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Home To The World's Best Liberal Thought And Humor
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In This Edition
George Lardner Jr says, "Bush Clamping Down On Presidential Papers."
Jim Hightower introduces, "The Charleston Five."
Bruce Mirken explains, "Censorship: What We Don't Know Will Hurt Us."
Norman Solomon compares and contrasts in,"The World Series In A Time Of Crisis"
Joe Conason says, "House Zealots Block Anti-Terror Efforts."
Gene Lyons introduces some, "Home-Grown Fanatics."
Jerold M. Starr gives us part one of, " Needed: An Independent Public Broadcasting Service. Commercial Values Degrade News."
Patrick Martin asks, "US Anthrax Scare: Why The Silence On Right-Wing Terrorism?"
Frank Rich shows us, " How To Lose A War."
Robert Lederman counts, "9 Unpopular Ideas On 9/11."
Jim Lehrer wins "The Vidkun Quisling Award."
Molly Ivins shows us the new, "Patriot Games."
Tally Briggs teaches a little history in, "Acts Of Tolerance?"
And finally in "Parting Shots" 'The Onion' reports that, "Privileged Children Of Millionaires Square Off On World Stage" but first Uncle Ernie says, "War Is Peace, Ignorance Is Strength, Big Brother Is Love, Work Makes You Free, Bush is President."
This week we spotlight the cartoons of Mike Luckovich with additional cartoons from MoPaul, Bush-Toons, Bush Speaks, Shakti, Bennett, Daffy, Chris Whitehouse, GWBush Art, Chadsux and Political Strikes.
Plus we have all of your favorite departments! Welcome one and all to "Uncle Ernie's Issues & Alibis." We hope you enjoy your stay! |
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Knocking at your door. Will you let it in? Will you let it run your life? ... Spirit 1984 The last month or so has taken me back in time and has caused me to relive parts of my life. I flashed back to my childhood in the fifties and relived watching the McCarthy Witch Hunts on TV. I remembered Ike okaying Nuclear Fallout for unknowing US citizens, it was "patriotic" to go play in the pink fallout. Schools were dismissed and let out so the kids could go outside and become 'one' with the fallout (you could ask the kids about this today but they all died from tumors in their 30's). All the lies and double speak that went with all the Corporate/Reich-wing hysteria. If you are a "boomer" you'll remember the nuke drills. Remember, you had to crawl under your desk, put your head between your legs and kiss your ass good-bye, remember? What the Smirkster and his pals are up to is nothing new to me, been there done that. Today the lies are saying we're off to get revenge on Osama for attacking the WTC & Pentagon and to liberate the women of Afghanistan by deposing the Taliban. What A Crock! We are there to secure a pipeline for Russian Oil & Gas which will fuel the war time economy of a certain 'super power' for the next quarter century. Osama and crew pulled out of their bases and for the most part got out of Afghanistan in late July. And lets not mention the fact to Cheney and his oil pals that we knew before it happen that Sadam Insane and his take-a-bath party were the culprits behind the attacks. Don't get me wrong Osama has American blood on his hands and should pay an awful price indeed for his crimes. But let's do call a spade a spade shall we. We're all adults here, are we not? The Trade Center was just a signal from Sadam to the Crime Family Bush that he hasn't forgotten them. Now with the creation of American Gestapo i.e. "The Office of Fatherland Security" to take care of any remaining dissidents and with the vast liberal conspiracy threat to deal with, and the camps to establish, and the round ups to begin, our glorious Fuhrer gets the disillusion of the "Bill of Rights." All of which the rat-wing has been dreaming about doing since they came to power after 'The Civil War.' And of course the spin never stops. When their last statement proves to be a lie, they spin another lie to cover the first. When finally trapped a dozen lies down the road they say so what or they threaten your civil liberties. I've seen this deja vu before in the early thirty's when another Prescott Bush protégé came to power. Y'all remember their Austrian kid? The one with those "crazy eyes'? It's a very old recipe, tried and true! Meanwhile the well disciplined American sheep line up behind the Smirked one and gladly give their rights away in the spirit of America patriotism! Say what? They'll be happy to donate their children too for the never ending war to come. There must be a never ending supply of fodder for our cannons. Hungry things those cannons. When do you think they'll reinstate the draft? It's just a matter of time until the 60's spring to mind. Lyndon was a monster but he couldn't hold a candle to "The Trick." The last time we almost lost our republic happened when Dickey and Spiggy took power in 1969. Had not the three stooges been caught breaking into "The Watergate" we may of had this coup d' etat back in 76'. The scandal forced the rat-wing on the defensive for a couple of years and messed up their timetable. However it's beginning to look like their back on track and it's full speed ahead into becoming, "The American Empire." Look forward to a Rollerball Arena being built near you. "Go, Motor City Madmen, Go!" Yes, it was rather nostalgic this week in Foggy Bottom and I'm sure we'll have many more deja vu's to look forward to. "Return with us now to those thrilling days of yester-year!"* Coming soon to a town near you, "The Black Plague," "The American Inquisition" (Nobody expects the American Inquisition!), "The Dark Ages," etc.. We'd like to welcome Jim Hightower to the magazine. Jim joins our little family of his own free will and is one of my three favorite things to come out of Texas. The other two are Stevie Ray Vaughn & Willie Nelson. We welcome your wit and your wisdon Jim! Jerold M. Starr begins a three part series on the corporate downfall of the once honest and challenging PBS.
Chapter 2 of my new book "The Red King's Horror." is now viewing. I'll post a new chapter on the 1st of each month |
 Bush Clamping Down On Presidential Papers Incumbent Could Lock Up Predecessor's Records By George Lardner Jr. The Bush White House has drafted an executive order that would usher in a new era of secrecy for presidential records and allow an incumbent president to withhold a former president's papers even if the former president wanted to make them public. The five-page draft would also require members of the public seeking particular documents to show "at least a 'demonstrated, specific need' " for them before they would be considered for release. Historians and others who have seen the proposed order called it unprecedented and said it would turn the 1978 Presidential Records Act on its head by allowing such materials to be kept secret "in perpetuity." Under the order, incumbent and former presidents "could keep their records locked up for as long as they want," said Bruce Craig, executive director of the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History. "It reverses the very premise of the Presidential Records Act, which provides for a systematic release of presidential records after 12 years." Other critics voiced concern about the impact of the order "in the post-September 11 world," with its wartime atmosphere. "The executive branch is moving heavily into the nether world of dirty tricks, very likely including directed assassinations overseas and other violations of American norms and the U.N. charter," said Vanderbilt University historian Hugh Graham. "There is going to be so much to hide." Bush is expected to sign the order shortly. A White House aide said the Supreme Court held in 1977 that former presidents can continue to assert various privileges for their records and the order will simply establish "a procedure by which they can protect their rights." The aide said "great deference" will be paid to their wishes. "The majority of former presidents have released virtually all of their records," the aide added. "This executive order does nothing to change that." The proposed order, dated Oct. 29, grew out of a decision by the Bush administration early this year to block the release of 68,000 pages of confidential communications between President Ronald Reagan and his advisers that officials at the National Archives, including the Reagan library, had wanted to make public. Relying on an obscure executive order that Reagan issued just before leaving office, White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales prescribed a series of delays so that Bush could decide whether to invoke "a constitutionally based privilege or take other appropriate action." The papers in question, some dealing with Reagan-era officials who now have high posts in the Bush administration, were to have been disclosed last January under the 1978 law, which said that the documents could be restricted at the most for 12 years after Reagan left office. The new executive order would replace the 1989 Reagan decree and cover not only confidential communications between a president and his advisers but, as Graham put it, "almost anything in the White House files." For 12-year-old documents that are not covered by "constitutionally based privileges" but are subject to requests under the Freedom of Information Act, the order states that the archivist "must withhold" them if possible. For records that might be privileged as state secrets, confidential communications, attorney-client communications, or "deliberative process" materials, a requester must establish "specific need" for them "as a threshold matter." A former president would then review them and tell the archivist whether they should be withheld or made public. The incumbent president or a designee would then look at them to see if he or she agrees with the ex-president's decision. Unless both agree they should be made public, the records will remain secret unless "a final court order" should require disclosure. "Absent compelling circumstances," the incumbent president will concur in the former president's privilege decision, the draft order states. But if the incumbent president does not agree on a former president's decision to grant access, "the incumbent president may independently order the archivist to withhold privileged records."
The order would work "like a one-way ratchet," said Scott Nelson, an attorney for the Public Citizen Litigation Group. "If the former
president says the records are privileged, they will remain secret even if the sitting president disagrees. If the sitting president says
they should be privileged, they remain secret even if the former president disagrees." |
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All five are Longshoremen who do the backbreaking work of loading and
unloading the huge freighters that dock at the Port of Charleston in South
Carolina. In January of 2000, these five were among 150 union dockworkers
who were peacefully picketing against a corporation that had brought in
non-union workers to unload a Danish freighter. As the picketers were handing
out informational leaflets (a form of free speech and assembly guaranteed by
our Constitution), the Powers That Be of Charleston sent in 600 heavily harmed
police in full riot gear to bust the picket and bust some heads.
Now comes the sixth name: Charlie Condon. Look up "Neanderthal" in your
dictionary and you'll see his picture. Charlie is a political opportunist and
full-blown gooberhead who presently is South Carolina's attorney general. He's
also running for governor, so to kiss the butt of the state's business
establishment, ol' Charlie got a secret grand jury to indict the five dockworkers.
He charged them with rioting and conspiracy to riot. Hello. Five picketers, armed
with nothing but leaflets, "rioted" against 600 fully-armed riot police?
Nonetheless, the Charleston Five, as they're now known across the country,
have had their inalienable rights stripped by this power-hungry politician. They
are guilty of nothing but peacefully picketing in defense of their jobs. They've
never been convicted of anything, yet Charlie Condon has had them under
house arrest for more than a year-and-a-half.
This is Jim Hightower saying...Charlie is the kind of banty-rooster autocrat that
the founders of our country declared independence against 225 years ago and
fought a revolutionary war to stop. The Charleston Five are standing up for the
freedom of all of us. To help them, call 202-637-5387.
Sources: Press Release "Justice For the Charleston 5" American Federation of Labor and
Congress of Industrial Organizations 08/01/2001 |
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The Pentagon doesn't need the pictures for its own use. It
has seven satellites of its own taking pictures far sharper
than the one-meter resolution of the Ikonos photos. The
only conceivable purpose of the move is to keep these
images from the public. Strikingly, the decision to buy
them came shortly after reports of heavy civilian
casualties in a bombing raid near the town of Darunta.
Did you know about this? Probably not, if you get your
news from U.S. television networks or newspapers. I
found out about it by reading a British paper, the
Guardian, on the Web.
I'm doing that a lot lately, and I'm not alone. Increasingly,
those of us who want to understand the full ramifications
of the U.S. "war on terror" are finding that big chunks of
the story are severely underreported -- or missing entirely
-- in the U.S. media. Nearly every time I check British
papers like the Guardian or the Independent, I find at
least one significant story that has been ignored or
buried by our domestic press.
Take, for example, the prospect of famine in Afghanistan
in the wake of two decades of war and three years of
drought. Our media have noted this issue, as well as
U.S. airdrops of food rations. Most have at least
mentioned that international aid agencies consider these
drops inadequate and have urged a pause in the
bombing so that vital supplies can get through.
But the British papers have given their citizens a far more
thorough -- and grim -- picture of how our bombing
campaign has made mass starvation a near certainty
unless things change very soon. In news stories and
commentaries that began just days after the Sept. 11
attacks, the Guardian and Independent have laid out for
readers why a bombing campaign and food aid on the
scale needed to avert famine are simply incompatible.
In the Oct. 21 Guardian, Nick Cohen reported the grim
math: "The World Food Program says Afghanistan needs
250,000 metric tons of food to get through the winter . . ."
The most estimate by aid workers calls for 52,000 tons
by mid- November, along with stockpiles of 35,000 tons
each for the central highlands and northwest. If the food
isn't there, tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands are
going to die.
"Do the math and you can see that 122,000 tons needs to
be moved in the next month at a rate of about 4,000 tons
a day," Cohen reports.
"The best the World Food Program has managed since
the bombs started was 900 tons in a day. Last week it
shifted 4,000 tons in total. As an unemotional chap at
Christian Aid told me, it's impossible to recruit enough
drivers while the bombs fall."
Ten days earlier, a story in the Independent quoted
officials of the Red Cross and other aid agencies saying
that food supplies will run out within a month unless
shipments can be increased far beyond the trickle getting
through during the bombing. Commentators in both
papers have asked pointedly: What will become of our
fragile alliance with other Muslim countries when mass
starvation hits Afghanistan as a result of the military
campaign?
And on Oct. 18, Peter Popham, reporting for the
Independent from Peshawar, in Pakistan, explained that
"economic desperation is driving more and more young
men to sign up as fighters with the (Taliban) militia,
merely to feed their families."
Popham interviewed numerous refugees who all told
similar stories. "Young men aged 20 to 27 are joining the
Taliban because there is no other work available," one
explained, "and they need to get food to feed their
families . . . As there is no other work available, they are
answering the call to wage jihad against the infidel."
Another refugee explained that while many in Afghanistan
had been angry at the Taliban, the bombing is changing
people's minds. "When civilians started dying," he said,
"people began to be angry at America for targeting
innocent people."
These reports suggest that our "war against terror" may
kill innocent civilians on a scale that will dwarf the
slaughter in the World Trade Center, while recruiting new
generations of terrorists fired by hatred for the United
States and Britain. Perhaps these reports can be refuted
-- I don't know for sure. But this grim, carefully detailed
picture of the effects of our actions isn't even part of the
discussion in the United States, because our media
outlets -- many of whose logos are festooned with red,
white and blue ribbons and other signs of overt
cheerleading -- haven't reported it.
What we don't know can hurt us, along with millions of
starving Afghans that most Americans will never see.
That we must rely on the foreign press to find out what is
really going on is both immensely sad and profoundly
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 The World Series In A Time Of Crisis By Norman Solomon The World Series provided a heck of a photo-op for George W. Bush when he threw out the first pitch one night, aiming at a large TV audience. For the most part, the game that followed was a pleasure to watch -- midway through a week that combined what's best and worst about major league baseball in an era of compulsive media spin. Baseball may not quite be America's favorite sport anymore, but it still has plenty of emotional resonance. For that reason, politicians and corporations alike are eager to graft themselves onto the climactic games of the post-season. The 2001 World Series attracted an abundance of the commercial hype that we've come to expect from pro sports, plus a gauntlet of patriotic imagery bordering on jingoism. The play-by-play included a steady flood of brand-name plugs -- "Budweiser, the official beer of Major League Baseball," the John Hancock "In Game Box Score," the "Nextel Call to the Bullpen" -- along with frequent overlays of Old Glory. This time around, the final games of the baseball season took place in a wartime flag-waving context. The historic media moment was captured by a frequently seen Wranglers commercial, which aired halfway through the seventh inning on the night that President Bush got his photo-op at Yankee Stadium. That jeans ad starts with the American flag on the screen and the well-known opening chords of Creedence Clearwater Revival's song "Fortunate Son." Moments later, the lyrics begin: "Some folks are born, made to wave the flag / Ooh, they're red, white and blue..." But then -- suddenly -- the soundtrack of the song drops out of the commercial. No more words can be heard after "red, white and blue." The next lines are missing: "And when the band plays 'Hail to the Chief' / They point the cannon right at you." There you have it, in miniature -- a convergence of corporate shilling and ultra-nationalism that can splice up a song precisely enough to turn the selection into the opposite of the song's meaning. "Fortunate Son" is a raging denunciation of the kind of USA Number One militaristic fervor that has swept America, with privileged elites leading the cheers for war: "It ain't me, I ain't no senator's son ... It ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one..." Despite the incessant commercialism and recent hyper-patriotism surrounding it, pro baseball retains a lot of genuine resiliency. It's the most pensive of team sports, and the close-up camera work of modern-day television is able to provide coverage that explores human dimensions well beyond just physical skill. The ball is actually in play for a grand total of only a few minutes per game -- according to one estimate, just five minutes from the first pitch to the last. That leaves plenty of time to ponder what just happened and mull over the next possibilities. For many Americans, baseball is inextricably entangled with some of the fonder memories of childhood. And for people who grew up in the days of black-and-white television, the improvements are great. Back when ace pitchers Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette were dazzling World Series viewers in the late 1950s, watching baseball on TV involved peering at fuzzy figures that moved on a gray background. There was no instant replay then, and scant variety of camera angles. Today, rendered on the TV screen, the game is somehow more personal as it unfolds. We routinely see artful camera shots of the faces of players on the diamond. As a sport that manages to be highly athletic and contemplative at the same time, baseball offers a measured pace and philosophical spaces that remain in sharp contrast to the frenetic energies of mass media. On the other hand, the televised games are damaged by the profusion of commercial plugs, logos and the like. Hopefully, the essence of baseball will survive all the manipulation from corporate sponsors and symbol-hungry politicians. Especially in times of national crisis, we need to be alert. It's too easy this fall to passively consume television's melding of fervor for sports and war. The alternative is to think critically and fill in the blanks.
"Some folks are born, made to wave the flag / Ooh, they're red,
white and blue / And when the band plays 'Hail to the Chief' / They point
the cannon right at you."
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 House Zealots Block Anti-Terror Efforts Whenever an obscure professor complains about the war against the Taliban, an alarm is sounded from certain quarters about the enemy within, the supposed disloyalty of academics and the uncertain patriotism of anybody who lacks enthusiasm for military action. But citizens peaceably exercising their right to dissent—no matter how mistaken—are no menace to national security. The real menace is posed by some of the country’s most powerful politicians, who remain enthralled by a defunct ideology and engorged with corporate campaign contributions. The ideology is right-wing extremism, characterized by an aversion to active government, financed by corporate special interests and personified by the likes of Tom DeLay and Dick Armey. Using their authority to stifle swift federal action, Republican Congressional leaders are daily demonstrating how intellectually unfit they are to cope with the current crisis. (At least that’s what they had been doing until they fled the Capitol for safer precincts.) Improving airport security is among the most pressing tasks of the United States government, and it didn’t take long for the Senate to cast an extraordinary unanimous vote in favor of federalizing most of those functions. Such quick, united action on a controversial matter is almost unknown in that body, where both pride and philosophy tend to preclude unanimity. But the bill that passed without a single nay in the Senate has been hog-tied in the House of Representatives for weeks because Messrs. DeLay and Armey cannot rely on members of their own caucus to vote against it. Having realized that popular sentiment strongly supports the Senate position, the two Texas ’wingers predictably called upon corporate enforcers to muscle their colleagues. On Oct. 21, according to The Washington Post, Mr. DeLay "summoned nearly 20 lobbyists from the airline and airport security industries to the basement of the Capitol." There he instructed them to urge members to reject the Senate bill in favor of his own legislation, which would mandate the continued employment of private security firms under federal scrutiny. When they balked, his deputy reminded the lobbyists how rapidly the House leadership had rammed through the outrageous $15 billion bailout last month. Among those present at Mr. DeLay’s closed meeting were representatives of the newly organized Aviation Security Association, a lobbying outfit formed by the companies which have so badly botched these responsibilities and now fear losing their lucrative airport contracts. Presumably nobody had the poor taste to mention the frightening federal review of Argenbright Security, the country’s largest airport-screening contractor. Even after Argenbright was found guilty in federal court of hiring convicted felons to screen baggage at Philadelphia International Airport, and even after the disaster of Sept. 11, investigators for the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration found the company in violation of federal regulations at 14 airports this month. One passenger at Dulles Airport in Washington got past the Argenbright screeners with a concealed pocketknife on Oct. 12 (just nine days before Mr. DeLay’s lobbyist pep rally). Immigration investigators found that seven Argenbright screeners at Dallas–Fort Worth Airport were illegally working in the United States. The Argenbright case poses conceptual difficulties for those who persist in arguing the absolute superiority of privatization—unless, like the House G.O.P. bosses, they remain hypnotized by soft-money checks and the latest handout from the Heritage Foundation. It’s hard to say which of these influences is worse; but in combination, they threaten to forestall not just airport-security improvements, but many other urgent measures to protect public health and safety. Consider the issue of money-laundering by terrorist networks such as Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda organization. Until Sept. 11, the Bush administration had resisted international efforts to crack down on offshore-banking centers that facilitate the secret movement of illicit funding around the world. Despite continued opposition from the banking lobby, the White House shifted toward a saner view as New York’s own financial center lay in smoking ruins. But Time magazine reports that Messrs. DeLay and Armey, with support from right-wing think tanks and banking lobbyists, "thwarted efforts to include an anti-money-laundering bill" in the recent anti-terrorist legislative package. If liberals were caught doing anything similar, they would be accused quite reasonably of giving comfort to the nation’s enemies.
The point is not, however, to denigrate the patriotism of the right. It is simply to suggest that
slavish worship of the market and demonization of government are damaging to the national
interest. There are no "free-market" solutions to the weaknesses of our financial, transportation
and public-health systems that can so easily be exploited by our enemies. Thoughtful
conservatives like John McCain and the editors of The Weekly Standard are able to grasp this
quite obvious fact. The American people appear to understand this, too. Those who have sworn
to defend them should open their minds or step aside.
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 Home-Grown FanaticsBy Gene Lyons After Timothy McVeigh's 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City, many rushed to blame Arab terrorists. In the wake of the Sept. 11 atrocity it was equally tempting, after envelopes filled with anthrax spores began turning up in Florida, New York and Washington, to jump to the conclusion that Osama bin Laden's net-work had turned to biological warfare. In the moral sense, nobody doubts they're capable of it. The Al Queda hijackers who investigated crop duster airplanes weren't looking to defoliate cotton. Speculation has centered upon Iraq, which suits Bush administration hawks pressing for a wider war. Yet while President Bush and the ratings-hungry melodramatists of cable TV appear loath to consider it, there's more than one species of evil in the world. Last week investigators told reporters what some of us have suspected: that there's a better than even chance that the anthrax scare is being perpetrated by home grown fanatics who see Timothy McVeigh as a hero and a martyr, and who have seized on the present crisis to advance their own mad schemes. Within minutes of the World Trade Center attack, David Niewert writes in Salon, the Neo-Nazi Posse Comitatus website posted this message: "Hallelu-Yahweh! May the WAR be started! DEATH to His enemies! May the World Trade Center BURN TO THE GROUND! Rev. 18.Keep Yahweh in your hearts folks for His wrath is upon His enemies! Praise His Holy name.Hail Victory!" The Aryan Nations website re-wrote "America, the Beautiful." One verse reads, "O', wicked land of sodomites, Your World Trade Center's gone. With crashing planes and burning flames, To hell your souls have gone. America, America, God's wrath was shown to thee." William Pierce, whose apocalyptic novel "The Turner Diaries" inspired McVeigh, expressed hope that Sept. 11 would warn Americans about "the consequences of permitting the Jews of Hollywood and New York to run our country through their control of our mass media." In the same broadcast, Pierce all but encouraged domestic terrorism. "Things are a bit brittle now," he said. "A few dozen more anthrax cases, another truck bomb in a well chosen location, and substantial changes could take place in a hurry: a stock market panic, martial law measures by the Bush government, and a sharpening of the debate as to how we got ourselves get into this mess in the first place.The Jews and their collaborators will pull out all of the stops in an effort to stifle it." It's the fantasy of a neo-Fascist uprising against the "Zionist Occupation Government," that gets these loons out of bed in the morning. But there are other reasons to suspect the crackpot right. First, its targets. The London Observer's Ed Vuillamy quotes a skinhead website: "Is there not a single person who has re-ceived these anthrax letters that isn't an avowed enemy of the white race? Tom Brokaw, Tom Daschle and the gossip rag offices have all been 100 per cent legitimate targets. Who among us has the slightest bit of sympathy for these pukes?" Second, its sheer amateurishness. Sad to say, Al Queda and its allies have a history of deadly effec-tiveness. For all the media hysteria, anthrax, non-communicable and treatable with antibiotics, just doesn't make an effective weapon. The first tainted letters, mailed from Trenton, N.J. on Sept. 18, accomplished little. So the terrorist escalated, mailing a deadlier package to Sen. Daschle. Still, none of the intended vic-tims were harmed, only innocent bystanders. Historically, that's the problem with chemical and biological weapons. Either they hardly work at all, while evoking justifiable rage, or they work too well, killing off their sponsors. It's one thing for a tyrant like Saddam Hussein to gas defenseless peasants, another thing to hurt enemies capable of fighting back. Terrorism is arguably different, which leads to the third big reason to suspect homegrown origin: neo-Fascists have fanatasized about anthrax for years. In 1998, the FBI arrested an Aryan Nations activist named Larry Wayne Harris who'd boasted of possessing anthrax. (He'd earlier been convicted of fraudulently acquiring bubonic plague bacteria.) The substance turned out to be animal vaccine, but Harris is a micro-biologist who's written a poison weapons manual widely circulated on the extreme right. "If they arrest a bunch of our guys," he once warned a reporter "they get a test tube in the mail."
The so-called "Army of God" has been mailing anthrax threats to
abortion providers for years. In recent weeks, more than 90 Planned
Parenthood clinics have received envelopes filled with fake anthrax powder.
Attorney General John Ashcroft has promised to prosecute terrorist hoaxes,
but emitted nary a peep about the "Army of God." You'd like to think his
silence has nothing to do with his own strident anti-abortion views.
Meanwhile, has some lone demento with access to one of New Jersey's
scores of pharmaceutical plants and research facilities begun his own
private terrorist campaign? If so, the good news is that the FBI will
probably catch him.
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"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere." ... Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, 1787
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Needed: An Independent Public Broadcasting Service. Commercial Values Degrade News By Jerold M. Starr This is the first in a series of articles that will explore the founding, current status and future of American public broadcasting. November 7 marks the 34th anniversary of the Public Broadcasting Act. Did you notice the profound uniformity of media coverage in the wake of the horrific events of September 11? Surfing for news, I found the same headlines, the same voices, even the same logos - a sameness that exposes the serious extent to which media in this country have become monopolized by very few interests. Viacom had CBS News on UPN, VH1 and MTV networks; Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp had Fox News on Fox Sports networks, FX and a number of UPN stations recently purchased from the Chris-Craft industries station group; AOL Time Warner had CNN and CNN Headline News on TNT and WTBS Superstation outlets; and Disney had ABC News on ESPN sports cable network. As the White House and Congress prepare to make what might be a series of irrevocable decisions regarding the President's authority to wage "war" against "terrorism," the American public has never been more in need of alternative views, independent analysis, and an open forum for public discussion. Constrained by advertiser pressures and administrative oversight of their many pending deals, commercial broadcasters aren't likely to challenge the official line. We should, however, expect more from public broadcasters. Unfortunately, we are not likely to get that from our public broadcasting service, which, three decades after its founding in 1967, is seriously compromised. Brought to You By Media Monopoly Today a mere six corporations control more than half of all communications enterprises: books, magazines, newspapers, music, motion pictures, radio and television. Some 77 percent of the nation's daily newspapers are part of chains. Two firms control more than half the market for 11,000 magazines. Four firms control our broadcast TV networks and almost all the cable networks. Twenty-five radio groups control one-fourth of the stations and 57 percent of the revenue. Since 1996, the corporations, Congress, the FCC and the courts have waged a continuous assault on any public-interest protections against media concentration, including national caps on cable system ownership and network ownership of stations and local caps on dual station ownership in small markets and cross ownership of newspapers and TV stations. This tidal wave of media mergers and acquisitions has produced severe pressures to meet profit projections through staff cutbacks and increased advertising. One consequence has been a diminished capacity for local coverage and investigative reporting with greater reliance on news wires and publicists' handouts. Another has been greater vulnerability to advertiser pressures to censor coverage of controversial issues. Earlier this year, ten large corporations announced a campaign to pressure networks to put on more shows in prime time that meet their definition of "family fare." In August, CBS capitulated to pressure from Procter & Gamble to cancel broadcast of an episode of "Family Law" dealing with handguns and spousal abuse. A recent poll of 278 journalists found 41 percent admitting to some level of self-censorship. As NYU media scholar Mark Crispin Miller comments, "The cultural and civic consequences [of] corporate bonding are not healthy." Still another trend has been the "dumbing down" of news. For example, from 1985-1995, the three major news magazines cut the space devoted to international news by 40 percent to just 13 percent of the magazine. And a survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism of 4,000 stories in both print and broadcast media over 1977-1997 found that celebrity gossip stories had ballooned from 15 percent to 43 percent of the total. Americans, long starved for information about the Arab world, are now getting a crash course focused mainly on personalities, not background. Three years ago, esteemed former CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite criticized TV news magazine shows for neglecting "tough documentaries and background on the issues" to become "television copies of Photoplay magazine." Cronkite lamented that news executives "are helpless when top management demands an increase in ratings to protect profits." During the 2000 Presidential race, a study of 74 major stations found that campaign coverage averaged just 45 seconds per night. This forced candidates to invest heavily in political ad spending which totaled more than $800 million. NBC and Fox even refused to televise the first Presidential debate, hoping to attract viewers from the other networks with sports and entertainment instead. Broadcasters have even refused to comply with the FCC mandate to offer a mere three hours of children's programming a week on the grounds that kid show revenues are down and, as put by Madelyn Bonnot of Emmis Communications, "It's a terrible financial business for us." In the media, "all that is of human interest and importance" may not be "appropriate or available for support by advertising." In April of this year, Jay T. Harris, publisher of the San Jose Mercury News urged newspaper editors to resist the "tyranny of the markets" and give equal priority to the "moral, social and business dimensions" of newspapers. Apparently feeling helpless to change his paper's direction, he had resigned in protest against the rigid budget targets and anticipated layoffs imposed by the Knight Ridder chain. Clearly, this media merger mania presents a distinct threat to the free flow of information essential to our democratic society. Resistance to this onslaught has become increasingly difficult. As Burt Neuborne, legal director of NYU's Brennan Center for Justice, recently observed: "The more they own, the harder it is to attack them because they own so much." In the Public Interest In 1967, the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television recognized that "all that is of human interest and importance" may not be "appropriate or available for support by advertising," and proposed a system free of commercial constraints. Specifically, public broadcasting was to serve as "a forum for debate and controversy," providing a "voice for groups in the community that may otherwise go unheard" so that we could "see America whole, in all its diversity." In the final analysis, the Commission stated, public television should create programs "not to sell products or meet the demands of the marketplace," but to "enhance citizenship and public service." When he signed the bill into law, President Johnson declared: "Public broadcasting will help us to make our Nation a replica of the old Greek marketplace, where public affairs took place in view of all the citizens." The service began with great promise, offering cutting edge public affairs, "Public Broadcasting Laboratory" and "The Great American Dream Machine," and engaging live drama written by American playwright like Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill and William Soroyan and performed by leading actors like Lee J. Cobb, Dustin Hoffman, George C. Scott and Meryl Streep. In the years since, PBS has capitulated to a series of political attacks and corporate seductions, resulting in serious compromises in programming that have gutted the promise that public broadcasting had at its outset. Two years ago, public radio star Ira Glass of "This American Life" proposed that PBS was "more beholden to corporate interests than commercial television and should be abolished." Early this year, Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales lamented: "Big corporations control public television just like they control commercial television," making it "a sad, pale shadow of what it once was and a pitiful hint of what it could be."
Now more than ever, Americans need vigorous and independent non-commercial public radio and television. In a series of articles to
follow on TomPaine.com, we'll explore in greater detail the promise and current status of public broadcasting, and ideas that might
reinvigorate it.
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US Anthrax Scare: Why The Silence On Right-Wing Terrorism? By Patrick Martin Amid the saturation media coverage of the anthrax attacks in Florida, New Jersey, New York and Washington, DC, a central political issue is being suppressed. There is every likelihood that those responsible for mailing anthrax spores to media and government targets are right-wing extremists bent on spreading panic and creating the conditions for new attacks on democratic rights. Many such elements have close political links to the Republican Party and the Bush administration. So much misinformation has been spread by government spokesmen and rebroadcast by the media that it is difficult to be sure of many of the facts surrounding the anthrax scare. More than a dozen people have contracted the disease, which is relatively rare among humans but not unusual among farm animals. Three people have died, four others have contracted the more dangerous pulmonary form of the disease. Three letters carrying anthrax spores in powder have been recovered, one at NBC News, one at the New York Post, the third at the office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Thousands of people have been tested for possible contamination and hundreds of thousands affected by the shutdown of schools, workplaces and public facilities and the cancellation of plane, train and bus service. The overwhelming majority of the reports of possible anthrax contamination have proven to be unfounded or the result of panic, largely provoked by semi-hysterical media coverage. Dozens of people have tested positive for exposure to anthrax spores, but the majority of these are not actually infected. The significance of these results is not clear. The tests show the presence of disease-fighting antibodies, but there is no way to easily determine when the person came into contact with anthrax. Many of those who initially test positive may not be victims of a recent terrorist attack, but may have merely encountered the bacteria at some time in their lives. There is similar uncertainty over the significance of the presence of spores, usually in minute quantities, in postal and other mail-processing facilities. Anthrax spores have been known to persist dormant in the soil for up to 80 years. Public health officials have not provided a baseline of the "normal" occurrence of anthrax antibodies in the population, or of anthrax spores in the environment, against which to compare the results of the current tests. The record of right-wing terrorism The media, with the tacit encouragement of the Bush administration and congressional leaders, encourages the notion that the anthrax attacks represent a second wave of Middle East-based terrorism, following the September 11 suicide hijackings. There are sporadic attempts to link the anthrax mailings to the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, although none of the evidence so far made public substantiates such suspicions. On the contrary, the circumstances surrounding the anthrax attacks—the method employed, the targets chosen, previous experience—suggest that homegrown American fascists are the perpetrators. The past two decades have seen the rise within the Republican Party of extreme-right and Christian fundamentalist elements, many of them linked to a fascist underground of racists, militia fanatics and anti-abortion activists. Individuals and groups sharing the political agenda of the ultra-right have been responsible for the vast majority of terrorist actions in the United States in recent years, including the bloodiest such attack in US history prior to September 11—the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by right-wing militia supporter Timothy McVeigh, which killed 168 people. Anti-abortion extremists have murdered doctors, bombed clinics and planted the bomb that killed one person at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. There is a history of rightist elements seeking to obtain anthrax for use as a weapon of terror. In 1998 a microbiologist with ties to white supremacist groups was arrested in Las Vegas on charges of unauthorized possession of an anthrax strain that turned out to be non-lethal. In 1999, in testimony before Congress, FBI Director Louis Freeh said that "a growing number, while still small, of ‘lone offender’ and extremist splinter elements of right-wing groups have been identified as possessing or attempting to develop or use" weapons of mass destruction. Only last May, Freeh told a congressional committee that the FBI had prevented two "potentially large-scale, high-casualty attacks being planned by organized right-wing extremists." These included the blowing up of a large propane storage facility in Elk Grove, California, and the raiding of National Guard armories and attacks on electric power lines in several southern states. In the latter case, which involved militia members from Georgia, South Carolina and Florida, Freeh said the goal was "to create social and political chaos, thereby forcing the US Government to declare martial law, an act the group believed would lead to a violent overthrow of the Government by the American people." [Note: The Sacramento Bee, on Friday 10/26, reported that the suspects attempted to buy a rocket launcher with sufficient power to cause on of the huge tanks to explode. They very nearly got one at a gun show] Rightist elements have a history of making threats involving anthrax. According to a California-based center that monitors such events, there were 172 false anthrax threats in the United States from January 1998 to April 2001. Of these, one third were made against abortion clinics. The current anthrax attacks have been accompanied by a barrage of threats against abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood offices throughout the United States—threats that have gone largely unreported in the media. The National Abortion Federation said more than 30 clinics in 14 states and the District of Columbia had received letters claiming to contain anthrax, some with references to the Army of God, an extreme-right anti-abortion group. Planned Parenthood said 90 family planning offices and abortion clinics in more than a dozen states had received similar threats. Each of six Planned Parenthood clinics in the Washington, DC area received a powder-filled envelope enclosing a letter from the Army of God that warned, "You have been exposed to anthrax. We are going to kill all of you." That right-wing extremists are responsible for the current round of anthrax attacks is further suggested by the choice of targets: Senator Daschle, the most prominent Democrat in Washington, and the offices of the major television networks, regarded by the far right, however incorrectly, as bastions of liberalism. The casualties up to now have all been workers in the federal government and the media, long demonized by the extreme right. The role of the media Frequently, what does not appear in the American media is as significant as what does. It is as though the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon blotted out the bloody experience with right-wing terrorism in America—the Unabomber, Oklahoma City, the Aryan Nations, abortion-related bombings and assassinations. If the anthrax attacks had taken place before September 11, the prime suspects would have been anti-abortion zealots or right-wing militia fanatics seeking to avenge the execution of Timothy McVeigh. The White House and Pentagon recognize that a clear-cut link between the anthrax attacks and homegrown American rightists would cut across their efforts to generate public support for the US military intervention in Central Asia. While admitting that there is no concrete evidence of a connection to Islamic fundamentalists, let alone Iraq, the Bush administration tacitly encourages the belief that Middle East-based terrorists are responsible for the anthrax mailings. Those actually engaged in investigating the anthrax mailings, however, have been compelled to consider the likelihood of right-wing involvement, and a few hints have begun to creep into the newspaper coverage. According to an October 24 report in the New York Times, "investigators who at first thought the anthrax mailed to Mr. Daschle was so finely milled and highly concentrated that it was likely to have been obtained from a state-sponsored weapons program have now revised their assessment." An FBI source told the Associated Press the anthrax "could be locally produced given the right circumstances." The Washington Post reported the same day, "investigators have found no connection between the Sept. 11 plot and the anthrax mailings, numerous officials said yesterday. Although they continue to operate under the assumption that there might be a link, investigators from the FBI, the US Postal Service and other agencies say privately that the mailings do not have the earmarks of an al Qaeda terrorist operation and seem more likely to have come from a domestic source." On October 26, White House press spokesman Ari Fleischer declared that federal investigators had concluded that a skilled microbiologist with access to lab facilities could have produced the anthrax used in the mailings, without a vast military or government apparatus. The substance, he admitted, "could be produced by a broader range of people" than the foreign governments generally cited in media speculation, most frequently Iraq and the former Soviet Union. Even more suggestive is a lengthy front-page article that appeared October 26 in the Washington Post, reporting that the anthrax mailed to Daschle’s office had been chemically treated to make it spread more readily through the air. "The United States, the former Soviet Union and Iraq are the only three nations known to have developed the kind of additives," the newspaper said. The article continued: "A government official with direct knowledge of the investigation said yesterday that the totality of the evidence in hand suggests that it is unlikely that the spores were originally produced in the former Soviet Union or Iraq."
The statement points to the conclusion that the anthrax mailed to Daschle’s
office was either stolen from US military stocks or supplied directly by US
military personnel with access to supplies. In either case, it is far more
likely that the anthrax was passed to American fascists, who have numerous
sympathizers in the military, than to Islamic fundamentalists. |
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How To Lose A War By Frank Rich Welcome back to Sept. 10. The "America Strikes Back" optimism that surged after Sept. 11 has now been stricken by the multitude of ways we're losing the war at home. The F.B.I. has proved more effective in waging turf battles against Rudy Giuliani than waging war on terrorism. Of the more than 900 suspects arrested, exactly zero have been criminally charged in the World Trade Center attack (though one has died of natural causes, we're told, in a New Jersey jail cell). The Bush team didn't fully recognize that a second attack on America had begun until more than a week after the first casualty. The most highly trumpeted breakthrough in the hunt for anthrax terrorists — Tom Ridge's announcement that "the site where the letters were mailed" had been found in New Jersey — proved a dead end. And now the president is posing with elementary-school children again. Given that this is the administration that was touted as being run with C.E.O. clockwork, perhaps it should be added to the growing list of Things That Have Changed Forever since Sept. 11. But let's not be so hasty. Not everything changes that fast — least of all Washington. The White House's home-front failures are not sudden, unpredictable products of wartime confusion but direct products of an ethos that has been in place since Jan. 20. This is an administration that will let its special interests — particularly its high-rolling campaign contributors and its noisiest theocrats of the right — have veto power over public safety, public health and economic prudence in war, it turns out, no less than in peacetime. When anthrax struck, the administration's first impulse was not to secure as much Cipro as speedily as possible to protect Americans, but to protect the right of pharmaceutical companies to profiteer. The White House's faith in tax cuts as a panacea for all national ills has led to such absurdities as this week's House "stimulus" package showering $254 million on Enron, the reeling Houston energy company (now under S.E.C. investigation) that has served as a Bush campaign cash machine. Airport security, which has been enhanced by at best cosmetic tweaks since Sept. 11, is also held hostage by campaign cash: As Salon has reported, ServiceMaster, a supplier of the low-wage employees who ineptly man the gates, is another G.O.P. donor. Not that Republicans stand alone in putting fat cats first. In a display of bipartisanship, Democrats — lobbied by Linda Hall Daschle, the Senate majority leader's wife — joined the administration in handing the airlines a $15 billion bailout that enforces no reduction in the salaries of the industry's C.E.O.'s even as they lay off tens of thousands of their employees. To see how the religious right has exerted its own distortions on homeland security, you also have to consider an administration pattern that goes back to its creation — and one that explains the recent trials of poor Tom Ridge. Mr. Ridge is by all accounts a capable leader — a successful governor of a large state (Pennsylvania) who won the Bronze Star for heroism in Vietnam. A close friend of George W. Bush, he should have been in the administration from the get-go, and was widely rumored to be a candidate for various jobs, including the vice presidency. But after being pilloried by the right because he supports abortion rights, he got zilch. Instead of Mr. Ridge, the administration signed on the pro-life John Ashcroft and Tommy Thompson — who have brought us where we are today. The farcical failures of these two cabinet secretaries are not merely those of public relations — though Mr. Thompson often comes across as a Chamber of Commerce glad- hander who doesn't know his pants are on fire, and Mr. Ashcroft often shakes as if he's not just seen great Caesar's ghost but perhaps John Mitchell's as well. Both have a history of letting politics override public policy that dates to the start of the administration. They've seen no reason to reverse their partisan priorities even at a time when the patriotic duty of effectively fighting terror should be their No. 1 concern. Pre-Sept. 11, Mr. Thompson, in defiance of science, heartily lent his credibility to the Bush administration's stem cell "compromise" by going along with its overstatement of the viability and diversity of the stem cell lines it would deliver to researchers. Post-Sept. 11, he destroyed his credibility by understating the severity of the anthrax threat, also in defiance of science. Now he maintains that the $1.5 billion the administration is requesting to plug the many holes in our public health system — almost all of it earmarked for stockpiling pharmaceuticals, not shoring up local hospitals — is adequate for fighting bioterrorism. This, too, is in defiance of all expert estimates, including that of the one physician in the Senate, the Republican Bill Frist. It should also be on Mr. Thompson's conscience that for the first two weeks of the anthrax crisis he kept the federal government's house physician — David Satcher, the surgeon general and a much-needed honest broker of public health — locked away, presumably because Dr. Satcher, a Clinton appointee, became persona non grata in the Bush administration for issuing a June report on teenage sexuality that angered the religious right. Only after Mr. Ridge arrived on the scene was the surgeon general liberated from the gulag. As for Mr. Ashcroft, he has gone so far as to turn away firsthand information about domestic terrorism for political reasons. Planned Parenthood, which has been on the front lines of anthrax scares for years and has by grim necessity marshaled the medical and security expertise to combat them, has sought a meeting with the attorney general since he took office but has never been granted one. This was true not only before Sept. 11 but, says Ann Glazier, Planned Parenthood's director of security, remains true — even though her organization, long targeted by such home-grown Talibans as the Army of God, has a decade's worth of leads on "the convergence of international and domestic terrorism." Ms. Glazier found the sight of Mr. Ashcroft and other federal Keystone Kops offering a $1 million reward for anthrax terrorists a laughable indication of how little grasp they have of the enemy. "Religious extremists don't respond to money," she points out. Such is the state of the F.B.I., she adds, that one agent told a clinic to hold onto a suspect letter for a couple of days "because we have so many here we're afraid we're going to lose it" (perhaps among the Timothy McVeigh documents). If either the attorney general or the secretary of health and human services inspired anything like the confidence that, say, Mayor Giuliani does, there wouldn't have been a need to draft Mr. Ridge. Even so, he's mainly a P.R. gimmick — a man who should have been in the administration in the first place reduced to serving as a fig leaf for lightweights. As director of homeland security, he's allegedly charged with supervising nearly 50 government agencies — so far with roughly a dozen staff members. When asked to define Mr. Ridge's responsibilities, Ari Fleischer said on Wednesday that it was "a very busy coordination job," but so far Mr. Ridge is mainly sowing still more confusion. The one specific duty that he has claimed — in an interview with Tom Brokaw — was that he'd be the one "making the phone call" to the president to shoot down any commercial airliner turned into a flying bomb by hijackers. That presumably comes as news to Donald Rumsfeld, who made no provision for any homeland security czar in the Air Force chain of command he publicly codified days after Mr. Ridge's appointment. Since the administration tightly metes out the news from Afghanistan, we can only hope that the war there is being executed more effectively than the war here — even as Mr. Rumsfeld and his generals now tell us that the Taliban, once expected to implode in days, are proving Viet- Cong-like in their intractability. The Wall Street Journal also reported this week that "instead of a thankful Afghan population, popular support for the Taliban appears to be solidifying and anger with the U.S. growing."
Maybe we're losing that battle for Afghan hearts and minds in part because
the Bush State Department appointee in charge of the propaganda effort is a
C.E.O. (from Madison Avenue) chosen not for her expertise in policy or
politics but for her salesmanship on behalf of domestic products like Head
& Shoulders shampoo. If we can't effectively fight anthrax, I guess it's
reassuring to know we can always win the war on dandruff. |
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Are you less than satisfied with the official explanations about 9/11? Here are nine for the moment relatively unpopular but nevertheless compelling ideas to
consider about the attack. Americans who tend to believe in any or all them are in the minority right now. Perhaps they won’t be in the near future.
1. This new war is not a conflict between Islamic fundamentalism and American freedom.
2. The destruction of the WTC was anticipated, and might have been preventable.
3. The Rockefeller connection may be the key to unlocking an understanding of this entire issue. Why has their connection to the WTC been omitted from the
media coverage about 9/11?
4. Anthrax may not be getting sent to the media and to Congress by terrorists.
5. This conflict is about oil not terrorism, Israel or Islam.
6. Are we bombing the wrong country?
7. Bush is not doing a good job of protecting America. It would be far more accurate to say he’s doing a good job of destroying it.
8. There is an occult aspect to the attacks which cannot be ignored or attributed to coincidence.
9. NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani did not unify New York City, but has done everything in his power to destroy the electoral process and guarantee future social
chaos.
Rather than attempt to provide extensive proof of each idea which would require a book-length report, here are one or more references from which you can learn
more. Every one of these ideas has voluminous documentation which can be found in the mainstream media, on the net or in reputable books if one looks for it.
Are these ideas true, are they connected and do they point to an even more sinister explanation for 9/11 than is popularly held? I’ll let you be the judge, which
is more than our newly popular leaders are willing to do. While to some it may seem unpatriotic to question the government’s actions at this time of crisis let us
remember that the original purpose of free speech was to enable Americans to ask exactly these kind of unpopular questions of our elected leaders. Real unity
cannot be based on deceiving the American people.
1. This new war is not a conflict between Islamic fundamentalism and American freedom.
According to President Bush, we are now at war with "the evil-doers" who hate our freedoms and way of life. Reasonable enough, but to be complete the list of
evil-doers involved with terrorists would have to include most of the nations in our present coalition, the CIA, many of Americas’ top corporations and some of its
wealthiest and most respected families. Leading the list of those connected to the alleged terrorists are former President Bush, GW Bush and a number of key
cabinet members of both Bush administrations who have been in business with the wealthy Saudis who finance Usama bin Laden’s operations and with the bin
Laden family itself for decades.
Wall Street Journal September 27, 2001
[also see: http://emperors-clothes.com/news/bushladen.htm ]
From: Bin Laden Family Could Profit From a Jump In Defense Spending Due to Ties to U.S. Bank
"Through this investment and its ties to Saudi royalty, the bin Laden family has become acquainted with some of the biggest names in the Republican Party. In
recent years, former President Bush, ex-Secretary of State James Baker and ex-Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci have made the pilgrimage to the bin Laden
family's headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Mr. Bush makes speeches on behalf of Carlyle Group and is senior adviser to its Asian Partners fund, while Mr.
Baker is its senior counselor. Mr. Carlucci is the group's chairman. Osama is one of more than 50 children of Mohammed bin Laden, who built the family's $5
billion business, Saudi Binladin Group, largely with construction contracts from the Saudi government."
Bush-Bin Laden-Saudi Connection
http://www.truthout.com/0662.Bush.Saudi.htm
http://alexconstantine.50megs.com/the_cia_osama.html
http://www.bushnews.com/bushmoney.htm
Bush family’s dirty little secret:
President’s oil companies funded by Bin Laden family and wealthy Saudis who financed Osama bin Laden
WorldNetDaily: Bush's scary CAIR friends
2. The destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) was anticipated and might have been preventable.
Outside of the mainstream U.S. media - which proudly admits it is censoring itself at the request of the Bush administration - there are hundreds of articles and
reports detailing the foreknowledge of various U.S. agencies and officials about a terrorist attack taking place around 9/11. The sources of these reports include
many of our allies in the new war.
David Schippers the Republican lawyer who impeached President Clinton, claims he spent months before 9/11 trying to get information to Attorney General
Ashcroft from FBI agents who claim they were told not to investigate leads that suggested a terrorist attack on Manhattan was imminent. For a transcript of
Schippers’ interview see http://www.infowars.com/transcript_schippers.html
After having been bombed in 1993 the WTC was probably the building complex in the U.S. most expected by Federal authorities to be the subject of a future
terrorist attack. Various books and movies had such an attack, in some cases involving hijacked jets, as part of their plot. A FEMA emergency response
manual, titled: Emergency Response To Terrorism ERT: SS Q 534 (http://www.usfa.fema.gov/nfa/tr_ertss1.htm), featured the WTC on its’ cover. Why were the
Federal government and the Giuliani administration seemingly so unprepared on 9/11?
A Daily News article details that numerous children in the NYC Muslim community made public statements shortly before 9/11 about what was to happen to the
WTC. Are we to believe school kids knew and publicly bragged about it, but the CIA didn’t know?
Some Got Warning: Don't Go Downtown on Sept. 11 -Daily News 10/12/2001
Feds say Middle-Easterners knew of the coming danger
Most of the suspected hijackers had valid U.S. passports and some were suspected terrorists who were actually under surveillance at the time by the
authorities. A number of them received U.S. military training and all the hijack pilots were apparently trained in the U.S.
On Friday, Sept 7, the State Dept issued a worldwide terrorist alert to Americans abroad
The FAA and Army intelligence knew that multiple hijackings were in progress long before any of the planes had crashed, yet failed to shoot them down
http://www.msnbc.com/news/627524.asp
3. The Rockefeller connection may be the key to unlocking an understanding of this entire issue. Why has their connection to the WTC been omitted from the
media coverage about 9/11?
From http://www.ping.be/cosmopolitan/nyc/wtc.htm
"The World Trade center was a project started up in 1960 by David Rockefeller. The towers were sometimes nicknamed David and Nelson, the Rockefeller
brothers."
http://iserve.wtca.org
"The World Trade Center Concept
"If asked where the idea for the World Trade Center originated, Guy Tozzoli is quick to note that the concept originated with David Rockefeller."
a. The secretive Rockefeller family is considered by many authors to have been one of the main forces behind the scenes of the Ford, Reagan, Carter, Bush
and Clinton presidencies. The Rockefeller family is the world’s #1 promoter of eugenics, was half-owner of Nazi Germany’s IG Farben and is at the center of
virtually every organization and idea associated with The New World Order.
For proof of the Rockefeller owned Chase Bank’s Nazi connection see: "Chase Manhattan Banks Right wing Relationship"
http://baltech.org/lederman/913chase.html
See: http://ericdarton.net/html/tallstories.html for an excellent article on Rockefeller and the WTC written before 9/11.
b. According to bin Laden his main problem with the U.S. involves us being in Saudi Arabia and propping up their unpopular regime. The Saudi royal family bin
Laden hates so much is kept in power by men who work for the Rockefeller family and the CIA to insure the flow of oil to Standard Oil and other U.S. oil
corporations. WWII, the Holocaust, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Gulf War and the present war on terrorism all share a direct connection to the Rockefeller
dynasties’ oil interests. Standard Oil, now called Exxon, is the most powerful corporation on earth.
For a very detailed account of this Middle Eastern oil story and how it has shaped both recent American and world history see, "The Secret War Against the
Jews" by John Loftus and Mark Aarons, St. Martin’s Press. John Loftus is a former U.S. Department of Justice Nazi war crimes prosecutor.
For an in-depth article on Standard Oil/Exxon see: Business Week APRIL 9, 2001 COVER STORY Exxon Unleashed
How the world's most powerful corporation plans to dominate the new age of oil exploration
The New Yorker, 10/22/2001 King’s Ransom by Seymor Hersh
Previous to becoming Bush’s top foreign policy advisor, Condolezza Rice was on the board of directors of Exxon which proudly named an oil tanker after her.
Dick Cheney, GW Bush and many of his top aides are also heavily invested and involved in the oil industry.
c. David Rockefeller’s Chase Manhattan Bank is also the main sponsor of the Manhattan Institute (MI) a think tank founded by Reagan‘s controversial CIA
director William Casey. MI is the source of just about all of President Bush’s and Mayor Giuliani’s policy ideas, a fact which they are very proud to admit.
Many of Bush’s cabinet members and advisors are also closely associated with MI, which invented the classic doublespeak slogan, "compassionate
conservatism". Casey, who was intimately linked to the Rockefeller empire throughout his career, was the top CIA official behind arming bin Laden and training
his terrorist army. Is it just another coincidence that George Bush Sr. was Vice President and NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani was the third highest official in the
Justice Department during this same time?
William Casey’s activities before his death and the Manhattan Institute’s agenda are intimately connected to Wall Street and to the oil industry. While MI is
best-known for its policy papers on race, welfare and urban planning its’ board includes Wall Street investment bankers deeply involved with oil, geo-politics and
the military-industrial complex.
d. The WTC was a financial failure from day one and was completely outmoded as a real estate holding. Its design made updating the buildings for contemporary
fiber optic and other telecommunications systems exorbitantly expensive. Now that it has been so tragically destroyed, real estate interests are clamoring to
rebuild it and will do so in large part at U.S. government expense. Insurance companies which are among the world’s most profitable corporations may not even
have to pay claims for this or future terrorist attacks. See: NY Times October 22, 2001 Insurers Push for Cap on Future Payouts
Salon
http://www.gothamgazette.com/commentary/105.fitch.shtml
A Mistake In The First Place By Robert Fitch
"Legislation was passed to move the port to New Jersey, create a downtown World Trade Center and establish a World Trade Center corporation headed by
Winthrop Aldrich [Rockefeller’s uncle] of Chase Manhattan Bank."
4. Anthrax may not be getting sent to the media and to Congress by so-called terrorists.
If bin Laden or Iraq want to wipe out Americans with anthrax, they’re doing a poor job of it. The main people who have been infected so far are assistants to key
members of the media, mail handlers and a few aides to the Congress.
On the other hand, if someone was trying to boost sales for Cipro and the stock prices of companies manufacturing vaccines and pharmaceuticals - many of
which are directly connected to the Bush and Rockefeller families and Bush administration officials - they are doing an exceptional job of it. Medical experts
anticipate that widespread use of Cipro will make the American public far more vulnerable to all forms of disease by causing pathogens to mutate into antibiotic
resistant strains (see: NY Times October 19, 2001-THE MEDICATION Experts Say Cipro Overuse Could Lead to Problems). In light of the Bush and Rockefeller
dynasties’ historical interest in pharmaceuticals, eugenics and population control, might that have something to do with the concerted effort behind Cipro
becoming more in demand than Viagra and the government proposing a (mandatory?) nationwide smallpox vaccine program?
In all the hysterical Cipro-centered coverage about the "evil-doers" who are using anthrax a basic fact is often omitted. It was the first Bush administration and
our coalition allies which originally gave anthrax and seventy other biological and chemical weapons to Sadamn Hussein. The U.S. has led the world in
production of chemical and biological warfare agents.
NY Times October 21, 2001
BUGGY-Preparing America for the Reality of Germ Warfare
"Before President Richard M. Nixon renounced germ warfare in 1969, for example, the United States Army produced dried anthrax, a single gallon of which could
hold up to eight billion lethal doses — enough in theory to kill every person on the planet, twice."
One of many drugs which can be used for the treatment for anthrax exposure, Cipro, is now mentioned every few minutes on every news show in America. Cipro
is a fairly dangerous drug manufactured by the German company Bayer. Cipro was already Bayer’s most profitable product before 9/11 and sales are now up
according to the NY Times 1,000%. Bayer’s Cipro patent expires in 2003. According to some medical experts, garlic may be just as effective as Cipro and far
safer for fighting infection by anthrax.
Before the end of WWII Bayer was the main component of I. G. Farben, the chemical, pharmaceutical and munitions powerhouse behind the rise of Nazi
Germany. For information on I.G. Farben’s remarkable parallels and links to the Bush administration see my articles, "What’s Hiding in GW’s Cabinet"
http://baltech.org/lederman/gw-bush-hiding.html and "The GW Bush Gang" http://baltech.org/lederman/bush-farben-1-5-01.html
Even if it turns out that Iraqi or bin Laden-connected terrorists are mailing anthrax to locations in the U.S., it was the first Bush administration and our allies
which originally gave it to them.
It is alleged that among the top stockholders in Bioport - the only company with an anthrax vaccine - is the Carlyle Group. Among the top participants in the
Carlyle Group? The Bush and bin Laden families.
See http://baltech.org/lederman/ for various articles on Rockefeller, MI, Bush and eugenics
Cipro alleged price fixing and Bioport anthrax vaccine info http://www.bushnews.com/bioterrorism.htm
"The Anthrax Commisars" a report by Sherman Skolnick on Bioport and ties to bin Laden http://www.skolnicksreport.com/ootar3.html
10/4/2001 Daily News
West Nile Virus Outbreak Is Seen Through Lens of Terror
"A 1994 congressional inquiry found American companies had legally shipped West Nile and other killer viruses to Iraq for research purposes, with the full
consent of the U.S. Commerce Department, documents obtained by The News show."
April 2, 1998; Keith Bradsher, "Senator Says U.S. Let Iraq Get Lethal Viruses," The New York Times, February 10, 1994, p. A9;
Kevin Merida and John Mintz, "Rockville Firm Shipped Germ Agents to Iraq, Riegle Says," The Washington Post, February 10, 1994, p. A8;
5. This conflict is about oil not terrorism, Israel or Islam
The U.S. was planning to invade Afghanistan long before 9/11 and not in order to stop terrorists or help Islamic women denied human rights by the Taleban.
Such an invasion would have been widely criticized if not politically impossible before 9/11. Afghanistan is crucial to the creation of an oil pipeline that has long
been a key preoccupation of the Rockefeller, Bush and related oil interests.
"In spite of this, a route through Afghanistan appears to be the best option with the fewest technical obstacles. It is the shortest route to the sea and has
relatively favorable terrain for a pipeline. The route through Afghanistan is the one that would bring Central Asian oil closest to Asian markets and thus would be
the cheapest in terms of transporting the oil."
Quoted from: Testimony by John J. Maresca VP, International Relations UNOCAL CORP - February 12, 1998 (Mr. Maresca was George Bush Sr.'s Ambassador
to Cyprus )
Energy Information Administration (DOE) Afghanistan Fact Sheet
(note section titled "Regional Pipeline Plans") - December, 2000
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/afghan2.html
US planned attack on Taliban - BBC News September 18, 2001
Threat of US strikes passed to Taliban weeks before US attack - Guardian September 22, 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,556279,00.html
6. Are we bombing the wrong country?
According to FBI reports most of the suspected 9/11 hijackers were not planning to commit suicide and were unaware of the plan to crash the planes into
various buildings. That coupled with the fact that false identities were used by all the suspected hijackers makes it possible that Islamic terrorists may have had
little understanding of the real purpose of the hijackings even if they were on the planes. It appears that none of the hijackers were even from Afghanistan, the
country we are now bombing, invading and trying to overthrow. If we are going after the source why aren’t we invading Saudi Arabia where 15 of the hijackers
were from? According to the Bush administration, Saudi Arabian billionaires are the bin Laden terrorist networks main source of funding. If we are after the
Taleban then why is Pakistan, the Taleban’s main ally among nations and the sponsor of the radical religious schools from which bin Laden draws his recruits,
our closest ally?
NY TIMES October 25, 200 Naming of Hijackers as Saudis May Further Erode Ties to U.S.
"Fifteen of the 19 men who hijacked four airplanes on Sept. 11 were from Saudi Arabia, Federal authorities have said, a disclosure that is likely to complicate an
already tangled and difficult relationship between Washington and Riyadh."
From: The UK Guardian Sunday October 14, 2001 The Observer
http://observer.co.uk/waronterrorism/story/0,1373,573707,00.html
Attackers did not know they were to die
"FBI investigators have officially concluded that 11 of the 19 terrorists who hijacked the aircraft on 11 September did not know they were on a suicide mission,
Whitehall intelligence sources said last night...It is understood the FBI has found evidence suggesting the 11 men expected to take part in 'conventional'
hijackings - with the planes flown to distant airports, and the passengers and crew taken hostage while the hijackers presented demands. Items found among
the 11 men's possessions suggest they had been preparing themselves for incarceration. One source said: 'It looks as if they expected they might be going to
prison, not paradise.' The FBI analysis concludes the 11 may have believed the purpose of the hijackings was to free the perpetrators of previous extremist
terrorist attacks on the United States, such as the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993."
7. Bush is not doing a good job of protecting America. It would be far more accurate to say he’s doing a good job of destroying it.
The super "patriotic" Bush family have a consistent habit of building up dictators, supplying them with arms, reaping the profits for themselves and their wealthy
friends and then declaring their onetime allies to be the ultimate evil requiring a new war and the loss of American lives.
GW Bush’s grandfathers were key supporters of and Wall Street investment bankers for Adolf Hitler during more than a decade preceding the U.S. entering
WWII. In 1942 the U.S. Congress seized their assets as Nazi fronts under the Trading With the Enemy Act. Former President Bush and some of his top his
cabinet members were very close allies of Sadam Hussein before the Gulf War, which may have begun when the Bush administration signaled Iraq that an
invasion of Kuwait would be tolerated by the U.S. Under the Reagan-Bush administration (in large part run by former CIA director and Reagan Vice President,
George Bush) Usama Bin Laden was financed, armed and had his army of terrorists - "the evil-doers" - trained by the CIA. The wealthy Saudis who are bin
Laden’s money men are also business partners with the Bush family. At what point will Americans dare to question the President about these business
relationships?
See my various articles on the Bush family and their ongoing Nazi connection at http://baltech.org/lederman/
8. There is an occult aspect to the attacks which cannot be ignored or attributed to coincidence.
The article at the website below is very thought-provoking. Whether or not you believe in God, numerology or the occult this article is well worth reading. You
may have already seen a breakdown of the numerological repetition of the number 11 in this event, but this article goes much deeper into what it might actually
mean and why these dates and flights were selected for the attack.
http://www.enterprisemission.com/tower2.htm
"The attacks took place on 9/11
9+1+1 = 11
Each WTC Tower had 110 floors, which is a multiple of 11
American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane flown into World Trade Tower2, had 11 crewmembers. A total of 65 people were on Flight 11. 6+5 = 11
The second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, hit the World Trade Tower 1 at 9:02 AM. 9+2 = 11
9/11 is the 254th day of the year. 2+5+4 = 11
After 9/11, there are 111 days left in the year
New York City (where the major attack occurred) consists of 11 letters
New York was the 11th state admitted into the Union
President Bush ordered flags to fly at half mast until 9/22, making an 11 day period of mourning."
9. NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani not only did not unify New York City but he has done everything in his power since 9/11 to destroy the electoral process and
guarantee future social chaos.
There are few examples of a public image changing so radically and rapidly as Mayor Giuliani’s has since 9/11. Within hours of the WTC attack and continuing
ever since the media has been bombarding us with empty propaganda about Giuliani being a hero, an icon and a savior. This is by the same corporate media
who for eight years consistently described him as a heartless, racially-biased violator of the Constitution who denied raises and up-to-date equipment to the
EMS, police and fire departments and regularly delighted in exacerbating the City’s racial, economic and social divisions for his personal political gain.
Giuliani, or Sir Rudy as he is now known, has managed to turn the WTC disaster into a personal bonanza of goodwill culminating most recently in an honorary
knighthood bestowed upon him by none other than the Queen of England. Surrounded at every opportunity with real heroes - police officers, firemen and rescue
workers - Giuliani routinely leads celebrity tours of ground zero and depicts himself as responsible for the spirit of cooperation New Yorkers have shown for
three centuries. Are these non-stop emotional tributes to firemen and police intended to keep anyone from asking the question, who screwed up?
While his "heroic" actions involved holding hourly press conferences notable for their lack of information, appearing on every news and entertainment show to
take credit for his efforts and lecturing the UN General Assembly on the superior value of electoral freedom, behind the scenes Giuliani and his staff were
feverishly trying to prevent the 2001 NYC election from ever taking place so that he could indefinitely stay in office.
What is never broached in the corporate media is that despite Giuliani’s leadership for eight years the city’s emergency planning was completely ineffective on
9/11. That anyone was saved from the WTC disaster is due to the sacrifices of the firemen, cops, Port Authority staff and EMS crews who risked and lost their
lives, not Mayor Giuliani. Among the many unanswered questions since the attack, only a single columnist has dared to ask in print why Giuliani located his $15
million emergency bunker - complete with 6,000 gallons of highly flammable fuel - on the 23rd floor of the very NYC building complex most expected by FEMA
and other Federal agencies to be bombed by terrorists.
Village Voice 10/8/2001 From: La Dolce Musto
"But before you decide: In '99, despite complaints—like how the building was a potential target and also happened to be owned by a political supporter—our
mayor had an emergency bunker built at 7 World Trade Center. Legendarily enough, a 6000-gallon fuel tank was installed there to run the generators in case of a
power outage. Well, when the planes hit the other two towers on September 11, flying debris fell on 7 WTC, which some insiders say ignited that very fuel. Still
love Rudy?"
"Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is now bracing for a whole other order of urban treachery and cataclysm by building a $15.1 million emergency control center for his
administration...bullet-proofed, hardened to withstand bombs and hurricanes, and equipped with food and beds for at least 30 members of his inner circle." -NY
Times 6/13/98 Giuliani's $15.1 Million 'Emergency Control Center
NY Times 10/24/2001Split in Ranks: Commissioner Hears the Boos of Firefighters
"But even as the events of Sept. 11 strengthened those bonds, it did little to soften the bitter feelings that many firefighters have long held for Fire
Commissioner Thomas Von Essen [one of Giuliani‘s closest aides]. Indeed, on Saturday night, when Mr. Von Essen took the stage at a benefit concert at
Madison Square Garden, many of several thousand firefighters in attendance joined in sustained booing...Mr. Von Essen's unpopularity was a problem of his
own creation, the stubborn residue of five years in which he has butted heads with many firefighters, officers, emergency medical technicians and the unions
that represent them. "The E.M.S. people have been unhappy with Von Essen for years," said Robert Ungar, a spokesman for the emergency medical
technicians' union. "This crisis wasn't going to change that."...Similarly, Capt. Peter Gorman, the president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association and one of
Mr. Von Essen's harshest critics, also declined to speak of their relationship or the conduct of firefighters at the Garden. "I have and continue to have serious
labor-management issues, but we have agreed to put them on the back burner," he said...Others complained that Mr. Von Essen has been on television too
much, appearing with David Letterman, standing alongside Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani at news conferences and being honored by the British government instead
of being with them at ground zero."
Newsday 10/25/2001 Questions About Safety of Workers
"Hundreds of injuries to workers combing through the rubble at the World Trade Center might have been prevented had the city been faster to require proper
training and equipment at what is still an "extremely hazardous" work site, according to a sharply worded federal report. "There is no excuse for what I saw,"
John Moran, an engineer and industrial hygienist, said yesterday. Moran investigated working conditions at Ground Zero in the weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks as a consultant to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The report he coauthored was released this week by the institute, an arm of
the federal National Institutes of Health. "When I was up there, there was no evidence of any safety or health program or plan. It's the worst site I've ever seen
- extremely hazardous. Very few of the workers were wearing even the most basic protective equipment," said Moran, who was at Ground Zero from Sept. 22 to
27."
Great resource for info pertaining to the new war
http://urbana.indymedia.org/library/terrorism.html
Bush and NWO
http://www.geocities.com/alanjpakula/triplecrown.html
http://www.shorejournal.com/elkhorn/
Robert Lederman
robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net
http://baltech.org/lederman/
Note: Recommending a site or article should not be construed to mean I necessarily endorse all of the views therein. Regardless of how one feels about the
Bush and Giuliani administrations, for Americans there can be no desirable outcome to this situation other than America and NYC coming out on top, our troops
coming home safely and all terrorists, including our own, being brought to justice.
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Dead Letter Office
Heil Bush,
Dear Propaganda Ansager Lehrer,
Congratulations you have just been awarded the Vidkun Quisling Award for 2001. Your name will now live throughout history with such past award winners as Marcus Junius Brutus, Judas Iscariot, Benedict Arnold, Vidkun Quisling and last year's winner Volksjudge Antoni (light-fingers) Scalia.
Without your help shilling for us, spinning the truth, telling out right lies and ignoring the real news, holding onto power after our Coup D' Etat would have been impossible. With the help of our mutual friends, the other "Media Whores," you have made it possible for all of us to goose-step off to a brave new bank account.
Along with this award there will be an Iron Cross 2nd class presented by our glorious Fuhrer Herr Bush at a gala celebration in der Fuhrer Bunker (formally the White House) on 12-15-2001. We salute you Herr Lehrer! Sieg Heil!
Signed,
Heil Bush
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We've run out of time to set up a bridge or coalition government and so, of
necessity, are throwing our lot with the Northern Alliance. According to
the Afghan women's organization, the Northern Alliance is as bad as the
Taliban and, in addition, consists of minority tribes who have always
warred with the majority Pushtan.
We seem to have bombed everything bombable, including the Red Cross twice.
At this point, it seems to me, we can give it another month and call the
war for the season, which is what the Afghans do, and wait 'til next year
without any disgrace. What would be worse than disgraceful is causing mass
starvation. The humanitarian aid folks are getting frantic about this, and
we need to stop and figure out what we can do about it.
The trick to smiting back those who smote us is to first figure out where
they are. This means using creative diplomacy and plain police work. We
need to hit them without killing the innocents around them and, as Jim
Hightower observes, that calls for a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. If it
takes years, it takes years.
The administration is in some danger of sacrificing one of its most
important assets, which is the trust of the American people. The problem is
not that everyone isn't singing off the same page, but that some parties
are being less than frank. And that is fatal to trust. There is no point in
telling us our "surgical, precision bombing" doesn't kill civilians --
we're grown-ups, we know.
Meanwhile, back on the home front, Congress is engaged in criminal folly.
Not only has the House passed this sickening bundle of tax cuts to benefit
IBM, General Motors and General Electric, but they're telling us that to
defend freedom, we must surrender freedom. In the name of democracy, we
must abandon democracy.
There are 51 emergency anti-terrorism bills packaged under the meretricious
title "proved Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct
Terrorism Act" -- stands for patriot; cute, eh? Among the more staggering
proposals, PATRIOT authorizes indefinite detention of anyone "suspected" of
any terrorist connection. The definition of "terrorist activity" is left
largely to the FBI and the CIA, which have had notable difficulty grasping
democratic principles in the past.
The definition is so broad that it would cover painting a peace sign in
front of the State Department or protesting a meeting of the World Trade
Organizations. I am indebted to Hightower for a quote from Gunther Grass:
"The first job of a citizen is to keep your mouth open."
Legislators have already passed much of this garbage and proudly claim that
the most controversial surveillance sections will expire in 2005. In fact,
the 2005 expiration date applies only to a tiny portion of the sprawling
bill. The police will have permanent ability to conduct Internet
surveillance without a court order, and secretly search homes and offices
-- the CIA will have cosmetic authority. It's an abomination.
A though this weren't bad enough, the CIA wants the power to assassinate
people, just like terrorists. And the FBI, according to a Walter Pincus
article in The Washington Post, is seeking power to "pressure"
uncooperative prisoners by using drugs or "Israeli-style" methods. Why not
just crack out the bastinado and the rack?
Bush has already created the infelicitiously named Office of Homeland
Security (such a weird, Orwellian ring) and given it powers to match the
National Security Agency with no congressional oversight of its activities
or budget. That recipe is guaranteed to produce unhappy consequences. In
addition, Bush has established something called the Homeland Defense
Command within the Pentagon, giving military authorities a chance to trump
civilian authorities. Come on, is he really so
little aware of how dangerous that is?
There is not the slightest evidence that any of the measures will do dog to
stop terrorism. From what we know of how Sept. 11 happened, we have a visa
system so full of holes it's a disgrace and a problem with airport
security. There really is no inverse relationship between freedom and
security -- we can't make ourselves safer by making ourselves less
free. All that happens when we make ourselves less free is that we're less
free.
We also have an obligation to consider what kind of society we're making in
unseemly haste and leaving to our children and future generations. We
urgently need a serious national dialogue about these issues, but all we're
getting from television is 24-hour exploitation of the anthrax scare.
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How many times have you received the email about the Broken Arrow, Oklahoma school that took down the posters that said "In God We Trust" so as to not offend anyone? In the email it also has such sentiments as: "We speak English, not Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society - learn our language!" and ""In God We Trust" is our national motto…… We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation; and this is clearly documented throughout our history….. God is in our pledge, our National Anthem, nearly every patriotic song, and in our founding documents. We honor His birth, death, and resurrection as holidays, and we turn to Him in prayer in times of crisis. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture and we are proud to have Him." Well, today I received it yet again, and it had this lovely bonus as an epilogue: "I AGREE DITTO's If YOU dont like it GET OUT NOW !!!!! AND LEARN TO SPEAK ENGLISH IF YOU PLAN ON STAYING, IT'S LIKE COMING TO MY HOUSE AND TALKING TO EACH OTHER IN A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE, IT RUDE." No doubt it would help this person’s cause a bit if they could learn the proper use of forms of ‘be’, but that’s hardly the point. Patriotism is all well and good, however this is not a very tolerant piece. Yes, I am over trying not to 'offend' anyone, but I am also over people telling anyone who disagrees that they should "get the hell out". That is just as intolerant as what they are protesting in the first place, and even more ignorant of our great nation’s history. Am I the only one who learned US History in high school, or has everyone else conveniently forgotten those very important lessons of our heritage? Let’s review: It wasn't until 1954 that the phrase "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance. Most of our Founding Fathers were not Christians, they were deists, including the first six Presidents. If you don’t know what deist means, look it up. It is one of the main reasons this country was founded in the first place, and why they made separation of church and state so paramount. Religious Freedom, meaning, to be free from religion as well as to be free to believe in whatever. At the beginning, the United States was anything but a "Christian" nation, nor was it founded by "Christian men and women." It’s all right there in US History 101. We do, in fact, speak more than just English in this country, though English is our 'official' language. It might do some of us some good to learn a little bit more than just one language. As a culture, not only is it arrogant as hell, but we are quite behind in this aspect; people in most other countries speak more than one language. Diversity and tolerance is part of our strength, and we should be proud of it. We should also celebrate and flaunt the hell out of it! As for the "In God We Trust" part..... nononononono. You can look this up most anywhere, but a good place to start is here> http://www.refuseandresist.org/other_fronts/041898igwt.html It basically tells the facts of how "The Constitution of these United States was ratified in 1789 without a single reference to "God." Also, up until March 3rd, 1865, "our currency was totally secular; as clean from a mention of God as was the Constitution." Basically the small church membership (around 25%) around the time just before the Civil War, was really miffed that the US Constitution had absolutely no mention of God, and wanting to rectify the situation, introduced what would become known as the "Christian amendment". In it they wanted to amend the Preamble to the Constitution as follows: "We, the people of the United States, humbly acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Ruler among the nations, His revealed will as the supreme law of the land, in order to constitute a Christian government, and in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to ourselves, our posterity, and all the people, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Bit extreme, don’t you think? Needless to say this was widely frowned upon, and not passed by Congress, or any state. The regular use of "In God We Trust" on US coins did not begin until 1908. Even Teddy Roosevelt preferred "E Pluribus Unum" to the more in your face God motto. "In God We Trust" was not made an official motto of the United States until 1956, and did not appear on paper money until 1957. I don’t understand where all this hatred and intolerance are coming from. The Christians I know are tolerant. The Christians I know are also very respectful of all other religions that we find in this great nation. The person who wrote this email is caught up in a dangerous patriotic fever that is beginning to get out of hand. I even had an old Republican guy the other night tell me to my face because I disagreed with him, that he hopes I "am NEVER ALLOWED TO VOTE AGAIN." My my my my.....it seems he needs to go over and join the Taliban eh? Not very Tolerant, Christian, or American for that matter. We are a country of equality, liberty and diversity. It’s the very foundation of our beliefs; it’s what inspired the birth of our nation. It’s what gives us our strength, what sets us apart, and what inspires other nations to imitate our laws and ideals. Patriotism is a great thing, but it is tolerant. Being intolerant in America is about as unpatriotic as you can get. Dissent in America is all about being Patriotic. It’s what keeps us alive. It seems we have been slipping back to the good old days of European religious oppression, which is the very thing we were running away from in the first place.
Maybe all we need is a refresher course in American History.
This edition we're proud to showcase the cartoons of Mike Luckovich |
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To End On A Happy Note ... The Unknown Soldier
Wait until the war is over
Breakfast where the news is read |
