Saturday, February 26 2011   -   Resources and Materials

February 26, 2011
Vic Sadot--Courage To Resist (5:21)

Courage To Resist, by Vic Sadot, is a tribute to GI Resistance and whistle-blowers in 2011. The title is taken from the name of the civilian organization called "Courage To Resist" that supports troops in service who become anti-war. The songwriter says "The song was inspired especially by Private Bradley Manning and Wikileaks for exposing the lies, war crimes, and cover-ups of the corporate empire".

The song has two verses about Bradley Manning, Wikileaks, and the release of a video showing US helicopter pilots joking about killing 11 unarmed Iraqi civilians. Two of the murdered civilians were Reuters reporters. Two small children were maimed in the bullet spraying. Nichol Mitchell was in Iraq when she became a conscientious objector and refused to serve in the occupation. Marc Hall had already served his enlistment time when the US Army ordered him to continue in combat operations in Iraq by using "stop loss" legislation that attempts to rescind the contract that an enlisted soldier made at the time of enlistment in order to force him or her to remain in military service. The Courage To Resist organization states, "According to the Pentagon, more than 120,000 soldiers have been affected by stop-loss since 2001". Hall wrote an angry hip hop song and posted it on the internet. The song made people all over the world aware of the little known and reported use of the "stop loss draft" to keep enlisted service men and women in the military beyond the time that they had agreed to serve in the military.

Listen at last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/Vic+Sadot/Berkeley+Calling/Courage+To+Resist

 

Friday, February 25 2011   -   Civil Liberties-Police State

February 22, 2011
by Shan Li
Los Angeles Times

The FBI violated the 1st Amendment rights of hundreds of Muslims by using a paid informant to target and monitor several Southern California mosques based solely on religion, according to a federal class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Filed on behalf of three Muslim plaintiffs, the suit accuses the FBI and seven of its employees, including Director Robert Mueller, of paying Irvine resident Craig Monteilh to go undercover, infiltrate mosques and record conversations in order to root out potential terrorists.

Over the course of 14 months beginning in 2006, the FBI used Monteilh to "indiscriminately collect" personal information on hundreds or even thousands of Muslim Americans, the lawsuit alleges.

Through this "dragnet" operation, the agency "gathered hundreds of phone numbers, thousands of e-mail addresses, hundreds of hours of video recordings that captured the interiors of mosques, homes and businesses, and ... thousands of hours of audio recordings," the lawsuit alleges.

 

Thursday, February 24 2011   -   Other Important News

Colorado 9/11 Visibility is pleased to announce a live debate addressing the collapse of the three World Trade Center buildings on September 11, 2001.

Sunday afternoon, March 6th, at the Boulder campus of the University of Colorado, Colorado 9/11 Visibility will host a debate between Richard Gage, AIA (American Institute of Architects), and Chris Mohr, Denver investigative journalist and nondenominational minister.

The question: What brought down the three World Trade Center skyscrapers?

Richard Gage, AIA, is a San Francisco Bay Area architect and a member of the American Institute of Architects. He has been an architect for over 23 years and has worked on most types of building construction, including numerous fire-proofed, steel-framed buildings. His quest for the truth about 9/11 began in 2006, and he subsequently founded Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth.

Chris Mohr, investigative journalist and advocate of the "natural collapse" theory, is a sincere seeker of the truth who has extensively researched the collapses of the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings, consulted with independent physicists and engineers, and passionately argues that the buildings collapsed due to the plane impacts and fires.

 

Wednesday, February 23 2011   -   Resources and Materials

by Kevin Ryan
February 12, 2011
Published on his blog at 911blogger.com

Having read a few of Peter Dale Scott's earlier books, I was looking forward to his new work, American War Machine. I was not disappointed. Published by Roman & Littlefield in late 2010, this book examines a wide-ranging number of covert US operations since World War II, and, among other things, demonstrates that many of these operations were intimately connected with, and dependent on, illicit drug trafficking. Although my background and experience do not qualify me to write an authoritative review of this important book, I hope that my impressions will compel others to read it.

Scott previously defined concepts such as deep events, deep politics and the deep state, to refer to covert mechanisms that facilitate the strategies of the politically minded rich, a group otherwise referred to as the overworld. Deep events, which Scott defines as those which are "systematically ignored or falsified in the mainstream media and public consciousness," can be seen as sharing certain features, such as cover-up of evidence and irresoluble controversy over what happened. These features contribute to a suppressed memory of the event among the general public. Deep events are often associated with illegally sanctioned violence, and involve little known, but historically evident, cooperation between leaders of the state and organized crime.

In American War Machine, Scott sets out to write the first "deep history" of such events, politics and state entities. As he writes: "In my experience, deep events are better understood collectively than in isolation. When looked at together, they constitute a large pattern, that of deep history."

Some of the more well known deep events are briefly reviewed, such as the JFK assassination and Tonkin Gulf incident, as well as the plans known as Operation Northwoods. Scott also makes clear that he now sees 9/11 as not only a deep event, but a "constitutional deep event" in that the implementation of continuity of government (COG) plans, as a result of 9/11, means that the US constitution has been circumvented in favor of what former assistant attorney general, Jack Goldsmith, called the "Terror Presidency." The latter office has been exploited by an influential power group, among whose major operatives are Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, to pursue long-standing goals of US global domination at the expense of citizen protections as has been done with warrantless surveillance, warrantless detention and suspension of habeas corpus.

 

Monday, February 21 2011   -   Other Important News

By Glenn Greenwald
February 18, 2011
Salon.com

In March, 2002, American citizen Jose Padilla was arrested in Chicago and publicly accused by then-Attorney-General John Ashcroft of being "The Dirty Bomber." Shortly thereafter, he was transferred to a military brig in South Carolina, where he was held for almost two years completely incommunicado (charged with no crime and denied all access to the outside world, including even a lawyer) and was brutally tortured, both physically and psychologically. All of this -- including the torture -- was carried out pursuant to orders from President Bush, Secretary Rumsfeld and other high-ranking officials. Just as the Supreme Court was about to hear Padilla's plea to be charged or released -- and thus finally decide if the President has the power to imprison American citizens on U.S. soil with no charges of any kind -- the Government indicted him in a federal court on charges far less serious than Ashcroft had touted years earlier, causing the Supreme Court to dismiss Padilla's arguments as "moot"; Padilla was then convicted and sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Padilla -- like so many other War on Terror detainees -- has spent years in American courts trying unsuccessfully to hold accountable the high-level government officials responsible for his abuse and lawless imprisonment (which occurred for years prior to his indictment). Not only has Padilla (and all other detainees) failed to obtain redress for what was done to them, but worse, they have been entirely denied even the right to have their cases heard in court. That's because the U.S. Government has invented -- and federal courts have dutifully accepted -- a whole slew of legal doctrines which have only one purpose: to insulate the country's most powerful political officials from legal accountability even when they commit the most egregious crimes, such as imprisoning incommunicado and torturing an American citizen arrested and detained on U.S. soil.

 

Monday, February 21 2011   -   Anthrax

By Scott Shane
Published: February 15, 2011 at

NYTimes.com

WASHINGTON -- A review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's scientific work on the investigation of the anthrax letters of 2001 concludes that the bureau overstated the strength of genetic analysis linking the mailed anthrax to a supply kept by Bruce E. Ivins, the Army microbiologist whom the investigators blamed for the attacks.

The review, by a panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences, says the genetic analysis "did not definitively demonstrate" that the mailed anthrax spores were grown from a sample taken from Dr. Ivins's laboratory at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md. It does add, however, that the evidence is "consistent with and supports an association" between Dr. Ivins's flask and the attack anthrax.

The academy's report faults the F.B.I. as failing to take advantage of scientific methods developed between the mailings in 2001 and its conclusion after Dr. Ivins's suicide in 2008 that he was the sole perpetrator.

 

Sunday, February 20 2011   -   9/11 A/V Galleries

February 19, 2011

Dr. Niels Harrit, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, will be lecturing across Canada in six recognized locations. He will offer a critique of the official account of the destruction of the World Trade Center, focusing on Building 7. Widely published, he is the lead author of a 2009 article on the discovery of nano-thermite (an incendiary and explosive) in the WTC dust.

Tour Schedule:

 

Sunday, February 20 2011   -   Research/Evidence

by Kevin Ryan
February 17, 2011
Posted at Ryan's blog at 911blogger.com

Two new papers have been published at the Journal of 9/11 Studies.

The first is called "Why Australia's Presence in Afghanistan is Untenable," by James O'Neill. Here is an excerpt: [click read more...]

The second paper is by Aidan Monaghan. It is called "Review of Analysis of Observed and Measured In-Flight Turns Suggests Superior Control of 9/11 Aircraft." Here is an excerpt: [click read more...]

 

Thursday, February 17 2011   -   Other Important News

By Robert Parry
February 17, 2011
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2011/021711a.html

Sometimes the hypocrisy is just overwhelming. So, it probably shouldn't surprise us that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would deliver a speech hailing the peaceful protests that changed Egypt while 71-year-old Ray McGovern was roughed up and dragged away for standing quietly in protest of her support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"So this is America," said McGovern as he was hustled from the room by two security guards. "This is America."

McGovern, a former Army intelligence officer and a 27-year veteran of the CIA, was wearing a "Veterans for Peace" t-shirt and, according to witnesses, was standing silently with his back to Secretary Clinton before he was set upon by the two agents who bruised, bloodied and handcuffed McGovern, a cancer survivor. [For video, see below.]

McGovern, who writes for Consortiumnews.com, has been detained at other events protesting both the illegality of U.S. wars and the hypocrisy of demanding accountability for others but not for senior U.S. officials implicated in war crimes, like the torture authorized by former President George W. Bush and ex-Vice President Dick Cheney.

 

Thursday, February 17 2011   -   In the Media

February 16, 2011
ProjectCensored.org

Dear Friends of Project Censored and KPFA,
Mickey Huff and I have been volunteer hosts on the Thursday Morning Mix show on KPFA (8:00-9:00 AM) since late December. We have covered some very important topics including: US Economy and the Collapse of the Dollar, Immigrants Rights, Racism and White Privilege, Media as Entertainment, and the Crisis in Higher Education in California.
We volunteered because KPFA is in a funding crisis and needs to be fully supported.

We believe that there is no topic that should not be covered on KPFA community free speech radio, especially the most censored news stories that we feature on our website (www.projectcensored.org) and in our annual yearbook, Censored 2011.

We will be offering special premiums during our Thursday show this week February 17, and the two weeks following February 24 and March 3. On these shows we will play segments of speeches from the Understanding Deep Politics Conference in Santa Cruz last May. These unique nine hour DVDs features, Peter Dale Scot, Michael Parenti, Dahlia Wasfi, Ellen Brown, David Ray Griffin, Annie Machon and others. The talks openly discuss the underlying issues of covert power in the US that had led us into war, conflicts, economic decline, 9/11, election fraud, torture, renditions, and loss of civil liberties. This entire set of DVDs will be offer for a pledge of $120 to support KPFA.

 

Tuesday, February 1 2011   -   9/11 Commission

by Sibel Edmonds
31. January 2011
Sibel Edmonds' Boiling Frogs

The Witnessed & Documented "Kamikaze Pilots" Case

In a public statement issued today (see below), members of the 9/11 Family Steering Committee demanded a prompt response from the former Chairman and Executive Director of the 9/11 Commission regarding Former FBI Language Specialist Behrooz Sarshar's censored testimony to the Commission. The press release was prompted by recently released documents related to the interviews conducted by the 9/11 Commission published at Cryptome.org, in particular the "Memorandum for the Record" containing the Commission's interview with Mr. Sarshar. The memorandum, after establishing Mr. Sarshar's credibility and vaguely referring to his documented and witnessed testimony regarding specific tip(s) provided to the FBI in April and June 2001 regarding planned imminent "Kamikaze Pilots" attacks targeting major cities in the United States, leaves out the entire testimony. This testimony was also entirely left out of the Commission's final report released in July 2004.

Behrooz Sarshar worked as a GS 12 language specialist with Top Secret Clearance at the FBI Washington Field Office. After leaving the FBI in 2002, he provided his testimony on "Kamikaze Pilots" to several Congressional offices and investigators, including staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Committee's leading Democrat at the time, Senator Patrick Leahy, and the Justice Department's Inspector General Office. The congressional sources familiar with Mr. Sarshar's case and briefing found him and his report credible:

 

Tuesday, February 1 2011   -   In the Media

by Elizabeth Woodworth
January 28, 2011
Foreign Policy Journal

A former Princeton international law professor has been condemned by the UN Secretary General and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for alluding to "an apparent cover-up" of the events of September 11^th, 2001.

On January 11, 2011, UN Special Envoy to Palestine Richard Falk posted on his personal blog an article entitled "Interrogating the Arizona Killings from a Safe Distance."[1]

Dr. Falk made a tangential point in his blog-post that governments too often abuse their authority by treating "awkward knowledge as a matter of state secrets".

To illustrate the point, he referred to gaps and contradictions in the official account of the 9/11 attacks, which have been documented in the scholarly works of Dr. David Ray Griffin, a professor emeritus of philosophy of religion and theology.

"What seems most disturbing about the 9/11 controversy is the widespread aversion by government and media to the evidence that suggests, at the very least, the need for an independent investigation that proceeds with no holds barred," wrote Falk.

On January 20^th, executive director Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, a European NGO, called upon UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to condemn the remarks made by Falk, and to fire him, claiming that Falk had "endorsed the conspiracy theory that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. government and not Al Qaeda terrorists." [2]

On January 24^th, in a reply to Hillel Neuer, Vijay Nambiar, Ban Ki-moon's Chief of Staff, responded that the Secretary-General "condemns these remarks. He has repeatedly stated his view that any such suggestion is preposterous ... and an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in the attack."[3]

The US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, called for Falk's removal, stating that "Mr. Falk's comments are despicable and deeply offensive, and I condemn them in the strongest terms." [4]

 

Tuesday, February 1 2011   -   Get Involved

January 31, 2011

TO: Citizens of the World Working for Peace

ACTION NEEDED: Protest the Condemnation of Professor Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.

WHY: Professor Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University, has demonstrated courage in saying that there are "gaps and contradictions" in the official account of 9/11. He has been "condemned" for such conservative statements about 9/11 by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and US Ambassador Susan Rice, and Ambassador Rice has called for his removal from his unpaid post at the U.N.

Professor Falk has been devoted to world peace during his lifetime, and he is arguably the world's most qualified legal scholar in the Palestine-Israel issue in the UN where he is very much needed.

Write as a citizen (not part of a movement) to both U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to let them know you disapprove of their censoring statements to Professor Richard Falk, and that you call for an apology to him.

Five sample letters follow. Please do this as soon as you are able. Time is of the essence. And please forward to your peace and justice contacts and those working for peace for Palestinians and Israelis.

Link to Richard Falk's blog on this issue: http://richardfalk.wordpress.com/?s=9%2F11+gaps&submit=Search

 

Monday, January 31 2011   -   Other Important News

Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OEgnJuqPxQ&

Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb6JQq08oDY

Part Three: http://www.youtube.com/embed/J_OvmdZqA-c

Dr. Falk's article that originally kicked off this matter:

Interrogating the Arizona Killings from a Safe Distance

by Richard Falk
January 13, 2011
Foreign Policy Journal

...The arguments swirling around the 9/11 attacks are emblematic of these issues. What fuels suspicions of conspiracy is the reluctance to address the sort of awkward gaps and contradictions in the official explanations that David Ray Griffin (and other devoted scholars of high integrity) have been documenting in book after book ever since 2001. What may be more distressing than the apparent cover up is the eerie silence of the mainstream media, unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events: an al Qaeda operation with no foreknowledge by government officials. Is this silence a manifestation of fear or cooption, or part of an equally disturbing filter of self-censorship? Whatever it is, the result is the withering away of a participatory citizenry and the erosion of legitimate constitutional government. The forms persist, but the content is missing. ...

 

Monday, January 31 2011   -   Truth Movement News

January 28, 2011
Interview by Cosmos
Civil Disobedience at the White House for 9/11 Justice9/11 Truth News

9/11 Justice activist and researcher Jon Gold has announced his intention to chain himself to the White House fence this coming Monday, January 31. 9/11 Truth News asked Gold a few questions to find out more about the upcoming action.

9/11 Truth News: Why are you going to chain yourself to the White House?

Jon Gold: To try and bring attention to the fact that we were lied to about 9/11 and that there needs to be justice and accountability for what happened. That there are family members still seeking justice for what happened and that the people of the world deserve it. When you take into account what that day has been used for -- and then think about the fact that we don't exactly know what happened that day -- that is an unacceptable situation. People are dying. If that day wasn't what we were led to believe -- and it wasn't -- then the people of the world need to know about it.