Wednesday, January 21 2009   -   Other Important News

During an automatic backup, our server somehow took the site offline, as well as our store website. It was down beginning early this morning, and our volunteer "web guy" was unable to look at it until very late in the afternoon. No doubt he could explain better than I just what happened, but suffice it to say it appears this was nothing nefarious--just a "glitch" the way only a server can glitch... And of course, in keeping with Murphy's Law #1,774,452, it had to happen the day immediately after we sent a fundraising appeal containing links to our donate page! We appreciate your patience, and the kind emails many of you sent to us notifying us of the problem. Links in the email we sent yesterday will now work correctly. Again, thanks for your support and your kind patience. Janice  

Monday, January 19 2009   -   9/11 Precedents

By Sam Greenhill
Last updated at 1:16 AM on 20th December 2008
DailyMail

Her sinking with the loss of almost 1,200 lives caused such outrage that it propelled the U.S. into the First World War.

But now divers have revealed a dark secret about the cargo carried by the Lusitania on its final journey in May 1915.

Munitions they found in the hold suggest that the Germans had been right all along in claiming the ship was carrying war materials and was a legitimate military target.

 

Monday, January 19 2009   -   Resources and Materials

January 10, 2009
Electric Politics Podcast Schedule Resumes January 16

Well, I enjoyed having two weeks off, but I'm glad to get back to podcasting. So here's the starting lineup for the new season. Friday, January 16, my guest is Martin Fletcher of The Times of London (not to be confused with Martin Fletcher of NBC news). Martin is a roving reporter without portfolio and previously the Times' foreign editor, their Washington Bureau Chief, and a foreign correspondent. He talks to me from Israel. The Friday following, January 23, my guest is Dr. James Petras, who's got a lot to say about Zionism in America. After that, I'm not sure -- a couple interviews are pending, on arms control and on the economy. So we'll see... And as I say, I'm glad to be back!

Links follow:
 

Sunday, January 18 2009   -   9/11 Consequences

What Obama Must Do
A Letter to the New President

PAUL KRUGMAN
Jan 14, 2009
Rolling Stone

Dear Mr. President:

Like FDR three-quarters of a century ago, you're taking charge at a moment when all the old certainties have vanished, all the conventional wisdom been proved wrong. We're not living in a world you or anyone else expected to see. Many presidents have to deal with crises, but very few have been forced to deal from Day One with a crisis on the scale America now faces.

So, what should you do?

 

Sunday, January 18 2009   -   Resources and Materials

January 17, 2009

DC 911Truth has produced an attractive new brochure to be distributed at the Obama Inauguration and surrounding events. On the cover, President Obama is asked to "help America learn the truth about 9/11," but the interior is aimed at general audiences who may not be aware of problems with the official account, or who may be quick to dismiss any questions as conspiracy theories.

In a concise and straightforward way, the brochure presents the many facts that challenge the 9/11 Commission Report (including doubts expressed by Co-Chairs Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton themselves), as well as contradictions in the accepted narrative about air defense, the alleged hijackers, the destruction of the World Trade Center, and the anthrax attacks. Only statements that could be verified in mainstream news sources were included and carefully footnoted, so as to maximize the credibility of the piece.

 

Sunday, January 18 2009   -   Other Important News

Sat Jan 17, 2009
By Louis Charbonneau
ReutersUK

BEIRUT, Jan 17 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday he was relieved about an Israeli ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and urged the Jewish state to withdraw all of its troops as soon as possible.

"I am relieved that the Israeli government has decided to cease hostilities as of midnight GMT," Ban told reporters. "This should be the first step leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza," he said, adding that he wanted the withdrawal "as soon as possible".

He said that Hamas militants also needed to do their part to bring an end to the violence by halting their rocket attacks against southern Israel.

"Hamas militants must stop firing rockets now," he said.

 

Saturday, January 17 2009   -   Resources and Materials

January 16, 2009
by Steven Jones

The 116th peer-reviewed paper was published today in the Journal of 9/11 Studies:
"The Missing Jolt: A Simple Refutation of the NIST-Bazant Collapse Hypothesis"
by Prof. Graeme MacQueen and Tony Szamboti. Take a look!
http://journalof911studies.com/volume/2008/TheMissingJolt4.pdf

This fine paper underwent several months of rather arduous peer-review preceding its publication in the Journal of 9/11 Studies. The paper supports work by James Gourley published in the Journal of Engineering Mechanics and recent analysis by David Chandler. A few quotes from the paper should wet your interest:

"In its Final Report on the Collapse of the World Trade Center Towers, the National Institute of Standards and Technology summarizes its three year study and outlines its explanation of the total collapse of WTC 1 and WTC 2.[1] Readers of the report will find that the roughly $20 million expended on this effort have resulted in an explanation of the total collapse of these buildings that is so vague it barely qualifies as a hypothesis. But it does have one crucial feature of a hypothesis: it is, in principle, falsifiable. In fact, it is easy to demonstrate that it is false.

 

Saturday, January 17 2009   -   9/11 Consequences

Agence France-Presse
Published: Saturday January 17, 2009

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A 45-year-old man who died of cancer due to breathing in toxic dust following the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 has become the latest addition to the attacks' overall toll.

Leon Bernard Heyward, 45, died on October 18, 2008 from "lymphoma complicating sarcoidosis," bringing the overall death toll from the attacks to 2,752, the New York City medical examiner's office said.

 

Saturday, January 17 2009   -   Other Important News

"The Government has determined that continued prosecution of this case as to LINDAUER would not be in the interests of justice."*

Michael Collins
"Scoop" Independent News

(Jan. 16, Wash. DC) The Department of Justice entered a motion to drop all charges against Susan Lindauer yesterday morning, Jan. 15, 2009. The filing (see below) at the federal district court in lower Manhattan ends the government's attempt to prosecute her for allegedly acting as an "unregistered agent" for Iraq. Since her arrest in early 2004, she has repeatedly asked for a trial to present evidence that she had been a United States intelligence asset since the early 1990's.

By filing this order, the government surrendered forever its ability to prosecute Lindauer as an "Iraqi foreign agent" and for lesser charges contained in the indictment, including a one week trip to Baghdad in March, 2002.

Lindauer made the following statement today, Jan 16, 2009: "I am disgusted by this case. They think that they have defeated me by denying my day in court. It could not be more wrong. If we can't have a criminal trial, we're going to have a civil trial for damages."

Lindauer was arrested in March, 2004 shortly after offering to testify before a Bush appointed blue ribbon commission evaluating U.S. pre-war intelligence on Iraq. In late February, she informed the offices of two commission members, Sen. McCain (R-AZ) and Trent Lott (R-MS), that she could testify that U.S. pre-war intelligence was proactive and effective, not a popular view at that time.

 

Friday, January 16 2009   -   Get Involved

From US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

Action Alert re. Kucinich's Bill, HR66
January 12th, 2009

Last Friday, the House of Representatives voted 390 yes, 5 no, and 22 present to pass H.Res.34, “recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself” and “reaffirming the United States strong support for Israel.” To see if your Representative cosponsored this resolution, click here.

 

Friday, January 16 2009   -   Other Important News

> Kucinich: UN should investigate Israeli Gaza strikes
> Gaza orgs: Silence is complicity
Appeal, various undersigned -- With the death toll in Gaza growing hourly, silence is complicity. It is imperative for concerned citizens to demand that their governments take immediate action in order to stop Israeli genocide in Gaza.
> Israel Navy ships turn back boat carrying Gaza humanitarian aid
> Patients and refugees evacuated as Al-Quds hospital burns
> White Phosphorous and Dense Inert Metal Explosives: Is Israel Using Banned and Experimental Munitions in Gaza?
> President-elect prepares diplomatic offensive
Right after inauguration, team to be appointed to deal with Middle East troubles

 

Thursday, January 15 2009   -   In the Media

By Clint Hendler
Columbia Journalism Review
January 14, 2009

Advocates for open and transparent government are quick to note that no American presidential administration has, in practice, been enthusiastic about reducing secrecy in the executive branch--for some obvious and sometimes quite legitimate reasons. There are secrets that almost everyone agrees should remain secret. But secrecy must be balanced with the citizens' right to examine the operations of their government--to learn, to improve, to enforce, and sometimes to shame. That's especially true when there are political or bureaucratic incentives for secrecy that deserve far less respect than true matters of national security. And despite the bipartisan resistance from those in power, the arc of history has trended, if unevenly, toward openness. Claims of excessive secrecy have become a tried and true political battering ram, easily wielded by the party in opposition. Technological evolution has not only made the dissemination of information easier and faster, but also has heightened our appetite for disclosure. The trend isn't confined to the political sphere. Betty Ford's frank discussion of her struggles with cancer and alcoholism in the 1970s marked a new era of openness in our personal medical lives, and the invention of the personal video camera spawned a cottage industry around moments--gaffes, goofs, tragedies--that were once private.

 

Thursday, January 15 2009   -   9/11 Consequences

By Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 14, 2009; Page A01

The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, interrogating him with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a "life-threatening condition."

"We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani," said Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in February 2007. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.

Crawford, a retired judge who served as general counsel for the Army during the Reagan administration and as Pentagon inspector general when Dick Cheney was secretary of defense, is the first senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo to publicly state that a detainee was tortured.

 

Thursday, January 15 2009   -   Research/Evidence

Summaries of 9/11 Commission Interviews Released

Kevin Fenton
January 14, 2009
Posted at History Commons Groups

The National Archives today released a set of records the 9/11 Commission gave it. It did so today because the commission told it it had to wait until 2009 to do so, presumably on the off chance that people would have forgotten about it all by then. The records are in two groups, Memorandums for the Record (MFR), which are available online, and other records, which are not available online.

I have been trawling through the ones that are available online and I have learned a few things of interest.

 

Thursday, January 15 2009   -   Research/Evidence

From The National Archives Legislative Branch - The Center for Legislative Archives
January 14, 2009

FAQs on the 9/11 Commission Records

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, known as the 9/11 Commission, was an independent, bipartisan commission created by Congress. The Commission's mandate was to provide a "full and complete accounting" of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and to provide recommendations as to how to prevent such attacks in the future. The Commission, extant from 2003 - 2004, held hearings, conducted interviews, and produced a report.

When the 9/11 Commission closed on August 21, 2004, it transferred legal custody of its records to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The Commission encouraged the release of its records to the fullest extent possible in January 2009. Because the Commission was part of the legislative branch its records are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Approximately 35% of the Commission's archived textual records are now publicly available. Due to the collection's volume and the large percentage of national security classified files, NARA staff was unable to process the entire collection by January 2009. Review and processing focused on the portion of the collection that contains unique documents created by the Commission and those that reveal the most about the scope of the investigation and the internal workings of the Commission and its staff.