david lynch questions 9/11 on national radio

Iconoclastic director of upcoming Inland Empire, Twin Peaks & The Elephant Man says there's "more than meets the eye" to what people saw on September 11

from propaganda matrix: Iconoclastic film director David Lynch has publicly questioned the official story of 9/11 on national U.S. radio, joining the Alex Jones Show to reiterate views that he first raised on Dutch television in December.

Lynch has directed a host of popular movies and television favorites, including Eraserhead, Dune, The Elephant Man and Mulholland Drive. He was also the creative force behind the Twin Peaks television series in the 80s. Lynch is currently enjoying rave reviews for his latest release Inland Empire.

When asked about his controversial and courageous comments during the Dutch TV piece which can be viewed below, Lynch stated, "I knew they were gonna bring it up and you saw what I said, we are all light detectives, human beings are all light detectives - we look at our world and we keep looking at it and we get these feelings that there's more going on than meets the eye."

"As far as 9/11 goes there's things we saw that conjure questions and wondering and something doesn't seem quite right so it makes us wonder and the next step is we need answers," said Lynch.

Lynch noted that there were numerous inconsistencies in the official story in stating, "There's questions arising from each of the events of that day and I don't have the answers."

"When you see that does it make you wonder about things, does it seem that what we were told actually happened - it just makes me wonder - I see things that don't add up, I have questions," said the director.

Lynch characterized 9/11 as just a surface problem, a symptom of a deeper fault the solution of which lies within us all.

"The ocean of solutions is within," said Lynch, "enliven that."

"It's a world of clues, a world of mystery but the mystery can get solved, you can find a lot of answers for these things within."

Lynch encouraged more high profile figures to go public on 9/11 as a means of raising mass awareness to the issue. Off-air he told Alex Jones that Charlie Sheen was the victim of an obvious attempted smear campaign after he went public on his doubts about the official 9/11 story in March 2006. Of Sheen's bravery in putting his career on the line to stand up for truth, Lynch stated "If people have questions then they have the right in this country to raise the questions."

Lynch encouraged listeners to cast of the fear generated by the perils of the modern world and have confidence that they can affect change.

"There's so many problems in our world, so much negativity - don't worry about the darkness, turn on the light and darkness automatically goes. Ramp up the light of unity within - help do that for yourself, help do that for the world and then we're really doing something, we're doing something that brings that light of unity."

"Let's start working on peace, real peace, dynamic peace for the world," said Lynch.



Appearing on Dutch Television on VPRO's Wereldgasten, on December 3rd 2006, Lynch discussed the context of clips from Dylan Avery's groundbreaking 9/11 documentary Loose Change.

After a four minute segment from the documentary was aired Lynch stated, "It's not so much what thy say, it's the things that make you look at what you thought you saw in a different light. And those things for me, that bother me, is the hole in the Pentagon being too small for a plane, the lawn isn't messed up, and the government's not showing the plane hitting when many cameras photographed it."

"At the World Trade Center, three buildings came down, like demolitions, and two of them were hit by a plane, but the third one they said "do you want us to pull it?" and they pulled it and it looked just like the other two. Those things bother me," said Lynch.

"In Pennsylvania, the plane that went down, there was just a hole in the ground, there wasn't any wreckage,there wasn't any skid marks, there wasn't any tear in the earth, and no one has ever really found out about that."

"So every place there's questions, coming from this documentary," said Lynch, "You don't have to believe everything in the documentary to still have questions come up... and you look back and you remember what you saw, and what you were told, and now, you have questions."

When asked "What about suggestions the American government was behind it?" Lynch answered, "That's too big for people to think about. it's too big. It's like something no one wants to think about."

Click here to listen to Alex Jones' interview with David Lynch.

flashback: lynch & brolin question 9/11

scalia: 'get over' 2000 recount

from raw story: Several Supreme Court Justices have recently defended their intervention in the Bush v. Gore case that handed the presidency to George W. Bush in 2000. Sitting Justice Antonin Scalia responded to critics of the decision by telling them to 'get over it,' according to the report by the Associated Press.

AP reporter Mark Sherman brought together comments from two current and one retired Supreme Court Justice on the highly controversial 2000 case. In a recent address at Iona College, Justice Scalia told an audience that it was time for people to stop complaining about the case. "It's water over the deck — get over it," Scalia said to laughs in the audience.

Sitting Justice Anthony Kennedy and his retired colleague Sandra Day O'Connor also said that the Supreme Court had no choice but to intervene in the case. "A no-brainer! A state court deciding a federal constitutional issue about the presidential election? Of course you take the case," Kennedy told Jan Crawford Greenburg, an ABC News correspondent in the book Supreme Conflict.

O'Connor is reported to have said that the Court could have made a better decision if it had more time, though she pointed to some studies showing that Candidate Bush might have prevailed if the recount had only proceeded in counties where former Vice President Al Gore initially challenged the tally.

In the Bush v. Gore decision, the Supreme Court overturned a decision by the Florida Supreme Court to proceed with a recount. The decision handed the state's electoral votes to Bush, resulting in his election.

The full AP article can be found at this link.

bush speech terror claim debunked a year ago

Just one of many State of the Union lies, following in the tradition of the 2003 yellowcake fraud, Bush commits an impeachable offense by knowingly lying to the American people

from paul joseph watson: A claim made by President Bush in his State of the Union speech last night, that an attack on an L.A. skyscraper had been averted, was universally debunked as a hoax by Mayors, CIA, FBI and NSA personnel and counter-terror experts nearly a year ago when it first surfaced. By regurgitating this fraud, Bush has committed an impeachable offense by knowingly lying to the American people.

Bush's address was punctuated with deception, horse hockey and propagandistic drivel throughout, again reinforcing a characteristic that was born in 2003 when Bush told the nation that Iraq had sought to buy uranium from Niger, a claim the CIA had informed the administration was based on falsified documents ten months before it was included in the speech.

Amidst the cacophony of bullshit came this belter.

"We stopped an al Qaeda plot to fly a hijacked airplane into the tallest building on the West Coast."

According to numerous public officials, terror experts and intelligence personnel, this is simply not true.

Bush's is referring to an announcement made on February 9th last year in which he made the claim that an Al-Qaeda plan to fly a plane into the LA Library Tower was thwarted in 2002. The release of the news that the plot had been prevented by means of tapping terrorist suspect's phones was politically timed to coincide with the start of legal hearings on the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program.

Fox "News," the White House's PR mouthpiece, immediately began showing footage from the movie Independence Day, in which the famous tower is destroyed.

Hours after the announcement, the mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, went public with comments of his absolute bewilderment concerning the alleged plot.

"I'm amazed that the president would make this (announcement) on national TV and not inform us of these details through the appropriate channels," the mayor said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I don't expect a call from the president — but somebody."

The day after the announcement, twenty three separate intelligence experts, all with either CIA, FBI, NSA or military credentials, both in and out of service, angrily disputed Bush's remarks about the alleged L.A. plot, with one going as far as saying that the President was "full of shit."

Another described the claims as “worthless intel that was discarded long ago.”

A New York Times story cited "several counter-terrorism officials" as saying that "the plot never progressed past the planning stages.... 'To take that and make it into a disrupted plot is just ludicrous,' said one senior FBI official."

The New York Daily News cited another senior counterterrorism official who said: "There was no definitive plot. It never materialized or got past the thought stage."

The Washington Post also dismissed the alleged plot as nothing more than talk, noting that no actual attack plan had been thwarted.

The LA attack plot arose from the same discredited informant who said that Washington and New York financial institutions were being targeted, which led the White House to raise the terror alert right as the 2004 election campaign was beginning.

"The President has cheapened the entire intelligence community by dragging us into his fantasy world," said a veteran field operative of the Central Intelligence Agency. "He is basing this absurd claim on the same discredited informant who told us Al Qaeda would attack selected financial institutions in New York and Washington."

In June 2004 John Pistole, the FBI's counterterrorism director, said he was "not sure what [the CIA] was referring to," after a CIA counterterrorism official who testified under the alias "Ted Davis" said that the US had prevented aviation attacks against the east and west coast.

Questions were raised at the White House press briefing as to the noticeably convenient announcement of a four year old alleged foiled plot in relation to the furore about domestic spying.

"But is it just a coincidence? You had February 6th circled on the calendar for the hearings, the NSA hearings. Is it just a pure coincidence that this comes out today?" asked one journalist.

"Scott, I wanted to just ask a follow-up about the LA plot. Is there something missing from this story, a practical application, a few facts? Because if you want to commandeer a plane and fly it into a tower, if you used shoe bombs, wouldn't you blow off the cockpit? Or is there something missing from this story?" asked another.

There was indeed a great deal missing from this story in that it was nothing more than hot air manufactured by the Bush administration at the most politically expedient time, a psychological fraud unleashed on the public in order to silence critics of the illegal NSA surveillance spying program.

Bush has again committed the impeachable offense of knowingly lying to the American people in regurgitating the debunked plot in last night's State of the Union address.

e. howard hunt dead at 88

from raw story: E. Howard Hunt, an enigmatic figure in 20th-century American political subterfuge, has died at age 88, the Associated Press is reporting.

Hunt, who had a key role in the Watergate Hotel break-in that led to the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon, "succumbed after a lengthy bout of pneumonia," the AP quoted his son, Austin.

Aside from his part in Watergate, Hunt was a World War II veteran, longtime officer in the Central Intelligence Agency, and a prolific author of spy novels.

According to an online biography, "In 1951, he hired William F. Buckley, Jr. as a CIA agent working within the Mexican student movement. Buckley and Hunt remained life-long friends."

Earlier this month, RAW STORY reported on Hunt's upcoming book, in which he speculates that President Lyndon Johnson "may have played a role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy." Hunt was often implicated by conspiracy theorists as having a part himself in the assassination.

giuliani to exploit support from 9/11 victims

from newsmax: Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s supporters have begun discussions with relatives of 9/11 victims about participating in his campaign if he runs for president in 2008.

One relative, Marian Fontana – who lost her firefighter husband on 9/11 – told the New York Post that she got an invitation to attend a Giuliani exploratory committee dinner last week from an ex-firefighter working with the committee.

Lee Ielpi, who lost his son in the terrorist attacks, said he talked about supporting Giuliani with Larry Levy, who ran the Twin Towers Fund and now works at Giuliani’s consulting firm.

"I admire what he accomplished in the city,” he told the Post. "And then 9/11 just brought out to the world . . . how strong a man he is.”

Ielpi added that he is "more than confident” Giuliani is capable of running the country.

It’s unclear what role the victims’ relatives might play in a Giuliani campaign. But some relatives are expected to be critical of Giuliani, blaming him for communications failures on the day of the attacks and charging that he didn’t do enough to protect rescue and recovery workers from polluted air at the scene, according to the Post, which notes that pro-Giuliani kin "could help Giuliani counter that criticism.”

bush readies state of the union address

from national post: President George W. Bush will be walking into the lion’s den tonight when he delivers his annual state of the union address to a joint session of Congress.

Not only will he be face a sea of Democrats who have made it plain they will fight the president’s plan to escalate U.S troop levels in Iraq. Bush will also have to face a growing and worrisome number of Republicans who say they will oppose the president on Iraq.

Even as he put the final touches on a speech aimed at building American support for a troop surge in Iraq, Bush learned Monday that a group of senior Republican senators will introduce their own resolution condemning the deploying an additional 21,500 soldiers...

White House press secretary Tony Snow gamely tried to spin the 2007 speech in advance as Bush’s best ever.

"It's like looking at a drawer full of diamonds," Snow said, provoking laughter from reporters who had asked him to provide early highlights. "It's difficult to figure out which is the best."

US unwittingly evolved superpathogen

from raw story: A drug-resistant bacteria that is infecting wounded US soldiers in Iraq - and has spread to civilian hospitals in parts of Europe - accidentally evolved in US military hospitals in Iraq, Wired Magazine will report in a massive expose on Monday, RAW STORY has learned.

The full story is now available here.

The several thousand word expose is set to bring uncomfortable new light to the bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii that Pentagon officials previously said was likely a product of Iraqi soil.

"By creating the most heroic and efficient means of saving lives in the history of warfare, the Pentagon had accidentally invented a machine for accelerating bacterial evolution and was airlifting the pathogens halfway around the world," the magazine reveals.

federal workers owe billions in unpaid taxes

from wtop: As the 2006 tax season approaches, the federal government is still trying to recover nearly $3 billion from its own employees who failed to file income tax returns for 2005.

More than 450,000 active and retired federal employees did not voluntarily comply with federal income tax requirements for the 2005 tax year, according to documents obtained by WTOP through the Freedom of Information Act.

The total balance owed is $2,799,950,165.

The documents show that every federal agency has employees who failed to comply with federal tax laws.

news on the march

leading senator assails bush over iran stance
from new york times: The new chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday sharply criticized the Bush administration’s increasingly combative stance toward Iran, saying that White House efforts to portray it as a growing threat are uncomfortably reminiscent of rhetoric about Iraq before the American invasion of 2003... “To be quite honest, I’m a little concerned that it’s Iraq again,” Senator Rockefeller said during an interview in his office. “This whole concept of moving against Iran is bizarre.”

'NY money people’ pushing war with iran
from jewish daily forward: Retired general Wesley Clark drew harsh criticism this week after reportedly saying that “New York money people” are pushing America into a war against Iran. By Tuesday, Clark, a past and likely future Democratic candidate for president, was working to assure Jewish groups that he was in no way attempting to advance an antisemitic conspiracy theory. But the controversy still had Jewish organizations bracing for a new wave of claims that they are the driving force behind any future military strikes against Tehran.

bush orders more cia activity in venezuela
from venezuelanalysis: During a briefing before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Intelligence, current CIA chief General Michael V. Hayden revealed President George W. Bush had requested his agency “pay more attention” to the activities of President Hugo Chávez and his government in Venezuela.

lying like it's 2003
from new york times: Those who forget history may be doomed to repeat it, but who could imagine we'd already be in danger of replaying that rotten year 2003? ... This time we must do what too few did the first time: call the White House on its lies. Lies should not be confused with euphemisms like 'incompetence' and 'denial.'

canadian spy coins never existed
from seattle times: Reversing itself, the Defense Department says an espionage report it produced that warned about Canadian coins with tiny radio-frequency transmitters was not true. The Defense Security Service said it never could substantiate its own published claims about the mysterious coins. It has begun an internal review to determine how the false information was included in a 29-page report about espionage concerns.

failure is not an option
from larry beinhart/op-ed news: Failure is not an option. It's standard! On every policy we make! Name a policy, and it's got failure! Guaranteed! Or your government back! ... Another way to look at it, is that the phrase "Failure is not an option" is very clever. It creates the illusion that failure has not already happened.

outside the box #85

here is the latest episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on january 18, 2007.

from alex ansary: Alex discusses the current attack on access tv that has been launched by numerous telco companies. He interview two people from saveaccess.org. Later, he discusses the current in fighting within the so called Patriot community / truth movement.

9/11 ballot question won't have congressional help

from burlington free press: Vermont's two U.S. senators and one congressman are not interested in urging a new investigation into the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

A Burlington group working through the fall and early winter gathered more than 1,350 signatures - 5 percent of the city's registered voters - to put an advisory question about 9/11 on the city's Town Meeting Day ballot.

The question asks whether Vermont's congressional delegation should be "advised to demand a new, thorough, and truly independent forensic investigation that fully addresses the many questions surrounding the tragic events of September 11, 2001."

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, a persistent critic of the Bush administration, said in an e-mail from his spokesman, David Carle, that he "respects the work and the findings of the 9/11 Commission. Their report was highly critical of the failures and miscues they discovered, and they recommended a wide range of reforms."

"Since then," the e-mail continued, "some have come up with their own theories, and that's always the case after major events like this. The 9/11 Commission's report remains the most credible, the most thorough and the most constructive investigation that has been undertaken about those attacks."

Participants in the petition drive have noted the question doesn't offer a theory of what happened Sept. 11, but the group's Web site, www.vt911.org, refers to the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report - the federal commission was created in late November 2002 - as "the official conspiracy theory" and raises a number of questions about the day.

The Web site questions why Building No. 7 in the World Trade Center complex collapsed without being struck as the two towers were, and why all three buildings in the complex collapsed as though they were "brought down by controlled demolition." The Web site also provides links to books, videos and 31 separate 9/11 Web sites, including one to the online "Journal of 9/11 Studies."

The subject is emotional for people who doubt the official report. That has been reflected in numerous e-mails sent to the Free Press responding to articles about the local petition drive.

"Bless you for covering this important signature-gathering event," wrote Steve Dondanville of Ridgefield, Wash. "An investigation into what really happened on 9/11 is crucial if we are to continue as a republic."

"We do need a new, real investigation," Chris Noth of Iowa wrote. "The Kean/ Hamilton Commission failed terribly. The WTC complex was blown up by controlled demolition that had been planned for years most likely."

"I am proud to see Americans questioning what really happened on September 11," wrote Jim Brewer of Austin, Texas.

Lorie Van Auken, whose husband, Kenneth, was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center, said by telephone from her home in East Brunswick, N.J., that the Burlington ballot item is valuable because "it brings attention to these unanswered questions."

Van Auken said she was one of the "Jersey widows" who demanded for 14 months that an official investigation be mounted to explain what happened Sept. 11. She was unhappy with the commission's 2004 report. "It's pathetic," she said.

A thorough investigation, she said, would have included interviews with intelligence, aeronautical and military experts. "Every agency failed," she said of Sept. 11. "Intelligence, NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). ... We had just one great failure of everything. We wanted experts not just to be called, but to follow up on questions."

Van Auken said the many unanswered questions are important because the Bush administration "is using 9/11 as a reason to take our nation to war. We all need to understand what went down that day," she said.

Some who dismiss the thoroughness of the 9/11 Commission Report question whether the fires caused by the exploding jet fuel could have been hot enough to cause the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings. Others say no videos have been released of American Airlines Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon, and some say the area covered by debris from United Airline Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, suggests the plane was brought down by a missile.

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic Rep. Peter Welch said they wouldn't push for a new investigation of Sept. 11, making the congressional delegation unanimous in its answer to the ballot question. Welch said, through a spokesman, he believed the official report was "both thorough and complete in outlining the events of September 11 and the mistakes made leading up to the attacks."

Sanders' chief of staff, Jeff Weaver, said in an e-mail that Sanders believes the official report was "thorough" and provided "important suggestions to help our country combat terrorism." Sanders also believes, Weaver wrote, "we should continue to work to make sure that all the recommendations of the commission are implemented."

flashback: 9/11 question may go to vermont voters

related: 250+ 9/11 'smoking guns' found in the mainstream media

militant tax evader prepares for raid

from ap/aol: A former militia man convicted of tax evasion prepared for a government siege Friday at his fortress-like home, but U.S. marshals gave no indication they were planning to confront him.

Ed Brown said he was ready for a swarm of federal agents to descend on his property to execute an arrest warrant issued after he failed to appear for the end of his trial. He and his wife contend that they did not have to pay income taxes, and his supporters say a conflict could be violent.

"If Mexico came up on my land and tried to take my land, would I not fight?" Brown said. "The United States is the same exact thing as Mexico in this state."

Brown, 63, and his wife, Elaine, 65, were convicted Thursday of plotting to conceal their income and avoid paying federal income tax. They argued the tax is illegitimate and they are not required to pay it.

U.S. marshals said negotiations with Brown continue and they have no plans to attack Brown's Plainfield home or act quickly on the arrest warrant. He has been holed up in his home with armed supporters for much of the trial.

"He wants attention. We're determined to keep this very low-profile," U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier said.

Brown said he has a stock of food and supplies and that his home can run on wind and solar generators.

"It's all set up for me to stay here forever," Brown said by phone.

Elaine Brown, a dentist who earned most of the couple's income, was staying at her son's home in Worcester, Mass., pending the couple's sentencing in April. She said she had no plans to return to Plainfield, where she fears there will be a violent confrontation.

The Browns' case has found support on the Internet from militia members to libertarians and anti-tax groups.

Rick Stanley, a Denver-based Web radio host and a militia leader, urged listeners to join Brown at his home.

"We are continuing to ask patriots to surround Ed Brown's property and life with a ring of armed Americans with firearms and video cameras to protect a fellow American," he said. "This is the flash point. This is the time of raised pitchforks."

kissinger calls for a 'new world order,' again

from raw story/blacklisted news: Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, an iconic conservative who continues to command the attention of the White House, praises President Bush's moves in Iraq and says that leaving the war-torn nation is not possible under present conditions.

Kissinger has penned an editorial in which he states that Bush's "bold decision to order a 'surge' of some 20,000 American troops for Iraq has brought the debate over the war to a defining stage. There will not be opportunity for another reassessment."

The elder statesman remarks that the early strategy of replacing U.S. forces with Iraqis was "in retrospect, premature," and says that the "most flagrant shortcoming of Iraqi forces" is that they are unclear on what they're fighting for and for whom.

Kissinger asserts that the Iraq war is part of a larger conflict, namely "the assault on the international order conducted by radical groups in both Islamic sects," particularly against the United States. He insists that despite public disenchantment with the war in Iraq, "under present conditions, withdrawal is not an option."

He calls America "the indispensable component of any attempt to build a new world order."

Perhaps most telling, Kissinger declares that the U.S. is in Iraq as "an expression of the American national interest to prevent the Iranian combination of imperialism and fundamentalist ideology from dominating a region on which the energy supplies of the industrial democracies depend."

flashback: kissinger calls for 'new world order'

media monarchy episode011

here is the latest podcast from media monarchy...
episode 011 - january 19, 2007

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!

plus, you can get podcasts of previous episodes here...
thanks to radio4all.net

pentagon & cia involved in domestic spying

from wired: Just a day before the nation celebrated the life of the once-federally-spied-upon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the New York Times reported that both the Pentagon and the CIA have been issuing subpoenas to domestic financial institutions to investigate possible terrorism. Although the military and the CIA are largely barred from spying on Americans, the Pentagon has stepped up its surveillance of American citizens after September 11 as part of what it calls "force protection" - that is, the protection of military installations on American soil.

Now, Eric Lichtblau and Mark Mazzetti reveal that both agencies have been using "National Security Letters" - which are self-issued subpoenas for documents. These subpoenas are widely used by the FBI since they do not require a judge's approval. In 2005, the first year the Justice Department was required to report how often they used this power, the DOJ said it issued 9,254 such letters to get information on 3,501 U.S. citizens and green card holders.

Unlike the FBI's version, the military and CIAs' are voluntary. Pentagon spokesman Maj. Patrick Ryder said the letters "provide tremendous leads to follow and often with which to corroborate other evidence in the context of counterespionage and counterterrorism," according to the New York Times. Vice President Dick Cheney defended the use of the power in an interview Sunday, saying the letters don't violate civil rights since banks could contest them in court.

The Pentagon said it intended to keep the records it gained from the letters and feed the information into a database run by the Counterintelligence Field Office. That office houses a database called TALON that included records on peaceful anti-war protesters. The Pentagon also, in the name of base protection, funded a data-mining study examined ways to study travel database records and commercial data to identify potential travelers. That study used commercial data provided by Acxiom paired with the entirety of JetBlue's travel database, which the company secretly handed over in September 2002 to the government in violation of its privacy promises.

While the Pentagon has reportedly issued only a relatively small number of such letters - approximately 500 or so -, civil libertarians say the military has no place investigating American citizens on American soil. House Intelligence chair Silvestre Reyes said he plans to hold hearings, and I expect the topic to get attention even in Thursday's Senate Judiciary committee's planned grilling of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

anti-first amendment s.1 passes congress

from kurt nimmo: It was bad enough George Bush Senior found it necessary to blame bloggers for creating what he deems an “adversarial and ugly climate” (never mind his particular bit of ugliness in Iraq more than a decade ago, eventually resulting in the murder of more than a million people), last month we had the Manchurian candidate, John McCain, introducing legislation “that would fine blogs up to $300,000 for offensive statements, photos and videos posted by visitors on comment boards, effectively nixing the open exchange of ideas on the Internet, providing a lethal injection for unrestrained opinion, and acting as the latest attack tool to chill freedom of speech on the world wide web,” as Paul Joseph Watson writes for Prison Planet.

Since Watson wrote his piece about McCain’s anti-First Amendment bill, Richard A. Viguerie has warned that Congress is attempting the silence bloggers and other critics of the government. “We have the First Amendment right to speak and urge citizens to contact Washington—without the intimidation inherent in federal regulation of our activities.”

pelosi won't block the surge

from abc news: There may be a growing battle between Congress and the president over the Iraq War strategy, but new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she won't block funding for additional troops.

Pelosi's position, revealed in an exclusive interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer, came a day after a group of senators announced a bipartisan resolution condemning the Bush administration's plan to increase U.S. forces in Iraq by more than 20,000 troops.

While the Senate resolution would be non-binding, it would send a message to the president, and at least a dozen Republican senators have already offered their support.

Below is an excerpt from Sawyer's interview, in which Pelosi said Democrats in Congress would not be held responsible for putting the soldiers in the troop surge in additional harm's way by blocking funds.

The complete interview with Pelosi will air tomorrow morning on "Good Morning America."

Sawyer: As we sit here right now, 3,500 troops are moving in. That's the first of the surge. It has begun. Fifty-one percent of the American people say they want Congress to stop the surge. Money is the method at hand to do that.

Are you going to move to cut off funding for troops going into Iraq as part of the surge?

Pelosi: Democrats will never cut off funding for our troops when they are in harm's way.

It is, I think, very difficult for the president to sustain a war of this magnitude without the support of the American people and without the support of the Congress of the United States. That's why Congress will vote to oppose the president's escalation, from the standpoint of policy. We will have our disagreement.

Sawyer: But short of that — questions posed, resolutions passed — short of that, are you acquiescing in the surge if the pocketbook is the only other control mechanism?

Pelosi: The president knows that because the troops are in harm's way, that we won't cut off the resources. That's why he's moving so quickly to put them in harm's way.

But we will hold the president accountable. He has to answer for his war.

US officials say rumor of Iran strike not true

from reuters/alertnet: U.S. defense officials on Thursday said a rumored Iranian missile strike on a U.S. naval vessel in the Gulf was not true.

"No such event took place," said one of the officials on condition of anonymity.

The bond market briefly pared losses on talk of possible military engagement between the United States and Iran, but turned back down after the Defense Department said the incident did not occur.

Tensions are high between Washington and Tehran. The United States accuses Iran of supporting insurgents in Iraq and charges that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian energy program.

The Pentagon has increased the U.S. military presence in the Gulf in recent weeks, a move widely seen as a warning against provocative actions by Iran.

gates & commanders ready buildup in gulf

from ap/yahoo: Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with senior U.S. and coalition naval commanders Thursday to plan operations in the Persian Gulf, including the arrival next month of another U.S. aircraft carrier and more Patriot missiles meant in part as a warning to Iran. This tiny state in the northern Gulf is headquarters to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet and Central Command's naval staff.

Gates also flew to nearby Qatar for a private meeting and lunch with that nation's leader, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. Later he was visiting an air base that hosts a high-tech war room that is the nerve center of all U.S. and coalition air operations throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. Under ground rules imposed by U.S. officials, reporters traveling with Gates were prohibited from identifying the base or the country in which it is located.

military parents 'must do what they are told'

from raw story: An Associated Press video reports on a new film, Brats: Our Journey Home, which documents the lives and sacrifices of children in U.S. military families, who are commonly referred to as "military brats."

The filmmakers launched a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit organization called Brats Without Borders Inc. in order to produce the documentary, which highlights the children of Vietnam era veterans, as well as the children of those currently serving in Iraq.

Among those featured in the film is Ret. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, a "military brat" himself, who notes, "To a small boy when your father hands you the sword and says you're now the man of the house, take care of your mother and sisters, you take that very seriously." Singer/songwriter Kris Kristofferson, another former "military brat" provides narration and music for the documentary.

The film also highlights the sacrifices military parents face, raising their children while also serving their country.

"Parents are not free to make decisions around the needs of children," Psychotherapist S. Donaldson Pressman notes. "The parents in the military must do what they are told to do."

chris matthews & the 'shit'

from thinkprogress: [chris matthews] was “against this bullshit war from the very beginning.” Tonight, [he] argued, “If you want America to be a hegemonic power in the Middle East, you’re out of step with the American people. We’re not going to fight it out with Iran for the next 30 years to see who the big shit — I’m sorry — the big name is on the block.”

senators agree on 'non-binding resolution'

from ap/yahoo: A group of senators including a Republican war critic announced agreement Wednesday on a resolution opposing President Bush's 21,500 troop build up in Iraq, setting their marker for a major clash between the White House and Congress over the unpopular war.

The non-binding resolution, which was also gaining interest from a second key Republican, would symbolically put the Senate on record as saying the U.S. commitment in Iraq "can only be sustained" with popular support among the American public and in Congress.

"I will do everything I can to stop the president's policy as he outlined it Wednesday night," said Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican and potential 2008 presidential candidate, who joined Democrats at a press conference on the resolution.

"I think it is dangerously irresponsible," Hagel said.

Even as skeptical Republicans were summoned to private meetings with Bush and national security adviser Stephen Hadley at the White House, Bush's aides made clear that the Capitol Hill challenge would be met aggressively by the administration.

Presidential spokesman Tony Snow said resolutions passed by Congress will not affect Bush's decision-making.

"The president has obligations as a commander in chief," he said. "And he will go ahead and execute them."

outside the box #84

(this episode features a phonecall from yours truly, calling in live from the 'surge' protest in downtown portland. click here to here to jump to my phonecall.)

here is the latest episode of "outside the box," hosted by alex ansary.
it was originally broadcast by portland community media on january 11, 2007.

from alex ansary: Alex interviews Mohammed Daud Miraki about his book, Afghanistan After 'Democracy'. He hopes to raise enough funds through this book for a women's hospital and a research facility dealing with uranium contamination brought about by the US invasion of Afghanistan. Later I cover the news including Bush's recent speech in which he calls for an increase in troop levels in Iraq.

msnbc: 24 is right-wing propaganda

from raw story: "Is FOX using fear of terror attacks in U.S. to get ratings?" asks MSNBC in a segment about popular TV series '24.'

"Jack Bauer might be trying to save the world," remarks the host about the show's main character, played by Kiefer Sutherland, "but is Jack also a right-wing propagandist?"

After showing a clip from '24' featuring an enormous explosion as helpless characters look on in shock, a debate ensues between Congressional Quarterly's Craig Crawford and Joel Mowbray of Townhall.com as to whether the show is just entertainment or not-so-subtle right-wing propaganda.

Time recently reported that Vice President Dick Cheney is a fan of '24.'

iran shoots down US spy drone

from xinhua: Iranian troops have shot down a U.S. pilotless spy plane recently, an Iranian lawmaker announced on Tuesday as the Islamic Republic was facing increasing military pressure from its arch rival - the United States.

The aircraft was brought down when it was trying to cross the borders "during the last few days," Seyed Nezam Mola Hoveizeh, a member of the parliament, was quoted by the local Fars News Agency as saying.

The lawmaker gave no exact date of the shooting-down or any other details about the incident, but he said that "the United States sent such spy drones to the region every now and then."

relocation camps

here is a short propaganda film created by the US government & the 'Office of War Information - Bureau of Motion Pictures'

"Following the outbreak of the current war, it became neccessary to transfer several thousand Japanese residents from the Pacific Coast to points in the American interior. This is an historical record of the operation, carried out by the United States Army and the War Relocation Authority. The narrator is Milton S. Eisenhower, who was director of the War Relocation Authority during the initial period of the transfer."

weapons for iran & china traced to pentagon

from international herald tribune: The U.S. military has sold forbidden equipment at least a half-dozen times to middlemen for countries - including Iran and China - who exploited security flaws in the Defense Department's surplus auctions. The sales include fighter jet parts and missile components.

In one case, federal investigators said, the contraband made it to Iran, a country President George W. Bush branded part of an "axis of evil."

In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, speaking on condition of anonymity, say those parts made it to Iran.

The surplus sales can operate like a supermarket for arms dealers.

"Right Item, Right Time, Right Place, Right Price, Every Time. Best Value Solutions for America's Warfighters," the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service says on its Web site, calling itself "the place to obtain original U.S. Government surplus property."

kucinich: 'if bush attacks iran, all bets are off'

from raw story: While making an unannounced appearance at a media reform conference on Friday, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) - a candidate for president in 2004 and already announced for 2008 - was pressed by bloggers in attendance about impeachment.

Telling the crowd that while he didn't think immediate action was wise, due to fears that Bush might "accelerate the war even more," the congressman warned that "if Bush attacks Iran, all bets are off."

At the Free Press National Conference on Media Reform in Memphis, Tennessee, Kucinich announced that he has been named chair of the newly-formed Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, drawing cheers from the crowd. The subcommittee will have jurisdiction over all domestic agencies of the federal government, including the Federal Communications Commission.

"Kucinich, among Capitol Hill's most outspoken critics of President Bush and the war in Iraq, had been ranking member of the National Security Subcommittee in the last legislative session," Jessica Brady reported for CongressDaily. "As the panel's presumed chairman in the Democratic-led 110th Congress, he had a ready platform to advance his antiwar agenda."

But Kucinich told CongressDaily that he "might wield more influence" as chairman of the subcommittee and that House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) "made clear that he's going to use the full committee" to address foreign policy issues. Kucinich added, "Domestic policy could end up having the most influence of any committee [because] it has oversight of all domestic policy in the US."

fears of a 'gulf of tonkin' to provoke Iran war

from prison planet: Republican Congressman and 2008 Presidential candidate Ron Paul fears a staged Gulf of Tonkin style incident may be used to provoke air strikes on Iran as numerous factors collide to heighten expectations that America may soon be embroiled in its third war in six years.

Writing in his syndicated weekly column, the representative of Texas' 14th district warns of "a contrived Gulf of Tonkin-type incident (that) may occur to gain popular support for an attack on Iran."

The August 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident, where US warships were apparently attacked by North Vietnamese PT Boats, was cited by President Johnson as a legitimate provocation mandating U.S. escalation in Vietnam, yet Tonkin was a staged charade that never took place. Declassified LBJ presidential tapes discuss how to spin the non-event to escalate it as justification for air strikes and the NSA faked intelligence data to make it appear as if two US ships had been lost.

Should a staged provocation take place in an attempt to justify striking Iran it would not be the first time the current administration has considered such a ploy.

In February 2006, documents were leaked of a conversation between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush in which different scenarios to try to provoke Saddam into making a rod for his own back were discussed. One included painting a U.S. spy plane in UN colors and flying it low over Iraq in the hope it would be shot down and the incident exploited as a means of enlisting international support for the 2003 invasion.

Paul, who on Friday announced his intention to run for President in 2008, has resolved to introduce legislation in the coming weeks to head off the drift towards war, encouraging a commitment to policies of dialogue as outlined by the Iraq Study Group.

Commentators largely agree that the furore surrounding President Bush's speech in which he ordered the deployment of a further 20,000 troops to Iraq is a manufactured distraction to divert attention away from alarming developments that grease the skids for an inevitable conflict with Iran.

The New York Times and other establishment mouthpieces are busy regurgitating White House propaganda that Iran is supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents that are killing U.S. troops. As columnist Larry Chin elaborates, "The Bush administration buildup towards Iran is strikingly similar to Hitler’s campaign against Poland, and the Third Reich’s eventual 1939 blitzkrieg. Hitler’s final act was to manufacture a "deliberate and cold-blooded provocation", to be blamed on the Poles, which would bring down the vengeance of German armed forces. He accomplished this by putting drugged prisoners from a nearby concentration camp into Polish uniforms and shooting them near a radio station inside the German border. The "Polish attack on the Gleiwitz transmitter" marked the official start of World War Two."

"In Hitler’s words, "I shall give the propagandist cause for starting the war. Never mind if it is implausible or not."

In reality, the source of the IED technology being utilized by the insurgents goes back to the British security services, from whom it was acquired by the IRA and then sold around the world in the early nineties. Claims that Iran is helping Shia insurgents to make the devices is outright propaganda.

However, the only remaining justification that Neo-Cons cling to in an attempt to sell another conflict to a war-weary American public is the falsehood that American troops are being killed on the battlefield by insurgents with the direct assistance of Iran. This is the only rationale a majority of Americans will accept as grounds for war, overriding spurious warnings about weapons of mass destruction, a yarn they have seen spun once before.

As Chris Floyd points out, "Make no mistake: this is the marker that has now been put down; this is the card that's been laid on the table. The Bush Administration has openly accused Iran of killing American soldiers in Iraq. Again, this is a charge far more resonant, far more effective as a pretext for war than anything offered during the successful stampede to invade Iraq. Even a president as weakened and isolated as Bush is at the moment would be able to get support for an attack on a state that was "killing our soldiers in the field."

It is also now confirmed that the raid on the Iranian liaison office in Iraq, after which five Iranians were arrested and detained, was directly authorized by the White House in an attempt to provoke an Iranian response.

Whether Iran takes the bait or not, American aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines are multiplying in the Persian Gulf and Bush recently appointed Adm. William Fallon, a Navy veteran, to oversee the ground war in Iraq, a contradiction many fear betrays preparation for an air strike on Iran's uranium enrichment facilities which could take place as soon as next month.

Whether the White House or the feverish Israelis will even feel the need to factor in a Gulf of Tonkin event remains to be seen, as the war drums beat ever louder and the next escalation of what the Neo-Cons call "World War Four" awaits final execution.

hunt claims LBJ may have had JFK assassinated

from raw story: In a soon-to-be-published book, a former CIA agent, convicted for his role as a "plumber" in the Watergate scandal, claims that former President Lyndon B. Johnson may have played a role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

According to the New York Post's gossip column, Page Six, "E. Howard Hunt – the shadowy former CIA man who organized the Watergate break-in and was once eyed in the assassination of President Kennedy – bizarrely says that Lyndon Johnson could be seen as a prime suspect in the rubout."

"Only the most far-out conspiracy theorists believe in scenarios like Hunt's," the column continues. "But in a new memoir, American Spy: My Secret History in the CIA, Watergate & Beyond, due out in April, Hunt, 88, writes: 'Having Kennedy liquidated, thus elevating himself to the presidency without having to work for it himself, could have been a very tempting and logical move on Johnson's part.'"

In 2004, the History Channel aired a program called The Guilty Men, which was partially based on a book by Barr McClellan, who alleged that "the law firm he quit a quarter-century ago was involved in convoluted plots that link Johnson to at least 11 deaths, including President Kennedy's." After much criticism, the cable channel apologized to its viewers, then aired a follow-up special which included a panel of three historians who "debunked" the claim.

"We have a great responsibility and this time we did not live up to it," History Channel executive vice president Dan Davids said. "We hold ourselves accountable. As we have said before, nothing is more important to us than the accuracy of our programming and the integrity of our network."

"LBJ had the money and the connections to manipulate the scenario in Dallas and is on record as having convinced JFK to make the appearance in the first place," Hunt writes, according to the tabloid. "He further tried unsuccessfully to engineer the passengers of each vehicle, trying to get his good buddy, Gov. [John] Connolly, to ride with him instead of in JFK's car – where...he would have been out of danger."

A blurb from Hunt's publisher states that in American Spy, "a legendary CIA operative and central figure in the Watergate scandal at last tells his story."

"Now in his late eighties, Hunt looks back over his storied career, revealing what really happened and debunking the many rumors that have swirled around him," the blurb continues. "Writing with his characteristic salty wit, he brings to life his exploits in the CIA, offering surprising revelations about the agency’s Latin American operations–and its masterly manipulation of politics and the media in the U.S."

Adding, "He details the 'black bag jobs' of the White House plumbers, explains why he agreed to participate in the Watergate burglary–even though he thought it was a bad idea–and sheds new light on the aftermath of the break-in. He sets the record straight on rumors about his first wife’s death and accusations that have linked him to the JFK assassination and the George Wallace shooting. And finally, he offers an insider’s advice on how the CIA must now reshape itself to regain its edge and help win the war on terrorism."

scientists prepare to move doomsday clock forward

from reuters: The keepers of the "Doomsday Clock" plan to move its hands forward next Wednesday to reflect what they call worsening nuclear and climate threats to the world.

The symbolic clock, maintained by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, currently is set at seven minutes to midnight, with midnight marking global catastrophe...

"The major new step reflects growing concerns about a 'Second Nuclear Age' marked by grave threats, including: nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea, unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere, the continuing 'launch-ready' status of 2,000 of the 25,000 nuclear weapons held by the U.S. and Russia, escalating terrorism, and new pressure from climate change for expanded civilian nuclear power that could increase proliferation risks," the release reads.

The clock was last pushed forward by two minutes to seven minutes to midnight in 2002 amid concerns about the proliferation of nuclear, biological and other weapons and the threat of terrorism.

When it was created by the magazine's staff in 1947, it was initially set at seven minutes to midnight and has moved 17 times since then.

It was as close as two minutes to midnight in 1953 following U.S. and Soviet hydrogen bomb tests, and as far away as 17 minutes to midnight in 1991 after the superpowers reached agreement on a nuclear arms reductions.