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Beginning of the end of America: Olbermann addresses the Military Commissions Act in a special comment (By Keith Olbermann, Anchor, Countdown Updated: 12:00 p.m. PT Oct 19, 2006) We have lived as if in a trance. We have lived as people in fear. And now—our rights and our freedoms in peril—we slowly awaken to learn that we have been afraid of the wrong thing.

Therefore, tonight have we truly become the inheritors of our American legacy.

For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force, we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering:

A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from.

We have been here before—and we have been here before, led here by men better and wiser and nobler than George W. Bush.

<snip>

Habeas corpus? Gone.

The Geneva Conventions? Optional.

The moral force we shined outwards to the world as an eternal beacon, and inwards at ourselves as an eternal protection? Snuffed out.

These things you have done, Mr. Bush, they would be “the beginning of the end of America.”

And did it even occur to you once, sir — somewhere in amidst those eight separate, gruesome, intentional, terroristic invocations of the horrors of 9/11 -- that with only a little further shift in this world we now know—just a touch more repudiation of all of that for which our patriots died --- did it ever occur to you once that in just 27 months and two days from now when you leave office, some irresponsible future president and a “competent tribunal” of lackeys would be entitled, by the actions of your own hand, to declare the status of “unlawful enemy combatant” for -- and convene a Military Commission to try -- not John Walker Lindh, but George Walker Bush?

For the most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons.

And doubtless, Sir, all of them—as always—wrong. more...

Bush's Absolute Power Grab By Carla Binion October 21, 2006 consortiumnews.com On October 17, George W. Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006. This new law gives Bush power similar to that possessed by Stalin or Hitler, and grants agencies within the Executive Branch powers similar to those of the KGB or Gestapo.

Bush justifies this act by claiming he needs it to fight the "war on terror," but a number of critics, including former counterterrorism officials, have said the administration has greatly exaggerated the threat and used illogical methods to combat terrorism. more...

We Also Were Killed On 9/11. Avenge Us. snowshoefilms.com David Miller (first responder): On September 11, 2001 along with hundreds of my fellow troops I went to Ground Zero. No one asked us. No orders were given. We went because our city, our country, our neighbors were under attack. And we knew what to do. Or at least we thought we did.

<snip>

And if you allow these scumbags to strip you and our movement of its legitimacy, you condemn First Responders to death. So, in closing I’d like to put out a few points that I got, not reflective of the 9/11 movement or its board, if there is such a thing. Just my own opinions from the Popular Mechanics book that I read over the past two days, which is a really good piece of fiction. They are sheep. Popular Mechanics says that we consider in the movement, call people who aren’t in the movement ‘sheep.’ I would consider that valid. See, I know something about sheep. Sheep never conceive that the man who fills their grain bins without any afterthought one day starts cutting throats. We know what they did – ‘they’ being the government. We know what they are capable of and we know that they can do it again. more...

Heads Up: 3 Cities, 3 Drills by Naveed from 911 TruthAction Don't you people forget that on 7/7/05 and 9/11/01 attacks they used Drills for carrying out their "operations". more...

Al-Qaeda's OKC-9/11 Ties by William F. Jasper July 26, 2004 Issue Last Updated: Sep 6th, 2006 <snip> Zacarias Moussaoui, dubbed the "20th hijacker" by federal prosecutors, would have been released from federal custody before the 9-11 attacks if not for the heroic persistence of field agents in the FBI's Minneapolis office. Agent Coleen Rowley and members of her FBI team carried on a running fight with top FBI and Justice Department officials who tried to stop the Minnesota investigation and prevented a search of his laptop computer until after his fellow conspirators crashed their hijacked planes on September 11.

<snip>

Perhaps the most important and purposely neglected "coincidence" concerning Moussaoui is his connection to convicted felon Melvin Lattimore, a convert to Islam who now goes by the name Majahid Abdulquaadir Menepta. The unwillingness of federal authorities to hold Lattimore/Menepta as a 9-11 suspect in the case is stunning. Equally stunning is the fact that he was never arrested as a suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing. more...

Arrest, Death Threat, for Farmer with Upside Down Flag By Matthew Rothschild July 19, 2006 Dale Klyn raises beef cows in Corydon, Iowa. For the past six years, he has been flying an American flag on his property. But since May 21, that flag has been upside down. He gives two reasons.

First, he’s angry at a judge for allowing a debtor of his to declare bankruptcy. The debtor, who had bought a business from Klyn on a contract and still owed him $282,000, now only has to “pay me six cents on the dollar,” says Klyn. “The judge approved that on the 18th of May. I was pretty upset about that.”

Second, he wants to show solidarity for Terri Jones.

She’s the Iowa mom who has been flying her flag upside down after her son returned from the Iraq War and committed suicide. (Klyn had never met her before.)

“When I got the Des Moines Register and read the article about Terri Jones and how her son didn’t get the medical attention he needed, I decided I’m going to support her and oppose what the judge had done and fly my flag upside down,” he says.

It got a reaction.

“I went to the local Case equipment dealer and bought some parts, and the salesman come out and he asked me why I was flying the flag upside down,” Klyn says. “So I explained it to him.”

But the salesman wasn’t sold, telling Klyn, “I’ve lost all respect for you. I’ll buy you a one-way ticket anywhere you want to go out of the country,” Klyn recalls.

Klyn says his postal worker also remarked on it.

“The mail carrier left me a personal note,” he says. more...

Conscious bid to provoke a general war in the Middle East: Israeli False Flag War Provocations in Lebanon by Webster G. Tarpley July 17, 2006 GlobalResearch.ca Beware Of Israeli False Flag War Provocations Planned With Connivance Of Cheney Washington DC, July 15 (1PM EDT) – The escalating Israeli assault on Lebanon clearly represents a conscious bid to provoke a general war in the Middle East. The captured Israeli soldiers are only the pretext for the present massive military operations. Israeli spokesmen are making constant allegations that Hezbollah missiles being fired at Israel have been manufactured or delivered by Iran. At the same time, the Israelis accuse Hezbollah of wanting to transfer the two captured Israeli soldiers to Syria or Iran. These statements are an attempt to build a case for an Israeli sneak attack on Syria and/or Iran. US spokesmen, including the Nietzschean fascist Bolton, constantly repeat the litany that Syria and Iran are the supporters of Hezbollah.

<snip>

One possible provocation scenario to bring the US into the war is that a helicopter carrying US citizens being evacuated out of Lebanon is hit by a missile and destroyed, killing all on board. The missile might be fired by the Israelis or by their allies among the fascist Lebanese Phalangists. The Israelis would announce that the helicopter had been destroyed by Hezbollah, opening the way for a hysterical campaign by Fox News and the rest of the neocon mass brainwashing apparatus to secure an early US attack on Syria and Iran.

An alternative: a group of Arabic-speaking Israeli Mossad or Shin Beth special forces, or a group of Phalangist militia round up a few dozen Americans and machine-gun them to death. The controlled media then blame the massacre on Hezbolllah, thus stampeding the US population into war. more

Scientific Analysis Proves Towers Brought Down By Incendiaries: Steven Jones' analysis on WTC steel about to be released Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | June 20 2006 Scientific analysis on WTC steel debris undertaken by BYU Professor Steven Jones proves that the twin towers were demolished by means of incendiary devices and the release of the conclusive evidence is imminent.

The material that was first brought into question on the back of photos and video clips of the twin towers showing a dripping molten substance and floating white ash can now be confirmed as being thermate, combining thermite which is used as an incendiary device to bring down structures and sulfur, which cuts through steel quicker and leaves a yellow residue. more...

Sept. 11 Claim Stirs UW Probe: Instructor says U.S. planned the attacks to provoke war by Megan Twohey June 29, 2006 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced Thursday that it would launch a review of an instructor who argues that the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks for its own benefit.

The instructor, Kevin Barrett, is co-founder of an organization called the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance, which claims the Bush administration planned the attacks to create a war between Muslims and Christians. He argues that members of the faiths must work together to overcome the belief that terrorists were to blame.

"The 9/11 lie was designed to sow hatred between the faiths," Barrett has written on the organization's Web site.

"Either we discuss the compelling evidence that 9/11 was an inside job, or there is precious little to talk about." more...

Ban On Permanent Iraq Bases Dies: Iraq War Bill Deletes US Military Base Prohibition by Richard Cowan, WASHINGTON (Reuters) Congressional Republicans killed a provision in an Iraq war funding bill that would have put the United States on record against the permanent basing of U.S. military facilities in that country, a lawmaker and congressional aides said on Friday.

The $94.5 billion emergency spending bill, which includes $65.8 billion to continue waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is expected to be approved by Congress next week and sent to President George W. Bush for signing into law. more...

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: Dead Again by Kurt Nimmo uruknet.info June 8, 2006 Let’s see. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the phantom terrorist with super-human powers, was killed in the Sulaimaniyah mountains of northern Iraq, and then he was killed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, followed by a death during Operation Matador near the town of Qaim on the Syrian border, and finally he was killed, along with his mentor, Osama bin Laden, in the besieged city of Fallujah. Now we are told he was "killed in a U.S. air raid north of Baghdad [in the town of Hibhib near Baquba]," according to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Reuters reports. more...

A Time For Mutiny? By Robert S. Finnegan Southeast Asia News 06/01/06 "Information Clearing House" The United States Marine Corps was already on it's last legs as an elite fighting force, our reputation sullied by the dishonorable and sometimes criminal actions perpetrated by bottom of the barrel Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers in Iraq. Now this. We are now observing the death throes of the oldest fighting force in America.

<snip> I believe that Marine Corps General Chesty Puller would have had the leaders of the debacle in Haditha Courts-Martialed and shot, and failing this remedy would have led his men in a mutiny. It is our duty as Officers and NCO's to disobey illegal orders. The Corps has been ripe for mutiny for some time now and had we still leaders in our ranks, it surely would have happened in this illegal war, where illegal acts of war are now commonplace. The junior enlisted Marines who pulled the triggers on these civilians are not responsible for their actions. The orders come from above, the leadership, or what passes for it now. These are the individuals that are responsible, right up to the maggot that is our Commander-in-Chief. <snip> more...

New 'Iraq massacre' tape emerges Friday, 2 June 2006 BBC News The video appears to challenge the US military's account of events that took place in the town of Ishaqi in March.

The US said at the time four people died during a military operation, but Iraqi police claimed that US troops had deliberately shot the 11 people.

A spokesman for US forces in Iraq told the BBC an inquiry was under way.

The new evidence comes in the wake of the alleged massacre in Haditha, where US marines are suspected of killing up to 24 Iraqi civilians in November 2005 and covering up the deaths. more...

Related: Children of Abraham - Death in the Desert: The March 2006 Massacre in Abu Sifa/Isahaqi by Chris Floyd video

Restoring the Draft: The Universal National Service Act of 2006 by Michel Chossudovsky May 30, 2006 GlobalResearch.ca <snip> Despite Rangel's antiwar resolve, the bill supports Washington's stated objective to extend the war into new frontiers and to ultmately send an entire generation of young Americans to fight an illegal, and unjust war. It is worth noting in this regard that the Neoconservative Project for a New American Century calls for increasing active duty strength from 1.4 to 1.6 million.

The bill also supports Big Brother. Those who are not sent overseas to the war theater would, according to the clauses of the bill, be inducted into the civilian homeland defense corps and other civilian duties, including the Citizens Corps, the "Neighborhood Watch Teams" and the "Volunteer Police Service" established in partnership with local law enforcement. <snip> more...

The so-called "Mainstream Media" is becoming a "Minorstream" Medium May 24, 2006 Wayne Madsen Report According to WMR's media sources, the "mainstream media" can look forward to additional downsizing and corporate control. The sale by McClatchy Newspapers of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News to Philadelphia Media Holdings, a firm with close connections to the Republican Party and neo-con interests, will drive a nail in the coffin of independent news in the Delaware Valley. One of Philadelphia Media's principals is Brian Tierney, a GOP activist and a major contributor to the Bush coffers. more...

Dubai Company Takes Over 9 U.S. Military Facilities By Chuck Baldwin May 5, 2006 chuckbaldwinlive.com/ As I warned earlier in this column (http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/cwarchive_031006.html), a United Arab Emirates company has been given control of some 9 U.S. military facilities. The deal is now official.

According to an AP report that ran in my hometown newspaper, The Pensacola News Journal, on Saturday, April 29, 2006, "President Bush has approved the takeover by a Dubai-owned company of American plants that make parts for jets and tanks after a review that seems to have satisfied lawmakers who helped block an earlier Dubai deal." The AP report also said, "Initial reaction from Capitol Hill was favorable."

Specifically, the Dubai company takes over control of at least nine factories, including military production facilities in Connecticut and Georgia. Dubai settled the deal for $1.2 billion. more...

American Water Works Is For Sale - Again by Joyce Morrison April 18, 2006 NewsWithViews.com RWE AG, a German owned utility company purchased the American Water Works in 2001 for 7.6 billion. The American Water Works was founded in 1886 and serves 1,300 communities in 23 states from the East Coast to the West Coast.

RWE now has AWW up for sale and U.S. Mayors are saying “we want control of our own water.”

At the time RWE purchased AWW, California questioned if regulators could hold multinational utilities to state and local laws under international trade agreements?

RWE/ Thames Water, which is a subsidiary located in England, promised that the customers would not have to pay for the $7.6 billion cost of buying AWW. They told those concerned this debt would be paid off through a 60-year growth strategy. However, some areas have been protesting AWW’s unusually high rate increases and declining maintenance. more...

The Salvador Option in Iraq by John Pilger May 5, 2006 "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire <snip> The party line changed the other day. For almost three years it was that al-Qaeda was the driving force behind the "insurgency", led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a bloodthirsty Jordanian who was clearly being groomed for the kind of infamy Saddam Hussein enjoys. It mattered not that al-Zarqawi had never been seen alive and that only a fraction of the "insurgents" followed al-Qaeda. For the Americans, Zarqawi's role was to distract attention from the thing that almost all Iraqis oppose: the brutal Anglo-American occupation of their country.

Now that al-Zarqawi has been replaced by "sectarian violence" and "civil war", the big news is the attacks by Sunnis on Shia mosques and bazaars. The real news, which is not reported in the CNN "mainstream", is that the Salvador Option has been invoked in Iraq. This is the campaign of terror by death squads armed and trained by the US, which attack Sunnis and Shias alike. The goal is the incitement of a real civil war and the break-up of Iraq, the original war aim of Bush's administration. The ministry of the interior in Baghdad, which is run by the CIA, directs the principal death squads. Their members are not exclusively Shia, as the myth goes. The most brutal are the Sunni-led Special Police Commandos, headed by former senior officers in Saddam's Ba'ath Party. This unit was formed and trained by CIA "counter-insurgency" experts, including veterans of the CIA's terror operations in central America in the 1980s, notably El Salvador. more...

April 27, 2006 - Wayne Madsen Reports - <snip> It has also been learned that new White House Press Secretary Tony Snow was a frequent contributor to the vile racist, homophobic, and fascist web site FreeRepublic.com. The California-based web site is the Der Sturmer of the Internet, replete with hate mongers and other clearly deranged individuals. Snow is seen as a new face for the Bush administration. It would appear that he is more in keeping with the extreme right-wing agenda of the White House and its GOP supporters.

Who is behind "Al Qaeda in Iraq"? Pentagon acknowledges fabricating a "Zarqawi Legend" by Michel Chossudovsky April 18, 2006 GlobalResearch.ca - Abu Musab Al Zarqawi has been presented both by the Bush administration and the Western media as the mastermind behind the "insurgency" in Iraq, allegedly responsible for the massacres of Iraqi civilians. Zarqawi is the outside enemy of America. The Bush administration in official statements, including presidential speeches, national security documents, etc. has repeatedly pointed to the need to "go after" Abu Musab Al Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden. <snip>

The internal military documents leaked to (the) Washington Post confirm that the Pentagon is involved in an ongoing propaganda campaign which seeks to provide a face to the enemy. The purpose is to portray the enemy as a terrorist, to mislead public opinion.

Counterterrorism and war propaganda are intertwined. The propaganda apparatus feeds disinformation into the news chain. The objective is to present the terror groups as "enemies of America." responsible for countless atrocities in Iraq and around the World. The underlying objective is to galvanize public opinion in support of America's Middle East war agenda.

US military-intelligence has created it own terrorist organizations. In turn, it has developed a cohesive multibillion dollar counterterrorism program "to go after" these terrorist organizations. To reach its foreign policy objectives, the images of terrorism in the Iraqi war theater must remain vivid in the minds of the citizens, who are constantly reminded of the terrorist threat. The Iraqi resistance movement is described as terrorists led by Zarqawi.

The propaganda campaign using the Western media, presents the portraits of the leaders behind the terror network. In other words, at the level of what constitutes an "advertising" campaign, "it gives a face to terror." more...