By Gareth Porter
July 8, 2009
RawStory.com

Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1967, took many secrets with him when he died Monday at 93. But probably no secret was more sensitive politically than the one that would have changed fundamentally the public perception of his role in Vietnam policy had it been become widely known.

The secret was his deliberate deceit of President Lyndon B. Johnson on Aug. 4, 1964 regarding the alleged attack on US warships in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Documents which have been available for decades in the LBJ Library show clearly that McNamara failed to inform Johnson that the U.S. naval task group commander in the Tonkin Gulf, Captain John J. Herrick, had changed his mind about the alleged North Vietnamese torpedo attack on U.S. warships he had reported earlier that day.

By early afternoon Washington time, Herrick had reported to the Commander in Chief Pacific in Honolulu that “freak weather effects” on the ship’s radar had made such an attack questionable. In fact, Herrick was now saying, in a message sent at 1:27 pm Washington time, that no North Vietnamese patrol boats had actually been sighted. Herrick now proposed a “complete evaluation before any further action taken.”

Jon Gold
7/2/2009

Yesterday, something very interesting was reported on. However, before I tell you about it, I have a few things to say. Over the years, I have promoted information regarding the Pakistani ISI's connection to "Al-Qaeda" and "terrorism." I get a lot of flack for this, and am portrayed as someone who wants to see Pakistan and all Muslims killed. I am also portrayed as someone that doesn't want to expose Israel's alleged role in the 9/11 attacks. This is simply not true. Here's an article I wrote about Ray McGovern and Israel on 5/7/2006. I added an introduction to address this issue. Another article I wrote addressed the "I want all Muslims killed" argument. In that I said, "you may have seen me say on occasion that 9/11 was not a Zionist crime, not a Muslim crime, not an American crime, etc... but a crime, and should be treated as such. A horrible crime took place on 9/11. 2,973 people were brutally murdered. When it first happened, our "leaders" told us it was an "act of war." It wasn't. It was a crime. Carried out by men. Those men may have been American. They may have been Saudi Arabian. They may have been Pakistani. They may have been Israeli. They may have been Muslim. They may have been Jewish. They may have been Episcopalian. It doesn't matter. No nationality or religion committed the crimes of 9/11. Men did. Men who should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. If any of the men involved in the 9/11 attacks were apart of any nationality or religion, does that mean you should blame every single person that belongs to that nationality or religion? OF COURSE NOT!" I also think the U.S. should stop immediately with their illegal bombing of Pakistan. Ok, now that I have gotten that out of the way, yesterday's news...

June 28, 2009 (updated July 7, 2009)
by Mark H. Gaffney, Author of The 9/11 Mystery Plane and the Vanishing of America

The evidence was crucial because it undermined the official explanation that Hani Hanjour crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon at high speed after executing an extremely difficult top gun maneuver. But to understand how all of this played out, let us review the case in bite-size pieces...

In August 2004 when the 9/11 Commission completed its official investigation of the September 11, 2001 attack, the commission transfered custody of its voluminous records to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).[1] There, the records remained under lock and key for four and a half years, until last January when NARA released a fraction of the total for public viewing. Each day, more of the released files are scanned and posted on the Internet, making them readily accessible. Although most of the newly-released documents are of little interest, the files I will discuss in this article contain important new information.

As we know, the 9/11 Commission did not begin its work until 2003–––more than a year after the fact. By this time a number of journalists had already done independent research and published articles about various facets of 9/11. Some of this work was of excellent quality. The Washington Post, for example, interviewed aviation experts who stated that the plane allegedly piloted by Hani Hanjour [AA Flight 77] had been flown “with extraordinary skill, making it highly likely that a trained pilot was at the helm.”[2] Yet, strangely, when other journalists investigated Hani Hanjour they found a trail of clues indicating he was a novice pilot, wholly incapable of executing a top gun maneuver and a successful suicide attack in a Boeing 757. By early 2003 this independent research was a matter of public record, which created a serious problem for the 9/11 Commission...

As authors of the recent mainstream scientific articles relating to events at the World Trade Center, we urge you to support a tremendous opportunity for getting the truth out about 9/11.

On Wednesday, June 24, 2009, the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (NYC CAN) filed a petition containing 52,000 signatures calling for a referendum on the creation of a New York City independent commission to begin an investigation with subpoena power. Unlike the first 9/11 Commission, this one will consider all of the evidence, including evidence for the use of explosives in bringing down the buildings.

This is what many of us have been working toward for years. With a new commission, our scientific evidence can be used to achieve real results.

July 8, 2009
Pensacola News Journal

U.S. relations with the Saudi royal family trumped the importance of the 3,000 murders on Sept. 11, 2001. That was the opinion of the U.S. State Department during the Bush years.

The Bush administration made the path as rocky as possible for the families who sued the Saudis. The families' lawsuit showed how the Saudis financed the lunatics who pulled off a mass murder on American soil in September 2001.

Barack Obama has followed that same Bush agenda.

But it took an intellectually lightweight U.S. Supreme Court to really send the important message to the Saudi royal family. That message: "We love your oil and need your money."

So even with the Supreme Court, it was all about our love affair with the Saudis when the court ruled that the families of 9/11 victims were not permitted to sue the royal family.

GAO: Major Security Flaws at Federal Buildings
by Ed O'Keefe
Column: Federal Eye: Keeping Tabs on the Government at Washingtonpost.com

The police agency in charge of protecting thousands of federal buildings nationwide has failed to keep bomb-making materials out of several high-security facilities in the past year, according to Congressional testimony provided by Senate aides. In the past year, investigators successfully smuggled bomb-making materials into ten high-security federal buildings, constructed bombs and walked around the buildings undetected, exposing weaknesses in security provided by the Federal Protective Service.

More than one million government employees work in 9,000 facilities guarded by FPS around the country, including at least 350,000 in the Washington region. The revelations come as the Obama administration prepares to reorganize the agency in the coming weeks.

Editorial

On the eve of the four year anniversary of the brutal bombings that took place on 7 July 2005 taking the lives of 52 innocent Londoners, the capital is silent, its media are neutered, the radio waves are quiet. Did this atrocity even take place? Why are we not talking about the biggest attack on London's security in recent memory?

The BBC ran a documentary on the "conspiracy" behind 7/7 trying to discredit the many theories that are being advocated that the British government may have been involved in the attacks, that Mossad was aware and therefore was able to move Netanyahu and other dignitaries away to safe areas at the time in London.

What is being forgotten here is the crux of the entire build up to the terrorist attacks and the aftermath.

By John Byrne
RawStory.com
July 6, 2009

British weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly was writing an expose about his work with anthrax and his warnings that Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction at the time of his death in July 2003, according to a report published in a British newspaper.

Kelly's death -- said to have been a suicide -- has stirred controversy, as it came on the heels of testimony to the House of Commons about a memo which purported that Britain had "sexed up" a dossier on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction. A Parliamentary inquiry ruled that the death had been suicide, though it also included testimony from a former British ambassador who quotes Kelly as having said, "I will probably be found dead in the woods" if Iraq were invaded.

The new report says Kelly had spoken with an Oxford publisher several times about a book.

"He had several discussions with a publisher in Oxford and was seeking advice on how far he could go without breaking the law on secrets," the UK Daily Express alleged.

Kelly's computers were seized in the wake of his death. He was a signatory to Britain's Official Secrets Act, which allows for the prosecution of those who talk to the press about state secrets and prescribes a more stringent framework for secrecy than in the United States.

CIA analyst Michael Scheuer's recent call for bin Laden to kill more Americans would be shocking if we hadn't already heard it dozens of times before from other "War on Terror" advocates. "It's an absurd situation," Scheuer told FOX News personality Glenn Beck on his program last week. "Only Osama can execute an attack that will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently, and with as much violence as necessary."

The comments have provoked much shock and outrage among pundits and websites like Jon Stewart and NewsHounds who may have considered him to be on their side. After all, he seemed to be a vociferous and effective critic of the neocons, having authored books like Imperial Hubris and having supported Ron Paul during the 2008 Presidential debates by asserting that 9/11 was merely blowback for American interventionism in the Middle East. With his latest comments, Scheuer is now relegated to the ignoble company of neocon shills like Stu Bykofsky of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who dreamed of another terrorist attack back in 2007 to rally people around the flag (and, presumably, George W. Bush) once again; Donald Rumsfeld, who complained in 2006 that the Bush regime was a victim of its own success in the "War on Terror" and that another terrorist attack was needed to remind people that the war was still necessary; and indeed the entire neocon establishment, who in their 2000 white paper Rebuilding America's Defenses called for "a catalyzing event like a new Pearl Harbor" to mobilize the public to get behind their goal of projecting American military influence around the globe for another century. Despite his surprisingly unhelpful attempt to clarify his remarks, Scheuer is now--like all of those who have said that terrorism is needed to bring about political support for their idea--a terrorist himself by very definition.

From DemocracyNow.org: Listen/Watch links here. Fmr. Congressmember Cynthia McKinney Back in U.S. After Being Detained and Deported from Israel - Former Congressmember Cynthia McKinney arrived back in the United States Tuesday following her deportation from Israel. McKinney was one of 21 activists seized by the Israeli military in international waters last week as they tried to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. We speak with McKiney and with filmmaker Adam Shapiro who was detained and deported as well.

Former Congressmember Cynthia McKinney arrived back in the United States Tuesday following her deportation from Israel. McKinney was one of 21 activists seized by the Israeli military in international waters last week as they tried to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Global Research brings to the attention of its readers key articles on the London July 7, 2005 bombings

7/7 Mock Terror Drill: What Relationship to the Real Time Terror Attacks?
- by Michel Chossudovsky - 2005-08-08
A fictional "scenario" of multiple bomb attacks on London's underground took place at exactly the same time as the real bomb attack on July 7, 2005. There have been several documented cases of mock terror drills in the US and the UK, held prior or on the same day as the actual terror event.

London 7/7 Terror Suspect Linked to British Intelligence?
- by Michel Chossudovsky - 2005-08-01
"This is the guy, and what's really embarrassing is that the entire British police are out chasing him, and one wing of the British government, MI6 or the British Secret Service, has been hiding him"

Original story, picked up at 911blogger.com
July 1, 2009

Just another day for Glenn Beck;

"Glenn Beck nods and agrees with his guest Michael Scheuer [Ed.: 22-year CIA employee, "Chief of the Bin Laden Issue Station (aka "Alec Station"), from 1996 to 1999, the Osama bin Laden tracking unit at the Counterterrorist Center. He then worked again as Special Advisor to the Chief of the bin Laden unit from September 2001 to November 2004." (Wikipedia)] that the only way to "save" the US (from illegal immigrants, of course) is for Osama bin Laden to succeed in detonating a weapon on American soil. Scheuer and Beck hit all the conservative buttons, from Mexicans to the mainstream media and the worst of all, Europeans. From the June 30th, 2009 Glenn Beck on Fox News."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auQJVhNH99c

UPDATE 7/5/09

Posted at GreenPartyWatch.org
This breaking news comes via David Josue, a close associate and supporter of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney: Editor

Enver Masud: 9/11, Waterboarding, a Confession and the Iraq War

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62sWJKloSbY

Enver Masud was one of the speakers at a "Demand Accountability for Torture" rally, on June 25, 2009, in John Marshall Park, in Washington, D.C. He questioned how Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was" waterboarded 183 times by the CIA," and then confessed to being the "mastermind of 9/11," can get a "fair trial"in this country. Mr. Masud connected the dots between 9/11, the waterboarding of a detainee, a so-called "confession," and the Iraq War. Mr. Masud is the founder and CEO of "The Wisdom Fund" and the author of "The War on Islam."

Court won't hear Sept. 11 claims vs. Saudi Arabia

June 29, 2009
News.Yahoon.com

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court has refused to allow victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to pursue lawsuits against Saudi Arabia and four of its princes over charitable donations that were allegedly funneled to al-Qaida.

The court, in an order Monday, is leaving in place the ruling of a federal appeals court that the country and the princes are protected by sovereign immunity, which generally means that foreign countries can't be sued in American courts.

The Obama administration had angered some victims and families by urging the justices to pass up the case.

In their appeal, the more than 6,000 plaintiffs said the government's court brief filed in early June was an "apparent effort to appease a sometime ally" just before President Barack Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia.