by Nat Hentoff
December 10, 2008
Village Voice

Since I live in the Village, my Congressman is Jerrold Nadler, a civil libertarian for all seasons. Unlike many of his Democratic colleagues, he has never been in fear of being targeted as "soft on terrorism" for opposing the Bush-Cheney war on the Bill of Rights. Nadler certainly does not underestimate the jihadists: The 9/11 attacks exploded in his district.

In The Almanac of American Politics, Michael Barone describes Nadler's reaction to that day of terror: Securing "$20 billion for the cleanup and eventual rebuilding, he spearheaded numerous actions on behalf of affected families . . ." but "Nadler remained true to his civil libertarian views. He vigorously opposed the USA Patriot Act and the Iraq War Resolution." And since 2007, he has chaired the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties.

... "If the people wish to retain sovereignty, they must also reclaim responsibility for the actions taken in their name. As of yet, they have not. . . . Pursuing the Bush administration for crimes long known to the public may amount to a kind of hypocrisy, but it is a necessary hypocrisy. The alternative, simply doing nothing, not only ratifies torture (among other crimes), it ratifies the failure of the people to control the actions of their government" (emphasis added).

Saturday, 13 December 2008
WorldCantWait.net

"That which you do not resist and mobilize to stop you will learn -- or be forced -- to accept."
From the Call to Drive out the Bush Regime, 2005

Barack Obama is sending a surge of 20,000 troops to Afghanistan.

An anti-war movement that does not move immediately to oppose the Obama doctrine of shifting the central front of the war on terror to Afghanistan, no longer deserves to be called an anti-war movement.

Millions of people voted for Obama because they thought he would end the war. Yet Obama filled his cabinet with Hillary "Obliterate Iran" Clinton, Robert Gates, James Jones and Susan Rice ("a kettle of hawks," said Jeremy Scahill).

December 13, 2008
by Cindy Sheehan

Cuba is struggling economically because there are limits to what a tiny island nation can do, especially when the mightiest nation on this planet sits menacingly to the north and has maintained a blockade against trade and travel for many decades. The nation of Cuba is struggling economically, but since they have been able to survive (not quite thrive) after all this time gives the citizens of Cuba a rightful pride and sense of unity that is not so apparent in The Empire that has tried to crush them.

December 2, 2008
dNotice.org

In this supplement to The NORAD Papers, I shine the spotlight on The 9/11 Commission Report's assessment of NORAD in relation to the defense organization's "air sovereignty" mission on 9/11. To accomplish this task, I compare the report's view of NORAD's air sovereignty capabilities before and on 9/11 with that of the historical record as provided by articles published before September 11, 2001.

The 9/11 Commission Report is correct when it affirms that, "NORAD is a binational command established in 1958 between the United States and Canada. Its mission was, and is, to defend the airspace of North America and protect the continent. That mission does not distinguish between internal and external threats...;"¹ The report becomes addled however when it explains NORAD's seemingly poor performance on 9/11, "...;but because NORAD was created to counter the Soviet threat, it came to define its job as defending against external attacks [see Addendum]."²

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.

December 10, 2008
by Jon Gold

[Jon's comments at "Read More."]

December 10, 2008
By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK -- Two dozen family members of Sept. 11 victims signed a letter Wednesday saying they don't believe in the fairness of the military trials of five men charged with orchestrating the terrorist attacks, and some suggested their opinions cost them attendance at the proceedings.

While the family members who attended this week's proceedings at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba expressed support for the tribunals, they also said "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," according to the letter released by the American Civil Liberties Union.

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA November 28, 2008 -- After recent theatrical runs of his narrative feature film ABLE DANGER in New York and Los Angeles, Lower Merion, Penn., native Dave Herman (aka Paul Krik) will screen his film for the first time for two nights only in the Philadelphia area on December 17 at Bryn Mawr Film Institute at 7:30pm and December 18 at the Wayne Theater at 5:00pm, 7:00pm, and 9:11pm presented by 9 /11 (And Beyond) Documentaries.

Herman is a class of 1986 graduate of Lower Merion High School, which coincidentally happens to be the neighboring Congressional District of U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon who brought the real "Able Danger" before Senatorial hearings and exposed the 9/11 whistle blowers. Sander Hicks, whose book The Big Wedding: 9/11, The Whistle Blowers & The Cover Up is seen in the film ABLE DANGER, will appear for a Q&A after the 9:11pm screening on Dec. 18.

December 8, 2008
by Carol Brouillet
CommunityCurrency.org

Sixty-seven years ago, on Sunday, December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, killing over two thousand people and wounding over a thousand. The attack enabled FDR to enter World War II, and prompted huge numbers of Americans to volunteer for military service. In the book
Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor (2000), Robert Stinnett unveiled a memo outlining an 8 point plan to provoke Japan into attacking the US.

Admiral Kimmel, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, was removed from office and demoted, taking the blame for the losses at Pearl Harbor soon after the attacks. Researchers over the course of many years believe that critical information was withheld from Kimmel and that he was unjustly punished. One of those researchers was his grandson, Manning Kimmel IV, who persuaded the U.S. Senate in 1999 to pass a nonbinding resolution exonerating Admiral Kimmel and Army Lieutenant General Short.

December 10, 2008

Another day, another non-denial denial that Bush is planning midnight preemptive blanket pardons for his entire gang, including himself. In an article in the New York Times the other day, current attorney general Mukasey is quoted as asserting it would not be "necessary". Please take careful note he did not say it wouldn't happen, because unless we speak out now it WILL.

The best shot we have is H.Res. 1531 which puts the administration on clear notice that there will be strong push back from Congress if they attempt such a scurrilous stunt. Please submit this action page to ask your House member to sign on as a co-sponsor of this measure.

Support H.Res. 1531 Action Page: http://www.usalone.com/hres1531.php

Wednesday, 10 December 2008
by Michael Collins

Michael Collins
"Scoop" Independent News

(Wash. DC) The prospect of the criminal in chief, George W. Bush, issuing pardons to his co-conspirators is repugnant to all citizens who've paid any degree of attention over the last eight years.

He neglected his duty prior to 911 resulting in a devastating attack on the nation.

He started an illegal war based on lies that caused injury and death to tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers and the deaths of over 1.2 million Iraqi civilians. ...

In a stinging note of support for the laid off workers that have taken up residency in Chicago's Republic Windows & Doors factory, the Governor of Illinois has suspended business with Bank of America until it reissues credit to the shuttered company.

Bank of America cut off credit to Republic Windows & Doors company last week, and workers, demanding severance pay, began staging sit-ins, effectively taking control of the building.

The governor's bold move comes immediately after President-elect Obama, himself a Chicago native, expressed sympathy for and agreement with the worker's plight and resulting actions.

“When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right,” said Obama during a Sunday news conference. “What’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy."

By Paul Craig Roberts
December 05, 2008
Information Clearinghouse

The US government does not have a monopoly on hypocrisy, but no other government can match the hypocrisy of the US government.

It is now well documented and known all over the world that the US government tortured detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and that the US government has had people kidnaped and "rendentioned," that is, transported to third world countries, such as Egypt, to be tortured.

Also documented and well known is the fact that the US Department of Justice provided written memos justifying the torture of detainees. One torture advocate who wrote the DOJ memos that gave the green light to the Bush regime's use of torture is John Yoo, a Vietnamese immigrant who somehow secured a US Justice Department appointment and a tenured professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. John Yoo is the best case against immigration that I know.

Members of Berkeley's city council believe that Yoo should be charged with war crimes. The US government has charged lesser offenders than Yoo with war crimes. Yoo helped the DOJ achieve the Bush regime's goal of finding a way around the torture prohibitions of both US statutory law and the Geneva Conventions.

by Michael Parenti
December 7, 2008
GlobalResearch.com

Barack Obama is on record as advocating a military escalation in Afghanistan. Before sinking any deeper into that quagmire, we might do well to learn something about recent Afghan history and the role played by the United States.

Less than a month after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, US leaders began an all-out aerial assault upon Afghanistan, the country purportedly harboring Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist organization. More than twenty years earlier, in 1980, the United States intervened to stop a Soviet "invasion" of that country. Even some leading progressive writers, who normally take a more critical view of US policy abroad, treated the US intervention against the Soviet-supported government as "a good thing." The actual story is not such a good thing.

Some Real History ...

On October 27, 2008, WeAreChangeLA's Jeremy Rothe-Kushel was on hand to cover an event with William Bratton, the Chief of the LAPD. Bratton was at a Townhall LA event at the Omni Hotel in Downtown LA to give a talk entitled "Crime and Your Bottom Line." Although Bratton was there to focus on the future of the LAPD in relationship to development and crime-prevention, there was still a media buzz humming about an article Bratton had penned a week earlier with 'terrorism expert' R.P. Eddy in the NY Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2008/10/21/2008-10-21_osama_bin_lade...