President Given Undue Power to Silence Critics... On September 26, 2006, attorneys for the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) determined that what appears to be the final version of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 could allow the government to detain the attorneys themselves as 'enemy combatants.' CCR Legal Director Bill Goodman said: "This ominously broad definition of enemy combatants would mean that almost anyone who actively opposes the President or the government could be locked up indefinitely. This bill makes a mockery of the rule of law." The current version of the Military Commissions redefines an "unlawful enemy combatant" (UEC) so broadly that it could include anyone who organizes a march against the war in Iraq. The bill defines a UEC as "a person who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States" or anyone who "has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense of the United States." The definition makes no reference to citizenship and therefore could be read to include any number of individuals, including: CCR attorneys and other habeas counsel, Federal Public Defenders and military defense counsel for detainees at Guantánamo Bay Any person who has given $5 to a charity working with orphans in Afghanistan that turns out to be associated in some fashion with someone who may be a member of the Taliban.

Conspiracies & Conspiracy Theories (Video): Ralph Schoenman, life-long activist and author, addresses conspiracies and conspiracy theory in American politics.

"History is not driven by conspiracy, it's structured, it's instituitional, it's systemic, and it's systematic. Our rulers conduct their affairs in a conspiratorial manner."

Lets forget the mind bubbles you get from the bosses' TV, radio, film, and "news"papers. Here's a primer on the way it really is, a look behind the curtain at some of the bosses that really boss. This glimpse is not the whole picture; it concerns only one important segment of the ruling class: the Skull and Bones. This secret society, based at Yale University in the US, has been crucially important in recent history and has deeply effected the lives of virtually every person on the planet.

Check out the following little peak into the reality of our times. . .

During the presidency of George W. Bush, the White House has made an unprecedented reach for power. It has systematically attempted to defy, control, or threaten the institutions that could challenge it: Congress, the courts, and the press. It has attempted to upset the balance of power among the three branches of government provided for in the Constitution; but its most aggressive and consistent assaults have been against the legislative branch: Bush has time and again said that he feels free to carry out a law as he sees fit, not as Congress wrote it. Through secrecy and contemptuous treatment of Congress, the Bush White House has made the executive branch less accountable than at any time in modern American history. And because of the complaisance of Congress, it has largely succeeded in its efforts.

This power grab has received little attention because it has been carried out largely in obscurity. The press took little notice until Bush, on January 5 of this year, after signing a bill containing the McCain amendment, which placed prohibitions on torture, quietly filed a separate pronouncement, a "signing statement," that he would interpret the bill as he wished.

We were taught in high school, and the U.S. Constitution suggests, that America is different, that our government is built on a balance of powers — that the age of kings was past. And for most of our 217 years of history that has been true. But not lately. Lately the executive branch, meaning the White House, has run amok. The Constitution be damned. The president, essentially, has done whatever he wants. And although George W. Bush did not invent that approach to presidential power, he has certainly refined it and expanded it.

“Our purpose was to document the event.”

Watch this one-minute video from Youtube, and you will hear one of the five “Dancing Israelis” step on his own sword. This is a clip from an Israeli talk show from November 2001, with simultaneous translation from Hebrew to English. For those who do not already know, on the morning of September 11, 2001, a New Jersey housewife by the name of “Maria,” observed five suspicious men in her apartment complex. The five young men were filming the burning WTC towers, jumping up and down, cheering, and high-fiving each other. They were also lighting their lighters and holding them up in the air, as if at a rock concert. While the rest of the country was in a state of shock and tears, these five Israelis were clearly celebrating our nation’s greatest at-home tragedy. Maria called the police.

The police stopped the van the five Israelis were traveling in and found $4,700 in cash, fake IDs and passports, and boxcutters.

The possibly incriminating statement, “Our purpose was to document the event.” , can basically be interpreted in one of two ways:

1) These five Israelis were not Mossad agents. They just happened to be there at the time of the event and videotaped it. They had no foreknowledge. They videotaped the event with the purpose of documenting it. -Like a lot of other people on that fateful day.

2) The five Israelis were Mossad agents, in which case one would be naïve to believe that they had nothing to do with it. We must assume that they in all likelihood had foreknowledge and were part of the plot. In this case their purpose may well have been "to document the event".

Our readers will want to draw their own conclusions. (Eds.)

http://joannafrancis.wordpress.com/2006/09/23/israelis-inadvertently-admit-complicity-in-911-attacks/

A Mossad surveillance team made quite a public spectacle of themselves on 9-11.The men set up cameras by the Hudson River and trained them on the twin towers. (1) Police received several calls from angry New Jersey residents claiming "middle-eastern" men with a white van were videotaping the disaster with shouts of joy and mockery. (2) "They were like happy, you know … They didn't look shocked to me" said a witness. (3)[T]hey were seen by New Jersey residents on Sept. 11 making fun of the World Trade Center ruins and going to extreme lengths to photograph themselves in front of the wreckage. (4) Witnesses saw them jumping for joy in Liberty State Park after the initial impact (5). Later on, other witnesses saw them celebrating on a roof in Weehawken, and still more witnesses later saw them celebrating with high fives in a Jersey City parking lot. (6)
"It looked like they're hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park." (7)

An excerpt of a speech delivered by Ralph Schoenman. Directed and edited by Kurt Nimmo. The Underlying Politics of 9/11 (Part II)

Torture is immoral, ineffective, and makes a mockery of 2000 years of Western civilization. The United States Congress is currently trying to write a law that would legalize torture and put those who commit such crimes, and the law that justifies them beyond the reach of any court. Is this what you want? Is this the America you dream of? If not, contact your Senators and representative NOW before its too late. Call them toll-free at 1-866-808-0065 and make your voices heard.

This new bill would license torture. It would also grant amnesty to past torturers and repeal nearly every legal principle that makes freedom and justice possible.

The most basic right that would be abrogated is the freedom from arbitrary detention and torture. The bill would deny any person labeled a terrorist the right to challenge the legality of his detention and treatment in court. The government would be able to imprison suspects for as long as it wishes, without charging them with any crime.

Some time back, the news came out that the CIA was operating prisons across the world in which they were engaging in practices of torture. These included techniques such as Cold Cell (a prisoner stands in a cell which is between 40 and 50 degrees and is repeatedly doused with cold water), Long Time Standing (in which a prisoner stands for up to 48 hours at a time without sleep) and waterboarding (a technique where the prison is made to feel as if he or she is drowning). Soon after this was revealed, many came out in defense of this torture. I remember thinking how odd it was that American politicians, pundits and citizens were now being asked to state their "position on torture." Who would have thought such a situation would come to pass in the United States?

As religious leaders in Connecticut we are deeply concerned, indeed horrified, that Congress is poised to legalize torture. Earlier this week, at a press conference at Hartford Seminary, we spoke in one voice to say emphatically: No torture anywhere anytime--no exceptions. We joined our voices with those of national religious leaders in the National Religious Campaign Against Torture who published an advertisement signed by national figures in Washington's Roll Call on the same day.

We are compelled to speak again because the just-announced Republican "compromise" threatens to compromise the rule of law and the laws of God. Torture is a moral and legal issue; it is also a profoundly religious issue, for it degrades the image of God in the tortured and the torturer alike. Our moral compass is swinging wildly. To tolerate, or worse decriminalize, torture jeopardizes the soul of our nation.

If we were not to raise our voices in outrage at this time, the very stones would cry out. What is the basis of our concern?

If he ever tires of running Venezuela, Hugo Chávez would make an outstanding book club president, judging by his impact on Noam Chomsky's book sales.

Since waving a copy during an address to the UN last week, the Venezuelan president has made Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance a publishing sensation.

What was one of Professor Chomsky's lesser known works has surged to No 1 on Amazon's bestseller list, with bookshops making bulk orders from the thousands of extra copies being printed.

Chávez began his speech by evoking Noam Chomsky, describing him as “one of the most prestigious American and world intellectuals," and urging people to read Chomsky’s book, Hegemony or Survival: The Imperialist Strategy of the United States.

It is surprising that a political street fighter with the savvy and intellect of Chávez found the need to promote the work of Chomsky, whose weak, grossly deceptive and empty “structuralist” hand-wringings have been designed to deny systemic realities and real “root causes," protect corruption and criminality, and purposely lead gullible Left/liberal icon-worshippers into terminal intellectual dead ends.

While the Bush administration is sinking into the Iraqi mess and supports the Israeli destruction campaign in Palestine and in Lebanon, a controversy is expanding in the United States on the exact links between the US imperialism and the zionist expansionism. Suddenly, the thought of Noam Chomsky, which was imposed, for a long time, as a reference to the US left-wing, does not function any more. It is the moment, for the journalist Jeffrey Blankfort, to question this superstar. We publish here, in three parts, his long study of the limits of Noam Chomsky’s thought.

Following announcements that an agreement has been reached between the White House and Senators John Warner (R-VA), John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on military commissions, the American Civil Liberties Union today said the compromise agreement does not protect due process, fails to meet international treaty obligations and urged lawmakers to reject the deal. The following may be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office: "This is a compromise of America’s commitment to the rule of law. The proposal would make the core protections of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions irrelevant and unenforceable. It deliberately provides a ‘get out of jail free card’ to the administration’s top torture officials, and backdates that card nine years. These are tactics expected of repressive regimes, not the American government.

SOURCE: Published on 9/15/06 by the BLICK newspaper in Zurich, Switzerland (translated from German into English, but not yet published online in English) 2,973 humans died with the attacks of 9/11. "Bin Laden" and "Al Qaeda", the Bush clan cried. The world believed him. In the meantime even scientists doubt the Bush version. Now, Swiss university professors Albert A. Stahel (63) and Daniele Ganser raise hot new questions. "Something is not correct", says strategy expert Stahel in "World Week", and here he refers to the "incomplete" official US Government 9/11 Report of 2004. The university professor confirms his criticism in BLICK (VIEW): "Osama Bin Laden cannot be 'the large godfather' behind the attacks. He did not have enough means of communication". Dr. Stahel doubts that a passenger airliner crashed into the Pentagon: "For trainee pilots it is actually impossible to crash into the building so exactly. Seven hours after the Twin Towers collapsed, the World Trade Center Building 7 next to it also collapsed. The official version: It burned for a long time. Nothing at all is clear." Raising questions along with Stahel is historian Dr. Daniele Ganser, his colleague at the University of Zurich. Dr. Ganser also calls the official US version "a conspiracy theory". "There are three theories, which we should treat equally": 1. "Surprise theory" - Bin Laden and Al Qaeda implemented the attacks. 2. "Let it happen on purpose" - The US Government knew the Al Qaeda plans and did not react in order to legitimize a series of wars. 3. "Made it happen on purpose" - The attacks were actually planned and orchestrated by the Pentagon and/or US secret services. Ganser: "3,000 humans were sacrificed for strategic interests. The more we research, the more we doubt the Bush version. It is conceivable that the Bush government was responsible. Bush has lied so much already! And we already know that the US government planned an operation in 1962 [Operation Northwood] that was approved by the Pentagon that would have sacrificed innocent US citizens for the government's own interests."

John Negroponte, Director of National Intelligence for the United States, announced on Friday, August 18, 2006, the creation of a new special CIA mission to oversee intelligence activities in Venezuela and Cuba. Negroponte, who coordinates the entire intelligence community in the United States and reports directly to President George W. Bush, named CIA veteran J. Patrick Maher as Acting Mission Manager of this new important division.

According to a Press Release from the Directorate of National Intelligence, “Maher will be responsible for integrating collection and analysis on Cuba and Venezuela across the Intelligence Community, identifying and filling gaps in intelligence, and ensuring the implementation of strategies, among other duties.” According to Negroponte, “such efforts are critical today, as policymakers have increasingly focused on the challenges that Cuba and Venezuela pose to American foreign policy.”

U.S. intelligence head John Negroponte announced Aug. 18 the creation of a new Central Intelligence Agency mission to oversee intelligence operations in Venezuela and Cuba at the strategic level. J. Patrick Maher, a 32-year CIA veteran with supervisory experience in Colombia and the Caribbean, was named as acting mission manager.

As Castro’s grip loosens, the White House sets up interagency task forces to plan for the future. Convinced that Cuban leader Fidel Castro will never regain the power he once wielded, the Bush administration has created five interagency working groups to monitor Cuba.

The groups, some of which operate in war-room-like settings, were quietly set up after the July 31 announcement that the ailing Castro, 80, had ceded power temporarily to a collective leadership headed by his brother, Raul Castro, U.S. officials say.

The US-led aggression in the Middle East and the three failed attempts to oust Venezuela's Hugo Chavez since 2002 (with a fourth now planned and likely to be implemented soon) are just the latest examples of this country's imperial agenda and the "new world order" it has in mind. The way this country now engages throughout the world isn't much different than what it's done close to home and worldwide since inception. Only the venues chosen, the scope of our aims, and the extent of our power have changed.

(The author gives an historical account of the Red, Black, White & Green of the Palestinian national flag:) The Khawarij were the first Islamic group to emerge after the assassination of Caliph Uthman III, forming the first republican party in the early days of Islam. Their symbol was the red flag. Arab tribes who participated in the conquest of North Africa and Andalusia carried the red flag, which became the symbol of the Islamic rulers of Andalusia (756-1355). In modern times, red symbolizes the Ashrafs of the Hijaz and the Hashemites, descendants of the Prophet. Sharif Hussein designed the current flag as the flag of the Arab Revolt on June 1916. The Palestinian people raised it as the flag of the Arab National movement in 1917. In 1947, the Arab Ba'ath Party interpreted the flag as a symbol of the liberation and unity of the Arab nation. The Palestinian people readopted the flag at the Palestinian conference in Gaza in 1948. The flag was recognized by the Arab League as the flag of the Palestinian people. It was further endorsed by the PLO, the representative of the Palestinians, at the Palestinian conference in Jerusalem in 1964.

You are welcome to visit the excellent blog "Annie's letters"

When you think about the Middle East and the violence there that you clearly see reflected in these photos, please also consider this well-known quote:

"The state of Israel must invent dangers, and to do this it must adopt the methods of provocation and revenge.... And above all, let us hope for a new war with the Arab countries so that we may finally get rid of our troubles and acquire our space." -- From the diary of Moshe Sharett, Israeli's first Foreign Minister from 1948-1956, and Prime Minister from 1954-1956.

Few people can imagine what life is like living in a refugee camp. Palestinians have been living as refugees in camps since 1948 when they were forced out of their homes by the new Jewish immigrants who just arrived from Europe intending to create the new Jewish-only state of Israel. Today, eighty percent of Palestinians are refugees, many in their own country. It is a painful story and quite difficult to comprehend.

While it is normal to expect high levels of hunger and poverty in a developing country, it may come as a surprise to observe such conditions in one of the richest countries in the world. The Food Bank for New York City recently reported that nearly 20 percent of children in the city rely on free food to survive. According to statistics from Bread for the World, 13 million children went to bed hungry in the United States in 2004.

Hunger is one of the clearest expressions of poverty. A child is born into poverty every 17 minutes in New York City. Chronically hungry children suffer from malnutrition, which can have devastating effects on physical and mental development. Malnutrition results not only from undernourishment but also from the wrong kind of foods, particularly fried and fatty meals.

It is estimated that 30,000 children in the world die every day from diseases related to hunger. The infant mortality rate (IMR) in Washington is more than twice as high as Beijing's. In 2002, the number of babies who died before their first birthday was 11.5 per thousand births in Washington versus 4.6 in Beijing. (Photo: Arthur © Rothstein)

No Child Left Behind requires all students to take standardized tests but deprives some students — specifically students with disabilities — of the tools they need to perform their best. As a result, 44 schools in Tucson were found by the federal government to not be making "adequate yearly progress." Current policies fail students with disabilities by with-holding the tools they need to perform their best on the AIMS test — a test they need to pass to graduate and a test they must take for their school to do well under the federal standards set for schools.

Punishing disabled students by not allowing them a fair opportunity to perform their best on the AIMS test harms the students and their schools.
This is yet another reason the federal No Child Left Behind program fails.

The incredible "terrorist plot" allegedly thwarted in London this summer does not finish causing the consternation of the political analysts. Whereas the media continue to repeat the eccentric allegations of the British police forces, many personalities show, on the contrary, their foundation absence in a detailed way. After the analyses of the former British ambassador Craig Murray, the German journalist Jürgen Elsässer and the Unitedstator novelist Thomas C. Greene, we publish that one of the academic James Petras. In which he dismounts, point by point, the propaganda machine, and highlights its economic implications.

It's the oldest trick in the book, dating back to Roman times; creating the enemies you need. In 70 BC, an ambitious minor politician and extremely wealthy man, Marcus Licinius Crassus, wanted to rule Rome. Just to give you an idea of what sort of man Crassus really was, he is credited with invention of the fire brigade. But in Crassus' version, his fire-fighting slaves would race to the scene of a burning building whereupon Crassus would offer to buy it on the spot for a tiny fraction of it's worth. If the owner sold, Crassus' slaves would put out the fire. If the owner refused to sell, Crassus allowed the building to burn to the ground. By means of this device, Crassus eventually came to be the largest single private land holder in Rome, and used some of his wealth to help back Julius Caesar against Cicero.

Showing 1-100 of 2250 events:

November 1979: Bin Laden Brother Tied to Terror Act

In the 1960s Osama bin Laden’s brother Mahrous bin Laden joined a rebel group opposed to the Saudi government. With his assistance, in 1979 the rebels smuggle weapons into Mecca, Saudi Arabia, using trucks belonging to the bin Laden family company. Five hundred rebels then seize the Grand Mosque in Medina, Islam’s holiest mosque in its holiest city. They try, but fail, to overthrow the Saudi royal family. All the men who took part are later beheaded except Mahrous. Eventually he is released from prison because of the close ties between the bin Ladens and the Saudi royal family. Mahrous apparently abandons the rebel cause and joins the family business. He is eventually made a head of the Medina branch and a member of the board. He will still hold these positions on 9/11. But a newspaper reports that “his past [is] not forgiven and most important decisions in the [bin Laden family business] are made without Mahrous’ input.”

http://www.911pressfortruth.com

Share this film with everyone you know. This is the best film available to expose 9/11 as a cover up. Even your Republican grandpa from Texas will have doubts about 9/11 when he finishes it!

http://www.911pressfortruth.com/

On a personal note - I uploaded this film so it could be seen by thousands of more people. But this film wasn't produced without a lot of time and money invested into it. If you can, support these guys and order a DVD for yourself. They have done a tremendous service for our country.

http://www.911pressfortruth.com/ http://www.911pressfortruth.com/

"The slaughter of unarmed children, women, the aged and the infirm was shocking. For me, I was doubly outraged that I had to discover the truth about a brave and generous people only through their deaths. Until then, I never knew Palestinian refugees existed. As a fundamentalist Christian, I had been a supporter of Israel, hated Arabs and saw the Palestinian Liberation Organisation as terrorists to be loathed and feared." Extract from the back cover of her book "From Beirut To Jerusalem"

There’s another significant anniversary this week, but not one that’s attracted the sort of attention the 11 September commemorations have.

On the morning of Saturday, September 18th, 1982, reporters entering the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila near Beirut, Lebanon, were met with a ghastly sight. Piles of bodies littered the dusty streets of the camps, mass graves had been hastily constructed and buildings had been bulldozed over corpses. The slaughtered were old men, women, and children. A massacre had taken place here. The estimated death toll were in thousands.

What had happened here? What could have provoked this type of inhuman slaughter? Who did this?

The Sabra and Shatila massacre (or Sabra and Chatila massacre) was carried out in September 1982 by Lebanese Maronite Christian militias [1][2] (صبرا وشاتيلا) against refugee camps. The Maronite forces stood under the direct command of Elie Hobeika, who would later become a longtime Lebanese parliament member and in the 1990s also a cabinet minister. The number of victims of the massacre is estimated at 700-3500 (see below).

The camps were externally surrounded by Israeli soldiers throughout the incident, although the Israeli military personnel who were there claimed they had no idea of what was going on inside. The degree to which the Israeli military was involved in the incident is a matter of controversy. -Israeli military was "involved". This is a FACT. There is no controversy at all. (Ed.)

The American Civil Liberties Union today strongly rebuked the Senate Judiciary Committee for adopting legislation that approves warrantless spying on Americans by the National Security Agency. The move follows a recent court decision finding the surveillance both illegal and unconstitutional. The Bush administration has thus far stonewalled efforts by the committee to conduct meaningful oversight over the program. "Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee acted as a rubber stamp for the administration’s abuse of power," said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Congress has a right and obligation to conduct meaningful oversight on the unlawful actions of the president. But instead of investigating lawbreaking, the Senate Judiciary Committee wants to make it legal.

So much for ballot security. Three Princeton University professors designed and tested software to hack a Diebold electronic voting machine. Watch the video. Marty Kaplan demonstrated how to trick a Diebold machine within a matter of minutes using a screwdriver, flash card and basic computer knowledge. Watch the video. An election could easily be stolen, either through malicious hacking or plain ol' stupidity...

Chapter 5 from the book, “THE POWER OF ISRAEL IN THE USA“ by James Petras

--

In August 2004, the FBI and the US Justice Department counter-intelligence bureau announced that they were investigating a top Pentagon analyst suspected of spying for Israel and handing over highly confidential documents on US policy toward Iran to AIPAC which in turn handed them over to the Israeli Embassy. The FBI had been covertly investigating senior Pentagon analyst, Larry Franklin and AIPAC leaders, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman for several years prior to their indictment for spying. On August 29, 2005 the Israeli Embassy predictably hotly denied the spy allegation. On the same day Larry Franklin was publicly named as a spy suspect. Franklin worked closely with Michael Ledeen and Douglas Feith, then Undersecretary for Defense in the Pentagon, in fabricating the case for war with Iraq. Franklin was the senior analyst on Iran, which is at the top of AIPAC’s list of targets for war.

At the heart of the investigation are two people who work at The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington. The FBI investigation, headed up by Dave Szady, has involved wiretaps, undercover surveillance and photography that CBS News was told document the passing of classified information from the mole, to the men at AIPAC, and on to the Israelis.

CBS sources say that last year the suspected spy, described as a trusted analyst at the Pentagon, turned over a presidential directive on U.S. policy toward Iran while it was, "in the draft phase when U.S. policy-makers were still debating the policy." This put the Israelis, according to one source, "inside the decision-making loop" so they could "try to influence the outcome." [CBS News]

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who first exposed the horrors of the Stalinist gulag, is now attempting to tackle one of the most sensitive topics of his writing career - the role of the Jews in the Bolshevik revolution and Soviet purges.

In his latest book Solzhenitsyn, 84, deals with one of the last taboos of the communist revolution: that Jews were as much perpetrators of the repression as its victims. Two Hundred Years Together - a reference to the 1772 partial annexation of Poland and Russia which greatly increased the Russian Jewish population - contains three chapters discussing the Jewish role in the revolutionary genocide and secret police purges of Soviet Russia.

In the night of July 16-17, 1918, a squad of Bolshevik secret police murdered Russia's last emperor, Tsar Nicholas II, along with his wife, Tsaritsa Alexandra, their 14-year-old son, Tsarevich Alexis, and their four daughters. They were cut down in a hail of gunfire in a half-cellar room of the house in Ekaterinburg, a city in the Ural mountain region, where they were being held prisoner. The daughters were finished off with bayonets. To prevent a cult for the dead Tsar, the bodies were carted away to the countryside and hastily buried in a secret grave.

For the last 30 years, Japanese photojournalist Goro Nakamura has focused on one thing: the damage made to the Vietnamese people and their country by the US use of the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. And now, the 65-year-old photojournalist, who is based in Saitama, will be taking his work to the United States.

The exhibition will be Nakamura's first in the country responsible for the use of Agent Orange - which contains dioxins known to be harmful to humans - in Vietnam.

"The tragedies caused by the defoliant did not end with the generation who suffered from it directly. They are ongoing. I want to show these realities to as many people as I can," Nakamura said.

The exhibition, entitled "Silent Spring - Agent Orange Photographs," is scheduled to be held at the John Jay College of the City University of New York (CUNY) from Oct. 3 - 28.

Nguyen Thi Kim Vang had never seen a child with a birth deformity before the American War. Thirty years later she lives with a constant screaming reminder.

Of her children, three died in the first few months, two are normal and the sixth still cannot recognise her despite the fact Mrs Vang has nursed, changed her nappies and fed her every day for 25 years. Her husband spent years in the jungle fighting for the Vietcong and was exposed to defoliants sprayed by US forces.

Agent Orange was the nickname given to a powerful herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. Agent Orange was used from 1961 to 1971, and was by far the most used of the so-called "rainbow herbicides" used during the program. Agent Orange (as well as Agents Purple, Pink, Blue, White, and Green) contained dioxins which are known to have caused harm to the health of those exposed during the Vietnam War. Studies of populations highly exposed to dioxin indicate increased risk of various types of cancer and genetic mistakes; the effect of long term low level exposure has not been established.

The oldest detainee at Guantanamo Bay — an Afghan man who is at least 71 and hobbled around the U.S. prison in Cuba using a walker — has been sent home, his lawyer said Monday. Haji Nasrat Khan was among five men from Afghanistan transferred over the weekend, said attorney Peter Ryan, who received the news in an e-mail from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Ryan was not told why Khan was transferred, and was trying to determine whether he would be held in custody in Afghanistan or allowed to return home. The U.S. military did not disclose the names of the five men sent back to Afghanistan and declined to comment.

Khan was not charged with a crime and Ryan said the government never said why he was detained. "We couldn't figure out why he was there," Ryan said. "He could barely walk and he could barely hear." Khan told his lawyers he believes he's around 78, but doesn't know his exact age. He is at least 71, according to military records obtained by The Associated Press.

With the latest transfers, the military now holds about 445 men on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban, including about 115 who the U.S. has determined are eligible for release or transfer.

The sailor at the entrance to Camp Echo peers through the gate as Peter and I hold up our laminated blue cards. "HC," for habeas counsel, they read. "Escort Required." He waves us through, searches our bags for recording devices, then issues safety instructions -- dial 2431 on the wall phone in the room -- in case anything should happen in our meeting with prisoner No. 1154.

The gravel crunches beneath our shoes as we follow a soldier across a dusty courtyard to a painted brown door. Before we go in, I drape the shawl I'm carrying over my head and arms. This is my first meeting with a Guantanamo Bay detainee, and I'm feeling nervous about sitting down with a man who may be a terrorist.

Ali Shah Mousovi is standing at attention at the far end of the room, his leg chained to the floor. His expression is wary, but when he sees me in my traditional embroidered shawl from Peshawar, he breaks into a smile. Later, he'll tell me that I resemble his younger sister, and that for a split second he mistook me for her.

My friends and I have this habit. Whenever we end up in grimy, ghetto-ish, dusty, dilapidated parts of various American cities, we exclaim: “Dude, I’m reminded of Pakistan.” The statement is simultaneously an act of nostalgia and a social critique aimed at our American abode.

Readers of my previous post are starting to think that I live under the impression that America is impervious to social alienation; and because of that, it is impervious to ideologies of nihilism and subversion (like Islamic Fanaticism). What!?

I have lived on the cusp of Native-American communities; in the most stolid of American ghettoes; insular immigrant communities in New York; outlying farm areas with no brown skin in sight, where the closest doctor is a hundred miles away. I have worked in Pritchard, Alabama, which is, statistically, the poorest place in America. I have lived extensively in Philadelphia whose real name is “Philthy.”

In the world's biggest economy, one in eight Americans and almost one in four blacks lived in poverty last year, the US Census Bureau said on Tuesday, both ratios virtually unchanged from 2004.

The survey also showed 15.9% of the population, or 46.6 million, had no health insurance, up from 15.6% in 2004 and an increase for a fifth consecutive year, even as the economy grew at a 3.2% clip.

It was the first year since US president George W Bush took office in 2001 that the poverty rate did not increase. As in past years, the figures showed poverty especially concentrated among blacks and Hispanics. In all, some 37 million Americans, or 12.6%, lived below the poverty line.

Inspired by the photographic work "Hiroshima" by Japanese artist Hiromi Tsuchida, The Hiroshima Archive was originally set up to join the on-line effort made by many people all over the world to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombing. The archive is intended to serve as a research and educational guide to those who want to gain and expand their knowledge of the atomic bombing. This archive was authored in 1995 by Mayu Tsuruya with Professor Gerald Figal as academic sponsor at Lewis & Clark College. (He now teaches at the University of Delaware.) Also, students from Professor Figal's fall 1995 class The Aomic Bomb: Experience, History, and Memory contributed to the archive by searching and annotating World Wide Web resources for its directory. (Please see these Credits.) We had one contributor from Japan who compiled the bibliography of children's books, too. Wikipedia: Hiroshima. YouTube: Nuking Hiroshima.

On August 10, 1945, the day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Yosuke Yamahata began to photograph the devastation. His companions on the journey were a painter, Eiji Yamada, and a writer, Jun Hagashi. Wikipedia: Nagasaki. YouTube: Nuking Nagasaki.

This footage, obtained and presented exclusively by The Memory Hole, shows President Bush sitting in a Florida classroom for 5 minutes after he was told that the second Twin Tower has been hit and that America was being attacked. A truncated version of this footage that has been available online since June 2002 shows Bush for only 2 minutes, 10 seconds after being told. This new footage more than doubles this length of time.

Immediately below, you'll find still-frames from the video, one every 5 seconds starting when Chief of Staff Andrew Card gives Bush the news and ending when the scene abruptly ends. Below that is a longer introduction and explanation of this footage, including how you can get it yourself.

When a wave of then-unfolding, well-coordinated terrorist assaults commandeered his attention in Sarasota on Tuesday morning, President George W. Bush made a quick decision. He could and arguably should have left Emma E. Booker Elementary School immediately, gotten onto Air Force One and left Sarasota without a moment's delay. He could have forgotten all about a school media center full of elementary school kids and teachers waiting to see him. But he didn't.

The president walked into that crowded room, which was decorated with Cat in the Hat books and children's artwork, where he had planned to talk about literacy.

The Shut Down of Arab Muslim Web Sites in the Days Leading up to 9/11 ■ The World Trade Center Collapses President Bush's 9/11 ■ Visit To Booker Elementary ■ The 9/11 Hijackings ■ Flight 93 ■ The 9/11 USAF Stand Down ■ Anthrax and 9/11 ■ Israel and 9/11 ■ The Pod People and the Plane That Crashed Into the Pentagon

This concise mind control summary is based on astonishing excerpts from three landmark books: Bluebird by Colin A. Ross MD; Mind Controllers by Dr. Armen Victorian; and A Nation Betrayed by Carol Rutz. All three authors provide hundreds of footnotes to support their groundbreaking research. Much of this information is based on 18,000 pages of declassified CIA mind control documents. To order these revealing documents in CD format directly from the government, click here. Join in powerfully building a better world for all by spreading the word. (Illustration: Dirtnap © Records)

Google VIDEO.

This type of severe persecution of any opposition is undoubtedly the reason there continues to be a total information blackout in all public news media outlets about the mind control technology which has evolved. There is actual telepathic transfer--transfer of mental and emotional states, of voice effects. It is pretty total mind and body control--very dangerous to have in unrestrained hands like these. Attacking a victim with a mob of energized, shrieking, noisy freaks is another torture which is hard to take. The NSA and Mind Control: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

The American Psychological Association still believes it is appropriate for psychologists to participate in interrogations at the institution where, less than a year ago, Mr. al-Dossari was tortured till he lost the will to live. Mr. al-Dossari made at least one more suicide attempt in 2006, his 12th. Does this constitute enough evidence of "prolonged mental harm" to move psychologists?

During the Veterans for Peace National Convention in Seattle, I conducted an interview with Ray McGovern. McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years and is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). In this first installment of this short interview series for Truthout, I asked McGovern what he thought of the fact that Israel had been planning their attack on Lebanon for well over a year. --Ray McGovern: The most important thing, from our perspective, is to determine what role the US government played. It's very clear that the US government not only gave the green light to the Israelis, but actively encouraged them to do what they are doing now, and then blocked diplomatic efforts to prevent them, to halt them, or to have an immediate cease-fire. That much is clear. You can even read Charles Krauthaumer, who says precisely that: that we are proud that we not only gave the permission, but we encouraged them to do precisely what they are doing.

Now, the question arises, why? What in God's name would possess our so-called neo-con leadership to persuade this new fledgling Israeli government, which represents in my understanding a right-wing fringe of the Israeli people and not at all the Israeli people as a whole, just as our government represents the extremist right wing of the Republican Party? These so-called neo-conservatives who pretty much mounted and successfully waged a putsch of our government early in this administration, what in God's name do they have in mind?

In the second installment of this interview series for Truthout, McGovern discusses US policy regarding Iran, a US/Israel "mutual defense treaty" and the security ramifications for Israel.

In the final installment of this interview series for Truthout, McGovern discusses links between US/Israeli policy, the need for change if there is to be true security for either country, the Bush administration's use of torture, and the likelihood of a US attack on Iran.

While the world's attention is focused on record high oil prices, water, like oil, is increasingly emerging as a catalyst for international instability and conflict as the recent upsurge in violence in Sri Lanka illustrates. On July 20, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (L.T.T.E.) shut down the Maavilaru dam's sluice gate near the town of Kantalai in the northeastern Trincomalee district, which cut off water supplies for 60,000 people in government-controlled areas. This led the Sri Lankan military to commence an aerial bombardment of Tiger positions and a ground offensive to gain control of the reservoir's control point. The Tigers claim that their actions were sparked by the government's failure to build a water tower to supply L.T.T.E.-controlled areas and responded by going on the offensive in Mutur. With more than 500 people killed since fighting erupted over the disputed waterway, the 2002 ceasefire has now collapsed in all but name.

The world's future wars will be fought not over oil but water: an ominous prediction made by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the British ministry of defence and even by some officials of the World Bank.

But experts and academics meeting at an international conference on water management in the Swedish capital are dismissing this prediction as unrealistic, far-fetched and nonsensical. "Water wars make good newspaper headlines but cooperation (agreements) don't.

Water conservation is becoming an accepted practice, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which points to the stable volume of water used since the mid-1980s. "The message is that humans are adaptable creatures," said Robert Hirsch, chief hydrologist. "To me that is a very positive message."

Citizens of Florida and Alabama aren't alone in their concern that Atlanta will drink dry the Chattahoochee River. South of the city, Georgians also are worried. "Yes, there are two Georgias: the greater Atlanta area and the rest of us downstream from the metroplex of some 4 million people," said Harry Hall, assistant water conservationist for the Georgia BASS Federation. "Their thirst for water grows with the population."

A phase diagram shows the preferred physical states of matter at different temperatures and pressure. Within each phase the material is uniform with respect to its chemical composition and physical state. At typical temperatures and pressure (marked by an 'E' below) water is a liquid, but it becomes solid (i.e. ice) if its temperature is lowered below 273 K and gaseous (i.e. steam) if its temperature is raised above 373 K, at the same pressure.

American Empire is built on a deeply apocalyptic world view. And that is the messianism that drives Bush, fed by his own apocalyptic belief as born again Christian. For the neocons he is indeed the ideal ‘gentlemen’ of Xenophon and Strauss, a messianic godsent: an optimistic, charismatic leader, strangely close to the heart of the people, like kings are. He is the gentlemen, that lends his ear to the philosophers, the neocons and straussians in his administration. The description, that Strauss gives of the ideal regime in On tyranny, captures in an ominous way, this strange but strong cocktail that born again Christian Bush and his neocon entourage make.

Great moments in a great American family.

The US economy has been living beyond its means since the 1970's. After a period of infrastructure investment after World War II the growth of deficit spending and militarization resumed. A succession of wars and foreign adventures has artificially boosted the economy as borrowed money has been used to finance these activities. The purchasing of war material acts as a stimulus to certain manufacturing sectors which would be in decline otherwise. In addition, the absorption of young people into the military keeps unemployment down. For much of the period these activities were funded by internal borrowing, but in the past decade or so most of the money has come from external sources.

Three factors have coincided to bring matters to a perilous point:

Firstly, the military/police fraction of the economy has reach a point where basic social and infrastructure needs are being sacrificed to it.

Secondly, the militarization of society has reach a point where this sector is no longer an arm of government policy, but has become an independent power center with its own goals.

Thirdly, the US has lost its ability to control foreign affairs to its benefit. The other power centers in the world have now become strong enough to pursue their own interests. The principal ones being the European Union, China and the oil-producing states. As a consequence of these developments it is quite likely that the US will be forced into a period of economic contraction.

Though history doesn't repeat, it does tend to echo, for the simple reason that history and markets are both expressions of human emotions. Emotions, of course, form a limited palette, and so the primary ones--for instance, greed, euphoria, panic and fear--get recycled as circumstances develop which trigger these responses.

On this, the sixth Labor Day under the guidance of the Con-Artist-in-Chief, I bring to you a very depressing map showing just how far the average working woman and man has suffered under his failed leadership.

Nellie Connally, the former Texas first lady who was riding in John F Kennedy's limousine when he was assassinated, has died. The 87-year-old was the last living person who had been in the car.

Connally, the widow of former Governor John Connally, died late on Friday of natural causes at her home in Austin, said Julian Read, who served as the governor's press secretary in the 1960s.

As the limousine carrying the Connallys and the Kennedys wound its way through the friendly crowd in downtown Dallas, Nellie Connally turned to President Kennedy, who was in a seat behind her, and said, "Mr President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you".

The official version of the assassination of President Kennedy has been so riddled with contradictions that it is been abandoned and rewritten no less than three times. Blatant fabrications have received very widespread coverage by the mass media, but denials of these same lies have gone unpublished. Photographs, evidence and affidavits have been doctored out of recognition. Some of the most important aspects of the case against Lee Harvey Oswald have been completely blacked out. Meanwhile, the F.B.I., the police and the Secret Service have tried to silence key witnesses or instruct them what evidence to give. Others involved have disappeared or died in extraordinary circumstances.

There are several moments in history that have impacted people dramatically, perhaps one of the most mysterious is the shooting assassination of John F. Kennedy. Why was it done? Who planned it? Who executed the plan and how? These are questions with so many variables that some feel we may never know the complete answer.

Today Dubai Ports World announced it would "transfer fully the U.S. operations…to a United States entity." PBS News Hour reporter, Norm Ornstein,said that DP World was considering selling its U.S. operations to Halliburton: I couldn't quite fathom why George Bush tried, some months back, to transfer the American Ports to Dubai ports, in spite of terrorist ties, and sympathies. I pointed out that this attempted change was made during a congressional break, during a hiatus while the congressmen were vacationing. I suggested some kind of profiteering on the part of president Bush.

The United States Government has been financing research on a genetic engineering technology which, when commercialized, will give its owners the power to control the food seed of entire nations or regions. The Government has been working quietly on this technology since 1983. Now, the little-known company that has been working in this genetic research with the Government’s US Department of Agriculture-- Delta & Pine Land-- is about to become part of the world’s largest supplier of patented genetically-modified seeds (GMO), Monsanto Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri. Relations between Monsanto, Delta & Pine Land and the USDA, on closer scrutiny, show the deep and dark side of the much-heralded genetic revolution in agriculture. It proves deep-held suspicions that the Gene Revolution is not about ‘solving the world hunger problem’ as its advocates claim. It’s about handing over control of the seeds for mankind’s basic food supply—rice, corn, soybeans, wheat, even fruit, vegetables and cotton—to privately owned corporations. Once the seeds and their use are patented and controlled by one or several private agribusiness multinationals, it will be they who can decide whether or not a particular customer—let’s say for argument, China or Brazil or India or Japan—whether they will or won’t get the patented seeds from Monsanto, or from one of its licensee GMO partners like Bayer Crop Sciences, Syngenta or DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred International.

One year after the tragic events of Hurricane Katrina, government investigations into the failure to aid the storm's victims -- mainly poor, black and disenfranchised -- are lagging, and America's reputation as a human rights leader has been further diminished, the American Civil Liberties Union said today. "As horrific as the devastation of Hurricane Katrina was, it was the government's indifference to the suffering of the poor and people of color that truly shocked our nation and the world," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "There is no question that the administration's response to Katrina, added to its other abuses of power, has further diminished America's reputation as a beacon of freedom."

In a controversial article by Michael Noer, the writer breaks it down to unmarried men: "Whatever you do, don't marry a career woman." Why? "To put it bluntly, the more successful she is, the more likely she is to grow dissatisfied with you," Noer said. "A word of advice -- marry pretty women or ugly ones. Short ones or tall ones. Blondes or brunettes. Just, whatever you do, don't marry a woman with a career." This isn't a conclusion that would make all men happy, given that men are often attracted to women who have similar aspirations. Noer cited studies in various journals that say the professional woman is a woman who has a college degree, works at least 35 hours a week and therefore earns more than $30,000 a year. He said she's more likely to get divorced and cheat on her husband with co-workers. She will be either angry about having kids or angry about not having kids, Noer said. Noer argued that marriage is hardest when both partners work outside the home, and that research shows divorce is more likely the more hours a woman works. Conversely, the same is not true of a man's workload. Many are calling the article outrageous.

Forbes.com published a story Aug. 22 by editor Michael Noer on two-career relationships that provoked a heated response from both outside and inside our building. Elizabeth Corcoran, a member of our Silicon Valley bureau and principal author of the magazine's current cover story on robots, sent in this rebuttal.

Forbes.com is just the latest media outlet to say working women have terrible marriages. Will this myth ever die? We have a recurring nightmare. We're standing on a mountaintop, being attacked by a huge, winged chimera with an enormous head and a mouth that keeps chanting, "Working women are miserable. Their marriages are terrible. Their husbands are miserable. Their children are wrecks."

It was my mother's opinion, as well as Jane Austen's, that the survival of a marriage depended on that overworked word "respect". All kinds of respect but, above all, respect for the other. Much more important than love. My father put it differently. You've got to love the black heart of the man, he said, because he's your responsibility for life. She was right and he was wrong. Respect's the key.