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Editorial: Kurt Sonnenfeld - FEMA's WhistleBlower?

Joe Quinn
Signs of the Times
13/09/2006

Kurt Sonnenfeld (right) at 'Ground Zero'
As a contract employee for FEMA's Colorado regional branch, 35 year old Kurt Sonnenfeld was dispatched to videotape and photograph the rescue and recovery effort at ground zero in the weeks after the 9/11 attacks. There was no restriction on what Sonnenfeld could film and no documents were signed by him that passed ownership of the footage to FEMA. According to the TVtechnology website, Sonnenfeld was FEMA’s Denver-based Region 8 Public Affairs Officer and he worked the site as one of only four FEMA photographers along with FEMA's Denver-based Region 8 Deputy Public Affairs officer Jim Chestnutt.

Sonnenfeld's accomplishments include:

At about 1.40 am on the morning of January 1st 2002, police officers answered a possible suicide call from the Sonnenfeld's home in LoDo Colorado. The police were forced to break a window to enter the house because, according to Sonnenfeld, he couldn't open the door because he didn't have the keys. "I even helped them in by moving furniture" Sonnenfeld stated.

Police found Nancy Sonnenfeld on a chaise lounge in the bedroom with a gunshot wound to her head. Friends and family attested to a failing marriage and Kurt Sonnenfeld's drug habit (heroin) as the cause, and police claimed that they knew that Nancy Sonnenfeld planned to leave her husband because she had found him using heroin and sleeping with other women during a trip to Thailand in November 2001. "It's hard to believe," said Nancy's Sonnenfeld's father, Bill Campbell. "We don't hate Kurt. He was a wonderful guy and they had a wonderful marriage for 10 years. I know he loved our Nancy. We knew they were beginning to have problems, but we absolutely don't know what happened that night." Nancy Sonnenfeld's mother however said she never believed that her daughter killed herself: "I'm glad I've had the time to get over all of this because now I can face it," Eleanor Campbell said. "We loved Kurt. But he was not the same Kurt we used to know. In any case, for some as yet unknown reason, Denver police were disinclined to believe that they were dealing with a case of suicide and took Sonnenfeld into custody where he remained for several months awaiting trial.

On June 14th 2002, one day before the trial date, Deputy District Attorney Michelle Ann Amico dismissed first-degree murder charges against Sonnenfeld apparently on the basis of a suicide note written by Nancy Sonnenfeld which police had not taken into evidence. Public defender Carrie Thompson stated: "Our investigators found a letter written in Nancy's own hand consistent with a suicide letter, although it was very cryptic," The letter said, "What is more beautiful than love and death?" with the word "love" scratched out. "Kurt, please get help." The letter was found behind a framed photograph of Kurt Sonnenfeld. Nancy Sonnenfeld's sister, Amy Leek, said the family knew this was coming but would have no comment on the news. Nancy's Sonnenfeld's father, Bill Campbell. stated: "It's hard to believe, we don't hate Kurt. He was a wonderful guy and they had a wonderful marriage for 10 years. I know he loved our Nancy. We knew they were beginning to have problems, but we absolutely don't know what happened that night."

According to Sonnenfeld, police abused him during his stay in prison. "Police beat me and at the precinct one of them suffocated me and another forced me to inhale something I think may have been pepper. I was kept in solitary confinement with no water and no windows. The toilet was a hole in the middle of the floor. It had to be flushed from outside. They flushed it often for fun, as that flooded the room." Sonnenfeld also claimed that police hid and tampered with evidence, ignored the suicide note and dismissed his request for a polygraph test. "Police started lying to hide my injuries suffered during three beatings in jail. They said my wife was shot in the back of the head or in her chest. There is clear evidence that she shot herself behind the temple. Paraffin tests showed residue of gunpowder in her hand and none on mine and the gun had her fingerprints and not mine" stated Sonnenfeld. He accused one named Denver detective of seeking to destroy his reputation and feeding the press false information, adding that the detective had contradicted assertions that he made during an earlier court hearing.

After his release in 2002, Sonnenfeld filed a law suit against the police for $20 million for false arrest, false imprisonment, deprivation of civil rights, and brutality. On arriving home from prison Sonnenfeld claims that his computer was missing and he began to be harassed in various ways; light bulbs at his home would be found unscrewed, locks unlocked, and he would be followed and photographed despite taking refuge at friends' homes in other cities and states.

During the period after his release in June 2002, Sonnenfeld claims that federal authorities asked a co-worker (at ground zero) about the tapes he had made of the wreckage of the WTC site and that the co-worker stated that he believed that Sonnenfeld had handed them over to the authorities in New York. In reality, Sonnenfeld claims that he had stored them in a make-up box in a closet.

In February 2003, Sonnenfeld traveled to the Argentine coastal city of San Bernardo staying in the apartment of the uncle of a friend, where he met his current wife Paula who he married three months later in April 2003. Since then Sonnenfeld has claimed that the harassment continued in Argentina claiming in a October 2005 article in the Buenos Aires Herald that he and his wife are followed and photographed To support these assertions, Sonnenfeld provided pictures showing a man allegedly taking pictures of him in Puerto Madero. He also provided a picture of a message sent to his cell phone that read, “Watch what you are doing.” and signed “any,” which his wife Paula takes for “anybody.”

After moving to Argentina, Sonnenfeld had the make-up box containing video evidence from ground zero shipped to him along with other possessions. At the end of July 2004, he and his wife went to the American embassy in Buenos Aires to enquire about a visa for his wife to travel to the US. Sonnenfeld and his wife claim that Paula was treated "cruelly" by embassy staff. Since moving to Argentina, Sonnenfeld has worked as a TV producer and participated as an actor in a Burger King TV advertisement that was aired in the US. Sonnenfeld claims that he offered Twin Towers footage to several local Argentine TV programs for the third anniversary of the attack, but nothing that he had not shown to other media before.

In September 2004, US prosecutors filed new charges against Sonnenfeld over his first wife's death stating that new information had come to light based mainly on the testimony of two men who had shared the same cell as Sonnenfeld in 2002. According to reports, one month after Sonnenfeld was released, former cell-mate Robert Dryer said that Sonnenfeld had told him how he shot his wife behind the ear and put her finger on the gun’s trigger as he pulled it himself. Another former inmate, Damian Whitehead, said he and Sonnenfeld met after they were released from jail. According to him, Sonnenfeld said he killed his wife and that he couldn’t bear to have her leave him. Sonnenfeld told the Buenos Aires Herald: "In August 2004, I delivered some demo to a TV producer. A week later, on August 31, Interpol arrested me. I find that extremely coincidental. A month before, I had gone to the embassy.

Sonnenfeld spent seven months in Villa Devoto prison in Buenos Aires pending a US extradition request after the refiling of charges of first-degree murder by the US government that he dismisses as groundless. He shows a copy of a US Embassy extradition request dated August 13, 2004, that reads, “The ensuing investigation has established that Mr Sonnenfeld killed her.” But Sonnenfeld argues, “That is prejudging and reviving the same lies that had been already dismissed. The Argentine judge dealing with the extradition request, Daniel Rafecas, finally rejected it on the grounds that Sonnenfeld has sought asylum in Argentina and that the US government has not provided sufficient guarantees that Sonnenfeld will not face the death penalty if extradited. In response, the US government appealed the ruling and the decision now rests in the hands of the Argentine Supreme Court. Sonnenfeld has appealed to various humanitarian organisations including the Human Rights Commission of the Argentine parliament where, on Tuesday 12th September 2006, discussions began on whether or not to provide Sonnenfeld with political asylum. Part of the discussions will include proposals to deal with limiting the scope of the actions on Argentine soil of agents of the intelligence agencies of other nations, a point which was raised as a result of Sonnenfeld's testimony about his harassment since arriving in Argentina.

In an interview with Argentine daily newspaper el Pais on September 10th 2006, Sonnenfeld, now 41, stated that the fact that he continued to be harassed even after he moved to Argentina led him to begin to understand that the core of the problem was the tapes he had made at ground zero: "At that point I realised that they were after something else: the tapes of ground zero in my possession."

"In faltering Spanish and with the help of his wife Paula, Kurt answers each question with abundant documentation. He produces papers, signed by the Deputy District Attorney, which show that he was finally cleared as the author of his first wife's murder. He offers copies of American newspaper articles in which the Denver police are denounced for having dismissed evidence that his wife committed "suicide", and the police photos of his bruised face, evidence, he says, of police brutality. Sonnenfeld also makes reference to the testimony of the two prisoners who, in exchange for a reduction in their sentences, swore to the same police that I accused of torture, that I had confessed to the murder of my wife" The testimonies reopened the case and dismissed my suit against the Denver police. Sonnenfeld displays documents to show that he never attempted to hide his identity and even presented himself to the US embassy in an effort to return to the US with his new wife, an act which, two weeks later, led to his arrest and the serving of an extradition warrant.

- What exactly was he able to document at the WTC site?

I was the only person, with camera in hand, with total and absolute access to any area of Ground Zero and the WTC. Any other cameras that were within that area would have been confiscated and the the person carrying them arrested.

- But what exactly are in these images of yours that could contradict the official US government version of events on 9/11?

What I saw at certain moments and in certain places...is very frightening, I don't know who to put it in words, what I saw leads me to the terrible conclusion that there was foreknowledge of what was going to happen. The precautions that were taken to save certain things that the authorities there considered irreplaceable or invaluable. For example, certain things were missing that could only have been removed with a truck, yet after the first plane hit one of the towers, everything in manhattan collapsed and no one could have gotten near the towers to do that.

- What things were removed?

Several offices of the US intelligence agencies were located in the WTC, including the second most important CIA building in the country. From some of these locations certain documentation that was irreplaceable was removed. I don't want to give too many details because our future, our lives, depend on this. The information of which I speak is already distributed in several places."

On February 23rd 2006, Sonnenfeld displayed a selection of his photographs from Ground Zero at the La Bohéme Salón gallery in Buenos Aires. The Buenos Aires Herald reported:

A fireman works amid the debris of Ground Zero just hours after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack that razed the Twin Towers in New York, as pictured by US citizen Kurt Sonnenfeld, who claims to be the only videographer given full access by the US government to record rescue works. An exhibit of 28 Ground Zero pictures taken by Sonnenfeld and never shown before opened yesterday for about a month. The United States has requested that Argentina extradite Sonnenfeld on charges that in 2002 he killed his first wife and the case is in the hands of Argentina’s Supreme Court of Justice. Sonnenfeld, 43, claims that she took her own life. He was detained for several months in Denver, Colorado, and one day before a trial was due to start a judge dismissed the charges and he was released in June 2002.

He publicly accused US police of torturing and persecuting him. In February 2003, he came for a month’s holiday in Argentina, where he married an Argentine citizen Paula. The pictures he is now exhibiting came to Buenos Aires in a make-up box, hidden in his furniture. Asked by the Herald in an interview last October whether he thought that the alleged persecution was linked to his work as a videographer, he simply said, “The US authorities are trying to extradite me under false pretenses.”

Case closed? What seems obvious is the fact that, if Sonnenfeld really does have evidence to prove a government conspiracy on 9/11, he knew about it within a few weeks of the attacks themselves. It is also reasonable to suggest that he is (or was on 9/11) an employee of one of the intelligence agencies involved in the perpetration of the attacks since it is unlikely that the one of the only photographers allowed into Ground Zero to document the evidence would have been just an average Joe. The questions that remain then concern the reality of all that has happened since. That Sonnenfeld was in his house on the morning of January 1st 2002 when his first wife died from a gunshot wound seems beyond dispute. That within a year of his somewhat miraculous release from prison in 2002 he moved to Argentina, quickly remarried, and is now the subject of an extradition warrant by the US government is also clear, along with the fact that the Argentine government seems reluctant to hand him over.

If we are to believe his claims, we can assume that Sonnenfeld has not yet released all of the evidence in his possession of a government conspiracy on 9/11 and is perhaps waiting on the most opportune moment to do so. If he is guilty of murdering his wife and is using the "evidence of conspiracy" that he possesses to ensure his continuing liberty, then his evidence may never be released. If however he is innocent of the murder and is being harassed with a trumped up charge precisely because he has evidence of a 9/11 government conspiracy, then it would seem sensible for him to release the details at some point in the near future. Whatever the case, the saga of Kurt Sonnenfeld appears to be but one more detail in the sordid tale that has been the US government's continuing attempts to distort and cover up the massive and growing evidence that the 9/11 attacks were undeniably the work of elements of the US government itself.

Notes:

www.tvtechnology.com/...

cbs4denver.com/...

ar.news.yahoo.com/...

www.rockymountainnews.com/...

www.rockypreps.com/...

www.thedailycamera.com/...

www.infobae.com/...

www.buenosairesherald.com/...

www.buenosairesherald.com/...

www.buenosairesherald.com/...

www.pagina12.com.ar/...


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Editorial: A Pathocrat Speaks His Mind

Henry See
13 September 2006
Signs of the Times

It is our hypothesis, backed by the work of Andrew Lobaczewski and our own research, that the people in power on our planet have plans to kill off a large portion of the world's population. The psychopaths, those human-looking predators without conscience, have no love for the rest of humanity. It is a life and death struggle between them and us because they know that if the true nature of their existence as humanity's natural predator ever come to light, they would lose everything.

Every once in awhile, their real aims slip through the filters and appear in the media. It may be because the media itself has been subjected to the process of ponerization for so long that statements such as those below no longer register to the journalists and editors who manage the news as the vile, hateful words that they are.

In this case, CNN had the kindness to report on some honest, but no less frightening for that, words spoken by US Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne:
Air Force chief: Test weapons on testy U.S. mobs

POSTED: 7:56 p.m. EDT, September 12, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.

The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne.

"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," said Wynne. "(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press."

The Air Force has paid for research into nonlethal weapons, but he said the service is unlikely to spend more money on development until injury problems are reviewed by medical experts and resolved.

Nonlethal weapons generally can weaken people if they are hit with the beam. Some of the weapons can emit short, intense energy pulses that also can be effective in disabling some electronic devices.
The cold-blooded, ruthless, and arrogant nature of our rulers is beautifully captured in his words. Especially the phrase, "If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation".

Following Wynne's logic, one might also conclude that the interrogation techniques practised in the secret, and not-so-secret, US detention centres around the globe are also worthy of use in the United States and on citizens of the United States. But did you have any doubts on that score? Remember, you are either "with us or against us", you either support the phoney "war on terror" or you support the "terrorists".

It isn't a joke.

Your lives, as well as the world your children will inherit, depend upon how you react to such brazen violence and hatred as shown in Wynne's comments, and as is demonstrated in the war on ordinary people waged against us every day.
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Editorial: Two Axioms of 9/11

Manuel Valenzuela
Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Axiom One: November Fears

With government and corporate media propaganda echoing the traumatic memories of five years ago, from sea to shining sea, enveloping the airwaves and print media of the nation with a clenched fist of wall to wall coverage, Americans have again been bombarded with the exploitation of the mass murder of 3,000 human beings, their death once more serving the political interests of the Bush cabal as well as the financial concerns of the corporate Leviathan. The War on the American People - that psychological operation against our minds and emotions that began with the demolition of the World Trade Center and has continued unabatedly for five consecutive years - has been reinvented and redeployed, its army of lackey journalists, talking heads, government institutions and authoritarian politicians eager to spread the language and images needed to resurrect emotions and feelings, spreading the filth designed to manipulate our fears and hatreds, conditioning us into accepting the dictates of the state and the corporation along with the reality of a world of perpetual war and perpetual terror.

Once more we are being reminded, at the expediency of those in power, and just in case we had begun to forget, that fear is bravery, war is peace, authoritarianism is freedom, dissent is treasonous and a police state is security. Only those truly responsible for perpetrating the events of 9/11, we are made to believe, those lurking behind the smoke, mirrors and purple curtains of the state, can save and defend us from dark-skinned bogeymen of Arab/Muslim lineage that hate us for our freedoms and way of life. Only the fascists in power, we are told, care about preserving and protecting our freedoms, rights, liberties and democracy even as it is they, and not the barbarians at the gates, that are eroding and destroying each with every new day that passes, taking away what the evil terrorist cannot accomplish. It is the dreaded terrorist - of course always Arab in ethnicity or Muslim in faith - we are told by the deciders and the fascists, that roams like a giant cloud of death, hovering above the lands of America, wanting nothing more than to kill us and our children. However, it is the state and its propaganda machine that does not relent in its campaign at frightening and terrorizing the American people, as if it, and not the enemy, is the real terrorist, scaring families, creating stresses and causing insecurity among the masses.

The new blitzkrieg of propaganda and of mental manipulation is an exercise in the further destabilization of already fragile minds and the conditioning of increased fear of those individuals who have begun to forget and heal from the wounds 9/11 inflicted upon the populace. Those in power have taken notice that their scare tactics upon the American people are not as effective as in years previous, and are therefore using the new wave of fear and terror mongering to impose the invisible hand of control - of both thought and action - upon an unsuspecting citizenry, in essence enforcing once again the clandestine iron chain that served to make subservient the minds of hundreds of millions of people in the years after 9/11 that enabled both for one-party dominance along with authoritarian rule, now prevalent in the upper echelons of governance. It is the use of fear and terror, after all, that has propelled the new American fascists to complete dominion over the state, with unfettered power over its institutions, its foundations and its citizenry. It is fear, therefore, that has become the fascist party strategy with terror, its mantra. The only thing they have to offer in the 2006 election year is fear itself.

It has therefore been decided, both by gatekeepers and the Establishment, that the events that left hundreds of millions of people deeply scarred and psychologically fragile must once again be refreshed for all to relive, their remembrance made to resurface from our inner minds so that an entire nation can again be shaped into order and obedience, its collective psyche once more manipulated and controlled by the events, images and sounds that even five years later, still resound with deep disturbance inside the psyche of the masses. It is the horrors of the WTC, more than anything else, that exposed the home of the brave as the culture of cowardice, a people once fearless now made to cower and shake in perpetual fear and insecurity at an enemy concocted, manufactured and marketed by the state and its corporate fear mongers.

Indeed, the toxicity of 9/11 has produced a collective trauma that has made the home of the brave the largest laboratory of Pavlovian dogs in the world, with its manipulated feelings and emotions becoming the bells and whistles we automatically and reflexively gravitate towards, our minds becoming the glands salivating with fear and terror at either the sound or image of anything resembling that terrible day. The blitzkrieg has been relentless and omnipresent, with a barrage of presidential speeches, ceremonies and bully-pulpit distortions and deceptions attacking the airwaves, with executive branch appearances, lies and manipulations allowed to fester in print and camera, with a corporate media once more granting free reign to the dissemination of falsity and blatant propaganda, its journalists acting like the presstitutes they are, once more showing that corporate media is comprised of nothing but political hacks, media shills and corporate lackeys, to the fictitious Hollywood produced movies and docu-dramas serving to propagate the deceptions and propaganda of the Bush cabal. The corporate world, using its vast arsenal of media tools, and in conjunction with the fascist party, will do whatever it can to assure itself of retaining in power the party already at the controls of governance.

Thus, in order to maintain authoritarian rule, along with one-party control, after the important mid-term elections coming up in November, Republicans, now nothing more than full-fledged fascists availing themselves free of the closet of charades and mirages, with the help of the corporate media, have begun to instill in our minds the previously successful fear-mongering campaign of terror, knowing that fear is the one ace in their pocket that has yet to betray them, knowing that it has been their platform based on fear that has kept them in power. Like a magic charm, the mere mention and methodical repetition of 9/11 and its memories has, without fail, served to hypnotize millions of fear stricken citizens to the dictates of authoritarian rule, creating a voting block of ignorant and cowardly creatures that elects to power a fascist party that promises protection and security from terror at the expense of civil rights and liberties.

The fascist party is thus hoping this past success will again work its magic, in an election that is as much a referendum on Iraq as anything else. It will be fear and terror propelled throughout the airwaves and the print media, with bogeymen lurking behind every corner, under every shadow, ready to murder and terrorize. For the next several months the Fear and Terror Show will hit the television, showcasing the latest terror threat that, thanks to the fascist party, was thwarted at the last second, helping to prove, yet again, that it is they alone who can protect and defend you from the evildoers. The Fear and Terror Show will have as hero our very own George W. Bush, decider extraordinaire, Commander in Chief of the Free World, conduit to the Almighty itself, stumping around the nation delivering the same old regurgitated speech, using fancy words and scaremongering tactics, telling us how much danger America is, and how he and his party are the only ones able to protect us. He will stumble and bumble his way through speech after speech, trying to prove to us why Iraq deserved to be invaded, occupied and its society pulverized, trying unsuccessfully, yet again, to correlate Iraq with the so-called war on terror, trying to validate the greatest strategic disaster in the history of the nation.

The desperation of the fascist party can be seen in the level of fear and propaganda it has begun to generate. Its leaders are fully aware that the nation has finally escaped from underneath the clouds of 9/11, most of it thanks to the disaster in Iraq, and that the population is highly dissatisfied with the direction the nation is headed in. The fascist leadership knows that its party is in trouble in November, which is why the barrage of fear mongering and terror tactics will be as relentless as it will be systematic. They have smelled and enjoyed one party rule, along with its many benefits, for six years, and addicted they have become to power, greed and control. The smear campaign against opponents will thus be twice as devastating, for fascists, like wild beasts, will fight tooth and nail when cornered. They, along with Bush and Cheney, know that if they were to lose the House of Representatives, perhaps even the Senate as well, to the anemic, lesser of two evils opposition party, the last two years of the Bush administration will involve a myriad number of investigations, scandals, revelations and calls for impeachment. For all intents and purposes, the Bush presidency will have ended, creating a lame duck executive having little power and much to answer for. If they were to lose the mid-term election, they could be mired in an endless seam of scandals that could implode the party from within. It is for these aforementioned reasons that the fascist party will use everything at its disposal to retain power, no matter the consequences, no matter the immorality. This is an extremely dangerous party in an extremely ominous time in American history.

Naturally, when the entire success of those in power relies on the use of fear as a political tool, or the use and marketing of ambiguous bogeymen as enemies becomes the paramount reason for their continued control, fear itself will be multiplied and expanded, its parameters greatly increased, as we are seeing today, to a degree where the people of the nation are again made to vote and elect the fascist party, against their own interests, based on fragile emotions, damaged psyches and by consequence, unthinking minds. Fear, in the years after 9/11, has, along with the manipulation of terror, become the ultimate manipulative tool, a political emerald for the most immoral and unscrupulous operatives today.

Its use, manipulation and repetition are guaranteed to deliver to the fascist party millions upon millions of votes come election time, regardless of what the other party attempts to do, for today in America there exists a corrosive cocktail of ignorance, cowardice, xenophobia, nationalism and blind loyalty to the state by large segments of the populace that would rather see their civil rights, liberties and freedoms expire than be forced to confront the fictional wickedness of the dreaded Arab bogeyman the state and its Department of Propaganda conjure up.

To millions of individuals, the party in power at the time 9/11 took place will for years be - because of psychological manipulation and human nature - the party of protection, defense, national security the one best suited to win the so-called war on terror, regardless of the fact that it has been the fascist party itself that has made their country, their world, their families and themselves less safe, not more, due to the debacle in Iraq, the biggest strategic disaster in American foreign policy history, and by its catastrophic Middle East policy, especially in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian problem, which only continues to endanger America and the world.

Since 9/11 the Democratic Party, now a center-right, corporate first, political organization, has had to fight an uphill battle against the cratered psychology of the masses. The fascist party has done a successful job of portraying the Democrats as weak on national security and defense of the homeland, marketing it as a party anemic and incapable of protecting the American people. Accordingly, the Democrats, for years with no real power in Washington to speak of, have gotten trampled left and right by the party in power, becoming a party unable to shed its tarnished image, an anorexic minority unable to penetrate the thick fortifications set up by the fascist party. It has tried unsuccessfully to reinvent itself, catering to the new right-of-center reality in America, a tectonic shift caused by the events of 9/11 that triggered the nation's political pulse to beat more conservatively. Since 9/11 the Democrats, at least the powerful, corporate elements, have remarketed themselves as war mongers, in favor of the occupation of Iraq, in agreement with the war on terror. They have pretended to inject themselves with fascist growth hormone in hopes of attracting some of the 59 million Americans who voted for Bush in 2004. In short, they have become what the Republican Party used to be before flirting with authoritarianism: conservative.

Fortunately for Democrats, and thanks to nobody but the Bush administration, come November they have an excellent shot at retaking one or both houses of Congress. For while it was 9/11, along with Diebold electronic voting machines, that stampeded the fascist party into unrivaled power, it would be Iraq, the Bush administration's arrogant mistake, a disaster unrivaled in history, that would offer oxygen to the drowning minority party.

Because it was not the party in power at the time of 9/11, lacking the visible reign and loudspeaker power of the presidential bully pulpit, along with being relegated being the minority party in both houses of Congress, the Democratic Party has had to scratch and claw out of the memory hole of obscurity, condemned to premature burial by the earthquake called 9/11. For it was 9/11, an enormous gift to the Bush administration, more than any creative genius by strategists of the fascist regime, that has been the primary catalyst that has stifled Democratic opposition for almost six years. Politically, 9/11 changed everything and it basically guaranteed Bush the 2004 mid term elections as well as the 2004 presidential elections. It was only through his incompetence and idiocy that the 2004 election, a virtual lock with any other incumbent at the helm during 9/11, was so close to begin with, and indeed had to be tampered and compromised in Ohio to guarantee victory.

Without the power of the executive, with negligent control of the government, without the favor of the corporate media, the Democrats have been impotent to alter the course of America or to affect governance. Only the passage of time and the healing of fragile psyches, along with the extraordinary and historical incompetence, corruption, and hubris of the fascist party in power have allowed it to survive above water for the last five years. Yet the Democratic Party's opportunity to regain control of the House of Representatives, and perhaps even of the Senate, this coming November can be summarized with one simple word: Iraq.

Without the debacle in Iraq, a war lost the moment it began, and without the unprecedented ignorance and incompetence of the Bush administration, the nation would still be under the hypnotizing grip of 9/11 and Bush's fear and terror orgy that has only served to divide America, squash dissent, scapegoat Arab Muslims and give rise to authoritarian beliefs among millions of Bush supporters. The disaster in Iraq has woken millions of otherwise obedient and acquiescent sheeple to the voluminous damage Bush and his minions have done to America. Yet it is not the fate of Iraq or of its people Americans lament and mourn, but rather the death of almost 3,000 soldiers and the maiming, both mentally and physically, of over 20,000 more. Had Iraq been a success, there would not be today the level of dissatisfaction against Bush and the fascist party we witness at present. It is spilled American blood, and the embarrassment of quagmire and disaster, and not the concern for innocent Iraqis, of which up to 250,000 might have already died, that is propelling such discord in the body politic. Nobody likes a loser, everyone likes a winner, and at present, the American people see nothing but failure and disaster in Iraq, thereby causing millions of voters to seek change at the ballot box.

If Iraq was not the complete failure that we see today, if its military occupation were not the colossal collapse many of us said it would inevitably become, and if its unflinching resistance had not trapped the world's "most powerful" military in an non-winnable and violent quagmire, the American war culture, full of millions of xenophobic, ignorant and fearful war mongers, many unable to decipher Iraq on a map, unable to coherently argue its reality away from Fox News fictions and fascist party talking points, a culture with a military industrial energy complex full of war profiteers and greed addicted elites, would today be thirsty for Iranian, Lebanese and Syrian blood, as rabid for more warfare as many are for pro football, with the fictional war on terror expanding into a cycle of violence threatening the world entire.

In essence, what Bush has created, full of hubris and messianic confidence, full of apathy for human life and suffering, has invariably led to his downfall, with an immoral, debased, criminal and illegal war based on lies, deceits and manipulations coming back to haunt him in a boomerang display of karmic justice. The war in Iraq has become, without a doubt, George W. Bush's overbearing nightmare, a weight on his shoulders eroding the fabric of his presidency, haunting him day and night, a personal disaster of his own making. With 9/11, where once he had the love and support of the world at his fingertips, where he once had the power to export positive energy to all corners of the globe, with an opportunity to change the course of humanity for the better, he instead altered the direction of human compassion and unity, creating worldwide hatred and animosity for his person and his country, importing fear and exporting brutal violence, choosing the path of greed and imperial hubris over that of togetherness and of humankind, in the end making his subjects less safe, not more and assuring America of perpetual threats arising from the myriad number of hate-filled, revenge-seeking groups seeking to make right the many wrongs inflicted by the decisions of the fascist party.

The presidency of George W. Bush, along with the power of the fascist party, have so become intertwined with the myths, fables, fictions and fears of 9/11 that without its perpetual dissemination, without the manipulation of its engendered fears and hatreds, without the ever-constant reminder to the people of the "official" narrative, the party risks, thanks to the passage of time and the healing of psyches, thanks to citizens waking from their propaganda-laced brainwashing and their hypnotized stupor, losing the high levels of electoral and political support it has enjoyed since 9/11. It is, therefore, of vital importance to the fascists in power that the sense be instilled into the population as if 9/11 just happened all over again, that its emotions and hatreds and fears and panic and hunger for vengeance be replicated, day in and day out, so that the citizenry be forced to confront their own feelings and memories, remembering exactly who was in power, who led a country in mourning, who declared a call for justice, who declared war, who has been in command of this "war on terror" from the very beginning.

With this in mind, it is easy to see the usefulness of never allowing the American populace the opportunity to relax or breathe in security and a sense of well-being. If tens of millions can be kept fearful and terrorized, perpetually afraid of their health and way of life, thinking that only by placing complete blind trust in the fascist party can they be protected from the dreaded Arab and Muslim "terrorists," then surely the party in power can retain firm one-party control of the state, finally having the opportunity to shred social programs, expand the military budget and unleash war upon the American middle class. If this formula of fear, terror, protection and security can be perfected and maintained, it becomes a possibility that the party in power can retain its power as well as its one-party control for years to come, with each new year amplifying its authoritarian rule and its evisceration of democracy.

The war on terror, more than anything else, is a war on the American people's minds, an experiment at controlling, through fear and terror, the thoughts and decisions of 300 million citizens. The events of 9/11 became a bottomless gold mine to the fascist party, an opportunity to establish permanent rule and dominion over the American political landscape. It is for this reason that the fascist party refuses to stop terrorizing and instilling fear into the minds of the American people. If they can fill millions with fear, concern and attention directed at an alien, unknown, dark-skinned bogeyman, an easy scapegoat from which to place blame at, rather than at its own decimation of the middle class and the erosion of civil rights and liberties, then their job will be made that much easier. If we place our concern and our minds at the Arab terrorist trying to kill us for our freedom and our way of life then we will be less aware as the fascist party fuses with the corporate Leviathan to further devastate our way of life.

For this reason the five year anniversary of 9/11 was made, yet again, a spectacle full of patriotism, nationalism and love of tribe, from flags handed out at pro football games to those hanging on school grounds, from hours of television devoted to never forgetting and always remembering to homework assignments devoted to 9/11, all activities designed both to stir the same feelings, emotions and psychology in the adult population they experienced five years ago to inculcating a new generation of children to the official narrative of events, thereby capturing innocent minds into the devastating fictions and fears of the so-called war on terror. Like a new Thanksgiving or Fourth of July, 9/11 has become, in the short span of five years, yet one more tool of systemic control, a day designed to politicize the death of 3,000 people, a day to validate the fascist-driven war on terror, a day to remind people exactly who was in power and who defended them from the evildoers. In the American narrative, 9/11 has become part of the national lore, a myth like many others before, propagated from coast to coast, from generation to generation, giving life to a vicious circle of violence that is now a self-fulfilling prophesy, becoming the perpetual reminder, as well as the impetus, for the decisive "ideological struggle of the 21st century."

It is rather interesting, in this day of fascist undertaking and authoritarian rule, that it is the fascist in power concocting fear mongering and emotion-laden terms such as "Islamofascist" and "Totalitarian Islamists" that, while successful in polls and focus groups, does not purport to explain the beliefs of the so-called enemy. Instead, in describing America's new enemy - one that is perfect to the fascist party because it is so alien to our culture, religion and way of life, so far removed from our shores and our knowledge of foreign peoples, so perfect because of our ignorance of the outside world and that of anything that does not conform to our materialist, consumerist and capitalist way of life - he is describing himself, his party, his followers along with their actions, imputing his beliefs and ideologies onto an enemy marketed so as to correspond to America's most dreaded fears and concerns.

This perfect enemy, remade one more time to see if Americans take the bait yet again, with its newly minted perfect focus group name, molded from the same soils and clay from which the fascist party takes a drink of water, is but a hollow invention of everything Americans fear, an amalgam of decades of fear-induced terms and ideologies conditioned into our being, combining all the greatest fears of all the enemies we have ever fought into one, absolute mammoth of a bogeyman, capable of destroying the world's most powerful nation, something even the much more powerful enemies of our past could not achieve.

Imputed onto this terrorist enemy, then, is encapsulated our deepest fears of the various enemies of the Second World War, of the Cold War, of Vietnam, of everything we have been conditioned to detest and hate, using words such as "totalitarian" and "fascist" and "tyranny" and "Hitler" and "Stalin" and "Lenin" that, while historically facetious, nonetheless connote feelings of deep fear, terror and revulsion. Yet in the aura of this illusory enemy we see not a dark-skinned Arab or Muslim, but the reflection of ourselves and our history, for inside our greatest fears also lie our most sinister realities, truths we cannot bear to see except implanted in the face of alien enemies not known or understood.


Axiom Two: Inevitable Triumph of Truth


Yet, as can be seen today, the attempt at controlling the populace through the use of fear, in the age of the Internet, is much easier said than done. With Cold War mentalities prevalent in the upper echelons of governance, their faded ideology filling the halls of power, it was easy to become convinced that the population could be controlled in much the same way as when the dreaded Soviet was enemy number one. During this time, however, information was sequestered and controlled by a minute number of gatekeepers, thereby keeping the masses in perpetual ignorance of reality, unaware of truth and condemned to have no choice but to believe whatever information the government decided to provide. The Cold War was an authoritarian's wet dream, for in their absolute control over information and knowledge the people were more willing to accept the dictates of power, their minds unable to entertain the thought of possessing non-governmental truth.

Today, however, the siphon of information has been blasted open by the power of the Internet. Entire legions of cyber patriots can in an instant hold accountable members of governance, their computer screens instantly popping up the latest news and information from all corners of the planet. What was once hidden from view, what once the gatekeepers kept from our curious eyes, today get spread like a virus from coast to coast, its dissemination opening minds and creating knowledge among entire tiers of the population. The Internet's infantry, an army of couch activists, detectives, writers, journalists and watchdogs, living in a communal undertaking of global significance, can today hold to account governments, corporations, individuals, the media and the institutions that were once protected by the invisible cloak of secrecy.

It is not farfetched to describe the Internet as the greatest invention of communication and knowledge ever created by man, after that of language and writing, surpassing the printing press, the telephone and the television. In its enormous success at informing the People, however, lies its ultimate threat to the Establishment, and the reason why the next decade will see an aggressive attempt at curtailing its power, at infecting its capacity to inform and teach, at controlling its content, at making it much more difficult for the People to access its wonderful communicative capabilities. If we are not ready to fight for its survival, those in power will make sure it is never allowed to interfere in their plans and goals again. They have seen the monumental effect the Internet has had in informing the People regarding Iraq and the lies and fictions of the government. They have seen its ability to join ideas and thoughts, its capacity to regurgitate knowledge and truth, its mechanisms for shedding light where once darkness reigned. They have seen, in its purest and most absolute form, democracy rise and thrive in the plethora of websites scattered throughout the Internet.

It was the Cold War mentality of the architects of the attacks of 9/11, with their inability to adapt to societal change or to the informational potential of the Internet, along with their inability to escape their Soviet era strategies, that has enabled millions of people from all regions of the world to see for themselves the events of that fateful day, over and over again, from dozens of angles. The Internet has been the catalyst for millions of people to become informed by the studies, research, findings and information of many others, for the first time in history bringing together millions of individuals in the pursuit of seeking the truth to one of the most heinous crimes of the modern era. This development the architects of 9/11 did not plan for or expect, as their Cold War era mentality, where control of information by the state and the Establishment was absolute, did not contemplate or envision such a reality. As a result, an entire community of truth seekers is free to assiduously pursue a challenge to the official conspiracy theory, searching for answers the state and the corporate media, through their institutions and channels, have not and will never provide.

Today millions of individuals do not need to depend on the blind trust placed on the honor of the state or the last word of the corporate media; these entities need not be taken for their word any longer; their lies are no longer sacrosanct, their propaganda can now be dissected and destroyed, their charades can now be questioned and explored. Government and corporate media can be discovered for what they are, their manipulations and deceptions outlined and exposed, their whitewashes and cover-ups shown for the falsity they are. The population of a nation can now, at the touch of the keyboard, finally question authority, seeking answers to questions not by asking the state or corporate media lackeys, but by using critical thinking, reason and logic. The emancipation and expansion of the human mind, away from the dictates of the state, the interests of the corporate Leviathan or the conditioned brainwashing of our youth are but three benefits of this wonder called the Internet.

So transparent are the lies cover-ups and whitewashes of the government regarding the events of 9/11, so pervasive is the corporate media's unwillingness to question the official conspiracy theory or investigate its many polemic events, and so obvious is the state's blatant involvement on 9/11 itself, that the 9/11 Truth Movement has, thanks to the Internet, grown by leaps and bounds over the last couple of years, regardless of those gatekeepers, be it from the right or left, whose job it is to maintain as reality the fictional account as told by the Bush administration and the Democratic party. The Internet has opened the 9/11 events to the full investigative powers of the other superpower, humankind itself, from all walks of life, from all corners of the globe, all united in pursuit of the truth in the wake of such an apparent criminal undertaking. The Truth Movement, whether LIHOP or MIHOP, has been brought together by community and technology, by the collection of news and information once hidden and suppressed now deciphered and seen, free to roam the vast expanse of the information superhighway. The Truth Movement, more than anything else, has connected the dots to an enormous mountain of evidence supporting the fact that 9/11 was an inside job, an act of state sponsored terror.

This movement for truth, smeared as "conspiracy nuts, theorists," and "wackos" by those whose beautiful minds are too perfect to contemplate thinking outside the box, by those who think their precious minds are too important to be bothered by such "ridiculous" opinion, by those whose ego will always be much greater than their intellect, is doing the job the media once did, searching for truth wherever it may lie, however uncomfortable it may seem, investigating, researching and studying the overwhelming evidence contradicting the official conspiracy theory. Whatever one chooses to believe regarding 9/11, the Internet has broken the seal off of the state and corporate monopoly on the dissemination of information, allowing the river of available information to flow freely through the consciousness of humankind. Today, millions of minds can see the evidence presented in front of their eyes, analyze the information, and draw a conclusion. More and more people, when confronted with all available 9/11 related research, are seeing 9/11 for what it really was, not what the state and its propaganda machines want the world to see. Millions are connecting the dots, finally seeing a picture that is altogether uncomfortable and frightening.

It is such levels of uncomfortable and frightening realities that will invariably lead millions of Americans to self-censor themselves, blinding themselves from seeing the light, refusing to believe in the possibility that their own government perpetrated the events of 9/11, in spite of mountains of evidence proving the contrary. It is the idea that those chosen to protect and defend the nation and its people could actually do both extreme harm that the majority of people cannot fathom. For our entire lives we have been nurtured to place complete trust in the mechanisms of the state; we have been brainwashed from birth to think the government is a benign and honorable entity, incapable of harming us or our fellow citizens. For years under the nation's educational systems we are ingrained with the fictions of noble Presidents performing noble deeds, of a Congress comprised of honorable representatives, of a government of, by and for the People. These fictions are rammed down our minds, for years embedded into our belief system by the invisible hands of the state, inevitably making us completely subservient to its activities and functions.

It is this pervasive yet methodical brainwashing, this nurtured conditioning upon the bosom of governance, that acts as the subconscious barricade halting our quest for answers, for questioning authority, for seeing the reality of what the state is capable of doing to its people in the interests of power and greed. Years of brainwashing serve to make us obedient and subservient to the dictates of the state and our leaders, it serves to make us place blind trust and loyalty in governance, in a belief that those chosen by the people have only altruistic motives behind their political masks. This mirage, a belief that like religion we are naturally and genetically inclined towards following, is the greatest obstacle for seeing truth, yet it also separates those with internal bravery from those fearful of reality, for, just as it is much easier to believe a heavenly afterlife exists after death than to perceive death as the end of life and the beginning of nothingness, it is easier to live the charade of the state's and our leaders' altruism than in the prevalent wickedness of its actions.

Unable to escape the belief that the state and its leaders can do not wrong, not willing to accept the malevolent intentions of state sponsored terror upon the populace, millions would rather seek the comfortable satisfaction of drinking the kool-aid than the uncomfortable suffocation experienced going down the rabbit hole. Millions, through no fault of their own, are unable to escape the haze of perpetual brainwashing, preferring the warmth of ignorance over the unsettling fright of reality. Confronted with the mountain of truth placed in front of their eyes, millions will nonetheless choose to conjure up outrageous theories and explanations trying to validate the events of 9/11 through the official government narrative, refusing, because of the uncomfortable and traumatic ramifications of alternate theories, to believe anything outside what has conveniently been concocted by both the state and its corporate media propaganda.

The events of 9/11, as horrific and traumatic as they were, remain to tens of millions, either by purposeful blindness or lack of knowledge in the events, the evil yet sole intentions of Arab extremists, without complicity from the American government. Unfortunately for many, they will never be able to jump the hurdle placed in their mind almost from birth, unable or unwilling to escape the matrix of state and corporate control over their lives. The truth is too unbearable to bear, its reality too unfathomable to comprehend, its ramifications becoming too bizarre and corrosive for the average American mind to swallow. Thus, many will simply chose to remain ignorant, suspecting the truth yet belittling the patriots risking ridicule or worse to expose the truth, preferring to live enslaved rather than living free, their minds remaining chained to the vacuum of their masters, surrounding themselves with the comfort of materialism and the escapism of propaganda and television, their decision made so as not to interfere or interrupt lives normal and adequate. Better to live a lie than be bothered or rattled by truth; better to smear truth seekers than to contemplate an earth shattering and disturbing shock to the system.

Yet millions of Americans who remain ignorant should not be smeared themselves, for every person arrives at separate times in their journey called life, finding truth in their own way, confronting reality as best they know how. All the Truth Movement can do is offer them a hand at seeing beyond their cages, pointing them in the direction of all available 9/11 research and investigations and allowing each individual to make up his or her mind. For unlike George W. Bush's democracy building project in the "new" Middle East, 9/11 truth and reality cannot be implemented at the insistence of a barrel of a gun, nor can it rush its devastating implications into the minds of those still unable or unwilling to confront a very difficult mindfuck. In time truth will find a way and when that day arrives, the cloudy skies will part, offering bright and radiant light where only dark surroundings once reigned, and the fertile valleys of awakening will overtake the barren deserts of despotism.

Such is the power and momentum of the 9/11 Truth Movement that a growing ideology is rising from the minds of fascists that seeks to squash and suppress the truth from ever rising. To the Establishment and those in power, the Truth Movement has become an enormous threat to the system, capable of uncovering the greatest hoax in the history of modern man, capable of unraveling carefully planned visions and goals. Already as much as 40 percent of Americans doubt the official conspiracy theory, with the numbers of enlightened citizens growing daily thanks to the plethora of evidence available online and in print. For truth cannot be hidden long or sequestered from the people; truth always finds a way out of the dungeons of falsities and fictions. For this reason truth seekers are being persecuted and intimidated, their voices silenced, their research questioned and invalidated, their momentum tried to be stopped. Truth seekers are smeared and ridiculed instead of being confronted with alternate research and facts, for it is easier to destroy truth by destroying and contaminating its voices than by confronting its reality. The corporate media, along with its journalist hacks, refuses to confront the questions regarding the events of 9/11, or investigate the myriad number of anomalies in existence, preferring to cover-up the possibility of truth, thinking that by ignoring the issue its truth will be made to disappear.

A war against the 9/11 Truth Movement is under way, both by the state and the corporate world, in an attempt at squelching the movement before it grows, before its momentum becomes an unstoppable tsunami capable of waking the American people from their decades-long doldrums. It is for this reason that the corporate media ignores a growing movement, pretending questions and answers do not exist, why gatekeepers try and alter opinion, why the state invests millions of dollars to contradict the research of scientists and tenured professors, why to even speak of alternate theories evokes the wrath of the Establishment. More and more, to question the narrative of the official conspiracy theory is seen as treasonous, as un-American, as anathema to the principles of the nation. To seek answers to the ambiguous events of 9/11, to deviate away from what the state says is truth is to become a pariah in the community, the university, work or in one's profession. A disturbing pattern is emerging, one all too familiar in totalitarian societies, that seeks to quiet any questioning and investigation of the real events of 9/11 and who was responsible, using the veil of intimidation and the questioning of patriotism to silence dissent.

If there is nothing to hide, why the smear campaign? If the truth is what the state says happened, why the stifling of dissent? If so confident in the official narrative, why the suppression of truth seekers and their work? Why are the valid questions asked by the Truth Movement answered only by smears, libel and slander? Why does there exist such friction and inertia by the Establishment against asking questions, researching and investigating 9/11 and its history? Cannot the "official truth" of the state stand up to the "outlandish" theories of the "lunatic fringe" so that alternate theories cannot exist and indeed must be dispelled? Indeed, it is the actions of the Establishment and its gatekeeper lackeys that betray the falsity of the official conspiracy theory and the extent to which they will stoop to curtail the truth from rising to be seen.

For what the gatekeepers and opinion makers of the so-called progressive left who would rather smear than try to comprehend fail to understand, what they cannot see in missing the forest for the trees, is that the events of 9/11 gave rise to a paradigm shift in American life, transforming its culture and its people in negative ways, creating authoritarian mentalities, imperial ambitions, fascist ideologies and an overall descent into the corruption of morals and of society itself. 9/11 was the catalyst for a colonial, indeed an imperial war against exclusively Arab and Muslim peoples, against those lands pregnant with the devil's excrement, resulting in a malevolence not seen since the 1930's, with preemptive wars; the use of depleted uranium that has and will kill in genocidal figures; the brutal occupation of Iraq and her people, many subjected to torture, rape, mass murder, illegal detention and dehumanization, along with the vicious cycle of violence that creates rather than diminishes terrorism, making of the war on terror a self-fulfilling prophesy. 9/11 has resulted in the complete disregard for international law, in a level of hubris never before seen, in a complete corruption of society, in the deep division of Americans, in the rise and prevalence of xenophobia, bigotry and racism among the populace, the erosion of rights and the evisceration of civil liberties, the destruction and debauchery of democracy, the rise of predatory capitalism, the emergence of an inevitable police state and the introduction of fascist ideology and its implementation of beliefs throughout the American landscape.

What these perfect little people cannot grasp, those of beautiful minds and god-like intellect, is that everything America and the world are being subjected to, whether it is the rising threat of global or regional warfare, the decimation of America's middle class, the coming collapse of the American economy, the rise of fascist ideology, the inhumane suffering in Palestine, the constant threat of war from America to those nations that do not kiss the ring of imperialism, the stolen elections in developing nations courtesy of America, a dictatorial presidency and the rise of the one-party state, has been born through the sinful events of 9/11.

Without 9/11 Bush is a one-term failure, a mere asterisk in history books, relegated to brushing weeds and avoiding horses in his little Hollywood production set in Texas. Without 9/11 the neocons at the helm of a hijacked America would be living back home in Israel, dreaming of ways to expand the power of the Israeli state. Without 9/11 imperial hegemony would be replaced by multilateral agreement; up to 250,000 Iraqis would still be alive, thousands more would live in peace and tranquility. The Middle East would be a much more peaceful and stable region, with the lives of almost 3,000 American soldiers saved, their energies not wasted in corporate wars for resources and hegemony. Without 9/11 the fascist party would not have become the rubber stamp Congress for a unitary executive approaching dictatorship, checks and balances would still be a reality and the growing police state would be checked at its infancy.

Without 9/11, America would still be the land of the free and the home of the brave, not the land of the meek and the home of the slave. Without 9/11 America would not today be the culture of cowardice, afraid and fearful of hyper-inflated and exaggerated enemies, a people terrorized by its own government into blindly handing liberties, rights and freedoms to authoritarian autocrats camouflaged as government servants. Without 9/11 the dangerous cocktail of jingoism, theology and ignorance would not merge forming one combustible citizenry ready at an authoritarian's wave to hate, despise and scapegoat dark-skinned minorities whose only crimes is being different in culture and ethnicity to the god-fearing, flag-draped, follower-psychology, supporters of the fascist party.

It is the search for 9/11 Truth, and the subsequent justice spawned from its prosecution, that can put an end to, or at the least slow down, the tyranny at home and the imperial hegemonic aspirations of the Bush Cabal. Lacking the legitimacy of 9/11, with no enemy to blame or wickedness to castigate, those in power cannot continue with their intentions and goals. Were the 9/11 Truth to emerge, perhaps the paradigm shift that occurred on 9/11 would correct itself, insomuch as we could never return to an old image of ourselves, creating a new America, a better America for all, free of the debasement and pollution and corruption and greed born from pathological capitalism, perhaps granting us the window of opportunity needed to self-correct a sinking ship. If 9/11 was indeed an inside job, like many suspect, perhaps the end result would be an enlightenment upon the populace causing a new beginning in the way America treats the world, and itself. Were the truth to emerge, an awakening of everything that has ever been done in our name could be born, an understanding of all that has ever been done to us could materialize, a comprehension of what is presently happening in our nation could surface.

The search for what really happened on 9/11, besides being an investigation into a crime of the most malfeasant and nefarious degree, is also a search for an America lost now lost for five years, hidden beneath the ashes of the Twin Towers on that fateful and horrific day. Every day more and more people from all walks of life, from all corners of the globe walk the giant path across the invisible bridge of truth, displacing long held brainwashing and conditioning, long held chains and shackles that prevented freedom to think and analyze. Upon the great canyon of bravery these millions have taken the blinders off their eyes, finally able to see the shadows hidden throughout society, the dark figures of the state and the corporate world for decades preventing our eyes from seeing a reality disfigured by smoke and distorted by mirrors. Today, more than ever, the smoke is clearing and the mirrors are breaking, a product of millions of individuals joined in unison, marching strong towards the gates of truth.

The universal search for truth and justice is all encompassing, an omnipotent force that is compelling the people of the world, the Second Superpower, you, me and everyone else, towards the inevitable push in uncovering and bringing to justice a mass murder that killed 3,000 of the world's citizens and altered, perhaps forever, the course of human events. In the quest for truth and justice the memories of the fallen, both in America and Iraq, compel us forward, granting us the energy and the strength needed to reach deep into realms never touched by humankind, forcing power to kneel before the weak, a mass of humanity demanding accountability from those few who think humanity is expendable, simple peons in the grand games nations play.

We seek truth because injustice and wickedness have been perpetrated against us and against those now deceased. We seek truth because to millions of people, the official story just does not add up. We seek truth and justice because to ignore the obvious would be to enslave ourselves to power, yet again, sacrificing the freedoms of our future for the comfort of our beautiful and precious minds. In truth we seek freedom, in freedom we seek a life free from the chains of bondage. In numbers we find strength, in strength we find people power. Our numbers will continue to expand, our power will continue to grow. The human quest for truth is never ending, it cannot be suppressed for long. The inevitability of our momentum and the exponential growth of our movement will make sure that sooner or later, the truth sets the world free.

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Editorial: Kill Arabs, Cry Anti-Semitism

By NORMAN FINKELSTEIN
Information Clearing House
09/12/06

A central thesis of my book Beyond Chutzpah is that whenever Israel faces a public relations debacle its apologists sound the alarm that a "new anti-Semitism" is upon us. So, predictably, just after Israel faced another image problem due to its murderous destruction of Lebanon, a British all-party parliamentary group led by notorious Israel-firster Denis MacShane MP (Labor) released yet another report alleging a resurgence of anti-Semitism (Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry Into Antisemitism, September 2006). To judge by the witnesses (David Cesarani, Lord Janner, Oona King, Emanuele Ottolenghi, Melanie Phillips) and sources (MEMRI, Holocaust Education Trust) cited in the body of the report, much time and money could have been saved had it just been contracted out to the Israel Foreign Ministry. (The report's statement that "we received no evidence of the accusation of anti-Semitism being misused by mainstream British Jewish community organizations and leaders" perhaps speaks more to the selection of the witnesses than the reality.)

The single novelty of the report, which mostly rehashes fatuous allegations already disposed of in Beyond Chutzpah, is the new thresholds in idiocy it breaks. Consider the methodology deployed for demonstrating a new anti-Semitism. The report defines an anti-Semitic incident as any occasion "perceived" to be anti-Semitic by the "Jewish community." This is the school of thought according to which it's raining even in the absence of any precipitation because I feel it's raining. It is the dream philosophy of paranoids, especially rational paranoids, for whom alleged victimhood is politically serviceable. The report includes under the rubric of anti-Semitic incidents not just violent acts and incendiary speech but "conversations, discussions, or pronouncements made in public or private, which cross the line of acceptability," as well as "the mood and tone when Jews are discussed." The wonder is that it didn't also tabulate repressed anti-Semitic libidinal fantasies. In the category of inherently anti-Semitic pronouncements the report includes "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis" (only comparisons of contemporary Arab policy to that of the Nazis are permissible) and "theories about Jewish or Zionist influence on American foreign policy" (even if Jewish and Zionist organizations boast about this influence).

Much of the evidence of pervasive British anti-Semitism requires real strains in credulity. * The lone item listed under the ominous subheading "The Blood Libel" is a Syrian television series "that would be possible for viewers in the UK to seeif they had suitable satellite receiving equipment." It also notes the unreferenced "case of a Jewish university lecturer who was subjected to an anti-Semitic tirade from a student in the middle of a lecture and subsequently asked to explain to the university authorities why he ha upset the student." Is it anti-Semitic to wonder whether this is a crock? And then the report cites the warning of the London Assembly Conservative Group that "there is a risk that in some political quarters 'views on international events can, almost subconsciously, lead to subtly different attitudes to, and levels of engagement with, different minority groups.'" The new anti-Semitism business must be going seriously awry when British conservatives start sounding like Lacan. Finally, it is anti-Semitic for student unions to advocate a boycott of Israeli goods because this "would restrict the availability of kosher food on campus." Maybe Israel can organize a "Berlin airlift" of gefilte fish.

Although claiming that, in the struggle against anti-Semitism, "none of those who gave evidence wished to see the right free speech eroded," and "only in extreme circumstances would we advocate legal intervention," the report recommends that university authorities "take an active interest in combating acts, speeches, literature and events that cause anxiety or alarm among their Jewish students," and it registers disquiet that "classic and modern anti-Semitic works are freely available for ordering on the Amazon.com website," and that "the United States in particular has been slow to take action" in closing down "anti-Semitic internet sites." It is at moments like this that even the least patriotic of souls can take pride in being an American.


* The police data on an increase in anti-Semitic incidents in itself proves little because, as the report concedes, the spike might be due to more incidents being reported and a coarsening of British life generally, as well as the "spillover" from the Israel-Palestine conflict. In addition, there is little evidence of "organized," "politically motivated" anti-Semitic attacks; there is no evidence that perpetrators of anti-Semitic attacks were disproportionately Muslim; and most of the suspects in the incidents were adolescents. For 2005 the report cites a couple incidents that were "potentially" life-threatening. It cites no comparative data for other minorities in Britain, although tacitly acknowledging that "the level of prejudice and discrimination by Jews in Britain remains lower," a considerable understatement . On a related note, it deplores that "less than one in ten [anti-Semitic] incidents reported to the police resulted in a suspect becoming an accused" , but cites no comparative data indicating whether this ratio is aberrant.

Norman Finkelstein's most recent book is Beyond Chutzpah: On the misuse of anti-Semitism and the abuse of history (University of California Press). His web site is www.NormanFinkelstein.com.

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Bush's Police State


Bush Ups Pressure for Anti-Terror Bills

Wednesday September 13, 2006 12:46 PM
By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush is trying to break an election-season deadlock with congressional Republicans over bills that would give the White House broad authority to monitor, interrogate and prosecute terrorism suspects.

Senators and House leaders want to impose new restrictions on the administration, saying they won't give the president a blank check over the war on terror.
A parade of White House officials seeking support for legal tools against terrorists is expected to culminate Thursday with an appearance by Bush himself before House Republicans anxious to maintain their majority in the November elections.

Under firm pressure from the administration, Republicans were expected to advance separate versions of bills to give legal status to Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, but also impose some restrictions not embraced by the White House.

The House and Senate are to consider the bills during floor votes next week.

Sen. Arlen Specter, sponsor of one administration-backed bill, acknowledged that GOP lawmakers fighting for re-election may not embrace a measure bearing Bush's stamp of approval.

"It is popular to have bills that are not White House bills,'' Specter, R-Pa., told reporters recently.

He was speaking of Republican support for the House version, which is opposed by the White House because it imposes more restrictions on the program than Specter's.

Sponsored by Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., and endorsed by House GOP leaders, that measure would require the president to wait until an attack has occurred to initiate wiretapping without warrants, a provision administration officials say would hamper the White House's ability to prevent attacks.

Instead, the Bush administration has given Specter's version a highly conditional endorsement, as long as it is passed unchanged - not a sure thing given the amendments and substitutes that await it on the floor.

Specter's bill would submit the warrantless wiretapping program to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court for a one-time constitutional review and extend from the current three days to seven days the time allowed for emergency surveillance before a warrant application is submitted and approved by that court.

The proposals were two of several bills to alter or change portions of Bush's war on terror that inspired him this week to send several emissaries to Capitol Hill.

Vice President Dick Cheney and other top aides encountered stiff resistance from senators and House leaders. The standoffs raised questions about whether the president could unite Republicans on his anti-terror agenda before November's midterm elections.

Cheney and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten appealed to Senate Republicans during their weekly policy lunch Tuesday to pass legislation that would let the president begin prosecuting terror suspects. The legislation also would limit the circumstances under which a government interrogator could be prosecuted for mistreating a detainee.

CIA Director Michael Hayden also met with lawmakers this week on detainee treatment.

On the effort to craft a new way to prosecute terror detainees, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he supports the administration's efforts and could call for a vote on it - or a competing bill favored by some GOP senators - at any time.

The alternative bill was drafted by Republican Sens. John Warner, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, all members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. They say their measure would improve the credibility of a court system to prosecute detainees and prevent abusive treatment that would violate the Geneva Conventions.

Warner, chairman of the Armed Services panel, said Tuesday the group remained locked in negotiations with other Republicans.

Graham and others said the biggest sticking points left on the bill were on the circumstances under which an interrogator could be prosecuted for mistreating detainees.

The administration would forbid what critics call a bare bones list of violations, such as torture, murder and rape, under the 1996 War Crimes Act that potentially leaves open the door for harsher interrogation methods.

Warner, Graham and McCain are pushing more precise definitions, as well as a ban on coerced testimony, to ensure tough interrogations do not lead to abuse or violate the Geneva Conventions.

Comment: So, in other words, Bush is looking for "legal tools" to avoid the law.

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A Pathocrat Speaks: Test weapons on testy U.S. mobs

CNN
September 12, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.

The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne.

"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," said Wynne. "(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press."
The Air Force has paid for research into nonlethal weapons, but he said the service is unlikely to spend more money on development until injury problems are reviewed by medical experts and resolved.

Nonlethal weapons generally can weaken people if they are hit with the beam. Some of the weapons can emit short, intense energy pulses that also can be effective in disabling some electronic devices.

On another subject, Wynne said he expects to choose a new contractor for the next generation aerial refueling tankers by next summer. He said a draft request for bids will be put out next month, and there are two qualified bidders: the Boeing Co. and a team of Northrop Grumman Corp. and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., the majority owner of European jet maker Airbus SAS.

The contract is expected to be worth at least $20 billion (€15.75 billion).

Chicago, Illinois-based Boeing lost the tanker deal in 2004 amid revelations that it had hired a top Air Force acquisitions official who had given the company preferential treatment.

Wynne also said the Air Force, which is already chopping 40,000 active duty, civilian and reserves jobs, is now struggling to find new ways to slash about $1.8 billion (€1.4 billion) from its budget to cover costs from the latest round of base closings.

He said he can't cut more people, and it would not be wise to take funding from military programs that are needed to protect the country. But he said he also incurs resistance when he tries to save money on operations and maintenance by retiring aging aircraft.

"We're finding out that those are, unfortunately, prized possessions of some congressional districts," said Wynne, adding that the Air Force will have to "take some appetite suppressant pills." He said he has asked employees to look for efficiencies in their offices.

The base closings initially were expected to create savings by reducing Air Force infrastructure by 24 percent.

Comment: Don't you just love it when they come right out and say what's on their minds?

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Poll: Most Americans see another terror attack inevitable

www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-13 07:41:08

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Fifty-seven percent of Americans believe that terrorists will "always find a way to launch attacks no matter what the U.S. government does," according to a latest CNN poll released on Tuesday.
The survey also found that the percentage of Americans who blamed the Bush administration for the 9/11 terror attacks had risen from a third to almost half over the past four years.

Asked about how much blame should be attributed to the Bush administration for the attacks, 45 percent said either a "great deal" or a "moderate amount," up from 32 percent in a June 2002 CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll.

But the poll showed that the Clinton administration did not get off lightly either, with 41 percent of respondents blaming his administration a "great deal" or a "moderate amount" for the attacks.

That is only slightly less than the 45 percent who blamed his administration in a poll carried out less than a week after the attacks.

The poll, carried out between Aug. 30 and Sept. 2, questioned around 1,004 American adults by telephone.



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CIA: Over 5,000 terrorists captured or killed since 9/11

www.chinaview.cn 2006-09-12 04:48:50

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- More than 5,000 terrorists have been captured or killed in the 5 years since 9/11 terror attacks, CIA Director Michael Hayden said Monday.
"Al Qaida's core operational leadership has been decimated, and their successors are in hiding or on the run, " Hayden said when he addressed CIA employees at the fifth anniversary of the catastrophic attacks which claimed nearly 3,000 lives.

While acknowledging 9/11 attacks have dealt an "unforgettable blow" to his agency, he said CIA's cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies has led to many successes in breaking up terrorists' cells and dismantling of al Qaida.

In such a way many large-scale terror plots have been foiled, although some schemes have succeeded beyond U.S. territories, said Hayden.

Shortly before his remarks, al Qaida's number two Zayman Al-Zawahiri released a video tape threatening new attacks.

Comment: The CIA claims they have killed or captured 5,000 "terrorists". How many of those have had any sort of due legal process? How many of these dead had anything to do with terrorism? How many of those in the US "detention", i.e., torture camps, have the remotest connection with "radical Islam"? How many were just in the wrong place at the wrong time or the victim of a personal vendetta?

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Overzealous staff fingerprinted Canadians: U.S. official

Last Updated: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 | 12:01 PM MT
CBC News

Canadians boarding a flight to Calgary last week should not have been fingerprinted and photographed at the Denver airport, says a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

A dozen Canadian passengers on a United Airlines flight were pulled to one side just before boarding the plane, says passenger Mike Dunford.
A security guard explained that because of heightened terrorist concerns, Canadians had to go through tougher security, Dunford said. The group's passports were scanned and they were fingerprinted and photographed.

"Now in the United States I'm obviously on file," said Dunford, who was catching a connecting flight in Denver after a visit to Palm Springs.

"I've been a guest in their country for more than 15 years so I'm a little shocked and disappointed."

Comment: Then he hasn't been paying very close attention...


Privacy officer can delete records

Anna Hinken, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, says this is probably a case of an overzealous security or airline worker misinterpreting security regulations.

Homeland Security's US Visit program, which was expanded in August, screens people entering and leaving the country. Border guards can also take inkless fingerprints and digital photographs.

Hinken says the majority of Canadians have been prescreened before entering and don't have to be fingerprinted and photographed when they leave.

She says the passengers should contact the US Visit privacy officer.

"He'll ask them a few questions and confirm who they are and then he'll delete the information that was erroneously collected," she said.

Comment: And if you believe that....

Once you are in the system, you will stay in the system. Count on it.


Hinken says this has happened in the past, but they are isolated incidents.

It is, however, the second publicized complaint in as many months coming from Canadians related to an incident at the Denver airport.

A Muslim doctor from Winnipeg was escorted off a United Airlines flight in August, alleging it was because of his recitation of prayers.



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The Eagle Has Crash Landed

By A.K. Gupta
From the August 31, 2006 issue

After Sept. 11, there was a moment where one could imagine an intelligent response: Instead of bombs and belligerence, the United States could have used discussions and development to address the root causes of terrorism. But that was too much to expect of the American Empire.

To the Bush administration, the dead of Sept. 11 represented a unique opportunity to remake the world through war.

It took mere hours for Rumsfeld to direct his underlings to find intelligence that could serve as a casus belli against Iraq. It took nine days for Bush to impose a with-us-or-against-us mentality upon the world. And it took barely six weeks for the structures of a police state to come into being with the Patriot Act.

There was little doubt at the time that the eagle was soaring. Few opposed the power grab at home, the Taliban were scattered in a few weeks, and nations rushed to enlist in the "war on terror." It was no longer just cranky Marxists who talked of imperialism; liberals and conservatives alike hailed a reinvigorated Pax Americana.
Five years later, however, the Bush administration has dragged the world into three wars - Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon - that have diminished U.S. power dramatically. The U.S. military is being ground down by guerrilla warfare in Iraq, reviving fears of post- Vietnam impotence. With a civil war, of U.S. making, raging in Iraq, troop levels are on the rise and GIs are having to conquer Baghdad once more, leading to a surge in combat deaths in the last half of August. White House plans to draw down troops to influence the November elections have been dashed.

The cost in treasure is enormous, adding to huge budget deficits that burden the U.S. economy. Diplomatically, the Bush administration has lost credibility because of the weapons of mass destruction fable, constraining its attempts to attack Iran under similar pretexts. Russia, most visibly, has signaled that it will not back economic sanctions against Iran.

In Lebanon, the Bush administration hoped that Israel could bomb Hezbollah into submission and check an increasingly confident political Shi'ism. Instead, Sunni Arab regimes in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan were exposed as U.S. tools by lining up with their patron against Hezbollah. The American Empire's desperation for allies is so great that the paper of record describes Saudi Arabia's hand-chopping theocracy as a "moderate." U.S. leverage in the region is at a low. Israel is suffering an existential crisis from its historic defeat, and Iran, Syria and Shi'ite parties in Iraq have been strengthened. Most of all, the Arab world has found a new hero in Hezbollah and Hassan Nasrallah.

Yet this only hints at the global chaos that has been unleashed. Historians will define the post-Sept. 11 era as one of geopolitical instability, as the Atlantic Alliance fragmented and new power centers and regional blocs took shape. It's also marked by state-sponsored barbarism that has swept away any pretense of international law, the accelerating shift of power from West to East, wars fought and governments toppled for access to energy reserves, and the triumph of neoliberal economics.

HAVES VS. HAVE-NOTS

Approaching the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, what began as a war against political Islam has become a wider war of the haves against the have-nots. The war on terror has become a convenient excuse for Israel, India and Russia to justify their mayhem in the Middle East, Kashmir and Chechnya. All three play the victim, using the inevitable backlash from bloody occupations as justification for yet more repression.

There is a host of camp followers: Japan's nationalists, eager to exploit North Korea's missiles as an excuse to re-militarize; Egypt's nepotistic regime warring against its own people; Colombia's strongman Uribe waging a dirty war for the benefit of oil companies and narco-trafficking paramilitaries; thuggish, U.S.-aligned regimes from El Salvador to the Philippines. Even France, darling of left-leaning Europhiles, has joined in, threatening nuclear strikes against "terrorists."

Afghanistan was supposed to show the new U.S. approach, how it would rebuild the country to lift the yoke of extremism. But as in Iraq, blinded by a free-market ideology, the U.S. reconstruction effort has failed. What's left is an impotent government dependent on warlords, a resurgent Taliban that controls much of the country, and a populace bitter at unfulfilled promises of security and development.

However desperate the situation is in Afghanistan, with Western troops being bled by guerrilla warfare, Pakistan may be in worse shape. Ruled by a dictator, Pakistan has abandoned its populace. Corruption and military spending consume the budget, leaving almost nothing for health, education and social welfare. Gen. Pervez Musharraf is considered an ally, perhaps because he's allowed the country to be flooded by FBI agents, offers no protest when hundreds of its citizens are disappeared and has launched his own war in the border regions.

But that war, or wars rather, is going poorly. Northwest Pakistan is convulsed by a low-intensity conflict between U.S.-equipped Pakistani troops and militant Islamists, many of them backers of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Now, Musharaff has inflamed inhabitants of Baluchistan by killing a venerated leader. The conflict there mirrors many others the world over - a poor people who gain nothing from extensive oil and gas reserves that are developed for the benefit of ruling elites and global energy hogs. Add a nuclear arsenal into the mix and Pakistan is one of the world's most dangerous powder kegs.

POWER SHIFTS

Even as the U.S. Empire declines, neoliberalism still holds the center. The China-Wal-Mart model dominates the economy: rock-bottom wages, workers with no rights and monopoly capital clear-cutting everything in its path. China is the obvious beneficiary from the global chaos as manufacturing facilities and dollars flow its way. It's biding its time, however, knowing that it is decades behind the United States economically and militarily.

Not all is bleak. South America is breaking the Washington consensus on free trade that demands the global South prioritize loan payments over social welfare. Venezuela is the most visible opponent of U.S. elites and has dabbled somewhat successfully with grassroots development and regional trading alliances.

The war on terror has revealed an atrophied U.S. political system. With little opposition from the Democratic Party, the media, business elites or the public, the Bush administration has assumed unprecedented powers. The notion of the "unitary executive" - that all lawmaking power inheres in Bush - is a modern-day version of the divine right of kings. Whatever judicial or legislative restraint is put on the presidency has been summarily rejected in hundreds of instances so far.

After Sept. 11, some scholars pointed out that the American Empire was in decline. The choice, it was suggested, was between a controlled descent and a crash-and-burn landing. The Bush administration has chosen the later. Even as a wounded giant, the United States can wreak havoc for decades to come.

The most pressing issues of the coming decades are not ones of fighting terrorism, which is but a cover for authoritarian rule and transferring wealth to the rich, but the environment, global warming, sustainability and the redistribution of resources. The choice is between a Hobbesian world - "A war of all against all" - over precious resources or a global solidarity of fulfilling needs versus consumption. It's not very American, but it's the best option we have.



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The other September 11

By Pepe Escobar Sep 12, 2006

SANTIAGO, Chile - You don't need an Osama bin Laden to pull a September 11. Forget Boeings-turned-into-missiles crashing into twin towers. Switch for a moment to four military planes bombing a presidential palace - and replay a different September 11 movie starring Dick and Henry. "Dick", of course, is the late US president Richard Nixon. "Henry" was his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger. Foreign policy-wise, it's quite an enlightening plot.
Scene 1: Washington, the Oval Office, September 1970. Dr Salvador Allende, a man of culture, grand bourgeois and charismatic founder of the Socialist Party, has just won the presidential election in Chile fair and square, with 36.22% of the votes. Nixon and Kissinger receive Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Richard Helms. Nixon tells Helms, according to Kissinger, that he wants "a major effort to see what could be done to prevent Allende's accession to power. If there were one chance in 10 of getting rid of Allende, we should try it."

Scene 2: Santiago, La Moneda Palace, September 11 of the year 1973, 8am. Allende, the democratically elected president of Chile, is worried about a general called Augusto Pinochet. Radio stations are mute. The navy has taken over Valparaiso - where the president was born. But he worries about his new army commander, chosen less than three weeks ago: "Poor Pinochet, he must have been arrested ..."

General Pinochet is far from arrested: he is conducting a coup. Troops march over Santiago. At 8.30am a solemn military declaration makes treason official. Tanks roll into the city center. At noon, four Stuka planes destroy Allende's private residence on Tomas Moro Street and bomb La Moneda Palace. The president chooses resistance, fighting the troops surrounding the palace and spurning offers of a plane for himself and his family to leave the country. When his capture is imminent, Allende presses his chin against the AK-47 that Cuban leader Fidel Castro gave him, and fires. At 2pm, the military junta takes power. Systematic arrests, torture and executions start almost immediately.

Between these two scenes is the story of a coup that unfolded in slow motion for virtually three years. The United States was still embroiled in Vietnam. Nixon's policy for the whole of Latin America was one word short of "war on terror": "to prevent another Cuba". Nixon simply could not tolerate "that bastard Allende" (in his own words). Chile had the largest copper reserves in the world. Allende was about to nationalize Chilean copper - thus sabotaging the monstrous US corporate profits of Anaconda Copper Mining Co and Kennecott Copper Co, which had been bleeding the country for decades.

The Chilean-destabilization strategy, presided over in detail by Kissinger, developed into a series of operations called Track 1 and Track 2. The CIA tried to stage a coup even before Allende's inauguration on November 1970, giving US$50,000 to a crypto-Nazi gang to kill chief of staff General Rene Schneider on October 22, and bribing generals and admirals. It didn't work.

Allende wanted to develop "a peaceful Chilean way towards socialism". He was elected by workers, peasants and the marginalized, urban lower classes. Educated urban youth celebrated the "socialism of red wine and empanadas" (stuffed pastry). But Washington would prevent any turn to the left by devastating the Chilean economy, deploying mass bribery, spying and blackmail.

Allende in fact was a moderate compared with Chilean popular movements further to the left that occupied factories, lands or just property (1,278 occupations in 1971 alone). Then strikes started to spread (3,200 in 1972). Industrialists sabotaged production. No one could explain how Chilean credit was suddenly cut off in international markets. Loans were suspended.

The CIA, apart from non-stop sabotage, financed strategic strikes - doctors, bank clerks, a very long truck drivers' strike. Conservative newspapers conducted a non-stop vicious disinformation campaign. There were coup rehearsals. And political chaos compounded economic chaos: the Christian Democrats - the centrists - ended up joining the right and the extreme right against Allende.

Nixon got exactly what he wanted. On September 11, US Navy ships monitored all Chilean military bases to warn the plotters about who might be supporting Allende. Pinochet took over and entered history as the definitive, sinister Latin American dictator from central casting.

Dictatorship in Chile coincided with the ascension of neo-liberalism (which in the 1990s would be remixed as "globalization"). Chileans with scholarships had been a fixture of the University of Chicago for years. The charter of neo-liberalism - and Pinochet's Holy Economic Grail - was written by two of them, Sergio de Castro and Arturo Fontaine. Afterward, it was classic division of labor: the armed forces killed while the "Chicago boys" applied neo-liberal economic policies. Military repression assured economic "freedom".

Some other dictators were in place before Pinochet, more were to follow. By the mid-1970s, six US-backed South American dictatorships - Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay - were united in deep secret under the infamous, transnational Operation Condor, a Latino war "of" terror eliminating everyone who was or might become a political adversary.

Condor had two key players: Pinochet in Chile (who kept Condor's centralized computers) and Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay (he died this year in Brazil). The Pinochet regime kept a small lab for the fabrication of botulism soup and nerve gas - which were and remain certified weapons of mass destruction; the chemist responsible later escaped to Uruguay and was assassinated. Orlando Letelier, Chile's ambassador to Washington under Allende in 1970-72, was assassinated under Condor. Who cared? Military fascism was Washington's daily special, every single day.
Pinochet and Condor, in Chile, were responsible for as many victims as September 11: about 3,000, including 1,198 "disappeared". In Argentina, there were officially at least 10,000 dead: for human-rights organizations there were more than 30,000 dead and "disappeared". In Paraguay, there were at least 2,000 dead; in Bolivia at least 350 dead and "disappeared", in Brazil almost 300, in Uruguay almost 200. Families of the "disappeared" are convinced Kissinger knew about everything. He will take his secrets to the grave, as will model dictator Pinochet - who still refuses to die.

Behind the rebuilt La Moneda palace in central Santiago, facing the Ministry of Justice building, there is a statue of Allende. Underneath, the words: "I have faith in Chile and its destiny." These were his last words before he committed suicide, instead of becoming a hostage on South America's September 11.



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Accused Marine Won't Face Death Penalty

Wednesday September 13, 2006 12:01 PM
By LINDA DEUTSCH
AP Special Correspondent

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) - The government will not seek the death penalty for a Marine Corps corporal who is among eight troops charged with murder and other crimes in the shooting of a civilian Iraqi man, a military prosecutor told a hearing officer Tuesday.


Lance Cpl. Jerry E. Shumate Jr., 21, is accused in the killing of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad last April in Hamdania, west of Baghdad. Shumate is suspected of firing his M-16 at Awad, then lying to investigators about what had happened, according to charging documents.

Military prosecutor Lt. Col. John Baker's recommendation against a possible death penalty for Shumate came at the conclusion of an Article 32 hearing, the equivalent of a preliminary hearing in civilian court, that was held as part of the process to decide whether Shumate will be held for a court-martial. The final decision rests with Lt. Gen. James Mattis.

An investigator who interviewed Shumate in Iraq testified that the interview was emotional, recounting how he burst into tears as he was questioned.

"He was fairly calm, but halfway through the interview he became emotional, then calm, then emotional again,'' said Kelly Garbo, a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. "He was crying."'

She said Shumate spoke to her voluntarily. No force or threats were used during the questioning, Garbo testified, and Shumate was allowed to take cigarette and water breaks.

"I told him other members of the squad had been honest and truthful and told us the real story of what happened that night, that there was a kidnap and there was a murder,'' Garbo testified.

He was shown a map that Lance Corp. Tyler Jackson, another defendant, had drawn during his interrogation. Garbo said the map was used to help Shumate show the officers where events had occurred.

Neither Garbo nor two other NCIS investigators who testified were asked to give details of Shumate's statements. Defense attorneys did not cross-examine any of the investigators.

Asked outside the hearing whether there was an agreement to keep the statements secret, lawyers on both sides refused to comment.

Shumate, a native of Matlock, Wash., is an infantryman who enlisted in February 2005. He was serving his first tour in Iraq. All the defendants were assigned to 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.

He is the third Marine to face an Article 32 hearing. During a previous hearing, Baker said prosecutors would not pursue a capital sentence against Pfc. John Jodka III, another defendant in the case. Hearings for the other accused troops are expected in coming weeks.

All the defendants are accused of entering Awad's house on April 26, kidnapping him and taking him to a roadside hole. There, prosecutors say, several troops shot him.

Defense attorneys have questioned the credibility of the Iraqis who reported the killing to U.S. authorities. But in a brief closing argument, Baker told hearing Officer Officer Col. Robert S. Chester that statements made in the case had been corroborated by DNA evidence and autopsy and ballistics reports.

"The statements taken together with the evidence satisfy probable cause of the offenses charged,'' Baker said.

Shumate's mother, father and adult sister sat directly behind him in the tiny, 15-seat courtroom. His father, Jerry Shumate Sr., wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words, "My son, one of the few, the proud, a Marine.''

"We're devastated; we're just taking it day by day,'' Jerry Shumate Sr. said previously. "All we can do is trust in our counsel and trust in our government.''



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SKorea bulldozes site for new US military headquarters

AFP
Wednesday September 13, 2006

Thousands of riot police have formed human barricades around a South Korean farming village as workers began bulldozing a site for the new US military headquarters in the country.

A police helicopter hovered as five earthmovers, backed by 400 helmeted workers carrying plastic shields, rolled into four villages near an existing US camp near Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Seoul.

"Stop your illegal demolition work!" dozens of elderly residents chanted as about 15,000 riot police sealed off the village of about 130 houses.

Scuffles broke out when police dragged down about 20 anti-US activists who chained themselves to the rooftops of houses but there were no injuries.
Police said they would tear down 90 houses, while 40 still occupied by residents and protestors were excluded from demolition.

Camp Humphreys is scheduled to triple in size by 2008 and become the US military's chief installation in South Korea after the Yongsan garrison in central Seoul closes down.

In May, thousands of protesters clashed with riot police near Pyongtaek after South Korean soldiers set up a wire fence around the site, leaving 210 people injured.

Many local residents have abandoned their homes in return for financial compensation, but about 200 residents and activists remain in dozens of houses.

Tens of thousands of US troops have been stationed in South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 war. About 30,000 are currently deployed to help 650,000 South Korean troops face up to communist North Korea's 1.2 million-strong army.

The United States and South Korea have held talks on readjusting their military alliance amid calls from Seoul for control over its armed forces in wartime.

Washington plans to reduce its forces in South Korea to 25,000 by 2008 and is seeking flexibility to deploy them outside the country in times of need.



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War of Terror


EU to restrict liquids in hand luggage for air passengers

AFP
September 13, 2006

BRUSSELS - The European Commission is to restrict the amount of liquids allowed in hand luggage for air passengers, in a new security measure, Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot has revealed.

"Following the incidents of this summer we have sought to introduce a response proportional to the needs of security," Barrot told reporters in Brussels.

"We have decided to restrict the amount of liquid allowed in hand luggage," he added Wednesday, while ruling out a total ban.
British authorities announced last month that they had foiled an alleged plot to blow up US-bound airliners using liquid explosives smuggled aboard in drinks' or other containers

Maximum container sizes will be introduced under the new EU rules, allowing people to bring on board small shampoo and perfume bottles. Duty free airport purchases will be carried in sealed bags, Barrot added.

During a meeting last week on emergency measures after the alleged London plot, aviation security experts from the 25 EU member nations agreed on the need for a "common response" to the new threat of liquid explosives.



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Passenger Disrupts Cross-Country Flight

AP
Sep 12, 2006

A passenger tried to open the exit door of a jet during a cross-country flight on Tuesday night, airline and federal officials said.

United Airlines Flight 890 from Los Angeles landed as scheduled at Washington Dulles International Airport at 8:35 p.m., said Amy Kudwa, Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman. No one was injured.

The passenger became unruly about 3 1/2 hours into the flight from Los Angeles and was subdued by other passengers and federal air marshals, said United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy.

"After the passenger was restrained, the pilot decided to land at Dulles," McCarthy said. "It wasn't an emergency landing."

Airport police and FBI agents met the flight and were interviewing the passenger, said FBI spokeswoman Debbie Wierman.

There were 138 passengers and six crew members on board, McCarthy said.




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Hundreds of guns seized in UK police raids

Bonnie Malkin and agencies
Wednesday September 13, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

Police today recovered a cache of hundreds of guns in three raids in Kent, arresting a 55-year-old man on suspicion of supplying firearms.

The raids were part of an intelligence-led operation to tackle the supply of guns to criminals in London, and officers said it was the biggest weapons haul of its kind.
Pump action shotguns and semi-automatic and automatic weapons were found in raids on properties in Dartford, with an arms smuggling ring that has links in the US believed to have brought them into the country.

Officers from the Metropolitan police's Operation Trident team - set up to target gun crime in London's black communities - carried out the raids.

A Metropolitan police statement said US police were undertaking simultaneous operations in New Jersey.

Around 30 officers executed search warrants at two residential properties and one business address in Dartford at 6am.

The guns were discovered at a semi-detached house that police allege was being used to sell firearms. A sports car parked outside had the registration number E6 GUN.

Sky news reported that the 55-year-old man, who was arrested and taken from the house at 10.25am, had earlier greeted officers at the door.

Detective Chief Superintendent Kevin Davis, of Operation Trident, said "hundreds and hundreds" of weapons were found.

"This is the biggest firearms haul we have ever had," he said. "Guns are mounted on every available wall space in the property, and live ammunition was found lying on the floor."

Mr Davis said it would take officers three days to log the weapons.

"This operation has resulted in hundreds of guns being taken out of circulation, and has potentially prevented a number of serious injuries, or even deaths, occurring on the streets of London," he added.

He said it was "impossible to overestimate the misery and fear these weapons could have brought if they had got into the hands of criminals".

Searches at all three properties were expected to continue throughout the day. The operation - codenamed Mokpo - was launched 18 months ago after a spate of shootings involving rival gangs in north London.



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Fallujah again in the line of US fire

By Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
Sep 13, 2006
Asia Times

FALLUJAH, Iraq - After enduring two major assaults, Fallujah, a key city in the western province al-Anbar, is under threat from US forces again. This coincides with news of a classified US intelligence report that the Pentagon is taking "very seriously" - that US forces are losing control of Anbar.

The report, written by Colonel Pete Devlin, the chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq, and cited in the US media, said a shortage of US and Iraqi troops in Anbar and the collapse of local governments had left a vacuum that had been exploited by al-Qaeda in Iraq. It painted a poor picture of security prospects in Anbar, which includes Fallujah and Ramadi, Sunni resistance strongholds. It said that the US had been defeated politically, if not militarily, in the province.
This confirms an article last week citing Iraqi police and residents (see US military 'loses control' of key Iraqi province, Asia Times Online, September 7 ).

In Fallujah, 50 kilometers west of Baghdad, residents are edgy. "They destroyed our city twice and they are threatening us a third time," said Ahmed Dhahy, 52. "They want us to do their job for them and turn in those who target them."

Dhahy, who lost 32 relatives when his father's house was bombed by a US aircraft during the April 2004 attack on Fallujah, said the US military had threatened it would destroy the city if resistance fighters were not handed over to them.

"Last week, the Americans used loudspeakers on the backs of their tanks and Humvees to threaten us," Dhahy said. Residents said the US forces warned of a "large military operation" if fighters were not handed over.

A US military spokesman in Baghdad said he had no reports of such action.

Fallujah was heavily bombed in April 2004 and again in November that year. The attacks destroyed 75% of the city's infrastructure and left more than 5,000 dead, according to local non-governmental groups.

But after the heavy assaults, resistance fighters have continued to launch attacks against US and official Iraqi forces in the city. Fallujah remains under tight security, with the US military using biometric identification, full body searches and bar-coded identification cards for residents to enter and leave their city.

"The Iraqi resistance has not stopped for a single day despite the huge US Army activities," a city police captain said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The wise men of the city explained to US officials that it is impossible to stop the resistance by military operations, but it seems the Americans prefer to do it the hard way."

The police captain said anti-occupation fighters had increased their activities in the face of sectarian violence in which Shi'ite death squads have killed thousands of Sunnis in Baghdad. Many residents of Fallujah have relatives in the capital city.

Lack of reconstruction and the US military's failure to pay due compensation to victims' families have added to the unrest, the captain said. "There used to be resistance attacks against the US and Iraqi forces in Fallujah daily," said the captain. "But now they have increased to several per day. Many soldiers have been killed and their vehicles destroyed. So it is clear that the security measures they have taken in Fallujah have failed."

Several residents said all sorts of killings had been taking place over the past eight months. Religious leaders have been targeted regularly, with no group claiming responsibility. On Sunday, the former chief of traffic police, Brigadier Ahmed Diraa, was shot dead in his car. Residents in Fallujah said Diraa had quit his post a month earlier.

In the face of killings, and now threats of a new attack, residents remain defiant of the occupation forces. The hardships that people have endured seem to have strengthened rather than weakened them.

"There are so many arrests and killings, and collective punishments, such as random shootings, violent inspection raids, repeated curfews and deliberate cutting of water and electricity," said Mohammed al-Darraji, head of a human-rights group in Fallujah called the Iraqi Center for Human Rights Observation.

"What is going on in this city requires international intervention to protect civilians and to punish those who seriously damaged Fallujah society and committed serious crimes against humanity," Darraji said. His group has been monitoring breaches of the Geneva Conventions in the city since the April 2004 siege.

"There is a long list of collective punishments that have turned the city into a frightful detention camp," he said.

Another human-rights campaigner in Fallujah, who asked to be referred to as Khalid, said human-rights activists in Iraq felt betrayed by the United Nations. The UN had played ignorant "by leaving US troops to act alone in the city", said Khalid, who works with Raya Human Rights, a non-governmental organization in the city. "This was after the media exposed the enormity of the violence and human