Saturday, May 9 2009   -   Research/Evidence

by Prof. Peter Dale Scott
May 8, 2009
GlobalResearch.ca

One of the most frustrating features of observing American foreign policy is to see the gap between the encapsulated thinking of the national security bureaucracy and the sensible unfettered observations of the experts outside. In the case of Afghanistan, outside commentators have called for terminating current specific American policies and tactics – many reminiscent of the US in Vietnam.

Observers decry the use of air strikes to decapitate the Taliban and al Qaeda, usually resulting in the death of other civilians. They counsel against is the insertion of more and more US and other foreign troops, in an effort to secure the safety and allegiance of the population. And they regret the on-going interference in the fragile Afghan political process, in order to secure outcomes desired in Washington.¹

One root source for this gap between official and outside opinion will not be addressed soon – the conduct of crucial decision-making in secrecy, not by those who know the area, but by those skilled enough in bureaucratic politics to have earned the highest security clearances. However it may be more productive to criticize the mindset shared by the decision-makers, and to point out elements of the false consciousness which frames it, and which should be corrigible by common sense.

 

Friday, May 8 2009   -   Accountability

Democrats were routinely briefed on Bush torture techniques, document shows : RawStory.com
The CIA has leaked a devastating document detailing the dates and explicit details of secret Congressional briefings in which members of Congress were told of the Bush administration's torture techniques and when they had been used.

The document is explicit (PDF here). Most damningly, perhaps, is its description of a meeting held between CIA staff and then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss and now-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which shows that Pelosi was briefed on the Bush Administration's torture techniques in 2002 -- even though she's publicly said she was never told about the use of waterboarding.

Equally striking, however, are the volume of the briefings that have been conducted on the CIA's interrogation practices since 2002. The document runs ten pages, with up to four briefings a page.

Pelosi was briefed on waterboarding in 2002, despite saying she wasn't: report: RawStory
ABC News' Rick Klein revealed Thursday evening that a report from the Director of National Intelligence fingered Pelosi as having been briefed in 2002, even though she denied last month ever having knowledge of the Bush administration's so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Holder says he approved Clinton-era renditions: RawStory.com
Under fire from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder revealed that he had approved of rendition -- essentially, legalized kidnapping -- apparently more than once during his tenure as President Bill Clinton's deputy attorney general.

Cautioning Holder that any potential investigation into the Bush administration's torture program could result in Democrats being roped in, "Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Richard Shelby of Alabama pressed Holder on the CIA's 'rendition' program that moved terrorism suspects from one country to another," reported Domenico Montanaro with MSNBC.

 

Friday, May 8 2009   -   Accountability

30 April 2009
By Dennis Loo
WorldCantWait.org

If you ask most people what Obama has done about Guantanamo, most would say, "He shut it down."

Most don't know that Obama has said he might take as much as a year to shut it down.

If you ask most people what Obama has done about torture and rendition, most would say, "He's ended them."

Most don't know that Obama has declared that he will continue rendition, that he reserves the right to go beyond the Army Field Manual for interrogations, and that by not acting affirmatively to ensure otherwise, he has allowed conditions to worsen at Gitmo.

 

Friday, May 8 2009   -   9/11 A/V Galleries

Michael Wolsey
May 6, 2009
(Article revised 11/12/10)

This episode of Visibility 9-11 welcomes John-Michael Talboo and Stewart Bradley of the blog Debunking the Debunkers.

John-Michael is the creator and administrator of 911debunkers.blogspot.com where he and Bradley debunk the "debunkers" of the 9/11 truth movement. He has been a 9/11 activist since late 2004, is a grassroots organizer listed on 911truth.org for the state of Indiana, a member of the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth video team, and a founding member of the central Indiana chapter of the activist organization We Are Change.

Stewart Bradley is an artist, documentary journalist, and political activist living in Lancaster Pennsylvania who runs an independent mulit-media studio. Stewart was already investigating covert government operations before 9/11 and since 9/11 has re-dedicated himself to exposing the public misconceptions behind the attack. In 2004 he wrote and produced a 9/11 docudrama titled "The Proof" and has been actively promoting 9/11 research through his website, blogs, videos, and internet debates. More at: http://bradleyinfotainment.com

 

Thursday, May 7 2009   -   Editorials

Wednesday, May 6, 2009
by George Washington
WashingtonsBlog.com

The main thing keeping us from fixing our problems is our faulty assumption that it would be impossible or take too much effort.

We bite our tongues because we don't have quick and brilliant oratory skills, not knowing that studies show that we simply have to speak our minds to make a difference.

We assume that we don't have the necessary level of barroom-brawl type testosterone, forgetting that courage actually comes from the passion to protect something we love.

 

Thursday, May 7 2009   -   Resources and Materials

The busiest project this week was the Civil Liberties Timeline, which has expanded its chapter on the PROMIS application, reportedly the granddaddy of today's government surveillance software. Claims that the software was distributed to other countries have been disputed, but a 1992 Congressional investigation found two Justice Department memos saying a version of the software was about to be passed to Israel.
Read more

. . . Finally, in the International Relations Timeline, former State Department Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson claims that former Vice President Dick Cheney was manipulating the Bush administration from the outset.
Read more

 

Wednesday, May 6 2009   -   In the Media

May 6, 2009
by Michael Wolsey
Visibility911.com

I am very happy to announce that for the first time in our movement's history, 9/11 Press for Truth will be shown on a mainstream media television station. KBDI Channel 12 in Denver Colorado has just confirmed that they will be showing this groundbreaking film during their upcoming pledge drive on June 3, 2009.

As has been the case in the recent past, Colorado 9-11 Visibility will be there manning the phone banks and expect to get some prime time during this showing to make our plea for a new investigation into the crimes of September 11th, 2001.

. . . Congratulations to the makers of the film, and to the members of Colorado 9-11 Visibility, and BRAVO to KBDI Channel 12 in Denver for having the guts to do what no other television station in this country has done.

 

Wednesday, May 6 2009   -   In the Media

Intellectual Dishonesty In The Age Of Universal Deceit:
a message to the corporate media and our elected officials.

By Daniel Sunjata - May 4, 2009
www.911blogger.com

"The inert masses are mentally and spiritually ill equipped to deal with reality, so they block it out of their minds - aided of course, by the corporate media and the propaganda apparatus of the government itself. This is why fantasy is frequently substituted for reality, plutocracy is mistaken for democracy, and the majority of the people do not know the difference. Millions of good people thus refuse to allow into their psyche the suffering and misery that U.S. policies have produced and exported to the world, even as that reality is closing in upon them." - Charles Sullivan

"They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality...and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening." - George Orwell, 1984

“Article XXXIV OBSTRUCTION OF INVESTIGATION INTO THE ATTACKS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001” - From the 35 articles of impeachment introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on 06/09/08 in H.Res. 1258 by Congressman Dennis Kucinich

 

Wednesday, May 6 2009   -   Fear Factors

by Ken Jenkins
May 1, 2009

How many times has this happened to you? You are explaining to someone some of the rational, logical reasons why the official story of 9/11 can't be true, perhaps explaining how WTC 7 fell in the exact manner of a professionally planned controlled demolition -- a job which would typically take weeks to prepare -- when out comes a 'thought stopper' phrase...

Why So Much Resistance to 9/11 Truth?

Such reactions are emotionally based. 9/11 is a very emotionally charged issue. The source of the denial and resistance is FEAR. The implications of 9/11 Truth are very scary for most people to take in. Given that a part of our government's job description is keeping its citizens safe, it's terrifying to consider that a secret rogue part of our government will do just the opposite -- mass murder those very citizens, in order to advance dark agendas -- like wars for corporate empire. To further consider that associated 'secret teams' would then put out corporate media cover-up stories, in the form of an elaborate fantasy story backed up with planted evidence, and to think that story was nearly universally accepted without question -- this is the stuff of nightmares.

Then there is the difficulty of accepting the self-image shattering realization that we were duped by such cover story lies. 9/11 Truth suggests a very uncomfortable and disturbing worldview, especially to those new to such concepts. The intensity of fear brought up by these vast implications causes defense mechanisms to take over our rational thought processes. Such denial most often overrides rationality.

 

Wednesday, May 6 2009   -   Get Involved

Dear Friends Around the World,

We, the 9/11 Family Members, First Responders and Survivors who make up the Executive Council of the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now, would like to announce our profound dedication to establishing an independent, impartial, subpoena-powered investigation into the events of September 11, 2001. We stand together with you, our fellow citizens, to place this important referendum on the New York City ballot on November 3, 2009.

Each one of us has a different story and a different reason for becoming part of this journey, but we have united for this purpose and this purpose alone: to establish an independent, impartial, subpoena-powered investigation into the events of September 11, 2001.

As 9/11 Family Members, First Responders and Survivors of those tragic moments, our lives were irreversibly devastated. Below, we describe our pain and our quest for closure. We hope you will join us in this quest – it is of paramount importance for our personal and collective healing, and for the betterment of our world.

 

Tuesday, May 5 2009   -   Editorials

The former FBI translator and whistleblower suggests blackmail may be at the heart of Congressional refusal to bring accountability and oversight to its own members - such as both Hastert and Harman - in matters of espionage and national security

Guest Editorial by Sibel Edmonds
May 4, 2009
Exclusive to The BRAD BLOG

I have been known to quote long-dead men in my past writings. Whether eloquently expressed thoughts by our founding fathers, or those artfully expressed by ancient Greek thinkers, these quotes have always done a better job starting or ending my thoughts - that tend to be expressed in long winding sentences. For this piece I am going to break with tradition and start with an appropriate quote from a living current senator, John Kerry: "It's a sad day when you have members of Congress who are literally criminals go undisciplined by their colleagues. No wonder people look at Washington and know this city is broken."

The people do indeed look at Washington and know that this city is 'badly' broken, Senator Kerry. The public confidence in our Congress has been declining drastically. Recent poll results highlight how the American people's trust in their Congress has hit rock bottom. A survey of progressive blogs easily confirms the rage rightfully directed at our Congress for abdicating its role of oversight and accountability. Activists scream about promised hearings that never took place - without explanation. They express outrage when investigations are dropped without any justification. And they genuinely wonder out loud why, especially after they helped secure a major victory for the Democrats. The same Democrats who had for years pointed fingers at their big bad Republican majority colleagues as the main impediment preventing them from fulfilling what was expected of them.

 

Saturday, May 2 2009   -   Civil Liberties-Police State

A new EFF report pulls together everything that's now known about the FBI's monster internal records system.
By Jon Stokes
April 30, 2009
arstechnica.com

Earlier this week, the EFF published a new report detailing the FBI's Investigative Data Warehouse, which appears to be something like a combination of Google and a university's slightly out-of-date custom card catalog with a front-end written for Windows 2000 that uses cartoon icons that some work-study student made in Microsoft Paint. I guess I'm supposed to fear the IDW as an invasion of privacy, and indeed I do, but given the report's description of it and my experiences with the internal-facing software products of large, sprawling, unaccountable bureaucracies, I mostly just fear for our collective safety.

The idea behind the system, which the FBI has been working on since at least 2002, is that the Bureau can dump all of its information in there so that it can be easily searched and shared. IDW contains more documents than the library of congress—a stew of TIFFs with OCRed text, multiple Oracle databases, news streamed in from the Internet, reports and records in various in-house data formats, watch lists, telephone data, and an alphabet soup of smaller databases and records repositories—all accessible as one sprawling system that processes batch jobs, runs queries, and issues alerts.

 

Saturday, May 2 2009   -   9/11 A/V Galleries

On May 2 we will stream the convention from 10AM to about 1:30PM Pacific, then at 4PM we will live stream Richard's talk at the Westin Hotel, before a large group of convention architects. http://www.justin.tv/ae911truth (Also linked at www.AE911truth.org

Thanks again to all our supporters!

 

Thursday, April 30 2009   -   Get Involved

Dear Friends Around The World,

Thanks to your generous support and ongoing efforts to keep 9/11 front and center, NYC CAN eclipsed the milestone of 35,000 signatures on Sunday, April 26, 2009.

We continue to charge ahead collecting hundreds of signatures everyday, but we can only continue with YOUR support.

 

Thursday, April 30 2009   -   Truth Movement News

AE911Truth.org Press Conference/Speaking Engagement Saturday 5/2 at 4pm, Westin Market Street Hotel

Live coverage available via a link at www.ae911truth.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Berkeley, CA, April 25, 2009 -- More than 640 Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth (AE911Truth) are calling for a new, independent investigation into the destruction of the World Trade Center high-rises. These building professionals cite evidence of explosive demolition at all three WTC high-rises on 9/11 and document the evidence at their website. Michael Heimbach, assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division, wrote that their claims and conclusion were "backed by thorough research and analysis."

AE911Truth will host exhibitor's information booth #2609 at this year's annual convention of the prestigious American Institute of Architects (AIA). The convention, with more than 800 exhibitors and more than 20,000 participating architects, will take place in San Francisco's Moscone Center, April 30-May 2.