December 14, 2008
Associated Press

An Iraqi journalist threw two shoes at President Bush during a news conference Sunday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The president was not hurt in the incident.

Muntadar al-Zaidi Did What We Journalists Should Have Done Long Ago

When Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi heaved his two shoes at the head of President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, he did something that the White House press corps should have done years ago.

Al-Zaidi listened to Bush blather that the half-decade of war he had initiated with the illegal invasion of Iraq had been "necessary for US security, Iraqi stability (sic) and world peace" and something just snapped. The television correspondent, who had been kidnapped and held for a while last year by Shiite militants, pulled off a shoe and threw it at Bush--a serious insult in Iraqi culture--and shouted "This is a farewell kiss, you dog!" When the first shoe missed its target, he grabbed a second shoe and heaved it too, causing the president to duck a second time as al-Zaidi shouted, "This is from the widows, the orphans, and those who were killed in Iraq!"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org
December 10, 2008

NEW YORK -- The American Civil Liberties Union today released a statement from 31 9/11 victims' family members challenging the legitimacy of the Guantánamo military commissions and their ability to achieve justice.

Below is the full text of the statement:

9/11 FAMILY MEMBERS CHALLENGE LEGITIMACY OF GUANTÁNAMO MILITARY COMMISSIONS

As family members who lost loved ones on 9/11, we feel compelled to speak out about this week's proceedings at Guantánamo. Recently, the Guantánamo military commissions office announced that victims' family members would be permitted, on a lottery basis, to attend the Guantánamo legal hearings of those accused of planning the 9/11 attacks. The lottery system inherently results in the granting of media attention to the select few who are chosen, and whose views are not necessarily representative of all victims' families. The media coverage of Monday's commission hearings included statements attributed to attending family members that the tribunals provided a fair hearing for these prosecutions and that family members "were struck by the extensive rights accorded the accused men."

While we support everyone's right to their individual opinions about these proceedings, including, of course, other family members who have suffered the devastation we have, we also feel obliged to make clear that many of us do not believe these military commissions to be fair, in accordance with American values, or capable of achieving the justice that 9/11 family members and all Americans deserve.

By Dave Lindorff
December 2, 2008

Before the odor of burned gunpowder has left the air of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, the US is lecturing India not to go off half-cocked and attack Pakistan, simply because all of the attackers in the terrorist assaults in that city arrived by boat, apparently from neighboring Pakistan. US officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, are calling on India to engage in a "transparent" and "thorough" investigation into the attacks to establish who was responsible.

How different this is from the American government's response to the 9-11 attacks in the US!

Instead of a "transparent" investigation, we got secret sessions of the Congressional intelligence committees, closed-door interviews of key officials, including President Bush and Vice President Cheney by the 9-11 Commission, and of course the secret round of thousands of mostly Islamic people living in the US, many of whom were held of months incommunicado and without charge, some of whom were subjected to torture, and many other of whom were deported to likely arrest, torture and even death.

In the last couple of weeks, two of our well-known speakers have been broadcast on mainstream media. Thanks to both of you for your ongoing persistence!

Richard Gage, who has been presenting AE911Truth.org to Europeans, was on national television in Spain. We received this note from Diana Castillo:

Thanks to Richard Gage's conference here in Madrid's Colegio Oficial de Arquitectura, on Nov 7th, this is the first time that 911 truth has been shown on mainstream media here in Spain. The conference was packed and the Colegio, which is the official "Guild" for architects here in Spain, has requested several copies of the video conference. This is the recording of the news item shown at midday on the 8th of November which was seen nation wide, with English subtitles: Google Video.

David Ray Griffin was interviewed by Jan Mickelson, of WHO-AM radio in Des Moines. Bravo to James Hufferd, Adel, IA 911truth group leader, who facilitated this opportunity. Listen to the podcast here: mickelson.libsyn.com (direct download here)

by Donna Marsh O'Connor
Wednesday 12 November 2008
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
A Truthout Original article

In September 2006, Michele Little (not pictured), Christina Kminek (L) and Donna Marsh O'Connor (R) - three relatives of 9/11 victims - held a press conference to demand further investigation into the September 11 attacks. (Photo: Alex Wong / Getty Images)

This is a memoir of sorts, the kind that many of us in America are telling days after the election of Barack Obama, who is soon, we all hope soon enough, to be the 44th president of the United States of America. We're not used to this of late, this being the emergence of our stories, our narratives, each one jubilant, provoked to the page and the air waves by our tears, for many of us our tears of joy and relief, tears of disbelief. We, many of us, have awakened from a nightmare. And that nightmare, for each of us, is different.

Festival is serious about Poland's booming cinema

November 9, 2008
By Bill Stamets

Of the city's festivals with a national focus, the Polish Film Festival in America might be the most serious about cinema. Just look at the credits for the 76 features, documentaries and shorts in this year's online schedule. For the cinephile, this 20-year-old event not only lists the director of each film, but also names the screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, art director and composer.

"The Polish film industry is blossoming right now," says Christopher Kamyszew, the festival's founder and honorary chairman. "More films are being produced and more have the ambition to do well in the local movie theater in Poland." That translates into more comedies. Kamyszew is bringing over "Lejdis," Poland's hit comedy of the year.

On Veterans Day, Body of War, the documentary about IVAW member Tomas Young who was paralyzed by a bullet to his spine after serving in Iraq for less than a week, will be shown at 7pm ET on the Sundance Channel. There's no better way to mark Veterans Day than by listening to veterans, and watching this film is just one of many ways you can listen.

Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan: Another way you can honor our veterans today is by listening to the Winter Soldier Hearings. Read more ...

Paul Zarembka Lecture to be streamed on scantv.org - 11.7.2008 - 8pm Pacific

That's this evening, Friday November 7, 2008 - 8pm Pacific.

http://scantv.org

Paul Zarembka is the editor, and a contributor to, The Hidden History of 9-11, recently released in paperback, revised since the original Elsevier hardcover. The paperback features some new material from Kevin Ryan and David Ray Griffin. Below is one of the chapters from the book, the essay by contributor Diana Ralph, Islamophobia and the "War on Terror": the Continuing Pretext for U.S. Imperial Conquest.

This past September, Zarembka lectured on 9/11, based on the contents of Hidden History, at the Trinity United Methodist Church in Seattle. This is what will be broadcast on scantv.org (Also on local Seattle cable: Comcast Ch 77 and Broadstripe Ch 23)

Hidden History of 9/11 is available through 911truth.org's online store.

NoLiesRadio will broadcast live, beginning Tuesday at 4:00 pm Pacific - 7:00 pm Eastern - 11:00 GMT. (See note from NoLiesRadio below).
http://noliesradio.org or http://67.18.54.205/~nolies

Democracy Now! will broadcast tonight for five hours, at DemocracyNow.org or kkfi.org.

Free Speech Radio News will broadcast updates throughout the day and night. Listen at KKFI, and many other sources. See http://www.fsrn.org/content/election2008 for more details.

FINAL PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: Barack Obama versus John McCain. Do not miss this live broadcast from Hempstead, New York!!

Click Here To Listen: http://noliesradio.org

LIVE Tonight, Wednesday, Oct 15th at 5pm Pacific - 8pm Eastern - 00:00 GMT
Repeat Broadcast: Saturday, Oct 18th at 9am Pacific - 12noon Eastern - 16:00 GMT
Will be archived HERE after the broadcasts.

October 14, 2008

From GeorgeWashington.Blogspot: ...it turns out that the NSA was also tapping the hijackers' phone calls inside the U.S. Specifically, hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi lived in San Diego, California, for 2 years before 9/11. Numerous phone calls between al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi in San Diego and a high-level Al Qaeda operations base in Yemen were made in those 2 years.

The Bush administration's wiretapping program has come under new scrutiny this week. Two influential congressional committees have opened probes into allegations US intelligence spied on the phone calls of American military personnel, journalists and aid workers in Iraq. We speak to James Bamford about the NSA's spying on Americans, the agency's failings pre-9/11 and the ties between NSA and the nation's telecommunications companies.

James Bamford, investigative reporter who has been covering the National Security Agency for the last three decades. He came close to standing trial after revealing the NSA's operations in his explosive 1982 book The Puzzle Palace. His latest book, which comes out today, is the third in his trilogy on the NSA. It's called The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America.