tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79969212024-03-23T11:33:46.112-07:00George Washington's Blog(<i>Click <a href="http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/">Here for Part 2</a></i>)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger373125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-35401591070611962972008-04-11T14:54:00.000-07:002008-07-17T17:46:30.648-07:00Evidence is Growing: Continuity of Government Plan is Currently in EffectIn two previous posts (<a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/02/continuity-of-government-plans-were.html">here</a> and <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/02/has-government-already-implemented.html">here</a>), I showed that Continuity of Government (COG) plans were implemented on September 11th, and I argued that it is possible that they have never been suspended.<br /><br />Now, one of the top investigative journalists in the country, Larisa Alexandrovna (the lead journalist at Raw Story), says:<br /><span id="VOCUSHTML" xsscleaned="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;"><span xsscleaned="font-family: Tahoma;"><blockquote>"it seems to me that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/fourth-amendment-does-not_b_94763.html">this administration has justified its crimes by NOT suspending the state of emergency that went up on September 11, 2001. They are using emergency powers if you look at the whole of the spying, military actions inside the US, etc. I would wager that if asked, this administration will admit that we have been in a state of emergency for their tenure in office</a>."</blockquote></span></span>Remember that Continuity of Government plans -- that is, the measures that go into effect in case of emergency -- <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/02/has-government-already-implemented.html">suspend the Constitutional form of government, cut elected officials out of the loop, and may even allow the government to tell the media what it can and cannot report</a>.<br /><br />Remember also that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdfjsS9Wqk8">the entire Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. Congress has been denied access to the government's Continuity of Government Plans</a> even though it has clearance to view such plans (video; or <a href="http://fas.org/sgp/congress/2007/cog.html">here is the transcript</a>). Indeed, a member of that Committee has said "<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/21/2678/">Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right</a>”.<br /><br />If we are in a state of emergency and COG plans are in effect, then Congress acting even more obviously like corporate and military lapdogs than normal and <span style="font-style: italic;">totally </span>ignoring the will of the people would make sense. It would make sense that "impeachment is off the table", because Congress would not even be sitting <span style="font-style: italic;">at </span>the table under a non-constitutional COG form of government; and Congress certainly would not be a co-equal branch of government with the Executive branch.<br /><br />If we are in a state of emergency and COG plans are in effect, then the corporate media's acting <span style="font-style: italic;">even more obviously</span> like the disinformation arm of the government than usual would make sense.<br /><br />Given the stakes, it is vital that we demand that Congress and the White House state on the record whether or not Continuity of Government plans are currently in effect. We're not going to make any progress on whatever issue is most important to us -- peace, liberty, election integrity/vote fraud, 9/11 truth, etc. -- if we are living under a COG regime and we don't even know it. <br /><br />And our strategy will be different depending on whether we are living under a COG regime or a Constitutional form of government.<br /><br />We have to find out one way or another.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">For a full discussion on COG, see <a href="http://www.constitutionally.blogspot.com">this</a>.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-39669650064844623882008-04-11T14:27:00.000-07:002008-04-11T14:35:50.987-07:00"The US Air Force Shot Down Flight 93"The following comment was posted to my blog today (I do not know who the author is -- he posted semi-anonymously; so decide for yourself whether or not you believe him):<br /><blockquote>"I am an Air Force veteran. I was serving at Langley AFB, Virginia on Sept. 11. (not to be confused with CIA headquarters at Langley, VA). The "Alert Squadron" of 4 F-16 Falcons also stationed at Langley AFB was scrambled AFTER the "plane" crashed into the Pentagon. Because of my position as a ground equipment mechanic, I had access to the flightline operations that day. My friends were Crew Cheifs and Weapons Loaders, among other professions on the flightline that day. One of my [unusual] duties that day was to drive a Loader (personal friend) along with a rack of live missiles (AIM-9's and AIM-120's) across the active runway to the Alert Squadron and drop them off. I was towing equipment to the flightline, so when it was time to go back and pick up the Loader (and our missile trailer) I was unable to do so, but another member of my Flight (a good friend, and later roommate) did go. According to my roommate (and I later confirmed with the Loader) the Loader was completely silent most of the trip back to our side of the base, after they crossed the active, he spoke. "<span style="font-weight: bold;">They shot one down</span>." JJ replied "WHAT?" Loader:"<span style="font-weight: bold;">One of those 16's came back with one less missile than it left with</span>" That was all. As they pulled back in to the squadron area, The loader was whisked away by his commanders for debriefing. I didn't see him for a few days, but when I did, he said he couldn't talk about it, but he confirmed that what my roommate had told me was true.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The US Air Force shot down Flight 93</span>. I haven't told this to many people. I told my parents and other family members shortly after I left the military. They didn't believe it. I figured no one else would either. I kept my mouth shut. Everyone was dedicated to the president and the country (not really) And anything that went against the Official, media delivered story was viewed as unpatriotic. I knew that I loved this country, so I kept my mouth shut. I just can't do that anymore. I know that I don't have any documents to prove it, and I have no way of knowing where the others involved are now days, so I can't prove anything. All I have is my word. and with God as my witness that is the truth."</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-9942312405027093812008-04-10T23:21:00.000-07:002008-04-10T16:53:53.346-07:00If We Don't Learn Our History, We're Doomed to Repeat ItEveryone has heard the saying "if we don't learn our history, we're doomed to repeat it".<br /><br />Let's see if history can teach us anything about 9/11:<br /><ul><li>Historians agree that the Japanese <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident">bombed one of their own railways</a>, and then blamed it on Chinese dissidents, as a justification for war against China</li></ul><ul><li><align=“justify”><span style="color:BLACK;">I</span></align=“justify”><align=“justify”><align=“justify”><span style="color:BLACK;">t is widely accepted that the Nazis, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleiwitz_incident" target="_blank">in Operation Himmler</a>, faked attacks on their own people and resources which they blamed on the Poles, to justify the invasion of Poland </span></align=“justify”></align=“justify”></li></ul><ul><li><align=“justify”><align=“justify”><span style="color:BLACK;">It has now been persuasively argued — as shown, for example, in <a href="http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/IMAGES/reichstagfire.rm" target="_blank">this History Channel video</a> — that Nazis set fire to their <em>own</em> government building and blamed that fire on others (if you have trouble playing the clip, it is because the website hosting the clip requires you to download the clip before playing it). The fire was <em>the</em> event which justified Hitler's seizure of power and suspension of liberties </span><span style="color:BLACK;"> </span></align=“justify”></align=“justify”></li></ul><ul><li><align=“justify”><align=“justify”><span style="color:BLACK;">In the early 1950s, <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/group/SHR/5-1/text/beinin.html" target="_blank">agents of an Israeli terrorist cell operating in Egypt planted bombs in several buildings, including U.S. diplomatic facilities, in the hope that radical muslims would be blamed as the culprits </a>(one of the bombs detonated prematurely, allowing the Egyptians to identify the bombers). Israel's Defense Minister was brought down by the scandal, along with the entire Israeli government. See also <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/lavon.html" target="_blank">this</a> confirmation</span><span style="color:BLACK;"> </span></align=“justify”></align=“justify”></li></ul><ul><li><align=“justify”><align=“justify”><span style="color:BLACK;">The Russian KGB apparently <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/13/wrus13.xml" target="_blank">conducted a wave of bombings in Russia in order to justify war against Chechnya and put Vladimir Putin into power</a> (see also <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Apartment_Bombings" target="_blank">this short essay</a> and <a href="http://www.sais-jhu.edu/programs/res/papers/Satter_edited_final.pdf" target="_blank">this report</a>)</span><span style="color:BLACK;"> </span></align=“justify”></align=“justify”></li></ul><ul><li><align=“justify”><align=“justify”><span style="color:BLACK;">The Turkish government has <a href="http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=49228" target="_blank">been caught bombing its own and blaming it on a rebel group in order to justify a crackdown on that group</a></span><span style="color:BLACK;"> </span></align=“justify”></align=“justify”></li></ul><ul><li><align=“justify”><align=“justify”><span style="color:BLACK;">The well-respected former Indonesian president said that <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Possible-police-role-in-2002-Bali-attack/2005/10/12/1128796591857.html" target="_blank">the government had a role in the Bali bombings</a></span><span style="color:BLACK;"> </span><align=“justify”></align=“justify”></align=“justify”></align=“justify”></li></ul><ul><li><span style="color:BLACK;">As documented by the New York Times, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html" target="_blank">Iranians <i>working for the C.I.A.</i> in the 1950's posed as Communists and staged bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its democratically-elected president</a> (see also<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax" target="_blank"> this essay</a>)</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="color:BLACK;">As confirmed by a former Italian Prime Minister, an Italian judge, and the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,462976,00.html" target="_blank">former head of Italian counterintelligence</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_of_tension" target="_blank">NATO, with the help of the Pentagon and CIA, carried out terror bombings in Italy and blamed the communists, in order to rally people’s support for their governments in Europe in their fight against communism. </a> As one participant in this formerly-secret program stated: <blockquote><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20051130003012/http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/documents/collection_gladio/synopsis.htm" target="_blank">"You had to attack civilians, people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people, the Italian public, to turn to the state to ask for greater security."</a></blockquote><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20051130003012/http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/documents/collection_gladio/synopsis.htm" target="_blank"></a></span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="color:BLACK;">Recently declassified documents show that in the 1960's, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff signed off on a plan to <em><strong>blow up AMERICAN airplanes</strong></em> (using an elaborate plan involving the switching of airplanes), and also to <em><strong>commit terrorist acts on American soil</strong></em>, and then to blame it on the Cubans in order to justify an invasion of Cuba. If you view no other links in this article, please read the following <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92662&page=1" target="_blank">ABC news report</a>; <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/news/20010430/northwoods.pdf" target="_blank">the official documents</a>; and watch <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IygchZRJVXM" target="_blank">this interview </a>with the former Washington Investigative Producer for ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings</span></li></ul><ul><li><align=“justify”><span style="color:BLACK;"><a href="http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nytimes/116193080.html?did=116193080&FMT=ABS&FMTS=AI&date=Oct+28%2C+1993&author=By+RALPH+BLUMENTHAL&pub=New+York+Times++%281857_Current+file%29&desc=Tapes+Depict+Proposal+to+Thwart+Bomb+Used+in+Trade+Center+Blast" target="_blank">The FBI had penetrated the cell which carried out the 1993 world trade center bombing, but had -- at the last minute -- cancelled the plan to have its FBI infiltrator substitute fake powder for real explosives, against the infiltrator's strong wishes</a> (summary version is free; full version is pay-per-view)? See also <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F1Y6cGRXEs&eurl" target="_blank">this TV news report</a></span><span style="color:BLACK;"> </span></align=“justify”></li></ul><align=“justify”><align=“justify”><span style="color:BLACK;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,584444,00.html" target="_blank"></a></span></align=“justify”></align=“justify”><ul><li><align=“justify”><align=“justify”><align=“justify”><align=“justify”><align=“justify”><span style="color:BLACK;">The anthrax attacks -- which were sent along with notes purportedly written by Islamic terrorists -- used a weaponized anthrax strain <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A49502-2001Dec15" target="_blank">from the top U.S. bioweapons facility, the Fort Detrick military base?</a> Indeed, <a href="http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=288522002" target="_blank">top bioweapons experts have stated that the anthrax attack may have been a CIA test "gone wrong"</a>; and see <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/madsenanthrax.html" target="_blank">this article by a former NSA and naval intelligence officer</a>; and <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/12/13/21216/806" target="_blank">this statement by a distinguished law professor and bioterror expert</a> (and <a href="http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/24273" target="_blank">this one</a>). It is also interesting that the only congress people mailed anthrax-containing letters <a href="http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/11/21/anthrax/index_np.html" target="_blank">were key democrats, and that the attacks occurred one week before passage of the freedom-curtailing Patriot Act,</a> which seems to have scared them and the rest of congress into passing that act without even reading it</span></align=“justify”></align=“justify”></align=“justify”></align=“justify”></align=“justify”></li></ul><ul><li><span style="color:BLACK;">The former director of the National Security Agency said <a href="http://hammernews.com/odomspeech.htm" target="_blank">"By any measure the US has long used terrorism. In ‘78-79 the Senate was trying to pass a law against international terrorism - in every version they produced, the lawyers said the US would be in violation"</a>(the audio is <a href="http://hammernews.com/odom.ram" target="_blank">here</a>)</span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="color:BLACK;">A former National Security Adviser told the Senate that <a href="http://www.senate.gov/%7Eforeign/testimony/2007/BrzezinskiTestimony070201.pdf" target="_blank">the war on terror is "a mythical historical narrative"</a></span></li></ul><ul><li><span style="color:BLACK;">Famous leaders have stated again and again that false flag terror is the name of the game:<br /></span></li></ul><span style="color:BLACK;"></span><span style="color:BLACK;"></span><blockquote><ul><li><span style="color:BLACK;">U.S. President James Madison said: </span><span style="color:BLACK;">"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."</span></li></ul></blockquote><span style="color:BLACK;"></span><span style="color:BLACK;"></span><blockquote><ul><li><span style="color:BLACK;">Adolph Hitler said: </span><span style="color:BLACK;">"Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death".</span></li></ul></blockquote><blockquote><ul><li>Nazi leader Hermann Goering said:<blockquote>"Why of course the people don't want war ... But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country".</blockquote></li></ul></blockquote><ul><li>Josef Stalin said:<blockquote><blockquote><span><span><span><span style="color:BLACK;">"The easiest way to gain control of a population is to carry out acts of terror. [The public] will clamor for such laws if their personal security is threatened"</span></span></span></span></blockquote></blockquote></li></ul>Given the above-described history of<span><span style="color:BLACK;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag" target="_blank">false flag terror</a></span></span>, it is beyond dispute that we must carefully scrutinize what really happened on 9/11, and that we cannot take the government's word for it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-4750723397304929522008-04-10T11:02:00.000-07:002008-08-01T11:20:38.878-07:00Global Warming: First Do No HarmWhatever you think about global warming, our first responsibility is to make sure that the cure is not worse than the disease. As the father of medicine -- Hippocrates -- put it, "first do no harm".<br /><br />In other words, if all the patient has is a slight headache, you don't want to bleed him with leeches and then cut out part of his brain.<br /><br />What am I talking about? Well, initially, liberal pundit Noam Chomsky has said that he would submit to fascism if it would help combat global warming:<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565847032/qid%3D1013365358/sr%3D8-1/understandi04-20/102-2299791-9084927"><br /></a><blockquote><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565847032/qid%3D1013365358/sr%3D8-1/understandi04-20/102-2299791-9084927">"Suppose it was discovered tomorrow that the greenhouse effects has been way understimated, and that the catastrophic effects are actually going to set in 10 years from now, and not 100 years from now or something.<br /><br />Well, given the state of the popular movements we have today, we'd probably have a fascist takeover-with everybody agreeing to it, because that would be the only method for survival that anyone could think of. I'd even agree to it, because there's just no other alternatives right now." </a> (page 388).</blockquote>I don't care if Godzilla is about to attack . . . submitting to fascism is <span style="font-style: italic;">always</span> a bad idea.<br /><br />Moreover, I heard years ago in college that people were debating dropping a <span style="font-style: italic;">nuclear bomb</span> on the Isthmus of Panama (the little spit of land which separates the Pacific ocean from the Carribean), in order to join the two oceans and so - hypothetically - curb the effects of global warming.<br /><br />Now, "<a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200804/CUL20080410a.html">government scientists are studying the feasibility of sending nearly microscopic particles of specially made glass into the Earth's upper atmosphere to try to dampen the effects of 'global warming</a>.' "<br /><br />Some people are also suggesting <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=bury+trees+global+warming&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a">cutting down trees and burying them</a>.<br /><br />These proposals are <span style="font-style: italic;">insane</span>. They would cause unimaginable damage to human health, and could very well destabilize climate in a manner we haven't foreseen.<br /><br />Whether you believe in man-made global warming or not, it is vital that we all use our heads and stop our government from doing anything crazy and destructive in the name of protecting us from global warming.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-3150019844493339172008-04-09T16:51:00.000-07:002008-05-29T12:24:30.918-07:00Numerous Structural Engineers Now Publicly Challenge Government's Explanation for Destruction of the World Trade Center<p>Numerous structural engineers now publicly challenge the government's account of the destruction of the Trade Centers on 9/11, including:<br /></p><p>Two professors of structural engineering at a prestigious Swiss university (Dr. Joerg Schneider and Dr. Hugo Bachmann) said that, <a href="http://tagesanzeiger.ch/dyn/news/ausland/663864.html" target="_blank">on 9/11, World Trade Center 7 was brought down by controlled demolition</a> (translation <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Ftagesanzeiger.ch%2Fdyn%2Fnews%2Fausland%2F663864.html&langpair=de%7Cen&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools" target="_blank">here</a>)</p>Kamal S. Obeid, structural engineer, with a masters degree in Engineering from UC Berkeley, of Fremont, California, <a href="http://www.ae911truth.org/supporters.php?g=_AES_#998760">says</a>:<br /><blockquote> "Photos of the steel, evidence about how the buildings collapsed, the unexplainable collapse of WTC 7, evidence of thermite in the debris as well as several other red flags, are quite troubling indications of well planned and controlled demolition"</blockquote>Ronald H. Brookman, structural engineer, with a masters degree in Engineering from UC Davis, of Novato California, <a href="http://www.ae911truth.org/supporters.php?g=_AES_#997441">writes</a>:<br /><blockquote> "Why would all 110 stories drop straight down to the ground in about 10 seconds, pulverizing the contents into dust and ash - twice. Why would all 47 stories of WTC 7 fall straight down to the ground in about seven seconds the same day? It was not struck by any aircraft or engulfed in any fire. An independent investigation is justified for all three collapses including the surviving steel samples and the composition of the dust."</blockquote>Graham John Inman, structural engineer, of London, England, <a href="http://www.ae911truth.org/supporters.php?g=_AES_#999000">points out</a>:<br /><blockquote> "WTC 7 Building could not have collapsed as a result of internal fire and external debris. NO plane hit this building. This is the only case of a steel frame building collapsing through fire in the world. The fire on this building was small & localized therefore what is the cause?"</blockquote>Paul W. Mason, structural engineer, of Melbourne, Australia, <a href="http://www.ae911truth.org/supporters.php?g=_AES_#997386">argues</a>:<br /><blockquote>"In my view, the chances of the three buildings collapsing symmetrically into their own footprint, at freefall speed, by any other means than by controlled demolition, are so remote that there is no other plausible explanation!"</blockquote>David Scott, Structural Engineer, of Scotland, argues:<br /><blockquote> "Near-freefall collapse violates laws of physics. Fire induced collapse is not consistent with observed collapse mode . . . ."</blockquote>Nathan Lomba, Structural Engineer, of Eureka, California, states<br /><blockquote> "I began having doubts about, so called, official explanations for the collapse of the WTC towers soon after the explanations surfaced. The gnawing question that lingers in my mind is: How did the structures collapse in near symmetrical fashion when the apparent precipitating causes were asymmetrical loading? The collapses defies common logic from an elementary structural engineering perspective. “If” you accept the argument that fire protection covering was damaged to such an extent that structural members in the vicinity of the aircraft impacts were exposed to abnormally high temperatures, and “if” you accept the argument that the temperatures were high enough to weaken the structural framing, that still does not explain the relatively concentric nature of the failures.<br /><br />Neither of the official precipitating sources for the collapses, namely the burning aircraft, were centered within the floor plan of either tower; both aircraft were off-center when they finally came to rest within the respective buildings. This means that, given the foregoing assumptions, heating and weakening of the structural framing would have been constrained to the immediate vicinity of the burning aircraft. Heat transmission (diffusion) through the steel members would have been irregular owing to differing sizes of the individual members; and, the temperature in the members would have dropped off precipitously the further away the steel was from the flames—just as the handle on a frying pan doesn't get hot at the same rate as the pan on the burner of the stove. These factors would have resulted in the structural framing furthest from the flames remaining intact and possessing its full structural integrity, i.e., strength and stiffness.<br /><br />Structural steel is highly ductile, when subjected to compression and bending it buckles and bends long before reaching its tensile or shear capacity. Under the given assumptions, “if” the structure in the vicinity of either burning aircraft started to weaken, the superstructure above would begin to lean in the direction of the burning side. The opposite, intact, side of the building would resist toppling until the ultimate capacity of the structure was reached, at which point, a weak-link failure would undoubtedly occur. Nevertheless, the ultimate failure mode would have been a toppling of the upper floors to one side—much like the topping of a tall redwood tree—not a concentric, vertical collapse.<br /><br />For this reason alone, I rejected the official explanation for the collapse of the WTC towers out of hand. Subsequent evidence supporting controlled, explosive demolition of the two buildings are more in keeping with the observed collapse modalities and only serve to validate my initial misgivings as to the causes for the structural failures."<br /></blockquote>Edward E. Knesl, civil and structural engineer, of Phoenix, Arizona, writes:<br /><blockquote> "We design and analyze buildings for the overturning stability to resist the lateral loads with the combination of the gravity loads. Any tall structure failure mode would be a fall over to its side. It is impossible that heavy steel columns could collapse at the fraction of the second within each story and subsequently at each floor below.<br /><br />We do not know the phenomenon of the high rise building to disintegrate internally faster than the free fall of the debris coming down from the top.<br /><br />The engineering science and the law of physics simply doesn't know such possibility. Only very sophisticated controlled demolition can achieve such result, eliminating the natural dampening effect of the structural framing huge mass that should normally stop the partial collapse. The pancake theory is a fallacy, telling us that more and more energy would be generated to accelerate the collapse. Where would such energy would be coming from ?"</blockquote>David Topete, civil and structural engineer, San Francisco, California<br /><br /><a href="http://www.911blogger.com/node/2257">Charles Pegelow, structural engineer</a>, of Houston, Texas (and see <a href="http://www.ae911truth.org/info/9">this</a>)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ae911truth.org/joinus.php">Dennis Kollar, structural engineer</a>, of West Bend, Wisconsin<br /><br /><a href="http://stj911.org/members/index.html">Doyle Winterton, structural engineer </a>(retired)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ae911truth.org/supporters.php?g=ENG">Michael T. Donly, P.E., structural engineer</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.vermontguardian.com/commentary/032007/TwinTowers.shtml">William Rice, P.E., structural engineer</a>, former professor of Vermont Technical College<br /><br /><span></span><i><span style="font-style: italic;">See <a href="http://www.ae911truth.org/supporters.php?g=_AES_">this website</a> and <a href="http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/engineers.html">this website</a> for further additions.<br /><br />There are many other structural engineers who have questioned the government's account in private. We support them and wish them courage to discuss these vital issues publicly.<br /><br />See also <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/09/jones.html">this</a>.</span></i><i><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-12129967494691117752008-04-04T21:20:00.000-07:002008-04-04T21:59:24.139-07:00It Is NOT Too LateWith the never-ending assaults on our constitutional liberties by the wanna-be fascists . . .<br /><br />With the constant manipulations of the economy by the powers-that-be . . .<br /><br />With the mountain of horrific crimes committed by the mega-corporations in Iraq and America<br />. . .<br /><br />With the constantly-increasing blizzard of psyops and snow-jobs by the corporate media . . .<br /><br />It is easy to lose hope<br /><br />Or to have the fire of righteous anger doused by the dampness of fatigue<br /><br />Or to ease up on trying to fix things<br /><br /><u>A Little Perspective</u><br /><br />It is <span style="font-style: italic;">vital </span>to put things in perspective:<br /><ul><li>We are (still) able to share real news on the Internet</li></ul><ul><li>We are (still) not locked in prison camps set up for those who criticize the government<br /></li></ul><ul><li>We have (still) not bombed yet another country for oil<br /></li></ul><ul><li>There has (still) not been a nuclear or bio false flag</li></ul><ul><li>We are (still) able to access food and other necessities</li></ul>Therefore, we <span style="font-style: italic;">still </span>have resources to work with . . .<br /><br /><u>NOW Is the <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>Time<br /><br /></u>Indeed, while the forces of darkness are perhaps greater than ever before, we also have more awareness and more resources than ever before. More people understand the history of false flags than ever before. More people understand than ever before that wars are fought for the financial interests of the few (according to Noam Chomsky). More people can access uncensored information on the Net than ever before. More people see the big picture than ever before.<br /><br />I'm <span style="font-style: italic;">not </span>saying everything is okay and we should relax. I <u>am</u> saying that the battle isn't over yet. Liberty and justice and sanity can still prevail.<br /><br />NOW is the time to stand up and insist on our freedom.<br />NOW is the moment to seize victory away from those who want to manipulate us.<br />NOW is the window of opportunity when the people can throw off the yoke of the tyrants.<br /><br />We still have everything we need to win.<br />It is (still) not too late<br /><br />NOW is the perfect time to take action!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-90020187882218098512008-04-04T12:41:00.000-07:002008-04-07T17:28:01.959-07:00To Keep America Safe, We Must Impeach Bush and Cheney for Their Disregard of Life on 9/11Even if you (unlike the <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/12/are-people-who-question-911-credible-or.html">military leaders, intelligence professionals, scientists, engineers, and other highly-credible people who question 9/11</a>) -- do not believe that elements within the U.S. government intentionally aided and abetted the September 11 attacks, or let them happen on purpose, you have to admit that the government <span style="font-style: italic;">failed to do its job of protecting the American people</span>.<br /><br />For example, 9/11 was <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2001/09/they-knew.html">completely foreseeable</a>. <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/03/us-and-allied-intelligence-services-had.html">U.S. and allied intelligence services had penetrated the <span style="font-style: italic;">very highest levels</span> of Al Qaeda prior to 9/11</a> and <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2007/04/government-heard-911-plans-from.html">heard the hijackers' plans from their own mouths</a>.<br /><br />However, even the 9/11 Commission found that the Bush administration did <span style="font-style: italic;">nothing </span>to prevent the attacks. For example, 9/11 Commissioner Bob Kerrey said:<br /><blockquote>"<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0411/08/pzn.01.html">The president says, if I had only known that 19 Islamic men would come into the United States of America and on the morning of 11 September hijack four American aircraft, fly two into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and one into an unknown Pennsylvania that crashed in Shanksville, I would have moved heaven and earth. That's what he said.<br /><br />Mr. President, you don't need to know that. This is an Islamic jihadist movement that has been organized since the early 1990s, declared war on the United States twice, in '96 and '98.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> You knew they were in the United States. You were warned by the CIA. You knew in July they were inside the United States. You were told again by briefing officers in August that it was a dire threat.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">And what did you do? Nothing, so far as we could see on the 9/11 Commission</span>.</span> Now, that's in the report. And we took an oath not to talk about it during the campaign ....</a>"</blockquote>Indeed, before 9/11, U.S. and allied governments had <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/03/did-us-and-allied-intelligence-agents.html">prevented the arrest of many of the hijackers</a>.<br /><br />In addition, once the 9/11 attacks were under way, what did the Bush administration do? You might think that I'm going to say "nothing".<br /><br />Actually, they did <span style="font-style: italic;">worse </span><span style="font-style: italic;">than nothing</span>. They <span style="font-style: italic;">actively interfered</span> with the ability of the military and civilian air traffic controllers to prevent or minimize the catastrophe.<br /><br />Don't believe me? The director of the U.S. "Star Wars" space defense program in both Republican and Democratic administrations, who was a senior air force colonel who flew 101 combat missions (Col. Robert Bowman) stated:<blockquote>"<a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6573509697830819918">If our government had merely [done] nothing, and I say that as an old interceptor pilot—I know the drill, I know what it takes, I know how long it takes, I know what the procedures are, I know what they were, and I know what they’ve changed them to—if our government had merely done nothing, and allowed normal procedures to happen on that morning of 9/11, the Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive.</a>"</blockquote>What does he mean? He means that the normal airplane intercept protocols were wholly ignored on 9/11.<br /><br />Of course, President Bush read My Pet Goat for seven minutes after being informed about the second airplane, and then loitered at the school for a long time after that. If he had acted decisively and told the air force to immediately intercept all hijacked planes, lives would have been saved.<br /><br />Moreover, Vice President Dick Cheney was in charge of ALL of the war games which occurred on and coordinated the government's "response" to the attacks (see <a href="http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/af/security/a1050878.htm" target="_blank">this Department of State announcement</a>; <a href="http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/11/ar911.king.cheney/" target="_blank">this CNN article</a>; and <a href="http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/011805_simplify_case.shtml#bullmeans" target="_blank">this essay</a>). The war games had previously been spread out over the course of a couple of months, but someone -- with Cheney in charge -- moved up <span style="font-style: italic;">all</span> of the war games to 9/11. Because of this scheduling, on the morning of 9/11, five war games and terror drills were being conducted by several U.S. defense agencies, including one "live fly" exercise using REAL planes. Then-Acting Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General Richard B. Myers, admitted to 4 of the war games in congressional testimony -- see <a href="http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/030105_mckinney_question.shtml" target="_blank">transcript here</a> or video <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060425112545/http://www.spiegltech.com/media/McKinney2.rm" target="_blank">here (6 minutes and 12 seconds into the video)</a>.<br /><br />Some of the war games included inserting <span style="font-style: italic;">fake radar information </span>onto air traffic controllers screens (pay-per-view <a href="http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/426239581.html?did=426239581&FMT=ABS" target="_blank">article</a>; <a href="http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/planes/defense/torontostar_russiangame.html" target="_blank">reprinted here</a>) . Air traffic controllers claim they couldn't see some of the hijacked planes, and that they were still tracking what they thought were hijacked planes <i>long after</i> all 4 of the real planes had crashed. This implies that false radar blips remained on their screens after all 4 planes went down.<br /><br />And <a href="http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20040805095600503" target="_blank">fighter jets were sent far off-course over the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the attacks</a> (testimony of Senator Mark Dayton), neutralizing their ability to intercept the hijacked airliners.<br /><br />And people within the U.S. government, including Dick Cheney, <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/03/air-traffic-controllers-do-track-planes.html">watched Flight 77 as it approached the Pentagon from many miles out, and watched other of the hijacked planes for many miles</a>, but failed to take any steps to intercept any of the aircraft.<br /><br />Finally, someone ordered the tenants of the Twin Towers back into the Towers. They died when the buildings collapsed. It is not clear who ordered the people back in; but -- even if Bush or Cheney were not responsible for the order -- given that 9/11 was a national emergency, they had the power to order a full evacuation. Thus, the blood of those who died in the Twin Towers is on Bush and Cheney's hands as well.<br /><br />Therefore, it is beyond argument that Bush, Cheney and the other leaders of our government failed to protect us on 9/11, and increased the death toll from the attacks.<br /><br /><u>Bush and Cheney's Criminal Negligence and Wilfull Disregard of Loss of Life on 9/11 is Grounds for Impeachment<br /><br /></u>According to the former U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey Clarke, criminal neglect is a basis for impeachment. Specifically, in the articles of impeachment against President Bush and Vice President Cheney which Clarke drafted, he lists as one of the grounds for impeachment: "<a href="http://www.impeachbush.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5054&news_iv_ctrl=1061"><span>Engaging in criminal neglect</span></a>".<br /><br />Similarly, Elizabeth Holtzman, former Congresswoman who served on the House Judiciary Committee during Nixon's impeachment, co-authored the 1973 special prosecutor statute, and co-wrote the book, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Impeachment of George W. Bush</span>, has stated that criminal negligence is a basis for impeachment:<br /><blockquote>"<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1114-22.htm">The president neglected his duty over matters of vast consequence and in situations where the trust placed in him was great. This conjunction of his failure to take care and his reckless indifference to human life provides the basis for impeachment</a>."</blockquote>Other constitutional experts have also stated that criminal negligence or willfull indifference to loss of human life is a basis for impeachment.<br /><br />Given the discussed-described facts, it is beyond dispute that President Bush and VP Cheney were -- at the very least -- grossly negligent and willfully indifferent to loss of human life before and on 9/11.<br /><br />They should therefore be impeached. If we do not impeach Bush and Cheney, it will set a <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=bG1&q=if+we+don%27t+impeach+precedent+future+presidents&btnG=Search">dangerous precedent</a> for future Commanders-In-Chief and Vice Presidents . . . that they can act with gross negligence and callow disregard for human life, and not face any consequences.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Bush and Cheney should also be impeached for <a href="http://www.georgewashington.blogspot.com/2005/11/911-lies-another-basis-for-impeachment.html">falsely linking Iraq and 9/11</a>.<br /><br />In addition, they are also subject to <u>criminal prosecution</u> for their criminal negligence and disregard for loss of human life.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-52305270550078849012008-04-04T11:59:00.000-07:002008-04-04T12:01:57.978-07:00Why Don't the Democrats ask Mukasey Some Real Questions?Its <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=PRW&pwst=1&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=attorney+General+Mukasey+to+explain+his+comments+about+a+pre-9/11+phone+call&spell=1">headline news</a> that top Democrats are asking Attorney General Mukasey to explain his comments about a pre-9/11 phone call from a terrorist to the United States.<br /><br />Why doesn't Congress ask Mukasey some <span style="font-style: italic;">real questions</span>. For example:<br /><ul><li>Mr. Attorney General, since <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2001/09/they-knew.html">the U.S. government knew the date and method of the 9/11 attacks</a>, why weren't the attacks stopped?</li></ul><ul><li>Mr. Mukasey, because the <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2007/04/government-heard-911-plans-from.html">government heard the 9/11 plans from the hijackers'<span style="font-style: italic;"> own mouths</span></a>, why wasn't anything done to stop them?</li></ul><ul><li>Sir, since <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/03/us-and-allied-intelligence-services-had.html">U.S. and allied intelligence services had penetrated the <span style="font-style: italic;">very highest levels</span> of Al Qaeda prior to 9/11</a>, why wasn't 9/11 stopped?</li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/03/did-us-and-allied-intelligence-agents.html">U.S. and allied intelligence services seem to have actually employed or at least protected many of the hijackers prior to 9/11</a>. Uh . . . why did they do that?</li></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-74175466828168919572008-04-02T12:16:00.000-07:002008-04-02T18:06:49.041-07:009/11 Truth is Not "Old News"Every time an important fact undermining the official story about 9/11 is raised, defenders of the government's version try to label it as an "<span style="font-style: italic;">old </span>story" which is "not <span style="font-style: italic;">news</span>".<br /><br />Are they right?<br /><div id="body_t1_c03dvec" class="commentbody"><div class="md"><p>Well, the Iraq war is "old" news, right? The fact that Bush lied us into it?</p> <p>The fact that it was an unnecessary war?</p> <p>The fact that it is bankrupting the U.S.</p> <p><strong><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal;">Oh wait</span> </strong>... The war is CONTINUING, so it is <span style="font-style: italic;">still </span>news.</p> <p>Similarly . . .</p> <p>The entire "war on terror" is based on 9/11.</p> <p>TRILLIONS have been spent on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq due to the government's story about 9/11 (and so the U.S. is in a recession, and possibly heading into a depression.</p> <p>Many, many people have been killed and tortured due to the government's story about 9/11.</p> <p>America's constitution has been shredded due to the government's story about 9/11. Spying on all Americans. Public dissent cracked down on, free speech stomped on ... due to the government's story about 9/11.</p> <p>That's all old news, right?</p> <p>Oh wait . . . all of these things are still ongoing...</p> <p>Indeed, many former <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2005/12/high-level-officials-warn-of-fake.html">high-level officials are warning that the government might use false "provocations" to start <span style="font-style: italic;">new</span> wars</a>.<br /></p> <p>Is it therefore remotely possible that it might be worth double-checking what the government says about 9/11, given that hundreds of top structural engineers, architects, scientists, military leaders, congressmen -- and even the 9/11 commissioners themselves -- <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/12/are-people-who-question-911-credible-or.html">question the government's version of how the Trade Centers were destroyed?</a></p><p><a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/12/are-people-who-question-911-credible-or.html"></a></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>In modern day America, is checking the government's claims so unusual that <span style="font-style: italic;">that </span>is considered news?<br /></p></div></div><span style="font-style: italic;">Incidentally, the "old story, not news" label was actually perfected by Karl Rove. Specifically, Rove taught people to "slime" the character of the person accusing the White House of wrongdoing, or otherwise to misdirect the debate. If that that was not possible, or was not working, he advocated labeling any harmful facts as "old news", and thus not worth paying any attention to.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-49900113601332492902008-03-31T12:45:00.000-07:002008-03-31T16:45:05.961-07:00Air Traffic Controllers Do Track Planes Even with Transponders OffBefore 9/11, no transponder had ever become inactive, and so the military and FAA didn't have any experience on how to track planes with their transponders off. Right?<br /><br />Well, a <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20011109154911/http://www.miami.com/herald/special/news/worldtrade/digdocs/021549.htm">Miami-Herald article</a> from September 14, 2001, states:<br /><blockquote><p>The transponder [on Flight 77] went off about 9 a.m., the company said.</p> <p>At that moment, the flight would have been under the control of the Indianapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center, one of 20 regional centers that track flights between airports.</p> <p style="font-weight: bold;">The trouble should have been instantly noticeable, traffic controllers say.</p> <p>Flight 77, like other planes, at first showed up on radar screens as a short solid line, with a readout that identifies the plane and gives its altitude and speed. When the transponder shuts down, the short line vanishes. The speed number goes away, too.</p> <p>"<span style="font-weight: bold;">It's just something that catches your eye,'' one controller says.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">And it's not that unusual. Transponders fail from time to time</span>; commercial aircraft are required to carry a spare. Although it isn't clear what happened in the case of Flight 77, a controller's first move typically would be to contact the pilot, and tell them the transponder wasn't working.</p></blockquote>The official hijacking protocols provide that the loss of transponder signal be treated as a "no radio" emergency. On 9/11, that is <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5233007">exactly what happened</a>, at least for some of the flights (The protocols also state: "<a href="http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/terrorism/chp7.html">The NORAD control facility shall be advised if the hijacked aircraft is squawking <span style="font-style: italic;">a different transponder</span> code</a>". In other words, the moment a plane stops broadcasting the normal transponder code, NORAD is immediately notified).<br /><br />As former air traffic controller Robin Hordon, who knows the flight corridor which the two planes which hit the Twin Towers flew "like the back of my hand" and who handled two actual hijackings <a href="http://www.communitycurrency.org/robin.html" target="_blank">says</a>:<blockquote><p>It is important for people to understand that scrambling jet fighters to intercept aircraft showing the signs of experiencing “IN-FLIGHT EMERGENCIES” such as going off course without authorization,<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">losing a transponder signal and/or losing radio contact</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> is a </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">common and routine task</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>executed jointly between the FAA and NORAD controllers. The entire “national defense-first responder” intercept system has many highly-trained civilian and military personnel who are committed and well-trained to this task. FAA and NORAD continuously monitor our skies and fighter planes and pilots are on the ready 24/7 to handle these situations. Jet fighters typically intercept any suspect plane over the United States within 10 - 15 minutes of notification of a problem. </p><p> This type of "immediate, high speed, high priority and emergency" scramble had been happening regularly approximately 75 - 150 times per year for ten years. In the same ten years, there were ZERO "low speed, delayed reaction, and low priority" hijacking scrambles reported, which means that the only time interceptors were ever scrambled for ten years before 9/11, they were using the high speed immediate scrambles.<br /></p></blockquote>On 9/11, Flight 77 was in fact tracked on radar, and could have been intercepted with fighter jets. However, the plane was allowed to go on a joy-ride all over the country with its transponder off for three-quarters of an hour. As the above-quoted <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20011109154911/http://www.miami.com/herald/special/news/worldtrade/digdocs/021549.htm">Miami-Herald article</a> states:<br /><blockquote>Forty-five minutes. That's how long American Airlines Flight 77 meandered through the air headed for the White House, its flight plan abandoned, its radar beacon silent.<br /><br />* * *<br /><br />Who was watching in those 45 minutes?<br /><br />"That's a question that more and more people are going to ask,'' said one controller in Miami. "What the hell went on here? Was anyone doing anything about it? Just as a national defense thing, how are they able to fly around and no one go after them?''<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Even with the transponder silent, the plane should have been visible on radar, both to controllers who handle cross-continent air traffic and to a Federal Aviation Administration command center outside of Washington, according to air traffic controllers</span>.<br /><br />The FAA, which handles air traffic control, would not discuss the track of Flight 77 or what happened in air-control centers while it was in flight. Neither would American Airlines.<br /><br />***<br /><br />But <span style="font-weight: bold;">even if the plane remained silent, controllers could still find it -- by switching their screen display to the old-fashioned radar that bounces a signal off the plane's metal skin</span>.<p></p><p>***</p><p>Military jets are routinely scrambled in the case of hijackings and "runners,'' planes that do not answer or do not heed air traffic controllers. But FAA officials would not say when controllers detected the errant Flight 77 or whether any fighter jets were able to get into the air to confront it.</p> <p>Fighter jets are based nearby, in Virginia, and could have reached the White House within minutes, aviation sources say.</p></blockquote>Dick Cheney also <a href="http://www.911truthmovement.org/video/hamilton_win.wmv" target="_blank">monitored flight 77 for many miles as it approached the Pentagon</a> (confirmed <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2007/03/minetas-testimony-confirmed.html">here</a>).<br /><br />Similarly, an <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20021001221352/http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/sept11_controllers020906.html">ABC News</a> article states:<br /><blockquote>"Controllers at the Boston Center knew American Airlines Flight 11, which departed at 7:59 a.m. ET from Boston for its flight to Los Angeles, was hijacked 30 minutes before it crashed. <span style="font-weight: bold;">They tracked it to New York on their radar scopes. 'I watched the target of American 11 the whole way down,' said Boston controller</span> Mark Hodgkins. "<br /></blockquote>And air traffic controllers and others tracked <a href="http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a901goingin#a901goingin">Flight 175</a>.<br /><br />Indeed, radar data declassified in 2006 shows that <a href="http://911research.wtc7.net/planes/evidence/ntsb.html">the planes were tracked on radar virtually their entire flight, and that altitude was known for the planes during most of their flight</a> (only flight 77 was purportedly off-radar for part of its flight).<br /><br />And, as recounted by a high-level Secret Service agent:<br /><blockquote>"<a href="http://pccw.alumni.cornell.edu/news/newsletters/spring06/riggs.html">Through monitoring radar and activating an open line with the FAA, the Secret Service was able to receive real time information about . . . two hijacked aircraft as they approached Washington, D.C.</a> " </blockquote><u>Norad Admits Planes Show Up on Radar Even with Transponders Turned Off</u><br /><br />Even Neads, the Northeastern sector of Norad, admits that the hijacked planes would have appeared on radar as dashes even <span style="font-style: italic;">after </span>the transponders had been turned off:<p><a href="http://www.uticaod.com/archive/2004/08/05/news/4739.html"><blockquote>Because they had been informed its transponder was off, [Neads] knew to look for a tiny dash instead of the usual dot.<br /></blockquote></a></p><p>A similar report states:<br /></p><p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0756739594/centerforcoop-20/"><blockquote>NEADS Staff Sergeant Larry Thornton says, “Once we were called by the FAA, we could find split-second hits on what we thought we were looking for. . . <span style="font-style: italic;">We were looking for little dash marks</span> . . . .”</blockquote></a>But the government claims that it could not locate the hijacked planes because the skies were crowded with other planes, and the military air traffic controllers could not find the planes among all of the plane signals. As NEADS' Thornton <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0756739594/centerforcoop-20/">said</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote> "But the area was so congested and it was incredibly difficult to find. We were looking for little dash marks in a pile of clutter and a pile of aircraft on a two-dimensional scope.” Each fluorescent green pulsating dot on their radar scopes represents an airplane, and there are thousands currently airborne, especially over the busy northeast US.</blockquote><p></p>However, the hijacked planes flew in many areas which were <a href="http://www.public-action.com/911/4flights.jpg"><span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> high-traffic areas</a>.<br /><p>Moreover, it makes no sense that air traffic controllers could not focus their radar scopes solely on airplanes without transponder signals. In other words, let's say a Cuban jet flew onto the East Coast of the United States without any transponder signal. Would Norad say "Sorry, we lost the bad guy's nuclear-armed fighter jet amidst all the commuter flights"?</p><p>That makes no sense.</p><p> </p><p>Remember that Norad had run drills for several years of <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-04-18-norad_x.htm" target="_blank">planes being used as weapons against the World Trade Center and other U.S. high-profile buildings</a>, and "numerous types of civilian and military aircraft were used as mock hijacked aircraft". In other words, drills using REAL AIRCRAFT simulating terrorist attacks crashing jets into buildings, including the twin towers, were run. See also <a href="http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/IMAGES/wtcdrill3.wmv" target="_blank">this short excerpt of a Peter Jennings newscast on 9/11</a>. Moreover, the military had previously run war games involving <a href="http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a01multiplehijackings#a01multiplehijackings" target="_blank">multiple, simultaneous hijackings</a> , so this aspect of 9/11 was not as overwhelming as we have been led to believe..</p><p>Air traffic control radar, or at least military radar, must -- with the push of a button -- be able to use computer programming to hide all data for planes which have been accounted for as normal, civilian airplanes. In other words, those with working transponder signals. Even if air traffic controllers have to switch from secondary to primary radar, there must be a function for the computer to remove from primary radar signals which include transponder data.</p>If that were not the case, America's trillion-dollar defense system would be rendered useless.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-2787593270270485672008-03-27T22:00:00.000-07:002008-03-28T09:11:58.660-07:00The 9/11 Stand Down in 2 MinutesNORAD, responsible for intercepting errant aircraft over the U.S., has a standard operating procedure for scrambling planes for interception which takes <a href="http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Hordon">less than 15 minutes</a><br /><p></p> <p>They did this successfully (on time) <a href="http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/planes/analysis/norad/calgaryherald101301_scrables.html">129 times in 2000</a> and and <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20030623140139/http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/homefront020813.html">67 times between September 2000 and June 2001</a>.</p> <p>Yet, on September 11th, they failed to do their job <span style="font-style: italic;">4 times</span> in a <span style="font-style: italic;">single day</span>:</p> <ul><li>NORAD, once notified of the off-course aircraft, <a href="http://911research.wtc7.net/planes/analysis/norad/index.html#scramble">failed to scramble jets from the nearest bases</a></li></ul><ul><li>Once airborne, <a href="http://911research.wtc7.net/planes/analysis/norad/index.html#intercept">interceptors failed to reach their targets because they flew at small fractions of their top speeds</a></li></ul> <ul><li>Fighters that were airborne and within interception range of the deviating aircraft <a href="http://911research.wtc7.net/planes/analysis/norad/index.html#redeploy">were not redeployed to pursue them</a></li></ul>You might think that the military couldn't find the hijacked planes because the hijackers turned off the transponders. However, a former air traffic controller, who knows the flight corridor which the two planes which hit the Twin Towers flew "like the back of my hand" and who handled two actual hijackings says <a href="http://www.communitycurrency.org/robin.html" target="_blank">that planes can be tracked on radar <span style="font-style: italic;">even when their transponders are turned off</span></a> (also, listen to <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9147890225218338952" target="_blank">this interview</a>).<br /><br />As a former senior air force colonel said:<blockquote>"<a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6573509697830819918">If our government had merely [done] nothing, and I say that as an old interceptor pilot—I know the drill, I know what it takes, I know how long it takes, I know what the procedures are, I know what they were, and I know what they’ve changed them to—if our government had merely done nothing, and allowed normal procedures to happen on that morning of 9/11, the Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive. [T]hat is treason!</a>"</blockquote>Norad's stand down on 9/11 was so blatant that <a href="http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20051205150219651">Norad has been forced to give <span style="font-style: italic;">3 entirely different versions of what happened that day</span></a>, as each previous version has been exposed as false. When someone repeatedly changes his testimony after being caught in lies, how believable is he? The falsity of Norad's explanations were so severe that <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080101300.html?sub=new" target="_blank">even the 9/11 Commission considered recommending criminal charges for the making of false statements</a>.<br /><br />In addition, Dick Cheney <a href="http://www.911truthmovement.org/video/hamilton_win.wmv" target="_blank">monitored flight 77 for many miles as it approached the Pentagon</a> -- one of the most heavily-defended buildings in the world -- and yet <span style="font-style: italic;">ordered </span>that the airplane not be intercepted (confirmed <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2007/03/minetas-testimony-confirmed.html">here</a>). Given that Cheney was in charge of <span style="font-style: italic;">all </span>of the war games and coordinated the government's "response" to the attacks on 9/11 -- apparently including Norad (see <a href="http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/af/security/a1050878.htm" target="_blank">this Department of State announcement</a>, <a href="http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/11/ar911.king.cheney/" target="_blank">this CNN article</a>, and <a href="http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/011805_simplify_case.shtml#bullmeans" target="_blank">this essay</a>) -- Cheney's orders regarding flight 77 seem to be part and parcel of the Norad stand down.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-68024624881058457212008-03-26T12:51:00.000-07:002008-03-26T18:01:25.248-07:00Did the Government Entrap the 9/11 Hijackers?We've all seen it on television. The defense attorney argues his client was "<a href="http://www.answers.com/entrapment&r=67">entrapped</a>". That is, that it wasn't the defendant's idea to commit the crime, but that the police <span style="font-style: italic;">planted</span> the idea and <span style="font-style: italic;">urged </span>him to do it.<br /><br />Many of us have heard allegations that post-9/11 arrests of suspected Al Qaeda members were based on very thin information. Did you realize that all or virtually all of these arrests occurred due to entrapment? For example:<br /><ul><li>PBS' Frontline ran a special report focusing on the <span class="hide">the alleged Al Qaeda plot in Lodi, California, which showed -- based upon interviews with top law enforcement officials involved in the case -- that <a href="http://video.aol.com/video-detail/major-fbi-al-qeada-bust-terror-or-entrapment/2313185080">the bust amounted to little more than entrapment and coerced and fabricated confessions from two men who, in fact, had nothing to do with the terrorist group</a></span></li></ul><ul><li>The Washington Post ran a story about one alleged threat entitled "<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR2006090101764_pf.html">Was it a terror sting or entrapment?</a>", showing that the U.S. government lent material support to the wanna-be terrorists, and put violent ideas in their heads</li></ul><ul><li>Raw Story reports that the alleged terrorist group that is alleged to have planned to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower was <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Methods_questioned_in_investigation_leading_up_0629.html">non-violent before a government informant infiltrated the group and planted violent ideas in their heads</a></li></ul><ul><li>There are numerous other instances of entrapment of peaceful or mentally incompetent people who are then arrested as "terrorists" (see <a href="http://winterpatriot.blogspot.com/2007/12/burned-meet-william-chrisman-fbi.html">this</a>, <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/nimmo02012003.html">this</a> and <a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2006/240206toledoterrorists.htm">this</a>)<br /></li></ul>But surely 9/11 was different, right?. Without doubt, the hijackers were bloodthirsty militant Muslims who, solely due to their crazy beliefs and dark hearts, decided to attack and kill Americans. Right?<br /><br />Maybe. But let's take a look at the facts before deciding:<ul><li>One of al-Qaeda’s top trainers in terrorism and how to hijack airplanes, who was a very close associate of Bin Laden, was an <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=SCO20061008&articleId=3422">American citizen who was an operative for the FBI, the CIA, and the Army</a> (see also <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2FRTGAMArticleHTMLTemplate%2FC%2F20011122%2Fwxletgo%3Fhub%3DhomeBN%26tf%3Dtgam%25252Frealtime%25252Ffullstory.html%26cf%3Dtgam%2Frealtime%2Fconfig-neutral%26vg%3DBigAdVariableGenerator%26slug%3Dwxletgo%26date%3D20011122%26archive%3DRTGAM%26site%3DFront%26ad_page_name%3Dbreakingnews&ord=97045204&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true">this article from one of Canada's largest newspapers</a>). Indeed, while he was acting as an FBI informant, he smuggled Bin Laden in and out of Afghanistan, helped plan the attacks on US embassies in Africa, and apparently played a pivotal role in planning 9/11</li></ul><ul><li>An Al Qaeda operative very close to one of the top Al Qaeda leaders was a <a href="http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a00sakrainform#a00sakrainform">CIA informant</a></li></ul><ul><li>In an article on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramzi_Yousef">nephew of the supposed key mastermind of the 9/11 attacks</a>, Newsday reported in 1995: <a href="http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a1980syousefcia#a1980syousefcia">“FBI officials also are considering a probe of whether the CIA had any relationship with [the nephew], who fought with the CIA-financed mujaheddin in Afghanistan in the 1980s.”</a> A classified FBI file also reportedly indicated that <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1892941066/centerforcoop-20">the nephew had been recruited by the local branch of the CIA</a> (pages 220-221)</li></ul> <ul><li>The Congressional Joint Inquiry into 9/11 discovered that <a href="http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/11/con05439.html" target="_blank">an FBI informant had hosted and rented a room to two hijackers in 2000 and that, when the Inquiry sought to interview the informant, the FBI refused outright, and then hid him in an unknown location, and that a high-level FBI official stated these blocking maneuvers were undertaken <span style="font-style: italic;">under orders from the White House</span></a> (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/politics/08graham.html">confirmed here</a> by the Co-Chair of the Joint Inquiry and former Head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bob Graham; and see <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/65649">this Newsweek article</a>)</li></ul> <ul><li>The president of Pakistan said that <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/09/911-perp-omar-sheikh-was-mi6-agent.html">one of the masterminds of 9/11 was an MI6 (British intelligence services) agent</a></li></ul><ul><li>The <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2007/12/former-president-of-italy-911-was.html">former president of Italy</a> said that U.S. and Israeli intelligence services were behind the 9/11 attack, and that that fact is widely known by the intelligence services of all of the western nations</li></ul><ul><li>According to <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1454238160.cms">intelligence officials in India</a>, Pakistan's military chief of intelligence wired $100,000 to the lead hijacker days before 9/11 (mentioned <a href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=95001298%E2%80%9D">here</a> in a news roundup). This is especially interesting <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO111A.html">because</a>: That particular chief of intelligence was appointed to that position <span style="font-style: italic;">with the approval</span> of the U.S., and the intelligence chief had held "consultations" with his U.S. counterparts at the CIA and the Pentagon during the week prior to September 11 </li></ul> <ul><li> 11 of the hijackers received visas to the U.S. through a consular office where, according to the former head of that office, <a href="http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a1987springmann#a1987springmann">the CIA routinely insisted that visas be granted to terrorists, even when their visa applications should have been rejected under standard operating procedure</a> </li></ul> <ul><li> According to one of France's most reputable newspapers, the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,584444,00.html">CIA met with Bin Laden in an American hospital in Dubai in July 2001</a></li></ul><ul><li>And several of the hijackers apparently <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010917023145/http://www.msnbc.com/news/629529.asp">trained at U.S. military bases</a> prior to 9/11</li></ul>Given the above-described information, and the government's history of entrapping peaceful or mentally incompetent people and placing violent ideas in their heads - and plans and resources in their hands - is it possible that any of the participants in the 9/11 attacks who were <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> government agents were entrapped by those who were?<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Note: I am not arguing that the hijackers' names should be cleared or that they are good people who were victimized. Anyone who took a single life on 9/11 is a murderer and a scoundrel. I am, instead, simply asking who the true masterminds of 9/11 were, and who provided the resources to carry out the plan.<br /><br />*The nephew was himself one of the planners of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing (which is itself interesting, since an FBI informant had infiltrated the cell responsible for that bombing and</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nytimes/access/116193080.html?did=116193080&FMT=ABS&FMTS=AI&date=Oct+28%2C+1993&author=By+RALPH+BLUMENTHAL&pub=New+York+Times++%281857_Current+file%29&desc=Tapes+Depict+Proposal+to+Thwart+Bomb+Used+in+Trade+Center+Blast"> had offered to stop the 1993 bombing of the world trade center by substituting fake powder for real bombmaking materials, but the FBI allowed the bombing to happen anyway</a></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">(summary version is free; full version is pay-per-view)</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> (see also <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F1Y6cGRXEs&eurl">this news report</a>)). </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-6321346158388880412008-03-25T09:15:00.000-07:002008-03-26T09:20:34.451-07:00U.S. and Allied Intelligence Services Had Penetrated The Very Highest Levels of Al Qaeda Prior to 9/11No one could have anticipated 9/11, right? While the U.S. knew about Al Qaeda, the 9/11 plotters and hijackers were still somewhat unknown and unpredictable prior to 9/11. Right?<br /><br />In fact, U.S. and allied intelligence services had penetrated the <span style="font-style: italic;">highest levels</span> of Al Qaeda prior to 9/11. For example:<br /><ul><li>In January 2001 -- the French intelligence services <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL1612543820070416">gave a report to the CIA entitled "Plan to hijack an aircraft by Islamic radicals"</a>. Indeed, "<a href="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L16125438.htm">foreign agents had infiltrated Osama bin Laden's network and were carefully tracking its moves</a>" prior to 9/11. The original story from the leading French newspaper makes it clear that such <a href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041707J.shtml">infiltration went to the <span style="font-style: italic;">highest levels</span> of Al-Qaeda's camps, and included listening to the hijackers' debates about <span style="font-style: italic;">which airlines' planes</span> should be hijacked, and t</a><a href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041707J.shtml">hat allied intelligence services also listened </a><a href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041707J.shtml">into satellite phone conversations between the hijackers</a></li></ul><ul><li>Moroccan intelligence <a href="http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a0801hassandabou&scale=0#a0801hassandabou">penetrated Bin Laden's <span style="font-style: italic;">inner circle</span>, and reported on Bin Laden's plans to the U.S.</a></li></ul><ul><li>A longtime CIA officer says, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1595230009/centerforcoop-20/">“Egyptians, Jordanians, [and] Palestinians <span class="highlight">penetrated</span> the bin Laden organization for us. It’s B.S. that we didn’t.”</a> (page 143)</li></ul><ul><li>Former CIA director George Tenet says that <a href="http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a901unknowingassets#a901unknowingassets">“a group of assets from a Middle Eastern service”, working for the CIA, penetrated al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan by September 2001</a>. Bin Laden was dropping hints about the upcoming 9/11 attacks to training camp trainees in the summer of 2001, and US citizen John Walker Lindh was told details of the 9/11 attacks within weeks of joining a training camp that summer</li></ul><ul><li>USA Today states: <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002/06/03/cia-attacks.htm">"U.S. intelligence overheard al-Qaeda operatives discussing a major pending terrorist attack in the weeks prior to Sept. 11 and had agents inside the terror group"</a></li></ul><ul><li>Indeed, in the summer of 2001, <a href="http://www..org/context.jsp?item=asummer01ciasayspenetration#asummer01ciasayspenetration">the <span style="font-style: italic;">CIA allegedly told President Bush</span> that the highest levels of Al-Qaeda had been penetrated</a></li></ul>In addition, U.S. and allied intelligence services followed the hijacker's every move:<br /><ul><li>The Congressional Joint Inquiry into 9/11 discovered that <a href="http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/05/11/con05439.html" target="_blank">an FBI informant had hosted and rented a room to two hijackers in 2000 and that, when the Inquiry sought to interview the informant, the FBI refused outright, and then hid him in an unknown location, and that a high-level FBI official stated these blocking maneuvers were undertaken <span style="font-style: italic;">under orders from the White House</span></a> (<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/politics/08graham.html">confirmed here</a> by the Co-Chair of the Joint Inquiry and former Head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bob Graham)</li></ul><ul><li>The Pentagon also <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/11/17/122900.shtml" target="_blank">tracked the hijackers before 9/11</a></li></ul><ul><li>Israel <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/ketcham03072007.html">tracked the hijackers' every movement prior to the attacks, and may have sent agents to film the attack on the World Trade Centers</a></li></ul><ul><li>And Saudi intelligence was "<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/11/01/saudiarabia.terrorism/index.html">actively following" most of the September 11, 2001, plotters "with precision</a>" prior to the attacks. Saudi Arabia, like Israel, is a very close ally of the U.S.</li></ul>Moreover, the U.S. intercepted many high-level Al Qaeda phone calls:<br /><ul><li>The CIA and the NSA had been <a href="http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a953goodnews">intercepting phone calls by the hijackers</a> for <span style="font-style: italic;">years</span></li></ul><ul><li>The <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20020806083614/http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/3416632.htm">National Security Agency</a> and the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/037541486X/centerforcoop-20">FBI</a> were both independently listening in on the phone calls between the supposed mastermind of the attacks and the lead hijacker. Indeed, the FBI built its own antenna in Madagascar specifically to listen in on the mastermind's phone calls. <a href="http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a091001ksmcallsatta#a091001ksmcallsatta">The day before 9/11, the mastermind told the lead hijacker "tomorrow is zero hour" and gave final approval for the attacks.</a> The NSA intercepted the message that day and the FBI was likely also monitoring the mastermind's phone calls. (The NSA claims that it did not translate the intercept until September 12th; however, the above-mentioned FBI translator said that she was frequently ordered to falsify dates of translations regarding 9/11)</li></ul><ul><li>Shortly before 9/11, the NSA also intercepted <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20020223063715/http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/wnt_missedsignals_1_020218.html">multiple phone calls from Bin Laden's <span style="font-style: italic;">chief of operations</span> to the United States</a></li></ul><ul><li>Only <span style="font-style: italic;">two days </span>before 9/11, Osama Bin Laden called his stepmother and told her "In <span style="font-style: italic;">two days</span>, you're going to hear big news and you're not going to hear from me for a while.” <a href="http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a090901stepmother#a090901stepmother">US officials later told CNN that “in recent years they've been able to monitor some of bin Laden's telephone communications with his [step]mother. Bin Laden at the time was using a satellite telephone, and the signals were intercepted and sometimes recorded." Indeed, before 9/11, to impress important visitors, NSA analysts would occasionally play audio tapes of bin Laden talking to his stepmother</a></li></ul>Moreover, the financiers for Al Qaeda were not mysterious and unknown before 9/11:<br /><ul><li>According to <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1454238160.cms">intelligence officials in India</a> and <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=107432">the FBI</a>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Pakistan's military chief of intelligence </span>wired $100,000 to the lead hijacker days before 9/11 (mentioned <a href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=95001298%E2%80%9D">here</a> in an editorial round-up). It is well known that American and Pakistani intelligence service worked closely together for many years. Indeed, the above-described military chief of intelligence who wired the $100,000 to the hijacker actually <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO206A.html">met with the leaders of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees <span style="font-style: italic;">on the very morning of 9/11</span></a><br /></li></ul>Other facts point towards penetration of the highest levels of Al Qaeda:<br /><ul><li>9/11 family member and "Jersey Girl" Patty Casazza was told by whistleblowers that -- <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2007/11/911-family-member-patty-casazza.html">before 9/11 -- the government knew the <span style="font-style: italic;">exact</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">day</span>, the type of attack, and the <span style="font-style: italic;">targets</span></a></li></ul><ul><li>One of France's largest newspapers claims that the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,584444,00.html">CIA met with Bin Laden in an American hospital in Dubai in July 2001</a></li></ul>Whatever you might think about 9/11, it is beyond dispute that U.S. and allied intelligence services had penetrated "the highest levels" of Al Qaeda prior to 9/11. Al Qaeda and the 9/11 plotters and hijackers were thoroughly known, monitored, tracked and infiltrated before 9/11.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">If a domestic gang were this highly infiltrated and closely monitored by the FBI, and yet the FBI allowed the gang to commit a major crime, it would be obvious that the FBI allowed the crime to be committed. Right? Why is 9/11 any different? Indeed, Al Qaeda was arguably more higly infiltrated and monitored than any domestic gang.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Moreover, something very similar happened in 1993, </span><span style="font-style: italic;"> when a <a href="http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nytimes/access/116193080.html?did=116193080&FMT=ABS&FMTS=AI&date=Oct+28%2C+1993&author=By+RALPH+BLUMENTHAL&pub=New+York+Times++%281857_Current+file%29&desc=Tapes+Depict+Proposal+to+Thwart+Bomb+Used+in+Trade+Center+Blast">government informant offered to stop the 1993 bombing of the world trade center by substituting fake powder for real bombmaking materials, but the FBI allowed the bombing to happen anyway</a></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">(summary version is free; full version is pay-per-view)</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> (see also <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F1Y6cGRXEs&eurl">this news report</a>). It was supposedly Al Qaeda which carried out that attack also.<br /><br /><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-37193934092392778132008-03-23T13:48:00.000-07:002008-06-04T17:44:26.090-07:00"The Derivatives Market is Unwinding!"A couple of months ago, a financial analyst who sells derivatives told me that fears about a meltdown in the derivatives market were unfounded.<br /><br />Yesterday, he told me with a very worried look "the derivatives market is unwinding!"<br /><br />What does this mean?<br /><br />Well, it turns out that the reason that Bear Stearns was about to go belly-up before JP Morgan bought it is that it had trillions of dollars in derivatives exposure, which were about to go south. <span style="font-style: italic;">(The reason that JP Morgan was so eager to buy Bear Stearns is that it was on the other side of these derivative deals -- if Bear Stearns had gone under, JP Morgan would have taken a </span><span style="font-style: italic;">huge </span><span style="font-style: italic;">hit. But the way the derivative contracts were drafted, a purchase by JP Morgan canceled the derivative contracts, so that JP Morgan didn't experience huge losses on the swaps. That is probably why the Fed was so eager to broker the shotgun marriage).<br /><br /></span>Indeed, the subprime prime loan crisis is related to the unwinding of the derivatives market. Specifically, loans were <a href="http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/SuperModels/AreWeHeadedForAnEpicBearMarket.aspx?page=1">repackaged into derivatives called collateralized debt obligations (or "CDO's") and sold to big and regional banks and investment companies worldwide. The CDO's were highly-leveraged -- many times the amount of the actual loans</a>. When the subprime loan crisis hit, the high leverage magnified the fallout, and huge sums of CDO derivatives became essentially worthless.<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span>Do you remember when wealthy Orange County, California, went bankrupt in 1994? Yup, that was because it had <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=atl3yFmV508A&refer=news">invested in bad </a><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=atl3yFmV508A&refer=news">derivatives</a> (and see <a href="http://www.blogger.com/mp;spell=1">this</a>).<br /><br />And, <a href="http://www.wilmott.com/blogs/satyajitdas/index.cfm/2008/5/30/The-Credit-Default-Swap-CDS-Market--Will-It-Unravel">according to one of the world's top derivative insiders</a>, the market for credit default swap ("CDS") derivatives is also unraveling.<br /><br />And reported just today, <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/credit-jitters-return-lehman-worries/story.aspx?guid=%7B32A96F52%2D8702%2D40A6%2D8221%2D95B2F83AABEA%7D">Lehman Brothers is now on the edge</a>, due to exposure to derivatives.<br /><br /><u>Derivatives are the Elephant in the Living Room</u><br /><br />Forget about the subprime mortgage crisis. Forget about high oil and food prices. Those are both horrible, and very harmful to the economy. But -- according to top insiders -- derivatives are the elephant in the room as the single largest threat to the U.S. and world economy.<br /><br />One reason is that, <a href="http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/03/18/1/a-discussion-about-the-economy-with-paul-volcker">according to Paul Volcker</a>, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, the <span style="font-style: italic;">entire</span> modern financial system is based upon derivatives, and the financial system today is entirely different from the traditional American or global financial system because derivatives now underly the entire fabric of the financial system. The current system is a house of cards based upon derivatives.<br /><br />And yet banks and financial houses have hidden their derivatives exposure <a href="http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/ContrarianChronicles/BanksDarkOffBalanceSheetWorld.aspx">off the balance sheets</a>. No wonder almost no one understands derivatives:<br /><blockquote>"<a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/derivatives-new-ticking-time-bomb/story.aspx?guid=%7BB9E54A5D%2D4796%2D4D0D%2DAC9E%2DD9124B59D436%7D">Not only [world's richest man] Warren Buffett, but Bond King Bill Gross, our Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the rest of America's leaders can't 'figure out'" the derivatives market</a>.</blockquote> Indeed, the government may have actively helped to hide the the derivatives mess since at least 2006. <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/may2006/nf20060523_2210.htm">According to Business Week</a>:<blockquote>"President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their <span style="font-style: italic;">usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations</span>." </blockquote>Former fed chairman Alan Greenspan has been a <a href="http://www.wilmott.com/blogs/satyajitdas/index.cfm/2006/5/24/Fear-and-Loathing--WMD-or-What-are-Derivatives">huge booster for and defender of derivatives</a> for many years. Did you know that the same guy that pushed subprime loans also aggressively pushed derivatives?<br /><br />And the other regulatory agencies and Congress have taken a totally hands-off approach towards derivatives.<br /><br /><u>How Big a Problem?</u><br /><br />How big is the derivatives market? Worldwide, it is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_%28finance%29">$516 <span style="font-style: italic;">trillion </span>dollar</a>. The derivatives market <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/derivatives-new-ticking-time-bomb/story.aspx?guid=%7BB9E54A5D%2D4796%2D4D0D%2DAC9E%2DD9124B59D436%7D">dwarfs the real market for goods and services, and acts likes an unregulated black market.</a><br /><br />As one writer put it:<br /><blockquote>"<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney09152007.html">It’s all smoke and mirrors. The financial system has decoupled from the productive elements of the economy and is now beginning to show disturbing signs of instability.</a>"</blockquote>And its not just the U.S. Derivatives salesmen have sold these babies all over the world. Because banks, financial institutions and governments world-wide have bought significant derivatives, the fall out will not be limited solely to the U.S. See <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/af1e1c18-ee04-11dc-a5c1-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1">this</a> and <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&refer=home&sid=aS_DNKFmqEx4">this</a>.<br /><br />If the derivatives market is truly unwinding, as my investment advisor friend and some of the top industry insiders say, we could be in for a <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> bumpy ride.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">For further information on derivatives, see these articles:</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br /><div><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.prudentbear.com/index.php/BearsLairHome">http://www.prudentbear.com/index.php/BearsLairHome</a></span></span></span></span></div><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" ><span> </span><div><span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="207213500-05062008"><a href="http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article4419.html">h</a></span><a href="http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article4419.html">ttp://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article4419.html</a></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article1038.html">http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article1038.html</a></span></span></span></span></div><span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></span></span><div><span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article4378.html">http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article4378.html</a></span></span></span></span></div> <div><span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8634">http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8634</a></span></span></span></span></div> <div><span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/23/ccfed123.xml">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/23/ccfed123.xml</a></span></span></span></span></div> <div><span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/business/23how.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&pagewanted=print">http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/business/23how.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=business&pagewanted=print</a></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/business/23gret.html?ref=business">http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/business/23gret.html?ref=business</a></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/business/23regulate.html?pagewanted=2&th&emc=th">http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/business/23regulate.html?pagewanted=2&th&emc=th</a></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/21/markets/dollar/">http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/21/markets/dollar/</a></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/803541a6-f78c-11dc-ac40-000077b07658.html">http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/803541a6-f78c-11dc-a40-000077b07658.html</a></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/2008-36a.pdf">http://www.occ.treas.gov/ftp/release/2008-36a.pdf</a></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20080519&id=8667647">http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20080519&id=8667647</a></span></span></span></span></div> <div><span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/04/17/cnlibor117.xml">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/04/17/cnlibor117.xml</a></span></span></span></span></div> <div><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span></span></span></div></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-50773892533595293252008-03-21T20:30:00.000-07:002008-03-23T16:06:07.299-07:00Excuse Me, Mr. Emperor, Sir . . .The emperor says <a href="http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Asked_about_US_opposition_to_war_0319.html">he doesn't care if two-thirds of the public is now against the Iraq war</a> (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SypeZjeOrY4">video</a>). The emperor's spokesperson says that <a href="http://rawstory.com/news/2008/White_House_Press_Secretary_Perino_Americans_0320.html">the public's input into the Iraq war <span style="font-style: italic;">ended</span> in 2004</a>.<br /><br />Excuse me, Mr. Emperor, Sir, but:<br /><ul><li>The Iraq war is <a href="http://www.counterpunch.com/roberts03182008.html">bankrupting our country</a> (and <a href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23286149-2703,00.html">see this</a>). Don't we have any say in whether our country remains <span style="font-style: italic;">solvent</span>?<br /></li></ul><ul><li>Without massive vote fraud, you would not have "won reelection" in 2004<br /></li></ul><ul><li>You lied in saying that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, and most of the American people did not learn we had been deceived until <a href="http://downingstreetmemo.com/"><span style="font-style: italic;">after</span> your "reelection"</a></li></ul><ul><li>You lied -- and have kept on lying <span style="font-style: italic;">continuously </span>up until today -- in <a href="http://www.georgewashington.blogspot.com/2005/11/911-lies-another-basis-for-impeachment.html">linking Iraq and 9/11</a> </li></ul>Excuse me, Mr. Emperor, Sir, but ...<br /><br />You can stifle our voices in the short run. But all tyrannical governments eventually end, and the tyrants are eventually thrown in jail or forced to flee.<br /><br />You can silence us for a short while. But, eventually, the American people <span style="font-style: italic;">will </span>have our say.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-63062584021972532602008-03-18T12:56:00.000-07:002009-10-14T12:44:15.425-07:00Numerous Countries Have Recently Dropped The Dollar as Their Reserve CurrencyIn the past couple of years, the following countries have stopped using the dollar as their reserve currency or have dropped their currency's peg against the dollar:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4703477.stm">China</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://english.pravda.ru/business/companies/17-10-2007/98974-reserve_currency-0">Japan</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/05/20/afx3739653.html">Kuwait</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080110051911/http://moneynews.newsmax.com/money/archives/articles/2007/6/4/120846.cfm">Syria</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.kiplinger.com/businessresource/recommend/archive/2008/falling-dollar-bbh.html">Iran</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.kiplinger.com/businessresource/recommend/archive/2008/falling-dollar-bbh.html">Libya</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.kiplinger.com/businessresource/recommend/archive/2008/falling-dollar-bbh.html">Russia</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GH13Ae01.html">Malaysia</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/16/content_7800121.htm">Brazil</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/16/content_7800121.htm">Argentina</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/10/20/ccecon20.xml">Switzerland</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/10/20/ccecon20.xml">Norway and some other Scandinavian countries</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/10/20/ccecon20.xml">Some Balkan countries</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/10/20/ccecon20.xml">Many East European currencies</a></li></ul>The following countries are rumored to be considering dropping the dollar as their reserve currency or terminating their currency's peg against the dollar:<br /><ul><li>The arab <a href="http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/march2008/031708_creep_away.htm">Gulf States</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.currencytrading.net/2007/7-countries-considering-abandoning-the-us-dollar-and-what-it-means/">Saudi Arabia</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.currencytrading.net/2007/7-countries-considering-abandoning-the-us-dollar-and-what-it-means/">South Korea</a></li></ul><ul><li><a href="http://www.currencytrading.net/2007/7-countries-considering-abandoning-the-us-dollar-and-what-it-means/"></a>(and see <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080323072944/http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/18/business/LA-FIN-Venezuela-Demanding-Euros.php">this</a>)</li></ul><a href="http://www.currencytrading.net/2007/7-countries-considering-abandoning-the-us-dollar-and-what-it-means/"></a><ul><li><a href="http://www.currencytrading.net/2007/7-countries-considering-abandoning-the-us-dollar-and-what-it-means/">Sudan</a></li></ul><span>As Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and the "Father of Reagonomics", recently said: </span><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8021">"The dollar’s reserve currency role is drawing to an end"</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">See also <a href="http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3446249">this article</a>, </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN1761610620080318">this article</a><span style="font-style: italic;">, <a href="http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7162%28198811%29500%3C23%3ACTUSDS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M">this report</a>, <a href="http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/989">this essay</a>, <a href="http://financetrends.blogspot.com/2007/10/goodbye-dollar-hello-inflation.html">this roundup</a>, and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/01/23/bcndollar123.xml">this one</a>.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-17758192027137744622008-03-14T22:38:00.000-07:002008-03-14T22:37:35.205-07:00What Caused the Fiery Ground-Level Explosions Right Before the Collapse of Each Tower?<div style="font-style: italic;" align="right"><a href="http://reddit.com/submit?title=What%20Caused%20the%20Fiery%20Ground-Level%20Explosions%20Right%20Before%20the%20Collapse%20of%20Each%20Tower%3F&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgeorgewashington.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F03%2Fwhat-caused-ground-level-fiery.html">Reddit</a></div><br />On 9/11, there were multiple reports by credible witnesses of ground-level fiery explosions right before the collapse of the Twin Towers:<br /><ul><li>A CBS News reporter on stated: <a id="title_t3_6c4xz" onmousedown="setClick(this)" class="title loggedin" href="http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/IMAGES/911.wtc.carol.marin.wmv" rel="nofollow">"All of a sudden I heard a roar and I saw one of the towers blow ... I saw <span style="font-style: italic;">from street level as though it exploded up</span>, a giant rolling ball of flame..." </a></li></ul><ul><li> The same reporter stated: <a id="title_t3_6c4y6" onmousedown="setClick(this)" class="title loggedin click" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0742523160/102-8330725-1990556?v=glance" rel="nofollow">"I hear simultaneously this roar and see what appears to be a gigantic fireball <span style="font-style: italic;">rising up at ground level</span> . . . giant ball of fire <span style="font-style: italic;">come out of the earth</span>" (pages 119 & 239)</a></li></ul><ul><li>A Port Authority Police Department officer, who was intimately familiar with the World Trade Center from his years of police duties patrolling there, said that <a id="title_t3_6c4z7" onmousedown="setClick(this)" class="title loggedin" href="http://www.bowhunter.com/feature_articles/BN_FromTheRubble/" rel="nofollow">hallway began to shudder as a "terrible deafening roar" swept over him, then a <span style="font-style: italic;">giant fireball</span> exploded <span style="font-style: italic;">in the street</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">seconds before the south tower collapsed</span></a></li></ul><ul><li>An eyewitness reported <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20040412230000/http://www.trismccall.net/jersey_city_journal.html">a large explosion at <span style="font-style: italic;">ground level</span> right before the collapse of the North Tower</a></li></ul><a id="title_t3_6c4y6" onmousedown="setClick(this)" class="title loggedin click" href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0742523160/102-8330725-1990556?v=glance" rel="nofollow"></a>What could have caused ground-level fiery explosions right before the collapse of each tower?<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">In addition, a paramedic stated that </span><a style="font-style: italic;" id="title_t3_6c4zv" onmousedown="setClick(this)" class="title loggedin" href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110194.PDF" rel="nofollow">before each tower collapsed, the ground shook</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> (pp. 5-7). What could have caused the ground to shake?<br /><br />See also <a href="http://www.journalof911studies.com/articles/Article_5_118Witnesses_WorldTradeCenter.pdf">this</a> and <a href="http://911proof.com/11.html">this</a>.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-28121284825782386452008-03-11T18:10:00.001-07:002008-03-13T17:48:20.782-07:00The Joint Chiefs Chairman, Secretary of Defense and "Almost Every Senior Military Officer ... is Against Launching Military Strikes Against Iran"You've probably heard by now that the Commander of Centcom, Admiral Fallon, who has been described as <a id="title_t3_6bpcc" onmousedown="setClick(this)" class="title loggedin click" href="http://www.esquire.com/features/fox-fallon">the guy standing in the way of war with Iran, just resigned</a>. The <a href="http://www.usnews.com/blogs/news-desk/2008/03/11/6-signs-the-us-may-be-headed-for-war-in-iran.html">implications</a> are so obvious that the Secretary of Defense was forced to try to calm the public. Today, he <a id="title_t3_6bpe1" onmousedown="setClick(this)" class="title loggedin click" href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/sns-ap-fallon-resigns,1,3154331.story?ctrack=1&cset=true">"described as 'ridiculous' any notion that Fallon's departure signals the United States is planning to go to war with Iran"</a>.<br /><br />The good news is that, according to NBC's chief Pentagon correspondent, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Secretary of Defense <a id="title_t3_6bqbn" onmousedown="setClick(this)" class="title loggedin" href="http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/11/754424.aspx">and "almost every senior military officer we've talked to is against launching military strikes against Iran"</a>.<br /><br />Let's hope that - even with Fallon's resignation - the wisdom of military leaders concerning the folly of attacking Iran (and starting WWIII) prevails against the civilian chicken-hawk leaders who want to bomb Iran for reasons having nothing to do with the security of the United States.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-7726808340848472262008-03-11T08:23:00.000-07:002008-03-20T18:17:07.145-07:00The Root of the Economic Crisis: DishonestyThe economic problem is really a crisis of dishonesty. The problem is that our system is built on a house of cards, divorced from what is true, what is tangible and what is real.<br /><br />What do I mean?<br /><br />Well, according to the FBI, <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.newsmax.com/borchgrave/mortgage_fraud/2008/01/28/68064.html">mortgage fraud is the fastest-growing white-collar crime in America</a>. While certainly not the sole cause of the subprime mortgage crisis, <a href="http://www.newsmax.com/borchgrave/mortgage_fraud/2008/01/28/68064.html">it is likely <span style="font-style: italic;">one </span>of the causes</a>, as unscrupulous brokers talked unwitting people into buying houses they couldn't afford. <br /><br />The government has also been using dishonest, short-term fixes to try to <a href="http://counterpunch.org/whitney03132008.html">whitewash the extent of the economic problems</a> instead of doing something to actually <span style="font-style: italic;">fix </span>them. This makes things look better in the short-run, but damages the economy in the long-run.<br /><br />And the U.S. government has been <span style="font-style: italic;">hiding and manipulating</span> economic indicators for many years. It stopped reporting <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/discm3.htm">the size of the money supply</a> in 2006. The government has also spun the economic data, manipulated the economic indicators, and otherwise manipulated the market and the economy. What's wrong with that? Well, consumers have had an unrealistic view of the economy, and have therefore made bad decisions based on false or hidden information.<br /><br />And many top economists - such as <a href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23286149-2703,00.html">Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz</a> - are saying that the high cost of war in Iraq is the cause of the current slowdown in the U.S. It is now clear, of course, that the Iraq war was launched under false pretenses (see, for example, <a href="http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/niger-gate.html">this</a>). And the government has<a href="http://www.brijit.com/abstract/18902/The-$3-Trillion-War"> <span style="font-style: italic;">hidden </span>the true cost</a> of the war.<br /><br />In addition, <a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2007-06/2007-06-13-voa20.cfm?CFID=271252679&CFTOKEN=77972586">tourism to the U.S. is down</a>, partly due to fascist security measures - which include harassment of travelers - based on <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/02/bush-administration-cries-wolf.html">false statements exaggerating the threat of terrorism</a> (tourism is a multi-billion dollar industry, so this factor may not be as wholly insignificant as it appears). Even Colin Powell recently stated that the harsh security measures were scaring away foreign tourists.<br /><br />And, while the size is unknown, people worldwide are apparently <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=boycotts+of+American+products&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a">organizing boycotts of American products</a> in response to U.S. lies about Iraq, torture and the war on terror. People don't want to buy "Made in the U.S.A." when the U.S. has become associated with torture, wars of imperial aggression, and dishonesty. The company president has been caught lying so many times, that "Brand America" is not as popular as it once was.<br /><br />The neocons -- the guys running our nation's foreign policy -- have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community"><span style="font-style: italic;">bragged</span></a> that they disdain reality and that America can just "create its own reality" since it is an empire and the world's sole superpower. Well, it didn't quite work out that way in Iraq or Afghanistan. And if we invade Iran, it won't work that way <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41528">there</a>, either. The lies which America's "leaders" have been using are so blatant that America has lost its credibility.<br /><br />Of course, the government has tried to hide the weakness in the economy by devaluing the dollar. But the chickens are coming home to roost: gaming the system only works for so long.<br /><br />And then there's the "derivatives bubble". The <span style="font-style: italic;">"what?"</span>, you ask. Don't worry, you're not alone in your confusion:<br /><blockquote>"<a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/derivatives-new-ticking-time-bomb/story.aspx?guid=%7BB9E54A5D%2D4796%2D4D0D%2DAC9E%2DD9124B59D436%7D">not only [world's richest man] Warren Buffett, but Bond King Bill Gross, our Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, the Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the rest of America's leaders can't 'figure out'" the derivatives market</a>.</blockquote>Basically, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_%28finance%29">$516 <span style="font-style: italic;">trillion </span>dollar</a> derivatives market doesn't trade in real goods or real services, but abstract ideas and pieces of paper <span style="font-style: italic;">several steps removed</span> from the real goods or services. The problem is that neither the buyers of sellers of derivatives have placed a value on the books of their trades. Indeed, they can't, because no one really <span style="font-style: italic;">knows </span>what a lot of these abstract psuedo-investments are worth: they're so many steps removed from a tangible good or service, and have been re-packaged with a bunch of other derivatives, that even the large banks which hold large amounts of derivatives don't really know what they're holding in their hands.<br /><br />As one writer put it:<br /><blockquote>"<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney09152007.html">It’s all smoke and mirrors. The financial system has decoupled from the productive elements of the economy and is now beginning to show disturbing signs of instability.</a>"</blockquote>The world economy is poised to experience the worst financial crash in history because, according to Dow Jones' MarketWatch, <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/derivatives-new-ticking-time-bomb/story.aspx?guid=%7BB9E54A5D%2D4796%2D4D0D%2DAC9E%2DD9124B59D436%7D">the derivatives market dwarfs the real market for goods and services, and because the huge derivatives market is essentially an unregulated black market.</a> In other words, the black market trading in half-truths, and can't-be-verified statements, and backroom deals dwarfs the market based on goods and services which free market capitalism is supposed to be all about, and may take down the latter.<br /><br />And the flimflam derivatives salesmen all over the world, and the institutional buyers who have tried to stay in the green by buying derivatives (like wealthy Orange County, California, which went <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=hWo&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=Orange+County,+California+bankruptcy+derivatives&spell=1">bankrupt after investing in derivatives</a>), have been guilty of installing and enabling dishonest governments that lie, cheat and steal, not to mention bombing and exploiting poorer countries with abundant natural resources. In other words, the banks and other huge institutional investors which have been the largest players in the derivatives market have also been the ones propping up dishonest governments and fascist-wannabes worldwide.<br /><br />Dishonesty is the poisoned tree. The economic crisis is its fruit. We will not be able to get out of the downturn until people are willing to stand up and demand that our economy be based on truth.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-64939528316959975572008-03-10T00:04:00.000-07:002008-03-10T15:43:47.080-07:00Dear Supporter of President Bush and Mr. Cheney: Their Policies Fail On Their Own TermsDear Supporter of President Bush and Vice President Cheney:<br /><br />The administrations' policies <u>fail</u> <u>even</u> <u>on</u> <u>their</u> <u>own</u> <u>terms</u>.<br /><br />What do I mean?<br /><br />Well, the White House says that "we need to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here". However, American intelligence agencies have concluded that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/world/middleeast/24terror.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">the Iraq war <span style="font-style: italic;">increases </span>the threat of terrorism</a> (and see <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7460-2005Jan13.html">this</a> and <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2007/03/iraq_effect_1.html">this</a>).<br /><br />And Bush and Cheney say that torture is part of the new reality, and that <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/06/20/justice-scalia-hearts-jack-bauer/">24's Jack Bauer is the new American role model</a>. However, a former FBI interrogator said <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvsvO9kvSdo&eurl=http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/10/fbi-interrogator-tor.html">torture doesn't work, and it actually <span style="font-style: italic;">breeds</span> terrorism</a>. Indeed, it is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2302-2005Jan11.html">well-known by professional interrogators that <span style="font-style: italic;">torture doesn't work</span></a>. Moreover, torture by Americans endangers all American troops (if they are captured, it will be pay-back time).<br /><br />And the guys in charge think that America can control the world (for good) by fighting wars on multiple fronts using the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumsfeld_Doctrine">Rumsfeld Doctrine</a>". Specifically, Rummie replaced the "Powell Doctrine" (going into war with overwhelming force) with a new empire-friendly doctrine of sending in few troops in many theaters with few supplies but a lot of high-tech toys and air campaigns. Guess what? It <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=Cm7&q=%22Rumsfeld+Doctrine%22+%22doesn%27t+work%22&btnG=Search">doesn't work</a>.<br /><br />Just look at Iraq. We bombed the snot out of them during the initial shock and awe phase, but they did something really sneaky: they <span style="font-style: italic;">hid </span>until the bombing campaign was over. Then they came out and started shooting at our boys. Oh, and those bombs turned the entire population into part of the "resistance", because -- surprise, surprise -- killing and maiming a bunch of kids and innocent civilians seems to do that for some reason.<br /><br />And our soldiers are getting <span style="font-style: italic;">killed </span>due to Rummie's theory that you can lightly provision the troops.<br /><br />I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney's policies fail on their own terms.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-80441113130699994462008-03-09T22:00:00.000-07:002008-03-09T21:52:34.123-07:00How Should 9/11 Truth Activists Respond to Smear Campaign? SUE!The Simon Weisenthal Center accused credible 9/11 truth organizations of being <a href="http://infowars.net/articles/november2007/131107terror.htm">terrorists</a>, or at least helping to <a href="http://911blogger.com/node/12841">radicalize people into becoming terrorists</a>.<br /><br />Fox News Commentator Geraldo Rivera <a href="http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread339899/pg1#">reportedly stated</a> that the New York Times Square bombing was carried out by 9/11 truthers.<br /><br />How should 9/11 truth activists respond to these smear campaigns?<br /><br />SUE!<br /><br />It is illegal to make false claims about people. It is called "defamation" ("slander" if it is a spoken lie; "libel" if it is a written lie). There are very clear defamation laws in the United States.<br /><br />Given that 9/11 truth activists are thoughtful, peaceful people, it is <span style="font-style: italic;">defamation </span>to call them terrorists. They are not terrorists. It is <span style="font-style: italic;">defamation</span> to accuse them of being bombers. They are not bombers.<br /><br />Instead of becoming intimidated or scared, I suggest we <span style="font-style: italic;">sue</span>. Perhaps a class action lawsuit. A bunch of prominent 9/11 truth activists can get together and sue the Weisenthal Center and Fox News for defamation.<br /><br />While truth is a defense to a defamation claim, it should be relatively simple to prove that 9/11 activists are not terrorists or violent people. Let the Weisenthal Center and Fox try to prove otherwise. Indeed, if we add a claim that Fox news has called 9/11 truth activists <span style="font-style: italic;">insane </span>(which it has) then Fox would have to prove that we are crazy. That would open the door for the court to consider whether or not 9/11 was an inside job.<br /><br />And because being called crazy, or a terrorist, or a bomber will obviously hurt the business reputation of the engineers, architects, scientists, legal scholars, security consultants, congress people and others who question the government's nonsensical version of 9/11, we can sue for defamation "<span style="font-style: italic;">per se</span>", where the people bringing the suit would not even have to prove damage to their reputations.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Note: Consult an attorney before deciding whether or not to file a defamation suit. If you wish to bring a class action suit, consult a class action attorney. This essay is not intended to convey legal advice, there is no legal relationship between the author and reader, and the author does not know the specific factual situation of any of his readers.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-55571476212316427712008-03-03T08:41:00.000-08:002008-03-03T11:30:21.532-08:00We are Powerless . . Or Are We?The problem isn’t that we’re powerless.<br /><br />The problem is that we have allowed those with agendas in government and the media and organized religion to CONVINCE us that we’re powerless. They've confused us, belittled us, distracted us and made us feel like we barely have the power to get out of bed in the morning, let alone challenge those with the biggest arms, megaphones, or pulpits.<br /><br />The truth is that EVERY one of us has tremendous untapped strength, intelligence and resources <span style="font-style: italic;">hard-wired</span> into us.<br /><br />The truth -- shown by millions of examples throughout history -- is that people can thrive in the worst imaginable circumstances. Individuals can dig deep and get creative and think of ways to turn things around even when all seems lost. People can succeed against overwhelming odds if they are committed.<br /><br />The human spirit is powerful, flexible, creative, intelligent and resourceful. It is there within each of us . . . lying dormant. Wake up your inner hero, your inner genius, your inner leader. It is there . . . just under the surface.<br /><br />And the truth is that, when we come together to talk about what is really happening, and what we want, and how to obtain it, we create a very powerful dynamic and we set powerful forces in motion.<br /><br />The truth is that, together, we are unstoppable.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">There is no act too small, no act too bold. The history of social change is the history of millions of actions, small and large, coming together at points in history and creating a power that governments cannot suppress.<br />- Howard Zinn, historian<br /><br />It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.<br />- Robert F . Kennedy<br /><br />The power of an aroused public is unbeatable.<br />- Dr. Helen Caldicott<br /><br />Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power.<br />- Henry George<br /><br />To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.<br />- Bruce Lee<br /><br />The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.<br />-Ferdinand Foch<br /><br />Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.<br />- Goethe<br /><br />A good intention clothes itself with power.<br />- Ralph Waldo Emerson<br /><br />If you don't like the news, go out and make some news of your own.<br />- Scoop Nisker, radio personality<br /><br />But the [people], if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire . . . They need only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies . . .<br />- George Orwell, 1984<br /><br />You let one ant stand up to us - then they all might stand up. Those puny little ants outnumber us a 100 to one. And if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life.<br />- Hopper (a grasshopper speaking to fellow grasshoppers in the Disney/Pixar movie A Bug's Life)<br /><br />In times of danger large groups rise to the highest pitch of enthusiasm, courage and sacrifice . . . Mankind will be refashioned and history rewritten when this law is understood and obeyed.<br />-Helen Keller<br /><br />From the Pain, come the Dream<br />from the Dream, come the Vision<br />from the Vision, come the People<br />and from the People, come the Power<br />from this Power, come the Change.<br />- Peter Gabriel<br /><br />Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.<br />- Margaret Mead<br /><br />We must remember that one determined person can make a significant difference, and that a small group of determined people can change the course of history.<br />-Sonia Johnson<br /><br />I'm not talking about putting out your fire of righteous anger. Keep that anger alive and channel it into defeating the lies and bringing the bad guys to justice. We need your righteous anger! But anger without love turns into hatred, which weakens you. Anger plus love turns into power, effectiveness and success.<br />- GW (georgewashington.blogspot.com)<br /><br />What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists...and it becomes available only when you are in that state of mind in which you know exactly what you want...and are fully determined not to quit until you get it.<br />- Alexander Graham Bell<br /><br />Men habitually use only a small part of the power which they actually possess.<br />- Williams James<br /><br />You're in the midst of a war: a battle between the limits of a crowd seeking the surrender of your dreams, and the power of your true vision to create and contribute. It is a fight between those who will tell you what you cannot do, and that part of you that knows -- and has always known -- that we are more than our environment; and that a dream, backed by an unrelenting will to attain it, is truly a reality with an imminent arrival.<br />- Anthony Robbins<br /><br />Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.<br />- Marianne Williamson<br /><br />Most of us can learn to live in perfect comfort on higher levels of power. Everyone knows that on any given day there are energies slumbering in him which the incitements of that day do not call forth. Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. It is evident that our organism has stored-up reserves of energy that are ordinarily not called upon - deeper and deeper strata of explosible material, ready for use by anyone who probes so deep. The human individual usually lives far within his limits.<br />- William James<br /><br />The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.<br />- George Bernard Shaw<br /><br />In these words lies all his power: He chose the path along which he is walking and so has no complaints.<br />- Paulo Coelho</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-23305834902433546152008-02-24T14:18:00.000-08:002008-02-27T10:52:05.096-08:00Our Friends Are Trying To Tell Us SomethingIf I've got something stuck between my teeth, I rely on my best friends to tell me, so I can fix it.<br /><br />Well, leaders from our close allies in England, France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Russia and elsewhere have been trying to tell us something, but we haven't heard them. Please read what these close allies are trying to tell us about 9/11:<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11222.htm" target="_blank">former Assistant German Defense Minister and a current member of British Parliament</a> (Andreas von Bülow and Michael Meacher)<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.septembereleventh.org/kc/multimedia/movies/Hellyer.mov" target="_blank">former Canadian Minister of Defense</a> (Paul Hellyer)<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/#Werthebach">former head of Germany's intelligence service</a> (Eckart Werthebach)<br /><br />The <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010913033540/http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/09/12/14983.html" target="_blank">commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy</a> (Anatoli Kornukov)<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/january2006/230106doesnotexist.htm" target="_blank">former chief of staff of the Russian armed forces</a> (General Leonid Ivashov )<br /><br />The <a href="http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Cossiga" target="_blank">former President of Italy</a> (Francesco Cossiga)<br /><br />Honorary President, Supreme Court of Italy <a class="style298" href="http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Imposimato">(Ferdinando Imposimato</a>)<br /><br />The former Minister of Justice in West Germany, who was also Minister for Research and Technology. Cabinet Member (<a href="http://patriotsquestion911.com/professors.html#Ehmke">Horst Emkhe</a>)<br /><br />A former Member of British Parliament, who is the longest serving MP in the history of the Labour party, also former Minister of Technology, Secretary of State for Industry, Secretary of State for Energy and Postmaster General (<a href="http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Benn">Tony Benn</a>)<br /><br />Members of the German Parliament <a class="style298" href="http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Hansel">Heike Hänsel</a><br />and <a class="style298" href="http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Troost">Axel Troost, PhD</a><br /><br />Member, National Parliament of Japan (<a class="style298" href="http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Fujita">Yukihisa Fujita</a>)<br /><br />Former Member of Parliament, Norway (<a class="style298" href="http://patriotsquestion911.com/#As">Berit Ås</a>)<br /><br />Member of European Parliament, Vice Chairman, Committee on International Trade, member of Committee on Security and Defense (<a href="http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Chiesa">Giulietto Chiesa</a>)<br /><br />Member of European Parliament, former Vice Chairman, Committee on Energy, Research and Technology, Vice Chairman, Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection (<a href="http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Lannoye">Paul Lannoye</a>)<br /><br />Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, France, former Deputy of the French National Assembly - equivalent to a U.S. Congressperson (<a href="http://patriotsquestion911.com/#Boutin">Christine Boutin</a>)<br /><br />Well-known scholar and frequent UN Contributor (<a href="http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0802/S00229.htm">Dr. Hans Koechler</a>)<br /><br /><em>Of course, many <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/12/are-people-who-question-911-credible-or.html">Americans</a> have tried to tell us the same thing. But the American media has <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2005/10/hit-them-with-truth.html">censored</a> their message.</em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-25093056895195868212008-02-24T07:05:00.000-08:002008-02-24T12:00:49.767-08:00Peach or Toast?Devoted fans of a tv show saved their <em>already-cancelled</em> show by getting creative.<br /><br />How?<br /><br />They sent <a href="http://www.spiritmag.com/2008_02/clickthis/02jericho.php">tons of nuts to network executives </a>("nuts" was a memorable word from the show). The executives reinstated the cancelled show, which has virtually never happened before.<br /><br />Why not save something a little more important . . . our <em>country</em>?<br /><br />Just send a piece of toast and a peach to your congressional representative with a note saying "If you don't imPEACH, the fascists in the White House will make TOAST of America (and your re-election efforts will be toast)".<br /><br /><em>Let's inundate congress with toast and peaches ... so they can't ignore the will of the people.</em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7996921.post-73285740469377524402008-02-21T15:57:00.000-08:002008-02-21T18:16:34.499-08:003 MORE Former Guantanamo Prosecutors Blow the WhistleYesterday, it was revealed that the former chief prosecutor <a href="http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2008/02/nuts-and-bolts-of-kangaroo-court.html">believes the trials are rigged</a>.<br /><br />Today, it was revealed that three more former Guantanamo prosecutors -- Major Robert Preston, Captain John Carr and Captain Carrie Wolf -- "<a href="http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/02/hbc-90002460">asked to be relieved of duties after saying they were concerned that the <span style="font-style: italic;">process was rigged</span>. One said he had been assured <span style="font-style: italic;">he didn’t need to worry </span><span>about building a proper case</span><span style="font-style: italic;">; convictions were assured</span></a>".<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Multiple corroborating witnesses, all insiders working on the prosecution side for the government (along with countless corroborating witnesses on the defense side) . . . Do you think that the mainstream media might be able to find a story here?</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2