provide information about any role it might have played in the destruction of the videotapes. The recordings covered hundreds of hours of interrogations of two operatives of Al Qaeda.

The Justice Department and the C.I.A.’s inspector general have begun a preliminary inquiry into the destruction of the tapes, and Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said the department would not comply with Congressional requests for information now because of “our interest in avoiding any perception that our law enforcement decisions are subject to political influence.”

cont'd here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/15/washington/15intel.html

Postpone Congressional inquiry for the "law enforcement decisions" of the Justice Department, SIX YEARS AND THREE MONTHS after 9/11? Do not forget that this is not just about the crime of torture, it's about the crime of 9/11.

http://ningens-blog.blogspot.com/2007/12/thomas-kean-on-destruction-of.html

More on Mukasey:

Mukasey to Leahy, Specter: No

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004916.php

Law prof on Mukasey's letter on torture

http://ningens-blog.blogspot.com/2007/11/mukaseys-letter-not-good-enough.html

Silverstein in Mukasey's court:

http://ningens-blog.blogspot.com/2007/09/silverstein-in-mukaseys-court.html

Mukasey and Giuliani:

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0744,barrett,78212,6.html

RAWA: The US and Her Fundamentalist Stooges are the Main Human Rights Violators in Afghanistan

2007-12-15T01:36:00.000-08:00

Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

RAWA communiqué on Universal Human Rights Day, Dec.10, 2007

http://www.rawa.org/events/dec10-07_e.htm

Excerpt:

The reinstatement of the Northern Alliance to power crushed the hopes of our people for freedom and prosperity into desperation and proved that for the Bush administration, defeating terrorism so that our people can be happy, have no significance at all. The US administration plays a funny anti-Taliban game and pretends that a super power is unable to defeat a small, marginalized and medieval-minded gang which is actually her own product. But our people found by experience in the past few years that the US doesn’t want to defeat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, because then they will have no excuse to stay in Afghanistan and work towards the realization of its economical, political and strategic interests in the region.

Response to the "self-crushing building" theory

2007-12-13T14:15:00.000-08:00

http://www.truememes.com/mackey.html

This is an impressive website. I especially recommend the slide show "Helpful Hints for Understanding 9/11."

http://www.truememes.com/

More CrimInAlity?

2007-12-13T00:37:00.000-08:00

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/12/19210/608/933/420107

http://www.narconews.com/Issue48/article2919.html

Thomas Kean on destruction of interrogation tapes

2007-12-11T19:36:00.000-08:00

In the second half of this BBC clip, 9/11 Commission chairman Thomas Kean states that the Commission asked for all material related to the detainees, and that the detainees were who they got information from, the hijackers being dead.

http://rawstory.com/rawreplay/index.php?p=223

Thank you BBC for covering the real significance of the destruction of evidence related to 9/11. It's not just whether they were tortured, it's what they said.

Yes, obstruction of justice is a very big deal

2007-12-07T01:55:00.000-08:00

So says the general counsel of the 9/11 Coverup Commission.

Daniel Marcus, a law professor at American University who served as general counsel for the Sept. 11 commission and was involved in the discussions about interviews with Al Qaeda leaders, said he had heard nothing about any tapes being destroyed.

If tapes were destroyed, he said, “it’s a big deal, it’s a very big deal,” because it could amount to obstruction of justice to withhold evidence being sought in criminal or fact-finding investigations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/washington/06cnd-intel.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

The "Classical Gas Video"

2007-12-07T00:16:00.000-08:00

National Applications Office: sounds so benign

2007-12-02T17:29:00.000-08:00

30 November 2007

Domestic Spying, Inc.

By Tim Shorrock , Special to CorpWatch

A new intelligence institution to be inaugurated soon by the Bush administration will allow government spying agencies to conduct broad surveillance and reconnaissance inside the United States for the first time. Under a proposal being reviewed by Congress, a National Applications Office (NAO) will be established to coordinate how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and domestic law enforcement and rescue agencies use imagery and communications intelligence picked up by U.S. spy satellites. If the plan goes forward, the NAO will create the legal mechanism for an unprecedented degree of domestic intelligence gathering that would make the U.S. one of the world's most closely monitored nations. Until now, domestic use of electronic intelligence from spy satellites was limited to scientific agencies with no responsibility for national security or law enforcement.

continued here:

http://www.deepjournal.com/p/7/a/en/1125.html

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.

2007-11-30T20:49:00.001-08:00

LikeTelevision Embed Movies and TV Shows

The campaign commercial ad ends:

"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country."

That was a typewriting exercise when I was growing up.

When I was growing up would have been the best time to stop the cancer that was growing in this country, that Ike and Harry warned us about. But it's still the time, and I hope there's still time.

Norwegian newspaper editor publishes editorial on 9/11 questions

2007-11-28T19:00:00.000-08:00

And amazingly, the only time he uses the term "conspiracy theory" is in describing the phrase "Official Conspiracy Theory" used in the 9/11 truth movement.

http://inorden.org/?p=901&language=en

http://fehodeode.blogspot.com/2007/11/chief-editor-time-to-think-conspiracy.html

Come on, Seattle Times, this town has Norwegian roots. How about doing better than the trashy op-ed you published a few months ago?

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=alben25&date=20070725

Frank Zappa

2007-11-28T18:00:00.000-08:00

Whipping Post

Dumb All Over

Crossfire 1986 - Zappa predicts fascist theocracy

Where was Flight 175 when Peter Hanson called his father?

2007-11-27T19:33:00.000-08:00

The video below contains an interview with air traffic controller Dave Bottaglia, who says he tracked Flight 175. Battiglia's account suggests that at about 9:00, UAL175 was in a powerdive of 10,000 feet per minute, which the controller says would be "unbelievable for the passengers in the back, to withstand that kind of force when they're descending."

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-614623194061654994&q=dave+Bottiglia&total=4&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Yet the official story is that Peter Hanson began a three-minute phone call at 9:00.

http://911research.wtc7.net/planes/evidence/docs/calls/Flight175/HansonFamily.jpg

He never described being in a dive or having come out of a dive. There doesn't seem to be any way he could call during the dive described and it seems unlikely he could even call just after such a dive. If he could, it seems unlikely he would not mention it having just come out of a horrific dive.

Here's what he said:

"At 9:00, Lee Hanson received a second call from his son Peter:
'It's getting bad, Dad-A stewardess was stabbed-They seem to have knives and Mace-They said they have a bomb-It's getting very bad on the plane-Passengers are throwing up and getting sick-The plane is making jerky movements-I don't think the pilot is flying the plane-I think we are going down-I think they intend to go to Chicago or someplace and fly into a building-Don't worry, Dad- If it happens, it'll be very fast-My God, my God.'"

This tells me not that the call is faked, but that the UAL175 is not the plane tracked by the air traffic controller in the above video.

If so, we don't know where the plane was or at what altitude it was at when Hanson called his father. He seemed to think the plane was heading toward Chicago.

The calls could be real, and still inconsistent with the official story. These issues should be explored before claims that they are fake.

"Justice" in America

2007-11-27T17:26:00.000-08:00

Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman, political prisoner.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/06/hbc-90000351

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001637

http://dev.harpers.org/archive/2007/06/hbc-90000257

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/The_Permanent_Republican_Majority_1125.html

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/The_permanent_Republican_majority_Daughter_of_1127.html

Excellent letter to Wiesenthal Center from Boston 9/11 Truth

2007-11-27T13:41:00.000-08:00

http://911blogger.com/node/12677

Chomsky's not just wrong about 9/11

2007-11-27T00:20:00.000-08:00

It looks like his linguistics theory is wrong:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_colapinto?printable=true

OK, I'm stretching to criticize Chomsky. I don't really understand Chomsky's theory of universal grammar, and can't say whether the language of the Amazon tribe refutes his theory. But the article is fascinating.

And it contains this gem:

Steven Pinker, the Harvard cognitive scientist, who wrote admiringly about some of Chomsky’s ideas in his 1994 best-seller, “The Language Instinct,” told me, “There’s a lot of strange stuff going on in the Chomskyan program. He’s a guru, he makes pronouncements that his disciples accept on faith and that he doesn’t feel compelled to defend in the conventional scientific manner . . .

More from "conspiracy" expert Mark Fenster

2007-11-24T22:29:00.000-08:00

http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/28533

Nearly two-thirds of Americans think it is possible that some federal officials had specific warnings of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, but chose to ignore those warnings, according to a Scripps Howard News Service/Ohio University poll . . .

"You wouldn't have gotten these numbers a year or two after the attacks themselves," said University of Florida law professor Mark Fenster. "You've got an increasingly disaffected public that is unhappy with the administration."

This is basically what he said last year. His PhD is in Communications, so I guess for him it does not matter whether people have a sound basis for these opinions. All that matters is whether people are believing what the client wants them to believe.

http://ningens-blog.blogspot.com/2006/12/open-letter-to-conspiracy-expert-mark.html

http://ningens-blog.blogspot.com/2006/12/professor-fenster-declines-to-respond.html

Corporate media under-reports crimes by authority figures

2007-11-24T19:51:00.000-08:00

political satirist Barry Crimmins
Media copout
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007

There was a mass murder in Wisconsin last month and what have we heard about it lately? Nothing.

This killer was a cop and a half. Full-time county sheriff, part-time in the town of Crandon, Wi, where he killed himself after massacring six people and wounding a seventh victim. He then visited family members and traveled around the small town for several hours before finally shooting himself. That part of the story barely got out. The rest of it and came and went in a few news cycles. (NOTE: I do not use the names of mass murders unless they are well known politicians or business leaders)

If this represents a new corporate media sense of proportion concerning sensational murders, I want to encourage it. Focusing on aberrant acts of violence promotes a reactionary view of the world. It makes it easier for people to call for more "safeguards" that in fact do nothing but tear down the protections all citizens need from intrusive examination and harassment by a paranoid, power-clutching government. It also leads more nitwits to gun shops.

continued here:

http://www.barrycrimmins.com/index.php?page=news&category=political_satirist_Barry_Crimmins&display=494

Crimmins is very insightful and funny. Look how he skewers Hillary Clinton, here:

http://www.barrycrimmins.com/index.php?page=news&category=political_satirist_Barry_Crimmins&display=503

Interview with Naomi Wolf, author of End of America

2007-11-19T22:20:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0LvtQAQ6sc

About This Video

Fascinating interview with renowned author Naomi Wolf, perhaps best known for her early 1990s feminist classic "The Beauty Myth", considered by many to be one of the most important works of the 20th century.

Wolf discusses her new book "The End of America", already on the New York Times bestseller list. The book identifies ten classic steps common to all dictatorships -- including those of Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin. Alarmingly, Wolf makes the case that each of these ten steps is occurring in post 9/11 America today. The book is a call to action for young and concerned Americans and this interview intimately frames this important discussion.

I would prefer that Ms. Wolf come right at out and state the obvious: That 9/11 was not exploited but was designed as Step 1 in the fascist blueprint she describes, "Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy."

She stated in the Guardian, "It is not that global Islamist terrorism is not a severe danger; of course it is."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2064157,00.html

"Of course it is?" That may be the politically correct thing to say, but it arguably makes her complicit with the Big Lie of 9/11.

Ms. Wolf should rethink this argument. Her statement that "global Islamist terrorism" is a "severe danger" is presumably premised on the official story of 9/11, which is an obviuous lie. So in effect, she is promoting that lie.

Otherwise, she is doing brilliant and courageous work and I thank her for it.

Her lecture at the University of Washington can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjALf12PAWc

"You Lied!" by Tom Paine and the New Deciders

2007-11-17T19:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5dQmS16QGg

Looks like this video will increase recognition in the anti-war and impeachment movements that 9/11 is a murderous fraud on the American people:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22tom+paine+and+the+new+deciders%22&btnG=Google+Search

It's about time. Good work, band. Thank you.

And thank you, Tom Paine.

"9/11 conspiracy website" outdoes Weisenthal Center in opposing Croatian clerical-fascist rock star

2007-11-16T23:23:00.000-08:00

Jared Israel and his website The Emperor's New Clothes did some of the earliest questioning of the 9/11 official lies, and as usual with their work, did it carefully and well.

http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/911page.htm

Now, Mr. Israel is protesting the North American tour of Croatian rock star Marko Perkovic Thompson.

http://emperors-clothes.com/biz.htm

Israel makes a good case that Thompson (who has taken the name of a Thompson machine gun) is indeed a promoter of Ustasha clerical-fascism. This history has been downplayed by U.S. mass media, as it did not fit the policy of blaming the Serbs for the Yugoslav conflict, but the history is shocking and can be read at the Emperor's Clothes website.

The Weisenthal Center has also opposed the Thompson tour.

http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nl/content.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=312458&content_id={6E20629D-4EEB-4E22-A75E-48D92A6F2EF7}¬oc=1

Ironically, the Weisenthal Center downplays how many Serbs, Jews, and Roma were killed by the Ustashe in death camps during World War II.

http://emperors-clothes.com/croatia/denial.htm#misleads

and reply:

http://emperors-clothes.com/croatia/zuroff.htm

Jared Israel is right, in my opinion. If you're interested, read and decide for yourself.

Mr. Israel also criticizes the New York Times for downplaying the resurgence of Ustashe clerical-fascism in Croatia:

http://emperors-clothes.com/croatia/times1.htm

Just Business

2007-11-15T18:33:00.000-08:00

Eric Larsen says what needs to be said about the racketeers Spitzer and Silverstein, and the New York Times' despicable hypocrisy and complicity in mass murder.

http://www.ericlarsen.net/foodforthought9.8.1.2007.html

Another essay on why the Democrats are worse

2007-11-15T17:06:00.000-08:00

Curtain call for Democracy
by Jimmy Montague
October 13th, 2007

http://cyanidehole.com/2007/10/13/curtain-call-for-democracy/

Ending of a great essay:

To simplify once again: In the light of known facts, Republicans’ refusal to address wreckage wrought by the Bush crime syndicate is unconscionable but understandable. Democrats who do likewise are utterly outrageous. There can be no forgiveness for them. Members of today’s Democratic Party are not American patriots. They are either shamelessly corrupt participants in a thuggish criminal enterprise, or they are the stupidest people on the face of the earth.

On the vast stage of American politics, no place to hide remains. It’s curtain-time, folks. It is time to decide: Who and what and which are you? Why are you still a Democrat?

What would Sir Isaac think?

2007-11-15T13:45:00.000-08:00

http://winterpatriot.blogspot.com/2007/11/keep-your-hats-on-keith-seffens.html

http://covertoperations.blogspot.com/2007/11/seffens-article-on-pristine-pancakes-is.html

It's sad that the second oldest university in the English-speaking world has disgraced itself like this. I invoke the spirit of Sir Isaac to haunt Doc Seffens and members of Cambridge's governing Regent House.

I have an idea. Take all the Cambridge and MIT "scholars" that have written nonsense about 9/11, add those that have disgraced Purdue and Northwestern, put them in this Cambridge-MIT Institute, and move the whole sordid mess to BP headquarters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge-MIT_Institute

Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe this is the best they can do -- show how absurd the official story really is. Maybe this is what MIT's Wierzbicki was trying to do when he said:

To the casual observer, it would appear that the facade of the Twin Towers did not offer any resistance at all, and that the plane's wings and fuselage slice through the exterior columns as if they were made of cardboard. . . How was it possible that the relatively weak, light, and airy airframe damaged the apparently heavy lattice of high strength steel columns? The devastating result of this encounter came as a surprise to the engineering and scientific community or at least to the present authors.

Wierzbicki and Teng, How the airplane wing cut through the exterior columns of the World Trade Center, Int'l J. of Impact Engineering 28 (2003) 601-625, at 602.

Credit crisis just getting started?

2007-11-15T01:31:00.000-08:00

http://www.prudentbear.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4788&Itemid=58

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2640.shtml

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/regan-j2.html

Electric Politics interviews expert on authoritarianism

2007-11-14T20:57:00.000-08:00

The Perfidy of the "Progressive" Press

2007-11-13T23:31:00.001-08:00

English professor and novelist Eric Larsen shows that Amy Goodman spouts platitudes about racial profiling while ignoring obvious questions about the cause - the 9/11 fraud.

http://www.ericlarsen.net/foodforthought9.2.1.2007.html

He discusses reactions to his criticisms of Goodman here:

http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2562/81/

Larsen also has words for Frank Rich of the NY Times, which he also applies to Nancy Pelosi, John Conyers, Harry Reid, Amy Goodman, and all in media and government who must know that 9/11 is a murderous fraud and choose to lie about it.

http://www.ericlarsen.net/foodforthought13.1.1.2007.html

Carolyn Baker writes a great review of Naomi Klein's new book, Shock Doctrine, showing that Klein's support for the 9/11 official fraud is a stunning non sequiter inconsistent with the book's thesis, here:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7290

Baker attributes this to denial, but I think Larsen has it right: Klein is one of the liars, joining Cockburn, Chomsky, Goodman, Rich, Pelosi, Reid, Feingold, Boxer, Leiberman, Lehey, Specter, Paul, Bush, and on and on.

Fox News iies? Democracy Now lies better.

Shame on you all.

Military cannibalizing U.S.A. using Christianism?

2007-11-12T21:30:00.000-08:00

Christianists with nukes scare me. Thus, I take seriously stories of Christianist indoctrination at the Air Force Academy.

Here's a recent diary at Daily Kos on the problem:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/11/12/94823/393

This comment to the diary, with emphasis added by me, seems like a good assessment of our situation:

This is a really good diary (3+ / 0-)

You do a terrific job of detailing the different threads: the chaplains, the officers, the Bible studies, the alumni, the Pentagon. hyhistory [sic], the military has always been able to make use of Christianity as a cover for tyranny, exploitation, violence and the worst forms of cruelty. It shouldn't be any surprise that men who commit and sanction those acts seek to wrap themselves in the cloak of purity and decency.

Just like religion in politics, it's a screen for something else, something much worse.

These problems were all foreseen back in the seventies when the military was considering going all volunteer. Objective commentators foresaw that a separate "military caste" to grow up in our society and seek to take political power into its ranks.

Christianity =- as they call it == is a means to an end. I am convinced that this, as well as the politicization of Christianity in civilian life, is being orchestrated from within the Pentagon itself.

The military society has now taken on a life of its own, and its raison d'etre is to cannibalize what was the United States of America.

The destruction of the middle class, the right wing media consolidation, and the rise of the global corporation are all part of the plan.

by november3rd on Mon Nov 12, 2007 at 06:12:24 PM PST

This comment ties together two thoughts of mine about the ideologies of the perpetrators of 9/11.

First, Christianism:

http://ningens-blog.blogspot.com/2007/01/why-christanists-scare-me-more-than.html

Second, the globalist vision expressed by Pentagon guru Thomas Barnett:

http://ningens-blog.blogspot.com/2007/07/thomas-barnetts-brave-new-world.html

Considering means, motive, and opportunity, it's far more likely the perpetrators of 9/11 follow these ideologies than that they are Islamists.

The biggest lie about the invasion of Iraq

2007-11-07T19:34:00.000-08:00

William Blum says:

Of the many lies surrounding the invasion of Iraq, the biggest one of all is that if, in fact, Saddam Hussein had those weapons of mass destruction the invasion would have been justified.

From this article:

In a sound-bite society, reality no longer matters
By William Blum
Online Journal Guest Writer
Nov 7, 2007

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2609.shtml

Mukasey's Letter: Not Good Enough

2007-11-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law says that Judge Michael Mukasey's written response to Senate Judiciary Committee follow-up inquiries concerning his views on the legality of waterboarding and torture demonstrate views of America's obligations under international law so limited and problematic that he should not be confirmed...

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2007/11/mukaseys-letter-not-good-enough.php

The first argument, that Mukasey is making veiled threats to Congressmen who might be complicit in knowledge of torture, is very incisive. It probably applies to many of the regime's crimes, including 9/11.

Omerta.

The Dismantling of Yugoslavia

2007-11-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

Monthly Review
Volume 59, No. 5
October, 2007
[ http://www.monthlyreview.org/nfte0907.htm ]

The Dismantling of Yugoslavia: A Study in Inhumanitarian Intervention (and a Western Liberal-Left Intellectual and Moral Collapse)

By Edward S. Herman and David Peterson

Republished here:

http://thedismantlingofyugoslavia.blogspot.com/

Correction to Summary of Arguments

2007-10-30T13:46:00.001-07:00

I just realized that I have been linking to the wrong comment in the "impossible crash physics" portion of my Summary of Arguments. This is the correct comment, which relates to the behavior of aluminum on impact with harder steel:

http://www.progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=218&topic_id=5899&mesg_id=6011

Also, my summary cites to statements by Joseph Keith about the crash physics. Mr. Keith has also made statements about the impossibility of a Boeing 767 flying over 500 mph at low altitude. This analysis suggests that the question is still open:

http://seattle911visibilityproject.org/flight_175_impossible_speed.htm

Influence Operations

2007-10-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

http://www.au.af.mil/info-ops/influence.htm

The Pentagon does not "play politics"

2007-10-27T22:34:00.000-07:00

I've long wondered if the primary reason for the Military Commissions Act is to allow show trials of purported 9/11 perpetrators like Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who we are told is at Guantanamo after capture in Pakistan in 2003 and who allegedly said in March 2007 at Guantanamo: "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z."

The Washington Post article below, entitled "Colonel: Pentagon playing politics with Gitmo trials," suggests I may be right. In the article, the former lead prosecutor for terrorism trials at Guantánamo Bay says that senior defense officials discussed in a September 2006 meeting the "strategic political value" of putting some prominent detainees on trial. This is not "playing politics" as stated in the title of the article. When the Pentagon talks about "strategic political value" (and much of what it does addressed to the public), it is engaged in information warfare.

"[T]he public information battle space is simply too important to ignore."

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/01-4NRwinter/16-19.pdf

(at page 3 of 4, quoting Major Gary Pounder, the chief of intelligence plans and presentations at the College of Aerospace Doctrine, Research and Education at Maxwell Airforce Base in an article in Aerospace Power Journal. Notice that Major Pounder explicitly says that Public Affairs specialists need to be involved in Information Operations to "win the media war.")

Of course, Psychological Operations (a subset of Information Operations/Wafare) are only used against foreign audiences:

http://www.fiu.edu/~apodaca/Information%20Warfare%20Lecture.ppt

(page 10 of 37)

I guess that makes the U.S. public a foreign audience.

Here's the article and some excerpts:

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=gitmo21&date=20071021&query=%22strategic+political+value%22

Colonel: Pentagon playing politics with Gitmo trials

By Josh White
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Politically motivated officials at the Pentagon have pushed for convictions of high-profile detainees ahead of the 2008 elections, the former lead prosecutor for terrorism trials at Guantánamo Bay said Friday night, adding that the pressure played a part in his decision to resign earlier this month.

Senior defense officials discussed in a September 2006 meeting the "strategic political value" of putting some prominent detainees on trial, said Air Force Col. Morris Davis. He said that he felt pressure to pursue cases that were deemed "sexy" over those that prosecutors believed were the most solid or were ready to go.

Davis said his resignation also was prompted by newly appointed senior officials seeking to use classified evidence in what would be closed sessions of court, and by almost all elements of the military commissions process being put under the Defense Department general counsel's command, something he believes could present serious conflicts of interest.

"There was a big concern that the election of 2008 is coming up," Davis said. "People wanted to get the cases going. There was a rush to get high-interest cases into court at the expense of openness."

. . .

Part of the new focus, Davis said, was to speed up cases that would show the public the system was working. Davis said he wanted to focus on cases that had declassified evidence, so the public could see the entire trial through news coverage. That would defuse possible allegations that the trials were stacked against defendants.

But [Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, a new legal adviser to the convening authority for military commissions] said he was satisfied with putting on cases that included closed sessions, because the law allows it.

"He said, the way we were going to validate the system was by getting convictions and good sentences," Davis said. "I felt I was being pressured to do something less than full, fair and open."

Given the widespread public distrust of the 9/11 official story, it would appear urgent to "validate the system," in a controllable forum.

Does this trouble Rice's conscience?

2007-10-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/24/national/main3402772.shtml

(AP) Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was accosted by an anti-war protester with her hands painted red to look like blood as she entered the room to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The protester shouted that Rice was a "war criminal" and should be taken to the Hague, a reference to international war tribunals.

Rice was stoic and proceeded with business as normal as the protester was immediately spirited from the room. Other protesters were likewise escorted away at the behest of Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif.

The above picture is the first of three in a slide slide show of the incident beginning here:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/10/24/nytfrontpage/20071024POD_6.html

Video here:

http://www.truthnews.us/wp-content/plugins/vipers-video-quicktags/resources/flvplayer.swf?file=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawprint.com%2Fmedia%2F2007%2F0710%2Fcbs_rice_war_criminal_protester_071024a.flv

It appeared to me that Rice's security detail was much more competent and professional than the capital police who dragged another protester out in a painful wristlock.

Here's an article on the courageous woman who approached Rice, Desiree Fairooz.

http://www.fwweekly.com/content.asp?article=4831

Ms. Fairooz yelled "The blood of millions of Iraqis is on your hands!"

What if Rice's "business as normal" is criminal behavior that is resulting in mass death and great destruction?

Do war criminals deserve respect because of the office they are abusing?

Does that further the rule of law?

New York Web 2.0 Television interviews 9/11 activists

2007-10-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

http://newyork2.0television.com/index.php?vid=116&cid=1&page=1&title=9/11%20-%20Alternative%20Perspectives

One of the interviewees talks about the 9/11 responders not being helped. One of them, an EMT, is about to lose his home because of disability and unpaid medical bills.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/print.php?id=10451

The lies of EPA's Christine Whitman about air quality after 9/11,

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/05/former_epa_chie.html

the refusal of the federal appeals court to find that this action supports a constitutional claim,

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/2nd/061077p.pdf

and the delays and evidentiary hurdles imposed on compensation for 9/11 responders

http://www.disabledworkerlaw.com/2006/08/articles/-workers-compensation/governor-pataki-signs-new-york-911-workers-comp-bill/

http://assembly.state.ny.us/Press/20071023/

are all reflections of a political economy that would allow a 9/11 for the "good" of the system, no matter the costs to citizens, and would block a real investigation and real assignment of criminal and civil liability.

(This last paragraph is a rough beginning stab at a response to the assertions of Noam Chomsky, Chip Berlet, ad nauseum, that there is a clear dichotomy between "structuralist" and "conspiratorialist" analyses of elite actions.)

German judges uphold the law

2007-10-06T23:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.jonahhouse.org/UlfPanzer.htm

Silverstein in Mukasey's court

2007-09-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3601/is_33_50/ai_n6015016

FindArticles > Real Estate Weekly > March 31, 2004 >

Silverstein has day in court as insurance battle continues
Peter Moore

Giving brief answers in a low, gravelly voice, developer, Larry Silverstein, was off the witness stand and out of the courtroom within a half-hour last Tuesday.

It was an anti-climactic way to highlight a trial, but based on an angry judge's restrictions, the best his legal team could muster.

Silverstein has narrowly escaped a civil contempt charge earlier when Judge Michael Mukasey, who is presiding over his battle with several insurers in Manhattan's U.S. District Court, ruled he had violated an order not to discuss the case publicly, but said a contempt finding could prejudice the jury. The developer held a news conference March 15 in front of the site for 7 World Trade Center, where he criticized insurers for blocking his efforts to collect double payments of $7 billion for the 9/11 terrorist disaster, which Silverstein claims was two separate attacks.

The 13 insurers--Swiss Re being the largest policy manager at 22 percent--claim they only have to pay $3.5 billion.

A controlling issue is whether a Wilprop form, which defines a terrorist attack as one occurrence, or a form issued by Travelers, which leaves the definition open-ended, was in effect at the time of the attacks.

At his news conference, Silverstein had remarked that the insurance companies were "trying to save money.

"Instead of getting insurance, we got ourselves a massive amount of litigation," he added. His remarks were printed in Newsday.

Mukasey banned Silverstein from the courtroom following the publication of his comments. The developer claimed that he had thought the judge's gag order on case participants had been lifted but, according to the judge, later made contradictory statements indicating he had known the gag order was still in effect.

Mukasey called Silverstein's explanation "not credible." Because of the controversy, Mukasey had requested a detailed script of the questions and answers of Silverstein's testimony prior to the developer taking the stand last Tuesday and had severely limited the scope of the questioning.

Silverstein acknowledged on the stand that he had little prior first-hand knowledge of the insurance coverage on the World Trade Center, prior to the Sept. 11 attacks and had left the wording of the policies to staff.

Because of the urgency to close the transaction, Silverstein had ordered his staff to secure insurance, regardless of costs.

"The Port (Authority) gave us a time schedule, pursuant to which they were seeking to close the transaction," Silverstein said in testimony, adding that those involved wanted to close in July 2001 to "avoid the August doldrums."

His risk manager, Robert Strachan, "had to do whatever he had to do to accelerate it," Silverstein added. His orders to Strachan were, "Get it done."

COPYRIGHT 2004 Hagedorn Publication
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

Speaking of buffoons . . .

2007-09-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

This guy makes Geraldo sound like Albert Einstein:

"Suck on this," he says. Let's see him on patrol in Iraq.

Geraldo gets an earful of "9/11 was an inside job!"

2007-09-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

Geraldo says "Oh, get a life," and calls them "a group of misfits" and "anrachists" and "one of the least attractive groups of protesters I've ever seen."

He looked and sounded nervous. He should be. He works for a corporate war criminal.

It's interesting how trivial and inane he sounds with passionate citizens protesting a serious subject in the background.

Wearechange kicks ass.

This one is even worse. He calls them "communists" and says he bets "all these demonstrators are into bathroom gay sex."

What a buffoon.