from arizona nbc12: Hundreds of people from across the country descend on a Chandler resort to challenge popular beliefs about 9/11.
What many people consider to be the most devastating attack ever on Americans is also the government's greatest lie, according to many attending the 9/11 Accountability Conference.
One person told us she feels like they get nothing but lies and propaganda from the government when it comes to seeking answers about the attack.
The 9/11 Truth Movement began on the internet. Followers cite alternative research that suggests the hijackers on the planes had help, and it wasn't from Osama Bin Laden. They question everything about the attacks.
Truth Movement supporters say they doubt much of what the government tells them about U.S. intelligence, the twin towers collapse and the investigations. Some people we talked to say the government has such highly sophisticated technology, that it would be impossible for the planes to go off course without anyone knowing.
Others say, the twin towers could not have collapsed the way they did without some kind of controlled demolition.
And many fear the government is using the war on terror to further an agenda to take away American's freedoms.
The 9/11 Truth followers are calling for a new independent investigation. They believe high ranking U.S. government officials are covering up the truth, and may have in some way orchestrated the attacks.
As to why so many people chose to believe the government? Some say, it’s easier to go along with the majority than follow unpopular beliefs.
Another Smoking Gun? Now CNN Jumps the Gun: On 911 CNN Announced WTC 7 "Has Either Collapsed or is Collapsing" Over an Hour Before it Fell
from information liberation: In an amazing redux, new video has been unearthed of a CNN report on the day of 9/11 in which a CNN anchor announces they have received word that WTC 7 is on fire and "has either collapsed or is collapsing." The problem with this is that WTC 7 is clearly visible behind the anchor.
This report was carried at "about 4:15 eastern daylight time" (according to the anchor), over an hour before the building actually collapsed at 5:20. Who told them the WTC 7 building "has either collapsed or is collapsing."?
Keep in mind he did not say it was going to collapse, he said it either had or was in the process of doing so. The anchor says is "we are getting information now", who is giving him this information? If you pay close attention you can see after the anchor announces this he turns around and sees the building as clear as day still standing, he then proceeds to backtrack on the initial information which informed him clearly the building "has either collapsed or is collapsing."
from courier post: Illegal immigrants who lost loved ones on 9/11 could become legal residents under legislation Sen. Frank Lautenberg introduced Tuesday.
Also championed by Sen. Robert Menendez, the bill would allow survivors of victims identified by the September 11 Victims Compensation Fund to receive permanent residency - or “green” - cards. An identical proposal didn’t pass the previous Congress.
Co-sponsors are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and four other Democratic senators: Hillary Clinton of New York, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.
Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut has also signed on. So have Republicans Sam Brownback of Kansas and Norm Coleman of Minnesota.
In the House, Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Peter King, R-N.Y., have sponsored similar legislation.
To read the bill, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and search for S. 615, the September 11 Family Humanitarian Relief and Patriotism Act.
from ap/yahoo: Stocks had their worst day of trading since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks Tuesday, hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down more than 400 points on a worldwide tide of concern that the U.S. and Chinese economies are stumbling and that share prices have become overinflated.
The steepness of the market's drop, as well as its global breadth, signaled a possible correction after a long period of stable and steadily rising stock markets that had not been shaken by such a volatile day of trading in several years.
revealing, shocking video shows reporter talking about collapse with WTC 7 still standing in background...
from prison planet: An astounding video uncovered from the archives today shows the BBC reporting on the collapse of WTC Building 7 over twenty minutes before it fell at 5:20pm on the afternoon of 9/11. The incredible footage shows BBC reporter Jane Standley talking about the collapse of the Salomon Brothers Building while it remains standing in the live shot behind her head.
Minutes before the actual collapse of the building is due, the feed to the reporter mysteriously dies.
This amazing clip was on Google Video (now back again here), but was removed within hours of the story breaking. However, hundreds of people had already managed to download the clip and it has gone viral on the Internet and the censors won't be able to shut the lid this time. A YouTube upload is available here but we fully expect this to be removed soon. You can watch it for the time being at this link and also here. A WMV link is here (on our server) and a Quicktime here. Bit torrent versions of the file can be found here. An avi version can be found here.
Although there is no clock or time stamp on the footage, the source claims the report was given at 4:57pm EST, 23 minutes before Building 7 collapsed at 5:20pm. While the exact time of the report cannot be confirmed at present, it is clear from the footage that the reporter is describing the collapse of WTC 7 while it clearly remains standing behind her in the live shot...
The fact that the BBC reported on the collapse of Building 7 over twenty minutes in advance of its implosion obviously provokes a myriad of questions as to how they knew it was about to come down when the official story says its collapse happened accidentally as a result of fire damage and debris weakening the building's structure.
As we have documented before, firefighters, police and first responders were all told to get back from the building because it was about to be brought down. It is widely acknowledged by those who were there on the scene that warnings were issued for people to evacuate the area in anticipation of the building's collapse, with some even stating that a 20 second countdown preceded the collapse of the 47-story skyscraper, again clearly suggesting that it was taken down by means of explosives as the video footage of its implosion illustrates.
Alex Jones' film TerrorStorm documents how Thermate was the likely culprit for the implosion of the twin towers and also explores the collapse of WTC 7.
In a September 2002 PBS documentary, the owner of the WTC complex Larry Silverstein discusses Building 7 and states that in the late afternoon of September 11, the decision was made to "pull it." The term "pull it" is industry jargon for controlled demolition, but Silverstein denied charges that WTC 7 had been deliberately brought down.
This newly uncovered video confirms that the collapse of WTC 7 was no surprise, because television news stations were reporting on it before it happened!
This footage is absolutely amazing and should provoke a firestorm of new questions aimed both at Silverstein and the BBC. Who told the BBC that the building was going to collapse before it did and why were they reporting its fall in advance of the event actually taking place?
Many have speculated that some kind of press release was leaked too soon and AP wires, radio stations and TV news outlets prematurely reported on WTC 7's collapse.
The video also severely undermines the credibility of the BBC who recently caused controversy by airing a 9/11 hit piece that sought to debunk questions that bring the official story into doubt.
Calls have already been put through to the BBC reporting the "mistake," click here to listen to an MP3. The BBC have promised to "look into it."
Moronic commenters on Digg are already trying to bury the story, yet none of them have an answer as to why the BBC reported the building's collapse before it happened. Click here to add your own comment and counter the debunkers.
ACTION: E-Mail the BBCand ask them to clarify exactly why their reporter is announcing the collapse of Building 7 before it has collapsed.
from alex ansary: With the issue of 911, the police state, and the surveillance society at the forefront for many activists, there is a larger mystery lurking behind the curtain. Tonight I spoke with Tom Horn, investigative journalist and webmaster of Raiders News Network. We discussed the complex issue of the 'new eugenics' AKA Transhumanism. We also talked about the current technological advances concerning the cross breeding of animal/human embryos. This program ponders the ultimate question: "What does it mean to be a human being?"
This is one extremely informative edition of Outside the Box.
from blacklisted news/youtube: Gardasil is one of the Merck's brightest lights as the company faces lawsuits, layoffs and the looming patent expiration of its top earner, Zocor. Merck faces 9,200 lawsuits from plaintiffs who blame Vioxx, the $2.5 billion arthritis painkiller Merck pulled off the market in 2004, for heart attacks, many of them fatal.
Shocked that people are so blind, sure they say they wanna help you with that new age drug but the facts remain they are up a creek without a paddle!
So far, Merck lost the first state case but won the second. The third case, in federal district court, was declared a mistrial. Merck has lost about a third of its stock value since the withdrawal.
from news register: Across the United States, a diverse coalition of states, from left-leaning Massachusetts to right-leaning Arizona, Georgia and Wyoming, are rebelling against the Real ID Act. But Oregon isn't one of them.
The 2005 federal law calls for national standardization of driver's licenses by May 2008, effectively creating a national citizenship card. And in Oregon, lawmakers are intent on figuring out how to comply, not how to avoid complying.
On Thursday, citizens with strong feelings of all stripes packed two hearing rooms to sound off.
The issue was Senate Bill 424, sponsored by the Mount Hood Democrat who chairs the Senate Business, Transportation and Workforce Committee. After two hours of testimony, he assured the audience definitive action would be taken.
"We will be doing something," Sen. Rick Metsger said. "If we did nothing, we'd have done something, because at this moment, the federal government is going to require us. If we don't do it, then that is also an affirmative action that could be detrimental. Maybe some of us will get calls from 85-year old World War II veterans who want to know how come they can't get on an airplane."
If that prompts you to ask what boarding a plane has to do with a driver's license, it's because a license issued in accordance with the Real ID Act would, for all intents and purposes, function as a national identification card.
Whether that's a proper name for it is itself a topic of debate. Rep. Linda Flores, a Clackamas County Republican who's introduced her own version of implementing language in the House, said state compliance with the federal act would actually "eliminate the need" for a national ID card.
"It's kind of in the eye of the beholder," said Caroline Fredrickson of the American Civil Liberties Union's head office in Washington, D.C. "This looks like a national ID card, it acts like one and it sounds like one. I don't think there's any question that it's a national ID card."
from thinkprogress: New Yorker columnist Sy Hersh says the “single most explosive” element of his latest article involves an effort by the Bush administration to stem the growth of Shiite influence in the Middle East (specifically the Iranian government and Hezbollah in Lebanon) by funding violent Sunni groups.
Hersh says the U.S. has been “pumping money, a great deal of money, without congressional authority, without any congressional oversight” for covert operations in the Middle East where it wants to “stop the Shiite spread or the Shiite influence.” Hersh says these funds have ended up in the hands of “three Sunni jihadist groups” who are “connected to al Qaeda” but “want to take on Hezbollah.”
Hersh summed up his scoop in stark terms: “We are simply in a situation where this president is really taking his notion of executive privilege to the absolute limit here, running covert operations, using money that was not authorized by Congress, supporting groups indirectly that are involved with the same people that did 9/11.”
from washington post: Forty-six countries agreed Friday to push for a global treaty banning cluster bombs, a move activists hope will force the superpowers that oppose the effort - the U.S., China and Russia - to abandon the weapons...
Of the 49 countries attending the Oslo conference, only three - Japan, Poland and Romania - rejected the declaration calling for a treaty by next year. Some key arms makers - including the U.S., Russia, Israel and China - snubbed the conference.
media monarchy is originally broadcast on the portland radio authority every friday at 10am pst/1pm est... music, media & all the news that's fit to suppress!
giuliani invokes 9/11 in latest SC visit from the state: Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani met with firefighters and police officers in Spartanburg on Wednesday, using the forum to discuss the Sept. 11 terror attacks that earned him national attention.
“The first people that arrive on the scene of the bombing or the anthrax attack ... it’s going to be one of your brothers or your sisters or you that gets to do it,” the former New York City mayor told a crowd of about 200 emergency workers. “Your ability to do it well will once again determine if we save lives — save America.” pbs piece on terrorist surveillance program from cryptogon: Your email and conversation is monitored.
mcveigh had high-level help from salt lake tribune: Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols says a high-ranking FBI official "apparently" was directing Timothy McVeigh in the plot to blow up a government building and might have changed the original target of the attack, according to a new affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Utah.
The official and other conspirators are being protected by the federal government "in a cover-up to escape its responsibility for the loss of life in Oklahoma," Nichols claims in a Feb. 9 affidavit.
children's tv 'is linked to cancer, autism, dementia' from scotsman: It has long been blamed for creating a nation of couch potatoes. But a new report today claims that Britain's love affair with television is causing far more damage - both physically and psychologically - than previously thought...
"It is the number of hours and the age at which they start which produces the biological effects. It is because of the medium, not the message, that these effects are occurring."
He chatted briefly before climbing into a black limousine and being whisked away under escort.
A strong security presence was in place for the Vice-President, who is in Australia for three days of talks on topics including the war in Iraq, with scores of police on the tarmac. Helicopters also circled above.
Unfortunately, 10 protesters were arrested when scuffles broke out between police at a rally near Sydney Town Hall.
Organised by the Stop the War Coalition, things turned nasty when about 200 people attempted to break a line of police and march to the US Consulate.
But police, supported by mounted officers, held their positions.
Mr Cheney arrived in Australia after having spent two days in Japan discussing security issues and visiting troops on the US island of Guam.
from you tube: North American Union traitors include Chertoff, Condi Rice, George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzalez, and others, like Robert Pastor and David Rockefeller.
from ap/yahoo: Armed with a new study showing the drug can ease pain in some HIV patients, medical-marijuana advocates sued the federal government Wednesday over its claim that pot has no accepted medical uses.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court by Americans for Safe Access, accuses the government of arbitrarily preventing "sick and dying persons from seeking to obtain medicine that could provide them needed and often lifesaving relief."
The Food and Drug Administration's position on medical marijuana "is incorrect, dishonest and a flagrant violation of laws requiring the government to base policy on sound science," Joe Elford, said chief counsel for Americans for Safe Access.
California is one of 11 states that have made marijuana legal for people with a doctor's recommendation. But because the U.S. government does not recognize pot's medical benefits, patients can still be arrested by federal authorities.
Last week, researchers from the University of California at San Francisco reported in the journal Neurology that a test involving 50 HIV patients showed that those who smoked pot experienced much less pain than those given placebos.
The police have, from the onset of their investigation, chosen to withold from the public almost every bit of evidence they claim to have and have provably lied about several aspects of the London Bombings.
The mainstream news has wilfully spread false, unsubstantiated and unverifiable information, while choosing to completely ignore the numerous inconsistencies and discrepancies in the official story.
The government has finally, after a year, presented us with their official ‘narrative’ concerning the event. Within hours it was shown to contain numerous errors, a fact since admitted by the Home Secretary John Reid. They have continuously rejected calls for a full, independent public inquiry. Tony Blair himself described such an inquiry as a ‘ludicrous diversion’. What don’t they want us to find out?
from nypost: Add Christine Ebersole to the list of kooks who say the 9/11 terror attacks were an inside job. The "Grey Gardens" star went on writer John Conner's radio show the other night to say she agrees with him that a corrupt faction within the U.S. government is to blame. "I think we want to look at our government as sort of like a benevolent father that's going to take care of us and be kind to us and treat us well, and I think it's too much for our people to conceptualize, and I'm sure that's what happened to people in Nazi Germany," Ebersole said.
from 9/11 blogger: Please show some support to Christine Ebersole by chiming in with a quick note of support on her website guestbook and by sending a letter defending her position and praising her courage to the editor of the page six gossip column at richard.johnson@nypost.com...
You can find the official announcement of her statement here, and you can digg that story here as well. Update: You can find an MP3 of the interview here (thanks to truthcult.com)
from reuters: Nearly all of the terrorism-related statistics reported by the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI from the September 11 attacks until early 2005 had some inaccuracies, the department's inspector general said on Tuesday.
The findings drew immediate criticism from U.S. senators, who said it raised serious doubts over how effectively the administration was fighting the terrorism threat.
"If the Department of Justice can't even get their own books in order, how are we supposed to have any confidence they are doing the job they should be?," said Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat.
"Whether this is just an accounting error or an attempt to pad terror prosecution statistics for some other reason, the Department of Justice of all places should be classifying cases for what they are, not what they want us to think them to be," Schumer said.
The report found that only two out of 26 statistics were accurate after reviewing the number of terrorism convictions in the 2003 and 2004 financial years, the number of convictions or guilty pleas from September 11, 2001, through February 3, 2005, and the number of terrorist threats tracked by the FBI in 2003 and 2004.
"We found many cases involving offenses such as immigration violations, marriage fraud, or drug trafficking where department officials provided no evidence to link the subject of the case to terrorist activity," the report said.
Inspector General Glenn Fine said the Justice Department should clarify the definitions it uses in its anti-terrorism categories, maintain adequate support for the numbers and improve internal controls to improve accuracy.
The report found the statistics were inaccurately reported for various reasons.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican and a judiciary committee member, said of the report: "The question I have now is whether the inaccuracies are an accident or if there was some other motive behind it."
The collection and reporting of terrorism-related statistics have been decentralized and haphazard, according to the report and most of the statistics were significantly overstated or understated.
Department officials failed to establish internal controls to make sure the statistics were accurately gathered, classified, and reported.
In response to the report, spokesman Dean Boyd said the Justice Department, with few exceptions, had already implemented the changes recommended by the inspector general.
from afp: Prime Minister Tony Blair has written personally to thousands of people opposed to the introduction of identity cards, but admitted he would struggle to convince civil liberties groups.
Blair told nearly 28,000 people who signed an on-line petition on his own website that ID cards would make an "important contribution" countering fraud, international crime and terrorism as well as tackling illegal immigration.
The petition - which calls for Blair to scrap the plan as it would not prevent terrorism or crime and would be "yet another tax on all law-abiding citizens" - is one of the most popular on the Number 10 Downing Street site.
Blair's e-mail to signatories said it would be "foolish" not to take the opportunity to use biometric data like fingerprints to secure a person's identity and disputed "exaggerated" claims about the cost of the scheme.
"Terrorists routinely use multiple identities - up to 50 at a time. Indeed this is an essential part of the way they operate and is specifically taught at Al-Qaeda training camps," he wrote.
"One in four criminals also uses a false identity. ID cards which contain biometric recognition details and which are linked to a National Identity Register will make this much more difficult." ...
"I recognise that these arguments will not convince those who oppose a National Identity Scheme on civil liberty grounds," he added...
The first ID cards are expected to be issued from 2008-09. Having one will be compulsory but citizens will not be required to carry them at all times. Such a scheme has not existed in Britain since World War II.
Campaigners such as the NO2ID group argue ID cards will erode civil liberties and that the scheme is based on untried, over-complicated technology used by an executive with unchecked powers.
They are also concerned at certain ethnic minority groups being unfairly targeted and the potential for it to be a "ready-made police-state tool" for any unscrupulous future government.
The main opposition Conservative Party and smaller Liberal Democrats are both opposed to the scheme.
from reuters: Previously unreleased footage of John F. Kennedy's fateful motorcade in Dallas moments before he was gunned down was released on Monday, a surprising new detail in a saga that has gripped the United States for four decades.
The silent 8mm film shows a beaming Jacqueline Kennedy close up in vivid color waving to the crowd...
The president's coat is clearly if briefly seen bunched up on his back - a detail that will be scrutinized by conspiracy theorists who see evidence of a plot in, among other things, the fact the bullet wounds on his jacket and body did not appear to match.
The film was donated to the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas by amateur photographer George Jefferies and his son-in-law, Wayne Graham. It was released to coincide with the Presidents Day federal holiday.
Museum curator Gary Mack said he was not surprised Jefferies took so long to come forward.
"Everyone who captured the motorcade before the assassination thinks their pictures are unimportant. But to historians, all photos and home movies are important to possibly answer questions that will be asked in the future," he said...
The footage was taken less than 90 seconds before the fatal shots were fired. The 40-second film also shows the scene of the crime the following day.
The footage is sure to be new fodder for conspiracy buffs who have long maintained Kennedy was the victim of a sinister plot orchestrated by shadowy elements in either the government, the "military-industrial complex," the Mafia or communist Cuba.
"I've already seen the footage on a conspiracy Web site - it's interesting for the conspiracy researchers to study Kennedy's coat which appears to be bunched up on his back," Mack said.
He said since Kennedy's jacket was riding high on his back, the entry wound in his body did not match the expected position in his coat - grist for the conspiracy mill that charges more than three shots were fired.
"American military operations for a major conventional war with Iran extend far beyond targeting suspect WMD (weapons of mass destruction) facilities and will enable President George Bush to destroy Iran's military, political and economic infrastructure overnight using conventional weapons," the journal New Statesman has claimed.
In a story titled Attack-Revealed: America's Plans to Invade Iran, the journal quoting British military sources, said ‘the US military switched its whole focus to Iran’ as soon as Saddam Hussein was removed from power. The White House continued this strategy, even though it had American forces bogged down in Iraq.
The US army, navy, air force and marines have all prepared battle plans and spent four years building bases and training for 'Operation Iranian Freedom'. Admiral Fallon, the new head of US Central Command, has inherited computerised plans under the name TIRANT (Theatre Iran Near Term).
Even as the sending of a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf has been highlighted, the US navy can put six carriers into battle at a month's notice.
The report said any US general planning to attack Iran could now assume that at least 10,000 targets could be hit in a single raid, with warplanes flying from the US or Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
from bbc: An item described as the window and frame from where Lee Harvey Oswald shot US President John F Kennedy in 1963 has been sold at auction on eBay.
A mystery bidder paid more than $3m (£1.5m) for the item, apparently from Oswald's shooter's nest at the Texas Schoolbook Depository.
The starting price was just $100,000 but bidding was brisk and the item eventually fetched $3,001,501.
The depository was owned by a local family that listed the item on eBay.
'Piece of history'
Caruth Byrd, a member of that family, says the window of the Dallas building was removed shortly after the assassination because people were stealing bits of it.
Mr Byrd said he was offering someone the chance to own a piece of history and included what he called a leather-bound booklet with all the documentation and contracts relating to the window and the frame's authenticity.
Aptly, given the subject matter, there are those who suggest that the bidders are being hoodwinked.
Conspiracy theorists claim that a man from Tennessee bought the building years ago and took the window with him when he left town.
cia agents to stand trial for kidnapping from reuters: A Milan judge on Friday ordered 26 Americans, most of them thought to be CIA agents, to stand trial with Italian spies for the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric, who says he was flown to Egypt and tortured there... The trial, set to begin on June 8, will be the first criminal case over "renditions" - one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush's war on terrorism.
'doomsday' vault design unveiled from bbc: The final design for a "doomsday" vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government. The Svalbard International Seed Vault will be built into a mountainside on a remote island near the North Pole. The vault aims to safeguard the world's agriculture from future catastrophes, such as nuclear war, asteroid strikes and climate change... armed US police could be on london streets from telegraph: Armed foreign police could patrol the streets of London during the 2012 Olympics under an unprecedented scenario outlined by one of Scotland Yard’s most senior officers... Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, the man in charge of security preparations for the Games and Britain’s most senior Muslim police officer, also raised the prospect of British troops being drafted in to help with the huge security challenges... “I don’t think we should shy away from that. In a global environment, a capital city, international policing is a global family.”
empire of oil: the hidden history of 9/11
from google video: Learn the secret history behind the events leading up to the September 11 attacks, seldom revealed to the public and who actually may have benefited the most from the attacks and why.
fbi caught running top nazi group from orlando sentinel/total411: A paid FBI informant was the man behind a neo-Nazi march through the streets of Parramore that stirred up anxiety in Orlando's black community and fears of racial unrest that triggered a major police mobilization. That revelation came Wednesday in an unrelated federal court hearing and has prompted outrage from black leaders, some of whom demanded an investigation into whether the February 2006 march was, itself, an event staged by law-enforcement agencies.
media monarchy is originally broadcast on the portland radio authority every friday at 10am pst/1pm est... music, media & all the news that's fit to suppress!
from ap/yahoo: About $10 billion has been squandered by the U.S. government on Iraq reconstruction aid because of contractor overcharges and unsupported expenses, and federal investigators warned Thursday that significantly more taxpayer money is at risk.
The three top auditors overseeing work in Iraq told a House committee their review of $57 billion in Iraq contracts found that Defense and State department officials condoned or allowed repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for shoddy work or work never done.
More than one in six dollars charged by U.S. contractors were questionable or unsupported, nearly triple the amount of waste the Government Accountability Office estimated last fall.
"There is no accountability," said David M. Walker, who heads the auditing arm of Congress. "Organizations charged with overseeing contracts are not held accountable. Contractors are not held accountable. The individuals responsible are not held accountable."
from think progress: Today, President Bush delivered a speech on Afghanistan at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. AEI and the Bush administration are deeply entwined, something Bush admitted during his speech. “I admire AEI a lot,” Bush said. “After all, I have been consistently borrowing some of your best people. More than 20 AEI scholars have worked in my administration.”
Below are a few examples of the people and ideas that AEI has shared - or tried to share - with the Bush White House over recent years:
– Escalation. President Bush’s escalation plan is based on a report by AEI scholar Frederick Kagan. CNN reporter Suzanne Malveaux said of AEI’s influence on Iraq policy: “One conservative policy group that has the president’s ear and is influencing his thinking is the American Enterprise Institute.”
– Bomb Iran. “We must bomb Iran,” AEI Resident Scholar Joshua Muravchik wrote in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. Muravchik called for an “air campaign against Tehran’s nuclear facilities”
– Richard Perle. Perle has been at AEI since 1987, and currently serves as a Resident Fellow. A leading neoconservative, Perle was a fierce proponent of regime change in Iraq. He served as Chairman of the Defense Policy Board from 2001 to 2003.
– John Bolton. Served as Senior Vice President of AEI before coming to the Bush administration. Bolton currently serves as a Senior Fellow at AEI. “There is no such thing as the United Nations,” Bolton said. “If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”
– Greg Mankiw. A visiting scholar at AEI, Mankiw served as Bush’s chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2003 to 2005. In 2004, Mankiw said the outsourcing of U.S. jobs overseas was “probably a plus for the economy in the long run.”
– John Yoo. Currently a visiting scholar for AEI, and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the office of legal counsel of the Department of Justice. Yoo authored the infamous torture memo that argued interrogation techniques only constituted torture if they are “equivalent in intensity to… organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.”
from iraq slogger: On MSNBC tonight, Newsweek correspondent Howard Fineman said his Republican sources "cringed" in response to this comment by President Bush during his news conference today:
REPORTER: Do you believe it's a civil war, sir?
BUSH: I can only tell me what people on the ground whose judgment - it's hard for me, you know, living in this beautiful White House, to give you a first-hand assessment. I haven't been there. You have. I haven't. But I do talk to people who are - and people whose judgment I trust - and they would not qualify it as that. There are others who think it is.
from yahoo/ap: An Air Force drill sergeant who posed nude for Playboy magazine has been removed from active duty, she and the Air Force said Wednesday. Michelle Manhart, who appeared in a six-page spread in Playboy's February issue, said she got word Friday that she was removed from "extended active duty" and was also told that she was demoted from staff sergeant to senior airman.
"I'm disappointed in our system," Manhart told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "They went too far with it." ...
or, as what really happened puts it: "Well then, if'n you are all sick of serving in a war built on lies and deceptions, the Air Force has just shown you the way out. Posing nude in a sex magazine just became the "get out of jail" card!"
pig signals conflicts before new world order from breitbart/afp: The world can expect a roller-coaster ride of conflict and unrest, natural disasters and a plunge in global stock markets once the Year of the Pig begins, Chinese soothsayers say... the last time such an arrangement appeared was in 2002, the year that followed the September 11 terrorist attacks... The Chinese calendar moves in 60-year cycles, meaning the world will experience in the new year events similar to those that took place in1947.
fbi laptops & weapons continue to vanish from kltv/abc: More than 300 laptop computers and guns were lost by the FBI in a nearly four-year period, according to a new Department of Justice inspector general's report. At least 10 of the 160 laptop computers reported lost or stolen in that period contained sensitive or classified information, the report found.
US prison population soars from denver post: Prison populations will grow 13 percent in five years, triple the expected U.S. population growth rate during that time, and will cost an additional $27.5 billion, a report released Wednesday projected.
bernstein on bush's disinfo & misinfo from editor & publisher: "I think what we're talking about with the Bush administration is a far different matter in which disinformation, misinformation and unwillingness to tell the truth - a willingness to lie both in the Oval Office, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in the office of the vice president, the vice president himself - is something that I have never witnessed before on this scale."
from military.com: More recruits with criminal records, including felony convictions, are being allowed to join the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, as the armed services cope with a dwindling pool of volunteers during wartime.
The military routinely grants waivers to take in recruits who have criminal records, medical problems or low aptitude scores that would otherwise disqualify them from service. Most are moral waivers, which include some felonies, misdemeanors, and traffic and drug offenses.
Defense Department statistics show that the number of Army and Marine recruits needing waivers for felonies and serious misdemeanors, including minor drug offenses, has grown since 2003. Some recruits may get more than one waiver.
The Army granted more than double the number of waivers for felonies and misdemeanors in 2006 than in 2003...
"Our armed forces are under incredible strain, and the only way that they can fill their recruiting quotas is by lowering their standards," said Rep. Marty Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat who has been working to get additional data from the Pentagon. "By lowering standards, we are endangering the rest of our armed forces and sending the wrong message to potential recruits across the country."
from raw story: An act to legitimize hemp farming has been introduced in Congress, according to a press release.
"For the second time since the federal government outlawed hemp farming in the United States," the release states, "a federal bill has been introduced that would remove restrictions on the cultivation of non-psychoactive industrial hemp."
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), a maverick 2008 presidential candidate, is the chief sponsor behind the bill, H.R. 1009. Nine co-sponsors, including fellow White House hopeful Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), are all Democrats.
The bill "would give states the right to regulate farming of the versatile hemp crop," the release says.
"It is indefensible that the United States government prevents American farmers from growing this crop," the release quotes Rep. Paul. "The prohibition subsidizes farmers in countries from Canada to Romania by eliminating American competition and encourages jobs in industries such as food, auto parts and clothing that utilize industrial hemp to be located overseas instead of in the United States."
Paul states that the passing of the act would "help American farmers and reduce the trade deficit - all without spending a single taxpayer dollar."
The release cites fifteen states which have passed pro-hemp legislation, including seven (Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia) which "have removed barriers to its production or research." Rep. Paul's bill would, the statement continues, "remove federal barriers and allow laws in these states regulating the growing and processing of industrial hemp to take effect."
A hemp activist leader, quoted in the release, asserts that "the DEA has taken the Controlled Substances Act's antiquated definition of marijuana out of context and used it as an excuse to ban industrial hemp farming" and says passage of the new act "will bring us back to more rational times when the government regulated marijuana, but told farmers they could go ahead and continue raising hemp just as they always had."
The press release is available in full at this site.
from raw story: A former top Bush administration official for Persian Gulf affairs has said in an interview this morning on CNN that the US may be trying to spark a conflict with Iran.
Hillary Mann is the former National Security Council Director for Iranian and Persian Gulf Affairs. She warned in the interview that the recent flare up between Iran and the US over the former's alleged assistance to Shi'a militias results from a US desire to provoke conflict with the Iranians.
"They're trying to push a provocative, accidental conflict," Mann said.
She added that the administration hopes to goad Iran into an overreaction so that it can have justification to carry out "limited strikes" against nuclear infrastructure and Revolutionary Guards headquarters buildings in Iran.
Last December, Mann was the co-author with Flynt Leverett, formerly the senior director for Middle East affairs on the National Security Council, of an op-ed that identified failings in the Bush administration's Iran policy. The Bush administration redacted large portions of the editorial, which the New York Times then published in partially blacked out form. RAW STORY published an attempt at a decoding of the contents of Mann and Leverett's op-ed.
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from arizona nbc12: Hundreds of people from across the country descend on a Chandler resort to challenge popular beliefs about 9/11.
