"On MSNBC's Hardball last night, legal analyst Jonathan Turley said: "Everything ends up at Dick Cheney`s desk. His right hand man is indicted, he's intimately involved in the Niger allegation with weapons of mass destruction, he's the one that seems to have instructed Libby. The biggest question is not whether he'll be called as a witness, but why he wasn't a co-conspirator.""* arkin has more on the military plans wrt china - they go beyond the possible boycott of the olympics:
"Contrast U.S.-Russian relations with U.S.-China: The Bush administration has built a new full fledged war plan for China, the first new conventional war plan since the end of the Cold War.
Yesterday, the Pentagon released its annual report to Congress on China's military power, a report that sees an increased buildup."
* arkin refers to those who want another investigation into 911 as "a Star Wars bar" and " a purely partisan political and cynical anti-everything group looking to exploit 9/11." He also makes this absurd claim:
"I always interpreted the White House's selection of Kerik as a need and a desire to neutralize the 9/11 families. "D'oh. Surely Arkin isn't that stupid.
* don't miss billmon's riveting, endearing, tale about catching a train in egypt.
* according to madsen:
"The most privacy-invasive technology that NSA is using to conduct vacuum cleaning of phone calls, e-mail, faxes, and Voice of IP calls is the use of downstream switches that disassemble and reassemble packets after they pass through commercial packet assemblers-disassemblers (PADs). By doing this, NSA can choose what transmissions are reassembled and sent on to their destination. Suspicious packets are held for storage and analysis. Internet users who are experiencing lost emails can thank this technology, which throws a virtual digital checkpoint on major Internet backbones. NSA is using downstream PADs provided by Narus, NICE, and Verisign."i've had some situations recently where mail has been held up...
9 comments:
...predatory and devious, seekers of polarization and not light, abusive of the political system, contemptuous of anything that even resembles the "truth."
Sounds like a Bush admin. Cabinet meeting .
Funny how most (if not all) MSM journalists seem to have no questions about 9/11. When jounalists suddenly lose their curiousity, it tends to make one wonder about their motives.
"Sounds like a Bush admin. Cabinet meeting ."
funny.
imagine if conyers decided to hold another investigations into 911. there's a new investigation into Dr. Kelly's death in the UK - so apparently these things are possible...
Scott Horton is a good guy and writes excellent stuff, but his take on a new 9/11 investigation doesn't satisfy:
Screw the state. Unleash the reporters of America on this story. Let them know it’s okay to investigate the interesting questions of that day. Let’s have detailed accounts from the SecDef, the Pentagon commanders, NORAD radio guys, FAA and airlines to see if we can get their stories to jive, or get them accusing each other.
...Asking for another government investigation is a mistake. Asking for an “international” investigation as these 9/11 kooks have done in their poll is stupid. Get family members, to hire private investigators, good reporters, academic types from private universities, etc.
This is a touching faith in the capability of reporters that is not supported by their track record. Also, how are these various groups supposed to elicit answers from NORAD and govt officials outside a legal setting?
I think Scott may have seen too much of politicised US govt inquiries to have any real sense of how effective such investigations can be, as in European or Commonwealth countries for example.
I think a new US 9/11 inquiry should occur and be headed by recognisably non-partisan senior judges appointed by Congress. They should have access to ANY information or witnesses they want. Their mandate should be to get to the bottom of 9/11 protecting no institution, person or reputation in the process. Legislation should be passed so that false evidence before the new Commission would be seen as the actions of a traitor and, in every instance, would attract a mandatory death penalty. 9/11 was not a game. It was the murder of US citizens, an excuse to illegally invade the Middle East and murder tens of thousands of innocent civilians there, and a cover to attack the US Consitution and introduce a police state. It's time to stop mucking around with these criminals and traitors.
PS. There's also a great article just out on the 9/11 options trades. More evidence (if you ever needed it) that 9/11 was an inside job.
damien - i'm anti-death-penalty - so i cant agree with that (as much as i'd love to)
scott has a rabid hate for the state (which is probably more rational than most other positions). I'm not sure that he particularly trusts journos or PI's - but i suspect he thinks that's the best chance we have (and he may be correct)
Lukery, I am also against the death penalty as a general rule. But this is not business as usual. Active treason, in a time of war, that can lead to the death of your fellow citizens, is a different ball game. 9/11 is in that category. In my view, any US leader or official who knowingly brought on 9/11 should get a bullet. (If it was my country, I'd do it myself.) The same goes for anyone who actively covers it up. 9/11 was definitely not business as usual. But I respect the right of the American people to work out what they want, and for others to hold different views.
I think we can agree though, we are not going to shoot Scottie...
for me - i think "against the death penalty" has to be an absolute - otherwise you can quickly end up debating whether scott peterson should be murdered.
"this is not business as usual"
it certainly is business unusual.
"Active treason, in a time of war, that can lead to the death of your fellow citizens"
i take a broader non-national view. i dont really care about 'fellow citizens' - as much as i care about 'people'. if i had to choose, i'd prefer 9 australian soldiers died tomorrow rather than 10 iraqis. in fact, i argued years ago something like 'i wish 200 or 2000 american soldiers in iraq got killed tomorrow - or whatever number would get the US to pull out immediately' (in fact, i think i argued that 'however many americans eventually die in the war before the american people demand a pull-out, i wish it would all happen tomorrow - imagine how many iraqi lives would be saved'
similarly, i've 'lamented' the fact that so few australians have died in the war (just one!) - i wish the numbers were sufficiently high to put pressure on our govt. as far as i can tell, australians dont give a damn about the war - which means there's no pressure to pull out, and there wont be any disincentive for Horrible Johnny to go join the next war.
"any US leader or official who knowingly brought on 9/11 should get a bullet"
the iraq war is a much greater crime
"(If it was my country, I'd do it myself.)"
i'd do it myself too if i thought it'd make things any better - regardless of whether it's 'my' country or not. it's still my world. heck, i'd even trade in my mortal coil for 72 virgins... i'd even make a trade if they were short on virgins. i'd settle for 60 virgins and 12 experts :-)
One of the oldest "what if" questions around is the question of if you could travel back in time to when Hitler was a child, and kill him, would you?
Granted it's a gross over-simlification of history, ignoring the tensions that had simmered across Europe in the 19th century to be touched off by Gavrilo Princip one fateful Sarajevo night in 1914. Someone else would probably have found a way to capitalize on the German situation, and Tojo and Mussolini would still have had to be reckoned with, not to mention Uncle Joe in the USSR.
In Germany itself, Hitler didn't act alone, nor was he alone in promoting his hateful agenda. Goebbels and Goering and the whole lot were more than happy to play along.
And if I could, I'd go back and strangle every one of the bastards in their cribs. I'd make a trip for that fucker Stalin, too.
With a handful of exceptions, 6 years ago, the world as a whole seemed to be making progress towards establishing peace and understanding. The cold war over, peace growing in the Middle East, wars really were fought to defend life and freedom. Nuclear disarmament, world wide. We were getting somewhere.
Now, thanks to the bastards running Washington, half a century's progress is being undone: new tensions with Russia and China; old hatreds being inflamed (i.e.: Arab/Israeli, Indian/Pakistani); the arms race on again; dissension sewn worldwide and the groundwork laid worldwide for a new century of fear and oppression.
All in the name of September 11, 2001.
It didn't have to be this way. On September 12th, the world stood united. We could have been led down a different path. We weren't.
Now, I'm not generally for capital punishment either. In a kinder, gentler world, the direction I thought we were headed 6 years ago, it wouldn't be necessary. Thanks to a handful of corrupt, greedy bastards, the world is again becoming a more dangerous place.
Worse, we keep seeing the same names over and over. Some have been convicted and pardoned in that time, others discredited and 'rehabilitated', but the bastards keep coming back. Law and punishment mean nothing to them. Life means nothing to them, unless it's their own miserable, stinking, parasitic existence.
How it's to happen I honestly don't know, but there has to be an accounting before they take this world with them into the hell for which they are surely bound.
And when that bill comes due, any found to be complicit in 9/11, or profitting from it in such a way as cost more lives should pay the price in the only coin they truly value.
And they should pay in full.
thnx.
fp'd
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