Flashbacks - April 2010

What? You've Never Seen Animal Planet?

U.S. Appeals Court Gives Dictatorship to Criminal Telecoms:

Hasta la Vista Net Neutrality!

20100406, Tuesday: U.S. appeals court strikes down rules restricting Comcast Corporation from dictating how customers can use the Internet.

A quick review of recent Court history shows a Shameful Partisan Supreme Court appointing Republican George W. Bush pResident, after a corrupt 2000 Florida presidential election, which Democrats did NOTHING about:

With a single rash, partisan act, the high court has tainted the Bush presidency, besmirched its own reputation and soiled our nation's proudest legacy.

By Gary Kamiya, Salon's executive editor

Dec. 14, 2000 | Tuesday, Dec. 12, is a day that will live in American infamy long after the tainted election of George W. Bush has faded from memory.With their rash, divisive decision to dispense with the risky and inconvenient workings of democracy and simply award the presidency to their fellow Republican, five right-wing justices dragged the Supreme Court down to perhaps its most ignominious point since the Dred Scott decision.

The court was the last American civic institution to have preserved an aura of impartiality, to be regarded as above the gutter of partisanship and self-interest. The reality, of course, is that no court, no judge, no human being, is completely free of those entanglements. Yet the court has generally acted wisely in avoiding judgments that would inevitably and utterly besmirch it. With one reckless and partisan ruling, it squandered its most precious possession: its reputation. It may take years, even decades, to repair the damage done by the Scalia-Rehnquist court's decision to cancel the election and crown the winner. [Continue]

Then there was Republican, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft who instituted the Patriot Act, an act to control U.S. citizens that Nobody in Congress Read, and then he covered up his, and the Bush Administration's, crimes:

Attorney General John Ashcroft doesn't have enough to do, hunting down terrorists. With the help of a rollover Congress, he now has a new and bigger club to go after federal judges who impose lighter sentences in criminal cases than he would like.

As a faithful lord high executioner of the administration's much touted "compassionate conservatism," Ashcroft wants to clamp down on those judges.

The Bush Jihad Against The Bill of Rights, A Legal Fatwa = Freedom Is Slavery

Quite simply, Ashcroft's campaign and leadership PAC broke the law by giving and receiving a contribution that exceeded the federal contribution limit by at least 10 times and possibly by more than 200 times, and by failing to disclose the contribution in the first place. [Continue]

Then there was GOP Republican, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who sanctioned premeditated Murder, Torture, Rape (of children) and God knows what other evils, on behalf of the American people:

Alberto, I turned Justice Into A Cheap Whore and Now She's My Bitch, Gonzales

A Secret History: How Torture Took Root

But while top White House officials publicly talked about trying Al Qaeda leaders for war crimes, the internal memos show that administration lawyers were privately concerned that they could be tried for war crimes themselves based on actions the administration were taking, and might have to take in the future, to combat the terrorist threat. [Continue]

Then there was Congress, with an approval rating less than the tolerable amount of rat feces in the human food supply, who provided Zionists in Israel with funds that were used to murder & maim U.S. Military, who will probably end up making the final Net Neutrality decision that the appeals court (favoring Corporatism), has dumped in their Congressional laps.

Congress votes to immunize lawbreaking telecoms,... ...Jul 9, 2008 ... It plainly violates the Fourth Amendment." EFF, the other non-profit organization behind the telecom lawsuits ...

The Democratic-led Congress this afternoon voted to put an end to the NSA spying scandal, as the Senate approved a bill -- approved last week by the House -- to immunize lawbreaking telecoms, terminate all pending lawsuits against them, and vest whole new warrantless eavesdropping powers in the President. The vote in favor of the new FISA bill was 69-28. Barack Obama joined every Senate Republican (and every House Republican other than one) by voting in favor of it, while his now-vanquished primary rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, voted against it. John McCain wasn't present for any of the votes, but shared Obama's support for the bill. The bill will now be sent to an extremely happy George Bush, who already announced that he enthusiastically supports it, and he will sign it into law very shortly. [Continue]

... and we are supposed to trust this incredibly corrupt system of government ?

Something to consider: Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad. - Dwight D. Eisenhower, Honorable General/Republican President

100 million Americans question or
find fault with the official 9/11 story

Joel S. Hirschhorn
Intelligence Daily
Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:22 EDT

The failure to rebuild the World Trade Center site in Manhattan has received endless attention. But public anger about this failed reconstruction should not been seen so negatively. After all, mental reconstruction has also still not been successful and is surely more needed, with too many Americans still accepting the official government story about 9/11. This, despite a huge amount of compelling evidence that elements of the US government played some role, despite a very large, active 9/11 truth movement, and despite an impressive number of highly credible people demanding a new investigation as documented at patriotsquestion911.com.

In the recent Angus Reid Public Opinion survey of a representative national sample of American adults, 62 per cent of respondents disagree with the view that the "Sept. 11 incident was a big fabrication as a pretext for the campaign against terrorism and a prelude for staging an invasion against Afghanistan." Far more Republicans disagree at 80 percent, compared to 66 percent of Independents and 55 percent of Democrats.

Consistent with this is that two-thirds of Americans (67 percent) agree with the government commission that investigated the events of Sept. 11, 2001, which concluded that an attack was carried out by 19 hijackers who were members of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, led by Osama bin Laden. Though 12 per cent of respondents reject the commission's findings, one-in-five Americans (21 percent) are undecided. In particular, 35 percent of Independents and 34 percent of Democrats do not accept the official version, compared to just 20 percent of Republicans.

These figures translate to about 100 million Americans that question or find fault with the official 9/11 story, far from a trivial number and far too many to dismiss as conspiracy nuts and part of the lunatic fringe. This is the important message that merits public appreciation.

That the mainstream media refuses to acknowledge this kind of public sentiment reflects on their lack of courage to dig deep into the role of the government and face the truth. This behavior does nothing to improve American democracy and trust in government. True patriots must acknowledge that government through the terrible acts of some individuals can carry out hideous acts; there is a bipartisan history of this. Truth is the best way to stop such behavior.

Clearly, Republicans have blocked out the painful possibility that the Bush-Cheney administration played a role in 9/11. This may also explain why the large tea party movement that results from strong disillusionment with government does not embrace the 9/11 truth movement.

Here is my perspective: If far more Americans rejected or questioned the official government story and demanded a new investigation, we would get the mental reconstruction sorely needed to ensure that the government never again uses a false flag operation to advance a policy (wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) that would not otherwise receive public support, especially one that kills thousands of Americans, both civilians and soldiers.

That the reconstruction at ground zero in Manhattan has still not succeeded symbolizes that the wounds of 9/11 are not healed, which means that we still have some chance of demanding and discovering the full truth, regardless of how painful it is. The cost of a first-rate new investigation might be $50 million, far less than the billions of dollars to reconstruct the Manhattan site.

In the end, truth is more important than new buildings. Worse than a hole in the ground is a hole in our national soul. We need Congress to authorize and fund a new 9/11 investigation. The highly fragmented 9/11 truth movement must unite behind a political strategy to make this happen. The only reason to fear a new investigation is the likely unsettling finding that, indeed, the US government was a lot more than incompetent and negligent.

Source - Alternative Source - Via Prez, USA-Exile

Who's Afraid of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories?

By Maidhc Ó Cathail
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Apr 5, 2010, 00:26

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks." --Queen Gertrude, Hamlet.

Whenever someone insists too strongly about something not being true, we tend to suspect that maybe it is. In their denials of involvement in 9/11, do Israel's apologists "protest too much"?

While it would take a small book to adequately document the Israeli connection to 9/11 -- as Antiwar.com editor Justin Raimondo has attempted in The Terror Enigma -- let us briefly recall some of the more intriguing facts as reported in the mainstream media, involving dancing Israelis, Odigo warnings, and Zim's timely move.

The story of the five Israelis who were seen celebrating and filming as the Twin Towers burned and collapsed was investigated by Neil Mackay in Scotland's Sunday Herald. The so-called "dancing Israelis" worked for Urban Moving Systems, later deemed to be a Mossad front by the FBI. Despite failing numerous polygraph tests, the young men were deported to Israel two months later. Back home, several of the men appeared on a TV chat show, in which one of them amazingly said, "Our purpose was to document the event."

Two employees of Odigo, an Israeli instant messaging service, received messages two hours before the World Trade Center attack on September 11 predicting the attack would happen, Ha'aretz reported.

Zim-American Israeli Shipping Co., part-owned by the Israeli government, moved their North American headquarters from the 16th floor of the WTC to Norfolk, Virginia, one week before the 9/11 attacks, incurring a $50,000 fine for breaking its lease, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Despite being in the public domain, none of these relevant facts are mentioned in the 9/11 Commission's 567-page report.

Moreover, Philip Zelikow, the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, is concerned about the spread of such inconvenient facts to the wider public. "Our worry," he says, "is when things become infectious. . . . [then] this stuff can be deeply corrosive to public understanding. You can get where the bacteria can sicken the larger body."

But was Zelikow speaking here as an American government official or as a pro-Israeli insider?

In the same month that he authored the so-called "Bush Doctrine" of preemptive war, which provided the justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Zelikow made this candid admission: "Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat [is] and actually has been since 1990 -- it's the threat against Israel."

Yet, instead of investigating the Israeli connection, Zelikow used the 9/11 Commission to sell the Israeli-inspired Iraq war to the American people.

Zelikow's "bacteria" quote is cited in a 2008 paper entitled "Conspiracy Theories." Co-authored by Cass Sunstein, who currently heads President Obama's White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the main focus of the paper "involves conspiracy theories relating to terrorism, especially theories that arise from and post-date the 9/11 attacks."

Rather than attempting to debunk such theories, Sunstein and Vermeule claim that those who suspect Israeli involvement in 9/11 suffer from a "crippled epistemology." This, the authors argue, is due to "a sharply limited number of (relevant) informational sources." In other words, "they know very few things, and what they know is wrong."

To counter these suspicions, Sunstein recommends "cognitive infiltration of extremist groups, whereby government agents, or their allies (acting either virtually or in real space, and either openly or anonymously) will undermine the crippled epistemology of those who subscribe to such theories. They do so by planting doubts about the theories and stylized facts that circulate within such groups, thereby introducing beneficial cognitive diversity."

It could, of course, be argued that Sunstein's work also suffers from a crippled epistemology -- his research relies heavily on pro-Israeli sources, most notably the notorious Islamophobe Daniel Pipes.

Pipes is a bit of an expert on conspiracy theories, having written two books on the subject. "Conspiracism provides a key to understanding the political culture of the Middle East," Pipes opines in The Hidden Hand: Middle East Fears of Conspiracy. "It helps explain much of what would otherwise seem illogical or implausible, including the region's record of political extremism and volatility, its culture of violence, and its poor record of modernization."

Like Sunstein, Pipes is concerned that many in the region suspect Israeli involvement in 9/11. "The implications in the Middle East are quite profound," Pipes told the LA-based Jewish Journal. "It's one more brick in the edifice of fear and loathing of Israel and the Jews."

In the absence of a proper 9/11 investigation, there remains a broad range of opinion about the precise nature of Israeli complicity. In The Terror Enigma, Justin Raimondo tentatively concludes that the Israeli connection to 9/11 amounts to "foreknowledge and passive collaboration with Bin Laden's jihad." Other experts, such as Alan Sabrosky, are less circumspect. Dr. Sabrosky, former director of studies of the Strategic Studies Institute at the US Army War College, has recently stated that "it is 100 percent certain that 9/11 was a Mossad operation. Period."

Either way, it's hardly surprising that some of the most obsessive critics of 9/11 "conspiracy theories" have ties to Israel. If Americans ever find out that their "staunchest ally" had anything to do with the mass murder of their fellow citizens on September 11, 2001, the would-be conspiracy debunkers have good reason to be afraid.

Maidhc Ó Cathail is a widely published writer based in Japan.

Source: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_5764.shtml - Via Prez, USA-Exile

Binyamin Netanyahu tells US:
We won't stop east Jerusalem settlement building

Israeli prime minister defiant ahead of visit from US special envoy, George Mitchell, despite deadlock in peace talks

Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 22 April 2010 13.10 BST
Article history

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has reportedly told the US administration that his government will not stop settlement construction in east Jerusalem, despite US pressure and long-running deadlock in peace talks.

The message was delivered to US officials at the weekend, according to reports by AP and the Wall Street Journal, and comes ahead of a visit to the Middle East by George Mitchell, the US special envoy, later today.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Netanyahu, would not discuss the details of Israel's talks with the US administration but he said: "We want this process to succeed and to see the restart of talks. We hope that this is possible soon."

Earlier this week Netanyahu insisted again that construction in east Jerusalem would continue. "The Palestinian demand is that we prevent Jews from building in Jewish neighbourhoods in Jerusalem. That is an unacceptable demand. If we made it in London or made it in New York or in Paris, people would cry foul," he told US television network ABC.

He admitted there were outstanding issues with the US. "We're trying to resolve them through diplomatic channels in the best way that we can," Netanyahu said.

Relations between Israel and the US sank to a new low last month, after a tense meeting between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama in Washington. Details of their discussion have not emerged, but it appeared Obama wanted Israel to stop building in Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem as a prelude to restarting peace talks with the Palestinians. The Palestinian leadership says it will not return to talks without a full halt to settlement construction, in line with the US roadmap. There have not been direct peace negotiations between the two sides since before Israel's war in Gaza early last year.

Israel claims sovereignty over east Jerusalem, which it captured in the 1967 war and later annexed, and Netanyahu has insisted construction must continue there. Internationally, east Jerusalem is regarded as under Israeli military occupation and settlement on occupied land is illegal under international law.

The US administration spent much of last year trying to convince Netanyahu to halt all settlement construction. Netanyahu refused and agreed only to a 10-month, partial halt to construction in the West Bank - a moratorium which expires this autumn. Mitchell then spent many months trying to prepare indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, but a day after an agreement on so-called "proximity talks" was announced, Israeli officials gave approval for 1,600 new homes in an east Jerusalem settlement during a visit by the US vice president, Joe Biden. Biden condemned the decision and the indirect talks collapsed before they had begun.

Israel has yet to restore its relations with the US and a refusal by Netanyahu to halt east Jerusalem settlement building would only prolong the confrontation. However, the Wall Street Journal said Netanyahu would offer other incentives instead, including the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, the lifting of some checkpoints on the occupied West Bank and allowing some more goods to enter Gaza, despite the long Israeli economic blockade.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said he hoped Mitchell would bring the right formula to allow indirect talks to start. Mitchell is expected to hold meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders from tomorrow.

Several US officials have emphasised the importance for the US of progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Jim Jones, the national security adviser, indicated this week that progress in the Middle East would help Washington curb Iranian nuclear ambitions. "Advancing this peace would ... help prevent Iran from cynically shifting attention away from its failures to meet its obligations," he said.

Israel has long argued that confronting Iran ought to be an international priority. But Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister, this week resisted any suggestion that a peace agreement should be imposed on Israel and the Palestinians.

"Any attempt to force a solution on the parties without establishing the foundation of mutual trust will only deepen the conflict," Lieberman told diplomats in Jerusalem .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/22/binyamin-netanyahu-jerusalem-settlements-building

According to Republican XpResident George W. Bush, this would make Israel, and the U.S. Congress that Funds them, (sic) "Evil-Doer Terrists"?