Thursday, April 8, 2010

Why Bushco Should be Prosecuted for 911

Why Bushco Should be Prosecuted for 911

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

There is not a shred of credible and/or admissible evidence to support the Bush administration's official conspiracy theory of 911. The theory is ludicrous on its face -- that 19 Arab Hijackers, coordinated from deep inside a cave in the mountains of Tora Bora managed to hijack four commercial airliners with which --it is theorized --they attacked the United States. There is absolutely no evidence to support that ludicrous, stupid theory. It's utterly baseless.

Right wing partisans concocted it knowing that Americans have been conditioned by previous GOP regimes to swallow bullshit! At first, it was enough to marginalize critics: just call them 'conspiracy theorists'. Ludicrous! That's just desperate name-calling, a tactic with which they are practiced. The conclusion consistent with a growing body of peer-reviewed science is this: nothing said by Bush about 911 is true. Secondly, Bushco's ludicrous cover story is the looniest conspiracy since Ali Baba and his 40 thieves! They, too, were 'co-ordinated' from inside a cave but without cell phones! Ali Baba was a thief! Bush is a mass murdering traitor to the people of the United States.
Any theory -especially an 'official' one -must meet certain minimum criteria:
  • It must be verifiable!
  • Unless it is a revolutionary discovery in the field of physics (like Einstein's Relativity, for example) it must be consistent with the established science of physics.
  • It must be consistent with Occam's razor, that is, it must explain rather than raise additional issues or insoluble problems. That's why Einstein's theory survived. It explained. It did not obfuscate. It simplified much of our understanding of the universe by equating gravity with a curvature of space-time.
  • It must articulate the 'probable cause' that a crime was committed and the 'probable cause' to begin a specific investigation of suspects not upon 'reasonable suspicion' but 'probable cause'.
It is the job of a theory to explain and any theory that does not explain must be trashed. It's time to trash the 'official conspiracy theory' of George W. Bush. It's time to act upon the 'probable cause' that it was the Bush regime itself which conspired, perhaps with foreign entities, to perpetrate a treasonous mass murder in order to accomplish the following goals:
  • Justify the attack and invasion of both Afghanistan and Iraq
  • Secure the oil fields of Iraq!
  • Justify and attack civil liberties and due process of law in the U.S. as specifically articulated in the U.S. Patriot Act itself.
The events of 911 accomplished all these goals with ease fooling a shocked, stunned American public in the bargain. The short list of fatal problems with the official conspiracy theory include numerous false statements by Bush and members of his administration. Demonstrable lies told about 911 are themselves criminal acts and should be prosecuted. When Bush lied to Congress and to the American people about 911, he broke the law; he committed an impeachable offense, a criminal offense for which he may still be prosecuted and sentenced. His order to attack and invade Iraq is a war crime, a violation of U.S. Codes, Title 18, Section 2441 which prescribes the penalty of death!
(a) Offense. Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death. --TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 118 > § 2441, § 2441. War crimes
The lies told about 911 are clearly, prima facie, designed to mislead the public and hide from them the truth. The best suspects are Bush, his NEOCON co-conspirators, the leadership of the GOP, various Pentagon brass, and other complicit murderers inside the Axis of the Military/Industrial Complex and K-Street, specifically the so-called 'Jewish Lobby' which exploits the spector of 'Arab' terrorism to extort BILLIONS from the U.S! This gang of crooks, liars and traitors are responsible for perpetrating the treasonous, murderous crime of 911. Bush is the primary suspect for several reasons:
  • Those who lie about crimes do so to cover up guilt. Bush has never told the truth about 911.
  • Bush has not merely lied; he has actively, consistently and deliberately tried to cover up the crime of 911 with overt and identifiable instances of obstruction of justice, lies, and overt intimidation. This --I believe -is persuasive evidence of his guilt and/or complicity.
Tim Roemer let the cat out of the bag when, like Donald Rumsfeld, he referred to a 'missile' that struck the Pentagon. In addition, there were the early news reports before 'officialdom' was able to insist that the media report only the official conspiracy theory. Those early reports consisted of anchors like Dan Rather and Peter Jennings talking about 'controlled demolitions', field reporters declaring that no airliner had struck the Pentagon, and, of course, the famous BBC report that WTC7 had fallen even as it was seen still standing behind the reporter.Who lies about a crime? An innocent person? Indeed, NO! An innocent person has an interest in making sure the truth about a crime is known. By contrast, only the guilty are motivated to lie about a crime. Lies about crimes are told in order to hide the truth. Lies about crimes are obstructions of justice. If told under oath they are perjury. Lies about crimes speak to the issue of guilt because lies about crimes are told by the guilty in order to cover up the crime and escape punishment. Only an idiot would order the destruction of evidence if it might clear him/her of charges and/or prove his innocence. A guilty person, on the other hand, is motivated to:
  • lie about the crime
  • destroy evidence that might convict him
  • blame others for his own deeds
  • mislead the public
Bush has done all of those thing and all of those things speak to his guilt! The best suspects are Bush, his NEOCON co-conspirators, the leadership of the GOP, various Pentagon brass, and other complicit murderers inside the Axis of the Military/Industrial Complex and K-Street! This gang of crooks, liars and traitors are responsible for perpetrating the treasonous, murderous crime of 911. Bush is the primary suspect for several reasons:
  • Those who lie about crimes do so to cover up guilt. Bush has never told the truth about 911.
  • Bush has not merely lied; he has actively, consistently and deliberately tried to cover up the crimes of 911 with overt and identifiable instances of obstruction of justice, lies, and overt intimidation.
The vehemence with which the Bush theory is defended in the face of reason and fact is a clue that this theory is not merely wrong, it is a deliberate lie, a cover story intended to hide to the truth. 'Truth' itself is demonized in defense of lies! The liars should be required to testify before a Federal Grand Jury investigating this act of high treason and mass murder against the sovereign people of the United States. And, if they should lie to the Grand Jury, they should be arrested, charged and locked up! Some may elected to tell truth to avoid this bad outcome. Some may choose to sing like canaries. Some may point the accusing finger at Goerge, Dick, and Donald. Some may implicate the so-called 'Jewish Lobby' or "Mossad'!
Any 'theory' that raises more issues than it explains is a bogus theory; any theory which requires that the many holes in it must be patched up is best discarded in favor of:
  • a new investigation an assessment of verifiable facts not additional baseless assertions
  • an insistence upon a theory consistent with established and verified science.
There might have been an investigation! What happened? Who brought the hammer down? Who managed to shut up people like FBI Director Robert Mueller who stated that there is (and is) no evidence to connect the 'said' 19 'hijackers' with the events of 911. The 'official' NTSB flight data was released upon an FOIA request. That data places FLT 77 at an altitude of 273 feet above the ground with a second or so of impact with the Pentagon which is just 71 feet tall! And --to clear up an ignorant suggestion --the altitude derived from the data released by NTSB is 'above ground', not above 'sea level'. How did the American public managed to forget that several of the alleged 'hijackers' were interviewed by the BBC after they were said to have died in the attacks. How did the mainstream media miss what should have been the lead story on every major network and that is: there are no hijacker names on the pathologists report released to Dr. Olmsted in response to an FOIA request. There is, therefore, no evidence that Hanjour's remains were autopsied, no evidence that his remains were even recovered or buried in Arlington National Cemetery. There is no evidence that any 'alleged' hijacker ever board any airliner at any time over the period of time in question. There is no evidence that Hani Hanjour was at any time on any flight connected with 911. The Washington Post reported than Hanjour was not on board Flight 77 because he did not have a ticket. [Washington Post, 9/16/01] It's hard to imagine Hanjour -a skinny 120 lbs -overpowering the crew, forcing his way on board armed only with a box cutter, forcing the hunky pilot and co-pilot out of the cockpit and not only flying the 200 ton airliner but maneuvering it in ways that experienced pilots say is simply impossible. This is not Alice in Wonderland and we are not required to believe six impossible things before losing our lunches. [apologies to Lewis Carroll] There is, in fact, no case against the 'alleged' 19 Arab Hijackers whatsoever. There is no probable cause to indict them! There is no admissible evidence. There was no case! There is no reason to believe the Bush cover story with respect to 911, Iraq, the nuclear threat, the raison d'etre for the illegal presence of the US in the Middle East. There is no defense against mass murder and war crimes charges against Bush, the government of the United States, the Pentagon brass and co-conspirators throughout K-Street and the Military/Industrial complex!Major Holes in the Official Lie There are no Arab names on the autopsy report of Fl 77 victims released to Dr. Olmsted in response to his FOIA. Now --an autopsy report is official, admissible in court. It has bona fides. But anyone can type up a 'passenger list' at anytime, even after the fact. But an autopsy report is evidence. The passenger list is just a meaningless piece of paper that proves nothing. Not a scrap of airliner wreckage traceable to a 757 was ever found at either the Pentagon or PA. Anyone still believing Bush's theory, I say: prove it! Show me the wreckage. If you believe an airliner crashed into the Pentagon, show me the fuselage. There are more troublesome problems with this aspect of the crime called 911. Proponents of the official theory have often maintained that all the passengers on board Fl 77 were not only autopsied, they were identified by sampling DNA. In the next breath, they will 'explain away' the fact that no fuselage traceable to any airliner of any sort was ever recovered and/or photographed on the Pentagon lawn. It 'vaporized' in the heat, they say. I have bad news for these 'theorists', these violators of Occam's razor and that bad news is this: every reputable scientific source, journal or university source I have consulted agrees that Aluminum vaporizes at 11,000 degrees F which NASA says is about 1000 degrees hotter than the surface of the sun!!! If Fl 77 burned, it did so at Kerosene fire --camp fire --temperatures! The Worst is Yet to Come It must be pointed out that to postit a 'vaporization theory' is to concede that no fuselage traceable to a 757 was ever recovered. They are left with facts that destroy their position: there is no fuselage, there is no wreckage, there was no airliner! Bush lied about acts of high treason and mass murder in order to cover them up! There are but two motives to lie about it: a) he is held hostage my the axis of CIA/Mossad; b) he is a willing partner, a traitor, a mass murderer! "Multiplicity ought not to be posited without necessity." A U.S. Global Hawk was, in fact, flown by remote control from the U.S. to Australia completely by remote control. The test was a success. And so too it's lethal and murderous strike on the Pentagon where it deposited and left behind its rotor! Pennsylvania There are photographs of a ditch in PA, a small ditch at that. We are expected to believe that a 757 managed to bury itself via that small ditch. I don't think so! I have bad news for the official theorists and a much better, common sense explanation: a) the ditch was dug by the backhoe clearly seen in photographs of the scene; b) like the Pentagon, there was absolutely no wreckage found that was or is traceable to a 757; c) no --the 757 did not penetrate the earth like a meteorite. Not even meteorites do that. Meteorites break up upon impact, exploding creating a crater. They do not bury themselves into the ground unless the ground is either molten or marshy and the PA was neither. I grew up within ten or twenty minutes of the world's third largest meteor crater near Odessa, TX. Back the in the 30s the University of Texas attempted an expensive retrieval of a 'mass' that was hoped had buried itself beneath just inside the Earth's outer crust. It was hoped that the mass would be found, retrieved, studied. It didn't happen. There was no mass. Most meteorites explode on impact which explains the fact that around a meteorite craters may be found huge chunks of stony-iron meteorites. The Odessa crater, it is believed, is but a fragment of a much larger mass that continued on to crash into Arizona. Briefly --NO! Flight 93 did NOT bury itself beneath the top soil. Neither meteorites nor airliners bury themselves under the soil like a gopher. Both meteorites and airliner leave behind clearly identifiable 'wreckage'! And to those who believe an airliner did a gopher routine in PA, I say: PROVE IT! Dig it up and show me! Otherwise shut up! And, if you happen to be a part of the Bush team, give yourself up and submit to prosecution for accessory to mass murder and high treason! Has anyone put forward an explanation for the existence of backhoe? There is no other evidence of any other 'work' underway at that location. One must conclude that the backhoe raison d'etre was the creation of a 'ditch' that Bushies could point to and say: Fl 93 buried itself into the earth there! BS!Hijacked Flights Had Been 'Mothballed' There is a cloud of suspicion about all the flights that were said to have been involved with 911. American Airlines itself made an entry on WIKI that none of the AA flights said to have been involved in 911 had been scheduled to fly that day, indeed, had not been scheduled to fly for the previous six months. What does the 'official conspiracy theory' have to say about that? The 'official conspiracy theory' cannot explain why only 'mothballed' flights were was suddenly pressed into 'service' on 911, pressed into service which would result in every one of them being utterly incinerated, vanished, buried in a rabbit hole in PA, or, perhaps beamed into another dimension. I daresay --no one has at any time found a scrap of airliner wreckage that has been, in fact, traced to any one of the mysterious flights, mothballed for months but pressed into service for a 'mission' from which they clearly never returned! In fact, we cannot even say that based upon the only available information available to us! How does the 'official conspiracy theory' explain how those flights got into the air if they had not been scheduled to flight and if --indeed --they did get into the air? The information from AA changes the paradigm by raising reasonable, indeed, compelling doubt that the said flights ever flew at all! At the very least, the burden of proof is upon Bushco to prove that the flights flew. It is incumbent upon the official conspiracy theorists to explain why the said flight were suddenly taken off the 'no-fly' list on this day of all days! Why? Bushco must explain the timing and the reason for the sudden change! The Spontaneous Collapse of WTC 7 WTC 7 was NOT struck by an airliner yet it collapsed but not before its collapse was reported by a BBC reporter while it was still standing for TV viewers to see still standing behind her as she reported its collapse. If there is an innocent explanation, I have never heard it! Moreover, the collapse of WTC 7 is completely inexplicable and utterly unexplained by Bushco's official conspiracy theory. I suggest that whomever 'leaked' the report to BBC knew that the collapse was imminent. Their timing was bad! With any luck, their timing may yet prove fatal! The 'Buscho Official Conspiracy Theory' is ImpossibleTherefore, it is a lie! Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes said: "When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains however implausible must be the truth!" The key points of the official conspiracy --the Pentagon Strike, the backhoe ditch in PA --have eliminated essential ingredients of the official lie. I am content to let the work of my friend Dr. David Griffin and Professor Steven Jones address the utter impossibility of the official stories with regard to the Twin Towers. The collapse of wTC 7 is an obvious controlled demolition, the fall of which was reported before it happened. I will venture but one scenario at this point: a US GLOBAL HAWK was programmed to strike the Pentagon. It carried a conventional payload --not a nuclear one. It left behind a 'smoking gun', an engine rotor traceable to a U.S. Global Hawk and it would have been had there been a real investigation.Bushco ordered the destruction of evidence. The destruction of material evidence of a crime IS a crime and should be prosecuted. It has not been as yet but there is no statute of limitations on mass murder, nor, I believe, high treason, nor violations of U.S. Codes, Title 18, Section 2441, war crimes triggered by the events of 911! As most of the evidence has been destroyed upon orders from Bushco, the above approach, I believe, is all that we have left. Keep in mind, however, that the above cited U.S. carry with them the death penalty for violations resulting in death. How many civilians have died in both Afghanistan and Iraq because Bush participated in the events of 911? How U.S. citizens have likewise died because they were ordered to attack and kill Iraqis though Iraq had nothing to do with 911, in fact, had nothing but the oil that was coveted by Dick Cheney's 'Energy Task Force' which met, before 911, for the purpose of carving up the oil fields of Iraq! I ask you: what guilty knowledge would motivate the conspirators if not the guilty knowledge that soon, the U.S. would find a way to be at war with Iraq! In the meantime, evidence that would earn Bush a death sentence was destroyed for the same reasons that EVIDENCE is destroyed in every other cover up of every other crime since crime became profitable. The evidence was removed and ordered destroyed by 'usual suspects', suspect who might have been convicted by it and sentenced to death! Death is motive enough for guilty peole to cover up their crimes, destroy evidence and lie about their crimes! The evidence was ordered destroyed by Bush to protect the guilty. Who BUT the guilty are most motivated to ORDER the destruction of evidence? The corollary is also true: only an IDIOT would order the destruction of evidence IF it would clear him of all charges or, in other ways, prove his innocence. In that scenario --Bush is either GUILTY or he is an idiot. He just wants to you think he's a completely idiot! Never fear, he is smart enough to savfe his own sorry ass! I cannot indict the Bush syndicate of criminals with a single article. I will say that the demonstrable lies told by this gang of traitors is probable cause to convene an independent Federal Grand Jury that will use the power of the subpoena to 'roundup the usual suspects' --Bush, Cheney, Rummie, Rice, Myers, various Pentagon Brass and Bush partisans inside the CIA. Recall --that Bush Sr was, at one time, director of the CIA and there is evidence he had connections with the CIA at the time of the JFK assassination. It is my hope that a Federall Grand Jury will 'round up the usual suspects', subpoena them, and prosecute them for the lies that will be proven! By law, anyone knowingly spreading Bush's lie with respect to 911 are guilty of obstruction of justice. That surely applies to anyone in the Bush administration which knew better but fell into line and supported the Bush cover story anyone. I urge these people to come forward. A compassionate prosecutor may find it useful to be merciful to anyone willing to tell the truth about how the Bush administration may have conspired and assisted Mossad in a murderous, treasonous attack on the people of the United States. Should one among these traitors cracks and spills the beans so much the better....

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Saturday, February 27, 2010

The Last Honest Republican

http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2010/02/last-honest-republican.html


by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy


Dwight David Eisenhower, familiarly called 'Ike', may very well have been the last honest Republican. As both General and President, Eisenhower held his positions in 'good faith'; he was not a 'crook'.

Bertolt Brecht had said: "A man who does not know the truth is just an idiot but a man who knows the truth and calls it a lie is a crook." By that standard, Nixon. the progenitor of the modern Republican who lies to conceal his/her true position, was a crook. When Nixon said 'I am not a crook', we knew he was one. Arguably a great general, the man who supervised allied forces landing in Normandy in preparation for the final assault on Hitler's Third Reich, Eisenhower made the best case for world peace, putting forward five 'precepts' in what is often called the 'Cross of Iron Speech'. Tragically, Eisenhower's five principles have been hypocritically eschewed. It is symptomatic that the GOP leadership fell to the likes of Nixon, Reagan. Bush Sr and the Shrub --all of whom failed the economy, failed the people, failed the Constitution. All were crooks who whored themselves to the very Military-Industrial Complex that Ike had warned about. The GOP has been crooked ever since.
In that spring of victory the soldiers of the Western Allies met the soldiers of Russia in the center of Europe. They were triumphant comrades in arms. Their peoples shared the joyous prospect of building, in honor of their dead, the only fitting monument-an age of just peace. All these war-weary peoples shared too this concrete, decent purpose: to guard vigilantly against the domination ever again of any part of the world by a single, unbridled aggressive power.This common purpose lasted an instant and perished. The nations of the world divided to follow two distinct roads.The United States and our valued friends, the other free nations, chose one road.The leaders of the Soviet Union chose another.The way chosen by the United States was plainly marked by a few clear precepts, which govern its conduct in world affairs.
  • First: No people on earth can be held, as a people, to be enemy, for all humanity shares the common hunger for peace and fellowship and justice.
  • Second: No nation's security and well-being can be lastingly achieved in isolation but only ineffective cooperation with fellow-nations.
  • Third: Any nation's right to form of government and an economic system of its own choosing is inalienable.
  • Fourth: Any nation's attempt to dictate to other nations their form of government is indefensible.
  • And fifth: A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations.
In the light of these principles the citizens of the United States defined the way they proposed to follow, through the aftermath of war, toward true peace.--Cross of Iron Address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower "The Chance for Peace" delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16,1953.
It is not my position that I agree with every thing Ike did or said nor is it my purpose in this short article to analyze his every position with respect to my world view or my values. It is, rather, important to point out that people of 'good faith' may disagree honorably. That Nixon failed the standards Ike lived up to defined the course of U.S. history and showed us a glimpse of a demise that we may very well be experiencing now.

Monday, February 15, 2010

The White House Murder INC. in action...


The White House Murder INC. in action...

The debate here lately on the sanctioned assassinations of U.S. citizens is really nothing new. The killing of political opponents and threats has been standard operating procedure for a long time.


http://newhk.blogspot.com/2008/12/uniiic-ii-report-revisited.html


Clinton Casualties

Clinton Corpse Collections

The Death of Vincent Foster

JFK assassination related deaths

Bush Death List

Bush/Clinton suspicious death list

The Mysterious Death of Bush's Cyber-Guru

Suspicious Deaths of Those Who Knew Too Much Under Bush's Watch

The mysterious deaths of top microbiologists

The JFK Jr. Assassination

The Cover-up of Sonny Bono's Murder

The Paul Wellstone Assassination
"When I first met the President, he called me 'Pablo,'" Wellstone jokes. "That lasted a day or two. Then they started trying to figure out how they were going to get rid of me." - Paul Wellstone

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Why the CIA is the World's Number One Terrorist Organization

http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2010/02/why-cia-is-worlds-number-one-terrorist.html

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy



The time has come to abolish the CIA --to smash it into a thousand pieces --as JFL had promised! Its leadership should be dismissed and investigated. Where there is probable cause, CIA members should be investigated and tried for crimes against humanity.The CIA, itself a ruthless, terrorist organization inspires terrorism in response. In some cases, notably the CIA and al Qaeda, the relationship between the CIA and terrorism is symbiotic. The CIA perpetuates an "American Holocaust", the deaths of some 6 million people from its inception to the year 1987. For as Long as the CIA Exists, the US will never be safe from terrorism. It has long been time to realize JFK's dream of smashing the CIA into a 'thousand pieces'.
CIA operations follow the same recurring script. First, American business interests abroad are threatened by a popular or democratically elected leader. The people support their leader because he intends to conduct land reform, strengthen unions, redistribute wealth, nationalize foreign-owned industry, and regulate business to protect workers, consumers and the environment. So, on behalf of American business, and often with their help, the CIA mobilizes the opposition. First it identifies right-wing groups within the country (usually the military), and offers them a deal: "We'll put you in power if you maintain a favorable business climate for us." The Agency then hires, trains and works with them to overthrow the existing government (usually a democracy).

--Steve Kangas, A Timeline of CIA Atrocities

Pakistan is a case in point.
Since 9/11, the Bush administration has been propping up Musharraf's military regime with $3.6 billion in economic aid from the US and a US-sponsored consortium, not to mention $900 million in military aid and the postponement of overdue debt repayments totaling $13.5 billion. But now the administration is debating whether Musharraf has become too dependent on Islamic extremist political parties in Pakistan to further US interests, and whether he should be pressured to permit the return of two exiled former prime ministers, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, who have formed an electoral alliance to challenge him in presidential elections scheduled for next year.

--Pakistan: Friend or Foe? The US shouldn't prop up President Musharraf's military regime, Selig S. Harrison

The late Benazir Bhutto revealed the truth before she was brutally gunned down in the streets of Karachi: US policy causes world terrorism. Conveniently for 'official terrorists, she died before she could tell the rest of the story.
When the United States aligns with dictatorships and totalitarian regimes, it compromises the basic democratic principles of its foundation -- namely, life, liberty and justice for all. Dictatorships such as Musharraf's suppress individual rights and freedoms and empower the most extreme elements of society. Oppressed citizens, unable to represent themselves through other means, often turn to extremism and religious fundamentalism.

Benazir Bhutto, A False Choice for Pakistan

A favorite CIA tactic is the CIA "front".
The May 12 terrorist attacks on the al Hamra, Jadawal and Vinnell compounds in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, which killed more than 90 people, were not merely assaults on “symbols” of the imperialist West. The bombers were also intent on weakening the rule of Saudi royal family.While the timing of the bombings in Saudi Arabia and in other countries — just hours before US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Saudi Arabia — suggested a coordinated assault on US targets, the bombings in Riyadh were targeted at key props of the reactionary regime.All three Saudi Arabian targets were associated with Saudi Arabia's role as a US client state: residential compounds housing mainly expatriates working in the country, the offices of the Vinnell Corporation and the residences of its employees.Vinnell, founded in California in 1931, first gained a foothold in Saudi Arabia in 1975. An article by Matt Gaul in the June 1998 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, revealed that it was the culmination of a close relationship between the corporation, the US military and Washington's intelligence agencies. This relationship stretched back to the end of World War II, when the US government used the company to ship supplies to the China's counter-revolutionary party, the Kuomintang.During the 1950s and '60s, Vinnell constructed US military airfields in Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan, Thailand and southern Vietnam. According to Gaul, it was during this period that Albert Vinnell, the corporation's founder, “offered his staff's services to the [CIA], and several CIA agents used employment with Vinnell as cover for operations in Africa and the Middle East”.

-- Rohan Pearce, CIA front targeted in terrorist attacks, 28 May 2003

How does the CIA do it?
It uses every trick in the book: propaganda, stuffed ballot boxes, purchased elections, extortion, blackmail, sexual intrigue, false stories about opponents in the local media, infiltration and disruption of opposing political parties, kidnapping, beating, torture, intimidation, economic sabotage, death squads and even assassination. These efforts culminate in a military coup, which installs a right-wing dictator. The CIA trains the dictator’s security apparatus to crack down on the traditional enemies of big business, using interrogation, torture and murder. The victims are said to be "communists," but almost always they are just peasants, liberals, moderates, labor union leaders, political opponents and advocates of free speech and democracy. Widespread human rights abuses follow.

--Steve Kangas, A Timeline of CIA Atrocities

The CIA uses all those methods to install dictators like Musharraf, whom it most certainly trained. The CIA is ruthless in its on-going efforts to eliminate with torture and murder, in necessary, all opposition to the interests of American imperialists. Saddam Hussein was among the dictators propped up by the US, the CIA specifically. Saddam ran afoul of Bush Sr by opposing efforts by the Bush regime to keep the price of oil high. The transcript of US Ambassador April Glaspie's interview with Hussein on the eve of his invasion of Kuwait proves conclusively that Hussein had been set up by the master spy --George Bush Sr. The CIAs allegiance to the US oil industry is overt and is most certainly at the very heart of well-founded suspicions about the CIA, Texas oil barons, and JFK. Dealy Plaza is said to have been the nexus of all three! The origins of Bush's war in Iraq may be found in the Arab Oil embargo of the 1970s.
Three decades ago, in the throes of the energy crisis, Washington's hawks conceived of a strategy for US control of the Persian Gulf's oil. Now, with the same strategists firmly in control of the White House, the Bush administration is playing out their script for global dominance. In the geopolitical vision driving current US policy toward Iraq, the key to national security is global hegemony -- dominance over any and all potential rivals. To that end, the United States must not only be able to project its military forces anywhere, at any time. It must also control key resources, chief among them oil -- and especially Gulf oil.

--Robert Dreyfuss, Mother Jones

JFK promised to "smash the CIA into a thousand pieces". Bill Clinton, on the 50th anniversary of "the company", defended it with an absurdity that one might have expected from the GOP! Americans, Clinton said, don't know or understand what the CIA does and should, therefore, lay off! Out not knowing what the CIA is up to is precisely the problem. Bill Clinton is as dead wrong on this issue as Barack Obama is dead wrong about Ronald Reagan. Both positions are premised upon the idea that the American people are stupid and those that are not ought to be! The fact is: the CIA is out of control and they will continue to get away with it as long as the American people are either ignorant, kept in the dark, or both! The CIA is unaccountable and because it is, it remains a cancerous source of unchecked corruption and most certainly the inspiration for generations of American hating terrorists who will fight back in kind! Much has been written about the CIA’s operations, [The Modus Operandi of the CIA] by insiders and outsiders. One insider who has chronicled what he witnessed in the CIA is Ralph McGehee. He worked for the CIA from 1952 until 1977 and now writes about intelligence matters, notably the book Deadly Deceits -- My 25 years in the CIA (New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1983). He has compiled a computer data base on CIA activities. Persons interested may write to him at: 422 Arkansas Ave., Herndon, VA 22070. (See http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA/CIA_SOP.html .) Here are some excerpts of what he has written:
“...it is essential to provide background on the scope and nature of its worldwide operations. Between 1961 and 1975 the Agency conducted 900 major or sensitive operations, and thousands of lesser covert actions. The majority of its operations were propaganda, election or paramilitary. Countries of major concern, such as Indonesia in the early 1960s, were usually subjected to the CIA's most concerted attention. Critics of the CIA have aptly described the mainstays of such attention: "discrediting political groups... by forged documents that may be attributed to them. . . ." faking "communist weapon shipments,'' capturing communist documents and then inserting forgeries prepared by the Agency's Technical Services Division.

--Ralph McGehee

Much of the rest of the world knows the truth about the CIA; Americans are kept in the dark. The media dare not tell the truth about the CIA and the Bush administration, in particular, is complicit. Rare media outlets that dare tell the truth are demonized. Writers and "liberal" activist Steve Kangas turned up dead just outside the office of Richard Mellon Scaife, the multi-billionaire about whom it is no stretch to say he coordinated and bankrolled the "vast right wing conspiracy" to impeach, remove and, in other ways, smear Bill Clinton. As more documents are declassified and the hidden history is made painfully clear, the CIA’s predictable response is compared to the Medieval Church’s oppressive response to the Scientific Revolution. Indeed, there are many things about the CIAs relationship to the world around it that are medieval: intolerance, fear, repression, secrecy and torture. Initially, the CIA would merely harass American writers but foreign writers were tortured and/or murdered. With the death of Steve Kangas, one wonders if the CIA now operates against the domestic media. What's next? An inquisition? The CIA, whose very is name is enough to inspire generations of "terrorists", has outlived its usefulness.

The CIA Holocaust

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

International Criminal Court (ICC)


Citizen's Arrest of War Criminals Tony Blair and George W. Bush: by Prof. Anthony J. Hall

Professor Boyle's intervention with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute the Bush War Cabinet for international crimes is welcome news. Professor Boyle's meticulously documented charges come shortly after news of a reward being set up in Great Britain for those who attempt citizens' arrests of credibly accused war criminal, Tony Blair.

Deepening Debt Crisis: The Bernanke Reappointment: Be Afraid, Very Afraid: by Prof Michael Hudson

Budgets, War and Blind Ambition: The Limited Minds of the American Elite: by Chris Floyd

Warning: This is Not Another Wall Street Conspiracy Theory, These are the Facts:

Paulson Says U.S. Was ‘Close’ to Financial Collapse

Sunday, January 3, 2010

The US and China: One Side is Losing, the Other is Winning


......In China, it all started with a revolution.

capitalism, notably China and South Korea are competing with the US for global power. Asian global power is driven by dynamic economic growth, while the US pursues a strategy of military-driven empire building.One Day’s Read of the Financial Times

Even a cursory read of a single issue of the Financial Times (December 28, 2009) illustrates the divergent strategies toward empire building. On page one, the lead article on the US is on its expanding military conflicts and its ‘war on terror’, entitled“Obama Demands Review of Terror List”. In contrast, there are two page-one articles on China, which describe China’s launching of the world’s fastest long-distance passenger train service and China’s decision to maintain its currency pegged to the US dollar as a mechanism to promote its robust export sector. While Obama turns the US focus on a fourth battle front (Yemen) in the ‘war on terror’ (after Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan), the Financial Times reports on the same page that a South Korean consortium has won a $20.4 billion dollar contract to develop civilian nuclear power plants for the United Arab Emirates, beating its US and European competitors.

On page two of the FT there is a longer article elaborating on the new Chinese rail system, highlighting its superiority over the US rail service: The Chinese ultra-modern train takes passengers between two major cities, 1,100 kilometers, in less than 3 hours whereas the US Amtrack ‘Express’ takes 3 ½ hours to cover 300 kilometers between Boston and New York. While the US passenger rail system deteriorates from lack of investment and maintenance, China has spent $17 billion dollars constructing its express line. China plans to construct 18,000 kilometers of new track for its ultra-modern system by 2012, while the US will spend an equivalent amount in financing its ‘military surge ’in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as opening a new war front in Yemen.

China builds a transport system linking producers and labor markets from the interior provinces with the manufacturing centers and ports on the coast, while on page 4 the Financial Times describes how the US is welded to its policy of confronting the ‘Islamist threat’ with an endless ‘war on terror’. The decades-long wars and occupations of Moslem countries have diverted hundreds of billions of dollars of public funds to a militarist policy with no benefit to the US, while China modernizes its civilian economy. While the White House and Congress subsidize and pander to the militarist-colonial state of Israel with its insignificant resource base and market, alienating 1.5 billion Moslems (Financial Times – page 7), China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 10 fold over the past 26 years (FT – page 9). While the US allocated over $1.4 trillion dollars to Wall Street and the military, increasing the fiscal and current account deficits, doubling unemployment and perpetuating the recession (FT – page 12), the Chinese government releases a stimulus package directed at its domestic manufacturing and construction sectors, leading to an 8% growth in GDP, a significant reduction of unemployment and ‘re-igniting linked economies’ in Asia, Latin America and Africa (also on page 12).

While the US was spending time, resources and personnel in running ‘elections’ for its corrupt clients in Afghanistan and Iraq, and participating in pointless mediations between its intransigent Israeli partner and its impotent Palestinian client, the South Korean government backed a consortium headed by the Korea Electric Power Corporation in its successful bid on the $20.4 billion dollar nuclear power deal, opening the way for other billion-dollar contracts in the region (FT – page 13).

While the US was spending over $60 billion dollars on internal policing and multiplying the number and size of its ‘homeland’ security agencies in pursuit of potential ‘terrorists’, China was investing $25 billion dollars in ‘cementing its energy trading relations’ with Russia (FT – page 3).

The story told by the articles and headlines in a single day’s issue of the Financial Times reflects a deeper reality, one that illustrates the great divide in the world today. The Asian countries, led by China, are reaching world power status on the basis of their massive domestic and foreign investments in manufacturing, transportation, technology and mining and mineral processing. In contrast, the US is a declining world power with a deteriorating society resulting from its military-driven empire building and its financial-speculative centered economy:

1. Washington pursues minor military clients in Asia; while China expands its trading and investment agreements with major economic partners – Russia, Japan, South Korea and elsewhere.

2. Washington drains the domestic economy to finance overseas wars. China extracts minerals and energy resources to create its domestic job market in manufacturing.

3. The US invests in military technology to target local insurgents challenging US client regimes; China invests in civilian technology to create competitive exports.

4. China begins to restructure its economy toward developing the country’s interior and allocates greater social spending to redress its gross imbalances and inequalities while the US rescues and reinforces the parasitical financial sector, which plundered industries (strips assets via mergers and acquisitions) and speculates on financial objectives with no impact on employment, productivity or competitiveness.

5. The US multiplies wars and troop build-ups in the Middle East, South Asia, the Horn of Africa and Caribbean; China provides investments and loans of over $25 billion dollars in building infrastructure, mineral extraction, energy production and assembly plants in Africa.

6. China signs multi-billion dollar trade and investment agreements with Iran, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Bolivia, securing access to strategic energy, mineral and agricultural resources; Washington provides $6 billion in military aid to Colombia, secures seven military bases from President Uribe (to threaten Venezuela), backs a military coup in tiny Honduras and denounces Brazil and Bolivia for diversifying its economic ties with Iran.

7. China increases economic relations with dynamic Latin American economies, incorporating over 80% of the continent’s population; the US partners with the failed state of Mexico, which has the worst economic performance in the hemisphere and where powerful drug cartels control wide regions and penetrate deep into the state apparatus.

Conclusion

China is not an exceptional capitalist country. Under Chinese capitalism, labor is exploited; inequalities in wealth and access to services are rampant; peasant-farmers are displaced by mega-dam projects and Chinese companies recklessly extract minerals and other natural resources in the Third World. However, China has created scores of millions of manufacturing jobs, reduced poverty faster and for more people in the shortest time span in history. Its banks mostly finance production. China doesn’t bomb, invade or ravage other countries. In contrast, US capitalism has been harnessed to a monstrous global military machine that drains the domestic economy and lowers the domestic standard of living in order to fund its never-ending foreign wars. Finance, real estate and commercial capital undermine the manufacturing sector, drawing profits from speculation and cheap imports.

China invests in petroleum-rich countries; the US attacks them. China sells plates and bowls for Afghan wedding feasts; US drone aircraft bomb the celebrations. China invests in extractive industries, but, unlike European colonialists, it builds railroads, ports, airfields and provides easy credit. China does not finance and arm ethnic wars and ‘color rebellions’ like the US CIA. China self-finances its own growth, trade and transportation system; the US sinks under a multi trillion dollar debt to finance its endless wars, bail out its Wall Street banks and prop up other non-productive sectors while many millions remain without jobs.

China will grow and exercise power through the market; the US will engage in endless wars on its road to bankruptcy and internal decay. China’s diversified growth is linked to dynamic economic partners; US militarism has tied itself to narco-states, warlord regimes, the overseers of banana republics and the last and worst bona fide racist colonial regime, Israel.

China entices the world’s consumers. US global wars provoke terrorists here and abroad.

China may encounter crises and even workers rebellions, but it has the economic resources to accommodate them. The US is in crisis and may face domestic rebellion, but it has depleted its credit and its factories are all abroad and its overseas bases and military installations are liabilities, not assets. There are fewer factories in the US to re-employ its desperate workers: A social upheaval could see the American workers occupying the empty shells of its former factories.

To become a ‘normal state’ we have to start all over: Close all investment banks and military bases abroad and return to America. We have to begin the long march toward rebuilding industry to serve our domestic needs, to living within our own natural environment and forsake empire building in favor of constructing a democratic socialist republic.

When will we pick up the Financial Times or any other daily and read about our own high-speed rail line carrying American passengers from New York to Boston in less than one hour? When will our own factories supply our hardware stores? When will we build wind, solar and ocean-based energy generators? When will we abandon our military bases and let the world’s warlords, drug traffickers and terrorists face the justice of their own people?

Will we ever read about these in the Financial Times?

In China, it all started with a revolution

Monday, December 21, 2009

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The current battle against the State Secrets Privilege



The current battle against the State Secrets Privilege
By Sibel Edmonds

Jun 11, 2009, 00:19


During the past few months I have been actively following the latest activity on the State Secrets Privilege (SSP)......http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4791.shtml.

First, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this issue of extreme importance to our civil liberties and constitutional rights was finally getting long overdue and deserved attention from the media. After all, the memories of fighting SSP in the federal courts all the way up to the Supreme Court, holding press conferences together with the ACLU to bring needed media attention to this draconian abuse, making the rounds in Congress to have them address this ‘privilege’ through legislation to restrict its misuse and abuse, are still fresh and vivid for me.

Then I started detecting some troubling common trends showing up in media reports and subsequently in discussions and statements within Congress. The most suspicious of these came in the form of sanitizing major SSP abuse cases from reports put forth by both the mainstream media and some in alternative publications. The first invocation of the SSP by the Bush administration was in my case. Back then, if you had done a Google search on ‘state secrets privilege’ you would have come up with only seven results; three of them repeats. After successfully getting away with SSP invocation in my case, the administration opened the floodgates for others. Now I invite you to search all the archived news reports on SSP in the last year or so. As you will see, in every single report in which the abuses of SSP and its history are cited, you will not find this first case, my case. Further, if you were to look for other major abuses of SSP, such as the Barlow case, you will find none. The valid cases cited are mainly limited to: Khalid Al-Masri, Maher Arar, Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, Binyam Mohamed, with a note here and there on ‘NSA’ related information and the historical Reynold’s case from 1953.

Finally, I decided to dig further and explore the reasons behind these significant omissions and the accompanying information spin that seems to be packaged with the intention of fulfilling Washington’s objective -- seeing the related campaign and activities fail. Of course, based on my own case and experience with SSP, I had my own theories as to why the issue was being narrowed down to certain ‘selected’ cases and interpretations; counterproductive to the objective shared by SSP recipients and organizations who have been truly active in seeking to have it abolished or reformed through congressional legislation. But I was also interested in getting the opinions of those who have been actually involved with these cases, either as plaintiffs or attorneys representing SSP cases, or even a few trusted insiders in Congress with direct knowledge. So I contacted several and include their views and interpretations here.

The congressional angle

A well seasoned congressional staff member connected to a well-known ‘centrist’ office active in the current SSP debate, who ‘insisted’ on being granted anonymity, had the following to say: “Contrary to what they may claim in order to pacify the recent ‘Anti-State Secrets Privilege’ movement, the Congress does not want to deal with this issue. And this applies to members of both parties . . . of course we will hold a couple of hearings and show we have investigated and reviewed cases . . .”

He then went on to list several enlightening points regarding the ‘real’ factors driving the current position on SSP:

  • We are being told that the president [Obama] will veto any proposed legislation dealing with State Secrets Privilege . . . that and that no one in Congress really wants to touch this area. Having the press limit the information to ‘War on Terror Suspects’ [Emphasis added] helps both: the President and the reluctant Congress.

  • The cases before us are ‘selectively’ [Emphasis added] related to the War on Terror. A few Arab guys with their claims will not bring sympathy from the majority in this country. Not in Iowa, not in Utah . . . you catch my drift?

  • . . . I am talking about cases where there are no questions of ‘Criminality’ being involved or covered up. We won’t touch those cases. No one will go for that. The reasons . . . obvious . . . Being unfair or making the wrong call to determine if someone is a terrorist does not constitute ‘criminal.’ [Emphasis Added]. As for the NSA related case, well, the new legislation took care of that . . .

  • By the way, we don’t expect to see any cases of abuses of SSP by the Clinton administration cited anywhere. Holder’s office in the background and the majority leaders up on the front lines are ensuring this through the media and the NGOs.

Let me recap what is being said, the reality ‘on the ground’ here: Like any other president before him, and probably those who’ll come after him, President Obama is not going to limit his presidential powers when it comes to this draconian absolute executive power. He has made it clear to the majority party members and they are set to follow his guideline on this. It is a slam-dunk position with a guaranteed ‘win’ since the minority in Congress also encourages and backs this position.

Somehow the executive branch and the Congress have managed to accomplish their objectives on SSP through the U.S. media. They want the reporting massaged and messaged in such a way that the publicity on SSP is limited to only ‘select’ cases where ‘executive criminality’ and or ‘covering up executive criminality’ will not be an issue. Those SSP cases where the executive branch used this level of secrecy to cover up criminal deeds would make the need for congressional action on SSP far greater. After all, we even have an Executive Order that currently prohibits secrecy and classification from being used by the executive branch in order to conceal violations of law. Of course with the case(s) involving NSA warrantless wiretapping, as quoted by the congressional source above, they no longer have to worry, since they took care of it through retroactive legislation.

With cases involving wrongful detention and abuse of those ‘wrongfully accused’ in the government’s war on terror, it has been set up so that these cases can be written off as ‘egregious labeling, handling and treatment’ committed immediately following the September 11 attacks. Excuses such as ‘extraordinary’ circumstances, ‘bureaucratic bungling,’ and the previous administration’s ‘excess’ have been all lined up to be used if or when SSP makes it’s way into Congress. Further, the government also counts on bigotry to insure that there will be no major public pressure, since the involved victims are not (at least most) Americans, have Arabic names, and are of Muslim background. They believe that the majority of Americans will not be sympathetic to these plaintiffs, so there will be no problem killing any chance of restraining the long-abused SSP through meaningful legislation.

Richard Barlow & the State Secrets Privilege

Richard Barlow, an intelligence analyst and a former senior member of the Counter-Proliferation unit at the CIA lost his job when he objected internally to the George H.W. Bush administration’s misleading Congress over Pakistan’s nuclear program. Following Congress-ordered investigations, the inspector-general at the State Department and the CIA concluded that Barlow had been fired as a reprisal. Further, a final investigation by Congress’ own Government Accountability Office completed in 1997 largely vindicated Barlow. The Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committees concluded that Barlow was due Congressional relief in light of unjustified DOD actions against him and cover-ups with Congress. A relief bill was introduced, but the Senate Judiciary Committee referred the bill to the Court of Federal Claims for more “fact finding” in what is known as a Congressional Reference, in which the Congress still remains the deciding body. For more detailed background and related official documents on Barlow see here.

On February 10, 2000, in the Barlow case before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the CIA signed a declaration and a formal claim of SSP. Separately, in another declaration, Michael Hayden, director of NSA, also formally invoked SSP. The decision by the court to accept the government’s broad invocation of SSP prevented Barlow from obtaining needed facts and evidences. With the court proceedings closed to the public, without the ability to present numerous official reports and evidence due to the court’s acceptance of the blanket SSP, Barlow’s case lost in 2002. For more legal background and facts on the court case, see the memo by Louis Fisher of the Congressional Research Service.

On ‘executive criminality & cover up’:

Top U.S. officials were allowing Pakistan to manufacture and possess nuclear weapons, and the A.Q. Khan nuclear network was violating U.S. laws. Not only that -- the same officials were also lying to Congress. They were hiding these activities because the truth would have legally obligated the U.S. government to cut off its overt military aid to Pakistan.

On partisan focus & excluding other administrations’ abuses:

Barlow’s SSP case involved four administrations: Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush.

The case involved both parties; Democrats & Republicans.

On Congress’ bigoted view of public sympathy:

The invocation of SSP in Barlow’s case can not be easily written off as extreme measures for extreme situations under the ‘war on terror.’

Mr. Barlow was and is an exemplary U.S. citizen, was awarded the CIA’s Exceptional Accomplishment Award in 1988, and was considered a patriot for serving America’s interests by Congress and even by the executive branch who went after him.

When I contacted Mr. Barlow and asked for his view on the troubling trend by the media and Congress in packaging SSP related information to mislead the public and destroy any chance of reform, this is what he had to say: “Long before the Congress even begins to address issues relating to the use of SSP in court cases involving private charities, foreigners, suspected terrorists, or any private parties, it clearly needs to first address the use of SSP by the Executive Branch to conceal crimes, abuses, or fraud by the Executive Branch against the Congress itself or against federal intelligence officers or other federal employees [who] are the victims, and especially when it involves issues [of] Congress being lied to or willfully misled regarding intelligence information.”

He then added, “The media must go further than merely reporting the actions and inactions of Congress and the courts: we need investigative reporting on why the Congress has failed to address cover-ups of illegal activity by the executive branch and what members of Congress are responsible for this abdication of constitutional responsibility, particularly if Obama continues to break his campaign promises on SSP and follow in the footsteps of Bush on this and other national security matters.”

Sibel Edmonds & the State Secrets Privilege

I am not going to revisit the many times repeated details of the SSP invocation in my case. The legal outline of SSP abuse by the Bush administration invoked to cover up ‘criminal’ activities and subsequent cover up of these criminal activities can be found on the ACLU site.

According to Ann Beeson, former legal director at the ACLU, “The state secrets privilege should be used as a shield for sensitive evidence, not a sword the government can use at will to cut off argument in a case before the evidence can be presented. We are urging the Supreme Court, which has not directly addressed this issue in 50 years, to rein in the government’s misuse of this privilege.”

In my case the government also used the privilege to exclude members of the press from covering the court proceedings: “The ACLU is also asking the Supreme Court to reverse the D.C. appeals court’s decision to exclude the press and public from the court hearing of Edmonds’ case in April. The appeals court closed the hearing at the eleventh hour without any specific findings that secrecy was necessary.”

How does this case fit the Congress’ criteria to exclude?

On executive criminality & covering it up by invocation of SSP & abuses of classification:

In addition to the Dickerson Case, which was characterized by Senator Grassley as “a very major internal security breach, and a potential espionage breach,” and later confirmed by the DOJ-IG (investigation [PDF]), my case also involves espionage activities by several high-level U.S. officials, both elected and appointed. Several elected officials, an official at the State Department, and a few high-level officials in the Pentagon were involved in passing highly classified information to foreign entities connected to Turkey, Pakistan and Israel. Along with the confirmed Dickerson case involving Lt. Colonel Douglas Dickerson -- who worked for Douglas Feith and Marc Grossman -- other connected officials’ espionage activities were also covered up by invoking SSP.

On partisan focus & excluding other administrations’ abuses:

  • The information involved in my case covered the time period 1996-2002. It involved two administrations and two political parties.

  • Similarly, information implicating several elected officials in major corruption cases also involved both parties.

On Congress’ bigoted view of public sympathy

  • My case does not fit the ‘War on Terror’ excuse.
  • The case didn’t involve a ‘mistaken’ suspect terrorist or suspect organization.

  • I, as the plaintiff, was and am a United States Citizen, thus my constitutional rights were directly violated by invocation of SSP.

I believe providing background on and an overview of these two relevant and major SSP cases will suffice to establish the reasons behind the intentional sanitization of SSP media coverage and other reports -- so far successfully achieved by the executive branch and the Congress.

The recent ‘supposed’ leak of a report by the Congressional Research Service on SSP under the title of “The State Secrets Privilege and Other Limits on Litigation Involving Classified Information” is a very appropriate example: “The Congressional Research Service has prepared a new account of the state secrets privilege, which is used by the government to bar disclosure of certain national security information in the course of civil litigation. While the CRS report contains nothing new, it is a detailed, dispassionate and fairly comprehensive account of the subject. A copy was obtained by Secrecy News.”

Assuming that this report in fact was leaked (my congressional sources claim otherwise, but I couldn’t substantiate it definitively.), I invite the readers to review the ‘analyzed’ and ‘cited’ cases. Please carefully review the citations, and take note of the cases taken into examination, especially those since 2000. Here is the list:

Al-Haramain Islamic Fund v. Bush, El-Masri v. US, Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan

Not surprisingly, the ‘leaked’ report intended for Congress based on the ‘latest’ anti State Secrets Privilege movement’s pressure on Congress to act, meets the ‘qualification’ criteria.

I contacted Mark Zaid, a Washington attorney who has represented many plaintiffs in SSP cases, including me, and this is what he had to say, “The abuse of the privilege extends beyond protecting Bush administration policies; it is often focused on covering up institutional misconduct and embarrassment that transcend political lines.”

Regarding the latest media coverage, mainstream and alternative, and their either naïve or agenda-driven case selections, Mr. Zaid states, “This provides an incomplete portrait of the dangers of the invocation of the privilege and in some ways fosters further abuse.”

Based on the ‘sanitization’ criteria as explained by the quoted congressional staff member, it is obvious why the major SSP cases provided above ‘could not’ be included in any potential/future congressional discussions and or hearings. These cases cannot be quickly written off under the excuses of ‘war on terror’ or ‘bureaucratic bungling.’ The inclusion of them would make it difficult, if not impossible, for Congress to shrug off SSP and let its abuses continue. The coverage of these cases would likely garner outrage by the public majority regardless of political partisanship.

What is not obvious is how the press, both mainstream and alternative, has come to implement these shrewd political objectives, serving both the Congress and the executive branch. As for the mainstream media, it doesn’t come unexpected. We have gotten used to it, whether from their record and coverage in leading us to war in Iraq, or the latest revelations of their inner workings when it came to the NSA warrantless wiretapping of Americans.

However, I am not ready to attach the same cynical but realistic agenda to the alternative press. The reasons may be as simple as pure ignorance, naivety, myopic partisanship, or simply stupidity. Whatever the reasons, the likely consequences of them playing into the hands of the political establishment and their agenda is to help us lose the battle against SSP when we seem to finally have momentum and a strong movement to address this draconian abuse once and for all through sound legislation with teeth.

Sibel Edmonds is the founder and director of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC). Ms. Edmonds worked as a language specialist for the FBI. During her work with the bureau, she discovered and reported serious acts of security breaches, cover-ups, and intentional blocking of intelligence that had national security implications. After she reported these acts to FBI management, she was retaliated against by the FBI and ultimately fired in March 2002. Since that time, court proceedings on her case have been blocked by the assertion of “State Secret Privilege”; the Congress of the United States has been gagged and prevented from any discussion of her case through retroactive re-classification by the Department of Justice. Ms. Edmonds is fluent in Turkish, Farsi and Azerbaijani; and has a MA in Public Policy and International Commerce from George Mason University, and a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology from George Washington University. PEN American Center awarded Ms. Edmonds the 2006 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Obongo's lies, speeches and soft power, limited audience and limited impact to sway the skeptical



Obongo's lies, speeches and soft power, limited audience and limited impact to sway the skeptical....

Obama’s address at the Cairo University on June 4,2009, which was billed in advance by his staff as a historic message of goodwill and reconciliation to the Islamic world, had a limited audience. Though projected as an address to the Islamic world, it was largely an address to the Arab world and focused largely on issues of interest to the Arabs.

2. The Arabs constitute a minority in the Islamic world. Non-Arab Muslims living in countries such as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia constitute the majority. The issues, which agitate them, are different from the issues which agitate the Arab world. Osama bin Laden understands this better than Obama and his advisers. That was why in his audio message released through Al Jazeera a day before Obama’s Cairo address, bin Laden focused on issues of immediate concern to the non-Arab Muslims in the Af-Pak region such as the large-scale displacement of Pashtuns from the tribal areas of Pakistan. By focusing on their plight and by holding the Americans responsible for it, he sought to make it certain that the anti-American anger in the Af-Pak region will increase rather than decrease.


3. Outside India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia, the attitude of the Muslims towards the US is characterized by feelings of hostility or anger or skepticism. There is hardly any feeling of empathy or warmth. There are various reasons for the negative feelings towards the US. Some are country-specific, some are region specific and some are ethnicity specific. The negative feelings of the Arabs towards the US may be due to the Palestine issue and the perceived US support for Israel, but Palestine and Israel are not such burning issues in the non-Arab Islamic world.


4.Obama’s address seemed to have been constructed around the belief that the Muslims constitute a monolithic community and that their actions are motivated by certain issues of common concern to all the Muslims of the world. This is a wrong belief. The Muslims are not a monolithic community and there is no common thread uniting the anger motivating the Muslims in different countries and different regions. There are Muslims and Muslims and issues and issues.


5. If Obama wanted to address the Muslims of the world, Cairo was the wrong place from which to seek to do so. There was a time when Egypt was seen as the beacon of the Arab world. It is no longer so. Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda organizations project Egypt and its leaders as apostate. President Hosni Mubarak is a very unpopular Arab leader .Obama going to Cairo to deliver the address is seen by large sections of pro-Al Qaeda and pro-Taliban leaders as a leader of the American infidels traveling to the country of apostates to deliver an address to the Muslims from a platform provided by the apostates.


6. There are two ways of judging the impact----- what has been and what will be the impact on those Muslims, who have taken to terrorism against the US and other countries of the world and what will be the impact on ordinary Muslims, who stay away from the so-called global jihad, but at the same time do not nurse any feelings of empathy for the US?


7. The impact on the world of global jihad will be very little. Their views towards the US have been formed as a result of years of brainwashing in extremist mosques and madrasas. They are not going to change as a result of a beautifully-drafted speech beautifully delivered before an audience carefully assembled by the so-called apostates. They will continue to fight against the US, which will have to defeat them in the battle-field. bin Laden’s projection of the US President as Bush in Obama’s clothing will make a greater impact on the minds of the jihadis than the words and phrases of Obama.


8. The jihadi behaviour till now was influenced by the visuals, which came out of Iraq and Afghanistan. As the impact of those visuals decreases, Al Qaeda and pro-Al Qaeda organizations are trying to exploit the visuals of the plight of nearly three million internally displaced Pashtuns, driven out of their homes by a Pakistani war ordered by the US as bin Laden projected it in his message.


9. The impact on the ordinary Muslims outside pockets of urban elite will not be significant. Ordinary Muslims are not so naïve as to be impressed by a couple of quotations from the Holy Koran. Muslims outside India, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia are not enamoured of democracy. They have nothing against authoritarian rulers, provided they care for the ordinary Muslims. Mubarak is not an example of a caring ruler. Among Muslim rulers blessed and supported by the US, there is hardly anyone whom one can call caring for the common Muslims. The ordinary Muslims will judge the US by the company it keeps in the Islamic world than by the speeches of Obama.


10. Obama’s speech may help him back home by pushing up his popularity. Americans love such orations. It may not help the US much in the Islamic world. The use of soft power to counter pernicious ideologies coming out of the Islamic world is important. They have to be countered in a more subtle and sophisticated manner through personal interactions, dialogue in small groups, radio and TV programmes, Internet chats etc. A Cairo-style address is not suited for this purpose.


11. A mix of Wahabism and Deobandism of the Pakistani brand is the driving force of the global jihad and of the hostility towards the US. Deoband is in India. The Indian brand of Deobandism was benign and continues to be benign The Pakistani brand is venomous and behind much of the negative ideas influencing the attitudes and conduct of millions of Muslims. Unless the pernicious Wahabi-Deobandi ideas emanating from Pakistan are countered in an intelligent manner, the divide between the Muslims and the non-Muslims will continue to widen. How to do so? That is the question that should occupy the minds of US policy-makers.