Big tears for the Big Easy
By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Associate Editor


Aug 30, 2007, 02:16


On Monday, August 29, 2005, at 7 a.m., Katrina hit New Orleans and the world cried big tears for the Big Easy. Except in the White House and on the Crawford Ranch and a few other racist holes, where some folks didn't and still don’t give a damn.

As Jamiah Adams and Paris Marron of Brave New Foundation.org report, “There are still tens of thousands of families without homes. 30,000 families are scattered across the country in FEMA apartments, 13,000 are in trailers, and hardly any of the 77,000 rental units destroyed in New Orleans have been rebuilt.” You can catch their deep-heart video by clicking on their group’s name and listen to the people tell you about what hasn’t been done after two years.

Or you catch President Bush on MSNC.com bowing his suckering head in prayer Tuesday to remember the hundreds who were washed away along with the president and his administration’s credibility. While Bush and his wife Laura lit candles, and slid their sorry butts into the front pew of the triple-spire St. Louis Cathedral, miraculously untouched by the mad winds and high waters, thousands upon thousands were still up and down the river without a paddle.

In fact, the First Couple had the temerity to bow their heads at 9:38 a.m. Central time and kneel for a moment of silence to note the first breaching of the levees, which were supposed to protect the city from the massive storm flooding, but didn’t because the Army Corps of Engineers built them shabbily and on the cheap, thanks to this same president, who was again on that day of tragedy, inept, inactive, and nowhere to be seen, shades of 9/11.

Nevertheless, the newly found homeboy Bush declared: “This city will rise again.” Hallelujah, from his mouth to god’s ear. This as some misguided pastor began the service in which he actually thanked Bush for his “steadfast support in our recovery.” Listen you all. If they could clean away the remains and evidence of the 9/11 explosions in a matter of eight months, they could have got the Big Easy standing tall again in two years.

Instead, the bald-faced liar Bush began his “national day of remembrance” for Katrina as if any sane, decent, human being could forget. AP reported a New Orleans waitress jokingly asked, “Mr. President, are you going to turn your back on me?” And bright eyes turned and said, “No ma’am not again.” That’s cause he’s born again, once again, the president with nine political lives who somehow has managed to dodge the responsibility for more disaster, death, misery, squandering of public funds, corruption, spying, and disregard for constitutional values than any president ever. Mr. Hindsight is back in town. Watch your back and watch your pocketbook.

But there he was, as AP tells it, walking the streets, meeting and greeting people with Mayor Ray "which-side-is-he-on" Nagin in a neighborhood with high-water marks still stuck to the walls and roofs of houses. The day before in Biloxi, Mississippi, Bush man was full of generosity, saying, “Money is beginning to go out the door [more like out the window into someone’s deep pockets] so people can rebuild their lives. In Louisiana, it’s been a little slower,” Bush added, with his legendary flare for understatement.

But then he told us all, he was there for rebuilding not to highlight disaster, meaning his own and his Department of Homeland Security and FEMA’s disastrous culpability. Speaking in Biloxi in tongues he said, “My message to the people down here is that we understand there’s more work to be done,” duh yeah, “and just because a year has passed (no two have passed), the federal government will remember the people.” Like you did the last two years, right bunky?

He went on, “This is an anniversary, but that doesn’t mean it ends.” And what the hell does that mean? Well, “It’s the beginning of what is going to be a long recovery.” What like in Iraq and Afghanistan? But George said he was “amazed by the hope I feel down here.” Maybe he should take a look at the Brave New Foundation Report and stop playing cheerleader like he did at Yale. He might not be so amazed.

But then Mrs. Cheerleader said, “It takes more than just money. It really takes the efforts of everyone who lived here, who wants to come back, of all public officials, local, state and federal, of other neighbors, other people can figure out a way to help.” She said this on ABC’s Good Morning, America, which is generally fast asleep at the deceit of these neocon Neanderthals, what with all those cheery smiling announcer-ettes and announcer-boys in color-coordinated outfits.

But who are the “other people” who “can figure out a way to help,” Mrs. Bush? Your old man’s the Commander in Chief, the Decider, the War President, even though he was fraudulently elected two times and all his crooked honchos are disappearing in the woodwork to avoid Congress and jail-time. Let’s get real. Your spiel doesn’t cut it: “Was the federal government slow? Sure, probably (which is it). Was every government slow, state and local? Sure. But have they responded in a very, very helpful way? I think they have.”

Well that’s great, Mrs. B. But go take a walk through the Lower Ninth Ward and see how they responded. Send your kids down there, like my son and his church group went, to patch some houses together, sleep in a drowned church and walk through a city of despair.

This is the town Cheney finally visited. And as he was rapping inanities, some everyday guy who’d lost his house shouted out a number of times, “Go fuck yourself, Dick Cheney.” People don’t do that out of love. And crap like this gem from Laura gets them nuts: “I think we’ll look back on it and we’ll see it for what it was,” duh, “the largest disaster that our country has ever faced and a huge disaster.” Err, isn’t that redundant, or has the wool been pulled over my eyes?

The truth is, nearly 70 percent of America thinks Bush bungled Katrina, and frustration and fed-up-ness with fed, local, and state response runs deep as the old Miss, as the poverty created by flood-waters sweeping thousands from their homes. Of three proposals Bush offered to fight that poverty, one idea, The Gulf Opportunity Zone, has given tax breaks of $8.7 billion to “developers” of low-income housing, small businesses and individuals. Tax breaks, developers, right.

But worker recovery accounts, those meant to help the hit-hard find work, by paying for schooling, job training, child care, didn’t show. And that goes for the Urban Homesteading Act. It would have provided poor people sites to build homes they could finance themselves or receive help through programs like Habitat for Humanity, Jimmy Carter’s fine organization.

Bottom line, half of the Big Easy has electric. Half the hospitals are shut. Crime, the violent kind, is up. Less than half the old residents have returned. I wonder why. Then there are those tens of thousands of people mentioned earlier still living in trailers and mobile homes with no estimated time of arrival at a permanent address. And even though a lot of debris has been cleared, a lot remains “as if the clock stopped when the storm struck.”

And I remember that morning that the storm struck. I was sitting with my family in our cabin in the Berkshires as rain pounded that area as well and we watch the flickering Direct TV with our friends and neighbors from New York. They were worried about their son who had arrived at Tulane in time to turn around again in his friend’s father’s car, among the lucky with wheels, spending hours and hours to get out of town to a Texas airport, where they finally flew home. Oliver, the brave young man, spent the next year at Columbia in New York, while Tulane put itself back together, and then returned. He’s got a thing for New Orleans; bless him for it.

Meanwhile even though Congress has thrown $110 billion in hurricane aid at New Orleans, Bush released only $77 billion to the states, holding back the rest for “future needs.” Not a penny of that $33 billion has yet to be parted with. And thanks to this vast ongoing bungle, I’m still waiting for the headline that reads “Bush/Cheney Impeached.” I’ll even settle for “Bush/Cheney resign.” What the hell, all the other rats on their ship have jumped or are about to. Why not the head rats, who are single-handedly attempting to scuttle the world as they scuttled New Orleans and the World Trade Towers? So it’s time to go, boys, one way or the other. “Hurry up please it’s time/ Hurry up please it’s time,” as T.S. Eliot intoned in his masterpiece poem, The Wasteland, an apt title for what these two and their goons have made of New Orleans, of America, of the Mid-East, and will make of the world if we give them the chance. So, let’s not.
Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer living in New York. Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.

The Puzzling Suspension of Incredulity to the “Official” 9-11 Theory
Kim Petersen, Dissident Voice

Auugst 29, 2007

Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory
By David Ray Griffin
(Olive Branch Press, 2007)
ISBN: 978-1-56656-686-5

According to a categorical assertion by the Association of Muslim Scholars’ most senior member, al-Fayyadh, the Iraqi resistance has killed no less than 35,000 US soldiers and wounded no less than 70 thousand…1

The outrageous neocon-concocted lies of the Iraqi government being in possession of weapons-of-mass destruction, that US forces were liberating the Iraqi people, that only 30,000 Iraqis have been killed, that the invasion-occupation was not about seizing control of Iraqi oil, that the US was not aiding Israeli interests have all been exposed. Given the plethora of undeniable mendacity surrounding the immoral, illegal, and lethal enterprise of aggressing Iraq (not to forget Afghanistan), it is utterly amazing that some people, especially progressives, continue to cling to the version of "reality" spun by the neocons and Zionists.

That media continue to publish the relatively low number of fatalities among US soldiers, and completely ignore other accounts, is mind-boggling. Yet, the corporate media (and most progressive media) remain fixed on a much lower figure approaching 4000.

But, most mind-boggling is the dearth of skepticism to the neocons’ version of what happened on 9-11 — the event that was seized upon as a justification for what is a litany of war crimes and crimes against humanity wreaked by the US state — including the supreme international crime, as determined by the Nuremberg Tribunal, described as encapsulating "the accumulated evil of the whole."
Progressivism and 9-11 Truth Seeking

Yet some progressives have taken to castigating fellow progressives for coming to conclusions about 9-11 that differ from the US government version (a feat which really calls into question the castigators’ adherence to tenets of progressivism, such as a commitment to diversity, free inquiry, freedom of thought, and free speech). It also leaves such critics open to charges of left gatekeeping. Of course, these voices that adhere to the "official" neocon version of 9-11 have a right to present their opinions, but to determine in what way other people should direct their energies and disparage them for not heeding their advice is regressive with the ultimate result that it argues against encouraging people to think critically for themselves.

I previously wrote an article to this effect.2 Some people quibbled with certain points.

One reader questioned my, supposedly, referring to the "scientific evidence," as per the noted writer on 9-11, Noam Chomsky, as "essentially worthless." What I wrote is that I share Chomsky’s skepticism, but importantly, I added a proviso: "not the level of skepticism." In other words, I do not consider the evidence as "essentially worthless."

The article was not an examination or analysis of the evidence. Instead, it was about how some progressives engage in disparaging an involved citizenry. I found this unprincipled and supported the right of people to seek "truth."
Science and 9-11

Certainly, the "official" 9-11 view is not scientific. It is a post hoc explanation designed to fit a preconceived agenda. Although scientists will try to explain phenomena, science is not driven a posteriori but by testable hypotheses where experiments are conducted or natural observations are carried out. This is the scientific method. To date, I know of no controlled experiments carried out to test whether steel-laced high rises will collapse demolition- or pancake-style when struck by airplanes.

Another reader, John Pontrello, presented a very compelling rationale for such experimentation and why the "official" 9-11 theory has huger ramification:

[I]f the official conspiracy theory is true, we had better vacate every building in the United States immediately in case a fire breaks out and the building collapses killing thousands of people. Also, being that a building collapse is far riskier on all fronts than damage and casualty from fire, every building owner in America should be forced to insure specifically against pancake collapse. All high rise buildings should be temporarily evacuated until such a time when they are properly studied to ensure that they will not spontaneously collapse killing thousands of people. 9/11 has really opened up the possibility that buildings spontaneously collapse, so I argue that they should not be used anymore until they are proven safe. If three people were tossed and killed from a roller coaster on one day, would you put your children on it? Furthermore, every building in America should abandon evacuation drills for fire and replace those mandatory drills with Pancake evacuation drills where something like window ejection with parachutes are provided, since stairwell evacuations will not protect one from the upper floors falling on them.

He also challenged me: "get off the fence and pick your side Kim."

To pronounce on 9-11 requires, preferably, either expertise in the matter at hand or a willingness to delve deeply into a plethora of evidence (at least that which has been made available; the non-release of evidence throws the Bush administration under heavy suspicion) and attempt to sort fact from fiction, possibility from impossibility, probability from improbability. I am naturally skeptical, and I have always been deeply skeptical of the "official" explanations emanating from the corporate media (and progressive media) and government about 9-11.

But there must be a way to lean toward what best approximates the truth. One way, is to determine motives. A well recognized motive has always been personal enrichment. Evidence from 9-11 points to many protagonists in this regard, including people within the military-industrial complex and one World Trade Center owner. The motive attached to the alleged 9-11 attackers of hating American freedoms is risibly pathetic and self-defeating for its promulgators in that since 9-11 American freedoms have been severely curtailed. If this was, indeed, the motivation of alleged 9-11 attackers, then it represents a victory for the alleged haters of American freedoms?

In addition to assessing motive, one should also, of course, examine what evidence is available. Science has been a point of contention among people in the 9-11 debate. In science, if one peg of a theory can be knocked out, then the theory should be abandoned. If one peg of the "official" 9-11 theory can be disproven, then the rest of the explanation is rendered dubious. The "official" 9-11 theory is attackable on nearly all its foundations, indicating just how wobbly it is.

Dr. David Ray Griffin has been a foremost writer on what transpired on 9-11, which he compellingly avers to be an insider job. Griffin is a theologian and some people attack him on this basis. This, however, is a thoroughly arrogant, elitist, and self-defeating argument that must be utterly refuted because of what it represents. First, it assumes that only experts are able to speak on a topic with authority. Second, it assumes that experts are correct, but that this is false is easily revealed by the fact that experts disagree among themselves. Third, it assumes that "average" folks cannot train themselves to become experts. Fourth, it assumes that "average" folks cannot understand the intricacies of specialized subject areas. The logical outcome of such assertions is that non-specialists must rely on experts to inform them how they should think — a complete sop to critical thinking and egalitarianism.

Griffin has done his homework and has written five books on 9-11. His latest is Debunking 9/11 Debunking: An Answer to Popular Mechanics and Other Defenders of the Official Conspiracy Theory. He assaults the "official conspiracy theory" from many quarters: the stupendous unlikelihood of cell phones operating at high altitude in 2001, the glaring discrepancies in "official" time sequences reported, the likelihood of the alleged pilots being able to carry out the maneuvers they are alleged to have done, the pancake theory of WTC buildings collapse, etc.
WTC 7

The weakest link in the "official" theory appears to be its explanation of the demolition-style collapse of WTC building 7: a building which was not struck by planes; had no demonstrably large, nor hot, fires burning; and was foretold as having collapsed ahead of time; and which the 9-11 Commission did not even try to explain.

Griffin asks why, if WTC 7 was awash in flames, no photographers and TV camera crews on the scene recorded this spectacle.

Griffin calls WTC 7 "one of the [9-11] Commission’s most amazing omissions. According to the official theory, building 7 demonstrated, contrary to the universal conviction prior to 9/11, that large steel-frame buildings could collapse from fire alone, even without having been hit by an airplane. This demonstration should have meant that building codes and insurance premiums for all steel-frame buildings in the world needed to be changed. And yet the 9/11 Commission, in preparing its 571-page report, did not devote a single sentence to this historic event."

Griffin cites the demolition industry website Implosion World’s statement that an implosion is "by far the trickiest type of explosive project, and there are only a handful of blasting companies in the world that possess enough experience … to perform these true building implosions." Griffin then asks: "Can anyone really believe that fire would have just happened to produce the kind of collapse that can be reliably produced by only a few demolition companies in the world?"

Griffin points out that there was extensive foreknowledge of WTC 7’s imminent collapse among firefighters and medical workers. Griffin quotes medical worker Decosta Wright: "they measured out how far the building was going to come, so we knew exactly where we could stand," which was "5 blocks away."

How was this foreknowledge explained? Damage plus fire — both of which Griffin deconstructs.

The words of WTC owner Larry Silverstein on PBS, give credence to a demolition about to occur: "I remember getting a call from the, er, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, 'We’ve had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it." And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse."
Wielding Occam’s Razor

Physicist Manuel Garcia took a stab at explaining the demolition-style collapse of WTC 7. He constructed a Mouse TrapTM-like explanation for how the "dark fire" formed and brought WTC 7 free falling into its footprint.

He writes of falling debris rupturing the oil pipes of a fuel distribution system, the fuel distribution system pumps oil up causing a diesel fuel gusher burning with excess air; the diesel fuel spill spreads out along Floor 5 and spills down elevator; oil pools near a truss and is ignited by local office fires, resulting in further combustion; heat is trapped; the thermally weakened truss fails, the loss of support low in the eastern interior propagates to the roof, the weight (and dynamic force) of material falling onto the diaphragm based on Floor 5 tips this rigid layer of the building, this causes failure of column joints to the diaphragm, lack of vertical support through the diaphragm progresses up the interior of the building west of Truss 2, a progressive collapse propagates up and material falls freely; since the building implodes, the exterior walls fall in.3

Nine-11 whistleblower Kevin Ryan says Garcia’s WTC explanations are "based on false or unsubstantiated claims" and disses the speculative "string of improbable events" in Garcia’s "dark fire" theory. Thereafter Ryan delves into ad hominem and the tactic of involving Garcia in a conspiracy theory.4

Peter Webster refutes Garcia’s WYC 7 shock wave explanation weakening integral parts of WTC 7.5 Webster claims the oscillations of the WTC buildings would have died out without further energy being pumped into the buildings, for example, by further plane crashes in resonance with the buildings’ oscillations or timed explosions.

To decide between the "official" 9-11 theory and the other theories proffered the 9-11 truth movement, Garcia suggests: "within the spirit of Occam’s Razor, of seeking explanations for the WTC building collapses that require the fewest number of ad hoc assumptions (e.g., no conspiracies)."

Occam’s Razor — also referred to as the Principle of Parsimony — holds that the simplest theory is preferable; therefore, any explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible. But Garcia relies heavily on assumptions in his "dark fire" theory.

The demolition theory is simple. It requires only that one assume that some person(s) rigged the WTC 7 with explosives. This is less crazy than assuming Osama bin Laden’s freedom-hating Arabs piloted the planes and set off the first ever fire-induced demolition of a high rise building.

Griffin utterly dismisses the National Institute of Standards and Technology (federal agency NIST) which theorized excessive falling debris and long-burning fires as being capable of bringing down WTC 7.

The most serious problem with this [NIST] theory, however, is that it is completely inadequate to the empirical facts. Damage to one face of the building plus small fires on a few floors – plus perhaps really big fires on the fifth floor — could not explain why the building collapsed on a debris pile only three stories high, as this would have required the 81 columns of this 47-story-high columns to break into several pieces simultaneously. This damage and fire could not explain why the building came down virtually free fall speed. They could not explain the squibs, the molten metal, or the sulfidized steel. The official theory, in other words, cannot explain why, if this was not an example of controlled implosion, it was a perfect imitation thereof.

Conclusion

Who is behind the 9-11 terrorist attack? Elsewhere Griffin answered:

It is, in any case, already possible to know, beyond a reasonable doubt, one very important thing: the destruction of the World Trade Center was an inside job, orchestrated by domestic terrorists. Foreign terrorists could not have gotten access to the buildings to plant the explosives. They probably would not have had the courtesy to make sure that the buildings collapsed straight down, rather than falling over onto surrounding buildings. Federal officials, however, could have gotten access and would have had motivation to bring the buildings straight down. They would also have had the ability to orchestrate a cover-up, from the quick disposal of the steel to the FEMA Report to The 9/11 Commission Report to the NIST Report.

The evidence that the destruction of the WTC was an inside job has thus far been largely ignored by the mainstream press, perhaps under the guise of obeying President Bush’s advice not to tolerate "outrageous conspiracy theories." We have seen, however, that it is the Bush administration’s conspiracy theory that is the outrageous one, because it is violently contradicted by numerous facts, including some basic laws of physics.6

Griffin has proffered a theory counter to the "official" 9-11 theory. Those people dedicated to free thinking will reject the advice of some progressives to ignore non-"official" theories of 9-11 as "conspiracy"; they will consider competing theories that purport to explain the events of 9-11; they will arrive at their own conclusions.

Three WTC buildings fell straight down, demolition-style, into their footprints. The Bush administration stood by as forensic evidence was removed, and it blocked any meaningful investigation of 9-11. The "official" 9-11 theory asks me to trust those people proven untrustworthy and suspend my skepticism. This I will not do. Who the insiders of 9-11 are, I can only speculate.

Full skepticism, however, must greet the US government accusations that al Qaeda is behind 9-11. The US government, contrary to its own legal tradition, ignored any presumption of innocence. When al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden denied that his organization was not the perpetrator, the US, specifically the White House, demanded that Bin Laden prove that he was not behind 9-11. The same proving-a-negative tactic was used with Iraq: the US demanded that Iraq’s president Saddam Hussein prove that he has no weapons-of-mass-destruction. When no weapons-of-mass-destruction were found, the White House responded that the Iraqis were not telling the truth.

Furthermore, when Taliban leader Mullah Omar agreed to hand over the suspect bin Laden (who, as Griffin notes, is on no FBI wanted lists for 9-11) if the US provided evidence of his involvement in 9-11, the US never replied. The invasions-occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq are the outcomes.

Based on the evidence available (and especially the parties involved), Occam’s Razor leads me to dispense with the "official" 9-11 theory.
A Final Challenge

Pontrello challenges adherents of the "official" 9-11 theory:

Try this: the next time you walk a big city, gaze up at a massive building and picture a relatively small burning hole near the top of it. Then imagine it burning for an hour on only a few floors and then spontaneously pulverizing into fine dust before your eyes as if on cue. It took a few times for me to de-program my mind from the brainwashing, but once I did, it was liberating. I laugh now when I look at those three towers come down like that, and listen to the official story defenders try to explain pancake collapse as the explanation. I try to imagine what could make all the steel columns, joints, concrete and trusses simultaneously give way and allow for absolutely zero resistance from the otherwise intact structure below the point of impact. It is impossible and that is the truth. The only way those buildings fell like that was from controlled demolition and I don’t care what so-called experts say. I know what I saw, and I know what makes sense.

Griffin’s book is a good place to start for open-minded people who are critical thinkers. Who the perpetrators of 9-11 were is important. It would, for one, add impetus to cease the genocidal occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq. It would be a blow to Ziocon plans to aggress Iran. It would also lay the path for punishment of those individuals responsible for 9-11 and the subsequent warmongering based on the lies of the "official" 9-11 story. If the perpetrators were sufficiently punished, this might stand as a deterrence to others drawn by the corrupting influence of power and money. Even if it is no deterrent, it is a partial victory for justice in a world that sorely needs such victories.

1. "Sheikh al-Faydi To Al Sharq Al Awsat: 'Losses by the American occupation forces have exceeded the 35 thousand dead’" Iraq-amsi, 19 July 2007. Thanks to B.J. Sabri for translation from Arabic. ↑
2. Kim Petersen, "9-11: The Truth Matters," Dissident Voice, 13 March 2007. ↑
3. Manuel Garcia, Jr., "The Fall of WTC 7: Dark Fire," Counterpunch, 28 November 2006. ↑
4. Kevin Ryan, "Manuel Garcia Sees Physics That Don’t Exist," 911Review.com, 27 December 2006. ↑
5. Peter Webster, "Cockburn and his physicist friend abuse physics and credulity," THS, 30 September 2006. ↑
6. David Ray Griffin, "The Destruction of the World Trade Center: Why the Official Account Cannot Be True," 911 Review.com, based on speech from October 2005. ↑

Kim Petersen is co-editor of Dissident Voice. He can be reached at: kim@dissidentvoice.org. Read other articles by Kim.

The Coming Shit Storm

CheneyBush's "Mercenary" Legions
Bernard Weiner, Co-Editor, The Crisis Papers

August 28, 2007

"Outsourcing" jobs overseas is only the tip of the iceberg. How about the CheneyBush Administration "outsourcing" our military, our intelligence-gathering, our nation's soul?

Taking private enterprise way beyond what is reasonable, or desirable, or safe, the CheneyBush Administration has turned over a huge raft of national-security functions to those not adequately trained, not accountable to the public or the law, not showing up on the political radar.

In short, CheneyBush have created what amounts to their own private legions -- soldiers, intelligence analysts, security guards, construction experts, supply specialists, et al. -- in effect, a "mercenary" force bought and paid for by the American taxpayer.

That's why there will probably be no draft: There is no guarantee of loyalty from those dragooned into service. Besides, many draftees have politically-connected constituencies. But when one's mercenary "volunteer" forces are totally beholden to the paymaster for their livelihood and under-the-table payoffs, they will dance with them that brung 'em.

These are no small numbers. It's estimated that in addition to the 160,000 regular troops in the field in Iraq, CheneyBush control anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 private assets ("independent contractors"). Nobody's even sure under what "rules of engagement" these guys -- many in security and reconstruction fields -- operate, or whether they are accountable to anyone other than their corporate bosses' and the financial "bottom line."

History shows us the dangers involved when leaders have large extra-institutional forces at their command, such as the Praetorian Guards and Legions of ancient Roman Caesars, Hitler's Brownshirts, Saddam's Republican Guards, the private militias of political and religious leaders today in Iraq, Blackwater forces in control of New Orleans after Katrina, etc. By and large, these mercenaries swear allegiance to their employer, not to the rule of law, not to any constitution. The catastrophic damage done to democracy by the existence, and power, of these private forces can't be over-stated.

News flash: Blackwater, the huge corporation that CheneyBush rely on for most of the non-military functions in Iraq and elsewhere, is buying combat aircraft. Do we really want a private air force, effectively operating under the aegis of the Executive Branch, conducting secret ops in our names?


PURCHASING INTELLIGENCE

In America's current case, there is also this ominous danger: Accurate intelligence is an absolute necessity in warfare and war-planning, but CheneyBush are increasingly going outside the usual intelligence channels and hiring private intel corporations. Even with the mass purgings in governmental intelligence agencies of those not sufficiently "Bush-loyal," Cheney in particular doesn't trust the CIA and the State Department's intel analysts, never has and never will. So we get this recent story from veteran Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus:

"The Defense Intelligence Agency is preparing to pay private contractors up to $1 billion to conduct core intelligence tasks of analysis and collection over the next five years, an amount that would set a record in the outsourcing of such functions by the Pentagon's top spying agency.

"The proposed contracts, outlined in a recent early notice of the DIA's plans, reflect a continuing expansion of the Defense Department's intelligence-related work and fit a well-established pattern of Bush administration transfers of government work to private contractors.

..."The DIA did not specify exactly what it wants the contractors to do but said it is seeking teams to fulfill 'operational and mission requirements' that include intelligence 'Gathering and Collection, Analysis, Utilization, and Strategy and Support'."

By outsourcing, CheneyBush, of course, get the intelligence they pay for, rather than risking that some CIA or State Department analysts might tell them intel-truths they don't want to hear, as was the case with Iraq.


LOWERING THE RECRUITING BAR

How did CheneyBush begin to assemble their mercenary forces for the reckless misadventure in Iraq? At first, they started out with an all-"volunteer" army of sterling patriotic recruits, high school graduates, many from lower- and middle-middle circumstances, not well-connected politically, many underemployed and desirous of a stable career. But the brutality and criminality and constant fear of the Iraq War (never knowing for sure if civilians were good guys or bad guys, U.S. death rates going up, horrific injuries to body, brain and psyche) took their toll on the troops, suicide and post-traumatic rates mushroomed, and recruitment of top prospects plummeted.

As a result, the U.S. military felt forced to relax its high standards in order to even come close to meeting its replacement quotas. High schoolers and dropouts were prime targets of unscrupulous recruiters. Don't have a high school diploma? Don't need one. Felony record? Don't worry about it; we've got "moral waivers" now. Poor physical health? Here, have some more pizza and desserts. A gang member on the streets of L.A.? Here's your assault rifle, soldier, and welcome to the brotherhood.

And when lowering the standards still didn't yield the required numbers, the military went to simple bribery. Sign up now and get a $25,000 signing bonus. Not enough? How about $30K?

The military also is trolling for mercenary recruits among non-citizens in Latin America and elsewhere; those who sign up with the U.S. military are told that it could take them six months to become a U.S. citizen rather than 12 years.

But even with all those waivers and inducements, many potential recruits stay away; they are quite aware that troops in Iraq face serial deployments, rotations extended to 15 months each time, a constant high rate of deaths and injuries. Check out what seven serving NCOs have to say in the New York Times about the realities of this war. So it's no wonder that the Administration has taken to increasing the hiring of "independent contractors," at high salaries, to carry out tasks often associated with the professional military.

No wonder the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and perhaps even Defense Secretary Gates, are suggesting, as best they can without being summarily dismissed by the political lunatics in charge, that the U.S. military is stretched as thin as it can get in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that initiating more hostilities with other countries in the region (Iran and Syria come to mind) would not make much military or any other kind of sense.


OUTSOURCING EXTREME TORTURE

In addition to outsourcing its military and intel gathering, one has to mention the outsourcing of interrogation and torture, especially of High Value Prisoners (HVPs). (Torture, as we all know by now, under CheneyBush, is officially-sanctioned state policy.)

CheneyBush send these suspects on CIA planes to secret U.S. interrogation centers abroad and then often forward the more recalcitrant detainees and other HVP to countries that specialize in especially brutal torture, including Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, even Syria.

These "rendition" flights abroad are not only to keep the U.S. vaguely in line with the Geneva Conventions and U.S. law, but also because those other nations have torturing down to a science by now, and, as long as these countries get paid off well, seem to have few moral scruples about breaking down the minds and bodies of prisoners sometimes even to the point of death.


"CATAPULTING THE PROPAGANDA"

The Administration sees the same polling numbers as the Democrats do and realizes that in order to be able to continue its surge at least through Election Day 2008 -- which would, they believe, get CheneyBush off the blame-hook for the "loss" of Iraq -- they need to mount an enormous public-relations campaign to cancel out the lies and sell the escalated war to the American public and Congress. Scapegoats for that "loss" are already being put in place: al-Maliki, the Democrats, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Petraeus, etc. etc. Never Cheney, never Bush.

When governmental policies stink, no policies are changed; instead, the common practice is to tell more lies and hire public-relations firms to disguise the crap being peddled by dousing it heavily with rose petals. Sell your policies like soap or perfume; the theory rests on a belief that enough Americans will buy the fragrant, handsomely-packaged new product to make politicians think twice about opposing Administration policy.

And so the Pentagon has set up an Iraq Communications Desk to coordinate the campaign to sell the Petraeus Report findings, and, through a covert "cut-out" organization, a new White House-connected group called Freedom Watch has launched a $15 million pro-war propaganda campaign in various media markets. The spots already are running, and they often feature Iraq War veterans and/or their surviving family members delivering the White House spin ("patience," "we're making progress in Iraq," "stop them there so they can't come here," etc. etc.).

In coordination with the Freedom Watch campaign, a powerful P.R. program has begun to aid in the transition away from the prickly Iraqi prime minister al-Maliki, to a more malleable, pro-U.S. figure, most likely former prime minister (and former CIA asset) Ayad Allawi. Hired to coordinate the campaign is the GOP lobbying outfit of Barbour, Griffith & Rogers.

CheneyBush are peddling the continue-the-surge idea because that's all they've got at this stage. That and the long-discredited attempt to link Iraq and 9/11 in the public mind. And why not? That latter lie worked for a few years after 9/11, so why not haul it out again? Haul out anything again that might confuse the American citizenry and bump up the pro-surge numbers so as to divide the Democrats and keep the war going at least past Election Day 2008 and, ideally, keep U.S. troops in their permanent Iraq bases for another decade or two.

Or, at the very least, FUBAR the situation there so badly that a Democratic president in 2009 would be unable to extricate U.S. forces easily or maybe even at all.


THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE

And, if CheneyBush are unable to keep the U.S. public from demanding that Congress close down this quagmire of a war, they might well decide to unleash their ultimate weapon of mass distraction by finding a good reason to attack Iran "pre-emptively" (via a false-flag operation?). When Iran responds in self-defense by attacking U.S. assets in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere, the American public will be told that it's imperative that the U.S. must fight in Iraq and Iran to stop the Muslim hordes from taking over the world, and controlling "our" oil.

Think it won't happen? Think Iran is not in the planning bombsights right now? Dream on. The CheneyBush gang is desperate and will do anything, including using nuclear weaponry, to maintain its power and control. Former Middle East CIA specialist Bob Baer says that senior intelligence officials told him recently that CheneyBush are likely to attack Iran within six months.

Most Americans didn't think CheneyBush would be crazy enough to invade and occupy Iraq. We should have learned our lesson by now; these ideological zealots are unhinged enough to do it again.

And it looks like the Democrats, who should be forcefully leading the opposition to stop the Iraq War and to prevent the Iran War, are going to be enablers of CheneyBush policy once again, either out of stupidity or political cowardice. That's the moral tragedy of where we are in late-2007.


Copyright 2007 by Bernard Weiner

On Market Predictions in the Current Chaotic Environment

by Richard C. Cook

Global Research, August 28, 2007



No one can predict how deep the decline in Western economies that is underway will go, because there is so little transparent information. Within the U.S., the government is hiding the severity of the crisis in order to prevent a collapse of consumer confidence.

Realize that the problem does not lie on the side of production. Global industry has the capacity to produce a huge quantity of goods and services. There is even a glut in some sectors, such as automobiles, textiles, IT, and other consumer products.

Rather the problem, as with the Great Depression, is that purchasing power at the consumer level is lacking. In the U.S., purchasing power, as measured by M1, is already in a recession-level decline. The causes are the high level of consumer debt, high cumulative levels of taxation on the dwindling middle class, and the tragic erosion of wages and salaries from job outsourcing.

In the absence of purchasing power, the Federal Reserve has chosen the strategy of trying to outrun collapse by creating inflation. This is the meaning of the bail-outs that are going on. It's an attempt to devalue debt at the macro level. It’s a hidden tax on everyone but the super-rich. Everyone else is poorer today than they were yesterday.

How long this can go on is unpredictable. It's another bubble following on the housing and asset bubbles that are already bursting on a daily basis before our eyes.

I don't see any responsible analyst who foresees any better outcome than a recession that would see the DJIA at a level of 8000-8500 within a few months. Again, maybe the Fed's printing presses can hold this level of decline at bay for a while longer, but I doubt it.

There are major players in the markets who see an even steeper decline coming even sooner. Some say as soon as a month.

There is also a real chance of an eventual depression-level contraction. How much of a chance, I don't know. This conceivably could lead to a total collapse of consumer markets, economic paralysis, and widespread homelessness and starvation. Yes, even in the U.S. Agribusiness, bio-fuel conversion, seedless mega-farming, the disappearance of family farming, and the recent disastrous weather conditions place everyone at risk.

At some point, the federal government, at a minimum, has to step in with New Deal-type relief measures. Whether the Bush administration has that capability is doubtful. Look at New Orleans. They may even try to cover everything up by starting a war against Iran. Are they that crazy? Who can say?

There are also rumors going around that there are plans to allow the markets to be crashed by a terrorist event so as to divert blame. I have gotten no reliable confirmation of these rumors, though there are parties placing what people in the markets are calling "bin Laden"-type bets similar to, but bigger than, the "puts" that were placed before the original 9/11.

These types of bets have been placed in the U.S., European, and Japanese markets that assume a stock market crash of fifty percent within the next five weeks. A report was just carried, I’m told, on CNBC.

Some have said the culprit may be China, but it makes no sense for the Chinese to crash the markets while holding U.S. dollars. Others say it is hedge funds at work to try to drive down the markets in a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But a fifty percent market decline? That’s just not conceivable. Even the hedge funds do not have that much power. The federal plunge protection team—known as the "men in black" by floor traders—would never allow them to do something so disastrous. This has caused some to speculate that the "men in black" are parties to the bets.

These remarks probably give some indication of the chaos going on right now in the U.S. and world economies. The only real solution is a new world financial system based on the concept of credit as a public utility. This is what should be implemented to replace the present system of institutionalized usury.


Richard C. Cook is a retired federal analyst, whose career included service with the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Carter White House, and NASA, followed by twenty-one years with the U.S. Treasury Department. His articles on monetary reform, economics, and space policy have appeared on Global Research, Economy in Crisis, Dissident Voice, Atlantic Free Press, and elsewhere. He is the author of "Challenger Revealed: An Insider’s Account of How the Reagan Administration Caused the Greatest Tragedy of the Space Age." His website is at www.richardccook.com.

Richard C. Cook is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Richard C. Cook

THE KENNEBUNKPORT WARNING

To the American people, and to peace loving individuals everywhere:

Massive evidence has come to our attention which shows that the backers, controllers, and allies of Vice President Dick Cheney are determined to orchestrate and manufacture a new 9/11 terror incident, and/or a new Gulf of Tonkin war provocation over the coming weeks and months. Such events would be used by the Bush administration as a pretext for launching an aggressive war against Iran, quite possibly with nuclear weapons, and for imposing a regime of martial law here in the United States. We call on the House of Representatives to proceed immediately to the impeachment of Cheney, as an urgent measure for avoiding a wider and more catastrophic war. Once impeachment has begun, it will be easier for loyal and patriotic military officers to refuse illegal orders coming from the Cheney faction. We solemnly warn the people of the world that any terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction taking place inside the United States or elsewhere in the immediate future must be considered the prima facie responsibility of the Cheney faction. We urge responsible political leaders everywhere to begin at once to inoculate the public opinion of their countries against such a threatened false flag terror operation.

(Signed) A Group of US Opposition Political Leaders Gathered in Protest at the Bush Compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, August 24-25, 2007

CYNTHIA MCKINNEY, FORMER US CONGRESSWOMAN, GEORGIA

CINDY SHEEHAN, CANDIDATE FOR US CONGRESS, CALIFORNIA

CRAIG HILL, CANDIDATE FOR US CONGRESS, VERMONT GREEN PARTY

BRUCE MARSHALL, CONVENOR, PHILADELPHIA PLATFORM

JAMILLA EL-SHAFEI, KENNEBUNK PEACE DEPARTMENT

WEBSTER G. TARPLEY, AUTHOR

ANN WRIGHT, COLONEL US ARMY RESERVE, FORMER US DIPLOMAT

DR. DAHLIA WASFI, WWW.LIBERATETHIS.COM

GEORGE PAZ MARTIN

JOHN KAMINSKI *, president of Maine Lawyers for Democracy

------------------------------------

* (This is not John Kaminski, author of "America's Autopsy Report", etc. Here is some of the Lawyer, John Kaminski's work: Impeachment: We’ve Got a Job to Do).

More War on the Horizon

By Paul Craig Roberts

08/23/07 "ICH" --- -- No pullout from Iraq while I’m president, declares George W. Bush.

On to Iran, declares Vice President Cheney.

Israel is a “peace-seeking state” that needs $30 billion of US taxpayers’ money for war, declares State Department official Nicholas Burns.

The Democratic Congress, if not fully behind the Iraqi war, at least no longer is in the way of it.

Nor are the Democrats in the way of the Bush regime’s build up for initiating war with Iran.

The Bush regime says it is going to designate part of Iran’s military--the Revolutionary Guards--a terrorist organization, whose bases and facilities Bush intends to bomb along with Iran’s nuclear energy sites. Three US aircraft carrier strike forces are deployed off Iran. B-2 Stealth Bombers are being fitted to carry 30,000 pound “bunker-buster” bombs to use against hardened sites. Politicized US generals assert that Iran is providing arms and aid to the Iraqi resistance to the US occupation. The media is feeding the US population the same propaganda about nonexistent Iranian weapons of mass destruction that they fed us about nonexistent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. A former CIA Middle East field officer, Robert Baer, has written in Time magazine that the Bush regime has decided to attack the Revolutionary Guards within the next 6 months. Remember the “cakewalk war”? Well, this time the neocons think that an attack on the Revolutionary Guards will free Iran from Islamic influence and cause Iranians to back the US against their own government.

Lies, unprovoked aggression, and delusional expectations--the same ingredients that produced the Iraq catastrophe--all over again. The entire Bush regime and both political parties are complicit, along with the media and US allies.

According to Baer, the Bush regime has given no consideration to whether Iran’s response to a US attack might be different than to welcome it as liberation. What if Iran really were to arm the Iraqi resistance and/or to sink our aircraft carriers? How can any government, even one as incompetent, delusional and unaccountable as the Bush regime, initiate war without any thought to the consequences?

The Bush regime’s planned war against Iran casts light on the large increase in military armaments that the US is supplying to Israel. With Iraq in chaos and civil war, an attack on Iran leaves as opposition to Israel only Syria and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Israel cannot finish off the Palestinians until Hezbollah is destroyed. An Israeli attack on Syria while the US attacks Iran would leave Hezbollah without supplies in the face of a new Israeli attack.

The agenda unfolding before our eyes may be the neoconservative/ Israeli/Cheney plan to rid the Middle East of any check to Israeli territorial expansion.

Nicholas Burns said that the $30 billion in military aid was not conditional on any Israeli concessions or progress toward resolving the conflict with the Palestinians. Israel’s ghettoizing and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian West Bank proceeds apace.

Meanwhile in America, while more money is poured into more war, condemned bridges collapse killing Americans who trusted their government to provide safe infrastructure. Devastated residents of New Orleans remain unaided. Financial difficulties deepen for more Americans as falling home prices and jobs lost to offshoring push more Americans into desperate straits. The US dollar continues to fall as the government’s war debts build up abroad.

Except for the armaments industry, where is the gain to America in Bush’s wars? Before Bush invaded Afghanistan, the Taliban had stamped out drug production. The US invasion has brought it back.

On August 22 Bush told the Veterans of Foreign Wars that US troops are the “greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known.” Tell that to the 650,000 dead Iraqis and the 4 million displaced Iraqis, and the tens of thousands of slaughtered Afghans, and the coming civilian deaths in Iran. Tell that to all the bombed civilians from Serbia to Africa who are blown to pieces in order that a US president can make a point. Bush goes far beyond George Orwell’s “Newspeak” in his novel, 1984, when Bush equates US hegemony with liberation.

America’s hegemonic hubris is a sickness. A country that tolerates a war criminal while he openly plans to attack yet another country is definitely not a light unto the world.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

Sick Bastards...........

British Army deploys new weapon based on mass-killing technology
08/23/2007 @ 9:32 am
Filed by John Byrne

Parliament not told, minister says


A new 'super-weapon' being supplied to British soldiers in Afghanistan employs technology based on the "thermobaric" principle which uses heat and pressure to kill people targeted across a wide air by sucking the air out of lungs and rupturing internal organs.

The so-called "enhanced blast" weapon uses similar technology used in the US "bunker busting" bombs and the devastating bombs dropped by the Russians to destroy the Chechen capital, Grozny.

Such weapons are brutally effective because they first disperse a gas or chemical agent which is lit at a second stage, allowing the blast to fill the spaces of a building or the crevices of a cave. When the US military deployed a version of these weapons in 2005, DefenseTech wrote an article titled, "Marines Quiet About Brutal New Weapon."

According to the US Defense Intelligence Agency, which released a study on thermobaric weapons in 1993, "The [blast] kill mechanism against living targets is unique--and unpleasant.... What kills is the pressure wave, and more importantly, the subsequent rarefaction [vacuum], which ruptures the lungs.… If the fuel deflagrates but does not detonate, victims will be severely burned and will probably also inhale the burning fuel. Since the most common FAE fuels, ethylene oxide and propylene oxide, are highly toxic, undetonated FAE should prove as lethal to personnel caught within the cloud as most chemical agents."

A second DIA study said, "shock and pressure waves cause minimal damage to brain tissue... it is possible that victims of FAEs are not rendered unconscious by the blast, but instead suffer for several seconds or minutes while they suffocate."

"The effect of an FAE explosion within confined spaces is immense," said a CIA study of the weapons. "Those near the ignition point are obliterated. Those at the fringe are likely to suffer many internal, and thus invisible injuries, including burst eardrums and crushed inner ear organs, severe concussions, ruptured lungs and internal organs, and possibly blindness."

British defense officials told the UK Guardian that British bombs were "different."

"They are optimized to create blast [rather than heat]", one said, speaking on the standard condition of anonymity in Britain. The official added that it would be misleading to call them "thermobaric."

Officials told the Guardian the new weapon was classified as a soldier launched "light anti-structure munition" and that the bombs would be more effective because "even when they hit the damage is limited to a confined area."

"The continuing issue of civilian casualties in Afghanistan has enormous importance in the battle for hearts and minds," said Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell in the article. "If these weapons contribute to the deaths of civilians then a primary purpose of the British deployment is going to be made yet more difficult."

According to Campbell, the deployment of the weapons was not announced to Parliament.

SPP Really Means Securing
Permanent Privatization
Jim Kirwan
8-21-7


This is a political strike at the very heart of society that is an outrage against sovereignty, democracy and the true national interests of all three countries involved-is called SPP. They say the letters stand for:

The Security, Prosperity Partnership of North America.

In fact herein "Security" stands for Lockdown: "Prosperity" stands for permanent privatization of all natural and commercial resources and the permanent destruction of all the workers rights to any share in that 'prosperity.' The "partnership" is actually an agreement between the International Corporatocracy to devour everything that can be sold, and to do it in the name of three 'nations' that will cease to exist once this agreement is formally accepted-without even consulting the populations of the nations that were once thought to be sovereign states.

This is the culmination of efforts that began when Roosevelt Outlawed the Robber-Barons, and instituted in their place some new rights for people and workers in the long history of the struggle for both individual rights and equality when dealing with the extremely rich and powerful. From the 'New Deal' forward the elite consolidated power and settled on using the powers inherent in corporations to accomplish their return to power. As their corporate power grew the major players became larger than most nation-states: these military-industrial-political giants then evolved into what we call today the Corporatocracy.

This phenomenon got its ideological start under the ruthless savagery of Henry A. Kissinger when he was US Secretary of State. His track record proved that states could be used to further corporate and private profits without the need for oversight. All any real player need do was to buy the country in question: failing that, one simply overthrew the leadership, with the help of the already corrupted US foreign policy. Then the new owners just sat back and raked in the profits. Of course there was always an opposition, but death squads were formed to murder and terrorize all who opposed this newly minted privatization. Remember Chile, the Iran-Contra scandals, and all the other conflicted war-games that we played in so many places around the globe. In fact the most recent of these games resulted in the bombing of Afghanistan, planned long before 911. The bombings were not about the Taliban but about a Unocal oil pipeline, that needed to be secured. (1)

These practices are what have brought the International Corporatocracy to this Ultra-Secret threshold for absolute control over every aspect of North American life, regardless of which country you might live in. The veil of secrecy over this conference must be lifted immediately!

What Will Be Gained?

The answer to this question can be found in who has profited the most from the Bush Administration's declaration of 'Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace.' Corporations both large and small, depending on their connectedness to the players at the top, have discovered immense profits that have exceeded anything ever seen, anywhere before: Providing Oil, military equipment, weapons for everyone on all sides, not to mention re-construction and virtually all kinds of equipment and supplies to keep the military operating while supposedly rebuilding entire nations from the ground up. The fact that this entire enterprise was a colossal failure did not mean that hundreds of billions were not paid out to those with Secret-no-bid government contracts, regardless of performance inadequacies or outright failure. So far we've spent over $453 Billion and that number could reach over a Trillion dollars once all the bills are in. Most of that money went to the Corporatocracy members, many of whom are also involved in securing new contracts with the North American Union for its obvious security needs.

Who Pays for Privatizations?

Ordinary people-the same "people" who once owned the National Parks, the libraries, the mineral rights, the highways, the institutions of higher learning: Virtually anything and everything that was paid for by public bond issues or tax dollars. The equation for privatization is simple. A corporation or a money mogul puts up roughly ten percent of the actual value of whatever is to be devoured, then takes over the entire enterprise: Immediately downsizing the operation, stripping away the services previously offered and slashing salaries of the remaining serfs, while selling off the more lucrative aspects, to give their shareholders a false idea of productivity along with the supposed profitability of their newly acquired acquisition.

What is Lost?

What is lost is any meaning for the words in any contract written, by either a government or the corporations involved, as each has reserved the right to change the terms of virtually any law or contract in which either is involved.

Think about the terms of credit, interest on a loan, terms of service on a military enlistment. Even Social Security is an upcoming target of the SPP, if they will even need to bother about that-once they obtain total control of all three nation-states.

Another huge loss will be any individual rights for anyone not "needed" by

The Corporatocracy, or its new servant, the so-called government entities that will be designated by the Corporations to run this latest scam.

One issue that was supposedly 'solved' yesterday between the Three-Traders was a way to "equalize" the health warnings, the pesticides, and the content requirements on things like food, and goods: the goal being to eliminate any differences between the three states. This was needed to speed cross border inspections so as not to interrupt the flow of new capital into the coffers of the Privateers.

In addition the Three-Traitors agreed to allow any other nations products to be imported into the NAU and labeled as if whatever it was had been manufactured or created here-so that the public would no longer be able to tell where any particular product or food came from. This they thought would be absolutely necessary, given the 'fact-about-to-be' that manufacturing etc., will finish being outsourced from all of North America, under the new terms of the NAU.

Decent jobs will be lost forever here, along with real wages, benefits, health care ­ that whole potpourri of 'stuff' that people usually work very hard to achieve. The natural resources within North America: our forests, our minerals, even our water and our lands will be sold off to others, to enhance the profits of these 21st Century Pirates. But there is one tell-tale perk for the oil companies ­ the pipelines for both natural gas and oil will run from the South into the US and from the North into the US. The Mexican Oil & Gas companies will be privatized again, as will the Canadian companies in favor of the existing American giants in that field. Consequently it appears that national oil companies themselves will just disappear into that secrecy that surrounds the profits of the behemoths that have come to dominate so much of life today.

One other thing that shall be lost forever is the US Dollar that is to be replaced by the Amero very soon. Given the difficulties of this illusion at the moment (the dollar's actual value) ~ this is hardly surprising. The New North American Union will need its own currency just as the European Union had to settle on a common currency in order to maximize its own impact on world markets. Much more will change under this latest attack upon our lives, but seemingly no matter how much the public comes to 'understand' about this massive restructuring of life in America today ­ seemingly they remain unmoved. . .

"This Can't Happen Here"

To this response there is 5 minute and 19 second video answer: "it" has already happened here-by Executive Decree over many, many years.

Presidential Directives: 10990, 10995, 10997, 10998, 11000, 11003, 11005, 11051, 11921, 12656: Plus The Patriot Act; The Domestic Security Enhancement of the Military Commissions Act of 2003: and the National Security Presidential Directive 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20, signed by President Bush in May 2007 (2)

kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net

1) It's All About Oil

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/oil.html

2) What We Choose to Ignore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl1VIhdpl4c



Citizen Petition Opposing the North American Union

http://www.grassfire.org/89/petition.asp?P=

Today's News August 16, 2007
{Thank you Wayne Madsen, you rock!}
Computer and Internet problems continue to plague us today. A technical fix is in the works. Please bear with us.

U.S. signs $30 billion military aid deal with Israel. Deal signed not with Israeli Defense Minister but with the Governor of the Bank of Israel. More looting of cash from America's Treasury by the Israeli central bank.

Homeland Security's National Applications Office (NAO) to oversee domestic use of U.S. spy satellites. The Posse Comitatus Act is now officially dead and buried. National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, former NSA director and Booz Allen top exec, and Michael Chertoff okay program as the now-defanged and impotent U.S. privacy advocacy community twiddles its thumbs. Even local cops will have access to satellite intelligence.

Bush administration seeks to dismiss lawsuit over NSA illegal spying on Americans. NSA and Justice Department use of old tired "sensitive sources and methods" argument as a way of protecting their secret deal with AT&T to conduct illegal espionage.

Hundreds dead in strong Peru earthquake. 7.9 Richter scale quake strikes central Peru and Pacific coast. Thousands in need of medical treatment.

Mississisppi's neo-confederate Governor Haley Barbour's family profited from Katrina reconstruction. Of course, war profiteering and disaster profiteering are in Republicans' genes.

U.S. troops on reported military maneuvers against Muslims in southern Philippines. French news agency snaps photos of U.S. Special Forces on patrol, a violation of Philippines Constitution. Hell, the Bush administration violates the U.S. Constitutio0n, so why not the Philippines Constitution?

COUNTRY FOCUS ARTICLE OF THE DAY: Tuva. Russia's Putin hosts visiting Monaco Prince Albert in Tuva. Two leaders visit sites in once independent republic in Central Asia, which has strong autonomist streak.

Thursday, August 16, 2007
Group that advocated Bush become "President-for-Life" linked to Bush Administration itself

1574242,

Posted by ck4829 on Mon Aug-13-07 01:38 AM

You can't find the story now, they removed it after DU'ers, and other people possibly, exposed the story a little group called Family Security Matters was running.

But, just because they removed it, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist anymore.

"President Bush is reviled; he has become another victim of Democracy.

By elevating popular fancy over truth, Democracy is clearly an enemy of not just truth, but duty and justice, which makes it the worst form of government. President Bush must overcome not just the situation in Iraq, but democratic government.

However, President Bush has a valuable historical example that he could choose to follow.

When the ancient Roman general Julius Caesar was struggling to conquer ancient Gaul, he not only had to defeat the Gauls, but he also had to defeat his political enemies in Rome who would destroy him the moment his tenure as consul (president) ended.

Caesar pacified Gaul by mass slaughter; he then used his successful army to crush all political opposition at home and establish himself as permanent ruler of ancient Rome. This brilliant action not only ended the personal threat to Caesar, but ended the civil chaos that was threatening anarchy in ancient Rome – thus marking the start of the ancient Roman Empire that gave peace and prosperity to the known world.

If President Bush copied Julius Caesar by ordering his army to empty Iraq of Arabs and repopulate the country with Americans, he would achieve immediate results: popularity with his military; enrichment of America by converting an Arabian Iraq into an American Iraq (therefore turning it from a liability to an asset); and boost American prestiege while terrifying American enemies.

He could then follow Caesar's example and use his newfound popularity with the military to wield military power to become the first permanent president of America, and end the civil chaos caused by the continually squabbling Congress and the out-of-control Supreme Court.

President Bush can fail in his duty to himself, his country, and his God, by becoming “ex-president” Bush or he can become “President-for-Life” Bush: the conqueror of Iraq, who brings sense to the Congress and sanity to the Supreme Court. Then who would be able to stop Bush from emulating Augustus Caesar and becoming ruler of the world? For only an America united under one ruler has the power to save humanity from the threat of a new Dark Age wrought by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons."

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:cnnnSRimWmcJ:www.familysecuritymatters.org/index.php%3Fid%3D1208571+%22president+for+life+bush%22+site:familysecuritymatters.org&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Google's Caching Service, don't you love it?

Here is the link to the original BTW:

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/index.php?id=1208571

But, what about Family Security Matters?

Well, it turns out that "Family Security Matters (FSM) is a front group for the Center for Security Policy (CSP), a conservative Washington think tank "committed to the time-tested philosophy of promoting international peace through American strength." (The phone number listed on the FSM website is answered by the CSP.)

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Security_Matters

So now we are led to the Center for Security Policy, and who's connected to that group?

Dick Cheney, Vice President of the U.S. under George W. Bush, was an early member of Center's Board of Advisors (which is now called the National Security Advisory Council).

Twenty-two CSP advisers -- including additional Reagan-era remnants like Elliott Abrams, Ken deGraffenreid, Paula Dobriansky, Sven Kraemer, Robert Joseph, Robert Andrews and J.D. Crouch -- have reoccupied key positions in the national security establishment, as have other true believers of more recent vintage."

Hmmmmmmmmmm........

e
Confessions Of A 911 Hitman

News From Babylon [US]
August 8th, 2007

Note: This posting was posted on Craig's List but was 'flagged for removal' for some reason. Take it for what it is, an interesting posting on Craig's List. I am not saying it's any more or any less. But I think it is interesting and it's too bad they removed it, so I am archiving it here with some screen shots to prove it was really there.

Reply to: pers-389756978@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-08-05, 10:33AM EDT

I'm retired now. But five years ago I helped blow up the WTC complex. I was paid a half million dollars, tax free, for my time and trouble. I don't know what the rest of my crew was paid--maybe a little more, maybe a little less. Not that I care much. In operations like this one, where dozens and dozens of top technicians operated like a team, nobody knew the entire operation or who was who, or what everybody got paid---the big picture, as people call it. Better that way. Better that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

Living on the beach here in Cartagena, Columbia [sic] I've had lots of time to reflect. Lots more time to wonder. What surprises me most, however, is how very few intelligent people in America question the obvious signature of the crime, even after five years.

How did we do it and why did we do it? The absolute audacity and cleverness still surprises me. The planners knew that success was the only option and so they spent years, not months, designing the perfect plan. What you call murder, I call the perfect crime. What you call an act of terror, I call the perfect diversion.

screenshot part 1The intelligent people who run your country know that America depends on a continuous supply of oil. They also know that Americans use far more oil than they can produce here in America. They also know that if anyone in the Middle East were allowed to sell oil for euros--which Iraq attempted to do and Iran is threatening to do---and thus break the monopoly of US petrodollars, America might just go down the tubes. At least that is how it was explained to me, one of the reasons we were doing what we were doing, in the weeks and months during our furious preparations.

But if the US was attacked by terrorists, however, by rogue clients of ME states, then America could retaliate, occupy their countries, insert puppet leaders like the Shah of Iran, and continue siphoning oil forever. And hundreds of people would make billions, while thousands of multinational companies--not just Halliburton--would profit immensely.

And so America needed to be attacked.

But the attack needed to be spectacular. And the targets needed to be high image targets that represented America but was really stuff that could be rebuilt. Rebuilt at a profit. And so you saw the Pentagon targeted rather than the Congress building. Because Congress still needed someplace to meet and declare war against those nations that attacked America.

screenshot part 2MY job was to wire explosives inside the various WTC buildings. We wired buildings 1, 2, 6, and 7. We hardwired some areas and attached explosives and electronic detonators to many other key structural joints. We did this weeks in advance. WTC-7 fell in a classic controlled demolition (See example) but the Twin Towers required a lot more ingenuity. The fellow who planned the actual sequence of detonations is a genius. He was rumored to have been paid seven or eight figures and is a fucking master. Almost like a composer of a symphony orchestra but better. Much better.

Entry into even the most secure areas of the WTC complex was easy. The badges and identifications were specially made. We had a guy at the top, an insider, who supplied the entry passes. We were the invisible people, those people who you see everyday but don't see. We were the janitors and maintenance men you take for granted but who have far more access in your own building than you'll ever have. Like I said, this whole operation was designed years in advance and took months to assemble the teams of top specialists. Then we worked weeks together to attack each key area of the plan. Like a builder using a blueprint.

Those people who say it couldn't be done, or only hijackers in airplanes could do it, really piss me off. Because we did it. For example, instead of building the Hoover Dam we took it down, piece by piece in a couple hours, and made each step look believable. Made it look like the dam just burst naturally.

The majority of ignorant people say, "fires brought the buildings down." We just smile and say, yes they did. Most people don't know that steel doesn't melt from fuel fires but melted steel was found weeks later in the substructure of the WTC. Nobody seems to want to know how that happened to perfectly good steel. Most people don't know thermite was used in World War II or that explosives and detonaters can be attached and then remotely detonated from blocks away in whatever sequence you choose. That was why when you watched the middle part of the towers explode--pancake down as the experts claimed---the upper parts of the twin towers were being simultaneously detonated as the lower parts were crumbling. If we hadn't done that you would have seen 30 to 40 story segment sitting on the rubble pile.

Like I said it was a work of genius.

Am I sorry that almost 3,000 people got killed? Sure. Are you sorry that you, personally, use so much foreign oil? And are you sorry that all these faked resource wars have to be concocted so that you can get that oil and live comfortably? Didn't think so.

Investigators on those TV crime shows, the CSI people, always try to understand who benefits by the bloody crime. If you understand that many people benefitted by 9-11, by the WTC destruction, then you are more than halfway to solving the crime. Not just who dunnit, but how dunnit and why dunnit.

The benefits of the plan were manifold. Everyone involved profited. The political zealots at the Pentagon got there holy war, or wars, that would benefit Israel while weakening the entire ME. The corporate--connected people got billions in new contracts. The military people got new toys.

Meanwhile the more pragmatic planners assembled a team to start removing gold and silver from below building 4 as soon as the remote-controlled planes struck the towers. We had teams taking bullion from the vaults immediately before and after the towers fell. Miles of tunnels connected the complex. Teams had seven hours to remove as much bullion as they could. The falling towers, the smoke, the fires, the sirens, that was all a grand diversion going on in the streets above. Like I said the plan was designed to appear to be an Islamic terrorist attack yet functioned perfectly as an enormous, gigantic bank robbery. The biggest heist in history.

Was I underpaid? Probably. But I was just one cog in this smooth functioning yet risky machine. Some internet blogger speculated that only 50-51 men could pull off this perfect crime, but I think it had to be several hundred experts involved.

Who were we? Americans, Israelis, South Africans, Brits, Irish. All top specialists. The best of the best. Like that popular TV show, the Mission Impossible force, that was us. Quite a few former special forces, several top intelligence men, financial wizards, some foreign mercenaries, Israeli demo specialists, electronic specialists, security specialists. You name it.

How to keep everyone quiet, you ask? You heard the old saying, two can keep a secret if one of them is dead? Well a thousand can keep a secret if everyone is happy and everyone is very well paid. You also heard that old saying, honor among thieves? Well why would anyone want to rat on someone else? And even if one person got shitfaced drunk and bragged about bringing down the trade towers, who would believe him. After all, we all saw the hijacked jets crashed into the Trade Towers, right? And then we all saw that fuel fires weakened the steel and brought down those same towers, right?

No one will ever catch us. Who would investigate? Hugo Chavez? We commited the perfect crime and got away with it.

But like I said at the beginning, the crime was obviously a crime to anyone who even glanced at the pictures on the TV. It was so fucking obvious it still makes me laugh. What happened was a classic diversion. The towers fell; two or three ME countries were blamed. A suitable villain was fingered.

But you have hundreds of millions in stolen gold--did Osama steal it? You have those jackpot insurance claims on a pair of architecturel white elephants, leased only months before (giving us enough time to wire them). You have fake pilots that couldn't fly, doing maneuvers in Boeing jumbo jets that were electronically programmed not to allow pilots to fly that way. You have FBI and CIA head honchos looking the other way. I could go on and on. But isn't that what your real CSI people should be doing--but aren't? Isn't that what your real detectives should be doing--but aren't?

If a farmer finds his henhouse raided by a fox, he tracks the fox through the snow and discovers the burrow and sees the feathers and the blood. Well, you've seen the feathers and the blood all over the people who planned 9-11 but still you can't seem to put the pieces of this great crime together. Why is that?

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Hang on to your Hats - Your Papers Please

Well they did it, the Bush admin passed and funded the "New Freedom Initiative" bill which will require "Mental Health Testing" twice yearly of the entire population of the U.S. and optionally "Forced Drugging" with psychotropic drugs. This was trial tested in Illinois in '04 and will now proceed to the entire U.S. starting with children to 18 years old and then to the rest of the population.

Additionally they tightened the noose passing sections of Patriot Act II, which includes the "National ID Card" mandate, included in this legislation is an internal passport system that should send chills up the backs of Americans accustomed to the freedom to travel by air, plane, rail, car or foot. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine along with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. in addition to Jane Harmon and Pete Hoekstra were instrumental in leading passage of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.

911 Truth - You, Me and the SPP
Peter Zaza




August 7, 2007

I've got a question for Bush, Harper and Calderon. If you truly value democracy, the rule of law, and government by the will of the people, then why are you hiding in secret like rats scared to expose your plans to the light of day? Why not hold a referendum in all three countries and ask the citizens of this continent if they want to be unified, dissolve our national identities and borders, or share a common currency? But the leaders of these countries won't do that, because they are not democratically elected officials of free individuals living within any sort of constitutional democracy, they are instead fascist dictators who must bring the plans for unification into being according to an agenda - they are sock puppets who do the bidding of international bankers and the power elite of this world, and they must slither behind an ugly and brutal militia who will wield their clubs onto the heads of ordinary citizens - people who want nothing more than to have a voice by electing officials who represent them - that's what government is supposed to be about, isn't it?. If we had a real media with real investigative reporters, there would be a million questions and headlines and scandals and trials, but we do not, instead we have a propaganda machine owned by the military industrial complex, they are just like an infomercial that will tell you any kind of cheap disgusting lie while trying to get you to buy their stuff.

Agreements like the SPP should be null and void by the very nature of their incarnation, put forth by unelected officials, totally against the will of virtually all the citizenry, and only in the best interests of a select few. But it looks like they will push forward - and like some converging lines in a perspective drawing the currencies of all three nations will level off to a close approximation of parity until it's time for a new crisis induced by government - reaction will be people that are frightened, confused, and purposefully thrust into sudden panic mode, so big brother will step in with the resolution. Don't trouble yourself about the crashed economy we deliberately drove into the ground with our hegemonic wars of aggression and genocide - remember, war is good for business, and you've got your entertainment, your "bread and circuses". Don't be one of those conspiracy theorist nut jobs and get lopped in with that crowd, come over here my little children, we've got the shiny new Amero to solve the money problem, and a new global police force headed by the benevolent UN to keep the order, don't forget the new ID measures we will force upon you - or you can't drive, or travel, or be outside these lines after a certain time, or whatever else we want to say and make you do. Look at how docile you all were when we implemented the completely criminal "anti-terror measures" or the "no-fly lists" - or the way we dazzled your game-show blinded eyes with colour-coded alert schemes from the Department of Homeland Buffoonery. These poor bastards will let us do whatever the hell we want to them, and they will be so scared of being marginalized because of the beautiful psyche job we've done on them since birth through TV and all the rest of that crud we call mainstream media - they won't even kick up a fuss, or so some might think. But that's not really how I see it, and I truly do have a lot more faith in the common people of this world.

Human dynamics dictate something quite different to me. When I was trying to learn the difficult art of computer animation I discovered something very quickly about the way humans move. At first I would assign a start and end point to the movement of an object - like moving a character's arm let's say - and so the computer would dutifully move the animated limb in a linear fashion from point A to B over X amount of time - problem is, that's not very representative of human physical dynamics. There will typically be a sloping logarithmic curve to the velocity of virtually any action, basically the process starts slow then rapidly ascends to its end point - look at the way you reach for a cup or take a step forward - the acceleration curve is much like how movements of resistance occur throughout history. Subjugate women unjustly for centuries, make them suffer and struggle for so long, and then witness such a beautiful iteration of the indomitable human spirit and brilliance of intellect as evinced through Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Caty Stanton - do yourself a favour and read the story of these remarkable women who persevered their entire lives fighting for women's equality and the right to vote. Look at the slaves in America (the first ones, not us), and witness the rising up of a people against brutality and injustice. All human movements start out slow, but gain momentum hurtling to the end stage. We are fast approaching that final stage - which gives us two obvious choices. Either everything I've learned and believe right now is a complete fabrication and ergo I'm just some nut, ok fine - another nut. I only wish it were so - or, the second possibility being we are correct and there is going to be big trouble for us all very soon if we don't do something about it, and if those 800 plus FEMA camps actually do exist to hold dissidents - then you have a bigger problem still. How are you going to rationalize them taking away your friends and family, people just like me that have committed no crime, have not aggressed upon any other individual or their property, and have done nothing more than think for themselves and question the bloodshed and injustice in this ravaged world of ours? Better yet, if it really happens that way I will count myself lucky to be with the kind of people I've met in this movement - frankly, I would be too ashamed to stick around with the likes of those who could allow such a nightmare to occur. I will live free, standing up straight and telling the truth with many other people who care about honour, truth and human dignity - the rest of you can grab a set of kneepads and some fresh lip balm - the double line forms on the left.

"If you will not fight for the right, when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." -Winston Churchill.

911 Truth is the single most important issue in all our lives right now - as Canadians, as North Americans, and as a citizens of this planet. As long as we do not deal directly with this lie, we will continually be forced to play a part in all it's subsequent crimes, and pay the ultimate price of our freedom because of willful ignorance or moral cowardice. Our government tells us we are in Afghanistan because of the Canadians who lost their lives on 9/11 - and they believe the US government's "conspiracy theory" about Osama bin Laden and the 19 Muslim hijackers, without any real investigation or proof. Moreover, all signs point to the US government being complicit in the staging of this false flag operation. Do some research on these kinds of events, particularly all the declassified material, and then ask how they could do such a thing? Your answer will be something like - the same way it's been done a thousand times before. Ask yourself why they would remove all the material from the crime scene and withhold evidence. Does this make sense to anyone? Just think about it - let's pretend their fairy tale story is absolutely true - the planes hit the towers, the towers fell down - and what does reason then dictate as a course of action for the government of the USA? Would you cordon off the crime scene and go over the forensic evidence in a painstaking fashion in order to solidify the case against your attackers? or would you quickly remove and hide everything, which is supposed to be against the law. Would you ask all the first responders what they saw and heard, and then use that evidence to bolster your case, or would you place them all under gag orders and make them fight for 5 years just to get their stories told. Why would they do that? - are you still there? I want an answer to this one especially, because it seems fairly obvious that if you want a few hundred people to keep their mouths shut about what they saw and heard, the only possible explanation can be that you are hiding something and they are saying things you do not want people to know. Why is that? - it is only because the bombs which took the towers down were heard and felt by many people - bombs mean collusion - no longer tenable is the story of the 19 Arab guys with box-cutters - now we must explain how anyone could get inside those buildings and precisely plant the charges necessary to cause these monolithic structures to fall in an exact way. No other way is possible for these buildings to descend as they did except within the demolition model - that's what we see happening with all three buildings, that's what many people on the scene witnessed first hand - and yet that is the scenario which was not even explored by the bogus investigations sponsored by the criminals who committed the crime. Ask yourself why they would not consider a demolition model in their bought and paid for investigations, and then ask yourself why they didn't even mention Building 7 at all - or why the NTSB didn't do an investigation on these plane crashes, the first time that's happened. So many whys - so little investigation.

Used as a pretext for the genocide in Iraq and Afghanistan, this event is also a turning point and a catalyst for the bigger plan to implement a one world government, complete with the destruction of nationalities and cultural identities. These plans have been documented and clearly indicate an agenda for the formation of a North American Union in 2010, and subsequently a ceding of power to the UN global police force in 2012.

"There is little difference between a short life and a long life - both are just a moment in time" - Taoist proverb

So much can happen in just a split second of time - let's try and deconstruct one such moment. I'm watching the lead story on network news here in Canada the other night - before us are two figures; Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff. The purpose of this particular news conference is to convey the message to all Canadians - these guys are on the same page, and they vow to quash the voices of opposition and dissent here at home so that Canada can continue it's noble mission in Afghanistan.

Something else happens in this nanosecond of time. Way over there in Afghanistan and just 90 miles away from a Canadian army unit, there is a village where suspected Taliban are hiding - Solution: Bombs with Depleted Uranium, you know that stuff don't you? We make it here in Canada, we store it and distribute it against international treaties we supposedly adhere to - this is powerful stuff this DU, rips through heavy duty armour plating like butter. And within that split second when the bombs hit, and the limbs of all the wives, children and everyone else get splattered outward at high velocity, shorn not so neatly from their bloody stumps, I would ask you this O'Connor and Hillier, if you cared to strain your ears over the screams of innocent victims whose lives are shattered or gone forever, the latter being the only preferable option of the two. What do you think is the reason for us killing people and having our own sons and daughters die in Afghanistan? I believe these two guys standing there in their respective costumes are probably quite typical of people who think they are fulfilling a sense of duty for their country - I believe they are wrong, and I'm going to ask you to realize the part YOU are playing in this ugly charade that debases and demoralizes us all. I ask you to consider these facts regarding Canada and it's mission in Afghanistan:

NATO troops are indiscriminately killing civilians. The Canadian Senate Report concluded that life in Khandahar is "clearly more perilous because we are there". Canadian Corporations are profiting from the death and destruction in Afghanistan NATO members continue to deploy radioactive weaponry such as depleted uranium munitions which contaminates the environment and the human genome for billions of years. 60% of those elected to the Afghan parliament in October 2005 were criminals. Violence against women and girls in Afghanistan is pervasive. Afghan women continue to face rape, harassment and sexual violence. Canadians are fighting a war that is NOT about terrorism but is about the projection of power, money and resource control. As of April 2007, 57% of Canadians oppose the war in Afghanistan. Canada is deeply integrated within the U.S. military industrial complex. Canadians invest in hundreds of war industries through the Canada Pension Plan, including 16 of the world's top 20 weapons' manufacturers

We live in a strange culture - like the TV commercial where Mom keeps spraying the freshener into junior's bedroom to mask all the smells - and I want to know - why the hell don't you just clean up the damned room and give it all a good scrubbing with ammonia, junior first? But that is not our way - don't look at the truth, just throw some more mushroom fodder on top so that everyone will be so blinded by the stench emanating from the new fetid pile on top, they won't even bother to care about the foulness coming from below. But it's still there - 911 is not going away, doesn't matter how many wars you start, how many innocent people you torture without trial in your phony war OF terror. It's horrendous, we are all diminished by the criminal, despicable actions of these people. They destroy the rule of law and distort every precept of human decency for their own selfish gain. They are not righteous leaders who deserve our respect and admiration, they are lowly thugs who must face justice or we as a society have failed and we have no soul.

Yes, I'm going to say it once more and then you must do some research - 911 was an inside job. Myself and a few hundred million people on this earth could prove it quite easily if we were allowed the benefit of a real investigation, if we had a fair and just judicial system that would weigh the merits of all the evidence just like in a real criminal case. If we had an honest, independent media that was not merely a propaganda tool of the military industrial complex - the same people who have a vested interested in wars and the manufacturing of bombs that kill and mutilate, and all the great rising profit shares and financial dividends that go along with it - it's disgusting, it's degrading, it's also amazing that most decent, hard working individuals are living this fantastic lie so they can pay their taxes and fund this enterprise. This thin veneer of reality holding society within it's false grip will be stripped clean with some of the predicted manoeuvres of these Machiavellian psychopaths - if you happened to read the article published by a British Journal called "The Guardian" on April 9th 2007 called "Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future" - you would have to wince at the projected use of high tech weaponry that will be utilized to quell the mobs reacting to stresses brought on by overpopulation, natural disasters or various other sometimes induced states of disorder.

"The development of neutron weapons which destroy living organs but not buildings "might make a weapon of choice for extreme ethnic cleansing in an increasingly populated world". The use of unmanned weapons platforms would enable the "application of lethal force without human intervention, raising consequential legal and ethical issues". The "explicit use" of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons and devices delivered by unmanned vehicles or missiles." - Richard Norton-Taylor

The fact that they write about it and predict it's necessity means they have it all ready to go right now.

But that's not the kind of story we're given on the nightly news, instead we are spoon-fed the fuzzy, feel-good CBC piece about the troops playing a quick game of road hockey, or how they get the Tim Horton's Coffee sent to them to help ameliorate the difficult task of indiscriminate killing. Show me anything but the truth about what the hell is going on in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Oh - don't tell me that stuff, I don't want to hear it, it's so depressing - I work all day in and day out to eke out a living wage - and still I'm always just 2 paychecks away from financial ruin - I haven't got time to figure all this out and then try and fix it. Sorry folks, there is no hero arriving in act 3 to save the day in this saga. It's just like negative option billing on your hydro utility statement - do nothing and in a couple of short years you will be lined up by people in riot gear, demanding to see your National ID - tasers on stun. For god's sake, have you not noticed already the militarization of the police and security forces around the world, no more boys in blue - now we have the black executioner's garb with body armour, and a new motto that goes something like, "To Swerve and Neglect".

Have you not wondered why leaders meet in secret to sign deals affecting your life without any public input. Does it not even cause a tinge of annoyance within you that Canada is allowing troops from another country to tell us we can't assemble peaceably on our own soil? Does it not bug you even a little bit that we have unjust anti-terror laws and no fly lists that abrogate every tenet of democratic law and such hard-won inalienable rights of free individuals? I'm so ashamed when I think about my Muslim brothers and sisters in this world. George and his pals are guilty of a veritable plethora of crimes against humanity, 911 being one of the biggest - THEY did it - and THEY are blaming it on and punishing a race of people who are being vilified, tortured and exterminated because of this horrendous lie. And good old Johnny Q. Public thinks this is just ok - I've heard too many of them say things like, "Oh, those people over there live like animals" or "they don't feel things like us anyway because they are so backward" or "sure, there are going to be a lot of innocent people killed, but that's the price we have to pay to have peace in this world". I'm ashamed at myself that I even listen to such morons - especially having met some incredibly sophisticated and well educated people who were from Afghanistan and Iraq. Ok Johnny - now ask yourself this? In my world I'm connected to every living thing on this planet, especially those hunks of protoplasm "over there" who are demonstrably more like me than a planarian worm, or perhaps let's say, a member of Congress. With a simple thought exercise of transference we could imagine how we might feel if a bomb was dropped on our house and all our family members were incinerated - now stick with me Johhny, I'll just be another minute then you can go back to entertaining yourself or staring blankly at the TV - the question is, do you think that after your life has been inexorably shattered by some folks 90 miles away staring at a radar screen you would agree that somehow this is progress, and your life is so much better than before the murders which just took place? And all this done for your supposed liberation.

"No nation can donate liberation to another nation. Liberation should be achieved in a country by the people themselves" - Malalai Joya, member of the Afghan parliament

Are your actions in accordance with your thoughts? Are these thoughts correct within the circumstance? Is this circumstance as told to you in any way reflective of the truth about our reality? Out of the many history books I've read throughout my life there has always been something that fascinated me, but I failed to understand or fully appreciate until now - I've seen so many characters throughout time who wanted nothing more than an opportunity to live their lives quietly, even inconspicuously - and then some condition would arise into which they are inexorably swept along, and so they end up playing a role on the world stage, and dutifully fulfill their part in history. No matter what happens, I will know that when I apprehended the truth about 911 and the state of our world, I was not able to sleep at night if I just remained silent. If you don't know about some of the deceit and hypocrisy perpetrated by our own government, I will not ask you to trust and believe me - but there are ample clues everywhere which will allow you to do some research and come to your own conclusions, rather than the lies fed to you through the media. First you have to care enough to look into that central part of your being and manifest some sense of ethos about your very existence on this planet, and your real connection to people "over there". This isn't some sporting event where you take sides and folks shout playful insults at the opposing team - we have far too many of us on this earth who are being killed and subjected to unspeakable horrors every day - like today!

You and I are playing a part in this injustice. Whatsoever we do to anyone else we do to ourselves - whatsoever we allow to be done unjustly to others can also be done to us. What can I do about it? I'm going to keep writing and recording and animating and shouting and hoping and praying - that my children can grow up in this world and know peace - unlike the hundreds that were slaughtered today in order that someone else could make some more money.

What are YOU going to do about it?