Unspeakable grief and horror
|
Know them by their fruit:
|
Unspeakable grief and horror
Know them by their fruit: |
|
US account deficit
I can't imagine that the ones who financed the US account deficit (China, Russia and the OPEC members) want to see how the value of their USD-assets is evaporating.
I guess they will treat the US with silk gloves as long as they can, until they have to tell to their population: "Thanks for your good work during the past 10 years, but we didn't make any money out of it!"
They didn't realize the consequences of what they were doing?
China [Governments of most Asian countries] knew they had to revalute their currencies, but none did.
[The Chinese government chose to force peasant farmers to work on products for the West Country people who for generations had worked upon land owned by their forebears bringing millions separated from their loved ones to dormitory living in huge new created cities — TheWE.cc] Many governments of Opec countries did everything with their dollars apart from investing in essential things for their countries. [They even paid, and are still paying, for the wars on Iraq and Afganistan: The million and more dead The uncounted injured — TheWE.cc] The Russians speculators rich with new gains were too naive: 'Hey Dollars = Better then Rubels.' Comments section: Peter the Rock [Amended by TheWE.cc] — US faces global funding crisis warns Merrill Lynch |
U.S. Debt Escalating Military Spending — Income Redistribution in Disguise |
Derivatives
Those who claim that derivatives (crude futures) cannot drive spot prices have overlooked a key point.
The Saudis and others use the IPE Brent Weighted Average of futures contracts as their pricing mechanism.
Futures now set the spot price.
But even if oil comes down for a year or two, the mid-term outlook of the International Energy Agency warns that crude markets will be tighter than ever by 2012.
Call it Peak Oil, or just Peak Non-Cooperation by the dictatorships that control most of the world's remaining 5 or 6 trillion barrels
Mankind has used one trillion so far
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard — Oil price shock means China is at risk of blowing up |
Russia's energy drive leaves US reeling
By M K Bhadrakumar
...Soon after taking over in the Kremlin in May, Medvedev ordered the expeditious completion of the first stage of the Eastern Siberia Pacific Oil Pipeline (ESPO) by end-2009.
The ESPO has a vital role in Moscow's efforts to balance its oil export strategy between Europe and Asia-Pacific.
|
One-third of oil exports to Asia-Pacific
Moscow hopes to target Asia-Pacific as the export destination for one-third of its oil exports by 2020, as compared to 3% currently.
In early July, Medvedev undertook a diplomatic tour of the Caspian region, covering Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
Buy Azerbaijan's entire gas output
In Azerbaijan's capital Baku, he made a stunning offer that Russia was prepared to buy Azerbaijan's entire gas output at market prices.
In Ashgabat, he shored up Turkmenistan's commitment to the modernization of the Central Asia-Center Pipeline and the construction of a new littoral Caspian pipeline.
Oil and gas from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan will not bypass Russia
Medvedev succeeded in prevailing over competing European and US rivals in the struggle for Turkmen gas.
He further ensured that oil and gas from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan will not bypass Russia.
Africa
But what has truly incensed the Bush administration are Gazprom's dramatic inroads into Africa.
Russian giant Gazprom, the largest extractor of natural gas in the world, has announced plans to build a pipeline across the Mediterranean to pump Libyan gas to Europe.
|
This is the final lap of a Kremlin strategy that involves Gazprom handling the entire output of Libya's gas, oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) designated for export to Europe and the US.
And then Putin visits Tripoli
... Now, Washington gingerly allowed the re-entry into the "international community" by Muammar Gaddafi, Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution in Libya, on the basis of clear understanding.
Western statesmen from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to French President Nikolas Sarkozy and former Italian premier Romano Prodi queued up to climb the window of business opportunity opened by the Bush administration.
And then Putin visits Tripoli in April, less than a month before he left office, and the two erstwhile colonels decided to jointly handle all of Libya's energy resources.
And Gazprom seeks to buy exploration licenses in Nigeria and proposes to build a pipeline from there to Algeria, and with Algeria, Gazprom is developing a proposal on "joint" marketing of gas in Europe.
US officials not happy
US officials have gone ballistic.
"The monopolistic Gazprom is behaving like a monopolist does. It tries to gain control of the market as much as possible and to stifle competition. And that's clearly what is going on," thundered Matthew Bryza, US deputy assistant secretary of state for Eurasian affairs.
"The Kremlin wants Gazprom to be a dominant force in global energy, and the dominant force in global gas. Tying up gas resources in Central Asia and Africa is part of that," he added.
|
The plan is for Gazprom to dominate "in every corner of the planet", he alleged.
No Iraq oil of Russia US demands
... Washington hit back by ensuring that Russian companies are left out in the cold from the 30 contracts for lucrative oil deals that Baghdad is awarding. It is a big blow for Russia.
In February, Moscow had written off US$12 billion or 93% of Iraq's debt to Russia in a move that was widely seen as aimed to help Russian oil company LUKoil regain the Saddam Hussein-era rights to develop Iraq's giant West Qurna-2 oil field.
But under US pressure, the Iraqi government is now awarding West Qurna-2 to the US's Chevron.
Iran
The Kremlin didn't show any anger, but coincidence or not, Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller suddenly arrived in Tehran on Monday and discussed with Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad the setting up of an organization of gas-producing countries.
No doubt, with the Russian foothold in Libya (which has estimated natural gas reserves of 1.47 trillion cubic meters), in coordination with Algeria (which currently supplies over 10% of Europe's gas supplies), Qatar (with proven natural gas reserves of 25.8 trillion cubic meters) and Iran (which has the world's second-largest reserves after Russia), the time for a "Gas OPEC" is approaching.
|
The Iranian leader also suggested to Miller a market-sharing arrangement so that Russia and Iran could "collectively meet the demands of Europe, India and China in the gas sector".
Russian participation in transfer of Iran's Caspian Sea crude oil to Oman Sea
During the visit, an agreement was signed on the development of Iran's oil and gas fields by Russian companies; on Russian participation in the transfer of Iran's Caspian Sea crude oil to the Oman Sea; cooperation in the development of Iran's fabulous North Azadegan oil field; and, possible participation of Gazprom in the planned Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.
Evidently, Moscow took a deliberate decision to press ahead with Iran in energy cooperation in the full glare of world publicity in complete disregard of US displeasure.
Tehran loved it.
Copyright 2008, Asia Times Online |
Saving the Elite
The present system doesn't work; it's as simple as that.
It makes no sense to provide trillions of dollars of taxpayer money to shore up a system that is essentially dysfunctional.
The taxpayer is being asked to rescue a failed industry that has been used for private gain so that speculators will not have to suffer the losses.
Fannie and Freddie have written hundreds of billions of dollars worth of mortgages that have not yet defaulted, but will certainly default within the next two years.
By creating a backstop for Fannie and Freddie — the two war-horses of the mortgage industry, that currently underwrite nearly 80 per cent of all new mortgages in the US — the Fed is linking US sovereign debt with mortgages and derivatives that are already known to be fraudulent.
The housing boom never had anything to do with Bush's Utopian-sounding "ownership society".
It was always just a swindle to enrich the banking establishment and divert middle class wealth to ruling class elites.
Barron's
...a considerable portion of Fannie's losses come from speculative forays into higher-yielding but riskier mortgage products like subprime, Alt-A (a category between subprime and prime in credit quality) and dicey mortgages requiring monthly payments of interest only or less.
MIKE WHITNEY — Swan Song for Fanny Mae, Eulogy for the Ownership Society |
U.S. Debt Escalating Military Spending — Income Redistribution in Disguise |
|
The financial system including mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is bankrupt as the debts the financial system is based on cannot be repaid This is because the producing economy of people who work for a living simply can no longer generate enough purchasing power for people either to pay their debts or allow them to purchase what is being sold in the marketplace Posted July 17, 2008 Dow Jones ended up 207.38 — TheWE.cc |
Image: www.globalresearch.ca |
 |
|
Status Report on the Collapse of the U.S. Economy
by Richard C. Cook Global Research, July 16, 2008 With the economic news of the week of July 14—the continuing crisis among mortgage lenders, the onset of bank failures, the announced downsizing of General Motors, the slide of the Dow-Jones below 11,000 — we are seeing the ongoing collapse of the U.S. economy. Even the super-rich are becoming nervous as cries for an emergency suspension of short selling ring out. What is really taking place, however, is that the producing economy of working men and women is being crushed by the overall debt burden on households, businesses, and governments that could reach $70 trillion by 2010. The financial system, including mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is bankrupt, as the debts it is based on cannot be repaid. This is because the producing economy of people who work for a living simply can no longer generate enough purchasing power for people either to pay their debts or allow them to purchase what is being sold in the marketplace. In turn it is the debt burden and the loss of societal purchasing power that are crashing the stock market. Thus the collapse of the financial economy has started to destroy the producing economy as well. It’s a “perfect storm,” the result of a 200-year-old financial system where money is largely created by bank lending and where since 1980 our industry and jobs have been increasingly outsourced abroad to cheap labor markets. Thus domestic incomes have stagnated while the nation’s GDP has not been able to keep up with the exponential growth of debt. While the mainstream media are blind, deaf, and dumb as to the causes, the victims within the middle and working classes are seeing their livelihoods ruined, jobs taken away, pensions eroded, homes foreclosed on, and are being saddled with ever-increasing debt and forced to work under more and more stress due to rising burdens of taxation, gas and food price inflation, and bureaucratic rules and regulations. The only places a more-or-less normal life may still be possible will be the wealthiest imperial centers like Washington, New York, Houston, Chicago, or San Francisco. All that the current bailouts being engineered by the Federal Reserve are doing is to create more debt to shore up failing financial institutions. No new wealth is being created. It’s band-aids on band-aids. The problem politically is that control of the U.S. long ago was turned over to the bankers and the financiers of the Western world. It was called financial “deregulation,” accelerated under President Ronald Reagan, and has run amok since then. From a longer historical view, it’s the same phenomenon that first created and then ruined the British Empire , and it’s what created and is now ruining the American Empire today. A side-effect of control by the bankers and financiers is that they are also Zionists, so we have the added multi-trillion dollar burden of trying to conquer the Middle East on behalf of the international oil interests and the state of Israel. The situation has deteriorated sharply since the 1970s as U.S. affairs have been managed on behalf of the financial interests by what you might call the “Three Amigos”—Henry Kissinger, Paul Volcker, and Alan Greenspan. Kissinger, while Nixon’s secretary of state, made the U.S. dependent on the Middle East for oil, lavished billions on Israel ’s war machine, and created the petrodollar to support our trade and fiscal deficits. Volcker, while chairman of the Federal Reserve, crashed the U.S. producing economy in the recession of 1979-1983, leading to the rise of the “service economy.” Greenspan, during his own Federal Reserve chairmanship, presided over the bubble economy which was created through massive official fraud in home mortgage lending and is now sinking like the Titanic. The politicians have enabled these financial crimes. Above all it’s been the Bush family which has served as a political Trojan Horse for the financiers for three generations, with affairs having become much worse since George H.W. Bush invaded Iraq for the first time in 1991. The enablers have included a majority of the members of the U.S. Congress. (See the conclusion of Patrick Buchanan’s new book, Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War for an account of how the U.S. since the Bush I presidency has replicated the catastrophic errors of failed British imperialism.) The American people are not entirely innocent. We have been so lulled to sleep by the financier-owned media that we have allowed these disasters to take place and are now reaping the consequences. We have been the fodder for their wars and the signers of their loans. We have tried to carve out our own piece of the pie which is now crumbling. What is taking place is not just the collapse of the U.S. , but more than likely the final crash of Western civilization, since we are the last of the world empires to go down the drain. World War I saw the end of the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman empires. World War II saw the disappearance of the French, British, Japanese, and Italian empires, along with Nazi Germany. The Soviet empire collapsed in 1991. The American is next. The danger is that we may lash out and start a nuclear World War III out of frustration and to appease the elitists of the world who see war and famine as their pathway to world control. Such a war would also mean a military takeover domestically to manage the pathetically weak nation that we are becoming. The bankers and financiers do not care if nations and empires destroy themselves and each other, because they are internationalists. In fact, the more war and mass starvation there is the better off they feel. All they need is a base from which to operate. London has been their main base of operations since the Bank of England was founded in 1694, though they have a strong presence in other nations. They have been especially influential in northwest Europe , where elitism in the form of Freemasonry endeavored since the time of the French Revolution to destroy the authority of the Catholic Church. In fact, World War I was a project of the Freemasons in dismembering Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, both largely Catholic. This destruction allowed the masters of usury to flourish within the atheistic and materialistic culture that Freemasonry fostered across Europe. World War I also resulted in the virus of Communism, largely egged on by the internationalists and Freemasons, though it had such a tragic impact on Russia and Central Europe before spreading to China and East Asia. It is theoretically possible that the US as a nation could still save itself through an internal revolution, while playing a much reduced role in the world. After all, England , France , and Italy still exist as shadows of their past greatness. But, realistically, all ordinary people can do today is try to survive, perhaps by working with friends and neighbors in planting food and living within the underground economy. At least people might not then have to starve to death, because hard as it is to believe that “it could happen here,” widespread famine in the U.S. seems a real possibility over the next several years. Nations take such risks when they allow capitalist agribusiness to destroy local agriculture. On a national level, it is likely that as a response to the economic crisis some attempt will be made by desperate politicians to try to replicate the New Deal, but to do this effectively would require political control by a nationalistic reform party. Even then, additional reform measures such as control of credit as a public utility, a basic income guarantee, and a national dividend would be needed for real economic security to replace the current madness that could soon make the U.S. a relic of history. www.RichardCCook.com © Copyright 2005-2008 GlobalResearch.ca |
Photo: www.antarctica.ac.uk/ |
Published on Friday, July 11, 2008 by Agence France Presse
Antarctic Ice Shelf ‘Hanging by Thread’: European Scientists
Images taken by its Envisat remote-sensing satellite show that Wilkins Ice Shelf is “hanging by its last thread” to Charcot Island, one of the plate’s key anchors to the Antarctic peninsula, ESA said in a press release.
| |||
|
PARIS — New evidence has emerged that a large plate of floating ice shelf attached to Antarctica is breaking up, in a troubling sign of global warming, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Thursday.
“Since the connection to the island… helps stabilise the ice shelf, it is likely the breakup of the bridge will put the remainder of the ice shelf at risk,” it said.
Wilkins Ice Shelf had been stable for most of the last century, covering around 16,000 square kilometres (6,000 square miles), or about the size of Northern Ireland, before it began to retreat in the 1990s.
Since then several large areas have broken away, and two big breakoffs this year left only a narrow ice bridge about 2.7 kilometres (1.7 miles) wide to connect the shelf to Charcot and nearby Latady Island.
The latest images, taken by Envisat’s radar, say fractures have now opened up in this bridge and adjacent areas of the plate are disintegrating, creating large icebergs.
Scientists are puzzled and concerned by the event, ESA added.
The Antarctic peninsula — the tongue of land that juts northward from the white continent towards South America — has had one of the highest rates of warming anywhere in the world in recent decades.
But this latest stage of the breakup occurred during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, when atmospheric temperatures are at their lowest.
One idea is that warmer water from the Southern Ocean is reaching the underside of the ice shelf and thinning it rapidly from underneath.
“Wilkins Ice Shelf is the most recent in a long, and growing, list of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula that are responding to the rapid warming that has occurred in this area over the last fifty years,” researcher David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said.
“Current events are showing that we were being too conservative, when we made the prediction in the early 1990s that Wilkins Ice Shelf would be lost within 30 years. The truth is, it is going more quickly than we guessed.”
In the past three decades, six Antarctic ice shelves have collapsed completely — Prince Gustav Channel, Larsen Inlet, Larsen A, Larsen B, Wordie, Muller and the Jones Ice Shelf.
© 2008 Agence France Presse |
Image: British Antarctic Survey www.antarctica.ac.uk/ |
ICE TONGUES AND ICE SHELVES Antarctic Ice Shelf ‘Hanging by Thread’ The largest shelf is the Ross Ice Shelf on the New Zealand side of Antarctica |
| ||||
Lone US Vet Report — anniversary
This coming Thursday, the 17th of July will be our 1 year anniversary outside of the Earlman's office.
We have met every Thursday at high noon to bear witness to the destruction of the Bill of Rights and our Constitution.
In the year that we stood with our signs, occupying Blumenauer's office, being arrested and threatened by the security force at 729 Oregon the following has happened:
|
The secret story of Mossad and the World Trade Center attack The Odigo Warning: Israeli employees get e-mail warnings of 9-11 SEC Secret Probe Of Stock Dealings Before 9/11 |
Published on Tuesday, July 8, 2008 by the Los Angeles Times
A Climate Threat From Flat TVs, Microchips
A synthetic chemical widely used in the manufacture of computers and flat-screen televisions is a potent greenhouse gas, with 17,000 times the global warming effect of carbon dioxide, but its measure in the atmosphere has never been taken, nor is it regulated by international treaty.
by Margot Roosevelt
| |||
|
The chemical, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), could be considered the “missing greenhouse gas,” atmospheric chemists Michael J. Prather and Juno Hsu of UC Irvine wrote in a paper released June 26 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
“With the surge in flat-panel displays, the market for NF3 has exploded.”
The rapid growth in production alarms some climate scientists.
Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) in atmosphere has life of 550 years
In the atmosphere it has a life of 550 years, according to calculations by Prather and Hsu.
When the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 international global warming treaty, was negotiated to control the rapid rise of planet-warming gases, NF3 was a niche product used in modest amounts in the semiconductor industry.
At the time, computer chip manufacturers used perfluorocarbons to clean the vacuum chambers where integrated circuits were made.
But about two-thirds of the PFCs escaped into the atmosphere, contributing to the greenhouse effect, a warming of the Earth’s surface.
Reacting to environmental concerns, the industry sought a substitute — and estimated that NF3, though it had greater potential for global warming, was less likely to escape into the air.
“We moved into manufacturing NF3 for environmental reasons,” said Corning F. Painter, vice president of global electronics for Air Products in Allentown, Pa., the world’s leading producer.
The company received a 2002 Climate Protection Award from the Environmental Protection Agency for its transition.
|
Last year, it announced a major production expansion at its U.S. and Korean plants.
About three-quarters of the chemical is now used to manufacture computer microchips; the rest is used to make liquid crystal display panels on flat-screen televisions, Painter said.
Overall, world production of NF3 is likely to reach 8,000 tons a year by 2010, Painter said.
That is the equivalent of more than 130 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
By comparison, according to the UC Irvine paper, a major coal-fired power plant producing 3,600 megawatts of electricity emits as much as 25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year.
Air Products officials say that about 2% of NF3 is emitted during manufacturing and that much of that is burned off before reaching the atmosphere.
But Prather, a leading author of the influential reports of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, cited a study showing that even “under ideal conditions,” more than 3% may be emitted.
And, he added, “a slippery gas” such as NF3 could easily leak out undetected during manufacture, transport, application or disposal.
“We don’t know if 1% is getting out or 20% is getting out. . . . But once you let the genie out of the bottle, you can’t get it back in.”
Prather said UC Irvine researchers were working on a method to measure concentrations of the gas in the atmosphere so that industry emissions estimates would not be the only source of information.
Atmospheric scientists not connected with the paper said the authors had raised a significant issue for future climate negotiations.
“NF3 lives a very long time in the atmosphere,” said Charles E. Kolb Jr., an IPCC scientist with Massachusetts-based Aerodyne Research Inc.
“We are having a hard enough time controlling carbon dioxide and methane — we shouldn’t be creating a new problem.”
Another climate scientist, V. (Ram) Ramanathan of UC San Diego, noted the potency and long life of NF3, adding:
“This paper raises new awareness of this molecule. We need to know how much of these super-greenhouse gases are up there.”
The Kyoto Protocol covered six greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, PFCs and sulfur hexafluoride.
California, citing the danger of water shortages, wildfires and other effects of climate change, last month adopted a draft plan to control global warming emissions statewide, including several synthetic greenhouse gases but not NF3.
“The larger issue is the chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons,” said state air resources board spokesman Stanley Young.
“Enough material [is] stored in old refrigerators, air conditioners and insulating foams to equal over 600 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in California alone.”
Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times |
|
|
|
Melanoma
In 1930 melanoma was rare, with a lifetime risk of just one in 1,500 people. Since then, it has grown exponentially, with a lifetime risk in the United States of 1 in 250 in 1980, 1 in 120 in 1987, 1 in 75 by 2000 and 1 in 32 today (Swetter 2007).
The black cells of melanoma will strike an estimated 59,940 in the United States in 2007 and kill a projected 8,110 (American Cancer Society 2006).
Worldwide it annually strikes an estimated 132,000 people with an estimated 48,000 deaths (Lucas: W.H.O. 2006).
...In 2006, the nation's most successful class-action law firm, Lerach, Coughlin, Stoia, Geller, Rudman & Robbins LLP, filed a class action lawsuit against leading sunscreen producers (including Schering-Plough, makers of Coppertone, Sun Pharmaceuticals, producers of Banana Boat, Tanning Research Laboratories, (Hawaiian Tropic), Neutrogena Corp. and Johnson & Johnson (Neutrogena), and Chattem Inc. (Bullfrog).
Samuel Rudman, a partner, claimed, 'Sunscreen is the Snake Oil of the 21st Century and these companies that market it are Fortune 500 Snake Oil salesmen.'
'False claims such as ‘sunblock’ ‘waterproof’ and ‘all-day protection’ should be removed from these products immediately,' he said.
Australia and New Zealand
Australia and New Zealand have the highest melanoma rates on the planet (one in 25 will get melanoma in Aussieland) and as a result have taken dramatic public health measures to fight the disease.
They have a "No Hat, No Play" rule.
Every child must wear a hat to play outside.
Recess times are often scheduled outside the 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. time frame.
Soccer games, played without hats under the high sun in the U.S. are delayed till a safer time Down Under.
Children have begun wearing neck-to-knee swimsuits on beaches and at pools.
Lifeguards are directed to set an example by wearing sunglasses, wide-brimmed hats, long-sleeved shirts, zinc oxide, and sunscreen as well as sitting in the shade.
Many pools and playgrounds are now covered by expansive tents or newly planted trees (Gies et al. 1998).
There is an error in the below article 'Melanoma, Baseball Caps and Sunscreen.' The writer Brian Mckenna provides details of supposed chlorofluorocarbons reduction with the heading 'We addressed Ozone, we can do it with sunscreens'
We have not stopped the depletion of ozone.
This fallacy is perpetuated both by mainstream media and by such internet outlets such as 'Counterpunch' and is now accepted by the populace, even by scientists who never bother to check for correct data.
Chlorofluorocarbons is merely one of the causes of ozone depletion.
Chlorofluorocarbon spreading into the atmosphere has not been eliminated.
See below: How ozone is made and destroyed
Counterpunch — Melanoma, Baseball Caps and Sunscreen |
UVC in the 10 to 290 nanometer band UVB, 290 to 320 nanometers UVA, 320 to 400 nanometers |
Global weather, environment and climate change — Global youth climate movement |
NY judge ‘sanitizes’ 9/11 airline trials, blocks key fed witness testimony
Hellerstein cancels FBI, CIA, counter-terror chiefs’ testimony, asserts bias against punitive damages despite foreign conflicts
by Tom Flocco
According to documents obtained through an attorney close to the 24 remaining 9/11 victim families seeking trials, defense lawyers representing United and American Airlines have quietly motioned Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein’s court to place limits on evidence and witness testimony by Bush administration officials regarding accounts, briefings, meetings and correspondence surrounding the September 11 attacks as the New York City litigation approaches its finale.
|
|
Why would judge stop full government testimony?
Hellerstein already ruled out testimony from former CIA Director George Tenet, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, and former Director of Counter Terrorism Richard A. Clarke during a March 22, 2007 hearing, raising serious questions as to why the judge would consider covering up and potentially obstructing full government testimony and evidence under oath by key players when it would be in the interests of both parties to the suit.
Full testimony by top government officials would provide the only avenue thus far in a U.S. court of law for Americans to find out who is responsible for 9/11 via court-ordered legal discovery of facts and evidence, since the few families left did not forsake the congressional victim compensation fund to face blocked evidence and testimony by Hellerstein.
Documents reveal that family attorneys are also advising consent to Hellerstein’s strongarm tactics toward settlement rather than a full trial with discovery, evidence and testimony by officials close to the events surrounding September 11, even as potential criminal findings would still force the government to settle cases brought by the remaining families who refused to sign away their right to seek truth and accountability.
The 9/11 evidence is so secretive that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) allowed only one or two attorneys with special high government security clearances from each client firm to enter its closely guarded reading room with only paper and pencils — no cameras or taping devices — while United and American Airlines stipulated no punitive damages or additional financial punishment for willful negligence regarding this agreement, to which Hellerstein was said to concur according to documents obtained by TomFlocco.com.
|
|
[Prior knowledge attacks were coming due to secret elite backed cell-operative instigation of plan with fully organised assist on US side by using thermite to ensure building collapses — TheWE.cc]
It is not known whether evidence sequestered in the TSA “reading room” indicates whether Bush administration officials met with airline executives to discuss strong evidence in the form of pre-9/11 presidential briefs and personal experience in Genoa, Italy with Muslim air attack threats — either of which would implicate President Bush and/or the airline executives themselves as having prior knowledge of the attacks while either failing to take strong and decisive action or letting them occur to fulfill other unnamed geo-political, financial or oil agendas.
Issues surrounding the Genoa G-8 summit anti-aircraft guns raise some of the most serious and unlitigated questions for victim family attorneys to ask Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and other government witnesses blocked from testifying by Hellerstein regarding “planes used as weapons,” despite the judge’s court rulings to limit, cancel or otherwise obstruct justice regarding government testimony and evidence in an open New York City courtroom.
Atmosphere of intimidation
An atmosphere of intimidation was apparent during Hellerstein’s June 25 hearing when an attorney for the victim families explained that his clients wanted a trial not a settlement, to which Hellerstein retorted, “Sit down. You’re talking out of both sides of your mouth,” a crass rebuttal from a recently appointed judge with extensive experience and written works about Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) in his earlier years as an attorney — perfect for controlling and obstructing Bush-Clinton crime family evidence linked to September 11.
The judicial coercion continued later in the same hearing when family attorney Mary Schiavo told Hellerstein that she was also experiencing trial versus settlement problems with certain “difficult clients” who were adamant about going to trial with discovery and government witness testimony, to which the judge said, “This is the way it’s going to be. Go back and you tell them we are going to settle, period.”
|
|
Israeli “movers” and “art students” arrested in New York and Florida on 9/11 as suspects connected to the attacks, all of whom were released and returned to Israel without facing trial
Curiously, lawyers representing the victim families have also not petitioned Hellerstein to seek testimony from former Bush Department of Justice (DOJ) Attorney General John Aschroft and current Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff regarding wide reports that both permitted more than 200 Israeli “movers” and “art students” arrested in New York and Florida on 9/11 as suspects connected to the attacks, all of whom were released and returned to Israel without facing trial.
Victim families have not addressed reports that thousands of Federal Aviation Administration and other federal agency employees received secret mailed instructions not to speak about what they saw or heard on September 11 — an outrageous issue if ever litigated by family attorneys.
Hellerstein finally ruled that he decided to personally “select and quickly hear” approximately three cases “without any discovery or interruptions,” such as potential troublesome court intrusions like evidence or testimony from top U.S. government officials like Tenet, Freeh, Clarke, Ashcroft, Chertoff, Vice President Cheney or President Bush.
These administration officials had access to pre-911 intelligence briefings, anti-aircraft threats against Mr. Bush in Genoa just before the attacks and billions in pre-attack insider stock trading profits of death covered up by FBI and Wall Street officials.
On June 14, Hellerstein had previously indicated that he would personally make the decision to name “three cases to be tried with maximum utility,” that the “damages would be bifurcated or severed from the liability part of the case,” and most importantly, that “only the damages (awards) would be discussed in open court,” leaving issues of liability, evidence and government testimony as publicly undisclosed.
|
|
The judge referred to the cover-up of evidence discovery and testimony regarding his hand-selected cases as “sanitizing” the proceedings, while airline defense attorneys strangely decided not to contest “liability,” effectively eliminating potentially incriminating evidence from the public court record; as one attorney said “let’s talk among ourselves behind closed doors.”
Hellerstein’s wife former senior vice-president and current treasurer of Americans for Israel and Torah
Judge Hellerstein’s wife is a former senior vice-president and current treasurer of Americans for Israel and Torah (AMIT), raising potential foreign government conflict of interest questions as to why former Attorney General Ashcroft released the arrested Israeli 9/11 suspects without a trial, then selected Hellerstein to control evidence by ordering the consolidation of all 9/11 lawsuits, then blocked full government legal discovery and testimony which has so far prevented any lawsuits from going to public trial — and now only with careful legal damage control.
The exclusion of government testimony and evidence will establish a damaging precedent for Americans who must depend on truth and forthcoming testimony from their leaders in a dangerous world where America’s enemies are able to freely cross open borders — congressional and executive criminal negligence notwithstanding.
Victim family attorneys have strangely failed to seek testimony from Ashcroft and Chertoff regarding their rationale for selecting Kenneth R. Feinberg as Special Master of the taxpayer-funded, multi-billion dollar Congressional 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund which forced families to sign away their right to sue the U.S. government for criminal negligence or prior knowledge — via intelligence intercepts never introduced in a court of law — in return for a financial settlement.
|
|
Re-insurance firms like Lloyd’s of London would have lost billions in September 11 payouts if Congress had not used American taxpayer funds to cover expected losses by insurance companies
The Kenneth Feinberg Legal Group was one of the top ten supporters of Israel’s Jerusalem Institute for Israeli Studies, and Feinberg’s law firm represented major insurance and re-insurance firms like Lloyd’s of London which would have lost billions in September 11 payouts if Congress had not used American taxpayer funds to cover expected losses by insurance companies, raising more conflicts of interest.
Victim family lawyers have failed to petition Hellerstein to recuse himself from the September 11 litigation given numerous Israelis arrested on 9/11 and quietly released afterwards, but also the judge’s potential family conflicts of interest connected to a foreign government regarding previously unlitigated evidence and possible roles in the attacks involving arrested Israeli citizens offered preferential treatment over arrested Muslims.
Neither Hellerstein nor Feinberg volunteered to recuse themselves from their powerful positions as arbitors regarding 9/11 accountability and financial compensation despite the conflicts of interest.
Though remaining families want a trial, Hellerstein has been coercing them all along to negotiate a settlement with his “special mediator,” Sheila L. Birnbaum, a partner in the Skadden Arps law firm which calls itself “one of the leading U.S. legal advisors to Israeli companies doing business and raising capital outside of Israel,” with several attorneys fluent in Hebrew and English admitted to the Israeli and New York bar.
|
Israel’s International Consultants on Targeted Security received congressional immunity
Strangely, Huntleigth USA, an airport passenger screening company owned by Israel’s International Consultants on Targeted Security (ICTS), led by “former Israeli military commanders and members of its intelligence and security agencies,” received congressional immunity for failed airport security at Boston and Newark airports where three of the four doomed planes originated on September 11.
These astonishing conflicts of interest raise more congressional obstruction of justice questions for attorneys hired by the families to acquire justice and accountability for 9/11 deaths instead of settlements.
The New York judge never fully discussed and explained the explosive issue of withholding key government witness testimony and evidence during either of the June hearings, raising serious questions about criminal versus civil evidence since documents we obtained reveal that another attorney directly involved in the case said it is not a great concern to either side whether the judge imposes limitations on what testimony or evidence can be heard in open court.
Full government testimony and interrogation with the help of career prosecutors would assist victim family lawyers in gaining access to more facts and evidence, while the airline defense team would garner evidence to support their assertions that government “regulations hampered us and kept us from doing our job,” since the families say airlines are responsible for not having cockpit doors which could resist the “hijackers.”
“I want to settle as many cases as I can, as soon as I can. That is my job,” said Hellerstein in open court on June 14, perhaps explaining why not one single September 11 victim lawsuit has been permitted to proceed to a public trial by jury with subpoenaed testimony by major government officials, complete and unhindered discovery of documents and interrogation by career criminal prosecutors — given meritorious evidence of prior knowledge of the attacks by the Bush administration.
|
|
CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE, PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE
Victim family lawyers yet to go to trial or settle have failed to seek testimony as to whether Bush Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation Administration officials met with executives of the airlines before September 11 regarding national security intercepts and presidential briefs such as the August 6, 2001 Presidential Brief entitled: “Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.”
Hellerstein has curiously not permitted family attorneys to seek evidence and interrogate federal witnesses, agency chiefs and President Bush regarding why airline executives did not take proper precautions for air safety when Mr. Bush said “we had intelligence from Genoa,” [July 20-22, 2001 G-8 summit in Genoa, Italy prior to September 11] but Bush has never been compelled to explain full details of the Muslim air threats.
Mr. Bush never referred to revelations that “U.S. officials were warned that Islamic terrorists might attempt to crash an airliner” into the [Genoa G-8] summit, which prompted officials to “close the airspace over Genoa and station anti-aircraft guns at the city’s airport.” [Seven weeks before 9/11 according to the Los Angeles Times [9/27/2001] and a 7/22/2001 White House press release.]
There is still no presidential testimony, even though Mr. Bush was so concerned about air attack threats involving Muslim terrorists planning to kill him at the G-8, according to the head of Russia’s federal bodyguard agency, that he stayed by himself overnight aboard an aircraft carrier offshore while the other world leaders stayed on a luxury ship — less than two months before September 11, according to CNN.
Seemingly intimidated by Hellerstein, victim family attorneys have not sought testimony from Mr. Bush regarding why the anti-aircraft guns were set up surrounding the G-8 meetings, testimony from secret service agents as to why airspace was cleared during the summit and the contents of the briefings Mr. Bush received regarding a Muslim airplane attack threat on G-8 buildings in Genoa only 50 days before September 11.
MOVING HEAVEN AND EARTH
Documents we obtained reveal that lawyers representing the remaining 9/11 families are focused on settling without pursuing testimony and evidence from representatives of President Bush regarding why he failed to “move heaven and earth to protect the American people,” as he said he would, despite receiving a huge “inkling” just before 9/11 regarding air attacks attempting to kill him at the Genoa G-8 summit.
It is not known whether attorneys for the families have sought the contents of the still-secret Ashcroft “threat assessment memos” received just before the attacks which caused the Attorney General to curiously cancel a commercial flight to Milwaukee on September 11.
A July 5, 2001 congressional intelligence briefing memo said “We believe that [bin Laden] will launch a significant terrorist attack against U.S. and/or Israeli interests in the coming weeks. [66 days before 9/11] The attack will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties against U.S. facilities or interests. Attack preparations have been made.The attack will occur with little or no warning.” [Newsweek and The Hill]
Potential evidence of criminal negligence worse than Hurricane Katrina, [Forthcoming evidence of 9/11 buildings being blown up by thermite — TheWE.cc] may provide a hidden reason Congress approved Kenneth Feinberg’s fund to pay off victim families to curtail lawsuits against themselves, the Bush administration and airline executives regarding the full contents of intelligence briefing memos, obstruction of justice for releasing arrested Israeli citizens linked to 9/11 without trial and protection for insurance companies and airlines facing huge financial losses.
|
Two months before the attacks on July 10, 2001 Arizona FBI agent Ken Williams sent a memo [ “Phoenix memo”] to FBI Headquarters in Washington warning that “unusual numbers of Muslim extremists are learning to fly in Arizona,” the contents of which would seem to be of high importance to Judge Hellerstein and the victim family attorneys.
The contents of the July 5, July 10 and Ausust 6, 2001 intelligence briefing memos may also explain why Congress and the President needed to be protected from criminal or civil court actions and why the Ashcroft Justice Department placed Judge Hellerstein in position to consolidate, control, limit evidence and testimony, and/or settle any remaining 9/11 “maverick” victim family lawsuits before more evidence leaked out — despite the judge’s conflicts of interest involving a foreign government and citizens of that government arrested as suspects in the attacks.
Ashcroft may have been rewarded for machinations surrounding September 11 in that he represents Israel as a lobbyist for its Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) to help them better compete against U.S. corporations for American military aircraft contracts and loss of American jobs.
[Prior knowledge attacks were coming due to secret elite backed cell-operative instigation of plan with fully organised assist on US side by using thermite to ensure building collapses — TheWE.cc]
It must be remembered that one of the main reasons many of the victim families cited for eschewing Kenneth Feinberg’s payoff fund was to pursue a 9/11 lawsuit for the purpose of legal accountability for the deaths of their family members; but Hellerstein has presided over stalled litigation and blocked testimony and evidence from the government when both would likely implicate Mr. Bush as having prior knowledge that the attacks were coming and he either failed to protect Americans or let the attacks occur for other purposes.
“We are not trying to cut short values or justice,” said Hellerstein last Monday, “but we have to get past 9/11. Let it go. Life is beautiful. Life is short. Live out your years. Take the award,” added the judge.
This, while multiple 9/11 conflicts of interest with a major U.S. ally remain unresolved, previously arrested September 11 suspects remain at large in Israel and Bush administration officials are excused from full testimony in a court of law in front of families who turned away from the Feinberg millions in order to seek justice and accountability.
Copyright © 2002-2008 tomflocco.com |
Cluster bombs Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon US new generation of landmines called Spider |
Bush Behind Bars?
In, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder (Vanguard Press, 2008), Vincent Bugliosi, the man who successfully prosecuted Charles Manson for murder, argues convincingly that President George W. Bush's conduct in taking the US military to war against Iraq under false pretenses in March of 2003 qualifies him to be prosecuted for murder in any state in the nation.
The victims in the case would be all the soldiers from that state that were killed in the war against Iraq.
...The legal definition of murder, as Bugliosi tells us, is "the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought."
...Bugliosi also provides examples of how monstrously callous Bush has been since the war began in March of 2003.
He provides several pages of photographs of scenes of carnage from Iraq juxtaposed with pictures of a grinning, clowning President Bush, having the time of his life.
THE GLOBAL RESEARCH — Alalam.ir Iran |
G8
— I bet you are thinking with your selves what is the problem with this photo?
“It is pathetic that they still duck their historic responsibility,” WWF said.
“The G8 nations are responsible for 62 per cent of the carbon dioxide accumulated in the earth’s atmosphere, which makes them the main culprit of climate change and the biggest part of the problem.”
John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace, accused them of “vacuous back-slapping.”
He said: “They have failed the world again. We needed tough targets for the richest countries to slash emissions in the next 100 months, but instead we got ambiguous long-term targets for the world in general.”
Friends of the Earth criticised the decision to channel some of its “climate investment funds” for developing countries through the World Bank, saying it was a “fossil fuel financier and major deforester”.
A spokeswoman said: “G8 leaders have left the fox to guard the hen house.”
G8 Accused of Failing the World |
Ozone layer hits new depletion record Why did you cut the trees down, grandma? |
Friday, July 04, 2008
Ingrid Betancourt — This Year's Jessica Lynch?
South American affairs is obviously not China Hand's bailiwick, but I had the funny feeling that the the “rescue” of Betancourt and the other hostages from the hands of FARC by the Colombian government looked, walked, and quacked more like a negotiated release than a genuine piece of special ops derring do.
It looks like I might have been right.
Swiss radio is reporting that it cost $20 million to spring the hostages.
For those of you interested in how unworthy suspicions flower in the mind of an incorrigibly cynical blogger, I will regale patient readers with a rundown of the official story's fishier elements.
First, the Betancourt story got huge—suspiciously huge—play in US papers. In my hometime paper, the LA Times, it was the big A1 right-column, banner headline lead.
Well, Ingrid Betancourt, like Jerry Lewis, might be huge in France — she holds dual Colombian-French citizenship—but, quite frankly, before July 2 I had never heard of her.
Obviously, the US press was primed to push this story.
That's not by itself indicator of something fishy going on.
The US government has a strong interest in boosting the kinda-fascisty guys who run Colombia while running down kinda-commie Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
It also has a strong interest in discrediting and sidelining Chavez as a regional leader who can serve as a go-between and extract hostages and concessions from FARC.
So the story that the Colombians — with indispensable US support — sprung the hostages would have received some play in any case.
However, the orgasmic and uncritical US press coverage of the action, combined with the gratuitous jibes at Chavez (including energetically interpreting some neutral-sounding statements from Betancourt as veiled Chavez criticism), appeared so promptly, ubiquitously, and hyperbolically it appeared to me we were witnessing the previously-planned orchestration of a media event rather than the reaction to a slick rescue.
Another indicator was that getting Betancourt released was a big thing for President Sarkozy of France. The French pay for hostages. Full stop.
So there was a strong incentive to get Betancourt out by any means possible — including a ransom — to steal Chavez's thunder and save Sarkozy's political bacon.
Of course, the rescue story was something that, in the context of special ops rescues, sounded ridiculous, involving some scheme where FARC unwittingly gathered the dispersed hostages and loaded them on a helicopter that fortuitously turned out to belong to the Colombian government.
However, the story sounded completely plausible if somebody had made a deal with FARC and said, hey, we're sending a helicopter for the hostages. Load ‘em up!
When Betancourt got out, she refrained from direct criticism of FARC, calling for a peace process instead of some no-holds barred war on the SOBs who imprisoned her for six years—another indication that a deal was involved.
For inquisitive reporters, I would consider another red flag the fact that nobody got killed. Indeed, not a shot was fired.
One would think that the Colombians would have taken advantage of an extraordinary intelligence and infiltration coup not just to helicopter out some hostages but also helicopter in some commandos and put a nice corpse-filled punctuation point on a signal victory in the war on terror.
So, a big media push would be needed not only to capitalize on a deal that was in the works; it would obscure the suspicion that a deal was involved and also dissuade the press from taking a hard second look at the official story it had already splashed all over its front pages.
The press—apparently having forgotten the manufactured bruhaha over Jessica Lynch's rescue and eager to confirm the suspicion that it is more interested in any narrative that the government is willing to provide legs for than messy, facty, and critical reportage — happily obliged.
Add to that the allegations of a ransom appearing in the European media, and that's something that looks like it's worth pursuing.
Here's how the Guardian reported the Betancourt ransom story:
Ingrid Betancourt arrived in France today after being held captive for six years in the Colombian jungle, amid claims that a ransom was paid to free her.
The Colombian government said that she was freed in an audacious operation after the military tricked Farc into handing the French-Colombian politician over without a shot being fired.
But quoting "reliable sources", Swiss Radio reported that a ransom was paid of around $20m (£10m).
It said that the US, which had three citizens among those freed, was behind the deal and that "the whole operation afterwards was a set-up".
The station reported that the wife of one of the hostages' guards was the go-between, having been arrested by the Colombian army.
If proved true, the allegations would be hugely embarrassing for the Colombian government which was showered with praise for the efficiency of the operation. Many commentators had predicted that it would even spell the end of Farc as a credible force.
However, I wonder how much play, serious investigation, or popular attention the Betancourt story will merit, now that its propaganda value as a one-day headline sensation has been realized.
China Matters blog |
War Spin
This script was made from audio tape — any inaccuracies are due to voices being unclear or inaudible
|
|
John Kampfner: Jessica Lynch — an all American icon of the war. Captured by the Iraqis. Saved for the nation in a daring helicopter rescue.
This was a script made for Hollywood. Made by the Pentagon.
General Vincent Brooks: Some brave souls put their lives on the line to make this happen. Loyal to a creed that they know; that they’ll never leave a fallen comrade.
John Kampfner: But the Jessica Lynch story was not all it seemed.
Dr Anmar Uday: When they enter they say: ‘Go! Go! Go! Wait, wait, wait, wait! Just like Hollywood movies. Just like Hollywood films.’
John Kampfner: Tonight we look at how the allies used the media to spread their message — that the war in Iraq was worth fighting and was fought well.
NBC Reporter: We got rockets coming in on us. Tom, we’re under attack right now!
John Kampfner: How much of that message stood up to scrutiny?
Michael Wolff: At the end of your stay in Doha you would know absolutely nothing.
General Tommy Franks: This platform is not a platform for propaganda. This is a platform for truth.
WAR SPIN
Jim Wilkinson Us Military Spokesman, Centcom: I stayed up all night. I got a call that this was happening, I knew it was going to happen in advance and we had a
situation where there was a lot of hot news, the President had been briefed, as had the Secretary of Defence.
PAUL HUNTER Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: I first heard about Jessica Lynch when my phone rang at three in the morning.
Jim Wilkinson: We alerted the press to get here for an announcement. They didn’t know what was coming.
Paul Hunter: We thought they’d caught Saddam Hussein or something like that.
General Vincent Brooks: Coalition forces have conducted a successful rescue mission of a US Army prisoner of war held captive in Iraq.
|
John Kampfner: Jessica is a nineteen year old clerk taken prisoner when her maintenance team took a wrong turning and was ambushed. Nine of her comrades were killed.
With Jessica’s life in peril a snatch squad was sent in to take her from her hospital bed in Nasariyah.
They took fire on their way in and out of the building, a military video team capturing every step in the action.
These pictures were rushed out for breakfast shows in America just when the news was bad and the talk was of a long hard campaign.
News reader: Saving Private Lynch. The dramatic rescue of a POW.
General VINCENT BROOKS US Army: It was a classic joint operation, done by some of our nation’s finest warriors who are dedicated to never leaving a comrade behind. At this point she is safe. She’s been retrieved. I asked her who was holding her — the regime was holding her.
John Kampfner: The story was a gift to a grateful media. There was barely a mention of Jessica’s fallen comrades whose bodies had been retrieved from shallow graves during the same mission. A bad story had become a good one.
Bill Whitaker: There are reports in the Washington Post today that Private Lynch fought valiantly, that she shot until she ran out of ammunition, shot several Iraqi soldiers even though she herself had been wounded.
Mitchell Catlin: Yes Natalie, Private Ryan will be treated in Germany after being in the hands of the Iraqi regime for ten days.
John Kampfner: Did he say Private Ryan?
Private Lynch’s brother: Oh Ma'am, I never, never questioned that she was never alive. I knew she was alive and well the whole time.
Private Lynch’s mother: Oh it’s just unbelievable what I really, really want to say to her. She’s been missed and loved.
John Kampfner: Now we’re told she had stab and bullet wounds. An Iraqi witness had told the Americans he had seen Jessica slapped in the hospital.
|
DONALD RUMSFELD US Defence Secretary: Good afternoon. We are certainly grateful for the brilliant and courageous rescue of Sergeant, correction PFC Jessica Lynch who was being held by Iraqi forces in, in what they called a hospital.
John Kampfner: That’s the story as seen through American eyes.
Two weeks ago we visited the scene of Jessica’s rescue. Although Iraqi forces had occupied part of it, this was a hospital like any other.
Dr HARITH AL-HOUSSONA Iraqi doctor: At the beginning I received her in the casualty department from the Iraqi security department, which referred from the military hospital.
John Kampfner: This is one of the doctors who treated Jessica when she was brought here, still unconscious by Iraqi soldiers. They put her in the only specialist bed they had.
Dr Harith Al-Houssona Subtitles: I examine her, I see she has a broken arm… and broken thigh, with a dislocated ankle. Then we do another examination. There is no shooting, no bullet inside her body… no stab wound, no other thing, merely RTA. Only road traffic accident.
John Kampfner: One story, two versions of the truth. The doctors say they operated on her to reset her plaster. The best treatment they could provide in the midst of war.
Dr Harith Al-Houssona Subtitlesn: We give her three bottles of blood...two of them from medical staff...because there is no blood at this time.
Dr ANMAR UDAY Iraqi doctor Subtitles: We consider Jessica as one of our injured patients... one of our Iraqi women injured in the war.
John Kampfner: She was assigned one of only two nurses on the floor.
Nurse Voice over: She herself was asked about her treatment. I was like a mother to her and she my daughter. We treated her well.
John Kampfner: The doctors told us that the day before the Special Forces swooped on the hospital the Iraqi military had fled. Did the Americans know this?
We found a man who saw an advance party land in the town. He says he was questioned by the team’s translator.
|
HASSAM HAMOUD Voice over: He said; ‘where is Saddam Hospital?’ I said, ‘in that direction’. He said; ‘are there any Fedayeen over there?’ I said; ‘no, there aren’t any, there is no forces in there or anything.’
John Kampfner: All the same America’s finest warriors descended on the building.
Dr Anmar Uday Subtitles: We heard the noise of the helicopter, the sound of the helicopter… and I think the helicopter landed here on the grass.
Dr Harith Al-Houssona Subtitles: Like a film of Hollywood, they cry, ‘Go, go, go!’... and shout, ‘Go, go, go!’, with guns and blanks, without bullets. Blanks and the sound of explosions, and break the door. We are very scared.
Dr Anmar Uday Subtitles: We are surprised at this time. Why do this? There is no military, no soldiers in the hospital.
John Kampfner: But the Americans took no chances, restraining doctors and a patient who was handcuffed to this bed frame.
Dr Harith Al-Houssona Subtitles: I don’t know why they tie him. Why tie him? He cannot move. Why the American army tied him?
John Kampfner: There was one more twist. Two days before the snatch squad arrived the doctor had arranged to deliver Jessica to the Americans in an ambulance.
Dr Harith Al-Houssona Subtitles:
Every time, ‘I want to go home, I want to go home.’ We told her, I secretly between us, I and she, I told her... I will try to escape you to the American Army... but I will do this very secretly because I lose my life. We put her in the ambulance with the driver... and walk out of the hospital. We told him go to the American checkpoint. When he was near the American checkpoint... he was shot by the Americans.
John Kampfner: So a tense encounter but no Iraqi troops. The Americans almost killing their prize catch by mistake. But the story had already passed into folklore.
Dr Harith Al-Houssona Subtitles: They make a show for the American attack for the hospital. Action moves like Sylvester Stallone or Jackie Chan...with jumping and shouting, breaking the door... with the photos, with the photos..
John Kampfner: We asked the Pentagon to release the full videotape of the rescue rather than its five-minute edited version to clear up any discrepancies. It declined.
Was there any resistance as the forces were going in?
Bryan Whitman: I think that I will leave that story to be told in great detail when the time is right.
John Kampfner: What injuries did she sustain?
BRYAN WHITMAN US Dep Assistant Secretary of Defence: Well I’m not going to get into the specific injuries that she received. That’s up to her and her doctors to discuss at
the appropriate time.
|
John Kampfner: Doctors now say she has no memory of the whole episode and probably never will.
Bryan Whitman: I understand that there’s some conflicting information out there and in due time the full story will be told, I’m sure.
John Kampfner: There are facts and there is a message. George Bush and Tony Blair knew how vital it was to get the message right, to present the war and the case for war. This is how it worked — talk up the dangers.
US President George Bush, 29th January, 2003: The United States of America will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons.
John Kampfner: Dismiss the doubters. Appeal to the hearts and minds. Trust us.
Tony Blair, 15th March, 2003: I do not seek unpopularity as a badge of honour. But sometimes it is the price of leadership.
John Kampfner: Months of preparation over, the war media strategy was ready. The most important part of the plan was to embed six hundred journalists with the military. It was a huge gamble. The idea was that star correspondents would live every minute with the troops as they advanced across the desert. New technology would allow the TV crews to beam the pictures and their observations back home live.
Reporter Koppel: Wreak havoc and unleash the dogs of war. And there they start moving into Iraq.
Walt Rogers: John, I don’t think any of us have ever seen anything like this, live, real time pictures of an army moving forward in
a, in a, in a battle zone.
Juliet Bremner: The battle for Basra is still raging along this road.
Walt Rogers: We got rockets coming in on us. Tom, we’re under attack right now.
|
Gavin Hewitt: There are substantial American forces close to the Iraqi capital.
Bryan Whitman: Well I think pictures do a lot to help tell the story and we embedded nearly one hundred cameras across the battlefield and, because I think images are important. I think they’re even more important in certain parts of the world where language can be a barrier.
John Kampfner: Bryan Whitman was in charge of the Pentagon’s media planning. His strategy paper puts shaping world opinion as priority number one.
Voice over: ‘This holds true for the US public...and publics in countries where we conduct operations, whose perceptions of us can affect the cost and duration of our involvement.’
John Kampfner: Present the words and pictures properly, use journalists effectively and victory will come more quickly.
Bryan Whitman: To the extent that the media are being, are able to inform the world about what’s going on. To the extent that having an accurate representation of the facts that exist on the battlefield, if that causes an enemy to capitulate sooner then that’s good.
John Kampfner: He provides hints for getting the best pictures.
Voice over: ‘Use of lipstick and helmet-mounted cameras on combat sorties is approved and encouraged to the greatest extent possible.’
Soldier: We gotta get this cargo up front. The sooner we get it to the grunts, the sooner they can kill some of these people that need killing and the sooner we can go home.
WALT ROGERS, CNN: I was assigned to be the television embed with the US Army’s Third Squadron Seventh cavalry.
Everything hints to a change in focus coming in the coming days and weeks on Baghdad. Baghdad will be the end game.
That was fun, it was, it was a good assignment travelling with a unit which was the tip of the, tip of the spear. There was a real sense of awe watching this military sweep unfold before you and you knew that there was nothing that the other side could put in your path which would stop you.
Clive Myrie, BBC News: It seems the gunfire has been coming from the police station down here and there are reports of gunmen positioned on some of the roof tops.
We happened to be with the unit Forty Commando who actually had something to do. And it meant we had some very, very productive periods with a lot of great action footage because he put us right at the front and the work that, the work that we produced is some of the stuff that some people say is the best of the war.
John Kampfner: The picture on the left is the war against Iraq, the real war. The picture on the right is 'Black Hawk Down'; a patriotic action movie about US soldiers in Somalia rescuing their own and emerging victorious.
Hollywood and the Pentagon working in perfect symmetry. In 2001 the man behind 'Black Hawk Down', Jerry Bruckheimer, visited the Pentagon to pitch an idea with his co-producer.
|
Soldier 1: You all right? You okay?
Soldier 2: Yeah, I can hear the bells ringing.
BERTRAM VAN MUNSTER Jerry Bruckheimer’s partner: He just did 'Black Hawk Down', so he's very interested in the subject. He's also a patriot. Of course Jerry does all the big movies and I do reality television and I've done this for many many many years, long before even anybody knew what reality was.
John Kampfner: The pair came up with 'Profiles from the Frontline'; a primetime series following US forces in Afghanistan, made with the support of Donald Rumsfeld.
They were after human stories told through the eyes of the soldiers. Great reality TV. The Pentagon approved.
BRYAN WHITMAN US Dep Assistant Secretary of Defence: What 'Profiles' does is again it provides a very human look at the challenges that are presented when you're, when you’re dealing in these very difficult situations.
Gunfire
Soldier: Good morning republican guard from the United States marines. Hoorah!
John Kampfner: 'Profiles from the Frontline' was aired in the US on the eve of war in Iraq. Its popularity with viewers suggested to the Pentagon that a similar approach would go down well once the real fighting began, as long as the embedded reporters played their part.
Reporter: A call came in from an artillery battery about six hundred metres that way that they were under attack from Iraqi soldiers on foot. These marines have moved into position and these Cobra helicopters are firing Gatling guns and rockets at the Iraqi soldiers.
ABC News Australia
Bertram Van Munster Creator, ‘Profiles From the Front Line’: You can only get accepted by chemistry. You know if you get a good bond with somebody, only then will they let you in. What these guys are doing out there, men and women, is just absolutely extraordinary. If you are a cheerleader of our perspective that we should, that we deserve peace and that we deserve human dignity, these guys are really going out on a limb and risk their own lives. Clive Myrie: You've obviously got to be constantly aware of the fact that they, the unit that you are with, is going to be giving you the line that makes them look the best, look good in the eyes of the public. As long as you are aware of that then you can begin to try and tell whatever story you're trying to tell in as objective way as you can, bearing in mind the fact that the unit that you are with is feeding you, clothing you, protecting you, whatever. When I would approach someone high up in the unit for information on casualties, or whether it was friendly fire or not, they would volunteer the information. But they never handed anything to me like that on a plate. Walt Rogers: Do I think we got too close to them? No. I have seen reporters who cover the White House over the years sleep with women in this President's White House and that President's White House. That's incestuous, that's too close. That didn't happen with the army. ITV News Bill Neely: On board the helicopter an electric atmosphere. These men pumped up by Iraq's Scud attacks in the desert and by news of intense fighting. They were ready to hit back hard. We have just this second crossed over the border into Iraq. We'll be landing at our target in about ten minute's time. Into Iraq and the smell... John Kampfner: Some wore uniforms. Some didn't. Walt Rogers: It's a very symbolic little statement I was making, but it did say, I'm not a soldier. Some of my colleagues didn't do that and I think they crossed a line there. Bryan Whitman: I think it's difficult not to be enthusiastic about what you're doing if you're out there with our soldiers. Soldier: We bomb 'em. You know it's cool to me that like explosions and stuff like that but like I don't get to see the actual explosion and that's what I want to see, but I guess when we get closer to Baghdad we'll get to see more of that stuff, so… |
John Kampfner: Embeds and their protectors agreed a set of rules. Not giving away battle positions or unit strengths in return for access. Sometimes when things got rough journalists came under pressure to help out.
Clive Myrie: I was pretty scared at this stage and we get to the bridge and there are bullets flying all over the place, and I can see the tension in the face of the troops, the, the marines we are with, I can see the tension in the face as we get to the bridge. A rocket-propelled grenade just misses us.
BBC News — Gunfire
Clive Myrie: There was bullets flying everywhere. We get out of the, out of the Land Rover and we hide in a ditch. One of the marines said; why don't you make yourself useful? And he's throwing these flares at me. And he's throwing the flares at me and I'm throwing them at the guy who's got to light them and send them off into the sky, and I'm thinking, why, what am I doing here? John Kampfner: Tension was particularly high on the eve of war. Some journalists assembling with the British forces in Kuwait were ordered not to report what they saw. CRAIG COPETAS, Bloomberg: We were not allowed to take any pictures or describe British soldiers carrying guns. I was told that there was a, a decision made by Downing Street that the military minders of the journalists down there were to go to any lengths to, to not portray British, the British fighting man and women as fighters. They wanted them there to have them there as nation-builders, that they weren't going to be killing people. The media minders would get very very upset with you very fast and threats were levelled you that you would be disembedded. ABC News Australia — Gunfire John Kampfner: Sometimes embedded reporters did send dispatches that put their military hosts in a bad light. This Australian report is of a jumpy US patrol killing three civilians after mistakenly thinking they'd come under military fire. When they needed to send out more positive images they shot footage themselves and handed it to the networks. Iraqi soldiers surrendering. Message — the regime is crumbling. A friendly football match with the troops in Basra — ordinary Iraqis are warming to us. A parachute drop in the North, militarily insignificant but good TV. Message — the advance is not bogged down. So stage one of the media campaign was to get up close and personal. Maximum imagery, minimum insight. Stage two, Centcom, a shed in the desert. This was where the big picture was to be provided. Presenter: Oh I hear them arguing. It’s said both ways, Harry... John Kampfner: This was supposed to be the stage for the context, the explanation, the sifting of facts. Presenter: The President says today is the moment of truth for the UN, his strongest indication yet that war may be just a few days away. John Kampfner: More than seven hundred journalists arrive at Central Command, a series of pre-fabricated huts just past an industrial estate in Doha, capital of the Gulf state of Qatar. Michael Wolff: It had this moon feeling to it. In effect everybody spent twelve or fourteen or sixteen hours a day in a warehouse. John Kampfner: Their job is to report every word of the US and UK military, even though they're hundreds of miles away from the action. They're here to be drip-fed information. They're supposed to get the inside track, to help make sense of the reports the embeds send in from the frontline. In reality they spend their long days catching the news off TV like viewers back home. |
MICHAEL WOLFF New York magazine: The only window that you had into actually what was going on in the war were that, were that there were a set of television monitors in front of the coffee bar, and you could lean against the coffee bar and look up at the monitors and, and see at least what Fox was telling you was gong on in the war.
John Kampfner: The main event is the two p.m. press conference, officially the Freedom Briefing, time for breakfast shows back in the US. Each day begins with a film and slide show presented by General Vincent Brooks, a man destined to become a household face.
Every day the war is on track, successes are dwelt on, setbacks glossed over.
General Vincent Brooks: The coalition is up to the challenge and more than ever the outcome is not in doubt. I’m ready for your questions?
John Kampfner: This is mainly an American show. The favoured US networks receive the best seats, allies next, then the rest. The spin-doctors watch from the sidelines.
On the left, Jim Wilkinson, the man from the White House. Next to him in civvies Simon Wren on a mission from Downing Street. Brits and Americans fighting the real battle and the media battle shoulder to shoulder. At least that's the plan.
General Vincent Brooks: I don't have anything else that I can give you in detail on that and I appreciate the question...
JIM WILKINSON US Military Spokesman, Centcom: There's a daily conference call that has Torie Clarke, at the office of the Secretary of Defence. You have the State Department, Number Ten, the Foreign Office, the UN, the White House, Qatar and others on there, and the United Kingdom is on that call, and so there's any number of mechanisms, and we found that you know if you're talking often you never let the press come between you, which is important.
The machine must be fed. Rolling news channels are hungry all the time. The idea is to co-ordinate the message across all time zones.
Jim Wilkinson: It's a twenty-four hour news cycle, so you start with the strategy of if you're on the air they're not.
John Kampfner: The genial frontman for the British journalists is Al Lockwood.
He begins his day at the early morning briefing where raw intelligence and overnight news are discussed. His job is to select what is useful. He's already had his fingers burnt.
Woman: First day...
Al Lockwood: First day...
Woman: First day he learnt very quickly, the first day, the first American interview he was asked...
Group Captain AL LOCKWOOD UK Military Spokesman:
He said to me off camera, afterwards, how long do you reckon it's going to last? I said, well I'm not a betting man, and I made a glib remark, about three or four days, being, I was being flippant about, and bang, by the time I got back to the office, UK spokesman says, war will not last longer than three to four days, and I went, oh dear.
Anyway I went down to the Headquarters, confessed to Air-Marshall Burridge, said I've just made a stupid mistake, I thought something was being, you know, should have been, which was meant to be jest was taken as otherwise. So, he said, you've learnt on day one.
John Kampfner: Journalists and briefers together.
Rule number one of spin: Keep off certain issues.
In the British back office a list of troublesome subjects; what they quaintly call 'poo traps'.
Beware questions on faulty kit. Beware DU, depleted uranium.
Rule number two: Hone the message and stick to it.
|
Group Captain Al Lockwood: We are not interested in Saddam Hussain per se. People are making a little too much of Saddam Hussein.
Group Captain Al Lockwood: Saddam Hussein is just one member of the regime.
PAUL HUNTER Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: At the end of the day, when you try to make a news story out of whatever happens here, you still have to use their message track. The one thing they're gonna to answer to every single question, and it has gone on every single day.
Group Captain Al Lockwoodr: It's not Saddam Hussain who is the, the key target to end the war in Iraq.
You've got an upstart woman there who wants to make a bloody name for herself within the television community by grilling an easy victim, which is a military officer. I refuse to be an easy victim.
John Kampfner: It takes little over a week for reporters to realise Centcom is not the plum posting that was promised. Facts and context are in short supply. Questions are rationed, follow-ups are frowned on, full answers are not forthcoming.
American Spokesman: No, I can’t confirm that and won't confirm that. I think it would be unfair to speculate anything more than that.
General Vincent Brooks: No one can ever predict exactly how a battle will unfold.
It's too early to be able to say exactly what happened at that site.
We've seen a number of things that tell us that what we saw...
GEORGE CURRY Journalist: What's going on is you're not even getting basic information that you need. And that is, I've said, you know, they're not talking to us, they're talking to audience beyond us and we're just conduits. Audience is in TV Land, and we're in Never Never Land.
Michael Wolf: Every day, every hour, whatever you knew had begun to degrade and so you knew less and less and at somewhere at the end of your stay in Doha you would know absolutely nothing.
John Kampfner: Real information, what there is of it, is usually given away from the podium and away from the cameras. Behind this pack of British reporters Number Ten's Simon Wren is briefing a line. Other non-attributable lines during the war found their way into newspapers as fact.
Saddam Hussein is dead. Tariq Aziz has defected. Military successes were briefed, even before they happened.
Fiona Bruce, 22nd March 2003: Coalition troops push deeper into Iraq. They say they're now half way to Baghdad. Iraq's second city Basra is reported secured, but after fierce fighting...
In fact Basra fell seventeen days later. As for Um Quasa that seemed to fall every day.
Huw Edwards, 20th March 2003: In the past half-hour we've heard British and American troops have captured the Iraqi border town of Um Quasa.
Ben Brown: Cobra helicopter gunships hovered menacingly in the air, but their advance was slower than they had been hoping for.
Donald Rumsfeld, 21st March 2003:
Coalition forces did capture it, and do control the port of Um Quasa.
Ben Brown, 23rd March 2003: The Americans claim to have taken this town on Friday, yet three days later they were still facing fierce resistance here.
|
BBC News
American Spokesman, 25th March 2003: I want to make note of the UK forces today for their rapid progress in establishing security in the town of Um Quasa. John Kampfner: After five days Um Quasa was finally taken. Were stories like these wishful thinking? Overeager commanders? Overeager journalists? Or more than that? When Basra refused to fall the British told the world of an uprising. There's a cycle. It starts as raw information on the ground. RICHARD GAISFORD With the British forces, Basra: My reports have been coming from the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards battle group headquarters and there they have reported this uprising. They reported an uprising amongst public there that was being put down by Iraqi troops actually in the city centre. John Kampfner: This is then given credence by spokesmen at Centcom. British Spokesman: And of course this is just the sort of encouraging indication that we have been looking for. John Kampfner: By the evening news the story has hardened further. BBC News Ben Brown: Gunners from the Royal Horse Artillery have been firing in support of a popular uprising here. John Kampfner: The story dovetailed with a propaganda leaflet campaign on the ground, and this appeal to the Iraqis from the Prime Minister. Tony Blair, 25th March 2003 : And my message to them today is that this time we will not let you down. Saddam and his regime will be removed. John Kampfner: Two objectives for the price of one. Back home public opinion is rallied. In Iraq a domino effect is created. Paul Hunter: So if word comes out of Centcom that there is an uprising against Saddam's regime will certainly they can be thinking, planning, hoping that that information will be then picked up on and it will be, then the local people will build on that and, and, and the idea will become reality, even if it never existed in the first place. RICHARD SAMBROOK Head of BBC News: I think actually most people will have known that Um Quasa didn't fall when it was first suggested it had and would have known that there wasn't an uprising in Basra. So I think actually over, over a course of time the way that people watch and listen and gather their information they will have discovered what was true and what wasn't. Group Captain AL LOCKWOOD UK Military Spokesman: Basra uprising I believe still at this stage that something happened there, but it was seen as an uprising. We briefed it that there had been civil disturbance, it could have been an uprising, and were very hesitant about it. ITV News Terry Lloyd: We passed burnt out cars and the clothes left behind by Iraqi soldiers who had either fled the battlefield or surrendered. John Kampfner: With embedded journalists seeing the battle in microcosm, with reliable information hard to come by at Centcom, the truth was proving elusive. There were a few journalists trying to find out for themselves what was really going on, but theirs was a dangerous game. |
TERRY LLOYD ITV News: This was until a few hours ago was an Iraqi frontline stronghold. Nothing much to see just a couple of portacabins where the Iraqi flag still flies.
Daniel Demoustier ITV News cameraman: We were a roving team. That means a team that is not embedded but works independently. Our task was to go for the human interest story, you know, try to find Iraqi people, talk to them, try to find out from them what is going on.
There was a team decision, based on the information we had that we would go, try to go direction Basra.
John Kampfner: They were only on that road because they'd heard the reports that their original destination Um Quasa had fallen, reports that turned out to be false.
Daniel Demoustier: Firing started from exactly that position, coming from the American tanks. The front window went straight away, and that same moment, I, I don’t know, I don't know how I did it, but I went with my head under the steering wheel. I can't even do it now, but I went in there, it's probably why I got the blue eye.
So I protected myself and I kept on driving, and I looked to the right and Terry's gone.
John Kampfner: Terry Lloyd was one of ten journalists killed in action; two of his colleagues are still missing.
Richard Sambrook: Editorially and objectively I would much sooner have been able to operate independently to a greater extent than we did but on safety grounds it simply wasn't possible.
John Kampfner: What was the role then of the unilaterals?
Jim Wilkinson: Er, they were a pain in our rear a lot of times. Many of them were wounded, some killed. They would show up on the battle space despite our warnings.
John Kampfner: Coping with bad news stories is the toughest test of all. A street market in the Sha’ab district of Baghdad, unexplained explosions kill fourteen. People blamed the Americans, not the sort of image Downing Street and the Pentagon had in mind.
Journalists here had Iraqi minders and were outside the control of Coalition media managers.
Rageh Omaar, BBC News: What's impossible to say now is what could possibly have been a military target in such a populated area?
John Kampfner: The story emerging on the ground points to a stray American missile attack on a day when sandstorms could have interfered with targeting. Many of the dead were working on cars in workshops. Survivors told us how they saw a plane and two impacts on either side of the road consistent with an allied attack.
MOHAMMAD AL ZUBEDDY Garage owner Voiceover: When the two rockets fell near here someone who was working under his car was crushed and burned. And then there were four others they died as well when their cars caught fire.
|
ROBERT FISK The Independent: Several people talked of hearing the aircraft. I'd heard a plane shortly before this and there was no doubt in my mind that the piece of shrapnel, the equidistant craters, it was clearly an American or British aircraft, which fired missiles into what is in effect a marketplace.
John Kampfner: An awkward moment for Centcom. It's on the defensive. It reacts slowly at first.
Reporter 1: Iraq is reporting today that there was a missile attack on a residential section of Baghdad that killed fourteen civilians. Can you confirm that, and tell us what went wrong?
General Vincent Brooks: Well first I'm not aware, I've heard this report that you're saying. It's in the media right now. We don't have a report that corroborates that and so I can't confirm it.
John Kampfner: Then a blanket denial. The allies are not killing civilians.
Another look at that British list of traps shows bombing accuracy and the market bombings at numbers five and seven.
Reporter 2: Many hundred of civilians, Iraqi, have been killed by coalition bombs. Do you think it will help Iraqi people to believe you and to trust you, to believe that you are coming to emancipate them?
General VINCENT BROOKS US Army: Well thank you for the question. Firstly I don't accept the premise of the question, which says that the civilians have been killed by coalition bombs. I just don't accept that.
John Kampfner: Some reporters at Centcom don’t buy this line.
Reporter 3: When will you show us pictures of what happens when precision bombs don't go where they're supposed to, when they fail to hit their designated targets, or if they fail to go off at all. And if you don’t doesn't that expose you to the charge that this is more propaganda than truth?
John Kampfner: Next day Brooks goes on the offensive. He co-ordinates a new message with London and Washington. It was the Iraqis who did it.
General Vincent Brooks: They're also using very old stocks, we've discovered and those stocks are not reliable and missiles are going up and coming down. So we think it's entirely possible that this may have been in fact an Iraqi missile that either went up and came down or given the behaviour of the regime lately it may have been inside of town.
John Kampfner: 3rd April 2003
The allies still deny causing the deaths but awkward questions about this and a second market bombing two days later from where US missile parts were recovered are left unanswered.
The British government casts doubt on the reliability of the journalists. It says any information that isn't official should be treated with suspicion.
GEOFF HOON MP Defence Secretary:
What is important about this is all of us should look very sceptically at these kinds of reports, relying only on known and agreed facts.
John Kampfner: End of story. The lack of hard facts prompts some journalists to leave Centcom, and one to rebel.
MICHAEL WOLFF New York magazine:
My final question, after which I was not allowed to ask any more questions, was the question that every reporter was asking, not just every day, but literally every minute, which was...
Why should we stay? What's the value to us for what we learn at this million-dollar press centre?
|
General Vincent Brooks — Applause:
Well sir. I've gotten applause already. That's wonderful. I appreciate that. First I would say it's your choice. We
want to provide information that's truthful from the operational headquarters that's running this war.
Michael Wolff:
I was approached by this guy, Wilkinson. He was sort of the uber-civilian. Also he was wearing a uniform. I said, you know, which was odd, and I said, aren't you a civilian, and he said, yes, but I'm in the reserves. I said, but you're not here in the reserves. Right, he said, right, right. So I said, actually I said, so you're a kind of a paramilitary. So we got immediately off to the wrong the wrong foot. If we were, if we had not already been on completely on the wrong foot now we were.
Jim Wilkinson: I'm a big boy. As they say in Texas this ain't my first rodeo. And when reporters start signing my cheques then great. But you know what General Franks signs my cheque and I make news based on his terms.
Michael Wolff: He said, this is war, (bleep) hole. He said, don't (bleep) around with things you don't understand. And then finally it was; no more questions for you, why don't you just go home?
John Kampfner: Snapshots from the frontline. Media management at Central Command. This twin track was especially important to the coalition in its search for weapons of mass destruction. Any evidence would do, especially for Tony Blair, who time and again cited Saddam's arsenal as the main reason for going to war.
Tony Blair, 2nd September 2002: The history of Saddam and weapons of mass destruction is not American or British propaganda. The history and the present threat are real.
John Kampfner:
Journalists at Centcom are given vague lines about chemical weapons on an almost daily basis without any sign of a smoking gun.
General Vincent Brooks: While it hasn't been found, we're reminded that because we haven't found it it's still there.
Reporter 1: Wouldn't it have happened by now? And since it hasn't happened, wouldn't it be reasonable for some people to conclude that they didn't have them or weren't willing to use them.
General Vincent Brooks: Well some might come to that conclusion. We don't.
ROBIN COOK MP Former Foreign Secretary: Well they were desperate to find something that they could hail as evidence of Saddam's intention to hit us with weapons of mass destruction. After all without that the whole justification of the war started to fall apart.
ABC reporter — ABC News: A paramilitary training facility...
John Kampfner: Embedded journalists meanwhile are led to any and every site that might contain suspicious substances. The allegation is instantly reported and beamed around the world.
What did it suggest to you that the coalition forces were trying to do in getting those stories out?
Dr HANS BLIX Chief UN Weapons Inspector: Well you know it could have been the journalists. They were embedded, as the term was, and they were eager to write a story, I suppose, and they were close to the events, so they would say well here maybe is something that's appetising. And when they looked at it more closely it turned out perhaps to be zero.
Robin Cook: Several weeks after the hostilities finished, after they had actually arrested the key players in Saddam's military apparatus they still have not provided a credible weapon of mass destruction, and it becomes increasingly hard to believe that they are going to be able to find such a capacity.
John Kampfner: Does it matter any more? Opinion polls in the US show the war was a success even if weapons of mass destruction aren't found. Tony Blair is benefiting from the so-called 'Baghdad bounce'. Those responsible for the media campaign are reflecting on a battle well fought.
|
JIM WILKINSON US Military Spokesman, Centcom: If some people didn't like the way we handled it I think it was one part of just a plain case of too bad, and a second part of probably a little envy by some that they didn't get embedded because the real superstars of this war were those media journalists who were embeds.
John Kampfner: The Brits at least tried to get on with the journalists. They might be satisfied with the overall presentation of the war, but they're furious about the Doha operation.
So much so that Simon Wren, Number Ten's man in Doha, has written a confidential note to Alistair Campbell complaining that the American briefers weren't up to the job.
He described the Jessica Lynch presentation as embarrassing. He complained that for the first three days of the war the Americans locked themselves in their offices.
Group Captain AL LOCKWOOD UK Military Spokesman: Having lost the first skirmish they pretty much lost the war when it came to media support. And albeit things have got better and everything came to a conclusion quite rapidly. To my feelings is that they lost their initial part of the campaign and they never got on the front foot again.
The media advisor here was an expert in his field. His counterpart on the US side was evasive, was not around as much as he should have been when it came to talking to the media, and in reality what happened was you had two different styles of news media management and I feel fortunate to be, have been part of the UK one.
Jim Wilkinson: Qatar was never designed to be the font of all news. The font of all news was designed to be the frontline with our embeds. And it worked out we couldn't be happier.
John Kampfner: Such wounds will heal. Washington and London now have a plan for future wars. As the Pentagon made clear, the perception of war affects its cost and duration. Now the media have their designated positions, close up in the front for action shots, or tied up in the rear for the not-so-big picture.
RICHARD SAMBROOK Head of BBC News: I think embeds are undoubtedly are the future. There's no question from the military point of view that they provided them with you know a kind of, a, a, a level and quantity of picture which was overall advantageous to them.
DANIEL DEMOUSTIER ITV News cameraman: You don't get anything else in that. You only get their view on the situation and at least the independents can try to report on what really is going on, talk to the people.
John Kampfner: Are you worried that embeds are the future?
Richard Sambrook: I think if, I think if we got to the position where embeds were the only form of conflict coverage that was possible then it would be very one-sided, and you wouldn't get the full picture of what was happening, and that obviously worries me journalistically, yes.
Daniel Demoustier: Let them do it. Let the army do it, you know. Just put a colonel there and give soldier a camera and he can say what's happening.
BBC CORRESPONDENT 18th May 2003
|
|
|
The real Jessica Lynch story Destruction and Civilian Victims of the Anglo-American Aggression in Iraq Civilians make up 98 percent of the millions of dead and injured victims since the invasion |
|
|
State-Sponsored Terror: British and American Black Ops in Iraq
|
|
by Andrew G. Marshall
Global Research, June 25, 2008
What’s The Difference Between Lehman Shining Light on the "Black World"
In January of 2002, the Washington Post ran a story detailing a CIA plan put forward to President Bush shortly after 9/11 by CIA Director George Tenet titled, "Worldwide Attack Matrix," which was "outlining a clandestine anti-terror campaign in 80 countries around the world.
What he was ready to propose represented a striking and risky departure for U.S. policy and would give the CIA the broadest and most lethal authority in its history."
|
|
The plan entailed CIA and Special Forces:
"Covert operations across the globe."
And at:
"The heart of the proposal was a recommendation that the president give the CIA what Tenet labeled "exceptional authorities" to attack and destroy al Qaeda in Afghanistan and the rest of the world."
Tenet cited the need for such authority:
"To allow the agency to operate without restraint — and he wanted encouragement from the president to take risks."
Among the many authorities recommended was the use of "deadly force."
Further:
"Another proposal was that the CIA increase liaison work with key foreign intelligence services."
As:
"Using such intelligence services as surrogates could triple or quadruple the CIA's effectiveness."
Western Governments Worldwide Matrix
The Worldwide Attack Matrix:
"Described covert operations in 80 countries that were either underway or that he was now recommending.
The actions ranged from routine propaganda to lethal covert action in preparation for military attacks."
as well as:
"In some countries, CIA teams would break into facilities to obtain information." [1]
Washington to deliberately foment the murder of innocent people — your family, your friends, your lovers, you — in order to further their geopolitical ambitions
|
|
In 2002, the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board (DSB) conducted a:
"Summer Study on Special Operations and Joint Forces in Support of Countering Terrorism."
Portions of which were leaked to the Federation of American Scientists.
According to the document, the "War on Terror" constitutes a:
"Committed, resourceful and globally dispersed adversary with strategic reach."
Which will require the US to engage in a:
"Long, at times violent, and borderless war."
As the Asia Times described it, this document lays out a blueprint for the US to "fight fire with fire."
|
|
Many of the "proposals appear to push the military into territory that traditionally has been the domain of the CIA, raising questions about whether such missions would be subject to the same legal restraints imposed on CIA activities."
According to the Chairman of the DSB:
"The CIA executes the plans but they use Department of Defense assets."
Specifically, the plan:
"Recommends the creation of a super-Intelligence Support Activity, an organization it dubs the Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG), to bring together CIA and military covert action, information warfare, intelligence and cover and deception.
For example, the Pentagon and CIA would work together to increase human intelligence (HUMINT) forward/operational presence and to deploy new clandestine technical capabilities."
The purpose of P2OG would be in:
"‘Stimulating reactions’ among terrorists and states possessing weapons of mass destruction, meaning it would prod terrorist cells into action, thus exposing them to ‘quick-response’ attacks by US forces." [2]
In other words, commit terror to incite terror, in order to react to terror.
|
|
The Los Angeles Times reported in 2002 that:
"The Defense Department is building up an elite secret army with resources stretching across the full spectrum of covert capabilities.
New organizations are being created.
The missions of existing units are being revised."
And quoted then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as saying:
"Prevention and preemption are ... the only defense against terrorism."[3]
Chris Floyd bluntly described P2OG in CounterPunch, saying:
"The United States government is planning to use "cover and deception" and secret military operations to provoke murderous terrorist attacks on innocent people.
Let's say it again: Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush and the other members of the unelected regime in Washington plan to deliberately foment the murder of innocent people — your family, your friends, your lovers, you — in order to further their geopolitical ambitions."[4]
|
|
British working alongside Special Air Service [SAS] and American Delta Force responsible for terror
On February 5, 2007, the Telegraph reported that:
"Deep inside the heart of the "Green Zone" [in Iraq], the heavily fortified administrative compound in Baghdad, lies one of the most carefully guarded secrets of the war in Iraq.
It is a cell from a small and anonymous British Army unit that goes by the deliberately meaningless name of the Joint Support Group (JSG)."
The members of the JSG:
"Are trained to turn hardened terrorists into coalition spies using methods developed on the mean streets of Ulster during the Troubles, when the Army managed to infiltrate the IRA at almost every level.
Since war broke out in Iraq in 2003, they have been responsible for running dozens of Iraqi double agents."
They have been:
"[W]orking alongside the Special Air Service [SAS] and the American Delta Force as part of the Baghdad-based counter-terrorist unit known as Task Force Black."
It was reported that:
"During the Troubles [in Northern Ireland], the JSG operated under the cover name of the Force Research Unit (FRU), which between the early 1980s and the late 1990s managed to penetrate the very heart of the IRA.
By targeting and then "turning" members of the paramilitary organisation with a variety of "inducements" ranging from blackmail to bribes, the FRU operators developed agents at virtually every command level within the IRA."
Further:
"The unit was renamed following the Stevens Inquiry into allegations of collusion between the security forces and protestant paramilitary groups, and, until relatively recently continued to work exclusively in Northern Ireland." [5]
|
|
Intelligence officers of the British police and the military actively helped Protestant guerillas to identify and kill Catholic activists in Northern Ireland
Considering that this group had been renamed after revelations of collusion with terrorists, perhaps it is important to take a look at what exactly this "collusion" consisted of.
The Stevens Inquiry’s report:
"Contains devastating confirmation that intelligence officers of the British police and the military actively helped Protestant guerillas to identify and kill Catholic activists in Northern Ireland during the 1980s."
It was:
"A state policy sanctioned at the highest level."
The Inquiry:
"Highlighted collusion, the willful failure to keep records, the absence of accountability, the withholding of intelligence, and the extreme of agents being involved in murder."
And acknowledged:
"That innocent people had died because of the collusion."
These particular:
"Charges relate to activities of a British Army intelligence outfit known as the Force Research Unit (FRU) and former Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) police officers." [6]
In 2002, the Sunday Herald reported on the allegations made by a former British intelligence agent, Kevin Fulton, who stated that:
"He was told by his military handlers that his collusion with paramilitaries was sanctioned by Margaret Thatcher herself."
|
|
Fulton worked for the Force Research Unit (FRU), and had infiltrated the IRA, always while on the pay roll of the military.
Fulton tells of how in 1992, he told his FRU and MI5 intelligence handlers that his IRA superior was planning to launch a mortar attack on the police, yet his handlers did nothing and the attack went forward, killing a policewoman.
Fulton stated:
"I broke the law seven days a week and my handlers knew that.
They knew that I was making bombs and giving them to other members of the IRA and they did nothing about it.
If everything I touched turned to shit then I would have been dead.
The idea was that the only way to beat the enemy was to penetrate the enemy and be the enemy." [7]
Worst single terrorist atrocity one of the terrorists was a British agent
In 1998, Northern Ireland experienced its:
"Worst single terrorist atrocity."
As described by the BBC, in which a car bomb went off, killing 29 people and injuring 300. [8]
According to a Sunday Herald piece in 2001:
"Security forces didn't intercept the Real IRA's Omagh bombing team because one of the terrorists was a British double-agent whose cover would have been blown as an informer if the operation was uncovered."
Kevin Fulton had even:
"Phoned a warning to his RUC handlers 48 hours before the Omagh bombing that the Real IRA was planning an attack and gave details of one of the bombing team and his car registration."
Further:
"The man thought to be the agent is a senior member of the [IRA] organization." [9]
In 2002, it was revealed that:
"One of the most feared men inside the Provisional IRA," John Joe Magee, head of the IRA’s "internal security unit," commonly known as the IRA’s "torturer- in-chief," was actually "one of the UK's most elite soldiers," who "was trained as a member of Britain's special forces."
The Sunday Herald stated that:
"Magee led the IRA's internal security unit for more than a decade up to the mid-90s — most of those he investigated were usually executed."
And that:
"Magee's unit was tasked to hunt down, interrogate and execute suspected British agents within the IRA." [10]
|
|
Two British agents central to bombings of three army border installations in 1990
In 2006, the Guardian reported that:
"Two British agents were central to the bombings of three army border installations in 1990."
The claims included tactics known as the ‘human bomb’, which:
"Involved forcing civilians to drive vehicles laden with explosives into army checkpoints."
This tactic:
"Was the brainchild of British intelligence." [11]
In 2006, it was also revealed that:
"A former British Army mole in the IRA has claimed that MI5 arranged a weapons-buying trip to America in which he obtained detonators, later used by terrorists to murder soldiers and police officers."
And:
"British intelligence co-operated with the FBI to ensure his trip to New York in the 1990s went ahead without incident so that his cover would not be blown."
Further:
"The technology he obtained has been used in Northern Ireland and copied by terrorists in Iraq in roadside bombs that have killed British troops." [12]
|
|
Considering all these revelations of British collusion with IRA terrorists and complicity in terrorist acts in Northern Ireland through the FRU, what evidence is there that these same tactics are not being deployed in Iraq under the renamed Joint Support Group (JSG)?
The recruits to the JSG in Iraq are trained extensively and those:
"Who eventually pass the course can expect to be posted to Baghdad, Basra and Afghanistan." [13]
P2OG in Action — Iraq’s most sacred Shiite mosque blown up
In September of 2003, months after the initial invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Iraq’s most sacred Shiite mosque was blown up, killing between 80 and 120 people, including a popular Shiite cleric, and the event was blamed by Iraqis on the American forces. [14]
On April 20, 2004, American journalist in Iraq, Dahr Jamail, reported in the New Standard that:
"The word on the street in Baghdad is that the cessation of suicide car bombings is proof that the CIA was behind them."
Jamail interviewed a doctor who stated that:
"The U.S. induces aggression.
If you don't attack me, I will never attack you.
The U.S. is stimulating the aggression of the Iraqi people!"
|
|
This description goes very much in line with the aims outlined in the Pentagon’s P2OG document about "inciting terror," or "preempting terror attacks." [15]
Weeks after the initial incident involving the British SAS soldiers in Basra, in October of 2005, it was reported that Americans were:
"Captured in the act of setting off a car bomb in Baghdad."
As:
"A number of Iraqis apprehended two Americans disguised in Arab dress as they tried to blow up a booby-trapped car in the middle of a residential area in western Baghdad on Tuesday...
Residents of western Baghdad's al-Ghazaliyah district [said] the people had apprehended the Americans as they left their Caprice car near a residential neighborhood in al-Ghazaliyah on Tuesday afternoon.
Local people found they looked suspicious so they detained the men before they could get away.
That was when they discovered that they were Americans and called the... police."
However:
"The Iraq police arrived at approximately the same time as allied military forces — and the two men were removed from Iraq custody and whisked away before any questioning could take place." [16]
|
|
It was reported that in May of 2005, an Iraqi man was arrested after witnessing a car bombing that took place in front of his home, as it was said he shot an Iraqi National Guardsman.
However:
"People from the area claim that the man was taken away not because he shot anyone, but because he knew too much about the bomb.
Rumor has it that he saw an American patrol passing through the area and pausing at the bomb site minutes before the explosion.
Soon after they drove away, the bomb went off and chaos ensued.
He ran out of his house screaming to the neighbors and bystanders that the Americans had either planted the bomb or seen the bomb and done nothing about it.
He was promptly taken away."
100 kilograms of explosives booby trapped by the Americans and intended for al-Khadimiya Shiite district of Baghdad
Further, another story was reported in the same month that took place in Baghdad when an Iraqi driver had his license and car confiscated at a checkpoint, after which he was instructed:
"To report to an American military camp near Baghdad airport for interrogation and in order to retrieve his license."
|
|
After being questioned for a short while, he was told to drive his car to an Iraqi police station, where his license had been forwarded, and that he should go quickly.
"The driver did leave in a hurry, but was soon alarmed with a feeling that his car was driving as if carrying a heavy load, and he also became suspicious of a low flying helicopter that kept hovering overhead, as if trailing him.
He stopped the car and inspected it carefully.
He found nearly 100 kilograms of explosives hidden in the back seat and along the two back doors.
The only feasible explanation for this incident is that the car was indeed booby trapped by the Americans and intended for the al-Khadimiya Shiite district of Baghdad.
The helicopter was monitoring his movement and witnessing the anticipated ‘hideous attack by foreign elements." [17]
On October 4, 2005, it was reported by the Sydney Morning Herald that:
"The FBI's counterterrorism unit has launched a broad investigation of US-based theft rings after discovering some vehicles used in deadly car bombings in Iraq, including attacks that killed US troops and Iraqi civilians, were probably stolen in the United States, according to senior US Government officials."
Further:
"The inquiry began after coalition troops raided a Falluja bomb factory last November and found a Texas-registered four-wheel-drive being prepared for a bombing mission.
Investigators said there were several other cases where vehicles evidently stolen in the US wound up in Syria or other Middle Eastern countries and ultimately in the hands of Iraqi insurgent groups, including al-Qaeda in Iraq." [18]
|
|
In 2006, the Al-Askariya mosque in the city of Samarra was bombed and destroyed.
It was built in 944, was over 1,000 years old, and was one of the most important Shi’ite mosques in the world.
The great golden dome that covered it, which was built in 1904, was destroyed in the 2006 bombing, which was set off by men dressed as Iraqi Special Forces. [19]
Former 27-year CIA analyst who gave several presidents their daily CIA briefings, Ray McGovern, stated that he:
"Does not rule out Western involvement in this week's Askariya mosque bombing."
He was quoted as saying:
"The main question is Qui Bono?
Who benefits from this kind of thing?
You don't have to be very conspiratorial or even paranoid to suggest that there are a whole bunch of likely suspects out there and not only the Sunnis.
You know, the British officers were arrested, dressed up in Arab garb, riding around in a car, so this stuff goes on." [20]
|
|
Death Squads for "Freedom"
In January of 2005, Newsweek reported on a Pentagon program termed the "Salvador Option" being discussed to be deployed in Iraq.
This strategy:
"Dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration’s battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s.
Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported "nationalist" forces that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers."
Updating the strategy to Iraq:
"One Pentagon proposal would send Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads, most likely hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen, to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, even across the border into Syria, according to military insiders familiar with the discussions." [21]
The Times reported that:
"The Pentagon is considering forming hit squads of Kurdish and Shia fighters to target leaders of the Iraqi insurgency in a strategic shift borrowed from the American struggle against left-wing guerrillas in Central America 20 years ago.
Under the so-called ‘El Salvador option’, Iraqi and American forces would be sent to kill or kidnap insurgency leaders."
It further stated:
"Hit squads would be controversial and would probably be kept secret."
As:
"The experience of the so-called "death squads" in Central America remains raw for many even now and helped to sully the image of the United States in the region."
Further:
"John Negroponte, the US Ambassador in Baghdad, had a front-row seat at the time as Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-85." [22]
|
|
Mass killings are when Police Commandos active
By June of 2005, mass executions were taking place in Iraq in the six months since January, and:
"What is particularly striking is that many of those killings have taken place since the Police Commandos became operationally active and often correspond with areas where they have been deployed." [23]
In May of 2007, an Iraqi who formerly collaborated with US forces in Iraq for two and a half years stated that:
"I was a soldier in the Iraqi army in the war of 1991 and during the withdrawal from Kuwait I decided to seek asylum in Saudi Arabia along with dozens of others like me.
That was how began the process whereby I was recruited into the American forces, for there were US military committees that chose a number of Iraqis who were willing to volunteer to join them and be transported to America.
I was one of those."
He spoke out about how after the 2003 invasion, he was returned to Iraq to:
"Carry out specific tasks assigned him by the US agencies."
Among those tasks, he was put:
"In charge of a group of a unit that carried out assassinations in the streets of Baghdad."
|
|
Some job units of American government and other foreigner governments specialize in planting bombs and car bombs in neighborhoods and markets
He was quoted as saying:
"Our task was to carry out assassinations of individuals.
The US occupation army would supply us with their names, pictures, and maps of their daily movements to and from their place of residence and we were supposed to kill the Shi'i, for example, in the al-A'zamiyah, and kill the Sunni in the of 'Madinat as-Sadr’, and so on."
Further:
"Anyone in the unit who made a mistake was killed.
Three members of my team were killed by US occupation forces after they failed to assassinate Sunni political figures in Baghdad."
He revealed that this "dirty jobs" unit of Iraqis, Americans and other foreigners:
"Doesn’t only carry out assassinations, but some of them specialize in planting bombs and car bombs in neighborhoods and markets."
|
|
Best-known and most famous among the US troops is placing a bomb inside cars as they are being searched at checkpoints
He elaborated in saying that:
"Operations of planting car bombs and blowing up explosives in markets are carried out in various ways, the best-known and most famous among the US troops is placing a bomb inside cars as they are being searched at checkpoints.
Another way is to put bombs in the cars during interrogations.
After the desired person is summoned to one of the US bases, a bomb is place in his car and he is asked to drive to a police station or a market for some purpose and there his car blows up." [24]
Divide and Conquer?
Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, wrote in October of 2006, that:
"The evidence that the US directly contributed to the creation of the current civil war in Iraq by its own secretive security strategy is compelling.
Historically of course this is nothing new — divide and rule is a strategy for colonial powers that has stood the test of time.
Indeed, it was used in the previous British occupation of Iraq around 85 years ago.
However, maybe in the current scenario the US just over did it a bit, creating an unstoppable momentum that, while stalling the insurgency, has actually led to new problems of control and sustainability for Washington and London." [25]
Click here for notes
© Copyright 2005-2008 GlobalResearch.ca
|
| IraqAlmost a million dead4 million displaced, scattered into other countriesUntold injuredHorror of US UK invasion continuing |
Basra, Fallujah, Baghdad, Mosul... US created Iraq — devastated cities They are such liars |
|
|
EndGame — Alex Jones, you have done the world a great favor
It has taken me until now to view this great masterpiece that chronicles the planet's true history
But I am glad for this delay as my awareness of reality, and the events that seemingly must unfold to educate humankind, have come from sentience off planet — now with this movie the circles merge
A movie par excellence, it will likely be considered the most significant in the downfall of the rich and powerful who control the world and rising politicians already in their pocket — the imprisonment of all those who seek to bring forth this horror, this enslavement of 'New World Order'
Kewe
|
| The aim of TheWE.cc is to make us all aware that the most murderous violence and terror by far, committed by anyone, is done by The West
Violence and terror is the footprint and modus operandi of Western Government and the shadow power that operates from behind these 'elected officials'
This film helps us to focus on that reality
Indonesia's 9/11 — Exposing US government operations in the Bali Bombing
Kewe |
|
 Archives only for We The People Radio Network |
|
Questioning War, Organizing Resistance — Carol Brouillet Glen Clancy, from Victoria, Australia, created "Fool Me Twice" described as 'A documentary about the Australian government's lies about the East Timor massacres, the cover-up of the Bali Bombings and subsequent anti-terror laws.' The 25 year old, Clancy is Australia's Dylan Avery (of Loose Change fame). The work was originally created to be viewed online, but Clancy is working on improving the resolution for larger screen and theatrical viewing. Glen wrote (at the Fool Me Twice Blog on December 4, 2008)
To all,
After discovering 911 was an inside job, through such movies as Loose Change, Terrorstorm and Zeitgeist, I decided to investigate the Bali bombings. The evidence was overwhelming. There had been a cover-up.
As shocking as the truth may be, please keep an open mind while viewing this documentary. FOOL ME TWICE is 100% sourced. Please see reference list below. I tried to produce a documentary as true to the genre as possible, limiting opinion and simply documenting the facts.
I believe that 911 Truth is one of the most important movements of our time and exposing the cover-up of the 2002 Bali bombings can help destroy the "911/War on terror/Al-CIAda" myth.
Please help spread this information.
Kind regards,
Glen
To listen to the March 10, 2008 interview of Glen Clancy by Carol Brouillet broadcast on:We The People Radio Network — Right Click Here (Save Target As, Link As, File) MP3 1 hour
Americans are politically paralyzed by both cognitive dissonance and by what psychologists call “learned helplessness,” the result of years of having one outrage after another foisted upon them, without there ever being any real accountability.
So, as many truthers have discovered, the most common reactions of average Americans, when presented with the facts of 9/11, are either, “My government would never do that,” or, “Okay . . . but what can anybody do about it?”
|
|
Before that he was with the City of Sacramento as a Firefighter Paramedic.
He first began working in Emergency Services in 1988 in the Sacramento area with a 911 private paramedic ambulance company.
He has 20 years experience in Emergency Services.
He earned my pilot's license in 1987, and have been recreationally flying since.
He graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Mathematics from the University of California at Davis in 1993, with 2 years of elective Engineering courses, and a Minor in Psychology.
Erik wrote a moving account of his own shift in consciousness regarding 9/11 which prompted him to start Fire Fighters For 9/11 Truth entitled: MAYDAY...MAYDAY...MAYDAY.
Here's an excerpt:
I, like most Americans, remember exactly where I was when I saw the attacks and had the overwhelming urge to take action.
I was shocked, outraged, scared and confused.
I called my Battalion Chief and asked if Seattle would be sending any teams to help.
I was a member of the MMST, and figured we would be needed and I wanted to know where to report.
Due to the nature of the incident we were not called up, and instead USAR teams, including Seattle's, were sent.
|
|
I first visited Ground Zero in October of 2001 with several firefighters from Seattle.
We went to pay our respect and show support.
We raised money for our brother firehouses and attended the funerals of our fallen Brothers.
I was deeply moved and humbled by the community support, the sheer enormity of the tragedy along with the courage and compassion of the FDNY "Brotherhood."
I vividly remember the anger, the intense desire for vengeance,the feelings of helplessness
Even though I listened to their stories for days, I cannot even begin to imagine the pain and tragedy they suffered on that day and the years to come.
I vividly remember the anger I felt, the intense desire for vengeance, and the feelings of helplessness.
I was relieved when the government identified the terrorists and satisfied that we were going to have a swift deliverance of "justice."
I've been a conservative my entire life; a registered Republican since I could vote.
I am a self proclaimed Patriot with George Washington as one of my all time heroes.
So when conspiracy theories quickly surfaced, and "Liberals" cried foul on the erosion of civil liberties, I chalked it up to their political beliefs and bitterness towards the Republican President.
I read many debunking articles — including Popular Mechanics — and watched many debunking videos including, Farenhype 9/11.
I was convinced that these "Liberals" were misinformed and were grasping at straws to discredit the "official" story.
Don't confuse me with the facts, I have my mind made up!
Like most people with strong opinions, instead of looking at all the facts, I was specifically looking for anything that supported my own beliefs.
|
|
As soon as I discovered any inaccuracy in a conspiracy claim, I wrote it off.
My father, a big city cop and Korean War veteran, loved to say, "don't confuse me with the facts, I have my mind made up!"
Well, I had my mind made up.
I told conspiracy theorists like my own Truck Officer, Lt. Earl Emerson, that they were insane if they thought anyone other than the terrorists did this.
Bin Laden confession tapes — how much clearer did they need it
Heck, we have ID cards, security camera videos, Bin Laden confession tapes — how much clearer did they need it?
The years went on and I was satisfied in my beliefs.
I even believed these "Wackos" that doubted the "official" story were distracting our country from focusing on the real threat of terrorism...
Fast forward to March of 2008.
A great friend of mine with a Business degree from West Point, as conservative and non-conspiratorial as they get, came over one night to talk about what he saw happening in the economy.
Began researching such things as economies, who is in control of currencies
He provided some disconcerting evidence that we as a nation are at risk of entering into another depression; he pointed out historical parallels where other countries, such as Germany, suffered economic collapse.
THAT was my eye opener.
I became obsessed researching things such as economies, who is in control of currencies, what causes depressions, who profits during war, etc.
So many things kept pointing to 9/11.
Another one of my dad's favorite quotes was, "believe half of what you see and none of what you hear."
So, I looked at both sides and quickly noticed a pattern.
On one side, the general media ignores some of the most compelling evidence that contradicts the "official" story...
When I voiced my new opinion and concerns most of my friends listened.
Shocked that a staunch Conservative could have such a major shift
I think because they were shocked that a staunch Conservative could have such a major shift, or because they thought I had lost my mind and wanted to diagnose the cause.
|
|
Curiously, some became angry at my new questions and actually thought I was supporting Terrorists with my concerns.
Being a part of that same mindset myself only a few weeks ago, and then having a major shift in consciousness, really shook me to the core.
What has happened to our collective consciousness that we believe anyone who doubts the "official" story or what the government tells us is an enemy?
What has happened to us — are we not founded on Freedom of Speech and taught to check our Government?
Anyone who asks for the Truth is labeled a "Wacko" or "Terrorist Sympathizer?"
What has happened to us?
Are we not founded on Freedom of Speech and taught to check our Government?...
To be honest, I was asleep at the wheel, and relied on what I was being told by mainstream media.
The same media whose parent corporations, are some of the largest suppliers of weapons in this war.
Before this "awakening" I had no idea the extent of our civil liberties that had been eroded in the name of Terrorism.
I had never really wrapped my brain around what legalized torture means.
I had always claimed America was noble.
Just look at how we treated POW's during WWII and Vietnam compared to our enemies.
[Ever check out the real story of John McCain as a POW, keep investigating! — TheWE.cc]
That separated us.
We were setting the example of Human Rights to the rest of the world.
[Check out the real facts of US instigations in Central and South America! — TheWE.cc]
Sure, you'll always have individuals that will take things too far, but Government sponsored torture?
[Let's mention CIA activity across the planet since its inception, including inside the US, and other black budget US government special operations agencies! — TheWE.cc]
What has happened to our country?
What kind of example are we setting for our children, and the world?
You would be interested to learn how many of our own rights have been stripped away recently.
Look up the Military Commissions Act of 2006, John Warner Defense Authorization Act, Homegrown Terrorism Act, Presidential Directive 51.
Amazing the rights we have all lost
It is amazing the rights we have all lost in the past couple of years and very little is covered by the U.S. media.
After discovering this, I applied the "common sense" test that my Grandfather always said wasn't so common.
|
|
Why would a government so aggressively suppress truth and blatantly destroy evidence if there was nothing to hide?
Why has every testimony from sworn government and military officials that points to "prior knowledge" been stricken from the 9/11 Commission Report?
How did paper business cards, cloth bandanas, and plastic ID's that implicate the terrorists survive so neatly through jet fueled fireballs hot enough to destroy titanium and steel?
I've seen bodies burned beyond recognition, yet I have never found one that was wearing unburned clothing.
These questions alone are enough to make me risk everything for a real investigation and accounting...
When I truly realized the enormity of the effect 9/11 has had on our Rights, our Economy, our Beliefs, our Fears, our Intolerances and our Government — I felt fear, then anger, then the need to take action.
Bill Chickering said it best:
“Anger is a very appropriate and necessary response to an injustice.
“But stand back now; the truth, clearly spoken, is always your best weapon.
“Calmly spoken, it can burn a hole through the hardest heart.”
When I realized the extent of the force and attitudes working to silence those who peacefully ask questions, demand answers, and seek truth, it became clear to me that our Country is in serious trouble and I must now stand alongside those Patriots who seek Truth and Constitutional Restoration.
|
Richard Gage, AIA is the founding member of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth ae911Truth.org.
He has been a practicing Architect for 20 years and has worked on most types of building construction including numerous fire-proofed steel-framed buildings.
He is employed with a San Francisco Bay Area architecture firm and has most recently performed Construction Administration services for a new $120M High School campus including a $10M steel-framed Gymnasium.
Currently he is working on the Design Development for a very large mixed use urban project with 1.2M sq.ft. of retail and 320K sq.ft. of mid-rise office space — altogether about 1,200 tons of steel framing.
He has been one of the most tireless speakers on the issue of 9/11 truth, and more specifically on challenging the official narrative of the disintegration of the 3 major skyscrapers in the World Trade Center complex that took place on September 11th.
He has been lecturing widely across the US and in Canada.
Those who see his presentation rarely walk away still thinking that fires alone could have brought down the buildings.
When NIST came out with a report recently that fires were responsible for the destruction of WTC7, Richard and Architects and Engineers were quick to challenge that report.
See NY Times quotes Richard Gage on WTC7 "collapse"
Aside from the NYT's reporter and a media request from Bulgaria, the press has tried to ignore the serious criticisms that Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth has raised about their reports.
Richard Gage gives an insightful interview on major points that scientifically do not agree with the official story of 9/11.
|
 | Click logo for Firefighters for 9-11 truth |
| Click logo for architects & engineers for 9/11 truth |  |
|
|
9/11
By all accounts, the unprecedented events of September 11th, 2001 changed the way our country functions, and in turn, the world.
It is therefore critical that conscientious Americans, as well as people around the globe, understand these events in detail.
Unfortunately the official reports, including The 9/11 Commission Report and the NIST WTC Report, written by those working under the direction of the Bush Administration, have been proven to be elaborate cover-ups.
Film: 9/11 Revisited
September 11th Revisited is perhaps the most riveting film ever made about the destruction of the World Trade Center.
This is a powerful documentary which features eyewitness accounts and archived news footage that was shot on September 11, 2001 but never replayed on television.
Featuring interviews with eyewitnesses & firefighters, along with expert analysis by Professor Steven E. Jones, Professor David Ray Griffin, MIT Engineer Jeffrey King, and Professor James H. Fetzer.
This film provides stunning evidence that explosives were used in the complete demolition of the WTC Twin Towers and WTC Building 7.
|
For Film: 9/11 Revisited
— Click Here
Film: 9/11 Press for Truth
An excellent documentary about the families of the victims of 9/11 and their fight to uncover and expose the truth about what happened that day.
|
For Film: 9/11 Press for Truth
— Click Here
Film: 9/11 Mysteries
90 minutes of pure demolition evidence and analysis, laced with staggering witness testimonials.
Moving from “the myth” through “the analysis” and into “the players,” careful deconstruction of the official story set right alongside clean, clear science.
The 9/11 picture is not one of politics or nationalism or loyalty, but one of strict and simple physics. How do you get a 10-second 110-story pancake collapse?
|
|
|
'Oh! You don't believe the 9-11 official version,' they say.
'You mean where they want you to accept the buildings were not blown up from below.
'Plane fuel! Substance never burns higher then a gas stove! That it caused the inner core steel to melt!
'Steel melting!
'Concrete vaporizing!
'
'No! I don't believe that conspiracy theory.
'Cheney! Bush! Rudy Giuliani! HA! HA!
'Tower 7 that never had a plane hit — just came tumbling down!
'You believe that, eh!
'Ever think it had to be blown up because the plane scheduled to fly into it was off getting shot down.
'Thermite in Tower 7's walls, you see — incriminating evidence — impossible to get out without people watching!
Had to be blown up!
'Next you'll be saying Obama is not a Wall Street Illuminati banker stooge?
'Take your pick: The partner in a comedy team who feeds lines to the other comedians.
'Him who allows himself to be used.
'Oh! I can't really blame you, Television it turns minds to pulp.
'Turn off the television. It's the only way.'
'Turn off the television?'
'Get rid of it really. I mean what else is there to do!'
'Get rid of the television?'
'Don't forget all radio garbage is propaganda, even the songs.
'Then those five minute propaganda hits they send you every hour!
'The ones they refer to as News
'Get rid of all the propaganda from your brain, the only way to do it.'
'Stop being hooked on those Hollywood movies — even those that make you think they are making you think'
'All paid performers to make your brain dead.
'You turn the brainwashing off, you'll begin to become yourself.
'It really is the only way!'
'Oh!'
Kewe — TheWE.cc
|
50 minute discussion on psychotronic mind control with Dr. Nick Begich and Alex Jones
for mp3 — right click here |
| Click logo for Firefighters for 9-11 truth |
| Click logo for architects & engineers for 9/11 truth | |
Humankind as we know it at the 'End Point'
Don't forget:
Behind it all is the desire for depopulation — by those rich enough to have their islands for temporary residence while depopulation takes place.
Doesn't matter if it is killing in the fight for food when the trucks no longer arrive at your local supermarket.
Doesn't matter if it is tribe against tribe.
Or thermobaric bombs — environmentally friendly compared to nuclear. Bombs that send ultra-sonic shock waves and searing fireballs to destroy everything in their dropping wake.
Or those special bombs that do not destroy the infrastructure — kill only you and those you love.
You are in the way, folks!
There are too many of you!
This is the plan.
Kewe |
Twenty Questions Radio/TV interviewers avoid asking about Israel Which parts of the Declaration of Human Rights and Geneva Conventions don't Israelis understand? Why is Israel still stealing Palestinian land for more illegal construction? |
Israel, chemical weapons and phosphorous bombs New and unknown deadly weapons used by Israeli forces Undetectable poison-needle gun for 'clean' assassinations |
The Negative Return Economy — a discourse on America’s black budget Fascinating and lucrative Black Budget? What Black Budget? |
|
Unspeakable grief and horror
...and the circus of deception killing continues... | |||
|
| Kewe Archives | TheWE.cc | The Poles |
