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Iraq: the hidden cost of the war
Andrew Stephen
Published 12 March 2007
America won't simply be paying with its dead. The Pentagon is trying to silence economists who predict that several decades of care for the wounded will amount to an unbelievable $2.5 trillion.
They roar in every day, usually direct from the Landstuhl US air-force base in the Rhineland: giant C-17 cargo planes capable of lifting and flying the 65-tonne M1 Abrams tank to battlefields anywhere in the world.
But Landstuhl is the first staging post for transporting most of the American wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan back to the United States, and these planes act as CCATs ("critical care air transport") with their AETs — "aeromedical evacuation teams" of doctors, nurses and medical technicians, whose task is to make sure that gravely wounded US troops arrive alive and fit enough for intensive treatment at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre, just six miles up the road from me in Washington.
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These days it is de rigueur for all politicians, ranging from President Bush and Ibrahim al-Jaafari (Iraq's previous "prime minister") to junior congressmen, to visit the 113-acre Walter Reed complex to pay tribute to the valour of horribly wounded soldiers.
Last Christmas, the centre was so overwhelmed by the 500,000 cards and presents it received for wounded soldiers that it announced it could accept no more.
Yet the story of the US wounded reveals yet another deception by the Bush administration, masking monumental miscalculations that will haunt generations to come.
Thanks to the work of a Harvard professor and former Clinton administration economist named Linda Bilmes, and some other hard-working academics, we have discovered that the administration has been putting out two entirely separate and conflicting sets of numbers of those wounded in the wars.
This might sound like chicanery by George W Bush and his cronies — or characteristic incompetence — but Bilmes and Professor Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate economist from Columbia University, have established not only that the number wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan is far higher than the Pentagon has been saying, but that looking after them alone could cost present and future US taxpayers a sum they estimate to be $536bn, but which could get considerably bigger still.
Just one soldier out of the 1.4 million troops so far deployed who has returned with a debilitating brain injury, for example, may need round-the-clock care for five, six, or even seven decades.
In present-day money, according to one study, care for that soldier alone will cost a minimum of $4.3m.
Article continued here: Iraq: the hidden cost of the war
© New Statesman 1913–2007 |
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Q. Mr. President, you have never talked about a timetable in connection with Viet-Nam.
You have said, and you repeated today, that the United States will not be defeated, will not grow tired.
Donald Johnson, National Commander of the American Legion, went over to Viet-Nam in the spring and later called on you.
He told White House reporters that he could imagine the war over there going on for 5, 6, or 7 years.
Have you thought of that possibility, sir? And do you think the American people ought to think of that possibility?
LBJ: Yes, I think the American people ought to understand that there is no quick solution to the problem that we face there.
I would not want to prophesy or predict whether it would be a matter of months or years or decades.
I do not know that we had any accurate timetable on how long it would take to bring victory in World War I.
I don't think anyone really knew whether it would be 2 years or 4 years or 6 years, to meet with success in World War II.
I do think our cause is just. I do think our purpose and objectives are beyond any question."
(More than 2 million people died in the war in Vietnam.) |
Alive or dead? |
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Then the fathers and uncles come to talk
Zaneb, a 13-year-old girl both smiling and serious, watches over the younger children who clamor for the foreigners' attention.
Then the fathers and uncles come to talk, and I cannot keep up with the rapid Arabic full of stories of suffering.
Our Iraqi friend translates: Most people have lost their homes in the bombing.
Some have lost family members and neighbors.
All are angry.
After awhile we walk to another room, down the hall from the one bathroom that is shared by 40 families. A young man steps forward.
"We did not know the evacuation deadline," he says. "I left the city by chance on the day the bombs began, and then I could not get back in.
"My brother, who is mentally handicapped, was left behind.
"When we went back after the attack, he was missing.
"I looked on the list of people killed, I asked at prisons, but there was no answer.
"The Americans told me to ask the Iraqi National Guard, and I did, but they gave me no answer."
"Please," he says. "Tell this tragedy all over the world. There are whole families who were buried under the rubble."
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| New World Order Statistics of Human Misery of Soldiers and Military that fight for the 'Order' ('The West' and their lackey's Warfare) Excluding Somalia and various other secret engagements | |
| icasualties.org Of the 3,305 coalition deaths in Afghanistan: One Albania 39 Australia One Belgium 158 Canada Five Czech 43 Denmark Nine Estonia Two Finland 86 France 17 Georgia 54 Germany Seven Hungary 47 Italy Two Jordan Three Latvia One Lithuania 9 Unidentified as to country NATO 25 Netherlands 11 New Zealand 10 Norway 36 Poland Two Portugal 19 Romania One South Korea 34 Spain Five Sweden 14 Turkey 444 UK 2,220 US | To May 8, 2013 These figures are 'Battle deaths' and do not include deaths that take place as early as two or three weeks outside the Afghanistan war zones when seriously injured troops are shipped to their home country, or in the situation with the US military to some hospital on a military base in another country. These figures do not include suicide of soldiers who have returned home, or the killing and injuring of loved ones and others outside the family, by soldiers with mental impairment who have returned home. At least 17,674 US personnel have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. |
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U.S. & Coalition/Casualties in Afghanistan occupation | |
| Of the 4,804 coalition deaths in Iraq: 4,486 have been Americans Two Australia One Azerbaijan Thirteen Bulgaria One Czech Republic Seven Denmark 5 El Salvador Two Estonia One Fiji Five Georgia One Hungary 33 Italy One Kazakhstan Three Latvia Two Netherlands 23 Poland Three Romania Four Slovakia One South Korea 11 Spain Two Thailand Eighteen Ukraine 179 UK | To May 8, 2013 These figures are 'Battle deaths' and do not include deaths that take place outside Iraq war zones, as early as two or three weeks, after seriously injured troops are shipped to their home country, or in the situation with the US military to some hospital on a military base in another country. — other coalition deaths are estimated at up to 10,000 deaths including contract people brought into Iraq by coalition forces. These figures do not include suicide of soldiers who have returned home, or the killing and injuring of loved ones and others outside the family, by soldiers with mental impairment who have returned home. At least 32,223 U.S. troops have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon. |
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U.S. & Coalition/Casualties in Iraq occupation | |
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Shoe Thrower — the Story of My Shoe Mass death returns to Ishaqi THE SCIENCE OF EVIL
ITS USE FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES |
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SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
This article printed in www.WorldTribune.com Monday, August 9, 2004 Terrorized truckers balk at deliveries to U.S. forces BAGHDAD — The U.S. military is feeling the impact of a boycott by truckers of cargo to coalition units in Iraq. Iraqi sources said U.S. combat units outside of Baghdad have experienced a slowdown in shipments of food, water and supplies over the past few days. The sources said the U.S. military was increasing flights by air transports to Baghdad and Basra to ensure supplies for U.S. troops. The sources said the units most affected have been in the Sunni Triangle and Anbar province near the Syrian border. Last week, Turkey's leading truckers association announced it was ending cargo transports to the U.S. military. The association's announcement came after the Tawhid and Jihad group of Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi executed a Turkish national who worked in a U.S. military base in northern Iraq. The sources said Asian truck drivers, particularly Indian and Filipino nationals, refused to transport supplies from Kuwait to U.S. forces in Iraq. Theysaid the supplies to the U.S. military to southern Iraq began to dry up over the last week. The Indian and Philippines embassies in Kuwait have ordered their nationals to stay out of Iraq amid the abduction and execution of foreign nationals by Al Zarqawi's group. Most of the truck drivers who work for Kuwaiti firms with U.S. military contracts have been Filipinos and Indians. Supplies from Jordan to Iraq have also decreased over the last week in wake of an announcement by two Amman-based firms that they would no longer supply the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. |
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Robert Fisk correspondent for London's Independent newspaper.
This article printed in Arab News August 1, 2004
Can't Bush and Blair See Iraq Is About to Explode?
The stage management of this catastrophe in Iraq was all too evident at Saddam Hussein's "trial".
Not only did the US military censor the tapes of the event.
Not only did they effectively delete all sound of the 11 other defendants.
But the Americans led Saddam Hussein to believe — until he reached the courtroom — that he was on his way to his execution.
Indeed, when he entered the room he believed that the judge was there to condemn him to death.
This, after all, was the way Saddam ran his own state security courts.
No wonder he initially looked "disorientated" — CNN's helpful description — because, of course, he was meant to look that way.
We had made sure of that.
Which is why Saddam asked Judge Juhi: "Are you a lawyer? ... Is this a trial?"
And swiftly, as he realized that this really was an initial court hearing — not a preliminary to his own hanging — he quickly adopted an attitude of belligerence.
But don't think we're going to learn much more about Saddam's future court appearances.
Salem Chalabi, the brother of convicted fraudster Ahmad and the man entrusted by the Americans with the tribunal, told the Iraqi press two weeks ago that all media would be excluded from future court hearings.
And I can see why.
Because if Saddam does a Milosevic, he'll want to talk about the real intelligence and military connections of his regime — which were primarily with the United States.
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| Can't Bush and Blair See Iraq Is About to Explode? — Robert Fisk
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| Can't Bush and Blair See Iraq Is About to Explode? — Robert Fisk
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| Can't Bush and Blair See Iraq Is About to Explode? — Robert Fisk: continued I keep re-reading Tony Blair's statement. "I remain convinced it was right to go to war. It was the most difficult decision of my life." And I cannot understand it. It may be a terrible decision to go to war. Even Chamberlain thought that; but he didn't find it a difficult decision — because, after the Nazi invasion of Poland, it was the right thing to do. And driving the streets of Baghdad now, watching the terrified American patrols, hearing yet another thunderous explosion shaking my windows and doors after dawn, I realize what all this means. Going to war in Iraq, invading Iraq last year, was the most difficult decision Blair had to take because he thought — correctly — that it might be the wrong decision. I will always remember his remark to British troops in Basra, that the sacrifice of British soldiers was not Hollywood but "real flesh and blood". Yes, it was real flesh and blood that was shed. |
An Iraqi shovels dirt into a fresh grave as Ghaniya Mansour is comforted by relatives during the funeral of her son in law, Police Col. Nameer Nadeem, who was killed during the bombings at Al Doura church on Sunday, at a Baghdad cemetery in Iraq, Tuesday Aug. 3, 2004. Photo: AP/Samir Mizban |
| Can't Bush and Blair See Iraq Is About to Explode? — Robert Fisk
"Deadly force is authorized," it says on checkpoints all over Baghdad.
Authorized by whom?
There is no accountability.
Repeatedly, on the great highways out of the city US soldiers shriek at motorists and open fire at the least suspicion.
"We had some Navy Seals down at our checkpoint the other day," a 1st Cavalry sergeant says to me.
"They asked if we were having any trouble.
I said, yes, they've been shooting at us from a house over there.
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Saturday, 12 May 2007
Iraq's catalogue of death
By Robert Greenall
BBC News
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There has been no bigger grey area in the Iraq conflict than the number of ordinary Iraqis killed and injured.
More than 1,700 US and dozens of other coalition troops are known to have died. But the figures for civilian dead had never been more than rough estimates, ranging wildly from 10,000 to 100,000.
Figures for the injured and for people killed in what has been described as a surge in criminal activity since the invasion were simply unavailable.
A report by the UK-based group Iraq Body Count (IBC), in combination with the Oxford Research Group, says it aims to remove some of the uncertainty by producing the most detailed picture yet of civilian casualties in the two years since the 2003 invasion.
The goal of the IBC is to fill the information vacuum, it says, with a comprehensive analysis of over 10,000 press and media reports.
It describes the death toll as the "forgotten cost" of the decision to go to war.
But some critics have questioned the groups' methods of compiling statistics, and indeed the ability to produce reliable data.
The Iraqi government has already responded by describing the report's results as "mistaken".
The US and UK governments, meanwhile, have always maintained that chaos in the war-torn country has made it impossible to gain accurate information
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'Few excuses'
Middle East analyst Toby Dodge told the BBC that reports like this were bound to be sketchy.
"It's on the conservative side, if anything it underestimates the casualty figures," he said.
The report attempts to show that Western governments are at least partly wrong in their assertion that counting bodies is futile.
"Nearly two-and-a-half years on, neither the US or UK have begun to systematically measure the impact of their actions in terms of human lives destroyed," Professor John Sloboda, one of the authors of the report, said.
"Our report has shown that what is lacking is not the capacity to do this work but the will.
"The internet has proved an essential tool for the research, Professor Sloboda adds.
"This is in fact a new type of research on war and its effects, research which would have been impossible to conduct without the World Wide Web and search engines," he said.
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'Higher concentration of death'
The report — A Dossier on Civilian Casualties in Iraq, 2003-2005 — provides a grim catalogue of death and injury.
A total of 24,865 civilians were reported killed in the first two years of the conflict, beginning with the invasion, almost 20% of them women or children.
This means approximately one in every 1,000 Iraqis has been killed since March 2003.
The report's assertion that 37% of deaths were caused by the US-led forces may cause dismay among Western governments, especially as only 9% are attributed to insurgents.
But even if another 11% attributed to "unknown agents" is included in the second figure, the report says coalition forces are still the main cause of death.
The US-led coalition maintains that it has never targeted civilians, while insurgents quite clearly do.Professor Sloboda accepts this argument, but says the dossier's data proves that precision-guided weapons — even if targeted elsewhere — do far more harm to civilians than hand-held firearms.
"Shock and awe invasions using massive air power and overwhelming force caused a far higher concentration of deaths, injuries and child fatalities than even the intense insurgency we are experiencing now," he said.
"This is a fact which must be taken on board if hearts and minds are ever to be won back."
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Child victims
The report builds up a picture of who the victims were — where and when they were killed or injured, what weapons were used against them and by whom and — where known — what their names, professions, genders and ages were.
The result suggests that no sector of Iraqi society has escaped violent death.
Some conclusions make especially sober reading — for instance that children made up almost half the victims of air attacks, but only 6% of those from small-arms fire.
Unexploded ordnance such as cluster bombs have proved the most lethal for children, because of their curiosity about foreign objects.
The report also details the media which reported the casualties and the sources they used — from eyewitnesses to mortuaries — all, it says, rigorously checked by the project's 20-odd volunteer staff.
Injuries
And while the dossier obviously records well-reported deaths like those from suicide attacks or roadside bombs, it also covers a less-known source of violence — criminal killings.
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Only reports of mortuary records have allowed the IBC to reveal the "extraordinary levels" that this form of violence has reached, it says.
Around 14 people died every month in criminal-related violence before the invasion — over 372 more have died every month since.
The dossier has recorded 42,500 wounded (the actual count, not an estimate), but this is based only on reports of deaths where the numbers of injured could also be determined.
It estimates that approximately 12,500 more injuries have gone unrecorded.
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"Fear has increased in every newsroom in America" — Dan Rather
CAMBRIDGE — Speaking before a crowd of Democrats, dignitaries, and journalists at Harvard University yesterday, PBS "NewsHour" anchor Jim Lehrer rebuked the big three anchors for their networks' decision to air only three hours of prime-time coverage at each national convention this summer.
Lehrer's remarks, which prompted audience applause, occurred during a seminar hosted by Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy that featured Brokaw, Rather, Jennings, Lehrer, and CNN "Inside Politics" anchor Judy Woodruff.
Addressing the challenges of covering politics in a politically polarized environment, the anchors acknowledged the impact of criticism and pressure, often from conservatives, that pours into their networks at unprecedented levels.
In a January 2004 Pew Research Center survey that seemed to reflect conservative concerns about network coverage, only 24 percent of Republicans said they relied on ABC, CBS, or NBC as a main source of campaign news, compared with 40 percent of Democrats.
Tom Brokaw, referring to the president of the conservative watchdog organization, the Media Research Center, said conservatives "feel they have to go to war against the networks every day."
Peter Jennings added, "I hear more about conservative concerns than I have in the past. . . This wave of resentment rushes at our advertisers, rushes at our corporate suites. . . I feel the presence of anger all the time."
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The limited prime-time coverage offered by the broadcast networks has been criticized in many quarters and last week, the Shorenstein Center issued a report citing cutbacks in convention broadcasts as a factor contributing to a shrinking viewing audience.
At yesterday's forum, Rather said he had no influence over CBS's decision on how much of the convention to air and his two colleagues criticized the gatherings for being too pre-programmed to generate news.
"I think that starting tomorrow, we're going to have four of the eight most important days we can have as a nation," said Lehrer, criticizing CBS's Dan Rather, ABC's Peter Jennings, and NBC's Tom Brokaw for not getting more air time.
"I'm sorry. You guys are a hell of a lot more important than your bosses are willing to admit."
Addressing the challenges of covering politics in a politically polarized environment, CBS Rather stated that "fear has increased in every newsroom in America," and added that reporting on explosive issues can bring a torrent of e-mails and phone calls.
That can lead to a situation, he said, in which journalists conclude that:
"when you run this story, you're asking for trouble with a capital 'T'...
Why run it?" |
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Ron Reagon Esquire
...No cataclysmic ice age, admittedly, yet something was in the air, and people were inhaling deeply.
I began to get calls from friends whose parents had always voted Republican, "but not this time."
There was the staid Zbigniew Brzezinski on the staid NewsHour with Jim Lehrer sneering at the "Orwellian language" flowing out of the Pentagon.
Word spread through the usual channels that old hands from the days of Bush the Elder were quietly (but not too
quietly) appalled by his son's misadventure in Iraq.
Suddenly, everywhere you went, a surprising number of folks seemed to have had just about enough of what the Bush administration was dishing out.
A fresh age appeared on the horizon, accompanied by the sound of scales falling from people's eyes.
It felt something like a demonstration of that highest of American prerogatives and the most deeply cherished American freedom: dissent. |
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All because of the stupidity of U.S. greed. |
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Ashraf Khalil Special to The Times The Los Angeles Times August 4, 2004 Municipal officials offer little short-term hope. "We're not just sitting here," said Jaleel Abaidy, a spokesman for the Baghdad Municipality, which is responsible for city public works efforts. A new project, scheduled to begin this month, will provide 33 million gallons of clean water to Sadr City, he said. But that will take nine months, at best, to complete, and Abaidy acknowledged that there's little to be done to help Sadr City's residents bear the rest of the summer. "We inherited an existing problem," he said. "The whole system has expired." Special correspondent Caesar Ahmed contributed to this report. kewe note: Money to truck in clean water? Fraction of US Funds for Iraq Reconstruction Spent Agence France Press [August 4, 2004] is reporting the U.S. has spent just under 550 million dollars on Iraqi reconstruction since an $18.4-billion package was approved last year. The report is based on documents from the governmental agency Project and Contracting Office. The documents show that most of the money has not been spent on reconstruction but law enforcement and security. |
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August 8, 2007
No Wonder He Didn't Condemn Torture During His 2004 Campaign
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Why Did Senator John Kerry Stand Idly By? |
N aïve Americans who think they live in a free society should watch the video filmed by students at a John Kerry speech September 17, Constitution Day, at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
At the conclusion of Kerry's speech, Andrew Meyer, a 21-year old journalism student was selected by Senator Kerry to ask a question.
Meyer held up a copy of BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast's book, Armed Madhouse, and asked if Kerry was aware that Palast's investigations determined that Kerry had actually won the election.
Why, Meyer asked, had Kerry conceded the election so quickly when there were so many obvious examples of vote fraud?
Why, Meyer, went on to ask, was Kerry refusing to consider Bush's impeachment when Bush was about to initiate another act of military aggression, this time against Iran?
At this point the public's protectors-the police-decided that Meyer had said too much.
They grabbed Meyer and began dragging him off.
Meyer said repeatedly, "I have done nothing wrong," which under our laws he had not.
He threatened no one and assaulted no one.
But the police decided that Meyer, an American citizen, had no right to free speech and no constitutional protection.
They threw him to the floor and tasered him right in front of Senator Kerry and the large student audience, who captured on video the unquestionable act of police brutality.
Meyer was carted off and jailed on a phony charge of "disrupting a public event."
Why did Kerry just stand there while the student was being tortured ?
The question we should all ask is why did a United States Senator just stand there while Gestapo goons violated the constitutional rights of a student participating in a public event, brutalized him in full view of everyone, and then took him off to jail on phony charges?
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Kerry's meekness not only in the face of electoral fraud, not only in the face of Bush's wars that are crimes under the Nuremberg standard, but also in the face of police goons trampling the constitutional rights of American citizens makes it completely clear that he was not fit to be president, and he is not fit to be a US senator.
Usually when police violate constitutional rights and commit acts of police brutality they do it when they believe no one is watching, not in front of a large audience.
Clearly, the police have become more audacious in their abuse of rights and citizens.
What explains the new fearlessness of police to violate rights and brutalize citizens without cause?
The answer is that police, most of whom have authoritarian personalities, have seen that constitutional rights are no longer protected.
President Bush does not protect our constitutional rights.
Neither does Vice President Cheney, nor the Attorney General, nor the US Congress.
Just as Kerry allowed Meyer's rights to be tasered out of him, Congress has enabled Bush to strip people, including American citizens, of constitutional protection and incarcerate them without presenting evidence.
How long before Kerry himself or some other senator will be dragged from his podium and tasered?
How long before Kerry himself or some other senator will be dragged from his podium and tasered?
The Bush Republicans with complicit Democrats have essentially brought government accountability to an end in the US.
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The US government has 80,000 people, including ordinary American citizens, on its "no-fly list."
No one knows why they are on the list, and no one on the list can find out how to get off it.
An unaccountable act by the Bush administration put them there.
Airport Security harasses and abuses people who do not fit any known definition of terrorist.
Nalini Ghuman, a British-born citizen and music professor at Mills College in California was met on her return from a trip to England by armed guards at the airplane door and escorted away.
A Gestapo goon squad tore up her US visa, defaced her British passport, body searched her, and told her she could leave immediately for England or be sent to a detention center.
Professor Ghuman, an Oxford University graduate with a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, says she feels like the character in Kafka's book, The Trial.
"I don't know why it's happened, what I'm accused of. There's no opportunity to defend myself. One is just completely powerless."
Over one year later there is still no answer.
The Bush Republicans and their Democratic toadies have, in the name of "security," made all of us powerless.
While Senator John Kerry and his Democratic colleagues stand silently, the Bush administration has stolen our country from us and turned us into subjects.
*The video of Andrew's Mayer's arrest may be found at
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?filmID=601 Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions |
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Andrew Meyer: 9/11 Truther
Red Dirt Report Wednesday September 19, 2007 The most famous man on the Internet this week, University of Florida student Andrew Meyer, is, according to a friend speaking on "The Alex Jones Show," a 9/11 truther. He's more than that, he's an honest-to-goodness truthseeker who is unafraid to speak truth to power, as the tired old bumper sticker says. Anyway, the friend said Meyer, who was Tasered by campus police while questioning US Sen. John Kerry, was trying to ask Kerry if he was a member of the Yale secret society Skull & Bones, wants to be a journalist and wants to know the truth. But when Meyer had the gall to be direct and to demand his right to ask some questions regarding the rigged '04 election, the cops act like bulls in front of a matador waving a red cape. This incident is a total outrage! Meyer did nothing illegal. He was assaulted by the police and sent to jail for daring to confront a sitting U.S. senator. It's totally unbelievable. Sure, he may be a prankster, but according to Meyer's website, www.theandrewmeyer.com , he is a bold individual with a sense of humor and a love of pop culture. He's also an informed young man and any and all charges should be dropped. In the meantime, it's time to ban Tasers at the University of Florida, particularly when you have cops with gangland tattoos attacking students for using their first amendment rights. Those cops should be fired for infringing on Meyer's right to speak. Time to end this "like sheep to slaughter" mentality It's time to end this "like sheep to slaughter" mentality that is so rife here in America. It's time to stand up to corrupt "authority figures" who think they can wield their power over us and use torture devices to make us comply. Ed and Elaine Brown Hold National Press Conference
New Hampshire Couple Vows to Fight Feds to the Death Randy Weaver: "I'd rather die on my feet right here than die on my knees under this de facto government" Excerpts RUSSELL GOLDMAN ABC June 18, 2007 Calling the federal agents surrounding his fortified compound "guns for hire," a New Hampshire man convicted of tax evasion vowed today that he and his wife would fight U.S. marshals to the death if they tried to capture them. "Do not under any circumstances make any attempt on this land. We will not accept any tomfoolery by any criminal element, be it federal, state or local," said Ed Brown in a press conference from the stoop of his concrete-clad home in Plainfield, N.H. "We either walk out of here free or we die." Brown and his wife, Elaine, were sentenced in absentia in April to serve 63 months in prison for failing to pay more than $1 million in income tax. The couple, however, insists that there is no law that requires citizens to pay income tax. "There is no law. We looked and looked," Brown told the press. Brown and his supporters, including Randy Weaver, leader of the 1992 standoff with ATF agents at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, told the press that the government has unlawfully tricked people into believing they have to pay income tax, knowing full well that such a law would be unconstitutional. "We will defend it to the death. This is 1776 all over again. You cannot tax someone's labor because that is slavery," Brown said. |
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Carrying a pistol in his waistband, Brown also insisted that he could not receive a fair trial in a federal court because "the court system falls under freemasonry."
"There [are] no longer any lawful courts. The Freemasons have taken over our nation. … [Freemasons want] to take over our nation and all nations on the planet," Brown said.
Weaver, whose son was killed by federal agents and who later received a $100,000 settlement from the government, said he was there to support the Browns.
"I'd rather die on my feet right here than die on my knees under this de facto government," he said. "Bring it on."
Despite months of surveillance and reports of agents hiding in the woods of the couple's 110-acre compound, U.S. marshals said this morning that the Brown's Plainfield, N.H., home was not surrounded by their officers.
U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier made an effort to starkly contrast the actions of the Marshals with those of the ATF agents who besieged Ruby Ridge in 1992. In addition to Weaver's son, one federal agent was killed in that incident.
"There is no standoff and the house is not surrounded." Monier told ABC News.com. "We have no intention of assaulting the house or engaging in a violent confrontation."
Monier said he believed Weaver would attend the press conference the Browns are hosting this afternoon. He said Weaver and others -- some of whom are believed to have brought the couple weapons -- have been freely allowed to enter Brown's property.
"There is no reason to block Weaver. People are free to exercise their First Amendment rights," Monier said. "We are not setting up roadblocks or surrounding the house."
In April, Ed and Elaine Brown were sentenced in absentia to 63 months in prison for failing to pay more than $1 million in taxes.
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Since failing to appear in court the couple has remained within the concrete-fortified walls of their rural New Hampshire home.
Monier said the Marshals have been communicating with the couple in an effort to get them to turn themselves over the federal authorities without having to resort to the use of force.
"We know they have weapons and we do not want to see this escalate," he said.
Last week agents cut off the home's telephone, Internet and power access.
Monier said the couple most likely had generators -- possibly solar or wind powered -- but that eventually the Browns would become uncomfortable enough in their isolation that they would be forced to surrender.
"They probably have generators but those will soon need fuel and need people to fix them. We want to continue to encourage them, and make it uncomfortable enough for them that they'll give up."
Brown said he and his wife had enough supplies to wait out the government no matter how long it lasted. He said the couple did not use air conditioning and could chop down trees from firewood.
Last week, Danny Riley a friend of the Browns was arrested near their home by federal agents while walking the couple's dog.
The Marshals claim they were engaged in routine surveillance of the property, but the Browns believe Riley thwarted a potential raid.
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Steve Watson/Prison Planet.com Thursday, June 14, 2007 The Browns situation has today been covered in the national press by CBS and AP, who have again described the Brown home as a "fortified concrete compound". Does the Brown home look like a fortified compound to you? They also describe the Browns as "holed up" despite the fact that their home has no security gates or fences of any kind and is completely open to anyone who wishes to just walk in at any time. U.S. Marshal Steve Monier acknowledged Wednesday that waiting out the Browns could take months, but he said time was on authorities' side. He said he hoped prison would seem like an agreeable option for the Browns after a summer without air conditioning and possibly a winter without heat, the report states. "We have seized their phone and Internet service, and two days ago, we cut their power," Monier said. "It's a continuing effort to move them along to understand they need to do the right thing, and this is to surrender to us." Monier has said there are no federal agents in Plainfield or surveillance teams in camouflage watching the fortified home at 401 Center of Town Road, despite it being proved that agents were lurking in the trees when they were discovered by dog walker Danny Riley who states that he was shot at and tasered and now describes himself as a "nervous wreck". Riley says that he is still being threatened for revealing that the FBI are involved in the case. The report as well as another Union Leader piece state that the US marshals office was swamped with callers last week expressing support for the Browns after "a website" (i.e. Prisonplanet.com) urged readers to make a stand. Click here (mp3) to listen to Randy Weaver and Elaine Brown on the Alex Jones Show. PRISON PLANET.com Copyright © 2002-2007 Alex Jones All rights reserved. |
Speculation Mounts That Browns Were Infiltrated, Tricked
Tax protesters arrested, but "did not surrender" according to reports, leading many to guess Ed and Elaine were taken by surprise and violently subdued before they could resist
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet Friday, October 5, 2007 Speculation is rife that the Browns were infiltrated and tricked before being violently subdued as authorities refuse to provide any details behind their arrest beside the fact that they did not peacefully surrender. Observers were both saddened and confused about the announcement of the arrest of tax protesters Ed and Elaine Brown last night. Though none of us wanted to witness another Waco, we were all well aware of the fact that the Browns have stated on numerous occasions that they would not be arrested without a fight and would rather die than go to jail. This prompted many to question how U.S. Marshals were able to seize the Browns with apparently little response, leading some to conclude that Ed and Elaine were tricked by one or more supporters whom they had taken into their confidence. Posts on messageboards overnight feared that the Browns had been taken by surprise, violently subdued and probably shocked numerous times with Taser weapons before they even had a chance to resist. The rumor mill is in high gear because officials have refused to provide any information regarding the details of the arrests, though a news conference is scheduled for 10am today. All we know at this point is that the Browns were taken into custody after being seized by U.S. Marshals on their property at around 7:45pm last night. Neighbors reported large convoys of SUV's approaching the property before the arrests. "Grobe, a former patient of Elaine Brown, who used to run a dental practice, says he noticed "an unusual amount of traffic all of a sudden'' passing by the house last night. He said he saw 30 to 40 cars passing by, but had no idea if it was authorities," states an AP report. "Neither he nor neighbor Robert Carpenter said they heard anything unusual. Carpenter said there were no marked cruisers, but a lot of large SUVs. He said he called the Plainfield Police and they called back and said what was going on." "We had no indication that the Browns intended to voluntarily surrender, so we had to move forward with an operation that promised the safest possible outcome. That day was today," U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier said in a written statement. Though the arrests occurred "without incident" and no one was injured, Monier admitted that the Browns "did not surrender," meaning they were likely violently subdued against their will. If an informant was used to facilitate the arrest, it would not be the first time such tactics have been employed. In June, Ed Brown outed what he claimed was a Fed who had tried to provoke the Browns into making outlandish statements and rash decisions as part of "psychological operations" on behalf of authorities. This came shortly after an aborted raid on the Brown's property during which supporter Danny Riley was arrested and later authorities attempted to coerce Riley into becoming an informant against the Browns. Marshals also threatened Riley with 15 years in jail unless he lied to the media and told them that the botched raid was not an attempted siege. Click here (mp3) to listen to Randy Weaver and Elaine Brown on the Alex Jones Show. PRISON PLANET.com Copyright © 2002-2007 Alex Jones All rights reserved. |
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Threatened with death threats if they proceed, Luke Radowski and fellow 9/11 truth activists demand answers on collapse of towers
Giuliani, how do you sleep at night?
Steve Watson Infowars.net Wednesday, February 21, 2007 An intrepid group of Infowars reporters confronted Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani at a fundraiser he was attending in New York today to demand answers to unanswered questions surrounding the collapse of the three World Trade Center buildings on 9/11.
One activist, the relative of a firefighter killed in the collapses, asked the former NYC mayor, for an explanation as why no steel framed building in history has ever collapsed from fire damage except for on 9/11 and why people in the buildings including rescuers were not given warnings they were going to collapse when he was.
She then asked Giuliani "How do you sleep at night?"
Watch the video here
Previously Giuliani has previously admitted in interviews that he was given prior warning that the twin towers were going to collapse, something no one could possibly have known was going to happen. Yet firefighters and police were not given the same warnings.
INFOWARS.net Copyright © 2002-2007 Alex Jones All rights reserved. |
Published on Thursday, November 2, 2006 by truthdig
Turning the Corner Into Madness by Robert Scheer Every time I hear President Bush railing against those who would “cut and run” in Iraq instead of pursuing “victory,” as he does almost daily, I think back to similar claims being made for the Vietnam debacle when I reported from Saigon in the mid-’60s.
Back then, the U.S. troop presence was lower and casualties fewer than now in Iraq, but the carnage, on all sides, would escalate for the next decade, as we waited miserably for the corner to be turned.
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Then, as now, calls for setting a timetable for an orderly withdrawal were rejected as emboldening our enemy to attack America.
Instead of a dignified withdrawal, we plunged ever deeper into the quagmire, leaving 59,000 U.S. troops and 3.4 million Indochinese dead as tribute to our stupidity.
Finally, there was nothing to do but “cut and run” in the most ignominious fashion.
With our U.S. personnel being lifted by helicopter from roofs near our embassy, it seemed like a low point for U.S. influence, and there were dire predictions of communism’s global dominance — just as there is today for the “Islamo-fascist” bogeyman the president has seized upon.
Those predictions, however, proved dead wrong.
Communism did not advance as a worldwide force after our defeat in Vietnam.
On the contrary, a victorious communist-run Vietnam soon went to war with the China-backed communists of Cambodia—overthrowing Pol Pot’s evil Khmer Rouge—and with communist China itself, in a bloody border war.
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Today communist Vietnam is still battling communist China—but now it is for shelf space in Wal-Mart and Costco.
US now dependent upon China
The United States, meanwhile, spending itself silly under the haplessly irresponsible President Bush, is now dependent on China both to carry its debt and contain communist North Korea’s nuclear threat.
So why accept the president’s shrill insistence that a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would be a disaster?
Surely our departure would compel Iraq’s neighbors in Iran, Syria and Jordan to get serious about quelling the civil war that they have abetted and which, in the absence of the U.S. occupation, would threaten to breach Iraq’s borders.
Iraqis best qualified to make their own history
Why not assume, as turned out to be the case with Vietnam, that the Iraqis are best qualified to make their own history?
The astounding arrogance that underwrites Bush’s smug determination to keep killing and maiming tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of people is no different than that of Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon.
Both knew the war was a failure but determined to “stay the course” for a decade out of a misguided belief in protecting an image of American infallibility that was paired with shameful political motives.
Now, as in Vietnam, our arrogance has created disaster in Iraq.
Our soldiers continue to kill and die, at enormous cost to the U.S. taxpayers and in international influence and moral standing, but the cause is already lost, doomed by the ignorance, lies and bad faith that launched it.
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Fierce nationalism since long before the United States existed as a nation
Astonishingly, considering our history and the stakes, our leaders show not the slightest interest in understanding the fierce nationalism and deep religious divisions that have marked the Mideast since long before the United States existed as a nation.
And thus we have repeated the decisive folly of Vietnam, where our “experts” ignored a thousand-year history of Chinese occupation in assuming that the fierce nationalist Ho Chi Minh was a puppet of masters in Red Beijing.
This time, we are led by a false warrior who insists on playing the simpleton, ignoring his prestigious education at Andover and Yale in favor of what he presumes are the prejudices of Middle America.
Or is this giving Bush, the son of a president, too much credit?
After all, we know from the various insider memoirs that Bush was unaware that Islam is roughly divided into two rival sects, Sunni and Shiite, while just last week he bizarrely announced that our Iraq policy had never been “stay the course” — as if he was unaware of the invention of video-recording equipment that had captured him saying just that countless times.
Whatever you call it, his approach is a sham and a disaster.
It is long past time to let pragmatic realpolitik find a patchwork solution that the region and Iraqis can accept, peacefully.
That is the expected advice from Bush family consigliere and troubleshooter James Baker and his Iraq Study Group, which is to report soon after the election.
Truly frightening on this Day of the Dead, though, is that Bush probably won’t listen to reason, unless the voters first soundly repudiate him in next week’s election.
Common Dreams © 1997-2006 |
ESTIMATED NUCLEAR WARHEADS, STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL The United States has conducted 1,127 nuclear and thermonuclear tests — 217 in the atmosphere.
The Soviet Union/ Russia conducted 969 tests — 219 in the atmosphere.
France, 210 tests, 50 in the atmosphere.
The United Kingdom, 45 tests — 21 in the atmosphere.
China, 45 tests — 23 in the atmosphere.
India and Pakistan — 13 tests underground.
Israel — possible 1 test atmosphere South Africa 1979.
North Korea — 1 test underground, October 2006.
“The United states had drawn up a battle plan for the potential use of nuclear weapons in Iraq and the United States has been involved in planning potential nuclear use scenarios for Iran.”“The United States is now involved in a massive program to overhaul its nuclear arsenal. In fact they're working to replace every nuclear warhead and all of the existing delivery systems in the arsenal to ensure prompt precision global strike capabilities.”Jackie Cabasso — Western States Legal Foundation |
Western Elite militarismWestern Elite Terror StatesWestern Elite War Crimes
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'Oh! You don't believe the 9-11 official version,' they say.
'You mean where they want you to accept the buildings were not blown up from below.
'Plane fuel! Substance never burns higher then a gas stove! That it caused the inner core steel to melt!
'Steel melting!
'Concrete vaporizing!
'
'No! I don't believe that conspiracy theory.
'Cheney! Bush! Rudy Giuliani! HA! HA!
'Tower 7 that never had a plane hit — just came tumbling down!
'You believe that, eh!
'Ever think it had to be blown up because the plane scheduled to fly into it was off getting shot down.
'Thermite in Tower 7's walls, you see — incriminating evidence — impossible to get out without people watching!
Had to be blown up!
'Next you'll be saying Obama is not a Wall Street Illuminati banker stooge?
'Take your pick: The partner in a comedy team who feeds lines to the other comedians.
'Him who allows himself to be used.
'Oh! I can't really blame you, Television it turns minds to pulp.
'Turn off the television. It's the only way.'
'Turn off the television?'
'Get rid of it really. I mean what else is there to do!'
'Get rid of the television?'
'Don't forget all radio garbage is propaganda, even the songs.
'Then those five minute propaganda hits they send you every hour!
'The ones they refer to as News
'Get rid of all the propaganda from your brain, the only way to do it.'
'Stop being hooked on those Hollywood movies — even those that make you think they are making you think'
'All paid performers to make your brain dead.
'You turn the brainwashing off, you'll begin to become yourself.
'It really is the only way!'
'Oh!'
Kewe — TheWE.name
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We are change 9/11 lies have sustained the ruling terrorism-threat paradigm The “why” is obvious: To justify an unjust war to serve corporate interests and greed |
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9.11 Truth New York City Decades long history of political disruption the US has been responsible for 9/11 is part of a long series of criminal, imperialist conquests Another major highlight was surprise appearance of Cynthia McKinney |
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Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth A solid convincing case which architects & engineers will readily see: that the 3 WTC high-rise buildings were destroyed by both classic and novel forms of controlled demolition These buildings were professionally demolished with explosives |
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Transcript of interview with Niels Harrit on Danish TV2 News 6th April 2009.
Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe
Danish TV2 International researchers have found traces of explosives among the World Trade Center rubble.
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A new scientific article concludes that impacts from the two hijacked aircraft did not cause the collapses in 2001.
We turn our attention to 9/11 — the major attack in New York.
Apparently the two airplane-impacts did not cause the towers to collapse, according to a newly published scientific article.
Researchers found nano-thermite explosive in the rubble, that cannot have come from the planes.
They believe several tonnes of explosives were placed in the buildings in advance.
Niels Harrit, you and eight other researchers conclude in this article, that it was nano-thermite that caused these buildings to collapse. What is nano-thermite?
Niels Harrit We found nano-thermite in the rubble.
We are not saying only nano-thermite was used.
Thermite itself dates back to 1893.
It is a mixture of aluminum and rust-powder, which react to create intense heat.
The reaction produces iron, heated to 2500 °C.
This can be used to do welding. It can also be used to melt other iron.
Nanotechnology makes things smaller. So in nano-thermite, this powder from 1893 is reduced to tiny particles, perfectly mixed.
When these react, the intense heat develops much more quickly.
Nano-thermite can be mixed with additives to give off intense heat, or serve as a very effective explosive.
It contains more energy than dynamite, and can be used as rocket fuel.
Danish TV2
I Googled nano-thermite, and not much has been written about it. Is it a widely known scientific substance? Or is it so new that other scientists are hardly aware of it?
Niels Harrit It is a collective name for substances with high levels of energy.
If civilian researchers (like myself) are not familiar with it, it is probably because they do not do much work with explosives.
As for military scientists, you would have to ask them.
I do not know how familiar they are with nanotechnology.
Danish TV2 So you found this substance in the WTC, why do you think it caused the collapses?
Niels Harrit
Well, it's an explosive. Why else would it be there?
Danish TV2 You believe the intense heat melted the building?s steel support structure, and caused the building to collapse like a house of cards?
Niels Harrit I cannot say precisely, as this substance can serve both purposes.
It can explode and break things apart, and it can melt things.
Both effects were probably used, as I see it.
Molten metal pours out of the South Tower several minutes before the collapse.
This indicates the whole structure was being weakened in advance.
Then the regular explosives come into play.
The actual collapse sequence had to be perfectly timed, all the way down.
Danish TV2 What quantities are we talking about?
Niels Harrit A lot. There were only two planes, but three skyscrapers collapsed.
We know roughly how much dust was created.
The pictures show huge quantities, everything but the steel was pulverised.
And we know roughly how much unreacted thermite we have found.
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This is the “loaded gun”, material that did not ignite for some reason.
We are talking about tonnes. Over 10 tonnes, possibly 100 tonnes.
Danish TV2
Ten tonnes, possibly 100 tonnes, in three buildings? And these substances are not normally found in such buildings?
Niels Harrit No. These materials are extremely advanced.
Danish TV2 How do you place such material in a skyscraper, on all the floors?
Niels Harrit How you would get it in?
Danish TV2 Yes.
Niels Harrit If I had to transport it in those quantities I would use pallets. Get a truck and move it in on pallets.
Danish TV2 Why hasn't this been discovered earlier?
Niels Harrit By whom?
Danish TV2 The caretakers, for example. If you are moving 10 to 100 tonnes of nano-thermite around, and placing it on all the floors. I am just surprised no-one noticed.
Niels Harrit As a journalist, you should address that question to the company responsible for security at the WTC.
Danish TV2 So you are in no doubt the material was present?
Niels Harrit You cannot fudge this kind of science.
We have found it. Unreacted thermite.
Danish TV2 What responses has your article received around the world?
Niels Harrit It is completely new knowledge for me.
It was only published last Friday. So it is too early to say.
But the article may not be as groundbreaking as you think.
Hundreds of thousands of people around the world, have long known that the three buildings were demolished.
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This has been crystal clear.
Our research is just the last nail in the coffin.
This is not the 'smoking gun', it is the 'loaded gun'.
Each day, thousands of people realise that the WTC was demolished.
That is something unstoppable.
Danish TV2 Why has no-one discovered earlier that there was nano-thermite in the buildings? Almost ten years have passed.
Niels Harrit You mean in the dust?
Danish TV2 Yes.
Niels Harrit It was by chance that someone looked at the dust with a microscope.
They are tiny red chips.
The biggest are 1 mm in size, and can be seen with the naked eye.
But you need a microscope to see the vast majority.
It was by chance that someone discovered them two years ago.
Danish TV2 It has taken 18 months to prepare the scientific article you refer to.
Niels Harrit It is a very comprehensive article based on thorough research.
Danish TV2
You have been working on this for several years, because it didn't make sense to you.
Niels Harrit
Yes, over two years actually.
It all started when I saw the collapse of Building 7, the third skyscraper.
It collapsed seven hours after the twin towers.
And there were only two airplanes.
When you see a 47-storey building, 186m tall, collapse in 6.5 seconds, and you are a scientist, you think “what?”.
I had to watch it again… and again.
I hit the button 10 times, and my jaw dropped lower and lower.
Firstly, I had never heard of that building before.
And there was no visible reason why it should collapse in that way, straight down, in 6.5 seconds.
I have had no rest since that day.
Danish TV2
Ever since 9/11 there has been speculation, and conspiracy theories. What do you say to viewers who hear about your research and say, “we?ve heard it all before, there are lots of conspiracy theories”. What would you say to convince them that this is different?
Niels Harrit I think there is only one conspiracy theory worth mentioning, the one involving 19 hijackers.
I think viewers should ask themselves what evidence they have seen to support the official conspiracy theory.
If anyone has seen evidence, I would like to hear about it
No-one has been formally charged. No-one is 'wanted'.
Our work should lead to demands for a proper criminal investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attack.
Because it never happened. We are still waiting for it.
We hope our results will be used as technical evidence when that day comes.
Danish TV2
Niels Harrit, fascinating, thanks for coming in.
Niels Harrit
My pleasure |
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ITALIAN SAYS 9-11 SOLVED
It’s common knowledge, he reveals
CIA — Mossad behind terror attacks By the Staff of American Free Press
Former Italian President Francesco Cossiga, who revealed the existence of Operation Gladio, has told Italy’s oldest and most widely read newspaper that the 9-11 terrorist attacks were run by the CIA and Mossad, and that this was common knowledge among global intelligence agencies.
In what translates awkwardly into English, Cossiga told the newspaper Corriere della Sera:
“All the [intelligence services] of America and Europe… know well that the disastrous attack has been planned and realized from the Mossad, with the aid of the Zionist world in order to put under accusation the Arabic countries and in order to induce the western powers to take part … in Iraq [and] Afghanistan.”
Cossiga was elected president of the Italian Senate in July 1983 before winning a landslide election to become president of the country in 1985, and he remained until 1992.
Cossiga’s tendency to be outspoken upset the Italian political establishment, and he was forced to resign after revealing the existence of, and his part in setting up, Operation Gladio.
This was a rogue intelligence network under NATO auspices that carried out bombings across Europe in the 1960s, 1970s and ’80s.
Gladio’s specialty was to carry out what they termed 'false flag' operations — terror attacks that were blamed on their domestic and geopolitical opposition.
In March 2001, Gladio agent Vincenzo Vinciguerra stated, in sworn testimony:
“You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game.
The reason was quite simple: to force … the public to turn to the state to ask for greater security.”
Cossiga first expressed his doubts about 9-11 in 2001, and is quoted by 9-11 researcher Webster Tarpley saying:
“The mastermind of the attack must have been a sophisticated mind, provided with ample means not only to recruit fanatic kamikazes, but also highly specialized personnel.
I add one thing: it could not be accomplished without infiltrations in the radar and flight security personnel.”
Coming from a widely respected former head of state, Cossiga’s assertion that the 9-11 attacks were an inside job and that this is common knowledge among global intelligence agencies is illuminating.
It is one more eye-opening confirmation that has not been mentioned by America’s propaganda machine in print or on TV.
Nevertheless, because of his experience and status in the world, Cossiga cannot be discounted as a crackpot.
Free to redistribute as long as credit given to American Free Press |
Photo: Bentham-Open.org |
Bentham-Open.org Download pdf — 10mg document including images — Right click Save As |
The secret story of Mossad and the World Trade Center attack The Odigo Warning: Israeli employees get e-mail warnings of 9-11 SEC Secret Probe Of Stock Dealings Before 9/11 |
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Truth Action LA Branch We are in the midst of a mass awakening 9/11 is the foundational myth upon which the entire agenda has been triggered for our generation |
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Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice High Velocity Bursts of Debris From Point-Like Sources in the WTC Towers Why Did the World’s Most Advanced Electronics Warfare Plane Circle Over The White House on 9/11? |
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Your life, your children's lives — Will you live or die?Decided by small group of elite.Pure evil It doesn't get any clearer than this
Published on Friday, March 2, 2007 by the Los Angeles Times
US to Develop New Hydrogen Bomb
by Ralph Vartabedian
The Energy Department will announce today a contract to develop the nation's first new hydrogen bomb in two decades, involving a collaboration between three national weapons laboratories, The Times has learned.
The new bomb will include design features from all three labs, though Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the Bay Area appears to have taken the lead position in the project. The Los Alamos and Sandia labs in New Mexico will also be part of the project.
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Hiroshima, Nagasaki — George Weller report |
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Why are the West's elites trying to start a nuclear war?
Because you pay for it |
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BBC — Thursday, 6 September 2007
UK jets 'chase Russian bombers'
The UK's Royal Air Force has launched fighter jets to intercept eight Russian military planes flying in airspace patrolled by Nato, UK officials say.
Four RAF F3 Tornado aircraft were scrambled in response to the Russian action, the UK's defence ministry said.
The Russian planes - said to be long-range bombers - had earlier been followed by Norwegian F16 jets.
Russia recently revived a Cold War-era practice of flying bombers on long-range patrols.
A Norwegian officer, Lt Col John Inge Oegland, told the BBC the Russian Tupolev Tu-95 Bear bombers flew in international airspace from the Barents Sea to the Atlantic, before turning back.
Two Norwegian F-16s shadowed them on Thursday morning and another two went up later, he said.
There have been several similar incidents in recent months, Lt-Col Oegland added.
"Norway is following the increased Russian activity in the far north with interest," he told the BBC News website.
He said the Russian flights were not causing alarm in Norway. "Our systems are adequate," he said, when asked whether Norway was bolstering its security in the area. |
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Over time I was increasingly shocked by the speed and ease with which many intelligent and seemingly competent members of the CFR [ Council on Foreign Relations ] appeared to eagerly justify policies and actions that supported growing corruption.
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The regularity with which many CFR members would protect insiders from accountability regarding another appalling fraud surprised even me.
Many of them seemed delighted with the advantages of being an insider while being entirely indifferent to the extraordinary cost to all citizens of having our lives, health and resources drained to increase insider wealth in a manner that violated the most basic principles of fiduciary obligation and respect for the law.
In short, the CFR was operating in a win-lose economic paradigm that centralized economic and political power.
I was trying to find a way for us to shift to a win-win economic paradigm that was — by its nature — decentralizing.
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The reader can appreciate why Wall Street would welcome someone as accommodating as Gorelick at Fannie Mae.
This was a period when the profits rolled in from engineering the most spectacular growth in mortgage debt in U.S. history.
As one real estate broker said, “They have turned our homes into ATM machines.”
Fannie Mae has been a leading player in centralizing control of the mortgage markets into Washington D.C. and Wall Street.
And that means as people were rounded up and shipped to prison as part of Operation Safe Home, Fannie was right behind to finance the gentrification of neighborhoods.
And that is before we ask questions about the extent to which the estimated annual financial flows of $500 billion–$1 trillion money laundering through the U.S. financial system or money missing from the US government are reinvested into Fannie Mae securities.
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James Forrestal’s oil portrait always hung prominently in one of the private Dillon Read dining rooms for the eleven years that I worked at the firm. Forrestal, a highly regarded Dillon partner and President of the firm, had gone to Washington, D.C. in 1940 to lead the Navy during WWII and then played a critical role in creating the National Security Act of 1947.
He then became Secretary of War (later termed Secretary of Defense) in September 1947 and served until March 28, 1949.
Given the central banking-warfare investment model that rules our planet, it was appropriate that Dillon
partners at various times lead both the Treasury Department and the Defense Department.
Shortly after resigning from government, Forrestal died falling out of a window of the Bethesda Naval Hospital outside of Washington, D.C. on May 22, 1949.
There is some controversy around the official explanation of his death — ruled a suicide.
Some insist he had a nervous breakdown. Some say that he was opposed to the creation of the state of Israel.
Others say that he argued for transparency and accountability in government, and against the provisions instituted at this time to create a secrete “black budget.”
He lost and was pretty upset about it — and the loss was a violent one.
Since the professional killers who operate inside the Washington beltway have numerous techniques to get perfectly sane people to kill themselves, I am not sure it makes a big difference.
Approximately a month later, the CIA Act of 1949 was passed.
The Act created the CIA and endowed it with the statutory authority that became one of the chief components of financing the “black” budget — the power to claw monies from other agencies for the benefit of secretly funding the intelligence communities and their corporate contractors.
This was to turn out to be a devastating development for the forces of transparency, without which there can be no rule of law, free markets or democracy.
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Protecting the brand with dirty tricks — Enforcement Terrorism The profitable liquidation of every place — Coutts, bank for British Queen and royals Catherine Austin Fitts — Dillon Reid and Co. Inc. And the Aristocracy of Stock Profits |
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What Briody does not mention is allegations regarding Brown & Root's involvement in narcotics trafficking. Former LAPD narcotics investigator Mike Ruppert once described his break up with fiance Teddy — an agent dealing narcotics and weapons for the CIA while working with Brown & Root, as follows:
“Arriving in New Orleans in early July, 1977 I found her living in an apartment across the river in Gretna. Equipped with scrambler phones, night vision devices and working from sealed communiqués delivered by naval and air force personnel from nearby Belle Chasse Naval Air Station, Teddy was involved in something truly ugly.
She was arranging for large quantities of weapons to be loaded onto ships leaving for Iran.
At the same time she was working with Mafia associates of New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello to coordinate the movement of service boats that were bringing large quantities of heroin into the city.
The boats arrived at Marcello controlled docks, unmolested by even the New Orleans police she introduced me to, along with divers, military men, former Green Berets and CIA personnel.
“The service boats were retrieving the heroin from oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, oil rigs in international waters, oil rigs built and serviced by Brown and Root.
The guns that Teddy monitored, apparently Vietnam era surplus AK 47s and M16s, were being loaded onto ships also owned or leased by Brown and Root.
And more than once during the eight days I spent in New Orleans I met and ate at restaurants with Brown and Root employees who were boarding those ships and leaving for Iran within days.
Once, while leaving a bar and apparently having asked the wrong question, I was shot at in an attempt to scare me off.”
Source: "Halliburton’s Brown and Root is One of the Major Components of the Bush-Cheney Drug Empire" by Michael Ruppert, From the Wilderness
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Dark Alliance — The Story Behind the Crack Explosion The "Good Guys" Who Can Do No Wrong
Profoundest suspicions of white malfeasance were true |
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The Clinton Administration took the groundwork laid by Nixon, Reagan and Bush and embraced and blossomed the expansion and promotion of federal support for police, enforcement and the War on Drugs with a passion that was hard to understand unless and until you realized that the American financial system was deeply dependent on attracting an estimated $500 billion-$1 trillion of annual money laundering.
Globalizing corporations and deepening deficits and housing bubbles required attracting vast amounts of capital.
Attracting capital also required making the world safe for the reinvestment of the profits of organized crime and the war machine.
Without growing organized crime and military activities through government budgets and contracts, the economy would stop centralizing.
The Clinton Administration was to govern a doubling of the federal prison population.
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9/11
By all accounts, the unprecedented events of September 11th, 2001 changed the way our country functions, and in turn, the world.
It is therefore critical that conscientious Americans, as well as people around the globe, understand these events in detail.
Unfortunately the official reports, including The 9/11 Commission Report and the NIST WTC Report, written by those working under the direction of the Bush Administration, have been proven to be elaborate cover-ups.
Film: 9/11 Revisited
September 11th Revisited is perhaps the most riveting film ever made about the destruction of the World Trade Center.
This is a powerful documentary which features eyewitness accounts and archived news footage that was shot on September 11, 2001 but never replayed on television.
Featuring interviews with eyewitnesses & firefighters, along with expert analysis by Professor Steven E. Jones, Professor David Ray Griffin, MIT Engineer Jeffrey King, and Professor James H. Fetzer.
This film provides stunning evidence that explosives were used in the complete demolition of the WTC Twin Towers and WTC Building 7.
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For Film: 9/11 Revisited
— Click Here
Film: 9/11 Press for Truth
An excellent documentary about the families of the victims of 9/11 and their fight to uncover and expose the truth about what happened that day.
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For Film: 9/11 Press for Truth
— Click Here
Film: 9/11 Mysteries
90 minutes of pure demolition evidence and analysis, laced with staggering witness testimonials.
Moving from “the myth” through “the analysis” and into “the players,” careful deconstruction of the official story set right alongside clean, clear science.
The 9/11 picture is not one of politics or nationalism or loyalty, but one of strict and simple physics. How do you get a 10-second 110-story pancake collapse?
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Image: Natasha Mayers |
| It's kind of a fun gameYou see the aim of those inner forces who guide the Elite —
For them the real agenda is depopulation
To kill off you your children your grandchildren It is to have fun watching our stupidity as we allow the destruction of our planet — but most haven't figured this out yet! If we stop them with the nuclear and biological weapons then it's the 400+ MPH, KPH wind the increase in UVB, UVC, UVA rays due to loss of stratospheric ozone. It's the climate! It's the reduction and elimination of food coming from all levels of cunning World Elite — tools and servants of Lucifer |
Gustave Doré's illustration for Paradise Lost by John Milton |
The Dark Side Initiates — Click here Dark path initiates depend on the denial The five-percent manipulator class is composed of those on the dark path |
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Agent Orange Dioxin — Vietnam Cleft palate, Canoe footed, Clawed fingers continue in births I didn't know what it was then, but it was white |
UVC in the 10 to 290 nanometer band UVB, 290 to 320 nanometers UVA, 320 to 400 nanometers |
Soot's effect on ice melt and glaciers Washington State's Glaciers are Melting |
Remnants of knowledge would be retained with those on higher ground. A few people here, a few there. Translations of discussions with The WE |
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Published on Monday, July 4, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
by Sheldon Drobny Justice O'Connor's decision in Bush v. Gore led to the current Bush administration's execution of war crimes and atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places in the Middle East that are as egregious as those committed by the Third Reich and other evil governments in human history.
The lesson is clear.
Those people who may be honorable and distinguished in their chosen profession should always make decisions based upon good rather than evil no matter where their nominal allegiances may rest.
Justice O'Connor was quoted to have said something to the affect that she abhorred the thought of Bush losing the 2000 election to Gore.
She was known to have wanted to retire after the 2000 election for same reason she is now retiring.
She wanted to spend more time with her sick husband.
Unfortunately, she tarnished her distinguished career with the deciding vote in Bush v. Gore by going along with the partisan majority of the Court to interfere with a democratic election that she and the majority feared would be lost in an honest recount.
She dishonored herself and the Supreme Court by succumbing to party allegiances and not The Constitution to which she swore to uphold.
And the constitutional argument she and the majority used to justify their decision was the Equal Protection Clause.
The Equal Protection Clause was the ultimate basis for the decision, but the majority essentially admitted (what was obvious in any event) that it was not basing its conclusion on any general view of what equal protection requires.
The decision in Bush v Gore was not dictated by the law in any sense—either the law found through research, or the law as reflected in the kind of intuitive sense that comes from immersion in the legal culture.
The Equal Protection clause is generally used in matters concerning civil rights.
The majority ignored their basic conservative views supporting federalism and states' rights in order to justify their decision.
History will haunt these justices down for their utter lack of justice and the hypocrisy associated with this decision.
Sheldon Drobny is Co-founder of Air America Radio.
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EndGame — Alex Jones, you have done the world a great favor
It has taken me until now to view this great masterpiece that chronicles the planet's true history
But I am glad for this delay as my awareness of reality, and the events that seemingly must unfold to educate humankind, have come from sentience off planet — now with this movie the circles merge
A movie par excellence, it will likely be considered the most significant in the downfall of the rich and powerful who control the world and rising politicians already in their pocket — the imprisonment of all those who seek to bring forth this horror, this enslavement of 'New World Order'
Kewe
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Bush v. Gore Appointment of U.S. President by the U.S. Supreme Court — Raw political clout exercised by US Supreme Court |
Unspeakable grief and horror
...and the circus of deception continues... |
Nanci Pelosi — U.S. House Democratic leader — Congresswoman California, 8th District
Speaking at the AIPAC agenda May 26, 2005
There are those who contend that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. This is absolute nonsense.
In truth, the history of the conflict is not over occupation, and never has been: it is over the fundamental right of Israel to exist.
The greatest threat to Israel's right to exist, with the prospect of devastating violence, now comes from Iran.
For too long, leaders of both political parties in the United States have not done nearly enough to confront the Russians and the Chinese, who have supplied Iran as it has plowed ahead with its nuclear and missile technology....
In the words of Isaiah, we will make ourselves to Israel 'as hiding places from the winds and shelters from the tempests; as rivers of water in dry places; as shadows of a great rock in a weary land.'
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The United States will stand with Israel now and forever.
Now and forever.
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Ahmed and Asma, story of two children dying — Lest we forget |
Atrocities committed by Israel — graphic pictures What CNN never shows you |
Israel, chemical weapons and phosphorous bombs New and unknown deadly weapons used by Israeli forces Undetectable poison-needle gun for 'clean' assassinations |
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| Legendary Historian, Attorney & Peace Activist Staughton Lynd on War Resisters, the Peace and Prison Movement Applied for conscientious objector status in 1952 Watch listen www.democracynow.org |
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| The WE News Archives |  kewe archives | Afghanistan | kewe archive calendar | TheWE.name |
Our data has been extracted from a comprehensive analysis of over 10,000 press and media reports... Our accounting is not complete: only an in-depth, on-the-ground census could come close to achieving that
After all, we know from the various insider memoirs that Bush was unaware that Islam is roughly divided into two rival sects, Sunni and Shiite, while just last week he bizarrely announced that our Iraq policy had never been “stay the course” — as if he was unaware of the invention of video-recording equipment that had captured him saying just that countless times. 
